I recently sent out a clarion call regarding the Trump/Nazi synergism. Well, suffice to say, not everyone agreed with me as evidenced by their creative use of four-letter words directed at my character.
Ouch!
But here’s the thing: we had a secret band of stormtroopers unleashed in this country, employing tactics eerily similar to Hitler’s personal security force, the SS, evidenced by the swat teams Trump has assembled in Portland: peaceful demonstrators are being tear-gassed and whisked away in unmarked cars by unmarked, masked agents. In other words, the Stormtrooper SS playbook has been resurrected and is experiencing a rebirth on the streets in Portland.
Let me repeat, American, yes, American peaceful protesters are being rounded up in unmarked cars, by police (?) showing no identification, no charges, and threatened with assault weapons.
This is happening in America, right now, not in some fascist country. IN AMERICA!
“Donald Trump said reading Mein Kampf in college had a profound effect on him, and he has tremendous respect for Adolf Hitler as a leader.” David Emery April 2019
“Last April, perhaps in a surge of Czech nationalism, Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler’s collected speeches, My New Order, which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed…Hitler’s speeches, from his earliest days up through the Phony War of 1939, reveal his extraordinary ability as a master propagandist,” Marie Brenner wrote.
All this urban drama brings me to the ‘maskless’ protesters during the COVID-19 lockdown: remember those people who were protesting the right NOT to wear masks, you know, fighting to maintain the right to spread a deadly virus to friends, family, co-workers, and children? Remember those patriotic warriors, how passionate they were marching to preserve the right to inflate a burgeoning pandemic. Well, since they are such First Amendment freedom fighters, I would expect them to be on the first bus to Portland to help combat the reenactment of a SS Nazi purge on U. S. citizens. Surely, this would take precedence over preserving the right to spread a deadly virus. They’re patriots, right?
You know it’s funny, maybe not “ha-ha” funny, but I don’t recall the ‘maskless freedom fighters’ marching for civil rights, or human rights, laying down their life to stop child trafficking, marching to preserve voting rights for all citizens. But hey, who am I to judge? I guess what is important is the fact they marched. Perhaps in the future, they could rally around a cause that promotes real freedom, rather than pushing an agenda that ends with Americans in body bags.
By the way, Trump has plans to inject/infect these USA stormtroopers into other major cities, Chicago being the next target.
Our democracy is under siege right now. It will take severe commitment, vigilance, and courage to squash the juggernaut of American-born MAGA fascism.
This leads me to another subject: patriarchal culture, a subset of fascism, which Evangelicals have saturated our country in. I always wondered why Evangelicals embraced a man who had at least two dozen sexual assault allegations against him. Don’t you draw the line after one, two at the most, sexual assault allegations? Doesn’t that give you pause before you rally behind a candidate, especially if you are a man of God? What would Jesus say? What would Jesus do? How does this square with Jesus’s teaching of kindness, compassion, and empathy? As recently as the 80s, when Clinton was in office, character mattered. Ralph Reed, religious right leader: “We care about the conduct of our leaders, and we will not rest until we have leaders of good moral character.”
Well, that took a sudden turn!
But this Evangelical hypocrisy had its roots much earlier. Jerry Falwell, a close friend of the President, was a segregationist and staunch believer in a patriarchal society, which very much aligns with our President’s worldview.
“A child of the South, Falwell was a segregationist. Rather than fearing that American racism would discredit the country globally, Falwell insisted that civil rights agitation was inspired by communist sympathizers…Falwell helped lead local efforts to resist school integration, even when that meant defying the Eisenhower administration, both national parties, and Lynchburg’s own business leaders.” Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, by Kristen Kobes Du Mez
This is our President’s religious mentor, well-schooled in the patriarchal interpretation of scriptures. “Across two millennia of Christian history—and within the history of evangelicalism itself—there is ample precedent for sexism, racism, xenophobia, violence, and imperial designs.” Jesus and John Wayne … Page 44, Du Mez
Buttressing this patriarchal vision were Evangelical women themselves. Marabel Morgan from her best-selling book, The Total Woman, writes: “The biblical remedy for marital conflict was the submission of wives to husbands. It was God’s plan for women to be under a husband’s rule.”
And then there was the popular evangelical, Jack Hayes, who wrote in 1972: “he commanded women to “be in complete and total submission to their husbands and to male leadership.” Whereas boys must be trained to be leaders, girls should be trained to submit.” Jesus and John Wayne … Page 53, Du Mez
And another of Jerry Falwell’s, our President’s spiritual mentor, greatest hits: “Falwell sparked controversy by characterizing AIDS as “the wrath of God upon homosexuals” and recommending that those with AIDS be quarantined.” He also forged connections with South Africa’s apartheid regime.” Jesus and John Wayne … Du Mez, Page 135
According to my reading of the Bible, we are all God’s children. There is no hierarchy.
Evangelicals, historically, seemed to be terrified of gays. They will do anything to suppress them, deny them rights, and discriminate against them. They don’t feel they are human; they view them as an abomination. Now this is funny, well, not “ha-ha” funny, but funny nevertheless:
“In 2014, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s Decision magazine featured Putin on its cover, and Franklin Graham praised the Russian president for standing up to the “gay and lesbian agenda.” Jesus and John Wayne … Page 302, Du Mez
Like I said, we are all God’s children. Atheists are more a product of the Big Bang…I think. But why are Evangelicals so threatened by gays, so threatened that they forge awkward alliances with fascists like Putin? They admire how Putin stands up to gays: he either kills them or lets them rot in prison. (Word of warning to gays: be careful about stepping into an Evangelical church—no telling if some gung ho parishioner, Putin-lover, decides to implement the Putin program on his own. God knows the NRA will ensure these guys are well stocked in AK-47s.)
But here’s another thought: Pastors being around gays may remind the pastor that he is gay, and he can’t have that. There were a lot of pastor scandals in the 80s and 90s, especially the gay ones. I got two words for you: Ted Taggart.
Over the past decade, Evangelical groups have funneled more than $50 million into right-wing European organizations.
Back to the Putin gay agenda: is that really a program a religious institution should want to emulate—the murder and imprisoning of a select group of citizens? Does Billy Graham wanna take another look at that? Now I know why Trump has a man-love for Putin — he likes his religiously sanctioned anti-gay platform (developed by Billy Graham himself).
As the Russian official, Ramzan Kadyrov stated: “…there are no homosexuals in this country.”
Maybe Putin and Trump are both gay…I probably shouldn’t say that now that Trump has his own SS Stormtroopers.
Curt
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