Crab Bucket Religion (Scenes From The Fall, Two.)

The Nameless One: FALL-FROM-GRACE.

Fall-From-Grace: Your voice - so you have found yourself at last?

The Nameless One: YES. THE PRICE WAS... HIGH. THE COST WAS MANY LIFETIMES, MINE AND OTHERS.

Fall-From-Grace: The price of such thing is seldom measured in copper. Are you still...

The Nameless One: I AM STILL THE ONE YOU KNOW, BUT MY PERSPECTIVE HAS... CHANGED. I HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN YOU, IF THAT IS YOUR FEAR.

Fall-From-Grace: No, that was not my fear.

The Nameless One: I CANNOT REMAIN HERE FOR MUCH LONGER. MY PUNISHMENT CALLS, AND FATE AND TIME SHALL SOON BE HERE. I WILL RETURN YOU TO SIGIL IF YOU WISH.

Fall-From-Grace: That is not my wish. I *Will* find you again, no matter where in Lower Planes you will be - just as you shall be able to find me.

The Nameless One: IT MAY BE A LONG TIME. WHERE I AM BOUND, TIME IS NOT MEASURED IN YEARS, AND THE CRIMES I COMMITTED ARE STRONGER THAN ANY CAGE.

Fall-From-Grace: No cage shall separate us, and no Plane shall divide us. Keep thinking of me, and we shall meet again.

The Nameless One: I SHALL NOT FORGET ALL YOU SACRIFICED FOR ME.

Fall-From-Grace: Just do not forget me.

The Nameless One: TIME LAYS WASTE TO ALL THINGS. BUT I SHALL FIGHT IT AS LONG AS I CAN.

Fall-From-Grace: Time is not your enemy. Forever is.

The Nameless One: PERHAPS SO. FAREWELL, GRACE.

~From the video game Planescape: Torment.

...

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 yesterday.

People are starting to predict a major stock-market crash.

Actually, if we're being serious, people are starting to predict a general collapse. A collapse of MAGA, Trump, various levels of Republican Power and, if we're being honest, of America itself.

I'm gonna take the step of adding One More Damn Thing.

Yes, I know, nobody wants to hear One More Damn Thing right now, too bad.

Especially if it gets...well, honestly, even 10% as bad as some of the people I interact with are saying it might, you're gonna need to hear it, and listen.

I think there's going to be a great Apostasy in American Christianity, if there hasn't already been one 'cause of all this Trump garbage, that is.

I think, if the situation becomes such that in order to survive, people are gonna have to do, ya know, the Christian thing...like help and love their neighbors and shit, be accepting of other people, care for the poor, share what they have, etc. A lot of people just...won't. COVID-19 was a fucking prequel.

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

And because, honestly, people (religious and otherwise) are going to have to band together and work together to maintain the shit they have, or even just survive...those churches that are communities and that care for people will naturally find ways to do better than the ones that are not and do not. Lots of churches are just entertainment or glorified social clubs. At the end of the day you can Jesus it up all you want...but if people aren't actually working together and feeding their neighbors, you still gonna be hungry.

And if shit gets really bad, well, hate and mental issues and narcissism will just get a bunch of people killed, I'm afraid things will weed out really fast.

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.)

If everything is a Crab Bucket, most of the crabs ain't going anywhere but the cookpot.

This is by design, designed by people like Billionaires and current "Republicans" who have nothing but bad intentions.

The McCarthy quote is there for a fucking reason, there's going to be a lot of those people, too, almost especially if things get really bad. The ones I call the Baal worshipers. Yes, I guarantee you that shit will become an "Organized Religion" very quickly, deranged chanting and all.

Crab mentality or crabs in a bucket (also barrel, basket or pot), is a way of thinking best described by the phrase "if I can't have it, neither can you." The metaphor refers to a pattern of behavior noted in crabs when they are trapped in a bucket. While any one crab could easily escape, its effort will be undermined by others, ensuring the group's collective demise.

And the thing you have to remember is for a lot of people it's already crabs all the way down.

Call it a century of ignorant Fundamentalist horseshit, call it 35 years of obnoxious-ass right-wing talk-radio. Call it generalized American arrogance and narcissism if you want.

The end result is the same.

Crab Bucket Religiosity.

America Is Babylon.

You can slap Jesus on that all you want. It don't matter.

I mean for fuck's sake a good portion of the Old Testament concerns observant Believers (such as they were at the time) in places like Babylon and Sodom.

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)

America under Trump has tried to become an Empire, failed, and become Babylon and Sodom. And it was because of the Republicans, not the Gay people. I've been writing this for literally the whole time.

And it's Falling.

Whether it's fire from the sky or collapse that's either gradual or rapid, or whatever, that's the Truth.

The title of this series is not an accident, nor I believe is my timing in writing it.

And when the shit hits the fan...

When being an Ameri-evangelical is no longer a source of narcissistic fuel or privilege, a lot of people just won't be.

If you don't think Those Fucking People won't start with whatever Devil or Idol Of Gold offers them their Fix first...you're wrong.

In fact I'd argue that's how we got Trump in the first place: A general lack of actual Belief. IN the Church. People wanted a "god" they could see.

Oh, sure, when it all goes sideways and survival comes down to rejecting this crap or not; Some will figure it out and play well with others just so they can eat or just play along and whatever in order to survive. Don't begrudge those people because at least they're not hurting anything and they're still just...people. That's not the problem.

Brother Cavil/Number One: In all your travels, have you ever seen a star go supernova?

Ellen Tigh: No.

Number One: No? Well, I have. I saw a star explode and send out the building blocks of the Universe. Other stars, other planets and eventually other life. A supernova! Creation itself! I was there. I wanted to see it and be part of the moment. And you know how I perceived one of the most glorious events in the universe? With these ridiculous gelatinous orbs in my skull! With eyes designed to perceive only a tiny fraction of the EM spectrum. With ears designed only to hear vibrations in the air.

Ellen Tigh: The five of us designed you to be as human as possible.

Number One: I don't want to be human! I want to see gamma rays! I want to hear X-rays! And I - I want to - I want to smell dark matter! Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can't even express these things properly because I have - I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid limiting spoken language! But I know I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws; and feel the solar wind of a supernova flowing over me. I'm a machine, and I can know much more. I can experience so much more. But I'm trapped in this absurd body. And why?! Because my five creators thought that "God" wanted it that way.

~From Battlestar Galactica (2003) S4.E17 "No Exit."

 

The problem is it'll come down to...call it 20% of America that, well, that's simply not the world they want to live in.

If we ever want things to go back to being at least somewhat decent, stopping those people is going to come down to a fight one way or another.

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

I have a partner and a kid, a family to think about. I already know which side I have to be on.

I bet a lot of the rest of ya'll do too.

Слава Україна!

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

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

Andor: Is that the best you got?

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

[repeats it multiple times as he leaves the command center]

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

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

One

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

Gravediggers (Scenes From The Fall, One.)

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains, and the women come out to cut up what remains
just roll on your rifle and blow out your brains
and go to your Gawd like a soldier
  -- Rudyard Kipling

...

Fall-From-Grace: It is difficult to separate shadows from the darkness here. This is not a place meant for the living.

The Transcendent One: AH... THE TANAR'RI.

Fall-From-Grace: So, you are the spider that lies in the center of it all. I have many questions that you could answer. Your goals in this matter have not been entirely clear.

The Transcendent One: MY GOALS ARE NOT FOR YOU TO KNOW, FALLEN TANAR'RI. MY INDULGENCE IS ALL THAT KEEPS YOUR BLACK HEART BEATING IN YOUR CHEST; YOU MAY LEAVE WITH YOUR LIFE NOW... IF YOU WILL.

Fall-From-Grace: My heart is neither black nor do I fear for my life. My companions, my friends, are here in your Fortress. I shall not leave until we are rejoined and the man we follow has resolved this matter to a satisfactory conclusion.

The Transcendent One: THERE IS *NO* SATISFACTORY CONCLUSION TO THIS FOOL'S ERRAND. YOU WILL LEAVE THIS PLACE, AND YOU SHALL LEAVE YOUR UNDYING COMPANION HERE. FEAR NOT FOR HIS LIFE. THE ONLY PRICE HE SHALL PAY IS THE LOSS OF MEMORY.

Fall-From-Grace: As gracious as your offer is, I must refuse your offer to abandon my friends. As for the 'small' price he will pay at your hands, it is the equivalent of death to him. I have traveled with this man for some time, and there are many things I do not wish him to forget.

The Transcendent One: HE WILL FORGET. IT IS HIS FATE TO REMAIN IGNORANT. HE WILL FORGET YOU, TANAR'RI, JUST AS HE HAS FORGOTTEN ALL WHO HAVE WALKED THE PATH OF MISERY WITH HIM. HE EXISTS TO DIE, FORGET, AND DIE AGAIN. HE IS *NOTHING*.

Fall-From-Grace: That is *your* judgment. The fact remains that I do not wish him to forget me, nor all that he has struggled for to reach this place. He has suffered much, and I find my sympathies lie with him rather than the arrogant creature that postures before me and fights as a *coward* fights, preferring to kill from a distance where his opponent cannot reach him. You shall torment him no more.

The Transcendent One: TANAR'RI... PERHAPS YOU DOUBT MY POWERS HERE, IN THIS PLACE. A DEMONSTRATION MAY SILENCE YOUR DOUBT.

Fall-From-Grace: You have done enough harm - prepare yourself! (casting)

The Transcendent One: YOU ARE NOTHING. I CAN FORGE PLANES WITH MY POWER - I CAN UNMAKE YOU. 

~From the video game Planescape: Torment.

...

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

I saw this yesterday.

In Yemen, the Houthis just successfully launched a major assault against one of the other major factions, gaining full control of the islands in the Bab-El-Mandeb strait, and the entire Red Sea coast. They're also holding their own against major offensives by the rump Yemeni government and the Saudis and have damaged (and forced the shutdown of) a major Saudi oil pipeline. They've also looted a shit-ton of US-made, Saudi-provided weapons from the armories of the faction they defeated, the Yemeni National Resistance. And 'cause of the capture of the port city of Mocha and the nearby islands, they control the Red Sea chokepoint, too.

All things considered, the situation reminds me all too much of August, 2021, except that nobody took the time to sabotage the gear left behind. It's likely there simply wasn't time.

Afghanistan fell apart so quickly the allies couldn't react in time.

This time around we're too heavily engaged and tied down attacking Iran, which is just another reason why that whole mess was a royally stupid idea. And as a result, we don't have any allies, only co-conspirators, and of course Israel isn't going to help us.

Except that it's not the Afghan government that's in the hot seat, it's the Saudis, and by extension the Israelis and the USA that are all in the crosshairs.

If you're not willing to fight for it, take the word 'Freedom' out of your vocabulary. ~Malcolm X.

Our government in general and the Republican Party in particular seem to have lost the confidence of even their own supporters, and the November midterm elections are widely expected to be a bloodbath as a result (and rightly so.)

Republican Senators like Roger Marshall are getting booed by their own supporters at their own events. They don't understand why regular people don't like their BS. Apparently Roger Marshall sued patients for unpaid bills as small as $101...when it'd be cheaper to write it off 'cause then they don't have to pay lawyers.

It's not about the money, it's about the cruelty. It's about that the only "beliefs" or "values" modern "Conservatives" have are in cruelty, profit, and slavery.

I've written about this shit, and it doesn't matter if it's people like Senator Roger Marshall or redneck MAGA Welfare people like my partner's idiot cousins. Any Republican that's still in the tank for Trump and/or the Republican Party should be assumed to be like this, to, fundamentally be a person who wants to have slaves.

They were offered better than that, they said no.

"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. Crickets Chirping, Sad Trombone Noise.]
"Please clap."

~Jeb! Bush, February 2nd, 2016

And they have the balls to (willfully, on purpose and with malice aforethought) refuse to understand why anybody would have a problem with that. I'll further note that it's people like *Checks Notes* Roger Marshall, who've spent most of the last ten or eleven years not doing very much, that are suddenly all-in on MAGA even as most of the MAGA's are heading for the exits.

I'm so tired of this fucking shit, I'm so tired of These Fucking People.

And apparently, at this point, I'm not the only one.

I mean, for fuck's sake, Ken Paxton is being referred to as a "Toilet" by his own former supporters in Texas.

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.

I mean how bad do you have to fuck up Texas, as a Republican, to lose Texas Republicans??

Honestly at this point the average Republican voter literally can't afford to keep voting Republican. That's basically how bad it is, at least here. The only place where you see any Republican campaign signs that I've observed so far is along Lake Huron where all the rich people live.

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)

The MAGA dead-enders and die-hards have been quiet and sullen for over a year in my experience.

The Born-Again Anti-Trump Republicans are pretty much starting to make that shit their whole identity.

And if you don't think this could end us up with President Tucker Carlson and Vice President Marjorie Taylor Greene...well you ain't been paying attention.

I mean, strong-as-fuck chance that the House pretty much stays Democratic-majority for another 40-year stretch at the rate current Republicans are fucking up. But if you don't think the MTG and Tucker people have at least a few valid points (especially concerning Israel) and that Democrats, especially leadership, has not thoroughly fucked that issue up for themselves already, you're wrong.

And I can already tell you how that'll play with a lot of the Third-Party and Leftist wannabes and wonks that have a strong presence here in Michigan. These are people who have no vested interest in the outgoing American "Empire."

Carlson in particular knows both sides of the game and on both CNN and FOX News he made his money by being a gadfly, by being that asshole, that smug punchable face. And he ain't Trump, he ain't secretly or otherwise gonna care if you like him. In fact he'd probably rather that you don't.

Most people, be they Democrats or Republicans, are well aware they're getting screwed...and people who went whole-hog on Trump are realizing that racism doesn't pay the bills and Black people aren't going to do...whatever they thought Black people were going to do, and that they can't make that happen either.

And especially as the cost of gas and groceries goes up, they're going to take it out on Trump and a lot of these Republicans...who've basically tried to make it so if they go down, so does America.

I'm a veteran, and I'm here to tell you that the fall of Afghanistan wrecked Biden's presidency for a hell of a lot of people. I'm also going to straight-up say that just what we know about the Iran War so far has likewise wrecked Trump with anybody who knows anything, no matter how Republican they were before.

Guys like Ken Paxton, Roger Marshall? They're just wrecking the brand even more, now. The next tranche of conservatives will be different. I'm not saying they'll be any better, just they'll be different.

For Republicans it's not just "October 2008" levels of bad, it's been there for awhile.

And so tomorrow, as we take the campaign South and West, as we learn that the struggles of the textile workers in Spartanburg are not so different than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas; that the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of L.A.; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people, we are one nation. And, together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story, with three words that will ring from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea: Yes, we can. ~Barack Obama

One way or another, the Empire is falling. Not "It's going to Fall" it's "We're already there."

And Trump is less a Caesar than like the "Little Augustus" who presided over the Fall Of Rome.

Well guess what? There's a whole bunch of Barbarian Kings that'd gladly serve as his replacement. There's a whole bunch of gravediggers who'd love to take this mess as a chance to bury the American Experiment forever.

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

Last Post

"The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride."

~Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly 25 February 2022, Associated Press

Terrorists (9/11, 25 Years Later, Two.)

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

...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As we mourn the loss of thousands of our citizens...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Bush, we can't hear you!

BUSH: I can hear you!

(APPLAUSE)

I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you. And the people...

(APPLAUSE)

And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.

(APPLAUSE)

CROWD: USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

BUSH: The nation -- the nation sends its love and compassion. And everybody that is here, thank you for your hard work. Thank you for making the nation proud, and may God bless America!

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP) ~Via CNN Transcripts.

It's 9/11.

I remember, oh yes, I do.

I remember everything about that day, especially that morning.

Some images are seared into the mind over time whether you want them to be or not.

I remember, as a United States Air Force security forces veteran, the cold grim certainty that someone was going to pay for this, the feeling that once we knew who, it was on like Donkey Kong.

Classes were canceled, I went about my day as best I could, went to work, came home, chatted with the girlfriend. I remember the spicy pics she sent me because I somehow managed to make her feel better.

Oh yes, I remember and I've written perhaps too much about over the years.

I remember the feeling, so brief it turned out, of common purpose, of national unity, of people going about their days and refusing to be terrorized, the certain refusal on the part of even many conservatives, Republicans, to blame all of Islam for the actions of at most a few dozen men in total.

America counts millions of Muslims amongst our citizens, and Muslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our country. Muslims are doctors, lawyers, law professors, members of the military, entrepreneurs, shopkeepers, moms, and dads, and they need to be treated with respect. In our anger and emotion, our fellow Americans must treat each other with respect. ~George W. Bush, remarks at the Islamic Center of Washington DC, September 2001.

Oh yes, I remember.

And, If you would have told me a generation ago that in the year 2026, that Republicans would angrily be trying to finish the work Osama Bin Laden started, and doing in the name of Donald Trump...and his angry, declining personality cult...I'd probably have punched you right in the mouth.

I'm tired.

Fuck this stupid bullshit.

But I can't give up.

Fuck that even harder.

I have a partner and a kid to think about and if you don't think that crosses my mind every minute of every damn day with all this crazy shit going on, you're wrong.

Everybody that I know is struggling, everybody that I know is tired.

But we can't quit.

Because they won't.

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.

Yeah, that's right, there's a small minority of activist fascistic Republicans who seem energized by all this constant crazy shit, who did about everything but engage in ecstatic, orgiastic worship of Trump these last few days, in a "Convention" the vast majority of people looked at and saw nothing but a massive soup sandwich, the kind of shit that would make Ronald Reagan rise from the grave and go change his party registration back to Democratic.

I Have Spoken.

No arguing.

No debate.

Enough is enough with this ridiculous horseshit.

Republicans don't give a good goddamn about America, they don't give a good goddamn about conservatism, Christianity, any of the things they've claimed as excuses and rationalizations and anybody who actually believed in any of that stuff is being given the old heave-ho right out the door as quickly as they can be discovered, and it doesn't even matter how hard-right you were before. I mean for fuck's sake I used to be a Republican!

These motherfuckers just wanna shoot people.

Like they're fuckin' Russians or something.

"The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride."

~Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly 25 February 2022, Associated Press

You want to stop this mess? Eventually, it's going to come down to a fight.

And I'm here to tell you, had These Fucking People been These Fucking Peopled this bad in 2001, the motherfuckers would have all gone and signed up with Radical Islam back then, too. They just didn't have the guts, or Trump enabling them to be the worst version of their worst possible selves at the time.

Trump gives them that, and while many have gotten tired, found the whole mess unsustainable, or just plain couldn't afford it...there are still those, maybe up to 20% of this whole damn country, that are addicted to that shit.

"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, A Tumbleweed rolls by, a Coyote howls mournfully in the distance.]
"Please clap."

~Jeb! Bush, February 2nd, 2016

And as other people have tapped out, "Establishment" Republicans and all those tight-ass conservative types have gone more whole-hog on this shit than the most Reddest of Red-Hat-wearing MAGA's did in 2017.

Now, we're going to have to stop this fucking bullshit.

Republicans spent the decade after 9/11 being so afraid of the Terrorists that they went out and became the fucking terrorists, just because a man uses political power instead of AK-47's and improvised explosives does not make the effect any fucking different.

And time and time again since then, they have been offered the chance to go back to making the world better, by Democrats, by other Republicans, by Barack Obama, by their own fuckin' presidential candidate...and they have refused it.

Because a Black man said "Yes We Can" the only thing Republicans wanna say is "No We Can't."

And it doesn't even matter what it's about.

They don't want freedom, light, peace, any of that. They'd rather walk in the darkness like it's some kind of awesome flex. Anything but "Love Thy Neighbor" I guess.

Then spoke Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. ~John 8:12

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

And either you're willing to fight for it, or you're not.

I can't put it any more simply than that.

I have spoken.

Слава Україна!

And so tomorrow, as we take the campaign South and West, as we learn that the struggles of the textile workers in Spartanburg are not so different than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas; that the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of L.A.; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people, we are one nation. And, together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story, with three words that will ring from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea: Yes, we can. ~Barack Obama

One

[Cassian plays Nemik's audio diary]

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

~From the Star Wars series Andor, S1.E12 "Rix Road."

Jihad And The Last Day (9/11, 25 Years Later, One.)

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

...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Behold, I have told you before.

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

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

...

"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, A Tumbleweed rolls by, a Coyote howls mournfully in the distance.]
"Please clap."

~Jeb! Bush, February 2nd, 2016

I remember.

Oh yes, I do, and for that reason I always mark the 10th of September as pretty much the Last Day before things started to get crazy.

And that's what September 10th, 2001, was, a normal day. I don't even remember much about it...and why should I? Isn't that the point of a normal day??

The next morning like the rest of America, I woke up to an Apocalypse striking out of an infamously clear blue sky.

I was a conservative person, a theologically-conservative Christian, a Republican.

Me. Not much different from how I am today, either. I didn't change, they did.

But tomorrow morning I will wake up in a world where conservative Christian Republicans have become the Idiocracy Taliban, protesting the death of an Influencer in a city where he was NOT killed, who think evangelizing a person in a squirrel suit in the middle of a gas station is somehow What Jesus Would Do. People for whom the point of the Bible is ANYTHING but "Love Thy Neighbor." Their "god" is Hate.

And getting attention for themselves.

And stupidity, if we're being honest.

Willful stupidity, on purpose and with malice aforethought, because they think they're going to get something for 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.

These are people who, when offered the chance, did not want a better or more peaceful world, or actual observant Christians in government, even.

They'd rather try and say an adulterous corrupt lying scumbag like Ken Paxton is a "Christian."

That is literally not what I was taught.

And here's the thing; I'm not unfamiliar with some degree of "Christian Nationalism" either.

I just gradually became disgusted by it as I gradually realized what these fucking people were, a process that happened for me throughout the Aughts.

But, at that point, what these assholes believed could still be recognized as both American and as a form of Christianity.

That's not what this is anymore.

These Fucking People are no more "Christian" in any cultural, orthodox or theological sense than the boy-abusing, drug-using, terrorism-practicing Taliban are Muslim in any real way.

At best, their religion is about Christianity, not about following Christianity.

They're "Proud of" and want to claim the stern public religiosity of it.

And they want to impose that mentality on the world. The rest can go to Hell, all day and twice on Sundays.

These motherfuckers just wanna have a Jihad, they don't care what it's for.

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

They don't care if they run the country and the world into the ground in the process, so long as they or somebody they "claim" or "like" gets rich off the whole fucking mess or gets to pretend he's King for an hour.

They don't care if he, or they, has to sell their souls to the demons for it, either.

I couldn't do it.

And evidently, even a lot of These Fucking People can't keep up with the demands of this bullshit either because the whole mess is literally falling apart right in front of all of our faces.

And These Fucking People Don't Care.

In fact, the falling apart is the point.

They want to ride the bomb all the way down whooping and hollering like Major Kong in Doctor Strangelove because they think it proves some sort of a point, and they don't actually give a damn about the rest of us. Or even themselves, or their own kin in too many of these people's cases.

I have seen it.

These are people who, fundamentally, believe this world sucks, that it should suck, that they should make it as terrible as possible to punish...well, pretty much everybody...for existing and not being a shadow on the wall in the firelight in someone's cave on some other world that, in their imagination, is somehow holier than this one.

Oh, and don't forget, they believe that they should have the right to be comfortable and well-fed and have money because they have the "Right" beliefs.

Yeah, fuck all that, and I say that as a former conservative Republican.

I'm tired of this shit, too many people I know...like my Mom, or my partner and the kid...don't deserve any of this shit. People who've already busted their ass, or endured hardships, should not have to suffer more.

The thing is, a lot of the beliefs these people claim (but don't follow) are not wrong.

If they really do believe any of it (and I don't think they do) they seem to have missed the point that they'll be judged right along with everybody else.

Jesus Himself used the example of the Sheep and the Goats.

I just don't think the Judgment is going to work out for These Fucking People the way that they believe it will.

Fuck them, they can commiserate with Abdullah the Taliban in Hell for all I care.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Слава Україна!

[Cassian plays Nemik's audio diary]

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

~From the Star Wars series Andor, S1.E12 "Rix Road."

Last Post

Nameless One: “Shadow of this life?”

Dhall, Dustman scribe: “Yes, a shadow. You see, Restless One, this life is not real. Your life, my life, they are shadows, flickerings of what life once was. This life is where we end up after we die, and here we remain. Trapped, caged, until we can achieve the True Death.”

Nameless One: “True Death?”

Dhall, Dustman scribe: “True death is non-existence. A state devoid of reason, of passion, of sensation.” [Dhall coughs] “A state of purity.”

Nameless One: Sounds like oblivion, why would anyone would want that? 

~from Planescape Torment

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. 

~Facing It, by Yusef Komunyakaa, US Army Veteran