The Red Beast (Don't Tread On Me, Eight.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If any man have an ear, let him hear.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Like I said in my post yesterday, I caught a right-wing idiot-swarm off of simply commenting on a thread that if some dude wanted to fly a Pride flag in their own yard they should be able to, and that an HOA giving them a violation but not giving some people flying an idiotic Christian Nationalist flag a violation was, in fact, discriminatory.

This seems fairly obvious.

Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen. ~Ezekiel 16:49-50

These fucking people came out the woodwork all day and well into the night, defending "Christianity" (put in quotes here for a reason) HOA's, petty power trips in general and of course (unprompted) Trump. As if these things somehow go together or it's only natural that they should. By that logic, Christ Himself should have bowed down and made offerings to Caesar!

Halfway through my night at work, after the last few dipshit responses, I made a disturbing conclusion as a result of this thread and a few other things today.

I think at least half of the "Conservatives" and "Evangelicals" out there would line up and take the Mark of the Beast if Power simply, baldly told them that they had to. No reason given, just "Do it because we said so" or "It's not the Mark Of The Beast when we do it." (Yes, yes it is.)

Wrap it in grievance and hate, and "Owning The Libs" and point out that the leftists, liberals, mid-conservatives and Never-Trumpers are fighting against it and refusing to do it, and I think that percentage goes up, call it two thirds.

Just to use the Left Behind series for an example, call the slogan "Guns, Nicolae Carpathia and The White Race."

Watch and see how fast people come up with T-shirts with that slogan on them.

John of Patmos never quite reckoned with the possibility that the Beast of Revelation might be far-Right after a couple generations of teaching morons Conservatism-as-Christianity. I mean, I think that means the Elect and the Saints under the Altar might be a bigger and much more diverse group, in the end, than the End Times people of the 1990's had thought.

And Hell might end up rather...pasty. 

I feel sorry for the damn Devil.

There's something the fuck wrong with these people.

If the Beast is Blue, that's bad! Do not serve it!

But if the Beast is Red, they must serve it!

Look, even as regards my understanding of political partisanship, isn't that kind of insane, you know, theologically?? So you think you have to go to Hell if you're a Republican, yet this is somehow "Godliness??"

I'm confused. If you think your political faction can do no wrong to that point, I'd wager the Bible is not, in fact, your Holy Book.

And that needs to be said. We need to face this shit.

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

Among other things, it doesn't even fucking matter to them how buffoonish, idiotic, or poorly done something happens to be, they'll try and say it's Awesome just 'cause their "side" did it. I think "Orwellian" doesn't even begin to cover that.

This shit has turned into a Cult.

And the worse it looks, the more sick of it most people get, the more a bunch of these cultists are going to double down on this bullshit. Some people have made this fucking Trump thing their whole fucking identity and religion.

As if believing in an Eternity of Peace and Blessedness with *Checks Notes* Donald Trump wouldn't be its own special form of hell and punishment?!?!?

I used to be a conservative Christian and a Republican and none of this shit even computes for me anymore. I can't even talk the way these people talk.

And if I could, I wouldn't want to.

We've got to take the neighborhood back. We've got to go in there. Just forget telling your child to go to the Peace Corps. It's right around the corner. It's standing on the corner. It can't speak English. It doesn't want to speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk. "Why you ain't where you is go." I don't know who these people are. And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. Then I heard the father talk. This is all in the house. You used to talk a certain way on the corner and you got into the house and switched to English. Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't land a plane with "why you ain't…". You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. There is no Bible that has that kind of language. Where did these people get the idea that they're moving ahead on this? Well, they know they're not, they're just hanging out in the same place, five or six generations sitting in the projects when you're just supposed to stay there long enough to get a job and move out. ~Bill Cosby, the "Pound Cake" speech.

These Fucking People are doing everything the End Times Prophecy Movement tried to tell me the "Left" would do, and then some. They're not even hiding it, in fact they're being pretty blatant about it. What the fuck do you think all the AI shit and Data Centers are for??

And a lot of these idiots can't or won't see it because somebody with ascribed "Authority" and either a loud voice or a singsong cult-preacher cadence told them the opposite, and they simply don't care enough to look for themselves until the Truth basically literally bites them in the ass. 

These will be the people demanding to speak to the Manager at The Judgment.

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. ~Carl Sagan.

I guess I was just taught to read the Bible my own damn self, "Study" to show thyself approved" and all that. A lot of these people yesterday couldn't even imagine anybody would look at all these texts they don't read, and come to a different conclusion than the one their political movement told them to make.

Just sayin' if you've actually read the Lord's Word, hating the gays should not be more important than loving your neighbor. In fact, if you go by what Jesus said, LGBT people should pretty much be irrelevant to your religion unless you got gay people in your church or something.

My Partner is bisexual (and she's a Christian) the Kiddo is a lesbian. Hell, my MOM is bisexual leaning very heavily towards women. A lot of my friends are gay. No particular reason for it, luck of the draw for me going all the way back to when I was in the Air Force during the implementation of DADT. More to the point I was never taught hate or homophobia was some sort of a virtue to begin with! 

Loretta Smith: I'm Loretta Smith. You killed my son. You're a handsome fellow.

Donald Groves: Thanks.

Loretta Smith: You broke God's law: Love thy neighbor. I wanna hate you but I can't. I feel pity, tears, but no hate. I didn't realize that until this moment. You are my neighbor and I love you. And I forgive you with all my heart. That's all.

~From the HBO series "Oz" Season 1, Episode 7 "Plan B."

And if they don't like my opinions on religion, well, they sure aren't going to like my ideas of politics, like that conservatism (for example) should come with actual standards.

I mean, historically, it should be the Leftists and Liberals chasing after novelty and the outrage of the moment while fucking around with dumb shit.

But no, that's the "Conservatives" now.  Somebody who was actually conservative told us we couldn't do something stupid like overturn the Constitution by decree, so now we gotta turn the whole damn world upside-down to try and find a way around that. How old are you fuckers? 13??

And they'd rather sit there and be miserable and beef with anybody that thinks differently than them than actually go out and do the work of life. That's wrong too.

This crap is ridiculous.

MAGA was bad enough, but I'd argue MAGA in any recognizable form is pretty much dead and that the Antichrist-ism that this shit is turning into is a fully consummated and rather bad marriage between the worst impulses of both far-right and far-left.

And they let Peter Theil watch through exactly 666 cameras.

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

If you're telling somebody they're not a Christian because they think a Homeowner's Association shouldn't have any right to tell people what flags to fly or not to fly, freedom ain't what you believe in and as far as I'm concerned your dipshit Hall Monitor ass can just fuck off.

And if you don't, you will be made to.

"Mind Your Own Business" used to be a conservative thing.

That spell it out for ya?? Or do I have to use smaller words??

Don't Tread On Me with this bullshit.

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Republicans are selling their soul to win elections. Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. The government won't work without it. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them. ~Barry Goldwater

Seven

We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. ~George Orwell, 1984

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

Men Of Sodom (Don't Tread On Me, Seven.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~Genesis 18:16-33

I saw this yesterday, just a picture of a black lady on the DC metro, probably on her way to work or something, surrounded by a bunch of "Patriot Front" thugs.

My bro Jack asked for a caption to the picture and the first thing I thought of was where Abraham pleads for Sodom in the Book of Genesis.

This morning when I got home from work (late because our latest new person didn't want to show up today, and probably ain't gonna last anyway) I commented on somebody's post about HOA stupidity.

Since then, I've been getting swarmed by idiot "Conservatives," mostly various dudes of a certain type although there was a Karen or two thrown in, trying to defend the nexus of Bullshit that is Homeowners' Associations or vote me out of Christianity. That ain't up to you dipshits.

Sorry, but if you try and tell me what to do on my own property you're going to get ejected from it, quite possibly at gunpoint if you won't leave otherwise. I've had too many bad experiences with (mostly religious and/or right-wing with a side of mental illness) freaks to fuck around.

Right-wingers love them some arbitrary and unaccountable Power, no matter how petty, now don't they?? 

These fucking people missed the point of the story of Sodom in the Bible. 

Or they wanna be in the butt-rape mob.

So, I guess it shouldn't surprise ANYBODY that these fucking people don't know the motherfucking US Declaration Of Independence when they hear it??

Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen. ~Ezekiel 16:49-50

I can remember when I had to learn the Declaration of Independence in *Christian* school, and why it was necessary.

Funny how "Conservatives" don't care about any of that when they think they own this era's version of George III, isn't it??

And by the way, every damn one of these profiles appears to either not actually be an American, or if they are, they're selling some bullshit.

Note: None of these people are actually conservative.

We've got to take the neighborhood back. We've got to go in there. Just forget telling your child to go to the Peace Corps. It's right around the corner. It's standing on the corner. It can't speak English. It doesn't want to speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk. "Why you ain't where you is go." I don't know who these people are. And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. Then I heard the father talk. This is all in the house. You used to talk a certain way on the corner and you got into the house and switched to English. Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't land a plane with "why you ain't…". You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. There is no Bible that has that kind of language. Where did these people get the idea that they're moving ahead on this? Well, they know they're not, they're just hanging out in the same place, five or six generations sitting in the projects when you're just supposed to stay there long enough to get a job and move out. ~Bill Cosby, the "Pound Cake" speech.

No, not even by the standards that I was taught including by the hardcore Republicans of like 40 years ago. But then, my late uncle (who served 8 years as an Infantry officer in the Army in the late 1960's and early 1970's) had his life saved by a Black man in Vietnam, so despite him being a somewhat-upper-class Good Old Boy from Georgia and about as Republican as they got in the 1980's and 1990's, I was taught way the hell better than what this crap is today. His platoon suffered 14 casualties (KIA and WIA) in Vietnam and he never got over that, drank and smoked himself to death over the rest of his life for it, too. 

Dude hated religion and war and as I've said before if he had a God it was probably Ronald Reagan, his main Sunday ritual was drinking beer and watching basketball or football. He tried like hell to talk me out of enlisting. 

When that failed, he got a bottle of the good stuff, poured us each a glass and then spent the rest of the evening (Successfully) impressing upon me the seriousness of what I was doing, by telling me the stories that weren't the same ones from his time in Germany that he'd always told before.

Dude was there for the Tet Offensive, and saw some real hairy shit. Yeah, I'd probably have had PTSD and been a (worse) alcoholic too if I'd been in his position.

We have too many men of science, too few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon On The Mount. The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. ~General Omar Bradley

These fucking people aren't like that. They lack the moral courage of people like my uncle or the moxie of past Republican Presidents like Ronald Reagan or (and I'll be generous here, bite me) either Bush, or even of failed candidates like Barry Goldwater.

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

They're mostly petty drama queens and power-seekers who'd be just as happy among the Men of Sodom trooping to Lot's house as they would in a church congregation, because they're there in either place for the same fucking reason, which is power over another. Like the Bull Queers in The Shawshank Redemption, yo, That's all they want or understand.

And, in their minds, whatever God thinks about that be damned.

I'm serious.

Nothing is real or serious to these people, deep down they're all far more Atheistic than any Richard Dawkins devotee from 2008. If it's not right in front of them or something they can see and touch and (understand their frame of "understanding" is very limited) they refuse to "Believe" in it. It's a Bioshock level social and spiritual suicide-pact. Everything is all some kind of allegedly-ideologically-based game, or cover for a scam or some such horseshit, and invariably they betray whatever values they claim because if they ever had standards before, they sure don't now. It's all just bullshit words and chasing the dopamine hit of being "right" arguing with some version of whatever that only exists in their own heads. I call this shit "Atheism Minus One" for a purpose.

I believe in no God, no invisible man in the sky. But there is something more powerful than each of us, a combination of our efforts, a Great Chain of industry that unites us. But it is only when we struggle in our own interest that the chain pulls society in the right direction. The chain is too powerful and too mysterious for any government to guide. Any man who tells you different either has his hand in your pocket, or a pistol to your neck. ~Andrew Ryan, Bioshock

Except that what they're really not being Atheistic about is purely secular Republican political power.

Or, more properly, a certain ideal of Fascism that they've used that shit to camouflage for a minute.

(Without really understanding what that is, either. They just know it's the "Great Work" of modern "Republicanism.")

I identify myself as an Agnostic Christian because, while I Believe, I don't claim to understand the nature of God and how it all works...but I've figured out that secular liberalism ain't doing shit about this problem and I need more to lean on than that, anyway.

One thing I do know is Donald Trump ain't God.

It's a weirdly puritanical, intersectionally hateful cult, and the insidious thing is it's actually worse than and will outlast MAGA. When Trump is gone and JD fails to gin up enough-whatever because he sucks so bad even they don't like him, they'll bide their time until the next big thing comes up, if it ever does. 

And if it doesn't, they'll direct their energies into Football Hooliganism or some shit like a lot of EU far-right idiots have forever...because having a "team" and a reason to bother people or punch somebody in the face is all they really give a shit about. They'll get their civil disorder and excuse to hurt people any way they can.

These kind of "Republicans" spent the majority of my life in the political wilderness or in the woods as militia nuts for a fucking reason.

None of these people are imaginative enough to see that somebody else might actually think differently, or have reasons for doing so, and they lack the sense of shame to understand when they've been successfully told off, yet at the same time all have the same vast, yawning sense of inferiority. They've never thought about any of this shit, or wanted to.

Like, goddamn, I've been enough places and seen enough things even in the context of having been a conservative Republican that I had to stop and think about this shit here and there whether I wanted to or not. I know more about this than they do. 

I had to. I got my butt whupped if I didn't want to learn anything!

Think about that, for a second. That's a hell of a difference from now, ain't it?

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

I mean, for fuck's sake even as a dumb 20-year-old my partner freaking got that we both had strong convictions, and at that point our arguments were mostly on the same side of the fence but I was a more secular conservative and she was a religious one. Funny enough, our variable have flipped around a bit, but we still argue more about how to get there than about what the end-goal is.

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

So Don't Tread On Me with this bullshit.

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Republicans are selling their soul to win elections. Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. The government won't work without it. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them. ~Barry Goldwater

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

Don't Tread On Me (Independence Day 2026, Three.)

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

...

Blood that has soaked into the sands of a beach is all of one color. America stands unique in the world: the only country not founded on a race but on a way, an ideal. Not in spite of but because of our polyglot background, we have had all the strength of the world. That is the American way. ~Ronald Reagan

...

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

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

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

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

Chief Galen Tyrol: Report to stations?

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

I've been saying for awhile now I think all this MAGA shit is going to collapse in some kind of nationwide Fyre-Festival or Woodstock 99 type debacle. Actually, the saying didn't originate with me but rather with by bro and fellow veteran Gary the Media Warrior.

I...well, I think we're just about there on this 250th anniversary of the United States, I guess it's a good thing that it looks like it's gonna be far less bloody and dramatic than I've thought for a long time...unless you're a climate scientist in which case it'll be fascinating. Or, as my partner said the other day when I texted her during our big thunderstorm "Must be nice, It's hotter than Satan's asshole down here." She only lives about 2 1/2 hours south of me.

I think whatever spell Trump had over so many people was broken, and in part by sheer Republican incompetence and malice. Had things stayed the same as they were say from 2017-2021, Trump would probably be popular or at least about the same, polling-wise as he was in the first half of his term last time. Merely that level of incompetence might seem downright heroic right now.

NO, at the end of the day I think what sunk this shit was the marriage of the 1990's Religious Right goons with MAGA via Project 2025 (Solely because they were among the last still cheering for Trump, at that) the Epstein files, all this xenophobic shit, a totally unnecessary war and a vast level of weaponized incompetence.

And in about that order, too. Turns out people actually don't like what current Republicans want to do. Nobody but them wants to live that way.

But as we've seen in the last few days, apparently the shit gets worse.

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

The heart and soul of the Party apparently is, at the end of the day, a mid-aughts-era online comment section where some joyless troll, a basement-dwelling fat guy who doesn't have a job highjacks a discussion about something (damn near anything) else by ranting about murdering everybody that's not at least 7/8 Caucasian or some such bullshit, combined with a level of illiteracy that thinks fast food, gas stations, overwork and Whiteness constitute "Culture."

Fuck that.

They're melting down because they couldn't make the rest of us hate like they do.

And as shallow as it is, I think part of it is all these hardcore White Supremacists are...well, most of 'em look like their family tree is one of them old-school TV aerials like we had at my Mom's house in 1987.

Look, I am the person that I am, I'm over 50 years old, and I'm not gonna turn into a hateful asshole for some dumb motherfucker like you. that thinks gas station sushi is high culture.

We've got to take the neighborhood back. We've got to go in there. Just forget telling your child to go to the Peace Corps. It's right around the corner. It's standing on the corner. It can't speak English. It doesn't want to speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk. "Why you ain't where you is go." I don't know who these people are. And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. Then I heard the father talk. This is all in the house. You used to talk a certain way on the corner and you got into the house and switched to English. Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't land a plane with "why you ain't…". You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. There is no Bible that has that kind of language. Where did these people get the idea that they're moving ahead on this? Well, they know they're not, they're just hanging out in the same place, five or six generations sitting in the projects when you're just supposed to stay there long enough to get a job and move out. ~Bill Cosby, the "Pound Cake" speech.

This...shouldn't even be that hard to figure out.

We're pretty much Babylon out of Revelation 18, but with idiots.

And I think it's going to end very badly and very fast, and not very well for guys like Peter Pan Theil.

Like I said yesterday, let them hide in their bunkers. It won't be anything a JDAM or two wouldn't take care of. Hell maybe just use a couple small ones, like a GBU-38 which is basically a guidance kit on a regular Mark 82 500-pound bomb. Use those to bury the entrances and take out whatever SATCOM they have to communicate with each other. Then we let them run out of food or they and the people they're entombed with kill each other when they get bored or out of spite.

I believe in no God, no invisible man in the sky. But there is something more powerful than each of us, a combination of our efforts, a Great Chain of industry that unites us. But it is only when we struggle in our own interest that the chain pulls society in the right direction. The chain is too powerful and too mysterious for any government to guide. Any man who tells you different either has his hand in your pocket, or a pistol to your neck. ~Andrew Ryan, Bioshock

I don't doubt that these fucking people would go full Bioshock if left to their own devices.

I think someday soon it's gonna come out just how fucked up all this shit is.

But we don't have to live with it, anymore than our Founders did 250 years ago.

That's the whole damn idea of this country.

And they know and we know, it could come down to a fight, again.

I've written several times about the battle of Gettysburg and there's a reason for that.

"...In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, with a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me. As He died to make men Holy, let us die to make men Free, while God is marching on." That's from the Battle Hymn of the Republic, set to the tune of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again" about famous abolitionist militant John Brown. 

The entire damned point of America is increasing freedom, ordered liberty, and that any person with the will to do something can get a reasonable shot at accomplishing it. We are not what we are born...but what we have it in ourselves to be.

That's the whole point of America and that's why these weirdos want to burn it all down.

I believe they will fail, but what we do after that? That's on us, and we can't keep allowing this crap.

You either believe in freedom or you don't. 

Being a better class of slave don't make you free, conservatives, remember that.

Missing the point out of sheer weaponized incompetence is not an excuse.

Don't tread on me with that horseshit.

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It is now the moment when by common consent we pause to become conscious of our national life and to rejoice in it, to recall what our country has done for each of us, and to ask ourselves what we can do for the country in return. ~Oliver Wendall Holmes, Jr.

Two

You men gather round. I've been talking with, Pvt. Bucklin, he's told me about your problem. There's nothing I can do today. We'll be moving out in a few minutes, we'll be moving all day. I've been ordered to take you men with me. I'm told that, uh, that if you don't come, I can shoot you. Well, you know I won't do that. Maybe somebody else will, but I won't, so, that's that. Uh here's the, uh, situation. The whole Reb army is up that road a ways, waiting for us, so this is no time for an argument like this, I tell ya. We could surely use you fellas, we're now well below half strength. Whether you fight, or not, that's...that's up to you. Whether you come along is, is...well, you're comin'.

You know who we are and what we're doing here, but if you want to fight along side us, there's some things I want you to know. This regiment was formed last summer in Maine. There were a thousand of us then. There are less than three hundred of us now. All of us volunteered to fight for the Union, just as you did. Some came mainly because we were bored at home, thought this looked like it might be fun. Some came because we were ashamed not to. Many of us came because it was the right thing to do. All of us have seen men die. This is a different kind of army. If you look back through history, you will see men fighting for pay, for women, for some other kind of loot. They fight for land, power, because a king leads them or, or just because they like killing. But we are here for something new. This has not happened much in the history of the world. We are an army out to set other men free.

America should be free ground - all of it. Not divided by a line between slave state and free, all the way from here to the Pacific Ocean. No man has to bow. No man born to royalty. Here, we judge you by what you do, not by who your father was. Here, you can be something. Here, is the place to build a home. But it's not the land. There's always more land. It's the idea that we all have value - you and me. What we're fighting for, in the end, we're fighting for each other. Sorry, I, uh, didn't mean to preach. You, uh, you go ahead. You talk for awhile. Uh, if you, uh, if you choose to join us, you want your muskets back, you can have 'em. Nothing more will be said by anybody anywhere. If you, uh, choose not to join us, well you can come along under guard, and when this is all over I will do what I can to see you get a fair treatment. But for now, we're moving out. Gentlemen, I think if we lose this fight, we lose the war. So if you choose to join us, I'll be personally very grateful. ~Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, from the film Gettysburg.

No Respect (Independence Day 2026, Two.)

So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel. 

And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word. 

Then Elijah said to the people, “I alone am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. 

Therefore let them give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. 

Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord; and the God who answers by fire, He is God.”

So all the people answered and said, “It is well spoken.”

Now Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it.”

So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying, “O Baal, hear us!” But there was no voice; no one answered. Then they leaped about the altar which they had made.

And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.” So they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. And when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention.

Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Israel shall be your name.” Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord; and he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two cords of seed. And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood, and said, “Fill four water-pots with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood.” Then he said, “Do it a second time,” and they did it a second time; and he said, “Do it a third time,” and they did it a third time. So the water ran all around the altar; and he also filled the trench with water.

And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, “Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.”

Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!”

And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let one of them escape!” So they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Brook Kishon and executed them there. 

~2 Kings 18:20-40

...

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don't do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free. ~Ronald Reagan

I saw this garbage when I got up this morning.

Doug Wilson saying it's Okay that Mormons vote because they vote conservative, but in his idea of an ideal "Christian Republic" such would not be the case because only Calvinist freaks like him should be able to vote.

Never mind that's not even what a Republic is nor is it conservative.

This guy is a preacher about like I'm a fucking Chrome-plated Toaster. This creeper is just another politician, and not a very good one at that. He's a "preacher" because he knows he could never get elected or even appointed the real way.

His bullshit "Beliefs" and the way he talks to or about women would never stand up to public scrutiny, not even with MAGA. I've written about what I found out about this asshole before. Beating your wife with a belt after watching weird BDSM porn and drinking liquor to the point of idiocy ain't what I was taught. I've heard of this dude using language about women that I never heard in the wild until I was an adult serving in the Air Force. But at the same time, it's a safe bet this creep didn't learn to talk that way in the Navy. Language like that would have gotten my mouth washed out with soap if I'd ever used it as a kid.

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."

It's likewise a hard and fast rule with us that if I ever called my partner a "Cunt" first she'd throat punch me and then she'd break up with me. 

And I'd deserve it.

It's a respect issue.

But Doug Wilson talks that way all the time. He doesn't believe in Jesus, he's trying to use Calvinistic fake-Christianity to get "authority" to force women to be sexual slaves to him and abusive men like him. 

He's trying to bring back the Cult Of Baal by hanging a fake sign that says "Jesus" on his fertility demon.

This ain't right.

Just like it ain't right (I mean first off it ain't right that it's there, like I said) that a couple of idiot MAGA CHUDs basically bragged to some reporter about taking a dip in the baptismal pool in Trump's bullshit revival tent. Another thing that would've got somebody beat up and thrown out when I was learning this stuff!

Ya know, another couple of those things my Grandpa taught me were not done in the better places.

But what else would you expect from people who pretty much put a clown suit on and then go out in public and call that some kind of political loyalty??

These Fucking People neither respect others nor even their own damn selves. They don't care that Trump has bottomless contempt for them and pretty much hates them because they hate themselves, deep down.

These Fucking People's ideas of "Conservatism" and "Christianity" bear about as much relation to either in reality as the religion of the cultists in Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom would.

In order to actually function, our system requires that people have some degree of belief in truth, intelligence, bounded self-interest and self-respect. You have to have self-respect to have genuine respect for others. If you are going to say to anybody "You can't do that" first you have to be able to say "I can't do that" and mean it. If you want respect you have to be respectable.

Respect is earned by every action, every day. Unlike Doug Wilson I actually learned that in the military.

And the sycophancy that Trump inspires ain't that. Simpering devotion to Power ain't that.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

And Truth is the only floor most of us will ever have to stand on to push back against Power.

The worst part is, these motherfuckers think they're gonna try to force everybody else to be hateful and miserable bastards like them. No, fuck that. I was taught better than this and I'll die with a rifle in my hand first if I have to. No is a complete sentence. And that goes double for the Doug Wilson types of the world, fuck you, get lost, I'm already a Christian. Don't tread on me with this horseshit!

Not for any particular ideal, but simply because that's not me. That's not the Jesus I was taught to believe in, and again, that shit is not right. This is not ideology, you're either a person or you ain't. You either have beliefs and personal morality or you don't.

In a country with 250 years of alleged faith and history these things should not have to be said, let alone explained in detail.

Remember that, this Independence Day.

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

One

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

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

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

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

Chief Galen Tyrol: Report to stations?

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

American Babylon (Independence Day 2026, One.)

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door! 

~Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus.

...

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

...

We have too many men of science, too few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon On The Mount. The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. ~General Omar Bradley

...

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, Mercedes Schlapp is trying to say that Trump turned the reflecting pool into a green algae swamp to "Honor the heroes who made us free." 

Bitch, I'm a veteran.

#1 I don't WANT to be your hero. There's a very, very small number of people I care about trying to be heroic for, 'cause if there's anything I've learned in the last year it's that a hell of a lot of people (and certainly most "White" people of a certain imagined level of privilege) are just perverse ungrateful shitheads with no values, for absolutely no good reason. But there's still a decent number, at least a plurality, of good people out there and they're the ones I'm willing to fight and die for.

You ain't on that list.

I can't save the world. I figured that out.

But I've managed to help a few people, and got a girlfriend for better and worse.

And you'd have to want to be Saved.

#2 The reflecting pool and every other damn thing was fine before Trump broke it in some half-ass personal vanity project or Republican ideological/moneymaking scam. But I repeat myself. 

#3 The difference between me and you is, I'm brave enough to stand up and say this sucks and it is not right.

You know, it's worth noting that there were great swamps not far from Ancient Babylon, the modern marshes of southern Iraq are what is left of that. 

In Oz, the guards lock the cages and walk away, and the predators rise, take control and make the rules. But in Em City, the guards are with us 24 hours a day. There's no privacy. Everybody sees what everybody's doing. Eyes everywhere. McManus' eyes. See, in Em City, retribution gives way to redemption. Timmy boy believes he can save every one of us, from each other, from ourselves, from the system that dumped us in here. Only thing he don't get is, you gotta wanna be saved. ~Augustus Hill, From the HBO series Oz, S1.E1 "The Routine."

But perhaps more to the point if there's anything we've learned in the last few days it's that there's a too-big percentage of Republicans that not only don't give a shit about anyone's freedom...they're opposed to the entire concept because of some kind of made-up self-important ideological, racial or religious horseshit.

And that's where all this mythologizing garbage comes in.

They have to do it to try and say that Trump is "god" because if they don't do that, they have to admit that he's simply a two-bit greedy thug who sees America and everything about it as his personal piggy-bank to loot or smash as he damn well sees fit in order to try and prove some bullshit idea of "Authority" that only exists in his own bloated, orange-painted head. But nobody, not even his own family loves or respects him. 

The American system constrains Law and use of Force, so all this dude has is an unnatural ability to inspire cultic devotion, thankfully only in a certain type of person.

The problem is, he has a cult, and when all this crap finally falls all the way down...that'll still be 20% of the country just like it was for Bush 43 at the end of October in 2008 when he crashed the US economy so bad it took the rest of the world's economics with it.

And the Truth is, out of the diminishing number of those Republicans that are left (and you have to be a 1000% Trump Ass-kisser at this point to remain in good standing) These Fucking People would all rather watch the world burn than admit they've tried like hell to trade America and the world we live in for a pat on the head from a useless narcissistic shit-bag bully like Trump and to be enablers for the Epstein class and literal worship of demons.

'Cause the real problem is most of them are vain little narcissists too.

I guess "Me, Me, Me" is even how they could square that. I couldn't do it, and the whole idea drove me into Old Testament-grade FURY.

And like my buddy says Trump makes these fucking people feel like high school football players and prom queens again. I don't know, I played football one fall semester and found it boring.

I can't even talk the way these people talk, as a result of all this shit.

And I've seen what the redneck CHUDs do, it disgusts me.

When you could live decent for a year off the sheer scrap-metal value of the 20 dead cars and one motor home in your yard, leeching off your cousin who needs a place to stay because your town is where she found a job...that's a deliberate choice and a special kind of laziness.

What disgusts me even more is the people who should know better that keep going along because they think they will profit from this mess.

We've got to take the neighborhood back. We've got to go in there. Just forget telling your child to go to the Peace Corps. It's right around the corner. It's standing on the corner. It can't speak English. It doesn't want to speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk. "Why you ain't where you is go." I don't know who these people are. And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. Then I heard the father talk. This is all in the house. You used to talk a certain way on the corner and you got into the house and switched to English. Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't land a plane with "why you ain't…". You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. There is no Bible that has that kind of language. Where did these people get the idea that they're moving ahead on this? Well, they know they're not, they're just hanging out in the same place, five or six generations sitting in the projects when you're just supposed to stay there long enough to get a job and move out. ~Bill Cosby, the "Pound Cake" speech.

And that's exactly why as bad shit continues to come out and things keep going sideways (and they will) it will eventually come down to everyone at least says they were against all of this bullshit all along.

Don't tread on me with that bullshit.

They knew what they were doing.

These fucking people will eventually betray Trump and throw him overboard, if he doesn't do it to them first.

I can remember when most Republicans weren't this, or at least had to pretend to be something else.

31 years ago when I took this picture at the KI Sawyer AFB farewell airshow, having gotten lucky enough to have most of the daytime hours off that day, I don't know if the world was necessarily any better but it was at least less fucking stupid.

And yes, it's things like that, which remind me that people like Mercedes Schlapp or Troy Nehls don't give a shit about people like me or anything that our service accomplished.

Which, when I see some idiot Republican literally talking smack about the Statue of Liberty, I wonder just what the fuck I was even doing.

And as we run up to Independence Day and America's 250th anniversary, with an apparent Fyre-festival like collapse waiting in the wings just behind it, all I can do is fight to make sure that when that happens, decent people step up and build something that works instead of allowing the next generation of this garbage to perpetuate itself the second We The People go back to sleep.

America As Babylon is going to fall, soon.

What comes after that is on us.

Enough Is Enough.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

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

Last Post

Charlie White-knife: Do you know what "fiduciary responsibility" means?

Cooper Howard: "Fiduciary responsibility?" No. I have no fucking idea. I play a cowboy for a living.

Charlie White-knife: Okay. So, the US Government has outsourced the survival of the human race to Vault-Tec. Vault-Tec is a private corporation that has a fiduciary responsibility to make money for its investors. And how does it make money? By selling Vaults.

Cooper Howard: That's called "capitalism," Charlie.

Charlie White-knife: But they can't sell Vaults if these peace negotiations go through. So, Vault-Tec has a fiduciary responsibility to make sure that it don't work out.

Cooper Howard: [scoffs] Yeah? How are they gonna do that?

Charlie White-knife: I don't know. But...do you remember that movie we did with Johnny Morton? You were the Sheriff, and I was some generic Indian?

Cooper Howard: Hey come on, don't say that. Tall-hand Mudlake could talk to horses. You played him with grace and dignity. It was a great role for you!

Charlie White-knife: Morton played a rancher who owned half of Missouri. And what happens when the cattle ranchers have more power than the Sheriff?

Cooper Howard: The whole town burns down.

Charlie White-knife: The whole town burns down. Right. Vault-Tec is a trillion-dollar company that owns half of everything, and after ten years of war the US Government is broker than a joke. The cattle ranchers are in charge, Coop. Unless the People do something about it.

Cooper Howard: I guess everything's a conspiracy, right? Come on man, you sound like you're in a cult.

Charlie White-knife: And you're sitting here defending a system that's ready to set the world on fire, Cooper. Maybe you're the one in the cult. 

~Fallout (TV Series) Episode 1.06 "The Trap."