After Jan 20 It Will Feel An Awful Lot Like Germany In the 1930's.

[TheMastersNemesis]

I do believe the GOP and its allies will use intimidation tactics and outright physical suppression to suppress any kind of protest. We must remember the GOP is a tyrannical and even violent party for all practical purpose. There will be designated free speech zones that do not exist. And they will use the police. The GOP and its allies will use instigators to frame protests as treasonous and insurgency.

I could be wrong and hope I am right. But we now have bully POTUS who is thin skinned. We have a GOP that is willing to do anything illegal to get its way. Just look at the transition.

Do not for a moment think that these protests will go unanswered. If the tweets are any indication of how POTUS would act to resistance we could be in for a bumpier ride than we imagine.

Unfortunately I believe Americans face a potentially dangerous period. Remember Ferguson.

[kimbutgar]

1. It's so scary like impending doom

That hopeless feeling is the worse.

[RKP5637]

4. The calm before the storm when you know a cat 5 is on its way.

[guillaumeb]

2. I am investing in Brown shirts.

I have a feeling that they will again become very fashionable.

Perhaps a small investment in tall leather boots also.

[Bonx]

38. I don't think we should invest in the economy until he's gone.

[dionysus]

51. Let us not be like the rethuglicans and hurt the economy out of spite..

[RKP5637]

3. Many Americans are not used to this, have never really lived under it and are naive. Tyrannical

regimes can be brutal. Many thought Bush/Cheney was bad, they are ultra liberal compared to this crew coming it. At least they were sane. It's difficult what to expect. I hope it is OK, but my hunch is there are going to be very difficult times, in fact, likely a war or two.

[madokie]

16. And that war or two

will be between us and them, trying to kill us. In ways we've never imagined

[RKP5637]

19. That is definitely what they are up too, divide and conquer, and kill off. n/t

[2naSalit]

39. Yup.....nt

[Cosmocat]

35. Sorry, but the halfwitted dolts that now populate this country are just fine with what is coming

That is what I see around me ...

People here don't get the math.

We are a significant minority, 1/3 of us see this shit clear as day.

BUT ...

1/3 of us are full on right wingers who have totally bought the high and mighty status they have deluded themselves into believing they are righteous, holy, patriots who are above the creatinous evil liberals.

1/3 are "independents" and apolitical people who in some way shape or form have swallowed the evil liberal boogyman bullshit and are more than willing to go for the ride on whatever cliff the republicans drive us over.

If the asshole congress and Trump pass a bill forcing every american to throw all of their children into a volcano 1/3 of this country will fight tooth and nail to save its children, 1/3 of the country will angrily demand that everyone else throws their children into the volcano while finding a way to not throw theirs in 1/3 of the country will chew its cud and throw its children in.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

50. I am a bit more optimistic than you...

But your analysis reminds me of where Americans were said to stand on our revolution. One third were with the Red Coats, one third were with the Blue Coats, and one third were with whatever side was winning.

[Phoenix61]

5. I like to remember Marie Antoinette

And Napoleon and Al Capone. Especially Marie. Things have a way of working themselves out.

[bdamomma]

6. well they got an

outsider for sure, with no political ideology no experience that is like going to a baker if you have to have surgery. does that make any kind of sense.

[Bettie]

15. Not only does he have no political ideology and no experience

he has no moral center, no moral code whatsoever.

That is much more frightening to me than the lack of political knowledge.

If he had even a tiny indication of some kind of morality, I'd be less terrified.

But, if people die, he won't care, as long as he's not one of them.

[bdamomma]

20. his mental state needs to be discussed

I have two Dems for Senators I will keep on sending them or e mailing them about this man/child's mental state.

Again, he always has his family in on everything why is Ivanka always there??? they are protecting him. Again he is not well mentally I am preaching to choir we all know he is not well.

[Bettie]

23. I have Grassley and Earnst.

And Rod Blum as my congresscritter.

I have zero representation in congress as a whole. None.

And writing or calling any of them is futile. They are lock-step people who do as they are told.

ETA: I think Ivanka is always there becasue he can't read. I also suspect that is why he eats fast food, becasue there are pictures on the menu.

[LandrosT]

7. I dread what the next 4 years will bring

Seriously, I've never been so pessimistic about the future as I am now.

[Cosmocat]

36. Yeah, for good reason

we are fucked ...

[pangaia]

8. You are absolutely right.

[Arkansas Granny]

9. I've seen online posters state that we shouldn't wish DT's Presidency to fail because

that failure would be bad for the country. I truly think that if he succeeds, it will be even more disastrous for the country. Either way, we're screwed.

[niyad]

10. I would remind them that the pukes loudly, and often, prayed and wished for obama to fail,

regardless of what that might mean for the country. so they have no room to talk.

[yagotme]

12. This right here. n/t

[bdamomma]

21. repigs

do not have our interest at heart, and I hate when they invoke our names when they freaking do not care what we think or what we do. It's all about them and their filthy greed. Mitch McConnell wants the rest of the US be like Kentucky poor. Or am I wrong about this?

[TheMastersNemesis]

11. I Still Have Some Sense Of Hope, Though I Wonder If It Is Wishful Thinking.

Part of my problem is that I have watched the insane drift to this point. My hope against hope since 1981 has come to pass. All of the worst fears I have had look like they will happen.

Going on 73 this election has been the worst election of my lifetime. And all the worst people have been recycled into our government. It is like having Mengela for your doctor.

[branford]

13. No, it will not feel like Germany in the 1930's to any rationale person

with a knowledge of history and sense of proportion.

Will it massively stink to have Trump as president, and Republicans in control of all of Congress and most states? Absolutely. However, as president Obama reminded us early in his first term to the great chagrin of Republicans, elections have consequences. It will hopefully be a wake up call to our Party to do MUCH better in 2018, and definitely 2020.

Nevertheless, comparing Trump, and by implication the half of the country that voted for him, of effectively being Nazis and overturning our Constitution's incredible system of checks and balances, does little more than make those screaming the allegation seem reactive, hyperbolic and disrespectful of our electoral system. It's precisely that attitude that elected the orange menace in the first instance. Our democratic republic survives with both conservatives and democrats in the Oval Office.

Take a deep breath, note that these are not the end times, accept that conservatives will make policy gains as befitting their election victories, but take comfort that they will be slowly implemented, not as bad as predicted, and most importantly, easily reversed if we truly learn the myriad lessons from our Party's losses on the federal, state and local levels.

[MichMary]

14. +1

[GliderGuider]

17. Your Constitution's "incredible system of checks and balances"

let Trump into the WH in the first place. It doesn't look so freakin' incredible from where I'm sitting, a scant 50 miles north of the Canuckistanian border.

Just because you don't like (or can't imagine) the idea that you're on a slope oiled with goose fat doesn't mean you're not. Your ridiculous President-elect is just one more signal of the imminent deflection of human civilization away from its self-congratulatory path of "progress" and toward the dumpster of history - a signal just like Brexit, the troubles in MENA, the Chinese smog, the vanishing Arctic ice cap and accelerating wildlife extinction rates. Trump may or may not be the proximate cause of the end of the world as you know it, but he is most definitely another symptom of humanity's encounter with the Limits to Growth.

It's long past time to wake up and take a look around.

[milestogo]

24. + a brazillion

[pintobean]

25. "brazillion" is a punchline

How appropriate.

[Paladin]

29. Very well put, I'm sorry to say. (nt)

[uponit7771]

31. +1, the we're not breakable conclusion is delusional at best. Germany HAD a decent check and

... balance before they let their Despot in

[branford]

45. "Democracy" and "checks and balances" does not mean

the liberal or your or my preferred candidate wins.

You might have noticed that the American Republic has grown and prospered under the leadership of both conservative and liberal presidents and other political leaders. We survived Nixon, Bush (I and II) and even Reagan. American voters alternate the party of the president with routine regularity. Our constant peaceful and order transition of power is taken for granted.

In any event, this is not the "end of the world as we know it." The hysterical "sky is falling" rhetoric, ridiculous Nazi analogies and now constant attempts to legitimize a duly elected president no matter how much we might disagree with his policies, is the very same conduct we ridiculed and castigated when done by certain Republicans about President Obama, and similarly is exactly the sort of out of touch bubble thinking that lost us former Democratic strongholds like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Even more importantly, assuming Clinton was elected president, how exactly would that have demonstrably changed "Brexit, the troubles in MENA, the Chinese smog, the vanishing Arctic ice cap and accelerating wildlife extinction rates..."?

I hope once Trump is inaugurated, the hysteria is replaced by rationale strategy and realistic drive to win back our electoral losses. If not, expect to see Trump win a second term.

[GliderGuider]

46. It's not a question of a preferred winner.

I just think the system should have enough checks to prevent candidates who are demonstrably mentally ill from acceding to the WH.

I don't support candidates based on their politics. I didn't support any of the candidates in your last election - in fact I don't support politics at all. I just don't want insane narcissists to have their finger anywhere near the nuclear button.

The election of Clinton wouldn't have changed the biophysical realities of the world one iota. I never said it would. I simply think that Trump's election was another symptom of us hitting those limits. It's not that Hillary's election would have kept us from hitting them, but rather, if we weren't hitting them then Trump would not have won.

It's the difference between seeing political outcomes as causal vs. seeing them as symptomatic. I think that, given the current state of the biophysical world and its social manifestations, political outcomes are largely symptomatic. IMO the deteriorating state of the world has outstripped the ability of national politicians to control its course.

[pintobean]

18. Excellent post, branford

The doom and gloomers seem to try to get more extreme every day.

[cwydro]

40. They do, don't they?

Sad.

[bdamomma]

22. very good post

thank you

[DetlefK]

27. Fine. Here's a history-lesson on Germany in the 1930s:

The democratic system of the Weimar Republic was full of flaws and loopholes that the rightwing-extremists exploited to game the system.
Sound familiar?

The racism of the Nazis was mainstream in the early 20th century, all over Europe and the US, because of a public misunderstanding of Darwin's theory of evolution. Just as the rural conservatives in the US just "know" the truth after decades of propaganda, the people back then just knew that racism is perfectly okay because of decades where an incorrect explanation had been allowed to fester.

The Nazis got 18-44% in the polls. Not everyone agreed with them, even among their own voters. The people eventually voted the Nazis into power because they were fed up with the parliament not doing anything to help them... because the Nazis kept openly saboting the government and then complaining that the government doesn't get anything done.



How about this for a sense or proportion:
The Nazis never put war and genocide on the ballot.
No Nazi ever voted for war and genocide.
That came later via orders from the higher-ups, when racism and fascism and Fuhrer-cult had become the new normal.





Oh, and nice system of checks and balances you have there.
Where Chief Justice Roberts can lie during his confirmation-hearings, where he can just ditch judicial precedent to push through Citizens United, where Mitch McConnell can unilaterally and illegally veto a Supreme Court-candidate without any consequences whatsoever, where the President can add signing-statements that retroactively alter bills Congress just passed, where House Reps can pick their voters via redistricting, where a small and corrupt cadre of Senators can block everything for the rest...

[uponit7771]

32. EXACTLY !!!! "Not everyone agreed with them, even among their own voters. " I have German friends

... that are children of the war and the "we didn't vote for them" comes up CONSTANTLY !!!

Most Germans didn't vote the Nazi party in the Nazis were obstructionist until H got loans from the US to work into the economy !!!

Then it was open the barn doors !!

There are TOO many parralllels between the current US and Germany... period

Cept we don't have the "we didn't know" stupid ass'd excuse

[Blaukraut]

53. Well said.This should be two posts on their own. Especially the last paragraph n/t

[uponit7771]

30. BULL FUCKIN SHIT !!! You are NOT seriously proffering there are NO parrallels !! I lived in Germany

... Germany and they no doubt say there are ENOUGH parallels.

I don't know where you're getting your information from

Also

The "see ... we told you so " bullshit works if there was few things to break... that's not the case

[niyad]

33. if you honestly think that, then perhaps you need to restudy your history. side-by-side

comparisons of der drumpfenfuhrer's and hitler's speeches? his threats to the media? to everyone who does not bow down to his superiority? have you not been paying attention?

and do tell me what "checks and balances" when the antiquated vestige of slave-holding privilege known as the EC GAVE us this moronic, hate-filled, ignorant asshole? when congress, the white house and the supreme court are all in reichwing, puke hands? explain to us all, please, what "incredible system of checks and balances" are going to keep these monsters under control?

you are, of course, free to be as optimistic as you like. the rest of us know we are heading for utter disaster.

[Cosmocat]

37. You really are not grasping where this country is

This isn't some aberration and it did not magically happen on November 8th.

This country has been slipping down this path my entire adult life - over a quarter century now.

And, is has gotten incrementally worse with time, the only pause a little pushback in 06 and 08.

But, 2010 was a huge wake up call.

Bush lied us into Iraq and the economy blew up, but this country gave BHO about a week in office before it started turning on him, and for no reason other than conservatives throwing a massive hissy fit gave the full power at ever level except the POTUS from that point on.

For the last 8 years republicans have been complete jackasses who ran DC to a complete standstill and used congress as nothing more than a platform to engage in active sedition against BHO, including colluding with extremist Iraniain elements to try to thwart a nuclear deal with Iran.

And, the country reacted by giving them continued control of DC and the states AND electing a bold faced, out and out right wing authoritarian as POTUS.

We are now an emergent authoritarian, fascist state, and the people of this county are perfectly fine with it.

[SammyWinstonJack]

42. Pulling all nasty crap they're about to unleash must mean they

feel elections don't have consequences and they have no fear of losing either in 2018 or 2020. jmho.

[branford]

47. If the Republicans, on the federal, state and local level,

believe the implementation of their policies are winning strategy for continued electoral gains in 2018 or 2020, and they are right, it still doesn't even remotely make it feel like Germany in the 1930. In fact, as someone who lost most of my family in the Shoah, the constant hyperbolic comparisons are off-the-charts offensive.

Most American voters are not nearly as conservative as most Republican politicians, nor as liberal as Democratic politicians. They often sometimes hold seemingly incongruent or incompatible views. If our ideas aren't reaching enough voters and our policies are not actually helping those we claim to represent, then the problem is our, not the voters or our mature democratic system.

The incessant implication that democracy is not functioning when our side loses is ludicrous. Is it extremely disappointing with real world implications? Of course, but it's little more than a motivator to do better the next time. Recall that Republicans were nearly wiped out in 2008 after Obama's victory, and we were discussing the end of the Republican Party in the modern era. Now look how the tables have turned in such a short time. Voters are fickle and demanding and should never be taken for granted.

[MrScorpio]

44. I'm impressed by your optimism

I just can't share it.

FDT.

[dionysus]

52. I know, right? Some of the reactions on here "trump has ruined my life zomg we're doomed"

Makes me shake my head... people saying they've been rendered housebound or wake up luling every day... geeeez louise... he hadnt even taken office yet!

[PatrickforO]

26. Hitler was also quite thin skinned.

Like Trump, he could not stand to be criticized.

[niyad]

34. excellent point.

[cockamamie]

28. The "Fake News" meme that emerged after the election

Will turn out to be extremely counterproductive, and the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act that was recently passed only made it easier to crack down on free speech.

[Jetboy]

41. The only way to combat this is waving the American flag in their faces and sticking to the script:

Draft Dodger, tax dodger, job outsourcer, troop disrespcter. on and on and on. Don't stray from the stuff they actually care about.

Sure Hollywood is morally bankrupt but you want a well-known con-man and his stripper 3rd wife in the WH?

Wrap yourselves in the flag, don't talk about policies or Hollywood and shove the fact that Donald Trump is Captain Anti-America in their faces. I LOVE BASEBALL HOT DOGS APPLE PIE AND STOPPING THIS TRAITOR!

And yeah, buy firearms and ammo and learn how to use them. THIS is exactly why the Founding Fathers drafted the second amendment. Citizens must be able to defend themselves vs a tyranical gov't.

[MrScorpio]

43. The brutes and barbarians are taking over again

This time we're seeing it with our own eyes.

FDT.

[jmg257]

48. Wow - like Germany in the 1930s?

The Nazi Party wins 107 seats in the Reichstag -September, 1930
Unemployment in Germany reaches nearly 4 million. -December, 1930
Ernst Roehm is appointed Sturm Abteilung chief of staff. -January, 1931
Paul von Hindenburg defeats Adolf Hitler in presidential elections. -13th March, 1932
The Sturm Abteilung is banned. -April, 1932
In Prussia the Nazi Party becomes the largest single party in the parliament. -24th April, 1932
Franz von Papen lifts the ban on the Sturm Abteilung -16th June, 1932
The Nazi Party wins 230 seats in the Reichstag -31st July, 1932
Adolf Hitler refuses to serve under Franz von Papen as vice chancellor. -13th August, 1932
Franz von Papen resigns as chancellor of Germany. 17th November, 1932
Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. -30th January, 1933
The Reichstag catches fire. 27th February, 1933
The Nazi Party fails to win an overall majority in the Reichstag -5th March, 1933
The first Nazi concentration camp is formed at Dachau. -20th March, 1933
Reichstag passes the Enabling Bill. - 23rd March, 1933
Adolf Hitler uses the Enabling Bill to exclude communists from government.-31st March, 1933
Herman Goering forms the Gestapo from the former Prussian police. -26th April, 1933
Adolf Hitler increases the number of Nazis in his government. -2nd June, 1933
Adolf Hitler announces an increase in the size of the German Army. -16th March, 1934
Heinrich Himmler is appointed assistant chief of the Gestapo. -4th April, 1934
The Night of the Long Knives results in the purge of the Sturm Abteilung. -29th June, 1934
Paul von Hindenburg dies and Adolf Hitler becomes president as well as chancellor. 2nd August, 1934
The German Army enters the Rhineland. -7th March, 1936
Adolf Hitler introduces a compulsory two-year military conscription. -24th August, 1936
Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini agree to form a military alliance. 1st November, 1936
Germany and Japan sign an anti-Comintern pact. -25th November, 1936
France decides to extend the Maginot Line along the border with Germany. 27th February, 1937
Guernica in Spain is bombed by the Luftwaffe. 26th April, 1937
Pro-German riots take place in the Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia. -17th October, 1937
Italy joins the Germany and Japan in the Anti-Comintern Pact. -6th November, 1937
Adolf Hitler replaces Werner von Blomberg as commander of German Army. 4th February, 1938
Adolf Hitler orders the release of imprisoned Austrian Nazis. 16th February, 1938
Adolf Hitler orders the German Army into Austria. -12th March, 1938
Austria is declared part of the German Reich. 13th March, 1938
Francisco Franco, ruler of Spain, signs the Anti-Comintern Pact. 7th April, 1938
Adolf Hitler orders the mobilization of the German Army. 12th August, 1938
Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler sign the Munich Agreement. 29th September, 1938
German Army occupies the Sudetenland. -1st October, 1938
Joseph Goebbels organizes Crystal Night (7,500 Jewish shops destroyed/400 synagogues burnt down). - 9th November, 1938
Adolf Hitler dismisses Hjalmar Schacht as president of the Reichsbank. 21st January, 1939
The German Army invades Czechoslovakia. -15th March, 1939
Adolf Hitler demands the free city of Danzig in Poland. 21st March, 1939
Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler sign the Nazi-Soviet Pact. 23rd August, 1939
The German Army invades Poland and annexes the free city of Danzig. 1st September, 1939
Britain and France declare war on Nazi Germany. 3rd September, 1939
The German Army reach the city of Brest-Litovsk on the Polish border with the Soviet Union. 17th September, 1939
Germany formally annexes western Poland into the German Reich. 1st November, 1939

Concentration camps, purges, invasions, annexations, occupations, conscription, evil alliances, Goebbels, Gestapo, Goering, SA, CrystalNacht, World war, ???

Thanks but I think I will pass!

[former9thward]

49. Nonsense.

BTW designated free speech zones began during the Clinton administration. Nothing new there.