Sergiy Kyslytsya also denounced the Russian president’s decision to put nuclear forces on special alert as “madness.”
Amid rapidly escalating fears of global nuclear war, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations on Monday suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin should follow in the footsteps of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
Echoing the condemnation of anti-war activists worldwide, the Ukrainian ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, called Putin’s Sunday decision to put Russian nuclear forces on special alert “madness.”
“If he wants to kill himself, he doesn’t need to use [a] nuclear arsenal. He has to do what… the guy in Berlin did, in a bunker,” the ambassador said.
During his U.N. speech, Kyslytsya did not name the notorious German leader, who consumed cyanide and shot himself in the head on April 30, 1945, just days before Germany surrendered to Allied forces.
‘This war was not provoked. It was chosen by someone right now that is sitting in the bunker. We know what happened to the person who sat in the bunker in Berlin, in May, 1945,’ said Ukraine’s U.N. envoy Sirgiy Kyslytsya https://t.co/gyYHI0BslXpic.twitter.com/C5ZQTysdcV
Kyslytsya also gained global attention last week for his remarks during a U.N. Security Council meeting chaired by his Russian counterpart, Vasily Nebenzya.
“There is no purgatory for war criminals; they go straight to hell, ambassador,” the Ukrainian told Nebenzya.
In response, the Russian ambassador claimed that “we are not carrying out aggression against the Ukrainian people—this is against that junta, that seized power in Kyiv.”
Following several war crime allegations against Russia over the past week, Karim A.A. Khan, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, announced Monday that he has “decided to proceed with opening an investigation into the situation in Ukraine, as rapidly as possible.”
Now more than Ever Democracy needs an Informed Populace to Survive
After the recent alleged murder of a police officer by a “Boogaloo Boy, the indictments in a conspiracy plot to kidnap and murder the Governor of Michigan (Gretchen Whitmer) and with Trump “inciting the Proud Boys” during the Presidential debate saying, “Stand back and Stand By” (rather than condemning them and telling them to stand down), many of us are very wary of the possible dangers to Democracy swirling around the 2020 election.
These threats, although likely impotent, are still very real. So now would be the perfect time to consult history, and those who are experts on history, in order to know more about the potential dangers of fascism and wannabe dictators to democracy and the democratic rule of law.
Book burning is impossible Today but the Truth is still being Attacked from all sides
Just as Trump cries and whines daily about “fake news” a term originally coined to describe his penchant for constantly lying, Hitler wanted to banish history from the minds of his German subjects by exhorting them to set libraries ablaze in bonfires meant to banish all but his mandated “truth”. Those bonfires are, to this day, a symbol of absolute evil, no less so than concentration camps and mass murder.
Fortunately there are recent classic as well as new, important titles coming out at this critical time. While many in the masses might be easily fooled into admiring those that primp and preen and bluster like Mussolini once did, or attack a designated “other” group like Hitler (the Jews) and Trump (Mexican immigrants and other asylum seekers as well as the imaginary threat of ‘antifa’) anyone who has studied history, and in particular these books, will know that the path to freedom, justice and real democracy lies and the exact opposite direction. Always.
The Origins of Totalitarianism begins with the rise of anti-Semitism in central and western Europe in the 1800s and continues with an examination of European colonial imperialism from 1884 to the outbreak of World War I.
Arendt explores the institutions and operations of totalitarian movements, focusing on the two genuine forms of totalitarian government in our time–Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia–which she adroitly recognizes were two sides of the same coin, rather than opposing philosophies of Right and Left.
From this vantage point, she discusses the evolution of classes into masses, the role of propaganda in dealing with the nontotalitarian world, the use of terror, and the nature of isolation and loneliness as preconditions for total domination. Click here to see “Origins of Totalitarianism” and help independent bookstores. Also available on Amazon.
Click here to see “Rigged” and help independent bookstores. Also available on Amazon.
Russia’s interference in 2016 marked only the latest chapter of a hidden and revelatory history. In Rigged, David Shimer tells the sweeping story of covert electoral interference past and present. He exposes decades of secret operations–by the KGB, the CIA, and Vladimir Putin’s Russia–to shape electoral outcomes, melding deep historical research with groundbreaking interviews with more than 130 key players, from leading officials in both the Trump and Obama administrations, to CIA and NSA directors, to a former KGB general.
What Americans should make of Russia’s attack in 2016 is still hotly debated, even after the Mueller report and years of media coverage. Shimer shows that Putin’s operation was, in fact, a continuation of an ongoing struggle, using familiar weapons radically enhanced by new technology. Throughout history and in 2016, both Russian and American operations achieved their greatest success by influencing the way voters think, rather than tampering with actual vote tallies. Click here to see “Rigged” and help independent bookstores. Also available on Amazon.
With the end of the Cold War, the victory of liberal democracy seemed final. Observers declared the end of history, confident in a peaceful, globalized future. This faith was misplaced. Authoritarianism returned to Russia, as Putin found fascist ideas that could be used to justify rule by the wealthy. In the 2010s, it has spread from east to west, aided by Russian warfare in Ukraine and cyberwar in Europe and the United States.
Russia found allies among nationalists, oligarchs, and radicals everywhere, and its drive to dissolve Western institutions, states, and values found resonance within the West itself. The rise of populism, the British vote against the EU, and the election of Donald Trump were all Russian goals, but their achievement reveals the vulnerability of Western societies. Click here to see “The Road to Unfreedom” and help independent bookstores. Also available on Amazon.
Click here to see “Fascism” and help independent bookstores. Also available on Amazon.
A Fascist, observes Madeleine Albright, “is someone who claims to speak for a whole nation or group, is utterly unconcerned with the rights of others, and is willing to use violence and whatever other means are necessary to achieve the goals he or she might have.”
The twentieth century was defined by the clash between democracy and Fascism, a struggle that created uncertainty about the survival of human freedom and left millions dead. Given the horrors of that experience, one might expect the world to reject the spiritual successors to Hitler and Mussolini should they arise in our era. In Fascism: A Warning, Madeleine Albright draws on her experiences as a child in war-torn Europe and her distinguished career as a diplomat to question that assumption. Click here to see “Fascism” and help independent bookstores. Also available on Amazon.
An explosive exposé of the right’s relentless campaign to eliminate unions, suppress voting, privatize public education, stop action on climate change, and alter the Constitution.
Behind today’s headlines of billionaires taking over our government is a secretive political establishment with long, deep, and troubling roots. The capitalist radical right has been working not simply to change who rules, but to fundamentally alter the rules of democratic governance.
But billionaires did not launch this movement; a white intellectual in the embattled Jim Crow South did. Democracy in Chains names its true architect–the Nobel Prize-winning political economist James McGill Buchanan–and dissects the operation he and his colleagues designed over six decades to alter every branch of government to disempower the majority. Click here to see “Democracy in Chains” and help independent bookstores. Also available on Amazon.
Donald Trump’s presidency has raised a question that many of us never thought we’d be asking: Is our democracy in danger? Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt have spent more than twenty years studying the breakdown of democracies in Europe and Latin America, and they believe the answer is yes. Democracy no longer ends with a bang–in a revolution or military coup–but with a whimper: the slow, steady weakening of critical institutions, such as the judiciary and the press, and the gradual erosion of long-standing political norms. The good news is that there are several exit ramps on the road to authoritarianism. The bad news is that, by electing Trump, we have already passed the first one.
Drawing on decades of research and a wide range of historical and global examples, from 1930s Europe to contemporary Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela, to the American South during Jim Crow, Levitsky and Ziblatt show how democracies die–and how ours can be saved. Click here to see “How Democracies Die” and help independent bookstores. Also available on Amazon.
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We are seeing Hourly Newsflashes as Trump tests his ability to send a “private” militia into American cities under the fabricated necessity of countering of “threats” to federal buildings.
The recent and unfolding events in Portland and the real threats of using similar force and tactics across the US represent a new level of crisis for this election year. A false narrative with exaggerated so-called “threats” to buildings by groups of, in reality, peaceful protesters who are being labeled criminals, terrorists and are at times suffering beatings, tear gas and even kidnapping, all at the hands of unidentified federal agents.
There has been an extreme and seemingly panicked barrage of fabricated emergencies all centered around the continued, mostly peaceful, protests originally ignited by the murder of George Floyd and the BLM focused demonstrations that followed.
Trump has blamed “violent anarchists” who he claims are part of the “radical left” and are allied with Democrats, and that these vaguely designated groups have created “a shocking explosion of shootings, killings, murders and heinous crimes of violence.”
With the false bravado of a man enamored with his own fantasy of power he intoned: “This bloodshed must end,” and “This bloodshed will end.”
Many who believe in American Democracy are left searching for these crimes and this emergency, and where exactly the connections are that, somehow show, the “radical left” is behind any violent crimes. Further, crimes that are more obviously, to the degree that crimes are being committed at all, being committed by a scattered and relatively small group of unaffiliated individuals.
Instead, it is the trumped-up response which appears to rational observers to be an attempt to provoke the very “crimes” that he has vowed to stop (and which he has imagined or exaggerated for the purpose of political theater). And further, from all appearances, there is a coordinated effort by the federal government, led by Bill Barr and various unconfirmed “interim” or “acting” department heads, to create a coterie of paramilitary forces that can be used by Trump to act with physical force and violence in any way he sees fit.
As this bizarre and unprecedented attack on democracy is unfolding, even republican, right wing, former members of the conservative establishment are shocked. Here are some recent quotes and headlines:
“For a President and an administration that calls itself ‘law and order,’ they have broken the law, and are creating disorder.”
Fmr. Sec. of State Madeleine Albright
“What is really at stake is the delegitimizing of Democrats altogether before the 2020 election. Today Jenna Ellis, senior legal adviser to the Trump campaign and one of Trump’s personal lawyers tweeted: “No Democrat should EVER AGAIN be elected in the United States in any capacity.”
So Tom Ridge, another homeland security secretary under Bush, has also opened fire, noting that DHS’s mission is to protect against “global terrorism” and was “not established to be the president’s personal militia.” “It would be a cold day in hell before I would consent to a unilateral, uninvited intervention into one of my cities,” Ridge told Michael Smerconish.
“That kind of activity is the activity of a police state, and this president and this attorney general seem to be doing everything they possibly can to impose Gestapo activities in local communities, and that is what I have been warning about for a long time. I do believe that this election is all about the preservation of the greatest democracy that this country has ever known,” Clyburn said Monday during an interview on CNN.
South Carolina Rep. John Clyburn
“I think it’s unconstitutional and dangerous and heading towards fascism,” he said.
Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro
And not not-senate-confirmed “acting” Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security had this general response:
“DHS is answering the President’s call to use our law enforcement personnel across the country to protect our historic landmarks. We won’t stand idly by while violent anarchists and rioters seek not only to vandalize and destroy the symbols of our nation, but to disrupt law and order and sow chaos in our communities.”
Acting DHS Secretary Chad F. Wolf
Hitler, Mussolini and Trump: a short glance at historical similarities
Hitler
In the early 1920s, long before Hitler was in power in Germany, he was a politician with a need for bodyguards. In addition, his newly formed Nazi party encouraged followers to commit violent attacks against leftists and outsiders (jews). The SA a.k.a. the brown shirts were a personal militia comprised of violent thugs attacking whoever Hitler designated as the enemy of his vision for Germany. By 1933, there were over 3 million members.
Violent attacks occurred often against any individuals or group that dared to disagree with Hitler’s politics or were just among the declared enemies, with Jews and leftists at the top of the list. Through the physical intimidation of individuals and opposing political groups, his rise to power, in steps, was made possible.
The idea that a political movement “needs” a violent para-military component is a common thread in the history of various fascist dictators and their rise to power. Designating political enemies as “terrorists” (such as Trump is trying to do to antifa). Encouraging violence against them, using a justification of “safety and protection” of the general public that supposedly sides with the “vision of law and order” put forth by the would be dictator is a common theme from Hitler’s rise that we are also seeing today.
Mussolini
Similar to Hitler’s “BrownShirts”, Mussolini had his “Blackshirts”. The similarities between Hitler’s rise and that of Mussolini are well documented. Mussolini’s blueprint for Fascist power was later repeated in Germany, if the similarities being coincidental or by design is unimportant.
Racism, hatred of foreigners (in Italy’s case the prime scapegoats being Africans and Asians to the south and east) and violent intimidation of anyone who questions his and his parties authority were the familiar script.
The similarities to the present day are the grave and serious issue, and the differences are what will decide our fate.
Trump
Unlike in the fascism stories above, Trump is already the elected President and the “leader of the free world”. It is important to note that “free” in that phrase means, among other things, free from fascist dictatorships. On the other hand, the recent events in portland and elsewhere show a serious and dangerous precedent where Trump is using the DHS and it’s “acting” director as if they are his version of the SA or even SS.
Perhaps the Gestapo is a more apt analogy, but there’s an element of this being a cobbled together band of thugs like the brown or blackshirts mentioned above as this was, apparently, a hastily crafted group of federal agencies that appear to have been gathered by Attorney General Bill Barr, rather than an organized long standing secret police force.
Unidentified stormtroopers. Unmarked cars. Kidnapping protesters and causing severe injuries in response to graffiti.
These are not the actions of a democratic republic.@DHSgov’s actions in Portland undermine its mission.
The consensus among those who would rather not see Trump find a way to take control of the US as a modern day Mussolini is that many, if not all, of the steps and actions taken thus far are dead wrong, even if they represent a convoluted way to break the intended spirit of US law and Constitution while maintaining a kind of shadow legality.
The now clichéd quote, famously from a John F Kennedy in a speech in 1961: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” nevertheless applies here to all men, women and children of this country.
An astounding thing about the historical tragedies surrounding the fascists rising to power in the first half of the 20th century is that, early on, when they could still have been stopped by a sufficiently outraged majority, the dangers were underestimated until it was too late.
“Never again” should be our response to that statement and we must be prepared to back it up, no matter what.
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Only an illiterate thug with no concept of history would talk about people who are against Fascism in America as “terrorists”. Unfortunately, the media has joined in the hate parade and keeps stating the “fact” that “antifa” is a “far-far left” radical violent organization, and then mentioning various caveats to show they are not agreeing with the wannabe Fascist in the White House.
Many large news outlets have tried to give a “definitive” overview of the real situation regarding the violent elements of the recent unrest vs. the perception that is being pushed by the current administration. The picture news media paints is almost as warped as the government version.
Poster Art by Paramount Pictures
“Antifa” is short for anti-fascist” and, yes, there is a european history behind the resistance to the rise of fascist regimes leading up to World War II. Bizarrely, no mention is made in these “definitive” accounts of the fact that the Axis powers in Europe, Germany and Italy were in control of fascist dictators and that we, the Alliance, were the enemy of fascism and the heroic liberators of the people enslaved and killed by these dictators.
Although many have indirectly pointed to the similarities between the rise of Trump, or at least his attempted power grabs, and the early period of European history when both Hitler and Mussolini were on the rise.
They too outlawed “terrorists”, which was anyone who they believed were against them. They each had bands of thugs who were used to intimidate with illegal violence anyone that they perceived as a threat. Now we have a “private army” amassed by Bill Barr and an armed “militia” being egged on to use automatic rifles to intimidate elected officials in the Michigan state capitol and in other places.
And “antifa” are dangerous terrorists? Is that some kind of a joke?
High profile american patriots have an obligation to speak out – now
Not long ago Rachel Maddow made a speech on her show saying “The dark days are not coming, the dark days are here”. That was over six months ago and, as everyone knows, much darker days have come since.
What are we waiting for? Where are the people who can see the most obvious facts in front of their faces and then decide to stand up and declare: I am an american patriot and therefore, as has been the case throughout our storied history I stand against Fascism in any form at any time, anywhere in the world, especially here in the USA!
Where are the people who see what is happening before our eyes, journalists, celebrities, powerful public figures and politicians who are ready to say: Stop fascism and the attempt to create a fascist dictatorship now!
Do we want to wait for the country to be under marshall law and then watch while concentration camps are built to hold anyone who dares to call themselves against fascism, and therefore against the wannabe fascist in the White House?
Based on viewing social media video evidence such as the one above, along with official assessments, the two largest contingents of looters and criminals during the recent unrest across America were right wing confederates of Trump trying to start a race war and professionals, sometimes driving up in Rolls Royces and brand new Mercedes sedans, who are clearly not anti-fascists (unless they are very rich ones).
That is a point that should not even need to be debated. The point that matters is that being against fascism is the most pro-american and mainstream heroic stance anyone, from any part of society, can take and has been throughout our history.
Nonsense and lies that are dignified with any kind of measured response, rather than outright rejection, encourages dangerous propaganda that we can not afford to repeat, even to denounce
Where are the “good” fascist dictators? Where is the society that was improved by a fascist power structure? What kind of senseless idiocy is it to debate with someone, someone that has obvious designs on becoming some kind of fantasy dictator who has fascist tendencies, as to who the “real terrorist” is?
Perhaps this common sense “clear as the nose on your face” approach will not be taken seriously by the large corporate media outlets. After all, there is a consensus that “antifa is bad, just not as bad as Trump says”: that is the subtext of many articles being written about the insane pronouncement that Trump has “designated” antifa as a terrorist group.
There is no “debate” required in this discussion. Fascists are the enemy of all Americans and therefore being against fascism is being “for” America and the way of Peace and Justice.
Being against people who are against fascism is to be “for” fascism. If you are a politician talking about “rigged” elections and trying almost daily to incite riots in order to escalate state sponsored violence against peaceful protesters, your opinion of who is, or isn’t, a terrorist has been disqualified. Oh, and if you say racists are “very fine people” then you are standing in solidarity with Racism.
It is for the rest of us to decide who the “good guys” are and to stand together as one with them. Speaking out clearly as being against fascism and the wannabe fascist in our midst is the minimum requirement to patriotic citizenship in these chaotic and dangerous times.
Thankfully, weekend headlines were replete with stories denouncing Trump’s most recent barrage of racist tweets, these singling out Rep. Elijah Cummings and Baltimore, and the district that he represents.
@TheRealAdolfHitler: What if Hitler was on twitter? would he tweet about “rat infested” Jewish areas of Berlin?…
Even CNN, until recently not known for hard line resistance, pointed out and criticized the Nazi-like tone and technique in the tweets – how they echo the Nazi era anti-Semitic propaganda, that labeled Jews as “parasites” and used photos of rats to imply filth and disease. Infestation was also a concept used, the implication that Jews, like rats, carried disease and decay.
The most alarming, discouraging element of this ongoing debasement of our political discourse is the possibility that this disgusting circus could be extended initially through 2020, and even into another four years and beyond.
“It can’t happen here” is a well known phrase and the title of an influential novel from 1935 by Sinclair Lewis. In many ways, as others have pointed out, Trump echos the main character and could even conceivably have used his story as a blueprint for his career in politics.
The phrase, “it can’t happen here”, seems to be contradicted on a daily basis since November 9, 2016, and the degree to which the horrors of the past can be repeated, or at least echoed continues, with seemingly no end in sight.
The “enemy of the people”, as Trump has labeled the media (at least all that dare to speak out against him), seem to be the only hope, ultimately, of effecting a change for the better, which can only come once Trump is no longer in power.
The attacks on Cummings were racist propaganda, of that, there is no doubt. There is also a clear motive for the attacks, since the target is the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, which is charged with overseeing the Executive Branch, including the office of the President.
After years of endless lies, Trump appears to be upping his game, ahead of the coming election. With a clear pattern of weekend twitter propaganda, such as the “go back” tweets, which for most represented a new low, and yet are clearly outdone by this weeks sequel.
Many articles and famous figures have responded, from the Baltimore Sun’s scathing inditement, to CNN’s Victor Blackwell and his live on-air, heart-felt reaction, and even Stephen Curry’s comment on his segment:
It's this kind of boldness that our country needs! Keep calling him out. I'm not from Baltimore- but I know countless people who are. Teammates, family, hardworking employees. All People that represent the best qualities of what it means to be American! & who want to live there!
As the years of this presidency have progressed, and the lies and vicious attacks have escalated, the press has also adapted and evolved.
For almost a year after the 2017 inauguration, the press generally avoided using the word “lie” in reports of Trump’s “untruths”. There was an attempt to maintain respect for the office and to somehow show deference to a man that, ultimately, has proven himself to be beneath that courtesy. As the lies continued to pile up and the press was directly attacked on many occasions, boldness and honesty begin to seep into the reporting.
“…all of us, starting with the media, must speak out now, and not stop until he is gone.”
Now, the words “racist” and “bigot” are necessary and accurate in any description of the man, or his actions and ideas. The tweets of the last few weeks have set a new lower standard, even for Trump, in how blatantly his bigotry and racism can be displayed.
The congressman himself had several strong responses to the attacks that should be seen:
Mr. President, I go home to my district daily. Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors.
It is my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch. But, it is my moral duty to fight for my constituents.
Mr. President, we can address this together. Two years ago, I went to the White House to ask you to endorse my bill to let the government negotiate directly for lower drug prices.
Ultimately, unless we want to see a future that mirrors the almost 12 years, between the time that Hitler became chancellor of Germany until his death, and experience a fate that is potentially even worse: all of us, starting with the media, must speak out now, and not stop until he is gone.
In the past, comparisons with Hitler were a kind of “red-line” that was seldom crossed, as the horrific historical legacy of the Nazis was thought to be too extreme, even to contemplate, in a modern day figure.
“Afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the Earth – – it would literally be over in 10 days” -because- “I just don’t want to kill ten million people”
Now, we are talking about a man who only last week boasted that, if he wanted, “Afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the Earth – – it would literally be over in 10 days” because “I just don’t want to kill ten million people”. Implying that he could change his mind about not killing 10 million in Afghanistan, or anywhere else, at any time.
This past weekend may, one-day, be seen as the beginning of a march toward 2020 and another Trump term, with consequent escalation of all the ugly policies and actions.
It could be just the beginning, with all this power-drunk behavior, from a man that has indicated that he believes his supporters might “demand” that he serve more than 8 years. And “joked” that he feels he should be “president for life”, after repealing the 22nd amendment.
Combine these disturbing ideas and extrapolate, even just slightly forward, and step by step, we are talking about a future that is virtually impossible to imagine in its potential for hate, death and destruction.
We are entering a time when the transition to calling “a lie” a lie, a “racist” a racist and soon a “fascist” a fascist, will either work to eventually re-establish the goal of democracy and equality and truth as our real American greatness, or Trump will indeed be a new, far worse, version of Hitler, Goebbles and the Third Reich all rolled into one.
Hyperbole? Hysteria? This is a time when a single man or woman can influence the future of this country and the world. Will it be this man? This racist, bigoted, hateful, corrupt “rat” of a man?
Or will it be you, as one of millions who will stop him? As history indicates, the real choice is to begin the movement to stop him now, or look forward to horrors from which the world itself may not survive.
