Stone, Flynn and Bannon seem like more likely candidates IMO.

Totally agree

Richard J. Evans
Ian Kershaw
Adam Tooze
Richard Overy
Antony Beevor
Max Hastings

Although I do think with Ian Tolle, Christopher Browning and Timothy Snyder (and Anne Applebaum and Stephen Kotkin--at least on Stalin) we are catching up.

Thank you, Malaise!

You deserve another heart for that.



For what it's worth, Shirer's book is sixty years old.

Richard J. Evans' Third Reich Trilogy is a recent, comprehensive history that contains tons of information that was unavailable in in the 1950s. It is unlikely to be surpassed in terms of sheer scholarship, depth, and explaining and documenting the ascent, reign and collapse of the Reich. (It's just very, very long)

In terms of how Hitler acquired power, a more current history has been written by Benjamin Carter Hett in his minor masterpiece The Death of Democracy: Hitler's Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic. He highlights all the modern parallels.

That sure as hell caught my ear too.

It definitely can happen

It happens even in very serious criminal trials, where the defense argument is basically: "The prosecution clearly hasn't met its burden of proof." And they make a closing argument without ever presenting a case.

IIRC, the defense for Michael Lee King in the murder of Denise Amber Lee (a death penalty case, no less!) didn't present a defense, but during the penalty phase they did call character witnesses in mitigation. Of course it is their right not to mount a defense, but it always blows my mind when it happens, especially in a capital case. And the jury is not allowed to draw any negative inference from it.

Of course this is different because it's an impeachment trial in front of the senate and the legal parameters are different.

Does "The Happening" count?

Art Bell used to use this song as bumper music for his all-night talk show, and it's just irresistible!

Not so crazy.

Your post reminds me about the Holly Bobo murder case. Only in that case they told the dumbest of the four suspects to "get rid of her clothes" (and purse and other items), believing that was one simple task he might be capable of, and he drove to where one of the other suspects lived and scattered her things on the road in front of his trailer, leading investigators right to one of the scenes of the crime.

When I see a lone shoe on the road I sometimes think about a vechicular abduction, with someone who was walking being dragged into a vehicle. I guess I've listened to too many episodes of "Forensic Files"

"We don't want lower bread prices, we don't want higher bread prices..."

Your post and Turbineguy's below reminded me of this passage on page 197 from The Death of Democracy by Benjamin Carter Hett

From the Wikipedia entry on Q Clearances:

This isn't worth a long response:

1. Most of the discussion of the Nazis is in reference to the authoritarian playbook, which didn't even originate with Hitler, and has been used for the last 100 years. The enablers are a key facilitator of the rise of the dictator, so it's quite sensible to compare Trump's enablers to Hitler's enablers (or Mussolini's, Stalin's, Pinochet's, Franco's enablers)

2. The second important analogy is how Hitler acquired power, turning a functioning democracy into a dictatorship. You may not think it is a good analogy, but great thinkers do. Timothy Snyder does. Ruth Ben-Ghiat does. Benjamin Carter Hett wrote an entire book just about this. Richard J. Evans, the greatest Third Reich scholar of all time, thinks it is.

(I've already wasted too much time)

3. Lastly, the psychiatrists... And I don't have time to look them all up but it only takes Google. The crucial thing is that Hitler and Trump were both malignant narcissists. For that reason, they do believe in making this comparison. One of the psychiatrists interviewed for #UNFIT (the documentary) said, to paraphrase: People get upset with me for comparing Trump to Hitler, but I do do it, and I'm going to keep doing it. Why? Because their diagnosis is the same.

Trump is more dangerous than Hitler, says a forensic psychiatrist
https://www.geo.tv/latest/316907-trump-is-more-dangerous-than-adolf-hitler

Anybody who will listen, I tell them the same thing:

If you want to understand the politics of what is happening as authoritarians attempt to overthrow democracies from Hungary and Poland to India, Brazil and the United States, there is no better template to study than the ascent of the Third Reich (starting with the conclusion of WWI). The details may differ, the regime may be left or right, but the entire thing is right there. I would go even further and say, "You only have to study the ascent of the Third Reich" to understand the appeal of authoritarianism and the danger to democracy it poses. It is IMO one of the most well spent uses of time I can think of: Study WW2 in general and the ascent of The Third Reich particularly.

That's my two cents on this.

Yale psychiatrist Bandy Lee says Trump worse than Hitler: 'At least Hitler ... had discipline'
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/nov/2/bandy-lee-yale-psychiatrist-says-trump-worse-than-/

Some Books:

The Death of Democracy by Benjamin Carter Hett is a good place to start.
Strongmen by Ruth Ben-Ghiat is a good place to start.
The Road to Unfreedom by Timothy Snyder is a good second place to go.
Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning, by Timothy Snyder