Fallen, Again (Reason For The Season 2023, Three.)

And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he hath but a short time. ~Revelation 12:7-12

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"The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride." ~Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly 25 February 2022, Associated Press

I saw this a couple days ago.

Evidently Mike Johnson's Dad asked him to do something...to use his influence when he was first in Congress to see if he could put an end to munitions destruction in a toxic burn pit at a local Army National Guard base. Seems like a perfectly reasonable request to me (Hell, a lot of the people in the environmental coalition trying to stop these burns were Republicans. Yes, do the math.) MAGA Mike flatly refused, functionally ignored the request, he had better things to do.

In other words, same as it fucking ever was with these fucking people...and it doesn't matter who you are. To priggish Fundamentalist fanatics...the Ten Commandments...including "Honor Thy Father And Thy Mother" don't mean shit.

Generally speaking, rules are for other people, anyway, as far as they're concerned. Nothing, not even the Word of God Himself is more important to them than their "Holy" mission of...basically...getting whatever the fuck they think they want Right Now. Makes you wonder who these people's real god is, doesn't it??

The Bible goes to great lengths to explain what will happen to such people, and none of it's any good. Honestly, I'd argue at this point Lucifer's sins of Hubris and Pride that got his ass tossed out of Heaven like Uncle Phil throwing Jazz out of the house on the Fresh Prince of Bel Air might even be lesser than that of the average MAGA conspiracy theorist religious nut. I'm completely not joking here, these motherfuckers have gone full-tilt crazy.

And it's not just American Fundamentalist ninnies like Mike Johnson or their Atheistic fake "gods" like Donald Trump. Apparently the Russians are going all-in on this deranged narcissistic bullshit, too.

The fact that Ukrainians have always had their own culture and language and that these predate Russian culture or language don't even register, will not be acknowledged, they have better things to do.

And if you think these motherfuckers...Christian Fundamentalist idiots and insane Russian nationalists alike...wouldn't push their bullshit on the whole damn world given the chance? You ain't been listening to what they've been saying.

Likewise, plenty of bootlicking "Conservatives" would submit to Russification, if they could be convinced that doing so sufficiently "Owned The Libs" whatever that even means.

And these assholes will keep ignoring reality and trying to bullshit the Universe and...functionally, trying to magic their dystopian horseshit into existence by the force of their own willpower right up until they completely fucking wreck themselves doing it!

I have experience with this kind of bullshit. You can't reason with it. And yes, whether it's Christian Fundamentalism, Pentecostal woo woo, various forms of New Age horseshit or Russian Nationalism...ALL of these fucking people believe in Magic.

(And not the kind practiced by Wiccans and Witches that has  boundaries and rules of conduct, either.)

You can't even talk to this kind of stuff. You basically have to keep punching it in the face until it gets the message, and even then it's very often simply more expedient to leave, because a lot of these fucking people are insanely conflict-oriented. Block them, cut them out of your life and move on, tell them "No" and mean it and be prepared to back that "No" up with the force of the law, with physical force, or both. And sure as hell don't keep listening to their bullshit or giving Crazy a goddamn platform.

America insists on learning this the hard way. Playing "Just The Tip" with Narcissus seldom ends well.

You cannot play when dealing with creepy obsessives and people who have personality disorders and other forms of mental illness...and trust me, there's also a point where religion and shit like that get so fucked up as to be indistinguishable from actual ravening mental illness. 

This was what my ex-wife got like after we split up. I had to move three hours away to make it stop. As I understand it, her Pentecostal mania did not subside until she got trapped in a bad situation with somebody very like herself and then all the sudden all her bullshit wasn't so funny anymore. Now she's basically lost a lot of her religion too, from what I hear. Nothing matters until it happens to Them, is These Fucking People's credo because the rest of us (and to a great extent, each other) simply aren't goddamned real to them.

It's that experience, and how like it the Trump era has been, that's why I think these motherfuckers will get their civil war and break off a piece of America for themselves. And it's why I think a war will primarily be fought in the first place to get those who want to leave out, to protect the vulnerable, and to deny the enemy certain areas or facilities that cannot be left or taken apart and moved. I'm here to tell you, the "Conservatives" will lose that war, but still end up with their own country because nobody else wants to live with them. And I guarantee you, Donald Trump Jr. or whoever ends up actually leading this mess will make Fidel Castro or Muammar Gaddafi and their assorted histrionics at the UN or Non-Aligned Movement conferences look sane.

(And this too, will be done on purpose with malice aforethought, so whatever's left of the Republicans can wipe their dicks all over that, too.)

What's worse, is that when that shit goes down, every liberal and sane conservative in America is gonna be like "Bye, Whore, have a nice life!" (And other places will try and dump their nuts off on the Neo-Confederate States of America or whatever the fuck it's called...or in the case of Russia-which will own these people's ass-simply deport them there. I bet all the "Build The Wall" people won't have shit to say about that either.)

And only then, when These Fucking People only have These Fucking People to live with, to make their laws, to deliver the damn groceries (and everybody is a wannabe-political operative or wannabe-spy or some kind of preacher in an endless struggle of all against all, all trying to rat each other out to Authority and play their fuck fuck games) will they find out that everybody having to be Just Like Them and Oh, Shit, We Gave Everything To Rich People ain't the Shangri-La they thought it was going to be. Like we're talking the Ministry Of State Security finally busts some big plot that's been everybody's imagined bogeyman for years and they can't do shit about it because everybody involved was some kind of agent or informer.

(And all of these fucking people will at least pretend Lauren Boebert or Mike Johnson level religiosity. Think for a second about how tedious that will be to deal with.)

Wait, people think a lazy ass like Donald Trump would somehow be able to control that shit and keep it all pointed in the same direction?? LOL.

Also when their Galt's Gulch paradise doesn't work out these shitheads will try to burn down the rest of the world, too.

If you want a better country, you have to be a better citizen.

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

It's really that simple. So get after it. This isn't that hard.

Unless you want to live being told what to do by people who think themselves so "Christian" that if Jesus came back and preached His Word verbatim out of the King James Bible they'd call Him a Terrorist and shout "Crucify Him" in the streets, and then they'd kill Him again because they couldn't be bothered to listen to His Word either, because they think they have "Better" things to do.

You either believe in freedom or you don't. Remember that, this holiday season.

Caesar Ain't Your Savior.

Слава Україна!

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. ~Luke 2:1-14

Two

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