Golden Images And Turbulent Priests (Parable Of The Ten Virgins, Three.)

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 musick, 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

...

“When a man takes an oath, Meg, he's holding his own self in his own hands. Like water (he cups his hands) and if he opens his fingers then, he needn't hope to find himself again. ~Thomas More, as depicted by Robert Bolt in A Man For All Seasons.

...

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

I just saw this.

Trump is apparently threatening the Maine Secretary of State after Maine became the second state to kick his ass off the ballot in next year's election.

I'm sick of this. Lock Trump Up before he gets somebody killed, or tries to start a Civil War in his name because his bloated narcissistic ego cannot accept that all of America doesn't bow down and worship the shit that falls out of his goddamned stinky ass, let alone the fact that a majority of We The People said "No" and meant it...and that our saying No is beginning to bite, legally.

And yes, before this shit is over Trump will try to instigate a civil war. 

He'll lose, but people will still die unnecessarily...and I maintain that it's very possible that with Russian and other Authoritarianism, Inc. countries' international support, the current state of the United Nations and the rise (again) of fashionable Anti-American "Radical Chic" Tankie-ism since Hamas vs. Israel started up in October (nor the fact that elements of the United Nations and the Russians are balls-deep in supporting Hamas) Trump could very well lose and still get a piece of America for some kind of bullshit Banana Republic via negotiated settlement...like the FLN did in Algeria.

And I'm not going to lie...I don't trust the average safe Blue State liberal, much less all those "Progressives" out there to put their ass on the line to keep America together when it's much easier to just say "Bye, Whore" and "Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out" so long as it doesn't affect them and whatever Red State groups they care about are allowed to become the Pieds Noirs of the 21st Century. 

Maybe most of the MAGA's get--or are gotten--out of their faces, and I'm afraid those people would call the breakup of America a win, even though that's Vladimir Putin's explicit goal. And considering that Blue State Liberals are often openly willing to throw Red State liberals under the bus when these kind of subjects come up, no, I don't trust them to say "No, we can't abandon Houston, or Jim Clyburn's district in South Carolina, or the Mississippi Delta" or whatever. I just don't.  

And yeah, we'd keep many or possibly even most places in the end...but go ahead, ask the average Berliner my age how they liked growing up surrounded by walls and basically under military administration, I dare you. 

Or ask the average Israeli, or South Korean, or Taiwanese or (now) Ukrainian person. Nobody should have to live X-number of minutes from the possibility of instant death. Note I say this as a United States Air Force Bomb Wing veteran who did that for a while, even if it was a receding possibility at the time. And in a divided America (especially with Trump or somebody like him leading the bad guys) it's gonna be like that for some people.

 Perhaps more appropriately, ask yourself what life might be like for those who get left behind, or who go over to the other side willingly?

These fucking people have already, literally, raised up and worshiped Golden Idols of Donald Trump. Sorry, MAGA's but ya know I already did my time as a borderline-Fundamentalist Christian.

If you wanna go to hell, have at it. I couldn't do that shit, I wouldn't do that shit...and I've been an Agnostic for sixteen years, now, and was on the way out of Christianity for four more before that. I've hated Donald Trump as long as I've been aware of him, and a big part of why is I used to be an actual conservative, and I have a church background, and what part of "Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me" don't you understand??? Doubt isn't a Sin, Idolatry is pretty much the worst one.

So when this dude has the balls to do the online equivalent of saying "Will no one rid me of this troublesome Priest" it really pisses me off.

Murder is a Sin too, whether you're the guy who pulls the trigger or you're the guy who sets it up.

Trump basically thinks he's a god.

And there's dumb motherfuckers out there who believe in this shit so much that they'd kill for Donald Trump, on January 6th, 2021 they already did during the Insurrection.

A hell of a lot of MAGA's and Republicans don't want to live in America, they want to live in the Killing Fields of Khmer Rouge Cambodia...but with a mall and shit.

And these stupid assholes want to go out and fight the whole damn world for this shit!

You cannot reason with this bullshit. You can only fight against it...and the sooner a lot of us internalize that, the better.

Because that's how more of us stay alive.

I can't put it any more simply than that.

Слава Україна!

The wind whispers of fear and hate. The war has killed love. And those that confess to the Angkar are punished, and no one dare ask where they go. Here, only the silent survive. ~Dith Pran, The Killing Fields

Two

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.

And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.

Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.

And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.

And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.

Watch ye therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. ~Matthew 25:1-13