Well, Southern Italy maybe ...

Berlusconi speaks fluent Italian ...

Quite true. As I note in my "Historical Footnotes" above, Hitler did see el Duce as something of a role model; and Mussolini saw himself as a mentor to Hitler.

It's hard to comprehend now; but Hitler was very much the junior partner in that relationship the first few years he was in power. Germany had been weakened by WWI and was just beginning to rearm; and Hitler was still consolidating his power at home, while el Duce was already an established figure on the world stage.

Right, that was a really interesting aspect of their relationship because of course the way hitler had to bail il duce out in africa and elsewhere you saw how the two diverged a bit later on, but Mussolini was really one of the progenitors of the idea of corporate fascism in the true sense before national socialism was really cemented as a concept.

No. Possibly drunk ...

Ah , not a drinker myself . I forget the possibility when consideration of self destructive actions ....

Spoken like someone who's never been to a Bunga Bunga Party ...

Enlighten me !

Pigs are awesome and smart. Only humans can be this stupid and insane.

he's smart, he's an awful person, a political bully, a corrupt, deviant a most horrible power hungry man but do not underestimate is brain!

Thanks. True enough. I've already had to defend pigs against unjust comparisons to Berlusconi once in this thread!

Why are the poor pigs getting so abused? :D

He may be, but saying something like this in public displays a serious lack of judgement, especially when one is seeking to get back into politics.

it's calculated, he's trying to attract the extremists, he needs them, lots of them right now, crisis, he has no shame, proved it too many times

It's a global awful trend, look at the awful thing said during the presidential, some even started the idea after 70 you should let yourself die instead of plumbing the economy!

It's shameful, I agree!

You have an uncomfortable point. I am hoping the extremists are a minority and his attempts to garner their support is unproductive.

you know that i do not approve people and ideas like Berlusconi, i am just maybe too cynic, but extremist call works better than their scandal

people get upset few days but below, in the dark corner, many will remember and think he has guts!
How many support a Beck or Rush, how many will revote for that asshole who said raped girl can't be pregnant to justify anti abortion!

the world we are living today is uncomfortable, maybe i am ageing bitterly but i found that, like here in current, the arguments are getting worst and worst, more absurd, more biased, look, check the gun topics, not one gun post here without a link to hitler, when the references is totally biased, nut it works with the idiots, and we have many of them!

I understand that what you are saying is sadly true. I try not to let it drive me crazy and just try to keep pushing reason and humanity into my own little sphere of influence. The only thing we can do is to point out the insanity and hope there are enough people who appreciate it and see through the sham that is politics.

I just like to think that people are starting to come around. I don't know if it is true but I hope it is. There is not a liberal or conservative answer. The answer really lies in trying to make the world a better place for everyone.

Blatantly insane statements and ideas need to be addressed. Inflammatory statements can not go unchallenged.

I am all in with you, that's the very reason i am back here, we have to do whatever it takes to stop the insanity spreading.

I am trying to get around my first reflexes, the usual the outraged answer (not always successful) to understand more their methods to fight them better!

Hope, we can

What an awful idea !

(sigh) yes , "insanely stupid" , that , is not nearly so common in other species ... or at least nature weeds them out .... and some pigs are kinda cute .

That reflex reaction is hard to squelch sometimes, but sacrifices must be made for the good fight. :)

Why do you disparage pigs in that way? What have pigs ever done to you?

My humble apology to all pigs.

Apology accepted! It's good to see that you are someone who can be big about it. Having seen other posts from you, I was confident that you were such a person.

Yes, I have to agree with Gordon. Pigs are awesome and are smarter than Berlusconi.

It really is one of those imponderables. Like why does any Republican Senate candidate comment on abortion? Or why does Donald Trump go around with his hair looking like that?

I have only the explanation I posited in my original post. From above:

"The European Right seems to be having the same problem as the GOP is here. They spend so much time drinking their own Kool Aid / telling each other how right they are, and so little time debating their ideas out in the broader public arena, that they are increasingly prone to say what they really think in public without any idea of how crazy it's going to sound."

Plus, in Berlusconi's case, there may be an issue with poor impulse control. Maybe ...

That's my theory and I'm stickin' to it. At least until I think of a better one.

she couldn't be worse then a lot of them, which in and of itself says a lot...

boobies

That was very cool .

Uhh...yeah they were killed by their political enemies, a bunch of vicious Communist thugs. You'd expect nothing less from these these people.

The Holocaust is getting a bit boring? I'm not even sure how to respond to that.

right-wingers do luv them the right-wing-corporate-FASCISTS, so no surprises.

I don't "love" political or economic fascism, but who was Britain, France, and America to tell Italy and Germany how to govern their nations?

Think about it. You're a smart guy I'm pretty sure you'll come up with something.

I normally don't like the U.S. involving itself in telling other nations what to do regarding their own affairs. However, on 11th December 1941 both Germany and Italy made unprovoked declarations of war on the United States and immediately began hostilities. Their declarations of war were made in support of their ally, Japan, which had not shown the decency to declare war in advance of its own initiation of hostilities on 7th December 1941.

So to answer your question as regards America, we were the country that Germany and Italy went to war against. And that gave us every right to tell them how to run their countries if we could. It turned out that we could; and we did. No apologies for that ...

No, it did not give America the right. This is precisely what is still wrong with America, and American thinking today.

...the right-wingers were always "bored" with it. As long as it didn't effect the w.a.s.p's and the monied-class, well...

Wherever Communism is established, murder, rape, starvation and general exploitation of the people generally follows. Perhaps fascism wasn't the best solution for everyone, but it definitely was the solution to Communism at the time.

DID !!! :-)

Good heavens! That's appalling! I had no idea. Really ...

Do I understand then, that there were no such issues with the fascists? I mean, if the fascists were also prone to murders, rapes, exploitation, and say mass genocide on top of those, that might negate the rationale for supporting them as the lesser of two evils?

I'm just asking ...

I might add, that with the Marshall Plan being extended to Italy and Germany, we were most generous victors at that!

The Marshall Plan was a wise and effective decision ..

Two wrongs don't make a right.

Hitlers Fascism and Stalin's Communism both resulted in millions dead. They were both extreme and both deadly. Fascism wasn't a "solution" to communism so much as a reaction to it. Communism was supposed to take power from the elite and hand it back to the people. It didn't work out that way. Hitlers Fascism handed power to corporations and dictatorial powers to the state at the cost of individual freedoms. Both systems sucked.

If by "vicious communist thugs," you mean "the entire population of Milan," then yes.

Thank you for that straight forward explanation . I wish everyone understood it .