"The revelations of this man's crimes": Adolf Hitler and the Depraved Nazis in Private Life

In the past few years, there have been a number of articles and books on Hitler's private life and his inner circle, not least in the Historie monthly, Denmark's History magazine, and the Claude Quétel book Dans l’intimité d’Hitler (les manies d’un dictateur).

There is much to learn about the Hitler Family and its descendants, including Geli Raubal and Romano Lukas Hitler, along with, needless to say, Eva Braun, Adolf Hitler’s Mistress, Wife, And Suicide Partner — not to mention Hitler's majordomo, Heinz Linge, his personal pilot, Hans Baur, and his secretary (about which, more below).

"Hitler Joins U.S. Navy"

The most interesting member of the Hitler family is perhaps the one who gave rise to the World War II-era newspaper account titled "Hitler Joins U.S. Navy." It turned out not to be Adolf, of course, but Adolf's half-nephew William P. Hitler, who was born and grew up in the British Isles, emigrating eventually to the U.S. not long before Pearl Harbor where he indeed joined the American military during the conflict. (No details on whether William Patrick Hitler served in the Atlantic Ocean, i.e., in the European theater against Germany, or in the Pacific theater — something which seems to be of some importance; by comparison, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team composed of Japanese-American troops [the most decorated unit of the war] did not see action in the Pacific but in Europe.)

Beyond that, we have information on Hitler's book, Mein Kampf, on Nazi propaganda, on Hitler's Supporters, on Hitler's election, on Kristalnacht, on Hitler's death in The Führerbunker — Adolf Hitler’s Final Hideout — and on conspiracy theories about the Führer's death (or fate). (Some of the hyperlinks point to articles in French, which can be copy/pasted into a translation app.)

Expanding further, also beyond World War II, we have information about the Mussolini years, about how il Duce was the socialist who invented fascism, about the original significance of the Swastika, about Franco, about the 1934 World Cup, and about the time when the IRA became the ally of Hitler's Germany.

What is perhaps most interesting is the extent to which just about all of the top Nazis turned out to be perverts (remember the brownshirts' Ernst Röhm?), with their fixations on, say, the Third Reich's female movie stars (see the Isabelle Mity investigation). This leads to Reed Tucker's New York post article, The twisted sex lives of Nazis — and the women who loved them…

Le rôle des grandes actrices de cinéma pendant le IIIe Reich décrypté dans l'enquête d'Isabelle Mity…
Let Hitler's secretary bring this story together, as recounted by Jean-Jacques Allevi in the Géo monthly:

"After the revelations of this man's crimes, I will live until my last hour with the feeling of having been an accomplice..." Traudl Junge, Hitler's naive and carefree secretary, delivers this confession in her memories (Until the Final Hour), which inspired the film Downfall. Until her death, she will be prey to guilt, undermined by depression taking her back to the time when she lived in the intimacy of the Führer.

 ... When Hitler goes looking for a new secretary, she is summoned with other employees. Is it her youth, her Munich origins, or her resemblance to Eva Braun? The fact remains that she is recruited to take down the Führer's words in shorthand. “From then on, there were few days when I did not see Hitler, work and share my meals with him. »

At 22, she accompanies him everywhere, to his Berghof chalet, to the Wolf's Lair, his Prussian haunt... She participates in the daily life of the “leader's” inner circle: “Hitler was charming. A simple and good-humored host who entertains in his country house… We laughed a lot.” Fireside discussions sometimes drag on until 6 a.m. without the war or the death camps being discussed. Her role — that of a companion rather than a secretary — becomes burdensome to her. “I had the impression of being a prisoner in a golden cage, from which I would have liked to leave… When I go back, I miss the memory of what was terrible in the world.”

On April 30, 1945, Hitler commits suicide

In 1945, in Hitler's bunker, she celebrated the dictator's birthday on April 20. As a farewell gift, she receives one of the ten poison capsules that the Führer distributes to his loved ones. On April 29, Hitler dictated his will to her. The secretary, who never joined the Nazi party, blackens “the last page of the history of the Reich”. The next day, Hitler committed suicide: “With him disappeared the hypnotic pressure under which we lived. »

... Becoming a member of the cultural forum of the SPD, the social democratic party, she underlined, in 2001, "how easy it was to succumb to the fascination of Hitler and difficult to live knowing that you served a mass criminal. Beautiful facades are often deceptive, it is always worth taking a look behind.” Traudl Junge died in 2002, shortly before the publication of her memories which illustrate “the banality of evil” theorized by Hannah Arendt.

33 Photos Of The Liberation Of Auschwitz, The Nazi Concentration Camp Where More Than A Million People Were Killed

Here is the French original of Jean-Jacques Allevi's text in Géo.

« Après les révélations sur les crimes de cet homme, je vivrai jusqu’à ma dernière heure avec le sentiment d’avoir été complice…» Traudl Junge, la naïve et insouciante secrétaire d’Hitler, livre cette confession dans ses souvenirs (Dans la tanière du loup, éd. Lattès, 2005), qui ont inspiré le film La Chute. Jusqu’à sa mort, elle sera en proie à la culpabilité, minée par une dépression la ramenant à l’époque où elle vécut dans l’intimité du Führer.

 … Quand Hitler se met en quête d’une nouvelle secrétaire, elle est convoquée avec d’autres employées. Est-ce sa jeunesse, son origine munichoise ou sa ressemblance avec Eva Braun ? Toujours est-il qu’elle est recrutée pour prendre en sténo les paroles du Führer. « A partir de là, rares furent les jours où je n’ai pas vu Hitler, travaillé et partagé mes repas avec lui. »

A 22 ans, elle l’accompagne partout, dans son chalet du Berghof, dans la Tanière du loup, son repère prussien… Elle participe à la vie quotidienne du cercle restreint du « chef » : « Hitler était charmant. Un hôte simple et de bonne humeur qui reçoit dans sa maison de campagne… On riait beaucoup. » Les discussions au coin du feu s’éternisent parfois jusqu’à 6 heures du matin sans que ne soient abordés la guerre ou les camps de la mort. Son rôle – celui d’une dame de compagnie plus que d’une secrétaire – lui devient pesant. « J’avais l’impression d’être une prisonnière dans une cage dorée, dont j’aurais aimé partir… Quand je reviens en arrière, il me manque le souvenir de ce qui se passait d’effroyable dans le monde. »

Le 30 avril 1945, Hitler se suicide

En 1945, dans le bunker d’Hitler, elle célèbre le 20 avril l’anniversaire du dictateur. En guise de cadeau d’adieu, elle reçoit l’une des dix capsules de poison que le Führer distribue à ses proches. Le 29 avril, Hitler lui dicte son testament. La secrétaire, qui n’a jamais adhéré au parti nazi, noircit « la dernière page de l’histoire du Reich ». Le lendemain, Hitler se suicide : « Avec lui a disparu la pression hypnotique sous laquelle nous avons vécu. »

 … Devenue membre du forum culturel du SPD, le parti social-démocrate, elle souligne, en 2001, « combien il était facile de succomber à la fascination d’Hitler et difficile de vivre sachant que l’on a servi un criminel de masse. Les belles façades sont souvent trompeuses, cela vaut toujours la peine de jeter un coup d’œil derrière. » Traudl Junge est décédée en 2002, peu de temps avant la publication de ses souvenirs qui illustrent « la banalité du mal » théorisée par Hannah Arendt.

 

Related: • 卐mas Caroling: The Extremes Hitler Wanted to Go To in Order to Replace Christianity with the "Religion" of National Socialism.

• Adolf Hitler in Religious Surroundings: Is There Really Evidence That the Führer Was a Christian?

• Worshipping Little Else But the Aryan Race, Hitler Abhorred the Christian Faith and Wanted to Replace Christmas with the Pagans' Yule

• "Out With Jesus" — During His 12 Years in Power, Hitler Tried to Ban the Tradition of Christmas

• "Hitler remained to the end a socialist"; the Führer "was totally irreligious and" wanted to hang the Pope in St Peter's Square

• Jonah Goldberg: Just for the record, Hitler detested Christianity

• Ray Comfort, whose “Hitler, God and the Bible” points out Hitler devised a master strategy to crush all Christian churches, explains that it would be either ignorant or disingenuous to call Hitler a Christian:

In a special Christian Broadcasting Network program, Comfort cites the head of Hitler Youth, Boldur von Schirach, who said, “Destruction of Christianity was explicitly recognized as a purpose of the National Socialist Movement.”

 … The CBN program explains how Hitler put on a religious, even Christian, façade, until he became powerful.

 … But later one of his inner circle acknowledged: “I’m absolutely clear in my own mind, and I think I can speak for the Fuhrer as well, that both the Catholic and Protestant churches will vanish from the life of our people.”

• How Hitler's Nazi propaganda machine tried to take Christ out of Christmas

 … the way Christmas was used by the atheist Nazis, who tried to turn it into a pagan winter solstice celebration.

 … 'Christmas was a provocation for the Nazis - after all, the baby Jesus was a Jewish child,' Judith Breuer told the German newspaper Spiegel. 'The most important celebration in the year didn't fit with their racist beliefs so they had to react, by trying to make it less Christian.'

The exhibition includes swastika-shaped cookie-cutters and Christmas tree baubles shaped like Iron Cross medals.

The Nazis attempted to persuade housewives to bake cookies in the shape of swastikas, and they replaced the Christian figure of Saint Nicholas, who traditionally brings German children treats on December 6, with the Norse god Odin.

The symbol that posed a particular problem for the Nazis was the star, which traditionally decorates Christmas trees.

 … The is a legacy of the Nazi Christmas. The wartime version of the traditional Christmas carol 'Unto us a time has come' is still sung. 'The Nazis took out the references to Jesus and made it into a song about walking through the snow,' Breuer said.

Surprisingly, German churches put up little opposition to the Nazification of Christmas. 'You would have expected them to protest loudly and insist that it was a Christian festival,' said Breuer. 'But instead they largely kept quiet, out of fear.'

Quelle était la signification de la croix gammée avant d’être l’emblème du parti nazi ?
svastika ou swastika qui signifie bien-être ou encore bonne fortune en sanskrit

"You Have Wiped Israel Off the Map!" Clash on French TV As Pro-Palestine Speaker Tries to Gaslight the Fact that Her Palestine Logo Has Made Israel Vanish

A conference on Palestine at the university of Lille by one of France's main leftist parties has been shut down after it transpired that the logo of the conference showing a map of the region — a map of, quote, "FREE Palestine" — has made Israel vanish.

More than that: The ban took place in the wake of an LFI poster showing Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Rima Hassan announcing a conference on "the current situation in Palestine" with the word Israel nowhere to be seen and, as mentioned, the Jewish state having totally disappeared in the "FREE Palestine" map (at bottom right).

La France Insoumise (LFI or Unyielding France) is France's most far-left party, a kind of successor to the French Communist Party, with former (?) Communist Jean-Luc Mélenchon as its head and regular presidential candidate.

From the Morandini talk show on the C News channel:

“There is no Israel on the poster. Does that mean that you want Israel to disappear?!” Jean-Marc Morandini asked an LFI representative repeatedly. “But not at all! We want the Palestinian people to be free. The logo is very clear,” replied Karima Khatim, an LFI municipal representative from Blanc-Mesnil.

Very quickly, tempers rose. "You are showing bad faith! You don't understand anything! What this poster shows is the destruction of Israel! Your party is an anti-Semitic party!" charged Karim Maloum. “Sir, just for your words, I could sue you! People are fed up with being called anti-Semites when they [do nothing but] defend the Palestinian cause. We want a two-state solution,” declared Karima Khatim.

"You do?!" retorted Jean-Marc Morandini, again and again. "Really?! Where do you see two states on the poster?! There is a difference between what you say and what we see. Where do you see the two states?!" But he never got an answer from his guest.

"You cannot in any way see the presence of Israel on this poster. All the facts speak against you. You are incapable of recognizing what is going on. You are exasperating the viewers of CNews," said Captain Hervé Moreau.

Check out the Morandini website for the videos: the arguing is in French (naturellement), but it is not hard to understand how Karima Khatim is going ballistic, interrupting everybody, and gaslighting her audience (as well as herself?), claiming that she can't see where there is a problem.

This is the second ban in Europe within the space of a day or two — the other on the other side of the spectrum, concerning a conference on National Conservatism in Brussels.

As it happens, President Macron has announced that he disagrees with the Lille region prefect's ban, stating that 

I am for respecting the laws of la République. Afterwards, as far as I am concerned, I am always in favor of people being able to express themselves freely, even as I am prepared to fight their ideas

But that might seem to smack of double standards: the C News channel is seen as so far to the right (although not with regards to American issues, not to the point of preferring Trump over Biden) that there have been rumors that there are members of the French government who are attempting to shut it down as well.

Related • To Peacenik Protesters Everywhere (Pro-Palestinian or Other): 
The People that Hamas Slaughtered Mercilessly at Israel's Rave — They Are YOU! 

• The Genocide Charge Against Israel: What is
the Difference Between War and Genocide in the First Place?

• A Gary Varvel cartoon on the current Middle East crisis and the truth about its roots

RC : Trump — de la victoire aux primaires à l’investiture officielle lors de la Convention, que peut-il arriver ?

Le 3 avril 2024, Evelyne Joslain reçoit :

• Philippe Karsenty, ancien maire adjoint de Neuilly-sur-Seine, porte-parole des Republicans Overseas in France
• Erik Svane, auteur de bandes dessinées
• Marc Amblard, avocat
• Daniel Clément, médecin

Thème : “Trump : de la victoire aux primaires à l’investiture officielle lors de la Convention, que peut-il arriver ?”

Patron d'émission du Libre journal du Nouveau Monde à Radio Courtoisie, Évelyne Joslain est l'auteur d'une poignée de livres sur les États-Unis et l'Occident. Parmi ceux-ci, son chef d'œuvre est paru il y a queques semaines. 

Voici la revue de livre de La Révolution Culturelle.

Cliquez sur le lien pour entendre l'émission d'une heure et demie…

Photos of World War II's Oskarsborg Fortress During Two Trips up the Oslo Fjord

During the night (i.e., the early morning hours) of April 9, 1940 — 84 years ago today —

Distances from Berlin
to neighboring Denmark
and to Norway

and mounting undeclared surprise attacks, Adolf Hitler invaded his first countries since his takeover of Western Poland in 1939 — thus bringing the first six months' "phony war" to an end. (Never forget that Hitler did not "invade Poland"; he invaded the Western part of Poland, while — two weeks later — his Soviet ally, Stalin, invaded the Eastern part. Nor did Germany "start World War II" (i.e., alone); the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, signed only a week earlier, accomplished that.)

Back to 1940. The direct neighbor of Germany, the tiny flat nation of Denmark, fell only after a few hours. But much further away, the far larger Scandinavian country of Norway, with fjords and mountains and other natural defences, had time — as Commander Salamander has recounted (mange takk til Glenn Reynolds) — to organize a defense as well as the evacuation of Oslo's VIPs, thanks to the Oskarsborg fortress, which managed to sink Germany's most modern battleship as, in the middle of the night, the German fleet attempted to sail up the Oslofjord (120 km in length!) past it in the dark and in total silence with all lights off. This stratagem was unsuccessful, as the fortress and other artillery batteries opened fire. Seeing the Blücher torpedoed and sink under the chilly waters of Drøbak Sound, the rest of the German ships made the wise decision to discontinue the attack.

What I'm not sure is clear to many readers is that Oskarsborg's torpedo battery was not directed head-on at (real or would-be) invaders;

The lengthy Oslo Fjord

no, the warheads were deliberately directed towards the Norwegian rear (i.e., towards Oslo). Torpedoes were not supposed to hit an enemy ship (or several enemy ships) head-on but the artillerymen would wait until they had passed by and then send the "fish" to hit them "in the butt" — as was famously done to Blücher.

To explain the photos below, you need to know about a familiar Danish pastime: A very popular weekend trip Danish tourists take is the Oslo vacation.

Copenhagen to
Oslo and back

The tourists, rich or poor, get to the "Oslo" dock at Copenhagen's harbor in the evening of a Friday and climb aboard Oslofærgen (the Oslo ferry), with the usual night entertainment such a ship has. The genius of the arrangement is that the ship doubles as a hotel for the night (in fact, for two nights, forth and back), and the next morning, after sailing along the Swedish coast and up the (120-km) Oslo Fjord, the passengers awaken and leave the ship as it docks in the Norwegian capital. Tourists have the entire day to visit the city, or its environs, and on Saturday evening, the ship sails back to Copenhagen — again doubling as a hotel with the usual ferry entertainment, and on Sunday morning, they are home in Denmark. (The pricier the cabins, the bigger your porthole or even a full-fledged window while the cheapest tickets/rooms are in the body of the ship and have none.) Thus, the weekend becomes a tourist visit to an exciting foreign city in addition to two exciting sailing trips/hotel stays including food and entertainment.

The photos below come from two trips to and from Oslo (four sails in all), one in September, one the following January. You will excuse a couple of personal and irrelevant photos…

The guns of the Oskarsborg Fortress can be seen in white

Close-up of the Oslo Fjord fortress:
four cannon visible, the one furthest to the left in profile

A smaller island to the North (tiny bridge straight above
my left wrist) is actually linked to fort's main island

Leaving the fort behind, the danger has seemingly passed;
but that is an illusion — the real threat to enemy ships
is the secret (and camouflaged among the rocks)
torpedo battery whose warheads will hit you in the stern
(Håøya in the rear and the smaller island in the foreground)

As the fjord grows narrower, another ferry appears behind us

Still followed by another ferry in the distance

The width of the fjord tightens considerably

Looking over the fjord from its northernmost
point, Oslo's Akershus Slott castle

Only in Scandinavia:
Kondomeriet — the condom boutique
on Oslo's Karl Johans Gate
(in Norwegian, "Gate" does
not mean gate but street)

Deciding what, if anything, to buy

Good to have a jacuzzi to yourself

At the entrance to the fjord, the latter is still wide open

Gorgeous sunset on the way home to Copenhagen

Man-spreading in the empty jacuzzi

Sailing from and (here) back to Copenhagen,
the ferry inevitably sails by Hamlet's Elsinore castle, Kronborg

Other items of interest: the kings of Denmark and Norway were brothers. Only 35 years earlier, Norway had established its independence from Sweden and the newly-(re)born kingdom asked the younger brother of Denmark's crown prince Christian to accept the nation's crown. Prince Carl accepted, and became king under the name of Haakon VII (In the Norwegian movie linked by Cdr Salamander, The King's Choice, all the characters (including the king's son and heir, Prince Olav) are played by Norwegian actors (while the Germans are played by Germans), except the king himself, who is played by a Danish actor, given that Haakon VII never lost his Danish accent).

In that perspective, in the early 1930s, the two brothers almost had no choice but to go to war with each other. Greenland had always been part of Denmark, but Norway (who, for much of her history had been part of Sweden or Denmark) decided that part of the largest island on the planet ought to be called Erik the Red's Land (after the father of the Viking who discovered America) and belonged to Oslo. The issue was eventually resolved by jaw-jawing, by deciding the case at the Permanent Court of International Justice — to Denmark's satisfaction. 

Speaking of Greenland, and of World War II, after Denmark was occupied on April 9, 1940, the Danish ambassador to the United States, Henrik Kauffmann, eventually decided to go against the (now-forced-to-cooperate-with-the-Nazis) government in Copenhagen, declared his embassy "independent", and, in that perspective, invited American troops to occupy the island so the Germans could not do so. This has led to another recent film, the Danish production of Vores mand i Amerika (title brilliantly translated as The Good Traitor, as Kauffmann and the Greenland governors were condemned for treason and thus condemned in absentia to death. (Meanwhile, another island in the Atlantic, Iceland, at the time also Danish, was occupied by British forces.) In one 1942 issue of the National Geographic, one of the governors of Iceland welcomes warships of the U.S. Navy to Godthaab (Nuuk). The name of the governor? Aksel Svane — the cousin of my grand-father.

Finally, Churchill was always skeptical of Denmark's reliability as an allied nation, given the speed with which King Christian X (remember, Haakon's elder brother) announced the kingdom's surrender. At least, until the force of the resistance groups to the Germans started growing. Interestingly, Denmark could also have sunk a German troop ship likewise sailing in total silence with all lights off in the dark through Copenhagen on April 9 and thus immediately established its credentials as a fighting or at least a resisting nation. But the guns at the Kastellet were not loaded. His opinion of Denmark was elevated when the Danish authorities learned of the Germans' 1943 decision to disarm the Danish military, and the Danish fleet made the decision to sail for allied or neutral ports or to scuttle their warships.

Shocker: French Weekly Outs One of the KGB's Major Spies During the Cold War — None Other Than Its Own Former Editor-in-Chief

Philippe Grumbach interviews François Mitterrand at Socialist Party HQs

A right-leaning conservative French weekly has uncovered one of the Soviet Union's top spies in France during the Cold War, and it turns out to be none other than its own editor-in-chief in the 1970s.

The former honcho at L'Express, Philippe Grumbach (1924-2003) was close to both François Mitterrand and Valéry Giscard d’Estaing (VGE), indeed one of the latter president's closest advisers. (This brings to mind the Stasi's greatest coup during the Cold War, when the East Germans succeeded — also while VGE was growing in power — in placing a communist spy (Günter Guillaume) in Willy Brandt's West German cabinet.)

For 35 years, while (among other things) at the head of one of France's top five weeklies, and the most anti-communist of the lot (Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, Jean-François Revel, François Mauriac, Raymond Aron, etc…), Brok (as Philippe Grumbach was known by his Soviet handlers) spied for the Kremlin.

The revelations come after examination by France's DGSE spy fighters of the Vasili Mitrokhin archive in London, the vast treasure trove that the KGB archivist took with him when he defected to the West in 1992.

From the 1930s and the Cold War to the modern Putin era, Moscow's secret services never seem to have had trouble finding Frenchmen willing to spy for them, from NATO officers to some of the highest VIPs in la République.

It turns out that suffering from a bad case of ADS (America Derangement Syndrome), as it has for two or three centuries — anti-Americanism was one of the major reason for the founding of this very blog, 20 years ago — France was a nest for Russian spies.

As I quote a former KGB agent in my book on anti-Americanism in France, it was never hard to find traitors and spies in France, as they thought that, in truth, they and the Russians were on the same side, the real enemy being the devious and dastardly Uncle Sam. As for Philippe "Brok" Grumbach, it turns out that he was recruited at age 22 by the KGB in 1946, i.e., while Stalin was head of the USSR.

Minister for Air Pierre Cot (glasses, bow tie) in 1933 next to his chief of staff, Jean Moulin

Ramirez Cartoon: It's a Good Thing the Biden Borders Are Secure

A Michael Ramirez cartoon on the security of the Southern border…

Gary Varvel Cartoon: Is the Current Mideast Conflict Due to the Fact that Israel Has the Wrong Leader?

A Gary Varvel cartoon on the current Middle East crisis and the truth about its roots

Related • To Peacenik Protesters Everywhere (Pro-Palestinian or Other): 
The People that Hamas Slaughtered Mercilessly at Israel's Rave — They Are YOU! 

• The Genocide Charge Against Israel: What is
the Difference Between War and Genocide in the First Place?

October Surprise In March/April? Is the invisible hand of the Dark Powers working to install a Democrat House Majority before the November election?

Fox News reports that Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., chairman of the House select committee on China, is announcing he's leaving Congress on April 19, which, Elizabeth Elkind points out, will temporarily leave House Republicans with just a one-seat majority.

Causing Chad Pergram to ask: Could the Republicans' slim House majority slip away before November?

Have RINOs and/or NeverTrumpers decided that, instead of "boldly" voting with the Democrats, they would be more circumspect and just resign? And did they make such decisions interdependently or were they, like Stephen Breyer (and — to be fair — Anthony Kennedy), pressured/blackmailed/bribed into resigning behind closed doors ? (Thanks for the Instalinks, Steve and Sarah…)

This would seem to confirm the suspicious mind of one No Pasarán die-hard, one Damian Bennett, who has given a lot of thought into the matter, gathering the evidence in the process, leading him to pen this in the middle of the month:

It seemed innocuous. Preening anti-Trumper reading the writing on the wall takes a powder.

• Republican To Suddenly Leave Congress March 12, 2024
• Ken Buck Torches GOP After Declaring He’s Leaving Congress In Days March 12, 2024
  Representative Ken Buck, one of the few Republicans willing to call out his party’s ridiculous efforts to impeach Joe Biden, announced Tuesday that he will leave Congress in less than two weeks. ... Buck had announced in November that he would not seek reelection, but he indicated at the time that he would complete his current term. 
  

Oh! Oh! Oh! Noble Cassius departs the arena* because of the woeful civility of politics.

* For the lowest circle of Hell.

“I think this place [Congress] is dysfunctional. Instead of having decorum, instead of operating in a professional manner, this place has just devolved into this bickering and nonsense and not really doing the job for the American people.”

Here's a certainty, whatever the discomfort of his twisted civic panties, Buck's resigning removes him from "doing the job for the American people", at least the American people of Colorado's 4th district who elected him. 

Wait.

Report: 5 More Rinos Could Leave Congress To Give Dems Majority Before 2024 Election March 15, 2024

After Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., made a surprise announcement Tuesday that he will be leaving Congress by the end of next week, the RINO representative said more resignations could be coming down the pipeline. When asked by Axios about receiving criticism from colleagues over his decision to resign, Buck reportedly replied: “I think it’s the next three people that leave that they’re going to be worried about.”

Bucks’ imminent departure leaves the GOP with a two-seat majority in the House. Three more Republicans leaving would, of course, put the Democrats in charge.

Special elections for the vacated seats could, of course, maintain a Republican majority -- or not. (Expelling George Santos is looking like another GOP 'genius' move right now.)

So. [Loooooong heavy pause.] With DJT ineluctably ascendant and Biden electorally unsalvageable, what is the Democrats' Plan B? Is the invisible hand of the Dark Powers working to install a Democrat House Majority before the November election? A Democrat House Majority to dead-stop the Biden impeachment, to pass a law 'clarifying' the 14th Amendment barring DJT from the November ballot -- among other 'democracy' saving measures (e.g., warrantless monitoring of your phone, your bank account, your email, your browser history)? You tell me. 

The problem with the unimaginable is that it cannot be imagined. It can only arrive and stupefy.

Hate evil. Peace out.

Damian Bennett goes on to add:

Also see this, Don Bongino at 39'40''. The trick is to deny all candidates (DJT, RFK, Biden) 270 electoral votes and throw the election into the House, where each state delegation gets ONE vote. The winner must garner 26 votes. Supposing a 50-50 split I surmise that gives the deciding vote to Kamala Harris (as per the legislative process). Long-shot. Hail Mary, the Democrats come to Jesus.

The Dems are running out of options. Can they steal another election? Whatever, something is afoot.

 

Are Biden and Macron, in Addition to Numerous Other Policitians (Foreign as Well as American), Afflicted with Hatch Syndrome?

Today is Orrin Hatch's birthday. If still alive, he would turn 90 today. As luck would have it, one of No Pasarán's most veteran readers, an ex-DC lobbyist named Fred from the Beehive State, met his senator back in the day and, as we discussed France's president, he shares the following memories of the Utah politician. (Thanks for hatchin' an Instalink, Sarah…)

FYI, I've always thought of Macron as a lightweight, I do not follow him (at all) but I presume he is now severely afflicted with Hatch Syndrome.

I named this after Utah's Senator Hatch. I remember when he was first elected, [when] he first got to DC, he was a good senator, voting and talking pretty much the "right" way. As it happened, I dealt with him (a tiny bit) when I was tangentially involved with lobbying Congress in the late 1990s. I noticed a few things.

He had a very competent staff; they got things done. He was extremely self-important. He seemed to think he was always the smartest person in the room. He was very "tactful" in his language, always acting like he supported our position …

However, there was something wrong, I surmised, because he used good words, but it seemed he did not really know what he was talking about. I ultimately came to the conclusion that he had spent 20+ years surrounded by yes-men. "That is a good idea, Senator." "Brilliant, Senator." "Right, good thing to do, Senator." He likely had not been told he was wrong ... well, since the 1970s??

It creates, to over-state the case a tad, it creates an idiot. Hatch was not stupid. He still voted generally the "right" way, but (for example) then he rammed through the Disney-pushed extension of copyright law (we cannot let Steamboat Willie just fall into the public domain now, can we?). The result was he thought he was important enough (or something) and he ran for president. Talk about a joke, I mean, he might have made a better president than W turned out to be, but come on, my cat would have been better (I should say your cat, as I do not have a cat). Arrogant, self-important, all the worst case scenarios you can think of. They are all that way.

Sorry this is so long, but two more things. I contend that it is Hatch Syndrome that has Joe Biden, likely the stupidest president since, well, ever, challenging ordinary Americans to IQ tests. He would get walloped by at least 75% of the population, but he has no clue. (Oh, and this was true before senility set in.)

Also, I cannot really blame any of them for being this way. The entire Senate, and maybe most of the House, is populated by people who are this way, but what would you expect? How would you hold up to decades of nothing but sycophantic affirmation? It seems to me that 20+ years of that would turn anyone into a Hatch Syndrome victim.

[Granted, I may not blame them, but I do resent the fact that I constantly get victimized by them.] 

Many years later, Fred had another Hatch-and/or-his-staff encounter. (Incidentally, I once took the same underground tram between the Senate and the Capitol once, in the 1980s; I was seated in the same tiny carriage as Ted Kennedy and another man (perhaps Orrin Hatch?); all I had on me was one of those booklets with a dozen detachable DC postcards — I asked Teddy for an autograph — he grabbed my booklet and quickly signed one of the cards (at random); it turned out to be the one displaying the White House…)

Sorry, if you are still reading, I have another Hatch story. I went to DC maybe in the early 00s with a couple of kids [from] Jr. High I guess. Someone arranged a tour of the Capitol through Hatch's office. We go into the Senate Office Building and then downstairs to the little tram that runs over to the Capitol. I happened to be in the car with one of the staffers guiding the tour. We get to talking and he says something like "These tours are usually guided by unpaid staff, but I'm paid staff, Senator Hatch has plenty of staff." "Why does he have plenty of staff?" I ask. "Well, he got the extra staff when he was chair of the Judiciary Committee. He's no longer chair, but he got to keep the staff."

The country's in the very best of hands.

Presenting the Have-Fun-with-the-Instapundit-Ads Game

Four years ago, during the Covid scare/the Covid languor, I invented the Instapundit game.

The goal of [that] game is to read a post on Instapundit, while keeping the name of its author hidden below the bottom the screen. … What you have to do now is figure out, to the best of your ability, who is the author of the post! … [The] Instapundit game … should only be played, really, by veteran readers of the Glenn Reynolds blog … 

Now — on the occasion of No Pasarán's 20th anniversary — a second InstaPundit game has been created (yes, again, by moi), and it can be played by virtually anybody.

Not long ago mankind saw the dawn of the advent of advertisements on the Instapundit blog. The Blogfather explains:

SOME PEOPLE DON’T LIKE THE NEW ADS. Sorry, the problem is that InstaPundit has been demonetized by Google, for unspecified “dangerous” content [coupled with] the trend of cutting advertising to right-leaning sites …

Well, if you don't like the new ads, why not have fun with 'em? The goal of the game is to see if an advertisement can seem to apply to the text of a post below or above (or close to) it, in such a manner that the ad's photo or video could (almost) be taken to be an integral part of that post, deliberately chosen by the person posting. Then you do a (short) screen recording (a screenshot video? a video capture? a screencast?) — maybe 5 to 10 seconds — highlighting the sentence that is closest in soul to the ad.

Here are three ads leading to four or five examples…

(Incidentally, I do not know if the average reader is seeing the same ads as I, i.e., if ads are region-connected; I am based across the ocean in Paris, but the ads are in English, so I suppose it is more than possible that at least part of the time we are seeing the same ones…)

Maybe one day we can have the InstaOscars to see which entries are most deserving of an award…

And finally, to InstaPundit, thanks for the memories.

We couldn't have survived for twenty years without you…

DOB 2004: No Pasarán Turns 20

Twenty years ago, after enduring months of unceasing tirades of criticism, demonization, and venom from Europe (and especially France) linked to George W Bush's 2003 invasion of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, a handful of independent bloggers (Douglas, Jonathan, and Liminal aka U*2) made good on their vow to unite their efforts and create a single, common weblog, one by the name of No Pasarán! (I would join five weeks later, and N Joe (RIP) a year or two later.)

 

The blog's inaugural pledge was a tongue-in-cheek declaration that we

"will commentate on current events with all the psychotic calm and serenity of a Palestinian father who explains that he can't wait for his 2 surviving sons to become martyrs"

Of the more than 13,700 posts that have been written since 2004, I consider the following couple of posts to be two of the most important:

• The Era of the Drama Queens: Every Crisis Is a Triumph

• The Leftist Worldview in a Nutshell: A world of Deserving Dreamers Vs. Despicable Deplorables

In addition, there is this guest piece that I posted on American Thinker earlier this year:

• Let's Stop Using the Words "Trump Tried to Overturn the 2020 Election" (It's Unprofessional Journalism)

Thanks to blogs like Instapundit — without which we would hardly have survived this long…

Speaking of which —
And now for something completely different:
Presenting the Have-Fun-with-the-Instapundit-Ads Game