Brilliant and bracing admonition about the moral accountability indispensable to a civilized human society. We should all take note of war criminal Trump’s own self-incriminating words that underscore his Hitler-like evil sociopathy:
"I don’t think we’re necessarily going to ask for a declaration of war," Trump said. "I think we’re just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. We’re going to kill them. They’re going to be, like, dead."
I get a sense that his emphasis on death & indiscriminant killing is meant to inoculate MAGA members of Congress, his cabinet, & followers to make them callous to the carnage to come.
Just to drive the point home, replace “German” with “American”, “Jew" and “communist” with “Democrat” or “loony left” in one of Hitler's Nuremberg speeches and the result will read like a Trump or Miller tweet.
If we don’t get government back from the oligarchs, woe to us and woe to the world.
Trump, Himmler...I mean Miller...and the rest of the MAGA circus of the wretched would do well to remember how WWII ended. In the end, it may be DJT who is hiding in his basement bunker or swinging from a lamppost.
What we are witnessing is power exercised by psychopaths. It’s no coincidence. Trump sought to surround himself with individuals who share his misogyny, bigotry and avarice.
Exactly! Trump is a psychopathic narcissist; we can debate his diagnostic formulation if you want, which would reasonably include dementia, advanced cerebrovascular disease, a pre-existing attention disorder, and all evidence indicates a sociopathic personality disorder we have not seen since a guy named Adolf Hitler. Trump has already sanctioned murder as part of his distraction strategy to avoid attention to his f-buddy association with Epstein and his girlfriend. Have we gone so far to allow this monster to represent the humanity of our country?
As I write this there is a program on TV interviewing a man, Mark Kelly, who has the character of a person who should be a President of the United States. Donald Trump is and will always be a stain on the character and history of the United States.
Steve, thank you for this. As a Jew, the words never again have a special meaning. It is hard to believe that it is happening now. I a thankful that my parents and grandparents are no longer here to hear this.
I am sad and confused. Will there be a time when honorable men and women will again be in government?
I keep thinking how thankful I am that my mom and dad aren't here anymore to see this. By now, my dad's head would've exploded. And my mom would be thinking bad thoughts (with me in agreement). Now, I'm not fearful. I am FURIOUS.
There will be a time Patti, because that time is now, we already have honorable people in government, they are just not in the majority, it’s up to us to put them in the majority. 🙏
This article is a great glimpse into history and how it relates to today. Make no mistake, fucking douche bag Pete will be charged with war crimes along with Noem, Bondi, etc .. The real question is whether Trump will pay for anything
Only if the next president orders his arrest and imprisonment which one could argue is covered by the presidential immunity granted to by the Supreme Court last year. Healing can only take place when the perpetrators are brought to justice.
not if the next president delivers them to the ICC in the Hague...the irony of deporting these clowns to the Hague for trial is thick...and the immunity doesn't cover war crimes...
He’ll pay alright, the universe has a sublime balance, on this side or the next. What was the parable about the camel fitting through the eye of a needle? he has about the same chance of avoiding the debt he owes to humanity.
Thank you Steve for the lesson in history that so many of us forget. How soon Americans ignore the horrors of the Third Reich. I have family members that lost their lives in World War II fighting for humanity and freedom. Did they now fight in vain? We need to uphold our once moral standards and work hard to get this regime removed. The world was so concerned we would unleash this monster. Shame on us for not heeding their warning. Shame on religious communities for encouraging people to vote for this moral corruption.
The ruling class has created this situation by ignoring the pleas of the electorate. It has been playing a rigged game for decades. They have allowed the economic elite to have equal status with the government and the governed. The one percenters care only about one thing. Staying in the top one percent. Same with the politicians. Win at all costs. MTG is a disgrace. I hope she faces charges for insider trading when we take back Congress.
I agreed with the Tea Party movement idealistically initially. Then Citizens United and the Heritage Foundation hijacked it and served up Hitler 2.0. We don’t learn from history because it’s been marketed into something totally unrecognizable. Education has been gutted since GWB, who by the way, also birthed the “politically correct” marketing failure. Honesty is the only politically correct take.😒
We need to turn Hegseth and Trump over to the International Criminal Court along with all evidence. Then we impeach this bastard for the last time for treason.
That was quite a story you told about Lidice -- I don't think of you primarily as a historian, ... yet you are, many times telling us about the past, particularly WW II. The Memorial to the children is "beautiful." And the opening speech in the Nuremberg trial, showed its purpose -- not vengeance, but justice for what these evil men did to the innocents.
hegseth is a criminal, as is his lord & master trump. Tho we may WANT to eliminate them now, America, thank goodness, adheres to the rule of law. We must bide our time, yet help the immigrants who are in danger, during that time. America WILL persevere.
What strikes me of this account is the effort it takes to make a decision, what road to follow? Peace is hard, war is easy. Hegseth’s order was an easy way to make a choice and now we all have to work at cleaning up the mess. What would have been needed to go with the opposite choice: interdict, board, inspect, arrest, prosecute (or release)? So much work and explaining. Hegseth and his cronies, including Trump (what did he know?), are basically lazy. The rehabilitation of our society may need to start with a focus on the work ethic, the obligations we should share, and the responsibility we have to be willing to bear burdens of our lives for the greater good.
Trump the “ peace president” responsible for 600,000 deaths from stopping USAID funding. He and his Family have earned 500Million in the last year due to
Corruption. Now he threatens war on a country because he wants their oil and gas and minerals. He will kill many American sons and daughters because he worships power and money above all
Things. He must be stopped. it is time for Republicans and democratic leaders to step up and save what he will further destroy.
"Armed federal agents in military fatigues busted down their doors overnight, pulling men, women and children from their apartments, some of them naked, residents and witnesses said. Agents approached or entered nearly every apartment in the five-story building, and U.S. citizens were among those detained for hours."
Ebony Sweets Watson, who lives across the street, said it “looked like hundreds” of agents were outside her front door. Watson said she saw agents dragging residents, including kids, out of the building without any clothes on and into U-Haul vans. Kids were separated from their mothers, she said.
“It was heartbreaking to watch,” said Watson. “Even if you’re not a mother, seeing kids coming out buck naked and taken from their mothers, it was horrible.”
"They was terrified. The kids was crying. People was screaming. They looked very distraught. I was out there crying when I seen the little girl come around the corner, because they was bringing the kids down, too, had them zip tied to each other," Watson said. "That's all I kept asking. What is the morality? Where's the human? One of them literally laughed. He was standing right here. He said, 'f*** them kids.'"
The NY Times was invited along on that raid which the govt filmed and subsequently used for recruitment. The way the NYTimes reported it tells you all you need to know about mainstream media.
Congress is at least partially responsible for first confirming Hegseth and not trying to stop these attacks. Of course Congress will not acknowledge their responsibility--too embarrassing and their egos matter so much more to them.
Brilliant and bracing admonition about the moral accountability indispensable to a civilized human society. We should all take note of war criminal Trump’s own self-incriminating words that underscore his Hitler-like evil sociopathy:
"I don’t think we’re necessarily going to ask for a declaration of war," Trump said. "I think we’re just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. We’re going to kill them. They’re going to be, like, dead."
I get a sense that his emphasis on death & indiscriminant killing is meant to inoculate MAGA members of Congress, his cabinet, & followers to make them callous to the carnage to come.
Trump is killing people on the high seas, alright -- kamikaze-style!
How can someone be “like” dead?
Or, in Trump’s case, ‘like’ a morally sensate human.
America pretends the system is neutral, but the operating code has always been cruelty rewarded and shamelessness excused.
What Schmidt exposes is that the rhetoric of annihilation isn’t fringe anymore; it’s the business model of power.
And when a democracy normalizes that, it’s not breaking…it’s remembering exactly which Constitution it serves.
—Johan
Pitch perfect. Thanks Steve.
Just to drive the point home, replace “German” with “American”, “Jew" and “communist” with “Democrat” or “loony left” in one of Hitler's Nuremberg speeches and the result will read like a Trump or Miller tweet.
If we don’t get government back from the oligarchs, woe to us and woe to the world.
Trump, Himmler...I mean Miller...and the rest of the MAGA circus of the wretched would do well to remember how WWII ended. In the end, it may be DJT who is hiding in his basement bunker or swinging from a lamppost.
from your lips to god's ears
What we are witnessing is power exercised by psychopaths. It’s no coincidence. Trump sought to surround himself with individuals who share his misogyny, bigotry and avarice.
Exactly! Trump is a psychopathic narcissist; we can debate his diagnostic formulation if you want, which would reasonably include dementia, advanced cerebrovascular disease, a pre-existing attention disorder, and all evidence indicates a sociopathic personality disorder we have not seen since a guy named Adolf Hitler. Trump has already sanctioned murder as part of his distraction strategy to avoid attention to his f-buddy association with Epstein and his girlfriend. Have we gone so far to allow this monster to represent the humanity of our country?
As I write this there is a program on TV interviewing a man, Mark Kelly, who has the character of a person who should be a President of the United States. Donald Trump is and will always be a stain on the character and history of the United States.
"Donald Trump is and will always be a stain on the character and history of the United States."
This is the awful truth. He is evil personified. Some people call a spade a spade; some of us call it a fucking shovel.
Steve, thank you for this. As a Jew, the words never again have a special meaning. It is hard to believe that it is happening now. I a thankful that my parents and grandparents are no longer here to hear this.
I am sad and confused. Will there be a time when honorable men and women will again be in government?
I keep thinking how thankful I am that my mom and dad aren't here anymore to see this. By now, my dad's head would've exploded. And my mom would be thinking bad thoughts (with me in agreement). Now, I'm not fearful. I am FURIOUS.
There will be a time Patti, because that time is now, we already have honorable people in government, they are just not in the majority, it’s up to us to put them in the majority. 🙏
This article is a great glimpse into history and how it relates to today. Make no mistake, fucking douche bag Pete will be charged with war crimes along with Noem, Bondi, etc .. The real question is whether Trump will pay for anything
Only if the next president orders his arrest and imprisonment which one could argue is covered by the presidential immunity granted to by the Supreme Court last year. Healing can only take place when the perpetrators are brought to justice.
not if the next president delivers them to the ICC in the Hague...the irony of deporting these clowns to the Hague for trial is thick...and the immunity doesn't cover war crimes...
He’ll pay alright, the universe has a sublime balance, on this side or the next. What was the parable about the camel fitting through the eye of a needle? he has about the same chance of avoiding the debt he owes to humanity.
Trump may be standing by to PARDON? Or prior to leaving office? Pre-granting?
Thank you, Steve, for a history lesson I was totally unaware of. I plan to do more research on that village to understand what happened.
Watch the movie Anthropoid. It does a very good job of telling the story Steve describes.
Highly recommend it too!
Steve
Thank you I will check it out.
Thank you Steve for the lesson in history that so many of us forget. How soon Americans ignore the horrors of the Third Reich. I have family members that lost their lives in World War II fighting for humanity and freedom. Did they now fight in vain? We need to uphold our once moral standards and work hard to get this regime removed. The world was so concerned we would unleash this monster. Shame on us for not heeding their warning. Shame on religious communities for encouraging people to vote for this moral corruption.
The ruling class has created this situation by ignoring the pleas of the electorate. It has been playing a rigged game for decades. They have allowed the economic elite to have equal status with the government and the governed. The one percenters care only about one thing. Staying in the top one percent. Same with the politicians. Win at all costs. MTG is a disgrace. I hope she faces charges for insider trading when we take back Congress.
I agreed with the Tea Party movement idealistically initially. Then Citizens United and the Heritage Foundation hijacked it and served up Hitler 2.0. We don’t learn from history because it’s been marketed into something totally unrecognizable. Education has been gutted since GWB, who by the way, also birthed the “politically correct” marketing failure. Honesty is the only politically correct take.😒
We need to turn Hegseth and Trump over to the International Criminal Court along with all evidence. Then we impeach this bastard for the last time for treason.
That was quite a story you told about Lidice -- I don't think of you primarily as a historian, ... yet you are, many times telling us about the past, particularly WW II. The Memorial to the children is "beautiful." And the opening speech in the Nuremberg trial, showed its purpose -- not vengeance, but justice for what these evil men did to the innocents.
hegseth is a criminal, as is his lord & master trump. Tho we may WANT to eliminate them now, America, thank goodness, adheres to the rule of law. We must bide our time, yet help the immigrants who are in danger, during that time. America WILL persevere.
Thank you, Steve , for sharing that with us. The sculpture is beyond words, again a testament to the the power of the arts, just incredible
What strikes me of this account is the effort it takes to make a decision, what road to follow? Peace is hard, war is easy. Hegseth’s order was an easy way to make a choice and now we all have to work at cleaning up the mess. What would have been needed to go with the opposite choice: interdict, board, inspect, arrest, prosecute (or release)? So much work and explaining. Hegseth and his cronies, including Trump (what did he know?), are basically lazy. The rehabilitation of our society may need to start with a focus on the work ethic, the obligations we should share, and the responsibility we have to be willing to bear burdens of our lives for the greater good.
Trump the “ peace president” responsible for 600,000 deaths from stopping USAID funding. He and his Family have earned 500Million in the last year due to
Corruption. Now he threatens war on a country because he wants their oil and gas and minerals. He will kill many American sons and daughters because he worships power and money above all
Things. He must be stopped. it is time for Republicans and democratic leaders to step up and save what he will further destroy.
Do not forget Chicago.
"Armed federal agents in military fatigues busted down their doors overnight, pulling men, women and children from their apartments, some of them naked, residents and witnesses said. Agents approached or entered nearly every apartment in the five-story building, and U.S. citizens were among those detained for hours."
Ebony Sweets Watson, who lives across the street, said it “looked like hundreds” of agents were outside her front door. Watson said she saw agents dragging residents, including kids, out of the building without any clothes on and into U-Haul vans. Kids were separated from their mothers, she said.
“It was heartbreaking to watch,” said Watson. “Even if you’re not a mother, seeing kids coming out buck naked and taken from their mothers, it was horrible.”
https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/10/01/massive-immigration-raid-on-chicago-apartment-building-leaves-residents-reeling-i-feel-defeated?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Neighbors like Eboni Watson say they ducked for cover as they heard several flash bangs.
https://abc7chicago.com/post/ice-chicago-federal-agents-surround-south-shore-apartment-building-dhs-requests-military-deployment-illinois/17908911/?fbclid=IwdGRjcANKvchleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHi83GFw0Rpm3vUIu_zQFkiVsJhWgb_Ix9w1JJyLNcTz6xjO3YLu1Fz1s-JCs_aem_Zo_QZU7V2oU4v8o7qLHDoA&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
"They was terrified. The kids was crying. People was screaming. They looked very distraught. I was out there crying when I seen the little girl come around the corner, because they was bringing the kids down, too, had them zip tied to each other," Watson said. "That's all I kept asking. What is the morality? Where's the human? One of them literally laughed. He was standing right here. He said, 'f*** them kids.'"
The NY Times was invited along on that raid which the govt filmed and subsequently used for recruitment. The way the NYTimes reported it tells you all you need to know about mainstream media.
SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!
Doesn’t his own words apply to him, Miller, Hegseth, Noem, Bondi…all his other moron cabinet members?
Congress is at least partially responsible for first confirming Hegseth and not trying to stop these attacks. Of course Congress will not acknowledge their responsibility--too embarrassing and their egos matter so much more to them.