I am flawed as a human. I am flawed as a person. As a man I am flawed.
-- Kanye West
We have apparently reached the Nazis Weren't So Bad portion of the MAGA movement.
(And if you read MAGA movement in the same internal voice as bowel movement, well, then I've done my job as a writer)
The artist formerly known as Kanye West, Ye as he's currently calling himself, on Alex Jones' show yesterday:
"I see good things about Hitler also. I love everyone" (followed by five minutes of West explaining in detail why he really, really doesn't love Jewish people so much).
And
"They (the Nazis) did good things too, we've got to stop dissing the Nazis all the time."
And
"Well, I see good things about Hitler also. Every human being has value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler."
Especially Hitler. Oooh, boy.
Ye also carefully explained how Adolf Hitler was "born a Christian."
(Yes, I did indeed listen to Alex Jones' whole damn show. And if you want to know how unpleasant that was, Dear Reader, you may imagine it for yourself)
Speaking of Jones, you know the guy who spent literally years attacking the bereaved families of children murdered by gun violence and promoting thinly veiled anti-Semitism (the globalists! the globalists!), yeah, that guy, even he was taken more than a bit aback by Ye's virulent anti-Semitism and repeated admiration of Hitler -- though I'm not really sure what he thought was going to happen when he invited proud anti-Semites Nick Fuentes and Kanye West onto his show. Maybe he thought they were going to talk about puppies and Christmas cookie recipes. Hitler loved dogs and cookies, I guess.
Ironic, this love of Hitler, given how Nazis would have treated Ye himself.
I mean, it takes a huge degree of self-delusion for a black American rapper to embrace Adolf Hitler.
Nevertheless, such is the state of our nation and here we are.
Of course, if it was just Nick Fuentes, just Kanye West, just another deluded anti-Semite with a fascism fetish, it wouldn't be noteworthy.
But it's not just them.
The former President of the United States invited this ideology to dinner at Mar-a-Lago because this is what MAGA has always been about -- despite Trump's feeble protestations that he didn't know who Kanye West and Nick Fuentes actually were.
Meanwhile, outside the gates of Mar-a-Lago, in Ron DeSantis Florida, Americans literally wearing Nazis uniforms and waving Nazi Swastika flags are marching in the streets shouting "Jews will not replace us!"
And Donald Trump, the man who declares himself the smartest man in the world, who says he knows more about everything than literally everyone else, claims he didn't know.
Yeah.
Maybe Trump really is that naïve, I doubt it but maybe. But his supporters? They know.
Oh, they know.
Sixty-Two million of these goosestepping assholes voted for exactly this in 2016.
They'd love to do so again in 2024.
Here's the thing: We spent most of the last century asking ourselves, why didn't someone -- anyone -- stop the Nazis before they destroyed half the planet and murdered 12 million people?
Well, you're looking right at it.
No one stopped them because their hate and their violence was normalized.
There were a million warning signs -- just like those above.
There were tens of thousands of moments where they could have been defeated, stopped, sent back into the sewers from which they crawled.
Why didn't anyone stop them?
For the same reason no one is stopping them now.
I'm gonna give you a little somethin' you can't take off!
-- Lt. Aldo Raine, Inglorious Basterds (2009)
Me in 2016: "The smart Germans got out."
ReplyDeleteThank you. Needs to be said, often.
ReplyDeleteWHEN is the DOJ going to act? They should have more than enough. Hell, the classified documents in Trump's closet should have been enough. I am so tired of waiting for someone, anyone to actually arrest, charge, and book this SOB and put all of his crimes on the public billboard every single night until he is found guilty, sentenced and locked up. And then Ginnie Thomas, Rubio, Cruz, DeSantis, and all the rest who participated in Jan. 6th, who treated immigrants awaiting their hearing like cattle -- human trafficking -- and all of the other b.s. If any of us without piles of money and political power did the same things we would be locked away. This "no one is above the law" is sounding more like bullshit every day.
ReplyDeleteI recently read an opinion article about this. I can't find it back, but it basically said that Trump would likely refuse any plea deal and demand a trial so he could get as much publicity as possible out of it and play up his victimization by the media. Federal jury trials require a unanimous verdict, and it will be impossible to get a jury that doesn't have at least one trumper on it, virtually guaranteeing that he'll get off on a hung jury. Absolutely infuriating.
DeleteWhen there are 62 million goosestepping assholes ready to burn the country to the ground to protect them, it's not so easy to do as you might want.
DeleteThey're doing it, it's just a damnably slow process, and they only get one shot - they have to build an airtight case. Our system simply isn't set up to deal with treason at high levels of government, to react quickly to demagogues like Trump, or to deal with a major party turning radical reactionary.
DeleteSee here: https://terikanefield.com/all-new-doj-investigation-faqs/ and here: https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/11/14/merrick-garland-hasnt-done-the-specific-thing-you-want-because-doj-has-been-busy-doing-things-they-have-to-do-first/
Honestly, I don't know how much more I can take of these horrible, stupid people.
Deleteoh, sorry. that last was me.
DeleteI know that it is frustrating, but this has to be done right. This is a former president, which gags me to say. Yes, he could just prosecute the documents, but that’s a lower felony.
DeleteI’m sorry to say that this has, in my opinion, gone way way beyond that.
Literally talking treason, possibly dissemination of secret intelligence information to other countries. He’s got to tie that case up so tight that trump can’t wiggle out.
As a retired police investigator, it’s tough sometimes to be that thorough. No choice here though
I am pleased to be able to say that the 11th Circuit has reversed Trump's pet judge and the documents recovered at Mar-a-Lago may be used as evidence. Despite all efforts, the judiciary has not entirely returned to 19th-century levels of corruption.
DeleteThree months lost, but prosecution will resume.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/11th-circuit-rules-against-trump-in-mar-a-lago-case
Analysis of the 11th circuit decision from the very astute Marci Wheeler: https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/12/01/11th-circuit-to-trump-youre-not-special/
DeleteUnfortunately, a treason case against Trump would be nearly unwinnable. Just possibly organizing and leading the insurrection might qualify as "levying war," but I wouldn't count on that flying with a jury (where are they going to find jurors, anyway?) So it is up to the astute prosecutors of the Department of Justice to find charges that will stick.
As much as I would relish seeing trump convicted and imprisoned, which I don't believe will happen, that's not going to help the predicament we're in. The craziest haters and most ardent MAGAs are not going to slither back under their rocks. Many will become even more motivated to "rise up" if their dear leader becomes a "political prisoner." Plus much smarter, thus more effective, wannabes like DeSantis would quickly take the path cleared of trump. At the moment, I suspect trump dividing the party might be a good thing. (I am not suggesting that's DOJ's plan, just coincidental effect)
DeleteMy point is DOJ is somewhat N/A to the near future of saving U.S. Democracy and restoring sanity. America doesn't have a trump problem, we have a 62 million voters problem.
I greatly fear that you are correct.
Delete"and they only get one shot"
DeleteThat's a fallacy. A lie, even.
There is NOTHING in the justice system that says that all crimes must be prosecuted at once.
Garland could have prosecuted tRump on the first day he walked into office using the Mueller Report, and even if he lost that, would still have DOZENS of charges to work with.
If we were taught history in school, we’d know that many people in the USA have always been comfortable with Nazis and that MAGA is just the most recent manifestation of home-grown Nazi “patriots” not to mention the effing Confederacy.
ReplyDeleteSo. Much. This. I don’t know how many times I have told people to watch “Don’t Be a Sucker” from the National Archives starting in 2016. You can see it on YouTube. It was created in the 1940s by the war department and it features examples of the scapegoating Nazis did that led to the atrocities. It’s basically any given night on Fox, just with very slight changes to the words. It got shelved out of concern for the confederates, basically. As you said, it’s all the same BS, the south said it would rise again and it always meant it.
DeleteToo bad de-rebelification never got acted upon.
DeleteAs always, you put the head on the nail, Jim.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone else read "outside the gates of Mar-a-Lago, in Ron DeSantis Florida" as "outside the gates of Hell, in Ron DeSantis Florida"
ReplyDelete*Raises hand*
DeleteKeep saying it…. Needs to be known widely. Unfathomable to think it isn’t getting through to those 62 million!
ReplyDeleteSorry to say I think that there will be more bloodshed before this is settled. If trump gets indicted, I think we'll see exactly what these traitors are planning. And I'm pissed off enough by their years of bullshit, I will welcome it.
ReplyDeleteA whole Alex Jones show. I'm sorry. I imagine that's essentially 2 hours of "Chad Earthquake" (no, don't google that).
ReplyDeleteYou're a braver man than I. 10 seconds of Jones is enough to make me barf. Let alone him with Ye and Fuentes. This whole thing scares the living crap out of me, and I have the advantage of living in the UK. But, my wife is American, I have many friends who are American, and I'm terrified for America.
ReplyDeleteA Consertative friend of mine complained to me that he couldn't help who was in the Republican Party. I said you could just vote against the things these Twatwaffles vote for. They'll get tired of not getting what they want and leave. Feels like the Republican Party is at that crossroads right now. The non Twatwaffles are going to have to decide if they can divorce themselves from the Nazis and stand up for what they believe in. They are going to have to do the hard thing. Problem is being loyal is hardwired into the DNA and now they have to do something that betrays family.
ReplyDeleteAnd therein lies their dilemma. Do they do the right thing because the “family” is definitely wrong or do they just clutch their pearls? I know which one I’m betting on.
DeleteExcellent post.
ReplyDeletethanks, again, for putting my scattered thoughts into proper form👍🏿
ReplyDeleteI did a bit of research (OK, I googled and found on Wikipedia) on the name Fuentes. It's Spanish for "fountains." And it's generally believed to have been derived from the Sephardic Jewish tradition in Spain. So chances are high that Mr. Fuentes has Jewish ancestors, not unlike how Stephen Miller, another antisemite in the DJT orbit, has Jewish ancestry. Funny how that works with these people. Ye admires Hitler despite what Hitler would have done to him. And Fuentes denigrates Jews, despite their probable presence in his background.
ReplyDeleteAnd THIS is why Jim Wright is the best common-sense American commentator these days
ReplyDeleteNot the same but somewhat related... a house in my hometown has a "Biden Sucks Kamala Swallows" flag flying proudly in the front yard. The city commissioners say that there's nothing they can do about it because "1st Amendment." My letter to the editor will run in Saturday's paper and it will be laughed at by most people in my community. I don't think anything will happen, and when nothing happens, the door will be open to worse and more offensive displays of my city's "patriotism."
ReplyDeleteBut on and on, I just keep on trying. On and on, on and on, on and on.
I had someone eulogize the Nazi trains running so well. I had to explain it was due to the slave labour of my father and uncle, not the efficiency of the Nazis. Whenever you look under the positives you will find the real horrors.
ReplyDeletewow. what an excellent way to put that. love to you, friend...
DeleteThe fascist trains *didn't* actually run any more on time than their predecessors, they just made it illegal to *say* that.
DeleteBeyond all this, it's disturbing to me that Alex Jones is still allowed to have a show! And for these exact reasons! I think our First Amendment needs an overhaul to consider the age we are living in, where words and lies can spread around the world in an instant, very unlike the times when it was written where only your closest neighbors could be subjected to your unhinged rants, and they would most likely either put you away in a sanitarium or punch you in the throat.
ReplyDeleteWho's the questioning "we" in this case, Chief? At the time, half the world was just fine with letting Hitler do his thing as long as he was only looking to annex land from countries Europe's powerbrokers didn't care about, and was only going after Jews, "Gypsies," socialists, homosexuals, the disabled, and other groups most western societies didn't care much about, either.
ReplyDeleteI literally know three people personally who had Jewish refugee relatives on the MS St. Louis. They were refused at every port of call they made. In 1939, a Canadian immigration agent was asked how many Jewish refugees Canada would consider accepting, and replied, "None is too many." Half or more of the rich and influential in the US thought that the US entered WWII on the wrong side. Even after the war, there was still so much prejudice around that US universities has "Jewish quotas," it was illegal to be gay in the UK, gay people were denied security clearances in the US because they were considered a blackmail risk and fired en masse from the Canadian civil service for the same reason.
I hate to disagree with you, but the prevailing opinion about WWII until recently was that stopping the Nazis was important because they had no right to occupy western Europe and Russia.
And, yesterday, Elon Musk did possibly the worst thing he has ever done in his life: he has ordered the Twitter administration to stop moderating covid misinformation. What is this, f'ing black Christmas?
ReplyDelete(more on Musk's monstrosity: https://adviceunasked.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-worst-thing-elon-musk-has-done-in.html)
Everyone has Jewish ancestors, as well as sub-Saharan African ancestors, and let us not talk about the invasions of Europe by Asiatic nomads over the centuries. The simple fact is that at a quite recent point in time, no more than about 3,000 years ago according to the mathematical models, the human the population fell into two groups: people who are ancestors of everyone alive today, and people who left no living descendants.
ReplyDeleteThe whole Magaverse would have a hairy conniption if they were to be reminded that Jesus Christ was, in fact, Jewish. They would insist, loudly that he was a white Christian regardless of the fact that Christianity wasn't founded as a religion until years after his death. All of the Evangelicals would be absolutely appalled to learn that the first Christians were all Catholics as well.
DeleteFacts suck in their world.
This is why some founding fathers felt electing the officials who run the country shouldn't be left to the populace.
ReplyDeleteThen again, I still bang the drum that the right has done what they can to dismantle proper education in K-12 schools in order to make an easier to control population, and this the the result of that.
Stolen from unknown tweeter: Whatever you think/say you would have done had you lived in Nazi Germany - do it now.
ReplyDeleteDid Ye mention that Hitler made the trains run on time? If he's going to spout ironically, I insist he include the traditional sick jokes.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the 4th REICH. Fuck sake Ameica, get REAL!
ReplyDeleteI keep asking "The Universe" why Trump & his deplorables have not just foamed at the mouth continuously all at one time til they are dead. WHY has the Covid Plague not killed them all off .. yet anyway.
ReplyDeleteAt 71 years of age .. I understand I may be one of those who die instead of them - sometimes I think that might be a blessing for me since nothing so far [including me voting] here in America has saved us from the MAGA evil ones :(
I am grateful that you keep current on all this tho it made me feel dirty just reading about them here. You are a good man ... THANK YOU for all you do!!!
You're a brave man to endure Alex Jones' bull. I salute you. Kanye needs to go somewhere and sit down. I know that Hitler would've laughed as his troops tortured/killed Kanye. His self hate is stronger than mental illness
ReplyDeleteThe consistent dehumanization of everyone not White "Christian" male is frightening. I know a bunch of other people have stated this, but I really, truly, NEVER imagined I would be living in a country where a former President would be inviting scum like this to have dinner at his place.
ReplyDeleteThe rise in assaulting women and LGBTQIA people, people of color, etc, is just as scary as it can be. And these assholes are just fanning the flames and chortling at the results.
And the minute you point out this "white Christian male" privilege you are called out as an angry, sexist, racist, heathen.
Delete"Oooh, I didn't know who this Fuentes guy is!" the beleaguered tangerine tyrant said. He also said he didn't know Serge Kovalevski, the disabled journalist he once mocked. Kovalevski retorted the next day that he had interviewed the peach pariah IN PERSON several times. Lying is the only thing 45 knows; it's always worked for him in the past, why not do it again! This man is disgusting and totally unfit to lead. I used to think the GOP and their voters were smarter than this.
ReplyDeleteI worked for many years on construction sites and grew up in a very white rural place. I don't often speak redneck but I understand all the words.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have sure as hell been in the room when they are not speaking code. This is not the first time I've heard someone talk about "What Adolf got right." It's always been just right there. Just beyond hearing of the polite folk. On the other side of that closed door. The one that muffles the sound just enough that nice folk can pretend they don't understand.
Honestly, Donny may have done us a large. The fucking beast is out in the open now folks. It's going to awfully hard to pretend we never saw it (we will try) hard stuff back in the closet.
Maybe we will finally deal. I doubt it, but maybe.
Thank you for bringing my thoughts into focus again.
ReplyDeleteI’m hoping you consider joining folks over on Post. It’s not perfect and still in beta, but I’m done with the bird and a lot of the folks over there were mutuals with you.
ReplyDeleteI have really appreciated your posts over the years. You’ve got a lot to say and the signal to noise outstanding. It’s all been worth reading. From the real talk, great photos and wit, to the neighborly admonitions and little moments of humanity. Thanks for speaking up. Hope you mini is purring. You’ve got a place to stay in Nor Cal if you ever want to stop by.
Thanks, that was short and to the point. Legally, we can vote, protest, write our representatives, and send money to politicians who will stop the nazis. A perceptible number of people I know are arming themselves. I encourage them to get proper training. I would prefer to use Douglass's first box to his third though. At the per capita fatality rate from 1860 to 1865, we'd kill 11 million of us this time around.
ReplyDeleteYes, when I hear Maga movement I hear bowel movement. You ALWAYS do your job well.
ReplyDeleteWell said, Chief. I am hoping sufficient whiskey was on board to help you through Alex Jones' show. The quiet parts are now being said out loud. If folks want an interesting 8 part podcast on the prevalence of Nazi supporters in the US, listen to Rachel Maddow's "Ultra". This ain't the first time the Reich Wing Nut Jobs have supported Fascism/Naziism.
ReplyDeleteEven Musk couldn't take it, suspended him Friday morning.
ReplyDeleteMy father was stationed in Germany at the end of WW2 and for a year after the end of the war. My father was a first generation U.S. born Jewish man who grew up speaking Yiddish with his Russian-Jewish immigrant parents. Languages came easily to him, and he was a very outgoing person. So with German and Yiddish not being so different, he talked to many Germans while stationed there. He also spent his off duty time trying to help survivors of the camps find family members (mostly unsuccessful). He came home convinced that there is nothing unique in the German psyche that led to the crimes against humanity. Most Germans that he talked to said they just wanted to live their lives and weren't interested in politics. But they also weren't interested in putting themselves on the line to oppose what was going on. Certainly most claimed they didn't know. Dad came back convinced that Americans are really no different. I had always thought that America's diversity was our strength. After all, nearly everybody is part of some minority group that was disliked and/or discriminated against at some time. His comments though were a warning. BTW as a Jew, I have no interest in replacing the filthy scum with the armbands and Nazi imagery.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of the incongruity of a black person embracing the guy who would cheerfully have consigned their entire race to the showers if he could have gotten hold of them, how is it Hispanics embrace a White Supremacist movement that thinks they are all thugs, rapists, and drug dealers? The term "Judas Goat" comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteAnother excellent essay (as usual), Jim. And kudos for your fortitude in listening to the entire Jones show. I swear to gawd, that must be the auditory equivalent of that feeling when your finger breaks through the toilet paper.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard it expressed that way, but I certainly understood it. Took me right back to the days when my dad would fulminate about the excessive use of TP by everyone else in the family (who were all female). That finger poking thing, I always dreaded it.
DeleteIf you were 18 in 1945 (the final year of WWII), you’d be 93 years old today.
ReplyDeleteI cite that that stat to point out that the vast majority of the generation that fought the nazis are no longer with us.
My father fought in Okinawa. I remember in my teen years thinking that he was appallingly conservative. Didn’t like rock music. Hated the hippie protests of the Vietnam war.
But I can tell you with absolute certainty that if these pro-nazis and Hitler apologists had stumbled to within arm’s reach of Dad and his war buddies when they were still in their prime, they have been beaten til they were soft and mushy.
That’s all it’s taken. The passing of America’s Greatest Generation for members of its softest generation to embrace what tens of thousands of their own countrymen died fighting.
Your dad and mine could have met, or anyway passed each other for all I know. He was in the Pacific Theater, too.
DeleteDan Carlin started his multi-part series "Wrath of the Khans" by saying that one day someone will write a book on the "upside of the Third Reich." He estimated it would be a hundred or more years before that happened. Ye beat him by 99.
ReplyDelete"Every human being has value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler."
ReplyDeleteBut not Jewish people, apparently. Crazy, stupid, despicable that's Kanye, the MAGA morons, and the entire conservative movement.
And oh yeah, Jones should spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement.