Image credit: Bruce MacKinnon for Halifax Chronicle Herald
Another Monday is here and, to be totally honest, there’s so much in my news feeds this morning that I’m tempted just to throw up my hands and walk away. I’m not, because talking about all this shit is probably the only thing keeping me marginally sane. I know a lot of people have stopped reading/watching the news, but I can’t do that. If I’m going to be mowed down by an out-of-control government, I want to see it coming. I may not be able to stop the inevitable, but I’m not going to close my eyes and pretend it isn’t happening.
At the same time, I have to pay attention to what’s going on right around me. Kat was almost in a car accident over the weekend and when I say ‘almost’ I mean that her instinctive reflexes were the only thing that prevented her from being involved. She was on I-465N, in the middle lane, with a Jeep to her left, and a semi to her right. Traffic on that part of I-465 typically runs around 65 mph but apparently, that just wasn’t fast enough for a blue car that came up from behind the Jeep and hit it, knocking the Jeep into the semi. Kat had smelled burning rubber from the approaching car and slowed down. Had she been the slightest bit more forward, the Jeep would have hit her and knocked her into the semi. Physically, she was unharmed, but she spent the rest of the weekend fighting the emotions from the near miss.
Against that backdrop, I’m fighting against my own anger in an attempt to find words that are coherent and meaningful. I spent much of yesterday in bed with the phone and computer off. When I did come up for air (and food), I was disgusted by most of what I saw. I’m increasingly seeing less and less of an option for survival that doesn’t involve killing people. I don’t like those options, but in a me vs. them situation, I’m choosing me and my family. I’m afraid that’s going to force me into some decisions that I don’t want to make, but we can’t repeat the mistakes Germans made as the Nazis took over their country. If we do that, none of us survive.
Among the most disturbing of headlines this morning:
Global shares slip as worries grow about Punk’s tariffs. The markets haven’t opened in the US, but they have in other places around the world and it’s not looking good. Expect a severe sell-off when the US markets open. Yes, your 401K is going to take a hit. You might want to consider other options.
In Panama, Marco Rubio Escalates Confrontation Over Canal. Shoring up the US’s position as a global bully, the Secretary of State threatened to “intervene” if Panama doesn’t make it more difficult for Chinese ships to pass through the locks.
The headline infuriating me the most, however, is Punk says Americans could feel ‘some pain’ from tariffs as he threatens more import taxes. We could feel some pain? This isn’t like we’re sitting in the doctor’s office waiting for an injection of some kind. In fact, I have to say that as often as I get stuck by a needle, nurses have become amazingly good at minimizing the pain of a needle going into one’s arm. I find it absolutely insulting that he expects the American people to endure ‘some pain’ while he and his billionaire buddies sit back and reap the profits. Too many American people have been hurting for too long, going all the way back to Punk’s first administration. This is a level of egotistical bullshit that no one should tolerate.
Oh, but there’s still more. A bill to eliminate OSHA has been Introduced in the House of Representatives. Say goodbye to those nasty regulations that require things such as handrails on staircases, fire escapes in multi-story buildings, fire suppression systems, and all the other things that keep one from dying while they’re at work. I would like to think that there’s no chance of this bill making it out of committee, but remember that we’re dealing with gang warfare here. Republicans that don’t support bills backed by the administration are threatened with being challenged in the primaries next year. To a one, they’re fallingn in line, goose-stepping all the way to hell.
THEN, Rep. Thomas Massie Reintroduces H.R. 899 to Abolish the Federal Department of Education. We saw this one coming. It was part of Punk’s stump speech in the runup to the election. People voted for him anyway. If you thought there was any way it wouldn’t happen, think again. Education is under attack on every government level. Fewer children will have access to quality education and fewer schools will teach anything beyond the basic skills necessary to make them worker slaves in the coming regime.
You know it’s a bad day when even the Assistant Director of the FBI’s New York field office tells agents there that they are ‘at war.’ This explains why they’re not doing anything to stop the onslaught of crimes against the country; they’re too busy having to save their jobs! Don’t think for a moment that this wasn’t part of the plan coming into this administration. By taking law enforcement out of the picture, there’s no one left to stop them.
Over on r/AskHistorians subreddit, someone asked the question, “How long did it take for (1) it to be hard to leave the country and (2) most people to start starving in Nazi-controlled Europe after Hitler took over?” The primary answer is worth sharing.
That answer depends entirely on who you were.
The Nazis were keenly aware that widespread hunger in the population led to the defeat in 1918, so they did everything they could to prevent the German population from starving too much. Poor Germans were chronically undernourished, the rest did okay-ish, all luxuries were more and more cut off. Germans did better than other Europeans by starving other countries to death.
1944/45 was a hunger winter, but in general the worst starvation for Germans was the hunger winter of 1946. ’46 had polar vortex conditions in a bombed out country with no shelter and no heating materials. People died of exposure and hunger.
It took a few years post-war to stabilize the food in Germany and elsewhere. For example: The UK didn’t come off rations until 1954, partially, because they were also feeding the German population in the British zone.
If you were French, Dutch, rations were stricter than in Germany since the beginning of their respective invasions. Aryanness had its perks and a non-aryan couldn’t do better than them. Hunger was definitely a weapon and the Dutch almost starved to death in ’43, but due to a confluence of factors continued starving post-Market Garden ’44. Food stabilized in ’45. So, it really is different from country to country.
If you were slavic, you fell under Generalplan Ost which stated that you will be starved to death and the food used to feed Germans. Except for the Polish and Czech, who would be starved, but kept alive enough for slave labor.
In general food was a problem for the middle and working class throughout the war.
If you were Jewish, your mobility was slowly curtailed. Part of the problem was that money and assets were frozen by Eichmann around the Austrian occupation and other countries don’t like destitute migrants. So while people still left, it was mostly people with means.
After the pogrom in November 1938 it was kind of your final chance to get out, but it involved money and luck and it wasn’t easy. As of the invasion of Poland, it was game over. All exits were closed for Jews. ETA: Pardon, 1941, when the Holocaust was decided was game over. That order halting migration came in October and the conference was in January 1942. However, between ’39 to ’41 it was extremely difficult to leave.
If you were of a nationality which was not slated for death-through-starvation, annihilation, or slave labor, you could move through Europe as long as those nations let you through.
There are also many people in the public, embassies and even in the highest Nazi admin offices who helped forge passports for Jews, who transported Jewish kids on trains to safety, who saved the Jews of Denmark by leaking the plans and then sabotaging harbor patrol, by nannies hiding kids, and in the case of Schindler, saved a list of workers in Auschwitz.
Historians now believe that the resistance of the public by refusing to come apathetic and the small time admin and clerks refusing or sabotaging lists, would have prevented a lot of deaths. We know nothing happened to police officers who refused to shoot Jews in Eastern Europe as part of the Holocaust, for example.
Some sources: Aly Götz for how Nazis bought the compliance of Germans with stolen goods; the cohort around Tim Snyder on Generalplan Ost (Mark Mazower, Hitler’s Empire), ushmm on Denmark https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/denmark, Hannah Arendt on Eichmann and how the small time administrator did the most evil, Browning on policebattalion 101.
We have to resist. Even small actions make a difference. In last Friday’s post I have a link to a booklet from WWII that was used to sabotage the Germans. I find it largely appropriate now and strongly encourage everyone to read it. Many of the methods require very little effort, which is, sadly, what most people are willing to give. Don’t give in to the fear. Be angry. Be decisive. Be protective. We can still prevent the worst from happening.
You’re Going To Feel A Little Pinch
Another Monday is here and, to be totally honest, there’s so much in my news feeds this morning that I’m tempted just to throw up my hands and walk away. I’m not, because talking about all this shit is probably the only thing keeping me marginally sane. I know a lot of people have stopped reading/watching the news, but I can’t do that. If I’m going to be mowed down by an out-of-control government, I want to see it coming. I may not be able to stop the inevitable, but I’m not going to close my eyes and pretend it isn’t happening.
At the same time, I have to pay attention to what’s going on right around me. Kat was almost in a car accident over the weekend and when I say ‘almost’ I mean that her instinctive reflexes were the only thing that prevented her from being involved. She was on I-465N, in the middle lane, with a Jeep to her left, and a semi to her right. Traffic on that part of I-465 typically runs around 65 mph but apparently, that just wasn’t fast enough for a blue car that came up from behind the Jeep and hit it, knocking the Jeep into the semi. Kat had smelled burning rubber from the approaching car and slowed down. Had she been the slightest bit more forward, the Jeep would have hit her and knocked her into the semi. Physically, she was unharmed, but she spent the rest of the weekend fighting the emotions from the near miss.
Against that backdrop, I’m fighting against my own anger in an attempt to find words that are coherent and meaningful. I spent much of yesterday in bed with the phone and computer off. When I did come up for air (and food), I was disgusted by most of what I saw. I’m increasingly seeing less and less of an option for survival that doesn’t involve killing people. I don’t like those options, but in a me vs. them situation, I’m choosing me and my family. I’m afraid that’s going to force me into some decisions that I don’t want to make, but we can’t repeat the mistakes Germans made as the Nazis took over their country. If we do that, none of us survive.
Among the most disturbing of headlines this morning:
The headline infuriating me the most, however, is Punk says Americans could feel ‘some pain’ from tariffs as he threatens more import taxes. We could feel some pain? This isn’t like we’re sitting in the doctor’s office waiting for an injection of some kind. In fact, I have to say that as often as I get stuck by a needle, nurses have become amazingly good at minimizing the pain of a needle going into one’s arm. I find it absolutely insulting that he expects the American people to endure ‘some pain’ while he and his billionaire buddies sit back and reap the profits. Too many American people have been hurting for too long, going all the way back to Punk’s first administration. This is a level of egotistical bullshit that no one should tolerate.
Oh, but there’s still more. A bill to eliminate OSHA has been Introduced in the House of Representatives. Say goodbye to those nasty regulations that require things such as handrails on staircases, fire escapes in multi-story buildings, fire suppression systems, and all the other things that keep one from dying while they’re at work. I would like to think that there’s no chance of this bill making it out of committee, but remember that we’re dealing with gang warfare here. Republicans that don’t support bills backed by the administration are threatened with being challenged in the primaries next year. To a one, they’re fallingn in line, goose-stepping all the way to hell.
THEN, Rep. Thomas Massie Reintroduces H.R. 899 to Abolish the Federal Department of Education. We saw this one coming. It was part of Punk’s stump speech in the runup to the election. People voted for him anyway. If you thought there was any way it wouldn’t happen, think again. Education is under attack on every government level. Fewer children will have access to quality education and fewer schools will teach anything beyond the basic skills necessary to make them worker slaves in the coming regime.
You know it’s a bad day when even the Assistant Director of the FBI’s New York field office tells agents there that they are ‘at war.’ This explains why they’re not doing anything to stop the onslaught of crimes against the country; they’re too busy having to save their jobs! Don’t think for a moment that this wasn’t part of the plan coming into this administration. By taking law enforcement out of the picture, there’s no one left to stop them.
Over on r/AskHistorians subreddit, someone asked the question, “How long did it take for (1) it to be hard to leave the country and (2) most people to start starving in Nazi-controlled Europe after Hitler took over?” The primary answer is worth sharing.
That answer depends entirely on who you were.
The Nazis were keenly aware that widespread hunger in the population led to the defeat in 1918, so they did everything they could to prevent the German population from starving too much. Poor Germans were chronically undernourished, the rest did okay-ish, all luxuries were more and more cut off. Germans did better than other Europeans by starving other countries to death.
1944/45 was a hunger winter, but in general the worst starvation for Germans was the hunger winter of 1946. ’46 had polar vortex conditions in a bombed out country with no shelter and no heating materials. People died of exposure and hunger.
It took a few years post-war to stabilize the food in Germany and elsewhere. For example: The UK didn’t come off rations until 1954, partially, because they were also feeding the German population in the British zone.
If you were French, Dutch, rations were stricter than in Germany since the beginning of their respective invasions. Aryanness had its perks and a non-aryan couldn’t do better than them. Hunger was definitely a weapon and the Dutch almost starved to death in ’43, but due to a confluence of factors continued starving post-Market Garden ’44. Food stabilized in ’45. So, it really is different from country to country.
If you were slavic, you fell under Generalplan Ost which stated that you will be starved to death and the food used to feed Germans. Except for the Polish and Czech, who would be starved, but kept alive enough for slave labor.
In general food was a problem for the middle and working class throughout the war.
If you were Jewish, your mobility was slowly curtailed. Part of the problem was that money and assets were frozen by Eichmann around the Austrian occupation and other countries don’t like destitute migrants. So while people still left, it was mostly people with means.
After the pogrom in November 1938 it was kind of your final chance to get out, but it involved money and luck and it wasn’t easy. As of the invasion of Poland, it was game over. All exits were closed for Jews. ETA: Pardon, 1941, when the Holocaust was decided was game over. That order halting migration came in October and the conference was in January 1942. However, between ’39 to ’41 it was extremely difficult to leave.
If you were of a nationality which was not slated for death-through-starvation, annihilation, or slave labor, you could move through Europe as long as those nations let you through.
There are also many people in the public, embassies and even in the highest Nazi admin offices who helped forge passports for Jews, who transported Jewish kids on trains to safety, who saved the Jews of Denmark by leaking the plans and then sabotaging harbor patrol, by nannies hiding kids, and in the case of Schindler, saved a list of workers in Auschwitz.
Historians now believe that the resistance of the public by refusing to come apathetic and the small time admin and clerks refusing or sabotaging lists, would have prevented a lot of deaths. We know nothing happened to police officers who refused to shoot Jews in Eastern Europe as part of the Holocaust, for example.
Some sources: Aly Götz for how Nazis bought the compliance of Germans with stolen goods; the cohort around Tim Snyder on Generalplan Ost (Mark Mazower, Hitler’s Empire), ushmm on Denmark https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/denmark, Hannah Arendt on Eichmann and how the small time administrator did the most evil, Browning on policebattalion 101.
We have to resist. Even small actions make a difference. In last Friday’s post I have a link to a booklet from WWII that was used to sabotage the Germans. I find it largely appropriate now and strongly encourage everyone to read it. Many of the methods require very little effort, which is, sadly, what most people are willing to give. Don’t give in to the fear. Be angry. Be decisive. Be protective. We can still prevent the worst from happening.
Just don’t forget the coffee.
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