Posted by Tina
Trump stopped to meet with the Polish President, Andrzej Duda, and celebrate the alliance between the United States and Poland on his way to the G20 summit today. During a wreath laying ceremony at the statue commemorating the 1944 Warsaw Uprising Trump saluted the Polish people for their tenacity in the pursuit of independence, “The story of Poland is the story of a people who have never lost hope, who have never been broken and who have never ever forgotten who they are.” He called their nation ‘the geographic heart of Europe’ for enduring and shaking off Nazi oppressors and Russian occupiers in the last century. As he spoke the crowd broke out in repeated chants of “Donald Trump” and “USA, USA!”
Trump announced that Poland will purchase the PATRIOT Air Defense Missile System that the Obama Administration canceled early in his first term and acknowledged Poland as one of the members of NATO that had met their financial obligations to NATO. Trump also thanked Poland for being one of the NATO members to fully honor its financial commitment to the Western security alliance.
Trumps speech was praised by some and criticized by the usual suspects. See stories here and here. The transcript and video are here.
Meanwhile in Hamburg, Germany anti-capitalist protesters began their latest contribution to civilized governance with violence in a protest dubbed, “Welcome to Hell,” a precursor to tomorrow’s festivities.
And the beat goes on….
Yes, well, those of us acquainted with Poland’s less-than-stellar performance in the last war against fascism … are not surprised.
Maybe you should read a bit more history, and reconsider your snarky BS.
When a country is attacked from both sides by two separate armies (Germany and Russia) in the same month, it seems they did what they could with the resources left. After Poland’s military was split and defeated fighting two fronts in a 3 week period, they fought back as best a country with heart could. They re-establish their country’s government on foreign soil they help fight the axis powers in many theaters of war, they created one of the better partisan undergrounds to fight back. The secret pack between Russia and Germany as to division of Poland, left 6million dead, and those deaths were a result of both Germany and Russia.
“The Polish provided significant contributions to the Allied effort throughout the war, fighting on land, sea and air. Notable was the service of the Polish Air Force, not only in the Allied victory in the Battle of Britain but also the subsequent air war. Polish ground troops were present in the North Africa Campaign (siege of Tobruk); the Italian campaign (including the capture of the monastery hill at the Battle of Monte Cassino); and in battles following the invasion of France (the battle of the Falaise pocket; an airborne brigade parachute drop during Operation Market Garden and one division in the Western Allied invasion of Germany). Polish forces in the east, fighting alongside the Red army and under Soviet command, took part in the Soviet offensives across Belarus and Ukraine into Poland, across the Vistula and towards the Oder and then into Berlin. Some Polish contributions were less visible, most notably the prewar and wartime deciphering of German Enigma machine codes by cryptologists Marian Rejewski and his colleagues. The Polish intelligence network also proved to be of much value to the Allied intelligence.
Pretty dahm good for a country over run in a short period of time, by both the Axis and Russia.
Some peoples hate is so strong It seems to unleash their tongue after consuming their brain.
History indeed. Polish 303 squadron RAF.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptijNcDanVw
Still into that old European arguement about which brand of socialism is better, eh Libby?
What are you talking about? Trying to equate communism and fascism again? The dictionary, girl; hie thee hence to the dictionary.
Actually, I was referring to the marked Polish tendency to anti-semitism which made them disgustingly amenable to the fascist administration of their country during the war. Bigotry, of whatever sort, and fascism seem to go hand in hand, psychologically speaking. And the Trumpster is a great proponent of both.
Harold’s right, Libby, you need to refer to decent sources for your history.
Try the Jewish Virtual Library and scroll down to the Holocaust section. You will find that Polish citizens, including Jews, were arrested and hundreds of them murdered under Hitlers invasion. Early on Hitler signed a secret non-aggression pact with Stalin and they divided the country. When they went to war Russia maintained control of the Eastern districts. Eighty-five percent of Polish Jews were murdered in the Holocaust…not all of them perished at the hands of the Nazi’s.
The Soviet Secret Police governed Poland following the war. Polish Jews were oppressed…Stalin was an anti-Semite. In 1968 and 69 the last Jews left Poland for Israel because of the antisemitism of the communist regime. Diplomatic relations with Israel were restored in 1990 after Poland had kicked the communist out and declared themselves free.
As for socialism….
Union of Soviet Socialist Republic -USSR
National Socialist German Workers’ Party-Nazi
It’s not what I’m trying to say, Libby…it’s what THEY said…and did. They had slightly different ideas but both were systems ruled by an elite ruling class with a dictator at the top, strong government control of property and assets, severe oppression of the people, and death.
We defeated the fascists in the war but the communists survived and are still making trouble today.
Freedom, with individual ownership of property and individual rights and responsibilities, is the concept that overpowered and out performed both communism and fascism. You have no appreciation for this concept, even though you are fortunate to live in this great land just as you have no awareness of the damage you and your party are doing with your ignorant embrace of socialism which moves constantly toward oppression.
(See Venezuela which was a thriving country for a time until it fell to communism and Hugo Chavez. Now it’s a failed state.)
Definitions can be misleading, for instance, your party called itself “progressive” (socialist) back in the thirties but there was nothing progressive about the policies that the communists in America wanted to impose. The term fell into disfavor so your party switched to “liberal” but liberal policies don’t lead to greater abundance for all or even being open to new ideas. Liberals are in favor of the old ideas of revolution, control, and forced compliance. Liberals are not content to live and let live in freedom. So whether it’s the old white guys of fascism (Hitler and Mussolini) or the old white guys of communism (Marx, Stalin and Lenin) it’s all the same in terms of human dignity and quality of life.
Your own bigotry is damned annoying at times.
“Trying to equate communism and fascism again?”
While fascism and communism are different the means and the ends are the same, just slightly different rhetoric and paths to totalitarianism. Besides, the “bundle of sticks” aspect that defines fascism is not all that different from the absurd “dictatorship of the proletariat” fraud that is communism.
Fascism and communism have a great deal more in common than difference. Come to thinks of it, Democrats, the American Left, communism and fascism have quite a lot in common. When it comes to means, tactics and ends, the difference is so mniscule as to be laughable, if it were not that it is not at all funny.
So, equating fascism and communism is really a stretch at all. In fact, it is quite apt. Jonah Goldberg published an excellent book “Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning.”
I enthusiastically suggest anyone who hasn’t read it to read it.
… really NOT a stretch …
Again, the dictionary. Totalitarianism in a democracy (though said democracy may be hanging by a thread) is not possible. And “liberal fascism” is a contradiction in terms, an oxymoron. You can object to liberalism, but to call it fascist … is a lie.
It’s a splendid ploy, this corruption of the language to a political end. Trump and Tina are both getting very good at it.
Libby If you want to stick with dictionary definitions rather than the actual practices, policies and thinking of your party you go right ahead. Live in that plastic, perfectly formed dream forever for all I care.
I have not called liberalism fascism, there are distinctions and I’ve made them. What I have said is they are both forms of socialism because they ARE!!!
I am not corrupting the language, you are. Your stubborn refusal to acknowledge that in practice you and your party are unwilling to give individual liberty it’s due and instead want to “fundamentally transform” America into a socialist nation is not just annoying it’s self deception of the highest order. One of the “liberal reforms” you seek is conformity of opinion and you are willing to become pretty intense bullies to achieve your goals. Here’s your definition:
The word Liberal describes (all) people as they can be but not necessarily how they are or what they do.
For instance your party is generous…but it’s generous with other people’s money. You always want to be in command and control of what you see as “the people’s money,” what’s yours is mine for the taking through my elected representatives. You’ve never met a tax hike you didn’t like as the means of getting your hands on that mone to spend as YOU see fit. You like having the government take control of as much land and water and mineral rights as possible and you work tirelessly against the ideals of individual property rights.
I hate to break it to you but that isn’t being generous (liberal).
It amounts to being like, thinking like Lenin or Mussolini, without the killing of course (for a time).
And by the by, Venezuela, a once thriving democracy, is proof that a nation weakened by increasing oppressive government control is fairly easily taken over by an ambitious Lenin, Hitler, or Mussolini, Mao, Castro or Chavez type. It doesn’t happen overnight you know.
You embrace embrace socialist ideals and those ideals flow from both communism and fascism. Both put the state in control of the means of production and distribution of goods and services. Your party is no longer in favor of American ideals. Stop pretending otherwise.
By the way, both Russian communists and fascists persecuted Jews to the point of genocide. Communists before and after the war, Nazis before and during the war. To this day France doesn’t much care for Jews either and so many have fled a hostile France it has been described as a modern diaspora.
Jews have over a 1000 year history in Poland. The people persecuting Jews in Poland were Nazis and Nazi sympathizes. Of course, I would not expect a liberal simpleton to appreciate that when taking a stupid, ignorant bigoted slam at Poland. The well published historical evidence and truth of the Nazi occupation of Poland (and the resistance) is far too complex for some nasty left-wing stooge who condescendingly sneers “Yes, well, those of us acquainted with Poland’s less-than-stellar performance in the last war against fascism … are not surprise” to comprehend.
This article is a good read. It is of historical interest as well as informative about the current political climate and official government position in Poland.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-book-on-killing-of-jews-in-poland-exposes-raw-nerve/
Awesome comments DBR. Please don’t live up to your name and “drive by.” Hope you will stick around and keep adding to the discussions.
Terrific timely article by David French over at National Review, “Yesterday, Donald Trump Struck a Righteous Blow against Universalism,” offers a great opportunity for people like Libby to liberally apply themselves, learn a few new ideas, and make some real progress for a change.
Also timely, Jonah Goldberg
http://www.nationalreview.com/g-file/449313/trump-western-civilization-defense-left-response?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=170707_G-File&utm_term=GFile
Excellent Herb!
I found this article to be especially fitting for the libs who frequent PS.
And yet another article of significance and insight is Donald Trump as Pericles, by Roger Kimball at American Greatness!
Oh, Tina … it was an honest-to-god intellectual discourse … on Post Scripts ! … and you ruined it.
The Poles show President Trump the respect he should be shown here!
http://freedomnews.today/