Comrades, is the sky falling in? I only just posted about Kim Jong Un's, uh, "disappearance" and now a tycoon is predicting Comrade Putin's downfall? He is suggesting that Putin is overplaying his hand and that too much power is focused in the person of Putin. Well, duh, what does he think dictators do??

But this is just frightening, Comrades. Where is the dictator stability? A little while ago we lost Comrade Chavez of Venezuela, recently Kim Jong Un seems to have become a non-person, then Dear Leader of the USSA retires on January 20, 2017, eventually Comrade Vlad Putin might fall, and what next? Will the Castro dynasty lose Cuba? Honestly, Comrades, I think the only safe and stable regime is the USSA. Even if Dear Leader does not find an excuse to stay on and speechify that those who don't like it are racist™ the system will just find a new puppet to read the teleprompter.

But all these dominoes falling is starting to scare me, Comrades. Might I be forced to think for myself at some point? Might there someday not be a regime that can do all my thinking for me? I can't handle that. Maybe we need a change.org petition to keep the dictators of the world in power?

Old Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times.". obviously you are cursed.

Don't worry yourself, Comrade Vlad Linen,

I have a relative who, throughout her life, refused to take responsibility for anything. Nothing.

She had a husband who provided her generously with money, beautiful homes, etc. He did this because he was busy making money as an engineer and didn't want to be bothered with the relatively small stuff, like homes, etc. He is responsible for that and acknowledges it today.

Even her young children, a boy and a girl, told her to divorce him and get another husband. They saw it coming. It's not as if her husband was a bad dude, or anything, they just saw that things weren't working out. She fed them TV Dinners, Grilled cheese sandwiches with an occasional tomato, and maybe a pot of chile. She never bothered to learn how to cook properly and bumped furniture as an expression of outrage when she had to vacuum.

This relative is now on SS and Medicare. She is running out of money. Somehow she took herself to a shrink and her brother found a prescription for medicine that treats delusion. She was found to be delusional. Her brother called the shrink and found this to be true. He called to tell him that she thought there were people invading her attic and stealing cabbages, stuffing her dryer vent with lint, raping her, and causing her hair to turn grey.

When he asked her if she had told her shrink about this, she said "Oh, no! If I told him that he would think I was crazy."

After all the help that has been offered to her, she refuses everything. Will not do anything to help herself. This has been going on for decades. It's not a recent phenomenon. She seems to enjoy being miserable.

When she calls to express her plight, and is met with those who say they are sick of her complaints, after all of their advice, she says "I just need to know someone cares, that's all!"

So, her plight lies in the hands of those who are busy fighting and earning a piece of stability in this world. They just may not be in a position to help her even if they want to. That is the cost they have to measure.

That's my metaphor for today.

I inserted a picture into the lead post, by a Ukrainian cartoonist who had an open exhibition in July. There's more here.

In pictures: Witty Ukrainian cartoons depict downfall of Putin

Here's another one.