Thinking of this, which I often do, evokes a feeling of horrow beyond words. I see in my mind the well known photos of the the entrance to Auschwitz. (Photos and captions from Wikipedia)
Above: A doctor, center, with the 322nd Rifle Division of the Red Army, walks with a group of survivors at the entrance to the newly liberated Auschwitz I concentration camp in January 1945. The Red Army liberated the camp on January 27, 1945. Above the gate is the motto "Arbeit macht frei," which translates to "Work sets you free." I think of pictures like these:
Above: Jews are deported from Würzburg, 25 April 1942. Deportation occurred in public and was witnessed by many Germans.Below: I think of Heinrich Himmler (second left) visiting Auschwitz where he witnessed the gassing of Jews:
I think of these happy looking NAZI officers:
Who are they? The are three SS officers socializing on the grounds of the SS retreat outside of Auschwitz, at “Solahütte”, 1944. From left to right they are: Richard Baer (Commandant of Auschwitz), Dr. Josef Mengele and Rudolf Hoess (the former Auschwitz Commandant).
I was think of trying to write about this as I fell asleep last night. This morning I read this essay by S.V. Date who is the senior White House correspondent for HuffPost (bio). The article says much of what I planned to write about.
Jan. 6... Terminating the Constitution... Rounding up 21 million people.... America, we’ve got some bad news.
It begins:
Nine decades later, that “it” is also what dozens of Republican donors, campaign consultants, pollsters and others interviewed by HuffPost say cannot possibly happen. They scoff at any analogy between former President Donald Trump, a man they support with varying degrees of enthusiasm, and the infamous dictators of the past. They insist that worries about Trump remaking the country as an autocracy are overwrought and designed solely to keep a Democrat in the White House.
“This will be a short period in history and we will swing right back to the middle,” said Hugh Culverhouse, a Miami lawyer who so far has given $500,000 toward Trump’s reelection effort.
While authoritarianism experts and democracy advocates hope Culverhouse is right, they worry – deeply – that he is not.
It is, of course, impossible to know for certain what a second Trump presidency might bring or whether, should he manage to seize absolute power, his rule would come anywhere close to the depravity of the tyrants of the last century.
Still, no other presidential nominee in United States history has behaved with the contempt for democracy that Trump has already demonstrated or even hinted at the sorts of autocratic actions Trump promises if he is returned to power.
Could the predictions laid out in this article come to pass if Trump wins? Consider this Axios article:
Excerpt:
Former President Trump, if elected, would build a Cabinet and White House staff based mainly on two imperatives: pre-vetted loyalty to him and a commitment to stretch legal and governance boundaries, sources who talk often with the leading GOP presidential candidate tell Axios.
Why it matters: Trump would fill the most powerful jobs in government with men like Stephen Miller, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio and Kash Patel — with the possible return of Steve Bannon. If Trump won in 2024, he'd turn to loyalists who share his zeal to punish critics, purge non-believers, and take controversial legal and military action, the sources tell us.
Trump and his prospective top officials don't mince words about their plans:
Hitler had his inner circle of 10 top lieutenants including Himmler, Göring, Goebbels, Bormann, and Speer, and Trump will have others you've heard of and others who are just as evil who most of you aren't familair with.
Is there be a difference between them?
You say tomato, I say tomahto... let's hope the title and verse from the song holds true for the United States:
Do Trump and his MAGA minions who want a lily white colored Christian country welcome the following people?
There were about 47.8 million immigrants in 2023. This represents approximately 14.3% of the population, or about 1 in 7 residents in the United States. Immigrants are defined as foreign-born residents. As of 2022 there were nearly 731,000 Haitian immigrants residing in the United States, comprising the country's 15th largest foreign-born population. There are about 3.5 million Muslims residing in the United States.
The pale skinned MAGAs may put up with Jews, Black, and Asian people being part of society, but clearly they would like to see the others disappear.