Posts Tagged ‘GEORGE W. BUSH’
9/11 ATTACKS, ABC NEWS, AL QAEDA, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AMERICAN CAESARS: THE LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS FROM FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT TO GEORGE W. BUSH (BOOK), AMERICAN EMPIRE, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BASHAR AL-ASSAD, BBC, BILL CLINTON, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUREAUCRACY, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHRIS MATHEWS, CNN, COLIN POWELL, CONDOLEEZA RICE, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DICK CHENEY, DONALD RUMSFELD, DONALD TRUMP, DWIGHT EISENHOWER, FBI, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, GAIUS SUETONIUS TRANQUILLIUS, GEORGE H.W. BUSH, GEORGE W. BUSH, GERALD R. FORD, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HARRY S. TRUMAN, HOLOCAUST, HUFFINGTON POST, IRAN, IRAQ, ISRAEL, JEFFREY EPSTEIN, JFK: RECKLESS YOUTH (BOOK), JIMMY CARTER, JOHN F. KENNEDY, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MEDIA MATTERS, MEIN KAMPF, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NIGEL HAMILTON, NPR, OSAMA BIN LADEN, PAUL O’NEIL, PAUL WOLFOWITZ, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REUTERS, RICHARD CLARKE, RICHARD NIXON, ROMAN EMPIRE, SADDAM HUSSEIN, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SEPTEMBER 11, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, SUETONIUS, SYRIA, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TERRORISM, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE PENTAGON, THE TWELVE CAESARS (BOOK), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS DINNER, WORLD TRADE CENTER, WORLD WAR 11, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 18, 2026 at 12:40 am
On September 12, 2001, President George W. Bush attended a meeting of the National Security Council.
“Why shouldn’t we go against Iraq, not just Al-Qaeda?” demanded Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense.
Vice President Dick Cheney enthusiastically agreed.
Secretary of State Colin Powell then pointed out there was absolutely no evidence that Iraq had had anything to do with 9/11 or Al-Qaeda. And he added: “The American people want us to do something about Al-Qaeda”—not Iraq.
On November 21, 2001, only 10 weeks after 9/11, Bush told Rumsfeld: It’s time to turn to Iraq.
Condoleeza Rice
Bush and his war-hungry Cabinet officials knew that Americans demanded vengeance on Al Qaeda’s mastermind, Osama bin Laden, and not Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. So they repeatedly fabricated “links” between the two:
- Saddam had worked hand-in-glove with Bin Laden to plan 9/11.
- Saddam was harboring and supporting Al-Qaeda throughout Iraq.
- Saddam, with help from Al-Qaeda, was scheming to build a nuclear bomb.
Yet as early as September 22, 2001, Bush had received a classified President’s Daily Brief intelligence report, which stated that there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to 9/11.
The report added that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al-Qaeda.
Even more important: Saddam had tried to monitor Al Qaeda through his intelligence service—because he saw Al-Qaeda and other theocratic radical Islamist organizations as a potential threat to his secular regime.
Dick Cheney
Bush administration officials repeatedly claimed that Iraq possessed huge quantities of chemical and biological weapons, in violation of UN resolutions. And they further lied that US intelligence agencies had determined:
- The precise locations where these weapons were stored;
- The identities of those involved in their production; and
- The military orders issued by Saddam Hussein for their use in the event of war.
Among other lies stated as fact by members of the Bush administration:
- Iraq had sought uranium from Niger, in west Africa.
- Thousands of aluminum tubes imported by Iraq could be used in centrifuges to create enriched uranium.
- Iraq had up to 20 long-range Scud missiles, prohibited under UN sanctions.
- Iraq had massive stockpiles of chemical and biological agents, including nerve gas, anthrax and botulinum toxin.
- Saddam Hussein had issued chemical weapons to front-line troops who would use them when U.S. forces crossed into Iraq.
Donald Rumsfeld
Consider the following:
August 26, 2002: Cheney told the Veterans of Foreign Wars, “There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies and against us.”
September 8, 2002: National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice said on CNN: ”There is certainly evidence that Al-Qaeda people have been in Iraq. There is certainly evidence that Saddam Hussein cavorts with terrorists.”
September 18, 2002: Rumsfeld told the House Armed Services Committee, “We do know that the Iraqi regime has chemical and biological weapons. His regime has amassed large, clandestine stockpiles of chemical weapons—including VX, sarin, cyclosarin and mustard gas.”
October 7, 2002: Bush declared in a nationally televised speech in Cincinnati that Iraq “possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons.”
March 16, 2003: Cheney declared on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “We believe [Saddam Hussein] has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.”
Bush never regretted his decision to attack Iraq—on March 19, 2003.
Even as American occupying forces repeatedly failed to turn up any evidence of “weapons of mass destruction” (WMDs), Bush and his minions claimed the invasion a good thing.
In fact, Bush—who hid out the Vietnam war in the Texas Air National Guard—even joked publicly about the absence of WMDs.
He did so at a White House Correspondents dinner on March 24, 2004—one year after he had started the war.
George W. Bush at the 2004 White House Correspondents’ dinner
To Bush, the non-existent WMDs were nothing more than the butt of a joke that night. While an overhead projector displayed photos of a puzzled-looking Bush searching around the Oval Office, Bush recited a comedy routine.
“Those weapons of mass destruction have gotta be somewhere,” Bush laughed, while a photo showed him poking around the corners in the Oval Office.
“Nope—no weapons over there! Maybe they’re under here,” he said, as a photo showed him looking under a desk.
Meanwhile, an assembly of wealthy, pampered men and women—-the elite of America’s media and political classes—laughed heartily during Bush’s performance.
It was a scene worthy of the court of the ancient Caesars, complete with royal flunkies: “Hey! That country we just destroyed wasn’t a threat to us after all! Isn’t that a gas?”
The results of the war that Bush had deliberately provoked:
- Cost the lives of 4,484 Americans.
- Depleted the United States Treasury of at least $2 trillion.
- Created a Middle East power vacuum.
- Allowed Iran—Iraq’s arch enemy—to eagerly fill it.
- Frightened and repelled even America’s closest allies.
- Killed at least 655,000 Iraqis.
- Bush retired from office with a lavish pension and full Secret Service protection.
- He wrote his memoirs and was paid $7 million for the first 1.5 million copies.
- Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice retired to private business, wrote their memoirs, and lived in comfort as respected elder statesmen.
9/11 ATTACKS, ABC NEWS, AL QAEDA, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AMERICAN CAESARS: THE LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS FROM FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT TO GEORGE W. BUSH (BOOK), AMERICAN EMPIRE, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BASHAR AL-ASSAD, BBC, BILL CLINTON, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUREAUCRACY, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHRIS MATHEWS, CNN, COLIN POWELL, CONDOLEEZA RICE, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DICK CHENEY, DONALD RUMSFELD, DONALD TRUMP, DWIGHT EISENHOWER, FBI, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, GAIUS SUETONIUS TRANQUILLIUS, GEORGE H.W. BUSH, GEORGE W. BUSH, GERALD R. FORD, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HARRY S. TRUMAN, HOLOCAUST, HUFFINGTON POST, IRAN, IRAQ, ISRAEL, JEFFREY EPSTEIJN, JFK: RECKLESS YOUTH (BOOK), JIMMY CARTER, JOHN F. KENNEDY, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MEDIA MATTERS, MEIN KAMPF, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NIGEL HAMILTON, NPR, OSAMA BIN LADEN, PAUL O’NEIL, PAUL WOLFOWITZ, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REUTERS, RICHARD CLARKE, RICHARD NIXON, ROMAN EMPIRE, SADDAM HUSSEIN, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SEPTEMBER 11, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, SUETONIUS, SYRIA, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TERRORISM, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE PENTAGON, THE TWELVE CAESARS (BOOK), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS DINNER, WORLD TRADE CENTER, WORLD WAR 11, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 17, 2026 at 12:10 am
As President Donald Trump rains bombs and missiles on Iran, it’s vital to remember how American hubris led to a nine-year war in Iraq—from the “shock and awe” bombardment of March 20, 2003, until combat forces were finally withdrawn on December 18, 2011.
But this should also be a time to remember those Americans who made the 9/11 atrocity—and the disastrous Iraq war that followed—inevitable.
British historian Nigel Hamilton has chronicled their arrogance and indifference in his 2010 biography: American Caesars: Lives of the Presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush.
Hamilton noted that Richard Clarke, the national security advisor on terrorism, was certain that Osama bin Laden had arranged the USS Cole bombing in Aden on October 12, 2000.
For months, Clarke tried to convince others in the Bush Administration that Bin Laden was plotting another attack against the United States—either abroad or at home.
But Clarke could not prevail against the know-it-all arrogance of such higher-ranking Bush officials as Vice President Dick Cheney; Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld; Rumsfeld’s deputy, Paul Wolfowitz; and National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice.
Rice initially refused to hold a cabinet-level meeting on the subject. Then she “insisted the matter be handled only by a more junior Deputy Principals meeting” in April, 2001, writes Hamilton.
Even after Clarke outlined the threat posed by Al-Qaeda, Wolfowitz—the number-two man at the Department of Defense—said: “You give bin Laden too much credit.”
Wolfowitz—whose real target was Saddam Hussein—insisted that bin Laden couldn’t carry out his terrorist acts without the aid of a state sponsor—namely, Iraq.
In fact, Wolfowitz blamed Iraq for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Clarke was stunned, since there was absolutely no evidence of Iraqi involvement in this.
“Al-Qaeda plans major acts of terrorism against the United States,” Clarke warned his colleagues. He pointed out that, like Adolf Hitler, bin Laden had actually published his plans for future destruction.
Osama bin Laden
And he added: “Sometimes, as with Hitler in Mein Kampf, you have to believe that these people will actually do what they say they will do.”
Wolfowitz heatedly traded on his Jewish heritage to bring Clarke’s unwelcome arguments to a halt: “I resent any comparison between the Holocaust and this little terrorist in Afghanistan.”
Writing in outraged fury, Hamilton sums up Clarke’s agonizing frustrations:
- Bush’s senior advisors treated their colleagues who had served in the Clinton administration with contempt.
- Bush, Dick Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz seemed content to ignore the danger signals of an impending al-Qaeda attack.
- This left only Secretary of State Colin Powell, his deputy Richard Armitage, Richard Clarke and a skeptical Treasury Secretary, Paul O’Neill, to wage “a lonely battle to waken a seemingly deranged new administration.”
Richard Clarke
Clarke alerted Federal Intelligence agencies that “Al-Qaeda is planning a major attack on us.” He asked the FBI and CIA to report to his office all they could learn about suspicious persons or activities at home and abroad.
Finally, at a meeting with Rice on September 4, 2001, Clarke challenged her to “picture yourself at a moment when in the very near future Al-Qaeda has killed hundreds of Americans, and imagine asking yourself what you wish then that you had already done.”
Seven days later, Al-Qaeda struck, and 3,000 Americans died horrifically—and needlessly.
Neither Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld nor Wolfowitz ever admitted their negligence. Nor would any of them be brought to account.
Condoleeza Rice, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld
Disgustingly, these were the same officials who, afterward, posed as the Nation’s saviors—and branded anyone who disagreed with them as a traitor, practices the Right continues to exploit to this day.
Only Richard Clarke—who had vainly argued for stepped-up security precautions and taking the fight to Al-Qaeda—gave that apology.
On March 24, 2004, Clarke testified at the public 9/11 Commission hearings. Addressing relatives of victims in the audience, he said: “Your government failed you, those entrusted with protecting you failed you, and I failed you.”
Yet even worse was to come.
On the evening after the September 11 attacks, Bush took Clarke aside during a meeting in the White House Situation Room:
“I want you, as soon as you can, to go back over everything, everything. See if Saddam [Hussein, the dictator of Iraq] did this. See if he’s linked in any way.”
Clarke was stunned: “But, Mr. President, Al-Qaeda did this.”
“I know, I know,” said Bush. “But see if Saddam was involved. I want to know.”
Hussein had not plotted the attack—and there was no evidence proving that he did.
But the attack gave “W” the excuse he wanted to remove the man he blamed for the 1992 defeat of his father, President George H.W. Bush.
Bush believed that his father would have been re-elected if he had “gone all the way” into Baghdad during the 1991 Gulf War.
He would finish the job that his father had started but failed to compete.
It was Hamlet Revisited—with missiles.
On September 12, 2001, Bush attended a meeting of the National Security Council.
“Why shouldn’t we go against Iraq, not just Al-Qaeda?” demanded Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense.
Vice President Dick Cheney enthusiastically agreed.
9/11 ATTACKS, ABC NEWS, AL QAEDA, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AMERICAN CAESARS: THE LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS FROM FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT TO GEORGE W. BUSH (BOOK), AMERICAN EMPIRE, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BASHAR AL-ASSAD, BBC, BILL CLINTON, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUREAUCRACY, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHRIS MATHEWS, CNN, COLIN POWELL, CONDOLEEZA RICE, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DICK CHENEY, DONALD RUMSFELD, DONALD TRUMP, DWIGHT EISENHOWER, FBI, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, GAIUS SUETONIUS TRANQUILLIUS, GEORGE H.W. BUSH, GEORGE W. BUSH, GERALD R. FORD, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HARRY S. TRUMAN, HOLOCAUST, HUFFINGTON POST, IRAN, IRAQ, ISRAEL, JEFFREY EPSTEIN, JFK: RECKLESS YOUTH (BOOK), JIMMY CARTER, JOHN F. KENNEDY, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MEDIA MATTERS, MEIN KAMPF, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NIGEL HAMILTON, NPR, OSAMA BIN LADEN, PAUL O’NEIL, PAUL WOLFOWITZ, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REUTERS, RICHARD CLARKE, RICHARD NIXON, ROMAN EMPIRE, SADDAM HUSSEIN, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, SYRIA, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TERRORISM, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE PENTAGON, THE TWELVE CAESARS (BOOK), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS DINNER, WORLD TRADE CENTER, WORLD WAR 11, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 16, 2026 at 12:55 am
On February 28, 2026, President Donald J. Trump—in collusion with Israel—launched massive airstrikes against Iran.
Since then, he—and other members of his administration—have issued a series of shifting and contradictory reasons for starting the war. Among them:
- Preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
- Destroying Iran’s missile capabilities.
- Annihilating the Iranian navy.
- Ensuring that Iran quit arming, funding and/or directing “terrorist armies” outside its borders.
- Pre-empting an Iranian attack on American military bases in the Middle East.
One reason not given: Driving the Epstein files—which document Trump’s salacious relationship with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein—off the airways and Internet.
Equally worrisome has been Trump’s shifting estimates about how long the conflict will rage:
- March 9: “It’s going to be ended soon.”
- March 11: “Any time I want it to end, it will end.”
- March 13: “It’ll be as long as it’s necessary.”
- March 13: “When I feel it in my bones” when asked “When are you going to know when it’s over?”
Trump’s comments are eerily similar to those made by President George W. Bush on May 1, 2003.
Standing under a “Mission Accomplished” banner on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, Bush announced: “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.”
Only on December 18, 2011, were American forces withdrawn from Iraq.
But Americans, refusing to learn from history or even read it, are now being forced to repeat it.
To begin at the beginning:
Even as the rubble was being cleared at the Pentagon and World Trade Center from 9/11, President George W. Bush was preparing to use the attack as an excuse to topple Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
World Trade Center on September 11, 2001
Hussein had not plotted 9/11, and there was no evidence that he did. But that didn’t matter to Bush and those planning the invasion and conquest of Iraq.
British historian Nigel Hamilton has dared to lay bare the facts of this disgrace. Hamilton is the author of several acclaimed political biographies, including JFK: Reckless Youth and Bill Clinton: Mastering the Presidency.
In 2007, he began research on his latest book: American Caesars: The Lives of the Presidents From Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush.
Nigel Hamilton
Nigel Hamilton, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons
The inspiration for this came from a classic work of ancient biography: The Twelve Caesars, by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus—known as Suetonius.
Suetonius, a Roman citizen and historian, had 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.
Hamilton wanted to examine post-World War II United States history as Suetonius had examined that of ancient Rome: Through the lives of the 12 “emperors” who had held the power of life and death over their fellow citizens—and those of other nations.
For Hamilton, the “greatest of American emperors, the Caesar Augustus of his time,” was Franklin D. Roosevelt, who led his country through the Great Depression and World War II.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
His “”great successors” were Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy—who, in turn, contained the Soviet Union abroad and presided over sustained economic prosperity at home.
By contrast, “arguably the worst of all the American Caesars” was “George W. Bush, and his deputy, Dick Cheney, who willfully and recklessly destroyed so much of the moral basis of American leadership in the modern world.”
Among the most lethal of Bush’s offenses: The appointing of officials who refused to take seriously the threat posed by Al-Qaeda.
And this arrogance and indifference continued—right up to September 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center and Pentagon became targets for destruction.
Among the few administration officials who did take Al-Qaeda seriously was Richard Clarke, the chief counter-terrorism adviser on the National Security Council.
Clarke had been thus appointed in 1998 by President Bill Clinton. He continued in the same role under President Bush—but the position was no longer given cabinet-level access.
This put him at a severe disadvantage when dealing with other, higher-ranking Bush officials—such as Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Rumsfeld’s deputy, Paul Wolfowitz and National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice.
These turned out to be the very officials who refused to believe that Al-Qaeda posed a lethal threat to the United States.
“Indeed,” writes Hamilton, “in the entire first eight months of the Bush Presidency, Clarke was not permitted to brief President Bush a single time, despite mounting evidence of plans for a new al-Qaeda outrage.” [Italics added]
Nor did it help that, during his first eight months in office before September 11, Bush was on vacation, according to the Washington Post, 42% of the time.
For months, Clarke tried to convince others in the Bush Administration that Bin Laden was plotting another attack against the United States–either abroad or at home.
But Clarke could not prevail against the know-it-all arrogance of such higher-ranking Bush officials as Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Rice.
2003 IRAQ WAR, ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHINA, CNN, CRIMEAN PENINSULA, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DONALD TRUMP, ECONOMIC SANCTIONS, EDOUARD DELADIER, ENGLAND, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FRANCE, GEORGE W. BUSH, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, IRAN, JOACHIM VON RIBBENTROP, KIEV, MEDIA MATTERS, MOSKOVA (SHIP), MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUNICH CONFERENCE, NATO, NBC NEWS, NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLAND, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA, REUTERS, RUBLES, RUSSIA, SADDAM HUSSEIN, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SECOND CHECHEN WAR, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UKRAINE, UNITED STATES, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, WONKETTE, X
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 12, 2026 at 12:39 am
On February 28, 2022, CNN’s website published the following headline: RUSSIA FACES FINANCIAL MELTDOWN AS SANCTIONS SLAM ITS ECONOMY.
The story opened:
“Russia was scrambling to prevent financial meltdown Monday as its economy was slammed by a broadside of crushing Western sanctions imposed over the weekend in response to the invasion of Ukraine.”
That unprovoked attack had opened on February 24, with missile and artillery attacks, striking major Ukrainian cities, including Kiev.
Ukraine vs. Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin believed that the conquest of Ukraine would be a cakewalk. Intent on restoring the borders of the former Soviet Union, he had swept from one successful war to the next:
- In 1999-2000, he waged the Second Chechen War, restoring federal control of Chechnya.
- In 2008, he invaded the Republic of Georgia, which had declared its independence as the Soviet Union began to crumble. By war’s end, Russia occupied 20% of Georgia’s territory.
- In 2014, Putin invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) launched only verbal condemnations.
The reasons:
- Fear of igniting a nuclear war;
- Belief that Russia was simply acting within its own sphere of influence; and/or
- Then-President Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on NATO and displays of subservience to Putin.
NATO emblem
Russia had began massing troops on the Ukrainian border in 2021.
When the invasion came, the United States and its Western European allies retaliated with unprecedented economic sanctions.
Among the resulting casualties:
- The ruble crashed.
- Russia’s central bank more than doubled interest rates to 20%.
- Economists predicted the Russian economy could decline by five percent.
- The West—especially the United States—froze at least half of the $630 billion in international reserves that Putin had amassed to stave off tough sanctions.
Then the war bogged down for Russia. By 2026:
- Russia occupied approximately 20% of Ukraine.
- Russia made slow expansions in the east, but Ukraine regained about 400 square kilometers of territory.
- The war has become a conflict fought with drones, Vehicle movement near the front has become impossible.
- Russian drones and missiles target civilian infrastructure and residential areas.
- Ukraine has launched deep-strike operations against Russian military production and energy facilities.
- Russian casualties are estimated between 1.1 million and 1.3 million.
- Ukrainian casualties are estimated between 500,000 and 600,000.
- In short: The war is not going the way Putin assumed it would.
Vladimir Putin
Пресс-служба Президента РФ, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Putin attacked Ukraine to prevent it from joining NATO. But:
- It has frightened Sweden and Finland into joining NATO.
- Russia has suffered a series of humiliating battlefield defeats and its draft has enraged millions of Russians.
- Putin has refused to withdraw from Ukraine and become bogged down in a seemingly endless war.
- As a result, Putin has locked himself into a no-win position.
- And NATO is now fully revitalized to meet future Russian threats.
This is not the first time a dictator has guessed wrong about the results of his actions.
On September 1, 1939, German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler ordered his armies to invade Poland.
Almost a year earlier—on September 29, 1938—he had bullied British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier into surrendering the northern, southwest and western regions of Czechoslovakia, inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans.
The Munich Agreement whetted Hitler’s appetite for greater conquests—and fueled his contempt for England and France: “Our enemies are little worms,” he said in a conference with his generals. “I saw them at Munich.”
He believed he could conquer Poland, and Chamberlain and Daladier would meekly ratify his latest acquisition.
Adolf Hitler
So he was stunned when, on September 3, 1939, Britain and France—however reluctantly—honored their pledged word to Poland and declared war on Germany.
“What now?” Hitler furiously asked his Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop.
Ribbentrop had no answer.
Knowing that Germany lacked the resources for a long war, Hitler had intended to fight a series of quick, small wars, gobbling up one country at a time. Now he found himself locked in an endless war with heavyweights France and England—and eventually the Soviet Union and the United States.
He stayed locked into that war until he committed suicide on April 30, 1945, and the Third Reich officially collapsed on May 7.
Fifty-eight years later, on March 21, 2003, President George W. Bush’s attacked Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
George W. Bush
The war started impressively, with 1,700 air sorties and 504 Cruise missiles.
Within two weeks, American ground forces entered Baghdad. After four days of intense fighting, the Iraqi regime fell. By April 14, the Pentagon reported that major military operations had ended.
On May 1, 2003, Bush declared that the war was won.
But then American forces became embroiled in an endless, nationwide guerrilla war. Eighteen years later, the United States was still fighting in Iraq.
The war that Bush had deliberately provoked:
- Took the lives of 4,484 Americans.
- Cost the United States Treasury at least $2 trillion.
- Allowed Iran—Iraq’s arch enemy—to eagerly fill it the vacuum.
- Killed at least 655,000 Iraqis.
- Frightened China and Russia into expanding the size of their militaries.
On February 28, 2026, President Donald J. Trump—in collusion with Israel—launched massive airstrikes against Iran, predicting, on March 9: “It’s going to be ended soon….”
Thus do the worst intentions of hubristic dictators often come undone.
1991 IRAQ WAR, 2003 IRAQ WAR, 2026 IRAN WAR, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BOMBING, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, D-DAY, DAILY KOS, DONALD TRUMP, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FLAMETHROWERS, GEORGE H.W. BUSH, GEORGE W. BUSH, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, ISLAMIC STATE OF IRAQ AND SYRIA, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAVY SEALS, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PREDATOR DRONES, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. AIR FORCE, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VICTORY THROUGH AIR POWER, VIETNAM WAR, WALT DISNEY, WORLD WAR 11, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 2, 2026 at 12:18 am
Victory Through Air Power is a 1943 Walt Disney animated Technicolor feature film released during World War II. It’s based on the book—of the same title––by Alexander P. de Seversky.
Its thesis: By using bombers and fighter aircraft, the United States can attain swift, stunning victory over its Axis enemies: Germany, Italy and Japan.
Although not explicitly stated, the clear impression given is: By using air power, America can defeat its enemies without deploying millions of ground troops.
The movie has long since been forgotten except by film buffs, but its message has not. Especially by the highest officials within the U.S. Air Force.
The Air Force regularly boasted of the tonnage of bombs its planes dropped over Nazi Germany. But it failed to attain its primary goal: Break the will of the Germans to resist.
Just as the German bombings of England had solidified the will of the British people to resist, so, too, did Allied bombing increase the determination of the Germans to fight on.
Nor did the failure of air power end there.
On June 6, 1944—D-Day—the Allies launched their invasion of Nazi-occupied France.
It opened shortly after midnight, with an airborne assault of 24,000 American, British, Canadian and Free French troops. This was followed at 6:30 a.m. by an amphibious landing of Allied infantry and armored divisions on the French coast.
The operation was the largest amphibious invasion in history. More than 160,000 troops landed—73,000 Americans, 61,715 British and 21,400 Canadians.
Allied air power bombed and strafed German troops out in the open. But it couldn’t dislodge soldiers barricaded in steel-and-concrete-reinforced bunkers or pillboxes.
Those had to be dislodged, one group at a time, by Allied soldiers armed with rifles, dynamite and flamethrowers.
American soldier using flamethrower
This situation proved true throughout the rest of the war.
Then, starting in 1964, the theory of “Victory Through Air Power” once again proved a dud—in Vietnam.
From 1964 to 1975, seven million tons of bombs were dropped on Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia—more than twice the amount of bombs dropped on Europe and Asia in World War II.
Yet the result proved the same as it had in World War II: The bombing enraged the North Vietnamese and steeled their resolve to fight on to the end.
American bomber dropping its cargo over North Vietnam
The belief that victory could be achieved primarily—if not entirely—through air power had another unforeseen result during the Vietnam war.
To bomb North Vietnam, the United States needed air force bases in South Vietnam. This required that those bombers and fighters be protected.
So a force to provide round-the-clock security had to be maintained. But there weren’t enough guards to defend themselves against a major attack by North Vietnamese forces.
So more American troops were needed—to guard the guards.
North Vietnam continued to press greater numbers of its soldiers into attacks on American bases. This forced America to provide greater numbers of its own soldiers to defend against such attacks.
Eventually, the United States had more than 500,000 ground troops fighting in Vietnam—with no end in sight to the conflict.
Nor did it work for America in the 1991 and 2003 wars against Iraq.
Both wars opened with massive barrages of American missiles and bombs. The 1991 war—launched by President George H.W. Bush—saw the first use of the vaunted “stealth bomber,” which could avoid detection by enemy radar.
The 2003 war—launched by President George W. Bush—opened with an even greater bombardment intended to “shock and awe” the Iraqis into surrendering.
They didn’t.
Baghdad under “shock and awe” bombardment
Nor did air power prove effective on the Iraqi insurgency that erupted after American forces occupied Baghdad and much of the rest of the country.
That war had to be fought by U.S. Army regulars and Special Operations soldiers—especially Navy SEALS. It was a dirty and private effort, marked by nightly kidnappings and torture of suspected Iraqi insurgents.
The war devolved into a long, violent insurgency, occupation and sectarian civil war that lasted until 2011, when American troops were withdrawn. The United States failed to achieve control of Iraqi oil and unite the country under American control.
Then, in 2014, with forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) launching a blitzkrieg throughout Iraq, President Barack Obama caught the “Victory Through Airpower” disease.
ISIS had thrown the American-trained Iraqi Army into a panic, with soldiers dropping their rifles and running for their lives.
This led Republicans to accuse the President of being about to “lose” Iraq.
As a result, he shipped at least 300 American “advisors” to Iraq, to provide support and security for U.S. personnel and the American Embassy in Baghdad.
And he authorized American Predator drones to traverse Iraq, keeping tabs on the advancing ISIS forces. Then, in September, 2014, Obama ordered airstrikes against ISIS in Syria.
Yet that didn’t alter the balance of power in Iraq.
Finally, on February 11, 2015, Obama called on Congress to formally authorize the use of ground forces against ISIS. This would include supporting and training Iraqi forces and Syrian insurgents on the ground.
On February 28, 2026, President Donald Trump ordered a massive bombardment of Iran
The rerun of the Vietnam/Iraq experience will begin showing in the months ahead.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ADOLF HITLER, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT, AILEEN CANNON, AIR TRAFFICK CONTROLLERS, ALFRED JODL, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, ATTORNEYS GENERAL, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BAVARIA, BBC, BEER HALL PUTSCH, BEN SASSE, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, BRIAN KEMP, BUZZFEED, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, CBS NEWS, CHRISTIANITY, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS TRIAL, CNN, CONTRACEPTION, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, D-DAY, DAILY KOS, DEMOCRATIC PARTY, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, ELECTORAL COLLEGE, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, EQUITY DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION (DEI) PROGRAMS, FASCISM, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA), FEDERAL COMMUNICATIOS COMMISSION, FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOSSIL FUELS, GEORGE W. BUSH, GERD VON RUNDSTEDT, GULF OF MEXICO, GUNTHER BLUMENTRITT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HERITAGE FOUNDATION, HILLARY CLINTON, HITLER: ASCENT (BOOK), HUFFINGTON POST, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE), INSIDER, INSPECTORS GENERAL, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, JOSEPH BIDEN, JOSEPH STALIN, jOSH HAWLEY, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, Kamala Harris, KEN PAXTON, KGB, MEDAL OF HONOR WINNERS, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, MEIN KAMPF, MIKE PENCE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUNICH, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION (NOAA), NAZI GERMANY, NAZI PARTY, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NORMANDY, NPR, PAT A. CIPOLLONE, PAUL VON HINDENBURG, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, Ronald Reagan, RUTH BEN-GHIAT, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, STEPHEN COLLINSON, STRONGMEN (BOOK), SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP), SUPREME COURT, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, THREATS, TIME, TREATY OF VERSALLIES, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TUSKEGEE AIRMEN, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (DOD), UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOLKER ULLRICH, VOTER FRAUD, WEIMAR REPUBLIC, WILLIAM L. SHIRER, WOMEN VETERANS, WONKETTE, WORLD WAR 1, WORLD WAR 11, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on December 12, 2025 at 12:57 am
Most Americans believe the United States is immune from the same fates of democracies that have become dictatorships.
Not so New York University historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat. Appearing on the November 13, 2023 edition of The PBS Newshour, she warned:
“Since 2015, [Donald Trump] started….using his rallies and campaign events for radicalizing people. And he started saying, oh, in the old days, you used to hurt people. The problem is, Americans don’t hurt each other anymore.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat
Humblewarrior, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
“So now he’s going into a new phase of openly dehumanizing his targets so that will lessen the taboos in the future. And we see that, in 2025, he’s got plans for mass deportations, mass imprisonments and giant camps.
“So you need people to be less sensitive about violence, either committing it themselves or tolerating it. And I see that as….the reason he’s using this dehumanizing rhetoric now, to prepare people.”
A historical example: The Weimar Republic, the constitutional federal republic in Germany which lasted from November 9, 1918 to March 23, 1933.
During its 14-year existence, the Republic granted Germans rights they had never enjoyed—and which would be ruthlessly suppressed during the 12-year Third Reich that replaced it.
Among those rights:
- Freedom of speech
- Freedom of assembly
- Privacy of mail, telegraph, and telephone
- Free and secret elections
- All citizens were eligible for public office
But the Republic had dangerous enemies—Communists on the Left, and Nazis on the Right. And it was plagued by charges of illegitimacy and even treason—for its members’ having signed the Treaty of Versailles ending World War 1.
Adolf Hitler joined the National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party in 1919—the year after World War 1 ended.
Adolf Hitler
In 1923, he staged a coup attempt in Bavaria—which was quickly and brutally put down by police. He was arrested and sentenced to less than a year in prison.
After that, Hitler decided that winning power through violence was no longer an option. He must win it through election—or appointment.
He repeatedly ran for the highest office in Germany—President—but never got a clear majority in a free election.
When the 1929 Depression struck Germany, the fortunes of Hitler’s Nazi party rose as the life savings of ordinary Germans fell. Streets echoed with bloody clashes between members of Hitler’s Nazi Stormtroopers and those of the German Communist Party.
Germany seemed on the verge of collapsing.
Germans desperately looked for a leader—a Fuhrer—who could somehow deliver them from the threat of financial ruin and Communist takeover.
In early 1933, members of his own cabinet persuaded aging German president, Paul von Hindenburg, that only Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor could do this.
Paul von Hindenburg
Hindenburg considered Hitler a dangerous radical. But he allowed himself to be convinced that, by putting Hitler in the Cabinet, he could be “boxed in” and thus controlled.
So, on January 30, 1933, he reluctantly appointed Adolf Hitler Chancellor—the equivalent of Attorney General.
On August 2, 1934, Hindenburg died, and Hitler immediately assumed the titles—and duties—of the offices of Chancellor and President.
His rise to total power was now complete.
In 2015, Donald Trump declared his candidacy for President.
At that time:
- The country was technically at war in the Middle East—but the fate of the United States was never threatened, as it had been during the Cold War.
- There was no draft; if you didn’t know someone in the military, you didn’t care about the casualties taking place.
- Thanks to government loans from Barack Obama, American capitalism had been saved from its own excesses during the George W. Bush administration.
- In contrast to the scandals of the Ronald Reagan Presidency, the Obama administration had been scandal-free.
- Nor had there been any major terrorist attacks on the country—as had occurred on 9/11 under President George W. Bush.
Yet—16 months after announcing his candidacy for President—enough Americans fervently embraced Donald Trump to give him the most powerful position in the country and the world.
Donald Trump
The message of Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign had been one of hope—“Yes, We Can!”
That of Donald Trump’s campaign was one of hatred toward everyone who was not an avid Trump supporter: “No, You Can’t!”
White supremacists comprised the overwhelming majority of the audiences at Trump rallies. They knew that demographics were steadily working against them. Birthrates among nonwhites were rising. By 2045, whites would make up less than 50 percent of the American population.
The 2008 election of the first black President had shocked Fascistic whites. His 2012 re-election had deprived them of the hope that 2008 had been an accident.
Then came 2016—and the possibility that a black President might be followed by a woman: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
And the idea of a woman dictating to men was strictly too much for them to bear.
So, on November 8, 2016, Donald Trump—lacking any government experience and best known as the host of a reality TV show—was elected President of the United States.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ADOLF HITLER, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT, AILEEN CANNON, AIR TRAFFICK CONTROLLERS, ALFRED JODL, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, ATTORNEYS GENERAL, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BAVARIA, BBC, BEER HALL PUTSCH, BEN SASSE, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, BRIAN KEMP, BUZZFEED, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, CBS NEWS, CHRISTIANITY, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS TRIAL, CNN, CONTRACEPTION, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, D-DAY, DAILY KOS, DEMOCRATIC PARTY, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, ELECTORAL COLLEGE, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, EQUITY DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION (DEI) PROGRAMS, FASCISM, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA), FEDERAL COMMUNICATIOS COMMISSION, FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOSSIL FUELS, GEORGE W. BUSH, GERD VON RUNDSTEDT, GULF OF MEXICO, GUNTHER BLUMENTRITT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HERITAGE FOUNDATION, HILLARY CLINTON, HITLER: ASCENT (BOOK), HUFFINGTON POST, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE), INSIDER, INSPECTORS GENERAL, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, JOSEPH BIDEN, JOSEPH STALIN, jOSH HAWLEY, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, Kamala Harris, KEN PAXTON, KGB, MEDAL OF HONOR WINNERS, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, MEIN KAMPF, MIKE PENCE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUNICH, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION (NOAA), NAZI GERMANY, NAZI PARTY, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NORMANDY, NPR, PAT A. CIPOLLONE, PAUL VON HINDENBURG, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, Ronald Reagan, RUTH BEN-GHIAT, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, STEPHEN COLLINSON, STRONGMEN (BOOK), SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP), SUPREME COURT, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, THREATS, TIME, TREATY OF VERSALLIES, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TUSKEGEE AIRMEN, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (DOD), UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOLKER ULLRICH, VOTER FRAUD, WEIMAR REPUBLIC, WILLIAM L. SHIRER, WOMEN VETERANS, WONKETTE, WORLD WAR 1, WORLD WAR 11, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on December 11, 2025 at 12:10 am
More than two years after he tried to establish himself as a dictator, Donald Trump remained free.
And he was still repeating “The Big Lie”: That he won the 2020 Presidential election but was cheated of victory by widespread voter fraud.
This was on a par with “The Big Lie” that had gripped Nazi Germany after World War 1: That the nation had been “stabbed in the back” by civilian Communists and Jews.
The result: Two-thirds of Republicans still rejected the legitimacy of the 2020 election of Joe Biden.
Facing 91 criminal charges in four criminal cases, Trump—unlike any other criminal defendant—was not even required to post bond.
In Florida, he faced 40 felony counts for illegally withholding highly classified government documents. Yet a judge he had appointed—Aileen Cannon—repeatedly delayed the start of his trial.
According to former United States Attorney Joyce Vance, her goal was clearly to delay the trial past the November, 2024, Presidential election.
Aileen Cannon
Trump repeatedly slandered—and even threatened—prosecutors, witnesses, judges and jurors in the four cases he faced. He claimed he was simply exercising his right to “freedom of speech” as a Presidential candidate.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who was overseeing Trump’s election interference case, imposed a limited gag order on Trump in October, 2023. But this was lifted by the U.S. Court of Appeals while it heard appeals from Trump’s lawyers, who wanted it removed completely.
Most ominously, an August 29, 2023 story by the Associated Press reported: Right-wing “think tanks”—led by the long-established Heritage Foundation—were plotting to remake the federal government into a Fascist dictatorship:
“With more than a year to go before the 2024 election, a constellation of conservative organizations is preparing for a possible second White House term for Donald Trump, recruiting thousands of Americans to come to Washington on a mission to dismantle the federal government and replace it with a vision closer to his own….
Heritage Foundation
Ser Amantio di Nicolao, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
“Trump-era conservatives want to gut the ‘administrative state’ from within, by ousting federal employees they believe are standing in the way of the president’s agenda and replacing them with like-minded officials more eager to fulfill a new executive’s approach to governing.
“Much of the new president’s agenda would be accomplished by reinstating what’s called Schedule F — a Trump-era executive order that would reclassify tens of thousands of the 2 million federal employees as essentially at-will workers who could more easily be fired.”
Meanwhile, Trump openly called for ending Constitutionally-granted freedoms:
On December 3, 2022, he wrote in a Truth Social post:
“Do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”
A November 14, 2023 analysis by CNN’s Stephen Collinson warned:
“The former and possibly future commander in chief aspires to strongman power if he wins back the White House next year. He believes his authority would be absolute. He wants vengeance against his political enemies. He’d pose the greatest challenge to the rule of law and the Constitution in modern times, seek to crush press freedoms and gut the machinery of government.
“None of this is speculation. Trump is saying and showing exactly what he would do in his rallies, social media posts, interviews, lawyers’ filings and even appearances in court that he uses to stigmatize the legal system. And Trump’s ambitions should be taken seriously because one year from the election, President Joe Biden’s reelection hopes are far from secure.”
As an example of Trump’s rhetoric, Ruth Ben-Ghiat professor of history at New York University and author of the bestselling book, Strongmen, cites the former President’s address on Veterans Day, 2023:
“We will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on elections, and will do anything possible, they will do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American dream.”
Speaking on the November 13, 2023 edition of The PBS Newshour, Ben-Ghiat said:
“Since the fascists, authoritarians always want to do two things—they want to change the way that people see violence, making it into something necessary and patriotic and even morally righteous, and they want to change the way people see their targets. And so they use dehumanizing language. And former President Trump is doing both.
“He’s been using his rallies since 2015 to shift the idea of violence into something positive. And now he’s starting to use dehumanizing rhetoric, all these groups who live like vermin. And this is what the original fascists did.
“Hitler started talking about Jews as parasites in 1920. So by the time he got in 1933, Germans had been exposed to this dehumanizing rhetoric for 13 years.
“And Mussolini literally talked about rats. After he had become dictator in 1927, he said, we need to kill rats who are bringing infectious diseases and Bolshevism from the east. And so this matches up with Trump talking about immigrants bringing disease and other such things.
“So this is very dangerous rhetoric with a very precise fascist history.”
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ADOLF HITLER, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT, AILEEN CANNON, AIR TRAFFICK CONTROLLERS, ALFRED JODL, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, ATTORNEYS GENERAL, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BAVARIA, BBC, BEER HALL PUTSCH, BEN SASSE, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, BRIAN KEMP, BUZZFEED, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, CBS NEWS, CHRISTIANITY, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS TRIAL, CNN, CONTRACEPTION, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, D-DAY, DAILY KOS, DEMOCRATIC PARTY, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, ELECTORAL COLLEGE, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, EQUITY DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION (DEI) PROGRAMS, FASCISM, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA), FEDERAL COMMUNICATIOS COMMISSION, FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOSSIL FUELS, GEORGE W. BUSH, GERD VON RUNDSTEDT, GULF OF MEXICO, GUNTHER BLUMENTRITT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HERITAGE FOUNDATION, HILLARY CLINTON, HITLER: ASCENT (BOOK), HUFFINGTON POST, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE), INSIDER, INSPECTORS GENERAL, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, JOSEPH BIDEN, JOSEPH STALIN, jOSH HAWLEY, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, Kamala Harris, KEN PAXTON, KGB, MEDAL OF HONOR WINNERS, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, MEIN KAMPF, MIKE PENCE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUNICH, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION (NOAA), NAZI GERMANY, NAZI PARTY, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NORMANDY, NPR, PAT A. CIPOLLONE, PAUL VON HINDENBURG, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, Ronald Reagan, RUTH BEN-GHIAT, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, STEPHEN COLLINSON, STRONGMEN (BOOK), SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP), SUPREME COURT, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, THREATS, TIME, TREATY OF VERSALLIES, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TUSKEGEE AIRMEN, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (DOD), UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOLKER ULLRICH, VOTER FRAUD, WEIMAR REPUBLIC, WILLIAM L. SHIRER, WOMEN VETERANS, WONKETTE, WORLD WAR 1, WORLD WAR 11, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on December 10, 2025 at 3:26 am
On January 6, 2021, President Donald Trump appeared at the Ellipse, a 52-acre park south of the White House fence and north of Constitution Avenue and the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
A stage had been set up for him to address tens of thousands of his supporters, who eagerly awaited him.
Trump ordered them to march on the Capitol building to express their anger at the voting process and to intimidate their elected officials to reject the results of the 2020 Presidential election.
The Stormtrumpers marched to the United States Capitol—and quickly brushed aside Capitol Police, who made little effort to arrest or shoot them.
Capitol Police facing off with Stormtrumpers
- One attacker was shot as protesters forced their way toward the House Chamber where members of Congress were sheltering in place.
- Members of the mob attacked police with chemical agents or lead pipes.
- A Capitol Hill police officer was knocked off his feet, dragged into the mob surging toward the building, and beaten with the pole of an American flag.
- Several rioters carried plastic handcuffs, possibly intending to take hostages.
- Others carried treasonous Confederate flags.
- Shouts of “Hang Pence!” often rang out.
- Improvised explosive devices were found in several locations in Washington, D.C.
- Many of the lawmakers’ office buildings were occupied and vandalized—including that of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a favorite Right-wing target.
Stormtrumpers inside the Capitol Building
More than three hours passed before police—using riot gear, shields and batons—retook control of the Capitol.
And Trump?
- After giving his inflammatory speech, he returned to the White House—to watch his handiwork on television and rage-tweet against Vice President Mike Pence.
- He was “delighted” at the attack—and surprised that others weren’t, as angry Republican Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse said later.
- He initially denied requests to mobilize the National Guard.
- Six hours after the rioting began, Pat A. Cipollone, the White House Counsel and other officials intervened and deployed the National Guard.
- While the rioting was still erupting, Trump posted a video on Twitter: “I know you’re hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us….But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order….So go home. We love you. You’re very special.”
His administration was closing with the same contempt for law and democracy that had characterized it from its outset.
Joseph R. Biden legitimately assumed the Presidency on January 20, 2021.
Yet it was only on November 22, 2022, that his handpicked Attorney General, Merrick Garland, appointed Jack Smith as independent special counsel.
Smith had served in the Justice Department as an assistant U.S. attorney, acting U.S. attorney and head of the agency’s Public Integrity Section.
From 2008 to 2010, Smith worked as investigation coordinator for the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. He thus oversaw cases against government officials and militia members accused of war crimes and genocide.
Jack Smith
He now became responsible for overseeing two preexisting Justice Department criminal investigations into Trump.
On June 8, 2023, a grand jury indicted Trump on seven federal criminal charges related to his handling of classified documents. This marked the first time in American history that a serving or former president had been indicted on a federal criminal charge.
On August 1, a second grand jury indicted Trump on four more federal felony counts for attempting to overturn the 2020 Presidential election and inciting a riot against Congress on January 6, 2021.
Meanwhile, Trump publicly attacked Smith as even notorious Mafia bosses like John Gotti never dared attack their prosecutors.
Trump attacked Smith as “deranged” and a “Trump-hating prosecutor,” adding that “his wife and family despise me much more than he does.”
A typical Trump post on his website, Truth Social, exploded on August 28, 2023:
“It has just been reported that aides to TRUMP prosecutor, Deranged Jack Smith, met with high officials at the White House just prior to these political SleazeBags Indicating me OVER NOTHING.
“If this is so, which it is, that means that Biden and his Fascist Thugs knew and APPROVED of this Country dividing Form of Election Interference, despite their insisting that they ‘knew nothing.”
Such attacks led the Justice Department to increase the security detail for Smith from two to at least four deputy U.S. marshals on a 24-hour basis.
Many of Trump’s supporters believed that Smith was acting on behalf of President Biden to deprive Trump of the chance to run for the White House a third time.
The January 6 coup attempt proved beyond doubt his followers’ capacity for violence.
On November 14, 2023, the Justice Department urged a Washington, DC, appeals court to uphold the gag order against Trump in his federal election subversion criminal case. Prosecutors charged that Trump’s attacks on Smith and his family demonstrated why restrictions on Trump’s speech were necessary.
“There has never been a criminal case in which a court has granted a defendant an unfettered right to try his case in the media, malign the prosecutor and his family, and …target specific witnesses with attacks on their character and credibility,” Smith’s team told the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals in a filing.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ADOLF HITLER, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT, AILEEN CANNON, AIR TRAFFICK CONTROLLERS, ALFRED JODL, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, ATTORNEYS GENERAL, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BAVARIA, BBC, BEER HALL PUTSCH, BEN SASSE, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, BRIAN KEMP, BUZZFEED, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, CBS NEWS, CHRISTIANITY, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS TRIAL, CNN, CONTRACEPTION, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, D-DAY, DAILY KOS, DEMOCRATIC PARTY, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, ELECTORAL COLLEGE, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, EQUITY DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION (DEI) PROGRAMS, FASCISM, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA), FEDERAL COMMUNICATIOS COMMISSION, FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOSSIL FUELS, GEORGE W. BUSH, GERD VON RUNDSTEDT, GULF OF MEXICO, GUNTHER BLUMENTRITT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HERITAGE FOUNDATION, HILLARY CLINTON, HITLER: ASCENT, HITLER: ASCENT (BOOK), HUFFINGTON POST, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE), INSIDER, INSPECTORS GENERAL, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, JOSEPH BIDEN, JOSEPH STALIN, jOSH HAWLEY, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, Kamala Harris, KEN PAXTON, KGB, MEDAL OF HONOR WINNERS, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, MEIN KAMPF, MIKE PENCE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUNICH, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION (NOAA), NAZI GERMANY, NAZI PARTY, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NORMANDY, NPR, PAT A. CIPOLLONE, PAUL VON HINDENBURG, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, Ronald Reagan, RUTH BEN-GHIAT, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, STEPHEN COLLINSON, STRONGMEN (BOOK), SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP), SUPREME COURT, 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 LONGEST DAY (MOVIE, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, THREATS, TIME, TREASON, TREATY OF VERSALLIES, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TUSKEGEE AIRMEN, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (DOD), UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOLKER ULLRICH, VOTER FRAUD, VOTERFRAUD, WEIMAR REPUBLIC, WILLIAM L. SHIRER, WOMEN VETERANS, WONKETTE, WORLD WAR 1, WORLD WAR 11, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on December 9, 2025 at 12:10 am
From November 3 to December 14, 2020, President Donald J. Trump and his allies lost 59 times in court to overturn the 2020 Presidential election.
They either withdrew their cases or found them dismissed by Federal and state judges.
On November 19, Trump invited two Republican legislative leaders from Michigan to the White House—to persuade them to stop their state from certifying the vote.
The Michigan legislators said they would follow the law.
.jpg/220px-Donald_Trump_August_19,_2015_(cropped).jpg)
Donald Trump
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.
On December 8, the Supreme Court refused to hear Trump’s bid to reverse Pennsylvania’s certification of Biden’s victory. Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA), a Trump ally, argued that the state’s 2.5 million mail-in votes were unconstitutional.
Although Trump had appointed three of the Court’s Justices, not one of them dissented.
On December 10, the Supreme Court refused to let a Texas lawsuit overturn the results in four battleground states: Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The majority of their votes had been cast for Biden.
The Supreme Court
With the Senate due to certify states’ Electoral College results on January 6, 2021, Trump pressed Vice President Mike Pence to flip the results of the election to give him a win. This despite the fact that the Electoral Count Act of 1887 limits the Vice President to a largely ceremonial role.
Then, on December 30, Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley announced that, on January 6, 2021, he would object to the certification of some states’ Electoral College results.
A total of 147 Republican Congressional members voted to invalidate the Electoral College vote count of the 2020 presidential election: 139 in the House of Representatives, and eight in the Senate.
Having lost in 59 court cases to overturn the election results, Trump opted for some old-fashioned arm-twisting.
On January 2, 2021, he called the office of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. The reason: To pressure him to “find” enough votes to overturn former Vice President Joe Biden’s win in the state’s presidential election.
“All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state,” Trump lied.
He even threatened Raffensperger with criminal prosecution if he did not change the vote count in Trump’s favor: “That’s a criminal offense. And you can’t let that happen.”
Raffensperger insisted there hadn’t been any voter fraud—and refused to change the official results.
By January 6, 2021, Trump had almost run out of options for illegally staying in power for the next four years.
On January 6, the United States Senate, with Vice President Mike Pence presiding, would certify states’ Electoral College results of that election.
That morning, Trump urged Pence to flip the results of the election to give him a win. Pence replied that he lacked the power to overturn those results.
But as Pence went off to the Capitol Building housing the Senate and House of Representatives, Trump had one last card to play.
Mike Pence
For weeks Trump had ordered his legions of Right-wing Stormtrumpers to descend on Washington, D.C. on January 6.
On December 20, he had tweeted: “Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
In tweets, he promoted the rally again on December 27 and 30, and January 1.
On January 6, Trump appeared at the Ellipse, a 52-acre park south of the White House fence and north of Constitution Avenue and the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
A stage had been set up for him to address tens of thousands of his supporters, who eagerly awaited him.
Trump ordered them to march on the Capitol building to express their anger at the voting process and to intimidate their elected officials to reject the results.
Donald Trump addresses his Stormtrumpers
“All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by a bold and radical left Democrats which is what they are doing and stolen by the fake news media.
“Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore, and that is what this is all about. And to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal….
“Republicans are constantly fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back….And we’re going to have to fight much harder….
“And after this, we’re going to walk down and I’ll be there with you. We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. And we’re going to cheer on our brave Senators and Congressmen and women and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them.
“Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated.”
The Stormtrumpers marched to the United States Capitol—and quickly brushed aside Capitol Police, who made little effort to arrest or shoot them.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ADOLF HITLER, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT, AILEEN CANNON, AIR TRAFFICK CONTROLLERS, ALFRED JODL, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, ATTORNEYS GENERAL, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BAVARIA, BBC, BEER HALL PUTSCH, BEN SASSE, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, BRIAN KEMP, BUZZFEED, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, CBS NEWS, CHRISTIANITY, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS TRIAL, CNN, CONTRACEPTION, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, D-DAY, DAILY KOS, DEMOCRATIC PARTY, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, ELECTORAL COLLEGE, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, EQUITY DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION (DEI) PROGRAMS, FASCISM, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA), FEDERAL COMMUNICATIOS COMMISSION, FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOSSIL FUELS, GEORGE W. BUSH, GERD VON RUNDSTEDT, GULF OF MEXICO, GUNTHER BLUMENTRITT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HERITAGE FOUNDATION, HILLARY CLINTON, HITLER: ASCENT (BOOK), HUFFINGTON POST, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE), INSIDER, INSPECTORS GENERAL, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, JOSEPH BIDEN, JOSEPH STALIN, jOSH HAWLEY, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, Kamala Harris, KEN PAXTON, KGB, MEDAL OF HONOR WINNERS, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, MEIN KAMPF, MIKE PENCE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUNICH, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION (NOAA), NAZI GERMANY, NAZI PARTY, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NORMANDY, NPR, PAT A. CIPOLLONE, PAUL VON HINDENBURG, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, Ronald Reagan, RUTH BEN-GHIAT, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, STEPHEN COLLINSON, STRONGMEN (BOOK), SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP), SUPREME COURT, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, THREATS, TIME, TREATY OF VERSALLIES, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TUSKEGEE AIRMEN, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (DOD), UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOLKER ULLRICH, VOTER FRAUD, WEIMAR REPUBLIC, WILLIAM L. SHIRER, WOMEN VETERANS, WONKETTE, WORLD WAR 1, WORLD WAR 11, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on December 8, 2025 at 12:11 am
On November 9, 1923, Nazi Party Fuhrer Adolf Hitler tried to overthrow the government in Munich, Bavaria.
About 2,000 Nazis marched to the center of Munich, where they confronted heavily-armed police. A shootout erupted, killing 16 Nazis and four policemen.
Hitler was injured during the clash, but managed to escape. Two days later, he was arrested and charged with treason.
Put on trial, he found himself treated as a celebrity by a judge sympathetic to Right-wing groups. He was allowed to brutally cross-examine witnesses and even make inflammatory speeches.
At the end of the trial, he was convicted of treason and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.
Serving time in Landsberg Prison, in Bavaria. he was given a huge cell, allowed to receive unlimited visitors and gifts, and treated with deference by guards and inmates.
Hitler used his time in prison to write his infamous book, Mein Kampf-–“My Struggle.” Part autobiography, part political treatise, it laid out his future plans—including the extermination of the Jews and the conquest of the Soviet Union.
Adolf Hitler leaving Landsberg Prison, December, 20, 1924
Nine months later, he was released on parole—by authorities loyal to the authoritarian Right instead of the newly-created Weimar Republic.
Hitler immediately began rebuilding the shattered Nazi party—and deciding on a new strategy to gain power. Never again would he resort to armed force. He would win office by election—or intrigue.
Writes historian Volker Ullrich, in his monumental 2016 biography, Hitler: Ascent 1889 – 1939: “Historians have perennially tried to answer the question of whether Hitler’s rise to power could have been halted….
“There were repeated opportunities to end Hitler’s run of triumphs. The most obvious one was after the failed Putsch of November 1923. Had the Munich rabble-rouser been forced to serve his full five-year term of imprisonment in Landsberg, it is extremely unlikely that he would have been able to restart his political career.”
Thus, it isn’t just what happens that can influence the course of history. Often, it’s what doesn’t happen that has at least as great a result.
Consider:
It’s June 6, 1944, and the Allies have launched their long-expected attack on the French coast of Normandy. This is an all-out assault on Adolf Hitler’s “Atlantic Wall” to drive German armies out of the European countries they had conquered in 1940.
“We can’t take any chances. I want the reserve panzers moved forward,” says Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, the commander of all German forces in France, to his subordinate commander, Major General Gunther Blumentritt.
Gunther Blumentritt
“But we need permission from the Fuhrer’s headquarters,” replies Blumentritt.
And just as Blumentritt fears, permission is denied.
Alfred Jodl, Chief of the Operations Staff of the Wehrmacht, refuses the request. He will not release the panzers without Hitler’s approval.
And the Fuhrer—who stayed up late at night and slept during much of the day—is still sleeping.
“This is history,” says Blumentritt to an aide. “We are living an historical moment. We are going to lose the war because our glorious Fuhrer has taken a sleeping pill and is not to be awakened.
“Think of it, Kurt. We are witnessing something which historians will say is completely improbable. And yet it is true.”
And just as Bluemtritt predicted, defeat comes soon for the German forces in France.
Future historians may one day write that it’s what didn’t happen that played at least as great a role in destroying Constitutional government—and democracy—in the United States as what did.
Donald Trump
On November 3, 2020, Joe Biden became President-elect of the United States by winning 81,283,495 votes, or 51.4% of the vote, compared to 74,223,755 votes, or 46.9% of the vote cast for President Donald Trump.
In the Electoral College—which actually determines the winner—the results were even more stunning: 306 votes for Biden, compared with 232 for Trump. It takes 270 votes to be declared the victor.
From the moment Biden was declared the winner, Trump set out to overturn that verdict.
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, falsely charging electoral fraud. Specifically:
- Illegal aliens had been allowed to vote.
- Trump ballots were systematically destroyed.
- A sinister computer program turned Trump votes into Biden ones.
Throughout November and December, 2020, cases were filed in Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Minnesota and Georgia challenging the election results. None were supported by evidence of fraud—as even Trump’s lawyers admitted when questioned by judges.
On November 13, nine cases meant to attack President-elect Joe Biden’s win in key states were denied or dropped. A law firm challenging the vote count in Pennsylvania withdrew from the effort.
In Michigan, Trump’s attorneys dropped their federal suit to block the certification of Detroit-area ballots.
By November 21, more than 30 cases were withdrawn by Trump’s attorneys or dismissed by Federal judges—some of them appointed by Trump himself.
Ultimately, from November 3 to December 14, 2020, Trump and his allies lost 59 times in court, either withdrawing cases or having them dismissed by Federal and state judges.
Bureaucracybuster's Blog 
9/11 ATTACKS, ABC NEWS, AL QAEDA, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AMERICAN CAESARS: THE LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS FROM FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT TO GEORGE W. BUSH (BOOK), AMERICAN EMPIRE, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BASHAR AL-ASSAD, BBC, BILL CLINTON, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUREAUCRACY, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHRIS MATHEWS, CNN, COLIN POWELL, CONDOLEEZA RICE, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DICK CHENEY, DONALD RUMSFELD, DONALD TRUMP, DWIGHT EISENHOWER, FBI, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, GAIUS SUETONIUS TRANQUILLIUS, GEORGE H.W. BUSH, GEORGE W. BUSH, GERALD R. FORD, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HARRY S. TRUMAN, HOLOCAUST, HUFFINGTON POST, IRAN, IRAQ, ISRAEL, JEFFREY EPSTEIN, JFK: RECKLESS YOUTH (BOOK), JIMMY CARTER, JOHN F. KENNEDY, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MEDIA MATTERS, MEIN KAMPF, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NIGEL HAMILTON, NPR, OSAMA BIN LADEN, PAUL O’NEIL, PAUL WOLFOWITZ, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REUTERS, RICHARD CLARKE, RICHARD NIXON, ROMAN EMPIRE, SADDAM HUSSEIN, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SEPTEMBER 11, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, SUETONIUS, SYRIA, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TERRORISM, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE PENTAGON, THE TWELVE CAESARS (BOOK), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS DINNER, WORLD TRADE CENTER, WORLD WAR 11, X
DISASTER IN IRAQ: PROLOGUE TO DISASTER IN IRAN: PART THREE (END)
In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 18, 2026 at 12:40 amOn September 12, 2001, President George W. Bush attended a meeting of the National Security Council.
“Why shouldn’t we go against Iraq, not just Al-Qaeda?” demanded Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense.
Vice President Dick Cheney enthusiastically agreed.
Secretary of State Colin Powell then pointed out there was absolutely no evidence that Iraq had had anything to do with 9/11 or Al-Qaeda. And he added: “The American people want us to do something about Al-Qaeda”—not Iraq.
On November 21, 2001, only 10 weeks after 9/11, Bush told Rumsfeld: It’s time to turn to Iraq.
Condoleeza Rice
Bush and his war-hungry Cabinet officials knew that Americans demanded vengeance on Al Qaeda’s mastermind, Osama bin Laden, and not Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. So they repeatedly fabricated “links” between the two:
Yet as early as September 22, 2001, Bush had received a classified President’s Daily Brief intelligence report, which stated that there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to 9/11.
The report added that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al-Qaeda.
Even more important: Saddam had tried to monitor Al Qaeda through his intelligence service—because he saw Al-Qaeda and other theocratic radical Islamist organizations as a potential threat to his secular regime.
Dick Cheney
Bush administration officials repeatedly claimed that Iraq possessed huge quantities of chemical and biological weapons, in violation of UN resolutions. And they further lied that US intelligence agencies had determined:
Among other lies stated as fact by members of the Bush administration:
Donald Rumsfeld
Consider the following:
August 26, 2002: Cheney told the Veterans of Foreign Wars, “There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies and against us.”
September 8, 2002: National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice said on CNN: ”There is certainly evidence that Al-Qaeda people have been in Iraq. There is certainly evidence that Saddam Hussein cavorts with terrorists.”
September 18, 2002: Rumsfeld told the House Armed Services Committee, “We do know that the Iraqi regime has chemical and biological weapons. His regime has amassed large, clandestine stockpiles of chemical weapons—including VX, sarin, cyclosarin and mustard gas.”
October 7, 2002: Bush declared in a nationally televised speech in Cincinnati that Iraq “possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons.”
March 16, 2003: Cheney declared on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “We believe [Saddam Hussein] has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.”
Bush never regretted his decision to attack Iraq—on March 19, 2003.
Even as American occupying forces repeatedly failed to turn up any evidence of “weapons of mass destruction” (WMDs), Bush and his minions claimed the invasion a good thing.
In fact, Bush—who hid out the Vietnam war in the Texas Air National Guard—even joked publicly about the absence of WMDs.
He did so at a White House Correspondents dinner on March 24, 2004—one year after he had started the war.
George W. Bush at the 2004 White House Correspondents’ dinner
To Bush, the non-existent WMDs were nothing more than the butt of a joke that night. While an overhead projector displayed photos of a puzzled-looking Bush searching around the Oval Office, Bush recited a comedy routine.
“Those weapons of mass destruction have gotta be somewhere,” Bush laughed, while a photo showed him poking around the corners in the Oval Office.
“Nope—no weapons over there! Maybe they’re under here,” he said, as a photo showed him looking under a desk.
Meanwhile, an assembly of wealthy, pampered men and women—-the elite of America’s media and political classes—laughed heartily during Bush’s performance.
It was a scene worthy of the court of the ancient Caesars, complete with royal flunkies: “Hey! That country we just destroyed wasn’t a threat to us after all! Isn’t that a gas?”
The results of the war that Bush had deliberately provoked:
Share this: