Roundup
(1) Mysteriously, Hunter Biden’s paintings have fallen out of favor. Can’t imagine why.
(2) The cries of “Trump=Hitler” are a “grotesque banalization of Hitler and Hitlerism”:
When Trump held a rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on October 27, a little over a week before the election, many Democrats, and the increasingly hysterical talking heads on CNN and MSNBC, compared that rally to a meeting of the pro-Nazi German-American Bund in that same venue in 1939. Completely disregarding the impressively multiracial character of the MAGA supporters gathered to hear Trump, as well as the large contingent of Orthodox and Hassidic Jews also in attendance, the media incessantly identified Trump with Hitler and “fascism.” Not only was the deep-seated evil that was National Socialism trivialized beyond recognition, and not only was fascism crudely (and absurdly) identified with any opposition to a hard Left agenda, but crucial distinctions between fascism, National Socialism, and democratic conservatism were elided in a deeply misleading manner.
This drumbeat continues to this day. The Trump/fascism/Nazism elision is commonplace in leftist discourse.
I’m so old I can remember “Bushitler”. I also think that most Americans under fifty know very little about the historical person known as Hitler.
(3) Trump has a message for Hamas:
“‘Shalom Hamas’ means Hello and Goodbye – You can choose,” Trump writes on Truth Social.
“Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you,” he says.
“Only sick and twisted people keep bodies, and you are sick and twisted!”
“I am sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job, not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say,” he warns.
“I have just met with your former hostages whose lives you have destroyed.”
“This is your last warning! For the leadership, now is the time to leave Gaza, while you still have a chance,” Trump says.
“Also, to the People of Gaza: A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD! Make a SMART decision. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW, OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY LATER.”
I don’t think this will have any deterrent effect on Hamas. And I believe his threat is that the war will resume, with more powerful weaponry that Biden had denied Israel.
(4) Meanwhile, Trump’s people are talking with Hamas:
After the White House confirms that the Trump administration has been holding direct talks with Hamas, Israel says that it has let its feelings be known to Washington about the contacts but provides no further details.
“In our contacts with the US,” says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, “Israel expressed its stance on direct talks with Hamas.”
The White House said earlier this evening that Israel was consulted on the talks.
Direct talks with terrorist entities are unusual.
(5) Trump has paused some tariffs on Mexico and Canada for a month:
President Donald Trump on Thursday signed executive actions that delay for nearly one mo?nth tariffs on all products from Mexico and Canada that are covered by the USMCA free trade treaty, a significant walkback of the administration’s signature economic plan that has rattled markets, businesses and consumers.
The executive actions follow a discussion Trump held Thursday with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and negotiations between Canadian and Trump administration officials.
Are Mexico and Canada getting whiplash, metaphorically speaking?
Neo, If you haven’t already, check out Justine Bateman on X. She has a critique of the Oscar fashions that is not to be missed.
Wow! That Trump/Hitler-guy sure is thinking outside the Nazi box!
I listen to public radio on my daily commute. You’re welcome. Last night, in a section called “The Daily,” the host interviewed a female journalist who was recently allowed to enter a Sinaloa fentanyl factory and observe the process. Near the end, the host asked the journalist about the effect of Trump’s tariffs on the drug gangs and on Mexico. You will be surprised. I was. And since it comes from National Woke Radio, I can use it in arguments with my woke daughters.
@ CapnRusty – the NYT post you linked is paywalled. Can you give us a summary?
@ Neo (4) “Direct talks with terrorist entities are unusual.”
That may be why Hamas can keep dodging and breaking their commitments: they haven’t been dealing with the principals, and (3) Trump just made himself a principal.
#1.
Now’s the time to stock up!
(And help a poor genius while yer at it…)
I’m so old that I can remember when Nixon was Hitler.
When I was in college, I took courses in German with a woman from Eastern Europe who was bilingual in both German and Czech. She and her husband had escaped through the Iron Curtain in the 1950s. One of the students told her that Nixon (the president at the time) was just like Hitler. She exploded: “He is NOTHING like Hitler. You have no conception of what Hitler was like!” She had done forced labor under the Hitler regime. My fellow student, if I remember correctly, refused to admit that Nixon was not Hitler, thus showing a kinship with Democrats to this day.
However, I was permanently cured of the “This Republican is Hitler” delusion.
Here’s some excellent news, though it seems for some reason to have flown under the radar.
Nonetheless….
“…[L]ibel case filed by celebrity scientist Michael Mann is lowered to $5,000”—
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/media-silent-award-defamation-case-filed-celebrity-scientist-michael-mann
#5
Yesterday, several of the left friends posted eyerolls on Trump once again pausing the Canada/Mexico tariffs. I suggested that implies the parties are once again talking to each other and that’s a good thing. But, no, Trump is Putin and is going to screw over those countries. As Trump said in his speech, nothing he ever does will ever get a modicum of acknowledgement, not only from the D congressional critters but also from run-of-the-mill D voters.
The dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe.
–Tom Wolfe, “Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine” (1976)
People often say that you should separate an actor’s actual person, beliefs, and ideas, from the characters they portray–their little shape shifting games of “lets pretend.”
I’m seeing trailers for all sorts of upcoming movies and TV series but, after having seen various supposed entertainment industry “stars” reveal their core beliefs, applaud, stand up, and promote the causes and ideas they do, I do not want to give them any attention or income by watching their various “entertainments.”
AesopFan: Does this work?
“…most Americans under fifty know very little about the historical person known as Hitler.”
They also know nothing about the Nazi movement, since they’ve been told since birth it is a “far-right” phenomenon. NSDAP stands for “National SOCIALIST German WORKER’S Party…which was a left-wing collectivist pack of twits. The “socialist” and “worker’s party” doesn’t sound terribly right-wing. The only reason it became know as right-wing was because they were fighting the German Communists, who simply regarded them as not FAR ENOUGH to the left.
@ CapnRusty – Thanks, I was able to listen to the audio and read the transcript.
Very interesting report on the inside of a fentanyl “kitchen” — and the reporter, initially skeptical about Trump’s tariff and other threats to Mexico, admits they actually worked — for now, in one area (Sinaloa).
We’ll see if Mexico’s president can keep up the pressure, but I fear there are too many high-level people profiting off of it to shut it down completely. Maybe they are just going after the low-hanging cooks so they can send Trump five bullet points on what they did this week.