Better Nation? (Election 2026, One.)

The clocks stopped at one seventeen. There was a long shear of bright light, then a series of low concussions. By day the dead impaled on spikes along the road. I think it's October but I can't be sure. I haven't kept a calendar for five years. Each day is more gray than the one before. It is cold and growing colder as the world slowly dies. No animals have survived and all the crops are long gone. Soon all the trees in the world will fall. The roads are peopled by refugees towing carts and gangs carrying weapons, looking for fuel and food. Within a year there was fire on the ridges and deranged chanting. There has been cannibalism. Cannibalism is the great fear. Mostly I worry about food. Always food. Food and the cold and our shoes. Sometimes I tell the boy old stories of courage and justice - difficult as they are to remember. All I know is the child is my warrant and if he is not the word of God, then God never spoke. ~The Man, from Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" (Film.)

...

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

...

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

...

America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. And every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American. Today, we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation's promise through civility, courage, compassion, and character. America, at its best, matches a commitment to principle with a concern for civility. A civil society demands from each of us good will and respect, fair dealing and forgiveness. Some seem to believe that our politics can afford to be petty because, in a time of peace, the stakes of our debates appear small. ~George W. Bush

I keep seeing shit like this.

Christians and Republicans and far more often, a certain type of "Christian" for whom the two words are basically synonymous, we'll call them (as usual) These Fucking People...are getting weird on us. 

Not only, in effect, trying to promote a worldview where the two "worthy" things to be doing are basically fighting or fucking, completely needlessly atavistic view in our modern world. They're pretty much pushing conflict with Muslims on a level that's pretty much schoolyard bullying with a side of political power and vast corruption. I don't know who the hell thinks any of this is "Christian" but I sure don't. I'll note that any time there's a need for actual security they fuck it up, any time there's a real fight, these assholes lose...seemingly on purpose. What that purpose might be, I sure as hell don't know.

Like, over the weekend, the Cryptocurrency markets pretty much got pillaged by *Checks Notes* The North Koreans. The Bored Ape Yacht Club or whatever the fuck they got going now has officially funded the last Stalinist style Communist regime on Earth to the tune of six BILLION dollars.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. ~2 Timothy 4:3

I have to wonder what my late Cryptocurrency-Bro friend Jeffy would think about that. But then, I also have to wonder what he'd have thought of his family trying to describe him as some kind of Christian Conservative political type at his funeral. Bitches, this dude was a Libertarian and smoked so much Weed it was ridiculous. I never heard one damn word about religion...any religion...come out his mouth (or that of any of his family members that I ever met) ever. His preferred topics were rap music, sex, and zombie movies (and TV shows like The Walking Dead.) Occasionally, he'd show up on Saturday morning at my Pastor's house, but usually just when we were blazing it up. 

It honestly pissed me off that anybody tried to make him seem all religious, that was disrespectful to the man I and all my people knew. But then, what These Fucking People say about themselves (let alone others) rarely lines up with reality. These people's "beliefs" about themselves are no more real than a Hologram...or a video game like Bioshock, no more real than the "Wildfire" virus in The Walking Dead.

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.

Or the professed beliefs of a lot of members of our Political Class that America was never really supposed to have. Yeah, I saw that bullshit that Haley Stevens pulled, switching her endorsement from Abdul to Mike Rogers (and torching her political career in the process.)

Look, I'm a conservative Democrat, I very much believe secular liberalism has not met the moment, and yet I still routinely land to the Left of a lot of Democrats on many issues simply because I believe in fighting for your own team, voting with your own team, and watching out for the less fortunate. This is no exception. I hope Haley enjoys her thirty pieces of Silver. It probably won't even do Republicans any damn good. I'll be voting for Abdul simply because I think he'll actually do something, and do it for his own side or even maybe for the people that he represents.

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

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

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

~Malcolm X, Letter following the Hajj.

That seems like it should be a fairly low bar in any kind of civilized society, but what the fuck do I know??

We're at a point where Evangelicals in the United States Of America (I refuse to call them "Christians" at this point) have effectively shown there's no line, morally, they won't cross for political power or simply in a fit of pique or because it's Monday. 

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 get some of them are turning on Trump now...but that's mostly because his policies and politics ended up hurting them, too, or them instead of somebody else they thought he was going to hurt.

They still gleefully aligned themselves with some of the worst fucking people in the world, just because they thought other people would get hurt worse.

I have a partner and a kid to think about, I can't afford to make decisions on that kind of a basis. 

I'll let her be the one who's powered by Spite.

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

Like the other day, Tech Bro billionaire Sam Altman bitched that people like me have RAM in our computers instead of that RAM being in Data Centers serving him. Bitch, if I don't have enough RAM and a computer that works...I can't use your product. I've worked in IT. I worked in IT when Windows 95 was still turning up on people's computers that they brought in. People not having enough RAM to do whatever they were trying to do (and needing me to install more) is not a thing I'm unfamiliar with. 

Most people don't even think about shit like that now since it comes in Gigabytes anymore but I can remember having to read the specs on the side of a box to see if a given game or whatever software would run on my system.

Fuck these motherfuckers. My first computer was a Commodore 64. I used to play Doom with my bros in the Airman's Dorms at KI Sawyer Air Force Base about the time Sam Altman was in the fifth grade, that's how far back I go. I worked my way up. You can pry my RAM (among other things) from my Cold Dead Hands.

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.

And among those other things is a belief that Trump is an Antichrist and a slow-burning RAGE at all these damned "Evangelicals" for basically making Trump (of all fucking people!) their god.

Have fun in Hell, idiots.

I Have Spoken.

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."

There simply is nothing more, let alone anything kinder, to say. 

You gotta want to be Saved.

And you either believe in freedom or you don't.

In 2024 we proved that we were NOT a Better Nation.

In 2026, we take it back.

Vote. Tomorrow.

Слава Україна!

The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well, it's a simple answer after all. You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." There is a point beyond which they must not advance. This is the meaning in the phrase of Barry Goldwater's "peace through strength." Winston Churchill said that "the destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits — not animals." And he said, "There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty. ~Ronald Reagan

Last Post

[Kuiil and Mando have successfully repaired the Razor Crest with the parts recovered from the Jawas]

The Mandalorian: I can't thank you enough. Please allow me to give you a portion of the reward.

Kuiil: I cannot accept. You are my guest, and I am therefore in your service.

The Mandalorian: I could use a crew member of your ability. And I can pay handsomely.

Kuiil: I am honored. But I have worked a lifetime to finally be free of servitude.

The Mandalorian: I understand. Then... all I can offer is my thanks.

Kuiil: And I offer mine. Thank you for bringing peace to my valley. [leaves the ship and mounts his Blurrg; to Mando] And good luck with the Child. May it survive and bring you a handsome reward. I have spoken.

~From the Star Wars series; The Mandalorian, S1.E2 "The Child."

Reagan Wept (American Reformation II, Ten.)

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

...

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 last night.

Dr. Annie Andrews, campaigning in South Carolina. But, at the same time it was the signs behind her that caught my attention. Democrats are currently using *Checks Notes* Republican arguments about cutting costs of living and reducing taxes, and in point of fact they can legitimately do so at this point.

Meanwhile, what have Republicans got? Total outrage that the other team might win, and zero self-reflection on how things got that way, and that about covers it. I mean, I get that Darlene Graham is just a vapid mean-girl bitch appointed to fill a spot on the basis of her name (and that's what Republicans think of us) but come on. I was taught if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything...by Republicans.

Oh, wait, these are the fucking people who've given up every damn thing they ever said they believed for *Checks Notes Again* Donald Trump.

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.

Pardon me if I don't give a fuck what Republicans think about anything anymore.

Apparently, Republicans have reached the "Please Clap" stage, even in Texas.

"I will not trash talk. I will not be a divider in chief or an agitator in chief. I won't be out there blowharding, talking a big game without backing it up. I think the next president needs to be a lot quieter but send a signal that we're prepared to act in the national security interests of this country — to get back in the business of creating a more peaceful world."

[Silence, Mournful Coyote Howl in the night, Silence.]

"Please clap."

~Jeb! Bush, February 2nd, 2016

Can I just say it? Fuck These Motherfuckers. 

I'm sick of this crap, get these fucking people the fuck out of there. Republicans stand for not one damn thing other than that they ought to be in office and have the ability to fuck with your life for no reason, and the only thing they give anybody but themselves [As in Republican political types and their wealthy benefactors] is racism and religion as/and excuses.

Note I say this as a former Republican. We weren't always this.

Abdul El-Sayed at least seems to have a nice, apparently normal family and he has a cat.

I'm an animal guy, my partner is a vet tech. We can get behind that.

The only pet Trump ever had, by comparison, was Lindsey Graham.

Maybe I'm just tired of this shit, and I fully recognize that just getting back to any recognizable form of "Things As They Are/Were" is going to be a long climb, let alone fixing anything. 

I get that Liberals, Leftists and Progressives are gonna be a little bit deflated by that, but functionally we've got to get the lights back on in a number of Federal agencies, find ways to hire back or recall a lot of lost staff, and so on once this is over, before we can even get started. For fuck's sake the FBI and the Military have been gutted, and then there's the fact that we have to basically reconstitute USAID entirely and we're pretty much gonna need USAID for large chunks of the **USA** before we can go back to helping people in Africa and shit.

Not to mention we're gonna need a whole-ass American Reformation just to start to clean up the American Church from what Right-Wing horseshit has done to it. And don't tell me these assholes won't try and fight some bullshit ass War Of Religion to try and stop it, too.

Cuz they will.

Wrecking shit seems to have been the entire point of everything for Republicans.

“The Good of the People was a laudable enough goal, but in denying a man’s soul, an enduring part of his being, Marxism stripped away the foundation of human dignity and individual value. It also cast aside the objective measure of justice and ethics which, he decided, was the principal legacy of religion to civilized life.”
― Tom Clancy, The Hunt for Red October

When is enough going to be enough with tolerating These Fucking People? We've finally reached the point where Liberals are pretty much using recognizable Republican talking points, and Republicans are openly mad as hell that Other People (including their own disaffected base) Exist and get a vote.

Reagan Wept.

You either believe in freedom or you don't, America.

Слава Україна!

From Stettin on the Baltic to Varna on the Black Sea, the regimes planted by totalitarianism have had more than thirty years to establish their legitimacy. But none — not one regime — has yet been able to risk free elections. Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root....If history teaches anything, it teaches self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly....Our military strength is a prerequisite to peace, but let it be clear we maintain this strength in the hope it will never be used, for the ultimate determinant in the struggle that's now going on in the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas, a trial of spiritual resolve, the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish, the ideals to which we are dedicated. ~Ronald Reagan

Nine

The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well, it's a simple answer after all. You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." There is a point beyond which they must not advance. This is the meaning in the phrase of Barry Goldwater's "peace through strength." Winston Churchill said that "the destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits — not animals." And he said, "There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty. ~Ronald Reagan

Trailer Park Byzantium (American Reformation II, Nine.)

 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.

And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

~Isaiah 1:13-17 (KJV)

...

Joe: For the last time, I'm pretty sure what's killing the crops is this Brawndo stuff.

Secretary of State: But Brawndo's got what plants crave. It's got electrolytes.

Attorney General: "So wait a minute. What you're saying is that you want us to put water on the crops.

Joe: Yes.

Attorney General: Water. Like out the toilet?

Joe: Well, I mean, it doesn't have to be out of the toilet, but, yeah, that's the idea.

Secretary of State: But Brawndo's got what plants crave.

Attorney General: It's got electrolytes.

Joe: Okay, look. The plants aren't growing, so I'm pretty sure that the Brawndo's not working. Now, I'm no botanist, but I do know that if you put water on plants, they grow.

Secretary of Energy: Well, I've never seen no plants grow out of no toilet.

Secretary of State: Hey, that's good. You sure you ain't the smartest guy in the world?

Joe: Okay, look. You want to solve this problem. I want to get my pardon. So why don't we just try it, okay, and not worry about what plants crave?

Attorney General: Brawndo's got what plants crave.

Secretary of Energy: Yeah, it's got electrolytes.

Joe: What are electrolytes? Do you even know?

Secretary of State: It's what they use to make Brawndo.

~From the film Idiocracy.

I'm so tired of this crap.

There was a time when I'd reject blanket categorization of people and my hackles would have gone up at the suggestion that Republicans, or Trump Supporters were just overly-religious idiots who'd long since lost the plot on actual Christianity and were just craving a "god" that they could see, because while possessed of an excess of religiosity, they have no FAITH worthy of using that word to describe it.

But then, it's the Trump Supporters themselves who go out of their way to prove that part of my brain wrong, to earn the scorn, and the stereotype.

I'll give some of them the benefit of the doubt and say that any faith they may have once had was long ago hollowed out and replaced with other things.

The trouble is they weren't unwilling participants in whatever it was, they gleefully went along.

They willingly chose Trump as their fake deity.

And when God judges America (and them) because of it, they will try to deny that too, just like they did COVID-19, the 2020 election and (apparently) the Ukraine war.

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 are people who are gonna make the bad choice every single time they are given that option.

Trump is pretty much reduced to nonsense, bragging about the kind of cognitive tests doctors use to track obviously-failing dementia patients and talking about other men's asses.

And These Fucking People still clap like trained seals. 

Fuck, in a rare moment of lucidity and his customary fire, Trump himself pointed out exactly that awhile back.

I mean personally I don't think Trump is smart or ever has been, but he used to have an animal cunning for being a con artist (or a salesman) and a rabid damn genius for self-promotion. His "empire" has always been overhyped, shabby, shambolic, and stupid.

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

I say that as somebody who freaking went to one of his casinos in Atlantic City once in 1993, on a weekend leave at the end of the last part of USAF Security Police tech school, Airbase Defense training at Fort Dix, New Jersey. 

The main thing I remember not only about the Trump Taj Mahal or whatever one it was was that every damn thing was gross and sticky and the place smelled like an old ashtray, and some 40-something old lady (I was freaking 19, Okay?) who was wearing a cowboy hat and smoking Virginia Slims started chatting me up and really wanted to hook up with me. I sort-of was still involved with a girl back home in Michigan who I rather liked. So, I was very politely like "No, but thanks, Ma'am."

We weren't there for long and my one bro smartass Latino bro who I'd also gone through BMT with kept giving me shit about that lady, doing a dead-on impression of that 1980's McDonalds "Where's The Beef?" commercial because he thought she looked or sounded like the old lady in that, and I can't blame him and it kinda was funny.

But now, after a decade of Trump and these fucking people being in politics I don't think anything about this mess is funny and it's progressed well past just disgusting to being fucking depraved and downright Evil.

At some event, some guy got a photo op with Vivek Ramaswamy and on video, instead of "say cheese" or some bullshit line, said "Say pedophile."

Vivek, of course, reacted negatively to this, never mind he deserved it.

At some rally today another dude was like "I was too young for Jonestown so I just wanted to see what a cult was like up close."

Republicans, of course, are mad cuz there is resistance to their bullshit.

“The Good of the People was a laudable enough goal, but in denying a man’s soul, an enduring part of his being, Marxism stripped away the foundation of human dignity and individual value. It also cast aside the objective measure of justice and ethics which, he decided, was the principal legacy of religion to civilized life.”
― Tom Clancy, The Hunt for Red October

They wanna say shit like "God is using Trump." But then they get kinda mad when you say God might be using Trump to expose how morally bankrupt they and their "political philosophy" are.

At this point as far as I'm concerned what's left of the Republican Party is about exactly as godless as the Atheistic Soviet Communism they keep fearmongering about, with more than a slight hint of nostalgia. More to the point, Republicans did this bullshit to themselves.

They'd rather fight about cheesecake than fix all the problems they caused.

They sold out the legacy of Ronald Reagan for cheap grace, magic beans and racism and then slapped a Saddam Hussein-like level of gold paint on it and tried to call it a new American "Christian" Empire complete with a godless "Caesar" who had appointed Himself their Divinity, a Trailer Park Byzantium if you will. 

Half the Democratic candidates in the midterms are freaking obvious Christians, even a lot of the non-Christians are religious, and Republicans act like they're facing the Spawn Of The Devil. And then these ass-clowns wonder why I say we need an American Reformation? 

They'd rather claim Trump is being "Used by God" (as if that means anything) than make even the least bit of effort to follow the Lord's Word themselves.

I'm tired of this shit.

Nothing that they call "Christianity" or think Trump does has the slightest bit to do with Jesus or His Word.

The only time they care about any of that stuff is when they can use it to hurt people.

Either you Believe, or you don't.

If you don't it's Okay, this is America and it's the 21st Century. 

No one really cares, I'm serious.

But don't follow an Antichrist like Trump and then act like you should be treated like some big wheel in the Brotherhood at First Baptist of Booty Poke, Mississippi.

One of these things is not like the other one.

The Lord's Word itself says religiosity or worshipfulness for its own sake, especially directed improperly or to Idols, is bad.

Being "Religious" is not going to get you into Heaven. I've been hearing this almost my whole life, until just the last couple of years.

Now many of the same people, these Evangelicals and Fundamentalist nuts are just like "Be Religious, follow the crowd and the Power Structure, serve the Empire, it'll be fine."

No, it won't. I'm a Believer. 

Empire isn't what I follow, only God and my own conscience. I don't need or want some self-appointed jerkoff of a "father-figure" to feel like a complete human being.

And perhaps more to the point, the idea that these idiots think they're going to go to Heaven and then spend an Eternity of Peace and Blessedness with Donald Trump sounds like its own special kind of Hellfire.

Remember that.

Because this is going to be the Afterlife for some people, not because God is a vindictive asshole, but because it's what they're choosing.

I say "No." I already had a God and it wasn't Trump.

I'm so tired of this crap.

But we have to be the ones to make it stop.

Remember that, too.

Слава Україна!

From Stettin on the Baltic to Varna on the Black Sea, the regimes planted by totalitarianism have had more than thirty years to establish their legitimacy. But none — not one regime — has yet been able to risk free elections. Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root....If history teaches anything, it teaches self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly....Our military strength is a prerequisite to peace, but let it be clear we maintain this strength in the hope it will never be used, for the ultimate determinant in the struggle that's now going on in the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas, a trial of spiritual resolve, the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish, the ideals to which we are dedicated. ~Ronald Reagan

Eight

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. ~2 Timothy 4:3

The Cheesecake Wars (American Reformation II, Eight.)

Tiberias: Guy de Lusignan and Reynauld de Chatillon, with the Templars... have attacked a Saracen caravan.

Crusaders: Liar!

Tiberias: Silence!

Bishop, Patriarch of Jerusalem: It was no caravan. It was an army headed for Bethlehem to desecrate the birthplace of our Lord!

Tiberias: Reynauld, with the Templars, have broken the king's pledge of peace. Saladin will come into this kingdom...

Guy de Lusignan: Tiberias knows more than a Christian should about Saladin's intentions.

Tiberias: [Walks up to him] That I would rather live among men than kill them, is certainly why YOU are still alive.

Guy de Lusignan: [Chuckles] That sort of Christianity has its uses, I suppose...

Tiberias: We must not go to war with Saladin! We do not want it, and we may not win it.

Bishop, Patriarch of Jerusalem: Blasphemy! [All crusaders burst repeating in unison] An army of Jesus Christ, which bears his holy cross, cannot be beaten!

Hospitaller: Does the count of Tiberias suggest that it could be?

Bishop, Patriarch of Jerusalem: There must be war. God wills it! [All crusaders burst repeating in unison and King Baldwin IV raises a hand for silence]

Tiberias: Silence!

King Baldwin IV: Saladin has crossed the Jordan with 200,000 men.

Tiberias: He will make first for Kerak and Reynald de Chatillon. [Walks up to King Baldwin IV] My lord...

King Baldwin IV: We must meet him before he reaches Kerak. I will lead the army.

Tiberias: My lord, if you travel, you'll die.

King Baldwin IV: Send word to Balian to protect the villagers. Assemble the army! [Crusaders excitedly roar]

~From the film Kingdom Of Heaven.

...

[After the Saracen army withdraws from its attack on Kerak]

Imam: Why did you retire? Why? God did not favor it. God alone determines the results of battles.

Saladin: The results of battles are determined by God...but also by preparation, numbers, the absence of disease and the availability of water. One cannot maintain a siege with the enemy behind. How many battles did God win for the Muslims before I came? That is, before God determined I should come.

Imam: Few enough. That's because we were sinful

Saladin: [Scoffs] It is because you were unprepared.

Imam: If you think that way, you shall not be king for long.

Saladin: When I am not king, I quake for Islam.

~From the film Kingdom Of Heaven.

...

And let’s be honest, does anybody really think this guy in the White House right now is spending all that time thinking about these issues? I mean, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he seems very focused on home renovations. He should be on HGTV. Guy’s building a ballroom that’s bigger than the White House. He’s paved over the Rose Garden. Put a helicopter pad on the South Lawn, and there’s gold everywhere. What’s up with the gold? Everything, more gold. He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. Just gold everywhere. … So, he’s clearly not focused on lowering prices for you. ~Barack Obama

...

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

It's still going; The Cheesecake War, I mean.

In a twist that should surprise absolutely no one, Trump has invested in Cheesecake Factory.

Oops. ETTD. (Everything Trump Touches Dies) Have Fun With That.

Needless to say that's not the only pointless culture war crap These Fucking People are throwing at the wall and hoping it sticks.

You have to understand where I live though. I'm in northeast Michigan 2 hours from the nearest freeway in either direction and there's still more Abdul signs than Mike Rogers signs.

(Note: There's 2 or 3 Muslim people in this town that I know of who aren't just passing through-a lot of transients, though-and the ones who live here all work at the hospital. There is a bigger Baha'i community than that here, for what it's worth.)

The Holy Quran says it, "Pilgrimage to the House [of God built by the prophet Abraham] is a duty men owe to God; those who are able, make the journey." (3:97) Allah said: "And proclaim the pilgrimage among men; they will come to you on foot and upon each lean camel, they will come from every deep ravine" (22:27). Every one of the thousands at the airport, about to leave for Jeddah, was dressed this way. You could be a king or a peasant and no one would know. Some powerful personages, who were discreetly pointed out to me, had on the same thing I had on. Once thus dressed, we all had begun intermittently calling out "Labbayka! (Allahumma) Labbayka!" (Here I come, O Lord!) Packed in the plane were white, black, brown, red, and yellow people, blue eyes and blond hair, and my kinky red hair -- all together, brothers! All honoring the same God, all in turn giving equal honor to each other. . . .That is when I first began to reappraise the "white man." It was when I first began to perceive that "white man," as commonly used, means complexion only secondarily; primarily it described attitudes and actions. In America, "white man" meant specific attitudes and actions toward the black man, and toward all other non-white men. But in the Muslim world, I had seen that men with white complexions were more genuinely brotherly than anyone else had ever been. That morning was the start of a radical alteration in my whole outlook about "white" men. ~Malcolm X.

Nobody who wasn't already going to vote Republican cares about all this Ooga Booga Booga crazy shit Republicans keep saying about Abdul. Hell, the one person this whole season who's said anything to me along the lines of this kind of shit specifically said they liked Haley Stevens and that was who they were voting for in the primary. Saw the same guy the other day (He quit where I work, but still shops there) and he was wearing a "Fuck Trump" T-shirt. No, bigotry is not strictly a Republican thing...but I don't see it getting any Democrats to cross over because of it.

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.

Yes, I think Trump and Republicans have fucked up on affordability and economic issues that damn bad. Sorry, but bigotry is a luxury good for most people. It doesn't matter worth a damn if they're struggling to put food on the table.

And that's before you get to shit like *Checks Notes* The Epstein Files.

I'm not the only one who doesn't even recognize the Republican Party anymore, either.

I'm not the only one who is massively tired of this crap.

And I'm far from the only one who's losing my ass financially, or going to, if this shit persists too much longer.

And I think Republicans overestimated the number of people who were willing to lose their ass supporting rich Demon-worshipers and pedophiles or the number of "Christians" willing to submit themselves to the prophets of Baal, so long as Black People suffered more. I mean, at the end of the day for a lot of folks voting against this garbage is coming down to basic self-defense. 

I mean, I figured out going on 20 years ago that Republicans were like this but even I didn't think it was anywhere near this damn bad. (And I thought it was pretty damn bad.)

Republicans started relying on Political Cultism to get them over the line.

(Without making any serious attempt to get anybody else to join the Political Cult.)

And then they made the ability to be able to afford to be a Political Cultist itself into a luxury good. The only Trump flag I still see around here is on a million dollar lake house over on US 23 along the lake, and it's furled so you have to look to see it's there.

So that's who's still MAGA.

Meanwhile I'm broke, my partner is broke, everybody that I know is broke. We can't afford that shit.

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

Did they think the rest of us were just gonna die off, or something??

I mean, yeah, pretty much.

Netanyahu came right out and said he only thought extreme Zionists who agreed with him should have been treated as citizens.

I'm tired of these people and their mentality that they should only have to serve those they want to serve.

If you don't want to be a leader of all of your people or serve all of the public in your country, don't become a national leader. Just get in office in some other capacity and stay there. 

I mean, fuck, if Trump had just run for the House or Senate in 2016 he'd certainly have won his race. We'd probably have had 8 successful years of a Hillary Clinton presidency and be 2 years into President Tim Kaine...and Rep. or Senator Trump would probably still have himself a political empire and neither term limits nor much in the way of constraints and he could monetize being a "Lifestyle Brand For Assholes" basically indefinitely without much in the way of a political backlash. 

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

Dude could be Speaker of the House right now, still making trouble for everybody else, and be Newt Gingrich (or Mike Johnson) on fucking steroids and not be looking at a very likely either Impeachment, Revolution or vastly more insidiously slow Political Destruction as Democrats dismantle his political apparatus from the bottom up or the middle out.

Again I'll note for example; Rush Limbaugh never ran for office. So far Tucker Carlson hasn't either.

But that's apparently not good enough for most of these idiots. 

At that level, exercising Power requires a little bit of intelligence.

And it's not the world these motherfuckers want to live in.

Newt Gingrich, for all of his faults, could (at that point at least) still talk to people and make a persuasive case for whatever.

That's too much work for Republicans now.

It didn't exactly hurt Newt that Bill Clinton's whole bit and most of his coalition were limousine liberals who were enthusiastically in bed with the "Tech Bros" of the day and even though pretty much everybody was still making money (Adjusted for things, my best year was basically 1997-1998.) But just like now most people could see that it was a big club and they wasn't in it, and there was a lot of resentment for that.

These conditions have existed for a long time.

Trump has, in fact, been the Moral Relativism and Situational Ethics of the "Liberal" Clinton years on fucking steroids.

Brothers and sisters, please quiet down. Thank you.

We come here time after time and we talk about the same old same old.

Hey, quiet down.
- We talk about Jesus. - That's right.
Jesus said and Jesus wept.
Jesus heard and Jesus walked over.
I don't wanna talk about Jesus.
Cos as the big man teaches us, there's two sides to every story.
Not one but two. A story is not one-sided.
A story has duality. There's two sides to every story.
Which brings to mind the phrase "necessary evil".
I know many of you hear that phrase and say,
"That don't even make no sense to me.
"Can't be no such thing as necessary - how's evil necessary?
"That don't match. That's plaids and stripes, evil and necessary."
You see, because without bad, there is no good.
Without light, there is no dark, you need both these things.
You hear what I'm saying?
If every day is a sunny day, well, then, what's a sunny day?
Well, the bottom line, what I'm trying to tell you tonight,
is that evil...evil... is necessary.
Evil is necessary, thereby, if it's necessary, evil...
- Evil... -must be good.
Evil is good.
That's what I think. Evil must be good, must be good.
- Let me hear y'all say it... - Evil is good.

Evil is good. Take Brother Brown, one of our strongest deacons, pillar of stability.
Brother Brown was on Bushwick Avenue last night with a two-dollar ho.
When you tell your wife, "I'm going to see Mama," then you go get you a two-dollar ho, that's evil.
But Brother Brown had a good time with that two-dollar ho.
You can push a two-dollar ho and she don't have no limits!
Evil and good walk hand in hand. - Evil is as evil does. 

I know many of y'all may be saying, "How can he say ass is good?"
How y'all think y'all got here?
Ass is good! Evil's good and ass is good.
And if you get you a piece of evil ass...Woo!

~Maximilian The Vampire (As Preacher Paulie) from A Vampire In Brooklyn.

And it's good that the Brazilians saw this coming with Bolsonaro Junior, that he'd probably be a total repeat of his dad being in office, and told him to go fuck himself.

Unfortunately, now we're stuck with that asshole.

I mean, it's a pretty safe bet that Republican are gonna destroy themselves before Flava Flav Bolsonaro can be of much use to them, unless they really do intend to try to break off Florida or part of it to be "their" country (and thus they can set their own terms RE: "Citizenship") but here we are.

It's the Cheesecake Wars and that shit is exactly as stupid as it sounds.

It's a good thing Republicans are losing, but we shouldn't have gotten here in the first place.

Republicans have come a long way. A long way DOWN.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Слава Україна!

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

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

I touch the name Andrew Johnson; 

I see the booby trap's white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman's blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.
Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's
wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet's image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I'm a window.
He's lost his right arm
inside the stone. In the black mirror
a woman’s trying to erase names:
No, she's brushing a boy's hair.

~Facing It, by Yusef Komunyakaa, US Army Veteran

Seven

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