“Regardless of where you live, please visit and share this website: VOTE.GOV”.

Minnesota Primary Election is Tuesday, August 13.  Information including sample ballot accessible here.

August 19-22 is the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.  That will be my “Act Two” in the 2024 election drama.  (Act One was the Republican Convention last month.)

This post is titled “die Pause”, German for “Intermission”.  More on that below.

Friday night I listened to the last segment of Season Two of Rachel Maddow’s series Ultra. This is not a new topic at this space.  I first called attention to the program on October 11, 2022,

I have mentioned this series in 13 earlier posts.  Ultra is 15 approximately one hour audio programs 2022-2024, about the hidden-in-plain-sight threat of fascism in the United States as it evolved since the 1930s to the present.

I had a preview of this program in 2020 right here in Minnesota.  I wrote about it here, on October 23, 2020.  The Weisman Art Museum brochure is here: MN Legends and Myths 2020.  Unfortunately, I do not think I have copies of the two inserts in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, which I received as a subscriber.  They basically fleshed out the aforementioned brochure.

The more I learn, the closer I feel we are to the cliff of losing democracy.  If it goes down on our watch, it’s our responsibility and our loss.  We are the only guard rail.  The good news is that voting is the antidote.  But people need to vote well informed.

Ultra has been riveting and extraordinarily informative, about the strong history of fascism in the United States of America, going back many years and continuing and indeed ever more evident in the present day politics in our country.  Only the names of the actors have changed.

Unfortunately, few care about such things.  “It can’t happen here.”  If you’ve read this far, you are at least a little interested.

If I could give an assignment, I’d have you listen to all 15 episodes, no more than one a day, at your computer.  They are likely still free, and accessible, and the link to them is above.  You’ll find the earliest episodes by scrolling down.  Basically they are in the 45 minute range in length, and easy listening.  (I was new to podcasts; I have found it easy to navigate).  By far the best way to approach this project is beginning at Episode 1 in Season 1 through the last in season 2 – a total of 15. programs.  Set aside an hour per episode.)

If you’re not sure, at least listen to the last one, Episode 8 of Season Two, which launched last Tuesday of this week, August 6.  This final one is longer, about 80 minutes, and brings you up to the doorstep of the present.

If you’re not even open to that at least scan the bios of WILLIS CARTO and FRANCIS YOCKEY on Wikipedia….  Both were Americans.  Carto died in 2015 at 89, Yockey apparently killed himself in prison in 1960 at age 42.

In the other episodes there is an interesting cast of characters: people with familiar names like Charles Lindbergh; Father Coughlin (the anti-semitic radio Priest), Senator Joseph McCarthy, Senator Bill Langer, on and on.

You will learn what was done, and how, and how close they came to success.

In a Democracy, citizens ignore or take for granted their right and responsibility at great risk to their own future. 

“die Pause”?  As noted above, that’s “intermission” in German, and I note this because of the close relationship between the Third Reich and some U.S. policy makers, particularly Congress and Senate, from the beginning in the 1930s.

Disclosure: my mother was 100% German-American.  Her grandparents were native or first generation in the U.S, arriving from the 1840s to 70s.; Germans, living in a heavily German community in Wisconsin.  No.  They/We weren’t Nazi’s or sympathizers in any sense.  But….

There’s nothing else to say.  At least click on Ultra, above.    Check it out.  The rest is up to you.

POSTNOTE: I expect to another post prior to the Democratic Convention, probably Sunday, and another following the Convention, and a third about Labor Day.  As usual, just my opinion.

There have been 8 comments on the August 6 post on Memory; and 6 comments on Tim Walz August 7.   Those who hear the latest awful reveal about the real Tim Walz, please let me know the information and I’ll check it out.  He is as you see him on the tube.  He won his Governor elections quite easily.  That won’t stop the trash.

Tom Walz at the Minnesota State Fair August 29, 2022: