JFK WANTED FOR TREASON

The John Birch Society. Ahhhh yes. It was November, 50 years ago, in Dallas.

The Koch brothers dad started and ran THE JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY. mean, deadly, burning with hatred. Fueled by the Cold War and civil rights and a changing society that they didn't want changed. Now it is known as the TEA PARTY. Do you remember THE JOHN BIRCHERS, or reading about them? The Birchers? Maybe you are too young.

At any rate, they were--very much a part do the scene, though keeping in the shadows- Out of the 40's, 50's and 60's, they rode. The secret society of hate and screaming conspiracy theories, shouting mistrust of government, it's programs, discounting and hating intellectuals, writers, journalists who didn't agree with them, problem solvers were showered with Vitrolic lava if it meant taxes or group effort or government action.

Hate hate hate. Hate and suspect and spread it. They saw things that were never there. They spread up and down the strata of society. A dentist here, a mechanic there, a fisherman, a military member, a businessman. They looked, with hate and a black heart. They saw a Communist takeover in every tree and office. A Socialist plot behind every public project. A traitor group, waiting to attack, around every criticism of the military industrial complex.

Right wing conspiracy theorists, meeting secretly in homes, seething with hatred for Commies, Native Americans, writers, queers, liberals, academics, "negroes", Russians, Jews~~and non Christian Right wingers too---- I remember whispers of them. Friends families were involved. Meetings were held. The time was dark.

And yes-- This is where Koch bros Dad got his start. They were born out of this cesspool. In leading and molding this right wing hate group. In creating the theories of conspiracy, breeding the mistrust, turning hatred toward the lazy and the poor. Decrying the beggars as criminals.

Now, his proud sons have, like a Phoenix out of sand, arisen as 'he same thing, with a different cloak-- the Tea Party

I don't know whether to feel sick, or refreshed. Sick that the old John Birch Society (founded by Koch brothers family) has become the Tea Party, and the war chant is largely the same over the past half century. It's shocking, both that it was part of life in the USA then, as it is now. Same with the raving right and commie hunters, decrying Social Security for widows and orphans, and thence declaring, in the 60's, that Medicare would destroy our way of life. Someone said "the poor will always be with us" and yes, Virginia, so, apparently, will the right wing nutbags.

Now this has become the Tea Party. Many of the same players. LOTS of the same ideas and rhetoric. Most of the same tenets and goals. The Sam litany of complaints, theories and suspicion. Fascism, sneaking onto the country, sliming around, wrapped in Christian dogma and the American Flag. Is is scary and sad? Yes. Is it totally predictable? Of course. Read these posters, hung in Dallas in 1963. Read what is said about Obama, with the same fervor (and same lack of factual basis.) -- and then pile on a series of failed foreign policy wars, since Korea, a shakeup of the makeup of society, the browning of the populace, a black president-- these people are livid with rage.

So, do you feel relieved that they are just "still at it" or scared. Whatever I feel, I know I feel a cold wind blow and make me feel a sense of foreboding and danger. We must let these morons have their rights of speech, opinion and assembly-- and we must be strong and smart and see what they are selling and what they want to see happen. They are serious, evil people.