All Things Trump: Is it over yet?

[Seabass]

https://www.newsweek.com/robert-paxton- ... st-1560652

I've Hesitated to Call Donald Trump a Fascist. Until Now


I resisted for a long time applying the fascist label to Donald J. Trump. He did indeed display some telltale signs. In 2016, a newsreel clip of Trump's plane taxiing up to a hangar where cheering supporters awaited reminded me eerily of Adolf Hitler's electoral campaign in Germany in July 1932, the first airborne campaign in history, where the arrival of the Führer's plane electrified the crowd. Once the rally began, with Hitler and Mussolini, Trump mastered the art of back-and-forth exchanges with his enraptured listeners. There was the threat of physical violence ("lock her up!"), sometimes leading to the forceful ejection of hecklers. The Proud Boys stood in convincingly for Hitler's Storm Troopers and Mussolini's squadristi. The MAGA hats even provided a bit of uniform. The "America First" message and the leader's arrogant swagger fit the fascist model.

But these are matters of surface decor. How did Trump relate to more profound social, political, economic, and cultural forces in American life? Like Hitler, among the first political leaders to master radio, Trump mastered electronic media like Twitter and won the support of America's largest television chain, Fox News. Like the fascist leaders Trump understood the deep disaffection of parts of society for traditional leaders and institutions, and he knew how to exploit a widespread fear of national division and decline. Like Hitler and Mussolini he knew how to pose as the only effective bulwark against an advancing Left, all the more fearful because it took on cultural forms unfamiliar to provincial rural America—feminism, Black Power, gay rights.

But Trump and Trumpism also differ in some important ways from the historical fascisms. The circumstances are profoundly different. Although the United States has its problems, these are minor compared to those of the defeated Germany of 1932, with over 30 percent of workers unemployed, or the divided Italy at the brink of civil war in 1921. Most Americans are employed, or were until the pandemic, while those lucky enough to own stocks are in clover. American political institutions are not deadlocked, as were those of Germany in 1932, when President Hindenburg believed that only Hitler could stop the rapidly growing Communist Party. American circumstances are unlike those of Italy in 1921, where the King believed that the only way to stop the runaway take-overs of Italian cities by Mussolini's new nationalist and anti-socialist mass movement he called Fascism was to invite its leader into office. The crisis created by Trump's refusal to accept a legitimate electoral outcome seems almost trivial by comparison.

A further fundamental difference is Trump's relation to the world of business. Whereas Hitler and Mussolini, at least at the beginning, won their mass audiences with promises to shake up capitalist power, and whereas, once in power with the support of the same businessmen against Labor, the fascist leaders had subjected businessmen, often against their preferences, to the demands of forced rearmament, Trump gave American business what they wanted: the relaxation of regulations and access to world markets. It seemed to me better to avoid one more facile and polemical use of the fascist label in favor of a more unemotional term, such as oligarchy or plutocracy.

Trump's incitement of the invasion of the Capitol on January 6, 2020 removes my objection to the fascist label. His open encouragement of civic violence to overturn an election crosses a red line. The label now seems not just acceptable but necessary. It is made even more plausible by comparison with a milestone on Europe's road to fascism—an openly fascist demonstration in Paris during the night of February 6, 1934.

On that evening thousands of French veterans of World War I, bitter at rumors of corruption in a parliament already discredited by its inefficacy against the Great Depression, attempted to invade the French parliament chamber, just as the deputies were voting yet another shaky government into power. The veterans had been summoned by right-wing organizations. They made no secret of their wish to replace what they saw as a weak parliamentary government with a fascist dictatorship on the model of Hitler or Mussolini.

Unlike the demonstrators in Washington on January 6, the French demonstrators of February 6, 1934 did not succeed in penetrating the parliament building. But the outcome was much graver. The French government, fearing that the demonstrators, crossing the bridge leading from the Place de la Concorde, were going to break in to the Chamber, authorized the police to shoot. Fifteen demonstrators and one policeman were killed. The French Third Republic had blood on its hands. The ensuing bitter division helps explain why the French prepared only haltingly before 1940 for Hitler's attack, and why the French defeat of June led to the replacement of the Third Republic with the authoritarian Vichy regime.

Curiously, it seems the Washington demonstrators' success at breaching the Capitol gives them less support in American society today than the unsuccessful French demonstrators of February 1934 acquired in their country. In France, elections in June 1936 had a highly contested outcome: the installation of a Jew and a Socialist, Leon Blum, as the French Prime Minister. French fascists remained active opponents of Blum until opportunity came for them again in June 1940 with Hitler's defeat of the French Army, and the replacement of the French parliamentary republic with the authoritarian Vichy regime. In the United States, after the ignominious failure of a shocking fascist attempt to undo Biden's election, the new American President can begin his work of healing on January 20. Despite encouraging early signs and the relative robustness of American institutions, it's too soon for a responsible historian to say whether he'll be more successful in sustaining our Republic than European leaders were in defending theirs.

[Tero]

Giuliani and pillow guy: dumb and dumber
https://mobile.twitter.com/monolithic87 ... 7925799937

[JimC]

One thing about dire predictions of a real fascist takeover in the US; they ignore the "terrible lesson" concept. Nothing really like fascism or the Nazi movement had been seen before Europe in the 30's; there was no clear signposts as to how truly monstrous a road they were heading down, and much of the population was therefore naive and gullible.

Now, we have that terrible lesson etched into cultural awareness. Even if significant numbers currently embrace the rightist paradigm, they will find the bulk of the population much less naive and gullible. At least one would hope so...

[Tero]

4F30062F-E67B-4103-8B77-E32D6B5C23F6.jpeg (83.9 KiB) Viewed 1535 times

[Tero]

On Free republic:
Where is President Trump and why has he been so silent?
Posted on 1/18/2021, 8:32:20 PM by SamAdams76

1/18/2021, 8:46:09 PM by MHGinTN
Rehearsing their lengthy presentations to expose the TRUTH to the American sheeple who have been kept in the dark. I expect it to be done Tuesday during the after work hours, via the emergency broadcasting system. The alert should go to just before launch moments, to insure the enemies of America do not get itchy trigger fingers and plunge the world into a nuclear disaster for which the demon rats would be totally responsible for starting with their thievery and treasons.

[JimC]

We here at Rationalia are the true demon rats!

[NineBerry]

Jesus will come back this year!

[JimC]

Jesus will come back this year!

He popped back to visit his relatives in Mexico, but he'll be back to cut you folks in San Diego's lawns real soon!

[rainbow]

On Free republic:
Where is President Trump and why has he been so silent?
Posted on 1/18/2021, 8:32:20 PM by SamAdams76

1/18/2021, 8:46:09 PM by MHGinTN
Rehearsing their lengthy presentations to expose the TRUTH to the American sheeple who have been kept in the dark. I expect it to be done Tuesday during the after work hours, via the emergency broadcasting system. The alert should go to just before launch moments, to insure the enemies of America do not get itchy trigger fingers and plunge the world into a nuclear disaster for which the demon rats would be totally responsible for starting with their thievery and treasons.

Qonan has finally, at the age of 35 found a girlfriend, and has lost interest in overthrowing the Deep State.

[Animavore]

1.

[Brian Peacock]

Jesus will come back this year!

Any day now. Any day...

[pErvinalia]

1.

No more question marks from Ani. It must be finally happening!

[Tero]

4 units of "nuclear football" can't all be in the same location, in case the president is blown up.

CNN
Handing off the 'football'
Contrary to popular belief, the nuclear football does not contain a button or codes that can automatically launch a nuclear weapon but instead has the equipment and authorities that Trump would use to order a strike.

"There are at least three to four identical 'footballs': one follows the president, one follows the vice president, and one traditionally is set aside for the designated survivor at events like inaugurations and State of the Union addresses," according to Schwartz..

"On January 20, [the extra footballs] will be out of town somewhere with their designees, leaving just [Vice President Mike] Pence's briefcase unless the White House Military Office has prepared (or already has on hand) another backup for Biden," he told CNN.


Additionally, the President is required to carry a plastic card known as the "biscuit" with them at all times. The biscuit contains alphanumeric codes that are used to positively identify the president, who maintains the sole, legal authority to authorize a nuclear launch.
The reason is explicitly laid out in the Constitution, which gives Trump complete authority over the US nuclear arsenal up to the very second Biden is sworn in at noon on Wednesday.

"Under the 20th Amendment -- and absent any invocation of the 25th Amendment that would make Mike Pence the acting president -- Donald Trump is president through 11:59:59 am on January 20. Up to that point in time, he has the sole, legal authority to authorize the use of any or all of the US nuclear arsenal," Schwartz said.

"If an aide with the football accompanies Trump on Air Force One to Florida, that aide will remove himself or herself from Trump's presence at noon and return to Washington, DC, with the briefcase," Schwartz added.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/politics ... index.html

[NineBerry]

[Tero]

Sarah Cooper very aware that Trump supporters missed the point entirely. For them, Trump IS America:

What do you feel like you learned about Trump as a person by paying such close attention to him that maybe other people weren’t getting?

I think that you and I and most people who saw the videos the way that I saw them and the way that you saw them got this, but I feel like his supporters still don’t get it. That when he says something like “it’s good for the country” or “this is what the people want”—anytime he talks about anything external to him, he’s talking about himself. Like I was listening to that Georgia phone call, where he called the secretary of state and there’s a point where he says, “People hate Georgia. People hate the state of Georgia. People hate what’s happening in Georgia.” People? No, you hate it. You hate Georgia. He’s just extremely self-obsessed.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/sarah-coo ... r?ref=home