The crisis for any Republican who wants to run against Trump is that they’ll have to run to the right of fascism. But what occupies that space? Pure, raw, genocidal dictatorship that ends America...
The USA is at war for its soul. If the Republicans aka Christian Nationals or Fascists win, we all lose. We need to behave like we are at war where everyone chips in and helps fix things for the collective good. Sadly this won’t happen because we are so divided, spoiled and self absorbed.
I've read alot of books about Trump and his family by David C. Johnston, Mary Trump, etc... Now I've started reading The Raise and Fall of the Third Reich and am finding the similarities between Hitler and Donald Trump to be extremely frightening. When will humanity wake up and realize the destruction that lies ahead with a far right regime in control. 🤔
"— Trump tore families apart at the southern border and almost a thousand children are still missing, having been trafficked into a shady “Christian” network of foster and adoption homes." What you left out was, "Then they (Trump, McConnell, McCarthy, DeSantis et al.) raped them." These guys are all pedophiles who were blackmailed by Epstein's cabal. And guess what? Raping teenage girls was only the tip of the iceberg; a cover up for their real predilections which are little boys and girls. I am done with this Fascism B.S.; these guys are all real sick, they blackmail each other and do the bidding of oligarchs. DeSantis? He 'taught' and raped teenage black kids on scholarship at that prep school in Rome, GA. No wonder he hates 'Black Ariel'; ask anyone in the Black community (except Tim Scott and Clarence Thomas) and they will just go, 'ummm, huh.' DeSantis hates Black and Brown kids because they are his worst enemy; he can't control himself. He hates Disney because it throws his pedophilia in his face! He got married there (to his lovely cover-up trophy wife); why would he hate Disney?? Covering up his disgusting predilections. Take a close look at pictures of his kids; deer caught in headlights. Same for Trump and all the rest. Don Jr. was/is an alcoholic cocaine addict. That doesn't go away. DeSantis stuck garden hoses into the anuses/rectums of 'detainees' at Guantanamo - dude is messed up! Where do you think all this Qanon B.S. comes from? Best defense is an offense.
The reference to elections of hitler in the first paragraph is misleading. Please be more careful about this!
Most historians don't really discuss any elections after the 1933 enabling act (subsequently renewed) banned all political opposition, removed the legislative branch from any real role, and allowed only "approved" members of nazi party to stand for "election."
This fallacy is often repeated in American media, has even been embraced at times by the leader of the Arendt center at bard college, who in one panel discussion stated that "hitler came to power democratically," when this is just historically false. The Nazis never won any majority and hitler had lost a key election to president Hindenburg.
For some reason Americans like to spin a historical fallacy that hitler came to power in Germany through democratic means or through elections. In this case the fallacy implied is that hitler retained power through elections.
Anyone that's really familiar with the history and understand the details of history knows that there was an enabling act in 1833 in this immediately jumps off the page as being something very inconsistent with what happened under the enabling act. I mean, really, this is just the basics in the Wikipedia summary:
"The Enabling Act of 1933 (German: Ermächtigungsgesetz), officially titled Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich (lit. 'Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich'),[1] was a law that gave the German Cabinet – most importantly, the Chancellor – the powers to make and enforce laws without the involvement of the Reichstag or Weimar President Paul von Hindenburg, leading to the rise of Nazi Germany. Critically, the Enabling Act allowed the Chancellor to bypass the system of checks and balances in the government.....
Contrary to popular belief, Hitler did not win an outright majority in the Reichstag as the majority of Germans did not vote for the Nazi Party.[8] The election was a setback for the Nazis; however, it was insufficient in stopping the ratification of the Enabling Act. In order to guarantee its passage, the Nazis implemented a strategy of coercion, bribery, and manipulation. Hitler removed any remaining political obstacles so his coalition of conservatives, nationalists, and Nazis could begin building the Nazi dictatorship.[9][10] By mid-March, the government began sending communists, labor union leaders, and other political dissidents to Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp."
Even in the Wikipedia summary of the enabling act it talks about how the actual non-democratic means that were used under the enabling act is... "contrary to popular belief" which presumably means in the USA.
There's a problem in the United States, which goes back a long ways, and you can even see it in the film documentaries where the BBC version of the film about the rise of the Third Reich has much better and more accurate details about Hitler's rise to power than you find in the American version
In Wikipedia, note they say
"Contrary to popular belief"
I have to think this means "in the USA," because British / European understanding, books, films has always been clearer about how hitler came to power and no Americans I know (save a few historians and 90 year olds) seem to have much knowkedge. Even when you Compare the American and bbc versions of the film version of William shirer's book (btw it's not the only one that people should read) you see obviously how much better the bbc version is on this critical part of the history.
The only election Hitler won, was to head the NSDAP, which lost to Hindenburg, but the NAZIs were creating such mayhem (like our MAGAts) that Hindenburg appointed him Chancellor and Hitler then forced a plebscite,after outlawing all political parties but his.
In actuality he never won an election.
Why historians, media, even Hannah Ahrendt perpetuate the myth is beyond my ken.
By the way I have a book, written in 1939, The Strange Death of Adolph Hitler.
I found an original printing which had official German document with seals, in the front page.
I was 12 and I let a neighbor borrow it and they never returned it. I found a 2nd printing, this time without the German document.
The book asserts that Hitler had a lot of body doubles. And I downloaded some pictures of early Hitler and compared them to the older pictures of Hitler, sure enough the ears are different, and ears are like fingerprints.
If true, this means that there was a anti-slav, anti-Jew, anti-homosexual, anti socialist faction that really ran Germany, and that would be the industrialists, mosst of whom never got punished, and at least one who did see prison time, got released on good behavior and wound up in government again.
Well, I don't know about any clones being recognized in the historical account, but we do know that the issue of paying any changed reparations was a continuing focus of a lot of the right wing political activity. For context, we have to note that the Nazis in 1929 had only the most meager political support and had failed through any legitimate channels. The plebiscite mentioned had failed. A critical sequence of events ensued starting with the market crash (oct 29) and bruning's controversial decision to disband Reichstag and have 1930 elections. (Prof Sheehan says it must be counted among greatest political mistakes of that century). As you noted, those elections were heavily influenced by violent manipulations using the storm troopers, etc. and in them the Nazis got to 18 percent.
As regards clones? WTF is that about? A cloned baby would take as long as a birthed baby to develop, and it would age the same. Hitler had body doubles, galore., clones no way,
Maybe your thinking of that ridiculous fiction "The Boys from Brazil".
The plebiscite i thought you meant that failed was to stop all reparations, which happened later anyway.
The 1934 plebecite was just to formally consolidate powers of presidency with chancellor, and by that time all political opposition to Nazis was banned under the enabling act.
I should've pointed out that your original comment was the best one and was better than mine in getting right to the point which is that by this time the only thing anyone could vote for was in Nazi party, because there was no other political opposition that was allowed.
Sorry for the length and some duplication for some reason it's hard to edit today. The edits aren't showing up today when you review your comments here.
There's some developments from the Rhodes trial etc showing further the intention for Jan 6 events was to declare emergency powers and appoint militias or whatever trump decided should be involved in his exercise of emergency powers.
Yes, I think it's a key thing to understand about the fall of the Weimar republic into Nazi Germany, which was a process that occurred in several steps, a critical part of which involved the exercise of emergency powers by the president and this has been going on for years before hitler was made chancellor and is unknown to many Americans. Hindenburg had been exercising powers by emergency decree. The so-called cabinet of the barons had already been filled with people who were intent on removing all democracy from Weimar before hitler was brought into the cabinet. Von schleicher and the others had other plans, and with those plans he ended up dead.
A lot is made of charisma, and will leave it up to others to assess how much of it was that which determined what hitler could do. James Sheehan at Stamford I think reduces the importance often claimed about this, but just note that trump was (acc to Harvard study) "the first media created presidency."
I think "Hitler's playbook" in real historical terms differentiating him from the others should be understood this way: he alone would have to assume all powers and that his opponents, even those supported by his own supporters, could simply be murdered.
I highly recommend the great lecture prof Sheehan did on YouTube on "how and why democracies fail: the fall of Weimar Germany "
What do you do when 74.2 million citizens voted for a conman who presided over the extermination of many of C19's 1,130,593 dead Americans. A clown, who is at heart a smalltime crook. A traitor who has probably sold Pentagon war plans to Russia. As for LIV golf? A front for paying him off.
It is becoming all too apparent that Authoritarianism is here in the form of Trump, De Santis and all their magat Republican followers . Florida is already an authoritarian state. As is Texas, Tennessee, and lots of other Red states who care little for Individual rights, Trans &LGBTQ rights , Civil Rights, Womens’ Rights , as well as Childrens Rights to learn the truth about this country’s history .
It is appalling that they now almost always support these , the worst of all Republican politicians who honor Authoritarianism as opposed to Democracy . Oligarchs rule across the board. The Supreme Court Justices on the Right also Authoritarian in recent years . In the past year they have outdone themselves in their twisted decisions and their freedom to avoid any code of ethics , celebrating their obvious corruption.
I think your closing remarks are most telling. As if other countries should be involved in "saving" us with military intervention as we do to them, only as we will find in Ukraine as well we leave failed states and free weapons behind. We are on the brink of fascism not because of the Republicans but because of a system in which 80% of Democrats and 99.9% of Republicans are working against our collective interests, with one side berating the other mercilessly not to solve the problem but to garner attention, clicks and revenue by not offending their deluded bases (that would include Biden and Trump supporters alike).
As we sit and absorb all this media about the contest over the debt ceiling, we are induced to forget that the overwhelming amount of business in Washington is bipartisan, and that corporate rulers like Disney will win over either desantis or any democrat.
We are induced to forget about things like the military budget, when Adam Smith leads the Democrats on the house armed services committee and promotes the biggest most bloated military budget in the history of the world in the two years sincev the Afghanistan war was wound down and worked very closely with people like Liz Cheney, and had nothing but wonderful positive things to say about their working relationship and ramping up military spending each year.
Who are you really. You blandly put 80% of Democrats into the same basket as 99% of Republicans, and that is b.s. Most Democrats are anti fascist, and I admit that there are some extreme leftists, Tankies or old line Marxists who have an affinity for Putin, nostalgic longing, as all they can remember is the USSR,
Which they foolishly believe was anti colonialist, anti imperialist, while being very colonialist and imperialist. You are consistent about one thing, You are anti Ukrainian sovereignty and thus pro Putin.
The crisis for Republicans? It truly does not matter in the long run (20 years) which Party drives us into the apocalypse - our grandchildren will die cursing our names. Our implicit definition of victory is electing Democrats. And the DNC is working overtime to preclude any but Biden as Pres. and doubtless will seek to defeat every D that petitioned Blinken to eliminate ISDS crap in Honduras. Meanwhile the corporate media is lauding Biden's negotiating skills in not giving away anything (pipelines, biomass, pipeline permitting) that he was told to hang on to.
DeSantis seems to think his demeanor will make all the difference. I guess he doesn't get that Trump's biggest draw is how offensive he is to "the Libs", how he lies, and how unqualified he was to be President. However, Ron has the rude, crude and fascist aspects covered. He has a fantastic education, just the kind the MAGA crowd hates. I don't think DeSantis works for them when they can have Trump.
What does work on a national, state, and local scale is our democracy. I believe it will continue no matter how hard any of these creepy bastards try to kill it. We are going to keep electing the sheriffs, council members, school boards, county commissioners, mayors, state houses, governors and many others. There is so much more to this country than the presidency, despite all the damage any one despicable person like a Trump or DeSantis can do.
The USA is at war for its soul. If the Republicans aka Christian Nationals or Fascists win, we all lose. We need to behave like we are at war where everyone chips in and helps fix things for the collective good. Sadly this won’t happen because we are so divided, spoiled and self absorbed.
I've read alot of books about Trump and his family by David C. Johnston, Mary Trump, etc... Now I've started reading The Raise and Fall of the Third Reich and am finding the similarities between Hitler and Donald Trump to be extremely frightening. When will humanity wake up and realize the destruction that lies ahead with a far right regime in control. 🤔
"— Trump tore families apart at the southern border and almost a thousand children are still missing, having been trafficked into a shady “Christian” network of foster and adoption homes." What you left out was, "Then they (Trump, McConnell, McCarthy, DeSantis et al.) raped them." These guys are all pedophiles who were blackmailed by Epstein's cabal. And guess what? Raping teenage girls was only the tip of the iceberg; a cover up for their real predilections which are little boys and girls. I am done with this Fascism B.S.; these guys are all real sick, they blackmail each other and do the bidding of oligarchs. DeSantis? He 'taught' and raped teenage black kids on scholarship at that prep school in Rome, GA. No wonder he hates 'Black Ariel'; ask anyone in the Black community (except Tim Scott and Clarence Thomas) and they will just go, 'ummm, huh.' DeSantis hates Black and Brown kids because they are his worst enemy; he can't control himself. He hates Disney because it throws his pedophilia in his face! He got married there (to his lovely cover-up trophy wife); why would he hate Disney?? Covering up his disgusting predilections. Take a close look at pictures of his kids; deer caught in headlights. Same for Trump and all the rest. Don Jr. was/is an alcoholic cocaine addict. That doesn't go away. DeSantis stuck garden hoses into the anuses/rectums of 'detainees' at Guantanamo - dude is messed up! Where do you think all this Qanon B.S. comes from? Best defense is an offense.
The reference to elections of hitler in the first paragraph is misleading. Please be more careful about this!
Most historians don't really discuss any elections after the 1933 enabling act (subsequently renewed) banned all political opposition, removed the legislative branch from any real role, and allowed only "approved" members of nazi party to stand for "election."
This fallacy is often repeated in American media, has even been embraced at times by the leader of the Arendt center at bard college, who in one panel discussion stated that "hitler came to power democratically," when this is just historically false. The Nazis never won any majority and hitler had lost a key election to president Hindenburg.
For some reason Americans like to spin a historical fallacy that hitler came to power in Germany through democratic means or through elections. In this case the fallacy implied is that hitler retained power through elections.
Anyone that's really familiar with the history and understand the details of history knows that there was an enabling act in 1833 in this immediately jumps off the page as being something very inconsistent with what happened under the enabling act. I mean, really, this is just the basics in the Wikipedia summary:
"The Enabling Act of 1933 (German: Ermächtigungsgesetz), officially titled Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich (lit. 'Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich'),[1] was a law that gave the German Cabinet – most importantly, the Chancellor – the powers to make and enforce laws without the involvement of the Reichstag or Weimar President Paul von Hindenburg, leading to the rise of Nazi Germany. Critically, the Enabling Act allowed the Chancellor to bypass the system of checks and balances in the government.....
Contrary to popular belief, Hitler did not win an outright majority in the Reichstag as the majority of Germans did not vote for the Nazi Party.[8] The election was a setback for the Nazis; however, it was insufficient in stopping the ratification of the Enabling Act. In order to guarantee its passage, the Nazis implemented a strategy of coercion, bribery, and manipulation. Hitler removed any remaining political obstacles so his coalition of conservatives, nationalists, and Nazis could begin building the Nazi dictatorship.[9][10] By mid-March, the government began sending communists, labor union leaders, and other political dissidents to Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp."
Even in the Wikipedia summary of the enabling act it talks about how the actual non-democratic means that were used under the enabling act is... "contrary to popular belief" which presumably means in the USA.
There's a problem in the United States, which goes back a long ways, and you can even see it in the film documentaries where the BBC version of the film about the rise of the Third Reich has much better and more accurate details about Hitler's rise to power than you find in the American version
In Wikipedia, note they say
"Contrary to popular belief"
I have to think this means "in the USA," because British / European understanding, books, films has always been clearer about how hitler came to power and no Americans I know (save a few historians and 90 year olds) seem to have much knowkedge. Even when you Compare the American and bbc versions of the film version of William shirer's book (btw it's not the only one that people should read) you see obviously how much better the bbc version is on this critical part of the history.
The only election Hitler won, was to head the NSDAP, which lost to Hindenburg, but the NAZIs were creating such mayhem (like our MAGAts) that Hindenburg appointed him Chancellor and Hitler then forced a plebscite,after outlawing all political parties but his.
In actuality he never won an election.
Why historians, media, even Hannah Ahrendt perpetuate the myth is beyond my ken.
By the way I have a book, written in 1939, The Strange Death of Adolph Hitler.
I found an original printing which had official German document with seals, in the front page.
I was 12 and I let a neighbor borrow it and they never returned it. I found a 2nd printing, this time without the German document.
The book asserts that Hitler had a lot of body doubles. And I downloaded some pictures of early Hitler and compared them to the older pictures of Hitler, sure enough the ears are different, and ears are like fingerprints.
If true, this means that there was a anti-slav, anti-Jew, anti-homosexual, anti socialist faction that really ran Germany, and that would be the industrialists, mosst of whom never got punished, and at least one who did see prison time, got released on good behavior and wound up in government again.
Well, I don't know about any clones being recognized in the historical account, but we do know that the issue of paying any changed reparations was a continuing focus of a lot of the right wing political activity. For context, we have to note that the Nazis in 1929 had only the most meager political support and had failed through any legitimate channels. The plebiscite mentioned had failed. A critical sequence of events ensued starting with the market crash (oct 29) and bruning's controversial decision to disband Reichstag and have 1930 elections. (Prof Sheehan says it must be counted among greatest political mistakes of that century). As you noted, those elections were heavily influenced by violent manipulations using the storm troopers, etc. and in them the Nazis got to 18 percent.
I do not get the significance of your response to my comment.. I do not know of any pre 1933 plebiscite, but I do know that there was a referendum or plebescite in 1934 that confirmed Hitler as Chancellor, by 89.83% https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1934_German_referendum#:~:text=1934%20German%20referendum-,19%20August%201934,of%20the%20Reich%20Adolf%20Hitler.
As regards clones? WTF is that about? A cloned baby would take as long as a birthed baby to develop, and it would age the same. Hitler had body doubles, galore., clones no way,
Maybe your thinking of that ridiculous fiction "The Boys from Brazil".
The 1929 referendum failed but had significance as nationalists which were with center coalition moved to align with Nazis
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1929_German_referendum
I said clones, your reference to body doubles.
The plebiscite i thought you meant that failed was to stop all reparations, which happened later anyway.
The 1934 plebecite was just to formally consolidate powers of presidency with chancellor, and by that time all political opposition to Nazis was banned under the enabling act.
I should've pointed out that your original comment was the best one and was better than mine in getting right to the point which is that by this time the only thing anyone could vote for was in Nazi party, because there was no other political opposition that was allowed.
Sorry for the length and some duplication for some reason it's hard to edit today. The edits aren't showing up today when you review your comments here.
So sad...............and yet so incredibly accurate.
I moved to the US in the early 1990s. I never imagined that I might be witness to its end as a democracy.
There's some developments from the Rhodes trial etc showing further the intention for Jan 6 events was to declare emergency powers and appoint militias or whatever trump decided should be involved in his exercise of emergency powers.
Yes, I think it's a key thing to understand about the fall of the Weimar republic into Nazi Germany, which was a process that occurred in several steps, a critical part of which involved the exercise of emergency powers by the president and this has been going on for years before hitler was made chancellor and is unknown to many Americans. Hindenburg had been exercising powers by emergency decree. The so-called cabinet of the barons had already been filled with people who were intent on removing all democracy from Weimar before hitler was brought into the cabinet. Von schleicher and the others had other plans, and with those plans he ended up dead.
A lot is made of charisma, and will leave it up to others to assess how much of it was that which determined what hitler could do. James Sheehan at Stamford I think reduces the importance often claimed about this, but just note that trump was (acc to Harvard study) "the first media created presidency."
I think "Hitler's playbook" in real historical terms differentiating him from the others should be understood this way: he alone would have to assume all powers and that his opponents, even those supported by his own supporters, could simply be murdered.
I highly recommend the great lecture prof Sheehan did on YouTube on "how and why democracies fail: the fall of Weimar Germany "
What do you do when 74.2 million citizens voted for a conman who presided over the extermination of many of C19's 1,130,593 dead Americans. A clown, who is at heart a smalltime crook. A traitor who has probably sold Pentagon war plans to Russia. As for LIV golf? A front for paying him off.
What's the cure for GOP voters? Lobotomies?
It is becoming all too apparent that Authoritarianism is here in the form of Trump, De Santis and all their magat Republican followers . Florida is already an authoritarian state. As is Texas, Tennessee, and lots of other Red states who care little for Individual rights, Trans &LGBTQ rights , Civil Rights, Womens’ Rights , as well as Childrens Rights to learn the truth about this country’s history .
It is appalling that they now almost always support these , the worst of all Republican politicians who honor Authoritarianism as opposed to Democracy . Oligarchs rule across the board. The Supreme Court Justices on the Right also Authoritarian in recent years . In the past year they have outdone themselves in their twisted decisions and their freedom to avoid any code of ethics , celebrating their obvious corruption.
I think your closing remarks are most telling. As if other countries should be involved in "saving" us with military intervention as we do to them, only as we will find in Ukraine as well we leave failed states and free weapons behind. We are on the brink of fascism not because of the Republicans but because of a system in which 80% of Democrats and 99.9% of Republicans are working against our collective interests, with one side berating the other mercilessly not to solve the problem but to garner attention, clicks and revenue by not offending their deluded bases (that would include Biden and Trump supporters alike).
As we sit and absorb all this media about the contest over the debt ceiling, we are induced to forget that the overwhelming amount of business in Washington is bipartisan, and that corporate rulers like Disney will win over either desantis or any democrat.
We are induced to forget about things like the military budget, when Adam Smith leads the Democrats on the house armed services committee and promotes the biggest most bloated military budget in the history of the world in the two years sincev the Afghanistan war was wound down and worked very closely with people like Liz Cheney, and had nothing but wonderful positive things to say about their working relationship and ramping up military spending each year.
None of this is in any mainstream media!
Who are you really. You blandly put 80% of Democrats into the same basket as 99% of Republicans, and that is b.s. Most Democrats are anti fascist, and I admit that there are some extreme leftists, Tankies or old line Marxists who have an affinity for Putin, nostalgic longing, as all they can remember is the USSR,
Which they foolishly believe was anti colonialist, anti imperialist, while being very colonialist and imperialist. You are consistent about one thing, You are anti Ukrainian sovereignty and thus pro Putin.
The crisis for Republicans? It truly does not matter in the long run (20 years) which Party drives us into the apocalypse - our grandchildren will die cursing our names. Our implicit definition of victory is electing Democrats. And the DNC is working overtime to preclude any but Biden as Pres. and doubtless will seek to defeat every D that petitioned Blinken to eliminate ISDS crap in Honduras. Meanwhile the corporate media is lauding Biden's negotiating skills in not giving away anything (pipelines, biomass, pipeline permitting) that he was told to hang on to.
Nothing will fundamentally change - but it must.
DeSantis seems to think his demeanor will make all the difference. I guess he doesn't get that Trump's biggest draw is how offensive he is to "the Libs", how he lies, and how unqualified he was to be President. However, Ron has the rude, crude and fascist aspects covered. He has a fantastic education, just the kind the MAGA crowd hates. I don't think DeSantis works for them when they can have Trump.
What does work on a national, state, and local scale is our democracy. I believe it will continue no matter how hard any of these creepy bastards try to kill it. We are going to keep electing the sheriffs, council members, school boards, county commissioners, mayors, state houses, governors and many others. There is so much more to this country than the presidency, despite all the damage any one despicable person like a Trump or DeSantis can do.
I couldn't read this article. I'm still transfixed by the image at the top.