Feeding The Beast (Image Of The Beast, Nine.)

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.

...

[Cassian plays Nemik's audio diary]

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

I want you to stop and think about one verse in particular, Revelation 13:3: "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 consider that level of adulation probably still wouldn't placate Trump's endless narcissism or salve his infinite ego.

A problem, this is.

I can't even talk the way these fucking people talk anymore; Or maybe I just don't want to.

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

And it's getting worse.

One of the main reasons it's getting worse is people like this dude, "Pastor" Doug Wilson. He evidently has no religious education, no credentials other than having been a worship director in his Dad's church and he was apparently kicked out from that. Judging from the amount of utterly base misogyny this freak spews, there was likely a woman somewhere in the decision-making chain that got him shit-canned and he blames her rather than his own actions.

Seriously, fuck this guy. He's not a preacher, just a religious narcissist with a bunch of feeble-minded followers, and nothing deserving of even basic respect.

This is the dude that has his followers ritualistically beat their wives after they watch weird porn and shit. I remember telling my partner about this crap back in August and it about made both of us sick. 

I can't even imagine hurting her, nor that she wouldn't immediately swing back, let alone having (or even having the time to have) this damn much of an obsession with male "authority."

Just so we're clear on things I was a conservative Christian Republican in the 1990's. I'm not unfamiliar with the basics of Christian Nationalism although I never signed onto that shit myself, as a conservative, I never wanted to.

That's not what this is. This is the creepy obsessions of some old misogynistic asshole, sanctified.

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 thing is, I believed in (still do!) America and the Constitution as written. You don't have to like it, but that's as close to Holy Writ as American culture and society will generally allow.

Likewise I believed in the Bible, at the time in a considerably more literal and far less agnostic or historical or theological way than I do now.

And nowhere in that text does it say anything that backs up the weird, very modern politicized bullshit that comes out of Doug Wilson's mouth.

He doesn't believe in Christ, he believes in hierarchy and slavery, and he'd worship and preach for Demons if he thought that's who'd get it for him.

That's the whole bit with Putin and Trump and all this far-right shit; "Conservatives" act like a bunch of criminals all invested in these assholes for no better reason than they think that's "Who can get it for 'em."

It never works out that way, there's no honor among thieves and by the time these fucking guys realize that they've been scammed their money and the dude that took it are usually gone.

I have a feeling that in the case of Trump in particular all that's going to be particularly egregious, America in general and Republicans in particular are gonna end up spending decades clawing back not only the money but the credibility that this dude stole, if our country as a united entity even survives this fucking bullshit.

And I'm gonna be honest, especially in the case of Republicans like Lindsey Graham, I have not the least goddamned bit of sympathy. 

Fuck these people.

Lindsey Graham in particular could have come out of the closet a decade ago, governed accordingly since, while still being a Republican, and I don't think anybody but a few homophobic religious nuts and gay people who won't vote for him anyway would've even cared.

These fucking people have let Trump eat their political movement, their entire philosophy, and hell, he's eaten up who they were as people! What's worse is Trump is still not done and a whole bunch of these narcissistic idiot Billionaires he's enabled are apparently even worse.

If you can't see the Image Of The Beast in the world people like Alex Karp want to build, you ain't looking.

You either believe in freedom or you don't, and if you wanna stop this bullshit, it's going to come down to a fight.

Слава Україна!

Some say finding God is a glorious thing. They're wrong. It's dangerous. You spend your whole life in a world of men. But when you finally see his power, his greatness, other men fall out of view. Because you're so focused on him, you can barely see them from the corners of your eyes. You lose sight of them. 

~Augustus Hill, from the HBO series Oz, S1.E3 "God's Chillin'."

Eight

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

Seven Days? (Image Of The Beast, Eight.)

Some say finding God is a glorious thing. They're wrong. It's dangerous. You spend your whole life in a world of men. But when you finally see his power, his greatness, other men fall out of view. Because you're so focused on him, you can barely see them from the corners of your eyes. You lose sight of them. 

~Augustus Hill, from the HBO series Oz, S1.E3 "God's Chillin'."

...

Il Duce: You people have been chosen to reveal our existence to the world. You will witness what happens here today, and you will tell of it later. All eyes to the front. [Gently to a woman in front with her eyes turned down] You must watch dear. It'll all be over soon.

Connor: Now you will receive us.

Murphy: We do not ask for your poor, or your hungry.

Connor: We do not want your tired and sick.

Murphy: It is your corrupt we claim.

Connor: It is your evil that will be sought by us.

Murphy: With every breath, we shall hunt them down.

Connor: Each day we will spill their blood, 'til it rains down from the skies.

Murphy: Do not kill. Do not rape. Do not steal. These are principles which every man of every faith can embrace.

Connor: These are not polite suggestions. These are codes of behavior, and those of you that ignore them will pay the dearest cost.

Murphy: There are varying degrees of evil. We urge you lesser forms of filth, not to push the bounds and cross over, into true corruption, into our domain.

Connor: For if you do, one day you will look behind you and you will see we three, and on that day you will reap it!

Murphy: And we will send you to whatever god you wish.

[Murphy and Conner join II Duce behind Yakavetta]

Connor, Murphy and Il Duce: And shepherds we shall be, for Thee, my Lord, for Thee. Power hath descended forth from Thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out Thy command. So we shall flow a river forth to Thee, and teeming with souls shall it ever be.

Il Duce: Ĭn nōmine Pătris …

Connor: [Showing "veritas" tattooed on left hand] … ĕt Fīliī …

Murphy: [Showing "aequitas" tattooed on right hand] … ĕt Spīritūs Sānctī.

[They execute Yakavetta] 

~From the film The Boondock Saints.

I saw this when I woke up.

Russell Brand admitting to having sex with a teenage girl. (And how fucked up is that? I don't give a damn if it's "legal" under UK Age-Of-Consent laws. Shit's still wrong.)

The sick part is, that's not even what caught my eye; What did was the "Author of 'How to become a Christian in 7 days.'"

#1 If Russell Brand was actually a Believer (especially the kind he's claiming to be) he would have come to understand that what he did was wrong on multiple fronts. 

I mean, you can Start with that he himself said "Forced" and that she had to physically defend herself to make him stop. I think that's sexual assault at a minimum, but more to the point it's not just illegal, it's morally wrong. No means No.

#2 let's look at this from the perspective of the kind of Christian that Brand is trying to tout himself as: The girl in question was not his wife, or even Engaged or having intention to be. Biblically, that's Fornication, which is a Sin. He's all but bragging about it.

#3 He's not sorry, there's no repentance, not even the perfunctory "I'm forgiven, thank you Jesus" kind of garbage that Evangelicals in these kinds of circumstances are known for.

Mr. "How to Become a Christian in 7 days" isn't even mailing it in.

There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft....When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. ~Baba, from The Kite Runner.

I don't think These Fucking People are beating the allegations that they serve and worship Baal.

These idiots are all about "Insert Tab A into Slot B" or crossing legal T's and dotting legal I's, the "Jots and Tittles" that Jesus talked about, pretty much...but they ignore the deeper meanings and spiritual purposes and weightier matters of the Law because they don't care about any of that. They're not in this for a relationship with the divine, or even for Salvation from some real or imagined Damnation. No, that's not it! What they want is legalistic cover for their abuse, bullying, cheating and lying and the kind of fuck-fuck games that they play with each other.

In far too many cases, as Doug Wilson tells on himself here, their real "god" is some kind of secular politics or some sort of control or power in a very temporal and worldly fashion.

The religiosity just ends up being one big damned excuse.

I mean, Jesus literally warned about this shit! Multiple times, even! What more do you want!

And more than that, to take on Brand's premise directly, OK, 7 days?

As if it's "Instant Christian, just add water?"

According to what I was taught, one can have studied the Bible and this and that for 50 years and NOT be "Saved."

Or, one can have said the Sinner's Prayer five minutes ago and BE Saved.

Except as with most such things it's not quite that arbitrary or simple.

[Caprica-Cavil and Galactica-Cavil are in an airlock, about to be executed]

Caprica-Cavil: Is there a Resurrection Ship within range?

Galactica-Cavil: Yes, brother. But first we're gonna die in a vacuum.

Caprica-Cavil: There's a 170 foot long launch tube in front of us. We might die of our injuries before we get to the vacuum.

Galactica-Cavil: I don't like you.

Caprica-Cavil: I understand that.

Galactica-Cavil: Do you really believe it was a mistake to attack the humans?

Caprica-Cavil: Rather intensely, yes.

Galactica-Cavil: You know that when we download amongst the others your strange ideas will be shouted down.

Caprica-Cavil: Ideas always seem strange until you try them on, brother. We had a temper-tantrum in the form of a cataclysm because we wanted them to treasure us, the Ones, more than humanity. More than their own history and blood.

Galactica-Cavil: We didn't want to be loved. We wanted to be treated fairly.

Caprica-Cavil: We wanted to be held to a bosom. To be petted and perfumed and told we were the princes of the universe.

Galactica-Cavil: Yes, well if the humans were gone-

Caprica-Cavil: Our parents would mourn them. They'd love them more anyway.

Galactica-Cavil: I'm going to see to it that you get boxed. And then I'm going to prepare to wipe out humanity once and for all.

Caprica-Cavil: The anticipation is very unpleasant.

Galactica-Cavil: Yes.

[Caprica-Cavil offers his hand, Galactica-Cavil looks at it and accepts it. Galactica-Cavil closes his eyes while Caprica-Cavil keeps looking. They are then airlocked.]

~From Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

Jesus Himself talked about stuff like this a lot, the central issues here are belief and faith, of course.

The actual issue here is that Salvation...faith...will, in due course, become evident through action.

That part isn't negotiable. If you really have, or had, faith in God...any interpretation thereof...it's gonna leave a mark. It will affect how you conduct yourself! This is true of both me and my partner, and often doesn't work in our favor...because that's not how believing in stuff even works.

And Russell Brand is still the same fucking guy. He isn't walking the walk, he's not doing anything but talking. Dude is facing trial for rape in the UK and I'm here to tell you (having been there) everybody finds the Lord when they think they might go to jail.

It's performative bullshit, trying to get something, either to beat the charges or have an easier time while locked up.

And it's the same way with this "Trump reads the Bible" bullshit.

These idiots think if they can get somebody with authority or political power to spew their crap they'll magically compel more people to be like them, or "believe" as they do, or whatever.

These people are unconcerned with the whole person, they just want to see people have to act like they do and say the bullshit that they do and dishonestly fawn over them and kiss their ass.

They'd bow down to the Image Of The Beast if doing so got them what they think they want.

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.

Because it's about the brand, marketing, making sure their preachers get the offering plate full and not those "Woke" Catholics down the street. It's all crap, in the service of very worldly goals. They don't care about God or Jesus. These people would be godless Communists or even worship demons if it got them privilege. 

It's not about God or religion or the Law or right and wrong, they're just screwing for advantage, looking for the Death Star Plans to blow up the giant space station that they see as other guy's rationalizations. They don't even understand people really believe stuff.

[Darth Vader is choking a Rebel Officer]
Stormtrooper: [to Vader] The Death Star plans are not in the main computer.
Darth Vader: [to Rebel] Where are those transmissions you intercepted? What have you done with those plans?
Rebel Captain: [Gasping for breath] We intercepted no transmissions. This is a consular ship. We're on a diplomatic mission...
Darth Vader: If this is a consular ship, where is the Ambassador? [crushes the officer's neck, then throws him against the wall] Commander, tear this ship apart until you've found those plans, and bring me the passengers. I want them alive!

~From Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

These Fucking People, these MAGA "Nationalist" Idiocracy types think Liberals are Liberals because Barack Obama or Bill and Hillary Clinton or the Southern Poverty Law Center or some shit told them to be. I mean, same goes for their view of conservatives or Republicans but since these people, on the sole basis of numbers, dominate those philosophies and have taken them over...those of us who actually believed in conservatism for any reason besides using it as a cover for bigotry and sexual bullshit and stealing just get lumped in with the "Left" because we're too inconvenient to face and that's all there is to it.

It was quite the shock to my partner back in January or so, to find out that she's a "Liberal" simply by dint of education and having the kind of job where things have to be done a certain way and was thus seen by her relatives a somebody fit only to exploit and use, same as it was for me back in 2008 when conspiracy theories and racism crossed every line I ever imagined having. 

She didn't understand me at the time.

But now she does.

And this shit has only gotten worse since.

"Christian Nationalism" is actually neither Christian nor giving a fuck about the actual nation you already have.

If you want to believe in any of those things for real, or anything else, sooner or later you're going to have to fight for them.

Слава Україна!

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

Seven

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.

Repenting Not (Image Of The Beast, Seven.)

 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he strikes a man.

And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.

And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.

And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.

And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.

By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.

And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:

Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. ~Revelation 9, King James Version.

...

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.

So the Iranians are mocking the shit out of Pete Keg-Breath and his alcoholism again.

Like, literally we are the debauched idiots all of our current enemies accuse us of being, at this point.

And these idiots think getting Trump to read the Bible is some kind of massive win. (It's not. Even him Believing would not be. The Word says even the Demons 'Believe' and tremble.)

I was gonna write about that but then I saw this shit about some idiot Republican influencer...Brilyn Hollyhand (also what the fuck kind of a boy's name is that??) acting all offended because a hypothetical 12-year-pld girl could travel to get an abortion. Also not one damn word about the rapist (because that's what such a case would be, rape) nor about anybody but the kid being responsible or held to account for this situation. I saw this and I'm like "Fuck you, asshole!"

I'm sorry but there's nothing "Left" about my disgust for this shit. According to how I was taught any teenage pregnancy is a tragedy. When I was coming up, everybody thought that! I don't give a shit if you're against abortion or not, nobody needs to be in favor of babies having babies and if you don't understand that or understand why? Fuck You, too.

I don't give a shit if you're an idiot far-right 18-year-old or not, if it's crossed your mind to do that type of shit you need to be in jail. I didn't go around thinking about that type of shit when I was that age.

I'm halfway responsible for a kiddo myself, she's a lesbian and doesn't believe in any of this shit and if something like that happened to her? 

Well, it's her Choice how she deals with that part of the problem (which is the whole damned point.) As for the dude? I'm an armed veteran, my partner has rage issues and if they're an adult?? Dude would be lucky to make it to jail. 

This has been a conservative point of view. 

Not only that, but this type of shit...even like, waiting up with guns after a first date and shit to make sure kid didn't have any problems and any potential partners understood the gravity of the situation...is something we discussed literally years ago.

Children are to be protected, even...in fact especially...from that kind of harm. 

There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft....When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. ~Baba, from The Kite Runner.

This isn't difficult, yo.

I'm sorry, but if a young girl turns up pregnant in a place like *Checks Notes* Iran?? Not only are the cops getting called (along with probably a bunch of other agencies and groups, armed and otherwise) but they won't be the only ones investigating who did it (because the men of the family will be dealing with matters their way too) and if the culprit turns up dead before the cops get to him? Probably not gonna be much of an investigation of that mess. Those people are old-school and over there shit like that starts blood feuds and that is not a joke. Arabic and Muslim folks take this stuff serious.

The great Unsaid here is that the reason these CHUDs want Patriarchy without protection or responsibility is, very likely, because they want to do all type of bad shit and not face the logical and obvious serious consequences for it.

I've seen Americans...mostly American men at that...treat rape and sexual assault as jokes. Yes, including the rape of *Checks Notes* Men. 

I used to see all type of memes, signs, T-shirts and shit that said "Pedophiles will be dealt with by Smith & Wesson" and shit like that. Such used to be especially common among conservative men. But now?? If you see a dude wearing a shirt that says something like that, they're probably a liberal or at least a Democrat or Never-Trump Republican.

Il Duce: You people have been chosen to reveal our existence to the world. You will witness what happens here today, and you will tell of it later. All eyes to the front. [Gently to a woman in front with her eyes turned down] You must watch dear. It'll all be over soon.

Connor: Now you will receive us.

Murphy: We do not ask for your poor, or your hungry.

Connor: We do not want your tired and sick.

Murphy: It is your corrupt we claim.

Connor: It is your evil that will be sought by us.

Murphy: With every breath, we shall hunt them down.

Connor: Each day we will spill their blood, 'til it rains down from the skies.

Murphy: Do not kill. Do not rape. Do not steal. These are principles which every man of every faith can embrace.

Connor: These are not polite suggestions. These are codes of behavior, and those of you that ignore them will pay the dearest cost.

Murphy: There are varying degrees of evil. We urge you lesser forms of filth, not to push the bounds and cross over, into true corruption, into our domain.

Connor: For if you do, one day you will look behind you and you will see we three, and on that day you will reap it!

Murphy: And we will send you to whatever god you wish.

[Murphy and Conner join II Duce behind Yakavetta]

Connor, Murphy and Il Duce: And shepherds we shall be, for Thee, my Lord, for Thee. Power hath descended forth from Thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out Thy command. So we shall flow a river forth to Thee, and teeming with souls shall it ever be.

Il Duce: Ĭn nōmine Pătris …

Connor: [Showing "veritas" tattooed on left hand] … ĕt Fīliī …

Murphy: [Showing "aequitas" tattooed on right hand] … ĕt Spīritūs Sānctī.

[They execute Yakavetta] ~From the film The Boondock Saints.

The reason that changed was Trump.

I was there, in 2015, it's like a switch flipped damn near overnight.

Same with last year when it came out that the Epstein files wasn't all liberals and shit, and in fact most of the evidence pointed to Trump in some way and all that Q-Anon shit pretty much instantly died.

Protecting kids and women the old-school way used to be a conservative thing, and liberals called the cops. 

Now? 

It's been a complete and entirely bad-faith changeover.

Pretty much anybody who takes offense to any kind of anti-Pedo screed is very likely to be MAGA at this point. Anybody defending anybody that's in the Epstein files, likewise, has so far been MAGA. Hell, MAGA brought up Bill Clinton. Liberals said "Lock him up too! We're not a personality cult!"

"Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts" is pretty much the Republican campaign slogan now.

And it's Evangelicals and Republicans who keep bringing up debauchery and perversion. Not as things to be against, but in service of their policy goals. Including, evidently, a lot of shit they don't feel safe talking about in public or where somebody might see just yet.

These Fucking People are not beating my allegation that they want human puppy mills for slave labor and war. There is no other reason but that or sexual perversion to say that children should have children.

And they'd rather bow down to the Image Of The Beast than simply "Love Thy Neighbor."

Imma tap the sign; Either you believe in freedom or you don't.

And you're either gonna fight for it or you're not.

Слава Україна!

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

Six

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.

Selfish Nation (Image Of The Beast, Six.)

Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

Therefore when thou does thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

But when thou does alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:

That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which sees in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

And when you pray, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

But thou, when thou pray, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which sees in secret shall reward thee openly.

But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knows what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in Earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:

But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face;

That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which sees in secret, shall reward thee openly.

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

~Matthew 6:1-2

...

There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft....When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. ~Baba, from The Kite Runner.

I saw this crap last night.

Some idiot Chick-fil-A manager engaging in a loud public prayer in his restaurant during the lunch rush. Like, fucking why, dude??

Saw another goddamn idiot trying to say states need to ban adultery...as if that wouldn't land pretty much every Republican Man in jail at some point?? Also what the fuck does that even do when These Fucking People all follow a confessed, proud adulterer??

One has to wonder how these idiots really see the world or if any of them believe a word that comes out of their own mouths...but then I've seem these kind of people get positively Soviet in terms of delusions and self-deception when they get called on their bullshit and can't lie to somebody else anymore.

Then, a little bit later, I added to the god-level ration on some idiot Republican chick whose Threads feed looked for all the world like she was trying to catfish people over to her OnlyFans and ya know, she'd likely be a Communist if being that got her more views.

(Ya know, at least the porn ladies on Blue Sky are pretty honest about what they are, just sayin.')

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

Also, Paula White, literally saying she self-inserts when reading the Bible...and I can't decide if that's heresy or mental illness but my ex-wife used to do something like that pretty often but to her dubious credit I don't think she ever went that far!

These fucking people don't believe in anything...except their own narcissism.

The Truth is most of these nuts can't see anything but themselves.

It's all rules for everybody else, shit, they don't care if they get stomped on by the jackboots too as long as they're the ones holding the shock-wand in the dystopia. Seems like that doesn't work too well when it all comes crashing down.

But they don't care, they just want to feel powerful for a minute. Their entire social meme is that they should get to have their boot on somebody else's throat before they, too, die a horrible death.

And their own behavior is working hard on ensuring that exactly this will come to pass.

You do not abuse the people carrying the guns if you want to have a long career as an autocrat. This should be perfectly well obvious and I say that as a veteran myself.

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.

Like if somebody handed me a mostly-empty tray with that kind of crap on it, I'd throw the shit in the trash. Fuck these motherfuckers. And RFK Jr. wants to *Checks Notes* screw up this situation worse??

I literally do not understand the thought process here. It seems like a hell of a way to see the world. I get that these people are trying to beat some idea of obedience into everybody else but it's not working. Seems like they might wanna back off before they make it worse on themselves. I don't know, I was never that kind of conservative.

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

This is not the behavior of people who think they're gonna be around for a long time, this is assholes, bullies and cheaters trying to get their last kicks in before they know somebody's big brother is gonna show up and beat the ever-living fuck out of them.

Like, if These Fucking People are so right, or so righteous, why are they all drunk or high all the goddamned time??

Why is this even a question somebody like me has to ask? I'm barely a liberal, I'm basically a conservative Democrat and there's a reason for that. Secular liberalism is not rising to the occasion and dealing with this bullshit. In fact, people like Chuck and Hakeem are making it worse to the point of being enablers by doing nothing at all!

Some people would rather bow down before the Image Of The Beast than grow some balls.

So, why aren't the Other Conservatives asking these kinds of questions??

(Oh, that's why.)

I mean, seriously, how the hell do these fucking people have no self-respect whatsoever??

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.)

And like I said, the worst part of this shit is that none of it's even working.

America has effectively shouted itself into Oblivion and off the world stage (except as a dangerous joke) and way too many of these morons don't even notice. And when they do...because eventually it's going to hit them...I think one hell of a lot of these people will destroy themselves. I'd say even at this late stage something like 20% of America has basically made Trump their identity. 20% of America is still to the tune of 60 million or so people.

For comparison, losing One Million people during COVID-19 damned near wrecked our shit. If 60 Million of us drink ourselves to death, OD or go full Cormac McCarthy's The Road because they cannot react rationally to the massive global levels of comeuppance that we're already facing, and they cannot admit they fucked up...well that's going to be a terrible damn problem, isn't it?? 

Or as I've said before, it's like The Walking Dead, but with idiots.

The scary thing is the Zombies may have been more intelligent.

Like, daily, I'm in the mode of thinking what in the "It's Got Electrolytes" bullshit is this??

The trouble is our country's operating system was designed by our Founders with a certain amount of courage and intelligence as baselines, and right now all that is lacking.

Christianity, likewise, requires a certain amount of intelligence or at least ability to follow instructions so as to avoid becoming the same basic-ass Unga Bunga religiosity those same people used to routinely condemn.

Trump didn't do that, Christians have done it to themselves by taking the Self as their God.

America has become the Nation Of The Self.

It all comes down to one question, really. Either you believe in freedom or you don't.

So what are we going to do about it??

Слава Україна!

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

Five

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.