When I was a boy and then a young man, I found it inconceivable how a nation like Germany could descend into and embrace fascism. Didn’t Germany’s long history argue against that? Germany had long been a trading hub within Europe and beyond with its ports in Hamburg and Bremen, exposed to the rest of the world by both its exports and imports. Germany had a glorious history in culture and the arts – its philosophers were taught around the world; a German, Martin Luther, single-handedly shifted the religious landscape by inventing Protestantism; a German, Guttenberg, invented the printing press, democratizing the spread of information; German composers like Bach and Handel and Beethoven and Brahms and Mendelssohn and Strauss were princes in the world of classical music; German writers like Goethe and the Brothers Grimm and Herman Hesse and Thomas Mann and Gunter Grass were known and celebrated worldwide; the Bauhaus movement of Walter Gropius spread modernism around the world and Mies van der Rohe’s glass skyscrapers changed the look of cities in every industrialized country in the world; and German industrial innovation was admired and copied everywhere.
“It is doubtful that Trump studied Nietzsche or even knew who he was…” you note correctly.
But, I remember reading that the criminal indictee trump’s late first wife claimed he kept in his bedside table a collection of Hitler speeches translated into English.
I have always wondered about this. By reputation he is a very reluctant reader. Ivana, if she did invent this to tarnish his image, came up with something very prescient. If fact, not fiction, it shows that his interest in Hitler goes way back.
I understand your doubts about him reading, but i would guess he has little trouble sinking his teeth in if he's learning how to get his essence across more effectively or just generally how to be more venal.
My New Order, completely different from Mein Kampf, is a collection of Hitler's speeches. The dust jacket of the 1941 edition on the spine and the front cover says "Hitler's Own Sequel to Mein Kampf," and it weighed in at 1008 pages. Amazon lists a newer paperback edition in two volumes, $29 for speeches from 1918 to 1933, $26 his speeches from 1933 to the invasion of Russia in 1941. $55 is a cringeworthy price for me, and the L.A. Public Library keeps its 1941 edition in its Reference section in the main library downtown, no loaning out.
Probably the key reason Trump would have indeed dipped into My New Order, far from a dedicated scholarly slog through the text for students and instructors of German, European, Russian, World, Second World War history, history of fascist ideology, communication and mass media studies, etc., and not ruled out at all by ungrounded theories that Ivana invented this entire activity as some sinister divorce tactic, is Trump wanting to copy Hitler's techniques - really, there would be no reading ability beyond what Trump could summon up erratically, over the course of several years, when deeply motivated to copy from a master propagandist required.
Excellent insight and something I need to study more. I reverted to old stories I’d been hearing or reading about. And my knowledge of Hitler literature obviously too narrow.
(through the 70s in Manhattan you couldn’t be wholly be unaware of his (what I thought) brand of idiocy. If he wasn’t just held in contempt and ridiculed (and that’s when anyone thought of his clown self) we knew he and his company screwed tradesmen employed to work on their projects. I’d heard the Mein Kampf stories but dismissed them as a place too far even for him. I was naive.)
Whether the Orange Menace kept (and read) a collection of Hitler's speeches will never be known. But what is very likely is that an influential person close to him (think S. Miller) has the intelligence & motivation to put Hitlerian thought into tRump's minuscule mind, and that's all he needs to embark on his authoritarian journey.
Been watching and listening to the news all day. Listened to Liz Cheney who was interviewed by the great Nicolle Wallace today. One, a former member of the R Party and the other, a strong member of the previous R Party faced off with each other. It was civil and informative. Liz is screaming at the top of her lungs that the possibility of Fake 45 gaining a 2nd presidency, is a 10 alarm fire! We MUST PAY ATTENTION!
Liz? Not only voted for Trump in 2016 did so again in 2020 under the same lame argument put forth by the R/con rank and file of I liked his policies.
Liz? A wormtongue on Obama and Birtherism and her insistence Ds support infanticide.
Liz? Literally hated Nancy Pelosi yet Nancy put aside the personal vitriol by asking Liz to sit on the J6SC. Liz still can't get her head around that because that isn't h0ow Rs roll while it is how Ds do.
Liz? Her political strip tease of not ruling out a run as a 3rd-13th party while claiming she would do whatever it takes to defeat Trump. 3rd party runs are absurd. There isn't a single 3rd party candidate that can win a single state and there are not enough states who split EC votes. They way for so-called nevertrumpers to deny Trump any chance of winning an election is to put forth individual favorite sons/daughters in keystone states that would siphon votes off of Trump.
Likely had a decent chance in 2016 had the loudmouth R primary challengers who first condemned Trump 4eg Kasich (OH), Cruz (TX), Jeb and Rubio (FL), Walker (WI) done so. To a "man" they all said Trump was unfit and unqualified and had to be defeated for the good of the nation. Since then, they all morphed into Trumpkins. Just as Liz was up until 6 January 2021.
Liz? When she says she was against some things and some policies she means she internalized them because she did NOT speak out. Coward, not a shero.
Liz? How low has the nation sunk to elevate people to shero status for speaking out against 6 January yet supporting Trump since at least 2016 when spitting out any and all Ds every chance she got? And Liz still doesn't regret her NO vote on the 1st impeachment.
Liz? How many Ds did she support and campaign for in 2022 after stating she would if the D was running against an election denier? Liz has a vast war chest plus access to all sorts of donors yet broke her own vow in order to write a book for personal financial gain by sprinkling in a few new juicy tidbits about others. Even those anecdotes are simply affirmation of what generally was known about them.
Liz? Most of all, unlike the honorable Stuart Stevens, remains a staunch Republican if not a zealot one. There is no regret as Mr. Stevens expressed and no recognition of that the fact It Was All A Lie. That makes her a Republican first, not an American first. Just as we are hearing from other anti-Trumpers, 4eg Gov. Sununu, Bill Barr, who join the ranks of the 2016 primary candidates Cruz, Rubio, and Jeb! Everyone including Liz wants it BOTH WAYS.
No fuqin way. ~never forget~ is the path to ~never again~. There is no other path.
Forgetting is what Bibi's government did w/Hamas.
Forgetting is how a Trump can be elected again.
Not forgetting is how Hitler came to power because the Germans did not forget the Treaty of Versailles and its terms. Its financial terms are the nexus to Jews, specifically as bankers bankrupting Germany for the remainder of the 20th-C. Made a Hitler a foregone conclusion. And is Trump's hook with American First so appealing as Lucian eloquently laid out. Something Liz bought into and still does.
Yes, you’re correct in everything you say about Liz. She doesn’t deny it and nor have I ever agreed with her on policies. She is, however, for once, giving everybody a fair warning about what could happen if Trump is reelected. I give her kudos for that.
Yes, she does earn respect for her stance on Trump. She hasn't yet discovered Trump is a contagion that has already spread and infected 10s of millions. Nor has given thought or spoken what may happen if Trump is NOT nominated or NOT elected.
Point being, her R/con background is what is found in her ilk, there is one outcome to be concerned with and/or everything came be boiled down to a binary choice of iithah/or. No others need any consideration. Afterwards invoke their infamous whowouldathinkit!
Just as hope was not a plan for Jews and other victims of Hitler and the Nazis, ignoring the issue won’t make it go away. The Republicans committed the gravest act of political malpractice by not convicting Trump after he was impeached and failing to bar him from ever holding office again. There are signs that warnings such as this excellent essay are getting through, but the sirens need to keep sounding loudly until the scourge of Trump and Trumpism are relegated to the dustbin of history.
And how is it that the court systems can proceed with glacial slowness with each of his many cases when the stakes are so high?
If a world-shattering meteor were headed toward earth, and the decision on whether to take action was left up to the courts, one can imagine potbellied justices quietly retiring to their studies, stroking their gray-haired chins, musing thoughtfully on legal principles day after day after day, month after month after month, as the meteor hurtles inexorably toward our frail blue marble planet.
Would everybody be OK with that, in the name of “justice“ and “due process“?
Scary, sad, and absolutely spot on. And the really terrible part is that are so many people who know better but are so enamored of getting and keeping power or are such craven cowards (or both) that they're willing to kiss his ginormous ass and enable him to the hilt. Excellent interview today on NPR (Fresh Air) with Liz Cheney revealed new information about what a lowlife Mike Johnson is with regard to his "worship" of Herr Drumpf:
I heard Liz and she said she voted for Trump twice, because she liked his policies. She wouldn’t commit to vote for Biden if trump was the alternative. We would not be well served with her as president. I do appreciate her public repudiation of Trump
Yes I heard that as well about her voting for him twice and found that sad to say the least. I view her in the "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" category. I need to find the interview she with did with Rachel Maddow.
Dec 6, 2023·edited Dec 6, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV
You got me at”Only I Can Fix It”. This THIS is what we are dealing with here.If I sound alarmist, hysterical,cray-cray about this it is because I am.I live in a very red county in very red Ohio and the other evening at a get-together @ a local pub, I found the conversation gravitating toward where we all will go if Trump gets back in.It is a very poignant question.Those of us who are cash comfortable can leave the country but we leave behind our kids,friends, community. That we are actually talking this way scares the bejesus out of me. My only child ,precious daughter, unfortunately does not have this option.To say that I am freaked about this situation is not an overstatement.
Then stay. I was going, but once the talk went to threats to expel me? Well then I'm staying and they can all just deal with me which I guarantee won't be a cakewalk.
We Americans are like chickens. We can be cajoled and bribed and fooled, but don't try to force us to do anything. It won't work. Let me leave. Fine. Tell me to leave. Not likely to happen.
I have no family, but plenty of friends and if this all goes down as dreaded, I don't like the thought of sipping pina coladas on some beach in supposed paradise while those I love who have to stay are taking the brunt. That drink won't go down well.
Brain science tells us that the well being section of our brain doesn't fire off when we treat ourselves, like buying a new car or bailing to Tahiti. It fires off when we do for others, like helping a stranger or stepping up when friends or family are in trouble.
I wonder what section of my brain would ramp into overdrive as my friends were being rounded up while I sat helplessly on a beach somewhere too far away. No matter. I'm not about to find out. That's the luxury of age. I'm not betting my whole life, just what's left and what's left is worth putting on the line instead of wasting away in Lalaland guzzling my guilt. Maybe it's just to placate my fragile mental state, but I'm staying no matter what. So deal with it.
"They" Maybe. And yes,, if it just comes down to firepower, well armed or not, I'd rather be elsewhere and would likely take advantage of our vast and wonderful borders and declare refugee status and live the life. Tech options keep sounding better and better. :)
Steamrollers are slow and I'm pretty agile still. Rather than ramping up my amygdala, I'm doing prefrontal cortex exercises to keep my rational senses intact and running the show when decisions need to be made. Wish me luck with that. :)
Don't know who coined Flight or Fight nor want to know. Do know that Freeze happens first. In some it remains. Proffer: how many pics have been published in combat zones or the site of an accident or mass shooting of a person whether a man, woman or child frozen with fear?
The best proffer is then President George W. Bush in the FL schoolroom after being told America was under attack. Took him nearly 10 minutes to thaw out. From there he took flight hiding in the clouds and in bunkers for hours. In each location he remained captive to fear, frozen. Have personally witnessed it many times in many places in many types of people. Most are unaware of how frozen they are or for so long.
Freeze-Flight-Fight? Another mystery for neuroscience to unravel.
I know all of what you write, yet seeing it again in black and white, so explicitly rendered, takes my breath away and leaves me feeling as though I’ve been gut-punched by Godzilla. And now I need to figure out how to sleep without nightmare...
The only things we've got going for us is that Hitler was smarter than Trump, our media is more diverse than Germany's was and our institutions are stronger. Otherwise, as a lifelong student of German history and a close watcher of Trump, I agree that's what things are looking like.
Trump is not intellectually intelligent, but he knows what the mob wants to hear. For everything else he has the evil trinity of Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon and Mike Flynn.
With the possible exception of the evil Stephen Miller, I don't put much weight on those three. Trump has low cunning...like a sewer rat, he knows his base and where their buttons are. HIs wider appeal is limited I think (hope).
Agree he's scary and it should be obvious to the majority of Americans. It's a plus that Trump has locos out there stumping for him. Did you see Kash Patel's statement about prosecuting the media? That won't sit well with most voters. Just need to keep these loons front and center right up to election day. If you missed Patel, here 'tis:“
We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media. Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections – we’re going to come after you,” Patel said on a podcast hosted by another former Trump adviser, Steve Bannon.
“Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice,” Patel added. “We’re actually going to use the Constitution to prosecute them for crimes they said we have always been guilty of but never have.”
Ooo, a new nickname, Sewer Rat. Thanks! Re Sewer Rat’s wide appeal versus Biden, I’m worried about the breakdown by Electoral College states. Can Biden win enough purple states? What will Sewer Rat plan for January 6, 2025 if he loses again and claims again that he won and that it was a “rigged election” and calls out the mob? Biden would have to activate the National Guard.
Terrific, terrifically horrifying, horrifyingly accurate piece. Hitler wrote his own blueprint in Mein Kampf. Deranged, Dictatorette Trump (DDT), mooching along in Hitler's footsteps, was defined by Eric Hoffer in "The True Believer."
Hoffer: “The main requirements of a leader of a mass movement audacity and a joy in defiance; an iron will; a fanatical conviction that he is in possession of the one and only truth; faith in his destiny and luck; a capacity for passionate hatred; contempt for the present; a cunning estimate of human nature; a delight in symbols (spectacles and ceremonials); unbounded brazenness which finds expression in a disregard of consistency and fairness; a recognition that the innermost craving of a following is for communion and that there can never be too much of it; a capacity for winning and holding the utmost loyalty of a group of able lieutenants.”
But wait. There's more: "“He articulates and justifies the resentment dammed up in the souls of the frustrated. He kindles the vision of a breathtaking future so as to justify the sacrifice of a transitory present. He stages the world of make-believe so indispensable for the realization of self-sacrifice and united action. He evokes the enthusiasm of communion—the sense of liberation from a petty and meaningless individual existence.”
And, finally: "It is startling to realize how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible. The technique of a mass movement aims to infect people with a malady and then offer the movement as a cure."
It's a safe bet that Trump has never read Hoffer. It's just as safe a bet that Bannon has.
Sorry to the delay in responding. I wonder if DDT (Deranged Dyspeptic Trump) poured ketchup over the famed Argentinian beef I'm sure he was served. Forgive me a lifetime of writing and editing, not to mention attending Rodeph Shalom synagogue when I was growing up in Philly: the Yiddish word for thief is usually spelled gonif, plural gonifs.
Instead of merely being so terrified by all of this, we all need to act. The Harvard poll stating that young people are NOT planning to vote, is really terrifying. Our mission should be to enlighten them on what they have to lose! Our votes simply won’t cut it. We need for the teens and twenty-somethings to understand that this is not a fekking video game.
Another superb column, Lucian, that should be read nation-wide, printed on every op-ed page, and posted on every social media site. You’ve said it all. We ignore it at our peril. The punditocracy should be on this 24/7. As a country we are sleep-walking into fascism, and the MSM is facilitating that greatly with its characteristic obliviousness. But I don’t accept a *Rump win next November as a foregone conclusion by any means, nor do I believe an authoritarian regime in Washington would be acceptable to wide swaths of this country if election shenanigans give him the election. I believe post election will be a chaotic time regardless of the outcome.
I am fortunate in that I live in a community that very much shares my views, and where nary a ‘Trump’ lawn sign will be found. How safe it would be to live here during a (shudder) second *Rump administration is not something my neighbors/friends and I have discussed - yet. But we should. There are MAGAs here, but largely invisible. We are overall an older year-around population of about 21,000 that votes 3:1 Democratic in state and national elections. In addition, this is a very blue state, surrounded by four blue states, and one possibly purple. It’s New England, definitely not *Rump territory. What sort of protection, if any, that would afford us is pure conjecture, and a separate discussion. Perhaps the recent increased media coverage of *Rumps Hitlerian fascist language, if it persists, will have an effect. It would help greatly if the Democrats, and Biden, fought back especially since Biden has said he’s only running again because *Rump is.
I agree with your predictions, Mr. Knabel--I think a period of "civil unrest" is going to follow the elections regardless of who wins.
If the Defendant wins, the unrest will be put down brutally.
If Bidens wins--as I think he will--the riots will not be pretty and there may be coup like actions scattered here and there....but I believe the unrest will die down fairly quickly when the cult loses their orange object of worship and they are no longer beguiled and harangued into hatred and rage against all the "others".
What I'd love to see as a result of this (but doubt I will) is every GOP House Rep who was complicit in helping plan January 6th 2021 being expelled from Congress. I'd love to see Mike Flynn being court-martialed and thrown into a brig where they have to pump in the daylight and oxygen; Steve Bannon being dragged off to prison with all his appeals used up and Steve Miller nailed into a coffin where a vampire such as he belongs. The defendant can go into a cell next to Flynn and just being deprived of his daily bully pulpit, his phone/text rants and the adulation and worship of his insane cult fans will be part of a just punishment.
The convoluted equation we have going in this election cycle, driven by the relentless media’s need for a horse race, has many terms that are not knowable. I have little confidence that the courts are going to tame *Rump, and he has made his criminal trials interchangeable with his campaign. I agree with you that every member of Congress involved with the J6 insurrection should be expelled, and not allowed to run again. Unfortunately, AG Garland hasn’t much of a spine and President Biden, extremely competent as he is, is not a street fighter. There are going to be many cringe worthy moments in 2024, and the best we can do is tune out all the background noise, and GOTV. We desperately need the youth vote, and I fear the Israel-Hamas war has damaged that for Biden. Except I won’t sell Joe Biden short. He’s extremely smart, experienced, and unflappable.
I pray to all the goddesses and gods there be, that you are correct. In addition to the Israel/Hamas war, another thing that may make the youth vote a little more problematical is how hard the trumpistas are working to make it much harder for young people to vote or have access to the polls. They R's know precisely how unpopular are their policies and who they need to target.
"Biden has said he’s only running again because *Rump is."
Interesting point. They're seemingly stuck with Trump, while the Dems aren't "stuck" with Biden. Statistics and real reality, not maga reality, tells us he's doing a bang up job compared to everywhere else on the planet, but he and those of us who would vote for him have a choice which the morons do not have.
It used to be said that if they ran Trump again they would lose, so there was almost some hoping for a Trump ticket, but no longer. Now it's terrifying, which is certainly pumping energy into the left while the youth vote is taking a pass. So if we were to find one of the rising stars even in his 60s, it would energize the youth and the country. Biden could even take a magnanimously selfless bow and be the VP on the ticket so we would still have all his International governmental experience. Hell, I'd vote for Jack Smith simply because he knows the law and how to use it. All along, the Repubs are stuck solid with the disgusting craven sloth they've welded their wagon to.
I felt the same way as a young woman. How did the everyday German participate in the largest crime against humanity? I was beyond my comprehension. Today I comprehend and bear witness.
I agree with fellow commenter, Will, about this being Mr. T.'s best column this year, or certainly in the top tier. Pulling together the threads of German achievement and the Hitler/Trump model was most effective ... if only the people who need to understand this column *could* understand it.
Reading "When I was a boy and then a young man, I found it inconceivable how a nation like Germany could descend into and embrace fascism," I thought, "Me, too," (save for the "boy" and "young man" part.) This makes me consider history. I have said this before, but *nothing* is made to last, any nest can be fouled, and the life of democracy is 250 years. I am also reminded of the Milgram Experiment.
Conscience is not a given. It must be nurtured. When l taught remedial English, part of the curriculum was “values clarification.” Many of our students went on to be in law enforcement, still others became hip-hop poets and rappers.
I think this is the best piece I have read on this subject. At least the media is paying attention, but we need bring people to understanding of what could happen. I m sending this to everyone. Bravo for a simple and concise way to understand what could happen in 2024
The White House is, I believe, considered a government reservation. That means the District of Columbia has no jurisdiction there. Crimes committed on a government reservation are federal and are investigated by the FBI. They are called CGI. So if the Vice President were to murder the President he or she could then, as president, pardon him or herself and escape justice.
Has a flip side. President Trump need not shoot anyone on 5th Ave because he could get away with shooting and killing his wife, VP, and USSS detail inside the WH and NOT have any charges levied against him while in office, then a few minutes before a successor takes office pardon himself. Show the absurdity of so-called brilliant DOJ legal minds who crafted a [fuckin] MEMO that no President can be indicted or charged by the DOJ while in office.
Shadow I just read through a bunch of incisive points you're making on here, but the "cannot be indicted because of DOJ advisory memo" is a myth, has zero legal traction for crimes of violence, particularly felonies (assault & battery with enhancements like using gun, kidnapping victim, etc.) and for felonies, example: criminal homicide, ie murder, reckless manslaughter likely as well, could hit so-called "gray area" though for lower stages of manslaughter, but the meaning entails that it is not self-defense or pure accident, not coerced into it, etc. etc.
Trump would be arrested and hauled off to jail for those crimes of violence, the advisory memo is just advisory and also, it's "not indicted for sexual assault accusations" or "not indictable for" defrauding the X corporation, or the charity regulators, the Dept. of Education with respect to bogus "Trump University," taking bribes - all that stuff remedy is impeachment, maybe - including rape accusations depending on where, when, (was it WH staff? If yes, could be impeached, THEN indicted criminally after booted out when convicted.
Agree it's a myth due to being advisory. Same applies to the MEMO that authorized torture by declaring known torture methods as mere enhanced interrogations. Same with MEMOs on renditions to US flagged ships in international waters, or on soil other than US dirt.
Point being someone would have to say fuqdat administrative finding, a crime has been committed. Wouldn't bet on it when Trump was/is in the WH. Lots of people had good reason to suspect Trump was engaged in crimes related to the 2020 elx and 6Jan's self-coup including the predictable violence and didn't say a word to Federal LE. And those crimes were enshrined US Code, not on an administrative Memo and the players inc. WH Counsel's Office and other attys.
That still evades my point: Trump can't claim justifiably that the memo immunizes him from indictment for, or exculpates him in advance from direct (not inciting others) violence HE commits, and we are beyond testing the memo's scope about being immune while in office.
It's NOT "the law," that's the myth --- all the examples you cite could have happened with or without any such memos, including the "enhanced interrogation techniques," that John Yoo memo wouldn't by itself carry the day in a test case. for example.
Since there WAS no test case on the Trump incitement to sedition, until now via SC Smith, the memo won't be relevant there either, since he's no longer serving POTUS.
The whole thing is absolutely preposterous. It's also highly hypothetical. Between you, me, this group and the lamppost, Trump isn't going to be president again, ever. But if he did get in and if he did pardon himself, that's a dangerous precedent. We would then be in a situation like the Borgias. Crime becomes legal, the guy at the top needs a food taster and can't trust anyone, not that Trump can now. Is that how any American really wants its government run?
How stupid do the Republicans think their constituents are, really? What's her name, Romney? Biden was running a voter suppression campaign before the 2020 election out of the White House? WHAT?
Was always in all ways struck by the Framers position of they didn't want to enshrine a King by having check and balances via the Judicial and Congress yet reneged by granting pardon power to the chief executive officer. A power "granted" Kings/Queens and one that can overrule the Judicial. So, while a President can pardon self has mostly been an academic exercise it is a question that lends itself to strong arguments on both sides of the issue. The best solution is to amend the 2nd Constitution and remove king-like pardon power. The pardon is way too subjective inside a government structure founded on the rule of law, no man is above the law and the US is a nation of laws not of men.
Then get to work on actually setting legal guidelines on Executive Orders or else strike them as unconstitutional. The entire concept of divided government extends beyond checks and balances to include working toward consensus for the greater good.
Cringe each time the term America is an idea and a more perfect union is invoked w/o an action to support iithah. The Framers made so many blatant errors yet now the majority of SCOTUS says so what, only we know what they wrote and meant and what they were and were not attempting to achieve and all with a single, highly flawed document. Madness added to preposterous.
Feel for the good people of this land. Am grateful to be ~indigenous~. We have long gamed out the many worst scenarios because it is our way. We know how violent and war like too many in this land have been and continue to be. Have yet to understand the reasons behind it prolly because none of the explanations are reasonable.
Your best column this year. Unfortunately.
“It is doubtful that Trump studied Nietzsche or even knew who he was…” you note correctly.
But, I remember reading that the criminal indictee trump’s late first wife claimed he kept in his bedside table a collection of Hitler speeches translated into English.
I have always wondered about this. By reputation he is a very reluctant reader. Ivana, if she did invent this to tarnish his image, came up with something very prescient. If fact, not fiction, it shows that his interest in Hitler goes way back.
I understand your doubts about him reading, but i would guess he has little trouble sinking his teeth in if he's learning how to get his essence across more effectively or just generally how to be more venal.
rofl excellent summary!
Yes. The book is titled "My New Order," published in English in 1941.
Better known as Mein Kampf
My New Order, completely different from Mein Kampf, is a collection of Hitler's speeches. The dust jacket of the 1941 edition on the spine and the front cover says "Hitler's Own Sequel to Mein Kampf," and it weighed in at 1008 pages. Amazon lists a newer paperback edition in two volumes, $29 for speeches from 1918 to 1933, $26 his speeches from 1933 to the invasion of Russia in 1941. $55 is a cringeworthy price for me, and the L.A. Public Library keeps its 1941 edition in its Reference section in the main library downtown, no loaning out.
My ignorance was showing, and now I both know and am even more horrified. Thank you for this. And I mean that sincerely.
Understandable confusion!
Probably the key reason Trump would have indeed dipped into My New Order, far from a dedicated scholarly slog through the text for students and instructors of German, European, Russian, World, Second World War history, history of fascist ideology, communication and mass media studies, etc., and not ruled out at all by ungrounded theories that Ivana invented this entire activity as some sinister divorce tactic, is Trump wanting to copy Hitler's techniques - really, there would be no reading ability beyond what Trump could summon up erratically, over the course of several years, when deeply motivated to copy from a master propagandist required.
Excellent insight and something I need to study more. I reverted to old stories I’d been hearing or reading about. And my knowledge of Hitler literature obviously too narrow.
(through the 70s in Manhattan you couldn’t be wholly be unaware of his (what I thought) brand of idiocy. If he wasn’t just held in contempt and ridiculed (and that’s when anyone thought of his clown self) we knew he and his company screwed tradesmen employed to work on their projects. I’d heard the Mein Kampf stories but dismissed them as a place too far even for him. I was naive.)
I've read in several places that the book was a gift. I forget from whom, but the person was identified.
TFF would never buy a book. I'm sure he's never ordered one of his own books, since there are people paid to do just that.
Whether the Orange Menace kept (and read) a collection of Hitler's speeches will never be known. But what is very likely is that an influential person close to him (think S. Miller) has the intelligence & motivation to put Hitlerian thought into tRump's minuscule mind, and that's all he needs to embark on his authoritarian journey.
But, did the illiterate buffoon actually read them? We might find out soon.
Been watching and listening to the news all day. Listened to Liz Cheney who was interviewed by the great Nicolle Wallace today. One, a former member of the R Party and the other, a strong member of the previous R Party faced off with each other. It was civil and informative. Liz is screaming at the top of her lungs that the possibility of Fake 45 gaining a 2nd presidency, is a 10 alarm fire! We MUST PAY ATTENTION!
Yes!
~never forget~
Liz? Not only voted for Trump in 2016 did so again in 2020 under the same lame argument put forth by the R/con rank and file of I liked his policies.
Liz? A wormtongue on Obama and Birtherism and her insistence Ds support infanticide.
Liz? Literally hated Nancy Pelosi yet Nancy put aside the personal vitriol by asking Liz to sit on the J6SC. Liz still can't get her head around that because that isn't h0ow Rs roll while it is how Ds do.
Liz? Her political strip tease of not ruling out a run as a 3rd-13th party while claiming she would do whatever it takes to defeat Trump. 3rd party runs are absurd. There isn't a single 3rd party candidate that can win a single state and there are not enough states who split EC votes. They way for so-called nevertrumpers to deny Trump any chance of winning an election is to put forth individual favorite sons/daughters in keystone states that would siphon votes off of Trump.
Likely had a decent chance in 2016 had the loudmouth R primary challengers who first condemned Trump 4eg Kasich (OH), Cruz (TX), Jeb and Rubio (FL), Walker (WI) done so. To a "man" they all said Trump was unfit and unqualified and had to be defeated for the good of the nation. Since then, they all morphed into Trumpkins. Just as Liz was up until 6 January 2021.
Liz? When she says she was against some things and some policies she means she internalized them because she did NOT speak out. Coward, not a shero.
Liz? How low has the nation sunk to elevate people to shero status for speaking out against 6 January yet supporting Trump since at least 2016 when spitting out any and all Ds every chance she got? And Liz still doesn't regret her NO vote on the 1st impeachment.
Liz? How many Ds did she support and campaign for in 2022 after stating she would if the D was running against an election denier? Liz has a vast war chest plus access to all sorts of donors yet broke her own vow in order to write a book for personal financial gain by sprinkling in a few new juicy tidbits about others. Even those anecdotes are simply affirmation of what generally was known about them.
Liz? Most of all, unlike the honorable Stuart Stevens, remains a staunch Republican if not a zealot one. There is no regret as Mr. Stevens expressed and no recognition of that the fact It Was All A Lie. That makes her a Republican first, not an American first. Just as we are hearing from other anti-Trumpers, 4eg Gov. Sununu, Bill Barr, who join the ranks of the 2016 primary candidates Cruz, Rubio, and Jeb! Everyone including Liz wants it BOTH WAYS.
No fuqin way. ~never forget~ is the path to ~never again~. There is no other path.
Forgetting is what Bibi's government did w/Hamas.
Forgetting is how a Trump can be elected again.
Not forgetting is how Hitler came to power because the Germans did not forget the Treaty of Versailles and its terms. Its financial terms are the nexus to Jews, specifically as bankers bankrupting Germany for the remainder of the 20th-C. Made a Hitler a foregone conclusion. And is Trump's hook with American First so appealing as Lucian eloquently laid out. Something Liz bought into and still does.
~never forget~
Yes, you’re correct in everything you say about Liz. She doesn’t deny it and nor have I ever agreed with her on policies. She is, however, for once, giving everybody a fair warning about what could happen if Trump is reelected. I give her kudos for that.
Yes, she does earn respect for her stance on Trump. She hasn't yet discovered Trump is a contagion that has already spread and infected 10s of millions. Nor has given thought or spoken what may happen if Trump is NOT nominated or NOT elected.
Point being, her R/con background is what is found in her ilk, there is one outcome to be concerned with and/or everything came be boiled down to a binary choice of iithah/or. No others need any consideration. Afterwards invoke their infamous whowouldathinkit!
Just as hope was not a plan for Jews and other victims of Hitler and the Nazis, ignoring the issue won’t make it go away. The Republicans committed the gravest act of political malpractice by not convicting Trump after he was impeached and failing to bar him from ever holding office again. There are signs that warnings such as this excellent essay are getting through, but the sirens need to keep sounding loudly until the scourge of Trump and Trumpism are relegated to the dustbin of history.
And how is it that the court systems can proceed with glacial slowness with each of his many cases when the stakes are so high?
If a world-shattering meteor were headed toward earth, and the decision on whether to take action was left up to the courts, one can imagine potbellied justices quietly retiring to their studies, stroking their gray-haired chins, musing thoughtfully on legal principles day after day after day, month after month after month, as the meteor hurtles inexorably toward our frail blue marble planet.
Would everybody be OK with that, in the name of “justice“ and “due process“?
"Don't look up".
Scary, sad, and absolutely spot on. And the really terrible part is that are so many people who know better but are so enamored of getting and keeping power or are such craven cowards (or both) that they're willing to kiss his ginormous ass and enable him to the hilt. Excellent interview today on NPR (Fresh Air) with Liz Cheney revealed new information about what a lowlife Mike Johnson is with regard to his "worship" of Herr Drumpf:
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/05/1217282237/liz-cheney-oath-and-honor-memoir
I heard Liz and she said she voted for Trump twice, because she liked his policies. She wouldn’t commit to vote for Biden if trump was the alternative. We would not be well served with her as president. I do appreciate her public repudiation of Trump
Yes I heard that as well about her voting for him twice and found that sad to say the least. I view her in the "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" category. I need to find the interview she with did with Rachel Maddow.
You got me at”Only I Can Fix It”. This THIS is what we are dealing with here.If I sound alarmist, hysterical,cray-cray about this it is because I am.I live in a very red county in very red Ohio and the other evening at a get-together @ a local pub, I found the conversation gravitating toward where we all will go if Trump gets back in.It is a very poignant question.Those of us who are cash comfortable can leave the country but we leave behind our kids,friends, community. That we are actually talking this way scares the bejesus out of me. My only child ,precious daughter, unfortunately does not have this option.To say that I am freaked about this situation is not an overstatement.
Then stay. I was going, but once the talk went to threats to expel me? Well then I'm staying and they can all just deal with me which I guarantee won't be a cakewalk.
We Americans are like chickens. We can be cajoled and bribed and fooled, but don't try to force us to do anything. It won't work. Let me leave. Fine. Tell me to leave. Not likely to happen.
I have no family, but plenty of friends and if this all goes down as dreaded, I don't like the thought of sipping pina coladas on some beach in supposed paradise while those I love who have to stay are taking the brunt. That drink won't go down well.
Brain science tells us that the well being section of our brain doesn't fire off when we treat ourselves, like buying a new car or bailing to Tahiti. It fires off when we do for others, like helping a stranger or stepping up when friends or family are in trouble.
I wonder what section of my brain would ramp into overdrive as my friends were being rounded up while I sat helplessly on a beach somewhere too far away. No matter. I'm not about to find out. That's the luxury of age. I'm not betting my whole life, just what's left and what's left is worth putting on the line instead of wasting away in Lalaland guzzling my guilt. Maybe it's just to placate my fragile mental state, but I'm staying no matter what. So deal with it.
What if they don’t “round us up”, but just pick us off one by one???
"They" Maybe. And yes,, if it just comes down to firepower, well armed or not, I'd rather be elsewhere and would likely take advantage of our vast and wonderful borders and declare refugee status and live the life. Tech options keep sounding better and better. :)
“Fight or flight !”
Or prepare to be steamrolled.
Steamrollers are slow and I'm pretty agile still. Rather than ramping up my amygdala, I'm doing prefrontal cortex exercises to keep my rational senses intact and running the show when decisions need to be made. Wish me luck with that. :)
Freeze-Flight-Fright.
Don't know who coined Flight or Fight nor want to know. Do know that Freeze happens first. In some it remains. Proffer: how many pics have been published in combat zones or the site of an accident or mass shooting of a person whether a man, woman or child frozen with fear?
The best proffer is then President George W. Bush in the FL schoolroom after being told America was under attack. Took him nearly 10 minutes to thaw out. From there he took flight hiding in the clouds and in bunkers for hours. In each location he remained captive to fear, frozen. Have personally witnessed it many times in many places in many types of people. Most are unaware of how frozen they are or for so long.
Freeze-Flight-Fight? Another mystery for neuroscience to unravel.
Power is not constrained by law or constitution or vote. Its only constraint is will. Democrats now more than ever need to recognize that fact.
Hence, the 1935 propaganda spectacle by Leni Riefenstahl “Triumph of the Will!”
I know all of what you write, yet seeing it again in black and white, so explicitly rendered, takes my breath away and leaves me feeling as though I’ve been gut-punched by Godzilla. And now I need to figure out how to sleep without nightmare...
Nightmares are no longer optional.....
The only things we've got going for us is that Hitler was smarter than Trump, our media is more diverse than Germany's was and our institutions are stronger. Otherwise, as a lifelong student of German history and a close watcher of Trump, I agree that's what things are looking like.
Trump is not intellectually intelligent, but he knows what the mob wants to hear. For everything else he has the evil trinity of Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon and Mike Flynn.
With the possible exception of the evil Stephen Miller, I don't put much weight on those three. Trump has low cunning...like a sewer rat, he knows his base and where their buttons are. HIs wider appeal is limited I think (hope).
Watch Mike Flynn on his religious stump. He is crazy scary, and the great throngs who follow even crazier and scarier.
Yes! The "ReAwaken America" roadshow he and Clay Clark have founded has been recruiting an "Army God" since 2021 and us still on the road.
So Dangerous.
Agree he's scary and it should be obvious to the majority of Americans. It's a plus that Trump has locos out there stumping for him. Did you see Kash Patel's statement about prosecuting the media? That won't sit well with most voters. Just need to keep these loons front and center right up to election day. If you missed Patel, here 'tis:“
We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media. Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections – we’re going to come after you,” Patel said on a podcast hosted by another former Trump adviser, Steve Bannon.
“Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice,” Patel added. “We’re actually going to use the Constitution to prosecute them for crimes they said we have always been guilty of but never have.”
Lock Them Up.
Ooo, a new nickname, Sewer Rat. Thanks! Re Sewer Rat’s wide appeal versus Biden, I’m worried about the breakdown by Electoral College states. Can Biden win enough purple states? What will Sewer Rat plan for January 6, 2025 if he loses again and claims again that he won and that it was a “rigged election” and calls out the mob? Biden would have to activate the National Guard.
I’d rather not think about that quite yet.
And millions of followers who are steps away from being “willing executioners !”
All so true...
Terrific, terrifically horrifying, horrifyingly accurate piece. Hitler wrote his own blueprint in Mein Kampf. Deranged, Dictatorette Trump (DDT), mooching along in Hitler's footsteps, was defined by Eric Hoffer in "The True Believer."
Hoffer: “The main requirements of a leader of a mass movement audacity and a joy in defiance; an iron will; a fanatical conviction that he is in possession of the one and only truth; faith in his destiny and luck; a capacity for passionate hatred; contempt for the present; a cunning estimate of human nature; a delight in symbols (spectacles and ceremonials); unbounded brazenness which finds expression in a disregard of consistency and fairness; a recognition that the innermost craving of a following is for communion and that there can never be too much of it; a capacity for winning and holding the utmost loyalty of a group of able lieutenants.”
But wait. There's more: "“He articulates and justifies the resentment dammed up in the souls of the frustrated. He kindles the vision of a breathtaking future so as to justify the sacrifice of a transitory present. He stages the world of make-believe so indispensable for the realization of self-sacrifice and united action. He evokes the enthusiasm of communion—the sense of liberation from a petty and meaningless individual existence.”
And, finally: "It is startling to realize how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible. The technique of a mass movement aims to infect people with a malady and then offer the movement as a cure."
It's a safe bet that Trump has never read Hoffer. It's just as safe a bet that Bannon has.
Argentina’s new Idiot in Chief, recently hosted our own X president. The gnafs (Yiddish for thieves ), are lining up to kiss his ring, mafia-style.
🤬🤮
Sorry to the delay in responding. I wonder if DDT (Deranged Dyspeptic Trump) poured ketchup over the famed Argentinian beef I'm sure he was served. Forgive me a lifetime of writing and editing, not to mention attending Rodeph Shalom synagogue when I was growing up in Philly: the Yiddish word for thief is usually spelled gonif, plural gonifs.
Instead of merely being so terrified by all of this, we all need to act. The Harvard poll stating that young people are NOT planning to vote, is really terrifying. Our mission should be to enlighten them on what they have to lose! Our votes simply won’t cut it. We need for the teens and twenty-somethings to understand that this is not a fekking video game.
Another superb column, Lucian, that should be read nation-wide, printed on every op-ed page, and posted on every social media site. You’ve said it all. We ignore it at our peril. The punditocracy should be on this 24/7. As a country we are sleep-walking into fascism, and the MSM is facilitating that greatly with its characteristic obliviousness. But I don’t accept a *Rump win next November as a foregone conclusion by any means, nor do I believe an authoritarian regime in Washington would be acceptable to wide swaths of this country if election shenanigans give him the election. I believe post election will be a chaotic time regardless of the outcome.
I am fortunate in that I live in a community that very much shares my views, and where nary a ‘Trump’ lawn sign will be found. How safe it would be to live here during a (shudder) second *Rump administration is not something my neighbors/friends and I have discussed - yet. But we should. There are MAGAs here, but largely invisible. We are overall an older year-around population of about 21,000 that votes 3:1 Democratic in state and national elections. In addition, this is a very blue state, surrounded by four blue states, and one possibly purple. It’s New England, definitely not *Rump territory. What sort of protection, if any, that would afford us is pure conjecture, and a separate discussion. Perhaps the recent increased media coverage of *Rumps Hitlerian fascist language, if it persists, will have an effect. It would help greatly if the Democrats, and Biden, fought back especially since Biden has said he’s only running again because *Rump is.
I agree with your predictions, Mr. Knabel--I think a period of "civil unrest" is going to follow the elections regardless of who wins.
If the Defendant wins, the unrest will be put down brutally.
If Bidens wins--as I think he will--the riots will not be pretty and there may be coup like actions scattered here and there....but I believe the unrest will die down fairly quickly when the cult loses their orange object of worship and they are no longer beguiled and harangued into hatred and rage against all the "others".
What I'd love to see as a result of this (but doubt I will) is every GOP House Rep who was complicit in helping plan January 6th 2021 being expelled from Congress. I'd love to see Mike Flynn being court-martialed and thrown into a brig where they have to pump in the daylight and oxygen; Steve Bannon being dragged off to prison with all his appeals used up and Steve Miller nailed into a coffin where a vampire such as he belongs. The defendant can go into a cell next to Flynn and just being deprived of his daily bully pulpit, his phone/text rants and the adulation and worship of his insane cult fans will be part of a just punishment.
The convoluted equation we have going in this election cycle, driven by the relentless media’s need for a horse race, has many terms that are not knowable. I have little confidence that the courts are going to tame *Rump, and he has made his criminal trials interchangeable with his campaign. I agree with you that every member of Congress involved with the J6 insurrection should be expelled, and not allowed to run again. Unfortunately, AG Garland hasn’t much of a spine and President Biden, extremely competent as he is, is not a street fighter. There are going to be many cringe worthy moments in 2024, and the best we can do is tune out all the background noise, and GOTV. We desperately need the youth vote, and I fear the Israel-Hamas war has damaged that for Biden. Except I won’t sell Joe Biden short. He’s extremely smart, experienced, and unflappable.
I pray to all the goddesses and gods there be, that you are correct. In addition to the Israel/Hamas war, another thing that may make the youth vote a little more problematical is how hard the trumpistas are working to make it much harder for young people to vote or have access to the polls. They R's know precisely how unpopular are their policies and who they need to target.
Yes!!
Repost this. I know l will.
Done!
"Biden has said he’s only running again because *Rump is."
Interesting point. They're seemingly stuck with Trump, while the Dems aren't "stuck" with Biden. Statistics and real reality, not maga reality, tells us he's doing a bang up job compared to everywhere else on the planet, but he and those of us who would vote for him have a choice which the morons do not have.
It used to be said that if they ran Trump again they would lose, so there was almost some hoping for a Trump ticket, but no longer. Now it's terrifying, which is certainly pumping energy into the left while the youth vote is taking a pass. So if we were to find one of the rising stars even in his 60s, it would energize the youth and the country. Biden could even take a magnanimously selfless bow and be the VP on the ticket so we would still have all his International governmental experience. Hell, I'd vote for Jack Smith simply because he knows the law and how to use it. All along, the Repubs are stuck solid with the disgusting craven sloth they've welded their wagon to.
How about Gavin Newsom? Despite what's been said, I think he's the youthful, charismatic person to do a great job and win.
I felt the same way as a young woman. How did the everyday German participate in the largest crime against humanity? I was beyond my comprehension. Today I comprehend and bear witness.
We need to get busy.
Every little bit helps,
including this online community! Thank you Substack, my constant sounding board and inspiration.
I agree with fellow commenter, Will, about this being Mr. T.'s best column this year, or certainly in the top tier. Pulling together the threads of German achievement and the Hitler/Trump model was most effective ... if only the people who need to understand this column *could* understand it.
Reading "When I was a boy and then a young man, I found it inconceivable how a nation like Germany could descend into and embrace fascism," I thought, "Me, too," (save for the "boy" and "young man" part.) This makes me consider history. I have said this before, but *nothing* is made to last, any nest can be fouled, and the life of democracy is 250 years. I am also reminded of the Milgram Experiment.
Its conclusion is in the machine. Alas.
Conscience is not a given. It must be nurtured. When l taught remedial English, part of the curriculum was “values clarification.” Many of our students went on to be in law enforcement, still others became hip-hop poets and rappers.
Can you explain "values clarification"? And do values stem from virtues?
I think this is the best piece I have read on this subject. At least the media is paying attention, but we need bring people to understanding of what could happen. I m sending this to everyone. Bravo for a simple and concise way to understand what could happen in 2024
I second that emotion!
Something for Trump's running mate to consider:
The White House is, I believe, considered a government reservation. That means the District of Columbia has no jurisdiction there. Crimes committed on a government reservation are federal and are investigated by the FBI. They are called CGI. So if the Vice President were to murder the President he or she could then, as president, pardon him or herself and escape justice.
That’s the ticket!
Has a flip side. President Trump need not shoot anyone on 5th Ave because he could get away with shooting and killing his wife, VP, and USSS detail inside the WH and NOT have any charges levied against him while in office, then a few minutes before a successor takes office pardon himself. Show the absurdity of so-called brilliant DOJ legal minds who crafted a [fuckin] MEMO that no President can be indicted or charged by the DOJ while in office.
Shadow I just read through a bunch of incisive points you're making on here, but the "cannot be indicted because of DOJ advisory memo" is a myth, has zero legal traction for crimes of violence, particularly felonies (assault & battery with enhancements like using gun, kidnapping victim, etc.) and for felonies, example: criminal homicide, ie murder, reckless manslaughter likely as well, could hit so-called "gray area" though for lower stages of manslaughter, but the meaning entails that it is not self-defense or pure accident, not coerced into it, etc. etc.
Trump would be arrested and hauled off to jail for those crimes of violence, the advisory memo is just advisory and also, it's "not indicted for sexual assault accusations" or "not indictable for" defrauding the X corporation, or the charity regulators, the Dept. of Education with respect to bogus "Trump University," taking bribes - all that stuff remedy is impeachment, maybe - including rape accusations depending on where, when, (was it WH staff? If yes, could be impeached, THEN indicted criminally after booted out when convicted.
Agree it's a myth due to being advisory. Same applies to the MEMO that authorized torture by declaring known torture methods as mere enhanced interrogations. Same with MEMOs on renditions to US flagged ships in international waters, or on soil other than US dirt.
Point being someone would have to say fuqdat administrative finding, a crime has been committed. Wouldn't bet on it when Trump was/is in the WH. Lots of people had good reason to suspect Trump was engaged in crimes related to the 2020 elx and 6Jan's self-coup including the predictable violence and didn't say a word to Federal LE. And those crimes were enshrined US Code, not on an administrative Memo and the players inc. WH Counsel's Office and other attys.
That still evades my point: Trump can't claim justifiably that the memo immunizes him from indictment for, or exculpates him in advance from direct (not inciting others) violence HE commits, and we are beyond testing the memo's scope about being immune while in office.
It's NOT "the law," that's the myth --- all the examples you cite could have happened with or without any such memos, including the "enhanced interrogation techniques," that John Yoo memo wouldn't by itself carry the day in a test case. for example.
Since there WAS no test case on the Trump incitement to sedition, until now via SC Smith, the memo won't be relevant there either, since he's no longer serving POTUS.
The whole thing is absolutely preposterous. It's also highly hypothetical. Between you, me, this group and the lamppost, Trump isn't going to be president again, ever. But if he did get in and if he did pardon himself, that's a dangerous precedent. We would then be in a situation like the Borgias. Crime becomes legal, the guy at the top needs a food taster and can't trust anyone, not that Trump can now. Is that how any American really wants its government run?
How stupid do the Republicans think their constituents are, really? What's her name, Romney? Biden was running a voter suppression campaign before the 2020 election out of the White House? WHAT?
Agree and doubly so for the word preposterous.
Was always in all ways struck by the Framers position of they didn't want to enshrine a King by having check and balances via the Judicial and Congress yet reneged by granting pardon power to the chief executive officer. A power "granted" Kings/Queens and one that can overrule the Judicial. So, while a President can pardon self has mostly been an academic exercise it is a question that lends itself to strong arguments on both sides of the issue. The best solution is to amend the 2nd Constitution and remove king-like pardon power. The pardon is way too subjective inside a government structure founded on the rule of law, no man is above the law and the US is a nation of laws not of men.
Then get to work on actually setting legal guidelines on Executive Orders or else strike them as unconstitutional. The entire concept of divided government extends beyond checks and balances to include working toward consensus for the greater good.
Cringe each time the term America is an idea and a more perfect union is invoked w/o an action to support iithah. The Framers made so many blatant errors yet now the majority of SCOTUS says so what, only we know what they wrote and meant and what they were and were not attempting to achieve and all with a single, highly flawed document. Madness added to preposterous.
Feel for the good people of this land. Am grateful to be ~indigenous~. We have long gamed out the many worst scenarios because it is our way. We know how violent and war like too many in this land have been and continue to be. Have yet to understand the reasons behind it prolly because none of the explanations are reasonable.