i love morris: We're seeing parallels with something awful

Sunday, February 13, 2022

We're seeing parallels with something awful

So it has come to this. A headline this morning on "Mediaite" says "Jim Jordan says Trump 'right on target' with statement suggesting Clinton campaign operatives should be executed."

I have studied history well. Thus I have had concerns about parallels one might sense between Trump-ism and the Nazis. Obviously one must use caution with such fears or conclusions. On several occasions I have cited "Godwin's Rule" as sort of a guardrail with such things. Generally speaking, back off from citing the Nazis when commenting on contemporary phenomena. It can be a turn-off because it seems extreme, sensational.

So, often when I cite my Nazi-based concerns, in the next breath I advise to be mindful of "Godwin's." It pains me now to see the situation has advanced the way it has. But I have feared this for quite some time. At first many of us are aghast when hearing of a new Trump absurdity. Such stories have flowed on and on, now reaching the point where we learn of Trump flushing toilets to get rid of documents. Can this be real?

In an earlier time we would have said "no." We would have been skeptical of any prediction of such a president coming along. We would assume a minimum level of class and decorum, considered it a prerequisite.

Something drastic has been happening to the American psyche. Germany of the 1930s slowly slid into this type of situation, where surely Germany's own citizens had to know nasty stuff was happening. But they deferred to their leaders. Are we simply deferring to ours now?

But, Donald Trump is an "ex" president. He seeks to wield clout as if he's still numero uno. Problem is, the media takes him seriously when he does this. So we see at the top of the "Mediaite" site now, the breakthrough story of how Trump-ists might begin taking lives. And is anyone going to stop them?

We might theorize that Jim Jordan has had his head slammed on a wrestling mat too many times. This is no time for levity, though. Levity has helped us deal with the Trump crowd for a long time: the fodder for late-night comedians etc. Do I even need to look for the humor connected to the toilet-flushing story? It's almost so tailor-made for SNL, it won't be funny. I don't have TV now so I cannot watch the "Cold Open" at the time it's first presented. But I often catch this stuff later on YouTube posts.

Early in Trump's presidency, he talked about how a certain individual should be charged with "treason." We should not be loose in throwing that word around. "Loose" is Trump's middle name. Decorum out the window. The standards are supposed to exist for a reason. If all this has now broken down, is the U.S. on the skids with its position in the world? I hope that's not a rhetorical question.

Were the Germans really aware they were on the road to ruin, leading up to 1945? No, they were deluded. And now we have the ultimate flim-flam man, Trump, promoting delusion leading to this: serious speculation on whether Democratic political operatives should be "executed." The penalty for treason, incidentally, is "death."

We need some opinion leaders in America to start up now and condemn the inflammatory speculation. We need to condemn it before such thoughts get translated into action. It can't happen here? Wasn't that the name of a Sinclair Lewis book? "It Can't Happen Here?" The whole point is that it can.

Sinclair Lewis

Here's a reminder that Lewis was from Sauk Centre. Might the memory of him be fading a little? He has gotten a little maligned through history: biographers a little too inclined to deconstruct.

Jim Jordan has been annoying through all of the Trump circus since it came to town. He reminds me of the "general" character in "Mars Attacks" after the aliens shrunk him way down and the pitch of his voice went up, to where he was "yapping away" like an excited small dog. That's Jim Jordan now, and what a relief it would be if we would all just start laughing at him.

Liz Cheney wants her party to just wake up, shake off its inhibitions/fears and just come forward and say what they've been saying in private. Trump is a disgrace and annoyance. Let's get back to serious politics and problem-solving, done in a sober way and with participants being respectful. You really need me to tell you all this? Really?

The toilet story and all such stuff diverts our attention from real issues like whether the Federal Reserve (central bank) is going to bring down this country. Trump when president tried pressing the Federal Reserve to implement negative interest rates? First of all, the president is never supposed to try to influence the Fed. That's just the way it's supposed to be. And Trump didn't respect that? Should not we be concerned?

Negative interest rates might mean you'd have to pay a bank to have a savings account. In a normal world, savers get paid some interest.

All eyes should be on the Fed now, rather than on Trump's toilet-flushing or other such stuff. Execution? Maybe some people are floating this shock stuff to get people's attention away from the economy and inflation. Because you have to consider: the size of interest rate hikes being weighed by the Fed now, won't be nearly enough to blunt inflation. Nope, sorry. So then what? By even experimenting with such tiny hikes, the U.S. stock market bubble or house of cards could be destroyed.

And to raise interest rates enough to have a chance to stop inflation? Good chance that would kill the stock market, and no way in hell our politicians are going to countenance that. So, what to do? Pray? And in the meantime, elevate talk of executing one's adversaries? This became reality in Hitler's Germany.

Trump and his offensive language and behavior just rolls on. The headlines continue with each passing day. He never gets pushed back. This kind of thing happened to Germany too, mid-20th Century.

If Hillary had been elected, she would have been a mainstream, decent, respectful person who would have left the Federal Reserve alone.

When history books get written? People speculate so much on this. But I really think the turning point for America, downward, was with the 2008 "financial crisis," and how it just got "papered over." No proper solution at all. We may all be hurtling toward a terrible outcome because of that. But with executions? I absolutely will not rule it out, based on the pattern established to date.

Merrick Garland might be executed for failing to use his office to "go after" Hunter Biden. That's the kind of world we're in now.

Oh, to go back to the days of Bob Dole and George Mitchell. Boring. But Nirvana compared to now.

And to think it was the "evangelical Christians" who gave us Trump in power.

It is Sunday today and I am staying home from church. It's getting ever harder for me to square Christianity with all that is going on. Without Christianity, we would have been spared the Trump presidency. Does Trump himself live up to any Christian ideals at all? Isn't he rather the antithesis? Maybe he's the devil. Maybe even I will be executed before it's all over.

So Valentine's Day is tomorrow (Monday). I can celebrate it only in theory, not in practice. I am just like the lead male character in the '80s movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy." Remember? Any time the guy got around a "nubile female," he lost all coordination, might trip over his own shoelaces, couldn't put a sentence together. That's me. I can actually be dangerous in these situations.