Is The Reichstag Burning?

Richstag burning in Berlin on 27 February 1933





One of my all-time favorite films, even qualifies as an art film, is "Is Paris Burning?" It was about the end of Nazi occupation of Paris. As wonderful a time as that was,  the Liberation of Paris, my title mimics that one only to reflect upon the opposite sort of event. It is not the liberation of a city but the enslavement of a people that my question both harkens back to and foretells. Of course the Reichstag was the German equivalent of the capital building. It was burned and Hitler used the opportunity to claim emergency powers and that set him up to rule with absolute power. [1] Today was super Tuesday and I think I suddenly realized what it must have felt like for Germans who understood what the Nazis were about to wake up and read about the fire to realize we are on the edge of the abyss of some form of Armageddon.

Of course I'm just making too much of things. In reality it is logical to ignore the feeling of foreboding based upon the result of Super Tuesday because any one of three, Trump, Cruz, Rubio would be as bad as the others. Rubio wants to eliminate the EPA but he's being sold as the "rational" alternative to Trump. The petty concerns of the right wingers, I need to be free from Taxes. Taxes for Christ sake! you are being freed from breathing! At a time when every scientist around the world predicts dyer consequences of not reducing carbon emissions, the right wing convinces America it's a lie of big gubern-ment and it's fine to keep polluting. We are talking about our own extinction. It may already be too late, and the Trumpies are worried about the loss of a flag that symbolized slavery."I is mad at Gobern=ment, they is in my bidness." We are talking about giving a Neanderthal racist mad man control of the nucs, emergency war powers that would allow him to round up anyone without trail for national security. Moreover he wants to run the nation like a "bidness" meaning cut-throat, nothing stands in the way of profit; live under that regime, try criticizing him  even vegly in the way you do Obama and tell me how your bidness is doing.

Trump came out of the shoot saying Mexicans are rapists drug addicts who are causing violent crime to surge  even though violent crime went way down while illegals were increasing, and hardly any have been accused of violent crimes. [2] He says beat up the protester, he said in public in front of the mob that in the good old days (before Miranda rights) the cops could just take someone out and beat them up and that's fine with him. these idiots think he would respect them and only the evil liberals would have their rights taken away, they can['t possibly comprehend the concept that if he is willing violate the rights of anyone he's willing to violate your rights too. He plays the coy game to court the support of racist idiots. he doesn't know who David Duke is, hint hint, wink wink.I guess he's never heard of the KKK. Maybe he doesn't know violence hurts. But hey Cruz sounds like Hitler ranting and raving He said if you're afraid of being shot got hide at Sanders Rally. Implying that violence at his rally is acceptable. Of course if you are afraid of being shot you're some kind of fag.

normally I would be delighted to see the Republican party break up. I am not, because it's more than just the republicans disintegrating. It's the triumph of lynch mob mentality over reasoning statesmen. The Republicans have been short on statesmanship for some time. John McCain (wimp who was captured according to Herr Trump) excepted. They got used to accepting extremes when Reagan paid off so well. Even Reagan had the packaging of statesmanship. The new lynch mob is willing to abandon all decorum. That's really the point. The real villain here is not Trump it's not Cruz, not Rubio it's the rebel who fuel their hatred. In interviews of Trump supporters at Rallies on facebook I have seen them saying things like "there's a war on White culture." When ask for an example they point to taking down the confederate flag. This is idiotic to equate the confederacy with "all of white culture" to think that an attack on confederate memorabilia is racial and anti-white, but totally ignorant to think the confederacy had anything to do with their 'white supremacy Bullshit. If we ask him I'm sure Jeff Davis would say of course white people are superior. But I guarantee you that thought did not enter the heads of any leaders of the cessation and preserving white people was not one of their motives. Trump has signaled to them his support for their delusions because he played the coy game refusing to sincerely denounce David Duke.

So we have this lynch mob mentality that['s been brooding hate for years. This is exactly what my late brother Ray Hinman, [3] and I predicted. We talked about it for years especially in the Reagan era. It is simply what Malcom X said of the Kennedy assassination, "The Chickens have dome home to roost." They denuded education, segmented learning and reduced all our concepts of God and morality to consumer products, consuming and producing, nurtured hatred and resentment of government because it brought votes, and lured the rabe. with dreams of wealth. If you are a servant of the rich they will let you be rich too.

I spent a large part of the 90's publishing an academic journal, Negations: An interdisciplinary Journl of Social Criticism. unfortunately it no longer exists on the Web. The editor was Tim Wood, and my brother was part of it. The journal dealt with the ideas around Herbert Marcuse's book One Dimensional Man. [4] We showed how American society had become a closed realm of discourse thinking and reasoning were reduced to brain function and all civilizing thought was sacrificed to the social project of perpetuating the flow of false needs to one-dimensional populace. Now they worked up the troops and made them good and angry that they aren't getting enough false needs; had to boil over some time. Now prepare for a Trump band wagon.. We already see establishment figures like Christy trying to suck up to him. As in the Reagan era we learned never under estimate the stupidity of people. We really used to say "this is what we learned from Reagan,"

I don't feel gleeful that the Republicans are broken. I know it's really the triumph of lynch mob mentality over civilizing tendencies. It's what the Bible says, the Republicans sowed te wind now they reap he whirlwind.Hosea8:7 "They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. The stalk has no head; it will produce no flour. Were it to yield grain, foreigners would swallow it up."





[1] Wikiv article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire

The Reichstag fire (German: Reichstagsbrand,  listen (help·info)) was an arson attack on the Reichstag building in Berlin on 27 February 1933. Marinus van der Lubbe, a young Dutch council communist, was caught at the scene of the fire and arrested for the crime. Van der Lubbe was an unemployed bricklayer who had recently arrived in Germany. He declared that he had started the fire and was tried and sentenced to death. The fire was used as evidence by the Nazi Party that communists were plotting against the German government. The event is seen as pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany."

[2] Joe Hinman, What percentage of dangerous illegals were let god last year? Need More Shovels Blog UAL: http://needmoreshovels.blogspot.com/2016/02/what-percentage-of-dangerous-illegals.html   accessed today

[3]  Ray Hinman was my late twin brother. He was an excellent writer, could have been a great writer He was fine social critic and political activist. He was brilliant, he only got to publish one book, a collection of poetry, .I would put it alongside poetry of his heroes such Wallace Stevens. see Our Cities Vanish, by Ray Hinman available on Amazon.

about Ray

 [4] Herbert Marcuse, One Dimensional Man. Beacon Press; 2nd edition (October 1, 1991) originally 1964.

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