Popolo Americano

In the animal kingdom, alpha males often drive off rivals. Primates, seals, birds...they often fight – sometimes to the death -- for the right to mate.

Italian dictator Benito Mussolini addresses a crowd in Rome’s Piaza Venezia in May, 1936

Wednesday, February 18th, 2026

Bill Bonner, from Poitou, France

Are we fascists yet?

This rather strange message from Rep. Tom Massie caught our interest:

‘I am not suicidal. I eat healthy food. The brakes on my car and truck are in good shape. I practice good trigger discipline and never point a gun at anyone, including myself. There are no deep pools of water on my farm and I’m a pretty good swimmer.’

Was he joking? Or trying to tell us something? That if something happens to him, it won’t be suicide?

The man has been a thorn in Trump’s side. POTUS doesn’t appreciate it.

In the animal kingdom, alpha males often drive off rivals. Primates, seals, birds...they often fight – sometimes to the death -- for the right to mate.

Historically, high ranking humans targeted their rivals. Brothers...sisters...cousins — even those still unborn — were sometimes considered threats…and eliminated.

In modern ‘fascist’ societies, opponents fall from 6th floor windows (two Russian colonels last year) or they are poisoned (Navalny, Litvinenko)...or their planes mysteriously crash (Prigozhin).

In our much more civilized society, challengers are not (yet) murdered. Yes, sometimes particularly threatening people are whacked; that is what we think happened to Jeffrey Epstein. But more often, rivals are bad-mouthed and dismissed. Trump says Massie is a ‘moron.’ He calls Newsom ‘Newscum,’ etc. And/or the judicial system may be turned against them: Kelly, Comey, James, Bolton, Powell etc.

The press has been subjected to more and more self-imposed...and government-imposed...restrictions. In the Biden years, you had to be careful not to say the ‘wrong’ thing about gays, cripples, trans, Blacks, Indians, ‘Orientals,’ fat people, and retards. Today, you have to avoid anything that might be viewed as negative towards Israel. And the Department of Justice is fishing for people who are critical of the feds:

Homeland Security Wants Social Media Sites to Expose Anti-ICE Accounts

The department has sent Google, Meta and other companies hundreds of subpoenas for information on accounts that track or comment on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, officials and tech workers said.

And all over the “liberal” press, pundits are bellyaching about ‘fascism.’ Hardly a day goes by without someone alerting us to a fascist takeover. Is the danger real? Are we there yet?

Charlotte Twight wrote in 1975:

‘To sustain its power and achieve its economic ends, fascism seeks to make its people economically and psychologically dependent on the government.’

Who now is not dependent on the government? Social Security. Medicare. Mortgage deductibility. Suppressed interest rates. Artificially boosted house and stock market prices. The Military/Industrial/Spook complex. The universities. The pharmaceutical industry.

The Independent Review:

Fascism, as generally understood and as [Charlotte] Twight describes it, is a system in which those who hold political power dominate those who engage in economic activity, using their power to subjugate economic activity to further the goals of the political elite.

The richest men in America stood behind Trump at his inauguration. The biggest corporations are so tight with the feds you could barely squeeze a dime in between them. Google, Meta, Amazon, Nvidia – all bow down to federal regulatory power. Tik Tok is now controlled by people beholden to the government. CBS is owned by a Trump crony.

And Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Post, whom Trump once called ‘Jeff Bozo,’ has seen the light. His Blue Origin project needs federal licenses, contracts, and approvals. He killed the Post endorsement for Trump’s opponent and donated $1 million to the Trump inauguration.

Are we there yet?

More to come...

Regards,

Bill Bonner

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