I was born in 1943 my wife in 1944. Looking out my window I can see the Colonial-Classical Revival tower of the Coatesville VA Medical Center. The male teachers in our schools were veterans. The America we grew up in did not accommodate Nazi Republicans

Our brother in law’s brother was at the hospice of the Coatesville VA Center. We attended his funeral service at the VA. His caregivers at VA spoke at his funeral. The good care he received was on display.

At our home in Coatesville PA a Ukrainian Flag flies in protest of Trump's United States of America's support of our enemy, Russia.

 

James A Pitcherella at his
crane. Lukens Steel Co. 

From the Boardwalk at Atlantic City NJ people watched tankers torpedoed by German U Boats explode. 

Lukens Steel Company where my dad worked was a military target.

For my mom WWII was frightening.

As maybe an 8 year old I found blackout window blinds in the attic. I asked my mom what they were. A look of fear came on her face. She said nothing. 

Although he supported a wife and 3 daughters Betsy's dad was drafted in1945. After VE Day on May 8, 1945 everyone expected years more of war in the invasion of Japan.

Early in August of 1945 the atomic bomb forced the Japanese to surrender. Betsy's dad came home. She had no memory of her father and he frightened her.

My Uncle Len Kelleher served in the U.S. Army in Rome. He planned to "marry an Italian girl" when he came home. 

My Uncle Earl spoke of shooting centipedes in New Guinea with his M-1. He served in General MacArthur's Army. 

 One Christmas night my Aunt Angelina, Aunt Martha, Uncle Lou & Uncle Fred sat at my grandmom’s kitchen table.

Uncle Lou was a sergeant in Patton's Army. He was in the Battle of the Bulge. 

Uncle Fred was a combat engineer. 

I said to Uncle Fred and Uncle Lou. 

Thanks for what you did.”

Uncle Fred, 

“What do you mean?”

“Thanks for what you did in the war. If you didn’t do it we might all be speaking German now.

My Uncle Fred had to leave the table. 

Uncle Lou said Freddy had it hard. 

My Uncle Fred was a combat engineer who landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day. He kept his boots on for three months until they got to Paris. He was constantly under fire for three months.

Uncle Fred Pitcherella lived his last years at the Veterans Medical Center in Coatesville, PA. Someone there told me that what hung over him, his greatest regret, was being in the hospital in England when his troop wired a bridge and it blew up prematurely killing all his friends. He thought if he was there it would be done properly. 

The America we grew up in did not accommodate the Nazi salute of Elon Musk. Or Texas Congressman Keith Self quoting Joseph Goebbels. 

Donald Trump & Elon Musk have caused us to check our bank account to see if our Social Security deposit came in. 

Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” is causing “pain.” 

Hitler’s Germany would never have existed without the pain caused by the Great Depression. Hitler’s Germany would never have existed without the pain caused by the Great Depression. Trump’s tariff on the world could very well be a deliberate attempt to cause a second Great Depression.

Trump’s kidnapping of legal residents to Salvadoran death camps mimics the Nazi SS kidnappings of Jews & enemies of Hitler to death camps. SEE VIDEO BELOW:

World War II ended the Great Depression. We don’t know how the Republican Party generated second Great Depression will end. 

Since our military intelligence has been compromised by the Trump Whitehouse use of the Signal App for critical military missions out military is completely transparent to our military enemies. 

SEE:

Members of President Donald Trump’s National Security Council, including White House national security adviser Michael Waltz, have conducted government business over personal Gmail accounts, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post and interviews with three U.S. officials.

The use of Gmail, a far less secure method of communication than the encrypted messaging app Signal, is the latest example of questionable data security practices by top national security officials already under fire for the mistaken inclusion of a journalist in a group chat about high-level planning for military operations in Yemen.

FROM:

The Washington Post

Trump’s national security adviser is trying to manage his way out of a crisis. But new revelations about his team’s operational security are piling up in the inbox.

John Hudson Updated April 1, 2025

China could successfully invade our country without bullets by disabling military communications. I fear my children & grandchildren will live in Chinese America.

Trump Republicans strive to eliminate and entire branch of government ignoring rule of law, courts and the right of due process. Right now they are kidnapping non citizens here legally and sending them to death camps. We are one step removed from dictatorship where anyone who displeases Trump could go to a death camp. 

“The Trump administration has moved aggressively to eliminate protections guaranteed by the US Constitution. While their initial targets have been non citizens, without due process, everyone is vulnerable. Kris Goldsmith explains the constitutional crisis we now face, and how Democrats must pledge to hold Republicans accountable when (if?) a responsible administration returns to power.”

MeidasTouch

MeidasTouch

4.6M subscribers

“Donald Trump is a betrayer of everything that’s made America great. We are more vulnerable to an outside attack than we have been in 200 years. We have no allies. We are alone.” - Simon Rosenberg.

Speaking with a Coatesville PA business owner in November just before the election I said:

“If Trump wins and the Project 2025 is implemented our country could be weakened to the point where it’s easy for China to take possession of the United States.” - James Pitcherella

*** 

How To More Forcefully Articulate, Denounce, And Challenge Trump's Dangerous Weakening Of America

 

Simon Rosenberg

34.5K subscribers

***

Ken Harbaugh

11.1K subscribers  

    

507 views  Mar 27, 2025

Vets are OUTRAGED 

Pete Hegseth’s fellow veterans have long known that he is a fool. After this week’s massive intelligence breach, and Hegseth's callous disregard for security protocols, it might be that Hegseth is also a criminal. Kris Goldsmith makes the case for prosecution. 

Check out Kris’s new podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...

Follow The Ken Harbaugh Show here: https://linktr.ee/thekenharbaughshow 

Kris Goldsmith formed the TASK FORCE BUTLER INSTITUTE - VETERANS FIGHTING FASCISM

They're going to get American pilots KILLED

On air bases, in aircraft carrier “ready rooms” and in communities near military bases this week, there was consternation. The news that senior officials in the Trump administration discussed plans on Signal, a commercial messaging app, for an impending attack angered and bewildered men and women who have taken to the air on behalf of the United States…

Worse, they said, is that going forward, they can no longer be certain that the Pentagon is focused on their safety when they strap into cockpits.

“It’s important to understand the degree that OPSEC is involved in every aspect of your life on an aircraft carrier,” said former Navy Capt. Joseph Capalbo, who commanded a carrier air wing and two F/A-18 squadrons, in a reference to operational security. “Red Sea ops are conducted in complete silence — no one is talking on the radio. Because everything can be heard by somebody.”

MORE AT:

The New York Times

Signal Chat Leak Angers U.S. Military Pilots

Men and women who have taken to the air on behalf of the United States expressed bewilderment after the leak of attack plans. “You’re going to kill somebody,” one pilot said.

By Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt

Reporting from Washington

March 27, 2025

***

“Yesterday, I sat down with author and foreign policy expert David Rothkopf for an extended Substack Live conversation about SignalGate and Trump’s abandonment of what we call here the America of the Four Freedoms. It’s an informative and sobering conversation about the damage Trump is doing to our country, Trump’s embrace of Putinism and how all of it is leaving America weaker and less safe than we’ve been in generations. It can be found above. Get to it when you can. It’s a compelling necessary conversation.

As I discuss below, I think we should be calling for both Hegseth and Gabbard to step down. Hegseth is obvious. He sent highly classified war plans on an insecure chat and simply can no longer be trusted. Gabbard for she is in charge of intelligence for the US, and must take responsibility for participating in and not stopping one of the most significant security breaches in US history.” - Simon Rosenberg

David Rothkopf On Trump's Shambolic Foreign Policy Team And Embrace Of Putin

Simon Rosenberg

34.5K subscribers

IN SUBJUGATING RULE OF LAW to TRUMP’S NAZI RULE, TRUMP is nearly exactly following HITLER’S playbook. The difference is it took HITLER 13 YEARS TO SUBJUGATE RULE OF LAW. Trump needs to SHORTEN that to 2 YEARS.

 “But the Paul Weiss drama has raised bigger questions in the legal industry: What does it mean to be a lawyer if the administration can make demands on how a firm runs its business?

Paul Weiss ‘is merely rearranging the proverbial deck chairs on the Titanic,” Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, wrote on X. “With this administration, there will be no legitimate legal system and no need for actual lawyers.”

MORE AT:

The New York Times

Paul Weiss Deal With Trump Faces Backlash From Legal Profession

Paul Weiss, a law firm targeted by President Trump, reached a deal to settle a conflict. Many in the legal field are condemning the agreement.

By Danielle KayeLauren Hirsch and Maureen Farrell

March 21, 2025

NOTE:

Hitler flourished among a German people hit terribly hard by The Great Depression. I believe Trump is recreating a Second Great Depression to facilitate his takeover of the USA.

JUST A FEW PAGES FROM:

"COMPLICITY IN THE PERVERSION OF JUSTICE: THE ROLE OF LAWYERS IN ERODING THE RULE OF LAW IN THE THRID REICH"

"The process by which Hitler hijacked the legal system to achieve this goal was an incremental one. It happened as a result of many steps that led to the breakdown of the ability of the legal system to fulfill its fundamental mission to protect the people from governmental tyranny."

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice &

Ethics 

7-2020

Complicity in the Perversion of Justice: The Role of Lawyers in

Eroding the Rule of Law in the Third Reich 

https://commons.stmarytx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1051&context=lmej

Cynthia Fountaine

University of North T exas, cynthia.fountaine@untdallas.edu

Abstract. A fundamental tenet of the legal profession is that lawyers and

judges are uniquely responsible—individually and collectively—for protecting

the Rule of Law. This Article considers the failings of the legal profession in

living up to that responsibility during Germany’s Third Reich. The incremental

steps used by the Nazis to gain control of the German legal system—beginning

as early as 1920 when the Nazi Party adopted a party platform that included a

plan for a new legal system—turned the legal system on its head and destroyed

the Rule of Law. By failing to uphold the integrity and independence of the

profession, lawyers and judges permitted and ultimately collaborated in the

subversion of the basic lawyer–client relationship, the abrogation of the lawyer’s

role as advocate, and the elimination of judicial independence. As a result, while

there was an elaborate facade of laws, the fundamental features of the Rule of

Law no longer existed and in their place had grown an arbitrary and chaotic

system leaving people without any protection from a violent, totalitarian

government.

Author. Professor of Law, Southern Illinois University School of Law. The

author thanks Dr. Manfred Dauster, Presiding Judge, Bavarian Supreme State

Court, for his insightful comments on this Article. The author also thanks

Alicia Hill Ruiz and the editors at the St. Mary’s Journal on Legal Malpractice &

Ethics for their excellent editorial work.

2020] Complicity in the Perversion of Justice 201

I. INTRODUCTION

The “Rule of [L]aw is a principle under which all persons, institutions,

and entities are accountable to laws that are: [p]ublicly promulgated[,]

[e]qually enforced[,] [i]ndependently adjudicated[,] [a]nd consistent with

international human rights principles.”4 Furthermore, the Rule of Law

requires “measures to ensure adherence to the principles of supremacy of

the law, equality before the law, accountability to the law, fairness in the

application of the law, separation of powers, participation in

decision-making, legal certainty, avoidance of arbitrariness, and . . . legal

transparency.”5

A fundamental tenant of the legal profession is that lawyers and judges

are uniquely responsible—individually and collectively—for ensuring the

protection of the Rule of Law. As this Article will demonstrate, the legal

profession catastrophically failed to fulfill this responsibility during

Germany’s Third Reich.

This Article will consider the incremental steps used by the Nazis to gain

control of the German legal system and abrogate the Rule of Law in

Germany during the Third Reich. In so doing, this Article will explore the

legal and ethical failings that ultimately resulted in the legal system being

turned on its head. By failing to uphold the integrity and independence of

the profession, lawyers and judges permitted and ultimately collaborated in

the subversion of the basic lawyer–client relationship, the abrogation of the

lawyer’s role as an advocate, and the elimination of judicial independence.

As a result, while there was an elaborate facade of laws, the fundamental

features of the Rule of Law no longer existed, and in their place had grown

an arbitrary and chaotic system designed to carry out Hitler’s evil will and

racist agenda.

On Remembrance Day 2018, a New York Times headline said, “Holocaust

Is Fading From Memory, Survey Finds.”6 The article noted, “[41] percent of

Americans, and 66 percent of millennials, cannot say what Auschwitz was.

And 52 percent of Americans wrongly think Hitler came to power through

force.”7 Moreover, most Americans—including many lawyers and

judges—know very little about the legal system in Nazi Germany and how

it contributed to and facilitated the Third Reich’s rise to power. There is a

general perception that it was a lawless system, that the Rule of Law had

been completely abandoned from the beginning. However, the reality is

that Hitler used the legal system to legitimize his terroristic dictatorship and,

while eventually there was a complete breakdown in the Rule of Law, it did

not happen all at once; it happened over time and with the complicity of the

legal profession. This Article will consider how Hitler effectively perverted

the legal system, at first working within it and later taking complete control

of it.

This Article does not attempt to provide an exhaustive history of the

period or its legal system.8 This Article also does not seek to hold the

United States up as an example of the only way, or even necessarily the right

way, to run a legal system—either now or in the past9—or to criticize

Germany’s legal response over the last seventy-five years. Indeed, Germany

now has many additional protections in place, including making protection

of human dignity a basic human right and ensuring the independence of its

judiciary, which provides as much or more protection of human rights than

any other country today.10

What this Article does seek to do is consider the role of German lawyers

and judges in tolerating, facilitating, encouraging, and legitimizing the Nazi

agenda. This agenda resulted in the state-sponsored torture and murder of

over 11 million human beings11—over 6 million of whom were Jews—and

sparked a World War that resulted in the deaths of another 60 million

people, including 20 million soldiers and 40 million civilians, around the

world12 between 1933 and 1945. This consideration of where the German

legal profession went wrong in the 1930s and 1940s will provide lessons for

how we can strengthen modern legal systems and emphasize the legal

profession’s responsibility—including the individual responsibility of each

member of the legal profession—to maintain a just legal system.

A common misconception about the role of German judges and lawyers

in the Third Reich is that the lawyers and judges were all Nazis who followed

Hitler blindly. Although there were definitely some Nazi judges and

lawyers—and some of them were directly responsible for the failings of the

German legal system during the Third Reich—the vast majority of lawyers

and judges were not Nazis, but were ordinary lawyers and judges, part of the

educated cultural elite of Germany. They had personal and professional

motivations for what they did and did not do, and those motivations may

not have had anything to do with loyalty to Hitler and the Nazis.

Nevertheless, these lawyers and judges also failed Germany entirely; they

fueled Hitler’s agenda of genocide and hatred by giving it legitimacy and

authority.

As a starting point, it is important to understand that Hitler despised

lawyers and promised “[t]o make every German realize that it is a disgrace

to be a lawyer.”13 He once said, “[e]very lawyer must be regarded as a man

deficient by nature or else deformed by usage.”14 He also said:

The lawyer’s profession is essentially unclean, for the lawyer is entitled to lie

to the court . . . The lawyer looks after the underworld with as much love as

owners of shoots taking care of their game during the closed season. There

will always be some lawyer who will jiggle with the facts until the moment

comes when he will find extenuating circumstances . . . .15

His goal was not only to purge the legal profession of those he thought

undesirable and coordinate the legal system to promote his agenda, but to

control the legal system to a complete degree so that there was no real

distinction between himself and the law. The process by which Hitler

hijacked the legal system to achieve this goal was an incremental one. It

happened as a result of many steps that led to the breakdown of the ability

of the legal system to fulfill its fundamental mission to protect the people

from governmental tyranny.

MORE AT:

https://commons.stmarytx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1051&context=lmej