Persimmon Alley Press
Persimmon Alley Press
  • About Persimmon Alley Press
  • Books
    • Close Encounters with the Cold War
    • Mother's Century: A Survivor, Her People and Her Times
    • Encounters: Ten Appointments with History
    • Killer Protocols
    • Clean Coal Killers
    • The Killer Trees
    • A Feast of Famine
    • Molly Malice in Alterland
    • Alligator In My Basement
    • Sudden Addiction
    • The Flesh of the Cedarwood
  • Smoke the Dottle
  • Richard's Rants
  • Contact

Rant 766: The Fourth Reich?

11/26/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
​“In honor of our great veterans on Veterans’ Day, we pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on elections, and will do anything possible—they’ll do anything—whether legally or illegally, to destroy America, and to destroy the American dream.”
--Donald J. Trump, Veterans Day Speech, 2023
 
“This vermin must be destroyed. The Jews are our sworn enemies,….”
--Adolf Hitler, 1939
 
“Nature is cruel; therefore we are also entitled to be cruel. When I send the flower of German youth into the steel hail of the next war without feeling the slightest regret over the precious German blood that is being spilled, should I not also have the right to eliminate millions of an inferior race that multiplies like vermin?”
--Adolf Hitler, 1942
 
Veterans Day 2023 saw all-time military-and-veteran-despiser Donald J. Trump go full-out Nazi, referring to his innumerable enemies as “vermin,” a favorite term invoked often by Adolf Hitler to dehumanize Jews and other “untermenschen.” Nazi documentaries labeled Jews the “vermin of mankind.” Small wonder that Trump would adopt a term so dear to the black heart of his fascist role model, given that, according to his first wife, he kept a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf on his bedside table. Could it be likely the only book this man ever read, a Cliff Notes version being unavailable?
 
Trump’s Veterans Day remarks resorted to Nazi terminology more than once. He claimed that U.S. veterans had been “backstabbed and betrayed.” This too comes directly out of Hitler’s playbook. He frequently said that Germany had lost World War I because the military had been “stabbed in the back” by the “Jewish Bolsheviks” in Berlin.
 
If you think that comparisons to Hitler go too far, think again. Early on, Trump began holding rallies reminiscent of the annual Nuremberg gatherings at which Hitler harangued his followers. Trump’s plans for a second term also follow the Hitler playbook. He seeks retribution against his perceived enemies, intends to purge the civil service of career bureaucrats and replace them with Trump loyalists, invoke the Insurrection Act in pursuit of a power-grab, deploy the military to blue cities, and even suspend the Constitution. His announced plans for his re-coronation include establishing concentration camps to corral “undesirable” immigrants and foreigners he intends to deport. Like his role model, he wants to employ the agencies of government to go after his enemies. And like Hitler, he offers simple “solutions” to the most complex problems. The MAGAverse eats it all up.
We have been spared this kind of incendiary language for almost 80 years since the demise of Hitler and his toxic, murderous ideology. Now Trump is bringing it back. Someone who speaks straight-up Nazi talk has no business being anywhere near the seat of power.
 
In another example of his adoption of the language of the Third Reich, Trump last month said that undocumented migrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” This trash talk is textbook Mein Kampf, wherein Hitler several times describes the “influx of foreign blood” as “poison.”
 
To continue: “Well, Hitler did a lot of good things,” Trump allegedly told former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly in 2018, according to New York Times reporter Michael C. Bender’s 2021 book, Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost.
 
And that’s not all: “You f*cking generals, why can’t you be like the German generals…in World War II?,” Trump also told John Kelly, according to the book, The Divider: Trump in the White House by New York Times journalist Peter Baker and New Yorker staff writer Susan Glasser, to be released in December. Unlike Trump, John Kelly has no reason to lie.
 
What makes all of this more menacing is that Veterans Day week was the centennial anniversary of Hitler’s failed “Beer Hall Putsch,” the Hitlerian attempt to overthrow Bavaria’s democratic government. The similarities between Hitler and Trump are even more striking in that both insurrectionists went on trial following their attempted coups, and both turned their courtroom sessions into circuses from which they profited politically. Both Hitler and Trump referred to the dead from their respective insurrections as “martyrs” and jailed insurrectionists as “patriotic heroes.” Hitler said the Bavarian government leaders who put him on trial should themselves be tried for treason. Trump vows: “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”
 
Moreover, Trump’s “vermin” speech fell just days after the 85th anniversary of “Kristallnacht,” the “Night of Broken Glass” during which over 1,000 German and Austrian synagogues were torched, 30,000 Jews were arrested and shipped off to concentration camps, thousands of Jewish-owned businesses were looted and destroyed, and hundreds of Jews were murdered. It is no coincidence that Trump used this occasion to go full Third Reich. The parallels are ominous.
 
And then there is the Big Lie. Trump’s ridiculous claim that the 2020 election was rigged and that Joe Biden is an illegitimate president is nothing more than the 21st century version of Hitler’s Big Lie, that World War I was lost due to the “stab in the back.”
 
ABC’s Jonathan Karl, in his just-released book, Tired of Winning, quotes a former senior official in Donald Trump’s White House thusly: “He lacks any shred of human decency, humility or caring. He is morally bankrupt, breathtakingly dishonest, lethally incompetent, and stunningly ignorant of virtually anything related to governing, history, geography, human events or world affairs. He is a traitor and a malignancy in our nation and represents a clear and present danger to our democracy and the rule of law.” Karl said that the former official hasn’t gone public because he fears “retribution” from Trump against him and his family.
 
Trump’s admiration for and envy of autocrats is well-known. He thinks Vladimir Putin is a “genius” for having invaded Ukraine and constantly praises Xi Jinping for ruling China with an “iron hand.” If only I could be like them, he fantasizes.
 
Despite his historical illiteracy and limited vocabulary, Trump knows exactly what he is doing when and where he demagogues using such language. He is clearly borrowing from Hitler’s playbook. Subtlety is not his strong suit.
 
The great American experiment is in peril. We are only one election away from a fascist takeover of American democracy. We must avoid this at all costs.
 
Democratic leaders and operatives should be out in public every day proclaiming the existential danger represented by Donald Trump. They should be explaining why his election would threaten American democracy, the rule of law, our culture, our economy, in sum the entire American way of life. Silence is not an option. Hoping that somehow Trump will fade away is not an option.
 
To paraphrase Cato the Elder, who ended every one of his Roman Senate speeches with…”Carthage must be destroyed:” Trump delenda est.
 
Dick Hermann
November 26, 2023

0 Comments

Rant 765: It's on Trump, Hamas' Best Friend

11/17/2023

0 Comments

 
​Donald Trump, of course, blames President Biden for the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel that resulted in the butchering of more than 1,400 Jews ranging in age from newborns to elderly Holocaust survivors, and for the kidnapping of more than 240 hostages. He says, in his predictably hyperbolic way, that “If I were president, this would never have happened.” Autocrats invariably advance simplistic (albeit bogus) solutions to complex problems.

This is all a crock. An argument can be made that this atrocity and the ensuing Israeli war against Hamas and invasion of Gaza is largely on Trump, the direct result of his disastrous Middle East policies.
 
Trump abandoned decades of U.S. policy advocating for a “two-state” solution, something that the U.S. had come within a whisker of achieving in 2000, only to have the Palestinian Authority’s predecessor, Yasser Arafat’s Fatah organization, back away from after initially agreeing to it. The Israeli government at the time approved relinquishing large portions of the West Bank and removing Israeli settlements from those lands while also agreeing to share control of Jerusalem with the Palestinians.
 
Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, whom he placed in charge of Arab-Israeli policy, displayed their contempt for a two-state solution at every occasion. In 2018, Trump signed the Taylor Force Act into law, which cut about a third of U.S. foreign aid payments to the Palestinian Authority. Later that year, he cut more than $200 million in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority. The administration had previously cut aid to several United Nations bodies assisting the Palestinians, including cutting $300 million from our contribution to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the UN Human Rights Council.

In February 2019, Trump stopped all U.S. aid to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
 
Trump endorsed moving Israel’s capital to Jerusalem, a direct slap in the face to the Palestinians, especially the Palestinian Authority.
 
Moreover, Trump supported Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s increasingly expansionist moves on the West Bank, and enabled and endorsed all of his “Israel right or wrong” tendencies and anti-democratic initiatives .
 
The cumulative effect of Trump’s policies destroyed any hope of a peaceful resolution of the decades-long Palestinian plight, severely weakened the Palestinian Authority—the only Palestinian entity willing to negotiate with Israel, and bolstered both radical jihadist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah. In the eyes of the “Arab street,” it legitimized them and their rejectionist strategy and tactics and radicalized a whole generation of Palestinian youth to support them. This is what can happen when you take away a people’s hope and plunge them into despair.
 
Out of office, Trump has continued to fan the flames of Middle East terrorism with his praise of terrorists—“Hezbollah is very smart” Not only is this the worst possible message he could be issuing at this time; it also undermines U.S. policy and places Israel in even greater jeopardy. It further demonstrates (1) what a stupid, stupid person he is, and (2) how phenomenally dangerous he would be were he to regain the presidency.
 
Trump’s calamitous Middle East policies are yet another example of why he must be crushed, if not by the voters, then by the courts.
 
Dick Hermann
November 17, 2023
0 Comments

Rant 764: Republicans Double Down on the Double Standard

11/11/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
While it may have become tedious to keep hearing that Republicans and Democrats see the world, shall we say, differently, the gulf between the one party and the other party-become-cult is widening. 

The latest marked difference in worldviews is captured in their opposite reactions to indictments of the (alleged) criminals in their respective congressional caucuses. Eighty percent of his Democratic senatorial colleagues want Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) to resign his seat and devote himself to preparing his feeble defense. Recidivist Robert (he was tried once before for influence peddling resulting in an acquittal) has been indicted this time for both more influence peddling and illegally acting as an agent of a foreign power (Egypt) in return for tons of cash, gold and a Mercedes. In executing a search warrant at his house, federal agents discovered jacket pockets overflowing with more than a half-a-million dollars in cash, and gold bars lying around. While nowhere near as appalling as someone stashing atomic secrets and Iran war plans next to his toilets, behavior excused by Republicans as no biggie, Menendez-level sleaze has left Democrats embarrassed. Republicans, of course, feel no shame regarding Donald Trump’s 91 felony counts. Any talk of moving away from cult leader Trump, might, to quote Satchel Paige, “angry up” the base and put the cult’s congressional sinecures in jeopardy.

Meanwhile, Rep. George Santos (R-NY), who lied his way into Congress and whose resume qualifies for the Pulitzer Prize for fiction (there is even some question as to his actual name!), has been indicted on 23 counts for all sorts of (alleged) appalling  conduct. In contrast with Democrats, however, his party wants to keep his lying behind in the House, his vote being essential to maintaining its paper-thin majority. Who cares if he is one of Congress’s all-time premier crooks?

While both (alleged) criminals continue to serve in Congress despite their wicked ways, this is hardly the first time the legislative branch has harbored wrongdoers. The list of malefactors who have served as the people’s representatives over the years is much too long for this opinion piece. However, the voting public’s low opinion of members does not penetrate very deep. They continue to vote for even the worst scoundrels, rascals, rogues and villains.

And, as we have unfortunately witnessed, this voter behavior is not limited to Congress. Trump represents its apotheosis (in both senses of the term—i.e., (1) the best example of this, and (2) that both he and his ovine followers believe he is The Anointed One). Here again, the knee-jerk Republican resort to the double standard/hypocrisy/projection/whataboutism/bothsidesism is their go-to strategy. They conjure up false stories about a decent man in the White House, accusing him of terrible crimes they know are absurd, and that they know their own twice-impeached, four-times indicted, mentally deranged sexual predator and fraudster candidate committed. Like him, they have evolved to where they lie about virtually everything and somehow get away with it.

If this corruption, this metastasizing cancer on the body politic is not stopped, they will drag us down to depths heretofore unimaginable. Future historians will mark the decline and fall of the United States and speak of us in the same terms we use when remembering the Roman Republic and Empire, the Soviet Union, and all of the other once-powerful civilizations that self-imploded.

Given what is happening all around us, this is the harsh reality that we face today. Unlike the many powerful societies of the past that disappeared into history’s Sarlacc Pit, we the people can actually do something about this a year from now. This week’s election results in Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia were a strong start. In 2024, it will be time to finish the job.
​

Dick Hermann
November 10, 2023

0 Comments
    Picture

    Author

    Richard Hermann is the author of thirteen books, including Encounters: Ten Appointments with History and, most recently, Mother's Century: A Survivor, Her People and Her Times. Soon to be released is his upcoming Close Encounters with the Cold War, a personal reflection on growing up in the nuclear age. He is a former law professor and entrepreneur, and the founder and president of Federal Reports, Inc., a legal information and consulting firm that was sold in 2007. He has degrees from Yale University, the New School University, Cornell Law School and the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s School. He lives with his wife, Anne, and extraordinary dog, Barkley, in Arlington, Virginia and Canandaigua, New York.

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed