It's almost Fall

a long winter may be coming

If you focus too much on your day-to-day, it may go away.

Silence is not our friend.

Who is the expert? I wonder. Perhaps I am an expert of sorts. I am certainly not of the league of Heather Cox Richardson or Rebecca Solnit but maybe I do okay. I can at least shout a little.

It is time to shout. Yell. Scream. Decry the evil… do not become the evil. That’s hard. I’m usually pretty mellow.

My degree is in Russian and East European Studies from the Jackson School at the University of Washington.

I studied the Soviet Union/Russia back in the 90s as Gorbachev took power and Communism “fell”. My focus was on Anarchists - especially around the time of the Russian Revolution.

I’ve read Trotsky’s autobiography. Been to Tito’s tomb. Read Atlas Shrugged while staying on a farm in Yugoslavia. Been to a Jewish cemetery in Prague as a teenager. Heavy weight on a young mind.

I know propaganda. I know manipulation. I know distraction. I know darkness and helplessness. I know Putin is following in the same tradition. I know who has taken Putin as an idol.

I did recognize some danger when our Supreme Court Justices were slowly being replaced. I was mad at our Democrat leadership for not taking a firmer stance. I was mad at our more “sensible” justices for not retiring at a time when they could be replaced by a more reasonable judge. Mad. It was a very conscious, long term move by one side to control one branch of power. At the time I just thought it was the run of the mill Republicans. I was wrong. This is far more evident now yet still surprisingly ignored. If anything is appealed to the top, we know which way the decision will flow. Anything positive from a lower court could well just be a temporary reprieve.

And what strikes me now?

I continue to be impressed by folks that care about humans and protest peacefully against ICE and all the stupid, get rich, destroy the earth, things the group in power is doing. They are evil. Pure and simple. How the leadership got this evil I really can’t even fathom.

How they have followers that will still do their bidding, I don’t understand. Their souls are corrupt. Echo chambers? Constant reinforcement of whatever you want to believe so that you will buy the next best thing? Blame for “suffering”? Feeding hate? Even elaborate lies are only followed if you want to believe them… The state of our society scares me. I don’t have the answer.

But one thing I do think I know. Bad folks are just as likely to get mad at other bad folks as they are at nice folks. HCR has started highlighting this.

This revolution is only just beginning. No matter what, there will be change. I don’t like what is happening already but I am also afraid of what will happen when the majority of the MAGA world realizes they’ve been played. They are not nice people. They will not do nice things. It will get nasty. This is only the beginning.

Keep to your morals. Stay who you are. Fight, in the way you can, for decent folks and stop the evil without becoming the evil.

Silly photo? Yeah. There’s a fight and then a third nastier party is coming in… It won’t end well for poor little lego dude. No screenwriters to fill in with a happy miraculous ending. You’ve got to do it on your own.