[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [sf-core] Rise in Right-Wing Extremism

[C. G. Estabrook]

They make money for themselves (and have been condemned by charity watchdogs for 
it) by exaggerating a threat that serves to justifies conventional liberal 
politics.

It's an updated McCarthyism: instead of Reds under the beds they find fascists. 
  In the process they demonize quite legitimate criticism.

A real left would be criticizing the war and class politics of the 
establishment, not defending it from imagined bogey-men on the Right. --CGE


Stuart Levy wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 07, 2010 at 11:57:02PM -0600, C. G. ESTABROOK wrote:
>> Silverstein's stuff goes back 10 years; & see the other accounts quoted 
>> below.
> 
> I see them.  They seem to complain that the SPLC is wealthy.  So what?
> If they don't need more, that's fine, but shouldn't we be
> judging them by what they do with the money they have?
> Silverstein's 2007 blurb doesn't seem to say anything of substance about
> the SPLC's actual work on immigration justice, and from your descriptions
> I'll bet the other articles mentioned don't either.  The only one under
> discussion which does mention it is Cockburn's, which claims
> they aren't doing things which they actually have done,
> claims which he could have checked in ten minutes' look at their web site.
> 
> 
>> Stuart Levy wrote:
>>> On Sun, Mar 07, 2010 at 03:08:09PM -0600, C. G. ESTABROOK wrote:
>>>> You can't be associating SPLC with ACORN.  We all know of good work done 
>>>> by
>>>>  ACORN over 40 years; but anyone who cares to look can see that SPLC is a 
>>>> con.
>>>> We can't be so stampeded by fear of the Right (as the liberal 
>>>> establishment
>>>>  so wants us to be) that, just because a group declares itself liberal, 
>>>> we
>>>>  must therefore support it, regardless of what it does. --CGE
>>> Of course.  I'd agree with that, as far as it goes, but that isn't far.
>>> There are worrisome things about SPLC.  I hadn't heard about their link 
>>> with
>>> the ADL before -- if for some of their actions they're taking cues from 
>>> the ADL, that's not good, as the ADL seems to be on the wrong side of 
>>> every issue
>>> they take these days.  And, I was disturbed to see in one SPLC news item 
>>> last
>>> fall, in supporting their description of one right-wing character, the
>>> mention that his car bore an "End the Fed" bumper sticker.  Is that 
>>> supposed
>>> to imply he's liable to be a violent extremist?  That's wrong, and the 
>>> SPLC
>>> deserves criticism for it.
>>> But, look at other things the SPLC does.  They have for years opposed the
>>> flood of racist anti-immigrant feeling -- not only from marginal extremist
>>> groups (who are important), and from media celebrities especially Lou 
>>> Dobbs
>>> (more important), but also from law enforcement, and from employers.   One 
>>> of
>>> their current front-page issues is the winning of a wage-theft lawsuit
>>> against an employer who was cheating foreign workers.  Many other such 
>>> legal
>>> cases are on their docket.
>>> The bulk of their published reports over the last couple of years have 
>>> been immigration-related, too.
>>> I don't claim they're perfect, but you'd need better evidence than 
>>> Alexander
>>> Cockburn's article before saying that SPLC is a con.
>>> Cockburn could be a better journalist if his writing used a higher ratio 
>>> of factual argument to innuendo.
>>>> Belden Fields wrote:
>>>>> Great.  We've done in ACORN, now SPLC, how many more human and civil
>>>>> right groups can we do in at the glee of the Right?  Let's try to 
>>>>> crucify
>>>>> the Center for Constitutional Rights.  They surely must exaggerate 
>>>>> rights
>>>>>  threats, and they PAY money to their lawyers as well! Belden Begin
>>>>> forwarded message:
>>>>>> *From: *"C. G. ESTABROOK" <cge at shout.net <mailto:cge at shout.net>> *Date:
>>>>>>  *March 7, 2010 1:20:22 AM CST *To: *Socialist Forum 
>>>>>> <sf-core at yahoogroups.com <mailto:sf-core at yahoogroups.com>> *Subject: 
>>>>>> **Re: [sf-core] Rise in Right-Wing Extremism* Mort-- In fact the
>>>>>> fraudulent nature of SPLC has been a matter of public record for some
>>>>>> time now. See notably Ken Silverstein, "How the Southern Poverty Law
>>>>>> Center profits from intolerance," Harper's Magazine, November 2000 
>>>>>> (note the date; Silverstein published a follow-up in Harper's in 2007).
>>>>>>  As early as 1994 the Montgomery Advertiser ran a series alleging the
>>>>>> SPLC was financially mismanaged and employed misleading fundraising
>>>>>> practices. The series was a finalist for but did not win a 1995
>>>>>> Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Journalism. In 1996 USA Today called the
>>>>>> SPLC "the nation's richest civil rights organization," with $68 million
>>>>>> in assets at the time. In 2008 the American Institute of Philanthropy's
>>>>>> Charity Ratings Guide gave the SPLC an "F" rating for "excessive"
>>>>>> reserves.  Hate has been very good to them. As to "whether there is any
>>>>>> threat from the fascist right, hate, or militarist groups/militias in
>>>>>> the USA," all those Republicans and Democrats who check under the bed
>>>>>> each night for tea-partiers do indeed have something to worry about -
>>>>>> an aroused public, who might realize that their interests are not only
>>>>>> different from but diametrically opposed to those of the American
>>>>>> elite, for whom both parties toil. Doug Henwood of the excellent Left
>>>>>> Business Observer seems to me to have it just right here: "I'm still
>>>>>> mystified by the curiosity about - I'm deliberately not saying 
>>>>>> obsession with - the risks of incipient fascism in the U.S. I have two
>>>>>>  questions I'd love some clarification on: "(1) How is today's threat a
>>>>>> significant departure from more than a century of American political
>>>>>> violence? To say that the Klan is some kind of incipient fascist
>>>>>> movement is to drain the term of any specific meaning. But over the
>>>>>> last 100-150 years, we've had savage repression of labor through public
>>>>>> and private means, like national guard units, cops, and Pinkertons. We
>>>>>> had lynching. We had serious suppression of civil liberties during and
>>>>>> just after World War I. The Panthers were essentially wiped out with
>>>>>> death squads. I can understand why mainstream liberals don't want to 
>>>>>> admit that U.S. history is full of repressive crimes, and want to see 
>>>>>> George W. Bush or Sarah Palin as some kind of scary departures, but
>>>>>> that doesn't characterize [intelligent liberals], does it? "(2) Why
>>>>>> should we worry more about the fascist threat than some real, imminent
>>>>>> dangers like (a) a turn to fiscal and monetary tightening (Obama's 
>>>>>> deficit commission, which could give him cover to cut Medicare and SS;
>>>>>>  the Fed's signaling that it's ready to begin withdrawing its
>>>>>> extraordinary stimulus) that could sink us back into recession; (b)
>>>>>> Obama's friendliness towards offshore drilling and nuclear power; (c)
>>>>>> the incapacity of the U.S. political system to do anything at all about
>>>>>> climate change, even something as corp-friendly as c&t; (d) escalation
>>>>>> in Afghanistan, and with it an enormous increase in civilian deaths;
>>>>>> and (e) tightening the screws on Iran, possibly leading to some sort of
>>>>>> utterly mad military strike. These are all initiatives either led or
>>>>>> supported by a Democrat president and Congress, not some scary
>>>>>> possibilities that some possible future Republican president and/or
>>>>>> Congress could perpetrate. Doesn't all the worrying distract from those
>>>>>> realities?" In fact, the best thing that's happened to the clapped-out
>>>>>> Democratic party & Obama administration is the tea-party movement.
>>>>>> Screaming "Danger on the Right"; "Fascism on the horizon!" is they hope
>>>>>> all that they will need to cover their transfer of wealth from the poor
>>>>>> to the rich, and their escalation of imperialist murder. You say AC is
>>>>>> "over the top" but then you admit the essentials of his case: --the
>>>>>> SPLC exaggerates the dangers of hate groups in order to make money; and
>>>>>>  --one should distrust their antisemitism warnings & links with ADL; so
>>>>>>  --don't send them any money. Once again, we agree...  --CGE Morton K.
>>>>>> Brussel wrote:
>>>>>>> This Cockburn report is typical over-the-top Cockburn. The only
>>>>>>> "meat" in his commentary is that the Dees outfit makes too much money
>>>>>>> out of its operations and solicitations. Hence a scam. Otherwise, he
>>>>>>> flays Dees for not making America better in all the ways it could be
>>>>>>> better. And he discounts or ignores whether there is any threat from
>>>>>>> the fascist right, hate, or militarist groups/militias in the USA.
>>>>>>> The Tea Party would seem to indicate a level of hate among many of
>>>>>>> its "constituants" that could be dangerous to the general welfare. It
>>>>>>> would have been more useful if Cockburn outright refuted Dees claims 
>>>>>>> with contradictory information. He only touches on that by saying
>>>>>>> that Dees' outfit does not give us the number of people involved in
>>>>>>> militias, etc. It may be true that the SPLC exagerates the dangers of
>>>>>>> hate groups in order to make money and sustain and promote its
>>>>>>> existence. It may also be true that the SPLC does get some things
>>>>>>> right and may have a useful function to warn against "extremist" hate
>>>>>>> groups of the right. Let's try to see things clearly and accurately. 
>>>>>>> --mkb P.S. I have been solicited by the SPLC, but reject their pleas
>>>>>>> for funds. One should distrust their antisemitism warnings or links
>>>>>>> (?) with outfits like the ADL. On Mar 6, 2010, at 5:42 PM, C. G.
>>>>>>> ESTABROOK wrote:
>>>>>>>> [Barbara-- SPLC seems to be largely a scam.  Regards, Carl] King of
>>>>>>>> the Hate Business By ALEXANDER COCKBURN What is the arch-salesman
>>>>>>>> of hate-mongering, Mr. Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law
>>>>>>>> Center doing now? He’s saying that the election of a black
>>>>>>>> president proves his point. Hate is on the rise! Send money! Without 
>>>>>>>> skipping a beat, the mailshot moguls, who year after year
>>>>>>>> make money selling the notion there’s been a right resurgence out
>>>>>>>> there in the hinterland with massed legions of haters, have used
>>>>>>>> the election of a black president to say that, yes, hate is on the
>>>>>>>> rise and America ready to burst apart at the seams, with millions
>>>>>>>> of extremists primed to march down Main Street draped in Klan
>>>>>>>> robes, a copy of Mein Kampf tucked under one arm and a Bible under
>>>>>>>> the other, available for sneak photographs from minions of Chip
>>>>>>>> Berlet, another salesman of the Christian menace,  ripely endowed
>>>>>>>> with millions to battle the legions of the cross. Ever since 1971
>>>>>>>> US Postal Service mailbags have bulged with Dees’ fundraising
>>>>>>>> letters, scaring dollars out of the pockets of trembling liberals
>>>>>>>> aghast at his lurid depictions of hate-sodden America, in dire need
>>>>>>>> of legal confrontation by the SPLC. Nine years ago Ken Silverstein
>>>>>>>> wrote a devastating commentary on Dees and the SPLC in Harpers,
>>>>>>>> dissecting a typical swatch of Dees’ solicitations. At that time,
>>>>>>>> as Silverstein pointed out, the SPLC was “the wealthiest civil 
>>>>>>>> rights group in America,” with $120 million in assets. As of
>>>>>>>> October 2008 the net assets of the SPLC were $170,240,129, The 
>>>>>>>> merchant of hate himself, Mr. Dees, was paid an annual $273,132 as 
>>>>>>>> chief trial counsel, and the SPLC’s president and CEO, Richard
>>>>>>>> Cohen, $290,193. Total revenue in 2007 was $44,727,257 and program
>>>>>>>> expenses $20,804,536. In other words, the Southern Poverty Law
>>>>>>>> Center was raising twice as much as it was spending on its
>>>>>>>> proclaimed mission. Fund-raising and administrative expenses
>>>>>>>> accounted for $9 million, leaving $14 million to be put in the
>>>>>>>> center’s vast asset portfolio. The 990 non profit tax record for
>>>>>>>> the SPLC indicates that the assets fell by about $50 million last
>>>>>>>> year, meaning that like almost all non profits the SPLC took a bath
>>>>>>>> in the stock crash. So what was thr end result of all that
>>>>>>>> relentless hoarding down the year, as people of modest means,
>>>>>>>> scared by Dees, sent him their contributions. Were they put to good
>>>>>>>> use? It doesn’t seem so. They vanished in an electronic blip. But
>>>>>>>> where are the haters? That hardy old stand-by, the KKK, despite the
>>>>>>>>  SPLC’s predictable howls about an uptick in its chapters, is a 
>>>>>>>> moth-eaten and depleted troupe, at least 10 per cent of them on the
>>>>>>>>  government payroll as informants for the FBI. As Noel Ignatiev
>>>>>>>> once remarked in his book Race Traitor, there isn’t a public school
>>>>>>>> in any county in the USA that doesn’t represent a menace to blacks
>>>>>>>> a thousand times more potent than that offered by the KKK, just as
>>>>>>>> there aren’t many such schools that probably haven’t been
>>>>>>>> propositioned by Dees to buy one of the SPLC’s “tolerance”
>>>>>>>> programs. What school is going to go on record rejecting
>>>>>>>> Dees-sponsored tolerance? Dees and his hate-seekers scour the
>>>>>>>> landscape for hate like the arms manufacturers inventing new
>>>>>>>> threats and for the same reason: it’s their staple. The SPLC’s
>>>>>>>> latest “Year in Hate” report claims that “in 2008 the number of
>>>>>>>> hate groups rose to 926, up 4 per cent from 2007, and 54 per cent 
>>>>>>>> since 2000.” The SPLC doesn’t measure the number of members in 
>>>>>>>> the groups, meaning they probably missed me. Change that total to 
>>>>>>>> 927.
>>>>>>>>  I’m a hate group, meaning in Dees-speak, “one with beliefs or
>>>>>>>> practices that attack or malign an entire class of people,”
>>>>>>>> starting with Dick Cheney. I love to dream of him being
>>>>>>>> water-boarded, subjected to loops of Schonberg played at top
>>>>>>>> volume, locked up naked in a meat locker. But the nation’s haters
>>>>>>>> are mostly like me, enjoying their (increasingly circumscribed)
>>>>>>>> constitutionally guaranteed right to hate, solitary, disorganized,
>>>>>>>> prone to sickening relapses into love, or at least the sort of
>>>>>>>> amiable tolerance for All Mankind experienced when looking at
>>>>>>>> photos of Carla Bruni and Princess Letizia of Spain kissing. The
>>>>>>>> effective haters are big, powerful easily identifiable entities. Why 
>>>>>>>> is Dees fingering militia men in a potato field in Idaho when
>>>>>>>> we have identifiable, well-organized groups which the SPLC could
>>>>>>>> take on. To cite reports from the Urban League, and United for a
>>>>>>>> Fair Economy, minorities are more than three times as likely to
>>>>>>>> hold high-cost subprime loans, foisted on them by predatory
>>>>>>>> lenders, meaning the big banks; “all black and latino subprime
>>>>>>>> borrowers could stand to lose between $164 billion and $213 billion
>>>>>>>> for loans taken during the past eight years.” Get those bankers and
>>>>>>>> big mortgage touts into court, chief counsel Dees! How about
>>>>>>>> helping workers fired by people who hate anyone trying to organize
>>>>>>>> a union? What about defending immigrants rounded up in ICE raids?
>>>>>>>> How about attacking the roots of southern poverty, and the system
>>>>>>>> that sustains that poverty as expressed in the endless prisons and
>>>>>>>> Death Rows across the south, disproportionately crammed with blacks
>>>>>>>>  and Hispanics? You fight theatrically, the Dees way, or you fight
>>>>>>>> substantively, like Stephen Bright, who makes only $11,000 as
>>>>>>>> president and senior counsel of the Southern Center for Human
>>>>>>>> Rights. The center’s director makes less than $50,000. It has net
>>>>>>>> assets of a bit over $4.5 million and allocates about $1.6 million
>>>>>>>> a year for expenses, 77 percent of its annual revenue. Bright’s
>>>>>>>> outfit is basically dedicated to two things: prison litigation and
>>>>>>>> the death penalty. He fights the system, case by case. Not the
>>>>>>>> phony targets mostly tilted at by Dees but the effective, bipartisan, 
>>>>>>>> functional system of oppression, far more deadly and determined than 
>>>>>>>> the SPLC’s tin-pot hate groups. Tear up your check
>>>>>>>> to Dees and send it to Bright,( http://www.schr.org 
>>>>>>>> <http://www.schr.org>/) or to the Institute for Southern Studies 
>>>>>>>> (http://www.southernstudies.org.html 
>>>>>>>> <http://www.southernstudies.org.html>) run by Chris Kromm, which
>>>>>>>> has been doing brilliant spadework on the economy, on poverty and
>>>>>>>> on exploitation in the south for four decades. 
>>>>>>>> http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn05152009.html 
>>>>>>>> <http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn05152009.html> Barbara kessel
>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>> Dobbs, Beck, Palin, Bachmann Share Blame For Rise in Right-Wing 
>>>>>>>>> Extremism, Says Activist Group Southern Poverty Law Center Cites
>>>>>>>>>  Violent Incidents; Lou Dobbs Calls SPLC Director 'Paranoid' By
>>>>>>>>> ANNA SCHECTER March 3, 2010 — Anti-government sentiments in the
>>>>>>>>> U.S. have reached levels so high they could result in another
>>>>>>>>> attack like the Oklahoma City bombing, according to a report
>>>>>>>>> released Tuesday by an organization that tracks right-wing
>>>>>>>>> extremists and the authors of the report place part of the blame
>>>>>>>>> on Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck, Rep. Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin. In 
>>>>>>>>> a statement to ABC News, Lou Dobbs hit back at the director of
>>>>>>>>> the group that prepared the report, calling him "paranoid." A
>>>>>>>>> host of recent attacks on law enforcement, plots against
>>>>>>>>> President Obama, and a shooting at Washington, D.C.'s Holocaust
>>>>>>>>> museum are "signs of the times," said Mark Potok, director of the
>>>>>>>>> Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit group that monitors
>>>>>>>>> militias, white supremacists, and other extremist activity. Potok
>>>>>>>>> made his comments during a teleconference with reporters to
>>>>>>>>> promote the SPLC's latest annual report on hate-group activity. 
>>>>>>>>> "We've seen more threats and actual attacks in the past 18 months
>>>>>>>>>  than we've seen at any given period over the past 15 years,"
>>>>>>>>> claimed Potok. Potok said he blames some public personalities and
>>>>>>>>> conservative politicians for inciting fear. Potok cited talk-show
>>>>>>>>> host Glenn Beck for stoking fears that the Federal Emergency
>>>>>>>>> Management Agency is running concentration camps, former CNN host
>>>>>>>>> Lou Dobbs for incurring fears about supposed Mexican plots to
>>>>>>>>> take over the southwestern U.S., Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.,
>>>>>>>>> for making statements about secret political reeducation camps,
>>>>>>>>> and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin for referring
>>>>>>>>> to Obama "death panels" during the health care debate. Bachmann
>>>>>>>>> and Beck are also cited by name in the SPLC's report, but Dobbs
>>>>>>>>> and Palin are not. "These people help to bring completely
>>>>>>>>> groundless conspiracy theories from the margins into the
>>>>>>>>> mainstream," said Potok. In a phone interview, Dobbs scoffed at
>>>>>>>>> the report. "It's sad that Mr. Potok insists upon maintaining his
>>>>>>>>> paranoia, and I hope that he recovers." "Beyond that, I have
>>>>>>>>> nothing to say about the man," said Dobbs. 'Another Oklahoma City
>>>>>>>>> Is Very Much a Possibility' A spokesperson for Beck declined
>>>>>>>>> comment. Spokespersons for Bachmann and former Alaska Governor
>>>>>>>>> Sarah Palin did not respond by press time to requests for
>>>>>>>>> comment. Bachmann and Beck are discussed in the report itself as
>>>>>>>>> possible sources of anger, while Potok cited Palin and Dobbs in
>>>>>>>>> separate articles accompanying the report. The latest annual SPLC
>>>>>>>>> report, "Rage on the Right," claims there has been a startling
>>>>>>>>> rise in numbers of extremist groups, particularly in the Patriot
>>>>>>>>> movement and militias, the paramilitary branches of these Patriot
>>>>>>>>> groups. Patriot groups see the federal government as their primary 
>>>>>>>>> enemy and adhere to extreme antigovernment doctrines, frequently 
>>>>>>>>> believing in groundless conspiracy theories. According
>>>>>>>>> to the SPLC's figures, the number of active Patriot groups grew
>>>>>>>>> from 149 to 512, an increase of 363 groups (244 percent) in 2009,
>>>>>>>>> and the number of militia groups grew from 42 to 127, an increase
>>>>>>>>> of 85 groups (200 percent) in 2009. The number of nativist vigilante 
>>>>>>>>> organizations that go beyond advocating strict
>>>>>>>>> immigration policy and actually confront or harass suspected
>>>>>>>>> immigrants grew from 173 to 309, an increase 136 groups (almost
>>>>>>>>> 80 percent) in 2009, the report said. The number of hate groups
>>>>>>>>> based on racism, anti-Semitism and anti-gay sentiment grew from
>>>>>>>>> 926 to 932 in 2009. SPLC said this increase caps a decade in
>>>>>>>>> which the number of hate groups surged by 55 percent from 2000 to
>>>>>>>>> 2009 (602 groups to 932). Potok says the expansion of hate groups
>>>>>>>>> in 2009 would have been much greater if not for the demise of the
>>>>>>>>> American National Socialist Workers Party, a key neo-Nazi group
>>>>>>>>> whose founder, Bill White, was arrested in October 2008. The
>>>>>>>>> group had 35 chapters. Taken together, these three radical
>>>>>>>>> strands -- antigovernment Patriot groups, nativist extremist
>>>>>>>>> groups and hate groups -- increased their numbers by
>>>>>>>>> approximately 40 percent in 2009, according to Potok. Potok said
>>>>>>>>> one of the main fears is that these radical groups are infiltrating 
>>>>>>>>> mainstream groups like the Tea Party movement
>>>>>>>>> because of cross pollination of individuals who attend radical
>>>>>>>>> group meetings and more mainstream gatherings. Potok said he
>>>>>>>>> thinks that the climate today matches that of the 'white hot'
>>>>>>>>> tension among anti-government groups prior to the Oklahoma City
>>>>>>>>> bombing that killed 150 people in 1995. "Another Oklahoma City is
>>>>>>>>> very much a possibility," said Potok. Copyright © 2010 ABC News
>>>>>>>>> Internet Ventures
> 

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