Land Of Confusion (Easter In Babylon, Two.)

Then Jesus spoke to the multitude, and to his disciples,

Saying The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:

All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,

And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,

And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.

But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.

But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.

And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. ~Matthew 23:1-15

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

Seriously??

Apparently Donald Trump is hawking a MAGA Bible now.

Like, are you fucking kidding me??

It's like I said all throughout 2015-2016, if you think this dude is a Christian or will make America more "Christian" you're wrong. Trump is, and always has been, nothing more than an atheistic con-artist.

But he said racist shit against Latinos when he started his first (Wait, first? Has it ever really even ended??) campaign in 2015, and has proceeded to do and say bigoted, crass things about pretty much everybody else since, so these fucking people love him.

Even though, as I understand it, he talks shit about them too.

How bad is this mess??

Well, there was a pretty bad accident in Baltimore overnight, a ship lost power and hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing part of the span to collapse and like seven people are missing.

And "Conservatives" have been trying to find some kind of anti-migrant, racist angle on the whole thing since at least 6 AM this morning.

I'd just like to point out that the entire shipping industry, globally, is a convoluted tangle of Flags of Convenience from places like Liberia, management companies in third countries and ownership by parties that have fuck-all to do with the Sea, where extremely multinational crews are the norm and the people making the money off all this stuff like it that way, because it's cheaper or something. 

(And all this stuff has been this way forever. And guess what? A big part of it is white people don't want to do that work.)

So good luck finding a chain of crew, flag, ownership and registration where everybody's White. That shit just ain't gonna happen. Most of the time, it works fine.

And nobody knows more that a person from The Bahamas or India or Mozambique or Russia has an equal chance (regardless of biological sex or "culture" or "race") of either being a desultory, dissolute shithead or a good sailor based primarily on the training they've received and their experience than the people who make their money off the global shipping industry. The color of one's skin or one's gender or sexual orientation has fuck-all to do with any of the skills required.

The sea doesn't care. You fuck up, she'll kill ya.

Just like I learned in the Air Force, fundamentally you have to do it the right way, the first time, every time...or you don't come back, even possibly if all you're doing is training. And, even if you do all that, the right way, accidents and bad shit can still happen.

Which is why you train, train, and train some more...because the world is a dangerous place. It's all the more that way when you're at sea.

Not that I think any of the political fuck-offs involved here, or their hangers-on or various wannabes will ever understand any of that. They have more "Important" things to do.

And if you ever wonder why modern Christianity or "Conservatism" is such a Land Of Confusion, start with that. 

Who's gonna Save you from the Shouty Man who's waving that MAGA Bible around??

These motherfuckers have no interest in what's actually true. They care about what they wanna believe.

If they're wrong, they can always find a new political bullshit line, a new scam, whatever.

It's all a game to them, they think God is not real.

And if it's not stopped, their endless, everlasting contempt for other humans and the Truth is gonna get a lot of people killed.

And guess what?? If you're wrong, you go to Hell. Probably so do your followers.

Reality doesn't care about you immanentizing your shitty political eschaton.

The whole message of this Season is that Eternal Life comes from compassion, not greed.

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

Слава Україна!

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

One

For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. ~Matthew 24:27