When Democracy Rears it’s Head in Italy, Horrified Oligarchs and their Apologists Move to Kill it

by Scott Creighton (H/T Stephen)

“populism – support for the concerns of ordinary people”

The other day I published this:

Two CFR Videos Expose Hatred of Populism and Fear of an Interconnected, Uncensored Participatory Public

With the possible exception of Gaza and the demonization of Hamas and as informative as that piece I wrote the other day was, there is no better current example of just how much our masters (our oligarchs) and their apologists (our complicit media) hate democracy than what is happening right now in Italy.

To get you up to speed: on March 4th of this year, a Parliamentary election was held in Italy and two formerly unimportant political parties won a SWEEPING mandate… for populism.

“The 4 March election resulted in a hung parliament but it was the two populist groups – for years seen as outliers in domestic and international politics – that emerged strongest. The M5S, with 32% of the vote, emerged as the party with the most support following a sweep of southern Italy. The League won 18%, outperforming the traditional leader of the centre-right coalition in Italy, Forza Italia.” The Guardian

In the election, 50% of all votes were cast for two political parties that promised support for the concerns of the ordinary people of Italy and also swore to oppose neoliberalism in all its forms, potentially even pulling the nation out of the EU and getting them off the Euro.

“Both populisms raked up support with Europhobic slogans and concepts of a revolt of “the people” against the “elites”…

They predict an apocalyptic future for a public already frightened of globalisation and impoverished by European austerity policies...

The coalition “contract” that these populists want to implement includes not only massive public spending, which would break the budget and push Italy out of EU rules, but also the creation of specific crimes for immigrants and forced mass repatriations, as well as the closure of asylum centres and all Roma camps. The limits of legitimate self-defence are to be extended to include confronting burglars with weapons in hand.” The Guardian

Imagine that. After years of cuts to public services and brutal austerity measures that are crippling the general population (as admitted by the Guardian writer), the Italians have voted IN THEIR OWN INTERESTS in opposition to the neoliberalism imposed on them by globalists and their Chicago Boys technocrats.

What do they want? More public spending to get the economy back on track FOR EVERYONE, sending the weapons of mass migration BACK HOME TO THEIR NATIONS OF ORIGIN and the closure of WORK CAMPS set up by the neoliberal government who are using these migrants basically as slave labor for various crony businesses and favored international conglomerates.

They would also like to be able to defend themselves and their homes from invaders with weapons… if that’s OK with the globalists.

Doesn’t seem like too much too ask, does it? I mean, after all, government is supposed to work FOR THE PEOPLE right? Right?

“populism – support for the concerns of ordinary people”

Kinda reminds me of something someone once said on November 19, 1863:

“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln

The oligarchs mouthpieces are busy spitting bile at the notion that a nation can in fact serve the interests of it’s people rather than those of the oligarchs through neoliberal economic ideology. It should be noted that neoliberalism has been exposed by it’s principal proponent, the IMF, as being a failed economic system which serves only the interests of the rich and the international corporations they own. Though it’s nice the IMF technocrats finally admitted it, most of us have known it for decades. Some even longer.

In spite of that, the complicit apologists of the Fourth Estate  are busy demonizing the elected officials in Italy and doing everything they can to discredit the results of the elections. They are painting a mighty dire picture of what a world would look like if the Italian government were to suddenly start caring more about their citizens than they do the globalist billionaires from around the world.

“The crisis threatens Italy with international isolation, and will almost certainly prevent it being part of the lead group in a future two-speed Europe. But the EU will find itself with fewer friends in confronting the selfishness and closed horizons of other xenophobic nationalisms, from central Europe to Austria.

The darkness that is falling on Rome will be a test of real democracy. Just as with the obscurantism and fortress mentality of Trump’s America, it will be up to civil society and citizens to oppose the vision and policies of populists and nationalists. And to do so with the ambition of sending a warning – rather than an example – to the rest of the west.” The Guardian

Look at that. Feel the hyperbole. Taste the fear-mongering. All because the people of a neoliberalized nation voted in their own best interests against a regime of neoliberalism that even it’s proponents know causes massive levels of suffering for ORDINARY PEOPLE.

Also notice.. this writer’s definition of “real democracy” and his completely unveiled threats to make an example out of Italy for DARING to vote against the wishes of their masters. It’s remarkable it was even published in a rag as bad as the Guardian, but there it is.

Lincoln rolls in his grave but then again… we revolted against Britain, the Guardian is British and neoliberalism was BORN in Britain and spread from there like a cancer on the body of our species.

CNBC is laying out the world globalist’s panic over this situation right now. It’s dire. The glorious markets have fallen a bit over concerns that DEMOCRACY wont be stamped out in time for quarterly profit projections:

“Political uncertainty in Italy has unhinged world markets, raising the specter of a euro crisis that could ripple across the global economy and even force the Federal Reserve to slow its rate-hiking plans…

The euro sank, losing 0.7 percent Tuesday to $1.1540, and investors dumped Italian bonds while seeking safety in U.S. Treasurys and German bunds. The 2-year Italian yield briefly snapped above 2.73 percent, a sharp move from just 0.48 percent on Friday and a negative yield earlier this month.

Global equity markets slumped, with the Dow tumbling more than 450 points. Banks led the selloff, and the S&P financial sector declined more than 3 percent. In Europe, yields on Italian bank debt spiked as bank shares sold off.” CNBC

The markets. The glorious markets. The markets must be served at all costs. The oligarchs must feed and when the Better Angels of Our Nature interfere with that natural law, steps must be taken to set things right again.

And steps were taken to correct the wrongs of democracy in Italy.

“The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, Italy’s biggest party, and the far-right League party picked euro critic Paolo Savona as their economy minister. The two parties, both critical of Europe’s single currency, had won more than half the votes in March’s parliamentary elections. President Sergio Mattarella vetoed the choice and instead asked Carlo Cottarelli, a former IMF official, to form a temporary government, but both parties object to him, and a new vote is now expected in late July.” CNBC

The Guardian makes it perfectly clear who it is that Cottarelli serves:

“Mattarella, who as president has the power to nominate the head of government and ministers, asked Carlo Cottarelli, a former International Monetary Fund official, to become interim PM after refusing to accept the nomination of Paolo Savona, a Eurosceptic, for the role of finance minister.

Mattarella said appointing Savona, 81, who has called Italy’s entry into the euro a “historic mistake”, would have risked the confidence of foreign investors and destabilising the country.” The Guardian

Would appointing a populist economy minister risk the confidence of the glorious global oligarchs… or their profit margins? Or both?

However you look at it, the results are the same… President Mattarella serves a different master, different than the citizenry of Italy. But he is certainly not the first.

The parties that legitimately won on March 4th 2018 are calling for the people to come out this weekend and let their voices be heard in opposition to efforts to thwart their democracy and silence their voices and continue along the race to the bottom known as neoliberal economic ideology.

Yes, a coup and regime change are on the horizon for Italy. Not the coup of democracy that the oligarchs and their apologists are warning about… but a real coup being set up to push the reset button on democracy in Italy and invalidate the will of the people on behalf of the richest and greediest humans on the planet.

I don’t know how this will end but I know it didn’t end well for the people of Greece when they rose up against neoliberal austerity a couple years ago. And it hasn’t gone so well since the people of Britain tried to do the same thing with their Brexit votes.

If I could offer the Italian people one bit of inspiration… I would offer this one again because it bears repeating. Hold fast. Speak out. And… do not go gentle into that good night

“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln