The Revolution Will Be Livestreamed (One.)

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

~Ronald Reagan

...

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

...

You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ~John 8:44

I saw this earlier.

A couple of old idiot Republicans, saying they voted against "Communism."

They're older than me, they of all people should know Communism isn't a thing anymore. And I saw it fall.

But it's the "Vote Red" line that jumped out and grabbed me. Red was (Still is!) the color that various Communist governments and parties prefer to associate themselves with.

I'm here to tell you when I first saw the original Blue State/Red State map, I was sitting in the computer lab at North Central Michigan College and checked my E-mail while I was finishing up my homework and I was like "What the fuck??" When I saw that red was the color they used for Republicans.

I was married, we had slow dial-up at home, it was all we could afford and my ex-wife tended to monopolize using the computer anyway.

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

[Silence, a distant radio plays "Winds of Change" by the German band Scorpions. Silence.]
"Please clap."

~Jeb! Bush, February 2nd, 2016

Oh, and speaking of Republicans from the Y2K era, Dennis Hastert died. To quote Balthazar from Constantine "Finger-lickin' good." Fuck that guy. I hope he has fun in Hell.

My high-school girlfriend is a Math teacher, she teaches in the same school district where Hastert taught, and committed his crimes. We spoke the day he was indicted, and that was a little heavy for her and the kids and other teachers. She said that was a pretty somber day for everybody. Crimes like sexual abuse have a generational effect and can reach across place and time to keep hurting people.

This Trump shit will be the same way.

Fun fact, though, back in the late 90's and early-to-mid aughts when Dennis Hastert was the face of the Republican Party, nobody gave a shit about Communism because it had been relegated (rightly) to the dustbin of history where it belonged.

And despite Putin's (functionally) attempting to bring Communism back, and Trump's Kowtowing to Commies like Xi, actual Communists in Russia are apparently opposing Putin, who is the architect of so much of this shit.

Follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change
An August summer night
Soldiers passing by

Listening to the wind of change
The world is closing in
Did you ever think
That we could be so close, like brothers

The future's in the air
Can feel it everywhere
Blowing with the wind of change.

~Scorpions, Winds Of Change

Trump doesn't care about that, I'm sure he doesn't notice. That motherfucker doesn't hate Communists, he wants to be them.

Communism isn't even the real issue; Authoritarianism is.

Any talk to the contrary is just lies meant to rile up semi-literate old Republicans. But then, Communism not being a thing anymore ain't the world such people wanted to live in. The people in my header photo look like they might've been old enough to vote for Reagan in 1984 or Bush 41 in 1988. To paraphrase what my buddy the Media Warrior says about MAGA's, I'm sure Trump makes them feel like High School Seniors again, dipshits who thought they were on top of the world, or whatever.

Sure, some of them might've been well on their way to joining the Army and glaring Bumboclaatically across the lines at the Iron Curtain, or joining the Air Force and spending long cold watches at KI Sawyer or Minot or Wurtsmith Air Force Bases guarding bombers on alert duty. Or joining the Navy and playing that high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse on the High Seas against the Red Banner Northern Fleet.

Some of them were off to college. All too many were going nowhere, though, and those are most of the ones who became MAGA. King Shit in High School...but basically nobody after.

And they hate that once they got out into the real world, they weren't All That anymore. This despite the fact that 1980's pop culture about hit you over the head with "Hey, you're about to grow up and go out into the real world; Fuck, the Cosby Show had a whole-ass episode about exactly that. And you know what? Most of us wanted to grow up!

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

These Fucking People didn't want to grow the fuck up.

And in my own lifetime, Republicans have gone from opposing Saddam Hussein to being at war with him, to overthrowing him and now to slavishly following the American version, who even has similar tastes. Don't tell me Trump wouldn't have an AK-47 gilded if the thought crossed his mind, either.

And then, they have the fucking balls to be trying to moralize about being against such a person.

Reagan (And George HW Bush) wept.

You know what? Fuck Republicans.

Republicans are the damn problem here.

I hate that I can't say it any other way.

And I used to be a Republican, back when they were something other than this.

You either believe in freedom or you don't. 

It's going to come down to a fight.

The Revolution will be livestreamed.

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Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?
Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
~Daniel 3:14-18

Intro

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

[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."

The Revolution Will Be Livestreamed (Intro.)

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.

...

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

~Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly 25 February 2022, Associated Press....

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.)

I saw this stuff overnight, while I was at work.

And I reached a rather disturbing conclusion.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.

It will not be Facebooked, Instagrammed, Threaded or Twittered. There's a very excellent chance it will be Blue Sky'ed though.

The Revolution Will Be Livestreamed.

Imagine, you're sitting at home, where you're at things might be a bit rough, but they're livable. People are working together, they have to. Communications are patchy but an old guy like me can still text his girlfriend who lives 3 hours away, although we're both a bit busy, older people with skills having been drafted by the powers that be to teach those skills to others.

Elsewhere, things are not so livable. Some things changed when the "Culture War" and all this political Cold War shit went hot.

But, Scrolling? Scrolling didn't change. Not in our off-hours at least. 

Maybe what we're watching...

Scrolling. 

Following a squad of soldiers, as once things fell apart, once regions and states and even whole countries were forced to make the call, which side they were on, things got bloody conventional, hybrid-conventional but still conventional real fast.

Brussels and Ottawa and Washington DC vs. Moscow, Miami, some shithole bunker in the Urals and some gilded techno-fuck-state where Gaza used to be, where anybody that can dig up enough money becomes a citizen no questions asked. Turns out a ravening shit-ton of them that did were rabid Christian Nationalists. It turns out the Israelis liked their new neighbors even less than the old ones. People hanged over there for what they called the "Great Betrayal." 

In Europe the line is somewhere in what used to be Belarus and well north of the Ukrainian border. Turns out you don't wanna start a war with a major power-bloc when you can't even defeat one country you've spent several years trying to conquer, but there's been an offensive going against Moscow so long that even the new Free Media just let it fade into the background. Even both sides using tactical nuclear weapons only got the scatter-brained attention-economy to look for a day or so.

Men and women surge forward, standard two-by-two cover formation, hitting the deck or finding cover as gunfire splatters down the alley, and then returning fire themselves, including the trooper whose bodycam provides the current perspective.

One can flip from helmet-cam to helmet-cam. Their gear is a hodgepodge of whatever, Old US Army BDU's and ACU's, Canadian, British or EU Multicam, their weapons? wide variety of NATO and US-standard arms, but at least a few AK-101's, that's what they call the classic Kalashnikov, chambered in 5.56mm NATO standard.

The accidental protagonist of the moment is carrying one of those. Old School is the best school, even here.

Military Operations In Urban Terrain, as the term of art goes, are a bitch.

"Clanker!" someone shouts, meaning there's a robot in the battlespace. A sputtering sound like a zipper from the rear tells me that a C-Ram Gatling gun is active, explosions above and forward suggest it's engaged a drone swarm, with mostly good effect on targets.

A volley of 40mm grenades lands around the robot, just visible through the haze and smoke, the enemy gathering their forces behind the Big Metal Brother, until a Javelin missile puts it out of commission. The squad's moving again and overhead there's the Thwack, Thwack, Thwack of rotors in the heavy air, and the sound pickup on the cam garbles some indistinct radio chatter even further.

Turns out there aren't very many of the enemy and they aren't very motivated, and the firefight is over quickly. doesn't seem to matter, because they can always find more and for the other side it's more that even they can't quit the Infantryman. But the Reds went all-in on technology.

Too much.

Even with the cannon-fodder. A quick visual inspection reveals every last one of them is White, and has an implant in their forehead or right hand, that's the new thing, even for the Enemy, convince the troops they're going to upload into some AI heaven so they can be with AI Jesus when they die.

Axes, Machetes and various blades come out and implanted hands are severed or visible chips gouged out, even (especially) from the still-living. 

Can't upload if you ain't on the network, Beastie. 

It's savage, but it's the only thing these motherfuckers understand.

The squad's female medic, machete in hand, checks to make sure they're dead, she stops and looks in the direction of our viewpoint, her eyes an utterly emotionless thousand-yard-stare.

"Cornell!" a Ukrainian-accented voice yells "Move your American ass, Rally point is close!"

She sheathes the blade and our camera-viewpoint turns away as the squad sprints down a side-street. There has been action here, also. Parked cars are pocked with bullet holes, tires flattened, window-glass broken.

There are helicopters landing two at a time in a park up ahead, a horribly damaged green space in the middle of Hell.

The squad sprints past a decapitated, pulled-down gilded statue of Donald Trump. The head is five meters in the other direction, gouged and pockmarked but still recognizable.

There's some kind of improvised, shouted conclave of officers and senior NCO's, with riflemen fanned out to protect the LZ. The choppers still have their rotors running. Clearly, something is going down somewhere.

Someone waves our protagonist/perspective towards them, and he runs up the rear ramp of one of the helicopters, a Leonardo AW101 Merlin, only with the noise of the outside muffled a little do we hear he's breathing hard, his camera pans over the rest of the team, apparently a diverse group of young to middle-aged troops led by a grizzled, bearded apparently Ukrainian veteran with Sergeant's stripes on his chest and sleeves.

====End Transmission===

Always remember that what These Fucking People do to inanimate (or even, apparently, animate) objects, they at least want to do to people if given the chance.

Assholes have gotten way too comfortable in the United States Of America and some other places.

The reckoning is brewing, remember that.

We can put the fear of God and the People back into these motherfuckers, we're gonna have to.

If Republicans are so damned sure they're going to win why are they in panic-mode and yet still managing to do the worst possible thing for if they actually wanted to win anything.

These people don't want to win.

They think they want to provoke Armageddon.

They may well be successful, but I don't think it'll go the way they think it'll go and it sure as hell won't end up the way they think it will for themselves.

They're going to lose.

But that doesn't mean it's not gonna come down to a fight to stop this shit from getting worse.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

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In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

He said, “Go and tell His people:

“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”

Then I said, “For how long, Lord?”

And he answered:

“Until the cities lie ruined
and without inhabitant,
until the houses are left deserted
and the fields ruined and ravaged, 

until the Lord has sent everyone far away
and the land is utterly forsaken.
And though a tenth remains in the land,
it will again be laid waste.
But as the terebinth and oak
leave stumps when they are cut down,
so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”

~Isaiah chapter 6 (New International Version.)

Last Post

[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."

[Don't] Send Me (Scenes From The Fall, Ten.)

[After beating a US Cavalryman nearly to death for hitting Newt, he climbs on his horse and looks at the horrified townspeople] I hate rude behavior in a man. I won't tolerate it. ~Woodrow Call, from the Lonesome Dove miniseries.

...

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:


“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

He said, “Go and tell His people:

“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”

Then I said, “For how long, Lord?”

And he answered:

“Until the cities lie ruined
and without inhabitant,
until the houses are left deserted
and the fields ruined and ravaged, 

until the Lord has sent everyone far away
and the land is utterly forsaken.
And though a tenth remains in the land,
it will again be laid waste.
But as the terebinth and oak
leave stumps when they are cut down,
so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”

~Isaiah chapter 6 (New International Version.)

I saw this yesterday.

Keg-Breath, giving a particularly weird speech at Quantico, talking about "The Faith of Jerusalem, the Philosophy of Athens and the Power of Rome" Fun fact; Not one of those places or times has one goddamn thing to do with the "Freedom of Philadelphia in 1776." Rome ceased to be a Republic. America created the modern concept.

This ideological clown has about as much understanding of history or philosophy as he does of Cowboys, which is to say not much at all. Like, didn't this dude ever see Deadwood or Lonesome Dove?? A hell of a lot of Cowboys were Cowboys because they wanted to get away from the Government and uptight Victorian industrial revolution society and make their own way in life. There were lots of Black cowboys, some women were famous gunslingers and scouts, all things considered "Patriotic" ain't a word I'd use. Lots of the (White) men had fought on one side or the other in the Civil War and plenty of the Black men had fought for the Union.

And a lot of them were Done with that crap. For the same reasons many veterans of all wars before and since don't care much for government or society.

Chances were if you were on a horse and flying an American flag, you were a US Cavalry color-bearer.

These idiots consistently have the understanding of everything that one might attribute to a snotty 13-year-old boy who thinks he knows All Truth cuz his balls dropped. Yeah, I remember being that age, part of that time we were staying with my grandparents and I got a lot of ass whuppins that year because my Grandma Thompson absolutely wasn't having it. 

Her favorite line was "I'm gonna beat you all the way to Escanaba."

Most people grow out of this crap. Most of us have to.

Al Swearengen: Let me say this once in your hearing. For outright stupidity, the whole fuckin' trial concept goes shoulder to shoulder with that cocksucker Custer's thinkin' when he headed for that ridge.

Cy Tolliver: It's got its disadvantages.

Al Swearengen: We’re illegal. Our whole goal is to get annexed to the United fuckin' States. We start holdin' trials, what's to keep the United States fuckin' Congress from sayin' "Oh, excuse us, we didn't realize you were a fuckin' sovereign community and nation out there. Where's your cocksucker's flag? Where's your fuckin’ navy or the like? Maybe when we make our treaty with the Sioux, we should treat you people like renegade fuckin' Indians. Deny your fuckin' gold and property claims. And hand everything over instead to our ne'er-do-well cousins and brothers-in-law."

Cy Tolliver: That we don't want.

~From Deadwood, S1.E5 "The Trial Of Jack McCall."

At least back in my day, you did. If you didn't, painful Darwinian processes tended to ensue until you did. I was raised with a very simple principle; Stupid should hurt. Now, by that age my Mom had given up on the ass whuppin.' My Grandma, not so much.

I'm tired of these fucking idiots, I'm tired of their fake religiosity, I'm tired of them trying to force their bullshit Christian Nationalism on the rest of us, I'm tired of the way they treat women, and I'm tired of them running this country into the fucking ground.

I'm tired of these idiot narcissists, period.

I have a church background, I used to be a conservative Republican. I'm a veteran, Hell I even considered ministry myself, and you know what?? I didn't go for it because I didn't want to be responsible for somebody else's soul. I sure as hell never thought I had some kind of a right to "Make the rules" for other people.

And I wouldn't want to if I did.

Among other things, you get Saved or not by what you believe or what you do, not what you make other people do or not.

Other people are *Checks Notes* Other people...what are you doing??

Everybody has charge over their own Souls. Literally the entire framework of American Christianity as I was taught that is dependent on Belief being a free choice; It's literally why Baptism as an adult is even a thing.

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but he that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: ~Matthew 3:11

If you go to most of those countries like Denmark or the UK where everybody is or used to be a registered member of the national Church at Birth or Infant Baptism...hardly anybody goes to church and all of those countries are very secular. And even in America, there sure as hell ain't very many Calvinists in originally-Puritan Massachusetts.

Religious societies ain't all they're supposedly cracked up to be. Even Jesus knew that.

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)

Among other things, I was taught Christians should expect society to be against them, and eventual persecution; 

Which is true even here, IF you actually follow Jesus and not the worldly abomination of Christ-less American Evangelicalism.

Trump's America can't decide if it wants to be Babylon or Sodom, and it's sure as hell failing to be Rome. Among other things, the secret sauce to Rome's success was making people want to become Romanized. The only thing I'm really sure the Republican Closetocracy wants is to bring back the LGBT culture of ancient Rome. Mind you, even in Rome, consent was a thing (At least for free Men.) There were laws about this. The Romans just invented whole classes of people to which consent didn't apply and the Law fell back in the face of Roman custom.

[Referring to the Hat Creek Cattle Company sign]

Woodrow Call: And if that ain't bad enough you got all them Greek words on there, too.

Gus McCrae: I told you Woodrow, a long time ago it ain't Greek, it's Latin.

Woodrow Call: Well what does it say in Latin? [Gus blusters some gibberish] For all you know it invites people to rob us.

Gus McCrae: Well the first man comes along that can read Latin is welcome to rob us, far as I'm concerned. I'd like a chance to shoot at an educated man once in my life.

~From the Lonesome Dove miniseries.

And I'd argue These Fucking People's aspirations for how to treat women are as bad as that, or worse.

I have a partner and a kid to think about. I don't want the world we have to live in to be like that for their sake.

My partner is strong and tough and very independent, and she wouldn't do well in the kind of world these CHUDs think they want. 

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."

The Kid is the same way. She's had a rough life, but still manages to be a decent person. She sure as hell doesn't deserve any of this fucking crap.

And neither one of them would permit me to be a raging dickbrain like a whole bunch of these guys trying to defend the Cornell 7.

That's just life. I've always been held to standards; Why aren't these other guys??

Among other things, speaking as a veteran here if I'd have come into work talking like Keg-Breath does, my LT probably would have had me drug tested.

Son, I'm just gonna tell you this one time. You want to keep working here? Stay off the drugs.

~Mr. McDowell, Coming To America

And I'm old enough to remember when a sexual abuse scandal, or a consenting adult sex scandal could END a church, or a political career or even someone's employability in any kind of a real job and land motherfuckers in jail.

It's really that simple to me.

And the thing with guys like Keg-Breath is, if someone really did "Send Them" into the kind of religious war they yank their cranks to the idea of, it's very likely he'd forget what he was doing, drop his rifle and his pants, grab his junk and go charging at the enemy. Then he'd trip himself up, faceplant, get captured and wonder why nobody on his own "side" wanted him repatriated in the next POW swap. Don't send Pete.

The motherfucker jerks off to the idea of taking a modern military in a modern civilization and turning it into a mob of Christian Nationalist killers little different from the Taliban, and he does it for no better reason than constant overcompensation for his own failures, insecurities, lies and self-deceptions.

I mean for fuck's sake we're losing the war.

And These Fucking People don't care as long as they get to showboat with all their idiotic bigotry, bullshit and religiosity.

And as long as these monsters are in power we're gonna lose and we're gonna keep losing until we get rid of them.

Because among other things they started by missing the point of America, along with damn near everything else.

In life you have to do a lot of things you don't fucking want to do. Many times, that's what the fuck life is... one vile fucking task after another. But don't get aggravated... then the enemy has you by the short hairs. ~Al Swearingen, Deadwood.

The whole purpose of America is that you are not what you are born as, but what you have it in yourself to become. I learned this in Christian schools.

They're seeing that consent for their horseshit is being withdrawn in real time and they're deciding to half-ass try and push forward anyway. Back in the Wild West days, that was a good way to get shot.

It's going to come down to a fight.

It's going to end badly and they're gonna lose.

Слава Україна

[Jim West arrives at Loveless' party]

Dr. Arliss Loveless: Mr. West...how nice of you to join us tonight and add COLOR to these monochromatic proceedings.

Jim West: Well, when a fella comes back from the dead, I find that an occasion to STAND UP and be counted.

Loveless: Ms. East informs me that you expected to see Gen. McGrath here. Well, I knew him years ago, but I haven't seen him in a COON'S age.

West: Well, I can see where it would be difficult for a man of your stature to keep in touch with even HALF the people you know.

Loveless: Well, perhaps the lovely Ms. East will keep you from being a SLAVE to your disappointment.

West: Well, you know beautiful women; they encourage you one minute, then CUT THE LEGS out from under you the next.

Loveless: ...Quite.

~From the film Wild Wild West.

Nine

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.

Repent (Scenes From The Fall, Nine.)

I am not the god of war, Diana, I am the god of truth. Mankind stole this world from us. They ruined it, day by day. And I, the only one wise enough to see it, was left too weak to stop them. All these years, I have struggled alone, whispering into their ears. Ideas, inspiration for formulas, weapons... but I don't make them use them. They start these wars on their own. All I do is orchestrate an armistice I know they cannot keep, in the hope they will destroy themselves. But it has never been enough... until you. When you first arrived, I was going to crush you. But I knew that if only you could see what the other gods could not, then you would join me, and with our powers combined, we could finally end all the pain, all the suffering, the destruction they bring. And we could return this world to the paradise it was before them, forever. ~Ares, from the film Wonder Woman.

...

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.

I saw this when I got home from the store. I walked, because the car is in the shop.

FOX News is talking about some hokey "Out of body experience" crap where some preachers supposedly "visited Hell."

They should've stayed there as far as I'm concerned. This stuff is complete bullshit, always has been.

Meanwhile judging from the look on Katie Britt's face the Jack Smith hearings did not go well. Throw in the fact that Eric Schmitt tried to make it sound like prosecuting the former President of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, for war crimes was itself somehow Something Something Gazpacho "Illegal" rather than the proper function of international law. Well, FOX News can't talk about the Jack Smith hearing, now can they??

I mean, given their abandonment of all things actually Republican and apparent desire to be nothing more than ass-kissers for some absolute monarch, I suppose "Republicans" would bristle at the thought of any malevolent leader anywhere being held to account. Although considering that Hashim Thaci is Muslim I'm surprised they'd try and claim him for the club.

Justice anywhere is a threat to Injustice everywhere, I guess?? And bad leadership or injustice does not become good, or justice, just because you dress it up in a bunch of Bible-talk (while trying to say nobody else can do the same.) Fuck all that.

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

Reagan Wept.

Earlier today, I saw this, too.

Apparently Suella Braverman, who's joined Reform UK wants to force British kids to sing Christian songs in school?

This in one of the least-religiously-observant, most secular countries in the world where chances are real good if somebody is a regular participant in any religious activity they're not a Christian (most likely Muslim, in fact) or if they are Christian, bet they're a Black African or Afro-Caribbean type of Christian with decidedly Pentecostal leanings.

Braverman herself is supposedly Buddhist, and married to a Jewish guy, so I don't even know where she's coming up with this crap except that Reform and all these far-Right Brits seem to be taking money from American Christian Nationalists who see they're likely going to lose over here and picked a really stupid place to try to export their "Culture War" to. I don't even get how they thought this crap was going to work, like at all. And the British people ain't having it, so far.

I mean, I get it, these people are stupid. I hate to sound that way but most of the actual intelligent or principled conservatives have jumped ship for various reasons, and many more are still doing so.

Because this shit gets dumber every day.

Every day these fucking people get more obsessed with pushing Christianity on other people while blatantly not practicing it themselves.

Thatcher joined Reagan in his weeping, pretty much.

I'm TIRED of this bullshit.

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

I can't even talk the way that these fucking people talk, anymore.

And what does this shit come down to about every fucking time?? Some chud trying to justify the Cornell Seven. Patriarchy, Rape, various forms of bad behavior by "Men."

Ya know, back in the day Christian apologists and anti-Cult people liked to try to connect cults or any religion they judged as a cult with sexual perversity. It wasn't an entirely wrong idea...a lot of cults really are All About The Power Of The Penis, MAGA is no exception.

But those guys were doing it to rile up a specific type of Christian that it's apparently not cool to be, now. Can't have anybody in Trump's world believing that sexual perversity is wrong now can we.

But the issue is these motherfuckers wanna have their drugs and their orgiastic parties and all that and still be considered to be oh-so-righteous. No, fuck you, none of this works that way.

And even if you win, political Power does not change Right from Wrong.

There's still an Afterlife, you're still gonna be judged in it.

The fact that these fucking people ignore that or simply refuse to obey it tells me, at the end of the day, these assholes are probably one motherfucker of a lot more Atheistic than Richard Dawkins.

Or worse, whatever spiritual beliefs they do have are likely so alien from the Bible or Christianity or any of the other Abrahamic religions that God does not recognize these fucking idiots.

And Buddha sure as hell wouldn't, Susie.

No one gets "Saved" by what they make Other people do. You have to talk to God, the gods, the Universe, the Dharma or what the fuck ever your damn self and come clean about what you did.

You know, Repent.

These Fucking People? They don't want to repent. They don't think they did anything wrong in the first place!

And that's why they're all going to Hell.

They just want to see how many of the rest of us they can take with them.

At this point "Conservatives" are just trying to hypnotize people with their bullshit.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Слава Україна!

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.

Eight

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"

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: ~John 11:25