What ABB is doing here is, in plain non-Google English, whining. Whining is the act either of a slave, or a bitch. The slave whines to his master. Master, the overseer is beating me! And so, the protected minority whines to the communist judge. Whitey callin’ me a bad name! But ABB would be a free man—who, then is he whining to? He’s whining to nobody. He’s whining because, having grown up on heroic Nelson Mandela, he thinks he can free himself and his nation by a combination of (a) whining and (b) mass murder.

You don't have to watch ads if you just read old books instead of tv, podcasts, YouTube, or whatever.

This post was brought to you by C&G.

God bless da Northwoods, eh.

Remember over a decade ago when folks were predicting that teh internet was going to kill the relevance the mainstream media?

I work at a small new media publication that serves Chicagoland.

Newspapers are like Amy Winehouse a week ago. They may be alive right now, but there’s no doubt how their story turns out.

They will always exist in one form or another- owning one will be a hubris thing for local big shots (kinda like owning a sports team)- but their days of being of ‘premier relevance’ are over.

Going forward, “New Media” will consist of the following three entities.

1) Credible, independent commentary (just like this blog)

2) Established “masterbrands” serving video content (i.e.- the networks)

3) Amateur content and commentary.

In the year 2011 and beyond, there is just no room left for grinding trees into dried, bleached pulp, dousing them with ink and hoping people care enough to pay for it.

The newspaper’s glory days as the ‘immutable ideological bastion of liberal thought and idea’ died as soon as US internet saturation broke 50% and opened up the free exchange of information to everyone, rather than being filtered by a closed-circuit cabal of old media clerics.

Don’t confuse yourselves, my uniformed friends. Just because they aren’t ‘gone’ yet doesn’t mean they aren’t wholly and entirely dead.

Do not fret when you see some BS story published by old media. Their ‘reach’ figures are padded and dishonest, meant to keep their kooky old shareholders believing… They’re a tree falling in the woods.

Somehow, despite this, the media has maintained its relevance. And people are still making this same argument today. Maybe we just have to wait another decade.

https://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/2011/07/media-cover-up-continues.html#8944250904555277559

All I know about America in the 22nd century is that everyone, regardless of race, color, or creed, will call everyone else “nigga.”

Please recommend good Substacks.

What did Thomas Jefferson mean when he wrote, "The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg"?

What did Madison mean when he criticized the idea of a Christian nation, saying that it would violate "equality"?

What did Washington mean when he wished the Jews well in the US and proclaimed that its government would "give to victory no sanction, to persecution no assistance"?

December 19, 1961
The Radical Right in America Today

President Kennedy’s address to Seattle and Los Angeles on November 16 and 18 evidenced both a deep concern with, and a profound understanding of the serious problems injected into American life by the growning strength of the radical right. A spate of articles in responsible newspapers and periodicals reflect this same concern and understanding. Perhaps therefore this memorandum will prove but a repetition and restatement of suggestions already under consideration by the Administration. Since, however, the public discussion to date concerning the radical right has produced little in the line of suggested policies and programs for dealing with the serious problems raised, this memorandum may have some value in focusing attention upon possible Administration policies and programs to combat the radical right.

Initially, it needs to be said that far more is required in the struggle against the radical right then simply calling attention to present and potential dangers. If the Administration truly recognizes this as a serious problem, as it certainly appears to do, it is most important that President Kennedy’s addresses in Seattle and Los Angeles be implemented. Speeches without action may well only mobilize the radical right instead of mobilizing the democratic forces within our nation. It is with this consideration in view that there is set forth below an estimate of the extent of the problem and suggested Administration policies and programs for dealing with the problem.

Extent of Problem

The radical right or extreme right-wing, or however it may be designated, includes an unknown number of millions of Americans of viewpoints bounded on the left by Senator Goldwater and on the right by Robert Welch. The active component of these radical right millions would, of course, be only a small fraction of the total. But, whatever may be the difficulty of ascertaining their numbers, these radical right groups are probably stronger and are almost certainly better organized than at any time in recent history. More significant yet, they are growing in strength and there is no reason to expect a turning of the tide in this regard during the foreseeable Cold War period ahead. And, possibly most significant of all, their relationship to and infiltration of the Armed Service adds a new dimension to the seriousness with which they must be viewed.

New radical right organizations have sprung up like weeds in the last few years; it is estimated by the Anti-Defamation League that almost a hundred such organizations have been organized in 1961 alone. Welch’s Birch Society, Schwarz’ Christian Anti-Communist Crusade, and Hargis’ Christian Crusade, are among the most powerful of the new groups. Benson’s Harding College and National Education Program and H.L. Hunt’s Life Line have earlier histories, but they have expanded along with the growth of the new groups. But all of these groups together are only part of an even larger and constantly growing movement which is well manned and even better financed.

The Birch Society alone probably has a million dollars a year at its disposal; so does the Christian Crusade (which is just one of 3 Hargis ventures). The radical right as a whole—and estimating conservatively – must have twenty or more times this much on call. There are vast quantities of literature, films and records emanating from the radical right and even such things as radical right bookshops are beginning to spring up. (General Walker gave one of these bookshops, The Bookmailer in New York, a big plug on national television December 3rd).

The Birch Society may be the best known today. But others are equally strong and perhaps more influential. Take a look at Schwarz’ Christian Anti-Communist Crusade, for example. In the Anti-Communist School he ran in St. Louis earlier this year he was backed by the St. Louis Globe Democrat and was sponsored by the Mayor and Chief of Police of St. Louis and both United States Senators. Governor John M. Dalton even officially proclaimed this “Anti-Communism week in Missouri.” The New York Times eyewitness report from St. Louis asserted that one of the most striking things there was “the large proportion of younger people.”

Schwarz’ Hollywood rallies are even more disturbing than his St. Louis and other schools. His Crusade had a three-hour rally before some twelve to fifteen thousand persons in the Hollywood Bowl and an estimated four million more watched the program over television on 33 stations in six states. Actors John Wayne, James Stewart, Pat O’Brien, and George Murphy were there, as were such top “movie-makers” as Jack Warner of Warner Brothers and Y. Frank Freeman of Paramount. The gross take at the rally (plus the week’s Hollywood Anti-Communist School) was $214,796.

Even more significant was the presence of C.D. Jackson, a top executive of Life Magazine. In early September Life had run a disparaging story about Schwarz. The kickback at Life was sufficient to induce Jackson to fly to Los Angeles to appear in the Hollywood Bowl and offer a public apology. Jackson told the audience, “I believe we were wrong and I am profoundly sorry. It’s a great privilege to be here tonight and align Life Magazine with Senator Dodd, Representative Judd, Dr. Schwarz, and the rest of these implacable fighters against communism.” Only recently the Los Angeles rallies were re-telecast in New York City for three full evening hours with the Schick Safety Razor Company picking up the tab. (Richfield Oil and Technicolor Corp., as well as Schick, appear to be regularly available to Schwarz as television sponsors).

Take a look, too, at another one of these groups—Harding College and the National Education Program (both headed by Dr. George S. Benson). The propaganda operation, exclusive of the college, is budgeted at $200,000 a year. They produced some 30 movies of which “Communism on the Map” is the most famous and has been seen by 10 million persons. Dr. Benson’s weekly column has wide distribution and one version is sent in bulk mail to a thousand business organizations. He has a monthly newsletter with 50 thousand subscribers, he has outlets in a great many Farm Bureau monthly state papers (the effect of which was seen at the recent Farm Bureau Convention). He has a series of high school study outlines in “American Citizenship Education” sent free to schools requesting them.

The Life Line Radio Program, now on about 200 radio stations (some run the program twice), is planning to branch out into television. Businessmen all over the Nation are sponsoring this program. H.L. Hunt, one of the richest oil men in the country and owner of Life Line, boasts that “the Free World cannot be saved at a profit.”

All of these radical right organizations have the same general line. The danger to America is domestic Communism. While their particular traitor will vary from Harry Hopkins to George Marshall, from President Truman to President Eisenhower, from Senator Fullbright to some labor leader, there is no question that anybody even slightly to the left of Senator Goldwater is suspect. They traffic in fear. Treason in high places is their slogan and slander is their weapon. They undermine loyal Americans’ confidence in each other and in their government.

Their appeal is for “total victory” (note that Goldwater is with them all the way on this) and they thrive on every defeat, retreat, concession, or even negotiations. Americans feel they are “losing” for the first time in history. Since Americans intuitively tend not to believe they ever lose fairly, the radical right’s charges that we are “losing” (itself a dubious assumption) because of treason in high places falls on fertile soil. In Schwarz’s Southern California meetings, as shown in the New York re-telecast a couple of weeks ago, Senator Dodd’s and Representative Judd’s heavy-handed foreign policy polemics received little applause, but when W. Claus Skousen (author of “The Naked Communist”) charged treason in high places, the place went up in a roar of applause.

The suggestion is being made in some quarters (e.g., Reston in the Times of November 19, 1961) that the radical right is primarly a “Republican problem” because it utilizes money that might otherwise be available to Republican Party candidates. Former Vice President Nixon shares this view.

Yet on reflection, this would appear quite superficial. The growing strength of the radical right may indeed be an inconvenience to the Republican Party, but it is far worse than that for the Nation and the Democratic Party—for it threatens the President’s programs at home and abroad.

By the use of the twin propaganda weapons of fear and slander, the radical right moves the national political spectrum away from the Administration’s proposed liberal programs at home and abroad. By vicious local pressure campaigns against teachers or preachers or any one else who supports anything from negotiation in foreign affairs to governmental programs in domestic affairs, they frighten off support for much-needed Administration programs. Pressure tactics on already-timid Congressmen are reinforced with fanaticism and funds. The pressure campaign against the Katanga operation is only one example of what is ahead. Any hard-boiled realistic appraisal of the situation evokes this conclusion: The growing strength, organization and financial resources of the radical right is not something that can be wished away or that can be confidently ignored as a Republican problem.

Action On The Problem

As the radical right cannot be wished away or ignored, likewise its demise is not something that can be readily accomplished. The struggle against the radical right is a long-term affair; total victory over the radical right is no more possible than total victory over the Communists. What are needed are deliberate Administration policies and programs to contain the radical right from further expansion and in the long run to reduce it to its historic role of the impotent lunatic fringe.*

* Private agencies can do much too, to identify and expose the radical right. Indeed, in the long-run the extent of participation by private agencies in this struggle is more likely to determine its outcome than anything the Government can do. The press, television, church, labor, civic, political and other groups whose constitutional freedom is directly involved must carry the prime burden in this struggle. But the purpose of this memorandum is to consider possible Administration policies and programs rather than those of private groups. Furthermore, affirmative Administration policies and programs can set the backdrop against which private activity is most likely to succeed.

As the radical right today feeds like a leech on the frustrations of the American people, so reducing these frustrations by accomplishments at home and abroad is the most important part of the long-range battle against the radical right. Indeed, in the long run, only democratic initiative in the world struggle against Communism will roll back the radical right to its traditional insignificance. But the Nation cannot look the other way and wait for this to happen. The radical right organizations threaten to render impossible the very steps (action and negotiation) that need to be taken by the Administration if our nation is to survive and succeed in the world struggle; they must never be permitted to become so strong as to obstruct action needed for democratic survival and success.

As we gird ourselves for a long struggle against world Communism, so we must grid ourselves for a long struggle against the radical right. But there are some steps which can and should be taken now to halt the growth of the radical right and possibly to turn the tide against it. There are other steps of a more long-range nature. Among the programs and policies of both types which the Administration might consider are the following:

1. The radical right inside the Armed Services presents an immediate and special problem requiring immediate and special measures.

The problem of radical right influence inside the Armed Services is an immediate one and made all the more so by the up-coming hearings of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee. But even if there were no hearings, this challenge to the basic American concept of separating military personnel from partisan politics must be met now. Tolerance of such a challenge can only embolden those who do the challenging.

It has been widely reported that General Walker’s radical right viewpoint is shared by a substantial number of his colleagues. One observer, Louis J. Halle, has reported that Walker’s position “represents the publicly unexpressed but privately outspoken view of an important part of our American officer corps in all three services” (New Republic, November 20, 1961). Drew Pearson has twice reported without contradiction that a Lieutenant General has leaked secret information to Senator Thurmond in support of the Walker position. The “American Seminars,” espousing radical right doctrine and sponsored or co-sponsored by the Armed Services in various places, could only have been accomplished by radical right officer personnel within the armed forces; the spectacle of the U.S. Army sponsoring Skousen’s reflection on the patriotism of Franklin Roosevelt and the loyalty of Harry Hopkins, could only have been achieved through the connivance of inside military personnel. Former top brass work with all the radical right groups. The recent experience in Algeria demonstrates that the soldiers of an army of a democratic nation may be tempted, out of frustration, to engage in anti-democratic operations; as reports from France make so abundantly clear, the radical right Generals and Admirals continue today to threaten the stability of France’s democratic system.

What appears to support the position of widespread infiltration of the radical right into the Armed Services is the manner in which the Walker case was handled. Indeed, the shocking thing about the Walker case is not that his resignation was accepted in 1961, but that the Armed Services rejected his resignation in 1959 when he tried to resign because of “the fifth column conspiracy and influence in the United States” and the “conspiracy and its influences on the home front.” Whether the resignation was rejected because Walker’s superiors agreed with his views or simply were not shocked by them is not known; but in either event, the failure to accept his resignation constituted a dangerous tolerance of the radical right inside the Armed Services. Even worse was the action towards Walker in 1960 and early in 1961; the Army failed to act against Walker’s insubordination and illegal acts of “radical right politics” until public notice of Walker’s offenses (brought about by a newspaper exposé) forced the Pentagon’s hand. Again, it is not important why this happened; what is important is the degree of tolerance of the radical right inside the Armed Services.

It also appears to have been widespread pressure from right wing Generals and Admirals in the Pentagon which brought about the recall to duty of General Van Fleet. It is common knowledge that General Van Fleet has himself been a member of the extreme right wing (Board member of “For America”; endorser of the Florida Coalition of Patriotic Societies; Board of Advisors of H. L. Hunt’s Life Line). Not only does the Pentagon pressure for the recall of General Van Fleet evidence radical right influence inside the military establishment, but it demonstrates the absolute unappeasability of this group. All that the recall has accomplished is to embarrass the Administration when Van Fleet irresponsibly attacked the Administration’s Ambassador to the United Nations.

Once it is recognized that there is a serious problem of radical right infiltration of the military and that appeasement is not the answer, the indicated course of action becomes clear. The Administration must get off the defensive in the Walker case; it must shift the battleground from the defensive posture of justifying the “muzzling of Walker” to an offensive posture supporting the basic American concept of separation of military personnel from partisan politics. To shift the posture from defense to offense, consideration should be given to requesting Senator Russell to broaden the hearings to cover the problem of radical right infiltration of the Armed Services. As the Washington Post said on November 28th, the hearings “ought to be aimed not to determining whether General Walker and his imitators were improperly silenced by civilian authorities, but at determining how widely the infection they represent is spread in the armed services.”

An alternate to getting Senator Russell to broaden the hearings would be for Secretary McNamara to start his own investigation of radical right Generals and Admirals. Those Generals and Admirals who have lost confidence in democracy and who feel that the danger to our country is treason at home rather than the strength of the International Communist movement abroad, should be warned against political activity in any way, shape or form. This might have the effect of causing the resignation of some of these Generals and Admirals which would certainly be in the national interest. At any rate, political activity after such warnings would be grounds for dismissal from the service. Above all, the suggested investigation would give courage to the officers, old and young, who believe in democracy and in a non-political democratic Army.