Anyone who thinks that Jews are a monolithic bloc, let alone a conspiracy, should...read the Bible. Schism, rebellion, fraticide (right there in the beginning)...the Golden Calf, North against South, the Prophets railing against the Establishment, Job against God,the rural Maccabees against the Hellenized Jerusalem elite, Jesus vs. the High Priest, Jewish Christians vs. Jewish Jews (yes, Christianity began as a sect among the Jews)...and it's no different now nor ever has been.

From beginning to end, it is the same tale (and like any Jewish family, including my own). Even in real (i. e. supported by outside documentation) history it is the same, while the Romans were besieging Jerusalem in 70 CE some Jews inside (the Sicarii, or "knife-men")were murdering other Jews for not being "pure" enough. And the first act of the new Israeli government in 1948 was to forcibly put down the Palmach, which had led the fight for independence but threatened to be an uncontrollable militia. Not unlike the right-wing of the GOP now, although the knives are (as yet) rhetorical.

One of my favorites is the idea that both Jewish Bankers control the world and that Jewish Bolsheviks want to overthrow them. Gives a hell of a lot of credit to a miniscule portion of the human race, doesn't it? But that's what a scapegoat is for...a place to dump all the guilt and responsibility and bad conscience, all the negative feelings and inadequacies and insecurities and rages so you don't have to own any of it yourself.

Jeez, what would the anti-semites do without the Jews? Sort of like the neo-con Cold Warriors without the USSR. Pathetic (but still dangerous).

"Remember the hard hats in Romania who came into Bucharest post-1989 and crushed the student movements? A non-violent version of that could happen here."

It has happened here, and it was quite violent....anti-Vietnam-War protesters (i. e. dirty hippy faggots) were attacked numerous times by crowds of "patriotic" Americans. In Seattle, in Buffalo, and particularly in NYC after the deaths at Kent State in May of 1970, students attempting to lower a flag to half-mast were assaulted by some 200 construction workers and many were beaten, some severely. The police stood by and eventually arrested 6 of the attackers. The whole incident is described in detail in Perlstein's "Nixonland", pp.493-495. In Fact, Nixon's Palin (Spiro Agnew) was particularly adept at provoking left-wing rage which often expressed itself in less than polite terms and was answered by right-wing "patriotic" rage and serious violence.

This was a deliberate tactic to discredit the left, and NIxon was overjoyed when they bit. At some of the trials which emerged from that period it turned out that often those who most vociferously advocated violence in protests were actually FBI and police secret agents acting as provocateurs. Shades of Czarist Russia!

I believe far more people were injured by these "spontaneous" attacks on the left than in all the infamous bombings by hyper-radical SDS loons. (The Weather Underground attacked empty buildings and gave warning. There was an unfortunate postdoc in Madison Wisconsin who was working at night and died when the research building was bombed...otherwise the only deaths were the of those who blew themselves up in their Village bomb factory.)

The Palins and Schmidts of our day are the direct heirs to this tradition, and some, like Lee Atwater, were the direct disciples of its earlier practitioners who often learned their skills by rising through the ranks of the College Young Republicans.

BTW, it is ironic that propaganda technique of the Big Lie is given a most vivid exposition in Mein Kampf, whose famous author credited his model in American advertising methods.

I worked for Lamont in Eastern CT when I lived in Massachusetts, both in the primary and the general. Lamont should have won, but he wasn't really a campaigner, I fear. One of the high points of my political life (I was stuffing envelopes for Henry Wallace in 1948 --- when I was 8 years old) was the moment when I was standing outside the polling place in West Hartford, handing out Dem slates to voters on their way in, and a cranky old man called me a Communist.

A few minor (or many not so much) points: Part of my dislike for Joe is his morally superior attitude...alas, not uncommon in highly observant Orthodox Jews like my grandfather, ignoring all the parts of the Talmud that counsel humility and tolerance (not unlike many "Christians" who blatantly ignore much of what Jesus said). Seeing him standing next to J MCC and Sarah the moose-killer (BTW if the meat is kosher, the method of killing is certainly not)with that fatuous smirk on his face is truly retch-inducing for me. Sometimes political calculation gives way to visceral responses, and I'd count it a mitzvah to see this guy spend the rest of his days speaking at Hadassah lunches. And generally, I am not a vindictive sort.

Another thing: I think it is a mistake to conflate the hard-line religious fanatics of the Israeli settlements that are a good part of Likud with Israel as a whole, and emphatically not with Jews as a whole. If you know your Old Testament, you can't be surprised at this: Jews are a fractious bunch and it's not too unusual to find 4 or 5 opinions between three of us --- On the one hand, on the other hand... (Woody Allen's comedy, when it is funny, is based a lot on this inner turmoil).

Lieberman and his ilk cozying up to the radical Christian Right because they purport to "support" Israel are either world-class cynics, or really stupid, or both.