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Rooting out Communists, Marxists, Racists, and Radical Thugs

Angry Bear | November 14, 2023 7:30 am

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Successful Economy or failing economy, this person of no distinction should be denied the presidency.

November 13, 2023, Letters from an American, Prof. Heather Cox Richardson

In a speech Saturday in Claremont, New Hampshire, and then in his Veterans Day greeting yesterday on social media, former president Trump echoed German Nazis.

“In honor of our great Veterans on Veteran’s Day [sic] we pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, Racists, 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 . . . Despite the hatred and anger of the Radical Left Lunatics who want to destroy our country, we will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”

The use of language referring to enemies as bugs or rodents has a long history in genocide because it dehumanizes opponents, making it easier to kill them. In the U.S. this concept is most commonly associated with Hitler and the Nazis, who often spoke of Jews as “vermin” and vowed to exterminate them.

More at the site.

7 Comments

ltr says:

November 14, 2023 at 8:52 am

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/13/opinion/columnists/trump-immigrants.html

November 13, 2023

No, Immigrants Aren’t ‘Poisoning the Blood of Our Country’
By Paul Krugman

Does Donald Trump ever visit Queens, the land of his youth? If he did, he would presumably be horrified. According to the census, Queens is the most racially and ethnically diverse county in the continental United States; it’s hard to think of a nationality or culture that isn’t represented there. Immigrants are almost half the borough’s population and more than half its work force.

And I think that’s great. When I, say, take a stroll around Jackson Heights I see the essence of America as it was supposed to be, a magnet for people around the world seeking freedom and opportunity — people like my own grandparents.

And no, Queens isn’t an urban hellscape. It may not be leafy and green, but it has less serious crime per capita than the rest of New York City, and New York, although nobody will believe it, is one of the safest places in America. It’s also relatively healthy, with life expectancy around three years higher than that of the United States as a whole.

But Trump has declared that migrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” — a phrase that, to steal from the late, great Molly Ivins, might sound better in the original German. Look, I know there’s a debate over whether the MAGA movement fully meets the classic criteria for fascism, but can we at least agree that its language is increasingly fascist-adjacent? …
Fred C. Dobbs says:

November 14, 2023 at 11:06 am

Johnson Said in 2015 Trump Was Unfit and Could Be ‘Dangerous’ as President

NY Times – Nov 24

Speaker Mike Johnson, then a Republican state lawmaker, posted on social media that Donald J. Trump lacked the character and morality to be president and could be vindictive.

Years before he played a lead role in trying to help President Donald J. Trump stay in office after the 2020 election or defended him in two separate Senate impeachment trials, Speaker Mike Johnson bluntly asserted that Mr. Trump was unfit to serve and could be a danger as president.

“The thing about Donald Trump is that he lacks the character and the moral center we desperately need again in the White House,” Mr. Johnson wrote in a lengthy post on Facebook on Aug. 7, 2015, before he was elected to Congress and a day after the first Republican primary debate of the campaign cycle.

Challenged in the comments by someone defending Mr. Trump, Mr. Johnson responded: “I am afraid he would break more things than he fixes. He is a hot head by nature, and that is a dangerous trait to have in a Commander in Chief.” …

… These days, Mr. Johnson only praises Mr. Trump and defends him against what he dismisses as politically motivated indictments and criminal charges. Mr. Trump has lauded Mr. Johnson as someone who has acted as a loyal soldier since the beginning of his political rise.

In a lengthy statement to The New York Times on Monday night, Mr. Johnson said his comments were made before he personally knew Mr. Trump, and attributed them to the fact that “his style was very different than mine.” …
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  November 14, 2023 at 11:13 am
  
  … Mr. Johnson is far from alone in having expressed deep concerns about Mr. Trump, only to go on to later embrace him and his agenda.
  
  In 2015, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina called Mr. Trump a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot,” as well as a “kook,” “crazy” and a man who was “unfit for office.” He went on to serve as Mr. Trump’s most loyal defender in the Senate.
  
  Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, the second-to-last man left standing in the 2016 Republican primary race, called Mr. Trump a “pathological liar” who was “utterly amoral,” a “serial philanderer” and a “narcissist at a level I don’t think this country’s ever seen.” Mr. Cruz has explained his decision to become a loyal defender of Mr. Trump as something that was a “responsibility” to his constituents.
  
  Mick Mulvaney, the former Republican congressman who went on to serve as the president’s acting chief of staff, in 2016 called his future boss a “terrible human being” who had made “disgusting and indefensible” comments about women. …
Fred C. Dobbs says:

November 14, 2023 at 3:44 pm

How Third-Party Hopefuls Could Put Donald Trump Back in the White House

Vanity Fair – October 23
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  November 14, 2023 at 3:51 pm
  
  (Behind a paywall, alas.)
  
  Can Robert Kennedy Jr, Cornel West or Jill Stein mess things up next year for Joe Biden & all of us who live in fear of Trump V2.0 in a repeat of 2016?
Fred C. Dobbs says:

November 15, 2023 at 10:56 am

In His First Big Showdown, an Unyielding Conservative Yields

NY Times – Nov 14

Speaker Mike Johnson chose avoiding a shutdown over a fiscal confrontation that Representative Mike Johnson might have welcomed.

Just weeks into his new job, Speaker Mike Johnson has already learned a valuable, if painful, lesson: Being an uncompromising conservative hard-liner is much easier from the backbenches of the House than it is from the leadership suites.

The stopgap spending bill he pushed through the House on Tuesday with overwhelming support from Democrats over the objections of a solid bloc of Republicans was a near-exact replica of the funding package he had opposed six weeks ago, when he was still an obscure lawmaker from Louisiana.

But as speaker, Mr. Johnson was forced to bow to the political reality that spending proposals designed to appease the far right cannot become law in a divided government. In doing so, he exhibited a pragmatic side that surprised Democrats and frustrated allies on the right who just days ago were exultant at his sudden rise.

Mr. Johnson made the calculation that House Republicans, divided and known more for acrimony than accomplishment these days, could not afford to be held responsible for a crippling pre-Thanksgiving government shutdown. …
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  November 15, 2023 at 11:05 am
  
  Dems in Congress are suggesting that they had to come to the rescue again to save the guv’mint.
  
  While in some way (perhaps even many), this is true, it is certainly NOT true about this. That is, the again part. If they had allowed Kevin McCarthy to be remain as speaker, events of the past 6 weeks would have turned out way different. They really could not abide Kevin McCarthy, which is understandable, but that’s politics.
  
  It remains to be seen if Mike Johnson is more reasonable, but this is a good start.