One day not long ago, Trump woke up and wondered what he could tweet that would distract attention from the Russia investigation. What red meat could he throw to his base? Aha, he thought, I will declare that no transgender person may serve in any capacity in the military. I will claim that I consulted with “my generals” and they agreed (although he had not consulted with anyone).
The military leaders were surprised but said they would make it happen.
Think of it. Trump got five draft deferments, one of them for sore feet. He never served. But he wants the military to fire transgender people who volunteered to serve in harm’s way.
Some unknown number of people in the Army, Navy, and Marines will be ousted, no matter how exemplary their service.
Why? They are the easiest people to attack. Their numbers are tiny. Who cares about them?
Trump won’t stop there. Who’s next? His base won’t be satisfied with just a few thousand transgender people? Will Muslims be next? Jews? Mexicans?
That is the way if the bully, the demagogue, the fascist. Start with the most disfavired group. Then pick off the others, one by one.
This is how it begins.
Do you care? He is betting that you don’t.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
no doubt sent to this blog often… but can’t read it enough
First They Came
Pastor Martin Niemoller
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.
Maybe he has insulted the generals (think you meant “”consulted above but “insulted” works) and they will push back.
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I feared someone would bring this up in this context. This attribution to Niemoeller is not correct. I wrote about this a while ago and will repeat it:
Pastor Niemöller never made the statement as it has been popularized. According to the Martin Niemöller Stiftung (Foundation), he spoke about this in Easter 1976 in a discussion with parishioners in Kaiserslautern. “It was not a poem, no.” according to Niemöller, who began his solitary confinement in a Nazi prison in 1937, a year before Kristallnacht, “…you see, when they began to lock up the communists, and we probably heard about that immediately, I don’t really remember, but we didn’t protest against it, because we lived for the church and the communists were, after all, no friends of the church, in fact the opposite, their declared enemies, and that’s why we remained silent. And then came the unions, and the unions were no friends of the church, and we had few dealings or absolutely had none and we said, let them fight out their own thing. There was no record or copy of what I said and it can absolutely be that I formulated it differently. But the idea was, in any event: The communists, that we also let pass quietly; and the unions, that we also let pass; and the social democrats we also let pass. That wasn’t, after all, our affair. Back then the church had absolutely nothing to do with politics and one shouldn’t have had anything to do with it. We in the confessional church categorically didn’t want to engage in any political resistance…This is only what I can say to that history with that: When they locked up the communists, no one said anything, we weren’t communists and were completely in agreement that we had these enemies off our necks. But we didn’t see ourselves with the duty to say anything about people outside of the church, that wasn’t in fashion then, and we weren’t that far along that we thought ourselves responsible for all the people.”
According to the Niemöller Foundation, “Niemöller [in this conversation] described the exact history. He didn’t name Catholics because they had their concordant [with the Vatican]. He couldn’t have cited Jews because the great wave of persecution began when he was already in the concentration camp. Various versions exist particularly in the USA, in some cases directly modified from Niemöller, some added on.” His second wife wrote [in original English]: “The trouble with Martin Niemoeller’s ‘famous quotation’ is that he never wrote it down – which enabled so many hitchhikers over the years to ‘put themselves on the waggon’ [sic]. In his ‘Confession of Guilt’ (as he called it himself: Schuldbekenntnis in German) the Communists came first, then the Trade Unionists and then the Socialists and then the Jews. NO ONE ELSE.”
Niemöller obviously dramatically changed his worldview while in confinement and it informed his subsequent life. But as he readily confessed, history is not as poetic as we sometimes like to think.
http://martin-niemoeller-stiftung.de/martin-niemoeller/was-sagte-niemoeller-wirklich#more-212
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Greg,
You cite his explanation in 1976 about why he said what he said decades earlier, but this does not mean that he didn’t say it.
Here is what the U.S. Holocaust Musem says today:
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007392
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Diane, the article you cite still has some serious problems of revisionism that I will try to explain. Please forgive me if this is too long. If you look at the progression of actual Nazi persecution after they came to power, which is reflected in Niemöller’s comments of 1976, it is communists, union members, and social democrats. In today’s terms, it could be restated as: the far left, organized labor, and the center-left. If you read the (mis)quote that the Holocaust Museum uses, its order is Socialists, which I assume wraps together or equates communists with social democrats and, if that is a correct assumption, it fundamentally misinterprets history. As anyone who has studied this period knows, communists and social democrats were bitter enemies—their relationship was defined by their differences, not their commonalities.
Why do I think this is important? First, not only did he and the confessional church not have anything to say about brutal persecution of communists, they “were completely in agreement that we had these enemies off our necks.” In other words, he and his church did more than not speak out. They supported, they were complicit. It was common knowledge that the first concentration camp, Dachau, was designed to “re-educate” communists and other political undesirables. It was only later, after he was put into a concentration camp, that he began feel solidarity with them. And Jews were, when he was imprisoned, not a part of his equation. That revelation came later as they joined him in ever greater numbers as prisoners and targets of extermination. He was late in understanding that although Jews were not the first targets of detention and legalized murder, they were ultimately the primary targets, even before they were systematically sent to the camps and murdered. To use a contemporary analogy, he later understood that the persecution of communists, union members, social democrats, and evangelical Christians (who are not in any way to be equated with those who embrace the term today) was a test-marketing process of sorts. As the Australian comedian Jim Jeffries said to Piers Morgan on the Bill Maher show a while ago, “Hitler didn’t kill the Jews on the first day, he worked up to it.” (at about 6:45 of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zTEG0DgCRA)
I am also troubled by the Holocaust Museum’s use of the Niemöller (mis)quote for more reasons than for historical accuracy as I mentioned above. In their explanation, they even acknowledge the “controversy…of diverse groups” who insert their names or cause and then follow it up with a we justification, “Nonetheless…” Fidelity to actual words is important. By ignoring or manipulating them, what is to stop future groups or individuals from tailoring it for their purposes? I can already see the Fox News revisionists who revel in their “victimhood” getting ready with a “Then they came for the conservatives” addendum. Could a Yugoslavian propagandist of the 1990s have written, “First they came for the Serbs”? Are scientologists included? It could devolve into the slipperiest of slopes.
It might be worth considering, as newer translations of, for example, 19th century French literature are updated to better reflect today’s colloquialisms, if we to apply this process to Niemöller’s (mis)quote. I mentioned the corruption of “Socialists” above, but if we adopted the accurate historical progression, then people might better understand that a persecution of social democrats would be closer to the Bernie Sanders and his supporters of today than it is of some long-haired, bearded relic of mostly forgotten history. Or, consider how many would equate the terms “trade unionists,” a rather abstract concept for most young persons today, and “teachers’ unions?” Would it make more sense to today’s students if they understood that Niemöller’s warning would apply to their public school teachers? Would they understand that his warnings about Jews apply the same to today’s “secular humanist” atheists? Would they apply these warnings to people who exercise their constitutional rights to not stand for the national anthem or burn the American flag as expressions of civil disobedience? Or pro-life adherents who would include the “un-born?”
Related to this discussion is, as I believe I have written on this blog in the past, the fact that we have made a grave error in creating the popularly accepted term that 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust. The correct way of expressing it should, in my opinion, be: at least 11-15 million people died in the Holocaust, of whom at least 6 million were Jews who were targeted to be exterminated by deliberate and planned methods. By accepting the 6 million number, we trivialize all other victims. By using the larger numbers and explaining which people were victimized, I do not believe we lessen the numbers and faces of the 6 million. I believe we recognize humanity. We should use the same careful logic and intent in applying what Niemöller wanted us to remember and apply it to our lives.
In my opinion, the most important part of your eloquent post, with which I believe Niemöller would have most related with was: “Why? They are the easiest people to attack. Their numbers are tiny. Who cares about them?” This encapsulates exactly the challenge we face today in this nation. As I have written extensively before, this administration—notwithstanding the “saviors” of Gens. Kelly, Mattis, and McMaster and the occasional Jewish member of the cabinet or inner circle—is fascist to its core. The “test-marketing” of scapegoats among transgender soldiers, members of the media, and so-called illegal aliens is part of a larger plan to keep us quiet. The war against public education, voting rights, science, the judiciary, fair legislative representation and common decency are part of this is as well. It relies on ignorance, misinformation, and a disrespect for verifiable facts and history. The goal is to make us malleable subjects rather then informed, engaged citizens. That’s why I believe we shouldn’t fear the reality or imperfectness of Niemöller’s lessons by trying to create a quote that inspires us, the actual, messy history is good enough for me to get it. Our differences could be considered slight nuances, but with time these nuances can become irreconcilable chasms.
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…its order begins with Socialists…
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We’ll have to wait until the 2018 elections to discover how many care about what Fake President Donald Trump is doing to destroy the United States and its Constitutional Republic. Until then, those who care the most will keep spreading the word. If the Kremlin’s Agent Orange eventually cripples the traditional media, it will be up to social media to keep reporting what this traitor is doing. Then he will start to attack fake social media, lying social media too.
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I worry that some of his Second Anendment friends will be incited by his vicious rhetoric to attack and kill journalists.
He is a menace.
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Gun sales have plummeted since the election. see
http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/03/news/companies/ruger-cabelas-gun-sales-trump/index.html
There was a “peak” just before the election, because Hillary was ahead in some of the polls.
I once met a gun shop owner in Huntsville ALA, who had a 4 x6 portrait of his best salesman, posted in his shop. The photo was of Barak Obama.
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An interesting take on the question of the second amendment. I laughingly proposed it a few weeks ago .As the quickest way to put those assault riffles back into state armories.
http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/6-gun-groups-arent-white-right-wingers
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Fake President Trump attacks the press at almost every one of his Klucker-Nazi style rallies, and it is obvious that he is egging on his rabid, drooling, ignorant, hard core Alt-Right racist followers to rush and lynch the press.
He did it at the recent Arizona rally. He doesn’t have to say the exact words. The inference is clearly there in his body language as he spouts his hate and vitriol at the media.
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https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1530.html
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This is a link to the Rand report on transgender personnel in the military. Guess what they found when they studied the experiences of other other countries with openly transgender personnel? No significant issues.
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That’s a great point. Why not look at evidence rather than responding to irrational bias?
I saw some interviews with transgender military personnel that continued to serve with honor post surgery. For many transgender people, the military is their career. It makes no sense to destroy careers over bias, not fact.
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I don’t know the answers, but you ask the right questions, Diane, almost poetically so. Your final sentence presents our nation’s challenge.
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Trump is standing by his commitment to hate immigrants. I’m sure the Orange IDIOT loved being told by Arpaio that ‘he will end up regarded as the greatest president in American history’. What idiotic thing will Trump think of next? Whatever it is, someone will get hurt. (Someone had to have written the statement from the WH. Trump doesn’t speak in sentences that are that coherent.)
This news come from NPR:
…………….
President Trump has pardoned controversial former Sheriff Joe Arpaio for a misdemeanor criminal contempt conviction…
Known as “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” Arpaio gained a reputation for his harsh — his critics would say cruel — treatment of immigrants in the country illegally.
Arpaio was convicted of criminal contempt earlier this summer for defying a judge’s order that his deputies stop detaining immigrants because they lacked legal status. His deputies carried on the practice for 18 months.
The statement issued by the White House said:
“Arpaio’s life and career, which began at the age of 18 when he enlisted in the military after the outbreak of the Korean War, exemplify selfless public service. After serving in the Army, Arpaio became a police officer in Washington, D.C. and Las Vegas, NV and later served as a Special Agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), formerly the Bureau of Narcotics. After 25 years of admirable service, Arpaio went on to lead the DEA’s branch in Arizona.
“In 1992, the problems facing his community pulled Arpaio out of retirement to return to law enforcement. He ran and won a campaign to become Sheriff of Maricopa County. Throughout his time as Sheriff, Arpaio continued his life’s work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now eighty-five years old, and after more than fifty years of admirable service to our Nation, he is worthy candidate for a Presidential pardon.”…
In an interview with NPR’s Wade Goodwyn last Thursday, Arpaio had equally effusive praise for Trump, predicting that he will end up regarded as the greatest president in American history….Trump Has ‘Guts And Courage’
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My guess is that this is Pence’s doing, or Falwell’s. DT does not have the brain power to think up evil like this himself. He just follows the advice of whoever got Inside his head most recently. That said, this is also about Obama, who put the policy in place. Dumpster is bound and determined to undo every single thing Obama did, no matter the harm. DACA will be next.
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“…Falwell’s South Beach Flop House”, published Aug.25, 2017.
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I am horrified by Trump, too, but we should also be horrified by the number of people who need fashist leaders and who had in school and college no opportunity to think for their own and to discuss with others controversial issues. When we rid one fashist, they elect another one. We have to educate them. Providing them with good examples is not enough. We have to give them opportunities to apply and develop their moral-democratic competence. My students and I have created a new theater form — Discussion Theater — where people with various backgrounds have an opportunity to speak up and listen to opponents. After twenty years of doing this, the sad news is: the vast majority of my audience reports that never before they had such an opportunity. The promising news is: Many say that they have learned, as one put it, that “it is good to weigh opposing views because they help you to test your own thinking.” (Read more ion my web-site.)
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ALERT:
1000am Sat morning on CSPAN, a discussion on school choice.
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According to a report, Gorka (like Bannon), is out of the WH.
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This is just terrible. If Trump bans all sort of people, who will be left to fight America’s shitty war campaigns, which are driven by all kinds of wonderful and successful motivations, such nation building, democratization attempts, oil seeking, implied colonialism, and weapons of mass destruction, all fuels to feed the fires of the industrial military complex?
And if not enough people fight the wars, what will you do with all of that unused military budget?
Implement a single payer system for health? Uh-oh . . .
You better watch out because you might turn into Scandinavia or Western Europe. Then what?
In all seriousness, no one should ever be banned from service, but you spend far too much money and values systems on your military. LGBTs should raise a law suit on all levels for this, no? Where is Dick Cheney’s daughter in all of this? She is pro-war and pro-LGBT. Same for Newt Gingrich’s sister.
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He won’t ban white males
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Dick Cheney’s daughter is not “pro-LGBT.” She is gay.
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Are they not connected ever?
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To some extent?
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Yes, Gorks out.
https://www.google.com/amp/www.theblaze.com/news/2017/08/25/breaking-trump-advisor-sebastian-gorka-resigns-releases-angry-letter/amp/
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Something bigger is looming on the horizon and for now it needs to be kept in the dark. Distract and deflect. Social Security is on the chopping block now, benefits to government employees are being reduced to nothing, talks of a government shutdown at the end of September blowing in the wind. Distract and deflect….but the problem is that DT (Pence IMHO) is running out of issues that will get the public riled up. The jig is up….this is just another ruse to try and occupy the masses while the dirty work is being done behind closed doors.
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“A more perfect formula for social dissolution has rarely been conceived.
Focusing on social divisions rather than class solidarity is a gift to the ruling class.”
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In the news yesterday: Mr. Trump is considering ending DACA–Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Now, let’s consider just what that would do.
There are about 800,000 people in the United States who were brought here illegally as small children. These folks have grown up in the U.S., learned English as their primary language, attended schools here, established friendship networks, gotten jobs, and so on. Some have had kids of their own–kids who are citizens. Many are attending college. Many have brothers or sisters who are citizens. To have qualified for DACA, they have to have had no criminal record.
And these people will, if DACA ends, be deported. Teenagers and young men and women who have never known anything but this country–some of whom didn’t even learn until they were almost grown that they were not citizens like everyone else, will be deported, exiled. No different from taking your children or grandchildren or mine and shipping them off to Honduras or wherever.
If this is done–and news reports say that it is likely–it will be a tragedy of profound proportions. It will destroy hundreds of thousands of families and lives.
I pray that Mr. Trump will do the right thing on this and leave the current program in place. To his credit, he has said that he will deal with this issue “with heart” because it is “a difficult one.” We’ll see.
And Congress should be ashamed for not having done something to date about these young people–often referred to as “Dreamers.”
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This is a major looming humanitarian crisis.
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Reports say that a decision on DACA will be made as early as the beginning of next week. I pray that Mr. Trump will make the right decision on this. A lot of lives of innocent young people are imperiled by this.
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It is nice to see you back, Bob.
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Thanks, Therlo.
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This is a small step in the right direction. I still feel that Republicans individually are afraid to confront the atrocities that Trump is accumulating. Every day adds a new one.
…….
‘The Republican Party Is Unified in Revulsion’
The Republican National Committee unanimously approved a resolution Friday condemning white supremacy.
With President Trump’s response to the racially charged violence in Charlottesville this month continuing to drive national media coverage, the Republican National Committee unanimously approved a resolution Friday condemning white supremacy and the hate groups that espouse it.
The resolution states that “the racist beliefs of Nazis, the KKK, white supremacists and others are repulsive, evil and have no fruitful place in the United States,” and that those attitudes are “completely inconsistent with the Republican Party’s platform.”
The party is “unified in revulsion at the abhorrent white supremacists demonstration in Charlottesville,” the resolution says, adding, “We urge swift and certain justice be meted out to domestic terrorists and groups aiding and abetting through the propagation of hateful ideology.”…
Read More:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/the-republican-party-is-unified-in-revulsion/538107/?utm_source=eb
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“What red meat could he throw to his base? Aha, he thought….”
… I will pardon sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona. I will use that pardon to signal that he is a “patriot,” above the law.
I will not stop there. I will use that pardon to signal that laws and judicial rulings can be overturned by my power to pardon people.
I will use that pardon to show that I am also beyond the reach of any judicial action. I do not need to follow the law.
I am really thrilled to pardon sheriff because I now know that the law actually tells me that I am free to pardon anyone and everyone I please.
So, while the hurricane was raging, and North Korea launched three missiles, and the press was overwhelmed with news, Trump fully realized his “pardon power” can nullify the result of any investigation that finds him, or his friends, guilty of malfeasance in office. All can be called patriots. He need not have a judicial ruling before granting a pardon.
Maybe.
I am not a lawyer but here is a discussion from someone who is: Brian Kalt, a professor and the Harold Norris faculty scholar at Michigan State University College of Law. He is the author of Constitutional Cliffhangers: A Legal Guide for Presidents and Their Enemies. There is not much comfort in his discussion.
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That DUMP is EVIL.
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Maher gets it right. Rules that should be ‘self-evident’ are not followed by Trump.
…………….
New Rule: Get It in Writing | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)
Real Time with Bill Maher
Published on Aug 25, 2017
Subscribe to the Real Time YouTube: http://itsh.bo/10r5A1B
In his editorial New Rule, Bill Maher argues that Trump can’t be trusted not to violate the unwritten rules of the Presidency.
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As a Hurricane Devastates Texas, Trump Is Kicking Americans out of the Military and Pardoning a Racist Sheriff
By Elizabeth Warren, Elizabeth Warren’s Facebook Page
27 August 17
As a hurricane prepares to devastate Texas, Donald Trump is more concerned with kicking people out of the military and pardoning a racist sherriff who broke the law. Every time we think our President can’t go any lower, he goes lower.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the only thing that matters when it comes to allowing military personnel to serve is whether or not they can handle the job. President Trump just issued an official memo that insults the courage and sacrifices being made by thousands of transgender troops, and he once again proved that he cares more about extreme ideology than military readiness. The President can pretend this decision is about military effectiveness, but it isn’t. Banning individuals from serving based on gender identity is shameful and wrong – and it makes America less safe.
Speaking of making America less safe, President Trump and Sheriff Joe Arpaio are two of a kind: both believe the law doesn’t apply to them and have used their office to create a platform for racism and bigotry. No one – not Trump and not Arpaio – is above the law.
This is a disgraceful night for President Trump. He has proven that the safety of the American people is the last thing on his mind.
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