Comments on: Our Cold Civil War

by: melbradley

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 01:52:52 +0000

Is anyone here reading Gerry Spence’s book, “Bloodthristy Bithces And Pious Pimps Of Power”? I know the title is a bit pulpy, but he brings up a very convincing argument that it is Corporate greed driving Politics not the other way around. Spence shows that we’ve already given up too much freedom already to fascism run by corporations, from tv, from publishing houses, from the courts, from both major parties, from our religious institutions. They’ve been taken over so slickly that most of us refuse to belive otherwise. Talk to average person about corporate hegemony and watch their eyes glaze over.

by: JJ

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 18:36:44 +0000

I think “civil war” is a little over the top, although the tactics on the other side have involved a lot of dirty pool. I think Paul Krugman has it right, that what we’ve had is a double backlash–a plutocratic backlash against the new deal, which the rich detested, combined with a backlash from the old segregationist south, who desperately want a society divided by class for racial reasons. I’d also add the paranoid bad faith and general weirdness of the neoconservatives (former anti-communists). So I don’t think it’s a “civil war.” Maybe an extension of the old civil war, as well as some hangover from certain 20th century ideological conflicts (fueled as always by material advantages that a plutocracy will tend to have…) These guys seem to play with a new set of rules, unfortunately, and I think the left will have to plug away for a while to get things on an even keel: expose propaganda, bring our own values to the fight, get some sophistication about our strategies, etc. As we’re, in fact, doing….

by: libarbarian

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 18:23:01 +0000

There are two wars going on, the one overseas, and the one domestically. The domestic war is between the oligarchs of this country versus We, The People. In her view, the domestic war far overshadows the overseas war in importance.

I’m sorry but this talk makes me sick. The rightwingers have been calling for a purge for years - if the left starts calling for one too we are in trouble.

The LAST thing this country needs is a purge!

by: Michael Meo

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 04:55:10 +0000

There is in my opinion a good reason for a person of Russian roots to have an advantage in understanding what is happening in the United States today.
The Cold War bled the two societies together. The United States adopted more than it realized of the Soviet viewpoint, just as the Russians, even the convinced Communists such as Gorbachev, were strongly influenced by the ideals urged by their opponents.
We are nowadays in many respects the successor state to the Soviet Union.

by: Marcia Zuvanich

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 04:18:48 +0000

Very scary and eye-opening! Much information to research, although I’ve been thinking along these lines for a long time. My question is: What to do now that we know more of the truth? I don’t want war with Iran and I want us to get out of Iraq. I don’t think Hilary is the answer but it doesn’t seem like any of the candidates are anything to brag about. So, does anyone have suggestions as to what to do? Where can we find that honest man, that statesman, that this country needs so badly?

Thanks for running this blog - it is much needed.

by: k

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 01:52:57 +0000

I agree about Bush v Gore being the beginning of a fascist putsch. The media( dec 2000) tried to tell us ” everything is ok , be calm” and that alone made you know everything was not ok.I distinctly remember the creepy feeling the hair on the back of the neck feeling I had then. Dissent was deliberately shut down. Remember the black caucus and remember Jesse Jackson was going to make noise and about 2 days before the swearing in of Bush it was suddenly revealed that Jackson had a mistress and child etc ie the character assassins were waiting for him to dare open his mouth so they could shut him up?
All this has been on my mind lately with “big money ” the oligarchs deciding we need Hillary . Only a Clinton or a Bush are our choices? Out of 300 million people? I’m tired of being told that the corporate choices means I am free.

by: moonbat

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 00:56:28 +0000

cu - I hate to think where we’d be without the Internet. Love the Democrats or hate em, November 2006 would’ve turned out quite diffierently IMO without the on-line activism of recent years. I also distinctly remember how isolated I felt after November 2000. The online world slowly provided an immense balm and meet up, however virtual. And do read The Iron Heel.

Bill Carey - very much looking forward to reading Naomi Klein’s latest.

erinyes - Thanks.

joanr16 - you raise MANY interesting points, worthy of an entire post by itself. I’ll only say here that the terms “oligarch” and “oligarchy” are straight out of The Iron Heel - they seemed apt.

Frank Wilhoit - I’d argue that the Republican propaganda machine is simply the face of the oligarchy. And while there are plenty of people in that economic class who think the Rs have gone too far (and who are donating generously to the Democrats this cycle), I’d argue that the Rs and Ds as they’re currently constituted are simply different aspects of the same thing. And I greatly fear your last point - that the civil war will turn hot and violent, just as soon as economic conditions here unmistakeably tank. Twenty five years of preaching to gun-toting folk that liberals are to blame for everything, is the clearest set-up imaginable, and has me investigating countries like Canada, Costa Rica, and others.

biggerbox - Bush is very revealing in his speech, is he not?

erinyes - I’ve been looking at the late, great From The Wilderness site recently - the article you cited was written by one of FTW’s former writers. Articles such as this, and many others on the FTW site overwhelm my brain with their sheer number of data points. But the conclusions are pretty chilling and worthy of investigation. The story of FTW’s founder, Mike Rupert, a former LAPD cop, who has retired (from FTW) due to health and financial problems is itself pretty chilling. His story is a lesson in what happens when you get too close to how the Empire actually works.

whig - I really wanted to see CSA, the Spike Lee film, that imagines what the USA would be like if the Confederate States had won the Civil War.

by: whig

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 22:59:29 +0000

CSA can stand as easily for Corporate States of America as anything.

by: Gibtod.Com » Our Cold Civil War

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 19:22:40 +0000

[…] admin wrote an interesting post today on Our Cold Civil WarHere’s a quick excerpt […]

by: erinyes

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 18:27:08 +0000

Read this, then feel free to puke….
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=%20SC20050730&articleId=762