I'm not the only one harping on Hitler, Hartmann is too.

 

This is the third Substack I've posts about Hitler and Trump. I wasn’t going to write on this subject, but then I read Thom Hartmann’s “The Brutality is the message…” Substack.

In it he refers to Hitler five times and the Nazi’s seven times. Below I highlighted most of the references.

Of course, Trump referred to “nuclear” as the “N-word” during that cringeworthy speech to military leaders. He said “there are two N-words, and you can’t use either of them.” He was discussing U.S. nuclear capabilities. The generals sat in stunned silence. In fact, the other n-word which should send chills up and down our spines when applied to Trump and MAGA that people like Thom Hartmann (our number one progressive radio host) is starting to use is Nazi.

Below is the comment I posted on Hartmann’s Substack:

The subtitle “Every raid, every body slammed to the pavement, is a public ritual meant to teach us obedience. The goal isn’t enforcement — it’s submission...” is so true and should be incredibly terrifying. It is, as you say, without using the word “Hitlerian” right out of Hitler’s playbook. I haven’t read that this was spelled out in Project 2025. I don’t think there’s a chapter on the use of systematic sadistic terror as a major tactic in their overrall strategy. What has been transpiring with this use of brutality as major modus operandi to instill obediance through fear has led me to do my own rebranding for No Kings day. I hate to throw shade on the original intention and coining of the label, but King George III was not Adolph Hitler.

Trump is not Hitler either, but he is much closer in his actions and personality than he is to King George. This is why I compared Trump and Hitler in yesterday’s Substack.

I give huge credit to the “No Kings” protest organizers and recognize that when they selected the label for their first and hugely successful protest on June 14th (Trump’s birthday) the president hadn’t yet emerged as an Americanized and somewhat sanitized version of Alolph Hitler. 

I don’t advocate for a name change. “No Kings” is too well established. There is also a risk in going overboard with what can be seen as hyperbole and this plays right into the hand of Trump and MAGA accusing critics of having Trump derangement syndrome. 

Not to dwell on naming protests too much, but “No Kings” was a much better name than the “Workers over Billionaires” protests held on Labor Day. I had to look that up.

Having an American oligarchy is far less of a concern than the country turning into a facsist autocracy ruled by a brutal dictator. 

What I dread is looking back at the “No Kings” and other national protests, regardless of what they were called, and seeing that any protests had been made illegal, labeled acts of treason, with attempts to organize them punishable by imprisonment or worse.

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Comparing Trump to Hitler, By Hal M. Brown

 I see two primary reasons not to compare Trump to Hitler. The existential reason is that it may minimize the Holocaust and Hitler’s attempt to conquer as much of the world as possible. The other is that it gives ammunition to the Turmp and MAGA to accuse us of fomenting violence by trying to inflame emotions.

He’s been ranting about the so-called “radical left,” and a non-existent terror organization, Antifa, being behind rampant violence that is only occuring in his fevered mind if he even believes it.

Hitler never blamed Jews for violence in pre-war Germany. He just blamed them for everything else that made life difficult for other Germans.

Hitler is a metaphor, and maybe more than a metaphor, and making a poster like I did (it will come before we will use it at a No Kings Day protest) is intended to go beyond saying he aspires to be a king. King George was bad, but he was no Hitler. I expect we’ll see lots of NO KINGS signs like those shown above at the protest.

The wisdom and validity of a Hitler comparison is not a new subject for debate. For one example, see this article:

The article notes that, according to America’s Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the reason the comparison is so common is simply that it is the “most available historical event illustrating right versus wrong.” 

This was written in 2017. Since then Trump was elected for a second time and the Hitler comparisons have become far more common because he is acting more and more like Hitler.

Here’s a recent article:

Certainly, Trump and Hitler lived in very different worlds and there’s no way we can compare Alligator Alcatraz to Aushwitz, or ICE agents brutalizing people to Gestapo agents having carte blanche to execute them in the street or in their homes.

We can use the adjective Hitlerian to describe Trump without saying he is exactly like Hitler. For example, he is trying to dominate other countries and he makes insane threats to invade Greenland. This is bluster. He isn’t about to mount a Nazi-like blitzkrieg to take over Greenland, or even Canada or Mexico. He might like to follow in his pal Putin’s footsteps and order U.S. troops to invade countries, but he knows that the attempt to subjugate Ukraine didn’t go all that well. Instead he is poised to use our military to take over major cities in blue states. 

Trump wants to take over my city of Portland by force. Force means sending armed soldiers. We could have armored vehicles on our streets. We already have Blackhawk helicopters buzzing the city. They are very loud. It is easy to tell when they fly over my house since they are much louder than ordinary helicopters. 

I have no doubt he’d like to have Airborne soldiers rapelling from them onto our streets.

I am sure he’d even like to have lethal and terrfying looking Apache attack helcopters swooping low over Macadam Avenue (a 16 minute drive from my place, see map here) in front of ICE headquarters.

As I typed this Ali Velshi had a segment about Portland.

Is it fair to compare Trump to Hitler? This all depends on what one means by the word “fair.” 

If his wishes could turn into reality, then I’ll go out on a limb and say it is fair. We can speculate as to whether he’d order death camps to be built. I really doubt this. It would lead to an actual civil war. Seniors like me (I’m 81) wouldn’t rush to the local gun store (there’s a large one a mile from my place) to buy an AR-15, but I’d volunteer to help those who do in any way I could.

I can see Trump having fantasies about having concentration camps built to send all of his enemies to. There would be many people in red states who would welcome the jobs such facilities would provide and we know from seeing the brutality of ICE and other agents that there are plenty of people who would be eager to work in them.

Addendum:

Addendum: I’m not the only one to invoke the name of the toothpaste mustache man:

This is a sequel to yesterday’s Substack:

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Perhaps the No Kings protests should be called "No Hitler" instead. By Hal M. Brown

 

Above is the photo my partner, inspiration, Substack proof reader and editor took of a bleary eyed me this morning with the sign (which we covered with plastic wrap for the rain) for our regular Friday protest that we have along the road next to the senior commuity where we live. Two of the homemade signs say “Don’t Mess With Grandma” and “Hands Off Our Social Security.” Of course the “No Kings” sign goes with the title and the subject which I will get to in this Substack. 

Below are comments from Sabrina Haake’s Substack about the long term consequnces of Trump’s enforcers, I call them his Gestapo, using excessive force:

This Substack led, so far, to 45 comments all of which you can read here.

I am going to share those that I wrote along with the replies to what I said.

Let’s not forget that the man who is doing this thinks he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. We will see the blowback today and in coming days from his NOT getting it. Further, think of the message sent by the Nobel winner Maria Corina Machado. “She is receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” More info: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2025/press-release/Here’s a story about how Norway was preparing for Trump being bypassed: https://www.rawstory.com/trump-norway/Here’s a story about the MAGA reaction: “’What an absolute joke!’ MAGA melts down after Nobel Peace Prize Trump snub” https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2674172203/ The US has become worse than a Superman Bizarro World, it is a Bizzaro World run by a leader and a group of cohorts and enablers, who revel in inflicting pain on people and terrorizing everyone who stands against them, and then makes the claim that they are peacemakers. Call this Beyond Bizzaro!

This is Sabrina’s reply:

agreed. excellent substack btw. it’s truly bizarre that trump, who has bombed people on the high seas, encouraged ICE to use excessive force, and wants to imprison his critics thinks he deserves a prize for peace. does he not understand that extralegal violence is diametrically opposed to peace? is it ego? retardation? dementia? delusion?

Here’s my reply to this:

Thanks. These are good questions: “does he not understand that extralegal violence is diametrically opposed to peace? is it ego? retardation? dementia? delusion?” On the first, he doesn’t care. On the others, for certain ego is part of it, and he’s not developmentally disabled but not as smart IQ wise as he thinks he is, true dementia is an open question, as is whether he is clinically delusional.

This prompted indpendent journalist David A. Brothers whose Substack is “The Conscious American” to reply:

I’m no mental health professional, but I would think clinical delusion is a highly likely possibility, and I’m beginning to wonder about schizophrenia. On the other hand, there’s no way to identify the mental incapacity of a congress that will allow a madman of any variety to destroy every good thing his country stands for. And speaking of delusions, how about that religious right? I’m willing to bet that some of their most fervent bloviators deliberately embrace Trump’s evil so they can see the rapture in their lifetimes. I spoke with an elderly Christian woman during T1 who said, “I’ll admit, he’s not the savior I thought he would be.” “Savior? Really, savior?” I replied. “Savior of whom, and from what?” Nothing else was said. We just stared each other off. She looked away first. I was determined to lock that down til doomsday if I had to.

I answered him as follows:

There are conditions that don’t fully meet the listed characteristics to make the diagnosis. Some shrinks call this sub-clinical. For example, in the DSM it says to make the diagnosis you need, for example, 5 out of 8, but someone could meet 3 and still be pretty dysfunctional.

He wrote back simply “Thanks, Hal. Very enlightening clarification.” I went on to elaborate as follows:

You’re welcome. One of the diagnoses applied to Trump and his Gestapo is anti-social personality, better known as psychopathy. This article is quite technical but note that there is an issue re. it needing to be improved. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6817378/ You might want to look it over to see how some of these brutal people have psychopathic traits but don’t meet the full diagnosis. Look at meanness, callousness, boldness, disinhibition, and being cold-hearted, for example.

As part of a long thread of comments and replies I wrote:

One of the diagnoses applied to Trump and his Gestapo is anti-social personality, better known as psychopathy. This article is quite technical but note that there is an issue re. it needing to be improved. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6817378/ You might want to look it over to see how some of these brutal people have psychopathic traits but don’t meet the full diagnosis. Look at meanness, callousness, boldness, disinhibition, and being cold-hearted, for example.

Chris Perez, whose Substack is CP’s Words, replied to that:

I appreciate your historical example of what America is currently facing. We need a lot of that to understand why we should keep Trump from dumbing down the populace, especially our children. If you’ve seen the movie before, you know the ending.

My reply to him became the impetus for writing my Substack today.

I am 81 and grew up hearing about the Nazis and Holocaust from my parents. My father was in the Army and a corpsman serving on troop ships. My sister and I heard about World War II growing up. But younger generations learned about the horrors of the war from movies, books, and in school. The saying “never forget” was something people always heard. Nowadays people don’t hear it said very often and it should be a constant reminder. Now we approach another “No Kings” day of demonstrations. Nobody is alive who remembers when we had a king. Perhaps these protests should be named “No Hitler” demonstrations. I wonder if it was considered and rejected as being too hyperbolic. Considering the brutality shown by Trump’s Gestapo between the first “No King”s and the coming one, I don’t think it is.

The signs could look like the one below which I based on this “No Fascism” royalty free sign from Vector Stock.

I ordered two of these signs for $45 to arrive before the No Kings protest which we will be going to. It was easy to uload the image. I used Custom Yard Signs, Cheap Lawn Signs & Real Estate Signs | 55% OFF 

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The country is a Beyond Bizzaro World, but thankfully Nobel Committee shows that the world itself is hasn't succumbed to this insanity. MAGA goes mad and Trump might have considered trading his left testicle for the prize.

 The fact that Reuters wrote the headline “Venezuela’s opposition leader Machado wins Nobel Peace Prize, White House critical” for their article is nauseating. Why? Here’s the part that is appalling and unprecedented:

HuffPost had several stories about this:

Story one.

Story two.

Story three.

Machado, in stark contrast to Trump’s spokespeople, praised Trump and even dedicated it in part to him (my highlight):

Clicking on each tweet above will take you to X where you can read the replies.

These tweets show that Machado is cognizant of Trump’s desire, his near clincial obsession, with winning the coveted prize and her own awareness as a politician that praising him as effusively as possible is in the best interest of her country. She knows that Trump would love to be as entrenched in hios own dictatorship as Maduro is.

I doubt any country ever issued a protest against someone winning a Nobel Peace Prize because their leader didn’t win?

The Nobel Peace Prize wasn’t awarded to Donald Trump and he’s pissed off. To say he lusted after this is an understatement. He might have considered trading his left testicle for the prize. As a man with monorchism he might not even miss it.

As for the MAGA reaction, we are seeing articles like this from RawStory:

Machado won the prize earned it because she fought against Nicolás Maduro. 

“(Maudro) is widely regarded as a dictator due to his authoritarian rule, electoral fraud, and severe human rights abuses in Venezuela. His government has faced significant international condemnation and accusations of undermining democracy since he took office in 2013. From AI generated description.

Bizarro World, indeed. Trump can fairly be described as as a dictator due to his authoritarian rule, electoral fraud, and severe human rights abuses in the United States, and also around the world due to his cuts to life saving aid.

(Scroll down to read the Nobel press release)

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Below is the English Press Release in it’s entirety. I suggest reading it and considering how it could be written if it was about why it was awarded to Donald Trump.

Press release

Announcement, Nobel Peace Prize 2025

10 October 2025

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 goes to a brave and committed champion of peace – to a woman who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.

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The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 to Maria Corina Machado.

She is receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.

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As the leader of the democracy movement in Venezuela, Maria Corina Machado is one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times.

Ms Machado has been a key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided – an opposition that found common ground in the demand for free elections and representative government. This is precisely what lies at the heart of democracy: our shared willingness to defend the principles of popular rule, even though we disagree. At a time when democracy is under threat, it is more important than ever to defend this common ground.

Venezuela has evolved from a relatively democratic and prosperous country to a brutal, authoritarian state that is now suffering a humanitarian and economic crisis. Most Venezuelans live in deep poverty, even as the few at the top enrich themselves. The violent machinery of the state is directed against the country’s own citizens. Nearly 8 million people have left the country. The opposition has been systematically suppressed by means of election rigging, legal prosecution and imprisonment.

Venezuela’s authoritarian regime makes political work extremely difficult. As a founder of Súmate, an organisation devoted to democratic development, Ms Machado stood up for free and fair elections more than 20 years ago. As she said: “It was a choice of ballots over bullets.” In political office and in her service to organisations since then, Ms Machado has spoken out for judicial independence, human rights and popular representation. She has spent years working for the freedom of the Venezuelan people.

Ahead of the election of 2024, Ms Machado was the opposition’s presidential candidate, but the regime blocked her candidacy. She then backed the representative of a different party, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, in the election. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers mobilised across political divides. They were trained as election observers to ensure a transparent and fair election. Despite the risk of harassment, arrest and torture, citizens across the country held watch over the polling stations. They made sure the final tallies were documented before the regime could destroy ballots and lie about the outcome.

The efforts of the collective opposition, both before and during the election, were innovative and brave, peaceful and democratic. The opposition received international support when its leaders publicised the vote counts that had been collected from the country’s election districts, showing that the opposition had won by a clear margin. But the regime refused to accept the election result, and clung to power.

Democracy is a precondition for lasting peace. However, we live in a world where democracy is in retreat, where more and more authoritarian regimes are challenging norms and resorting to violence. The Venezuelan regime’s rigid hold on power and its repression of the population are not unique in the world. We see the same trends globally: rule of law abused by those in control, free media silenced, critics imprisoned, and societies pushed towards authoritarian rule and militarisation. In 2024, more elections were held than ever before, but fewer and fewer are free and fair.

In its long history, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has honoured brave women and men who have stood up to repression, who have carried the hope of freedom in prison cells, on the streets and in public squares, and who have shown by their actions that peaceful resistance can change the world. In the past year, Ms Machado has been forced to live in hiding. Despite serious threats against her life she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions of people.

When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist. Democracy depends on people who refuse to stay silent, who dare to step forward despite grave risk, and who remind us that freedom must never be taken for granted, but must always be defended – with words, with courage and with determination.

Maria Corina Machado meets all three criteria stated in Alfred Nobel’s will for the selection of a Peace Prize laureate. She has brought her country’s opposition together. She has never wavered in resisting the militarisation of Venezuelan society. She has been steadfast in her support for a peaceful transition to democracy.

Maria Corina Machado has shown that the tools of democracy are also the tools of peace. She embodies the hope of a different future, one where the fundamental rights of citizens are protected, and their voices are heard. In this future, people will finally be free to live in peace.