Re: “Liz Cheney goes all-in on Trump’s racism” by Heather Digby Parton [8/15/19 TPP], Rep. Cheney’s snotty tweet suggesting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez study history for “a few minutes” shows her own lack of knowledge. If Cheney [who ranks third in Republican House leadership as House Republican Conference chair] had studied the Holocaust for more than a few minutes herself, she would know that it didn’t start with gas chambers. Perhaps she ought to read William Shirer’s excellent “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.”
The Holocaust began in the demented mind of an eccentric little man who vowed revenge for Germany’s humiliating defeat in World War I. He came to believe only he could make Germany Great Again. Using arson, extortion and sleazy deals, plus campaign rhetoric that played upon his countrymen’s strong sense of nationalism, he convinced enough of them to put his National Socialist German Workers’ Party in power in 1932.
In office, he railed against newspapers and academics who disagreed with him. He blamed Jews and other non-Aryan “sub-humans” for Germany’s economic plight. They were soon banned from parks, restaurants and all public venues. By 1934, Jews were losing their jobs and property under a new law which excluded them from seven professions ranging from farming to journalism to holding public office. If they didn’t go quietly, they were arrested and sent to concentration camps, where they and other undesirables were subjected to overcrowding, starvation and systematic mistreatment, leading to disease and death. In 1935, their citizenships were revoked.
As opposition disappeared, the German public bought into the Nazi system, although their lives became more and more regimented. Eliminating all those workers meant badly needed jobs opening up. German patriotism was stirred by the Leader’s spectacular rallies where he whipped up support for his plans to expand the influence of the Master Race. Meantime, the population in the camps grew to 30 to 40,000.
Not until 1940 did the mass exterminations begin, with Jews and Slavs from occupied Poland, Austria and Czechoslovakia. By that time, Nazi propaganda had taught the people that atrocity stories were Fake News. The Real News was military victories on all fronts. When they finally woke up, bombs were falling on their capital city. Their Leader had dragged them into his abyss of madness, step by step.
So yes, AOC’s comparison of US detention camps to the Holocaust isn’t so outlandish after all. We must be vigilant and not allow ourselves to be governed by bigotry and barbed wire.
BETTY CROWDER, Honeydew, Calif.
Up until now, I have believed that the best way to defeat Donald Trump in 2020 has been to focus on advocating for the federal government to do more to help the lower and middle classes with their economic and financial struggles to survive and to pay their bills. So I have largely ignored his hateful, dumb, stupid, and ignorant remarks in which he demeans, insults, bullies, and disrespects all minority groups, women, and immigrants. I have done this partly because I have believed from day one that this has all been a big ACT and that he is a master manipulator and con-man who really doesn’t believe the ridiculous, idiotic, and moronic things that he says, but that he cleverly figured out that he could win the presidency by PRETENDING that he actually believes in what he thinks that 51% of the American people believe in-HATE. But his hate-talk has now become too dangerous. He is playing with fire.
This big ACT and GAME has to stop.
I call on all of the good-hearted conservative-Republicans in the USA who have a conscience to join Nikki Haley and to call out Trump on his hate-talk. The people who he has insulted and disrespected don’t deserve to hear any more of his nonsense. He might have already damaged our country beyond repair because sometimes there are things that can never be made right. I hope it is not too late.
STEWART B. EPSTEIN, Rochester, N.Y.
I’ve been in the security profession over 44 years. During this tenure I’ve had the opportunity to speak all over the nation on the topic of violence prevention and workplace safety. As a preface to virtually every talk, I advise the audience that I will not engage in any gun control “debate” given the volatile exchanges that inevitably erupt when the subject is broached. Indeed I would rather dry shave a rabid bobcat’s butt in a foot locker than hold a protracted debate on gun control. That said, let’s look at our every day fun facts regarding our nation’s gun statistics.
Every day, 310 people are shot in the United States Among these:
100 people are shot and killed;
210 survive gun injuries;
95 are injured in an attack;
61 die from suicide;
10 survive a suicide attempt;
1 is killed unintentionally;
90 are shot unintentionally;
1 is killed by legal intervention;
4 are shot by legal intervention;
1 died but the intent was unknown;
12 are shot but the intent was unknown.
Daily gun violence impacting children and teens (1-17):
4 die from gun violence;
2 are murdered;
17 children and teens survive gun injuries;
8 are injured in an attack.
The numbers are numbing and we do a huge discredit to the victims when we focus solely on the headline-grabbing slaughters that are becoming far too common. Very little emphasis is given to suicide by gun and our domestic violence realities. That said, there is one sobering trend that demands the attention and, yes, the concern of all reasoned Americans. That concern is the near-exponential growth of white nationalist, white supremacist groups in recent years. From a criminologist’s perspective, these groups are of huge concern. The individuals who populate these groups are single-minded – determined – filled with unrelenting hate and, almost without exception, are armed to the teeth with automatic weapons designed for maximum carnage.
The threat of domestic terrorism with a supremacist theme grows by the hour. The collective law enforcement and citizen action groups of the nation need to unite and meet this growing threat of white supremacists head on. Failure to do so will lead to incidents of mass shootings, slaughters and tragedies that far exceed our recent tragedies. The popular talking point of vacuous politicians is to tirade about our mental health problem as the origin and leading culprit for our daily gun carnage. This is an ineffective smoking screen that attempts to side step our nation’s realities. In the US, about 4% of the world’s civilian population owns over half the world’s privately owned guns, which include over seven million AR-15s. In the midst of this we are seeing an unprecedented growth in white nationalism – white supremacy whose foundation is unwavering race hate and an endless adoration of weaponry that will again create unimaginable havoc. The challenges we face are real.
JIM SAWYER, Edmonds, Wash.
Mr. J. Biden wants an exhaustive background check but fails to mention as to how long it should last. Take the case for the shooter who killed 11 people in a synagogue at Pittsburgh. Was he influenced as he was growing up by the elders in his family that Jewish people are “bad”? Or take the recent shooter who killed 22 people in El Paso … because the president has been constantly “bad mouthing” migrant asylum seekers. [The victims included 13 US citizens, eight Mexicans (most, if not all, were believed to be in the US legally), and one German.] Background check is not the answer.
Church prayers is not the answer. Bunching of flowers is not the answer. The only answer is rescinding the Second Amendment. This was inserted by a bunch of white “landed” gentlemen for their own protection. The NRA has taken this amendment as a Biblical Truth and the president supports this mistake, as he has gained a considerable financial support. We will have no Peace unless this amendment is gone by the wayside.
G.M. CHANDU, Flushing, N.Y.
Kudos to Katrina Vanden Heuvel for helping to raise the much too neglected issue of our wasteful, out-of-control military budget (“2020 Democrats Must Address Our Addiction to Military Spending,” 8/1/19 TPP). It is my understanding that the main reason members of Congress, in addition to almost all Democratic presidential contenders, are reluctant to criticize this bloated spending is their dependance on financial support for military contracts in their respective districts or states mistakingly to satisfy the need for jobs.
Brown University’s Watson Institute for International & Public Affairs regularly publishes a comparative overview of key employment sectors under “Costs of War.” The most recent update from March 2019, again clearly shows military spending creates fewer jobs than the same amount of money would have if invested for instance in education, health care, or clean energy. This is, among other things, due to these sectors being more labor-intensive with more dollars going toward hiring more workers and less on equipment and materials and more domestic jobs being created.
It is incumbent upon politicians in federal and state leadership positions to make use of all the essential details of Watson Institute’s regular papers on the employment impact of the costs of war and not be swayed by dishonest and misleading information promoted by the military-industrial complex.
RICHARD LAYBOURN, Bloomington, Minn.
Since the 1940s, life started speeding up with miracles. Big Business got busy pushing sugar, colas, chips, TV dinners and other chemical cuisines. And PVC.
We were blessed with make-believe meat in cans, dyed deli delights, stress-filled flesh from unwilling donors, and plastic.
Pthalates and carbodox are in cosmetics, utensils, toys clothing, furniture, cars … our lives. It didn’t just rain cats and dogs in Colorado this summer. Microscopic pieces of various colored plastics pelted the population.
Today’s mountain-climbing, marathon-running, world-walking seniors must have missed the wonder of doughy bread and grew up with home cooking and maybe a see-through plastic sofa covering at most.
Since we’ve been inhaling, ingesting and indulging in the toxins we invented, disorders from autism to xenophobia have increased proportionately. From nonsense to insolence to ignorance to violence.
Duh! It’s a no brainer.
FLORA ORMSBY SMITH, Marblehead, Mass.
From The Progressive Populist, September 15, 2019
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