“Current Communist Goals – 1963 – Herlong’s Remarks

Tags

, , ,

BackChannels readers will find the piece in several forms around the web as it has caught the fancy of partisans of various stripe.

It might be fund to annotate each of the 45 remarks (anyone want to write the paycheck?), for each appears to resonate today with two egregious large movements in east-west politics: Putin’s politically absolute position as the leader of a now ulra-nationalist neo-imperial Russian state and, sigh, the American Far Right’s penchant for mirroring Moscow with a correspondingly stiff accusation.

On the reading of  Skousen’s book — still in print and ever popular! — BackChannels feels overstocked, underfunded, and out of shelf space.

The bookends of Horseshoe Theory: strident communism and socialism on the Left | rabid libertarian fascism on the Right: may God visit the pox on both their houses.

BackChannels has reset the layout to suit the medium.  Forgive any awkward typographica spacing for a while (the editor’s ageing).


Current Communist Goals
EXTENSION OF REMARKS
OF
HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, January 10, 1963

Mr. HERLONG. Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Nordman of De Land, Fla., is an ardent and articulate opponent of communism, and until recently published the De Land Courier, which she dedicated to the purpose of alerting the public to the dangers of communism in America.  At Mrs. Nordman’s request, I include in the RECORD, under unanimous consent, the following “Current Communist Goals,” which she identifies as an excerpt from “The Naked Communist,” by Cleon Skousen: [From “The Naked Communist,” by Cleon Skousen]

CURRENT COMMUNIST GOALS

  1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
  2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

  3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament by the United States would be a
    demonstration of moral strength.

  4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless
    of whether or not items could be used for war.

  5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

  6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

  7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

  8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev’s promise
    in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

  9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed
    to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

  10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

  11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand
    that it be set up ‘as a one-world government with its own Independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

  12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

  13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

  14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

  15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

  16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

  17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current
    Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations.  Put the party line in textbooks.

  18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

  19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

  20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing,  policy making positions.

  21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

  22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression.
    An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”

  23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness,
    repulsive, meaningless art.”

  24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.

  25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity
    in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

  26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity, as “normal, natural, healthy.”

  27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit
    the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a “religious crutch.”

  28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression n the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”

  29. Discredit the America Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of
    step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

  30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”

  31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American
    history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the “big picture.” Give more
    emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

  32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture-education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

  33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist
    apparatus.

  34. Eliminate the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities.

  35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

  36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

  37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

  38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all
    behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand or treat.

  39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of
    gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

  40. Discredit the family as an institution.  Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

  41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents.
    Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence
    of parents.

  42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of
    the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

  43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self government.

  44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

  45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World
    Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and Individuals alike.

Source: http://nwlibertyacademy.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/communist_goals.pdf

Related on the Web

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Cleon_Skousen:

After losing his police job, Skousen founded a group called the All-American Society, which Time magazine described in 1961 as an “exemplar of the far-right ultras.”[17] Throughout the 1960s, Skousen was also admired by members and leaders of the John Birch Society, although members of the more mainstream conservative movement and the American Security Council[4] snubbed him out of fear that his controversial views would hurt the credibility of the conservative movement. Skousen used Birch Society magazines as source and reference material,[7] and was pictured on the cover of its magazine, American Interest. Although he was never officially a member of the organization, he was a member of its speakers’ bureau and lectured at John Birch Society events throughout the United States for many years. A 1962 FBI memo described Skousen as affiliating with an “extreme right-wing” group which was promoting “anticommunism for obvious financial purposes”.[4] Skousen authored a pamphlet titled The Communist Attack on the John Birch Society, characterizing criticism of the Society as incipient communism.[12]



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Naked_Communist

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1561529/posts (about the same thing as here).  🙂

–33–

Also in Media: “When The Left Longed For Russian Political Interference” – The Daily Beast – January 29, 2017

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Today, tweets from the President of the United States Donald J. Trump seem to suggest both trust of and a growing friendship for today’s Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Of course, Putin was himself a former KGB agent, who obviously learned well the methods of disinformation and propaganda taught him in KGB school decades ago. Now he used these techniques to, as the CIA report put it, to order “an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency.”

Source: When The Left Longed For Russian Political Interference – The Daily Beast

–33–

Also in Media: “Executive Order on So-Called “Sanctuary Cities” Puts All Communities at Risk, ADL Says” | January 25, 2017

Tags

, ,

Press Release

Executive Order on So-Called “Sanctuary Cities” Puts All Communities at Risk, ADL SaysNew York, NY, January 25, 2017 …

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today voiced deep concern over President Trump’s executive order defunding so-called “sanctuary cities”– cities that protect their relationship between police and immigrant communities by refusing to entangle local law enforcement in federal immigration enforcement.“

From our years of experiences in training law enforcement on hate crimes in the United States, we know the critical need for trust between police and the communities they have sworn to serve and protect,” said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO. “Forcing cities to choose between losing funds – or dividing police and immigrant communities – is wrong and dangerous. When immigrants and their families and communities fear police, they become vulnerable to hate crimes. This executive order would create an underclass of people who do not have open access to police protection if they become victims.”

“Weakening law enforcement officers’ relationship with immigrant communities puts all of our communities at risk and deters a segment of our community from calling the police after a crime or from coming forward as witnesses,” said David Friedman, ADL Vice President of Law Enforcement, Extremism and Community Security. “We commend those cities that have prioritized community policing and building a trusting relationship between law enforcement and immigrant communities. We urge them to continue their policies and dedication to keeping all communities safe.”

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.

Source: Executive Order on So-Called “Sanctuary Cities” Puts All Communities at Risk, ADL Says

BackChannels wishes to not be so lazy as to post press releases verbatim, but the editor also wishes to read (books) and adjust both personal and publication focus, and partly so by stepping away from the desktop.

As reports and opinions mount, the Trump Administration, now entering only its second week of business, has come to look ill-prepared and thoughtless as regards any careful formulation of national policy in many areas.  The appearance of an unstudied national xenophobia expressed from the White House bodes ill for Americans, nearly all of whose ancestors immigrated into North America themselves.

Related

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/26/politics/donald-trump-sanctuary-cities/index.html 1/27/2017.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-legal-idUSKBN15B03H – 1/27/2017.

–33–

Barbaric Damascus – Mortality Report at End of 2016

Tags

, ,

During the period of October 1st, 2016 to December 14, 2016, the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies (DCHRS) documented 1753 civilian victims, who were killed in Aleppo by Russian and Syrian regime forces. Among these civilians, there were 243 children and 120 women at a ratio of 14% and 9% respectively. As of December, extrajudicial killing began to take place and the number of victims that DCHRS was able to document is 82 victims.

Source: Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies.  “Statistical Analysis of Aleppo’s Victims During Oct 1, 2016 to Dec 14, 2016”.

Warning: while the page referenced features charts and graphs detailing casualties and the causes of mortality, it also provides earlier and horrific images of the victims of war, many of them children.

syria-war-dchrs-170128-0751-dim

The screen capture provides one example of charting available, which is larger on the page referenced.

Related

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/foreign-policy/316485-trump-needs-a-new-approach-to-syria-bottom-up-defense – 1/27/2017.

–33–

A Nod to Pete Seeger, Only a Short Time Gone (Three Years This Day)

Wikipedia note:

Seeger found inspiration for the song in October 1955 while he was on a plane bound for a concert at Oberlin College, one of the few venues which would hire him during the McCarthy era.[5] Leafing through his notebook he saw the passage, “Where are the flowers, the girls have plucked them. Where are the girls, they’ve all taken husbands. Where are the men, they’re all in the army.”[6] These lines were taken from the traditional Cossack folk song “Koloda-Duda”, referenced in the Mikhail Sholokhov novel And Quiet Flows the Don (1934), which Seeger had read “at least a year or two before”.[3]

Related Online


Husock, Howard.  “America’s Most Successful Communist.”  City Journal, Summer 2005:

The politicization of American pop dates from the 1960s, but it grew out of a patient leftist political strategy that began in the mid-1930s with the Communist Party’s “Popular Front” effort to use popular culture to advance its cause.


When BackChannels bolds an entry, as with the above, try clicking over for the joy of reading it.  I thought Howard Husock’s 2005 article a terrific piece of cultural, musical, and political history.  Pete Seeger passed away on January 27, 2014 (URL is to the obits).

–33–

 

 

Also in Media: “Revival of the Red Infiltration” | Visegrad Insight | January 24, 2017

Tags

, , , , ,

According to polls conducted by GLOBSEC Trends, about half the populations of these three countries see their country’s position in Europe as something in between the East and the West, with almost half of their citizens preferring “neutrality” to any polar adherence. In effort to divide the societies further, these already doubtful segments of the population are being carefully targeted by hostile disinformation operations. If we take into account the actions of political leaders, which Lenin would call “useful idiots”, the impact is already measurable.

Read more! “Revival of the Red Infiltration” | Visegrad Insight

Module: ABC’s Trump Interview on January 25, 2017

Tags

, , , , , , ,

President Trump: The White House Interview (Part 1)
President Trump: The White House Interview (Part 2)
TRANSCRIPT: ABC News Anchor David Muir Interviews President Trump

Experience the interview first — no filters, no judgments, no intermediaries — just you, the media consumer, and President Trump and ABC anchor David Muir.


Not thirty seconds into the interview, Trump answers a question about being changed by becoming President: “I can be the most Presidential person ever other than possibly the great Abe Lincoln . . . but I may not be able to do the job nearly as well if I do that.”

Huh?

If the President does not intend to be the “most presidential” President ever — or at least up there with the finest and most fondly remembered of American Presidents — then what is that aspiration?

Ten days ago, chess champion and Kremlin critic Gary Kasparov posted on Facebook this excerpt from Abraham Lincoln’s 1855 “Letter to Joshua Speed”:

lincoln-quotation

There’s Russia again – and the mention of its frank despotism.

About eight years ago, Andie Brownlow writing for the conservative American Thinker (August 30, 2009) had this to note about Soviet-style ideological subversion:

The point of this “Ideological Subversion” was to weaken an enemy country, strip its culture and corrupt their values to a point of complete vulnerability. Mr. Schuman describes it as:

[An] overt…slow process…[to] change the perception of reality of every American to such an extent that despite the abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community and their country.

The first step, Demoralization, has already been completed in America and continues to perpetuate itself. The Obama Administration policies are accelerating the second step of Destabilization and rapidly approaching the third phase of Crisis.

As you have read, Brownlow, opining in 2009, had taken aim at the Obama Administration!

The Trump Presidency has arrived, and the laudable and scrupulous Big Press, the majors, are hot with articles on the President’s ego and the Administration’s credibility and integrity in its discussion and presentation of information.

From historical experience, the business — it is a business, and one particularly loathsome and pernicious! — of messing up someone else’s “information space” may be characterized as part of Soviet KGB “Active Measures”.

Has that been happening here in the United States?

Has Moscow had a hand in it?

Have we through our own now immense and unfettered online press — and may it be always so! — been doing it to ourselves in the cause of being strident enough for obtaining notice?

Perhaps the answers don’t matter so much.

At base, the only issue having to do with the national experience of media involves the popular and professional assessment of the credibility and integrity of information encountered.

BackChannels could promote an opinion, and perhaps has, but would rather the BackChannels reader take patient time to look into the matter as well and form some new opinion about both the Marxist-Leninist mission of the former Soviet Union and, now one month more than 25 years later, the ultra-nationalist imperialist mission of today’s Russian State — and then ask where Trump has positioned, or may position, the United States of America in light of that well-remarked — and by no less than the great President Lincoln himself — habitual Russian despotism.

–33–

FTAC – Trump and America’s Broadest Divisions

Tags

, , , , ,

I’m not going to jump all over Trump’s case. We in the United States have become a deeply polarized people given to extremes.

The general layout:

“Brown” – New Nationalism – Conservative – Far Right

“Red-Green” – Old Comrades and Neo-Islamists – Far Left

Neither “Brown” nor “Red-Green” should be defining classically liberal American politics, but those color codes have made deep inroads into both of our political parties, and that’s leaving the middle and moderate ranks anemic, or at least looking so.

I’m remaining stuck in the middle!

🙂

As always, and also, I want to follow what actually happens over a little bit of time — the famous “First 100 Days” may do — before becoming strident about predictions — and I hope never to confuse “political conservatism” with “conservatism in research”, i.e., careful data collection and thoughtful analysis over time.


BackChannels does not want to practice writing the same article over and over; however, with repetition of some ideas comes increased compression for the same.

If nothing else, this post — and this blog — advocate for empiricism and high integrity in journalism matched by some breadth in knowledge and insight.

Critical reading and reasoning abilities also count in the politics we American have either dealt ourselves or allowed to overtake us.  If en masse we’re subconsciously intent on becoming, keeping, or aligning ourselves in brutal, vicious, and vulgar mobs, then power may become the permanent province of an immensely wealthy business and political elite, i.e., our democracy will simply melt away into just another authoritarian, capricious, feudal, and spirit crushing nightmare.

–33–