The Nazification Escalation

If it goosesteps like a Nazi, asks for 'your papers' like a Nazi, and whisks suspects away without a trial into foreign concentration camps like a Nazi... it's probably a Nazi.

We've run a few pieces here on the Outlaw Writers' pages making Nazi references... specifically, calling out policies, politicians, and Trumpistas as Nazis or Nazi adjacent.. Mostly it's been dark snark. Lately, there have been several pieces where the comparison is more pointed.

White nationalists and white supremicists saw the "Unite the Right" torch rally in Charlottesville, Virginia during Trump's first term as permission to come out of their Nazi paraphanalia adorned basements and talk openly about the 'superior race.' Apologists for Trump waved away concern over his "...very fine people, on both sides" comment regarding the infamous march. Republicans characterized the Proud Boys, the KKK, and multiple other groups as atypical and unrepresentative of the GOP. Not anymore.

It's becoming increasingly difficult to dismiss comparisons between our current political environment and the rise of the Third Reich.

“I went into the mine, and that’s what’s down there. A crazy person doesn’t live in the White House, a person who plays a crazy person on TV a lot lives there, which I know is f—-d up. It’s just not as f—-d up as I thought it was.” - Bill Maher on his visit to the White House

Comedian/writer Larry David called out Bill Maher, a fierce Trump critic, for Maher's recent White House visit, where he reported that Trump was “gracious and measured.” You know, just an average Joe. While Maher claims that he also spoke directly to Trump about his election denialism and even birtherism, many felt the result was a normalization, even a softening of Trump's image. David published a satirical piece in the Times aimed directly at Maher, where David imagines himself having a reflective, thoughtful dinner with Hitler. Maher has since clapped back at David, suggesting that Nazi analogies come with the baggage of the holocaust and that it was a 'false premise.' "I just think it’s kind of insulting to 6 million dead Jews. You know, like, that should kind of be in its own place in history... The minute you play the ‘Hitler’ card, you’ve lost the argument."

I've had no qualms about ridiculing the Trump deep state as Naziesque, joking around about it, and labeling rhetoric like his "Unite the Right" excuses as absurd B.S... but I have to admit, it seemed at times to be tiresome and a lot of amplified hysteria.

Yes, I know. I'm over that now. Welcome back to the 1930s.

Preservation of the Aryan race! Elimination of Inferior Bloodlines!

One of Trump's first acts in his second term was to eliminate DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) policies in any institution that accepts any federal funding: schools, colleges, the military, federal agencies, medical research facilities... the list continues to grow. His directives have included federal employees, even those suspected of being hired under a previous DEI mandate. An accompanying fact sheet about Trump's actions stated that DEI guidance had led to the hiring of people with “severe intellectual” disabilities, psychiatric issues, and complete paralysis." It further ordered performance reviews of all FAA employees.

Remember that LGBT folks, women, and the disabled fall under the DEI umbrella. And keep in mind that veterans, often given priority in federal hiring, are disproportionately disabled due to combat injuries. They have not been spared, no matter that their disability is due to their service to the country. In true Nazi fashion, if you can be labeled as inferior in some way, you can be disposed of. Memos have circulated that a price will be paid if DEI hires are hidden. Coworkers are encouraged, even required to tattle on fellow employees if they suspect them of being a DEI hire.

And speaking of firing physically disabled veterans, the worm-eaten brain of RFK Jr plans to establish a “registry” of autistic people. He wants to release private medical data about autistic people to unnamed researchers, likely without their knowledge or consent. Studies and data are already available (and accessible) in the private sector. The very strict HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996,) is a federal law that sets standards for protecting sensitive patient health information. As with all things Trump and DOGE, there seems to be no guarantee, not even a promise of personal health records being protected.

RFK made an outrageous speech just days ago that portrayed the autistic community as pitiable and profoundly handicapped.

These are kids who will never pay taxes. They'll never hold a job. They'll never play baseball. They'll never write a poem. They'll never go out on a date. -RFK Jr.

Needless to say, the autistic community, scientists, and doctors who work with autism were horrified and disgusted by his remarks.

Austism is usually described as a "spectrum" of disorders, with some patients affected profoundly, while many have only slight or unnoticeable symptoms. Some folks on the spectrum are nonverbal, some have emotional tics, and many, contrary to RFK's ignorant statement, have their own families, are independent, and work in a wide variety of professions, including law, medicine, and engineering.

RFK's insult was only the tip of the Naziberg. With no medical education to speak of, this former heroin addict pledges to determine the cause of autism, you know, by next fall. His "research" so far has been to promote the scientifically debunked idea that vaccines cause autism. He has also concluded that environmental "toxins" play a role. To illustrate how unserious RFK is, he tapped David Geier, a vaccine denier who practiced medicine without a license in Maryland, to lead the study.

There is an uneasy feeling among researchers that the Trumpistas are veering extremely close to eugenics, the largely discredited set of beliefs and practices that claim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Eugenicists received a lot of attention, wait for it, within the Third Reich. Hitler and his pals wanted to create a master race by inhibiting the fertility of those considered inferior and elevating that of those considered superior. JD Vance, Musk, Trump, and several groups within the Republican party are calling for a "pronatalist" movement. Their elimination of ethnic, racial, and religious diversity (by canceling DEI initiatives) coupled with databases of folks with particular health profiles, seems to mesh perfectly with the twisted dreams of a "master (healthy, white) race."

Is that hyperbole? Already, there is talk about giving a $5,000 'baby bonus' to mothers upon delivery of a newborn. For an administration that loathes welfare and social spending, this seems like an odd and pricey expenditure. Ostensibly, the baby bonus would be an effort to reverse a declining birth rate. For a country like ours (where economic support for the older population comes from the productivity and taxes from a younger population,) birthrate decline means a decline in revenue to support the nation's seniors. Economists will tell you that immigration can substitute to a degree for that decline, but then, that means more dark people.

“The falling fertility rate is the biggest danger civilization faces, by far.”
-Elon Musk
We will support baby booms and we will support baby bonuses for a new baby boom. I want a baby boom.” -Trump

Part of this unspoken economic puzzle (at least for the U.S.) is how a baby bonus would be limited to favor "desirables." Not to worry, the MAGA base is already thinking this through. "'Money-grubbing' welfare recipients don't deserve Trump's $5,000 'baby bonuses'." So says MAGA TV host Gina Loudin. Like I said, dark people need not apply.

You should know that other countries have tried similar programs - none have worked for any length of time. It costs around 300K to raise a kid, according to most estimates. Most people are smart enough to figure that simple math problem... $300,000 - $5,000 = $295,000. Not a big bonus after all. Of course the Nazis had prizes and trophies for busy birth canals.

The Lebensborn (“Fount of Life”) program was designed to discourage abortions by providing discreet maternity homes and adoption services to single “Aryan” mothers. Nazi policies encouraged births outside of marriage (shout out to Elon!) Young Germans were encouraged to marry young and have many children. This was promoted through propaganda and military-style awards for motherhood. Award winners were to be German 'Aryan' who were to be free of genetic disease or mental illness anywhere in their family history. Even alcoholism was a reason to keep you out of the cool baby-making pool. (Sorry Pete Hegeseth!)

We are effectively run in this country … by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they wanna make the rest of the country miserable, too,” J.D. Vance

While it's instructive to see how the administration sees this issue (and the public, at least at this point, does not), the chances of a coherent policy being formed are pretty slim. Not many people have Musk Money to drop a few litters of MAGA critters. The idea of having large families is largely a thing of the past. As the women-folk of any country become more educated, they resist making 'motherhood' their singular identity and seek to escape total domestic entrapment. And while Vance, Musk, Trump, and the Republican Party pay lip service to a country replenished with young people, they are only interested in those young people if, like the Nazis, those young people are white. The public knows that they aren't interested in reasonably priced childcare, preschools, nutrition programs for poor children, free school lunches, paid family leave, good public schools, and health care for kids (or pregnant women!)

Another proposal being tossed about is funding for programs that educate women on their menstrual cycles. This has the purpose of helping women understand when they are ovulating and able to conceive. Before the pill was widely available, this was a birth control technique known as the rhythm method. Women, no doubt, are grateful that the government is so concerned with the functioning and productivity of their lady parts.

Speaking of fertility fanatics, South African immigrant and United States co-president E-loon Musk is all about spreading his seed. "Population collapse is coming... Earth is almost empty of humans," he tweeted recently. "Instead of teaching fear of pregnancy, we should teach fear of childlessness." Then he went and knocked up a couple of White House aides.

"Pronatalism" is so important to this jumpy nerve ending of manchild that he has been overheard offering his sperm to acquaintances and has made the same offer to people he likes on X (Twitter.) He is known to be the father of 13 children, though, since he makes his babymamas sign strong NDAs in exchange for generous child support payments, there are certainly more. He insists that his name be left off of birth certificates. He is specific that he wants 'smart' people to have more babies, and he wants to produce a 'legion' of them. Meet a few of them:

• Nevada Alexander
• Vivian Jenna
• Griffin
• Kai
• Saxon
• Damian
• X Æ A-Xii (originally X Æ A-12)
• Azure
• Strider
• Arcadia
• Romulus
• Seldon Lycurgus

If RFK wants to discuss people on the spectrum who will "never go out on a date," I'd like to introduce him to the Muskrat. The fundamental role of women in the Third Reich and I guess to the modern pronatalists, was/is to procreate. Don't worry ladies, the menfolk will direct the best usage of your womb.

"May I See Your Papers?"

Most indicative of the continuing Nazification of America is the expansion of ICE and its powers of arrest.

The latest Trump cruelty, as of this writing, anyway: deporting three U.S. citizen children, ages two, four, and seven, to Honduras without their medication, without their doctors, without constitutional rights. One of the deported children is battling Stage 4 cancer. Sorry kiddies. This is Trumpland. Kids who leave the birth canal are expendable. Remember when ICE agents swore they would be humane? Let the roundups begin! Children and families are whisked away before lawyers or other family members can intervene. We are SAVED! From those menacing, cancer-ridden toddlers!

This last week, ICE agents boarded the Amtrak Empire Builder train in Havre, MT to question passengers about their citizenship. ICE later denied that they were involved, and insisted that it was Customs and Border Patrol officers. (Feel better, now?) Remember every WWII movie you've ever seen? The required scene where the German officers walk down a crowded train car demanding, "Show me your papers"? Yeah, it's like that.

Two German teens were deported after presenting visitor visas in Hawaii after their arrival. Customs and Border Patrol insists that the young ladies were entering under false pretenses and were here to find work, a claim that the teens deny. Oh, after being handcuffed and strip-searched, they were kept overnight in a detention center. Snopes did a deep dive into the sitch, and yeah, they were treated like criminals. (The German press also followed the story closely.) They look dangerous, no? Maybe US border guards wanted to brush up on their German for that authentic Nazi exerience?

Several incidents have already occurred where European tourists have been detained or locked up, sometimes for weeks, and then deported. They are denied counsel and translators. They are stopped at normal border check points, and our border Nazi guards find a "problem with the paperwork."

Mr. Sielaff and Ms. Brösche were stopped, separately, at the San Ysidro border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, told that they were being denied entry and sent to a crowded detention center... Mr. Sielaff said he was denied a translator and had trouble understanding what was happening to him. Ms. Brösche’s friends said she was kept in solitary confinement for nine days. By their accounts, both were flown back to Germany without a clear understanding of why they were detained in the first place. “The family of a tourist from Britain, Becky Burke, 28, says she has been held for more than two weeks in Washington State, similarly caught up in the system but unsure why. -N.Y. Times

It has become bad enough that these countries have issued travel warnings for tourists and other visitors traveling to the U.S.
• Canada
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• United Kingdom
• Germany

Much to the chagrin of the American Reich, tourism dollars are falling faster than Trump's poll numbers. Flights from Western Europe dove by 17% in March (compared to same time last year.) The Caribbean (-26%), Central America (-26%) and Africa (12.4%). A 22% drop in land crossings from Canadians who are sick of the trade war, fearful of the threat of border detentions, and alarmed by "annexation" talks. Flight bookings from Canada (April - Sept.) have dropped 10%. Some are calling all of this a "tourism boycott." Those dwindling tourism dollars don't just affect big hotel chains and airlines, but locally owned restaurants, Uber drivers, retail shops, Airbnb owners, and every single related support business that ties in.

With their usual grace, Trump and his goons react with incredulous anger. "I think most recognize the U.S. is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit, and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president," said Goebbels stand-in, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. "There is a little nationalism there, I guess, perhaps," Trump told a reporter at the Oval Office on April 23. "It is not a big deal."

No big deal as tourism stocks drop and tens of billions of dollars fly off elsewhere.

Coming for the Courts

And finally, Nazi goons arrested Wisconsin County Judge Hannah Dugan in her courtroom for allegedly showing an immigrant a side exit to avoid them out in the hallway. Dugan was holding a hearing for an immigrant, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, 30, a Mexican immigrant who was facing three misdemeanor battery charges. He was in Dugan's courtroom for a pretrial conference, represented by a public defender. FBI Director Kash Patel said Friday that she was accused of obstructing an immigration arrest operation.

Trump started deporting immigrants without judicial review based on his interpretation and invocation of the  1798 Alien Enemies Act, a wartime immigration law that allows the government at war or under invasion to arrest and deport suspected "enemies." While SCOTUS has so far recognized his right to invoke the Act that is usually only invoked during wartime, they have warned him that immigrants targeted for deportation must be granted due process.

You are simply not going to believe that Trump and his Sturmtruppen have ignored the law and the courts. Anyone the Trump administration seeks to deport under the Alien Enemies Act is simply labeled as a member of a criminal gang. The courts have said that detained immigrants, even those suspected of criminality or gang membership, are entitled to constitutional due process, including a federal court hearing brought by a habeas corpus petition. Attorney General Pam Bondi has countered that law enforcement can pursue people in their homes without warrants. She issued a memo stating that “Alien Enemies” are “not entitled to a hearing, appeal or judicial review.” The judiciary disagrees, and several are contemplating holding the administration in contempt for ignoring their orders to bring back several immigrants who were whisked away to El Salvadoran prison camps.

Hundreds of "gang members" have already been deported. Many have protested that they were innocent and have no gang affiliation. (Well sure! Of course that's what they'd say!) Kilmar Ábrego García was mistakenly deported from the state of Maryland to a mega-jail in El Salvador. Though the courts have ordered his return, the administration has ignored the orders.

And now they're going after the judges themselves.

Trump told The Atlantic, "The first time, I had two things to do—run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys. And the second time, I run the country and the world.”

Yeah. I used to call the Nazi pejorative a bit of hyperbole. A phrase too far. "Not very helpful."

I'm over that now.