Trump’s Transition to Fascism is Complete by Bill Blum
November 13, 2023
Introduction:
(Truthdig) One of the few foreign correspondents to be granted personal access to Adolph Hitler and his inner circle in the dark winter of 1933 was Welsh journalist Garreth Jones. Assigned by his home paper, the Western Mail, to cover Hitler’s push to absolute power, Jones accompanied the newly appointed chancellor and his entourage to Frankfurt for a massive political rally that was held on March 2 of 1933.
Jones’ eyewitness account of the event is bone-chilling because it looks so much like what we are seeing today at Trump rallies.
“For eight hours, the biggest hall in Germany has been packed with 25,000 people for whom Hitler is the savior of his nation,” Jones began his story. “They are waiting, tense with national fervor…I have never seen such a mass of people; such a display of flags up to the top of the high roof, such deafening roars. It is primitive, mass worship.”
Then Hitler took the stage to a “roar of applause and the thumping and the blare of a military band and the thud of marching feet.” Hitler, Jones observed, “is … a master in repeating [his] leitmotiv in many varied forms, and the leitmotiv is: ‘The republican regime in Germany has betrayed you. Our day of retribution has come.’”
Additional extract:
Flash forward some 90 years and you can hear echoes of Hitler’s Frankfurt address in the persistent messaging of Donald Trump.
IN AN OCTOBER prayer call hosted by a Christian-nationalist MAGA pastor, Rep. Mike Johnson was troubled that America’s wickedness was inviting God’s wrath.
Talking to pastor Jim Garlow on a broadcast of the “World Prayer Network,” Johnson spoke ominously of America facing a “civilizational moment.” He said: “The only question is: Is God going to allow our nation to enter a time of judgment for our collective sins? … Or is he going to give us one more chance to restore the foundations and return to Him?”
The segment was filmed Oct. 3, just weeks before Johnson’s unexpected rise to become Speaker of the House. Garlow pressed the clean-cut Louisiana congressman to say “more about this ‘time of judgment’ for America.” Johnson replied: “The culture is so dark and depraved that it almost seems irredeemable.” He cited, as supposed evidence, the decline of national church attendance and the rise of LGBTQ youth — the fact, Johnson lamented, that “one-in-four high school students identifies as something other than straight.”
Discussing the risk of divine retribution, Johnson invoked Sodom, the Old Testament city destroyed by God for its wickedness with a rain of burning sulfur. Johnson is a polished orator, but in a closing prayer with Garlow he grew tearful. Johnson intoned: “We repent for our sins individually and collectively. And we ask that You not give us the judgment that we clearly deserve.”
Mike Johnson, the new speaker of the House, voiced support for revisiting Supreme Court decisions that struck down restrictions on the use of contraception, barred bans on gay sex and legalized same sex marriages, according to a CNN review of his prior public statements.
On a conservative talk radio show the day the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Johnson underscored Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurring opinion that the high court should reconsider those other landmark rulings.
Johnson, citing his years as an attorney against “activist courts,” defended Thomas’ view, insisting that what Thomas was calling for was, “not radical. In fact, it’s the opposite of that.”
“There’s been some really bad law made,” he said. “They’ve made a mess of our jurisprudence in this country for the last several decades. And maybe some of that needs to be cleaned up.”
Last week, we noted that the Arkansas Department of Education had released a video promoting Cornerstone Christian Academy, a K-12 private school in the southeast Arkansas town of Tillar.
It’s not unusual for a state agency to promote a new law or policy initiative, which this video does by highlighting the voucher program available under Arkansas LEARNS, the state’s new education overhaul. But what is unusual is for the state’s education department to use public resources to create such an explicit advertisement for a private school. As Josh Cowen, a professor at Michigan State University and a nationally prominent expert on education policy, told us: “sually they pretend it’s about parental choice more broadly. What’s less common — what I’ve yet to see, in fact — is a state agency leaning this heavily into promotion of private education. And Christian education at that.”
The publicly funded promo for a private school is made even more awkward given the religious affiliation: Cornerstone uses a Bob Jones University curriculum known for teaching “young-Earth creationism,” the belief that the planet and universe are only a few thousand years old. It requires students to take a Christian studies class and attend chapel. The application asks parents about church affiliation and about their child’s “personal experience and faith in Jesus Christ.”
The application also asks about whether a student has ever been involved with “sexual immorality” and requires that parents agree to “maintain the basic principles of biblical morality in my home.”
'Not Much in the Law' Can Damper Trump’s Plan to Send 'Tanks Rolling Down Main Street' If He Wins by Alex Henderson
November 27, 2023
Introduction:
(Alternet) While the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 limits the use of the military as a law enforcement tool within the United States, there is an exception to it: the Insurrection Act of 1807 — which, according to a report published by the Washington Post on November 6, Donald Trump plans to invoke on his first day in office and use against possible protesters if he wins the 2024 election.
Many of Trump's critics have been warning that the MAGA movement's Project 2025 agenda, including plans to take revenge against his enemies, would transform him into a full-fledged dictator. Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney and fixer, has said that he would fear for his personal safety if Trump returned to the White House and would seek political asylum in another country.
In an article published on November 27, the Associated Press' Gary Fields reports that Trump, during a recent campaign speech in Iowa, vowed to use the military in major cities he considers "crime dens."
"Trump has not spelled out precisely how he might use the military during a second term, although he and his advisers have suggested they would have wide latitude to call up units," Fields reports. "While deploying the military regularly within the country's borders would be a departure from tradition, the former president already has signaled an aggressive agenda if he wins, from mass deportations to travel bans imposed on certain Muslim-majority countries."
Fields notes that the Insurrection Act "allows presidents to call on reserve or active-duty military units to respond to unrest in the states, an authority that is not reviewable by the courts."
Time_Traveller wrote: ↑Wed Nov 29, 2023 8:17 pm
I think most people are scared that Trump will turn the USA into an autocracy or worse ruled under him.
Trump will lash out against liberals and friends mostly I think.
