TOO LENGTHY A RESPONSE TO MY GLENN BECK POST TO PUT UNDER COMMENTS

I received the following comment to my Glenn Beck post

http://factsforreality.blogspot.com/2009/09/glenn-becks-week-of-showing-quotes.html

and, because my response was too long, I decided to do a new post including the comment and my response.


Tom Degan's Daily Rant said...
Not since Joe McCarthy shuffled off this mortal coil in 1957 has anyone made a career by accusing people of being communists. Glenn Beck has resurrected the practice. Not only has he found a cabal of secret communists, he has uncovered an entire communist corporation chock full of commies. The name of this company, you may ask?

THE NATIONAL BROADCASTING COMPANY!

You heard me right, boys and girls. The network that gave us Uncle Miltie and Ma Perkins has apparently been secretly sending subliminal messages endorsing Marxist doctrine since it was formed in 1926. This would make perfect sense to me. Every time I watched the Rockford Files I had an unexplainable desire to read Das Kapital. But seriously, folks. Twenty years after the fall of the Soviet Union, red baiting not only seems silly, it's also kind of nuts. It's not-at-all surprising that an organization would give this idiot a forum (after all, he's on FOX Noise). What's really stunning is the fact that his ratings are relatively high and that so many Americans take his word as gospel.

All kidding aside, half-witted ideologues are a dime a dozen. What separates Glenn Beck from his peers is the fact that he is doing some serious damage to the country he professes to love so much. For all of the comparisons to the Nazis he likes to make with regard to Liberals, Beck's program has much in common with Adolf Hitler's 1923 screed, Mein Kampf. Eighty-six years ago, Hitler attempted to arouse the anger of his fellow Germans by spouting half truths and utter nonsense - exactly what Glenn Beck is doing in 2009. So much of the insane dialogue that has been spewed forth at these Town Hall meetings across the country in recent weeks might have been lifted straight from a transcript of any of Beck's programs.

Beck and his twisted ilk have done the seemingly impossible. They have deflected the blame for America's current economic distress toward Barack Obama. An incredible feat when you take into consideration the fact that the President is one of the few people in government today whose guilt in the matter is almost nil. They have also let loose with a vengeance the very worst angels of the American nature. Opening this Pandora's box was relatively easy. Closing it might prove to be a bit of a problem.

Deep in their hearts
They do believe
That they shall undermine someday....

http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
September


Thank you for the comment on my writing. It is important and a pleasure to meet someone who thinks differently and test our ability to rationally discuss what is real. I need to make it very clear that my definitions offered on my website factsforreality.net can apply either way. Unlike some people with whom I discuss politics I am not absolutely sure of my position, but knowledgeable enough to explore what I believe and look for what is real. I also, in my rough drafts of my letters to my grandchildren asking them, How do you like the country which we left you?” suggest that I hope that you find that the other side was right and that I was just a paranoid old fool.

Beck’s presentation started with Obama campaigning and telling us to judge him by the company he keeps. He named respected people of consequence including Warren Buffett who is one of my heroes because in spite of his Democrat affiliation places capital with endeavors which creates jobs which pay taxable wages rather than takes from the productive to give to others. Once the election was over, Obama surrounded himself with a group of czars who are not accountable to anyone. These are the people he truly associates with and employs to assist him in changing America. Beck presented quotes and clips of these people and let us see them describing their views. Van Jones is the one who proclaimed himself a communist. Several of the others hold unconventional views, but did not proclaim themselves communists. I would therefore question your analysis that Beck has uncovered a communist corporation.

What I saw was a group of people with views far different from those which I feel are good for our country. I see a practical side to some of the healthcare proposal and agree that wasting money on old people and the very young is impractical – I just have a problem with my truly liberal compassionate side because it doesn’t feel good. I also agree with Charles Krauthammer’s analysis that the bigger the government, the smaller the citizen. I started out as a dishwasher, federal civil servant at an awesome facility, entrepreneur with tears in my eyes one day when I pulled up to a hamburger stand and found out I couldn’t afford a hamburger. I worked in the low income areas during the Great Society and saw the result which Thomas Sowell describes as a failure. I went broke providing low income housing after being very successful because I was helped by a government Mod 8 Rehab program and the bureaucrat made me provide full time security for 18 buildings when I only had 13 as well as holding back money until I complied with unreasonable demands.

I know how well and how poorly the government can work. Humans sometimes excel and sometimes they are parasites. Private enterprise will sort the non producers out, but the government protects them. Tell me how more government can possibly do better than a reasonably regulated private enterprise system where the percentage of the GDP spent on overhead = government and public programs excluding private contractors is kept low. California had been warned about this forever by McClintock and they didn’t listen. It didn’t happen suddenly with no idea that it was coming. LaLaLand will exist until we run out of time to deny reality.

Unlike some of the competitors, Beck asks his viewers to question what he shows us and does not proclaim that he is right. The difference between rape and making love is salesmanship. His packaging is great because by telling us to question, some of us will not. There is a very active group out there and if there were someone who challenged Beck factually instead of emotionally, that would make for an interesting battle of the intellects. I am open to a link where more than the typical Alinsky strategy is employed to discredit Beck’s information. What I see tells me that the liberals are stumbling because the Alinsky strategy has been picked up by the conservative movement and TRUTH substituted for deceit and deception. The American people are not totally stupid regardless of Michael Moore and Bill Mahr observations.

One example so that I remain fact based to some extent is the Stimulus Bill had to be passed without time to review it because of the impending doom and the Republicans were given hardcopy hours before the vote which makes me wonder how much we are paying scribes on typewriters or was the network down? It was for targeted creation of jobs to prevent unemployment going over 8%. We are in September and less than 10% has been put out. Unemployment has been in the nine percent range. George Soros took $140,000,000.00 of Stimulus money and $35,000,000.00 of his money to produce an article with a headline Back to school spree: Billionaire, feds give out $175M to aid neediest students around the state - casual glance shows what a generous man Soros is – where did the undistributed portion go?

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/08/12/2009-08-12_billionaire_feds_give_out_175m_to_aid_neediest_students_around_the_state_its_fre.html#ixzz0QMal8ZJV

or

the US is going to lend $2 billion to $10 billion to Petrobas to back Brazilian oil exploration after George Soros invests in Petrobas

Soros Hedge Fund Bought Petrobras Stake Worth $811 Million

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Obama administration will invest $2 billion (or more) in drilling off the shores of Brazil, of all places. The left does all they can to keep us from exploring off our own shores. Yet we’re suddenly investing $2 billion – that we don’t have – in a Brazilian oil company?
Soros-Funded Democratic Idea Factory Becomes Obama Policy Font which is the Center for American Progress headed by John Podesta
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aF7fB1PF0NPg

The administration will not allow what Sarah Palin suggested in August of 2008 to help America gain energy independence, stimulate the economy and better national security – see http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=2008&month=09

But they will fund an oil venture which has awesome leverage and probably no recourse for Soros because the US is funding money which we don’t have and could use here to do something productive in our country.

Regarding Obama’s lack of participation in the creation of the financial debacle, I would remind you that when Nancy Pelosi became speaker of the House in 2006, she proclaimed, “Now that we control congress, watch what we can do.” The house is the creator of the budget and they had an ally in the borrow and spend Bush. Look at what they did! Obama received money from FannieMae/FreddieMac and ACORN pushing for loose lending practices helped create the financial disaster which is not being investigated that I know of and the news media has not publicized the recent deficit that much. A few clips showing the timeline to disaster are at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnSp4qEXNM


What am I missing about these facts that should make me hope that our country keeps going in the direction that the administration wants to take us. It seems to me we are headed for a cliff and no one was putting on the brakes until some complacent, fat, dumb and happy Americans said, “Holy Smokes! We had better do something!!!!”

Show me where my facts are not real or give me something more than the Alinsky style rhetoric. The REAL American Patriot Army has stood up and we don’t want the government taking our money because we are too stupid and incompetent to take care of ourselves.

The SEIU ran a full page ad in a local paper proclaiming Arnold Schwarzenneger broke his promise. Guess what? When Arnie couldn’t get the legislature to do what was right for California and correct its course, he took several referendums to the people and the unions borrowed against pension funds to mount an incredible campaign. They brought the super hero to his knees and kept the liberal legislature in power. Now they are whining that what they created can’t afford to keep them full time and they need to be furloughed. Do liberals require drugs or do they have a natural disconnect with reality?