Day: January 10, 2024

Closing Thought–10Jan24

Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead!

I remember that intro from the news round-up on the original SNL (by far the best SNL)….

The reason I bring up Franco is because there are some on the Radical Right that are trying to resurrect this fascist dictator.

Is the fascism? Or is it the popped fur collar? The jaunty cape itself? The military fatigues? The teeny tiny mustache? Maybe it’s Maybelline. No, it’s probably the fascism.

Whatever it is, some on the Right are now pretty hot to trot for Generalissimo Francisco Franco — which I can honestly say is not a take I have heard outside of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and the whole bit there was that she was actually quite daft and thought the fascists were just super into art and that being into fascism herself made her seem very chic and European. Though now that I’m reading up on it, it seems that William F. Buckley was also a fan.

This week, noted Pizzagate idiot Jack Posobiec embarked upon a quest to rehabilitate the image of Franco, a brutal, oppressive, authoritarian falangist/fascist dictator who killed hundreds of thousands of people. I’d love to be surprised by this, but it seems only natural after they all embraced Pinochet so eagerly.

“The communists were slaughtering everyone,” he cried. “Someone had to stop them. His name was Francisco Franco.”

I’m not going to get too into it, but this is a not a man who is very good at timelines. The Red Terror happened after the attempted 1936 military coup that lead to the Spanish Civil War and would eventually lead to Franco declaring himself dictator of Spain. Yes, communists in Spain at that time did kill people and they specifically targeted Nationalists, Royalists, Spanish nobility and members of the clergy. Estimates of this range from 38,000 to 110,905. I can “condemn” it now, just as it was condemned by many socialist and liberal Republican leaders during the Spanish Civil War, because I am not a psychopath.

The thing is, at the time the Red Terror was happening, the White Terror — committed by the Nationalists and Royalists — was also happening, was far worse and lasted far longer, with death tolls ranging from 160,000–200,000. Unlike the Red Terror, the White Terror was organized and calculated, as well as supported by the right-wing leaders at the time.

https://www.wonkette.com/p/guess-which-brutal-authoritarian

That is just what we need here….let democracy die so the rest of us can as well.

If you cannot see a problem then we are in serious trouble come November.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Here We Go!

Thje US has been involved one way or another in wars in the Middle East since the 1980s and now the War Department is looking for further involvement in the region.

This time we are eyeing Yemen for the use of our weapons of destruction.

The Biden administration is reportedly drafting plans to bomb Houthi targets in Yemen amid escalating fears of a wider war in the Middle East, where the U.S. is inflaming regional tensions by heavily arming Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip.

Politicoreported Thursday that U.S. officials are “increasingly concerned” that Israel’s devastating war on Gaza “could expand… to a wider, protracted regional conflict.” Citing unnamed U.S. officials, the outlet noted that the U.S. military is drawing up plans to “hit back at Iran-backed Houthi militants who have been attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea.”

Usamah Andrabi, communications director for Justice Democrats, wrote in response to the new reporting that U.S. President Joe Biden is “pushing the United States to the brink of a new endless war in the Middle East, all because he doesn’t want to stop funding Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempted eradication of the Palestinian people and Palestine itself.”

Eli Clifton, a senior adviser to the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, similarly argued that “Biden’s support for Israel’s Gaza war ties the U.S. to Israel’s escalatory cycle that may result in American soldiers dying in yet another Middle East war.”

“Biden has leverage to call for a cease-fire in Gaza,” Clifton added. “He isn’t using it.”

News of the administration’s private planning comes after dozens of advocacy organizations implored Biden not to consider any military assault on Yemen, which has been ravaged by years of Saudi-led, U.S.-backed bombing.

It also comes after several recent U.S. and Israeli attacks in the Middle East intensified concerns that the region is perilously close to all-out war.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/biden-bomb-yemen

Does the US really need another war to finance and possibly fight?

Personally I think we are at our limit and should start dial back our involvement….we cannot afford everybody’s war.

Just a thought.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”