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.
JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri Republican lawmakers are pushing a pair of bills that would allow for women to be charged with murder for getting an abortion in the state.
The pieces of legislation would give fetuses the same rights as human beings, which would allow for criminal charges to be filed against anyone who gets an abortion, helps someone get an abortion or provides abortion care in the state, which implemented a near-total ban on the procedure after last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
Republicans state Sen. Mike Moon from Ash Grove and state Rep. Bob Titus from Billings pre-filed the bills on Dec. 1 ahead of next year’s legislative session, which begins next month.
The bills, both called the “Abolition of Abortion in Missouri Act,” do not state explicitly whether getting an abortion in another state would be illegal. While abortion is banned in Missouri in nearly all circumstances, the procedure is still available in bordering states Kansas and Illinois.
Missouri Republican lawmakers want to make charge abortion patients with murder. As I said on TikTok earlier today, at least they’re being honest! The Kansas City Star reports that Sen. Mike Moon and Rep. Bob Titus have both pre-filed bills called the “Abolition of Abortion in Missouri Act,” that would treat fetuses as full citizens.
Rep. Titus told The Kansas City Star, “if you’re going to treat babies as humans and people then the penalties for taking an innocent life should be commensurate with that.” The newspaper also points out that Sen. Moon is known for making comments earlier this year suggesting that 12 year-olds should be able to get married. So, charmers all around.
This legislation is part of the anti-abortion movement’s campaign for “equal protection” that I’ve written about before. A few important things to remember: Other Missouri Republicans are going to come out and claim that these legislators are extremists who are on the margins of the party and anti-abortion movement. That’s just not true. We’ve seen bills like this in multiple states, like Iowa, Georgia and South Carolina.
The other vital thing to know about this bill (and others like it) is that it defines personhood as beginning at fertilization. That means that conservatives who believe that IUDs and emergency contraception stop the implantation of a fertilized egg could argue that a woman who uses those forms of birth control should be arrested for murder. The bills could also criminalize anyone who has a miscarriage, if a zealous prosecutor decides that the pregnant person ‘caused’ it in some way.
Republicans to meet allies of Hungary's Viktor Orbn on ending Ukraine aid
Source: The Guardian
Allies of Hungary’s far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán will hold a closed-door meeting with Republicans in Washington to push for an end to US military support for Ukraine, the Guardian has learned.
Márton Ugrósdy, the deputy state secretary for the prime minister’s political director’s office, and Attila Demkó, a leading pro-Orbán academic, along with members of the Hungarian embassy in Washington, will on Monday begin a two-day event hosted by the conservative Heritage Foundation thinktank.
Allies of Hungary’s far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán will hold a closed-door meeting with Republicans in Washington to push for an end to US military support for Ukraine, the Guardian has learned.
A diplomatic source close to the Hungarian embassy said: “Orbán is confident that the Ukraine aid will not pass in Congress. That is why he is trying to block assistance from the EU as well.”
J.D. Vance Is the Latest Prominent Conservative Calling on Journalists to Be Investigated by Russ Choma
December 19, 2023
Introduction:
(Mother Jones) Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday that he’d like to see journalists investigated for possibly colluding against Donald Trump in 2020. Vance’s appearance on Tapper’s Sunday talk show followed a letter Vance sent last week to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding to know if the Department of Justice would investigate a Washington Post columnist for talking about “open rebellion” by blue states if Trump is elected in 2024.
In his comments to CNN, Vance echoed comments made by former Trump aide Kash Patel, who last week pledged that a future Trump adminstration would pursue and prosecute critics in the government and media.
“We will go out and find the conspirators not just in government but in the media,” Kash said on the podcast of former Trump aide Steve Bannon. “Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.”
Both Patel and Vance are considered strong candidates for senior roles in a second Trump administration, with Vance even discussed as a potential running mate. On CNN, when Vance was asked about Patel’s comments, he didn’t shy away from supporting them. Vance said there was evidence that the media colluded with Biden to suppress stories about Hunter Biden’s stolen laptop before the 2020 election. Notably, the laptop was widely reported on, and no evidence has emerged that it contained anything implicating Joe Biden in wrongdoing. Still, conservatives point to reports that Twitter buried links to a New York Post story on the laptop.
“[We] need to look seriously at how there was collusion between members of the press and big technology companies and members of national security state,” Vance told Tapper on Sunday. “It is not journalism to take your security clearance, lie to the American people, and then persuade the big technology companies to censor anti-Joe Biden stories. That’s not journalism. That is cooperation between the government and journalism.”
“They’re poisoning the blood of our country. That’s what they’ve done,” Trump said. “They poison mental institutions and prisons all over the world, not just in South America … but all over the world. They’re coming into our country, from Africa, from Asia, all over the world.”
'An unbreakable plurality of the GOP explicitly wants fascism': defense analyst
Defense analyst Brynn Tannehill has taken a look at recent polling of Republican primary voters and has come to the sobering conclusion that many of them want former President Donald Trump to be a dictator.
Writing in the New Republic, Tannehill notes that a recent poll of GOP voters showed that Trump's Nazi-esque rhetoric about migrants "poisoning the blood" of the nation made 42 percent of respondents more likely to support him, while only 28 percent said it made them less likely to support him.
"About half of Republicans hear Trump’s rhetoric and think, 'Yes, this exactly what I want,'" he writes. "Which is to say, an unbreakable plurality of the GOP explicitly wants fascism."
"When Milton Mayer visited Germany in the early 1950s to interview former low-level members of the Nazi party, he concluded that perhaps only a million out of 70 million Germans were 'Fanatiker' (fanatics or true believers)—the rest were just along for the perks or to simply avoid unwanted scrutiny for lack of ideological purity," Tannehill explains. "In my own experience as an analyst in U.S. Central Command who studied insurgency, I estimated that you only needed 10 to 15 percent of the population to be supportive of the insurgents to get a situation like what I saw in Iraq in 2005–2006."
