Whiner’s

Bet family reunions are tough

Beginning in 1943, the War Department published a series of pamphlets for U.S. Army personnel in the European theater of World War II. Titled Army Talks, the series was designed “to help [the personnel] become better-informed men and women and therefore better soldiers.”
On March 24, 1945, the topic for the week was “FASCISM!”
“You are away from home, separated from your families, no longer at a civilian job or at school and many of you are risking your very lives,” the pamphlet explained, “because of a thing called fascism.” But, the publication asked, what is fascism? “Fascism is not the easiest thing to identify and analyze,” it said, “nor, once in power, is it easy to destroy. It is important for our future and that of the world that as many of us as possible understand the causes and practices of fascism, in order to combat it.”
Fascism, the U.S. government document explained, “is government by the few and for the few. The objective is seizure and control of the economic, political, social, and cultural life of the state.” “The people run democratic governments, but fascist governments run the people.”
“The basic principles of democracy stand in the way of their desires; hence—democracy must go! Anyone who is not a member of their inner gang has to do what he’s told. They permit no civil liberties, no equality before the law.” “Fascism treats women as mere breeders. ‘Children, kitchen, and the church,’ was the Nazi slogan for women,” the pamphlet said.
Fascists “make their own rules and change them when they choose…. They maintain themselves in power by use of force combined with propaganda based on primitive ideas of ‘blood’ and ‘race,’ by skillful manipulation of fear and hate, and by false promise of security. The propaganda glorifies war and insists it is smart and ‘realistic’ to be pitiless and violent.”
Fascists understood that “the fundamental principle of democracy—faith in the common sense of the common people—was the direct opposite of the fascist principle of rule by the elite few,” it explained, “[s]o they fought democracy…. They played political, religious, social, and economic groups against each other and seized power while these groups struggled.”
Americans should not be fooled into thinking that fascism could not come to America, the pamphlet warned; after all, “[w]e once laughed Hitler off as a harmless little clown with a funny mustache.” And indeed, the U.S. had experienced “sorry instances of mob sadism, lynchings, vigilantism, terror, and suppression of civil liberties. We have had our hooded gangs, Black Legions, Silver Shirts, and racial and religious bigots. All of them, in the name of Americanism, have used undemocratic methods and doctrines which…can be properly identified as ‘fascist.’”
The War Department thought it was important for Americans to understand the tactics fascists would use to take power in the United States. They would try to gain power “under the guise of ‘super-patriotism’ and ‘super-Americanism.’” And they would use three techniques:
First, they would pit religious, racial, and economic groups against one another to break down national unity. Part of that effort to divide and conquer would be a “well-planned ‘hate campaign’ against minority races, religions, and other groups.”
Second, they would deny any need for international cooperation, because that would fly in the face of their insistence that their supporters were better than everyone else. “In place of international cooperation, the fascists seek to substitute a perverted sort of ultra-nationalism which tells their people that they are the only people in the world who count. With this goes hatred and suspicion toward the people of all other nations.”
Third, fascists would insist that “the world has but two choices—either fascism or communism, and they label as ‘communists’ everyone who refuses to support them.”
It is “vitally important” to learn to spot native fascists, the government said, “even though they adopt names and slogans with popular appeal, drape themselves with the American flag, and attempt to carry out their program in the name of the democracy they are trying to destroy.”
The only way to stop the rise of fascism in the United States, the document said, “is by making our democracy work and by actively cooperating to preserve world peace and security.” In the midst of the insecurity of the modern world, the hatred at the root of fascism “fulfills a triple mission.” By dividing people, it weakens democracy. “By getting men to hate rather than to think,” it prevents them “from seeking the real cause and a democratic solution to the problem.” By falsely promising prosperity, it lures people to embrace its security.
“Fascism thrives on indifference and ignorance,” it warned. Freedom requires “being alert and on guard against the infringement not only of our own freedom but the freedom of every American. If we permit discrimination, prejudice, or hate to rob anyone of his democratic rights, our own freedom and all democracy is threatened.”
Heather Cox Richardson

UH OH: One of the top MAGA conservative accounts just DUMPED Trump, and APOLOGIZED to sane Americans. ENJOY: “You did try to warn us about Trump. You screamed and yelled from the mountaintops that he was not what he presented himself to be, and I, like many, refused to listen. I mocked you. I laughed at you when he won. I felt entitled to his victory because I dedicated eight years of my life to his campaign. My eyes are now open. This is not the man I voted for.
When I’m wrong, I say I’m wrong. I am sorry. I apologize.”
@ThePatrioticBlonde

The Minnesota Department of Human Services employee account on X — representing more than 480 current state workers — didn’t mince words.

“Tim Walz is 100% responsible for massive fraud in Minnesota,” they wrote. “We let Tim Walz know of fraud early on, hoping for a partnership in stopping fraud but no, we got the opposite response. Tim Walz systematically retaliated against whistleblowers using monitoring, threats, repression, and did his best to discredit fraud reports.”

Internal DHS employees claim Walz’s appointees “willfully disregarded rules and laws to keep fraud reports quiet” and threatened whistleblowers’ families.

Republicans Sell Out Iowa Farmers
Trump had two big promises for farmers this year and, unfortunately, both of them are turning out to be as hollow as his promises to turn profits at casinos and sell digital currencies. The first was that he’d be using a bunch of his tariff money to make whole any farmers who were negatively impacted by his trade war. But this past week, he announced just $11 billion in funding for that support. For those who remember 2018, that’s less than half of the $23 billion he authorized during his first round of trade wars. An economist with North Dakota State University estimated that farmers will lose between $35 billion and $43 billion over his trade war this year alone, so you can do the math on whether that’s actually making them whole. And, of course, it really pales in comparison to the $40 billion in assistance that he pledged to his friends in Argentina just a few weeks ago.
His second whopper was that his Treasury Secretary (and self-declared soybean farmer) Scott Bessent and team had forged a new agreement with China for them to start buying American soybeans again. Trump promised that China would buy 12 million metric tons of our soybeans by the end of December. As of this week, they’ve bought less than 3 million tons. When asked about the discrepancy, team Trump said that the 12 million tons would be purchased by the end of the 2025 growing season. When asked when that would be, they replied that they defined it as the end of February 2026. Even assuming that China buys the full 12 million (which isn’t a great bet), that’s still far less than the 26.8 million metric tons they bought from us in 2024.
For anyone who has been outside our metro bubbles, you’d know that Iowans have been bearing the brunt of this all year. Donnelle Eller had an eye-opening summary in the Register that’s more than worth the read (link in the comments below). She noted that Iowa farmers filed the second-largest number of bankruptcies in the nation in the first half of this year. Iowa State University’s hotline for farmers struggling with financial and mental health challenges reported that they received three times as many calls this September when compared to September 2024. A farm mediation service said they were helping with 40% more cases this year compared to last. An agricultural mediation specialist was startled by how many farmers were talking about committing suicide. He noted, “just in the last month, I’ve had three people say the only way they see a way out” is to pay off their debts “through their insurance proceeds.”
All of this is a perfect storm for Iowa farmers. The Register found that Iowa farmers are expected to see a 24% decline in farm income in 2026. The American Bankers Association surveyed 450 agricultural lenders and found that only 48% thought farmers would turn a profit across the Corn Belt next year. The costs of farm equipment are hitting record-highs and the manufacturers of farm implements are shutting factories across the Midwest. A staggering number of farmers over 70 are finding that younger folks in their family are skeptical of a future in farming and thus taking over the operations. A sizable number of Iowa farmers get their health insurance from the Affordable Care Act, with premiums set to double or even triple after Republicans refused to extend the existing subsidies for it.
To add insult to injury, our House Dems team was combing through the Republican DOGE report for Iowa and noticed that they proposed several cuts, including the potential defunding for 4-H programs in Iowa. We pointed it out, Iowa Republicans forcefully pushed back and said none of it was true. We offered citations and asked them to prove us wrong. So far, we’ve only heard crickets. For a party who claims they center their attentions on Iowa farmers, they sure have a funny way of showing it.
Representative Sean Bagniewski

Yay, gas prices are lower. Now it costs us less to go to the grocery store where we pay outrageously high prices that trump say are the lowest ever. Affordability is a democratic hoax.