Bloody Hands, Part Three.

[Valin Hess treats Mando and Migs Mayfield to a drink for bringing a new rhydonium shipment]

Valin Hess: So what shall we toast to, boys? I can blather on about “To health” or “To success,” but I’d like to do somethin’ a little less rote. Where you from, Brown Eyes?

Migs Mayfield: How ’bout a toast to Operation CINDER?

Hess: Now there’s a man who knows his history.

Mayfield: No, I don’t just know it. I lived it. I was in Burnin Konn.

Hess: Burnin Konn?

Mayfield: Mmm.

Hess: That was a hard day. I had to make many unpleasant decisions.

Mayfield: Yes, you did. Entire city gone in moments, along with everybody in it. We lost our whole division that day. Man, that was like 5-10,000 people.

Hess: Yep. All heroes of the Empire.

Mayfield: Yeah. And all dead.

Hess: Well, it’s a small sacrifice for the greater good, son.

Mayfield: Depends on who you ask, don’t you think?

Hess: [irritated] What you gettin’ at, trooper?

Mayfield: All those people, the ones who died, was it good for them? Hmm? Their families? The guys I served with? Civilians, those poor mud scuffers, died defendin’ their homes, fighting for freedom. Was it good for ’em?

Hess: But we’ve outlasted them, son. They’re eatin’ themselves alive. The New Republic is in complete disarray, and we grow stronger. You see, with the rhydonium you’ve delivered, we can create havoc that’s gonna make Burnin Konn just pale by comparison. And then they’re gonna turn to us once again. You see, boys, everybody thinks they want freedom, but what they really want is order. And when they realize that, they’re gonna welcome us back with open arms. Ah. To the Empire. [Mayfield chuckles, then fires a blaster at Hess' chest, killing him instantly. He and Mando then shoot their way out of the mess hall.]

~From The Mandalorian, Season 2, Episode 7, The Believer.

I saw this yesterday.

Russian mercenaries, along with local government troops, have carried out at least two outright massacres of civilians in Mali.

I'm going to warn you now, this new fascism...whether it be the Russians or their American and EU bootlickers...craves an empire. And they will likely get something of one, at least after a fashion. Think the Empire from Star Wars, but with even less morals and probably more open infighting.

These Fucking People don't want a government...they want a Darth Vader, Force-choking random people as he strides through the town...not for any reasons of policy but simply as a show of their factional power. Yes, I've been watching the new Obi-Wan Kenobi series.

Except that these idiots want to be able to tell their Empire who its users of force should be. Personally I think the Third Sister is an amazing villain, but a lot of the shitty Star Wars Fandom people don't like the character...simply because the actress who plays her is Black.

Empires don't work that way. You gets the Inquisitors they gives you and then you shut the fuck up about it, lest you be the next one determined to be a Heretic, or a Jedi, or whatever.

But that's not how privileged idiocy works, is it?

At some point, if Republicans want any of their plans and schemes to actually work, they're going to have to clean house.

In this respect, it's the Russians who have a major advantage here. They'll just arrest people either way, for expressing an opinion publicly. It doesn't matter whether it's for or against the State, or the war. They simply don't want anybody to really believe in anything, because firm principles could lead someone to oppose them. The Russians understand that a person believing in a Truth...whether it's right or wrong...gives someone a floor to stand on so they can stand up to push back against Power. 

And Republicans can't do this, not just because of the Constitution, but simply because any attempt to clean house will be opposed by Donald Trump, all the MAGA grifters and all those who profit from the disorder and constant increasing radicalization on the "Conservative" side.

There will come a point where it will be impossible to be "Conservative" enough. And more to the point, being "merely" conservative will be unacceptable. Or, at this point, to put it another way; Reaganite Libertarianism Is For Heretics, already. 

There's a root to this problem: Belief in something for its own sake...hell, any old random thing...is, again right or wrong, part of the American psyche. You can't really reign that shit in. 

In our own day, this is the result of conspiracy theories and rabid Creationism. 

And the Russians don't have a real equivalent to this. Few other countries do and most of them have to pick one, or maybe a couple, particular things. For Americans, everything ends up on the table. That said, the Left's woo woo ideas are things like excessive political correctness and Veganism. The Right's woo woo ideas are "Are Women people?" or "Is Donald Trump a living god?" or "Should Black people exist?"

And in terms of bad, stupid ideas and just plain evil shit that humanity has already tried...These Fucking People, or at least their wealthy funders...clearly believe in things like eugenics and slavery. They'll just try and call it other things. Or they will until they don't have to, anyway. 

The two sides here are very clearly not the same.

And "Conservatives" are like, half a step from compiling lists of heretics and demanding they be executed by the Church and/or the State.

And this list? It's ever-expanding, but the source code is from 1952 and written using stacks of punch cards, coded (did they even call it that, back then?) by all the fucking people who couldn't get laid at the time.

I mean, fuck, I just saw earlier that the Pinkerton agency...the infamous security firm once used for everything from the 19th century equivalent to special operations to outright murder and union-busting on behalf of wealthy elites...is doing Pride Month tweets and making a serious pitch to hire more LGBT people.

Think about that, for a second, take all the time you need.

Cultural and social change has caught up with the goddamned Pinkertons.

The list of heretics in the Right's brave new world that it wants for itself is long, but apparently distinguished.

Yes, I have actually met a couple of these people. Unless you've been stuck dealing with something like that in a governmental, military, or professional capacity (I score two out of three there) and/or studied the history of this shit (also on that score, and this is the second time I've been a union member) You have no idea. And I mean, you have no idea of the meaning of those fucking words. 

If the Pinkertons are going "Woke" as "Conservative" terminology calls it, Republicans have no idea how fucked they already are. Human Resources people and lawyers won the damned culture war.

And don't think Republicans don't know it.

The rabid desire to burn the house down, to destroy the United States of America...not to mention the global order it held up for three quarters of a century? (An order founded, in no small part, by conservatives, I should add) That's just a bitter, burning desire for revenge at this point.

If they can burn it down, replace it with some new global right-wing irridentism and rule the ashes as vassals to a New Soviet Union...well, that's when the lists of heretics and shit will come into play, and if I had to guess these fuckers would make the Inquisition, or the Taliban, seem reasonable by comparison.

Why else do you think these fucking people venerate the icons of communism, fascism and more specifically totalitarianism in all its forms?

That is the future "Conservatives" want. And they want you to have no escape from their constant political horse shit...or no escape that they don't control, at least. 

We can stop this, but you have to get off your ass. Show up, vote, stop tolerating this fucking bullshit. Be prepared to defend yourself and civilization and your country from the people who'd burn all that stuff down with torches in their bloodied hands, and burn it down just so they could rule the ashes.

If you want a better country, you have to be a better citizen. Freedom isn't free, and rights...if they are to remain such...always come with responsibilities.

It's as simple...and as complicated...as that.

Слава Україна!

For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. ~Matthew 24:27

Part Two

Two there should be. No more, no less. One to embody power, the other to crave it. ~Darth Bane