Democratic Convention

I hate fascists. People should speak freely, short of hateful speech, and hateful speech should be Constitutionally protected. But I am gaining a certain level of respect for Leon Trotsky.

Everybody should read Animal Farm, where Mr. Jones is the Czar, Napoleon is Stalin, and Snowball is Trotsky. Animal Farm is a good book. But the reality is more interesting.

Trotsky was first exiled to Kazakhstan. His supporters were sent to Siberia and most were shot during the great purge. Why do people continue to harp on Germany when Russia did the same thing under less economic duress? Then Trotsky was sent to Turkey for four years. In 1933 they sent him to France. Then they kicked him out of France and he went to Norway. Then they put him on a freighter and sent him to Mexico.

In Mexico, he was put up by a painter, and nailed the painter’s wife.

In 1936, Stalin called Trotsky a, no kidding, terrorist, and sentenced him to death in abstentia.

In 1940, Trotsky survived an assassination attempt by the Mexican painter and a Soviet agent.

Then, later that year, another Soviet agent got him in the head with an, again no kidding, ice axe. But it wasn’t a clean kill and Trotsky physically defended himself until his security forces overwhelmed the Soviet. As his security was preparing to disembowel the assassin, Trotsky told them to stop. Trotsky said:

"Do not kill him! This man has a story to tell."

Trotsky died the next day. In 1987, his books were again published in the Soviet Union.