How an Obese Drug Addict in a Dank Prison Cell Explains the Persistence of Trump

Hello. The question many Americans are asking these days is: How is it possible that Donald Trump, the lying, vain, ignorant, infantile felon, the tyrant-admiring insurrectionist and buffoon, still is considered a toss-up to be the next president of the United States?

Last week The New York Times tried to answer that question. The newspaper ran an unusual opinion piece with this provocative headline: How a Naked Man on a Tropical Island Created Our Current Political Insanity.

The story made the case, not entirely unconvincingly, that our current straits owe their existence to Richard Hatch on the original American season of “Survivor.” Hatch, who won the game, was rude and crude and widely disliked, given to prancing around in the nude (mostly, apparently, to annoy others). The Times writer, Michael Hirschorn, argues that that show created the concept of the villain-hero, since copied everywhere, such as in The Real Housewives series and many more. Being Bad and Brash somehow proved a template for success. A lot of people were watching, vicariously living out their grievances through the actions of scumballs and scumbolinas.

I think that the Times got half the story. I shall now tell you about the other half.

In late 1945, the United States sent two men to interview 22 Nazi war criminals who were on trial at Nuremberg. One of the interviewers, Gustave Gilbert, was a young relatively unknown Jewish psychologist, chosen mostly because he spoke German. The other, Douglas Kelley, was a renowned psychiatrist, but he had no German, so he could participate only meekly in interviews, and mostly administered Rorschach inkblot tests, which he and others would later interpret ineptly. (Rorschach tests are seldom used anymore because they have been found to be wildly subject to interpreter bias.)

Gilbert, however, did masterful work. He got the men to talk, voluminously. Most knew they were likely facing death, and had little to lose by showing bluntness … if not quite remorse. Plus, they were lonely and bored and under 24-hour visual surveillance. The interviews were a break from the tedium and lack of privacy.

Gilbert’s most intriguing, and chilling, interviews were the ones with Hermann Goering, Hitler’s number two, head of the Luftwaffe, and a 5’10”, 280-pound lifelong morphine addict.

On the Web, the most commonly repeated supposed quote from these conversations with Goering is this one: “The only thing that needs to be done to enslave people is to scare them.” It implies that rule by intimidation works. But this quote is a fabrication, or at the least an inartful attempt at condensation. Goering never said it. What he said was infinitely more subtle, and much more interesting. The transcripts contain this exchange (translated from German) in response to a question from Gilbert about how a government can force people to go to war against their will:

Goering: “Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.”

Gilbert: “[But] in a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives.”

Goering: “Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked . . . It works the same way in any country."

Taken in context, Goering was talking specifically about incitement to war, but also more broadly about all policy: You lie to instill fear — however preposterously — and people will follow you in overwhelming numbers.

It’s the despot’s way. In 1939, Hitler lied that Poland was savagely oppressing its ethnic Germans, and later that Poland was allied with England and France in a plan to encircle and then annihilate Germany. When Hitler was ready, he ordered the SS to stage a bogus raid on on a German radio station, publicly blaming the Poles. By the time he invaded Poland, Hitler had widespread popular support. People were scared.

This is Trump’s playbook. His imagined threats are not of war but of other, more insidious menaces: Lies that migrants are raping your women, taking your jobs, stealing your resources, eating your pets. Lies that the Democratic economy has cratered, and will descend into a Depression if Trump does not win. Lies that the schools are forcibly turning your children transgender. Lies that people will starve because the prices of food will become insuperable. Lies that violent crime is skyrocketing. The fearsome dystopian mega-lie that in four short Biden-Harris years, America has rotted, is a “failing nation that is in serious decline” that it is “on the brink of World War III,” and that if Harris wins “Israel will not exist within two years from now,” surrendering the Mideast to Muslims.

This plan appeals to the sullen, the marginalized, those feeling disrespected, disenfranchised, forgotten. It’s a prism that focuses anger, fear, shame and gullibility into one single beam of electoral outrage. It’s the scapegoat effect. Manifestly, it works. Some polling models show Trump still ahead. After everything.

That faint, sibilant sound you hear is the sound of Goering laughing, down there.

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There is a harrowing postscript to the Nuremberg story, and it reflects the perils of this dalliance with evil. After their work in the cellblock, Gilbert and Kelley returned to the states; their lives would take different trajectories. Gilbert would write highly regarded books. Kelley wrote a book, too — “22 Cells in Nuremberg” — that received mixed critical reviews, largely because of how he seemed to go out of his way to find humanity in some of the perpetrators of the most heinous crimes. It was gnawing at him, emotionally, that he could find not much different between the minds of these methodical killers and the minds of ordinary men. In those postwar years, Kelley descended into alcoholism. There were very dark places in his mind.

Even during the trials, Kelley had found himself developing a grim, grudging respect and revulsion for Goering, both sentiments warring within him. In a radio interview with the Mutual Broadcasting Company during the trials, a copy of which can be found on youtube, Kelley complicatedly called the Nazi chief “a man of strong personality and extreme egocentricity, a forceful leader without thought of consequence or consideration for others.”

In his prison cell, two hours before his scheduled hanging, the Nazi leader had bitten down on and swallowed, a smuggled-in glass ampule of potassium cyanide. Later, Kelley told his family that he admired Goering "for taking his own life at his own convenience and in a manner of his own choosing."

On New Year’s Day in 1958, after watching the Rose Bowl game with his family, Dr. Douglas Kelley went to cook dinner with his wife. They quarreled bitterly, as had become usual. At one point he accidentally burned himself, erupted in rage, marched out of the kitchen, ran up the stairs to the bedroom and slammed the door behind him. Moments later he reappeared onto the stairwell and startlingly proclaimed that he was going to kill himself.

There on the stairs, Kelley removed from his pocket a capsule of potassium cyanide and, in full view of his wife, his older son, and his father, bit down and swallowed it. He died seconds later at their feet, thrashing, and foaming at the mouth. He was 45. He left no suicide note.

End of story.

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Hey, you. I have been getting a number of questions about Barney & Clyde, the comic strip I co-write with Horace LaBadie and David Clark. I’ve never known how much of a crossover there is between Gene Pool readers and Barney & Clyde readers, but in case it is substantial: There is an easy way to get the most recent week of B&C’s sent to you via email. Doesn’t cost anything. You get it weekly, for free, in one short package. Check out the most recent one here.

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And here is a great timely video about a really pissed off cat. I am imagining it was tinkered with to alter what was on the TV screen, but maybe not.

And here is a separate, benign, static image of an earless cat that I am including for technical Substack reasons too complex to explain. You’ll have to trust me on this:

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And finally, today’s Gene Pool Gene Poll. In the last week, Concerned Republicans are completely losing their shit over the fact that the Trump Entourage seems to have a new member, a virulently racist far-right-wing nutjob named Laura Loomer. I do not ordinarily comment on a woman’s appearance, but let me just say that she does kinda look like Mr. Trump’s type. Judging from the loaded yet circumspect language used by those GOP critics, there is some speculation — possibly specious and unfounded and misogynistic — that Ms. Loomer is more than just a political doppelganger and hanger-on. Today’s Poll question:

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Here begins the Real Time portion of The Gene Pool, where you ask questions and make observations in real time, and I respond to them. Many of today’s Qs and O’s are in response to my challenge on The Weekend for you to disclose your most embarrassing moment, and what if anything it taught you. Also I asked you to complete the phrase “I once accidentally . . . “

Send your Q’s and O’s here:

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Q:  Not many years ago, I accidentally stapled my tie to a sheaf of papers. Yes, I know, it’s a trite comic routine, but it is true.   I realized only when I stood up from my desk.  I was the boss of a small company.  I chose to keep the documents stapled to my tie for a while as I walked around the office, chatting up my employees, explaining only when asked.     It was definitely accidental, so it fits your request, though it was not exactly embarrassing.   I honestly believe it was the best thing I ever did, professionally.  Whatever thoughts my staff might have had that the boss was a stiff, I’m pretty sure they abandoned them immediately. 

A:  Lovely.

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Q: This is for you:

A: Thank you.

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Do you like this stuff? Do you have a spare $4.15 a month to pay for better access to it? If the answer to both these questions is yes, and you’d like to be able to boss me around as my employer, might you consider upgrading your subscription to “paid”? I’d appreciate it. Substack makes it real easy for you, for some reason. A one-minute ordeal:

TIMELY TIP: If you’re reading this on an email: JUST CLICK ON THE HEADLINE IN THE EMAIL AND IT WILL DELIVER YOU TO THE FULL COLUMN ONLINE. Keep refreshing the screen to see the new questions and answers that appear as I regularly update the post.

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Q: The White Sox have won three straight games!!  How is your challenge and wager going?

A:  I know.  There may well be a shift in the zeitgeist.  I am pondering it.  We might no longer be watching a lousy, lazy team ooze into oblivion, but a young, determined, scrappy lousy team make a late run to avoid ignominy.  My allegiance and enthusiasm for The Worst of the Worst is wavering.  

Yes, they are still closing in on the losingest season ever, but they might yet stave it off, through sheer pluck and will.  It is forcing me to reconsider my crusade, and what should be celebrated.

I am on top of it, and willing to adjust parameters in the face of public sentiment, and the press of logistics.  More on this later in the week.

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Q: Regarding your poll:  This was posted on Threads by a user named Neil Goldfarb. I thought you might appreciate it. 

A conspiracy theorist, Loomer,

Was the subject of many a rumor.

Was this maniacal viper,

Just changing his diaper,

Or in bed with America's tumor?

– Sean Clinchy 

A: Thank you, Sean.  And thanks for recommending the restaurant Mas, in Charlottesville. (in a private conversation). Absolutely great.

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Q: I was 22, living in Seattle, applying for a job at the University.  Had 3 interviews that day, and the last one was the one I hoped would hire me.  I was wearing a lovely two-piece linen skirt and top, my best outfit.  As you know, linen wrinkles terribly, so I was ironing the skirt between interviews.  Being Seattle in the fall, it had started to drizzle, so I put on my new raincoat for the walk across campus to my interview at the Nuclear Physics Lab.  When I got there, the Director's assistant took my coat and hung it up as we waited for the Director to come out of his office for the interview.  I felt a draft down below, looked down, and to my horror I had left my skirt on the ironing board back in my apartment. I said weakly "Oh", and the assistant replied,  "Yes, Oh"!  She then hurried to fetch my coat from the closet before the  Director came out of his office.  She almost made it.  He took one look, wheeled around soundlessly and went back into his office.  The interview began a couple minutes later and I was given a tour of the premises and introduced to everyone, while getting warmer by the minute in my buttoned-up coat.  They were lovely people and never mentioned a word.  I enjoyed working there.

A: I love this story.  It seems funny to me.  As I read it to Rachel, who is, by the way, a woman, her head kept sinking toward the table.  I think ladies hear this and summon more sisterly solicitude than hilarity.

Q: Nuremberg explanation for Trump: Do you think he knows he's doing this--like he follows a script in his head--or is he just reacting to the reactions he gets? In other words, has he or someone studied Goering and friends, or has he stumbled on the same strategy?

A: I think it is in the dictators’ playbook. And I think someone more knowledgeable than Trump (which is almost everyone) has drilled it into his head. Whether they credited Goering, I dunno. Maybe! Wouldn’t bother Trump.

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Q: Spinning up the mob works in two ways: the fearful now seek Trump's protection, and the rest of us are afraid he'll send the mob after us. Look at this: a story about Mike DeWine having to send state resources in because of bomb threats, clearly caused by Trump and Vance, spun by Fox as if it's the migrant influx that's causing the problem.

A: Indeed.

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Q: I might send you $4.15 a month if you up your earless cat content a lot.

A: Here:

Q: I once accidentally put a gouge in my car’s driver side door in a parking lot because I was more focused on not hitting a pedestrian than I was on not hitting a lamp post. Upon determining that the damage was superficial, I left it as-is, much to my wife’s chagrin. If the scrape ever causes the panel to rust out, I’ll consider replacing it only then. In the meantime, I drive around with the scar; it ain’t perfect, but it’s authentically mine. Also, I’m really cheap. You probably don’t realize the coup you pulled by getting me to be a paid subscriber. -Sam Mertens

A: A friend once vomited out the window as I was driving her home. I let the puke solidify on the sidepanel, and it was still visible when I sold the car three years later.

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Q: If Laura Loomer would only dye her hair blond and call Donald “Daddy”, he’d be in heaven. Melania is over 50…

A: Indeed.

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Q: Well the fear things works in parenting, too. Behave yourself, little Otto, or the creature who eats misbehaving kids will come.

A: There is a tower on the west side of Manhattan, off the West Side Highway. Every time we passed it, my Uncle Irving told us that it was The Tower of the Man Who Hates Children, and bad children are sent there.

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Q: A random observation:  my family was walking through the Neiman-Marcus at Tysons on Sunday and they had a Christmas display up.  On September 15.  September.  15!

A: Nicholas Maduro, tyrant of Venezuela, facing enormous public criticism, recently made this announcement: “This year, in homage and gratitude to you, I am going to decree that the Christmas season [begins] on Oct. 1.” 

Q: During my very early career job search, I was sitting with a recruiter at some office tower building in northern Virginia. He was reviewing my resume and without looking up smugly said, "you do a lot of PUBIC speaking, do you?" I looked at him quizzically and understanding my confusion he noted: "well, that's what it says right here: PUBIC speaking." I learned 2 things: always thoroughly proofread, and I didn't want to work for that asshat. - Rob, Falls Church

A: Had you thought quickly enough, and if you were sure you didn’t want the job, you might have said, “Yes, I do a lot of pubic speaking.   Been meaning to have a conversation with your missus, matter of fact.”

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Q: I don't think Trump has actually studied anything. He's never had an original business idea in his life, copying exactly what his father did, not to mention every other business he's tried and failed in. I think he's just copying Hitler which is much easier to do than studying Goering. Tom Logan - Sterling, VA

A: True enough. Among the other things that Gilbert did was administer IQ tests. Goering scored 3d highest among the Nazis, at 138. I wonder where Hitler would have been. 115? Like Trump, he had street savvy and a warped sort of charisma, but I’m not sure how much more.

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Q: The instructor in one of my college freshman classes was horribly twisted from arthritis. However, it didn't affect his speech. We were supposed to write his name at the top of papers we turned it. I wrote, "Professor Lung." 

He help up my paper to the class and said, "I am Professor Young. However, Mr. Blyveis waa so affected by my twisted appearance that he heard it as Professor Lung. To know avail, I insisted that his appearance had nothing to do with my mishearing his name. He persisted in embarrassing me in front of the class.

I should have learned that my hearing was quite defective but I didn't learn that until after years of marriage, with my wife insisting on me getting a hearing exam, I got one, followed by my getting hearing aids.

A: Hi, Barry.   This of course requires me to write in with a joke.

A man is talking to his shrink, complaining about his wife’s hearing difficulties.

“I can’t speak to my wife directly as she might find it offensive, given our old age” he says to the doc.

“There’s a simple trick you can try to determine her hearing” explains the doctor. “Simply ask her a question at a distance and if she doesn’t hear you, move slightly closer and ask again until she does”.

That night, the husband arrives home and sees his wife in the kitchen cooking. He thinks to himself, “what a perfect opportunity to test her hearing”.

He stands in the doorway of the kitchen and promptly asks;

“What’s for dinner honey?”

No answer. He moves closer.

“What’s for dinner honey?”

Still no answer. He moves even closer.

“What’s for dinner honey?”

Still his wife doesn’t answer. He now sees how serious her hearing problem is. At this point, he is stood right next to his wife.

“What’s for dinner honey?”

“FOR THE FOURTH FUCKING TIME WE’RE HAVING CHICKEN”

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This is Gene. I am calling us down.

PLEASE keep sending in questions and observations. I will respond to them on Thursday. Send them here:

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