Darkness And Not Light (What If God Was... Prequel.)

Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,

Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name:

That strengthens the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.

They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.

Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.

For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.

Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.

Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.

Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skillful of lamentation to wailing.

And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the Lord.

Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. 

Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.

Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.

Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.

But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. ~Amos 5:7-26

...

[Mando visits the Armorer at the Mandalorian enclave on Nevarro, bringing the camtono of Beskar bars he got as bounty from The Client]

Armorer: [looks at Beskar bars as the other Mandalorians witness] This amount can be shaped in many ways.

The Mandalorian AKA Mando: My armor has lost its integrity. I may need to begin again.

Armorer: Indeed. I can form a full cuirass. This would be in order for your station.

Mando: That would be a great honor.

Armorer: I must warn you, it will draw many eyes.

Paz Vizsla: [grabs one Beskar bar and snorts at seeing the Imperial logo] These were cast in an Imperial smelter. These are the spoils of the Great Purge. The reason we live hidden like sandrats. [tosses the bar back on the table]

Armorer: Our secrecy is our survival. Our survival is our strength.

Vizsla: Our strength was once in our numbers. Now we live in the shadows and only come above ground one at a time. Our world was shattered by the Empire with whom this coward shares tables. [reaches for Mando's helmet to remove it but they fight until they come to knifepoint]

Armorer: [stands up to stop the fight] The Empire is no longer, and the Beskar has returned. When one chooses to walk the Way of the Mandalore, you are both hunter and prey. How can one be a coward if one chooses this way of life? Have you ever removed your helmet?

Mando: No.

Armorer: Has it ever been removed by others?

Mando: Never.

Armorer: This is the Way.

Mandalorians: This is the Way. [Vizsla and Mando let off each other]

Vizsla: This is the Way.

Armorer: What caused this damage?

Mando: A Mudhorn.

Armorer: Then you have earned the Mudhorn as your signet. I shall craft it. [The Mandalorian and the Armorer sit back down]

Mando: I can't accept. It... wasn't a noble kill. I was... helped by an enemy.

Armorer: Why would an enemy help you in battle?

Mando: It... did not know it was my enemy.

Armorer: Since you forego a signet I shall use the excess to forge Whistling Birds.

Mando: Whistling Birds will do well. Reserve some for the Foundlings.

Armorer: As it should always be. The Foundlings are the future. This is the Way.

Mandalorians: This is the Way.

Mando: This is the Way.

~From the Star Wars series The Mandalorian, S1.E3 "The Sin."

I saw this last night.

I think it's safe to say that Antivaxxer horseshit has eaten the Republican Party.

And since of course they can't prove any of their bullshit to any kind of legal standard or anything that would hold up in court and they know it, they're trying to subject Dr. Fauci to "Trial by Fox News hit."

Incompetently.

Not that any of this shit will sway anybody who wasn't already going to vote Republican.

But, again...and I've said this before, the rest of us don't really exist to these motherfuckers. They'd rather we died.

The world that Republicans want is Darkness and not Light.

But I guarantee you when all that shit goes sideways (which they know it will) they're already winding up to try and blame everything on Trump.

And they regard the Constitution and everything else about America as she's currently constituted, and everyone who currently lives here who isn't them (i.e. Republican Party members in good standing) as an enemy,  an inconvenience or a potential slave on a good day.

Couple things; 

#1 That includes their own voters, who they fully intend to terrify into abject slavery and then use to fight the rest of us.

#2 These clearly haven't been good days. Everyone hates these people, and rightly so.

These fucking people have missed the entire damn point of America, and they wonder why nobody outside of White Republican Evangelicals (who don't ever seem to get the point of much of anything) is interested in their bullshit.

I don't preach a social Gospel I preach the Gospel, period. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is concerned for the whole person. When people were hungry, Jesus didn't say, "Now is that political or social?" He said, "I feed you." Because the good news to a hungry person is bread. ~Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

You'd think people who continually are attempting to try every goddamn thing in the "Court" of social media would realize they basically just got their asses kicked on social media by *Checks Notes* a lady who sings kids songs on YouTube for a living.

These fucking people seem to think you should have to be a rich White Evangelical Republican (or anything similar, but basically operationally a wealthy fascist) for your kids to grow up having had any kind of life.

I couldn't do that, and I used to be a Republican.

But then going about begrudging other people's right to exist while being a miserable bastard my own damn self never sounded like any fun to me, and yes there have always been some Republicans like that and I have known a few.

Now those fucking people have basically run everybody else out of "Conservatism" and the Republican Party, including pretty much anybody who knows anything.

And, as a result, we're getting "Government by Conspiracy Theory."

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. ~George Orwell, 1984.

Now, to add to what I said in my last post:

"What if Jesus was a poor sick kid, who had to be treated the right way, or He would have died before He was supposed to??"

Cuz at some point, yes, Jesus would've got sick.

And medicine requires doing things the right way, or someone can die.

Who would you trust to do right by that kid?

Miss Rachel or some doddering doofus of a Senator who (while being vaccinated his damn self) is trying to tell people that getting vaccinated causes some kind of "Injury" forsooth something something Gazpacho??

Republicans wanna go back to a time when if you were simply Ronaldo the peasant, son of Juan the serf living somewhere in Spain or whatever 600 years ago, if you got sick you probably just died.

Because nobody less than the period equivalent to somebody like Senator Ron Johnson had any kind of access to a doctor or regular health care to even start with.

These fucking people know a lot of their voter base has a raging case of Medieval Peasant Brain and they can't even imagine that anybody else would have anything different.

Let alone that we would protect ourselves.

But isn't protecting yourself...including from the government...a central point of being an American??

Especially *Checks Notes* a conservative (small "C" used there for a reason.)

I've got a family to think about, a partner and a kid, I have to be invested in the future.

My partner is a vet tech. Kid wants to be a a freaking doctor.

My Mom is retired and needs her social security.

None of us can afford to live according to this bullshit.

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. ~Luke 2:1-14

Republicans failed to turn COVID-19 into a biological weapon to kill everybody else in the world, now they're trying to both cause and weaponize the next such crisis.

And then they have the balls to wonder why the rest of the world isn't screaming their political and religious talking points back into their faces call-and-response style like Air Force recruits at formation on the second day of BMT??

Fuck these motherfuckers.

Sorry but back in the day when I was a Republican if you did something like snorted cocaine or heroin or anything like that off a toilet seat, you got fired, blackballed from public life, mocked by basically everybody, and very likely investigated and maybe even arrested.

You sure as hell got drug tested.

In 1986, 2006, hell, 2016 we'd have all been calling it ToiletGate.

I mean, sure, there have always been rich fucks on cocaine, heroin, etc. But it used to be you didn't want to get caught doing that shit, get caught with that shit, or ever, ever admit to doing it in public.

And by the way, church background here. In that context you did not ever want to get caught doing drugs back when I was coming up.

And that's in addition to the fact that I was taught a very facts-based view of health and medical stuff.

Now?? 

These fucking people who are all supposedly so Right and so Righteous are all on drugs and high all the time and everything is feelings and vibes and woo woo.

And they wanna call people like Miss Rachel the bad guys?

[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."

Well let me tell you something;

I live in a small city in northeast Michigan, two hours away from the nearest freeway or large city. There's like two Trump signs in my whole area that I still see up.

And all of the local Democrats in my town have "Abdul for Senate" signs in their yards.

There's one guy I've talked to that says he's gonna vote for Haley Stevens.

And you pretty much gotta go to the rich side of town, along the lake, to even see Republican campaign signs.

And I'm here to tell you, the way it looks like things are going in the war between Russia and Ukraine, when Russia loses and Putin meets whatever god-awful end he's going to at the hands of his own subjects, who's gonna fund Ron Johnson?

And who's gonna be the ones giving all these Antivaxxer shits money??

Funny how those of us who aren't Republicans anymore don't have that problem.

Funny how those of us who don't buy into or spread conspiracy theories haven't ended up beholden to foreign enemies.

And yet These Fucking People keep trying to declare those of us real Americans who are just trying to live and don't wanna put up with all this crazy bullshit to be the Enemy??

Fuck That.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

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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

Last Post

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

What If God Was... (Repent! Ten.)

[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."

...

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.)

...

I don't preach a social Gospel I preach the Gospel, period. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is concerned for the whole person. When people were hungry, Jesus didn't say, "Now is that political or social?" He said, "I feed you." Because the good news to a hungry person is bread. ~Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

What if Jesus was a Palestinian child??

'Cause ya know, I've read the Lord's Word and it says exactly that in each of the four Gospels.

Jesus was a Palestinian child.

Sit with that.

'Cause they won't.

And I feel like it needs to be said.

That is the entire fucking point.

Jesus wasn't a Prince born in a palace who preached conformity and tried to "save" some ideology or other from a position of power. 

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. ~Luke 2:1-14

He was a poor kid born in a stable who grew up to be a carpenter (which in the way of the time meant working as much or more with stone than wood) and itinerant Rabbi who preached a Message that was extremely dangerous to Power at the time, and they killed Him for it.

Jesus was not a White, weak, long-haired hippie-looking man.

He was a brown-skinned, rough, strong-armed Working Man who knew His Torah and preached about anything but a Gospel of quiet conformity to the demands of Empire.

The Empire of His day, Rome...well, Rome was and still is pretty much considered the prototype both in and out of Christian circles for a debased Godless world-conquering Empire that can control others, but not itself, that can govern far-away lands, but cannot get its people to govern themselves and their own behavior. 

And it did not and does not even want to.

It's easy to control people when they are sozzled on drunkenness and sexual excesses and fear the Sword of the State more than the Judgment of the Creator.

Jesus did not preach obedience to that crap and don't you dare forget that.

And I'll note that nobody is trying to nail Mark Driscoll to a stick. I think there's a reason for that.

But ya know, Miss Rachel is getting a lot of crap from "Conservatives" for pointing out things that should be perfectly obvious.

There's a reason for that, too.

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.

These fucking people been preaching the ideology of "Social" "Conservatism" (Which actually is neither if you really look at it. There's precedent, if you think about it too. Caesar Augustus was a social conservative (small "S" small "C" at that) and I don't think any of the Conservative Christian Republicans I grew up around would have claimed him as either, and my partner had a similar upbringing. But then that's why neither of us is MAGA now.

In their defense, I don't think the vast majority of those folks would claim MAGA or Trump or even want to, either. We had a fair number of idiots around back then that fit the type today, and my people didn't like those assholes.

But then most of those people had both the ability and the desire to read a history book and taught me to do the same. I literally know people who praised Jesus when Communism fell in 1989. Sure, there were people who were in denial about that, but they were considered kooks and losers and religious fanatics and the rest of us celebrated the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the revolutions of 1989 as the amazing events that they were.

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

Being a bigoted, fearful idiot didn't used to be a thing that people celebrated or that got you political power. Willful ignorance used to get you looked down upon and forcibly corrected to your face.

When I started my last job in 2003, working at the casino, if you did something stupid and got yelled at by a coworker for it, and you went to the Chef, their first impulse tended to be "Well, what did you do?" Followed by "Well, don't do that again." People both governing their own behavior and policing their own was expected and pretty much normal.

As I've said many times RE: Cops being called on kids and shit, when I was coming up, the cops were not needed because I feared my parents, and pretty much everybody in my neighborhood knew my parents.

The Human Resources-ization of everything, over-reliance on the government, and yes, even to a great extent "Political Correctness" not to mention moral relativism and situational ethics, all things at least once pitched as being well-intended, have really just created a lot more spaces for bad actors and deceivers to hide and manipulate. Yeah, a lot of the shit Liberals did has helped create this mess too, and don't you forget it.

I mean, I remember when "Do the crime, you do the time" was also normal and bipartisan. 

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. ~George Orwell, 1984.

Now? Mike Johnson openly fearmongers that if Democrats win in the fall, they're going to investigate everything, use the Power of the State to impose accountability and consequences on people currently doing illegal acts, etc. It's almost like the motherfucker knows Republicans are doing something wrong.

Sorry, bud, but "Right" and "Wrong" are not contingent on Political Power.

And I take These Fucking People's attitudes about that as yet more proof that No, they really do not believe in God.

Except, perhaps, as a rationalization.

And that, my friends, is exactly how you Go To Hell.

[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."

I was not taught that way, and you can like it or lump it.

Which is exactly why I'm making the point of calling out this bullshit in these people's supposed own language.

And you cannot make me believe this fucking garbage.

I'll die with a rifle in my hand fighting before it comes to that.

Some things are just wrong, period, and cloaking Wrong in fake "Conservatism" and a bunch of Fundamentalist talk does not make it Right.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

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When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”

Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”

The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, 28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?”

“If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”

Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?”

He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”

Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?”

He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?”

He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”

Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?”

He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”

When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.

~Genesis 18:16-33

Nine

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

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. ~Matthew 3:2

Bitch (Repent! Nine.)

Bitch, Herm, Maytag, Shim. Here in Oz, we call 'em "Prags". I don't know where it comes from, but you make a man your Prag, he's your Prag for life. It's like the old days when people didn't get divorced, the only way out of marriage is death. 'Til death, do us part. *Kiss* ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO Series Oz, S1.E2 "Visits, Conjugal and Otherwise."

...

[The Mandalorian, the Child, IG-11, Greef Karga, and Cara Dune enter the Mandalorian covert on Nevarro, but Mando stops at seeing a pile of Mandalorian armor pieces]

Cara Dune: We should go.

Mando: You go. Take the ship. I can't leave it this way. [to Greef] Did you know about this? Is this the work of your bounty hunters?

Greef Karga: No. When you left the system and took the prize, the fighting ended and the hunters just melted away. You know how it is. They're mercenaries. They're not zealots.

Mando: [confronts Greef] Did you do this? DID YOU?!

Karga: No!

Armorer: It was not his fault. We revealed ourselves. We knew what could happen if we left the covert. [puts a piece of armor from the pile onto a floating cart] The Imperials arrived shortly thereafter. This is what resulted.

Mando: Did any survive?

Armorer: I hope so. Some may have escaped off-world.

Mando: Come with us.

Armorer: No. I will not abandon this place until I have salvaged what remains [Goes to the forge, and the others see her melt down armor pieces] Show me the one whose safety deemed such destruction.

Mando: [IG-11 reveals the Child] This is the one.

Armorer: This is the one you hunted, then saved?

Mando: Yes. The one that saved me as well.

Armorer: From the Mud-horn?

Mando: Yes.

Armorer: It looks helpless.

Mando: It's injured, but it is not helpless. Its species can move objects with its mind.

Armorer: [keeps working] I know of such things. The songs of eons past tell of battles between Mandalore the Great and an order of sorcerers called "Jedi" that fought with such powers.

Mando: It is an enemy?

Armorer: No. It's kind were enemies, but this individual is not.

Mando: What is it?

Armorer: It is a foundling. By Creed, it is in your care.

Mando: You wish me to train this thing?

Armorer: It is too weak. It would die. You have no choice. You must reunite it with its own kind.

Mando: Where?

Armorer: This, you must determine.

Mando: You expect me to search the galaxy for the home of this creature and deliver it to a race of enemy sorcerers?

Armorer: This is the Way.

~From the Star Wars series The Mandalorian, S1.E8 "Redemption"

I saw this last night.

Andrew Tate, whining about being in prison, where he (Unlike almost everybody else in prison) is apparently still allowed unfettered access to social media, even if it's only for a few minutes a day. I mean, seriously, you can't Tweet from a random public-access computer without entering a code to authenticate on your phone, or at least you couldn't in 2023 when I left, so I know somebody somewhere is letting his ass have access to a Smartphone. Think about that, for a second.

Think about the shit These Fucking People are doing, out in the open.

I mean, I'm pretty sure if I posted on social media about abusing my romantic partner? Well, first off she'd hit me right back and then call the cops and still pull off her best "I'm just a girl" cry-cry energy when they got there, so there's that. I've seen her do this over much less. Hell, she's gotten me with it. My partner is a bitch and I love her for it.So yeah, It'd very quickly end up as evidence in a criminal case and I'd be rather less privileged than Andrew Tate is in jail.

But my partner is a rather different sort of "Bitch" than people like Andrew Tate, and not the kind of person to be or want to be anyone's bitch.

From daydreams on the road there was no waking. He plodded on. He could remember everything of her save her scent. Seated in a theatre with her beside him leaning forward listening to the music. Gold scrollwork and sconces and the tall columnar folds of the drapes at either side of the stage. She held his hand in her lap and he could feel the tops of her stockings through the thin stuff of her summer dress. Freeze this frame. Now call down your dark and your cold and be damned. ~From Cormac McCarthy's The Road (Book.)

The life, hell, the world these fucking people want is best described as nasty, brutish and short.

I don't want people like my partner or the kiddo to have to live in that shit.

And then These Fucking People have the balls to be surprised that only White Evangelical Republicans continue to support this bullshit in significant numbers??

(And there's enough of them to pretty much assure that 30% of the country still supports Trump. I want you to stop and think about that for a second. And those that remain are getting worse.)

What's in it for anybody else, at this point??

Fuck, what the fuck is in it for the White Evangelical Republicans??

Not only Trump but a boatload of his enablers pretty much (and pretty openly) want everybody else to have to be their bitches and even from that, they want to be able to discard you at will.

(As Andrew Tate is currently finding out.)

The thing that scares me is 34% of America seems to want this, yes, use and discard me, Daddy.

It's a vast, dangerous and scary world out there, and it's even more so if you're stupid, especially if you're stupid on purpose either out of desire to manipulate others, malice, or some kind of bullshit weaponized incompetence.

And the bubbles of protection that people like Andrew Tate, Donald Trump and all the hyper-Calvinist assholes that people like Tia Levings write about would not...could not...exist without the enabling, support and/or willful ignorance of others.

Even in prison. Hell, especially in those kind of environments.

And eventually, especially in any situation where the average person gets any kind of a say or there's any kind of collapse of social systems, that carefully-constructed bubble can pop.

These fucking people have pretty much set it up so it's either going to be one or the other.

[After Rick has beaten down Merle]

Merle Dixon: Who the hell are you, man?!

Rick Grimes: Officer Friendly. Look here, Merle. Things are different now. There are no n****rs anymore. No dumb-as-shit, inbred white-trash fools either. Only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart.

Merle Dixon: Screw you, man.

Rick Grimes: I can see you make a habit of missing the point.

Merle Dixon: Yeah? Well, screw you twice.

Rick Grimes: Ought to be more polite to a man with a gun. [cocks gun] Only common sense.

Merle Dixon: You wouldn't. You're a cop.

Rick Grimes: All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anybody that gets in the way of that is gonna lose. I'll give you a moment to think about that.

~From The Walking Dead, S1.E2 "Guts."

Fuck up enough, and yes, eventually the whole Universe is out to get you.

Andrew Tate is in the Secure Housing Unit (SHU) because, since he's a famous person who's publicly known to have done some wrong shit, Corrections Officers know they couldn't protect him from the regular-people regular prison population and its regular-people morals (Such as they exist in prison.) 

It's a whole vast and complicated universe out there. Strip out the enablers of sexual assault and worse that currently populate our government, the real world comes surging in on these assholes.

And they know it.

And they know, trust me they KNOW that with only White Evangelical Republicans still supporting them (and I suppose you could throw in the Israeli government at this point but it has the same basic problem) they're going down, and probably sooner and not later.

Short of successfully breaking off a piece of America for themselves, and populating it exclusively with White Evangelicals, they're screwed (and that carries it's own Mega-Fuck-Ton of risk.)

China won't help. Hell, China is profiting from the fact that Republicans won't take the shovel away from Trump at this point, but Trump is too erratic and threatens the arrangements China has (in reality) spent about 25 years building, although he probably (previously, anyway) accelerated the process for them by about 50 years. 

Russia can't help, they're not in a position to fuel their own civilian economy right now and supporting their army in the field is very, very shortly going to be downstream of that.

The Middle East? Trump lit that shit on fire. I doubt the Emirs and Sheiks and shit would give his ass the time of day if shit goes down.

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

Hell, Tim Pool is claiming to have switched sides on the whole Ukraine thing.

If Putin goes down, Trump goes down. 

You watch and see if he doesn't.

(I rather suspect Putin has build this in to any scenario in which he falls, that there will be some kind of automatic and likely electronic release of data to betray all his enablers who were supposed to keep this from happening, and they all probably know this.)

Actually, I suspect Orban going down was the first domino in that chain to fall. And a lot of these enablers and internet CHUDs are just mercenary ghouls. As are a lot of the billionaires, a lot of whom claimed to be liberals 10-15 years ago.

Sure, we were unprepared, our tools, our training, everything I just talked about, all one class-A, gold-standard clusterfuck, but the weapon that really failed wasn’t something that rolled off an assembly line. It’s as old as…I don’t know, I guess as old as war. It’s fear, dude, just fear and you don’t have to be Sun freaking Tzu to know that real fighting isn’t about killing or even hurting the other guy, it’s about scaring him enough to call it a day... “Shock and Awe”? Perfect name, “Shock and Awe”! But what if the enemy can’t be shocked and awed? Not just won’t, but biologically can’t! That’s what happened that day outside New York City, that’s the failure that almost lost us the whole damn war. The fact that we couldn’t shock and awe Zack boomeranged right back in our faces and actually allowed Zack to shock and awe us! They’re not afraid! No matter what we do, no matter how many we kill, they will never, ever be afraid! ~Todd Waino, World War Z (Novel by Max Brooks)

If this goes how I think it's gonna go, the shoe is pretty soon gonna be on the other foot for these motherfuckers.

It's like the Irish guy in Titanic said, go the same way as the rats are going.

Hell if this keeps up, Chuck Schumer or Hakeem Jeffries might have to actually do something.

People are tired of all the crap.

I went out to my Mom's house this week, and along the one stretch where all the Trump signs used to be there's only one left, and it's kind of hidden.

Stuff like that says more to me than any polling that anybody digs up. Around here even most of the MAGA's are trying to hide being or having been MAGA. I live in Northern Michigan.

The fact that these fuckers are trying to dig up using "Communism" as a slur/smear also tells me things must be pretty bad for them.

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

Communism as a threat doesn't (and rightly shouldn't) have any meaning to anybody any younger than I am.

Judgment is coming, and they know it, or they wouldn't be acting like this.

Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

You either believe in freedom or you don't, and you're either willing to fight for it or you're not.

The sad part here is all anybody has to do is not give up and be somebody's bitch, and that's too much work for a third of America.

Think about that, too.

Слава Україна!

When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”

Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”

The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, 28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?”

“If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”

Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?”

He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”

Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?”

He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?”

He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”

Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?”

He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”

When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.

~Genesis 18:16-33

Eight

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. ~George Orwell, 1984.

And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept...for there were no more worlds to conquer. Benefits of a classical education. ~Hans Gruber, from the film Die Hard.