Southern Borders and Reichstag Fires

States of Emergency, Executive Orders, Insurrection Acts and Enabling Acts

Nearly all would be dictators seeking absolute control of the government and power of their nation’s people use some kind of ruse which gives them the opportunity to take complete power. Donald Trump has been ruling as a virtual dictator since his inauguration of 20 January 2025. He has done so through a deluge of “Executive Orders,” one that was issued that same day, declared a State of Emergency at the Southern Border. In addition to directing the Defense Department to commit troops and equipment to the border, and to prepare to construct detention camps in cooperation with DHS. The order contained this direction to the heads of the Defense Department and Homeland Security:

“Within 90 days of the date of this proclamation, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall submit a joint report to the President about the conditions at the southern border of the United States and any recommendations regarding additional actions that may be necessary to obtain complete operational control of the southern border, including whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807”. On 11 April, Trump issued an order for the Defense Department to occupy Federal lands along the Southern Border.”

Tomorrow is 90 days since this was published and we are waiting for how the Regime will proceed. Since Pete “Signalgate” Hegseth and Kristi “Puppy Killer” Noem are in charge of this report I have no doubt that they will have a list of actions necessary to secure the border, as well as recommend invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807, which Trump will certainly implement, despite the Supreme Court ruling late last night that Trump’s Regime could not use that statue to deport more Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvadoran concentration camps.

This, however a threat to many civil liberties, is not a Reichstag Fire event, despite Trump calling it a National Emergency. Such an event would be massive, take for instance the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City exactly 30 years ago today by White Nationalist terrorists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. 168 innocent people, including 19 babies and children in the building’s childcare center. 684 others were wounded in the attack. Of course there were the 9-11-2001 attacks carried out by Muslim terrorist allies of Osama Bin Laden using hijacked airliners that killed nearly 3,000 people, mostly in the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York. The Murrah bombing led to increased awareness of terrorism and the 9-11 attacks resulted in the near unanimous approval of the Patriot Act, as well as long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The next act needs only to be large enough to create panic, terror and remove people’s sense of security. It could be an attack on a sporting venue, major public event, a large political rally, a national symbol or even a large shopping center and involve bombs, poison gas, armed drones or any other weapons. The perpetrators and motives need not be known before a new State of Emergency is announced.

On February 27th 1933 Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party were still a minority party in a coalition government of partners that wouldn’t have minded Hitler’s failure, became recipients of a political gift. It was the burning of the Reichstag, the German parliament building, allowed them to seize power under the very provisions of the Republic and Constitution that they despised. The very next day Hitler with the backing of President Paul von Hindenburg issued a decree under Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, which though directed at the German Communist Party, applied to every political party in Germany. Civil liberties were suspended, free speech and freedom of the press all suppressed.

Barely three weeks later the Reichstag, now emptied of Communists deputies gave its approval to the Enabling Act which gave Hitler dictatorial powers for four years. Their abdication of their Constitutional role allowed Hitler to enact laws without the approval of the Reichstag, effectively ending any sort of parliamentary democracy and eviscerating the constitution. Only the Socialists voted in opposition.

The Enabling Act gave the central government in Berlin to usurp State governments in States where non-Nazi parties held democratic majorities and to outlaw political opposition. The only party to oppose the Nazi moves toward dictatorship were the Social Democrats. Their party was banned shortly after the Enabling Act was passed. Their leader in the Reichstag, Otto Weis proclaimed the last free words uttered in the Reichstag:

“No Enabling Law can give you the power to destroy ideas which are eternal and indestructible … You can take our lives and our freedom, but you cannot take our honour. We are defenseless but not honourless.”

The other political parties in Germany, including the conservative parties and center parties who had allied themselves with Hitler voted to dissolve themselves by the end of July 1933. None of the conservative opposition wanted to face the wrath of Hitler or his newly established extrajudicial Concentration Camps which were not run by the Ministry of Justice, but the Nazi Party.

I don’t know what our Reichstag Fire Event will be. The most likely sources of terrorist attacks today are domestic White Nationalists, foreign Muslim terrorists, and Russian agents. Regardless of the source or the target the Trump Regime will use it to declare a State of Emergency and suspend Constitutional liberties, quite likely with the cooperation on his majority in both houses of Congress. Who will likely passing much more draconian than the Patriot Act. This we must be alert and aware.

As Timothy Snyder wrote in his book On Tyranny: “Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. Modern tyranny is terror management. When the terrorist attack comes, remember that authoritarians exploit such events in order to consolidate power. The sudden disaster that requires the end of checks and balances, the dissolution of opposition parties, the suspension of freedom of expression, the right to a fair trial, and so on, is the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book. Do not fall for it.”

Let us be careful not to fall for the Regime’s line when the next terrorist attack occurs.