9 Comments
Nov 6, 2020Liked by John Birmingham

Love it. I must admit the Goering comparison had never occurred to me. I've always pictured him more as a Valentinian III (from the last days of the Western Roman Empire): spoiled, jealous, fearful, dominated by a parent, then incompetent as fuck once he became the Big Cheese.

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Love the last 8 lines -when we ask how we got here -there are those 8 lines.

As for dictators I've always seen a lot of parallels between Idi Amin and Trump, never thought of Goering, but yeah I can see it. I don't think trump has the steel Amin had (thankfully)-the latter was an ex-military officer, and the former a spoilt gold plated Twinkie.

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John: This is a fascinating reading of Donald Trump as a try-hard Hermann Göring/Goering. HG was the first cousin to the grand-father of one of my first cousins’ husband - in the US. Did you follow that. Not that they ever boasted of the connection, mind - just one of those family connections things - as if one found oneself connected to an Abetz! Slight shiver of revulsion. But there you are.

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Imagine the 70 million wannabes dancing like Trump.

Not while you're eating, though. It's rude to spray food across the room.

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The Goering analogy is a great one, except Goering was a pretty brave combatant in WW1, winning a Pour Le Merit for his dogfighting abilities. I was gonna look for analogies in Mussolini (Tangerine Benito being my own creation) but Goering is better. The Mary Trump book absolutely skewers his personality, but also recognises the unloved, sad little boy under all the orange blubber.

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Not wanting to stand up for the "Luftwaffe's human blimp" but wasn't he a decorated WW1 fighter pilot? Otherwise they are a good match...

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Not sure if I agree with the whole sad trombone metaphor...

Personally I think Donald’s more of a Yackity Sax kinda guy....

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