To Quote Edmund Burke: “Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.”

Soviet painting - Bloody Sunday massacre in St Petersburg

I'm watching Cheyenne Autumn this afternoon, a very good movie, but still a movie, about the total mistreatment of the Cheyenne Indians by the government and the US population in general, largely resulting from ignorance and fear. But, that's not what I'm writing about just the spark of the thought, and a comment. In the movie one of the characters commented during the chase that he wasn't a Cossack, and that brought to mind the Cossacks of the Tsar and Imperial Russia, and that history's repeating itself today in the "Cossacks" of the President and the Imperial U.S.
For example there's Sunday, 22 January1905 in St. Petersburg Russia, where unarmed demonstrators led by Father Gapon were fired upon by soldiers of the Imperial Guard as they marched towards the Winter Palace to deliver a petition to Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.
Showing the government's, and the Tsar's, disregard for ordinary people this undermined the state, provoked public outrage and a series of massive strikes that spread quickly throughout the rest  of  Russia. The massacre is thought to be the start of the of the revolution in 1905 and the precursor of the revolution in 1917, that ultimately overthrew and killed the Tsar and his family, changing Russia completely.
The march on the Tsar's palace was neither revolutionary nor rebellious. The workers of St. Petersburg wished only fair treatment and working conditions; they petitioned the tsar hoping he'd act for them. They believed Tsar Nicholas would help them, once made aware of their situation. The marchers didn't know that the Tsar left on Saturday 21 January 1905.
To make a long story short, the first shooting happened between 10 and 11am. As late as 2pm large family groups were out walking as on any Sunday afternoon, unaware of the violence in the city. There were groups of workers still making their way to the Winter Palace as originally intended by Gapon. A detachment of the Preobrazhensky Guards had been at the Palace Square with about 2,300 soldiers held in reserve. It formed two ranks opposite the Alexander Gardens. There was a single shouted warning before a bugle sounded and four volleys were fired into the panicked crowd, many, possibly most of whom, had not been participants in the march. Cossacks and regular cavalry made charges using their sabers or trampling the people. Casualties were estimated from a few to as many as 4-5000 depending on the source.
What's my point you ask? The Imperial Government of the US, in a growing police state, is now

arming and using its version of Cossacks, the national and local militarized police, to attack unarmed demonstrators, who are, in many if not most cases, protesting the murder, by these same police, of innocent, unarmed, people. Governments and people never seem to learn. Governments can't seem to resist holding their people down, and people by their very nature are destined to mistreat and abuse other people, whether through ignorance, just plain meanness, or psychopathic insanity these seem to be the people drawn to crime, police or military work. There are of course normal, good people too, but invariably they out  of fear of reprisal or fear of loss of position keep their mouths shut and allow the evil to flourish.
So, after time has gone by, instead of learning from history, where we once fought Nazism, and fascism, and communism our own country having forgotten the lessons learned by our grandfathers and fathers we allow our leaders to turn the USA into a Nazi/fascist/communist country and watch as they use the police and military, just as the Tsar used Cossacks to try and eliminate through murder, and beatings, through arrest and punishment, anyone that disagrees or demonstrates, and tries to stop the descent into evil.

Lee Murray