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UNFTR Weekly Roundup |
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Who are these guys? When Otto Ohlendorf, who had spent the waning years of World War II in the German Ministry of Economics, was questioned at Nuremberg about his earlier activities in the war as a commander of the Einsatzgruppen he was asked how many men, women and children his particular unit had murdered. As his questioner Whitney R. Harris later recalled, Ohlendorf shrugged and said plainly, “Ninety thousand.”
In his affidavit, Ohlendorf elaborated:
“The Einsatz unit would enter a village or town and order the prominent Jewish citizens to call together all Jews for the purpose of ‘resettlement.’ They were requested to hand over their valuables and shortly before execution to surrender their outer clothing. They were transported to the place of executions, usually an antitank ditch, in trucks—always only as many as could be executed immediately…Then they were shot, kneeling or standing, by firing squads in a military manner and the corpses thrown into the ditch.”
Perhaps just as chilling was the care taken to manage the psychological toll on the German soldiers. Ohlendorf described how he instructed his men to all shoot simultaneously, “in order to avoid direct personal responsibility.” When pressed on why he was specific about the manner of killing he replied, “both for the victims and for those who carried out the executions, it was, psychologically, an immense burden to bear.”
I first learned of the Einsatzgruppen from docents at a Holocaust Center where I volunteered for several years. Several parts of the story they told are burned into my memory, not the least of which was the manner in which these field officers were recruited. Membership in these special units was not compulsory. Men were free to decline without pressure or condemnation from superiors. They were allowed to return to their family members after special tours and were treated as though they were simply on a normal assignment. The units were eventually wound down after the German command determined that these mobile death squads were simply too expensive to maintain, especially the cost of the bullets required to commit mass atrocities. Ultimately, they were allowed to return to special details, such as the Ministry of Economics, as the Reich moved to implement the “Final Solution.”
Why offer this bit of history now?
Last week I produced an episode that offered answers to one of the questions I get most often: “If the economy is so bad, why does the stock market continue to rise?” Hopefully you had a chance to check it out. Well, this is a response to another question that I see online nearly every day... Paraphrasing here: “Who the fuck are these ICE agents?”
They’re no different than the Einsatzgruppen in my mind now that they have taken to murdering U.S. citizens in cold blood. Masked agents of the administration, seemingly unaccountable to no one and lacking any special training or skills. Men with murderous souls who can just as easily murder innocent people and say “fucking bitch” or “boo hoo.” Then they’re off to their families to resume their own lives as though nothing happened.
We covered in the November JOLTS report that there are currently 7.1 million jobs available in the United States. But these men chose to work for a mobile death squad. There’s no use mincing words at this point. We know that overwhelming numbers of ICE applicants are unfit and illiterate and some have pending legal charges. Perhaps that’s why they aren’t qualified to fill the more than 7 million open jobs in the economy. Or maybe they’re just blood thirsty jackoffs with inferiority complexes and a desire to punish the world for their inadequacies.
I know people cringe at comparisons to Nazi Germany but I see this as a perfectly viable answer to the question of who these men are and why they would want this job. |
Other things I’m obsessing over…
-Max |
Killer Left Take of the Week |
KLTW goes to Jennifer Welch of the I’ve Had It Podcast, which has skyrocketed on the charts over the last year. In this clip, Welch goes bananas on Booker, Jeffries and Schumer for the hypocrisy surrounding the gestapo tactics of the regime. While condemning ICE on social media they’re quietly doing GOP bidding by continuing to fund homeland security and failing to ask for literally anything in Congressional negotiations. Ken Klippenstein has made similar arguments recently about the absolute failure of the Democratic Party to come up with anything to slow the roll of this administration. It’s almost as though…never mind. Here’s Jennifer crushing some souls.
Watch: Dem Leaders FAKE OUTRAGE As They FUND the MURDER of American Citizens! |
Chart of the Week |
There are more theories in the world about silver prices than there is silver. At one point today silver prices reached $117 before coming back down slightly. But it’s above $100 and setting records on the daily. Why? |
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Sources: Macrotrends
Well, here’s the thing about commodities. As I said above, there are as many theories out there as there are commodities so it’s difficult to tell. The mainstream narrative is that this represents the capital flight to safety in hard assets as it has followed a similar trajectory to gold. Corollaries to this theory include the buildup of physical commodity stores that might someday be used as a peg for stablecoins.
It could be just pure speculation considering nothing makes much sense these days. It could be foreign actors playing fast and loose with supply and potentially hoarding physical stores. Maybe it has something to do with the importance of silver in the production of solar panels and smart phones and the fear among corporations in certain countries that geopolitical concerns will clamp down on the free flow of these valuable minerals.
It could be all of these things.
Or it could be the fact that JPMorgan Chase has moved off of its historically short position on silver to a bullish long-term outlook and is itself hoarding supply. This is something that many observed after a short but alarming shut down on the Friday after Thanksgiving last year. According to the CME, it had to briefly shut down futures trading operations over a data center cooling issue. When trading reopened it’s as though JPMorgan found Jesus during the blackout and he told them to start buying silver, leading some to speculate that a large foreign actor (China) might have been testing the market by making a huge call for silver. This would be a political act of war in these circles, especially considering the widespread short positions among U.S. financial giants.
So the (conspiracy) theory goes that this kicked off a cold war-style race to hoard silver since the foreign actor (China) played its hand in the open.
My take on this? It’s all of the above PLUS a short squeeze by JPMC, which is exacerbating the price hike. My BIGGER take on all of this? There is no daylight between Trump administration policies and the big financial institutions. If there are markets to be made or stolen, the Trump administration is there to back it up with bullying or outright interference. The battles of the past were fought over oil. The future is over data. And data centers. And the energy it takes to build and run them. Which means oil is still in the mix.
Pure corporatocracy. Anyone who invokes Milton Friedman and free markets should be laughed out of the room. |
Headlines |
Continuing With the Nazi Propaganda Theme…The Baffler digs into the recent controversy surrounding the pro-white nationalist social media posts by the Department of Labor. Beyond the obvious dog whistles from this administration, the DoL pivot is particularly disturbing given its rich history of defending diversity in the working class.
From the article: “The government agency tasked with enforcing the nation’s labor laws and protecting the interests of its workers was now posting stark, black and white propaganda images announcing that ‘globalism has failed’ and ‘your homeland is calling,’ along with Christian religious content insisting upon ‘One Nation Under God.” Earlier this month, the full force of its far-right turn was made clear in a post that read ‘One Homeland. One People. One Heritage. Remember who you are, American.’ As many commenters pointed out, the phrasing recalls the Nazi slogan ‘Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer,’ or ‘one people, one realm, one leader.’” The Baffler: A Piece of Work: The Department of Labor’s anti-immigrant turn betrays its history Building on the Theme a Little More…When neoliberalism works in our favor we look the other way. When the worst tendencies of it come home to roost, we cannot be surprised. You can be horrified and dismayed, but not surprised.
From the article: “As journalist James Pogue has pointed out, the concept of a group of ‘heritage Americans’is rapidly being popularized on the new Right, including by Vance. In Pogue’s account, the concept centers on the descendants of early, overwhelmingly white settler stock, especially Scots‑Irish and other Anglo‑American frontier families — and is often formulated in explicit contrast to Jews.”
Jacobin: The Right’s Antisemitism Is Too Flagrant to Ignore
About That Military Budget…Mr. Semler makes and EXCELLENT point that while the GOP keeps gutting social welfare programs and other helpful government programs due to “fraud, waste, and abuse” that it never seems to actually find or root out, they pushed through yet ANOTHER budget increase for an agency that simply cannot, will not and may never again pass an audit. Oh, and 70% of Democrats went along with it. Because, uniparty.
From the article: “This money is controlled by an executive department that can’t pass an audit. The Pentagon doesn’t properly track its spending or resources. This means that House members overwhelmingly approved a historic transfer of wealth without knowing how taxpayer dollars will actually be used. Naturally, 89% of House Republicans — who last year slashed social welfare in the name of reducing government waste, fraud, and abuse — voted to increase funding for the single largest driver of that waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Polygraph by Stephen Semler: House boosts military budget as Pentagon extends failed audit streak to 30 years |
Resources |
Pod Love“If you haven’t been on Elon’s platform recently you’re missing the millions of people asking Grok instead of using their brains. And now Grok is digitally undressing young girls with zero accountability.”
The Bitchuation Room: Grok is Everything That’s Wrong with AI
Book LoveHard to believe this would need to be a NEW recommendation, but here we fucking are. Back to basics, learning history again.
“A modern classic and the definitive study of Adolf Hitler, the rise of Nazi Germany, the Holocaust, and World War II by the foreign correspondent who saw firsthand how the Nazi movement swept Europe. William B. Shirer presents nuanced profiles of major and minor figures as well as exacting details of the political movements, wartime strategy, and atrocities of the Third Reich. This epic work is required reading to understand modern history and how fascist dictators can captivate a population to wicked ends.”
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer
Unf*cker Comment of the WeekFrom @cosmiccreator and @leschortos9196 : “@cosmiccreator: Get well soon USA. Love & hope from Ireland.”
“@leschortos9196: Too late....patient died.” |
Progressive Corner |
Progressive Organization of the Week: Working Families Party.“This progressive grassroots political party fights for workers over bosses and people over the powerful. It strives for an America which realizes the promise of freedom and equity for all.”
Check Out the UNFTR Directory of Progressive Resources for More |
UNFTR Member Question of the Week |
Question: We’re living in a world where Peace Prizes are apparently transferrable. So let’s have some fun. Who should have theirs revoked, and what worse person should they give it to? |
BluCrayons: If this is purely as a joke, the worst I can think of is revoke MLK Jr.’s and give it to George Lincoln Rockwell. That’s about as terrible as I can think.
Manny Faces: Thanos. |
KingMob: Take Henry Kissinger’s and also give it to Trump.
WildEyedBob: Jimmy Carter should give his award to The Grim Reaper in anticipation of their work with insert name that won’t get me on some cross-eyed motherfucker’s list here. |
Current membership count: 683. Help us get to 700! We had a virtually unprecedented amount of new and returning members this week. We rarely have this kind of turnout outside of our Spring/Fall Fund, Friend, and Hell Raiser period so we are absolutely humbled and grateful. Every membership brings us closer to covering our costs and helping us develop future growth plans. On behalf of our little crew, thank you so very much!!!
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