Radio Fatherland!!

fascism

The Nazis loved to prime the pump with their rituals to keep the ‘ natives’ hyped up. They had their mass rallies with hundreds  of thousands attending. They had those brown storm trooper and black SS uniforms… the more the merrier. The Russians had ‘ Mother Russia’, so the Germans, being a male dominated autocracy, used the easy to say ‘ Fatherland’ mantra. Goebbels , actually called the Minister of Propaganda, had his hand in all facets of communication that touched the masses. When you are an outright fascist regime you just dictate what you want and don’t want to go out. German radio, THE most important mode of reaching the public, made sure that The Fuehrer was heard over and over. Too bad that the late Rush Limbaugh wasn’t around during the marvelous 1930s to lend his voice over the airwaves. One could almost see ole Rush in a nice black uniform with the red Swastika on his armband popping one of the Fuehrer’s favorite uppers into his mouth.

If some of you reading this are modeled  after Rip Van Winkle and maybe just awoke from a prolonged slumber, you may have missed the festivities. FASCISM  is now alive and well ( for some, not many) in the good old USA. My dear college buddy Jay D, former progressive talk radio host, tells us that it was the rise of talk radio in the 1980s that ushered all this **** in. Limbaugh was perhaps the poster boy for the fascist resurgence ( It has always been with us, just inside the cracks) that bombarded the airwaves. Why was he so important? Well, it wasn’t so much his panache, but rather the fact that his show was syndicated nationwide. Some motorist in Dead End Montana could listen to the far right wing rhetoric along with someone else driving in NYC. Of course, the majority of listeners in both locations would have the radio on in offices and of course their homes. Imagine having an audience of mega millions… all on a daily basis? The masters of this empire just whispered in the talk show host’s ears whatever dribble they wanted the suckers to hear, and off you go. Imagine if the Nazis had such a vehicle for their regime.

Here’s a zinger for you. A few years ago, and surely it will return with vigor, right wing talk radio was trumpeting the need for a ‘ Consumption Tax’ or ‘ Fair Tax’ to replace the federal income tax. So, each time we would purchase most of our consumer items we would get taxed well above the current sales tax rates ( from 0 to 9%, depending on the state you live in). The figure they are proposing will be at least 20% in most cases. Here’s the question: How many gallons of gasoline or toaster ovens or pairs of shoes will the Super Rich buy compared to the rest of us, meaning well over 300 Million of us Americans? In essence,  our poor and working stiff fellow citizens will take it on the chin. Yet, mega millions of my fellow Americans tune into these talk radio and news talk television shows. Factor into that how a network ‘ Star’ like Sean Hannity is in reality a Slumlord! He hides behind  LLC’s and other real estate gobbley gook to shield his identity as an owner, and his eviction rates are higher than most other competitors. This is on top of his approximately $40 Million salary at Fox. And the suckers still tune into his crap each night!

It was most likely right wing talk radio and news talk shows that helped sell the illegal and immoral invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003. The Bush/Cheney Cabal used their minions in media to continue to lie to us about WMDs and AL Qaeda’s connection to Saddam Hussein.{ Of course, many from the Democratic Party cheerleading stations also carried the water for the empire…just not so evident. Ask yourselves this: How many from his own Democratic Party stayed in the chamber to hear the late Sen. Byrd of West Virginia warn of the upcoming pre-emptive attack on Iraq? He stood before a near empty House folks! } Right wing talk radio kept moving along as the dominoes fell in our occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Not one of them ever challenged the game of ‘ Attack, destroy and give contracts to rebuild to your donors’ that the Bush/Cheney gang played with YOUR tax money. The soldiers who died over there in that hornet’s nest were continually called ‘ Our brave and fallen heroes’ by the phony and embedded media, never once disputing the fatal decision to send them there in the first place! Well, this was Vietnam all over again, when we forced our way into a Civil War  and sacrificed 50,000 of our young… for BS!

Right wing talk radio and news talk shows helped put Donald Trump into power. This writer did state at the time that if the Democrats would have run Donald Duck against Donald Trump, they would have won. Hillary Clinton was too stained and too hated by many independents and those in her own party. Once Trump got into office the fascistic forces behind right wing media had a field day getting the public to think that this was a Populist president…( most likely along the lines of Adolf and Il Duce who Trump must have spent hours copying their gestures and postures). As I write, the right wing missile on our republic is intent on keeping us working stiffs caged while their Super Rich ‘Clients’ surpass the Gilded Age in polarizations of income.

It even ( purposely) trickled into professional sports. The salary structure for major professional athletes is outrageously high compared to that of their average fan. (I come from the days when my home team, The Dodgers, saw most of their players holding off season jobs to support their families). This is a twofold orchestration by the Super Rich: A) The more these billionaire owners pay out,  it translates into how much they are making from their teams- These are mostly billionaires. Billion… aires!!: B) It is shrewd  for the billionaire owners to pay higher wages to their players. In pro football 70% of players are black, in the NBA ( National Basketball Association) it is even higher at 74%. Other people of color, Hispanics,  make up 28% of Major League Baseball players. So, the Super Rich give’ The Help’ higher salaries to let all Americans of color see how great they must have it under this wonderful Capitalism.

Someday more of my fellow citizens will ‘ See the Light’ and turn the dial away from Radio Fatherland.

Philip A Farruggio is regular columnist on itstheempirestupid website. He is also frequently posted on Nation of Change and Countercurrents.. He is the son and grandson of Brooklyn NYC longshoremen and a graduate of Brooklyn College, class of 1974. Since the 2000 election debacle Philip has written over 500 columns on the Military Industrial Empire and other facets of life in an upside down America. He is also host of the ‘ It’s the Empire… Stupid ‘ radio show, co produced by Chuck Gregory. Philip can be reached at [email protected].

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