Asshole Nation (American Revelation XXII, Seven.)

 Americans of every race and color have died in battle to protect our freedom. Americans of every race and color have worked to build a nation of widening opportunities. Now our generation of Americans has been called on to continue the unending search for justice within our own borders. We believe that all men are created equal. Yet many are denied equal treatment. We believe that all men have certain unalienable rights. Yet many Americans do not enjoy those rights. We believe that all men are entitled to the blessings of liberty. Yet millions are being deprived of those blessings — not because of their own failures, but because of the color of their skin. The reasons are deeply embedded in history and tradition and the nature of man. We can understand — without rancor or hatred — how this all happened. But it cannot continue. Our Constitution, the foundation of our Republic, forbids it. The principles of our freedom forbid it. Morality forbids it. And the law I will sign tonight forbids it. ~Lyndon B. Johnson, Civil Rights Act signing speech.

...

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.

Ya know, there's something I keep noticing about all these bigots, neo-confederates, racists and Trump Supporters, etc.

They keep getting handed treats by Trump and very often by the Republicans and the Supreme Court as well, but they're still the same angry pinch-faced assholes they were before that.

Maybe that's just who they are, very likely they sense they won't get to keep the stuff they're being handed for very long at all once the majority of people see what they intend to do with it. Certainly, once they get what they think they want they do not intend to leave other people the fuck alone, they want everybody to be a miserable bastard like them, to hate like they hate, and so on.

And in my experience, most people react rather badly to all that. I couldn't live that way, I'd end up dead. Among other things, I have a conscience I have to live with, and since I'm an addict, prone to depression and shit to start with, I tend to not want to stew in negative shit for very long, if at all.

Perhaps more to the point, I just don't hate Black people...or much of anybody who hasn't done anything to me personally to deserve that shit. I mean, there's certain groups of people I don't like very much, the Russians for example...but again that's mostly based on the fact that they won't stop trying to hurt other people for no reason and have fucked over my country in particular. I'm not especially fond of MAGA and/or Republicans at this point for much the same reason. 

I don't like bullies and people who refuse to mind their own business in general, and I don't like people who claim their politics, their religion, their station in life or their wealth or some such bullshit in particular gives them a "right" to hurt others.

It doesn't.

And I'm tired of this shit.

These people don't love God or conservative politics, they love their narcissism and petty hatreds and think those things should give them the keys to the Universe in some way.

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.

No, fuck all that.

Thing that gets me is, these assholes know people will celebrate when their power is taken away, when they can't hurt people anymore, when they are brought to justice and when they ultimately face God's wrath whether that's in their own time or they're helped along by firing squads and mobs.

You'd think...in the face of that, maybe they'd think about it and ya know, stop being assholes??

It's happened, none other than George Wallace, the infamous longtime governor of Alabama, repented of his racism and made amends, even appointing record numbers of Black folks to the State government.

But then these people look at guys like Trump, or Viktor Orban, stewing in their miserable bastardy like they fucking want to be in it despite having been handed everything...and they decide that's who they want to be. I couldn't do it, my partner couldn't do it.

For some of us, misery is a killer.

I saw this yesterday, Hungary's new health minster just randomly started dancing at some rally where I'd presume everybody was supposed to be being all serious and shit. Good for him, good for his country!

Either in November, next January or whenever the revolution America's assholes are trying to force on the country happens, that's gonna be us too.

These motherfuckers don't care about that, they just want to kill and steal, to jerk off to ideas of hierarchy and relative status, whether those ideas actually benefit them or not.

Again, they don't get it, they don't...can't...understand a simple idea like "Love Outlasts Death."

[Caprica-Cavil and Galactica-Cavil are in an airlock, about to be executed]

Caprica-Cavil: Is there a Resurrection Ship within range?

Galactica-Cavil: Yes, brother. But first we're gonna die in a vacuum.

Caprica-Cavil: There's a 170 foot long launch tube in front of us. We might die of our injuries before we get to the vacuum.

Galactica-Cavil: I don't like you.

Caprica-Cavil: I understand that.

Galactica-Cavil: Do you really believe it was a mistake to attack the humans?

Caprica-Cavil: Rather intensely, yes.

Galactica-Cavil: You know that when we download amongst the others your strange ideas will be shouted down.

Caprica-Cavil: Ideas always seem strange until you try them on, brother. We had a temper-tantrum in the form of a cataclysm because we wanted them to treasure us, the Ones, more than humanity. More than their own history and blood.

Galactica-Cavil: We didn't want to be loved. We wanted to be treated fairly.

Caprica-Cavil: We wanted to be held to a bosom. To be petted and perfumed and told we were the princes of the universe.

Galactica-Cavil: Yes, well if the humans were gone-

Caprica-Cavil: Our parents would mourn them. They'd love them more anyway.

Galactica-Cavil: I'm going to see to it that you get boxed. And then I'm going to prepare to wipe out humanity once and for all.

Caprica-Cavil: The anticipation is very unpleasant.

Galactica-Cavil: Yes.

[Caprica-Cavil offers his hand, Galactica-Cavil looks at it and accepts it. Galactica-Cavil closes his eyes while Caprica-Cavil keeps looking. They are then airlocked.]

~From Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

And it's not just that they don't understand things like "Giving a shit about other people" or "Reverence for the Ancestors," they don't want to.

And no, despite these idiots' protestations of their alleged "Christianity" I think you'll find they don't believe in that either.

To These Fucking People, America very much is the Nation Of The Self.

Or perhaps more crudely, Asshole Nation?

They beat their meat to ideas about Southern "Gentlemen" who owned plantations or Wild West cowboys that have more to to with 1950s Western movies and assholes like John Wayne and Louis B. Mayer than with the actual realities of those places and times. The idea of repenting for that shit is utterly foreign to them (as is the idea of repenting for anything else.)

And they can't understand why everybody else doesn't think that way.

(The only reason these motherfuckers ever promoted "Individual Rights" was to use them as a club to beat on everybody's rights. The truth is they want easily-revocable privileges, not God-given Rights.)

Well, among other things, if we all thought like they did, we wouldn't have much of a civilization, would we?

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Слава Україна!

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

Six

Put on my blue suede shoes
And I boarded the plane
Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues
In the middle of the pouring rain
W.C. Handy, won't you look down over me?
Yeah, I got a first class ticket
But I'm as blue as a boy can be.

Then I'm walking in Memphis
Was walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale
Walking in Memphis
But do I really feel the way I feel?
Saw the ghost of Elvis
On Union Avenue
Followed him up to the gates of Graceland
Then I watched him walk right through
Now security they did not see him
They just hovered 'round his tomb
But there's a pretty little thing
Waiting for the King
Down in the Jungle Room
When I was walking in Memphis
I was walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale
Walking in Memphis
But do I really feel the way I feel?
They've got catfish on the table
They've got gospel in the air
And Reverend Green be glad to see you
When you haven't got a prayer
But, boy, you've got a prayer in Memphis.

Now Muriel plays piano
Every Friday at the Hollywood
And they brought me down to see her
And they asked me if I would
Do a little number
And I sang with all my might
She said
"Tell me are you a Christian child?"
And I said "Ma'am, I am tonight"

~Marc Cohn, Walking In Memphis.

The (New) Golden Calf (American Revelation XXII, Six.)

And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.

And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.

And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the Lord.

And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:

They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people:

Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.

And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?

Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.

Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swears by thine own self, and said unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.

And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written.

And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.

And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.

And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear.

And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.

And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and straw it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.

And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?

And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knows the people, that they are set on mischief.

For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.

And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:)

Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the Lord's side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.

And he said unto them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.

And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.

For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day.

And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the Lord; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.

And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.

Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.

And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.

Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them.

And the Lord plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.

~Exodus 32, KJV.

I saw this overnight, a bunch of "Pastors" blessed a gold statue of Trump at Mar-A-Lago, and apparently they were surprised when they got pushback and accusations of idolatry.

Fucking Duh.

Well I guess that puts the threat of a Hantavirus outbreak in a different light, now doesn't it, since in Exodus 32 God punished the Israelites with a plague for worshiping the Golden Calf. Apparently, history has the potential to repeat itself here, clearly God's Wrath is locked and loaded, and it's not because of the Gay people or the Liberals or any People of Color (well, except for Pastor Mark Burns but most Black folks haven't claimed him for a minute. I used to watch his ass get chewed out on the regular on Roland Martin when my roommate watched that guy) I believe there's a time to say these people mocking the Lord is intentional, and I believe we passed that point a long time ago. Nobody acts more like they know there is no God, that the Bible is lies and they know they won't be judged than the fucking Evangelical Christians and fucking Prosperity Gospel liars do.

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.

Like I keep saying, I can't even talk like these people talk anymore. I cannot imagine doing this without cringing expecting lightning bolts of God's wrath out of a clear blue sky. If you don't understand why that is, too bad. I'm not going to explain it to you, you figure it out.

The lack of people figuring it out, or having to, is exactly why this kind of shit keeps happening.

Put on my blue suede shoes
And I boarded the plane
Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues
In the middle of the pouring rain
W.C. Handy, won't you look down over me?
Yeah, I got a first class ticket
But I'm as blue as a boy can be.

Then I'm walking in Memphis
Was walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale
Walking in Memphis
But do I really feel the way I feel?
Saw the ghost of Elvis
On Union Avenue
Followed him up to the gates of Graceland
Then I watched him walk right through
Now security they did not see him
They just hovered 'round his tomb
But there's a pretty little thing
Waiting for the King
Down in the Jungle Room
When I was walking in Memphis
I was walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale
Walking in Memphis
But do I really feel the way I feel?
They've got catfish on the table
They've got gospel in the air
And Reverend Green be glad to see you
When you haven't got a prayer
But, boy, you've got a prayer in Memphis.

Now Muriel plays piano
Every Friday at the Hollywood
And they brought me down to see her
And they asked me if I would
Do a little number
And I sang with all my might
She said
"Tell me are you a Christian child?"
And I said "Ma'am, I am tonight"

~Marc Cohn, Walking In Memphis.

And I'll tell you once, twice, a thousand times over if need be, These Fucking People, these Republicans, a hell of a lot of them racist former Southern Democrats or the sons and daughters thereof, are bringing God's Wrath on this country. Among other things, the vast majority of the Black people they want to disenfranchise and persecute are Christians.

And these politicians don't care.

And these MAGA "Christians" are building Golden Idols of TRUMP.

Yet, as bad as that kind of shit is, there's always worse waiting in the wings.

Remember that.

Because there's some of these monsters that have been making an idol of their hate for generations, In my personal case I've been observing this for at least a full generation. And it's the same fucking people, every time.

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; ~Exodus 20:2-5

And just like the Tea Party and MAGA rose up and got power by running out everybody that was in the Republican Party before them, so too will the "Christian Nationalists" and I guarantee you when that becomes an obvious problem there'll be a push to humanize Trump just like there was for Bush 43 in 2017. Yes, I know, I was there.

Keep in mind Trump already is at Bush 43 End-of-term numbers. Public opinion gets worse and these fucking people's behavior gets more egregious, we may well have a revolution on our hands before November.

Don't doubt that the "Christian Nationalists" would look to take advantage of that. There's apparently a lot of these assholes in Indiana, which strikes me, right upstairs in Michigan, as a real potential threat.

These Fucking People know the rest of us are getting tired of this bullshit, they know, THEY KNOW it's not gonna last, it can't, it's not sustainable.

They know if they keep this up America is going to come flying apart just from people having enough of this mess, they don't care.

Hell, some of them are banking on it.

They want a taste of that Antichrist life.

And no, they don't give a good goddamn about the consequences, spiritual or otherwise.

Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?
Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
~Daniel 3:14-18

So guess what? The rest of us are gonna have to, and do something about it.

It's going to come down to a fight.

Слава Україна!

[Cassian plays Nemik's audio diary]

Karis Nemik: There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy. Remember this. Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they've already enlisted in the cause. Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. And then remember this. The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empire's authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege. Remember this. Try. ~From the Star Wars series Andor, S1.E12 "Rix Road."

Five

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

Swallowing Camels (American Revelation XXII, Five.)

Then spoke Jesus 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 pretense 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.

Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!

Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold?

And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever swears by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.

Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift?

Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, swears by it, and by all things thereon.

And whoso shall swear by the temple, swears by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.

And he that shall swear by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him that sit thereon.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.

Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous,

And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.

Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.

Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

~Matthew 23:1-33

I saw this several days ago. I've been intending to write about it.

"Abolish Abortion, Ban All Porn, Put Jesus First."

But then, I've been busy.

My partner got a house, well, mobile home, but to us that's still a house.

So starting a week ago I was organizing and packing stuff and literally stuffing the car. Moving heavy book-boxes while mumbling "I love you, honey." I took the stuff down on Tuesday 'cause that's when we were both gonna have the time and she'd had to work that day and the day after. I had to work Monday night myself. I did, then came home, got three hours of sleep and got on the road.

I went my normal way down, to Mount Pleasant where we used to live and both worked at the casino, so I could pay my car insurance and add full coverage to her car. She lives out in the country again and is terrified of hitting a deer. So I told her I'd do it. Then I headed across to where she's at now, not as far as she was before, though, and it's an area I know for the most part but where she lives wasn't one of those places.

So anyway when I got closer to her new place I had to use Google Maps and on literally the last turn Google Maps did me dirty, not telling me to turn until I was half a car-length past it.

There was a tan Pontiac behind me, and I thought it might be my partner so I'm like "Please let that not be her, please let that not be her" ad infinitum. I let the car turn and then backed up and turned myself, of course Google sent me around the loop even though I could see where that car had parked.

It was her.

I got out, went and knocked on the door, it opened and I'm immediately greeted with "ARE YOU THE FUCKING DUMBASS THAT WAS STOPPED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD?!?!"

I look at my shoes "Yes, honey."

"GET YOUR ASS IN HERE, I WANNA GET MY STUFF!"

So I go in, she smiled "I'd tell you to pull up a chair but there aren't any, I don't get most of my furniture until tomorrow." I went to use the bathroom and by the time I got back out there she and the kiddo, who I hadn't seen before, had already started unloading the car. When they got the stuff in, they started unpacking with a fury. 

My partner was literally weeping tears of joy unpacking her books including her personal Bible and Vet Tech textbooks. The kiddo, happily taking her pick of other stuff that I brought and the Monsters and snacks I'd packed.

We hung out for a few hours, she showed me around the house and we went into town and went to Walmart and the grocery store and the tobacco shop. After that, just a quick embrace and a kiss and I told her it was only right to leave her to her space for a bit before she had to go to bed.

You can take a lot of things away from a man. Cigarettes, the gym. You can take his freedom, his legs, but not his feelings. Not his feelings. A man loves a woman. Don't matter what kind of man he is, if he loves her, he wants her. He wants her body. He wants her to want his. So you say to him, "you can never make love again. You will never touch her in that way again. This is the last time. The last time. Forever." If that's not cruel and unusual punishment, I don't know what is. ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO series Oz, S1.E2 "Visits, Conjugal and otherwise."

Then I got on the road headed home. This trip was about her, getting her some stuff and getting her needs met, we can have fun later when she doesn't have to get a house set up while also working. It was good to see them, good to see them happy.

I know a lot of these Republicans will never appreciate or understand the simple joy of seeing a book girl unpacking her books.

And it pisses me off. It pisses me off that these assholes keep making life harder for people like us.

I mean, what's the damn point of having a family, of having partner, if you don't have TIME to spend with them? 

Isn't that WHY people do this??

She got the rest of her furniture yesterday and was so tired she overslept by an hour this morning.

We ain't your slaves, Republicans.

For Fuck's Sake, I have a partner specifically BECAUSE I love her and enjoy hanging out with her, we've known each other for 20 years, dated 3 times and our days of sexual athleticism are long past. Companionship is the damned point.

I contribute A LOT to my partner and the kiddo because I can and because I want to, because she shouldn't have to work as hard as she DOES. Hell, I've already got my Amazon cart full of stuff for them for next week.

Anyway...

"Abolish Abortion, Ban All Porn, Put Jesus First."

How does any of that crap help somebody like me or my partner??

We're both already Christians. Hell, our early experiences of and with each other were heavily inflected by that mutual church background.

I don't have to bother with porn, I have her. Or at least I do when she feels like it. I already know from back in the day that she likes a lot of the same stuff I like because she's bisexual and we have similar tastes. She is who she is, a delightfully and wonderfully made Creation of God...and that includes her sexuality.

And as for "Putting Jesus First??"

I have a feeling we already do that more than These Fucking People do.

Of course we're not their kind, obviously.

We're Christians who believe in things like democracy and freedom and science. We both have a conservative background that reflects not what that crap has become...but what we were taught when we were young.

I'm entirely not gonna lie, I haven't been Evangelized by some random Evangelical since the spring of 2017, they're always talking about Trump now.

There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft....When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. ~Baba, from The Kite Runner.

Because they have killed the Prophets and replaced them with Trump.

You can hate abortion or porn or claim Christ all you want. If you worship Devils and Idols of Gold, much less immoral Men, you're already going to Hell.

You either love your neighbor, your family members (biological and chosen alike) or you can love this crap ideology...and the Antichrist that is Donald Trump. I've seen too many people choose Trump over their own blood kin. Yes, even in this situation.

If you are a Christian, you either follow the risen Lord, Jesus Christ, or you don't.

If you are an American, you either believe in freedom or you don't.

And either you're willing to fight for it, or you aren't.

But first? Exist. Resist. Take time to care for your freaking self and those you love because at the end of the day that's what really matters. At the end of Life nobody's gonna be judged for how much money they has in they bank account.

But Jesus, He gonna ask the Least Of These in your life, the people you ain't get no benefit from treating right, and what you done.

Even if I wasn't a Believer, a former conservative who remembers what I was taught, or a veteran who swore to protect the Constitution we already have or a man steeped in the culture these motherfuckers want to overthrow? I love my Partner and our daughter, and neither of them deserves, needs or profits by this bullshit. If I had nothing else to choose, I choose them over any political ideology or wealth or any other goddamned thing.

And I will fight for them and their right to live unmolested by these assholes.

I'm tired of this ridiculous shit.

These fucking people would rather swallow Camels than leave other people the fuck alone.

This is going to come down to a fight.

It's really that simple.

Слава Україна!

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

Four

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

For The Empire II (American Revelation XXII, Four.)

"The Democrats start screaming, 'affordability, affordability' …. They've got one good line of bullshit." ~Donald Trump

...

[The Mandalorian and Cara Dune board an Imperial Shuttle carrying Dr. Pershing]

Shuttle Pilot: Easy, pal. Okay? I’m not with him. We can work something out - [co-pilot kills him]

Cara Dune: Drop your weapon.

Shuttle Co-Pilot: [holds Dr Pershing hostage] No. No, you listen to me. This is a top-tier target of the New Republic. This is a clone engineer. And if they find out that he’s dead because of you, you’re gonna wish you never left Alderaan. [notices Dune's face] I saw the tear. You wanna know what else I saw? I saw your planet destroyed. I was on the Death Star.

Dune: Which one?

Shuttle Co-Pilot: You think you’re funny? Do you know how many millions were killed on those bases?

Dune: Drop your blaster.

Shuttle Co-Pilot: As the galaxy cheered?

Dune: [coldly] Last chance.

Shuttle Co-Pilot: Destroying your planet was a small price to pay to rid the galaxy of terrorism. [Dune shoots him in the face. Dr. Pershing reels from the close hit, clutching at his ear]

~The Mandalorian, Episode 2, Chapter Eight, "The Rescue."

...

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

...

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

...

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)

I saw this yesterday.

Endless cookie-cutter shit-quality subdivisions going up in Florida, looking like nothing so much as an Imperial base straight out of Star Wars in its boring-ass overpriced uniformity.

A friend of mine from my old job sent me a picture of the gas station sign by his house to let me know that gas is up to $5 a gallon down there. Oh, and I have to go down there this week cuz my partner is finally getting a house and she needs some of her stuff. So yeah, the affordability of things very much is on my mind, because I'm not some rich Republican.

And if you ever wanna live in a country, or a world, where it's not constantly escalating costs for the average person, viciousness towards the undeserving, and maybe if you're rich enough maybe you get to live in some housing project that looks like it was conjured up from Dedra Meero's view of the universe, where nobody talks to each other and everything smells like dog piss...it's going to come down to a fight.

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

'Cause if you think These Fucking People are gonna go quietly in January when the electorate hands them their balls in a jar come November, you have another thing coming. 

They aren't betting on America surviving as a unified country or culture, they wanna turn Florida into Coruscant under Palpatine but with warmer weather and they're betting that the parts of America they aren't able to seize not to mention the rest of the world will be so pissed off at them, that they'll be able to declare a permanent state of siege and hammer the culture and religion and whatever else of their new territory into whatever dystopian shape they like. 

And they think the Trump Cult will get them there. No, They don't seem to realize that shit is shrinking.

It won't, and they'll get a lot less than they think, it'll be more Temu North Korea with a side of Epstein Island than the First Galactic Empire, but they don't care. 

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.

The whole fake-ass "Grievance" that these motherfuckers have is that Other People Exist. Billionaires, Republican Party Members, etc. long for a world where they don't have to look at anybody else ever again, least of all the Old White Racists and Poor White Trash they need to vote for them right now.

And, outside of their Ultimate Gated Community, their Galt's Gulch for the Silicon Valley Set, nobody is gonna be more left out in the cold than these idiots who've signed onto the absolutely Antichrist notion that Trump is God. Don't think they won't start with putting a monetary value on citizenship in whatever Fruitless Banana Republic they try to make up. 

No, you can't afford it.

These motherfuckers don't give a good goddamn if they turn the South into a Bosnia-like warzone because Black people (among others) ain't going back.

Not so long as closet-case plagiarists like Benny Johnson can play hide the sausage in the men's room at CPAC, wherever they end up having that bullshit in the ruins.

No, I can't even talk the way these people talk anymore.

Or maybe I just don't want to.

Like what the fuck good is having political power if nothing fucking means anything anymore and you're just ruling over the slimy mudhole where you landed on your ass like Yertle The Turtle in that old Dr. Seuss book.

Seems like it'd just be, I don't know, easier to be who you are, accept yourself and try to live peaceably with other people. There's no reason you can't do that and still be conservative.

Yes, I realize that's not the world these ass-clowns want to live in and that conservative is not exactly what they even want to be.

[Caprica-Cavil and Galactica-Cavil are in an airlock, about to be executed]

Caprica-Cavil: Is there a Resurrection Ship within range?

Galactica-Cavil: Yes, brother. But first we're gonna die in a vacuum.

Caprica-Cavil: There's a 170 foot long launch tube in front of us. We might die of our injuries before we get to the vacuum.

Galactica-Cavil: I don't like you.

Caprica-Cavil: I understand that.

Galactica-Cavil: Do you really believe it was a mistake to attack the humans?

Caprica-Cavil: Rather intensely, yes.

Galactica-Cavil: You know that when we download amongst the others your strange ideas will be shouted down.

Caprica-Cavil: Ideas always seem strange until you try them on, brother. We had a temper-tantrum in the form of a cataclysm because we wanted them to treasure us, the Ones, more than humanity. More than their own history and blood.

Galactica-Cavil: We didn't want to be loved. We wanted to be treated fairly.

Caprica-Cavil: We wanted to be held to a bosom. To be petted and perfumed and told we were the princes of the universe.

Galactica-Cavil: Yes, well if the humans were gone-

Caprica-Cavil: Our parents would mourn them. They'd love them more anyway.

Galactica-Cavil: I'm going to see to it that you get boxed. And then I'm going to prepare to wipe out humanity once and for all.

Caprica-Cavil: The anticipation is very unpleasant.

Galactica-Cavil: Yes.

[Caprica-Cavil offers his hand, Galactica-Cavil looks at it and accepts it. Galactica-Cavil closes his eyes while Caprica-Cavil keeps looking. They are then airlocked.]

~From Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

Not in any way where words have meaning, at least.

These people want to be endlessly told that they're the princes of the Universe and shit.

When I was a teenager, having those kind of shitty attitudes usually got me smacked right in the mouth.

I'm just sayin.' You wouldn't have no Joel Webbon now if his mama had whupped him for talking like that. Or at least, we wouldn't know who he was.

But then one gets the impression, from listening to those people talk, that they have never had to live in the same world as the rest of us nor ever had or been subject to what I call "Regular People Morality."

You know, stuff like "Don't Take Other People's Stuff" or "Leave Other People Alone" or "Mind Your Own Business" or ever understood or had to understand something as simple as a day's hard work or that other people work for the things they have, let alone that previous generations fought for the rights and societal benefits that far too many people take for granted now.

They don't see God and The Devil or Good And Evil, they just see Power, and they think they can treat with demons and then claim Christ and get Forgiveness, also.

They don't understand that the values we claim define who we are and that other people can see that shit (or not) in how we conduct ourselves. 

The modern American "Conservative" movement is such a masterclass in self-deception as to make the old-school Soviet Union look like absolute pikers.

But when they figure out that what they've been doing and wanted to do all along is trying to set themselves up a situation where they can Sin without consequence?? 

Oh yes, they will.

And they won't even enjoy it, because they see Sin the way their grandparents saw shitty 1950's Calvinism or their parents saw the vapid Pentecostal narcissism of the 1990's and early Aughts, as bland religious duty. They figure they have to do this, or they're Going To Hell. Not that there's much difference between Hell and their idea of Heaven. They have to serve the Antichrist, or they won't get the End Times that they worship. They want Revelation so bad, they've decided to be the Bad Guys in their own story. All they want to do is inflict the Torments of Revelation on the rest of us.

They don't care if God's judgment rains down on America, because their bullshit beliefs about dominance and submission are more important to them.

I've read the Book.

The Joke's on them, they're already going to Hell anyway.

As for the rest of you?

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

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

Слава Україна!

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.

And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.

And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:

And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;

And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casts her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.

And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;

And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

~Revelation 6, KJV.

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.