This is outrageous, and people don’t even realize the severity of it. They’re behaving and speaking as though US citizens no longer have the freedom to choose their favorite candidate. Did we reach a time period when we’re no longer allowed to choose for ourselves based on what we think? Stop and think what this means. They are taking away any remaining power from the people, and we didn’t have that much freedom, and power left to begin with. For decades they have been adding small doses of control, and gradually taking away small amounts of freedom from the citizens, and they’ve been doing it gradually, slowly over decades, so that the citizens wouldn’t notice what is being done to them. Will they now decide and choose everything for us, and we either go along with what they want, or be branded a dangerous terrorist, a racist, etc... Will they completely get rid of presidential elections, and take full control over who gets to be in the White House? It sure does seem like it’s what they’re going, because obviously, choosing the wrong candidate turns you into a terrorist, racist, white supremacist, etc...

“Dangerous ideas! This congressman says that there are not many Biden-voters in the National Guard so he questions their reliability.” - from a friend

https://youtu.be/kpa4S2rIGHo

John William Waterhouse: Flora and the Zephyrs, 1898

Pre-Raphaelite artwork is divine

Three bogatyrs: Gorynya, Dubynya and Usynya

Bogatyr Svyatogor

The mighty Bogatyrs were great Slavic warriors

Dobrynya Nikitich

Alesha Popovich

By artist Vasily Buslaev

Volga Vseslavevich is a Kiev bogatyr. It is said that he is the son of a dragon and Princess Martha, and it is believed that he comes from the Kiev princely family. He lives in Kiev. He is priest and wizard, werewolf (can turn into animals and birds, and turn his warriors from the squad into ants). He has a series of military feats. His main achievement is the defeat of the troops of the Turkish Sultan. Hi is the king of hunting. Favorite weapon: bow and arrows, but also he adores the ax as a pair with a shield, and separate to practice. More often he uses the logical model of a “gray wolf”.

Bogatyr is a famous Slavic folkloric warrior character. Bogatyrs appear mainly in Rus’ epic poems—bylinas. Bogatyrs are akin to Western European knight-errant. Bogatyrs are also connected to the reign of Vladimir the Great (Grand Prince of Kiev from 980 to 1015) as part of his elite warriors (druzhina akin to Knights of the Round table. Bogatyrs were not like regular men according Slavic epic poems Bylinas. It is written in bylinas that Bogatyr Volga Vseslavevich after birth started growing not by months, weeks, or hours, but by minutes. It’s says his crib broke apart, because he got too big too fast. His mother was frightened of how fast he was growing. By age 6 he went away to wander the land of Rus. All living things, the animals, the birds, the fish were frightened of him when they heard his loud footsteps, which made the earth shake. Of course it’s understandable that the mythological poems Bylinas are not exactly describing bogatyrs in a literal sense, but still, these texts are trying to explain in poetic form that bogatyrs were different from ordinary humans.

Bylinas say that by 15 Volga Vseslavevich was putting together his crew of warriors. It clearly says he was not like a regular human. His had immense strength, fighting skills, and courage. She also had supernatural abilities and possessed knowledge of magic. He can fly through the sky as a falcon, and run through the forest as a grey wolf. So Slavic bogatyrs were no ordinary men.

Description of Slavic bogatyr (Volga Vseslavevich somewhat reminds me of Slavic god Veles. Bogatyr Volga Vseslavevich was a son of a dragon and Slavic princes Martha. God Veles is also associated with dragons/serpent. Volga Vseslavevich wasn’t just a great warrior, but also a priest and a wizard. God Veles is associated with magic, knowledge, wisdom. Volga Vseslavevich was king of hunting, and although god Veles was not known as king of hunting, he was king of the forest, king of wild beasts. Another parallel between them is that both God Veles, and Volga Vseslavevich could both take the form of large grey wolf.

S.S. Solomko. Russian bogatyr, Nastasya Korolevichna. There were also Slavic female bogatyrs

Female bogatyr Nastasya Mikulichna, daughter of Mikula Selyaninovich (art by A. Ryabushkin,1898)