ITALIANS REJECT MELONI'S POWERGRAB ON THE JUDICIARY

 

This interested me because Trump celebrated Meloni's election as a sign of Italy's embracing of the far right.

Is Trump paying attention to what just happened in Italy and the referendum on giving Meloni more control over the judicial system?

Italians Reject Judicial Overhaul, Undermining Meloni 

Some 54 percent of voters spurned a government plan to change how jurists are supervised. It presented Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni with her biggest domestic challenge since her election in 2022. 

AND THIS:

 "BREAKING: Italians REJECT their right-wing PM's powergrab in a referendum, a stunning revolt against a Trump ally everyone thought had iron-clad support.

In a referendum demanding PM Giorgia Meloni have more personal control of the judicial system she basically labeled as too woke, she lost with 54 percent of the vote, with an unexpectedly high turnout surging to 59 percent.

This is a truly historic and crushing political defeat, as it changes the entire political landscape -- a once untouchable leader may now lose her position in government.

This was not just a policy difference. It was a direct rejection of her leadership.

She lost badly in major cities. Rome voted 57 percent "No". Milan 54 percent. Naples delivered a devastating 71 percent rejection.

In Naples, judges and prosecutors celebrated in the streets, singing Bella Ciao, the anti fascist anthem. Protesters flooded Rome chanting resign, resign.

Meloni had framed this as an historic opportunity to change Italy. She warned of more negligent judges and criminals being freed. Voters didn’t buy it.

The backlash is immediate. Matteo Renzi called her a lame duck and said even her own followers will now start to doubt her. Elly Schlein said we will beat her in the next general election. Giuseppe Conte declared a new political season has begun.

Meloni aligned herself with Trump, who is deeply unpopular in Italy, and tied her agenda to fear and division. Italians rejected it outright.

Her grip on power is slipping. The myth of her invincibility is over. And now the opposition knows she can be beaten." --U.S. Democratic Socialists

TRUMP: VILE AND PREDICTABLY DERANGED

 

THANK YOU

 

To all of you who expressed your condolences on the passing of my beloved sister, Jo.

It's been a rough two weeks, and I appreciate your kind words that eased the pain of losing her.

Your solicitude is very much appreciated.

Life and blogging will resume this week.

My best regards to you all,

S.K.

A True American Hero

 

Michael Jochum:

A True American Hero

There are moments when the measure of a man is revealed not in what he says, but in what he refuses to say… and there are other moments when the measure of another man is revealed by the vile, small, indecent things he cannot help but say. The death of Robert Mueller gives us both, in stark, painful contrast.

Robert Mueller spent more than fifty years in service to this country, quietly, methodically, without spectacle, without ego. A Marine who bled in Vietnam. A prosecutor who went after mob bosses and dictators. A public servant who stepped into the smoking wreckage of 9/11 just days into his tenure as FBI Director and helped reshape an agency to confront a new kind of global threat. This was not a man chasing headlines. This was a man carrying responsibility.

He was, by every credible account, exactly what this country claims to value: disciplined, principled, relentless in his pursuit of truth, and allergic to anything that smelled like self-promotion. They called him a “straight arrow,” and not as a cliché, but as a warning, because men like that don’t bend. They don’t perform. They don’t kneel to power. They do the work, and they let the work speak.

And when the moment came, when the country needed someone to look directly into the darkness of foreign interference, corruption, and a presidency entangled in both, Mueller did exactly what he had always done. He followed the facts. He built the case. Thirty-four indictments. Guilty pleas. A documented effort by a hostile foreign power to influence an American election. And perhaps most damning of all, a report that stopped just short of prosecution, not because the evidence wasn’t there, but because the guardrails of our system, those fragile, breakable things, failed to hold.

He did his job.

But he did it in a country that, at that moment, did not have the courage to finish it.

And that is the tragedy that now hangs over his legacy, not failure, but restraint. Not incompetence, but a system that lacked the backbone to act on what he uncovered. Mueller stood there, holding the truth in his hands, and too many people in power simply looked away.

So when I read Donald Trump’s reaction to Mueller’s death, “Good, I’m glad he’s dead,” I don’t feel shock anymore. I feel recognition. Because that sentence tells you everything you need to know about the difference between an American hero and an American zero.

A hero serves something larger than himself. A hero sacrifices, endures, and holds the line even when no one is watching. A hero carries the weight of duty with humility.

A zero lashes out. A zero mocks the dead. A zero measures every human interaction by grievance, ego, and personal loyalty. A zero cannot comprehend integrity, because integrity has never once been part of his internal vocabulary.

Mueller never responded to Trump’s insults when he was alive. Not once. He didn’t tweet. He didn’t rant. He didn’t perform outrage for the cameras. He did what men of substance do, he stayed focused on the mission, even as the circus roared around him.

And now, even in death, he maintains that dignity… while the man who spent years trying to discredit him reduces himself yet again to something smaller than small.

History has a way of sorting these things out. It takes time, but it is ruthless in its clarity. When the noise fades, when the lies collapse under their own weight, what remains are the men who stood for something real, and the men who stood only for themselves.

Robert Mueller will be remembered as a man who served his country with honor, courage, and an almost stubborn devotion to the truth.

Donald Trump will be remembered as a man who, even at the moment of another’s death, could not rise above his own bitterness long enough to show a single ounce of humanity.

That’s not politics.

That’s character.

And in the end, that’s the only ledger that matters.

—Michael Jochum, Not Just a Drummer: Reflections on Art, Politics, Dogs, and the Human Condition.

YOUR SUNDAY MOMENT OF ZEN

 

GUEST POST BY DAVE MILLER

 

This is America!

 

In a recent discussion on reparations, a Jesus-loving Christian posted the following:

“Our Constitution provides for reimbursement when people’s property is taken. The republic took property (freed slaves) at the point of a rifle. They were never compensated. If any reparations are due, it’s to those who were dispossessed of their property.”

Stop for a moment and think about this statement. There was no pushback, no disagreement. Perhaps people simply didn’t want to alienate a friend or criticize his or her views.

But this is how racism continues to reside and fester in the United States.

I’ve asked my conservative friends many times to name specific viewpoints or actions from conservative or MAGA supporters that they would consider “extreme.”

To date, I’ve never received a response.

Not to statements like the one above. Not to cartoons depicting President Obama tending watermelon gardens at the White House. Not to caricatures portraying a former president and first lady as apes.

Apparently, none of these rise to the level of “extreme” for many on the right or among MAGA supporters. There seems to be either an inability or an unwillingness to critically address the proverbial bad apples within their own circles.

I’ve seen this before.

Today, many on the right are critical of former President George W. Bush for U.S. involvement in the Iraq War. But at the time, voicing criticism of that war often resulted in being labeled un-American. Just look at what happened to the Dixie Chicks.

Sound familiar?

I even had friends who were privately critical of the war explain their reluctance to speak publicly, saying they didn’t want to give the “left” fodder to criticize the president. I’ve heard similar sentiments more recently in relation to President Trump.

Progressives and other Democrats, by contrast, have often been willing to publicly criticize their own leaders. Many Democrats spoke out against President Clinton during the Lewinsky scandal. Others questioned President Obama’s focus on the Affordable Care Act during his first term. Still others criticized the Afghanistan withdrawal and the handling of border issues during President Biden’s administration.

For some reason, the GOP, its MAGA base, and many conservatives seem reluctant to call out extremism, racism, Nazi support and more within their own ranks. Unless and until this group steps up and does so, it is hard to imagine America being able to move forward anytime soon.

IN MEMORIAM

I lost my sister and best friend, Jo, today.

Here we are in the late 1990s.

She was everything to me.

P.E. will be down for a while.

Me on the left, and Jo

 

This is the Hour of Lead – 

Remembered, if outlived, 

As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow – 

First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go – 

--Emily Dickenson

The birds they sang At the break of day 

Start again I heard them say 

Don't dwell on what has passed away 

Or what is yet to be 

Ah, the wars they will be fought again 

The holy dove, she will be caught again 

Bought and sold, and bought again 

The dove is never free 

Ring the bells that still can ring 

Forget your perfect offering 

There is a crack, a crack in everything 

That's how the light gets in  

--Leonard Cohen