.

Congratulations and Homage
to Giorgia Meloni

Italy rises up and overthrows
The stench of leftist tyranny at last.
Rage among the EU’s pooh-bahs grows—
They realize that their heyday is now past.

Thwarted will, hurt pride, and disbelief
Send quaking scum in Germany and France
Into apoplectic fits of grief
While journalists resume their scripted dance

Of screeching propaganda, libel, lies;
Of choreographed whining and deep moans.
Italian voters will be demonized
In hysteria’s loud and plangent tones.

Forget them all, Fratelli—you have won!
You buried your opponents at the polls.
You’ve got the leftist vermin on the run—
You’ve raked the EU on a bed of coals.

To Giorgia—you now hold Italia’s reins.
Split the cursèd EU’s strangling shackles.
Throw off the heavy weight of leftist chains.
Do everything you can to raise the hackles

Of snotty, pompous bureaucrats who sit
In Belgium on fat asses, giving orders.
Reject directives from the German shit
Who tell us that we must have open borders.

Italia is now in your hands. Don’t waver.
Ignore all pious counsels of restraint.
Fratelli have been voted in to save her—
You need a heart that isn’t weak or faint.

.

.

Joseph S. Salemi has published five books of poetry, and his poems, translations and scholarly articles have appeared in over one hundred publications world-wide.  He is the editor of the literary magazine TRINACRIA and writes for Expansive Poetry On-line. He teaches in the Department of Humanities at New York University and in the Department of Classical Languages at Hunter College.


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61 Responses

  1. Evan Mantyk

    Thank you, Dr. Salemi! For those who may not be familiar with Giorgia Meloni, you may find this clip edifying:

    Reply
  2. Brian Yapko

    Thank you for this poem, Joseph. A hearty congratulations indeed! This is the best news I’ve heard in years. Maybe it’s time for Italy to move out of the E.U. It really is time to move past those cursed “strangling shackles.”

    Reply
  3. Margaret Coats

    Joseph, thank you for expressing homage to Meloni, and thus helping the rest of us to honor her and the Fratelli. They have strenuous tasks ahead, and I can only hope popular support will grow. You most important line here is “Forget them all.” The pompous dictators, wherever they happen to be, lack not only reason and logic, but human feeling insofar as it applies to anyone who wants to exercise the human capacity to think. Or indeed, as Meloni herself says, they deplore any capacity of a human person to act in most significant ways!

    Evan, thanks for posting the speech. I heard a translation of it read on radio yesterday, but it is thrilling to hear Giorgia Meloni’s determination in her distinctive voice and manner.

    Reply
  4. Shaun C. Duncan

    A very stirring piece, Joseph and the pungent language aptly describes the kind of filth Ms Meloni is up against whilst maintaining a feeling of celebration. The pressure on her is going to be enormous so let’s hope she can maintain her resolve through it all. Her speeches have been very encouraging though.

    Reply
  5. Jack DesBois

    Joseph, I had not been following Italian politics and didn’t know who Meloni was. After reading your piece and watching the speech Evan posted, I ran a DuckDuckGo search on her. With one exception (Wikipedia), the entire first page of search results consisted of news headlines that involved various permutations of her name and “far-right,” several throwing in “fascist” for good measure. There’s “choreographed whining” for you; it seems the legacy media have got their marching orders.

    What does “far-right” mean, anyway? From the little I know about Meloni, it seems to mean believing in the existence of the individual human soul.

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Jack, in the context of today’s surreal diction, “far-right” simply means “sane.”

      Reply
      • Mike Bryant

        Hey Doc, perhaps “right” and “left” are better understood as “right” and “wrong.”

  6. C.B. Anderson

    I had no idea, Joseph. This is good news, indeed, and it’s a terrific polemical poem to boot.

    Reply
  7. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Congratulations indeed! Thank you, Joe, for this hard-hitting and honest poem that spells out what has happened in Italy with creative flair and passion. I am particularly drawn to, “Italian voters will be demonized/In hysteria’s loud and plangent tones.” Here in America, voters who don’t agree with the ‘current thing’ are already being demonized as fascists… a little taste of what will happen if the vote doesn’t go the way of our tyrannical overlords… those who keep hammering home the significance of ‘democracy’. Oh the irony!

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Spot on, Susan! For our left-liberals and wokesters, “democracy” is no more desirable than it is for the CCP. Their use of the word is purely incantational and ritualistic, just as in George Orwell’s 1984, where “Freedom” means “Slavery,” “War” means “Peace,” and the “Ministry of Love” is the agency for terror, torture, and governmental murder.

      I hope that Meloni’s election is a turning point. As Tess Mullins reported from Rome, “Ecstatic Romans tore down the European Union flag at the EU’s headquarters in Rome and replaced it with the Italian standard.” All this is the best news since Brexit!

      Straws are small, but straws show which way the wind is blowing.

      Reply
  8. Norma Pain

    Thank you for this poem Joseph and ‘Amen’ to its messages. And thank you to Evan for the clip of Giorgia Meloni’s speech. I am learning so much from this website and the amazing poetry it contains, in the styles that are most enjoyable to my ear.

    Reply
  9. David Watt

    Thank you Joseph for this lively and timely piece. I share your wish that Giorgia Meloni doesn’t waver.

    Reply
  10. BDW

    as per Luwese Becardi:

    The phrase “While journalists resume their scripted dance” is poetic’lly on target, as is “hysteria’s loud and plangent tones”; for while

    Google claimed it had “mistakenly” removed Meloni’s 2019 speech at the World Congress, corparrot media was out in full force in their Mussolini smear.

    She will definitely need a “heart that isn’t weak or faint”, as

    Claudio Gallo’s take on the Italian election in Pepe Escobar’s “Georgia (Meloni) on Our Mind” shows.

    Reply
  11. The Society

    By the way, below is an email I recently received from Winning Writers, regarding another matter I cleared up. The email makes reference to the above poem, so I thought it was relevant to post it here:
    ___________________________________

    jendi@winningwriters.com

    Dear Evan,

    Thanks for your prompt and helpful response. That would explain why we had no contest with that deadline in the Free database anymore. I’ve passed along your explanation to the subscriber who queried.

    I’m sorry to say that we no longer feel comfortable promoting SCP’s contests because of the political turn that your site has taken. We’re troubled by recent posts mocking the transgender community and expressing support for fascist-adjacent politicians like Giorgia Meloni. You have to run your publication in accordance with your editorial team’s values, of course, but so do we.

    Best regards,
    > Jendi Reiter
    >
    > (they/he)
    > Editor of WinningWriters.com

    Reply
    • Brian Yapko

      I looked at this person’s site and as well as some of the poetry that has been listed as winning, honorable mention, etc. along with lengthy statements concerning this person’s ideology. I suggest anyone broken up by this woke and self-referential person’s lack of favor recognize that there can be no greater badge of honor than to be canceled by him/them. Truth hurts.

      By the way, how many millions of Italians voted for Meloni that deserve to be canceled by him/them? The majority views of an entire nation wiped out with the press of a button? Because… woke?

      And, for the record, not one soul on this site (myself included) has said transgender people don’t deserve dignity or equal rights with others. What has been said is that A) it is monstrous to sterilize children before they are ready to make a monumental decision concerning the blocking of puberty, gender change and amputation of body parts; and B) that it is preposterous and arrogant to demand that all of society celebrate a radical leftist view on gender dysphoria whether linguistically, politically, academically, medically and theologically on penalty of cancellation (or worse) in order to make a small minority of people feel good about themselves.

      Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Wow… I guess the real surprise is that these po-biz magazines didn’t kick you off their sites years ago. Given that he (for convenience, I assume the writer is a biological male, as I have no way of knowing) refers to himself as “they,” I see a lot of self-interest in his wokeness. I agree with Brian that being canceled by this guy is an honor.

      You could always say something like, “We never mock the transgender community; we have nothing but sympathy for them, as they are simply victims of a cruel agenda encouraging human beings to be spayed and neutered like dogs. We mock, but mostly condemn, the people who push this agenda. There’s a difference.”

      Here’s the thing: 0.4% of the population identifies as transgender. In the United States, that’s a population about the size of San Antonio, Texas. It makes no more sense that we should change anything so a population that small doesn’t have to feel uncomfortable than it would for the rest of the country to bend over backwards in a similar way for San Antonio!

      What I’m wondering is, what will we all do when (not if) this entire site gets cancelled for its non-woke views? Maybe we could form some kind of samizdat in that event.

      Reply
  12. Joseph S. Salemi

    It was only a matter of time. The public orthodoxy to which Reiter owes allegiance does not tolerate dissent. The purpose of (his? hers? its? their?) rather mealy-mouthed excuse as given above is to refuse publicity and circulation to the SCP, and thereby limit its audience.

    It’s a way to deny that censorship is occurring, while at the same time pressuring the SCP to censor itself.

    Reply
  13. Mike Bryant

    “We’re troubled by recent posts mocking the transgender community and expressing support for fascist-adjacent politicians like Giorgia Meloni.” – Jendi Reiter

    No one here mocks the transgender community. I believe that most Americans believe that children should not be guided or forced to make life-changing decisions. It is quite tragic that many people are applauding the mutilation of children in order to feel they are righteous. When the mutilations finally stop and the people and institutions who are gettine rich over this travesty are brought to justice, where will you have stood… on the side of children or the millionaires?

    Reply
    • Mike Bryant

      I’ve never heard of fascist-adjacent… could we be talking about the WEF and their government-corporate cooperation? No… that wouldn’t be merely adjacent, would it…

      Reply
  14. Joseph S. Salemi

    Reiter’s weasel-word “fascist-adjacent” is typical of left-liberal rhetoric. What does it mean? That Meloni lives next door to Giovanni Gentile? Reiter is too cowardly to say “fascist,’ which is obviously untrue when referring to Meloni, but he manages to sneak the demonizing word “fascist” in as a way to smear her all the same. I wonder if Reiter would object if I called him “Communist-adjacent.”

    Reply
    • Shaun C. Duncan

      So presumably those of us who publish our work here are adjacent-fascist-adjacent. One wonders how many degrees of adjacence are required before we re-enter the realms of acceptable opinion. Perhaps they/he could explain.

      Reply
  15. Galin Elias Franklin

    Take then thy bond, take thou thy Pound of flesh… and cancel my subscription, Mr. Salemi.

    Reply
  16. Galin Elias Franklin

    By the way, are you working on an Ode to Vladimir the Conqueror?

    Reply
    • Mike Bryant

      Zalenskyy or Putin?
      It looks like the first has conquered our treasury… of course he WILL have to pay some kickbacks out of the largesse.

      Reply
      • Galin Elias Franklin

        Mikey, tisk tisk. Zalenskyy’s name is Volodymyr, not Vladimir. And yes, Mikey, Ukrainian is an authentic Eastern Slavic language distinct from, say, Russian.

      • Mike Bryant

        In Cyrillic characters the name Vladimir or Vladimyr is Владимир. Volodymyr in Ukrainian is Володимир.
        It is the same name. In Mexico I am called Miguel. This isn’t really that complicated.

      • Mike Bryant

        Or if you prefer Wiki:
        Volodymyr (Ukrainian: Володи́мир, romanized: Volodýmyr, pronounced [woloˈdɪmɪr], Old East Slavic: Володимѣръ) is a Ukrainian given name of Old East Slavic origin. The related Ancient Slavic, such as Czech, Russian, Serbian, Croatian, etc. form of the name is Володимѣръ Volodiměr, which in other Slavic languages became Vladimir (from Church Slavonic: Владимѣръ, romanized: Vladiměr).

      • Joshua C. Frank

        This is typical of people who can’t come up with a good argument. Instead of addressing what you’ve said about the two men, he’s nitpicking how you spell the name of one of them. Classic.

    • Joshua C. Frank

      I like when the woke start fights with our poets. The fights raise the ranks of these conservative poems in the Trending list, giving them more exposure.

      I’m waiting for some woke nut to read my poetry and do this to me. Especially my most popular work like “Elegy for the Child Never Conceived” and “A Villanelle for Robert Hoogland.” Susan has had some people do this to her, and now Joe… I’m feeling left out of the party!

      Reply
      • Mike Bryant

        Joshua, you are so, so right! That is why I welcome all respectful comments… and even some that are not so respectful. America has always been a marketplace of ideas. As long as everyone can air their views we still live in the land of the free. God bless America.

  17. Joseph S. Salemi

    To G.E. Franklin —

    You got a problem with what I write?

    I don’t run the SCP website, so I can’t cancel anyone’s subscription. But for someone who wants to leave, how strange that you still seem to be hanging around.

    Reply
    • Galin Elias Franklin

      Allow me to address the second point first, Mr. Salemi. I was being playful with the expression ‘cancel my subscription.’ In any case, I am not aware that SCP offers a subscription service.
      As to the first point, I won’t do you the disservice of being mealy-mouthed in my response. Yes, I do have a problem with what you write. You may not be fascist, but you certainly sound the part. This has nothing to do with your position on the results of the recent Italian elections or any other democratic elections – and everything to do with your rhetoric: ‘quaking scum of Germany and France;’ ‘leftist vermin;’ ‘the German shit.’ This is just the sort of dehumanizing language that has been the basso continuo of the most horrific atrocities that man has committed against man. And this from someone who teaches the Humanities.

      Reply
      • Mike Bryant

        Galin, you may not be fascist either, however it might be instructive to realize that Meloni BACKS Ukraine… just saying…
        I’m sure that your playful self has factored that factoid into your, admittedly, blinkered world view.
        (you somehow don’t understand that the same name is rendered differently in different languages)

      • Joseph S. Salemi

        Sigh. The world seems to be filled with epicene types like G.E. Franklin who cannot deal with robust language. We used to call them wilting flowers; today they are usually denominated “snowflakes,” because of how easily they melt at the slightest puff of vehemence.

        Yes, Franklin, I teach Humanities, and the Classics too. I wonder if you have read enough in those fields to know that some of the most savage language imaginable is used by great writers like Archilochus, Catullus, Martial, the Church Fathers, and countless others in the English tradition like Thomas Nashe, Robert Green, and the Earl of Rochester.

        Yes, there are plenty of “quaking scum” right now in France and Germany who are utterly terrified of the growing rightist reactions throughout Europe to their plans for cultural debasement. And yes, there are “leftist vermin” who would like to see people like me and Meloni dead, and who have no problem in planning for it. As for the Germans — those Scheissmeisters who run the smiley-face version of the Third Reich that you call the E.U. — they are indeed shit in my book.

        These terms are not dehumanizing. They are merely descriptive. So take your whining complaints elsewhere.

        Or if you would like to tangle with me, by all means continue. To quote Thomas Nashe (one of my favorite English brawlers), “I have terms (if I be vexed) laid steeping in aqua-fortis and gunpowder, that shall rattle through the skies and make an earthquake in a peasant’s ears.”

        “Dehumanizing”? What a laugh. Franklin sounds like he runs a Human Resources Department in a red-brick university.

      • Mike Bryant

        “Franklin sounds like he runs a Human Resources Department in a red-brick university.”
        Mr. Franklin submitted a nice Haiku about Madrid and his language sounds like an East coast lawyer… That’s the take of a retired Texas plumber.

      • Joshua C. Frank

        “This is just the sort of dehumanizing language that has been the basso continuo of the most horrific atrocities that man has committed against man.”

        I assume you’re “pro-choice;” if I’m right, you have no right to speak against atrocities of man against man as long as you support the murder of millions of unborn babies every year at their own mothers’ request. Until you respect ALL human life, don’t even talk about such atrocities; it’ll all be empty words as long as you dehumanize the unborn.

  18. Galin Elias Franklin

    As I thought I made clear, Mikey, it’s not about the elections or policy or even world view, blinkered or otherwise. It’s about the use of dehumanizing language. This isn’t really that complicated.

    Reply
    • Mike Bryant

      I get it, Galin… when YOU do it it is “playful” and when Dr. SALEMI does it it is “dehumanizing.” Dr. Salemi “may not be fascist, but (he) certainly sound(s) the part.”
      I have not said that you may not be ignorant about the subject of names in different languages but it most certainly seems like you ARE ignorant… at least you are certainly playing the part. Please…

      Reply
      • Galin Elias Franklin

        I have the impression that you don’t really understand what the word ‘dehumanizing’ means, Mikey. I suggest you consult the Wiktionary.

      • Mike Bryant

        I looked it up in my 1984 Webster’s Dictionary… it means “to deprive of human qualities.”
        Of course you had to steer me to Wiktionary.
        Why am I not surprised that the meaning has been changed? Now, of course, it means “to take away humanity.”
        When meanings are fluid then nothing means anything.
        Dr. Salemi is standing against those who are redefining everything.
        Must I look up “redefine” now?

      • Mike Bryant

        I’m pretty sure that the word “dehumanizing” means whatever you want it to mean today.

    • Mike Bryant

      Here this simple human was thinking that speech is still free… silly me. Thanks, Galin for your instructive righteousness…

      Reply
      • Mike Bryant

        Mr. Franklin, you will never meet anyone who suffers less pain than this laid back retired plumber. I, however, do not suffer fools. You DO know that I am being playful, right?

  19. Galin Elias Franklin

    Thank you for your response, Mr. Salemi. I must say that it’s quite a peacock attempt to obscure the issue. I’ll therefore have to take it on feather by feather, paragraph by paragraph.

    1) Nastiness is never really an effective argument. Moreover, labeling someone who has openly called you out as epicene or a wilting flower or a snowflake is not only gratuitous, but also objectively wrong-headed. I admire robust language and vehemence of attitude. Unfortunately, you give yourself too much credit. In the examples I pointed out, your manner of expressing yourself is quite simply, well, nasty.

    2) Somehow the nastiness did not surprise me, but the condescension really threw me for a loop. Wouldn’t it be advisable for one to be somewhat familiar with one’s object of condescension before lowering the boom? Or is judgment in this regard distorted by the rarefied atmosphere of the ivory tower? And to make matters worse, your litmus test of erudition is so prosaic. Catullus? Really? I was being titillated by reading Catullus in the original Latin as a teenager. And I still think that Wilmot’s bawdy verse is a gas after all these years. That said, although Ms. Coats and I share the same training grounds, I am sure that I am not as well-read as you are – and so what? Finally, please do not conflate ‘savage language’ with the language of the savage.

    3) Taking your cue from the worst of our time, you double down on the dehumanizing language that I point out. It is not witty or cutting or scathing or full of vim and vigor. Can you not see that reducing those with whom you vehemently disagree to waste and contamination and pests to be exterminated is dangerously dehumanizing? Reading your poem, what came to mind was how those who publicly urged Hutus to carry out the slaughter of Tutsis constantly referred to them as cockroaches. Now I am not equating your poem with incitement to genocide (God forbid that poetry should have even a modicum of that sort of destructive societal power). But why add to the rancor? To what purpose?

    4) ‘So take your whining complaints elsewhere.’ (See section 1).

    5) I have no problem tangling with you and would continue, but I am living in a time zone far ahead of that of my home state of Maine and really must leave off.

    6) I thought I had established a second-person intimacy with you. Why revert to the third-person Franklin? How disappointing. No, I don’t work in a Human Resources Department, but I do appreciate your taking a jab at a jabbing pun.

    Thank you, and good night.

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Good God, what insufferable moral posturing.

      Franklin is opposed to “nastiness.” He’s opposed to “dehumanizing language.” And he thinks that virtue-signalling about it somehow places him on a pedestal to look down upon us. He talks piously about “condescension” but is there anything more patently condescending than this?

      Franklin, you’re the one who came here to cause trouble, making snotty comments about “thy Pound of flesh,” and “Vladimir the Conqueror,” and cancelling your subscription. And when you are roundly attacked in return, you go into high moral dudgeon, and pose as the humane, sensitive voice of decency and reason. It’s so typically left-liberal — attack rightists, and then go into a posture of virtue-encrusted complaining when you are smacked back.

      Well, guess what? I’m going to triple-down right now. France and Germany are filled with quaking scum who are terrified of Meloni, leftist vermin infest Europe, and the obnoxious Germans with their political arrogance deserve to be flushed down the toilet. And if you don’t like what we say here at the SCP, why have you come here to lecture us about propriety and language? Who exactly are you to take such a liberty? What authority do you have over us?

      Your attitude is in fact a biopsy slide of what is wrong with left-liberals: their glandular need to preach their ideology everywhere, to everyone, at all times, and to attempt to enforce it by any means possible. If you don’t like our rancor and savagery, why not just bugger off, as the Brits so picturesquely put it?

      Sleep soundly.

      Reply
      • Galin Elias Franklin

        Thank you, Salemi. In fact, I did sleep quite well. You know, moral posturing does tucker you right out.

        Once again, feather by feather and paragraph by paragraph.

        1/2) You accuse me of ‘moral posturing’ and ‘virtue-signaling.’ My God, you really hanker to employ all the catchphrases in the armamentarium of those who consider themselves the paladins of the great Right whale of a cause. But pointing out how vicious (yes, I’m adding ‘vicious’ to ‘nasty’ and ‘dehumanizing’) your language seems is in no way, shape or form condescending. Condescension requires an attitude of looking down your nose at someone; even a child would find calling people ‘shit’ and ‘scum’ deserving of a good mouth-scrubbing with soap.

        3) No, Salemi, I didn’t come to this site ‘to cause trouble.’ I actually thought you might find (silly me) the allusive critical comments refreshing and even somewhat amusing. But I guess you’ve become so accustomed to a fawning reaction to your work that you bristle at anything directed to you that is not in that vein. And once again, such a cliched response! ‘High moral dudgeon’ and the like. Come on, you can do better than that. And by the way, why do keep defining me as left-liberal? There are still plenty of good folks on the Right who object to the nasty, dehumanizing verbiage purveyed by all too many today who have adopted illiberal attitudes and beliefs.

        4) But of course you would triple down. I suspect that you don’t have the guts not to. And stop hiding behind ‘what we say here at the SCP.’ I’m only talking to you, Salemi. In my several years of perusing the website, I’ve enjoyed the poetry of a number of poets – some of whose social, political and cultural views I agree with, and some I don’t. But I have never felt compelled to criticize the language used in any poem, either in this publication or any other, until now. It is particularly egregious. And yet, you insist on evading the real issue and distracting by ad hominem attacks. Who am I ‘to take such a liberty’ and ‘what authority’ do I have? The same liberty and authority that accrues to anyone willing to accept the open invitation (I thought) to comment in the comment section.

        5) My, my. What a crashing crescendo to end your symphony of ruffled feathers, Salemi. I guess you’ve figured me out under your microscope. But don’t people of your ilk often admonish folks not to engage in identity politics? And once again, please stop employing the royal we. You are sui generis. I criticize nobody but you for language that is patently nasty, vicious, dehumanizing, and cruel. (The cruelty is the point, isn’t it? [You see, I can also traffic in political sloganeering.]) And now I’ll bugger off. (Is this some pun in reference to left-wing sexual tendencies? Oh, so clever, Salemi!).

        Live well.

      • Mike Bryant

        “The most recently arrived undocumented immigrant from some country in Central America deserves US citizenship more than Trump or anyone in his merry band of fucking traitors.
        LOCK THEM UP! LOCK THEM UP! LOCK THEM UP!”
        – Galin Elias Franklin March 21, 2017

        “I criticize nobody but you (Dr. Salemi) for language that is patently nasty, vicious, dehumanizing, and cruel.”
        – Galin Elias Franklin October 5, 2022

        You have said, “the American Right is the Michelangelo of hypocrisy.” It appears clear that on this comments page you, Mr. Franklin, are hypocrisy personified.

        By the way, I have screen shots of your online quotes so don’t bother deleting them now.

  20. Galin Elias Franklin

    ‘Mr. Franklin submitted a nice Haiku about Madrid and his language sounds like an East coast lawyer…’

    On the first count, Mike, thank you for the compliment. And on the second, let me return the compliment by saying that you are quite perceptive.

    Reply
    • Mike Bryant

      No sir, I just do my research.

      “The most recently arrived undocumented immigrant from some country in Central America deserves US citizenship more than Trump or anyone in his merry band of fucking traitors.
      LOCK THEM UP! LOCK THEM UP! LOCK THEM UP!”
      – Galin Elias Franklin March 21, 2017

      “I criticize nobody but you (Dr. Salemi) for language that is patently nasty, vicious, dehumanizing, and cruel.”
      – Galin Elias Franklin October 5, 2022

      You have said, “the American Right is the Michelangelo of hypocrisy.” It appears clear that on this comments page you, Mr. Franklin, are hypocrisy personified.

      By the way, I have screen shots of your online quotes so don’t bother deleting them now.

      Reply
      • Joseph S. Salemi

        Well, Mike, this exchange has been an excellent demonstration of how the left operates rhetorically. Notice that Franklin, in his last post to me, tries to finesse his actual political position by referring to “plenty of good folks on the Right,” as if he were a big-hearted, all-accepting fellow with friends all over the political spectrum. And yet you have caught him calling Trump and Trump partisans “fucking traitors” who should be locked up. What a hypocrite.

        It would be interesting to see if Franklin comes clean about his actual political opinions and attitudes, rather than moaning and groaning about “nasty, cruel, vicious, and dehumanizing” language. Let’s hear whom he voted for.

      • Mike Bryant

        Joe, the excitable and highly hypocritical Mr. (I think) Franklin has described Republicans, and I’m sure anyone who would prefer local to world governance, as “inept, feckless, sniveling, craven, vindictive, mean-spirited, mendacious, tawdry, avaricious, self-serving, cynical, morally bankrupt, whoring-to-the-powers-that-be gang of thieves.”
        He also uses the laughable insult, “white supremacist.”
        Of course using “dangerous(ly) dehumanizing language,” “nastiness,” and “condescension” is OK when our moral betters do it.
        He “may not be a fascist but (he) certainly sounds the part.”

      • Galin Elias Franklin

        Oh Mike, you are getting down and dirty investigating my social network postings. Hilarious. You really must have all the time in the world! But don’t worry Mike. I would not even think of deleting anything and stand by it all. But tell me, where does my hypocrisy lie? In calling traitors ‘fucking’ traitors. What a joke!

      • Mike Bryant

        Riiiight… you are definitely NOT hypocritical. It is to laugh.
        What color is the sky in your world?

  21. BDW

    Mr. Franklin, apparently admires “robust language and vehemence of attitude” but not Mr. Salemi’s, which is “dehumanizing”, “nasty”, “vicious”, and “cruel”. Yet, if the poetry of Mr. Salemi does not achieve the finish of Catullus, Juvenal, or even that of Dryden or Pope, I can think of no English poet of the NewMillennium who approaches Mr. Salemi’s vibrant vitriol. If Mr. Franklin knows of such a one, I would be interested.

    And, even if it is not something I aspire to, as far as I can tell, Mr. Salemi’s prose marks him as the Mencken of the NewMillennium.

    Reply
  22. Geoffrey S.

    Did you ever write verse for the National Review back in the olden days of Buckley, before the magazine went Neocon? You’d have made some great contributions.

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      No, I never did. Poetry was always a very minor thing at NR. I do recall a poem “Counsel to Budding Aesthetes” by Dennis Duffy, which was a brilliant take-off on W.S. Gilbert. I saved a copy, and here is the first stanza:

      If you’re anxious for to shine in the pseudo-egghead line
      As an intellectual power,
      There are certain things to do, which if done will render you
      The highbrow of the hour:
      You must stroll about the quad, discussing Kierkegaard
      With swiftly gushing praise;
      There’s no need to have read it, but it will be to your credit
      To employ the right cliches.

      On and on it goes, with savagely sardonic satire of fake liberal intellectuals.

      Reply

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