Self On The Throne (Babylon, Ten.)

When ye therefore shall see the Abomination of Desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (who so reads, let him understand)

Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:

Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.

And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.

For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

Behold, I have told you before.

Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. ~Matthew 24:15-27

...

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

I saw this last night.

Some bullshit-ass AI picture of Trump, seated on a throne, wearing a crown and some kind of golden full-plate armor like the Emperor in Warhammer 40K-hooks-up-with-Idiocracy. 

Note the specifically Roman style Eagle behind him, and the sycophants at his feet. This is not of God.

Like seriously, as both a lifelong gamer and a person with a church background, what exactly the fuck??

And, speaking as a former member of the End Times prophecy movement, who actually owned about the first half of the Left Behind series??

These fucking people have already become every bit as ridiculous and stupid as Nicolae Carpathia's Global Community (the bad guys in the Left Behind series) and they're a good deal more blasphemous than that crap, because as fucked up as all that shit was? Yeah, the 1990's and early aughts End Times prophecy Christians still had lines they wouldn't think of crossing.

Evangelical Christians have basically become the bad guys in their own story at this point and they don't even care, or seem to notice.

I'm genuinely starting to think at this point that MAGA is an evil spirit of delusion, deviance, greed and hate. Worse, I'm more and more thinking that a lot of these fucking people have been secretly worshiping golden idols of Dis Pater and Mammon this whole time, because Jesus Christ has nothing whatever to do with any of this bullshit, and it really is that simple.

Among other things, Believers are not called to live in fear.

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. ~2 Timothy 1:7

The thing is, belief systems like this don't just naturally spring up fully formed in the face of a year like this shit did in 2015-2016 (although if history is any indicator, this shit taking about a decade to rot completely definitely tracks.)

Just like you can see the Nazi bullshit forming if you look at the German Empire up to the end of WWI, there's a certain part of "Conservatism" that was basically proto-MAGA all along. I was never one of those fucking people, but I also knew people who were like that.

There was a time we didn't hand those fucking people the keys to the kingdom, though.

“Terrible thing to live in fear. Brooks Hatlen knew it. Knew it all too well. All I want is to be back where things make sense. Where I won't have to be afraid all the time.” ~Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding, the Shawshank Redemption.

Fear leads to Anger, anger leads to Hate, hate leads to Suffering. Yeah, that bit was popularized by Yoda in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, but if you tack on "Desire leads to Fear" at the beginning it's basically a Buddhist scripture.

The thing is there really is a strain of authoritarianism running through Christianity like a turgid dick-vein. For way too long, people who should have known better failed to account for or counter that bullshit.

Throw in the fact that America has been secretly addicted to Calvinism (the original Prosperity Gospel) since before it was America, and you have a problem.

And now the people who are that way are starting to dispense with Christianity or even any pretense of it altogether.

Like, I'm sorry, but you can see it in how people's behavior has changed. If you look at the behavior of men toward women in particular, you can see it.

Okay, yeah, it's always been there, I'm not even kidding when I say there's always been creepers and shit. But the thing is it's just normalized and out there now vs. even ten or fifteen years ago it seemed like if we got a creeper at my old job, all the ladies had some kind of secret meeting about them and by hook or by crook they wouldn't last very long and management for obvious reasons would side with the ladies just as a matter of course.

I get part of this is resentment of that, but I feel like in what feels like not only a post-Christian America but increasingly a post-Christian Christianity, misogyny is exploding because of all the online Manosphere bullshit, and it seems to be continually getting worse. Trust me, I was aware of it before I got with my partner, hell I've been writing about it for years.

But since we got together in June, I've seen shit I can't unsee and I've not only seen it, but I've experienced it myself. There's nothing quite so contradictory as basically being called "Gay" by some other dude because you love your girlfriend and treat her like a person.

Worse, these guys seem to want Patriarchy without either the responsibility or the systems that it entails, they just want to have unprotected sex and shit like that with no consequences or responsibility, to sire children but not to raise or support them, among other things. It's very contradictory and stupid.

And then via shit like Project 2025 they want to rip away at women's ability to support themselves, and tear down their rights and support systems while demanding they alone uphold their responsibilities and somehow manage to do this with nothing.

I guess if there's a "Good" part to all this, it's that These Fucking People think that Trump is the "god" that'll get it for 'em. Yet somehow they wonder why they keep failing, and why nobody else but the people who are always on board with this kind of shit are on board with this kind of shit.

But at the same time, we've also reached the point where Trump is fading and the same old Republican religious nuts who ruined the brand in the 1990's and early aughts have fused themselves into Trumpism simply by kissing his ass.

(And then they have the balls to wonder why even a lot of MAGA's are leaving.)

And those people, more so than Trump, are the people it's gonna come down to a fight to get rid of.

Trump on the throne is just the goddamned figurehead at this point.

And the real problem is too many of We, the People, prefer the AI image of Trump sitting on a throne to actual reality in this moment because self-governance and doing the quiet work of life is boring and hard. They'd rather have distraction and spectacle, no matter how fake or self-destructive.

If there's anything in our defense it's that the people pulling the strings are either also stupid or they have beliefs that make them stupid.

But we can't count on that.

The Self on the throne and living by the itch in one's genitals does not lead to making good life choices, there's a reason all those Greek and Roman devotees of Plato and later the Stoics were disdainful of such things. The Roman imagery these fucking people occasionally try to appropriate is just that, another fake gimmick.

You fight that with the Truth.

Freedom isn't free. Sometimes, you have to fight for it.

Remember this.

Because if we want America to be America again instead of a Babylon facing God's judgment, it's going to be a fight to make it that way.

And the thing is, these idiots don't care if it's Babylon so long as it's their "Conservative" Babylon.

How did that work out for Nebuchadnezzar?

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And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judges her.

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. ~Revelation 18:1-10

Nine

There is always in Oz, an undercurrent of fear. Of violence. Of hate. Waiting to explode. ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO series Oz S1.E1 "The Routine."

Bonus Content

Man Of Sin (Babylon, Nine.)

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

...

[Cassian plays Nemik's audio diary]

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

I saw all this shit last night.

Trump, basically fanboying Zohran Mamdani at his desk right in the fucking Oval Office. I swear if Z would have dropped his pants Trump might've tried to blow him.

Not just that, but Trump was pretty much acting like Ass-Clown Bill from Custodial at my old job the one time Alice Cooper came in the breakroom for some coffee and talked to a bunch of the guys for a minute.

The reactions of various right-wing bigots to Trump sitting there grinning like a fool were...something.

I get it, I really do.

I mean, for a couple reasons Trump's reaction totally doesn't surprise me. First, Of course he's gonna try and leech off from anybody else that's even kind-of famous right now.

But more than that, secondly, Trump actively seeks to betray basically everybody sooner or later.

And These Fucking People keep missing that fact.

They don't know or care who Trump is, they just like the idea of what they think Trump represents in their heads, and most of them are the type of gullible marks that just repeatedly fall for his endless self-promoting salesman-pitch because they want to.

Seriously, yo, read the Bible. The Man Of Sin does not give a fuck about you. The Beast of American Revelation could give a shit about you or your claimed ideology. He just wants money, power, sexual gratification and to enjoy himself. He doesn't care what happens to you.

Of course, the actual hard-core racists don't really give a shit, they just want to hurt people or see Other People get hurt, and they're either not thinking that far ahead or simply nihilistic enough to not care as long as they think somebody else is also affected or gets it worse.

Like, among other things, Native Americans were here first. 

This has been an actual conservative point of view and is also basic reality. 

Like even the most far-right person I've ever damned met has not tried to argue that fact. Says it right in that bullshit song about Christopher Columbus, even.

Not that these assholes give a shit about that, either, they're too stupid.

And this same bullshit seems to go whether it's LGBT folk, various People Of Color or women.

Without fail, the "Master Race" turns out to not be so masterful. Like, almost especially when its the ladies getting this crap it's always some chuckle-fuck that looks like they haven't got off without having to pay for it since 1975 and haven't gotten it up since like Y2K.

It's always washed up dudes trying to dunk on beautiful women when the truth is if a woman, ANY woman, that was under 40 even talked dirty to them in a husky voice? Well, all the sudden that one Lonely Island song starts playing and dude needs a towel, no matter what she looks like.

Ya know, if you treat her with a little respect, maybe she'll stick around?

And trust me, my partner is 40 but still looks pretty damn good and I feel like I scored with the Prom Queen. All I had to do was treat her like a person, yo. I'm honestly just glad to have her in my life.

These dudes ain't lonely enough.

And I swear their behavior is getting worse.

Sooner or later, guys, the ladies are going to stop putting up with your bullshit.

These fucking people, all the Manosphere bros and religious nuts and Trump ass-kissers and lackeys and simps don't care what happens to you. 

All they know is they're living large until they aren't and when they aren't?? Well, that was what that 40 BILLION dollar bailout to Argentina in the middle of our government shutdown was actually for.

It's us regular folks that are gonna have to stand up and end this bullshit.

Trust me, if we can't get to the motherfuckers currently catting around on private jets on the taxpayer dime? Yeah, we're gonna take out our anger, frustration and generalized vengeance on somebody.

And then when there's a new government that's not down with this horseshit, then we're gonna go after the private jets and special events set, too.

Which is also, functionally, why These Fucking People want to leave America broke and drained like the British Empire after WWII, having to resort to socialism so people can have health care and a life and raise families and shit.

Because they know it'll be harder for the rest of us to come after them if that's the case.

We'll do it anyway, because you either believe in freedom or you don't.

But like with the Nazis they figure somebody's gonna set up ratlines to somewhere for them, or they'll make some themselves. I'm not sure where they think they're gonna go even matters.

Yes, these fucking people don't care if they die alone or surrounded by sycophants so long as they think they're gonna get to keep their money and shit. They think they'd rather put shock collars on their remaining people or upload themselves into a computer, simply to escape accountability for being assholes.

And of course, literally ANYTHING but "Love Thy Neighbor."

Also, what happens when the power goes out?? 

I mean, there really is a non-zero chance that Elon Musk could end his days living in a can on Mars with nothing for company but an AI and some computer with a voice hookup that tells him he's better than Jesus.

And that, too, is Antichrist, the Man Of Sin, the Son of Perdition. If you need me to tell you why?? Well, I humbly suggest you go pick up a copy of the Lord's Word and look it up for yourself.

In fact, in Biblical terms that fits the chapter and verse about the Antichrist more than anything Trump has done.

And while the Rapture itself is a bullshit man-made doctrine, it's almost certain that the opposite is achievable; That these men, given how they conduct themselves and what they do...and more, increasingly how they imagine their own ends to be...will find a way to go to Hell without actually dying first.

The worst part is, they don't care.

But somebody's gonna have to.

Think on that.

Think about what it's gonna be like for the people who have to analyze this mess much less pick up the pieces and put something remotely resembling one or more societies back together out of this goddamned mess!

Or is that past our two-week span for collective effort or memory, now??

You better hope it isn't.

Like I said, think about it.

'Cause you either believe in civilization or you don't.

And it's the same way with the Lord's Word and all the other stuff these assholes throw around to manipulate people with.

Remember that.

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Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?

And now ye know what withholds that he might be revealed in his time.

For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now lets will let, until he be taken out of the way.

And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. ~2 Thessalonians 2:3-10

Eight

You take a drug, right? The chemicals, they rush through your body, rush through your brain. And the sensations, you want the sensations again and again and again, but let me tell you, you can also get addicted to grief, to guilt, to hate. Because when you feel dead inside, even bad sensations make you feel like you're alive! ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO series Oz, S1.E5 "The Straight Life."

Bonus Content 

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judges her.

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. ~Revelation 18:1-10

Fiery The Angels Fell (Babylon, Eight.)

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change. We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics. They will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks and months to come. We've been asked to pause for a reality check; we've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we've been told we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes we can. -Barack Obama, "Yes We Can" January 2008

...

A word to Sen. Obama and his supporters. We'll go at it -- we'll go at it over the next two months -- you know that's the nature of this business -- and there are big differences between us. But you have my respect and my admiration. Despite our differences, much more unites us than divides us. We are fellow Americans, and that's an association that means more to me than any other. We're dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal and endowed by our creator with inalienable rights. No country -- no country ever had a greater cause than that. And I wouldn't be an American worthy of the name if I didn't honor Sen. Obama and his supporters for their achievement. ~John McCain, RNC Speech, September 2008

...

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judges her.

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. ~Revelation 18:1-10

I saw this bullshit yesterday, after I wrote my post for the day.

Idiot pink-haired televangelist Kat Kerr talking shit about how Trump is "God's President."

Before or after the Epstein files started coming out, creeper lady?? 

Also, God does not work like that.

Meanwhile out here in the real world where we aren't mainlining MAGA propaganda, and Democrats are reminding the Troops that they don't have to follow illegal orders and shit, the Trump signs mostly came down awhile ago and it's been a late-October 2008 vibe for a minute.

And it really looks and feels like it's the only same basic 19% to 20% of Americans that were still all in for Bush 43 after the Great Crash in September of 2008 that are still backing Trump.

But we're less than a year in from Trump's inauguration.

Stop and think about that for a second.

I had literally just punched out of the Republican Party in the first week of September 2008 when Sarah Palin got picked for John McCain's VP. Dumb bitch was the same kind of whack-a-nut Pentecostal as my ex-wife. There may have been a large number of inappropriate jokes about old Captain Queeg tea-bagging Sarah and referring to his nuts as "The Strawberries." 

(Okay, there were maybe, possibly, OK, definitely a lot of those jokes.)

Fiery the angels fell; deep thunder rolled around their shores; burning with the fires of Orc. ~Roy Batty, Blade Runner (A deliberate misquote of William Blake's "America: A Prophecy.)

But the actual reason that was a catalyst in me changing sides was I was too familiar with what kind of person she was from personal experience with that exact sort of religious nuts. 

Having had some pretty bad history with Pentecostals, I wasn't cool with having that kind of crap a heartbeat away from the Presidency...not least considering that John McCain, who I'd supported in 2000 and was generally otherwise a backer of, literally kept looking like he was gonna keel over at any moment.

Even a lot of Republicans who would later vote Republican that year agreed with me.

I had a new roommate, one of the Native American cooks at the casino, a Navy veteran and member of the Ogitchedaw Warrior Society. That was to be a very eye-opening experience.

I was, daily, chattering back and forth with my current partner on Yahoo Messenger and we clearly had serious intentions toward each other, looking back. We would, in fact, end up dating (Again.)

My girl was still very much a Republican and I was a newly declared (Democratic-voting) Independent. Some of our arguments from that time were pretty damn epic.

Not for the first time, it's a wonder we didn't kill each other.

She...like a lot of Christian Republican women (and because she was going through her first divorce and struggling, she was in the middle of a serious Christian phase) was all about Sarah Palin. (She had also soured on Bush 43.)

I didn't mind, and there's nothing automatically wrong with that. 

You either love somebody or you don't.

From my side, I understood why. For the record she was generally all in for Hillary Clinton in 2016, though less so for Harris as VP in 2020 or President in 2024 and she tends to support any high-powered woman in politics.

Looking back, it's impossible to overstate how much it felt like there was a change in the air.

And it was clearly a more positive, less risky, more "Try something new" and less "Goddamn, we're tired of this shit" vibe than what there is right now.

Although a lot of people, myself included, were in fact tired of this shit even then.

The conspiracy theories and racism against Obama had been a red line for me.

Honestly, given what the Republican Party has become, I'm more glad that I got out then every damn day now.

The actual truth of These Fucking People is that they don't give a damn about America or any of its values.

They don't give a damn about Jesus.

And they sure as hell don't give a damn about Trump. When he degrades into a babbling idiot or kicks the bucket, they will find another one.

The truth is that the real "God" of a lot of these fucking people is simply the weird mutant Christian Nationalist/Nazi project and some vague idea of enslaving everybody else (Including people like me and my partner.) And note that these assholes don't give a damn about Jesus either.

If someone "Charismatic" enough (in both senses of that word) cam along preaching Dis Pater or Mammon or saying "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn." (In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming) It's a safe bet that vapid "religious" morons like Kat Kerr would worship that instead.

But you either believe in the Truth or you don't.

Without Truth, there is no freedom.

Truth is the only thing that gives most people a floor to stand on to push back against Power, and that applies to matters of belief and faith just as much as anything else.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

The truth is, all the fiery angels of Pentecostal imagination and all the pink-haired ladies talking that shit ain't gonna save Trump, and Trump is not Saved in the Christian sense and he's old and dying (and I think he knows it.)

But all these preachers and politicians don't care about that. Nobody cares about the man. They just want the power.

Nobody. Cares. Except for those who hate him.

It's not Trump that's the problem, it's all these other motherfuckers. And if you wanna stop them, it's gonna come down to a fight.

So get after it.

Yes, We Can.

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those...moments will be lost in time, like tears...in rain. Time to die. ~Roy Batty, Blade Runner.

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Lay me down
In the cold, cold ground
Where before many more have gone
Lay me down
In the cold, cold ground
Where before many more have gone
When they come
I will stand my ground
Stand my ground
I'll not be afraid
Thoughts of home
Take away my fear
Sweat and blood
Hide my veil of tears
Once a year
Say a prayer for me
Close your eyes
And remember me
Never more
Shall I see the sun
For I fell to a German's gun.

~Sgt. Mackenzie, by Joseph Kilna Mackenzie, battle theme from the film We Were Soldiers.

Seven

I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do to their fellows, because it always coincides with their own desires. ~Susan B. Anthony

Drugs (Babylon, Seven.)

Lay me down
In the cold, cold ground
Where before many more have gone
Lay me down
In the cold, cold ground
Where before many more have gone
When they come
I will stand my ground
Stand my ground
I'll not be afraid
Thoughts of home
Take away my fear
Sweat and blood
Hide my veil of tears
Once a year
Say a prayer for me
Close your eyes
And remember me
Never more
Shall I see the sun
For I fell to a German's gun.

~Sgt. Mackenzie, by Joseph Kilna Mackenzie, battle theme from the film We Were Soldiers.

...

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judges her.

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. ~Revelation 18:1-10

So I guess things aren't going so great for ICE in North Carolina.

Like, I could have told them how that was gonna go.

But of course, these damn narcissistic shitheads are completely high on their own supply.

Like, I guess Elon Musk has Grok trying to tell people that he's some kind of a street fighter now.

As if dude doesn't look like a flaccid plastic bag of commercial kitchen Mashed Potatoes??

I mean, come on, dude. We have eyes.

I might not look like much, but there's at least visible traces of the fact that I was in shape and young and strong once...not least the disabling injuries and shit I racked up when I was that way.

You have to look to see it, but it's there.

I highly doubt Elon has ever been in a fight or done a day's physical exercise or labor in his life.

There's not necessarily anything wrong with that, in the grand scheme of things. Except of course my upbringing, education and life experience tell me there's a lot wrong with that. A Man should, if possible do physical labor, go somewhere on a trip, serve in a profession of arms at least for a little while, take up hiking or hunting or shooting or some such activity...or otherwise work off the craving for adventure and some testosterone when they can...so they're not just making shit up and looking stupid when they're old and look like the racist Pillsbury Dough Boy.

And that's the thing with these fucking people.

They're so deep in the weeds off in their own fantasy world that they can't even talk to the rest of us anymore, and so idiotically high on their own supply that they've got nothing intelligible to even say.

Their entire program is weird freaking nonsense meant to turn America into something it's never been and is completely incapable of even being.

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

Of course, while I'm at it they're also trying to do the same with Christianity or even ideas of Manhood or the proper treatment of women, not to mention a whole bunch of other shit, but those are the things I happened to have handy examples for at the moment.

The truth is, these fucking people are pretty much so overly "Religious" that what's IN the Lord's Word isn't Good Enough for them.

I dealt with that type of shit all the time back in the day from my ex-wife and the crazy Pentecostals that she surrounded herself with. Who she was as a person was not necessarily bad, but she pathologically couldn't be...didn't want to be or even face...herself.

She was hell-bent on the idea that she or at least somebody that she associated herself with was GOING to be some kind of Holy Prophet, and of course she tried to put that shit on me despite me being 1000% clear that there was no way I was ever gonna go near that kind of responsibility.

Especially when her entire attitude was that she wanted the easy life of a well-off Pastor's Wife and yet also to still have the capability to do whatever she wanted, without being held to any kind of standards. Now, I had considered ministry (and not chosen to follow that path, for the same reason.) So I already knew one of these things was not like the other one.

For one thing, an actual Prophet is not some kind of Holy-roller fortune teller or gilded Televangelist or some shit, but supposed to be a spiritual leader and the person who tells people the Truth and catches a whole hell of a lot of grief for it. Naturally, the Truth wasn't even what she wanted to hear.

But, like all these Trump people now, she was so high on her own supply that she wouldn't hear of anything else, and so she wrecked everything for herself.

Me, too, but I got back up, and she never really did.

Like, haven't these fucking people ever read the Lord's Word??

Now, I don't think you have to be a Christian or even religious to be a prophet or speak prophetically, I have some pretty complex opinions on this. One common thread about such people is there will always be those who do not accept them or what they have to say.

It's also something one cannot and should not seek out, but rather a thing that either one has, or one doesn't.

Among other things, it's sure as hell not going to make your life easier.

But basically either you can hear the Divine Conversation or you can't. By definition, this is not about you.

And that's not the world a lot of these "Conservatives" want to live in.

I found this poem years ago in a random anthology book full of stuff that somebody gave me, and recently happened to see what looks like an updated version.

This right here is what modern "Conservatism" and the whole Prosperity Gospel thing pretty much is.

I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please. 

Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. 

I don’t want enough of God  to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. 

I want ecstasy, not transformation. 

I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please. 

~Three Dollars Worth of God, by Wilbur Rees.

Well, that, and the idea that you get a snooze in the sunshine and the warmth of the womb while everybody else gets nothing but jackboots and shit. 

This crap isn't religion, it's narcissism.

The Self on the Throne is a hell of a drug. 

It's the worst one to get addicted to. 

I'll note nobody's bombing boats trying to stop that drug.

And we continue to tolerate this bullshit at our peril.

I don't have to tell you, drugs ain't the only things to get addicted to. Some people mainline their work, some people... snort ESPN. Some people needle-pop gambling. There are those that shoot up junk foods, fine wines, Cohibas, baby. Some people get hooked on love. And like any fiend on the street, you always need another bump. Just one more bump, man! Just one more bump! ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO series Oz, S1.E5 "The Straight Life."

If we want to stop this shit, it's going to come down to a fight.

Слава Україна!

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

Six

I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do to their fellows, because it always coincides with their own desires. ~Susan B. Anthony

Son, I'm just gonna tell you this one time. You want to keep working here? Stay off the drugs.

~Mr. McDowell, Coming To America