A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

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The crypto-Leninist waitress and member of Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is heaping praise on radical teens for punking Donald Trump’s Tulsa rally; flooding the Trump campaign with fake ticket reservations, producing an auditorium with a third of the seats left empty. Jubilant at the result, Cortez taunted Trump by saying, “[the teens] tricked you into believing a million people wanted your white supremacist open mic to pack an arena during COVID. Shout out to ZOOMERS. Y’all make me so proud.”

The Chinese and Russian grand strategy of today evolved from the ideas of Soviet Marshal V.D. Sokolovskiy and KGB General N. Mironov in the late 1950s (working under a special committee led by L. Brezhnev). Conceived as a long range strategy that would carry into the twenty-first century, its military focus was centered on the decisive weapon of the next war: — strategic nuclear missiles. These could be safely employed only after a prolonged period of low intensity asymmetrical warfare aimed at disrupting the United States.

I’m reading Adam Schiff House Impeachment Inquiry Report on Scribd. Check it out: https://www.scribd.com/book/438107041

Claire Berlinski has written another book, which she intends to serialize on her blog/newsletter — found at the following address:

https://claireberlinski.substack.com/p/is-democracy-doomed

I will be following Claire’s work with comments and asides, posted as the occasion warrants. It’s rare to find someone like Claire, who is working through “big picture” questions in an entertaining way. She keeps the reader guessing as to her final destination. Perhaps she does not know herself.

After three installments on the question of democracy’s survival, i cannot resist commenting. Readers are encouraged to read Claire’s essay on the question of democracy’s future — parts 1-3.

It is in Part 3 where she suggests “right wing” populism shares intellectual roots with fascism. That got me thinking. In what sense could this be true? If we understand fascism as the collectivist nationalism of Mussolini and Hitler, whatever could she mean?