Fallen (Shouty Man, Three-On Syria and What The Fuck Are We Doing Here?)

If you're not willing to fight for it, take the word 'Freedom' out of your vocabulary. ~Malcolm X.

...

If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan

...

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judges her.

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. ~Revelation 18:1-10

Yesterday, Bashar Al-Assad's regime in Syria fell, and Syrian rebel forces entered Damascus. Arab Spring perhaps turns to summer?

Good.

And I mean this with all due disrespect, Fuck that guy.

He's where a lot of the crap we've got going on started, because Vladimir Putin saw Moammar Gaddafi get dragged out of a drain culvert and shot on the head and decided if he didn't do something...he might have been next...so he offered Assad all type of support in order to keep, I don't know, the meme of Dictatorship going or something.

Again, FUCK THAT GUY.

And fuck anybody that supports that guy, too.

This isn't...or shouldn't be...that hard.

The thing that gets me, is there's a fair number of Americans, apparently both far-Leftists and MAGA's who are sad that Assad has been defeated.

Also, President Yoon of South Korea appears to have survived his impeachment vote, but the people over there are still protesting, he's still likely on the way out...and among others, the now-former Defense minister has been arrested.

Good, Fuck those guys, too. I have precisely no sympathy for the same reason I could give a shit about that CEO that got shot.

You make your money by hurting people, or use your power to do the same, eventually Karma comes calling (and the bitch wears the kind of spiked heels you don't wanna get kicked in the nuts with) or somebody under you gets ambitious and has friends, the Wheel turns, your bodyguards get lazy, and/or your luck otherwise runs out. It may not be a Just world, but however tough you think you are it's a safe bet there's a dude out there that's tougher than you and you're eventually gonna fuck around and find out.

I mean, if all else fails, eventually the Angel Of Death comes for everybody.

That's not some vast political plot, it's just life.

To unapologetically gank the old "Conservative" saying, standing athwart the flow of history yelling "Stop!" just doesn't work.

History just rolls right over you and doesn't even notice.

I'll never understand why Americans, least of all Republicans, would be sad when a despot falls. 

I mean, sure we got people like Nguyen Van Thieu and Ferdinand Marcos out when their countries or governments fell, but we sure as shit didn't put them on Good Morning America after the fact. Bashar Al-Assad fled to the UAE, and in all probability he'll spend whatever time he has left living in a golden palace in Dubai, likely with the support of the Russians, rather more luxuriously than how Nguyen Van Thieu lived out the rest of his days quietly in Massachusetts. In the past, Republicans used people like that...we didn't lionize them, though.

I mean, fuck, even though Nguyen Van Thieu was a Catholic I never heard of no Hard-Right American idiots being willing to launch a crusade on his behalf, not even being about a week late and a hell of a lot more than a dollar short. (Note: Bashar Al-Assad's family, his inner circle and his political power-base were all composed of Alawite Muslims. I can't imagine what the Online Right thinks it'd be getting out of this bullshit even if they'd had the guts to actually show up. And they didn't.) 

But here's the thing, if you think about it; It's actually worse than that.

I'm serious.

In the posted meme there's a couple of ships and a whole bunch of helicopters. For one thing, all that's going to take a lot more than 2,000-3,000 people to run...no matter how experienced with that type of gear said people are. You might have to have about that many combat troops, or that might be one unit, but there's got to be a whole shitload of other people in other places supporting it. There's millions of working parts involved in making any large organization...especially a military unit...work.

Most of it you don't see...or even notice...until you start to run short on 5.56mm ammunition or toilet paper or whatever $5 widget you need at that particular time.

And running a warship (for example) takes a lot of people working together, efficiency, skill, teamwork and all that. Take it from one guy who was part of a couple of major Air Force units...there's not exactly a ton of individual recognition going on in making an airbase or a ship work properly.

Here's the thing...These Fucking Dudes...nearly every last one of them, in my experience, are so fucking selfish they can't be bothered to keep their wives happy. I've been married, this is the kind of problem you don't know you have 'til it's too late. 

I mean, I get that These Fucking People are shitty little narcissists. 

So, I guess it follows that they'd be selfish lovers, but let me tell you why that doesn't work...my ex-wife had a personality disorder and if she didn't get tuned up right proper every now and again eventually there was going to be hell to pay. Money would get spent on dumb shit, she'd quit her job, throw a fit in such a way as to seriously fuck shit up, etc. And mind you, this was somebody who was loudly and very performatively not just Christian but Pentecostal. You want a frustrated partner, guys? You think this is funny?? Don't get with a woman that already has a personality disorder. That's not some sort of a feminist view, it's just practical, lived experience. 

A happy wife does mean a happy life, in a lot of circumstances.

Now...generalize that over to the rest of life.

If somebody doesn't understand love, doesn't understand how to treat a partner properly...how are they going to treat anybody else?

How are they gonna treat their fellow Crusaders who might be a different color, much less whatever local allies they have who might not even be Christian...or their kind of one? How they gonna treat Mohammed the street vendor??

If they're "It's All About Me" to that level...well, damn, what's next??

When their Holy Crusade isn't an action movie that's over in a couple hours, when it's duty, hard nasty work digging holes in the hot sun and nobody shows up for them to shoot their guns at...not unless they're in the cockpit of a MiG-29 coming at you so fast the sound rolls along behind anyway...when there's no glory in it...what do you think these fucking people would do??

Oh, right, thanks Nancy.

Walk around with a megaphone looking like an idiot and pose for the camera, that's what.

And worse, that's exactly how they think this is gonna go.

And people like this (On all sides of the political spectrum but especially the Right) are why I'm so tired of this Attention Economy, Clicks-and-Likes bullshit.

Every damn one of them thinks this, I'm sure Nancy Mace already has a canned speech for CPAC or a podcast bit she's practicing in front of the mirror, too.

You think the Shouty Man causes problems? Wait 'til it's a woman with a goddamn megaphone and some kind of histrionic bullshit going on.

Ya know, maybe it's just me, but if that's the way this is going and we're all gonna be like that, I'd rather be the guy taking the Selfie in front of the tyrant's burning IFV than be the bitch carrying a bullhorn around to yell about transgender people.

My personal beliefs and tastes lean more toward an appreciation for the Ukrainian style of meme warfare, among other things. And if you don't think that requires a hell of a lot of people unselfishly working together...you're just wrong.

It's not about money, it's not about power. It's not just that was more my skillset back in the day. It's not just about what side you're on, it's not about what you might tell kids, grandkids or random strangers a generation hence, it's about do you...as a person...have enough self-respect to look at your own goddamned face in the bathroom mirror every morning??

You're either willing to have that discussion every day or you ain't. I've never been in the position of having the money to hire people like Akeem in Coming To America.

So I have to be able to look myself in the face.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Yes, it really is that simple.

And freedom isn't free.

Sometimes, you have to fight for it.

Assad has fallen, and Damascus with him.

And thanks to the Syrians for reminding us, Yes, We Can.

Слава Україна!

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

Two

Cassian Andor: What? To steal from the Empire, what do you need? A uniform, some dirty hands, and an Imperial toolkit. They’re so proud of themselves, they don’t even care. They’re so fat and satisfied, they can’t imagine it…

Luthen Rael: Can’t imagine what?

Andor: That someone like me would ever get inside their house, walk their floors, spit in their food, take their gear.

~From the Star Wars series Andor.