As I told you, two years ago . . .

As I told you, two years ago . . .

. . . Here are excerpts from two posts (You can click the links to see the full flavor of what was written.)

They were not the only posts on the subject, but they are a representative sample.

September 15, 2016: What kind of President will Donald Trump be? 

Trump singled out as the one person he admires, Vladimir Putin, the dictator of Russia.

In true dictatorial style, Trump wishes to build an “iron curtain,” a “beautiful” Berlin wall, around America.

Like dictators Stalin and Hitler, Trump wishes to rid his nation of those he considers undesirable — Muslims, Mexicans, other Latinos, gays.

Like all dictators, Trump is enamored with himself. He plasters his name on everything — buildings, airplanes, businesses. He tries hard to create a “cult of his personality” as did Stalin, Mao, and the Perons.

The Trump Foundation even paid $20,000 of charity money, for a portrait of Trump.

Like all dictators, Trump is a thin-skinned egomaniac. Say anything negative about Trump, and you will be subject to a flurry of insulting, even threatening Emails. As President, he will do more than threaten.

Similarly, say something complimentary, and he will reciprocate. He already has said that because Putin speaks well of him, he speaks well of Putin.

Like most dictators, Trump’s primary appeal is to the less educated, the people who are more susceptible to lies, bluster, and fraud — the people who are more likely to find appeal in bigotry.

And like all dictators, Trump wishes to control the media. Why? Because once the media are under control, the people know only what the dictator wants them to know.
This is why Putin has that “80% approval rating” Trump admires. Kim Jong Un probably has 100% approval.

Dictators love to demonstrate physical invincibility. Putin, for instance, removes his shirt while riding horseback, to demonstrate his virility. And then there was Mao, swimming in the Yangze.

Like dictators Mao and Putin, Trump is in “perfect health.” In fact, he would be “the healthiest individual ever to the presidency.” We know this, because his doctor, Harold Bornstein jotted a quick note, dictated by Trump, telling us so.

Bottom line: Donald Trump has told us again and again, in many different ways, that he will be a dictator if we elect him.

Should we fail to listen with our own ears and fail to see with our own eyes, what Trump has made obvious, we and our children will join in the misery seen by the people of Russia, China, Argentina, Germany, Italy, Cuba, and other dictatorships.

Yes, friends, it can happen here. And when it does, we will have only ourselves to blame.

And then, two weeks later, came this post (excerpts):

Friday, September 30, 2016: Astounding similarities: Hitler in America. It’s happening now.

Of whom does the following remind you?

A host of earlier biographers have advanced theories about Hitler’s rise, and the dynamic between the man and his times.

Some have focused on the social and political conditions in post-World War I Germany, which Hitler expertly exploited — a yearning for a return to German greatness; unemployment and economic distress; and longstanding ethnic prejudices and fears of “foreignization.”

“Make America great again,” anti-Muslim, build a wall.

Hitler as a politician who rose to power through demagoguery, showmanship and nativist appeals to the masses.

Hitler was often described as an egomaniac who “only loved himself” — a narcissist with a taste for self-dramatization and what Mr. Ullrich calls a “characteristic fondness for superlatives.” 

Do demagoguery, showmanship and nativist appeals sound familiar? And which egomaniacal politician describes everything about himself as “incredible.”

A former finance minister wrote that Hitler “was so thoroughly untruthful that he could no longer recognize the difference between lies and truth” and editors of one edition of “Mein Kampf” described it as a “swamp of lies, distortions, innuendoes, half-truths and real facts.”

Which politician not only lies the most of any in recent memory but repeatedly denies the incontrovertible evidence of lies?

Hitler was an effective orator and actor, adept at assuming various masks and feeding off the energy of his audiences. Although he concealed his anti-Semitism beneath a “mask of moderation” when trying to win the support of the socially liberal middle classes, he specialized in big, theatrical rallies.

Which politician is a professional TV actor? Who boasts about huge rallies with thousands of cheering people? Which politician breeds hatred of minorities?

He peppered his speeches with coarse phrases and put-downs of hecklers. Even as he fomented chaos by playing to crowds’ fears and resentments, he offered himself as the visionary leader who could restore law and order.

Which politician yells “Get ’em outa here” when heckled? Which politician promises to enforce “law and order”?

Hitler increasingly presented himself in messianic terms, promising “to lead Germany to a new era of national greatness,” though he was typically vague about his actual plans.

He often harked back to a golden age for the country, the better “to paint the present day in hues that were all the darker. Everywhere you looked now, there was only decline and decay.”

Which politician repeatedly tells us we are losing to the Chinese, losing to the Mexicans, losing to the terrorists — losing, losing, losing — but is vague about plans (sometimes claiming they are “secret.”?)

Because the understanding of the masses “is feeble,” Hitler said, effective propaganda needed to be boiled down to a few slogans that should be “persistently repeated until the very last individual has come to grasp the idea that has been put forward.”

Seen any political slogans printed on hats and repeated constantly in speeches, to remind the “feeble” masses?

Hitler’s rise was not inevitable. There were numerous points at which his ascent might have been derailed.

(But) in addition to economic woes and unemployment, there was an “erosion of the political center” and a growing resentment of the elites.

(There was) the belief of Hitler supporters that the country needed “a man of iron” who could shake things up. “Why not give the National Socialists a chance?” a prominent banker said of the Nazis. “They seem pretty gutsy to me.”

Does resentment of elites (aka “the establishment”) ring a bell? What about the need for change, to “shake things up”?

(Hitler’s) conservative coalition partners believed either that he was not serious or that they could exert a moderating influence on him.

Know of any politicians whose own party continues to try to moderate them? Was there speculation about any politicians not really being serious about running for President?

Hitler, it became obvious, could not be tamed.

The independent press was banned or suppressed and books deemed “un-German” were burned.

Think. Which American politician wants to sue the press for unflattering articles?

Germans believed, “It cannot happen here.”  But, as the author asks . . .

What persuaded millions of ordinary Germans to embrace Hitler and his doctrine of hatred?

How did this “most unlikely pretender to high state office” achieve absolute power in a once democratic country and set it on a course of monstrous horror?

It happened in Germany. Actually, it has happened in many countries. People fundamentally are the same, everywhere, and everywhere they can be led like sheep to the slaughter by Hitlerian leaders.

Yes, it can happen here. It, in fact, is happening here, right in front of our noses. Don’t believe, even for one second, that we are immune, and that dictators only happen in other countries. Those “other countries” thought the same thing.

The Republicans won’t stop Trump’s plan to be our dictator. They are too frightened, just as the good Germans were too frightened to stop Hitler.

It remains for you independents and Democrats to end this horrifying drift toward totalitarianism.

America can be saved. Your children and grandchildren can live in a free America.

But you must speak now to your Representative and Senators. And you must vote in November.

You simply must.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell