A Government led by the least qualified and/or most unprincipled citizen in the country, which the dictionary defines as a Kakistocracy!
Or a Government led by a man with over 40 years of experience and a man who truly respects and cares about All Americans and the future of our country.
Personally I judge people by their character. If everyone else did the same it’s obvious which person should be at the helm!
Super wealthy big business men who simply want their special tax breaks, deregulation of environmental regulations, disregard for the lower classes and super wealthy religious fanatics...all the types who crave more power and more money.
The sad thing is that we had an opportunity at the founding of this country to do better. If you read about the French revolution etc and back and back.... it's been a long arc of the same ol crap different era.
Every child and every immigrant is taught to revere the Constitution, and indeed there is much to admire. The Constitution is the most modern of a string of documents that sought to limit kingly powers, and thereby enable democracy, starting with the Magna Carta in 1215, almost six centuries earlier.
But there was one fatal flaw: The founders kept the king.
When this was pointed out by George Mason, James Madison replied that the President was different from King George III, because he was elected, and could be removed from office through impeachment.
The cracks began to appear in 1977, when Nixon told David Frost "Well, when the president does it, that means it's not illegal." We dodged a bullet in 1973, now it's coming right back at us.
Remember, George III had the following kingly powers; 1) Executive privilege, 2) the power of pardon, 3) the power of veto (over the elected parliament), and 4) the power to raise armies for 60 days without the consent of parliament (read Congress).
The US President has EXACTLY the same powers. 1), 2) and 3) are used all the time. Kennedy used 4) to start a hot war in Indochina.
It is crystal clear that the founders thought a king figure was necessary. Indeed it is also clear that they modelled the American political system on the system of government in London in 1787 (King, House of Lords, House of Commons became President, Senate, House of Representatives).
Nevertheless the Brits managed to Disneyfy their King and House of Lords (if you doubt this look at the coronation of King Charles III - it's like something out of Monty Python).
The power of pardon reeks of corruption. There is no sensible rationale for it, beyond "royal" privilege. Just think; if a monumentally corrupt and amoral leader like Trump did not have that power, Mike Flynn, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon..... et al.
Michael, you raise an issue of paramount importance. Our experience has demonstrated that the separation of power mechanism is not very effective. We are not ruled by a dictator as long as there are two or more political parties in conflict with each other. When one party backs the president no matter what the Constitution is in grave danger.
I think we are in the process of demonstrating the strength of separation of powers. We need to see if we get through this. we are definitely in a crisis, but buying that Trump actually has the power of a king assumes that he is correct in his view. Lets see if he really does or does not. The wuestion is still in okay, if you ask me.
Indeed. But it raises the question "What is the office of King-President for, exactly, in this 21st Century?" I get it, in the 18th Century every powerful country had a king who was there to raise armies quickly, if for no other reason. We are supposed to have moved on. Moreover, when the two parties are in conflict, nothing meaningful gets done. I prefer the British system which gives one party power, with a Referendum on their results every 5 years, a.k.a., an election. A truly bad Prime Minister can be removed overnight with a vote of No Confidence, as Neville Chamberlain discovered.
I don't get the comparison of the Magna Carta to the Constitution. The Magna Carta was a bitch list by Barons (the plutocrats, oligarchs) and King John repudiated it as soon as he signed it.
Actually, bits and pieces of the Constitution are built around MC, including the 5th Amendment. You're quite right though, MC was crude (which is hardly surprising because it was a beginning) and the kingly power it sought to reduce was the king's power over the barons. Still the "jury of peers" concept was straight out of MC. What else the Constitution has in common with MC is that it sought to regulate the king rather than abolish him, something the French began to do two years later....
There is a process to improve our society: the amendment system, either through the congress and states or through the states' convention. That has been derailed and gone largely unused, especially in recent history. We can do better, but the politicians and the two major parties are the obstacles to that; they do not want to do better, just fight with each other and use the population in a proxy war for their own ends.
To Amend the constitution takes 3/5ths of Congress and ratification by 3/5ths of the states. Considering 27 states legislatures are controlled by Republicans lot of luck.
No matter which of the two major parties control which legislatures; good luck. Instead of improving the society and guaranteeing fundamental civil rights, it is more profitable to keep "wedge issues" alive to sell fear.
Even with this, it would still be possible to get an amendment that provides for limitations on money in politics... Most Americans support such an idea, even Republicans
It does seem to recycle every several generations,people just don’t remember their history,fairly recent history at that.what’s the saying about not remembering??
It was literally impossible for the writers and signers of the Constitution to see into the future, the development of technology, the evolution of politics, trade and society.
Human nature should have been a sufficient guide for the founders,it is a timeless confused and often contradictory state of nature! It is its own best and worst playbook!
Some of them (looking at YOU Bernie Marcus) are so DUMBfoundingly blinded by abject, obsessive GREED that they do not even see the inevitable 'appropriation' of all of their massive wealth by this coming fascist REGIME, and their own deaths, using the excuse of the hatred of the religion/culture in which they were raised as justification.
Trump was a dark horse that completely got away from his trainers. He is now attempting to be a law unto himself and if we don’t look out will succeed. It was anger and revenge that allowed Hitler to get into the position that he could eliminate his criticizers in the first place. Then he became “der Fuhrer” and acquired absolute rein over the German people. There were still big corporations that backed Hitler almost to the end and at least a couple still exist.
There are indeed many similarities with Trump and Hitler, the first and foremost is neither could take criticism and the second is both of them want it all--supreme world rulership. That kind of lust for power, thank God, is rare but it exists in this world, also. Our leaders are in some ways always a reflection of the people they rule, no matter how vile they are.
A lot of what that idiot spouses are the dreams of those who sit silent and cheer for his victories. Then there are the completely stupid who think by being his best friend and supporting him, somehow they will rise to the top--much like the soured cream in milk. But make no mistake, the businesses, corporations and oligarchs that are funding him would eventually definitely rue the day they contributed a dime to the thug. You’re fired, is his favorite phrase, and yes, he would have little compunction about appropriating their assists right into his account.
Yes Mary, and Trump complied with all the things you mentioned, particularly fawning over religious fanatics while claiming his own religiosity. He also took care of the very rich at the expense of the less advantaged by his poor response to COVID and significant amounts of stimulus money that somehow happened to fall into the hands of the very rich. He wasn't too fond of dealing with our climate crisis either since the fossil fuelers around the world were prepared to give him lots of bucks for ignoring the challenges global warming is bringing our way.
These are the worst among us! Big business white men, who only want to serve their own interests, while their racism rages as extracurricular activity. It's always about power, and religious fanactics (aka "evangelists") only want power to control others, same as the rich white businessmen. The fear and loathing that has been the mastermind of the party on the right, not only gave us Trump, but a MAGA constituency that is even more fascist and angry than Trump himself. He echos their sentiment, merely to gain/hold power. The rest. . will be history.
To your point, the question is who is making political donations to Congressional Republicans who are in lock step with Trump. These sycophants are the ones who resurrected him after Jan 6 and lie for him every day. They are the rot that stinks.
As we see it is not easy. To my surprise during these last few years, I discovered how many people love having power (or be associated with the one, they believe that has it), without regard for responsibility to the fellow citizens that comes with it...
Even being SOOOO imbecilically short sighted in that power lust as well.
For once their SHITlerian, 'big daddy DESPOT' and it's 4th REICH REGIME are in power, what TF need do they have for said corrupt scum Senators, and low life, brown shit Congresscritters?!?
Janet, experienced gardeners will tell you that the weeds will outlive you. The best you can do is keep them from overtaking your garden for as long as you live.
Absolutely agree. I bet when he got the intelligence on Trump (duringTrump's dealings in Russia), Putin realized, what a great tool Trump's ego could be to destabilize the US.
And I've always thought a large part of trump stealing those Top Secret documents had to do with the payment Putin wanted for helping to prop up trump.
Agree. I grew up in Poland, under "socialistic" order. Since the childhood we've learned the tricks and language of deception so one instinctively detects it. I already posted here that not only the documents but also the funds for Ukraine hold up are the payback to Putin...
Agree, Ewa. Trump is just their latest convenient idiot. All of this makes me wonder whether his sycophants kiss his bum because they, too are threatened by existential threats?
I agree GG. I read a small article in the newspaper about an incident when Trump and two rich Russian investors had a drink to celebrate a new Trump Tower in Toronto, Canada. During the meeting, a heated discussion between the Russians turned into a vicious fight with one Russian breaking a glass and stabbing the other in the face multiple times. This kind of assault got the attention of the press as it just does not happen in fancy hotels in Canada often. Trump may spend a lot of time with rich investors, but this kind of investor bar fight may have really scared Trump. I think he is afraid of these people and should be.
The Russian mob allegedly got out of most organized crime in our country a decade ago, but I am seeing their faces and fingerprints on criminal activity in my large city in the last few years. Wherever they buy up neighborhoods narcotics distribution spikes, violence against women grows, and guns proliferate.
That people are influenced by experiences, you characterize as finding-fault. (I think you were annoyed about bar-fight in Canada centred around Trump, disagreement between a pair of Russians. Not their FAULT, but that possibly it influences Trump’s understanding of power).
[Material, copyright FT, link provided as directed]. Trump was failing to have mobster associate, Felix Sater, secure a deal for a Trump Tower in Moscow, while Shnaider funded the Toronto skyscraper, as his steel mill was embroiled in Putin’s efforts to influence beyond Russia’s borders, a strategy that expanded to include meddling in the 2016 US election.
Zaporizhstal steel mill is among Ukraine’s biggest industrial operations, 150 miles from the Russian border. Years before Putin’s 2014 invasion, Russia waged economic incursion in eastern Ukraine for industrial assets through sympathetic oligarchs. Moscow was capitalising on a slump in demand for Ukrainian steel to purchase assets to maintain influence over neighbour being courted by the west.
The backer of the deal was the Kremlin, optics indicate money passed from Trump’s business partner to Russian officials. Months after Shnaider authorised $100 million commission, and the Zaporizhstal sale was completed, Shnaider earmarked $40m for investment in construction of Trump Toronto. At least $4m flowed to Trump in licensing and management fees, possibly more, given Trump’s financial disclosures as candidate and president covered only years since 2014. Striking is the number of independent threads that connect Trump to post-Soviet money. Backing was persuaded to finance the Trump Toronto, Shnaider said, due to appeal of the Trump brand and the Trump Toronto team’s global business experience.
Raiffeisen funded North American real estate ventures east of Vienna and expanded in former Soviet Union. 2006 its investment arm represented formerly concealed interests of a Ukrainian oligarch in an opaque gas deal with Russia’s Gazprom. Experts on espionage and financial crime told FP that interplay of Trump’s past in business and his public office was susceptibility to blackmail. Illicit transaction as sensational as, former MI6, Christopher Steele’s dossier on Trump’s Russian connections--Russian intelligence footage of Trump instructing prostitutes to urinate on the Moscow hotel bed where Obamas had slept--powerful if used as kompromat to pressure a president. Credit Tom Burgis, FT investigations correspondent. Also Roman Olearchyk in Kiev, Max Seddon in Moscow, David Blood in London, Jim Brunsden in Brussels and Kerin Hope in Athens. https://www.ft.com/trumptoronto
Krupp, and almost ALL of the big corporations there, in their 'fatherland' (OF COURSE they would use the patriarchal term to describe their Gilead-like land!) did so as well.
America's Eugenics and discrimination agains blacks were examples he cited back when criticized about his anti Jewish policies. ,Espeically Americas eugenics program. Henry Ford was an enthusiastic fan of Hitler as was Charles Lindbergh
Here is a link to a New Yorker magazine article how America's Racism Influenced Hitlerhttps://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/30/how-american-racism-influenced-hitler
They have a picture of the Young Hitler, and the face and head are not the same as the older Hitler.
The ear is like fingerprints, no two ears are the same, and I am going to find a picture of the older Hitler and compare.
I mention this because, when I was 12, and just left the Boys Club on chesnut street in South Phillie, I past the smoldering ruins of what had been a pawn shop, I dug around and found a book, The Strange Death of Adolph Hitler, it was published in 1939, and the front piece had an official document in German, with stamps. And it was printed in 1939, the year of my birth.
I told neighbor about it and she asked to borrow it, big mistake, I should have learned, because when I was in my 30's I loaned a purple LP of Elvis and never got it back, same with the book.
I subsequently found a copy on the internet and have it, however it is a 2nd edition, and does not have the front piece with the original documentation.
The book says he was shot because of his affair with his niece, and the party thought it would be the end of it, or at least a scandal.
Which if true,.and mind you this was published before he invaded Poland, it means the genocide of the Jews and Slavs, etc were not the work of Hitler, but of the officials of the NAZI party, and they got off because a dead man got all of the blame. Although Hitler had proclaimed his plain in Mein Kampf, and many speeches.,and on the pages of the Beobachter.
I don't know what to make of it, the book was 1st published in 1939 and I found it in 1951.
Yes, it does because the next person appears to be Nikki Halley and she is no better. Perhaps worse because she doesn't speak wildly. Therefore, we are no better off...
Real change from these wall street dictators is to change policies - otherwise its a continuous roller coaster..
We do need to reverse the very ideas that ‘money is speech’ and corporations are people with all the rights of people {but none of the responsibilities or accountabilities, since you can’t lock a corporation up} — it seems to me we should have laws that make it more probable that corporations will lose their corporate charter if they break the law, but when’s the last time you ever heard of THAT happening?
Yeah, any Republican who will put the Unitary President and the 2025 Project into effect is a dire threat …
EVEN IF we elect a Democrat {we MUST elect a Democrat!!}, that person needs to attend to some of these issues to put in place laws that don’t ever let people threaten us this way again. Maybe we should be addressing some of these threats NOW. [This “immunity” court case is incredibly important, isn’t it!!!]
NOBODY is above the law, and we must not follow in the footsteps of Hitler and “suspend” our Constitution, not even for a little while {reading about this enabling business in Weimar, I now understand why Trump thought he might do well to float that idea just a little, to soften his people up to the idea …. This is his plan, I’d be willing to bet my arm on it…}
I have been reading an interesting book about the French revolution and the last 24 hours of Robisphere. The liberals were having these exact same conversations in the 1700s.
EXACTLY! I doubt we can figure it out as the same types of people with the same types of attitudes/ideas/aims are the ones who will ultimately make the decisions. History does repeat itself; this has been happening since Ur and Uruk fell.
I agree with what you are saying but in today's political world, it is literally impossible to reverse those ideas. Our electorate has become too uneducated (purposely) and too easy to manipulate. Not all of it but enough to allow the republicans to hold a lot of power plus a significant part of the judiciary system.
Yes, the political process for holding onto our Republic and Democracy IS harder these days, in part because of the loss of understanding among our electorate [diminished education about a citizen’s civic responsibility to be informed?], and the ease with which people can be seduced by online demagoguery. The Internet is our little Information Golem that can too easily be turned against us with Entertaining Screens that keep us from seeing the world in front of our faces.
That means we work harder … giving up is what the Right wants the Left to do …. We do not cede the territory …
Janet; Nikki Haley will never be POTUS even if she is the GOP Candidate, but she thinks being a woman makes her a shoe in for POTUS. However, we women know she is not qualified and we don't vote for a POTUS because they happen to be a woman, we only vote for a qualified woman or man and that eliminates Haley, Trump and DeSantis.
Those same big money interests were never procecuted at Nuremburg. They have been working steadily, silenty, ever since. Multi-national money is as multi-national money does. The people were not riled up enough during Reagan, as the propaganda machine was being set up, but now that they have their new orange face, they have been ramping up overtly and loudly. The Koch family is a very big part of this going back well before the John Birch Society, as well as old monopolist industrial commodity interests. (IG Farben, of old).
If they were to get this “immunity” thing going, then any Republican currently running for president could decompose our government. Any Democrat could, as well, of course, but that party has not been broadcasting its intent to DO it….
A very important observation and question, particularly about who is keeping the money flowing to Trump, Janet Adams.
Is the absence of that information another result of Citizens United under which there is no requirement to disclose "donor" information? So much harm has derived from Citizens United, but it is just one of the many bricks shaped by the decades of planning, plotting and scheming by Republicans, and those who are like-minded with them, to build the real wall, the wall that hides their schemes from transparency and accountability. They once were wolves in sheeps' clothing. Now they're blatant wolves in the sheeps' pasture.
It's sick and frightening at the same time. With technology, they have even greater control over us.
We don't own as much as we used to. We can't even own our accounting software for business. I'm tired of the cloud. I'm not afraid of technology. It's great - but (preaching to the choir) it's the abuse of it that's not good.
I have always been scared to think about who might come down the oath Trump had cleared for future politicians. If he had charmed rather than alienated the “deep state” ad he forunately labeled the administrative people by that actually run the hovernment, he would have been so much more powerful. Instead, he alienated them and was remarkably inept. I fear for that politician that sees how much more he could do than Trump did to grab power.
Prescott Bush father of George H.W and George W. Bush, of Harriman, Brown Brothers Henry Ford,m Alfred Krupp and Frtiz Thyssen among others, A good book on the subject is the crime and punishement of IG Farben (a corporation, not a person)
2016 the issue became NOT being anyone’s puppet--a total loose cannon, answerable to no one.
The very-moneyed Koch Brothers raised $70 million to back Trump who in turn was expected to support Koch Bros, etc., vision of small-government.
But Trump is beholden to no one and didn’t honor implied deals. Did Trump care about other people’s priorities? People fawn over Trump, he’s such a funny-man, and Trump fawns over no one, “I like his style,” referring to Putin or China’s Xi Jinping, or North Korea’s Kim Jong Un--Trump’s apparent admiration or allegiance to anyone or anything are so fleeting history’s psychiatry will name a condition after him.
Trump doesn’t know, care, or listen--minutiae grabs his attention--“Did anyone else ever notice, U.S. says “Us”? Isn’t that remarkable!” The founding fathers did not foresee a careless self-admiring goofball getting anywhere close to power.
In Britain and Australia the majority’s leader is leader, and can be sidelined before coffee break by a non confidence vote. The majority ruling party can be dissolved by a financial vote of non confidence, requiring a routine election that is limited to 36 days in Canada, 31 days in Australia, 25 days in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. No one CARES “who” the leader is, good governance depends on majority rule including that respects minorities, zero tolerance for lies, or hate speech.
A GREAT experiment has melted to reveal the Wizard of Oz, who is and does nothing to help the individual states that rule themselves--Katrina and covid as examples that illustrate states’ capacity to function or not, despite boneheaded stewarding of funds to resource accomplishing things in an emergency.
An effort to reset American politics--a committee of 5th graders, or graduate study math majors, or retired primary teachers, or some benign circumspect mix--is needed, to closet themselves like Founding Fathers did--to get big money out of influencing politics, including corporate campaign funding, and to 100% prevent insider trading on financial markets. Party in MAGA’s pigsty is at its height. Hard to understand why the States don’t demand better.
They made a mistake similar to those here with Trump--they either underestimated him or wanted to be on the "winning side" for financial/political reasons. They thought placating him and using their money would win favor and power with Hitler. They were wrong, and many lost both power and their lives as a result.
Ms. Adams. Hitler was at first funded by the Junkers: landed aristocracy whose existence reached back centuries into Germany's past. Then the wealthy economic elite from Germany and the U.S. and U.K. joined in. Large companies with well known names; some of which are still in business: IBM (Dehomag), Ford Motor Co., I.G.Farben, V.W., Benz Autos, Merck, Messerschmidt, AEG, Alliance, Audi Autos, BASF, Bayer Pharma, BMW Autos, Chase National Banking,(Eventually all banks), Carl Zeiss, DAPG( German-American Petroleum), Dornier(Aircraft), Krupp(Iron and heavy weapons), and many more. TheJunkers thought they could control him, until they couldn't. Then it was too late for them. So they hung in there and helped Big Business pay for Hitler's evil work anyway, including the concentration camps.
Sadly, and frighteningly, it seems that much of this land either vehemently wants the latter, or just complacently does not give a shit if that is what they end up with (they WILL, once they have this and realize it is TOO LATE!).
Too effing dumbf**k ignorant to see that this is a trillion times more existential threat than any (false/perceived) gas price hikes, or inflation wrongly blamed on the current POTUS. :( :(
Yes. What did people think would happen after the pandemic lifted? Everyone wanted everything now, but unfortunately, the supply chain was not yet repaired. The lack of this simple explanation to the public I see as on Biden. You start explaining to the public where we are and what actions are being taken to change things for the better. It’s all about constant and frank communication.
True, but the already indelibly brainwashed will not listen, and deny any and everything Joe says, outright, since it is contrary to what their Goebbels Nooz sources tell them to believe, like good little brown shirt sheep.
John, what does that have to do with the discussion? And speaking of Biden, he spoke a great length multiple times regarding what you're blaming him for. Look at the economy...the robustness is due to the policies enacted by Nancy Pelosi's House to keep the economy from tanking during COVID and the IRA passed toward the end of it. We have many who are either uninformed or disinformed. That is their fault. Yes, we can try harder, but people have to be open minded and care enough to listen.
I was just responding to a different post. And yes, people get off subtract times. But can you blame them? There are an awful lot to topics which are interconnected. With respect to your assertion about Biden. I watch a hell of a lot of bews a read lots of mainstream news outlet links. And never once did I hear Biden say it like I did. But then again, I am a scientist and used to blunt and concise explanations. Biden didn’t do that to my satisfaction. Point me to a link saying otherwise. But I would agree that he is responsible for a resurgent economy. Last I looked, Bush had the Great Recession and Obama had to fix that. Biden did the same, just to damned quietly.
Biden isn't a great speaker, and his age has made him a step slower and his stuttering stops more prominent (and delivery is slower than it used to be. All of this translates to a perception of meekness. But his heart is there. And the speeches I'm talking about were major ones...sometimes they occurred at midday and media didn't give them much light of day except for a headline. So yes, the WH communications department can do better.
You are fighting the wrong war. We are losing the war with the battle of the imagination!
It is not a democrat or a republican that is lost; it is a civilization. We are a painter before a blank canvas. We are "looking for love in all the wrong places!"
There is compelling evidence that in almost all situations, democracies are more successful than autocracies. What is also clear is social media and misinformation is undermining democracies and promoting dictatorships. From what I heard this week, the EU seems to understand this, is talking about it, and wants to take action.
"I have a real belief that democracy is unnatural. We don’t run anything important in our lives by democratic vote other than our government. Democracy is so unnatural that it’s illogical to think it would be permanent. It will fall apart at some point, and maybe that isn’t now, but maybe it is" - Senator Chris Murphy
I believe our rotten capitalism is to blame because capitalists don’t care if democracy dies. They are the architects of the culture changes the Republicans deplore. Blame placed on the govt or Democrats is misplaced.
THE ENEMY INSURRECTIONIST ARE AT THE GATE, DEFEAT TREASONOUS , TERRORIST, AND CON REPUBLICONS EVERYWHERE AND JAIL CORRUPT AND TRAITOR RTRUMP AND CRONIES.THE ENEMY INSURRECTIONIST ARE AT THE GATE, DEFEAT TREASONOUS , TERRORIST, AND CON REPUBLICONS EVERYWHERE AND JAIL CORRUPT AND TRAITOR RTRUMP AND CRONIES. VOTE PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS , AND RESTORE DEMOCRACY.
OK, you judge people by their character. I judge people by the results they produce, then character, and lastly by the color of their skin. Trump in four years produced dozens of results favorable to the USA despite constant attacks from such as Robert and yourself. Biden has used his "over 40 years of experience" to enrich himself and his family, open our border to people whose character we'll find out over time, left a disaster in Afghanistan, encouraged Russia to invade Ukraine, Hamas to attack Jews, destroy energy independence, etc. Wake up..
Totally agree and thanks for the new vocabulary word. Kakistocracy, hard to pronounce but the potential of its existence. really does need a terminology. Looked up definition and it noted that aristocracies may actually be 'hidden' Kakistocracy.
Trump has the capacity to be every bit as cruelly deranged as Hitler IMO. The evidence of his cruelty is everywhere, every day. His followers love it. That's what's scary - he's given permission for every Republican to be cruel and merciless.
Trump is a loser. A spectacular one. He is the living embodiment of the punchline to the joke, “How do you make a small fortune in New York real estate?” Answer: “Start out with a large one.” His companies have been through half-a-dozen bankruptcies. The failure of his Taj Mahal Casino helped turn Atlantic City into a “ghost town.” He is such an unreliable credit risk that American banks stopped dealing with him in the 1990s.
Trump is a loser. He is the only president ever to be impeached twice. He is the only major presidential candidate to lose the popular vote twice. He is the only major presidential candidate to be indicted once—let alone four times. He is the first president in nearly a century to lose the House, the Senate, and re-election. He is the only major presidential candidate who has been adjudged (in a civil case) to have raped a woman.
Trump is a loser. When he traveled internationally as president, foreign leaders laughed at him behind his back. When he addressed the UN Assembly, world leaders laughed at him to his face. He has made some of the most ignorant comments ever by a US president, suggesting that Covid victims “inject bleach” and that they “shine a light inside their bodies.” And during an eclipse visible from Washington, D.C., Trump did the one thing that observers of eclipses are NEVER supposed to do—he removed his protective eye gear to look directly at the sun.
Despite the fact that Trump is a historic loser, he has somehow convinced tens of millions of Americans that he is “a stable genius” who would defeat a combined presidential ticket of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We should not add to Trump's false mythology by unintentionally ascribing stature or influence he does not have.
Well thanks for providing that link, it's a fitting biography of that demented turd and is all that needs to be said the day we are finally rid of this maniac.
Old and right-wing San Diego money has been flowing to corrupt politicians and businessmen since Nixon. San Diego in the 1980’s was the white collar crime capital of the country according to the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s office. The red-neck, anti-tax, government hating, neo-Nazi portions of county have been electing and reelecting corrupt Republicans for decades. Former Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham (convicted of bribery), former Congressman Duncan Hunter (congressional bank and check skating fraud scandal in the 1980’s and 1990’s and not living in the state for which he served in the House), former Congressman Duncan Hunter Jr. (convicted of misuse of campaign funds), former San Diego Mayor (and Rush Limbaugh stand-in) Roger Hedgecock (convicted of misuse of campaign funds).
The rich should worry about politicians like Trump because if they lgave him the power he wants, they may find themselves without any ability to protect their own interests. How often have we seen Tumo turn on those who support him when it is convenient? He is so fickle, I cannot imagine anybody trusting him to have any say over any aspect of my life.
Speaking of Fani Willis, I am not a lawyer, but she’s just the head of a team. If something happens to her she’s got others to pick up the case. I hope nothing happens to her but I can’t see how it would damage the indictments.
I hope attacking her in this way is not a ploy that works. I have not yet heard her own RESPONSE to it, but maybe I haven’t looked hard enough. I just do not want any of thee to fall apart … Too important …
Thank you for this wonderful article, it really makes me think. But I wonder what Putin's part in all of this is... how much control he and the Russian Oligarchs have over the Republican Party? We are not like pre war Germany but something else created by the Russians perhaps? The more they can degrade Democracy the better it is for them so they can do what they want in the world.
I want you to think back to Helsinki. Remember the differences in body language between Trump and Putin as each approached their respective podiums? Go back and look either at a picture and even better the actual video. Trump, head down, with a look on his face like he either heard something from Putin about him (had on him) or had just given up state secrets and knew it was wrong. All the while Putin, while looking up with a smirk on his face and a jump in his step. That jump, reminded me of Hitler’s, when he learned that France had surrendered in the very train car where Germany had done so at the termination of WWI.
I am of the same opinion. If one actually read the entire Mueller Report, it was perfectly clear that there was collusion. Probably not conspiracy because no written or tape evidence was uncovered. But the bread crumps were there.
They have lots of control. Also over Boris Johnson, another useful idiot. They use social media as a tool to turn people’s heads and it’s become a very effective method of brainwashing. You only have to look at the Q Anon nonsense, how quickly complete irrational rubbish became quite a popular belief. Scientology, again, complete irrational rubbish, many reasonably intelligent people are members. Unfortunately people are herd animals, very easily led, and our leaders and the wealthy can take advantage of that.
It’s extraordinary really how easily people’s heads are turned. I just finished watching a documentary about the “satanic cult child abuse” panic that spread like wildfire in the 1990s.
Thank you for this. It would be wise to publish this on every available public media page. Regular folks, who don't usually think in terms of history, need to read this!!
Mmmm, it is powerful, which is why Donnie tries to use it constantly, making up stupid names for his opponents and telling us “everyone knows” what losers they are …
Thank you, Professor, for the history lesson. One would think that in this Age of Information, we would be less likely to repeat the mistakes of the past, but one would be ludicrously wrong to believe that. We seem incapable of assimilating this knowledge into our decision-making. Look at Russia...a country that can't keep itself from autocracy or oligarchy, or Hungary, which has forgotten what inspired them to fight for in 1956, not so long ago. The USA keeps repeating its mistake of electing ruinous Republicans to the White House every cycle, picking a Democrat to clean up the mess, and then voting for another GOP moron who has no idea how to govern a diverse democracy.
Kerry, remember that saying about insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I fear the republicans and their party are the definition of insanity!
What with Gerrymandering and voter suppression and the electoral college, I for one can't really put all blame on the voters for "electing" Republicans. And then, when a Democrat is elected and turns out to have not really been a Democrat, such as Joe Manchin or Kirsten Sinema lately, Joe Lieberman not so long ago, are the voters to blame? Not entirely, it's fair to say.
Your point is very well taken. But I need only point to the voters in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan who collectively gave their states to Trump in 2016 as a rebuttal. Even more dramatically, the voters in Wisconsin elected (I’m self-censoring a description of) Ron Johnson TWICE over their former Senator with an outstanding record - Russ Feingold. No gerrymandering or electoral college excuses that kind of behavior. Sorry, the American electorate blows it just as frequently as it gets it right, and the degeneration of the Republican Party into a fascist personality cult proves my point.
Does a former President NOT return to ordinary citizen status? He can take home to use as he pleases classified documents to study, sell, trade? Are those official acts of a FORMER President? So they (trump, MAGA, just trot out challenges to DOJ and USA and play the system to delay accountability for as long as possible? Until trump can Steal the election and absolve himself of all his sins and crimes? Hello! HELLO! Authoritarians have played this game before! We can LEARN from history!
STOP!! STOP!! STOP!! This death by a thousand cuts is killing us! ESG (Extremely Stable Genius) disregards the rules everybody else endures. Somebody has got to say NO! No More! No more delay, No more distraction, No more deception.
I'm exhausted from the endless torrent of lies, delays, misinformation, and distracting from accountability? HOLD TRUMP ACCOUNTABLE. DO IT NOW!
Cut funding to IRS. How shall the government collect REVENUE to conduct its business???? We just strangle the government to WHAT END? More freedom? To include freedom to steal and lie and not be held accountable for our behavior?
Where are the Responsible Republicans? Where is the leadership? Oh, right. They are complicit in this game! It's all about power. The ends justify the means.
Responsible Republicans no longer exist, just ask Chris Christie; there’s only the enablers left. The complicit power hungry enablers are at every level of government, business and industry. It’s like the fungal web in the soil surrounding and connecting roots. Everywhere, connected, interwoven. Some look at it as rot, others know it as an interconnected nourishing communication system.
Liz Cheney said she was going to do everything possible to prevent Trump from getting in again. And yet I’m seeing nothing. What is she doing? Has she got a surprise in store for us?
She's done plenty. She wrote a book and did a media tour. It easily carried by major outlets. She talks about Trump's danger every time she gets the chance. Not to mention the work she did on the Jan 6 committee which helped lead to multiple indictments.
I just got the book, but that’s been out for a while, and of course the committee finished a while back too. I don’t watch TV so maybe I’ve missed the other things, although I do read voraciously and I haven’t seen anything for quite a while. I’m glad she’s reaching people though.
She published a book and she’s been on many many talk shows. I’m sure she’s also doing a lot behind the scenes as well. Plus her father feels as she does and he is well connected
I just got the book. I’m looking forward to reading it. Keeping fingers crossed on her ability to make a difference. I never thought I’d be rooting for a Cheney.
My guess is she’ll be speaking out, but don’t look for a Dem endorsement from her. She’s also smart enough not to do a third party run, if tRump is the nominee. The question is what if anything she’d do, if he’s not nominated or is convicted post nomination and The Fascist Party scrambles for a replacement. Given that DeSatan and Haley have said they would pardon their Orange Messiah, I bet then she does do a last second third party run. Maybe No Labels with Manchin?
I think you can count them on your fingers. The other Republicans in the House (mostly all retired or voted out) that voted to impeach, Mitt Romney, and maybe Chris Christie.
Thank you, Mark, for putting into words what I was feeling this morning. I am exhausted and from what I have been reading, I simply do not know if what is coming is avoidable!!
Trump and his cronies are following Hitler’s playbook, in addition to Putin’s. I would say that’s double trouble. The people Trump has surrounded himself with, or his puppet master has surrounded him with, are extremely dangerous and without any conscience. I have a dreadful fear that battling them with our slow as molasses court system is just pushing us over the cliff. Whether or not Trump wins or loses the 2024 election, he’ll be much more dangerous than the January 6th fiasco. I believe a good question to ask oneself, is will we flee or stay and experience that brutality. Is it actually possible to halt it now?
I think Robert minimizes our vulnerability here. Women not only have lost control of their bodies, but we are now a fetus worshipping society, with the fetal home trash. Robert is a white privileged man, able to find great success & security where many, many US citizens have not. The NY Times will not even print what I have actually witnessed. In fact, Maine is using our state monies to provide for economic migrants for a year and more, flooding our city schools with complex learning needs. Mainers are loosing, especially after 50 years of common good loss. In Vermont, wealthy enact projects to help grateful refugees to work & live there, as middle class Americans can no longer afford to live & work there, even in the poorer areas. Grateful refugees tolerate ghettoized housing, low wages, again undermining US citizens. Stop minimizing this! The context is daily species extinction, climate chaos, migrations with few rules & yes, some of these highly traumatized and desperate folk are bringing complex ptsd, becoming drug involved for quick money, see Burlington Vt. The Red states are becoming education, healthcare, local news, deserts and we live in minority rule. Citizens United is effecting BOTH parties, as when democrats are in power, they do not even begin to adequately address the severe inequity. Don't get comfortable.
I agree with you about women being degraded by the GOP, but immigrants are not the enemy here. They are people who are escaping terrible conditions in their homelands to save their families. This has always been a country of immigrants and should continue to be a safe place for them to go and be helped.
AFter American Citizens are taken care of. With 50 years of the ruin of US common good, folk with mental health issues, developmentally disabled folks, people one illness away from homelessness, never mind experiencing homelessness and are ill, the hopeless ones from the hopeless society we live in, MUST be cared for first. Healthcare for all, education for all, US CITIZENS./ Many are already here and many will likely be accommodated, but US citizens first. I have a mentally ill, developmentally disabled young adult in New England for whom I can not gain his care. WE worked ALL our lIVES for US common good and thought most others were also, but look what we have become. ... US citizens first, and if you don't understand this from a democrat, good luck when Trumpty is elected over this issue.
I believe we could do both if the wealthy would pay their fair share of taxes. I think we should be aiming the blame at the wealthy rather than fighting each other for the governmental scraps left behind. That’s what those bastards want: we’re divided while they stay in their gated communities, gleefully counting their money.
Who pays for the "Common Good" focuses the problem. Professor Reich's class on The Common Good highlighted how Tax Policy and rules have been manipulated by the wealthy class so they pay less than their Fair Share.
Kristin Newton ; Assuming that we can afford to flee ; Where would we go that would really be safe and far enough away from their influence? What about our children and grandchildren?
I hear you, T L! It is very hard to fight off the feeling of despair when constantly being barraged with misinformation, lies and propaganda. trump has trumpeted to all of us his intentions if he gets back in the White House. We all know the devastation he will cause but it seems that every time he is held to account, he slips out of it! It is not fair but then whoever said life was fair? I will continue to use my voice, but it feels as if I am shouting into a vast empty space!! republicans will not listen and yes, I know all of the reasons. Fear, wanting to stay in power, loving chaos, hating everyone that isn't exactly like them, etc. It doesn't do much to assuage my feeling of dread.
Peggy Freeman ; Justice might slow it down. That would make the difference. Even long time Republican genuine conservatives are now supporting President Biden. Liz Cheney, and others, no doubt. Anyone could be targeted by tfg's mob! For any 'reason'.
I know, Laurie, but it seems in trump's case, justice has slowed down slower than a snail moving!! After three years, they finally indicted him but now everywhere I read, people have lost that initial outrage over January 6 acting like it was nothing!! What he did still burns bright in my memory and the outrage I felt over all of it continues to this day. To see him strutting around telling everyone he is immune from any prosecution makes my blood boil! He laughs in our faces while his little minions send out these outrageous lies like the insurrection was a peaceful visit, Hunter Biden is held in contempt from idiots that ignored their subpoenas, showing pornographic pictures in Congress, banning good books and now Webster's Dictionary and on and on. It is simply insane and continues to get worse!
Peggy Freeman ; Look at Meidas Touch on You tube. Hysterical, at times. Also, Steve Colbert gets some of the best parts of the irony across the aisle. Laughter is the best medicine. The hypocrisy of the MAGAs is evident and pitiful!
You're right, Laurie. I am in need of a dose of good humor to get me out of this sick feeling!! I love watching Steve Colbert and Meidas Touch does have some funny ads!
Meidas Touch and the threads posted with them, are informative and sometimes hilarious! A very good antidote to the fear that tfg , Like Hitler, wanted to instill in his victims. They want to weaponize our own emotions against us. We have the truth 🙌 and the rule of law on our side. And there are more of US than there are of them! Plus, we won the last several elections!!! They lost! They are LOSERS!
Do you really think he is scared? I would so love to believe that he is. He doesn't have friends because he constantly turns on anyone stupid enough to try and be his friend. I do agree that his constant repetition of the same old grievances is a bore. I believe he is of the opinion that the more he says it eventually people will believe it but that is pure poppycock. It's tired, ridiculous, and too constant!
I think he’s terrified. All his bluster is just an attempt to cover up what he’s really feeling. The truth is that he’s a big fat loser and on some level he knows it. I’m scared but I take comfort from the fact that he’s suffering, and I don’t care if that makes me a bad person.
Peggy Freeman : I look at the still shots of tfg in court. I realize he is aware of the camera. But in some, he actually looks shook, and almost crying 😢. The judges are not buying his lying psychodrama, though! They know what he has done to other judges, and experienced the threats first hand. The guy has brass balls, but will lose anyway. Way to lose, loser! Make yourself popular with those who have actual power. Look out fool! Here comes the Judge and man, is she pissed!
And the Nazis got the blueprint for many of their laws, such as those excluding Jews from public places and classifying them as second class citizens, from American Jim Crow laws. Our society literally wrote the book on legally separating people into castes, which inspired Nazi leaders.
Hitler was an Austrian. Antisemitism was very strong and getting stronger in Austria/Vienna in Hitler's youth............A Catholic country.....and the teaching of collective guilt of the Jews for the death of Christ was generally accepted until the 2nd Vatican Council of 1965............going back to pre-middle ages. France....too...had a wise of anti-semitism in the 1890s......Germany, less so under Bismarck.
True ... but a side issue compared with what the Nazis did to the Protestant Church and their own best people..............whose emigration greatly enriched the USA.....in science, art, music, ( Ormandy, Leinsdorf, Reiner, and so many others in music)literature, medicine ( Otto Loewi for instance).
Not really. We have the same today in people who overlook morality in favor of racism and potential wealth.
So many died -- many more than those who were lucky to escape.
Read Jung. In Biblical terms the sins of the Nazis and those who did nothing, will be visited upon them in the form of personal guilt to the umpteenth generation.
Having grown up in Chicago, I'd like to read a biography of Fritz Reiner. For the time being, can you give a brief account of what led to his emigration?
Not to mention how we treated native Americans- our task after committing our
“ original sin “ is to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself. Authoritarianism has a blueprint for their version of success. We need to get shine enough light on the subject to keep it
Thank you for impressing on me the sheer rapidity of Democracy being extinquished and simultaneously replaced with a violent and ruthless Dictatorship. It's something that we must remember to communicate to anyone and everyone to implore us to rise up to the urgency of our peril.
True, we aren't Weimar. We weren't far off, in the Dubya Bush administration, to which the voter backlash, and his impressive speeches and demeanor was the antidote, for a time. The hatred from racist/white supremacists, combined with seditious interference with the 2016 election, by right-wing extremists the likes of Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Mike Flynn, and the whole spineless squad of defeated GOP primary lot of blame/praisers handed the country to Trump. That was far more a "fixed" election than was 2020. Trump must be stopped. We may not yet be nazified, but who's to say there aren't even worse developments possible, if we don't kick out the jams?
I haven't read any of those books, but in 2017 I read Timothy Snyder's, On Tyranny. The process is the same be it Germany then or America now. Nothing new is happening in America today. Your check list has been happening for a long time. Our institutions have been permeated. The bulk of the work has already been done. You're right Dr Reich, if Trump is elected change will come with lightning speed. We are in the midst of a change much grander than democracy or autocracy. Capitalism,
democracy, oligarchy, and autocracy have left civilization in a failed state. Monotheism has failed as a god. We are an artist standing before a blank canvas. We are being asked for imagination and living that painful state. Once that image is on the canvas we will wonder where it came from. The Greeks said it came from a visitation from a muse. The monotheist will claim God brought it to us. Freud will claim the unconscious and cocaine. Others will call the image "art." While we perceive destruction and polarization, we are simultaneously creating a new image, a new painting, and we have no idea what it will look like. It's work!
I don’t understand why you think Trump isn’t as demented as Hitler and why you don’t think a civil war is likely. If Trump gains power and attempts to shut down democracy, would the blue states tolerate that? What happens if Trump declares a state of emergency and tried to deploy troops and supporters to bring those states back into line?
I think large contiguous chunks of blue states seceding is probably the best thing that could come from a second Trump presidency. How much of our military would really fight that? I think maybe 2/3, but 1/3 refusing would cause chaos in the ranks, while state militias would likely be more unified. A shooting war wouldn’t necessarily result.
I don't think a shooting war would happen, but there could be considerable unrest and possible secession of one or more blue states. Would California accept a fascist presidency?
I’m thinking California + western Oregon + southern Washington would split off, and then the North East down to Maryland, leaving everything else together. Time will tell.
I really appreciate the essay. Also relevant is that, like Trump, Hitler claimed to be religious (in his case, Catholic) and to have God on his side and the side of his followers ("Gott mit uns.") It was another example of what William Hazlitt said: “The garb of religion is the best cloak for power.”
I usually find your comments very helpful but in this case I think you are being naive. There is a huge faction in this country that would like nothing better than to follow Trump's every wish. I suspect that we have our terrible education system to thank that likely few of them have ever learned about the Weimar or have the perspective do what Hitler did. We're also very fortunate that Trump is so incompetent and frankly is probably dementing. Look at the recent picture in the Times.
I don't blame the educational system, I blame religion and poor parenting. The churches don't even know how to serve God, the parents don't even know what the root of all evil is and that is, a lack of conscience. The parents don't know how to raise the children to care whether they are right or wrong. The children grow up thinking irrationally and not rationally. Instead of wanting to serve good and work towards a heaven on Earth, they just become narcissists and say the Bible predicted Armageddon and do nothing, but cause Armageddon to happen. Serving Satan is their way of serving God! Hopefully that's only 38% of Americans? Sometimes it feels more like 85%?
Here are our choices this November:
A Government led by the least qualified and/or most unprincipled citizen in the country, which the dictionary defines as a Kakistocracy!
Or a Government led by a man with over 40 years of experience and a man who truly respects and cares about All Americans and the future of our country.
Personally I judge people by their character. If everyone else did the same it’s obvious which person should be at the helm!
Who funded Hitler?
I made the comment too about the murder of the politicians who opposed him.
Keep in mind, Hitler was no rags to riches story either. Big banks and money promoted him from homeless person to dangerous dictator.
I want to know who is keeping the money flowing to Trump and if he fails - who do "they" have next in line to replace him?
Politicians are disposable - for big money interests don't care who the puppet is as long as they are a puppet.
Super wealthy big business men who simply want their special tax breaks, deregulation of environmental regulations, disregard for the lower classes and super wealthy religious fanatics...all the types who crave more power and more money.
The sad thing is that we had an opportunity at the founding of this country to do better. If you read about the French revolution etc and back and back.... it's been a long arc of the same ol crap different era.
Every child and every immigrant is taught to revere the Constitution, and indeed there is much to admire. The Constitution is the most modern of a string of documents that sought to limit kingly powers, and thereby enable democracy, starting with the Magna Carta in 1215, almost six centuries earlier.
But there was one fatal flaw: The founders kept the king.
When this was pointed out by George Mason, James Madison replied that the President was different from King George III, because he was elected, and could be removed from office through impeachment.
The cracks began to appear in 1977, when Nixon told David Frost "Well, when the president does it, that means it's not illegal." We dodged a bullet in 1973, now it's coming right back at us.
Remember, George III had the following kingly powers; 1) Executive privilege, 2) the power of pardon, 3) the power of veto (over the elected parliament), and 4) the power to raise armies for 60 days without the consent of parliament (read Congress).
The US President has EXACTLY the same powers. 1), 2) and 3) are used all the time. Kennedy used 4) to start a hot war in Indochina.
It is crystal clear that the founders thought a king figure was necessary. Indeed it is also clear that they modelled the American political system on the system of government in London in 1787 (King, House of Lords, House of Commons became President, Senate, House of Representatives).
Nevertheless the Brits managed to Disneyfy their King and House of Lords (if you doubt this look at the coronation of King Charles III - it's like something out of Monty Python).
Why can't we do the same?
The power of pardon reeks of corruption. There is no sensible rationale for it, beyond "royal" privilege. Just think; if a monumentally corrupt and amoral leader like Trump did not have that power, Mike Flynn, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon..... et al.
Pardon is reserved for gods and kings.
Congress should pass a law clarifying that a president cannot pardon himself or anyone whose unlawful actions were done in support of said president.
Michael, you raise an issue of paramount importance. Our experience has demonstrated that the separation of power mechanism is not very effective. We are not ruled by a dictator as long as there are two or more political parties in conflict with each other. When one party backs the president no matter what the Constitution is in grave danger.
I think we are in the process of demonstrating the strength of separation of powers. We need to see if we get through this. we are definitely in a crisis, but buying that Trump actually has the power of a king assumes that he is correct in his view. Lets see if he really does or does not. The wuestion is still in okay, if you ask me.
Indeed. But it raises the question "What is the office of King-President for, exactly, in this 21st Century?" I get it, in the 18th Century every powerful country had a king who was there to raise armies quickly, if for no other reason. We are supposed to have moved on. Moreover, when the two parties are in conflict, nothing meaningful gets done. I prefer the British system which gives one party power, with a Referendum on their results every 5 years, a.k.a., an election. A truly bad Prime Minister can be removed overnight with a vote of No Confidence, as Neville Chamberlain discovered.
I don't get the comparison of the Magna Carta to the Constitution. The Magna Carta was a bitch list by Barons (the plutocrats, oligarchs) and King John repudiated it as soon as he signed it.
Actually, bits and pieces of the Constitution are built around MC, including the 5th Amendment. You're quite right though, MC was crude (which is hardly surprising because it was a beginning) and the kingly power it sought to reduce was the king's power over the barons. Still the "jury of peers" concept was straight out of MC. What else the Constitution has in common with MC is that it sought to regulate the king rather than abolish him, something the French began to do two years later....
There is a process to improve our society: the amendment system, either through the congress and states or through the states' convention. That has been derailed and gone largely unused, especially in recent history. We can do better, but the politicians and the two major parties are the obstacles to that; they do not want to do better, just fight with each other and use the population in a proxy war for their own ends.
To Amend the constitution takes 3/5ths of Congress and ratification by 3/5ths of the states. Considering 27 states legislatures are controlled by Republicans lot of luck.
No matter which of the two major parties control which legislatures; good luck. Instead of improving the society and guaranteeing fundamental civil rights, it is more profitable to keep "wedge issues" alive to sell fear.
Even with this, it would still be possible to get an amendment that provides for limitations on money in politics... Most Americans support such an idea, even Republicans
It does seem to recycle every several generations,people just don’t remember their history,fairly recent history at that.what’s the saying about not remembering??
I'm reading a book called Progress Illusion by Island Press. It's an excellent history of so called economic models. It does recycle..
It was literally impossible for the writers and signers of the Constitution to see into the future, the development of technology, the evolution of politics, trade and society.
Human nature should have been a sufficient guide for the founders,it is a timeless confused and often contradictory state of nature! It is its own best and worst playbook!
Well said.
Some of them (looking at YOU Bernie Marcus) are so DUMBfoundingly blinded by abject, obsessive GREED that they do not even see the inevitable 'appropriation' of all of their massive wealth by this coming fascist REGIME, and their own deaths, using the excuse of the hatred of the religion/culture in which they were raised as justification.
Trump was a dark horse that completely got away from his trainers. He is now attempting to be a law unto himself and if we don’t look out will succeed. It was anger and revenge that allowed Hitler to get into the position that he could eliminate his criticizers in the first place. Then he became “der Fuhrer” and acquired absolute rein over the German people. There were still big corporations that backed Hitler almost to the end and at least a couple still exist.
There are indeed many similarities with Trump and Hitler, the first and foremost is neither could take criticism and the second is both of them want it all--supreme world rulership. That kind of lust for power, thank God, is rare but it exists in this world, also. Our leaders are in some ways always a reflection of the people they rule, no matter how vile they are.
A lot of what that idiot spouses are the dreams of those who sit silent and cheer for his victories. Then there are the completely stupid who think by being his best friend and supporting him, somehow they will rise to the top--much like the soured cream in milk. But make no mistake, the businesses, corporations and oligarchs that are funding him would eventually definitely rue the day they contributed a dime to the thug. You’re fired, is his favorite phrase, and yes, he would have little compunction about appropriating their assists right into his account.
Yes. You only have to look at Russia to see that.
Yes Mary, and Trump complied with all the things you mentioned, particularly fawning over religious fanatics while claiming his own religiosity. He also took care of the very rich at the expense of the less advantaged by his poor response to COVID and significant amounts of stimulus money that somehow happened to fall into the hands of the very rich. He wasn't too fond of dealing with our climate crisis either since the fossil fuelers around the world were prepared to give him lots of bucks for ignoring the challenges global warming is bringing our way.
These are the worst among us! Big business white men, who only want to serve their own interests, while their racism rages as extracurricular activity. It's always about power, and religious fanactics (aka "evangelists") only want power to control others, same as the rich white businessmen. The fear and loathing that has been the mastermind of the party on the right, not only gave us Trump, but a MAGA constituency that is even more fascist and angry than Trump himself. He echos their sentiment, merely to gain/hold power. The rest. . will be history.
Mary, if I may, I’d like to add to the end of your sentence. “…and don’t care how they get it.”
To your point, the question is who is making political donations to Congressional Republicans who are in lock step with Trump. These sycophants are the ones who resurrected him after Jan 6 and lie for him every day. They are the rot that stinks.
If we don't pull up the roots from weed, it will keep popping back up..
As we see it is not easy. To my surprise during these last few years, I discovered how many people love having power (or be associated with the one, they believe that has it), without regard for responsibility to the fellow citizens that comes with it...
Even being SOOOO imbecilically short sighted in that power lust as well.
For once their SHITlerian, 'big daddy DESPOT' and it's 4th REICH REGIME are in power, what TF need do they have for said corrupt scum Senators, and low life, brown shit Congresscritters?!?
Should be brown SHIRT above, but yes, of course brown SHIT works just as well. ;)
Janet, experienced gardeners will tell you that the weeds will outlive you. The best you can do is keep them from overtaking your garden for as long as you live.
That's right. That's why the hoe was used. We have a tough row to hoe right now. There'll be more to come.
What's this got to do with Melania? Oh, wait. You said "hoe." With an "e." Never mind.
LOL - and history keeps on rhyming.... these issues are so 1300s. ;)
The same with cysts. It is not enough to pop them, you have to dig in and extract every last remnant of the sack, or it grows back.
lol, I'm not going that gross now..
All the weeds.
I believe much of the power behind Trump is Putin and the Russian mob.
Absolutely agree. I bet when he got the intelligence on Trump (duringTrump's dealings in Russia), Putin realized, what a great tool Trump's ego could be to destabilize the US.
And I've always thought a large part of trump stealing those Top Secret documents had to do with the payment Putin wanted for helping to prop up trump.
Agree. I grew up in Poland, under "socialistic" order. Since the childhood we've learned the tricks and language of deception so one instinctively detects it. I already posted here that not only the documents but also the funds for Ukraine hold up are the payback to Putin...
Quite a coincidence, huh?
Agree, Ewa. Trump is just their latest convenient idiot. All of this makes me wonder whether his sycophants kiss his bum because they, too are threatened by existential threats?
I agree GG. I read a small article in the newspaper about an incident when Trump and two rich Russian investors had a drink to celebrate a new Trump Tower in Toronto, Canada. During the meeting, a heated discussion between the Russians turned into a vicious fight with one Russian breaking a glass and stabbing the other in the face multiple times. This kind of assault got the attention of the press as it just does not happen in fancy hotels in Canada often. Trump may spend a lot of time with rich investors, but this kind of investor bar fight may have really scared Trump. I think he is afraid of these people and should be.
The Russian mob allegedly got out of most organized crime in our country a decade ago, but I am seeing their faces and fingerprints on criminal activity in my large city in the last few years. Wherever they buy up neighborhoods narcotics distribution spikes, violence against women grows, and guns proliferate.
Guilliani made his bones prosecuting the Italian Mafia, which removed competition for the Russian mafia, to which the Kushner family belongs(ed)
It's always somebody else's fault. Right?
That people are influenced by experiences, you characterize as finding-fault. (I think you were annoyed about bar-fight in Canada centred around Trump, disagreement between a pair of Russians. Not their FAULT, but that possibly it influences Trump’s understanding of power).
[Material, copyright FT, link provided as directed]. Trump was failing to have mobster associate, Felix Sater, secure a deal for a Trump Tower in Moscow, while Shnaider funded the Toronto skyscraper, as his steel mill was embroiled in Putin’s efforts to influence beyond Russia’s borders, a strategy that expanded to include meddling in the 2016 US election.
Zaporizhstal steel mill is among Ukraine’s biggest industrial operations, 150 miles from the Russian border. Years before Putin’s 2014 invasion, Russia waged economic incursion in eastern Ukraine for industrial assets through sympathetic oligarchs. Moscow was capitalising on a slump in demand for Ukrainian steel to purchase assets to maintain influence over neighbour being courted by the west.
The backer of the deal was the Kremlin, optics indicate money passed from Trump’s business partner to Russian officials. Months after Shnaider authorised $100 million commission, and the Zaporizhstal sale was completed, Shnaider earmarked $40m for investment in construction of Trump Toronto. At least $4m flowed to Trump in licensing and management fees, possibly more, given Trump’s financial disclosures as candidate and president covered only years since 2014. Striking is the number of independent threads that connect Trump to post-Soviet money. Backing was persuaded to finance the Trump Toronto, Shnaider said, due to appeal of the Trump brand and the Trump Toronto team’s global business experience.
Raiffeisen funded North American real estate ventures east of Vienna and expanded in former Soviet Union. 2006 its investment arm represented formerly concealed interests of a Ukrainian oligarch in an opaque gas deal with Russia’s Gazprom. Experts on espionage and financial crime told FP that interplay of Trump’s past in business and his public office was susceptibility to blackmail. Illicit transaction as sensational as, former MI6, Christopher Steele’s dossier on Trump’s Russian connections--Russian intelligence footage of Trump instructing prostitutes to urinate on the Moscow hotel bed where Obamas had slept--powerful if used as kompromat to pressure a president. Credit Tom Burgis, FT investigations correspondent. Also Roman Olearchyk in Kiev, Max Seddon in Moscow, David Blood in London, Jim Brunsden in Brussels and Kerin Hope in Athens. https://www.ft.com/trumptoronto
Who funded Hitler?
In this country, Henry Ford. IBM. The Bush family.
Don't forget the Nazi sympathizer Fred Trump.
Krupp, and almost ALL of the big corporations there, in their 'fatherland' (OF COURSE they would use the patriarchal term to describe their Gilead-like land!) did so as well.
And now they sell us tabletop coffee makers.
DuPont and GM. It was legal from February 1933 until December 1941, because the US was not at war with Germany.
Yup.
Yes, ironic isn't it?
Source?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_collaboration_with_Nazi_Germany#:~:text=American%20companies%20that%20had%20dealings,Nazi%20Germany's%20war%20effort.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/americans-who-funded-hitler-nazis-german-economic-miracle-eger/
Daniel, Hitler admired America.
America's Eugenics and discrimination agains blacks were examples he cited back when criticized about his anti Jewish policies. ,Espeically Americas eugenics program. Henry Ford was an enthusiastic fan of Hitler as was Charles Lindbergh
When interviewed in 1932, Hitler had an autographed picture of Ford behind his desk.
I've read that, thanks for mentioning it.
Here is a link to a New Yorker magazine article how America's Racism Influenced Hitlerhttps://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/30/how-american-racism-influenced-hitler
They have a picture of the Young Hitler, and the face and head are not the same as the older Hitler.
The ear is like fingerprints, no two ears are the same, and I am going to find a picture of the older Hitler and compare.
I mention this because, when I was 12, and just left the Boys Club on chesnut street in South Phillie, I past the smoldering ruins of what had been a pawn shop, I dug around and found a book, The Strange Death of Adolph Hitler, it was published in 1939, and the front piece had an official document in German, with stamps. And it was printed in 1939, the year of my birth.
I told neighbor about it and she asked to borrow it, big mistake, I should have learned, because when I was in my 30's I loaned a purple LP of Elvis and never got it back, same with the book.
I subsequently found a copy on the internet and have it, however it is a 2nd edition, and does not have the front piece with the original documentation.
The book says he was shot because of his affair with his niece, and the party thought it would be the end of it, or at least a scandal.
Which if true,.and mind you this was published before he invaded Poland, it means the genocide of the Jews and Slavs, etc were not the work of Hitler, but of the officials of the NAZI party, and they got off because a dead man got all of the blame. Although Hitler had proclaimed his plain in Mein Kampf, and many speeches.,and on the pages of the Beobachter.
I don't know what to make of it, the book was 1st published in 1939 and I found it in 1951.
It doesn't matter if it is a three legged dog, Janet, it will be a better choice than Trump.
Yes, it does because the next person appears to be Nikki Halley and she is no better. Perhaps worse because she doesn't speak wildly. Therefore, we are no better off...
Real change from these wall street dictators is to change policies - otherwise its a continuous roller coaster..
We do need to reverse the very ideas that ‘money is speech’ and corporations are people with all the rights of people {but none of the responsibilities or accountabilities, since you can’t lock a corporation up} — it seems to me we should have laws that make it more probable that corporations will lose their corporate charter if they break the law, but when’s the last time you ever heard of THAT happening?
Yeah, any Republican who will put the Unitary President and the 2025 Project into effect is a dire threat …
EVEN IF we elect a Democrat {we MUST elect a Democrat!!}, that person needs to attend to some of these issues to put in place laws that don’t ever let people threaten us this way again. Maybe we should be addressing some of these threats NOW. [This “immunity” court case is incredibly important, isn’t it!!!]
NOBODY is above the law, and we must not follow in the footsteps of Hitler and “suspend” our Constitution, not even for a little while {reading about this enabling business in Weimar, I now understand why Trump thought he might do well to float that idea just a little, to soften his people up to the idea …. This is his plan, I’d be willing to bet my arm on it…}
I have been reading an interesting book about the French revolution and the last 24 hours of Robisphere. The liberals were having these exact same conversations in the 1700s.
Can we figure it out?
EXACTLY! I doubt we can figure it out as the same types of people with the same types of attitudes/ideas/aims are the ones who will ultimately make the decisions. History does repeat itself; this has been happening since Ur and Uruk fell.
Let’s not go down the road they went down …
I agree with what you are saying but in today's political world, it is literally impossible to reverse those ideas. Our electorate has become too uneducated (purposely) and too easy to manipulate. Not all of it but enough to allow the republicans to hold a lot of power plus a significant part of the judiciary system.
Yes, the political process for holding onto our Republic and Democracy IS harder these days, in part because of the loss of understanding among our electorate [diminished education about a citizen’s civic responsibility to be informed?], and the ease with which people can be seduced by online demagoguery. The Internet is our little Information Golem that can too easily be turned against us with Entertaining Screens that keep us from seeing the world in front of our faces.
That means we work harder … giving up is what the Right wants the Left to do …. We do not cede the territory …
Janet; Nikki Haley will never be POTUS even if she is the GOP Candidate, but she thinks being a woman makes her a shoe in for POTUS. However, we women know she is not qualified and we don't vote for a POTUS because they happen to be a woman, we only vote for a qualified woman or man and that eliminates Haley, Trump and DeSantis.
Here is a link to give you an idea of who funds much of the republican party and trump. This is part of a 3 part series.
https://open.substack.com/pub/gregolear/p/leonard-leo-man-in-the-middle-part-19d?r=n6jt&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
well, just like any weed. If we don't remove the roots, it will keep coming back in different forms ;)
Thank you for pointing out the "who" that is behind a good deal of this right handed social manipulation.
Those same big money interests were never procecuted at Nuremburg. They have been working steadily, silenty, ever since. Multi-national money is as multi-national money does. The people were not riled up enough during Reagan, as the propaganda machine was being set up, but now that they have their new orange face, they have been ramping up overtly and loudly. The Koch family is a very big part of this going back well before the John Birch Society, as well as old monopolist industrial commodity interests. (IG Farben, of old).
If they were to get this “immunity” thing going, then any Republican currently running for president could decompose our government. Any Democrat could, as well, of course, but that party has not been broadcasting its intent to DO it….
The exact point I made.
lol - and my statistics professor decades ago...... He practically yelled it at the class - who's paying for it? :)
A very important observation and question, particularly about who is keeping the money flowing to Trump, Janet Adams.
Is the absence of that information another result of Citizens United under which there is no requirement to disclose "donor" information? So much harm has derived from Citizens United, but it is just one of the many bricks shaped by the decades of planning, plotting and scheming by Republicans, and those who are like-minded with them, to build the real wall, the wall that hides their schemes from transparency and accountability. They once were wolves in sheeps' clothing. Now they're blatant wolves in the sheeps' pasture.
Even during the war, some big American corporations supported him and were never penalized for it.
After the war, big German companies went right on making and selling cars to Americans.
It's sick and frightening at the same time. With technology, they have even greater control over us.
We don't own as much as we used to. We can't even own our accounting software for business. I'm tired of the cloud. I'm not afraid of technology. It's great - but (preaching to the choir) it's the abuse of it that's not good.
I have always been scared to think about who might come down the oath Trump had cleared for future politicians. If he had charmed rather than alienated the “deep state” ad he forunately labeled the administrative people by that actually run the hovernment, he would have been so much more powerful. Instead, he alienated them and was remarkably inept. I fear for that politician that sees how much more he could do than Trump did to grab power.
Prescott Bush father of George H.W and George W. Bush, of Harriman, Brown Brothers Henry Ford,m Alfred Krupp and Frtiz Thyssen among others, A good book on the subject is the crime and punishement of IG Farben (a corporation, not a person)
2016 the issue became NOT being anyone’s puppet--a total loose cannon, answerable to no one.
The very-moneyed Koch Brothers raised $70 million to back Trump who in turn was expected to support Koch Bros, etc., vision of small-government.
But Trump is beholden to no one and didn’t honor implied deals. Did Trump care about other people’s priorities? People fawn over Trump, he’s such a funny-man, and Trump fawns over no one, “I like his style,” referring to Putin or China’s Xi Jinping, or North Korea’s Kim Jong Un--Trump’s apparent admiration or allegiance to anyone or anything are so fleeting history’s psychiatry will name a condition after him.
Trump doesn’t know, care, or listen--minutiae grabs his attention--“Did anyone else ever notice, U.S. says “Us”? Isn’t that remarkable!” The founding fathers did not foresee a careless self-admiring goofball getting anywhere close to power.
In Britain and Australia the majority’s leader is leader, and can be sidelined before coffee break by a non confidence vote. The majority ruling party can be dissolved by a financial vote of non confidence, requiring a routine election that is limited to 36 days in Canada, 31 days in Australia, 25 days in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. No one CARES “who” the leader is, good governance depends on majority rule including that respects minorities, zero tolerance for lies, or hate speech.
A GREAT experiment has melted to reveal the Wizard of Oz, who is and does nothing to help the individual states that rule themselves--Katrina and covid as examples that illustrate states’ capacity to function or not, despite boneheaded stewarding of funds to resource accomplishing things in an emergency.
An effort to reset American politics--a committee of 5th graders, or graduate study math majors, or retired primary teachers, or some benign circumspect mix--is needed, to closet themselves like Founding Fathers did--to get big money out of influencing politics, including corporate campaign funding, and to 100% prevent insider trading on financial markets. Party in MAGA’s pigsty is at its height. Hard to understand why the States don’t demand better.
They made a mistake similar to those here with Trump--they either underestimated him or wanted to be on the "winning side" for financial/political reasons. They thought placating him and using their money would win favor and power with Hitler. They were wrong, and many lost both power and their lives as a result.
Ms. Adams. Hitler was at first funded by the Junkers: landed aristocracy whose existence reached back centuries into Germany's past. Then the wealthy economic elite from Germany and the U.S. and U.K. joined in. Large companies with well known names; some of which are still in business: IBM (Dehomag), Ford Motor Co., I.G.Farben, V.W., Benz Autos, Merck, Messerschmidt, AEG, Alliance, Audi Autos, BASF, Bayer Pharma, BMW Autos, Chase National Banking,(Eventually all banks), Carl Zeiss, DAPG( German-American Petroleum), Dornier(Aircraft), Krupp(Iron and heavy weapons), and many more. TheJunkers thought they could control him, until they couldn't. Then it was too late for them. So they hung in there and helped Big Business pay for Hitler's evil work anyway, including the concentration camps.
Democracy v. Fascism.
Plain and SIMPLE, THIS is the choice!
Sadly, and frighteningly, it seems that much of this land either vehemently wants the latter, or just complacently does not give a shit if that is what they end up with (they WILL, once they have this and realize it is TOO LATE!).
Too effing dumbf**k ignorant to see that this is a trillion times more existential threat than any (false/perceived) gas price hikes, or inflation wrongly blamed on the current POTUS. :( :(
Yes. What did people think would happen after the pandemic lifted? Everyone wanted everything now, but unfortunately, the supply chain was not yet repaired. The lack of this simple explanation to the public I see as on Biden. You start explaining to the public where we are and what actions are being taken to change things for the better. It’s all about constant and frank communication.
True, but the already indelibly brainwashed will not listen, and deny any and everything Joe says, outright, since it is contrary to what their Goebbels Nooz sources tell them to believe, like good little brown shirt sheep.
John, what does that have to do with the discussion? And speaking of Biden, he spoke a great length multiple times regarding what you're blaming him for. Look at the economy...the robustness is due to the policies enacted by Nancy Pelosi's House to keep the economy from tanking during COVID and the IRA passed toward the end of it. We have many who are either uninformed or disinformed. That is their fault. Yes, we can try harder, but people have to be open minded and care enough to listen.
I was just responding to a different post. And yes, people get off subtract times. But can you blame them? There are an awful lot to topics which are interconnected. With respect to your assertion about Biden. I watch a hell of a lot of bews a read lots of mainstream news outlet links. And never once did I hear Biden say it like I did. But then again, I am a scientist and used to blunt and concise explanations. Biden didn’t do that to my satisfaction. Point me to a link saying otherwise. But I would agree that he is responsible for a resurgent economy. Last I looked, Bush had the Great Recession and Obama had to fix that. Biden did the same, just to damned quietly.
Biden isn't a great speaker, and his age has made him a step slower and his stuttering stops more prominent (and delivery is slower than it used to be. All of this translates to a perception of meekness. But his heart is there. And the speeches I'm talking about were major ones...sometimes they occurred at midday and media didn't give them much light of day except for a headline. So yes, the WH communications department can do better.
You are fighting the wrong war. We are losing the war with the battle of the imagination!
It is not a democrat or a republican that is lost; it is a civilization. We are a painter before a blank canvas. We are "looking for love in all the wrong places!"
The default is Fascism,
There is compelling evidence that in almost all situations, democracies are more successful than autocracies. What is also clear is social media and misinformation is undermining democracies and promoting dictatorships. From what I heard this week, the EU seems to understand this, is talking about it, and wants to take action.
Tell it to Hungary, Finland, the Low Countries.....
"I have a real belief that democracy is unnatural. We don’t run anything important in our lives by democratic vote other than our government. Democracy is so unnatural that it’s illogical to think it would be permanent. It will fall apart at some point, and maybe that isn’t now, but maybe it is" - Senator Chris Murphy
Be careful what you wish for...
Kakistocracy! Good word! 👍
DZK; lotta KaKa!
Lol! No shit!
Edleeta ; We hold these truths to be self evident!
Kakistocracy and Idiocracy had a baby, and named it: The USA.
I agree with judging on character and integrity. It is what people are most in control of.
I believe our rotten capitalism is to blame because capitalists don’t care if democracy dies. They are the architects of the culture changes the Republicans deplore. Blame placed on the govt or Democrats is misplaced.
💸 💰🏛️🛳️🛩️ Is what they care about!
THE ENEMY INSURRECTIONIST ARE AT THE GATE, DEFEAT TREASONOUS , TERRORIST, AND CON REPUBLICONS EVERYWHERE AND JAIL CORRUPT AND TRAITOR RTRUMP AND CRONIES.THE ENEMY INSURRECTIONIST ARE AT THE GATE, DEFEAT TREASONOUS , TERRORIST, AND CON REPUBLICONS EVERYWHERE AND JAIL CORRUPT AND TRAITOR RTRUMP AND CRONIES. VOTE PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS , AND RESTORE DEMOCRACY.
Take your TDS pills and act like an American for once in your miserable life!🤦🏽♀️
🇺🇸❤️PRESIDENT Trump
Really? The character of a war criminal and voter suppressionist...
Too bad so many people are not willing to make themselves aware of that choice. Those without character are drawn to their peers.
MAGA REASONING: https://youtu.be/r9pl1bvEfIU?si=ttXkJ1ExL39xUr0D 🤡🤣🤣🤣
OK, you judge people by their character. I judge people by the results they produce, then character, and lastly by the color of their skin. Trump in four years produced dozens of results favorable to the USA despite constant attacks from such as Robert and yourself. Biden has used his "over 40 years of experience" to enrich himself and his family, open our border to people whose character we'll find out over time, left a disaster in Afghanistan, encouraged Russia to invade Ukraine, Hamas to attack Jews, destroy energy independence, etc. Wake up..
Totally agree and thanks for the new vocabulary word. Kakistocracy, hard to pronounce but the potential of its existence. really does need a terminology. Looked up definition and it noted that aristocracies may actually be 'hidden' Kakistocracy.
So well said
Trump has the capacity to be every bit as cruelly deranged as Hitler IMO. The evidence of his cruelty is everywhere, every day. His followers love it. That's what's scary - he's given permission for every Republican to be cruel and merciless.
From Robert Hubbell. https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/trump-is-a-loser-tell-a-friend?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=zc69i&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Trump is a loser. A spectacular one. He is the living embodiment of the punchline to the joke, “How do you make a small fortune in New York real estate?” Answer: “Start out with a large one.” His companies have been through half-a-dozen bankruptcies. The failure of his Taj Mahal Casino helped turn Atlantic City into a “ghost town.” He is such an unreliable credit risk that American banks stopped dealing with him in the 1990s.
Trump is a loser. He is the only president ever to be impeached twice. He is the only major presidential candidate to lose the popular vote twice. He is the only major presidential candidate to be indicted once—let alone four times. He is the first president in nearly a century to lose the House, the Senate, and re-election. He is the only major presidential candidate who has been adjudged (in a civil case) to have raped a woman.
Trump is a loser. When he traveled internationally as president, foreign leaders laughed at him behind his back. When he addressed the UN Assembly, world leaders laughed at him to his face. He has made some of the most ignorant comments ever by a US president, suggesting that Covid victims “inject bleach” and that they “shine a light inside their bodies.” And during an eclipse visible from Washington, D.C., Trump did the one thing that observers of eclipses are NEVER supposed to do—he removed his protective eye gear to look directly at the sun.
Despite the fact that Trump is a historic loser, he has somehow convinced tens of millions of Americans that he is “a stable genius” who would defeat a combined presidential ticket of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We should not add to Trump's false mythology by unintentionally ascribing stature or influence he does not have.
And if we call him loser enough, maybe his head will explode. He just hates to be called loser!
Very well put Daniel, and that's what history will say in the future of this demented turd.
Quoting Hubbell.
Yes, I missed that part.
Well thanks for providing that link, it's a fitting biography of that demented turd and is all that needs to be said the day we are finally rid of this maniac.
Axos Bank in La Jolla, CA is still loaning to tRump as recently as 2022 to help refinance Trump Tower and keep Trump Enterprises afloat.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/27/trump-loans-axos-bank-gregory-garrabrants/
Old and right-wing San Diego money has been flowing to corrupt politicians and businessmen since Nixon. San Diego in the 1980’s was the white collar crime capital of the country according to the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s office. The red-neck, anti-tax, government hating, neo-Nazi portions of county have been electing and reelecting corrupt Republicans for decades. Former Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham (convicted of bribery), former Congressman Duncan Hunter (congressional bank and check skating fraud scandal in the 1980’s and 1990’s and not living in the state for which he served in the House), former Congressman Duncan Hunter Jr. (convicted of misuse of campaign funds), former San Diego Mayor (and Rush Limbaugh stand-in) Roger Hedgecock (convicted of misuse of campaign funds).
The rich should worry about politicians like Trump because if they lgave him the power he wants, they may find themselves without any ability to protect their own interests. How often have we seen Tumo turn on those who support him when it is convenient? He is so fickle, I cannot imagine anybody trusting him to have any say over any aspect of my life.
BUT, though he IS the insubstantial floating head controlled by the men behind the curtain, too many believe this wizard is somehow real.
Hubbell says we have to get the “loser” message across. We do. These lawsuits are a part of that, if they can hold their center …
[BTW, are we losing credibility with Fani Willis? I’m gobsmacked …
But there’s more than a little more out there than just Georgia … ]
Anyway, yeah, the trick is to reveal that he’s just a bloviating bag of wind … finally get people to see the real man … if we can.
Speaking of Fani Willis, I am not a lawyer, but she’s just the head of a team. If something happens to her she’s got others to pick up the case. I hope nothing happens to her but I can’t see how it would damage the indictments.
I hope attacking her in this way is not a ploy that works. I have not yet heard her own RESPONSE to it, but maybe I haven’t looked hard enough. I just do not want any of thee to fall apart … Too important …
Agreed. It may be another desperate but futile attempt to derail justice. Let’s hope so.
Daniel Solomon ; He is Just a plain loser.
Trump’s followers are looking for entertainment. It is a value today as never before.
Thank you for this wonderful article, it really makes me think. But I wonder what Putin's part in all of this is... how much control he and the Russian Oligarchs have over the Republican Party? We are not like pre war Germany but something else created by the Russians perhaps? The more they can degrade Democracy the better it is for them so they can do what they want in the world.
I want you to think back to Helsinki. Remember the differences in body language between Trump and Putin as each approached their respective podiums? Go back and look either at a picture and even better the actual video. Trump, head down, with a look on his face like he either heard something from Putin about him (had on him) or had just given up state secrets and knew it was wrong. All the while Putin, while looking up with a smirk on his face and a jump in his step. That jump, reminded me of Hitler’s, when he learned that France had surrendered in the very train car where Germany had done so at the termination of WWI.
I've long thought that SpyMaster Putin' best op was his asset in the White House, OUR White House--Donald Trump.
I am of the same opinion. If one actually read the entire Mueller Report, it was perfectly clear that there was collusion. Probably not conspiracy because no written or tape evidence was uncovered. But the bread crumps were there.
They have lots of control. Also over Boris Johnson, another useful idiot. They use social media as a tool to turn people’s heads and it’s become a very effective method of brainwashing. You only have to look at the Q Anon nonsense, how quickly complete irrational rubbish became quite a popular belief. Scientology, again, complete irrational rubbish, many reasonably intelligent people are members. Unfortunately people are herd animals, very easily led, and our leaders and the wealthy can take advantage of that.
It’s extraordinary really how easily people’s heads are turned. I just finished watching a documentary about the “satanic cult child abuse” panic that spread like wildfire in the 1990s.
Thank you for this. It would be wise to publish this on every available public media page. Regular folks, who don't usually think in terms of history, need to read this!!
I'm big on ridicule, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L90smU0SOcQ
Mmmm, it is powerful, which is why Donnie tries to use it constantly, making up stupid names for his opponents and telling us “everyone knows” what losers they are …
Where do you come up with these? :-)
Agreed!
Totally agree with Wanda
Thank you, Professor, for the history lesson. One would think that in this Age of Information, we would be less likely to repeat the mistakes of the past, but one would be ludicrously wrong to believe that. We seem incapable of assimilating this knowledge into our decision-making. Look at Russia...a country that can't keep itself from autocracy or oligarchy, or Hungary, which has forgotten what inspired them to fight for in 1956, not so long ago. The USA keeps repeating its mistake of electing ruinous Republicans to the White House every cycle, picking a Democrat to clean up the mess, and then voting for another GOP moron who has no idea how to govern a diverse democracy.
Kerry, remember that saying about insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I fear the republicans and their party are the definition of insanity!
What with Gerrymandering and voter suppression and the electoral college, I for one can't really put all blame on the voters for "electing" Republicans. And then, when a Democrat is elected and turns out to have not really been a Democrat, such as Joe Manchin or Kirsten Sinema lately, Joe Lieberman not so long ago, are the voters to blame? Not entirely, it's fair to say.
Your point is very well taken. But I need only point to the voters in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan who collectively gave their states to Trump in 2016 as a rebuttal. Even more dramatically, the voters in Wisconsin elected (I’m self-censoring a description of) Ron Johnson TWICE over their former Senator with an outstanding record - Russ Feingold. No gerrymandering or electoral college excuses that kind of behavior. Sorry, the American electorate blows it just as frequently as it gets it right, and the degeneration of the Republican Party into a fascist personality cult proves my point.
Man how I know it, being a Wisconsinite for the past 8 years. I'm sickened at the re-election of Ron Johnson.
More questions than anything...
Does a former President NOT return to ordinary citizen status? He can take home to use as he pleases classified documents to study, sell, trade? Are those official acts of a FORMER President? So they (trump, MAGA, just trot out challenges to DOJ and USA and play the system to delay accountability for as long as possible? Until trump can Steal the election and absolve himself of all his sins and crimes? Hello! HELLO! Authoritarians have played this game before! We can LEARN from history!
STOP!! STOP!! STOP!! This death by a thousand cuts is killing us! ESG (Extremely Stable Genius) disregards the rules everybody else endures. Somebody has got to say NO! No More! No more delay, No more distraction, No more deception.
I'm exhausted from the endless torrent of lies, delays, misinformation, and distracting from accountability? HOLD TRUMP ACCOUNTABLE. DO IT NOW!
Cut funding to IRS. How shall the government collect REVENUE to conduct its business???? We just strangle the government to WHAT END? More freedom? To include freedom to steal and lie and not be held accountable for our behavior?
Where are the Responsible Republicans? Where is the leadership? Oh, right. They are complicit in this game! It's all about power. The ends justify the means.
Responsible Republicans no longer exist, just ask Chris Christie; there’s only the enablers left. The complicit power hungry enablers are at every level of government, business and industry. It’s like the fungal web in the soil surrounding and connecting roots. Everywhere, connected, interwoven. Some look at it as rot, others know it as an interconnected nourishing communication system.
Liz Cheney said she was going to do everything possible to prevent Trump from getting in again. And yet I’m seeing nothing. What is she doing? Has she got a surprise in store for us?
She's done plenty. She wrote a book and did a media tour. It easily carried by major outlets. She talks about Trump's danger every time she gets the chance. Not to mention the work she did on the Jan 6 committee which helped lead to multiple indictments.
I just got the book, but that’s been out for a while, and of course the committee finished a while back too. I don’t watch TV so maybe I’ve missed the other things, although I do read voraciously and I haven’t seen anything for quite a while. I’m glad she’s reaching people though.
She published a book and she’s been on many many talk shows. I’m sure she’s also doing a lot behind the scenes as well. Plus her father feels as she does and he is well connected
I just got the book. I’m looking forward to reading it. Keeping fingers crossed on her ability to make a difference. I never thought I’d be rooting for a Cheney.
My guess is she’ll be speaking out, but don’t look for a Dem endorsement from her. She’s also smart enough not to do a third party run, if tRump is the nominee. The question is what if anything she’d do, if he’s not nominated or is convicted post nomination and The Fascist Party scrambles for a replacement. Given that DeSatan and Haley have said they would pardon their Orange Messiah, I bet then she does do a last second third party run. Maybe No Labels with Manchin?
Does she have any following among Republicans at all anymore?
I think you can count them on your fingers. The other Republicans in the House (mostly all retired or voted out) that voted to impeach, Mitt Romney, and maybe Chris Christie.
Thank you, Mark, for putting into words what I was feeling this morning. I am exhausted and from what I have been reading, I simply do not know if what is coming is avoidable!!
Trump and his cronies are following Hitler’s playbook, in addition to Putin’s. I would say that’s double trouble. The people Trump has surrounded himself with, or his puppet master has surrounded him with, are extremely dangerous and without any conscience. I have a dreadful fear that battling them with our slow as molasses court system is just pushing us over the cliff. Whether or not Trump wins or loses the 2024 election, he’ll be much more dangerous than the January 6th fiasco. I believe a good question to ask oneself, is will we flee or stay and experience that brutality. Is it actually possible to halt it now?
I think Robert minimizes our vulnerability here. Women not only have lost control of their bodies, but we are now a fetus worshipping society, with the fetal home trash. Robert is a white privileged man, able to find great success & security where many, many US citizens have not. The NY Times will not even print what I have actually witnessed. In fact, Maine is using our state monies to provide for economic migrants for a year and more, flooding our city schools with complex learning needs. Mainers are loosing, especially after 50 years of common good loss. In Vermont, wealthy enact projects to help grateful refugees to work & live there, as middle class Americans can no longer afford to live & work there, even in the poorer areas. Grateful refugees tolerate ghettoized housing, low wages, again undermining US citizens. Stop minimizing this! The context is daily species extinction, climate chaos, migrations with few rules & yes, some of these highly traumatized and desperate folk are bringing complex ptsd, becoming drug involved for quick money, see Burlington Vt. The Red states are becoming education, healthcare, local news, deserts and we live in minority rule. Citizens United is effecting BOTH parties, as when democrats are in power, they do not even begin to adequately address the severe inequity. Don't get comfortable.
I agree with you about women being degraded by the GOP, but immigrants are not the enemy here. They are people who are escaping terrible conditions in their homelands to save their families. This has always been a country of immigrants and should continue to be a safe place for them to go and be helped.
AFter American Citizens are taken care of. With 50 years of the ruin of US common good, folk with mental health issues, developmentally disabled folks, people one illness away from homelessness, never mind experiencing homelessness and are ill, the hopeless ones from the hopeless society we live in, MUST be cared for first. Healthcare for all, education for all, US CITIZENS./ Many are already here and many will likely be accommodated, but US citizens first. I have a mentally ill, developmentally disabled young adult in New England for whom I can not gain his care. WE worked ALL our lIVES for US common good and thought most others were also, but look what we have become. ... US citizens first, and if you don't understand this from a democrat, good luck when Trumpty is elected over this issue.
I believe we could do both if the wealthy would pay their fair share of taxes. I think we should be aiming the blame at the wealthy rather than fighting each other for the governmental scraps left behind. That’s what those bastards want: we’re divided while they stay in their gated communities, gleefully counting their money.
Who pays for the "Common Good" focuses the problem. Professor Reich's class on The Common Good highlighted how Tax Policy and rules have been manipulated by the wealthy class so they pay less than their Fair Share.
Kristin Newton ; Assuming that we can afford to flee ; Where would we go that would really be safe and far enough away from their influence? What about our children and grandchildren?
Kristin, that is my question as well. I know we will vote, but will it stop this train wreck?
We have to try....and in the meantime, not succumb to despair.
I hear you, T L! It is very hard to fight off the feeling of despair when constantly being barraged with misinformation, lies and propaganda. trump has trumpeted to all of us his intentions if he gets back in the White House. We all know the devastation he will cause but it seems that every time he is held to account, he slips out of it! It is not fair but then whoever said life was fair? I will continue to use my voice, but it feels as if I am shouting into a vast empty space!! republicans will not listen and yes, I know all of the reasons. Fear, wanting to stay in power, loving chaos, hating everyone that isn't exactly like them, etc. It doesn't do much to assuage my feeling of dread.
It sure is. I have to read Hopium Chronicles (Simon Rosenberg) in the morning to start my day by storing up "positive outlook" vibes.
Ha! Ha! That's good advice! Maybe I'll start doing that!
Peggy Freeman ; Justice might slow it down. That would make the difference. Even long time Republican genuine conservatives are now supporting President Biden. Liz Cheney, and others, no doubt. Anyone could be targeted by tfg's mob! For any 'reason'.
I know, Laurie, but it seems in trump's case, justice has slowed down slower than a snail moving!! After three years, they finally indicted him but now everywhere I read, people have lost that initial outrage over January 6 acting like it was nothing!! What he did still burns bright in my memory and the outrage I felt over all of it continues to this day. To see him strutting around telling everyone he is immune from any prosecution makes my blood boil! He laughs in our faces while his little minions send out these outrageous lies like the insurrection was a peaceful visit, Hunter Biden is held in contempt from idiots that ignored their subpoenas, showing pornographic pictures in Congress, banning good books and now Webster's Dictionary and on and on. It is simply insane and continues to get worse!
Delay, deny, distract, deceive works pretty well for trump. Is this the cost burden borne by a democracy? What boundaries can we install and defend?
I would like to know that as well, Mark.
Peggy: At least the snail is moving! It seems that it was sleeping the first couple of years!
I know!
Peggy Freeman ; Look at Meidas Touch on You tube. Hysterical, at times. Also, Steve Colbert gets some of the best parts of the irony across the aisle. Laughter is the best medicine. The hypocrisy of the MAGAs is evident and pitiful!
You're right, Laurie. I am in need of a dose of good humor to get me out of this sick feeling!! I love watching Steve Colbert and Meidas Touch does have some funny ads!
Meidas Touch and the threads posted with them, are informative and sometimes hilarious! A very good antidote to the fear that tfg , Like Hitler, wanted to instill in his victims. They want to weaponize our own emotions against us. We have the truth 🙌 and the rule of law on our side. And there are more of US than there are of them! Plus, we won the last several elections!!! They lost! They are LOSERS!
Peggy ; They WANT your blood to boil! tfg is quivering in his 'boots'! He is going down! He has no friends and is a self absorbed bore!
Do you really think he is scared? I would so love to believe that he is. He doesn't have friends because he constantly turns on anyone stupid enough to try and be his friend. I do agree that his constant repetition of the same old grievances is a bore. I believe he is of the opinion that the more he says it eventually people will believe it but that is pure poppycock. It's tired, ridiculous, and too constant!
I think he’s terrified. All his bluster is just an attempt to cover up what he’s really feeling. The truth is that he’s a big fat loser and on some level he knows it. I’m scared but I take comfort from the fact that he’s suffering, and I don’t care if that makes me a bad person.
Yes , it gets OLD! And it's a lie too! Beyond boring! And annoying! Illegal, too!
Peggy Freeman : I look at the still shots of tfg in court. I realize he is aware of the camera. But in some, he actually looks shook, and almost crying 😢. The judges are not buying his lying psychodrama, though! They know what he has done to other judges, and experienced the threats first hand. The guy has brass balls, but will lose anyway. Way to lose, loser! Make yourself popular with those who have actual power. Look out fool! Here comes the Judge and man, is she pissed!
It looks like Project 2025 and Agenda 47 got their blueprint from...Nazi Germany.
This is going to be a fun election year /s
And the Nazis got the blueprint for many of their laws, such as those excluding Jews from public places and classifying them as second class citizens, from American Jim Crow laws. Our society literally wrote the book on legally separating people into castes, which inspired Nazi leaders.
Trump wants us to compare him to Hitler—because that comparison normalizes the notion that Trump will regain power as an autocratic strongman..
https://framelab.substack.com/p/why-trump-wants-you-to-compare-him?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
When in reality he's weak and pathetically insecure. (And afraid of dogs)
Knowing that, I am surprised that anyone would want him to regain power!
Hitler was an Austrian. Antisemitism was very strong and getting stronger in Austria/Vienna in Hitler's youth............A Catholic country.....and the teaching of collective guilt of the Jews for the death of Christ was generally accepted until the 2nd Vatican Council of 1965............going back to pre-middle ages. France....too...had a wise of anti-semitism in the 1890s......Germany, less so under Bismarck.
And the Nazis offered cult members a chance to steal Jews' property.
True ... but a side issue compared with what the Nazis did to the Protestant Church and their own best people..............whose emigration greatly enriched the USA.....in science, art, music, ( Ormandy, Leinsdorf, Reiner, and so many others in music)literature, medicine ( Otto Loewi for instance).
Not really. We have the same today in people who overlook morality in favor of racism and potential wealth.
So many died -- many more than those who were lucky to escape.
Read Jung. In Biblical terms the sins of the Nazis and those who did nothing, will be visited upon them in the form of personal guilt to the umpteenth generation.
Having grown up in Chicago, I'd like to read a biography of Fritz Reiner. For the time being, can you give a brief account of what led to his emigration?
I believe the Church stopped burning witches when the Church could no longer collect the crispy witches’ property?
Daniel Solomon "And the Nazis offered cult members a chance to steal Jews' property. ; They even took the gold in their teeth!
And their hair and their skin. I'm stopping there.
I can't press the like heart, but I know about the lampshades. As a barber, the hair isn't as gross, but still awful enough.
Not to mention how we treated native Americans- our task after committing our
“ original sin “ is to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself. Authoritarianism has a blueprint for their version of success. We need to get shine enough light on the subject to keep it
from happening.
Thank you for impressing on me the sheer rapidity of Democracy being extinquished and simultaneously replaced with a violent and ruthless Dictatorship. It's something that we must remember to communicate to anyone and everyone to implore us to rise up to the urgency of our peril.
True, we aren't Weimar. We weren't far off, in the Dubya Bush administration, to which the voter backlash, and his impressive speeches and demeanor was the antidote, for a time. The hatred from racist/white supremacists, combined with seditious interference with the 2016 election, by right-wing extremists the likes of Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Mike Flynn, and the whole spineless squad of defeated GOP primary lot of blame/praisers handed the country to Trump. That was far more a "fixed" election than was 2020. Trump must be stopped. We may not yet be nazified, but who's to say there aren't even worse developments possible, if we don't kick out the jams?
Thanks for today's Substack; it is much appreciated and valuable! We'll share the news and sources with friends, both Democrat and Republican.
thank you for the book list, Professor Reich. as an avid reader myself, i've added these to my must read book list.
I haven't read any of those books, but in 2017 I read Timothy Snyder's, On Tyranny. The process is the same be it Germany then or America now. Nothing new is happening in America today. Your check list has been happening for a long time. Our institutions have been permeated. The bulk of the work has already been done. You're right Dr Reich, if Trump is elected change will come with lightning speed. We are in the midst of a change much grander than democracy or autocracy. Capitalism,
democracy, oligarchy, and autocracy have left civilization in a failed state. Monotheism has failed as a god. We are an artist standing before a blank canvas. We are being asked for imagination and living that painful state. Once that image is on the canvas we will wonder where it came from. The Greeks said it came from a visitation from a muse. The monotheist will claim God brought it to us. Freud will claim the unconscious and cocaine. Others will call the image "art." While we perceive destruction and polarization, we are simultaneously creating a new image, a new painting, and we have no idea what it will look like. It's work!
I don’t understand why you think Trump isn’t as demented as Hitler and why you don’t think a civil war is likely. If Trump gains power and attempts to shut down democracy, would the blue states tolerate that? What happens if Trump declares a state of emergency and tried to deploy troops and supporters to bring those states back into line?
I think large contiguous chunks of blue states seceding is probably the best thing that could come from a second Trump presidency. How much of our military would really fight that? I think maybe 2/3, but 1/3 refusing would cause chaos in the ranks, while state militias would likely be more unified. A shooting war wouldn’t necessarily result.
I don't think a shooting war would happen, but there could be considerable unrest and possible secession of one or more blue states. Would California accept a fascist presidency?
I’m thinking California + western Oregon + southern Washington would split off, and then the North East down to Maryland, leaving everything else together. Time will tell.
I really appreciate the essay. Also relevant is that, like Trump, Hitler claimed to be religious (in his case, Catholic) and to have God on his side and the side of his followers ("Gott mit uns.") It was another example of what William Hazlitt said: “The garb of religion is the best cloak for power.”
I usually find your comments very helpful but in this case I think you are being naive. There is a huge faction in this country that would like nothing better than to follow Trump's every wish. I suspect that we have our terrible education system to thank that likely few of them have ever learned about the Weimar or have the perspective do what Hitler did. We're also very fortunate that Trump is so incompetent and frankly is probably dementing. Look at the recent picture in the Times.
The majority of Trump voters, in political terms are "lumpen" willing idiots. They vote contrary to their personal economic and physical health.
I don't blame the educational system, I blame religion and poor parenting. The churches don't even know how to serve God, the parents don't even know what the root of all evil is and that is, a lack of conscience. The parents don't know how to raise the children to care whether they are right or wrong. The children grow up thinking irrationally and not rationally. Instead of wanting to serve good and work towards a heaven on Earth, they just become narcissists and say the Bible predicted Armageddon and do nothing, but cause Armageddon to happen. Serving Satan is their way of serving God! Hopefully that's only 38% of Americans? Sometimes it feels more like 85%?
Dementia Don