A billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist has been condemned for "ghastly and disgraceful" comments after he compared criticism of America's rich to the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
Tom Perkins, 66, wrote a letter to the Wall Street Journal, which was published, in which he likened the Occupy movement to Kristallnacht, the infamous pogrom of Nov 9-10, 1938.
In his letter titled "Progressive Kristallnacht Coming?" Mr Perkins said: "Writing from the epicentre of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its 'one per cent', namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one per cent, namely the rich.
"From the Occupy movement to the demonisation of the rich embedded in virtually every word of our local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, I perceive a rising tide of hatred of the successful one per cent."
Mr Perkins cited the antipathy in San Francisco towards luxury "Google buses" that carry technology workers to their well paid jobs, and growing anger over rising house prices caused by wealthy buyers employed by internet companies.
#1
There's always a top 5%. There may be some shifting around of its occupants, but every society/culture have their 5%. It's been the stupidity of the rest who've allowed the 80 percent to be destroyed in the name of the bottom 15% that is in the works now. The Beltway has always defined 'poor' as the bottom 15%. Never mind that its not the poor of Haiti or Somalia or god knows where. The progressive socialists have been using that 15% to destroy the 80%. Every act is justified for the poor, for social justice, for income equity, etc. Of course its about the accumulation of power, as there has always been poor, there are poor, and there will always be poor. No government program can remove the consequences of the exercise of human free will to choose badly. It's a human trait observed for hundreds of years - you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.
[DAWN] It was Jan 13, 2013, when 21-year-old Eltaf Hussain was on his way to the dharna outside Bilawal House, Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... to protest against Hazara killings in Quetta. "How can the rest of the world go on with their daily business, when such a terrible incident has happened to us?" he thought? "Why doesn't the world stop after so many people have been killed?"
Hussain belongs to the Hazara community of Quetta, a city where he has spent most of his young life. "After completing my intermediate at the Tameer-e-Nau Public College in Quetta, I took a year off as things became dramatically worse for Hazaras. One day my father said to me: 'you can't live your life like this'. I then decided to move to Karachi with the sole purpose of continuing my education as it was impossible to do that in Quetta."
While the Alamdar Road massacre projected the plight of the Hazara onto the national consciousness, it was by no means the beginning of the pogroms against this community.
"I remember that a long time back I was with my father at Sariab Road and he wanted me to wear dark glasses to cover my eyes. I was annoyed even though I knew that anybody can tell from our eyes that we are Hazara.
Later I realised why my father was saying that. He always wore glasses himself. Not long ago, I had to go to the Board Office in Quetta and I covered my face. I wasn't happy doing this but I knew that this way I would be safer. Things have changed for us over time."
The year 2008 was a turning point for Pakistain's Hazaras, when individuals from the community began to be targeted regularly. "Government officials from our community, professionals and even coppers were killed," recalls Hussain. "There was an incident in Jinnah Town, and then two people were killed on Samundari Road. Wherever they would see a Hazara person, they would kill him," said Hussain.
While the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... has claimed credit for the mass casualty attacks, Hussain suspects there are also those who are seeking to exploit the situation.
"When killings are rampant, other elements take advantage too, so anyone threatened by Hazara businessmen also thought it was good opportunity to get rid of them under the umbrella of sectarian killings. For instance, the owner of a shop on Sariab Road did good business and he was targeted. Since the past five or six years, Hazara traders, who were mostly mobile phone distributors have been completely removed from the main bazaars like Sariab Road and from outside the market areas".
Indeed, the Hazara are clearly being pushed into increasingly ghettoised neighborhoods.
"Mehrabad in the east, and Hazara Town, are the two main Hazara pockets in Quetta," says Hussain. "The suburbs of Quetta, like Mastung, are dangerous while Sariab Road is prohibited for us. Sectarian groups there have also targeted security personnel and even FC can't move freely. There are two routes out of Hazara town: Kirani Road and Spinney Road, and Kirani road is blocked for us. It is open for everyone else but FC personnel does not allow Hazaras to take that road because it is risky. Everybody cannot afford private transport or taxis and people prefer to take a bus to get into town. But we can't do that anymore."
What astounds him is that in both Hazara Town and Mehrabad, FC personnel are present at all entry points, yet kaboom and jacket wallahs managed to enter through the check posts. "If I carry a gun for my protection, I will be thoroughly checked and my arms recovered by FC but it seems that not everybody is checked. There has to be a security lapse somewhere," says Hussain.
For Hazaras, it is not just routes but their entire association with the larger community that has been sealed.
"Earlier, we would allow outsiders to come inside our localities for water supply through tankers and sanitation purposes but now we have our own people to do that. As a community, we are cut off from the rest of Quetta. No one can travel by bus anymore and around 60 per cent of students do not go to schools and colleges anymore. It is really sad because our community is very keen on education and despite being a minority, Hazara people used to have a record participation in educational activities. I would have liked my brothers to go to the same college that I went to but it is not possible now."
For such a small, and tightly-knit community, the attacks almost always hit close to home. "The Alamdar Road incident was not far from our house and when it happened, all I could think was how close to it my family was and how I could have lost my mother." When the Sardar Bahadur Khan University for Women was attacked by terrorists, his sister was two buses away. After the incident her education was discontinued. She was so traumatised that I could not speak to her about it for three weeks. Our localities used to be very pleasant for any visitor. Now we can't socialise freely with friends outside our locality. We are small minority, so even if 10 people are killed, it is a huge incident for us and each one of us gets affected."
For Hussain, Karachi offers a respite. "We don't have the same opportunities in Quetta. In Karachi, life is more normal for us and people are a little bit sympathetic. Here, we are not identified as Hazaras. People think we could be Chinese, or Baltis". He paused and smiled. "A friend of mine who is a charming fellow enjoys posing as a Chinese sometimes just for fun". There are other differences as well.
"There are days one is completely despondent but then, we see a positive social response like the Bilawal House dharna. We would never see that in Quetta, but in Karachi, even Sunnis joined us. It gives us tremendous hope."
His described how his fellow students in Karachi have a completely different exposure to him. "They are amazed to hear what I have been through in my life. They are your regular 'burger types' and have never seen dead bodies, blood or the victims of kabooms. I feel that the youth of Pakistain should know about the Hazara, their history, culture and the present situation because to live and work together, they must trust each other, and to be able to trust each other, you have to know each other".
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
not a new story, sadly
the Hazara have been the victims of ethnic and sectarian persecution for centuries
the Taliban in Afghanistan proudly claim to have slaughtered thousands of Hazara in the 90s
the Hazara, are mostly Shia, use a lot of Persian words even when they speak Urdu or Pashtan languages and have some oriental features and are thus relatively easy for the various Sunni Islamists to identify
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/27/2014 5:23 Comments ||
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NADEEM F. PARACHA [DAWN] The narrative of those who so zealously deliver the 'peace talks with bad boys' mantra, now stands as a rather questionable proposition.
Vicious terrorist attacks against civilians and military personnel have witnessed a rude and sudden rise in the last few months especially, as compared to episodes of bad boy violence before the May 2013 general election.
Whereas bad boy violence before May 2013 had already been on the rise during the PPP-led coalition regime (2008-2013) -- that also included the country's two other liberal parties, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP) -- analysts suggest that attacks on civilians, politicians and soldiers by the bully boyz have witnessed a disconcerting 40 per cent rise within the last few months.
The irony of it all is that the rise in this violence has taken place after the two main moderate right-wing and 'pro-peace-talks' parties, the PML-N and Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer... 's Pakistain Teheek-e- Insaf (PTI), were able to sprint past parties belonging to the previous elected government in the May 2013 election.
Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... 's PML-N swept the polls in the country's largest province, the Punjab, and at the centre, while Khan's PTI won big in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... (KP).
PMLN formed governments at the centre and the Punjab, and PTI in the KP province.
During their respective election campaigns, both the parties had denounced the 'hawkish attitude (towards bad boys)' of the PPP, MQM and ANP, and insisted that peace talks with the bully boyz were the only way to resolve the issue of terrorism in Pakistain.
Their narrative in this respect went something like this: The war against extremism was imposed upon Pakistain by the Americans and (thus) it is not our war. Extremists are slaughtering Paks because the Pak state is an ally of the US that breaches Pakistain's illusory sovereignty with drones and incites Dire Revenge™ attacks from the bad boys.
Though a majority of Paks were indeed in favour of a peaceful resolution, most experts were always sceptical about the narrative, believing it to be based on a simplistic and even apologetic understanding of the conflict.
Eight months after the 'peace-talkers' finally managed to enter the corridors of power, the constant recycling of their narrative in this context has rapidly worn thin, now seeming to be almost entirely superficial and ill-informed in the face of the unprecedented rise in bad boy attacks.
Even though this realisation is fast becoming prominent in the PML-N government at the centre, and experts are now expecting the PML-N to gradually shift its narrative, PTI is still stubbornly holding on to it.
Though one has observed Khan's growing frustration with the violence, last week when the bully boyz slaughtered over 20 soldiers in KP, he reiterated his claim that things like suicide kabooms were unknown in Pakistain before 2004 (or when the US first began to use drone missiles to take out Pak and non-Pak gunnies hiding in the tribal areas of the country).
Khan's critics have continued to accuse him of distorting history and confusing a large number of his young supporters.
The critics are correct in pointing out that the episodes involving religious bully boyz hell-bent on inflicting violence on the people and military of Pakistain have been a pre-2004 phenomenon that cannot be squarely blamed on drone attacks.
In October 2001, 18 Christians were bumped off when six assailants opened fire inside the St. Dominic Church in Bahawalpur. The dead included women and small children. The attackers claimed to be sympathisers of the Afghan Taliban.
In May 2002, a jacket wallah rammed a car full of explosives into a Pakistain Navy bus, as it was leaving a local five-star hotel in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... . 14 people were killed. A Pak bad boy outfit associated with the Al Qaeda took responsibility.
In June 2002, a suicide bomber attacked the US Consulate in Karachi, killing 12 persons, all of them Paks.
In July 2003, 53 people were killed and 57 injured when two men opened fire, and one went kaboom! in a Shia mosque, in Quetta, during the Friday prayers.
All these attacks involving suicide bombers took place before 2004 and/or years before the word drone became so common in this country, usually used by conventional right-wing parties to explain the rise of terrorism and the growth of bad boy outfits in Pakistain.
Parties like the PTI and their firmest allies, the fundamentalist Jamat-e-Islami, must realise that their stand against drone attacks and a military operation against militancy will continue to sound suspicious if based on distorted facts.
The stand should be taken on its own merits without finding the need to be fattened by a narrative based on selective and voluntary historical amnesia. The stand then becomes nothing but an act of damaging dishonesty.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2014 00:00 ||
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David Gerstman at Legal Insurrection recapitulates recent history and explains why the Israelis stand with Bibi. Worth the read as a reminder of how we got to this point.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/27/2014 07:49 ||
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[Breitbart] Hat tip to Congressman Westmoreland.
For the last five years we have watched President Obama try time and again to use government to create jobs.
More government spending.
More government programs.
Just more and more federal government. And time and again, he has failed to actually create jobs--to the tune of unemployment still sitting above seven percent. I know some people believe if you say something enough, it will come true. After "If you like your health insurance you can keep your health insurance," I would hope the president would finally realize that's not how things work. And no matter how many times he says government spending will help the economy, it simply won't. Champ is the modern-day American Castro. He is committed to his leftist ideology. Five years or fifty, his goals and aspirations will not change. The only thing that will change is his determination to enforce his will upon the people. A deeply divided nation has wrought it's first communist dictator. It is yet to be seen if he or his dictatorship, or the nation for that matter, will survive.
[HuffPoo] Venture capitalist Thomas Perkins wrote a letter to the editors at the Wall Street Journal, comparing the plight of the rich to the Holocaust, called "Progressive Kristallnacht Coming?"... and the WSJ published it. Link to WSJ article.
"I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its 'one percent,' namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the 'rich', " some of whom are also..... Jews
Perkins writes. Thomas Perkins, one of the founders of venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, was comparing taxes on the super rich to the slaughter of millions in the Holocaust. Took him [and others] 5 long years to discover this ?
Instapundit has some thoughts on why this is noteworthy here.
The Nazis knew very well that in order to gain support for their takeover of the lives of ordinary Germans, they needed to create an enemy at home someone to blame for unemployment, inflation, and economic chaos. Being highly visible as business owners and professionals, and even more importantly, seen as successful while many Germans were atruggling, the Jewish problem was the perfect scapegoat.
The Nazis also understood the importance and effectiveness of propaganda in shaping public opinion. Most students of history recognize the name of film director Leni Riefenstahl, whose Triumph of the Will is perhaps the most famous propaganda film of the Third Reich. But there were many others, such as Viet Harlan, the maker of Jew Suss a virulently anti-Semitic film made during Hitlers regime.
Students of propaganda know that official government proclamations have limited affect people tend to tune them out. But the endless repetition of themes, especially when cleverly intertwined with popular entertainment media, can be remarkably effective in altering the perceptions of average people.
#2
Substitute "Tea Party" for "Jew", and you have the current formula of the Demicratic Party.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
01/27/2014 5:20 Comments ||
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#3
A Pox on both houses. Look to your peers Mr. Perkins. Who finances these progressive socialists? Soros isn't a 99 percenter. Those who operate tax free trusts like the Tides Foundation are not among the 99 percenters. Then there are your other fellow peers who utterly corrupt the political system to protect their assets through purchase and lobbying of favors and special legislation. The greatest protection to you and your peers is a strong middle class and yet all those involved in the proceeding points have and now are engaged in destroying that middle class.
#5
Hey! Keep me out of it! I don't want anything to do with these people.
Posted by: San Andreas Fault ||
01/27/2014 10:54 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Yet another distraction from a key issue. Gay married couples should be free to own all the guns they want, and abort all their natural offspring, while protecting their marijuana plantations. Meanwhile -
NYTimes op-ed 12/11/2012:
Federal and state authorities have chosen not to indict HSBC, the London-based bank, on charges of vast and prolonged money laundering, for fear that criminal prosecution would topple the bank and, in the process, endanger the financial system. They also have not charged any top HSBC banker in the case, though it boggles the mind that a bank could launder money as HSBC did without anyone in a position of authority making culpable decisions.Clearly, the government has bought into the notion that too big to fail is too big to jail. When prosecutors choose not to prosecute to the full extent of the law in a case as egregious as this, the law itself is diminished. The deterrence that comes from the threat of criminal prosecution is weakened, if not lost.
#7
Guy is an idiot because although the shock value of nazi comparisons gets you noticed it also makes it far to easy for folks to dismiss your ideas. He might be 100% correct but he's made it difficult for anyone to take his ideas forward without looking like idiots.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[DAWN] It was Jan 13, 2013, when 21-year-old Eltaf Hussain was on his way to the dharna outside Bilawal House, 
[DAWN] The narrative of those who so zealously deliver the 'peace talks with
Nawaz Sharif
