A reader of the blog called Quickwrit submitted this important comment about JD Vance’s condescending speech to European leaders about why they should include neo-Nazis and fascists in their political life.
Quickwrit wrote:
SPITTING ON AMERICAN BLOOD
The soil of Europe is soaked with the blood of American soldiers who died in World War II to stamp out nazism, and Vance spat on that blood-soaked soil by urging that European leaders allow nazism to rise again.
And how bitterly sad all those countless American heroes who spilled their blood to end nazism must feel when they look down on our nation today and see nazi flags flying and people wearing nazi tattoos.
My father came back from fighting World War II a broken man from the horrors of war against the nazis…but at least he came back. He would feel that he and all those who died to end nazism have been betrayed to see nazi flags and symbols in America which Vance dresses up by calling it “populism”.
AND THEN Trump says that Ukraine should not have gone to war with Russia just because Russia invaded Ukraine — that’s like saying that the United States should not have gone to war with Japan just because Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.
To take the analogy just another step further. Why did we go to war with Germany? Germany did not attack us. Germany did not invade our nation. Should we have stayed out of the war and allowed Hitler to overrun all of Europe? No, we were defending the idea of democracy. Were our allies perfect democracies? No. Were we? No. But the alternative was far, far worse.
Vance can’t see the difference between Ukraine, which for three years has resisted a brutal aggressor, and the aggressor.
Vance, Trump, and Musk whine that Zelensky has not held an election since 2018, so he must be a dictator. When did their buddy Putin last hold an election in which his rivals were allowed to compete? Never? They had the misfortune of being murdered before the elections. His last rival was sent to a Siberian labor camp, where he mysteriously died, even though he appeared in good health in all the photos of him.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If you want to see nazi flags and nazi tattoos, look no further than the Ukrainian forces, especially the azov battalion. There are so many pictures of Ukrainian troops (and even leaders) sporting nazi images that the media have to inspect them and ask them to remove or cover them before taking pictures. It was great fun on Twitter for a while seeing all those images proving what we’ve been saying. Of course, Twitter scrubs them because they don’t mesh with the imperial narrative.
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Dienne,
Why would Musk scrub photos of Nazi Ukrainians since he despises Ukraine and Zelensky, like you.
He gave the Nazi salute at Trump’s inauguration. He likes Nazis.
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A sad but expected return to posting Putin’s propaganda.
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Frankly, JD Vance, Donald J. Trump, & Elon Musk all dishonor not only our military and all the military has done to save our democracy, they dishonor our founding fathers and all that have come after them to maintain this nation’s democratic way of life since 1776. Through their actions they spit daily on the graves of all that have gone before us who were real patriots by their actions and deeds.
These three and all who support them, the MAGAs, have brought shame and ridicule to this nation that once was a leader of the free world and continue to do so each day they are allowed by those who are afraid to stand up and stop what they are doing to our government and democracy.
These three are evil to the core.
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You are absolutely correct.
Trump is an evil wannabe dictator.
Elon is a Nazi from South Africa.
And Vance is an opportunist with a knack for misrepresenting and dishonoring (1) like he did here, (2) as he did with Appalachia (where he is not from, but overgeneralizes his trashy family to the entire region), and (3) as he recently did regarding Ordo Amoris.
Fascism doesn’t end well.
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Vance had the distinct honor of being corrected by Pope Francis when he misinterpreted “Ordo Amoris.”
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Vance, a Catholic convert, cited the principle of “Ordo Amoris” to justify the Trump hatred of immigrants. He was rebuked by the Pope!
This may be JD’s moment in the sun!!
https://search.app/1tpKDDyC38fnZXo26
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Diane: Now THAT’s rich. CBK
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They are also a toxic stain on our species.
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JD Vance should be a role model for all Nazis that are also White Supremacists in the US, to stand up and reveal who they are so it will make it easier to target after the January 6, 2021, Traitor ends up being responsible for the 2nd U.S. Civil War.
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Drudge has a link to Andrew Sullivan’s essay, “Requiem for the West”.
For me, a particular passage accurately sums up what’s happening right now:
“We only saw Donald Trump’s foreign policy darkly in his first term — constrained, as he was, by a handful of white-knuckled Republicans in the executive branch. Now we see it face to face. It’s a vision where international law disappears, great powers divide up the planet into spheres of influence, and the strong always control the weak. It’s Trump’s vision of domestic politics as well. And of life.
Control, plunder, gloat. This is the Trump way.”
Unless this country steps up somehow, are we doomed to be known as America’s “UN-greatest generation”?
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/requiem-for-the-west-6f6?triedRedirect=true
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Diane (and all): If you get the New York Review of Books, you might want to have a look at the article from February 13 by Gary Saul Merson: “With Liberals Like These.” Long time since I have read an article that explained so well–in this case, what’s going on in the mind of Maga, such as it is, and why they seem not to care about democracy or the Constitution, or even reasonable discourse as such.
For me, just saying “it’s a cult” is not enough. This essay tacitly, at least, connects Maga with the arguments in “Russian Liberalism” written by Paul Robinson/Cornell University Press. A fascinating take on the history we are living in now. CBK
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I do get NYRB. Will look for that article.
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I realized about 1/3 of the way through that NYRB article that I was underlining and “***” almost every paragraph. I didn’t agree with everything in it, but it opened my mind to a different view of the whole problem of MAGA and put it in a much broader historical context. CBK
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