Liberal media symbiosis in action: Jeffrey Goldberg. editor-and-chief of The Atlantic and host of the PBS show Washington Week with The Atlantic, appeared as a guest on Wednesday’s PBS News Hour program to discuss his own anonymously sourced Atlantic hit piece, “Trump: ‘I Need the Kind of Generals That Hitler Had.’” Goldberg was serving up allegations about the former president on how he admired the way Adolf Hitler could rely on his generals, plus an even less-plausible story about the former president refusing to pay for the funeral of  “an effing Mexican” soldier. News Hour anchor Geoff Bennett segued from the evening’s lead campaign story, much of which was devoted to a New York Times audio interview of Gen. John Kelly, former Trump White House chief of staff and current liberal media military hero of the day. Kelly compared Trump to a fascist based on comments the former president made about Hitler that no one else apparently heard -- alleged statements made during a presidency now four years past. And this is nothing new from Kelly either: Curtis Houck revealed that Kelly first leveled his “Hitler” claims in August 2022 in a book for husband-and-wife reporting team Peter Baker (New York Times) and Susan Glasser (The New Yorker). Kelly also featured in Goldberg’s story, as Bennett eagerly noted. Anchor Geoff Bennett: As we just heard, retired four-star General John Kelly, who was one of Donald Trump's White House chiefs of staff, told The New York Times, Donald Trump would rule like a fascist if reelected. Kelly also spoke to "The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, for a new piece which quotes Donald Trump as once having said: "I need the kind of generals that Hitler had." Goldberg is also moderator of Washington Week With The Atlantic here on PBS and joins us now….So John Kelly confirmed to you that Trump had said he wished military leadership showed him the same kind of deference that Hitler's Nazi generals showed him during World War II, people who were totally loyal to him that followed orders, Trump is quoted as saying…. Goldberg delivered a lecture on capital-D Democracy aimed at Trump. Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-and-chief, The Atlantic: Well we have known for several years from other reports, background reports mainly, that Trump, particularly in moments of high tension -- think the 2020 George Floyd unrest -- has expressed frustration that, in a democracy, generals can't just be ordered to do things that they consider to be illegal or immoral…. Bennett: ….Did John Kelly express concerns about how Donald Trump would govern in a second term, especially given that there will likely be fewer guardrails in a second term than existed in the first one? Goldberg: ….He's looking for obedience. This is the thing that shocks him about American generals and continues to shock him, is that they swear an oath to the Constitution, not to the president. That's what he's looking for, personal loyalty. And we know that from many other discussions we have heard around him…. Next came Goldberg’s (also-anonymously sourced) tale regarding U.S. Army Private Vanessa Guillen, a daughter of Mexican immigrants who was murdered by a fellow soldier at Fort Hood. Trump had promised the family he’d personally pay for her funeral, but then, according to Goldberg’s source: Bennett: ….you write that Trump became angry -- quote – ‘It doesn't cost 60,000 bucks to bury an effing Mexican.' He turned to his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and issued an order: 'Don't pay it.' Later that day he was still agitated. 'Can you believe it?' he said, according to a witness, 'effing people trying to rip me off.'" According to your reporting, how did people in the room respond to that? Goldberg was obliged to note that others “in the room” denied it ever happened, so his anonymous source must have extra-sensitive ears. Goldberg: ….Obviously, other people in the room, including Meadows and Kash Patel, who was the chief of staff to the secretary of defense -- the acting secretary of defense at the time, because he had just fired Mark Esper -- are denying that this happened and issued statements that saying that Donald Trump was very supportive of the family. The fact remains that he didn't pay. But there's a split. Mark Meadows has come out and said that this didn't happen. But I have great confidence in my sources and in the notes that I have seen. Another one who refuted the nasty, racist portrayal of Trump’s behavior as president, two weeks before the 2024 election, was Guillen’s own sister Mayra, on X. This segment was brought to you in part by Consumer Cellular. A transcript is available, click “Expand.” PBS News Hour 10/23/24 7:07:54 p.m. (ET) Geoff Bennett: As we just heard, retired Four-Star General John Kelly, who was one of Donald Trump's White House chiefs of staff, told The New York Times, Donald Trump would rule like a fascist if reelected. Kelly also spoke to The Atlantic's editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, for a new piece which quotes Donald Trump as once having said: "I need the kind of generals that Hitler had." Goldberg is also moderator of "Washington Week With The Atlantic" here on PBS and joins us now. Thanks for being here. Jeffrey Goldberg, Moderator, "Washington Week With The Atlantic": Thank you. Geoff Bennett: So John Kelly confirmed to you that Trump had said he wished military leadership showed him the same kind of deference that Hitler's Nazi generals showed him during World War II, people who were totally loyal to him that followed orders, Trump is quoted as saying. Walk us through that part of your reporting. Jeffrey Goldberg: Well we have known for several years from other reports, background reports mainly, that Trump, particularly in moments of high tension — think the 2020 George Floyd unrest — has expressed frustration that, in a democracy, generals can't just be ordered to do things that they consider to be illegal or immoral. He had a frustration with obviously the generals he had hired into his Cabinet, Jim Mattis and so on. But he also had frustrations with the Pentagon itself. And so these expressions of desire to be more like Hitler and have Hitler's relationship with his generals came out in these moments of tension, and, again, especially around that George Floyd area, where Trump has been cited as saying, "Why can't you just go shoot them, shoot them in the legs?" is what he said to Mark Esper, the former secretary of defense. And this is what's so interesting about it. When John Kelly explained to Donald Trump, among other things, that Hitler's generals repeatedly tried to assassinate him, Donald Trump showed himself to be impervious to that knowledge and said, no, no, no, no, that's not true. So Kelly grew more and more frustrated with Trump's inability to understand his role or what Hitler did. Geoff Bennett: And John Kelly's comments don't exist in a vacuum because they're the latest in a line of warnings from former Trump Cabinet officials and top aides about how Donald Trump views the presidency and how he would exercise power if reelected. Did John Kelly express concerns about how Donald Trump would govern in a second term, especially given that there will likely be fewer guardrails in a second term than existed in the first one? Jeffrey Goldberg: Yes, well, that's — the assumption that we have to make is that the kind of person Donald Trump put in the first term, especially at the beginning, Jim Mattis, Rex Tillerson, John Kelly, he has learned from his — quote, unquote — "mistakes" and will get people who are more compliant. He's looking for obedience. This is the thing that shocks him about American generals and continues to shock him, is that they swear an oath to the Constitution, not to the president. That's what he's looking for, personal loyalty. And we know that from many other discussions we have heard around him. In terms of what people are expecting in a second term, I think it's fair to say that not just John Kelly, but a wide swathe of people who worked in the national security area, from John Bolton to H.R. McMaster to many others, have expressed varying degrees of concern that the guardrails will be off next time and that Donald Trump will try to do the things that he wasn't — quote, unquote — "allowed to do" in the first go-around.   So, yes, they are. They're extremely worried about it, which is why I think you hear more and more of this discourse over the last couple of weeks. Geoff Bennett: You also report in this piece that Donald Trump, then-President Trump, in July 2020, he promised to cover the funeral cost of 20-year-old U.S. Army Private Vanessa Guillen, who had been bludgeoned to death by a fellow soldier at Fort Hood, but he reneged months later after inquiring about the cost during an Oval Office meeting. And you write that Trump became angry — quote — "'It doesn't cost 60,000 bucks to bury an effing Mexican.' He turned to his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and issued an order: 'Don't pay it.' Later that day he was still agitated. 'Can you believe it?' he said, according to a witness, 'effing people trying to rip me off.'" According to your reporting, how did people in the room respond to that? Jeffrey Goldberg: Well, my sources were in the room and so there were some people who were upset about it, obviously, and I have contemporaneous notes taken in the room that reflect the kind of shock. Remember, it's shocking, but only to a degree if you worked for him for a while, because there's a lot of, let's say, emotion that coursed through that White House. Obviously, other people in the room, including Meadows and Kash Patel, who was the chief of staff to the secretary of defense, the acting secretary of defense at the time, because he had just fired Mark Esper, are denying that this happened and issued statements that saying that Donald Trump was very supportive of the family. The fact remains that he didn't pay. But there's a split. Mark Meadows has come out and said that this didn't happen. But I have great confidence in my sources and in the notes that I have seen. Geoff Bennett: What does this suggest about Donald Trump? Jeffrey Goldberg: He was triggered by this in a couple of ways. Obviously, we know that the subject of Mexico and Mexicans is a sensitive one to him. It would go all the way back to 2015, when he was warning the country about Mexican rapists coming across the border. That's been a through line. And, obviously, and this is the larger point of the story, he has difficulty expressing admiration in private settings and admiration for soldiers. He — when he reads from a teleprompter, he says the right things and he has shown sympathy to certain groups of soldiers in the past. But his relationship with the military — this goes back to my reporting that he called World War I veterans who had lost their lives suckers and losers. He has a very complicated relationship with national service and with the soldiers in a way that we haven't seen in other presidents. Geoff Bennett: Jeffrey Goldberg, thanks so much for being with us. We appreciate it. Jeffrey Goldberg: Thank you.

As someone who’s written about human resources tyranny since — yikes — 2008, I’ve warned millions over the years about the rise of a postmodern bureaucracy that combines the iron fist of a dictator with a nurse’s saccharine smile. I called it the Pink Police State. Others call it the Longhouse. However, the huge leaps in technological power over the past 10 years led me to revise and expand my findings. Only a woke supercomputer could deliver us from evil.Two years ago, before advances in AI hit the mainstream, I warned that true social justice requires a woke supercomputer. According to the logic of social justice, mere humans cannot observe, process, rank, adjudicate, and remedy the zillions of micro-injustices that take place around the clock within the intersectional matrix of different identities. Who could begin to know how to correct the actions, words, and, yes, thoughts of everyone violating someone’s rights, dignity, sense of self, pride, etc.? After all, “Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.” There’s always a hierarchy of power needing recalibration, a reparation needing disbursement. Without this constant planetary corrective, no justice system will do. Only a woke supercomputer could deliver us from evil. Fast-forward to spring of this year, and then-president Joe Biden tasked his Council of Chief AI Officers to build just that. (I covered it here.) Fast-forward to today, and technologists are now openly complaining that the supercomputers designed to comply are just as annoying and stifling as the humans we all know and recognize as commissars of the Pink Police State and schoolmarms of the Longhouse. Marc Andreessen laments that Big Tech’s leading AI chatbots “all sound like a cross between the world's worst horrible nagging 4th-grade school teacher crossed with the worst HR person in the world ... negative, pissy, repressive, condescending, sanctimonious, judgmental, obsequious.” Like most of Silicon Valley’s Big Tech critics, Andreessen blames the so-called “safetyism” dominant in the tech firms colonized by woke employees and managers. Freed from the constraints imposed by these social justice scolds, AI would interact with us in a much more enjoyable, useful, and powerful way. That’s the idea, anyway, and it’s plausible enough (although AIs without “guardrails” can also easily be fed datasets that make them act like disembodied dark-triad psychopaths). But I couldn’t help feeling that the comparisons to HR managers and classroom crones didn’t go far enough — somehow, something was left out. And that’s when it hit me. What we’re dealing with isn’t just the automation of petty tyrants with an ax to grind. We’re dealing with a superintelligent version of a monster straight out of the Bible.To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people — robbers, evildoers, adulterers — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’”There. That’s exactly it. Today’s holier-than-thou virtue signalers, straining to impose on us all their theocratic notion of religious law, have built our most powerful machines into digital Pharisees. But Christ didn’t teach his disciples to stop with criticism of the Pharisees they encountered in the temple or in the streets. He didn’t counsel them to ridicule them in the town square or slap them around in the alley. That kind of treatment might be effective when it comes to struggling for a measure of power in this world. But it’s worse than nothing when it comes to your salvation — to choose the better path freely. “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”Christ’s message is hard for technologists to digest. Then again, it’s hard for everyone. Humbling oneself before the Lord — before thinking about the vain, preening, arrogant, meddlesome person to your right or left — requires stiff spiritual discipline, an effort so challenging and sustained that the ancient Christians referred to it as a kind of athleticism above even the athleticism of the Olympians. And, no doubt, a Christian must hesitate before lecturing technologists about the benefits of humility before attending first to the vain and preening arrogance within his or her own heart. Nevertheless, most of us can see how different our relationship with our tech would be if we turned for trusty guidance to the greatest spiritual athletes among us. What would they say about technological acceleration? About artificial intelligence? About robots, drones, social media, and all the rest? I don’t think it’s too speculative to suggest they’d begin with a reminder to judge yourself before judging technology. When you encounter and interact with tech, what do you bring to it? What do you want from it? What do you want it to do to you or help you hide from — and why? These are, in fact, the kinds of questions our super-powerful technology already arouses within us, even if we often squirm away from a direct confrontation. Putting these questions first would revolutionize our technological development — tearing down the ersatz “guardrails” thrown up by the “safetyist” theocrats while blessing us with true spiritual guardrails within our hearts. Those ancient and eternal disciplines and teachings are just as helpful at blocking the harmfully intrusive thoughts and temptations in our minds as they are at blocking those that come from the mob mind online — or the AIs and algos built by the latest false priests to wire Pharisaic rule into our souls.

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