Signs Of The Times (American Reformation I, Eight.)

Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.

~Ronald Reagan

...

 [Han arrives at Docking Bay 94 and sees a familiar face, and his ship surrounded.]

Jabba the Hutt: [in Huttese] Solo! Come out of there, Solo! Solo!

Han Solo: Right here, Jabba. [Jabba and his henchmen turn around to see Han and Chewbacca] I've been waiting for you.

Jabba: Have you now.

Han: You didn't think I was gonna run, did you?

Jabba: Han, my boy, you disappoint me. Why haven't you paid me? And why did you fry poor Greedo?

Han: Look, Jabba, next time you wanna talk to me, come see me yourself. Don't send one of these twerps.

Jabba: Han, I can't make exceptions. What if everyone who smuggled for me dropped their cargo at the first sign of an Imperial starship? It's not good for business.

Han: Look, Jabba, even I get boarded sometimes. [accidentally steps on Jabba's tail, causing Jabba to yelp in pain] Did you think I had a choice? But I got a nice easy charter now; I'll pay you back, plus a little extra. I just need a little more time.

Jabba: Han, my boy, you're the best smuggler I ever hired. So, for an extra 20%...

Han: Fifteen, Jabba, and don't push it.

Jabba: Okay, 15%. But if you fail me again, I'll put a price on your head so big, you won't be able to go near a civilized system.

Han: Jabba, you're a wonderful human being.

Jabba: [orders his minions] Come on! [Jabba's gang leaves with bounty hunter Boba Fett following behind.]

~From Star Wars: Episode IV, A New Hope

...

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

Goddamn, but ya know, lately I just can't help but notice that Republicans seem to suddenly think they've conquered the world, and they're madder than a god damn motherfucker that everybody isn't bowing down and worshiping them and their Devils and Idols of Gold like they thought we would. 

Well, that and I sure can't square what I was taught for most of my life with these assholes having a sudden hankering for Totalitarian State Power and Unlimited Government.

Look at these fucking people, though!

When did every single goddamn Republican turn into either a fucking creeper that looks like Jabba The Hutt or some ugly Mar-A-Lago-Faced wannabe courtesan that looks like an alien from Jabba's Palace in Return Of The Jedi??

And what's with that stupid dog-mask party shit the other day? Are These Fucking People trying to piss the rest of us off with their gaudy stupidity while pretty much everybody else is either struggling or forced into helping somebody who is??

Good Lord, at least have the sense to keep your ridiculous opulent parties to yourselves like rich people used to!

The rest of the world, hell, the rest of the country is not obligated to put up with your bullshit.

And then these fucking people, after one of their guys literally killed somebody on camera (Something for which most of us would be put under the jail) have the nerve to act all nose-out-of-joint because the people in the city are fighting back??

Fighting back is what people do in these situations.

Republicans, your ideology might be your "God" but nobody else has to follow it. And I say that as a former Republican that got pushed out cuz I wasn't like this.

And I'm gonna remind people yet again, that the rest of the world has been doing all this shit for a lot longer.

Pretty much everybody is tired of this shit at this point, even a lot of Republicans.

The last couple days I went over to my Mom's house to help with projects and there's a stretch on the west end of one of the main roads on the route that used to be entirely bedecked with Trump signs, probably 90% of the houses for several miles had one, call it a couple dozen overall. 

I counted when I went that way both ways this week, there's two houses left with Trump signs or swag, One still has multiple items, on the other one the flag is worn and needs to be replaced but hasn't

Signs of the times, eh?

Whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally either in public or private life must have his eye fixed. ~From the Allegory Of The Cave, Plato's Republic.

When is enough, enough?

I think we're gonna find that out soon.

And just like all this shit in Minneapolis, I don't think it's gonna go the way Republicans think it's gonna go. Like, if you're an arrogant narcissist who's incapable of planning for failure, loss of good order and discipline or panic, find somebody who isn't a narcissist and can plan for things going pear-shaped to be your Operations Officer. 

Why is this hard??

Well, except for the fact that Trump's executive branch is stocked with pretty much every damned Republican that couldn't get elected somewhere from the last two decades or so, and it's loaded with campaign donors, kiss-asses and toadies that have no useful skills in any areas to which they've been assigned (and damned few skills other than kissing Trump's ass, period.)

It's Republican DEI, and Republicans are proving their own argument against...but only on themselves.

The rest of the world aside from Third World shitholes like Russia seems to still want some degree of competence in government. Assume that carries over to military leadership and other things.

We've got to take the neighborhood back. We've got to go in there. Just forget telling your child to go to the Peace Corps. It's right around the corner. It's standing on the corner. It can't speak English. It doesn't want to speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk. "Why you ain't where you is go." I don't know who these people are. And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. Then I heard the father talk. This is all in the house. You used to talk a certain way on the corner and you got into the house and switched to English. Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't land a plane with "why you ain't…". You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. There is no Bible that has that kind of language. Where did these people get the idea that they're moving ahead on this? Well, they know they're not, they're just hanging out in the same place, five or six generations sitting in the projects when you're just supposed to stay there long enough to get a job and move out. ~Bill Cosby, the "Pound Cake" speech.

Meanwhile our leadership brags about not washing their hands. Again, I can't even talk the way these people talk.

And the truth is most of these idiots don't really wanna do anything but enjoy themselves in the kind of ways that'd land most of us under the jail.

And honestly I think it's reached the point where they're mocking not only the rest of us, but the Lord, too.

An American Reformation, starting with the abolition of the Evangelical religion, America's equivalent to China's spiritually empty government-controlled Three Self Patriotic Church where they replace the Cross with pictures of Mao Zedong, may well be necessary simply to stave off God's Wrath.

Somewhere along the way these ass-clowns convinced themselves that Jesus was a rich White Republican who will indulge or at least tolerate their perversions.

This despite everything to the opposite that the Bible itself says.

So yeah, stop and think about that.

The time where you're gonna have to make your choice is coming soon, America.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

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And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judges her.

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. ~Revelation 18:1-10

Seven

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don't do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free. ~Ronald Reagan