I think of Trump and can't get "All the Light We Cannot See" out of my mind, by Hal M. Brown

 

My partner read the book, “All the Light We Cannot See.” When I told her there was a new mini-series based on the book she was eager to see it. Over the past few days we watched it. I keep flashing to scenes from the show whenever I think of what Trump is doing to the country.

The book was published in 2014 and a NY Times best seller for 200 weeks. I hadn’t read it, but a few days ago we watched the riveting miniseries based on the book. You can read the Wikipedia page about the book here. (This is the page about the TV show.)

The movie flashes between Germany and a small seaside town in France.

This could be one of many fictional, or based on fact, account of the horrors of Hitler and the Nazi regime. It happens to be the one I most recently became immersed in.

I won’t go into the actual storyline. You can skim the Wikipedia page to see this and hopefully decide to read the book, watch the mini-series, or both if you haven’t already done so.

There are two parts to the storyline that I keep thinking about. One is how a German in his late teens, an orphan, who was a radio genius was recruited to be a member of a special army unit to be used as a radio specialist. Before he could be admitted to the training academy a Josef Mengele-like doctor had to determine whether of not he had any “Jewish blood” in him. Of course without modern DNA testing, doing this was decidedly unscientific, but suffice to say there would have been no story if it was determined that he was Jewish since a major portion of the plot was about him. Radio, the media of the day, played a big part in the story. (I shouldn’t have to point out how, in a different way, television and the internet play a huge role in Trump’s story.)

You can see how this made me think of Trump and his demonization of immigrants. They have become the Jews of today when it comes to living their lives in fear.

The other part of the story that jumped off the screen every time it happened were the depictions of the real and feigned worship of Hitler. The German officers ended every other sentence with Heil Hitler, sometimes with the Nazi salute and sometimes not. In their presence French citizens always had to pretend allegiance to the Führer by ending whatever they said to the Nazi with the words “heil Hitler.”

I’ve been thinking that if Trump’s name, his last name or even his first name, had the right sound to it, by now we’d be hearing a version of Heil Hitler. Obviously “heil Trump” wouldn’t be used since it isn’t English and would be an admission that Trump was Hitler incarnate. The word "Heil" in German means "hail" or "to salute."

I looked up synonyms for hail and salute and the only one that sounded like it could be used for Trump as heil was used for Hitler was “praise.” This doesn’t have the euphonious ring to it as “Heil Hitler.” It is, however, the best I could come up with. I don’t think we’ll actually hear “praise Trump” emanating from the mouths of Trump supporters or those who may at some point be faced with their wrath. 

Trump doesn’t have anything like the arm raised salute but he does have a hat. 

In a way it would be much simpler for those who want to curry favor with Trump to do so by uttering just two words everytime they are either in his presence or talking about him. Instead they have to try to outdo each other by lavishing praise on him.

ADDENDUM: 

Trump and Hitler have personality similarities and differences. I haven’t seen reports that Hitler manifested the kind of personal narcissism and need to be worshipped when meeting with his aides which Trump does. I have’t read anything saying that he engaged in the braggadocio which we see with Trump. I assume Hitler got satisfaction when he spoke to cheering crowds of Germans, though perhaps not as much as Trump does. 

There are many significant similarities between the two of them. A major one is a callous disregard for human suffering. Hitler may not have taken personal pleasure in knowing how much pain he was inflicting on his chosen enemies as Trump does. Trump can, in many ways, be considered a clinical sadist. My impression of Hitler is that he wouldn’t fit this defintion.

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What did Hitler have that Trump doesn't? By Hal M. Brown

Hitler needed two things to accomplish what he did. 

These were a loyal military and the support of the majority of German citizens. 

We don’t know at present how far Trump can go in his quest to turn the country into a ruthless dictatorship where his enforcers aren’t just armed federal agents, but also the active duty military. 

We haven’t seen non-compliance with his orders and dictates being punished by the military in Nazi SS style. 

It is possible that there is a line Trump can’t cross before enough elements of the military say either a soft “no” or a hard “no” to thwart him. A soft “no” would be telling him that there were orders they would not follow. A hard “no” would be implied with such a soft “no.” 

If it came to it this would be implemented by an actual coup where Trump was formally arrested or just physically removed from the White House (having the football taken from him of course). A hard “no” would involve tanks not parading down Constitution Avenue, but turning onto the White House lawn.

Instead of Vance being installed as president the military would install temporary leaders until the country, which probably would be reeling with possibly violent pro-Trump protests, could be stabilized. At some point the military would be in charge of free elections.

What the military might do is a known unknown. 

What we do know about Trump is that he does not have the majority of the country behind him the way Hitler did. This is why prognosticators are envisioning a second civil war where Americans take up arms against each other. This is another scenario which could lead to the military taking over, not on one side or the other, but to stabilize the country.

Now to the question in my title: What did Hitler have that Trump doesn't? 

Hitler was 56 years old when he died. During his ascension to power he was a young man. He had youth. He had all his mental faculties intact. Not having social media to look at, I assume he wasn’t up in the wee hours of the morning obesessing over personal grudges, for example, against his predecessors Kurt von Schleicher and Paul von Hindenburg.

Trump is now 79 years old. His cognition appears to be if not impaired at least suspect.

Next year he obviously will be 80. This is a milestone birthday. It is sometimes called “The Big Eight-Oh” (I’m 81 so I know how it feels and since I live in a senior community I know how others react to being kind of offcially old just because of this number).

I thought of this just looking at the subtitle of Amanda Marcotte’s column in Salon this morning: 

“The Epstein files give MAGA a post-Trump future: Even his loyal followers can see Dear Leader is getting quite old”

Here’s an excerpt showing the highlighted portion above the text:

His legs swelled so much recently that the White House even admitted the self-described “perfect physical specimen” has been diagnosed with a vein condition. But there’s also the visible general decline. Though he’s as loud-mouthed as always, Trump speaks more slowly, and his already tiny vocabulary has shrunk to the point where, in denying the provenance of a naked woman doodle he reportedly sent to his pal Epstein, Trump said, “I never wrote a picture in my life.” (This, too, is a lie.)

For MAGA influencers, the pressing knowledge that Trump won’t be around forever must be frightening. It’s not unusual for fascist movements to be incoherent in their ideology or goals. But with MAGA, it’s especially pronounced because Trump so thoroughly dominates and defines them through a cult of personality. If the movement is to survive, however, they need something other than Trump worship as a central organizing force. The best that most MAGA influencers have come up with is conspiracism. Spinning non-stop liesabout secret cabals conspiring against red America keeps their audiences hooked, and it also isolates them from reality-based society. That combination of nuttiness and alienation is their best bet for continuing the MAGA cult after the leader dies or ages out of his capacity to control them.

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Once weird was good. It has a new definition thanks to Trump. By Hal M. Brown

 

I live in a suburb of Portland, one of the three cities that takes pride in claiming to be the weirdest city in the United States. Here’s a not atypical resident:

Like most of the residents of the city proper and its nearby communities, I find it to be wonderfully weird in the sense of the word as highlighted below:

Trump, in stark contrast, fits the part of the definition which is almost the opposite of the first.

If you dispassionately analyze what, at first blush, may seem to be Trump’s very strange and bizarre behavior, you can see that there is method in what seems to be his madness. For example, in the news since the Epstein file offshore tremor seemed to threaten to develop into an earthquake leading to a tsunami, we have what could be called inexplicable Trump weirdness on steroids unless you look more closely. 

Just the most recent examples today are the reports that the administration is releasing 200,000 previously sealed Martiin Luther King FBI investigation files (see BBC article). We also learned that The Department of Justice is requesting a meeting with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell (see article). 

In his press conference today Trump was asked about this, he claimed he didn’t know anything about the planned Maxwell DOJ meeting about it. He did say he thought it was appropriate. (This seems to contradict the claim he didn’t know anything about it.)

All this is accurately being reported by the non-Trump media as being an attempt to distract from the Epstein matter, which some publications like this one, summarizing how the story developed, are calling Epsteingate.

Portland, Austin, and Ashville are weird for a reason. Most of their residents are proud of living in them because of their being weird, weird in a decidely good way.

Whether you like pot, tattoos, or strip clubs, if you are a Portlander you are proud that you can’t drive more than a few blocks without seeing one or more of these businesses. Portland just had its Pride Parade (article) and is known for its Naked Bike Ride (article).

Trump, who just called Jerome Powell a numbskull during a press conference while meeting with the president of the Philippines, is weird. Of course, measured against all his weirdness, this is small potatoes.

I am not about to make a top ten list of Trump’s most motely, often malevolent, manifestations of weirdness, but for those of you who listened to his remarks during the meeting this morning, where he ranted about the evils of Hillary Clinton, “Barack Hussein Obama,” and the “rigged election” you would be justified in saying that this man could be considered the prototype of bad weirdness, not merely bad, but demented, deranged, and downright dangerous to democracy weirdness. 

Just now on MSNBC as I finish this Substack the panel is talking about how Trump is trying desperately to talk about anything but Epstein. 

Boil all this down and what it amounts to is that Trump is the fucken weirdest president the United States has ever had. As far as the world goes, historically, he makes leaders like Caligula look normal.

You can’t have a list of crazy leaders without including the king of them all – Emperor Caligula. Caligula was known for his sadism and his odd behavior. Once, he had his army build a two-mile floating bridge so that he could ride his horse on it.

Another time, he had his troops “plunder the sea” by gathering sea shells. Caligula also built a lavish house for his horse, but he didn’t love all animals. He hated goats and banned anyone mentioning goats in his presence. (Reference: 30 Most Unhinged Leaders in History)

What is most appalling is that there are millions of Americans who find Trump’s weirdness endearing. 

Update:

'Irrefutable proof!' Trump makes wild claims that Obama tried to 'lead a coup' in RawStory

Excerpt:

During an Oval Office meeting with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday, President Donald Trump kept circling back to attack former President Barack Obama, regardless of the reporters' questions.

Even when asked about information Trump has received on the man who tried to assassinate him in Butler, PA, before the 2024 election, Trump ended up accusing Obama of staging a "coup" against him.

"You know, they went into him very, you know, in great detail," Trump began saying about would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks. "And I spoke with the FBI — the new FBI. I spoke to the FBI. If it was the old FBI, I wouldn't have believed a thing they said because the old FBI under Comey was crooked as hell."

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Even with regrets MAGA leaders suffering stomach cramps from dining on the Trumpian feast will find that meal options are all still tainted with the same noxious samonella.

If you have a NY Times subscription read Regret, Thy Name Is Hawley. And Murkowski. And Musk by Frank Bruni. Even if you don’t read the summary of the article in RawStory, 'Reeks of regret': Analyst sees multiple Trump allies now giving off 'whiff of panic' by Travis Gettys. Whether you read the essay in the Tines or not look at the comments in Raw Story. The NY times piece doe not have comments.

I wrote my comment in RawStory (below) and then reviewed some of the others and saw that the same or similar sentiment and reaction as mine were expressed. This is what I wrote:

Great quote from Bruni - willed gullibility is a perfect term, and indeed it was a Faustian bargain. The Devil took his due.

"Theirs was a willed gullibility — they have always known deep down who Trump is," Bruni wrote. "They wagered that they could live with that. They made a Faustian bargain, abetting him so that he didn’t eviscerate them. They just didn’t understand the full price they’d pay."

The commenter below had another way of putting it:

Here’s the GIF on the left above.

At this moment there are only 65 comments to the RawStory article. They run the gamut, for example:

Down the road we don’t know whether the regrets of Trump enablers will amount to anything. It probably won’t be more than like someone with indigestion caused by eating tainted food passing gas. There might be momentary relief, but at their next meal the only food available would be served with the same Trumpian samonella. 

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