Indifference (American Judgment Day II, Nine.)

Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?
Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
~Daniel 3:14-18

...

Cassian Andor: What? To steal from the Empire, what do you need? A uniform, some dirty hands, and an Imperial toolkit. They’re so proud of themselves, they don’t even care. They’re so fat and satisfied, they can’t imagine it…

Luthen Rael: Can’t imagine what?

Andor: That someone like me would ever get inside their house, walk their floors, spit in their food, take their gear.

~From the Star Wars series Andor, S1, E2 "That would be me."

I saw this while I was writing my last post.

Some dude had a medical emergency right in the Oval Office and Trump just stood there, staring straight ahead at the camera, looking annoyed.

I've written extensively about the SNAP shutoff cuz that affects me and my partner.

If there's three thing that define "Conservatives" or Republicans at this point, they're depravity, indifference and selfishness.

But just standing there like a bump on a log when somebody falls over right next to you? 

That takes it to a whole new level.

Sorry, but I just wasn't taught like that.

And I think that needs to be said.

A lot of these fucking people seem to think Trump is God based on exactly that depraved indifference and selfishness, or because he tickles their ears like a typical false prophet and tells them what they want to hear.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. ~2nd Timothy 4:3-4

I saw this earlier, too.

Apparently, things that I was taught were just...basic consideration for other people...are "Communism" now according to at least some Republicans.

No, Tony, that ain't it.

Communism hasn't been a thing since 1989.

Maybe it's just me and I was taught back in the 1970's and 1980's but damn, basic consideration for other people shouldn't even be political. Or at least, when it has to be there should be a lot of bipartisan support for it.

I mean, I'd hope if you got hurt or lost your job, you're smart enough that you'd want somebody else to give a shit?? 

Or is that only cuz it's you??

You either believe in civilization or you don't.

I'm just sayin' These Fucking People's feral cat rugged individualism bullshit must be a lonely life.

Although probably not lonely enough, given how these assholes treat women.

And at this point, if we want to go back to having a society that gives a shit about people, it's gonna be a fight to make it that way.

Sorry, but that's the truth.

We as a nation are facing a Biblical-level plague of narcissism, and I think we need to face that and deal with it before it gets worse.

I'm just sayin' when one of the main religious sects in this country...Evangelical Christianity...maintains an obsessive focus on its members having a "personal relationship" with Jesus Christ. You know, Jesus, a guy that's been dead for 2,000 years and who while believed to be alive in Heaven has not provided any evidence of such (which is kind of the idea, actually) but the problem with that is conservative Evangelicals...basically trained to be radically atheistic towards any other belief system or way of looking at the world besides conservative Evangelicalism...sooner or later figure out that they don't care for much of what's in the Bible and pretty much don't believe that, either.

And I say that as somebody who's been pointing out that political conservatism shouldn't be being taught as though it was Christianity for over 25 years.

I guess in the way I was taught to look at the world, pretty much everybody should be able to support the basic gist of much of the teachings of Jesus.

But I suppose when one's goal is to do about anything but "Love Thy Neighbor" the Truth then becomes problematic.

Anyway it seems to me like teaching people that crap produces empty religiosity rather than actual true faith. I suppose that might be useful to a certain kind of politics, to have a kind of Christ-less Christianity. But, spiritually, according to the Lord's Word that's how you go to Hell.

And when your so-called leader can't be bothered to even turn aside and see what happened when somebody standing right next to him falls over, that tells me a lot of stuff about you, too.

You either believe in civilization or you don't.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

You either believe in truth or you don't.

It really is that damned simple.

Слава Україна!

Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment.

And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

~Matthew 22:36-40

Eight

The dark is generous and it is patient, and it always wins.

But at the heart of its strength lies weakness.

One lone candle is enough to hold it back.

Love is more than a candle; Love can ignite the stars.

~Matthew Stover, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith novelization.

Conservative Babylon (American Judgment Day II, Eight.)

 Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and the overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land, the House of Abraham, Muhammad, and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors...

You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.

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.

...

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 dark is generous and it is patient, and it always wins.

But at the heart of its strength lies weakness.

One lone candle is enough to hold it back.

Love is more than a candle; Love can ignite the stars.

~Matthew Stover, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith novelization.

I keep seeing this kind of shit.

Obviously racist White Republicans talking shit like Zohran Mamdani is somehow gonna turn New York City into 1990's Taliban Afghanistan or some shit...like that is somehow the norm for Muslim countries? 

And somehow there's no Starbucks in this dude's dream-world because something something Gazpacho. Apparently he's unfamiliar with the Arab (and Muslim) love of Coffee.

Bro I've been all over the Middle East, first when I was in the Air Force (primarily to Israel, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia) in the mid-1990's and then going to Egypt and (briefly) Israel and Jordan in 2002. Except for culture, language and religion (and the emphasis on certain things) people aren't that much different over there from how they are here...and where there are such differences it's generally not the choice of the people. 

People are people, wherever you go.

I'm just sayin' there's 200 Starbucks shops in Kuwait, which isn't even that big of a country. I got that statistic from my cousin, who was over there when he was a Marine. 

Honestly, it was probably half that when I was there in the 1990's as an Airman. 

Probably more than 200 by now.

I mean, I get it, these fucking people don't know jack shit about jack shit.

Here's Erika Kirk, patroness-saint of leather hot-pants, talking about how supposedly Charlie Kirk died with a smirk on his face, and reading into that some tale of martyrdom and unstoppable Revival.

Honey, that's not what Revival means.

That's not even what the Lord's Word is for.

I have more of a church background than Erika Kirk does, and I've been to a lot more church camps house church services and Revivals and tent meetings than she has, and while my partner and I sometimes joke about "Dry-humping like church-camp teenagers" (and we have, LOL. Why? Both because that's our background and the second time we dated she was going through a major Christian phase to cope with life issues and I absolutely respected her bodily autonomy and consent.) I can honestly say in all the years of doing all that church crap from when I was a kid on up through being that church-camp teenager on up to being an adult active in ministry and considering ordination in my mid-20's to questioning in my 30's to when I finally quit the Church in my mid-30's I ain't never seen nobody at no church camp that was wearing no leather fuck-me-pants, Let alone on stage or that was a speaker.

Like not even one time.

I mean, I shouldn't even have to explain why wearing that kind of thing or publicly being handsy with a married man wouldn't be acceptable behavior by somebody who was actually following the conservative Evangelical Christian interpretations of the Lord's Word, should I??

I mean, like, you're kidding, right??

Anybody with a brain in their head and the ability to observe behavior or read a book absolutely should know this, correct??

Like "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery" and "Whoever looks at a person with lust in their heart has committed fornication with them" and shit like that, right??

But then, you have to remember that These Fucking People's idea of what Christianity or "Revival" is, is simply one more thing to feel "superior" and smirk about.

Like their whole point is to be able to say to another person "You're going to Hell!" while thinking "And I'm Not!" while mainlining Narcissistic Fuel in their minds.

Worse, they think they can manipulate God into thinking that's Okay, regardless of what the Word says about exactly that.

"Self On The Throne" describes these fucking people exactly. 

Evangelical churches are narcissist factories.

And past that, actual behavior doesn't enter into it one damned bit. If these assholes didn't have hypocrisy they'd have no values whatsoever.

I've occasionally wondered what it was like to read something like the story of the rich man and Lazarus and completely miss the point...but I've never actually wanted to take the chance of experiencing that shit myself.

Now, because Republicans got their asses handed to them on Tuesday and women were a big part of that, these motherfuckers are trying to say women's votes should be taken away.

No, bro, no.

First off, it'd take another Amendment to undo the 19th Amendment and women would get to vote on that, so it's not gonna happen that way.

Second, this was something our ancestors decided over 100 years ago.

"No."

And that's both a complete sentence and a conservative point of view.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

If you don't think I'd die with a rifle in my hand to protect my partner's (or anybody else's) right to vote you ain't been paying attention, yo. And I say that knowing she ain't always gonna vote the same way as me or how I'd like because we've always been different even though our end-goals are very often similar. We'll argue for days about how best to achieve such things.

And that's how this stuff is supposed to work out!

Either we all have rights, or none of us do.

President Laura Roslin: You have committed me to holding elections within the year.

Lee "Apollo" Adama: Madam President, with respect. You are serving out the remainder of President Adar's term. When that term is up, in seven months, the law says, there is an election. I only committed you to obeying the law.

Commander Bill Adama: You sound like some kind of lawyer.

Roslin: This is unacceptable.

Apollo: I swore an oath. To defend the articles. The articles say there is an election in seven months. Now, if you are telling me we are throwing out the law, then I am not a captain, you are not a commander, and you are not the president. And I don't owe either of you a damned explanation for anything.

Roslin: He's your son.

Adama: He's your advisor.

~Battlestar Galactica (2003) S1 E3 "Bastille Day."

And by the way, these same fucking people who want to get rid of stuff like SNAP also often want to take away people's ability to do things like grow their own food or save rainwater. Remember that the next time you see some Chud lecturing a SNAP recipient about how they should be growing a garden.

Think about that, for a second.

The world these fucking people want to live in is not even fucking possible.

Not unless you're Okay with a large portion of the population simply dying from back-breaking labor and overwork and a large portion of the ones that survive that starving to death every winter.

And then they want these same people, broke, poor, stripped of agency and rights and social support without even the capability to theoretically provide for themselves, to have more kids??

I mean...what??

For the love of fuck...HOW?? 

With WHAT??

It costs money and time and work to have kids! 

You don't just pick them up, fully capable, from an assembly plant for fuck's sake!

If you never paid attention to parenting, most parents rather like to have some say in what goes on with their kids which tends to get expressed in things like what they vote for and shit like that, including the fact that most kids or parents will need some form of support at one time or another.

I mean, I get it, these motherfuckers just want to pump out more drones for corporations and their dictatorial false-theocratic version of the State.

But yo, I used to be a conservative back when that meant something other than this shit and none of this works that way.

And then, these ass-clowns want to discriminate against unmarried people??

Hey, aren't these the same dumbass motherfuckers who bitch about "Sharia Law" every chance they get?

What's this crap but more Sharia Law??

Also, I'm not married, in fact I'm divorced. So's my partner. We've discussed this and we're both not interested in getting married until, at best, much later on. Go ahead, try us, see how that works out for you.

Cuz the next question out of my mouth is gonna be along the lines of "Did somebody order a knuckle sandwich?"

*POW!*

Yeah, fuck you and the horse you rode in on, Heritage Foundation.

The thing is, we're both (as much due to age and upbringing as anything else) a little "Traditional" ourselves and we've consciously decided we don't want to have that kind of relationship.

At least not yet.

Among other things, we're not sure we'd be very good at it, and we love each other deeply but drive each other crazy. We always have.

But "Traditional" in the sense of existing traditions or "Things as they are" isn't what These Fucking People even want.

They want some kind of bullshit Stepford-world that feeds their narcissism where Other People are forced to live like medieval peasants and forced to conform to their fake-ass Christ-less "Christianity" while behind closed doors in conferences the rest of us don't get invited to, they get to ogle Erika Kirk's ass in leather hot pants and secretly crash Grindr or whatever other secret gay hookup apps.

And they want to strip the rest of us of the ability to even say "Hey, what the fuck??"

Fuck all that, if you don't understand why, as far as I'm concerned you ain't an American.

And yes, driving these fucking people from power, stripping them of political power and curtailing their ability to harm or manipulate others is going to come down to a fight.

Why?? Simply put, they won't understand anything less.

Tell them no, make laws about it? They'll plot and scheme until they find a way around that.

Fight against them, shoot a few, and strip them of recourse when they lose the fight. Put them on trial, drive them away to places like Argentina, that's simply what you do.

Yeah, they'll be mad, but these people are mostly cowards and they'll stew about it in infinite, impotent rage forever.

But ya know, even their own holy book says Eternal Life comes by compassion, not greed, and through love, not hate. They want eternal life and eternal power, but can achieve neither.

If the rest of us educate their kids and teach them compassion and empathy and to respect the rights of others, and to (whether conservative or liberal) participate in society on an equal basis, and keep at it until it sticks??

Their hate and manipulation and scheming dies with them.

Like I said, either you believe in freedom or you don't..

Either you give a shit about other people or you don't.

Just 'cause you wanna call Babylon "Conservative" doesn't make it that, and doesn't make it be something other than Babylon.

Remember this.

It's gonna be on the test.

Pass/Fail.

And the grade is Eternity.

Or ruling for one hour.

Can't have both.

Your call.

Soon.

Слава Україна!

 

[Cassian plays Nemik's audio diary]

Karis Nemik: There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy. Remember this. Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they've already enlisted in the cause. Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. And then remember this. The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empire's authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege. Remember this. Try. ~From the Star Wars series Andor, S1.E12 "Rix Road."

Seven

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judges her.

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. ~Revelation 18:1-10

Stop blowing the narcissist, America.

Yes We Can (American Judgment Day II, Seven.)

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

...

Song, song of the south
Sweet potato pie and I shut my mouth
Gone, gone with the wind
There ain't nobody lookin' back again

Cotton on the roadside, cotton in the ditch
We all picked the cotton, but we never got rich
Daddy was a veteran, a Southern Democrat
They ought to get a rich man to vote like that
Sing it

Song, song of the south
Sweet potato pie and I shut my mouth
Gone, gone with the wind
There ain't nobody lookin' back again

Well, somebody told us Wall Street fell
But we were so poor that we couldn't tell
Cotton was short and the weeds were tall
But Mr. Roosevelt's a-gonna save us all

Well, Mama got sick and Daddy got down

The county got the farm and we moved to town
Papa got a job with the TVA
He bought a washin' machine and then a Chevrolet

Sing it
Song, song of the south
Sweet potato pie and I shut my mouth
Gone, gone with the wind
There ain't nobody lookin' back again

~Alabama, Song Of The South.

...

The dark is generous and it is patient, and it always wins.

But at the heart of its strength lies weakness.

One lone candle is enough to hold it back.

Love is more than a candle; Love can ignite the stars.

~Matthew Stover, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith novelization.

So Zohran won in New York City.

Abigail Spanberger won in Virginia

Mickie Sherill won in New Jersey.

Prop 50 passed in California, with even many Red areas voting in favor.

Three Black Democrats were elected in Mississippi, breaking the GOP supermajority in the state legislature.

Overall, it looks like Republicans had a very bad day.

(And they deserved it.)

These Fucking People's idea of America sucks.

I used to be a conservative Republican and I sure as a motherfucker never wanted to live in or even visit some place where everybody was the same. I mean, it's one thing if you go out in the country here and it's almost all White people, or whatever, but in town where I live it's pretty diverse and I'm fine with that.

I like that things aren't the same here as they were 30 years ago, why is this even hard?? Do these people hate today for not being yesterday? Life goes on, change happens, things can't stay the same.

And it would be boring if it was.

Honestly, sameness or stasis in the normal "Standing athwart the flow of History yelling STOP!" form of conservatism that I was raised with is not even what These Fucking People want anymore.

And more to the point, these assholes specifically hate the America we already have, that was painstakingly built by our ancestors, based on lessons often written in blood.

All too many of America's Evangelical churches have become Narcissist Factories, producing assholes at scale, and they seem to want to wallow in every possible societal cancer and social herpes you can imagine, for no better reason than they got told at some point that they were special, that they had a "Personal" relationship with Jesus, and that they were going to Heaven.

And somebody else didn't and wasn't.

Over time, that somebody else didn't get any became the goddamned point.

I'm a white, male, Agnostic former Christian and former Republican with a conservative church background. I'm a veteran of the United States Air Force security forces, I volunteered for the Bush/Cheney campaign in 2000 (RIP Dick) and even at my most conservative I'd have never wanted to live in a country or place where Hindu temples, Mosques or Synagogues couldn't be built.

And I've been to places where religion is mandated by the government;

That doesn't tend to end well.

Remember, Remember...

In 1994 I deployed to Saudi Arabia and stood watch on cold desert nights in full battle rattle with my M16 at a place called Prince Sultan Airbase. I got to work with plenty of Royal Saudi Air Force guys while I was there, but that was naturally most of my experience of that country. Going to a place like Saudi Arabia made me glad that I was from America.

Saudi Arabia sucks.

But I've also been places over there where it wasn't mandated so much by government as by culture and history.

In 2002 over Christmas break I went to Egypt with my college friend and his then-girlfriend, who were simply going home for the break. I went to a service at a Coptic Christian church and while I was there, but also five times a day I heard the call to prayer over a loudspeaker at the mosque in my buddy's neighborhood, On what in America was Christmas Eve we sat there in a coffee house smoking a hookah and listened to some old man with a long white beard excitedly telling stories in Arabic while waving a sword around and accentuating his points with shouts of "Allah Akbar!"

My buddy's family, or at least some branch of it, has lived in the same neighborhood since before European contact with the Americas, let alone before America was America.

US "Conservatives" are pikers by comparison.

I didn't think Egypt was all that different from home, hotter weather, different culture, language and religions but people are people.

This is America and we have freedom of...and just as importantly freedom from...politics or religion if we want.

I'm not and I've never been all that politically correct or "Woke" but I'm here to tell you it would never in my life have occurred to me to tell a person from (or whose ancestors were from) India to "Go back where you came from." 

Not least because depending on the time in my life, my Dad, my Mom or one of my grandparents would have whupped my ass.

It wasn't a question of "If."

And I'd have deserved it.

Other people have a right to exist. They have a right to exist and within the strictures imposed by civilization to do what they want without you bothering them. 

Yes, it really is that simple.

Somehow Republicans have lost that understanding of life.

The words "Mind Your Own Business" simply don't occur to these fucking idiots...where when I was growing up that was kind of enforced, and beyond a certain level it was considered kind of unseemly to pry too much into the lives of others.

There was a time not so long ago in the grand scheme of things when Mike Johnson would have never made it past being a small-town lawyer and creepy religious fanatic.

But then at that point, Trump was also known as a broke ass divorced deadbeat who'd spent the 1980's embarrassing himself and going bankrupt. 

Hey, I'm old.

Well then in 1994 Republicans won the midterms and all the sudden worrying about other people's sex lives (while cheating on your wife your own damn self) became cool, and that's where all this bullshit started. Trumpism is a hologram. 

I blame Newt Gingrich.

I was a serving Airman during the first two government shutdowns.

To say I'm sick of this crap is an understatement.

In the 1990's conservatives were against "Moral Relativism" and "Situational Ethics" and now they are the most assiduous practitioners of such things.

Shit can fall a long way very quickly.

Hell, some of these idiots are trying to say Virginia ain't in the South no more because they just elected a Democrat.

I get that Partisanship is a hell of a drug.

But I think Republicans are about to wake up and find themselves having made some bedfellows that they didn't really want to have.

And it can and will get worse, because people like Nick Fuentes (and apparently now Tucker Carlson and The Heritage Foundation) very clearly do consider other Conservative Republicans their enemies.

What's coming is gonna be a fight for Republicans, too, they just don't know it yet. And it won't be against who they think it will be or who they want it to be, either. There's people and things out there that'll target them just as much (or likely even more than) they'll target liberals.

I suspect that's where most of the bloodshed in any possible new civil war will even come from, once blue, purple and pink areas establish their borders and shit, things will quiet down.

It's in the red areas where Nazis and people who'd worship Demons if it gave them power have to coexist that it won't just flare up, it'll keep flaring up until the universe burns down if nobody steps in and stops it because those people will just start fighting each other over their own bullshit.

Yesterday tells me we have a chance to stop this shit, but we have to keep after it.

And for all that, I'm still wondering what color the Revolution will be.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

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

Yes, We Can.

Слава Україна!

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.  We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream.  The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same.  And if you and I don't do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free. ~Ronald Reagan

Six

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judges her.

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. ~Revelation 18:1-10

Bonus Content

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,

The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,

I know of no reason

Why the Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

Crusaders In Babylon (American Judgment Day II, Six.)

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.  We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream.  The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same.  And if you and I don't do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free. ~Ronald Reagan

...

Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. ~Joel 3:9-14

...

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.

I saw this last night.

Pete Keg-breath, trying to say the US is ready to "Save" Christian populations around the world.

I literally don't see anybody wanting that but these motherfuckers. 

They don't want to "Save" anybody.

And the rest of the world had enough of "Kill 'em all and let God sort it out" a long damn time ago.

They're casting about for starting a war somewhere, anywhere, because they think they're gonna use it to kick off some kind of 21-front war of Republicans Against All (including other Republicans, apparently) and/or the Apocalypse of Revelations and they don't care if it's right here in America or somewhere like Nigeria or Venezuela. Also, who the fuck is dumb enough to think you're gonna win taking on everybody, everywhere, all at once?? These motherfuckers started talking about intervening in Nigeria's ongoing conflicts to "Protect Christians" and the Nigerian government told them to go fuck themselves...because the Nigerian Armed Forces are extremely lethal on their own and have been fighting all these insurgent wars for years just fine with no help from anybody. 

And, well, Venezuela?

The country currently handing out rifles to hundreds of thousands of workers to back up its already powerful and sophisticated Chinese-and-Russian-backed military??

Yeah, I don't think this is gonna go how you think it's gonna go, Republicans.

And that's before you factor in that Argentina and Brazil are also moving troops and apparently taking preparatory steps to defend themselves.

More to the point, if you think these jerkoffs wouldn't just fire a missile into a random crowd for kicks, arbitrarily declare the dead "Martyrs for Jesus" to try to cover their ass with their own drooling followers and then random Intelligence Specialist or other military professional gives the mess a two-second cursory glance and realizes these fucking idiots killed the wrong fucking people?? You ain't been paying attention.

Spoiler alert: They don't really wanna do this shit in Nigeria or Venezuela, they'd rather do it right here in America...never mind that the military and everything else will come flying apart and land on all different sides of this mess before they can actually escalate shit that far. 

But, I suppose they'll just give their ICE bandits TOW Missiles or something and call it even.

They're not law enforcement or real Federal agents, they're Trump's personal army, they'll be a pretty shitty army, but These Fucking People don't care about that anymore than Vladimir Putin cares about all the Russian soldiers he sends to their deaths.

Also TLDR...if you're a person who'd object to rich people partying it up with half-naked dancing girls while kids go hungry in any way?? It doesn't matter what your beliefs are or which theoretical "side" of this whole mess you're even on, you're a target.

And if you don't think this particular dynamic will lead to lots of legit conservatives fighting alongside liberals and lots of supposed Democrats standing up to be counted right alongside the goddamned Fascists...well, I suggest you take a look both at the behavior of the Democratic Party since January and at how Civil Wars and internal conflicts tend to work.

A hell of a lot of alleged Democrats and supposed Republicans stopped believing in anything but Keeping Their Place In The Magical City a long damn time ago.

When Cuomo loses, my money's on him moving to Florida, going full MAGA and then running for some bullshit sinecure office down there, and he'll likely win.

I keep trying to explain this to people, deep down it's not really Democrats or Republicans, it's the whole damned political class that's rotten and needs to be made to go shovel shit like the Grover Norquist stand-in from World War Z.

And what happens when stupid Republican tricks reduce both the power of and trust in the Federal government?? If we find (as I think we will) that a hell of a lot of people might have it a bit rougher but can survive OK without stuff like SNAP, it's actually all these Republican narcissists shooting themselves right in the junk...because we don't really need them, do we??

From what I can tell so far, liberals, non-insane conservatives and people in the middle are all trying to come together and help people who need it. 

I've already told my partner I'll help her out. That's just how it is for now.

In the end it's the MAGA's, the malingerers, and the narcissists who end up being up a creek without a boat, the problem with that of course is there absolutely will be other people who slip through the cracks who don't deserve it and don't necessarily have the capability to adapt and it's them that'll end up taking the worst of it.

Like my partner said yesterday, the manipulators and shit will just go find some other resource to drain dry. It's people like us that'll have to balance revolution with our work schedules.

The thing is, far too often our social safety nets don't help working people very much and end up disproportionately benefitting useless lazy assholes. 

I've seen this myself, don't come at me.

And a hell of a lot of Those Fucking People living off the system to one degree or another are Christian Fundamentalists, Republicans, Trump Supporters etc.

Think about that for a second.

No, it doesn't make any goddamned sense but that is how it is. It's been my personal experience you don't really have a lot of liberals or People of Color who end up on welfare and the ones that do tend not to stay on it.

To turn the old Reaganite trope on its head, all the Welfare Queens I know are White. Guess what? I didn't say that first...JD Vance did in his book Hillbilly Elegy (which I happen to own.) It just happens to be true in my case as well and I realized that shit almost immediately when I read that line back in 2017.

We have a lot of shit to fix.

And, chances are we're going to have to do it while fighting against omnicidal wannabe-Crusaders.

No, they don't actually give a shit that they're basically Crusading For Babylon.

I'm just warning you now.

You either believe in freedom or you don't, and either you're willing to fight for it or you're not.

It really is that simple.

Слава Україна!

Hospitaler: One may stare into the light, until one becomes the light. I've done it many times.

Balian of Ibelin: [throws a rock at a bush that catches fire by the spark] There's your religion. One spark, a creosote bush. There's your Moses. I did not hear it speak.

Hospitaler: That does not mean that there is no God. Do you love her?

Balian of Ibelin: Yes.

Hospitaler: The heart will mend. Your duty is to the people of the city. I go to pray.

Balian of Ibelin: For what?

Hospitaler: For the strength to endure what is to come.

Balian of Ibelin: And what is to come?

Hospitaler: The reckoning is to come for what was done one hundred years before. The Muslims will never forget. Nor should they.

[the Hospitaler slowly walks away as a second bush several yards from the burning one catches fire. The Hospitaler is nowhere to be seen in the clear and open desert]

~From the film Kingdom Of Heaven.

Five

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judges her.

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. ~Revelation 18:1-10