FAFO.

Hess: So what shall we toast to, boys? I can blather on about “To health” or “To success,” but I’d like to do somethin’ a little less rote. Where you from, Brown Eyes?

Migs Mayfield: How ’bout a toast to Operation Cinder?

Hess: Now there’s a man who knows his history.

Mayfield: No, I don’t just know it. I lived it. I was in Burnin Konn.

Hess: Burnin Konn?

Mayfield: Mmm.

Hess: That was a hard day. I had to make many unpleasant decisions.

Mayfield: Yes, you did. Entire city gone in moments, along with everybody in it. We lost our whole division that day. Man, that was like 5-10,000 people.

Hess: Yep. All heroes of the Empire.

Mayfield: Yeah. And all dead.

Hess: Well, it’s a small sacrifice for the greater good, son.

Mayfield: Depends on who you ask, don’t you think?

Hess: [irritated] What you gettin’ at, trooper?

Mayfield: All those people, the ones who died, was it good for them? Hmm? Their families? The guys I served with? Civilians, those poor mud scuffers, died defending their homes, fighting for freedom. Was it good for them?

Hess: But we’ve outlasted them, son. They’re eating themselves alive. The New Republic is in complete disarray, and we grow stronger. You see, with the rhydonium you’ve delivered, we can create havoc that’s gonna make Burnin Konn pale by comparison. And then they’re gonna turn to us once again. You see, boys, everybody thinks they want freedom, but what they really want is order. And when they realize that, they’re gonna welcome us back with open arms. Ah. To the Empire.

[Mayfield chuckles, then fires a blaster at Hess' chest, killing him instantly. He and Mando then shoot their way out of the mess hall] ~From The Mandalorian, Season 2, Ep. 7 "The Believer"

...

[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

I saw this a couple days ago.

Some MAGA, three-time Trump voter, angry and upset at *Checks Notes* the perfectly obvious, stuff that anybody with a brain in their head or any awareness of how Donald Trump conducts himself or ever has, tried to tell this bitch for over a decade. Trump started another pointless forever-war, Trump sold out the country to tech-bro billionaires who wanna put their personal 666 on everything and fuck America into being a post-Apocalyptic hell-scape like something out of the book of Revelation, one data center at a time. Trump fucks up everything he touches, blah blah blah. Yeah, I get it. Welcome to the party, lady. I believe I personally tried to point this shit out to a fuck-ton of people my damn self.

Trump was always gonna have to pick between the Red Hats and the Billionaires and he was always gonna pick the tech bro Billionaires because their "Libertarian" sociopathy was always going to make his utterly amoral ass the most fucking money. And that's all he cares about. What the fuck kind of a dumbass do you have to be to think that Donald Trump gives a fuck about you??

Meanwhile, the Republicans got nothing and are going with their two standard pitches: "Everything is terrible, we made it that way, vote for us" and "Cheat Like Crazy."

Still thinking of my fellow janitor at the casino who, when asked why he liked Trump said "I don't know. I guess I like the shit he says." Said with a stupid, simpering expression on his face.

I think of all these old white guys in my department, who pretty much went full zombie-eyed ADHD kid watching cartoons the second somebody turned one of the breakroom TV's on to FOX News.

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 how's that working out now, bros??

Like I said I can't even talk the way these fucking people talk.

And these Republicans, they all think we're that fucking stupid, or that we're against them just to be against something, like they are or have the only truth or valid belief system. Which is of course "Grab what you can while you can with no thought for any other people or the future" followed by "Fuck you, I've got mine" when the bill comes due.

They're either so insane or out of touch that it's effectively a mental illness unto itself or they're lying and they know it (and very likely all of the above.)

And I said it in November of 2024 that the only medicine that was gonna cure whatever addles regular people on this shit was FAFO: Fuck Around and Find Out.

Well here we are. About the only things making the situation any different than what I expected was that something like 70% or 75% of Americans are against this bullshit, along with almost the whole rest of the world...and the situation here at home hasn't spiraled into outright violence yet.

Despite Republicans trying to instigate exactly that.

Well that and for the most part these idiots have neither the manpower nor the money to implement their dystopian fantasies even if they had the public support.

Doesn't help that these guys are so incompetent they make Mussolini look like Machiavelli by comparison.

And their own coalition is falling apart like Woodstock 99 on Saturday night. It's the Fyre Festival of Fascism.

I mean, fuck, just the fact that Trump has gotten 70% of Americans to agree on anything should be one for the history books, even if it is "He sucks."

And the people running this fucking shit-show are so goddamned backwards they're trying to argue in favor of *Checks Notes* more teenage pregnancy.

Now like I said :

This bullshit infuriates me.

As a teenager I was basically required to carry rubbers, in my wallet, in my truck, etc. My Mom didn't want me getting somebody pregnant and her and my high school girlfriend were very much on the same page with this.

I quite literally was taught until you are capable of being financially responsible for a kid either practice safe sex or abstain. Like the slogan they use in Africa to combat AIDS, ABC: Abstain, Be faithful, Condomize. We were Republicans

To me that's *Checks Notes* Basic morals, let alone Christian morality.

I'm glad the kiddo is gay and me and my partner don't have to worry about this shit.

I was taught not to associate with Welfare people. Yes, you know the type, even if you don't admit it. The people who live by working (and cheating) the system, and who never make any effort to get off it. A hell of a lot of those people here in Northern Michigan (or down where I used to live, also where my partner is at now) are "Conservatives," Fundamentalist Christians, MAGA. An absolute raging fuck-ton of those people are on Welfare. I don't know any Black or Latino people on Welfare, but I know my ex-wife basically lived by working the system. I don't understand from either a logical or political standpoint why those people are Republicans. Hell, They don't know why, they just like the shit that Republicans say, or something.

I mean, fuck, given their rhetoric on the subject for basically my entire life I don't know why Republicans tolerate it! Republicans increasingly hate poor people and are actively trying to kill them.

And here they are, trying to push for more teenage pregnancies, presumably among White girls. 

Again, if anybody goes with this bullshit, you get more generational poverty, more Welfare People. I hate to be that guy, but when you hit a certain level of poverty and your life generally being shit, conventional morality much less self-respect, let alone the kind of priggish Christianism Republicans demand as public behavior pretty much goes in the shitter along with everything else.

Worse, it gets replaced all too often with scammy shitty bullshit because, among other things as Eminem once famously rapped "These goddamn food stamps don't buy diapers."

And while I'm at it, especially at the moment EBT cards aren't big business because our government is compassionate; They're big business because they're a huge subsidy for American farmers and ranchers.

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats:

And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

For I hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

For I hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

~Matthew 25:31-46

And nobody gets left behind, or left out of getting any help at all, faster than decent people who don't want to live like that, or whose first goal once they get into the system is to get out of it. And again, the more independent or "Liberal" a person actually is, the less likely they're going to stay in that kind of mess any longer than they have to.

People like my partner's redneck relatives, not so much. She's long out of that crap now, and struggles but she's doing a lot better. I still help, and I'm glad to do it.

Morals, like about everything else, are a luxury in Republican-land because the conditions that create or incentivize them in real terms got sold to rich people for bullshit lies and magic beans and parted out for profit, but Republicans got their cut first, so fuck you.

And like I said the only way a lot of people are going to get this is to be reduced to bare survival their damn selves and have things be bad enough that they have to face it, and who caused it. And yes, Republicans are the problem here.

FAFO.

We're probably going to get there soon, certainly some parts of the country will. Sucks, because as I've been saying for years the Republican ideal future is basically the Killing Fields, but with a mall. And their only real "Value" if you want to call it that, is Slavery. What's worse, is if they can't have the total power of the Slaver, they'd rather have Oblivion.

A lot of people thought they were gonna be the ones holding the whip. Now they're the ones getting lashed by it, because of course Republicans are gonna eat their own first. Simply put, it's easier.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

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

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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

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We are a nation that has a government — not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our Government has no power except that granted it by the people. ~Ronald Reagan

Bullets II (One Of Us... Eight.)

 [In the Preox-Morlana planet of Morlana One, Deputy Inspector Syril Karn is confused his superior won't open an investigation into the murder of two Pre-Mor officers]

Chief Inspector Hyne: Tough case. Bad timing.

Deputy Inspector Syril Karn: I'm sure that in several days, with the proper resources, I can bring this case to a-

Hyne: Stop! And I don't just mean the talking. I mean stop. [closes his office door] This case appears to bear all the hallmarks of what I like to describe as regrettable misadventure.

Karn: Sir?

Hyne: Two dedicated Pre-Mor employees caught in the sad orbit of a rare calamity.

Karn: I don't understand.

Hyne: I want you to conjure a suitable accident, and let's make sure it's on the far side of the plaza. Let's get it outside the Leisure Zone.

Karn: But they were murdered!

Hyne: No, they weren't. They were killed in a fight. They were in a brothel, which we're not supposed to have. The expensive one, which they shouldn't be able to afford. Drinking Revnog, which we're not supposed to allow. Both of them supposedly on the job, which is a dismissible offense. They clearly harassed a human with dark features and chose the wrong person to annoy. I suspect they died rushing to aid someone in distress. Nothing too heroic. We don't need a parade. They died being helpful. Something sad but inspiring in a mundane sort of way. [regards Karn] You look stricken, Deputy Inspector. Are you absorbing my meaning here?

Karn: Trying to, sir.

Hyne: When I said bad timing, I wasn't referring to the fact you spent all night worrying this. I mean that I am on my way this very morning to an Imperial Regional Command review, where I'll be asked to make a report about our crime rates, and the goal of that speech, should you ever be asked to deliver it, is brevity. Minimizing the time the Empire spends thinking about Preox-Morlana benefits our superiors and, by extension, everyone here at the Pre-Mor Security Inspection team, which at the moment includes you. [dons his coat, picks up his briefcase and moves to leave] Don't put your feet on my desk in my absence, and let's have an accident report waiting when I get back.

~From the Star Wars series Andor, S1.E1 "Kassa."

...

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.

I saw this the other day.

Benny Johnson and Eric Trump talking about the Trump family "Saving God."

Bitch, if God needs Man to "Save" Him then He is not God. It's as simple as that, and if that's the case we need not worry, go out and do whatever evil you want. What these fucking people are really working it up to try and say is that Trump is "god."

Yeah, I don't think so, despite some fucked-in-the-head Trump Supporters acting like that's the case. I've read the Bible. If there's anything in it Trump fits, it's the Beast of Revelation. The Beast's "Revolution" is eating its own. Milo Yiannopoulos got arrested by ICE and is in custody. Have fun in the hell you wanted for other people, dickhead.

Thus will be the case for all of these motherfuckers, I think ultimately including Trump himself, and I've warned people that this would happen.

Hell, It's the vast majority of what I've been saying for at least 6 years, since These Fucking People absolutely started to go off the rails because of COVID-19, because somebody told them they had to give a shit about other people (because if they didn't, they might die too!)

The wind whispers of fear and hate. The war has killed love. And those that confess to the Angkar are punished, and no one dare ask where they go. Here, only the silent survive. ~Dith Pran, The Killing Fields.

Once you fully unleash the bottomless fanaticism, religiosity and stupidity of the American Evangelical, all bets are off...including their own survival.

Trump just wants to be worshiped, even (perhaps especially) at this late stage.

American Evangelicals, founded as they are in Calvinist Puritanism, want to pretty much kill the entire concept of Joy for other people.

I've been seeing a lot of comment on social media these last few days about a few Evangelical nuts promoting "Clean" literature and crusading against Smut. Yeah, fuck you, NO.

You motherfuckers can pry the smut she reads (or writes! out of our cold, dead hands. Fuck Off. If you don't like it, don't read it. You motherfuckers have no right to piously dictate what other people do.

You either believe in freedom or you don't. It really is that simple.

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."

Like, a year and a half ago when things were really bad in her life, and before we started talking again last June...My partner's books, Smut and all, and her writing were literally the only things that kept her going, she would not be alive without them and the Kiddo would be without a Mom. It's not for you to tell other people how to mentally survive breakups, trauma or unemployment.

It's simply not up to you, it's not your right to make other people's choices for them.

I was taught such things are morally wrong. People have the right to do what they want, you have the right to agree with it or not. This is America, you have no right to control somebody else's life.

And more to the point there's nothing particularly "Christian" or "Clean" about trying. Those who try to burn books will eventually try to burn people. That's just history talking.

Our Founding Fathers knew this. They had all lived in that world.

The Constitution, Freedom of Speech and the whole second half of the 20th Century says it's a political issue most people have already decided in favor of, and I'm fine with anybody who doesn't like that just reading Twilight and being done with it. That's their right, too. Have at it, we don't care. Stephanie Mayer will appreciate you.

But these idiots want to go well beyond that kind of thing. Shit, if I had to guess based off of what I'm seeing, Harry Potter or Twilight is way too spicy for these weirdos. I'm not joking and I've seen enough of what passes for Evangelical romance novels to know that "No" is the only word you're looking for.

And, culturally, Americans hate this shit. I remember when "Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics" became a meme well before it was cool. Fuck, my late best friend Carl held Tipper Gore and her shenanigans against the Democratic Party literally until the day he died.

These motherfuckers wanna go a hell of a lot further than anything her dumb ass ever even advocated for. And yeah, right now they're dressing it up as "Changing hearts and minds." That's a trial balloon. They'll make laws about it if anybody gives them the chance. Fuck that.

And I'm being 100% serious when I say that I first read R.L. Stine in a Christian elementary school (and in fact bought Goosebumps at the monthly book fair there!) So yeah, anything these fucking people would consider "Christian Enough" is probably closer to Radical Islam, but with rather less morality.

Why, why, why, why is it that most of the people who are against abortion are people you wouldn't wanna fuck in the first place? Boy, these conservatives are really something, aren't they? They're all in favor of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn. But once you're born, you're on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that, they don't want to know about you. They don't want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no day care, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you're preborn, you're fine; if you're preschool, you're fucked. Conservatives don't give a shit about you until you reach military age. Then they think you're just fine. Just what they've been looking for. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. Pro-life... pro-life... These people aren't pro-life, they're killing doctors! What kind of pro-life is that? What, they'll do anything they can to save a fetus but if it grows up to be a doctor they just might have to kill it? They're not pro-life. You know what they are? They're anti-woman. Simple as it gets, anti-woman. They don't like them. They don't like women. They believe a woman's primary role is to function as a brood mare for the state. ~George Carlin

But, in the same breath, These Fucking People want you to totally ignore how right-wing White Men act, talk or think about sex.

Because trust me there's no Smut I've ever read where any author worth the time they took to write the words would string "Keep my balls empty" together as a sentence.

I mean, among other things, talking like that is just dehumanizing and disgusting. and it implies narcissism or at least a level of selfishness that itself borders on insanity.

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 here's the thing; When These Fucking People's "Glorious Revolution" figures that shit out?? That's just another entire demographic that these monsters will gladly start sorting through trying to find the "False Believers," the impure, the guys who've had a stray or unapproved sexual thought.

I'm warning you now, there's no limit to these people's freakish stupid zealotry. Margaret Atwood didn't get to the half of it.

And that's exactly why we not only need the First Amendment we already have, but basic human rights encoded into the Constitution on a better level than what was considered that 250 years ago, freedom of speech reinforced and both the government's ability to interfere with it and the Surveillance State greatly reduced. That said, I don't give a fuck, hate speech shouldn't get those protections. If we don't stamp out racism, problems are going to fucking continue. Our Founders had too much faith in people.

That only goes in one direction.

'Cuz honestly? What we had 250. Years. Ago. was too much freedom for what some of these religious nuts want right now.

Our ancestors were well aware of the bloody wars that kind of crap leads to.

So are the people who are pushing all this religious bullshit. They just think the ground being soaked in blood is a good thing.

They don't care about God, they just want to hurt people. They don't give a damn about Jesus, they just want to have Inquisitions.

Religiosity is a hell of a drug. And no, they're not really looking for converts. They don't wat to share that either...except with like-minded bad people. They long to be living bullets in some kind of ethnic conflict.

Anything but "Love Thy Neighbor."

What if God just wants to read His smut in peace??

Remember this, because it's going to be on the test.

Soon.

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I can tell you that once upon a time when I was doing public events people would ask me, "What do you think about the arts?, What do you think of the role of women?, What do you think of men?, What do you think of all of these things?", and now they ask one thing, and that one thing is this, "Is there hope?" ~Margaret Atwood, 2007

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We are a nation that has a government — not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our Government has no power except that granted it by the people. ~Ronald Reagan

If God had a name, what would it be?

And would you call it to His face

If you were faced with Him in all His glory?

What would you ask if you had just one question?

And yeah, yeah, God is great

Yeah, yeah, God is good

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

What if God was one of us

Just a slob like one of us

Just a stranger on the bus

Tryna make His way home?

~Joan Osborne "What If God Was One Of Us?"

Bullets I (One Of Us... Seven.)

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.

And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.

And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast saying, Come and see.

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:

And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;

And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casts her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.

And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;

And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

~Revelation 6, KJV.

...

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

I keep seeing shit like this; People basically having voted for all type of bad things to happen to other people...but either being angry that it's happening to themselves or simply angry that somebody pointed out the obvious. 

They voted for Trump to abuse and harm others, yet also gave him the power to hurt them...so of course he did.

And make no mistake about it, deep down, people like this angry middle-aged White lady think that is right and good, they regret only not being close enough to Power to remain unaffected.

These Fucking People crave Empire and Tyranny and yes, the Lash, as much because they think it'll hurt Other people as because they are pretty much taught in their churches that God is an angry, violent narcissist who demands constant control and praise.

A few of them think they'll get to use the lash or wear the jackboot.

And then they align themselves politically with rich sociopaths because they all believe in the Prosperity Gospel. And it doesn't matter whether it's in the original Calvinist/Reformed format or this Unga Bunga Pentecostal shit that's been more popular for about 30 years, it's still all bullshit and this kind of crap is exactly what it leads to.

I find it interesting that people who claim to follow the guy who said "I am the Light Of The World, they that follow me shall not walk in Darkness but shall have the Light of Life." deliberately choose to walk in Darkness like it's the most awesome flex they could possibly make.

That makes no fucking sense to me,  

I was going to write about that.

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.

But then I saw this last night.

Some dipshit Republican legislator in Louisiana making excuses for the sexual abuse and resulting pregnancy of a nine-year-old girl and saying she shouldn't have an abortion.

Might be a bit of a guess on my part that the girl in question is White, but I suspect if she wasn't we wouldn't be having this argument or hearing these excuses because These Fucking People would have quietly invoked whatever exceptions exist and the discussion would never have crossed my social media feed.

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

I'm old enough to remember when kids having kids was considered a Sin and a tragedy by pretty much everybody regardless of politics, I remember one motherfucker of a lot of conservative and religious moralizing on the subject. 

Honestly, I had (still have) some pretty strong opinions about this stuff myself.

But then I think back and most of that was just at the start of America's diversity becoming more visible to These Fucking White People.

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

That was before these assholes felt threatened by the simple existence of Other People.

And if being ruled over by some small unaccountable criminal elite assuages even a little of their disingenuous and misplaced fear, they'll take it. They don't care if they lose their freedom.

Well that and the fact that Newt Gingrich started turning the Republican Party into a cult in 1994 between that and Trump's obvious fucking up everything, Republicans are starting to worry and see the writing on the wall even in Texas.

That was before a guy whose parents came from India, even though he himself was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and by our Constitution and the Law is as American as Baseball or a redneck seeing their girl cousin naked and was considered a valid candidate first for President, then for governor of Ohio

(And he can defend Bernie Moreno's abusive son-in-law all he wants, but a hell of a lot of Ohio MAGA's and Republicans are not very enthusiastic about voting for Vivek Ramaswamy.)

To summarize, These Fucking People mostly cared about stuff like teenage pregnancy before other people were visible and accepted a certain kind of quietly extremely racist White asshole felt threatened. Does that spell it out for you??

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

Now?? Any White Kid, born in shitty circumstances and likely to either grow up poor or be adopted out to sociopathic rich white people (in a Red State in either case) is pretty much nothing more to a lot of these fucking assholes than a living Bullet in a potential Ethnic Conflict.

They understand this is a numbers game, they're trying to eliminate anything else but doing what they want as a choice, and the ultimate endgame with these fucking people is coercion, their only real values are Murder, Slavery and an increasingly creepy cultish devotion to Power. Whether they get that in an Antebellum South type scenario, from Communist peons or in some dystopian bunker situation doesn't matter to them.

I was a peacekeeper in Bosnia for 3 months, I've seen the kind of world these assholes think they wanna live in and keep voting for to happen to "Other" people.

The wind whispers of fear and hate. The war has killed love. And those that confess to the Angkar are punished, and no one dare ask where they go. Here, only the silent survive. ~Dith Pran, The Killing Fields.

They forget the enemy gets a vote. The people they hate get to fight back. Lots of Serbs lost their ass, their homes, their lives etc. in the Yugoslav wars too.

But these motherfuckers think assholes like Slobodan Milosevic were the good guys in that war.

And yes, that kind of shit is exactly why atavism and hate are marketed to These Fucking People like sports team logos. I've written about this.

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

It's a big part of why these assholes idolize Israel's current genocidal government. Well, until they figure out that Israel is Jewish, anyway, and then they become skeptical.

It's why Democrats even running about the most White-Bread, literally Christian candidate possible like James Talarico still somehow isn't good enough for a lot of these fucking people, but somehow an adulterous, pedophile-releasing, utterly immoral slug like Ken Paxton is just fine.

Think about that shit for a second, will ya?

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)

(Well, that and the latent greedy immoral patriarchy of the current Republican Party.)

Democrats are seen as being the party that betrayed Dixiecrats and Segregation and gave rights to "Those" people, never mind that Dixiecrats were only a portion of the Democratic Party at the time. And any group of people that either votes predominately for them or is imagined or seen as doing so is likewise considered Traitors to their Power.

Hence why these motherfuckers are trying to normalize and increase toleration of (for example) violence against women in general (and yes, White women in particular, even White women rich enough to be able to afford to take up Golf.)

Yes, even in a golf ad. In fact, that's probably what they figured was one of the "safe" places they could do this shit. It turned out even golfers were pissed off, and the ad has been taken down...but it's still making the rounds, just outside of their control now.

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.

Other countries see what's going on here, and they want nothing to do with it.

Whether it's creepy Christian Nationalist horseshit, Trump's incompetence and violent narcissism or simply threats to their own freedom and sovereignty, pretty much the whole rest of the world is saying "NO" Fuck That.

Even the conservatives (Like Ontario PM Doug Ford) are telling Trump he can kiss their ass.

Russia is in no position to help, and China is aligned with Iran in our current mess. They were before, too, but at this point they've picked a side. 

The US functionally losing our support infrastructure in the Middle East only helps the Chinese. And by the way the Chinese have already made other inroads into the Middle East.

Nobody fucking wants this Trump shit and constantly threatening the rest of the world but between maybe 25% and 30% of Americans. They thought they could make the rest of us hate like they do and somehow use that as a springboard to even greater hegemonic power. They were wrong.

Republicans sure as hell can't make the rest of the world hate like they do, unless it's hating them.

America's hegemony was based on alliances, money, and soft power. It was dependent on assisting other countries with their defense against common threats, when the world has changed multiple times since those arrangements were made, that doesn't readily transfer over to a kind of neo-neocolonialism where "Hey white people, it's your turn now!"

I'm not gonna change for these motherfuckers and I'm sure not gonna be colonized.

And since any effort to attack Canada is highly likely to end up with divisions of British, Canadian, EU and yes, Indian troops running Trump out of Washington DC under considerably more embarrassing circumstances than the British chasing out James Madison (and given the state of US Forces and of our domestic politics, even Trump likely knows that) if it doesn't result in him being led out in an orange jumpsuit and shackles.

So my guess is they try and break the United States Of America, hoping they get an ethnic conflict and a couple of Banana Republics out of it and/or hope like hell that the international community sits on its hands trying to figure out what to do for a couple of years like they did with the Yugoslav Wars.

When These Fucking People say "American" they mean "Trump." It's a cult.

And if they have to break everything right down to normal family or sexual relations to preserve his cult-god status they'll do it, these motherfuckers are even throwing out people who wear anti-pedophile T-shirts now.

No, These Fucking People are not far from worshiping devils and idols of gold.

You have been warned.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Now, I've read the Bible. What if all the stuff in there is exactly what it says, and it means that? What if God is exactly who he says He is and the practitioners of this weird Babylon-Trump shit are the ones automatically going to Hell, not the Atheists or the gays, not Barack Obama or Dolly Parton??

What if the problem is greedy old racist white men not the Autistic people or the Muslims??

What if the problem here is *Checks Notes* concentrated wealth in the hands of bad men, resulting from heresies like the Prosperity Gospel?

What if it's this presumed right of a Certain Kind Of White Man to ejaculate anywhere they damn well please that's wrong??

It's not just guys who can afford to play Golf that are the damn problem, we regular people are needing to clean up our own house, too.

And we're gonna have to.

Because right now from where I'm sitting this bullshit looks like Antichrist.

And that the Christians (or Mormons in the case of the guy who sexually harassed my partner last summer) are balls-deep in all this bullshit does not speak well of ya'll.

Remember that.

Because what you've done with your Witness is going to matter.

Even if all that God stuff is not real, do you really wanna be the guy that when you die most of the world says "Have fun in hell, asshole?"

Cuz I just said that.

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You don’t understand what it was like. The town was on its last legs. It started after we got news of the Death Star blowing up. The second one, that is. [flashes back to one particular night at the Mos Pelgo Cantina] The Empire was pullin’ outta Tattooine. There was blaster fire over Mos Eisley. The occupation was over. We didn’t even have time to celebrate. That very night, the Mining Collective moved in. Power hates a vacuum and Mos Pelgo became a slave camp overnight. I lit out. Took what I could from the invaders. Grabbed a camtono. I had no idea it was full of silicax crystals. I guess every once in a while, both suns shine on a womp rat’s tail. I wandered for days. No food, no water. [image of Vanth being rescued by the Jawas] And then... I was saved. [Inside Sandcrawler] The Jawas wanted the crystals. They offered their finest in exchange. [remembers pointing to what is actually Boba Fett's armor] And my treasure bought me more than a full water-skin. It bought my freedom. 

~Cobb Vanth, from The Mandalorian S2.E1 "The Marshal."

Last Post

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

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

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

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

Chief Galen Tyrol: Report to stations?

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

Six

If God had a name, what would it be?

And would you call it to His face

If you were faced with Him in all His glory?

What would you ask if you had just one question?

And yeah, yeah, God is great

Yeah, yeah, God is good

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

What if God was one of us

Just a slob like one of us

Just a stranger on the bus

Tryna make His way home?

~Joan Osborne "What If God Was One Of Us?"