Pure Gold

Gregory Easton is a homophobic, Religious-Right blogger who graduated from Bob Jones University. His blog was/is the Hidalgo Grain Company. Although he has been critical of BJU (he was expelled once, apparently, and went back... I didn't even know you could do that), he is simultaneously fiercely loyal to the institution, particularly in the face of recent (multiple) controversies. Easton sees the "disaffecteds" as causing all the trouble.

In response, Easton has repeatedly implied that certain of the "disaffecteds" are gay (by name too), has insultingly-photo-shopped pictures stolen from the LGBT-BJU website, has even accused Camille Lewis and her husband of attempting to "take over" BJU from North Greenville College (!), which is an utterly bizarre and outrageous claim. He even posted photos of Camille's children. He is an internet-bully, and has bullied a lot of people. His modus operandi is to take copyrighted material and creatively-photoshop it, apparently unaware that this is illegal and a copyright violation. (There is a notice on my website, lower right corner, instructing readers that my material is copyrighted.) This has been going on a good while now. I had never commented on this bully, and felt delinquent in not doing so. Camille is a friend, and I felt I had not defended her as well as I should have.

Saturday, I posted about BJU, and in passing made this remark:

... as a certain Hidalgo Grain Company person specializes in: endless pissed-off yammerings and then howlings of persecution when those yammerings are taken seriously. This seems to be the general pattern.

I pointedly did not link his blog, as you notice. I did NOT want Easton to come over to my blog, and linking him would have alerted him and sent him over. So I deliberately DID NOT.

Apparently, Easton is the kind of person who continuously Googles himself, and he found the reference within the hour.

This one sentence from me rated a 1000-word blog post from Easton, blasting me as insane, complete with stolen photos, photoshopped to say things I do not agree with, and one making me cross-eyed (although Easton is 51 years old, he appears to have some arrested development, like most bullies). He trashed the radio station I am on, said it only had 500 watts. Etc. When I politely asked him to take down the copyrighted material, he laughed at me and told me I was "pure gold"... Thus, we have the title of this post. (I sure am!)

We went back and forth on his blog, and he threatened me with legal action for something I said, now forgotten. His "legal department" counsels him that blah blah blah (I guess his legal dept thinks stealing photos is A-Okay though). I replied here, instead of there:

I got biker friends in Pensacola. One of them said he would like to pay you a visit. [Here I named the two streets listed for Gregory Easton on the Pensacola White Pages website and asked which one was his.] Well, I guess he can check out both locations. I see you lived at Pebble Creek Apts when you lived here in the Greenville area (Taylors). Small world, I have biker friends there, too! In fact, I have biker friends most everywhere, since I was once married to one.

My biker friend in Pensacola needs some serious witnessing (I think he might be a satanist or something crazy like that, you know how Deadheads are all over the lot! Even Ann Coulter is one!)... so please be nicer to him, than you were to me, okay?

Could you clarify the street address so he doesn't have to go to both places? Get out your Bible, Greg... I think you are going to need it.

Although this was intended as humorous and as a reply to his various threats of lawyers to make me go away (or at least as humorous as Greg threatening to out the gay students), I forgot that the word "biker" causes "the citizens" to freak (shades of Roger Corman's The Wild Angels!)... this was the comment that started the massive Facebook hyperventilating.

Next thing you know, a commenter named "Ex-Calvinist" who came over directly from Greg's site (he is also associated with a GLBT group that I am friends with on Facebook, but I do not know his real name or what the nature of his association with them is) and leaves this message (controversial info redacted):

Daisy, Calvinists don't believe in witnessing. Predestination allows them to be smug in the Gospel. If you don't agree with them, then you're not predestined so they don't have to worry about you. Heresy but much easier for everyone.

Greg is doing this for blog hits and I thought you should know. Don't link him, though. That only encourages a sociopath.

Hi Greg! I'm an ex-old friend. You treated me like shit. Like you do [wife and kids named here, redacted] and everyone else in your life. So now we're ex-friends. {You mostly have ex-friends, which is why you aren't on Facebook. Nobody would friend you.} Daisy needs to know what kind of Bobber freak is harassing her this time.

I was shipped and stayed shipped. I didn't go crawling back to BJU on my belly begging for more abuse, like some masochists with no principles do. Remember now? You ratted me out to save your own ass, scumbag motherfucker.

If I ever get my hands on you, snitch asswipe, you'll wish you met Daisy's biker instead.

Daisy, Greg and [spouse] live at [redacted] in Pensacola, Florida. She is a teacher and works at [redacted] school. There are apartment buildings across the street from them, so your friend should be able to park there and observe the house without anyone noticing.

Say howdy to Greg and [wife] for me.

Me:

Ex-C, hope you don't mind that I took out the school name? If it was GREG that taught there, I would leave it in, but I have nothing against the misses. At least, not yet!

Thank you for the info. Looked it up on Google Street view--nice house, close to the ocean! Another rich kid (even if he is 51, he is obviously still a kid), playing games and getting in way over his head. Despite his "free speech" bullshit protestations, he has banned me and even Gregg, my consigliere.

Stalk and then ban, that is the pattern with these perverts.

Ex-Calvinist:

Daisy, not a problem. I'm just providing information.

I want Greg to sweat the way his snitching made others sweat. He has no conscience or loyalty at all. Everything he has or has done is at the expense of someone else. If his wife didn't have a decent job, he couldn't even support himself. He's earned nothing on his own.

Be proud a BJU robot loser attacked you. It means you're doing the right thing.

I thought I was being such a nice girl, politely taking out the name of the school where Mrs Easton teaches, but everyone wanted Easton's address redacted also. As regular readers know, I grew up with a bully and I do not like to be bullied. (After all, this information is easily found on the internet to anyone who does a search of Easton's name and locale, as Ex-Calvinist obviously has.) But here is the punch line.

Greg Easton has REMOVED HIS ENTIRE BLOG.

The. Whole. Thing.

Do you remember what I wrote? How he pick fights and then howls? This is the best example of the BJU-modus operandi I have ever seen. He claims he is now terrified for his innocent family (shades of Tom Laughlin's Born Losers!) All hell has broken loose, as BJU people demand I take down his address. They didn't care about Easton's continuous gay-baiting, which could have cost someone a job (or their life), just like they didn't care what happened to Camille, you understand... they care about GREG EASTON.

I am also being threatened with suspension from my radio show for this incident, since one of them went and (of course) snitched. Snitching is a way of life over there. As I have written here before, it was a BJU-gal picking a fight with me on the job, and then crying and wailing to the boss when I got mad and read her the riot act, that once cost me a job. That is the pattern: start a fight, create anguish, then howl when there are direct consequences to your despicable actions. Over and over and over. And here in upstate SC, they are allowed to continue this, as they would not be allowed in a larger and more diverse city or location.

Adding to the murderous atmosphere for GLBT people here in the south is not a harmless activity. And yet, nobody at BJU thinks there is anything wrong with that. Many participated on Greg Easton's proudly-homophobic blog with aplomb.

Since his blog is gone, so is our subsequent conversation over his nasty photo-shopping of my image... I asked him to "witness" the Gospel to me, and he refused. My biker comments were made in that vein, that I am sending a biker over to his house for him to witness to. Now he is howling that I am "threatening his life". Oh boy. He certainly didn't seem to care when BJU-apologists put up a Facebook page threatening MY life. (Now, I wonder why that is?)

The Borg has now contacted WFIS to get my radio show suspended. They play as dirty as I do... they just don't admit it, and I do.

I might redact Easton's street address, but Greg Easton assures us that his blog is intact, just invisible... so I hate to take down the protective force-field that has made him go away. He will undoubtedly go back to stealing people's photos for more photo-shop fun, as well as the usual hate speech and outings.

What's a mother to do?

Haven't decided. But as I have said to readers over and over: this is the power of Bob Jones University. Their tentacles reach everywhere in upstate SC. I knew I was going to PAY, and PAY DEARLY, when I took them on in the first place. This is the way they play it.

~*~

For the record: My legal name and address, the names of my family, places I have worked, et. al... all of this is right here on this blog, if you know where to find it. Thing is, you don't. All of this information is tucked away in five years of blog-comments. There are the names, addresses and IPs of at least three different trolls I have outed, who have stalked me here. (one includes his work address) There are references to private conversations, sexual activities, personal failings, etc etc etc from people who I wish had not written those things about me. But I left it up. There are criticisms of me, calling me all kinds of names. I left it up.

In sum, there are all manner of brawls in blog comments on this site, not readily available unless you know exactly where to look. (And even I forget where these particular comments are, when I sometimes go to look for them myself!)

And it would have been the same for Greg Easton's info... it would fade away into the overall detritus of the blog. Nobody would be able to find it, unless they knew exactly where to look. (In fact, this was also Easton's excuse when people asked HIM to delete his copious and constant photo-shopping.) I did not even link his blog in my post, he linked mine in his. HE IS THE ONE WHO HAS DRAWN ALL THIS ADDITIONAL ATTENTION TO THIS POST AND IN DOING SO, PUT HIS OWN INFO ON THE MAP. I think this is so he can be all melodramatic and play the victim. I do not for one minute believe that he is afraid for his family or any other fairy tale. I think his wife was contacted and SHE finally put her foot down. (A little birdie told me.) THAT is why the blog is finally gone.

As I said in the original post, and I now repeat: As a certain Hidalgo Grain Company person specializes in: endless pissed-off yammerings and then howlings of persecution when those yammerings are taken seriously. This seems to be the general pattern.

And as we see, I was 100% correct. You do not steal from people, post pictures of their kids and accuse Christian students (who have a lot to lose) of being gay, and then howl in moral indignation when they fight back. Well, you can, but expect people to challenge your double standards.

I realize the cult fully approves of this behavior (since they participated on Easton's blog, as I said), but the world at large DOES NOT.

In the meantime, I am thinking of adding a section to the blog, with approving reviews/quotes. "Interesting."--Noam Chomsky (yes, he really did say that to me) and "Pure Gold"--Greg Easton. Then he will be immortalized here forever.

Whaddaya think?

~*~

EDIT #1, 6/5/12: After much discussion, Ex-Calvinist has given me permission to strike his comment. I decided to do this since Greg Easton has threatened me and WFIS with legal action. I really hate to give into bullies, but sometimes, they have the bigger guns, the deepest pockets and the most artillery.

Thus, the comments at the original post will now link to this post.

EDIT #2, 6/9/12: No radio suspension is imminent, so I have edited this post to remove my various ditherings over the possibility, at the request of several interested parties. The rest of the post is intact.

Stay tuned, sports fans.

EDIT #3, 7/23/12: Greg Easton's blog is back up and intact, as the BJU-watchers assured me it would be. For all his high-pitched hysteria, it seems it was all a huge fake-out; a fundamentalist victim-act, as I knew it was. All the people who got SO angry with me for harming poor wittle Greg, have not apologized to me for defending this two-bit, ridiculous fake/hysteric/liar/charlatan. I am waiting though, and I am keeping a list.

Irish Alzheimers: you forget everything but the grudges.

Fascism update

Our Occupy film series continues. Last night we saw the documentary COINTELPRO 101, which was pretty alarming stuff, even if you already know about a good deal about Cointelpro, as I do.

The extremely well-coordinated mowing-down of Occupy encampments, is especially chilling in light of the film.

As if the Patriot Act wasn't bad enough, fascists are now trying to outlaw picketing. The Bill of Rights is being flushed down the toilet. (The Bank of America doesn't like it, so it's history.)

Once upon a time in America, we can tell our grandchildren, there used to be this great thing called Free Speech.

~*~

As I stated in January, my talented consigliere, Gregg, was ticketed for carrying a sign that was "too big"--according to some arcane local ordinance. This will be at least a $135 fine, possibly more. He has asked for a jury trial.

Soon after this event, this blog comment is addressed to me:

Political signs are every bit as much a fashion accessory as a pair of cute shoes. Both get appreciated by people with similar taste (and either mocked or ignored by everyone else). There the similarity ends, however, because my cute shoes actually serve a functional purpose.

--and of course, as someone who has been physically threatened for carrying signs, I was completely dumbfounded by this comment. (I still am.) When was the last time she was fined for wearing cute shoes?

Once again, we are back to the disconnect I have described so many times... the (pseudo-radical) big-city kids not understanding (or caring) what it's like here at Tea Party Ground Zero.

And I don't know why they don't. Surely they realize that there IS a Ground Zero, somewhere? Well, this is IT. I live here. My incontrovertible proof is that this is Jim DeMint's old congressional district. This is where he got his start, before moving onto the Senate. Doesn't that tell you something? This is the home of Bob Jones University, which still requires chaperones and calf-length skirts, and disallows TV and movies for their students. Downstate is the annoying Congressman Joe Wilson, famous for yelling "You lie!" during the 2009 State of the Union address. Rick Santorum's campaign-manager described Greenville County as the most conservative county in the USA. I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

When some spoiled, lucky Yankee announces, oh, signs just are a fashion accessory, I would like to challenge them to come here and hold one for just one hour on Main Street. I'd love to see them break into tears.

But I think it's interesting that sign-carrying is going to be outlawed, just as the trendy kids have decided it means nothing. What a coincidence!

They talk the kids into being embarrassed by sign-carrying, so when it is finally outlawed, they will dutifully shrug. The mass media has done its job admirably, and the mass-media junkies nod in zombie-like unison.

"Sign-carrying is uncool!"--they bleat on cue. And now, there will be a law proclaiming so.

Ideas have consequences.

SAVE THE INTERNET!

The SOPA hearings are today, and of course you all are writing and emailing and calling your government representatives to let them know that YOU READ BLOGS and BLOGS ARE UNDER ATTACK! SAVE THE BLOGGERS! THIS IS HORRIBLE! Free speech is under attack by corporations.

I can't say it any clearer than that. Please help.

SOPA is the Stop Internet Piracy Act introduced in Congress. This will keep people like me and you from reproducing forgotten 70s songs or peace symbols or movie reviews or (ahhhh, here it is) political criticism on our blogs. Here is the Judiciary Committee description, from the horse's mouth, so to speak:

The purpose of this legislative hearing is to examine issues that relate to H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act, which was introduced October 26, 2011. The Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261) builds on the Pro IP Act of 2008 and the Senate’s Protect IP Act introduced earlier this year. The bill modernizes our criminal and civil statutes to meet new IP enforcement challenges and protect American jobs. The proposal reflects a bipartisan and bicameral commitment toward ensuring that law enforcement and job creators have the necessary tools to protect American intellectual property from counterfeiting and piracy

...

Twenty-one Members have joined House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), Ranking Member John Conyers (D-Mich.), IP Subcommittee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) in sponsoring the bill. Additional information about the bill can be found on the House Judiciary Committee website here.

And check out that list of corporate sponsors. Is that the 1% or what? When I see BigPharma, I know what side my bread is buttered on, as my grandma used to say.

You can't criticize something if you can't directly quote it. And of course, this is primarily what is intended, despite the okey-doke from the mega-rich supporters of this bill. In fact, my quote above is an example of exactly what could be legally blocked: Quoting the powerful at length (and possibly even linking).

Ironically, something bloggers invented to make SURE we got it right, that we were using people's actual words, the veritable lingua franca of the internet, would be seriously curtailed or even abolished. In practice, big blogs with lawyers and money (HuffPo, DailyKos, etc) would probably be allowed to continue, but small blogs like mine? Badly harmed, and possibly blocked for good. Needless to say, small blogs are mostly local. My blog is possibly the only left-wing blog in upstate South Carolina, surely the only one that has been around for years. (Do the words "sitting duck" mean anything to you?)


At left: The late Ben Masel, free speech activist and Yippie extraordinaire, who would have been in Washington today, if he'd heard about this. (We miss you, man.)



Email your Senator and Congressperson NOW. I just emailed Senator Lindsey Graham (regarding the related IP law introduced in the Senate) and got this predictable, canned response:

Thank you for taking the time to contact me. I appreciate the opportunity to hear from you.

In spite of the high volume of mail I receive daily, I look forward to reviewing your correspondence and providing a personal response as soon as possible.

As we continue our work in the 112th Congress, I look forward to supporting our troops in the War on Terror, repairing our economy and creating jobs, strengthening Social Security, lowering the tax burden on American families, and making the federal government more accountable and efficient.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if I may be of further assistance to you or your family, and if you need immediate assistance, please call my office at 202-224-5972. If your correspondence pertains to a scheduling request, please fax your request to (202) 224-3808.

Sincerely,

Lindsey Graham

So helpful, as always.

Or maybe he wants us shut down too. I can certainly see why. ;)

Other blogs participating include Boing Boing (who tipped us all off! They deserve a medal!), Daily Kos, Feminist Critics (HI BALLGAME!), Tech dirt (who point out that sports bloggers will be particularly harmed), Huffington Post, Law Librarian Blog, threat post, DO THE WINDY THING, Blogowogo, Electronic Frontier Foundation, AVAAZ.org (sign their petition), Kittywampus, Fight for the Future, and many more. You should read them all.

Ballgame also links this gem: Lying on the Internet could soon be a federal crime. Good Lord, I think THAT could shut the whole internet down good and proper, wouldn't it? Will it include politicians? Entertainers who claim their product is good, when it's shit? Wait, will OPINIONS be judged true or false too? I see this going down scary Orwellian paths.

And I reserve the right to lie about my weight online! They CAN'T TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME!!!

Occupy movement under attack by the Usual Suspects

Photo from our demonstration last night, Occupy the Debate! at the Republican debate in Spartanburg.




Not a single Wall Street thief has been tried for treason for destroying the country's economy. The millions of pensions stolen from old people, are gone. The old people were not bailed out, but the thieves were. When the thieves are tried for outright theft, they are (example) given five years for stealing $278 million. I've known people given stiffer sentences for stealing used cars.

In fact, Herman Cain declares that if people are poor, it is their own fault. He certainly doesn't want any of his rich cronies held accountable. He needs to keep that Koch Brothers money coming in, above all.

And now, I see attacks on the Occupy movement nationwide. Hundreds of arrests, and yet, none of the troublemakers who STARTED this movement, the Wall Street thieves, has faced any jail time. There are no riot police invading Goldman Sachs. Why not? Why are the thieves allowed to continue their business and their luxurious lives, after stealing from us? Oh, right, the theft was declared legal. So that makes it okay, and the police force exists to protect the rich.

I just watched a CNN "news report" about how the police are cracking down on Occupy Portland (Oregon) for a variety of bullshit reasons. The high-tech riot gear I saw those scores of cops decked out in (many of them laughing raucously, so eager are they to crack heads), cost lots more money than the Occupation could EVER cost. This crackdown, this overtime being paid on a Sunday, is costing the city of Portland plenty, but for some reason, those costs never get added in to the "costs of the occupation." After all, that might convince taxpayers that "cracking down" is not really worth it--and it is public money that pays police to dress up in their hyper-expensive, Batman-esque riot get-ups.

During the CNN report, a bunch of government flunkies spoke without interruption, and finally, they deigned to talk to an Occupier. It is notable that the newsreader did not interrupt the flunkies, but was very polite and even let one of them go on for about 5-10 minutes. The Occupier? Did not get even one minute without interruption. He interrupted her (I counted) about a half-dozen times. Then he cut her off and thanked her and moved on.

This is what passes for "objective" news coverage of the Occupy movement.

The Constitution says clearly, that people have the right to freedom of speech and PEACEABLE ASSEMBLY. That means what it says. It doesn't say, "except overnight" or "except in a public park"--no exceptions are delineated. The government is rewriting the constitution, the way they rewrote it for the Civil Rights movement. Just as they invented the right to turn fire hoses on children, they have now invented the right to clear out encampments because there might be a few rats. MY GOD, they are CAMPING ILLEGALLY! Bring in the riot police.

Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for the trials of the Goldman Sachs thieves. I think I'll be waiting quite a long time for that. Instead, they arrest someone giving a speech detailing their crimes, outside their corporate headquarters. Incredible, like something you used to read about the Soviet Union.

As Sinclair Lewis famously said, when fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross. And backed up with riot police, decked out in nothing but the fanciest, best gear. Paid for by us.

Iraq war veteran's skull cracked at Oakland Occupy

Scott Olsen, Oakland Occupier and member of the advocacy group for veterans Iraq Veterans Against the War, is now in critical condition.


I hope Fox News and other conservatives who encouraged the violence, are happy about that. They kept banging the drum for police intervention and bloodshed, and now the blood is flowing, just what they enjoy most.

Relating a message from OccupyMARINES:

We at OccupyMARINES are asking ALL Occupy Wall Street members AND supporters to flood the Corporate media with pictures, videos, and personal stories of how troubling, disturbing, and WRONG the actions of the Oakland Police Department under the orders of the City of Oakland California Mayor Jean Quan, were in the violent attempts to disperse peaceful protesters at Occupy Oakland on October 25th, 2011. We ask that you ESPECIALLY mention how horrifying it is that an Iraq Marine Veteran was seriously injured and taken to the hospital with a skull fracture from a police projectile. This is your revolution, this is your fight, this is your mission, WE ARE THE 99% - TAKE UP YOUR ARMS - KEEP PUSHING FORWARD! - NO ONE GETS LEFT BEHIND!

OccupyMARINES

~*~

I think this shows us that patriotism will not help us, when the authorities decide to clear the area. For all the blather that they care about the veterans, they certainly don't care about injuring one.

This is what the words of the government are worth, people. PAY ATTENTION.

This is how they will repay you for fighting in their filthy wars. PAY ATTENTION.

This is what they really think of veterans: you are cannon fodder. They will get rid of you as quickly as any of us.

This is what freedom of speech has come to in the USA: A sham.

I remember Karl Marx called the American system, "The Democratic Sham"... yes, we have come to the point where we are quoting Marx.

Apparently, as in so much else, he was right about that.

~*~

Links regarding the brutal attack on Occupy Oakland and Occupiers nationwide:

Cities crack down on Occupiers (New York Times)

Occupy Oakland livestream (hope you have better luck with it than I have)

Occupy Oakland: Iraq war veteran in critical condition after police clashes (Guardian UK)

New York City Live Stream-- apparently this showed some action earlier, but now just shows traffic. I guess when hoopla starts, they switch to lower Manhattan. (beware annoying, periodic feedback)

Chemical Bomb tossed into Occupy Portland (Maine) encampment (Portland Press Herald)

Occupy Oakland: Did police use flashbangs and rubber bullets on protesters? (Washington Post blog)

Occupy Oakland: Veteran Scott Olsen’s injuries prompt internal police review (Washington Post blog)



This is a petition, which is more of the Democratic sham, but I figured I would link it on the outside chance that fascists pay attention to petitions. (Since they are Jean Quan's henchmen in the first place, why would she investigate?)

Tell Oakland Mayor Jean Quan: Condemn and investigate police brutality!

EDIT: I started writing this last night and finished it this morning (Oct 27th) so it is backdated by about 13 hours. Just noticed that, and sorry about the delay in publising.--DD

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary: ruminations on whether fascism is imminent

Left: Our Lady of Sorrows stained glass, from St Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville, SC.


Today is a Holy Day of Obligation in the Catholic Church, The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the Orthodox Church, this day is called The Dormition of the Theotokos, which literally translates as the "falling asleep" of the Mother of God, her earthly, physical death preceding Her Assumption into heaven.

It is also the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, the Netroots Nation conference (lefty bloggers) and the RightOnline conference (right-wing bloggers).

If you are into astrology, all you can do is shake your head that all of these events are on the same day.

~*~

I have just listened to Michelle Malkin on C-Span, take her turn firing up the Nuremberg Rally at the RightOnline conference. This has been a rather alarming experience right after reading some pages I was directed to over at Onyx Lynx's blog. She quotes Sara Robinson reading the signposts up ahead, the signals that the USA could indeed turn towards fascism.

It's always very tempting to throw up one's hands and scream, here come the Brownshirts. God knows, I've been doing it most of my life. And you know, on a couple of occasions (Reagan's famous Morning in America), I think we were right to scream.

And now? Well, mandated hipster-irony and the required detachment of cool make it very unfashionable to deliver cautionary screams, which is part of the problem. So, simply imagine one long SCREAM, if you will, which has the added astrological and spiritual juice of taking place on a Holy Day.

It's a loud scream, but terribly ironic, so the cool people will listen.

Sara writes:

Back in elementary school, most of us learned that when a bully learns that intimidation and threats work, he'll will keep doing more of it. In fact, the longer he goes without comeuppance, the bolder and badder he becomes, and the harder it is to make him stop. Every success teaches him something new about how to use terror for maximum effect, and tempts him to push the envelope and see what else he can get away with. Do nothing, and he'll soon take over the whole playground.

And it happens like this for bullies in groups, too. Living in a fascist regime is just living in a town dominated by the Mob, a street gang, the KKK, or a corrupt sheriff. It only takes a small handful of thugs to terrorize people into giving up their civil rights, abandoning democracy, and doing what they're told, just so they can keep their jobs, windows, and families intact. The main imperative in life becomes staying off the goons' radar. All the enforcers need to do is make an horrific example out of one or two troublemakers every now and then -- and the resulting fear will keep everybody else quietly in line.

Conservatives have tried to subdue other Americans this way for centuries, so there's nothing new going on here. And this is the way they've always done it: they used race (and yes, the birthers and anti-health care rioters are, at root, all about race) and economic calamity to whip up a posse of terrified, well-armed vigilantes, and then turned them loose on society to "enforce order." Given their colossal investment in organizing and indoctinating the teabaggers, we'd be stupid to believe that this is all going to go away when Congress returns to DC in September. Having had a taste of power and publicity, these newly-empowered mobs are very likely to stick around town and see what else they can do to keep the muck stirred up.

Our choice now is a stark one: knock them back while they're still new, small, and not yet entrenched; or deal with them later, when they've got some real power to fight back with, and the cost to all of us will be so much higher.

Yes, yes and yes.

We must not let them win this one. There will be no end to the bullying.

The Klingons must not WIN THE FEDERATION.

Also see Robinson's Fascist America: Are We There Yet? and this pertinent quote:

As Rick Perlstein documented in his two books on Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon, modern American conservatism was built on these same themes. From "Morning in America" to the Rapture-ready religious right to the white nationalism promoted by the GOP through various gradients of racist groups, it's easy to trace how American proto-fascism offered redemption from the upheavals of the 1960s by promising to restore the innocence of a traditional, white, Christian, male-dominated America. This vision has been so thoroughly embraced that the entire Republican party now openly defines itself along these lines. At this late stage, it's blatantly racist, sexist, repressed, exclusionary, and permanently addicted to the politics of fear and rage. Worse: it doesn't have a moment's shame about any of it. No apologies, to anyone. These same narrative threads have woven their way through every fascist movement in history.

In the second stage, fascist movements take root, turn into real political parties, and seize their seat at the table of power. Interestingly, in every case Paxton cites, the political base came from the rural, less-educated parts of the country; and almost all of them came to power very specifically by offering themselves as informal goon squads organized to intimidate farmworkers on behalf of the large landowners. The KKK disenfranchised black sharecroppers and set itself up as the enforcement wing of Jim Crow. The Italian Squadristi and the German Brownshirts made their bones breaking up farmers' strikes. And these days, GOP-sanctioned anti-immigrant groups make life hell for Hispanic agricultural workers in the US. As violence against random Hispanics (citizens and otherwise) increases, the right-wing goon squads are getting basic training that, if the pattern holds, they may eventually use to intimidate the rest of us.

Paxton wrote that succeeding at the second stage "depends on certain relatively precise conditions: the weakness of a liberal state, whose inadequacies condemn the nation to disorder, decline, or humiliation; and political deadlock because the Right, the heir to power but unable to continue to wield it alone, refuses to accept a growing Left as a legitimate governing partner."

Umm, sound like anything you've heard lately?

On Onyx Lynx's blog, I wrote the following, which I realize I cannot improve upon too much:

As you know, I live at Ground Zero of The New Incipient Fascism, and here up close I see several faultlines that are ripe for exploiting...(do not have time to unmix my metaphors right now)...I should write about these and link this article/series. But for instance, the "Crunchy Cons" are one such faultline, the natural-food/homeschooling fundie-cons really MISTRUST big business, BigPharma and the GOP leadership in general (one reason the GOP lost the election). There is a strong populist sentiment, even here at Ground Zero. The problem (as I see it) is the elitist-liberal/progressive superiority and hatred of the uneducated and religious, and their accompanying unwillingness to work in any kind coalition with them. (I am standing in the gap, if I may quote the Scripchahs!)

Another for instance, Obama's people seem to have written off South Carolina, which is 33% African American, thankyouverymuch!

The lefty atheists and their endless intellectual-superiority doesn't help, just as the feminist dogmatism doesn't help, the closet Democratic racists don't help, PETA doesn't help...I got a list! :P

But this article is great, and you've got me thinking about the fault lines, and there are several.

Which brings me to the Nuremberg Rally and Michelle Malkin's invocation to GO FORTH and INTIMIDATE THEM SOME MORE.

I studied the RightOnline crowd carefully, and I saw middle class, yea, even lower-middle-class people, who align themselves with the Right. I asked myself, what makes them do this?

The crowd was overwhelmingly white and middle-aged, for one thing. It is comforting to me that knowledgeable young folks don't buy this nonsense as readily. However, it is NOT comforting to me that so many in my own age-group seem to be brainwashed by Fox News and the endless perky-pablum offered by Malkin and her ilk. I sense a fear of The New, the Head Metrosexuals In Charge, those people on the coasts.

And here we get to the heart of it; Michelle got out her populist slide guitar and started to jam.

Why doesn't the New York Times review books by people like Michelle, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, yet puts them on their bestseller lists?

That's a very good question. Direct hit. Michelle now jams into the stratosphere, and the crowd is with her.

Why don't they?

The problem with the coastal liberal elites is that they really don't CARE about The Heartland and The People that they claim to care about. When we talk, they don't listen. They tend to have their minds all made up. They disdain religion, country music, tradition, the ties that bind a community for generations. They consider themselves FAR ABOVE people who have not attended college. (NOTE: There is no faster way to be suddenly IGNORED during an online political discussion, than to admit you didn't finish college... even by folks who only a second previously, were hanging on your every word. Suddenly, you give yourself away as a non-person.) Religious concerns--say, about gay marriage--are regarded as total backward idiocy. Thus, so is any effort to counter these using specifically religious language, as many of us know how to do very well. We are drowned out by the "fuck offs" from the non-religious, the superior-intellects from New York and all points East.

Taken together, these snubs add up.

Why should the People In The Fabled Heartland trust the elites on the coasts and in Washington, to look out for them, when they can barely hide their contempt?

Whilst Twittering yesterday, I encountered the "#nn09" notation, which meant Netroots Nation 2009. I didn't know about it otherwise. I am a lefty blogger, but not good enough, young enough, hip enough, New Yorker enough, to get notified of this supposedly major event for my blogging demographic. (I refer the movie geeks in my readership to Brian DePalma's Home Movies: Those who know, know.)

When I Tweeted and ASKED what it was, nobody replied to me. My ignorance embarrasses everyone, one assumes.

And then I wondered, AM I the blogging demographic in question? Perhaps my age and location automatically disqualify me. After all, I am here thinking Malkin has made some good points when she talks about the media exclusion of the so-called ordinary working-class American, the person OBAMACARE, ET. AL. IS SUPPOSED TO BE HELPING.

Robinson is accurate, but she leaves out an important part of the story, and that is a repeated failure of the left ever since the Great Depression, particularly the modern avant-garde, global-oriented left: an active and actual aversion to the actual working-classes one seeks to help. Otherwise, as I peruse the list of Netroots folks, why do I see so many hyper-educated Big Bloggers? Why don't I see any "regular folks"?

Meanwhile, the RightOnline conference is busily conducting workshops and teaching people how to Twitter and blog--stuff I had to muddle through on my own. How nice if someone had actually taught me and offered me a 'blogging-ring' of helpers! How nice if I didn't have to hustle my local news coverage and was heartily welcomed into an existing network! The right-wing is organizing at the grass-roots level, for real. Not just gassing about it, but doing it.

And somebody might read this when I post it on Twitter, but it won't make much difference. The Netroots Nation thinks they know everything already, and can't even be bothered to explain their acronyms to me.

What's wrong with this picture?

If fascism comes to America, I hope the left won't wring their hands, once again, that it wasn't anything they could stop.

It was, it is, and it always has been.