"Texas Bentley - Anti-American Asshole?"

It's a legitimate question, asked by many, and stated as fact by some. And indeed I am. But not in the sense that they mean. I'm not an asshole who's "anti-American", I'm "anti", or against, American assholes. And there are plenty of them. I'm not against "America". Not against the geography or the good people who live there, or the principles upon which it was supposedly founded. I'm all for all of that. I am anti American assholes, and to be honest, I'd say that's 99.9% of the politicians and professional propagandists ("media") and about 97% of the population these days. That's a LOT of assholes! But  I'm still trying to get through to that other 2 or 3 percent who aren't stupid, lying, dangerous, cowardly, loud-mouthed hypocrite bullies, in other words, not "assholes". 

USA 2019 "LAND OF THE FREE? HOME OF THE BRAVE?"

                                  

Am I "Anti-American"? I'll bet I know the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights better than most of the Americans reading this. Thomas Paine, Ben Franklin? Can you quote them? I can. Eugene Debs, Big Bill Haywood, Smedley Butler, my homeboy Audie Murphy, the Berrigan Brothers, Emmett Grogan, Johnny Cash, Ralph Nader, my homeboy Bill Hicks. Eisenhower, Kennedy. These are the Americans and the American history I am proud of, that I admire, that I love. My personal American heroes. Insult any of them in my presence, and we might just have to fight.

Do you know who Sid Hatfield was, or Joseph Hillstrom? Ever hear of Matewan or the textile strikes in Lawrence, Mass? How about the Battle of Blair Mountain, perhaps the proudest moment in US history, did you ever even hear of that, American? It was less than 100 years ago. You should check this out, citizen. It's your history. Mine too, as an American. I know it. How about you?

And then there are the real Americans, the Native Americans. Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Black Elk and Red Cloud of the Lakota, Cochise and Geronimo of the Apache. Truly great men, all, and how can it not stir the heart and inspire the soul to have lived on the land where they once lived? Yes, I'm from America, from Texas, and proud of it. But the America they once lived in, even the America I was born into in 1960, is long gone, and has been replaced by something else.

You remember the last time you were proud of your fellow Americans? I do, but it's been almost 20 years since I was. November 30th, 1999. WTO in Seattle, remember? I was there. Where were you, American? When I see the Yellow Jackets in France, I am reminded of what we went through back in '99. But I see nothing like it in the USA today.

REMEMBER?

So who do I mean by "American assholes"? Just look who represents you - Trump, Clinton, Pompeo, Bolton, Biden, Pelosi, Maxine Waters. Not to mention Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Obama. That's the best you got, right there. True scum. Your masters, your rulers. And it doesn't matter which side of the aisle you're on, one's as bad as the other. Same shit, different pile.

In fact, I cannot call these scum "assholes", it is insufficient. These I would call "pieces of shit", spawned, grunted forth, from the orifices of the stupid, cowardly, selfish and apathetic majority of the US population, the assholes who vote for them, who pay their salaries, who obey their dictates and ignore their crimes. And if you still vote for ANY Republican or Democrat, then yes, I am talking about you, you American asshole. 

Proud 21st Century American Asshole

The "progressive liberal" Democrats, have started and conducted illegal wars of aggression in Yugoslavia, Libya and Syria, and continued the illegal wars of Republicans in Afghanistan and Iraq. The "conservative Christian" Republicans now allow babies to be "aborted" after they're born. Both of these entrenched power blocks are busy every day screwing the American People every way they can, six ways from Sunday.

And the vast majority of American assholes are fine with it, until it affects them personally. Then, it's an emergency and a national tragedy.  This type of outlook is not only selfish and short-sighted, it is downright stupid. Which is a pretty good description of most Americans. People are responsible for their government, and I do want to talk about your government, the one you vote for and pay taxes to, the one you personally are responsible for. The one that backs genuine nazis in Ukraine, the one that created ISIS, the one that appoints other nation's Presidents, the one that destroys whole nations via economic or military means in the name of "democracy and human rights". 

The crimes the US government has committed since the end of World War 2 are legion, well documented, and beyond dispute. Wars of aggression and "regime change operations" have been waged against at least 81 nations since 1946. That's more than one per year, every year, for the last 73 years. They overthrew (and often murdered) elected officials and installed puppet regimes beholden to US military and corporate interests at the expense and to the detriment of the citizens of these countries. I dare you to try to name a single instance where US military or covert intervention has improved the lives of the citizens of any of these countries. It has cost many millions of lives, wasted trillions of dollars of both the US and the victim countries, ruined whatever reputation and goodwill the US ever once had, and have now brought us closer to nuclear annihilation than any time in human history. Congratulations, American assholes, the world sees your work, even if you fail or refuse to. In one survey, 67% of respondents named the USA as the "Most Hated Nation on Earth". (The other 33% named Israel. For them, the USA was only the second most hated nation on Earth.) Even according to the Pew Research survey of 2018, 45% of the people in 22 different countries see US power and influence as a "major threat". But the US government and its owners and masters are not just threatening and destroying foreign nations and peoples, they are doing the same to you and yours, inside the USA, today. Not that you don't deserve it, you do, because you let 'em do it.

But what about your kids, and their kids? 

The USA has a genuinely fascist government. Whether by the definition of Benito Mussolini of fascism as "corporatism... because fascism is the merger of state and corporate power", or judged by the metrics of the 14 Characteristics of Fascism, only a fool or a liar (in other words, an asshole) can say the US government is not exactly and precisely a Fascist regime, whether nominally directed at any given time by operatives of the Republican or Democratic rackets. The quality of life has declined continuously for average Americans since the 1970's. Since the election of Bush Junior in 2000 and the 9/11 false flag less than a year later, it has simply fallen off the cliff. US citizens fail to understand that the regime they live under has destroyed countries around the world, murdered and enslaved millions, and they will do, are doing, the same inside the USA as well. What goes around comes around. What you allow your masters to do to others without objection, they will do to you. And to your children.

I am reminded of a quote by Thomas Paine, perhaps you know it, "If there is to be trouble, let it be in my day, that my children may know peace; and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to his duty".  Yes, the record of abortion in the USA is horrendous, mass murder of the most innocent, literal self-genocide, but think of the future that American assholes are leaving to their living children today.  The future of Orwell's 1984, "A boot stomping on a human face, forever", or the future described by the Bible in Ecclesiastes 4:2, and by Nikita Kruchev - "The living will envy the dead".  This is the future American assholes leave their children.

I was born in America in a time when parents believed, and had at least some reason to believe, that their children would be better off than they were. Who in America today, besides the criminal oligarch scum and their sycophants and servants, can even pretend to believe this will be true for theirs? Only idiots and liars. Assholes. So, yes, I am against American assholes.  

As a US citizen, I too bear some responsibility for the decline of the USA into the feudal fascist shithole, the nihilistic cultural wasteland, it has become, but I did try to do my patriotic duty to change the trajectory. Some American assholes say I'm a traitor to the USA. Well, I did volunteer to serve 3 years in the US Army, as a Combat Engineer, earned the rank of Specialist, and was honorably discharged at the end of my enlistment. And ANY American who has not served in the US armed forces and dares to question my patriotism can go ahead and STFU. I was also involved in the political process. I ran for US Senator in 1990,  US Congress Minnesota 5th District in 1992,   and worked on a state-wide ballot initiative in Alaska in 2000. I was at the WTO protest in Seattle in 1999, I marched against the first attack on Iraq in 1990, and against the second in 2003. So any American who questions my patriotism and whose extent of political participation extends to no more than voting in rigged elections, buying an "I'm with Her" t-shirt or putting a Trump sign in their yard can also go ahead and STFU. You can question my patriotism when you have done as much as I have. Or more. I'm not "anti-American", I'm anti-fascist, and only those who have done more than I have to try to improve the USA are qualified to criticize my efforts or my patriotism. 

So, I hope this puts to rest the allegations of my "anti-Americanism".  But maybe I'm just a regular asshole?  Rude, disrespectful, short-tempered, aggressive, violent. You know, a real asshole in anybody's book. Am I? Maybe so. Let's see...  

Rude? I'll admit I always try to speak frankly. I don't mince words. I have dealt in serious business most of my life, four years as a soldier (in the US and Novorussian armies), ten years as an outlaw (cannabis smuggler) in the US and Mexico, I was a bouncer in several very tough venues, and I also spent over ten years as a crew leader, lead climber and lumberjack, the most dangerous job in the USA.   These kinds of jobs require fast, decisive, correct competent action, not diplomacy, debate or "pretty please with sugar on top". I also spent 5 years in federal prison, almost half of it in Maximum Security, surrounded by merciless psychopaths (the guards) as well as convicted felons. I learned there how to deal with threats and challenges in a direct and effective way, and it has stuck with me.

Disrespectful? I treat every person I meet with common courtesy, giving them the benefit of the doubt and an opportunity to prove, by their actions, what kind of person they really are. But I have zero respect for fools, cowards, bullies and above all, hypocrites, and I have no problem or hesitation in calling it as I see it. So, if you don't want me to call you an asshole, don't act like one, and I won't. If you do, I most certainly will.

I have nothing but contempt and disgust for political correctness and identity politics of any kind, and do not  apologize for ridiculing the ridiculous. I'm a Communist, which above all means egalitarian, and I treat everyone as equals until they prove differently. I've had the privilege of meeting many people who were better than me - morally, intellectually, artistically, and I treat them with the respect they deserve, try to learn from them and emulate them as best I can. And I have met my share of inferiors - idiots, cowards, hypocrites, liars, and I do not even pretend to hide my contempt and disgust for them. Why should I? 

I don't give a fuck what people like that think, about me or anything else. I respect people who are honest and work not just for their own interests, but for the betterment or the whole, (which in the final analysis is in their own interest as well.) I respect people who do what they say they will do, and I do not respect those who don't. I respect people who are good at their jobs, who fulfill their responsibilities and obligations, who advance their careers by their effort and competence, not by back-stabbing and sabotaging their competitors. I respect people who have courage and dedication, who are in it for more than just themselves. Above all, I respect people with intellectual, logical and moral principles. And as for people who lack these principles, I respect them exactly to the degree which they endeavor to attain them. Some people make no effort and never will, and as for them I have no respect. They are just a waste.

 As for special privileges for minorities, I don't care if you're a Gay Black Left-handed Trans-gender Midget Rastafarian with ADHD. It's your "identity", not mine, so you deal with it, but don't expect any categorical privileges from me. And even if all the above applies to you, I'll treat you the same as I treat everybody else - with the respect due to your contribution to a better world for everybody. Or lack thereof. 

 You are not your job or your income or education, not your skin color or your gender, that is not what defines you as a human being. You are what you do, no more, no less. Your actions (or lack thereof) and how they affect the present and future world we all share, THAT is all and exactly what you are. Your actions. And they are exactly the basis upon which I will judge your worth as a human being. And I judge my own worth based on my own actions, how well I cross the space between what I do and what I could do, and how the results of what I do affect the world.  All the rest of it is just distraction and bullshit.

Am I short-tempered? I've been a political activist for most of the last 30 years, mostly against war - the "Drug War" and the many illegal wars of aggression the US has waged in the last 30 years. I've been telling people the truth for decades now, that Oswald didn't kill JFK, that the US election system is rigged, that the US and Western media is propaganda and pure bullshit, that 9/11 was an inside job, that Iraq had no WMD's, that Gaddafi wasn't a murderous tyrant, that the US was backing nazis in Ukraine, that Assad didn't gas anybody and that Gusano Gaido is not the President of Venezuela. So, I've been pretty patient for the last 30 years. I've been trying to enlighten and help people for 30 years, idiots, cowards, hypocrites, who are too stupid (intentionally or otherwise) to understand or even try, but who are quick and loud to condemn me for trying to help them see the truth. After 30 fucking years, it's starting to get old, and it should come as no surprise that this cultivated and intentional militant ignorance is finally starting to piss me off. 

Am I aggressive? I've been in about 300 fistfights in my life (mostly due to my job as a bouncer. Mostly.) and in less than a dozen have I hit first. I don't like to fight, I have learned that even if you win quickly and easily, you still usually sustain some injury yourself. It's an important lesson, and one I learned well, and the hard way. I also learned in prison that some people cannot be reasoned with, have no humanity or morality to appeal to, and so their aggression must be met with defensive violence or submission. I've never been the submissive type, but nor do I seek to dominate anyone else. I'm not a big fan of "The Golden Rule", though I do respect and understand the logic and morality behind it. I'm no saint, so I have my own rule, I call it "The Iron Rule". I am not yet spiritually evolved enough to follow the admonition of Jesus and treat people as I would want them to treat me. I have my own rule - I treat people as they treat me, only more so. It's pretty basic and fair, and it works for me. If you help me, I will help you more. If you hurt me or try to hurt me, or the people and causes I love, I will hurt you, without apology, hesitation or regret, and I will do it in such a way that you will think long and hard before you try it again. It's simple - with me, you reap what you sow. Plus interest.

The world today is in a very serious situation. There are those who intend to enslave and exterminate Humanity, to rule the world, to return it to a dark and feudal past. I and my Comrades do all we can to stop them. It is serious work for serious people, and we have no time for poseurs or spectators, armchair quarterbacks who demand fake civility, hollow courtesies or any other extraneous bullshit. It is a life or death struggle, the fight is on, and it will end only with the victory of one side and the destruction of the other. What we do now will determine whether the 10% of oligarchs and their minions will enslave and destroy 90% of Humanity like livestock and insects, or whether the 90% will liberate and cure itself of this deadly parasitic infestation of would-be masters. You are either on one side or the other, neutrality is not an option. If you are willing and able, then join us. If you are unwilling or unable, or offended by our efforts, it would be best for you to simply shut up the fuck up and get the fuck out of our way. And as they say in Paris these days, "Pardon my French"...