Lorraine, I’m with you 100%. Everything you said resonates deeply with me. Even from here in Germany, I feel the urgency and weight of what’s unfolding, and I’m ready to support in any way I can. This isn’t just an American crisis—it’s a global fight against authoritarianism, and your words give voice to so much of what I’ve been feeling. Thank you for your clarity and courage. You’re not alone in this
Jay Siegmann: Emphatically also felt in Germany, with AfD showing a strong 20% in my second Homeland, the Rheinpfalz -- a romantic landscape of vineyards and such dear people who are my Wahlverwandtschaften in little villages -- befriended over 45 years, simple rural folk.
With a land in the heritage of Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan in their literature, I cannot comprehend the 20% attraction of AfD for Germany, any more than in the United States, after the Civil Rights Movement -- the Great Moral Movement of Our Time.
All the people in my circle honor the Bekennende Kirche, with such lights as Martin Niemoeller, Rudolf Bultmann, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Karl Barth who broke with the Nationalist Church.
As in the US with the Civil Rights Movement, there is such an honorable, highly moral postwar movements that I cannot comprehend the attraction in either country for fascism.
That people CHOOSE oppression and darkness is incomprehensible.
Dark times in Germany and in the United States.
We have to regird ourselves in our best traditions, which, in America, is not going back to the Puritans but in going back to the Transcendentalists, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, and Frederick Douglass through Martin Luther King . . .
Hitler YELLED at Max Planck, founder of Quantum Physics, a great, great man who stood firm on moral principle.
Germany had been the pre-eminent academic center in the world through the 19th and early 20th centuries, and German was a language spoken continentwide in Europe and by academic leaders in America.
Then Hitler wrought destruction, which hits academia first.
Now the Hot-Red-Toddler is attacking Harvard, Columbia and our leading universities, as did Hitler before him.
Now France, England and Germany weigh how to reward America's top academes.
Trump may succeed beyond his expectations -- in rendering the now great Academia of America into a second-rate institution not regarded worldwide.
Hitler showed he could destroy the worldwide recognition of a World Power's Academia in one generation.
It may well be that the Angry Toddler succeeds in following Hitler's example and perform a miracle: Render America's leading universities worldwide as second-rate institutions.
But don't worry: China, Singapore, and certainly Europe are luring the World's best minds.
Armand, your words are rich with memory, meaning, and moral clarity—thank you for speaking from such a deeply rooted place. The grief you express, especially for places like the Rheinpfalz, feels very familiar to me. I live in Germany too, and while the AfD is deeply concerning, I want to echo something you may already sense: the more immediate and systemic danger isn't just coming from the far-right fringe. It’s coming from the center-right—quietly, steadily, and with institutional force.
Friedrich Merz, now chancellor, is a case in point. His background with BlackRock speaks volumes. He doesn’t yell like Trump, nor does he lean into overt ideology like the AfD. Instead, he moves through corridors of power with a polished face and a neocapitalist agenda that is already stripping away hard-won rights—particularly the recently affirmed right to self-determination. He’s targeting it subtly, piece by piece, aiming to reduce its scope or render it toothless. This isn't reactionary chaos; it’s calculated regression.
It reminds me that authoritarianism doesn’t always arrive in jackboots. Sometimes it wears a suit, speaks fluent market logic, and promises "order" and "efficiency" while quietly dismantling the frameworks of dignity and autonomy. And that’s why I believe the comparison to the 1930s isn't about volume or theater—it’s about structure, about how systems quietly erode beneath the surface until suddenly, they don't resemble democracy at all.
So while the AfD makes noise, Merz makes policy. And both matter. But the latter often slides under the radar, precisely because it dresses itself in normalcy.
I'm grateful you invoked figures like Celan, Dickinson, and King. We need their voices now more than ever—not to retreat into nostalgia, but to remember the imaginative power of moral resistance. Because if history teaches us anything, it’s that silence serves the status quo. And the status quo right now is shifting—quickly, dangerously.
We must ALL keep reposting that April 19th date for the next planned massive protest to DO SOMETHING! -- whatever! -- to make sure that protest is not only "massive" .. but MASSIVE !
It's all up to us now & maybe, if we're lucky (or smart ...), we'll have the military on our side ... ?
Let's give the Puritans and Pilgrims honor for what they did do right off the bat while they wintered over on the Mayflower in Cape Cod Bay under horrible conditions, even before they were able to live on the land. Few probably know that they were a very mixed group not all of them refugees from religious persecution in England, with quite a few others who just wanted to get to the new world. Realizing that they were in a whole new situation that required self-government, they drew up the famous Mayflower Compact, signed by all adult males no matter who. This became one of the founding resources for our Constitution, along with the Iroquois Confederation's Six Nations Treaty. YouTube has a lot of good info on this.
Disclosure - I descend directly from them on one side. Jewish on the other. They are both in my bones. Let's be careful of our History shall we?
Lorraine, I’m with you 100%. Everything you said resonates deeply with me. Even from here in Germany, I feel the urgency and weight of what’s unfolding, and I’m ready to support in any way I can. This isn’t just an American crisis—it’s a global fight against authoritarianism, and your words give voice to so much of what I’ve been feeling. Thank you for your clarity and courage. You’re not alone in this
Jay Siegmann: Emphatically also felt in Germany, with AfD showing a strong 20% in my second Homeland, the Rheinpfalz -- a romantic landscape of vineyards and such dear people who are my Wahlverwandtschaften in little villages -- befriended over 45 years, simple rural folk.
With a land in the heritage of Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan in their literature, I cannot comprehend the 20% attraction of AfD for Germany, any more than in the United States, after the Civil Rights Movement -- the Great Moral Movement of Our Time.
All the people in my circle honor the Bekennende Kirche, with such lights as Martin Niemoeller, Rudolf Bultmann, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Karl Barth who broke with the Nationalist Church.
As in the US with the Civil Rights Movement, there is such an honorable, highly moral postwar movements that I cannot comprehend the attraction in either country for fascism.
That people CHOOSE oppression and darkness is incomprehensible.
Dark times in Germany and in the United States.
We have to regird ourselves in our best traditions, which, in America, is not going back to the Puritans but in going back to the Transcendentalists, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, and Frederick Douglass through Martin Luther King . . .
Hitler YELLED at Max Planck, founder of Quantum Physics, a great, great man who stood firm on moral principle.
Germany had been the pre-eminent academic center in the world through the 19th and early 20th centuries, and German was a language spoken continentwide in Europe and by academic leaders in America.
Then Hitler wrought destruction, which hits academia first.
Now the Hot-Red-Toddler is attacking Harvard, Columbia and our leading universities, as did Hitler before him.
Now France, England and Germany weigh how to reward America's top academes.
Trump may succeed beyond his expectations -- in rendering the now great Academia of America into a second-rate institution not regarded worldwide.
Hitler showed he could destroy the worldwide recognition of a World Power's Academia in one generation.
It may well be that the Angry Toddler succeeds in following Hitler's example and perform a miracle: Render America's leading universities worldwide as second-rate institutions.
But don't worry: China, Singapore, and certainly Europe are luring the World's best minds.
English is now a world language.
Which language will take the place of English?
Armand, your words are rich with memory, meaning, and moral clarity—thank you for speaking from such a deeply rooted place. The grief you express, especially for places like the Rheinpfalz, feels very familiar to me. I live in Germany too, and while the AfD is deeply concerning, I want to echo something you may already sense: the more immediate and systemic danger isn't just coming from the far-right fringe. It’s coming from the center-right—quietly, steadily, and with institutional force.
Friedrich Merz, now chancellor, is a case in point. His background with BlackRock speaks volumes. He doesn’t yell like Trump, nor does he lean into overt ideology like the AfD. Instead, he moves through corridors of power with a polished face and a neocapitalist agenda that is already stripping away hard-won rights—particularly the recently affirmed right to self-determination. He’s targeting it subtly, piece by piece, aiming to reduce its scope or render it toothless. This isn't reactionary chaos; it’s calculated regression.
It reminds me that authoritarianism doesn’t always arrive in jackboots. Sometimes it wears a suit, speaks fluent market logic, and promises "order" and "efficiency" while quietly dismantling the frameworks of dignity and autonomy. And that’s why I believe the comparison to the 1930s isn't about volume or theater—it’s about structure, about how systems quietly erode beneath the surface until suddenly, they don't resemble democracy at all.
So while the AfD makes noise, Merz makes policy. And both matter. But the latter often slides under the radar, precisely because it dresses itself in normalcy.
I'm grateful you invoked figures like Celan, Dickinson, and King. We need their voices now more than ever—not to retreat into nostalgia, but to remember the imaginative power of moral resistance. Because if history teaches us anything, it’s that silence serves the status quo. And the status quo right now is shifting—quickly, dangerously.
In solidarity across oceans and vineyards,
Jay
We must ALL keep reposting that April 19th date for the next planned massive protest to DO SOMETHING! -- whatever! -- to make sure that protest is not only "massive" .. but MASSIVE !
It's all up to us now & maybe, if we're lucky (or smart ...), we'll have the military on our side ... ?
Thanks for the good posting, Lorraine!
Thanks Dorian!
Here's the link to the protests!
https://www.fiftyfifty.one/events
Thanks for that link!
Lorraine,
I agree with every single word of the preview. Clear, grounded, precise.
I would love to read the full article. At the moment, I’m not able to afford it. If there’s a way to access it or support differently, I’m open.
Thank you for putting this into words.
Hi WLPfJ!
Palmer Report is completely free, but I know they have a lot of ads.
Normally I copy and paste the whole article in the body of my post. This time I didn't but I regret it now and will continue to do so in future.
Meanwhile, I edit this post to add the full article in the body. Or I'll just send out a new post. Thanks!
Where is the playbook?
Here’s one component!!!
https://open.substack.com/pub/ricknoz/p/immunity-for-trump-but-not-for-his?r=ukln1&utm_medium=ios
Weaponize against enablers and underlings!
https://open.substack.com/pub/ricknoz/p/immunity-for-trump-but-not-for-his?r=ukln1&utm_medium=ios
Let's give the Puritans and Pilgrims honor for what they did do right off the bat while they wintered over on the Mayflower in Cape Cod Bay under horrible conditions, even before they were able to live on the land. Few probably know that they were a very mixed group not all of them refugees from religious persecution in England, with quite a few others who just wanted to get to the new world. Realizing that they were in a whole new situation that required self-government, they drew up the famous Mayflower Compact, signed by all adult males no matter who. This became one of the founding resources for our Constitution, along with the Iroquois Confederation's Six Nations Treaty. YouTube has a lot of good info on this.
Disclosure - I descend directly from them on one side. Jewish on the other. They are both in my bones. Let's be careful of our History shall we?