Giacomo Matteotti (1885-1924)

His Story Tells Us Trump Is Losing 

Giacomo Matteotti.

On May 30, 1924, Giacomo Matteotti gave a speech to the Italian parliament, of which he was a member. Ten days later, he was dead - murdered by Prime Minister Mussolini's thugs. 

For the next several months, everyone in Italy held their breath. But in the end, Mussolini's true power base - the country's elite - refused to move against him. The king? Crickets. The pope? Ditto. The industrialists, the big farmers? They all stood behind their boy. The police, the judges, the army? They all toed the line.

And that was when Mussolini knew he owned the country. He lasted another twenty years and then was strung up by his heels in a gas station on the outskirts of Milan. 

Matteotti's sin was to say the quiet part out loud. People had to know what was going on in the provinces, with Fascist goons upending the election process and generally intimidating anyone who did not toe the Fascist line. But people hid their eyes behind a veil of plausible deniability.

"The outcry over Matteotti's murder offered the king and the conservative establishment their best opportunity to remove Mussolini from office. Once again, several paths were open to them. They chose not to press their doubts over Mussolini to the point of active steps to remove him, however, fearful that this would open the way to renewed chaos or to a government of the Left." (Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism, 2004, p. 110.) 

I think the situation in the United States today differs from the situation in Italy in two important ways. First, the people have not been quelled. We just saw that, again, on No Kings day, last Saturday. Second, the elites are not solid in their support of Trump. In fact, I see cracks developing pretty much everywhere.

Just look at Trump's birthday parade. Can we talk about the army's malicious compliance? I think so. The police are busy distancing themselves from ICE. The judges have in many instances stood up, and the lower courts are placing the Supreme Court in a bind. Roberts does not want to go down in history as the worst chief justice ever. America's Catholic bishops have think twice about doing what they want to do - the pope may be displeased.

Business is all over the place, trying to figure out how to deal with Trump's economic insanity. Although I'm sure that Jamie Dimon still has that little Mussolini plush doll that he goes to bed with every night. 

And the big farmers never expected Trump to deport all their workers, which is what he seemed about to do until they ran to him whining. So you can look for Trump to keep invading the big blue cities, where the pickings are much slimmer and where he runs the risk of being stuck in quagmire and humiliated when he discovers that he can't easily turn around and get out. One place where the TACO strategy won't work. 

Oh, wait. Now they're going after the farm workers again. Or maybe not. Oh, well. It doesn't matter. Either way, they're screwed.

Even the mainstream media are beginning to move quietly away from their stance as enablers of fascism. I do wish they, and certain Democratic politicians, would stop acting surprised by current events. We've been in a cold civil war since the 2016 election. Now, after the 2024 election, it's turning hot. Shock, yes. The spilling of actual blood here is a shock. It is not a surprise.

Meanwhile, Democratic governors are standing up and defending the rights of their sovereign states. No such power bases existed in Italy.

I think that Trump may be feeling right now a lot like Lemuel Gulliver felt when he woke up on the beach in Lilliput and found that he could not move. The Lilliputians had tied him down with the strongest ropes they had. To Gulliver, these ropes looked like fine silk thread. But there were a lot of them, and he couldn't move. 

One more thought

Mussolini hesitated for several months to walk through the open door that had been presented to him. It was only after a meeting with senior party members, who were not amused by his dilly-dallying, that he screwed up his courage and walked through the door to a full dictatorship. (Paxton, p. 110.) 

In America, I think there are several people in Trump's orbit who would be happy to replace him. JD Vance is number one in the line of succession, and I'm sure his master Peter Thiel would be pleased to see him ascend to the top spot.

For an interesting story from 1926, in Time magazine, click here. It appears that the goons who killed Matteotti weren't any better at their job than Kristi Noem was at killing her goat. 

See also Just Another Picture, Kristi Noem Shot Her Dog and Her Goat, Unleashing the Oligarchs, Quagmire, Mussolini's Personal Sex Factory, Fascism, What Happened in Ferrara?

No King, No Clown!

Most People Say No Crown, but, Well, You Know ...

Waiting for the start.

The No Kings rally in Philadelphia on Saturday, June 14, was a big, happy gathering with some knockout speakers, most notably Jamie Raskin, member of Congress and Constitutional scholar. The sky was overcast, and there were some sprinkles, but the crowd, estimated at up to 100,000, didn't seem to mind. 

Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, my eight-year-old grandson marched with a Support Ukraine sign.

Photo courtesy of Alicia West.

These were only two of many, many protests. The organizers are reporting up to 11 million participants across the nation, and they're still counting. The people have spoken (again). Will the deaf-mute Republicans in the Senate pay us any mind? Kill the bill, boys and girls!

And four people - two state legislators and their spouses - were shot in Minnesota. Police are seeking a 57-year-old man named Vance Luther Boelter. He's reportedly 6 foot 1 and 220 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. 

And of course Little Donnie Trump had his birthday party in Washington, D.C. He and a few thousand of his closest friends played tin soldier. It rained. And of course there was the District's famous combo of heat and swamp-like humidity. Spectators were not allowed to bring water.

I have a bible verse for Donnie: "For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind." (Hosea 8:7.) 

Here's what will be on my sign at the next rally:

Boil Ice - Turn Up the Heat!

See also Message for the Mad King.

Kristi Noem Shot Her Dog and Her Goat

But She Didn't Shoot a U.S. Senator

So should we be grateful? I don't think so. But I wouldn't be surprised if she thought so. 

That's how Nazi uberfrauen think: Be grateful I didn't kill you.

These people have to go. Now.

Two stories from the Guardian (not subject to censorship):

On the dog-goat thing (click here).

On U.S, Senator Alex Padilla (click here).

See also: Message for the Mad King.

The Significance of a Stroll

There Is Magic in Walking Together 

George Washington at the Battle of Princeton,
January 3, 1777.

I had a history professor in college named John Shy. He was a military historian, and he had an interesting take on George Washington's approach to the Revolutionary War.

The early part of the Revolution was not good for George, and I think most people have no idea how close the Americans came to losing the war at the Battle of Brooklyn in August 1776 and in the subsequent campaign. (For more, see The Gowanus Transforms, Again.)

At some point, however, Washington realized that the key to his success would not come in a major battle where all the chips were on the table. Instead, he came to realize that his path to success lay in keeping his army together and in the field. As long as he did that, the Brits could not declare victory.

And that's what he did. He also crossed the Delaware in December 1776 and smacked the snot out of the Hessian mercenaries who thought they had settled into winter quarters in Trenton.

The counterpunches were essential to staying in the war, but the key strategy was to maintain a force in being and never gamble the whole army on a single cast of the dice.

Time helped him in many ways. The Continental Army got better. The Brits, under pressure to suppress a surprisingly durable rebellion, kept trying things that didn't work. And eventually the French came in, and the fighting ended at Yorktown.

I think there is a lesson here for patriotic Americans today. We face a government controlled by Donald Trump and his fellow fascists. They control the high ground. But they do not control the people.

Properly led, the people will win this fight. But the key is maintaining the force in being. The fascists will do everything they can to demoralize and scatter us. We must do everything we can to maintain our solidarity and staying power.

People wonder whether rallies and marches do any good. The answer is yes. People need to stand with their fellow soldiers, shoulder to shoulder, and see that they are part of a much bigger movement. It is an energizing and uplifting experience.

I often hear the thought that a rally in Philadelphia will have no effect on a Republican farmer in Iowa. And I think there is truth in that. A very large part of the American population in the Revolution was essentially neutral. The key was in the hands of the active patriots, and keeping them in the field as an organized force.

So when someone tells you that rallies are a waste of time, and we're failing to reach the indecisive middle, just tell them that the primary mission is to keep our organization together, well trained, well equipped, well led, and in the field.

No Kings.

Charles Wilson Peale painted George Washington at the Battle of Princeton several times. The version above was completed in 1779 and currently resides at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. 

See also We Were There All Along; Quagmire, The Gowanus Transforms, Again; Why Do We Do Sports Anyway?

Viva la Muerte!

Does Joni Ernst Have a Death Wish?

U.S. Senator Ernst "apologizing."

All Joni Ernst did at her May 30 town hall was state the obvious in an inappropriate context. After all, it is true: "We all are going to die." Her interlocutors may have been inarticulate, but their meaning should have been clear to her. People who will die without their medicine would like to have their medicine. Ernst didn't want to address that issue, so she sought to shift the argument away from it and managed to pull off a gaffe that may end her career.

And then she put out an "apology" video that made matters even worse.

There are actually less attractive positions on this particular mine field. I don't think, for instance, that she's an actual death lover. Back in the Spanish Civil War, Franco's fascist troops used to shout Viva la muerte! Which means Long live death!

I don't think she's there. But I think she may be on nearby territory. In an old Ingmar Bergman movie, an attractive young woman says, "I often long for death." She said it in Swedish, but as I recall there were subtitles.

It happens. Some people have just seen too much. Others see a catastrophic failure in their immediate future, and would rather not go through it. "Shoot me now" was the semi-joke at one of my jobs.

It's possible that Ernst has seen too much and also has a clear view of the coming days. I wonder how many people like her are floating around in Trump World.

See also Just Another Picture, Message for the Mad King.