The Conspiracy to keep Americans Poor and Stupid: Why the Shrinking Middle Class better wake up

The prelude of an important Op-Ed

Food for thought:  In a speech made to fellow Japanese lawmakers last Wednesday, Japan's senior lawmaker, Ichiro Ozawa called Americans “simple-minded.”

Is it true that Americans are gullible to the many distractions manufactured by powerful and unseen forces, forces that use highly paid surrogates to manipulate American opinion and behavior? Behavior that implies and highly suggest that America is divided by "them vs. us." "Good vs. Evil." Does the rest of the world view Americans as a people who have a short attention span and an even shorter selective memory? Except when it comes to raging war. If so, then why?

July 27, 2008, Knoxville, Tennessee, Jim D. Adkisson pulls out a .12 gauge shotgun from a guitar case and shoots two parishioners instantly killing them. His reason for the murderous cold-blooded act: "I have a hatred for the liberal movement, as well as hatred for gays and this was a liberal church". Inside Adkisson's house, officers found the books, "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly. The power of persuasion from an already weak-minded conservative?

May 31, 2009, Wichita, Kansas, Scott Roeder assassinates Dr. George Tiller, a physician known for performing late term abortions. His reason for the murderous cold-blooded act: "Dr. Tiller is a murderer". Scott Roeder had been a member of the anti-government Montana Freemen group. He was stopped in Topeka, Kansas, in April 1996 while displaying a placard reading "Sovereign Citizen" in lieu of a license plate. He had no driver's license, vehicle registration or proof of insurance. Police officers searching his car discovered explosives charges, a fuse cord, a pound of gunpowder and nine-volt batteries in the trunk. Roeder was big fan of Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage. The power of persuasion from an already weak-minded conservative?

Chants from the far-right: "Healthcare is bad", "Obama is the Anti-Christ", "Let the auto industry fail", "Obama is a Muslim", "He's not one of us", "We want our country back"....

But not a whimper from the political right on the cost - both in human loss and in loss of treasure - of a bogus war and the "game" Wall Street executives played on President Obama as they racked up billions in bailout money, padding their own screwed up books, raking in millions in bonuses while denying credit to small businesses, oh...and increasing the interest rate on our credit cards.

The Invisible Hand and it's political objectives

The Financiers of Fear and Ignorance:  Rupert Murdoch, David Koch and his brother Charles Koch

At this very moment there is a conspiracy that is being perpetrated against America's rapidly shrinking middle class that is real and very much alive. These "invisible" conspirators who plot the demise of America's poor and middle class are as cunning as jackals "on a hunt", concealing their objectives behind multiple layers of duplicity and lies. In contrast to their dark and insidious game plan, they appear as bright and shiny rays of hope - like sparkling fishing lures - to their many apostles who share the same belief that a Communist / Socialist takeover is currently being orchestrated by not so secret American Manchurian Candidates.

They are masters of chess not checkers. Methodically they move their "pieces on the board" ostensibly two steps ahead of the Obama administration and the American people. Their goal is as radical as any teaching by Marx, Stalin or Mao and they use America's love of religion, and "freedom" as tools to manipulate the masses.

Known to some as active members of the "Invisible Hand", they are the chief financial benefactors of the Tea Party and the overall conservative movement. They are the American billionaires and American emperors of industry that picks up the tab for luxury coaches, meals and other miscellaneous expenses that are associated with transporting tens of thousands of angry and despondent middle class Americans to right-wing demonstrations / rallies across the United States.

Meet the Puppet Masters

Rupert Murdoch is a conservative media mogul - billionaire - well-known throughout the world as being the chief architect of the Fox News media empire. He signs the checks of very well paid conservative pundits who because of the power of television and radio have within a short period of time, become household names all across America. Palin, Beck, Hannity, Cavuto, and O'Reilly, are just some of his surrogates that for nearly twenty four hours a day, delivers bone rattling "body blows" to President Obama, and the Democratic Party. These metaphorical one-two body blows appear at times to make the President look "punch drunk" and uncoordinated in his counter attack against right-wing political attacks. The world knows Rupert Murdoch. But who are the Koch brothers?

Koch Industries, based out of Wichita, Kansas, began with oil exploration and drilling in the 1930s and now manufactures a vast variety of industrial products. From Dixie cups to Lycra, - a synthetic fiber known for its exceptional elasticity - Koch Industries have made the Koch brothers billionaires and like their father, Fred C. Koch, they view the world in ultra conservative "hues."

Fred Koch, a MIT graduate was a founding father of the John Birch Society and was among a select group of ultra conservatives that was chosen to serve on the John Birch Society’s top governing body.

The John Birch Society is an American radical far-right political advocacy group that vehemently supports an anti-communist, limited government, and "personal freedom" political platform, even if accomplishing their objective comes at the expense of wrongfully smearing Americans who stand up for civil rights, labor unions, a diverse America and the limiting of big business' influence in our government and in our lives. It was the John Birch Society that branded American General and President, Dwight D. Eisenhower "an agent of Communism."  Even JFK was accused by the John Birch Society as being a Communist sympathizer and an American traitor. So what's the moral of the JBS story?  The answer.... absolutely no one was / is above their smear campaigns and their modern day "Salem Witch Hunts".

The John Birch society warned in a recorded 1963 speech that still survives on tape in a University of Michigan archive, that Americans must always be on high alert against “a takeover” of America in which Communists would “infiltrate the highest offices of government in the U.S. until the office of the presidency is occupied by a Communist, unknown to the rest of us.” In essence this same speech can be heard at Tea Rallies across America in 2010.

The ultra conservative mantra of "The Communists are out to get you" was sung by the Birch Society in 1958 and fifty years later is still being sung by the Tea Partiers in the 21st century. The John Birch Society and the Tea Party, "two peas in a pod" or is it all just a coincidence?

"Behind the velvet curtains", Koch family foundations have contributed tens of millions of dollars to Dick Armey's "FreedomWorks" which in turn serves as a major sponsor to the Tea Party. Tax records indicate that from 1998 to 2008, Koch-controlled foundations has donated more than $196 million to it's conservative foundations and institutions. With the coupling of free 24/7 media exposure from Rupert Murdoch's Fox News empire and the seemingly endless supply of money from David and Charles Koch, the Koch-Murdoch collaboration is an ultra conservative force that has used talented "actors" to build / prime a political base that is inspired by a fear of an America that doesn't resemble a Norman Rockwell painting.

When David Koch ran to the political right of Reagan as vice president on the 1980 Libertarian ticket, he campaigned for the elimination of Social Security, welfare and federal regulatory agencies. He also campaigned on abolishing the F.B.I., the C.I.A., and public schools.

The Koch philosophy is based on a deep hatred for any government entity that increases their taxes and interferes with their industries' bottom-line / profit. Currently, Koch supported lobbyists and political agents are busy debunking scientists who believe that global warming is responsible for the radical change in our planet's weather patterns. Why all the concern? Koch fossil fuel businesses would stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars should legislation pass that carries penalties for Koch industries culpability in global warming.

Tea Partiers share the Koch-Murdoch hatred of taxes, big government and President Obama. However, because their hatred extends to disassembling fundamental government safety nets that are designed to protect unemployed Americans, improve the safety of American workplaces, and ensure the survival of the old and the infirmed, they as a political entity have unwittingly morphed into a fanatical anti-middle class party that is actually "cutting off their nose in order to spite their face."

The end-game

So, what is the end-game for the Koch-Murdoch collaboration? It's simple, the proliferation of ignorance and hopelessness by tapping into the fears of a large portion of Americans who are out of work, are not feeling the "change" that Obama promised, are fearful that their "brand of Christianity" is being "pushed aside" for a radical atheist / Muslim agenda and are fearful of a brown-skinned president with a "threatening" last name. Jim Adkisson and Scott Roeder are living examples of what manufactured fear will do to an already unstable mind.

Additionally, the political savaging of our country's middle class by pundits and politicians who line their pockets with money from the Koch-Murdoch "project" is indeed criminal as America's middle class continues to suffer because of politics played by the "Party of No."

By standing against - voting against - any legislation that would help America's middle class and elderly, conservatives are relying on conservative think tanks - funded by the Kochs and Murdoch - to counter their repetitive "no" stance, by manufacturing old but still effective conservative "talking points" that paints President Obama and the Democrats as being "the bad guys" who want to destroy American "Freedoms". Truth be damned! The mid-term elections are near and we all better wake up before it's too late.

So, let's forget that the Republicans have no real new ideas on how to jump start the economy, let's forget that under GH's and Cheney's (Republicans) administration our nation's surplus turned into a major deficit, let's forget that the deregulation of Banks and oil companies have crippled our nation's economy, let's forget that GH's and Cheney's Iraq War was a complete waste of life and created our indebtedness to Communist China, let's forget that a Republican congressman apologized to BP for the President's deal with BP that created a $20 billion escrow account that helped unemployed victims of the largest oil spill in American history. There are too many "let's forget" scenarios to continue this sad tale of reverse psychology.

Are we now to believe that Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck have both received a religious epiphany from God and are the new standard bearers of Christianity and morals? Beck's and Palin's address before a hundred plus thousand middle class conservatives this past weekend in Washington, D.C. only proves that the Koch-Murdoch machine is in fifth gear and is busy proving the not-so-nice idiom that a sucker is born every minute.

Middle Class Americans, Democrats and Independents, unless you're ready for a brand of conservatism that abolishes our nation's public school system, social security, Medicare, Medicaid and regulations that protect Americans at work, you'd better wake up and understand how components of the "Invisible Hand" are making fools out of a lot of people. Hell, you know it's bad when a Japanese lawmaker calls us "simple minded." And I assure you that the "simple minded" statement is not taken out of context.

Until next time Louisianans, Good Day, God Bless and Good Fishing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/opinion/29rich.html?_r=1&hp

http://http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/0825/japan-senior-lawmaker-americans-simpleminded/