Romney thinks Hitler did something right (Video) and no, it's not The Onion

[Oilwellian]

I can't wait for the debates.

[cthulu2016]

1. This is not admirable criticism

There is quite obviously no praise of Hitler in the video.

[grantcart]

3. agreed it is a historical reference and not praise

[loyalsister]

20. For sure

But, why not say "Germany"? I get what he's saying can be taken out of context, but seriously the name "Hitler" conjurs nothing but negative images.
He did himself no favors by having it dirty up what might have been an statement on energy development that some of his supporters could have taken as part of forward thinking ideas.

He is really a very bad politician.

[Incitatus]

23. He constantly exhibits a complete lack of tact. Nt

[RKP5637]

2. Did he really praise him, sounded to me like he was just saying Hitler had

investigated liquefied coal? ... or something like that.

[ZombieHorde]

4. Not a good political speech tactic, but he wasn't REALLY praising Hitler. nt

[Oilwellian]

5. Why would an American presidential candidate

use Hitler as an example for ANYTHING?

[bayareamike]

6. Exactly.

It's not praise, per say, but it demonstrates Romney's lack of sound judgment IMO. Do we want this guy interacting with world leaders?

I can see him talking to a British PM, or a French, or a Polish and mentioning, "Gosh, you know Hitler did get one thing right".

[M_M]

10. Hasn't Romney said his first foreign trip would be to Israel?

!

[WinkyDink]

30. Let him repeat his Hitler comment there, then.

[M_M]

31. A guy would have to be Stutterfuckingly Stupid to do that

Then again, we are talking about Romney!

[WinkyDink]

29. Exactly the point to make! WTH?!

[tandot]

7. He didn't quite praise him, but, why the fuck would he even mention Hitler

while talking about exploring different sources of energy?

WTF?

[leveymg]

8. It wasn't Hitler who invented synethetic gasoline. It was a WWI patent held by Standard

Oil Company's German affiliate and IG Farbin Chemical, the same companies that invented and used Zychlon B gas in the adjoining Auschwitz Concentration Camp, that provide much of the slave labor to operate the plant, that was put to use during the Second World War after the flow of imported oil was cut off.

Why Romney would praise Hitler for this is beyond imagination, and shows his profound historical ignorance.

[RKP5637]

13. It was weird to say the least, but then again, Romney ...

[bayareamike]

15. I checked this out after reading your post, and found a really interesting piece

from Penn State: https://www.e-education.psu.edu/egee120/node/242

Like you said, once IG Farben was "Nazified", Germany's synthetic fuel program relied heavily on slave labor. Romney is a fool.

[leveymg]

24. Most people don't understand why Auschwitz was built where it was by who it was.

Nobody could quite figure out why the Buta synthetic gas plant, built right next to the concentration camp that provided labor -- given its importance in producing avgas to the Luftwaffe (German tanks were diesel) -- escaped Allied bombing as long as it did.

I suspect part of the answer is in the Silesian-American coal company and affiliated holdings. Look up who held the American shares in that company seized quietly in 1942 by the US Treasury Dept. Enemy Alien Property Custodian. That was the unit of Harriman & Co -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silesian-American_Corporation -- managed by Prescott Bush and G.H. Walker.

The slave labor complex served several German industries, including synthetic oil and rubber. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monowitz_concentration_camp All of the industries in the complex were dependent upon the coal being extracted in the area, much of it slave labor used by the syndicate that included Silesian-American. Yet, the Americans who profited from this syndicate escaped war crimes trials.

Indeed, what drove Romney to remind us of this, and why is he so incredibly cavalier about it?

[leveymg]

27. Here's the timeline showing the Dulles Bros, P. Bush, and GH Walker involvement in Auschwitz coal,

dba, Silesian Coal Co., and related Nazi holdings funded by Brown Bros. Harriman and related Wall Street financial houses and law firms:

See, The Nazi Hydra in America, Appendix V, http://books.google.com/books?id=vh7sx2xtjGEC&pg=PA435&lpg=PA435&dq=Silesian-American+Coal+Company+IG+Farben&source=bl&ots=DOZYIGlnft&sig=_5I7ynPhQ0Qrl32DBIcJp4qF1L8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=EbZfUPbBDsje2AWa9YHwCQ&ved=0CF4Q6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=Silesian-American%20Coal%20Company%20IG%20Farben&f=false

1920:

Averell Harriman and George Walker gain control of German Hamburg-Amerika Line. The deal was arranged through the chief executive German
Hamburg-Amerika, William Cuno, & Max Warburg of the shipping line�s bankers, M.M. Warburg. The name of the firm was changed to American Ship &
Commerce Corp. Samuel F. Pryor of Remington Arms had been involved in the deal & now served on the board of the renamed corporation. Cuno was later a
heavy contributor to Nazi Party funds

1922:

Averell Harriman opened a Berlin branch of W.A. Harriman. A U.S. government memorandum dated Oct. 5 1942 to the Executive Committee of the office of the
Alien Property Custodian indicates that sometime prior to 1924 Harriman was in Europe and met with Thyssen. They agreed to set up a bank for Thyssen in New
York. Additionally, the memorandum indicates Thyssen�s agent; H. J. Kouwenhoven traveled to New York before 1924 in regard to this connection.

The Model Eugenic Sterilization Law was published by Harry Laughlin. The law led to the sterilization of over 20,000 Americans and service as the basis of the
Nuremberg laws adopted by the Nazis.

1923:

Fritz Thyssen begins to contribute to the Nazi party.

1924:

W.A.Harriman & Co invested $400,000 in setting up Union Banking Corp to act in partnership with the Thyssen-owned Bank voor Handel en Scheepvart in
Holland. Prescott Bush brought into the firm to manage Union Bank. Prescott was the son in law of George Walker and son of Samuel Bush. Union bank is now in
the position to transfer funds back and forth for Thyssen�s United Steel.

Coinciding with the Dawes Plan, which is discussed elsewhere in this chapter John Foster, Dulles arranged a large loan for Krupp. For the loan Dulles had called
Leland Harrison, assistant secretary of state on a Saturday to soft pedal the item in the news. Harrison was infuriated because the department had issued a circular
asking to see foreign loans before American funds were exported. Dulles knew however, that Harrison had no authority to stop the loan. Dulles wanted to avoid the
State Department�s scrutiny as to whether German factories were producing military hardware. Sullivan and Cromwell at Dulles behest accepted the assurances of
Krupp that all military hardware had been destroyed.

Ethyl Corporation formed jointly by Standard Oil and General Motors.

1925:

By 1925, I.G. had established powerful allies inside the Republican administration. The then Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover appointed a nine-member
board, Hoover's Chemical Advisory Committee. Seated on the committee were Walter Teagle (Standard Oil of New Jersey), Lammot du Pont, Frank Blair
(President of Sterling) and Henry Howard (Vice-president of Grasselli). Despite the extensive ties the four had with I.G. they sat on a committee whose role was to
help America's chemical industry fight off the I.G. cartel

1926:

Prescott Bush promoted to Vice-President of W. A. Harriman & Co. Clarence Dillon of Dillon Read, set up the German Steel Trust with Thyssen & partner,
Fredrick Flick. According to the terms, Dillon Read would handle the Trust�s corporate banking in return for two Dillon Read representatives being on the board of
the German Steel Trust. Albert Voegler was the chief executive of the German Steel trust was. Voegler was another industrialist that was instrumental in bringing
Hitler to power. He also held directorships in Thyssen�s Dutch bank and the Hamburg-Amerika Line. Union Bank was not in partnership with Flick�s empire,
Silesian Holding Co. Walker, Bush and Harriman owned a third of Flick�s holding company and called their share Consolidated Silesian Steel Corp.

American I.G. founded as a holding company controlling I.G. Farben assets in the United States. Some board members were Edsel Ford, Charles Mitchell
(President of Rockefeller's National City Bank of New York), Walt Teagle (President of Standard Oil), Paul Warburg (Federal Reserve chairman and brother of
Max Warbug, financier of Nazi Germany's war effort and Director of American I.G.) and Herman Metz, a director of the Bank of Manhattan, controlled by the
Warburgs. Three other members of the Board of Governors for American I.G. were tried and convicted as German war criminals.

Allen Dulles joins Sullivan and Cromwell.

1927:

John Foster Dulles director of GAF Company (American I.G.) until 1934.

1929:

Standard Oil and I.G. Farben begin cartel negotiations

Harriman bank bought Dresser Industries, supplier of oil-pipeline couplers to Standard and other companies. Prescott Bush became a director and financial czar of
Dresser, installing his Yale classmate Neil Mallon as chairman.

1930:

Dulles arranged for the wealthy Czech family, the Petscheks to sell their interest in Silesian Coal to George Mernane. Mernane was used merely to hidthe Petscheks
interest. Dulles then sold the shares to his friend Schacht, the Nazi economic minister. After the sale, Dulles became director of Consolidated SilesianSteel
Company. Its sole asset was a one third interest in Upper Silesian Coal and Steel Company. The remainder of the shares was controlled by Fredrick Flick.

1931:

W.A Harriman merges with the British firm Brown Brothers. Thatcher Brown, Prescott Bush and the two Harriman brothers were the senior partners in the new firm
of Brown Brothers and Harriman. Robert Lovett son of Robert Scott Lovett and a close friend of Prescott Bush became a partner in the new firm. Lovett would
later serve as Asst. Sec. for Air during the war, as Under Sec. Of State 1947-1949, as Deputy Sec. of Defense 1950-1951 and as Secretary of Defense
1951-1953. Prescott Bush ran the New York office while the London office of the new firm was ran by Thatcher Brown. Montagu Collet Norman, governor of the
Bank of England and close friend of Prescott Bush often staying with the Bush family on his visits to New York was a partner of Brown Brothers. He also was a
well-known Nazi sympathizer. His grandfather had been boss of Brown Brothers during the Civil war when Brown Brothers were directly responsible for shipping
seventy five percent of the cotton from the south to England.

Precott Bush and George Walker hosted host of the Third International Congress of Eugenics. The purpose of the event was to call for the sterilization of fourteen
million Americans.

Bank of International Settlements formed.

1933:

On January 4, 1933, Hitler was invited to the Schroeder Bank by a group of industrialists. The industrialists gave Hitler the money to overcome his financial
problems in turn for a pledge to break the trade unions. Present at this meeting were two Americans John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles.

Hitler assumes power.

Max Warburg selected by Prescott Bush to be the American Ship & Commerce Line official representative on the board of the Hamburg- Amerika Line. Warburg
was a long time advisor of Hjalmar Schacht, the Nazi�s Economic Minister and an executive in the Reichsbank. Warburg was also a close friend with Montagu
Collet Norman.

An agreement to coordinate all trade between Germany & America was reached in Berlin after negotiations between Hitler�s Economics Minister, Hjalmar Schacht
& John Foster Dulles.As a result Oliver Harriman, Averell�s cousin formed a syndicate of 150 firms to conduct all business between Germany and the United States.

North German Lloyd Co. merged with Hamburg-Amerika Line in Hamburg. Christian Beck a long time Harriman executive was placed as manager of �freight &
operations� in North America for this newly merged company. Emil Helfferich, an ardent Nazi was appointed chairman of this new company called Hapag-Lloyd.
Nazi security guards were now on all ships of the company.

William S. Farish was appointed chairman of Standard Oil by John D. Rockefeller. Farish was close friends with Hermann Schmitz, chairman of I.G. Farben. Farish
hired Ivy Lee, to write pro-I.G. Farben and pro-Nazi propaganda and get it into the U.S. press. He hired Nazi German crews for Standard Oil tankers. In addition,
he hired "Emil Helfferich," chairman of the Hamburg-Amerika Line, as chairman also of the Standard Oil Company subsidiary in Germany. Karl Lindemann, board
member of Hamburg-Amerika, also became a top Farish-Standard executive in Germany. The interlock placed Farish and Prescott Bush in a small group of Hitler
supporters. Both Emil Helfferich and Karl Lindemann were authorized to write checks to Heinrich Himmler, chief of the Nazi SS, on a special Standard Oil account.
This account was managed by the German-British-American banker, Kurt von Schroeder. According to U.S. intelligence documents reviewed by author Anthony
Sutton, Helfferich continued his payments to the SS into 1944, when the SS was supervising the mass murder at the Standard-I.G. Farben

Auschwitz and other death camps. Helfferich told Allied interrogators after the war that these were not his personal contributions-they were corporate Standard Oil
funds.

1934:

The US Senate Nye Committee hearings revealed Samuel Pryor, chairman of Remington Arms & founding director of both the UBC & the American Ship &
Commerce Corp. had joined in a cartel agreement with I.G. Farben. The committee also uncovered that the Nazis were armed with mostly American arms.

E. W. Webb, president of Ethyl Corporation was advised that Washington had learned of the intention of "forming a German company with the I.G. to manufacture
ethyl lead in Germany. The War Department indicated that there was considerable criticism of this technological transfer. The Ethyl Company was then advised by
the Army Air Corps that "under no conditions should you or the Board of Directors of the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation disclose any secrets or 'know-how' in
connection with the manufacture of tetraethyl lead to Germany.

With Hitler in solid control of Germany, the profits from the Thyssen-Flick union soared to over a hundred million. Both Union Bank and the Bank voor Handel en
Scheepvaart were overflowing with money. Prescott Bush became managing director of Union Bank and took over the day-to-day operations of the German plan.

John Foster Dulles was publicly supporting the Nazi philosophy. In 1935, he wrote a long article for the Atlantic Monthly entitled "The Road to Peace." He excused
Germany�s secret rearmament as an action taking back their freedom. Knowing what he did about Inco and Germany�s munitions industry Dulles was misleading in
asserting Germany�s, Italy�s, and Japan�s desires for peace. Later in the 1930s, Dulles helped organize the American First group. A month before Pearl Harbor he
donated $500 to the group. Later he would claim no association with the group. Dulles continued his support of the Nazi line right up to the time Germany invaded
Poland. Dulles excuse for the Poland invasion was much like blaming the victim for the crime.

1935:

Ethyl Corporation signed a joint production agreement with I.G. Farben in Germany to form Ethyl G.m.b.H. and with Montecatini in fascist Italy for the production
of tetraethyl lead. The directors of Ethyl Gasoline Corporation at the time of this transfer: E.W. Webb, president and director; C.F. Kettering; R.P. Russell; W.C.
Teagle, Standard Oil of New Jersey and trustee of FDR's Georgia Warm Springs Foundation; F. A. Howard; E. M. Clark, Standard Oil of New Jersey; A. P.
Sloan, Jr.; D. Brown; J. T. Smith; and W.S. Parish of Standard Oil of New Jersey.

John Foster Dulles narrowly missed being indicted in a case of Union Electric Company of Missouri, a subsidiary of the North America Company. The SEC had
discovered the company operated a slush fund to bribe legislators. The fund received kickbacks from its local lawyers and an insurance company. The firm had
bribed the entire Missouri legislator. SEC general counsel Travis Lane cynically attributed the failure to the grand jury to indict Dulles was due to his charm.

Nuremberg Laws passed in Germany paving the way for the Holocaust.

1936:

The Schroeder Bank in New York merges with the Rockefellers to form Schroeder, Rockefeller & Company, Inc. Carlton P. Fuller of Schroeder Banking
Corporation became president and Avery Rockefeller, became vice president.

1937:

By the end of January 1937, Dulles had merged all his cloaking activities into one client account, Brown Brothers Harriman-Schroeder Rock. Schroeder, of course,
was the Nazi bank on whose board Dulles sat. The 'Rock' was the Rockefellers of Standard Oil, who were already coming under scrutiny for their Nazi deals. At
the request of Prescott Bush Dulles had cloaked the Bush-Harriman dealings with the Nazis.

1939:

Hitler invades Poland the war starts in Europe.

Farish's daughter Martha married Averell Harriman's nephew, Edward Harriman Gerry.

Consolidated Silesian Steel Corporation was located near the Polish town of Oswiecim. When the plan to use Soviet prisoners as forced labor fell through, the
Nazis began shipping Jews, communists, gypsies and other minority populations to the camp the Nazis had set up. This was the beginning of Auschwitz. The reason
Auschwitz was located there was because of the abundant supplies of coal which could be processed into aviation fuel. I.G. Farben soon built a plant near
Auschwitz to take advantage of not only of the nearby coal deposits but also of the slave labor supply available at Auschwitz. According to a Dutch intelligence
agent, Prescott Bush managed a portion of the slave labor force in Poland.

1940:

Allen Dulles served on the board of the Schroeder bank. Johns Foster Dulles served as the legal counsel for Schroeder Bank. Schroeder Bank acted as a financial
arm of the Nazis.

1941:

Pearl Harbor bombed and war is declared.

1942:

Leo Crowley, the US Alien Property Custodian ordered the seizure of all property of Hapag-Lloyd in Aug. In October, US Alien Property Custodian seized
thestock shares of the Union Banking Corp. of New York, whose shareholders were: Chm./Dir. E. Rowland Harriman; Pres./Dir. Cornelis Lievense (banking
functionary for the Nazis); Treasurer/Dir. Harold D. Pennington (of Brown Brothers Harriman); Dir. Ray Morris (of Brown Brothers Harriman); Dir. Prescott S.
Bush; Dir. H.J. Kouwenhoven (Dir./Chief foreign financial exec. of German Steel Trust); Dir. Johann G. Groeninger (Industrial Exec. In Nazi Germany).

In the same month, the United States government seized two additional companies: Seamless Steel Equipment Corp. & Holland-American Trading Corp both ran
by Union Bank.

In November, the Nazi assets of Silesian-American Corp were seized leaving the American partners to carry on with business. Seizure of the whole company would
have been detrimental to the war effort.

On March 25, 1942, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Thurman Arnold announced that William Stamps Farish had pleaded "no contest" to charges of criminal
conspiracy with the Nazis. Farish was the principal manager of a cartel agreement between Standard Oil and I.G. Farben. The cartel built an industrial plant to
produce artificial rubber and gasoline from coal at Auschwitz to take advantage of the slave labor.

The Deutsche-Amerikanische Petroleum A.G. (DAPAG), the Standard Oil subsidiary in Germany, was 94-percent owned by Standard Oil of New Jersey.
Standard Oil of New Jersey was represented in the inner circles of Naziism by Karl Lindemann, director of DAPAG and member of Himmler's Circle of Friends
and by board member Emil Helfrich, who was an original member of the Keppler Circle. Karl Lindemann connections extended into the international banking area
as director of several banks, including the Dresdner Bank, the Deutsche Reichsbank, and the private Nazi-oriented bank of C. Melchior & Company

[Oilwellian]

9. Changed thread title

I agree praise was probably the wrong word to use. Bringing up Hitler while discussing energy is just plain bizarre.

[rgbecker]

11. Now suddenly, Romney says government has role in promoting oil from coal.

I say leave that one to the "Job Creators" and see how that works out for you.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

12. No modern politician in his right mind would mention something Hitler did as an example of

success. He's not praising Nazism of course but he's showing very poor judgement in mentioning a name that's so toxic and in positive terms. Can you imagine the puckered tightness of Sean Hannity's sphincter if Obama had tried to make a point about a program he was promoting by using Hitler as a positive example? Romney doesn't seem to realize he's not talking in the boardroom or at a private banquet dinner but to an entire nation. Some leader.

[RKP5637]

14. Well said!!! Hannity and like would have run that non-stop. Fox News

would have done one of their alerts of breaking news.

[bluestate10]

16. Not much to this.

Romney just pointed out that Hitler used liquefied coal, he didn't praise Hitler, just the technology.

[cali]

19. wrong. he's trying to sell policy and using Hitler as an example of

someone who investigated said policy, is a blunder.

[cali]

17. Using Hitler to try and sell policy is about as stupid as it gets.

[SomethingFishy]

18. Yeah lets spend "a few billion" on Nuclear Energy

Fuck that clean green shit.

[DemKittyNC]

22. That right there

is what pissed me off the most about this video. The hitler thing... ehh, okay - but saying spend a few Billion Dollars on bullshit like a few Billion Dollars is nothing at all to this fucking guy and the tone at which he said it, that fucking entitlement, spoiled pompass ass tone he has!

[Enrique]

21. this must have been during the primaries

pandering to the RW base by praising Hitler.

[agentS]

25. Not only is his statement poorly phrased

the idea is also pretty bad environmentally.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/coaltoliquids/

[bluestateguy]

26. He didn't quite say that

If he had, it would have put Obama in Nixon or Reagan landslide territory, but alas no dice.

[Riley18]

28. He may not have praised him personally,

but I don't recall any political leader using Hitler's name in any remotely positive context. He could have said Germany.

[Oilwellian]

33. Exactly

I'm surprised to see this thread back on the front page. I've had a couple of days to think about it, and in that time, I have found this video even more disturbing. Here are his exact words:

"Gosh, (with an emphatic emphasis) Hitler, during the second world war, I guess, because he was concerned about losing his oil, liquefied coal—that technology's still there."

There is simply no other politician I can think of that is dense enough to voluntarily and publicly cast Hitler's ideas in a positive light. Romney's tone had the ring of admiration for Hitler as an innovator. Romney just casually tossed Hitler into the mix of other people and nations he would borrow energy ideas from. I'd love to see him stand before a Jewish community in Florida and gush about Hitler's great strides in medicine via human experimentation. He's certainly stupid enough to do something like that and not have a clue as to why people would find that offensive.

[Turborama]

35. K&R n/t

[graham4anything]

32. The secret Mitt video reminded me of either a Nazi rally or KKK meeting

so Mitt's love for Nazisms would not surprise me.
He wants a Master Race.
his 47% comment proved it to me.

[reformist2]

34. He has no filter.