Liars (Don't Tread On Me, One.)

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

...

We have too many men of science, too few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon On The Mount. The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. ~General Omar Bradley

...

A faithful witness will not lie: but a false witness will utter lies. ~Proverbs 14:5

I saw this yesterday. According to Joel Webbon, lying is good, actually.

Especially if it hurts LGBT people or works toward the goal of seizing their churches or imprisoning their Pastors. (None of which is legal or possible in the United States of America even as it currently exists.)

Fuck you, dude.

It's Pride Month for fuck's sake!

My partner is bisexual, she's Christian, and she has a right to be both of those things...and not only as in Constitutionally in the United States, but as a free person standing before God. That's how God created her. She'd be doing it wrong if she wasn't, ya know, herself.

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."

Kid's a lesbian and agnostic-atheist, but she's expressed an interest in learning and has been to church, leave her the fuck alone too. You ask me she's a much better person than Joel Webbon.

I'm sick and tired of These Fucking People. 

Like I don't give a damn, get over it and shut the fuck up before people get sick of what's coming out your mouth and make you stop this shit. 

Nobody cares about any of this stuff anymore but you. 

And more to the point even from a Christian viewpoint your obsession with the acts, beliefs or orientations of Other People is unseemly. Mind your own goddamned business.

The rest of us were here first as were the ancestors who taught us and just because you think you know better does not give you any kind of a "right" to impose your will on the majority.

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

That's not only how democracy works...that's been American culture since before America was America and that's how things like the Revolution and the Founding even happened. If you don't like it, too bad. Your side lost the argument War.

Oh, wait, these motherfuckers don't like the United Kingdom, either...except maybe for some racist ultra-"Conservative" Ulster Loyalist assholes that basically riot every summer. Oh, wait, those people aren't even the majority in their own land!

Maybe try getting your own country? 

I hear Antarctica is nice this time of year.

These fucking people's idea of America sucks, not least because they keep trying to destroy this country as it currently exists for the rest of us.

If Jabba The Congressman is upset cuz he thinks somebody else is "destroying America" I think it's cuz he's afraid that somebody else will steal his bit.

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 how these people talk anymore.

And if we're being honest, when push comes to shove when it comes to their own lives...none of these assholes really believe in any of this bullshit either! The vast majority of women that I've personally known who have had abortions are *Checks Notes* Evangelical "Conservatives" just like Kat Cammack.

She absolutely has the right to freedom of choice or she should, she certainly has the right to preserve her own life, or she should, with no questions asked. You know who the person is that complicated that?? HER.

Think about it, Kat.

The thing is, really in These Fucking People's ideal world, about anything would be legal...but you'd have to listen to a goddamned screed from these fuckin' freaks about how much of a miserable Sinner you were before you did basically anything! They don't really want to change the world...they just want to make it suck because it's an article of Faith with these kind of people that the world we live in is automatically somehow Bad and Fallen.

Not that they really believe in Original Sin or Jesus or anything else, they just want to blow their own narcissism and control and immiserate and manipulate other people.

And of course, if you're a Billionaire...There Is No Sin. Have Fun.

Not only that but they approach perversion and Sin with the same pious devotion their parents and grandparents had for tight-assed Calvinism in the 1960s and 1970's and their parents or they had for weird Pentecostal BS in the 1990's or early 00's.

Mind you, there's plenty of Liberals that are fine with continually enabling this shit. James Carville got mad because a bunch of Progressives won in D primaries on Tuesday. Guess what? People been sick of Republican Lite for a minute, James.

It's not 1992 or even 1996 anymore, and at the end of the day the Democratic Party of that era was still just as hated by the Right and I say that as a 1990's Republican Air Force veteran. The same far-right assholes who are in power now were raggedy-ass militia nuts back then and they hated people like me. More than one incompetently-fused truck bomb found on the fence-line of a military base in the 1990's never made the news. Just sayin.'

Anybody else tired of this crap yet, or is it just me??

That's the whole damn thing, yo, people are tired of this bullshit.

And modern Republicans are nothing but liars who wanna sell out everything America has ever stood for...while trying like fuck to exempt themselves from all the consequences. They believe in nothing so fervently that they won't lie about it. 

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

Reagan Wept.

If they really believed they were so right or so righteous, why would any of that crap be necessary??

And what's worse is they can't even come up with a plausible lie or be bothered to have a goal that makes any sense or even does anything, apparently even the FBI has been (badly) mobilized to cover for Trump's turning the Reflecting Pool into a Pit Of Green Slime. 

Think about that, for a second.

And then don't have the balls to wonder why "Don't Tread On Me" is creeping into Democratic discourse.

At the end of the day, you either believe in freedom or you don't.

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

Pick one.

Слава Україна!

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

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

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

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

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

~Isaiah 1:13-17 (KJV)

Last Post

[The Mandalorian brings together the entire Mandalorian covert after Carson Teva makes a surprise visit and asks him to help Greef Karga's situation on Nevarro when the New Republic won't lift a finger]

Mando: Now, many of you don't know Greef Karga. And those that do fought against him when you rescued me from his ambush many cycles ago on the streets of Nevarro. Since then, he's had a change of heart and has risked his life to save mine as well as the Foundling in my charge. [Grogu coos] I stand before you to petition an intervention. To help rescue Nevarro before it's too late. I am in no position to ask any more of you. However... However, the enemy that decimated this very covert were Imperials, not Greef Karga's bounty hunters. Greef Karga is now a High Magistrate and has offered me a tract of land on his independent world. Perhaps it is time for us to live in the light once again on a planet where we are welcome. So our culture may flourish and our children can feel what it is to play in the sunlight.

Armorer: Does anyone else wish to speak?

Mando: It's up to them now.

Paz Vizsla: I do. I was there on Nevarro that night. I fought against Greef Karga and his hunters. I saw my brothers and sisters fall at the hands of the Imperial butchers that hunted us in the sewers. I saw many die to save the life of [gestures to Grogu] this one, tiny Foundling. And now we are asked to sacrifice yet again. The question we should be asking ourselves is, "Why? Why should we lay our lives down yet again?" Because we are Mandalorians! I have had my disagreements with this man, but he risked his life to save my son. And Bo-Katan Kryze did not give up on my child's life even when the rest of us did. These two are asking us to take up arms in the name of a brighter future, and I for one will take up arms to fight by their side. [Mandalorians agree] This is the Way!

Mandalorians: This is the Way.

Armorer: This is the Way.

~From The Mandalorian S3.E5 "The Pirate."

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

Don't Tread On Me (Not Legends, Not Myths, Facts. Ten.)

Red Army General : I carried out my orders. I sent in all of my boys. But the Germans engulfed us. They have artillery, aircraft, tanks. And me, what did I have?!

Khrushchev: A sacred duty to resist! I have to report to the Boss. [puts a pistol on the table] Perhaps you'd prefer to avoid the red tape.

[Khrushchev walks out of the room to address political officers. There is a gunshot, then he begins.]

Krushchev: My name... is Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev. I've come to takes things in hand here. This city... is not Kursk, nor is it Kiev, nor Minsk. This city... is Stalingrad. Stalin-grad! The city bears the name of the Boss. It's more than a city, it's a symbol. If the Germans capture this city, the entire country will collapse. Now, I want our boys to raise their heads. I want them to act like they have BALLS! I want them to stop SHITTING THEIR PANTS! [briefly pauses] That's your job. As political officers, I'm counting on you. [stops at one] You, what's your suggestion?

Officer #1: Shoot all the other generals who have retreated. And their chiefs of staff, too.

[Khruschev looks at another.]

Officer #2: [terrified, stuttering] M-make s-some examples. D-d-d-d-d-de-port the families of the d-d-deserters...

Khrushchev: [bored] Yes, yes, that's all been done.

Danilov: Give them hope!

[Kruschev walks over and looks at the officer standing in the front, who motions with his eyes toward Danilov.]

Danilov: Here the men's only choice is between German bullets and ours. But there's another way, the way of courage, the way of love of the Motherland. We must publish the army newspaper again. We must tell magnificent stories, stories that extol sacrifice, bravery. We must give them hope, pride, a desire to fight. We must make them believe in the victory. Yes, we need to make examples; but examples to follow. What we need... are heroes.

Khrushchev: [looks around, wryly] Do you know any heroes around here?

Danilov: Yes, Comrade. I know one.

~From the film Enemy At The Gates.

...

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judges her.

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. ~Revelation 18:1-10

I saw this yesterday.

Apparently, Republicans believe there's some kind of dastardly "Antifa" or "Communist" or "Leftist" plot ongoing to *Checks Notes* clean the pool?? The fact that these guys think you have to brew up pool cleaner in a lab (as opposed to buying it at Walmart?) that looks oddly enough like the corner of a decent level of chemical closet...and either don't know the difference themselves or don't think anybody else will...is just hilarious to me. But let's say there was...

Why not? These idiots won't clean it up. It's like they all decided if "The Boss" wants a nasty, unsanitary mess, that's exactly what they're going to have, for no reason other than that. And nobody really seems to give a shit about anything other than keeping their place in the Magical City, no matter how gross it gets. See also: Republicans.

Sorry, but Trump is turning our nation's capital into a shithole, and I think he's doing it deliberately at this point. I mean, sure, it's incompetence, but it's weaponized incompetence. And they'd rather arrest people than fix it.

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

I mean, damn, what's next??

Oh, right.

Giving some idiot trainee massage therapist a whole bunch of money because she harassed a couple of Muslim women in the grocery store. Deus Hoc Vult, motherfuckers! Or something. If this is "God's" will, I think even I'm comfortable saying there ain't no such thing. Or it ain't worth following if it does exist.

Come on, seriously. Have you fucking Republicans looked at yourselves in the mirror, lately? I'd say "It's Got Electrolytes" but that would be insulting to Idiocracy.

I mean, sure, the people in that movie were dumb as hell, but they were nowhere near this intentionally malevolent. Or stupid, for that matter.

I don't give a fuck what the circumstances are, or if somebody loses their job or every other damn thing. People should not be allowed to do this type of bullshit and get money for it. There shouldn't need to be laws about it either. People should not tolerate this crap. Bring back the ass whuppin.

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

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

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

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

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

~Isaiah 1:13-17 (KJV)

When is enough going to be enough with this shit??

And I'm sorry, but a lot of the blame here does fall on the media and political classes, and on a population that (at least on the Right) has literally become too dumb and intellectually incurious to bother with calling out this shit and holding these people to account until it gets way too damned bad.

It's like all these Russians that are screaming "OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUCK?!?!" Now that the Ukrainians are bombing Moscow...they haven't cared a whit that Russia has been bombing Kyiv since February of 2022. 

The Empire was cool when you thought it didn't affect you. I see how it is. 

Well, it does. And it was always going to.

Shit like this is exactly why conservatives and Christians of my generation were distrustful of the Power of the State and sought to limit such.

And it was countries like Russia or as it was then, the Soviet Union, where the State ran your life...that we knew were the bad guys, too.

Now Republicans are pretty much like "YES! Run my life Mr. Trump!" And they want to mythologize the man because the Truth fucking sucks.

It's fucking stupid.

And now Republicans and former Republicans including guys like Tea Party Joe Walsh are talking about and on the Republican side at least, seem afraid of, a Democratic equivalent to the Tea Party movement rising up.

Well, guess what??

Don't Tread On Me, Motherfuckers.

I may not agree with a lot of these people, from what I'm seeing so far.

But at least they don't want most other people to die so that we can be replaced with AI and robots and shit. There ain't no Democrats talking shit about doing things that hurt my partner or my kid.

Not legends, not myths, facts. Acting in your own interests. Giving a shit about the people you love. This isn't hard.

The Right's whole M.O. is literally anything but "Love Thy Neighbor."

Maybe us taking back the goddamn Gadsden Flag will be what it takes to shut down this garbage. Fuck, I don't know, anything is better than this shit.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Слава Україна!

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

Nine

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

Users (Not Legends, Not Myths, Facts. Nine.)

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. ~Revelation 6:9-11

...

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

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

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

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

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

~Isaiah 1:13-17 (KJV)

...

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

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

Andor: Is that the best you got?

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

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

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

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

I saw this shit when I got up this morning.

Apparently, Fucker Carlson is trying to platform Joel Webbon and his neo-Calvinist crap.

I've written pretty extensively about what I think about Joel and that kind of women-abusing Taliban-like newfangled Fundamentalist religiosity but let's start here.

I've also written a few times about how I met my ex-wife, and pretty extensively about that relationship and how it ended.

My ex has Borderline Personality Disorder. I've said many times, on here and out in the world, that Trump basically took her kind of religious crap and secularized it. Except it's not really working out, and at this point most people know that.

I've written rather less about how my ex-wife acted when the writing was on the wall and we knew it was going to flame out. The thing is, at that point, she was rather less religious.

But now I'm starting to see what I saw from her then, creep into Republican politics, too. She had basically entered kind of a fugue state that I referred to at the time, accurately but crudely as "Eat, Sleep and Fuck mode" ESF for short. I called it that, because she didn't want to do much of anything else. She'd stopped trying to find a job and seemed mainly concerned with hoovering up all the resources we had with her various habits.

Smug, greedy, well-fed white people have invented a language to conceal their sins. It's as simple as that. The CIA doesn't kill anybody anymore, they neutralize people, or they depopulate the area. The government doesn't lie, it engages in disinformation. The Pentagon actually measures nuclear radiation in something they call sunshine units. Israeli murderers are called commandos, Arab commandos are called terrorists. Contra killers are called freedom fighters. Well, if crime fighters fight crime, and firefighters fight fires, what do freedom fighters fight? ~George Carlin

We naturally spent most of our few mutual waking hours arguing and fighting and/or using each other for the one thing we still had in common.

My Mom had, by that point, had it up to *Here* with that shit. To the point of not answering the phone sometimes.

I was reminded of that this morning when a buddy of mine pointed out that I'd asked last year "What does Trump want Greenland for, to eat it??"

When the shit was hitting the fan, when things got really bad at the end of January in 2001, I managed to get fired from Walmart along with another (yes, female) associate for...well, it's a long story but considering my home life at the time you can probably guess what happened, at work no less...but we both got put down as rehireable because our boss liked us, but that meant we couldn't reapply for 90 days. 

I went and talked to my old boss in the college IT department right around closing time 'cause I knew he'd be there and quite literally had a job within 20 minutes but it'd be a couple days before I actually started. I spun it, successfully, as a job change. I *Was* going to be getting paid more at the college. I transferred to the cafeteria to keep my full-time hours but a little less money at the end of the semester but then stayed there. My coworker hired in at Dollar Tree (and IIRC got paid every week) but went back to Walmart like four months later as they started doing the actual work to convert over to a super-center, putting up shelves and shit and eventually she transferred back into her old job in Electronics. 

The flip side was, I had a decent job all the sudden, but like half a paycheck from Walmart to get through 3 weeks on

My Mom was hesitant to help because the last time she had, my then-wife had literally stolen most of the money from me and blown it on alcohol and bar food at Karaoke. So, to get by, I went and talked to the pastor of our church and the church got me a $100 gift card and a gas card and my Mom said she would put gas in my truck if there was an emergency. We should have been able to make it on that, if barely...if there wasn't another emergency.

There was.

My wife sold the gift card to a neighbor for $50, then spent that. All while I was sleeping. I blew a gasket when I got up and figured it out.

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 was meeting my Mom for breakfast at the bagel shop in Petoskey before class because she had a relatively-free morning and only afternoon and evening classes in Traverse City. This was the start of February. I pretty much told Mom I was done, just had to figure out how and when to extract myself and make sure I did so with the dog and a few other necessary things. She bought me groceries, put gas in the truck, went to our ISP and paid the internet bill, basically caught up everything that would come due before I got paid again. All the sudden, with an end-point to the crazy, she was all in to help.

But she didn't give me any cash. She'd been going to until I told her about the gift card thing. My wife got hella mad about that, too bad. I straight up told her why.

We managed to struggle-bus along for about 2 1/2 weeks before I finally hit the combo of having all my shit in order to leave and saying the hell with it and getting out. I'd stashed everything I could in the back of the truck and me and Gracie the Schnauzer pretty much decided to go for a walk while my ex was downstairs at the bar. A walk out to the truck, then we got in it and left. My Mom kept gas in my truck so I could get back and forth to class and work until I got into the dorms at the college.

My ex-wife descended into a Pentecostal religious mania that so far as I know has barely abated 25 years later. She spent like the whole weekend trying to call me. It was creepy. All the sudden, my ex had to figure it out for herself and from what I heard she did so in some pretty manipulative ways. 

Also everything was a conspiracy or the fault of Demons and she had done nothing actually wrong and was Saved for suddenly adopting this violent cult-like religiosity. From where I saw things; Well, All the other people she screwed over or who had to deal with her at that point came out of the woodwork and finally started telling me all the shit she had been and was doing. I wasn't the only one screwing around. And it just got weirder from there while I rebuilt my life.

But, the fact of the matter is my actual lived experience is that cult-like extremism and religious bullshit always comes down to Glorification of the Self and Lusts of the Flesh. If these fucking people can't eat it, fight it or fuck it they don't understand it, much less want it. 

Red: The Sisters have taken quite a liking to you. Especially Bogs.

Andy: Don't suppose it would help any if I explained to them I'm not homosexual.

Red: Neither are they. You'd have to be human first. They don't qualify. Bull Queers take by force. That's all they want or understand. But if I were you, I'd grow eyes in the back of my head.

Andy: Thanks for the advice.

~From the film The Shawshank Redemption.

This is pretty much how my partner's relatives that she was staying with for awhile conducted themselves, and from what she's said her cousin is in jail now (for DV against his MOTHER) and her aunt got back with the abusive ex that she'd just left. Such wonderful people. Meanwhile my partner has her own house now, has reconciled with her parents and life is busy but good.

Look at how all these Calvinist Weirdos (for example) conduct themselves. A hell of a lot of them, like Pete Keg-Breath, are open motherfucking drunkards and I can remember when the same fucking people would throw you out of a church for that...because it happened to me. They're also apparently mostly adulterers, raging bigots and wife-beaters who think everything is a conspiracy and nothing is their fault. Like, honestly what's even the damn point??

Like, I've really started to wonder if Trump, a lot of these MAGA dudes and Republican men in general are all closeted. As Trump's inhibitions decline it seems like about the only thing he really waxes eloquent about are big strong manly men...ew. I don't even care about regular gay dudes. I'm not that way, I've never hated them, rather like more than a few that I've known, but I'm a straight guy, for the last year or so, with a side of Demi-sexuality and having figured that out I finally feel, I don't know...right? So I can't even imagine...or maybe I just don't want to.

The truth is I think it's worse, a lot of these guys aren't gay, bi or straight in conventional terms. It's like dudes in prison, they'll just stick it anywhere that'll let them. I had a friend apparently like this.

It seems like if these guys are that way even if it's just some kind of weird RWNJ pansexual crap, it'd just be easier to be themselves and make peace with that etc. You'd think, but that'd require thinking.

But apparently that's too hard, and they want to use whatever power they can to make everybody else miserable, too. I couldn't do it.

A lot of them are also pedophiles or into some other creepy, weird or wrong shit or they don't like consent very much and that, civilization can't live with. Thankfully, these fucking people's efforts to cover up the Epstein files are failing, as is their running cover for Trump's failing health.

One way or another, sooner or later the rest of us are going to figure out how far down the rot goes.

And there will be consequences.

Trump isn't the problem. He's a symptom of larger internal rot. Tucker isn't religious, he's trying to cover up wrongs by using religion.

The problem is that, too often, religion is perfectly fine with being used.

And maybe that's the goddamned problem.

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those ... moments will be lost in time, like tears...in rain. Time to die. ~Roy Batty, Blade Runner.

Now that religion isn't working all that great and since they've failed to push the country into civil war and even their own side is slouching toward a simple Fyre Festival-like collapse, they're going hard after "Authority" and "Mythology" as if they can just arbitrarily declare Trump a god and have no one argue with them or some shit.

Like that's really what all this dumb bullshit about trying to "protect" the Reflecting Pool National Swamp is really about.

But that won't work either.

And then they're gonna try to kill their way out of this situation, only then to find out that the rest of us can shoot back and one hell of a lot of us aren't willing to throw everybody who's "different" from these fucking CHUDs narrow idea of "People" under the damn bus, especially not for Donald Trump.

But Republicans, for the most part, would rather watch the world burn than admit they fucked up.

But they don't really even believe in Trump, they just saw him as a convenient vehicle to get Power.

All these people are nothing but shitty little users, no better than the fucking CHUD who owed me 3 packs of cigarettes by the end of Air Force tech school...but that's "Okay" if you're the right kind of Republican or have a billion dollars? 

We had best stop tolerating this garbage.

As for the rest of you?

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Слава Україна!

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

Eight

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judges her.

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. ~Revelation 18:1-10

Chomp Chomp, Crunch Crunch (Not Legends, Not Myths, Facts. Eight.)

You take a drug, right? The chemicals, they rush through your body, rush through your brain. And the sensations, you want the sensations again and again and again, but let me tell you, you can also get addicted to grief, to guilt, to hate. Because when you feel dead inside, even bad sensations make you feel like you're alive! ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO series Oz, S1.E5 "The Straight Life."

...

At last, they’ve come for me. I feel their lives, their destinies spilling out before me. The denial of the one true path, played out on a world not their own, will end soon enough. Soon there will be four, glorious in awakening, struggling with the knowledge of their true selves, the pain of revelation bringing new clarity, and in the midst of confusion, he will find her. Enemies brought together by impossible longing, enemies now joined as one. The way forward at once unthinkable, yet inevitable. And the fifth, still in shadow, will claw toward the light, hungering for redemption that will only come in the howl of terrible suffering. I can see them all. The seven, now six, self-described machines who believe themselves without sin, but in time, it is sin that will consume them. They will know enmity, bitterness, the wrenching agony of the one splintering into the many, and then they will join the promised land, gathered on the wings of an angel. Not an end, but a beginning. ~The First Hybrid, From Battlestar Galactica: Razor.

...

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judges her.

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. ~Revelation 18:1-10

Last night at work, I saw some idiotic "Christian" account on Threads expounding on the glories of *Checks Notes* Pete Keg-Breath and how "Christian" he was because he said "Removing God from schools opened the door to spiritual darkness."

Bro, I used to know a lot of Baptists and Calvinists and shit. I can remember when they'd throw you out if you were an unrepentant adulterer and a drunk with a history of shitty behavior. But I guess Sin is OK now as long as you're a Republican??

Also; No, this is America, not everybody is Christian. It is not the responsibility of the State to teach religion. If you don't like that...you can always send your kids to Christian schools! It's not the State's job to do your job as a parent and protect your kid from "Spiritual Darkness." That's on you.

I was an 8th Grader the first time I set foot in a public school in 1987, for comparison. The actual reason that was the case is my Mom figured I'd get a better education that way because I had issues (undiagnosed ADHD that was diagnosed in 1984) and it turned out she wasn't wrong. Note it's possible my partner's kid could end up going to Catholic school starting in the fall since she's switching schools anyway...the way we've been talking we're going to let her decide where she wants to go but it basically comes down to which is the better school and she's already thinking about her future and from where she can get into a better university. Note: Kiddo is not religious. She's just thinking ahead.

Not legends, not myths, facts and reality and too much intelligence for her own good sometimes.

These Fucking People don't care about that.

Hell, while we're at it, all too many of them don't seem to care if they get paid properly in the present. I'm gonna have to run the Oklahoma minimum wage hike getting voted down by my coworker tonight, he's from there, but I'm pretty sure I know what he'll say, He'll point out that Oklahoma is pretty much at the bottom of all the educational metrics. He's pretty clear about nobody in Oklahoma thinking ahead very much.

I mean, hell, where they do think ahead, even that is often only narcissistic self-aggrandizement without any concern for how that may affect other people...until it ends up affecting them, of course.

I don't have to tell you, drugs ain't the only things to get addicted to. Some people mainline their work, some people... snort ESPN. Some people needle-pop gambling. There are those that shoot up junk foods, fine wines, Cohibas, baby. Some people get hooked on love. And like any fiend on the street, you always need another bump. Just one more bump, man! Just one more bump! ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO series Oz, S1.E5 "The Straight Life."

Then they don't want anything to do with their own ideals or the life-choices they convinced others to make.

And the Pope of course, is rightly calling this shit out.

The idea that there basically is no Sin if you're a rich Republican is dangerous and stupid. More to the point it demonstrably gets you bad leadership.

Also, historically people who believe they and their political, religious or social movement are Without Sin end up being consumed by their Sin.

And that's exactly what's going on with the Republican Party right now.

Pete Keg-Breath doesn't care about the Lord, he only cares about religion to the extent that he can use it as a vector to hurt other people, and it's the same with pretty much any of these Republicans that are left.

They think themselves without Sin, because they think they believe the "right" things. Thus their Sin will consume them. I'd argue it is already. Chomp Chomp, Crunch, Crunch, motherfuckers.

These fucking people's Sin Nature is eating them like the Zombies eating the horse at the end of the first episode of The Walking Dead.

And it's turning this country into a laughingstock in the process.

Someday we're going to need it to have been otherwise, but *Checks Notes* People Were Stupid.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Слава Україна!

"I didn't want to do it,'' he hears himself saying. "I didn't want to leave them behind.''

The void laughs at him. There are miles of empty air beneath his dangling feet. "You had no choice.''

"Yes I did! I didn't have to come here.'' He pauses. "I didn't have to do anything,'' he says quietly, and inhales another lungful of death. "It was all automatic. Maybe it was inevitable.''

"-- Evitable,'' echoes the distant horizon. Something dark and angular skims across the stars, like an echo of extinct pterosaurs. Turbofans whirring within its belly, the F-117A hunts on: patrolling to keep at bay the ancient evil, unaware that the battle is already lost. "Your family could still be alive, you know.''

He looks up. "They could?'' Andrea? Jason? "Alive?''

The void laughs again, unfriendly: "There is life eternal within the eater of souls. Nobody is ever forgotten or allowed to rest in peace. They populate the simulation spaces of its mind, exploring all the possible alternative endings to their life. There is a fate worse than death, you know.'' 

~From A Colder War, a novella by Charles Stross.

Seven

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those ... moments will be lost in time, like tears...in rain. Time to die. ~Roy Batty, Blade Runner.