​Donald Trump’s nephew, Fred Trump III, writes in his new book that Uncle Donald remarked to him in 2020 during the initial stages of the Covid 19 pandemic, that disabled people “should just die.” This is, alas, consistent with Trump’s offensive mocking of a disabled New York Times reporter at one of his 2015 Nuremberg-style rallies, as well as his order to the Pentagon to keep wounded warriors away from any military parades.
 
Nothing the criminal candidate says should shock anymore.
 
This recently revealed despicable statement is also of a piece with Trump’s many disturbing parallels with Adolf Hitler. Please, I don’t want to hear ever again that it is unfair to compare Trump to Hitler–the evidence of his admiration and emulation for the Nazi fiend is too persistent.
 
Aktion T4 was the Nazi pilot program for the Final Solution, i.e., the Holocaust. In 1939, two years before the Wannsee meeting at which the plan for the annihilation of Europe’s 11 million Jews was finalized, the Nazi regime launched a euthanasia program to deal with mentally and physically disabled Germans, whom Hitler and his henchmen viewed as sub-humans unworthy of life. The idea was to cleanse the “Aryan” race of people considered genetically defective and a financial burden to society. They called individuals with disabilities “useless eaters” and began ripping impaired children away from their parents, placing them in what amounted to prisons where they were murdered, usually by medication overdoses or starvation. In some cases, lethal injection or a bullet to the back of the head did the job.
 
Aktion T4 began with a decree requiring all physicians, nurses, and midwives to report newborn infants and children under the age of three who showed signs of severe mental or physical disability. Initially, the program included only infants and toddlers. Soon, however, it was expanded to include youths up to 17 years of age. Conservative estimates suggest that at least 10,000 physically and mentally disabled German children perished as a result of the murder program during the war years. The program soon grew to include disabled adults.
 
Think this could not happen here? Lest it be forgotten, Donald Trump, during his nightmare presidency, tore thousands of children and babies away from their mothers and fathers at the border and incarcerated them in detention centers as part of his “zero tolerance for illegal immigrants” initiative. Today, almost four years after Trump was crushed by Joe Biden in the 2020 election, at least 1,000 children have still not been reunited with their families because the Trump regime neglected to keep careful records of their identities, family relationships, or whereabouts once released from custody.
 
This is just one of the devastating detritus we are left with from Trump’s chaotic and corrupt time in office. And it is just a hint of what this felon would do if given another shot at power. If you are skeptical of what I am predicting, read Project 2025, the Trump plan for bringing America to heel should he once again steal the presidency as he did in 2016. He can disavow knowledge of this master plan for taking America back to the 19th century all he likes. As usual, he is lying.
 
Despite being subjected to his unrivalled dishonesty and unmitigated evil for close to a decade, I still find it unbelievable that almost half the country worships Trump and takes as gospel the blatant lies and unhinged rot that spew forth every time he opens his mouth.
 
People tend to dismiss Trump’s often incoherent ravings as mere “word salad.” This time, however, he has the legion of doom known as the Heritage Foundation stink tank behind him, planning out their decimation of the American democratic system. After slogging my way through the horrors of its Project 2025, I believe it is perfectly plausible that an American Aktion T4 program could be part of their agenda.
 
Dick Hermann
July 31, 2024

​Now that Joe Biden has voluntarily removed himself from the presidential contest, selflessly putting his country and the planet before his ego and ambition, we should take note of the remarkable legacy he leaves behind and proffer him the thanks of a grateful nation.
 
First, however, let’s note what the Republicans and their Fox propaganda machine are saying in the throes of their nervous breakdown about his noble decision to bow out of the race for a second term:
 
Donald Trump—"He goes down as the single worst president by far in the history of our country.” Magnanimity, grace, compassion and empathy are not exactly Trump’s strong suits. I suggest he take a look at the recent assessment by 154 distinguished presidential historians. They ranked Biden 14th and Trump dead last of our 46 presidents. Moreover, the gap between second-to-last (Buchanan) and Trump was a chasm.
 
JD Vance—called Biden’s stepping down “a threat to democracy…Joe Biden has been the worst President in my lifetime.” JD must have spent the Trump years in cryologic suspension, after labeling Trump “America’s Hitler.”
 
Ron DeSantis—“Democrats are just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.” Says the Governor who is presiding over the state sinking the fastest into the ocean, denying climate change as he gasps for breath and continued relevance.
 
Jesse Waters (Fox)—“The entire Biden presidency has been a lie.” Says one of the world’s leading experts on lying.
 
Sean Hannity (Fox)—Biden should “take his family of grifters back to Delaware.” Sean has conveniently overlooked Trump’s family of real mega-grifters, recently emerged from the sludge at the convention in Milwaukee.
 
Having waded through this tripe, we now need to move on to praise Joe Biden for his incredibly patriotic act and for an administration overflowing with signal accomplishments, virtually all of which were resisted by the disloyal opposition. Not that voting against such landmark legislation as the infrastructure bill kept them for taking credit for projects funded by the law that benefited their states and districts. Rank opportunism, thy name is Republican.
 
Infrastructure, climate change, inflation reduction, employment, manufacturing revival, chips production, drug price-cutting (including a cap on insulin costs), student loan debt relief, increased access to healthcare—none of this would have happened under a Trump administration. Should there be a return to those darkest of dark days, all of these achievements risk being repealed.
 
Biden’s one-term domestic triumphs are only half the story. His foreign policy successes are equally worthy of acclaim: Expanding NATO; defending Ukraine; building coalitions in Europe and Asia; supporting Israel; restoring America’s role in the world after Trump turned the U.S. into a much-derided laughingstock.
 
And above all, returning normalcy to the White House and the nation after the chaos, confusion and corruption of the almost terminal Trump term.
 
Joe Biden’s heroic patriotic act–relinquishing the most powerful office on the planet, putting country before self, is the sharpest contrast imaginable with Donald Trump. Trump refused to relinquish the presidency despite being clobbered by 7+ million votes in the 2020 election and went so far as to incite a treasonous insurrection resulting in injury and death in a desperate attempt to stay in office. Imagine, a president who exhibits the highest manifestation of “duty, honor, country,” compared to a former president who continues to exhibit the highest manifestation of traitorous scumbaggery, including telling rallygoers that once he returns to power, they won’t ever have to vote again!
 
Every voter who casts a ballot come November should have this stark contrast foremost in mind when choosing who s/he wants to entrust with the sacred responsibility of governing this nation.
 
Dick Hermann
July 27, 2024

​Now that the Donald Trump kiss-the-ring-and-whatever fest is behind us, let’s get back to the fix for the Democrats’ fix.
 
Recently in Rant 798, I proposed a strategy that would afford Democrats their easiest, smoothest and most compelling path out of the dilemma they are in: saddled with a president/nominee whose physical and mental challenges have become so apparent that he is tanking in the polls, making it unlikely for him to prevail in November. The option I suggested was for President Biden to resign from both the campaign and the presidency, allowing Vice President Harris to assume both roles.
 
She could then, under Section 2 of the Constitution’s 25th Amendment, nominate a new Vice President who would assume the office after being approved by majority vote of both houses of Congress. She would also announce that person as her presumptive running mate. Or, if House Republicans balk at approving her nominee, the Vice Presidency would remain vacant through the end of the current presidential term, but the person’s running mate status would be maintained. House Republican refusal to approve the new President’s VP choice would be a bad look for the GOP.
 
Once this swap-out is in place (which could—and should—be immediate), the new, reinvigorated Democratic ticket could focus all of its attention, energy and robust criticism on Donald Trump instead of hand-wringing over Joe Biden’s decline. And boy, is there a wealth of hammering potential, given the convicted felon/consummate liar’s limitless vulnerabilities and the MAGAverse’s plans for a catastrophic second term (see Project 2025, arguably the Mein Kampf 2.0 equivalent for this century). They include the destruction of democracy, utter contempt for the rule of law, complete subjugation of women, and overthrowing the international order that has sustained peace among the great powers for almost 80 years, just to scratch the surface of this dangerous doomscape.
 
The optimal moment to launch this strategy is now. It would dull the Republican National Convention’s afterglow, tamp down the eternal victim-now-become-martyr media thematic, distract from JD Vance’s rise to opportunistic nirvana, suck the oxygen out of any GOP polling bump resulting from the GOP’s unconditional surrender to Trumpism, and dominate the news cycle for weeks.
 
Moreover, if Joe Biden cannot perform on the campaign, how can he possibly continue to perform as President? He is clearly impaired and his cognition is not likely to improve during the remainder of his term. The world is far too dangerous a place for this to be permitted to persist.
 
There is no path forward for the Democrats that comes close to matching this suggestion and generates the sorely needed boost this option would give them. A Harris-Shapiro/Whitmer/Warnock/Kelly/Walz ticket would excite the media and public.
 
Democrats need to do the intelligent thing that maximizes their November chances instead of the chaos, disorganized mayhem and bleeding that all too often defines the party’s flailings. Moreover, doing the smart thing is also the critical thing if the nation is to be saved from the scourge represented by Trump and his malevolent implementers.
 
Dick Hermann
July 20, 2024

​1.
 
First, I want to say: I think Joe Biden has been a very good president. He was just what the country needed after the chaos, corruption, craziness and criminality of Donald Trump. He brought with him a return to normalcy (I shudder at using a term attributed to the disaster that was Warren G. Harding) and to competency that was desperately needed following Trump’s ineptitude and bombast. He also selected a highly competent team of cabinet members and advisers, that contrasted markedly with their pathetic predecessors who had no business doing jobs for which they were, to say the least, poorly qualified.
 
If Joe still had the mental acuity and physical viability that he demonstrated four years ago, supporting him for another term would be a no-brainer regardless of his age. Alas, he does not.
 
Having said that, we are now at an inflection point where Biden, his wife and his closest aides are doing Democrats, American voters and America an enormous disservice. They are claiming falsely, judging by our own eyes and ears and the increasing barrage of media reports, that Mr. Biden just had a bad debate night (cold/foreign travel fatigue/over-preparing, etc.) and is still mentally and physically robust. We see that he is not. Moreover, he is destined to get shellacked in November by the foulest, vilest, felonious villain/traitor the opposing party combed the depths of the dung-heap to find.
 
Unfortunately, the Biden deception is nothing new in the history of presidential medical cover-ups. The public did not learn about Grover Cleveland’s cancer surgery for 30 years. Or that Woodrow Wilson’s massive stroke rendered him completely incapable of governing for the last 16 months of his presidency. Or that for the last five years of his life, Harding had systolic blood pressure over 300, and a respiration rate of more than 100 per minute due to severe congestive heart failure. Or that Franklin D. Roosevelt’s health was in crisis mode for years before his death. Or that John F. Kennedy was kept upright and robust-looking via a dubious drug cocktail concocted by a quack known as “Dr. Feelgood” by his Hollywood patients. The list goes on (see, e.g., Eisenhower’s first heart attack; Reagan’s possible early-onset Alzheimer’s).
 
Today, the Biden inner circle is following bad precedent and circling the wagons. And it is not adequate to say that they are merely in denial. They know very well that they are misleading the American people. Biden and his crew are doing what they always (quite appropriately) accuse the other side of doing: putting their standard-bearer above party and country.
 
If they persist in deluding the public to deny reality, Donald Trump is assured to be the next president.
 
Joe Biden is a very decent individual, but the time has come to rest on his laurels and leave gracefully. While swapping him out is fraught with uncertainty and no guarantee that a fresh face at the top of the Democratic ticket will do any better against Trump, the leap into the unknown must be taken if there is to be any chance at all to stop the despicable and dangerous future that will ensue.
 
2.
 
Surprisingly, Vice President Kamala Harris currently enjoys the best poll numbers of any Democratic alternative to President Biden, finding herself only two points behind criminal candidate Trump in national polling. The speculation about replacing Biden after his calamitous debate performance and the sad excuses for it—the lamest being that he had jet lag after almost two weeks back in the U.S.—revolves around how difficult and likely chaotic it could be to replace him at this late date in the campaign. All of the options put forth to date are messy and would likely put Democrats at a disadvantage.
 
However, here is one alternative that might wipe all that away while also giving the most powerful boost to a successor candidate: Biden retires from the race AND resigns the presidency. VP Harris succeeds to the office and becomes the incumbent. She would have four months to demonstrate what she could do as President. Moreover, she would dominate the headlines and display a youthful and sane contrast to her unstable, chaotic and evil opponent. She could do numerous unscripted events that would be a breath of fresh air following the Biden team’s terror of letting him loose for press conferences and teleprompter-free interviews.
 
I have not been a big Harris fan, but I am a huge fan of saving the country and the planet. In my view, this is the best alternative Democrats have to process a seamless transition, produce a smooth and non-controversial convention, best Trump, keep American democracy in place and save the republic.
 
Dick Hermann
July 7, 2024

​“It’s good to be the king!”
--Mel Brooks, The History of the World, Part One
 
As a rough rule, Supreme Courts (demarcated by their Chief Justices), no matter how many correct decisions they pronounce, typically come up with at least one doozy that contemporaries and/or history rightly condemns. The Taney Court’s Dred Scott decision that upheld slavery; the Waite Court’s Minor v. Happersett decision that denied women the right to vote; the Fuller Court’s Plessy v. Ferguson decision that “separate but equal” was just fine; the White Court upholding the “right” of children to work 70 hours a week in sweatshops; the Vinson Court’s Korematsu decision blessing internment camps for Japanese-Americans; the Rehnquist Court’s Bush v. Gore travesty, to cite just a few embarrassments. And then there’s the Roberts Court, whose litany of terrible decisions that are adversely affecting Americans’ lives is far too numerous for this piece.
 
The capstone of Roberts Court disasters may have been its July 1st ruling that put paid to the bedrock democratic principle that “no man is above the law.” Just three days before America celebrates the 248th anniversary of its foundational document, the Declaration of Independence, the central premise of which was to declare absolute monarchy dead in America, the Roberts Court reactionaries essentially declared the Declaration dead.
 
By sanctifying absolute immunity for Presidents to do whatever the hell they want without fear of criminal prosecution, the Court put a big nail in the coffin of the rule of law. More pegs are certain to follow.
 
The immediate practical effect of this new candidate for worst Supreme Court decision ever (and that’s saying something even if we restrict the analysis to the Roberts Court) is to give Donald Trump the hall pass of the century. By first agreeing to take this nothing-burger case, then dilly-dallying over scheduling oral argument, putting off announcing a decision until the very end of the Court’s term, and finally by sending it back to Judge Chutkan’s District Court to determine if the prosecution can overcome Trump’s presumptive immunity for what amounted to high treason, the Court’s six extremist Justices threw aside any pretense of judicial analysis in favor of absolute fealty to a felon. Moreover, making Chutkan’s determination appealable means there is no possible chance for the January 6 trial to take place before the November election. This train wreck of a decision reveals that the Court is now firmly embedded in Trump’s pocket. It may as well drape MAGA signs from the Court building, fly its American flag upside down, and put up a plaque announcing that it is “a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Republican National Committee and the Trump Organization.” What it has done is disgraceful.
 
This sham decision was designed just for Trump. Being the only President who attempted to overthrow the government, he is the first of 45 who needed this depraved legal interpretation in order to avoid prison. Not one of his predecessors, Richard Nixon included, contemplated such malevolent evil. His second term imminent, Trump now has a guaranteed get-out-of-jail-free card for any of the appalling policies and criminal conduct he is sure to execute (excuse my poor choice of words).
 
Along with its Friday, June 28 ruling that turned the law regarding obstruction on its head, the Court on Monday effectively approved the January 6, 2021 insurrection. High treason is now just fine in America. Benedict Arnold is smiling along with Donald Trump. This dishonest judicial body has abandoned what little credibility and dignity it had left in the service of a contemptible criminal.
 
So much, too, for the cherished American ideal of “checks and balances.”
 
The Court just cut out the heart and soul of democracy and the great American experiment. It will take decades, if ever, for the chaotic mess it has wrought to be cleaned up.
 
July 1 is a day that will live in infamy.
 
Bye, bye Miss American Pie.
 
Dick Hermann
July 3, 2024