Click here for Paul Krugman's Substack article on October 14 entitled "Nerobefehl Nation," subtitled "My fears for the next two years."
On March 19, 1945, with the war no longer in doubt -- Soviets within 50 miles of Berlin, the Allies closing in from the west -- Hitler ordered that German infrastructure -- including transportation systems, industrial facilities, utilities, and communications -- be destroyed rather than let it fall into Allied hands. The stated aim was to prevent the advancing enemy from using these resources.
However, by this time Hitler believed not that he had failed, but that the German people had failed him. The obvious purpose of the Nerobefehl was to punish his own country. Albert Speer and others prevented the order from being carried out.
Will Trump declare a Nerobefehl if, as expected, he suffers a crushing defeat in November's election? He will certainly insist the election was rigged and try to overturn it. If he fails, what then? He will retain the capacity to inflict immense destruction on America and its allies.
Today Elon Musk has denied Ukraine access to Starlink facilities giving warning of impending Russian missile strikes. Trump, in brazen defiance of a court order, had hundreds of trees cut down at a D.C. public golf course Trump has wanted to remodel -- a deliberate act of vandalism. The Kennedy Center is being destroyed because Trump has been unable to put his name on it.
With a supine Congress and the backing of Trump's cadre of oligarchs, it will be difficult to curb his excesses. Krugman closes his article:
But one thing Democrats can do is make it clear that everyone who aids and abets Trump in his Neroism can and will be held accountable to the full extent of the law. At this point anyone who says something like “We should look forward, not back” is making it significantly less likely that we will have anything to look forward to.
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