A lot of work has been done to pick apart the sexual nature of Röhm's approach to the SA, and how that implicated Hitler and his wayward sexuality. That's another parallel.
One of the most insightful, IMHO, essays you've written.
The people who most need to read and understand it are the very people least able to read and understand it. That's not down to immorality (Stephen Miller) or a lack of ethics (Mike Johnson). It's down to ignoring these realities by choice.
What's that old saw about history? Something like "Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it"?
Trump's cabal learned the first part, how to seize power, spew hatred, and enrich themselves. May history's wheel turn to teach them the second part.
It's important--at least very important to me--that I can read your opinions almost every day... Its one of the ways I get to see some daylight in an increasingly darkening situation.
One of your observations is, I think, especially apt; if, at this point, we haven't given up entirely and still think it's useful to "understand" the enemy we're dealing with...
In your post you write: "...You cannot negotiate with someone who doesn’t experience consequences the way you do." How does Trump et. al. experience the consequences of their actions? I think the secret to understanding him, and to a lesser extent, his theater of puppets, is that, like a lot of unsupervised, willful children, he doesn't experience any consequences at all! ...I don't think he understands the concept of CONSEQUENCES--doesn't get the A and B connection between anything he says or does and its effect on another person or group of people (country/world).
Isn't that the essence of bringing up a kid, or becoming an adult yourself--That your words and actions have MEANING; that beyond letting grown-ups or other kids know that you want or need something, the way your words and actions affect other people is really the core of human existence. ...Trump and many of his "cabinet" (I hate to use such a grown-up word to describe his chorus of programmed ass-kissers) are still playing in the sandbox--still grabbing pails and shovels out of other kids hands--still pushing and shoving and yelling and crying if they don't get their way. And the grown-ups who are supposed to civilize these out-of-control kids? NOWHERE TO BE FOUND--
Soon "the law of the sandbox" overwhelms everything--and that's our country right now..
Thanks very much for bringing some light into this darkness....
Trump’s early business associates apparently suspected Trump admired Hitler. One sent him a book of Hitler’s speeches that first wife Ivana said Trump kept by his bedside.
Like Hitler - and BFF Putin - Trump appears to see life as a ruthless Darwinian struggle for dominance in which moral and humanitarian concerns are for losers.
The complicit and enablers will not escape the consequences of Trump’s destruction. Unfortunately, neither will we - which is why we must stay in the fight to defeat Trump and his agenda to replace our constitutional republic with a corrupt, racist, misogynist state of, by and for “winners” only.
Fascinating food for thought. And now, after Thursday's local government elections, we have our own mini-Trump and his MAGA-type acolytes (the ghastly Farage and his so-called Reform Party) to contend within the UK... I honestly fear for the future.
Power. Plain and simple. It's corrupting everything and blinding to everyone who listens to Trump. Power. It's what they want. What they have. What they yearned for. And yet and hopefully and in the end, that power will destroy them. Hopefully, before it destroys us.
The parallels with Stalin are also interesting. He was dismissed as a thug, a party drone, a bureaucrat who would serve his purpose and be discarded. Until it was clear he wasn't going anywhere, and those who stood in his way -- or might, someday -- were on their way to the Gulag or the cellars of the Lubyanka.
"The American situation will not end in Nuremberg trials. The analog does not extend that far..." No Nuremberg on the Potomac? There has been a coup by the Republican Party, as far as I can tell. Doesn't that justify some sort of collective judicial response once they have been removed from power? I don't believe the enablers should be hung, just brought to justice and punished.
You speak to myopia of the well heeled. The industrialists then, the billionaires now. They wield influence not by the weight of intellect, but the power of the purse. All is a transaction, and loyalty a commodity.
Trump most certainly understands that world. He gives power to the televangelists, they sanctify him to the faithful. He speaks to the dispossessed in the Rust Belt blaming the world, not Wall Street. At his core, the well heeled who believe by their wealth, they have control. And, like Hitler, they unwittingly give him the full power of the State. Power to man proven unscrupulous devoid of virtue.
Nuremberg was most certainly the lesson. A lesson lost on the chief audience, those who now enable our destruction.
Our Country is going down the tubes, led by a seriously ill man who governs not just "by tweet" but by CARTOONS. And evidently the Republican Party, and Congress, find all this acceptable.
A lot of work has been done to pick apart the sexual nature of Röhm's approach to the SA, and how that implicated Hitler and his wayward sexuality. That's another parallel.
Trump is seriously ill. What is wrong with congress? Still SMDH...
... Congress, perhaps more accurately, should be renamed, Transgress....?
One of the most insightful, IMHO, essays you've written.
The people who most need to read and understand it are the very people least able to read and understand it. That's not down to immorality (Stephen Miller) or a lack of ethics (Mike Johnson). It's down to ignoring these realities by choice.
What's that old saw about history? Something like "Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it"?
Trump's cabal learned the first part, how to seize power, spew hatred, and enrich themselves. May history's wheel turn to teach them the second part.
It's important--at least very important to me--that I can read your opinions almost every day... Its one of the ways I get to see some daylight in an increasingly darkening situation.
One of your observations is, I think, especially apt; if, at this point, we haven't given up entirely and still think it's useful to "understand" the enemy we're dealing with...
In your post you write: "...You cannot negotiate with someone who doesn’t experience consequences the way you do." How does Trump et. al. experience the consequences of their actions? I think the secret to understanding him, and to a lesser extent, his theater of puppets, is that, like a lot of unsupervised, willful children, he doesn't experience any consequences at all! ...I don't think he understands the concept of CONSEQUENCES--doesn't get the A and B connection between anything he says or does and its effect on another person or group of people (country/world).
Isn't that the essence of bringing up a kid, or becoming an adult yourself--That your words and actions have MEANING; that beyond letting grown-ups or other kids know that you want or need something, the way your words and actions affect other people is really the core of human existence. ...Trump and many of his "cabinet" (I hate to use such a grown-up word to describe his chorus of programmed ass-kissers) are still playing in the sandbox--still grabbing pails and shovels out of other kids hands--still pushing and shoving and yelling and crying if they don't get their way. And the grown-ups who are supposed to civilize these out-of-control kids? NOWHERE TO BE FOUND--
Soon "the law of the sandbox" overwhelms everything--and that's our country right now..
Thanks very much for bringing some light into this darkness....
Trump’s early business associates apparently suspected Trump admired Hitler. One sent him a book of Hitler’s speeches that first wife Ivana said Trump kept by his bedside.
Like Hitler - and BFF Putin - Trump appears to see life as a ruthless Darwinian struggle for dominance in which moral and humanitarian concerns are for losers.
The complicit and enablers will not escape the consequences of Trump’s destruction. Unfortunately, neither will we - which is why we must stay in the fight to defeat Trump and his agenda to replace our constitutional republic with a corrupt, racist, misogynist state of, by and for “winners” only.
Fascinating food for thought. And now, after Thursday's local government elections, we have our own mini-Trump and his MAGA-type acolytes (the ghastly Farage and his so-called Reform Party) to contend within the UK... I honestly fear for the future.
Power. Plain and simple. It's corrupting everything and blinding to everyone who listens to Trump. Power. It's what they want. What they have. What they yearned for. And yet and hopefully and in the end, that power will destroy them. Hopefully, before it destroys us.
The parallels with Stalin are also interesting. He was dismissed as a thug, a party drone, a bureaucrat who would serve his purpose and be discarded. Until it was clear he wasn't going anywhere, and those who stood in his way -- or might, someday -- were on their way to the Gulag or the cellars of the Lubyanka.
Bye-bye little Mikey Johnson!
"The American situation will not end in Nuremberg trials. The analog does not extend that far..." No Nuremberg on the Potomac? There has been a coup by the Republican Party, as far as I can tell. Doesn't that justify some sort of collective judicial response once they have been removed from power? I don't believe the enablers should be hung, just brought to justice and punished.
You speak to myopia of the well heeled. The industrialists then, the billionaires now. They wield influence not by the weight of intellect, but the power of the purse. All is a transaction, and loyalty a commodity.
Trump most certainly understands that world. He gives power to the televangelists, they sanctify him to the faithful. He speaks to the dispossessed in the Rust Belt blaming the world, not Wall Street. At his core, the well heeled who believe by their wealth, they have control. And, like Hitler, they unwittingly give him the full power of the State. Power to man proven unscrupulous devoid of virtue.
Nuremberg was most certainly the lesson. A lesson lost on the chief audience, those who now enable our destruction.
At least Hitler had the decency to commit suicide.
Our Country is going down the tubes, led by a seriously ill man who governs not just "by tweet" but by CARTOONS. And evidently the Republican Party, and Congress, find all this acceptable.
God help us all