Tuesday, April 19, 2011

It’s Not Just about Guns and Abortions Anymore

With all that’s going on from day to day, It’s difficult to know what mainstream networks to watch. Although MSNBC probably does the best job Grit TV and Democracy Now, which can be found on-line and on public television stations, provide reporting and interviews you won’t get anywhere else, except perhaps on blogs.  But there are even more blogs than TV channels, so which are worth reading?  CommonDreams.org and Alternet.org are worth looking at regularly, but sometimes I hear a piece of news on television, and when I try to find the subject on-line, I am directed to a blog I never heard of, which is providing all the information I’m looking for.

Take, for example, the news bite that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is threatening to take over the running of municipalities.  That’s fascism, I say to myself.  I must have heard wrong.

But no, my ears did not deceive me. According to Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s WTAQ April 18th blog: “Governor Scott Walker said Monday it’s ‘absolutely false’ that he’s working on a financial stress test that local governments would have to pass – or else be taken over by the state.

The Republican Walker told Milwaukee radio talk show host Charlie Sykes that nobody on his staff or administration is working on such a plan. That’s after the GOP governor in Michigan, Rick Snyder, signed a similar bill that creates an emergency financial manager for such municipal takeovers.

Rick Ungar, a blogger for Forbes.Com, also wrote that Walker is said to be working on having his own financial manager who could, “cancel union contracts, push aside duly-elected local government officials and school board members, and take control of Wisconsin cities and towns whenever he sees fit to do so.”

Can that Be???

“Ungar said attorneys from Foley and Lardner are writing up the plan – and it’s scheduled to be introduced in the GOP-controlled Legislature in May. The blogger said the Walker plan would give him, “unchallenged power to end municipal services of which he disapproves, including safety net assistance to those in need.”

When Governors start talking about taking over the administration of towns and cities, if that isn’t fascism, it’s a pretty good imitation. If you go  to Yahoo.com Answers and type in ‘Municipal government under Nazis’.  You’ll find this:

“The Nazi assault on existing institutions affected the whole society. Every state government, every state parliament in Germany's federal political system, every town and district and local council was ruthlessly purged. Every national voluntary association, and every local club, was brought under Nazi control, from industrial and agricultural pressure-groups to sports associations, football clubs, male voice choirs, women's organizations - in short, the whole fabric of associational life was Nazified. Rival, politically oriented clubs or societies were merged into a single Nazi body. Existing leaders of voluntary associations were either uncere-moniously ousted, or knuckled under of their own accord. Many organi-zations expelled politically leftish or liberal members and declared their allegiance to the new state and its institutions. This whole process ('co-ordination' in Nazi jargon) went on all over Germany from March to June 1933. By the end, virtually the only non-Nazi associations left were the army and the Churches with their lay organizations. While this was going on, the government passed a law that allowed it to purge the civil service, a vast organization in Germany that included schoolteachers, university staff, judges and many other professions that were not government-controlled in other countries.

If you’re wondering how Republicans (or should we now say The Tea Party?) are going to get away with this nationwide, go to Common-Dreams.Org’s April 18th story: “GOP Wave Reshapes Nation's Agenda State by State” by Ann Sanner and Calvin Woodward, for a description of some of the tools they’re creating:

“Republican governors and state legislators are bringing abortion restrictions into law from Virginia to Arizona, acting swiftly to expand gun rights north and south, pushing polling-station photo ID laws that are anathema to Democrats and taking on public sector unions anywhere they can.”

But that’s not all: Yesterday, according to MSNBC (sorry I don’t remember which afternoon host reported this), the REAL reason for clamping down on unions is to deprive Democratic candidates of their campaign contri-butions, still a significant amount even though union membership has declined over the years.

Meanwhile, our star-studded intellectual class has to realize that Obama can only betray us.  I’ll explain why in my next blog.

1 comment:

  1. I could hardly believe it when I first heard this news either, Deena. This country is becoming less and less recognizable as the one I grew up in. I take comfort that we elected a wonderful Democratic governor here in Oregon....but will he have a chance at another term? Not if we who see the importance of having him at the Capitol are not wide awake and ready to work.

    I am going to read the Apr. 18 article at Common-Dreams.org. Thanks for the tip.

    How is it that Obama can only betray us? (I hope that isn't the case.....)

    ReplyDelete