LT Saloon

Today’s Quotes: On the Sinking Middle-Class

“We of the sinking middle-class may sink without further struggles into the working class where we belong, and probably when we get there it will not be so dreadful as we feared, for, after all, we [will then] have nothing to lose.”
– George Orwell

“In a boat at sea one of the men began to bore a hole in the bottom of the boat. On remonstration by the other sailors, he answered, ‘I am only boring under my own seat.’ ‘Yes,’ said his companions, ‘but when the sea rushes in we shall all be drowned with you.’”
– The Talmud

“We did not all come over on the same ship, but we are all in the same boat.”
– Bernard Baruch

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”
– John Donne, ‘Meditation 17′ from “Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions” (1624).

“When they took the Fourth Amendment, I was silent because I don’t deal drugs. When they took the Sixth Amendment, I kept quiet because I know I’m innocent. When they took the Second Amendment, I said nothing because I don’t own a gun. Now they’ve come for the First Amendment, and I can’t say anything at all.”
– Tim Freeman

Today’s Quote: Revealing the True Class Differences in America

And it’s no doubt gotten worse since this was written in 1984 — just look at the shabby way the heroic workers who became ill from Ground Zero have been treated:

“Every year 100,000 workers are killed or die of work-related accidents or disease; 400,000 are disabled; 6 million are hurt at work. In The Working-Class Majority (1974), Andrew Levison says, ‘All the clichés and pleasant notions of how the old class divisions…have disappeared are exposed as hollow phrases by the simple fact that American workers must accept serious injury and even death as part of their daily reality while the middle class does not.’ And he goes on:
‘Imagine the universal outcry that would occur if every year several corporate headquarters routinely collapsed like mines, crushing sixty or seventy executives. Or suppose that all the banks were filled with an invisible noxious dust that constantly produced cancer in the managers, clerks, and tellers. Finally, try to imagine the horror…if thousands of university professors were deafened every year or lost fingers, hands, sometimes eyes, while on their jobs.’”
– Paul Fussell, from his book “Class,” Ballantine Books (1984).

Today’s Quotes: Teddy Roosevelt’s Incredibly Racist Imperial Cruise

“Nineteenth-century democracy needs no more complete vindication for its existence than the fact that it has kept for the white race the best portions of the new world’s surface.”
– President Theodore Roosevelt

“The Imperial Cruise ["The Imperial Cruise – A Secret History of Empire and War" by James Bradley] was a trip. I wasn’t taught in my history classes that Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft had inspired the Japanese with visions of superior races having the right to spread their culture and superior values to lesser races. The Japanese took a page out of the U.S.A.’s book when it began expanding into southeast Asia, Manchuria, China, and Korea. Superior people don’t have to keep their word. They have a right to screw lesser peoples out of whatever they feel like taking. We expected Japan [to follow our example] and [took] a good chunk of Asia for ourselves. We had already taken Hawaii, the Philippines, and some other choice lands. After our invasion of Iraq for preemptive reasons (to prevent them from attacking us first), the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor doesn’t seem as cowardly and dastardly as it was portrayed when I was a schoolboy.”
– Bob Carroll, from the Skeptic’s Dictionary Newsletter, Volume 9, Number 8, August 2, 2010.

“The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best – and therefore never scrutinize or question.”
– Stephen Jay Gould

“But we must not be fooled into believing that American Fascism consists of a few persons, some crackpots, some mentally perverted, a few criminals … These are the lunatic fringes of Fascism, they are also the small fry, the unimportant figureheads, just as Hitler was before the Big Money in Germany decided to set him up in business.”
– George Seldes, “Facts and Facism,” published in 1943.

Today’s Quote-to-Quote: True Hypocrisy, Sincerity, Lies, and the Liar’s Punishment

“The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity.”
– Andre Gide

“Weak people cannot be sincere.”
– Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Sincerity: if you can fake it, you’ve got it made.”
– Daniel Schorr (also attributed to George Burns and Groucho Marx.)

“If you’ve ever deceived the public to keep your job, you are a liar, plain and simple; if your job is to deceive the public while fully understanding you would not like someone lying to you in the same way, you are the worst form of liar and hypocrite. Yet millions who do this every day go home from work and believe themselves honest.”
– Steven Senjac

“The more money you make at your job, the bigger the lies you are expected to tell.”
– Anonymous

“Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.”
– Adolf Hitler

“A lie repeated often enough becomes the truth.”
– Joseph Goebbels

“There is nothing so absurd that it cannot be believed as truth if repeated often enough.”
– William James

“What is earnest is not always true; on the contrary, error is often more earnest than truth.”
– Benjamin Disraeli

“Once a person accepts money or power to speak the truth, they will shortly cease speaking the truth, but they will readily convince themselves they are still honest.”
– Jayne Risareo

“The liar’s punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.”
– George Bernard Shaw

Today’s Quotes: Even Chuck Todd Finally Gets It — Sort Of

Will wonders never cease — even the always-lean-to-the-right Chuck Todd, et al, finally figured out that Andrew Breitbart was pulling his chain.

“After conservative activist James O’Keefe pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for entering a federal building under false pretenses, you would have thought that all of us in the ACTUAL news business would have learned this lesson about Andrew Breitbart and his protégés: They’re not out for the truth; they’re out for scalps.”
– Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg, from “Snookered,” MSNBC First Read, July 21, 2010.

But hold the phone — Chuck and Co. blundered into the swamp of Standard-Issue Beltway Conventional Wisdom lower down on the same page:

“But here is something to consider: It’s the country — not the system — that’s stacked against liberals and progressives.” [...]
“From 1989 (after Reagan’s presidency) to now, the most stable data in the NBC/WSJ poll has been that roughly one-fifth of the country identifies as being liberal, while one-third identifies being conservative. Even in 2008, when Obama decisively won the presidency, the average in the poll was 25% liberal, 36% conservative. And in 1996, when Bill Clinton easily won re-election, it was 22% liberal, 34% conservative. For Democrats, this means that if they want to win national elections, they need to win about 60% of the self-described moderate vote — which Obama did in ’08 and congressional Dems did in ’06, per the exit polls. By comparison, however, John Kerry got 54% of the moderate vote in 2004.”

Chuck, Chuck, Chuck — for 30 years the Right-Wing Media Machine and the GOP have been pushing the ‘hate liberals’ message nearly unopposed by the milquetoast Dems or the MSM. Is it any surprise that most people would rather say they were conservative — depending on how the poll question is phrased, of course — than an evil liberal, whatever their actual political beliefs? What about the surveys that consistently show a majority support abortion rights, health care reform, Social Security and a passel of other not very conservative views? What about the massive public outrage when the Republicans tried to intervene in the Terri Schiavo case? Now that you’ve disabused yourself of Breitbart, how about recognizing that that ‘center-right country’ nonsense is straight from Andy’s ideological and strategic mentors, Karl Rove and Lee Atwater? Chuck, no matter what they say, I have hope for you yet.

Today’s Quotes: American Corporate Fascism

“I call these [wealthy corporate] elements Fascist. You may not like names and labels but technically as well as journalistically and morally they are correct. You may substitute Tories, or Economic Royalists, or Vested Interests, or whatever you like for the flag-waving anti-American Americans whose efforts and objectives parallel those of the Liga Industriale which bought out Mussolini in 1920, and the Thyssen-Krupp-Voegeler-Flick Rhineland industry and banking system which subsidized Hitler when Nazism was about to collapse. Their main object was to end the civil liberties of the nation, destroy the labor unions, end the free press, and make more money at the expense of a slave nation.”
– George Seldes, “Facts and Facism,” published in 1943.

“Sure we’ll have Fascism here, but it will come as an anti-Fascism movement.”
– Gov. Huey Long, as quoted by George Seldes, ibid.

Today’s Quote-to-Quote-to-Quote: Corporate Propaganda…

…And the way it’s done

“Corporations want us to believe that they are concerned, moral ‘corporate citizens’ — whatever that means. So businesses pump millions of dollars into charities and nonprofit organizations to deceive us into thinking that they care and are making things better. On top of that, corporate charity can buy the tacit cooperation of organizations that might otherwise be expected to criticize corporate policies. Some PR firms specialize in helping corporations to defeat activists, and co-optation is one of their tools.
“Some years ago, in a speech to clients in the cattle industry, Ron Duchin, senior vice-president of the PR firm Mongoven, Biscoe, and Duchin (which represents probably a quarter of the largest corporations in the world), outlined his firm’s basic divide-and-conquer strategy for defeating any social-change movement. Activists, he explained, fall into three basic categories: radicals, idealists, and realists. The first step in his strategy is to isolate and marginalize the radicals. They’re the ones who see the inherent structural problems that need remedying if indeed a particular change is to occur. To isolate them, PR firms will try to create a perception in the public mind that people advocating fundamental solutions are terrorists, extremists, fearmongers, outsiders, communists, or whatever. After marginalizing the radicals, the PR firm then identifies and ‘educates’ the idealists — concerned and sympathetic members of the public — by convincing them that the changes advocated by the radicals would hurt people. The goal is to sour the idealists on the idea of working with the radicals, and instead get them working with the realists.
“Realists, according to Duchin, are people who want reform but don’t really want to upset the status quo; big public-interest organizations that rely on foundation grants and corporate contributions are a prime example. With the correct handling, Duchin says, realists can be counted on to cut a deal with industry that can be touted as a ‘win-win’ solution, but that is actually an industry victory.”
– John Stauber, Editor of PR Watch.
(Read “The War on Truth” here.)

“If we understand the mechanisms and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without them knowing it.” […]
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country…. In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons … who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”
– Edward Bernays, the father of modern public relations, from his book “Propaganda.”

[Note: Bernays' PR techniques for influencing the public were assimilated and expanded by Hitler's propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels to seize and hold power in Nazi Germany and are still in use today – just turn on the news. (Read "BP: Mitigating Exposure, Controlling the Response and Making Edward Bernays Proud!" by Steve Horn, PRWatch.org, June, 2010.)]

“The twentieth century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.”
– Alex Carey

Today’s Quote Plus: The ‘Dirty Little Secret’ of the Big Media

“So the dirty little secret is yeah, we sort of informally agree not to report a lot of things that we see, some of it for legitimate security reasons, and some of it because it could just be embarrassing. And the tradeoff is we get a continued relationship with these people and we can get information.
“And by the way, it is information that we can still hold them accountable for, it’s just that we sort of cover them.”
– Jamie McIntyre, CNN’s senior Pentagon reporter for 16 years, revealing the truth about how our Big Media operates.
[Editor's Note: McIntyre is now an adjunct professor of journalism at the University of Maryland. Hint: 'Sort of' covering for sources because they might be embarrassed, 'informally agreeing' not to report 'a lot of things' you see, and making 'tradeoffs' in return for a 'continued relationship' is not journalism, it's whoring for crumbs from your sources, and I hope the 'Professor' teaches his students that. H/t to bartcop.com.]

“Today, journalists more than any other cohort of professionals, are responsible for the confusion that surrounds power and its criminality in contemporary society. As Janet Malcolm said in another context, ‘Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible.’ “
– Martin Walker, M.A.

“Circus dogs jump when the trainer cracks his whip, but the really well-trained dog is the one that turns his somersault when there is no whip.”
– George Orwell on reporters like Jamie McIntyre.

“Media manipulation in the U.S. today is more efficient than it was in Nazi Germany, because here we have the pretense that we are getting all the information we want. That misconception prevents people from even looking for the truth.”
– Mark Crispin Miller

“Every government is run by liars and nothing they say should be believed.”
– I.F. Stone

“I.F. Stone famously admonished reporters never to have lunch with their sources. Stone believed that once a reporter got too close to those in positions of wealth and power, the independent stance needed for good journalism would be lost. He was contemptuous of journalism that allowed government and big business to do as they pleased.”
– Robin Andersen, “On the Shoulders of Giants,” FAIR.org, Jan.-Feb. 2006.

“The American press is, and always has been, a booster press, its editorial pages characteristically advancing the same arguments as the paid advertising copy.”
– Lewis Lapham

“Newscasters who want to keep their careers afloat learn the fine art of evasion. We should never accuse them of doing a poor and sloppy job of reporting. If anything, with great skill they skirt around the most important points of a story. With much finesse they say a lot about very little, serving up heaps of junk news filled with so many empty calories and so few nutrients. Thus do they avoid offending those who wield politico-economic power. It is enough to take your breath away.”
– Dr. Michael Parenti

“The one truth you’ll never hear on any major American news outlet is that war is good for business and the owner of the network is a stockholder in that profitable concern.”
– Arris Jaye

Today’s Quote-to-Quote: The Katherine’s Still Walk Among Us…

…and they still want to take the country back –- to the era of the Salem Witch Trials.

“If people aren’t involved in helping godly men in getting elected, then we’re going to have a nation of secular laws. That isn’t what our founding fathers intended and that certainly isn’t what God intended … We need to take back this country … And if we don’t get involved as Christians, then how could we possibly take it back? If you are not electing Christians, tried and true, under public scrutiny and pressure, if you’re not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin.”
…”Father, once again, once again, we’ll rejoice with Your son and bring this nation into alignment with Your government and Your Kingdom’s principles and authority.”
– Katherine Harris, former Florida Secretary of State and Bush-Cheney campaign co-chair, who stopped a legal state recount in Florida in 2000 and named Bush the winner of the state’s electoral votes and the presidency, despite numerous complaints of vote fraud and irregularity.

“The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries.”
“I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.”
– President James Madison on what the founding fathers intended.

Both quotes were taken from the Author’s Note section of Raymond Khoury’s book “The Sign” (Dutton, 2010).

Just How Smart is My Nephew?

I sent out a link to our postings here at LT regarding the oil hitting the beaches of one of my favorite places on Earth: Pensacola Beach and the Gulf Islands National Seashore. Amongst the many recipients: my nephew, Mike. Here was his response…

I know people who STILL think we humans are “too small to affect the Earth.” I want to bring them to Pensacola and throw tar-balls at their faces. If there was ever a time for we humans to really push to stop using ancient dead plants and animals for fuel it’s now.

Anyway, I’m totally pissed about this whole thing! There is a scale in astrobiology called the “Kardashev scale” that measures how advanced civilizations are. There’s Type I, II, and III mainly. Type III would be a civilization that can harness energy of an entire galaxy without negative disruptions for anyone else, II’s harness the energy of their local sun/star without negative disruptions, and “a Type I civilization has achieved mastery of the resources of its home planet” without negative disruptions… We’re TYPE 0! We’re sucking! (We may even be -1 type) The saddest part is that we already have the capability and technology to be Type I-and-a-half, but we’re to greedy and stupid apparently to even move towards it.

-Mike Frye-Hunt

This fills me with great hope that future generations will get it, when mine: which claimed they “got it,” really didn’t and still doesn’t. Oh, and they’ve turned into a growing cesspool of intolerant, self-absorbed, cranks. It also makes me feel very old. Damn kid’s soooooooooooo  much smarter than me! (Of course, Mike, you’re not a kid. But I guess I am getting old! You win.)