Refrain

Gavrilo Princip was not eating a sandwich when he made the fatal shot that got us to where we are today.

At the risk of sounding like another glib leftist, I will admit that I was among the many, many people who reacted to the death of CEO Brian Thompson with more of a positive feeling than that typical numb feeling that engages when you hear about another mass casualty event in America.

This was not the usual flavor of gun violence. This was, as we all now know, a targeted attack against an individual who sat atop a corporation whose business model is enhanced by denying coverage for things that Canadians like me take for granted.

I've told the story about how my broken elbow was set and put in a cast same day, sent home with painkillers in hand, resulted in surgery days later, and now I have six free titanium screws courtesy of me, the taxpayer. The plan was for me to get better for as long as I could, and I could do so without the dread of a huge bill coming due after the physiotherapy was over. The idea of paying for that sends chills down my spine.

And the thought that a person can make millions of dollars denying people the same experience I had is a real tragedy.

Prior to World War I, what are presently the Balkan states of the former Yugoslavia were, well, Yugoslavia. Prior to that, the territory was occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Hapsburgs. I won't go into great detail about the geopolitics of the time, as smarter and better equipped people than I have written way more than a blog post about resistance against the Ottomans, and how it scared the Austro-Hungarians, nor will I go into detail about how Imperialism caused a global conflict.

I want to talk about why Franz was the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne for a few minutes because it has all kinds of messy European shit.

Franz Joseph I of Austria, King of Hungary, and a Hapsburg had a bit of a bad go at his time as an emperor. Losing Tuscany must have been a tough blow, and Italy becoming Italy under his watch, his entire reign seemed to be troubled by this new thing called Nationalism. But, despite the hot new fad, he managed to hold it together and managed to reconstitute the Austro-Hungarian Empire, instead of it being, you know, Austria and Hungary.

Being a responsible guy, and wanting to ensure the eternal existence of his particular brand of God's Chosen King Cream, he promptly produced an heir with his wife, Empress Elisabeth, who was a German until she became Austrian, but also ensuring an alliance there for the time being.

The heir was real one. Rudolf was all set, marrying a Belgian princess, at 25ish but unfortunately he failed to produce a male heir before infecting his wife with syphilis and gonorrhea from his horrible life of whoring and drinking, leaving her unable to have another child after their daughter.

Rudolf was also a piece of shit for starting an affair with a 17 year old, the long and short of it is that they had formed a suicide pact, the full reasons for which involve him dying of, well, syphilis and gonorrhea, and her being a child who was "in love" with Rudy.

With royal lines being what they are, succession fell to the Archduke Ludwig in 1889, who renounced his part of succession in favor of his son, Franz Ferdinand to secure things down for Austria-Hungary, and keep everyone intermarried.

Coincidentally, Empress Elisabeth was assassinated in Geneva by an anarchist named Luigi Lucheni.

Apparently he, in similarity to Thomas Matthew Crooks, the failed trump assassin, originally wanted to kill the pretender to the throne of France, the Duke of Orléans, but being unable to, settled for the nearest available sovereign; it didn't necessarily matter who, and that is, to me, the real tragedy.

Franz made the most of his newfound fame, luxuriating in the riches that an heir apparent is entitled to, where he loved to walk around killing things and standing beside them to show how awesome he was at killing things.

Elephants, tigers, monkeys, birds that they came across... it was a real bloodbath and really enjoyable for Franz in 1893. He had a few daughters the last of whom lived until 1990. He had no living male heirs though, but that wouldn't really be a problem for much longer.

Enter Gavrilo Princip, a young Bosnian nationalist who, despite him and his friends being armed with guns and bombs, were initially unable to pull off the assassination of Franz Ferdinand.

The story goes that the archduke's driver got messed up, had some poorly timed engine trouble, wound up stuck beside the deli where Gavrilo was enjoying a coffee before executing Franz at point blank range, along with his wife, and kinda fucking over the entire 20th century, and so far, carrying on to the 21st.

I retell this story because I have mentioned before how anxious I am about the incoming administration. Being sick earlier this week, I was reminded of that anxiety I as could do little more than endlessly scroll my phone, eagerly awaiting updates on who exactly Luigi Mangione is.

I read a really great newsletter/post by Robert Evans, a podcaster I follow from a few days ago speculating that he was radicalized into action because of a spinal injury. He suffered this injury while taking in introductory surfing lesson at an elite co-working space where, well, you surf in Hawaii when you're not 10x-ing or whatever we call it these days.

The novel thing here, of course, is that though Thomson (or BT to his friends, and I hope "Big BT" to his good friends) is mourned by some, the focus of the story is on the so-called heroism of Mangione. An ostensibly Republican boy who wrecked his back, and, I betcha, was insured by Unitedhealth.

CEOs in the meantime have gone to ground and are beefing up security. Elon is likely fast-racking his Dr. Manhattan fantasy and trying to decide what sick meme to drop when he owns the libs by being the first man on Mars when Trump sends him packing.

Though that may not be too soon. Returning champion David Sacks was appointed AI Czar with Musk involved to some capacity, which is probably making JD Vance (remember him?) a very excited little boy this Christmas.

Don't forget that the events of right now are prologue, and as pieces fall into place with the incoming Administration, we've had another view into the overall mindset of America as it sits on the precipice of a very different time. A time that has a very distinct refrain that seems to repeat over and over again. And the fact that people forget this is a real tragedy.

Take care of yourselves,

Matthew