#despots

[davidaugust]

[secular-jew]

This was Iran before medieval clerics somehow took control.

Tehran, 1970 ⬆️👆🏻⬆️👆🏻

[bostonwalks]

DESPOTS JOIN HANDS TO OVERCOME DEMOCRACIES SUCH AS USA, UKRAINE, ISRAEL ETC AND TO PERPETRATE THEIR OWN AUTOCRATIC DICTATORSHIPS!

[swede1952]

Good morning. 🍂🌿🍃

7 December 2024

Today is Pearl Harbor Day, that event took place 83 years ago today. The event even seemed long ago when I was a child because it didn't happen in my lifetime. It is good that we remember such days though because as noted by the American philosopher George Santayana, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." After World War II, the United States helped to rebuild the countries of its enemies and eventually they became our allies. While in the east, the Soviet Union subjugated the countries that fell under its control. causing a rift in the world order and the cold war began. Beware of despots.

"Be assured, fellow citizens, that in a democracy it is the laws that guard the person of the citizen and the constitution of the state, whereas the despot and the oligarch find their protection in suspicion and in armed guards." - Aeschines

[xxdoubledaisyxx]

Obviously, the USA government is not God, but claims that they are. They do not seem to realize that calling themselves "God" does not give them God's power. That is why I want them to read the following proof:

If you had God's power, you would be able to answer this question: "What do I have in my pocket?"

[aowski]

“For her a dead language…is unyielding language content to admire its own paralysis. Like statist language, censored and censoring. Ruthless in its policing duties, it has no desire or purpose other than maintaining the free range of its own narcotic narcissism, its own exclusivity and dominance. However, moribund, it is not without effect, for it actively thwarts the intellect, stalls conscience, suppresses human potential. Unreceptive to interrogation, it cannot form or tolerate new ideas, shape other thoughts, tell another story, fill baffling silences. Official language…to sanction ignorance and preserve privilege is a suit of armor, polished to shocking glitter, a husk from which the knight departed long ago. Yet there it is: dumb, predatory, sentimental. Exciting reverence in schoolchildren, providing shelter for despots, summoning false memories of stability, harmony among the public.” -Toni Morrison

[peacemore-springs]

Despotic Governance

in case you were wondering what the definition of despotic is:

Originally (after the Turkish conquest of Constantinople) the term denoted a minor Christian ruler under the Turkish empire. The current sense dates from the late 18th century.

Is all elected governance therefore cruel and oppressive?

It is only those free from discrimination that truly see an answer.

[wulfhalls]

u heard about doomed by the narrative now get ready for doomed by my mum and her coven of space eugenics cult sisters thru their 10k year long breeding program

[bostonwalks]

The path to peace in the Middle East. Regime change in Iran!

[newluddite]

Despot Playbook.

It is very popular today. With so many despots in power around the world it makes Machiavelli look like a liberal. If you read him as if he were being sarcastic then he was.

But the current popular edition was written by Adolf Hitler not a renaissance Italian. First thing is to get elected. Exploit true popular support and win an honest election. Claim that you understand and can fix the serious problems the country has. You have a plan! Be sure to blame an easy to identify group as villains to focus hostility. Hostility wins elections.

Hitler blamed Jews and bolsheviks. Putin blamed Nazis and traitors. Trump blamed Latin American immigrants. Trump supporters blamed rich liberals who often were Jewish. You have to have a villain.

Once you are elected fix or just cancel subsequent elections. Hitler cancelled them. Putin fixed them and imprisoned or just killed opposition leaders. Trump set a mob loose to overturn his loss and almost did it. He tried hard to cancel the new election. Had congress submitted to his will he would be the "leader" for life. He still considers himself to be the leader of the GOP Party. The German word for leader is Fuehrer. There was just enough rule of law left in the US to divert that.

Putin has won his power and is very closely following the Hitler Playbook. His villains are NATO, the west, and anyone who opposes him. He was elected and fixed all subsequent elections. His strangest and scariest ploy is his personal army the Wagner Group. He seems to mistrust the Russian Army as they are the only group that could "take him out".

Hitler had the SS which was a military arm of his Nazi Party. It was his personal security as he did not trust the military either. Eventually they got tanks and fully equipped military divisions. They were not part of the formal German Military structure.

The Wagner Group is named after the Composer of the "Ring Cycle" about the mythos of Nordic superiority. Great music and Hitler's favorite composer. I suspect Putin likes him too. They have just obtained the newest top of the line Russian Tanks for their units. They do not officially exist yet can overturn prison sentences and murder with impunity.

Russia already has concentration camps with a high level of fatalities, but they have not got around to wholesale death camps....yet.

His war is to create a lasting legacy of empire. The Soviet Union was a Russian Empire. If he got Ukraine he would soon go after all the other bits that were lost when the S.U. collapsed.

Hitler's wars were the same thing. To create a lasting empire on the European Continent for Germans. His defeat came as he was opposed by an even more ruthless Despot, Joseph Stalin. Stalin built the Soviet Empire that Mr Putin so dearly misses.

Ambitions such as those are always opposed somehow. Ukraine is considered by many as the founding center of what is now called Russian Culture. It has existed as a independent nation for only a short time as it was at a cross roads of several empires. But for reasons I have gone over before they HATE Russians. Even had Russia won in a "4 day War" they would have been surrounded by a very hostile population.

So it is playing out.

Hitler's playbook is good for getting power, but has always failed to keep it. You cannot teach that to Despots. They are always right.

[ausetkmt]

Congolese artist paints politicians' portraits in plastic | Reuters

[1/4] Congolese artist Patrick Cikuru Cirimwami applies finishing touches on portrait images of Congolese leaders, made from plastic waste, which he melts after collecting it near the banks of the Ruzizi I hydroelectric plant, in Bukavu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo December 15, 2022. REUTERS/Crispin Kyalangalilwa

BUKAVU, Democratic Republic of Congo, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Near the banks of Lake Kivu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, artist Patrick Cikuru Cirimwami wades knee-deep through a mountain of plastic bottles, scooping as many as he can carry into a large sack.

There is no public waste collection in the area, and the trash that ends up in Lake Kivu often causes breakdowns in the hydroelectric plant, leading to power cuts.

But Cikuru Cirimwami's goal is bigger than helping clean up. Later he will melt down the plastic to make a thick liquid which he uses to paint portraits of politicians - intended to be a condemnation of what he says is their inaction in protecting the environment.

"There have been many conferences in DR Congo, many meetings ... but we have not taken measures to protect nature. As a Congolese artist, I can send a message," said the 26-year-old.

Last month, the artist's portraits of political figures, from independence leader Patrice Lumumba to current president Felix Tshisekedi, were displayed at a cultural centre in his hometown, Bukavu.

Congo, like other African nations, has insisted on its right to develop its economy by exploiting its vast natural resources. It has come under criticism for putting oil blocks up for auction in the world's second-biggest rainforest.

It has pledged to minimise the potentially devastating impact by using modern drilling methods and tight regulation. It also hosted talks before November's COP 27 climate summit to call on rich nations to honour a pledge to developing nations to ensure fair finance to fight climate change.

[xxdoubledaisyxx]

Coincidence that last night my Facebook account was seized and locked?

Watch out Tumblr. They are coming for you next.

[fjordfolk]

Pretty sure if you checked my most-uttered phrase every year for the last 10 years would be "no, Sparta."

[onenicebugperday]

I wanted to share photos of a little mantis I found in Croatia. :)

Wow........he's emotionally contemplating the sunset. We've all been there.