Who Is Like Unto The Beast?? (Parable Of The Ten Virgins, Four.)

And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? ~Revelation 13:4

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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

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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

I just saw this a little bit ago.

I just have to say, I love how the American news media and the Republican Party have jointly decided that America, the Constitution, and Freedom are all basically outdated. To corporations, religious nuts and various right-wing rich elites, America as it is has simply become inconvenient.

So much for conservatism...you know "Things as they are."

And if they cannot suborn the whole thing...they're going to try and break off a piece. If they can't have Trump as President-For-Life...they'll damned sure have him as an excuse. It's really that simple.

Fuck these motherfuckers.

This is America, you know, that country founded in rejection of dictators and kings and various and assorted capricious rulers...that thrived for so much of its history because it was a nation of Laws, not Men...and because people could predict what the State was going to do with some degree of certainty and the answer was something other than "Hate." 

Put it that way and...well, it's no wonder These Fucking People hate America.

And of course they want American Revelation; That shit had them at "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." Meaning the average person just barely survives, if that, but rich people are unharmed.

I live here. I'm a United States Air Force veteran and I swore an Oath to the Constitution we have. More to the point, I'm not some famous person or rich elite who can imagine that they can count on some bullshit complex equation of privilege, social class and wealth to protect them from dictatorship and fascism if Trump wins...or, far more likely in my view...from the Civil War and privation we're most likely to get and that people like me will suffer the most from if all the trajectories of current events are allowed to continue on their way as they are, and Trump loses. Or if America continues to reject him before there's an election. 

To MAGA, it's all the same shit. If Trump isn't your "God" they want to kill you.

I'm sorry, but I used to be a conservative Christian and I really believed in all that stuff. I'm no more going to bow down and worship a golden idol of Donald Trump (based on upbringing alone) than I am to dance around a fire (in my current physical condition) shouting "Unga Bunga."

And in these fucking people's world, economically, I'm far more likely to end up on the table trussed up like a turkey and covered in Thai Sauce than I am to be seated at it. 

And this is by design, on purpose, with malice aforethought. The world these people want is the Killing Fields of Khmer Rouge Cambodia, but with an Applebee's and a Mall and shit.

You see why I don't have any interest in your bullshit, NYT??

Unlike the New York Times, I didn't make a shitload of money off the Trump years. I spent four years not getting enough sleep because I was up following news and shit all the time, figuring I needed to be aware in case my own government was gonna shank me right in the back.

(And by the way, as a veteran, I'm used to that shit in the best of times. You do the fucking math how it was for me then. The fact that Trump is even being allowed to run again pisses me off to no end.)

Right before the election, I felt like I sensed a lot of bad spirits in the air around us.

After Trump lost, I slept like the dead every day for weeks (I worked Third Shift at the time) and it was to the point I'd set an alarm just to get the ferrets out. I don't want to go through another four years like that. Hell, I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I quit my job, moved, and got another one.

It really is that simple, "Conservatives."

You can have the Cross of Christ, or you can have Golden Idols. You cannot have both. One of these things is not like the other one.

It's like the same fucking people calling Russia a Christian nation as Putin's armies march under the Hammer And Sickle. 

Are people just not seeing this shit??

And worse, the whole reason these fucking people think this about Trump is because he allows and encourages them to be the absolute worst people they can be. There's no higher reasoning, it's not about the internal logic of Christianity or conservatism no longer holding up to scrutiny (although they don't) most of these fucking people don't care about that kind of stuff or even think that damned much.

And that's the fucking problem.

A nation by and for and of The People is only as good as *Checks Notes* The People.

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

And this? This ain't that, bro.

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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

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