The Roundup

More protests in Israel and Germany, the New Hampshire primary election, The Lincoln Project's God Made a Dictator video, those sores on Trump's hand and much more!

More Protests in Israel and Germany

For the second weekend in a row there have been protests demanding the ouster of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and calling for new elections. They are especially upset about the revelation that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knew that Hamas was going to launch terrorist attacks in Israel before October 7 but didn't do much to prevent it. Here's a photo of the large crowds at that protest.

Meanwhile, some of the most pro-Israel lawmakers in the US are losing patience with Netanyahu over his handling of the war against Hamas.

This past weekend there were also protests in Germany against the Alternative for Germany (known by its German acronym AfD), a far-right party that has close ties with the Kremlin. What brought about these protests was the revelation that senior AfD members discussed a plan to deport migrants en masse, which have been compared by critics to what the Nazis once did to innocent civilians (such as Jews).

Some Groups are Supporting the Palestinians Because They Hate the Jews

There are two types of people who are currently concerned about the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza. One is people who are legitimately horrified by the indiscriminate bombing that's being perpetrated by Benjamin Netanyahu's government. The other is made up of antisemites who are only siding with the Palestinians because they hate the Jews. One such example is this recent Twitter/X post by an account called Stop Zionist Hate that tweeted about Elon Musk and Ben Shapiro's recent visit to Auschwitz, which they described as a “town that allegedly witnessed genocide.” Then they directed their message at Twitter/X owner Elon Musk asking him if he plans to visit Gaza to see the genocide happening now.

Basically Stop Zionist Hate is saying that there's a genocide happening in Gaza while, at the same time, they are engaging in Holocaust denial. After all what really happened at Auschwitz all those years ago is thoroughly documented with film, photographs, eyewitness accounts, and meticulous record keeping by the Nazis themselves. There's nothing “alleged” about the systematic mass murders that actually took place there.

If you are concerned about the plight of the Palestinians, be extremely careful of whop you follow online and what protests you attend in real life. Some of these groups are only pretending to care about the Palestinians because they hate the Jews and it gives them an opportunity for them to be openly antisemitic against the Jews under the guise of “stopping the genocide in Gaza.” In fact, there is now such a thing as October 7 denial and various far-right groups infiltrating the Ceasefire Now protests in an effort to recruit new members to their ranks.

US Election News

Donald Trump won the New Hampshire primary last night. On the surface, it seems like bad news for the future of American democracy.

The news suddenly got dramatic before the New Hampshire Republican primary election even started. On Sunday Florida Governor Ron DeSantis decided to suspend his campaign. So the race has suddenly wound down to just Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, and Ryan Binkley and it's still early in the elections. (I only knew that Ryan Binkley is running because of this article in Politico. I have never heard of this guy before. If you’re a Republican who doesn't want to vote for either Trump or Haley and you're seriously considering voting for him and you want to learn more, here is his official website and this interview he gave for The Guardian.) Usually you wouldn't get such a dramatic narrowing down of candidates until after Super Tuesday. But, then again, this is not an ordinary election year.

Despite Trump's second victory in a row, it doesn't mean that Trump will ultimately win the Republican nomination then the presidency. Far from it. So far it looks like Haley and Binkley are staying in the race for the time being. Trump's niece, Mary Trump, made her own Substack post where she cited Republican voters in New Hampshire who said that they voted for Nikki Haley because they can't stand the thought of Trump getting the nomination. Many of the Haley voters have said that they would vote for Biden in the general election over Trump.

Then there are the numerous court cases that Trump is facing while he's running at the same time. But there are other reasons why it's far from inevitable that Trump will be reelected president in November. You can learn more about them below.

God Made a Dictator

In 1978 the late radio news commentator Paul Harvey gave a speech at a meeting of the Future Farmers of America in Kansas City, Missouri called So God Made a Farmer.

Thirty-five years later Dodge would use a recording of Harvey's speech for this ad selling its Ram Truck, which first aired during the 2013 Super Bowl.

Fast forward to 2024. Donald Trump decided to have his campaign create his own ad using a speech that was similar in both words and speech pattern to Harvey's So God Made a Farmer speech. With Paul Harvey being unavailable (because he died in 2009), a soundalike voice actor was hired to provide the narration for this ad, which says outright that God had sent Trump to fix the US, fight the mythical Deep State, and a whole bunch of other things.

The Lincoln Project responded with a video of its own, God Made a Dictator, which chillingly empathizes one of Trump's big campaign promises to rule as a dictator only on Day 1 of his second term as president. (Given Trump's long history of lying, you can be damned sure that he would rule as a dictator for far longer than only one day.)

Hopefully that Lincoln Project video will nip that whole God Made… video trend in the bud so Paul Harvey can continue to rest in peace.

Nazi Rally at the Madison Square Garden in New York City

While we're speaking about The Lincoln Project, that group released an earlier video which showed highlights from the infamous 1939 pro-Nazi rally that took place in Madison Square Garden in New York City. It shows how close the US got to being a Nazi country back then and how close it will be for American democracy to be destroyed if Donald Trump is reelected in November.

About Trump's Mental Fitness and Those Sores on Trump's Hand

There have been concerns about Trump's health and whether he will even make it to the general election in November should he win the Republican nomination. His high fat fast food diet and his lack of exercise are bad enough but there have also been concerns about the state of Trump's mental health. Trump's own father had died from Alzheimer's disease and there are concerns that he may have the same thing, especially after making this recent incoherent speech.

Here is Trump in New Hampshire last week confusing one of his Republican rivals, Nikki Haley, with former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Then there is the photo of the sores on Trump's hand that were visible when he waved. You’d think that he would have covered them in bandages before he went out in public but he didn't. Now there is speculation as to whether he has syphilis, since having a breakout of cold sores is one symptom of that sexually transmitted disease.

I found this video that not only fully explains the symptoms of syphilis but also offers other potential explanations for the condition of Trump's hand.

I found another video that explains why the sores on Trump's hand doesn't necessarily mean that he has syphilis.

It wouldn't be a surprise if Trump has a sexually transmitted disease because he has long been sexually promiscuous. He cheated on all three of his wives. And there are the accusations of rape and sexual assault of girls and women. He was even recorded bragging about grabbing women by the pussy. And it's very likely that Trump rarely or never used a condom so he would have further exposed himself to catching syphilis, gonorrhea, AIDS, or other sexually transmitted diseases.

The Russian propagandists on Russian state TV have come up with their own explanation for those sores: Donald Trump had burned his own hand while ironing.

There's one thing wrong with that explanation. Donald Trump was born in 1946. He grew up in the 1950s, which was an era in the US when women were encouraged to stay home and be housewives. Household chores were segregated by gender. Men were expected to mow the lawn, wash the family car, work on anything related to hardware (such as woodworking projects) and take out the trash. Women were responsible for the cooking, cleaning, child care, and doing the laundry, which included ironing the clothes. As a male, Donald Trump would not have been expected to have anything to do with an iron. On top of it, Trump grew up in a wealthy family, due to the family's successful real estate company. It's very likely that the family employed a household servant or two to handle the ironing chores so Trump's mother and sisters wouldn't have to do it themselves.

In a nutshell, an iron probably had nothing to do with those sores on Trump's hand. It's hilarious to see the effort that the Russian propagandists go through to explain the sores on Trump's hand that have little to no basis in reality.

Trump Goes Into the Racist Zone

During one of his speeches in New Hampshire this past weekend Donald Trump did to one of his rivals, Nikki Haley, what he did to then-President Barak Obama back in 2011. Just as Obama's father was born in Kenya, both of Haley's parents were born in India. Once again Trump used the parentage of a rival to cast doubt on whether Nikki Haley is even a US citizen, which would make her ineligible to run for president under the US Constitution. Never mind the fact that Nikki Haley, like Barack Obama, was born in the United States.

And that's not to mention the fact that had the families of both Obama and Haley immigrated from northern European countries (such as Germany, Scandinavia, or the British Isles) and they both had been born with perfectly white skin, Trump would not even question their US citizenship at all.

At this point it's not shocking that he's a racist. That trait goes back decades. What is shocking is the number of people he has attracted by catering to their own internal racism. These are the people who are motivated enough by their own hate to vote for a person who doesn't have a specific policy that could help make their lives easier (such as access to low cost health care or a free jobs training program to retrain them for new opportunities in tech and other fields) and is more likely to help billionaires avoid paying taxes than help ordinary folks with just getting by. Many of them will vote for Trump in the Republican primary. If he wins the nomination, many of them will vote for him over Joe Biden. That is how much Donald Trump has tapped into their hate.

And all of that tapped hate is providing opportunities for those who are siding with Russia in its war on Ukraine. Right now there is a fundraising campaign aimed at Donald Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement that is raising money for what it calls “Russian humanitarian aid,” even though the campaign doesn't define what kind of humanitarian aid it intends to provide. If a person donates enough money to that fundraiser, that person can have a customized signed North Korean-made shell that will be aimed at Ukrainian targets. This particular shell pictured says “MAGA Trump 2024 Communism.”

That is so reminiscent of Jackson Hinkle promoting “MAGA Communism,” which is an oxymoron because Trump has never been a communist and there's nothing particularly communistic about his MAGA movement.

What Could Happen If Trump Loses the 2024 Election

Donald Trump said that he will deny the result of the 2024 election if he loses.

It's just like what he said in 2016 and 2020. He won the 2016 election so his threat was moot. He ended up not recognizing the 2020 result, which led to the storming of the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021. To this day he has refused to concede that election, making him the first losing president to ever do that. If he loses this year, you can expect more of the same, along with potential violence from his most devoted supporters. There are only two ways that this can be averted: 1) Trump gets sentenced to prison before November and/or 2) as a desperate last resort to stay out of prison, Trump flees the country to either Russia or Saudi Arabia or some other country that has no extradition treaty with the United States.

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