What does JD Vance really believe?
Sidney Blumenthal
That JD Vance should be vice president.
We’re less than a month away from a national election. He’s not even supposed to believe anything else at this point.
The rest of it – as per usual with Blumenthal – is very serious thinking phone in from the DNC.
This one was pretty good, but for sheer, beady-eyed, this-is-why-we-don’t-marry-our-cousins ethnic paranoia, it’s hard to beat Sid’s recent “Donald Trump’s Hitlerian logic is no mistake”
After several paragraphs of kvetching and oy-vehing:
Ernst Christ, of the Christ branch of the family, a first cousin once removed of Donald Trump, the son of his great-uncle Johannes Christ, born in Kallstadt, was a Nazi.
And if that isn’t Hitlery enough,
Two of these relatives of Donald Trump are now known to have fought and died for Hitler. It appears that they were involved in the early stage of the Holocaust. (A certified professional genealogist distinguished in the field discovered these Trump Nazi soldiers through their research, but prefers to remain anonymous to avoid retribution.)
It’s totally true you guys but we won’t show you any evidence because we’re terrified of criticising DRUMPF, would you believe?
If 6 degrees of separation is to be believed, we’re all related to Nazis. And Stalin. And Jesus Christ. And Mother Theresa. And Muhammed. And Einstein. And Leonardo. And Karl Marx. And slaves. And Donald Trump. And his shaggable missus.
How many degrees of separation is a first cousin once removed?
Norman – I’m not related to any Nazis.
But wait, Sid “Everybody I Don’t Like Is Racist” Blumenthal has a history of racism:
During the 2008 presidential primaries, Blumenthal, then informally working for Hillary Clinton, promulgated rumors and encouraged news organizations to investigate conspiracy theories that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, not the United States, and thus was not constitutionally eligible to serve as president per the natural-born-citizen clause. This conspiracy theory later became more widely known as birtherism.
I’ve never spread racist conspiracy theories about Barack Obama’s birthplace either, maybe that’s why I don’t have a Guardian column.
NB there’s more!
“In 1995, Mr. Blumenthal told reporters that Alma Powell, Colin Powell’s wife, suffered from clinical depression and was thus unfit to be a first lady. At the time, there were rumors that Colin Powell would run in the Republican presidential primaries, a prospect that terrified the Clinton re-election campaign,” The New York Observer reported.[36]
Sidney Blumenthal should receive the title of Grand Wizard for all the work he’s done to prevent African Americans reaching the White House.
@Steve I would think there’s a large proportion of Yanks have Nazi’s in their family tree. Germans made up a significant proportion of US immigrants. Pennsylvanian Dutch are of German descent, aren’t they? And immigrants will have family back in the old country. What was total Nazi Party membership?
Seems a strange box for a Dem to choose to open. They want Republicans digging around in the family histories of leading Dems? No telling what prominent skeletons could pop out of cupboards.
Did any of Trump’s distant relatives ever rub shoulders with Soros? It’s funny how some alleged Nazis are more worthy of journalistic investigation than others.
(Just asking that probably means I’m an anti-Semite, which considering I’m unquestionably Semitic is a bit of a puzzler).
John – Mr Blumenthal is also at pains to tell us that there’s no “great replacement”, that’s just your lying, racist eyes that are fooling you.
Have you ever seen a stripper in Amsterdam tie a cherry stem with her tongue?
They’ve got nothing on Sid.
BiS – Yarp, there’s loads of Germanics in the USA. Probably most of them had a second cousin Horst or something. It doesn’t really matter if Repubs found that Kamala had a distant relative in the SS tho, this kind of drive by smear only works on righties. It’s why Sidney Blumenthal can write stuff like:
When Trump says immigration, he means race. When he says crime, he means race. When he says communism, socialism, or Democrat, he means race. When he says America is declining, he means race. When he says “American First”, he means race. When he says blood, he means race. When he says poison, he means race.
When Sidney Blumenthal is himself a vile racist with a troubling history of spreading vicious lies about black people.
What was total Nazi Party membership?
Over 8 million in 1945, but rather fewer in 1946.
Most Germans emigrated to the USA after the failed 1848 revolutions and left because they tended to be liberal and republican. Whilst they may well have had distant cousins who went down the Nazi path there was little communication between the two groups from what I understand.
Up until WW1 the German population in the US was quite popular because they tended be highly educated in what we now call STEM. German was a very popular subject in schools and IIRC something like 20% of educated Americans took it at a higher level. After WW1 that all collapsed, with German falling out of favour in schools.
Whilst individuals might have had some sympathy with the Nazis there’s no evidence of any systematic links between the population and Nazi Germany.
“born in Kenya, not the United States, and thus was not constitutionally eligible to serve as president per the natural-born-citizen clause” is a non sequitur. Maybe Blumenthal was intelligent enough to know he was being stupid? Who knows?
Obama could have been born on the moon and it would still have been possible for him to be a natural-born-citizen because his mother was indisputably a US citizen.
I once saw someone argue that his mother was not qualified – by age, or residence, or something – to have her child viewed as a natural born citizen. I have no idea whether that’s true but if so it must have been a matter of ordinary federal law not of the constitution.
Mind you I’d still like to know what it is on his birth certificate that Obama is so keen to hide.
PS – if you ever feel guilt or anxiety about the mistakes you’ve made in your life, remember that there were people in 1945 who thought it’d be a good idea to join the Nazi Party.
Idk if they were offering a free balloon or something.
What was total Nazi Party membership?
Over 8 million in 1945, but rather fewer in 1946
I spent some time in Germany in the 70s. I lot of people I knew would have been Nazi party members. It was pretty well meaningless. Like professing to be a churchgoing Christian in the US. There were a lot of things you couldn’t do unless you were a party member, so people joined the party.
BiND – Whilst individuals might have had some sympathy with the Nazis there’s no evidence of any systematic links between the population and Nazi Germany.
Naziism was completely incompatible with Americanism, in temperament, outlook, sense of humour, and everything else.
They were never going to support the German-speaking weirdos with the funny costumes and insane plans to murder Jews.
Naziism was completely incompatible with Americanism, in temperament, outlook, sense of humour, and everything else.
Hardly Steve. You’re looking at it from the perspective of now rather from the 20s & 30s. The concept of strong leadership of a united nation striving together was very popular in many countries at the time. Including the US. It isn’t particularly unpopular now. It’s the particular outcome that stigmatises Germany.
There were a lot of things you couldn’t do unless you were a party member, so people joined the party.
Many would say the same applies to Gazans and their support for Hamas although the cheering and general celebration as the bodies of dead Jews were paraded through the streets looked pretty genuine.
My grandmother who died last year aged 98 was in the League Of German Girls. Clearing out her possessions was an interesting endeavour let me tell you.
“A certified professional genealogist distinguished in the field discovered these Trump Nazi soldiers through their research”
So it seems fairly unlikely that The Donald had any knowledge of them either. Unless he’s trying to make out that political views are hereditary. Which, frankly, sounds kinda Nazi to me.
“When Trump says immigration, he means race. When he says crime, he means race. When he says communism, socialism, or Democrat, he means race. When he says America is declining, he means race. When he says “American First”, he means race. When he says blood, he means race. When he says poison, he means race.”
Former Lefty Ana Kasparian:
It’s the Left, and only the Left, who keep hearing “race” in all these things.
(I’d be willing to bet that the journey of a lot ex-Leftists starts in much the same way: being subjected to the same treatment as the rest of us over some innocuous statement or other and beginning to wonder whether maybe we’re not the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, hate-everything monsters they thought we were.)
BiS – Narp, that’s bollocks. There was a lot more (and wrong) with the funny windmill Germans than “strong leader”.
German national socialism had very little appeal to anybody outside Germany. Unlike Communism.
@Sam Duncan
It’s the Left, and only the Left, who keep hearing “race” in all these things.
I might be wrong but I think most of them, at the top anyway, know very well that it’s all bullshit. They’re sending messages to black voters, in the same way as anyone who expresses an interest in female beauty (such as I) is described as a misogynist – we don’t hate women, we fucking love them.
But it helps the divide and rule agenda.
“Naziism was completely incompatible with Americanism, in temperament, outlook, sense of humour, and everything else.”
Oh I don’t know: FDR was very much a figure of the thirties, having more in common with Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini than with classical liberals or conservatives.
DM – you could say that Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill Mussolini and Hitler had more in common with each other than they do any current Clown World politician, and you’d be right.
(National suicide and racial self abasement weren’t popular in the 30’s)
Irregardless, the Not Sees had crude and stupid propaganda that only really worked on Germans (autism). Anybody trying to organise a Nazi party in 1930’s Brooklyn or Boise was liable to be beaten up.
Hmm. Fascist ideas were certainly popular in 1930s US. Fr Coughlin was getting 30 million listeners.
Steve. You’re still trying to tar the Nazi party with late C20th feathers. Anti-Semitism was unremarkable in both Europe & the States in the 20s & 30s. It hasn’t even gone away now, has it? More like fashionable, these days. What else of Nazi policy wasn’t being pursued in other countries? State control of the means of production? Militarism? From the German side, the Maginot Line looks offensive, not defensive, if France was minded to do another military excursion into Germany. To its east it’s watching the USSR becoming an expansive military power
There’s always been plenty of wet (and some not so wet) individuals attracted to the idea of a ‘strong leader’ (ideally in a smart uniform) who can ‘get things done’. That applied in the 20s and 30s to enthusiasts for both fascism and communism in Britain and the US
BiS – You’re still trying to tar the Nazi party with late C20th feathers
Yarp. I reckon the Nazis were bad.
Anti-Semitism was unremarkable in both Europe & the States in the 20s & 30s. It hasn’t even gone away now, has it? More like fashionable, these days. What else of Nazi policy wasn’t being pursued in other countries? State control of the means of production? Militarism?
I’m not talking about antisemitism, fascism, government getting into bed with business, etc.
Not even talking about Fr Coughlin (tho well remembered, Tim, I’d forgotten all about him).
My simple proposition is this: Naziism had very little appeal outside of Germany, and almost none in the USA. Naziism was its own specific, specifically German type of crazy, and unlike Communism it failed to gain any significant support outside Germany.
Y’know, that’s sort of why they lost.
Even if nazism wasn’t being embraced elements of their beliefs were, UK saw anti-Semitic marches in the 1930’s , not much different to now come to think of it expect unlike the battle of cable street no one will stand up to the current protestors
@dearieme – “I’d still like to know what it is on his birth certificate that Obama is so keen to hide”
See for yourself – it has been published. Available here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_citizenship_conspiracy_theories
I think Steve is referring to Naziism’s mysticism, which is very specific to Germany (and somewhat to the Nordics) rather than its collectivist corporatism, forms of which were rampant worldwide in the 30s. And are again.
Oh, Charles, surely nobody believes that. A decent forgery is still a forgery.
I’m not talking about antisemitism, fascism, government getting into bed with business, etc.
Then you should be. That is the real thing to be learned from the period. That if you start down that road, that’s where you can end up. I don’t think the Germans were uniquely crazy. I think the potential could be there in any nation. But you need a certain set of circumstance to bring it about. With Germany, you have to look at why Germany mobilised for WW1, because it’s defeat & the manner of its defeat sew the seeds for the interwar years & WW2. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get place by another route.
Wolfgang Schivelbusch’s book ‘Three New Deals: Reflections on Roosevelt’s America, Mussolini’s Italy, and Hitler’s Germany, 1933-1939’ explores their “fundamental similarities.” Roosevelt was certainly an admirer of Mussolini.
@ Steve
Corporal Schickelgruber may well have believed that the German Army was betrayed by dark forces and there is no doubt that his claim was enthusiastically believed by many Germans who suffered in the aftermath of the Versailles treaty which provided a massive springboard for Nazism in Germany but that was NOT the only country with significant support – I read somewhere (can’t recall exactly where) that a larger %ge of Austrians than Germans were Nazi supporters.
I read somewhere (can’t recall exactly where) that a larger %ge of Austrians than Germans were Nazi supporters.
Probably still are…
Speaking of NAZIs. JD Vance compared Trump to a famous 1930’s German dictator.
If even his deputy does that what should everyone else think?