I have been harping on the language Hitler used against Jews and intellectuals and “homosexuals” (Hitler’s word), communists, Marxists, the indigent, the mentally retarded (again, Hitler’s characterization), Romanis, and others held as undesirable. Hitler urged his German followers to “care for the purity of their own blood” in his implementation of the Nuremberg laws that stripped Jews of German citizenship and forbade intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews. After their initial passage, the Nuremberg laws were expanded to include Romani and Black people. These laws are what Hitler used as the basis for his “final solution” that killed millions of Jews and others.
I've suggested here before that Joe Biden establish a "Fireside Chat" to denounce Trump and his incipient fascism on a thumping, continual basis. (If he was really smart, he'd get you to write them, Lucian.) Make them so direct and angry that they'd be looked forward to by every caring American as their voice. Over and over and over.
I was thinking the same thing, Bob, Biden should be on Prime time frequently warning all Americans of the serious danger that Trump poses. As stated above, Trump admires all the dictators of the world and wants to be one of them. This is the 1930's all over again. Remember those newsreels of the admiring faces of thousands of Germans when Hitler gave his rousing speeches about the vermin poisoning the blood of Germany, etc. Same thing at Trump rallies, albeit on a much smaller scale.
Yes! Public exposure and personal contact (as personal as it can be at a rally) are powerful influencers. TRUMP KNOWS THIS! Start getting prominent Democrats out there.
Lindsey Graham says Trump's hateful rhetoric is only words, well so was Hitler's until his followers took action based on those words and started violently attacking Jews. Hateful words from a powerful leader are a powerful stimulant to hateful people.
I don't remember if I posted this here - forgive the duplication..... From Jonathan Karl's new book on Trump, "So Much Winning", a description of Trump by a former senior advisor in his administration:
"He lacks any shred of human decency, humility or caring. He is morally bankrupt, breathtakingly dishonest, lethally incompetent and stunningly ignorant of virtually anything involving governing, history, geography, human events or world affairs. He is a traitor and a malignancy in our nation and represents a clear and present danger to our democracy and the rule of law."
Jonathan Karl quoted this on Jen Psaki's show on MSNBC a few weeks ago and he did not reveal who said it. There is a pundit cottage industry in guessing which senior advisor it was.....there are so many to choose from.
The really sad thing is that so many of his followers share his stunning ignorance, which is why he is so powerful and dangerous - the people who follow him have no idea of what they want to throw away, and what would replace it.....
If Trump got in and did half the stuff he says he'll do, we would have a depression that would be so much worse than the 1930s people would not believe it. Just eliminating Social Security would do it, with cutting Medicare icing on the poisonous cake.
I was thinking the same thing, Bruce. Something is lacking in the people who will vote for him, I think if around today Al Capone could get their vote if he promised to get rid of the "vermin" or Bonnie and Clyde - Bonnie as Clyde's VP :)
OK but attributed by who? Milley is on the record with severe critiques of Trump, it might be Rex Tillerson, or Don McGahn, the point is: they're correct, and it's very charitable as it leaves out a host of specific vicious and despicable verbal attacks and open threats made by Trump, as well as attempts thwarted by his staff, which would hammer the point home even more forcefully.
1-2 weeks ago I extracted those words from an email that reviewed Karl’s book. It is the very best description of Dump I’ve ever seen, and I was going to quote it here.
You beat me to it!
The person who said that was not just a lowly staffer but a senior WH official who spent a lot of time with Dump … at least a year… so he knows whereof he speaks. He asked Karl to withhold his name. He prefers to remain anonymous, fearing violence against his family. Think about that: a former president of this country would casually encourage violence against anyone who criticizes him! My god!
It's Adolf with an "f" not "ph". I don't know how I did that. Maybe I just don't type Hitler's first name enough. Come to think of it, I haven't had cause to use the Fuhrer's first name until a certain someone came around.
The original "Adolf" has often been anglicized by writers as "Adolph", esp. in olden days. You shouldn't beat yourself up over it. Similar to Goring (with an umlaut that I can't seem to make) vs Goering. Fuhrer/Fuehrer.
I find it unsettling that Trump is a booster of the most dangerous antisemite in the world, Putin and then the others like Orban and the Saudis, yet Jews are beating up
College Presidents instead of raising Hell within their own community about Jews who support Trump. The billionaires going after college presidents should be going after Trump. He is the real danger.
I don’t think you quite grasp why Jews are beating up the college presidents right now. It’s because they’re setting forth a generation of new leaders out of elite schools for whom antisemitism is not just accepted, but is encouraged because of the whole insanity of the woke mentality. Yes, I just said that. This is deeply serious because it is the way Putin and his Russian bots got through to young people in 2016 and it’s happening again. This is also a consequence of history not being properly taught anymore. Do you know how many school children never heard of the Holocaust? The young imbeciles chanting from the river to the sea,Palestine will be free Do Not understand the meaning of that: eliminating Israel completely is the goal of hateful Hamas. I believe they are parroting the rights of the dispossessed underclass considering Israel and it’s Jews as colonial oppressors not understanding that in fact, it is Hamas and leaders in Gaza, who have for years and years obstructed any possibility of peace. They don’t wanna see the Jews giving them space they don’t wanna see them leaving they wanna see them dead. And when that mentality starts to permeate this country via it’s elite university, something needs to be done. Not to mention the UN, which is also proven to be remarkably antisemitic.
And yes, we’ve all been screaming since you rode down that elevator that the media is just loving Trump because he’s good for bringing in $$$ but not for this country and it is time to start calling them out. I don’t pay for the times anymore because it’s so jaundiced.
Without question. But he is being run by outside forces, and is most unfortunately Putin's puppet. And the end goal of Putin for a long time hs been to weaken America and its role as a superpower, and he is using the orange fool very well. Think of how polarized this country has become. That's the problem with what's going on in the mIddle East, it is no longer a localized conflict, Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, and since the US has been a strong ally of Israel, well, here's where Biden comes in. He is being hounded to cut off aid to both Ukraine and Israel and who benefits from that? Putin and his pals. This to me is the big threat. Putin has helped weaken this country by creating tremendous discord and fatboy has lit the flames of them. He is reading directly from Hitler's playbook. And I fear that Biden will cave.
Bob Good is an a Liberty University product. Jerry Falwell with his legacy non elite school has done more damage under the radar than every Ivy League president combined. He has generations of people schooled to be Christian Nationalists. It’s the “ banality of evil” in action.
Lucian, it catches my attention the way Trump and often the so called right wing, make accusatory statements..that in fact are more exactly statements of their own beliefs.
“poisoning the blood of our country” which is EXACTLY what Trump is doing with his vile language.
you are 100% correct in my pov. there is something wrong with democrats and their inability to go for the jugular. the only one i have heard anything proactive from is eric swalwell on msnbc. biden really needs to step up his game. quoting numbers won't cut it. he has to go for the jugular.
I frankly don't understand why someone doesn't start things by taking one for the team and going for the jugular. Unless, of course, they all know that by doing so they could be LITERALLY provoking a death sentence upon themselves, coworkers, or family members at the hands of the legion of wackos that comprise the extreme right. I have felt this possibility ever since '16 which would have been the perfect time to ridicule the now Former Guy out of the running! Instead the ante is upped now to virtually life and death: the very life blood of our Democratic Republic is seeping away, threatening to bleed out under a return of that despicable scum we allowed to govern for four years!!
It's time for someone to step up! There are those of us ready to follow anyone right into the abyss who's prepared to take Trump down!!!
I agree, Susan, Biden is a good man and he has achieved a lot, but he is not very good at conveying that, he strikes me as being too timid, too cautious, was slow to provide Ukraine with more powerful weapons. like long range missiles, afraid Putin might view it as America attacking Russia. Even now, we are being attacked all over the middle East and only taking defensive action. China is watching all this very carefully too. weighing their chances of invading Taiwan seeing we probably don't have the stomach for conflict. Same with Putin and Iran. Their perception is that we are weak. The GOP is making it all worse by holding up further aid to Ukraine and the aid to Israel. It is very sad that so many Gazan civilians are suffering, but Hamas is to blame. If they had not attacked Israel in such a savage inhuman way gazans would not be suffering now. But Israel has no choice with Hamas hiding behind civilians, And if they cam get a cease fire by turning the world against Israel with their videos of civilian suffering they have already said they will repeat Oct. 7 again and again.
Yes, I was thinking that too, Susan, bad advice or ignoring good advice. Of course it's all opinion. Our opinion could be wrong, their opinion could be wrong, but who is to say until after the fact? We all tend to hold strong opinions about things, we all think we're right. In fact some people are so sure they are right they state the opinion as fact. It is very rare for someone to alter their opinion. When was the last time. during a perhaps somewhat heated discussion t the other person said. "You know you are right, I never thought of it that way :) One more question: If a man speaks in the forest and there is no woman there to hear him. is he still wrong?
I wish this column could be required reading for Bidens campaign staff and every so called journalist in America. You, Jennifer Rubin of the WP, Heather Cox Richardson and her daily letter on FB and Substack, and a few others are the only journalists who seem to grasp the severity of the danger we are in of becoming a dictatorship. I live in GA, and am surrounded by Trumptards who would do anything he says, especially if it involves guns and attacking Democrats. A year from now we could easily be entering the Fourth Reich.
I am just about finished listening to Rachel Maddow's greatly informative book, "PREQUEL". Right up to Pearl Harbor, 12/7/1941, Col. Charles Lindbergh and about 20 Senators and Congressmen (all Republicans) were spouting the Nazi hatred of Jewish people. Today's GOP has widened the field of people to hate, but still loves, envies, or excuses our authoritarian enemies. The similarities of the two eras are striking. Once again, thank you, Rachel.
This, This and more This! I couldn't believe a NYTs headline the other day that was essentially (paraphrasing): A second tDuMp presidency MAY be worse than the first. How wishy-washy can you possibly get? The constant "normalization" of behavior and tactics that even 10 years ago would have been unthinkable will be our downfall if we let it.
The Times makes an excellent point about Hunter Biden. These knuckleheads can think whatever they want to about Joe, except that he would interfere with the DOJ to get elected but not to save his own son. That's too insane even for them.
At this point I am much more concerned about the prospect of a permanent divide between truth and lies than I am about the polls. The pro-Palestinians who are disappointed about Biden's support of Israel can't really think the Muslim ban guy is better. If Trump is elected and we do make it through 4 years of madness the GOP will be dead and buried, forever. Either way though the craziness that has split this nation in 2 is going to get worse. It could devolve into a Northern Ireland type situation.
IMO all it would take to difuse the situation would be for enough of us to swallow our pride and our bile and say, "Trump isn't that bad." Really. Me? I would rather die. Never. And that was the brilliance of the plot. He is so bad that we can never abide him. We can't say we do. We can't even imagine we do. And he is so bad they can never admit they were wrong. What, and admit all the insults were correct?
And that's the proof that Trump doesn't give a shit about America.
Since we're looking at a specific parallel, "if Trump is elected" we will NOT "make it through 4 years of madness the GOP will be dead and buried..." In 1932 some German Communists argued, "After Hitler, Us," assuming the Nazi party would be "dead and buried." The first people sent to Dachau included all the Communist leaders...who wound up literally dead and buried, if not cremated.
The comparison between the 2 is a non sequitur, isnt it? The Nazi party was Hitler's creation. Trump is no more a Republican than you or I. It was just a convenient vessel for Trump to use when he decided being a pro-coice Democrat was no longer convenient. And from that point onward, whether through incompetence or by design, Trump has been systematically hewing down the GOP. So far the result has been a historic string of losses, infighting, resignations and incompetent leadership. So I don't think it will take much more for Trump to bury the party and replace it with one in his own image, which was probably his intention from the beginning.
A little history music: the Nazi Party existed, if barely, before Hitler joined it. If you search online for Donald Junior's ravings on January 6, you will hear him saying "It's not their---" [Bush, Reagan, Ford, TR, etc.] "---Republican party any more. It's Trump's." That blob of rhetorical puke was, sadly, accurate.
trump is good business. He makes money for ALL media - they love him. trump is the chief cannibal capitalist and (as you have warned) will eat what remains of USA democracy for lunch. Biden has served the cannibals for his entire career and has continued to do so as president - he doesn't care what trump is or does.
At the risk of being considered a Pollyanna, I wonder if the story about the boy who cried 'wolf' is the one that's working against us in this instance?
That people are hearing the words 'dictator', "Hitler', and the other phrases and not hearing them for what they are-predictions, instead of 'bullshit' that everyone (well, nearly everyone, present company excepted) is passing them off as.
I will tell you this, though-there are fewer and fewer people such as you and I (and other readers) who had parents who fought in WWII-and we're the second (and last) generation to bear witness to the time that Donald Trump is referring to.
Because Trump's father never served-as Trump did not in Vietnam because his father paid off some podiatrist to attest the his boy had bone spurs.
Your father and grandfather fought in the war, mine did his thing, and we heard these horrifying stories or visited the places that others just know from schoolbooks and movies.
I remember going to the American Cemetery in Draguignan, where I was so damn crass to ask my father while he was look at various crosses, "Did you know this man"?
Of course he did. He was the leader of his squad and the man buried there was one of those he lost. He asked me to take pictures of the various crosses he looked at. I never said another world.
My father would be so, so angry with the Americans who have totally forgotten history so that we're on the cusp of repeating it.
That's why we're so angry, all of us who have read history, and heard it from our fathers and mothers-we know what we're looking at and listening to-but nobody else seems to care, and wants it all over again.
Because they weren't there to witness it the first time and they read the history books but they have no first or second hand knowledge of it. Their grandfathers are almost all dead now.
Heaven help us, we have an entire nation of morons whose biggest fear is not getting to Walmart in time for their Christmas shopping.
My Dad, a career Army officer, WWII with a Purple Heart, and my Mom, a Woman Marine, WWII, are two of Trump's SUCKERS buried together in Arlington National Cemetery.
I am just one of millions who would love a moment alone with Orange Foolius.
Me too. A brother served in Korea and was nearly killed; another brother served 3 years in the USMC; my late father served in the USN, Pacific Theater. New Caledonia. I put in 26 years for Uncle Sam. . Suckers, all of us.
Amen! Biden needs to be on the news every day exposing Trump for what he is. My father and his three brothers and my father-in-law and his two brothers all fought in WWII. I'm sure many Republicans as well have family members who served in WWII. It dishonors their service and their sacrifice to promote a candidate who admires and glorifies Hitler and regurgitates his rhetoric.
For those of us with Democratic senators and reps, let’s call, write, and go see them to tell them to 1) forcefully and publicly have Biden’s back, and 2) hound the Biden team and Biden personally to go after the orange menace. I suspect more will happen come 2024 - right now, most people are preoccupied with the holidays, and where they are paying attention, the mid-east mess. But as L. says, this is an existential moment - let’s grab it and run!
In Germany in the ‘ 30s a whole lot of people including Jews did not take Hitler seriously and we know what happened. Maybe that’s the problem. The NYT etc are just getting it
That is EXACTLY what has happened here!! We've been telling people this for more than seven years now - where are those with the brass balls big enough to stand up and fight????
I've suggested here before that Joe Biden establish a "Fireside Chat" to denounce Trump and his incipient fascism on a thumping, continual basis. (If he was really smart, he'd get you to write them, Lucian.) Make them so direct and angry that they'd be looked forward to by every caring American as their voice. Over and over and over.
I was thinking the same thing, Bob, Biden should be on Prime time frequently warning all Americans of the serious danger that Trump poses. As stated above, Trump admires all the dictators of the world and wants to be one of them. This is the 1930's all over again. Remember those newsreels of the admiring faces of thousands of Germans when Hitler gave his rousing speeches about the vermin poisoning the blood of Germany, etc. Same thing at Trump rallies, albeit on a much smaller scale.
Yes! Public exposure and personal contact (as personal as it can be at a rally) are powerful influencers. TRUMP KNOWS THIS! Start getting prominent Democrats out there.
Lindsey Graham says Trump's hateful rhetoric is only words, well so was Hitler's until his followers took action based on those words and started violently attacking Jews. Hateful words from a powerful leader are a powerful stimulant to hateful people.
Biden, in particular.
Same Scale.
Great idea.
I don't remember if I posted this here - forgive the duplication..... From Jonathan Karl's new book on Trump, "So Much Winning", a description of Trump by a former senior advisor in his administration:
"He lacks any shred of human decency, humility or caring. He is morally bankrupt, breathtakingly dishonest, lethally incompetent and stunningly ignorant of virtually anything involving governing, history, geography, human events or world affairs. He is a traitor and a malignancy in our nation and represents a clear and present danger to our democracy and the rule of law."
Who said/wrote that? Great true statement, but whose words are these? I would like to use those words, but who said this?
Jonathan Karl quoted this on Jen Psaki's show on MSNBC a few weeks ago and he did not reveal who said it. There is a pundit cottage industry in guessing which senior advisor it was.....there are so many to choose from.
The really sad thing is that so many of his followers share his stunning ignorance, which is why he is so powerful and dangerous - the people who follow him have no idea of what they want to throw away, and what would replace it.....
that's what I mean when I talk about the success of the Repugs very long game being sabotaged by their lack of any short-term "goals" at all.
like, what's supposed to happen after we're all in jail or dead or whatever?
it's horrifying that these virtual nobodies occupy so much of our mental real estate.
If Trump got in and did half the stuff he says he'll do, we would have a depression that would be so much worse than the 1930s people would not believe it. Just eliminating Social Security would do it, with cutting Medicare icing on the poisonous cake.
I was thinking the same thing, Bruce. Something is lacking in the people who will vote for him, I think if around today Al Capone could get their vote if he promised to get rid of the "vermin" or Bonnie and Clyde - Bonnie as Clyde's VP :)
as soon as I read it, it felt like Kelly, who's said pretty much the same stuff without any anonymity at all.
there's no way in the world Bannon or Miller would ever have said something like that. no. way.
Probably Bannon or Miller when they thought no one was listening...they are the puppet masters.
My guess is Meadows…🤷♂️
I thought that had already been attributed to General Milley.
OK but attributed by who? Milley is on the record with severe critiques of Trump, it might be Rex Tillerson, or Don McGahn, the point is: they're correct, and it's very charitable as it leaves out a host of specific vicious and despicable verbal attacks and open threats made by Trump, as well as attempts thwarted by his staff, which would hammer the point home even more forcefully.
I don’t think it’s Milley. As a recently retired general officer I think he’d not be quite that outspoken.
It sounds like it could be one of Trump's former attorneys, Don McGahn.
1-2 weeks ago I extracted those words from an email that reviewed Karl’s book. It is the very best description of Dump I’ve ever seen, and I was going to quote it here.
You beat me to it!
The person who said that was not just a lowly staffer but a senior WH official who spent a lot of time with Dump … at least a year… so he knows whereof he speaks. He asked Karl to withhold his name. He prefers to remain anonymous, fearing violence against his family. Think about that: a former president of this country would casually encourage violence against anyone who criticizes him! My god!
It's Adolf with an "f" not "ph". I don't know how I did that. Maybe I just don't type Hitler's first name enough. Come to think of it, I haven't had cause to use the Fuhrer's first name until a certain someone came around.
The original "Adolf" has often been anglicized by writers as "Adolph", esp. in olden days. You shouldn't beat yourself up over it. Similar to Goring (with an umlaut that I can't seem to make) vs Goering. Fuhrer/Fuehrer.
I find it unsettling that Trump is a booster of the most dangerous antisemite in the world, Putin and then the others like Orban and the Saudis, yet Jews are beating up
College Presidents instead of raising Hell within their own community about Jews who support Trump. The billionaires going after college presidents should be going after Trump. He is the real danger.
I don’t think you quite grasp why Jews are beating up the college presidents right now. It’s because they’re setting forth a generation of new leaders out of elite schools for whom antisemitism is not just accepted, but is encouraged because of the whole insanity of the woke mentality. Yes, I just said that. This is deeply serious because it is the way Putin and his Russian bots got through to young people in 2016 and it’s happening again. This is also a consequence of history not being properly taught anymore. Do you know how many school children never heard of the Holocaust? The young imbeciles chanting from the river to the sea,Palestine will be free Do Not understand the meaning of that: eliminating Israel completely is the goal of hateful Hamas. I believe they are parroting the rights of the dispossessed underclass considering Israel and it’s Jews as colonial oppressors not understanding that in fact, it is Hamas and leaders in Gaza, who have for years and years obstructed any possibility of peace. They don’t wanna see the Jews giving them space they don’t wanna see them leaving they wanna see them dead. And when that mentality starts to permeate this country via it’s elite university, something needs to be done. Not to mention the UN, which is also proven to be remarkably antisemitic.
And yes, we’ve all been screaming since you rode down that elevator that the media is just loving Trump because he’s good for bringing in $$$ but not for this country and it is time to start calling them out. I don’t pay for the times anymore because it’s so jaundiced.
I guess, but University Presidents are a big nothingburger compared to the existential threat tangeranus is to not only Jews but America.
Without question. But he is being run by outside forces, and is most unfortunately Putin's puppet. And the end goal of Putin for a long time hs been to weaken America and its role as a superpower, and he is using the orange fool very well. Think of how polarized this country has become. That's the problem with what's going on in the mIddle East, it is no longer a localized conflict, Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, and since the US has been a strong ally of Israel, well, here's where Biden comes in. He is being hounded to cut off aid to both Ukraine and Israel and who benefits from that? Putin and his pals. This to me is the big threat. Putin has helped weaken this country by creating tremendous discord and fatboy has lit the flames of them. He is reading directly from Hitler's playbook. And I fear that Biden will cave.
Bob Good is an a Liberty University product. Jerry Falwell with his legacy non elite school has done more damage under the radar than every Ivy League president combined. He has generations of people schooled to be Christian Nationalists. It’s the “ banality of evil” in action.
100%
Biden should just give them what they want in exchange for funding Ukraine and Israel. It's only for a year right...
He really can’t you cannot negotiate with flying monkeys they are a nihilistic group of fools who just want to rip apart government
Probably but you have to try right?
This scares the sh*t out of me!
Me too!!!!!
Lucian, it catches my attention the way Trump and often the so called right wing, make accusatory statements..that in fact are more exactly statements of their own beliefs.
“poisoning the blood of our country” which is EXACTLY what Trump is doing with his vile language.
Kept up your great work.
That's how narcissistic sociopathy works: projecting your own behaviors onto others.
Everything. All of this.
you are 100% correct in my pov. there is something wrong with democrats and their inability to go for the jugular. the only one i have heard anything proactive from is eric swalwell on msnbc. biden really needs to step up his game. quoting numbers won't cut it. he has to go for the jugular.
I frankly don't understand why someone doesn't start things by taking one for the team and going for the jugular. Unless, of course, they all know that by doing so they could be LITERALLY provoking a death sentence upon themselves, coworkers, or family members at the hands of the legion of wackos that comprise the extreme right. I have felt this possibility ever since '16 which would have been the perfect time to ridicule the now Former Guy out of the running! Instead the ante is upped now to virtually life and death: the very life blood of our Democratic Republic is seeping away, threatening to bleed out under a return of that despicable scum we allowed to govern for four years!!
It's time for someone to step up! There are those of us ready to follow anyone right into the abyss who's prepared to take Trump down!!!
I agree, Susan, Biden is a good man and he has achieved a lot, but he is not very good at conveying that, he strikes me as being too timid, too cautious, was slow to provide Ukraine with more powerful weapons. like long range missiles, afraid Putin might view it as America attacking Russia. Even now, we are being attacked all over the middle East and only taking defensive action. China is watching all this very carefully too. weighing their chances of invading Taiwan seeing we probably don't have the stomach for conflict. Same with Putin and Iran. Their perception is that we are weak. The GOP is making it all worse by holding up further aid to Ukraine and the aid to Israel. It is very sad that so many Gazan civilians are suffering, but Hamas is to blame. If they had not attacked Israel in such a savage inhuman way gazans would not be suffering now. But Israel has no choice with Hamas hiding behind civilians, And if they cam get a cease fire by turning the world against Israel with their videos of civilian suffering they have already said they will repeat Oct. 7 again and again.
i know, it's sad that Biden is timid, or perhaps we could say cautious? it might also be that the advice he is getting isn't helping him.
Yes, I was thinking that too, Susan, bad advice or ignoring good advice. Of course it's all opinion. Our opinion could be wrong, their opinion could be wrong, but who is to say until after the fact? We all tend to hold strong opinions about things, we all think we're right. In fact some people are so sure they are right they state the opinion as fact. It is very rare for someone to alter their opinion. When was the last time. during a perhaps somewhat heated discussion t the other person said. "You know you are right, I never thought of it that way :) One more question: If a man speaks in the forest and there is no woman there to hear him. is he still wrong?
I wish this column could be required reading for Bidens campaign staff and every so called journalist in America. You, Jennifer Rubin of the WP, Heather Cox Richardson and her daily letter on FB and Substack, and a few others are the only journalists who seem to grasp the severity of the danger we are in of becoming a dictatorship. I live in GA, and am surrounded by Trumptards who would do anything he says, especially if it involves guns and attacking Democrats. A year from now we could easily be entering the Fourth Reich.
I am just about finished listening to Rachel Maddow's greatly informative book, "PREQUEL". Right up to Pearl Harbor, 12/7/1941, Col. Charles Lindbergh and about 20 Senators and Congressmen (all Republicans) were spouting the Nazi hatred of Jewish people. Today's GOP has widened the field of people to hate, but still loves, envies, or excuses our authoritarian enemies. The similarities of the two eras are striking. Once again, thank you, Rachel.
This, This and more This! I couldn't believe a NYTs headline the other day that was essentially (paraphrasing): A second tDuMp presidency MAY be worse than the first. How wishy-washy can you possibly get? The constant "normalization" of behavior and tactics that even 10 years ago would have been unthinkable will be our downfall if we let it.
The Times makes an excellent point about Hunter Biden. These knuckleheads can think whatever they want to about Joe, except that he would interfere with the DOJ to get elected but not to save his own son. That's too insane even for them.
At this point I am much more concerned about the prospect of a permanent divide between truth and lies than I am about the polls. The pro-Palestinians who are disappointed about Biden's support of Israel can't really think the Muslim ban guy is better. If Trump is elected and we do make it through 4 years of madness the GOP will be dead and buried, forever. Either way though the craziness that has split this nation in 2 is going to get worse. It could devolve into a Northern Ireland type situation.
IMO all it would take to difuse the situation would be for enough of us to swallow our pride and our bile and say, "Trump isn't that bad." Really. Me? I would rather die. Never. And that was the brilliance of the plot. He is so bad that we can never abide him. We can't say we do. We can't even imagine we do. And he is so bad they can never admit they were wrong. What, and admit all the insults were correct?
And that's the proof that Trump doesn't give a shit about America.
Since we're looking at a specific parallel, "if Trump is elected" we will NOT "make it through 4 years of madness the GOP will be dead and buried..." In 1932 some German Communists argued, "After Hitler, Us," assuming the Nazi party would be "dead and buried." The first people sent to Dachau included all the Communist leaders...who wound up literally dead and buried, if not cremated.
The comparison between the 2 is a non sequitur, isnt it? The Nazi party was Hitler's creation. Trump is no more a Republican than you or I. It was just a convenient vessel for Trump to use when he decided being a pro-coice Democrat was no longer convenient. And from that point onward, whether through incompetence or by design, Trump has been systematically hewing down the GOP. So far the result has been a historic string of losses, infighting, resignations and incompetent leadership. So I don't think it will take much more for Trump to bury the party and replace it with one in his own image, which was probably his intention from the beginning.
A little history music: the Nazi Party existed, if barely, before Hitler joined it. If you search online for Donald Junior's ravings on January 6, you will hear him saying "It's not their---" [Bush, Reagan, Ford, TR, etc.] "---Republican party any more. It's Trump's." That blob of rhetorical puke was, sadly, accurate.
I guess if he says it is, that settles it.
I stand by my remarks.
It'll be worse than The Troubles.
It'll be the Final Solution 2.0!
trump is good business. He makes money for ALL media - they love him. trump is the chief cannibal capitalist and (as you have warned) will eat what remains of USA democracy for lunch. Biden has served the cannibals for his entire career and has continued to do so as president - he doesn't care what trump is or does.
If your last sentence is true … and damn, I wish Joe were a better speaker… then he (Biden) doesn’t deserve a second term.
At the risk of being considered a Pollyanna, I wonder if the story about the boy who cried 'wolf' is the one that's working against us in this instance?
That people are hearing the words 'dictator', "Hitler', and the other phrases and not hearing them for what they are-predictions, instead of 'bullshit' that everyone (well, nearly everyone, present company excepted) is passing them off as.
I will tell you this, though-there are fewer and fewer people such as you and I (and other readers) who had parents who fought in WWII-and we're the second (and last) generation to bear witness to the time that Donald Trump is referring to.
Because Trump's father never served-as Trump did not in Vietnam because his father paid off some podiatrist to attest the his boy had bone spurs.
Your father and grandfather fought in the war, mine did his thing, and we heard these horrifying stories or visited the places that others just know from schoolbooks and movies.
I remember going to the American Cemetery in Draguignan, where I was so damn crass to ask my father while he was look at various crosses, "Did you know this man"?
Of course he did. He was the leader of his squad and the man buried there was one of those he lost. He asked me to take pictures of the various crosses he looked at. I never said another world.
My father would be so, so angry with the Americans who have totally forgotten history so that we're on the cusp of repeating it.
That's why we're so angry, all of us who have read history, and heard it from our fathers and mothers-we know what we're looking at and listening to-but nobody else seems to care, and wants it all over again.
Because they weren't there to witness it the first time and they read the history books but they have no first or second hand knowledge of it. Their grandfathers are almost all dead now.
Heaven help us, we have an entire nation of morons whose biggest fear is not getting to Walmart in time for their Christmas shopping.
And as for Trump, he called those who have died for the United States 'suckers' and 'losers', which shows you how patriotic that asshole is: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/
My Dad, a career Army officer, WWII with a Purple Heart, and my Mom, a Woman Marine, WWII, are two of Trump's SUCKERS buried together in Arlington National Cemetery.
I am just one of millions who would love a moment alone with Orange Foolius.
Me too. A brother served in Korea and was nearly killed; another brother served 3 years in the USMC; my late father served in the USN, Pacific Theater. New Caledonia. I put in 26 years for Uncle Sam. . Suckers, all of us.
Thanks, Mary. You have expressed why I am so angry about Americans’ short memory or ignorance of their own history.
Amen! Biden needs to be on the news every day exposing Trump for what he is. My father and his three brothers and my father-in-law and his two brothers all fought in WWII. I'm sure many Republicans as well have family members who served in WWII. It dishonors their service and their sacrifice to promote a candidate who admires and glorifies Hitler and regurgitates his rhetoric.
For those of us with Democratic senators and reps, let’s call, write, and go see them to tell them to 1) forcefully and publicly have Biden’s back, and 2) hound the Biden team and Biden personally to go after the orange menace. I suspect more will happen come 2024 - right now, most people are preoccupied with the holidays, and where they are paying attention, the mid-east mess. But as L. says, this is an existential moment - let’s grab it and run!
YES! Agree 109%.
In Germany in the ‘ 30s a whole lot of people including Jews did not take Hitler seriously and we know what happened. Maybe that’s the problem. The NYT etc are just getting it
That is EXACTLY what has happened here!! We've been telling people this for more than seven years now - where are those with the brass balls big enough to stand up and fight????
I think they are in denial or in the case of some consumed by greed