You bet that Tommy sees (Brave New World, Part Three)

Yes makin' mock of uniforms that guard you while you sleep, Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap; An' hustling drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit Is five times better business than parading in full kit. Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, how's your soul?" But it's "Thin red line of 'heroes" when the drums begin to roll, The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll, O it's "Thin red line of 'heroes" when the drums begin to roll. ~Tommy, Rudyard Kipling

It's Veteran's Day.

So naturally, even as every Republican in the country is trying to kiss veterans asses to try and make themselves look good, the Republican Party is plotting to try and disenfranchise military voters because, apparently, a majority of the troops did what you would expect and voted against the guy who called them suckers and losers and who let the Russians put bounties on their heads.

Fuck, it's almost like actions have consequences or something.

Seriously, fuck these motherfuckers.

I'm frankly fucking tired of this idea Republicans have that the troops are all supposed to be Republicans or something. I was, but I never voted a straight Republican ticket in my life. Even when I was an Airman, well, my local House Rep (Bart Stupak) was a conservative Democrat and I'd met him and liked him and thought he did a good job so naturally, I was gonna vote for him.

Hell, the first time I voted, in the 1992 Presidential election, I voted for Bill Clinton. Decent number of R's down-ticket, sure, but I was mad at Bush over tax increases and it was as simple as that. 

But of course modern Republicanism allows for no such levels of independent thought. It's a house of improbably-stacked cards, each and every one dependent on all the other ones, and not only as it is but as they tend to see it you have to believe it all or it's not good enough, and then you have to light yourself on fire and suffer in silence while you burn. As Fox News is finding out to their detriment now, and as a host of people have found out in the last five years, it's not enough to be merely conservative or Republican these days.

And most of these fucking people don't know how anything works, least of all anything as complex as a national election.

You have to buy the whole package, and a couple hundred bucks worth of Trump swag, and donate to his legal defense fund, knowing that at least half your money is going to pay off campaign debts.

You don't just have to buy the whole shitty package, you have to debase yourself with this crap while you do it. Even if you know better, because anything less than 100% blind partisan loyalty gets you thrown off the sinking ship into the freezing cold water.

I saw something this morning that people are switching to woo woo shit like One America News Now because Fox News is "too liberal."

...And for pretty much the same damn reason that Republicans are turning on the Troops for daring to have enough of a sense of self-preservation to vote for the other guy.

Fox News does better when Democrats are in power, not much changed other than Trump getting voted out, so it's no real loss to Fox or Rupert Murdoch.

Then when Fox's Decision Desk called Arizona for Biden, Trump-world flipped a bitch, as I understand it Trump called Rupert Murdoch personally to complain. Rupert basically told him to go fuck himself and stood by the call and his people. As far as I'm concerned, that was the right thing to do. Trump made a fatal mistake, the petty satrap tried to tell one of the people he was beholden to what to do. Apparently Trump never learned, you don't throw shit uphill.

Likewise, if you're a petty wannabe authoritarian, it's a bad idea to alienate the military. Oh, sure, you can suck up to the police and all that all you want, but if you are against the troops (as Trump consistently has been) and you ever need the people with guns to protect your ass, well, police vs. trained soldiers only ends one way.

Whether it's media moguls or the troops, you don't alienate those who protect you and expect it to end well.

But this whole mess is the rotten fruit of conspiracy theories, false religion, and runaway partisanship mixed in with a generous amount of stupid hate and willful ignorance, generally believed in by immature, small, stupid people who've never faced real crises in their lives before this last year, or who simply think it's a crisis whenever they don't get their way or when someone calls them out for their endless soul-sucking contempt.

I'm tired of this bullshit. If you believe in trying to disenfranchise any American voter for any reason, don't ever say you support the troops, because you don't. I swore to defend the Constitution and democracy, and to protect all Americans and their freedoms and rights from all enemies foreign and domestic.

And if you'd seek to disenfranchise military families or service members at all, or any of the people of this country on whose behalf we and our brothers and sisters maintain eternal vigilance, while you kiss our collective ass to try and make yourself look righteous...let alone do it on this day, by default, that 'all enemies foreign and domestic' part? Yeah, that means you.

And in this life or the next, there will be a reckoning.

That spell it out for ya?

Part Two.

For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!" 

But it's "Savior of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot; 

An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please; 

An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees! 

~Tommy, Rudyard Kipling