Category: Politics – Identity

Strongmen – BONUS POST

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The Bonus Book of the Week is “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present” by Ruth Ben-Ghiat, published in 2021. In this hodgepodge of a volume, the author described the traits and behaviors of a “strongman” through a few real-life examples of dictators of the past hundred years.

A strongman is a male leader who finds ways (that happen to be nefarious) to maximize and maintain his power; including: causing needless deaths and ruined lives in the forms of propaganda (repeated scapegoating, generating crises and other brainwashing techniques), waging war, engaging in sexual conquests, seeking political dominance and enriching himself, usually through looting resources from the territory or territories he rules.

In October 1922, in an Italy of about forty million people, approximately thirty thousand people comprising the Fascist Party appointed Mussolini as prime minister. In the next two decades, in order to rule by fear and force, Mussolini formed various political and military groups, and passed laws that violated human rights. He incited excessive violence, and had dissidents killed.

In July 1925, Mussolini pardoned all political criminals (those who would help him stay in power). But by 1926, he had run out of money. Fortunately for him, he had friends in high places. Thomas Lamont– his contact at the American financial institution, J.P. Morgan, arranged a loan of one hundred million dollars for him. At that time, Hitler actually looked up to Mussolini and eventually got friendly with him, in order to get mentored. By 1933, the German industrialists had fallen for Hitler’s populist rhetoric.

In 1965, Mobutu, who engaged in drugs and arms sales, (with the help of the CIA) came to power in Zaire. He, along with a number of other dictators, had been war heroes, so they had military backing. Beginning in 1969, oil money allowed Gaddafi to give his government a socialistic bent– funding Libyans’ education, housing and other basic needs.

In 1994, Italy’s Berlusconi controlled very nearly all the messaging heard and seen by his people. He crafted laws to: give himself a get-out-of-jail-free card, and his businesses, to weasel out of legal and financial trouble. His propaganda screamed that immigrants were criminals. Gaddafi and Berlusconi (who should have been enemies) became besties– keeping their friends close and their enemies closer. Libya got weapons from Italy, and Italy got oil from Libya.

In Trump’s United States, “Women advance their careers by making it easier for the leader and his inner circle to harm other women.” Another strongman technique Trump uses is to put his assets in foreign bank accounts. In 2014, Eric Trump said, “We [Trump Organization] don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need from Russia.”

Like Berlusconi, Trump and his media outlet, Fox News, have repeatedly, emphatically smeared immigrants as criminals, and he has used his military, ICE, to detain or deport them. The author named locations of various detention camps that had inhumane conditions: in Florida– Homestead, and in Texas– Clint, McAllen, Rio Grande, and El Paso del Norte.

In sum, once the strongman has stolen all he can get from his citizens, his next tricks are to negotiate a peace treaty and schedule elections.

Read the book to learn much more about how the above-named and a few others have used strongman tactics to turn into not-so-benign dictators.

ENDNOTE: Here’s a song that describes Trump’s strongman tactics.

MODERN STRONGMAN

sung to the tune of “Modern Woman” with apologies to Billy Joel and to whomever else the rights may concern.

You see Trump on the idiot box touting his high-tech war-toys of his cronies’ design.

With his continual cruel smears he aggravates the tension. Tries to save face while losing his mind.

Now Trump’s in trouble. He fired all the intellectuals. He always figures voters aren’t very smart.

Or maybe he hopes his hype covers up his conflicts. Oh, he’s got to use PR tricks ’cause his wrongdoing’s off the charts.

He always puts on an ACT of ranting-frat-boy modern strongman. And he’s an old fascist man. He understands just what he’s doing. He’s a modern strongman.

His mean streak is exceptionally unprofessional. He’s got a lot of cockiness, it’s easy to see. You don’t want to be rude but you get so furious when he’s so injurious to American democracy.

He’s got bile and he’s got billionaires’ money and lots of attorneys so his-foes, he quickly disarms. His slow rise means you may not realize, YOU’RE jeopardized by his gradual harm.

He’s got his plan of attack and got the power-play knack of modern strongman. And he’s an old fascist man. He understands just what he’s doing. He’s a modern strongman.

The king won’t die. There is no president. He says he loves you but he treats you unkind. In the morning he detains you. You’re accused by your neighbors. It’s a cagey situation for an old fascist guy.

Times have changed, and you cry in vain, lately. He’s become extreme in his bad attitude. His cock-and-bull just used to be for kicks. But now he controls your politics. After 2026, you might get a clue.

You can’t relax and face the facts of modern strongman. And he’s an old fascist man, he forces your hand in the things he’s doing.

He’s a modern strongman. He’s a modern strongman.

He’s got the sociopathic zip that allows the grip of the modern strongman.

The Rebels

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The Book of the Week is “The Rebels, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (hereinafter referred to as “AOC”) and the Struggle for a New American Politics” by Joshua Green, published in 2024. In this hodgepodge of a volume, the author described some practices of the U.S. government that has led to its currently precarious economic state of affairs.

As of early 1978, president Jimmy Carter had failed to keep three economics-related campaign promises with which he tried to incite the hard-working American masses: income-tax reform (angry at the rich’s business tax-deductions); a stimulus (because stagflation was dogging everyone’s pocketbook); and an energy bill (due to rising oil prices). June 1978 saw California’s voters approve a huge reduction in property tax.

In October 1978, the Carter administration passed a tax-bill– the Revenue Act– that actually favored the rich and Wall Street. The bill cut capital gains taxes; funds were shifted from investing in factories and equipment to gambling in the securities markets. The president could have vetoed the bill, but instead, he sold out because his party would benefit with mere weeks to go before midterm election-day. Ironically, Ralph Nader, who was known for advocating for consumers, urged the government to deregulate airlines and trucking. It turned out that deregulation of these exceptional industries was to hurt consumers (and their employees!) in a few short years.

There also occurred the privatizing of retirement funds in the form of 401(k). As is well known, it was touted as a tax shelter, but it gave Wall Street more control over Americans’ hard-earned money.

After Carter lost his bid for reelection, Democrats such as Paul Tsongas, Mike Dukakis, Bill Bradley and Bill Clinton pivoted toward neoliberalism– appeasing the corporate community with anti-union legislation, deregulation, and allowing monopolistic practices.

Unsurprisingly, the above, and the implementation of a bunch of other unwise economic policies, led to the 2008 financial crash. The American people were understandably very angry to learn that the government bailed out the crash’s institutional perpetrators (whose obscenely paid executives had jobs that weren’t pay-for-performance, and who still got their bonuses); never mind helping hard-working ordinary Americans.

According to the author, the bailout cost U.S. taxpayers $32 billion instead of between $700 billion and $1.5 trillion. It is impossible for laypeople to believe that “experts” can accurately estimate those kinds of numbers, given the pressure on “experts” to propagandize. Ever since, there is almost total disbelief of all economics numbers spouted by those “experts.” It is actually the age-old activity of lying with statistics.

The author wrote that, as a newly elected U.S. senator from New York State, Hillary Clinton paid her dues by playing well with others, making friends with strange bedfellows, while U.S. senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, nearly a decade later, behaved in a confrontational manner that garnered applause from the little people– grassroots supporters.

The author contended that the aforementioned Warren paved the way for the Independent Bernie Sanders’ surprising popularity among the young voters in the 2016 Democrat primary election for president. His presence in the primary affected the choices of voters in the general election, adversely affecting Hillary’s chance to win.

The author explained why AOC achieved what most politicos thought was going to be impossible. “Running as a Democratic Socialist, she [AOC] drew a large, multiracial progressive coalition that overwhelmed an incumbent, in [Joseph] Crowley, who personified the Wall Street-friendly Democrat uninterested in local concerns but assumed to be too powerful to be held to account.”

Read the book to learn much more about how the individuals named in the book’s title have influenced American politics in a major way in the last fifteen years.

ENDNOTE: In sum, American voters would like to see their government return to rule of law, civility and transparency! They would also like to see political workers and candidates: answer the questions asked of them, and clarify what they mean. Various terms of late have been given emotionally-charged interpretations to incite people who easily get upset at political news. For example, climate change and woke mean different things to different people. Instantaneous communication among Americans has made them hyper-aware of shenanigans in the staged and scripted reality show that is currently American politics.

Whistlestop

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The Book of the Week is “Whistlestop, My Favorite Stories From Presidential Campaign History” by John Dickerson, published in 2016. Some of the stories in this slightly sloppily-edited volume got tabloidy, but all of them just reminded the reader that there is nothing new under the sun, or showed how times have changed, in connection with presidential politics in America.

In 1948, Democratic incumbent Truman speechified about the usual politico-economic nature of the Republicans:

  • trickle-down economics;
  • heartless;
  • greedy toward American consumers;
  • betraying American farmers.

Currently, many people would agree with the above description of the Republicans. Truman urged voters to elect a Congress which would help ordinary Americans rather than act in “the interests of the men who have all the money.” Truman wasn’t a hypocrite in this, as he inherited neither a business nor a boatload of wealth from his daddy.

In 1992, presidential hopeful Bob Kerrey “suggested using the military to fight the War on Drugs, an idea that could get a candidate arrested in Democratic politics…” Not anymore. Just ask Nicolas Maduros of Venezuela– a rerun of George H.W. Bush’s episode with Manuel Noriega of Panama.

In 2004, presidential candidate Howard Dean went on the TV show Meet the Press with Tim Russert. Critics said his delivery was awful, as he made rambling generalizations and got impatient and impertinent with the questioner.

Apparently, by 2016, some viewers tolerated an inarticulate presidential candidate (Trump) who attacked the media outright! Those viewers wish they could accumulate (over the course of decades) the kind of power that allowed Trump to get away with that.

One last interesting factoid: In the last sixty years, three vice presidents ran for president and never became president, all three of whom were Democrats, and two of whom were from Minnesota: Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, and Al Gore.


Read the book to learn about various other episodes involving presidential hopefuls who won or lost, from all different centuries.

ENDNOTE:

According to media headlines, Trump PLANNED in February 2025 to (in no particular order):

  • use military sites across the country to detain undocumented immigrants
  • take over the Postal Service
  • inspect Fort Knox gold
  • impose tariffs on foreign automakers, chips and pharmaceuticals
  • create a sovereign wealth fund
  • lower consumer energy costs
  • name himself chair of the Kennedy Center and fire board members
  • create a tourist mecca in a strip of land in Gaza
  • reduce access to abortion
  • lower the corporate tax rate to 15%
  • eliminate income taxing and payroll taxing of tips
  • eliminate taxing of Social Security benefits
  • trample on the rights of LGBTQ+ people
  • eliminate the Department of Education
  • replace the Affordable Care Act
  • give a tax credit for family caregivers of older and disabled adults between $5,000 and $6,000 per year
  • support more oil and gas drilling
  • take over Greenland and
  • take over Canada.

It has been a year. The above can be used as a checklist of what the president has accomplished, made progress on, or NOT.
The simplest, most direct way for ethical leaders to turn the country around, would be to TAX THE RICH.

The Playbook

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The Book of the Week is “The Playbook, A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War” by James Shapiro, published in 2024.

In the 1930’s, American president FDR implemented programs to help the unemployed during the Great Depression. One was the Works Progress Administration, a sub-program of which, Federal Theater (hereinafter referred to as “FT”), put thousands of people to work. However, there were numerous complications every time the group wanted to put on a play, because there were a dozen unions with whom to negotiate.

FT produced thought-provoking shows that starkly portrayed the dangers and immorality of fascism, totalitarianism, slavery, racism, etc. It risked having its funding cut for its political correctness. In autumn 1936, FT was able to stage the Sinclair Lewis novel It Can’t Happen Here because MGM had decided not to make a movie of it.

FT opened the inflammatory play in eighteen big cities across America. In Seattle the cast was inter-racial. New York City performed the play in Yiddish. The traveling version lasted 133 performances. Fortunately, audiences interpreted the play all different ways politically.

In September 1937, FDR signed affordable-housing (what activists for the downtrodden would call “gentrification”) legislation that was diluted due to fears of:

  • government competition with the private sector;
  • over-regulation;
  • budgetary excesses;
  • and Southern states’ getting short shrift because they were more rural than urban.

In response to the above, in 1938, FT staged One Third of a Nation. That theatrical production demonstrated how stakeholders treated America’s slums, which accounted for where one third of the nation’s population resided, according to FDR, as of early 1937.

The movie version was Hollywoodized– its funders were purchasers of distressed assets and profiteers. They made it a story about poor whites with a romantic subplot involving a “kindly capitalist” (the absentee landlord, or in the real world– a slumlord). A suicidal arsonist prompted the landlord to rebuild the place with trees and a playground. Everyone lived happily ever after.

Anyway, FT’s most vicious enemy turned out to be Martin Dies, a U.S. Congressman from eastern Texas, first elected in 1930. He had the KKK mentality, with xenophobia and misogyny thrown in. In 1935, he got himself on the Rules Committee, the most powerful committee in the House.

Dies also fast-tracked his power accumulation with his endless persistence. In 1938, he finally got himself appointed the head of a special committee that investigated a hot-button political issue; this, by chance, through teaming up with the exact right person who could help him– Samuel Dickstein, a Congressman from New York City who was equally driven to amass power and attention. They secretly allied with vice president John Nance Garner, who was on their side.

By spring 1938, their committee was claiming it was trying to root out subversives, Fascists and Communists, and prevent violence at Nazi rallies in America’s streets. But they had questioned a politically active Nazi who stayed right under their noses, and they failed to investigate him further!

Their real motive was to execute a smear campaign against FDR himself, in addition to his New Deal, and unions. So FT became an easy target, too. Ironically, “He [Dies] envisioned the hearings touring nationally, moving from city to city, beginning on the West coast and ending back East.”

One of Dies’ star investigators, Hazel Huffman, ignorantly equated Progressivism, racial integration, anti-capitalism and anti-fascism with Communism in her testimony. She recited verbatim lines from the FT’s scripts, out of context as evidence of Communist propaganda. Dies backed her up. They were so entertaining– newspapers, magazines and radio broadcasters presented her nasty, biased utterances about the FT, as fact. Dies realized he needed to keeping directing fresh accusations at FT and the WPA to keep the media in his back pocket.

Read the book to learn yet again, that there is nothing new under the sun, in terms of demagogues who use age-old propaganda techniques to amass sufficient power to commit crimes, oppress their fellow citizens, and spread hatred far and wide with total impunity.