Fascists Won WWII: Hear Me Out

These times are so confusing. The candidate Democrats insist I must vote against in order to stop fascism just published an op-ed in The Hill, co-authored by RFK Jr., warning that we must avert nuclear war. I'll admit I did not have that on my bingo card for 2024.

As a writer I was struck by how well-written it was -- by a staffer or two no doubt. When running for office, candidates can employ good writers able to state large truths clearly and elegantly. But once in office, imperial war mongers must employ hacks to spin elaborate confabulations to conceal even small amounts of truth.

Nukes were first used on Japan allegedly to defeat fascism there (but really to warn the communist USSR that we had two different kinds ready and waiting to use on them). Then Nazi rocket scientists and Japanese biological warfare experts were whisked away to the U.S. to found NASA and work for the Pentagon.

The Nuremberg show trials helped goad the United Nations into declaring the final European settler colonial project as Zionists were given Palestine.

Italian partisans fighting fascism in 1945

I'm reminded of something my friend told me her father said about fighting in Europe with the partisans.  Just as they had apparently defeated fascism, he said, the Zionists betrayed the socialist revolution and instead went for the land grab that is Israel.

Weaponizing antisemitism confused a lot of people, because the Nazis were emblematic of antisemitism taken to its murderous Final Solution. Generations of Jewish people around the globe were confused by slogans like "a land without a people for a people without a land."

But as the steadfast resistance of the Arab Palestinian generations denied Zionists their victory, technology ushered in real-time reporting from citizens watching their loved ones blown apart by the Israeli military and beset by pogroms conducted by violent settler militias.

https://x.com/NoorAbdelHaq1/status/1428359017873625090

Videos of gangs beating up on lone Palestinians is extremely reminiscent of depictions of Nazi violence against Jews in Europe, at least for this old history major. Sometimes the victims are Orthodox Jews in traditional clothing and ear locks, because they, too, oppose Zionism.

Young Jews aren't buying it. That's why police departments in the U.S. and Europe are beating the crap out of university students protesting the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Often at the invitation of university officials. That's also why universities came back strong this fall with attacks on student freedom of speech and assembly. It's the fascist playbook, is it not?

Other educators are busy "partnering" with war profiteers who now infest colleges and even high schools and middle schools. These are often presented as exciting STEM initiatives that invite youngsters to admire robotic "dog" weapon systems, or thermal imaging gadgets used to locate warm human bodies to murder.

Fascist leader of Italy Mussolini thought this sort of thing ought to be called "corporatism" i.e. the marriage of state and business interests. Neoliberals in the U.S. like to call it "public-private partnership." But fascism is much more to the point and it fits so much better in headlines.

Controlling information is a key element for fascism to continue succeeding. Silicon Valley's social media products exist for this precise reason, with accounts going dark all over Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Even TikTok has now banned RT and Sputnik accounts after the U.S. engineered a takeover if they wanted to be able to operate in the U.S. The EU is on board and apparently so is the UN.

https://x.com/samhusseini/status/1837844183056351647

So I conclude that, though they may have pretended to lose, fascists actually won WWII. And more significantly, they're now poised on the brink of a life ending WWIII with nukes all round. 

In the words of the great WWII film Underground (Podzemlje), f the motherf'ing fascists.

What's Wrong About Public-Private Partnerships?

Aside from the fact that public-private partnership is a euphemism for fascism (or, as Mussolini preferred, corporatism) what is wrong about this structure of taxpayer-funded quasi- government? Public-private partnerships are all the rage these days e.g. the State of Maine just created a Space Corporation to enable private profits based on public infrastructure, and Ukraine relies heavily on Elon Musk's Starlink network for the communications needed to conduct its war on Russian-speaking Ukrainians. 

Or at least it has until now.

Word on Twitter is that Ukraine asked Elon to hook them up in Crimea but he declined, citing the heightened risk of nuclear war following Ukraine's terror attack on the Kerch Bridge linking Crimea and Russia.

I seldom agree with Elon "We-will-coup-whoever-we-want" Musk and have always wondered about that "we" in his infamous statement. But I have to admit in this case he's spot on. Nuclear war is something to be actively avoided, and calling for a negotiated settlement between Ukraine and Russia should be job #1 right now.

Given the fact that the UK (most likely with U.S. encouragement) actively halted peace talks in Turkey back in April, one could be forgiven for thinking we're safer in Elon's hands.

But this is really only the case because our national government was long since captured by corporate interests. President Biden called in reps from the big weapons manufacturers to make plans about arming Ukraine, and then Congress handed taxpayers the bill for $17,000,000,000. Some of that went to pay Starlink.

Of course Twitter is awash with accounts calling Musk a traitor, a Putin puppet, and lots more unsavory names for taking this position.

They've identified what the problem is with public-private partnerships: use of public resources to advance private agendas. 

This is routinely viewed as a good thing by those who think capitalism is the official religion of the U.S., and that adherence to its profit agenda is equivalent to patriotism.

It's the same kind of twisted thinking that fails to count military emissions when reckoning with how to address climate crisis. Somehow the planet's atmosphere is assumed to be patriotic. As if politics dictates to science.

Billionaires can take their ball and go home if they decide they don't like the way the partnership is going. And calling them unpatriotic is just about the only leverage the public has.