Posts Tagged ‘BBC’
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ABUSE OF POWER, ADOLF HITLER, AILEEN CANNON, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ASSASSINATION, AXIOS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BIRD FLU, BLACKS, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHINA, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS, CLAUS VON STAUFFENBERG, CNN, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DANIEL CASSINO, DEMOCRACY, DEMOCRATIC PARTY, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, ELECTORAL COLLEGE, FBI, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FUEL PRICES, GALLUP POLL, GAZA, GLOBAL CONFLICT, GROCERY PRICES, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HILLARY CLINTON, HISPANICS, HITLER: ASCENT (BOOK), HUFFINGTON POST, HUNTER BIDEN, illegal immigration, IMPEACHMENT, INFLATION, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, ISRAEL, JACK SMITH, JAMAL KHASHOOGI, JAMES COMER, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JARED KUSHNER, JIMMY HOFFA, JOHN ADAMS, JOSEPH BIDEN, Kamala Harris, KEVIN MCCARTHY, KIM JONG-UN, LATINOS, LOW INFORMATION VOTERS, MAR-A-LAGO, MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, MASCULINITY, MEDIA MATTERS, MEIN KAMPF, MERRICK GARLAND, MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUSLIMS, NAZI GERMANY, NAZIS, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NORTH KORREA, NPR, OBSTRUCTION OF CONGRESS, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROBERT F. KENNEDY, RUSSIA, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SUPERMAN, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TERRORISM, 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, THOMAS MATTHEW CROOKS, TIME, TRANSPORTATION COSTS, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. BORDER PATROL, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UKRAINE, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOLKER ULLRICH, VOLODMYR ZELENSKY, VOX, WEIMAR REPUBLIC, WORLD WAR 11, X, XI JINPING
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Social commentary on March 19, 2025 at 12:08 am
There were numerous instances where intervention by Federal legislators or law enforcement authorities could have utterly changed the outcome of the 2024 Presidential election.
Case #9: Americans had become increasingly worried and angry about surging numbers of illegal aliens pouring into the country. But the Biden administration refused—until its closing months—to dramatically address this issue.
A Vox story, dated July 12, 2024, warned: “According to Gallup, 2024 is the first time since 2005 that most of the public have wanted less immigration, and this year marks the largest share of Americans feeling resistant to immigration since 58 percent said so in 2001….”
Illegal alien climbing over the border fence in Brownsville, Texas
Six months later, on January 17, 2025, another Vox story offered: “What Democrats must learn from Biden’s disastrous immigration record.”
It opened: “One of the main reasons Vice President Kamala Harris lost the election is the Biden administration’s record on immigration and the border — polls show it ranks up close with inflation among the top issues that drove swing voters to Trump….
“During Biden’s first three years in office, the number of arriving migrants skyrocketed, leading to a backlash as even blue states and cities complained they were overwhelmed. The peak came in December 2023, a month when officials reported about 250,000 encounters with migrants at the border, a record.”
Then, starting early in 2024, and continuing throughout the year, border arrivals plummeted—by more than 80%.
The reasons:
- The Biden administration got the Mexican government to launch an extensive crackdown on migrants passing through its territory to the United States.
- Biden decreed that new unauthorized migrants would be ineligible for asylum if too many people were coming to the border. Essentially, this meant shutting down the asylum process.
Unfortunately for Harris, the downturn in illegal immigration came too late.
Donald Trump
In times of economic uncertainty, hostility rises toward immigrants—especially those who are alien to a host country’s language and culture. This has proven true in Europe as well as the United States.
Case #10: Americans blamed President Biden for inflationary price increases—especially for groceries such as eggs.
According to a December 20, 2024 article—“Why are groceries so expensive? What you need to know”—by the Center for Science in the Public Interest:
“Since January 2019, food prices have risen nearly 30 percent in the US, leaving many households struggling to afford groceries.”
Among the issues responsible for this:
- COVID-19: Caused worldwide disruptions in supply chains.
- Transportation costs and fuel prices: Fuel costs are directly tied to how much retailers charge for groceries and other goods.
- Animal diseases, weather events, crop failures: When bird flu (H5N1) first struck the U.S. in 2022, eggs were priced at around $2 per dozen. They peaked at $4.82/dozen in January 2023, and in December 2024—following the infection of over 123 million chickens—prices fell to about $4.15/dozen.
- Global conflict: In February, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, which exports wheat, corn and agricultural fertilizer, among other products. Russia has tried to strangle Ukraine’s exports by attacking the nation’s agricultural centers.
No President—including Biden and Trump—can control such events. Unfortunately, every Presidential candidate virtually promises to be Superman. And voters repeatedly fall victim to this absurdity.
So when elected Presidents fail to perform miracles, those voters turn on them—and turn them out of office.
Case #11: Americans don’t want a woman President.
American voters proved that in 2016 when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ran for President—and lost to Trump in the Electoral College by a count of 227 to 304.
And Hillary had an advantage that Vice President Kamala Harris lacked: Hillary was white.
England has elected a female Prime Minister: Margaret Thatcher. And Mexico—notorious for the machismo of its men—has elected a woman President: Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo. But in the United States, electing a woman chief executive is unthinkable to most American men.
According to Daniel Cassino, Professor of Government and Politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University, men who support Trump hold to a traditionally masculine identity.
“So, among that group, Trump is up over Harris by about 35 points. Huge gap, Among other men, the half of men who don’t put themselves at the extremes of masculinity, Harris is up by 20. In fact, Harris is also up by 20 among most groups of women. So, really the gap is not between men and women, it’s between this one group of traditional masculine men and everybody else.”
Machismo played a major role in Trump’s popularity among Hispanics. Roughly six in 10 men described Trump as a strong leader, compared with 43% who said that in 2020. About half of Hispanic women said Trump was a strong leader, up from 37%.
Case #12: Democrats expected to receive support from their traditional allies—such as blacks and Hispanics. But that didn’t happen.
During the eight-year tenure of America’s first black President, Donald Trump attacked Barack Obama as a foreign-born citizen who was thus ineligible for that office. He also had a history of supporting—and being supported by—racist white groups like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.
Nevertheless, blacks deserted Vice President Kamala Harris in droves. About three in 10 back men under age 45 went for Trump, roughly double the share he got in 2020.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ABUSE OF POWER, ADOLF HITLER, AILEEN CANNON, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ASSASSINATION, AXIOS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BIRD FLU, BLACKS, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHINA, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS, CLAUS VON STAUFFENBERG, CNN, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DANIEL CASSINO, DEMOCRACY, DEMOCRATIC PARTY, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, ELECTORAL COLLEGE, FBI, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FUEL PRICES, GALLUP POLL, GAZA, GLOBAL CONFLICT, GROCERY PRICES, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HILLARY CLINTON, HISPANICS, HITLER: ASCENT (BOOK), HUFFINGTON POST, HUNTER BIDEN, illegal immigration, IMPEACHMENT, INFLATION, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, ISRAEL, JACK SMITH, JAMAL KHASHOOGI, JAMES COMER, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JARED KUSHNER, JIMMY HOFFA, JOHN ADAMS, JOSEPH BIDEN, Kamala Harris, KEVIN MCCARTHY, KIM JONG-UN, LATINOS, LOW INFORMATION VOTERS, MAR-A-LAGO, MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, MASCULINITY, MEDIA MATTERS, MEIN KAMPF, MERRICK GARLAND, MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUSLIMS, NAZI GERMANY, NAZIS, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NORTH KORREA, NPR, OBSTRUCTION OF CONGRESS, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROBERT F. KENNEDY, RUSSIA, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SUPERMAN, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TERRORISM, 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, THOMAS MATTHEW CROOKS, TIME, TRANSPORTATION COSTS, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. BORDER PATROL, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UKRAINE, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOLKER ULLRICH, VOLODMYR ZELENSKY, VOX, WEIMAR REPUBLIC, WORLD WAR 11, X, XI JINPING
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on March 18, 2025 at 12:05 am
There were numerous instances where intervention by Federal legislators or law enforcement authorities could have utterly changed the outcome of the 2024 Presidential election.
Case #5: Even after Donald Trump left office, the Justice Department treated him with a deference not shown any other criminal defendant.
He was allowed, for example, to hurl insults and threats at Special Counsel Jack Smith and even Smith’s family.
One such post, published on Trump’s website, Truth Social, went: “Deranged Jack Smith, who is a sick puppet for A.G. Garland & Crooked Joe Biden, should be DEFUNDED & put out to rest. Republicans must get tough or the Dems will steal another Election. MAGA!”
By “A.G. Garland” Trump meant Attorney General Merrick Garland. By “put out to rest,” he meant that his followers should assassinate Smith.
Not even Mafia bosses like Charles “Lucky” Luciano and Albert “The Executioner” Anastasia dared issue such a threat.
Jack Smith
By contrast: Jimmy Hoffa was president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. But that didn’t prevent Robert F. Kennedy’s Justice Department from indicting him for jury tampering—and convicting him on March 4, 1964. He was sentenced to eight years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
No one in the Kennedy Justice Department said: “He’s the elected president of the Teamsters Union—so we can’t touch him.” Yet that is precisely how the Biden Justice Department repeatedly acted—simply because, in 2016, he won a Presidential election.
Case #6: Throughout his struggles to stay out of prison, Trump was aided by the unrelenting support of the Republican party.
Republicans loudly and repeatedly claimed that Donald Trump was the legitimate winner of the 2020 Presidential election—despite overwhelming evidence that he wasn’t.
They also claimed that, by appointing Special Counsel Jack Smith to investigate Trump, the Democrats had weaponized Federal law enforcement.
They also fully supported Trump’s demand for the release of those who attacked the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.
For example: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has depicted these coup supporters as persecuted martyrs.
On March 24, 2022, members of the Republicans’ House Oversight Committee toured a Washington, D.C. jail where some of these defendants were held. “Their due process rights are being violated. And they have been mistreated and treated as political prisoners,” Greene told reporters after the tour.
Adolf Hitler similarly portrayed as martyrs the Nazis who tried to violently overthrow the government of Bavaria on November 9, 1923.
A March 2, 2020 Washington Monthly story concluded ominously: “U.S. democracy wasn’t set up to deal with a president openly behaving like a James Bond villain while being protected by a political party behaving more like a mafia than a civic institution.”
Case #7: While Congressional Republicans have relentlessly investigated President Joe Biden and his family, Democrats have refused to similarly investigate Trump’s family.
The United States House Oversight Committee opened its investigation into the Biden family on January 11, 2023. The investigation included the foreign business activities of Biden’s son, Hunter, and brother, James.
By November 2023, the investigation had not found any evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden.
Democrats, by contrast, have not probed why Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former White House adviser, received $2 billion from Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The money came to Kushner’s private equity firm after Kushner left the White House in 2021.
Jared Kushner
Salman has been implicated by U.S. Intelligence reports in the 2018 torture and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. When asked if he believed the reports, Kushner said: “Are we really still doing this?”
Democrats have also refused to investigate the Trump administration’s illegally seizing vitally-needed medical supplies in at least seven states during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) did not publicly report the thefts, despite the outlay of millions of dollars of taxpayer money. Nor did the administration explain how it decided which supplies to seize and where to reroute them.
The Federal Government did not inform states whose supplies it seized if they would receive the materials they ordered and paid for.
Case #8: On July 13, 2024, Trump was allegedly wounded in his right ear by a gunman while speaking at an open-air Presidential campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania.
The would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, fired eight rounds from an AR-15 style rifle from the roof of a nearby building. Trump dived for cover behind his lectern, as the shooter killed one audience member and critically injured two others.
Crooks was shot and killed seconds later by the Secret Service’s Counter Sniper Team.
Had Trump not slightly turned his head at the moment Crooks fired, Republicans would have been forced to choose another nominee.
In addition, Trump would not have been alive to win the 2024 Presidential election and openly threaten to imprison the Justice Department prosecutors who sought to hold him accountable for his litany of crimes.
The assassination attempt calls to mind that by Colonel Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg on July 20, 1944, to kill Adolf Hitler with a briefcase bomb. Had he succeeded, the war in Europe would no doubt have ended far earlier, with countless lives being saved.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ABUSE OF POWER, ADOLF HITLER, AILEEN CANNON, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ASSASSINATION, AXIOS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BIRD FLU, BLACKS, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHINA, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS, CLAUS VON STAUFFENBERG, CNN, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DANIEL CASSINO, DEMOCRACY, DEMOCRATIC PARTY, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, ELECTORAL COLLEGE, FBI, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FUEL PRICES, GALLUP POLL, GAZA, GLOBAL CONFLICT, GROCERY PRICES, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HILLARY CLINTON, HISPANICS, HITLER: ASCENT (BOOK), HUFFINGTON POST, HUNTER BIDEN, illegal immigration, IMPEACHMENT, INFLATION, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, ISRAEL, JACK SMITH, JAMAL KHASHOOGI, JAMES COMER, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JARED KUSHNER, JIMMY HOFFA, JOHN ADAMS, JOSEPH BIDEN, Kamala Harris, KEVIN MCCARTHY, KIM JONG-UN, LATINOS, LOW INFORMATION VOTERS, MAR-A-LAGO, MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, MASCULINITY, MEDIA MATTERS, MEIN KAMPF, MERRICK GARLAND, MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUSLIMS, NAZI GERMANY, NAZIS, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NORTH KORREA, NPR, OBSTRUCTION OF CONGRESS, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROBERT F. KENNEDY, RUSSIA, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SUPERMAN, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TERRORISM, 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, THOMAS MATTHEW CROOKS, TIME, TRANSPORTATION COSTS, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. BORDER PATROL, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UKRAINE, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOLKER ULLRICH, VOLODMYR ZELENSKY, VOX, WEIMAR REPUBLIC, WORLD WAR 11, X, XI JINPING
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 17, 2025 at 2:37 am
On November 9, 1923, Nazi Party Fuhrer Adolf Hitler tried to overthrow the government in Munich, Bavaria.
About 2,000 Nazis marched to the center of Munich, where they confronted heavily-armed police. A shootout erupted, killing 16 Nazis and four policemen.
Hitler was injured during the clash, but managed to escape. Two days later, he was arrested and charged with treason.
Put on trial, he found himself treated as a celebrity by a judge sympathetic to Right-wing groups. He was allowed to brutally cross-examine witnesses and even make inflammatory speeches.
At the end of the trial, he was convicted of treason and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.
Serving time in Landsberg Prison, in Bavaria. he was given a huge cell, allowed to receive unlimited visitors and gifts, and treated with deference by guards and inmates.
Hitler used his time in prison to write his infamous book, Mein Kampf-–“My Struggle.” Part autobiography, part political treatise, it laid out his future plans—including the extermination of the Jews and the conquest of the Soviet Union.
Adolf Hitler leaving Landsberg Prison, December, 20, 1924
Nine months later, he was released on parole—by authorities loyal to the authoritarian Right instead of the newly-created Weimar Republic.
Hitler immediately began rebuilding the shattered Nazi party—and deciding on a new strategy to gain power. Never again would he resort to armed force. He would win office by election—or intrigue.
Writes historian Volker Ullrich, in his monumental biography, Hitler: Ascent 1889 – 1939: “Historians have perennially tried to answer the question of whether Hitler’s rise to power could have been halted….
“There were repeated opportunities to end Hitler’s run of triumphs. The most obvious one was after the failed Putsch of November 1923. Had the Munich rabble-rouser been forced to serve his full five-year term of imprisonment in Landsberg, it is extremely unlikely that he would have been able to restart his political career.”
Thus, it isn’t just what happens that can influence the course of history. Often, it’s what doesn’t happen that has at least as great a result.
Future historians—if there are any—may one day write that it’s what didn’t happen that played at least as great a role in re-electing Donald Trump President as what actually did.
There were numerous instances where intervention by Federal legislators or law enforcement authorities could have utterly changed the outcome of the 2024 election.
Case #1: On December 18, 2019, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives adopted two articles of impeachment against Trump: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. On February 5, 2020, the Republican-dominated Senate voted to acquit Trump on both articles of impeachment.
Their motive: Fear that if they didn’t, they would be “primaried” by even more extreme, Trump-supported Right-wing candidates—and lose their positions and the accompanying power and perks.
Had Republicans agreed to convict him, he could not have run again for President.
Case #2: On January 13, 2021, Trump was impeached for the second time for “incitement of insurrection”—inciting the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol.
The reason: To stop the counting of Electoral College votes, which he knew would prove that former Vice President Joseph Biden had won the 2020 Presidential election.
The evidence against him was overwhelming—including video of his inciting a mob of his followers to storm the Capitol Building.
But Republican Senators again acquitted Trump on February 13, 2021—choosing ambition over patriotism.
Had they done so, he could not have again been a candidate for President.
Donald Trump
Case #3: Only on November 18, 2022—a year and a half after becoming Attorney General—did Merrick Garland appoint Jack Smith Independent Counsel to investigate Donald Trump’s role for:
- Inciting the January 6 attack on Congress; and
- Illegally seizing and storing highly classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach Florida.
This gave Trump time to play his “deny and delay” game. Had he been prosecuted and convicted before the November 5 Presidential election, the results might well have been different.
Even hardcore supporters might have proved unwilling to vote for someone found guilty of inciting a riot or stealing highly classified documents.
Case #4: In June, 2023, Trump was indicted for illegally seizing and storing hundreds of highly classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee as Federal Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, presided over the case.
She repeatedly ruled in his favor and finally dismissed the case in July, 2024. claiming that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional.
Aileen Cannon
Southern District of Florida, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Many legal experts, citing her handling of the civil case against Trump, called for her recusal from the case. Jack Smith could have requested her removal from the case but did not ask a Federal appeals court to do so.
MSNBC analyst Barbara McQuade told Newsweek that Smith likely refused to do so to “return public trust” to the Justice Department, which had been challenged in recent years.
Cannon’s kid-gloves treatment of Trump echoed that of the Right-wing judge who presided over Adolf Hitler’s trial in 1923 for trying to overthrow the government of Bavaria.
ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, APACHES, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BROCK PETERS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHARLTON HESTON, CIVIL WAR, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, INDIAN WARS, INDIANS, JAMES COBURN, JIM HUTTON, MAJOR DUNDEE, MEDIA MATTERS, MEXICO, MICHAEL ANDERSON JR., MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, RICHARD HARRIS, SALON, SAM PECKINPAH, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR, STEVEN SPIELBERG, 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 WASHIGNTON POST, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE WILD BUNCH, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TOM HANKS, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WESTERNS, WORLD WAR 1, WORLD WAR 11, X
In Entertainment, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 14, 2025 at 12:06 am
Major Dundee is a 1965 Sam Peckinpah Western focusing on a Union cavalry officer (Charlton Heston) who leads a motley troop of soldiers into Mexico to rescue three children kidnapped by Apaches.
Along the way they liberate Mexican villagers and clash with French lancers trying to establish the Austrian Archduke Maximillian 1 as emperor of Mexico.
The Wild Bunch is universally recognized as Peckinpah’s greatest achievement. It has certainly had a far greater impact on audiences and critics than Major Dundee. According to Heston, this was really the movie Peckinpah wanted to make while making Dundee, but he couldn’t quite get his hands around it.
As a result, Dundee’s virtues have been tragically overlooked. It has a larger cast of major characters than Bunch, and these are men you can truly like and identify with:
- The charm of Benjamin Tyreen (Richard Harrs), a Confederate lieutenant forced into Union service;
- The steady courage of Sergeant Gomez;
- The quiet dignity of Aesop (Brock Peters), a black soldier;
- The quest for maturity in a young, untried bugler Tim Ryan (Michael Anderson, Jr.);
- The on-the-job training experience of Lt. Graham (Jim Hutton); and
- The stoic endurance of Indian scout Sam Potts (James Coburn).
These men are charged with a dangerous and dirty mission, and do it as well as they can, but you wouldn’t fear inviting them to meet your family.
Charlton Heston as Major Dundee
That was definitely not the case with The Wild Bunch, four hardened killers prepared to rip off anyone, anytime, and leave a trail of bodies in their wake. The only place where you would have felt safe seeing them, in real-life, was behind prison bars.
The Wild Bunch
Dundee is an odyssey movie, in the same vein as Saving Private Ryan. Both films start with a battle, followed by the disappearance of characters who need to be searched for and brought back to safety.
Just as Dundee assembles a small force to go into French-occupied Mexico, so, too, does Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) do the same, with his hunting ground being German-occupied France.
Dundee’s men retrieve the kidnapped children and survive a near-fatal battle with Indians. Miller’s men twice clash with the Germans before finding their quarry, James Ryan.
Before Dundee can return to the United States, he must face and defeat a corps of French soldiers.
Before Miller can haul Ryan back to safety, he must repulse a German assault.
Both groups of soldiers—Dundee’s and Miller’s—are transformed by their experiences in ways neither group could possibly articulate. (Miller, being a highly literate schoolteacher, would surely do a better job of this than the tight-jawed Dundee.)
Dundee’s soldiers return to a United States that’s just ended its Civil War with a Union victory—and the death of slavery. Miller’s soldiers return to a nation that is now a global superpower.
Of course, Ryan was fortunate in having Steven Spielberg as its director. With his clout, there was no question that Ryan would emerge as the film he wanted.
Peckinpah lacked such clout. And he fought with everyone, including the producer, Jerry Bressler, who ultimately held the power to destroy his film. This guaranteed that his movie would emerge far differently than he had envisioned.
In 2005, an extended version of Dundee was released, featuring 12 minutes of restored footage. (Much of the original footage was lost after severe cuts to the movie.)
In this, we fully see how unsympathetic a character the martinet Dundee really is. Owing to Heston’s record of playing heroes, it’s easy to overlook Dundee’s arrogance and lethal fanaticism and automatically view him as a hero. If he is indeed that, he is a hero with serious flaws.
And his self-imposed mission poses questions for us today:
- Where is the line between professional duty and personal fanaticism?
- How do we balance the success of a mission against its potential costs—especially if they prove appalling?
- At what point—if any—does personal conscience override professional obligations?
Whether intentionally or not, in Major Dundee, Peckinpah laid out a microcosm of the American history that would immediately follow the Civil War:
- Former Confederates and Unionists would forego their regional animosities and fight against a recognized mutual enemy—the Indians. This would prove a dirty and drawn-out war, shorn of the glory and (later) treasured memories of the Civil War.
- Just as Dundee’s final battle with French lancers ended with an American victory won at great cost, so, too, would America’s forays into the Spanish-American War and World Wars 1 and 11 prove the same.
- Ben Tyreen’s commentary on the barbarism of French troops (“Never underestimate the value of a European education”) would be echoed by twentieth-century Americans uncovering the horrors of Dachau and Buchenwald.
- America would learn to project its formidable military power at great cost.
Toward the end of the movie, Teresa Santiago (Senta Berger), the ex-patriot Austrian widow, would ask Dundee: “But who do you answer to?”It is a question that still vividly expresses the view of the international community as this superpower colossus hurtles from one conflict to the next.
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.
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, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 11, 2025 at 12:44 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.
There is no better symbolism of this than the video of his billionaire enforcer Elon Musk literally wielding a chainsaw at a CPAC convention at Orin Hill, Maryland, on February 20.
Musk appeared onstage, wearing shades and his trademark black “Make America Great Again” hat, and said Argentine President Javier Milei had a gift for him.
The Argentine leader then walked onstage with the red chainsaw and passed it to Musk. The chainsaw was engraved with Milei’s slogan, “Viva la libertad, carajo”—“Long live liberty, damn it.”
Waving the power tool high, Musk shouted: “This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy! Chainsaw!”
Elon Musk
Meanwhile, CNN has been tracking the number—and effects—of the mushrooming cuts at federal offices in Washington and across the United States.
By February 28, these are the numbers so far:
- HUD Community Planning and Development – About 780 employees fired (83.3%)
- Agency for International Development – About 2,000 employees fired (20%)
- Department of Energy – At least 1.8 thousand employees fired (10.6%)
- National Forest Service – About 3.4 thousand employees fired (9.7%)
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – About 800 employees fired (6.4%)
- Internal Revenue Service – At least 6,000 employees fired (6.3%)
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – About 750 employees fired (5.9%)
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – At least 100 employees fired (5.9%)
- Food and Drug Administration Food Division – 89 employees fired (4.5%)
- National Institutes of Health – About 1.1 thousand employees fired (5.3%)
- Department of Education – At least 60 employees fired (1.4%)
- Federal Aviation Administration – About 400 employees fired (0.9%)
- Department of Defense – 5.4 thousand employees fired (0.8%)
- Department of Veterans Affairs – At least 2.4 thousand employees fired (0.5%)
- Transportation Security Administration – 243 employees fired (0.4%)
Others who have been summarily fired—without warning–include:
- 17 Inspectors General, the executive branch watchdogs who conduct audits and investigations of executive branch actions
- The Board of Trustees members for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts —with Trump naming himself as chairman
- Elain Weintraub, chair of the Federal Elections Committee, which enforces campaign finance laws and oversees federal elections
- Gwynne Wilcox, the first black woman to serve on the National Labor Relations Board;
- Eight senior FBI officials involved in investigating the January 6 Capitol riots
- Several Justice Department prosecutors who had investigated Trump’s inciting the January 6, 2021 attack on Congress and his hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate
And this is just within the first month of the Trump administration. More mass firings are certain to be coming.
Donald Trump
But statistics tell only part of the story—and entirely leave out the human element. Among the reactions of the fired federal employees interviewed by CNN:
- “In spite of everything, I am just waiting on word to go back to work so I can serve the American people. That’s why I’m in public service; that’s why all of us are.” Federal worker – Food and Drug Administration
- “There are five of us [in my office] who moved over from other HR departments. We are military spouses, we are veterans, one with 18 years.” – Arielle Pines, Veterans Affairs
- “I was given no time to reach out to colleagues or even clean out my office.” Andria Townsend – National Park Service
- “It was a job I loved doing, protecting consumers every day. It will also have a pretty serious financial impact on my family.” Federal worker – Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- “I don’t even have a letter of termination to get unemployment.” Victoria DeLano – Department of Education
- “I deployed twice. I spent so much time away from my family. I was gone when my mom passed away. I feel very much like the message is that my service isn’t valued.” Chelsea Milburn – Department of Education employee and veteran
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:
Donald Trump’s ambition to become absolute dictator fits brilliantly into the goals of Project 2025, also known as the Presidential Transition Project.
This is a collection of policy proposals to fundamentally reshape the U.S. federal government in the event of a Republican victory in the 2024 Presidential election.
Established in 2022 by the Right-wing Heritage Foundation, the project aims to recruit tens of thousands of radical Right-wingers to the District of Columbia to replace existing federal civil servants.
Under Project 2025:
- Republicans consider federal employees to be subversives who comprise the “deep state.”
- Replacing tenured civil servants with thousands of political hacks will arm Republicans with the power to establish an absolute dictatorship under the next Republican president.
- Republicans believe the Department of Justice has “forfeited the trust” of the American people by investigating Donald Trump’s proven collaboration with Russia to win the 2016 Presidential election.
- As a result, the DOJ must be thoroughly “reformed” and tightly overseen by the White House.
- The director of the FBI must be personally accountable to the President—just as the head of the KGB is personally accountable to Vladimir Putin.
- Federal employees could be instantly fired for not obeying illegal orders, or on mere whim—including the whim of the President.
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, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ASSASSINATION, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BRETT KAVANAUGH, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CLARENCE THOMAS, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, DAILY KOS, DONALD TRUMP, DRUDGE REPORT, FINAL SOLUTION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HEINRICH HIMMLER, HERMANN GOERING, HUFFINGTON POST, JANUARY 6 INSURRECTION, MARCO RUBIO, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MITCH MCCONNEL, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAND PAUL, RAW STORY, REINHARD HEYDRICH, REUTERS, ROLAND FREISLER, RON DESANTIS, RUDOLF HESS, SALON, SAMUEL ALITO, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SS, STEVE BANNON, SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP), TALKING POINTS MEMO, TED CRUZ, 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 SUPREME COURT, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WANNSEE CONFERENCE, X
In Bureaucracy, Entertainment, History, Politics, Social commentary on February 28, 2025 at 3:05 am
“We mock you. We mock your fear. We want your fear. It’s going to be accountability. We are taking apart the administrative state. We’re going to destroy the deep state, and we’re going to hold everybody responsible that put this republic in the situation its in today.
“Accountability, responsibility. And that will come with authority. The authority of Donald J. Trump as the 47th president of the United States.”
The speaker was Steve Bannon, former Trump campaign manager and White House advisor. And he was issuing a warning to everyone who didn’t enthusiastically accept Donald Trump as his Once and Future Fuhrer.
Threats of violence have become common among Republicans since 2015, when Trump first ran for President. And they continue to cast a shadow over the 2024 Presidential campaign.
On March 16, 2016, Trump warned Republicans that if he didn’t win the GOP nomination in July, his supporters would literally riot: “I think you’d have riots. I think you would see problems like you’ve never seen before. I think bad things would happen. I really do. I wouldn’t lead it, but I think bad things would happen.”
Almost five years later, on January 6, 2021, Trump incited a deadly riot against the United States Capitol to stop Congress from certifying the electoral victory of Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Upon taking office again as President on January 20, 2025, Trump issued a blanket pardon to about 1,500 of his supporters who carried out the attack. This sent a clear message to his future opponents: “I will similarly pardon anyone who assaults you.”
The Third Reich similarly relied on violence—or the threat of it—to preserve its dictatorial control over Germany.
A key representative of that violence was Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich.
A tall, blond-haired former naval officer, Heydrich was both a champion fencer and talented violinist. Heydrich joined the Schutzstaffel, or Protective Squads, better known as the SS, in 1931, and quickly became head of its counterintelligence service.
In 1934, he oversaw the “Night of the Long Knives” purge of Hitler’s brown-shirted S.A., or Stormtroopers.
Reinhard Heycrich
In September, 1941, Heydrich was appointed “Reich Protector” of Czechoslovakia, which had fallen prey to Germany in 1938 but whose citizens were growing restless under Nazi rule.
Heydrich immediately ordered a purge, executing 92 people within the first three days of his arrival in Prague. By February, 1942, 4,000-5,000 people had been arrested.
In January, 1942, Heydrich convened a meeting of high-ranking political and military leaders in Wannsee, Germany, to streamline “the Final Solution to the Jewish Question.”
An estimated six million Jews were thus slaughtered.
Returning to Prague, Heydrich continued his policy of carrot-and-stick with the Czechs—improving the social security system and requisitioning luxury hotels for middle-class workers, alternating with arrests and executions.
Two British-trained Czech commandos—Jan Kubis and Joseph Gabcik—parachuted into Prague.
On May 27, 1942, they waited at a hairpin turn in the road always taken by Heydrich. When Heydrich’s Mercedes slowed down, Gabcik raised his machinegun—which jammed.
Rising in his seat, Heydrich aimed his revolver at Gabcik—as Kubis lobbed a hand grenade at the car. The explosion drove steel and leather fragments of the car’s upholstery into Heydrich’s diaphragm, spleen and lung.
Scene of Reinhard Heydrich’s assassination
Hitler dispatched doctors from Berlin to save the Reich Protector. But infection set in, and on June 4, Heydrich died at age 38.
The assassination sent shockwaves through the upper echelons of the Third Reich. No one had dared assault—much less assassinate—a high-ranking Nazi official.
Nazis had slaughtered tens of thousands without hesitation—or fear that the same might happen to them.
Suddenly they realized that the fury they had aroused could be turned against themselves.
Which brings us to the leaders of America’s own Right-wing.
The names of infamous Nazis were widely known:
- Reichsmarshall Hermann Goering;
- Propaganda Minister Paul Joseph Goebbels;
- Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess;
- SS-Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler;
- “Hanging Judge” Roland Freisler;
- SS Obergruoppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich; and
- Fuhrer Adolf Hitler.
Members of the Nazi government
And so are the names of the infamous leaders of the American Right:
- Texas Senator Ted Cruz;
- Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas;
- Evangelist Franklin Graham;
- Georgia Congressman Marjorie Taylor Greene;
- Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito;
- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis;
- President Donald Trump.
The difference between these two infamous groups is this:
In Nazi Germany, ordinary Germans could not learn about the personal lives of their dictators—including their home addresses—and to conspire against them.
In the United States, ordinary citizens have an array of means to do this. They can turn to newspapers, TV and magazines. And if that isn’t enough, “people finder” websites, for a modest price, provide addresses and names of relatives of potential targets.
In Nazi Germany, firearms were tightly controlled.
In the United States, the Right’s National Rifle Association has successfully lobbied to put lethal firepower into the hands of virtually anyone who wants it.
Eighty-three years ago, Reinhard Heydrich believed himself invulnerable from the hatred of the enemies he had made. That arrogance cost him his life.
The day may soon come when America’s own Right-wingers start learning that same lesson.
Bureaucracybuster's Blog 
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ABUSE OF POWER, ADOLF HITLER, AILEEN CANNON, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ASSASSINATION, AXIOS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BIRD FLU, BLACKS, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHINA, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS, CLAUS VON STAUFFENBERG, CNN, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DANIEL CASSINO, DEMOCRACY, DEMOCRATIC PARTY, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, ELECTORAL COLLEGE, FBI, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FUEL PRICES, GALLUP POLL, GAZA, GLOBAL CONFLICT, GROCERY PRICES, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HILLARY CLINTON, HISPANICS, HITLER: ASCENT (BOOK), HUFFINGTON POST, HUNTER BIDEN, illegal immigration, IMPEACHMENT, INFLATION, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, ISRAEL, JACK SMITH, JAMAL KHASHOOGI, JAMES COMER, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JARED KUSHNER, JIMMY HOFFA, JOHN ADAMS, JOSEPH BIDEN, Kamala Harris, KEVIN MCCARTHY, KIM JONG-UN, LATINOS, LOW INFORMATION VOTERS, MAR-A-LAGO, MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, MASCULINITY, MEDIA MATTERS, MEIN KAMPF, MERRICK GARLAND, MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUSLIMS, NAZI GERMANY, NAZIS, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NORTH KORREA, NPR, OBSTRUCTION OF CONGRESS, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROBERT F. KENNEDY, RUSSIA, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SUPERMAN, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TERRORISM, 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, THOMAS MATTHEW CROOKS, TIME, TRANSPORTATION COSTS, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. BORDER PATROL, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UKRAINE, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOLKER ULLRICH, VOLODMYR ZELENSKY, VOX, WEIMAR REPUBLIC, WORLD WAR 11, X, XI JINPING
HOW TRUMP WON IN 2024: WHAT DIDN’T HAPPEN–PART THREE (OF FOUR)
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Social commentary on March 19, 2025 at 12:08 amThere were numerous instances where intervention by Federal legislators or law enforcement authorities could have utterly changed the outcome of the 2024 Presidential election.
Case #9: Americans had become increasingly worried and angry about surging numbers of illegal aliens pouring into the country. But the Biden administration refused—until its closing months—to dramatically address this issue.
A Vox story, dated July 12, 2024, warned: “According to Gallup, 2024 is the first time since 2005 that most of the public have wanted less immigration, and this year marks the largest share of Americans feeling resistant to immigration since 58 percent said so in 2001….”
Illegal alien climbing over the border fence in Brownsville, Texas
Six months later, on January 17, 2025, another Vox story offered: “What Democrats must learn from Biden’s disastrous immigration record.”
It opened: “One of the main reasons Vice President Kamala Harris lost the election is the Biden administration’s record on immigration and the border — polls show it ranks up close with inflation among the top issues that drove swing voters to Trump….
“During Biden’s first three years in office, the number of arriving migrants skyrocketed, leading to a backlash as even blue states and cities complained they were overwhelmed. The peak came in December 2023, a month when officials reported about 250,000 encounters with migrants at the border, a record.”
Then, starting early in 2024, and continuing throughout the year, border arrivals plummeted—by more than 80%.
The reasons:
Unfortunately for Harris, the downturn in illegal immigration came too late.
Donald Trump
In times of economic uncertainty, hostility rises toward immigrants—especially those who are alien to a host country’s language and culture. This has proven true in Europe as well as the United States.
Case #10: Americans blamed President Biden for inflationary price increases—especially for groceries such as eggs.
According to a December 20, 2024 article—“Why are groceries so expensive? What you need to know”—by the Center for Science in the Public Interest:
“Since January 2019, food prices have risen nearly 30 percent in the US, leaving many households struggling to afford groceries.”
Among the issues responsible for this:
No President—including Biden and Trump—can control such events. Unfortunately, every Presidential candidate virtually promises to be Superman. And voters repeatedly fall victim to this absurdity.
So when elected Presidents fail to perform miracles, those voters turn on them—and turn them out of office.
Case #11: Americans don’t want a woman President.
American voters proved that in 2016 when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ran for President—and lost to Trump in the Electoral College by a count of 227 to 304.
And Hillary had an advantage that Vice President Kamala Harris lacked: Hillary was white.
England has elected a female Prime Minister: Margaret Thatcher. And Mexico—notorious for the machismo of its men—has elected a woman President: Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo. But in the United States, electing a woman chief executive is unthinkable to most American men.
According to Daniel Cassino, Professor of Government and Politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University, men who support Trump hold to a traditionally masculine identity.
“So, among that group, Trump is up over Harris by about 35 points. Huge gap, Among other men, the half of men who don’t put themselves at the extremes of masculinity, Harris is up by 20. In fact, Harris is also up by 20 among most groups of women. So, really the gap is not between men and women, it’s between this one group of traditional masculine men and everybody else.”
Machismo played a major role in Trump’s popularity among Hispanics. Roughly six in 10 men described Trump as a strong leader, compared with 43% who said that in 2020. About half of Hispanic women said Trump was a strong leader, up from 37%.
Case #12: Democrats expected to receive support from their traditional allies—such as blacks and Hispanics. But that didn’t happen.
During the eight-year tenure of America’s first black President, Donald Trump attacked Barack Obama as a foreign-born citizen who was thus ineligible for that office. He also had a history of supporting—and being supported by—racist white groups like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.
Nevertheless, blacks deserted Vice President Kamala Harris in droves. About three in 10 back men under age 45 went for Trump, roughly double the share he got in 2020.
Share this: