Lost (We Are Spirits, Not Animals, Five.)

The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well, it's a simple answer after all. You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." There is a point beyond which they must not advance. This is the meaning in the phrase of Barry Goldwater's "peace through strength." Winston Churchill said that "the destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits — not animals." And he said, "There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty. ~Ronald Reagan

I saw this earlier today.

Erik Prince and Steve Bannon, justifying the Russian invasion of Ukraine and calling NATO, Ukrainian and US soldiers Nazis. I mean, seriously, what the fuck? As Russian forces literally are plotting full-on old school Communist-style purges in Ukraine and Florida and Texas Republicans essentially try to force LGBT people out of public life, these two fucking traitors have the balls to call American soldiers Nazis?

And mind you, both of these motherfuckers are United States Navy veterans.

Standards must have really been in the shitter at some point, I mean, seriously?

Of course white far-right "Conservatives" are desperately trying to claim themselves to be an oppressed and put-upon ethno-religious group of some kind and especially to say that the Canadian, EU and United States governments, which are [Checks Notes] mostly composed of White people, are oppressing them.

And by "Oppression" they mean "Not meekly giving them everything they want on a silver platter while the rest of us apologize for existing."

And meanwhile, the average grown-ass adult "Conservative" white person (but especially men, it seems like) appears these days to have about the mental acuity and maturity of a 13-year old boy.

Except I'm gonna tell you one thing right now, and do not misunderstand me, but understand me fully so that you get where I'm coming from on this.

If I, as a 13-year-old kid, had called American soldiers Nazis, my Grandpa...who fought against the Japanese in the Pacific during WWII in the United States Navy...would have good and damned well tanned my hide. And I would have deserved it, and I would have understood that I deserved it and that what I did was wrong.

For the record, I turned 13 in 1986.

At that time, the Soviet Union was the Enemy, essentially equated in the minds of Christian, conservative kids like me with the Devil Himself. And Vladimir Putin was a KGB agent...a living, breathing enforcer of the Red Terror that conservatives never stopped talking about and used to justify...well, damned near anything they did.

I'm not saying any of this is right, I'm simply saying that's how it was. If you went on the radio or the TV and sang the praises of a KGB agent and called American military personnel Nazis in 1986, you probably would not do so again, ever. I mean, I don't give a damn how far-left you were at that time. People just didn't say shit like that. And hell, you'd be lucky if you didn't get beat up on the way home.

And most likely whatever group of people beat you up would've been pretty bipartisan.

I'm just sayin' more was expected of me when I was a damn kid, than is expected of these grown ass adult wealthy white right-wing men today.

And ya know, I think that's pretty damned sad.

And another thing. I was a Boy Scout, I was damned well expected to be able to read a map. We didn't have no Google Maps or GPS or anything like that, either. What's these people's excuse, seriously?

One of these trucker convoy wannabe idiots got himself lost on the way to Washington D.C. and as ridiculous as that truck looks I'm honestly surprised he didn't go out and get something made like the Oscar Meyer Weiner-mobile but, you know, shaped like a giant upraised middle finger.

And then, like a dumbass, tried to drive it on the freeway and smacked into the first overpass he came up on and wrecked the damn thing, like an idiot. 

I saw this post earlier, some Mormon dude left his wife because she got a birth control implant (IUD) and my friend sent me this Tweet so I'm like 

"Wuuuut?" (Said in World Of Warcraft male Orc voice.)

Go away, me busy, leave me alone!

And then I thought, oh, wait. That's probably what this asshole's wife said, too.

If I'm sick of one damned thing, it's these people's outright performative hatred of America and the competitive idiocy with which they practice it.

And I'm sick of these people's ridiculously high opinions of themselves.

These people claim to be inspired by all those idiots that just got themselves arrested in Canada, and they think the whole Ottawa thing (which pissed off the vast majority of Canadians) was some kind of resounding success. Well, I don't think they're counting on one thing. The population of the DC metro area is about a sixth of that of the entire country of Canada. Fuck the Police, these morons are going to get their asses kicked by the traffic.

And the same would be true in any major US metro.

Ottawa doesn't quite have a population of 1 million.

These people are the poster children for "No, they didn't think this through, did they?"

And you know what? There are literally people in the world who don't have time for this kind of performance art idiocy and stupid shit. 

I'm sorry, but this needs to be said.

You know who doesn't have the option, much less the time for performance art dumb shit these days?

The Ukrainians.

These idiotic "Conservative" white Americans like to portray themselves as locked in some kind of atavistic, existential death struggle with cultural and social change, or liberalism or something something Gazpacho but you know what? It's all bullshit, mostly for the purpose of getting attention, making money and pushing fascism...which, at least in these people's heads, relies on Bread and Circuses and spectacle to make it work...hence the constant Donkey Show political stupidity. 

90% if everything with these fucking people is basically "Wah, wah, wah, they faced a minor inconvenience or saw that somebody else made some progress in life."

And so they've lost their goddamned minds over it.

Trouble is...and especially considering the fact that Trump has been in WWE you'd think he'd think about this and at least not believe it himself...it's all professional-wrestling type bullshit. And not only a good chunk of the "Conservative" base but a large number of the politicians have forgotten that part.

You know who didn't...even though they use this shit very ably themselves?

The Russians.

And that's exactly why the Russians have been able to bend the Republican Party not so much "to their will" as "Over the desk and make them take it and like it." The Russian Bear pretty much got ahold of the Republican Elephant and said "I'm gonna fuck you 'til you love me" and well, that's exactly what happened. And now these damn Republicans can't so much as see Vladimir Putin on TV without getting a hard-on and they're not even smart enough to try to hide that shit anymore.

Trouble is, the Russians apparently aren't thinking very clearly anymore either.

Nor do they really want to (in either case) because half the problem is a lot of these fucking people are obsessed with their own dicks.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainians, the Democrats, the EU and NATO seem to be treating all this stuff seriously and dealing with it like the existential threat that it is...especially for the Ukrainians. The people of Ukraine right now very much understand that "There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty." and I hope it's enough.

Now, I keep trying to warn people that this lack of thinking clearly on the part of Russians and Republicans alike makes things worse, instead of better. In a time when great forces are on the move in the world, these fucking people are making the choice, consciously and with malice aforethought to act as animals, rather than spirits.

These people are lost, very much in the Biblical and Christian-tradition sense of that word.

And a lot of people are going to die, because of it.

Up to and including a lot of these fucking people, themselves. And that makes it no less of a crime, doesn't it? As debased and stupid as these people are, they're still people and whatever their country or their politics they don't deserve to die anymore than the rest of us do.

But they will, and in great numbers, as will others.

Unless we step up and stop this shit, unless decent people around the whole damn world stop putting up with These Fucking People and their love of autocracy and idiocy. And I'm going to remind you that the people who are starting this, they don't care, least of all if somebody else dies.

Well, someone has to.

So get after it.

We are spirits, not animals in this time, we have to be, and don't you dare forget that.

Part Four

Through me is the way to the suffering city;
Through me is the everlasting pain;
Through me is the way that runs among the Lost. Justice urged on my exalted Creator: Divine Power made me, The Supreme Wisdom and Primal Love.

Nothing was made before me but eternal things

And I endure eternally.
Abandon all hope - Ye Who Enter Here.'

~Sign above the gates of hell, Dante's Inferno.