Prepare to navigate the intricate maze of today's political theatrics as we dissect the New Hampshire Republican primary's unexpected outcomes. With Trump's victory and Haley's unyielding charge for a debate, we're analyzing the seismic shifts in GOP dynamics. Unexpected alliances form as DeSantis exits the race and the economy's state prompts a debate between dire forecasts and encouraging signs. This episode peels back the layers of victory speeches, calls for mental competency tests, and the strategies that keep the political machine churning.
Across the seas, the specter of genocide haunts the Israel-Hamas conflict, with the International Court of Justice stepping in to demand preventative measures. As we scrutinize the ruling's repercussions, delve into UNRWA's internal investigations, and reflect on the first execution by nitrogen hypoxia in Alabama, we confront the uneasy interplay between law, morality, and the pursuit of justice. The episode promises a comprehensive examination of these pressing international matters, revealing their intricate connections to the broader political and ethical questions of our time.
To close, we step back to ponder the philosophical underpinnings of our political system's health. We propose a thought experiment: could liquid democracy be the antidote to our current institutional malaise? As we consider the historical warnings about fascism's rise and scrutinize the allure of charismatic figures teetering on the edge of authoritarianism, we invite you to reflect on the fragility and resilience of democracy. It's a contemplative journey through the past, present, and potential future of our political landscape.
Prepare to navigate the intricate maze of today's political theatrics as we dissect the New Hampshire Republican primary's unexpected outcomes. With Trump's victory and Haley's unyielding charge for a debate, we're analyzing the seismic shifts in GOP dynamics. Unexpected alliances form as DeSantis exits the race and the economy's state prompts a debate between dire forecasts and encouraging signs. This episode peels back the layers of victory speeches, calls for mental competency tests, and the strategies that keep the political machine churning.
Across the seas, the specter of genocide haunts the Israel-Hamas conflict, with the International Court of Justice stepping in to demand preventative measures. As we scrutinize the ruling's repercussions, delve into UNRWA's internal investigations, and reflect on the first execution by nitrogen hypoxia in Alabama, we confront the uneasy interplay between law, morality, and the pursuit of justice. The episode promises a comprehensive examination of these pressing international matters, revealing their intricate connections to the broader political and ethical questions of our time.
To close, we step back to ponder the philosophical underpinnings of our political system's health. We propose a thought experiment: could liquid democracy be the antidote to our current institutional malaise? As we consider the historical warnings about fascism's rise and scrutinize the allure of charismatic figures teetering on the edge of authoritarianism, we invite you to reflect on the fragility and resilience of democracy. It's a contemplative journey through the past, present, and potential future of our political landscape.
Welcome to the Dural McClain show. I'm your host, dural McClain. Today is 1, 26 of 2024. You have the pleasure of listening to episode 384 and let's get into the episode. So since we last spoke, you had some elections happening. We are officially in a presidential election year, and and so Donald Trump beat Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis and VVAC in the Iowa caucus, and Ron DeSantis properly dropped out and did something he said he was never going to do.
Speaker 2:He had that nice clip where he said he wasn't going to kiss the ring of Donald Trump, and this is what he did and that became more apparent on Sunday when Ron DeSantis Suspended his campaign following a distant second place finish in Iowa and a looming third place finish here in New Hampshire. It's clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance. He has my endorsement because we can't go back to the old Republican Guard of yesteryear, a repackage formed of warmed-over Corporatism that Nikki Haley represents. After peaking early, desantis struggled to gain national momentum, with some political Experts saying he leaned too much into being like Donald Trump rather than seeking to be an alternative. The question now is how his support for Trump could damage Nikki Haley's campaign.
Speaker 2:She has invested heavily in New Hampshire, courting the state's independent and moderate voters. There's even been a bid to have Democrats temporarily register as Republicans to vote for her, so a loss on Tuesday could spell the end. I think she needs to Reset expectations and by that I mean surprise in New Hampshire and make people think again about the possibility that she could be the nominee. Nikki Haley insists that only she can beat Joe Biden, pointing to his 2020 loss and his role in subsequent GOP losses. But even a close loss to Trump this coming Tuesday Could result in her donors heading for the exit before the next primary in her home state of South Carolina. Now, rhonda Santas will remain on the ballot here in New Hampshire solely because of timing, but it's not expected to have an impact on the race. As for Donald Trump, he's expected to split his time between here and New York on Monday as he makes another court appearance. His legal matters have now fully become entwined in the campaign, but it highlights how the support that he gets from his base outweighs the appeal of his challengers.
Speaker 2:Reggie Chikini. Global news Manchester, new Hampshire so.
Speaker 1:So what ended up actually happening to make this interesting is Donald Trump obviously won New Hampshire. He won. It was a 51, I think to about like 43, something like that, and so it was immediately spun by the Trump people. The Trump had an amazing Victory and then, to people who don't like Trump, it said Trump turned off almost half of the GOP voters, nikki Haley, and then said she was not at all interested in getting out of the primary. She went on to challenge Donald Trump to a debate.
Speaker 1:Donald Trump, in winning, gave a Very a different type of victory speech I'll just put it that way where he blasted Nikki Haley for not dropping out of the race. So Nikki Haley Not rolling over yet, although I can say that I do think that she has a very tough road ahead, because the states that are coming up do not have primaries where they allow independence to weigh in or where they can. Democrats can register as Republicans or Republicans can register as Democrats in Just for his history sake. That actually never works. Back in the day, rush Limbaugh Tried to get people to do that as well Registers Democrats and vote for candidates. It just does not have a major impact like people Think it's gonna have. It actually just doesn't work, but at any rate, nikki Haley refusing to bow down, even if she has lost in her as a tough road ahead and what we had to say.
Speaker 3:And then Donald Trump got out there and just threw a temper tantrum. He pitched a fit. He was, he was insulting, he was doing what he does. But I know that's what he does when he's insecure. I know that's what he does when he is threatened, and he should feel threatened, without a doubt. You know, it's interesting because a few days ago he was going on and on about me. I mean for a while, on and on about why I didn't send in security to the Capitol on January 6. He said it over and over and over and over again. I mean, somebody's got to tell him I wasn't there on January 6. I've never been at the Capitol working in a job like that, but I think he was a bit confused and so We'll let that pass.
Speaker 3:But the thing is, you look at what's happening and out of everything that he said in his rant, he didn't talk about the American people.
Speaker 3:Once he talked about revenge. He didn't talk about the fact that we've got an economy and shambles and Inflation that's out of control. He didn't talk about the fact that we only have 31% of 8th graders in our country who are proficient in reading. He didn't talk about what we were going to do to get the lawlessness on the border under control. He didn't talk about what we were going to do to bring law and order back to our country. He didn't talk about what he was going to do to help all the wars that were in and to keep us from going to war. He didn't talk about any of that and so he'll go on, and you know, even on that day where he was going on and on about January 6, you know we talked about okay, he was having a moment and he was confused. But it also goes back to why I've continued to push for a mental competency test for anyone over the age of 75.
Speaker 1:So there you have it, nikki Haley not only not bowing down, coming out talking some trash. Now, of course, nikki has to say something to feed into this little myth that the economy is in shambles, but to sticking on that little Point right now. The economy closed in 2023 on a high note. The US economy defied widespread recession fears and ended 2023 with a surprisingly strong growth. During the fourth quarter, gross domestic product GDP grew at an annual rate of 3.3%, according to data released Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Growth in the final three months of the year outstripped the predictions of many economists, who forecast a 2% gain. So, despite fears over looming down, the US economy continues to grow at above average pace as consumer spending remains resilient. This is from Jess Cohen of Global Markets, an analyst of investingcom. He wrote a post on X. With that being said, some pockets of disinflation are starting to appear in the economy. What does the Fed do?
Speaker 5:now.
Speaker 1:The state of the economy and voters' perceptions of it are set to heavily influence the upcoming presidential election. President Biden is running for a re-election and former President Trump has bet out that most of his primary challenges, although former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley remains in the race. Today and this is a quote here today we learned that the US economy grew at 3.1% over the past year, while adding another 2.7 million jobs and with core inflation moving back down towards pre-pandemic benchmark. As results of wages, wealth and employment are higher now than they were before the pandemic, biden said in a statement. Biden called out extreme Republicans in his statement, pointing out to pre-puposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare amid of ongoing federal spending. Congress has extended the federal funding deadline three times since the end of September as several hard line house Republicans pushed for major cuts to the federal budget. Biden and Democrats are hoping to sell voters on Bidenomics and a turnaround. Americans feeling about the economy as growth remains strong. If inflation continues to fall and consumers are increasingly optimistic, despite recent positive data, trump has predicted the economy will crash within the next year. The former president has also said he hopes a potential recession would start before he would take office if re-elected. Whichever way you slice it, the report caps off a stellar economic growth performance, particularly with the backdrop of the Fed's aggressive monetary policy tightening cycle. And this was sent by Ulu Salalu, head of the US Regional Economics, at FITS rating.
Speaker 1:So that is just a little bit of what you missed since you heard me last time. Has anybody ever told you you are over-opinionated? How about this one? You can talk about everything you'd like, but don't talk about religion, don't talk about faith, don't talk about politics. My name is Daryl McClane, host of Daryl McClane's show, and I want to introduce you to a show called Over-opinionated with my friend from South West Virginia, josh Scott. Josh has always been told he has been over-opinionated. He always tried to hold back these opinions, but he tried to back them up when he had to say something with facts and logic. Since he's grown up in many ways, he had to change a lot of his views and his opinions, as a lot of people should. He's not a millionaire from Fox News or CNN, he's just a hard-working blue collar type of guy. Give Josh Scott a shot at over-opinionated with Josh Scott. You can find him on Patreoncom slash over-opinionated at 6.79. You can also check him out on Twitter at NRV, underscore guy 79, over-opinionated, with Josh Scott. Where he is, this soft-spoken guy telling you the truth?
Speaker 1:In the international news front we have, of course, the conflict, the actual official war between Israel and Hamas. Now the United Court has actually ordered that Israel prevent genocide, but they did not demand that they stop the war. So that actually happened today and the court ruled that Israel must prevent genocidal acts. The UN agency actually said that AIDS Palestinians said that it was investigating charges of some workers who were actually involved in the October 7th attack on Israel. So the United Nations highest court said that Israel must take further actions to prevent acts of genocide by forces in Gaza and let more aid into the enclave, but the court did not call for Israel to immediately suspend the campaign. Now the ruling by the International Court of Justice in the Hague was the initial step in a case brought by South Africa that accused Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. Though the court actually has no enforcement mechanism, the closely watched case has added to the international pressure on the Prime Minister of Israel, benjamin Netanyahu, as he oversees the war against Hamas. Initial reaction amongst Palestinians were mixed, with the Palestinian Foreign Minister saying the court had ruled in favor of humanity and international law. While some people criticized the judges for not ordering the war to stop, israel has actually strongly denied genocide charges and on Friday, as officials last out at the court, netanyahu said it was outrageous for the judges to even hear the case, while the defense minister, yav Avgala, whose words the judges had noted when discussing whether Israeli officials had made statements that continued excitement to genocide and that his country, said that his country did not need to be lectured about morality.
Speaker 1:The PAC Court of Remorseless Month lawyers from South Africa argued that Israel had meant to create conditions of death in Gaza and demanded that the court order an emergency suspension of the military campaign. Israel lawyers argued that the country's military had worked to preserve civilian life in Gaza. Israel also said it had given civilians two weeks to leave northern Gaza before invading in late October and at the freezing, aid delivery at the start of the war later enable its daily supply. In its 29-page interim ruling, the court said that Israel must take access to ensure the soldiers and citizens adhere to UN Genocide Convention and must report back to the court within a month to show how it is actually compliant with the instructions. The court is not expected to rule on the broader genocide claims brought by South Africa for some years.
Speaker 1:So here's what else you have to know. The UN Aid Agency for Palestine so the UNRWA said its investigating charges that several of its workers were involved in the Hamas lead attack on Israel on October 7th. Allegations prompted the United States to tip alert suspended to the agency. Health officials in Gaza say that more than 25,000 people there have been killed since October 7th when Israel began a military operation to defeat Hamas. Israel launched the operation in response to a Hamas led attack in which Israeli officials say around 1,200 people were killed and 240 people were taken as hostages Into Gaza, many whom are still captive now.
Speaker 1:They really. The Israeli military on Thursday ordered the evacuation of tens of thousands of palatins Tenions who had already been displaced and were sheltering in the United Nations Vocational Training Center in the southern part of Gaza. Israel ground offensive have intensified in southern Gaza were more than a million people have fled there to seek safety. The White House is sending William J Burns, the CIA director, to Europe to meet with senior officials from Israel, egypt and Qatar in an effort to advance negotiations over the release of hostages held in Gaza and A longer ceasefire. Us officials who described Burns trip there, says it is a new opening for talks because Israel now appears willing to agree to a longer pause in fighting as part of the further negotiation to release hostages.
Speaker 4:Alabama Supreme Court. At 753 central time tonight state of Alabama Started carrying out the execution of Kenes use Jean Smith by nitrogen Poxia at the William C Holman correction facility in Atmore. Smith was executed for the 1988 capital murder of Elizabeth Doreen Senate in Culver County. Smith was pronounced deceased by physicians at 825 PM central standard time.
Speaker 7:Nothing happened here today. He's gonna bring Mom back, nothing. It's kind of a bittersweet day. We're not gonna be jumping around. I'm hoping and hollering and ray and all that. That's not us, but we're glad this day is over. Elizabeth Doreen Don't want to send it Got her justice tonight.
Speaker 1:So, if you did, we're paying attention. You now see what that Alabama, the state of Alabama, carried out the first American execution execution using nitrogen gas. This is on Thursday and they kill the convicted murderer who jury had actually voted to spare his life, and it is an opening of a new frontier in house dates execute Defro prisoners. The execution of the condemned prisoner, kenneth Smith, who is 58 years old, began at a 753 pm Central time. He was pronounced dead by 825 In the execution chamber. Now, according to John Q Ham, the state prison system commissioner, now the US Supreme Court allowed the execution to move forward over the objections of three other Justices and concerns from the deputally opponents that the untested method could cause Smith to suffer. Smith, who was trapped to a gurney with a mass place on his head, appeared Conscious for several minutes after the nitrogen gas started flowing into the mass, depriving him of oxygen. According to a pool report from five Alabama journalists who witnessed the execution of state lawyers have previously claimed in court filings that an execution by nitrogen. Nitrogen would ensure someone to be unconscious in seconds, but he then shook and Rithered for at least two minutes before Beginning to breathe heavily for several minutes. Eventually, the journalist said his breathing slowed until it was no longer apparent. Mr Ham said it looked like mr Smith had tried to hold his breath as long as he could and he downplayed mr Smith's body. We say nothing was out of the ordinary from what we were expecting.
Speaker 1:Now, before he was executed, smith had given a lifty final statement from the execution in shape Execution chamber, which he said in part tonight. Alabama caused humanity to take a step backwards, according to witnesses now, lee had pipped. A reporter in Alabama who witnessed the execution of mr Smith had moved back and forth violently the minutes after the execution began. This was the fifth execution that I've witnessed in Alabama and I've never seen such a violent reaction to an execution. Mr Head pit said Smith was one of three men convicted in 1988 of murder of Elizabeth Smith, whose husband, a pastor, have recruited them to kill her. It was the second time Alabama had tried to actually kill mr Smith, after a failed lethal injection in November of 2022, in which the executioners could not find a suitable vein Before his death or it expired. Mr Smith's lawyer and the state Attorney General, steve Marshall, said Thursday's execution was the first that had been carried out by nitrogen anywhere in the world. Other states have looked to Alabama's experience as they face mounting pressures obtaining lethal injection drugs. Because pressure from medical groups, activists and lawyers, mississippi and Oklahoma have authorized their prisoners to carry out executions by nitrogen Iphyxia a method is known. If they cannot use, leave the injection, though they have never actually tried to do so. Quote our proven method offers a blue pair for other states and, according to those who would contemplate, sheeding innocent blood, marshall said, suggesting that the availability of the efficient Execution method could act as a deterrent to criminals.
Speaker 1:The Supreme Court ordered relying the execution to go forward, did not give an explanation, as it is often the case when justice is decided on emergency applications. Now the courts three liberal justices Disagreed with the majority decision. In a strongly worded dissent, justice Sonya Sotomayor voiced concerns about Alabama's new message. Having failed to kill Smith on his first attempt, alabama has selected him as a guinea pig To test a method of execution never attempted before. She wrote. The world is watching. Justice Elena Kagan, in a separate dissent, joined by Justice Katanji Brown, jackson wrote that she would pause the excuse to give the court time to examine the exceptional circumstances surrounding Alabama's new method of execution and Mr Smith's challenges. The state's protocol was developed only recently and even now under revision, to prevent Smith from choking on his own vomit.
Speaker 1:Nitrogen hafixia has been used in some assisted suicides in Europe and elsewhere, though this precise method of the Alabama use differs from the common practice. Lawyers for the state had argued that such a death was painless and quick. They also noted that Smith and his lawyers had themselves identified the method as preferable to the troubled practice of lethal injection in the state. But in their last ditch effort to the Supreme Court, mr Smith's lawyer argued that Alabama's protocol would create a substantial risk for suffering. Dr Philip Nitchick, a pioneering assisted suicide who estimated that he had witnessed roughly 50 deaths by nitrogen, had said that the use of a mask could lead to problems that might involve substantial distress and pain. Governor Kay Ivey of Alabama said that she had not chosen to exercise her clemency power to spare Mr Smith.
Speaker 1:The execution was lawfully carried out by nitrogen hafixia, the method previously requested by Mr Smith as an alternate to lethal injection. A day earlier, the Supreme Court had also declined to intervene in a lawyer's appeal of a separate case in which they had argued that trying to execute Mr Smith a second time amounted to unconstitutional, cruel and unusual punishment, partly because of how harrowing the 2020 execution attempt had been. Mr Smith's case is unique in part because the jury that convicted him of murder in 1996 also voted 11-1 to sentence him to life in prison rather than death, but the judge actually overruled their decision and Alabama has since made it illegal for judges to overrule juries that have recommended life sentences, a prohibition that now exists in every state, but the new law does not apply to previous cases. Smith's spiritual advisor, the Reverend Jeff Hood, was in the room doing the execution and said that he had watched minutes of someone struggling for their life. He said earlier on Thursday that Mr Smith was graysly afraid of execution going wrong. He is terrified that this thing is going to completely torture him, hood said before the execution, mr Smith had said his last meal on Thursday a T-bone steak, hash brown eggs, all from Waffle House and a slaughtered with steak sauce. Prison officials said, to reduce the likelihood that Mr Smith vomited during the execution, he would not be permitted to eat after 10 am. Now, before the execution on Thursday, white House spokesmen declined to comment on this. This is a state-level case and I won't speak on details in this particular case, said spokeswoman Olivia Dalton, adding that the President Biden had broad concerns about how debt penalty was implemented and whether or not it is consistent with our values of fairness and justice. Biden campaigned on ending the federal debt penalty after it was resurrected by President Donald Trump and under Biden, the Justice Department has instituted a moratorium on federal executions, but the Department also said this month that it would seek the debt penalty against a white gunman who fatally shot 10 black people in the racist attack in Buffalo, new York grocery store.
Speaker 1:Alabama's first use of nitrogen gas comes after several botched or difficult lethal injections in which executioners struggled to find veins on the men they were trying to put to death. In 2022, executioners tried for hours to access John Nathan James veins, ultimately slicing it into one of his arms, and that is known as a cut down in the order of the administrator to fatal drugs. According to a private autopsy, since 2018, three death row prisoners in the state, including Mr Smith, have survived execution attempts because of the difficulty of inserting in intravenous lines. Four days after failing to execute Mr Smith in 2022, governor IVA Republican halted all executions in the state and asked the prison system of Alabama Department of Corrections to review his procedures. The state resumed executing people in 2023.
Speaker 1:Killing two men by lethal injection. In Thursday's execution, one of the murderous victim's son, michael Smith, who witnessed this vote, briefly to reporters and that is what you heard in the previous recording Nothing that happened here today is going to bring back mom. He said. It's kind of a bittersweet. We're going to. We're not going to be jumping around hooting and hollering and all that. That is not us. We're just glad this day is over Now. For context, ms Sinead was stabbed 10 times in the attack by Smith and another man. According to court documents, her husband, charles Sinead Jr, have recruited the men to handle her killing and, in turn, recruited Smith as a third man. Smith arranged he arranged the murder and in part to collect on an insurance policy that had been taken out of his wife. According to court records he had been. He promised the men $1000 each for to kill his wife. Mr Sinead later killed himself. One of the other men involved in the motor was executed by a lethal injection in 2010 and the other was sentenced to life in prison and died in 2020.
Speaker 1:So I think I said on a previous episode that I do not agree with the death penalty, not because I don't think that people have done things so egregious that they deserve to die.
Speaker 1:That's not my objection at all. My objection is, from more of a libertarian stance, that I'm not sure if the state has the right to kill its citizens just because they were born there. And this is a precedent that was said a long time ago that we did somewhat agree to the fact that if somebody had done things egregious that they did not deserve to be alive and that we were going to give the state powers to do this thing. And I have said for years, when you look at everything that comes with the system although this, this case seems to be clear cut, but when you look at how many people are in prison and how much things have gotten wrong People serving several twenty to twenty, seven, thirty year sentences for DNA to come back years later to say they were innocent, a case where a twelve year old child was executed to later on be found innocent I don't trust the system enough to be putting life and death in the hands of the legislator.
Speaker 1:But, at any rate, this is the hill that we have now walked over, and I don't think that we have decided to turn around and take another course. So it is now official Alabama has become number one at something besides poverty and everything else they are number one at, and they are become number one at being the first to kill someone using hydrogen A very morbid way to end the show, I would think. So I'm not going to do that to you out in with a blast or an intellectual pass as we wrap up this episode of the Jerome McClain show. Did you ever think about going into politics?
Speaker 5:No, no, never, never. Because there are two. The compromise begins immediately. That system is so broken. First of all, the money raising. You have to raise a lot of money. You have to make a lot of compromises with yourself just to go to the meetings with those people, just to sit down and talk to them. You have to Abase yourself in front of them. I need fifty thousand dollars. You could write me a check of fifty. And then you make these little tacit promises or direct promises and the minute you're elected you have to start that process over again. And along the way it's all broken. The electoral college is broken, the primary system is broken. It's all ridiculous. There's gerrymandering, all the redistricting. Whoever's in power gets to redistrict to keep. It's just broken, broken, broken, broken, broken right down the line. And the sooner they're elected like I say, they have to start, we'll be careful what we do. What did the polls say? Okay, polls say that We've got a reelection coming three years and a half. You know it's all like no.
Speaker 1:Imagine a system of politicians wouldn't be able to say one thing during the election and do the exact opposite once in office. Liquid democracy can injure mandering, fight corruption and restore trust in politics. Now that's real democracy. Now we don't actually have a platform now to turn their reality into a vision.
Speaker 8:With this campaign, I hope to upgrade our Congress to be more reflective of the people and more responsive to the people in real time. When I say hi, I'm David.
Speaker 9:I'm running for office. They say what are you running about? I say I'm running to end corruption, to fight corruption, to make our democracy much less corrupt. That was very simple headline. For a lot of people that was like oh, exactly, that's what we need. It seemed like everyone could agree with that. Some people they'd want to get into more details, and so then we'd have this conversation about what 21st democracy could look like.
Speaker 8:How we could elect candidates who commit to making decisions based on how people would vote on a digital platform that every American has the right to own, their communication power options, decision making and accountability. As 21st century citizens, we're still interacting with 19th century institutions and 15th century information technology. That status quo might be serving some, but it's certainly not serving everyone, and I think that technology has a major role to play on the future of democracy. If I were to be elected, I would be the first member of Congress to make decisions based on how people vote on an open source, secure digital platform.
Speaker 10:I wanted to ask you your first article you wrote when, in February of 19,? Was it 39? How old were you? Ten, ten years old. So I want to go back to this first article. It was on the fall of the first one. I remember Maybe another the fall of Barcelona to Franco. Yeah, so you were talking about fascism and fascist forces.
Speaker 6:I remember I'm sure it was not a very memorable article. I hope it's been destroyed, do you see? It's not really part of it. It began by concern about the apparently inexorable spread of fascism Austria, czechoslovakia, toledo, spain, barcelona which was quite significant. That's the end of the Spanish Revolution that took place in February of 1939. And it looked like it was just going to go on. It was very frightening at the time.
Speaker 10:Do you think it's accurate to use the word fascism or talk about the rise of fascism in the United States?
Speaker 6:Well, fascism has become kind of a scare word. But many of the aspects of fascism are not far below the surface. You go back to say the 1940s. Robert Brady, great political economist Viblanite political economist, wrote a book called Business as a System of Power in which he argued that in all of the state capitalist economies so-called capitalist economies, really state capitalists there were developments towards some of the institutional structures of fascism. He was not thinking of concentration camps and crematorium, just the nature of the institutional structures. And that was not entirely false. Could you move towards what Bertrand Gross around 1980 called friendly fascism? So fascist-type structures without the crematorium, which is not a core, necessary part of fascism, could happen.
Speaker 6:We should recall that through the 1930s the fascist regimes had a pretty favorable attitude towards them in the West and Mussolini was called by Roosevelt, that admirable Italian gentleman who was maybe misled by Hitler. In 1932, one of the main business magazines, I think Forbes, had an article with the headline front page story. The headline was the whops are unwobbing themselves. Finally, the Italians are getting their act together. Under Mussolini the trains were running on time, that sort of thing. The business community was quite supportive as late as the late 1930s. The US State Department was, I can't actually say supporting Hitler, but saying we ought to tolerate Hitler because he's a moderate standing between the extremes of right and left. We've heard that before. He's destroying the labor movement, which is a good thing, getting rid of the communists and socialists is fine. There's right wing elements, ultra-nationalist elements at the other extreme. He's kind of controlling them, so we should have a kind of a tolerant attitude toward him. Actually, the most interesting case is a George Kennett, great Brewer diplomat. He was the American consul in Berlin and as late as the 1941, he was still writing pretty favorable comments about Hitler, saying it shouldn't be too severe. There were some good things there.
Speaker 6:We associate fascism now with the real horror stories of the Holocaust and so on. That's not the way fascism was regarded. It was even more strongly supported by the British business community that could do business with them. There was a largely business-run regime which was a lot of support in Germany because of the. It did create something like full employment through indebtedness and military spending and was winning victories. Could we move in that direction? It's been recognized.
Speaker 6:You can read it right now in mainstream journals asking will the elements of grosses friendly fascism be instituted in a country like the United States. And it's not new. Maybe 10 years ago there was an interesting article in Foreign Affairs, a main establishment journal, by Fritz Stern, one of the major German historians of Germany. It was called Descent into Barbarism. He was discussing the way Germany deteriorated from what was in fact maybe the peak of Western civilization in the 1920s into the utter depths of history 10 years later. His article was written with an eye on the United States. This was the Bush administration, not today. He was saying. He didn't say where Bush's Hitler was saying that, but he was saying there were signs that we should pay attention to. He said I sometimes have concern for the country that rescues me from fascism.
Speaker 10:Let's see what's happening. And do you see the Donald Trump's attack on the press as part of that trend toward fascism, his calling the press the enemy of the people?
Speaker 6:It's dangerous, but Nixon did the same thing. You remember the Agnew and so on. Yes, it's dangerous, but I think it's well short of what we regard as fascism. But it's not to be dismissed, and I think we can easily see how a if there had been a charismatic figure in the United States who could mobilize fears of anger, racism, a sense of loss of the future that belongs to us, this country could be in real danger. We're lucky that there never has been an honest, charismatic figure. Mccarthy was too much of a thug, nixon was too crooked, trump, I think, is too much of a clown. So we've been lucky, but we're not going to be lucky forever necessarily.
Speaker 10:MR-BR았 Jimin.