Will Venezuela 2025 be Ethiopia 1935?

  I am often struck by the parallels between Trump and Mussolini. Friday he called for the execution of six democrats who told the military that they must disobey illegal orders. Hang them says Trump!

Here is a summary of events from the recent documentary, "Mussolini, the First Fascist" which I found on You tube:

• He seized power in 1922
• He was to make Italy great again - Rome again - adopted the Roman Legion salute, later to be copied by the Nazis (and Elon Musk)
• Democracy was dead by 1925
• Parliament just obeyed Il Duce
• The only news was government propaganda
• Mussolini was on the news continuously - all Il Duce all the time
• Blackshirt fascists watched every family
• Violence solved everything was his operating principle
• To criticize Il Duce was seen as an attack on Italy - prison
• People had to pretend to agree, to hide, and eventually no one spoke out
• There was an assassination attempt where a bullet grazed his nose - HE WORE A PROMINENT BANDAGE OVER HIS NOSE and paraded before the adoring crowds
• The fascist motto was we don't give a damn
• Nothing was ever enough for him
• He inspired other dictators 
• 1935 invaded Ethiopia so as to be heirs of the great Roman Empire - poison gas, genocide - but ...

• Then started the downfall - he found out the Italians were not Roman gladiators, pfft...
• He became second fiddle to Hitler even though he had preceded him
• He declared Jews to be the enemy
• He declared Italians to be of the Arian race
• Invaded Albania and allied with Hitler
• Discovered he needed a permanent revolution or he would fall, but the fascist revolution was over
• Italian defeats broke Mussolini
• 1943 the Allies were in Italy 
• Mussolini arrested
• Imprisoned
• Hitler rescued him, a diminished shell of a man, watched always by SS
• Italy losing
• Mussolini executed and his corpse hung upside down form a telephone pole and his corpse beaten to a pulp

Turns out, violence didn't solve everything, but it eventually solved Mussolini. 

Lots of parallels, including cartoonish strutting and posing  

Fascist authoritarian incompetence

 James Comey is being prosecuted by an astonishingly incompetent, unqualified lawyer, Lindsey Halligan.  Why?  Because the qualified and competent lawyers refused to prosecute Comey. Why?  Because there is no case against Comey.  

So, why is she doing this?  Because Trump demands the prosecution.  Did he always understand that the case would fail?  Did he do this just for the headline of prosecuting a supposed "enemy"?  Perhaps.  Did he do this just to cost his enemy money in legal fees? Perhaps. Did he choose Halligan because she is pretty and looks good on TV? Sure.  

But this incompetence is not an accident, but is rather a feature of fascist authoritarian rule.  The insecure "king" cannot allow competent, intelligent, experienced people to be in positions under him.  Why?  Because the "king" can only have those who are loyal to him. Actually, loyal is the wrong word.  A stupid "king", as this one is and likely most of them are, demands OBEDIENCE, not just loyalty.  They are to throw themselves on their swords if the "king" tells them to.  And, what do you know, they destroy their careers and their lives by obeying their corrupt, criminal master.

I expect the prosecution against Comey will be thrown out.  And I expect the Orange Cheat in Chief to try to destroy the judge.  And I expect he will fail.

This incompetent obedient servitude is common in fascist regimes, it seems to me.  Venezuela seems to be an example.  Prior to the takeover by the cult leader, Chavez, Venezuela oil company PDVSA produced about 3.5 millions barrels per day.  Then Chavez got rid of the engineers and managers who knew what they were doing and replaced them with "loyalist" political servants.  The result? Under Chavez and later the Chavez successor, Maduro, PDVSA now produces about 1 million barrels a day.  Sure, US sanctions are part of that, but incompetent mismanagement resulting in poor maintenance and operation are maybe a bigger story.

The ultimate proof of fascist authoritarian incompetence, of course, was the Soviet Union.  Under Stalin and his brutal successors, installing only obedient loyalists, their economy, agriculture, prosperity was abysmal.  The Russians after the Soviet collapse were just ruled by a new "king", Putin and his obedient oligarchy.  The result?  The economy is about the size of Italy but they are good at nukes and oil production.  

The Orange Cheat in Chief and his obedient subjects are crushing the American economy, crushing American alliances, crushing American foreign influence, crushing American law (as best they can but courts are fighting back), crushing American higher education (some are fighting back), crushing American media (some are fighting back), etc. Lucky for us he is not very smart, and it looks to me like he is losing some of his fear factor over his cult.

Incompetent obedience is not an accident, it is a feature of fascist authoritarianism.

Why is the release of the Epstein files the most important thing in Trump’s world

 The reason that what’s going to be revealed in the Epstein files is the most important thing in the world today is because Donald Trump says they are the most important thing in the world. His world. And it affects us all. And he has been doing all he can to stop the release. 

Because he is threatening war with Venezuela to divert attention from the files.  

Because he is threatening Republicans to keep them from being released. 

Because his actions are a loud and obvious confession that he is guilty, so guilty that he will lose his presidency, so guilty that he will be imprisoned. 

Will there be unimpeachable evidence that he raped children?  Looks like it me. 

Will there be evidence that he is guilty of more than pedophilia?  Looks like it to me.  Like what?  

My guess is that the underaged girls were honey traps set up by Epstein in coordination with a hostile foreign power. Which?  My guess is Russia.  Tucker Carlson says Israel. Lure powerful men into pedophilia and take photos and videos of their crimes, and they will be controlled by whoever has the blackmail evidence. 

My other guess is that many financial crimes, lifetime imprisonment types of crimes, are the real secrets buried in the blackmail files. 

I think Trump sees this as the end of him.

Watch out world. He needs big, big, big headlines.  I am afraid that nukes are in his demented brain. 

The Democrats decision to re-open the government was probably correct

 I'm changing my mind on the Democrats decision to end the shutdown. Democrats got what they wanted, the huge undeniable message that they stood for helping normal people get health care and food, while Trump and MAGA didn't give a shit, and indeed were tuxedo wearing heartless billionaires.

Extending the shutdown would never have gotten MAGA to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies. The shutdown was always about the message the Democrats care about people and Republicans are greedy billionaire shitheads. Message delivered and understood.

Dems took the victory, opened the government and will GET THE EPSTEIN FILES RELEASED once the House is back in DC.

Thanx

Schumer caves, again

 Trump is an idiot. He cannot understand anything complex.  People try to get info to him with pictures, simple ideas that he might be able to grasp. But… he has decades of expertise on building his brand, dominating the media, crushing enemies, getting his way. 

And he can smell weakness, and like bullies everywhere he is driven to crush weak people because he is afraid that he is weak so he has to crush the weak.  

It helps him tell himself he is strong. But he’s not. He’s just cruel, which is a weak person’s substitute for strength.  Bullies punch down. He punches Schumer and Schumer submits. He grovels to Putin because he sees Putin as strong and he is afraid. 

So, it looks like Schumer is giving up and pretending to believe the lies the Republicans are telling him about “concessions” needed to end the government shutdown. Bullshit. Trump will ignore them. It will make him feel strong. 

America loses.

The photo that Summarizes Trump

 Apparently, a man named Gordon Findlay, a HealthCare executive, collapsed during a press conference.  Dr Oz and others (not RFK Jr) rushed to attend to him. The cause of the collapse is unknown at this time, perhaps just a fainting episode.  But here is a photo that could be the most iconic photo of the Orange Narcissist so far in this administration - not trying to help, not bent over in concern to see if he is alright, just staring ahead, looks somewhere between indifferent and annoyed to me.. 

Good grief.

Anti-fascists vote!

 Trump and Steven Miller have declared antifa to be "terrorists".  What blithering idiocy. America lost about half a million soldiers fighting fascists in WWII.  To be anti-fascist is one of the great honors and achievements of America.  And anti-fascists have risen to the occasion once again.  

We voted.  We voted to say NO to the Fascist in Chief yesterday.  Bigly!!

Trump and MAGA and the Theocrats and the Oligarchs probably think they can just cheat and make false election results in 2026, bring out the violence, and crush the American Democratically elected Republic.  Delusional nitwits.