American Sodom II ("Great" Men, Seven.)

My black face fades,

hiding inside the black granite.
I said I wouldn't
dammit: No tears.
I'm stone. I'm flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night slanted against morning. 

I turn this way—the stone lets me go.
I turn that way—I'm inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58,022 names,
half-expecting to find
my own in letters like smoke. 

I touch the name Andrew Johnson; 

I see the booby trap's white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman's blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.
Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's
wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet's image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I'm a window.
He's lost his right arm
inside the stone. In the black mirror
a woman’s trying to erase names:
No, she's brushing a boy's hair.

~Facing It, by Yusef Komunyakaa, US Army Veteran

...

The Holy Quran says it, "Pilgrimage to the House [of God built by the prophet Abraham] is a duty men owe to God; those who are able, make the journey." (3:97) Allah said: "And proclaim the pilgrimage among men; they will come to you on foot and upon each lean camel, they will come from every deep ravine" (22:27). Every one of the thousands at the airport, about to leave for Jeddah, was dressed this way. You could be a king or a peasant and no one would know. Some powerful personages, who were discreetly pointed out to me, had on the same thing I had on. Once thus dressed, we all had begun intermittently calling out "Labbayka! (Allahumma) Labbayka!" (Here I come, O Lord!) Packed in the plane were white, black, brown, red, and yellow people, blue eyes and blond hair, and my kinky red hair -- all together, brothers! All honoring the same God, all in turn giving equal honor to each other. . . .That is when I first began to reappraise the "white man." It was when I first began to perceive that "white man," as commonly used, means complexion only secondarily; primarily it described attitudes and actions. In America, "white man" meant specific attitudes and actions toward the black man, and toward all other non-white men. But in the Muslim world, I had seen that men with white complexions were more genuinely brotherly than anyone else had ever been. That morning was the start of a radical alteration in my whole outlook about "white" men. ~Malcolm X.

...

And so tomorrow, as we take the campaign South and West, as we learn that the struggles of the textile workers in Spartanburg are not so different than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas; that the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of L.A.; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people, we are one nation. And, together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story, with three words that will ring from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea: Yes, we can. ~Barack Obama

I saw this last night.

First off, if they're so right or so righteous, why do people like Cindy Hyde-Smith or Virginia Foxx (who lost her seat last night) always look so goddamn miserable and like their standard meal is nothing but a bowl-full of razor blades and sliced lemons every damn day??

Second, It turns out, naturally, that the Ole Miss monkey-noises bitch is from a family that owns a bunch of car dealerships around the country, and the company got busted for putting racial slurs on their oil change stickers, in Wisconsin of all places. Pardon me? 

Who the fuck even does that or would think of doing such a thing. I mean, what's even the damn point??

Aside from the creation of an American Sodom?

Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen. ~Ezekiel 16:49-50 (NIV)

Supposedly, the employee who did it has been fired.

There's just one problem with that, at least where *I've* worked, nothing but the most need-it-right-now, it's-a-damn-emergency stuff like done up when the supervisors aren't around that makes it to being printed out in the first place does so without a member of management (or designated person if there isn't a lead present) looking it over first. They're usually the ones who do that stuff in the first place! Especially if it's anything public-facing.

I've never, ever, had a job where racism wasn't automatically and immediately subject to discipline if reported, and yes, that includes the military.

Going to guess Alaina or whatever her name is probably doesn't really have to worry about a job. She'll just end up selling cars or some shit.

So "Whiteness" basically, that's the damn point.

We've got to take the neighborhood back. We've got to go in there. Just forget telling your child to go to the Peace Corps. It's right around the corner. It's standing on the corner. It can't speak English. It doesn't want to speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk. "Why you ain't where you is go." I don't know who these people are. And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. Then I heard the father talk. This is all in the house. You used to talk a certain way on the corner and you got into the house and switched to English. Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't land a plane with "why you ain't…". You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. There is no Bible that has that kind of language. Where did these people get the idea that they're moving ahead on this? Well, they know they're not, they're just hanging out in the same place, five or six generations sitting in the projects when you're just supposed to stay there long enough to get a job and move out. ~Bill Cosby, the "Pound Cake" speech.

And it's funny how these days, "Conservatism" or Religion is almost always balls-deep in the situation anytime there's some kind of a racist incident or anything that could be interpreted that way.

And then of course there's the fact that these same fucking Trump people keep trying to sell out America (and Europe, and Ukraine) to the Russians. And then they have the balls to keep being surprised when everybody else says "No."

I keep waiting for the moment when Kushner or Witkoff reads or otherwise finds out just what the Russians usually historically do to their "Useful Idiots" the second that said Idiots are no longer useful.

These fucking people got caught entertaining the Russian idea that Finland should have to leave NATO, or that NATO should not have bases in the Baltic States.

There's a reason the Finnish government's response to this shit was "No, absolutely not."

There's a reason Kaja Kallas was speaking out against Russia yesterday.

And the thing that gets me is, on the one hand a hell of a lot of Russians are sour-faced assholes just like Cindy Hyde-Smith or Virginia Foxx (which is probably why a lot of current Republicans prefer Russia to the USA.) But, and here's the thing...if you're not a Russian, the average Russian basically considers you the [Racial Slur Deleted] or at least does so once they've gotten whatever was useful out of you.

Which they'll basically do whatever, tell you whatever, etc. to get. They'll be whoever you want them to be if the price is right. (Which is why the alleged importance of the Russian Orthodox Church in Putin's Russia at the moment is a complete and total utter sham. But I've seen people who believe that crap.)

Then they try to kill you.

When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything. ~Umberto Eco

Reagan Wept.

To quote Baba from The Kite Runner "Fuck The Russia."

Personally I don't even get why any of these motherfuckers, be they Russians or Trumpers, thinks they have some kind of "Right" to change anything.

It's just plain-out narcissism and a desire to kill and steal, that's all it is.

I'm honestly tired of Russia and their criminal-slave culture, and even more tired of all the Americans and other people around the world (most of them political-class idiots and extremely-online CHUDs) that want to emulate that shit. I used to be a Republican, hell, I'm an American and I was taught that America was exceptional. Why then, are these same fucking people trying to sell America (and Europe!) out to a third world criminal shithole??

Don't give me that "Vlad has something on Trump" it doesn't matter. MAGA won't care, and it's a safe bet that the United States Armed Forces could steamroll the Russian Army in a hot minute, without their Aerospace Forces or Navy even seriously coming into play. We've only outgunned the fuckers sine 1945.

Russia can't even defeat Ukraine. I have no fucking idea how they think they're going to take on the rest of Europe, or us without Keg-Breath and Trump completely wrecking the military. That's only going to end one way, with Russia losing.

The only thing they've even got, really, is some compromised politicians.

And ours are hell-bent on turning America into a train-wreck.

Cassian Andor: Kino. Tell them what to do. It has to be you. Come on, Kino. You do this every day. Tell them what to do.

Kino Loy: [presses PA system] My name is Kino Loy. I'm the day shift manager on Level Five. I'm speaking to you from the command center on Level Eight. We are, at this moment, in control of the facility.

Andor: Is that the best you got?

Loy: How long we hang on, how far we get, how many of us make it out, all of that is now up to us. We have deactivated every floor in the facility. All floors are cold. Wherever you are right now, get up, stop the work. Get out of your cells, take charge and start climbing. They don't have enough guards and they know it. If we wait until they figure that out, it'll be too late. We will never have a better chance than this and [looks at Cassian, knowing he said it] "I would rather die trying to take them down than giving them what they want." We know they fried a hundred men on Level Two. We know that they are making up our sentences as we go along. We know that no one outside here knows what's happening. And now we know, that when they say we are being released, we are being transferred to some other prison to go and die, and that ends today! There is one way out. Right now, the building is ours. You need to run, climb, kill! You need to help each other. You see someone who's confused, someone who is lost, you get them moving and you keep them moving until we put this place behind us. There are 5,000 of us. If we can fight half as hard as we've been working, we will be home in no time. One way out!

[repeats it multiple times as he leaves the command center]

Andor: Come on! Let's get out of here!

~From the series "Andor" S1 E10 "One Way Out."

People like Trump and all his bootlicking enablers (like Marco Rubio) are selling out because they want to. This is what Republicans call "Great Men."

When is enough going to be enough with all this fucking bullshit?

Again I've got a partner and a kid to think about here. I can't afford to keep living like this!

I mean, among other things I've noted in this life; It seems like anybody in Russia with the means to get out of Russia does so, and it was that way well before the war with Ukraine (and it used to be that way with a lot of the other East Bloc and former-Soviet states as well.)

And I can't help but wonder if America or parts of America are headed that way, the likelihood that Trump goes down is extreme at this point, but a lot of the damage has been done. Among other things, one is probably safer on an outbound international flight at this point. Yeah, I saw that FAA ground-stop yesterday and the resulting chaos.

And the Microsoft 365 Snow Day.

And my own workplace having computer issues all day yesterday and last night, and I guess that was everywhere, too.

None of this shit is fucking normal.

These idiots are, I think, basically trying to groom the average American citizen into being a Russian peasant for them to rule over, but it's not working.

Remember when your High School History teacher said "The course of human events changes because of the deeds of great men"?. Well the bitch was lying. Fuck Julius Caesar, fuck Abe Lincoln, fuck Mahatma Gandhi. The world keeps moving because of you and me: the anonymous. Revolutions get started because people don't have enough bread. Wars start over a game of checkers. ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO Series "Oz" S1, E8 "A Game Of Checkers."

I'm tired of this crap.

And I'm not the only one.

But, then these fucking people, these "MAGA" Republicans and shit, have the balls to wonder why they keep losing.

Let alone why they lost last Tuesday.

Because they've fucked up basically everything.

Because they're all losers and weird narcissists, that's why.

Because we put a plumber (who's only anybody because he inherited his dad's company) and a total dumbass "Reality" TV star in charge of important shit, that's why.

If you think the Chinese (who are the peer that Russia isn't) are doing anything comparably stupid, you're wrong.

Freedom requires a bit of intelligence.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

And if we're not all free, then none of us are free.

Слава Україна!

If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan

Six

America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. And every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American. Today, we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation's promise through civility, courage, compassion, and character. America, at its best, matches a commitment to principle with a concern for civility. A civil society demands from each of us good will and respect, fair dealing and forgiveness. Some seem to believe that our politics can afford to be petty because, in a time of peace, the stakes of our debates appear small. ~George W. Bush

 

American Sodom I (Great Men, Six.)

The Holy Quran says it, "Pilgrimage to the House [of God built by the prophet Abraham] is a duty men owe to God; those who are able, make the journey." (3:97) Allah said: "And proclaim the pilgrimage among men; they will come to you on foot and upon each lean camel, they will come from every deep ravine" (22:27). Every one of the thousands at the airport, about to leave for Jeddah, was dressed this way. You could be a king or a peasant and no one would know. Some powerful personages, who were discreetly pointed out to me, had on the same thing I had on. Once thus dressed, we all had begun intermittently calling out "Labbayka! (Allahumma) Labbayka!" (Here I come, O Lord!) Packed in the plane were white, black, brown, red, and yellow people, blue eyes and blond hair, and my kinky red hair -- all together, brothers! All honoring the same God, all in turn giving equal honor to each other. . . .That is when I first began to reappraise the "white man." It was when I first began to perceive that "white man," as commonly used, means complexion only secondarily; primarily it described attitudes and actions. In America, "white man" meant specific attitudes and actions toward the black man, and toward all other non-white men. But in the Muslim world, I had seen that men with white complexions were more genuinely brotherly than anyone else had ever been. That morning was the start of a radical alteration in my whole outlook about "white" men. ~Malcolm X.

...

My black face fades,

hiding inside the black granite.
I said I wouldn't
dammit: No tears.
I'm stone. I'm flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night slanted against morning. 

I turn this way—the stone lets me go.
I turn that way—I'm inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58,022 names,
half-expecting to find
my own in letters like smoke. 

I touch the name Andrew Johnson; 

I see the booby trap's white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman's blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.
Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's
wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet's image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I'm a window.
He's lost his right arm
inside the stone. In the black mirror
a woman’s trying to erase names:
No, she's brushing a boy's hair.

~Facing It, by Yusef Komunyakaa, US Army Veteran

...

If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan

I saw this last night.

Jake Lang showed up to Ole Miss in an APE MASK looking to cause trouble.

As if the electoral ass-beating These Fucking People have taken in the last week isn't enough, well let's just say if I'd ever done anything like that, not that such would ever have occurred to me, I'd have been eating nothing but knuckle sandwiches for awhile, and I'd have deserved it.

As far as I'm concerned, at the rate this shit is going it's probably literally gonna have to come down to whuppin' these people's asses one by one until they either fucking get it or just shut the fuck up. I no longer care which.

I mean, among other things, my best friend in the Air Force was Black. That dude saved my life once. I first as an adult got Saved and baptized by a Black pastor in a pretty mixed church, and among other things, a lot of the people who helped keep my spiritual life going when I'd rather have focused on anything but that were, again, not White People.

I wouldn't be here without those folks, it was a close run thing with them in my life.

Apparently on election night, Cindy Hyde-Smith was talking real big.

We've got to take the neighborhood back. We've got to go in there. Just forget telling your child to go to the Peace Corps. It's right around the corner. It's standing on the corner. It can't speak English. It doesn't want to speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk. "Why you ain't where you is go." I don't know who these people are. And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. Then I heard the father talk. This is all in the house. You used to talk a certain way on the corner and you got into the house and switched to English. Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't land a plane with "why you ain't…". You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. There is no Bible that has that kind of language. Where did these people get the idea that they're moving ahead on this? Well, they know they're not, they're just hanging out in the same place, five or six generations sitting in the projects when you're just supposed to stay there long enough to get a job and move out. ~Bill Cosby, the "Pound Cake" speech.

Gonna guess she's probably not doing that now.

Cope, Republicans.

Dude had bipartisan support to be a federal judge. 

She could have just not screwed with his nomination and left it at that.

Had she done this obvious thing, she'd probably have beat whoever the MS Democrats put up. But, she didn't. So, I love the FAFO and the Karma on this one, fuck all that.

Bitch can spend the rest of her days playing Pickleball with her pals at whatever dumbass HOA events she hangs out at for all I care.

And so tomorrow, as we take the campaign South and West, as we learn that the struggles of the textile workers in Spartanburg are not so different than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas; that the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of L.A.; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people, we are one nation. And, together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story, with three words that will ring from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea: Yes, we can. ~Barack Obama

It's 2026, maybe it's just me but I'd have thought that the GOP should have stopped letting these Old-Ass Segregationist fossils be in the party, much less run for office. 

Of course then Obama got elected and the Old-Ass Segregationist Fossils chased everybody else out.

And I mean, they chased us out like the goddamn T-Rex in Jurassic Park chasing a couple of kids fleeing from a wrecked Ford Explorer.

At the end of the day, it was just easier for a lot of people like me to switch teams than to keep trying to Save a Republican Party that, for all intents and purposes, simply didn't wanna be Saved.

I hate to sound that way, but you gotta want to be Saved.

America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. And every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American. Today, we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation's promise through civility, courage, compassion, and character. America, at its best, matches a commitment to principle with a concern for civility. A civil society demands from each of us good will and respect, fair dealing and forgiveness. Some seem to believe that our politics can afford to be petty because, in a time of peace, the stakes of our debates appear small. ~George W. Bush

And These Fucking People believe in their Narcissism and Racism more than they believe in God.

There is simply no such thing as basic respect for other people, for institutions, for the Law, even for the honored Dead when it comes to these assholes.

There is no good faith to be had.

These are not even the Republicans of my era, of 20-25 years ago who could still have some basic Humanity, even when it was inconvenient or went against them to have it.

Bigotry, disrespect, dishonor, is simply what they fucking do. You can't negotiate with this bullshit. You can't even trust these people not to lie to your face for absolutely no good reason whatever. 

There is basically no purpose to communication with these jerkoffs. 

Rampant Disrespect undermines the fucking foundations of civilization and society on a basic level. Lying...especially to the degree that they do it...perverts the entire purpose of speech. And when you factor in that so many of these people pretty much instantly rearranged their entire moral order around one man? 

Seriously, what's even the damn point??

Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen. ~Ezekiel 16:49-50 (NIV)

What is the difference between us and the goddamn Barbarians??

Well, aside from the fact that no damn Barbarian tried to say I should eat a worse kind of meat so economists, Republicans and rich people could make more money. Fuck all that.

In the debate between "Pick another protein" or "Pick another Senator?"

Imma pick another Senator every damn time. 

You do not have the Right to make other people's lives worse just 'cause you think it's funny or profitable, Republicans. No, Fuck You.

It's not just that I don't want my partner or the kid to have to live with this shit. I don't wanna live like that!

I'm so tired of this crap.

And again, this kind of shit is what Republicans think makes "Great Men."

Narcissism and Sociopathy, basically.

Republicans crave the idea of America as a bigger version of the Biblical Sodom.

No.

Remember when your High School History teacher said "The course of human events changes because of the deeds of great men"?. Well the bitch was lying. Fuck Julius Caesar, fuck Abe Lincoln, fuck Mahatma Gandhi. The world keeps moving because of you and me: the anonymous. Revolutions get started because people don't have enough bread. Wars start over a game of checkers. ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO Series "Oz" S1, E8 "A Game Of Checkers."

Fuck that.

No.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

And you're either willing to fight for it or you're not.

Scott Colom seems very much like he's That Guy who understands the mission. It's unfortunate that Republicans have forgotten it, if they ever knew it to begin with.

I remember.

Слава Україна!

When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”

Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”

The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, 28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?”

“If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”

Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?”

He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”

Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?”

He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?”

He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”

Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?”

He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”

When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.

~Genesis 18:16-33

Five

[Kuiil and Mando have successfully repaired the Razor Crest with the parts recovered from the Jawas]

The Mandalorian: I can't thank you enough. Please allow me to give you a portion of the reward.

Kuiil: I cannot accept. You are my guest, and I am therefore in your service.

The Mandalorian: I could use a crew member of your ability. And I can pay handsomely.

Kuiil: I am honored. But I have worked a lifetime to finally be free of servitude.

The Mandalorian: I understand. Then... all I can offer is my thanks.

Kuiil: And I offer mine. Thank you for bringing peace to my valley. [leaves the ship and mounts his Blurrg; to Mando] And good luck with the Child. May it survive and bring you a handsome reward. I have spoken.

~From the Star Wars series; The Mandalorian, S1.E2 "The Child."

Mississippi, Goddamn (Great Men, Five.)

 My black face fades,

hiding inside the black granite.
I said I wouldn't
dammit: No tears.
I'm stone. I'm flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night slanted against morning. 

I turn this way—the stone lets me go.
I turn that way—I'm inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58,022 names,
half-expecting to find
my own in letters like smoke. 

I touch the name Andrew Johnson; 

I see the booby trap's white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman's blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.
Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's
wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet's image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I'm a window.
He's lost his right arm
inside the stone. In the black mirror
a woman’s trying to erase names:
No, she's brushing a boy's hair.

~Facing It, by Yusef Komunyakaa, US Army Veteran

...

During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug) -- while praying to the same God -- with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the "white" Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana. We were truly all the same (brothers) -- because their belief in one God had removed the "white" from their minds, the 'white' from their behavior, and the 'white' from their attitude. I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man -- and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their "differences" in color.

With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called "Christian" white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem. Perhaps it could be in time to save America from imminent disaster -- the same destruction brought upon Germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves.

They asked me what about the Hajj had impressed me the most. . . . I said, "The brotherhood! The people of all races, color, from all over the world coming together as one! It has proved to me the power of the One God. . . . All ate as one, and slept as one. Everything about the pilgrimage atmosphere accented the Oneness of Man under One God. 

~Malcolm X, Letter following the Hajj.

It's Veteran's day.

Scott Colom won in Mississippi.

The (Latest) Ole Miss racist idiot quit school, after issuing a non-apology "Apology." But at least she's gone.

The shit will continue until Racism is not only criminalized but treated as heresy and Sin, which it should be; You think you know better than God who is a person deserving of equality and respect? Fuck you, bitch. I hope you enjoy working at McDonald's. May you be the only White person on the crew, bitch, and I say that as a white dude. 

And honestly, this was on track to be the third year in a row that I, as a veteran, didn't feel much like celebrating anything but then those things happened. I ended up crashing out for most of the day 'cause I was still exhausted from work but I did get a lot of World of Warcraft in today so I can't complain.

Overall it wasn't a bad day.

In fact, I'm thinking "Mississippi, goddamn" but for a whole other reason.

A lot of small wins are adding up.

I don't preach a social Gospel I preach the Gospel, period. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is concerned for the whole person. When people were hungry, Jesus didn't say, "Now is that political or social?" He said, "I feed you." Because the good news to a hungry person is bread. ~Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Maybe, hopefully, enough that we can start to reverse some of the ongoing national idiocy in January.

I mean, somebody apparently is gonna have to go around with a shotgun and make sure all the old-guard elected Democrats show the fuck up. But at least if we push them hard enough I think most of them will.

And when I say "Ongoing national idiocy" I mean stuff like vaccination rates for kids falling.

We've got to take the neighborhood back. We've got to go in there. Just forget telling your child to go to the Peace Corps. It's right around the corner. It's standing on the corner. It can't speak English. It doesn't want to speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk. "Why you ain't where you is go." I don't know who these people are. And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. Then I heard the father talk. This is all in the house. You used to talk a certain way on the corner and you got into the house and switched to English. Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't land a plane with "why you ain't…". You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. There is no Bible that has that kind of language. Where did these people get the idea that they're moving ahead on this? Well, they know they're not, they're just hanging out in the same place, five or six generations sitting in the projects when you're just supposed to stay there long enough to get a job and move out. ~Bill Cosby, the "Pound Cake" speech.

There is NO excuse for this. 

None. Zero.

Not only does education need to be massively revamped, but there needs to be criminal penalties for Antivax woo woo...and if you ask me, for lying in general. The Right is trying to kill people with this garbage and they don't much care if it's mostly their own future voters who die, apparently.

At the level of elected and appointed officials and "elites" the Republican Party certainly is a death cult.

When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything. ~Umberto Eco

I wonder if Republicans get that bad policy and self-destructive stupidity is killing their own people, who they actually need if they ever think they're gonna do anything?

But more to the point, and I think more necessarily; We The People need to stop socially tolerating stupid and motherfucking Tar-and-Feather any asshole that glorifies stupidity or calls basic intelligence "elitism" or "liberal."

I mean among other things it's hard to practice any political philosophy when you're dead. 

I am the way into the city of woe.

I am the way to a forsaken people.
I am the way into eternal sorrow.
Sacred justice moved my architect.
I was raised here by divine omnipotence, primordial love and ultimate intellect
Only those elements time cannot wear are beyond me,
and beyond time I stand.
Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here.'
~Sign above the gates of hell (variant translation) Canto III, Dante's Inferno, the Divine Comedy.

I mean, I get it, bad people and stupid people vote Republican. Therefore Republicans encourage this shit. It ain't the same Republican Party as it was in the 1980's/early 1990's with Reagan and Bush 41 or even in the Aughts with Bush 43, nor what McCain or Romney would have done.

Yes, yes, I remember the arguments K and I had about whether or not Sarah Palin would have been a good VP. Good times, compared to now.

And again, even a lot of Tea Party idiots (and for that matter, half of MAGA) weren't willing to go as far as Trump has pushed things.

Of course, then These Fucking People doubled down and picked Jim Jordan as House Minority Leader.

The guy who was so bad that John Boehner of all people referred to him as a "Legislative Terrorist."

There are times, however, and this is one of them, when even being right feels wrong. What do you say, for instance, about a generation that has been taught that rain is poison and sex is death? If making love might be fatal and if a cool spring breeze on any summer afternoon can turn a crystal blue lake into a puddle of black poison right in front of your eyes, there is not much left except TV and relentless masturbation. It's a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat shit and die. Who knows? If there is in fact, a heaven and a hell, all we know for sure is that hell will be a viciously overcrowded version of Phoenix — a clean well lighted place full of sunshine and bromides and fast cars where almost everybody seems vaguely happy, except those who know in their hearts what is missing... And being driven slowly and quietly into the kind of terminal craziness that comes with finally understanding that the one thing you want is not there. Missing. Back-ordered. No tengo. Vaya con dios. Grow up! Small is better. Take what you can get. ~Hunter S. Thompson, Generation Of Swine.

And remember that Boner (and Paul Ryan) quit because the House Republicans were getting too crazy to manage.

Again, maybe Republicans are the fucking problem?? Note: I say this as a former Republican!

Look, there is no excuse for the degree to which national Democrats have *Not* shown up, either in terms of not supporting candidates like Angie Nixon in Florida or Scott Colom in Mississippi (Or, for that matter, their half-assed support for Abdul Al-Sayed here in Michigan) or in terms of their just plain not showing up to VOTE for important shit or not standing up for stated policy goals this week.

When I say that White, secular "liberalism" has not met the moment, that is exactly what I mean. These fucking people are more afraid of not getting invited to parties by the Epstein class than that they will be *Checks Notes Again* killed and eaten by the same.

I'm guessing Scott won't be like that, tho.

Shit like this is why we need term limits, votes of No Confidence and strict-as-hell non-partisan oversight of elected officials. Like seriously, assign these guys a point system like they have at my old job. Call it one point for not showing up for work without a valid reason, two for missing a vote. Rack up twelve points and you're automatically fired, instant special election to replace you.

No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride...and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, well...maybe chalk it up to forced consciousness expansion: Tune in, freak out, get beaten. ~Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

And then throw in that about every weird narcissist imaginable is running for President...as a Republican, specifically. I'm beyond tired of this shit.

You wanted to get elected. You took this job. You bought the ticket, now take the ride. Why Liz Warren is one of the few people that seems to get what needs to be done I don't know.

For way the fuck too many people, a political career has become nothing more than an audition for a podcast or some kind of media talking-headship, or a permanent grift in or out of office.

If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan

I mean, fuck, I saw Rick Santorum on CNN the other day. What the fuck are we even doing here??

The thing is, these damn Republicans will pretty much make shit up to be afraid of, in order to justify their jackbooted fantasies.

I mean, among other things they're the ones constantly breaking Grindr and being caught in bed with the Russians or the Saudis. I mean, I get it, the prejudiced idiot base and the Republican political class are violently not the same thing; The problem is that the idiot base willfully tolerates people who shit all over them and even what they allegedly stand for.

And they're all allegedly afraid gay people and Leftists are gonna put them in reeducation camps? (With Trump yet to be impeached and removed? How??)

Also, How the hell do you re-educate somebody that willfully managed to avoid being educated in the first damn place??

These people can't stop contradicting themselves.

Hell, I'm pretty well convinced that they don't want to.

Even these fucking people's fear is dishonest, beyond a deep general conviction that everybody is secretly just as evil and self-serving and generally the same as they are.

Seems like a hell of way to live, and yes I get that for some people this justifies how they are in their minds. But, I couldn't do it. Somebody has to believe in something, and cynicism doesn't qualify. Otherwise, what's the damn point??

"Fuck You, I've got mine" or "I'm White" isn't an answer either.

And these are the Republican idea of "Great Men?"

Hard Pass.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

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America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. And every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American. Today, we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation's promise through civility, courage, compassion, and character. America, at its best, matches a commitment to principle with a concern for civility. A civil society demands from each of us good will and respect, fair dealing and forgiveness. Some seem to believe that our politics can afford to be petty because, in a time of peace, the stakes of our debates appear small. ~George W. Bush

Four

Remember when your High School History teacher said "The course of human events changes because of the deeds of great men"?. Well the bitch was lying. Fuck Julius Caesar, fuck Abe Lincoln, fuck Mahatma Gandhi. The world keeps moving because of you and me: the anonymous. Revolutions get started because people don't have enough bread. Wars start over a game of checkers. ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO Series "Oz" S1, E8 "A Game Of Checkers."