Sunday, October 28th, 2018
Stephan: I have been watching the news all day, and have noted particularly that not a single commentator has said that this despicable mass killing at the Tree of Life Synagogue is another act of violence by another middle-aged White Supremacist Trumpkrieger. They dance all around it, but don't want to say it outright, although probably by tomorrow it will become unavoidable. If you know anything about the rise of fascism in a country you know we are checking off the boxes one by one. The redhat trumpkriegers are being stirred up by Trump, his rallies, his tweets, and his interviews. Hitler stirred up his Brownshirts, and Mussolini stirred up his Blackshirts in their era's equivalent manner. Where do you think Trump got the idea of employing identifying clothing as part of the drill?
We have a Congress dominated by a Republican majority that, in my opinion, has completely abandoned its Constitutional role. This abdication plus, now, the capture of the Supreme Court is changing the fundamental nature of America. As I keep saying the forms continue but the substance is being drained away by the incompetence, corruption, and greed of Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, John Cornyn, Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch, and the rest of the party. These people are selling American democracy for a mess of personal pottage. And 40 per cent of the voters are happy with what's happening. This is the most important election of all our lifetimes.
SWAT teams outside the Tree of Life Synagogue Credit: Pam Panchak / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette / AP
Robert Bowers, who opened fire at the Tree of Life Synagogue, in Pittsburgh, this morning, killing at least eleven people, was not evasive about his intent. He reportedly made anti-Semitic statements during the shooting, and just beforehand posted on Gab, a right-wing social network, about hias, a Jewish nonprofit that supports refugees. “hias likes to bring invaders in that kill our people,” he wrote. “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered.” Earlier, he had suggested that he supported far-right nationalism but believed that President Trump was captive to a Jewish conspiracy. “Trump is a globalist, not a nationalist,” Bowers wrote. “There is no #maga as long as there is a kike infestation.”
American history has been marked by acts of anti-Semitic violence, including the shootings at Jewish community centers in Kansas City, in 2014, and Los Angeles, in 1999. It has been marked, too, by mass murders in houses of worship—in recent years, the […]
From my casual reading of history these times seem a bit like 1920s Europe. The Weimar republic and Italian political disarray that gradually became more chaotic with the powers that were incapable of behaving responsibly. The final ingredient was the economic collapse that activated survival fears in many who were not politically involved before.
The ingredient we are missing is the looming trump depression which is coming without question. If many are angry trump believers now when the economy is booming what happens when 2008++ occurs? If this election does not turn the tide then what? And if it goes Democratic then will the 40% accept changes?