Sunday, May 5, 2024

Mississippi, Goddamn it (Their Meme-Lord And "Savior," Two.)

We're fighting bulls of the Buffaloes,
Git a goin' – git a goin'
From Kansas' plains we'll hunt our foes;
A trottin' down the line.
Our range spreads west to Santa Fe,
Git a goin' – git a goin'.
From Dakota down the Mexican way;
A trottin' down the line.

Goin' to drill all day
Goin' to drill all night,
We got our money on the buffaloes,
Somebody bet on the fight.

A color photograph of the Buffalo Soldier Monument at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The sculpture was undertaken by Eddie Dixon and sits atop a waterfall. It consists of a cavalry trooper mounted on a galloping horse
The Buffalo Soldier Monument at Fort LeavenworthKansas. It honors the African-American Buffalo soldiers and those who led them.

Pack up your saddle and make it light.

Git a rollin' – git a rollin'.
You are training fast for a hard fight;
A rollin' down the line.
Untie your horse and boot and gun,
Git a goin' – git a goin'.
Shake out your feet or you'll miss the fun,
A rollin' down the line.

Goin' to drill all day
Goin' to drill all night,
We got our money on the buffaloes,
Somebody bet on the fight.

It's Troops in line for the Buffaloes,
Git a movin' – git a movin'.
Then Squadron mass when the bugle blows'
A movin' into line.
Pull in your reins and sit your horse,
Git a movin' – git a movin'.
If you can't ride you'll be a corpse;
A movin' into line.

Goin' to drill all day
Goin' to drill all night,
We got our money on the buffaloes,
Somebody bet on the fight. ~The Buffaloes (Regimental Song of the 10th Cavalry Regiment, US Army; AKA "The Buffalo Soldiers" sung to the tune of The Camp Town Races)

I saw this a couple days ago.

Some dumbass racist frat boy at Ole Miss dancing around and making "monkey noises" near a Black pro-Palestine protester. And Mississippi's honkey-ass governor called that shit "heart warming."

What The FUCK?!?!

And he did it while wearing a paid of American Flag bib-overalls that made his ass look like Bozo the Clown. Fuck off, dude.

I'm so sick of this goddamned bullshit. This is not acceptable in our modern world. It's done been that way as long as I've been alive. Try something like that in the military, and you'll be looking for a new career...if you don't go to jail first. As it is, that video is probably going to follow that kind around some and nobody's gonna want to hire him...unless he gets a job in the Republican Party, I suppose.

And, I mean, if so...in 20 years they'll likely run the little shit as a presidential candidate, if there is a Republican Party then.

Who the fuck teaches their kids this kind of shit?? I got my ass beat for doing far less than any of this crap when I was a kid.

And now? There's Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz saying the Jews "killed Jesus?" I haven't even heard that kind of language quoted since I was a kid and I'm 50 years old! I mean for fuck's sake I have a church background and I've read the Lord's Word. Somebody was going to have to kill Jesus, because that and the substitutionary atonement for Man's Sin was the entire alleged point of Him coming to Earth in the first damned place! For fuck's sake, the Cross was a Roman instrument of death by torture.

Of course, we already know Republicans don't wanna be Saved. Their entire worldview is based on Death and Wealth, the works of the chthonic Roman deity Dis Pater (Later appropriated as a Christian demon) and on Power and Revenge, the basic workings of the Roman Empire for much of its existence.

People like Matt Gaetz and MTG imagine Jesus in the same way modern far-right Jews imagine their own Messiah...as an Earthly ruler, a Caesar...and they see their "religion" as an ethnic creed. There is no Salvation. There is no need for such because the State and the Tribe become God. There is no "My Kingdom Is Not Of This World" and there sure as hell is no "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing."

In other words, these motherfuckers miss the entire goddamn point of spirituality in the first place, much less of Christianity.

They'd just as soon call Donald Trump god, indeed, they have.

Because their whole fucking bit is "Anything but Jesus Christ."

Anything but America.

Anything but "Love Thy Neighbor."

Anything but "All men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights."

And these fucking people call themselves "Conservatives??"

Oh, bullshit.

The only thing these fucking people are trying to "conserve" or more accurately to regain...is some imagined "right" to call Black people "N*ggers" and face no consequences for it, and I suppose, to use other racial slurs...along with the "right" to abuse LGBT people and children and women.

Listen up, yo, none of those things are rights.

Being "White" does not make you some magical kind of special person with some kind of supernatural powers.

And Mike Flynn was a US Army General, he should damned well know better than this shit...not least that racism has been illegal in the military since Truman desegregated it. Simply from experience and knowing the costs of things; States and other sub-national polities most often simply cannot afford the costs of modern warfare (Unless one's idea of "War" is AK-47's and Technical trucks.) What this dude is basically advocating for is the effective dissolution of the United States of America, and for what?? So much for Preserving, Protecting and Defending the Constitution of the United States Of America, eh?? 

That Constitution has always reserved the powers of Foreign policy to the Federal government.

And as my choice of pull-quote should goddamned well illustrate, even if one does believe in bullshit like Privilege and racial Hierarchy...by definition shouldn't Black people, among others, have earned your fucking respect by now?? How much fucking blood do people have to shed, and spill, for your dumb ass to accept them?? Even during the absolute nadir of global and US race relations, Black men volunteered for military service in numbers disproportionate to their percentage of the population!

Why?? Because they understood, right or wrong, that's what they had to do to get respect. It's the same reason Moe, my roommate of several years never went to Church or an important event without a suit on. You want respect?? Be respectable!! There was a time when the Church was one of few places Black dudes could get respect or show pride in themselves without risking getting murdered!

These people have been contributing to America since before it was America! When I served in the Air Force as a Security Policeman, a bunch of my friends and a couple of my squad-mates...one of those later a fellow Sergeant...were Black. I was a conservative Republican rural white boy at the time, and I held a number of beliefs that would not be considered "Woke" today...and those people earned my respect.

The same with Black folks I went to church with after my military service abruptly came to an end because of my accident. Those people helped me on my path to getting Sober. Same with the Jamaicans I worked with in the food service industry working 14 hour days like it was nothing, same with LGBT people being resolute yet decent in the face of absolute bigoted stupidity, same with the Native folks I worked around and with for 20 years at the casino...all people have good and bad traits, many do strive for the good to outweigh the bad. 

As regards those Native people in particular, an absolute shitload of them were veterans for the simple reason that well up into the 1990's the one sure way to get off the Rez and make something of oneself was military service! Also many of those Native folks had Latino names because for a long time in a racially divided America it was preferable to be seen as something other than Native American in America. So they intermarried heavily with the Latino migrant workers who shared their agricultural labor niche. Think about that shit for a second! This kind of stuff is what people like Trump say they want to go back to when they say "Make America Great Again."

Native Americans were not welcome in their own country, and there's nothing "Great" about that. Native Americans were...as many signs and stickers they have in their homes point out...here first.

My roommate for several years, Jon, was a Navy veteran. As a member of the Ogitchedaw Warrior Society...the Tribe's veterans group...he had a position of legit societal respect in the community, which came with laws of conduct for him...and also for me since I was his roommate. I'd have to walk the dogs at a certain time on certain mornings so he could Smudge first himself, then the drum that he was Keeper of. It was no big deal to me

Dude paid his share of the rent without no trouble. We helped each other out...it's what people are supposed to do.

Listen up, White people. Other people have culture and Humanity and societies just like you do and theirs demands respect as well.

And it's not going to be long before racist-ass White Republicans start resorting to terrorism because they don't want to face that.

Well, I still have weapons if it comes to that...and so do a lot of other people like me. I faced the facts that a lot of These Fucking People were garbage years ago when people that I knew started talking stupid about Obama.

And the rest of us are under no obligation to tolerate White, right-wing terrorism based on reasons like bigotry any more than we would be required to put up with radical Islamic terrorism or any other kind. It's just that simple.

You either believe in equality and freedom, or you fucking don't.

Being a better class of slave than some of the other slaves don't make you free. Proximity To Power does not make you NOT be a Slave.

Freedom isn't free, sometimes you have to fight for it. Other people know that. A whole hell of a lot of White people are gonna find that out, too.

Because when these assholes start attacking visible aspects of our government, blowing themselves up for assholes like Trump, and murdering random people...there won't be any such thing as "White Enough" to be safe. These people don't give a fuck about themselves. 

When COVID-19 came around, they believed so much that the disease should be used as a biological weapon against somebody that when nobody else stepped up, they became Antivaxxers and died.

Once these motherfuckers get a taste of blood, they're going to want more, and they won't care whose it is.

Not even if it's their own. Anything to preserve the social meme of bigotry...even if it means they have to strap bombs to themselves and blow themselves up.

These motherfuckers would rather wipe their ass with the Constitution and the Flag and burn America to the ground than see everybody be equal and this nation live up to the promises enshrined in its own Constitution...a document a lot of these idiots will in the next breath try to say was divinely inspired.

I can't make that shit make sense.

You want to win? You have to care more about your freedom (And that of your neighbors) than they do about their hate.

So get after it.

Слава Україна!

When the earliest settlers poured into a wild continent there was no one to ask them where they came from. The only question was: Were they sturdy enough to make the journey, were they strong enough to clear the land, were they enduring enough to make a home for freedom, and were they brave enough to die for liberty if it became necessary to do so? And so it has been through all the great and testing moments of American history. Our history this year we see in Vietnam. Men there are dying; men named Fernandez and Zajac and Zelinko and Mariano and McCormick. Neither the enemy who killed them nor the people whose independence they have fought to save ever asked them where they or their parents came from. They were all Americans. It was for free men and for America that they gave their all, they gave their lives and selves. By eliminating that same question as a test for immigration the Congress proves ourselves worthy of those men and worthy of our own traditions as a nation. ~Lyndon B. Johnson.

One

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

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

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




Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Conquering And To Conquer? (Their Meme-Lord And "Savior," One.)

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.

And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.

And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat there on to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:

And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? ~Revelation 6:1-10


I keep seeing goofy-ass shit like this.

Basically Trump's head, Photoshopped onto Sly Stallone's body, all diesel, always carrying some improbable weapon. First, Trump has never looked like that. Second, you cannot actually jam an RPG-7 grenade (effectively a warhead on the end of a stick) down the barrel of an M-60 Machine Gun. None of this works that way, although the Mi-24 Hind helicopter (a Russian gunship) is a nice tell regarding these fucking people's actual political sympathies.

Meanwhile, the actual Donald Trump, the person...looks like he's falling apart. Pale, pasty, always falling asleep in court, rambling nonsense speeches, and so on. Lauren Blowbert thinks that somebody is "Keeping Trump from exercising."

Bitch, maybe it's just me but he looks a lot like he never exercised before. Trump looks like he's never been in the same room with exercise, ever.

"He went forth Conquering, and to conquer" it ain't.

Trump looks like a deflated balloon.

"He's coming after you" Seriously?? Before or after his latest nap? And something tells me that, cane, limp and all...I'd have absolutely no trouble at all outrunning anybody like that. Not that I'd have much to worry about if I couldn't. Among other things, I doubt Trump has ever fired a weapon.

Also, it's actually pretty physically demanding to fire an M-60 from a standing position, unsupported, especially if you plan on hitting anything. I was an M-60 gunner in Air Force security forces. Recoil can be kind of a bitch, especially if you've been humping that shit around and shooting that goddamn Pig all day and just got shots in both arms, vaccinations for that deployment you're training for (and refusal was not an option.) Nothing you can do but tough it out, either. Sure can't quit. There's a reason these things have bipods, pintle mounts, and so on. 

The Rambo shit is not accurate, those were just goddamn movies. The macho bullshit is just...bullshit.

Having once been a USAF Sergeant, and thus in an Enlisted leadership position (if not much of one, really) and knowing what that took? Being a leader is hard (or at least I thought so.) you have to be responsible for your people. Trump has openly, publicly, on national TV even, refused to do this most basic of things. And because he's dumb as fuck and nobody ever made him...he doesn't understand why he should be respectable or responsible.

Respect is earned, by every action, every day. Integrity above all, Service before self, Excellence in all that we do. This is what I was taught. Trump clearly was not taught this. The gulf between Trump the Meme...and Trump the Man...boggles my mind. This isn't respect, this is sycophancy. Endlessly feeding a goddamn narcissist for...fuck, I don't even know what, anymore.
Let Trump speak? Is he gonna actually say anything?

And the whole Trump Thing was a cult, right out the gate. Far from questioning it, far from seeing what the Lord's Word says about such people, the Evangelicals just jumped in with both feet and most of them never looked back.

And anybody that questioned it at all, basically got ran out.

Almost all the Christians I used to know and did that whole thing with aren't Christians anymore, because of these idiots who think "God and Trump" are gonna "Save America."

I'm sorry, but in Christian terms, Trump ain't "Saved." He said live on CNN that he didn't need God's forgiveness.

Even if he was all that, Man cannot Save Man, only God can do that, by one's acceptance of Jesus as their Lord and Savior. (Note: There are conduct and other requirements, here.) I'm not a born-again anything. I'm not even a  Christian anymore, but that's what I was taught.
Belief in your Meme-Lord ain't gonna Save you, lady.

And yes, that's exactly what this garbage is, it's a goddamn internet meme run amok. It's stupid people who care more about the social meme of a "Strongman" than whether or not the one they've claimed as "theirs" actually is a strongman, or even strong, or a man. But they saw Trump was all they were gonna get. Now? They all think they can Believe it into being.

And that, my friends, is exactly how you go to Hell.

But you don't have the right to take the rest of us there with you.

And we have something to say about determining our own fates.

That's the part these people don't get.

The thing about it is, especially if Trump keeps melting down what with his trial and all, I have a feeling this craziness is even going to eat Trump and the goddamn nuts will find another one that they like better. They don't even want Trump, the Man. They want some Orange King-Kong motherfucker they think will beat up their "Enemies." It's a list that's endless, but mostly exists only in their own heads, which will not preclude them from killing real people over that shit. The world these fucking people want to live in is the Killing Fields of Khmer Rouge Cambodia, but with a mall. Cruelty's the point, etc.

The whole reason this came about was a lot of these "Christians" didn't even believe in their own God, so they found one they liked better. And he let them do what they wanted. They did it once, they can do it again. As they decide they want worse things, this is what will happen.

The actual point seems to be the authoritarian religious fanaticism, the having of enemies and somebody to hate.

And I've said it before, as Trump declines, the weirdo bullshit will find other outlets, it's already happening.

At City College in NYC, the NYPD, after arresting or kicking out all the student protesters, took down the Palestinian flag some kid ran up the flagpole and replaced it with the Stars And Stripes.

On the face of it, that seems Okay, but then these goons acted all fake-solemn and shit, like they was trying to reenact the Flag Raising on Mt. Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in the closing months of WWII. That kind of burns my ass, and apparently this was filmed by the NYPD, not some credentialed journalist. Like, it was specifically done for the FOX News crowd. That doesn't seem American to me, it seems rather Soviet, except for the fact that I wonder if these assholes recited some Christian Nationalist bullshit.

It smacks of these dipshits LARPing some kind of cosplay "Victory" over "The Left" or some dumb shit.

They don't even seem to realize there's what seems to be at least a slight majority of Democrats that don't really care for the protesters. They don't seem to notice that if all this shit goes out to Fox News and crap, there's not very many people in New York City that are going to watch it.

It might be real big in Sand Point, Idaho. But that doesn't actually do any good for anything except for people who value Cheap Internet Fame. These fucking people are trying to win some kind of a "Meme War" against the "Left" and Young People without actually understanding what any of this shit even is.

And the worst part is, they don't even want to know what's true.

This smacks of some kind of big setup to try and reduce Joe Biden's poll numbers (which tells me the polling they keep touting is bullshit. If they were winning, Why??) But they don't understand most Democrats, Independents, non-"Conservatives" aren't some monolithic entity and that nobody but them associates these protests with Biden in the first place!

Somebody (not me) made a list, if you need it.

(They also seem not to understand that most actual Democrats aren't worried because most of us know damn well a lot of these Far-Left people don't vote.)

And they have no problem with being seen beating up on these kids. (Which actually does seem to bother a lot of people, whether they agree with the protesters or not.)

"Owning The Libs" and a bunch of other imaginary bullshit is more important to these fucking people than basic morality or even functional government.

Do you really want to be forced to live under these people's bullshit Meme-Gods?? I sure don't.
You're either a Citizen or you're not.

You either believe in freedom or you don't, so get after it.

Or prepare yourself for an eternity of Ridiculosity.

Your call.

Слава Україна!

Last Post

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

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

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


Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Tales Of The Uniparty II (American Revelation XVI, Twelve.)

And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in diverse places.

All these are the beginning of sorrows.

Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.

And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. ~Matthew 24:2-14

You know what I'm really getting tired of?

Trump and people like him, claiming they did their crimes and shit "For me" and then, despite their alleged wealth, they keep asking people like me for money.

No, motherfucker. NO.

(Seriously, more people need to learn how to use that word.)

And for the same reason I wouldn't loan the weird guy that comes in my work ten bucks for a pack of cigarettes last week.

I don't have it, not for people who maybe ain't got gas for their car or a jacket on when it's cold, but their car smells like weed (Which ain't cheap.) Definitely, I ain't got it for people like Trump who allegedly should not need money...because they're supposedly rich...but who go around asking for it all the time, anyway.

Wasn't this dude the poster boy for Stupid Yuppie Wealth for like 30 years?

What happened to all those casinos and shit?? Oh, right, they went bankrupt.

Because Trump is an idiotic, lazy, scumbag con artist who wasn't told "No" when he should have been.

Are people just that damned stupid??

More to the point, does this dude falling asleep in court and being charged with contempt actually look like winning to you??

If you or I conducted ourselves like this in a court proceeding, we'd end up in jail.

Like, already. There wouldn't be no more hearings.

And I'm tired of people lying and making excuses for this sack of shit, or for trying to cover themselves in secondhand "glory" from his own stupid decisions.

I'm sick of that motherfucker stinking up our politics, literally.

But even more than that I'm tired of people lying for this dude.

I'm tired of people making excuses for his dumb ass.

I'm tired of people worshiping this fucking loser like he's a god because he said racist shit about Mexicans.

And I'm tired of the fact that pretty much every bad actor in this whole damn country seems to see Trump as a vector to getting what they want.

They know, fundamentally, that he's an easily manipulated moron.

They just don't care

Like, fuck the rest of you, I've got mine.

Americans act like this and then we wonder why half the damn world's on fire?

Maybe start by waking up in the morning and realizing the world don't revolve around you?

Or as my Grandpa used to say "Remember, brothers, there are others."

I can remember when absolute base selfishness got people's asses beat.

When these people bitch about there being a "Uniparty" they're actually telling on themselves. They're not wrong, if you look at it as people who believe in Democracy vs. people who don't.

And I'm quite sick of people who'd exchange democracy and freedom for shareholder profits or social status.

Especially considering that in the kind of world these monsters are trying to create, the vast majority of these fucking people (and certainly anybody I know) would have neither.

But they "Identify" with the "Hierarchy" the idea of "Caste" or something something Gazpacho.

Bro, you don't live in the 19th Century British Raj in India.

This is America.

If you care more about "Castes" or "Class" or "Hierarchy" than you do about freedom...why don't you go somewhere, where people either live like that or did sometime in recent history and see how you like it. Go ahead, see what those kinds of divisions did to those sorts of societies, I'll wait.

I'll note that none of these motherfuckers seem to have any interest in checking out India...or even the United Kingdom, for that matter.

But these fucking people are obsessed with their fucked up social theories anyway, I've personally seen people go down that rabbit hole with the Alt-Right Nazi shit.

For these nuts, it's basically anything other than America at this point.

And even in the very likely event that Trump loses, we're probably going to have to fight a war with these assholes if we want this shit to stop.

It might not be much of a war, but people will still die in it.

And for these fucking people that seems to be the point. They don't even care if it's them.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

You can either be a Citizen or a Subject, not both. One of these things is not like the other one.

And our Founding Fathers based America on the ideal of citizenship rather than subjection to a king for a damn reason. But I guess that's too hard for some motherfuckers...

You want a better country, be a better citizen.

Because the alternative sucks.

Слава Україна!

Eleven

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

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

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

Tales Of The Uniparty I (American Revelation XVI, Eleven.)

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 shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and puts forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:

So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.

Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

~Matthew 24:25-34

...

"The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride."

~Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly 25 February 2022, Associated Press

I saw this earlier this morning.

MTG trying to introduce a Motion To Vacate, vs. Speaker Mike Johnson. House Democrats have already signaled that they're going to back him, and Large Marge be mad about it.

Let me explain something to you, bitch: Yeah, you're right. There absolutely is a "Uniparty." 

Everybody really is out to get you; That is, almost everybody on both sides of the line hates your (and every other member of the "Freedom" Caucus's) guts.

It's Democracy vs. MAGA, period.

Not that it's America these fucking people even want. They want pre-Enlightenment if not pre-Reformation Europe, Lords in their Castles and Ignorant Peasants.

They want the King to be King and everybody else to have to suck his dick, and they figure they'll suck better and get more of what they want, and the rest of us will get nothing but shit. You know, exactly the type of "Government" that was prevalent at the time of our Revolution and that America was founded to oppose.

And nobody but you fuckers and the old people with landline phones that pollsters keep calling really likes your Orange Jesus, either.

There's a certain kind of White Man with various "Adequacy" issues that just loves Trump, old people whose brains stopped working in 1975, too, and various racists love the man.

Most people, don't.

It's all bullshit, just like this big stink that corporate media is making about campus protests, trying to basically keep everybody else from talking about anything else because Trump is losing his ass in court, he looks like shit, he's not even campaigning, and the motherfucker can't even stay awake.

It's the greedy corporations, the idiot MAGA's, the media, misogynists who want to abuse women, old racist shitheads and rich motherfuckers that want this dude. 

Oh yeah, there's a small percentage of doctrinaire fascists and people who jerk off to the idea of genuflecting before a king...but it's funny how those motherfuckers never move somewhere like Russia or Saudi Arabia where people have to live like that, isn't it?? Mostly Trump is backed by people who want to do what they want including beating up on immigrants and their fellow citizens for no fucking reason, and they want to steal America from all the rest of us while he's taking naps all damn day and farting.

And they want to kill other Americans.

They want to shatter this country into a million pieces so they can each have their own scummy little fiefdoms where only people "like them" get to have money and take showers and shit like that.

This goes that far, I guarantee you it'll be the "Liberals" who put a civilization back together faster, and get help from the rest of the world to do it, and you fuckers lose anyway.

It's not so much about beliefs or political ideology as it's about these fucking people's endless goddamn narcissism and nihilism.

America has been pretty good to a lot of these fucking people, and they haven't had to do much for it, and they still want more.

You wanna hand America over to people like that??

You're fucking stupid.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

It's really that simple.

So get after it.

No more excuses.

Слава Україна!

Ten

I have certain rules I live by. My first rule: I don't believe anything the government tells me. [...] I look at war a little bit differently. To me, war is a lot of prick-waving! OK? Simple thing. That's all it is. War is a whole lot of men standing out on a field waving their pricks at one another. Men are insecure about the size of their dicks, and so they have to kill one another over the idea. That's what all that asshole jock bullshit is all about. That's what all that adolescent, macho, male posturing and strutting in bars and locker rooms is all about. It's called "dick fear!" Men are terrified that their pricks are inadequate and so they have to compete with one another, to feel better about themselves, and since war is the ultimate competition, basically, men are killing each other in order to improve their self-esteem! You don't have to be a history major or a political scientist to see the bigger-dick foreign policy theory. It sounds like this: "What, they have bigger dicks? Bomb them!" And of course, the bombs and the rockets and the bullets are all shaped like dicks. It's a subconscious need to project the penis into other people's affairs. It's called "fucking with people!" ~George Carlin.




Monday, April 29, 2024

What's Wrong With Right Wing Men? (American Revelation XVI, Ten.)

I have certain rules I live by. My first rule: I don't believe anything the government tells me. [...] I look at war a little bit differently. To me, war is a lot of prick-waving! OK? Simple thing. That's all it is. War is a whole lot of men standing out on a field waving their pricks at one another. Men are insecure about the size of their dicks, and so they have to kill one another over the idea. That's what all that asshole jock bullshit is all about. That's what all that adolescent, macho, male posturing and strutting in bars and locker rooms is all about. It's called "dick fear!" Men are terrified that their pricks are inadequate and so they have to compete with one another, to feel better about themselves, and since war is the ultimate competition, basically, men are killing each other in order to improve their self-esteem! You don't have to be a history major or a political scientist to see the bigger-dick foreign policy theory. It sounds like this: "What, they have bigger dicks? Bomb them!" And of course, the bombs and the rockets and the bullets are all shaped like dicks. It's a subconscious need to project the penis into other people's affairs. It's called "fucking with people!" ~George Carlin.

...

"The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride."

~Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly 25 February 2022, Associated Press

I saw this when I got home from work.

Kyle Rittenhouse, trying to dress and act like a soldier, He isn't

He's a fucking soup sandwich.

I was a United States Air Force security police Sergeant, and I'm here to tell you people like me laugh at punks like this...or I would, if he hadn't killed people simply for exercising their Constitutional Rights and been made a right-wing icon and at least in terms of not going to prison, got away with it. What's wrong with these motherfuckers??

And for all his cheap internet fame, Kyle can't seem to get a job that doesn't involve being a right-wing political grifter.

There's apparently a lot of that kind of shit going around, and it seems like a hell of a lot of it is just dudes that don't want to have to get real jobs where they have to show up sober and wear pants to work.

Like, no joke, I worked five days including on what were supposed to be two of my days off and I still have payday bullshit I didn't get done last week because somebody quit on us and my work got fucked over. When somebody says "No one wants to work anymore!" they're talking about the White People.

And it seems like it's mostly the men.

Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with "Conservative" White men,?? And note I ask this as a white male Air Force veteran former Republican with a church background. Shit like this was not acceptable back in my day when I was one of those people.

I mean, it used to be if you showed up drunk, or in a hoodie and shorts for some interview or whatever, just spreading your legs all over the place while basically wearing a Speedo they wouldn't even put your ass on TV.

And somebody would make sure that it got out that you tried this kind of crap, and people would laugh at you and your career would be just...gone.

Nowadays the only people acting like everybody would've acted forty, twenty, even ten years ago and mocking this horseshit are the liberals, the "Left" the moderates who actually give a shit, (As opposed to the Basic Centrists who are afraid if they say something they won't get invited to cocktail parties with these clowns anymore) and the occasional surviving Never Trump Republican.

Meanwhile the assholes, assisted by the cocktail-party-repartee crowd, continue to try to crowbar this country apart by simply refusing to participate in Civilization with the rest of us. 

And they're doing it while Trump, their Avatar, makes up stories about how everybody will "Submit" to him...even though such is demonstrably horseshit. In fact, in the case of Trump/MAGA Republicans vs. Russia, the reverse seems to be true because they keep submitting to Putin

Worse, on that side of the fence everybody seems fine with this.

These idiots are going balls-out and abandoning all decency, morality and even self-respect in an effort to save a Power Structure that they know is failing, that they've actually done not one fucking thing to maintain until they saw what was actually happening and panicked...because they long ago decided that It Would Always Be Thus and they were too good to have to explain themselves, talk to people or even say Why it should be so. I mean, if it was me in this position I'd have died of addiction, depression and embarrassment a long damned time ago.

Naturally, they're destroying themselves. 

And nobody who can stop them is asking "Hey, just what the fuck are we even doing here?" And just like with the George Floyd protests four years ago, these college students are going to leave a mark and the rich assholes who are getting the cops to beat on them will just end up losing and slinking further up their own asses with their bitterness and their money.

Because the truth is it's not even about the money, but about ego and the image of a certain kind of power, which in America nobody really has...or ever has had...on the level that they want it.

And because these fucking people refuse to even talk to, let alone listen to anybody outside of their cocktail party, supper club bullshit, we end up in the same shit in another few years, over another issue.

Or maybe not, maybe that's the thing and it's not another issue, but the same one.

Seems like it's always the same kind of fucking people doing it.

Seems like it's always bigotry and Power and wealth, in some form, that are at the core of whatever the fuck it is.

Again, what in the fuck is wrong with "Conservative" White Men??

And I'm here to tell you, one of these times it's going to boil over into straight up warfare, with Americans shooting at each other.

And when that happens, these cackling, simpering clowns and the bellicose drunks, the fat slobs, the shit-talking goons, the wannabe thugs who were great at shooting people when nobody was shooting back...and the weak-ass enablers are all going to suddenly have pressing business arrangements in places like the Cayman Islands or Dubai or some shit. Kyle Rittenhouse will suddenly get himself an endorsement deal for some arms company in Abu Dhabi that nobody ever heard of before, etc. The last thing these shitheads are going to do is fight in the wars that they bumble-fucked the rest of us into. I mean, don't get me wrong, they'll talk like they're the glue that holds the world together and how if we'd all just obeyed them none of this would be happening...but it's a lie.

And when it ends up being a two or even three front war because in addition to all these brushfire conflicts here at home, the Authoritarianism, Inc. goons decide they're going to press for whatever they can get...those same motherfuckers will just gossip about the Generals fighting the wars and democratic leaders trying to keep America together and John Fetterman's hoodie and Zelensky's army sweater or some bullshit at gilded parties in Dubai instead of NYC.

When it's F-35's, Rafales and Typhoons and upgraded F-16's fighting it out with Flankers and Fulcrums in the skies over Europe and American kids are not only dying in the field in Poland and Romania and Ukraine but in the streets of Cheyenne and Dallas and Salt Lake City...these gold-plated clowns will lament the road block with a tank that protects their neighborhood, or the lack of peace and quiet at their villa in Tuscany...not the threat to their freedoms and lives represented by threats like Russia or wannabe American Fascists.

And when Israel has to become something other than Bibi's personal goon squad in order to survive, they'll...openly or otherwise...be mad that their latest gambit to start the End Times clock and summon their Blood God failed.

(Also, I find it funny how "America First" can't wait to be pawns in somebody else's ethnic conflict that's somewhere else, it just seems kind of odd to me, or like it's all crap or something.)

Never mind that bit about how a rich man getting into Heaven is like trying to fit a Camel through the eye of a needle. 

To these fucking people, that's just crazy talk.

Because apparently, being rich is a hell of a drug, or something. And as long as they get to have it, they don't care if the rest of us are dead or enslaved.

But we do care, and we get a vote in this too, motherfuckers.

As for the rest of you, you either believe in freedom or you don't.

We don't have time to worry about whatever the fuck is wrong with "Conservative" White Men. It's time to start punching motherfuckers in the head and shouting that shit down because it's not our job to be these fucking people's playthings or therapists.

You want a better country, be a better citizen.

And as for those who whack it to the idea of being Lords in their castles, surrounded by fields of serfs, it's time to grow the fuck up and realize the people trying to set this shit up are planning on you being in the latter category, not the former.

Their Wealth is their god.

Do you really think they're going to let you have any??

And I'm not a born-again anything anymore, but I distinctly remember being taught how that worked out, either the having it or the wanting it bad enough to wreck civilization.

It's like this, if you want to be these people's bitch, that's your right, I guess.

But this is America, and I don't have to put up with it, or you.

Remember that.

'Cause I sure will.

Слава Україна!

Nine

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

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

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





Sunday, April 28, 2024

Beast Of War (American Revelation XVI, Nine.)

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

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

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

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

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

~Malcolm X, Letter following the Hajj.
...

"The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride."

~Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly 25 February 2022, Associated Press

I saw this yesterday.

In her recent autobiography, Kristi Noem bragged about shooting her dog. Nothing wrong with the dog, and it was only 14 months old, she just didn't want it anymore.

People, across the board...even strident MAGA's...have reacted with nothing but well-deserved anger and disgust.

Meanwhile, because of the idiocy of the Columbia University administration and the NYPD, college campuses around the country have been wracked with protests against the continued attacks on Palestinians in Gaza by Israel.

And there's cops pointing sniper rifles at college students because of it. Speaking as a United States Air Force security police veteran here, how exactly do you enforce any laws from 200 meters away?? And that's the thing, these students aren't breaking any laws but rather exercising their Constitutional rights.

Shoot a dog, that's bad. Point weapons at college students, and that's good? It seems like some fucking people have their priorities all fucked up.

And they'll end up mad at Kristi Noem for telling on them.

Because if you think these motherfuckers wouldn't shoot people, you have another thing coming. And she gave away the game too early. Usually, psychopaths start with abusing animals.

And I find it interesting that the Columbia university administration has already said they won't call the NYPD again. Seems like somebody fucked up here, and it wasn't the college students. And they know it. Protesting is one of those things that college students do. If they'd left that shit alone, it would've flamed out in a week and there wouldn't be a national protest movement right now. Yeah, okay, there are a few violent Anti-Semitic assholes. You deal with those ones (which can generally be done without violence) and you don't use that shit as an excuse to brutalize the non-violent, law-abiding majority with excessive force.

I'm here to tell you, as it always does, the Right has overreached on this one...because they've had a hard-on for going after college students for a long time. And it's going to (further) shift US public opinion against Israel, in addition to creating another cycle of radicals (Islamic and otherwise) for the Right and its progeny to "fight" against, because these motherfuckers ideology can apparently survive just fine without a God...but goddamn, it can't even function without an Enemy.

And that's the thing.

These fucking people want to destroy themselves. They want to provoke an Apocalypse. They want to destroy every damn thing they "Support" too. And US support for Israel is no exception and no, I'm not kidding.

See, for "Conservatives" and Republicans, Israel is merely a Spell Component for "Summon Angry Blood-God Jesus." If they can turn the USA and the world against Israel that simply helps the 1970's vintage End Times Prophecy narrative these motherfuckers are still working off of. (Yes, the one I was taught in the 1990's, which is how I can say this.)

And the Go-condition for the Judgments of Revelation is basically a peace treaty between Israel and the global empire that they believe will exist at that time, which Israel is something something Gazpacho not a part of for some reason.

(Don't ask me, I only work here.)

Also, on the one hand, These Fucking People believe if they destroy themselves and America in some kind of Republican Revelation scenario...their small angry god will save them. Them...and not you or me.

Yes, they want to bring the Apocalypse on themselves because they think it'll hurt you.

(It's typical "Conservative" logic.)

On the other hand, this kind of shit is simply what happens when you marinate your brain in End Times conspiracy theories for your whole life. Most of these people didn't get out when Y2K or Harold Camping or the 2012 bullshit proved to be nothing more than so much Bovine Flatulence. Motherfuckers wanna believe.

Because they're Motherfuckers.

But then, for added confusion, Vladimir Putin basically has declared his intent to have a Far-Right "New World Order" (including declaring Russia to be Rome, the resurrection of Rome also being an implicit criteria for 1990's End Times Prophecy bullshit) which, gradually, seems to be accruing many of the characteristics of the very False World System of Revelation (including multiple prototype Marks Of The Beast) that these fucking people were violently against any hint of until recently. But...like some coalition of Iraqi tribes given a better offer by the government and those invaders they only recently castigated as Infidels than they'd gotten from the terrorists...they've switched sides in mid-conflict.

I'm sorry, Jesus.

And if you think I'm wrong, let me point out that it's funny how all this pops up literally immediately after the Republicans couldn't prevent the USA from helping Ukraine.

Seems obvious somebody's in cahoots with somebody, here.

I mean, sure, there's aid for Israel too, and Taiwan, and trust me...the second that Bibi loses power, let alone faces consequences, the Authoritarianism, Inc. goons will turn against Israel, too. If you consider that Putin (via Wagner) supported and trained Hamas, they already have, really.

And if these motherfuckers can use this ongoing conflict as well as Left-Right divisions in America to split the US into two or more countries...thus meaning whoever ends up helping places like Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine won't be able to do it as much...so much the better. It's Putin's stated goal to both avenge and reverse the collapse of the Soviet Union, and he also wants to inflict that kind of collapse on America. And if things keep up as they are, he might even be able to do it in the middle of a war.

Because 75% America will be 25% less able to help other people, it's as simple as that.

Unless we get a fucking grip.

I mean, Putin won't get Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Baltic States, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova or the majority of Ukraine, much less former Imperial Russian possessions like Finland or Poland...back. His re-expanded Warsaw Pact "Sphere of Influence" is probably a no-go, too, at least as regards Eastern Europe. But Putin will certainly be able to gobble up Belarus, and possibly a few of the other, smaller countries that perversely seem less alert. And if he keeps wrenching away at our own divides with crowbars of hate and political extremism and racism...Russia might get chunks of Florida and the Deep South as some kind of American banana republic Satellite State. 

Call it an East Germany for the 21st Century, actively working towards Republican North Korea.

And you watch, if the Republicans can pull off some kind of Right-wing Insurgency or simply get the aspects of the US government that they've corrupted to go along with several states in a bloc seceding, and once shooting and wrangling over exact borders stops and the guard towers and walls of an Inner-American border go up, once the tech bros and the wealthy flock there and they design their bullshit system of religious laws, techno-Gnosticism and this and that...they're going to start putting computer chips in people's heads and otherwise daring their alleged God to smite them, and that'll be before they start actively working on creating conflict not only internally to feed their own desires for repression and profit, but against the rest of us (again) as well.

Because it's anything but America.

Because it's anything but "Love Thy Neighbor."

Anything that doesn't feed these fucking people's lawless narcissism must be Anathema.

Even if it's something as simple as your dog.

And it'll only get worse if they "get their own place" or are otherwise allowed to make their own rules.

And where the fuck does it stop, unless we stop it??

We are, as I have said before, going to have to vote these motherfuckers out.

And then, we're going to have to take up arms and fight them off.

These people are fucking psychos.

And the Beast Of War is the only thing they for sure figure they have.

I was married to a mentally ill religious nut, I already know how that shit works out. The whole Trump Thing has been like that, but it's the whole damn country. And from what I hear, this shit has even gotten too nuts for my ex-wife.

It's really that simple.

We have to make it stop.

Because if we don't...and this one is for all those cute little Blue Sky Leftists who just can't bring themselves to vote for Joe because something something Palestinians...you have no idea how much worse it can get. Trump wants to do exactly what the worst Israeli elements are doing to the Palestinians, here, and to other Americans.

Vote...and fight...like your life depends on it, because guess what??

It does.

And even a win (Likely, in my opinion) means people somewhere in this country are going to have to contend with their workday being interrupted by trips to the bomb shelter, just like the Ukrainians have to deal with...because the last thing that the far-right wants is anybody to be free from their bullshit, and if they can't hold political power over Other People's lives they will try and use armed force.

It will become that simple.

Freedom ain't free, and sometimes you have to fight for it.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

And the reason these motherfuckers hate America is that we all get to decide, not just them.

Choose your next move wisely.

Because this shit can and will get worse.

And they're already working on new forms of division and fascism.

Let that sink in.

Слава Україна!

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

Eight

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

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

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



Seriously, when the fuck is enough going to be enough with this shit?!?!?

What is it going to take for We, The People...you know, what America is based on...to stop tolerating this fucking garbage?!?!

Bonus Content

Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at evening, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning, ~Mark 13:35