A-CHANGIN': "It IS Mussolini," Chris Matthews said!

MONDAY, MARCH 10, 2025

But what did he mean by that? An interesting report appears in this morning's New York Times. 

By classic reckoning, it's an important report about some basic blocking and tackling regarding the future of Ukraine. 

It deals with basic blocking and tackling. That helps explain why you won't hear much about it:

How Would Peacekeeping Work in Ukraine? These Experts Gamed It Out.
The publication of the detailed analysis was a sign that a cease-fire has gone from a theoretical exercise to an urgent and practical issue.

That's the dual headline on the report. In today's print editions, it appears inside the paper, on page A6, listed as "International" news.

You won't hear much about that report. On the paper's front page, not without reason, you find such reports as these:

NEWS ANALYSIS
‘You Can’t Pin Him Down’: Trump’s Contradictions Are His Ultimate Cover
President Trump’s shifting positions and outright lies have presented the American public with dueling narratives at every turn.

How Foreign Aid Cuts Are Setting the Stage for Disease Outbreaks
Organizations funded by the United States helped keep dangerous pathogens in check around the world. Now many safeguards are gone, and Americans may pay the price.

Ambitious Democrats Have a New Game Plan: Yak It Up About Sports
Prominent leaders are flocking to sports radio shows and podcasts, an early sign of how the party is trying to reach apolitical young men who have tilted toward President Trump.

Full disclosure! As we left Morning Joe this morning, they had Pablo Torre on again. It's a recurrent booking which lets the crew yak it up about sports.

In theory, the news report on page A6 deals with a major, nuts-and-bolts question: 

How could Ukraine's security be guaranteed in the aftermath of a ceasefire with the Russkies—or even as part of a full-blown "peace deal?"

That's the question to which President Zelensky kept returning during the Oval Office debacle. But sure enough! After roughly 42 minutes of yak, Professor Brabender's immortal anthropological thesis was validated again:

Where I come from, we only talk so long. After that, we start to hit.

After 42 minutes of talk, Vance and Trump began whaling away at The Chump They Suddenly Had on the Ground, Pesci-DeNiro style. The dramatic attack got lots of attention. Left unexplored, to this very day, were such nuts-and-bolts questions as these:

Why didn't the minerals deal get signed that day? More to the point, what was actually in the deal which was supposed to get signed that day?

Was the minerals deal which was supposed to get signed the same as the original deal—the original deal Zelensky had refused to sign? 

Was the deal the same, or had it been changed? At the 20-minute mark of the Oval Office event, a reporter posed that question to Trump, and Trump declined to say.

What as in the minerals deal as it existed that day? Also, why didn't Trump go ahead and arrange for it be signed?  

As far we know, Zelensky still wanted to sign the deal—so why was he sent away? Admit it—you still have no idea! 

The mugging of Zelensky was widely discussed. To this day, the nuts and bolts of what happened that day have been almost wholly ignored.

The attack on Zelensky got lots of attention. The basic blocking and tackling has gone unexplored. So it will be with the news report which appears today on page A6—and that's because the toothpaste is now out of the tube, the toothpaste known as the madness.

The madness is out of the tube! A night assault—a revolt from below—is now underway in the world, or at least that's the way it appears to us denizens of Blue America.

Is the order rapidly fadin'? So wrote a 22-year-old savant, way back in 1963:

The Times They Are A-Changin’

[...] 

The line it is drawn, the curse it is cast
The slow one now will later be fast
As the present now will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin'
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a-changin' 

That's the way it looked back then. After that, that's the way things in this nation seemed to be a-goin'.

Today, "the first ones then" seem to be pushin' back! Once again, the times, they seem to be a-changin'. Or at least, that's the way it tends to seem to us Blues.

The oligarchs may be pushin' back! We refer, for instance, to this news analysis piece, once again in today's New York Times, this time on page A5:

NEWS ANALYSIS
Trump’s Affinity for Putin Grows More Consequential Than Ever
President Trump’s admiration for President Vladimir Putin of Russia has been endlessly dissected, but the American leader’s policy shifts since taking office again could have profound effects.

[...]

Ms. Miller said in an interview that she thinks Mr. Trump’s affinity for the Russian president boils down to “autocrat envy”—that he covets the power Mr. Putin has to make decisions in Russia without any constraints.

“Trump likes Putin because Putin has control over his country,” she said. “And Trump wants control over his country.”

Are the autocrats in the process of dividing up the world? Does that include a new autocrat within the bloc—an autocrat who now sits in the Oval Office?

That's the way it tends to look to us in Blue America. Over there, on the Fox News Channel, waves of messengers change lines on the fly, assuring viewers that, if the commander has decreed it, it will surely turn out right.

Blue America and Red America are being schooled two different ways. This week, we'll be posing a question to Blue America:

How did we ever get to this place? How did we get to the place where someone we tend to regard as mad is now reshaping the world?

(Instant disclosure: Tens of millions of neighbors and friends do not see President Trump that way.)

How did we ever get to this place? In our view, Ezra Klein started to provide an answer with a lengthy, important opinion piece in yesterday's New York Times. His piece goes to the nuts-and-bolts level of something we've been trying to tell you for years:

We Blues aren't as smart as we think we are. Also, nobody likes us!

That helps explain how we got to this place, if only as a result of a very narrow defeat in last November's election.

How did we ever get here? As the daily firehose of distractions continues, in what place do we actually find ourselves?

"It is Mussolini," Chris Matthews said. But what did he mean by that?

Tomorrow: He's got your Mussolini right here.