Discussion: Steve Bannon Says He's 'Fascinated By Mussolini'

Meanwhile, his wife and children slipped away and now his granddaughter is in the Italian Parliament. Or was, I assume she still is.

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He and his gym troupe had a short run.

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It was actually a passing Britsh officer, who surrendered his belt for her dignity, when he passed the scene and saw them hanging there.
I read his story somewhere (in a book, not the internet).

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It speaks to Obama’s dignity and class that he had Bin Laden buried at sea. No parading of the remains, gaudy photos, histrionic forensic tales. Just slip him beneath the waves and move on.

Trump would have had him stuffed and mounted next to his Andrew Jackson portrait.

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Bannon’s and Trump’s white nationalism is really just corporate fascism ala Mussolini.

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That’s what booze does to one’s brain.

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Also no ‘Place of Worship’ for supporters, some executed Nazi war criminals were cremated and spread into a river for the same reason.

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Yep. I’m going to be more shocked when the sun shows up again tomorrow morning.

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Thanks for your comments.

I only read this TPM article because I was curious why he seems to have recently crawled out from under the rock he has been hiding under.

On some level I have him in the “neutered” category (he seems to be scurrying around Europe and not the US), but he’s still worth keeping an eye on.

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"I’m fascinated by Mussolini.”

We know.

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Mussolini wasn’t much different. He actually started his political career as a socialist, and then changed to fascism when he saw more opportunity in what was a relatively new movement.

So its not surprising that Bannon called himself a Leninist, and is fascinated by Mussolini. He could care less about the ideology, he just wants the attention, much like Mussolini did.

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zzzz, kind of a nothing burger here. Of course Mussolini was interesting, and I agree with Bannon’s comments about the -isms at the end – they are certainly irrelevant.

The fact is that Bannon is a tool regardless of his Mussolini fetish.

I’m guessing something more along the lines of found dead in a bathtub full of red water holding a razor blade beside an empty bottle of scotch with Enya playing loudly in the background.

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Of course Bannon is fascinated by him, they have tons in common. Like the fact that they’re both losers

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Sadly, though Germany worked hard to distance themselves from Hilter and the Nazis, Italy has not done such a hot job of disowning its fascist past.

Fascism never really left Italy. It just morphed into strident Islamaphobic nativism. Oriana Fallaci’s later writings were a perfect example of this strange, ugly Italian nationalism. It’s as if the Ottoman Empire was still on their doorsteps or something.

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How’s that compare to the distance from Rome to Lake Como?
Might there be some significance hidden there?

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“He was a guy’s guy. He has all that virility.”

So much virility!

From Wikipedia: In 1902, Mussolini emigrated to Switzerland, partly to avoid military service.

The parallels to Trumpolini are chilling! That being said, one’s a buffoonish clown, the other is from Italy.

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The Ottoman Empire was never on Italy’s doorstep, except geographically. The Arabs ran Sicily and southern Italy for 500 years until the Normans kicked them out. But that was centuries ago.

The problem is Italy is very loosely held together. The south belonged to the Spanish crown until the country was unified in 1861and the south was not that enchanted with becoming part of a unified country. Every part of the country has their own agenda and precious little extends to other parts of the country. They work against each other. So it’s chaotic always unless you have someone like Mussolini.

But remember - the Italians changed sides during both wars and will again.

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Hence his attaching himself to a demagogue with few or no convictions and very possibly a literally diseased brain. :smile:

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I think you could’ve left it at simply middle-brow. Unless you added lower. That would have worked.

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