Of course Trump is eroding US democracy and has been doing so since 2016. And he will flog this raid of Mar A Lago into his greatest lie yet. One thing, though - I don't think this second haul of boxes was as big (27) as you state, but only 12. Add that to the original 15, and you get 27 total.
Trump is a master at playing the victim - it's why he survived two impeachments. Remember the Rev. Jim Jones? He played victim so well that he persuaded 900 devoted followers to follow him to Guyana, and later to their deaths. What I see happening in Trump's case is that his cult won't grow, but it will continue to grow tighter and more fanatical. He will not retake the presidency, but down-ticket races will continue to see more Trumpist candidates winning their elections, which will further weaken the country and enable another fanatic (Greg Abbott? Ron DeSantis?) to rise to power after Trump dies, which he probably will within the next decade.
By it I mean full-throated, blistering, barbaric Fascism, and I don't mean Fascism ala Mussolini. I mean the fascism of the Third Reich, of hydrogen cyanide, of jack boots and rats and typhoid fever.
Sure Merit Garland is a straight shooter. But so many of his predecessors were straight shooters. A long line of very fine people have done battle against Trump, and they all lost.
Trump had a copy of Mein Kampf on his nightstand (according to the transcript of one of his divorce proceedings.) The chairman of the Jt Chiefs of Staff said that Trump angrily said that he wished he had generals as loyal to him as Hitler's generals.
Trump's lies get bigger and sicker every day.
And the "deplorables and irredeemables" buy every lie.
Why do they believe it ??
His Supporters believe his lies because they want to believe his lies
Why do they want to believe his lies ??
Because they are Nazis through and through
(At January 6, one of the madman had a T shirt that said "Camp Auschwitz." I lost dozens of relatives because of Hitler. I swear I want to kill those people.)
This country always had a big, fat, vicious right wing. But did Richard Nixon ever talk like this ? Did Ronald Reagan ever talk like Trump
And don't tell me that it can't happen here because Germany was inherently very bad or at the very least very inferior to us.
Germany in many ways was a very progressive state:
A) Ger. developed a form of social security in the 19th Century
B) Germany's modern gay rights movement began before World War One
C) Prior to Hitler, Eastern European Jews were jealous of German Jews because German Jews, unlike Jews under the Tzar's rule, were free to participate in Civil life.
D) Prior to Hitler, Many Jews considered Germany an ideal place to live.
E) Britain promulgated the Balfour resolution (which tepidly endorsed Zionism), in part, because it wanted to beat the Kaiser to the punch. The Kaiser knew that Jews hated the Tzar and with good reason. He hoped that Jews could aid him by fomenting disturbances within Tzarist Russia. He reasoned that if he endorsed Zionism that might be the extra incentive to push Jews into outright resistance against the Tzar, Britain got wind of this and, consequently, announced that they supported Zionism (and they did everything they could to destroy the Zionist dream.)
In case the last few paragraphs, re Jewish relations with Germany before Hitler, confused you, this is my main point:
American Trumpers sound just as rabid as Hitlerites. Trump's supporters know his lies are lies. They just love his lies because their hatred gives them contempt for truth and honesty.
One of my sole remaining questions is whether an environmental harm has made America mad. See my article on How allied scientists found that sub clinical Vitamin B deficiency made France fall in 1940 and how this promptly led to US and British orders mandating that all pasta and flour be supplemented with B vitamins.
I agree, Jon - this is scary shit. Let's engage in a Twilight Zone fantasy and imagine that we are not now living in America but are instead in mid-30s Germany. Our current Hitler has been shouting that the Reichstag fire (2020 "stolen" election) entitles him to be re-instated as Fuhrer, and large crowds grow glassy eyed at the mention of his name. With the perspective of hindsight, we might expect the rude slap of a re-emergent Trump autocratic regime. On the other hand, we might realize that Trump never fully exploited his Reichstag moment because he lacks vision, humility, and intelligence, and will just be remembered as the Al Capone of the 21st century.
Postscript:
Ladies and gentlemen: For those of you who spent each day crying out for a single principled Republican, I offer - Liz Cheney.
Now, where are the others?
Of course Trump is eroding US democracy and has been doing so since 2016. And he will flog this raid of Mar A Lago into his greatest lie yet. One thing, though - I don't think this second haul of boxes was as big (27) as you state, but only 12. Add that to the original 15, and you get 27 total.
Trump is a master at playing the victim - it's why he survived two impeachments. Remember the Rev. Jim Jones? He played victim so well that he persuaded 900 devoted followers to follow him to Guyana, and later to their deaths. What I see happening in Trump's case is that his cult won't grow, but it will continue to grow tighter and more fanatical. He will not retake the presidency, but down-ticket races will continue to see more Trumpist candidates winning their elections, which will further weaken the country and enable another fanatic (Greg Abbott? Ron DeSantis?) to rise to power after Trump dies, which he probably will within the next decade.
It can happen here.
By it I mean full-throated, blistering, barbaric Fascism, and I don't mean Fascism ala Mussolini. I mean the fascism of the Third Reich, of hydrogen cyanide, of jack boots and rats and typhoid fever.
Sure Merit Garland is a straight shooter. But so many of his predecessors were straight shooters. A long line of very fine people have done battle against Trump, and they all lost.
Trump had a copy of Mein Kampf on his nightstand (according to the transcript of one of his divorce proceedings.) The chairman of the Jt Chiefs of Staff said that Trump angrily said that he wished he had generals as loyal to him as Hitler's generals.
Trump's lies get bigger and sicker every day.
And the "deplorables and irredeemables" buy every lie.
Why do they believe it ??
His Supporters believe his lies because they want to believe his lies
Why do they want to believe his lies ??
Because they are Nazis through and through
(At January 6, one of the madman had a T shirt that said "Camp Auschwitz." I lost dozens of relatives because of Hitler. I swear I want to kill those people.)
This country always had a big, fat, vicious right wing. But did Richard Nixon ever talk like this ? Did Ronald Reagan ever talk like Trump
And don't tell me that it can't happen here because Germany was inherently very bad or at the very least very inferior to us.
Germany in many ways was a very progressive state:
A) Ger. developed a form of social security in the 19th Century
B) Germany's modern gay rights movement began before World War One
C) Prior to Hitler, Eastern European Jews were jealous of German Jews because German Jews, unlike Jews under the Tzar's rule, were free to participate in Civil life.
D) Prior to Hitler, Many Jews considered Germany an ideal place to live.
E) Britain promulgated the Balfour resolution (which tepidly endorsed Zionism), in part, because it wanted to beat the Kaiser to the punch. The Kaiser knew that Jews hated the Tzar and with good reason. He hoped that Jews could aid him by fomenting disturbances within Tzarist Russia. He reasoned that if he endorsed Zionism that might be the extra incentive to push Jews into outright resistance against the Tzar, Britain got wind of this and, consequently, announced that they supported Zionism (and they did everything they could to destroy the Zionist dream.)
In case the last few paragraphs, re Jewish relations with Germany before Hitler, confused you, this is my main point:
American Trumpers sound just as rabid as Hitlerites. Trump's supporters know his lies are lies. They just love his lies because their hatred gives them contempt for truth and honesty.
One of my sole remaining questions is whether an environmental harm has made America mad. See my article on How allied scientists found that sub clinical Vitamin B deficiency made France fall in 1940 and how this promptly led to US and British orders mandating that all pasta and flour be supplemented with B vitamins.
https://davidgottfried.substack.com/p/what-the-delusions-of-trumpers-and
I agree, Jon - this is scary shit. Let's engage in a Twilight Zone fantasy and imagine that we are not now living in America but are instead in mid-30s Germany. Our current Hitler has been shouting that the Reichstag fire (2020 "stolen" election) entitles him to be re-instated as Fuhrer, and large crowds grow glassy eyed at the mention of his name. With the perspective of hindsight, we might expect the rude slap of a re-emergent Trump autocratic regime. On the other hand, we might realize that Trump never fully exploited his Reichstag moment because he lacks vision, humility, and intelligence, and will just be remembered as the Al Capone of the 21st century.