Repukes are now embracing the German principle of "Fuhrerprinzip"

 

I admit you sent me to google for that one. And it was well worth the trip.


Fuhrerprinzip

The Fuhrerprinzip

The Fuhrerprinzip originates from Hitler’s planning whilst in prison. It relates to the structure of the party and the dominance of the leader. This was a policy of dedication to and obedience of the Fuhrer (leader) and as such became known as the Fuhrerprinzip.

Whilst in Landsberg jail (1924) Hitler realised that a number of issues must be resolved in order for his party to remain, not only intact, but be able to move forward and become a genuine contender within the Weimar political arena. If he was eventually to become chancellor he accepted that he must use the legal structures as set out within the Weimar Constitution (1919) and make a number of ‘adjustments’ within the party.

Aims (1924)

* Unite the party after his release from prison.
* Consolidate party manifesto – as was based on his ideas set out in Mein Kampf
* Gain more seats in the Reichstag for the the Nazi party.

Principles of Obedience, The Fuhrerprinzip

1. Hitler was the sole authority within the party
2. Hitler will not share power with anyone else within or outside of the party.
3. Hitler’s decision is final
4. Power was not devolved to others – Hitler was the guardian of power, acting in Germany’s best interests.
5. Others would act out and achieve his aims – this was called acting in the will of the Fuhrer. Many of Hitler’s ideas were rarely set out on paper and so through this vague platform many of his Generals and ministers created what they felt was what he wanted.
6. He would only intervene in the party when necessary – the natural running of the party will be managed by others taking his direct orders
7. (From 1926) The party will follow the 25-point charter
8. Appeal for the party was manifestly interlinked with attraction to the party – attraction to success and the future Germany.

https://schoolshistory.org.uk/topics/european-history/nazi-germany/fuhrerprinzip/#google_vignette


All we have to do is change the name from Hitler to Trump.

 

Yep.
Triggered.

 

With the HAMAS Israeli war the true colors are being shown by despicables.
And for once they simply cannot say that their violent attacks are just "politics"
Not without risking bursting into flames, eh?​

Bay Bridge Shutdown Sparks Outrage: 'Deserve Hard Prison Time' (msn.com)
Bay Bridge Shutdown Sparks Outrage: 'Deserve Hard Prison Time'
Story by Andrew Stanton • 2h

Pro-Palestinian protesters shut down the Bay Bridge near San Francisco, California, Thursday morning demanding a ceasefire of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Dozens of protesters carried signs that read "Stop the Genocide" and "No Military Aid to Israel" while chanting "ceasefire now" on the bridge connecting San Francisco to Oakland, halting traffic between the two cities, according to video footage of the protest posted to social media.

Some progressives have taken to protests to urge President Joe Biden to support a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Hamas on October 7, 2023, launched thousands of rockets from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, taking more than 240 hostages, the country's military has said. Israel then launched rockets into Gaza, cutting off access to water, food and electricity into the territory. So far, at least 11,000 people in Gaza and 1,400 people in Israel have been killed in the conflict, according to the Associated Press.

Critics of Israel have pointed to that death toll to justify calls for a ceasefire, raising concerns about humanitarian conditions among civilians amid Israel's ground operations. Israel's supporters, however, argue the country has a right to respond to the attack and should not consider a ceasefire until all hostages are returned.

Protesters' shutting down the Bay Bridge sparked outrage from social media users, who argued this tactic is counterproductive and could disrupt emergency vehicles traveling across the San Francisco Bay.

The protest comes as President Joe Biden is traveling to San Francisco for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, a meeting of several economic powers in the Pacific region.

Newsweek reached out to the California Highway Patrol for comment via email.

"Left wing activists shut down the Bay Bridge during peak commuting hours. Doing this is a really good way to get people to hate you and your cause no matter what your cause is. People who do this pose a threat to stranded drivers jobs and health. They deserve hard prison time. Do you agree or disagree?" Robby Starbuck, a former Republican Congressional candidate, posted to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

"Bay Bridge was just shut down by pro-Palestinian protestors who could care less about emergency vehicles trying to get through to save someone's life," posted X user Paul Szypula.

"It's good to see the left is taking out their anger and frustrations about issues completely unrelated to them on the working class - as usual," wrote commentator Craig Chamberlin.

Others supported the bridge being shut down for the protest.

"The Bay Bridge is SHUT DOWN. Biden will not get away with genocide, Biden will not get away with staying in San Francisco without EVERYONE knowing he is supporting the slaughter in Gaza. No more genocide, ceasefire NOW," posted activist Ariel Koren.

California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers declared the protest an unlawful assembly and are making arrests at the scene reported local news station KGO.

Several pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrations have occurred across the United States since October 7.

 

I would rather remain on topic.

 

Trump’s violent talk shows signs of taking over Congress
by Alexander Bolton - 11/16/23 6:00 AM ET

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Trump-allied conservatives are using more pugnacious rhetoric than ever, and in some cases, such as an incident Tuesday featuring Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), are ready to make things physical, a trend that is setting off alarm bells on Capitol Hill.

Republican and Democratic senators say former President Trump’s bombastic threats and insults, which have proved to be a winning political formula for the GOP, are catching on more broadly in Congress.


Senators in both parties say they were shocked when Mullin, a first-term senator and Trump ally, challenged the president of the Teamsters to a fistfight in the middle of a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing, forcing the 82-year-old chair, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), to step in to keep blood from being spilled on his carpet.

Mullin told the Teamsters leader to “stand your butt up” and sprung out of his chair while taking off a wedding ring to prepare for melee.


The latest in politics and policy. Direct to your inbox. Sign up for the 12:30 Report newsletter

The Oklahoma senator, a former mixed martial arts fighter, told CNN on Wednesday he had “full intentions” of pummeling the labor boss right there in the hearing room.

“First thing I thought of when I stood up I thought, ‘I’m going to break my hand on this guy’s face’ and will take my wedding ring off,” he said.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who voted twice to convict Trump of impeachment charges and will retire at the end of next year, said that unfortunately, in his view, the Republican Party has become the party of Trump.

He said Mullin’s attempt to challenge a witness to a brawl in the middle of a hearing was “clearly unfortunate.”


“I can understand losing one’s temper,” he said. “But it’s more important to rein it in.”

Romney said “there’s no question” there’s been a coarsening of political discourse in America.

“I don’t think that President Trump created something in the population that wasn’t there, but he brought something out that had been held behind norms and comity that is now out in the open,” he said. “Have we coarsened our debates and our dialogue? No question.”


Top Stories from The Hill

• House Ethics Committee releases scathing report on George Santos
• Paul Pelosi attacker found guilty of federal kidnapping, assault charges
• Trump signals he’s out for revenge in second term
• GOP senators clash with Tuberville over military nominees late into night

The incident reminded some senators of Trump encouraging supporters to beat up protesters at one of his presidential campaign rallies in 2016.

“If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them,” Trump told the cheering crowd. “I’ll pay the legal fees.”

Trump’s use of violent rhetoric has since become almost routine.


Last year, he said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) had a “death wish” because he voted for bipartisan legislation, asserting without evidence that the lawmaker supported the bills “because he hates Donald J. Trump, and he knows I am opposed to them.”

In a Veterans Day speech last week, the former president vowed to “root out” the “radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.”

Some lawmakers worry Trump’s belligerent style is starting to spread throughout Congress and politics more generally.


“It’s very concerning to me, and I feel like it really was unleashed by Donald Trump in the very beginning, in 2016, when he said I’ll pay your bail if you want to beat up a protester at the rally or ‘punch people in the face.’ All of that has gotten a sense of glorified attention and support, and it’s just gotten worse and worse,” Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said of the brawl that nearly broke out at Tuesday’s committee hearing.

“I worry about our young people looking at this. I worry about what this says about our society and respect for our society and respect for one another. And it leads to things like Jan. 6 and it’s OK to bust windows,” she said.

Republican senators echoed Stabenow’s concern when asked about the heated confrontation.


“It’s not the route that I’d like to see any of us go,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.). “I understand the reason why there was anger.”

But he said “both individuals should have had a different approach to resolving it.”

Rounds, who endorsed Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-S.C.) now-defunct presidential campaign because he liked its positive message, said “you’re seeing folks on both sides of the political spectrum being less respectful of other people.”


Rounds observed that Trump recognized before most other politicians the anger brewing in American society and seized on it for political gain, but he warned it’s a dangerous path for the nation’s leaders.

“I don’t know if he changed [norms] or simply responded to what he saw from other people. I think he sensed that the American people were allowing this to go on, and he’s taken advantage of it, but it’s not the direction that I think our country should go,” he said.

“I really do believe that the Founding Fathers wanted us to get together here in Washington, work out our differences, and they do not expect us to be caning one another,” he added.

Republicans accused Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) of threatening violence against conservative justices on the Supreme Court in 2020 when he warned that Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch “have unleashed a whirlwind” and “will pay the price” if they ruled against abortion rights.

Schumer later acknowledged on the Senate floor “I should not have used the words I used” after Chief Justice John Roberts rebuked what he called the Democratic leader’s “dangerous” rhetoric.

There was another awkward incident on Capitol Hill on Wednesday when Trump acolyte Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) essentially called her fellow Republican Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) “a p—-” after he said she lacked “maturity and experience.”

Another Trump ally, House Oversight Committee Chair Jim Comer (R-Ky.) on Tuesday dismissed a Democratic colleague, Rep. Jared Moscowitz (Fla.), at a hearing by telling him, “You look like a Smurf.” The two lawmakers got into an argument during a hearing about the Biden family’s business dealings.

Also on Tuesday, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) caused a scene when he allegedly elbowed Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) — who voted McCarthy out of his leadership job last month— in the back while Burchett was talking to a reporter.

Burchett spun around and told McCarthy: “You got no guts.”

“What kind of chicken move is that? You’re pathetic, man,” he said.

McCarthy later brushed off the incident, saying, “If I’d kidney punched him, he’d be on the ground.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4311944-trump-violent-talk-taking-over-congress/

 

usMusk

Trump’s channeling Hitler for protection
Chauncey DeVega
October 31, 2023·11 min read
1.2k



Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump, speechifying Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images

• 
  

Donald Trump’s former wife, Ivana, reportedly said that he kept a copy of Adolf Hitler’s book “My New Order” in a cabinet next to the bed and would read from it before going to sleep. Trump has long denied that he read Hitler’s book for its hateful message. Instead, he pivots and prevaricates, claiming that if ever did read “My New Order” it was because he admired the language and speeches. But Trump’s denials always stretched the limits of credulity. He told Vanity Fair in 1990, “If I had these speeches, and I am not saying that I do, I would never read them.”

For decades, Trump has repeatedly shown himself to be a casual antisemite. Throughout his presidency and beyond, he has continued to advocate for and amplify antisemitism and white supremacy. As the manifestly corrupt ex-president faces the growing reality of (finally) going to prison for his many obvious crimes, he is now publicly wallowing even more in antisemitism and white supremacy. As demonstrated by a recent series of speeches, fundraising emails and other communications, Trump has erased any lingering doubt about the sincerity and earnestness of his antisemitic and white supremacist values and beliefs. That copy of Hitler’s book of speeches was in all likelihood well read and closely studied.

For example, in a recent series of fundraising emails, Trump repeatedly claimed that he and his followers in the MAGA movement (whom he describes as “patriots”) are “victims” who have been “betrayed” and “stabbed in the back” by Republican “traitors” who are insufficiently loyal to “the cause” and doing the bidding of the Democrats, George Soros and other “globalists." (Soros is Jewish and a Holocaust survivor; in this context, as in right-wing discourse generally, “globalist” is an antisemitic slur.)


In this fundraising email, Trump attacks Soros and puts him at the center of the “plot” against him:

Patriot,

While no one was looking, George Soros made a “MASSIVE DONATION” just in time for the 3rd Quarter FEC Deadline…

Soros knows that Biden is a disastrous candidate. He’s seen all of the many polls that show Biden LOSING BADLY to me in the swing states that will decide the 2024 election.

And thanks to your support, we ensured that Soros never got the nasty, divisive GOP primary that he had been hoping for. While RINOs have certainly tried to attack us with nefarious, backstabbing plots, we’ve prevailed every single time and to this day remain the INDISPUTABLE frontrunner – and it’s not even close.

So, Soros only has two remaining options to keep the White House under his control…

…hope that Biden jails me for the rest of my life as an innocent man OR spend enough billions to BUY the 2024 election.

This latest 3rd Quarter FEC report confirms that Soros will spend whatever it takes to continue bleeding America dry for his own personal benefit.

Soros and many other globalist special interests have trillions of dollars at play in this election.

But we have something far more noble at play in this election: our country.

On Sunday, Trump sent out the following fundraising email in which he brags about how the “plot” against him continues to fail citing Mike Pence's decision to drop out of the 2024 Republican presidential primary.

Patriot,

The Republican primary is coming to a GLORIOUS END.

At the end of August, RINOs set a 60-day timeline to try and DESTROY our movement and recapture the GOP for the failed, broken establishment.

But that 60-day timeline has officially expired – and we’re still standing stronger than ever before.

I can’t say the same for the others…

Yesterday, the THIRD Republican candidate for president DROPPED OUT now that it’s clear that the 60-day plot FAILED MISERABLY.

This is just the beginning. Candidates are running out of special interest money. They’re ALL stuck in the single digits. More and more will fall like dominoes.

There is no “plot” against Donald Trump. Today’s Republican Party and its leaders and other influentials on the right-wing and “conservative” movement are Trump’s supplicants, part of his neofascist movement, and political gimps who are desperate for his approval. This includes Mike Pence, a man whom Trump’s followers apparently intended to murder on Jan. 6 as part of the coup plot and terrorist attack on the Capitol.

Hitler and his Nazi propagandists repeatedly used similar lies about being “backstabbed” and “betrayed” by a shadowy Jewish-led conspiracy of supposed communists, socialists and other nefarious forces as a way of building and keeping support for their fascist movement and creating the climate for the Holocaust. Trump and the other Republican fascists and members of the white right and “conservative” movement are increasingly apocalyptic in their language and imagery, and describe the goal of returning Trump to the White House — by constitutional or quasi-legal means or through outright violence and the "Red Caesar" scenario — is a literal matter of life and death for white America. To great effect, the Nazis also deployed similar rhetoric and imagery.

As a range of national security and law enforcement experts have warned, such a narrative frame encourages right-wing political violence and terrorism against “the enemy” because such behavior is understood to be defensive and therefore justified.

In all, Trump’s channeling of Hitler’s and other fascists’ logic and view of society and democracy is expansive and growing.

In a speech last Monday to his MAGA cultists in New Hampshire, Trump told them to not even worry about voting in the 2024 Election: “You don’t have to vote, don’t worry about voting. The voting, we got plenty of votes.”

Instead of voting, Trump told his supporters to “watch” (which in the larger context of the ex-president’s behavior and fascist threats means to intimidate) those Americans (i.e. black and brown people) who support President Biden and the Democrats. Here, Trump is preemptively delegitimizing and nullifying the results of the 2024 Election (if he loses) as a pretext for engaging in violence against President Biden and the Democrats and the MAGA movement’s other perceived enemies.

In keeping with his Hitler-like threats about how non-white immigrants and migrants (and the Other, more generally) are poisoning (White) American society, Trump is now telling his followers that he will reinstate the Muslim ban, deport Palestinians who do not support Israel’s war against Hamas, and make America into a Christofascist theocracy if he returns to the White House in 2025, as the Associated Press reports:

“Bad things are happening, but we keep going up,” he said.

Later, at his rally, continued to criticize Biden’s response to the Hamas attack on Israel, calling the speech the president gave in response to the war last Thursday night “a grotesque betrayal of Israel” and “one of the most dangerous and deluded speeches ever delivered from the Oval Office.”…

In the weeks since, Trump has been leaning into the anti-immigration rhetoric that fueled his 2016 campaign, calling for an expanded Muslim travel ban and new ideological tests for immigrants. He has also warned that those who want to do harm to the U.S. may be infiltrating the country’s southern border along with South American migrants.

He read the lyrics of “The Snake,” a dark song that he’s used since his first campaign as an allegory of what he says are the dangers of illegal immigration, and claimed Biden would turn the country “into a hotbed for jihadists and make our cities into dumping grounds resembling the Gaza Strip.”

Trump and the Republican fascists’ and “conservative” movement’s plans to end multiracial pluralistic democracy are generally understood to be unconstitutional. But such antidemocracy forces do not care about the rule of law and standing norms and values and institutions: the struggle is revolutionary; power and winning are all that matters.

Trump’s continued refusals to obey the court’s order(s) to cease making threats against and otherwise intimidating witnesses, prosecutors, jurors, and court staff is a function of the ex-president’s antisocial personality and diseased mind but also a fascist signal to his followers that he and they are above the law.

In his fundraising emails, speeches, interviews and other communications, Trump is continuing to embrace his identity as a fascist-MAGA-Jesus-martyr who is supposedly willing to go to prison and even die for his followers and the movement. This too is a common rhetorical device that was used by Hitler and other fascist and fake populist leaders – and cult leaders. On this, historian Federico Finkelstein, author of “A Brief History of Fascist Lies”, explained to Salon via email how:

This belongs to the same logic and histories of fascism and far-right populism. Prison is represented as the place to spread propaganda. Hitler was in prison for his crimes against democracy when he wrote Mein Kampf. Other fascists tried to imitate the Nazi leader. For example, Argentine fascist Enrique Oses and many others in the interwar years. Here Trump returns to the propaganda of inverting reality and presents justice being served as a moment of ideological persecution by enemies and former friends alike.

A prisoner, in fact, of his own cult, Trump sincerely believes that people that disagree with him, or worse, accept he participated in crimes, are traitors with infernal motifs. Once again, this represents, Trump’s increasing flight from reality.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

This language about “backstabbing” and “betrayal” resonates with Trump’s followers because it confirms the paranoia of authoritarian personalities. Followers of these cult type ideologies are prone to believe in paranoias of persecution.

The mainstream media continues to mostly downplay, ignore, and outright deny the existential dangers of Trump’s white supremacy and antisemitism – which is to de facto normalize such evil behavior – for a variety of reasons including the incorrect assumption that such information is no longer “newsworthy” and “everyone already knows about it”. Such a decision is a betrayal of the most basic responsibilities of the news media and Fourth Estate in a democracy.

Trump’s egomania, malignant narcissism and cult leader-victim identity reached another crescendo last Monday when he claimed during a speech to the MAGA cultists in New Hampshire that he is being persecuted like the late Nelson Mandela.

The AP continues, "“I don’t mind being Nelson Mandela because I’m doing it for a reason,” Trump told an amped-up crowd of supporters at a sports complex in Derry, New Hampshire. ”We’ve got to save our country from these fascists, these lunatics that we’re dealing with. They’re horrible people and they’re destroying our country.””

The late Nelson Mandela was a hope warrior and freedom fighter. Mandela never surrendered to the temptations of hatred, even when such feelings would have been fully justified, reasonable and wholly human. By comparison, Donald Trump has shown himself to be a racial authoritarian, neofascist, white supremacist, antisemite and an apparent sociopath if not a psychopath. For Trump to suggest, never mind believe, that there are any positive similarities between him and Nelson Mandela is an act of moral abomination, one that reflects the larger evil of the American neofascist movement and Trumpism.

In an essay several weeks ago here at Salon I wrote the following: As "the walls close in" on Donald Trump, he and his agents and followers will only become more violent, racist, and antisemitic. Such an outcome is very predictable and in no way surprising or climactic; that makes it no less dangerous to the future of the country and its democracy and the lives and safety of the American people. To save American democracy, Donald Trump and the larger neofascist movement must be defeated at the polls, in the courts, and through direct corporeal politics across the country.”

Unfortunately, I must reiterate that warning.

Matters are only becoming more dire as the 2024 election approaches. Trump is leading or tied with Biden in the early presidential polls, despite facing multiple criminal trials and the real possibility of going to prison for the rest of his natural life. With his channeling of Hitler and naked desires and plans to become America’s first dictator, Trump’s ugliness should be repulsive to the American people. Instead, many tens of millions of them are drawn to it. This is more of an indictment of the character of the American people and a sick culture that produced Trumpism and its related evils and other great troubles than Donald Trump. Tomorrow is far from guaranteed and the American people are quickly running out of time to save their democracy – assuming that they even want to do the hard work necessary to accomplish that goal.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-channeling-hitler-protection-094501233.html

 

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Historian says Trump has been 're-educating' his followers to embrace violence and that Matt Gaetz is now doing the same
Charles R. Davis
Oct 12, 2023, 7:26 AM MDT




Donald Trump; Matt Gaetz.
James Devaney/GC Images; Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
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• Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian at NYU, accused Trump on Wednesday of encouraging violence.
• Trump is "re-educating" his followers, she said, wanting them to see violence "in a positive light."
• Ben-Ghiat spoke at a conference in New York City hosted by The New Republic.

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Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian and expert on the far right in the United States and abroad, is convinced that former President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement are the real deal: a "right-wing counter-revolution in the fascist tradition."

Speaking Wednesday at a summit in Manhattan hosted by The New Republic, a liberal magazine, Ben-Ghiat — who urged Trump's prosecution in an interview last year with Insider — likened the United States to Chile in the years before a 1973 coup d'etat saw a socialist president overthrown and replaced by a conservative military dictator.

The forces of the right in Chile first spent years working to "discredit democracy and build an appetite for authoritarian rule," according to Ben-Ghiat, who teaches at New York University. It's the same kind of campaign she accused Trump of leading himself since he announced his first run for the presidency, setting the stage for the January 6 insurrection with years of aggressive rhetoric.

Trump "has been re-educating Americans since 2015," Ben-Ghiat said, "using his rallies, using his events, to see violence differently; to see violence in a positive light." He's a "superb propagandist," she said, and in his appeals to the baser emotions — of resentment and vengeance — he's helped his followers come to view "violence as necessary and patriotic."



"That's why he went to Waco," she said, referring to where Trump rallied his followers in March. Waco is where dozens of cult members died in a confrontation with the FBI under President Bill Clinton. It has ever since been a rallying cry for anti-government extremists. "That's why he went the gun store," she continued (the former president said he wanted to buy a Glock handgun but ultimately, according to his campaign, did not). "His campaign is a radicalization vehicle."

Some certainly took the president's comments on January 6, 2021, as a license to storm the US Capitol and try to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, having already lost at the ballot box and in the courts. Prosecutors also accuse Trump of encouraging violence against anyone involved in the federal case over his efforts to stay in power, intimidating not just court staff but prospective jurors.

Violence, Ben-Ghiat argued, has indeed been normalized in MAGA politics. And it's not just Trump anymore. That's a troubling sign, she said, pointing to a rise in anti-democratic thinking.

"You have extremism that becomes mainstream," she said. "We're seeing that in our country. You have violence seen as the only way to change history and move things forward."

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In August, for example, Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz appeared at the Iowa State Fair, where he insisted that "only through force do we make any change in a corrupt town like Washington, DC." That, Ben-Ghiat argued, is a chilling bit of incitement.

"I read that as him saying, 'Excuse me, elections won't work, democratic reform doesn't work," she said. But violence does.

"Trumpism and its allied movements… they're all hitting notes that go back to the original fascist years," Ben-Ghiat said.


https://www.businessinsider.com/tru...-embrace-violence-historian-january-6-2023-10

 

It is important to understand exactly what we are talking about.


fascism
noun
fas·cism ˈfa-ˌshi-zəm

also ˈfa-ˌsi-

Synonyms of fascism


1
often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition



Trump 'lost any benefit of the doubt': Conservative says ex-president is now a fascist

M.L. Nestel
November 16, 2023 9:04PM ET



Donald Trump (AFP)


A former Republican columnist concedes: Trump is teetering toward fascism.

Time isn't proving kind for the case that Donald Trump's substance and positions so far in his third run for the White House are taking on fascist leanings, The Atlantic's Tom Nichols wrote in a column titled "Trump Crosses a Crucial Line".

"The former president, after years of espousing authoritarian beliefs, has fully embraced the language of fascism," he writes. "But Americans—even those who have supported him—can still refuse to follow him deeper into darkness."

Nichols defines fascism as a "holistic ideology that elevates the state over the individual (except for a sole leader, around whom there is a cult of personality), glorifies hypernationalism and racism, worships military power, hates liberal democracy, and wallows in nostalgia and historical grievances."

He adds: "It asserts that all public activity should serve the regime, and that all power must be gathered in the fist of the leader and exercised only by his party."

The writer claims he warded off the loaded term and essentially gave the Trump the benefit of the doubt.

ALSO READ: Selling hate, vulgarity and violence: How Trump and MAGA overran a quaint Midwest festival

Instead, Nichols likened as a candidate and ruler Trump not as a fascist but certainly a narcissist and also a "wannabe caudillo" which he characterized as "the kind of Latin American strongman who cared little about what people believe so long as they feared him and left him in power."

He said he still held off anointing the term to Trump after he was elected because he writes "I suspected that the day might come when it would be an accurate term to describe him, and I want to preserve its power to shock and to alarm us."

That day has apparently come.

"The events of the past month, and especially Trump’s Veterans Day speech, confirm to me that the moment has arrived," writes Nichols.

He blames the 45th president for "ramping up his rhetoric" at his rally speeches and interviews by adopting "obsessively germaphobic language of Adolf Hitler" toward foreign immigrants and even fellow citizens.

Nichols notes that, "Trump no longer aims to be some garden-variety supremo; he is now promising to be a threat to every American he identifies as an enemy—and that’s a lot of Americans."

In his caution to fellow citizens, Nichols suggests that Trump "whether from intention or stupidity or fear, has identified himself as a fascist under almost any reasonable definition of the word.... he has abandoned any democratic pretenses, and lost any benefit of the doubt about who and what he is.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-lost-benefit-fascism/

 

Oh, well played.
American hater managed to call Trump a fascist, a narcissist and a caudillo, without any sort of specific proof or anything but opinion.
Worthless opinion at that.

 

Authoritarianism Expert Has Worrying Response To Chris Hayes’ Quandary Over Trump
Lee Moran
Updated Wed, November 15, 2023 at 5:26 AM MST·1 min read
289

• 
  

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on Tuesday said he was torn between taking seriously and just seeing as fear-mongering the reported plans that Donald Trump has to go after critics, conduct mass deportations and introduce camps for immigrants if he wins back the White House next year.

Authoritarianism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat told Hayes that threats from Trump and his allies should definitely be taken at face value.

It’s “what fascists do,” said the history professor at New York University and author of “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present.”

“In all of my research, every time these people come to power, or before they come to power, when they come on the scene, they tell us who they are and what they’re going to do. And people don’t want to listen. Perhaps it’s too upsetting, they don’t want to take them seriously,” Ben-Ghiat cautioned.

People initially thought Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was “some sort of blusterer,” she said. “We don’t take them seriously at our peril, and often it’s when it’s too late people wake up and say, ‘Oh, I should have listened when Trump said he could shoot someone and not lose any followers in Jan. 2016.’”

Ben-Ghiat added, “Back then, he was telling us he was sympathetic to violence, was capable of violence personally, and he would be loved for all of this. And he is loved for this. And he’s been trying to reeducate Americans since 2016 to feel that violence is patriotic and justified.”


https://www.yahoo.com/news/authoritarianism-expert-worrying-response-chris-092928194.html

 

In Iowa speech, Trump praises foreign dictators’ strength, slams ‘weak’ Biden
Samuel Benson
Sat, November 18, 2023 at 8:39 PM MST·6 min read
1k



Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump speaks during a rally, Saturday, Nov. 18, 2023, in Fort Dodge, Iowa. | Bryon Houlgrave, Associated Press

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Just days after Chinese President Xi Jinping made a historic visit to the U.S., former president Donald Trump heaped praise on him, calling him “a great guy.”

During a campaign rally in Fort Dodge, Iowa, Trump called Xi “fierce” and “smart,” contrasting him with President Joe Biden, who Trump called “weak” and “a very stupid person.” Biden said the Chinese president is a “dictator” after meeting with him in California this week.

“Now, the press doesn’t like it when I say good things about (Xi),” Trump told a crowd of about 1,400 people in a high school gymnasium. “What can I say? He runs 1.4 billion people with an iron hand.”


The Trump rally, officially labeled a “commit to caucus event,” was Trump’s lone event this week in Iowa, the first state to cast votes in the 2024 presidential primary. Hours before the rally began, attendees wrapped around the school in a long line. Several stands selling “Trump 2024” paraphernalia dotted the sidewalks and lawns. Upon entering the high school gymnasium, the scoreboard greeted guests with a not-so-subtle message: The score was 45 to 47, with 20:24 on the clock.

During his remarks, Trump also spoke favorably of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian President Viktor Orbán, praising both of them as some of the “strongest leaders” in the world. Later, he bragged about a conversation he once had with Abdul Ghani Baradar, a leader of the Taliban in Afghanistan, boasting that Baradar called him “your excellency.”

“He called me ‘your excellency,’” Trump said. “I wonder if he calls Biden ‘your excellency.’”

Biden has called Putin a “murderous dictator”; he has called Orbán a “thug.”



https://www.yahoo.com/news/iowa-speech-trump-praises-foreign-033930537.html

 

Donald Trump dreams of an American Fourth Reich — and he's not kidding
Chauncey DeVega
Mon, November 20, 2023 at 3:45 AM MST·8 min read
664



Donald Trump Alon Skuy/Getty Images

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Donald Trump’s hate sermons are becoming even more intense and combustible. As he comes ever closer to openly quoting Adolf Hitler and the other 20th-century fascists, his behavior is clearly intentional and strategic.

Trump publicly admires and praises tyrants and demagogues and views them as role models. If he returns to power in 2025, he intends to create an American Fourth Reich. Consider Trump's speeches, interviews and social media posts over the last few weeks.

At a rally in Hialeah, Florida, last Wednesday, Trump painted a picture of a hellish (predominantly white) America overrun by serial killers and other human monsters from foreign (and predominantly nonwhite) countries, insisting that only he could save (white) America from the death and contamination caused by Democrats and “the left.”


“Anybody ever hear of Hannibal Lecter?” Trump asked the crowd. “He was a nice fellow. But that’s what’s coming into our country right now.”

The Atlantic’s John Hendrickson continues from there:

The leader of the Republican Party — and quite likely the 2024 GOP nominee — was on an extended rant about mental institutions, prisons, and, to use his phrase, “empty insane asylums.” Speaking to thousands of die-hard supporters at a rally in South Florida, Trump lamented that, under President Joe Biden, the United States has become “the dumping ground of the world.” That he had casually praised one of the most infamous psychopathic serial killers in cinema history was but an aside, brushed over and forgotten.

This was a dystopian, at times gothic speech. It droned on for nearly 90 minutes. Trump attacked the “liars and leeches” who have been “sucking the life and blood” out of the country. Those unnamed people were similar to, yet different from, the “rotten, corrupt, and tyrannical establishment” of Washington, D.C. — a place Trump famously despises, and to which he nonetheless longs to return.

Over the past seven or years or s, I have watched many of Trump’s speeches. This was one of the most frightening and most disturbing I have seen. It was fascinating in much the same way as witnessing the aftermath of a horrible car accident or watching a horror movie.

Although many among the news media, pundit class and other professional politics-watchers avoid saying this, Trump’s dark charisma can be highly compelling. I'm convinced they feel its allure as well, even if they publicly deny it.

On Friday, in an interview with Univision, Trump threatened to use the Department of Justice to put his political enemies in prison: “They have done something that allows the next party … if I happen to be president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say, ‘Go down and indict them.’ They’d be out of business. They’d be out of the election.” Trump also defended his regime’s cruel family separation policy (and by implication concentration camp system) that targeted millions of brown and Black migrants and refugees.

These white supremacist plans are part of a larger project to revoke birthright citizenship, invoke the Alien Enemies Act to imprison or deport (or worse) the Trump regime’s perceived enemies, and using the law more generally as a weapon to crush dissent and resistance.

Last weekend, on Veterans Day, Trump escalated his Nazi-style threats by declaring that his political enemies to be "vermin" or human poison to be purged from the system. That came at a MAGA rally in New Hampshire and also in a post on his Truth Social platform:

In honor of our great Veterans on Veteran’s Day, we pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, Fascists, and Radical Left Thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our Country, lie, steal, and cheat on Elections, and will do anything possible, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America, and the American Dream. The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave, than the threat from within. Despite the hatred and anger of the Radical Left Lunatics who want to destroy our Country, we will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

At a fundraising event in San Francisco last Tuesday, President Biden spoke out against Trump’s antisemitism and white supremacy: “In just the last few days, Trump has said, if he returns office, he’s gonna go after all those who oppose him and wipe out what he called ... the vermin in America — a specific phrase with a specific meaning…. It echoes language you heard in Nazi Germany in the '30s.”

In a post on Truth Social that went largely ignored by the mainstream media, Trump continued to summon Nazi imagery by threatening to imprison “Radical Left Zealots" enemies” in a “mental institution”:

Deranged Jack Smith, Andrew Weissmann, Lisa Monaco, the “team of losers and misfits” from CREW, and all the rest of the Radical Left Zealots and Thugs who have been working illegally for years to “take me down,” will end up, because of their suffering from a horrible disease, TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME (TDS!), in a Mental Institution by the time my next term as President is successfully completed. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

Declaring that the enemies of the regime and the Great Leader are mentally ill and then imprisoning them for "treatment" is a common practice in authoritarian states.

Predictably, the mainstream news media and responsible political class responded with performative shock and surprise at Trump’s week-long channeling of Hitler and Nazism. In fact, Trump’s hateful behavior and language are no surprise.

For at least the last seven years (and for decades before that), Trump has shown himself to be a casual antisemite. He reportedly once slept with a copy of Hitler’s speeches in a cabinet next to his bed. It is no coincidence that professed Nazis, white supremacists and other hate-mongers are among Trump’s strongest supporters, or that he refuses to publicly disavow or condemn them.

It appears that the American news media and political class, and by implication the mass public, have already forgotten that since at least September Trump has publicly spread conspiracy theories about being “stabbed in the back,” suggesting that the country is being “poisoned” by immigrants and that “good Jews” should support him while “bad Jews” will be punished for their “betrayals.”

But the mainstream media is bored with Trump's rhetoric and has now largely moved on. That irresponsible choice further normalizes Trump’s evil and the larger neofascist assault on the country’s democracy and civil society.

It is nearly incredible that the presumed nominee of one of the country’s two institutional political parties is explicitly channeling Hitler and the Nazis. That should be dominating the news. Trump's Fourth Reich aspirations constitute a national emergency. But America is an unhealthy society where all this will likely be normalized as just "culture war" tactics or political "polarization."



If Donald Trump's American neofascist movement did not have tens of millions of followers, it would not pose an existential threat to democracy. History is full of examples of “good people” who become capable of doing horrible things to others once they are given permission and encouraged by fascist leaders, fake populists and demagogues.

In his book “Promise Me You’ll Shoot Yourself,” which examines mass suicides by Germans at the end of World War II, historian Florian Huber writes:

After leaving the German Reich in 1933 to run the Paris offices of the Daily Express, British newspaper correspondent Sefton Delmer returned in 1936. He found people transformed. Three years had been enough to put them under the Führer’s spell. “They were adoring his firm ruthless rule. They were in raptures at being told what to think, whom to hate, when to cheer.” … He knew, and knew how to galvanize, their feelings, yearnings and prejudices—how to transform depression into exhilaration. As a man of the people, he spoke their language. He was the faith healer they had been waiting for.” …

Silence in the arena, as his voice swelled. He spoke of victory over the past, of the present, and the future, work and happiness — and every member of the audience seemed to feel as if he we addressing them personally. ... [H]e transformed their vague but urgent feelings into something more tangible. People’s longings and resentments were laid out before them, on public view. Their most secret thoughts were no longer to be ashamed of; they belonged to everyone in the hall.

Trump has a similar power over his MAGA followers. Here is Hendrickson’s description of the scene at Trump’s Florida rally last week:

No other candidate has legions of fans who will bake in the Florida sun for hours before gates open. No one else can draw enough people to even hold a rally this size, let alone spawn a traveling rally-adjacent road show, with a pop-up midway of vendors hawking T-shirts and buttons and ball caps and doormats and Christmas ornaments. Voters don’t fan themselves with cardboard cutouts of Chris Christie’s head.

Multiple merchandise vendors told me that the shirts featuring Trump’s mug shot have become their best sellers. Some other tees bore slogans: ultra maga, ultra maga and proud, cancel me, trump rallies matter, 4 time indictment champ, super duper ultra maga, f*ck biden. “Thank you and have a MAGA day!” one vendor called out with glee. … In the hours before the night’s headliner, this felt less like a political event and more like a revival.

Trump’s Fourth Reich will not be an exact copy of its German counterpart from nearly a century ago. Instead, Trump’s Fourth Reich (or that of his successors) will be adapted to fit contemporary America’s cultural norms, values and institutions. The final horror is still evolving, but the threat and dangers are very clear. The American people are running out of time.



https://www.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-dreams-american-fourth-104502547.html

 

The desperation is palpable lately.
Trump truly scares the shit out of despicables.
And all they have to offer is Biden.
That must scare them even more.

 

Oh look swamy is back with his visions of the future. Remember all that boasting about a supposed big red wave.

Shooter is the boy who cried wolf, eh

 

I will admit it is terrifying to me that treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans hate the United States of America so much they would throw away our Constitution our democracy and every great thing the United States of America has ever stood for a fascist dictator. Never in my life did I ever think they could hate the United States of America that much after everything this country has given all of us.



Violence is Trump's Brand
The visit to a gun shop to admire a customized "Trump 45" Glock was inevitable

Ruth Ben-Ghiat
Sep 27, 2023



This essay came out of my conversation last night with Chris Hayes and George Conway on MSNBC about Trump’s incitements to violence and the leverage that his threats have had on some of the most powerful people in US politics.

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How unsurprising that former president Donald Trump showed up at a gun store in South Carolina and declared that he wanted to buy a gun, specifically, a customized "Trump 45." Glock. Since 2015, his political project has centered on cultivating extremists, radicalizing ordinary Americans, and building a civilian army to commit violence in his name.

Since the Fascist years, authoritarians have used propaganda and their personality cults to change the perception of violence among their followers. The goal is to remove hesitations about tolerating or participating in violence against one’s compatriots by presenting that violence as necessary and even morally righteous.

To that end, authoritarians conjure existential threats from an ever-expanding roster of enemies —immigrants, Jews, and leftists among them—-and present violence as the only way to save the people from annihilation and save the nation from utter ruin. "If you don't fight like hell, you won't have a country anymore," Trump raged to the thugs assembled on Jan. 6, before he sent them off to assault the Capitol.

That terrible day made clear Trump’s endgame in cultivating as many individuals as possible and preparing them psychologically to be willing to persecute his enemies. In doing so, Trump wrote a new page of the coup playbook: if you can't get the military to cooperate with your takeover attempt, you have a civilian army at your disposal.

On Jan. 6, that army included anti-government extremists and hate group adherents but also many ordinary people with no prior history of militancy. These "middle-aged, middle-class insurrectionists," in Robert A Pape and Kevin Ruby's words, believed Trump's lies about winning the 2020 election and justified their violence on moral and patriotic grounds.

Two years later, it is clearer than ever that inciting political violence is Trump’s political project, and his campaign appearances and events must be seen in that light. Trump is a marketer. In previous decades his work of persuasion involved getting people to buy his branded objects: Trump apartments, Trump wine, Trump steaks, Trump water, and more. Now his brand is violence, and his rallies and other events sell that violence, presenting it as the preferred way to resolve differences in society and as the only way to move history forward. The gun shop stop was merely the most obvious of these attempts to expand his corps of armed followers.


Trump water, wine, and steaks displayed at a 2016 campaign event.

Trump examining a Glock named after him in South Carolina, Sept 24, 2023. Doug Mills, New York Times.
Trump’s greatest success has been with GOP politicians, who have made his ideals of violence into party dogma, declaring in 2022 that Jan. 6 was "legitimate political discourse” and brandishing assault rifles in campaign ads as proof of their commitment to violence.


Even an appearance at the Iowa State Fair can be a radicalization opportunity. Rep. Matt Gaetz showed up there to be with Trump and delivered a crucial message. "We are having a great time at the fair. We love standing with you. But we know that only through force do we make any change in a corrupt town like Washington, D.C.," said Gaetz. That “but” is the point. Stumping at state fairs is politics as usual. Gaetz is saying that is no longer sufficient. Change in America will come not through democratic means —legislation, reform, elections—but through violence. Get ready, he is telling the crowd. We need you.

Trump's 2024 campaign is making that call to violence far more explicit. The kick-off event in Waco, TX, site of anti-government extremist violence, set the tone. So does the visit to the gun store, coming just after Trump’s suggestion that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, who refused to aid Trump's coup attempt, should be executed.

"Perhaps it was always going to come to this. A MAGA hat and a gun," I wrote in 2021. "Two pathways to the heart of America, two symbols of what the country holds most dear: celebrities and their brands, and the right to bear arms. The MAGA hat draws them in, but the gun keeps them there."

https://lucid.substack.com/p/violence-is-trumps-brand

 

Yep.
Trump scares the american hater.
The realization that all he has to counter trump is biden terrifies him.

 

Can't wait for the upcoming trials in 2024.

Hey trumptards