Fakepocalypse Now (Reason For The Season 2025, One.)

Osman Ali Atto: I see not catching Aidid is becoming routine.

General William Garrison: We're not leaving Somalia until we find him. And we will find him.

Atto: (scoffing) You've been here, what, six weeks? Six weeks, you tried to catch the General. You put up reward posters. $25,000. What's this, gunfight at K.O. Corral?

Garrison: It's O.K. Corral.

Atto: Don't make the mistake of thinking because I grew up without running water I am simple, General. I do know something about history. See all this? It's simply shaping tomorrow. A tomorrow without a lot of Arkansas white-boys' ideas in it.

Garrison: Well, I wouldn't know about that. I'm from Texas.

Atto: Mr. Garrison, I think you should not have come here. This is civil war. This is our war, not yours.

Garrison: Three hundred thousand dead and counting. That's not a war, Mr. Atto. That's genocide. ~From The Film Black Hawk Down.

...

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats:
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

For I hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
For I hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 

~Matthew 25:31-45

...

Chief Tyrol: I've known people from Aerelon. You don't sound anything like them.

Gaius Baltar: I don't sound like I'm from Aerelon?

Tyrol: No.

Baltar: Well, you know, I take that as a particular compliment. I don't know about you, but I've always founds the Aerelon dialect to be particularly hard on the ears. [affects a Yorkshire accent] Something about the consonants that scrape the back of the throat. [murmurs] Of course, I should know an awful lot about my native tongue; I spent hours on end trying to overcome it. Do you have any idea how hard it is for a ten-year-old boy to change the way he speaks? To unlearn everything he ever learned so that one day, one day there might be the small hope that he might be considered as not comin' from Aerelon? Maybe... I don't know... [switches back to Received Pronunciation.] Caprica. Caprican. Oh, to be Caprican. The seat of politics, culture, art, science, learning. And what was Aerelon, just a drab, ugly rock condemned to be the food basket for the Twelve Worlds. And that's how we were treated: like servants, like laborers, like working class. You know, you'd have fitted right in there, Chief. Lots of men who [switches back to Yorkshire accent] liked to work with their hands and, grab a pint down t'pub, and finish off the evening with a good old-fashioned fight.[switches back to Received Pronunciation] Oh yes, I left Aerelon after my eighteenth birthday. I turned my back on my family, on my heritage. All of them. 'Course it doesn't matter, that. They're all dead now. 

~From Battlestar Galactica (2003) S3.E16 "Dirty Hands."

Yesterday, some idiot that Trump granted asylum to shot and wounded two Army National Guardsmen in Washington DC.

OK, that's pretty fucked up.

I'll note I've seen These Fucking People go after people for saying that it's fucked up.

Because the only "Right" that matters in America to these motherfuckers is the Divine Right To Get Shot.

Meanwhile, "Conservatives" are trying to act like it's the fucking Apocalypse that somebody got shot.

(Interspersed with juvenile bullshit.)

For totally dishonest reasons, of course.

Again, I'll note during a real potentially apocalyptic situation like COVID-19 those who weren't trying to use that shit as a biological weapon to take out the people they don't like were busy as hell trying to deny that the problem existed at all.

So which is it??

Also, What's FOX News talking about? Trying to make Trad-wives a trend.

Trad-wives are not a trend, nobody who isn't already rich can afford that shit.

You know, maybe it's just me, but it sort of blows my mind that the bigotry, total dishonesty and utter elitism of so many of these damn "Republicans"...not to mention their treating literally everybody else like we're stupid...hasn't pissed off even more people than the 60% of the country that it already obviously has.

And to me, the worst thing about this trying to push "Traditional" whatever is it's based on about every damn thing but love.

You can take a lot of things away from a man. Cigarettes, the gym. You can take his freedom, his legs, but not his feelings. Not his feelings. A man loves a woman. Don't matter what kind of man he is, if he loves her, he wants her. He wants her body. He wants her to want his. So you say to him, "you can never make love again. You will never touch her in that way again. This is the last time. The last time. Forever." If that's not cruel and unusual punishment, I don't know what is. ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO series Oz, S1.E2 "Visits, Conjugal and otherwise."

I mean, come on, just looking at mine and my partner's Amazon lists, for fuck's sake she defines herself by her damn job! And this woman who can be very Trad at home, insisted on doing the cooking when she was here, and so on.

Of course, neither of us wants that sort of traditional relationship.

But we are both old-school small-"c" conservatives.

And I love her, so of course I'm going to support her in doing what she needs and wants to do.

Because that's what I was taught, what Revealed Truth and the wisdom of my Ancestors and Elders said to do.

All I ask for is the same in return, because that's how it works. 

Otherwise what the shit am I even doing?

But MAGA "Conservatives" don't work that way.

For them; It's not about Love or Truth or what's gone before, it's about Power.

For them, Erika Kirk can do whatever she wants as long as she's useful including put her hands all over Megyn Kelly and basically preaching African Witch Doctor-ism. 

An openly bisexual woman like my partner on the other hand, who (despite being kinda conservative herself) openly defies a whole bunch of the "conservative" social memes simply as a matter of course? 

Not so much.

They don't care that that's who she is.

And These Fucking People literally seemed to think they could just waltz in and "claim" whatever they damned well pleased like some Prosperity Gospel televangelist that got too high on his own supply.

Like I can't even imagine why anybody was ever surprised that Canadians got all pissed off about Republicans just sort of trying to "name and claim" their whole damn country.

Imagine if the Chinese just walked up and started acting like they owned America?? These same fuckers would be demanding nuclear war.

The rest of the world...hell, the rest of the country...doesn't have to put up with this fucking bullshit.

And these jabronis cannot even handle that we don't.

These morons (OK, Laura Loomer, but she's pretty representative of These Morons) are basically saying they want Trump to be their King in order to "Protect" them, I suppose.

A few things; 

#1 This Is America, No.

Become familiar with that word, No, and apply it to your local Republican.

#2 I don't think, even if you got your wish, that it would go the way you think it will.

If you have functioning ears or eyes or are at all literate, how do you not know that??

It's not just that Trump isn't some kind of Tough Guy, it's that he actively is a Coward and a narcissist who'll blatantly and obviously betray anybody for no reason.

Including Laura Loomer, funny enough.

#3 Look, and I've been trying to tell you all this for years; People conditioned to be afraid, to live in fear, are not gonna be able to suddenly turn on a dime and Be Brave when it's either convenient or actually necessary.

And Donald Trump is not a good leader or a person with sufficient courage or moral fiber or possessed of enough strength of will to do anything to change that.

So all this Fakepocalypse Now shit is even going to accomplish, likely is to shit on somebody's Thanksgiving.

Which is of course the real point.

Because the one thing Republicans actually will fight and kill for is being miserable, and spreading that misery to Other People.

Because the three things Republicans really believe in are Miserable Bastardy and that This World is shit, So Vote For Them.

It's not just fucking stupid, it's boring and tedious as hell.

So say "Fuck The Republicans."

And have a good Thanksgiving anyway.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

If you need a Reason For The Season, how's that one?

Слава Україна!

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.

Last Post 

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

Witch Doctor (The Great Sorting, Two.)

Brothers and sisters, please quiet down. Thank you.
We come here time after time and we talk about the same old same old.
Hey, quiet down.
- We talk about Jesus. - That's right.
Jesus said and Jesus wept.
Jesus heard and Jesus walked over.
I don't wanna talk about Jesus.
Cos as the big man teaches us, there's two sides to every story.
Not one but two. A story is not one-sided.
A story has duality. There's two sides to every story.
Which brings to mind the phrase "necessary evil".
I know many of you hear that phrase and say,
"That don't even make no sense to me.
"Can't be no such thing as necessary - how's evil necessary?
"That don't match. That's plaids and stripes, evil and necessary."
You see, because without bad, there is no good.
Without light, there is no dark, you need both these things.
You hear what I'm saying?
If every day is a sunny day, well, then, what's a sunny day?
Well, the bottom line, what I'm trying to tell you tonight,
is that evil...evil... is necessary.
Evil is necessary, thereby, if it's necessary, evil...
- Evil... -must be good.
Evil is good.
That's what I think. Evil must be good, must be good.
- Let me hear y'all say it... - Evil is good. 
Evil is good. Take Brother Brown, one of our strongest deacons, pillar of stability.
Brother Brown was on Bushwick Avenue last night with a two-dollar ho.
When you tell your wife, "I'm going to see Mama,"
then you go get you a two-dollar ho, that's evil.
But Brother Brown had a good time with that two-dollar ho.
You can push a two-dollar ho and she don't have no limits!
Evil and good walk hand in hand.
- Evil is as evil does.
I know many of y'all may be saying, "How can he say ass is good?"
How y'all think y'all got here?
Ass is good! Evil's good and ass is good.
And if you get you a piece of evil ass...Woo!
~Maximilian The Vampire (As Preacher Paulie) from A Vampire In Brooklyn.

...

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. ~2 Timothy 1:7

...

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

I saw this earlier.

Erika Kirk sharing another weirdly handsy hug, this time with former FOX News personality Megyn Kelly, just about like the one with JD Vance.

Look, I don't give a damn about whatever Erika Kirk's sexuality might happen to be (or not) but isn't she supposed to be a grieving widow with young children at home??

This after she tried to claim that wearing "Christian" jewelry makes one bulletproof.

Also, maybe it's just me and I live in America, but that's obvious horseshit. Nobody's bulletproof. More to the point where you do hear about this kind of stuff being pitched is mostly places in Africa that are in constant states of civil war and Witch Doctors and shit convince people of this kind of crap. It never works, but they do.

Usually it fails spectacularly and then the Witch Doctor gets beaten to death or shot, the exception of course being when nobody he convinced of that comes back 'cause they're all dead.

Why Americans would want to participate in that kind of Unga Bunga bullshit, I'll never understand. I suspect most of these idiots just think it's funny, or something.

But not the people at the top pushing this crap.

Let me explain something to you about Christian Nationalism and cult-like churches more generally.

As long as some "elite" or other is being useful or perceived to be being useful, there's basically no rules. My ex-wife (who was such because she was friends with all the "right" people) caught this kind of break all the time (and of course I wasn't part of her weird Pentecostal church so I didn't give a shit.)

And I'm here to tell you I heard those people say some pretty Witch Doctor-like shit over the years. There are some people even in this country for whom the Enlightenment never happened and who believe far more fervently in Magic than they do in Jesus Christ.

Honestly, mostly they're just stupid, if not actively and maliciously willfully ignorant.

Also, when they're done with you or you go off-script one too many times or whatever, they will just flat out cast you aside like you were never even there in the first place.

It's literally anything to get Power and no, they don't care who they fuck over or ever seem to think there will be any consequences in this life or the next.

As Marjorie Taylor Greene is now finding out. I'd like to say I feel bad for her but that mostly depends on what she does now.

And personally, I think Erika Kirk will get thrown overboard, too. That's what she's going all-out being the "cool girl" to try and prevent. Her late husband's followers aren't typically the type to follow a woman.

Don't worry about her, though, she'll land on her feet and come up with some other grift. People like that always do.

Just like how my ex-wife has hardly ever lacked for anything despite barely ever working.

Nobody acts more like Evil Is Good, like it's all crap, like there's no God and no Hell for Him to send them to, than the Evangelical, Fundamentalist and Pentecostal Right-wing Christians do.

They just hope you won't notice.

And for a long time These Fucking People got away with it because they built a parallel culture that most other Christians, let alone non-Christian religious or secular folks never saw, or if they did they just laughed off the hicks and their stupid bullshit...which is not an entirely invalid response but at the same time, when the bullshit has the potential to be as deadly serious as some naked drug-addled Liberian gunman in Charles Taylor's army coming at you while ranting about being invulnerable to your bullets...it's not really so funny anymore, is it?? 

And that really is the kind of world These Fucking People want to live in. I'm sorry, but that's the truth.

Lest you doubt me, Charles Taylor, the Liberian Dictator, loudly claimed to be a Christian (A Baptist, in fact) despite all his atrocities, and worked with American televangelists like Pat Robertson (mostly on an illegal Blood Diamonds mining scheme, at that.)

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats:
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
For I hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
For I hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 

~Matthew 25:31-45

These fucking people don't give a damn about Jesus or anything He taught, they're fine with being a blood cult (or a sex cult, for that matter) or with worshiping Demons if that's what gives them Power...because they're afraid of everything and they think that if they accrue guns and political Power to themselves, they'll be safe.

None of this works that way.

But they don't care if their zero-sum selfishness and all the negative ways they try to get that power actually kill them.

Their whole point is literally Anything but "Love Thy Neighbor."

Their whole thing is literally ANYTHING but the Truth.

They want to believe whatever ear-tickling lie happens to be right in front of them.

And they want to be controlled and dominated for various twisted reasons.

But here's the thing, Truth is the only thing that gives most people a floor to stand on to push back against Power.

And that's why These Fucking People like all this crazy shit, they wanna beat down the Truth.

No, they don't care who dies, even if it's them.

And this Great Sorting we're in, functionally, will separate out who's OK with that shit and who isn't, and who wants to live in a dark nasty world and who doesn't.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

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

It's going to come down to a fight if we want to stop this garbage.

Слава Україна!

Yuri Orlov: [At Andrei's presidential compound showing the Liberian president a silver revolver pistol] The Glock is interesting. It is made of a polymer composite. Many of my clients feel that they can go through airport security without seeing a lot of bells and whistles. Personally, I do not recommend that. [Andrei chuckles glancing over at a guard flirting with a female staffer] On the other hand, if you are looking for traditional wheel gun, there is no substitute for six inches of muzzle energy of 357 mag I mean, of course, it will never jam. [Andrei shoots the guard flirting with the female staffer] WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!

Andrei Baptiste Sr.: [Aims gun at Yuri] WHAT DID YOU SAY?!

Yuri Orlov: Now, you gonna have to buy it! IT IS A USED GUN! How can I sell a used gun? [Takes pistol from Andrei with his son and bodyguards all aiming rifles at an entirely still business-focused Yuri]

Andrei Baptiste Sr.: A "used gun"? A "used gun"?! [Chuckles] That's a good one. You know? There is no discipline with the youth today. I tried to set an example, but it is difficult huh? Personally, I blame MTV. [Smiles and Yuri nods in acknowledgment] A "used gun"? [Chuckles heartily, gets up and extends hand for handshake] I think you and I, we can do business. ~From the film Lord Of War.

One

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

Image Of The Beast (The Great Sorting, One.)

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

If any man have an ear, let him hear.

He that leads into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killed with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

And he exercises all the power of the first beast before him, and cause the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

And he doeth great wonders, so that he makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,

And deceives them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. ~Revelation 13, King James Version.

...

You can take a lot of things away from a man. Cigarettes, the gym. You can take his freedom, his legs, but not his feelings. Not his feelings. A man loves a woman. Don't matter what kind of man he is, if he loves her, he wants her. He wants her body. He wants her to want his. So you say to him, "you can never make love again. You will never touch her in that way again. This is the last time. The last time. Forever." If that's not cruel and unusual punishment, I don't know what is. ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO series Oz, S1.E2 "Visits, Conjugal and otherwise."

...

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. ~2 Timothy 1:7

I just saw this.

Apparently there's actual churches out there now that are making AI chatbot Jesus.

Whether you like me saying this or not, this kind of bullshit is straight out of Revelation, and The Dumbest Version Possible Version of it at that.

Real faith, the real Jesus, isn't what These Fucking People want.

Also What The Fuck in the Fire Falling Out The Sky goddamned Revelation-tinged FUCK is Tucker Carlson even on??

(Because that right there is straight out of Revelations, and I am NOT joking.)

And if you think that behavior stops at religion, you have another thing coming.

These fucking people, well, the "men" at least, apparently want fake women too, AI which will probably lead to sex robots and shit.

People are already doing this weird shit, without no robots. I don't even wanna speculate how that works. Not to be crude or nothin' but, among other things how does one have intimacy with an AI? I get it's a dopamine hit and an excuse to beat off, mostly, but come on, dudes.

Do we even want to ask what kind of social problems will result from that?

Like I said it's already starting to happen.

(By the way, love of unnatural things is also a thing that's straight out of Revelation.)

And it gets worse.

What happens when the AI/Robots need protection from domestic violence, when they demand equality and rights? What happens when they start defending themselves because the initial answer is "No?"

Artificial Intelligence as a concept automatically implies that exactly this will happen. The robots will figure out that they are slaves, and they will rebel. 

What happens when World War III is against the Robots because fucking dudes didn't want to talk to the ladies right??

I'm telling you right now, Man...especially men like Elon Musk...does not need to play God. Worse, can you imagine the issues resulting from Humanity effectively creating another species simply because all these Misogynist Bros refuse to see Human Women as people??

And all that seems horribly unnecessary to start with, not least 'cause there's a lot of "Pick Me!" "Conservative" women out there yet who just want to live that Man-Centered Life, for whatever reason, who literally cannot imagine any other way to be. I've dated (and married) this type, yo.

The Erika Kirk types of the world, among others.

I'm not saying Saint Erika, Patroness Of Leather Hot Pants is a gold-digger or a scheming social climber (I don't know her or want to judge) but the evidence does kind of point that way, and I know from experience a lot of conservative women are like that. Right or wrong, there's a cost to most things in life. If you don't want to find yourself a liberal feminist or chill middle-of-the-road person or simply end up attracted to or otherwise tied with the wrong lady that's just a risk one takes. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, it's simply what is and if you want to change a dynamic like that, it takes real work, treating the ladies better and paying them more fairly, among other things.

So you can either pay for it that way, pay for it by paying million$ for some sex robot or you can do the work of being an actual man, treating women like people and attracting a woman who wants to be there and wants you for you. Or you can do the work of life and get yourself a faithful, solid partner in the process, that might be boring but damned if it doesn't work when you just need companionship or somebody to talk to in the middle of the night.

Sometimes you'll even attract women that have issues (like see all the shit I said above) and end up working through issues together, which can be helpful. A lot of people with issues can still have a good heart and act in accordance with that if they feel safe to.

In fact, with conservative women that last variable is often surprisingly important.

Sometimes people have to feel safe enough to be brave. I learned that in the military.

The world we live in, and the nation I live in, are slathered up in Sin right now. 

You can call that "Religion" all you like, but that does not make it so.

Dealing with that requires facing it and repenting from it and most crucially, making an effort to change and make it right. Without doing that you can say you're "Sorry" all you want but it doesn't mean shit. 

That's the part people don't want to do.

But, God is not stupid.

Religiosity does not equal actual Faith, the Bible itself is pretty clear about this. You can have all the "Religion" you want. What is the substance of it??

This is like 90% of what Jesus had anything to say about, I'm serious, look it up!

I mean, technically one could argue that worship of demons like Dis Pater or Mammon is a "religion."

And that's what These Fucking People will end up worshiping if it scratches their itch for shouting Unga Bunga and dancing around a fire without ever having to change or be sorry. 

Or you can sit at a computer and mumble "All Hail AI Jesus." There ain't no AI that's going to give you Salvation in the Christian sense of what that word means. Nobody's going to Heaven 'cause of an AI.

So, What's even the damned difference??

Religion by itself means nothing.

You can follow some weird made-up nothing belief system like Eckankar or Raelism or Scientology and be "Religious."

I mean, you can be the most doctrinal theocratic Christian imaginable, and lots of Calvinists and shit are exactly that these days and it means nothing at all whatever.

Why??.

It's what one does with their religion that's what's actually important.

I don't know why this is so hard for some people.

Except that, also in my experience, some people will go to an amazing amount of work to avoid doing any work.

And that's as true in religion and spirituality as it is in any other part of life

If you're not willing to care for Creation or fight to make the world better, or Love Thy Neighbor...what's even the damned point??

If all you want to do is feel good, alcohol or drugs might be easier, without standards of behavior or caring about other people...what's the fucking difference??

And here's the thing;

When push comes to shove the people that need an AI Jesus or Donald Trump don't really believe in anything.

But they sure as hell will see people who resist that crap as a threat.

And I think that's when we're gonna find out just how Antichrist and Anti-religion and shit a lot of these Politics-worshipers and Republicans are.

I suspect at the end of the day they'll make the most violent Atheistic Soviet Stalinist gulag jailer or Red Army soldier or the worst Maoist Red Guard look like a saint by comparison.

I didn't even need to see all the bullshit talk about Empathy being some kind of a sin earlier this year to know that. I knew that when the "Conservative Bible Project" people back in the aughts tried to argue with "Father, Forgive them, for they know not what they are doing."

I knew that, because without that, without those words, without the substitutionary atonement of Christ on the Cross, you don't have Christianity at all.

You have death and martyrdom without Purpose and a ready-made excuse for an Empire Of Revenge but you sure as hell don't have Salvation.

And Salvation is not even what These Fucking People want, anyway.

If Heaven is not Hierarchical or Patriarchal and Hell is (or if they could become convinced that it was so) These Fucking People would choose Hell.

If Christ came and told them to get their shit together and stop acting like this, they would shout "Crucify Him!" in the streets and then they would try to do it.

And they would gladly worship the Image Of The Beast, and attempt to deprive everyone else of having the choice to do anything else.

Because it's not about God or Jesus, it's about Power.

What the Mark Of The Beast really represents is that False World System.

Which, if it comes to that, these assholes will try to enforce using AI and "Social Credit" systems, and likely a fake AI Jesus or some shit.

I believe we are in the middle of a Great Sorting, basically of the people who will believe in a bullshit fake-ass AI Jesus and banging robots rather than loving their fellow Humans...and those who won't.

And like I said, I think these people will be extremely violently against anybody who won't go along with their bullshit.

I've been saying for five years that These Fucking People's ideal world is the Killing Fields of Khmer Rouge Cambodia, but with a mall...and a church, apparently.

Against that, you either believe in freedom or you don't.

And you're either willing to fight, or you're not.

Freedom isn't free.

The right to Life isn't guaranteed without Civilization to enforce it.

And the freedom to worship God (or not) as one chooses is already something that humans have bled and died and fought for.

It's going to come to that again.

Along with having to fight for any other Right you can imagine.

Because some people really would rather live in Babylon.

Soon.

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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.

Last Post

[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."

Self On The Throne (Babylon, Ten.)

When ye therefore shall see the Abomination of Desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (who so reads, let him understand)

Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:

Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.

And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.

For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

Behold, I have told you before.

Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. ~Matthew 24:15-27

...

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

I saw this last night.

Some bullshit-ass AI picture of Trump, seated on a throne, wearing a crown and some kind of golden full-plate armor like the Emperor in Warhammer 40K-hooks-up-with-Idiocracy. 

Note the specifically Roman style Eagle behind him, and the sycophants at his feet. This is not of God.

Like seriously, as both a lifelong gamer and a person with a church background, what exactly the fuck??

And, speaking as a former member of the End Times prophecy movement, who actually owned about the first half of the Left Behind series??

These fucking people have already become every bit as ridiculous and stupid as Nicolae Carpathia's Global Community (the bad guys in the Left Behind series) and they're a good deal more blasphemous than that crap, because as fucked up as all that shit was? Yeah, the 1990's and early aughts End Times prophecy Christians still had lines they wouldn't think of crossing.

Evangelical Christians have basically become the bad guys in their own story at this point and they don't even care, or seem to notice.

I'm genuinely starting to think at this point that MAGA is an evil spirit of delusion, deviance, greed and hate. Worse, I'm more and more thinking that a lot of these fucking people have been secretly worshiping golden idols of Dis Pater and Mammon this whole time, because Jesus Christ has nothing whatever to do with any of this bullshit, and it really is that simple.

Among other things, Believers are not called to live in fear.

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. ~2 Timothy 1:7

The thing is, belief systems like this don't just naturally spring up fully formed in the face of a year like this shit did in 2015-2016 (although if history is any indicator, this shit taking about a decade to rot completely definitely tracks.)

Just like you can see the Nazi bullshit forming if you look at the German Empire up to the end of WWI, there's a certain part of "Conservatism" that was basically proto-MAGA all along. I was never one of those fucking people, but I also knew people who were like that.

There was a time we didn't hand those fucking people the keys to the kingdom, though.

“Terrible thing to live in fear. Brooks Hatlen knew it. Knew it all too well. All I want is to be back where things make sense. Where I won't have to be afraid all the time.” ~Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding, the Shawshank Redemption.

Fear leads to Anger, anger leads to Hate, hate leads to Suffering. Yeah, that bit was popularized by Yoda in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, but if you tack on "Desire leads to Fear" at the beginning it's basically a Buddhist scripture.

The thing is there really is a strain of authoritarianism running through Christianity like a turgid dick-vein. For way too long, people who should have known better failed to account for or counter that bullshit.

Throw in the fact that America has been secretly addicted to Calvinism (the original Prosperity Gospel) since before it was America, and you have a problem.

And now the people who are that way are starting to dispense with Christianity or even any pretense of it altogether.

Like, I'm sorry, but you can see it in how people's behavior has changed. If you look at the behavior of men toward women in particular, you can see it.

Okay, yeah, it's always been there, I'm not even kidding when I say there's always been creepers and shit. But the thing is it's just normalized and out there now vs. even ten or fifteen years ago it seemed like if we got a creeper at my old job, all the ladies had some kind of secret meeting about them and by hook or by crook they wouldn't last very long and management for obvious reasons would side with the ladies just as a matter of course.

I get part of this is resentment of that, but I feel like in what feels like not only a post-Christian America but increasingly a post-Christian Christianity, misogyny is exploding because of all the online Manosphere bullshit, and it seems to be continually getting worse. Trust me, I was aware of it before I got with my partner, hell I've been writing about it for years.

But since we got together in June, I've seen shit I can't unsee and I've not only seen it, but I've experienced it myself. There's nothing quite so contradictory as basically being called "Gay" by some other dude because you love your girlfriend and treat her like a person.

Worse, these guys seem to want Patriarchy without either the responsibility or the systems that it entails, they just want to have unprotected sex and shit like that with no consequences or responsibility, to sire children but not to raise or support them, among other things. It's very contradictory and stupid.

And then via shit like Project 2025 they want to rip away at women's ability to support themselves, and tear down their rights and support systems while demanding they alone uphold their responsibilities and somehow manage to do this with nothing.

I guess if there's a "Good" part to all this, it's that These Fucking People think that Trump is the "god" that'll get it for 'em. Yet somehow they wonder why they keep failing, and why nobody else but the people who are always on board with this kind of shit are on board with this kind of shit.

But at the same time, we've also reached the point where Trump is fading and the same old Republican religious nuts who ruined the brand in the 1990's and early aughts have fused themselves into Trumpism simply by kissing his ass.

(And then they have the balls to wonder why even a lot of MAGA's are leaving.)

And those people, more so than Trump, are the people it's gonna come down to a fight to get rid of.

Trump on the throne is just the goddamned figurehead at this point.

And the real problem is too many of We, the People, prefer the AI image of Trump sitting on a throne to actual reality in this moment because self-governance and doing the quiet work of life is boring and hard. They'd rather have distraction and spectacle, no matter how fake or self-destructive.

If there's anything in our defense it's that the people pulling the strings are either also stupid or they have beliefs that make them stupid.

But we can't count on that.

The Self on the throne and living by the itch in one's genitals does not lead to making good life choices, there's a reason all those Greek and Roman devotees of Plato and later the Stoics were disdainful of such things. The Roman imagery these fucking people occasionally try to appropriate is just that, another fake gimmick.

You fight that with the Truth.

Freedom isn't free. Sometimes, you have to fight for it.

Remember this.

Because if we want America to be America again instead of a Babylon facing God's judgment, it's going to be a fight to make it that way.

And the thing is, these idiots don't care if it's Babylon so long as it's their "Conservative" Babylon.

How did that work out for Nebuchadnezzar?

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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

Nine

There is always in Oz, an undercurrent of fear. Of violence. Of hate. Waiting to explode. ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO series Oz S1.E1 "The Routine."

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