Archive for the ‘Business’ Category
1984 (BOOK), 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ” 9/11, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BILL CLINTON, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHRIS STIREWALT, CNN, CONDOLEEZA RICE, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DICK CHENEY, DOMINION VOTING SYSTEMS, DONALD RUMSFELD, DONALD TRUMP, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOX NEWS NETWORK, GEORGE ORWELL, GEORGE W. BUSH, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HISTORY, HUFFINGTON POST, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JEB BUSH, JOE BIDEN, JOSEPH STALIN, LAURA INGRAHAM, LAVRENTI BERIA, LIBEL, MARCO RUBIO, MEDIA MATTERS, MIKE LINDELL, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAZI-SOVIET NONAGGRESSION PACT, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEW YORK TIMES V. SULLIVAN, NEWSDAY, NEWSMAX, NEWSWEEK, NKVD, NPR, PAUL WOLFOWITZ, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RICHARD CLARKE, RUDOLPH GIULIANI, SALON, SEAN HANNITY, SEATTLE TIMES, SIDNEY POWELL, SLANDER, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, STEVE BANNON, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE WASHINGTONPOST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TUCKER CARLSON, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, X
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Military, Politics on April 10, 2025 at 12:13 am
At one time, Americans believed that the wholesale rewriting of history happened only in the Soviet Union.
“The problem with writing about history in the Soviet Union,” went a popular joke among Russians, “is that you never know what’s going to happen yesterday.”
A classic example of this occurred in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.
Lavrentiy Beria had been head of the NKVD, the dreaded predecessor to the KGB, from 1938 to 1953. On June 26, 1953, three months after the death of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, Beria was arrested on orders of his fellow Communist Party leaders, who feared he intended to purge them.
Beria was executed on December 23.
Lavrentiy Beria
But the Great Soviet Encyclopedia had just gone to press with a long article singing Beria’s praises.
What to do?
The editors of the Encyclopedia wrote an equally long article about “the Bering Straits,” which was to be pasted over the article about Beria, and sent this off to its subscribers. An unknown number of them decided it was safer to paste accordingly.
Similarly, Joseph Stalin was depicted in Soviet “history” texts as the architect of Russia’s victory over Nazi Germany during World War II.
No “historian” dared mention that Stalin’s wholesale purges of the Red Army in the 1930s had made the country vulnerable to the German attack in 1941. As had Stalin’s “nonaggression” pact with Germany in 1939, where he and Adolf Hitler secretly divided Poland between them.
Joseph Stalin
But Russians no longer have a monopoly on rewriting history.
During the 2016 Presidential election, the Republican party furiously rewrote history in a desperate attempt to win the White House.
Specifically, its members tried to convince Americans that:
- President George W. Bush “kept us safe” (excluding, of course, the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, which slaughtered 3,000 Americans); and/or
- President Bush wasn’t to blame for 9/11—it was his predecessor, Bill Clinton (who left office on January 20, eight months earlier).
on J
World Trade Center – September 11, 2001
In 2015, Jeb Bush entered the “Rewriting History for Americans” sweepstakes.
On October 16, 2015, during an interview on Bloomberg TV, Donald Trump, the leading Republican candidate for President in 2016, dared speak (for Republicans) the unspeakable:
“When you talk about George Bush, I mean, say what you want, the World Trade Center came down during his time. He was President, OK? Blame him, or don’t blame him, but he was President. The World Trade Center came down during his reign.”
Bush was quick to respond on Twitter: “How pathetic for @realdonaldtrump to criticize the president for 9/11. We were attacked & my brother kept us safe.”
Jeb Bush
Trump replied:
“At the debate you said your brother kept us safe—I wanted to be nice & did not mention the WTC came down during his watch, 9/11.”
And: “No @JebBush, you’re pathetic for saying nothing happened during your brother’s term when the World Trade Center was attacked and came down.”
Suddenly, on February 13, another Republican Presidential candidate rushed to rewrite 9/11: Florida United States Senator Marco Rubio.
According to Rubio: “The World Trade Center came down because Bill Clinton didn’t kill Osama bin Laden when he had the chance to kill him.”
And on the following day, on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” he again made the charge: “If you’re going to ascribe blame, don’t blame George W. Bush, blame a decision that was made years earlier, not to take out bin Laden when the opportunity presented itself.”
All of which ignored such embarrassing truths as:
- During the first eight months of the Bush Presidency, Richard Clarke, the counter-terrorism adviser on the National Security Council, was not permitted to brief President Bush, despite mounting evidence of plans for a new Al-Qaeda outrage.
- From January 20 to September 11, 2001, Bush was on vacation, according to the Washington Post, 42% of the time.
- National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice initially refused to hold a cabinet-level meeting on the subject of terrorism. Then she insisted that the matter be handled only by a more junior Deputy Principals meeting.
- Paul Wolfowitz, the number-two man at the Department of Defense, said: “I don’t understand why we are beginning by talking about this one man, bin Laden.”
- Even after Clarke outlined the threat posed by Al-Qaeda, Wolfowitz-–whose real target was Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein—said: “You give bin Laden too much credit.”
- Finally, at a meeting with Rice on September 4, 2001, Clarke challenged her to “picture yourself at a moment when in the very near future Al-Qaeda has killed hundreds of Americans, and imagine asking yourself what you wish then that you had already done.”
- Seven days later, Al-Qaeda struck, and 3,000 Americans died horrifically—and needlessly.
- Neither Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Rice, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld nor Wolfowitz ever admitted their negligence. Nor has any of them been brought to account.
People who say the Republicans are “batshit crazy” for denying responsibility for 9/11 clearly haven’t read—or understood—George Orwell’s novel, 1984.
The unnamed Party’s slogan is: “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”
The same holds true for Republicans: They hope to rewrite the past, as Joseph Stalin did, to wash away their crimes and errors–and pin these on their self-declared enemies.
And thus gain—and retain—absolute power over 300 million Americans.
ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BATTLE OF BRITAIN (MOVIE), BBC, BENITO MUSSOLINI, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUZZFEED, CANADA, CBS NEWS, CHINA, CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM PARDO, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, DONALD TRUMP, EUROPEAN UNION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GREECE, GREENLAND, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HERMANN GORING, HUFFINGTON POST, JUSTIN TRUDEAU, LUFTWAFFE, MEDIA MATTERS, MEXICO, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PANAMA, PBS NEWSHOUR, PETE HEGSETH, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TARIFFS, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE RISE ND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH (BOOK), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WEHRMACHT, WILLIAM L. SHIRER, WINSTON CHURCHILL, WORLD WAR 11, X, YUGOSLAVIA
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 27, 2025 at 12:06 am
On March 12, President Donald Trump halts imposing double tariffs on imports of Canadian steel and metal to 50%, just hours after announcing them. But he announces that he will raise duties on steel and aluminum imports from the European Union (EU) by 25%.
In response:
- Canada says it will place 25% reciprocal tariffs on steel products and raise taxes on tools, computers, servers, display monitors, sports equipment, and cast-iron products.
- The EU announces it will raise tariffs on American beef, poultry, bourbon and motorcycles, peanut butter and jeans.
- Tariffs on bourbon will aim a deadly blow at the American liquor industry—especially that which produces Kentucky bourbon.
Then, on March 13, Trump, like Adolf Hitler, justifies his attacks on peaceful nations. It is only when his victims dare counterattack that he feels wronged.
Bypassing the normal channels of diplomacy, Trump reverts to form on his own website, Truth Social:
“If this tariff is not removed immediately, the US will shortly place a 200% tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER EU REPRESENTED COUNTRIES. This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the US.”
On March 20, the EU announces that it will delay its planned tariffs on American goods, which are set to go into effect at the start of April, until mid-April instead. The decision gives the bloc more time to negotiate with Washington and review the list of products that would be affected by the tariffs.
Trump’s threat to raise tariffs even further echoes Adolf Hitler’s self-righteous indignation at the refusal of Yugoslavians to submit to his tyranny.
On October 28, 1940, his ally, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini—jealous of Hitler and desperate to create his own empire—attacked Greece. And his armies had taken a severe beating by the descendants of Alexander the Great.
So Hitler, reluctantly, decided to rush troops to Greece to save Mussolini from the embarrassment of losing his new war.
Adolf Hitler
At the time Yugoslavia was a monarchy ruled by the regent Prince Paul on behalf of the young King Peter II. On March 25, 1941, under threat of German invasion, Yugoslavia joined the Axis and agreed to permit transit through its territory to German troops headed for Greece.
When Yugoslavia’s nonaggression treaty with Germany was announced the next day in the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade, regent Prince Paul and the government were promptly overthrown in a popular uprising led by Yugoslav Air Force officers with the support of the Yugoslav Army.
On March 27, King Peter II was officially installed as king, ending the regency.
Hitler quickly learned the news. At first he thought it was a joke—and then he exploded in one of the wildest rages of his life.
Shouting that he had been “personally insulted,” Hitler demanded that Yugoslavia be crushed with “unmerciful harshness and that the military destruction be done in Blitzkrieg style. Now I intend to make a clean sweep of the Balkans—it is time people got to know me better!”
The invasion of Yugoslavia opened on April 6, 1941, with an overwhelming bombardment of Belgrade and facilities of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force by the the German air force, the Luftwaffe. The Wehrmacht attacked from southwestern Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria.
On April 17, after only 11 days of fighting, representatives for Yugoslavia signed the armistice and unconditionally surrendered all Yugoslav troops. Yugoslavia was subsequently divided amongst Germany, Hungary, Italy and Bulgaria.
Hitler was ecstatic: He had “avenged” his “betrayal,” and given the world another lesson on the power of his army and air force.
But his victory had come at a cost: The attack on Yugoslavia forced him to postpone his planned invasion of the Soviet Union by five weeks. And the Wehrmacht would suffer horribly when the bitterly cold Russian winter arrived.
As journalist and historian William L. Shirer wrote in his monumental study, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: “This postponement of the attack on Russia in order that the Nazi warlord might vent his personal spite against a small Balkan country which had dared to defy him was probably the most catastrophic single decision in Hitler’s career.
“It is hardly too much to say that by making it that March afternoon in the Chancellery in Berlin during a moment of convulsive rage he tossed away his last golden opportunity to win the war and to make of the Third Reich, which he had created with such stunning if barbarous genius, the greatest empire in German history and himself the master of Europe.”
It’s still too early to foresee if Trump will make such a single catastrophic decision. But he has clearly planted the seeds for this. Among these:
- Wholesale purgings of the federal workforce—especially in agencies responsible for national security and health;
- Turning America’s longtime allies—like Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Panama and the EU—into mortal enemies;
- Appointing incompetents to office—like alcoholic Pete Hegseth Secretary of Defense and 14-year heroin addict Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Secretretary of Health and Human Services.
As historian Barbara W. Tuchman warned in her book, The March of Folly: “A great empire and little minds go ill together.”
ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BATTLE OF BRITAIN (MOVIE), BBC, BENITO MUSSOLINI, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUZZFEED, CANADA, CBS NEWS, CHINA, CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM PARDO, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, DONALD TRUMP, EUROPEAN UNION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GREECE, GREENLAND, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HERMANN GORING, HUFFINGTON POST, JUSTIN TRUDEAU, LUFTWAFFE, MEDIA MATTERS, MEXICO, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PANAMA, PBS NEWSHOUR, PETE HEGSETH, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TARIFFS, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE RISE ND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH (BOOK), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WEHRMACHT, WILLIAM L. SHIRER, WINSTON CHURCHILL, WORLD WAR 11, X, YUGOSLAVIA
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 26, 2025 at 12:05 am
The 1969 classic, Battle of Britain, features a scene that could today be filmed—live—at the next Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
The movie dramatizes the heroic struggle of vastly outnumbered Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots against the numerically superior German air force, the Luftwaffe, during World War II.
Adolf Hitler, Germany’s Fuhrer, knew that to launch a successful naval invasion of Britain, he first must wipe the RAF from the skies.
The aerial combat began during the summer of 1940 and climaxed that September.
The turning point in the Battle—and the movie—occurs when a squadron of German bombers lost in bad weather at night accidentally bombs London. Attacks on London had been specifically forbidden by Hitler—for fear that they might bring the United States into the war.
An enraged British Prime Minister Winston Churchill orders a retaliatory attack on Berlin.
Since the eruption of World War II on September 1, 1939, with Hitler’s invasion of Poland. this is the first time that Berlin has been attacked. In fact, Hermann Goring, chief of the Luftwaffe, has said: “If ever a bomb falls on Berlin, you can call me Meyer.”
Now Hitler—who has ravaged Poland and France, and repeatedly bombed Britain, is enraged.
It’s perfectly OK for him to ravage other countries. It’s just not fair for his enemies to strike back.
He orders his faithful to assemble at the Reichstag, the German parliament, where he will outline his plans for knocking Britain out of the war.
Only then can he move on to his ultimate goal: Destroying his supposed ally, the Soviet Union.
In the movie, Battle of Britain, Hitler’s address is brilliantly—if briefly—staged, complete with rows of diehard Nazi women screaming their allegiance to their Fuhrer.
Hitler (played by Rolf Stiefel) starts his speech slowly, just as the real Hitler normally did to build to a shattering climax: “Last night, bombs were dropped on Berlin.
“So be it. Two can play at that game.
“If the RAF drops 200, 300, 400 bombs, then in one night we shall drop 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 bombs!”
His speech is interrupted by cheers from the Nazi faithful.
Adolf Hitler addressing the faithful in Battle of Britain
“If they attack our cities, then we will wipe theirs out!
“The hour will come when one of us must break. And it will never be National Socialist Germany!”
“NEVER! NEVER! NEVER!” screams the frenzied crowd.
“The English are filled with curiosity. They keep asking ‘Why doesn’t he come?’ Be patient. We are coming! We are coming!”
The Reichstag explodes with cheers of expected victory.
Britain went on to repulse the Luftwaffe’s attacks on its cities—and celebrate its victory at the end of the war.
That speech—in the movie and history—happened in 1940.
Fast forward to February 1, 2025: Newly re-elected President Donald Trump orders 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada, as well as 10% tariffs on imports from China.
- The White House says the tariffs will take effect on February 4.
On February 3, Trump announces a one-month pause of tariffs on Canada and Mexico after reaching agreements with each country that includes commitments to bolster border enforcement against drug smuggling.
Donald Trump
On February 4, the United States imposes 10% tariffs on goods from China.
On February 27, Trump affirms plans to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico when the one-month delay expires on March 4.
- He also announces that an additional 10% tariff on goods from China will also take effect the same day.
On March 3, Trump reiterates plans to move forward with a fresh round of tariffs the following day.
On March 4, Trump’s tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China take effect at 12:01 a.m. ET.
- China and Canada each respond with retaliatory tariffs, vowing additional measures.
- Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo slamms Trump’s tariffs but says she will hold off on retaliatory measures until after a conversation with him.
On March 5, Trump orders a one-month delay of auto tariffs after a request from the “Big 3” U.S. automakers: Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, the parent company of Jeep and Chrysler.
On March 6, Trump temporarily pauses tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods who are compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he will continue to impose tariffs on U.S. imports into the country until Trump cancels levies on Canadian products.
Justin Trudeau
Justin Trudeau – Prime Minister of Canada, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
On March 7, Trump says he is “strongly considering” large-scale banking sanctions, tariffs, and other sanctions on Russia until a cease fire and final settlement agreement is reached in the Russia-Ukraine war.
- He also suggests that Canada might soon be hit with reciprocal tariffs on its lumber and dairy products.
On March 11, Trump announces that he will impose an additional 25% tariff on all Canadian steel and aluminum imports effective March 12.
- He says the move was in retaliation to the Ontario government’s implementation of a 25% surcharge on all electricity exports to the U.S.
- Following this, Ontario says it will suspend its 25% surcharge on electricity exports to the U.S. after agreeing to discuss a renewed trade agreement.
2024 PRESIDENTIL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BIRTH CONTROL, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUZZFEED, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, CBS NEWS, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION, CNN, CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS, DONALD TRUMP, ELON MUSK, FBI, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION, FEDERAL ELECTIONS COMMISSION, FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WORKFORCE, FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION FOOD DIVISION, GLOBAL WARMING, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HERITAGE FOUNDATION, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, HUD COMMUNITY PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT, HUFFINGTON POST, INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, JACK SMITH, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, JOSEPH STALIN, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MIKHAIL TUKHAVEVSKY, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL FOREST SERVICE, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH, NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NKVD, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION PROJTECT, PROJECT 2025, PURGE, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TONY FABRIZO, TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNEMPLOYMENT, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, X
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 13, 2025 at 12:18 am
Although Donald Trump’s purges—current and continuing—of his own government are unprecedented for the United States, they nevertheless have a historical precedent.
Unfortunately for Americans, that precedent occurred in the Soviet Union of Joseph Stalin.
The 1930s were a frightening and dangerous time to be alive in the Soviet Union. In 1934, Stalin, seeing imaginary enemies everywhere, ordered a series of purges that lasted right up to the German invasion in 1941.
In 1937-38, the Red Army fell prey to Stalin’s paranoia.
Its victims included:
- Three of five marshals (five-star generals);
- Thirteen of 15 army commanders (three- and four-star generals);
- Fifty of 57 army corps commanders; and
- One hundred fifty-four out of 186 division commanders.
And heading the list of those marked for death was Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky, a major Soviet military leader and theoretician from 1918 to 1937.
Joseph Stalin
Arrested on May 22, 1937, he was interrogated and tortured. As a result, he “confessed” to being a German agent plotting to overthrow Stalin and seize power.
On his confession, which survives in the archives, his bloodstains can clearly be seen.
On June 11, 1937, the Soviet Supreme Court convened a special military tribunal to try Tukhachevsky and eight generals for treason.
It was a sham: The accused were denied defense attorneys, and could not appeal the verdict—-which was foregone: Death.
Within hours of the verdict, Tukhachevsky was summoned from his cell and shot once in the back of the head.
In a Russian version of poetic justice, five of the eight generals who served as Tukhachevsky’s judges were themselves later condemned and executed as traitors.
From 1937 until 1956, Tukhachevsky was officially declared a traitor and fifth-columnist.
On January 31, 1957, Tukhachevsky and his co-defendants were declared innocent of all charges and were “rehabilitated” by order of Stalin’s successor, Nikita Khrushchev.
Postage stamp honoring Mikhail Tukhachevsky
The Stalin purges—lasting to 1938—decimated the Russian army and left the Soviet Union vulnerable to attack by its arch enemy: Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
On June 22, 1941, that attack swept over the western part of the Soviet Union, up to the gates of Moscow and, in 1942, as far east as Stalingrad. It took four years of bitter warfare—and a loss of at least 25 million Soviet casualties—before the Nazi threat was finally destroyed.
As a result of Trump’s purges of America’s health and security institutions, the United States now faces the same threat of invasion—through disease, terrorism, natural disaster or military conquest.
Donald Trump
Meanwhile, House and Senate Republicans are openly or silently rubberstamping Trump’s agenda.
The reason: They fear that Trump will turn his Fascistic voting base upon them. They want to keep their seats in Congress—and all the power and perks that go with them.
Republicans don’t care that Trump has trashed the institutions that Americans have cherished for more than 200 years. Institutions like an independent judiciary, a free press, and an incorruptible Justice Department.
He has viciously attacked all of these—and Republicans have either said nothing or rushed to his defense. Many of them tried to short-circuit Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation and prosecution of Trump’s inciting a deadly riot against Congress on January 6, 2021.
But there are signs that even some Republicans might be thinking of breaking with Trump—at least on slashing the Medicaid program.
States and the federal government jointly pay for Medicaid, which offers nearly-free health care coverage for roughly 80 million poor and disabled Americans, including millions of children. It cost $880 billion to operate in 2023.
Nationally, 55% of Americans said the government spends too little on Medicaid.
And pollster Tony Fabrizio, a chief architect of Trump’s 2024 victory, has heard rumblings of Republican discontent. He’s warned the President that:
- 59% of voters in 18 swing districts worry “about their personal financial situation.”
- In these swing districts, 80% favor extending the Affordable Care Act subsidies for health insurance—which will expire this year after Democrats expanded them in 2021.
- Majorities oppose cutting taxes on corporations.
- 63% say their top priority for tax policy is helping “working-class families,” versus the 1%, which Trump and Republicans favor.
The House blueprint, which Trump supports, lays the groundwork for up to $880 billion in Medicaid cuts and tens of billions in cuts to food stamps.
According to a February 22 story in The New Republic—“Trump’s New Pollster Just Hit Him With Very Bad News and a Warning”:
“One caveat: The Fabrizio poll finds that a very slim majority supports extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts when they are not defined. But that package contained enormous tax cuts for the rich and corporations, and those would get extended too.”
Yet even if Medicaid and Medicare remain untouched, that will do nothing for those thousands of federal workers who have lost their jobs.
Many of them waited months to undergo extensive background investigations. Many of them have been on the job only weeks or months before being pink-slipped.
Most of them won’t be given letters of recommendation, proving they were not removed for cause. Which will make it hard to convince new employers to hire them.
They are among the first casualties of Donald Trump’s “Make America Great” campaign. They won’t be the last.
2024 PRESIDENTIL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BIRTH CONTROL, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUZZFEED, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, CBS NEWS, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION, CNN, CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS, DONALD TRUMP, ELON MUSK, FBI, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION, FEDERAL ELECTIONS COMMISSION, FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WORKFORCE, FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION FOOD DIVISION, GLOBAL WARMING, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HERITAGE FOUNDATION, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, HUD COMMUNITY PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT, HUFFINGTON POST, INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, JACK SMITH, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, JOSEPH STALIN, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MIKHAIL TUKHAVEVSKY, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL FOREST SERVICE, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH, NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NKVD, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION PROJTECT, PROJECT 2025, PURGE, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TONY FABRIZO, TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNEMPLOYMENT, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, X
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 12, 2025 at 12:13 am
Donald Trump made butchering the federal workforce a major issue during his 2024 campaign for President. And since taking office for the second time on January 20, he’s thoroughly made good on it—with relish.
All of this was entirely predictable—long before Trump re-entered the White House.
And Part Two of my three-part series, “Love Thy Dictator,” published on August 21, 2024, did just that. From that post:
Under Project 2025:
- The Department of Homeland Security would be abolished.
- Traditionally independent federal agencies such as the Department of Justice, Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission would be placed under Presidential control.
- The Environmental Protection Agency would be stripped of its authority to protect the air, water and soil.
- States would be prevented from adopting stricter regulations on vehicular emissions, like California, has done.
- Fossil fuels—the leading cause of global warming—would be favored and environmental regulations to combat climate change abolished.
- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which the project calls “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry,” would be abolished.
- Federal funding for all public transit systems across the country would be eliminated.
- The wealthiest 1% would receive massive tax cuts at the expense of the poor and middle class.
- Conception would be designated as the point where life begins.
- Abortion would be outlawed.
- Access to birth control would be sharply restricted, if not banned.
- Christianity would be designated as the official religion of the United States.
- The use of capital punishment would be revived and expanded—and the right of appeals sharply restricted.
Trump’s declaring all-out war on America’s cherished institutions—such as the Forest Service, Department of Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Food and Drug Administration—is unprecedented in United States history.
It will also prove catastrophic for Trump’s constituencies—as well for those who totally oppose his reign.
Even billionaires—the constituency Trump cares about most—need reliable weather reports before setting out on their private jets or yachts.
Eliminating the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will deprive them (as well as millions Trump doesn’t care about) of reliable information on approaching storms and other unsafe weather conditions.
Eliminating the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will expose everyone—billionaires included—to the threats of widespread diseases such as Ebola and typhoid.
And as of February 25, CBS and other reliable news media have reported a new virus rising out of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the majority of cases, the interval between the onset of symptoms and death has been just 48 hours.
Firing workers at the Transportation Security Agency—which is responsible for preventing aircraft hijackings—can only result in a repetition of 9/11-style hijackings.
The TSA was born in 2001, just two months after Islamic terrorists slaughtered 3,000 Americans via hijacked planes in New York and Washington, D.C—and signed into law by Republican President George W. Bush.
Firing employees at the Department of Defense will endanger America’s national security by drastically lowering morale as remaining employees must carry out their own duties and those of fired workers.
Firing workers at the Federal Aviation Administration virtually guarantees an increase in airline disasters. Since Trump took office on January 20, there have been 14 aviation disasters, killing a total of 93 people.
Firing employees at the Food and Drug Administration will result in a return to unsafe food, prescription and over-the-counter drugs, dietary supplements, vaccines, medical devices, cosmetics, electromagnetic radiation emitting devices and veterinary products.
The FDA dates back to 1906 and the administration of Republican President Theodore Roosevelt. Even billionaires—Trump’s preferred constituency—must eat and seek medical care, so they will be as disadvantaged by its demise as ordinary Americans.
Although Trump’s purges—current and continuing—of his own government are unprecedented for the United States, they nevertheless have a historical precedent.
Unfortunately for Americans, that precedent occurred in the Soviet Union of Joseph Stalin.
The 1930s were a frightening and dangerous time to be alive in the Soviet Union. In 1934, Stalin, seeing imaginary enemies everywhere, ordered a series of purges that lasted right up to the German invasion of 1941.
Joseph Stalin
An example of Stalin’s paranoia occurred one day while the dictator walked through the Kremlin corridors with Admiral Ivan Isakov. Officers of the NKVD (the predecessor to the KGB) stood guard at every corner.
“Every time I walk down the corridors,” said Stalin, “I think: Which one of them is it? If it’s this one, he will shoot me in the back. But if I turn the corner, the next one can shoot me in the face.”
In 1937-38, the Red Army fell prey to Stalin’s paranoia.
Its victims included:
- Three of five marshals (five-star generals);
- Thirteen of 15 army commanders (three- and four-star generals);
- Fifty of 57 army corps commanders; and
- One hundred fifty-four out of 186 division commanders.
And heading the list of those marked for death was Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky, a major Soviet military leader and theoretician from 1918 to 1937.
Arrested on May 22, 1937, he was interrogated and tortured. As a result, he “confessed” to being a German agent plotting to overthrow Stalin and seize power.
ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANTHONY FAUCI, AP, ATTACK ON THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL BUILDING, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION, CLOROX BLEACH, CNN, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DONALD TRUMP, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, JAMES COBURN, JOE BIDEN, JULIUS CAESAR (PLAY), MARK ANTHONY, MASKS, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., ROD SERLING, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOCIAL DISTANCING, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWILIGHT ZONE, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, UV LIGHT, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, WONKETTE, X
In Business, Entertainment, History, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 6, 2025 at 12:12 am
On November 8, 1963—57 years before COVID-19 invaded the United States—Rod Serling’s “The Twilight Zone” offered a prophecy of future disaster for the country.
“The Old Man in the Cave” is set in a post-apocalyptic rural town in 1974, 10 years after a nuclear war has devastated the United States.
A nuclear explosion
The townspeople have discovered a supply of canned food. However, they are waiting for Mr. Goldsmith [John Anderson], their leader, to return with a message from the mysterious and unseen “old man in the cave.” Then they will learn whether the food is contaminated with radiation.
When Goldsmith returns, he informs them that the old man has declared the food is contaminated and that it should be destroyed.
Shortly thereafter, three soldiers led by Major French [James Coburn] enter the town and clash with Goldsmith as they try to establish their authority.
French is clearly a precursor of Donald Trump: Demanding instant obedience and threatening death to anyone who disobeys him, he claims he will organize the region to rebuild society..
Donald Trump
However, Goldsmith believes that French and his men simply want to strip the town of its food.
French attacks the townspeople’s belief in the seemingly infallible “old man in the cave.” He tells them they have survived these past 10 years—but they haven’t lived.
Fifty-seven years later, Donald Trump will furiously attack not COVID-19 but the medical advice of his own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—especially that provided by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top expert on infectious disease.
He will disdain the wearing of masks and social distancing, and attack those Democratic governors who impose stay-at-home orders to contain the virus. He will offer a series of rosy predictions—none of which come true—that the virus will soon end.
His “cures” include ingesting Clorox bleach and/or having UV light shined up one’s anus.
COVID-19 virus
And French holds himself out as the man who can deliver them a wonderful new future.
Fifty-seven years later, Donald Trump will similarly declare: “I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves. Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.”
French tempts the townspeople to eat the food Goldsmith warned was contaminated. There is a wild orgy of gluttony as they greedily consume it.
Only Goldsmith refuses to partake in the food orgy.
The townspeople turn on Goldsmith and threaten him with death unless he reveals the identity of “the old man in the cave.” Goldsmith finally takes the assembly to the cave to reveal his source: A computer.
French incites the townspeople to stone the computer with rocks and canned goods until it explodes. Then French leads the people into celebrating their new-found freedom from this “tyranny”.
Fifty-seven years later, Trump will similarly incite his followers to attack the United States Capitol building to halt the legal transfer of Presidential power from himself to Joe Biden.
But as Goldsmith had insisted, the “old man” was correct: The canned goods were contaminated with radiation. All the townspeople—including French and the soldiers—die, their bodies left lying throughout the streets.
Trump will similarly tempt millions of Americans to ignore the deaths of tens of thousands of their fellow citizens from COVID-19 and the overwhelming of the nation’s hospitals. The result will be a vast increase in deaths.
Only one man survives—Goldsmith, who has refused to eat the forbidden food and somberly walks out of the now-dead town.
As always in a “Twilight Zone” episode, it is Rod Serling who gets the final word: “Mr. Goldsmith, survivor. An eyewitness to man’s imperfection. An observer of the very human trait of greed. And a chronicler of the last chapter—the one reading ‘suicide’. Not a prediction of what is to be, just a projection of what could be. This has been The Twilight Zone.”
Rod Serling
Except that Serling was wrong: “The Old Man in the Cave” has proven an uncanny prediction of what did happen in America.
* * * * *
The chief lesson to be learned from the COVID-19 epidemic is that catastrophe inevitably results when natural disaster collides with an evil and incompetent administration.
And totally ignoring that lesson were the 77 million Americans who re-elected Donald Trump—the man most responsible for the deaths of 400,000 Americans—as President.
Under his tyrannical rule, the United States suffered not simply from a lethal virus but a combination of denial, lies, Republican subservience, chaos, extortion, propaganda as news, quackery as medicine, premature demands to “re-open the country,” ignoring the danger and—finally—resignation (“Learn to live with the virus”).
Even after three vaccines were produced, millions of Americans—almost all of them Right-wing Trump supporters—refused to protect themselves and the families and friends they claimed to love.
And Trump has appointed Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.—a 14-year heroin addict and fanatical anti-vaccine proponent—Secretary of Health and Human Services.
As if on cue: A mystery illness has emerged in the Congo whose symptoms—which include fever, vomiting and internal bleeding—result in death in 48 hours.
ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BLUESKY, BUZZFEED, CANADA, CBS NEWS, CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM PARDO, CNN, CNN'S "STARTING POINT", CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, EXTORTION, FBI, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, INSIDER, JUDICIARY, JUSTIN TRUDEAU, MASTADON, MEDIA MATTERS, MEXICO, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MSNBC'S "HARDBALL", NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEGOTIATING, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLAND, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PRESS, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE PENTAGON, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WONKETTE, WORLD WAR 11, X
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 5, 2025 at 12:05 am
To understand what is happening in the United States today, it’s necessary to realize this:
Its decent, democracy-cherishing citizens find themselves in the same position as decent, democracy-cherishing citizens of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.
And just as Germany’s government became a ruthless dictatorship, so has that of the United States.
And just as ordinary, peace-loving Germans hoped for a powerful, democratic outsider to remove the menace of Adolf Hitler, so do ordinary, peace-loving Americans hope the same will happen to Donald Trump.
Adolf Hitler
From 1939 to 1945, those democracy-cherishing outsiders consisted of Canada, England and the United States. (The Soviet Union reluctantly joined this alliance only after it became yet another victim of Adolf Hitler’s aggression.)
In the case of the United States, that solution can only be achieved economically—by pressuring Right-wing Republican members of Congress in Red states to end their support for Trump’s dictatorial agenda.
And the only democratic countries with the power to do this are Mexico and Canada, America’s foremost trading partners.
The 2024 elections gave Republicans not only the White House but control of the House and Senate.
Donald Trump
Republicans don’t care that Trump has trashed the institutions that Americans have cherished for more than 200 years. Institutions like an independent judiciary, a free press, and an incorruptible Justice Department.
He has viciously attacked all of these—and Republicans have either said nothing or rushed to his defense.
What Republicans truly fear about Donald Trump is that if they dare to hold him accountable for his lifetime of criminality, his Fascistic base will turn on them—and turn them out of Congress.
If they are conflicted—whether to continue supporting Trump or desert him—the reason is the same: How can I hold onto my power and all the privileges that go with it?
Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, President of Mexico
Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
Republicans—with Trump as their Fuhrer—are utilizing the same my-way-or-else “negotiating” strategy as Nazi Germany’s Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler.
And Democrats—out of cowardice and/or ignorance of history—are, as usual, refusing to publicly make this comparison.
Thus, America’s rescue from Trump can only come from outside the United States.
Donald Trump has proven his affinity for dictators and dictatorships—lavishing praise on Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping and North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un.
It’s with the leaders of democratic nations that he loves to pick fights. And he will go on doing so until he is stopped.
There are two reasons for his hostile behavior in foreign affairs:
- Trump admires dictators, desires to become one himself, and is now stocking essential federal agencies—such as the Pentagon, FBI and Department of Homeland Security—with his political hacks to make this a reality.
- He knows that compared to the dictatorships of Russia and China, democracies such as those of Canada, Mexico and Ukraine are comparatively weak militarily.
As with Adolf Hitler, attempting to reason with Trump will prove fruitless. He respects only superior force.
But he has blinked when confronted with serious opposition.
Thus, on February 1, he threatened to hit Mexico and Canada with 25% tariffs, accusing them of injecting huge amounts of Fentanyl and huge numbers of illegal aliens into the United States. This allowed him to look tough to his legions of uneducated, Fascistic voters.
But then Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau threatened to retaliate with their own 25% tariffs on American goods.
And the financially conservative Wall Street Journal-–whose target audience includes business leaders, investors, and affluent consumers—called Trump’s threat “the dumbest trade war in history.”
Suddenly, Trump found a way to declare victory, claiming that Mexico and Canada would vastly increase border security to stop the flow of Fentanyl and illegal aliens.
And dropping his threat of a trade war.
So Trump can be beaten—if his enemies are willing to go all the way.
Democratic nations like Canada and Mexico dare not attack Donald Trump militarily. The United States has such a powerful military it’s threatened only by China and Russia.
But Canada and Mexico can target with ruthless tariffs those Red states whose Fascistic voting blocs fanatically support Trump—and the House and Senate members who support him.
They can
- Deprive Red state populations of the fruits, vegetables, meats, cars, computers, oil, gas—and especially beer and alcohol—they take for granted.
- Refuse to stock goods from Red states in their stores.
- Appeal to the patriotism of Canadians and Mexicans to maintain the boycott despite the suffering this will impose on their own countries.
Americans have grown used to seeking simple, painless solutions to major problems. Thus, Trump won 77 million votes by promising to drastically reduce the price of eggs.
This despite a loss of millions of bird flu-infected chickens.
With egg prices continuing to drastically rise, Americans are already getting impatient for Trump to work a miracle—as he falsely promised to do during the campaign.
When Red states are forced to suffer staggering losses for months on end, they will elect anti-Fascist Senators and Representatives to nullify the evils of Trump’s administration.
ABC NEWS, ALCOHOLISM, ALTERNATIVE HOUSING PROGRAM, ALTERNET, AMAZON, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BROOKE JENKINS, BUMS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHESA BOUDIN, CITY JOURNAL, CNN, COVID-19, CRACK COCAINE, CROOKS AND LIARS, CVS, DAILY KOS, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH (DPH), DRUG ADDICTION, FENTANYL, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GAVIN NEWSOM, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HOMELESS, HOMELESSNESS, HUFFINGTON POST, IPS SECURITY, JOSEPH STALIN, LONDON BREED, LOS ANGELES, MARK HOPKINS HOTEL, MEDIA MATTERS, MENTAL ILLNESS, MICHAEL SHELLENBERGER, MOTEL 6, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAVIGATION CENTERS, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, ORACLE, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PORTLAND, RAW STORY, REUTERS, SALON, SAN FRANCISCO, SAN FRANCISCO BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, SAN FRANCISCO DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE, SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR'S OFFICE, SAN FRANCISCO POLICE DEPARTMENT, SAN FRANSICKO: WHY PROGRESSIVES RUIN CITIES (BOOK), SEATLE, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TENDERLOIN, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE SPECTATOR WORLD, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, UPI, USA TODAY, VMWARE, WALGREENS, WHOLE FOODS MARKET
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on February 27, 2025 at 12:14 am
The latest wrinkle in San Francisco’s “be kind to Untermenschen“ (the German word for “subhumans”) campaign is the creation of “Navigation Centers.”
These are essentially holding pens for drug addicts, alcoholics, mentally ill and parasitic bums until they can be “navigated” to permanent housing.
But housing is in short supply in San Francisco, and there is no telling how long many of these Untermenschen will stay in them. Or what harm they will wreak on the neighborhoods warehousing them.
Since 2015, eight Navigation Centers have been opened throughout San Francisco; six are in operation.
Among the “amenities” they provide:
- Meals
- Privacy
- Space for pets
- Space separate from sleeping areas
- Laundry
- Access to benefits
- Wi-Fi
Hundreds—if not thousands—of their occupants are meth or heroin addicts. Such people commit virtually any crime to support their habit. And their crimes of choice are burglary and robbery.
Thus, pouring large numbers of them into San Francisco neighborhoods via “Navigation Centers” guarantees that countless decent citizens will become targets for desperate criminals.
At a public hearing in January, 2020, San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin touted the importance of Navigation Centers—including the one that would soon be established at Post and Hyde Streets.
When a local resident asked, “Is one of these centers located where you live?” Peskin replied: “No.”
In short: The city’s elite make sure their homes are far removed from the plague they so easily inflict on San Francisco residents.
In fact, when they’re not swallowing alcohol or injecting, swallowing or sniffing drugs, many of San Francisco’s “homeless” spend a lot of their time ripping off retail stores.
Walgreens drug stores have proven a particular target for these DDMBs—Druggies, Drunks, Mentals and Bums—the four groups that make up 90% of the “homeless” population.
“I feel sorry for the clerks, they are regularly being verbally assaulted,” a regular customer, Sebastian Luke, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
“The clerks say there is nothing they can do. They say Walgreens’ policy is to not get involved. They don’t want anyone getting injured or getting sued, so the guys just keep coming in and taking whatever they want.”
“Retail theft across our San Francisco stores has continued to increase in the past few months to five times our chain average,” Walgreens spokesman Phil Caruso told the Chronicle in October, 2021.
“During this time to help combat this issue, we increased our investments in security measures in stores across the city to 46 times our chain average in an effort to provide a safe environment.”
As a result, Walgreens has closed at least 11 stores in San Francisco.
One store in the San Francisco area reportedly lost $1,000 a day to theft.
Many shoplifters then sell their stolen goods on the street—often near the store where they stole them.
Under California law, theft under $950 is considered a misdemeanor, but many prosecutors prefer to free those charged rather than holding them in jail.
The maximum sentence they could get: Six months.
Low-income and disabled seniors who depend on these disappearing drug stores for prescriptions are especially at risk.
The city budgeted $1.1 billion for fiscal year 2021-22 on DDMBs. Dividing that amount by about 7,754 DDMBs provides the figure of about $128,925 per DDMB per year.
So what can San Francisco do to effectively combat the plague of DDMBs?
- Launch a “Please Do Not Feed the Bums” publicity campaign—as it has against feeding pigeons. And those caught doing so should be heavily fined.
- Trash cans should be equipped with locked doors, to prevent bums from using them as food dispensers.
- Those living on the street should be given two choices: (1) Go to a local shelter or face arrest and the immediate confiscation of their possessions;
- (2) An “Untermenschen City” should be set up near the city dump. There they can live in their tents and/or sleeping bags while being unable to daily confront or assault others to obtain free money.
- San Francisco’s rent control laws should be strengthened, to prevent future evictions owing to the unchecked greed of landlords. Tenants on fixed incomes should be given special protections against extortionate rent increases.
- Bus drivers should be able to legally refuse passengers who stink of urine/feces, as they present a potential health-hazard to others.
- The owners of restaurants, theaters and grocery stores should likewise be allowed to refuse service on the same basis.
- Those applying for welfare benefits should be required to provide proof of residence. Too many people come to San Francisco because, upon arrival, they can immediately apply for such benefits.
- Set up a special unit to remove “street people” and their possessions from city sidewalks. This could be a division of the Sanitation Department, since its personnel are used to removing filth and debris of all types.
- Forcefully tell alcoholics and drug addicts: “Your anti-social behavior is not welcome here. Take your self-destructive lifestyles elsewhere. We won’t subsidize them.”
- Take the mentally unstable off the street and place them in institutions where their needs can be met.
- Tell those who are just plain bums: “Don’t expect us to support you.”
Only then will San Francisco reclaim its place as America’s most beloved city.
ABC NEWS, ALCOHOLISM, ALTERNATIVE HOUSING PROGRAM, ALTERNET, AMAZON, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BROOKE JENKINS, BUMS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHESA BOUDIN, CITY JOURNAL, CNN, COVID-19, CRACK COCAINE, CROOKS AND LIARS, CVS, DAILY KOS, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH (DPH), DRUG ADDICTION, FENTANYL, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GAVIN NEWSOM, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HOMELESS, HOMELESSNESS, HUFFINGTON POST, IPS SECURITY, JOSEPH STALIN, LONDON BREED, LOS ANGELES, MARK HOPKINS HOTEL, MEDIA MATTERS, MENTAL ILLNESS, MICHAEL SHELLENBERGER, MOTEL 6, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAVIGATION CENTERS, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, ORACLE, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PORTLAND, RAW STORY, REUTERS, SALON, SAN FRANCISCO, SAN FRANCISCO BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, SAN FRANCISCO DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE, SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR'S OFFICE, SAN FRANCISCO POLICE DEPARTMENT, SAN FRANSICKO: WHY PROGRESSIVES RUIN CITIES (BOOK), SEATLE, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TENDERLOIN, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE SPECTATOR WORLD, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, UPI, USA TODAY, VMWARE, WALGREENS, WHOLE FOODS MARKET
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on February 26, 2025 at 12:07 am
If you are a firefighter, police officer, paramedic or schoolteacher, and want to live in San Francisco, forget it.
According to Rent Cafe, which provides apartment listings directly from top property managers: “The average [monthly] rent for an apartment in San Francisco is $3,313.” And “the average size for a San Francisco apartment is 734 square feet.”
But there’s hope for you yet—if you’re a Druggie, Drunk, Mental or Bum (DDMBs).
Why?
Because the Mayor of San Francisco—currently London Breed—and Board of Supervisors have deliberately created an Untermenschen-friendly program that actually encourages such people to move to the city.
“Untermenschen,” in German, means “subhuman.”
The short version of this is “Unters.”
A major part of this lies in placing these “guests” in hotels throughout the city. These range from the relatively low-budget Motel 6 to the luxurious Mark Hopkins.
“Guests” receive personal grooming, sanitary and cleaning supplies, three delivered meals, and laundry service for clothes and linens.
The hotels were pressured into accepting the Unters, but they also wanted to recover monies lost to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The city is paying $200 per night per room, totaling $6,000 a month—nearly double the cost of a private one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco.
But there is a big catch for the hotels: When the “homeless” are placed in subsidized housing, their mental illness, irresponsible addiction to drugs and/or alcohol and/or generally sloth-like habits usually trash those premises.
San Francisco is secretly placing DDMBs—Druggies, Drunks, Mentals and Bums—among the tourists who check into these hotels. It does so by designating them as “emergency front-line workers.”
For most people, this means doctors, nurses and similar professionals.
It doesn’t mean DDMBs, if not outright criminals.
The city has invoked emergency-disaster law to keep this information secret. Officials refuse to notify the public about the dangers within their midst. The list of hotels is withheld from the press and reporters are forbidden to enter the properties.
City and hotel workers are required to sign nondisclosure agreements that forbid them to reveal the dangers they and their legitimate guests are exposed to. Doing so is punishable by a fine of up to $1,000, imprisonment for up to one year, or both.
Despite this, the truth has been leaking out. Security guards stand outside hotel entrances, alerting anyone who sees them that all is not well. Crime, vagrancy and drug usage/dealing have also increased around the hotels.
In one hotel, Unters receive needle kits and are advised to call the front desk before shooting up. Drug-related deaths have occurred. Containers for safely disposing of needles are placed on every floor. Even so, used syringes are often left where non-addicts can be infected by them.
“There are parties, drug overdoses, deaths, assaults on people, sexual harassment. It’s pandemonium,” City Journal writer Erica Sandberg reported. “This is very bad and it needs to be stopped.
“What they [hotel employees] told about the situation inside goes beyond any scope. They are not just terrified, they are traumatized by what they see. According to their stories, in hotels they found mattresses with feces, blood, hospital bandages on the floor. What people see is so terrible that they go out and say, ‘I don’t want to go back there.'”
City officials provide far more than free room and board to DDMBs.
The Department of Public Health (DPH) runs the COVID-19 Alternative Housing Program. And it works in two stages:
Stage 1: Move the “homeless” into the city’s hotels—at city expense.
Stage 2: Provide them with not only free food and shelter but free alcohol, cannabis, and cigarettes.
According to a May 11, 2020 story in City Journal.org:
“The program’s primary purpose is to keep homeless people, the majority of whom are addicts, out of harm’s way during the pandemic. By getting their substance of choice delivered, the thinking goes, the guests may be more apt to remain in their government-funded rooms.
“Another purpose of the program is to protect the public against the spread of coronavirus. The city doesn’t want homeless people who should be staying in their rooms roaming the neighborhood in search of the substances, potentially infecting others.”
But the agency doesn’t require that its addict “guests” remain quarantined. It merely asks that they do so.
After news about these deliveries leaked on social media, DPH claimed that “rumors that guests of San Francisco’s alternative housing program are receiving taxpayer-funded deliveries of alcohol, cannabis and tobacco are false.”
Except that the reports weren’t false.
The program is funded by private philanthropists. Nevertheless:
- DPH administers and oversees the program.
- It’s staffed by city workers, including doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, social workers and security personnel.
- The department manages, stores and distributes the substances.
- Employee time is involved.
Thus, the program is financed by taxpayers, even if an outside group provides some of the funding.
The latest wrinkle in San Francisco’s “be kind to Untermenschen“ campaign is the creation of “Navigation Centers.” These are essentially holding pens for Unters—until they can be “navigated” to permanent housing.
ABC NEWS, ALCOHOLISM, ALTERNATIVE HOUSING PROGRAM, ALTERNET, AMAZON, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BROOKE JENKINS, BUMS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHESA BOUDIN, CITY JOURNAL, CNN, COVID-19, CRACK COCAINE, CROOKS AND LIARS, CVS, DAILY KOS, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH (DPH), DONALD TRUMP, FENTANYL, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GAVIN NEWSOM, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HOMELESS, HOMELESSNESS, HUFFINGTON POST, IPS SECURITY, JOSEPH STALIN, LONDON BREED, LOS ANGELES, MARK HOPKINS HOTEL, MEDIA MATTERS, MENTAL ILLNESS, MICHAEL SHELLENBERGER, MOTEL 6, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAVIGATION CENTERS, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, ORACLE, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PORTLAND, RAW STORY, REUTERS, SALON, SAN FRANCISCO, SAN FRANCISCO BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, SAN FRANCISCO DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE, SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR'S OFFICE, SAN FRANCISCO POLICE DEPARTMENT, SAN FRANSICKO: WHY PROGRESSIVES RUIN CITIES (BOOK), SEATLE, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TENDERLOIN, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE SPECTATOR WORLD, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, UPI, USA TODAY, VMWARE, WALGREENS, WHOLE FOODS MARKET, X
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on February 25, 2025 at 12:10 am
On November 3, 2021, National Public Radio’s website carried the following headline: “San Francisco’s new rapid response teams race to save lives as ODs dramatically rise.”
From the story:
“Faced with a stunning rise in drug overdose deaths the last few years, the vast majority tied to fentanyl, San Francisco has launched mobile teams made up of paramedics and nurses.
“The new Street Overdose Response Teams (SORT), a collaboration between the city’s health and fire departments, aim to deliver a broad range of support and care directly following an overdose.”
And what is the ultimate result of repeatedly saving drug-abusers from their own self-destructive behavior?
In his 2021 bestseller, San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities, author Michael Shellenberger provides the answer.
According to its dust jacket:
“Progressives claimed they knew how to solve homelessness, inequality, and crime. But in cities they control, progressives made those problems worse.
“Michael Shellenberger has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for thirty years. During that time, he advocated for the decriminalization of drugs, affordable housing, and alternatives to jail and prison.
“But as homeless encampments spread, and overdose deaths skyrocketed, Shellenberger decided to take a closer look at the problem. What he discovered shocked him. The problems had grown worse not despite but because of progressive policies.”
In a June 1, 2022 interview with The Spectator World, Shellenberger blamed liberal ideology for this epidemic:
“The first thing is that they don’t enforce laws. They don’t enforce laws against people that they consider victims, which includes addicts and the mentally ill. And if you don’t enforce laws it turns out people don’t follow them and you don’t have functioning civilization.
Michael Shellenberger
Michael Shellenberger, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
“The second is that they have pursued a radical de-incarceration, de-policing and decriminalization agenda, which has removed penalties for many laws, including shoplifting $950 worth of goods, or possessing three grams of fentanyl and meth, enough to produce paranoid psychosis. And they’ve pursued a so-called housing first anti-shelter policy.
“So they’ve defunded the shelters. The governor himself has established that housing should be a right. That anybody who comes to San Francisco or Los Angeles should have their own apartment unit in those cities. That is the state policy. It is so ridiculous. It is shocking to even say that that is what the policy is, but that is what it is.
“What we need is pretty straightforward. We need to enforce laws. We need a shelter-first housing-earned policy and you need statewide psychiatric and addiction care like they have in every civilized country.
“We’re reviving people from overdose six, nine, twelve times and then sending them right back onto the streets to smoke more fentanyl. It’s bonkers.
“Fifty percent to 75 percent of all fires put out by the San Francisco and Los Angeles fire departments are in homeless encampments. My own research, and the research of others, shows that most of these are arson fires, people just getting back at each other.”
And how did the city’s mayor, London Breed, respond to the closing of the flagship store of Whole Foods Market? With a public statement that was pure boilerplate:
“Public safety is Mayor Breed’s top priority and vital to the City’s work around restoring our economy and making our residents and workers feel safe.
“We will continue to engage with them about the future use of the site. The Police will continue aggressively enforcing against open-air drug dealing, maximizing police response to urgent calls for assistance, partnering with retailers to address theft in their stores, and enforcing new street vending regulations to disrupt the sale of stolen goods.”
Nowhere in that statement is there any mention that from 2020 to July, 2022, San Francisco had a District Attorney—Chesa Boudin—who saw criminals as victims and sought any reason to excuse them for their crimes.
Nor is there any mention that the current D.A.—Brooke Jenkins—remains stymied by the realities that, under California law:
- Theft under $950 is considered a misdemeanor.
- As a result, many prosecutors prefer to free those charged rather than holding them in jail.
- The maximum sentence offenders can get is six months.
- This has led to massive shoplifting sprees at drugstores and merchandise discount stores like Target.
Also left unsaid:
- Firefighters, police officers and schoolteachers are unable to afford the extortionate rents charged by San Francisco landlords.
- But city officials have thrown out the welcome mat for DDMBs—Druggies, Drunks, Mentals and Bums.
- Many DDMBs refuse to enter the city’s available shelters. Some claim these places are dangerous—understandably so, since they’re peopled with drug addicts, alcoholics, psychotics and outright bums.
- Another reason why many of these shelters go unused: They don’t allow their “guests” to drink up or drug up.
Not everyone who can’t find housing is a DDMB.
If you are a firefighter, police officer, paramedic or schoolteacher, and want to live in San Francisco, forget it.
According to Rent Cafe, which provides apartment listings directly from top property managers: “The average [monthly] rent for an apartment in San Francisco is $2,879.” And “the average size for a San Francisco apartment is 739 square feet.”
Bureaucracybuster's Blog 
ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BATTLE OF BRITAIN (MOVIE), BBC, BENITO MUSSOLINI, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUZZFEED, CANADA, CBS NEWS, CHINA, CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM PARDO, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, DONALD TRUMP, EUROPEAN UNION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GREECE, GREENLAND, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HERMANN GORING, HUFFINGTON POST, JUSTIN TRUDEAU, LUFTWAFFE, MEDIA MATTERS, MEXICO, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PANAMA, PBS NEWSHOUR, PETE HEGSETH, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TARIFFS, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE RISE ND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH (BOOK), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WEHRMACHT, WILLIAM L. SHIRER, WINSTON CHURCHILL, WORLD WAR 11, X, YUGOSLAVIA
HITLER / TRUMP: “HOW DARE YOU ATTACK ME IN RETURN!”–PART TWO (END)
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 27, 2025 at 12:06 amOn March 12, President Donald Trump halts imposing double tariffs on imports of Canadian steel and metal to 50%, just hours after announcing them. But he announces that he will raise duties on steel and aluminum imports from the European Union (EU) by 25%.
In response:
Then, on March 13, Trump, like Adolf Hitler, justifies his attacks on peaceful nations. It is only when his victims dare counterattack that he feels wronged.
Bypassing the normal channels of diplomacy, Trump reverts to form on his own website, Truth Social:
“If this tariff is not removed immediately, the US will shortly place a 200% tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER EU REPRESENTED COUNTRIES. This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the US.”
On March 20, the EU announces that it will delay its planned tariffs on American goods, which are set to go into effect at the start of April, until mid-April instead. The decision gives the bloc more time to negotiate with Washington and review the list of products that would be affected by the tariffs.
Trump’s threat to raise tariffs even further echoes Adolf Hitler’s self-righteous indignation at the refusal of Yugoslavians to submit to his tyranny.
On October 28, 1940, his ally, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini—jealous of Hitler and desperate to create his own empire—attacked Greece. And his armies had taken a severe beating by the descendants of Alexander the Great.
So Hitler, reluctantly, decided to rush troops to Greece to save Mussolini from the embarrassment of losing his new war.
Adolf Hitler
At the time Yugoslavia was a monarchy ruled by the regent Prince Paul on behalf of the young King Peter II. On March 25, 1941, under threat of German invasion, Yugoslavia joined the Axis and agreed to permit transit through its territory to German troops headed for Greece.
When Yugoslavia’s nonaggression treaty with Germany was announced the next day in the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade, regent Prince Paul and the government were promptly overthrown in a popular uprising led by Yugoslav Air Force officers with the support of the Yugoslav Army.
On March 27, King Peter II was officially installed as king, ending the regency.
Hitler quickly learned the news. At first he thought it was a joke—and then he exploded in one of the wildest rages of his life.
Shouting that he had been “personally insulted,” Hitler demanded that Yugoslavia be crushed with “unmerciful harshness and that the military destruction be done in Blitzkrieg style. Now I intend to make a clean sweep of the Balkans—it is time people got to know me better!”
The invasion of Yugoslavia opened on April 6, 1941, with an overwhelming bombardment of Belgrade and facilities of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force by the the German air force, the Luftwaffe. The Wehrmacht attacked from southwestern Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria.
On April 17, after only 11 days of fighting, representatives for Yugoslavia signed the armistice and unconditionally surrendered all Yugoslav troops. Yugoslavia was subsequently divided amongst Germany, Hungary, Italy and Bulgaria.
Hitler was ecstatic: He had “avenged” his “betrayal,” and given the world another lesson on the power of his army and air force.
But his victory had come at a cost: The attack on Yugoslavia forced him to postpone his planned invasion of the Soviet Union by five weeks. And the Wehrmacht would suffer horribly when the bitterly cold Russian winter arrived.
As journalist and historian William L. Shirer wrote in his monumental study, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: “This postponement of the attack on Russia in order that the Nazi warlord might vent his personal spite against a small Balkan country which had dared to defy him was probably the most catastrophic single decision in Hitler’s career.
“It is hardly too much to say that by making it that March afternoon in the Chancellery in Berlin during a moment of convulsive rage he tossed away his last golden opportunity to win the war and to make of the Third Reich, which he had created with such stunning if barbarous genius, the greatest empire in German history and himself the master of Europe.”
It’s still too early to foresee if Trump will make such a single catastrophic decision. But he has clearly planted the seeds for this. Among these:
As historian Barbara W. Tuchman warned in her book, The March of Folly: “A great empire and little minds go ill together.”
Share this: