I hope we don’t bail California out

Sounds like your hooked on some lefty version of Glen Beck where fascists pop up everywhere. I’m not interested in some minor event in American history that provides fodder for conspiracy theories.”

Manju, you can be counted on to provide a more holistic perspective knee-jerk leftism, which I appreciate, but here I must disagree.

This is not some “minor event.” Gen. Smedley Butler was a veteran of the Spanish-American War (with its false flag salvo, now admitted even in mainstream history books) and the Philippino campaigns. Not to mention many ventures in Latin America. He was a Big Deal who by the 1930s said he was basically a gangster for big business, and that describes most military offensive actions in the post-modern world. “Conspiracy theories” are well-researched alternatives to the official, government-sponsored theories which tend to hit the air-waves immediately after the event in question. I’ve been around a few years in America–I know the drill. Civil War General Tecumseh Sherman of the notorious “March to the Sea”, said something to the effect that the real reasons for war, and the truth about politics, are never known to the masses of people and it is often better that way.

You still have it backwards. I wasn’t painting the New Deal as being run by segregationists, but rather Segregation being run by New Dealers. I take your “par for the course” as a begrudged concession of this truth. Only, segregationism was a minority position by FDR’s time. Ergo, the importance of the filibuster. So, the everyone was doing it argument is ahistorical too.

“Like in pre-WW2 Europe, most leaders were fascist, varying only by degree…the moneyed thugs…tried to get Gen Butler to overthrow the government for them”

Sounds like your hooked on some lefty version of Glen Beck where fascists pop up everywhere. I’m not interested in some minor event in American history that provides fodder for conspiracy theories.

“The moneyed thugs hired minions to crack strikers’ skulls, and these self-same minions also could be counted upon to beat up freedom riders. The New Deal by bringing America out of its oligarchic hell and mandating a socioeconomic safety net put an accountable government in charge rather than a moneyed thug.”

Let me get your history straight. The moneyed thugs beat up unionists. They also plan a Fascist coup against FDR and hire General Whoever. So far, the conspiracy theory is at least internally consistent. But then you claim they also beat up freedom riders. Whats the motive? At the time, the very target of the alleged coup has a Segregationist in his VP slot. He also owns the south (as its a one-party state) and the racist vote. He delivers on his agreement to overlook segregation and lynching and throws in Tuskegee and the Japanese internment for good measure. So how in the world could FDRs enemies (moneyed thugs) also be FDRs friends (Dixiecrats)?

“Pity Manju you weren’t around Sen.Byrd campaigned in W.Va. or his early membership of the KKK didn’t seem to matter to his constituents because you know he put that behind him”

He didn’t put it behind him until the 1990s, when the first public acknowledgment of regret are known. Before that he climbed the dem ladder, going all the ways up to majority leader even though he was still a segregationist. Ted Kennedy urged him to run for the slot, even though he didn’t have seniority. This follows in the racism-enabling tradition of his asshole brother. Of course, the people of W.Va didn’t mind. It was a selling point. That’s what you call a southern strategy and liberal dems like Teddy played it rather brutally well. Thats real thuggism, not like your imaginary one.

Correction you should not only stop ranting against the New Deal, but also trying to paint it as being run by segregationists, because that was pretty much par for the course. Like in pre-WW2 Europe, most leaders were fascist, varying only by degree. That includes Churchill – who thanks to Madhusree Mukherjee’s searing expose now stands revealed for the ruthless racist thug he truly was.

The moneyed thugs hired minions to crack strikers’ skulls, and these self-same minions also could be counted upon to beat up freedom riders. The New Deal by bringing America out of its oligarchic hell and mandating a socioeconomic safety net put an accountable government in charge rather than a moneyed thug. Of course the moneyed thugs didn’t like that which is why they tried to get Gen Butler to overthrow the government for them. Gen.Butler being true to himself turned on them. The moneyed thugs of the day and their minions – like the Tea Party morons of today – don’t mind government handouts as long as it is for themselves and not the truly needy.

For some reason (maybe because you rant before you think) you seem to have gotten obsessed about this guilt by association thing. Liberal democracy is an ideal, New Deal is a program, and neither one is is tainted by who drives it. Moneyed thugs and their segregationist minions (and today’s tea party scum) support(ed) robber baronism because it frees them of any social responsibility. It is also ignorantly stupid as in Keep your government hands off my Medicare

And that of course is before we start talking of the ignoramuses that represent the GOPers creationist Jindal (why do we need to spend money on volcano monitoring?) or Eric Cantor who is calling to shut down funding for the NSF.

Pity Manju you weren’t around Sen.Byrd campaigned in W.Va. or his early membership of the KKK didn’t seem to matter to his constituents because you know he put that behind him and worked for his constituents. Unlike the crook Tom DeLay who worked for the Texas thugs?

Yep, the original PG.

More commentary later…. some good, some bad. India is heading in 2 different directions at once.

From the sarson ka kates of Uttar Pradesh…..