Drugs (Babylon, Seven.)

Lay me down
In the cold, cold ground
Where before many more have gone
Lay me down
In the cold, cold ground
Where before many more have gone
When they come
I will stand my ground
Stand my ground
I'll not be afraid
Thoughts of home
Take away my fear
Sweat and blood
Hide my veil of tears
Once a year
Say a prayer for me
Close your eyes
And remember me
Never more
Shall I see the sun
For I fell to a German's gun.

~Sgt. Mackenzie, by Joseph Kilna Mackenzie, battle theme from the film We Were Soldiers.

...

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

So I guess things aren't going so great for ICE in North Carolina.

Like, I could have told them how that was gonna go.

But of course, these damn narcissistic shitheads are completely high on their own supply.

Like, I guess Elon Musk has Grok trying to tell people that he's some kind of a street fighter now.

As if dude doesn't look like a flaccid plastic bag of commercial kitchen Mashed Potatoes??

I mean, come on, dude. We have eyes.

I might not look like much, but there's at least visible traces of the fact that I was in shape and young and strong once...not least the disabling injuries and shit I racked up when I was that way.

You have to look to see it, but it's there.

I highly doubt Elon has ever been in a fight or done a day's physical exercise or labor in his life.

There's not necessarily anything wrong with that, in the grand scheme of things. Except of course my upbringing, education and life experience tell me there's a lot wrong with that. A Man should, if possible do physical labor, go somewhere on a trip, serve in a profession of arms at least for a little while, take up hiking or hunting or shooting or some such activity...or otherwise work off the craving for adventure and some testosterone when they can...so they're not just making shit up and looking stupid when they're old and look like the racist Pillsbury Dough Boy.

And that's the thing with these fucking people.

They're so deep in the weeds off in their own fantasy world that they can't even talk to the rest of us anymore, and so idiotically high on their own supply that they've got nothing intelligible to even say.

Their entire program is weird freaking nonsense meant to turn America into something it's never been and is completely incapable of even being.

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."

Of course, while I'm at it they're also trying to do the same with Christianity or even ideas of Manhood or the proper treatment of women, not to mention a whole bunch of other shit, but those are the things I happened to have handy examples for at the moment.

The truth is, these fucking people are pretty much so overly "Religious" that what's IN the Lord's Word isn't Good Enough for them.

I dealt with that type of shit all the time back in the day from my ex-wife and the crazy Pentecostals that she surrounded herself with. Who she was as a person was not necessarily bad, but she pathologically couldn't be...didn't want to be or even face...herself.

She was hell-bent on the idea that she or at least somebody that she associated herself with was GOING to be some kind of Holy Prophet, and of course she tried to put that shit on me despite me being 1000% clear that there was no way I was ever gonna go near that kind of responsibility.

Especially when her entire attitude was that she wanted the easy life of a well-off Pastor's Wife and yet also to still have the capability to do whatever she wanted, without being held to any kind of standards. Now, I had considered ministry (and not chosen to follow that path, for the same reason.) So I already knew one of these things was not like the other one.

For one thing, an actual Prophet is not some kind of Holy-roller fortune teller or gilded Televangelist or some shit, but supposed to be a spiritual leader and the person who tells people the Truth and catches a whole hell of a lot of grief for it. Naturally, the Truth wasn't even what she wanted to hear.

But, like all these Trump people now, she was so high on her own supply that she wouldn't hear of anything else, and so she wrecked everything for herself.

Me, too, but I got back up, and she never really did.

Like, haven't these fucking people ever read the Lord's Word??

Now, I don't think you have to be a Christian or even religious to be a prophet or speak prophetically, I have some pretty complex opinions on this. One common thread about such people is there will always be those who do not accept them or what they have to say.

It's also something one cannot and should not seek out, but rather a thing that either one has, or one doesn't.

Among other things, it's sure as hell not going to make your life easier.

But basically either you can hear the Divine Conversation or you can't. By definition, this is not about you.

And that's not the world a lot of these "Conservatives" want to live in.

I found this poem years ago in a random anthology book full of stuff that somebody gave me, and recently happened to see what looks like an updated version.

This right here is what modern "Conservatism" and the whole Prosperity Gospel thing pretty much is.

I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please. 

Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. 

I don’t want enough of God  to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. 

I want ecstasy, not transformation. 

I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please. 

~Three Dollars Worth of God, by Wilbur Rees.

Well, that, and the idea that you get a snooze in the sunshine and the warmth of the womb while everybody else gets nothing but jackboots and shit. 

This crap isn't religion, it's narcissism.

The Self on the Throne is a hell of a drug. 

It's the worst one to get addicted to. 

I'll note nobody's bombing boats trying to stop that drug.

And we continue to tolerate this bullshit at our peril.

I don't have to tell you, drugs ain't the only things to get addicted to. Some people mainline their work, some people... snort ESPN. Some people needle-pop gambling. There are those that shoot up junk foods, fine wines, Cohibas, baby. Some people get hooked on love. And like any fiend on the street, you always need another bump. Just one more bump, man! Just one more bump! ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO series Oz, S1.E5 "The Straight Life."

If we want to stop this shit, it's going to come down to a fight.

Слава Україна!

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

Six

I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do to their fellows, because it always coincides with their own desires. ~Susan B. Anthony

Son, I'm just gonna tell you this one time. You want to keep working here? Stay off the drugs.

~Mr. McDowell, Coming To America

427 (Babylon, Six.)

And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he strikes a man.

And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.

And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.

And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.

And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.

By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.

And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:

Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. ~Revelation 9, 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."

...

I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do to their fellows, because it always coincides with their own desires. ~Susan B. Anthony

I saw yesterday that the House of Representatives voted 427-1 to force release of the Epstein files.

But perhaps more to the point, I've been seeing a hell of a lot of creepy behavior from men lately. Like, way over the top weird creepy shit.

And of course, Republican creeper Clay Higgins was the one vote against releasing the damn files. Like anyone's surprised?

Look, these dudes ain't near to lonely enough and I say that as a goddamned Man.

It's going to come out that Donald Trump is a goddamned child molester and these dudes will be beyond unrepentant. In fact, they'll likely love him all the more for that shit.

Their whole bit, especially with all these allegedly "religious" MAGA's is living vicariously through Trump, making him their identity in the hope that some of his imagined untouchability will "trickle down" to them, and outsourcing their Sin to him.

Outsourced Sin is still Sin, yo. 

You still had the intent, imagining that somebody else will do it for you is not going to absolve you in God's eyes.

But I say unto you, That whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:

But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced commits adultery.

~Matthew 5:28-32

Just sayin.'

You can be as goat-eager as you want to to blame your shit on other people, declare your religion as "Supreme" and outsource your Sins to some other motherfucker all you like.

None of this works that way.

'Cause the one person you cannot manipulate and will never fool is *Checks Notes* God.

You think God doesn't know you thought about that fucked up shit *Buzzer Noise* WRONG!

You think you can convince God that you're better than those Muslims over there?

You can't do that, because He's their God, too.

The perversion of a lot of these so-called "Christians" is laid bare in the thoughts they have, commit to some format or another in public, and then try to blame on other people.

Islam doesn't permit rape.

I mean, fuck, you wanna get the whole neighborhood after you and start a blood-feud that'll last for a few generations? Commit that sort of crime in a Muslim country.

You'll end up hoping the cops come and take you to jail and that you'll be there for  a good long time all the while hoping like a motherfucker that the victim's family ain't got no connections on your cellblock. 

I mean, for fuck's sake in the Islamic Republic of Iran, it's actually legal for a rape victim or someone from the victim's family to be the person that executes the rapist.

No, their systems ain't great, not anymore than ours is. There's a great deal less empathy for the victims and there are a lot of things those people do differently, but that's their countries and their cultures and it's not really my place to judge or even say too much about it.

Most Middle Eastern cultures have been the way they are since before the Americas were even known to the rest of the world. My buddy from Egypt? His family has lived in the same neighborhood since at least before America was America.

So, damned if the way they do things over there doesn't work on some level.

We don't have to like it.

You'd think conservatives, of all the fucking people, would understand that and appreciate it.

But of course the "Standing athwart the flow of History yelling STOP!" kind of old-school conservatism is deader than Bill Buckley.

When my partner was in New York and her life had gone to shit and she was food-insecure and things were really bad, she survived in part on the kindness of the Muslims who owned and ran the bodega across the street from her apartments, who gave her what they could and threw her every break they could and then made up the difference on their books right out of their own pockets.

Because charity is scripturally mandated in Islam.

Because those people were, in fact, acting on codes basically laid out even in the Old Testament of the Bible, if you really think about it.

I don't know if I'll ever get a chance to meet those people or ever even go to the city she was living in but to me, that stands as a debt unpaid and because I've been to the freaking sandbox and neighboring countries and dealt with those people and their honor culture, that's at least karma I feel like I have to pay forward somehow and my partner feels similarly.

And all the religious supremacy and weird, performance-art religiosity in the world ain't gonna cover up shit like that.

What I don't get is, people think God does not know this?!?!

Where do these fucking people think the Holy Books like the Bible, the Koran and the Torah even come from??

Even from the most secular point of view, it's all the same deep dark well of Middle Eastern mythology, and it's not very cuddly and all sunshine and rainbows and meek pasty saviors, either.

It's bloody and it's terrible and wondrous beyond imagination and it's pretty much older than dirt, literally so if one wishes to take it all the way literal. I've had that conversation with Atheists, yo.

America, for all its secular and temporal Power knows nothing of any of this. Or rather, too many of us look at it repeatedly and simply refuse to learn.

Either you believe God is all-knowing, all-powerful and all-seeing and knows more than you or you don't.

And if He isn't, what are you even wasting your time doing all this hocus-pocus shit for??

If such is the case aren't we all pretty much damned anyway, at least according to Christianity??

I mean, I'm just applying the Evangelicals own logic here!

The truth is, that we're about to find out that These Fucking People are going to try to turn their politics into a religion, with Trump as its Golden Idol and fake deity. 

We will find out that these conflict-driven, politics-obsessed weirdos are savagely anti-Christian and anti-religion...or at least anti-anything-but-theirs.

Anything but "Love Thy Neighbor" yo.

Honestly, I think even Trump will get thrown overboard before too long 'cause they're already test-running new gods. I mean, what the fuck do you think that whole Charlie Kirk thing was all about??

I'm serious, if dancing around a fire shouting "Unga Bunga!" or worshiping demons let them abuse women, be mean to LGBT people, People of Color and the poor, and maintain a "Conservative" affect while getting social bonus points for doing nothing?? These fucking people?? They'd be all for that shit, and be shouting "Crucify Him!" in the streets if Jesus showed up to do anything about it.

Truth is the only floor any of us have to stand on to push back against Power.

And before long, if you want the right to believe anything other than what Power tells you that you must, let alone to have the women in your life treated as people, or even to have the right to your own life, you're going to have to fight for it.

Because that's what these power-mad narcissistic greedy motherfuckers even want.

Bow down, or fight back.

They get their narcissistic fuel, and it's your fault, either way.

Either you believe in freedom or you don't.

So pick a side.

Not making a choice is making a choice.

If the US House of Representatives, of all the fuckin' people in the world, can figure that out? Maybe you can too.

Слава Україна!

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

Five

[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."

False Prophets (Babylon, Five.)

The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood. Thus all you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls; all you that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life, are in the hands of an angry God. However you may have reformed your life in many things, and may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of religion in your families and closets, and in the house of God, it is nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction. However unconvinced you may now be of the truth of what you hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it. Those that are gone from being in the like circumstances with you, see that it was so with them; for destruction came suddenly upon most of them; when they expected nothing of it, and while they were saying, Peace and safety: now they see, that those things on which they depended for peace and safety, were nothing but thin air and empty shadows.

The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you were suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep. And there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God’s hand has held you up. There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell. ~Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God, Jonathan Edwards, 1741

...

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

I saw this when I got home from work this morning.

You know how I know Trump is in trouble, and knows it??

My ex-wife used to talk like this when things were going badly. As a Pentecostal, she'd literally try to curse people, and try to "Speak things into being." Yes, I know, anybody with two working brain cells is like "None of this works that way!" Well, she didn't have two working brain cells. So, let me explain; Basically, she was always trying to conjure what she thought she wanted by sheer force of will. In case you wonder why I think a lot of this shit is basically badly attempted Sorcery, and Witchcraft, as in trying to use religious-sounding mumbo jumbo to cheat and manipulate the universe.

The funny part is last I knew my ex-wife wasn't MAGA.

But MAGA is built on the same kind of foundation of emotional and spiritual manipulation as a lot of Pentecostal churches are, including all the ones I saw my ex attend.

It's a Christ-less Christianity, the people who practice and preach it are False Prophets.

As a gamer who plays various editions of White Wolf's RPG Vampire: The Masquerade, let me put it a little more simply; This bitch was trying to make Willpower checks to control the Universe and claiming powers she did not possess.

The Universe of course responded "LOL" the vast majority of the time.

It's the rare times coincidence or fate or raw ability to lie gave them what they wanted, that are what these fucking people hang onto forever.

Donald Trump doesn't even have the faith in Jesus that'd enable him to make such claims as my ex-wife did. Hell, at this point I don't think Trump has faith in Trump.

But, These Fucking People always gotta try that last-ditch stupidity, simply because they don't have anything else left.

I wonder how long it'll be before Trump says "God Told Me...?" or starts Speaking In Tongues at random.

That's these fuckers' very favorite cards to play in these type of situations.

See, once you've dealt with something enough, unless you're emotionally blinded by attachment to it, bad intentions or bad spirits, you tend to crack the code.

And as I've been saying, I don't know what's in the Epstein files, but I think it's bad enough to cause a Revolution all by itself.

Know who's telling me that? 

Trump is.

If it wasn't, he wouldn't be freaking out so bad about it, the government would not have been shut down and we wouldn't be threatening Venezuela with war. I'm serious. It's all distractions.

My newspaper guy at work thinks Trump is a Prosperity Gospel Pentecostal (or has at least bought into all that bullshit without actually accepting Christ) and I can't really say he's wrong, especially not now. 

Why?? Because that is exactly what Trump is acting like.

And here's Mike "Little" Johnson pulling the exact same bullshit.

Again, bro, Communism hasn't even been a thing since 1989. 

I watched the Berlin Wall fall live on CNN.

Reality and Truth happen, I was there, I've seen things with my own eyes. 

 You fuckers ain't gonna Mumbo Jumbo your way out of this one or point and shout "COMMIE!" At least not if you expect that shit to work.

Not least because "Communism" means fuck all to about anybody under 50 at this point.

Like I said yesterday, Sin can become an addiction.

So can religious heresy, which is exactly what the Prosperity Gospel and all this various creepy Dominionist bullshit is.

And these preachers and Republicans, like any petty drug dealer, know they can use addiction to bullshit to control people.

I've personally observed the FOX News bullshit be like a drug to people, typically middle-aged White men.

Only catch is now, they can't control enough people that way.

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

These guys know they've been caught, all the distractions have failed. Now, they're hoping they can either normalize pedophilia or find some other way to get enough people to blame somebody else or not give a shit. 

It's not working.

Except on the people that Republican bullshit always works on or who might actually want to live like that.

Among other things, I have my partner and her daughter to worry about now, but that's not the only reason I don't want to live in that kind of world.

For one thing, that shit is wrong. It's disgusting, it's immoral, child sexual abuse scars people for life.

It's one of the few crimes I think is automatically deserving of Death. I'd refuse to execute a murderer under a lot more circumstances than I would spare a child molester, if it was up to me.

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

And of course these motherfuckers are gonna try to either mimic skeevy religious behavior or use religiosity to try to get out of it...because if we're being honest the Church in America has way too much of a history of tolerating that kind of bullshit.

And then these assholes have the nerve to wonder why people are walking away from religion??

Patriotism and religion are the last refuges of the scoundrel.

In much the same way that macho horseshit is typically the coward's last redoubt.

Yeah, stop and think about that for a second.

You know, I'm starting to think that America is gonna go the way of the Soviet Union just because by the time these fucking people get done with the brand, ain't nobody going to be left that wants to participate in it anymore.

But if you want whatever comes next to be defined by something other than These Fucking People's perversions and insecurities, you're going to have to fight for it.

Otherwise America could go down like a goddamn Church scandal and resulting schism.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

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

When the alternative is raising up and worshiping literal Golden Idols of Donald Fucking Trump I think I'd rather go down standing up, yo.

But then I was taught to have standards.

I was taught my Belief had to mean something in terms of my conduct and the real world.

Weren't you??

Which makes me wonder, what the fuck is wrong with all these other motherfuckers??

Слава Україна!

I don't have to tell you, drugs ain't the only things to get addicted to. Some people mainline their work, some people... snort ESPN. Some people needle-pop gambling. There are those that shoot up junk foods, fine wines, Cohibas, baby. Some people get hooked on love. And like any fiend on the street, you always need another bump. Just one more bump, man! Just one more bump! ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO series Oz, S1.E5 "The Straight Life."

Four 

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

Eli Sunday: Daniel, I'm asking if you'd like to have business with the Church of the Third Revelation in developing this lease on young Bandy's thousand acre tract. I'm offering you to drill on one of the great undeveloped fields of Little Boston!  

Daniel Plainview: I'd be happy to work with you.

Eli Sunday: You would? Yes, yes, of course. That’s wonderful.

Daniel Plainview: But there is one condition for this work.

Eli Sunday: All right.

Daniel Plainview: I'd like you to tell me that you are a false prophet. I'd like you to tell me that you are, and have been, a false prophet, and that God is a superstition.

~From the film There Will Be Blood.

You Gotta Want To Be Saved (Babylon, Four.)

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

...

In Oz, the guards lock the cages and walk away, and the predators rise, take control and make the rules. But in Em City, the guards are with us 24 hours a day. There's no privacy. Everybody sees what everybody's doing. Eyes everywhere. McManus' eyes. See, in Em City, retribution gives way to redemption. Timmy boy believes he can save every one of us, from each other, from ourselves, from the system that dumped us in here. Only thing he don't get is, you gotta want to be saved. ~Augustus Hill, From the HBO series Oz, S1.E1 "The Routine."

...

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 saw this last night.

Erika Kirk, telling people to "Make church on Sunday special" so they can "Prepare for battle" the rest of the week.

No.

I did the church thing for most of my life.

You're not going to war, you're there to worship God. By definition, the Sabbath is not about you.

But then, I guess if you're taking religious advice from Erika, Patron Saint of the Leather Hot Pants, you probably deserve what you're gonna get at this point.

And if that sounds mean, too bad. I used to be a Republican back when they had standards. 

I got out when they dropped those standards below what I deemed to be an acceptable level.

If you don't like it, that's a you problem.

These fucking people aren't seriously conservatives by any measurable standard and they aren't  Christians in any real doctrinal, faith-based or historical context either, they're zero sum conflict-driven narcissistic shitheads who can't even get up in the morning unless they have somebody to be shitty to and fight with, it'd be pathetic if this bullshit wasn't turning out to be so dangerous and toxic to our national life.

I mean, seriously, even when these nuts pick the right side of some issue, like what few of them are that way on the Epstein thing they're all like "Pick Me! Pick Me!" about it. I mean, come on.

I'll admit I've been pleasantly surprised by MTG, and by Thomas Massie keeping his nose to the grindstone on the issue of the Epstein Files, but Nancy Mace is just going to ham it up and be...Nancy Mace, apparently.

Did right, this one time. Would you like a cookie, Nancy??

Ya know, if Leftism suddenly became popular again, she'd be touting herself as being to the Left of AOC and Bernie Sanders in about a week, kinda like how that Lindy Li chick switched sides in the blink of an eye this time last year.

I'm so tired of these fucking people.

I mean tired of all of them, alleged-Left or alleged-Right, because the truth is this crap isn't a partisan issue it's a political class issue across the board and these motherfuckers have turned into an addled, inbred, narcissistic nobility that's addicted to bullshit and oblivious to even the slightest bit of normal-people morality. 

It's getting old with me, fast.

And I'm here to tell you, these fucking people's bullshit and their small-dick energy is getting even worse.

They don't wanna be Saved, yo. 

They wanna ride the bomb all the way down like Slim Pickens in Doctor Strangelove, a whoopin' and a hollerin' and waving their cowboy hat the whole way down if that's what it takes to get that last drop of narcissistic fuel out of the situation.

Okay, MTG might be trying to set it up so she has a future. Lauren Blowbert or Nancy Mace, probably not so much.

And then there's this dude.

Andrew Tate has gone so far 'round the bend he's advocating for "Alpha Males" to do gay stuff with other men in their "Inner Circles" to *Checks Notes* "Fight the LGBT Agenda."

Not gonna lie, old straight guy that I am, I'm confused.

Such a thing would never occur to me, I've never had an issue with LGBT folks (as I've noted, my partner is bisexual) and (granted more by accident than design) I've been faithful to her through the 20 years we've known each other.

And for all that, it's the people like Andrew Tate and his followers that try to call me "Gay" for loving my partner and treating her with respect.

Because for these motherfuckers it's Anything but "Love Thy Neighbor."

Anything but respect the consent of consenting adults and leave those who cannot consent alone.

Anything but doing the right thing, even for a moment.

Anything but America.

Sin is their Addiction.

They'd rather do that than do almost anything the right way.

And these fucking people are the ones who can't or won't stop telling everybody else how "Christian" they are??

I mean, what the actual fuck??

They don't care if they wreck Christianity for basically everybody else or even turn the whole world away from Jesus...because the truth is these narcissists think they're the only ones who are going to Heaven anyway.

They think Heaven isn't Heaven if everybody...or even anybody else...gets to go.

Their attitude about America is basically the same. America isn't America if Black folks or LGBT people get a slice, however small.

Their politics and their religion (not that they see any difference between the two) reflects, indeed is, their narcissism.

And if you want these fucking people even to stop bothering us with this shit, it's going to come down to a fight.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

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

And please, if you want to do something special...do what you want to do, not what Erika Kirk thinks you should do.

God endowed you with a mind, and you're supposed to use that shit.

But like the man said, you gotta wanna be Saved.

That's the whole point of what freedom is, not this Babylonian narcissistic nonsense.

So get after it.

Слава Україна!
I don't have to tell you, drugs ain't the only things to get addicted to. Some people mainline their work, some people... snort ESPN. Some people needle-pop gambling. There are those that shoot up junk foods, fine wines, Cohibas, baby. Some people get hooked on love. And like any fiend on the street, you always need another bump. Just one more bump, man! Just one more bump! ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO series Oz, S1.E5 "The Straight Life." ...

[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."

Three

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