• Guest: Jonah Goldberg, "Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning".
• Today is the anniversary of Martin Luther King's birth.
• Michigan primary.
• Thom Hartmann "On Air" Straw Poll.
• Guest: Roberta MacDonald, the Cabot Creamery co-op. Co-operatives.
• Guest: Eric Baerren, Michiganliberal.com.
• Guest: Celeste Whiting, Our Michigan blog.

Topics, guests, upcoming events, quotes, links to articles, audio clips, books & bumper music.

Tuesday 15 January '08 National show

• Quote:
  "The really dangerous American fascists are not those who are hooked up directly or indirectly with the Axis. The FBI has its finger on those. The dangerous American fascist is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.

  If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States. There are probably several hundred thousand if we narrow the definition to include only those who in their search for money and power are ruthless and deceitful. Most American fascists are enthusiastically supporting the war effort. They are doing this even in those cases where they hope to have profitable connections with German chemical firms after the war ends. They are patriotic in time of war because it is to their interest to be so, but in time of peace they follow power and the dollar wherever they may lead...

  Still another danger is represented by those who, paying lip service to democracy and the common welfare, in their insatiable greed for money and the power which money gives, do not hesitate surreptitiously to evade the laws designed to safeguard the public from monopolistic extortion.

  "
  Vice President Henry A. Wallace, New York Times, April 9, 1944.
• Quote:
  "Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power."
  Giovanni Gentile / Mussolini , Encyclopedia Italiana.
• Guest: Jonah Goldberg, contributing editor to the National Review, author of "Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning". He said that the leading academics have yet to be able to define what fascism was. His own definition (there's a longer one in the book) is, "it's essentially a religious impulse wrongly applied to politics which says that we should have a cult of unity overseen by the state where the entire society has to move in the same direction at all times."

  He said the corporations in Italy were different to now necessarily, they were syndicalists, "where unions and labor were brought in to work along side business management and the like. It was in many ways the associationalism that we saw under the New Deal although it was more extreme in Italy". Thom said union leaders were being put to death. Goldberg said, "syndicalism was the belief that all sectors of society should work together, all sectors of the economy should work together in terms of planning and coordination. Yes, of course there were political enemies who were more aligned with international communism who were opponents of fascism, you know; it was a police state." Thom said, "To portray fascism as somehow conflated with liberalism and then conflate liberalism with the totalitarianism of the Soviet Union, seems to me your wildly overreaching here". Herbert Croly. Monopoly.

  The Clarence Darrow Committee's report on the New Deal. He said the New Deal helped big business against small business. From his book: "Tobacco companies themselves have been forced to ritualistically and expensively denounce their own product. Free association of smokers has been outlawed in much of America. Vegetarianism, public health and animal rights were merely different facets of the obsession with the organic ? that pervaded the German fascist mind then and liberal fascist mind now."

• Bumper Music: Kryptonite, 3 Doors Down.
• It's the anniversary of Martin Luther King's birth.
• Article: The Ghost of Vice President Wallace Warns: "It Can Happen Here".
• Quote:
  "The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy. They use isolationism as a slogan to conceal their own selfish imperialism. They cultivate hate and distrust of both Britain and Russia. They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection."
  Vice President Henry A. Wallace, New York Times, April 9, 1944.
• Clip:
  "So, all those clowns at the liberal radio network, we could incarcerate them immediately. Will you have that done, please? Send over the FBI and just put them in chains, because they, you know, they're undermining everything and they don't care." Bill O'Reilly, June 20 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly.
• Quote:
  "The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home"
  James Madison.
• "We The People". John Adams' use of "The XYZ Affair" to gain political capital nearly led us to war with France. Adams jailed newspaper editors and average citizens alike who spoke out against him and his policies.
• Bumper Music: Li'l Red Riding Hood, Bowling For Soup.
• Article: Ranch Hand Admits to Baiting Wolves to Prey on Livestock; Results in Removal of Endangered Wolves.
• Video: Democrats For Romney.
• Michigan primary. Vote uncommitted if you do not want to vote for Hillary or Kucinich. Do not vote a write in. Daily Kos suggesting voting for Romney. The main stream media saying that Hillary is the only Democrat on the ballot.
• It is important to support whoever becomes the Democratic nominee because the winners are likely to get to replace at least two Supreme Court judges.
• Bumper Music: Democracy, Dan Fogelberg.
• Article: Citi Posts $9.83 Billion Loss; Will Cut Jobs.
• McCain was seen at the auto show in Detroit with Joe Lieberman yesterday, and in New Hampshire during the primaries. Are they going to be running mates?
• The Democratic Party believes that progressives will vote for whoever the nominee is, so candidates don't feel the need to do anything to get their vote.
• Call the Thom Hartmann Comment and Rant line at 202 536-5306 to leave a recorded message, agree, disagree, sound off - it's all welcome. Keep it shorter than 30 seconds, and know that it may be used on the air.
• People called in with details of the phone calls they had received from both sides trawling for votes in the Michigan primaries, and how they voted, and why.
• Bumper Music: Let Me Take You There, Plain White Ts.
• Thom Hartmann "On Air" Straw Poll results:
  For Whom Would you Vote if the Primary Were Held Today? All the calls within 6 minutes.
  - Senator John Edwards 40
  - Dennis Kucinich 18
  - Senator Barack Obama 7
  - Senator Hillary Clinton 5
  - Gov. Bill Richardson 1
  - Ralph Nader 1
  - Ron Paul 1
  - Former VP Al Gore 1
  - Gov. Howard Dean 1
• Clip:
  "Modern psychology has a word that is probably used more than any other word. It is the word "maladjusted." Now we all should seek to live a well—adjusted life in order to avoid neurotic and schizophrenic personalities. But there are some things within our social order to which I am proud to be maladjusted and to which I call upon you to be maladjusted. I never intend to adjust myself to segregation and discrimination. I never intend to adjust myself to mob rule. I never intend to adjust myself to the tragic effects of the methods of physical violence and to tragic militarism. I call upon you to be maladjusted to such things. I call upon you to be as maladjusted to such things. I call upon you to be as maladjusted as Amos who in the midst of the injustices of his day cried out in words that echo across the generation, "Let judgment run down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." As maladjusted as Abraham Lincoln who had the vision to see that this nation could not exist half slave and half free. As maladjusted as Jefferson, who in the midst of an age amazingly adjusted to slavery could cry out, "All men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." As maladjusted as Jesus of Nazareth who dreamed a dream of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. God grant that we will be so maladjusted that we will be able to go out and change our world and our civilization. And then we will be able to move from the bleak and desolate midnight of man’s inhumanity to man to the bright and glittering daybreak of freedom and justice. "
  Martin Luther King, Jr., "The Power of Non-violence", June 4, 1957. (video).
• Guest: Roberta MacDonald, senior Vice President of Marketing for the Cabot Creamery co-op. Is there a future beyond capitalism? Democracy in co-operatives. Examples include Dunkin' Donuts, credit unions. Some may be co-operatives for purchasing. It's free enterprise, a better business model. It should be taught in business school, schools.
• Guest: Eric Baerren, Michiganliberal.com. What’s really going on in Michigan? He voted in the Republican primary. Michigan is transitioning from paper to electronic voting. His was paper. Turnout was surprisingly high. He voted for Ron Paul, could damage Republican candidates. That's what Republicans did for George Wallace. He got robo phone calls at work, mostly Huckabee calls.
• Bumper Music: Democracy is coming to the USA, Leonard Cohen.
• Guest: Celeste Whiting, Our Michigan blog. People at the polls seemed to understand what 'uncommitted' meant, and most were 'uncommitted', none for Hillary. Willow Run. Manufacturing. Blue collar. Kucinich lost Thom when he told people go to opt for Obama in Iowa.