First, the Bolsheviks came for Russia. Now the Bolsheviks are coming for America.
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Intellectual disgrace
Stares from every human face,
And the seas of pity lie
Locked and frozen in each eye.
Follow, poet, follow right
To the bottom of the night,
With your unconstraining voice
Still persuade us to rejoice.
With the farming of a verse
Make a vineyard of the curse,
Sing of human unsuccess
In a rapture of distress.
In the deserts of the heart
Let the healing fountains start,
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise.
– – WH Auden
Sometimes it seems I had a dream, and, as a dreamer woke immersed in mineral baths closed within a cool, dark chamber fed by streams flowing in from the center of nowhere.
Hanging from the granite ceiling a kerosene lantern cast shards of light through the pale steam rising from the surface of the pools.
Ripples radiated outwards from the edges of my body and tapping faintly on the rock revealed the edges of the chamber.
Outside I could hear the wind slide across the spine of the mountains, speaking in a language that I remembered but could no longer understand.
Steam filled my nostrils and heat penetrated my bones until, after a time, I had no body, only a sense of silence and distance and calm.
As if I had just woken from all water into dream.
— Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, 1973
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The steel mill sky is alive.
The fire breaks white and zigzag
shot on a gun-metal gloaming.
Man is a long time coming.
Man will yet win.
Brother may yet line up with brother:
This old anvil laughs at many broken hammers.
There are men who can’t be bought.
The fireborn are at home in fire.
The stars make no noise,
You can’t hinder the wind from blowing.
Time is a great teacher.
Who can live without hope?
In the darkness with a great bundle of grief
the people march.
In the night, and overhead a shovel of stars for keeps, the people
march:
“Where to? what next?”
— Carl Sandberg
Down valley a smoke haze
Three days heat, after five days rain
Pitch glows on the fir-cones
Across rocks and meadows
Swarms of new flies.
I cannot remember things I once read
A few friends, but they are in cities.
Drinking cold snow-water from a tin cup
Looking down for miles
Through high still air.
BY GARY SNYDER
Starry-eyed an’ laughing as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
As we listened one last time an’ we watched with one last look
Spellbound an’ swallowed ’til the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an’ worse
An’ for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
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That is no country for old men. The young
In one another’s arms, birds in the trees
—Those dying generations—at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.
O sages standing in God’s holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.
Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.
– – W. B. Yeats, 1865 – 1939
Stone-cutters fighting time with marble, you foredefeated
Challengers of oblivion
Eat cynical earnings, knowing rock splits, records fall down,
The square-limbed Roman letters
Scale in the thaws, wear in the rain. The poet as well
Builds his monument mockingly;
For man will be blotted out, the blithe earth die, the brave sun
Die blind and blacken to the heart:
Yet stones have stood for a thousand years, and pained
thoughts found
The honey of peace in old poems.
— Robinson Jeffers
Sometimes it seems I had a dream, and, as a dreamer woke immersed in mineral baths closed within a cool, dark chamber fed by streams flowing in from the center of nowhere.
Hanging from the granite ceiling a kerosene lantern cast shards of light through the pale steam rising from the surface of the pools.
Ripples radiated outwards from the edges of my body and tapping faintly on the rock revealed the edges of the chamber.
Outside I could hear the wind slide across the spine of the mountains, speaking in a language that I remembered but could no longer understand.
Steam filled my nostrils and heat penetrated my bones until, after a time, I had no body, only a sense of silence and distance and calm.
As if I had just woken from all water into dream.
— Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, 1973
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A very clear and unequivocal talk by Putin. Such clarity is sorely needed (nearly everywhere) outside of Russia, but especially in the USA & UK.
Just imagine the drooling demented husk in the White House being able to (a) express such wisdom and (b) not pissing himself for that long.
This scene has been written many many times before, Russia, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Venezuela, Chile, and many other places to a greater or lesser degree.
Putin gets it and is a more Democratic style govt. leader than our dear comarada emperador pantalones de caca ever thought of being. What we have representing us n the world stage is a complete failure of a human being invert sense imaginable. If comrade slo jo was rated with respect earned on a scale of grades from kindergarten to 12th grade, he would be denied entry into kindergarten.
Yes, well, you will know you are in deep shit when a Communist – authoritarian leader speaks eloquently on issues of sexuality, race and parenting…..and exercises more common sense than any one of the “leaders” of the West.
Instead of cow-towing to the Chinese communists, the West should have been courting the Russian bear and finding common ground. Instead, the West has driven the bear into the arms of the dragon.
Russia is our natural ally. Thus the hatred of her—and the current march toward war with her—by our ruling classes, who are ideologically aligned with China. Don’t worry about any “alliance” between Russia and China. The reality is because of History and ideology they hate each other’s guts.
Putin in his natural habitat. No Western leader comes close.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-zEftm7ZXo
From the comments: “Imagine being such a badass that people make videos of just your walk.”
Not in my memory (half the 20th century) has an american “leader” been capable of presenting himself in that way. That motherfucker Putin rules the room no matter where he goes. He carries himself like a professional.
He didn’t do a half bad job On Blueberry Hill either: https://youtu.be/IV4IjHz2yIo
In spite of all his faults, I have the utmost respect for Putin. More than Trump, Regan Eisenhower, or any president all the way back to Washington through Adams, Jefferson and Madison. He is most definitely FOR Russia. The video showed him walking down the hall not really smiling as in being happy that so many applauded him. He strode down the hallway exhibiting the utmost confidence in his abilities.
Russia has had its pitfalls as all countries do during their evolution. I have always admired the Russian people in spite of not agreeing with their government or everything about their culture. They probably have, all inclusive, more ethnic and cultural variations than another country in the world. Their architecture, writing, and especially their music proves this so. For all our differences, we are very much alike.
Russia has produced the finest short story writers, the finest classical composers, the finest dancers and the finest classical musicians.
Putin. Making America Great Again, because no one in the political class in America has the balls too.
Saying the truth will get you ruined, jailed or dead. True now, true before. Christ and Socrates would agree.
“comarada emperador pantalones de caca”
Oh, my my. I so wish I had written that.
Bullshits bullshit, what country doesn’t matter.
It’s been said much better by others, but I can’ t think of anyone in the Regime who isn’t a little fart, a spaz, a nebbish, and a schlemiel.
Zuckerberg. One punch in the mouth and he’s done. He’ll run crying to Mommy. In high school, kids left the room when he came in. Known as Mr. Schmuck. A really cheap bas^%ard with NO taste in clothes. A low slimey insect.
Schumer. In high school, they use to grab him by the nose and kick his nuts in. He was known as “The Putz.” A total klutz, who would lose the ball when dribbling and throw it over the back board. No one liked him.
Swallwell. In junior high, he was dragged around the locker room floor by his jock strap. They called him “Swallowitall,” “Mailbox mouth,” and “The douche.” Girls thought he was a “fruit” and a pansy. When he raised his hand in class, everyone groaned. “Oh no, not Smellwell.”
Pelosi. Only gets her way because she has always been so obnoxious that people say, “Oh, go ahead. Just get the f%$# out of here.” Extremely sensitive. Prissy and fastidious. Hated by all.
Nadler. Class duffuss. Nicknamed “Fatty pants,” “Shiney seat,” “Ardvaark,” and “Pie face.” Always hovered at the edges of groups. Kids would ask each other, “Who’s the drip?” “Escaped clown?” Couldn’t get dates. Smelled funny—rancid grease. Played both Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee in high school play.
General Milley. Fantasizes about becoming the fat lady at the circus. Wears a bra and lace panties.
Obama. Always was a jive-ass mother. Accepted in groups because he was so cool amongst dweebs. Seemed exotic. Actually just a smooth-talking pimp.
CNN. Assorted losers, plumpkins, and rump feeders.
These are our “betters.” These—who never took fire or even a punch in the guts—will install a tyannical regime. Sure, they will.
What would they do in the face of a real show of force—a million pissed off peasants.
Dear Lance: You are a fine judge of human nature. Many times I have thought that guys like Zuckerberg needed a good bitch-slapping. Everyone on your list is a physical, mental and moral weakling. The fact that they all have risen to the top of American society says much about our current condition. Worms such as these only appear on a diseased body.
That moment when Literally Hitler is more moral than your own leadership.
I saw a clever meme the other day… said something like… “When anthropologists discover a human skeleton they eventually arrive at the conclusion it is either male or female.” Hmmmm… not 57 varieties of gender? I think Putin is quite the astute observer of society run amok.
Moscow considers itself “The Third Rome”, after the 1st Rome fell to the Ostrogoths in 476 AD and the 2nd Rome—Constantinople—fell to the Turks in 1453. Thus, she believes she is the inheritor of God’s plan on earth, the true successor and recipient of Grace, Tradition, Morality and Dogma. The Russian people believed this, every czar believed this, and Putin certainly believes this. He was merely enunciating the obvious realities of Reason and Revelation that have been around since Christ walked upon the earth. Putin was, in a very subtle way, explaining how the West has gone mad and thus has no business trying to enforce its madness upon the world.
Our ruling classes are not Bolsheviks, they are Maoists. Their forebears are neither Lenin nor Trotsky nor Stalin; but Mao, Pol Pot, Lin Biao, Kim Il-sung and Jiang Qing. “Wokeism” is not a Bolshevik phenomenon. The Soviets could tell men from women after all. The USSR was interested far more in outward conformity than in internal ideological agreement. Maoists, however, desire to force an internal change in every man so that every thought is in complete alignment with the Party. Thus the “struggle sessions” at universities and corporations; thus the enlisting of children and students in ideological crusades proclaimed by the ruling elites; thus the elimination of the past; thus the destruction of the middle classes; thus the war against the family; thus the creation of mass hysteria; thus the war against all cultural norms; thus the show of public obeisance to the ruling ideology—kneeling and mask wearing; thus the use of Antifa and BLM—American versions of Mao’s “Red Guards”. These are all hallmarks of pure Maoism.
It does not matter at all that our ruling classes understand nothing at all of most of America. It does not matter at all that they have never worked outside of government. It does not matter at all that they are ignorant of History, Philosophy, Literature, Music and every other aspect of Western Civilization. What matters is that they mean what they say. What they have to do to maintain power they will do. You can no more debate with these ferals that you would debate with a rabid animal or with a cyborg. They, being in every sense true Maoists, know what Mao meant when he wrote that “all power flows from the barrel of a gun.”
Learn that lesson well. Know you enemy. He will never stop. He will never surrender.
Wow. I thinks that’s the best comment I’ve ever read on the internet.
I’ll second that. He nailed it.
China has been there plenty in the past. Not much Wokeness in China today: the derisive term Baizuo (White Left) for Western Wokesters gets plenty of airtime.
As for Putin, the man’s a genius who at least for a while has turned the tide in his ravaged and carpet bagged nation. The Russian Diocletian (even down to his fortified eventual retirement palace by the sea). Everything he says is well-thought out, too the point, and bombast-free. Of course his image and messaging are carefully controlled. Big whoop… That’s just basic competence.
He’s not the first or last foreign leader you don’t get to hear more than soundbites from in mainstream Western Media because can’t have the Peasantry getting ideas about the relative sanity and fitness to rule of their own Rulers.
wisdom, truly, from a strongman in a kleptocracy.
You’d think you’d have to be wise and strong to rule in a Kleptocracy. And you’d be right.
You need neither of these (or any other) virtues, though if you’re the ‘Leader’ in a Kakistocracy. Oh say, can you see…?
Sounds just like Donald Trump to me.
How soon they forget.