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ONCE AGAIN, ACCOMPLICES TO OUR OWN DESTRUCTION: PART FOUR (OF SEVEN)

In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on February 3, 2026 at 1:01 am

Even as an ex-President, Donald Trump continued to benefit from the routine cowardice of the Democratic party. 

While Congressional Republicans relentlessly investigated President Joe Biden and his family, Democrats refused to similarly investigate Trump’s family. 

Democrats never probed why Jared Kushner, 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. 

Jarred Kushner

Democrats 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 Trump administration explain how it decided which supplies to seize and where to reroute them.

Nor did FEMA inform states if they would receive the materials they ordered and paid for.

Interferon Plays Pivotal, Inflammatory Role in Severe COVID-19 Cases

COVID-19 virus

Americans willingly ignored Trump’s crimes because they were 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….”  

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.…”

From 2021 to 2023, the number of illegal aliens skyrocketed. Even blue states and cities complained they were overwhelmed. In December 2023, a record 250,000 illegal aliens tried to cross the border.

Illegal alien climbing over the border fence in Brownsville, Texas

Then, starting early in 2024, and continuing throughout the year, border arrivals plummeted—by more than 80%.

The reasons:

  1. The Biden administration got the Mexican government to launch an extensive crackdown on migrants passing through its territory to the United States. 
  2. 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.

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.

Americans blamed President Biden for inflationary price increases—especially for groceries such as eggs. And they believed Trump’s lies that he would immediately reverse those price increases.

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.

Trump benefitted from the Politically Incorrect truth that misogynistic 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.

Official vice presidential portrait. Head shot of Harris smiling, wearing an American flag lapel pin and pearl earrings, and dressed formally.

Kamala Harris

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.

Machismo played a major role in Trump’s popularity, especially 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%.

This despite Trump’s past derogatory comments about Hispanics (“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best….They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people”).

And despite a sea of “MASS DEPORTATION NOW” signs at the 2024 Republican National Convention 

More than any other group, Hispanics would face the full fury of Trump’s campaign to deport at least one million illegal aliens each year.

ONCE AGAIN, ACCOMPLICES TO OUR OWN DESTRUCTION: PART THREEE (OF SEVEN)

In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on February 2, 2026 at 12:10 am

On January 13, 2021, Donald 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 try 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 Trump 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. 

Related image

Donald Trump

Even after Joseph Biden took the oath of office as President, his Justice Department treated Trump with a deference never shown any other criminal defendant. 

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: 

  1. Inciting the January 6 attack on Congress; and
  2. 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 and//or stealing highly classified documents.

Even while under multiple indictments, Trump was allowed 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!” 

Laura Rozen on Twitter: "Jack Smith bio from the Hague court https://t.co/5iOsfwMSAa https://t.co/wAG6RmQ7N4" / Twitter

Jack Smith

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 threats.

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 toward Trump—simply because, in 2016, he won a Presidential election.

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

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 1924 for trying to overthrow the government of Bavaria. 

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.

Republican Disc.svg

For example: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) 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.” 

While Congressional Republicans relentlessly investigated President Joe Biden and his family, Democrats refused to similarly investigate Trump’s family.

The Republican 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.

ONCE AGAIN, ACCOMPLICES TO OUR OWN DESTRUCTION: PART TWO (OF SEVEN)

In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on January 30, 2026 at 12:10 am

Once he became the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump began undermining one public or private institution after another.          

On November 3, 2020, 80 million voters decided they wanted a change—and elected former Vice President Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States.

Trump refused to accept that verdict. 

Speaking from the White House in the early hours of November 4, he said:

“Millions and millions of people voted for us tonight, and a very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people and we won’t stand for it.”

For the first time in American history, a President demanded a halt to the counting of votes while the outcome of an election hung in doubt.

States ignored his demand and kept counting.

Next, Trump ordered his attorneys to file lawsuits to overturn the election results, charging electoral fraud. 

Specifically:

  • Illegal aliens had been allowed to vote.
  • Trump ballots had been systematically destroyed.
  • Tampered voting machines had turned Trump votes into Biden ones.

Throughout November and December, cases were filed in Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Minnesota and Georgia challenging the election results. And, one by one, more than 30 cases were withdrawn by Trump’s attorneys or dismissed by Federal judges—some of them appointed by Trump himself.

For 20 days, General Services Administrator Emily Murphy refused to release $7.3 million in transition funding and Federal resources to the President-elect’s team.

Under the law governing presidential transitions, Murphy was responsible for determining the winner based on publicly available information before the actual Electoral College vote. 

Finally, on November 23, Murphy released the transition funding and resources.

File:Seal of the General Services Administration.svg - Wikimedia Commons

Losing in the courts, Trump invited two Republican legislative leaders from Michigan to the White House to persuade them to stop the state from certifying the vote.

Nothing changed. 

On December 5, Trump called Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and asked him to call a special legislative session and convince state legislators to select their own electors that would support him, thus overturning Biden’s win.

Kemp refused, saying he lacked the authority to do so.

Meanwhile, top Republicans—such as Vice President Mike Pence and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell—refused to congratulate Biden as the winner. 

None of them branded Trump’s efforts to overturn the election as those of a tyrant.

Just as Germans did nothing to stop Adolf Hitler’s inexorable march toward war—and the destruction of millions of lives and Germany itself—so, too, did Americans seem paralyzed to put an end to the equally self-destructive reign of the man often dubbed “Carrot Caligula.”

Donald Trump is mad right now 😆 🤣 😂 😹 😆 🤣 Good Job Democrats

Gaius Caligula was “the mad emperor” of ancient Rome. Like Trump, he lived by a philosophy of “Let them hate me, so long as they fear me.”

He ruled as the most powerful man of his time—three years, 10 months and eight days. And all but the first six months of his reign were drenched in slaughter and debauchery.   

There are basically three ways America’s continuing slide into tyranny could have been stopped:

Congressional Republicans could have revolted against Trump’s authority and/or agenda.

They could, for example, have demanded that Trump accept the verdict of the electorate—as every other past President had. But they didn’t.

Invoking the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

This allows the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet to recommend the removal of the President in cases where he is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” It also allows the House and Senate to confirm the recommendation over the President’s objection by two-thirds vote. 

If you want a simple explanation of the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which is of profound current importance, read on. This Amendment was enacted in 1967 to provide clearer guidelines

The Vice President then takes over as President.

A case could easily have been made that Trump, emotionally distraught over his loss and determined to circumvent the will of the electorate, had been rendered unfit to continue in office. But, once again, Republicans let fear and/or lust for power be their guide.

The “Caligula solution.” Like Trump, Roman emperor Gaius Caligula delighted in humiliating others. His fatal mistake was taunting Cassius Chaerea, a member of his own bodyguard. Caligula considered Chaerea effeminate because of a weak voice and mocked him with names like “Priapus” and “Venus.”

Gaius Caligula

On January 22 41 A.D. Chaerea and several other bodyguards hacked Caligula to death with swords before other guards could save him.

Trump had similarly behaved arrogantly toward his Secret Service guards. He forced them to work without pay during his 35-day government shutdown in 2018. He also forced them to accompany him to COVID-infected states—both during the Presidential campaign and afterward. Many of them were stricken with this often lethal disease as a result. 

During the 12 years that Adolf Hitler ruled Nazi Germany, at least 42 assassination plots were launched against him.

The best-known of these literally exploded on July 20, 1944, when Colonel Count Claus Shenk von Stauffenberg planted a bomb in a conference room attended by Hitler and his generals. Hitler survived only by sheer luck. 

By contrast, no similar plot was aimed at Donald Trump.

ONCE AGAIN, ACCOMPLICES TO OUR OWN DESTRUCTION: PART ONE (OF SEVEN)

In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on January 29, 2026 at 12:10 am

“Why are we letting one man systematically destroy our nation before our eyes?” 

It’s a question millions of Americans have asked themselves since Donald Trump once again became President of the United States.

Millions of Germans asked themselves the same question throughout the 12 years of the Third Reich.

In September, 1938, as Adolf Hitler threatened to go to war against France and England over Czechoslovakia, most Germans feared he would. They knew that Germany was not ready for war, despite all of their Fuhrer’s boasts about the invincibility of the Third Reich.

A group of high-ranking German army officers prepared to overthrow Hitler–provided that England and France held firm and handed him a major diplomatic reverse.

But then England and France—though more powerful than Germany—flinched at the thought of war.

They surrendered to Hitler’s demands that he be given the “Sudetenland”—the northern, southwest and western regions of Czechoslovakia, inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans.

Hitler’s popularity among Germans soared. He had previously absorbed Austria, and now, by annexing Czechoslovakia, he had vastly expanded the territories of the Reich—without firing a shot!

The plotters in the German high command, realizing that public opinion stood overwhelmingly against them, abandoned their plans for a coup. They decided to wait for a more favorable time.

It never came.

Adolf Hitler and his generals

Less than one year after the infamous “Munich conference,” England and France were at war—and fighting for the lives of their peoples.

As for the Germans: Most of them blindly followed their Fuhrer right to the end—believing his lies (or at least wanting to believe them), serving in his legions, defending his rampant criminality.

And then, in April, 1945, with Russian armies pouring into Berlin, it was too late for conspiracies against the man who had led them to total destruction. 

Berliners paid the price for their loyalty to a murderous dictator—through countless rapes, murders and the wholesale destruction of their city. And from 1945 to 1989, Germans living in the eastern part of their country paid the price as slaves to the Soviet Union. 

Have Americans learned anything from this this warning from history about subservience to a madman? 

The answer seems to be half-yes, half-no.

In 2016, almost 63 million Americans elected Donald Trump—a racist, serial adulterer and longtime fraudster—as President.

Related image

Donald Trump

Upon taking office on January 20, 2017, Trump began undermining one public or private institution after another.

  • Repeatedly attacking the nation’s free press for daring to report his growing list of crimes and disasters, using Joseph Stalin’s phrase to brand it “the enemy of the people.”
  • Siding with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin against the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency which unanimously agreed that Russia had subverted the 2016 Presidential election. 
  • Firing FBI Director James Comey for investigating that subversion.
  • Giving Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey  Kislyak highly classified CIA Intelligence about an Islamic State plot to turn laptops into concealable bombs.  
  • Shutting down the Federal Government for 35 days because Democrats refused to fund his ineffective “border wall” between the United States and Mexico. An estimated 380,000 government employees were furloughed and another 420,000 were ordered to work without pay. The shutdown ended due to public outrage—without Trump getting the funding amount he had demanded.
  • Trying to coerce Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to smear former Vice President Joe Biden, who was likely to be his Democratic opponent in the 2020 Presidential election.
  • Enabling the COVID-19 virus to kill 400,000 Americans through his lies about its deadliness by the time he left office.
  • Attacking medical experts and governors who urged Americans to wear masks and socially distance to protect themselves from COVID-19.
  • Ordering his Right-wing followers to defy states’ orders to citizens to “stay-at-home” and wear of masks in public to halt surging COVID-19 rates.

And throughout all those outrages, House and Senate Republican majorities remained silent or vigorously supported him.

A typical example:

On June 4, 2020, during protests over the police murder of black security guard George Floyd, a curfew was imposed on Buffalo, New York. As police swept through Niagara Square, Martin Gugino, a 75-year-old peace activist with the Catholic Worker Movement, walked into their path as if attempting to speak with them.

Two Buffalo police officers charged with assault - CGTN

Martin Gugino falls backward

Two officers pushed him and he fell backwards, hitting the back of his head on the pavement and losing consciousness. 

On June 9, Trump charged that Gugino was part of a radical leftist “set up.” Trump offered no evidence to back up his slander.

Typical Republican responses included:  

  • Kentucky Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to say whether Trump’s tweet was appropriate.
  • Texas Senator Ted Cruz: “I don’t comment on the tweets.” 
  • Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson said he hadn’t seen the tweet—and didn’t want it read to him: “I would rather not hear it.”
  • Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander: “Voters can evaluate that. I’m not going to give a running commentary on the President’s tweets.”

On November 3, 2020, 80 million voters decided they wanted a change—and elected former Vice President Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States.

FASCISTIC DEFECTORORS–IN HITLER’S GERMANY AND TRUMP’S AMERICA: PART TWO (END)

In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on January 23, 2026 at 12:41 am
“Under the spreading chestnut tree 
I sold you and you sold me.” 
—“1984,” by George Orwell. 

Less than three months after moving into the White House, Omarosa Manigault married John Allen Newman, the senior pastor at The Sanctuary at Mt. Calvary, a church in Jacksonville, Florida.  

The wedding, on April 8, 2017, was at Donald Trump’s Washington, DC, hotel. Afterwards, in full bridal attire, Omarosa took her 39-member bridal party to the White House for an extended photo shoot.

According to Politico, White House senior aides and security officials were caught by surprise. Omarosa hadn’t alerted them in advance. Her visitors “loudly wandered around” the Rose Garden and West Wing. 

White House officials, citing ethics and security concerns, banned Manigault-Newman from posting the photographs online. 

Omarosa Manigault by Gage Skidmore.jpg

Omarosa Manigault-Newman Gage Skidmore photo 

On December 13, Omarosa learned that she would be leaving the White House—and her $180,000-a-year position as director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison. Her last day would be January 20, 2018—one year from the day she had arrived. 

She asked Ivanka Trump to intervene on her behalf, but the First Daughter refused.

Deciding to go right to the top, she headed for the Trumps’ private quarters. There she tripped an alarm—which brought guards and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly to the scene.

An enraged Kelly ordered her ejected from the White House.

Multiple sources report that she had to be physically restrained and escorted—cursing and screaming—from the Executive Mansion. 

Next day—December 14—Manigault-Newman appeared on “Good Morning America.”

The woman who had been Trump’s ambassador to blacks now sang a different tune: 

“I have seen things that made me uncomfortable, that have upset me, that have affected me deeply and emotionally, that has affected my community and my people. And when I can tell my story, it is a profound story that I know the world will want to hear.” 

On August 8, 2018, news broke that Omarosa had secretly taped Trump during several phone conversations in the White House. And that she would use these recordings to promote an upcoming—and highly critical—book on the President.

Its title: Unhinged.  

It would be released on August 14.  

Omarosa has since launched her book tour blasting Trump as a racist, a misogynist and in mental decline.

On Trump as a racist: Interviewed on The PBS Newshour, she said: “One of the most dramatic scenes in Unhinged where I talk about taking him to task for the birther movement.” 

Since 2011, Trump slandered President Barack Obama as born in Kenya—instead of his native Hawaii. The purpose: To de-legitimize Obama as a lawful President. 

But Omarosa said nothing about this at the time.

On Trump as a misogynist: In an Associated Press interview, she claims she saw Trump behaving “like a dog off the leash” at numerous events he attended without his wife, Melania Trump. 

During the 2016 campaign, at least 12 women publicly accused Trump of sexual harassment. A noteworthy moment: The infamous “grab-’em-by-the-pussy” Access Hollywood tape released just before the election.

But this didn’t enrage Omarosa at the time.

On Trump’s mental decline: On the PBS Newshour: “We’re in the White House and Donald Trump couldn’t remember basic words or phrases. He couldn’t read the legislation that was put in front of him.” 

During the 2016 campaign, numerous journalists commented on Trump’s short attention span, limited vocabulary and obvious inability to absorb large amounts of information. 

But this came as a surprise to Omarosa only in 2017.

* * * * *

As the Third Reich reached its fiery end, Adolf Hitler sought to punish the German people for being “unworthy” of his “genius”—and losing the war he had started.

His attitude was: “If I can’t rule Germany, then there won’t be a Germany.”

In his infamous “Nero Order,” he decreed the destruction of everything still remaining—industries, ships, harbors, communications, roads, mines, bridges, stores, utility plants, food stuffs.

Fortunately for Germany, one man—Albert Speer—finally broke ranks with his Fuehrer.

Albert Speer

Risking death, he refused to carry out Hitler’s “scorched earth” order. Even more important, he mounted a successful effort to block such destruction or persuade influential military and civilian leaders to disobey the order as well.

As a result, those targets slated for destruction were spared.

By the time Omarosa was evicted from the White House, Donald Trump had:

  • Fervently embraced America’s most dangerous foe—Russia—and alienated most of its longtime allies, such as Canada and Great Britain.
  • Attacked America’s Intelligence agencies—while backing Vladimir Putin’s claim that he didn’t subvert the 2016 election. 
  • Gutted protections for consumers and the environment. 
  • Supported racists like the Ku Klux Klan and American Nazi Party—while attacking black football players for kneeling during the National Anthem to protest police brutality.
  • Called reporters “the enemy of the people” and encouraged violence against them.

Omarosa Manigault-Newman had a front-row seat to all of this infamy. Yet she didn’t leave or even protest until she was forcibly booted from the White House.

Unlike Albert Speer, she risked nothing by opposing Trump and expects to enrich herself via book sales.

America still awaits its own Albert Speer to come forward and save its liberties from a racist, vindictive and treasonous President installed by American Fascists and KGB computer-hackers.

FACISTSIC DEFECTORS–IN HITLER’S GERMANY AND TRUMP’S AMERICA: PART ONE (OF TWO)

In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on January 22, 2026 at 12:07 am

On March 19, 1945, facing certain defeat, Adolf Hitler ordered a massive “scorched-earth” campaign throughout Germany.      

All German agriculture, industry, ships, communications, roads, food stuffs, mines, bridges, stores and utility plants were to be destroyed.

If implemented, it would deprive the entire German population of even the barest necessities after the war.

Now living in a bunker 50 feet below bomb-shattered Berlin, Hitler gave full vent to his most destructive impulses.

Adolf Hitler addressing boy soldiers as the Third Reich crumbles

“If the war is lost,” Hitler told Albert Speer, his Minister of Armaments, “the nation will also perish. This fate is inevitable. There is no necessity to take into consideration the basis which the people will need to continue even a most primitive existence. 

“On the contrary, it will be better to destroy these things ourselves, because this nation will have proved to be the weaker one and the future will belong solely to the stronger eastern nation.

“Besides, those who will remain after the battle are only the inferior ones, for the good ones have all been killed.”

Speer argued in vain that there must be a future for the German people. But Hitler refused to back down. He gave Speer 24 hours to reconsider his opposition to the order.

The next day, Speer told Hitler: “My Fuhrer, I stand unconditionally behind you!”

“Then all is well,” said Hitler, suddenly with tears in his eyes.

“If I stand unreservedly behind you,” said Speer, “then you must entrust me rather than the Gauleiters [district Party leaders serving as provincial governors] with the implementation of your decree.”

Filled with gratitude, Hitler signed the decree Speer had thoughtfully prepared before their fateful meeting.

By doing so, Hitler unintentionally gave Speer the power to thwart his “scorched earth” decree.

Speer had been the closest thing to a friend in Hitler’s life. Trained as an architect, he had joined the Nazi Party in 1931.

He met Hitler in 1933, when he presented the Fuhrer with architectural designs for the Nuremberg Rally scheduled for that year.

Albert Speer and Adolf Hitler pouring over architectural plans

From then on, Speer became Hitler’s “genius architect” assigned to create buildings meant to last for a thousand years.

In 1943, Hitler appointed him Minister of Armaments, charged with revitalizing the German war effort.

Nevertheless, Speer now crisscrossed Germany, persuading military leaders and district governors to not destroy the vital facilities that would be needed after the war.

“No other senior National Socialist could have done the job,” writes Randall Hanson, author of Disobeying Hitler: German Resistance After Valkyrie.

“Speer was one of the very few people in the Reich—perhaps even the only one—with such power to influence actors’ willingness/unwillingness to destroy.”

Despite his later conviction for war crimes at Nuremberg, Speer never regretted his efforts to save Germany from total destruction at the hands of Adolf Hitler.

Fast-forward to August, 2018, and the White House of President Donald J. Trump.

Omarosa Manigault furiously defended Donald Trump throughout the 2016 Presidential campaign. 

In an interview with Frontline, she boasted: “Every critic, every detractor, will have to bow down to President Trump. It’s everyone who’s ever doubted Donald, who ever disagreed, who ever challenged him.” 

Manigault didn’t care that she had no base or credibility within the back community—or that blacks regarded Trump so poorly: “My reality is that I’m surrounded by people who want to see Donald Trump as the next President of the United States who are African-American.”

On January 20, 2017, she entered the White House with Trump as Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison.

This wasn’t her first tenure at the Executive Mansion. During the Clinton administration she held four jobs in two years—and was thoroughly disliked in all of them.

“She was asked to leave [her last job] as quickly as possible, she was so disruptive,” said Cheryl Shavers, the former Under Secretary for Technology at the Commerce Department. “One woman wanted to slug her.” 

And in her work at the Trump White House, she made herself just as unpopular as she had in the Clinton one.

In her first press interview, she announced that she was a “Trumplican” and had switched her political affiliation to the Republican Party. She said Democrats took black voters for granted and  hoped blacks would leave the Democratic party.

In June, 2017, she invited the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to visit the White House. And she signed the invitation: “The Honorable Omarosa Manigault.”  

This is not a title given to political aides. And it’s not used by those referring to themselves. The arrogance offended some members of the Caucus, which declined the invitation. 

In August, she appeared at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in New Orleans. She was a panelist on a discussion about losing loved ones to violence.

When the moderator, Ed Gordon, asked her about Trump’s policies and not her personal history with losing family members through violence, Manigault got into a shouting match with him.  

“Omarosa Manigault and Ed Gordon are literally arguing on stage right now. This is insane,” tweeted Yamiche Alcindor, the PBS Newshour White House correspondent.

WHAT ICE MOST FEARS

In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on January 20, 2026 at 12:11 am

On January 7, Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old writer and poet, was fatally shot three times by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

A day earlier, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had announced what it called the largest immigration enforcement operation ever carried out, sending 2,000 agents to the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area. 

According to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and United States Representative Ilhan Omar, Good was acting as a legal observer of ICE’s activities at the time of her encounter with Ross. But Good’s ex-husband said that she had dropped her son off at school and was on her way home with her partner “when they came upon a group of ICE agents.”

Good was in her SUV, stopped sideways in the street when Ross drove his SUV around her car. He stopped ahead of her, began recording video, and stepped out with his face covered. Ross recorded Good’s face and rear license plate. Good stated: “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.” 

Good’s partner, Becca Good, standing behind their SUV, told the agent: “Hey, show your face, Big Boy. Show your face. That’s OK. We don’t change our plates every morning, just so you know. This will be the same plate when you come talk to us later. That’s fine. US citizen, former fucking veteran, disabled veteran.”

Other agents approached, and one repeatedly yelled, “Get out of the fucking car!” as he reached through her open window.

Killing of Renee Good - Wikipedia

Renee Good

Ross moved to the front-left of the vehicle as Good briefly reversed, then began driving into the direction of traffic while turning away from Ross. While remaining upright, Ross fired three shots, killing her: one through the windshield, then two through the open driver’s side window from the side of her vehicle as it passed him.  

He later drove away from the scene.

The SUV continued down the street until crashing into a parked car and light pole. An agent’s voice captured on Ross’ body camera shouted, “Fucking bitch!”

Some have speculated that Good died because she and her partner had refused to show fear or even anger toward Ross, and this may have enraged him.

Those who lust for power over others demand deference, if not subservience. And when it’s not forthcoming, they can only respond with violence.

This is best illustrated in a work of fiction: The 1996 historical novel, The Friends of Pancho Villa, by James Carlos Blake. 

The Friends of Pancho Villa | James Carlos Blake | First Edition

The book depicts the Mexican Revolution (1910 – 1920) and its most famous revolutionary, Francisco “Pancho” Villa. It’s told from the viewpoint of Rodolfo Fierro, Villa’s most feared executioner. In one day, for example, Fierro—using two revolvers—executed 300 captured Federale soldiers.Related image

As in history, Blake’s Fierro presides over the execution of David Berlanga, a journalist who had dared criticize the often loutish behavior of Villa’s men.

On Villa’s command, Fierro approaches Berlanga in a Mexico City restaurant and orders: “Come with me.”

Standing against a barracks wall, Berlanga lights a cigar and requests permission to finish it. He then proceeds to smoke it with such a steady hand that its unbroken ash extends almost four inches.

The cigar finished, the ash still unbroken, Berlanga drops the butt to the ground and says calmly: “I’m ready.” 

Then the assembled firing squad does its work.

Later, Fierro is so shaken by Berlanga’s sheer fearlessness that he seeks an explanation for it. Sitting in a cantina, he lights a cigar and tries to duplicate Berlanga’s four-inch length.

But the best he can do is less than three inches. He concludes that Berlanga used a trick—but he can’t figure it out.

Rodolfo Fierro

It had to be a trick, Fierro insists, because, if it wasn’t, there were only two other explanations for such a calm demeanor in the face of impending death. 

The first was insanity. But Fierro rules this out: He had studied Berlanga’s eyes and found no madness there.

That leaves only one other explanation (other than a trick): Sheer courage. 

And Fierro can’t accept this, either—because it’s disturbing.  

“The power of men like me does not come solely from our ability to kill….No, the true source of our power is so obvious it sometimes goes unnoticed for what it is: Our power comes from other men’s lack of courage.

“There is even less courage in this world than there is talent for killing. Men like me rule because most men are faint of heart in the shadow of death.

“But a man brave enough to control his fear of being killed, control it so well that no tremor reaches his fingers and no sign shows in his eyes…well. Such a man cannot be ruled, he can only be killed.”

* * * * *

Throughout his life, Donald Trump has relied on intimidation to gain his ends. And his private police-army, ICE, well understands the power of fear it holds over most people.

What he, and they, cannot understand—and truly fear—is that some people cannot be frightened. They can only be killed.

People like Renee Good.

TRUMP JOINS THE RANKS OF ART-TWISTING DICTATORS

In Bureaucracy, Entertainment, History, Politics, Social commentary on January 15, 2026 at 12:06 am

On December 18, 2025, The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts became The Donald Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.

And all that it took for this to happen was for Trump’s handpicked board overseeing the John F. Kennedy Center to declare: “We’re adding Trump’s name to this building.” 

Specifically, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on X: “I have just been informed that the highly respected Board of the Kennedy Center, some of the most successful people from all parts of the world, have just voted unanimously to rename the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy Center, because of the unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building.”

Related image

Donald Trump

This totally ignored three vital truths:

First, in 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower established a commission for a new public auditorium to showcase the performing arts in the nation’s capital. It was to be called The National Cultural Center

Second, in January, 1964, two months after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Congress passed and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law legislation renaming the Center as a “living memorial” in his honor: The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts

Third, adding Trump’s name to the Center legally would require a similar act of Congress—which has not occurred.

Thus, putting Trump’s name on the building without a Congressional act carries all the legitimacy of a graffiti vandal spray-painting his name on the Center.

Free Events at the Kennedy Center

Trump spent most of 2025 putting his stamp on the Center. First he purged most of the board that governs the institution. Then he replaced its members with pliable ideologues and sycophants, capped by installing itself as the new chairman.

On December 18, his underlings blatantly renamed the center itself.

Given Trump’s well-known admiration for dictators such as Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-Un, it was inevitable that he would seek to remake the arts in his own image.

In doing so, he’s following in the footsteps of propaganda-obsessed tyrants like Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler

Consider this blurb from the 2015 nonfiction book, Fear and the Muse Kept Watch: The Russian Masters from Akhmatova and Pasternak to Shostakovich and Eisenstein Under Stalin, by Andy McSmith:

Fear and the Muse Kept Watch - The New Press

“For those artists visible enough for Stalin to take an interest in them, it was Stalin himself who decided whether they lived in luxury or were sent to the Lubyanka, the headquarters of the secret police, to be tortured and sometimes even executed.

“McSmith brings together the stories of these artists―including [writer] Isaac Babel, [poet and novelist] Boris Pasternak, [composer] Dmitri Shostakovich, and many others―revealing how they pursued their art under Stalin’s regime and often at great personal risk.

“It was a world in which the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, whose bright yellow tunic was considered a threat to public order under the tsars, struggled to make the communist authorities see the value of avant garde art; Babel publicly thanked the regime for allowing him the privilege of not writing; and Shostakovich’s career veered wildly between public disgrace and wealth and acclaim.”

Adolf Hitler similarly installed himself as the arbiter of culture in Nazi Germany.

In Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics, Frederic Spotts argues that Hitler saw the world corrupted by “evils” he must first destroy so he could re-create it to conform to his artistic ideals.

Amazon.com: Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics: 9781585673452: Spotts, Frederic: Books

Hitler considered himself an unappreciated artist. At 18, he had applied for admission to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, but was rejected twice. If he had a friend, it was the architect Albert Speer, with whom he felt an artistic kinship.

Even as the Third Reich collapsed, he found time to pore over architectural models he intended to turn into gigantic buildings.

In Hitler’s Germany, culture was not only the end to power but the means of achieving it. His artistry—expressed in spectacles, festivities, parades, rallies and political dramas, as well as in architecture, painting and music—destroyed any sense of individuality and linked the German people with his own drives.

Like Hitler, Trump sees himself as an unrecognized artist. Of the 515 entities he owns, 268 of them—52%—bear his last name. He often refers to his properties as “the swankiest,” “the most beautiful.”  

Upon his return to the Presidency in 2025, he turned his “artistic” gifts on the White House. On June 9, contractors began paving over the grass of the White House Rose Garden with stone tiles to create a patio.

Again like Hitler, Trump believes that “bigger is better” in architecture. 

On July 31, 2025, the Trump administration announced that a 90,000 square feet addition would be made to the White House to incorporate a 650-person capacity ballroom. In October, Trump ordered the demolition of the White House’s historic East Wing to clear space for it. 

The estimated cost has ballooned from $200 million to $400 million.

Trump has repeatedly pushed to enlarge the ballroom—from a 90,000-square-feet addition capable of seating 650 guests to one that can seat, first, 999 guests and then to 1,000 guests at formal dinners.

Tyrants always hail such projects as “gifts for the nation.” In reality, they are self-glorifying monuments to the dictator’s own ego.

A TYRANT AND HIS BRAINS

In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on January 13, 2026 at 12:23 am

“The first impression that one gets of a ruler and his brains is from seeing the men that he has about him.  

“When they are competent and loyal one can always consider him wise, as he has been able to recognize their ability and keep them faithful. 

“But when they are the reverse, one can always form an unfavorable opinion of him, because the first mistake that he makes is in making this choice.”

So wrote the Italian statesman Niccolo Machiavelli more than 500 years ago in his famous treatise on politics, The Prince.  

And his words remain as true in our day as they were in his.

In fact, he could have been writing about the ability of Donald Trump to choose competent subordinates.

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Niccolo Machiavelli

As a Presidential candidate, Trump repeatedly previewed his administrative incompetence—which he has continued to demonstrate as President. 

The latest example of this: Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy. He previously served as senior advisor to the President and director of speechwriting from 2017 to 2021 during the first Trump administration.  

His politics have been described as anti-immigration, white nationalist and far-right. His policies have resulted in mass deportations, arrests and shootings of innocent American citizens and the testing of the constitutional tenets that grant American citizenship.

Stephen Miller

And thanks to retiring North Carolina United States Senator Thom Tillis, there is another way to describe him: “Stupid.”

“Look, either Stephen Miller needs to get into a lane where he knows what he’s talking about or get out of this job,” Tillis told CNN’s Jake Tapper on the January 7 edition of “The Lead.”

Three days earlier, on January 4, Miller, appearing on the same show, had said: “Greenland should be part of the United States.”

This reflects Trump’s long-held obsession that he should acquire Greenland—by buying it or conquering it. 

“What is the basis for their territorial claim?” demanded Miller. “What is their basis of having Greenland as a colony of Denmark?”

The answer: Greenland is a self-governing, autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark. The United States has recognized Denmark’s ties to Greenland since 1917 and signed a joint defense agreement in 1951.

This was updated in 2004, acknowledging Greenland’s connection to Denmark.

During the same interview, Miller made it clear that the use of brute force was not only on the table but was the Trump administration’s preferred way to behave on the world stage:

“We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.” 

Adolf Hitler could not have said it better. In fact, Miller—who is Jewish—could have been reciting the Fuhrer’s August  22, 1939 speech to his generals before the invasion of Poland:

“I shall give a propagandist reason for starting the war, no matter whether it is plausible or not. The victor will not be asked afterwards whether he told the truth or not. When starting and waging war it is not right that matters, but victory.

“Close your hearts to pity. Act brutally. Eighty million people must obtain what is their right. Their existence must be made secure. The stronger man is right.”

Adolf Hitler

Senator Tillis’ response was equally blunt. Calling the NATO alliance—of which Denmark is a member—critically important, he said: 

“Shaking that alliance sends a signal to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin that he’s winning. And Stephen Miller doesn’t represent the United States government. He represents the Article 11 [Executive] branch.

Thom Tillis

“And I, as a member of the United States Senate, get to weigh in to this issue. And I know, whether they say it out loud or not, most of my colleagues agree with me. 

“We need to make it very clear that our strength and our ability to project power to stand off against Putin, to stand off Russia, to stand off China, Iran, it all rests on this exquisite capability that we have under NATO.”

Tillis’ remarks came only hours after he delivered a scathing speech to his fellow Senators: “I’m sick of stupid. I want good advice for the president, because I want this president to have a good legacy.

“And this nonsense on what’s going on with Greenland is a distraction from the good work he’s doing, and the amateurs who said it was a good idea should lose their jobs.”

Tillis’ remarks ignore several brutal truths:

First, as Machiavelli notes, when a ruler’s advisors are incompetent, he is to blame for making those choices. 

Second, Miller was speaking for Trump, not advising him.

Third, Donald Trump’s legacy will be one of unsurpassed greed, egomania, vindictiveness and authoritarianism.

He has turned America’s longstanding democratic allies into enemies and embraced the ruthless dictators of Russia, China and North Korea—and their style of governing.

His ultimate legacy will be one of infamy.

Nothing Tillis can do will alter that. 

SCAMMER ALERT: “WE WANT TO GIVE YOU MONEY!”

In Business, History, Law Enforcement, Self-Help, Social commentary on January 12, 2026 at 12:12 am

Receiving unsolicited, get-rich-quick emails has become a regular headache for millions of Internet users. 

All too often, the result is fraud for their recipients. The Federal Trade Commission reported losses of $12.5 billion from online get-rich Ponzi schemes in 2024..

Here’s how to spot the warning signs of fraud:

  • Addressed Generally: “Attention!” “Dear Friend,” “Attention the owner of this email,” “Hello, Dear.” Your name is not mentioned, because this email has been mass-mailed to thousands of intended victims. 
  • Unsolicited:  You’re told that you’ve won a lottery you never entered, or have inherited a fortune from someone you never knew existed.
  • Appeals to Religion: “Hello Beloved in the Lord” or “Yours in Christ” seeks to create a bond with those who deeply believe in God.
  • Misuse of English: Mis-spellings and faulty grammar usually denote someone—probably a foreigner—using English as a second language. Examples: Run-on sentences; “you’re” for “your”; “except” instead of “accept”; “Dear Beneficial” instead of “Dear Beneficiary.”
  • Appeals to Sympathy: “My husband just died” or “I am dying of cancer.” This is to make you feel sorry for the sender and lower your guard as an intended victim.

Spotting a scam: Expert reveals seven ways to identify fake website - What Gadget

  • Use of Important Titles/Organizations: Director,” ‘Barrister,” “Secretary General of the United Nations,” “Police Inspector.” This is to impress recipients and convince them that the email comes from a trusted and legitimate organization.
  • Request for Personal Information: This includes some combination of: Name / Address / Telephone Number / Bank Name / Bank Account Number / Fax Number / Driver’s License Number / Occupation / Sex / Beneficiary / Passport Number
  • Claims of Deposit: “We have deposited the check of your fund to your account” is a typical line to instantly grab your attention. Someone you’ve never heard of claims he has just put a huge amount of money into an account you know nothing about. Nor can you access it unless you first pay a “contact fee.”
  • The “Bank” is in Africa: Unless you know you have relatives there, this should be a dead giveaway to a scam. Africa is a continent kept alive by the charity of other nations. It’s not in the business of doling out large sums of money to Westerners.
  • Overseas Phone Numbers: If you call these, you’ll have a huge bill. So many people skip calling and just send the money “required” to receive their “cash prize.”

Online Scam? What to do

  • Highly Personal Requests: Asking you—someone they’ve never met—to assume the burden of acting as the executor of their “Last Will and Testament.”
  • Love Scams: The scammer poses as a man or woman—usually outside the United States—seeking love. After days/weeks, the scammer says s/he will fly to the United States to be yours. All you have to do is put up the money for the flight cost.
  • “Make Money From Home”: Work from home” scams promise a way to support yourself and your family. You’re required to provide bank information or pay an up-front “registration fee.” Then you wait for job orders—that never come.
  • Debt Relief: Scammers promise to relieve most or all of your debt—for a large up-front fee. You pay the fee—and are not only out of that money but still in debt.
  • Home Repair Schemes: Huge down payments are required for home repairs that never happen.
  • “Free” Trial Offers: The service or product is free for awhile, but you must opt out later to avoid monthly billings.
  • The Email Claims to Be From the FBI: Often the “address” includes “Anti-Terrorist and Monetary Crime Division.”  One such email was addressed: “Dear Beneficiary” and offered help in obtaining a “fund.” The FBI is an investigative agency responsible to the U.S. Department of Justice. It does not resolve financial disputes or secure monies for “deserving” recipients. If the FBI wants to contact you, it will do so by letter or by sending agents to your address. The FBI’s own website states: “At this time we do not have a national e-mail address for sending or forwarding investigative information.”

FBI Headquarters: Where stopping cybercrime is now a top priority.

  • “I Need Help”: You get an email claiming to be from someone you know—who’s “in jail here in Mexico” or some other foreign country. S/he begs you to send money for bail or bribes to win his/her freedom. If you get such an email, call the person to make certain. Don’t rush to send money—chances are it will go directly to a scammer.

There are several commonsense rules to follow in protecting yourself from online scammers:

  • Don’t trust people you’ve never met to want to give you money.
  • Shop online only with well-known merchants who have a good reputation.
  • Don’t click on unknown links—especially those in emails from unknown senders.
  • If you’re required to pay an advance fee—“on faith”—to receive a big amount of money, the odds are it’s a scam.
  • If you can’t find any solid information on a company, chances are it doesn’t exist.
  • For additional information on how to protect yourself from cybercrime, check out the FBI’s page at http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/cyber.
  • If it sounds too good to be true, the odds are: It is untrue.