Missing The Point (House Of Bondage, Two.)

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

...

It was right here, in the waters around us, where the American experiment began. As the earliest settlers arrived on the shores of Boston and Salem and Plymouth, they dreamed of building a City upon a Hill. And the world watched, waiting to see if this improbable idea called America would succeed. More than half of you represent the very first member of your family to ever attend college. In the most diverse university in all of New England, I look out at a sea of faces that are African-American and Hispanic-American and Asian-American and Arab-American. I see students that have come here from over 100 different countries, believing like those first settlers that they too could find a home in this City on a Hill—that they too could find success in this unlikeliest of places. ~Barack Obama

....

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

I saw this when I got up this morning.

Some idiot football player, using a Commencement speech somewhere to equate Pride Month with the Seven Deadly Sins and to demand a "More Conservative brand of Catholicism."

Bro, you play a game for a living, shut the fuck up. Your dumb ass has probably the least actually-conservative type of job on the planet, and you're paid way the fucking hell too much money to do it. This is America, nobody has to be religious, or care if you are.

Ya know, at least Tim Tebow managed to not be a complete douche canoe about politics or religion and has actually found some ways to do good in the world, whether I agree with his beliefs or his various cultural impacts or not.

And the thing is, it's funny how around the world there aren't really any countries or large people-groups who are practicing a "More Conservative" Catholicism. In fact, it's only here in America that there's people who even want to have that kind of shit.

I don't know how Traditionalist Catholicism became a fad among right-wing weirdos but I'll note that of the few people I know who've gone down this rabbit hole, none of them were regular Catholics before. This crap seems to pull in primarily insecure White dudes who think Anti-Liberalism somehow equals conservatism. 

It doesn't.

And some of these motherfuckers claim to want a King. I'm sorry, but I'm an American. This is America. The entire fucking point of this country was that it was founded to be in opposition to Monarchy...which was then the prevailing system of government throughout the world. And "In Opposition" in parliamentary terms was exactly where we were at, too. But within a few years, France had its own Revolution, and by the middle of the 20th Century most of Europe had decapitated or fired their Monarchs...or at least neutered their power, and most of the rest of the world has continued to follow suit since.

I don't know how you can live here and miss the point of America that goddamned bad.

In fact, the only place in the world where one finds Absolute Monarchies is in the Islamic world, places like Saudi Arabia, for example. Come on, bro, give it a shot. You only have to convert to Salafist Islam. I mean, seriously, what's the damned difference between that and what your ass claims to believe now.

I've been to Saudi Arabia, it sucks. This dude wouldn't be any happier there than he is here. And more to the point, a lot of the radical Islamists there aren't happy either (for different reasons) but the difference between Saudi and the USA is they don't dare say so. Over there, if you're going to openly be against the government you might as well take up arms against it...because the response is going to be the same. They'll kill you.

Funny thing, but between military service and college and living where I've lived in general, I've known quite a few people from Saudi Arabia. Most of the Saudis I've met in America didn't want to go back home. Most of the Saudis I met over there wanted to go somewhere else. I had a neighbor from Saudi Arabia downstate, he was happy to be here and that his wife could go to college and learn how to drive and even just be a person without his say-so. Hell, we were all in the same World of Warcraft guild. Trust me, those people appreciated America.

The only reason these motherfuckers want either Monarchy or "Traditionalist" Catholicism is that they think they'd be in the favored groups in such kinds of arrangements, and they've never had to live under any such system nor been anywhere, where they were a guest in such a country.

And it's the same with people who jack off to the idea of Putin's Russia. Aaron Rodgers doesn't know dick about Russia or Vladimir Putin, he just "likes" Vladimir Putin's reactionary views, and apparently also Putin's revisionist views RE: Russian history. I guess he don't realize nobody plays American Football in Russia. Or that their culture is not our culture, and their ideas of either conservative or even liberal politics are not ours either.

And here's the thing;

Those who do know or have it in their living memory what Autocracy or Communism are like, are the ones fighting against that shit.

But Evangelical preachers and rich NFL white bros are too high on the smell of Donald Trump's Big Mac farts to notice, and too stupid to listen to anybody who actually knows anything.

Around the world, "Traditionalist" Catholic sects like Opus Dei are generally sects of the poor, far more than they're fads or playthings of the powerful or the rich...and where excessively right-wing Catholics have been allowed too much power (1960's South Vietnam pre-American intervention, for example) they have very Traditionally soup sandwiched the whole deal. 

After Ngo Dinh Diem sparked the Buddhist Crisis by abusing his country's Buddhist majority, also backing up the machinations of his idiotic brothers Nhu and Thuc (Note: Thuc was a Catholic Priest and then-Archbishop of Hue) and thus threatening American power in Southeast Asia, the CIA overthrew his ass and then once they'd been captured and were in custody the agents running the operation had both Diem and Nhu assassinated by the coup plotters. Thuc only escaped death because he had been summoned to Rome for the Second Vatican Council, and when that was done he went into exile in Rome.

Meanwhile Diem's wife was in Beverly Hills talking so much shit about the Vietnamese Buddhists that it pissed off most Americans.

And, functionally, that kind of shit is what drew America into the Vietnam war. I mean for fuck's sake at least the people we're backing in Ukraine now aren't that fucking stupid, and they at least appreciate our help...which is more than can be said for the Israelis.

Ngo Dinh Thuc went on to help found the first major modern Sedevacantist movement after the Second Vatican Council, and emigrated to America to collaborate with others of similar theological leanings, although he ultimately tapped out and recanted and Pope John Paul II (who, by the way, these nuts also consider "Too liberal") let his ass back in. 

He should not have, but he did.

I use this specifically as an example because functionally, that's what these fucking people are.

Parasites who basically live by sucking off the blood and effort and good graces of others.

And they want to turn America into a House of Bondage just like the Ancient Egypt that Moses and the Israelites fled from...so that they can keep doing that...and leave the rest of us without recourse or any redress of grievances. I don't give a shit how conservative you think you are, these motherfuckers ain't your friends. They'd rather live in the Killing Fields of Khmer Rouge Cambodia than live in an America that's equal and free, or even just trying to be better.

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

And they ALL see Trump as the way.

God has not one damned thing to do with it, except that He is a convenient excuse.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Слава Україна!

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

~Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly 25 February 2022, Associated Press
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

Lost (House Of Bondage, One.)

I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work:

But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

Thou shalt not kill.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Thou shalt not steal.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's.

And all the people saw the thundering, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.

And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.

And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not. ~Exodus 20:2-20

...

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

There's something I need you to understand; This comes from both being a former Republican myself, and having dealt with a number of strident Republicans over the years. People who, unlike me, didn't get sick of the bullshit and just leave.

These people truly, madly, emphatically believe that America sucks, that the world sucks, the most fanatical of them...the Evangelical Rapture Fanatics...literally do not want to be here at all.

And this, of course, requires massively drastic action to fix: Burning down America, destroying the entire modern world order (Because it's too "Liberal" or something) and most of all, forcing their fake-ass Evangelical Christianity on everybody they can reach, and sucking up to Vladimir Putin (Of all fucking people) for example. 

Among other things.

You'd think, with such a long to-do list, that These Fucking People would be busy, ya know??

They don't want to make anything better, let alone more conservative, they just want to fundraise off of how terrible they say everything is, because stupid people believe them. Shit, even if they could, why would they have any interest in fixing anything??

But here they are. It's Tuesday, and they're all up in New York City making a big damned deal of being present at Donald Trump's "Hush Money Trial" in Manhattan. One must be seen fellating their One True God, eh??

For fuck's sake they're even all wearing the same goddamned suits as Trump is, and supposedly grown-ass people are making utter fools of themselves in his name. They're basically willing slaves.

And I have to ask, For What??

As Tea Party Joe Walsh (Himself a former Republican and former Freedom Caucus member) points out, Republicans are choosing to do this to themselves.

We're so far past the point of "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you no sense of decency??" That we've come around to "Have you no self-respect, Republicans??"

I absolutely don't get it, and I say that as a former Republican. But then, I didn't like Trump when I was a Republican and he was a Democrat, either.

And these fucking people are choosing to make Trump not only their identity, but effectively their God, as well. And everybody's going to hell, but him.

Fuck these motherfuckers.

Are American "Conservatives" really just that goddamned Lost??

(On a certain level, yes, but I don't think that's all that's going on here.)

Are these fucking people just that desperate for someone or something to believe in that they fell for...this??

Are these motherfuckers just that goddamn needy to have some "Big Daddy" figure that they'll defend the sort of schemes that, if anybody else did it, 90% of people would look at it and look at how it landed the perp in court and pretty much be like "Fuck around and Find Out, yo" and basically demand that the dumbass be locked up and the key melted down and the door welded shut...for the perp's own safety as much as for the good of society.

Honestly??

At this point, I have my doubts.

I mean, it's not that I don't think Republicans, or what's become of or is left of Republicans absolutely lack the level of basic decency or common sense that God gave the average German Brown Cockroach. I'm rather emphatically and loudly on record saying exactly that and I'll stand by it forever.

It's...motherfucker took out a loan to pay Donald Trump's bribe to Stormy Daniels, with the expectation that Trump of all people (who is rather infamous for not paying anybody he doesn't have to) and in the end Trump did reimburse him...out of Campaign funds.

(And apparently, Cohen did all this without telling his wife?? Shit, I don't like having to borrow money to pay for my own shit, and I sure wouldn't pull this kind of crap if I was married.)

The truth is, this trial is probably by itself uncovering even more crimes.

And I absolutely thought I had the lowest opinion of these fucking people that was imaginable, but my estimation was probably an order of magnitude too high.

A former Trump aide recently publicly bragged about passing counterfeit money to homeless people, in the hope that they'd get arrested for using it.

Apparently the Secret Service has been notified.

Have fun with that, Johnny.

And that's it, right there, isn't it??

These fucking people don't like Trump because he's smart. Shit, they don't (really) think he's smart any more than any of the rest of us do.

But between Trump's own behavior and that of the people who surround him directly, Republicans feel like all this crap justifies or legitimizes their own evil, their own shitty beliefs, their own wanting to be an incestuous nobility lording over Peasants instead of acting as citizen legislators on behalf of their fellow Citizens.

There's no "We The People" in MAGA-Land, there's only con artists and marks, inciters and the Mob, liars and people who want to be lied to.

And it fucking disgusts me that there's so many people in America who are fine with all this garbage, as long as it legitimizes their bad behaviors, their false sense of superiority, or their petty bigotries.

Or whatever the fuck.

I mean, Trump could literally just shout "I Like Big Butts And I Cannot Lie" or spout absolute fucking gibberish, and his rally-crowd would go wild. It doesn't even matter what he says.

Only that he says it.

And I used to work with a Trump Supporter...a fellow janitor in the kitchen at the casino...whose entire rationale for supporting Trump was "I like the shit that he says."

(That's literally a direct quote.)

The problem with this is, I've listened to enough of the shit that Trump says to be well aware that a lot of the time, he talks a lot but doesn't actually say anything at all.

And honestly I've listened to enough preachers over the years to recognize a bullshitter's singsong-voice attempt to hypnotize me, and on top of that to me Trump's voice sounds like Chloroform, enunciated.

It's pretty much the dream of "If you're the 'right' kind of White Man (or a lackey thereof) you can do whatever the fuck you want...that's what these assholes see Trump as really giving them.

Not leadership.

Cover.

Never mind that it never scales, this shit isn't a thermonuclear device. It never converts the energy over. The first stage of the bomb...the idiot MAGA's...goes off just fine but the bomb fizzles and all that the Trump Supporters are left with is whatever small explosion they caused and a big radioactive mess to clean up or get blamed for. And then, Trump? LOL, He never helps them. See Also: J6.

It's like how the only people who ever prosper from the Prosperity Gospel are the liars who preach it.

In fact, it's the same exact con, secularized.

The only person who benefits from or even profits in any way from Trumpism...is Trump.

But motherfuckers wanna believe.

And if your starting point is "Anything but America" or "Anything but 'Love Thy Neighbor" I suppose it sounds good.

And when these fucking idiots try to start a civil war or otherwise burn down America in Trump's name, when some of these idiots resort to secessionism and the creation of some shitty Banana Republic in South Florida in some vain attempt to give Trump a kingdom to rule over (and in turn give the wealthy a tax shelter to hide in, and Russian oligarchs a taste of the Western lifestyle) and when the media keeps pushing this shit on America and the world in the name of "Clicks and Likes" and selling advertising and Crazy...and it all comes crashing down in an orgy of blood and fire and HIMARS rockets??

(And then don't forget, then there'll be Vlad with his own bill for services rendered.)

Trump isn't trying to build a country or even a political movement here.

He's trying to convert all this bullshit and all these people into narcissistic fuel so that he can ascend to a state of godhood that only exists in his own twisted mind. 

And nothing is ever good enough.

If it all blows up, he thinks he'll get all that. 

In fact, he's trying to engineer exactly that circumstance.

Trump isn't running for President, he wants to be God.

And these fucking people would give it to him, if they could.

But have you seen the man?? He looks like shit. Every day that he's in court diminishes him. All these sycophants showing up there to mean-mug at the judge and the press just diminishes them too.

I realize this is, for the most part, just bad people investing all their hopes and dreams in a Bad Man.

But come on, even Cartoon Evil is supposed to have standards, or at least some sense of self-preservation. I'll never understand it. 

Or maybe I just don't want to.

But come on, fucking seriously.

When is enough of this shit going to be enough??

Who the fuck is dumb enough...or ever was...to look at the name "Donald Trump" and think "Great Men??"

Who the fuck looks at this pussy-ass bitch wannabe Pharaoh and his House of Bondage and says "Yes, please."

Goddamn, America, get a fucking grip.

Слава Україна!

Remember when your High School History teacher said "The course of human events changes because of the deeds of great men"?. Well the bitch was lying. Fuck Caesar, fuck Lincoln, fuck Mahatma Gandhi. The world keeps moving because of you and me: the anonymous. Revolutions get started because people don't have enough bread. Wars start over a game of checkers. ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO Series "Oz" S1, E8 "A Game Of Checkers."

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

Parasite (Their Meme-Lord And "Savior," Five.)

Damaskinos: It has been said, "Be proud of your enemy and enjoy his success." In that regard, I should thank you.

Blade: For what?

Karel Kounen: Eliminating Deacon Frost. You did us a favor. Karel Kounen.

Blade: [noticing vampire tattoo] You're human.

Karel: Barely. I'm a lawyer. European Health Consortium.

Damaskinos: As you may know, Vampirism is... a horrible virus, carried in the saliva of predators. In 72 hours, it spreads through the human bloodstream, creating new, parasitic organs.

Blade: Like cancer.

Damaskinos: Cancer with a purpose.

Karel: Unfortunately, viruses evolve, too. We've encountered a new one. We dubbed it the Reaper Strain. And like any good pathogen, it appears to have found a carrier.

[Karel places a disk into a computer. Nomak's first attack plays via a recording]

Karel: There. [Points to an image of Nomak] Jared Nomak.

Damaskinos: Born a vampire, but an anomaly like you. Unlike the rest of us, however, he feeds on not just humans, but Vampires as well.

Blade: Looks like he was doing me a favor.

Nyssa: You're missing the point. Their vampire victims don't die. They turn. They become carriers.

Asad: You've got to understand. These things are like crack addicts. They need to feed daily. Nomak's been up for 72 hours. By our estimates, there are already a dozen Reapers. There'll be hundreds before the week is out. Thousands within a matter of months. Do the math.

Blade: Wait. Let me get this right. You want me... to hunt them... for you?

Damaskinos: Once they are finished with us, who do you think they'll turn against next? Your precious humans. Not one of them will be left.

Karel: We spent two years training a small tactical unit: the Blood pack. We want you to lead them.

Blade: Two years?

Nyssa: We've been training to hunt you.

~From the film Blade II.

...

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

~Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly 25 February 2022, Associated Press

So, apparently RFK Jr. has literal Brain-worms.

And I'm not even kidding when I say that's not the most fucked up thing I've seen in the last few days; This, for example.

Some idiot Israeli minister talking shit about how Joe Biden "Loves" Hamas.

Be glad I'm not in charge, motherfucker.

Motherfucker, Joe Biden is probably the best friend you fuckers have right now, because he's giving you all the aid and weapons you need/want and still trying to prevent your dumb ass from doing something horrible and stupid.

Be glad I'm not in charge, because if it was up to me all that American aid and money would instantly, not one dollar or one 5.56mm round more until the following conditions being met: #1 this jackoff getting Paddled, publicly, like a shitty teenager, with his homeys made to stand there at attention, and watch (And in a country with mandatory military service, don't tell me they don't know how) #2 Fire his ass, no government pension, no nothing, and give him a job mucking out pig slop on some Arab Christian dude's farm (Yes, there are such things over there) for the Israeli equivalent of minimum wage.

No, I don't give a flying fuck if he's got bills to pay, he should've thought of that.

Quitting not an option. Come back in a year, see if he apologizes for biting the fucking hand that feeds him. If so then he can quit, and maybe work his way back up. If he's still talking shit...or he starts talking shit again...leave him there until he rethinks his life or at least what comes out of his mouth.

My family did not tolerate people talking stupid. I got smacked in the mouth as a kid for a lot less.

How much of Israel's bills has America paid? Seems to me like it adds up to a lot. Maybe we should not give these people money at all.

I'm sick of these entitled jerkoffs. More to the point, I'm sick of the bad-faith Evangelicals and Republicans who made motherfuckers like this guy feel like they could talk shit to America.

Ass clown here also apparently doesn't realize that the Evangelicals and Republicans are basically just fattening Israel up to sacrifice it to their Blood God that they're trying to summon by constantly trying to turn the Middle East into an Abattoir. And yes, I spent several years in the 1990's as a member of the Christian End Times Prophecy Movement. That's exactly what they're doing.

Fundamentally, these people are trying to manipulate God. Never mind that if God can be manipulated by Man, He is NOT God and we need not worry because it's all bullshit, anyway.

And not only that, but Evangelicals, Republicans and their rich backers are playing fuck fuck hide the sausage games with literal Nazis at this point. I don't know how that's not some like six-alarm fire as far as the Israelis are concerned.

I'm not Jewish, or even religious anymore, and it is to me.

I get it, most of these fucking people are basically atheists in practice and their right-wing beliefs are more important than anything else, but come on, look at who you're working with. Have a little common sense. Don't be surprised if they try and stick a knife in your back if you don't.

Also, yes, these idiots trying to manipulate the End Times timeline are the same fucking people who spent like 30 years trying to say that the End Times would be caused by some variation of Liberalism.

LOL.

It's literally the Right that's invading other countries, that stirred up this Middle Eastern conflict, and that's trying to destabilize the entire existing global system so they can replace it with a One World Government (official or otherwise) of Antichrists and False Prophets and Potentates like something out of their own End Times fiction, and they've got half of Christianity either cowering or genuflecting in the face of this fucking bullshit.

I mean, for fuck's sake, now that the Communists (And don't tell me Putin ain't still KGB as fuck) are pretending to be Right-wing, Republicans be all about the Revolution.

Just like these motherfuckers all thought they was all Biggie and Tupac the second Trump had a mugshot, in the extremely likely event that Trump loses the election, goes to jail or suffers the consequences of a diet of Cocaine and Filet O' Fish...you bet, these assholes gonna all think they're Che and Fidel fighting The Man.

And/or they'll think they're Jesus or something when they face consequences, pushback, etc. and call it persecution.

Hey, wait, they already think that.

And they don't understand just how fucking puerile it all sounds to anybody with even the slightest of an adult-level view of life. I mean, come on, dude.

Do they really think that God is that dumb, and does not see what they do?? Or do they think God is some kind of rich Republican, a Boss Hogg In The Sky who'll forgive them and slap them on the back while spitting chewing tobacco on the floor if they give Him a cut of whatever money they made?? 

(Have any of these people even read the Lord's Word?? Why would God need money??)

We, as a people, need to stop blowing narcissists, period, and maybe build some guillotines, just to remind certain people of how the world really works.

Also Republicans are mad 'cause Democrats support "Abortions, DEI, EV's and Weed." What's wrong with any of that??

Beats the shit out of supporting Donald Trump, Fascism, Oil companies, religiosity and rich people.

For fuck's sake the entire "Conservative" thing at this point is basically "Look at me, LOOK AT ME! Look at Me and what kind of a total ass-bag I am. Also, fuck you, pay me." Like what's even the damn point anymore, bro??

I mean, I'll literally never have enough money to benefit from the Republican program, and I don't have anything against Black folks or LGBT people or Muslims or anything like that. So, what's in it for me, seriously??

I mean, you motherfuckers threw anything even remotely resembling the conservative beliefs that I had off the fantail and let them sink by, like, 2008 or so. You don't give a shit about veterans or senior citizens or working people, let alone the individual liberty or rights of anybody who's not all of the above; Male, White and wealthy enough to be able to give your ass money and expect something in return later.

I mean, if you're not basically a Parasite already, living off the labor of others, passive income streams, etc. Republicans don't seem to give a fuck about you.

Since FOX News has been a thing I either haven't had the time or the inclination to watch a lot of TV. In the later 1990's once I got back to work after my accident I was working two jobs and working with my grandpa in his odd-jobs business besides. I very quickly added college to the mix. Hell, since 2014 I haven't even owned a TV.

For fuck's sake I work for a living, and I always have.

And I've written many times about how dudes that I used to work with would sit there all zombie-eyed like ADHD kids zonked out on cartoons, grown ass men, watching Fox News in the break room at work. I thought it was creepy as all fuck, but that's what some of these fucking people do.

And this bullshit very clearly rots your brain. Apparently Trump thinks Hannibal Lecter was a real person.

And I guess his incoherent rambling had people walking out of his New Jersey rally this weekend.

It's funny how nobody who's actually heard this dude talk even wants to be there.

It's Trump the meme that these fucking people worship, not Trump the Man.

And that meme is fading fast as his trial and shit grinds on and he's less the shit-talking showman and more the old fat guy falling asleep and farting.

The polls are likewise bullshit. If all these fucking people really thought they (or Trump) were winning, would they be trying this hard to bullshit everybody else??

We need to vote these goddamned Parasites out.

And then? We need to be ready to fight off whatever bullshit "Revolution" they try and gin up to get themselves back into power.

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

And while I disagree with a lot of the pro-Palestine protesters, writ-large, they're probably right...and Democrats and shit are gonna have to start holding their own side to account too cuz the Republican crazy bullshit is already starting to work its way across party lines.

I mean, shit, RFK, Jr. is the example of that.

And my gut feeling is if Trump continues to fade, or anything happens, he has a non-zero chance of becoming President.

Wanna see Eric Adams as Secretary Of Homeland Security? America's Mayor 2.0? The Democratic Rudy Giuliani?

Yeah, let that shit happen.

So, it's either be a better Citizen...

Or it's "All hail the mighty Brain-worm."

You pick.

Слава Україна!

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.

Four

Remember when your High School History teacher said "The course of human events changes because of the deeds of great men"?. Well the bitch was lying. Fuck Caesar, fuck Lincoln, fuck Mahatma Gandhi. The world keeps moving because of you and me: the anonymous. Revolutions get started because people don't have enough bread. Wars start over a game of checkers. ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO Series "Oz" S1, E8 "A Game Of Checkers."

Valley Of Decision (Their Meme-Lord And "Savior," Four.)

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

...

It was during those long and lonely years that my hunger for the freedom of my own people became a hunger for the freedom of all people, white and black. I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. A man who takes away another man's freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else's freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity. ~Nelson Mandela

...

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

~Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly 25 February 2022, Associated Press

I saw this the other night on Twitter, it's actually a snip from a video of somebody riding a bike through the ruins of the city of Bakhmut, in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine. I'm assuming the video was taken using a Go Pro or helmet-cam of some kind.

It looks like something out of The Walking Dead.

When the Russians say "Russkiy Mir" or when Republicans and Tankies say we need to "Make peace" with Russia...this is what they mean, this right here.

And Republicans have made it abundantly clear that they simply don't give a shit. In fact, they get soggy and hard to light if somebody somewhere isn't getting bombed by some nominally "Christian" theocratic State that's sort of weirdly split between Communism and Russian Orthodox Fundamentalism...but I guess as long as the Commies leave the ultra-wealthy alone they don't really care, do you??

In fact, these same motherfuckers want rather more than that here, in terms of a religious state.

Just so it's their religion...if you could really call it that. None of that "Love Thy Neighbor" shit. They want to obsessively fearmonger about Other People while trying to shove their own Fundamentalist crap down everybody else's throat. And guess what? Most of them couldn't even tell you the first thing about it except how much they believe in it!

And I'm honestly sick and tired of it. I heard this shit for years, from a couple of coworkers when I worked at the casino. 

Never mind that neither one of them could name one single fact about the history of their own alleged religion, or actually define or state any doctrine in any but the most simplistic fashion...except that they really believed in it. Well, at least one of these dudes (Your basic Pentecostal fat guy) would sit there in the break room looking real serious with an open Bible in front of him on the table. Thing is, me and some other co-workers (all of whom were also Christians) figured out that all he was ever doing was rereading the same stuff over and over again. (Also, for the record, most of his family wasn't even religious, it was just him.) 

I knew this guy long before the "Meal Team Six" jokes became a thing but that was pretty much the exact type of person that this dude was...right down to the fact that he had a bunch of guns he didn't know how to use worth a damn, and I wasn't going to waste time trying to teach him.

The other one? (A fake biker and Stolen Valor asshole) never even bothered to try and look religious. He pretty much talked a lot of shit, and that was all there was to it. More than enough for me to ask, more than once...that if he could do all that, why was he working there?? Oh, don't get me wrong, he was pretty hell-bent on how much he hated Islam...except he apparently didn't know one damn thing about that, either. (And I did, in fact, ask.) 

Funny thing is, I found out later that the bikers he claimed so vehemently to be a part of didn't like him much either, tolerated him for some time because reasons and "He didn't have nobody" and they eventually threw his ass out because all he did was smoke up all their weed and talk stupid. 

As I had long suspected and the dude I spoke with confirmed, Fake Biker wasn't even a veteran (He'd been a contract civilian security guard at an Air National Guard base down South before he got popped for drug stuff of some kind and lost his 2nd Amendment rights, CPL and that job and then went to prison for a couple years) much less some kind of redneck Bruce Lee type of shit. He came and worked at the Casino where I met him because he had some percentage of Native American ancestry and it was an automatic job he could get hired at because of it.

And the truth is, about all these two idiots ever actually agreed on between themselves was conspiracy theories and whatever talking points they got off FOX News. 

Once they left the casino, at around the same time...all either one did was post occasional Ancient Aliens conspiracy theory BS and stupid vulgar jokes on Facebook.

It ain't about America and it ain't about Jesus, at least not now...if it ever really was.

Pretty much all that any of these ass clowns can agree on is that somebody, somewhere, must be out to "Get" them because "Vibes" and/or random Something Something Gazpacho.

Well, that and that they have to burn down America, Democracy, Freedom and the whole damn rest of the world and enslave pretty much everybody but them so they can feel "Safe." I don't know, man, it seems like just getting therapy or maybe minding your own fucking business would be cheaper and a lot less risky.

And no, I don't know the MAGA Mike Johnson types, the rich people who are all-in for Trump, blah blah blah. I mean, obviously they're out there but I don't know or see those people. MAGA to me scans as an ideology of absolute loser freaks who stare zombie-eyed at FOX News and can't or won't even tell you why they like Trump.

People used to crack wise about Homo Sovieticus, the "New Soviet Man" back during the Cold War, but that shit ain't got a damn thing on its 20th Century equivalent, Homo Republicanus, which is even dumber.

But sooner or later these jokers are going to try and fight a Civil War...or at least, the rich guys are going to get the losers to try and do it for them.

And it's going to end badly, for them.

But people will still die, I strongly suspect as much or more due to these fucking people's incompetence than their actual violence.

But the truth is that until we, as a country...hell, as a species, deal with the fact that some of us will always be fine with grossly uneducated citizens, ruined cities, oppressed peoples and scumbag politicians if it gets them a lower tax rate and a little bit of power.

I'm tired of this garbage. The question is, why aren't you??

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

And this ain't it, yo.

But remember, this is America and we get a choice.

Civilization, the Future, reality.

Or Conspiracy Theories, Wars, and plunder by people who think it's funny to watch the world burn.

That's our Valley Of Decision.

You decide.

You know if you let the people who believed figuratively throwing a virgin into the volcano would appease the Volcano Gods and they'd make the virus go away make these decisions, at the minimum they're going to throw somebody into the volcano.

Because that's all they believe in. I mean, shit, if nobody else volunteers they might just throw themselves into the volcano to appease their own zero-sum shitty social beliefs.

But we don't have to let these fucking people train-wreck our entire society.

Remember that, because it's going to be on the test.

Слава Україна!

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.

Three

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

Spiritual Terrorism (Their Meme-Lord And "Savior," Three.)

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teaches, on teaching;

8 Or he that exhorts, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that rules, with diligence; he that shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.

Be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another;

Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;

Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.

Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.

Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.

Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.

If it be possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men.

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.

Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. ~Romans, Chapter 12.

I keep seeing this kind of shit; prayer, "Spiritual Warfare, various and endless threats of revenge for all type of shit, both real and (mostly, IMO) imagined.

Authoritarianism, Inc. The Global, political "Right" or whatever one wants to call it, is trending towards terrorism.

They want to be the angry, bearded men shouting Allah Akbar as they fire their Kalashnikovs into the air. You know, the same shit these same fucking people spent 20 years being loudly and performatively afraid of. Call it "Spiritual Terrorism."

All type of people make it sound like these assholes are something something Gazpacho politically unstoppable because reasons (Mostly, the media thinks it'll make more money off of covering right-wing Crazy) but clearly they're not accomplishing whatever by purely political-let alone democratic-means fast enough...and if you look at the whole damn situation in Ukraine, militarily the picture isn't so hot either.

See, here's the thing, when you've conditioned yourself to be afraid all the time, it becomes real hard to be brave.

If things were going their way, I doubt there'd be [as much] talk of revenge...let alone threats to murder government officials in allied nations, and so on. The fuck did David Cameron even do?

Of course, the actual problem is that nothing is ever good enough for these right-wing fanatics, and that seems true in any country whether it's Israel, Russia, the USA, or anywhere else.

And if these fucking people were nearly as Christian (or Jewish, and I'm sure I could find Islamic examples if I wanted to) as they say they are...there wouldn't be famous people who buy into this bullshit spouting off about "Telepathy" on Twitter.

All of the Abrahamic religions view that kind of stuff as Magic and therefore Sin, and the prohibitions spring from the same sources in Jewish scriptures that Christians condensed and mangled and reinterpreted into the Old Testament.

Or, as us plain old Secular people put it, it's just bullshit. Telepathy makes for cool stories (having been a gamer and fan of superhero stuff since I was a kid, I can attest to this) but it's not a real thing.

But the truth, of course, is worse than that.

These motherfuckers could be living in a Promised Land of milk and honey and the rest of us could be living in shit and they'd still find something to bitch about, it's simply the nature of the beast. 

You're better off if you don't indulge in that crap, or hang around with people who do it.

I mean, shit, these fucking people will be mad about Barack Obama getting elected until they die, and at least some of them will teach their descendants to be mad about it, too. I mean, yeah, it's a combination of bitterness and racism from people who are perpetually unhappy with the world. Religiosity and Revenge, on the part of the same fucking people who are why Moses smashed the stone tablets after he came down off the mountain. What else is new??

Well, I mean, wanting to bad Porn...which is traditionally one of these fucking people's, um, outlets??

That's a new one, but one I see popping up a lot lately.

And it's always the same kind of animatronic Ken Doll, smooth, unshaven, yet-categorizing-countries-by-ages-of-consent creepy Jared Kushner-looking dudes who are the ones saying it...that or the kind of creepy old preachers who look like they know where every Glory Hole and skeevy Gay Bathhouse within 100 Klicks of their house is located. And they have them all categorized with annotated notes. 

By the way, if either of these dudes has any calluses on their hands, those are from jacking off. Just sayin.'

I mean, seriously, no joke, have you seen what the average "Conservative" white dude over the age of about 25 looks like these days?? There's a hell of a lot of bearded dude-bros out there who look like balding, paunchy garden gnomes. An awful lot of them have only ever seen naked women in Porn, yo.

And your ass is trying to tell me they don't use pornography on a lot more of a scale than I've ever had to?? 

Shut the fuck up!

Not that there's anything particularly wrong with Porn. I just don't find most of it all that interesting, and I find it very strange indeed that the people who use the shit the most are the ones claiming to be so against it. I mean it's literally been scientifically proven that conservative religious white men use porn the most, the Deep South and Utah (of all fucking places) have the highest rates of porn use in America.

So it's just hypocritical bullshit.

Of course, if these fucking people didn't have hate and hypocrisy they wouldn't have anything at all. And that, too, is somebody else's fault.

It's funny how the people who quote "Vengeance is mine, Saith the Lord" have been very busy trying to make God in their own image...if they can't just up and declare themselves gods.

And because of America's perverse fascination with religiosity and right-wing Crazy, in the (extremely) likely event that they get their ass kicked electorally (not least because nobody but them wants to ban porn or make Donald Trump god) they're going to try for a Civil War...or at least a right-wing insurgency.

It won't be much of either, Al Qaeda, they ain't. And TL:DR it will probably mostly end up being an excuse to commit crimes...but people will still die. 

And if they do succeed in breaking off a piece of America for themselves, the odds are high it'll be both a nexus of global organized crime and a Russian satellite state, Cold War style.

Might be a fun place for elites, but you or I wouldn't wanna go there. The only Opiate they wanna give the masses is religion. It'll be like the Deep South, but the alcohol, the Chick-Fil-A and the porn will be reserved for the elites. The only thing the Peasants will have to eat...is each other. But they'll have plenty of internal conflicts to kill each other in. I can't imagine that the Pentecostals and the Traditional Catholics and the Russian Orthodox will get along (or share power) for very long.

Hate and Politics and Power...and the joy of bowing and scraping for profit? Those, these assholes will reserve for themselves. "Orwellian" will not even begin to describe it. These fuckers want to live in The Empire from Star Wars...and at lesser levels they're competing to be the guy who goes around shouting "On Program!" at the other prisoners.

It's real easy to say Vengeance belongs to some god when you think that god is (or at least represents) you.

But the truth is, at the end of the day a lot of these idiots just want to be a better class of slave than some of the other slaves, and I guess that's what one gets if one goes too far into religiosity and right-wing politics, or believes in the Apostle Paul rather than Jesus Christ (and yeah, read the pull-quote to see what Paul had to say about this crap.)

Every damn thing is Magic Words And Phrases with these fucking people. Anything to maintain the social memes of bigotry and grievance and vengeance.

I couldn't do it.

Being a free citizen in a secular society and at least trying to "Love thy neighbor" (let alone your own country) might seem a little bit harder...but it sure beats that kind of crap. You have to stand for something, or you'll fall for anything, apparently.

Слава Україна!

"Life is sacred"? Who said so? God? Hey, if you read history, you realize that God is one of the leading causes of death! Has been for thousands of years! Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Christians; all taking turns killing each other because God told 'em it was a good idea. The sword of god, the blood of the lamb, 'vengeance is mine'; millions of dead motherfuckers. Millions of dead motherfuckers, all because they gave the wrong answer to The God Question: "Do you believe in God?" "No." BAM! Dead. "Do you believe in God?" "Yes." "...Do you believe in my God?" "No." BAM! Dead. "My God has a bigger dick than your God!" ~George Carlin

Two

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

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.

The Buffalo Soldier Monument at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. 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