It sure is getting interesting,  and scary at the same time. There has been a huge crisis in Russia. Whenever you have an armed revolt in a country that has Nuclear Weapons you have to sit up and take notice. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian Private Army, called Wagner Group Military Corp, claimed that Russia’s own forces shelled his troops that were fighting for Russia. Prigozhin, as I am sure the world has heard, began transporting his troops toward Moscow in an open rebellion against Putin. Yevgeny did eventually back down and has been promised asylum in Bulgaria but I am sure that this story is not over yet. Are we seeing the end of Putin’s reign of terror? I don’t know but I do hope so.

The thing that jumps out to me is a Private Army? Wagner Group Military Corp. is a private army that is contracted by the Russians to fight in Ukraine.  Though my understanding is they have fought in other places too. The privatization of an army. This is not what I would call a bunch of mercenaries that that were hired by someone like a king to help fight against our patriots like the German mercenaries that fought for England during our Revolution. This sounds like an Army for Profit, an Army for hire that is not totally answerable to the typical “Chain of Command”.  Just think of a private army with tanks, helicopters and 25,000 of their own troops that can just turn around and begin marching on the capital. Just maybe there are some things that should never be privatized and Armies for War is one of them.

In many parts of this country you have citizens that think that they have a right to form their own Militias that are not answerable to any chain of command. That is why the Second Amendment starts out by saying  “A well Regulated Militia being necessary for a Free State”. The framers of our Constitution had no intention of having unregulated armies running around our States. We know that Bush played around with hiring private soldiers from a private company called Blackwater for security in Iraq and that didn’t turn out very well with the killing of civilians. Four Blackwater employees were convicted but eventually pardoned by Trump. The company still exists, but now it is an international company for hire. I find that very scary.

I can think of a few things that should not be privatized and Armies are one of them. Our Arms manufacturing is already a for profit business that is supplying and wreaking havoc here and abroad. Guns that are manufactured here in the United States are killing people all over the world which just makes the refugee crisis worse all over the world. Drug Cartels, Terrorist Organizations, War Lords and suppressive governments purchase guns made here in America. We aren’t the only country doing it but we are one of the leaders. People are getting rich off the suffering that we help create around the world. Children are dying here and abroad for profit. After we have helped cause the problem people coming to our border seeking asylum are treated like criminals. We have a Presidential candidate that wants to change the rules of engagement for our Border Patrols to one that shoots first and asked questions later.

Things that can suppress the minds of our children maybe should not be privatized. Didn’t Hitler say that “He alone who owns the youth gains the future.” That is what is a quote being used by the Moms for Liberty. That is the same quote that Hitler used in a speech in 1935. Private Schools and Religious organizations that are saying that our Public Schools are indoctrinating our children are the very groups that want to indoctrinate our children. They wish to use our tax dollars to help create a Fascist America and that statement is not over reacting. They are the very groups that want to ban books from libraries. They are the very groups that want to eliminate the teaching of Black history. They are the very groups that want to teach that there are two sides to the Holocaust. Hitler wanted to teach the superiority of the Arian Race. By eliminating anything but White history, aren’t they trying to do same thing?

When we privatize functions of government what type of oversight is there going to be, if any. To privatize the garbage pickup is one thing but to privatize things like prisons or police is another. Prisons for profit to me just doesn’t sound like a very good or humane thing. The more people you have incarcerated the more profitable you are. I don’t feel like this is a situation where you want to eliminate crime. According to the World Atlas site we are one of the countries that have the highest prison population in the world. We have 5 percent of the world’s population and yet we have 22 percent of the prison population. We have a total of 2.2 million people in our prisons. Is there money in keeping our prison populations as high as they are? I do know that there has been a trend to privatize our prison systems more. I just can’t see how locking people up for profit helps us address crime.

I don’t think that government is something to fear in this country as many Conservatives would lead you to believe. As long as we our exercise our constitutional right to vote to direct our government we will be ok. You know a government “Of the People, By the People, For the People”, is the vision of the framers of our Constitution. It is when we have voter suppression and gerrymandering like we have today to manipulate the outcomes of our elections is when we have government that we should fear.