The Revolution Will Be Livestreamed (One.)

We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev...Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

~Ronald Reagan

...

And so tomorrow, as we take the campaign South and West, as we learn that the struggles of the textile workers in Spartanburg are not so different than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas; that the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of L.A.; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people, we are one nation. And, together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story, with three words that will ring from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea: Yes, we can. ~Barack Obama

...

You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ~John 8:44

I saw this earlier.

A couple of old idiot Republicans, saying they voted against "Communism."

They're older than me, they of all people should know Communism isn't a thing anymore. And I saw it fall.

But it's the "Vote Red" line that jumped out and grabbed me. Red was (Still is!) the color that various Communist governments and parties prefer to associate themselves with.

I'm here to tell you when I first saw the original Blue State/Red State map, I was sitting in the computer lab at North Central Michigan College and checked my E-mail while I was finishing up my homework and I was like "What the fuck??" When I saw that red was the color they used for Republicans.

I was married, we had slow dial-up at home, it was all we could afford and my ex-wife tended to monopolize using the computer anyway.

"I will not trash talk. I will not be a divider in chief or an agitator in chief. I won't be out there blowharding, talking a big game without backing it up. I think the next president needs to be a lot quieter but send a signal that we're prepared to act in the national security interests of this country — to get back in the business of creating a more peaceful world."

[Silence, a distant radio plays "Winds of Change" by the German band Scorpions. Silence.]
"Please clap."

~Jeb! Bush, February 2nd, 2016

Oh, and speaking of Republicans from the Y2K era, Dennis Hastert died. To quote Balthazar from Constantine "Finger-lickin' good." Fuck that guy. I hope he has fun in Hell.

My high-school girlfriend is a Math teacher, she teaches in the same school district where Hastert taught, and committed his crimes. We spoke the day he was indicted, and that was a little heavy for her and the kids and other teachers. She said that was a pretty somber day for everybody. Crimes like sexual abuse have a generational effect and can reach across place and time to keep hurting people.

This Trump shit will be the same way.

Fun fact, though, back in the late 90's and early-to-mid aughts when Dennis Hastert was the face of the Republican Party, nobody gave a shit about Communism because it had been relegated (rightly) to the dustbin of history where it belonged.

And despite Putin's (functionally) attempting to bring Communism back, and Trump's Kowtowing to Commies like Xi, actual Communists in Russia are apparently opposing Putin, who is the architect of so much of this shit.

Follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change
An August summer night
Soldiers passing by

Listening to the wind of change
The world is closing in
Did you ever think
That we could be so close, like brothers

The future's in the air
Can feel it everywhere
Blowing with the wind of change.

~Scorpions, Winds Of Change

Trump doesn't care about that, I'm sure he doesn't notice. That motherfucker doesn't hate Communists, he wants to be them.

Communism isn't even the real issue; Authoritarianism is.

Any talk to the contrary is just lies meant to rile up semi-literate old Republicans. But then, Communism not being a thing anymore ain't the world such people wanted to live in. The people in my header photo look like they might've been old enough to vote for Reagan in 1984 or Bush 41 in 1988. To paraphrase what my buddy the Media Warrior says about MAGA's, I'm sure Trump makes them feel like High School Seniors again, dipshits who thought they were on top of the world, or whatever.

Sure, some of them might've been well on their way to joining the Army and glaring Bumboclaatically across the lines at the Iron Curtain, or joining the Air Force and spending long cold watches at KI Sawyer or Minot or Wurtsmith Air Force Bases guarding bombers on alert duty. Or joining the Navy and playing that high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse on the High Seas against the Red Banner Northern Fleet.

Some of them were off to college. All too many were going nowhere, though, and those are most of the ones who became MAGA. King Shit in High School...but basically nobody after.

And they hate that once they got out into the real world, they weren't All That anymore. This despite the fact that 1980's pop culture about hit you over the head with "Hey, you're about to grow up and go out into the real world; Fuck, the Cosby Show had a whole-ass episode about exactly that. And you know what? Most of us wanted to grow up!

We've got to take the neighborhood back. We've got to go in there. Just forget telling your child to go to the Peace Corps. It's right around the corner. It's standing on the corner. It can't speak English. It doesn't want to speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk. "Why you ain't where you is go." I don't know who these people are. And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. Then I heard the father talk. This is all in the house. You used to talk a certain way on the corner and you got into the house and switched to English. Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't land a plane with "why you ain't…". You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. There is no Bible that has that kind of language. Where did these people get the idea that they're moving ahead on this? Well, they know they're not, they're just hanging out in the same place, five or six generations sitting in the projects when you're just supposed to stay there long enough to get a job and move out. ~Bill Cosby, the "Pound Cake" speech.

These Fucking People didn't want to grow the fuck up.

And in my own lifetime, Republicans have gone from opposing Saddam Hussein to being at war with him, to overthrowing him and now to slavishly following the American version, who even has similar tastes. Don't tell me Trump wouldn't have an AK-47 gilded if the thought crossed his mind, either.

And then, they have the fucking balls to be trying to moralize about being against such a person.

Reagan (And George HW Bush) wept.

You know what? Fuck Republicans.

Republicans are the damn problem here.

I hate that I can't say it any other way.

And I used to be a Republican, back when they were something other than this.

You either believe in freedom or you don't. 

It's going to come down to a fight.

The Revolution will be livestreamed.

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Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?
Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
~Daniel 3:14-18

Intro

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. ~George Orwell, 1984. 

[Cassian plays Nemik's audio diary]

Karis Nemik: There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy. Remember this. Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they've already enlisted in the cause. Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. And then remember this. The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empire's authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege. Remember this. Try. 

~From the Star Wars series Andor, S1.E12 "Rix Road."