Hitler’s American inspiration

There have been a huge number of books devoted to Adolf Hitler and the rise of the Nazis, trying to understand what drove his thinking and how he was able to win the allegiance of the nation in his monstrous plans and almost succeed. In the April 30, 2018 issue of The New Yorker Alex Ross reviews a series of books and focuses on the American sources of inspiration that Hitler drew upon to justify his policies and to believe that the world would overlook his actions. In particular he felt that American racism, with its extermination of Native Americans, subjugation of the black population, and exclusion of non-white immigrants, was pursuing the same policies of trying to create racial purity that he sought to implement. Furthermore, he was impressed with American insouciance, the ability to practice utterly racist policies while acting like it was a deeply religious nation and a beacon of freedom and equality. He felt that he too could ride out any opprobrium by simply asserting that what he was doing was actually virtuous.
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You too can be an exercise champion

When the devices called Fitbits first came out, they were all over the place. One of them was handed to me and I wore one over a few days to see how much I walked on average. It turns out that my daily walk numbers were nowhere close to what was expected (10,000 steps?) and so I had two options: walk more or give up monitoring my number. I chose the latter and now don’t even know where my Fitbit is. My attitude to exercise is close to that of Pig in Pearls Before Swine.
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Telling the truth about politics and the media

Michelle Wolf’s scathing attack on the entire class of people in the political and media world at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner that showcases the incestuous relationships among them continues to produce ripple effects, with some speculating as to whether her performance spells the merciful end of this event. If it does, Wolf deserves our sincere gratitude.
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The magnificent Glenda Jackson

Younger generations may not have heard of Glenda Jackson, the fine British actress of stage and film who won two Academy Awards for best actress (Women in Love (1970) and A Touch of Class (1973)). She was always a fiery socialist and her outrage at what Margaret Thatcher was doing led her to give up her acting career and enter parliament as a Labour MP, serving from 1993 to 2015. After she left, she went back to the stage and this year, at the age of 81, she has been nominated for a Tony award for her role in Edward Albee’s play Three Tall Women.
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Preach, brother! But maybe at another time and elsewhere

A screening of the latest comic-book based superhero film (this seems to be an inexhaustible well from which film makers can draw) ended somewhat spectacularly at a theater in California.

Just after 10 p.m., police started receiving several calls about a man who started “preaching and making odd statements about God,” said Carl Baker, the spokesman for the Police Department. “People panicked and ran out of the theater.”

The man was apparently waving his arms in the air and jumped while shouting.

“As soon as the movie was over, this guy starts yelling, preaching and talking about repenting from our sins,” said Susie Arias of Highland, who was at the theater at 27481 San Bernardino Ave.

“At first, I thought it was a joke and some people even started yelling back at him, but then when he starts taking about guaranteeing our right to heaven and paying for our sins today, I think that’s when mass hysteria hit and some people started running out,” she said.
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The White House physician debacle

The debacle over Donald Trump’s nomination of White House physician Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson to become head of the Veteran’s Administration has shed some light on this obscure position. During the period after his nomination, various allegations emerged that said that Jackson was not only lax in the way he ran the office but also frequently drank on the job and created a hostile work environment. After withdrawing his name from consideration for the VA position, Jackson had said that he would revert to his former position but now it appears that he will not do that either, and another navy doctor Sean Conley has taken over.
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Michelle Wolf at the WHCD

The annual White House Correspondents Dinner is an event that should cease to exist. It represents the worst kind of schmoozing between journalists, the people they cover, and celebrities and only serves to cement their sense of insider solidarity against all of us yahoos on the outside. One of the good things that Donald Trump has done is boycott the event since he became president. It is true that he likely did it because he is thin-skinned and could not take the inevitable jokes at his expense, but I hope his action leads to the event being canceled.
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The FBI remains an awful organization

One of the most irritating things about politics and the media in the US is their reflexive adoption of the maxim that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’. Nowhere is this switch more obvious than in the way the various parties view intelligence agencies such as the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA. At any given moment, how they are viewed seems to depend upon what their immediate agenda is. At the current moment it seems like the Democrats and liberal media are fawning over these agencies and praising them for their independence and integrity, seemingly because they think that they are in the best position to obtain and release information damaging to Donald Trump. Conversely, the Republicans and the conservative media are attacking those same agencies for the same reason.
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