The latest volume of the Red Wheel can be summed up by a despairing telegram sent from Guchkov to Alekseev:
The current state of affairs is this:
1) The Provisional Government possesses no real power, and its instructions are being carried out only to the extent allowed by the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. . .the troops, railways, post and telegraph are in its hands. One can say outright that the Provisional Government exists only as long as the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies allow it.
2) The initial degradation of reserve units is progressing--and there can be no question of sending a significant number of personnel reinforcements to the army in the next few months.
3) Equally hopeless is the issue of reinforcing the army's mounted component. The requisitioning of horses has had to be curtailed so as not to exacerbate the populace's mood.
4). . .All the new artillery and other formations cannot be implemented by the dates set.
The Russian Revolution looked like the harmless abdication of the Tsar in favor of the elected Duma, a peaceful transfer of power to democracy. But the revolution swiftly, nay, instantly ran past that goalpost and all power was dumped in the hands of an unelected shadowy coven of intellectuals called the 'Executive Committee.' These communists controlled the press and through the press the people. You didn't dare cross them in anything because they could sick the mob on you with a virtual Death Note -- write down in a newspaper that such and such was a counterrevolutionary and he was done.
The Russian Revolution may have done this at lightspeed, but America is in exactly the same position. The elected representatives have no power and the press controls everything. A shadowy group of intellectuals meet together and decide what is fit to print and what isn't, and then they censor everyone else into oblivion. This is exactly the current situation. When Trump is president, the press invents stupid scandals from whole cloth and embroil him in endless stupid controversies so that nothing can be done and the people who elected him find themselves completely ignored. Then when Biden is president, he's so clearly senile that no one even cares what he's doing and we ask the press point blank what the real agenda is. Then the power behind the thrones, Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc., publish what is okay to think and censor what isn't from ever reaching anyone's eyes. There is no democracy at any point. No matter which voters gain the majority, which elected representatives are in power, only one group controls the railroads, telegraphs, soldiers and press. The government answers to them, they don't answer to the government. The powers that be can rouse the popular anger and Death Note anyone (it's called 'cancel culture' now), but when politicians ask for support it's like pushing on a wet noodle. The President of the United States is banned from talking to his own people, and is suddenly brought up on various ridiculous charges.
For Democracy to mean something, elected representatives must be more powerful than any other body in the nation. But the deep state, the press, the social media tech owners, the attorney general, the courts, it turns out everyone on Earth is more powerful. America lost its democracy to a second revolution just like Russia, only no one has noticed. Guchkov hasn't pointed this out to anyone over here.
The Tsar is pathetic in how he keeps trusting the people who overthrew him to treat him and his family well despite the fact that they have no reason to do so. He had the opportunity to flee the country but didn't take it, so now he's under house arrest. As we all know he and his family will soon be slaughtered by a detachment of Bolshevik Jews, but that part of the story hasn't transpired yet. It's frustrating watching this clueless nitwit stumble into the abyss though.
It's also pathetic how the Provisional Government hasn't asserted its authority in a single issue or called on loyal citizens or troops or anybody to obey their duly elected authority and instead grovel before these scumbag Soviets, simply rubber stamping their every command.
The Russian Revolution is a story of how pathetic everyone but Lenin was, in the end. Go figure Lenin wins.
It's also pathetic how the Allies are cheering the demise of the Tsar. They're so clueless they don't realize this is Germany's greatest victory and that soon all those troops from the Eastern Front will be pouring into France. They care more about 'democracy' beating 'autocracy' than the actual war in front of them currently grinding up all the men in their countries. And actually, the Soviet rule is infinitely more tyrannical than the Tsar's, so they didn't even have a reason to celebrate on the idealistic front either.
It's a depressing volume that covers only a short period of time, a few days, and yet the situation goes from bad to worse so quickly, almost like every time you go to sleep and wake up you find yourself twenty years older. There's no time to recover from the previous crisis before the next presents itself.
I'll of course be looking forward to the next translated volume of Red Wheel.
Meanwhile, Imouto Sae Ireba Ii volume 11 was a quick and easy read. It's hard to really call this a book, it's so short. But in any case, Itsuki has writer's block for the stupid reason that he suddenly hates incest and so can't write the continuation of his stories' plots anymore. Instead of writing, he drinks alcohol, goes on dates, plays a card game, and attends a family dinner. Then when he tries to write a book his girlfriend says the book sucks so they may as well break up since she doesn't love him anymore. It reminds me of Hatsukoi 1/1. Make any little misstep, do anything that doesn't live up to your previous self, and boom you're done. It's realistic but it's also pathetic. Sort of like the sleepwalking Tsar marching to his doom or the Provisional Government.
Will Itsuki and Nayuta settle their differences? Will Itsuki's next book be more talented? Will Haruto get with a girl, any girl? Find out in the next volume of Imouto Ireba Z!
As for me, I still have a new volume of Xanth to read. The previous one was absolutely awful but they can't all be that bad. I'm sure this one will regress to the Xanth mean.
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