Obama’s Dumbest Plan Yet: Neo-Nazi Coup in Ukraine

by MIKE WHITNEY

“Washington and Brussels … used a Nazi coup, carried out by insurgents, terrorists and politicians of Euromaidan to serve the geopolitical interests of the West.”
– Natalia Vitrenko, The Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine

The United States helped defeat Nazism in World War 2. Obama helped bring it back.

As you probably know by now, Obama and Co. have ousted Ukraine’s democratically-elected president, Viktor Yanukovych, with the help of ultra-right, paramilitary, neo-Nazi gangs who seized and burned government offices, killed riot police, and spread mayhem and terror across the country. These are America’s new allies in the Great Game, the grand plan to “pivot to Asia” by pushing further eastward, toppling peaceful governments, securing vital pipeline corridors, accessing scarce oil and natural gas reserves and dismantling the Russian Federation consistent with the strategy proposed by geopolitical mastermind, Zbigniew Brzezinski. Brzezinski’s magnum opus–”The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and it’s Geostrategic Imperatives” has become the Mein Kampf for aspiring western imperialists. It provides the basic blueprint for establishing US military-political-economic hegemony in the century’s most promising and prosperous region, Asia. In an article in Foreign Affairs Brzezinski laid out his ideas about neutralizing Russia by splitting the country into smaller parts, thus, allowing the US to maintain its dominant role in the region without threat of challenge or interference. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

“Given (Russia’s) size and diversity, a decentralized political system and free-market economics would be most likely to unleash the creative potential of the Russian people and Russia’s vast natural resources. A loosely confederated Russia — composed of a European Russia, a Siberian Republic, and a Far Eastern Republic — would also find it easier to cultivate closer economic relations with its neighbors. Each of the confederated entitles would be able to tap its local creative potential, stifled for centuries by Moscow’s heavy bureaucratic hand. In turn, a decentralized Russia would be less susceptible to imperial mobilization.” (Zbigniew Brzezinski,“A Geostrategy for Eurasia”)

Moscow is keenly aware of Washington’s divide and conquer strategy, but has downplayed the issue in order to avoid a confrontation. The US-backed coup in Ukraine means that that option is no longer feasible. Russia will have to respond to a provocation that threatens both its security and vital interests. Early reports suggest that Putin has already mobilized troops to the East and –according to Reuters “put fighter jets along its western borders on combat alert.” Here’s more from Reuters:

“The United States says any Russian military action would be a grave mistake. But Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Moscow would defend the rights of its compatriots and react without compromise to any violation of those rights.” (Reuters)

There’s going to be a confrontation, it’s just a matter of whether the fighting will escalate or not.
In order to topple Yanukovych, the US had to tacitly support fanatical groups of neo-Nazi thugs and anti-Semites. And, even though “Interim Ukrainian President Oleksander Tuchynov has pledged to do everything in his power to protect the country’s Jewish community”; reports on the ground are not so encouraging. Here’s an excerpt from a statement by Natalia Vitrenko, of The Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine that suggests the situation is much worse than what is being reported in the news:

“Across the country… People are being beaten and stoned, while undesirable members of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine are subject to mass intimidation and local officials see their families and children targeted by death threats if they do not support the installation of this new political power. The new Ukrainian authorities are massively burning the offices of political parties they do not like, and have publicly announced the threat of criminal prosecution and prohibition of political parties and public organizations that do not share the ideology and goals of the new regime.” (“USA and EU Are Erecting a Nazi Regime on Ukrainian Territory”, Natalia Vitrenko)

Earlier in the week, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that a Ukranian synagogue had been firebombed although the “Molotov cocktails struck the synagogue’s exterior stone walls and caused little damage”.
Another article in Haaretz referred to recent developments as “the new dilemma for Jews in Ukraine”. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

“The greatest worry now is not the uptick in anti-Semitic incidents but the major presence of ultra-nationalist movements, especially the prominence of the Svoboda party and Pravy Sektor (right sector) members among the demonstrators. Many of them are calling their political opponents “Zhids” and flying flags with neo-Nazi symbols. There have also been reports, from reliable sources, of these movements distributing freshly translated editions of Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in Independence Square.” (“Anti-Semitism, though a real threat, is being used by the Kremlin as a political football”, Haaretz)

Then there’s this, from Dr. Inna Rogatchi in Arutz Sheva:

“There is no secret concerning the real political agenda and programs of ultra-nationalist parties in Ukraine – there is nothing close to European values and goals there. One just should open existing documents and hear what the representatives of those parties proclaim daily. They are sharply anti-European, and highly racist. They have nothing to do with the values and practices of the civilized world…
Ukrainian Jewry is facing a real and serious threat….To empower the openly neo-Nazi movements in Europe by ignoring the threat they pose is an utterly risky business. People should not have to pay a terrible price – again – for the meekness and indifference of their leaders. As Ukraine today has become the tragic show-case for all of Europe with regards to breeding and allowing race-hatred to become a violent and uncontrollable force, it is impertive to handle the situation there in accordance with existing international law and norms of civilization.” (“Tea With Neo-Nazis: The Violent Nationalism in Ukraine“, Arutz Sheva)

Here’s a little more background on the topic by progressive analyst Stephen Lendmen from a February 25 post titled “New York Times: Supporting US Imperial Lawlessness”:

“Washington openly backs fascist Svoboda party leader Oleh Tyahnybok…In 2004, Tyahnybok was expelled from former President Viktor Yushchenko’s parliamentary faction. He was condemned for urging Ukrainians to fight against a “Muscovite-Jewish mafia.”
In 2005, he denounced “criminal activities” of “organized Jewry.” He outrageously claimed they plan “genocide” against Ukrainians.”…
Tyahnybok extremism didn’t deter Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland. On February 6, she met openly with him and other anti-government leaders.
In early January, 15,000 ultranationalists held a torchlight march through Kiev. They did so to honor Nazi-era collaborator/mass murderer Stepan Bandera. Some wore uniforms a Wehrmacht Ukrainian division used in WW II. Others chanted “Ukraine above all” and “Bandera, come and bring order.” (Steve Lendman blog)

Of course, the US media has downplayed the fascistic-neo-Nazi “ethnic purity” element of the Ukrainian coup in order to focus on– what they think — are more “positive themes”, like the knocking down of statues of Lenin or banning Communist party members from participating in Parliament. As far as the media is concerned, these are all signs of progress.

Ukraine is gradually succumbing to the loving embrace of the New World Order where it will serve as another profit-generating cog in Wall Street’s wheel. That’s the theory, at least. It hasn’t occurred to the boneheads at the New York Times or Washington Post that Ukraine is rapidly descending into Mad Max-type anarchy which could spill over its borders into neighboring countries triggering violent conflagrations, social upheaval, regional instability or–god-help-us– WW3. The MSM sees nothing but silver linings as if everything was going according to plan. All of Eurasia, the Middle East and beyond are being pacified and integrated into one world government overseen by the unitary executive who defers to no one but the corporations and financial institutions who control the levers of power behind imperial shoji-screen.

What could go wrong?

Naturally, Russia is worried about developments in Ukraine, but is unsure how to react. Here’s how Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev summed it up the other day:

“We do not understand what is going on there. A real threat to our interests (exists) and to the lives and health of our citizens. Strictly speaking, today there is no one there to communicate with … If you think that people in black masks waving Kalashnikovs (represent) a government, then it will be difficult for us to work with such a government.”

Clearly, Moscow is confused and worried. No one expects the world’s only superpower to behave this irrationally, to hop-scotch across the planet creating one failed state after another, fomenting revolt, breeding hatred, and spreading misery wherever it goes. At present, the Obama team is operating at full-throttle trying to topple regimes in Syria, Venezuela, Ukraine, and god-knows where else. At the same time, failed operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya have left all three countries in dire straights, ruled by regional warlords and armed militias. Medvedev has every right to be concerned.

Who wouldn’t be? The US has gone off the rails, stark raving mad. The architecture for global security has collapsed while the basic principals of international law have been jettisoned. The rampaging US juggernaut lurches from one violent confrontation to the next without rhyme or reason, destroying everything in its path, forcing millions to flee their own countries, and pushing the world closer to the abyss. Isn’t that reason enough to be concerned?

Now Obama has thrown-in with the Nazis. It’s just the icing on the cake.

Check out this blurb from Max Blumenthal’s latest titled “Is the U.S. Backing Neo-Nazis in Ukraine?”:

“Right Sector is a shadowy syndicate of self-described ‘autonomous nationalists’ identified by their skinhead style of dress, ascetic lifestyle, and fascination with street violence. Armed with riot shields and clubs, the group’s cadres have manned the front lines of the Euromaidan battles this month, filling the air with their signature chant: ‘Ukraine above all!’ In a recent Right Sector propaganda video the group promised to fight ‘against degeneration and totalitarian liberalism, for traditional national morality and family values.’
With Svoboda linked to a constellation of international neo-fascist parties through the Alliance of European National Movements, Right Sector is promising to lead its army of aimless, disillusioned young men on “a great European Reconquest.” (“Is the U.S. Backing Neo-Nazis in Ukraine?—Exposing troubling ties in the U.S. to overt Nazi and fascist protesters in Ukraine“, Max Blumenthal, AlterNet)

“Family values”? Where have we heard that before?

It’s clear, that Obama and his brainiac advisors think they have a handle on this thing and can train this den of vipers to click their heels and follow Washington’s directives, but it sounds like a bad bet to me. These are hard-core, died-in-the-wool, Nazi-extremists. They won’t be bought-off, co-opted or intimidated. They have an agenda and they aim to pursue that agenda to their last, dying breath.

Of all the dumb plans Washington has come up with in the couple years, this is the dumbest.

Enemies Of The State: The Kochs

By Stephen D. Foster Jr.

Never before in American history have we seen a pair of people more determined to take America backwards. Never before have we seen two people more determined to buy elections and seize control of government in an effort to control United States policy and turn the country into a corporate state. The Koch family has been trying to do this since the 1950′s and their plans are on the verge of being realized.

The year was 1958. America was in the middle of the Red Scare and the Cold War was in full swing. A man named Robert Welch, Jr. founded a new conservative group dedicated to accusing liberals of communism in an effort to use fear to convert people to conservatism, and seize control of the United States government. The John Birch Society began with 12 founding members. One of these members, Fred Koch, is the founder of Koch Industries, an oil refinery firm which is the second largest privately owned company in the United States.

The Kochs may be looked upon by conservatives as a normal wealthy American family but they have ties to one of the most evil regimes in world history. Fred Koch created his company, Winkler-Koch, here in America, and was sued for patent infringement because of his process for turning crude oil into gasoline. Litigation put Winkler-Koch out of business in the U.S. for several years. In other words, Koch was banned. Koch then turned his focus to foreign markets, including the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany with the help of Erich Koch. A high level Nazi official in charge of Prussia, Erich Koch invited Fred Koch to sell his oil in Nazi Germany after he was banned from doing business in the US. After the fall of Nazi Germany, Erich Koch and Fred expanded the oil empire to the Soviet Union. A few years later, the Soviets took Fred Koch’s oil and prosecuted Erich for war crimes. Fred Koch returned to the US as an anti-communist, and was allowed to do business in America once again. In 1963, Fred Koch gave a speech warning of “a takeover” of America in which Communists would “infiltrate the highest offices of government in the U.S. until the president is a Communist, unknown to the rest of us”. Koch also “wrote admiringly of Benito Mussolini’s suppression of Communists in Italy, and disparagingly of the American civil-rights movement.” Fred Koch was a crazy right wing entrepreneur that was relegated to the extreme fringe of the Republican Party and as such, he had no real power. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of his sons.

Since the 1980′s, the Koch brothers, David and Charles Koch, have made it their mission to assault all of the aspects of American life and history that they hate or disagree with. To that end they have created a number of conservative think tanks and organizations dedicated to eliminating these aspects. Liberalism and virtually anything that has to do with government is their number one target. For example, when David Koch ran for the presidency on the Libertarian ticket in 1984 he was pretty blunt about his goals. According to David Koch, they would “like to abolish the Federal Elections Commission and all the limits on campaign spending.” The Koch ticket promised to abolish Social Security, the Federal Reserve Board, welfare, minimum-wage laws, corporate taxes, all price supports and subsidies for agriculture and business, and U.S. Federal agencies including the SEC, EPA, ICC, FTC, OSHA, FBI, CIA, and DOE.

Since this failed attempt, the Koch brothers have abandoned trying to control government through legal elections, and have instead opted to gain power through buying elections and the Republican politicians that run in them. As part of the strategy, the Kochs and their groups are using an old fear tactic. Scaring the voters into electing conservatives by accusing liberals of being secret communists. The Kochs should know all about that tactic. Their father helped invent it. And through their groups, the Kochs remain in the shadows of this movement all while still pulling the strings and providing the cash. The names of the various groups that the Koch brothers fund include Americans for Prosperity Foundation, FreedomWorks, the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, and have membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council, which allows them to actually write the legislation that they want to be enacted. The Koch brothers funnel millions of dollars into each of these groups for the purpose of buying elections and paying politicians to do what the Koch brothers want them to do.

After the Citizens United decision destroyed campaign finance laws, the Koch brothers unleashed millions upon millions of dollars and spent the great majority of that money buying elections for their Republican lackeys. For example, Koch groups were the largest oil and gas industry donors to Congressmen on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is responsible for legislation affecting the industry. Koch-backed groups donated $279,500 to 22 Republicans and $32,000 to five Democrats, including $20,000 to committee chairman Fred Upton. The Kochs have spent a lot on lobbying in Washington in recent years, from $857,000 in 2004 to $20 million in 2008. The Kochs then spent another $20.5 million over the next two years to influence federal policy, as the company’s lobbyists and officials sought to mold, gut or kill more than 100 prospective bills or regulations.

With the backing of the Koch brothers, the Heritage Foundation recently provided Republican Darryl Issa a wish list of regulations they want to see repealed, including environmental regulations, consumer protections, and worker protections. Without these important protections and regulations, the Koch brothers would be free to screw over consumers, treat their workforce like slaves, and pollute the environment as much as they want. And we are seeing these attempts to eliminate protective policies play out in the halls of Congress as we speak. But it is just not in Congress, its in individual states as well.

Over the course of the 2010 elections, the Kochs poured hundreds of millions of dollars into elections around the country. Many Republicans that were swept into office are beholden to the Koch brothers. One of these Governors, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, has slammed a bill through the state legislature that effectively destroys unions in the state. The Kochs are all for this maneuver. They hate organized labor, and have a strong belief that workers have no rights and have no purpose other than to work at whatever price an owner wants them to work for. Koch Industries does not employ union workers for this reason. This anti-labor belief stems directly from the Koch familial ties in Nazi Germany. Erich Koch was a high ranking Nazi official in the Ukraine, who, in addition to having control of the Gestapo and the police, worked together with the General Plenipotentiary for Labor Deployment, to provide the Reich with forced labor. Erich Koch faced charges of war crimes for the extermination of 400,000 Poles.

Another family member, Karl Koch, was a colonel in the German SS and the first commandant of the Nazi concentration camps at Buchenwald.

The Koch brothers have taken it upon themselves to make sure that our government is their puppet. They have bought and paid for many Republican politicians and since they created the Tea Party, they have sent a message, that if they can’t take the government legally, they are willing to buy it and overthrow it and take control that way. This family is dangerous. They have a deep hatred of the United States government because the United States government makes them act responsible for the environment and makes them treat their workers and consumers fairly. They absolutely hate unions as well, being a big contributor to and supporter of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. The Kochs refuse to hire any worker that is in a union and are now in the process of telling their workers who to vote for. This kind of tactic is spreading as well. Employers across the country are now beginning to tell their workers how they should vote.

The Kochs assault on the United States must be stopped. They are nothing more than treasonous enemies of the state that stand in the shadows, pulling the strings of the people they help elect to power. Corporations were never supposed to get involved in the political process for this very reason. We must rise up as Americans and forever ban corporate involvement in politics. The Kochs never gained political power for a reason. People rejected their platform because it was too extreme. The American people didn’t like it then, they don’t like it now. But the Kochs are more dangerous now than ever before, because they have chosen to buy politicians as a way to control government. Democracy doesn’t work that way. But when a corporation like Koch Industries can dictate policy, that is called fascism, something the Nazi Kochs knew all about. And we can either stand by and let them get away with it. Or we can cut the roots of this conservative extremist movement by hunting down these enemies of the state and sending them to a country where their style of government is accepted. I suggest China, Venezuela, or Iran.

Were Stalin and Mengele behind Roswell UFOs?

(Oh, man, this story is even better than the whole alien bit. I hope it's true. I mean, the part with Mengele and the deformed kids is twisted and sad, but it happened long enough ago that mourning for them passes quickly, unfortunately. 

But I've never bought into the whole "UFOs are space aliens" theory. I'd love it if they were coming here, it would add an air of mystique to our mundane existences, but I just don't buy it. This actually makes sense, and it's funny, though not so much "ha ha" funny.  Wow!--jef)

'Area 51' book says Stalin enlisted infamous Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele in plan to scare US
By Mark Russell, News Staff
Posted May 16, 2011

(Newser) – Roswell and Area 51 have long been the focus of alien-hunting conspiracy theorists—and a new book's theory is likely to disappoint them. Annie Jacobsen's Area 51, a history of the top-secret base based on interviews with scientists and engineers who worked there, presents an explanation for the famous "flying disc" that crashed in Roswell in 1947—and it's nearly as crazy as the UFO theory. Jacobson writes that Josef Stalin was inspired by Orson Welles' famous 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds, and wanted to throw the United States into a similar panic.

So Stalin enlisted Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, who had fled to South America after World War II, to create a crew of "grotesque, child-size aviators" to fly in a Horton Ho 229 plane the Soviets had seized from Germany; in exchange, he would get a eugenics lab. Actually, children, ages 12 and 13 and described by Jacobsen as having "unusually large heads and abnormally shaped oversize eyes," did not fly the plane; instead it was piloted remotely. But the Horton crashed in the New Mexico desert and authorities decided to hush up the incident, according the Telegraph.

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Annie Jacobsen Interview with Terry Gross of NPR 

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A new book suggests that a favorite incident of UFO conspiracy theorists was really just a Cold War attempt to scare Americans!

UFO conspiracy theorists may be in for a letdown. A new book —Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen — says no alien spacecraft crashed to Earth in the famous so-called Roswell Incident of 1947. According to Britain's Telegraph, Jacobsen says the craft that smashed into the desert in a terrible storm was actually a top-secret Soviet plane with "grotesque, child-size aviators" bred in horrific human experiments and sent by Josef Stalin to create panic in the U.S. Is that possible — or is this story even harder to believe than tales of shipwrecked aliens?

On the Soviet human experiments her source told her about

"The child-sized aviators in this craft [that crashed in New Mexico] were the result of a Soviet human experimentation program, and they had been made to look like aliens a la Orson Welles' War of the Worlds, and it was a warning shot over President Truman's bow, so to speak. In 1947, when this would have originally happened, the Soviets did not yet have the nuclear bomb, and Stalin and Truman were locked in horns with one another, and Stalin couldn't compete in nuclear weaponry yet, but he certainly could compete in the world of black propaganda — and that was his aim, according to my source. ...

"What is firsthand information is that he worked with these bodies [of the pilots] and he was an eyewitness to the horror of seeing them and working with them. Where they actually came from is obviously the subject of debate. But if you look at the timeline with Josef Mengele, he left Auschwitz in January of 1945 and disappeared for a while, and the suggestion by the source is that Mengele had already cut his losses with the Third Reich at that point and was working with Stalin."

On why the Soviets would have undertaken such a hoax

"The plan, according to my source, was to create panic in the United States with this belief that a UFO had landed with aliens inside of it. And one of the most interesting documents is the second CIA director, Walter Bedell Smith, memos back and forth to the National Security Council talking about how the fear is that the Soviets could make a hoax against America involving a UFO and overload our early air-defense warning system, making America vulnerable to an attack."

Area 51: Never Before Seen Photos of America's Secret Base

The crash of a disc-shaped aircraft in Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947 kicked off UFO speculation worldwide. In fact, the disc was a Russia spy plane -- one of many eye-opening revelations in AREA 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base

Alleged to be Stalin’s secret UFO study team are (standing left to right)
Sergei Korolev, chief missile designer and inventor of Sputnik; Igor Kurchatov,
father of Russia’s atomic bomb; and Mstislav Keldysh, mathematician, theoretician,
and space pioneers

In her new book AREA 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base, which goes on sale May 17, Annie Jacobsen offers for the first time an inside look at the history of America's top secret military base. It is the first book based on interviews with the scientist, pilots, and engineers -- 74 in total -- who for the first time reveal what really went on in the Nevada desert, from testing nuclear reactions to building super-secret supersonic jets to pursuing the war on terror.

Jacobsen, a contributing editor and investigative reporter at the Los Angeles Times Magazine, interviewed the former Area 51 employees in 2008 and 2009, shortly after the CIA declassified much of the work they had done, including countless pages of redacted memos and declassified reports. Area 51 is still officially a military secret, unmentioned by name, Jacobsen notes.

In this exclusive excerpt, Jacobsen reveals some of the wild research that went on in the 1970s at Area 51 -- where the military built the U-2 spy plane, rather than harboring crashed UFOs.

Part of a U-2 spy plane seen in 1955 coming out of a transport airplane at Area 51 -- where the secret craft was designed and perfected. The CIA’s first spy plane was so secret that Air Force pilots transporting it to Area 51 in pieces inside larger airplanes, would fly to a set of coordinates over the Mojave Desert and contact a UHF frequency called Sage Control for orders. Only when the aircraft was a few hundred feet off the ground would runway lights flash on.

"Operation Paperclip" scientists at Fort Bliss, Texas, in 1946. Until 1945, these men worked for Adolf Hitler, but as soon as the war ended these “rare minds” began working for the American military and various intelligence organizations, the details of which remain largely classified. Rocket scientist Wernher von Braun is in the front row, seventh from the right with his hand in his pocket.

Operation Plumbbob

In the summer and fall of 1957, a series of atmospheric nuclear tests — called Operation Plumbbob — were conducted above ground at the Nevada testing and training range, located just outside of Area 51. Twenty-nine explosions were set off while tests were conducted on troop readiness, accidental detonations and the effects of flying debris on living targets, according to documents declassified by the Department of Energy that Jacobsen details in her book.

During the explosions, security officer Richard Mingus stood guard outside many of the weapons-testing sites, including one with the largest atmospheric bomb that has ever exploded in the United States.

"The bomb goes off. Richard Mingus is at ground zero, safe away in a bunker somewhere, and suddenly someone realizes, 'My God, Area 51 is unsecured,' " Jacobsen says. "And so they send Richard Mingus through ground zero, 45 minutes to an hour after this nuclear bomb has exploded, so that he can get to Area 51 to guard the gate."

Mingus survived, as did many other atomic veterans who stood close to ground zero during other Plumbbob tests.

In Area 12 of the Nevada Test Site -- a separate though related nearby military facility --
workmen enter an underground atomic bomb tunnel through its mouth, summer 1957.

"You can absolutely drive through an atmospheric bomb test and not be affected," Jacobsen says. "Richard Mingus also stood guard at a test at a sub parcel of Area 51 ... [during] a dirty bomb test."

During the dirty bomb test, the Department of Defense and the Atomic Energy Commission simulated a plane crash where plutonium was dispersed on the ground, to see what would happen if an aircraft carrying a nuclear weapon were to crash on American soil. The resulting fallout and structural damage made much of the land uninhabitable.

"The area out at Area 51 that was part of the Operation Plumbbob test continues to be contaminated," she says. "It was not cleaned up until the '80s. And at that point, they sent in men in hazmat suits to scrape the land."

Glenn Beck's Favorite Smear Tactic

Call What He Doesn't Like 'Nazi'
The Jewish author makes an argument for the common good -- and Beck calls it 'exactly the kind of talk that led to the death camps in Germany.'
By Simon Greer, AlterNet
June 2, 2010

Editor's Note: Below Simon Greer's op-ed is a hilarious video of comedian Lewis Black's send-up of Glenn Beck's Nazi Tourette Syndrome, and Media Matters' video showing Glenn Beck's hypocrisy over Nazi comparisons.

Last week, Glenn Beck told me I was a bad Jew. And not just any bad Jew. An op-ed I wrote in the Washington Post included, according to Beck, "exactly the kind of talk that led to the death camps in Germany."

So, what kind of talk was I guilty of? What words did I write that, if unchecked, would portend a second Holocaust?

My piece in the Washington Post's On Faith section was written in response to Beck's earlier comments about the role of social justice in houses of worship. After Beck made it clear that people should run from churches whose Web sites mention the words social or economic justice, he said, "make sure your church puts God first and politics and government last."

I responded by noting, among other things, that "to put God first is to put humankind first, and to put humankind first is to put the common good first." It was this sentiment, about the common good, that led Beck to condemn me.

My parents immigrated to the United States from England. They lived through the Nazi threat in London, staying in bomb shelters, and grew up playing in the rubble of bombed-out buildings. Other relatives were killed in the Holocaust. So we are intimately familiar with the dangers of fascism.

But if it's possible, I'd like to move beyond Beck's grotesque Holocaust rhetoric for a minute and turn to another substantive disagreement Beck and I have, not about the causes of Nazism but about the future of America.

On the one hand are those of us, including many in faith communities, who believe that government has a vital role to play in promoting the common good. As I wrote in the initial op-ed, "Government is one way which we care for our neighbors, and tradition tells me to care for my neighbor as I care for myself. Here's what we do for each other as Americans: We grow food, we create jobs, we build homes, pave roads, teach our children, care for our grandparents, secure our neighborhoods. Government makes our country function."

This reasonable sentiment reflects the values system of many Americans. It is true that government in the United States has always had its flaws. Jews and other communities have, at different times, suffered from these flaws. But at its best, government plays a powerful role in providing us with greater freedom, security and opportunity.

And yet, when I and others speak of the common good, to Beck it doesn't conjure up images of a society that makes sure the least of us is not left behind by economic and social forces beyond their control. To Beck, apparently, it conjures up fascism.

Americans are facing very real problems. High unemployment, home foreclosures, state and local budget cuts, and rising personal debt, among many others. This debate about the role of government is proscribing how we respond to these needs. Glenn Beck's theories are both appealingly simple and dangerously simplistic. His rhetoric provides targets for the growing anger in our country, but his commentary offers neither long-term solutions nor short-term relief.

Yet solutions are out there. At Jewish Funds for Justice, we are trying to do our part to partner with private enterprise, charities and yes, the government, to do their part to advance the common good.

We are helping to turn the tide on foreclosures in Boston by working with Boston Community Capital to refinance mortgages and keep people in their homes. We are financing credit-starved small businesses in Louisiana by investing in ASI Federal Credit Union. We are generating bipartisan support for the Homestar bill in Congress, which will create good jobs in the green economy for more than 160,000 Americans, while reducing our energy use and saving Americans money.

In addition to the work we are doing, there are many organizations and millions of people actively engaged in helping to solve the pressing challenges we are facing and who understand the value of a strong and good government.

Americans need solutions like these. Unfortunately, what they are getting from Beck and others are scapegoats and scare tactics.

Given Glenn Beck's self-professed fealty to the wisdom of the Founding Fathers, I thought he might appreciate these words from John Adams: "Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men."

Today, Americans need Adams' government for the common good, to help provide real solutions to challenges we must overcome together. We challenge all of us to seek solutions that ensure America does live up to its promise and that our nation really does work for the common good, and yes, with a common decency.

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From the Daily Show: Lewis Black's hilarious monologue on Beck's "Nazi Tourrette's Syndrome":