Nazis Treat Trial in Charlottesville Like a Joke

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Unite the Right verdict sends an urgent message
by Frida Ghitis
CNN
Updated 6:20 PM ET, Wed November 24, 2021

Frida Ghitis, (@fridaghitis) a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a weekly opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN.

(CNN)For those of us who are growing increasingly worried about the prospect of even more deadly political violence in the United States, Tuesday's verdict by a Charlottesville jury -- which held extreme far-right leaders and groups that organized and participated in the violent 2017 rally liable for more than $26 million in damages -- came as very welcome news.

The defendants were found liable on state conspiracy and other claims, though the jury said it could not reach a verdict on two federal conspiracy claims. Still, it's a good day when some of the worst people in the country are held accountable and slapped with potentially crippling financial penalties.

The threat is far from over. But even if defendants don't come up with the millions the jury assessed against them, or the damages are reduced by the court, the trial and its outcome sent a signal that in America, there will be accountability after all for those awful summer days, a message that has been much too scarce since political violence started surging in the past few years.

The money may never come, and the ideology will not disappear. But this trial should accomplish at least two important goals. First, it should make others planning to make such a brazen public display of the horrifying views think twice.

Second, it establishes clearly and incontrovertibly that what occurred in Charlottesville in 2017, a landmark moment in US history, is an affront to the country's values, enlarging Americans' understanding of the violent threat posed by right-wing extremism, by making clear what the violence in Charlottesville was all about.

That event was not the first far-right attack in the US, but it opened the gates further and in a new way to displays of armed political radicalism, a threat that has been growing and accelerating, culminating in the January 6 attack on the Capitol, a coup attempt, in my view.

The events in Charlottesville on August 11 and 12, 2017, are seared in the minds of many Americans. It was the first year of a presidency that had excited far-right extremists. The march through the grounds of the University of Virginia looked and sounded like something out of 1930s Nazi Germany, with tiki torches and shouts of "Jews will not replace us," "Blood and soil," and stiff-armed Nazi-style salutes.

The moment seemed to confirm our worst fears. The day after that spine-chilling march, violent clashes between racists and anti-racists turned deadly when one of the defendants rammed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one and injuring several of the people now turned plaintiffs in this lawsuit.

After the Unite the Right rally, Americans -- and the rest of the world -- heard the former president speak out of both sides of his mouth, struggling to criticize the extremists among his supporters to the delight of neo-Nazis. He finally managed to condemn them, but not without declaring that there were "some very fine people on both sides."

During the trial, jurors came face-to-face with the repugnant views of the defendants. These views are protected by the First Amendment, but the Constitution does not permit violence or conspiracy. "This is going to be a violent summer," texted the once-far-right icon Richard Spencer two months before the rally. (Spencer has said the trial has been "financially crippling.") On a far-right message board, a man calling himself "JUDENJAGER," Jew Hunter in German, wrote, "we are gonna see some serious brawls at cville and we'll see blood on some of these white polos lol."

In these proceedings, some of the defendants spoke admiringly of Hitler and repeatedly uttered the n-word. One of the attorneys deliberately used the word k--e, an antisemitic slur, in an effort to "desensitize the jury," he explained.

The evidence was overwhelming. The jury found that five far-right groups should pay $1 million each, and a dozen defendants should pay $500,000 apiece, in punitive damages for participating in a civil conspiracy.

America -- and the world -- need to hear the message of accountability this jury has sent. After Charlottesville, far-right extremists became even deadlier. The next year, a man shouting "All Jews must die!" burst into a synagogue in Pittsburgh and opened fire, killing 11 people. The year after that, a man who police say told them he was targeting Mexicans allegedly shot and killed 23 people in a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.

Before long, armed militias were everywhere, protesting pandemic restrictions and demonstrating in support for former President Trump's bogus claims about the election. Militia members planned to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

The FBI says racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVES) pose the greatest terrorist threat to the nation, and it found that January 6 "demonstrates a willingness by some to use violence," to achieve political goals.

America is also awash in weapons, and many of those weapons are in the hands of far-right militants ready to use them for political purposes. "When do we get to use the guns," asked an activist during a recent event by the right-wing youth group Turning Point USA. "I mean, literally, where's the line?" he asked again, "How many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people?"

If this is not frightening enough, consider what we have seen during this very unusual week.

In an odd coincidence, three separate trials all dealing with the tensions and the violence that have erupted in this country in recent years, reached a climax. In addition to Charlottesville, there's the conviction of three White men in Georgia for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed Black man they chased down. And then there was the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who showed up at an anti-racism protest armed with an assault rifle, which he used to kill two protesters in what he said was self-defense, a claim the jury accepted in their acquittal of him on all charges.

There's no evidence that Rittenhouse was an extremist, but this is a young man who -- let's say this again -- shot and killed two people. And despite the tragic outcome of his actions, Rittenhouse has become a hero in the eyes of many. His apotheosis included a meeting with the idol of the right, former President Donald Trump, at Mar-a-Lago. In a normal, stable society, he would have gone home and kept quiet, counting himself lucky not to spend the rest of his life in prison. His backers surely would have breathed a sigh of relief and perhaps tried to change the subject.

His actions, using a firearm in the middle of a political protest, are being touted as inspiration. Members of Congress are competing to bring him onto their staffs. One of those members, Rep. Madison Cawthorn, told his followers after Rittenhouse's acquittal: "You have a right to defend yourselves. Be armed, be dangerous and be moral."

The threats posed by extremist rhetoric and violence have not vanished, but in an environment like the one we're living in, the Charlottesville victory was important. Coming just before Thanksgiving, it gives one more reason to celebrate, however cautiously, during these perilous times.

[admin]

School Official Gets DEATH THREATS For Investigating Neo-Nazi Students
by the Young Turks
Jan 3, 2022



A group of teenagers from a California high school were pictured with prominent swastikas drawn all over their bodies, prompting an investigation by their school’s superintendent. As it turns out, the superintendent, her family, and her colleagues have been receiving death threats almost daily. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss on The Young Turks. Watch LIVE weekdays 6-8 pm ET. http://youtube.com/theyoungturks/live

Read more HERE:
https://news.yahoo.com/california-sch...

"A school superintendent from California said she's been "subjected to death threats on a daily basis" after launching an investigation into a photo showing a group of students posing with swastikas drawn on their bodies.

"This has been one of the most traumatizing experiences in my life and in the lives of my colleagues," said Wheatland Union High School District Superintendent Nicole Newman on in a video shared to Facebook on Thursday.

She and her colleagues have also received "threats that are aimed against our families," Newman added in the video.

The photo, showing eight white students with thick, black swastikas painted onto their torsos, went viral on social media. The students, some of whom are holding alcoholic beverages, appear to be at a house party. The students attend Wheatland Union High School, Newman confirmed."

***************************

A California school superintendent said she's been 'subjected to death threats on a daily basis' since launching an investigation into a photo of students posing with swastikas drawn on their bodies
by Yelena Dzhanova
Jan 2, 2022, 7:07 AM

* A California school superintendent said she's facing death threats after announcing an investigation into students posing with swastikas.

* Nicole Newman said she saw a photo of Wheatland Union High School students with thick, black swastikas painted onto their torsos.

*"This has been one of the most traumatizing experiences in my life and in the lives of my colleagues," she said.

A school superintendent from California said she's been "subjected to death threats on a daily basis" after launching an investigation into a photo showing a group of students posing with swastikas drawn on their bodies.

"This has been one of the most traumatizing experiences in my life and in the lives of my colleagues," said Wheatland Union High School District Superintendent Nicole Newman on in a video shared to Facebook on Thursday.

She and her colleagues have also received "threats that are aimed against our families," Newman added in the video.

The photo, showing eight white students with thick, black swastikas painted onto their torsos, went viral on social media. The students, some of whom are holding alcoholic beverages, appear to be at a house party. The students attend Wheatland Union High School, Newman confirmed.

"When I first saw them, I was profoundly disturbed and heartbroken. I knew just how much pain these images were going to cause our community," Newman said.

The students have been disciplined, according to the Sacramento Bee. But details of the consequences they are expected to face were not publicly shared for legal reasons.

Newman said the video message posted on Thursday would be the last public update on the case "as we cannot legally go into detail regarding the discipline of these students."

"There is no denying that, the choices made by the students in the picture were hurtful and deeply troubling. Their actions do not represent who we are as a school district and community," Newman said in a separate statement on December 23.

Newman said she'd reach out to elected officials and "key community stakeholders" to "begin the process of having a broader community conversation about how we can work together to prevent this type of issue from ever happening again."

[admin]

Expert GOES UNDERCOVER and EXPOSES Recruitment Tactics of Dangerous Extremist Groups
Kristofer Goldsmith* [The Neo-Nazi Hunter: “A few years ago, a friend of mine that I served with called me up and said, ‘Hey, Goldie, I joined a neo-Nazi organization, and I want you to help me take them down.’” —Kristofer Goldsmith, Founder of Task Force Butler. Veteran Kristofer Goldsmith fought in Iraq. Now he brings his fight to the far right at home. Founder of the nonprofit Task Force Butler, Goldsmith works with other veterans to infiltrate neo-Nazi hate groups and compile evidence to stop them.]
MeidasTouch
Jul 27, 2023

Against All Enemies is a YouTube/podcast series and upcoming documentary film about threats to American democracy. In today’s episode, Thomas Rousseau, of the violent white nationalist street gang Patriot Front, is exposed as a failed leader of a dangerous cult. Learn more about how these white nationalist and fascist street gangs are shot through with pedophiles and murderers in our earlier episode:



Transcript

Goldsmith CEO of task force Butler at
both against all enemies and task force
bottom lawyer we're focused on making
sure you're informed about the
persistent threat of neo-nazi's fascist
street gangs and extremists militia
as we're going to show you today the
radicalization pipeline is taking angry
young white men and juicing them up on
grievances hyping them on militant
versions of masculinity and gun culture
and turning them back into our society
there's a generation of Timothy
mcveigh's and Dylan roofs being groomed
for violence and they're just one bad
day away from being our next Mass
shooters
today we're going to make sure you know
about Patriot front leader Thomas
Rousseau and the Nazis who follow him
break the law under his orders and go to
jail to impress him you might have seen
last week that five members of patriot
front were convicted for conspiracy to
Riot in Idaho Rousseau and 30 other
members of his Neo-Nazi gang were
arrested last summer as they were
preparing to attack a pride event in
Coeur d'Alene
they were convicted thanks to Rousseau
writing down that plan to attack people
and carrying that plan with him for the
police to find when they were arrested
Rousseau is 25 and grew up middle class
in Texas Thomas Rousseau is also a
committed white supremacist who hangs
out with pedophiles and murderers
to be clear those are not the opinions
of myself or of task force Butler those
are proven facts with documentary
evidence and multiple convictions to
back up the statements
I'll address those facts very soon but
first Thomas Rousseau
Rousseau began showing signs of white
nationalist beliefs as a young teenager
by High School the FBI had picked up on
his racist organizing across Texas
and as infamy grew as he emerged as a
leader of the white nationalist gang
Vanguard America
in 2017 Rousseau's role as a leader in
Vanguard America also meant he was a
leading organizer behind the deadly
Charlottesville unite the right Neo-Nazi
rally just a moment to define the terms
we're using here because extremists have
done a pretty good job of blurring the
lines
when we say white nationalist we're not
talking about people who are patriotic
and happen to be white
Senator tuberville this note is for you
to be a white nationalist means to be an
advocate for genocide the force removal
or mass murder of people of color this
is the definition of genocide and
genocide is the only way to achieve an
ethno State a white nationalist is a
genocidal Maniac Okay tuberville
and when we say Nazi we're not using
hyperbole we're talking about national
socialism the far-right totalitarian
political ideology and practices
associated with Adolf Hitler and the
Nazi party in Nazi Germany again we're
talking about people who want to see our
government commit genocide against our
own people Jews people of color the
lgbtq community and others this is what
we're talking about when we say Patriot
front is a white nationalist gang of
neo-nazis now that we have that cleared
up remember when I said Thomas Rousseau
Pals around with child sex predators and
murderers
here's where so in his Vanguard America
uniform leading Vanguard America as
their so-called ground Commander during
the unite the right rally with James
Fields
James Fields is the man who murdered
Heather heyer and injured over a dozen
when he rammed a car into a crowd during
the reunite the right protests
in the weeks following the attack
Rousseau claimed that Fields wasn't a
Vanguard America member which is a
pretty classic are you going to believe
me or Your Lying Eyes defense
there's ample documentary evidence of
fields in the Vanguard America uniform
getting invited to the Neo-Nazi rally to
march with Vanguard America
being in Vanguard America private chats
standing with other Vanguard America
members and carrying a shield with the
Vanguard America emblem right before he
murdered someone
unite the right had the exact opposite
effect for the assortment of deplorables
that gathered in Charlottesville then
the name of the Neo-Nazi rally sought to
achieve Vanguard America like other
far-right groups that showed up they're
splintered in effect that was
accelerated by Rousseau's paranoid
immature leadership style
rosette was actually been pretty
successful in projecting The Narrative
that Vanguard America dissolved into
chaos and ceased to exist end of story
but the true story is that rasoja seized
control of the organization its online
servers its members and then rebranded
it into a totally new organization
Patriot front
Vanguard America is Patriot front
Patriot front is Vanguard America
Patriot front has emerged as a National
Domestic threat with membership that
have been active across all of the lower
48. they've been showing up at
anti-abortion rallies Jewish synagogues
black lives matter protests and lgbtq
pride events
Patriot front members still to this day
communicate using Vanguard America's
server which is named blood and soil and
that's a direct undiluted callback to
Nazi Germany
Rousseau and Patriot front equate the
white European identity to the right to
inherit American soil
Rousseau is completely lacking in any
original thought and has nothing to
offer in his critiques of American
society
in his writings about the so-called
silent majority after the 2016 election
Rousseau sounds like he's openly
cribbing from 1980s Pat Buchanan just
very poorly
here's what he had to say in Fall 2016.
quote
the truth is white voters especially the
working class have had more than enough
of being called racist sexist xenophobic
islamophobic homophobic and the rest of
the trite usual buzzwords
now keep in mind Rousseau is saying this
in the context of Trump's candidacy
being built around being openly all of
those things
Russo continues whining and saying quote
The Forgotten majority of the American
electorate has shown that much to the
dismay of the globalist agenda that they
have not been replaced by the tens of
millions of blue voting immigrants from
abroad that they can still hold up some
semblance of resistance against the
decay of their Nation
from the globalist agenda to the
replacement Theory to the championing of
the underclass Rousseau is the epitome
of what a dumb person thinks a smart
person sounds like
now I know Rousseau's Cadence voice and
manner of speaking are extraordinarily
annoying
but I'm only exposing you to a few
minutes of this clown so bear with me as
we make a point here
here he is at a recent DC rally we're
called the greatest threat there is a
threat we pose but not to the people we
threaten only the Intolerable conditions
which allow our highest offices to be
filled with career criminals and
plutocritic scum
here in the city that does not deserve
Washington's Name
by political prisoners
many of whom were tried and found guilty
by the media long before the courts had
any say
so charged with obstructing democracy
left of a democracy to obstruct we ask
how can one betray a democracy which no
longer exists
how can one be a traitor against a
liberal fantasy to which he was never
loyal
let them call us their slurs
insurrectionists supremacist the list
gets longer by the day we seek not
Insurrection but Resurrection we seek
not Supremacy but sovereignty
Patriot front is Thomas Rousseau's
personal cult it's his Cult of aggrieved
marginal owners who buy into his shtick
because name-dropping Thomas Paine is
very impressive to people who've never
read a book before
I know because 15 years ago when I was
freshly out of the service and
struggling with PTSD it hadn't yet been
to school that was me
I know from being an ultra conservative
Ron Paul supporter back in 2008 when I
was in seriously rough shape after
coming home from Iraq how important and
intelligent people can sound when they
rattle off quotes from the founding
fathers my personal instability and my
desire to find purpose in a new
patriotism made me an easy mark back
then it made me easy to manipulate
back then was when Elmer Stewart Rhodes
was using the same exact rhetoric and
his connection to the Ron Paul campaign
to lure disaffected veterans Into The
Oath Keepers
I know what it's like to be ripe for
radicalization because I was there
but what's important to realize is that
aggrieved marginal loaners can and do
commit real harm when they adopt
ideologies promoted by groups like
Patriot front and join those Neo-Nazi
organizations
Dylan roof killed nine black people in a
church in Charleston South Carolina
here he is wearing a jacket of the flag
of apartheid era South Africa and
Rhodesia two aggressively racist states
that have become the rallying cries for
white supremacists who want to
accelerate the arrival of an American
race war
the average Patriot front member has
given up their families and friends as
they put themselves at legal risk
because of their association with
Rousseau and his violent cult
and like so many Cults they're being
used to provide Financial comfort for
their cult leader like I said before
many are just a single bad day away from
being a mass shooter in a country
swimming with guns we have these
isolated weirdos who are being brought
into what is essentially a cult that
they have to pay to be members of
Thomas Rousseau has taken from Joseph
Goebbels of Nazi Germany to build a
sophisticated media production system
with an Affiliated LLC called media to
rise
he has explicitly said that their
energetic use of video and social media
is so-called marketing for Patriot front
so we have this kid who's taking lessons
from Mussolini and Hitler on how to
build a fascist movement and then is
marrying it with Kim Kardashian's
influencer lessons to Rebrand white
supremacy by painting it red white and
blue
except Thomas Rousseau is a failed
leader most of the young men who become
members of patriot front don't stick
around for very long they might still be
neo-nazis and they might still be white
supremacists but dealing with Rousseau's
immaturity his paranoia his grifting
behavior as he funds his lifestyle buff
by leeching off of their effort it sucks
for the average Patriot front member and
they leave
how do we know this a task force Butler
because we've infiltrated Patriot front
numerous times we've been undercover as
full-blown members we've shown up to
their functions both invited and well
not so invited we regularly receive tips
from an interview former Patriot front
members who regret being a part of the
group and want to make things right and
of course we've analyzed hundreds of
gigs of data when groups like unicorn
ride gain access to and release their
confidential Communications
using our inside knowledge task force
Butler literally wrote the book on
taking down Patriot front using civil
suits and criminal prosecutions it's
called project blacklisted and you can
learn more about that on our website
within weeks of sharing the project
blacklisted Report with the lawyers
committee for civil rights under law
that group was able to use our analysis
to help them file a lawsuit against
Rousseau some of his top lieutenants and
members in Virginia and that's for their
conspiracy to engage in a campaign of
racial intimidation and to destroy
murals depicting black excellence
Patriot front is at its core a
multi-level marketing scheme for a
racist boy from Texas but that doesn't
mean that it's harmless
when someone spends time in Patriot
front they get the rush of being part of
Rousseau's spectacle when they go out in
their little silly parades but they're
also trained in street fighting tactics
Communications Recruitment and how to
avoid detection as they commit hate
crimes now just think about this for a
moment there are neo-nazis out there who
meet this guy Russo and find that he's
too toxic to be around
after a few months they leave
that's what happens with Thomas Rousseau
and Patriot front his behavior may drive
them out but they're not leaving the
white supremacist cause Patriot front is
a pipeline that feeds the rest of the
fascist street gangs and white
supremacist groups throughout the
country right now we're also watching a
lot of the fascist street gangs evolved
from the al-Qaeda model to the Isis
model
from Big top-down organizational
leadership structure to semi-independent
local cells
for as long as it's existed Patriot
front has been spinning off other
smaller local and Regional Neo-Nazi
organizations like nsc131 who've been
terrorizing New England
through Thomas Rousseau Patriot front
also functions as part of a broader
white supremacist Terror Network that
includes organizations such as white
lives matter National Justice party
nationalist Social Club active clubs the
rise above movement the Aryan Freedom
Network and Blood Tribe just to name a
few
in multiple task force Butler reports on
Patriot front we've documented where
these extraordinarily violent groups are
coordinating tax on communities of color
lgbtq folks and anyone who might wind up
in their path when they're out dressed
up in their Best Buy uniforms now
while they may look Goofy they're kind
of doing that on purpose while they're
distracting you with their Best Buy
cosplay they're also carrying deadly
metal weapons and they're wearing armor
because they're looking to physically
assault anyone who might bump into them
so here's what we want you to take away
from this today
when you see someone say well we can't
see their faces how many of them there
are or they look like they work at Best
Buy they're not that scary or you see
someone who you know who's fallen into
the maggot disinformation bubble say
something to the effect of oh they're
undercover feds there aren't real Nazi
organizations in the U.S
this is what you need to know
patriotfront is a violent terrorist
racketeering gang that primarily
functions to plan train and manufacture
weapons for the explicit purpose of
engaging in acts of violence and
harassment against minorities the lgbtq
plus community and others deemed enemies
by Patriot fronts leader Thomas Ryan
Russo their goal is to inspire
terrorists School shooters and other
Predators who want to destroy our
country using genocide
Russo likes to wrap himself up in
self-aggrandizing pseudo-intellectual
double speak and compare their wearing
of masks to that of the Boston Tea Party
and how they dressed up as Native
Americans
Rousseau claims that they're disguising
themselves to engage in so-called
activism that their criminality is
actually an expression of patriotism
that goes back to the founding fathers
this is garbage when a thief wears a
mask to rob a bank it's not an
expression of their patriotism or their
bravery standing up against a tyrannical
government
they're wearing masks because they're
criminals doing crimes and they don't
want to get caught
Ry front members wear masks to deceive
you and make you think that their
numbers are greater than they actually
are
we know from being inside the
organization that they bulk up local
actions by getting an assortment of
white supremacists from other
organizations to mask up with them and
wear those clownish uniforms just for
that one day
Patriot front members wear masks because
they're cowards they know that if
they're identified as part of a Neo-Nazi
organization that they're going to face
consequences at work at school with
their families and with their local
communities and finally Patriot front
members wear masks because they've been
diluted into thinking that Thomas
Rousseau's pathetic little cult is going
to give them a sense of purpose and
Brotherhood
it doesn't Rousseau is a grifter coward
who is playing on people's fears and
grievances for his own personal and
economic gain
that is what Patriot front members tell
us
he may love to play dress-up and wreck
other white supremacist lives by
convincing them to break laws to impress
him but that doesn't make him less
dangerous because when Patriot front
members are eventually identified and
they're completely isolated from their
friends and family all they have left is
Rousseau and his cult that's why he
wants them to get arrested so he can
control them and so that they feel like
they have no choice but to send Rousseau
money to subsidize his lifestyle
now remember when I said that Thomas
Rousseau hangs out with pedophiles and
murderers we introduced you to the
murderous James Fields now let me
introduce you to Patriot front member
Jared Michael Boyce he was one of those
guys picked up in Idaho a few months ago
and he pleaded guilty to nine felony
counts of sexual exploitation of a minor
and a misdemeanor count of dealing in
material that's harmful to minors
we've recently covered the amount of
pedophilia in the white supremacist and
fascist street gangs you can find the
link in today's show notes
the five members of patriot front who
were just convicted last week Forest
Rankin Devon Center Derek Smith James
Michael Johnson and Robert Whitted they
will for the rest of their lives be
unable to scrub off the stink of Thomas
Ryan Russo
never be confused Thomas Rousseau is a
thug leading a gang of thugs who want to
terrorize our society into submission
because they truly believe in their
fever dream of a white ethno state
a task force Butler we're regularly
infiltrating their networks and imposing
legal real world costs on them there are
about two dozen more members of patriot
front who will be facing trial on those
same charges as part of the same
conspiracy to Riot including their
leader Thomas Rousseau and our research
and Reporting is helping to make sure
that they get convicted
every day a task force Butler we're
making it harder for them to fundraise
train and organize
and in order to do that work we need
your support
against all enemies is produced by Ken
Harbaugh in partnership with task force
baller our team includes our producer
Michael L cessor and the task force
Butler volunteer researchers who provide
much of the Intel and Analysis that will
be bringing straight to you in this new
show come back tomorrow for another
against all enemies please like And
subscribe to this Channel and share this
video with three friends who you know
care about democracy
and check us out at taskforce butler.org
see you soon

[admin]

Barr: Trump Brought Up ‘Things Like’ Executing Rivals a Lot
by William Vaillancourt
Fri, 26 April 2024 at 9:42 pm GMT
https://au.news.yahoo.com/barr-trump-br ... 57189.html

Bill Barr, Donald Trump’s former attorney general who once said that voting for the indicted ex-president would be “playing Russian roulette with the country,” stood by his decision to vote for Trump in November while also suggesting that Trump used to regularly float the idea of executing his political rivals while in office.

Barr made the nonchalant admission Friday during a CNN interview when anchor Kaitlan Collins mentioned former Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin claiming that Barr was present in the summer of 2020 when Trump suggested that an unknown White House leaker should be executed.

“I remember him being very mad about that. I actually don’t remember him saying ‘executing,’ but I wouldn‘t dispute it, you know… The president would lose his temper and say things like that. I doubt he would’ve actually carried it out,” Barr said.

Collins then questioned whether Trump would say things like that “on other occasions.”

Barr responded that people would sometimes take Trump “too literally.”

“He would say things similar to that on occasions to blow off steam. But I wouldn’t take them literally every time he did it,” he acknowledged.

Rumination increased rather than decreased anger and aggression. Doing nothing at all was more effective than venting anger. These results directly contradict catharsis theory.

The belief in the value of venting anger has become widespread in our culture. In movies, magazine articles, and even on billboards, people are encouraged to vent their anger and “blow off steam.” For example, in the movie Analyze This, a psychiatrist (played by Billy Crystal) tells his New York gangster client (played by Robert De Niro), “You know what I do when I’m angry? I hit a pillow. Try that.” The client promptly pulls out his gun, points it at the couch, and fires several bullets into the pillow. “Feel better?” asks the psychiatrist....

The theory of catharsis is one popular and authoritative statement that venting one’s anger will produce a positive improvement in one’s psychological state. The word catharsis comes from the Greek word katharsis, which literally translated means a cleansing or purging. According to catharsis theory, acting aggressively or even viewing aggression is an effective way to purge angry and aggressive feelings.

Sigmund Freud believed that repressed negative emotions could build up inside an individual and cause psychological symptoms, such as hysteria (nervous outbursts). Breuer and Freud (1893-1895/1955) proposed that the treatment of hysteria required the discharge of the emotional state previously associated with trauma. They claimed that for interpersonal traumas, such as insults and threats to the ego, emotional expression could be obtained through direct aggression: “The reaction of an injured person to a trauma has really only . . . a ‘cathartic’ effect if it is expressed in an adequate reaction like revenge” (p. PAGE?). Breuer and Freud believed that expressing anger was much better than bottling it up inside.

Freud’s therapeutic ideas on emotional catharsis form the basis of the hydraulic model of anger. The hydraulic model suggests that frustrations lead to anger and that anger, in turn, builds up inside an individual, similar to hydraulic pressure inside a closed environment, until it is released in some way. If people do not let their anger out but try to keep it bottled up inside, it will eventually cause them to explode in an aggressive rage. The modern theories of catharsis are based on this model. Catharsis is seen as a way of relieving the pressure that the anger creates inside the psyche. The core idea is that it is better to let the anger out here and there in little bits as opposed to keeping it inside as it builds up to the point at which a more dangerous explosion results.

If venting really does get anger “out of your system,” then venting should decrease aggression because people are less angry. Almost as soon as psychology researchers began conducting scientific tests of catharsis theory, the theory ran into trouble....

pounding nails should reduce subsequent aggression. The results showed the opposite effect. The people who had hammered the nails were more (rather than less) hostile toward the confederate afterward than were the ones who did not get to pound any nails....

venting anger does not reduce aggression. If anything, they concluded, it makes people more aggressive afterward. More recent research has come to similar conclusions... venting anger can reduce physiological arousal but people must express their anger directly against the provocateur. People also must believe that the provocateur will not retaliate. Venting against substitute targets does not reduce arousal....

Cognitive neoassociation theory posits that aggressive thoughts are linked together in memory, thereby forming an associative network. Once an aggressive thought is processed or stimulated, activation spreads out along the network links and primes or activates associated thoughts as well. Not only are associated aggressive thoughts linked together in memory but thoughts are also linked along the same sort of associative lines to emotional reactions and action tendencies (Bower, 1981; Lang, 1979). Thus, the activation of aggressive thoughts can engender a complex of associations consisting of aggressive ideas, emotions related to violence, and the impetus for aggressive actions.

Cognitive neoassociation theory predicts that venting should increase rather than decrease angry feelings and aggressive behaviors. Venting involves behaving aggressively, often against “safe” inanimate objects....In essence, venting is practicing how to behave aggressively. Such aggressive activity should prime aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavioral tendencies, especially if the people think about the source of their anger while venting. Thus, venting should keep angry feelings active in memory and also should increase the likelihood of subsequent aggressive responses.

-- Does Venting Anger Feed or Extinguish the Flame? Catharsis, Rumination, Distraction, Anger, and Aggressive Responding, by Brad J. Bushman, Iowa State University, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

“Why not?” Collins pressed.

“Because at the end of the day, it wouldn’t be carried out and you could talk sense into him,” Barr argued, prompting Collins to counter that an unexecuted order doesn’t remove the threat.

Barr insisted that there was no threat.

“I don‘t think the threat is there. The thing that I worry about President Trump is not that he’s going to become an autocrat and do those kinds of things,” Barr said.

When Collins inquired as to why Barr believes that, and whether or not it’s a “hunch,” Barr responded that it was just his “feeling.”

“Having worked for him and seen him in action, I don’t think he would actually go and kill political rivals and things like that,” Barr claimed.

Later in the interview, Collins read aloud Trump’s mocking response to Barr following his endorsement. Barr replied by effectively kowtowing: “Classic Trump,” he said.

The “real threat to Democracy,” Barr claimed, came from the Biden administration, as opposed to the former president who has been indicted for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

[admin]

Puerto Rico Is an “Island of Garbage”: Outrage Grows over Trump’s Racist & Xenophobic NYC Rally
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 29, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/shows/2024/10/29

They’re trying to restrict what it means to be American and laundering it through racist jokes... it’s interesting that they choose to put these comedians forward, but it’s not a surprise at all. The laundering of white supremacy through so-called comedy is a common tactic...

You know, they want to create an atmosphere of unsafety for communities of color across this nation. And it’s very serious. It’s not a joke....They would be separating millions of undocumented mothers and fathers from U.S. citizen children across this country, leaving them financially and psychologically devastated....

[T]he Trump campaign released a statement saying this joke, talking about the so-called comedian talking about Puerto Rico as an island of garbage, “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign...

You are American only, in the American-only vision, if you embrace hatred, if you embrace division and if you embrace this exclusionary vision of America where only certain people who fit the white nationalist agenda belong.

In the final week ahead of the presidential election, Republican Donald Trump’s campaign is facing widespread backlash after his rally Sunday at Madison Square Garden, where conservative comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico “an island of garbage” and others leaned into racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric. We speak to journalist Jean Guerrero, who has published books on Trump’s white nationalist agenda and her own Latina and Puerto Rican identity. Trump is “seeking to restrict the notion of what it means to be American,” says Guerrero. Trump and his supporters are not only othering immigrants and people of color, she argues, but anyone who does not fit a narrow, right-wing view of citizenship. “If you are a liberal, if you believe in compassion and equality and freedom for all, you do not belong in Donald Trump’s America.”

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: With just one week until Election Day, outrage is mounting following Donald Trump’s campaign rally at Madison Square Garden Sunday. The New York Times described it as a “closing carnival of grievances, misogyny and racism,” unquote. During the event, one speaker described Puerto Rico as an “island of garbage.” Trump also continued to spew his racist rants and lies about immigrants, doubling down on his promise to enforce, quote, “the largest deportation program in American history,” unquote, and claiming the United States is now an occupied country. Trump also described Democrats as “the enemy from within.”

Other speakers included Trump’s running mate JD Vance, tech billionaire Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tucker Carlson, Hulk Hogan, Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s white nationalist, anti-immigrant policies which include the separation of families seeking asylum in the U.S.-Mexico border. These are some of the voices from the rally.

DONALD TRUMP: The United States is now an occupied country, but it will soon be an occupied country no longer. … On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history.

STEPHEN MILLER: America is for Americans and Americans only!

TUCKER CARLSON: It’s going to be pretty hard to look at us and say, “You know what? Kamala Harris, she’s just — she got 85 million votes because she’s just so impressive,” as the first Samoan, Malaysian, low-IQ, former California prosecutor ever to be elected president.

DAVID REM: She is the devil, whoever screamed that out. She is the Antichrist.

SID ROSENBERG: She is some sick bastard, that Hillary Clinton, huh? What a sick son of a bitch! The whole [bleep] party, a bunch of degenerates, lowlives, Jew haters and lowlives.

TONY HINCHCLIFFE: And these Latinos, they love making babies, too. Just know that. They do. They do. There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside, just like they did to our country. Hahahaha! Republicans are the party with a good sense of humor. … There’s a lot going on. Like, I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yeah, I think it’s called Puerto Rico.

AMY GOODMAN: “There’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.” Those, the words of the conservative so-called comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at Trump’s rally Sunday in Madison Square Garden.

Trump’s campaign has faced widespread anger and condemnation from elected officials, Latino groups, prominent Puerto Rican leaders from both political parties, including the head of Puerto Rico’s Republican Party, as well as Republican Congressmember María Elvira Salazar, who represents parts of Miami and has attended Trump rallies. Vice President Kamala Harris called the remarks “nonsense,” while Puerto Rican music stars Bad Bunny and Ricky Martin quickly announced their endorsement of Harris following Trump’s rally. Reactions to the racist comments included this response on ABC’s The View from co-host Sonny Hostin, whose mother is Puerto Rican. Hostin looked into the camera as she addressed Trump directly.

SONNY HOSTIN: Puerto Rico is trash? We are Americans, Donald Trump. Americans. … And we vote. Pennsylvania is home to almost half a million Puerto Ricans; North Carolina, 115,000; Georgia, 100,000; Arizona, 64,000; Wisconsin, 61,000; Michigan, 43,000; Nevada, 27,000. We vote, Donald Trump. Trash?

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we go to Los Angeles, where we’re joined by Jean Guerrero, contributing opinion writer for The New York Times. She is the author of the book Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda and Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir, which won a PEN Literary Award. She’s a senior journalism fellow at the UCLA Latina Futures 2050 Lab.

Jean, welcome back to Democracy Now! Well, why don’t you just respond to what happened on Sunday? Twenty thousand people gathered at Madison Square Garden. Talk about what they heard.

JEAN GUERRERO: Well, what we saw there was an extreme escalation of the Latinophobic rhetoric that has defined the Trump campaign. And I want to respond first of all to the comments that were made about Puerto Rico. As a Puerto Rican woman with family on the island, who was raised by a Puerto Rican mother who taught me to love this country, to work hard for this country, to defend the vulnerable in this country — all of which appear to be foreign concepts to Donald Trump — I felt very personally offended by these comments but also was filled with a renewed conviction to defeat Trump, which I think a lot of Puerto Ricans are feeling right now.

The bottom line is these comments are evidence that the Trump campaign has nothing to offer the American people besides more hate and more division. They want to divide the Puerto Rican diaspora from the residents of the island. They want to divide Mexican Americans from Central American immigrants. They want to divide Latino men from Latina women. But these divisive tactics are not going to work. They’ve become extremely old. And people, Latina women and Latinos in general, are organizing in response to this extremely racist rally and making sure that they’re going to defend their communities.

But, in general, what these comments also showed during this rally is that they’re seeking to restrict the notion of what it means to be American, who is American, as we saw from Stephen Miller’s comments about “America is for Americans only.” They’re trying to restrict what it means to be American and laundering it through racist jokes. But news flash to the Trump campaign: As other speakers have said before, Puerto Ricans are Americans. They are citizens. And they are going to vote. They’re going to make sure that Trump never again steps foot in the White House.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Jean, I’m wondering if you could talk about the potential impact of this especially in Pennsylvania, where not only is Philadelphia the home of the second-largest Puerto Rican population in the U.S., of any city after New York, but there are these other cities in Pennsylvania? Reading is 67% Latino; and Allentown, 54%; Lancaster, 40%. There’s an enormous — and most of these are Puerto Ricans. There’s an enormous Puerto Rican population in all these small towns in Pennsylvania, in addition to Philadelphia, that I’m sure this is going to have an enormous effect on — as these folks go to the polls this week.

JEAN GUERRERO: Absolutely. I mean, Puerto Ricans are something like half of the Latino vote in Pennsylvania and are a significant portion of the Latino vote and of the vote in general in the other battleground states. And so, I think what we’re going to see as a result of this completely unacceptable rhetoric is the mobilization of the Puerto Rican vote. And we’re going to see people show Donald Trump that we are not going to be divided, that the Puerto Rican diaspora, regardless of not living on the island, we have family on the island. We are proud to be Puerto Rican.

And what that also means is that we’re proud to be American. When the Republicans are trashing Puerto Rico, they are trashing America. And it’s no different from the way that Donald Trump talks about the United States as a dumping ground. You know, this — love of country has become a completely foreign concept to the Republican Party, as revealed by their complete disdain for Latino Americans, for Puerto Rico and for anyone from the region of Latin America. And what you’re going to see as a result of that open disdain, which has been going on for years but has been significantly escalated as of the past couple of days, is a historic mobilization of the Latino vote. And we’re going to make sure that Donald Trump never again is able to wield his power to oppress our communities.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And I’m wondering if you could comment, as well, about the comedian who opened this rally, the patently and really nakedly racist comments he made about other Latinos, about Palestinians, and, in general, his remarks?

JEAN GUERRERO: I mean, all of these remarks, it’s interesting that they choose to put these comedians forward, but it’s not a surprise at all. The laundering of white supremacy through so-called comedy is a common tactic. But when you look at the white supremacist texts and publications that have inspired top Trump advisers like Stephen Miller, it is very clear that they believe in the racial inferiority of people of color, and that not only that, but that they promote violence towards these communities. The end goal of Trump’s anti-immigrant and racist rhetoric is violence towards these communities. You know, they want to create an atmosphere of unsafety for communities of color across this nation. And it’s very serious. It’s not a joke.

You know, they are trying to launder this through comedy, but when you look at what these people actually believe, what they have advocated for, and the policies that they have put in place previously and that they plan to put in place in a second Trump term, these are extremely serious and potentially deadly actions that would separate millions of mixed-status families across the United States. Trump’s mass deportations in a second term would be — they would make his family separations from his first term look restrained. They would be separating millions of undocumented mothers and fathers from U.S. citizen children across this country, leaving them financially and psychologically devastated. We’ve already seen the consequences of this in a first Trump term, and it would be unimaginably worse in a second one.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to play a few clips, Jean Guerrero. First, Trump’s former lawyer, the former mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, who went on an anti-Palestinian rant as he took the stage.

RUDY GIULIANI: Hamas is not there for us! Iran is not there for us! They want to kill us! And the Palestinians are taught to kill us at 2 years old!

AMY GOODMAN: Last week, a federal judge ordered Rudy Giuliani to hand over his luxury Manhattan apartment and other costly possessions to a pair of Georgia election workers who he defamed after Trump lost in 2020. Now, as this, what the Times called a carnival took place, Kamala Harris lost no time especially on the attack on Puerto Ricans. On Sunday morning, she went to a Puerto Rican restaurant in Philadelphia. She also had released an ad there. But after this campaign rally of President Trump, Kamala Harris released another ad.

TONY HINCHCLIFFE: A floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.

DONALD TRUMP: Puerto Rico.

VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: I will never forget what Donald Trump did. He abandoned the island and offered nothing more than paper towels and insults. Puerto Ricans deserve better. As president, I will always fight for you and your families. And together, we can chart a new way forward. I’m Kamala Harris, and I approved this message.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, we should say that the Trump campaign, after the enormous outcry, after Bad Bunny endorsed Kamala Harris right after all of this took place, the Trump campaign released a statement saying this joke, talking about the so-called comedian talking about Puerto Rico as an island of garbage, “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” Danielle Alvarez, a Trump campaign spokesperson, said in a statement. That was one comment they referred to. But there were many for hours at Madison Square Garden. I want to go back to former Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller, who immediately launched into an anti-immigrant, racist tirade when he took the stage at Madison Square Garden.

STEPHEN MILLER: Who is going to stand up and say the cartels are gone, the criminal migrants are gone, the gangs are gone? America is for Americans and Americans only!

AMY GOODMAN: “America is for Americans and Americans only.” Now, Jean Guerrero, you are an expert on Steve Miller. You wrote a book about him, Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda. People don’t usually get to see him speaking unless they’re at some of the rallies where he introduces President Trump. But he is very prominent in writing speeches and in creating — and in working with Trump on this particular issue. Your comments on his significance and in — one in a new Trump administration, where so many of the officials have left Trump at this point in his former administration, but not Stephen Miller?

JEAN GUERRERO: Exactly. He is one of Trump’s most trusted advisers, who shaped his immigration agenda, including the family separation policy, as you noted earlier, Amy. And when he says that America is for Americans only, it’s extremely important to note that when it comes to a second Trump presidency, it’s not only undocumented immigrants who would be deemed undesirable and disposable; it would also be Puerto Ricans, as we saw from this racist rally, even though Puerto Ricans are American citizens. It would also target legal immigrants. If Trump revives the Alien Enemies Act, as he vows to do, countless legal immigrants would be subject to mass internment and expulsion.

But it doesn’t even end with the foreign-born. When it comes to the vision of Stephen Miller and Trump’s other close allies, when they talk about Americans only, they’re talking about the far-right only. And I know this based on the fact that when Trump talks about a, quote-unquote, “enemy within,” he is echoing the title of a book called The Enemy Within that was written by Stephen Miller’s longtime mentor, a man named David Horowitz. And in this book, The Enemy Within, the entire political left is framed as an existential threat to the United States, one that must be defeated at all costs.

And so, when you listen to Stephen Miller talk about Americans only, a lot of people might feel safe, thinking, like, “Oh, you know, like, I was born in the United States.” A lot of Latino voters who are voting for Trump might think that they are immune from these expulsions and these really terrorizing plans that they have in place for the Latino community, but that’s absolutely wrong. They not going to stop with people who are undocumented. They’re not going to stop even with the foreign-born. If you are a liberal, if you believe in compassion and equality and freedom for all, you do not belong in Trump’s America. You are American only, in the American-only vision, if you embrace hatred, if you embrace division and if you embrace this exclusionary vision of America where only certain people who fit the white nationalist agenda belong.

AMY GOODMAN: Jean Guerrero, we want to thank you for being with us, contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, author of Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda and Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir, which won a PEN Literary Award.

Coming up next, we speak with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a New York University professor and fascism expert. We’ll also speak with a journalist who looked back at Madison Square Garden in an Oscar-nominated film, 1939, a Nazi rally held in the middle of New York City. Stay with us.

[admin]

A Night At the Garden [ENTIRE DOCUMENTARY, 1 HR. 59 MINUTES]
directed by Marshall Curry
Produced by Field of Vision
February, 2019
https://www.wnyc.org/story/when-nazis-r ... re-garden/

A Night at the Garden: An American Nazi Rally in 1939 [ONLY 7 MINUTES]
Field of Vision
PBS
Jul 12, 2020 #ww2 #Documentary #History
Official website: https://www.pbs.org/pov/

In 1939, 20,000 Americans rallied in New York’s Madison Square Garden to celebrate the rise of Nazism – an event largely forgotten from American history. A Night At the Garden uses striking archival fragments recorded that night to transport modern audiences into this gathering and shine a light on the disturbing fallibility of seemingly decent people.

Transcript

(crowd cheering)
(melancholy music)
(crowd cheering)
- I pledge
undivided
allegiance
to the flag of the United States of America
and the republic for which it stands,
one nation, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
(crowd cheering)
(ominous music)
- Ladies and gentlemen,
fellow Americans,
American patriots.
I am sure I do not come before you tonight
as a complete stranger.
You all have heard of me
through the Jewish controlled press
as a creature with horns,
a cloven hoof,
and a long tail.
We, with American ideals,
demand that our government shall be returned
to the American people who founded it.
(crowd cheering)
If you ask
what we are actively fighting for under our charter,
first, a socially just, white, Gentile-ruled United States.
Second, (applause)
Gentile-controlled labor unions,
free from Jewish Moscow-directed domination.
(rumbling and yelling)
Here come the police!
(muted crowd rumbling) (high-pitched tone droning)
(crowd yelling drowns out speech)

-- Triumph of the Will, directed by Leni Riefenstahl

-- Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, by Hannah Arendt

-- It Can't Happen Here, by onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu

Stage backdrop used by German-American Bund for February 20, 1939 rally. ( Photo courtesy of The New York Times )

-- Triumph of the Will, directed by Leni Riefenstahl

Nazis Rallied at Madison Square Garden
by Andy Lanset
May 1, 2019

Marshall Curry's recent documentary A Night at the Garden (produced by Field of Vision) about the German-American Bund rally in Madison Square Garden in February 1939 and The Radio Diaries piece When Nazis Took Manhattan reminds us that the notion of a fascist America may not just be the stuff of fiction by Sinclair Lewis and Philip Roth, but a real possibility. Given the right social, political, and economic conditions, a significant number of the voting public can indeed be persuaded by demagogues. When Radio Diaries asked the WNYC Archives if we could help with their piece, we were able to come up with two hours' worth of the raw audio from the rally.


A poster used to promote the German-American Bund Rally at Madison Square Garden on February 20, 1939. (Poster courtesy of Lorne Bair Books, Inc.)

Why then have we decided to make this hate-filled event available? Well, it wasn't because it's enjoyable listening or that we endorse any of the ideology, perceptions, or language used by the speakers. On the contrary, the rally is a raw, unedited 1 hearing of an infamous event that takes place during a critical period in American history; just months away from the outbreak of World War II, when isolationist and 'America First' sentiment was gaining traction daily. The public rhetoric used by the German-American Bund played to the underlying assumptions of these movements by raising the fear-mongering specter of an internationalist 'Jewish cabal' 2 out to deprive America of its sovereignty and bring Soviet-style communism to our shores. Bund leader Fritz Kuhn put it this way:

We, the German-American Bund, organized as American citizens with American ideals and determined to protect ourselves, our homes, our wives and children against the slimy conspirators who would change this glorious republic into the inferno of a Bolshevik paradise.

Back then the 'cabal' was composed of FDR's treasury secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr., the financier Bernard Baruch and the Rothschild banking family. Today, for those on the alt-right, the Jewish billionaire bogeyman is the progressive George Soros and his supporters.


Original program cover for the German-American Bund rally Madison Square Garden on February 20, 1939. Notice, the snake's head has a hammer and sickle on it. (U.S. Holocaust Museum via Wikimedia.)

The speakers relied on a white supremacist tautology with a bizarre American twist that employed George Washington, the nation's founding father, as the patriotic foundation upon which to build their racist non-interventionist platform. The event, orchestrated to coincide with Washington's birthday, (February 22nd), featured a thirty-foot image of the first President flanked by red, white and blue bunting and swastikas as the visual backdrop to a succession of uniformed Bund speakers who drew on Washington's inaugural admonition about avoiding 'foreign entanglements.' One speaker even argued that if Washington was alive today, he would be a 'staunch friend' of Adolph Hitler. To this they added time-worn tropes, stereotypes, and falsehoods about criminal Jewish refugees taking American jobs, Jews creating degenerate art and music, and Jewish teachers corrupting Aryan children.

America's home-grown legacy of slavery, the Klan, Jim Crow laws, and, nativism fed into this anti-Semitic Nazi ideology of racial purity, making it easy for speakers to talk about Jewish carpetbaggers during Reconstruction along with miscegenation or 'race-mixing' and 'lustful Negroes' who only wanted to rape white women. After all, one speaker noted, intermarriage is already illegal in more than half the nation, implying that lawmakers should just finish the job.


Father Charles E. Coughlin broadcasts in Royal Oak, Michigan, Oct. 26, 1936. (AP Photo)

But perhaps no better domestic factor was utilized by the Bund than that of America as a Christian nation with Christian values. Here, the notoriously anti-Semitic Father Charles Coughlin, the outspoken radio evangelist, was held high as a martyr and victim of the 'Jewish-controlled' media. No doubt rally goers were disappointed the controversial preacher was a no-show since Kuhn had repeatedly promised a "prominent Catholic" would attend to discuss "the Jewish question" in the days leading up to the event.

This certainly didn't dampen the address by Bund publicity director Gerhard Wilhelm Kunze, who harped on the Jewish domination of American culture and called for news and culture without "a Jewish accent." Kunze, who fancied himself an American Joseph Goebbels, complained there is "no free speech for white men" in the United States and condemned 'parasites' like Walter Winchell, George Burns, Leonard Bernstein, and Eddie Cantor, for polluting the ether and taking the rightful places of Aryan Americans in the cultural milieu. In brief, he called for the ethnic cleansing of the airwaves. It's not too much of a stretch to go from the Christian Nationalist rhetoric of 80 years ago to current alt-right allusions to Jewish control of Hollywood studios and other media outlets.

The Protests

Towards the end of Kuhn's speech (beginning 1:57:00) you will note there's a disruption of some kind. While we can't see it, Kuhn asks people to remain seated and says, "one fanatic doesn't make any difference, ladies and gentlemen...see, that's the way we never do it." This is the moment when protester Isadore Greenbaum mounts the stage and attempts to reach the podium but is grabbed, beaten, and, stripped by uniformed Bund members. It is Greenbaum's story that is the focus of the Radio Diaries production. The savage assault on him is clearly shown in Marshall Curry's documentary film produced by the short documentary unit Field of Vision.


Isadore Greenbaum being beaten and subdued by Nazi storm troopers at Madison Square Garden, February 20, 1939. (Photo courtesy of The New York Times)

The number of protesters on the streets of New York that cold evening depended in large part on your source, with police estimates ranging anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000.3 Nevertheless, the anti-fascists were hemmed in by at least 1,700 policemen, many mounted on horses, outside of the Garden and at various points on 8th Avenue. (In 1939 the Garden was located at 8th Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets in Manhattan). The New York Times described the police cordon the following day as "a fortress almost impregnable to anti-Nazis."


New York City's mounted police forming a line outside Madison Square Garden to hold in check a crowd that packed the streets where the German American Bund was holding a rally. (AP Photo/Murray Becker)


A mounted police officer attempts to take the flag away from an anti-Nazi demonstrator outside of Madison Square Garden, February 20, 1939. (AP Photo courtesy of The New York Times)

The event received broad national coverage that reflected these divergent takes on what happened. The Brooklyn Eagle reported thirteen people were arrested and eight received medical attention, including four police officers in street skirmishes between Nazis, anti-Nazis, and police. Yet overall, "Despite the scattered fighting in the streets, no serious trouble resulted, and the rally failed to produce the bombing and rioting predicted."4


Socialist Workers Party protest poster against German-American Bund Rally (Poster courtesy of Field of Vision/Marshall Curry Productions.)

People from a wide range of political and Jewish organizations protested, although only the Socialist Workers Party (whose poster is pictured here) was actually noted by the city's paper of record.5 The communist Daily Worker, of course, avoided mentioning the Trotskyist SWP, and pulled no punches in its lead:

"The fetid stench of Hitler Fascism billowed and eddied through Madison Square's vastness last night. Nazidom's outpost in America, the German-American Bund, carried its war on democracy into the Garden with shouts, heils, a band of uniformed storm troopers -- all the made-in-Berlin trappings, including a thin 'Americanism' veneer craftily plotted by German propaganda headquarters."6

My guess is the paper would not have been as damning six months later (August 23, 1939) in the wake of the signing of the Hitler-Stalin non-aggression pact. Still, the Daily Worker that February remained the only newspaper to mention a simultaneous counter-rally "for true Americanism through brotherhood, through democracy," that was held at Julia Richmond High School in Queens. Speakers there included Acting Mayor Newbold Morris (La Guardia was out of town), Judge Anna M. Kross, Professor David Efron of Sarah Lawrence College, and WHN News Commentator George Hamilton Combs. 7


With a pair of Bund "storm troopers" beside her, columnist Dorothy Thompson is pictured still seated, just before being escorted out after laughing and heckling a Nazi speaker. Police later allowed her to return. (AP Photo.)

It Can Happen Here 8

Columnist Dorothy Thompson of The New York Herald Tribune (and wife of novelist Sinclair Lewis, the author of It Can't Happen Here), was escorted out of the rally by two New York City police officers and a Bund stormtrooper after she laughed mockingly when Kunze said the Aryan race follows the Golden Rule while Jews only follow the 'rule of gold' (approx 1:16:50). Thompson was allowed to return after it became clear she was there as a member of the press. Nevertheless, Thompson called Americans 'saps' for allowing such rallies and wrote:

I saw an exact duplicate of it in the Berlin Sports Palast in 1931. That meeting was also 'protected' by the police of the German Republic. Three years later the people who had been in charge of that meeting were in charge of the Government of Germany, and the German citizens against whom, in 1931, exactly the same statements had been made as were made by Mr. Kunze, were being beaten, expropriated and murdered... Whenever he made one of his blanket indictments against all Americans not purely Aryan, the audience applauded and howled with joy. Between Mr. Kunze's speech and a wholesale pogrom is a very short step...I laughed because I wanted to demonstrate how perfectly absurd all this defense of 'free speech' is, in connection with movements and organizations like this one.9

Religious and other groups had, in fact, petitioned New York Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, an outspoken anti-fascist, to ban the rally. A few days before the scheduled event the Mayor suggested featuring Hitler in a chamber of horrors at the World's Fair but said that he wouldn't stop the gathering. He told reporters, "I would then be doing exactly what Hitler is doing in carrying on his abhorrent form of government."10


German-American Bund leader Fritz Kuhn at the Madison Square Garden rally in 1939. (National Archives/Wikimedia Commons)

The Banality of Evil 11

With the U.S. entry into World War II, the German-American Bund was disbanded and the leaders who spoke at the rally did not fare well. The German-born Fritz Kuhn (the last speaker) was found guilty of tax evasion and embezzling more than $14,000 from the Bund. He was sent to Sing Sing prison for two-and-a-half years. While there his citizenship was revoked on the grounds it had been obtained falsely. He was then rearrested for being an enemy agent and interned at a camp in Texas until the end of World War II when he was deported to Germany. He died in obscurity in 1951.


Gerhard Wilhelm Kunze at the Madison Square Garden Rally in 1939. (National Archives/Wikimedia Commons)

Bund publicity director Gerhard Wilhelm Kunze succeeded Fritz Kuhn as head of the organization. He reportedly provided the New York District Attorney with the financial documents needed to prosecute Kuhn. After the U.S. entry into World War II, Kunze fled to Mexico with the intention of making his way to Germany but was arrested and extradited to the United States, where he was prosecuted and sent to prison for espionage and violating the Selective Service Act.


James Wheeler-Hill, National Secretary for the Bund. (Daily News clipping)

Bund national secretary James Wheeler-Hill was described by the Daily News as "the boy orator of the Bund." He opened the rally and acted as emcee. Wheeler-Hill resigned his post in January 1940 following his arrest for falsely claiming he was an American citizen. A Russian-born (Latvian) national, Wheeler-Hill was convicted and went to prison for a year on Welfare Island. In March 1942 he was interned as an enemy alien by the FBI and may have been deported after the war. This is unconfirmed. His brother Axel was sentenced to 16 years in prison for being a Nazi spy.

Isolationist Pastor Sigmund G. Von Bosse was the rally's second speaker. Described by the Daily Worker as "a frequent headliner at Philadelphia Nazi rallies," Von Bosse was, in fact, a clergyman, heading up the Bethanien Lutheran Church of Roxborough, Pennsylvania from 1934-1941. According to an obituary in The Morning News of Wilmington, Delaware, Von Bosse then went into seclusion. It reported his death in Miami Beach, Florida on November 29, 1958.

Russell J. Dunn was the third speaker. Dunn was a founder of the Catholic Common Cause League and was involved with the founding of the Flatbush Anti-Communist League. He spoke often for the Bund and the Christian Front and had ties to the American Nationalist Party. No other information is available at this time.

The German-born Rudolph Markmann was the fourth speaker. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1933. He led the Atlantic Coast District of the Bund. He was one of eight Bund leaders whose citizenship was revoked in June 1944 on the grounds he violated his citizenship oath by joining the Bund. The Brooklyn Eagle reported (March 21, 1944) that Markmann testified in Brooklyn Federal Court that he eventually quit the Bund's many activities because it interfered with his family life and made him "tired and sleepy." It's not clear if Markmann was ever deported.


A Bund color guard as it marched in Madison Square Garden are saluted by followers on February 20, 1939. (AP Photo courtesy of The New York Times)

Closing Thoughts

After listening to two hours of raw audio and then watching Marshall Curry's six minutes of archive footage, it's almost as if there were two different rallies. Missing from the audio is all of the pageantry and choreography that went into making it a spectacle. Add to that, the earnest looks, the stormtrooper uniforms, and the Nazi salutes. Sure, we hear the crowd roar its approval at what is said, but seeing it, even for a moment, is so much more powerful. Perhaps, this is because it now seems so bizarre, I can't begin to imagine it in my mind's eye.

From a strictly audio perspective, as rallies go, this one had some pretty boring stretches. Kunze was the most dynamic if not rabid of the speakers while Kuhn's revisionist history, though ponderous and tedious, made him, perhaps, the most dangerous. Still, what is remarkable is that their organization was able to muster 20,000 like-minded true believers to fill Madison Square Garden in the name of George Washington and white Christian nationalism. Add to that those around the country who agreed with them but couldn't make the trip and we're talking about a significant number. As filmmaker Curry says:

It’s scary and embarrassing. It tells a story about our country that we’d prefer to forget. We’d like to think that when Nazism rose up, all Americans were instantly appalled. But while the vast majority of Americans were appalled by the Nazis, there was also a significant group of Americans who were sympathetic to their white supremacist, anti-Semitic message.

Eighty years have passed. For some, however, the language and attitudes of that time and place have not faded. Indeed, the ideas and beliefs never really left. It's as if they were a person that went into hiding, kept below the radar and out of sight, waiting patiently for an opportunity to come out into the open. It seems that opportunity has arrived. Some of the persons and groups attacked have changed along with the circumstances, but contemporary discourse and events, sadly, have some eerie echoes from that night at the Garden.

_______________

Notes:

[1] There are a few gaps in the original recording, not necessarily due to an effort to censor or omit material, but simply because that material was missing from the original recordings done on a series of instantaneous lacquer-coated aluminum discs. Based on the original event program, what appears to be missing here is the music and singing.

[2] The notion of a global conspiracy by rich and powerful Jews is hardly new. Members of the German-American Bund were no doubt inspired, at least in part, by The Elders of the Protocols of Zion a late 19th-century anti-Semitic tract published in Russia that purports to be the minutes of meetings held by Jews plotting to take control of the world. Although a proven forgery, it was published and widely distributed in the United States in the 1920s by auto magnate Henry Ford through his weekly newspaper, The Dearborn Independent.

[3] 22,000 Nazis Hold Rally in Garden; Police Check Foes, The New York Times, February 21, 1939, pg.1. This contrasts with The Albany Times Union front-page headline the next day proclaiming: "RIOTS AT N.Y. BUND MEETING 100,000 Jam Area as Army of Police Quells Outbreaks."

[4] "Army of Police Cuts Bund Rally Casualties to Only a Few Injured," The Brooklyn Eagle, February 21, 1939, pg.3. But did any of the injured include the 13 Nazis who attacked Joseph L. Greenstein, a.k.a. The Mighty Atom, who ripped down a Nazi banner outside the Garden? It may never be known, but you can listen to Greenstein's story by Nate DiMeo following the Radio Diaries piece at: When Nazis Took Manhattan or go directly to: The Year Hank Greenberg Hit 58 Home Runs.

[5] Ibid., The New York Times.

[6] "Nazi Rally Hails Hoover's Foreign Policy," Daily Worker, February 21, 1939, pg. 1

[7] Ibid, pg. 4.

[8] This refers to the Sinclair Lewis' novel It Can't Happen Here, a political satire describing the election of a 'patriotic' demagogue to the presidency and his Nazi-like take over of the country. This is also the same pitch line filmmaker Marshall Curry used to advertise his documentary on Fox News. The network, however, refused to air the ad as written, calling it "inappropriate." See: Hollywood Reporter.

Fox News Rejects National Ad for Oscar-Nominated Anti-Nazi Documentary (Exclusive). Fox News has rejected a national advertising buy for a 30-second spot that warns viewers about the potential dangers of American fascism after an ad sales representative said network leadership deemed it inappropriate, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
by Jeremy Barr
Hollywood Reporter
February 13, 2019 3:05pm
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ ... y-1186379/


Courtesy of Marshall Curry Productions

Fox News has rejected a national advertising buy for a 30-second spot that warns viewers about the potential dangers of American fascism after an ad sales representative said network leadership deemed it inappropriate, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The spot was to double as a promotion of this year’s Oscar-nominated documentary short A Night at the Garden, which recounts a 1939 Nazi rally in New York City, and a warning — “It Can Happen Here” — to Sean Hannity’s largely conservative viewers about the potential dangers of President Donald Trump’s brand of populism.

An ad was bought to air locally during Monday night’s edition of Hannity’s primetime show through a regional advertising buy on Charter Communications’ Spectrum service in Los Angeles, but was precluded by breaking news — coverage of President Trump’s rally in Texas.

The film’s distributor, Field of Vision, then decided to purchase a national spot on Hannity’s show, but was rebuffed by the network, which controls national advertising.

A Fox News national ad sales representative told the distributor’s media-buying agency on Wednesday that CEO Suzanne Scott (“our CEO”) said the ad was “not appropriate for our air,” according to email correspondence viewed by THR.

Cable networks like Fox News do not oversee locally bought ads but can reject national advertising spots. In August 2017, CNN declined to run a paid advertisement from the Trump re-election campaign because it portrayed some of the network’s news personalities as “enemies” of the president, a decision the campaign decried as censorship.

“The film shines a light on a time when thousands of Americans fell under the spell of a demagogue who attacked the press and scapegoated minorities using the symbols of American patriotism,” Night at the Garden director Marshall Curry said in a statement to THR.

He added, “It’s amazing to me that the CEO of Fox News would personally inject herself into a small ad buy just to make sure that Hannity viewers weren’t exposed to this chapter of American history.”

To fulfill Monday’s aborted local ad buy, the documentary’s ad will run during Thursday night’s episode of Hannity in Los Angeles, through Charter. The film’s backers also plan to advertise on other national cable news networks.

Night at the Garden marks Curry’s third Oscar nomination, following nods for his 2005 documentary on now-Sen. Cory Booker (Street Fight) and the 2011 film If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front.

Field of Vision, the documentary unit of First Look Media, was created by Citizenfour filmmaker Laura Poitras, AJ Schnack and Charlotte Cook.

A Fox News spokesperson has not yet responded to a request for comment.

[9] Thompson, Dorothy, "Miss Thompson Issues Statement on Bund Rally," The New York Herald Tribune, February 21, 1939, pg. 3.

[10] "La Guardia Lets Bund Hold Rally," The Daily News, February 18, 1939, pg. 3.

[11] This phrase refers to Hannah Arendt's description of Adolph Eichmann at his 1962 trial in Israel. Eichmann was the Nazis' chief architect of the genocidal 'final solution' for the Jews of Europe. In Arendt's 1963 book, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, she writes about the 'normalization of wickedness'. In this regard, I highly recommend reading a piece by writer Maria Popova.

Special thanks to Andrew Golis, Jim Schachter, Joe Richman, Sarah Kramer, Marshall Curry, Ben Goldberg and Lorne Bair.

Audio recording source: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).


Wearing the shirt which storm troopers ripped when he interrupted a speech given by Bund leader Fritz Kuhn, anti-Nazi protester Isadore Greenbaum is reunited with his wife and son after his ordeal, February 20, 1939. (AP Photo courtesy of The New York Times)

[admin]

A Mexican Fourth of July
by Charles Carreon

[Tony Hinchcliffe] I welcome migrants to the United States of America with Open Arms, and by Open Arms I mean like this. [Spreads arms wide, w/both hands waving Migrants away.] It's wild. And these Latinos they love making babies too. Just know that. They do. They do. There's no pulling out. They don't do that. They come inside, just like they did to our country.

[Charles Carreon's Declaration of Independence: "Take two, they're small! Forever yours, Charles Carreon"]

There once was a man named Columbus
Italian I think that he was
He got lost on the way to the Indies
And laid claim to this country instead

The people who lived here were Mayas
Olmecas, Toltecas and such
We worshipped among the volcanoes
And lived in traditional huts

We lived mainly on beans and tortillas
With tomatoes and chilies for spice
We built pyramids bigger than Walmarts
But the greeters were not very nice.

When Cortez arrived sometime later
He kidnapped the Mexican King
We had heavy clubs and obsidian knives
But against bullets they don't do a thing.

The Padres and Popes screwed us freely
And the Spanish gave way to the French
Benito Juarez strung up Maximillian
Ruling Mexico's never a cinch.

Of course, we once owned California
Arizona, New Mexico, too
We mined gold, silver and turquoise
But not like Americans do.

Then you dammed up the water, you bastards,
The Colorado no longer flows free
To the Golfo de California
You took it for nothing from me.

You make fun of our clothes and our English
Even though Espanol you can't speak
You deride us for tanning so darkly
While you hide from the sun like a freak.

Go on laugh, you pinche Cabrones
Laugh until you piss your pants
We are the ones with cojones
Move aside, so that we can get past.

We won't spit in your milkshake, hermano
In fact let me supersize that
More fries? Absolutely senora,
When compared with a pig, you're not fat.

You watch porn like you're all maricones
Jerking off while your wives waste away
When you forget how to screw altogether
I will call that a wonderful day.

When cute Mexicanas are flirting
Red blooded chamacos must play
It's true we don't do much computing
You don't make Mexicanos that way.

You're going to build walls on the border
With Mexican Labor I hear
The Israelis tried that in their desert
Soon we'll have suicide beaners here.

You are laughing, I see mi amigo,
Your sonrisa is smiling so bright
So have one of these chili poppers
On a Mexican fourth of July.

[admin]

Explode on the Border
by Charles Carreon



I’m the man in the taco stand
With the detonator in my hand
Please don’t come one step closer
Unless you want more cilantro

Explode on the border
In a tarpaper shack
Explode on the border
Cause they’re never gonna take me back

I got a dark nefarious plan
To make this place like Afghanistan
Make everyone speak Spanish
They’ll all be beaners when I’m finished

Explode on the border
It’s a culture war
Explode on the border
I’ll show you what this burrito’s for

You gotta hate the people you exploit
Demonize them, make the crawl
Never show a speck of thanks
Now you wanna roll out the tanks

So we’ll explode on the border
Won’t that be fun
Explode on the border
Golf carts burning in the sun

They ask me for my papers
I got the detonator in my hand
They’ll never take me alive
‘Cause I’m the suicide taco man

Explode on the border
Gimme my desert back
Explode on the border
And enjoy your a heart attack

[admin]

Ruth Ben-Ghiat: Trump’s Dehumanizing Rhetoric Is Adopting Franco’s Language of Fascism and Violence
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 29, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/29 ... transcript

We speak with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert on fascism and authoritarianism, who argues that Trump’s use of the hallmarks of “fascism and violence,” including dehumanizing rhetoric, profane and crude discriminatory language and threats to the “enemy within,” echoes the rise of midcentury fascist rulers like Francisco Franco and Adolf Hitler.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, “War, Peace and the Presidency.” I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

Vice President Kamala Harris makes her closing arguments to voters tonight at the Ellipse near the White House, where Donald Trump gave his speech on January 6, 2021, just before his supporters rioted at the Capitol. Trump made his closing arguments Sunday at Madison Square Garden. As he did so, local democratic socialists protested nearby at Bryant Park.

For more on Trump’s closing arguments and the rise of the authoritarian right, we’re joined by Ruth Ben-Ghiat, expert on fascism and authoritarianism. She’s the author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present and a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University. She also publishes the newsletter Lucid on threats to democracy.

Professor, welcome back to Democracy Now! In the lead-up to this final week of the election, if you can talk about the comments of President Trump, everything from arresting his enemies to the enemy within, and what this echoes for you?

RUTH BEN-GHIAT: Yeah. So, you know, fascism started almost a hundred years ago in both Italy and Germany with a core of combatants from World War I who brought the war home and turned their wrath and their force and their violence on liberals, on leftists, on progressive priests, on anybody who did not — was not in their leader cults. And so, when Donald Trump talks about America being an occupied country that he’s going to liberate, this is the language also of Francisco Franco. This is the language of fascism and violence.

And, you know, when we think about all the dehumanizing rhetoric and the explicit references to Hitler’s Germany, you know, Trump doesn’t want people comparing him to Hitler, even sued CNN for $475 million, claiming they were comparing him to Hitler, but he himself has — his campaign has explicitly made these parallels, even releasing a campaign ad that talked about him creating a, quote, “unified reich” and, of course, calling people “vermin.”

And I want to say something about the use of profanity and the crudeness of all of these remarks at the Madison Square Garden rally, which of course was the site of the American Nazi rally, because we think about authoritarianism as imposing controls on people and silencing people, and it certainly does that. But it also is designed, from fascism forward, to make people become their worst selves, to give them permission to be as violent and unrestrained as possible. And so, deregulation, just as, you know, Project 2025 wants to deregulate environmental protections and food safety things, following what happened during the Trump presidency, there’s also a deregulation of inhibitions, of morals, and so that you will be not — less bothered when the violence starts. You will turn the other cheek, or you will participate in it. And this kind of profanity, you know, at women, the misogyny, anti-Black statements, calling Latinos garbage, it’s not only a tradition of dehumanization that starts with fascism and goes through authoritarian movements up to our day, it’s also designed to make people feel, the foot soldiers of MAGA, that there are no restraints, there are no controls, and everything will be accepted as long as it is in the service of targeting the enemy within.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go to two clips of Donald Trump, and these have become quite familiar. He called for the National Guard or U.S. military to be deployed on U.S. soil to target what he called radical left lunatics. Trump made the call, at least this particular one — he said it repeatedly — during an interview on Fox News.

DONALD TRUMP: I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they’re the — and it should be very easily handled by — if necessary, by National Guard or, if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.

AMY GOODMAN: And this is Donald Trump speaking in Aurora, Colorado, earlier this month.

DONALD TRUMP: It’s the enemy from within, all the scum that we have to deal with, that hate our country. That’s a bigger enemy than China and Russia.

AMY GOODMAN: And, of course, we know what John Kelly said, his former, longest-lasting chief of staff, the general, who called him the “definition of a fascist.” Your response, Professor Ben-Ghiat?

RUTH BEN-GHIAT: So, you know, retired military officers, especially generals, don’t speak out unless they feel there’s a real need to do so. And the fact we’re seeing General Kelly, General Milley, former Defense Secretary Esper speak out and use the “F” word, calling Trump a fascist, means that they are highly concerned about a possible misuse of the military, because, again, this goes back. When Trump talks about scum and perhaps needing to use the military against them, this echoes Francisco Franco and the whole discourse of the subhuman, which was integral to fascism.

But there’s also a geopolitical dimension that’s very important, because if you’re Putin or Xi or North Korea and you have your expansionist aspirations, the power and professionalism of the U.S. military is a huge problem. The global reach of the U.S. military is a huge problem. So, here comes Donald Trump, who’s the latest partner of Putin — there’s been Gerhard Schröder, Silvio Berlusconi, now we have Trump — who wants to give the U.S. military a new role, concentrating them on domestic repression, withdrawing from NATO, calling troops back from abroad. And so, we have to think about who benefits geopolitically from this rerouting of the military. I’m not saying the military would go along with this, but this is what Trump is saying by — when he declares repeatedly, and as does JD Vance, that the bigger problem — you know, Russia and China are not the biggest problem; it’s the enemy within. So, this refocusing of military and armed force on American people benefits Putin, benefits Xi, benefits any autocrat who has expansionist ambitions.

***

Trump’s Night at the Garden: Racist Campaign Rally Evokes Infamous 1939 Nazi Gathering in NYC
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 29, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/29 ... transcript

We take a close look at Donald Trump’s campaign and racist rally at Madison Square Garden with filmmaker Marshall Curry, who attended the rally and also directed the short film A Night at the Garden, about the 1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, and notes, “The demagogues in 1939 used the same tactics that we see today.”

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to bring into this discussion Marshall Curry. Marshall Curry went to the Madison Square Garden event, but he also did an Oscar-nominated film. That film was called A Night at the Garden, about the 1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden. This is a clip.

FRITZ KUHN: Ladies and gentlemen, fellow Americans, American patriots, I am sure I do not come before you tonight as a complete stranger. You all have heard of me through the Jewish-controlled press as a creature with horns, a cloven hoof and a long tail. We, with American ideals, demand that our government shall be returned to the American people who founded it.

If you ask what we are actively fighting for under our charter, first, a social, just, white, gentile-ruled United States. Second, gentile-controlled labor union, free from Jewish, Moscow-directed domination.

AMY GOODMAN: A Night at the Garden. That was an excerpt not of Nazi Germany, but of a Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden in 1939, from the Academy Award-nominated short film directed by Marshall Curry. That voice, explain what we just saw and listened to, and the person, the protester, who came up and was beaten up.

MARSHALL CURRY: Sure. So, in 1939, there was a rally in Madison Square Garden where 20,000 New Yorkers gathered to celebrate the rise of Nazism. And when I first saw that footage, I was completely shocked to see the American flag and George Washington and, you know, hear people singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” and saying the Pledge of Allegiance, and then offering a stiff-armed salute and cheering white supremacy.

So, the man who was speaking was named Fritz Kuhn. He was the head of the German American Bund, which had camps all around the country, had quite a big following and some significant power. The protester who runs out on stage and is beaten up was a man named Isadore Greenbaum, who was a Jewish plumber’s assistant who just went to the rally that night to find out what was going on, and was shocked and appalled by what he saw.

AMY GOODMAN: And you went to Madison Square Garden Sunday?

MARSHALL CURRY: I did. So, I made this film seven years ago out of archival material that we sort of found in the National Archive and UCLA’s archive and Grinberg Archive. And that was, you know, seven years ago, at the beginning of Trump’s administration. I saw some similarities between some of the demagoguery that was happening on stage in 1939 and what Trump was doing at his rallies. And so — but I had never actually seen a Trump rally personally. And so, when I heard that he was going to be at Madison Square Garden, I thought I needed to go and see it for myself.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Marshall Curry, as you mentioned your surprise, many Americans are not aware of how extensive the fascist and Nazi movement was in the U.S. back in those days. Could you talk about that?

MARSHALL CURRY: Sure. I mean, when I grew up, I always learned in school that America took on the fascists and we fought the Nazis and defeated them. And we did, and that’s a great, you know, point of pride for our country. But we were not entirely united. As today, there were people in our midst who were antisemites, who were anti-immigrant.

And I think the thing that struck me the most about seeing that footage was the way that the demagogues in 1939 used the same tactics that we see today. You know, they use this kind of dark humor. They wrap their ideology in the symbols of patriotism, and they go after immigrants and the press and minority religions. And they do it to distract people from the fact that they really want to cut taxes for rich people and take away healthcare and do policies that people wouldn’t support.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And I’d like to ask, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, this Madison Square rally has happened numerous times in U.S. history. People forget that in 1968, when George Wallace, the white supremacist governor, was running for president, he held a rally at Madison Square Garden in October of 1968. And it was filled, as well, with segregationists from right here in New York City. And in fact, the police were picking up people in the streets, anyone who was trying to protest the Wallace rally. I know because I was a young college student at the time trying to get down to Madison Square Garden, was picked up by the police blocks away from Madison Square Garden, and we were held in vans until after the rally was over, hundreds of people. The reality is that filling Madison Square Garden is really not that hard for a political movement. You’re talking about less than — in a metropolitan area of 20 million people, being able to get 20,000 zealots in an arena is basically two-tenths of 1% of the population.

RUTH BEN-GHIAT: Yes. And the other thing is that this rally, all the different strains of it, playing “Dixie,” this Trump rally, you know, Trump has always provided a big tent, from the very beginning, 2015, ’16, for every possible kind of racist and extremist in America. He addressed himself to Southern racists, people who — he addressed himself to Proud Boys, to neo-Nazis, famously, at the Charlottesville rally — every type of person with a grievance, and then enlarged that with espousing great replacement theory, and, of course, in partnership with Fox, with the GOP elite, etc.

And so, all of this was represented at this rally, together with people from the fields of business, like the businessman Grant Cardone, who said, “We have to slaughter these people,” referring to people who aren’t supporting Trump. And you had people from the world of entertainment and from sports. And so, Madison Square Garden, you know, a seat of spectacles and sports spectacles, entertainment spectacles, political spectacles, was the perfect place, actually, for MAGA to show how many people are fitting into its big tent of racism and extremism.

AMY GOODMAN: Ruth Ben-Ghiat, we want to thank you for being with us, expert on fascism and authoritarianism, wrote the book Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present. Her newsletter is called Lucid, on threats to democracy. And we want to thank Marshall Curry, director of the Oscar-nominated short film A Night at the Garden about the Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden in 1939.