Wrapped In The Red Banner, Carrying A Cross. (On Republicanism, One.)

We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear — fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts, or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer. ~Hunter S. Thompson.

I saw this yesterday...and I've been seeing it nonstop since.

Russian State TV referred to Trump as their "Partner."

You know, I'm old enough to remember when if the Russians said something like that about you, if you were in the United States, you might not get arrested, but questions certainly would have been asked.

And God help you, if you were a conservative or a Republican. It would have been the end of most people's political careers...if not their working lives, back in the day.

I've been saying it since 2015, Republicans are basically Communists now.

Also, historically, partnership with Russia usually only works out for the Russians.

But today? Not only does nobody care, but being a Trump administration alumni might just get you a contract with a major news network...other than Fox News, I mean.

Because our goddamned stupid media cares more about "Access" than they do about the country, about the state of the world, or about our (or even their) goddamned fucking freedom. Like, if these motherfuckers win, the fuck good is "Access" going to do you when all you can say is whatever they tell you to say...just like if you were on goddamned Russian State TV.

Just as the whole goddamned world is getting a refresher course in what Communism was and what it meant and how people were treated under it, American media decides they want to help that shit along? I mean, come on, what the fuck?

But it's not just that.

Republicans are looking at not just Putin's Neo-Soviet Totalitarianism with lust in their eyes, they're looking at Russia's overall level of "I don't give a fuck" as something aspirational...no doubt thinking how much could they scam off of a system like that and what kind of bitter harvest of petty cruelty they might reap, not just because of (for example) the Putin regime's treatment of ethnic minorities, LGBT people or Ukrainians, but even its treatment of its own soldiers. Yes, the cruelty is the fucking point. The Russian Army is losing a war against Ukraine, but Russian mob money and political elites invaded and conquered the Republican Party years ago.

Reagan Wept.

And because Disney is against Florida's "Don't Say Gay" law...largely at the request of the company's many LGBT employees...These Fucking People have decided they're going to declare war on Disney. (Historical Note: For much of his later career, Walt was a Republican but he wasn't the kind of Republican they have now.) I'm here to tell you, this will end with Disney owning the goddamned Republican Party. From its founder on down, that company has been and is ruthless...and they're the powerhouse they are for a reason. They're very good at what they do, and utterly ferocious in defending it.

It gets worse. Apparently, Ben Shapiro and the Daily Wire are going to invest $100 Million into kids' entertainment. Good. I hope they do. I mean at the end of the day you might as well just roll that money up with cheap ass Bugler tobacco and smoke it, for all the good it'll do. In entertainment terms, that's not even all that much of a budget these days, Jesus.

But there's people who will watch whatever overpriced, low-budget crap they turn out, because they think they're getting one over on their Disney-watching neighbors by doing so. "Owning The Libs" by starting a fight they can't win with a company that despite its socially liberal culture is traditionally moderate conservative but is basically Genghis Khan when it comes to defending their brand. They'll eat the Republican Party's ass for lunch and ask for seconds.

And the reason for this fucking bullshit is threefold: 

First off, modern Republicans get all soggy and hard to light whenever any company responds affirmatively to either what the public or their workers want. The only thing they hate more than democracy in general is democracy in the workplace, and worker's rights, period. God forbid the people who make you your money should be treated as anything better than serfs, or something.

Second, it's also that these fucking people have looked at what's going on in Russia right now and they've decided that's what they want to be. Russia has had its own "Don't Say Gay" laws since 2013 and despite some progress (Think LGBT rights in the US in 1995, maybe) most of which remains in place, Russia continues to have massive issues with homophobia and Putin and his government are absolutely willing to take advantage of that.

So of course, Republicans want to try that shit here. Trouble is, all the people who feel that way are already voting Republican.

Third, Republicans are now openly Totalitarianism-curious. And their base still has them stuck with Donald Trump as God-king and "leader." Literally everybody should be worried about that shit.

And don't doubt for a second that the loonier Republicans like Lauren Boebert, Madison Cawthorn and Marjorie Taylor Greene in all respects represent what's become of the Republican base...and they're actively trying to get rid of everything that has gone before.

I never thought I'd live in a world where Ukraine is basically the defender of the Free World (and seems to know this and accept it) supported by the EU, NATO and the USA but you've got half of the American political class, a large minority of its media and roughly 20% of its population actively trying to tear down the very concept of freedom itself either for profit or out of stupidity.

If you want a better nation, you have to be a better citizen. And this ain't it.

Republicans have become the people who think Trump is the antichrist and have literally chosen to worship him anyway.

Nobody else is going to save us, the Ukrainians are busy enough trying to save themselves.

You want to remain free? Show the fuck up and vote Republicans the fuck out. I can't put it any more simply than that.

When Sinclair Lewis or whoever said "When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a Cross" they were wrong.

At least, technically, about the specific ideology...and what flag it was.

But for We The People there is no practical difference between fascism and Putin's neo-Communism that's been stripped of everything that helps The People.

Of course, These Fucking People have also stripped Christ out of Christianity, so I suppose it fits.

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Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don't do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free. ~Ronald Reagan.

American Antichrist (Fallen, Three.)

If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan

Ya know, 20 years ago, I used to be a Republican. 

I was a Christian, a member of the End Times Prophecy Movement...and I was still a person who believed in equality and freedom.

And I've written on this blog how I was chased out of both Christianity and Conservatism over the decade of the early 2000's by ravening fanatics who seemed to believe in nothing more than ravening fanaticism for the sake of ravening fanaticism.

People who, if offered this kind of power, would take it:

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. ~Revelation 13:16:18

And then These Fucking People have the nerve to call themselves "Conservatives."

Thing is, as I wrote yesterday, while the Trump cult seems to be receding a bit, that just means the Evangelicals are coming back a bit too...and they've learned from the last several years and completely unmoored themselves from any previous beliefs or morality. If Kayleigh McEnany's comments are to be believed...they've gotten worse.

And they may have found a new god.

Think I'm kidding?

I saw this earlier tonight as well.

At least some Evangelical Christians appear to be operating on the theory that Trump is some kind of "Last World Emperor" who will bring about Revelation.

In other words, These Fucking People literally think Trump is the Antichrist, and they're following him anyway.

Like I said, I was a member of the End Times Prophecy Movement...and doesn't this shit completely turn all that on its head? According to what I was taught, according to...well, basically everything I ever read on the subject...it was generally assumed automatically that while there would be others who would resist the Antichrist, they would lose the war and then Christians would become the primary...if not the only...force in the world resisting the Antichrist.

In all that, I don't recall anybody who ever said that Evangelicals would not only vote for but politically support the Antichrist on the specific basis that he would cause the world to be destroyed. But if anything, what's more galling about this stupid bullshit is that These Fucking People seem to think they can manipulate God.

Hell, it sort of offends something in my brain that these people want the Antichrist to be an American. According to the End Times narrative I learned back in the 1990's that was supposed to be the purpose of the European Union.

You know, I've only been reading and studying this stuff to one degree or another since I started learning how to read. Maybe it's just me, but it seems to me that if you say you're a Believer and you don't start from the premise that the Creator of the Infinite Universe is smarter than you are and unlikely to fall for your petty manipulations, you're probably in the wrong business.

And more to the point, the people who believe this ridiculous garbage are proud of the fact that they believe it, they won't shut up about it. Hell, Evangelicals talk about Trump with a fervor that Jesus only wishes they directed towards Him.

It seems like there's something very wrong here.

Just today, I've seen Fox News complain about how we don't need the Anti-lynching bill that President Biden signed today, and I've heard endless bullshit about Hunter Biden's laptop...which, so far as I can tell, probably isn't even a real thing. But in over a month now, I've not heard one damned word out of Fox News or Republicans about how the Russian Army is flying the Soviet Flag or about how Vladimir Putin seems to be hellbent on turning Russia back into the Soviet Union.

You'd think, for Republicans anyway, that this would be a bigger news item.

But the truth is that all too many Americans...especially most "Conservatives" and Republicans...are all too happy to outsource fighting for freedom to the Ukrainians and those who fight with them, and to conveniently ignore all the European and US soldiers who are prepared to do so should things escalate further...while they're trying to take away everybody else's freedom and rights.

Over the last couple of days, I saw a stupid altercation between Chris Rock and Will Smith become the big news item even more than the fact that there's a fucking war going on.

People literally grabbed onto the first, and likely dumbest, escapist thing they possibly could.

When Trump's term was winding down and the election was in full swing I wrote that a lot of people wanted it to be over and him to be gone because they figured things would go back to "normal" whatever that is. 

Well, things didn't, but a lot of people were determined to keep on believing things were going back to normal anyway.

How's that been working out?

But now we're in the middle of a full-blown global crisis, with Russia, you know, one of the world's major powers effectively becoming a Black Hole. An Event Horizon of authoritarianism like North Korea...that, if it wasn't invading another country, would be utterly isolated from the rest of the world. As big of a deal as this is to a lot of us, it seems like it should be a bigger deal to all of us.

It seems to me like a lot of people are real desperate for some illusion of normalcy and pretending everything is OK, and thus they want to go back to the way things were 20 years ago. In 2002 my cousin sent me a picture of a handwritten sign at a US Marine Corps combat outpost right smack in the middle of Nowhere, Afghanistan that said "America is not at war, The Marine Corps is at war, America is at the mall."

And if you don't think various bad actors, Evangelical and otherwise, are going to exploit that tendency of some of us, you have another thing coming.

If you want a better country, you have to be a better citizen...and this ain't it.

The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

Two

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don't do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free. ~Ronald Reagan.

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The Red Christ (Fallen, Two.)

Eli Sunday: Daniel, I'm asking if you'd like to have business with the Church of the Third Revelation in developing this lease on young Bandy's thousand acre tract. I'm offering you to drill on one of the great undeveloped fields of Little Boston!

Daniel Plainview: I'd be happy to work with you.

Eli Sunday: You would? Yes, yes, of course. That’s wonderful.

Daniel Plainview: But there is one condition for this work.

Eli Sunday: All right.

Daniel Plainview: I'd like you to tell me that you are a false prophet. I'd like you to tell me that you are, and have been, a false prophet, and that God is a superstition.

~From the film There Will Be Blood.

I saw this earlier. 

If you ever wonder why these goddamned stupid fucking people want to ban abortion, destroy the United States, get rid of the Constitution and take away your freedom...well, Kayleigh here lays it all out in all her boundless vapid glory "The anecdote to a really grim future is filling the world with a lot of Christian babies." Question: I first "Asked Jesus into my heart" when I was five years old, not too long after I started school. I went to Christian schools until the 8th Grade so regular religious instruction was a standard part of most school days. Isn't that Christian enough for you?

This tends to involve a lot of concepts that are actually pretty complicated, it only sounds simple.

That said, this dumb bitch isn't talking about babies actually having Christian beliefs (which is kind of impossible in real terms for somebody that doesn't know not to poop themselves yet.) She's really talking about forcing their parents to be Christians, and then forcing them to raise their kids that way, which is literally 100% Unconstitutional right out the gate, and in real terms not something that's going to fly in most countries...or even be possible...even in countries that are much more Christianized than America is at this point. For two reasons: First, most countries have laws about this stuff. Second, actual religion itself is not really what they're after.

(Just as an example, Ukraine is a very strongly Christian country. That literally does not matter to "Conservatives." Ukraine is, in their minds, to be sacrificed to a godless KGB agent for their expected gains in political power.)

And I'm sorry, but I was taught that you have to be the one to make the choice to be a Christian or not. You have to believe in God and serve Him because you want to. Faking it won't cut it.

Forcing people to do this #1 won't cut it either, Biblically and #2 Most people will simply act a certain way in public and then believe whatever the fuck they want in their hearts. When Force and the State are not watching, they will act accordingly.

So, #3 At that point, morality, public and otherwise becomes pretty useless as a concept since everybody has to lie all the time just to get through the day.

But of course none of these people give a flying fuck about that. They're just goat-eager to exercise some kind of totalitarian power and they're used to claiming Christianity as a means to get Man's approval for their shitty agendas and to fool feeble-minded people into thinking that they're righteous.

And I'll question the Biblical literacy, the Christianity, hell, the Theism of anybody who spews anti-Semitic conspiracy theories like attempting to link Judaism with Charles Darwin and Evolutionary Theory. 

First of all, historically it's bullshit. Darwin at least started out as a Christian. Second, Jews not only believe in the same God, they're His Chosen People according to the Word itself, starting when God made His covenant with Abraham in Genesis after He left Haran at God's request as described in the book of Genesis, Chapter 12. 

(By the way, I basically learned this when I was like, five years old.) 

This is nothing you can't learn simply by getting out a Bible and looking it up yourself. You can find it online, too; Like it starts here and if you want to skip to the end, it's here in Genesis 22.

The point being, God already decided who His chosen people were, and if you look at it historically anybody (or any group) that tries to usurp that usually comes to a bad end.

But if you want the "Too Long, Didn't Read" version, it's all bullshit and these people could give a damn about any of that, or about Christianity or about Jesus. 

They believe themselves to be the Saviors of Mankind and they are filled with messianic zeal to that effect.

That is, when they can be bothered to give a shit about Mankind at all. 

Their true goal is to serve only themselves.

After all Man, like anything else, is just a means to an end with these sons of bitches. And that end, of course, is nothing more than their own personal power and glory.

They don't give a shit about conservatism or Christianity any more than Vladimir Putin actually gives a shit about any of the people in Ukraine, or for that matter about the men in his own armies.

Don't take my word for it, look at how Russian operations in Ukraine are being run, look at what these people are actually doing. Look at how Russian State TV is legitimizing it all with American conspiracy theory bullshit.

And These Fucking People will literally say any old dumb thing because they know one hell of a lot of people are either just as bent as they are, or they're really fucking stupid and they know all they've got to do is hit all the right alarm bells and mental G-spots and the conspiracy nut crowd will reflexively rage-orgasm and give them money.

And that is exactly what all this crap is about.

Like, seriously what is the fucking point of all this talk of body doubles and clones and shit like that, and why go to all this trouble when, you know, the CIA is part of the Executive Branch and gets its orders from the President to start with? And by the way, Trump lost the election, so he's not that guy anymore. 

I mean, I get it. It's all stupid Q-Anon bullshit and the only true thing about any of it, is that it is composed of words. This stuff is literal nonsense. But it too is meant to serve a purpose...that being to show that These Fucking People can say any old stupid thing that they want and people will at least pretend to believe it because Power.

And just like the End Times nuts of a generation ago, they'll work any old current event into this over-complicated word salad just to make it sound like it's relevant and exists in some way outside of these people's dumb heads.

If any of this really was about Christianity and Christ, these people would not be lining up behind a man who ordered his troops to fly this flag.

You cannot serve both the Cross of Christ and the Hammer And Sickle. Something must lose. One of these things is not like the other one. Thou Shalt Have No Gods Before Me, and so on.

But the truth is, These Fucking People would just as soon claim to serve Atheistic Communism as they would claim to serve Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. They'll claim whatever ideology gives them power, and in the coming days, weeks, months and years I guarantee you'll see exactly that.

It was never about Jesus.

Christ was never their Savior. Hell, It was never even about that. 

They'd just as soon follow the Red Christ...Lenin maybe...or Putin.

If it was "about" anything it was about racism...but at the end of the day even that's just an excuse, a pretty toy to distract the feeble-minded, a rusty blade to manipulate the Masses into hacking each other apart with, and a ruse to cover up what's really on their minds.

It's the same with all that talk about the Fall of Man, about Sin, etc. etc. It's all manipulation, at least, coming from them it is.

They believe they're the Saviors.

But they don't know, or they've forgotten that according to the Word, Man cannot save Man. Politics cannot save Man, only faith...and sincere practice of one's faith...can do that.

And trying that shit too hard only ends one way. 

You can't force it, you can only teach the Truth as best you can and hope somebody listens.

But again, for these people that's not what it's about.

They preach that the World is Fallen, but the Truth is that their hearts are more filled with evil than any devil...entropy needs no likeness but our own to do its work.

If you want to see God's work in the world, you need look no further than what people like Chef Jose' Andreas and his people are doing feeding Ukrainian refugees in Poland, or what the Ukrainians are doing saving each other and their pets, or how the Ukrainian soldiers are fighting with such ferocity against the forces of the New Soviet Union...or how Russians themselves are escaping or standing up against its power. Or even at our own country's efforts to help.

The power of God, Salvation, as it were, lies within us not within some maniacal leader or privileged elite and their visions of some transcendent fascist state.

The key is, what do we use it for?

That's where we find damnation or salvation.

Part One

Libera Te Tutemet Ex Infernis.

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Gravity (Fallen, One.)

In the midst of all this, there was Bernie Madoff. An embezzler named "made off." Hmm. Was the name not a clue? Did he have to be with the accounting firm of Dewey, Fuck-You, and Howe? ~Robin Williams

I saw this earlier.

This fucking guy is the Russian president of Alpha Bank...of Trump Tower server infamy. And he's wondering how he's going to survive. Oh, I don't know motherfucker, you could always get a real job and bootstrap your way up like you rich fuckers always expect everybody else to do?

Or, I don't know, maybe sell some of your shit that's worth millions of dollars?

Get a loan with an absurdly low interest rate and start some new venture in a country that isn't launching an entirely unnecessary, vicious war against a smaller neighboring country and losing?

Fuck around and find out, yo.

That sound you hear is me laughing at your dumb ass.

This is what happens when you could have done something, but didn't. And let me tell you something else...you wonder why a lot of Western media, conservatives in general, the Republicans in particular and at least some of the West's wealthy all the sudden have their noses up Vladimir Putin's ass?

Because a lot of These Fucking People see this fucking guy and suddenly realize they could be next, if they back the wrong horse or do the wrong thing or offend We The People or a government that genuinely represents us...and, spoiler...a hell of a lot of them have done just that. So they want to see if they can recover some of the costs they've (politically) sunk into this bullshit. 

They want to find a way to protect themselves from things like democracy and freedom and public opinion. 

That's the whole basis for a lot of "Conservative" talk these days, especially bitching about things like "Cancel Culture."

Privilege. Completely unearned fucking Privilege.

I'm fucking sorry, but I'm goddamned fucking tired of the utterly ridiculous amount of solicitude in the media and the political class for authoritarian leaders and rich motherfuckers. If dude is worried he won't be "allowed" (WTF?!?!) to have a cleaner or a driver...dude, clean up after yourself and learn how to drive your own fucking car. Ain't nothing in the world for getting shit done like "Do It Your-own-damn-self." And you might even feel like you accomplished something, too.

Oh yeah, that's right, isn't it? This flag was meant only for the rest of us, not for you fuckers. Well, your Army flies the Hammer and Sickle, sooner or later y'all gonna have to own that bitch again.

Y'all just mad 'cause we made it "Sooner." You don't...and shouldn't...get to reap the benefits of Capitalism and liberal democratic global order and Western lifestyles and wealth while flying that goddamned flag. Not least because the whole modern global system that made your asses rich came about because of the fall of Communism.

 Nothing quite supercharged global Capitalism like over a billion Chinese suddenly being able to be (even if on a very limited scale individually as cheap labor) a part of it, plus the sudden availability of resources in former East Bloc countries and Russia itself, and later the entry of China into global finance as a moneyed power in its own right...a set of circumstances that places like Sub-Saharan Africa where the West and Russia haven't really invested in have actually reaped some benefits from.

You fuckers decided you wanted to let Putin party like it's 1979...but trying to erase Ukraine instead of Afghanistan this time? And then you idiots basically got BTFO'd with one punch by the Ukrainians because your army is unmotivated conscripts led by incompetent officers and nobody knows what's going on...and you idiots couldn't even bother to outfit this snowballing soup sandwich properly. 

And then you lost your ass financially? Dude, the fuck else were you expecting was going to happen?

And yet somehow, the most aggravating thing I encountered today was finding out that some high-horse, willfully-pig-ignorant "Conservative" is fucking surprised that rich people are debased motherfuckers awash in drugs, orgiastic fornication and various and sundry evil deeds.

Dude, you don't seriously think some bitter ass old KGB dude like Vladimir Putin is a devout Christian...much less some kind of misplaced American-style Culture Warrior conservative in real life, do you?

Dude has dedicated himself to the destruction of America and to violent Russian ethno-nationalism. If you ain't already Russian, that don't benefit you, especially if you're an American.

A lot of people better learn this shit real fast, 'cause as regards that global order that Reagan and Bush 41 and Bill Clinton built, we're falling and we better figure something out real damn fast.

It's not so much Gravity, as it is that sudden stop at the bottom, that's the killer.

You know, I can at least understand and empathize with president Zelensky's lack of comprehension about the sociopathic Russian lack of care even for the dead...much less the living...because I share it myself. Why? Because the tradition from which I come, the nation that I served, says we're citizen-soldiers who, whether we're alive or dead, get to go home when it's over.

The Russian government put all these soldiers in this situation, and simply cannot be bothered to even pick up their dead or treat them with any respect if they do? 

Fuck all that. 

I can sure understand why so many of the Russian soldiers don't even want to be there. I wouldn't either. Especially if I knew all this was being done in the service of bitter old KGB Men and filthy-rich oligarchs who don't know how to clean up after they own damn selves. And knowing they wouldn't even carry or drag my ass back to friendly lines if I was dead or dying?

Fuck that, too.

I wouldn't want to serve a country where my best chance would be for me to get captured by the enemy or have them pick up my corpse after I died.

And the thing I don't get is...and I say this as somebody who has invested some time and some work into America myself...I sure as hell don't get why so many Americans want America to be like Russia and then they show more solicitude and sympathy to the oligarchs and political leaders who fucking caused this fucking war than they do to the people who are getting bombed and fighting for their freedoms and their very lives.

And then I think about it, and I realize that one hell of a lot of Americans just want to be that fucker who's so rich he doesn't have to clean himself and a hell of a lot of those fucking people somehow see authoritarianism as a goddamned shortcut to that kind of life. 

These fucking privileged people all figure they'll know who to blow or which palms to grease so they prosper and by the time they find out different, it'll be too late for everybody.

Not "Everybody else" as even Mr. Can't-Clean-Himself is finding out, sooner or later this type of shit hits everybody, Period.

And this is what 70-some million of us wanted for America. They thought they'd get to make a killing financially and dominate somebody else forever while having it easy themselves. Lot of motherfuckers thought they was gonna be the Chairman of Gazprom someday. Hell, Some of these fucking people still want it and still think they just billionaires who ain't found they groove yet.

And they're goddamned willing to burn down everybody's freedom to get even the tiniest shot at that kind of life that exists in they own heads. Even if all they get is to live such things vicariously through some dementia-addled, drooling ass moron like Donald Fucking Trump.

Yeah, fuck you too, assholes.

Fuck America being a privileged country. I'm tired of this kind of bullshit. We need to, as a people, deal with some hardship that white folk can't buy their way out of or pawn off on other people.

And we need more Ukrainian refugees and maybe a bunch more of those Russians who have fled from Putin's New Soviet Union, too. I bet a lot of them could show some of these Americans what's up. And while we're at it, "Conservatives" stop bitching about our "Southern Border" and maybe start treating the people trying to cross it with a little respect and pay them a half decent wage to do the menial work you don't want to. I think you'd find they'd agree with you on some stuff if you did that. And bring back the Jamaican seasonal workers and fuck, stop with this trying to run everything with as few people as humanly possible. 

There's a good chance in the next few months or years that we could find ourselves having to spin things up for a wartime economy for some years due to the actions of another country, and that is not a joke. If Putin escalates things further in Ukraine or attacks NATO we ain't going to have a choice but to be in this fight. 

And while we're at it, cut out this bullshit of so many Americans...almost especially the "Conservatives" trying to be malingering so they can just get a check, too. Maybe people with genuine need wouldn't have to be or feel so degraded in our own society if everybody who could do it did their work and paid their fair share...and people understood things like that the beans got to be picked and the floors mopped and the people who do that need respect too. After all, if there's a war, who's most likely the people who are going to have to go and fight? It's going to be the people who do the labor, not the people who wear a suit and go to meetings all day. 

And then somebody's going to have to be there to do that work.

So, we're going to need more people.

Everybody better get this, Including the fucking rich people.

If this situation gets much worse, too much greed and prejudice and useless bullshit are going to be things...luxuries...that we all don't have time for, and that get in the way of doing what needs to be done so we can all be free and survive. 

That's exactly what a lot of These Fucking People are afraid of. That's why they'd rather kiss some dictator's ass than fight for their own freedom. 

Time's coming where if you want a better country, you're going to have to be a better citizen. And if you want to remain free, you just might have to fight for it in some way.

Freedom isn't free, remember?

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don't do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free. ~Ronald Reagan.

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Will Turner : You knew my father.

Pintel : Old Bootstrap Bill? Aye, we knew him. Never sat well with old Bootstrap, what we did to Jack Sparrow. That's why he sent a piece of the treasure off to you, as it were. He said that we deserved to be cursed... and remain cursed. A' course, that didn't sit too well with the captain.

Ragetti : No, that didn't sit to well with the captain at all... Tell 'im what Barbossa did.

Pintel : [angry]  I'm telling the story. So, what the captain did is, he strapped a cannon to Bootstrap's bootstraps.

Ragetti : [snickering quietly]  Bootstrap's bootstraps...

Pintel : And the last we saw of old Bill Turner, he was sinkin' into the crushing black oblivion of Davy Jones' Locker. Course, it was only after that we learned we needed his blood to lift the curse.

Ragetti : Now that's what you'd call ironic.

~From Pirates Of The Caribbean.

Seize The Means Of Production! (Red Banner Republicans, Four.)

Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades.
All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner." ~John F. Kennedy, Jr.

 Today in Warsaw, Joe Biden gave a hell of a speech, in which he said that Vladimir Putin "Cannot remain in power."

And I find it interesting that, even as people around the world (including today in London) march in support of Ukraine and the Ukrainians continue to rack up even more general public, humanitarian and military support...the media and Republicans criticize Biden for saying Putin's got to go, and he should not have the power to threaten other countries? Excuse me, seriously?

Goddamn, OK, I get Republicans loving on authoritarianism and being against democracy and freedom (I don't like it, but I get it.) but the media? Come on, people. Like, what the hell is it with these motherfuckers? Do they think they'd somehow make more money being State Media for some authoritarian asshole, or what?

Constitutionally, they can basically do whatever they want, and some of them at least, want to be ITAR-TASS?

I mean, what the fuck?

How in the absolute fucking hell did we ever get to the point where so many Americans simply do not believe in freedom?

I know I'll never fucking get it. Neither Donald Trump nor Vladimir Putin can even string a goddamned sentence together properly, but I suppose if you make enough angry sounds in a commanding tone, well, certain kinds of people's goddamn brains just shut right off, like someone hitting a light switch.

Meanwhile, over there, the Ukrainians and apparently some members of the Belarusian opposition are looking at the Russians like "How many can we kill before somebody makes us stop, Sir?" Not only do these people want to fight to keep Ukraine free...but these Belarusians want to free their own country, too!

Courage is infectious, Freedom is infectious, that's the whole reason for this damn war. 

Putin looks at Ukraine, at democracy, at Euromaidan, leaders like Zelinskyy, at the long-running resistance to his efforts to have Russia simply consume and digest Ukraine and he can't fucking stand it. Why? Because he knows sooner or later his people are going to see that and they're going to want some of it for themselves...because that's the also what happened in 1989.

And I don't doubt that at least some American corporations are looking at this shit the same way, the absolute last thing they want is an aware, free populace that's willing to step up and defend their freedom because these motherfuckers value profits over humanity. FOX News and the Republicans and the American oligarchs they champion look at Ukraine and they get real nervous. 

And they look at Russia and at Putin's attempt to upset the (extremely profitable) global applecart and they get even more nervous because a real war would mean taxes would have to go up, profits might have to take second place to mere survival, and products might have to be made where labor-costs are higher. 

Nobody ever thinks "Hey, I have to be alive to spend that money, don't I?"

 Just as it was with COVID-19 in the first year or so, too many fucking people have never faced a real crisis in their lives.

There's a whole hell of a lot of people who've forgotten what Communism really was the first time, and what the Hammer and Sickle means, especially for anybody who's got to live under it or in a country where that's what's flapping in the breeze. Everybody thinks that shit won't affect them.

But here's the thing, we're not just dealing with an aggressive, ethno-nationalist, expansionist Neo-Soviet Russia. That would be relatively simple, especially considering the fact that the Russian Army is a total soup sandwich and incapable even of defeating a country like Ukraine.

No, the problem is worse than that. We're dealing with unreasonable,  willfully incompetent, willfully ignorant Americans who want government to do things like...wait for it...nationalize the oil industry and force it to pay down the national debt? What's that going to do to gas prices? Isn't that [Checks Notes] Communism?

Note the "We need Trump back in there to take care of all this." Seriously this is exactly what I'm talking about when I say these fucking people don't want to do the hard work of life and make their own choices because they are stupid and they think it's too complicated, so they don't even want to do the work at all. They want somebody else to do it for them.

Laziness and learned helplessness have done more to destroy America than all the T-72 tanks in the Red Army ever could. A simple desire to just be told what to do by the "Authorities" so they don't have to think about anything has proved more lethal to America than all the SS-18 "Satan" ICBM's that Strategic Rocket Forces ever fielded.

Access journalism, hyper-partisan politics and a Party over Country mentality...not to mention the promotion of hate and utter stupidity, to the point of actual marketing of both...have done more to rip America apart than all the KGB Agents who ever lived, even Putin could not have done what he's done without too many of the American people being complacent, entitled, gullible, and lazy.

And you can talk smack about the "Liberals" all you want, it ain't them who's the problem. It ain't liberals who's calling for the oil industry to be nationalized or who thinks two oil wells could pay for our 'National budget."

No, that would be the "Conservatives" or what's left of them anyway.

I've been saying since 2015 when Trump started talking about building a wall, that "Republicans Are Basically Communists Now."

And now it's Republicans ranting about seizing the means of production to serve the State, literally.

Still think "Conservatives" won't sell America out to Putinist neo-Communism or Radical Islam for utter chump-change if they think it will hurt all the people they hate?

Reagan Wept.

And Stalin Chuckled.

Part Three

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“When a man takes an oath, Meg, he's holding his own self in his own hands. Like water (he cups his hands) and if he opens his fingers then, he needn't hope to find himself again. ~Thomas More, as depicted by Robert Bolt in A Man For All Seasons.

...

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don't do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free. ~Ronald Reagan.

Black Flags (Red Banner Republicans, Three.)

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don't do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free. ~Ronald Reagan.

I saw this earlier. David French wrote about the "Dangerous Religious Zeal" and the moral corruption of the "Stop the Steal" crazies after Trump lost the election.

Well, when I scrolled through my timeline to retrieve the Tweet to post here, I realized that the one right below it also proved my point. 

You simply would not have the "Trump is God" religious zeal without the same fucking people who think "Christianity" is telling people they're going to hell to get raped by Satan. Such people's religion isn't about belief in Christ or Loving Thy Neighbor, or even about reproving Sin. No, it's a chance to dance around the fire, shout Unga Bunga and talk a bunch of mean shit to random people on the internet. 

This bullshit is nothing but a Tribal religion that reduces the Cross of Christ to a leering Tiki at the edge of the camp. It's message not "Come to me, all ye who are heavy-laden and I will give you rest" so much as it is FUCK YOU! GO AWAY! Seriously, these fucking people think Heaven won't be Heaven if other people get to go, too.

And one issue feeds into the other. Combative attitudes, personal selfishness and priggish religiosity always seem to go together with these motherfuckers, always with one bad tendency feeding off of the others until these people are constantly worked up into an absolute fury about the fact that Other People Exist, and it only gets worse if you add in mental illness, political partisanship or racism. And all this stuff tends to go together in one giant ball of fucked up.

I suppose, in their often-contrarian logic, if flying the Hammer And Sickle bothers somebody else, these fucks will do it, mostly because they're shitty people.

And it's no damned mystery just where this stuff is going if it's not checked soon. Or is it? 

"Conservatives" support the guy who ordered or allowed his troops to fly the Soviet flag from their vehicles, and seem hell-bent on embracing the old KGB Agent himself, mostly because they see Putin as some kind of Great White Hope and think it'll piss off the liberals and "Republicans In Name Only" or something something Gazpacho.

What's next? Trump Supporters prostrating themselves to the Black Banner of Jihad? It's a logical next step in the evolution of their anti-American philosophy.

Apparently, Russia is recruiting Hezbollah militants to fight in Ukraine now too. I mean, Putin is doing this so surely, the American far-right and Republicans must defend it? 

Hezbollah was Radical Islam well before Radical Islam became the Big Bad in conservative cosmology, too. I mean seriously, the word literally means "Party of God" and they are historically aligned with Iran. 

Go ahead and think about that one for a second, Republicans, I'll wait.

These people were to the 1980's what Al Qaeda was to the early 2000's and that's all there is to it. Of course Putin already has Chechen soldiers fighting for him. Actually, as I understand it, the Chechens are following behind Russian formations and shooting deserters...so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Meanwhile, even the Belarusian opposition is actively fighting with and supporting the Ukrainians against Putin's Red Army 2.0 and I heard today that a couple of Russian generals have been killed or severely injured by their own men. One of them was run over with a Tank. I mean, fuck, dude.

Russian casualties continue to pile up, their logistics and all that is still a soup sandwich, and they've even fallen back from Kyiv, although most observers think they're simply going to refocus on their eastern front from the Donbas and try and fight the war that way. Not that it'll do much more than reorganize the mess a bit at this point. 

Also, Belarus is still talking about getting into the war on the Russian side, though they've been doing that for awhile and have not yet formally done so.

It's good that the Ukrainians are holding on, that it could be said they're even winning at this point. I'm glad that we're supporting them as much and as well as they are and that the Ukrainian Army has done as well as it has with our Javelins and Stingers. But I think it's still going to get to the point that America and NATO have to get involved and I think that will lead to war with Russia. As bad as things are going for him, Putin is going to have to attack NATO just to shore up domestic support and I do think he's both crazy/desperate and stupid enough to try it.

And do you know why he thinks it'll work? Because a hell of a lot of Republicans and Trump Supporters now openly form an anti-American Fifth Column and, if all else fails, Putin probably thinks he can get them to revolt against the US government or something. It won't work out well for them, but I'm not sure either they or Putin give a damn.

They're putting Trump's name on Russian flags now.

Seriously, do you even American, bro? I can remember when you could get beat up for that type of shit...beat up by Republicans.

But now it's the Red Banner Republican Party...until they start flying the Black Flags of Jihad, that is.

If it'll "Own The Libs" for 30 seconds, I guess no price is too high to pay.

Like I said, Reagan Wept.

“When a man takes an oath, Meg, he's holding his own self in his own hands. Like water (he cups his hands) and if he opens his fingers then, he needn't hope to find himself again. ~Thomas More, as depicted by Robert Bolt in A Man For All Seasons.

Part Two

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Like Water... (Red Banner Republicans, Two.)

“When a man takes an oath, Meg, he's holding his own self in his own hands. Like water (he cups his hands) and if he opens his fingers then, he needn't hope to find himself again. ~Thomas More, as depicted by Robert Bolt in A Man For All Seasons.

Today, it came out that Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, sent texts to Mark Meadows encouraging efforts to overturn the 2020 elections.

So far as I know, she's already a person of interest in the 1/6 insurrection.

Also, as I understand it, Clarence Thomas has allegedly been hospitalized since last Friday.

And now this comes out? I'm sorry, but something seems a bit suspicious here, especially given Republicans' shitty treatment of SCOTUS nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, and that Republicans are acting so aggrieved by her nomination.

I'm going to remind you again that everything is bad faith with modern Republicans...everything.

 I've mentioned this before, but I first started following politics to do an extra-credit project reporting on the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings for my government class when I was a Senior in high school. Now, between the Anita Hill sexual harassment allegations (Which I, though being a conservative, thought were a serious matter) and all these old Senators talking about some British porn star named "Long Dong Silver" it was the first time I remember thinking "My God, what the hell is wrong with these people?!?!" 

Now, on one of those school days during the hearing, I was so sick (As in just plain nauseous) that I couldn't go. In fact, I was throwing up so bad that I couldn't drive myself to town to go to the doctor, so my Grandpa took me to the clinic in town. Now, I was keeping up on my project, so my Grandpa and I were listening to the hearings on the way in. After we got done at the clinic, my Grandpa had to make a quick stop at the grocery store. So I'm sitting there in my Grandpa's truck, sick as a dog, still turning three shades of green and I'm listening to all these supposedly respectable political leaders talking about this shit. Seriously, I was like "Dude, what the hell?"

My report on the day's events, delivered to the class the next day, reiterated that exact thought. Now, the Government-class teacher was this churchy conservative type who didn't care for profanity. He wasn't going to give me full points for the day, but I wasn't the only person who felt that way. My class raised enough of a stink about it that he decided to give me the full extra credit for the day.

And you know, I'm going to be honest. All these years later, I think Clarence Thomas and his vile wife have made enough of a mockery of the Law and the Supreme Court that I don't feel so annoyed anymore about what a circus those confirmation hearings were. People should have gone at it harder, in fact.

In these days, the Word of basically the entire Conservative movement and the Republican Party has been shown to be no good, and their once-vaunted "Values" to be nothing more than an ecclesia of contempt for basically everybody. Republicanism has become a godless theocratic movement dedicated to nothing more than low taxes for the wealthy, selfishness and socially reactionary policies.

In fact, the gulf between the Republican Party of 1991 and the Republican Party of today is so wide, that these sons of bitches prostrate themselves before the Hammer And Sickle, and Vladimir Putin. Then Thomas Massie has the nerve to say (regarding NATO being "Outdated") that "Americans are done subsidizing socialism."

Excuse me, what?!

If you're done "Subsidizing socialism" why are you motherfuckers bowing down before the Hammer And Sickle and continuing to embrace Vladimir Putin as he turns Russia into the New Soviet Union? The Hammer And Sickle was the flag of Communism...and often associated with socialism as well...by conservatives. Vladimir Putin was a KGB Agent...the sword and shield of the Communist Party. One of these things is not like the other one, Tommy boy.

In Robert Bolt's "A Man For All Seasons" Thomas More is depicted as saying "When a man takes an oath, he takes his own hands, like water, and if he opens his fingers, he needn't hope to find himself again."

No wonder so many Republicans, Trump Supporters, whatever they are now...are lost souls.

And while Republicans gleefully betray their own oaths to God and Country to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and the democracy enumerated therein, the people of Ukraine...and plenty of foreign volunteers fighting with them...fight to defend democracy, freedom and the Free World from Vladimir Putin's reborn Red Army. Think about that for a second.

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.

There is something very wrong with it, when the Republican Party values its ideology and power more than it values the country and the political system that even gives those things meaning.

American-style "Conservatism" didn't arise from the primordial muck fully formed, it arose within certain cultural, political and social contexts and of course, the central issue here is that in the context of our country, those things are changing. Republicans simply do not want to change with them.

And they're willing to break every oath, to burn the house down, to fight literal wars in the service of their stupid Culture War, and to have their Word not be worth a bucket of warm piss in order to not change, and presumably to break off a piece of America at some point, over which they can stand athwart history, yelling "Stop!"

And the only way that can be done in our modern world is with a farrago of bullshit, conspiracy theories, lies. and massive use of force. In other words, exactly what's going on in Putin's Russia right now.

The problem with these people's reactionary bullshit, is it creates the very kinds of change, social and otherwise, that These Fucking People fear and hate. They don't think any of this shit through. They want to go back to times that no longer exist for absolutely fucking valid reasons, but it mostly boils down to the fact that things like a limited franchise, persecution of LGBT people, slavery, segregation, women not being able to vote, and the conditions predating the many and varied Supreme Court decisions that Republicans want struck down as of a few days ago were intolerable to the majority of Americans.

And that those things could then be changed, without violence and in accordance with the will of the majority, is the entire fucking point of our system.

And that's exactly what people like Clarence and Ginni Thomas want to overthrow, ain't it?

Reagan Wept.

He wept to see the Red Banner Republicans holding aloft the flag of the Evil Empire, even as they plotted against the United States.

Again, think about that for a second.

But then, do something about it.

If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan

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