Posts Tagged ‘Kamala Harris’
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In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 29, 2026 at 12:13 am
If Nuremberg-style justice comes to the United States, those citizens who have lustily supported Donald Trump’s legacy of hatred, tyranny and corruption will be forced to answer for the horrors their support enabled Trump to commit.
Among these:
- Issuing 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.
- Flooding the streets of Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Chicago with federalized National Guard troops against state governors’ wishes during immigration crackdowns and civil unrest.
- Flooding 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.
- Threatening 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.
- Threatening 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.
Donald Trump
- Launching an unprovoked attack on Iran on February 28, believing that in six weeks he can force its Islamic rulers to abandon their plans to develop nuclear weapons.
- Iran immediately closes the Strait of Hormuz—through which about 20 million barrels of oil used to pass each day. That flow has been reduced to between two million and six million barrels each day.
- This has created a worldwide spiral in oil prices—and fueled inflation in the United States and other nations. But as prices for housing, energy and food soar in the United States, Trump claims that “affordability” is a “Democratic hoax.”
- Like Adolf Hitler contemplating architectural models while Nazi Germany neared destruction, Trump focuses on vanity projects like a 90,000 square foot White House ballroom and a towering “Victory Arch” overlooking Arlington Cemetery.
- Seven months later—by September—the war continues and Iran still controls the Strait of Hormuz. Trump’s on-again, off-again bombing campaign has dangerously strained and depleted American military stockpiles.
Reading Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe, by Katja Hoyer, catapults the reader into the doomed Weimar Republic, which lasted from November 9, 1919, to March 23,1933.
Its parallels—whether intentional or unintentional, between that era and the one the United States is now living through—are uncanny and frightening.
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.
Another motivating factor: Right-wing antisemitism, shared by millions of Germans. The fact that the Republic held many Jews within its topmost ranks only increased the hatred aimed at it.
Germans refused to admit they had lost World War 1 on the battlefield. They demanded scapegoats—Jews, Communists, traitors—who had “stabbed us in the back.”
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.
Eighty-four years after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, Donald Trump became President of the United States.
The parallels between these two administrations have since become alarmingly clear.
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In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 28, 2026 at 12:18 am
“For it is the doom of men that they forget.”
—Merlin, “Excaliber”
It’s April 16, 1945, and more than 1,000 residents of the town of Weimar, Germany, are being forced to view horrors they have never before seen and perhaps never imagined could exist.
Adolf Hitler, Fuhrer of the Third Reich since 1933, won’t commit suicide until April 30, but Germany’s fate is already sealed. The war it had so arrogantly started is ending in humiliating defeat for its “master race.”
American army units have been appalled at what they found in Buchenwald concentration camp, which lies only about four miles northwest of Weimar. They are determined to make Weimar’s citizens see, up-close, the true legacy of the Hitler regime.
Among the nightmarish scenes the citizens view:
- Corpses piled on carts.
- Recently dug up mass graves, revealing countless bodies.
- Crematorium ovens filled with human bones and ashes of prisoners who had been murdered.
- An all-pervading stench of death, stemming from the tens of thousands of men and women who had been murdered there.
- A gallows where inmates had been executed.
- A wooden block over which they had been bent to be flogged.
- A table displaying samples of human skin that had been collected by the former camp commandant and his wife.
Corpses found in Buchenwald after its liberation
The United States Army films the Weimar residents as they are confronted with the horrors of Buchenwald. Out of this comes a documentary: “Death Mills,” which puts the blame for Nazi atrocities on the shoulders of ordinary Germans.
“These Germans, the ones who said they didn’t know,” intones a narrator, “were responsible, too. They had put themselves gladly into the hands of criminals and lunatics.
“They tell you now they meant no evil, that they knew nothing of what was going on or could do nothing even if they knew….
“Today, these Germans who cheered the destruction of humanity in their own land, who cheered the attack on helpless neighbors, who cheered the enslavement of Europe, plead for your sympathy.”
If similar justice comes to the United States, those citizens who have lustily supported Donald Trump’s crimes at all levels will be forced to answer for the atrocities their support made possible.
Among these:
- Pardoning 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. More than 250 of those pardoned had been convicted of assaulting police.
- Banning CNN, Politico and MS NOW correspondents from the White House because he didn’t like their “unfair” reporting about him.
- Signing 26 executive orders reversing climate change initiatives, eliminating DEI programs, and initiating a federal hiring freeze.
- Firing the inspectors general—who are charged with protecting the government from waste and corruption—from more than a dozen federal agencies.
- Firing Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects consumers from unfair, deceptive and fraudulent business practices.
- Withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO).
- Withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate agreement.
- Firing 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.
Donald Trump
- When artists and audiences—outraged by the takeover—boycott the Center, an embarrassed Trump orders its closure, claiming a two-year repair renovation is necessary
- Purging 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.
- Ordering the Justice Department to indict his critics such as New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.
- Declaring “a national emergency” targeting migrants—legal and illegal.
- Trying to cancel birthright citizenship—enshrined within the United States Constitution—for U.S.-born children.
- Demanding a military parade for his 79th birthday, poorly disguised as a salute to the 250th anniversary of the United States Army.
- Pardoning 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.
- Demanding that the media refer to the Gulf of Mexico as “the Gulf of America” and banning the Associated Press from the White House for refusing to do so.
Gulf of Mexico
- Demanding that Canada become the 51st state and aggressively raising tariffs on Canadian goods.
- Shutting down the Federal Government on October 1, 2025, when Democrats refuse 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 reduces air traffic by 10% at many airports.
- Shutting off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for the poor to pressure Democrats to support his gutting of healthcare programs.
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In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 2, 2026 at 12:10 am
President Donald Trump is haunted by the fear of a third impeachment action against him if Democrats retake the House of Representatives in the fast-approaching midterm elections scheduled for November 3.
Speaking at a rally in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to support Senate candidate Darline Graham, sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, Trump warned: “If we lose the midterms, I am going to be impeached. They are going to impeach me. They have no idea why!”
On the contrary: Democrats know well why they want to remove him from office. Among their reasons:
- Starting an unprovoked war with Iran.
- Attacking longtime American allies like Canada, England and Greenland.
- Cozying up to Communist dictators such as Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-Un.
- Ordering the Justice Department to indict his critics such as New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.
- Flooding Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, with 3,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who terrorized (and murdered) both American citizens and illegal aliens.
Donald Trump
Trump’s Republican accomplices in Congress fully understand the threat he faces—and what it poses for them. Thanks to his unprovoked war on Iran, oil shipments have been constrained worldwide—and Americans are furious at soaring prices for gas, food and housing.
Meanwhile, Trump arrogantly claims that “affordability” is a “Democratic hoax.” And, like Adolf Hitler contemplating architectural models while Nazi Germany neared destruction, he focuses on vanity projects like a 90,000 square foot White House ballroom and a towering “Victory Arch” overlooking Arlington Cemetery.
As a result, Trump’s current national approval rating hovers between 33% and 38%. And Republicans fear that his unpopularity will spell doom for their own re-election prospects.
On June 26, Mike Johnson (R-LA), Speaker of the House of Representatives, warned his colleagues:
“If we were to lose the midterms, heaven forbid, these Democrats, y’all, impeachment’s not even the biggest concern. They will turn every committee of Congress into an investigative body, and they’ll go after the president’s family, the Cabinet, his donors and friends—half of you in this room will be targeted.”
Mike Johnson
Frederick Wellman, the Democratic congressional candidate for Missouri’s 2nd District, was quick to agree:
“You’re damn right we will investigate crimes and corruption. Who moved $180 million in oil futures 15 minutes before Iran announcements? Who has gotten sole source contracts because of their connections to the Trump family?
“Where did our Social Security data go when DOGE downloaded it into portable hard drives? Where are the rest of the Epstein files? On and on this Congress has chosen covering up crimes instead of stopping them. That ends in November.”
Donald Trump is notorious for being thin-skinned. He has never displayed a sense of humor—nor an ability to laugh at himself. And he cannot abide listening to news that contradicts whatever he wants to do or believe.
The role that Natalie Harp plays in his life cannot be fully understood unless one accepts this fundamental truth: Trump, like Adolf Hitler, believes that if he just thinks positively, reality will bend to meet his wishes.
For this, he needs—and devours—a constant supply of “happy news” that confirms what he wants to believe. “News” that Harp is thrilled to constantly supply.
Thus, six months after launching a war he expected to be over in four to six weeks, Trump could say: “Right now, the situation is so good.”
Trump said this after leading reporters on a tour of the White House’s South Lawn to show off his latest renovations.
Presidents—and tyrants—who substitute “happy news” for hard truth usually come to a bad end. Hitler fired generals like Heinz Guderian—the architect of his sweeping victory over France in 1940—when they told him an offensive could not be continued or that their soldiers were needlessly dying for lack of supplies.
It did not win Hitler his war.
As Donald Trump lurches from one self-manufactured crisis to another, two warnings from Niccolo Machiavelli, the Florentine statesman and father of modern political science, take on special meaning:
“I must not omit an important subject, and mention of a mistake which princes can with difficulty avoid, if they are not very prudent, or if they do not make a good choice. And this is with regard to flatterers, of which courts are full, because men take pleasure in their own things and deceive themselves about them that they can with difficulty guard against this plague.”
And:
“It is an infallible rule that a prince who is not wise himself cannot be well advised, unless by chance he leaves himself entirely in the hands of one man who rules him in everything, and happens to be a very prudent man. In this case, he may doubtless be well governed, but it would not last long, for the governor would in a short time deprive him of the state.”
Noted historian Barbara Tuchman put it even more directly: “A great empire and little minds go ill together.”
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In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 1, 2026 at 12:10 am
Michael Wolff, a longtime biographer of Donald Trump, recently published letters from White House aide Natalie Harp to the President in The Daily Beast.
Among their revelations:
“If there is anything else I have done to cause you trouble, please forgive me. I want things to always be right between us. I also know I’ve been distracted all week (forgetting to eat throughout the days, and even forgetting to sleep, and only catching a couple hours at a time).”
And
“I never want to bring you anything but joy. I’m sorry I lost my focus. You are all that matters to me. I don’t want to ever let you down. Thank you for being my Guardian and Protector in this life.”
On August 16, Georgia’s Democratic United States Senator, Jon Ossoff, said at a campaign rally in Atlanta:
“He golfs and trades stocks. See, he doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.”
A clip of this remark was widely shared on social media.
Jon Ossoff
Ossoff didn’t accuse Trump and Harp of tripping the light fantastic, but the White House immediately and viciously reacted as if he had:
- White House Communications Director Steven Cheung: “Jon Jackoff has to be the biggest cuck loser in politics. Instead of denigrating hard working people serving their country, Jon should look deep into his soul and ask himself why he’s a miserable person who hates this country. It’s because he’s a radical, extremist Dumocrat.” [“Denigrating” actually means “insulting.” The word Cheung meant was “praising.”]
- Trump spokesman Davis Ingle: “A cringeworthy, feminine theatre kid cosplaying as Barack Obama.”
- Right-wing CNN pundit Scott Jennings: “A garbage human.”
- When a CNN reporter asked Trump about Ossoff’s remarks, a White House-run X account attacked her as “a disgraceful, humiliating embarrassment to her alleged profession.”
Even some Democrats feel that Ossoff went too far. One of these was David Axelrod, former advisor to President Barack Obama.
“No one has been more consistently eloquent or incisive in exposing @realDonaldTrump than @Ossoff. The paragraph from his weekend speech that has gotten so much attention was a brutal takedown. But two words in it, ‘with Natalie’ seemed gratuitous and unnecessary,” Axelrod wrote on X.
David Axelrod
This despite the fact that Trump has built his political career on countless brutal insults to both Republicans and Democrats.
The attacks on him haven’t fazed Ossoff: “It’s been amazing to watch this White House melt down over this all week,” he told MS NOW. “These White House staffers are adults, public officials paid by the taxpayer with immense power in positions of public trust.”
Even if there is no affair between the President and his adoring aide, their relationship underscores a fundamental Trumpian dilemma:
On one hand, he craves not simply loyalty but constant adoration. He must be repeatedly told he’s the most handsome, brilliant, powerful, beloved man on the planet.
On the other hand, his flagrant greed, egotism and constant attacks on a seemingly endless number of people—politicians, journalists, celebrities, ordinary Americans—ensure that the hatred he spews is returned in kind. And this makes him all the more desperate to feel adored.
Thus, enter Natalie Harp.
Ossoff’s comment has clearly touched a White House nerve. And it couldn’t have happened at a worse time for Trump.
He’s an 80-year-old, easily distracted man who repeatedly falls asleep in public events—such as during White House meetings or a World Cup game. He launched a losing war on Iran, predicted it would be over in four to six weeks, and has seen it spiral into six months with no end in sight.
Meanwhile, Iran continues to control the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 million barrels of oil used to pass each day. That flow has been reduced to between two million and six million barrels each day.
Strait of Hormuz
This has created a worldwide spiral in oil prices—and fueled inflation in the United States and other nations. But as prices for housing, energy and food soar in the United States, Trump claims that “affordability” is a “Democratic hoax.”
Like Adolf Hitler contemplating architectural models while Nazi Germany neared destruction, Trump focuses on vanity projects like a 90,000 square foot White House ballroom and a towering “Victory Arch” overlooking Arlington Cemetery.
Trump is haunted by the fear of a third impeachment action against him if Democrats retake the House of Representatives in the fast-approaching midterm elections scheduled for November 3.
Speaking at a rally in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to support Senate candidate Darline Graham, sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, Trump warned: “If we lose the midterms, I am going to be impeached. They are going to impeach me. They have no idea why!”
His Republican accomplices in Congress fully understand this as well. Most of them now hold their positions to his support—or by not daring to cross him in any way.
And they fear that his current unpopularity—at 33% to 39%—will upend their own chances for re-election.
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In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on August 31, 2026 at 12:10 am
Letter #1: “I never want to bring you anything but joy. I’m sorry I lost my focus. You are all that matters to me. I don’t want to ever let you down. Thank you for being my Guardian and Protector in this Life.”
Letter #2: “I miss the days when you used to call, during my talkshow days, and we’d talk about everything and nothing. I want to get back to that synergy. We shouldn’t have to talk about work all the time! !
“And please, when I fail, will you tell me? You have the absolute right to cuss me out, if need be, when I deserve it, because no one knows or cares about me more.”
These weren’t the gushings of a starry-eyed high school girl toward a beloved object of affection.
They were the gushings of 35-year-old Natalie Harp, special assistant and executive assistant to the President of the United States since 2025. And the object of her affection is an 80-year-old married man with a notorious history of adultery.
Natalie Harp was born in 1991 and raised in California. She graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University in 2012, and from Liberty University in 2015 with an MBA.
By 2017, Harp began suffering from chronic pain and complications incurred by a medical error involving intravenous therapy for stage II bone cancer.
In 2019, Harp praised then-President Trump for signing a federal right-to-try law which allowed her to access experimental treatments which she credited with saving her life.
Trump invited Harp to speak at the 2020 Republican National Convention She compared Trump to the sympathetic character, George Bailey, of It’s a Wonderful Life.
Trump also asked her to serve as a member of the advisory board for his 2020 Presidential campaign. Harp worked for the Right-wing television channel One America News Network from 2020 to 2022.
She later became an aide to Trump for his 2024 Presidential campaign as a key figure in his communications efforts.
In January 2025, Trump appointed Harp to the position of special assistant to the President and executive assistant to the President, with a government salary of $150,000.
Natalie Harp
She worked intimately with Trump and other national security figures for more than one year minus a security clearance. One national security official warned that this position gave her access to more sensitive information than any other Trump associate.
One White House staff member said that she “plays into the less productive and more troublesome parts of his nature, putting things in front of him that aren’t vetted.”
Dan Scavino, a political advisor and former golf club manager who had handled Trump’s social media accounts, largely gave control of Trump’s Truth Social account to Harp.
She used it to post a racist video depicting former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as apes. She also posted an AI-generated image of Trump as Jesus.
Among her duties: Posting remarks Trump dictates to Truth Social, texting on his behalf, and sporting a portable printer to feed him documents, praise and upbeat news articles. This last task has earned her the nickname: “The human printer.”
No doubt to Trump’s humiliation, Harp has also been dubbed as his “diaper nurse.” Some former associates and critics have claimed or joked that he uses adult diapers due to age or health. But there is no evidence that Harp serves in any nursing, medical or caregiving role.
Still, the rumors persist.
Donald Trump
And Trump appears flattered by her devotion. He calls her “sweetie” and “my Natalie.” And he’s told other aides that “Harp is the only one who loves him as much as his wife and children,” the New York Times reports.
Only recently has her role as Trump’s groupie-turned-government employee become widely known. And the man responsible is Georgia United States Senator Jon Ossoff.
At a campaign rally in Atlanta on August 16, Ossoff, a Democrat, said of Trump: “While the sailors on the [USS Abraham] Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president sleeps through his meetings.
“He golfs and trades stocks. See, he doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.”
A clip of this remark was widely shared on social media.
Jon Ossoff
The week before the rally, Harp was among a small group of aides who joined Trump when he switched airplanes in Turkey to thwart a possible Iranian missile attack.
Those who were not allowed to board the decoy plane included:
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio;
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent;
- White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller;
- White House Communications Director Steven Cheung.
Ossoff’s comment immediately brought Harp—and Trump—a burst of thoroughly unwelcome publicity.
Maggie Haberman, a New York Times reporter and the author of Regime Change, a scathing profile of the Trump administration, called her Trump’s “binky…a comfort blanket.”
Natalie’s estranged brother, Preston, laughed on CNN when he learned that his sister had jumped into the trunk of a Trump motorcade SUV when there wasn’t room for her to sit during a trip to court in 2023.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Military, Politics, Social commentary on August 5, 2026 at 12:14 am
This September 11th will mark 25 years—a quarter of a century—-since Islamic terrorists slammed two jetliners into the World Trade Center and a third into the Pentagon.
They would have crashed a fourth jetliner into the White House or Capitol Building except for the heroic resistance of passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93.
Americans born since then can’t truly understand the horror this ignited in 281.4 million Americans. No one knew if this would be a single cataclysmic act—or if it was only the beginning?
Was the United States destined to become like Beirut, with bombs exploding and buildings collapsing in a seemingly endless spiral of destruction?
In the months directly after 9/11, Americans stopped going out at night. Home seemed to be the safest place to be—which is why food delivery services did a thriving business. So did stores offering VCR rentals.
World Trade Center on September 11, 2001
The September 11 attacks drastically transformed the United States by:
- Vastly expanding federal surveillance powers through the newly-passed Patriot Act;
- Thrusting the United States into a nine-year war in Iraq and a 19-year war in Afghanistan;
- Eliminating the longstanding U.S. ban on assassinating foreign leaders;
- Instituting new mandatory ID checks, full-body scans and restrictions on carry-on items at airports through the newly-created Transportation Safety Administration (TSA).
- Sparking a momentary wave of patriotism, which dimmed owing to prolonged wars and controversial domestic policies.
As on past commemorations of 9/11, on this 25th anniversary, those who died will be remembered by friends and relatives who knew and loved them.
It is in fact appropriate to remember the innocents who died on that day—and the heroism of the police and firefighters who died trying to save them.
But it’s equally important to remember those who made 9/11 not simply possible but inevitable.
And that does not mean only the 19 highjackers who turned those planes into fuel-bombs. It means the officials at the highest levels of the administration of President George W. Bush.
Officials who, to this day, have never been held accountable in any way for the resulting death and destruction.
Tribute to 9/11 World Trade Center Victims
And who have been allowed to blatantly lie that they “kept us safe” from terrorism.
Obviously, such an indictment is not going to be presented by TV commentators today—not even on such liberal networks as CNN and MSNBC. And most definitely not on the right-wing Fox network.
Fortunately, 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
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.
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.
![American Caesars: Lives of the Presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush Hamilton, Nigel [Used - Good] [Hardcover]](https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/shopping?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ3XD6eLs1xH-Ysmi1auGx3mKIdsQ74Bv4T8szI3xQLAxjLn2Y-xkQY8EIHF42Pfnxx8OQC0hAKc4l8nT2a3LiCKPSuZvHEVv7SdyE6ixW_5IOqYoKXhqf4&usqp=CAc)
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.
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In Entertainment, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on June 3, 2026 at 12:23 am
On May 11, 2026, for three hours, President Donald Trump posted over 50 messages on his website, Truth Social. The posts mainly consisted of:
- Reposting;
- Attacking political opponents;
- Calling for prosecution of enemies;
- Posting AI-generated images of himself; and
- References to foreign policy, including the war in Iran.
The posts occurred just before a scheduled trip to China and amid rising economic pressures in the United States. These, in turn, stem from Iran’s blocking the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% to 25% of the world’s oil passes, after Trump ordered a naval blockade of Iranian ports.
The Wall Street Journal reported that between 10:14 p.m. and 1:12 a.m., Trump posted 55 times, with other reports citing over 50-54 posts within that timeframe.
He posted a 400-word attack against The New York Times at 1:12 a.m. on May 12. His complaint: It had revealed that his renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool would cost more than $10 million over what he had previously said.
Donald Trump
He also falsely claimed the Times of losing subscribers. On the contrary: On May 6, the company reported:
“The Times has added an average of 330,000 total subscribers a quarter, including print, since the start of last year” and “now has 13.1 million subscribers…after adding about 310,000 digital-only subscribers in the first quarter of the year.”
Most of his venom was aimed at Barack Obama. Trump reposted messages from his supporters, who accused the former president of sedition, wiretapping Trump Tower and creating the “Russia Hoax” to steal the 2016 Presidential election.
It’s clear that Trump—a lifelong racist—harbors jealousy of the black, still-handsome, articulate, witty and beloved former president. When Trump was being assailed in 2016 for his “grab-em-by-the-pussy” comment, he complained that no one was accusing Obama of sexual infidelities.
Barack Obama
For good reason: Unlike Trump—who bedded a porn “star” while married to his third wife, Melania—there has never been a hint of scandal about Obama.
In one post, Trump—who incited a deadly attack on Congress on January 6, 2021, to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 Presidential election—accused Obama of plotting a coup against him.
As always with Trump, he offered no evidence to back up his slander.
He also lied that:
- Obama profited $120 million from Obamacare;
- Obama wiretapped Trump Tower;
- Dominion voting machines changed votes in 2024; and
- Neither Joe Biden nor Kamala Harris was running the previous administration.
Obama was not the only public figure Trump attacked. Others included:
- Former presidential opponent Hillary Clinton;
- Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, who has urged members of the military to disobey illegal orders;
- Former FBI director and Trump critic James Comey;
- Former independent counsel Jack Smith, who investigated Trump’s inciting the January 6 coup attempt
Trump is clearly still hung up on his 2020 re-election loss to Joe Biden, lying that Dominion voting machines “DELETED 2.7 MILLION TRUMP VOTES NATIONWIDE. INCLUDING OVER 1 MILLION PENNSYLVANIA VOTES SWITCHED FROM PRESIDENT TRUMP TO BIDEN.”
He can’t accept that a majority of voters would prefer anyone else to him—even though his loss largely stemmed from his refusal to tackle the mushrooming COVID-19 crisis.
Trump’s tweeting rampage echoes the theme of a 1962 episode of The Twilight Zone: “One More Pallbearer.” The central character in it is millionaire Paul Radin (played by Joseph Weisman) who nurses decades-old grudges against three people.
With a few slight alterations, he could be Trump himself.
Radin invites three people to the bomb shelter that he has built in New York City. But they aren’t family or friends. He holds deep grudges against all of them.
One is high-school teacher Mrs. Langsford, who gave him a failing grade when he was caught cheating on a test. The second is Colonel Hawthorne, who had him court-martialed when Radin endangered lives by disobeying orders. The third is Reverend Hughes, who made a public scandal out of a young woman who later committed suicide over Radin.
Radin has equipped his shelter with sound effects and fake radio messages to convince the trio that nuclear war will occur in just moments. He offers them refuge in the shelter if they beg his forgiveness for their treatment of him. They refuse his offer, making it clear they would rather die with loved ones than survive with him.
A TV screen playing footage of a nuclear explosion—and the accompanying sound effects—convince Radin that his fantasy is in fact real.
When he emerges from the shelter, the city is intact. But the sheer intensity of the illusion he created has led Radin to lose his mind. He sobs helplessly at the foot of a fountain outside his intact building—a victim of his own overweening pride and hatred.
And, as happens at the close of every Twilight Zone episode, Rod Serling, the series’ host and narrator, is on hand to offer his moving commentary:
“Mr. Paul Radin, a dealer in fantasy, who sits in the rubble of his own making and imagines that he’s the last man on Earth, doomed to a perdition of unutterable loneliness because a practical joke has turned into a nightmare. Mr. Paul Radin, pallbearer at a funeral that he manufactured himself in the Twilight Zone.”
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In Bureaucracy, Business, Entertainment, History, Politics, Social commentary on May 27, 2026 at 12:10 am
On July 14, 2025, after returning from a multi-week break, Stephen Colbert, host of CBS’ Late Night With Stephen Colbert, said: “While I was on vacation, my parent corporation, Paramount, paid Donald Trump a $16 million settlement over his ‘60 Minutes’ lawsuit.
“I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles—it’s big fat bribe.”
Meanwhile, Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS Network, wanted to merge with Skydance Media.
For this, it needed the regulatory permission of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the Trump administration.
On July 17, CBS cancelled the highest-rated late-night show on television with 2.4 million nightly viewers. It had also been nominated for 33 Emmys.
Addressing his in-house and television audience on July 17, Colbert announced: “I want to let you know something that I found out just last night. Next year will be our last season. The network will be ending The Late Show in May.
“It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of The Late Show on CBS. I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away.”
In a statement, Paramount/CBS called the cancellation a purely financial decision: “It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
Colbert did not directly accuse his bosses of bowing to pressure from the FCC. But he did offer this insightful comment: “Less than two years before they called to say it’s over, they were very eager for me to be signed for a long time. So, something changed.”
What “changed” was that after CBS cancelled one of Trump’s biggest critics, the merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media was quickly approved by the FCC.
David Letterman had hosted The Late Show with David Letterman from August 30, 1993, until his retirement on May 20, 2015. In a May 5, 2025 interview with the New York Times, he didn’t mince words about what he felt was behind the cancellation:
Colbert “was dumped because the people selling the network to Skydance said, ‘Oh no, there’s not going to be any trouble with that guy. We’re going to take care of the show. We’re just going to throw that into the deal. When will the ink on the check dry?'”
CBS is one of the most profitable broadcast networks in the United States, through massive advertising revenue, affiliate fees, and sports broadcast rights.
Yet the owners of its parent company, Paramount Global—whose revenue stood at $29.2 billion in 2024—felt they could enrich themselves even more by acquiring Skydance Media.
And if siding with a dictatorial administration to strike a blow at freedom of speech was necessary to make the deal go forward, so be it.
The Ed Sullivan Theater, where Stephen Colbert reigned for 11 years
Ajay Suresh from New York, NY, USA, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Disney didn’t reinstate Jimmy Kimmel Live! out of a steadfast commitment to the First Amendment. It did so only after a massive public backlash led to a widespread boycott of subscriptions to Disney+ and Hulu—and a steep drop in Disney’s stock value.
Stephen Colbert had no such reprieve. But he never—at least not in public—lost his poise. He often joked about the upcoming end of his show, endured jokes from his guests about it—and never stopped speaking truth to power at the expense of the Trump administration.
“The only choice you have is how to walk through it,” said his friend and mentor, Jon Stewart, as he and Colbert gazed into a fictitious green wormhole. “You can go in kicking and screaming. Or you can do what you’ve done for the past 30 years when faced with something dark: You stare it down and you can laugh.”
On his last night as host of The Late Show Colbert did exactly that, turning what could have been a mournful event into a celebration of joy and defiance.
Stephen Colbert Signs off “Late Show” with Emotional Goodbye https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znec-DIff8o
There had been speculation that Colbert, a devout Catholic, might book Pope Leo XIV for his final show. So Colbert turned it into a gag. He pretended that he was about to bring out the pope for an interview—only to be told the Pontiff was refusing to come out of his dressing room.
“We got him the wrong snacks,” an unidentified voice informed him.
“Who’s going to be my last guest now?” asked Colbert—to be answered by Paul McCartney: “Hey, Stephen, what about me?”
Massive applause resounded as the former Beatle walked onstage.
Stephen Colbert and Paul McCartney
McCartney not only served as Colbert’s last interview guest but as his musical one as well. And McCartney led the band—and the audience—in a rousing number of “Hello, Goodbye,” the Beatles’ 1967 hit:
You say goodbye and I say hello
Hello hello
I don’t know why you say goodbye, I say hello
Hello hello
I don’t know why you say goodbye, I say hello
Members of the audience—probably including relatives of the show’s cast—swarmed onto the stage to join McCartney, Colbert and the band in what was an act of celebration and defiance: “When faced with something dark, you stare it down and you can laugh.”
Thus Stephen Colbert went gentle—and triumphant—into that good night.
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In Bureaucracy, Business, Entertainment, History, Politics, Social commentary on May 26, 2026 at 12:05 am
…A truly great man is ever the same under all circumstances. And if his fortune varies, exalting him at one moment and oppressing him at another, he himself never varies, but always preserves a firm courage, which is so closely interwoven with his character that everyone can readily see that the fickleness of fortune has no power over him. —Niccolo Machiavelli, The Discourses
Watching the last episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert was like watching a slow-motion execution—where the victim turns his demise into a rousing revival meeting.
That episode, shown on Thursday, May 21, capped a hugely successful run of 10 years and eight months (September 8, 2015 to May 21, 2026). Broadcast on CBS against ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! and NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Late Night ranked as the highest-rated American late-night talk show.
And it held that ranking for nine consecutive seasons, marking the longest such streak in franchise history.
Stephen Colbert
But for all the adoring fans Colbert attracted during those years, he acquired one enemy who never forgot or forgave the slightest insult. And from 2015 onward, Colbert showered him with humorous, deadly accurate insults calculated to get under his paper-thin skin and stay there.
That enemy was Donald J. Trump.
Colbert started throwing thousands of barbs at Trump immediately after the real estate mogul launched his first campaign for President on June 16, 2015. These focused on Trump’s appearance, intelligence, family, policy shifts, criminality, legal troubles and commercial ventures.
Among the barbs:
- “It’s true, this [Iran] war reached all of its objectives. It’s been weeks since anyone mentioned the Epstein files.”
- After Trump threatened to destroy Iran but then agreed to a brief pause, Colbert paraphrased John Lennon’s famous peace anthem, singing: “All we are saying, is peace for two weeks.”
- “For my MAGA viewers. The Trump golden cell phone has FINALLY arrived after a nine month delay. And it SUCKS. The only Trump item more disappointing after a nine-month wait was Eric!”
- Colbert often joked about Trump’s short attention span, comparing his mind to “nature’s most cunning opponent, the goldfish.”
- Following Trump’s 34 felony convictions on May 30, 2024, for falsifying business records, Colbert joked that Trump had “more felonies than Baskin-Robbins has flavors.”
Donald Trump
Colbert had a biting wit that never flinched at speaking truth to—and about—power. But Trump had a weapon that Colbert couldn’t match: Command of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
And in its chair, Brendan Carr, he had a crony willing to destroy any network that dared to offend his thin-skinned boss, Donald Trump.
Knowing Trump’s animosity toward nonwhites, Carr has brutally attacked any network-related company promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). He ordered investigations into Comcast and the Walt Disney Company and threatened to revoke ABC’s broadcast license over the practices.
On September 10, 2025, Right-wing propagandist Charlie Kirk was shot at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
In September 2025, Carr pressured Disney, which owns ABC, to suspend comedian Jimmy Kimmel over comments he had made about the assassination. On September 17, Disney caved and suspended Kimmel.
Brendan Carr
Kimmel had actually called the murder “senseless.” What enraged Right-wing Americans was Kimmel’s noting that “the MAGA gang is desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
This was actually true—and all the more embarrassing to Republicans because of it. The Trump administration and its MAGA cult have tried to portray Tyler Robinson, the man accused of shooting Kirk, as a radical liberal.
He is not.
Debbie Robinson, his grandmother, said most of the family are Republicans—and that Tyler’s father, Matt, is a staunch supporter of Donald Trump.
Disney/ABC reinstated The Jimmy Kimmel Show on September 23 after a massive public backlash, a steep drop in Disney’s stock value, and a widespread Hollywood boycott.
Unable to remove Kimmel, Carr moved on against Colbert in a more subtle manner.
He knew that Paramount Global wanted to merge with Skydance Media. And Paramount is the parent company of CBS Network, which hosted The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
Jimmy Kimmel
Paramount had recently paid Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit he had brought against the CBS news show, 60 Minutes. He claimed that it had misleadingly edited a pre-election interview with then Vice President Kamala Harris to boost her election chances in 2024. CBS’ attorneys and a number of legal experts had said that the lawsuit was “completely without merit.”
On July 14, 2025, after returning from a multi-week break, Colbert said: “While I was on vacation, my parent corporation, Paramount, paid Donald Trump a $16 million settlement over his ‘60 Minutes’ lawsuit.
“As someone who has always been a proud employee of this network, I am offended. And I don’t know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company, but just taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help.
“I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles—it’s big fat bribe.”
Colbert didn’t know it, but the axe was about to fall.
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In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on May 21, 2026 at 12:48 am
May 21 marks the last broadcast of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert—yet another casualty of President Donald Trump’s war on those who criticize him.
According to the 2016 book, One Day We Will Live Without Fear: Everyday Lives Under the Soviet Police State, by Mark Harrison, the secret police (known as the Cheka, the NKVD, the MGB, the KGB, and now the FSB) operates on seven working principles:
- Stop the laughing
- Your enemy is hiding.
- Start from the usual suspects.
- Study the young
- Rebellion spreads like wildfire.
- Stamp out every spark.
- Order is created by appearance.
It’s no accident that the first commandment of dictatorships is “Stop the laughing.” If you’re laughing at a dictator, you’re not afraid of him. And dictators thrive on fear. No less than Trump has said: “Real power is—I don’t even want to use the word—fear.”
Trump routinely hands out insults and threats as though they are birthday gifts. But he’s notoriously thin-skinned about the least sign of criticism—let alone ridicule.
For example: At Christmastime, 2018, “Saturday Night Live” aired a parody of the classic movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Its title: “It’s a Wonderful Trump.”
In it, Trump (portrayed by actor Alec Baldwin) discovers what the United States would be like if he had never become President: A great deal better-off.
As usual, Trump expressed his resentment through Twitter: The Justice Department should stop investigating his administration (for his collusion with Russia during the 2016 Presidential election) and go after the real enemy: “SNL.”
And since being re-elected President in 2024, he has ordered Brendan Carr, his chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), to declare war on “woke” (i.e., liberal-leaning) corporations.
Knowing Trump’s animosity toward nonwhites, Carr has brutally attacked any network-related company promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). He ordered investigations into Comcast and the Walt Disney Company and threatened to revoke ABC’s broadcast license over the practices.
Brendan Carr
In September 2025, Carr pressured Disney, which owns ABC, to suspend comedian Jimmy Kimmel over comments he had made about the assassination of Rightwing propagandist Charlie Kirk.
Kimmel had actually called the murder “senseless” and noted how “the MAGA gang [was] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
Disney/ABC reinstated The Jimmy Kimmel Show after a massive public backlash, a steep drop in Disney’s stock value, and a widespread Hollywood boycott.
Unable to remove Kimmel, Carr moved on against another anti-Trump humorist.
Paramount Global was worth $9.25 billion. Nevertheless, it wanted to merge with Skydance Media, whose worth was valued at $4.75 billion.
Paramount is the parent company of CBS Network, which hosted The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
Colbert, who had hosted the show since 2015, had been a fierce Donald Trump critic since the former real estate developer announced his first run for President.
Stephen Colbert
Paramount had recently paid Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit he had brought against the CBS news show, 60 Minutes. He claimed that it had misleadingly edited a pre-election interview with then Vice President Kamala Harris to boost her election chances in 2024.
CBS’ attorneys and a number of legal experts had said that the lawsuit was “completely without merit.”
On July 14, 2025, after returning from a multi-week break, Colbert said: “While I was on vacation, my parent corporation, Paramount, paid Donald Trump a $16 million settlement over his ‘60 Minutes’ lawsuit.
“As someone who has always been a proud employee of this network, I am offended. And I don’t know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company, but just taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help.
“I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles—it’s big fat bribe.”
Meanwhile, Paramount was in the midst of an $8 billion sale to the Hollywood studio Skydance Media. For this, it needed the regulatory permission of the FCC of the Trump administration.
So it’s easy to draw a straight line from the FCC to Paramount to CBS to The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to see how easy it was for Paramount/CBS to cancel—on July 17—the highest-rated late-night show on television with 2.4 million nightly viewers. It has also been nominated for 33 Emmys.
In a statement, Paramount/CBS called the cancellation a purely financial decision: “It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
Which of course it was, since the merger was quickly approved by the FCC.
Addressing his in-house and television audience on July 17, Colbert announced: “I want to let you know something that I found out just last night. Next year will be our last season. The network will be ending The Late Show in May.
“It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of ‘The Late Show’ on CBS. I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away.”
A frequent theme of the classic CBS show, The Twilight Zone, was: Deal with the Devil—and you’ll get burned.
Paramount may learn the truth of this in its future dealings with the Trump administration.
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NAZI PAST IS AMERICA’S PRESENT: PART TWO (OF FIVE)
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 29, 2026 at 12:13 amIf Nuremberg-style justice comes to the United States, those citizens who have lustily supported Donald Trump’s legacy of hatred, tyranny and corruption will be forced to answer for the horrors their support enabled Trump to commit.
Among these:
Donald Trump
Reading Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe, by Katja Hoyer, catapults the reader into the doomed Weimar Republic, which lasted from November 9, 1919, to March 23,1933.
Its parallels—whether intentional or unintentional, between that era and the one the United States is now living through—are uncanny and frightening.
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:
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.
Another motivating factor: Right-wing antisemitism, shared by millions of Germans. The fact that the Republic held many Jews within its topmost ranks only increased the hatred aimed at it.
Germans refused to admit they had lost World War 1 on the battlefield. They demanded scapegoats—Jews, Communists, traitors—who had “stabbed us in the back.”
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.
Eighty-four years after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, Donald Trump became President of the United States.
The parallels between these two administrations have since become alarmingly clear.
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