Who Are The Traitors?

What is Astroturfing?

Is Congress For Sale?!!!

Freedom Works and Former Republican Representative Dick Armey

Who is Organizing these "Grass Roots Demonstrations"?

The Grass Roots are Turning Brown...Astroturf is the new populace.

Who are the Crazies?!!

Is The Republican Party Turning Into a CULT!!!!????

Today's History Lesson: How the Brownshirts Used Street Violence as Martyrdom Propaganda

Rush Limbaugh and his Facist/Nazi following

Have the Republican Thugs Killed Town Hall Forums?

Lewin Group's Parent Company, UnitedHealth Group, Donated Big To GOP Leaders (See Two Very Revealing Videos!!)

Anti-Reform Group Takes Credit For Helping to Organize Disruptions of Town Hall Rallies

Paid Lobbyists are the "Angry Protesting Thugs" that the MSM are reporting as Grass Roots Protests.

Tampa Town Hall On Health Care Reform Disrupted By Violence (VIDEO)

Blue Dogs Keeping Health Care Stuck In Committee

Crazy Wingnut Healthcare Attacks Exposed

Analysis of Health Bill

The Truth about Health Care Reform from the AARP

Finally, a Positive Speech by President Obama

Who Are The Traitors?

We will leave it up to the reader to determine whether Blue Dog Democrats, Senate leader Mitch McConnell, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Sen Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Conservative Republicans, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, the Tea Baggers, the Birthers, the Deathers, Fox News, Health Care Companies, Health Care Lobbyists, and others have made serious errors in judgment and have become traitors to America and the American People.  They have all pretended to support a Conservative Christian position especially when it comes to Health Care, Church and State issues, but it is also apparent from the data collected, that the first amendment and the Nations Health may be in danger from their past and future actions.

We called their offices and they stated that their position is that Islam, Buddhism, Hinduis, Shintoism, or Wicca aren't "Real" religions."  What is a real religion?  What they have been practicing?  Read the following and remember: "By their Works may they be known."  This is a summary of information collected from several sources about Blue Dog Democrats, Extreme Conservative Republicans, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh,  the Tea Baggers, the Birthers, Deathers, Health Care Companies, and Health Care Lobbyists.

Patriotic Traitor?

Like the U.S. army major who "saved" a Vietnamese village by destroying it, the patriotic traitor seeks to preserve his country by bringing it down. Recently, I saw Seven Days in May again. In this political thriller, an American president has negotiated a nuclear disarmament treaty with the Soviets over the objection of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a four-star general played by Burt Lancaster. After the Senate ratifies the treaty, the general is certain the Soviets have pulled a fast one and will soon launch a first strike. So he plots to overthrow the government. The president gets wind of the coup and, in a tense scene scripted by Rod Serling, confronts the general in the Oval Office: "You want to defend the United States of America, then defend it with the tools it supplies you with -- its Constitution! You ask for a mandate, general -- from a ballot box! You don't steal it after midnight, when the country has its back turned."

The president's words are dismissed by the general, who can't accept that his warped sense of patriotism has driven him to commit treason. Of course, he's a fictional character. Sarah Palin, however, is real, although she often acts like something conjured up in a novelist's overheated imagination. Her deliberately distortive statement on President Obama's health care plan, in which she again exploits her son Trig, is just the latest rhetorical IED detonated by an increasingly unhinged right-wing insurgency. The Soylent Green scenario she paints, in which the elderly and disabled will be euthanized and then presumably rendered into power bars, should disqualify her from further consideration as a serious contender for high office. And yet her supporters will hail this patriotic traitor as a great American.

Treason?

I'm not accusing all Obama's opponents of treason. Republicans are the ones who regard their presidents as monarchs. From Sept. 12, 2001 until the Iraq war started going south in the summer of 2003, you were subject to attack if you criticized George W. Bush. Let's not forget what happened to the Dixie Chicks for delivering an innocuous slap to this insecure little man. But there were many low-profile examples of harassment and intimidation against those who wouldn't keep quiet about the emperor's butt-nakedness.

So go ahead, say any non-racist thing you please about Obama. That's one of his strengths. Gore Vidal put it best in his response to "an apostle of good taste at The New York Times," who took exception to his treatment of Richard Nixon: "The apostle was English and did not know that although the sovereign of his native islands is called Our Queen, the emperor of the West is known to us aficionados as The Goddamned President."

Sarah Palin

When I call Sarah Palin a Patriotic Traitor, I'm not equating her with Benedict Arnold, Vidkun Quisling, or Kim Philby. She's not aiding and abetting a foreign power. (Maybe) I have no reason to doubt that she loves the United States. But like the general in Seven Days in May, she'll do WHATEVER is necessary to maintain her parochial and jingoistic image of it. As would Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, the tea baggers, the birthers, and the deathers.

On November 2, 2004, these people were content with the U.S. government. Bush was reelected and the Republicans won decisive majorities in both houses. Five years later, they have nothing but contempt for their leaders. I wonder what happened. They revere the Constitution, but were silent when the Bush-Cheney administration repeatedly violated it, especially the Fourth Amendment. They never questioned the trillion-plus dollars we poured into an unnecessary war, but when Obama proposes to spend as much on a health care plan they squeal like pigs. As Christopher Hitchens likes to say, you can't eat enough to vomit enough at such hypocrisy. But they're not hypocrites! Not in their eyes. Their cognitive dissonance is so profound, they really believe everything they hear that conforms to their primitive belief system. If George W. Bush had nuked Tehran, they would have gone out the next morning and justified mass murder. If the U.S. military did attempt a coup against Obama, they would find ways to defend that as well. Nothing is beyond them. It's a miracle, then, that no one has been injured during the recent town hall debates.

But if Obama passes health care reform, if it looks like the sane majority is still on his side, watch out. The patriotic traitor will show his true colors, and they're not red, white and blue.  They will become the Nazi Brown Shirts of Germany or the feared Black Shirts of Italy after the first world war.   (You really must study History to find that most things repeat themselves because citizens have a short memory.)

Remember it is best to investigate on your own when looking at allegations about anyone.     Don't believe us, think for yourself and investigate for yourself!  And remember, the Religious Freedom Coalition does not represent any political party nor do we recommend any political candidate, nor are we involving ourselves in the political process.  BUT, we are here to expose hypocrites who abuse our trust in them and will not stand for public officials lying, stealing, making unethical choices, and not representing the American People. 

What is Astroturfing?

You can always count on the media and the wingnutosphere to be hypocrites whenever any sort of protest takes place. For Republicans, they usually have to pay for their Zombie Plumbers to show up which is called: Astroturfing.

Astroturf refers to apparently grassroots-based citizen groups or coalitions that are primarily conceived, created and/or funded by corporations, industry trade associations, political interests or public relations firms.

No, it's not the fake grass that was used in baseball and football stadiums, but big cash being paid by corporations to promote conservative philosophy and undermine real change. Matt Yglesias writes: Astroturf vs ?AstroTurf?. Read it.

The Malkins of course just love Astroturfing and probably view it as just another tool conservatives have to lie and cheat their way through another tough issue. And the media wittingly comply with their wishes. Think Progress has a whole list of these lobbyist/corporate shills. Even Newt Gingrich is supplying a toolkit for the teabaggers to use to disrupt health care town halls.

Thers at Whiskey Fire explains:

Which brings us to today, where by the miracle of wingnut headcase engineering, the Moral Wall Switch for coordinated attempts to disrupt other people's public events has been hastily and incompetently flipped from Evil to Good. To wit, here's the Tea Party-associated Freedom Works offering advice to Tea-Baggers about how best to disrupt town-hall meetings held by elected Democratic officials who want to discuss healthcare with their constituents:? Be Disruptive Early And Often: ?You need to rock-the-boat early in the Rep?s presentation, Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep?s statements early.? ? Try To ?Rattle Him,? Not Have An Intelligent Debate: The goal is to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda. If he says something outrageous, stand up and shout out and sit right back down. Look for these opportunities before he even takes questions.?

Unsurprisingly, this is precisely what the Tea-Baggers have been doing. (Check out the video especially.)

And what has been the reaction from those who invented imaginary liberal behavior and are watching as their side actually does precisely the stuff they only pretended liberals were doing and which they denounced as Wicked, Deranged, and Perfidious?

Cheering it on, of course. Duh.

How long will it take the traditional media to expose the corporations that are running this con and even mention the word "Astroturfing" in a serious way? I know, don't hold your breath.

It's taking Robert Gibbs to try and wake up the media from their slumber over these events:

We have Robert Gibbs openly calling this the Brooks Brothers Brigade. That's a start.

Q: Are you concerned at what appears to be well-orchestrated protesting of health care reform at town halls as derailing your message?

GIBBS: NO, I get asked every day about the myriad of things that could be derailing our message. I would point out that I don't know what all those guys were doing, what were they called, the Brooks Brothers Brigade in Florida in 2000, appear to have rented a similar bus and are appearing together at town hall meetings throughout the country

Q: They seem to be pretty widespread.

GIBBS: I seem to see some commonality in who pops up in some of these things.

Q: Like individuals?

GIBBS: Yeah.

Q: Really?

GIBBS: Yeah.

Q: Can you discuss names or ....

GIBBS: I don't have names but I think you can see quite a bit of similarity between who shows up where.

He's clearly trying to lead the horses of the press corps to water, not that they'll drink.

I heard some Villager on TV say that Gibbs is making a mistake because he is only making Matt Drudge's website bigger. Really, I thought he already ruled their world.

Freedom Works and Dick Armey

CBS NEWS/ Websites such as Recess Rally which is planning a nationwide health care protest, lists Freedom Works as part of its coalition. That's an organization headed by former Republican Congressman Dick Armey, whose lobbying firm works for the health care industry.

Also, a conservative group in Connecticut posted an online memo called "Rocking the Town Halls." The playbook outlines tactics to give congressmen, "a reality check from we the people." The memo advises to "watch for an opportunity to yell out ? the goal is to rattle him."

But some opposing the bill worry all the yelling will drown out their message.

The other side is organizing, too. Attendees at this pro-reform event yesterday in Los Angeles were recruited by a local social service agency.

".... the Republicans have all these talking points that have been delivered through Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, and Sean Hannity, which are not true," said Pepper Mashay.

Democrats are now trying to play defense by sending out health care fact check cards to supporters with their own talking points.

Who is Organizing these "Demonstrations"?

WASHINGTON; Much of the money and strategy behind the so-called grassroots groups organizing opposition to the Democrats' health care plans comes from conservative political consultants, professional organizers and millionaires, some of whom hold financial stakes in the outcome.

If President Barack Obama and Congress extend health insurance coverage to millions of uninsured Americans, raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for it, and limit insurers' discretion on who they cover and what they charge, that could pinch these opponents.

Most of them say they oppose big government in principle. Despite Obama's assurances to the contrary, many of them insist that the Democrats' legislation is but the first step toward creation of a single-payer system, where the federal government hires the doctors, approves treatments, sets the rules and imperils profit.

These opposition groups appear to have spent at least $10 million so far on ads attacking the Democrats' plans. Still, supporters of a health care overhaul have outspent opponents by more than 2-to-1 so far, according to Evan Tracey of the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks ad spending. Supporters include drug makers angling for their own protections, unions, the American Medical Association and AARP, the seniors' lobby. Supporters announced this week that they intend to spend $150 million promoting an overhaul.

The opposition groups' names sound catchy and populist: Patients First. Patients United. Americans for Prosperity, American Solutions for Winning the Futures (ASWF), Conservatives for Patients' Rights. FreedomWorks. 60 Plus., or Club for Growth.

Here's who's behind them:

Despite attempts to make the "HealthCare Protests" appear organic, the principle organizers of the local "demonstrations" are actually the The Republican National Committee, America's Health Insurance Plans, the Conservatives for Patients' Rights (See Below), and lobbyist-run think tanks Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Works. These groups are heavily staffed and well funded, and are providing all the logistical and public relations work necessary for planning coast-to-coast protests:

Freedom Works staffers coordinate conference calls among protesters, contacting conservative activists to give them: sign ideas, sample press releases, and a map of events around the country.

Freedom Works staffers apparently moved to "take over" the planning of local events in Florida.

Freedom Works provides how-to guides for delivering a "clear message" to the public and media.

Freedom Works has several domain addresses; some of them made to look like they were set up by amateurs to promote the protests.

Americans for Prosperity is writing press releases and planning the events in New Jersey, Arizona, New Hampshire, Missouri, Kansas, and several other states.

FreedomWorks, which has been advocating against the overhaul but has not launched TV ads, is chaired by Dick Armey, the former Republican majority leader of the House of Representatives from Texas.

But also noteworthy are the group's other backers and board members. They include billionaire flat-tax proponent and former GOP presidential candidate Steve Forbes; Richard J. Stephenson, who founded Cancer Treatment Centers of America, which offers alternative as well as standard therapies, sometimes not covered by insurance; and Frank M. Sands, Sr., chief executive officer of an investment management firm whose offerings include a Healthcare Leaders portfolio.

"They're on our board because they support lower taxes, less government and more freedom," said FreedomWorks spokesman Adam Brandon.

Matt Kibbe, the chief executive officer of FreedomWorks, said its members believe that "the government is already way too involved in the nation's health care system" and that government is to blame for health-cost inflation.

Kibbe acknowledged that private insurance is out of reach for many small businesses and individuals, but he contended that can be dealt with without creating a government-managed exchange. Like Scott, he expressed concern that more government interference would lead to a single-payer system, which would "inevitably" impose rationing of treatments to contain costs.

This type of corporate ?Astroturfing? is nothing new to either organization. While working to promote Social Security privatization, Freedom Works was caught planting one of its operatives as a ?single mom? to ask questions to President Bush in a town hall on the subject. Last year, the Wall Street Journal exposed Freedom Works for similarly building ?amateur-looking? websites to promote the lobbying interests of Dick Armey, the former Republican Majority Leader who now leads Freedom Works and is a lobbyist for the firm DLA Piper.

Americans for Prosperity is run by Tim Phillips, who was Ralph Reed?s former partner in the lobbying firm Century Strategies. The group is funded by Koch family foundations ? a family whose wealth is derived from the oil industry.

American Solutions for Winning the Futures (ASWF) led by former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, blasted an e-mail to his supporters with a reminder to attend the protests, along with a "Toolkit" of talking points. ASWF is funded by Corporations.

Conservatives for Patients' Rights is led by health care entrepreneur Rick Scott, the co-founder of Solantic urgent care walk-in centers, which he's spread across Florida and is looking to expand. While 80 percent of its patients have at least some insurance, Solantic also bills itself as an alternative to emergency-room care and a resource for patients with no insurance.

Scott left his job as CEO of the Columbia/HCA hospitals during a federal Medicare fraud probe in 1997 that led to a historic $1.7 billion settlement. He wasn't prosecuted and got a golden parachute.

Solantic's growth, Scott said in a telephone interview, is due in part to the trend in which "deductibles and co-payments are going up. As that happens, more people want us."

Scott said he wasn't concerned that the Democrats' proposed revisions would undercut his business: "It's irrelevant to us." Instead, he said he opposes the Democrats' plans because he doesn't believe that government involvement will contain health care costs. He sees it killing off the best private insurance plans and ultimately leading to a single-payer system, which he predicted would lead to waiting lists and denial of treatments.

Scott said he supports some government intervention ? such as preventing insurers from dumping sick patients. Those who can't afford coverage on their own should get vouchers or tax credits, he said.

Patients First and Patients United are creations of a larger group called Americans for Prosperity. AFP's Web site describes a grassroots organization with more than 700,000 members that advocates "for public policies that champion the principles of entrepreneurship and fiscal and regulatory restraint."

It was started by billionaire David Koch, of the Koch Industries oil family, one of the country's top donors to conservative, free-market causes. The foundation's board includes Art Pope, a former North Carolina legislator also involved in conservative causes, whose family owns hundreds of discount stores.

Tim Phillips, AFP's president, is a former Republican congressional staffer who helped former Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed start up the consulting firm Century Strategies in the 1990s. Clients paid the firm to build Christian grassroots support for various business causes. That included work for since-convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The group, along with FreedomWorks, was involved in promoting the anti-tax "tea parties" earlier this year. AFP also is organizing a campaign "exposing the ballooning costs of global warming hysteria."

In an interview, AFP's Phillips said that he couldn't think of anyone on his board with a direct financial stake in the health care industry. "It's more freedom-based," he said. "They have a deep interest in protecting economic freedoms." He also said that no one in his organization believes that more government involvement in health care will lead to reduced costs for taxpayers.

By Labor Day, he said, his group will have organized 600 rallies on health care.

"Americans are looking at these rallies that are happening and the town-hall turnouts, and they say, 'No one group out of thin air could do that,'" Phillips said. "The American people can see through the attacks on the other side, where they try to vilify these groups as being corporate groups or front groups. They're believing it is in fact a broad groundswell.

"We're out here saying the truth, which is costs are going to go up and quality is going to go down. And what's the other side saying? 'Oh, these are front groups, these are all rich people.' The attack route's not going to work. It's not so far."

Two other grassroots groups have financed ads targeting peoples' fears that more government involvement would hurt seniors and hasten end-of-life decisions.

One of them, Club for Growth, which advocates lower taxes, is led by president Chris Chocola, a former Republican congressman from Indiana who lost his re-election bid in 2006. Club for Growth this week announced a $1.2 million ad campaign against a health care overhaul, to run in North Dakota, Colorado, Arkansas and Nevada.

The other, 60 Plus Association, is a conservative senior advocacy group that wants to abolish the estate tax. Singer Pat Boone is the group's national spokesman. Chairman Jim Martin started the group in 1992 with fund-raising help from conservative direct mail guru Richard Viguerie. It spent $1.5 million on TV ads opposing a healthcare overhaul in the last week.

Martin declined to identify his major donors. In 2006, he acknowledged that his group was getting funding from the pharmaceutical industry. But this year, pharmaceutical companies lead the spending spree on behalf of a health care overhaul.

"The shoe's on the other foot," Martin said. "They've gotten in bed with the White House."

Why Are So Many Crazies Coming Out of The Woodwork?

From and article on Huffington Post by Bryan Welch, August 19, 2009

Why are there so many "crazies" coming out of the woodwork to attack public officials with their views that defy reality? And why are they so angrily insistent on those views?

As a psychologist I believe the answers to these two questions have profound significance for our nation's mental health and will determine whether America will have the mental capacity to confront the increasingly complex challenges that confront us.

Of course we know these people are lied to by increasingly effective and ruthless Republican strategists operating in patriotic sounding front organizations. They are indoctrinated 24 hours a day by Fox News and proselytized to by the Religious Right.

But that still takes our "why" question only so far. What is it about the mind that makes so many people accept a reality that is so much at odds with the reality that we hold? There is nothing subjective about the reality issues in play here. Obama was born in Hawaii and there are no death squads in Obama's plan. So what gives?

In a recent book, I tried to answer these "why" questions from a psychologist's perspective. Here is the most succinct way I have been able to articulate it.

Reality

We take our sense of what is real and what is not real for granted. We shouldn't. We each actually form our own unique "reality sense" with our mind that assimilates an infinitely complex bombardment of stimuli from outside us and from within. It is no simple task, and the most miraculous part of the human mind is that it is able to create a coherent reality at all.

The problem is that in times of extreme uncertainty the mind has a hard time creating this reality sense. The mind becomes confused. This can be caused by external events in our world, such as rapid change or inner psychological states -- for example, when we are experiencing strong emotions like paranoia, envy, or challenges to our sexual identity.

In this state of confusion, the mind does not do very well at all. When it feels sufficiently uncertain about what is real and what is not real, it panics. Ultimately the mind will fragment if it is not able to create a cohesive reality sense with a reassuring sense of what is real and what is not real. The breakdown in this ability to form a coherent reality sense is the primary difference between sanity and madness. Thus, it is not too surprising that for many people it is more important to have some reality sense than it is to have a correct reality sense. Of course, people differ greatly in their ability to tolerate ambiguity and in their ability to create a reality sense in times of stress. But for someone in an acute state of uncertainty, it is any port in a storm when it comes to reality formation.

And this is where things go nuts! Current right-wing politics is an art form that is designed to re-define reality for a class of people who are increasingly unable to establish their own sense of reality. Instead, they succumb and become increasingly dependent on someone else to tell them what is real and what is not real. In their regressed psychological state, under certain conditions, many people will accept as real whatever they are told by an authoritative sounding figure be it Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, or Bill O'Reilly.

And the more people lean on these people to provide that function, the more dependent they become on them, and the less able they are to think for themselves. As this process continues people will accept ever more outrageous ideas. Death squads in health care? Obama secretly born in Kenya? Okay.

They need Limbaugh and O'Reilly because without them they cannot make sense of their world. They are in a state of confusion unless and until someone offers them a reality that "explains" things enough that they at least feel they understand what is going on in the world. Only then is their panic and anxiety abated.

The "reality" sense they are handed has to be simple enough that they can readily understand it. The devil was one of the earliest bogeymen for a reason. We create a "devil box" and everything that needs explanation comes from the devil box.

So if you paint a Hitler-like mustache on a picture of Obama and toss in the word "socialist" things begin to make sense and come into a focus no matter how distorted that "focus" is. Again, it is better to have a reality sense that is wrong than to have no reality sense at all. In the latter case one enters a state of complete fragmentation or madness.

The portrayal of someone, in this case Obama, as the devil incarnate serves multiple functions. It organizes a person's world by explaining so much so simply, and it also offers an explanation of why the person has been feeling so apprehensive. They were not afraid of their own psychological fragmentation. Instead, the danger is external in the form of Obama. Better the enemy be outside of oneself than inside oneself.

And, of course, if Obama is a foreigner from Kenya their fear is much more understandable and helpful in arranging our inner world. The "birthers'" insistence on their reality, even in the face of Obama's birth verification from Hawaii and the copy of the newspaper announcement of his birth, reflects the deep psychological need these people have to maintain the view of reality that was handed to them. Once their reality is established people are reluctant to retrace the steps of uncertainty that has led them to their illogical position. To do so they have to traverse their route back through the uncertainty they were trying to escape in the first place.

Strategy

And make no mistake about it, the conservative element in America has a very good understanding of how this process works inside the mind, the critical sense of timing it requires, and how one must deliver the powerful messages in repetitive depth charges to the human mind.

The democrats are still lagging very far behind in this regard and still think the public is engaged in a substantive discussion of the issues. They ignore the reality of the human mind time and time again.

There are two critical elements to this form of "reality" politics. One is timing. The other is certainty. To exploit this vulnerability in the mind, the time to strike is at the very first moment of uncertainty that people feel, before they have formed any reality of their own and before they become attached to anyone else's view of reality. This is why the swift-boating was so effective. John Kerry was "unfit to lead" before he even introduced himself to the American public.

With the current health care debate, a black man is offering a government designed health care plan that is largely undefined. Health care is too complicated and confusing for most people anyway, and Obama is a "foreigner." Latent paranoid fears and uncertainty are not hard to understand. In such a state, many people are receptive to anyone who presents him or herself with a strong angry argument that organizes their world and gives some extrinsic explanation for the anxiety they are feeling. Anger is a tremendous organizer. Angry people may not think clearly, but they are very certain of themselves. This is what we are seeing in the town hall meetings.

So what should progressives do? Do we have to be like the far right and beat them at their own game? No, not at all. But we do have to hoist them on their own petard. We have to expose the manipulations and the manipulators with a torrential counterattack that is focused on the manipulations, not a message that emphasizes some irrelevant "positive" message such as how important health reform is.

Instead, we need to harness the rage that is ubiquitous in this country because of all the uncertainty and the confusion. That is the energy that is driving health care and most political life in America at the present time. We need to harness it for constructive purposes, exposing the puppeteers and the corporate interests that are behind them. Health care is ultimately a populist issue, but we are not igniting the populist rage that drives all populism. Until progressives learn this lesson they will lose.

Those Pollyannas who thought that with Obama's election progressives had won were very na?e. If we learn nothing else from the birthers and the deathers, if we learn that we must work with the deeper strata of the human mind, it will be an invaluable lesson.

Bryant Welch is a clinical psychologist and attorney. He is the author of State of Confusion: Political Manipulation and the Assault on the American Mind (St. Martin's Press, 2008).

Rush Limbaugh has his Fascism all Backwards: Mussolini sent out Blackshirts to Attack Unions (Mussolini was fat too!)