Wine Of The Wrath Of God (American Revelation, Explained, Twelve.)

And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.

And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:

And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.

These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes. These were redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb.

And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.

And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,

Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

And the smoke of their torment ascends up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receives the mark of his name.

Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.

And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.

And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.

And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.

And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.

And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.

And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.

And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. ~Revelation 14, King James Version

Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and the overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land, the House of Abraham, Muhammad, and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors...

You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.

During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug) -- while praying to the same God -- with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the "white" Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana. We were truly all the same (brothers) -- because their belief in one God had removed the "white" from their minds, the 'white' from their behavior, and the 'white' from their attitude. I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man -- and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their "differences" in color.

With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called "Christian" white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem. Perhaps it could be in time to save America from imminent disaster -- the same destruction brought upon Germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves.

They asked me what about the Hajj had impressed me the most. . . . I said, "The brotherhood! The people of all races, color, from all over the world coming together as one! It has proved to me the power of the One God. . . . All ate as one, and slept as one. Everything about the pilgrimage atmosphere accented the Oneness of Man under One God. 

~Malcolm X, Letter following the Hajj.

I saw this yesterday.

Some idiot Republican made a meme celebrating the effective disestablishment of USAID.

And they used the meme of those dancing pallbearers from Ghana that was popular way back in 2017 to do it.

For the record, Ghana is a very Christian country, one that's in comparatively good shape for that part of the world, and it's a very religious country where the majority of the population is Christian, and most of the rest is Muslim. The same energy that made these guys from Ghana do what they do flows through African American Christians in the South, particularly around New Orleans and those kind of places. 

Oh when the Saints, oh when the Saints, oh when the Saints come marching in...

It's not just an idle line from a meaningless song. These fucking people are basically disrespecting Christianity and mocking the Lord, on top of their normal abominable behavior, and don't you forget it.

And yet these fucking idiots have the nerve to accuse others of hating Christians, basically for no better reason than those people *Exist* and cannot be forced to become bitter-ass White Republicans talking only of the glories of *Checks Notes* Donald Trump.

You want to know why, fundamentally, I think this whole mess will end violently...and much sooner than in 2029??

I think that because they want it to. 

These fucking people want a fight...because they somehow think they have all the guns (which they emphatically do not) and they think they'll win by the strength of their White Conservative Purity...which by the way has fuck all to do with Christianity at this point.

(Or, failing that, that they can somehow make things so bad that Republican Jesus will come and Save them-and only them. And that they would not get punished for this.)

And then they think they'll spend Eternity in Peace and Blessedness with Donald Trump. Goddamn, talk about how even if you win, you really lose.

And that's basically why these motherfuckers are acting like such priggish assholes and basically daring somebody to punch them in the face, so they can claim "Persecution" or some shit.

And they don't give a damn if it's *Does Double Take* Erick Erickson that does it.

'Cause right now, apparently if you don't have Donald Trump's Wang jammed so far up your ass that he's urinating out of your mouth, you're not a real "Conservative."

Note: I used to be a conservative, that's not what conservatism is.

And Erick, Son of Erick, got himself voted off the island a long time ago, along with anybody who had any morals and political or religious beliefs that were not somehow relative to Orange Caligula.

If this seems nonsensical to you, well, that's the state of things.

Under the radar, it's been that way for a very long time.

And I'm here to tell you, as a former Conservative Christian moderate Republican Air Force Veteran, that the level of woo woo bullshit driving this whole mess has only gotten worse since I got out, a little at a time, back in the Aughts.

In point of fact, they've basically kicked Jesus Christ out of His own End Times narrative and replaced Him with Antivaxxer Woo, Donald Trump, and Racism, all of it slathered over with an excessive, gaudy coating of fake American nationalism and Trump's ubiquitous spray-on gold bullshit...all that while they openly destroy America, it's standing in the world, and its own state capacity.

Like, if Trump wanted a fascist dictatorship, this is the wrong way to go about it. Those things require more State capacity and power, not less. Don't get me wrong, it's what they think they're trying to do...while outsourcing all the real work to El Salvador.

None of this even works that way. That simply isn't how you do this.

Based on my observations over the last decade or so, these idiots don't just think Donald Trump is America, they think he's God.

This is going to end badly, not just, but mostly for this fucking cult.

They don't understand anything, least of all themselves.

And all that this tariff bullshit is going to do is (further) impoverish MAGA and Red States in particular, I wonder if these poor redneck assholes will notice when all their little creature comforts and distractions start getting priced out of their reach??

I mean, for the record a pack of Marlboro Reds is already over ten bucks, and most of our tobacco is grown in the South (and yes, the price has gone up since November) so you'd think that would be a thing people would see.

But I'm here to tell you, one hell of a lot of them don't.

A fair number of these fucking people are blinded by the same fart-huffing politics-as-sport-ball bullshit that'd lead people from Alabama to think a Football coach would be a good Senator.

Most of the rest are just stupid or so hopped up on political partisanship that they'd vote for the Devil if he ran as a Republican...or both. Yeah, think about that for a second.

And these fucking people hate anybody they imagine is on whatever real or imagined "Other Team" which is starting to include most of the rest of the world and even a plurality of MAGA itself as those fucking people start to realize they're losing out too.

A lot of Republicans, and I use that word deliberately here, don't care if they lose. 

They just want somebody else to lose worse.

I'm here to tell you, just like a lot of Tea Party people were horrified and turned against Trump once MAGA got going, there's going to be more levels of this and MAGA will end up looking like moderates if not fucking voting for the other team come the next time there's an election where they live.

But for a lot of These Fucking People it's a combination of narcissism, nihilism, and bored rich-kid self-destruction as a political philosophy. Throw in a hundred-some years of Capitalism and Movement Conservatism being taught AS Christianity and on top of that, These Fucking People being told that they were alone in a lost and dying world and everyone but them was going to Hell, just in case you wonder how Republicans got so fucked in the head.

Basically the only things these fuckers still believe in are their own greed, hate and rage, and that somehow things should be as shitty as possible so they can get some kind of "reward" in the afterlife and justify their own selfishness and stupidity in this one.

That's their religion, basically, Trump is just a tacky gold add-on. Some of them were always like this.

They simply don't care if they drink the Wine of the Wrath of God.

More to the point, what they actually think is that if they can make you suffer by them drinking it, they should guzzle that shit like Bud Light.

They don't care if they got to Hell, just so they think they'll have company.

And I'm warning you, again, that it's probably going to come down to a fight to get rid of these assholes.

Prepare yourself.

Soon.

Слава Україна!

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

Eleven

And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sits upon many waters:

With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Harlots And Abominations Of The Earth.

And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carries her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.

The beast that thou saw was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sits.

And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.

And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goes into perdition.

And the ten horns which thou saw are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.

These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

And he saith unto me, The waters which thou saw, where the whore sits, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

And the ten horns which thou saw upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.

For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou saw is that great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth. ~Revelation 17, King James Version.

Reading Romans on the ice (American Revelation, Explained, Eleven.)

 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,

(Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)

Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;

And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:

Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ:

To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;

Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.

For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established;

That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.

I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.

So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves:

Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,

Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

Without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. ~Romans 1 (King James Version.)

...

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

I think it needs to be said, again, that I spent more than half my life as a conservative (small "c" for a reason) Christian, and a Republican.

I never, ever in my life would have thought that the totality of Romans 1 would apply to the Republican Party, but here we are. 

And for the record, there's nothing wrong with being gay, but if you're a gay Republican and so burning with self-hatred that you want to inflict misery on other LGBT people, there is in fact, a lot wrong with that. More to the point, it's 2025, there is no damned reason even a gay Republican shouldn't be out and proud and stand up for themselves and their own people.

But it's this idea that you have to be a Republican first, above all things, that strikes me as the basest idolatry imaginable, and that somehow the Republican Party stands apart from history and reality as if The Party itself was above even God?? It's not even ideology, it's a freaking teenage jerkoff fantasy by some kid who read Atlas Shrugged and thought Ayn Rand was onto something because she made that little shit feel justified in his intense selfishness.

And remember, Ayn Rand was an Atheist who believed in a godless world where Man's self-satisfaction was somehow the moral purpose of his life.

This crap has always disgusted me and I say that as a former Republican.

America is not "Handcuffed by history." No, history is wearing a Dominatrix getup and leading America around on a leash, because too many of us militantly refuse to understand our own history, what we have been, and what we are, leaving us as a nation open to manipulation by the worst among us...who'd gladly repeat all of our worst fuckups and more, just because they think it's funny.

In international terms we've gone from superpower to rogue state to failed state in something like five months, that's got to be some kind of record.

America is going to end up wearing history's Gimp mask, apparently by choice because we got too arrogant and entitled, and it'll turn out reality doesn't work that way.

And we are going to lose.

We are gonna feel History's riding crop and that shit stings.

And you cannot blame it all on Trump. 

This is the fruit of what's become of Republican ideology. Note: And again I say this as a former Republican...we've always had these fucking people. But for some reason, nobody gave the village idiot a platform until 2000 or so, and nobody actually let the village idiots as a group start defining Party doctrines until like 2007-2008. 

Gee, I wonder what happened there?

Oh, right.

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

A Black man said "Yes We Can" and got elected and all Republicans have been able to say since is "No, We Can't."

No We Can't has become Republican theology, it's all they believe. It's all they want or understand.

And they'll glory in being utterly miserable as long as they can inflict that shit on the rest of us, too.

Any war these idiots get us into, we're going to lose, and likely lose badly.

Then, to try and justify the shit, they'll claim it's the End Times.

Lather, rinse, repeat as often as we let them get away with it.

Part of it...think Vietnam and Afghanistan...is that these ass-clowns figured out how to profit from losing. I'm sure when Washington D.C. falls like Kabul or Saigon, they'll figure they can just evacuate to Russia or wherever their latest tax cheat shelter is set up.

Losing, and misery, is all these motherfuckers seem to know, or even want to. Especially so long as the "Right" people are set to profit from suffering.

Greenland is part of Denmark, Denmark is a part of the EU and NATO. Canada is a part of both the British Commonwealth and NATO. We're setting the stage to have the entire rest of the world arrayed against us...because if you don't think China will hop on that bandwagon and then Russia will shoot us in the back and do the same...you're nuts.

So yeah, we lose. That includes the most likely scenario, which is that our next war is against ourselves and everybody else just backs or joins in on the side of different factions. 

Elon? He doesn't lose, though.

I'm here to tell you, if America breaks up...either violently or otherwise...the only people who will profit are the oligarchs (like Elon Musk) currently raiding the shit out of our government and our nation's wealth and the taxpayer's money.

For everybody else, especially the elderly and the poor, standards of living just evaporate...and for the successor nations, so does military and political power and overall wealth.

And the rich Republicans won't even be happy about having all that money.

Like, in the Republican mentality, Ebenezer Scrooge, pre-Christmas Eve ghostly revelations, is ever and always the hero in every goddamn story. I don't know how people live like this, I couldn't do it.

I'm like, being serious here, does Elon Musk ever look happy to you??

And in the end, what these sad-sack motherfuckers will end up actually doing is driving away to some safe place while the world burns and all their lackeys and lesser peons and those political rivals they choose to throw under the bus get shot or guillotined or whatever, priggishly thinking they've made some sort of bullshit "point."

The goalposts will be moved, somehow Movement Conservatism can never do any wrong.

Or as some people in my circle at the time used to say, Libertarianism can never fail, it can only be failed (and this is an ideology that has never actually worked.)

Like, how these morons think they're going to take on the world after having gutted American state capacity ain't a thing I'll ever understand. You need more state capacity for fascism and war, not less.

Like, these fucking people want to be the Beast of American Revelation and they wanna just bullshit their way through with no money and no preparations at this point. 

They figure Fox News will handle it and "Conservatives" will enslave themselves voluntarily.

Note:

How's that working out for you, Vicky??

(And I've been to Indiana, it's basically one city in the middle of a giant cornfield, hardly a place crawling with Leftist agitators and Soros Agents.)

Yes, Republican bullshit is about the most puerile shit imaginable at this point. 

Reagan Wept.

(And yes, I'm quite aware that he started us down this path, I don't think he thought it would all end up in the hands of utter idiots who'd fuck it up this bad.)

I'm quite tired of this crap.

Goddamn it, America, we need to stop doing this to ourselves.

It really is that simple.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

This is going to come down to a fight.

Prepare accordingly.

Слава Україна!

My black face fades,
hiding inside the black granite.
I said I wouldn't
dammit: No tears.
I'm stone. I'm flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night slanted against morning.

I turn this way—the stone lets me go.
I turn that way—I'm inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58,022 names,
half-expecting to find
my own in letters like smoke.

I touch the name Andrew Johnson; I see the booby trap's white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman's blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.

Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's
wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet's image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I'm a window.
He's lost his right arm
inside the stone. In the black mirror
a woman’s trying to erase names:
No, she's brushing a boy's hair.
~Facing It, by Yusef Komunyakaa, US Army Veteran

Ten

Well the government bugged the men's room
In the local disco lounge
And all she wants to do is dance, dance
To keep the boys from sellin'
All the weapons they could scrounge
And all she wants to do is dance
Yeah, but that don't keep the boys from makin' a buck or two
And all she wants to do is dance, dance
The still can sell the army
All the drugs that they can do
And all she wants to do is
All she wants to do is dance
And make romance.

Well we barely make the airport
For the last plane out
As we taxied down the runway
I could hear the people shout
They said, "don't come back here Yankee"
But if I ever do
I'll bring more money
'Cause all she wants to do is dance
And make romance
Never mind the heat
Comin' off the street
She wants to party
She wants to get down
All she wants to do is
All she wants to do is dance
And make romance
All she wants to do is dance.

 ~Don Henley, All She Wants To Do Is Dance

(And yes, it will get worse, take it from this veteran of Bosnian peacekeeping, it'll get worse.)

Signals (American Revelation, Explained, Ten.)

Reporter: Mr. Said, how do you feel?

Kareem Said: How do I feel? I feel joyless. My brothers remain behind. Imprisoned, suppressed. I don't just mean my Muslim brothers, I mean every single man that will sleep in here tonight, that was cut off from everything that he loves. Cut off from his own self. You know, as the word went around that the Governor was gonna give somebody clemency, I saw a rift develop as each inmate wished himself to be the chosen one. The longing to be free became as palpable as the food that we eat. But it is a meal that I am being served right now. And I am Muslim. And Allah does not allow me to swallow certain things. Allah does not allow me to take scraps from the hands of a man such as this. A man who is corrupt and immoral. A man who denigrates the gift of clemency just as he violates the principles of justice. A man that gave the order that caused the death of eight people. And so, Governor Devlin, because even the cost of freedom can be too high, I refuse your pardon!

 ~Kareem Said, from the HBO series Oz, Season 2, Episode 8 "Escape From Oz."

...

If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan

...

To me belongs vengeance and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. ~Deuteronomy 32:35

I saw this a few days ago.

Now, I've been saying for a long time that I believe America is sleepwalking itself into a Revolution and ultimately a breakup and that's in part because America is crawling with bigots and narcissists, and literally refuses to get its shit together or reign in increasingly insane super-wealthy motherfuckers or to even try to elect politicians that actually give a shit about anything other than staying in office.

I think, though, that I've hit on the causative factor of when.

It's all going to blow up the second that the average bigoted, narcissistic White American chucklefuck realizes that, as far as the insane super-wealthy are concerned, they are no better, and in point of fact, no different, than some gay Venezuelan barber that got renditioned to El Salvador for no better reason than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Because if they can do this shit to one of us, for whatever alleged reason, they can do it to any or all of us. 

I used to be a conservative and I was taught that things like Habeas Corpus, Rule of Law, etc. as much as freedom of speech or the right to bear arms were a maximally absolutist point, a Principle Of The Thing not to be violated because it's Law with roots ancient enough that anybody (especially conservatives) should be able to respect. And yes, We The People that are supposed to be the ultimate line of defense against Tyranny.

Why else do you think these motherfuckers have put so much effort and money into bamboozling conservatives in particular? 

In fact, that's pretty much the only thing they've put a bunch of money into besides their own pockets.

But now, we're up against people who didn't do the work and don't want to, who think they're going to build some kind of artificial intelligence "Machine God" that's somehow programmed with some kind of Christian Nationalism filtered through Oblivion Cult, rule forever, and kill anybody that stands up to them with magic drones. 

Why? Because Bunga Bunga, something something Gazpacho.

I can't fit my head far enough up my own ass to see Curtis Yarvin's point of view. I've read some of it, unfortunately, and it all comes off as something written by a 13-year-old boy who thinks he knows everything and he ain't got enough ass whuppins yet for it to sink in that he doesn't.

And they think they're gonna have all this in place by next year. while going to war with basically the whole rest of the world. For the record it legit can take anywhere from several months to a couple of years to lay on any kind of serious military operation, so they're not preparing for that either.

(And that's before you factor in how long it can actually take to develop any kind of legit "Silver-bullet" weapons system. Stealth and modern precision-guided weapons were 20+ years in the making, and these people ain't smart enough to hide that shit.)

It's all bullshit, but it's dangerous bullshit and any war these idiots get us into, we're going to lose.

And if you call bullshit on that, they'll call you some kind of "Left-Wing Activist."

You saw that line from Comer's spokes-muppet? *Checks Notes* Kentucky, the home of the Ark Encounter, the Creation Museum, and insane rates of incest and Opioid addiction, where Skoal is pretty much considered the fifth food group and you can actually rent a submachine gun to shoot at some gun ranges, is positively flooded with "Left Wing Activists." 

Yeah, right, spare me, bro. I've been to Kentucky.

Even Democrats in Kentucky are generally a lot closer to George W. Bush than they are to George Soros.

The thing is, Republicans (not Trump, Republicans) have their program and this is it (and I, along with other people, have been warning motherfuckers about this forever, too.) 

I used to be a Republican and my kind of Republican (you know, the ones that are mostly Democrats/Never Trumpers now) has always had a problem with these nuts, 'cause they wanna kill us too.

As I've said before and I'm a keep saying, these fucking people's guiding ethos is basically the Killing Fields of Pol Pot's Cambodia, but with a mall.

And they think they're too good to have to listen to you, America. They don't wanna hear what you have to say, White MAGA Bro. Same for you, Republican Business Chud.

All you are is a means to an end. But that end, in their minds, doesn't include you.

For the record, while Republicans jerk off, loot the country, and pose for the Fox News cameras, the rest of the world is preparing and it's starting to look like a bipartisan majority of us is sick of their bullshit already. 

The enemy gets a vote, guys.

And the enemy, or some of them, anyway, can read and very likely is reading your Signal chats.

Good God, the whole thing with Mike Waltz and Pete Hegseth and all these Jabronis talking all this crap on Signal (and also openly smack-talking and planning to extort our European allies) reminds me yet again, if I'd done anything even close to this as a young Air Force Sergeant 30 years ago, I'd probably still be in prison.

And by the way, whatever he claims to believe now, I'll bet you money that JD Vance's animus towards Europe is founded in Christian Fundamentalist basic End Times bullshit from like the mid-1990's.

But, ya know, it gets worse.

Like, why did we go to all this trouble to develop all this technology and OPSEC standards and this and that and the other thing just so some drunk racist frat-bro wannabe-macho CHUD with his dick in one hand and a tallboy of Steel Reserve in the other can be SECDRUNK and ignore all that shit while going ass-backwards into the unknown??

What the fuck are we even doing here, America??

Just for the record, other countries militaries have standards.

Other people do not, for the most part, have or want Reality TV government nor to be beholden to anybody who has such.

They sent that Signal awhile back.

And you can bet whatever the Chinese are planning, they're not discussing it on some dipshit social media app. The Russians might be drunk, but they're not shouting their plans to fuck us over into the ether. You can fully expect that, whatever defense the Canadians, all the Commonwealth countries and the EU are working up against Trump's bullshit, they ain't going to CC us on the chat or the E-mail chain or any of that kind of shit.

Funny thing about Europe in particular, lately. 

They'd rather be free than be entertained.

Think about that, for a second.

You fucked up, America.

It's time to start getting with the program and doing something about it.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Слава Україна!

My black face fades,
hiding inside the black granite.
I said I wouldn't
dammit: No tears.
I'm stone. I'm flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night slanted against morning.

I turn this way—the stone lets me go.
I turn that way—I'm inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58,022 names,
half-expecting to find
my own in letters like smoke.

I touch the name Andrew Johnson; I see the booby trap's white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman's blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.

Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's
wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet's image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I'm a window.
He's lost his right arm
inside the stone. In the black mirror
a woman’s trying to erase names:
No, she's brushing a boy's hair.
~Facing It, by Yusef Komunyakaa, US Army Veteran

Nine

The wind whispers of fear and hate. The war has killed love. And those that confess to the Angkar are punished, and no one dare ask where they go. Here, only the silent survive. ~Dith Pran, The Killing Fields

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

Dumbpocalypse Now (American Revelation, Explained, Nine.)

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

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

Andor: Is that the best you got?

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

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

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

...

If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan

I saw this last night, when I got up.

Apparently these Tech Bro idiots think they're just going to indiscriminately murder people all over the world with suicide drones for being "Woke." 

Uh, A few things about that: 

Like I said, they try this crap, even a little bit, they're going to find out the hard way not only that America has half a billion guns in the hands of We The People, but that other countries have their own Air Forces, Armies and Navies...and that a Canadian CF-18 Hornet piloted by a White Dude, a Portuguese F-16AM piloted by a Woman, and South African Air Force Saab Gripen piloted by a Zulu all can shoot that shit down the same way. If that's 2026, well, there'll be War Crimes trials in 2027 and the whole world will get to see some Broligarch cry like a bitch in the courtroom.

The thing about Other People's Countries is, well, they're other countries, and it's their sky, too. You have to get permission to be there. I highly doubt Canada or the European Union, let alone China, Iran, North Korea, Russia and especially security-obsessed places like Israel and Singapore would be as accommodating as, say, Pakistan to these idiots and their plan to Drone-strike the world.

America, you're fast wearing out your welcome on the world stage with this garbage.

It's like the Terminator movies, but with idiots instead of cyborgs met all those dipshit Evangelical End Times movies and had some kind of mutant love-child where the Antichrist was the hero??

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

And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. ~Revelation 13:16-17

Also, it's March, I'm not seeing some WWII-scale drone production ramp-up going on. I suppose they think if they just WILL it hard enough, fleets upon fleets of Bullet Drones and the logistics and all of the technology to deploy them (not to mention trained operators somehow proofed against getting PTSD or switching sides?) will simply appear?? It's like Magic!

Gee, why didn't every autocrat, dictator and petty monarch going all the way back to Hammurabi think of that?? You just have to wish for it hard enough!

LOL, fuck you, NO. None of this works that way.

Guys, stick to coding and money, you suck at everything else.

Wish in one hand, shit in the other, see which fills up faster.

I'm a United States Air Force Security Police veteran, and I'm a Bomb Wing veteran specifically. I can't really say much all that specific about the security end of this stuff but I do know what a Permissive Action Link (PAL) is and that they do not work that way. Suffice it to say that an AK-47 or and M16A2 is not fired electrically or networked via SATCOM and aimed at a set of coordinates like an AGM-86B ALCM nor would there be a cheap or easy way to slap an electronic lockout on every gun in circulation...if you could even find them all, if the owners of such said anything other than "Fuck you, No" while bringing their weapons to bear.

And even if all that shit was true, well, I have basic counterinsurgency and MOUT training thanks to a couple of deployments and I'm here to tell you, if this was true? It isn't, but let's say it was: People are, in fact, people. Motherfuckers get drugs and weapons every day in every prison in the world.

You think these fucking idiots are going to somehow put the final kibosh on the Human tendency to resist??

Among other things, it's like these Jabronis have never seen any of the Star Wars movies.

There'd be a booming trade in 19th Century Muskets, AK-47's made in 1965 and Unlocked modern firearms (not to mention knives, Samurai swords and worn boards full of rusty nails) in a hot minute, they'd sell hotter than drugs or porn, and I'd bet you money Moldbug his own damn self would find some way to get his own ass in on that action, all the while cheerfully fucking over all his co-conspirators.

There will, indeed, be blood.

Your opposition out there in the real world ain't gonna be Chuck Schumer.

That's the thing with these guys, they have no leadership skills, loyalty, principles, self-respect or souls. Otherwise, they wouldn't be this way.

And say they got their "Sovereign Corporation." Okay, what's to stop King's Holdings, Ltd. or Tsarprom or Princess Peaches from doing the usual corporate Venture Capital fuckery and ending up owning their ass??

These fucking dudes melt like the Wicked Witch Of The West in a room full of water buckets at the least bit of resistance to their bullshit! Elon is bent all out of shape because his Trans daughter gave an interview yesterday or something.

The revolution will be short, and not in their favor.

You guys are really telling me y'all think you're gonna take on the world with knockoff Shahed drones manufactured out of Fascist Willpower, fairy dust and magic beans that've somehow (inexpensively?) been rigged to read people's minds?? (How would that even work?)

These fucking people think they've found some kind of a cheat code to World Domination but they're apparently unwilling to even do the work of typing it in, if that would reduce the amount of time they get to spend spanking the monkey while fantasizing about having totalitarian Power to protect their Venture Capital.

There's just one problem:

Well, other than they think their Cheat Code is gonna be Donald Trump.

Smoking marijuana, eating Cheetos, and masturbating do not constitute plans in my book. ~Walter White, Breaking Bad.

Again, you either believe in freedom or you don't.

You're either willing to fight for it or not.

You're going to have to pick one, 'cause these dudes ain't gonna give the rest of us a choice.

These fucking people are morons.

But the thing is, you're still going to have to stand up.

Otherwise, it really is gonna be Dumbpocalypse Now.

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

Слава Україна!

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

~United States Declaration Of Independence.

...

My black face fades,
hiding inside the black granite.
I said I wouldn't
dammit: No tears.
I'm stone. I'm flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night slanted against morning.

I turn this way—the stone lets me go.
I turn that way—I'm inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58,022 names,
half-expecting to find
my own in letters like smoke.

I touch the name Andrew Johnson; I see the booby trap's white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman's blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.

Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's
wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet's image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I'm a window.
He's lost his right arm
inside the stone. In the black mirror
a woman’s trying to erase names:
No, she's brushing a boy's hair.
~Facing It, by Yusef Komunyakaa, US Army Veteran

Total Depravity Of Man (American Revelation, Explained, Eight.)

And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.

And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,

Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand.

Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nephthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manassas were sealed twelve thousand.

Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand.

Of the tribe of Zebulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand.

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.

And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,

Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.

And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?

And I said unto him, Sir, you know. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ~Revelation 7:1-14

...

[Shaw enters the quartermaster's office while some of his soldiers guard the door]

Quartermaster Kendrick: Good afternoon, Colonel. Change your mind about that bottle I was talking about?

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: I want 600 pairs of shoes and 1200 pairs of socks...and anything else you've been holding out on us, you piece of rat filth.

Quartermaster Kendrick: I'd love to help you, Colonel, but we just don't have any.

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: Not for n*ggers, you don't!

Quartermaster Kendrick: Not for anybody.

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: I see. Pity. I'll just look around to see if you haven't misplaced them, hmm? [starts smashing up the place, throwing items off shelves and onto the floor]

Quartermaster Kendrick: HEY!

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: [over the noise] Where are they, you son of a bitch?! [throws items off another shelf]

Quartermaster Kendrick: Damn it, you can't-!

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: Can't I?! I'm a colonel, you nasty little cuss! You really think you can keep 700 Union soldiers without proper shoes because you think it's funny?! Now, where would that power come from?! ~From the film Glory.

So, we've been down the list of the initial judgments of Revelation. The question remains, how the fuck did we get this way??

Well, a lot of it is outright bigotry and racism, stupidity, willful ignorance. But, the question is...how is any of this OK??

Well, as a former Christian myself, more than half of whose school-age education was in Christian schools that freaking loved to teach Colonial American history I think I can give you at least a short answer.

Calvinism is buried deep in America's DNA. You know, Reformed Theology, the same shit that powered and in the minds of the Afrikaner leadership, justified Apartheid South Africa. Well, America got a big damned dose of that shit thanks to the Pilgrims and their Puritan horseshit. There's a reason that Malcolm X specifically said of Black people "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock! Plymouth Rock landed on us!"

And by the way, these weren't brave explorers or some shit. They'd got ran out of the Netherlands because the famous tolerance of the Dutch didn't extend to letting these fucking people murder other people for rejecting their religion.

Calvinism was started by a French Protestant theologian, Jehan Cauvin, (name usually Anglicized to John Calvin in Switzerland in the mid-16th Century.

Calvinism is the idea that YOU were specially selected BY GOD, to the point where you can basically do whatever evils you want to do and still go to Heaven...and that somebody else WASN'T. In real life this shit has been an excuse for everything from slavery to colonialism to various wars, not to mention Apartheid in South Africa and Segregation in the United States.

It's a real short leap to say that the people you deem Unsaved or "Unregenerate" in Calvinistic parlance can be abused and exploited and subjected to Hell in this life. And GOD told you to persecute them.

(Bullshit.)

It's also the basic excuse for why Republicans glorify and valorize being mean, miserable and miserly.

It's why rural hick-ass white people everywhere from the Deep South to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan basically justify not doing much of anything with themselves and why so much of America's White "Culture" is basically alcohol, cow shit, and racism. It's why people from little towns like Skandia in Michigan's Upper Peninsula get mad when their kids move into Marquette to get a job or go to college, as if a career at the local Dollar General is somehow so much more rewarding?? And by the way, when I was there in the early-to-mid-1990's it wasn't "Cool" to be in the military either.

Like, these fucking people believe shit like that if God wanted them to be a lawyer, for example, they'd have been born rich.

It's basically why America has an unofficial, largely voluntary and self-enforced caste system.

And it's why when push comes to shove, the Democratic gerontocracy will work with Republicans, if they have to, to keep people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from ever getting the damned ball.

Fuck all that. 

And the worst part is, most Americans nowadays lack the religious education to even know what this bullshit is, although its bastard children, Pentecostalism and the Prosperity Gospel, loom far larger these days than actual Calvinism or Reformed Theology...but I suppose that's because those beliefs at least at one time required maintaining a certain conservative and religious aesthetic, at least publicly.

Now, you don't even have to be a Christian to buy whole-hog into the Prosperity Gospel, you just have to be a Trumper.

Theologically, the basic premise follows thusly:

Calvinism, in a nutshell, is "Fuck You, I've got mine" Christianized.

Total Depravity of Man: Humans are basically Evil, and can do nothing about it, because God, that's why. Unless...
Unconditional Election: ...You're actually Not Evil, again, because God. That's why. Technically, through...
Limited Atonement: ...Jesus dying a bloody and horrible death so your wretched, sinful ass could go to Heaven, because of His...
Irresistible Grace: Yep, and even if you're cursed to grow up among these people with enough empathy to worry about what might happen to all those inconvenient other people, there's not a damned thing you can do about it. This is also the basis for that uniquely American idea of "Once Saved, Always Saved." Which again, basically says you can do whatever you want, because Jesus and the..
Perseverance of the Saints: Because God is Sovereign and cannot be frustrated by Human actions and (according to this mentality anyway) only follows His own rules (as set forth in the Bible) or expects Humans to follow them when it's convenient.

Does any of this seem fucked up to you, yet??

Well, it should, and it's likely about to get worse.

When your mental starting point is that you are a Totally Depraved man somehow sealed and selected by God in the middle of a "Lost and Dying World" that right there is a recipe for Atrocity.

And it'll get worse yet.

Like I said, so much of Christianity is so badly dumbed-down in America nowadays that...years ago, not even recently but over a decade ago I would ask people if they knew what [Basic Thing from Christian history, for example "What was the 95 Theses" or "Who was Martin Luther?"] And the most Evangelical of the Evangelicals I knew would draw a complete damn blank. (And yes, it's a safe bet the same applies to John Calvin or even something more recent like the Azusa Street Revival.)

Think about that, for a second.

Then think about how Donald Trump, of all fucking people, has usurped all that shit and claimed it for himself and his cult's beliefs without even knowing the proper names of Books of the Bible.

And people don't know why and can't tell you why they believe this bullshit!

But they do believe it, more so than Red Letters in an edition of the King James Bible or anything Jesus or any of the ancient Prophets ever did or said.

And people wonder why I say it's literally going to come down to a fight if us regular secular Americans ever want to get our country back.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Слава Україна!

My black face fades,
hiding inside the black granite.
I said I wouldn't
dammit: No tears.
I'm stone. I'm flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night slanted against morning.

I turn this way—the stone lets me go.
I turn that way—I'm inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58,022 names,
half-expecting to find
my own in letters like smoke.

I touch the name Andrew Johnson; I see the booby trap's white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman's blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.

Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's
wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet's image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I'm a window.
He's lost his right arm
inside the stone. In the black mirror
a woman’s trying to erase names:
No, she's brushing a boy's hair.
~Facing It, by Yusef Komunyakaa, US Army Veteran

Seven

If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan