Indulgences (American Reformation II, Five.)

 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats:
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
For I hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
For I hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. ~Matthew 25:31-45

...

We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev...Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

~Ronald Reagan

...

[The Mandalorian brings together the entire Mandalorian covert after Carson Teva makes a surprise visit and asks him to help Greef Karga's situation on Nevarro when the New Republic won't lift a finger]

Mando: Now, many of you don't know Greef Karga. And those that do fought against him when you rescued me from his ambush many cycles ago on the streets of Nevarro. Since then, he's had a change of heart and has risked his life to save mine as well as the Foundling in my charge. [Grogu coos] I stand before you to petition an intervention. To help rescue Nevarro before it's too late. I am in no position to ask any more of you. However... However, the enemy that decimated this very covert were Imperials, not Greef Karga's bounty hunters. Greef Karga is now a High Magistrate and has offered me a tract of land on his independent world. Perhaps it is time for us to live in the light once again on a planet where we are welcome. So our culture may flourish and our children can feel what it is to play in the sunlight.

Armorer: Does anyone else wish to speak?

Mando: It's up to them now.

Paz Vizsla: I do. I was there on Nevarro that night. I fought against Greef Karga and his hunters. I saw my brothers and sisters fall at the hands of the Imperial butchers that hunted us in the sewers. I saw many die to save the life of [gestures to Grogu] this one, tiny Foundling. And now we are asked to sacrifice yet again. The question we should be asking ourselves is, "Why? Why should we lay our lives down yet again?" Because we are Mandalorians! I have had my disagreements with this man, but he risked his life to save my son. And Bo-Katan Kryze did not give up on my child's life even when the rest of us did. These two are asking us to take up arms in the name of a brighter future, and I for one will take up arms to fight by their side. [Mandalorians agree] This is the Way!

Mandalorians: This is the Way.

Armorer: This is the Way.

~From The Mandalorian S3.E5 "The Pirate."

I saw this last night.

The Brazilian people reelected Lula and told Flavio Bolsonaro to go fuck himself yesterday.

Serbia voted out their autocratic leader.

And Republicans, starting with sneering NRA shill Dana Loesch, are panicking in Texas.

Good.

I have no intention of supporting These Fucking People ever again and neither should you, and I say that as a relatively conservative Democrat.

There's nothing conservative about people like Mike Rogers, he's a Simon LeGree-looking twerp who lives in Florida, he should go back there. And honestly he looks like he 100% should be "Ass-Clown Mike from janitorial." This dude ain't a Senator, he's a puppet. Also his wife looks like Medusa, but her gaze will turn you into potato salad (with raisins in it) instead of Stone. I'm gonna be uncharacteristically typical male here, but never trust a man whose wife looks like that and goes about her day with a scowl on her face. It ain't just he's doing something wrong, it's he been doing it wrong the whole time.

And, most likely, he's actively too stupid to care, if he's not just another Pink Mafia Republican with a taste for Cuban rent-boys or into some kind of Epstein class freaky wrong shit.

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 mean, at least in 2008 when it was Barack Obama vs. John McCain, both men looked competent and respectable. Mike looks too much like he's consciously trying to look like Donald Trump, including in copying Trump's facial expressions. Mike didn't look like that (or talk much like he does now) when he was in Congress. He also never impressed me as somebody who I thought should be there.

These assholes are losing, appear to know it, and are apparently in full panic-mode about it, trying to claim liberals are anti-White racists or some bullshit. No, Bitch, I'm a white guy (although I'm barely a liberal) most of the liberals I know are White. You guys alienated most of your actual voter base and thought it was hilarious while ya'll were doing it. You ran up the cost of everything so a lot of people can't even make it...and ya'll want them to vote for you without any actual relief being provided?? It is not everybody else's "patriotic duty" to just bend over and take it for your political and military adventurism.

Especially when Trump's stated attitude, out of his own mouth is "WE'RE making a bunch of money, HA HA! Fuck You!"

He's got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. Just gold everywhere. ~Barack Obama, RE: Donald Trump.

Fuck you, bro. That's not how that works. 

Also, Republican isn't a race and it looks like the guy pushing this crap is *Checks Notes* Not White.

I mean, fuck, I didn't even know Bobby Jindal was still around. I thought after the train-wreck he made of Louisiana, his ass wandered off to die in painful obscurity but now he's cranking out racist AI ads in *Checks Notes Again* Wisconsin?? 

Yeah, whatever bro. I'm sorry but this dude is a try-hard and he sucks and he should've never been allowed anywhere near elected office. I always thought his trying to use politics to claim he was "White" was kind of pathetic. Dude literally comes from a culture that was a thriving beast when Europe was all actual Barbarians. India has its own cool stuff. I'd lean into that. I don't even see the fucking point of pretending to be something you're not and I'm a former Republican.

But then I guess dude got his name from The Brady Bunch. Can't help bad taste I guess. Maybe it's just me but I think stuff like Curry and Diwali and laughing at a lot of White "Hippies" always copying Hindu/Indian things (usually badly) is a lot cooler. 

The People Of The Mayo are copying you, Piyush. And you'd rather be Bob from Dry Hump, Louisiana.

I can't make that make sense.

And then these same dipshits, apparently anticipating things will go sideways here in America, are trying to export their White Christian Nationalist bullshit to the UK?? 

Excuse me? 

Ya'll trying to export US-style Fundamentalism to *Checks Notes Yet Again* one of the most secular countries in the fucking world. A place where *Opens Book* Oh yeah, they've played this game before and apparently ain't having it now. A whole-ass country where making a public ass of yourself literally gets you your own category of memorable insults and the seething mockery of not one country, but like, four...plus the Commonwealth if you're really a jerk about it. 

I mean if we're being honest Trump's 2016 Scotland trip taught me a whole new category of insults and I've been to the United Kingdom twice. In my case, RAF Fairford and the environs around it plus a couple days off on one of those TDY's spent in London. 

I do not have a massive amount of experience with England and I know this isn't gonna go how they think it's gonna go.

I mean while were at it, I do know that the most religious Christians over there tend to be Black African immigrants or their descendants, although I know that from having worked with a fair number of such people who mainly came to America later. I wasn't all that religious when I was over there in the 1990s and I didn't seek out such information.

But let me tell you something I learned from such people; Way back in 2008 I had seen this story about a prison break in South Africa where a couple of guys basically lubed themselves up with Vaseline and slithered out between the bars on the windows. My African bro Henry heard me telling this story to Carl and Josh and he had some questions. So, I told him the next day I'd print out the article and bring it in. I did that. Sure enough he looks at it the next night and then points to a detail I'd missed, that the escapees were from Mozambique. His culture (The Shona, one of the traditional tribal groups of Zimbabwe) believes people from Mozambique practice Black Magic. Henry said in his heavy accent; "If you don't believe me think about this; It is impossible, but it still happened."

This guy and his wife lived in the UK for 15 years before they came here in 2006. One of their adult sons, who we called "G" worked with us while he was in college (2008-2012) and he spoke with a Black British accent. G's girlfriend (later wife) was Native American. They all went to the diverse Pentecostal church that was by my house. My partner is still friends with this family.

American Christian Nationalists are apparently giving the British far-right millions of dollars, and they didn't even bother to do the most basic of homework to find out who they were gonna need to actually speak to if they wanted to get anywhere. 5% of the UK goes to church, mostly not the White people.

All this shit is a scam.

It's no more "Of God" than some guy in a robe selling "Indulgences" on the Feast Of Saint Bartholomew. An Indulgence was a piece of paper you bought from the Church that claimed your sins were supposedly forgiven.

(And yes, that really is the kind of world these "Republicans" wanna live in.)

The Truth is that forgiveness and Salvation are free gifts of Jesus Christ.

(But that's not the world Republicans want to live in.)

And they expect the rest of us to keep indulging this scammy, racist crap because they can talk up a bunch of crazy shit that anybody with eyes to see and ears to hear knows is a bunch of bullshit.

American Reformation Now.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

The rest of the world is kicking these motherfuckers out.

So get after it.

Слава Україна

Follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change
An August summer night
Soldiers passing by

Listening to the wind of change
The world is closing in
Did you ever think
That we could be so close, like brothers

The future's in the air
Can feel it everywhere
Blowing with the wind of change.

~Scorpions, Winds Of Change

Four

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.

False Gods (American Reformation II, Four.)

He's got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. Just gold everywhere. ~Barack Obama, RE: Donald Trump.

...

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.

...

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. ~Galatians 3:26-29

I saw this last night.

Some old-ass idiot MAGA Bitch at a Trump rally, when asked if slavery still affected Black people said that when they were slaves, they were "Given food, housing and medical care." Well, color me skeptical but I don't think any of that matters much if you can't leave.

Like, the fuck?? I knew "Slavery is bad" when I was like...five years old, maybe?

And, I'm sorry but with the Midterms and an extremely likely political ass-kicking looming, I'm starting to see a lot of shit even weirder than that. Like there's some kind of AI Terminator/Warhammer 40K slop video making the rounds on Twitter. Catholic Space Marines with laser rifles and swords vs. T2 Judgment Day grade Terminators, and I'm just like what the fuck??

Midterm Loss Psychosis seems to be a real thing, apparently?

[As the four newly-revealed Cylons aboard Galactica struggle to deal with the information, the call to action stations sounds]

Lieutenant Felix Gaeta: [over the loudspeaker] ...Inbound Cylon fleet! I repeat: action stations, action stations. Set Condition One throughout the ship. This is not a drill.

Tory Foster: Oh gods... what're we going to do?

Saul Tigh: The ship is under attack. We do our jobs. Report to your stations!

Chief Galen Tyrol: Report to stations?

Saul Tigh: My name is Saul Tigh. I am an officer in the Colonial Fleet. Whatever else I am, whatever else it means, that's the man I want to be. And if I die today, that's the man I'll be. ~From Battlestar Galactica (2003) S3.E20 "Crossroads, Part 2."

Like, I don't give a fuck. 

I'm tired of these idiots telling me who to hate when I don't hate any of those people and I'm not going to. That's not who I am or who I want to be. I'm tired of everything being expensive and me and everyone I know being stressed because of it. That and I've been done with the Donkey Show Politics of the whole Trump thing since long before it was "Cool."

Apparently I'm not the only one, and there's worse people with way worse reasons for being done with it than me. A lot of these MAGA's and shit are about to find themselves under attack from their Right. Apparently, Joel Webbon decided to threaten Mike Huckabee and call for his execution and while I didn't see what it was over or what the threat was, it was apparently bad enough of a threat that there's calls for Joel to be arrested.

There's people out there that think Trump didn't or doesn't go far enough, because among other things Trump is (Yes, still) constrained by the Constitution and electoral process and America's democratic culture, not to mention his own low popularity and lazy shitty nature. Really, he can't.

Or, more particularly, he can't with 30% or less of the country supporting this bullshit.

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.

But people who think everything is ideally the domination of women, macho war shit and performative religiosity are quite likely going to be unimpressed by even Republicans quoting the Constitution or the Bill Of Rights to them...even if said Republicans are only doing it because they don't want to be slaves.

And another problem with this is that America's culture is violently atheistic and materialistic, the Church has historically been balls-deep in making it that way and keeping it that way, simply because people of a more spiritual inclination don't keep showing up, participating in all the horseshit and manipulation that infect churches in America or putting their money in the offering plate. 

Pretty often, doctrinally religious or genuinely spiritual people get bored, leave, and find their own ways to connect with the Divine Conversation because the sad truth of the American Evangelical religion is that most of those churches don't really do much in the community or have any real effect besides occasionally manipulating and parasitizing their members. Making the preachers the Zampolits of the Republican Party was actually a bad idea if you wanted to make people be more religious.

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

Like it or not, that's a pretty rotten, soggy grounding for a "Theocracy" of any sort. Best case for these CHUDs is that people mail it in and pretend for awhile, but honestly I don't see that lasting any longer than a couple of weeks. "Owning The Libs" or whatever they're calling it this week is only fun for most of these fucking people if it doesn't inconvenience them or require any real effort. Blame internet meme culture if you want.

Another issue is that the realities of American culture and diversity and of who is in the Body of Christ simply, I don't know, no longer work well with a lot of these fucking people's biases. Imma just put it like this. There's ads for a movie that keep crossing all of my feeds. It's called Drummer Boy and it basically looks like a less bloody, more musical updated version of The Patriot. But I noticed that #1 The main character's love interest in the previews is a black woman, and #2 the previews at least use the Christmas song Little Drummer Boy. #3 The film is produced by Angel studios, which is one of those knock off Christian movie outfits.

Trust me, I have a lot of familiarity with Those kind of studios and the movies they produce 'cause I have a conservative Christian Church background. 

It's like this: When the original left behind movies cast the principal pastor, Bruce Barnes, from the first four books as a black man (actor Clarence Gilyard) it was no big deal. Sure it was a long way down from Top Gun and Die Hard, but Clarence needed a job. Also, it's pretty obvious that's not the world we live in anymore, thanks to Trump.

But Trump isn't America and at the same time, now studios have to do stuff like have a diverse cast to reflect that a lot of their audience (Christian or otherwise) wants diversity. As much as some people don't want it to be, the American church, whether Christian or Evangelical, Catholic or Protestant, is a diverse Church, in a diverse country. 

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

It's stuff like this that's a problem for people like Joel Webbon, Dale Partridge etc. These people, these so-called "Conservatives" pretty much turn against anything that says black people, immigrants, poor people, etc. deserve any consideration at all...even the Bible, or even when it comes from modern Evangelical sources.

And that's why this whole mess is falling down. MAGA is not a growth industry or movement, the Republican Party isn't interested in making itself bigger or more diverse. Oh yeah, Trump still yells a good game now and again, or meanders through some kind of bizarre hate sermon at his rallies. 

But whatever Demonic aura of protection or magical attraction Trump had is gone; If they haven't already, these fucking people are going to start looking for a fresher or stronger drug again. I'm not sure Trump's Christ-less Prosperity Gospel Christianity is that. 

For all their constantly being in everyone's faces screaming their bullshit, Republicans actually want a lot fewer people to participate in the political process (But not in the same way that guys like Dale Partridge, Doug Wilson or Joel Webbon do) or for that matter, in religion past whatever it takes to get people to support Republicans. The unholy ghost of Richard Nixon forbid somebody get far enough into the Word to read "Love Thy Neighbor."

Christianity, as written, is inconvenient to the political Right. There's a reason the Nazis were big on Germanic neo-Pagan woo woo and practicing Black Magic.

It's gonna be the same way with these motherfuckers.

They're gonna find themselves Another God. In a pinch, Devils and Idols Of Gold will do. The "god" of Hate and Racism is a false god.

And then, they're going to come at the rest of us, MAGA and all included.

If there is to be an American Reformation, these fucking people will call Baal-worship their counter-revolution. I mean, just from what we know is in the Epstein files, that mess already infects a lot of America's "elites."

Anything but "Love Thy Neighbor."

I've got a partner and a kid to think about. I can't be cool with that. Their freedom and safety and physical and spiritual well-being matter to me more than my own life does.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

You either give a shit about other people or you don't.

And either you're willing to fight for it, and for them, or you're not.

Слава Україна!

The clocks stopped at one seventeen. There was a long shear of bright light, then a series of low concussions. By day the dead impaled on spikes along the road. I think it's October but I can't be sure. I haven't kept a calendar for five years. Each day is more gray than the one before. It is cold and growing colder as the world slowly dies. No animals have survived and all the crops are long gone. Soon all the trees in the world will fall. The roads are peopled by refugees towing carts and gangs carrying weapons, looking for fuel and food. Within a year there was fire on the ridges and deranged chanting. There has been cannibalism. Cannibalism is the great fear. Mostly I worry about food. Always food. Food and the cold and our shoes. Sometimes I tell the boy old stories of courage and justice - difficult as they are to remember. All I know is the child is my warrant and if he is not the word of God, then God never spoke. ~The Man, from Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" (Film.)

Three

"I didn't want to do it,'' he hears himself saying. "I didn't want to leave them behind.''

The void laughs at him. There are miles of empty air beneath his dangling feet. "You had no choice.''

"Yes I did! I didn't have to come here.'' He pauses. "I didn't have to do anything,'' he says quietly, and inhales another lungful of death. "It was all automatic. Maybe it was inevitable.''

"-- Evitable,'' echoes the distant horizon. Something dark and angular skims across the stars, like an echo of extinct pterosaurs. Turbofans whirring within its belly, the F-117A hunts on: patrolling to keep at bay the ancient evil, unaware that the battle is already lost. "Your family could still be alive, you know.''

He looks up. "They could?'' Andrea? Jason? "Alive?''

The void laughs again, unfriendly: "There is life eternal within the eater of souls. Nobody is ever forgotten or allowed to rest in peace. They populate the simulation spaces of its mind, exploring all the possible alternative endings to their life. There is a fate worse than death, you know.'' 

~From A Colder War, a novella by Charles Stross.

[Kuiil and Mando have successfully repaired the Razor Crest with the parts recovered from the Jawas]

The Mandalorian: I can't thank you enough. Please allow me to give you a portion of the reward.

Kuiil: I cannot accept. You are my guest, and I am therefore in your service.

The Mandalorian: I could use a crew member of your ability. And I can pay handsomely.

Kuiil: I am honored. But I have worked a lifetime to finally be free of servitude.

The Mandalorian: I understand. Then... all I can offer is my thanks.

Kuiil: And I offer mine. Thank you for bringing peace to my valley. [leaves the ship and mounts his Blurrg; to Mando] And good luck with the Child. May it survive and bring you a handsome reward. I have spoken.

~From the Star Wars series; The Mandalorian, S1.E2 "The Child."

Evil Empire (American Reformation II, Three.)

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

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

And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

If any man have an ear, let him hear.

He that leads into captivity shall go into captivity: he that kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he speaks as a dragon.

And he exercises all the power of the first beast before him, and causes the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

And he doeth great wonders, so that he makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,

And deceive them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

And he caused all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. ~Revelation 13, King James Bible.

...

The clocks stopped at one seventeen. There was a long shear of bright light, then a series of low concussions. By day the dead impaled on spikes along the road. I think it's October but I can't be sure. I haven't kept a calendar for five years. Each day is more gray than the one before. It is cold and growing colder as the world slowly dies. No animals have survived and all the crops are long gone. Soon all the trees in the world will fall. The roads are peopled by refugees towing carts and gangs carrying weapons, looking for fuel and food. Within a year there was fire on the ridges and deranged chanting. There has been cannibalism. Cannibalism is the great fear. Mostly I worry about food. Always food. Food and the cold and our shoes. Sometimes I tell the boy old stories of courage and justice - difficult as they are to remember. All I know is the child is my warrant and if he is not the word of God, then God never spoke. ~The Man, from Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" (Film.)

...

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

So I saw this earlier today.

George W. Bush's brother voted for James Talarico.

And rightly so, probably.

I've had it with this shit, Republicans apparently don't believe anybody who isn't a billionaire should have any rights, or for that matter, any money or anything else.

The only right they seem to think anyone should have, and the only thing they want to give anybody, is hate. Meanwhile, everybody that I know is just barely getting by. We're all angry and tired, and tired of being angry and tired, while chuckle-fucks like Elon Musk sit there and lie about guys like James Talarico. 

While he also lies about Ukraine and Volodomyr Zelenskyy and whether or not it was him or Trump that ordered the Starlink slowdown (And meanwhile Europe is backing away from relying on us for anything defense-wise at this point, and rightly so.)

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.

I'm sorry, but Ken Paxton is a scumbag and should never have been allowed to be anywhere near public service. It's not just that I know people that went to jail for way less than what he's done...It's that I've been to jail and I didn't do anything even close to all that.

As long as Republicans are going to include and support men like this, and America is going to allow any Republicans to hold office anywhere, nobody (including most Americans) should ever trust America ever again. We are a very short distance from the whole damn country falling apart simply because the full faith and credit of the Federal government and America's standing in the world has been completely trashed, by malicious, rabidly stupid men who thought it was funny to shit all over everything.

These motherfuckers consider the vast majority of Americans (and yes, most conservatives, that means you too) to be their enemies, and they consider people like Vladimir Putin to be their friends. I mean, what the hell kind of stupid person does that??

Apparently Republicans believe if Power wants what you got, you're supposed to just bend over, hand it over, whatever. You have no right that Power or Wealth is obligated to respect. I wonder if they realize that means them, too, when somebody bigger or meaner shows up??

Vladimir Putin (Russians in general) don't care about your privilege.

In fact the Russians don't believe you have it, or that you should.

They basically think if you're not a Russian you're supposed to be their n****r. I've heard people from former-Soviet countries that are now free (like Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) say this. I've seen video of Ethnic Russians saying that kind of shit about other people.

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

There is a reason Ronald Reagan called these people the Evil Empire.

I'm not sure why Steve Whack-It-Off thinks he's gonna be any different. Russians have a long history of murdering their own political types, much less those who they used to gain power in subject countries.

I've conversed with people who've lived in Russia or visited long enough to get to know some people and honestly, the only people I know who've been there who ever said they felt welcome or entirely comfortable, let alone safe were, basically, a very specific kind of dude-bro. Not all of them were Republicans at the time, a fair number of them aren't or never claimed to be MAGA (some of them are/were Leftists and I'll bet you can guess what kind) although those that are far-right or Trump Supporters often are so to a ridiculous degree. A former SNCO from my squadron is an electrical engineer and worked on the grid in Sochi before the Winter Olympics there. After that he became very weirdly pro-Russian and in 2015-2016 he went full weird MAGA. It pretty much wrecked our Facebook KI Sawyer AFB veterans group. 

The group is still there but no one posts on it regularly anymore.

Hess: So what shall we toast to, boys? I can blather on about “To health” or “To success,” but I’d like to do somethin’ a little less rote. Where you from, Brown Eyes?

Migs Mayfield: How ’bout a toast to Operation Cinder?

Hess: Now there’s a man who knows his history.

Mayfield: No, I don’t just know it. I lived it. I was in Burnin Konn.

Hess: Burnin Konn?

Mayfield: Mmm.

Hess: That was a hard day. I had to make many unpleasant decisions.

Mayfield: Yes, you did. Entire city gone in moments, along with everybody in it. We lost our whole division that day. Man, that was like 5-10,000 people.

Hess: Yep. All heroes of the Empire.

Mayfield: Yeah. And all dead.

Hess: Well, it’s a small sacrifice for the greater good, son.

Mayfield: Depends on who you ask, don’t you think?

Hess: [irritated] What you gettin’ at, trooper?

Mayfield: All those people, the ones who died, was it good for them? Hmm? Their families? The guys I served with? Civilians, those poor mud scuffers, died defending their homes, fighting for freedom. Was it good for them?

Hess: But we’ve outlasted them, son. They’re eating themselves alive. The New Republic is in complete disarray, and we grow stronger. You see, with the rhydonium you’ve delivered, we can create havoc that’s gonna make Burnin Konn pale by comparison. And then they’re gonna turn to us once again. You see, boys, everybody thinks they want freedom, but what they really want is order. And when they realize that, they’re gonna welcome us back with open arms. Ah. To the Empire.

[Mayfield chuckles, then fires a blaster at Hess' chest, killing him instantly. He and Mando then shoot their way out of the mess hall] ~From The Mandalorian, Season 2, Ep. 7 "The Believer"

Of course, it's a really safe bet that people who believe in testing *Checks Notes* Energy Weapons on human beings probably don't believe in Human Rights, not even their own. There are international laws and treaties against that kind of shit being used on the battlefield. The real world ain't Star Wars and there's a fucking reason for that. And, more, you don't want it to be.

And of course privilege and racism and Whiteness and Just World fallacies convince a lot of dipshits that such things won't be used against them.

Until they are. How has any of this crap worked out the last couple of years??

People who are willing to platform an enabler of sex abuse just to hurt a political opponent in a democratic election will absolutely shoot you in the face with a crude real-world version of the E-Web heavy blaster cannon from Empire Strikes Back or The Mandalorian, for kicks.

And the really stupid part of this is These Fucking People are okay with that, as long as they think some other person is gonna get shot in the face with it twice.

If you don't smoke Tarryton's, fuck you! ~Sign, Idiocracy.

I get that Negative Partisanship can be a hell of a drug but are you fucking kidding me?? 

Let's have some basic survival instincts here, shall we?? It doesn't matter if Black people or Mexicans are somehow gonna be more dead than you are. 

Dead is still Dead.

Traumatized for life is still, in fact, traumatized for life. PTSD, etc. etc. doesn't actually care about the color of your skin or your political affiliation. Like a virus, or Russians for that matter, it'll kill you or wreck your shit just the same as it will the people you don't like. I don't understand why people keep playing around with this shit when it'll all kill you just the same.

Yeah, stupidity, I get it.

I mean, come on, when Osama Bin Laden was killed, Abdul Al-Sayed was finishing up his doctorate in public health, which likely meant he was working a shit job while busting his ass in a demanding program while being the "Funding apparatus" for Ramen Noodles.

But these idiots never let reality get in the way of a bald-faced blatantly obvious lie.

Or there's always Argle Bargle Bargle, Unga Bunga Bunga "Own The Libs!" or some such dumbass bullshit.

Anybody else tired of this shit yet??

I'm tired. My Mom is tired. My partner is tired. None of us asked for any of this garbage.

For a long time I said that Republicans, most specifically Republican Men all would be fine with being the Emperor's catamite, so long as they thought they were gonna get to boss around some of the servants once in awhile.

Well, I think it's rather worse, or maybe it always was.

Barbara: With a cute little rear end like that, you'll be the belle of the ball. Your dance card'll be filled every day. You'll be so popular, making all kinds of new, close friends. Big, ugly, hairy friends! Not that you'll ever see what they look like, 'cause you'll be facing the other way.
- Ken Kessler: You're very good at this. You should write children's books. 

~From the film Ruthless People 

These Fucking People would just as soon be the bitches of the petty illiterate local warlord, strapped to the rusty tailgate of his favorite Toyota Hilux Technical next to the .50 Caliber BMG ammunition until he wants them. 

Such is their desire for "Proximity" to "Power" that they don't care if they're stuck facing the other way the whole damn time.

I couldn't do it. But from what I hear maybe Tim Scott would.

But then I couldn't and wouldn't get so much plastic and silicone and whatever the fuck else put in my face that I look like a Star Wars alien either.

I mean, what's the fucking point, Laura??

You look like a damn mutant and you're pushing the same abuse-platforming bullshit that's pretty much turned Vivek RamaRamaDingDing into a radioactive political mutant in a day or so, too.

May These Fucking People all have to deal with each other, day in and day out for Eternity, in Hell.

Honestly Hell is too good for these people.

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.

When is enough going to be enough, America??

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

But you have to be smart enough to know what that word means.

The Reformation happened because among other things people died horrible deaths for the right to read the Word of God at all, and then in their own languages. And now you're telling me that people in supposedly the greatest country that ever was can't be bothered to read or know what words mean??

The fact that politics and religion are OK with this murderous bullshit tells me we need an American Reformation, Republicans lust after both the Power of the medieval Catholic church, and the bloodshed of the wars of religion. They forget how that worked out for the Church. Or maybe they just don't care. We have to stop this shit, lest America itself become the next Evil Empire.

If you're stupid enough to think you can have some kind of a social contract with an autocrat that thinks your freedom, your rights, your stuff is some kind of infinitely moveable goalpost and he can do whatever he wants? Let alone some billionaire cranked out on drugs who's convinced himself he's more powerful than nations. If you think that? You deserve whatever you're gonna get from them.

But the rest of us...don't.

So get after it.

Слава Україна!

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

Two

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: ~John 11:25