Tag: nazi
'Iowa Nice'? Hawkeye Republicans Love Trump's Nazi Rhetoric (VIDEO)

'Iowa Nice'? Hawkeye Republicans Love Trump's Nazi Rhetoric (VIDEO)

A new poll from The Des Moines Register and NBC News shows that Trump’s use of phrases lifted straight from the writings of Adolf Hitler isn’t hurting him with Republican caucusgoers. Instead, a plurality of those Iowans say that Trump calling his opponents “vermin” and saying that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of America makes them more likely to give him their vote.

In the poll results, 42 percent of likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers reported that Trump’s claim that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” makes them more likely to support him. Another 29 percent said the statement didn’t make a difference to them, leaving only 28 percent saying that they were less inclined to vote for Trump after he repeated terminology Hitler used to defend antisemitic policies.

Trump did even better with his statement about “the radical left thugs that live like vermin” in the United States and how they need to be “rooted out.” That bit of Nazi rhetoric drew a 43 percent favorable response from Iowa Republicans. The statement made no difference for 32 percent. Only 23 percent —less than a quarter of prospective caucusgoers—said calling fellow Americans vermin who needed to be rooted out made them less inclined to support Trump.

It seems as if the phrase “Iowa nice” needs to be changed to include a different, more Teutonic word beginning with N. Because these guys can’t wait to get more of these hate-filled rants. And Trump can’t wait to fill that need.

Republicans across the nation are likely to find more of the savory Nazi hate in the coming days. According to Rolling Stone, Trump has already declared that his previous statements were “too nice.” He has reportedly vowed to increase the level of extremist, anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Trump is more than happy for his Hitlerisms to be caught on tape. “He wants the media to choke on his words,” said one source. In particular, Trump reportedly intends to keep talking about immigrants “poisoning the blood of the nation and destroying and killing the country” because he believes it’s a “great line.” Since originally being called out for using the phrase in a speech in New Hampshire, Trump has doubled down by repeating and expanding on it at a rally in Iowa.

In the most recent speech where he used the line about “poisoning the blood,” Trump claimed he hasn’t read Hitler’s Mein Kampf. However, in a 1990 interview, Ivana Trump said that her then-husband kept a copy of Hitler's collected speeches, titled My New Order, in a bedside cabinet. Trump claimed that the book had been given to him by a Jewish friend. It wasn’t. It was given to him by someone who thought Trump “would find it interesting.” They were right. Trump may be telling the truth about not reading “Mein Kampf.” That doesn’t mean he hasn’t studied Hitler’s propaganda.

The Nazi-favorable poll results in Iowa certainly make it seem like Democrats had the right idea when they bumped this 88 percent white state from its perennial first-in-the-nation slot on the primary calendar. However, it’s not as if Republicans elsewhere are hurrying to separate themselves from Trump. In fact, national Republicans have already made it clear that they’re not about to get in the way as Trump practices his goose step.

See? It’s just language. Sticks and stones, people. It’s not as if murderous rhetoric has led to genocidal rampages over and over. It’s just language.

And that appears to be their final solution.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Tuberville: Trump's Nazi Rhetoric Should Have Been 'Tougher'

Tuberville: Trump's Nazi Rhetoric Should Have Been 'Tougher'

Former President Donald Trump's remarks about immigrants "poisoning the blood of our country" have been met with near-universal condemnation from Senate Republicans. However, at least one member of the caucus thinks Trump didn't go far enough.

During a campaign speech in New Hampshire, Trump made the remarks specifically about undocumented immigrants from South America, Africa and Asia and promised to ramp up deportations if elected to a second term. President Joe Biden's reelection campaign compared Trump to Adolf Hitler in a statement following Trump's speech. But Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) said Tuesday he was "mad" that the former president wasn't more forceful in his description of immigrants fleeing to the US.

"I asked Tommy Tuberville what he thought about Trump saying immigrants are poisoning the blood of the country and he told me 'i’m mad he wasn’t tougher than that because if you’re seeing what happens at the border,'" tweeted reporter Eric Michael Garcia of The Independent. "He adds 'we’re being overrun.'"

Tuberville is so far alone among Senate Republicans in regard to Trump's latest remarks about immigrants. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told The Hill that the former president's rhetoric was "unhelpful." Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) said she "can't explain" Trump's comments, adding that "we're all children of immigrants."

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) went further, calling the ex-president's remarks "deplorable." She added his comments "have no place particularly from a former president." And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) implied that Trump is a hypocrite, saying "it strikes me that didn’t bother him when he appointed Elaine Chao Secretary of Transportation," referring to his wife, who is a Chinese-American immigrant.

The former president's comments about immigrants are almost a verbatim quote from Hitler's manifesto, Mein Kampf. On Monday night, CNN's Kaitlan Collins pointed out that in the book, the architect of the Holocaust wrote that Jewish population "poisons the blood of others."

"Trump has used that line before and other phrases like it that echo Nazi rhetoric," Collins said. "But it should be noted that as you can see there, he is reading off a teleprompter, meaning that he knew exactly what he wanted to say."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Justice Thomas' Billionaire Pal Displays Trove Of Nazi Memorabilia

Justice Thomas' Billionaire Pal Displays Trove Of Nazi Memorabilia

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' billionaire GOP donor, Harlan Crow, indulges in a "startling and strange" hobby.

Per Washingtonian, the megadonor and longtime friend of Thomas spends his time adding to a rare collection, which includes "Hitler artifacts—two of his paintings of European cityscapes, a signed copy of Mein Kampf, and assorted Nazi memorabilia—plus a garden full of statues of the 20th century's worst despots."

This comes after ProPublica reported earlier this week, the SCOTUS justice, "for more than two decades, has accepted luxury trips virtually every year from the Dallas businessman without disclosing them."

A source who requested anonymity told the magazine, "I still can't get over the collection of Nazi memorabilia. It would have been helpful to have someone explain the significance of all the items. Without that context, you sort of just gasp when you walk into the room."

The source added there were paintings "done by George W. Bush next to a Norman Rockwell next to one by Hitler."

Washingtonian reports:

Crow, the billionaire heir to a real estate fortune, has said that he’s filled his property with these mementoes because he hates communism and fascism. Nonetheless, his collections caused an uproar back in 2015 when Marco Rubio attended a fundraiser at Crow’s house on the eve of Yom Kippur. Rubio’s critics thought the timing was inappropriate given, you know, the Hitler stuff.

Additionally, a Dallas Morning News reporter who visited Crow's home in 2014, told Washingtonian the megadonor was "visibly uncomfortable with questions about his dictator statues and Hitler memorabilia, preferring to discuss his other historical collections: documents signed by the likes of Christopher Columbus and George Washington; paintings by Renoir and Monet; statues of two of Crow’s heroes, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher."

The longtime conservative justice responded to ProPublica's report earlier this week, and "acknowledged joining the GOP megadonor and his wife on 'a number of' family trips over the past two decades but insisted that he was told such hospitality 'from close personal friends, who did not have business before the court, was not reportable.'"

Furthermore, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called for "articles of impeachment against Thomas 'to be introduced' in response to ProPublica's revelations."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Musk's Sudden Ban Of Kanye For Anti-Semitism Enrages Right-Wing Pundits

Musk's Sudden Ban Of Kanye For Anti-Semitism Enrages Right-Wing Pundits

Rapper Ye’s December 2 ban from Twitter has become almost an act of martyrdom for some right-wing figures who have openly stated that antisemitic rants should be allowed on Musk’s free speech platform.

In the lead-up to his acquisition of Twitter, Musk declared himself a “free speech absolutist,” and soon began offering a “general amnesty” to previously banned accounts once he became the Chief Twit. The move was celebrated by right-wing figures who saw his takeover as a chance to reclaim a presence on the platform.

Despite Musk’s promises to ensure Twitter doesn’t become a “free-for-all hellscape,” harassment, hate speech, and conspiracy theories have flourished on the platform since he took charge. Accounts of a number of previously banned far-right and fringe actors have been restored, while some progressive and anti-fascist users have been hit with seemingly random and unsubstantiated bans.

Prior to Musk’s acquisition, Ye’s account had been temporarily restricted after an antisemitic tweet. His profile and tweets remained visible, but he was unable to create new posts. The post has since been deleted and Ye started tweeting again on November 20. (Musk claimed that Twitter made the decision to restore Ye’s account prior to his takeover.)

Ye’s return to Twitter commenced with his now-infamous “Shalom” tweet, and it was quickly followed by his two separate interviews packed with antisemitic tirades, including professing his admiration for Adolf Hitler. It was not until Ye tweeted a picture of a swastika interlaced with a Star of David that Musk banned his account on the grounds that the post promoted violence.

After Ye’s ban, many right-wing outlets were quick to cry foul on Musk for supposedly walking back his promises for a free speech platform. Some even took their criticism a step further and excused Ye’s post, incorrectly suggesting that his First Amendment right to free speech prevents Musk from banning him — as the new Twitter CEO has vocally opposed “censorship that goes far beyond the law” — or saying that the comments did not rise to the level of inciting violence. Fringe social media users similarly berated Musk’s decision, with some posts echoing the same antisemitism that got Ye banned. Nick Fuentes, a known white supremacist who has been working closely with Ye, lambasted Musk for bowing to “high pressure activist groups (Jewish)” and making Twitter a “controlled platform.”

While many of those critical of Ye’s ban have been quick to note that antisemitism and other forms of hate are protected free speech, countless experts and analysts have pointed to the very real and harmful effects of unchecked hate speech. High-profile instances of antisemitic speech like Ye’s have been accompanied by banner drops, instances of vandalism, and other acts that serve only to further hatred against Jewish people.

  • On the December 2 edition of The Daily Wire’s The Ben Shapiro Show, Ben Shapiro sharply denounced Ye’s antisemitism, but still asked: “Is what Ye is doing tantamount to incitement? I don’t think so because I have a very strict legal standard for incitement. So do I think Ye actually should be banned from Twitter? I think the answer is no. I don’t think that Ye should be banned from Twitter. … I actually don’t think that Musk should have done it.”
  • Infowars published an article bemoaning that “Musk said last week he was going to launch a ‘general amnesty’ this week and start unbanning people en masse if they hadn’t ‘broken the law or engaged in egregious spam’ but instead he has banned Ye over complete bulls**t.”
  • A December 2 article on Breitbart asserted that Ye’s suspension from Twitter demonstrates that Musk’s calls for “free speech absolutism” on the platform is “a fantasy.”
  • Tayler Hansen, an independent conservative journalist known for covering the January 6 Capitol insurrection, pushed back against Musk’s decision on Twitter, saying, “As a free speech absolutist this permanent ban doesn’t feel right— even if you vehemently disagree with what @kanyewest was saying today, he did not break the law. What is the official reason for Ye’s perma-ban?”
  • Conservative media pundit and virulent racist Ann Coulter also lambasted Musk for suspending Ye, arguing, “You believe in free speech or you don't, @elonmusk. Even the ACLU defended a Nazi parade on free speech grounds. This isn't even a parade. It's just WORDS.”
  • Newsmax producer Justine Brooke Murray defended Ye’s right to post anything on Twitter: “You can’t pick and choose when to support free speech. Let antisemites like Kanye publicly humiliate themselves. Remember Skokie, Illinois?”
  • Timcast Editor-in-Chief Cassandra McDonald tweeted, “Instead of saying I support free speech I’m just going to start saying I support the freedom to offend. It shouldn’t need to be said, but it does.”
  • Discussing Ye’s suspension on Fox News’ The Five, co-host Jeanine Pirro claimed, “America was founded on the concept of free speech. Hate speech is protected. … You’re free to say whatever you want.”
  • Actor Kevin Sorbo tweeted, “I may not agree with what Ye said yesterday. But he has the right to say it. That’s how free speech works.”
  • Podcast host Joe Walsh tweeted, “As an American, I will defend any American’s right to be an anti-Semite, or a bigot, or a racist. Because I will always defend free speech. But as a human, I will fight against all anti-Semitism, bigotry, and racism. Because I will always fight against evil.”
  • On Newsmax, conservative contributor Erin Elmore said, “The speech we should protect is the speech that offends us the most, and we do live in the United States of America and as conservatives, we’ve often said, ‘We're being censored, we're being silenced.’ Nobody should be censored or silenced.” Daily Caller reporter Brianna Lyman added, “It's very concerning for me to hear this, but nonetheless, Kanye has the right to say this. Now with Twitter specifically though, the biggest question is what is the official reason that Musk banned him. If it's because of what he said on Infowars, then Musk does not believe in free speech like he claims he does.”
  • Cartoonist Scott Adams tweeted, “If the limit to free speech is ‘inciting violence,’ free speech is an illusion. If Elon Musk gets to decide how much you incited violence with your free speech, are you free? Not even close. It doesn't matter who decides. It isn't a practical standard in a woke world.”

  • Conservative social media influencers Hodgetwins wrote, “Kanye said some crazy shit. Nobody agrees with him saying he supports Hitler and Nazi’s, but he shouldn’t of been banned. No laws broken, he didn’t incite violence. We can disagree with what people say but that doesn’t mean they should be permanently banned.”
Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.