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"Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, August, 2018)
"How do you spell ICE in German? GESTAPO."
"First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me." Pastor Martin Niemoller (c. 1946)
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On January 30, 1933 Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the Weimar Republic President, Paul von Hindenburg. Although his government was very good at such things as rounding up his most vocal opponents and putting them in a new Nazi invention, the "concentration camps," and shutting down opposition newspapers, they were not very good at dealing with the nation's many social and economic problems --- that is in ways which would be in accordance with Nazi doctrine. And so, in February, 1933 Hitler conspired to partially burn down the German parliamentbuilding, the "Reichstag." The Nazis immediately blamed the fire, and every other problem Germany faced, on the German Communist and Socialist Parties. (A mentally-deficient member of the former was falsely blamed for the fire).
The Fire was actually secretly set by a crew lead by Hitlers No. 2, Herrmann Goering, but forged documents purporting to prove the Nazis' charge were immediately released. And of course, the Nazis blamed the fire on the Communists and the Socialists (who looked at themselves and said who, us[?]), and they used the forged documents to prove it. The truth did not come out until after World War II. They then demanded that, in order to fix everything (and, bye-the-bye, doing away with any opposition), Hitler needed to have dictatorial powers. To do that, the parliamentary order of the Weimar Constitution, under which Hitler was still ruling, would have to be changed. [For more detail of the Fire and the events surrounding it see an earlier column of mine.]
And so, on March 23, 1933, in Berlin the Reichstag was called into session to consider a motion for changing the Weimar Constitution to in effect make Hitler Dictator for Life. That required a 2/3's vote of the Reichstag members. Even after having had already expelled the Communist Party members, Hitler was still not certain that he could get that 2/3's. And so, when the vote came to the floor, the Nazis surrounded the chamber and the remaining Deputies with armed Sturm Abteilung (SA, "Storm") troopers in uniform. Guess what? Hitler got his necessary 2/3's majority.
Last week I posted an on-line Comment for a Steve Schmidt column in which I said that I thought that the TrumpRepubloFascists would attempt to use the Kirk Murder as Hitler had used the Reichstag Fire, to help usher in fascism. It starts with such elements as terminology. For example, since Trump's mentor Roy Cohn is not around, and the generic "anti-" word from his time, "commie," no longer has political meaning, the Democrats and other Trump-opponents on the Left, have all been put together as Leftists, part of a grand Leftist Conspiracy. Replacing commie, then, there is a new "dirty word," "Leftists." (Of course, there is a small number of true leftists in this country, but most Democrats are not counted among them. But that is a matter for another time.) Seemingly using the Kirk assassination in the same way as the Nazis used the Reichstag Fire --- to prove that a Left-wing Conspiracy exists (when one actually did not), Trump, Vance, Pam (there's free speech [ours] and hate speech [theirs]) Bond, and Miller (as I call him, Goebbels without hair) are moving very rapidly in the direction of establishing one here.
On Sept. 15, 2025, Vice-President Vance and Senior Advisor Stephen Miller appeared in Charlie Kirk's time-slot (very nervy of them, don't you think[?]) to essentially proclaim that the war against (some imaginary) Leftist Conspiracy is on. And then, shortly thereafter, (as noted above) the Attorney General (otherwise known as The Attorney General Trump Always Wanted (His),) declared that the First Amendment had been amended (by her) to define not just one kind of speech that would be protected (all of it), but two: ours, Free, and theirs, Hate. (Attacked from her own side, she did withdraw the distinction. BUT, her original statement opened the door wide open to seeing just how this person thinks.) BUT (again), regardless of how free speech is defined on the Trump Right, war has clearly been declared on our side. And of course, war on our rights, as Leftist Conspracists all, and indeed our very place in society, was declared yesterday by Vance and Miller.
While Hitler and Goering couldn't actually sit in a burnt-out Reichstag, and Vance could sit in Kirks chair, what happened then, using the Fire, and what is happening now, using the Kirk assassination, in my view amounts to the same thing. We are living in VERY dangerous times, folks, well beyond the usual the times of the political conflicts that usually characterize our nation. The Kirk assassination has opened the door wide for the TrumpRepubloFascist engine to keep moving on down the track --- to the "It's US or THEM --- and Them has got to Go" station, and nowhere else.
(Article changed on Sep 16, 2025 at 4:33 PM EDT)
(Article changed on Sep 16, 2025 at 4:33 PM EDT)
(Article changed on Sep 17, 2025 at 9:43 AM EDT)
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