Retro Putz

 Yeah, I'm a big fan of history.  On some rare occasions, it permits me to attain experience I might have had to earn the hard way, through my own sheer stupidity.  God and most of my family are aware that particular resource is something I possess in a huge abundance.  But when I see it in others, my own dumbitude allows me to identify it in others, and it's a rather convenient way to...  well, identify their path forward, if they choose.

This past two weeks had me chewing over a rather obvious little parallel I identified in history a couple of years ago.  It didn't really come into full figure until about two weeks ago, but there ya go.

I've had a real WTF relationship with Russian history.  That is, I do not understand what the hell is going on over there, and I do not comprehend why they do not see it - unless the depths of moronity there are aided and abetted by the totalitarian regime in power that deprives them of the knowledge - which ain't exactly a surprise, I will admit.

What the hell is he on about now, I hear you muttering?  Well, go back about 120 years.  The entire Russian countryside was ruled by a king.  Of course, we're still back and forth on whether the Tsar beat the Czar, or vice versa, or whether that was a terrible, or just particularly bad thing.

In the history of humanity, it's never a good thing to have a particularly isolated ruler who is selected by the speed of the sperm, and that's about the only necessary qualification the rulers possess from generation to generation.  But it is what it is in some places, so that's the way it goes.  But the last Russian King, if you will, did come to a terrible end with his entire family, which certainly did allow a number of conspiracy theorists and hangers on to declare that some daft older folks might be pressed into service as a possible link to a now-gone past.  Sure, I've seen the animated Anastasia, and enjoyed it, but do not for an instant believe it might be an historical record.  

But getting back to parallels, it sure seems that the Russian people are once again in the grips of a small cadre of out-of-touch leaders who choose to mold and refine the world as they see it.  What else would you call a lunatic who chooses to ignore a treaty he signed and do exactly what his country had promised not to do?  I mean, other than Dipshit Donny Trump, and there you go, folks, should that turd ever float out of the toilet and ooze back to the top of the American Political hierarchy, there's the sentence that will end me up in the gulag.  

Yeah, I went there, which is why I'm seeing some disturbing parallels all over the place.  And I'm no idiot.  The reason that Russia's leaders are willing to crack down on dissent is because they want to avoid allowing another Lenin to provoke another revolution.  Which has to be a pretty weird line to walk as they annually celebrate the results of a revolution overthrowing an out of touch monarch and replacing him with a system that completely destroyed any hope for better lives.

Russia, right now, looks to be a little north of a long, drawn out, occupation-drawn war that will undoubtedly kill many Russian soldiers and occupiers as small and medium arms are transferred into the country from outside and the oppressed inhabitants of a homeland are inspired by their leaders to continue to fight for their freedom until the occupiers get tired of the expense and the loss of life and leave.

Said Vietnam, 1972, said Afghanistan, 1985, and ... well, it's most likely inevitable that Ukraine will lose much of this war outright, but then it will continue as an on-going occupation until the remaining leaders in Russia realize that Putin's war is yet another Afghanistan Occupation,and they'll get tired of the constant drain on resources and absolute lack of access to any of the rest of the world, and they'll run his scummy ass out of town and find another malleable person to mold into the next Russian Tsar.

Because, folks, let's be honest.  Russia is a huge land, the largest continent on the planet, and the Russian psyche seems to be drawn to a singular strongman sort of rule.  Sorry, ladies, while I know that history has some limited examples of what a strong female ruler can do to an entranced population for a time, the position of ego-maniacal lunatic leader usually falls to the male persuasion, and while I am 100% behind equality for women, I really don't think there's a majority of women who wish to see those stats leveled up, unless they're lunatics like Marjorie Taylor Greene or Lauren Boebert.  Whom I am sure can do the full nutbar insane ruler thing, they do the dipshit flunky wingnut voice parts pretty well, but sooner or later people will recognize a better option.

I do wish that Vladie the new Czar Putin would get his comeuppance.  Not sure I'd have the stomach for the kicking around his corpse might get, and while utterly deserving, I'm not sure I'd want to watch it happen.  I'd be quite content to have his ass hauled out to a courtyard, doused in top-quality Russian Petroleum products, and torched to a crisp.  I'd much rather see that than an unconditional surrender that leaves him in power, but we do not get to choose every outcome everywhere, so we'll see what we see when we see it.  I can hope I'll get to see his end in a crispy-critter sort of way.  If it were ever deserved, boy, does he have it coming.