You can bet on it, that if tRump comes to power again, he will surely punish those whom he feels have done him wrong. This is what sadistic sociopaths do. It's also what fascists do. These people have zero remorse for killing people; in fact, they enjoy it.
It strikes me over and over lately that we could quit using the adjective attacks that describe these characters, and shift to a reality that is more graspable by describing what they actually do - as you do here - accompanied by probable meanings those actions have on people. There appears to be gross ignorance on these subjects i.e. 'this' action means 'that' effect....
I am very grateful you are so knowledgable in Italian history, politics and language. I wish more people looking for accurate information knew to look for it among historians and others deeply versant in the other places and cultures “blowing up” now, including the US. History provides context for assessing what is going on, and the likelihood for various interpretations. So does a knowledge of abnormal psychology and all the ins and outs of group behavior too. A facility in seeing patterns, absence of naivite, wishful thinking, etc, but above all—a strong, strong core of honesty—this is what enables accurate discernment, when so much is thrown at us to deceive, distract, deter and discourage. Let us not succumb to hopelessness and fear, but be courageous and clear in this fight. We have everything to gain! I thank Ruth for her inspiring example and leadership and hope each of us makes good use of it for the challenges we face.
Funny. I just checked, and it's still up on my page. I live in Germany, so maybe that has something to do with it. FB does have some fairly stringent oversight in the EU.
The principal reason Meloni and Modi are able to persecute opponents by suing them over things they've said is because Italians and citizens of India do not the have the robust free speech protection that Americans enjoy.
Unfortunately, the same First Amendment jurisprudence that protects U.S. citizens from the type of retaliatory litigation Meloni is wielding against her vocal critics also permits all of Trump world to mount a ceaseless campaign of lies, half truths, slander and provocations against the nation and the defenders of our liberal constitutional democracy with impunity.
Take, for example, the burning incitement to violence and insurrection that Steve Bannon served up to his audience in his speech at Turning Point Action's "People's Convention" in Detroit on June 15th of this year, which is now just four days ago. It included the following chilling and dangerous passages:
Let me tell the people that have done that to President Trump, whether you're in the federal government or whether you're down in the state of Georgia, or you're in Arizona or you're in Michigan, we are going to go and we're going to get every single receipt into the fullest extension of the law, you are going to be investigated, prosecuted, and incarcerated.
/ / /
We've got to go back to the beginning. We've got to go back to Russia Gate. We've got to go back to who did that. We got to go back to Mueller's Commission. We got to go back to Andrew Weissman and MSNBC and the New York Times, and all of it. We got to go back to the pandemic, we have to go back to the George Floyd "Summer of Love."
We have to investigate it all. We have to go back, we have to go back to 3 November of 2020. We must go back there and we've got to adjudicate how they stole it and who stole it.
And then, we have to go to January 6th and we have to find out every FBI agent, all the CIA, DHS, Crhis Wray, all of them. The "Fedsurrection" must be investigated. On January 20th, we must free the 1,400 patriots who are incarcerated as criminals.
Every patriot and patriot-grave from the Revolution to the Civil War to Normandy, now, this 80th anniversary of Saipan -- which is big as Normandy -- every patriot that died on a battlefield demands it of us. They demand it. They say we bequeath, we gave all to give you this republic and look at what you allowed to happen. Well, guess what? It stops on the afternoon of 20 January 2025.
Because then the criminals in this government, the criminals on Wall Street, the criminals in Silicon Valley, that's when it's gonna start. That's when accountability day starts and we must go there. MSNBC and the Biden-Harris campaign, they're clipping this right now.
/ / /
But that leaves plenty of time to set things right. And that's where you come in. You're the vanguard of this revolution.
We are not prepared to be governed by criminals and we are going to purge DOJ, we're going to take apart the FBI -- the FBI, the American Gestapo -- that building on Pennsylvania Avenue. We don't need $400 million for new headquarters. You're not going to need a headquarters. There's not going to be an FBI. We're going to get everybody out of that building. We're going to take it down ugly slab by ugly slab -- it is the ugliest building on Pennsylvania Avenue. And we're going to do what the Romans did to Carthage. We're going to salt the earth around it, so there'll never be another building there again, in mainstream media don't sit, they go, oh, they want to get rid of the FBI.
Mainstream media says, "Oh, they want to get rid of the FBI. They're doing such great work on terrorism. They're doing such great work on this and that."
Yeah, they did great work on terrorism. 9/11, great work. You haven't gotten anything right, and the CIA hasn't got anything right in 50 years because you're spending all your time going after Catholics, praying rosaries at abortion centers. You're going after moms and dads going to school boards. You're an American Gestapo, and it's going to end on our watch. And we're going to rebuild something else. There will be something that comes up and is rebuilt, along the lines that's appropriate, not a federal police force, not a federal police force that's in citizens' business, not a federal police force with jackboots kicking down doors and arresting innocent people. You're going to be put on a short leash, like the CIA is going to be on a short leash, the DOJ is gonna be on a short leash. It's gonna be a new day, and MAGA will run things. The globalist elite uni-party will not run things in this country.
/ / /
But the concept you have to embed -- whether it's President Trump, Tucker Carlson, Alex Jones, Steve Bannon, Peter Navarro, James O'Keefe, whoever -- we're just the first wave, we're like the first wave of the Normandy beaches. You're the second, the third, the fourth. It's next man up and next woman up. The only way we lose is if we quit. They know that this movement is ascendant. We are two-thirds of the nation, maybe 75% of the nation. We just have to get the word out to them, and that's you.
When anybody falls, whether they're put in jail, bankrupt, de-platformed, de-banked, lost their law license, you must step into the breach. Nobody else. Check yourself. You. If you commit to that, if your task and purpose is saving your country, this country will be saved.
Understand you're exactly like the patriots in 1774 and 1775. You're fighting a tyranny and monopolistic economic power. They only had like 3% to begin, then 5%, then 10%. But they never had more than a third. We have over half the nation right now. Biden didn't get 81 million votes. The 74 million votes would have won in a landslide. They stole it. You know that, I know that, and they know that. The only thing that defeats us is if we stop. If we don't stop, we grow more powerful and larger every single day.
When, on November 5th, you send a message to Davos, Brussels, Geneva, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Beverly Hills, they're gonna know that MAGA is not only ascendant, MAGA is in charge. Between now and Election Day, they're going to try to take out so many people. And that's where it's next man up, it's next woman up. Are you prepared to fight? Are you prepared to give it all? Are you prepared to leave it all on the battlefield?
I can't hear you, and they can't hear you. Ladies and gentlemen, it's very simple: Victory or death. America.
The drafters of the First Amendment and the jurists who interpreted it until very recently never envisioned a time when computer technology and take-no-prisoners political polarization would make it impossible for good people to counter the Bannons of this world effectively.
It's times like these when I envy Meloni and Modi for having the tools to silence the likes of Stephen Bannon and Stephen Miller before their words provoke the violence they so obviously desire.
Bannon has some serious mental problems. Not only is he paranoid but also seems to be delusional. I highly suspect that he has the Dark Tetrad personality of narcissism, sadism, Machiavellianism and sociopathy. When freedom of speech is extended to fascists, we are in trouble.
Unless he plans on going underground, SB will need to present himself for imprisonment by July 1.
The bad news is that the term is only four months. It should be 40 years. In any case, Bannon will be an inmate long enough to make a martyr of him in his own mind and in the eyes of his fan boys.
The good news is, as Bannon's defense lawyers have told the court, his jail term will keep him out of circulation (and, one hopes, incommunicado) practically through election day.
One of the worst things about Bannon is that even his critics say he's a fun and interesting person to hang out with. Evil charisma if you ask me.
I wasn't aware that Steve Bannon is blind - if he's not, then why can't he see/remember that HE is a convicted criminal, as is trump, as are many of trump's inner circle. Lots of projection going on. And clearly, Steve Bannon is a really sore loser, just like trump. I'm waiting for all of them to be in orange jumpsuits.
May Arundhati Roy prevail! Not only does she protest authoritarianism, but she does so in highly readable journalism. Her essays on the voiceless Dalits and other impoverished minorities, thrown off their meager homesteads by commerce and dams and left without a livelihood, are perhaps their only voice.
I hadn't heard about #Melodi. They are a scary pair, just as trump is. They are clearly into deceit to the greatest extent possible. Thank you, Ruth, for this interesting article.
Ugh! what a sinister pair
OMGosh!
Grotesque faux behavior—cos playing as if they value democracy. Let’s expose them….
Probable psychopaths, hiding in plain sight.
Spot on, Ruth! As products from some MadMen-like PR firm, they should each come with labels: WARNING: Believing Causes Fascism.
BRAVA
You can bet on it, that if tRump comes to power again, he will surely punish those whom he feels have done him wrong. This is what sadistic sociopaths do. It's also what fascists do. These people have zero remorse for killing people; in fact, they enjoy it.
These two are slick tyrants. Don't buy their BS!!
Something to think about:
1611- King James published the Bible in English so that the common Englishman could read the Good News.
1649- His son is beheaded by Christian fascist.
History rhymes!!
It strikes me over and over lately that we could quit using the adjective attacks that describe these characters, and shift to a reality that is more graspable by describing what they actually do - as you do here - accompanied by probable meanings those actions have on people. There appears to be gross ignorance on these subjects i.e. 'this' action means 'that' effect....
Using the fascist playbook! Trump would be the same if elected! Scary as hell!
I am very grateful you are so knowledgable in Italian history, politics and language. I wish more people looking for accurate information knew to look for it among historians and others deeply versant in the other places and cultures “blowing up” now, including the US. History provides context for assessing what is going on, and the likelihood for various interpretations. So does a knowledge of abnormal psychology and all the ins and outs of group behavior too. A facility in seeing patterns, absence of naivite, wishful thinking, etc, but above all—a strong, strong core of honesty—this is what enables accurate discernment, when so much is thrown at us to deceive, distract, deter and discourage. Let us not succumb to hopelessness and fear, but be courageous and clear in this fight. We have everything to gain! I thank Ruth for her inspiring example and leadership and hope each of us makes good use of it for the challenges we face.
My attempt to share this post was immediately quashed by FaceBook within seconds.
However, FB has plenty of pro-fascist posts.
Yes I am investigating
Same with me when using the share button in Substack. But, the post was accepted when I simply copied the Substack link and pasted it into my FB feed.
I tried that with FB. Still removed almost immediately.
Funny. I just checked, and it's still up on my page. I live in Germany, so maybe that has something to do with it. FB does have some fairly stringent oversight in the EU.
The principal reason Meloni and Modi are able to persecute opponents by suing them over things they've said is because Italians and citizens of India do not the have the robust free speech protection that Americans enjoy.
Unfortunately, the same First Amendment jurisprudence that protects U.S. citizens from the type of retaliatory litigation Meloni is wielding against her vocal critics also permits all of Trump world to mount a ceaseless campaign of lies, half truths, slander and provocations against the nation and the defenders of our liberal constitutional democracy with impunity.
Take, for example, the burning incitement to violence and insurrection that Steve Bannon served up to his audience in his speech at Turning Point Action's "People's Convention" in Detroit on June 15th of this year, which is now just four days ago. It included the following chilling and dangerous passages:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let me tell the people that have done that to President Trump, whether you're in the federal government or whether you're down in the state of Georgia, or you're in Arizona or you're in Michigan, we are going to go and we're going to get every single receipt into the fullest extension of the law, you are going to be investigated, prosecuted, and incarcerated.
/ / /
We've got to go back to the beginning. We've got to go back to Russia Gate. We've got to go back to who did that. We got to go back to Mueller's Commission. We got to go back to Andrew Weissman and MSNBC and the New York Times, and all of it. We got to go back to the pandemic, we have to go back to the George Floyd "Summer of Love."
We have to investigate it all. We have to go back, we have to go back to 3 November of 2020. We must go back there and we've got to adjudicate how they stole it and who stole it.
And then, we have to go to January 6th and we have to find out every FBI agent, all the CIA, DHS, Crhis Wray, all of them. The "Fedsurrection" must be investigated. On January 20th, we must free the 1,400 patriots who are incarcerated as criminals.
Every patriot and patriot-grave from the Revolution to the Civil War to Normandy, now, this 80th anniversary of Saipan -- which is big as Normandy -- every patriot that died on a battlefield demands it of us. They demand it. They say we bequeath, we gave all to give you this republic and look at what you allowed to happen. Well, guess what? It stops on the afternoon of 20 January 2025.
Because then the criminals in this government, the criminals on Wall Street, the criminals in Silicon Valley, that's when it's gonna start. That's when accountability day starts and we must go there. MSNBC and the Biden-Harris campaign, they're clipping this right now.
/ / /
But that leaves plenty of time to set things right. And that's where you come in. You're the vanguard of this revolution.
We are not prepared to be governed by criminals and we are going to purge DOJ, we're going to take apart the FBI -- the FBI, the American Gestapo -- that building on Pennsylvania Avenue. We don't need $400 million for new headquarters. You're not going to need a headquarters. There's not going to be an FBI. We're going to get everybody out of that building. We're going to take it down ugly slab by ugly slab -- it is the ugliest building on Pennsylvania Avenue. And we're going to do what the Romans did to Carthage. We're going to salt the earth around it, so there'll never be another building there again, in mainstream media don't sit, they go, oh, they want to get rid of the FBI.
Mainstream media says, "Oh, they want to get rid of the FBI. They're doing such great work on terrorism. They're doing such great work on this and that."
Yeah, they did great work on terrorism. 9/11, great work. You haven't gotten anything right, and the CIA hasn't got anything right in 50 years because you're spending all your time going after Catholics, praying rosaries at abortion centers. You're going after moms and dads going to school boards. You're an American Gestapo, and it's going to end on our watch. And we're going to rebuild something else. There will be something that comes up and is rebuilt, along the lines that's appropriate, not a federal police force, not a federal police force that's in citizens' business, not a federal police force with jackboots kicking down doors and arresting innocent people. You're going to be put on a short leash, like the CIA is going to be on a short leash, the DOJ is gonna be on a short leash. It's gonna be a new day, and MAGA will run things. The globalist elite uni-party will not run things in this country.
/ / /
But the concept you have to embed -- whether it's President Trump, Tucker Carlson, Alex Jones, Steve Bannon, Peter Navarro, James O'Keefe, whoever -- we're just the first wave, we're like the first wave of the Normandy beaches. You're the second, the third, the fourth. It's next man up and next woman up. The only way we lose is if we quit. They know that this movement is ascendant. We are two-thirds of the nation, maybe 75% of the nation. We just have to get the word out to them, and that's you.
When anybody falls, whether they're put in jail, bankrupt, de-platformed, de-banked, lost their law license, you must step into the breach. Nobody else. Check yourself. You. If you commit to that, if your task and purpose is saving your country, this country will be saved.
Understand you're exactly like the patriots in 1774 and 1775. You're fighting a tyranny and monopolistic economic power. They only had like 3% to begin, then 5%, then 10%. But they never had more than a third. We have over half the nation right now. Biden didn't get 81 million votes. The 74 million votes would have won in a landslide. They stole it. You know that, I know that, and they know that. The only thing that defeats us is if we stop. If we don't stop, we grow more powerful and larger every single day.
When, on November 5th, you send a message to Davos, Brussels, Geneva, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Beverly Hills, they're gonna know that MAGA is not only ascendant, MAGA is in charge. Between now and Election Day, they're going to try to take out so many people. And that's where it's next man up, it's next woman up. Are you prepared to fight? Are you prepared to give it all? Are you prepared to leave it all on the battlefield?
I can't hear you, and they can't hear you. Ladies and gentlemen, it's very simple: Victory or death. America.
(The entire text of the speech appears here: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2024/06/16/bannon_november_5th_is_judgment_day_january_20th_2025_is_accountability_day.html )
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The drafters of the First Amendment and the jurists who interpreted it until very recently never envisioned a time when computer technology and take-no-prisoners political polarization would make it impossible for good people to counter the Bannons of this world effectively.
It's times like these when I envy Meloni and Modi for having the tools to silence the likes of Stephen Bannon and Stephen Miller before their words provoke the violence they so obviously desire.
Bannon has some serious mental problems. Not only is he paranoid but also seems to be delusional. I highly suspect that he has the Dark Tetrad personality of narcissism, sadism, Machiavellianism and sociopathy. When freedom of speech is extended to fascists, we are in trouble.
May SB go to prison very soon.
Unless he plans on going underground, SB will need to present himself for imprisonment by July 1.
The bad news is that the term is only four months. It should be 40 years. In any case, Bannon will be an inmate long enough to make a martyr of him in his own mind and in the eyes of his fan boys.
The good news is, as Bannon's defense lawyers have told the court, his jail term will keep him out of circulation (and, one hopes, incommunicado) practically through election day.
One of the worst things about Bannon is that even his critics say he's a fun and interesting person to hang out with. Evil charisma if you ask me.
I wasn't aware that Steve Bannon is blind - if he's not, then why can't he see/remember that HE is a convicted criminal, as is trump, as are many of trump's inner circle. Lots of projection going on. And clearly, Steve Bannon is a really sore loser, just like trump. I'm waiting for all of them to be in orange jumpsuits.
Appalling pair of Fascists.
Thank you.
May Arundhati Roy prevail! Not only does she protest authoritarianism, but she does so in highly readable journalism. Her essays on the voiceless Dalits and other impoverished minorities, thrown off their meager homesteads by commerce and dams and left without a livelihood, are perhaps their only voice.
I hadn't heard about #Melodi. They are a scary pair, just as trump is. They are clearly into deceit to the greatest extent possible. Thank you, Ruth, for this interesting article.