January 20 - 1942 (Wannsee Conference), a date in history, or 2025 (U.S. as the 4th Reich), a date of a repeating history?
Yarvin's comments foretell the direction. Mass deportations called for by this group will stall because other countries will not even accept the emigrants. A new "final" solution will then be needed for 15 or so million. The scope at Wannsee was only 11 million. The current group seems to have its sites set at a higher number.
Even now, almost 80 years after the end of WW2, it is difficult to process the fact that an entire country engaged in the industrialized murder of their fellow citizens. It's just so unfathomably evil it's hard to comprehend.
It won't be easy to prevent Trump from winning given his plans for sowing chaos, but it would be MUCH more difficult, and more deadly, to break the hold of a fascist regime after it rises to power. We must use every tool and resource available to win the upcoming election and negate the anticipated efforts to delegitimize a Harris win.
Trump calls out "genetics" and a need to eliminate immigrant "vermin." Trump on Monday said that migrants who are in the U.S. and have committed murder did so because “it’s in their genes.” There are, he added, “a lot of bad genes in our country right now.”
"We're like an occupied country. We got people taking over parts of Colorado. We have people taking over other states. November 5, 2024, will be liberation day in America, liberation day."
Eugenics in Nazi Germany were composed of various ideas about genetics. Policies were used to justify the involuntary sterilization and mass-murder of those deemed "undesirable". Trump has been working on it since he was elected.
A Trump Administration DOJ Denaturalization Section was created in February 2020 and announced with a press release that alleged an intent to target “terrorists, war criminals, sex offenders, and other fraudsters who illegally obtained naturalization.” This was an escalation of earlier Trump administration efforts, including U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ 2018 announcement of the creation of an office focused on identifying Americans who may have used fake identities to obtain citizenship, as well as the targeting of some people who had been in the country for decades, but had, prior to their naturalization, committed less serious crimes than those listed above.
The creation of a Justice Department section devoted to stripping citizenship from naturalized Americans, even those who committed serious crimes, raised grave concerns that the government would use its denaturalization powers in an arbitrary or politicized way. Those fears were compounded by the efforts of top Trump administration officials to falsely tie immigration to crime, including through newsletters that amplified crimes committed by undocumented immigrants, the creation of the ICE Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement office, and even carefully crafted videos.
"Civil denaturalization"? Insane! Trump didn't even answer questions at the town hall. He said, "Who wants to hear questions?" and leaned back and forth to his music for 45 minutes. Is he trying to hypnotize his cult like a cobra dancing before the snake charmer?
Citizenship was stripped from even natural born citizens under the Expatriation Act of 1907. If a person married a foreign national, citizenship was removed.
This is a model that is sought to be brought back.
I’d have to confirm my source, but the Nazis planned also to deport Jews en masse to the Russian steppes, dump them there and let them roam around in the winter until they starved or were killed by sub-zero temps.
Stalin wasn't much better. Many of his opponents, i.e. Trotsky were Jews and Zionism was on the rise.
In 1934 the Soviet Government established the Jewish Autonomous Region, Birobidzhan, in a sparsely populated area five thousand miles east of Moscow. Designated as the Jewish national homeland. Think Al Capp's Lower Slobbovia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Autonomous_Oblast
The Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest population of Jews in the world, mostly in the "pale of settlement" which now includes the Ukraine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_of_Settlement 150,000 Jews were killed in the pogroms of 1918–1922, 125,000 of them in Ukraine, 25,000 in Belarus. The pogroms were mostly perpetrated by anti-communist forces; sometimes, Red Army units engaged in pogroms as well. Anton Denikin's White Army was a bastion of antisemitism, using "Strike at the Jews and save Russia!" as its motto.
During WWI German occupation of the lands included in the pale settlement didn't bring major suffering to Jews, but after Hitler's aggression on the Soviet Union the Jews who didn't manage to escape with retreating Red Army, became the first mass victims of “the final solution." .
It includes one of Thom's quotes from the past "Never forget that the first group Hitler went after were trans people. When fascists want a minority group to beat up on for political gain, this is the smallest minority out there, smaller than any racial or religious group, and thus the most defenseless. These Republicans are bullies and thugs."
Thanks so much for this link; I have felt that the Republican Party took the Fascist turn back when Bush Jr. was in office. With the Trump victory in 2016 it was clear that he idolized autocracy and Hitler.
I took tons of ridicule for using violating “Godwin’s Law” that suggested comparatives of Hitler was hyperbolic and a sure means to lose an argument.
I suppose when the subject of that law calls people vermin, demands for the deportation of 11 million people and on and on that this is somehow an unfair comparison.
I could argue that the Republicans dating back to the John Birch Society (which is now the predominant philosophy of today’s Republicans) was the nexus of American and Nazi fascist ideology.
I watched The Apprentice yesterday. The acting was superb. The lead actor nailed Trump.
I met Trump in 1985ish while in NYC for a German friend's wedding. At 2AM or later, I pulled into the Trump Tower garage where I was staying. A blue Bentley pulled in behind me. I was fumbling for some papers in the back seat of my Rover sedan that I wanted to bring up to my room when a voice behind me asked, "What da ya think of the car?" I responded, "What's not to like about a Bentley?" my back still turned away while still fishing for my stuff. Trump said, "No, I meant your car. This is one of those new Rover sedans is it not?"
I stood up and mentioned that I had not been driving it long enough to judge. With that, he commenced to try to engage in guytalk. Tired and a bit champagned out, at +2 in the morning, I just wanted to go to bed. I looked over at the baby-blue Bentley behind me waiting for the 1 valet on duty that late, and there was Ivana looking at her spouse with a very peeved expression. I suggested that she was looking like she wanted to got up to bed too. That got him to break off and go upstairs.
As a psychologist, the encounter further validated my impression of Trump from his headline-grabbing social life as weird. Before watching the movie about his early adult life, I had no sense of the depth of his psychopathy until 2015. Years ago, I read Columbia U historian Robert Paxton's "The Anatomy of Fascism". In late 2018, well into retirement in his mid 80s, I emailed Bob and asked if he thought Trump was a fascist. He sure seemed to manifest all the traits and values of a Nazi. To my surprise, he said no. I was shocked.
Then in January of 2021, I saw the headline for a Newsweek OpEd: "I've hesitated to call Donald Trump a Fascist, Until Now." I could not help but think that if a world authority on fascism could not see it developing in his own country for 5 years. No wonder most Americans are blind to the danger this babbling old dolt with the fake blond hair presents to their future lives.
What I noticed that they have in common, is most of them went to church as young children? They were taught the big lies that the meek shall inherit the earth, Adam and Eve, God wrote the ten commandments... and now they believe anything and everything and blame others and accept very little responsibility for their actions. They now use Jesus as a credit card to sin with.
After WW2 the Allies set up a program of denazification in Germany and began removing Nazis and Nazi culture from the country with limited success. With 10% of the population belonging to the Nazi party it was difficult to weed them out and many remained in power.
I was diagnosed with lymphoma two years ago. This is a disease that invades all of your body and can only be treated with chemotherapy. The disease is never cured but can be put into remission. The saying is that you will die with it but not from it. I bring this up because I see a glaring similarity to Nazism and the MAGA movement. Although we can put them down they will always fester and be looking for a way back in.
We need to nurture a society that is fair to all with good education, health care and free from
predatory financial pressures. This should reduce the spawning ground of MAGAism. Our version of chemotherapy for the country.
Chris, Wealthy and Powerful Americans have had a love affair with Nazism/Fascism easily dating back to the rise of Hitler and Mussolini. Henry Ford received the hightest civilian award directly from Hitler and he was a rabid anti-semite. Allen Dulles was a Nazi Lover (he enlisted them by the scores to help in fighting the Commies) Here is a link to my blog that tells the of the evolution of this. There are numerous posts in my blog addressing various aspects of the acceleration of Fascism in this generation.
Yegads Chris I empathize . I am so fortunate I had lung and brain cancer, well the cancer in the brain was a metastatic tumor, excised by surgery treated by radiation, the lung cancer was treated with immunotherapy and I'm in remission. 7 years ago I was placed in palliative care and given 6 months.. compared to lymph cancer, I am lucky. I have a friend, treated for breast cancer,it has come back and she now has cancer in her lymph nodes. She is banking on chemo and radiation.
Glad that you survived the beast, you are one lucky dude. I have a friend that was given six months to live and it put him in a better place mentally, he let go of a lot of unimportant things and had a peaceful feeling. He said he was slightly disappointed when he was told he would live.
Your friend should be ok. Lymphoma can usually be held in check with chemo.
I hope my friend survives it, she is positive that she will, like you said, chemo seems to do the job, but she had chemo for breast cancer, and 3 years later, she is dealing with lymph.
When I was placed on pallative care, my only reaction was to update my will. I have been living on borrowed time, since I was 15 and fell off a smokestack. so many close calls after that.
We start dying the day we were born. Coming to grips with that is the secret to a happy life. My only concerns are will my death be peaceful, my sister who died f lung cancer in April,passed in her sleep, and the welfare of my kitties and spouse, and I've done all that I can for them. No stone unturned.
It continues to baffle me how we have come to this point in this country.
We missed many opportunities to tell the truth about the Republican Party’s desire for revenge against and destruction of Democracy.
The media of course scooped up by the same people that love to parrot Trumps BS and hate .
The acceptability of chronic lying.
The revival of far right extremism in ‘Red States’ education . The refusal to allow Black History and Civics subjects in Social Studies classes in these places .
Victor Orban as keynote speaker in Maga/ GOP conventions.
Trips to Hungary for Maga conventions .
Trumps relationship with Putin . Trump owes Putin , “bigly”.
Trump siding with Putin over his opinion regarding facts of investigations revealing Putins involvement in our elections .
Trumps spouting treason and is allowed to overtly hate and discriminate at will and is in a close race for President or Fuhrer. You choose.
Who’s supporting this ?
His cult .
The Heritage Foundation , the Federalists society , the wealthiest people being given a pass on taxes and accountability .
The Supreme Court systematically creating lie filled, Constitutionally void decisions.
All to elevate their corruption . The Head of the SC , Chief “ Justice”? John Robert’s involved in the overturning of Democracy . Aided by the wrongly appointed Kavannaugh, Amy Comey Barrett , Clarence Thomas who ‘ se corruption is well documented , Alito who publically supports fascism. Gorsuch who wants to create laws for the Millennium
These ‘Justices’ turned the corner into corruption and there are apparently no rules to protect us from their depraved corruption .
The House . Congress exists now to investigate Democrats they don’t Agee with .
Billions of our taxpayer dollars spent solely on investigations, yielding no tenable results on Democrats . Including relatives of the Democratic president .
Their depth of depravity knows no bounds.
Trump insisting he will remove anyone who doesn’t agree with his bizarre views.
Encouraging violence and hatred .
The legal system in many ways not utilized until too late .
The a Democrats who still see ‘ reaching across the aisle ‘ as a feasibility .
We have responded in a ‘ too little , too late’ vague response system.
Of course the Media is worthless with few exceptions .
All that’s left to do is vote with all the anger and necessity that we should be feeling .
I failed to mention the Maga attacks on the voting process from the Supreme Court dirty six to those cult members who are razing voter roles in the last 90 days of an election cycle , and are not being held accountable .
We must do what we need to do , vote and then create laws that will actually protect our rights from the schemes of this profoundly corrupt Maga/ GOP
Cult.
Overturning established law for their personal reasons .
We have confused capitalism with commerce. Commerce is ancient, while capitalism is only a few centuries old. Commerce commodifies goods, while capitalism commodifies everything and everybody while consuming the earth before it can be restored through the natural process. We must reverse course, starting with stopping Trump and his ilk.
Gloria my friend. Where it not for capitalism, none of would be alive today, there would be no substack, Thom Hartman, no USA, not internet.
This country we call the United States exists because of capitalism.
In 1606 a group of men, lesser nobility and wealthy merchants, had an idea. Since Spain has suddenly blossomed from the joke of Europe to the leader of Europe, because it exploited the gold and silver in the new world. They could do the same, at no risk to the King.
All he had to do was grant them a charter. What we call today a corporation, then it was a joint venture charter financed by adventurers, what we call today investors)
It was a capitalist enterprise, in all but words, because there were no word for the enterprise then, like there were no words for upper, middle and lower class when Marx wrote his tome, so he used bourgeoisie, for middle class, and proletariat for lower class and did not mention, at all,the upper ruling class as they were the ones what financed him (The League of Just Men).
The London Company of Virginia, was a for profit, capitalist enterprise from 1606 to 1624, when James I canceled the Charter and made it a royal crown colony.
The problem is not capitalism, the problem is unregulated capitalism. Medicine in regulated doses can heal, in unregulated doses kills.
All things in moderation, nothing in excess.
A glass of wine a day is therapeutic and healthy, a bottle a day will ruin your health and can kill you.
You don't think the world would have been populated without capitalism? Why couldn't democratic socialism have been implemented to organize society in a more egalitarian and less stressful way for humans with less stress on the natural world?
Gloria you are not understanding what I am saying, I think you are reading too much into it.
I am all for democratic socialism, but democratic socialism is in fact a mixed economy and a mixed economy is regulated capitalism.
without an incentive to invest in an enterprise, to make money, to reward yourself, there is no adventure, no progress and we live in an agrarian society.
I guess you missed the point about the London Company of Virginia and the founding of the U.S.A.. It was a capitalist adventure and we would not be here today and you would not be taking exception to me were it not for that, in fact none of us would be here were it not for people investing in manufacturing and transportation, which is capitalism.
Regulated capitalism is a mixed economy which is democratic socialism.
You really do not want to live in a full blown socialist society.
I understand that the London Company of Virginia was given a charter after America was rediscovered. Eventually, America would have been rediscovered and populated with Europeans without a business enterprise. People have always sought to discover what is over the next hill, what exists across the water, what is in that deep hole, etc. It's why we came out of Africa and why Asians originally populated the Americas.
You are mistaking commerce and markets, which we have had since the beginning of civilization, with capitalism.
The continent we call America was first visited by Europeans, in this case, the Spanish in 1492, by an expedition led by a Sephardic named Columbus, It's presence was well known before that, especially by basque fishermen who hauled cod up by the baskets off the grand banks.
Juan Caboto, whom we know as John Cabot, sailed on a voyage of discovery financed by a Welsh-Bristol merchant name of Richard apMeryk, anglicized o Richard Amerike. He reported seeing racks of drying cod on the shores of the new world, most likely the results of Portuguese fisherman making bacalao.
He disappeared during his second voyage, but the Leni Lenape reported that they saw a strange large ship with what can be described as sails.
It matters little however, that America would eventually be "discovered" by Europeans or who would have settled.
That was not the point I was making,not the point of all.it is frustrating to see the time involved trying to explain something glossed over or imisinterpreted by preconceived notions.
the point i was makinghad nothing to do with the discovery, It had to do with the fact that the very founding of America is a product of capitalism.
Those men who prevailed upon King James for a corporate charter in he name of the London Company of Virginia were, in modern parlance, capitalists, and they had that capitalist charter from 1606 to 1624, 18 years.
Mr. Farrar, you obviously have absolutely no idea how capitalism came into existence and you have no idea what it is. How you possibly connect the concatenation of events you described into an analysis of history and capitalism's place in it is absurd, and completely without substance. Your head seems to be filled with a stochastically disorganized collection of questionable factoids selected at random from the Google algorithms. There was no such thing as the "League of Just Men" composed of the upper class.
Wow, did I strike a nerve with you Gerald, that you result to a string of insults.
Yes there was a League of Just Men. I didn't pick that up from google, I've known about it for over 50 years, but you spiked my curiosity so I googled it
I am not going to let you put me on the defensive with your tirade of insults, but I will say this, that tirade, than has provided me more insight into you, your beliefs and motivations, than all of your previous comments.
Now I ask you to educate me, if I have no idea how capitalism came into existence, then please let me know.
However I was not and did not address how capitalism came into existence, all I did was explain how the founding of the U.S.A. was a capitalist adventure, and it was.
What you pulled was a strawman fallacy, I said one thing, and you accused me of something entirely different.
I’m in total agreement with you, but I’m very worried about how many red/Republican led states, are screwing with the electoral process. Changing state legislation to allow the overturning of electoral votes to suit themselves. That is what will overturn the popular vote. If, with the help of all that’s holy, we actually defeat this fascist takeover, we MUST eliminate the Electoral College permanently. It’s long past it’s sell by date & it’s the one thing that can cement the total destruction of our democracy.
As I said on my latest Substack entry, we are voting for the ability to keep voting, and we are voting for the candidate that won't order the shooting of protestors. The scope of the issues is just that; everything else is conditioned on our passing the dictator test.
These are the only promises the orange deranged convict and corrupt clown will ever keep. Revenge and dictatorship. Americans voting for him are definitely nuts to the core. Fake christians will be the firts ones to rot in hell. No excuses!
I never thought in my lifetime that we as a country would be actually voting against Fascism,Literally?!! I'm of the mind that most Americans are smart,good and know instinctively trump is a warped, twisted, dark and sick man, and that Kamala Harris is the only obvious candidate for President. You've written another Outstanding article this morning Thom and will reStack ASAP💙🌊
What to do? Vote, of course! Donate! Write letters/post cards. Send texts! Knock on doors! All, good, respectable suggestions. How, though, do all those actions fight against billionaires who buy who & what they want?
I'd like to think that good will win over evil but unfortunately I've watched too many docuseries about Hitler & his 3rd Reich to feel confident that good will win this fight at this time. When a race like this is too close to call that's a damning statement about the people themselves not necessarily the spokespeople for the parties involved.
Do you think that Hitler and Trump were born in a vacuum? What percentage of Trump supporters would be granted membership into any of his clubs? Hitler and Trump were able to come to power because of one main factor: Voting against something. The American voting public are not educated people full of informed opinions. They are emotional people with, in most cases, an ax to grind. In a capitalist system wherein you have a strata of economic conditions from not being employable to living beyond anyone's wildest dreams, there are going to be a lot of axes to grind in the people's minds. The ones on top are going to fight to remain there and the ones on the bottom are going to be pissed at the ones on top. This ain't rocket science. Because personal accountability is difficult in a system that flatters institutional / corporate wealth management over adequate capital allocation, which results in massive personal disempowerment, on a large scale, you are going to have massive social problems. Politicians understand this and use this situation to leverage their own fight to remain on top. The threat to come down hard on the "enemies within" is really the personal fight to keep from being seen as they really are. Those who seek the darkness don't want to be witnessed.
So...what is the alternative? Well, what it isn't is voting for the ones who work the hardest to fool the people by playing on their emotions. (i.e. religious-cultural war) The actual cure is a collective and massive turn away from the political-religious-military-industrial complex and towards a more humane spiritual consciousness, but that discussion is too laborious for this format.
He's been reading from Hitler's playbook all along and putting his words into action every day since the "American Carnage" inaugural address. His principal enablers are Congressional Republicans. We needed the votes of only 10 of the 43 Senators who acquitted him in the second impeachment trial to disqualify him from office. Some are accomplices in his insurrection. Others are cowards. Punish them, too, in November.
A large segment of the population will not wake up unless Trump wins. Yet they may never wake up, as the propaganda is strong enough as it is and would get even worse under Trump. They don't pay attention or do any research. They just think that prices are too high, gas is too high, and the border is a threat to their daily lives. They have heard about these issues daily and for some reason blame Biden for these things and everything. And if Kamala wins, the propagandists will be in overdrive to make it only a four-year term. People won't find their utopian dreams realized. And the battle continues on and on.
Somehow, someway people need to be able to see how Neoliberalism (and the history behind it) upended so many good things (and potential good things) for this country.
Bret, this is not so much a matter of “awakening” so much as a matter of religious zeal by his followers:
Example: According to WAPO Trump held a Townhall where he danced and swayed to cuts from his music list for 39 minutes while making incoherent and random bizarre statements. Here’s the kicker: The crowd of hand selected minions cheered this wildly…
I didn't specify, but there are the people that understand what is happening. Then there are the people that follow him in a scary way. But there are still many people that don't follow anything closely and think that this is the usual politics. These are the people that have no idea what could potentially happen and could be in for a rude awakening. And these people will likely determine the winner.
My husband and I are baby-boomers, and we have had at least two dozen relatives and friends whose lives were affected by the Holocaust. Some saw what Hitler and the Nazis had as objectives, and they managed to leave their respective European countries for the United States or any other free country that would accept them. Others were concentration camp survivors, all of whom lost most of their extended families in the camps. Still others already were in America, but the extended families who remained in Europe were killed in concentration camps. Donald Trump has outlined the same fate for any minority group, professional group, military group, or individual who does not agree with him, and he is not spouting idle words or idle threats. The man is deranged, and he means what he says. His idea of "Making America Great Again" is the very same as Hitler's idea of "purifying Germany and creating the Master Race." I would tell any so-called Republicans, or "undecided or independent" voters, PLEASE, DO NOT VOTE for this monster! If there ever was a time to vote AGAINST a candidate, it is NOW. Please vote for the Democratic candidates, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, to save yourselves and to save our country.
VERY SCARY & EXCELLENT ARTICLE. Great analogy between Hitler's character & beliefs as compared to Trump's pronouncements. TRUMP SEEMS TO BE INCARNATION OF HITLER.
January 20 - 1942 (Wannsee Conference), a date in history, or 2025 (U.S. as the 4th Reich), a date of a repeating history?
Yarvin's comments foretell the direction. Mass deportations called for by this group will stall because other countries will not even accept the emigrants. A new "final" solution will then be needed for 15 or so million. The scope at Wannsee was only 11 million. The current group seems to have its sites set at a higher number.
We need to wake up to history!!!
Even now, almost 80 years after the end of WW2, it is difficult to process the fact that an entire country engaged in the industrialized murder of their fellow citizens. It's just so unfathomably evil it's hard to comprehend.
It won't be easy to prevent Trump from winning given his plans for sowing chaos, but it would be MUCH more difficult, and more deadly, to break the hold of a fascist regime after it rises to power. We must use every tool and resource available to win the upcoming election and negate the anticipated efforts to delegitimize a Harris win.
Trump calls out "genetics" and a need to eliminate immigrant "vermin." Trump on Monday said that migrants who are in the U.S. and have committed murder did so because “it’s in their genes.” There are, he added, “a lot of bad genes in our country right now.”
It’s the latest example of Trump alleging that immigrants are changing the hereditary makeup of the U.S. Last year, he evoked language once used by Adolf Hitler to argue that immigrants entering the U.S. illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country.” https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-immigration-2024-election-2157777f240142e5aed38be192a52b25
"We're like an occupied country. We got people taking over parts of Colorado. We have people taking over other states. November 5, 2024, will be liberation day in America, liberation day."
Eugenics in Nazi Germany were composed of various ideas about genetics. Policies were used to justify the involuntary sterilization and mass-murder of those deemed "undesirable". Trump has been working on it since he was elected.
A Trump Administration DOJ Denaturalization Section was created in February 2020 and announced with a press release that alleged an intent to target “terrorists, war criminals, sex offenders, and other fraudsters who illegally obtained naturalization.” This was an escalation of earlier Trump administration efforts, including U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ 2018 announcement of the creation of an office focused on identifying Americans who may have used fake identities to obtain citizenship, as well as the targeting of some people who had been in the country for decades, but had, prior to their naturalization, committed less serious crimes than those listed above.
The creation of a Justice Department section devoted to stripping citizenship from naturalized Americans, even those who committed serious crimes, raised grave concerns that the government would use its denaturalization powers in an arbitrary or politicized way. Those fears were compounded by the efforts of top Trump administration officials to falsely tie immigration to crime, including through newsletters that amplified crimes committed by undocumented immigrants, the creation of the ICE Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement office, and even carefully crafted videos.
https://americanoversight.org/records-shed-new-light-on-doj-denaturalization-section/
"Civil denaturalization"? Insane! Trump didn't even answer questions at the town hall. He said, "Who wants to hear questions?" and leaned back and forth to his music for 45 minutes. Is he trying to hypnotize his cult like a cobra dancing before the snake charmer?
Citizenship was stripped from even natural born citizens under the Expatriation Act of 1907. If a person married a foreign national, citizenship was removed.
This is a model that is sought to be brought back.
I guess at this point that does not sound out of the question. But, Donny is just that crazy, so I give that a possibility.
I’d have to confirm my source, but the Nazis planned also to deport Jews en masse to the Russian steppes, dump them there and let them roam around in the winter until they starved or were killed by sub-zero temps.
Stalin wasn't much better. Many of his opponents, i.e. Trotsky were Jews and Zionism was on the rise.
In 1934 the Soviet Government established the Jewish Autonomous Region, Birobidzhan, in a sparsely populated area five thousand miles east of Moscow. Designated as the Jewish national homeland. Think Al Capp's Lower Slobbovia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Autonomous_Oblast
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_Slobbovia
The Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest population of Jews in the world, mostly in the "pale of settlement" which now includes the Ukraine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_of_Settlement 150,000 Jews were killed in the pogroms of 1918–1922, 125,000 of them in Ukraine, 25,000 in Belarus. The pogroms were mostly perpetrated by anti-communist forces; sometimes, Red Army units engaged in pogroms as well. Anton Denikin's White Army was a bastion of antisemitism, using "Strike at the Jews and save Russia!" as its motto.
During WWI German occupation of the lands included in the pale settlement didn't bring major suffering to Jews, but after Hitler's aggression on the Soviet Union the Jews who didn't manage to escape with retreating Red Army, became the first mass victims of “the final solution." .
Explore the many similarities between Trump's tactics and Hitler with this infographic.
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/10/14/trump-demonizes-immigrants-minorities-fascist-project-2025-playbook/
It includes one of Thom's quotes from the past "Never forget that the first group Hitler went after were trans people. When fascists want a minority group to beat up on for political gain, this is the smallest minority out there, smaller than any racial or religious group, and thus the most defenseless. These Republicans are bullies and thugs."
Thanks so much for this link; I have felt that the Republican Party took the Fascist turn back when Bush Jr. was in office. With the Trump victory in 2016 it was clear that he idolized autocracy and Hitler.
I took tons of ridicule for using violating “Godwin’s Law” that suggested comparatives of Hitler was hyperbolic and a sure means to lose an argument.
I suppose when the subject of that law calls people vermin, demands for the deportation of 11 million people and on and on that this is somehow an unfair comparison.
I could argue that the Republicans dating back to the John Birch Society (which is now the predominant philosophy of today’s Republicans) was the nexus of American and Nazi fascist ideology.
I watched The Apprentice yesterday. The acting was superb. The lead actor nailed Trump.
I met Trump in 1985ish while in NYC for a German friend's wedding. At 2AM or later, I pulled into the Trump Tower garage where I was staying. A blue Bentley pulled in behind me. I was fumbling for some papers in the back seat of my Rover sedan that I wanted to bring up to my room when a voice behind me asked, "What da ya think of the car?" I responded, "What's not to like about a Bentley?" my back still turned away while still fishing for my stuff. Trump said, "No, I meant your car. This is one of those new Rover sedans is it not?"
I stood up and mentioned that I had not been driving it long enough to judge. With that, he commenced to try to engage in guytalk. Tired and a bit champagned out, at +2 in the morning, I just wanted to go to bed. I looked over at the baby-blue Bentley behind me waiting for the 1 valet on duty that late, and there was Ivana looking at her spouse with a very peeved expression. I suggested that she was looking like she wanted to got up to bed too. That got him to break off and go upstairs.
As a psychologist, the encounter further validated my impression of Trump from his headline-grabbing social life as weird. Before watching the movie about his early adult life, I had no sense of the depth of his psychopathy until 2015. Years ago, I read Columbia U historian Robert Paxton's "The Anatomy of Fascism". In late 2018, well into retirement in his mid 80s, I emailed Bob and asked if he thought Trump was a fascist. He sure seemed to manifest all the traits and values of a Nazi. To my surprise, he said no. I was shocked.
Then in January of 2021, I saw the headline for a Newsweek OpEd: "I've hesitated to call Donald Trump a Fascist, Until Now." I could not help but think that if a world authority on fascism could not see it developing in his own country for 5 years. No wonder most Americans are blind to the danger this babbling old dolt with the fake blond hair presents to their future lives.
If you scratch the surface of nearly any of today's Republicans you will find a fascist waiting to emerge from the closet.
What I noticed that they have in common, is most of them went to church as young children? They were taught the big lies that the meek shall inherit the earth, Adam and Eve, God wrote the ten commandments... and now they believe anything and everything and blame others and accept very little responsibility for their actions. They now use Jesus as a credit card to sin with.
After WW2 the Allies set up a program of denazification in Germany and began removing Nazis and Nazi culture from the country with limited success. With 10% of the population belonging to the Nazi party it was difficult to weed them out and many remained in power.
I was diagnosed with lymphoma two years ago. This is a disease that invades all of your body and can only be treated with chemotherapy. The disease is never cured but can be put into remission. The saying is that you will die with it but not from it. I bring this up because I see a glaring similarity to Nazism and the MAGA movement. Although we can put them down they will always fester and be looking for a way back in.
We need to nurture a society that is fair to all with good education, health care and free from
predatory financial pressures. This should reduce the spawning ground of MAGAism. Our version of chemotherapy for the country.
Chris, Wealthy and Powerful Americans have had a love affair with Nazism/Fascism easily dating back to the rise of Hitler and Mussolini. Henry Ford received the hightest civilian award directly from Hitler and he was a rabid anti-semite. Allen Dulles was a Nazi Lover (he enlisted them by the scores to help in fighting the Commies) Here is a link to my blog that tells the of the evolution of this. There are numerous posts in my blog addressing various aspects of the acceleration of Fascism in this generation.
https://olflawriduhcracker.substack.com/p/fascism-in-america-born-in-the-usa?r=38b45
Yegads Chris I empathize . I am so fortunate I had lung and brain cancer, well the cancer in the brain was a metastatic tumor, excised by surgery treated by radiation, the lung cancer was treated with immunotherapy and I'm in remission. 7 years ago I was placed in palliative care and given 6 months.. compared to lymph cancer, I am lucky. I have a friend, treated for breast cancer,it has come back and she now has cancer in her lymph nodes. She is banking on chemo and radiation.
Glad that you survived the beast, you are one lucky dude. I have a friend that was given six months to live and it put him in a better place mentally, he let go of a lot of unimportant things and had a peaceful feeling. He said he was slightly disappointed when he was told he would live.
Your friend should be ok. Lymphoma can usually be held in check with chemo.
I hope my friend survives it, she is positive that she will, like you said, chemo seems to do the job, but she had chemo for breast cancer, and 3 years later, she is dealing with lymph.
When I was placed on pallative care, my only reaction was to update my will. I have been living on borrowed time, since I was 15 and fell off a smokestack. so many close calls after that.
We start dying the day we were born. Coming to grips with that is the secret to a happy life. My only concerns are will my death be peaceful, my sister who died f lung cancer in April,passed in her sleep, and the welfare of my kitties and spouse, and I've done all that I can for them. No stone unturned.
It continues to baffle me how we have come to this point in this country.
We missed many opportunities to tell the truth about the Republican Party’s desire for revenge against and destruction of Democracy.
The media of course scooped up by the same people that love to parrot Trumps BS and hate .
The acceptability of chronic lying.
The revival of far right extremism in ‘Red States’ education . The refusal to allow Black History and Civics subjects in Social Studies classes in these places .
Victor Orban as keynote speaker in Maga/ GOP conventions.
Trips to Hungary for Maga conventions .
Trumps relationship with Putin . Trump owes Putin , “bigly”.
Trump siding with Putin over his opinion regarding facts of investigations revealing Putins involvement in our elections .
Trumps spouting treason and is allowed to overtly hate and discriminate at will and is in a close race for President or Fuhrer. You choose.
Who’s supporting this ?
His cult .
The Heritage Foundation , the Federalists society , the wealthiest people being given a pass on taxes and accountability .
The Supreme Court systematically creating lie filled, Constitutionally void decisions.
All to elevate their corruption . The Head of the SC , Chief “ Justice”? John Robert’s involved in the overturning of Democracy . Aided by the wrongly appointed Kavannaugh, Amy Comey Barrett , Clarence Thomas who ‘ se corruption is well documented , Alito who publically supports fascism. Gorsuch who wants to create laws for the Millennium
These ‘Justices’ turned the corner into corruption and there are apparently no rules to protect us from their depraved corruption .
The House . Congress exists now to investigate Democrats they don’t Agee with .
Billions of our taxpayer dollars spent solely on investigations, yielding no tenable results on Democrats . Including relatives of the Democratic president .
Their depth of depravity knows no bounds.
Trump insisting he will remove anyone who doesn’t agree with his bizarre views.
Encouraging violence and hatred .
The legal system in many ways not utilized until too late .
The a Democrats who still see ‘ reaching across the aisle ‘ as a feasibility .
We have responded in a ‘ too little , too late’ vague response system.
Of course the Media is worthless with few exceptions .
All that’s left to do is vote with all the anger and necessity that we should be feeling .
I failed to mention the Maga attacks on the voting process from the Supreme Court dirty six to those cult members who are razing voter roles in the last 90 days of an election cycle , and are not being held accountable .
We must do what we need to do , vote and then create laws that will actually protect our rights from the schemes of this profoundly corrupt Maga/ GOP
Cult.
Overturning established law for their personal reasons .
We have confused capitalism with commerce. Commerce is ancient, while capitalism is only a few centuries old. Commerce commodifies goods, while capitalism commodifies everything and everybody while consuming the earth before it can be restored through the natural process. We must reverse course, starting with stopping Trump and his ilk.
Gloria my friend. Where it not for capitalism, none of would be alive today, there would be no substack, Thom Hartman, no USA, not internet.
This country we call the United States exists because of capitalism.
In 1606 a group of men, lesser nobility and wealthy merchants, had an idea. Since Spain has suddenly blossomed from the joke of Europe to the leader of Europe, because it exploited the gold and silver in the new world. They could do the same, at no risk to the King.
All he had to do was grant them a charter. What we call today a corporation, then it was a joint venture charter financed by adventurers, what we call today investors)
It was a capitalist enterprise, in all but words, because there were no word for the enterprise then, like there were no words for upper, middle and lower class when Marx wrote his tome, so he used bourgeoisie, for middle class, and proletariat for lower class and did not mention, at all,the upper ruling class as they were the ones what financed him (The League of Just Men).
The London Company of Virginia, was a for profit, capitalist enterprise from 1606 to 1624, when James I canceled the Charter and made it a royal crown colony.
The problem is not capitalism, the problem is unregulated capitalism. Medicine in regulated doses can heal, in unregulated doses kills.
All things in moderation, nothing in excess.
A glass of wine a day is therapeutic and healthy, a bottle a day will ruin your health and can kill you.
You don't think the world would have been populated without capitalism? Why couldn't democratic socialism have been implemented to organize society in a more egalitarian and less stressful way for humans with less stress on the natural world?
Gloria you are not understanding what I am saying, I think you are reading too much into it.
I am all for democratic socialism, but democratic socialism is in fact a mixed economy and a mixed economy is regulated capitalism.
without an incentive to invest in an enterprise, to make money, to reward yourself, there is no adventure, no progress and we live in an agrarian society.
I guess you missed the point about the London Company of Virginia and the founding of the U.S.A.. It was a capitalist adventure and we would not be here today and you would not be taking exception to me were it not for that, in fact none of us would be here were it not for people investing in manufacturing and transportation, which is capitalism.
Regulated capitalism is a mixed economy which is democratic socialism.
You really do not want to live in a full blown socialist society.
I understand that the London Company of Virginia was given a charter after America was rediscovered. Eventually, America would have been rediscovered and populated with Europeans without a business enterprise. People have always sought to discover what is over the next hill, what exists across the water, what is in that deep hole, etc. It's why we came out of Africa and why Asians originally populated the Americas.
You are mistaking commerce and markets, which we have had since the beginning of civilization, with capitalism.
The continent we call America was first visited by Europeans, in this case, the Spanish in 1492, by an expedition led by a Sephardic named Columbus, It's presence was well known before that, especially by basque fishermen who hauled cod up by the baskets off the grand banks.
Juan Caboto, whom we know as John Cabot, sailed on a voyage of discovery financed by a Welsh-Bristol merchant name of Richard apMeryk, anglicized o Richard Amerike. He reported seeing racks of drying cod on the shores of the new world, most likely the results of Portuguese fisherman making bacalao.
He disappeared during his second voyage, but the Leni Lenape reported that they saw a strange large ship with what can be described as sails.
It matters little however, that America would eventually be "discovered" by Europeans or who would have settled.
That was not the point I was making,not the point of all.it is frustrating to see the time involved trying to explain something glossed over or imisinterpreted by preconceived notions.
the point i was makinghad nothing to do with the discovery, It had to do with the fact that the very founding of America is a product of capitalism.
Those men who prevailed upon King James for a corporate charter in he name of the London Company of Virginia were, in modern parlance, capitalists, and they had that capitalist charter from 1606 to 1624, 18 years.
Mr. Farrar, you obviously have absolutely no idea how capitalism came into existence and you have no idea what it is. How you possibly connect the concatenation of events you described into an analysis of history and capitalism's place in it is absurd, and completely without substance. Your head seems to be filled with a stochastically disorganized collection of questionable factoids selected at random from the Google algorithms. There was no such thing as the "League of Just Men" composed of the upper class.
Wow, did I strike a nerve with you Gerald, that you result to a string of insults.
Yes there was a League of Just Men. I didn't pick that up from google, I've known about it for over 50 years, but you spiked my curiosity so I googled it
and voila from Global Security; https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/europe/league-of-just-men.htm
I am not going to let you put me on the defensive with your tirade of insults, but I will say this, that tirade, than has provided me more insight into you, your beliefs and motivations, than all of your previous comments.
Now I ask you to educate me, if I have no idea how capitalism came into existence, then please let me know.
However I was not and did not address how capitalism came into existence, all I did was explain how the founding of the U.S.A. was a capitalist adventure, and it was.
What you pulled was a strawman fallacy, I said one thing, and you accused me of something entirely different.
I’m in total agreement with you, but I’m very worried about how many red/Republican led states, are screwing with the electoral process. Changing state legislation to allow the overturning of electoral votes to suit themselves. That is what will overturn the popular vote. If, with the help of all that’s holy, we actually defeat this fascist takeover, we MUST eliminate the Electoral College permanently. It’s long past it’s sell by date & it’s the one thing that can cement the total destruction of our democracy.
As I said on my latest Substack entry, we are voting for the ability to keep voting, and we are voting for the candidate that won't order the shooting of protestors. The scope of the issues is just that; everything else is conditioned on our passing the dictator test.
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These are the only promises the orange deranged convict and corrupt clown will ever keep. Revenge and dictatorship. Americans voting for him are definitely nuts to the core. Fake christians will be the firts ones to rot in hell. No excuses!
I never thought in my lifetime that we as a country would be actually voting against Fascism,Literally?!! I'm of the mind that most Americans are smart,good and know instinctively trump is a warped, twisted, dark and sick man, and that Kamala Harris is the only obvious candidate for President. You've written another Outstanding article this morning Thom and will reStack ASAP💙🌊
Benedict Donald should be in prison. This is nuts, that should be the intro to anything about this election.
But it’s not about him.
That’s what concerns me most.
It’s about the thing that still calls itself the Republican party, every one. None have offered respectable opposition.
‘Don’t vote for Trump!’ should be ‘Don’t vote for any Republican!’
We need to vote
D: Forward!
not
R: Backwards
*all the way down the ballot!*
thanks Thom, for so many reasons — b.rad
What to do? Vote, of course! Donate! Write letters/post cards. Send texts! Knock on doors! All, good, respectable suggestions. How, though, do all those actions fight against billionaires who buy who & what they want?
I'd like to think that good will win over evil but unfortunately I've watched too many docuseries about Hitler & his 3rd Reich to feel confident that good will win this fight at this time. When a race like this is too close to call that's a damning statement about the people themselves not necessarily the spokespeople for the parties involved.
Do you think that Hitler and Trump were born in a vacuum? What percentage of Trump supporters would be granted membership into any of his clubs? Hitler and Trump were able to come to power because of one main factor: Voting against something. The American voting public are not educated people full of informed opinions. They are emotional people with, in most cases, an ax to grind. In a capitalist system wherein you have a strata of economic conditions from not being employable to living beyond anyone's wildest dreams, there are going to be a lot of axes to grind in the people's minds. The ones on top are going to fight to remain there and the ones on the bottom are going to be pissed at the ones on top. This ain't rocket science. Because personal accountability is difficult in a system that flatters institutional / corporate wealth management over adequate capital allocation, which results in massive personal disempowerment, on a large scale, you are going to have massive social problems. Politicians understand this and use this situation to leverage their own fight to remain on top. The threat to come down hard on the "enemies within" is really the personal fight to keep from being seen as they really are. Those who seek the darkness don't want to be witnessed.
So...what is the alternative? Well, what it isn't is voting for the ones who work the hardest to fool the people by playing on their emotions. (i.e. religious-cultural war) The actual cure is a collective and massive turn away from the political-religious-military-industrial complex and towards a more humane spiritual consciousness, but that discussion is too laborious for this format.
He's been reading from Hitler's playbook all along and putting his words into action every day since the "American Carnage" inaugural address. His principal enablers are Congressional Republicans. We needed the votes of only 10 of the 43 Senators who acquitted him in the second impeachment trial to disqualify him from office. Some are accomplices in his insurrection. Others are cowards. Punish them, too, in November.
A large segment of the population will not wake up unless Trump wins. Yet they may never wake up, as the propaganda is strong enough as it is and would get even worse under Trump. They don't pay attention or do any research. They just think that prices are too high, gas is too high, and the border is a threat to their daily lives. They have heard about these issues daily and for some reason blame Biden for these things and everything. And if Kamala wins, the propagandists will be in overdrive to make it only a four-year term. People won't find their utopian dreams realized. And the battle continues on and on.
Somehow, someway people need to be able to see how Neoliberalism (and the history behind it) upended so many good things (and potential good things) for this country.
Bret, this is not so much a matter of “awakening” so much as a matter of religious zeal by his followers:
Example: According to WAPO Trump held a Townhall where he danced and swayed to cuts from his music list for 39 minutes while making incoherent and random bizarre statements. Here’s the kicker: The crowd of hand selected minions cheered this wildly…
I didn't specify, but there are the people that understand what is happening. Then there are the people that follow him in a scary way. But there are still many people that don't follow anything closely and think that this is the usual politics. These are the people that have no idea what could potentially happen and could be in for a rude awakening. And these people will likely determine the winner.
My husband and I are baby-boomers, and we have had at least two dozen relatives and friends whose lives were affected by the Holocaust. Some saw what Hitler and the Nazis had as objectives, and they managed to leave their respective European countries for the United States or any other free country that would accept them. Others were concentration camp survivors, all of whom lost most of their extended families in the camps. Still others already were in America, but the extended families who remained in Europe were killed in concentration camps. Donald Trump has outlined the same fate for any minority group, professional group, military group, or individual who does not agree with him, and he is not spouting idle words or idle threats. The man is deranged, and he means what he says. His idea of "Making America Great Again" is the very same as Hitler's idea of "purifying Germany and creating the Master Race." I would tell any so-called Republicans, or "undecided or independent" voters, PLEASE, DO NOT VOTE for this monster! If there ever was a time to vote AGAINST a candidate, it is NOW. Please vote for the Democratic candidates, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, to save yourselves and to save our country.
VERY SCARY & EXCELLENT ARTICLE. Great analogy between Hitler's character & beliefs as compared to Trump's pronouncements. TRUMP SEEMS TO BE INCARNATION OF HITLER.