Hard Pass

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/64289486

Older animals are more likely to rule

How did the GOP become a haven for slogans and ideas straight out of the Third Reich?

Over the past few months, during his agency’s chaotic crackdowns in Chicago and Minneapolis, the U.S. Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino has worn an unusual uniform: a wide-lapel greatcoat with brass buttons and stars along one sleeve. It looks like it was taken right off the shoulders of a Wehrmacht officer in the 1930s. Bovino’s choice of garment is more than tough-guy cosplay (German media noted the aesthetic immediately). The coat symbolizes a trend: The Republicans, it seems, have a bit of a Nazi problem.

By this, I mean that some Republicans are deploying Nazi imagery and rhetoric, and espouse ideas associated with the Nazi Party during its rise to power in the early 1930s. A few recent examples: An ICE lawyer linked to a white-supremacist social-media account that praised Hitler was apparently allowed to return to federal court. Members of the national Young Republicans organization were caught in a group chat laughing about their love for Hitler. Vice President J. D. Vance shrugged off that controversy, instead of condemning the growing influence of anti-Semites in his party. (In December, at Turning Point USA’s conference, Vance said, “I didn’t bring a list of conservatives to denounce or to deplatform.”)

Even federal agencies are modeling Nazi phrasing. The Department of Homeland Security used an anthem beloved by neo-Nazi groups, “By God We’ll Have Our Home Again,” in a recruitment ad. The Labor Department hung a giant banner of Donald Trump’s face from its headquarters, as if Washington were Berlin in 1936, and posted expressions on social media such as “America is for Americans”—an obvious riff on the Nazi slogan “Germany for the Germans”—and “Americanism Will Prevail,” in a font reminiscent of Third Reich documents.

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The instructor, who is an attorney, plans to tell a forum sponsored by Congressional Democrats that the procedures in entering homes are not taught appropriately.

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Both sides may well be posturing. Washington’s muscular deployments could be intended primarily as leverage to wrest maximal concessions out of Tehran at the table rather than as a prelude to war. U.S. military planners must be well aware of how much extensive fighting could cost, not only in terms of danger to U.S. forces and materiel but also in tax dollars. The twelve-day war of June 2025 cost Israel up to $12 billion, while depleting a quarter of the entire U.S. stock of THAAD interceptors – some 150 of them – which are worth $12 million apiece. Even within the military there is apprehension about the impact of sending so many U.S. assets to the Middle East on U.S. preparedness elsewhere.

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Unfortunately, bargaining by bluffing – if indeed that is what either side is trying to do – is intrinsically unstable, particularly when this much weaponry is involved. Measures meant to deter or coerce can just as easily provoke. Ample room exists for miscalculation or potentially even for spoilers to stage false-flag attacks that narrow leaders’ choices by pushing them to respond with force. In such a charged environment, the boundary between managed escalation and uncontrolled war is perilously thin – and often discernible only in hindsight. It is all too easy to imagine the sort of exchanges at sea that transpired in early February, with the U.S. downing an Iranian drone and Iranian forces attempting to seize a U.S. tanker, flaring into a bigger exchange without either side having decided to enter hostilities.

The White House invited the U.S. women’s hockey team to attend Donald Trump's State of the Union on Tuesday, but the players said they are unable to attend.

A spokesperson for the team told NBC News' Monica Alba that the team, which won the gold medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, was "sincerely grateful" for the recognition, but the players are unable to attend "due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments."