American Sodom II ("Great" Men, Seven.)

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

...

The Holy Quran says it, "Pilgrimage to the House [of God built by the prophet Abraham] is a duty men owe to God; those who are able, make the journey." (3:97) Allah said: "And proclaim the pilgrimage among men; they will come to you on foot and upon each lean camel, they will come from every deep ravine" (22:27). Every one of the thousands at the airport, about to leave for Jeddah, was dressed this way. You could be a king or a peasant and no one would know. Some powerful personages, who were discreetly pointed out to me, had on the same thing I had on. Once thus dressed, we all had begun intermittently calling out "Labbayka! (Allahumma) Labbayka!" (Here I come, O Lord!) Packed in the plane were white, black, brown, red, and yellow people, blue eyes and blond hair, and my kinky red hair -- all together, brothers! All honoring the same God, all in turn giving equal honor to each other. . . .That is when I first began to reappraise the "white man." It was when I first began to perceive that "white man," as commonly used, means complexion only secondarily; primarily it described attitudes and actions. In America, "white man" meant specific attitudes and actions toward the black man, and toward all other non-white men. But in the Muslim world, I had seen that men with white complexions were more genuinely brotherly than anyone else had ever been. That morning was the start of a radical alteration in my whole outlook about "white" men. ~Malcolm X.

...

And so tomorrow, as we take the campaign South and West, as we learn that the struggles of the textile workers in Spartanburg are not so different than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas; that the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of L.A.; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people, we are one nation. And, together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story, with three words that will ring from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea: Yes, we can. ~Barack Obama

I saw this last night.

First off, if they're so right or so righteous, why do people like Cindy Hyde-Smith or Virginia Foxx (who lost her seat last night) always look so goddamn miserable and like their standard meal is nothing but a bowl-full of razor blades and sliced lemons every damn day??

Second, It turns out, naturally, that the Ole Miss monkey-noises bitch is from a family that owns a bunch of car dealerships around the country, and the company got busted for putting racial slurs on their oil change stickers, in Wisconsin of all places. Pardon me? 

Who the fuck even does that or would think of doing such a thing. I mean, what's even the damn point??

Aside from the creation of an American Sodom?

Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen. ~Ezekiel 16:49-50 (NIV)

Supposedly, the employee who did it has been fired.

There's just one problem with that, at least where *I've* worked, nothing but the most need-it-right-now, it's-a-damn-emergency stuff like done up when the supervisors aren't around that makes it to being printed out in the first place does so without a member of management (or designated person if there isn't a lead present) looking it over first. They're usually the ones who do that stuff in the first place! Especially if it's anything public-facing.

I've never, ever, had a job where racism wasn't automatically and immediately subject to discipline if reported, and yes, that includes the military.

Going to guess Alaina or whatever her name is probably doesn't really have to worry about a job. She'll just end up selling cars or some shit.

So "Whiteness" basically, that's the damn point.

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.

And it's funny how these days, "Conservatism" or Religion is almost always balls-deep in the situation anytime there's some kind of a racist incident or anything that could be interpreted that way.

And then of course there's the fact that these same fucking Trump people keep trying to sell out America (and Europe, and Ukraine) to the Russians. And then they have the balls to keep being surprised when everybody else says "No."

I keep waiting for the moment when Kushner or Witkoff reads or otherwise finds out just what the Russians usually historically do to their "Useful Idiots" the second that said Idiots are no longer useful.

These fucking people got caught entertaining the Russian idea that Finland should have to leave NATO, or that NATO should not have bases in the Baltic States.

There's a reason the Finnish government's response to this shit was "No, absolutely not."

There's a reason Kaja Kallas was speaking out against Russia yesterday.

And the thing that gets me is, on the one hand a hell of a lot of Russians are sour-faced assholes just like Cindy Hyde-Smith or Virginia Foxx (which is probably why a lot of current Republicans prefer Russia to the USA.) But, and here's the thing...if you're not a Russian, the average Russian basically considers you the [Racial Slur Deleted] or at least does so once they've gotten whatever was useful out of you.

Which they'll basically do whatever, tell you whatever, etc. to get. They'll be whoever you want them to be if the price is right. (Which is why the alleged importance of the Russian Orthodox Church in Putin's Russia at the moment is a complete and total utter sham. But I've seen people who believe that crap.)

Then they try to kill you.

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

Reagan Wept.

To quote Baba from The Kite Runner "Fuck The Russia."

Personally I don't even get why any of these motherfuckers, be they Russians or Trumpers, thinks they have some kind of "Right" to change anything.

It's just plain-out narcissism and a desire to kill and steal, that's all it is.

I'm honestly tired of Russia and their criminal-slave culture, and even more tired of all the Americans and other people around the world (most of them political-class idiots and extremely-online CHUDs) that want to emulate that shit. I used to be a Republican, hell, I'm an American and I was taught that America was exceptional. Why then, are these same fucking people trying to sell America (and Europe!) out to a third world criminal shithole??

Don't give me that "Vlad has something on Trump" it doesn't matter. MAGA won't care, and it's a safe bet that the United States Armed Forces could steamroll the Russian Army in a hot minute, without their Aerospace Forces or Navy even seriously coming into play. We've only outgunned the fuckers sine 1945.

Russia can't even defeat Ukraine. I have no fucking idea how they think they're going to take on the rest of Europe, or us without Keg-Breath and Trump completely wrecking the military. That's only going to end one way, with Russia losing.

The only thing they've even got, really, is some compromised politicians.

And ours are hell-bent on turning America into a train-wreck.

Cassian Andor: Kino. Tell them what to do. It has to be you. Come on, Kino. You do this every day. Tell them what to do.

Kino Loy: [presses PA system] My name is Kino Loy. I'm the day shift manager on Level Five. I'm speaking to you from the command center on Level Eight. We are, at this moment, in control of the facility.

Andor: Is that the best you got?

Loy: How long we hang on, how far we get, how many of us make it out, all of that is now up to us. We have deactivated every floor in the facility. All floors are cold. Wherever you are right now, get up, stop the work. Get out of your cells, take charge and start climbing. They don't have enough guards and they know it. If we wait until they figure that out, it'll be too late. We will never have a better chance than this and [looks at Cassian, knowing he said it] "I would rather die trying to take them down than giving them what they want." We know they fried a hundred men on Level Two. We know that they are making up our sentences as we go along. We know that no one outside here knows what's happening. And now we know, that when they say we are being released, we are being transferred to some other prison to go and die, and that ends today! There is one way out. Right now, the building is ours. You need to run, climb, kill! You need to help each other. You see someone who's confused, someone who is lost, you get them moving and you keep them moving until we put this place behind us. There are 5,000 of us. If we can fight half as hard as we've been working, we will be home in no time. One way out!

[repeats it multiple times as he leaves the command center]

Andor: Come on! Let's get out of here!

~From the series "Andor" S1 E10 "One Way Out."

People like Trump and all his bootlicking enablers (like Marco Rubio) are selling out because they want to. This is what Republicans call "Great Men."

When is enough going to be enough with all this fucking bullshit?

Again I've got a partner and a kid to think about here. I can't afford to keep living like this!

I mean, among other things I've noted in this life; It seems like anybody in Russia with the means to get out of Russia does so, and it was that way well before the war with Ukraine (and it used to be that way with a lot of the other East Bloc and former-Soviet states as well.)

And I can't help but wonder if America or parts of America are headed that way, the likelihood that Trump goes down is extreme at this point, but a lot of the damage has been done. Among other things, one is probably safer on an outbound international flight at this point. Yeah, I saw that FAA ground-stop yesterday and the resulting chaos.

And the Microsoft 365 Snow Day.

And my own workplace having computer issues all day yesterday and last night, and I guess that was everywhere, too.

None of this shit is fucking normal.

These idiots are, I think, basically trying to groom the average American citizen into being a Russian peasant for them to rule over, but it's not working.

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 Julius Caesar, fuck Abe 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."

I'm tired of this crap.

And I'm not the only one.

But, then these fucking people, these "MAGA" Republicans and shit, have the balls to wonder why they keep losing.

Let alone why they lost last Tuesday.

Because they've fucked up basically everything.

Because they're all losers and weird narcissists, that's why.

Because we put a plumber (who's only anybody because he inherited his dad's company) and a total dumbass "Reality" TV star in charge of important shit, that's why.

If you think the Chinese (who are the peer that Russia isn't) are doing anything comparably stupid, you're wrong.

Freedom requires a bit of intelligence.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

And if we're not all free, then none of us are free.

Слава Україна!

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

Six

America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. And every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American. Today, we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation's promise through civility, courage, compassion, and character. America, at its best, matches a commitment to principle with a concern for civility. A civil society demands from each of us good will and respect, fair dealing and forgiveness. Some seem to believe that our politics can afford to be petty because, in a time of peace, the stakes of our debates appear small. ~George W. Bush