"eaglebeak," 12:37 am - 12:55 am (four postings merged here):
Happy Boxing Day: Let’s box!
Let’s see now—does everyone in the organization agree with LaRouche’s attacks on Molly Kronberg?
I think the answer is going to be "no." Let’s take one particularly fruitful case to examine.
Lyn’s public attacks on Molly started this past August 18--the same week her “Alpha connection” [to the LaRouche organization's computer network] was unplugged “by mistake” but, at Lyn’s orders, not reinstated. Of course, things have escalated massively since, on both sides.
In case you weren’t reading Factnet back then, here's "The Guns of August"--Lyn’s opening salvo of August 18:
TO:@DIS:NC,WIE,HSE
FROM:LAR " Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. "
CC:HZL
SUBJ:BUSH-LEAGUE MOLLY
August 18, 2007 (7:34am) EDTI had thought it had been agreed, that the documentation of Molly Kronberg's public filings of financial contributions to the Bush-Cheney campaign and the Republican National Committee would have appeared prominently in the Saturday AM Ops Bulletin.
Wha' happened, huh?
Members who have been suffering distress for reason of a lack of this sort of information bearing on the actual circumstances of Ken's suicide, deserve the reassurance which those facts supply. Once any among our associates have possession of those facts, the other available, crucially relevant facts tumble properly into their rightful places. Withholding circulation of well-documentation of firmly established, relevant facts, is itself a form of fraud when a crucial issue is involved.
I, personally, am well aware of certain crucial other facts, bearing on the same matter, which, taken together would tend to console those who have worked so hard, against such frustration, for the really important issues of life, that they deserve access to knowledge of who is involved in cheating them of the facts which assure them that it is not their fault if some things for which they have worked so hard, and sacrificed so much, did not produce the results they had the right to achieve.
It is now past time to clean up that part of the mess. Our honest members have no reason to feel any sort of guilt over the suicide. They have the right to know the facts, especially the public facts, which assure them of that. They also have a related right, to know the name of the enemy who is guilty in contributing to that misfortune. Sometimes, just knowing supplies the needed balm of a sense of relief.
Meanwhile, that same day, at his Saturday morning briefing to the National Center, the inevitable Jeff Steinberg [LaRouche's security chief] caused to be circulated among the gathered throng xeroxes of the FEC records showing Molly Kronberg’s contributions to Bush.
Then, a day later, in the briefing of Sunday, August 19, there appeared the following:
NORTH AMERICAN OPERATIONS BULLETIN
SUNDAY, Aug 19, 2007
Some Plain Facts Once Again According to Federal Election Commission records, Marielle Kronberg, through 6/22/2004 had contributed $775.00 to the Bush-Cheney campaign for re-election. According to the same FEC records, on April 4, 2005, Marielle Kronberg contributed $250 to the Republican National Committee. A simple internet google search on Marielle Kronberg's name pulls up data assembled by Fundrace on the Huffington Post stating that Kronberg contributed $725 to George Bush in 2004 and $776 to the RNC in 2004.
At the time of these contributions, Marielle Kronberg insisted on retaining her status as a member of the national committee of the National Caucus of Labor Committees.[FN 1] At the time of these contributions, Ken Kronberg, with other members of the LaRouche movement, was engaged in an all-out war to prevent the re-election of Bush-Cheney and the clearly manifested fascism which they represent. Does anything more need be said in the matter of Ken's suicide?
This entry in the LaRouche-Kronberg p*ssing contest was as truthful and complete as the “Some Simple Facts” entry in an earlier briefing, and like that earlier entry was written by Legal’s own Barbara Boyd. (After all, it was she and her husband Zeke who “discovered” that Molly gave money to Bush, by reading Factnet back in 2004. That is, they had known it for three years.)
Of course, the August 19 Boyd effort does not comport so well with previous LaRouche dicta on the matter of Ken Kronberg, since these “simple facts” portraying Kronberg as a loyal member of the LaRouche movement seem somewhat at variance with LaRouche’s memorable remarks of November 2005 in a National Committee conference call in which Ken Kronberg participated, a conference call transcribed and inserted in the Morning Briefing by NEC (that is, Lyn) direction to educate the rest of the organization.
We all remember that in that conference call Lyn accused PMR (Ken)[FN 2} of scamming the organization--of committing crimes, in effect.
So? The point of this exercise is to examine another document of interest in the Kronberg case from that week, and to compare it to the thoughts of LaRouche, or LaRouche-Boyd, or whatever the entity actually is.
I refer, of course, to Nancy Spannaus’s letter to Molly Kronberg of August 14, which was made available to me several months ago.
But first, a chronology:
Tuesday evening, August 14: NEC has its weekly meeting with Lyn at his “residence.” It is probably there that it is agreed to expose Molly Kronberg as a secret Republican whose secret Republican donations of 2004 drove her husband to suicide in 2007.
Later Tuesday evening, August 14: Nancy Spannaus goes home and writes a letter to Molly Kronberg marked “Personal and Confidential,” reproduced below in full.
Thursday, August 16: Nancy mails the letter to Molly.
Also Thursday, August 16: Barbara Boyd calls Molly Kronberg and asks her if she is in touch with Avi Klein and Dennis King. Boyd also asks Kronberg if she is "Eaglebeak."
Boyd announces that “we’ve never had anything like this before, where someone on the inside throws things over the wall.”
Friday, August 17: Kronberg receives Spannaus’s handwritten letter.
Saturday, August 18: LaRouche’s “wha’ happened?” memo appears in the briefing, demanding to know why Molly Kronberg has not been outed as a Republican, as “had been agreed.”
Also Saturday, August 18: Jeff Steinberg, as ever sniffing the wind, makes sure the xeroxes of the FEC records are passed out to NCR members.
Sunday, August 19: B. Boyd’s “Some More Simple Facts” finally makes it into the briefing, perhaps as much as six days after it was supposed to appear.
Monday, August 20: Molly Kronberg discovers she can no longer log onto the Alpha system.
When she calls Barbara Boyd to inquire about this, she is told that Ron C. wiped out her logon “by mistake.”
But on Lyn’s orders the logon will not be reinstated, because of Kronberg’s unsportsmanlike conduct in “throwing things over the wall.”
When Kronberg asks whether she’s been expelled, Boyd says “heavens no! You’re not expelled. You’re just a member without Alpha privileges.”
Tuesday, August 21: LaRouche-affiliated lawyer sends letter to lawyer representing PMR demanding back roughly $100,000 in “overpayment” made by LPAC [the LaRouche Political Action Committee] to PMR in the weeks before Ken’s death.
This “overpayment” may represent a legal problem for LPAC treasurer B. Boyd vis-à-vis the FEC. Interestingly, two days before his death, Ken Kronberg, in telling Molly that they would be “vilified like you’ve never seen,” explained that the organization wanted the $100,000 back, because of the legal problem, and that when he didn’t give it back, but sent it to the IRS instead, “we will be vilified….”
Recall that 17 minutes before his death, Kronberg sent the email to his accountant directing that all the money he had in escrow be sent to the IRS. Oops—no payback for LPAC.
My land, what a busy week that was, from August 14 to August 21, as LaRouche and his underlings put in place the new narrative about Ken Kronberg’s death, placing all the blame on Molly Kronberg after months of placing it everywhere else (except one place).
But back to the original question: Does everyone agree with Lyn’s attacks on Molly Kronberg?
Let’s take a look at Nancy Spannaus’s letter, and compare it to Lyn’s "Molly-did-it" memos, and also compare it to Lyn’s previous venomous attacks against Ken.
August 14, 2007
Dear Molly,
I did read the memo you refer to, and did not see it as an attack on Ken at all. [Spannaus is alluding to the Boyd “Simple Facts” memo, which Molly Kronberg had complained was a false and scurrilous atttack against her husband.]
Most importantly, I don’t think Ken needs any justification—while he ran PMR, he acted, as he often told me, with total commitment to our cause and Lyn’s political leadership. His biggest mistake was his suicide—which was an immeasurable loss for you, me, us, and the world.
I miss Ken a lot—and have nothing but contempt for those vultures like N___ and C___—to name the ones most venomous at the funeral—who could not have cared less about Ken when he was alive, but now want to use you and Max—in your grief—to destroy the movement Ken devoted his life to.
I do have regrets, of course, for not having seen the depth of Ken’s depression, and not having been a better friend. But what’s important now is to honor his memory by doing the work which he dedicated his life to. As the person who first asked you to join the Labor Committee, I ask you again to join—or at least support us—in that mission.
With love and sympathy,
Nancy
FOR MOLLY
PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL
[Click here for page image of Spannaus's handwritten original.]
Now of course, there are many things wrong with this letter—the idea that N and C couldn’t have cared less about Ken; the idea that Molly was somehow being manipulated to destroy the Labor Committee—rather than that she had concluded that the Labor Committee was toxic and itself destructive; the idea that it was simply Ken’s depression, not the circumstances, that gave rise to his suicide; the idea that the most important thing is, as always, to support the organization.
But what’s most interesting about this letter is that it never says a word about Molly being to blame for Ken’s suicide, never says a word about her donations to Bush. Nothing. Doesn’t that seem strange, given the fact that it was written after a meeting with LaRouche and was mailed just two days before it all hit the fan in the briefing?
Maybe Nancy was trying to warn Molly, to give her one last chance to come around before Lyn let fly. Or maybe she just didn’t agree with the line about to be handed down.
Hmm. Maybe it’s time for Lyn and Nancy to have a little chat and align their thinking more closely. Or perhaps it’s time for Labor Committee members to realize that no one believes what Lyn is saying, not even his biggest fans.
And that many wonder what kind of a man could drive someone to suicide, and then savagely attack the widow for the terrible grief and loss she suffered at his hands.
And then there comes that manic giggle of Lyn's, that dissociated chirping, "Have fun!"
yamabkad, 11:36 am:
Eaglebeak wrote: "Or perhaps it’s time for Labor Committee members to realize that no one believes what Lyn is saying, not even his biggest fans."
They realize and [then] they forget. Sobriety of thought is almost impossible in a cult, even at a funeral, apparently.
Nancy Spannaus wrote: "But what’s important now is to honor his memory by doing the work which he dedicated his life to. As the person who first asked you to join the Labor Committee, I ask you again to join—or at least support us—in that mission."
Nancy, I doubt with all your LC experience you hardly need the prompting, but when will you crack out of your fishbowl? What if Lyn blames YOU for the collapse one [of] those "D-Day - 1" days, even after you dedicated your whole life to fighting "the collapse"?
What if you are in your car listening to the briefing on your phone when it hits you? "You, Nancy, have to redeem yourself for this that and the other?"
So how do you do that?
Drive on and try to talk it out with someone who even you don't trust, knowing what the outcome always has been and what it always will be? Stick around as that tricky depression you mentioned gets at you? Leave and never come back, fighting against the collapse of your psyche as a prerequisite to fighting any other collapse?
I think the choice is obvious, but black is white, is it not? As we change we stay the same.
Your letter reminds me of how at the locals they'd get your best buddy in the org, and only that person, to call you, just to amp the personal feeling quotient. If you were thinking about quitting the org, or hadn't showed up to a couple of meetings your buddy might even ease up the language of the current party line just so you would consider coming back to a meeting.
The rhetoric of the letter follows the standard form of a letter to someone in mourning, except with the usual "dialectical method" slightly varied to reflect a below-threshold uneasiness to parrot outright BS.
I guess higher level LCers, while more literate, function the same way as the Hit..ahem, Hermyle Youth.[FN 3]
tuer07, 2:27 pm:
Thank you eaglebeak and yamabkad for your comments regarding Nancy Spannaus's letter. The letter itself, and the glimpses of the LaRouche organization that we receive here at factnet.org, are very similar to the mind-set epitomized by the following three paragraphs from 1984:
Under the table Winston's feet made convulsive movements. He had not stirred from his seat, but in his mind he was running, swiftly running, he was with the crowds outside, cheering himself deaf. He looked up again at the portrait of Big Brother. The colossus that bestrode the world! The rock against which the hordes of Asia dashed themselves in vain! He thought how ten minutes ago -- yes, only ten minutes -- there had still been equivocation in his heart as he wondered whether the news from the front would be of victory or defeat. Ah, it was more than a Eurasian army that had perished! Much had changed in him since that first day in the Ministry of Love, but the final, indispensable, healing change had never happened, until this moment.
The voice from the telescreen was still pouring forth its tale of prisoners and booty and slaughter, but the shouting outside had died down a little. The waiters were turning back to their work. One of them approached with the gin bottle. Winston, sitting in a blissful dream, paid no attention as his glass was filled up. He was not running or cheering any longer. He was back in the Ministry of Love, with everything forgiven, his soul white as snow. He was in the public dock, confessing everything, implicating everybody. He was walking down the white-tiled corridor, with the feeling of walking in sunlight, and an armed guard at his back. The long-hoped-for bullet was entering his brain.
He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2] PMR was the printing company owned by Ken Kronberg but controlled by the LaRouche organization.
[3] "Hermyle" is LaRouche's middle name.
[1] The idea that Molly Kronberg could have "insisted" on retaining her position on the national
committee is absurd. The National Caucus of Labor Committees is a top-down totalitarian organization in which only Lyndon LaRouche has the right to insist on anything.
