DANGER FROM THE FAR RIGHT!
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010“I have never seen anything like this in my lifetime,” says Noam Chomsky, whose been called America’s greatest intellectual… Chomsky says “the mood of the country is frightening. The level of anger, frustration and hatred of institutions is not organized in a constructive way. It is going off into self-destructive fantasies.”
Chomsky says “It is very similar to late Weimar Germany. The parallels are striking. There was also tremendous disillusionment with the parliamentary system. The most striking fact about Weimar was not that the Nazis managed to destroy the Social Democrats and the Communists but that the traditional parties, the Conservative and Liberal parties, were hated and disappeared. It left a vacuum which the Nazis very cleverly and intelligently managed to take over… If the polls are accurate it is not the Republicans but the right-wing Republicans, the crazed Republicans, who will sweep the next election.” Read the full interview of Noam Chomsky by Chris Hedges http://www.alternet.org/story/146523/
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The Tea Party movement held Tax Day rallies last week locally and throughout the U.S., protesting what they perceive to be excessive income taxes, big government, and infringement of constitutional rights. As Chomsky notes, some of this movement has a legitimate complaint: “For over 30 years, real incomes have stagnated or declined. This is in large part the consequence of the decision in the 1970s to financialize the economy” (investment banking, and outsourcing manufacturing to other countries). But the Tea Partiers don’t direct their anger at the banks and corporations that profit abroad while ordinary workers at home see no gain. Nor do they connect their income tax burden with the fact over half of the federal budget goes to militarism and wars of empire disguised as wars against “terrorists.” Tea Partiers, besides blaming President Obama and Congress, focus their anger on a number of scapegoats including undocumented immigrants, welfare recipients, the poor, Muslims and people of color, and even the peace movement.
We believe that the corporate warfare/banking state, not excessive taxation, is at the heart of the current economic decline. Working Americans pay with their tax dollars, while American servicemen and women, along with innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan pay with their lives and their health. The Tea Party Patriots draw public attention away from this injustice by channeling anger toward the host of scapegoats instead of toward the corporations and bankers that profit from war.
LEARN MORE – JOIN the COMMUNITY PEACE FORUM
Eric Orseske — U.S. veteran of Iraq/Afghanistan wars
will speak on his war experience and transformation to anti-war activist
Jim Albertini and others will discuss Military Depleted Uranium (DU) radiation contamination at Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) in the center of Hawaii Island.
(The military was invited to participate in a balanced public forum on DU but refused.)
Time: 7-9PM Date: Sunday, April 25th Place: Keaau Community Center
(Located behind the Keaau Family Clinic and Keaau Police Station. The event is free and open to the public)
STOP THE WARS! STOP DU RADIATION CONTAMINATION IN HAWAII, IRAQ & AFGHANISTAN
1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, etc.5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
Contact: Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.
Phone (808) 966-7622. Email ja@interpac.net http://www.malu-aina.org
Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (April 23, 2010 – 449th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office