Authoritarianism Surges In Europe & US

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Authoritarianism Surges In Europe & US

Guest: Germany Public Radio's Jan Tüssing

Mar 01, 2025

Transcript

Now, you’d think a man with a thirst for foreign lands, degrees from London’s finest institutions, and fluent in multiple languages would have the good sense to find a tropical island and hide out there. But, reporters are reporters and showing up is part of the hardwiring. He’s reported from the beating heart of London, the sun-soaked charm of Morocco, and the synthetic dreamland here in Hollywood, where reality is a suggestion and history gets rewritten with better lighting… similar to many governments, these days. And now, it seems, German history doesn’t just repeat—it occasionally tries to form a coalition government. And it seems to have a first cousin in Washington DC with the same goals and aspirations. Fascism is blooming like a genetically-modified periwinkle and cactus hybrid.

In Frankfurt Germany is Jan Tüssing with AFD Germany public radio. Over the years I’ve gotten to know him very well – meeting first at Sundance and witnessing his world in Germany, from personal coaching and media training to helping people as a therapist. One of the savviest commentators on history with a keen perspective that is meticulously focused and a great credit to the last remaining of us in this Musk-clobbered business. We discuss what’s unfolding here in the United States and the fast redrawing of the post World War II alliance map to favor the reboot of a vast Russian Empire with quid pro quo cash and prizes for the (quite literal) Oval Office brokers in this art of a deal.

We’d all like to think that much of the nation was gobsmacked by the public dressdown of Zelensky in the Oval - like kicking a collie immobilized with a broken leg. Donald Trump is reportedly furious that so many European leaders are pledging enough support, money, and arms for Ukraine to sideline him completely, and was overheard shouting to his staffers, "This is supposed to be MY deal, and MY Nobel Peace Prize!" Unfathomable how the Red Lobster thinks that rebooting the Russian Empire for a a quid pro quo transaction of $1 trillion in mineral rights on the backs of 400,000 dead Ukrainians earns him the Nobel peace prize.

Swastikas and Guns Surge In Germany

But we’re not alone. Germany’s just gone ahead and reminded us all, that bad ideas never really die … they just get better branding. Swastikas and brown shirts again march the streets across eastern Germany. We explore the playbook of the new German government that seems in lockstep with Mr. Vance and Musk’s vision for a new world order.

Will the Democrats rise up like a tidal wave? Will even one of them arise off a flattened scrotum and swish the air with a plastic fork? While reasonable Germans have been flooding the streets by the hundreds of thousands in righteous protest of fascism, Americans have, indeed, been sending thousands of letters, calls, and emails to overwhelm their congressional Democrats as leader Hakim Jeffries reminds his team to stand down and be supplicating fascist-fluffers. Is this history repeating itself with our own version of Vichy governance?