Powers And Principalities (Part One.)

We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world, a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us. No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we'll kill you. Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? Who among us can be happy and proud of having all this innocent blood on our hands? Who are these swine? These flag-sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled by stupid little rich kids like George Bush? They are the same ones who wanted to have Muhammad Ali locked up for refusing to kill gooks. They speak for all that is cruel and stupid and vicious in the American character. They are the racists and hate mongers among us; they are the Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis. And I am too old to worry about whether they like it or not. Fuck them. ~Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom Of Fear (2004)

I saw this earlier today.

A Russian former-news anchor got arrested for holding up a sign that said "No War" and "They Are Lying To You" right there, live on the air. Before she did this, she recorded and distributed a video explaining her motivations, I've included a translation of her statement in this post:

That said...and note I say this as somebody who was a conservative at the time and protested the Iraq War. When you're arresting people for protesting against war, well, goddamn it you've got a problem.

What gets me about this whole situation is the absolute lightning-speed with which Russia is reverting from mere Authoritarianism to Soviet-era Totalitarianism, especially considering how the Russian Red Army is bogged down in Ukraine and still pretty much getting their ass kicked. If you think this will stop with censoring journalism or squashing protest, you have another thing coming. And again, if you think they won't come at us...or try and pick fights with even smaller countries like Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in an effort to expunge the stain of this whole mess they've gotten themselves into in Ukraine, you're on drugs.

Like Rick Wilson said, we're already in World War III. It's just not evenly distributed yet. 

And here's the thing. Conservatives absolutely cannot wait to bow ritualistically before The Flag like they always do when the war drums sound.

The only problem with that is, they can't make up their minds whether they want to bow before the Hammer And Sickle of the Soviet Union or the Seven-Star Flag of the People's Republic Of China. Look at this shit. Look at what's going on and see if you can tell me I'm wrong?

And I'm sorry, but I can't help thinking that the reason for this is exactly the fact that Putin has effectively smashed independent journalism and is simply arresting anybody who protests even a little, even with a completely blank goddamned sign! 

Seriously?

Not just that, though. Russia just went right ahead and started a stupid goddamn war that they know is going to turn out badly and doing war crimes in the process...just like we did in 2003 and with precisely the same level of planning! Just like Hunter S. Thompson was talking about in my pull-quote of choice for the night. 

In short, Trump didn't give these fuckers a war. 

Of course, Trump is too much of a coward for that type of shit and "Conservatives" seem to have more of a problem these days with Canada than they do with Russia...if only because the Canadians acted to enforce their own damn laws and protect their duly-elected officials against an American-astroturfed fake "protest" that was really a poorly executed attempt to pull a January 6th on the Canadian government.

And it didn't work.

So now, Putin started a war and these idiots are jacking off to that instead. And it didn't work. These fucking people, though? They know we're going to get sucked into it because Putin is going to attack a NATO country next...or still be at war with Ukraine when they join NATO, at minimum. 

Yes, we have been doing a lot to help Ukraine and likewise to contain and sanction Russia and various Russian officials and oligarchs and the whole Russian economy is in the shitter and Western companies are leaving. Hell, anybody in Russia who can get out, who wants to be free...seems to be getting out.

That said, we're looking at Russia defaulting back to Soviet totalitarianism, but this time with a sharp, diamond-hard edge of violent ethno-nationalism.

This is absolutely going to be a fucking problem, and it's going to become our problem. It will probably do so sooner, rather than later.

The Ukrainians may be the defenders of the Free World for now...but basic humanity alone means they can't keep this shit up forever, even with all the support they're getting. 

Sooner or later, we're going to have to do something. I can't help but feel that sooner is probably better than later. We need to put a stop to this shit. And we need to do it soon. Not just for humanitarian or international-law or liberal-democratic world order, either.

Why, then, you ask?

Because there is a percentage of America, as I've said many times, that just loves this shit and basically wants to be Russians at this point. And they're not subtle about it either, I'm not just talking about Ron DeSantis or Tucker Carlson or Tulsi Gabbard, either. I'm talking about a lot of basic street-level White People just like me, who do the kinds of jobs like I did for 20 years and so on and so forth, who'd be just fine with this flag:

Yes, again, the Hammer And Sickle.

Because the cruelty is the point and they think self-determination is too hard, among other things.

A friend of mine said earlier that the problem with Russia is, well, it's full of Russians and a lot of them seem to like tyrannical rulers. I disagreed, but probably more in the mechanics of the problem than the result of it.

My response was that two-thirds or so of Russians, currently as well as historically, would rather drink cheap alcohol until they fall down in the street and talk stupid all day, while leaving the hard work of life to somebody else. 

The real problem is that plenty of Americans and Brits...most of them, but not all of them White people...are the exact same way.

I've written about this.

And there's a lot of demagogues and elite scumbags who are all too happy to exploit this situation. Not just people like Tucker Carlson or Trump...but most of British Conservatism as well. Russian oligarchs have a hell of a lot of money and property in London.

The truth is, at the end of the day, we can go to war with Moscow all we want and no one who matters will care. The people most responsible for it, who have most enabled this global authoritarian movement that Putin is the titular head of, and created the politics that worship the same...will watch the CNN and Sky News images of NATO/US and Ukrainian forces pounding the shit out of neo-Soviet Guards Armies (and the resulting mass death on all sides) on huge flat-screen TV's in a London pub while drinking shots with their buddies, pay the bill with cards in somebody else's name drawn from banks on some UK-owned tax shelter island and call their mistress who's sunning herself topless on some beach in the Cayman Islands or perhaps South Florida...and most people around will be none the wiser.

And that, right there, is the problem.

Until we address that, the sign will always be blank, and whether you get arrested for holding it up or not is mostly an accident of geography and legality.

Until freedom and rights matter more than money and power, we are all one man's savage whim away from being in the same kind of nasty shit as the Ukrainians are in right now.

Now what are we going to do about that?

Слава Україна!

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. ~Ephesians 6:12