Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology
https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2025/05/omni-trump-authoritarian-totalitarian.html
What’s at Stake: For over a hundred years the people of the United States of America have struggled to realize the idea of democracy initiated by its revolution against the King of England. It was a bare beginning: blacks and women were excluded from the vote. The Constitution has been amended 27 times. “The Supreme Court typically decides around 80 cases each year, with a significant portion of those cases involving constitutional interpretation“ (google). People who dislike learning and hate even the idea of democracy, hate the freedom and equality of the Declaration of Independence seek to befuddle the public by labelling lovers of knowledge and large awareness as “woke,” and seek to suppress them. Diversity, equity (fairness), inclusiveness (DEI) are denigrated. And some of our greatest institutions are staggering. But countless people are defying the autocrats, the dictators, by exposing them, by affirming their commitment to the ideas of democracy, and by building resistance to those who would destroy them.
Books and Films Cited in Nos. 1-3:
Giroux. The Terror of the Unforeseen.
Hett. The Death of Democracy: Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar
Republic.
Hitler. Mein Kampf.
Levitsky and Ziblatt. How Democracies Die.
McChesney and Nichols, People Get Ready.
Merlan. Republic of Lies.
O’Shaughnessy. The Führer.
Palast. How Trump Stole 2020.
PBS. Rise of the Nazis.
Renton. Fascism.
Ronson. Elephant in the Room.
Rosenbaum. Explaining Hitler.
Rosenblum and Muirhead. A Lot of People Are Saying.
Sanders’ Our Revolution.
Sharp. Books and articles on nonviolence.
Stanley.How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them.
Stone. The Fascist Revolution in Italy.
Ulrich. Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939.
Wolf, The End of America.
CONTENTS (37items in chronological order from 2007 to 2020)
Naomi Wolf. The End of America. A “fascist shift” accelerated by the Bush
administration.
Robert W. McChesney, John Nichols. People Get Ready. Decay of representative gov. caused particularly by bankers and billionaires.
Leslie Salzillo. Ken Burns on Trump.
Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt. How Democracies Die.
Benz. Journalistic Defiance v. Normalizing Nazism.
PBS Documentary, Rise of the Nazis. Destruction of the Weimar Republic, 1930-33.
Charles Blow. Trump: The white racist, sexist, xenophobic patriarchy at the
beginning of a soft, civil war.
Robert Weissman, Public Citizen. “Fascism in America.” Proud Boys,
MAGA Faithful.
Linda Farrell. “Saving our Democracy.” An informed public.
Ryan Devereaux . Trump’s Demonizing from immigrants to leftists.
Elie Mystal. “Trump Steal the election? We’re not prepared.”
MSNBC (4 items):.
False Accusation: “Christian TV Host Warns Rachel Maddow Will Lead Coup ….”
If Biden Wins, Will Trump Leave Office? (See Gessen below).
Mary Trump. Her uncle must be defeated.
Laurence Tribe. Trump must leave office
Amy Goodman. Democracy Now.
Dick.Trump’s Base—an Example?
Dick. Trump’s Base Diverse, Grassroots Resistance.
Left Net. Police State in Portland.
PHR: More on Portland.
Frontline: Alex Jones, Trump, and Lying
Four Books:
Jon Ronson. Elephant in the Room.
Ann Merlan. Republic of Lies.
Nancy Rosenblum and Russell Muirhead. A Lot of People Are Saying.
Marisa Mormile. Sanders’ Our Revolution v. Trump.
Bernie Sanders. “Portland.”
Masha Gessen. “What Could Happen If Trump Rejects Election Defeat.”
Jonathan Greenberg. “’Dictator Trump….’”
John Bellamy Foster (interviewed). “The Storm of Protest in the U.S.”
Bob Brigham (reporting George Conway). “Trump Is a Soulless Man with a Broken Mind.”
Dick, Letter to Rep. Tlaib Demanding Trump’s Resignation.
Bill McKibben. Remembering Gene Sharp and Call for Civil Disobedience.
Van Gosse. Warning: US Becoming an Authoritarian State.
Greg Palast. How Trump Stole 2020. [If not right then, he is now. –D]
TEXTS From Hitler to Trump 2020
2007 – 2019
Naomi Wolf. The End of America. Chelsea Green, 2007.
Reviews and Praise
Library Journal (starred review)-
This latest offering from best-selling author Wolf, The Beauty Myth, is a harbinger of an age that may finally see the patriarchal realm of political discourse usurped. Here is Wolf’s compellingly and cogently argued political argument for civil rights, not women’s rights. She contributes this call to action to a canon that from Plato and Aristotle to Hobbes and Locke and forward, with a few exceptions (e.g., Hannah Arendt), has been largely populated by men. Wolf’s work is actually closer to the agitated, passionate polemics of Emma Goldman than the ponderous, philosophical musings of Arendt. Readers will appreciate her energy and urgency as she warns we are living through a dangerous “fascist shift” brought about by the Bush administration. Her chapters outline the “Ten Steps to Fascism” citing historical corollaries (as well as the pigs in Orwell’s Animal Farm), with headings like “Invoke an External and Internal Threat,” “Establish Secret Prisons,” and “Target Key Individuals.” In other words, fascism can exist without dictatorship. Her book’s publication through a small press in Vermont that is committed to “the politics and practice of sustainable living” rather than through a large trade house is itself a political act. Highly recommended for all collections.
More Reviews and Praise
Robert W. McChesney, John Nichols. PEOPLE GET READY. 2013.
Post WWII struggle for equity and democracy defeated by stronger drive for Cold War, corporate profits, inequity, and authoritarianism/autocracy. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/robert-w-mcchesney/people-get-ready/ 2013. [My emphases in bold.]
An energetic if grim discussion of inequality and the coming era of underemployment, viewed through the lens of the forgotten American progressive narrative.McChesney (Communications/Univ. of Illinois; Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy, 2013, etc.) and Nation Washington, D.C., correspondent Nichols bring clear urgency to this sprawling polemic, which encompasses politics, the cybereconomy, the decline of critical journalism, and historical movements beginning with America’s founding. They describe the post-2008 recession era as a “maelstrom” of inequity, pointing toward worse times in the labor market: “the debate about where technological change is headed is already settled in the circles of those who intend to profit from that change.” This pessimism is linked to what the authors convincingly portray as the decay of representative governance. Both parties, they argue, have pursued tax and trade policies that have stealthily undermined blue-collar jobs and middle-class stability. “This is the means,” they write, “by which unelected bankers and billionaires most effectively and steadily define the popular discourse.” Such dire chapters contrast with a vividly rendered history of the development of a now-tattered “democratic infrastructure,” beginning with the state constitutional conventions of the late 18th century, more populist than what ultimately became the U.S. Constitution. The authors follow this thread through the Progressive Era and Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, portrayed as the precursor to an ambitious “Second Bill of Rights,” forgotten at the dawn of the Cold War. Similarly, a fascinating chapter documents a forgotten progressive coalition poised to achieve great gains during the 1970s, only to be thwarted by the recession and a cunning pro-business lobby: “There was a tenfold increase in corporate federal lobbying by the 1980s.” [Fighting Back for Economic Justice] McChesney and Nichols conclude with a lengthy proposition for how the ranks of the underemployed could similarly regroup to protect workers’ interests. “Economic planning needs to be democratized and popularized and made accountable,” they write. An authoritative account of the challenges facing progressives wishing to fuse better governance with economic justice. [Despite the advances of anti-democratic forces, Nichols continues his inspiritng advocacy of the Idea of Democracy. –D]
Leslie Salzillo. “Documentarian Ken Burns warned Trump’s rise would be ‘Hitler-esque’—here’s what else he predicted.” Sunday February 16, 2020 .·
“…He (Trump) represents the greatest threat to American democracy since the Second World War. He is so fundamentally un-American…” —Ken Burns on Donald Trump, 2016 Variety Interview
The above quote is by award-winning filmmaker and documentarian Ken Burns. Millions have enjoyed his many acclaimed films on PBS. Some of those documentaries include The Civil War, The Central Park Five, The Roosevelts, The Vietnam War. . . .. To date, Burns, 66, has made over 30 historical films/documentaries.
In a Variety interview in 2016, Ken Burns discussed a work-in-progress called, “Defying the Nazis.” During the discussion, Burns was asked by Variety writer Brett Lang why he had become so outspoken about Donald Trump, who had not yet been elected president. Here are some excerpts from that interview with foreboding accuracy by Burns as to what would happen if Trump took office. . . .
I refer you to Michiko Kakutani’s review of the Hitler biography two weeks ago in the Times, in which she didn’t mention the contemporary situation, she just put the bullet points of Hitler’s rise and every single one of them was exactly what Trump has done. . . .
2018
How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt. Penguin Random House, 2018.
How Democracies Die is about how elected leaders gradually subvert the democratic process to increase their power. Here is the publisher’s description: https://penguinrandomhousesecondaryeducation.com/book/?isbn=9781524762940
2019
Dorothee Benz. “Nazi-normalizing barf journalism: A brief history.” Mronline.org (11-8-2019). Originally published: FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting) on November 1, 2019 (more by FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting). Fascism, Imperialism, Media, StrategyUnited StatesCommentaryFeatured
The article was met with howls of protest across Twitter, but among the many apt responses, Bess Kalb’s description (11/25/17) captured my heart and gave me the single most useful phrase of the Trump era: “Nazi-normalizing barf journalism.” Source
The historian concludes by recalling the final months of the Munich Post — before it was shut down by Hitler. “The era of normalization had begun everywhere else, but the Munich Post resisted,” he writes. “Soon their office was closed. Some of the journalists ended up in Dachau, some ‘disappeared.’ But they’d won a victory for truth. A victory over normalization.”
“They never stopped fighting the lies, big and small, and left a record of defiance that was heroic and inspirational,” Rosenbaum states. “They discovered the truth about ‘endlösung’ [the Nazi plan for the extermination of the Jews] before most could have even imagined it. The truth is always worth knowing. Support your local journalist.”
PBS’ DOC. ON “ RISE OF THE NAZIS.” A series of four, beginning in 2019. (Members of AR PBS can see this via Passport). “RISE OF THE NAZIS,” Segment #2, “THE FIRST SIX MONTHS OF POWER.” From Dick’s notes:
The mode is docudrama, actors portraying historical characters by voice-over.
Final destruction of the Weimar Republic in 1933 took 6 months, Göring and Himmler doing most of the merciless, vicious work: With Sovietphobia fanatical and widespread, the takeover of the Reichstag and of the elected Parties moved quickly. The Reichstag building was burned, and the Communist Party was blamed, 5000 of whom were imprisoned in two weeks mainly at Dachau, and many tortured and murdered.
Hitler forced President Hindenberg to declare martial law.
The courts permitted civil liberties to be abolished for “security.”
Himmler’s SS paramilitary anti-democratic, anti-Semitic storm troops took control of the provinces and cities.
As in segment #1, one heroic resister to the smashing of the Republic is highlighted: Bavarian state prosecutor Hartinger, who gathered evidence of murders of Jews at Dachau, which his boss dismissed and filed away, until the file was discovered by US troops at war’s end and used at the Nuremberg trials.
As with Segment #1 last week, I think parallels with Trump are suggested, but significant differences too. For example, Hitler and his 2nd and 3rd in power—Göring and Himmler—employed power violently and ruthlessly to destroy Germany’s democracy, whereas almost half of the US electorate in 2020 voted for Trump. (If you see any errors in my thumbnail notes from the film, please let me know. Dick)
REPLIES
…the people who should be watching that movie won’t. This is what is so scary about our country right now. The ignorance is pervasive and frightening.
2020
The white, racist, sexist, xenophobic patriarchy at the beginning of a soft, civil war.
Charles Blow. “Trump’s Army of Angry White Men.” NY Times, Oct 25 2020 .
This group will continue to fight for Trump and he knows that. [Forwarded to me by Bob Billig.] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/25/opinion/trump-white-men-election.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
This election will test the country’s core. Who are we? How did we come to this? How did this country elect Donald Trump and does it have the collective constitution to admit the error and reverse it?
At the moment, Joe Biden is leading in the polls, but the fact that Trump is even close — and still has a chance, however slim, to be re-elected — is for a person like me, a Black man, astounding. I assume that there are many women, Muslims, immigrants, Mexicans and people from Haiti and African nations he disparaged who feel the same way.
Trump is the president of the United States because a majority of white people in this country wanted him to be. Perhaps some supported him despite his obvious flaws, but others undoubtedly saw those flaws as laudable attributes. For the latter, Trump’s racism was welcome in the coven. Still, according to the latest Quinnipiac poll, more white people support Trump than Biden. This is primarily a function of white men who prefer Trump over Biden 57 percent to 36 percent. Most white women support Biden, which is a reversal from the last election, when a plurality voted for Trump.
The white racist, sexist, xenophobic patriarchy and all those who benefit from or aspire to it are in a battle with the rest of us, for not only the present in this country but also the future of it.
The Republican Party, which is now without question the Party of Trump, has become a structural reflection of him. They see their majorities slipping and the country turning brown with a quickness, and they are becoming more tribal, more rash, more devious, just like him.
Like Trump, the Republican Party sees a future in which the only way they can win is to cheat. That is why they are stacking the courts. That is why they openly embrace tactics that are well known to result in voter suppression. That is why they gerrymander. That is why they staunchly oppose immigration.
Trump’s base of mostly white men, mostly without a college degree, see him as the ambassador of their anger, one who ministers to their fear, consoles their losses and champions their victimhood. Trump is the angry white man leading the battle charge for angry white men. . . . MORE
Robert Weissman, Public Citizen. “Fascism in America.” 10-11-20 [Note the date!].
Things are happening in our country that most of us have, at least until now, considered the stuff of foreign dictatorships. Please take a minute to read through my previous note, copied below in case you missed it.
And then add your name in support of Governor Whitmer and in condemnation of the domestic terrorists who were plotting to kidnap her.
Thank you. – Robert
On Thursday, 13 “militia” members were arrested for plotting to kidnap and possibly execute Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. It would, unquestionably, have been one of the worst acts of domestic terrorism in our lifetimes. But — after four years of Donald Trump and nine months of the coronavirus — even something this monstrous doesn’t quite seem to be generating the outrage it should. Fascism is gaining ground in America, right before our eyes. Governor Whitmer has an op-ed in The Washington Post that is worth reading.
Here’s a little bit of what she says:
When I addressed the people of Michigan on Thursday to comment on the unprecedented terrorism, conspiracy and weapons charges against 13 men, some of whom were preparing to kidnap and possibly kill me, I said, “Hatred, bigotry and violence have no place in the great state of Michigan.” I meant it. But just moments later, President Trump’s campaign adviser, Jason Miller, appeared on national television accusing me of fostering hatred.
When our leaders encourage domestic terrorists, they legitimize their actions. When they stoke and contribute to hate speech, they are complicit. And when a sitting president stands on a national stage refusing to condemn white supremacists and hate groups, as President Trump did when he told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during the first presidential debate, he is complicit. Hate groups heard the president’s words not as a rebuke, but as a rallying cry. As a call to action.
Things are happening in our country — with outright encouragement from Donald Trump and his MAGA faithful, including many other politicians and government officials — that most of us have, at least until now, considered the stuff of foreign dictatorships. . . .
– Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen
P.S. Public Citizen — like many nonprofits and small businesses — is feeling the financial strain of the coronavirus emergency. If you can, please make an emergency donation to support the critical work we’re doing together or even join our popular Monthly Giving program. Thank you. Public Citizen | 1600 20th Street NW | Washington DC 20009
2016 to 2020, External to Internal Threats
Ryan Devereaux . “Trump’s turn from immigration to the enemy within.” The Intercept (October 13, 2020). Mronline.org (1-8-20)
Trump’s shift from demonizing immigrants to targeting leftists is straight out of the fascist playbook. | more…
Originally published:The Intercept on October 13, 2020 by Ryan Devereaux (more by The Intercept) | (Posted Oct 07, 2020). Fascism, Immigration, Inequality, State RepressionUnited StatesNewswire
LISTENING TO Donald Trump describe the U.S. in 2016 was to hear a story of a nation in peril of losing its identity to waves of brown-skinned invaders. Immigration and the border, particularly the urgent need to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, dominated Trump’s campaign rhetoric. . . . So it may have come as a surprise to some that immigration hardly came up at all in the first presidential debate of 2020. . . .Without question, the anti-immigrant machinery marches on. In July, the Migration Policy Institute catalogued more than 400 executive actions the administration has taken on immigration since Trump’s inauguration. . . . But with those efforts simultaneously in motion, the Trump administration has increasingly and prominently centered purported threats posed by leftists, anarchists, and anti-fascists in its bid to hold onto power. This widening of the threat aperture is straight out of the authoritarian playbook, said Jason Stanley, a professor of philosophy at Yale University and author of How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. . . . MORE
T v. US Electoral Democracy
“We Still Aren’t Prepared for the Fact That Trump May Steal the Election” By Elie Mystal, The Nation, Sept. 30, 2020. As the threat grows, the question becomes, what will we do to resist? Forwarded by Bob Billig Oct. 3.
. . .People who have been paying attention understand that we’re losing. They get that the elevation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court is functionally unstoppable. They understand that Donald Trump has an infrastructure in place to suppress the vote in the upcoming election—or get his handpicked justices to hand him the election, or have Electoral College voters steal the election, or even use military force to keep himself in power after losing the election. They know the document leak that shows that Trump has been avoiding paying taxes, or outright defrauding the American government, will cost him no tangible support among his base. Everybody honest knows that last night’s debate didn’t matter to most voters. Trump’s ignorance and incompetence have contributed to over 206,000 American deaths; if you’re still willing to vote for Trump, there’s nothing he can say in a two-hour “debate” that’s going to change your mind.
What’s harder for people to wrap their minds around is the fact that we’ve already lost. . . .
Democracy Now! Daily Digest
A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González. democracynow.org Friday, September 25, 2020
“The Election That Could Break America”: Inside How Trump & GOP Could Steal the Vote
As President Trump refuses to commit to accepting the results of the upcoming election, we speak to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barton Gellman, whose latest … Read More →
Bernie Sanders on How to Block Trump from Stealing Election & Preserve American Democracy
In an address to the country, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has issued a stark warning about the threat posed by President Trump’s refusal to commit to a … Read More
[Google Barton Gellman on Trump for his many analyses. –Dick]
Trump’s “base” 10-14-20 in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.
How typical is this example?:
I was checking out my groceries at Harp’s when the man behind me slapped down a magazine with Trump on the cover, declaring “that’s a MAN.!”
I turned to him and asked what first came to mind: why did he think that.
Instead of replying to me he turned around to the couple behind him and asked: did you know Pres. Trump had given XX million dollars to ??? (I didn’t have my note pad in hand).
The cashier tallied my bill, and I departed.
The incident suggested to me that some of his middling base:
1) were drastically ignorant regarding the role of the Pres. and of Donald Trump
2) needed a hero no matter how anti-social, even sociopathic
3) confused individual acts of charity with adequate responses to urgent global problems
4) caved when confronted.
The incident also reminded me of Hillary’s ridicule of his base in 2016: the deplorable. She overstated, if my one example can be generalized. This man at this instant seems now regrettable, maybe wretched, but not “very bad.” Look up the synonyms for “bad” in your thesaurus. I anticipate some of my friends will find him more pitiable than execrable, in that one quick behavior. He was certainly not a Hitlerian Brown Shirt beating up Jews and smashing their windows. That is, he can be talked with.
And these reflections lead me to urge us all to be teachers always and speak up to people like the man at the checkout. That’s a type of grassroots resistance!
I’d like to read a good book on Trump’s—and Hitler’s (and Mussolini’s, Duterte’s, Gen. Montt’s, the Greek colonels’, Gen. Pinochet’s) — base.
Dick
Rachel Maddow Show. “Trump’s refusal to commit to peaceful transfer of power….” Asked what he’d do if he loses, Trump hedges, despite earlier … www.msnbc.com › rachel-maddow-show › asked-what-…
Jul 20, 2020 – If he refused to honor the election results, it had no practical significance: the peaceful transition of power would continue whether the defeated …
Mary Trump Says ‘Crushing Defeat’ of Her Uncle Needed to …
www.commondreams.org › news › Jul 17, 2020 – As Maddow noted, a number of political observers have expressed fears that Trump will refuse to leave the White House even if Biden wins the …
MSNBC – Laurence Tribe on Pres. Trump not leaving office if …
www.facebook.com › msnbc › videos › laurence-tribe-…
Jul 31, 2020 – Laurence Tribe says there’s a “fail safe” built into the U.S. Constitution if Pres. Trump loses the election and refuses to leave office: “On Jan. 20,.
PORTLAND REPRESSION AS WATERSHED
“Portland” by Bernie Sanders 7-23-20
Dick –
We are in a very dangerous moment in American history.
Last month, as you’ll recall, Trump had peaceful protestors outside of the White House in Washington, D.C. viciously attacked by federal agents who wore no identification. As we speak, in Portland, Oregon, federal agents in combat gear and unmarked vehicles are pulling protesters off the streets and jailing them without charges, despite opposition from local and state officials. What Trump and his allies are now doing is “normalizing” the use of federal troops to patrol and make arrests of American citizens in communities throughout the country. Today it is Portland, Oregon. Tomorrow, Trump is suggesting it could be New York City, Chicago or Philadelphia. Next, your hometown.
This is what a police state is all about.
Make no mistake about it: Donald Trump does not believe in democracy, our Constitution or the rule of law.He is working aggressively to suppress the vote and, in the midst of this terrible pandemic, is vigorously opposing the right of citizens to vote by mail. He has ignored decisions of Congress, which is why he was impeached. He has contempt for a free press and has called the media “an enemy of the people.” He has used his office for blatant personal and political gain, running the most corrupt administration in modern American history. He has ruptured our relationships with long-time democratic allies around the world while he embraces right-wing authoritarian leaders in Russia, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, the Philippines and elsewhere. Yes. We must all come together to defeat Trump in November, but we must also act right NOW to stop the movement toward authoritarianism and a police state. That is why I am introducing legislation with Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon which would greatly curtail the activities of federal military forces in our communities. This bill would limit their ability to conduct crowd control to properties immediately surrounding federal buildings without the invitation of the Governor and Mayor, require federal agents to wear visible IDs, and ban them from making arrests or detentions in unmarked vehicles. . . . In solidarity, Bernie Sanders
“Demand Chad Wolf’s Resignation.” [This entry is out of date re our action, but it reminds us of early warnings.] ]LeftNet team@leftnet.org via email.actionnetwork.org 8-1-20Jul 31, 2020, Dick,What happened in Portland is unacceptable. Federal agents without identification in unmarked cars were grabbing protestors off the street for what was effectively interrogation. Make no mistake: That is a fear tactic. Trump’s claim was that deploying these troops was to protect federal property. But local leaders in Portland have repeatedly reported that these federal agents were operating far outside the bounds of their deployment. Finally, after a massive national outcry, these federal agents left Portland. But we can’t forget that the head of DHS allowed this to happen – and it could happen again.
| Physicians for Human Rights. Portland Human Rights Abuses. From: Donna McKay, Executive Director, Physicians for Human Rights I’m on the ground in Portland, Oregon, where I’ve spent the last week working with PHR’s team of experts and local health professionals to document the aggressive tactics and use of dangerous crowd-control weapons against protesters by local police officers and federal agents. In short: I’m appalled by what I’ve seen. Demonstrators and medics alike are being subjected to human right abuses with serious health consequences as they exercise their fundamental rights to freedom of assembly and speech. What we’re seeing in Portland should alarm you, especially as it doesn’t end here. We are gravely concerned about the likelihood of similar abuses occurring in Chicago and Oakland. As a doctor, an American, and Physician for Human Rights’ (PHR) medical director ‒ I’m appalled by what I’m seeing here in Portland, Oregon this week. For more than two decades, I’ve traveled the world for PHR to document horrific human rights abuses perpetrated by governments against their own citizens. Today, I write not from a conflict zone thousands of miles away, but from Portland, Oregon, where local police officers and federal agents have been hammering protesters – and medics trying to help the wounded – with sustained and shocking levels of violence. Broken bones. Blunt force trauma to the face. Traumatic brain injuries. Government agents bloodying protesters in the streets of our cities is unacceptable, not in the United States, not anywhere. We can’t sit by while these human rights abuses are perpetrated against demonstrators exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of assembly and speech. As you read this, a team of PHR experts and local health professionals are on the ground in Portland, using the unassailable methods of forensic medicine and scientific investigation to help local medics, volunteers, and advocates document the aggressive tactics of federal officers against protestors, including excessive use of force and the dangerous misuse of crowd-control weapons. We will expose the truth about these crimes, and make sure that those who commit them are held accountable The militarized federal forces in Portland are wielding batons and pounding protesters and volunteer medics alike with tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and flash-bangs – dangerous weapons that have already caused widespread injuries. The past few months have devastated countries all over the world – and the United States has been particularly hard hit. From a complete lack of U.S. federal leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic, to record-breaking coronavirus deaths in the United States, to increased and unregulated force rained down on people protesting against racism and police violence, we are living in unprecedented times. But even in this time of uncertainty, you can depend on one thing: PHR will be there, documenting crimes, supporting survivors, and advocating for a more just world. We cannot do this work without you. Please, make a gift today at https://secure.phr.org/secure/support-PHRs-investigation-into-excessive-force?af=7LGCSJWhd%2BNKJ4mkYFoBg1NwH7ycf5RkxMFEB0%2Bwv%2Bw0GDKPGqC0fWtt8ulHFEQLuMB3Zkb9AqLrIJLCF4AOBt7lbe%2Fy3llQ2XlRXkmqArU%3D&gs=jZ1O38xx%2F%2F22m1MdoEyqQ7soga8Ho4Md%2BbGGBRA8ygLG8Sp3FSI5KaZOUXxUsArM&CID=701f4000001EbjfAAC&ms=FY21_RapidResponse_Email5-rs_RestOfFile&utm_medium=email&utm_source=RestOfFile&utm_content=Email_5-rs&utm_term=07302020&utm_campaign=FY21_RapidResponse&dm_i=4GV7,BG70,5BC8WO,16W8D,1 From: Daily Kos 150,000 Americans dead, 30 million unemployed, federal agents terrorizing major cities, and no end in sight. Donald Trump is incapable of meeting the challenges of the day—indeed, he is responsible for creating or making worse many of the crises we face today. But he is not alone in that. Senate Republicans are as much to blame for the dark days we find ourselves in as Trump is. They knew Trump was a wannabe dictator who abused his power and tried to cover it up—yet they voted to acquit him in their sham impeachment trial anyway. Now, he’s ordering federal stormtroopers onto American streets. |
FRONTLINE. “uNITED sTATES OF CONSPIRACY.”
7-20-20 [I viewed it on arpbs 7-29-20. –D]
https://www.pbs.org/video/united-states-of-conspiracy-1phat1/exami
Mainly about Alex Jones’ endless conspiracy of lies and subversion of facts and reality to create chaos, and gain power and money (or he was a pathological liar), concluding with his influence on Trump.
Connecting with Hitler’s lying July 2020: The first two chapters of Benjamin Hett’s book on Hitlersuggest Trump, the Republicans, and the possible downfall of our own republic. In these opening pages, although he doesn’t allude to the rise of our Republican far right during the past 40 years, culminating in Trump, the many parallels with the Nazis seem clear, including Hitler’s desire to make Germany great again and his endless lies and subversion of reality. (My letter to Hett asking if he had written on Hitler and Trump was not answered.) Also, unfortunately, Hett’s Index fails to include one of his major topics in Hitler’s quest for totalitarian control–lying; see pp. 38-9 and passim. Fellow graduates or instructors of UAF: From its inauguration and its motto, the UAF has taught the importance of truth-telling: – VERITATE DUCE PROGREDI:TO ADVANCE WITH TRUTH AS OUR LEADER. ––Dick
Inside the Trump Campaign
The Elephant in the Room by Jon Ronson. Kindle Ed. 57pp. Goodreadswww.goodreads.com › In The Elephant in the Room, Jon Ronson, the New York Times-Bestselling author … Books To Explain Trump, European Politics, And The World In Late
In The Elephant in the Room, Jon Ronson, the New York Times-Bestselling author of The Psychopath Test, Them, and So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, travels to Cleveland at the height of summer to witness the Republican National Convention. Along the way, he reunites with an old acquaintance—the influential provocateur and conspiracy talk-show host Alex Jones—who draws him, unexpectedly, into one of the most bizarre presidential campaigns in American history.
From the private Winnebago where conspiracy theorists and fearmongers discuss key campaign decisions, to a chance encounter with notorious political operative Roger Stone, Ronson’s picaresque journey into Donald Trump’s atmosphere introduces us to the people who orbit the campaign machine, and discovers what makes them tick—and what ticks them off. Whimsical, hilarious and often downright terrifying, The Elephant in the Room captures a defining moment in our time as only Jon Ronson could see it.
4 Books on Lies and Conspiracies
Anna Merlan. Republic of Lies. Macmillan, 2019.
us.macmillan.com › books A riveting tour through the landscape and meaning of modern conspiracy theories, exploring the causes and tenacity of this American malady, from Birthers to …
“Anna Merlan’s Republic of Lies Explores Society’s Fixation with Conspiracy Theories.” …www.npr.org › 2019/04/20 › republic-of-lies-explores-th…Apr 20, 2019 – Anna Merlan, a journalist at Gizmodo Media Group, explores our contemporary fixation with conspiracy theories of all political stripes in Republic …
press.princeton.edu › books › hardcover › a-lot-of-peo…
Conspiracy theories are as old as politics. But conspiracists today have introduced something new—conspiracy without theory. And the new conspiracism has …
Book Review: A Lot of People Are Saying: The New …blogs.lse.ac.uk › lsereviewofbooks › 2019/06/13 › boo…Jun 13, 2019.
Marisa Mormile. “Less than 100 days to Stop the Rise of an American Dictator.” <info@ourrevolution.com> 7-30-20
President Trump’s racist and fascistic behavior is getting worse every day.
If we don’t stop him in less than 100 days, we could be facing an unthinkable future of sustained economic depression, secret police flooding our streets, and tens of millions more Americans losing health care.
That’s why Our Revolution groups around the country are going all-out to stop Trump and his Republican enablers up and down the ballot by investing in progressive candidates who will fight to get big money out of politics, guarantee health care as a human right, and more.
Rush a donation now, before our end-of-month deadline, to help us close our budget gap so that we can invest in beating Donald Trump and uplifting progressive champions to elected office from coast to coast!
Marisa Mormile, Director of Operations, Our Revolution
[Bernie’s 2016 campaign book of 450pp., entitled Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In, sets forth an expansion of the Democrats’ 1930s New Deal. If Bernie had been nominated and his “Agenda for a New America” had been campaigned for, he would have been elected president and the Republican Project 2025 would have been prevented. Possibly not, because unfortunately, Our Revolution does not include a chapter on US imperial aggressions nor the Israeli/US genocide against the Palestinians. –Dick]
| Masha Gessen. “What Could Happen If Donald Trump Rejects Electoral Defeat?” The NewYorker (July 21, 2020). “…taking the President at his word. “While his defeat is far from certain…what is not uncertain is how Donald Trump would react to electoral defeat, especially a narrow one. He will reject the result.” https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-could-happen-if-donald-trump-rejects-electoral-defeat#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-homepage_04a16f0a-0461-4262-963e-8738bd7b62c2_popular4-1 Forwarded by Bob Billig July 23, 2020. |
Trump’s 12 Fascist Features
Jonathan Greenberg. “’Dictator Trump’ is no idle fantasy. “
The Washington Post, July 10, 2020.
Jonathan Greenberg is an investigative financial and legal journalist .
People have debated whether Donald Trump is fascist since he announced he was running for president. In 2015, Jamelle Bouie wrote in that Trump, in his campaign speeches and Twitter utterances, exhibited seven of the 14 characteristics identified by the Italian novelist Umberto Eco in his defining essay “Ur-Fascism.” In 2016, the Georgetown professor John McNeill assessed Trump’s fascist tendencies on a scale of zero to four “Benitos,” after the father of fascism, Benito Mussolini. As an amateur, Trump fell short.
That was then. What about now? And, more important, what about the Trump of a potential second term in the White House?
On June 1, as demonstrators gathered and marched in Washington and around the country to protest the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police, President Trump, in a brief speech in the White House Rose Garden, called for states to use the National Guard to “dominate the streets” and promised that if they didn’t, “I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.” Federal forces then used tear gas and stun grenades on peaceful protesters to clear a path for him to walk from the White House to nearby St. John’s Episcopal Church for a photo op with a Bible as prop.
“The fascist speech Donald Trump just delivered verged on a declaration of war against American citizens,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) tweeted. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) — noting in an opinion column three days later that the president’s “attempt to use chaos to shred democratic safeguards and consolidate authoritarian power is deadly serious” — put it this way: “This is our own Reichstag fire and, yes, Trump is playing the role of would-be Fuehrer, proclaiming a ‘God-given signal’ to seize more power.”
I first reported on Trump in 1982, when he conned me into putting him on the Forbes 400 rich list. That Trump was just a younger version of this Trump, and now I worry that what happened in June was a mere prelude; he’s certainly capable of a far worse Reichstag-fire-like event that would allow him to steal the 2020 election. And if he does win a second term, legitimately or not, his words and actions of the past four years provide 12 indicators that he would seek to replace our democracy with a fascist dictatorship.
1. Trump uses military power and federal law enforcement to suppress peaceful political protest. In June, he deployed the National Guard and federal officers to violently evict protesters in Washington, terrorizing them with two military helicopters flying low near the crowd. Trump also had 1,600 members of the 82nd Airborne on standby outside the capital and readied tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition. It’s reported that he wanted to deploy 10,000 troops to Washington alone. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, took this so seriously that he got into a shouting match with the president over the prospect of deploying active-duty troops on U.S. soil.
2. Trump persistently lies about voter fraud, setting the stage for him to use emergency powers to seize control of the election or challenge the results if he loses. During a recent special election in California, for example, after a Republican mayor requested the opening of an additional polling station, Trump tweeted falsely that the Democrats “have just opened a voting booth in the most Democrat area in the State. They are trying to steal another election. It’s all rigged out there. These votes must not count. SCAM!” Trump has repeatedly tweeted that mail-in voting will lead to fraudulent and rigged elections. After winning the 2016 presidential election while losing the popular vote, he claimed a landslide victory and said that Hillary Clinton’s lead in the popular vote was due to “millions of people who voted illegally.”
3. Trump has repeatedly suggested that he might remain in office after a second term and has offered reason to doubt he’d leave peacefully after this first term. “Under the normal rules, I’ll be out in 2024, so we may have to go for an extra term,” he said at a rally last September. A year earlier, he remarked, “President for life . . . maybe we’ll have to give that a shot someday.” It’s a joke he’s tossed off on several occasions, and the power of suggestion is so strong in Trump and his followers that Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and former Trump attorney Michael Cohen have all expressed serious concern that Trump may try to steal the election or contest the results, and not leave the White House if he loses.
4. Trump appears to believe he has the power to outlaw speech critical of him, and he calls the free press “the enemy of the people.” He tweeted of the New York Times and The Washington Post: “They are both a disgrace to our Country, the Enemy of the People.” Former national security adviser John Bolton, in his new book, claims that Trump said of journalists: “These people should be executed. They are scumbags.”
5. With Fox News promoting Trump’s lies as truth, the president controls one of the most powerful propaganda machines ever created. During the impeachment trial, for example, Fox hosts repeatedly attacked the character and mental faculties of Democratic representatives and sworn witnesses, while focusing almost exclusively on the testimony of pro-Trump Republicans. When it did show footage of Democrats and witnesses, the network frequently used voice-overs to explain or interpret what was being said, rather than broadcasting what was actually being said.
6. Trump believes that he has the power to do what he wants, regardless of Congress or the courts. “I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president,” he has said. He has also claimed to have the “absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department” and, in the event the judiciary branch disagreed, “the absolute right to PARDON myself.” His attorney general, William Barr, and his own lawyers have made clear that this is the administration’s position as they have rejected both congressional and criminal subpoenas for information during the past few years. Their arguments — including an assertion to a federal appellate court last October that the president could shoot someone in the middle of New York’s Fifth Avenue and still be immune from prosecution until he left office — came crashing down with a Supreme Court decision Thursday. “We cannot conclude that absolute immunity is necessary or appropriate under Article II or the Supremacy Clause,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.
7. Trump acts as if he owns our government and can fire any official who defends the law. He has dismissed an FBI director and a deputy FBI director, as well as five inspectors general and U.S. attorneys, all of whom were investigating or considering either his abuse of power or the alleged crimes of his cronies. This past week, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who served as a national security aide at the White House until earlier this year and was up for a promotion, resigned from the military, citing “bullying, intimidation, and retaliation” after he testified under oath to Congress counter to Trump’s interests.
8. Trump uses federal prosecutorial powers to investigate his opponents and anyone who dares scrutinize him or his allies for the many crimes they may have committed. After the Mueller investigation of Russia’s role in the 2016 election, Trump’s Justice Department began a criminal probe into the origins of the inquiry — to, in Trump’s words, “investigate the investigators.” He tried to get the Justice Department to prosecute former FBI director James Comey and Hillary Clinton.
9. Trump viciously attacks his critics and has publicly implied that the Ukraine whistleblower should be hanged for treason. During a speech to diplomatic staffers in New York last September, Trump said: “I want to know who’s the person who gave the whistleblower the information? Because that’s close to a spy. You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? The spies and treason, we used to handle it a little differently than we do now.”
10. Trump has messianic delusions that are supported with religious fervor by millions of his supporters. He has “jokingly” looked up to the sky and said, “I am the chosen one” in relation to negotiations with China. Then-Energy Secretary Rick Perry echoed other evangelicals who’ve said that Trump was sent by God to do great things when he seriously proclaimed that Trump is the “chosen one.” A Guardian report described the evangelical response to Trump’s photo op in front of Lafayette Square’s St. John’s Episcopal Church, which many viewed positively: One evangelical supporter was so moved that she began speaking in tongues when she saw the footage, according to her son.
11. Trump subscribes to a doctrine of genetic superiority and incites racial hatred to scapegoat immigrants and gain power. He has rallied his base with dog-whistle attacks, calling Mexicans rapists and criminals. When he attacked a group of progressive members of Congress from diverse backgrounds, he stated that they should go back to the places they came from. Over the years Trump has frequently praised his “winning” genes, at one point telling an interviewer, “I’m proud to have that German blood — there’s no question about it.”
12. Trump finds common ground with the world’s most ruthless dictators while denigrating America’s democratic allies. The oppressive leaders he has praised include North Korea’s Kim Jong Un (“He gets it. He totally gets it”); the Philippines’s Rodrigo Duterte (“What a great job you are doing”); Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman (“You have done a spectacular job”); and, of course, Russia’s Vladimir Putin (“You know what? Putin’s fine. He’s fine”). Meanwhile, he has attacked traditional U.S. alliances and allies, like NATO and Germany’s Angela Merkel (“Stupid”). Forwarded by Bob Billig.
Neo-Fascist Trump
“The Storm of Protest in the United States.” Mronline.org (7-3-20). “Neofascism has its source in monopoly-finance capital, at the apex of the system, but depends for its existence on the ability to mobilize, with the help of a führer-like figure such as Trump, a very considerable part of the overall population.” MORE
“The storm of protest in the United States: Interview [of John Bellamy Foster] by Ömür Şahin Keyif for BirGün (Istanbul) conducted on June 23, 2020.” By John Bellamy Foster (Posted Jul 02, 2020)
Originally published: BirGün (Istanbul) on July 2, 2020 (more by BirGün (Istanbul)) |
Media, Movements, Protest, RaceAmericas, Global, United StatesInterviewBirGün, Featured
. . .ÖŞK: U.S. President Donald Trump revived his re-election campaign and one of his main targets is the ‘left’. What does the November election mean for working class people that are facing dire economic and social situations and unemployment with the pandemic? Will Trump answer to the unemployment, economic collapse, the broad crisis of capitalism with neofascist methods? What will Trump do to overcome the crisis? What will his agenda be?
JBF: Trump is a gangster who was able to take advantage of a developing political formation that we can call neofascism, involving an active alliance of monopoly-finance capital with the white lower-middle class and white evangelicals. Meanwhile, the Democrat leadership used their corporate ties and control of the primary process to ensure that Bernie Sanders, who represented a genuine alternative, was pushed out of the race. The consequence is that the U.S. electorate has the “choice” between a right-wing, neoliberal Democrat in Biden and a gangster-neofascist in Trump. This situation, marking the growing crisis of the U.S. state apparatus, is a factor in the widespread uprisings. So far, the loser, as far as the political process goes, appears to be Trump, whose popularity has fallen in the last few months and who has recently been losing some of his support white evangelicals. The combination of a disastrous handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, an economic depression, and an unprecedented revolt against racial capitalism in the country, led by Black Lives Matter, has finally punctured the white supremacist electoral strategy of the Trump administration.
Under the circumstances, it is at least conceivable that Trump’s support from big capital will recede as well, despite the vast handouts he has given to the wealthy and too-big-to-fail corporations. The Biden campaign strategy has thus been to make doubly sure the corporate interests understand that nothing will change for them financially or in any other way if he were to be elected. Hence, Biden went so far as to assure a gathering of wealthy donors at a ritzy New York fundraiser in mid-June (in the midst of the mass protests): “We can disagree in the margins but the truth of the matter is that it is all within our wheelhouse and nobody has to be punished. No one’s standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change.” This was a promise to maintain the status quo for the wealthy and the corporations. It may be that Trump will be seen by the billionaire class and their hangers-on as having gone too far and they will shift the bulk of their support to the neoliberal right-wing Democrats represented by Biden as better securing their long-term interests. But it is too soon to arrive at such a conclusion.
Neofascism has its source in monopoly-finance capital, at the apex of the system, but depends for its existence on the ability to mobilize, with the help of a führer-like figure such as Trump, a very considerable part of the overall population, constituting its political base: namely, the lower-middle class, which in the United States constitutes some 25-30 percent of the population and represents a much higher percentage of those who vote. This is coupled with the backing obtained from some of the more privileged sectors of the white working class. With the vast majority of the white electorate of the U.S. South in rock-bottom support of Trump, he is hardly out of the picture. Meanwhile, the U.S. ruling class has seen its share of wealth skyrocket under his administration and thus leans toward Trump and the Republicans. Plus, there is the enormous power of the presidency, the ability to start a war to get people to gather around the flag. Moreover, if Biden were to win the election, it would only mean electing the lesser evil. At this point the evil represented by the leadership of both political parties is vast. . . .
About John Bellamy Foster John Bellamy Foster, professor of sociology at the University of Oregon, is editor of Monthly Review, an independent socialist magazine published monthly in New York City. … He has published numerous articles and books focusing on the political economy of capitalism and the economic crisis, ecology and the ecological crisis, and Marxist theory: Visit johnbellamyfoster.org for a collection of most of Foster’s works currently available online.
Subject: An existence unmolested by the rumbling of a soul…better be prepared.
Bob Brigham. “Trump is ‘a soulless man with a broken mind’.”Raw Story, June 5, 2020. Forwarded by Sonny San Juan.
George Conway, the prominent Republican attorney married to White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, blasted his wife’s boss in a new Washington Post op-ed published online on Friday evening. . . .
“So much of Trump’s inaptness and ineptness in these and other matters stems from his exceptional narcissism, and the empathic deficit that attends it,” Conway explained. “But it’s more than just narcissism that drives this failing, flailing president. However difficult they can be, even extreme narcissists can have consciences. They don’t necessarily cast aside behavioral standards or laws, or lie ceaselessly with reckless abandon.”
“Trump’s behavior is conscienceless, showing utter disregard for the safety of others, consistent irresponsibility, callousness, cynicism and disrespect of other human beings. Contempt for truth and honesty, and for norms, rules and laws. A complete inability to feel remorse, or guilt. As a New Yorker profile of Trump put it nearly a quarter-century ago, Trump lives ‘an existence unmolested by the rumbling of a soul.’ That’s Donald Trump’s problem yesterday, today and tomorrow,” he wrote.
“It’s our problem, too, for now: We remain governed by a soulless man with a broken mind. The damage will continue, and it won’t stop until voters end it. Come November, it will be up to the eligible human population of this country to look to their souls, their consciences, their humanity — and to cast their votes for one of their own,” he concluded.
Rashida Tlaib 6-20-20
House of Representatives
Ms Tlaib,
Thank you for your letter calling for evicting Trump. Britain faced a similar decision at the beginning of WWII.
Larson’s The Splendid and the Vile, about the first year of WWII in Europe, opens at the moment when the German blitzkrieg was rapidly overwhelming British troops in Norway and was invading the Low Countries. Opposition to Britain’s PM, Neville Chamberlain, and support for Winston Churchill , first lord of the Admiralty, were intensifying. Supporters of Churchill demanded Chamberlain’s resignation. One, Leopold Amery, a member of Parliament, denounced Chamberlain in these words: “’You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing! Depart, I say, let us have done with you! In the name of God, go!’”
Now you have demanded the resignation of President Trump. “Trump must resign immediately.”
The situation is dissimilar, for Britain’s enemy was Nazi Germany, another country, while the enemy of the United States is internal, the President himself. But the stakes are equally high—the destruction of democracy by “a soulless man with a broken mind” (George Conway). As you say: “he’s violated our Constitution numerous times in service of white nationalism. . . .That’s why I led the charge to impeach Trump, which we won. . . .It’s time to end his reign of terror.”
Thank you Ms. Tlaib, Dick Bennett
The Shalom Report
“If Trump Goes Even Lower, We’d Better Be Prepared” [Remembering Gene Sharp and Call to Civil Disobedience] By Bill McKibben, June 3, 2020.
Events are now moving at high speed in this country—every day, President Trump and his crew gallop past new lines, so that the morning’s flagrant usurpation is legitimized by the evening’s even more outrageous improvisation. (Firing tear gas at a crowd in order to be able to stand menacingly in front of a church holding a Bible is hard to top, but I wouldn’t bet against it.) A danger of this is that we’re always reacting to what came before. So perhaps it’s worth skipping a few steps ahead, to places where we haven’t gone yet but very well may.
What I’d like to talk about is civil disobedience, and its uses in authoritarian states. I’m not talking about what’s going on in this country this week—I have no more interest in telling people currently in the streets that they shouldn’t be destroying property than they have in listening to me. If you live a life, as black Americans clearly do, in which a police officer could kill you for allegedly passing a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill, or if you live a life in which the incompetence of the nation’s leaders has helped precipitate an economic crisis that has left you with no job and no prospect of one—well, I’ve been impressed with how peaceful the vast majority of the people in the streets have been. In fact, Tuesday night may turn out to have been significant. Unintimidated by Trump’s heavy-handedness and local curfews, lots of people once again took to the streets, and a frequent chant—“Why you got your riot gear? We don’t see no riot here”—was both a powerful taunt and accurate reporting.
What I’m talking about is what happens if Trump, indeed, goes further still, and manages to make himself a full-on tyrant. It wouldn’t take much. The Justice Department seems to have become his Justice Department. Congressional Republicans seem unwilling to stand up to him about anything; and, at the moment, some of them, such as Senator Tom Cotton and Representative Matt Gaetz are egging him on. The courts are ever more packed, and the Pentagon seemed willing to funnel troops and materiel to D.C., then participate in Trump’s political stunt on Monday, which is a bad sign. The President’s constant shout-outs to “the Second Amendment people” are not a dog whistle—they’re a clarion call. Even as Trump keeps escalating, one keeps hoping that he’s merely trying to impress his base—but as we near an election in which he trails in the polls, the danger seems to mount. It’s hard to know what, precisely, a coup looks like if the leader is already the President. Try to imagine troops ordered to use live rounds rather than rubber bullets, no social media on which to talk about it, and Fox News as the only sanctioned TV channel.
It seems a stretch, but such things are commonplace in many parts of the world. (Indeed, if you’re black, facing live ammunition is already an outsize reality here.) If they came to pass, Americans would be in a difficult predicament: whether to submit to that rule or stand up to it. And that’s where civil resistance comes in. I’ve spent much of my adult life organizing a certain kind of nonviolent action—I’ve been in handcuffs more times than I might have imagined—and it’s had some real effect on the paths of pipelines and the flow of money. (As it happens, the first big civil-disobedience actions I helped organize were staged from Lafayette Park, the same place that Trump cleared for his photo-op stroll.)
But the kind of civil disobedience that I know how to practice happens in the relatively open society that we’ve been living in (and is much harder for people of color). Other people in other places have worked with far less freedom, and accomplished far more—and their faithful chronicler was a man named Gene Sharp, who died two winters ago, at the age of ninety. I first wrote about him thirty-six years ago, when he was already well into his life’s work of cataloging and explaining all the “methods of nonviolent action” that people had used to stand up to authority.
He eventually came up with a list of a hundred and ninety-eight, and could describe in great detail how they had been used, singly or in combination. Some of them are dated—skywriting as a form of resistance—and his list doesn’t stretch to cover the myriad possibilities that the Internet presents. But most of them suggest things that could be tried now: walkouts, silence, selective boycotts, student strikes, wildcat strikes. Some have been made harder by the pandemic (it’s hard to stay away from sports and cultural events if there aren’t any taking place), and some have been made easier (people are already experimenting with rent strikes in many cities). Sit-ins are on the list (and stand-ins, wade-ins, mill-ins, pray-ins); so are alternative markets and transportation systems, the “overloading of administrative systems,” and fasts. . . .
Prophecy
“An ‘Illiberal Democracy’ If Trump Wins Again” By Van Gosse, Organizing Upgrade, posted May 14. H-PAD] H-PAD Notes 5/27/20: Jim O’Brien via H-PAD <h-pad@lists.historiansforpeace.org>
Warns that the US is in danger of joining the worldwide trend of formally democratic authoritarian states seen in nations such as India, Brazil, Turkey, Russia, Poland, and Hungary. The author teaches history at Franklin and Marshall College and is co-chair of Historians for Peace and Democracy.
Greg Palast. How Trump Stole 2020: The Hunt for America’s Vanished Voters. Seven Stories P, 2020.
“No one has told our story of our missing voters like Greg Palast” – Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Follow investigative reporter for Rolling Stone, The Guardian and Democracy Now! Greg Palast as he hunts for the vanished voters of Trump’s America. Yes, the election’s stolen but Palast shows you how to steal it back!
“Read this book. It might just save us! Greg Palast is the most incisive journalist on elections. Plus he’s @##$% hilarious.” —Josh Fox, The Young Turks
Palast lets you in on the nasty secrets of Trump-merica’s democracy:
• One in five mail-in ballots are never counted.
• The chance of your vote being thrown in the garbage is 900% higher if you’re Black than if you’re white.
• 16.7 million voters were purged from the rolls in the past two years. Guess their color.
In How Trump Stole 2020, you meet the scamps, scoundrels and grifters (or “Governors” as we call them in America) doing the dirty to voters of color. Check out the photo of Palast confronting GOP Governor Kemp of Georgia whom Palast catches under a neon pig at a bar-b-que joint to ask Kemp if he’s wiping away Black voter registrations to steal the election. The response: Palast gets busted.
The book includes an exclusive interview with Stacey Abrams on vote thievery—and a 48-page comic book from the piercing pen of Ted Rall.
You may know Palast as the fedora-wearing gum-shoe old-school investigative reporter who busted the theft of Florida in 2000 for The Guardian and in his New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
“Palast is one of our great investigative reporters. If you are not outraged by what Palast has uncovered, you have no heart. A searing indictment of our rigged electoral system.” —Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist.
“Palast, one our great investigative reporters, exposes one of the many mechanisms the corporate state uses to keep us enslaved. If you are not outraged by what Palast has uncovered you have no heart.” – Thom Hartmann. [I ordered the book from B&N. –D]
CONTENTS TRUMP AUTHORITARIANISM ANTHOLOGY #2
CONTENTS
2007
Lawrence Ferlinghetti. “Pity the Nation.”
Naomi Wolf. The End of America.
2008
Myerson and Roberto. “Fascism and the Crisis of Pax American.”
2016
John Broich. We Asked Sixteen Historians.
Noam Chomsky
Heather Saul. Noam Chomsky’s Assessment of Trump.
Josh Jones. Chomsky on Trump and Weimar Republic 1930s.
2017
Awareness in the 1930s.
Michael Roberto. “The Origins of American Fascism.”
Two Articles by John Bellamy Foster.
“Neofascism in the White House.”
“This Is Not Populism.”
David Edwards. “Trump Uses Mein Kampf.”
John Diaz. Trump’s Authoritarian Playbook.
Ron Leighton. Study the Context of US Authoritarianism of Last 50 Years.
2018
Benjamin C. Hett: Interview and Review The Death of Democracy.
Robin Lindley. The Fate of the Weimar Republic.
Timothy Snyder. Review of Hett’s book. “How Did the Nazis Gain Power in Germany?”
Heather Gray. Intro. to Richard Frankel. “German History and Trump’s Enablers.”
Juan Cole. Trump and Erdogan.
Robert Reich. Trump and the “Deep State”: A Second Civil War?
Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Trump Orders More Arms.
2019
Christian Fuchs. On Henry Giroux’s Book The Terror of the Unforeseen.” See articles above by Frankel, Snyder, Leighton.
Ref. Henry Giroux. “Neoliberal Fascism.”
2020
David Renton.Fascism.
2025
Chris Hedges. Collapse of Universities and Suppression of Speech.
Volker Ulrich. Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939. Dick’s Comment.
END TRUMP FASCISM ANTHOLOGY #3