September 26, 2024

It happened in Germany and Russia. If Trump wins It could happen here, by Hal M. Brown, MSW

 

It is fitting that the photo I used as a background shows people giving what could be decribed as a Heil Trump salute. It was used to illustrate an article in The Atlantic. Here's the full photo.

Here are the covers of two books that I've been thinking about:

Why did I use the two books aboout ordinary Germans in the above illustration? Chauncey DeVega lays it out in detail here:

He begins his column:

Donald Trump and his surrogates are continuing to channel and amplify Nazism and Adolf Hitler. This is not random or happenstance. It is part of a strategy. “Feral politics” made even more explosive and toxic by adding blatant white supremacy, racism, and antisemitism. Occam’s razor, as it often does, provides the most simple and compelling proof of how Trump and his campaign’s feral hate politics strategy is very intentional: He and they have increased their antisemitism, racism, and white supremacy (and misogyny and hostile sexism) greatly in the last few weeks as the polls and other metrics show him tied with if not behind Kamala Harris, a Black South Asian woman, in the presidential election.

Adolf Hitler is one of the most evil leaders in recorded human history. Hitler and his Nazi regime are responsible for the systematic, industrial-scale mass murder of six million Jewish people and millions of others (including Black Germans). World War II, the deadliest in human history, resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of people around the world (estimates range from 50 million to 70 million or more). Almost 80 years after the end of World War II, Nazism and the various forms of racial fascism, and the other antidemocratic and illiberal political belief systems and ideologies in its orbit have not been fully vanquished. They are resurgent in the form of Trumpism, American fascism, and the larger global antidemocracy movement.

This very brief history lesson about the evils of Hitler and Nazi Germany is necessary given the broken state of America’s schools and a society where amnesia and organized forgetting are the norm. For many Americans of a certain age (and older,) Hitler and the Nazis have been reduced to the stuff of internet and social media memes from the movie “Downfall,” generic characters to kill in video games, or perhaps in their most real and frightening form as outliers in American society who rampaged in Charlottesville or commit hate crimes.  

Trump, with Vance ready to step in should he no longer be able to serve, may be the leader of ordinary Americans about whom books may be written five decades from now. Hitler's Willing Executioners was published in 1996. Hitler’s True Believers: How Ordinary People Became Nazis was published in 2021.

Like me, some of you won't be around 50 years from now if books like "Trump's Willing Executioners" and "Trump's True Believers: How Ordinary People Became MAGAs" are published. Even if Trump wins there's no way to know that he'll be able to achieve his Project 2025 goals which will turn us into a modern day version of Nazi Germany or post-revolution Russia. There's no way to predict whether these books could even be published in the United States. Similar books could never be published in Russia.

After World War II  half of Germany became a democracy (technically a  democratic and federal parliamentary republic) and the other half was socialist and closely allied with Russia. It was only unified as a democracy in 1990

On the other hand, consider that the Soviet Union was formed as a result of the 1917 Russian Revolution with Lenin as its leader. Stalin led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1954. Then there were a series of dictators:

Click above to enlarge image.

Who knows what a list of American leaders will look like 100 years from now? Will we have a list of dictators or of fairly elected democratic leaders? 

Recent blogs:

Ethnonational fascism or Nazism, Trump and Vance have made it clear this is the America they want and many are hatefully happy about this


Trump and his Elvis obsession shows he is delusional and possibly demented


Sarah Huckabee Sanders vying with Vance for publicity in stand against childless cat ladies


It's naive young voters who may either make the country into a dictatorship or keep our democracy


Read previous blogs here.

September 23, 2024

Adding together what may become of the United States under Trump and what may happen in Israel there aren't words to describe the horror, by Hal M. Brown, MSW

 

After I check my email I usually look at HuffPost first thing just to see their top story and this is what I saw today:

This was the lead story in both The NY Times and The Washington Post. With MSNBC's Richard Engle reporting from a bomb-safe hospital...


 ... I looked at RawStory, the next website I go to, which summarizes breaking news in American politics being reported on in other media:


The English langauge is replete with words to describe horrible things. One of the definitions of replete, by chance, is "filled or well-supplied with somethingsensational popular fiction, replete with adultery and sudden death."

I recall President Biden using the phrase "that's not hyperbole when I say..." In fact, as this and other articles has said, this has been one of his most used sayings:


Hyperbole is another way to say sensationalization. How do we describe something real that is so beyond the pale ordinary words don't suffice to descibe it? There are prefaces like calling something "mega-" which means "extremely" but there is no single word. There is no word to describe a unique in history event like the Holocaust. 

There are times when images rather than words convey the awfulness of a situation. Here's another example this clip from Apocalypse Now"


If someone is equally horrified both by what may happen in the United States and what may happen in Israel there are no English words to describe what a doubled horror is or what it feels like.

Sometimes we may need images like Guernica by Picasso and the most reproduced part of Jan van Eyck's Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych.



Most recent blogs:

Ethnonational fascism or Nazism, Trump and Vance have made it clear this is the America they want and many are hatefully happy about this


Trump and his Elvis obsession shows he is delusional and possibly demented


Sarah Huckabee Sanders vying with Vance for publicity in stand against childless cat ladies


It's naive young voters who may either make the country into a dictatorship or keep our democracy




September 22, 2024

Will Trump go down like Gotti? by Hal M. Brown, MSW


CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE

Trump's been called Teflon Don by both his critics and, as the NY Post cover and t-shirt below show, by his supporters.



It must be noted that Teflon and other non-stick coating evently wear down and stop working (reference) and that the original Teflon Don was John Gotti.  This is from Wikipedia:

Gotti became known as "The Dapper Don" for his expensive clothes and outspoken personality in front of news cameras. He was later given the nickname "The Teflon Don" after three high-profile trials in the 1980s resulted in acquittals, though it was later revealed that the trials had been tainted by jury tamperingjuror misconduct and witness intimidation.

He was one of the most powerful and dangerous crime bosses in the United States. After his trial James Fox, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's New York Field Office, announced at a press conference, "The Teflon is gone. The don is covered with Velcro, and all the charges stuck. 

He ended up in prison where he spent most of his time in solitary and once was beaten badly by another prisoner. He died in a prison hospital at the age of 61.


For comparison, Gotti was chilln' while Trump was scowln' for his mugshot.


John Gotti eventually lost his power, his Teflon, after being convicted by a court. If this happens to Trump it will because the court of public opinion, a jury of millions where the vote doesn't have to be unanimous, which convicts him for the "crime" of being unfit to be president. 

Trump doesn't like being compared to John Gotti. Consider :

Donald Trump Rages After Being Compared to Mob Boss in New Book - Newsweek

 
This is what Trump posted: "Crooked Hillary Clinton's lawyer, radically deranged Mark Pomerantz, led the fake investigation into me and my business at the Manhattan D.A.'s Office and quit because D.A. Bragg, rightfully, wanted to drop the 'weak' and 'fatally flawed' case," Trump said on Sunday evening. "Now, Pomerantz got himself a book deal, and is obsessively spreading falsehoods about me. With all of this vicious disinformation being revealed by a 'prosecutor,' how can I ever be treated fairly in New York, or anywhere else? End the Witch Hunts!"

I expect that Trump hated this comparison because he knew what eventually happened to John Gotti.


-----------------------------------------

This is a follow-up to what I wrote yesterday here. 

I wrote about this yesterday but then this morning read this article in RawStory:

This is what he said about his first debate with Kamala Harris:

"Well, I thought that she had a debate which was interesting, because she wasn't answering any questions," Trump said. "And I thought it was a great debate for me. I thought it was one of my best debates that I've ever had. And some people disagreed, but I felt it was the strongest debate I ever had."

Objective armchair psychologists will say that this is further proof that Trump is delusional. In fact one person quoted in RawStory hit the nail on the head saying this:

Geographer Linda Stevens replied, "Narcissists are delusional. They make up alternate realities to fit their warped views of themselves."

"They have to if they don’t, they collapse," she added Saturday.  

I am not sure Trump is clinically delusional. He says things that suggest that he is but this can juts be an expression of his grandiose narcissism and denial. It is quite possible that Trump is aware that he not only blew the debate but that he is not capable of winning a second debate especially when moderators will have new questions that will put him on the spot. For example they would be likely ask him about his and Vance's lies about Haitians eating pets but will also  nail him on his support for Mark Robinson and the denaturalization process and mass deportations of both undocumented immigrants, those here legally, and even of naturalized American citizens his pal Steve Miller is saying Trump "turbocharge" on if he's reelected.

Trump may be well aware that he just can't dodge these questions the way he dodged the draft, recently dodged a bullet, and got away with one grift and lie after another for his entire adult life. 




September 21, 2024

Cluck, cluck, cluck: Trump has to suffer the consequences of his refusal to debate Harris a second time by Hal M. Brown, MSW

 Update:

I wrote about this yesterday but then this morning read this article in RawStory:

This is what he said about his first debate with Kamala Harris:


"Well, I thought that she had a debate which was interesting, because she wasn't answering any questions," Trump said. "And I thought it was a great debate for me. I thought it was one of my best debates that I've ever had. And some people disagreed, but I felt it was the strongest debate I ever had."

Objective armchair psychologists will say that this is further proof that Trump is delusional. In fact one person quoted in RawStory hit the nail on the head saying this:

Geographer Linda Stevens replied, "Narcissists are delusional. They make up alternate realities to fit their warped views of themselves."

"They have to if they don’t, they collapse," she added Saturday.  

I am not sure Trump is clinically delusional. He says things that suggest that he is but this can juts be an expression of his grandiose narcissism and denial. It is quite possible that Trump is aware that he not only blew the debate but that he is not capable of winning a second debate especially when moderators will have new questions that will put him on the spot. For example they would be likely ask him about his and Vance's lies about Haitians eating pets but will also  nail him on his support for Mark Robinson and the denaturalization process and mass deportations of both undocumented immigrants, those here legally, and even of naturalized American citizens his pal Steve Miller is saying Trump "turbocharge" on if he's reelected.

Trump may be well aware that he just can't dodge these questions the way he dodged the draft, recently dodged a bullet, and got away with one grift and lie after another for his entire adult life. 

 
Click to read above article from Tines of India.

Above: This was on Amazon from before he decided to debate her the first time.

I don't know if these 2017 balloons are still available. I hope they are.
I propose combining the chicken balloon with the famous baby balloon.


This was posted before he changed his mind and decided to debate Harris the first time:

When I heard that Kamala Harris accepted CNN's offer to host another debate I wondered if Trump would accept it in the belief that he destroyed her in the first debate and wanted to do an even better job again.

It didn't take more than a few hours for him so say there was no need to debate her again.




I expect more cartoonists will be drawing Trump as a chicken again, but the t-shirt makers and at least one balloon maker already had shown him as plump poultry.

If I was a cartoonist I'd draw him as a chicken in a diaper with bone spurs although this sticker is already available from Amazon:






September 20, 2024

Ethnonational fascism or Nazism, Trump and Vance have made it clear this is the America they want and many are hatefully happy about this , by Hal M. Brown, MSW


Trump and Vance and many Americans want to have Haitians and other immigrants hunted down, rounded up, bused to airports, and deported. I made the images above with Perchance Photo AI. I wasn't able to have the AI program show these people surrounded by armed soldiers, some in Humvees with machine guns, so you will have to imagine this.

I just read the following in RawStory: 

Inside Trump's new front in the Haitian hysteria push: Charleroi

Excertps:

Donald Trump doubled down on his false claims that Haitians are stealing and eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio.

Then, he tossed another small Rust Belt community into the national spotlight.

“Likewise, a small 4,000-person town, Charleroi, Pennsylvania,” Trump said. “Have you ever heard of it? Charleroi. What a beautiful name. But it’s not beautiful now. It’s experienced a 2,000 percent increase in the population of Haitian migrants under Kamala Harris.

“So, Pennsylvania: Remember this when you have to go to vote,” Trump added. 

///////

The language (is) in the X post by the nonprofit America 2100 is markedly similar to what Trump would say at his campaign rally the following day.

“It isn’t just Springfield; it’s happening everywhere,” the post reads. “In Charleroi, Pennsylvania — a low-income town of just 4,000 — the immigrant population has increased by 2,000% over the past two years. It’s almost all Haitians.”

The America 2100 post was boosted when Donald Trump Jr. re-posted it only 10 minutes later.

This led me to look up the post referred to in the article.

 If you want to know how our country has decended into a hellhole of hate where armed enforcers hunt down and deport human beings just read this posts on this thread in X. The X account is from America2100.org.


This is what their website says:


Consider what another country could have had as their "about us" description.


Here are two of the posts. Clicking will not go to X. It will only only enlarge the images.



Here are three posts by people who no doubt say they are Christian. They are a representative sample of other posts on the various replies on this X account.

1) Yep ,they need to go home .. Voodoo and animal sacrifices are a big part of their heritage.

It could be the answer to missing pets .🤔🤫

America has very different beliefs .

2) Wait until our corrupt, Marxist leaders arm them and tell them to turn on us. This IS not going to end well on so many levels. Defend your home and family.🙏🙌🇺🇸

3) So treat it like rampaging bands of Cherokee in the 1800s and annihilate them

Let's take a somewhat deep dive into what ethnic nationalism or enthnonationalism is (from Wikipedia).

Ethnic nationalism, also known as ethnonationalism, is a form of nationalism wherein the nation and nationality are defined in terms of ethnicity,[2][3] with emphasis on an ethnocentric (and in some cases an ethnocratic) approach to various political issues related to national affirmation of a particular ethnic group.

The central tenet of ethnic nationalists is that "nations are defined by a shared heritage, which usually includes a common language, a common faith, and a common ethnic ancestry". Those of other ethnicities may be classified as second-class citizens.

The study of ethnonationalism emerged in the early 20th century in the interwar period between World War I and World War II, with the "redrawing of the political map of Europe in part along ethnic and national lines according to a proclaimed “right of peoples” to self-determinationand the rise of fascist ethnocentric ideologies (including Nazism)

Increased international migration as a function of contemporary globalization has also given rise to "ethno-national" movements, including reactionary "nativist" groups focused on exclusionary identity politics. In the developed world, such trends have often taken on an explicitly xenophobic and racist character, as seen in the example of "white nationalism" in the United States.

Below with my bold: 

In 2018, Tendayi Achiume, a UN Special Rapporteur on racism, released a UN Human Rights Council report which states that "more than 75% of the world's known stateless populations belong to minority groups" and highlights the role of ethnonationalism in the international deprivation of citizenship rights. In the report, Achiume re-stated that international human rights law prohibits citizens from discriminating against non-citizens on the basis of their race, descent, national or ethnic origin and she also stated that citizenship, nationality, and immigration laws which discriminate against non-citizens are violations of international law. She also noted the role of laws restricting marriage rights with respect to certain national, religious, ethnic or racial groups, which she said were "often deployed by states to preserve notions of national, ethnic and racial "purity"." Achiume called ethnonationalist politics the "most obvious driver of racial discrimination in citizenship and immigration laws" and driven by populist leaders defining nations "in terms of assumed blood ties and ethnicity".

United States 

(My bold) Since the 2016 US presidential election, ethnonationalism has been pushed to the fore of the American political consciousness by the identity politics of Donald Trump surrounding what it means to be a "true" American, which has resulted in ethnocentric ideals becoming "a robust predictor of vote choice for Trump" among white Americans.

Data from the 2016 American National Election Studies (ANES) has revealed a positive association between ethnonationalism and anti-immigrant attitudes among white Americans, whose opposition to immigration is "often grounded in fears of the threat that immigration poses to the robustness of America's national identity" that is shaped by the belief set concerning the traits of "true" Americans. 

This is the Nazified America many people want. So much for America as the melting pot that democracy loving Americans cherish.

The image of the United States as a melting pot was popularized by the 1908 play The Melting Pot. This is from the play:

David, the hero, proclaims:

There she lies, the great Melting Pot—listen! Can't you hear the roaring and the bubbling? There gapes her mouth [He points east]—the harbour where a thousand mammoth feeders come from the ends of the world to pour in their human freight. Ah, what a stirring and a seething! Celt and Latin, Slav and Teuton, Greek and Syrian,—black and yellow—

VERA: Jew and Gentile—

DAVID: Yes, East and West, and North and South, the palm and the pine, the pole and the equator, the crescent and the cross—how the great Alchemist melts and fuses them with his purging flame! Here shall they all unite to build the Republic of Man and the Kingdom of God. Ah, Vera, what is the glory of Rome and Jerusalem where all nations and races come to worship and look back, compared with the glory of America, where all races and nations come to labour and look forward!


It makes me think that a large minority of the country wants the people going into the melting pot are melted to death.

___________________

Most recent blogs:



"On the initiative of the vice president" should be on the top of the page story today, by Hal M. Brown, MSW

Why is this man laughing? Image of laughing Vance from Perchance Photo AI Unfortunately you need a subscription to read this entire Washing...