Posts Tagged ‘POLAND’
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ADAM SCHIFF, ADOLF HITLER, AFGHANISTAN, ALBERT SPEER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANTIFA, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHRIS CILLIZZA, CHRIS KREBS, CHRISTOPHER WRAY, CIA, CNN, CORONAVIRUS, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, CYBERSECURITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY AGENCY, DAILY KOS, DAILY KOZ, DENMARK, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, DISOBEYING HITLER: GERMAN RESISTANCE AFTER VALKYRIE (BOOK), DONALD TRUMP, DONALDL TRUMP JR., DRUDGE REPORT, FACEBOOK, FASCISM, FBI, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FRANCE, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HERMANN GORING, HILLARY CLINTON, HUFFINGTON POST, IMPEACHMENT, IRAQ, JAKE TAPPER, JAMES B. COMEY, JARED KUSHNER, JOE BIDEN, MAIL-IN BALLOTS, MARK ESPER, MEDIA MATTERS, MIKE PENCE, MITCH MCCONNELL, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NORWAY, NPR, PAUL MANAFORT, PBS NEWSHOUR, PLANNED PARENTHOOD, POLAND, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RANDALL HANSEN, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RUSSIA, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, SS, STALINGRAD, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE PENTAGON, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUMP TOWER MEETING, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOTER FRAUD, WEHRMACHT, WERNER VON BLOMBERG, WERNER VON FRITCH, WONKETTE, WORLD WAR 11
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on November 25, 2020 at 12:32 am
President Donald Trump may be getting ready to fire his handpicked CIA director.
He believes that Gina Haspel has stonewalled the release of documents supposedly exposing “deep state” plots against his 2016 campaign during the Obama administration.
[In fact, the Obama administration acted entirely within the law during the 2016 Presidential campaign. The FBI has a legal mandate to keep track of subversive activities—especially when they involve members of a Presidential candidate’s campaign.
[On July 9, 2016, high-ranking representatives of the Trump campaign met at Trump Tower with at least two lobbyists with ties to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

Gina Haspel
[The participants included:
- Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr.;
- His son-in-law, Jared Kushner;
- His then-campaign manager, Paul Manafort;
- Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer with ties to Putin; and
- Rinat Akhmetshin, a former Soviet counterintelligence officer suspected of “having ongoing ties to Russian Intelligence.”
[The reason for the meeting: To dig up “dirt” the Russians might have on Hillary Clinton, Trump’s opponent for the White House.]
Trump is also angry at FBI Director Christopher Wray—who replaced James B. Comey in May, 2017. Trump had fired Comey for daring to investigate ties between his 2016 campaign and Russian Intelligence agents.

Christopher Wray
The reason for his anger at Wray: Wray has dared to contradict Trump’s false claims that
- “Rampant voter fraud” was a widespread problem; and
- Antifa poses a greater terrorism danger than white supremacist groups.
During the 2016 Presidential race, Russian propaganda played a major role in convincing millions of Americans to vote for Donald Trump. Social media platforms—especially Facebook and Twitter—were flooded with genuinely fake news to sow discord among Americans and create a pathway for Trump’s election.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer, had quickly assessed Trump as an egotistical narcissist. By appealing to Trump’s vanity, Putin expected to sharply reduce the military and political threat the United States represented to a resurgent Russia.
So notorious was the role played by Russian hackers in misleading American voters in 2016 that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was determined to prevent a repetition in 2020.
The man ultimately tasked with this mission was Chris Krebs, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency run by DHS.

Chris Krebs
Krebs launched a massive effort to counter lies spread by Russians—and Americans—on social media platforms. Among his duties:
- Sharing Intelligence from agencies such as the CIA and National Security Agency with local officials about foreign efforts at election interference.
- Ensuring that domestic voting equipment was secure.
- Attacking domestic information head-on.
As a result, Krebs was widely praised for revamping the department’s cybersecurity efforts and increasing coordination with state and local governments.
By all accounts—except Trump’s—the 2020 election went very smoothly.
On November 17, Trump fired Chris Krebs.
The reason: Krebs had not only countered Russian propaganda lies—he had dared to counter Trump’s as well. For example: He rejected Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud: There “is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”
Trump fired Krebs by tweet—and accompanied the outrage with yet another lie:
“The recent statement by Chris Krebs on the security of the 2020 election was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud, including dead people voting, poll watchers not allowed into polling locations, glitches in the voting machines which changed votes from Trump to Biden, late voting, and many more. Therefore, effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.”
In a November 17 story on the CNN website, CNN reporters Kaitlan Collins and Paul LeBlanc bluntly concluded:
“[Krebs’] dismissal underscores the lengths Trump is willing to go to punish those who don’t adopt his conspiratorial view of the election.
“Since CNN and other outlets called the race for President-elect Joe Biden, Trump has refused to accept the results, instead pushing baseless conspiracies that his second term is being stolen.
“This includes falsely claiming during an election night address that he had already won reelection, that he had won states that were actually still up in the air at the time and that his opponents were perpetrating a fraud.”
Seventy-five years earlier, on March 19, 1945, facing certain defeat, Adolf Hitler ordered a massive “scorched-earth” campaign throughout Germany.
All German agriculture, industry, ships, communications, roads, food stuffs, mines, bridges, stores and utility plants were to be destroyed.
If implemented, it would deprive the entire German population of even the barest necessities after the war.
Opposing him—at first openly, and later secretly—was Albert Speer, his former architect and now Minister of Armaments.
Speer argued that there must be a future for the German people: “If our enemies wish to destroy us, why help them? We must leave the people something.”
But Hitler refused to back down: “I don’t want to hear any more.”
He gave Speer 24 hours to reconsider his opposition to the order.
Speer could not directly promise to carry out Hitler’s “scorched earth” order. So he gave Hitler a vague answer that essentially committed him to nothing: “My Fuhrer, I stand unconditionally behind you!”
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ADAM SCHIFF, ADOLF HITLER, AFGHANISTAN, ALBERT SPEER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANTIFA, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHRIS CILLIZZA, CHRIS KREBS, CHRISTOPHER WRAY, CIA, CNN, CORONAVIRUS, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, CYBERSECURITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY AGENCY, DAILY KOS, DAILY KOZ, DENMARK, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, DISOBEYING HITLER: GERMAN RESISTANCE AFTER VALKYRIE (BOOK), DONALD TRUMP, DONALDL TRUMP JR., DRUDGE REPORT, FACEBOOK, FASCISM, FBI, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FRANCE, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HERMANN GORING, HILLARY CLINTON, HUFFINGTON POST, IMPEACHMENT, IRAQ, JAKE TAPPER, JAMES B. COMEY, JARED KUSHNER, JOE BIDEN, MAIL-IN BALLOTS, MARK ESPER, MEDIA MATTERS, MIKE PENCE, MITCH MCCONNELL, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NORWAY, NPR, PAUL MANAFORT, PBS NEWSHOUR, PLANNED PARENTHOOD, POLAND, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RANDALL HANSEN, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RUSSIA, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, SS, STALINGRAD, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE PENTAGON, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUMP TOWER MEETING, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOTER FRAUD, WEHRMACHT, WERNER VON BLOMBERG, WERNER VON FRITCH, WONKETTE, WORLD WAR 11
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on November 24, 2020 at 12:09 am
On November 3, Joe Biden became President-elect of the United States by winning 79,658,000 votes, or 51% of the vote, compared to 73,886,400 votes, or 47.2% 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.

Joe Biden
Despite this, Trump has steadfastly refused to concede. He has made a series of baseless claims that he was cheated of victory by vote fraud. By illegal aliens being allowed to vote. By a sinister computer program that turned Trump votes into Biden ones.
He has repeatedly filed legal challenges to the vote, claiming himself the victim of massive fraud. This despite the utter lack of evidence of it.
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, his attorneys dropped their federal suit to block the certification of Detroit-area ballots.
By November 21, Trump had lost in 30 cases dismissed by judges or withdrawn by his own attorneys.
Meanwhile, top Republicans—such as Vice President Mike Pence and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell—have refused to congratulate Biden as the winner.

Mitch McConnell
In a November 17 analysis, entitled ” “Donald Trump Doesn’t Seem to Want to Do His Job Anymore,” CNN Editor-at-Large Chris Cillizza wrote:
While Trump has relentlessly asserted that he won the 2020 election, “he’s done next to nothing—at least publicly—to suggest he plans to continue doing the job in any serious manner through January 20.”
According to Cillizza, since losing the election, Trump has filled his days with:
- Golfing
- Tweeting
- Making controversial military decisions
- Firing people
Specifically:
Golfing: He played golf at his club in Virginia twice on the weekend of November 14-15. He was golfing the previous weekend, when Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 race by CNN and other media outlets.
Tweeting: He has tweeted numerous lies and conspiracy theories, claiming he won a second term but was cheated by the counting of fraudulent votes. This has let Twitter to flag a large number of his tweets as “inaccurate.”
Making controversial military decisions: The Pentagon signaled it was planning—on Trump’s orders—to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. [American forces have been warring with the Taliban in Afghanistan since 2001; they have been warring against Iraqi insurgents since 2003.]
And in a move that is truly frightening: The New York Times reported that Trump asked his top advisers for options to strike at Iran’s nuclear capabilities before he left office. This would embroil the United States in a war that could easily turn nuclear.
Firing people: On November 9, Trump fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. Four senior civilian officials have since been fired or resigned—Esper’s chief of staff and the top officials overseeing policy and intelligence. They were replaced with flunkies loyal to Trump personally.
[This was in fact how Adolf Hitler took control of the Wehrmacht.

Adolf Hitler
[Since taking command of Germany in the summer of 1934, Hitler wanted to replace two high-ranking military officials: General Werner von Fritsch and Colonel General Werner von Blomberg. Both were convinced that Hitler’s increasingly aggressive foreign policy was putting Germany on a collision course with war—a war the Fatherland could not win.
[Hitler, in fact, meant to go to war—and despised Fritsch’s and Blomberg’s hesitation to do so. He decided to rid himself of both men.
[On January 12, 1938, Blomberg married Erna Gruhn, with Hitler and Reichsmarshall Hermann Goring attending as witnesses. Soon afterward, Berlin police discovered that Gruhn had a criminal record as a prostitute and had posed for pornographic photographs.
[Marrying a woman with such a background violated the standard of conduct expected of German officers. Hitler saw the scandal as an opportunity to dispose of Blomberg—who was forced to resign.
[Shortly after Blomberg was forced out in disgrace, the SS—Hitler’s private police force—presented Hitler with a file that falsely accused Werner von Fritsch of homosexuality. Fritsch angrily denied the accusation but resigned on February 4, 1938.
[From that point on, Hitler was in de facto command of the German Armed Services.]
Eighty-two years later, on November 3, 2020, President Donald Trump lost the 2020 Presidential election to former Vice President Joe Biden.
But that hasn’t stopped him from behaving as if he—not Biden—will take the oath of President on January 20, 2021.
Besides wreaking havoc on the Pentagon, Trump is reportedly going to fire CIA Director Gina Haspel and FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Trump has accused Haspel of stonewalling the release of documents that would supposedly expose “deep state” plots against Trump’s campaign and transition during the Obama administration.
[In fact, the Obama administration acted entirely within the law during the 2016 Presidential campaign. The FBI has a legal mandate to keep track of subversive activities—especially when they involve members of a Presidential candidate’s campaign.]
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ADAM SCHIFF, ADOLF HITLER, AFGHANISTAN, ALBERT SPEER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANTIFA, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHRIS CILLIZZA, CHRIS KREBS, CHRISTOPHER WRAY, CIA, CNN, CORONAVIRUS, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, CYBERSECURITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY AGENCY, DAILY KOS, DAILY KOZ, DENMARK, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, DISOBEYING HITLER: GERMAN RESISTANCE AFTER VALKYRIE (BOOK), DONALD TRUMP, DONALDL TRUMP JR., DRUDGE REPORT, FACEBOOK, FASCISM, FBI, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FRANCE, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HERMANN GORING, HILLARY CLINTON, HUFFINGTON POST, IMPEACHMENT, IRAQ, JAKE TAPPER, JAMES B. COMEY, JARED KUSHNER, JOE BIDEN, MAIL-IN BALLOTS, MARK ESPER, MEDIA MATTERS, MIKE PENCE, MITCH MCCONNELL, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NORWAY, NPR, PAUL MANAFORT, PBS NEWSHOUR, PLANNED PARENTHOOD, POLAND, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RANDALL HANSEN, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RUSSIA, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, SS, STALINGRAD, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE PENTAGON, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUMP TOWER MEETING, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOTER FRAUD, WEHRMACHT, WERNER VON BLOMBERG, WERNER VON FRITCH, WONKETTE, WORLD WAR 11
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on November 23, 2020 at 12:34 am
Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments for the Third Reich, was appalled.
His Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler—the man he had idolized for 14 years—had just passed a death sentence on Germany, the nation he claimed to love above all others.
On September 1, 1939, Hitler had triggered World War II with the invasion of Poland. This led to a series of quick, spectacular victories—over Poland, Norway, Denmark and France.
Then, on June 22, 1941, Hitler turned on his ally, the Soviet Union, with which he had signed a non-aggression pact in August, 1939.
It had taken the Wehrmacht six weeks to conquer France. Hitler believed that was how long it would take to defeat the Soviet Union.

German soldiers invading the Soviet Union
Again, a series of spectacular battlefield victories followed—before the Wehrmacht was halted at the gates of Moscow. A year later, still enmeshed in Russia, the turning point came at Stalingrad, with the loss of the elite Sixth Army and 800,000 soldiers.
Starting in 1943, the Red Army slowly but steadily regained ground it had lost—the western half of Russia—and began pushing back the Germans. By March, 1945, it was fighting inside Germany—and heading straight for its capital: Berlin.
On March 19, 1945, facing certain defeat, Hitler ordered a massive “scorched-earth” campaign throughout Germany.
All German agriculture, industry, ships, communications, roads, food stuffs, mines, bridges, stores and utility plants were to be destroyed.
If implemented, it would deprive the entire German population of even the barest necessities after the war. And he entrusted the campaign to Albert Speer, his favorite architect-turned-Minister-of-Armaments.
Click here: Hitler’s “Scorched Earth” Decree and Albert Speer’s Response
Now living in a bunker 50 feet below bomb-shattered Berlin, Hitler gave full vent to his most destructive impulses.

Adolf Hitler addressing boy soldiers as the Third Reich crumbles
“If the war is lost,” Hitler told Speer, “the nation will also perish. This fate is inevitable. There is no necessity to take into consideration the basis which the people will need to continue even a most primitive existence.
“On the contrary, it will be better to destroy these things ourselves, because this nation will have proved to be the weaker one and the future will belong solely to the stronger eastern nation.
“Besides, those who will remain after the battle are only the inferior ones, for the good ones have all been killed.”
Seventy-five years after Adolf Hitler planned the destruction of Germany, Donald Trump now plans the same fate for the United States.
On November 3, Trump lost his bid to win another four years as President of the United States. In the early hours of November 4, he poured out his fury and self-pity in a televised address from the White House:
“Millions and millions of people voted for us tonight, and a very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people and we won’t stand for it, we will not stand for it.”

Donald Trump
For a man who had tried—often successfully—to deprive millions of their right to vote, Trump made it clear that he didn’t know what disenfranchisement means.
Sounding like a petulant child whose party has been called off, Trump continued:
“We were getting ready for a big celebration, we were winning everything and all of a sudden it was just called off. The results tonight have been phenomenal…I mean literally we were just all set to get outside and just celebrate something that was so beautiful, so good, such a vote, such a success.”
It was Trump-–not his challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden—who was demanding that the electoral process be halted. And that those votes that had not yet been counted be, in effect, flushed down the toilet.
“The citizens of this country have come out in record numbers, this a record, there’s never been anything like it to support our incredible movement….Most importantly, we’re winning Pennsylvania by a tremendous amount of votes. We’re up 690,000 votes.”
Owing to the Coronavirus pandemic—which Trump had refused to aggressively address from its outset in January—millions of Americans had voted by mail. The idea of standing in Coronavirus-infected lines had not appealed to them. And they believed they could perform their civic duty in a far less dangerous way via the Postal Service.
“These aren’t even close, this is not like, Oh, it’s close. With 64% of the vote in, it’s going to be almost impossible and we’re coming into good Pennsylvania areas where they happen to like your president. We’re winning Michigan…I said ‘Wow, that’s a lot’…
“And we’re winning Wisconsin…so when you take those three states in particular and you take all of the others…and all of a sudden it’s not like we’re up 12 votes and we have 60% left, we won states and all of a sudden, I said, ‘What happened to the election? It’s off.’ And we have all these announcers saying, ‘What’s happened’ and then they said, ‘Ohhh.’”
But this did not alter the reality that Joe Biden became President-elect of the United States by winning 79,106,010 votes, or 51% of the vote.
9/11 ATTACKS, ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALABAMA, ALABAMA SUPREME COURT, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHARLES SCHUMER, CNN, CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DONALD TRUMP, DOUG JONES, DRUDGE REPORT, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, IVANKA TRUMP, JOSEPH STALIN, LEON TROTSKY, LUTHER STRANGE, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NANCY PELOSI, NAZI GERMANY, NAZI-SOVIET "NON-AGGRESSION PACT", NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLAND, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, RED ARMY, REUTERS, ROBOCALLS, ROY MOORE, RUSSIAN REVOLUTION, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SEXUAL PREDATION, SLATE, SOVIET PURGES, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WONKETTE, WORLD WAR 11
In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 7, 2020 at 11:22 am
During the 1917 Russian Revolution, Leon Trotsky acted as a key lieutenant to Vladimir Lenin. Trotsky organized the Red Army and successfully resisted all attempts to overthrow the fledgling Communist government.
One of Trotsky’s bitterest enemies was Joseph Stalin, another intimate of Lenin’s. When Lenin died in 1924, Stalin outmaneuvered Trotsky for leadership of the Soviet Union.
Long before he ordered Trotsky’s assassination in 1940, Stalin turned his former rival into an official non-person. Trotsky was:
- Airbrushed from photos showing him sitting or standing close to Lenin.
- Written out of Soviet history textbooks.
- Depicted, in print and documentary films, as seeking to overturn the Revolution—and assassinate Stalin.
Stalin made certain his image in Soviet history was entirely different.
- In the 1930s, he was portrayed as the modest, all-wise, energetic builder of a new Communist world.
- After 1945, he was depicted as the architect of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany during World War II.
No “historian” dared mention that:
- For almost 30 years, through purges and starvation caused by enforced collections of farmers’ crops, he had slaughtered 20 to 60 million people.
- His wholesale purges of the Red Army in the 1930s had made the country vulnerable to the German attack in 1941.
- His 1939 “nonaggression” pact with Germany had almost destroyed Russia. In this he and Adolf Hitler secretly divided Poland between them. The subsequent German invasion of Poland, on September 1, 1939, directly triggered World War II.

Joseph Stalin
After Stalin died on March 5, 1953, his status in Soviet history suddenly changed.
- Thousands of his portraits—displayed on streets and in buildings throughout the Soviet Union—suddenly came down.
- In 1956, his successor, Nikita Khrushchev, secretly denounced him as a psychotic butcher and bungler who had almost wrecked the country.
So those Americans with a sense of history were undoubtedly stunned at President Donald J. Trump’s reaction to the defeat of Alabama Republican Senatorial candidate Roy Moore on December 12, 2017.

Donald Trump
Unfortunately for Trump, Moore carried heavy political baggage:
- He had twice been removed as a Justice from the Alabama Supreme Court.
- He had blamed 9/11 not on Islamic terrorists but on “America’s turning away from God.”
- He had said the United States should eliminate all but the first 10 Constitutional amendments. This would remove those amendments forbidding slavery and guaranteeing civil rights for blacks and women.
Worst of all, Moore was haunted by allegations that, as a prosecutor during his 30s, he had made sexual advances toward at least eight teenage girls.
Many Republicans openly urged Moore to withdraw. They saw him as a nightmarish embarrassment to their party should he win the election.

Roy Moore
Even the President’s favorite daughter, Ivanka Trump, said: “There is a special place in hell for people who prey on children.”
But that didn’t stop Trump supporting Moore full-tilt against his Democratic opponent, former United States Attorney Doug Jones. Jones had convicted Ku Klux Klan members for bombing a black church in 1963.
On December 4, 2017, Trump tweeted:
“Democrats refusal to give even one vote for massive Tax Cuts is why we need Republican Roy Moore to win in Alabama. We need his vote on stopping crime, illegal immigration, Border Wall, Military, Pro Life, V.A., Judges 2nd Amendment and more. No to Jones, a Pelosi/Schumer Puppet!”
During a December 8 campaign rally in Pensacola, Florida, near the state line with Alabama, Trump said:
- “Get out and vote for Roy Moore. Do it. Do it. We cannot afford, the future of this country cannot afford to lose the seat.”
- “We need somebody in that Senate seat who will vote for our Make America Great Again agenda, which involves tough on crime, strong on borders, strong on immigration.”
On December 8, Trump tweeted:
“LAST thing the Make America Great Again Agenda needs is a Liberal Democrat in Senate where we have so little margin for victory already. The Pelosi/Schumer Puppet Jones would vote against us 100% of the time. He’s bad on Crime, Life, Border, Vets, Guns & Military. VOTE ROY MOORE!”
As the December 12 election drew close, Trump made a robocall on Moore’s behalf:
“Hi, this is President Donald Trump and I need Alabama to go vote for Roy Moore. It is so important. We’re already making America great again.”
Then—for Trump—the unthinkable happened: Moore lost. Jones received 49.9% of the vote; Moore got 48.4%.
Suddenly, Trump was rewriting history.
During the Republican Senatorial primary in August, Trump had backed Moore’s opponent, Luther Strange. Now he tweeted:
“The reason I originally endorsed Luther Strange (and his numbers went up mightily), is that I said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election. I was right! Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him!”
And, in another tweet, he stated: “Congratulations to Doug Jones on a hard fought victory. The write-in votes played a very big factor, but a win is a win. The people of Alabama are great, and the Republicans will have another shot at this seat in a very short period of time. It never ends!”
A joke Russians once shared now applies to Donald Trump: “The trouble with writing history in the Soviet Union is you never know what’s going to happen yesterday.”
ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANTHONY FAUCI, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BERLIN, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL, CNN, COMMISSARS, CORONAVIRUS, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, DONALD TRUMP, DRUDGE RETORT, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FRIEDRICH VON PAULUS, GERMAN-SOVIET NON-AGGRESSION PACT, GREAT BRITAIN, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, JOHN BOLTON, JOSEPH STALIN, MALARIA, MEDIA MATTERS, MICK MULVANEY, MOSCOW, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLAND, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PRISONERS-OF-WAR, RAW STORY, REUTERS, ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, STALINGRAD, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE WHITE HOUSE PANDEMIC OFFICE, THINKPROGRESS, THIRD REICH, TIME, TOM BOSSERT, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES, UPI, USA TODAY, Vladimir Lenin, WEHRMACHT, WEIMAR REPUBLIC, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 26, 2020 at 12:27 am
Two dictators. Two crises.
Next up: Donald Trump.
Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin received multiple warnings that his supposed ally, Nazi Germany, would soon invade Russia. He ignored all of them. And when the invasion came—on June 22, 1941—the result was the loss of 26 million men, women and children and four years of devastation.
President Donald Trump similarly received warnings that Coronavirus was now a major world threat—and would likely hit the United States. Like Stalin, he ignored those warnings—with similarly disastrous consequences for the United States.
The virus first appeared in Wuhan, China, in December, 2019. Its first reported victim became ill on December 1.
By December 31, the outbreak was traced to a novel strain of Coronavirus.
Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that affect birds and mammals. In humans, Coronaviruses can cause pneumonia and may cause bronchitis.

Coronavirus
According to the March 21 edition of Rolling Stone magazine: “The United States intelligence community has been warning the president since January and February about the dire consequences that would occur when coronavirus reached America, but the president seemed determined to play down the threat, leaving the country largely unaware and unprepared.”
An anonymous Intelligence official cited by the Washington Post said: “Donald Trump may not have been expecting this, but a lot of other people in the government were—they just couldn’t get him to do anything about it. The system was blinking red.”
Trump first learned of the virus on January 3, 2020. This did not prevent him from playing golf on January 4, 5, 18 and 19.
On January 19, the first Coronavirus case appeared in the United States.
On January 27, then-acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney tried to get the President to act. But, according to officials who spoke with the Post, Trump was “dismissive” of early briefings “because he did not believe that the virus had spread widely throughout the United States.”
Trump fired Mulvaney one month later.
Then, for Trump, it was back to the golf course—on February 1, 2, 15.

Refusing to take action against the emerging Coronavirus threat, Trump repeatedly made statements that minimized it.
January 22: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. We have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”
January 30: “We think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment –five—and those people are all recuperating successfully. But we’re working very closely with China and other countries, and we think it’s going to have a very good ending for us .…that I can assure you.”
February 10: “Now, the virus that we’re talking about having to do—you know, a lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat—as the heat comes in. Typically, that will go away in April. We’re in great shape though. We have 12 cases—11 cases, and many of them are in good shape now.”
February 28: “[Democrats] tried the impeachment hoax…They lost…. And this is their new hoax.”
A major reason for the spectacular early victories of the German army in Russia was that, from 1936 to 1938, Stalin had gutted his own military by a series of systematic purges. Thus, there were few experienced, competent officers—from army corps commanders to four-star generals—to mount a strategic defense.
Similarly, upon taking office, Trump had gutted the permanent epidemic monitoring and command groups set up inside the White House: The National Security Council (NSC) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Pathologically jealous of President Barack Obama, Trump has tried to destroy every vestige of Obama’s legacy as the first black President of the United States. And these disease-monitoring groups were set up by Obama following the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014.
In the spring of 2018, Trump pushed Congress to cut $15 billion from national health spending—and cutting the global disease-fighting budgets of the Centers for Disease Control, National Security Council, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Health and Human Services.
In April, 2018, then-National Security Adviser John Bolton forced Tom Bossert, director of the infectious disease unit at DHS, to resign—along with his entire team.
On February 29, the first American died of Coronavirus.
Trump continued to be unconcerned about the growing threat.
On March 7, reporters asked him if he was concerned that Coronavirus had arrived in Washington, D.C. He replied: “No, I’m not concerned at all. No, we’ve done a great job with it.”
And in a March 9 tweet, Trump wrote: “So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!”
Perhaps most dangerously of all, Trump has from the outset blatantly contradicted health officials—even when standing next to them at press conferences.
On March 21, Trump insisted he had a “very good” feeling about using a malaria drug to combat the virus. It fell to Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to set the record straight: “No.”
As of March 26, the United States had 68,489 Coronavirus cases—with 1,032 deaths.
ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANTHONY FAUCI, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BERLIN, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL, CNN, COMMISSARS, CORONAVIRUS, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, DONALD TRUMP, DRUDGE RETORT, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FRIEDRICH VON PAULUS, GERMAN-SOVIET NON-AGGRESSION PACT, GREAT BRITAIN, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, JOHN BOLTON, JOSEPH STALIN, MALARIA, MEDIA MATTERS, MICK MULVANEY, MOSCOW, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLAND, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PRISONERS OF WAR, RAW STORY, REUTERS, ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, STALINGRAD, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE WHITE HOUSE PANDEMIC OFFICE, THINKPROGRESS, THIRD REICH, TIME, TOM BOSSERT, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES, UPI, USA TODAY, Vladimir Lenin, WEHRMACHT, WEIMAR REPUBLIC, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 25, 2020 at 12:25 am
Two dictators. Two crises.
First up: Joseph Stalin.
“I know what Hitler’s up to. He thinks he’s outsmarted me. But in actuality, it is I who have outsmarted him.”
So spoke Joseph Stalin, absolute dictator of the Soviet Union, to his future successor, Nikita Khrushchev, in 1939.
Less than two years later, on June 22, 1941, three million German soldiers poured across the western border of the Soviet Union.
On August 23, 1939, Stalin had signed the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact with German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler. The reason: Each dictator got what he wanted—for the moment. Hitler was planning to invade Poland in a matter of days—and he wanted to avoid a war with the Soviet Union. And Stalin got what he wanted: The eastern half of Poland.

Joseph Stalin
The agreement stunned the world. Since 1919, Nazis and Communists had fought bitter battles against each other in the streets of Germany during the Weimar Republic.
When this was replaced in 1933 by the Third Reich, German Communists were rounded up and imprisoned, if not murdered, by Hitler’s ruthless secret police, the Schutzstaffel (“Protective Squads”).
For the moment, however, all of that was conveniently forgotten.
But Hitler hadn’t forgotten his life’s ambition to conquer the Soviet Union and utterly destroy “the scourge of Jewish-Marxism.”
Stalin received numerous warnings from the United States and Great Britain about the coming invasion. But he dismissed them as efforts by the West to trick him into violating the pact and turning Nazi Germany into his mortal enemy.
When informed of the attack, Stalin at first believed it was being made by rogue German forces. He refused to order an immediate counterattack. Upon being convinced that the Wehrmacht intended to wage all-out war, he went into a funk in his dacha and shut himself off from everyone. To his closest associates he wailed: “Lenin left us a great inheritance and we, his heirs, have fucked it all up!”
Meanwhile, the Red Air Force was destroyed on the ground by the awesome Luftwaffe. And the Wehrmacht was advancing at a rate of 25 miles a day.

German soldiers marching through Russia
On July 3, after 10 days of brooding (and probably drinking heavily) in his dacha, Stalin finally took to the airways. He didn’t speak live; Radio Moscow played a recording of his voice across the Soviet Union.
Never a spellbinding orator, Stalin spoke in slow and faltering tones. Nevertheless, his opening words were startling: “Comrades! Citizens! Brothers and sisters! Men of our army and navy! I am addressing you, my friends!”
Stalin had never addressed an audience this way, and he never would again. Born Joseph Vissarionovich Djugashvili, he had given himself the name of “Stalin”—“Man of Steel.” And he had lived up to it, sending tens of thousands to the Soviet penal system known as the Gulag while ordering the executions of tens of thousands of others.
He said the “peace loving” Soviet Union had been attacked by “fiends and cannibals.” He claimed the non-aggression pact with Germany had given the army much-needed time to rearm and reorganize its forces. He claimed the Germans wanted to restore the rule of the landlords and re-establish Tsarism.
He repeatedly spoke of the treachery of the enemy—and of the need for constant vigilance against traitors: “We must wage a ruthless fight against all disorganizers of the rear, deserters, panic-mongers and rumor-mongers.”
This was accompanied by orders unprecedented in any other army: Those taken prisoner by the Germans were to be considered traitors—and shot or imprisoned. Those suspected of wounding themselves to avoid combat were also subject to summary execution. So were soldiers who had been legitimately wounded in battle but were suspected of inflicting those injuries.
The first two years of the war—1941 to 1943—proved disastrous for the Soviet Union.
During the first six months—June to December, 1941—German armies lured huge Soviet forces into gigantic “cauldron battles,” surrounding and exterminating them. An estimated 5.7 million prisoners of war (POWs) fell into German hands. Of these, at least 3.5 million died in custody.
But then the infamous Russian cold and snows of winter halted the Wehrmacht before Moscow. In the summer of 1942 German forces once again mounted a ferocious offensive, driving all the way to the Volga—and Stalingrad.
But they became bogged down in bitter house-to-house fighting. With the arrival of winter, Soviet forces surrounded the Wehrmacht’s powerful Sixth Army. The besiegers became the besieged. On February 2, 1943, Field Marshal Friedrich von Paulus surrendered what remained of his army. The battle cost Germany 500,000 men, including 91,000 taken prisoner.
As the Red Army finally began to go over on the offensive, Stalin relaxed the iron controls that had long stifled creativity on the part of his commandeers.
The infamous political commissars were removed from control over Russian generals. Gold braid and fancy uniforms were manufactured and rushed to the front as morale boosters.
At last, Stalin realized there was no way to win a life-and-death struggle than to give his soldiers the flexibility they needed.
The war would last another two years—costing the Soviet Union at least 26 million citizens—before it ended with the Red flag flying over Berlin.
ABC NEWS, ADAM SCHIFF, ADOLF HITLER, ALEX PHILLIPS, ALTERNET, AMERICA’S VOICE, AMERICABLOG, AMERICAN PRIORITY CONFERENCE, AP, AUSTRIA, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BERNIE SANDERS, BILL CLINTON, BLACK LIVES MATTER, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHINA, CINDY MCCAIN, CIVIL WAR, CNN, COLIN FIRTH, COREY LEWANDOWSKI, CROOKS AND LIARS, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, DAILY KOZ, DANA LOESCH, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP JUNIOR, EUGENE SCOTT, FACEBOOK, FBI, FINAL SOLUTION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FRANCISCO FRANCO, GEORGE SOROS, HILLARY CLINTON, HUNTER BIDEN, JOE BIDEN, JOHN MCCAIN, MATT GAETZ, MEIN KAMPF, MITT ROMNEY, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NANCY PELOSI, NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN, NEWSWEEK, NINA BURLEIGH, NPR, PBS, PBS NEWSHOUR, PLUTARCH, POLAND, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RACHEL MADDOW, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROGER STONE, ROSIE O’DONNELL, SALON, SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, SPAIN, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GEEKZTEAM, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE KINGSMAN (MOVIE), THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE TRUMPSMAN (VIDEO), THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TREASON, TRUTHDIG, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UKRAINE, UNITED STATES, UPI, USA TODAY, VERSALLIES TREATY, VOLODYMR ZELENSKI, WEIMAR REPUBLIC, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS ASSOCIATION, WORLD WAR 11
In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on October 22, 2019 at 12:05 am
Since taking office as President on January 20, 2017, Donald Trump has continued to hurl threats of violence against those he hates.
“Trump’s language of violence started with immigrants when he launched his presidential campaign in 2015,” wrote Washington Post Reporter Eugene Scott. “There is a direct line from his language to real violence against immigrants and other innocent Americans caught in the maniacal mass shootings of the past year.
“And this cancer is spreading: to Congress, to the media, to the intelligence community, to foreign allies. There is no end in sight as Trump becomes increasingly unhinged and the GOP remains frozen in abject silence.”
On October 2, 2019, Journalist Nina Burleigh wrote: “Since 2015, TV-watching Americans have been subject to the deimatic spectacle of more than 400 rallies (at least 80 since his election) in which Trump sometimes openly and more often coyly urged supporters to violence. These spectacles have conditioned many Americans to fear him and his more enthusiastic supporters.”

Supporters giving the “Seig Heil” salute to Donald Trump
“Over the last few days, the President’s rhetoric of violence and hate has spread,” stated an October 3, 2019 press release by America’s Voice, a liberal immigration group.
“As Jamelle Bouie noted yesterday, ‘Over the weekend, in a rage over impeachment, President Trump accused Representative Adam Schiff of ‘treason,’ promised ‘Big Consequences’ for the whistle-blower who sounded the alarm about his phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and shared a warning — from a Baptist pastor in Dallas — that impeachment ‘will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal.’”
Trump’s opponents have good reason to fear. And not simply the public demonstrations by the President’s fanatical base. They should fear the secret fantasies of the Right.
Those secret fantasies have been revealed in a series of Right-wing videos featuring graphic acts of violence against those whom the Right—and Trump—hate.
From October 10 to 12, 2019, attendees of the American Priority Conference at the Trump National Doral Miami resort enjoyed many of those videos.
One of these, “The Trumpsman,” featured a digitized Trump shooting, stabbing and setting fire to such liberals—and even conservatives—as:
- Former President Bill Clinton
- Former Vice President Joe Biden
- Former Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton
- Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
- Former President Barack Obama
- Vermont United States Senator Bernie Sanders
- Utah Senator Mitt Romney
- The late Arizona Senator John McCain
And legitimate news media—such as CBS, BBC, ABC, CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post—were also depicted as among Trump’s victims.

The video was produced by Rightists who believed it reflected what Donald Trump would do to his enemies if only he could get away with it. And given his near-constant calls for violence against his critics, they were absolutely correct.
But the video’s critics are wrong to call for its suppression.
On the contrary—it should be widely seen for what it is: The Mein Kampf of Donald Trump and his fanatical followers, in and outside the Republican party.
Like Adolf Hitler’s autobiography, it depicts the future America can expect if the Right gains the power to live out its murderous fantasies. And the fantasy Right-wingers prize most: The brutal extermination of everyone who refuses to submit to their Fascistic tyranny.
“The Trumpsman” is part of a growing genre of pro-Trump memes that routinely earn thousands of views on sites like YouTube and Twitter. Many superimpose the faces of Trump and his chief supporters slaughtering Democrats, liberal celebrities and/or members of the media.
The event’s organizer, Alex Phillips, hurriedly claimed that the “unauthorized video” was shown “in a side room” at the American Priority Conference.
But there is an upside to this exercise in Right-wing porn. Democrats could easily run TV ads showing limited clips from “The Trumpsman” video.
Unfortunately, the majority of Democrats lack the courage to attack their Right-wing enemies with the same ruthlessness used against them. That’s why they lost most Presidential elections of the 20th century.
Americans should be constantly warned: These videos were not made by liberals to parody the values and goals of the Republican party and its Right-wing supporters.
These videos were made by Right-wingers—and reflect the true values and intentions of the Republican party and its Right-wing supporters.
The boiler-plate rhetoric that gushes out of Republican conventions—about love of family, God and flag—is the public mask of the Right.
The videos that depict Right-wingers ruthlessly slaughtering anyone who dares to disagree with them reflect the real face of the Right.
Of course, most Americans never imagined that a President would:
- Fire an FBI director for investigating Russian subversion of a Presidential election.
- Openly call on a foreign enemy nation—China—to investigate his political rival for the White House.
- Accuse his Congressional critics of treason—a crime punishable by death.
Trump’s opponents should stop deluding themselves that: “Surely he’ll never do that.”
Whatever it is they fear he will do, he will do.
Like all predators, he will stop only when he meets a stronger opponent.
ABC NEWS, ADAM SCHIFF, ADOLF HITLER, ALEX PHILLIPS, ALTERNET, AMERICA’S VOICE, AMERICABLOG, AMERICAN PRIORITY CONFERENCE, AP, AUSTRIA, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BERNIE SANDERS, BILL CLINTON, BLACK LIVES MATTER, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHINA, CINDY MCCAIN, CIVIL WAR, CNN, COLIN FIRTH, COREY LEWANDOWSKI, CROOKS AND LIARS, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, DAILY KOZ, DANA LOESCH, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP JUNIOR, EUGENE SCOTT, FACEBOOK, FBI, FINAL SOLUTION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FRANCISCO FRANCO, GEORGE SOROS, HILLARY CLINTON, HUNTER BIDEN, JOE BIDEN, JOHN MCCAIN, MATT GAETZ, MEIN KAMPF, MITT ROMNEY, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NANCY PELOSI, NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN, NEWSWEEK, NINA BURLEIGH, NPR, PBS, PBS NEWSHOUR, PLUTARCH, POLAND, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RACHEL MADDOW, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROGER STONE, ROSIE O’DONNELL, SALON, SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, SPAIN, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GEEKZTEAM, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE KINGSMAN (MOVIE), THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE TRUMPSMAN (VIDEO), THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TREASON, TRUTHDIG, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UKRAINE, UNITED STATES, UPI, USA TODAY, VERSALLIES TREATY, VOLODYMR ZELENSKI, WEIMAR REPUBLIC, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS ASSOCIATION, WORLD WAR 11
In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on October 21, 2019 at 12:14 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. Of this he served only nine months before being pardoned.
Hitler used his time in Landsberg Prison, in Bavaria, to write his infamous book, Mein Kampf-–“My Struggle.” Part autobiography, part political treatise, it laid out his future plans—for a revitalized Germany and the conquest of other nations.

Adolf Hitler leaving Landsberg Prison, December, 20, 1924
Published in 1925, it was long ignored by all but the most fanatical Nazis. But as Hitler gained increasing numbers of votes in a series of elections, many people—inside and outside Germany—began paying attention to its contents.
By 1939 it had sold 5,200,000 copies and had been translated into 11 languages.
Most of those who bought the book never read it. Its style was bombastic, repetitious and illogical. The first edition contained grammatical errors, reflecting a self-educated man.
Few who read it took Hitler’s intentions seriously. Comedians portrayed him as a wildly gesturing crank who screamed constantly.
Hitler made no effort to hide his program for Germany under his rule. His candor led many people to believe he was a lunatic who could be safely ignored.
He was especially insistent on the need for eliminating world Jewry and conquering the Soviet Union.
On the former topic he wrote: “The nationalization of our masses will succeed only when, aside from all the positive struggle for the soul of our people, their international poisoners are exterminated.
“If at the beginning of the war and during the war twelve or fifteen thousand of these Hebrew corrupters of the nation had been subjected to poison gas, such as had to be endured in the field by hundreds of thousands of our very best German workers of all classes and professions, then the sacrifice of millions at the front would not have been in vain.”
A mere 17 years later, Hitler’s “Thousand-Year Reich” would translate those words into horrific action in a series of extermination camps equipped with gas chambers.

Hitler was equally insistent that Germany needed to find Lebensraum—“Living space”—in the east. And by “east” he meant “Russia.”
Specifically: “And so we National Socialists consciously draw a line beneath the foreign policy tendency of our pre-War period. We take up where we broke off six hundred years ago.
“We stop the endless German movement to the south and west, and turn our gaze toward the land in the east. At long last we break off the colonial and commercial policy of the pre-War period and shift to the soil policy of the future.
“If we speak of soil in Europe today, we can primarily have in mind only Russia and her vassal border states.”
Hitler finally attained power on January 30, 1933. He realized that Germany was not yet strong enough to impose its will on other nations. So he set out on a secret crash program to make Germany the strongest military power in Europe.
In 1936, he set out on his “mission of Providence”:
- March, 1936: Ordering German troops to reoccupy the demilitarised zone between France and Germany (the Rhineland), in violation of the Versailles Treaty, which ended World War 1.
- July, 1936: Sending troops to Spain to support the Fascist army of General Francisco Franco.
- March 12, 1938: Occupying Austria and “unifying” it with Germany (the “Anschluss“).
- September 29, 1938: Bullying British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain into surrendering Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland districts to Germany.
- September 1, 1939: Ordering the invasion of Poland, which unintentionally launched World War II.
- June 22, 1941: Ordering the invasion of the Soviet Union.
- 1941: Secretly ordering “the Final Solution of the Jewish Question,” resulting in the extermination of at least six million Jews.
Only after Hitler set out to conquer, first Europe, then the Soviet Union, did his victims and intended victims realize that Mein Kampf had given them a deadly warning. A warning too many of them had refused to heed.
By the time World War II ended:
- Fifty million men, women and children were died—most of them dying in agony.
- The Soviet Union, having crushed Nazi Germany, become a world power.
- Poland and eastern Europe—once captives of Nazi Germany—now found themselves captives of the Soviet Union.
- The United States, untouched by the war, emerged as the world’s superpower—and the only country strong enough to contain the Soviet Union.
But Adolf Hitler isn’t the only would-be dictator to give ample warning of his murderous intentions.
And, like most Germans in the Weimar Republic, which preceded Nazi Germany, most Americans refuse to take that warning seriously.
2003, 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ABC’S THE WEEK, ADOLF HITLER, AFGHAN WAR, ALTERNET, AP, AUSTRIA, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHIEF OF STAFF, CHRIS WALLACE, CIA, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, DAILY KOZ, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, DONALD TRUMP, EDUARD DALADIER, FACEBOOK, FBI, FOX NEWS, FUHRER OATH, H.R. MCMASTER, HERMAN GORING, IRAQ WAR, JAMES COMEY, JAMES MATTIS, JAMES ROBART, JOHN KELLY, JOINT OPERATIONS COMMAND, MICHAEL FLYNN, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUSLIM TRAVEL BAN, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN, NEWSWEEK, NPR, OSAMA BIN LADEN, PALMER REPORT, PAUL VON HINDENBURG, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLAND, POLITICIZING THE MILITARY, POLITICO, RAW STORY, REUTERS, RHINELAND, ROBERT MUELLER, ROLLING STONE, RUSSIA, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, SLATE, SPECIAL WARFARE, STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL, SUDENTENLAND, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, WERNER VON BLOMBERG, WERNER VON FRITSCH, WILLIAM MCRAVEN, WORLD WAR 11
In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on June 11, 2019 at 12:02 am
Nazi Germany’s Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler wasn’t crazy, as many of his critics charged. He knew what he wanted to achieve—and why.
He intended to strip every potential challenger to his authority—or his version of reality—of legitimacy with the public. After he succeeded, Germany became a nation where there was:
- No independent press to reveal his failures and crimes.
- No independent law enforcement agencies to investigate his abuses of office.
- No independent judiciary to hold him accountable.
- No independent military to dissent as he recklessly hurtled toward a disastrous war that would leave Germany in ruins.
Those are exactly the priorities of President Donald J. Trump.
He has already assaulted the integrity of:
- American Intelligence agencies: By publicly blaming the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency—instead of Russian President Vladimir Putin—for Russia’s subversion of the 2016 Presidential elections.
- American law enforcement agencies: By firing FBI Director James Comey for pursuing ties between his 2016 Presidential campaign and Russian Intelligence agents.
- The press: By tweeting, on February 17, 2017: “The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!”
- The Judiciary: By repeatedly attacking Seattle U.S. District Judge James Robart, who halted Trump’s first anti-Muslim travel ban.

Donald Trump
Now he’s turning his attention to the American military.
- Trump appointed former Marine General James Mattis as Secretary of Defense. But when Trump announced his intention to withdraw American military forces from Syria, Mattis resigned in December, 2018.
- Mattis offered to stay in office until February, 2019, to ensure a smooth transition for his successor. But Trump, his ego outraged, forced Mattis to leave by the end of December.
- The military sees foreign commitments as essential to American security—whether against ISIS or the former Soviet Union.
- But Trump believes that alliances like NATO are “ripping off” the United States. And he believes he was elected to end foreign entanglements.
- Trump appointed Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster as National Security Adviser. But after Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals for interfering in the 2016 Presidential election, McMaster said: “With the FBI indictment, the evidence is now incontrovertible” of Russia cyber-meddling.
- This publicly contradicted Trump’s claim that reports of Russian subversion of the 2016 Presidential election were “a hoax.”
- Six weeks later, McMaster was forced out of the administration.

H.R. McMaster
- In November, 2018, Fox News Anchor Chris Wallace, during an interview with Trump, noted that retired Adm. William McRaven had said: “The President’s attack on the media is the greatest threat to our democracy in my lifetime.”
- Trump then dismissed McRaven—who had spearheaded the operation that killed Al-Qaedar leader Osama bin Laden—as a “Hillary fan.”
- “He was a Navy SEAL 37 years,” said Wallace. Trump, refusing to give McRaven—one of the most highly respected men in the United States military—any credit, said: “Wouldn’t it have been nice if we got Osama bin Laden a lot sooner than that?”
Some members of the military are responding favorably to Trump.
During his 2019 trip to Japan, Trump gave a Memorial Day address aboard the USS Wasp in Yokosuka. Many of the American service attending were photographed wearing patches inspired by his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”

The matching patches showed the face of a man that’s presumably Trump (though notably more handsome) along with the text, “Make Aircrew Great Again.”
This may have violated the Pentagon’s strict rules barring soldiers from showing political preferences.
“All military personnel will avoid the inference that their political activities imply or appear to imply DoD sponsorship, approval or endorsement of a political candidate, campaign or cause,” the policy states.
Retired Army General Stanley McChrystal, during a December 30, 2018 interview on “This Week,” warned: “If the U.S. military becomes politicized, it will be something we’re not happy with.”
The incident on Memorial Day was not the first time active-duty service members displayed Trump-affiliated apparel.
In December, 2018, Trump engaged in campaign activities by by signing “Make America Great Again” caps for during an unannounced visit to Iraq. Dozens of troops were photographed bringing MAGA hats to the event for the president to sign.
Other members of the military are responding—carefully—to Trump’s savage attacks on its members and his erratic style of government.
According to a December 24, 2018 edition of the Palmer Report, military leaders are now going out of their way to avoid “interacting directly” with Trump. They fear that he might issue an impulsive and destructive order—which they would be legally obligated to follow.
More startling: Departing Secretary of Defense Mattis ordered them to, for the safety of the nation.
Mattis believed that Trump was dishonorable—and deranged enough to give destructive or incoherent military orders at any moment.
Columnist Bill Palmer warned that this amounted to a “soft coup.”
But then he asked: “Then again, when the ‘President’ of the United States is merely a guy who treasonously conspired with a foreign enemy to rig the election in his favor, and was not legitimately elected to anything, can you even have a coup against him?”
2003, 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ABC’S THE WEEK, ADOLF HITLER, AFGHAN WAR, ALTERNET, AP, AUSTRIA, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHIEF OF STAFF, CHRIS WALLACE, CIA, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, DAILY KOZ, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, DONALD TRUMP, EDUARD DALADIER, FACEBOOK, FBI, FOX NEWS, FUHRER OATH, H.R. MCMASTER, HERMAN GORING, IRAQ WAR, JAMES COMEY, JAMES MATTIS, JAMES ROBART, JOHN KELLY, JOINT OPERATIONS COMMAND, MICHAEL FLYNN, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUSLIM TRAVEL BAN, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN, NEWSWEEK, NPR, OSAMA BIN LADEN, PALMER REPORT, PAUL VON HINDENBURG, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLAND, POLITICIZING THE MILITARY, POLITICO, RAW STORY, REUTERS, RHINELAND, ROBERT MUELLER, ROLLING STONE, RUSSIA, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, SLATE, SPECIAL WARFARE, STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL, SUDENTENLAND, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, WERNER VON BLOMBERG, WERNER VON FRITSCH, WILLIAM MCRAVEN, WORLD WAR 11
In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on June 10, 2019 at 12:05 am
President Donald Trump is notorious as a non-reader. Nevertheless, he seems poised to re-enact one of the most fateful events in 20th century history.
First, that event: On August 2, 1934, the aged German President Paul von Hindenburg died.
Adolf Hitler had been serving as Reich Chancellor—the equivalent of attorney general—since January 30, 1933. Within hours, the Nazi Reichstag [parliament] announced the following law, back-dated to August 1st:
“The office of Reich President will be combined with that of Reich Chancellor. The existing authority of the Reich President will consequently be transferred to the Führer and Reich Chancellor, Adolf Hitler.”
Immediately following the announcement of the new Führer law, the German Officer Corps and every individual soldier in the German Army was made to swear a brand new oath of allegiance:
“I swear by God this holy oath, that I will render to Adolf Hitler, Führer of the German Reich and People, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, unconditional obedience, and that I am ready, as a brave soldier, to risk my life at any time for this oath.”

Soldiers swearing the Fuhrer Oath
In the past, German soldiers had sworn loyalty to Germany. Now they had sworn it to a single man.
For men of honor in uniform, conspiracy against the Führer now meant betrayal of the Fatherland itself. They considered this oath sacred, overriding all others. And the vast majority would fanatically obey it right to the end of the disastrous war Hitler was leading them into.
Yet even that didn’t give Hitler the absolute control over the Armed Forces that he sought.
Since taking command of Germany in the summer of 1934, Hitler wanted to replace two high-ranking military officials: General Werner von Fritsch and Colonel General Werner von Blomberg. Both were convinced that Hitler’s increasingly aggressive foreign policy was putting Germany on a collision course with war—a war the Fatherland could not win.
Hitler, in fact, meant to go to war—and despised Fritsch’s and Blomberg’s hesitation to do so. He decided to rid himself of both men. But how?
Accident played a part in the case of Blomberg.
On January 12, 1938, Blomberg married Erna Gruhn, with Hitler and Reichsmarshall Hermann Goring attending as witnesses. Soon afterward, Berlin police discovered that Gruhn had a criminal record as a prostitute and had posed for pornographic photographs.
Marrying a woman with such a background violated the standard of conduct expected of German officers. Hitler was infuriated at having served as a witness to the ceremony.
But he also saw the scandal as an opportunity to dispose of Blomberg—who was forced to resign.
Shortly after Blomberg was forced out in disgrace, the SS—Hitler’s private police force—presented Hitler with a file that falsely accused Werner von Fritsch of homosexuality. Fritsch angrily denied the accusation but resigned on February 4, 1938.
From that point on, Hitler was in de facto command of the German Armed Services.

Adolf Hitler
Hitler had a timetable of conquest:
- On March 7, 1936, he seized the Rhineland, the demilitarized zone between Germany and its arch-enemy, France.
- On March 12, 1838, he “unified” Austria with Germany by annexing it.
- In September, 1938, he seized a large portion of western Czechoslovakia after that nation’s British and French “allies” sold it out at the infamous Munich Conference.
- On March 15, 1939, he ordered the Wehrmacht to occupy the rest of Czechoslovakia.
- On September 1, 1939, he ordered the invasion of Poland—unintentionally igniting World War II and the eventual destruction of Nazi Germany.
No one yet knows if Donald Trump has a plan of conquest outside the United States. But he seems intent on attacking the top command of its armed services—and its sacred traditions.

Donald Trump
On January 1, 2019, Trump—in a tweet—declared war on retired Army General Stanley McCrystal: “‘General’ McChrystal got fired like a dog by Obama. Last assignment a total bust. Known for big, dumb mouth. Hillary lover!”
The reason for Trump’s ire: McCrystal had given a December 30, 2018 interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Asked if he thought Trump was “a liar,” he replied: “I don’t think he tells the truth.” Asked: “Is Trump immoral, in your view?” McCrystal replied: “I think he is.”
McChrystal had become a legend among Special Warfare soldiers during the 2003 Iraq War. He had turned Joint Special Operations Command into one of the most efficient killing machines in history.
In 2010, McChrystal resigned as the commander of the Afghan War. Some officers on his staff made disparaging remarks about top officials working for President Barack Obama. Even worse, they made them to a Rolling Stone reporter.
Trump took office with strong support by military brass. Among his appointees:
- Retired four-star Marine General James Mattis as Secretary of Defense.
- Retired four-star Marine General John Kelly as, first, Secretary of Homeland Security and then Chief of Staff.
- Retired three-star Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn for National Security Adviser.
- Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster succeeded Flynn as National Security Adviser after Flynn was forced out of the White House for lying about his ties to Russian oligarchs.
But now Trump is eager to tear down the generals.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ADAM SCHIFF, ADOLF HITLER, AFGHANISTAN, ALBERT SPEER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANTIFA, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHRIS CILLIZZA, CHRIS KREBS, CHRISTOPHER WRAY, CIA, CNN, CORONAVIRUS, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, CYBERSECURITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY AGENCY, DAILY KOS, DAILY KOZ, DENMARK, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, DISOBEYING HITLER: GERMAN RESISTANCE AFTER VALKYRIE (BOOK), DONALD TRUMP, DONALDL TRUMP JR., DRUDGE REPORT, FACEBOOK, FASCISM, FBI, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FRANCE, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HERMANN GORING, HILLARY CLINTON, HUFFINGTON POST, IMPEACHMENT, IRAQ, JAKE TAPPER, JAMES B. COMEY, JARED KUSHNER, JOE BIDEN, MAIL-IN BALLOTS, MARK ESPER, MEDIA MATTERS, MIKE PENCE, MITCH MCCONNELL, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NORWAY, NPR, PAUL MANAFORT, PBS NEWSHOUR, PLANNED PARENTHOOD, POLAND, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RANDALL HANSEN, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RUSSIA, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, SS, STALINGRAD, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE PENTAGON, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUMP TOWER MEETING, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOTER FRAUD, WEHRMACHT, WERNER VON BLOMBERG, WERNER VON FRITCH, WONKETTE, WORLD WAR 11
HITLER, TRUMP AND “SCORCHED EARTH”—PART THREE (OF FOUR)
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on November 25, 2020 at 12:32 amPresident Donald Trump may be getting ready to fire his handpicked CIA director.
He believes that Gina Haspel has stonewalled the release of documents supposedly exposing “deep state” plots against his 2016 campaign during the Obama administration.
[In fact, the Obama administration acted entirely within the law during the 2016 Presidential campaign. The FBI has a legal mandate to keep track of subversive activities—especially when they involve members of a Presidential candidate’s campaign.
[On July 9, 2016, high-ranking representatives of the Trump campaign met at Trump Tower with at least two lobbyists with ties to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
Gina Haspel
[The participants included:
[The reason for the meeting: To dig up “dirt” the Russians might have on Hillary Clinton, Trump’s opponent for the White House.]
Trump is also angry at FBI Director Christopher Wray—who replaced James B. Comey in May, 2017. Trump had fired Comey for daring to investigate ties between his 2016 campaign and Russian Intelligence agents.
Christopher Wray
The reason for his anger at Wray: Wray has dared to contradict Trump’s false claims that
During the 2016 Presidential race, Russian propaganda played a major role in convincing millions of Americans to vote for Donald Trump. Social media platforms—especially Facebook and Twitter—were flooded with genuinely fake news to sow discord among Americans and create a pathway for Trump’s election.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer, had quickly assessed Trump as an egotistical narcissist. By appealing to Trump’s vanity, Putin expected to sharply reduce the military and political threat the United States represented to a resurgent Russia.
So notorious was the role played by Russian hackers in misleading American voters in 2016 that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was determined to prevent a repetition in 2020.
The man ultimately tasked with this mission was Chris Krebs, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency run by DHS.
Chris Krebs
Krebs launched a massive effort to counter lies spread by Russians—and Americans—on social media platforms. Among his duties:
As a result, Krebs was widely praised for revamping the department’s cybersecurity efforts and increasing coordination with state and local governments.
By all accounts—except Trump’s—the 2020 election went very smoothly.
On November 17, Trump fired Chris Krebs.
The reason: Krebs had not only countered Russian propaganda lies—he had dared to counter Trump’s as well. For example: He rejected Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud: There “is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”
Trump fired Krebs by tweet—and accompanied the outrage with yet another lie:
“The recent statement by Chris Krebs on the security of the 2020 election was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud, including dead people voting, poll watchers not allowed into polling locations, glitches in the voting machines which changed votes from Trump to Biden, late voting, and many more. Therefore, effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.”
In a November 17 story on the CNN website, CNN reporters Kaitlan Collins and Paul LeBlanc bluntly concluded:
“[Krebs’] dismissal underscores the lengths Trump is willing to go to punish those who don’t adopt his conspiratorial view of the election.
“Since CNN and other outlets called the race for President-elect Joe Biden, Trump has refused to accept the results, instead pushing baseless conspiracies that his second term is being stolen.
“This includes falsely claiming during an election night address that he had already won reelection, that he had won states that were actually still up in the air at the time and that his opponents were perpetrating a fraud.”
Seventy-five years earlier, on March 19, 1945, facing certain defeat, Adolf Hitler ordered a massive “scorched-earth” campaign throughout Germany.
All German agriculture, industry, ships, communications, roads, food stuffs, mines, bridges, stores and utility plants were to be destroyed.
If implemented, it would deprive the entire German population of even the barest necessities after the war.
Opposing him—at first openly, and later secretly—was Albert Speer, his former architect and now Minister of Armaments.
Speer argued that there must be a future for the German people: “If our enemies wish to destroy us, why help them? We must leave the people something.”
But Hitler refused to back down: “I don’t want to hear any more.”
He gave Speer 24 hours to reconsider his opposition to the order.
Speer could not directly promise to carry out Hitler’s “scorched earth” order. So he gave Hitler a vague answer that essentially committed him to nothing: “My Fuhrer, I stand unconditionally behind you!”
Share this: