A National Review commentator is blasting an attack ad from GOP presidential contender Gov. John Kasich that links front-running rival Donald Trump to Nazi Germany.
The 60-second spot, titled "Trump's Dangerous Rhetoric," features retired Air Force Col. Tom Moe, a prisoner of war in Vietnam, paraphrasing Protestant pastor Martin Niemöller, who spoke out against the Nazi regime and spent years in Nazi concentration camps, as images of Trump's controversial remarks flash on screen.
Conservative blogger Jim Geraghty writes in his National Review newsletter "Morning Jolt" that there are more indications "the country is sliding into a fascistic direction" elsewhere.
"We can argue about whether Trump and his style are good for American politics, but it's not like he's appearing … out of nothing," Geraghty writes. "If you fear the country is sliding into a fascistic direction, cast your gaze wider."
"If you really fear the leader of an angry mob roughing up reporters, suppressing all dissent, and making far-reaching, unrealistic demands that their ideology rule everywhere... don't look to a Trump rally," Geraghty warns. "Look to a college campus."
Geraghty argues Trump "never directly proposed" wanting to register Muslims with the government in what could be "a deliberate strategy." Special: Barbara Walters Refuses to Return to the View, Due to This Secret "When the media writes denunciatory headlines about his comments, Trump wins over the support of the Americans who think a national registry of Muslims would be a good idea," he writes. "But he also has plausible deniability, as he's never actually proposed it or explicitly said he supported it."
Geraghty adds Moe also "engages frustrating verbal slipperiness" himself, claiming Trump says he's 'going to round up all the Hispanic immigrants' when he's done nothing of the sort."
"We deport illegal immigrants every year… a policy that is Constitutional, legal, and morally justifiable. Trump is proposing an expansion of existing law -- nothing Nazi-ish about that."
To descriptions of a Trump comment about a crowd roughing up a Black Lives Matter protester, Geraghty notes "Moe unfairly attributes a racist hatred to the motivations of Trump and the protesters." And, Geraghty writes, "limiting press access to crowds of supporters is bad policy, but hardly fascistic," citing examples during past events for both George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton.
We all know that Trump is a corporatist. The Nazis were corporatists since they believed that corporations could do a better job than individuals. The United States has been a corporation since 1871.
Since you all are being so wonderful today, I won't burst either bubble this time...... even though I did just watch a great Military Blunders VHS about the, um, Battle of Kasserine Pass. And BTW, I've just (again) urged the Nationalist Times editor to jump in with us here.
Status report: Went to the free TG feed again for the 1st time since our great leader Dr. Robert Clarkson died. This time, bleaaagghh, they directed us to the gym of nabering Worst Presyterian Church. They sat me at a table with two no-count reggins I recognized from the soup kitchen. A white guy brought me my drink order and said "Thank you, sir!" So I jadedly said "you're welcome".
Now a chance for a little creative subversion arose -- I got my fellow diners agreeing the sodas were lukecold. The help started bringing us ice in cups, but suddenly the Spirit of Clarkson came upon me and I remembered to utter his immortal line.....
We need a better class of do-gooders around here!
They used to have the absolute best dressing at the old place -- not with the sanctimonious Presbies. It was better in the two take-home plates I got. (They don't even ask how many sick you've got at home anymore.) Gravy seems realer in the box. Oh -- waiting in line for 'em, a white guy with teenage son in front of me said "Gee, I guess we have to be thankful for something like this, huh!"
Me: Well, that's a two-edged sword.
Him: Well I mean on Thanksgiving and everything.
Me: Well, the soup kitchen for instance is a form of private sector socialism -- a blight on the economy. They're giving people food they'd otherwise be buying in local stores.
Him; I was just thinking of the people who really need it, who have no place to go.
Me: Very few -- very, VERY few.
He didn't report me or disagree. This was always our main point in bedeviling such places -- preaching the free market gospel over the gimme mentality. And having riotous fun! "Raiding the New World Order," we used to rightly call it.
Don't worry, he and his boy didn't look homeless. The takeout lady told him "I remember you from last year!"
They're giving people food they'd otherwise be buying in local stores.
Him; I was just thinking of the people who really need it, who have no place to go.
Me: Very few -- very, VERY few.
He didn't report me or disagree. This was always our main point in bedeviling such places -- preaching the free market gospel over the gimme mentality. And having riotous fun! "Raiding the New World Order," we used to rightly call it.
Don't worry, he and his boy didn't look homeless.
I walked three miles to the Baptist Church out here. They put on a great feed for us. And a bunch of them there surely were NOT homeless. I am not homeless, but I do not have the money to buy the food I ate there.
Maybe I'll get lucky like last year and find a 12 pound turkey in the trash. It was right on top and was still chilled and good. I cooked it in my neighbor's oven.
I can hardly believe how much food people throw in the trash here. I found three boxes of 18 ct medium eggs just lying on top of the trash in the dumpster, and once I found 4 dozen eggs in there. I guess people just have too much food here. Think of all out there who are on the verge of starvation. ;)
I walked three miles to the Baptist Church out here. They put on a great feed for us...
That all sounds good, BTP. Good for you.
About 25 years ago I was hospitalized very sick and had major surgery. Went a total of 9 consecutive days without eating. No feeding tube and no real nutrition -- just electrolytes and sucrose in a clear IV. I got unbelievably hungry, and the intense hunger had major emotional and psychological effects.
When I could finally eat again, I was extremely thankful. Ever since then, I hate to be hungry, and I hate to see someone else hungry.
I can't feed the whole world, but if my neighbor (or a stranger I meet) is hungry, I'll help him if I can. Of course, I take care of my own family first.
You're not being paid to be black like so many I used to see there. One of the staff told me the vast majority of the attendees didn't need the help.
I once asked The Great One (as we called him) what they should do differently. He suggested, for one, they give everybody a card and require that after it's been punched 10 times make them stay to wash dishes, pick up trash or whatever. That would have halved the clientele and work load or better. Of course the real fix would be to shut down everything un- Constitutional (starting with the Fed* and IRS) and go back to real money so life would organically affordable for a very high percentage of people.
A few years ago they announced setting up a free haircut and shower station elsewhere so local barbers could enjoy being undercut too