Posts Tagged ‘DEMOCRATS’
ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, IRAN WAR, JOHN GARAMENDI, LYNDON JOHNSON, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, Oil, PBS NEWSHOUR, PETE HEGSETH, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RICHARD NIXON, RO KHANNA, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SS, STRAIT OF HORMUZ, 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 PENTAGON, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, THIRD REICH, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VIETNAM WAR, WAR CRIMES, WEHRMACHT, WORLD WAR 11, X
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Military, Politics, Social commentary on May 19, 2026 at 12:10 am
On April 29, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth appeared before Congress for the first time since President Donald Trump-–in concert with Israel—launched a series of devastating airstrikes against Iran.
During the hearing, the Pentagon revealed that the war so far had cost $25 billion. The fighting is on hold, but the military maintains its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
Early on in his testimony, Hegseth said the threat of Iran paled in comparison to one posed by Democrats: “The biggest challenge, the biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans.”
Pete Hegseth
Forget that:
- Iran had effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz—through which 20% to 25% of the world’s oil consumption (about 20–21 million barrels per day) flows.
- As a result, gas prices rose overnight. By late April, the national average for a gallon of regular gas reached $4.02 to $4.04, compared to roughly $2.98 before military operations began.
- On April 5—Easter Sunday, no less—Trump posted on his website, Truth Social: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open up the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP”
- When this threat failed to impress the Iranians, Trump posted on April 7: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
- This implied threat of a nuclear holocaust led legal experts and international organizations such as Amnesty International to warn that attacking civilian infrastructure would constitute war crimes under international law.
Donald Trump
Implicit in Hegseth’s charge—and attitude—was the message: “It’s Democrats’ fault that we’re not winning the war that we—and Israel—started on February 28. And that a war that was supposed to last six weeks at most has now dragged on for two months—with no end in sight.”
It’s possible that the highly combative Hegseth had a specific remedy in mind for such criticism—one that had been applied by Nazi Germany to those who who doubted the “final victory” of the war that Adolf Hitler had started.
Those who did so—or openly criticized the need for the war or the genocidal way it was being fought—faced two ways of dying: Beheading or hanging.
So long as the Third Reich was winning—or at least in possession of actual German territory—the punishment of beheading was carried out upon conviction by kangaroo courts.
But when the Reich was immediately facing invasion—from the West by American and British forces, and from the East by Russian ones—there often wasn’t time for pseudo-legal folderol. Roving bands of Schutzstaffel (SS) or Wehrmacht troops openly shot or literally strung up such “traitors” from lamp posts.
Certainly Hegseth’s attitude reflected that mentality, as this exchange with Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) revealed:
GARAMENDI: The president has got himself and America stuck in a quagmire of another war in the Middle East. He’s desperately trying to extricate himself from his own mistakes.
HEGSETH: You call it a quagmire, handing propaganda to our enemies? Shame on you for that statement. And statements like that are reckless to our troops.
During the Vietnam war (1965 – 1975) the administrations of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon lied repeatedly about the “progress” being achieved. The polite term used to describe this was “credibility gap.”
As a result, “grunts” often sported buttons reading: “Ambushed at Credibility Gap.”
When a nation’s armed forces are winning easy—or even hard-won—victories over an enemy, word quickly spreads through their ranks. When facing defeat—or stalemate—soldiers are equally quick to sense the truth of this.
So Hegseth’s accusation that Garamendi’s accurately calling the war “a quagmire”—at least so far—could not prove a morale-buster for the soldiers fighting it.
Throughout his testimony, Hegseth acted like a man in charge of an inquisition, rather than a public official called on by Congress to answer questions.
A typical exchange between him and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA):
KHANNA (D-CA): Do you know how much it will cost Americans in terms of their increased cost in gas and food over the next year because of the Iran war?
HEGSETH: I would simply ask you what the cost is of an Iranian nuclear bomb.
KHANNA: I’m going to give you that opportunity.
HEGSETH: I would simply ask you what the — you’re playing gotcha questions about domestic things.
KHANNA: No, it’s not. You’re asking — you’re saying it’s a gotcha question to ask what it’s going to be in terms of the increased cost of gas?
HEGSETH: Why won’t you answer what it costs to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb?
KHANNA: I give you that, sir. You don’t know what we’re paying in terms of gas. You don’t know what we’re paying in terms of food. Your $25 billion number is totally off. It’s the incompetence. It’s the incompetence.
What she should have said was: “You’re here to answer questions, not ask them.”
2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT (ACA), ALEC BALDWIN, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, AP, ARTICLE 1, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BANDY X. LEE, BBC, BILL CLINTON, BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS (BLS), BUZZFEED, CANADA, CBS NEWS, CHICAGO, CHRIS KREBS, CNN, CONSUMER PROTECTION FINANCIAL BUREAU, CROOKS AND LIARS, CYBERSECURITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY AGENCY (CISA), DAILY KOS, DAVID BROOKS, DEMOCRATS, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (DOJ), DIVERSITY EQUITY AND INCLUSION (DEI), DONALD TRUMP, ELON MUSK, FBI, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA), FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FLETCHER KNEBEL, GAIUS CALIGULA, GAZA, GEOFF BENNETT, GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, GORE VIDAL, GREENLAND, GULF OF AMERICA, GULF OF MEXICO, HARD UNIVERSITY, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL, HUFFINGTON POST, illegal immigration, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE), INSPECTORS GENERAL, IRAN WAR, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JEFFREY EPSTEIN, JOHN ADAMS, JOHN D. GARTNER, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY MEDICAL SCHOOL, JONATHAN CAPEHART, JOSEPH BIDEN, KEVIN SPACEY, LANCE DODES, LOS ANGELES, MARK MEADOWS, MEDAL OF HONOR WINNERS, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, MICHAEL JACKSON, MICK JAGGER, MINNEAPOLIS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MS NOW, MSNBC, NARCISSISM, NBC NEWS, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NIGHT AT CAMP DAVID (BOOK), NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION (NATO), NPR, Oil, PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PRINCE ANDREW, QATAR, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RICHARD BRANSON, ROMAN EMPERORS, ROMAN EMPIRE, RUDY GIULIANI, SALLUST, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, ST. PAUL, STRAIT OF HORMUZ, SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP), TACITUS, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE DANGEROUS CASE OF DONALD TRUMP (BOOK), 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 PENTAGON, THE TWELVE CAESARS (ESSAY), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, WAR CRIMES, WASHINGTON D.C., WOODY ALLEN, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, X, YALE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary, Uncategorized on May 14, 2026 at 12:05 am
Among the outrages President Donald Trump has committed since returning to power on January 20:
- Launched an unprovoked attack on Iran on February 28, believing that in six weeks he could force its Islamic rulers to abandon their plans to develop nuclear weapons.
- When Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz—through which about 20%-25% of the world’s oil flows—Trump threatened: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
- He backed off—at least temporarily—only after legal experts and organizations such as Amnesty International warned that attacking civilian infrastructure would constitute war crimes under international law.
Trump’s vindictiveness, his narcissism, his compulsive aggression, his complaints that his “enemies” in government and the press are trying to destroy him, have caused many to ask: Could the President of the United States be suffering from mental illness?
One who has dared to answer this question is John D. Gartner, a practicing psychotherapist.
John D. Gartner
Gartner graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University, received his Ph.D in clinical psychology from the University of Massachusetts, and served as a part-time assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University Medical School for 28 years.
During an interview by U.S. News & World Report (published on January 27, 2017), Gartner said: “Donald Trump is dangerously mentally ill and temperamentally incapable of being president.”
Gartner said that Trump suffers from “malignant narcissism,” whose symptoms include:
- anti-social behavior
- sadism
- aggressiveness
- paranoia
- grandiosity.
“We’ve seen enough public behavior by Donald Trump now that we can make this diagnosis indisputably,” says Gartner, who admits he has not personally examined Trump.
Another psychiatrist who’s determined that Trump is “mentally compromised” is Bandy X. Lee, an assistant clinical psychiatry professor at the Yale School of Medicine.
And she offered her reasons for doing so as the editor of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President.
“It doesn’t take a psychiatrist to notice that our president is mentally compromised,” she and colleague Judith Lewis Herman asserted in the book’s prologue.
According to Dr. Craig Malkin, a Lecturer in Psychology for Harvard Medical School and a licensed psychologist, Trump is a pathological narcissist:
“Pathological narcissism begins,” Malkin writes, “when people become so addicted to feeling special that, just like with any drug, they’ll do anything to get their ‘high,’ including lie, steal, cheat, betray and even hurt those closest to them.
“When they can’t let go of their need to be admired or recognized, they have to bend or invent a reality in which they remain special despite all messages to the contrary. In point of fact, they become dangerously psychotic. It’s just not always obvious until it’s too late.”
Lance Dodes, a retired psychiatry professor at Harvard Medical School, believes that Trump is a sociopath:
“The failure of normal empathy is central to sociopathy, which is marked by an absence of guilt, intentional manipulation and controlling or even sadistically harming others for personal power or gratification.”
* * * * * * * * * *
Americans have long believed that they—and especially their leaders—are an “exceptional” people. As a result, they consider themselves immune from the threats of corruption and dictatorship that have plagued other nations.
Millions of Americans—including many Trump supporters—have been shaken by the revelations of the Epstein Files, which chronicle the sexual depravities of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Even more disturbing has been the knowledge that he and Donald Trump maintained a friendship for 15 to 17 years.
The Files so far released are replete with names of celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Kevin Spacey, Alec Baldwin, Woody Allen, George Stephanopoulos, Elon Musk, Richard Branson, former President Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew.
This has added to the shock and revulsion felt by millions of Americans. Yet they might have been less shocked had they read Gore Vidal’s 1959 essay, “The Twelve Caesars.”
Gore Vidal
Mark Coggins from San Francisco, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Vidal’s essay is an ode to The Twelve Caesars, a classic work of ancient biography by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus—known as Suetonius.
Suetonius, a Roman citizen and historian, chronicled the lives of the first twelve Caesars of imperial Rome: Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian.
Vidal sought to show the relevance of Suetonius’ work to present-day America: “It would be wrong, however, to dismiss, as so many commentators have, the wide variety of Caesarean sensuality as simply the viciousness of twelve abnormal men. They were, after all, a fairly representative lot.
“They differed from us – and their contemporaries – only in the fact of power, which made it possible for each to act out his most recondite sexual fantasies. This is the psychological fascination of Suetonius. What will men so placed do? The answer, apparently, is anything and everything.”
Thus the lesson taught by the celebrities—including Trump—who glommed onto Jeffrey Epstein: They differed from ordinary citizens only in the power they held over themselves—and others. And, reveling in that power, they felt free to indulge the most depraved fantasies, sexual and otherwise.
2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT (ACA), ALEC BALDWIN, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, AP, ARTICLE 1, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BANDY X. LEE, BBC, BILL CLINTON, BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS (BLS), BUZZFEED, CANADA, CBS NEWS, CHICAGO, CHRIS KREBS, CNN, CONSUMER PROTECTION FINANCIAL BUREAU, CROOKS AND LIARS, CYBERSECURITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY AGENCY (CISA), DAILY KOS, DAVID BROOKS, DEMOCRATS, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (DOJ), DIVERSITY EQUITY AND INCLUSION (DEI), DONALD TRUMP, ELON MUSK, FBI, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA), FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FLETCHER KNEBEL, GAIUS CALIGULA, GAZA, GEOFF BENNETT, GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, GORE VIDAL, GREENLAND, GULF OF AMERICA, GULF OF MEXICO, HARD UNIVERSITY, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL, HUFFINGTON POST, illegal immigration, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE), INSPECTORS GENERAL, IRAN WAR, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JEFFREY EPSTEIN, JOHN ADAMS, JOHN D. GARTNER, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY MEDICAL SCHOOL, JONATHAN CAPEHART, JOSEPH BIDEN, KEVIN SPACEY, LANCE DODES, LOS ANGELES, MARK MEADOWS, MEDAL OF HONOR WINNERS, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, MICHAEL JACKSON, MICK JAGGER, MINNEAPOLIS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MS NOW, MSNBC, NARCISSISM, NBC NEWS, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NIGHT AT CAMP DAVID (BOOK), NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION (NATO), NPR, Oil, PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PRINCE ANDREW, QATAR, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RICHARD BRANSON, ROMAN EMPERORS, ROMAN EMPIRE, RUDY GIULIANI, SALLUST, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, ST. PAUL, STRAIT OF HORMUZ, SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP), TACITUS, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE DANGEROUS CASE OF DONALD TRUMP (BOOK), 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 PENTAGON, THE TWELVE CAESARS (ESSAY), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, WAR CRIMES, WASHINGTON D.C., WOODY ALLEN, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, X, YALE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary, Uncategorized on May 13, 2026 at 12:33 am
Night at Camp David is a 1965 novel about the danger of a President of the United States going insane.
In a November 30, 2018 review of the book, Tom McCarthy, national affairs correspondent for the British newspaper, The Guardian, wrote of President Donald Trump:
“The current president has seen crowds where none exist, deployed troops to answer no threat, attacked national institutions – the military, the justice department, the judiciary, the vote, the rule of law, the press – tried to prosecute his political enemies, elevated bigots, oppressed minorities, praised despots while insulting global allies and wreaked diplomatic havoc from North Korea to Canada.
“He stays up half the night watching TV and tweeting about it, then wakes up early to tweet some more, in what must be the most remarkable public diary of insecurity, petty vindictiveness, duplicity and scattershot focus by a major head of state in history.”
And the nightmare isn’t over.
Among the outrages Trump has committed since returning to power on January 20:
- Pardoned about 1,500 of his followers who violently tried to overturn the outcome of the 2020 Presidential election in the January 6, 2021 attack on Congress. Move than 250 of those pardoned had been convicted of assaulting police.
- Signed 26 executive orders reversing climate change initiatives, eliminating DEI programs, changing the federal designation for the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” and initiating a federal hiring freeze.
- Fired the inspectors general—who are charged with protecting the government from waste and corruption—from more than a dozen federal agencies.
- Following Trump’s anti-DEI executive order, the Department of Defense deleted content that included the achievements of nonwhites—such as Navajo code talkers, black Tuskegee Airmen, Medal of Honor winners and women veterans.
- Fired Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects consumers from unfair, deceptive and fraudulent business practices.
Donald Trump
- Withdrew the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO).
- Withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement.
- Fired the non-partisan board members at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. His toadies illegally renamed it the Trump-Kennedy Center and appointed him as its chairman—just as Joseph Stalin made himself arbiter of what was permissible for artists in the Soviet Union.
- When artists and audiences—outraged by the takeover—boycotted the Center, an embarrassed Trump ordered its closure, claiming a two-year repair renovation was necessary
- Purged about a half-dozen executive assistant directors at the FBI. These were some of the bureau’s top managers overseeing criminal, national security and cyber investigations. Their “crime”: Investigating Trump’s inciting the January 6, 2021 coup attempt and illegally holding highly sensitive national security documents after leaving office.
- Ordered the Justice Department to indict his critics such as New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.
- Declared “a national emergency” targeting migrants—legal and illegal.
- Tried to cancel birthright citizenship—enshrined within the United States Constitution— for U.S.-born children.
- Demanded a military parade for his 79th birthday, poorly disguised as a salute to the 250th anniversary of the United States Army.
- Pardoned favored political allies and loyalists. Among these: Seventy-seven people associated with the Trump fake electors plot to overturn the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, including Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and former chief of staff Mark Meadows.
- Angrily fired the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics following a weak jobs report, triggering fears about his extortionate tariff policy.
- Demanded that the media refer to the Gulf of Mexico as “the Gulf of America” and banned the Associated Press from the White House for refusing to do so.
- Ordered the closure of all Federal Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility offices.
- Demanded that Canada become the 51st state and aggressively raised tariffs on Canadian goods.
- Shut down the Federal Government on October 1, when Democrats refused to agree to his gutting Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), causing 10-15 million Americans to lose health insurance coverage.
- Among those not getting paid: Air traffic controllers for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Owing to many controllers’ refusing to work, the FAA reduced air traffic by 10% at many airports.
- Shut off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for the poor to pressure Democrats to support his gutting of healthcare programs.
- Issued executive orders revoking the security clearance of Chris Krebs, former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Krebs’ “crime”: Preventing lies spread by Russians—and Americans—on social media platforms from swaying the 2020 Presidential election to Trump.
- Flooded the streets of Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Chicago with federalized National Guard troops against state governors’ wishes during immigration crackdowns and civil unrest.
- Flooded Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, with 3,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who terrorized (and in two cases murdered) both American citizens and illegal aliens.
- Threatened Harvard University with the loss of billions of dollars in federal funding, claiming that 2023 student protests about Gaza violated the civil rights of Jewish students.
- Threatened Greenland—an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark—with invasion unless it agreed to acquisition by the United States. Since Denmark is a member of NATO, such an invasion would pit the United States against its own alliance.
2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT (ACA), ALEC BALDWIN, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, AP, ARTICLE 1, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BANDY X. LEE, BBC, BILL CLINTON, BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS (BLS), BUZZFEED, CANADA, CBS NEWS, CHICAGO, CHRIS KREBS, CNN, CONSUMER PROTECTION FINANCIAL BUREAU, CROOKS AND LIARS, CYBERSECURITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY AGENCY (CISA), DAILY KOS, DAVID BROOKS, DEMOCRATS, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (DOJ), DIVERSITY EQUITY AND INCLUSION (DEI), DONALD TRUMP, ELON MUSK, FBI, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA), FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FLETCHER KNEBEL, GAIUS CALIGULA, GAZA, GEOFF BENNETT, GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, GORE VIDAL, GREENLAND, GULF OF AMERICA, GULF OF MEXICO, HARD UNIVERSITY, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL, HUFFINGTON POST, illegal immigration, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE), INSPECTORS GENERAL, IRAN WAR, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JEFFREY EPSTEIN, JOHN ADAMS, JOHN D. GARTNER, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY MEDICAL SCHOOL, JONATHAN CAPEHART, JOSEPH BIDEN, KEVIN SPACEY, LANCE DODES, LOS ANGELES, MARK MEADOWS, MEDAL OF HONOR WINNERS, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, MICHAEL JACKSON, MICK JAGGER, MINNEAPOLIS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MS NOW, MSNBC, NARCISSISM, NBC NEWS, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NIGHT AT CAMP DAVID (BOOK), NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION (NATO), NPR, Oil, PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PRINCE ANDREW, QATAR, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RICHARD BRANSON, ROMAN EMPERORS, ROMAN EMPIRE, RUDY GIULIANI, SALLUST, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, ST. PAUL, STRAIT OF HORMUZ, SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP), TACITUS, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE DANGEROUS CASE OF DONALD TRUMP (BOOK), 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 PENTAGON, THE TWELVE CAESARS (ESSAY), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, WAR CRIMES, WASHINGTON D.C., WOODY ALLEN, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, X, YALE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on May 12, 2026 at 12:05 am
On the April 10 edition of The PBS Newshour, David Brooks of The Atlantic and Jonathan Capehart of MS NOW—exchanged opinions on the mental health of President Donald Trump.
Although Brooks, a conservative, and Capehart, a liberal, usually find themselves on opposite sides of a subject, this time they reached a consensus: Trump is dangerously ill.
David Brooks: Last January, as we watched this spiral psychologically….I read Roman histories. And so you get Tacitus and Sallust and those old guys, because they had a front-row seat to tyranny. And they watched authoritarians, one after another, Caligula, all these guys. And the one thing they all said was that they deteriorate.
They create a situation around them, when the sycophants have to get more sycophant. Anybody who’s reasonable is either dead or gone. And then the urge to dominate, the lust for power becomes drunk. They become drunk on that. And they get more and more daring, more and more out of control, and then you get this spiral.
And our founding fathers, they understood this so well. They read Tacitus. They loved these guys. And John Adams said, if we get a leader like that, he will run through our Congress, our Constitution the way a whale goes through a net. And so they completely understood. And their worst nightmare is now happening.
The Constitution of the United States
Moderator Geoff Bennett: And, Jonathan, 61 percent of Americans, including 30 percent of Republicans, now say that President Trump has become erratic with age. That’s according to a recent Reuters-Ipsos poll.
The press corps — I guess we should hold up a mirror to ourselves. The press corps spent two years making President Biden’s mental fitness, his acuity the story. Why isn’t that same scrutiny now being applied to President Trump broadly?
Jonathan Capehart: Yes, exactly. That has been my question since January 20 of last year. We, the press, spent a lot of time talking about President Biden and his age because he looked old. He moved slowly. He wasn’t as vigorous and agile, supposedly, as the guy he pushed out of office and then the guy who was running against him.
And even little slips of the tongue were used to show, see, aha, he’s not all there. He’s losing his mind. How does that compare to what we’re going through right now? I wish people who have written books — people who have gone on air talking about President Biden nonstop, where are they now?
Where are those books now that we have a president who has given ample evidence, ample evidence that something is not right? Where are the people who are standing up and saying, you know what, something needs to be done?
And that goes back to some — you were talking about the founders. They were prepared for something like this. What they weren’t prepared for was the Article I branch just ceding all authority. What they weren’t prepared for were people from the president’s own party willing to either turn a blind eye or enable him to run roughshod over the Constitution.
Donald Trump
Even when you have got him out there threatening annihilation of a civilization, even when he’s started a war for no reason and the enemy is in a stronger position now than it was before he started this war of his own choosing?
At some point, Republicans writ large and those on Capitol Hill have to start standing up for the Article I prerogatives, but also start standing up for the country. I don’t know how much longer we as a nation can withstand this. And I know the world is beyond done with us, but I think they’re also frightened of us.
* * * * * * * * * *
This is not the first time the subject of Donald Trump’s mental instability has been raised. In 2018, during Trump’s first term as President, a 53-year-old novel was re-released: Night at Camp David, by Fletcher Knebel.
At the time of its 1965, release, its plot was considered so over-the-top as to be worthy of science fiction:
Iowa Democratic Senator Jim MacVeagh is summoned to Camp David, the Presidential retreat, by President Mark Hollenbach. MacVeagh is expected to become Hollenbach’s next Vice President. But he becomes alarmed that Hollenbach is clearly suffering from intense paranoia.
Hollenbach wants to develop a closer relationship between the United States and Russia—while cutting ties with American allies in Europe. Moreover, he believes the American news media are conspiring against him with his political enemies.
Its paperback edition offered a sentence that went straight for the jugular: “What would happen if the President of the United States went stark-raving mad?”
In a November 30, 2018 review of Night at Camp David, Tom McCarthy, national affairs correspondent for the British newspaper, The Guardian, wrote:
“The current president has seen crowds where none exist, deployed troops to answer no threat, attacked national institutions – the military, the justice department, the judiciary, the vote, the rule of law, the press – tried to prosecute his political enemies, elevated bigots, oppressed minorities, praised despots while insulting global allies and wreaked diplomatic havoc from North Korea to Canada.”
2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT (ACA), ALEC BALDWIN, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, AP, ARTICLE 1, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BANDY X. LEE, BBC, BILL CLINTON, BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS (BLS), BUZZFEED, CANADA, CBS NEWS, CHICAGO, CHRIS KREBS, CNN, CONSUMER PROTECTION FINANCIAL BUREAU, CROOKS AND LIARS, CYBERSECURITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY AGENCY (CISA), DAILY KOS, DAVID BROOKS, DEMOCRATS, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (DOJ), DIVERSITY EQUITY AND INCLUSION (DEI), DONALD TRUMP, ELON MUSK, FBI, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA), FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FLETCHER KNEBEL, GAIUS CALIGULA, GAZA, GEOFF BENNETT, GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, GORE VIDAL, GREENLAND, GULF OF AMERICA, GULF OF MEXICO, HARD UNIVERSITY, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL, HUFFINGTON POST, illegal immigration, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE), INSPECTORS GENERAL, IRAN WAR, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JEFFREY EPSTEIN, JOHN ADAMS, JOHN D. GARTNER, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY MEDICAL SCHOOL, JONATHAN CAPEHART, JOSEPH BIDEN, KEVIN SPACEY, LANCE DODES, LOS ANGELES, MARK MEADOWS, MEDAL OF HONOR WINNERS, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, MICHAEL JACKSON, MICK JAGGER, MINNEAPOLIS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MS NOW, MSNBC, NARCISSISM, NBC NEWS, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NIGHT AT CAMP DAVID (BOOK), NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION (NATO), NPR, Oil, PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PRINCE ANDREW, QATAR, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RICHARD BRANSON, ROMAN EMPERORS, ROMAN EMPIRE, RUDY GIULIANI, SALLUST, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, ST. PAUL, STRAIT OF HORMUZ, SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP), TACITUS, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE DANGEROUS CASE OF DONALD TRUMP (BOOK), 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 PENTAGON, THE TWELVE CAESARS (ESSAY), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, WAR CRIMES, WASHINGTON D.C., WOODY ALLEN, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, X, YALE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on May 11, 2026 at 12:10 am
On April 10, David Brooks of The Atlantic and Jonathan Capehart of MS NOW appeared—as they do every Friday—on the PBS Newshour to discuss the week’s political events.
Brooks is a conservative, Capehart, a liberal, but they exchange their often differing views in a calm, civil manner. But on this date, there was unanimity between them on the subject of President Donald Trump’s deteriorating mental state.
Moderator Geoff Bennett kicked off the exchange with this:
So, David, the president this week threatened to wipe out an entire civilization, and then he took a cease-fire deal 88 minutes before his own deadline. Is this maximum pressure or maximum chaos?
David Brooks: Maximum malevolence. We shouldn’t let that comment about the wiping out of civilization go by without saying what an antithesis it is of American history….We have always prided ourselves, whether — whatever stupid stuff we do, on not being a rapacious European-style imperial dominating power.
After World War II, we didn’t try to take over Germany and Japan. We gave them money so they could recover. Even George W. Bush, whatever you think of the war, the intentions were OK. But to threaten to wipe out a civilization is pure malevolence.
David Brooks
It’s an assertion of true evil. And it didn’t work. And so, if you want to know how the war is going, look at who’s moving. The U.S. used to have regime change. Now, today, Trump said just so we can stop the nuclear program. And the nuclear material have been unaffected by this war, by the way. So we’re pulling back our goals.
The Iranians, when they put forth their negotiating position, they’re sticking with the goals they had and then they’re adding more. We want to control the Straits of Hormuz. We want reparations. We want you to release all our money.
So they’re clearly on the offensive. And so if you…think America’s winning, why are we going backwards and why are we retreating?
Bennett: And, Jonathan, what does it mean for American foreign policy when the distance between the president saying on social media a whole civilization will die tonight and a cease-fire announcement is roughly eight hours?
Jonathan Capehart: It speaks to the chaos that….that characterizes the president himself, that characterizes how he is running his administration. I was on air Sunday morning….where he was demanding explicitly to open the Strait of Hormuz, you crazy bastards, from a president of the United States on Easter Sunday. To your point, this is not the America that we know.
The American president is supposed to be a statesman, supposed to be someone who is a reflection of our better selves or who we hope to be, who we project our image to be. And, right now, our image is so bad that we not only have the French leader calling out the American president, but the British prime minister called out the American president, basically lumping him with Vladimir Putin of Russia in terms of malevolent force on the world stage.
Jonathan Capehart
….This gets to the bigger question for me about….is the president all right? Because no American president ever has written the things, said the things, threatened the things that he did in the span of, what, 72 hours.
Bennett: Let’s talk more about that, because, last night, President Trump shared this graphic video of a woman being beaten to death. We’re not going to show that video, but you can see the screenshot of the social media message there on the screen.
And he used this video to attack former President Biden, Democrats, federal judges. A sitting president posting footage of a murder as political content, is there no line left?
Brooks: Apparently not. I think he is spiraling out of control. And I say that in part, and a little psychologically, narcissists tend to disinhibit as they age. And so they….just get more of themselves, which is not a good thing.
Donald Trump
But last January, as we watched this spiral psychologically….I read Roman histories. And so you get Tacitus and Sallust and those old guys, because they had a front-row seat to tyranny. And they watched authoritarians, one after another, Caligula, all these guys. And the one thing they all said was that they deteriorate.
They create a situation around them, when the sycophants have to get more sycophant. Anybody who’s reasonable is either dead or gone. And then the urge to dominate, the lust for power becomes drunk. They become drunk on that. And they get more and more daring, more and more out of control, and then you get this spiral.
And our founding fathers, they understood this so well. They read Tacitus. They loved these guys. And John Adams said, if we get a leader like that, he will run through our Congress, our Constitution the way a whale goes through a net. And so they completely understood. And their worst nightmare is now happening.
60 MIINUTES, ABORTION, ADOLF HITLER, ALBERT SPEER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BERLIN, BIRTH CONTROL, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUZZFEED, CANADA, CBS NEWS, CENSUS BUREAU, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC), CNN, CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU, CONTRACEPTION, CONVERSATION WITH AN AMERICAN WRITER (POEM), COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DEMOCRATS, DENMARK, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (DOD), DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY (DOGE), DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (DOJ), DIVERSITY EQUITY AND INCLUSION (DEI), DONALD TRUMP, ELON MUSK, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, FASCISM, FBI, FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (FCC), FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION (FTC), FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOSSIL FUELS, FRANCE, GAS, GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HERITAGE FOUNDATION, HUFFINGTON POST, HUNTER BIDEN, INSPECTORS GENERAL, INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS, IRAN, ISRAEL, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JOE BIDEN, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, JOSEPH STALIN, LUXURY JET, MEDAL OF HONOR, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC AGENCY (NOAA), NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NORWAY, NPR, Oil, PARDONS, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLAND, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PROJECT 2025, PUBLIC TRANSIT SYSTEMS, QATAR, RAPE, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROBERT PAYNE, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SECURITY CLEARANCES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, STALINGRAD, STRAIT OF HORMUZ, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TAX CUTS, 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 LIFE AND DEATH OF ADOLF HITLER (BOOK), 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, UKRAINE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, WAR CRIMES, WEHRMACHT, WORLD WAR 11, X, YEVGENEY YEVTUSHENKO
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on April 30, 2026 at 12:18 am
Eighty-one years ago, 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.
Opposing him—at first openly, and later secretly—was Albert Speer, his former architect and now Minister of Armaments.
Albert Speer
Speer argued that there must be a future for the German people: “If our enemies wish to destroy us, why help them? We must leave the people something.”
But Hitler refused to back down: “I don’t want to hear any more.”
He gave Speer 24 hours to reconsider his opposition to the order.
Speer could not directly promise to carry out Hitler’s “scorched earth” order. So he gave Hitler a vague answer that essentially committed him to nothing: “My Fuhrer, I stand unconditionally behind you!”
“Then all is well,” said Hitler, suddenly with tears in his eyes.
Adolf Hitler addressing boy soldiers as the Third Reich crumbles
“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” order.
Trained as an architect, Speer 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.
From then on, Speer became Hitler’s “genius architect” assigned to create buildings meant to last for a thousand years. “If Hitler had been capable of friendship,” Speer said after the war, “I would have been that friend.”
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.
* * * * * * * * * *
Why have Republicans almost unanimously stood by Donald Trump despite the wreckage he has made of American foreign and domestic policy?
Fear—that they will lose their privileged positions in Congress if they don’t.
This could happen by:
- Their being voted out of Congress by Trump’s fanatical base; or
- Their being voted out of Congress by anti-Trump voters fed up with Trump’s appalling behavior.
House and Senate Republicans’ support for Trump hinges on one question: “Can I hold onto my power and all the privileges that accompany it by sticking—or breaking—with him?”
The Original Nazis were guided by Hitler’s belief that the world was polluted by corruption and ugliness—and their mission was to remove that ugliness and corruption.
This meant removing those peoples they deemed inferior—Jews, Slavs (Poles, Serbs, Russians), Communists, liberals, gypsies, the physically and mentally handicapped.
Today’s Fascistic Republicans believe themselves to be the only legitimate political party. And so do their supporters.
No sin—or even crime—is intolerable if it’s committed by a Republican.
In his bestselling 1973 biography, The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler, British historian Robert Payne harshly condemned the German people for the rise of the Nazi dictator:
“[They] allowed themselves to be seduced by him and came to enjoy the experience….[They] followed him with joy and enthusiasm because he gave them license to pillage and murder to their hearts’ content. They were his servile accomplices, his willing victims.”
Like Hitler, Trump offered his Republican voters and Congressional allies intoxicating dreams: “I will enrich all of you. And I will humiliate and destroy those Americans you most hate.”
For his white, Fascistic, largely elderly audience, those enemies included blacks, atheists, Hispanics, non-Christians, Muslims, liberals, “uppity” women, Asians.
For most of the first three years of his first term, he faced little opposition. What cost Trump the White House wasn’t Democratic or Republican courage but a deadly disease—COVID-19—which Trump refused to take seriously.
Democrats cowered before Trump’s slanders—thereby ensuring more assaults.
Most of the press quailed before Trump. Only a few media outlets—notably The New York Times, CNN and The Washington Post––dared investigate his crimes and blunders.
In 1960, the Russian poet, Yevgeney Yevtushenko, published “Conversation With an American Writer”—a stinging indictment of the cowardly opportunists who had supported the brutal tyranny of Joseph Stalin:
“You have courage,” they tell me.
It’s not true. I was never courageous.
I simply felt it unbecoming
to stoop to the cowardice of my colleagues.
Too many Republicans know all-too-well how it feels to stoop to the cowardice of their colleagues.
60 MIINUTES, ABORTION, ADOLF HITLER, ALBERT SPEER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BERLIN, BIRTH CONTROL, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUZZFEED, CANADA, CBS NEWS, CENSUS BUREAU, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC), CNN, CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU, CONTRACEPTION, CONVERSATION WITH AN AMERICAN WRITER (POEM), COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DEMOCRATS, DENMARK, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (DOD), DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY (DOGE), DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (DOJ), DIVERSITY EQUITY AND INCLUSION (DEI), DONALD TRUMP, ELON MUSK, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, FASCISM, FBI, FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (FCC), FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION (FTC), FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOSSIL FUELS, FRANCE, GAS, GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HERITAGE FOUNDATION, HUFFINGTON POST, HUNTER BIDEN, INSPECTORS GENERAL, INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS, IRAN, ISRAEL, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JOE BIDEN, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, JOSEPH STALIN, LUXURY JET, MEDAL OF HONOR, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC AGENCY (NOAA), NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NORWAY, NPR, Oil, PARDONS, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLAND, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PROJECT 2025, PUBLIC TRANSIT SYSTEMS, QATAR, RAPE, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROBERT PAYNE, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SECURITY CLEARANCES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, STALINGRAD, STRAIT OF HORMUZ, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TAX CUTS, 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 LIFE AND DEATH OF ADOLF HITLER (BOOK), 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, UKRAINE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, WAR CRIMES, WEHRMACHT, WORLD WAR 11, X, YEVGENEY YEVTUSHENKO
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on April 29, 2026 at 12:10 am
Since Donald Trump retook the office of President on January 20, 2025, Republicans have lustily supported or remained silent about his litany of criminal, if not treasonous, actions:
- Trump fired the inspectors general—who are charged with protecting the government from waste and corruption—from more than a dozen federal agencies.
- Several career lawyers who worked on the criminal investigations into Trump during the Biden administration were fired by Acting Attorney General James McHenry because he “do[es] not believe that the leadership of the Department can trust you to assist in implementing the President’s agenda faithfully.”
- Trump ordered a purge of about a half-dozen executive assistant directors at the FBI. These were some of the bureau’s top managers overseeing criminal, national security and cyber investigations.
- Their “crime”: Trump blamed them for investigating his inciting the January 6, 2021 coup attempt and his illegal holding of highly sensitive national security documents after leaving office.
- Without explanation, Trump fired Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects consumers from unfair, deceptive and fraudulent business practices.
- Following Trump’s executive orders, federal agencies deleted multiple federal web pages and data. Among the agencies: The Pentagon, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Census Bureau. The changes affected content related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), gender identity, public health research, environmental policy and social programs.
- Following Trump’s anti-DEI executive order, the United States Department of Defense (DOD) deleted content that included the achievements of nonwhite groups, such as Navajo code talkers, black Tuskegee Airmen, Medal of Honor winners and women veterans. As in Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union, those that Trump hates are made to disappear from history.
- Trump fired the board members at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and appointed himself as chairman—just as Joseph Stalin made himself arbiter of what was permissible for artists in the Soviet Union.
- Trump held what amounted to an ambush meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. Siding with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, Trump blamed Zelensky for Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
- Trump demanded that Zelensky sign over mineral rights to the United States without America’s providing a security guarantee for Ukraine. Zelensky left without signing such an agreement.
- The Trump-authorized and illegitimate Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by billionaire Elon Musk, dismantled multiple agencies, invaded the privacy of untold millions by accessing sensitive data systems and fired tens of thousands of federal workers.
- Trump filed frivolous and extortionate lawsuits against major news networks CBS and ABC.
- Against CBS: Trump claimed that its news magazine, “60 Minutes” deceptively edited an interview with Kamala Harris to damage his presidential campaign and influence the election. He initially sought $10 billion in damages, then increased it to $20 billion. Paramount, the owner of CBS, agreed to pay $16 million in legal fees and a contribution to the future Trump Library.
- Against ABC: He claimed that its commentator, George Stephanopoulos, falsely stated he was found liable for “rape” in the case brought by columnist E. Jean Carroll. The jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, but not rape. The judge later clarified that what the jury found Trump did was in fact rape, as commonly understood.
- Nevertheless, in December 2024, ABC News agreed to pay $15 million to a foundation for Trump’s presidential library and $1 million in legal fees to settle the lawsuit.
- Trump solicited and received a $400 million luxury jet from Qatar for use as Air Force One, in direct violation of the Emoluments Clause of the United States Constitution, which prohibits federal officials from accepting gifts from foreign countries.
- The jet will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars to bring it up to presidential standards, including a security sweep of the entire aircraft and costly upgrades to ensure classified communications. After Trump leaves office, it will be transferred to his Presidential library.
Qatar’s donated plane
John Taggart from Claydon Banbury, Oxfordshire, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
- On February 28, 2026, Trump—in concert with Israel—launched an unprovoked series of devastating airstrikes against Iran.
- On March 11, Trump told a reporter: “You know, you never like to say too early you won. We won. We won the, in the first hour, it was over.”
- But then—to Trump’s surprise and fury—Iran closed the narrow Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20%-25% of the world’s total liquid petroleum consumption (about 20–21 million barrels per day) flows.
- Overnight, gas prices rose. By late April, the national average for a gallon of regular gas reached $4.02 to $4.04, compared to roughly $2.98 before military operations began.
- On April 5—Easter Sunday, no less—Trump posted on his website, Truth Social: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open up the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP”
- This was followed on April 7 by another post: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
- Legal experts and international organizations such as Amnesty International warned that attacking civilian infrastructure would constitute war crimes under international law.
60 MIINUTES, ABORTION, ADOLF HITLER, ALBERT SPEER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BERLIN, BIRTH CONTROL, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUZZFEED, CANADA, CBS NEWS, CENSUS BUREAU, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC), CNN, CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU, CONTRACEPTION, CONVERSATION WITH AN AMERICAN WRITER (POEM), COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DEMOCRATS, DENMARK, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (DOD), DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY (DOGE), DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (DOJ), DIVERSITY EQUITY AND INCLUSION (DEI), DONALD TRUMP, ELON MUSK, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, FASCISM, FBI, FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (FCC), FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION (FTC), FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOSSIL FUELS, FRANCE, GAS, GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HERITAGE FOUNDATION, HUFFINGTON POST, HUNTER BIDEN, INSPECTORS GENERAL, INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS, IRAN, ISRAEL, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JOE BIDEN, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, JOSEPH STALIN, LUXURY JET, MEDAL OF HONOR, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC AGENCY (NOAA), NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NORWAY, NPR, Oil, PARDONS, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLAND, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PROJECT 2025, PUBLIC TRANSIT SYSTEMS, QATAR, RAPE, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROBERT PAYNE, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SECURITY CLEARANCES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, STALINGRAD, STRAIT OF HORMUZ, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TAX CUTS, 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 LIFE AND DEATH OF ADOLF HITLER (BOOK), 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, UKRAINE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, WAR CRIMES, WEHRMACHT, WORLD WAR 11, X, YEVGENEY YEVTUSHENKO
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on April 28, 2026 at 12:10 am
Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments for the Third Reich, was appalled.
His Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler—the man he had idolized for 14 years—had just passed a death sentence on Germany, the nation he claimed to love above all others.
On September 1, 1939, Hitler had triggered World War II with the invasion of Poland. This led to a series of quick, spectacular victories—over Poland, Norway, Denmark and France.
Then, on June 22, 1941, Hitler turned on his ally, the Soviet Union, with which he had signed a non-aggression pact in August, 1939.
It had taken the Wehrmacht six weeks to conquer France. Hitler believed that was how long it would take to defeat the Soviet Union.
German soldiers invading the Soviet Union
Again, a series of spectacular battlefield victories followed—before the Wehrmacht was halted at the gates of Moscow. A year later, still enmeshed in Russia, the turning point came at Stalingrad, with the loss of the elite Sixth Army and 800,000 soldiers.
Starting in 1943, the Red Army slowly but steadily regained ground it had lost—the western half of Russia—and began pushing back the Germans. By March, 1945, it was fighting inside Germany—and heading straight for its capital: Berlin.
And by March, 1945, so were American and British forces. After landing in Normandy on June 6, 1944, they had steadily pushed their way across Europe and into Germany.
On March 19, 1945, facing certain defeat, 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. And he entrusted the campaign to Albert Speer, his favorite architect-turned-Minister-of-Armaments.
Albert Speer and Adolf Hitler pouring over architectural plans
Now living in a bunker 50 feet below bomb-shattered Berlin, Hitler gave full vent to his most destructive impulses.
“If the war is lost,” Hitler told Speer, “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.”
* * * * *
During the 2024 Presidential campaign, Americans were repeatedly warned that Donald Trump intended to embrace Project 2025, a collection of policy proposals to fundamentally reshape the U.S. federal government.
Among these:
- The Department of Justice 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.
Seal of the Justice Department
- Federal employees could be instantly fired for not obeying illegal orders, or on mere whim—including the whim of the President.
- The Environmental Protection Agency would be stripped of its authority to protect the air, water and soil.
- 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.
- Fossil fuels—the leading cause of global warming—would be favored and environmental regulations to combat climate change abolished.
- Federal funding for all public transit systems across the country would be eliminated.
- 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 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.
All of these have since been vigorously implemented by the Trump administration. Yet almost no Republican members of Congress have dared to oppose this wholesale rejection of almost 250 years of American democracy.
Since Trump retook office on January 20, 2025, Republicans have lustily supported or remained silent about his following acts of criminality, if not treason:
- On January 20, 2025—his first day as re-elected President—Trump granted clemency to more than 1,500 people convicted of offenses related to the January 6, 2021 United States Capitol attack. This sends a clear message that his supporters can commit virtually any crime against his opponents with impunity.
Donald Trump
- Trump revoked the security clearances of 51 former Intelligence officials. Their “crime”: Signing a letter in 2020 stating that reports about a laptop allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden, son of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden, had “classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
- During a press conference in North Carolina, Trump reaffirmed his stance that Canada should become the 51st state. Rejecting the longtime friendship between the two countries, Trump took an increasingly aggressive stance toward Canada, imposing steep tariffs and even threatening military intervention.
ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BLOOMBERG, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BLUESKY, BURT LANCASTER, BUZZFEED, CANADA, CBS NEWS, CLIMATE CHANGE, CNN, CONCENTRATION CAMPS, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DAVID BROOKS, DEMOCRATS, DIVERSITY EQUTY AND INCLUSION (DEI), DONALD TRUMP, ERIC SWALWELL, FBI, FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FREEDOM OF THE PRESS, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, IRAN, ISRAEL, JAMES COMEY, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, LETIA JAMES, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, NUREMBERG TRIALS, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROBERT PAYNE, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, SPENCER TRACY, SUPPLEMENTAL NUTITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP), 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 LIFE AND DEATH OF ADOLF HITLER (BOOK), 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, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WONKETTE, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 27, 2026 at 12:11 am
Those who have seen the classic 1961 movie, “Judgment at Nuremberg,” will remember its pivotal moment.
That’s when Burt Lancaster, as Ernst Janning, the once distinguished German judge, confesses his guilt and that of Nazi Germany in a controlled, yet emotional, outburst.
Addressing the court—presided over by Chief Judge Dan Haywood (Spencer Tracy)—Janning explains the forces that led to the triumph of evil:
“My counsel would have you believe we were not aware of the concentration camps. Not aware? Where were we?
“Where were we when Hitler began shrieking his hate in the Reichstag? When our neighbors were dragged out in the middle of the night to Dachau?
“Where were we when every village in Germany had a railroad terminal where cattle cars were filled with children being carried off to their extermination? Where were we when they cried out in the night to us? Were we deaf? Dumb? Blind?
“My counsel says we were not aware of the extermination of the millions. He would give you the excuse we were only aware of the extermination of the hundreds. Does that make us any the less guilty?
“Maybe we didn’t know the details, but if we didn’t know, it was because we didn’t want to know.”
On August 14, 2020, Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) offered this proposal: “I don’t say this lightly: When we escape this Trump hell, America needs a Presidential Crimes Commission. It should be made up of independent prosecutors who look at those who enabled a corrupt president.”
On November 3, 2020, Joseph Biden was elected President. But during the next four years, Democrats refused to act on this proposal. Had they done so, the United States might now be a far different nation.
If such a commission is empaneled by a future President or Congress, an equally conscience-stricken former member of the Donald Trump administration might well make a statement similar to the one given above:
“My counsel would have you believe we were not aware of the ICE concentration camps. Not aware? Where were we?
“Where were we when Trump began shrieking his hate across the country? When Trump called our free press ‘the enemy of the people’?
“Where were we when Trump started an unprovoked war against Iran and openly boasted that he would destroy its civilian infrastructure—a clear war crime?
“Where were we when Trump turned the Justice Department into his personal SS to illegally prosecute those who had legitimately investigated him?
“My counsel says we were not aware of Trump’s creating a private army of ICE goons who shot innocent American citizens.
“Does that make us any the less guilty? Maybe we didn’t know the details of all these atrocities. But if we didn’t know, it was because we didn’t want to know.”
Donald Trump
In his bestselling 1973 biography, The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler, British historian Robert Payne harshly condemned the German people for the rise of the Nazi dictator:
“Ultimately, the responsibility for the rise of Hitler lies with the German people, who allowed themselves to be seduced by him and came to enjoy the experience….
“They followed him with joy and enthusiasm because he gave them license to pillage and murder to their hearts’ content. They were his servile accomplices, his willing victims….
“If he answered their suppressed desires, it was not because he shared them, but because he could make use of them. He despised the German people, for they were merely the instruments of his will.”
On November 5, 2024, 77,302,580 ignorant, hate-filled, Right-wing Americans catapulted Donald Trump—a man, charged conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks, with an “odd psychology unleavened by kindness and charity”—once again into the Presidency.
Upon re-taking office on January 20, 2025, Trump began attacking the vital foundations of democracy
- Granting clemency to more than 1,500 people convicted of offenses related to the January 6, 2021 United States Capitol attack.
- Reversing climate change initiatives, eliminating DEI programs and initiating a federal hiring freeze.
- Taking an increasingly aggressive stance toward Canada, imposing steep tariffs and even threatening military intervention to make it the 51st state.
- Purging a half-dozen assistant directors of the FBI who oversee criminal, national security and cyber investigations. Their “crime: Investigating Trump’s inciting the January 6, 2021 coup attempt and his illegally hoarding sensitive national security documents after leaving office.
- Ordering the Justice Department to indict his critics such as New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.
- Shutting off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for the poor to pressure Democrats to support his gutting of healthcare programs.
- Igniting an unprovoked war with Israel against Iran.
**********
Democracies that allow such crimes to go unpunished soon cease being democracies.
It’s natural to regret that the United States has need of such a drastic remedy as a Presidential Crimes Commission. But those who lament this should realize there is only one choice:
Either non-Fascist Americans will destroy the Republican party and its voters that threaten to enslave them—or they will be enslaved by Republicans and their voters who believe they are entitled to manipulate and undermine the country’s democratic processes.
There is no middle ground.
ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BENITO MUSSOLINI, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DEMOCRATS, DICTATORSHIP, DONALD TRUMP, DRUDGE RETORT, FASCISM, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, IMPEACHMENT, IVAN THE TERRIBLE, JOSEPH STALIN, LEON TROTSKY, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROBERT PAYNE, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE CORRUPT SOCIETY (BOOK), 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 VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, Vladimir Lenin, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, WINSTON CHURCHILL, WONKETTE, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on February 27, 2026 at 12:15 am
According to a January 18, 2020 CNN story, President Donald Trump couldn’t understand why he had been impeached.
“Why are they doing this to me?” an anonymous source quoted Trump as saying repeatedly. Over the weekend of January 18-19, 2020, Trump told people around him at Mar-a-Lago that he “can’t understand why he is impeached.”
For starters, he could have read the legal brief that Democratic House managers had filed with the Senate:
“President Donald J. Trump used his official powers to pressure a foreign government to interfere in a United States election for his personal political gain, and then attempted to cover up his scheme by obstructing Congress’s investigation into his misconduct.
“The Constitution provides a remedy when the President commits such serious abuses of his office: impeachment and removal. The Senate must use that remedy now to safeguard the 2020 U.S. election, protect our constitutional form of government, and eliminate the threat that the President poses to America’s national security.”
But Trump completely dismissed such arguments, despite the overwhelming evidence backing them up.
Donald Trump
Trump had become internationally notorious as a liar. By December 16, 2019, The Washington Post reported that he had made 15,413 false or misleading statements.
But there was no reason to doubt his sincerity when he said he didn’t know why he had been impeached.
And backing up that assertion would be no less an authority than the late British historian and author, Robert Payne.
Payne authored more than 110 books. Among his subjects were Adolf Hitler, Ivan the Terrible, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, William Shakespeare and Leon Trotsky.
In 1975, he published The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America. Among the epochs it covered were the civilizations of ancient Greece, Rome and China; Nazi Germany; the Soviet Union; and Watergate-era America.
Robert Payne
Forty-one years before Donald Trump entered the White House, Payne offered a terrifying examination of the future President’s character.
In his chapter, “The Corrupt Individual,” Payne writes: “The corrupt man walks alone, gathering more and more power and wealth to himself, leaving a trail of destruction wherever he passes until he finally destroys himself.
“One aspect of him is immediately recognizable: His contempt for his fellow men. Hence his ruthlessness, his celebration of himself at the expense of everyone else, his absorption in his own affairs to the exclusion of all other affairs.
“Hence, too, his secretiveness, his intense sensitivity to real or imagined slights, for his contempt does not exclude a certain fear. He is necessarily a conspirator who imagines that his fellow men are conspiring against him.”
The corrupt man holds human life in contempt. He does not care how many people he kills or destroys on his march to fame, wealth or power—and to maintain himself in any or all of them.
When a nation is weak and divided, “a tyrant arises to take advantage of their weakness and divisiveness. He comes usually from the middle or upper class.”
He quickly identifies himself with a political party offering revolutionary changes. Then he takes control of it and turns it into his vehicle to power.
“He acts decisively and ruthlessly, driving wedges between people and setting them in opposition to one another. He is the master of corruption, and if necessary he will seek to corrupt the whole state to maintain his power. His weapons are the familiar weapons of subversion, treachery, and lies.”
Tyrants plunge into dangerous foreign adventures because it allows them to assert power over others with almost no domestic oversight. This makes them feel important—and distracts their subjects from worrying about internal affairs.
Tyrants shout, “We need law and order!”—while they are the most lawless thieves and murderers.
Tyrants learn nothing from the past or their own failures. Their characters do not change or develop. They surround themselves with sycophants and regard disagreement as treason. Because others fear to approach them with bad news—such as their armies have revolted—tyrants live in a world of lies and delusions.
Only when it is too late do they learn how widely-hated they are—and how determined their enemies are to destroy them.
Writes Payne:
“In our own age it becomes more and more difficult to wage war against corruption. The corrupt tend increasingly to acquire power, and the uncorrupted want more and more to be left alone.
“This is why it is so necessary to recognize the corrupt individual, the potential tyrant, to observe him closely, and wherever possible, to destroy him.”
Most Americans ignore history, believing that it has nothing worthwhile to offer them. When American military advisers in Vietnam were warned that the French had fought a losing war against the Vietcong, they responded: “They didn’t kill enough Vietcong.”
When Americans think of Fascistic dictatorships, they think of Adolf Hitler’s Germany and Benito Mussolini’s Italy—both of which ended 80 years ago in 1945.
They don’t think that such a dictatorship could ever happen here—or that, under a Republican party obsessed with holding absolute power, it has already happened.
Bureaucracybuster's Blog 
ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, IRAN WAR, JOHN GARAMENDI, LYNDON JOHNSON, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, Oil, PBS NEWSHOUR, PETE HEGSETH, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RICHARD NIXON, RO KHANNA, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SS, STRAIT OF HORMUZ, 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 PENTAGON, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, THIRD REICH, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VIETNAM WAR, WAR CRIMES, WEHRMACHT, WORLD WAR 11, X
HEGSETH AND HITLER
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Military, Politics, Social commentary on May 19, 2026 at 12:10 amOn April 29, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth appeared before Congress for the first time since President Donald Trump-–in concert with Israel—launched a series of devastating airstrikes against Iran.
During the hearing, the Pentagon revealed that the war so far had cost $25 billion. The fighting is on hold, but the military maintains its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
Early on in his testimony, Hegseth said the threat of Iran paled in comparison to one posed by Democrats: “The biggest challenge, the biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans.”
Pete Hegseth
Forget that:
Donald Trump
Implicit in Hegseth’s charge—and attitude—was the message: “It’s Democrats’ fault that we’re not winning the war that we—and Israel—started on February 28. And that a war that was supposed to last six weeks at most has now dragged on for two months—with no end in sight.”
It’s possible that the highly combative Hegseth had a specific remedy in mind for such criticism—one that had been applied by Nazi Germany to those who who doubted the “final victory” of the war that Adolf Hitler had started.
Those who did so—or openly criticized the need for the war or the genocidal way it was being fought—faced two ways of dying: Beheading or hanging.
So long as the Third Reich was winning—or at least in possession of actual German territory—the punishment of beheading was carried out upon conviction by kangaroo courts.
But when the Reich was immediately facing invasion—from the West by American and British forces, and from the East by Russian ones—there often wasn’t time for pseudo-legal folderol. Roving bands of Schutzstaffel (SS) or Wehrmacht troops openly shot or literally strung up such “traitors” from lamp posts.
Certainly Hegseth’s attitude reflected that mentality, as this exchange with Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) revealed:
GARAMENDI: The president has got himself and America stuck in a quagmire of another war in the Middle East. He’s desperately trying to extricate himself from his own mistakes.
HEGSETH: You call it a quagmire, handing propaganda to our enemies? Shame on you for that statement. And statements like that are reckless to our troops.
During the Vietnam war (1965 – 1975) the administrations of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon lied repeatedly about the “progress” being achieved. The polite term used to describe this was “credibility gap.”
As a result, “grunts” often sported buttons reading: “Ambushed at Credibility Gap.”
When a nation’s armed forces are winning easy—or even hard-won—victories over an enemy, word quickly spreads through their ranks. When facing defeat—or stalemate—soldiers are equally quick to sense the truth of this.
So Hegseth’s accusation that Garamendi’s accurately calling the war “a quagmire”—at least so far—could not prove a morale-buster for the soldiers fighting it.
Throughout his testimony, Hegseth acted like a man in charge of an inquisition, rather than a public official called on by Congress to answer questions.
A typical exchange between him and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA):
KHANNA (D-CA): Do you know how much it will cost Americans in terms of their increased cost in gas and food over the next year because of the Iran war?
HEGSETH: I would simply ask you what the cost is of an Iranian nuclear bomb.
KHANNA: I’m going to give you that opportunity.
HEGSETH: I would simply ask you what the — you’re playing gotcha questions about domestic things.
KHANNA: No, it’s not. You’re asking — you’re saying it’s a gotcha question to ask what it’s going to be in terms of the increased cost of gas?
HEGSETH: Why won’t you answer what it costs to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb?
KHANNA: I give you that, sir. You don’t know what we’re paying in terms of gas. You don’t know what we’re paying in terms of food. Your $25 billion number is totally off. It’s the incompetence. It’s the incompetence.
What she should have said was: “You’re here to answer questions, not ask them.”
Share this: