Beast Of War (American Revelation XVI, Nine.)

Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and the overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land, the House of Abraham, Muhammad, and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors...

You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.

During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug) -- while praying to the same God -- with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the "white" Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana. We were truly all the same (brothers) -- because their belief in one God had removed the "white" from their minds, the 'white' from their behavior, and the 'white' from their attitude. I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man -- and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their "differences" in color.

With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called "Christian" white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem. Perhaps it could be in time to save America from imminent disaster -- the same destruction brought upon Germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves.

They asked me what about the Hajj had impressed me the most. . . . I said, "The brotherhood! The people of all races, color, from all over the world coming together as one! It has proved to me the power of the One God. . . . All ate as one, and slept as one. Everything about the pilgrimage atmosphere accented the Oneness of Man under One God. 

~Malcolm X, Letter following the Hajj.

...

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

~Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly 25 February 2022, Associated Press

I saw this yesterday.

In her recent autobiography, Kristi Noem bragged about shooting her dog. Nothing wrong with the dog, and it was only 14 months old, she just didn't want it anymore.

People, across the board...even strident MAGA's...have reacted with nothing but well-deserved anger and disgust.

Meanwhile, because of the idiocy of the Columbia University administration and the NYPD, college campuses around the country have been wracked with protests against the continued attacks on Palestinians in Gaza by Israel.

And there's cops pointing sniper rifles at college students because of it. Speaking as a United States Air Force security police veteran here, how exactly do you enforce any laws from 200 meters away?? And that's the thing, these students aren't breaking any laws but rather exercising their Constitutional rights.

Shoot a dog, that's bad. Point weapons at college students, and that's good? It seems like some fucking people have their priorities all fucked up.

And they'll end up mad at Kristi Noem for telling on them.

Because if you think these motherfuckers wouldn't shoot people, you have another thing coming. And she gave away the game too early. Usually, psychopaths start with abusing animals.

And I find it interesting that the Columbia university administration has already said they won't call the NYPD again. Seems like somebody fucked up here, and it wasn't the college students. And they know it. Protesting is one of those things that college students do. If they'd left that shit alone, it would've flamed out in a week and there wouldn't be a national protest movement right now. Yeah, okay, there are a few violent Anti-Semitic assholes. You deal with those ones (which can generally be done without violence) and you don't use that shit as an excuse to brutalize the non-violent, law-abiding majority with excessive force.

I'm here to tell you, as it always does, the Right has overreached on this one...because they've had a hard-on for going after college students for a long time. And it's going to (further) shift US public opinion against Israel, in addition to creating another cycle of radicals (Islamic and otherwise) for the Right and its progeny to "fight" against, because these motherfuckers ideology can apparently survive just fine without a God...but goddamn, it can't even function without an Enemy.

And that's the thing.

These fucking people want to destroy themselves. They want to provoke an Apocalypse. They want to destroy every damn thing they "Support" too. And US support for Israel is no exception and no, I'm not kidding.

See, for "Conservatives" and Republicans, Israel is merely a Spell Component for "Summon Angry Blood-God Jesus." If they can turn the USA and the world against Israel that simply helps the 1970's vintage End Times Prophecy narrative these motherfuckers are still working off of. (Yes, the one I was taught in the 1990's, which is how I can say this.)

And the Go-condition for the Judgments of Revelation is basically a peace treaty between Israel and the global empire that they believe will exist at that time, which Israel is something something Gazpacho not a part of for some reason.

(Don't ask me, I only work here.)

Also, on the one hand, These Fucking People believe if they destroy themselves and America in some kind of Republican Revelation scenario...their small angry god will save them. Them...and not you or me.

Yes, they want to bring the Apocalypse on themselves because they think it'll hurt you.

(It's typical "Conservative" logic.)

On the other hand, this kind of shit is simply what happens when you marinate your brain in End Times conspiracy theories for your whole life. Most of these people didn't get out when Y2K or Harold Camping or the 2012 bullshit proved to be nothing more than so much Bovine Flatulence. Motherfuckers wanna believe.

Because they're Motherfuckers.

But then, for added confusion, Vladimir Putin basically has declared his intent to have a Far-Right "New World Order" (including declaring Russia to be Rome, the resurrection of Rome also being an implicit criteria for 1990's End Times Prophecy bullshit) which, gradually, seems to be accruing many of the characteristics of the very False World System of Revelation (including multiple prototype Marks Of The Beast) that these fucking people were violently against any hint of until recently. But...like some coalition of Iraqi tribes given a better offer by the government and those invaders they only recently castigated as Infidels than they'd gotten from the terrorists...they've switched sides in mid-conflict.

I'm sorry, Jesus.

And if you think I'm wrong, let me point out that it's funny how all this pops up literally immediately after the Republicans couldn't prevent the USA from helping Ukraine.

Seems obvious somebody's in cahoots with somebody, here.

I mean, sure, there's aid for Israel too, and Taiwan, and trust me...the second that Bibi loses power, let alone faces consequences, the Authoritarianism, Inc. goons will turn against Israel, too. If you consider that Putin (via Wagner) supported and trained Hamas, they already have, really.

And if these motherfuckers can use this ongoing conflict as well as Left-Right divisions in America to split the US into two or more countries...thus meaning whoever ends up helping places like Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine won't be able to do it as much...so much the better. It's Putin's stated goal to both avenge and reverse the collapse of the Soviet Union, and he also wants to inflict that kind of collapse on America. And if things keep up as they are, he might even be able to do it in the middle of a war.

Because 75% America will be 25% less able to help other people, it's as simple as that.

Unless we get a fucking grip.

I mean, Putin won't get Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Baltic States, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova or the majority of Ukraine, much less former Imperial Russian possessions like Finland or Poland...back. His re-expanded Warsaw Pact "Sphere of Influence" is probably a no-go, too, at least as regards Eastern Europe. But Putin will certainly be able to gobble up Belarus, and possibly a few of the other, smaller countries that perversely seem less alert. And if he keeps wrenching away at our own divides with crowbars of hate and political extremism and racism...Russia might get chunks of Florida and the Deep South as some kind of American banana republic Satellite State. 

Call it an East Germany for the 21st Century, actively working towards Republican North Korea.

And you watch, if the Republicans can pull off some kind of Right-wing Insurgency or simply get the aspects of the US government that they've corrupted to go along with several states in a bloc seceding, and once shooting and wrangling over exact borders stops and the guard towers and walls of an Inner-American border go up, once the tech bros and the wealthy flock there and they design their bullshit system of religious laws, techno-Gnosticism and this and that...they're going to start putting computer chips in people's heads and otherwise daring their alleged God to smite them, and that'll be before they start actively working on creating conflict not only internally to feed their own desires for repression and profit, but against the rest of us (again) as well.

Because it's anything but America.

Because it's anything but "Love Thy Neighbor."

Anything that doesn't feed these fucking people's lawless narcissism must be Anathema.

Even if it's something as simple as your dog.

And it'll only get worse if they "get their own place" or are otherwise allowed to make their own rules.

And where the fuck does it stop, unless we stop it??

We are, as I have said before, going to have to vote these motherfuckers out.

And then, we're going to have to take up arms and fight them off.

These people are fucking psychos.

And the Beast Of War is the only thing they for sure figure they have.

I was married to a mentally ill religious nut, I already know how that shit works out. The whole Trump Thing has been like that, but it's the whole damn country. And from what I hear, this shit has even gotten too nuts for my ex-wife.

It's really that simple.

We have to make it stop.

Because if we don't...and this one is for all those cute little Blue Sky Leftists who just can't bring themselves to vote for Joe because something something Palestinians...you have no idea how much worse it can get. Trump wants to do exactly what the worst Israeli elements are doing to the Palestinians, here, and to other Americans.

Vote...and fight...like your life depends on it, because guess what??

It does.

And even a win (Likely, in my opinion) means people somewhere in this country are going to have to contend with their workday being interrupted by trips to the bomb shelter, just like the Ukrainians have to deal with...because the last thing that the far-right wants is anybody to be free from their bullshit, and if they can't hold political power over Other People's lives they will try and use armed force.

It will become that simple.

Freedom ain't free, and sometimes you have to fight for it.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

And the reason these motherfuckers hate America is that we all get to decide, not just them.

Choose your next move wisely.

Because this shit can and will get worse.

And they're already working on new forms of division and fascism.

Let that sink in.

Слава Україна!

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

Eight

My black face fades,
hiding inside the black granite.
I said I wouldn't
dammit: No tears.
I'm stone. I'm flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night slanted against morning.

I turn this way—the stone lets me go.
I turn that way—I'm inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58,022 names,
half-expecting to find
my own in letters like smoke.

I touch the name Andrew Johnson; I see the booby trap's white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman's blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.
Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's
wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet's image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I'm a window.
He's lost his right arm
inside the stone. In the black mirror
a woman’s trying to erase names:
No, she's brushing a boy's hair.
~Facing It, by Yusef Komunyakaa, US Army Veteran

Seriously, when the fuck is enough going to be enough with this shit?!?!?

What is it going to take for We, The People...you know, what America is based on...to stop tolerating this fucking garbage?!?!

Bonus Content

Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at evening, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning, ~Mark 13:35

For By Thy Sorceries Were All Nations Deceived (American Revelation XVI, 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

...

"The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride." ~Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly 25 February 2022, Associated Press

I know I'm old school.

Outdated, planned obsolescence, even. I get it. I'm Okay with that, even though I know it's not always a good thing. Things must change, from time to time. 

But come on, people.

I'm a former conservative Republican, who was taught a certain way of doing things that is completely nonpartisan and not up for debate, and which I've always at least tried to live up to. I'm a Democrat now because like it or not, that's the side that gives a shit about America, and that represents Democracy and actually listens to the common people like me now and then.

And they've become the side that represents things I can at least recognize as values, even if I don't personally agree with their particular take on that stuff, I can at least shrug and say Okay, I'll be over here minding my own business because I don't think I have some magical right to tell other people what to do. For me, "Power" in and of itself, is not a value.

But it's more than that, for me at least.

Democrats in general, and Joe Biden in particular, seem to at least have a modicum of self-respect, they actually believe in what they say, and believe what they say about themselves. 

Joe Biden himself has more than once looked at some goofy-ass thing Republicans were doing and said "Come On, Man!"

Everything is not some kind of naked, stupid power calculus where everybody on that side just ignores the blatant, bullshit-ass hypocrisy in the name of bowing and scraping for profit, for the sheer joy of doing so.

(Because that's what Republicans think is "Right." This is what they think the world is supposed to be.)

But again, that's not all there is to it.

The modern Democratic Party of 2024 does NOT both #1 Consist of some of the most ridiculously over the top, pop-cultured, privileged, puffed-up and wealthy people who've ever lived, and #2 Permit those fucking people to constantly go around asking people like me for money.

But of course, there's more to it than just money.

Donald Trump, whether you think deservedly or undeservedly, lives the kind of life a whole hell of a lot of Americans...much less people in the wider world...can't even imagine. 

I'm talking in terms not so much of power and wealth here but in terms of literally getting to spend his time...and I mean, like, all of it aside from very recently, when he's on trial for crimes...enjoying himself in terms of everything from attention to drugs to material comforts to sex and whatever the fuck else we don't even know about, never will, and wouldn't want to.

And for all that, he's still a miserable bastard! Worse, the motherfucker wants me to feel sorry for him??

I mean, doesn't any of this seem wrong to you??

Let me put it another way; According to how I was taught, if your ass is hanging around with, sharing secrets with, or otherwise seriously being involved with a skeevy looking dude who's literally named Pecker, you need to go home and seriously start rethinking your life choices.

I have a hard time understanding how these fucking people don't get that. 

Stuff like that was never presented to me as a choice, apparently with good reason. In fact, I don't know that my Grandpa or anybody else ever actually told me to avoid skeevy-looking dudes with funny names, I just sort of got that. Republicans (and Trump) apparently did not.

And these super-comfortable people, who literally act like they are not and never will be under threat, act like it's some kind of betrayal that other Republicans, led by Mike Johnson, sided with Democrats in approving aid to Ukraine so that those people over there can keep fighting for their country and for their culture and their literal right to exist as a People.

And these Republicans, even though the Ukrainians are protecting them, too, and making it so they and people like them or people that they represent don't have to go and fight, think they're too good to have to help out.

And that's before you even get to the fact that a whole bunch of these motherfuckers are actually in bed with the goddamned Russians. If you want the truth, I'm not sure that Republicans like Donald Trump or Thomas Massie would defend America if we got attacked...at least, not if we got attacked by the fucking Russians.

Never mind that the Russians don't give a shit about them, either.

I'm tired of this bullshit.

I'm tired of these fucking people and their priggish religiosity.

I'm tired of their Christ-less Christianity.

I don't want to live the kind of joyless, loveless existence they would gladly prescribe for people like me if they were given that kind of power.

Their entire bit, the whole goddamned thing is literally anything but them living in a civilization to which they must contribute.

Anything but America.

Anything but "Love Thy Neighbor."

Anything but Freedom, if anybody else gets to have it.

I'm tired of these fucking people and their bullshit.

Because for these idiots, it's Anything but doing the work of life and taking responsibility for yourself and maintaining and protecting the society that gives them life, too.

It's literally any old damn thing besides "Having to give a shit about other people, simply because they're other people."

(And America gives selfish-ass clowns like this cop authority and access to weapons? WTF??)

I'm sorry, but I was taught that keeping all that shit up was exactly what being a conservative was. Giving a shit, whether it's convenient or it's not.

These motherfuckers would rather be slaves to somebody like Donald Trump than be free.

And then they're miserable, and they want me to feel sorry for them because of it.

No.

Grow the fuck up, Republicans.

Because if you don't, sooner or later the rest of us are going to have to start treating you like the stupid, violent children you act like you are...not only for our own survival, but for yours too.

And then these idiot wannabe Nazis who've never taken a punch in their lives think they're going to threaten people like me?? Okay, we'll see how that works out for you. I'm a veteran, bro. I faced down people like you in Bosnia...and they pissed themselves and surrendered. If you're so "White" and "Western" what kind of a name is "Gaad Saad" anyway?? I'm a just call you "Saad Sack" 'Cause that's what your ass is.

And when I say stuff like that, remember I was raised with the Ass Whuppin.' Learning to be a person, much less an adult, responsible person wasn't always pleasant in my day. Whether it's right or wrong, that's just how it was when I came up. I had to take the hits when I fucked up.

Note: I looked him up. Bro is an Arab, Lebanese-Canadian marketing professor. Please note, in all seriousness that not a bit of that scans as either "Western" in the way he thinks he means it, or as "White." Let alone macho or to be taken seriously in the kind of (Yes, very White and Male) moral universe that I was originally taught, let alone the one he proposes that we all live in. Yes, Middle Eastern people, both Christian and Muslim...not to mention all those Black Africans and Afro-Caribbean people who speak The King's English, French and other European languages are as Western as old Saad Sack is, or even more so.

There's a reason I say that:

Part of the goddamn point was that Western culture originally was designed to go around hoovering up and incorporating and absorbing the strengths of other cultures and people groups. That's what Rome did, for fuck's sake! During the Islamic Golden Age, plenty of philosophers and scholars were as conversant with the writings of Aristotle as they were with those of the Holy Quran. This is how this is/was supposed to work.

(And if Saad Sack thinks I don't like him, wait until he has to deal with actual Nazis. And remember, the Nazis had a fascination not only with lots of non-Western religions but with Occultism. And I've known that since I saw Raiders Of The Lost Ark as a kid.)

The old white WASP-y shit Elks Club Republicans I used to drink and golf with when I was a teenager and young man wouldn't have let this motherfucker in the goddamn door, and they'd have called him worse than Saad Sack! They'd have laughed at him, to his face. These were guys who cheerfully called people from places like Lebanon all type of shit! And remember, in going out into the real world I had to go from keeping up with these guys to first working with a bunch of [Black] Jamaicans and shit working a summer on Mackinaw Island and I had to have nothing but respect for those people and how hard they worked. Then I worked the kind of hard-ass factory job, working with a bunch of redneck white dudes, that sucked so bad I thought the military might be an upgrade. And then, after I enlisted, I was serving with and learning, sometimes the hard way, the worth of people of all colors and races and walks of life. 

One of my best friends in the Air Force (and my roommate in the Airman's Dorms at KI Sawyer AFB) was an African American convert to Islam who was as Black as a night in the desert. Eventually, we were both Senior Airmen, then Sergeants, Squad leaders. Disobedience of authority in that sort of context or that one didn't like the "Look" of wasn't an option, nor was not liking the look of it. (Per regulations) But, trust me, when That Guy (Probably "That Person" more properly today) gives you an order, you'll obey and you'll like it. You ain't got time to care what Color (or what anything else) they is.

But you know what else those people that I served with and before them, my elders and in fact, those people I worked with and even the shitty old Republicans, taught me??

You either believe in freedom or you don't. Freedom ain't free. 

Understanding that is why I did shit like serve in the Air Force in the first place. It's why I write and try to educate people now. 

Here's the thing, freedom and rights come with responsibilities, too. 

Freedom is neither a given, nor self-perpetuating, a lot of people around the world don't have it. You have to do the work to keep it, and yes, sometimes you have to fight for it. Like I said yesterday, if the Ukrainians can understand that, why can't so many privileged Americans??

Non Nobis Solum Nati Sumus. (How's that for "Western" eh, Saad Sack?) We are not born for ourselves alone.

If you want a better country, you have to be a better citizen.

And this?

This ain't it.

Citizenship is what America is based on, not Privilege. America is based on what you can be, not what you're born as. I've known that since I was five years old, and we'd best get back to it.

Because if we don't, privilege is going to kill us. Dominant ethnic groups and incestuous nobilities and privileged performative foolishness was exactly what turned Europe into the kind of soup sandwich our Founders wanted to get away from.

How's that for an understanding of Western Civilization, motherfucker?

Barbara: With a cute little rear end like that, you'll be the belle of the ball. Your dance card'll be filled every day. You'll be so popular, making all kinds of new, close friends. Big, ugly, hairy friends! Not that you'll ever see what they look like, 'cause you'll be facing the other way.
- Ken Kessler: You're very good at this. You should write children's books. ~From the film Ruthless People

Слава Україна!

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

Seven

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 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, letter written following the Hajj.

No Sympathy For The Devil (American Revelation XVI, Seven.)

No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride...and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, well...maybe chalk it up to forced consciousness expansion: Tune in, freak out, get beaten. ~Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

...

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

So, Trump's trial officially started this morning, and he's already calling for his supporters to riot because of the trial.

Aren't these fucking people the same ones who ruthlessly connect "Rioting And Looting" to Black people and others that they don't like at every available opportunity?? It's funny how that, too, is just projection. It's an endless, relentless attempt by the complexionally-challenged to pawn off their own wrongs on other people and use that as an excuse to persecute them. 

Fuck that shit, I'm tired of it.

You know what else I'm tired of??

I'm tired of all these vapid ass-kissers and fluffers and shit, who just can't stop blowing the goddamn narcissist.

People keep trying to make it sound like the whole goddamned economy somehow depends on Trump and/or Republicans or something something Gazpacho...

But the truth is, they're the ones who've created an entire goddamn industry around feeding Trump's narcissism and shoveling this shit at the public.

Meanwhile the truth is, after his ass lost the election in 2020 he went and sulked at Mar-A-Lago for like a year and a half, nobody fucking cared, and the world moved on just fine without him.

But it was the ego of all the MAGA's that appeared to be most harmed by this. These fucking people have made Trump their identity, and they can't stand it if he's not front-and-center of every goddamn thing. So of course amoral Ghouls like Rupert Murdoch latch onto that shit for profit.

And thus, Mike Johnson and the pro-Ukraine Republicans now aside, the goddamn "Conservative" movement as a whole is stuck in a doom loop with a fucking narcissist.

Think about that, for a second. Take all the time you need.

I was married to a woman who has a Personality Disorder. It's not just that I can tell you how this ends. It's that, looking at what's publicly known about the current internal workings and financial situation of the GOP as a whole and the near destruction of my state's Republican Party in particular...it's already about 90% of the way there. And there's no money.

But again, having been in a much smaller version of this mess myself, I'm sure the reality of it is worse.

I'm serious, the constant, ridiculous forays into religiosity are a huge tell that this whole mess is going to end badly, and probably soon. When she saw the writing on the wall, my Ex got the Jesus, like, really bad.

And I'm here to tell you people like Lauren Blowbert and their transparently fake religiosity are the rule, not the exception, going forward. Whether he loses his Speakership, resigns or Republicans lose the majority in November (or for that matter, before that, which is a real possibility) and he's simply relegated back to obscurity...this shit is only going to get worse.

And that's how Republicans want it.

Unless We, the People, stop putting up with this bullshit and vote these fuckers out.

And then they'll try a right-wing Insurgency, that too will end badly, they don't care.

It'd be funny if they weren't threatening to start shooting at the other two thirds of America and trying to burn down the whole damn country.

The thing is, sooner or later these fucking people probably are going to break off a chunk of America for their own shitty little Banana Republic. It won't be the kind of place anybody wants to live.

Like, these fuckers think charity is a bad thing.

In fact, that shit will basically be Turkmenistan, but for White Evangelical Christian People, and there probably will be even more corruption and a lot less freedom, in whatever part of the USA they get. And they'll probably only get it if we let them have it.

And when it sucks, that'll somehow be our fault.

These idiots see stuff like what Elon has done to Twitter, what Putin has done to Russia and what Trump has done to the GOP and they whack off to the idea of making the whole damn world like that.

"Everything is bad, vote for us" or some such bullshit, as if everything sucking justifies how shitty they are.

I mean, it's so bad that even Republicans are sick of Republicans.

But here's the thing, America isn't based on some imaginary Pyramid Of Suckage that exists only in the Republican mind, it's based on citizenship. Of course, that's why these motherfuckers hate America. We're not shitty enough, or something.

I thought the point here was to make things better, not worse.

Of course, what Republicans are really thinking is "Better for whom?" And if the answer isn't "Them" they don't want to partake of it, like at all.

I'm not 100% sure what the answer is here, America, but what I can say is if we go with "Be The People That Republicans Don't Like" we'll probably end up better off.

Don't take my word for it, even Rupert Murdoch, of all fucking people, basically is saying just that. Think the NY Post prints any damn thing without his say-so?? Even the paymasters and the string-pullers are sick of these people's bullshit.

I'm serious, and as bad as things are, Republicans want them to be worse.

You want things to be better?? Don't be these motherfuckers.

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Osman Ali Atto: I see not catching Aidid is becoming routine.

General William Garrison: We're not leaving Somalia until we find him. And we will find him.

Atto: (scoffing) You've been here, what, six weeks? Six weeks, you tried to catch the General. You put up reward posters. $25,000. What's this, gunfight at K.O. Corral?

Garrison: It's O.K. Corral.

Atto: Don't make the mistake of thinking because I grew up without running water I am simple, General. I do know something about history. See all this? It's simply shaping tomorrow. A tomorrow without a lot of Arkansas white-boys' ideas in it.

Garrison: Well, I wouldn't know about that. I'm from Texas.

Atto: Mr. Garrison, I think you should not have come here. This is civil war. This is our war, not yours.

Garrison: Three hundred thousand dead and counting. That's not a war, Mr. Atto. That's genocide. ~From The Film Black Hawk Down.

Six

They're pickin' up the prisoners
And puttin 'em in a pen
And all she wants to do is dance, dance
Rebels been rebels
Since I don't know when
And all she wants to do is dance

Molotov cocktail, the local drink
And all she wants to do is dance, dance
They mix 'em up right
In the kitchen sink
And all she wants to do is dance

Crazy people walkin' round with blood in their eyes
And all she wants to do is dance, dance, dance
Wild-eyed pistol wavers who ain't afraid to die
And all she wants to do is
And all she wants to do is dance
And make romance
She can't feel the heat
Comin' off the street
She wants to party
She wants to get down
All she wants to do is
All she wants to do is dance.

~Don Henley, All She Wants To Do Is Dance

On Fire, For Trump (American Revelation XVI, Six.)

Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones. ~Thich Nhat Hanh

....

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world. ~Gautama Buddha

...

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

I'm tired of living in a world where the Christian church is literally turning into a church of Donald Trump.

I'm tired of Trump, period.

And then I saw this on Friday, some nut literally self-immolated outside of Trump's trial in NYC. The person was later identified as Max Azzarello, an apparently-far-left conspiracy theorist (and strangely enough, registered Democrat) from Florida.

Without really learning much about the person until I looked him up when I got home after work Sunday morning, just bits and pieces here and there because I was working, I spent the whole weekend wondering how somebody could set themselves on fire for Donald Trump.

I mean, what's even the damn point, right??

Dude ain't exactly Thich Quang Duc, I'm just sayin.'

And I saw it pile up over the weekend, there's an awful lot of weird shit going around, this is more than just one guy's fatal mental breakdown.

I saw this yesterday morning, some preacher got kicked out of a Christian "Men's conference" for criticizing the fact that the opening act was a male stripper and sword-swallower. Now, full disclosure, I went to a fair number of those things back in the day, and I've never even heard of anything like that being on the program.

Well then, I started researching what happened and it turned out that the preacher in question was Mark Driscoll, the disgraced former Pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA. I saw him speak once, when he was just at the start of his fame, and I was at the tail end of my involvement with the last church I went to. I didn't like him. I was not impressed. In this particular case he was right but his own arguments that I saw were peppered with a strange combination of harsh legalism that seemed almost right out of Paul's letters and Word Of Faith mumbo jumbo.

I got my answers, I shook my head, I very much felt like there were no good guys there.

And that seems to be by design.

Likewise, last week a bunch of Columbia University students got arrested and suspended from school for protesting the war between Israel and Hamas, and the University leadership responded by sending NYPD riot police to arrest them, and then kicked them out of school and threw their belongings in an alley all because Congressional Republicans were demanding they "Do Something."

Fuck all that.

While I don't much agree with the pro-Palestine protesters or their tactics, and I despise their frequent antisemitism, I also think the University's response sucked. This  apparently has generated real blowback within the campus, which is probably a good thing. 

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

I mean, when you do a thing and the worst people in the world start acting like they've won a great victory because they got you to do it, it's probably a good time to start rethinking your life.

And there's a segment of American "Liberalism" that'd rather let the Far-right burn freedom to ashes than lose their Cocktail Party friends. See Also; Stephen Breyer.

Again, fuck all that.

To "Conservatives" Antisemitism and Israel and Palestine and all this stuff, it's all nothing but wedge issues they can use to advance their own increasingly shitty agendas. They don't give a shit about Israelis or Palestinians, they just want to spank the monkey to the "idea" of kicking all the "Leftists" out of universities...as if there'd be enough people left to run the place or enough students left to justify their existence without said Leftists??

I mean, who else even wants to go to an Ivy League university in New York City??

(I sure didn't, and some people thought I might be that smart back in the day.)

If these fucking people (by which I mean both far-right Republicans and the squishy "Liberal" cowards who keep enabling them) could bow before the Hammer and Sickle and get their power fix by being Communist Zampolits and turning Universities into nothing more than ideological indoctrination centers, they'd fucking do it.

Because nothing else matters to them but getting to go to all the "right" parties and shit.

And yeah, I know, sometimes free people do shitty things with their freedom. Taking it away ain't the answer.

I mean, come on, Leftists and protests and shit are...whether I agree with them or not...things I associate with Ivy League schools, and I always have. I don't say that as it's meant to be a negative. It is what it is. I've always seen it as those people have their place in the world, and that's frankly another reason their administrations toadying up to far-right bullshitters like Chris Rufo lately makes my skin crawl.

Debate and education and learning are the damn point, otherwise, what are you doing in a school, at any level?? I know right-wingers see everything as ideology, but sooner or later somebody's got to learn something. You can't fly a jet...or maintain it...on nothing but Political Science. 

And by kowtowing to these shitheads, the Ivy League administrations have basically created a Campus Civil War that they're going to end up losing while Chris Rufo and Marjorie Taylor Greene slink out the back door, turned something that would have blown over in a few weeks into a national issue that's going to keep on going and create further confusion, division and drama and the only people who profit are people like Chris Rufo and Vladimir Putin whose entire intention is to burn American (if not global) civil society and higher education to the ground for their fascist beliefs.

Again, there's no good guys here, and that's how the Right wanted to set it up. I think that's why Putin put Hamas up to attacking Israel on 10/7 in the first damn place.

So it would cause this kind of mess, and fire up the American "Radical Chic" Far-left in a way that would be useful to the neo-Soviets of Putin's regime...and inspire the absolute worst from nearly everybody else, too.

And Putin did it so he could distract the US and the West from helping Ukraine, and so that he could go on persecuting Christians in both Russia and Ukraine. See, in Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church is an arm of the State, effectively controlled by the KGB (Face it, there's no sense in calling it the FSB anymore.) The Russians can't imagine religious belief anywhere else is any damn different, 'cause they're stupid intellectually incurious pricks who think everybody else longs to be a harness bull or a spy for Power because that's what they aspire to be and do.

I'm not kidding, go ahead, read the article.

Freedom doesn't even exist, as far as those motherfuckers are concerned.

Because they're Motherfuckers.

And what does it tell you, that American Evangelicals can't even see this shit and side with Putin??

We are absolutely looking right at who'd be the people joining the False World System of the Beast of Revelations and who'd be lining up 'round the block to take the Mark Of The Beast and of course it's the same goddamned people who violently denied they'd ever do any such thing for almost my whole life.

For no better reason than they automatically assumed the "Antichrist" and his beliefs would be some variant of Liberalism, and they reacted accordingly, per their shitty worldview. But when it turns out the one aspiring One World Potentate is far-right?? 

O Ho! That's different! Not only are they fine with it, but all he has to insinuate (not even say) is "Own The Libs" and suddenly the Mark Of The Beast isn't so bad. Hell, Elon Musk even has a prototype! (And he's apparently not the only one.)

These fucking people would gladly light the world on fire, for Trump or someone like him.

And the worst part is, they can't even see what they're doing. Ring the bell, the dog drools, it doesn't even matter if he gets food anymore.

The incentive structure of people is so massively out of whack it makes no sense to me.

As a human being that God endowed with a mind; It wouldn't even occur to me to light myself on fire for conspiracy theories and/or Donald Trump.

As a pragmatic, barely-a-liberal former conservative, it'd never cross my mind to call in the jackboots on protesting students who are, like it or not, simply exercising their Constitutional rights. 

It'd wouldn't be a thing I'd even think about doing; To try to sell America to Vladimir Putin for nothing more than cheap internet fame.

You can't reason with this shit. You can only fight against it. It's funny how Ukrainians understand that and so many privileged Americans don't.

And more to the point, being fought against is basically the only thing the motherfuckers understand.

But we're gonna have to, Somebody's gonna have to stand up. 

Otherwise the sole message of this time, were it up to the elites, is "Be Motherfuckers. It's profitable and it gets you so much glory that people will light their own ass on fire for you."

And they want to create a world in which there's no "Good Guys" simply to justify themselves and their evil deeds.

I don't want to live in that kind of world.

Do you??

If you want a better country, you have to be a better citizen.

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

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There are times, however, and this is one of them, when even being right feels wrong. What do you say, for instance, about a generation that has been taught that rain is poison and sex is death? If making love might be fatal and if a cool spring breeze on any summer afternoon can turn a crystal blue lake into a puddle of black poison right in front of your eyes, there is not much left except TV and relentless masturbation. It's a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat shit and die. Who knows? If there is in fact, a heaven and a hell, all we know for sure is that hell will be a viciously overcrowded version of Phoenix — a clean well lighted place full of sunshine and bromides and fast cars where almost everybody seems vaguely happy, except those who know in their hearts what is missing... And being driven slowly and quietly into the kind of terminal craziness that comes with finally understanding that the one thing you want is not there. Missing. Back-ordered. No tengo. Vaya con dios. Grow up! Small is better. Take what you can get. ~Hunter S. Thompson, Generation Of Swine.

...

"The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride." ~Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly 25 February 2022, Associated Press

Bottomless Pit (American Revelation XVI, Five.)

Hospitaler: One may stare into the light, until one becomes the light. I've done it many times.

Balian of Ibelin: [throws a rock at a bush that catches fire by the spark] There's your religion. One spark, a creosote bush. There's your Moses. I did not hear it speak.

Hospitaler: That does not mean that there is no God. Do you love her?

Balian of Ibelin: Yes.

Hospitaler: The heart will mend. Your duty is to the people of the city. I go to pray.

Balian of Ibelin: For what?

Hospitaler: For the strength to endure what is to come.

Balian of Ibelin: And what is to come?

Hospitaler: The reckoning is to come for what was done one hundred years before. The Muslims will never forget. Nor should they.

[the Hospitaler slowly walks away as a second bush several yards from the burning one catches fire. The Hospitaler is nowhere to be seen in the clear and open desert]

~From the film Kingdom Of Heaven.

...

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

I saw this yesterday.

Trump is having to sit there and listen to mean social media posts and see mean memes about himself from like 75% of the potential jurors. I guess it's not "Fuck your feelings" now, eh??

Suck it, motherfucker.

I'm tired of these fucking people and their cruelty and ignorant racist bullshit and that's all there is to it.

I'm tired of the conspiracy theories and the racism and the religious fanaticism that now seems shorn of anything I can even recognize as belief in God. 

And I'm tired of these ass-clowns accusing other people of the shit they do, and then flat out doing it right in front of our faces. Like they think we're stupid, or some shit.

Like this idiot, says Trump isn't a racist, and then launches right into the old Birtherism bullshit.

And I'm assuming it just doesn't register, as these fucking people have all the self-awareness of an old dog licking its balls in the front yard on a Sunday morning.

Motherfuckers need to hear of some Mean Tweets, I think.

Meanwhile Trump continues to strip the GOP for parts, now he wants down-ballot candidates to give him money if they use his image, name, etc.

And the reason he can do it is, again, because of all this same fucking bullshit! Trump gives them some kind of "permission" to be racist and be their worst possible selves and to buy into any old woo woo bullshit that tickles their ears...and to paraphrase Lyndon Johnson's quote, they'll empty their pockets, pull their pants down and bend over for the son of a bitch!

They have achieved their goal of a Christ-less Christianity, only to find out that even that doesn't go far enough, and on top of that, now they find out they're in thrall to far darker powers than their most inflated visions of their own selves. I have no goddamn sympathy, None. Zero. Fuck You.

They're the ones who can't stop blowing the goddamn narcissist.

And not only is Trump robbing them blind, but Republicans fucked around with all these MAGA fanatics and now they're gonna find out. See, I knew a lot of these people back when they were Fundamentalist Christians and shit, and nothing is ever going to be good enough for these fucking fanatics.

These fucking people have appointed Donald Trump to be their fucking God.

Like, how fucked in the head do you have to be, and what kind of sad-sack goddamned life do you have to be living to even have this thought process enter your brain-pan??

I couldn't do it, and I used to be a Republican.

I. Couldn't. Fucking. Do. It.

Like, I've always known Trump was a liar and a piece of shit.

And like, maybe all the bankruptcies and divorces and failed casinos were a fucking hint, people. I worked in a casino for almost 20 years and I'm serious...it must be some kind of perfect storm of goddamned incompetence that Trump could make a casino lose money.

But Republicans won't stop blowing the goddamned narcissist.

And now he's going to do the exact same thing to the Trump Republican Party that he did to the Trump Taj Mahal and a bunch of other casinos in Atlantic City.

And as things spiral out of control and they start to lose their ass, these fucking people are only going to get meaner. Here's Tom Cotton, who thinks it's funny to demand that his supporters do war crimes against their fellow citizens.

Note: This will only last until one of these Beard-O dude-bro crybabies who drives around in a big truck covered in right-wing rage-stickers and skeletal motifs gets a bullet hole in their big truck. None of this shit is taking into account that it's human nature to fight back, to resist, so do it.

These stupid idiots couldn't even be bothered to do something simple like stay their ass home in the middle of a deadly global pandemic. I highly doubt all that many of them are going to be Tom Cotton's Civil-War shock-troopers or right-wing Death Squads...at least not with any degree of effectiveness.

Not that Tom Cotton actually cares.

And the thing that pisses me off, is he's an Army veteran, he should know better than this shit. I had to.

I wrote about that.

For one thing too many of these shitheads don't know the difference between their penis and their rifle, and it'll be kind of awkward when some of them get caught charging into battle with their pants around their ankles, each with their hands clenched firmly on the wrong "gun."

If I had to guess, we're not too far from Darwinian evolution simply thinning the fucking herd.

Like I said, I used to be a Republican.

I used to be a Christian, too.

I'm a veteran.

And all my life, I've been hearing about how Republicans were still mad about this thing that happened years and years ago, in some cases, before I was born.

Vietnam.

Jane Fonda.

Watergate.

The Iranian Revolution.

Well, just so ya know, I'm 50 years old. This year I'll be 51. Vietnam and the whole Jane Fonda thing were before my time. I was less than a year old when Nixon resigned.

And of course, that's not an exhaustive list of all the shit that Republicans be mad about, it goes on...

But ya know what, Republicans? It's 2024, not 1974.

People can't make it on what you want to pay us, and don't want to (nor are we required to have to) live under your Domination. That's why that whole "Great Resignation" thing happened after COVID-19.

I mean, what was even the damn point??

A hell of a lot of the rest of us are moving on, adapting, changing, organizing.

And while you're busy blowing Trump and shoving every last dollar you got down that bottomless pit where Trump's fuckin' soul was supposed to be...we've gotten sick of your bullshit.

I can't say "Anything but America" because I live here and I've already contributed to this country.

I can't say I won't Love My Neighbor because I used to be a Christian and I remember what the Lord's Word says about that.

Either you believe in freedom or you don't.

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

Either you believe in endlessly fellating Donald Trump or you believe in, well, pretty much anything else.

You idiots decided to make Trump your God.

Well, to dip back into my old school church background...

Time's coming where you better be right, 'cause if you're wrong there's literally going to be hell to pay when the bill comes due.

And it's coming.

And you fuckers emptied your pockets.

And gave everything to Trump.

You've poured everything you had down this Bottomless Pit of a small man.

And he still wants more.

Think about that for a second.

Come on, man, what the fuck are we even doing here.

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Ka mate, ka mate! ka ora! ka ora! Ka mate! ka mate! ka ora! ka ora! Tēnei te tangata pūhuruhuru Nāna nei i tiki mai whakawhiti te rā Ā, upane! ka upane! Ā, upane, ka upane, whiti te ra! ~Ka Mate, Maori Haka (main body)

...
'Tis Death, 'Tis Death, 'Tis Life, 'Tis Life
'Tis Death, 'Tis Death, 'Tis Life, 'Tis Life
This is the hairy man
Who caused the sun to shine again for me
Up the ladder, up the ladder!
Rise! The Sun shines.
~Ka Mate, English translation.

Note: The Maori Haka Ka Mate, is the story of a Maori chief named Te Rauparaha who hides in a well, fleeing from pursuing enemies of other tribes. He evades his enemies and is rescued by an unnamed man who puts a ladder down the well so he can get out. Made world-famous thanks to its use by the New Zealand All Blacks Rugby team, Ka Mate is a story of the triumph of life over death. You can get out of the Bottomless Pit.

Four

Bonus Content

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Behold, I have told you before.

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

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