In the video below(or at this link for those of you reading this through a feed that doesn't allow embedding, like Facebook) is Rachel Maddow interviewing Tim Phillips, of the disingenuously-named Americans for Prosperity and, with Ralph Reed, was a founder of Century Strategies. This man is behind--and proudly--the "spontaneous" protests erupting at these town hall meetings, that are starting to become violent. He makes no bones about having corporate money behind him, and openly declares he'd like more many times in the interview.
He then goes on to brag about how well his organization has spurred these mini-riots on and yet at the same time claims he's "grassroots," when everything that's known about him, and anything he says, makes it clear that he's in fact astroturf. Somehow he thinks he can be both at the same time, and he seems to think corporations are "just folks." But that's a reflection of the corporate mindset, in which corporations are individuals, and more valued ones than actual human beings, allowed to commit crimes that not one of us could get away with. (I mean, could you get away with poisoning your neighbor's backyard? Or whole cities? Corporations have.)
Good god. The man has FANGS.
I watched this last night and was amazed at what I saw: pure, distilled, amoral lobbyist, with just about the most sinister smile I've seen on a real human being. If you can call it a smile; it's more like he just pinches his mouth at the ends and lets his teeth show, because he's learned humans do something like that to put others at ease. If you ever saw "Thank You For Smoking," this is That Guy. I swear, when I was watching, I almost thought I could smell brimstone. Watch him and see if you can detect any semblance of humanity as you understand it(unless you have a very low opinion of humanity, in which case it will be easier). Rachel lets him hang himself pretty well.
This is what's behind the "protests" against health care, which are not protests but campaigns of intimidation. Racism, fears of euthanasia(I still want to know how they got people to believe that one), fears of "socialism"(as though any of the protesters have any idea what that is anyway), whatever it takes. He doesn't care. He'll use it as a way to entice people to panic, all for the sake of his corporate clients. It's kind of clumsy, as many people wearing shirts with health insurance company logos on them have been spotted at these protests. But the idea is overkill, to clog up the system with enough shit that the reforms can't be done, or to scare our elected representatives into not voting for it and scare Americans into not supporting it.
Fear. That's all they have. You'd think this country would have had enough of that. But as someone once said, fear is the mindkiller. It destroys the ability to reason, or to think, or to debate, or to decide. It destroys.
And those being manipulated into these protests are the ones who will lose. And the corporations and people like Phillips will chuckle and enjoy some expensive champagne the day it's defeated, still a bit amazed that these people are such sheep and can so easily be reduced to children, and will unthinkingly act against their own interests for the sake of corporations that will then deny them health care when they need it, though they'll certainly accept the premium money.
It's time to recognize this, though it's so obvious and out in the open I don't see how it could be missed, as a war of the corporations not against the government, but against you, me, and even the people at these protests. They're laughing at you as they urge you on. They do not care whether you live or die. They profit off your suffering. Understand this before it's too late. And if you start feeling doubt? Watch Mr. Tom Phillips again.
"Eternity in the company of Beelzebub, and all of his hellish instruments of death, will be a picnic compared to five minutes with me & this pencil." --E. Blackadder, 1789 Questionable
words & pictures from John Linton Roberson
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