Hammer Time (Reagan Wept, Three.)

We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev...Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
~Ronald Reagan

Guess who's back...

Back again...

Here we have official Russian MoD images of Russian military units flying the old Soviet flag, the Hammer and Sickle.

And given ongoing developments in Russia, I'm wondering how long it's going to be before the whole country is doing exactly this?

And then, how long before it's official?

I get the feeling Vlad would like nothing better.

Personally, I can't wait for the fucking spectacle of Republicans abasing themselves before the Hammer and Sickle, and I can't imagine how Fox News is going to sell this shit, but I know they'll try and spin it somehow.

And their audience will fucking let them. They'll sit there and watch zombie-eyed like ADHD kids watching cartoons and just soak it all in, until it bursts forth in random outrage about unrelated stupid shit. And then we wonder why the fuck this shit is happening in the world?

You know, I can remember being taught that the Hammer and Sickle was a symbol of oppression. But now? "Conservatives" will doubtless hail it as a symbol of their freedom...from what the fuck, I don't even know. I'll never understand this bullshit. Or maybe I just don't want to.

It gets worse. Like seriously, there is no bottom with these fuckers.

See that flag right there? That's a Victory Banner, a copy of the flag that the Red Army raised over the Reichstag on May 1st, 1945 during the Battle Of Berlin.

Granted, I'm sure that from his chambers in Hell, Stalin is watching this fiasco with just as much rage as the rest of us...but for obviously much different reasons. Performance like that of the modern Russian Army didn't get Generals fired and FSB officials placed under house arrest in his day...it got people shot. It got their families shot. It got people made an example of in the worst possible ways you can imagine and a few you can't.

Or maybe you just don't want to.

And more to the point, that is exactly, exactly, what Putin and the Russian Army are trying to evoke, here. Like I said, these are official photos. I've been saying this type of shit would happen for a couple years now...but I always thought it would be a random troll by some soldiers, not official RU MoD policy...which it surely must be given the official stamp on the photos.

And on top of that, these motherfuckers are threatening to abandon an American astronaut on the International Space Station.

Not to defend Elon Musk here, but between giving Ukraine Starlink and the possibility that we may need a space rescue mission real quick, it's probably a good thing he's on our team right now.

The Russians are flying their airliners without insurance or safety certification that's required by international aviation law.

Hell, they're threatening to bring in ISIS fighters from Syria to kill Ukrainian Christians. (And don't think they won't also kill Jews and Muslims and anybody else, too.)

Think about that shit for a second.

Motherfuckers need to wake up and realize we're not dealing with rational actors or reasonable people here, and to face three things at this point. 

#1 That Ukraine faces an attempted Genocide.

#2 We're not dealing with reasonable people, or people who can be trusted in any way.

#3 This is going to end in a war between Russia and NATO. Hell, we're already at war, it's just not equally distributed yet. The Russians have been saying this shit for awhile.

I understand the historical-and otherwise-position of the people trying to avoid that. I understand the impulse. Trust me, I hate war. I have more reason to hate it than most people do. Had I served longer, done what I wanted to do instead of screwing up my life, I'd have gone to the desert with my bros. I lost friends, people I served with, either to combat or to its lingering effects on the body and mind.

The Russians...especially the people making the actual decisions here?

They don't give a shit about any of that.

Neither do American "Conservatives" like Tucker Carlson, who see in Putin's authoritarianism and neo-Soviet Imperial designs many shortcuts to their own goals. And make no mistake about that part, that's exactly what's going on here.

The only Monkey-wrench in the works here is that the Ukrainians, thus far, are fighting better than the Russians are.

I mean, good for them. That's great, I hope they keep it up. Hell, I hope they keep it up long enough to destroy the Russian Army so that they can remain free...and keep the rest of us from having to do some pretty god-awful shit and make some pretty horrible decisions...because to be honest, I think if COVID-19 taught us anything it's that a third of America just isn't up to the task in any way.

And you know what? A big part of why that will be so again, in this case,  is that while Russia may not have conquered Ukraine...they conquered the Republican Party years ago.

And that's why it's Hammer...and Sickle...Time.

As if the last 33 years was just a dream. 

We're all waking up to find that the Republican Party is going to be on the wrong side, this time. We'd best deal with that fact.

Reagan Wept.

Слава Україна!

Part Two

Follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change
An August summer night
Soldiers passing by

Listening to the wind of change
The world is closing in
Did you ever think
That we could be so close, like brothers

The future's in the air
Can feel it everywhere
Blowing with the wind of change.

~Scorpions, Winds Of Change

Bonus Content I

Bonus Content II

You know, I'm going to miss that brave new world that defined my younger years. 

I really am.

And I want the Republican Party of that First Cold War back, not these Russian stooges.

#Special #Top20