For weeks Donald Trump has been flirting with fascism. And teetering on the edge of the Pit of Depravity.
By retweeting material from white supremacists.
In a desperate effort to flatter them, and pander to his bigot base.
And now it seems he has stumbled into the pit or the sewer, and into the arms of the Ku Klux Klan.
Donald Trump stumbled into a racially charged controversy Sunday, saying in an interview on CNN that he didn't know enough to disavow former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke.
Claiming he doesn't know anything about white supremacists, even though he used to sleep with the speeches of Adolf Hitler on his bedside table.
And claiming he never heard of the former bigot wizard. Only to be exposed as a liar.
Despite what he said Sunday, Trump apparently did know Duke in 2000 -- citing him, as well as Pat Buchanan and Lenora Fulani -- in a statement that year explaining why he had decided to end his brief flirtation with a Reform Party presidential campaign.
"The Reform Party now includes a Klansman, Mr. Duke, a neo-Nazi, Mr. Buchanan, and a communist, Ms. Fulani. This is not company I wish to keep," Trump said in a statement reported then by The New York Times.
And leaving us to wonder whether this bromance with white supremacists is being dictated by the voices in his swollen head.
Or whether it has something to do with this Klan parade in New York City.
In 1927, Klansmen planned their first open parade, in Jamaica, Queens. Alerted to the plan by the editor of a Catholic paper, the police commissioner issued an order against wearing Klan regalia. The Klan defied that order, appearing clad in white robes and hoods in a Memorial Day parade.
And his father's arrest.
According to a New York Times article published in June 1927, a man with the name and address of Donald Trump's father was arraigned after Klan members attacked cops in Queens, N.Y.
In an article subtitled "Klan assails policeman", Fred Trump is named in among those taken in during a late May "battle" in which "1,000 Klansmen and 100 policemen staged a free-for-all."
Because goodness knows a man raised by that kind of father, who gets endorsed by a scummy fascist like Jean-Marie Le Pen...
"If I was an American I would vote for Donald Trump. But may God protect him !"
Really is capable of ANYTHING.
And I think this tweet by Bernie Sanders...
Which was retweeted by Hillary Clinton...
Speaks for all decent people in the United States and all over the world.
Donald Trump is either a dangerous fascist, or a maniac. Or both.
And he must and will be defeated...
The KKK, Nazi references, quoting Mussolini... well, at least he's coherent.
ReplyDeleteAt another site, I was writing about the pathetic Québec contenders in the Con leadership roundup, "Flat Earth" Maxime Bernier, a male Sarah Palin who doesn't believe in climate change but does believe in big Fracking, and latter-day "Westmount Rhodesian" Kevin O'Leary, who grew up in Québec but DOES NOT SPEAK FRENCH.
And I was thinking, as per your earlier post, that some of those out-of-work Con operatives might have become latter-day carpetbaggers and be working for Trump or some other off-the-wall Republicans in the great republic to the South (stealing American jobs!) Is this possible?
hi lagatta....yes between Maxime Bernier and Kevin O'Leary Quebec's contribution to the Con leadership race really is a joke. Bernier is after all the idiot from the Beauce who first suggested gutting the census. And the unilingual O'Leary who lives in Boston, must be as they say in our province, dreaming in technicolour. As for the unemployed Con operatives I don't doubt that many of them are sending their resumes to Trump and company. Because they all went to Republican school...
DeleteAs we can see in this article, Donald Trump's political allegiance has always been somewhat suspect:
ReplyDeletehttp://viableopposition.blogspot.ca/2015/08/donald-trump-and-his-changing-political.html
The one thing that voters can count on is Mr. Trump's inconsistency.
hi political junkie...yes as you and others have pointed out, Trump's political allegiance is all over the place. And he is just a demagogue who will say anything to get elected. If he was elected he might actually be more moderate than some of his competitors, like Ted Cruz. But after the way he has been behaving we simply can't take any chances and must pray that he is defeated...
DeleteI really wonder what will happen if Trump wins the nomination. Will the US media really begin to play up the Trump racism story or will it stay on the margins? I mean, the racism against Obama has never been properly outed, but Trump has really taken it up a few notches.
ReplyDeleteOn a different note, Bloomberg claimed at least once that he was seriously considering an indi run if Trump were to win the nomination. I wonder what he is thinking now.
hi Kirby...I don't know how the US media would react if or when Trump gets the nomination. But I do know that the New York Times really has him in their sights these days, and if they keep it up there may not be much of Trump left by the time the election rolls around. As for Bloomberg, I understand he is still thinking of running. But the problem is he has left it too late, because the Republican establishment can now see the writing on the wall, and its more divided than it was a month or two ago.
DeleteMy hopeful prediction is that when that day arrives, a lot of moderate Republicans are probably going to stay at home. And that some of them at least might even vote for Bernie or Hillary. You can write that one down and give me hell if I'm wrong... ;)
Hi Simon! I thought you would like to see this if you have not already seen it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnpO_RTSNmQ It will give you a few laughs. Laughter is good for the soul and God knows, we need it with everything going on in this world.
ReplyDeletehi anon...thanks for the link. And I must say John Oliver did a real number on Trump. For that has to be one of the best takedowns I have ever seen. Hilarious but devastating. And all I can say is more, more... ;)
Delete##NAMEDONALDDRUMPFAGAIN
ReplyDeleteMay want to check spelling, but see John Oliver's latest. Seems Fred and Donald's real name is Drumpf (or Drumfp, weird spelling, not very Presidential). Very funny indeed.
Cheers Simon, as usual your blog is right on.
TS
hi TS...yes I see his old name is Drumpf, and as John Oliver says that does sound more fitting. And of course I'm going to have to do my part and come up with a graphic of Trump as Humpty Drumpfy...;)
DeleteIt seems their name was changed by grandad Drumpf. I always assumed that Trump was an anglicised Dutch or German name, but that is scacely "outgroup" in the US.
ReplyDeleteGrandad already owned hotels, restaurants ... and brothels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Trump
hi lagatta...never mind the Drumpf part of the family, what I'm desperately trying to cover up is the fact that his mother was Scottish...;)
DeleteOh, that's why he's a Presbyterian... Thought they might have been Swiss or Dutch Calvinists (who attend each other's churches if their own isn't around). Calvin and his school of hard Knox.
DeleteThe US is broken and Trump is proof.
ReplyDeletehi Steve...I'd say the system is broken everywhere, but like a fish it rots from the head down, so the U.S. will be the first to go, and it very well could be the start of the revolution...
DeleteThe U.S. maybe broken but the reason Trump is so "popular" is he has given voice to what has been some what supressed for many years. It has not been "cool" to be racist, but now a rich, mainstream corporate idiot has given voice to what many harboured in their hearts. That is why Trump is doing well. He has given voice to the latent racism. He has awakened the beast. Of course the demographics have changed in the U.S.A. and with a larger population of people of colour, it will become more difficult for Trump to win.
ReplyDeleteTrump as the next president, will send millions running for the Canadian border seeking refugee status.
Whether Trump wins or not may also depend upon how many people of colour are able to vote. We ought not to forget the laws, in Republican states, which make it very difficult for many to register to vote and to vote.
hi e.a.f...yes I keep hearing that Trump is so popular because he "says it like it is." But in a civilized society if everybody did that, and nobody restrained themselves, it wouldn't be long before we'd all be living in a jungle...
DeleteI'm more concerned with the efforts of the Government of China to make changes to how we operate in Canada. They want Trudeau to give them the right to have a pipeline to the west coast. If he agrees they'll re negotiate the "free trade" agreement Harper. They want the right to buy more oil and gas companies in Canada.
ReplyDeleteThe companies from China who want to do this buying are not private corporations or held by stock holders, these companies are owned the Red Army of China and the Communist Government of China. If I were concerned about the U.S.A. or China, I'd be more concerned about the Government of China, they want to buy us up and are more fascist than the U.S.A. currently is.
A company from China is currently trying to sue Canada because the Federal Government settled a First Nations claim, they now have the right to control their own land. The Chinese mining company says it infringes on their rights to make money. We will see if this goes to a Canadian court or one of those "free trade" courts, Harper signed us into.
In Vancouver we have seen how well this buy up of our land has gone. Absentee owners leaving apartment and houses vacant, by the thousands, while we Lower Mainland experiences a shortage of housing. The B.C. Lieberal government does nothing about it. The Premier of B.C., photo op queen, won't even levy a higher tax on foreign buyers. we had the news of buyers flipping properties without paying the tax we already have.
The B.C. Lieberal government is the last bastion of Cons. Christy Clark, premier, has hired a number of the little shit in short pants who were unemployed when Harper was defeated. she also hired some from Alberta.
So although what is going on in the U.S.A. is interesting, what is going on in B.C. and Canada is truly frightening.
Yes,that is what happens when we elect governments that run trade deficits and aspire to be on the bottom rung of the supply chain by selling base raw materials and buying back high value added products manufactured from them. Eventually our trading partners come back and buy us out with the money we gave them.Welcome to the world of Harper economics 101.
DeleteRT
At present Trump is more a right wing Populist than a Fascist.Typically Fascism is an extreme ideology that celebrates the nation or race and demands that allegiance transcends all other loyalties. The Fascist group think is they are a suppressed but superior race or nation that was cheated out of greatness by both internal and external enemies.Where have we heard that before?
DeleteTrump seems too much of an individualist to be a Fascist.
The good news is that Trump is beating the Republa-Con war party at their own game and it's likely the party will never recover in their present form.Unfortunately the Donald ranks high on traits normally exhibited by someone with a strong personality disorder which would be a toxic combination for a US president.Then again perhaps he is all about branding and marketing.Hopefully the democratic system will sort it out and make the best choice.
RT
hi RT...I suppose you're right. Technically speaking Trump is a right-wing populist or demagogue. But the thuggish way he's been acting recently he is blurring the line between demagogue and fascist. And don't forget what the fires he's been cheerfully lighting could do to that society. As I used to say about Harper, it's easy to start a bigot fire, but much much harder to put it out...
ReplyDelete