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. 😱

They Wrote the Book

Former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham (above) and former Trump national security aide Fiona Hill have put out books on how their former boss tried to subvert democracy.  Grisham, who was introduced to most Americans for the first time through her promotional interviews for her book - mainly because she was the only White House press secretary who never held a briefing, mainly because Trump acted as his own press secretary at the time - says she regrets serving in that position and enabling Trump's worst impulses, adding that his close associates and family members, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner, became power-hungry.  Also, she worries of what a second Trump term would look like.

"I want to just warn people that once he takes office if he were to win, he doesn't have to worry about reelection anymore," Grisham said. "He will be about revenge. There will be some pretty draconian policies that go on."

Meanwhile,  Hill (above) calls Trump a person with a fragile ego who demands and usually gets total fealty and eyes the Presidency as a lifetime possession through which to assume total control over the country as Putin has done in Russia.   Hill also added that Vladimir Putin took power in Russia much the same way as Trump did - winning power through democratic means after his country suffered a severe recession.  Funny, that's also how Adolf Hitler took power in Germany in 1933.

These books - and several other Trump tell-all books that are likely to come out shortly - are not going to be read by Trump supporters.  They are not meant to be.  The people who need to read these books are those who care about keeping America from devolving into a fascist dictatorship where women are denied basic reproductive rights and have the affairs managed by their husbands or fathers, people of color are prevented from voting, workers are paid starvation wages, teaching critical race theory is banned even in higher education, demonstrators against reactionary policies are handled by police the same way demonstrators in Washington protesting George Floyd's murder were handled by law enforcement in Washington to clear a path for Trump to hold up a Bible in front of a church, political opponents are jailed on bogus charges of sedition, and storm troopers goose-step down Pennsylvania Avenue.

And books get burned, or at least censored - namely books like Grisham's and Hill's.

Expect me to devote more space on this blog to doing what Grisham and Hill are doing with their books - warning people of the hell we will go through if the 45th President of the United States becomes the 47th President of the United Sates as well.  And don't expect him to go quietly on January 20, 2029 if he is elected to a second term because he will already have figured out how to serve as President-for-Life.  Only dire warnings like these can spur people of good will to prevent this nightmare dystopia from happening.

The Rise of the Right

Could it happen here?

It's been said that fascism could be established in the United States just as easily as it has been established elsewhere. The most obvious examples were the rise of Benito Mussolini in Italy and Adolf Hitler in Germany. Both dictators came to power after the economies of their respective countries were rocked by inflation and depression. Hitler's rise to power is notable because the German economy had been more devastated in the aftermath of World War I. Italy had at least been on the winning side of that war, but Germany, as the leader of the losing Central Powers, was forced to pay numerous reparations, and the Weimar Republic that replaced the imperial monarchy was an ineffective government in the wake of hyperinflation that reduced the mark to the kind of worthlessness even Latin American currencies never facedd.

The German economy recovered in the mid-twenties, and Germany received help from the United States in paying war reparations demanded by the Treaty of Versailles (which established the peace after World War I) and established better relations with the Soviet Union. Soon German society became more freewheeling, with an increase in street theater and cabaret culture that led to many excesses. Such liberalization of German mores angered conservatives, as did the new modernist architecture and design coming from the Bauhaus.

Then in 1929 the global economic downturn we know as the Great Depression began. Germany could no longer borrow money to pay its reparations, and the government became unstable. It was in this environment that a coalition government run by the Nazis was established in 1933 with the appointment of Adolf Hitler as chancellor by President Paul von Hindenburg. Hitler decried the direction of the economy and demonized his political opponents, promising to restore Germany's greatness and restore traditional German values.

Fast forward to America in 2009. The economy is in a freefall. Unemployment is skyrocketing . The country is heading toward bankruptcy. Large bailouts are being given to banks, investment firms, and insurance companies. And we're coming out of a period of excessive cultural behavior.

It can't happen here?

I'm not suggesting that we're headed for a fascist-style dictatorship, but given the anger people feel toward President Obama and the hatred being stirred up the kind of right-wing extremists Chris Matthews calls wingnuts, the possibility is there.

And if one of them becomes President, God help us.