Sunday, April 25, 2010

History In Quotation Marks

“Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” –Plato
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“It is hard NOT to write satire.” - Juvenal Roman satirist (55-127 A.D.)
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"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.”

“Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them. - Thomas Jefferson
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“Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.” – John Stuart Mill
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"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." - Mahatma Gandhi
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“We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace - business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.” Franklin D. Roosevelt – 1936

"...Out of this modern civilization, economic royalists [have] carved new dynasties.... It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction.... And as a result the average man once more confronts the problem that faced the Minute Man...."

"These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power."

"Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power!"

"In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for." Franklin D. Roosevelt 1936
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"The National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and cooperation. It will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the family as the basis of national life." - Adolph Hitler "My New World Order" - Proclamation to the German Nation, Berlin, February 1, 1933

“What good fortune for those in power that people do not think.” – Adolph Hitler
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"Naturally the common people don't want war...but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country." -Hermann Goring
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“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

“The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over,”

“Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.” - Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Propaganda for Nazi Germany1897-1945
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“Republicans take care of big money, for big money takes care of them.” - Will Rogers
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“America's health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.” - Walter Cronkite
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“The rule of law does not do away with the unequal distribution of wealth and power, but reinforces that inequality with the authority of law. It allocates wealth and poverty in such calculated and indirect ways as to leave the victim bewildered.” – Howard Zinn

“We need new ways of thinking. We need to rethink our position in the world. We need to stop sending weapons to countries that oppress other people. We need to decide that we will not go to war, whatever reason is conjured up by the politicians or the media, because war in our time is always indiscriminate, a war against innocents, a war against children. War is terrorism, magnified a hundred times.” - Howard Zinn
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“The modern conservative is engaged in one of mankind’s oldest pursuits; finding a moral justification for greed.” - John Kenneth Galbraith
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"I took an oath to the president, and I take that oath very seriously." White House political director Sara Taylor to the Senate Judiciary Committee (Under Oath) 7-11-07
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“I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace.” - George W. Bush
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"War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." – George Orwell, 1984
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“How is it possible that “the world’s only superpower” is threatened by the likes of Iraq and Afghanistan? How can the US be a superpower if it is threatened by countries that have no military capability other than a guerilla capability to resist invaders? These “wars” are a hoax designed to enrich the US armaments industry and to infuse the “security forces” with police powers over American citizenry." - Who Rules America? - Paul Craig Roberts May 13, 2009

"Anyone who depends on print, TV, or right-wing talk radio media is totally misinformed. The Bush administration has achieved a de facto Ministry of Propaganda."

"The uniformity of the US media has become much more complete since the days of the cold war. During the 1990s, the US government permitted an unconscionable concentration of print and broadcast media that terminated the independence of the media. Today the US media is owned by 5 giant companies in which pro-Zionist Jews have disproportionate influence. More importantly, the values of the conglomerates reside in the broadcast licenses, which are granted by the government, and the corporations are run by corporate executives—not by journalists—whose eyes are on advertising revenues and the avoidance of controversy that might produce boycotts or upset advertisers and subscribers. Americans who rely on the totally corrupt corporate media have no idea what is happening anywhere on earth, much less at home."

"The American economic elite is hiding its treason to the American people behind "free trade." - Paul Craig Roberts, former Secretary of the U.S. Treasury (2/19/09)
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“Most of all, I believe in this president. (Speaking to GWB) Now, I know there are some polls out there saying this man has a 32% approval rating. But guys like us, we don't pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in "reality." And reality has a well-known liberal bias." - Stephen Colbert - 2006

“America has changed a lot in these four years. Back then questioning the president made you a traitor. Today it makes you a patriot.” – Stephen Colbert - 2009
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"The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil."

"I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy"

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." — Albert Einstein
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From the New York Times/CBS News Tea Party poll: (April 2010)

“I just feel he’s getting away from what America is,” said Kathy Mayhugh, 67, a retired medical transcriber in Jacksonville. “He’s a socialist. And to tell you the truth, I think he’s a Muslim and trying to head us in that direction, I don’t care what he says. He’s been in office over a year and can’t find a church to go to. That doesn’t say much for him.”
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“The question has been raised about whether or not our president is a socialist. I am sure there are some people here who believe it. But in the technical sense, in the economic definition of what a socialist is, no, he’s not a socialist. He’s a corporatist. And unfortunately we have corporatists inside the Republican Party and that means you take care of corporations and corporations take over and run the country.We see it in the financial institutions, we see it in the military-industrial complex, and now we see it in the medical-industrial complex.” Ron Paul , At the Southern Republican Leadership Conference
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New York Times/CBS News Tea Party poll: (April 2010)

“That’s a conundrum, isn’t it?” asked Jodine White, 62, of Rocklin, Calif. “I don’t know what to say. Maybe I don’t want smaller government. I guess I want smaller government and my Social Security.” She added, “I didn’t look at it from the perspective of losing things I need. I think I’ve changed my mind.”

16 comments:

Tim said...

This is classic and above all else genius. Well Done Sir, well done...

Dave Dubya said...

Aww, thanks, Tim. I'm only the editor, though. Close as I ever get to genius is when I'm a smart-ass.

Tim said...

What made it genius was that last quote...Kind of the icing...

Kulkuri said...

They are all good quotes, but I especially like the Einstein quote about things infinite.

Nan said...

I find myself in the odd position of agreeing with Ron Paul.

Dave Dubya said...

Kulkuri,
I can just hear the Reich Wingers, "Einstein?? What does HE know?"

Nan,
Isn't it nice to tell conservatives we agree with one of them on some things?

Somewhere out there in a narrow band of reality, libertarianism is aligned with liberalism. We both detest the Neocom agenda and the war on drugs. Unfortunately Paul works for big money in just about every other way.

Tom Harper said...

Interesting quotes. The quotes from FDR show how little, if at all, things have changed in the last 80 or 90 years.

Weaseldog said...

I think when it comes to really important issues, there isn't a lot of difference between conservatives and liberals.

The problem is that both groups place a lot more importance on the smallest and most trivial of issues while ignoring the big ones. Members of both parties ignore Constitutional abuses when their party is in power. Both feel the rule of law is unimportant when their party is in power.

Yet, if we started with adherence and respect for the Constitution and the Law, many of the other issues and differences would work out as a side effect. I don't remember a serious debate in Washington over the constitutionality of a bill since the 1970s. That should be a discussion that comes up often.

The politicians know that as a people we are easily distracted. So when we begin to notice the real problems, the media goes on a blitz telling us that the other side wants to eat babies. or, "Oh look! A rich white girl has gone missing in a remote island off the coast of Chile!"

On the Einstein quote, a very smart guy I used to know, once told me an important story. He did a lot of different kinds of jobs. One of his side jobs was writing and performing advertisements for car dealers. He said that when he sits down to write a car commercial, he isn't trying to sell a car to me. He knows that I'll pay more attention to the car, and will tune out the sales pitch when I shop for one. He says his target customer is the other guy. He said, "Half of of the population is on the other side of the median line in intelligence. They buy cars too."

So on that note I can say, "And they vote too." And they of course, they attend rallies and end up on TV carrying signs, thanking FOX for keeping them 'Infromed'.

Dave Dubya said...

Tom,
Too bad we have no more politicians like FDR who are willing to be "traitors against their class" like he was.

Wease,
Ain't it the truth? I just read a Harper's article from 1995 with this in it:

To Have and to Have Not
By Michael Lind, in Harper's Magazine, June, 1995


"While public attention has been diverted to controversies as inflammatory as they are trivial. Should the Constitution be amended to ban flag-burning? Should dirty pictures be allowed on the Internet? The American elites that subsidize and staff both the Republican and Democratic parties have steadfastly waged a generation-long class war against the middle and working classes. Now and then the television cameras catch a glimpse of what is going on, as they did last year during the NAFTA and GATT debates, when a Democratic President and a bipartisan majority in Congress collaborated in the sacrifice of American labor to the interests of American corporations and foreign capital. More recently, with a candor rare among politicians, House Speaker Newt Gingrich argued against raising the minimum wage in the United States---on the grounds that a higher minimum wage would handicap American workers in their competition with workers in Mexico.

The camera, however, quickly returns to the set and the shouting audience, while assistant producers hold up placards with the theme for the day: the Contract with America, the New Covenant, Affirmative Action, Moral Renewal. It's against the rules to talk about a rapacious American oligarchy, and the suggestion that the small group of people with most of the money and power in the United States just might be responsible to some degree for what has been happening to the country over the last twenty years invariably invites the news media to expressions of wrath and denial. Whenever a politician proposes to speak for the many---whether he is on the left (Jerry Brown), right (Patrick Buchanan), or center (Ross Perot)---the Op-Ed pages in the nation's better newspapers (the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal) issue stern warnings of "demagogy." Yes, the pundits admit, economic and social inequality have been growing in the United States, with alarming results, but the ruling and possessing class cannot be blamed, because, well, there is no ruling and possessing class.

The American oligarchy spares no pains in promoting the belief that it does not exist, but the success of its disappearing act depends on equally strenuous efforts on the part of an American public anxious to believe in egalitarian fictions and unwilling to see what is hidden in plain sight."

Jolly Roger said...

The corporatist state ushered in by way of "free" trade is foundering, and it will die if it doesn't correct its mistakes. Government is, by its bedrock definition, supposed to advocate for the common good. When Government fails to do this, there is simply no reason for it to exist anymore.

Ask any ex-Soviet how that works. When the "center" starts wars that they can't afford, and the populace gets gutted so that the nomenklatura can continue to live high on the hog, one fine day Government will discover that its enforcement arms will just fold up and go home.

That's where we're headed. Believe it.

Dave Dubya said...

JR,
It's that "center" that is being defined, or dominated, by the Reich Wing that worries me. It's only a matter of time until enough Americans will be told to choose real fascism over the fear of imaginary socialism. Democracy will not be a factor unless a lot of people wake up. And it is troubling to imagine what it will take to wake them up.

Weaseldog said...

Those are good comments you're making on GTL.

The teabaggers certainly see no irony in the fact that they are worried that the downtrodden billionaires are going to be hurt by the laws that they themselves write and lobby for.

You have to have a special kind of intelligence to want to dedicate yourself to saving the rich and powerful from themselves. And to think that you can do so, by arguing on the internet with people who have no power to change the situation.

And finally, you've got to be a special kind of person to think that the rich are not looking out for their own interests and that you should be running their lives, to enrich them.

I enjoyed the comment from the poster who says he's fighting this battle because he wants to be rich, and wants his grandchildren to be rich. If he thinks that arguing on the internet is his ticket to riches, then I don't see him moving up in society.

Dave Dubya said...

Wease,
Thanks. You nail them quite well, yourself. Although you and I have been more than capable of taking them all on by ourselves, it's good to have some back up. We know that they are incapable of processing what we say. It runs counter to their indoctrinated belief system. But for any readers who follow along, I think it's a good thing we check the Reich Wing BS. Not only is it kind of fun, but the readers need us to pop their Reich Wing hot air balloons.

All they can do is call us America hating commie socialists. They have zero facts on their side.

Carry on commie socislist Brother! (Secret Alinsky handshake.)

TomCat said...

Dave, you've managed to pack ten pounds of wisdom into a one pound bag.

Dave Dubya said...

TomCat,
Thanks, but since it was not my wisdom, it was fairly easy.

TomCat said...

Nevertheless, I linked you in today's open thread.