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

Слава Україна!

“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.