The warning bell keeps clanging. Many of us are bored at hearing the repeated clangs.
This underscores a central revelation of this election: given the chance to choose fascism, eyes wide open, a significant proportion of Americans say, "Bring it on."
So he talks about Hitler with admiration? So what? What's a little infatuation with Hitler, after all?
We Americans are having to face some ugly truth about ourselves as this election nears.
As Dan Rather notes, "a who’s who of Republican officials from the Trump administration and many of the Pentagon’s top brass" have now warned us that the man is "unfit to serve."
Rather asks,
"if Trump should win, what would that say about our country?"
Count New Hampshire governor Sununu among the Americans who want to shrug at Trump's infatuation with Hitler: asked about this yesterday on CNN, Sununu shrugged and said extremism is just "baked into" Trump.
But so what?
Heather Cox Richardson highlights this statement by Sununu:
“If we can get a Republican mindset out of Washington, we need that culture change.”
Trump loves Hitler? Trump's a fascist? So what?
"On Wednesday, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu dismissed Trump's praise for Hitler’s generals as a fact that is 'baked in' to the election results. ...
If Donald Trump wins, it will be in large part because wealthy business leaders (like Soon-Shiong) and spineless politicians like Chris Sununu put their political and monetary fortunes ahead of the democracy that allowed them to succeed. Shame, shame, shame!"
~ Robert B. Hubbell
#Trump #Republicans #fascism
/4
https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/we-have-been-warned-8aa
"This is the time for political courage.
Instead, America’s highest-profile business leaders — Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase; Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft; and Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway — are displaying political cowardice."
~ Robert Reich
#Trump #Republicans #fascism #EconomicElites #CorporateLeaders #JamieDimon #WarrenBuffett #BillGates #Hitler
/5
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/political-cowardice-in-the-c-suites
"I hope that many of the people now supporting Trump will have an attack of conscience on their way to their polling station. But as Trump’s running mate, J. D. Vance, once wrote for The Atlantic, Trump is 'cultural heroin,' and the hard choice of civic virtue will never match the rush of racism, hatred, and revenge that Trump offers in its place."
~ Tom Nichols
"Trump's embrace & praise of Hitler should have been the breaking point for the GOP, but instead they've decided to go all in."
~ Wajahat Ali
"It needs to be emphasized at every opportunity that the Republican currently running to be president of the United States is on the side of the Nazis whom we sacrificed so much blood and treasure to defeat in World War II. It’s devastating that this tragic truth is not enough to render Donald unacceptable to every single American—or, indeed, no elected Republcans."
~ Mary Trump
#Trump #Republicans #fascism #Hitler
/8
https://www.marytrump.org/p/we-cant-pull-punches-hes-a-fascist
"Trump’s admiration for Adolf Hitler may be the clearest expression of how profoundly unsuited he is to ever come near our White House again."
~ Steven Beschloss
#Trump #Republicans #fascism #Hitler
/9
https://www.americaamerica.news/p/admiring-hitler-is-disqualifying
"A fat, lazy, incurious fascist is still a fascist."
~ Daniel Drezner
#Trump #Republicans #fascism #Hitler
/10
https://danieldrezner.substack.com/p/the-evidence-for-trumps-fascism-is
Jeff Sharlet looks at the term "sanewashing," which Parker Molloy has popularized to characterize how the corporate media treat Trump, and says,
"I think Parker would agree with this; It’s fascist-washing."
"No one else in modern politics has been given more leeway for aberrant behavior than Trump."
~ Renée Graham
#Trump #Republicans #fascism #Hitler #media #sanewashing
/12
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/10/22/opinion/trump-mcdonalds-media/
"Mariel Garza, the Los Angeles Times' editorials editor, resigned yesterday after Patrick Soon-Shiong, the newspaper's billionaire owner, blocked the outlet’s decision to endorse Harris. This has further strained Soon-Shiong's already tense relationship with Times staff during a year marked by newsroom cuts and turmoil."
~ Brian Stelter
#Trump #Republicans #fascism #Hitler #media #sanewashing #LosAngelesTimes #PatrickSoonShiong
/13
https://view.newsletters.cnn.com/messages/172977481957609e2fe3e48e1/raw
"In a statement, the L.A. Times Guild said it is especially concerned 'that he is now unfairly assigning blame to Editorial Board members for his decision not to endorse.'"
And an important piece of information we may need to assess why Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong blocked an editorial endorsing Kamala Harris: as Sewell Chan, previously an editor at Los Angeles Times, reminds us:
"Elon Musk … is friendly with Soon-Shiong — they are both South African-born billionaire entrepreneurs."
#Trump #Republicans #fascism #Hitler #media #sanewashing #LosAngelesTimes #PatrickSoonShiong #ElonMusk
/15
Mariel Garza, the editorials editor of the Los Angeles Times, resigned on Wednesday, after the newspaper’s owner had blocked the editorial board’s plans to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president. “I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent,” Garza told me in a […]
Endorsing Kamala Harris, The Guardian states that Harris Harris represents a hopeful future, while Trump will drag Americans back into a reactionary past.
Trump’s authoritarianism may be the end of US democracy, The Guardian concludes.
#KamalaHarris #Trump #Republicans #fascism #Hitler #media #TheGuardian
/16
Editorial: This election presents a critical choice. Do we embrace a hopeful future or retreat to a reactionary past? We’re backing Kamala Harris. She will unlock democracy’s potential, not give in to its flaws
"the reality is Trump could be a wannabe fascist all day. But without followers, he is just a guy screaming out anti-American garbage.
That is why to me it’s far more alarming that millions of Americans see Trump for who he is and love it. They want 'America’s Hitler'—as JD Vance warned in 2016 Trump could become. MAGA is what a modern day fascist movement looks like."
~ Dean Obeidallah
#Trump #Republicans #fascism #Hitler
/17
https://deanobeidallah.substack.com/p/vp-harris-is-100-correct-that-trump
"We have been studying democratic crisis and authoritarianism for 30 years. Between the two of us, we have written five books on those subjects. We can think of few major national candidates for office in any democracy since World War II who have been this openly authoritarian….
The U.S. establishment is sleepwalking toward a crisis."
~ Steven Levitskiy and Daniel Ziblatt
#Trump #Republicans #fascism #Hitler
/18
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/24/opinion/democracy-defense-us-authoritarian.html
"The U.S. Naval Academy’s history department invited NYU historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat to give a guest lecture this month about what happens to militaries under authoritarian rule, then the Heritage Foundation and other right-wing figures launched a pressure campaign and the academy disinvited her."
~ David Kurtz
#Trump #Republicans #fascism #Hitler #RuthBenGhiat
/19
https://morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com/p/kamala-harris-plans-to-close-with
Dan Froomkin reminds us that the US did once have news commentators fiercely committed to the truth, courageous, and intent to serve democracy by remaining true to their vocation – in a word:
Walter Cronkite.
#Trump #Republicans #fascism #Hitler
/20
https://criticalread.substack.com/p/time-for-a-cronkite-moment
William Lindsey 
Thomas Traynor