It's Time To Mess With Texas (American Revelation XV, Six)

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 defending their homes, fighting for freedom. Was it good for them?

Hess: But we’ve outlasted them, son. They’re eating 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 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, Ep. 7 "The Believer"

...

"The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride."

~Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly 25 February 2022, Associated Press

So, Texas decided to try to have their own border policy, and the Supreme Court told them "No" because the Constitution delegates border controls and foreign relations to the Federal government.(Forget the Mexican border for a moment, these motherfuckers put up rolls of razor-wire on the New Mexico border. Like, the fuck are they afraid of, people smuggling in Green Chiles?) So now all these right-wing assholes are going to try and force a showdown with the Federal Government over an issue that *Checks Notes* Congressional Republicans refuse to do a damn thing about. Last I checked, that's called Insurrection. 

And it's not going to stop until Federal agents arrest Greg Abbott and roll that Wheelie-Ghoul into a goddamn wheelchair-accessible paddy wagon and make an example of his fucking ass with the exact kind of showboat trial that Republicans would inflict on other people, and he gets to spend a good long time thinking about his misdeeds in Federal Prison, down the cellblock from Donald Trump.

If we want this crap to stop, we're going to have to start holding the powerful and wealthy, not to mention Republicans, to account.

Otherwise, you see that map??

These fucking people will get to keep some chunks of it. 

Now, it won't be Alaska, the Dakotas, Georgia, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, or South Carolina, and probably not Louisiana  or Montana either because there's a lot of military formations and strategic assets in those states and the people in them will remember where their paychecks come from and that their oath is sworn to the United States Constitution.

But it'll get sporty for a minute, and having been a Security Forces troop stationed at Minot Air Force Base, defending that place (and it will have to be defended) is going to suck.

And I'm here to tell you, you probably won't want to live somewhere like Idaho, Iowa, Tennessee or West Virginia that most Americans who don't live there write off on a good day.

And places like Florida, Texas and Utah, not to mention the Mississippi Delta, the Southern Black Belt and various Native reservations will be a bloody soup sandwich, because among other things, if you think the only immigrants or Latinos or People Of Color that these fucking people want to hurt are the ones coming across the Mexican border, you have another thing coming, and that goes about the same for anybody else who isn't a far-right-enough White Enough White Conservative Whack-A-Nut Christian Republican.

And when that shit really does hit the fan, it's going to be bad news for people whose real name is Rafael Eduardo, or pretty much any Mormon (or any other religious believer) that won't convert on the spot to either whatever form of whacky neo-Pentecostal Seven Mountains Dominionism these fucking people take up...or to just straight worshiping the Golden Idol of the Mango Messiah. 

You know, the idea, the Meme, of Trump.

That's what they really worship, not the confused, doddering old man.

And none of this would be happening now, if Republicans were nearly so sure of his electoral chances as they say they are. Think about that one, for a second.

A lot of people are going to find out that whatever adoption into Grace and/or Whiteness (basically the same thing in the minds of certain individuals) that they thought they had was a lie, meant to do nothing more than get their cooperation and lull them to sleep until the goddamned Fascist/Feudalist wannabes felt safe to launch their "Glorious Revolution" in which burning books, murdering innocent people and taking food from poor kids will somehow be considered virtuous acts, and that guess what? 

Neither they nor their own kids will be exempt, nor even safe (Nor will any White kids, for that matter, except those few whose parents can afford to hire private armies to act as their bodyguards and still have bigger motorcades than the Pope.) This shit will very quickly spiral out of the control of people like Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, and Steve Bannon, and grow its own leaders ain't nobody ever heard of until all this shit started (Or at least the ones Russian "Advisors" don't shoot, anyway) because if you think most of us...especially anybody in most affected areas...is going to have things like reliable internet access to know what those fucking freaks even have to say...you're nuts.

You thought I was gonna say "Showing up to vote" was important??

How about showing up to stop losers like the fucking Dilbert Guy from getting to decide who can eat??

(Also, I'm sorry, but I have zero trust in any of these fucking people's basic competence to run much of anything, let alone something as boring and prosaic as basic food distribution networks. And yes, expect that somebody will try to make starving to own the Libs a thing.)

How about showing up to prevent people who think every possible terrible idea from 1950's science fiction and/or Warhammer 40K should at least be tried in real life...and who don't care if such is a perversion against the laws of God or the Universe or whatever you wanna call it??

I mean, seriously??

Now we've got billionaires trying to set up legal entities to *Checks the notes I made earlier* set up legal entities to leave their fortunes to their "Future revived selves??"

Great, it's the Walking Dead but all the Zombies are Elon Stans, does that not sound wrong to you??

And do you really think that anybody that narcissistic or who has that little of regard or reverence for the basic processes of life (like, really, what is so much of religion but dealing with the possibility of death?) is gonna give a shit if you get your Social Security or don't die shitting your guts out from bad water??

A lot of these MAGA jackoffs think they're going to go out in a Blaze Of Glory, guns in hand, railing against The Man or what-the-fuck-ever. I can tell you, because I'm a United States Air Force veteran, that whatever actual battles there would be in such a conflict will be vicious, viciously one-sided, really damned short and not in the favor of some raggedy-assed overweight 60 year old Militia CHUD's.

But you can win all the battles, and still lose the war. Just ask the French about Algeria.

Yeah, yeah, anti-Colonial War, blah blah blah...you think the Russians, much less the Tankies, won't do their level best with a straight face to spin the bloody revolt of Texas as the South freeing itself from Yankee Colonialism??

And yes, like the FLN in Algeria, the assholes will still lose, at least when the other side gets to shoot back.

No, the failure of keeping shit together will be entirely political.

Why?? Because once Northern Virginia and the Tidewater (and with it, half the United States Navy) and places like Houston, Orlando, and various other Blue districts and favored places are secured, and once the wannabe Genocidaires and assorted Bosnian Serb-enthusiasts ethnically cleanse whatever enclaves are too hard for the Army and the Marines to take back and start putting up walls to keep the rest of us out, the average Harvard University Student, NYC Liberal or resident of the more upscale parts of Washington D.C. (regardless of their claimed political orientation) are going to say "Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out."

Because the Base-level MAGA-nuts who really are driving this whole thing could give a shit about the Harvard Crimson, and don't know who half the scummy Republicans who've spent generations bumble-fucking us into this bullshit even are, and they couldn't find Ukraine on a map with Google Earth giving them directions.

And the narcissism of these two sides won't be able to meet in the middle, either. Come on, man, this shit is gonna cost rich people money.

(And people who've proudly never been 100 miles from home, for whom the Met Gala might as well be held in another Galaxy, and whose main motivation is "I hate [Racial Expletive Deleted]'s" don't care about that.)

Besides, the only ones set to profit are already-bleeding-edge edge-lord reactionaries who'd just as soon cook the Old Money WASP-y shits and eat them, just to see what they taste like and the super-rich narcissists like Elon Musk for whom this isn't about money at all, but about them getting to be the Most Specialist Snowflakes. Well, that and Defense Contractors who'll doubtless find ways to profit from and sell to both sides.

Seriously, do you really think guys like Joe Manchin or Tucker Carlson are going to give a shit about anything they said before when they got bombed and shot at, too?? Not to mention all those insincere political wannabe-sharks like James Comer who the Republican mob is turning on already. And that's well before you get to the average Blue State liberal who already thinks these MAGA's and their Red States should go fuck themselves. Let alone all the Tankies and fashionable Anti-Americans who'll suddenly have to face the results of their bullshit and find out it don't result in no Socialist Shangri-La.

All these people will want to give nothing but a big middle finger to whatever's left of Red America (and the Reds don't really care if they end up ruling nothing but ashes.)

And in the end, too many won't really care who gets left behind, and some people absolutely will. I saw a little of the wreckage from how that all worked out. I'm not saying it's right, it's not. That's simply the way of these things. Logistics can be a bitch.

More to the point, if we learned anything from COVID-19 it's that the Chris Christie's and Nikki Haley's of the world crave to throw the virgin into the Volcano to appease the heated gods.

On general principle, but Especially if doing so saves their own asses.

This shit will be the same way, if we let it.

Oh sure, if all this works out like I think it might, the media, the world, etc. will dress it up as some kind of big-time negotiated solution under international pressure, all of which China, Iran, North Korea and Russia will be happy to keep providing because a possible 50% America will be halfway less able to help Israel or South Korea, or Taiwan or Ukraine.

And some of these fucking people really do want to live in a blood-soaked dark world straight out of bad science fiction, just because they think they'd get something for it. Some people want to live in the Empire from Star Wars.

You know what the front line is, and the last line of defense??

It's not some missile submarine in the North Pacific.

It's Us, the Citizens, We The People, that's who.

That's why Republicans hate us so much.

And if enough of us don't tolerate this bullshit, our government will have to not tolerate it either. That's the way of these things, too.

And you know what??

You know what I was taught??

You better show up--in whatever capacity is needed--because those fucking people sure will.

There's more of us than there are of them, but for once we better act like it, if we want to have a country.

I can't put it any more simply than that.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

It's time to Mess With Texas.

So get after it.

Слава Україна!

Five

My black face fades,
hiding inside the black granite.
I said I wouldn't
dammit: No tears.
I'm stone. I'm flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night slanted against morning. 

I turn this way—the stone lets me go.
I turn that way—I'm inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58,022 names,
half-expecting to find
my own in letters like smoke. 

I touch the name Andrew Johnson; 

I see the booby trap's white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman's blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.
Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's
wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet's image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I'm a window.
He's lost his right arm
inside the stone. In the black mirror
a woman’s trying to erase names:
No, she's brushing a boy's hair.

~Facing It, by Yusef Komunyakaa, US Army Veteran