The Communists Took Over in 1934. Too Bad You Missed It.

Right wing emails have a tendency to be overdramatic.  Usually, any idea that doesn't fit within extreme right-wing dogma is decried as a step toward socialism.

This email took it a step further.

Obama must have seen this and is taking it literally.
FYI THIS IS ALSO VERY SCARY!!! Sound familiar??!!
Cartoon from 1934       
 
This cartoon was in the Chicago Tribune in 1934. Look carefully at the 'Plan of Action' in the lower left corner.

"Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it."

The date on the lower right corner is probably from a reprint.  But, yes, during the days of the new deal, many folks were declaring that government spending and new social programs would end life in the United States as we know it.

Let's see how accurate these predictions were.

Money spent on recovery - check.  Plenty of "make work" programs were created.

Government bankrupted - Nope.  Still had money to fight World War II, which was even more expensive than any "recovery" spending.

Constitution junked - Nope.  It's still there, and still the law of the land.

Dictatorship declared - Nope.  As of this writing, the government is still arguing about the debt ceiling.  There is definitely no dictator in charge.

We've joined the Soviet Republic - Oh, wait.  They aren't even around anymore.

Seems to me that if you're going to be a "chicken little", you wouldn't want to point out how wrong you've been before.

Lee Iacocca's Zombie speaks - before he's even dead.

This article seemed pretty interesting.

As some of you might know, Lee Iacocca was a former CEO of Chrysler.  Back in 1979.

In that year, Chrysler was doing very badly, and came to the US government for loan guarantees.

The Republican Party fought against it.  But, in 1979, the Democrats held the majority in the House and Senate.  And President Carter was in office.  So, it passed over Republican objections.

Popular opinion holds that he's been a life-long Democrat since.  Which isn't entirely true - but members of the Democrat party have attempted to draft him to run for president.  As a Democrat. 

Which is why this email surprised me.

Friends, would you believe that Lee Iacocca is 82 years old and is still kickin’ butt?  Check out his latest rant.
Just as true today as it was when his book  first came  out.
He was, and still is, a  brilliant businessman!
Often we need to be  reminded of Iacocca's  words.
  Remember Lee  Iacocca, the man who rescued Chrysler Corporation from its death  throes?  He's now 82 years old and has a new book, 'Where  Have All The Leaders  Gone?'. 

Lee Iacocca  Says:'Am I the only  guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where  the hell is our outrage with this so called president? We should  be screaming bloody murder! We've got a gang of tax cheating  clueless leftists trying to steer our ship of state right over a  cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we  can't even run a ridiculous cash-for-clunkers program without  losing $26 billion of the taxpayers' money, much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and  nods their heads when the politicians say, 'trust me, the economy  is getting  better..' Better? You've  got to be kidding. This is America , not the damned 'Titanic'.  I'll give you a sound bite: 'Throw all the Democrats out, along  with Obama!' 

You might think  I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I  have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this  country  anymore..

The most famous  business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs.. While we're fiddling in Afghanistan , Iran is  completing their nuclear bombs and missiles and nobody seems to  know what to do. And the liberal press is waving 'pom-poms'  instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of the  ' America ' my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for.  I've had enough. How about  you? 

I'll go a step  further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not  outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have. The  Biggest 'C' is Crisis! (Iacocca elaborates on nine C's of leadership, with crisis being the  first.)

Leaders are  made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It's  easy to sit there with thumb up your butt and talk theory. Or  send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a  battlefield yourself. It's another thing to lead when your world  comes tumbling  down.

On September 11,  2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our  history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. A  hell of a mess, so here's where we stand. 

We're immersed  in a bloody war now with no plan for winning and no plan for  leaving..  But our soldiers are dying  daily.

We're running  the biggest deficit in the history of the world, and it's  getting worse every day!

We've lost the  manufacturing edge to Asia , while our once-great companies are  getting slaughtered by health care  costs.

Gas prices are  going to skyrock again, and nobody in power has a lucid plan to  open drilling to solve the problem.  This country has the  largest oil reserves in the WORLD, and we cannot drill for it  because the politicians have been bought by the flea-hugging  environmentalists.

Our schools  are in a complete disaster because of the teachers'  union. 

Our borders are  like sieves and they want to give all illegal's amnesty and free  healthcare. 

The middle class  is being squeezed to death every  day. 

These are times  that cry out for  leadership.

But when you  look around, you've got to ask: 'Where have all the leaders  gone?' 

Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are  the people of character, courage, conviction, omnipotence, and  common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think  you get the  point..

Name me a leader  who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take  off our shoes in airports and throw away our  shampoo? 

We've spent  billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we  know how to do is react to things that have already  happened.

Everyone's  hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping the government will make  it better for them.  Now, that's just crazy.. Deal with  life.

Name me an  industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can  restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have  believed that there could ever be a time when 'The Big Three'  referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and  more important, look what Obama did about  it!

Name me a  government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the  debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care  problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that  are eating away at our country and milking the middle class  dry.

I have news for  the Chicago gangsters in Congress. We didn't elect you to turn  this country into a losing European Socialist state. What is  everybody so afraid of? That some bonehead on NBC or CNN news  will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show  some spine for a  change?

Had Enough? Hey,  I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here.  I'm  trying to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope - I  believe in America .. In my lifetime, I've had the privilege of  living through some of     America 's greatest moments.  I've also experienced some of our worst crises: The 'Great  Depression,' 'World War  II,' the 'Korean War,' the  'Kennedy Assassination,' the 'Vietnam War,' the 1970's oil  crisis, and the struggles of recent years since  9/11. 

Make your own  contribution by sending this to everyone you know and care  about. It's our country, folks, and it's our future. Our future  is at  stake!!

Now, it's time to apply some math skills.  Because we know that most right-wing email forwarders are incapable of this.

This email claims that Lee Iacocca is 82 years old.

Lee Iacocca's birthday is October 15, 1924.  So he's 86 years old now.  Which means that the original text of this email (before it got serially edited by right-wing hacks) was written 4 years ago.

This is before President Obama was elected.  Or even taken seriously as a presidential candidate.  And way before anyone would have dreamed of "cash for clunkers", or the financial collapse and/or stimulus programs.

So, what happened here?

Turns out, Snopes has a copy of the original email.

And, as you'd predict, it was quite a stinging rebuke of the George W. Bush administration.

I guess that some right-wing email creators can't wait for a guy to die before rewriting the history of his life and his quotations.  Sad, really.

Keep Manufacturing Quotes - We May Win in Vietnam!

Here's another email:

"The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis"
Dante Alighieri
 
WE NO LONGER TAKE THE TIME TO KNOW OUR ENEMY; HOWEVER, FOR A LONG TIME OUR ENEMIES HAVE TAKEN THE TIME TO KNOW US!  THIS SAME TACTIC IS BEING APPLIED TODAY
A REMINDER FROM HISTORY!


General Vo Nguyen Giap


General Giap was a brilliant, highly respected leader of the North Vietnam military. The following quote is from his memoirs currently found in the Vietnam war memorial in Hanoi:


'What we still don't understand is why you Americans stopped the bombing of Hanoi . You had us on the ropes.  If you had pressed us a little harder, just for another day or two,we were ready to surrender!  It was the same at the battle of TET.  You defeated us!


We knew it, and we thought you knew it. 


But we were elated to notice your media was helping us.


They were causing more disruption in America than we could in the battlefields.


We were ready to surrender. You had won!'


General Giap has published his memoirs and confirmed what most Americans knew.


The Vietnam War was not lost in Vietnam -- it was lost at home. The same slippery slope, sponsored by the US media, is currently underway. It exposes the enormous power of a Biased Media to cut out the heart and will of the American public.


A truism worthy of note: ... Do not fear the enemy, for they can take only your life. Fear the media, for they will destroy your honor.

Even at first glance, this email strains credibility.

Let's say that this quote IS from General Giap's memoirs.  (More on that later.)  Most of the time, memoirs are written in one's own native tongue.  Yet, it quotes the phrases, "on the ropes", and "pressed us a little harder".  These are thoroughly Western phrases - I doubt they'd make much sense to most Vietnamese.

But supposedly, they're published in his memoirs, lovingly kept in the Vietnam war memorial in Hanoi.  Let's take a look at the expansive collections of this memorial:

It's a memorial, sure.  But any research would reveal there's no room for a library here.

Okay.  Maybe someone took some liberties in translating these memoirs for Western audiences.  And maybe the author of this email got a little confused when he tried to remember where he actually read this.  Are there actually a set of memoirs where he might have said something remotely similar?

Well, according to the historian Edward Moise, he's never published any memoirs.

I'm calling this quote 100% bogus.

Oh, and if you were wondering...  My dad enlisted in the National Guard in order to avoid the Vietnam war draft.

Help! It's The Right-Wing Thomas Jefferson Zombie!

One rhetorical tool that's always annoyed me has been the quotation of "founding fathers".  It seems that, these days, when anyone wants to make a political point, they pick up a book of quotations, find a quote from a founding father that remotely connects to the point they're trying to make, and let it fly.

That way, when someone argues against the point, they look unpatriotic.  After all, who can argue with a founding father?

Well, most people can.  The fact is, the founding fathers often disagreed with one another.  And often said things that, in retrosepect, seem downright wrongheaded.

The founding fathers were only human.  Most of them realized it.  Their genius was not in their individual quotations.  It is the fact that they built consensus around a system of government that, for the most part, allowed differences among the people to be settled without resorting to shooting one another.  Or by dictators enforcing peace by repressing the people.  It really is a remarkable thing.

So, why did I digress into this?

Well, my father's sent me a bunch of quotes from Thomas Jefferson.  It turns out he was quite a right-wing posterchild.

Until you check and see if Thomas Jefferson actually said them.  I've taken the liberty (ahem) of using posts from the Thomas Jefferson Library to check our facts.  I figure that real historians will be pretty impartial on whether a quote is real, or from a Right-Wing Thomas Jefferson Zombie.

Ready?  Away we go...

A founding father's wisdom,  still appropriate today.................especially today!


How did Jefferson know?
John F. Kennedy held a dinner in the white House for a group of the brightest minds in the nation at that time. He made this statement: "This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

This was quoted correctly.

Especially read the last quote from 1802.

Spoiler:  He said it in 1937.  After calling for another heapin' helpin' of brains.

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe .
Thomas Jefferson

The full quote is, "I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe."

So, is our zombie friend suggesting we give up high technology, and live on the land?  If so, will he give up on forwarding viral email?

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
Thomas Jefferson

The first time this quote was attributed to Thomas Jefferson was in 1986.  Well after his zombiefication.

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
Thomas Jefferson

He actually said this, in a letter to Destutt de Tracy.  It does make sense.  I wish people from both sides of the aisle would follow it.  But, still, I wonder whether Jefferson would want quotes from his personal letters treated as divine scripture.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson

The Jefferson-Zombie has changed the words a little bit, from a letter to Thomas Cooper.   But even Thomas Jefferson scholars had trouble finding it.  This was not a major publication.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Thomas Jefferson

0% Thomas Jefferson.  100% Jefferson-Zombie.

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
Thomas Jefferson

This was in Jefferson's first draft of the Virginia constitution.  There were two other drafts.  None of 'em made it in.  Such is the nature of democracy.  We debate ideas - we don't deify them.

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
Thomas Jefferson

Zombie-Jefferson strikes again - the real Thomas Jefferson never said it.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Thomas Jefferson

A famous quote.  Not meant as a governing principle though.  Obviously.

To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
Thomas Jefferson

Uh, oh.  There's some bad juju here.  He used some similar wording in the "Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom".  In which it was stated that the government could not compel it's citizens to donate to a church, or ministry.  So, a statement for the separation of church and state is now a statement that no one should give tax money to things they don't like?  Sorry - he never said that.  And I can't imagine how such a government would function.

Thomas  Jefferson said in 1802:
'I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property - until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.'

Perhaps, they meant "Zombie-Jefferson was first quoted in 1937 as saying"?  Come on folks, the concepts of inflation and deflation didn't exist in Jefferson's time.

I WISH WE COULD GET THIS OUT TO EVERYONE!!!
I'll do my part!

I did mine.   I'd like to think that I'm respecting the beliefs of the founding fathers.  At least, more than the folks who make up self-serving quotes under their name.