La Duchessa

As I have watched the rise of right-wing populism in the United States, I looked to see if I could make an ancestral claim to Irish citizenship on my paternal side, but my nearest Irish immigrant relatives are my fourth great-grandparents, which leaves me out of contention.  But, at least on my maternal Italian side, I had my maternal grandfather, who came to the U.S. from Italy in 1924 to escape fascism.

Then this shrew Giorgia Meloni and her far-right Brothers of Italy party win power.

The Brothers of Italy are a right-wing extremist party founded in 1946, a year after Mussolini's downfall  and the same year the Italian monarchy was abolished.  As party leader, Meloni opposes abortion, gender studies, and immigration.  Not all immigration, apparently, just immigration of the brown people from the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, believing that the EU's acceptance of migrants is part of a plot to replace Italians.  She also supports domestic economic policies that promote more native births to push up the country's low birth rate.  Paradoxically, she's been skeptical of COVID vaccines and has refused to vaccinate her daughter, claiming that the probability of someone under twenty years of age dying from COVID is the same as being struck by lightning.

You may wonder how an Italian woman can be so ruthless and nasty, but I've known all along that Italians have such a mean streak.  I grew up outside Newark, remember.

I thought I'd have to escape the rise of fascism in America in 2022 and move to Italy just like my maternal grandfather escaped the rise of fascism in Italy in 1922 and moved to America.  Now I have to go to a backup plan - travel to Ireland and marry a red-haired local lass like Sean Thornton did in The Quiet Man.  

And if that doesn't work out, there's always claiming political asylum in Canada.

One advantage Meloni does have is that, like her hero Mussolini, she'll make the trains run on time.  It's not that American fascists can't make trains run on time.  It's that they don't even believe in passenger rail in the first place. 

Il Duce Floridiane

Mussolini was born twice.  The second time he was named DeSantis.

Don't believe me?  Among the atrocities Ron DeSantis has committed as governor of Florida:

He signed a voting restriction bill that will make it easier for Republicans like himself to win re-election.

He signed a bill banning education in non-heterosexual orientations for elementary school below fourth grade.  It's called the "don't say gay" law.  Maybe it's not appropriate to teach children that young about non-hetero issues, but, as Michael Smerconish conceded, it produces a serous dilemma for a teacher who has to deal with a student asking why her friend has two mommies.

When the Walt Disney Company, which of course operates Walt Disney World and other amusement parks (and resorts) in Florida - in an area the size if San Francisco - objected to the don't say gay" law, DeSantis pushed for and signed a bill removing the company's ability to run its complex as a separate municipal entity.  The bill takes effect in June 2023. 

It's as if DeSantis, having defeated for the governorship in 2018 a Democrat who was both black and bisexual (Andrew Gillum, whose personal issues with drink and drugs led to his downfall after the 2018 Florida gubernatorial election), has fixed things so there is no way a Democrat who checks those diversity boxes can never get elected to anything in Florida again.

But wait - there's more!  The DeSantis administration also rejected math books for including references to critical race theory.  I imagined an example of critical race theory in a math book as being something like this:

"Five white male/black female couples arrive at the senior prom twenty minutes after leaving their homes. Meanwhile, five black male/white female couples arrive at the senior prom thirty minutes after leaving their homes. If the white male/black female couples all arrive at 7:30 PM, three black male/white female couples arrive at 7:45 PM, and two black male/white female couples arrive at 8:00 PM, how many school board members does it take to bust up the senior prom?" 😛 😠

Actually, the "examples" of CRT-based math are quite innocuous, as this article from the Washington Post demonstrates.  But such policies are no surprise coming from a right-wing populist like DeSantis, who has successfully established the first dictatorship in the United States.  Right down to the rubber-stamp legislature in Tallahassee.

DeSantis calls his state the "Free State of Florida" - which sounds more fascistic than you might think. 😱