The Golden Image (Don't Tread On Me, Ten.)

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

...

If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan

...

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'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.

I'm from Michigan.

I'm a former Republican.

Hell, I volunteered for George W. Bush's campaign in Cheboygan County, MI in 2000. I've written extensively about all this.

Mike Rogers isn't even calling it the REPUBLICAN Party anymore, he's calling it the MAGA Party.

Fuck You, No.

At every step of the way here, Republicans have refused to stand up for themselves, and ended up fighting (in some cases literally, as happened here in Michigan several years ago) over whatever scraps of bullshit and Power that Donald Trump is willing to leave them.

Now? Three or four years later? I can't even talk the way these people talk anymore. My partner can't, either. 20 years ago we were both pretty much mid-grade Republicans.

And instead of standing up for themselves they all seem to adopt a culture of armed loser-dom.

Among other things, I'm a gun guy (Hell, I'm a veteran) but I've never even considered that I might need a weapon to go to the store, or in a Church.

And if we're being honest I wouldn't want to live in the kind of world where I thought that shit was really necessary.

Fuck this bullshit, wouldn't it have been easier to just say "No" in the first place??

Trump and his enablers betray everybody, yet after eleven years of this goddamned bullshit there's still millions of credulous dopes and Remora-like businessmen and racists clinging to this horseshit who all think they're gonna be the ONE PERSON that Trump somehow does right by.

As I'm somewhat familiar with Trump's actual history I'm rather sure that *I* sure as hell wouldn't want to feel constantly under siege and like that loser asshole is somehow something something Gazpacho the only one who's going to save me.

Yet as time goes on, These Fucking People only seem to get more and more addicted to blowing the narcissist. It's to the point where they're like the bad guys in the second half of the Left Behind books now.

And Trump has so much of that goddamn makeup on, he looks for all the world like he has shit on his face.

Lots of Republicans claim that's the "Best" President we've ever had.

Speaking as a conservative Democrat and former Republican here it'd be nice of Movement Conservatism would go back to having some level of self-respect.

The Holy Quran says it, "Pilgrimage to the House [of God built by the prophet Abraham] is a duty men owe to God; those who are able, make the journey." (3:97) Allah said: "And proclaim the pilgrimage among men; they will come to you on foot and upon each lean camel, they will come from every deep ravine" (22:27). Every one of the thousands at the airport, about to leave for Jeddah, was dressed this way. You could be a king or a peasant and no one would know. Some powerful personages, who were discreetly pointed out to me, had on the same thing I had on. Once thus dressed, we all had begun intermittently calling out "Labbayka! (Allahumma) Labbayka!" (Here I come, O Lord!) Packed in the plane were white, black, brown, red, and yellow people, blue eyes and blond hair, and my kinky red hair -- all together, brothers! All honoring the same God, all in turn giving equal honor to each other. . . .That is when I first began to reappraise the "white man." It was when I first began to perceive that "white man," as commonly used, means complexion only secondarily; primarily it described attitudes and actions. In America, "white man" meant specific attitudes and actions toward the black man, and toward all other non-white men. But in the Muslim world, I had seen that men with white complexions were more genuinely brotherly than anyone else had ever been. That morning was the start of a radical alteration in my whole outlook about "white" men. ~Malcolm X.

Because this shit is disgusting, and yet it gets worse.

Like, Are you fucking kidding me??

I mean, I suppose a hell of a lot of these idiots are just simple-assed racist knuckleheads who think Trump is a "god" come to save them from Barack Obama. 

As if *Checks Notes* Term Limits weren't already going to do that before any of this even happened??

I don't really buy that, I think there's more to it. A lot of these fucking people are simply dishonest monsters who see something of themselves in Trump, and I think the racist shit just gets tacked on too.

Some of these motherfuckers still trying to claim Obama is Muslim, like the whole damn country didn't see him in line buying BBQ Pork back in like 2011 or so, or as if any pothead in the country didn't recognize the signs that appeared more than once as Obama's hair got grayer and the stress of the job started to show on the man towards the end.

As if any of these know-nothing CHUDs knows dick about Islam.

Let alone the dark currents of Middle Eastern religiosity that appear to be driving some of this other shit *Cough* Baal *Cough* Epstein Files *Cough.*

And some people think they're going to "Pray" all that shit away?? Okay, I'll bite, I'd agree that America needs an Elijah but it ain't gonna be you. And Elijah wasn't an enabler, he had the Prophets of Baal executed...not shielded from accountability.

As if Republicans aren't loudly and publicly in bed with the Saudis *Checks Notes* the one country in the world that does more than anything on both a De Facto and De Jure basis to promote Salafism which is the actual Islamic-legal and Theological basis for Radical Islam.

And yet somehow, the worse-ness continues to pile up.

There is a non-zero percentage of these "Men" who don't really care about any of that, so long as it enables them to hide and rationalize what's really going on in there...

Which is that at the end of the day, they simply long to be Catamites to Power. 

I have a church background and I've never gone on and on about Beefcake Jesus in my life.

And the thing is, more and more, it seems like this is coming down to an increasingly weird Power/sexual fantasy and that's true whether these freaks are talking about Jesus or Trump.

Literally everything else, including at some points the racism, is starting to feel expendable, but not that.

Why do I think that is?? Because...and take it from a guy who knows all the political and religious doctrines...but to know that shit, you gotta read it. A lot of these fucking people can't read, and don't want to learn, and it's all feelings and vibes and what gives them wood and what doesn't but they can't admit to any of that and NONE OF THESE FUCKING PEOPLE HAVE EVER DEALT WITH THAT SHIT!!!

In fact their entire business/political/religious model is "We Don't Want To Talk About Any Of That."

With a huge side-order of hoping that if they ignore it, it'll go away.

Well whether or not you want to talk about it, it's there, and this shit is starting to get really damn creepy.

And I've got a partner and a kid to think about, I can't afford to let this bullshit slide.

More to the point, I have been loudly on record for years that I don't want to live in a country where half the population worships Devil and Idols of Gold. Even as an Agnostic secular liberal I had a huge damn problem with these fucking people bowing before Dis Pater and Mammon and thinking it was Okay because they made the Golden Image look like Donald Trump and tried to wrap it up in White Supremacy.

They don't even care about that, what they want is Gold Supremacy and Orange Supremacy.

So long as they think they're "Identified" with it.

And you watch and see if that doesn't start coming out in the wash here real quick.

Don't Tread On Me with this garbage.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Слава Україна!

Republicans are selling their soul to win elections. Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. The government won't work without it. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them. ~Barry Goldwater

Nine

And so tomorrow, as we take the campaign South and West, as we learn that the struggles of the textile workers in Spartanburg are not so different than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas; that the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of L.A.; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people, we are one nation. And, together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story, with three words that will ring from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea: Yes, we can. ~Barack Obama

Supply And Demand (Don't Tread On Me, Nine.)

We bow our heads in worship on this day and give thanks to the Almighty for the bounty He has bestowed upon us over the past year. We raise our voices in holy gladness to celebrate the victory of the risen Christ over the terrible forces of death. Easter is a joyful festival! It is a celebration because it is indeed a festival of hope! Easter marks the renewal of life! The triumph of the light of truth over the darkness of falsehood! Easter is a festival of human solidarity, because it celebrates the fulfilment of the Good News! The Good News borne by our risen Messiah who chose not one race, who chose not one country, who chose not one language, who chose not one tribe, who chose all of humankind! Each Easter marks the rebirth of our faith. It marks the victory of our risen Saviour over the torture of the cross and the grave. Our Messiah, who came to us in the form of a mortal man, but who by his suffering and crucifixion attained immortality. Our Messiah, born like an outcast in a stable, and executed like criminal on the cross. Our Messiah, whose life bears testimony to the truth that there is no shame in poverty: Those who should be ashamed are they who impoverish others. Whose life testifies to the truth that there is no shame in being persecuted: Those who should be ashamed are they who persecute others. Whose life proclaims the truth that there is no shame in being conquered: Those who should be ashamed are they who conquer others. Whose life testifies to the truth that there is no shame in being dispossessed: Those who should be ashamed are they who dispossess others. Whose life testifies to the truth that there is no shame in being oppressed: Those who should be ashamed are they who oppress others. ~Nelson Mandela, Speech at the Zion Christian Church Easter conference, Moria, South Africa, 1994.

...

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

...

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

I saw this earlier today.

Freakish asshole Dale Partridge trying to say that European nations should go back to colonizing African nations, claiming God cursed Black people.

Except God didn't do anything of the sort.

Man made that shit up all by his damn self.

Couple things there, homie.

#1 Even in the context of today, it's cute that you think that shit ever stopped. Oh, sure, outright colonization did but only after some rather nasty wars all around, most of which were heavy on British, French, Portuguese, South African or Rhodesian tactical victories, but in terms of global and domestic public opinion and even the willpower of the combatants themselves, outright militarized political colonization rapidly became unsustainable.

It's still there, it just mostly switched to economic colonization instead. It's cheaper, it's easier and everybody profits. Sure, you won't find a British soldier anywhere in Egypt, but you can get a Coke or Pepsi in a lot of stores, the Egyptian Air Force flies F-16 Fighting Falcons, and lots of the pop-culture shit in (for example) Cairo ain't no damn different than it is in New York City or for that matter Oklahoma City. In fact, once you consider that Christian and Islamic social mores ain't that different it's probably closer to Dallas or OKC than it is to NYC.

At the end of the day, old-school Colonialism was to a great extent simply undone by modern Supply And Demand as much as anything else! If you can get Chinese or Palestinians or South Africans to give you money for Coca-Cola what's even the damn point of going to all the extra work??

(I know, I know, for these assholes it's all shitty ideology.)

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. ~2 Timothy 4:3

And let's not forget that most of sub-Saharan Africa is already extremely Christian. In fact, some of those African Christian churches send missionaries to America now!

But of course they're not Dale's type of dour, mean-spirited Calvinist, and let's not forget; In the South African Border War, them guys lost. I suspect that's really what the people who consider Elon Musk their spirit animal, and who take money from Peter Pan Theil are really upset about.

#2 The reason for #1 mostly is, it came down to blood, casualties, Three Words, yo: Killed In Action. British and French boys and the sons of actual colonizers...not only did the population back home tire of their sons (and at the time it was, overwhelmingly, exactly that) dying for some godforsaken strip of desert or veldt that they would never see or give a damn about  The blood and the killing always go both ways, the enemy gets a vote. At the end of the day no one cares if its for "Jesus" or for Soviet Communism like in Afghanistan in the 1980's. If your daughter or your son is Dead dead, it doesn't fucking matter if it's for the Cause Of Christ or the Glorious Revolution.

Dead is Dead. It's as simple as that.

#3 And this is interrelated and something Dale Partridge of all people should understand. One of the reasons America spent so much of its time being so isolationist was the racism! The reason the United States never conquered and colonized Mexico was the racist assholes of the 19th century understood that if they made Mexico part of America, those people would get to come here.

The assholes of our own day don't (or 20 years ago they didn't) much care about stuff like that, and that's why there's a lot of Afghan and Iraqi Americans now. I waited on a guy from Iraq at my work the other night, a delivery driver who had something for the store. Note: I live in Northern Michigan and this is not the first time such a scenario has happened. 

I asked him where he was from and he replied "Illinois." I asked about the accent (which was very thick Arabic but I was curious where) and he told me he came from Najaf in Iraq. It should be easy to become an American, our country is an idea, not a race, even Ronald Reagan understood that.

The Holy Quran says it, "Pilgrimage to the House [of God built by the prophet Abraham] is a duty men owe to God; those who are able, make the journey." (3:97) Allah said: "And proclaim the pilgrimage among men; they will come to you on foot and upon each lean camel, they will come from every deep ravine" (22:27). Every one of the thousands at the airport, about to leave for Jeddah, was dressed this way. You could be a king or a peasant and no one would know. Some powerful personages, who were discreetly pointed out to me, had on the same thing I had on. Once thus dressed, we all had begun intermittently calling out "Labbayka! (Allahumma) Labbayka!" (Here I come, O Lord!) Packed in the plane were white, black, brown, red, and yellow people, blue eyes and blond hair, and my kinky red hair -- all together, brothers! All honoring the same God, all in turn giving equal honor to each other. . . .That is when I first began to reappraise the "white man." It was when I first began to perceive that "white man," as commonly used, means complexion only secondarily; primarily it described attitudes and actions. In America, "white man" meant specific attitudes and actions toward the black man, and toward all other non-white men. But in the Muslim world, I had seen that men with white complexions were more genuinely brotherly than anyone else had ever been. That morning was the start of a radical alteration in my whole outlook about "white" men. ~Malcolm X.

But that's not the world these ass-fucks want to live in.

And of course the racism is instantly revocable too, if that helps their politricks more. These fucking people believe in nothing. At least the old-school asshole Republicans I used to know were consistent.

Do you think their belief in or application of Christianity would be any more consistent?? Because it would not be.

It's all bullshit and a game to these CHUDs.

Anything to acquire Power or Wealth.

If, once they got it, they could feed We The People feet-first into a woodchipper, they would do that.

I mean, fundamentally these guys just think that killing a lot of people will make them famous. They don't care how, or what the consequences are.

[After Burke is revealed as the one who set the face-huggers loose on Ripley and Newt]

Hudson: [aiming his rifle at Burke] I say we grease this rat fuck-son-of-a-bitch right now!

Hicks: It just doesn't make any goddamn sense.

Ripley: He figured he could get the alien past the quarantine if one of us was... impregnated - whatever you call it - and frozen for the way home. Nobody would know about the embryos we're carrying. Me and Newt.

Hicks: Wait a minute. We would all know.

Ripley: Yes, the only way he could do it is if he sabotaged certain freezers on the way home. Namely, yours. Then he could jettison the bodies and make up any story he would like to.

Hudson: Fuck! He's dead! [aims his rifle at Burke again] You're dogmeat, pal!

Burke: This is so nuts. I mean listen... listen to what you're saying. It's all paranoid delusion. It's really sad. It's pathetic.

Ripley: You know, Burke, I don't know which species is worse. You don't see them fucking each other over a goddamn percentage.

~From the film Aliens.

And then this filth would spend forever intriguing against each other and fucking each other over for no better reason than the fun of it, and what God or anybody else thinks of that be damned.

And while we're at it, you think they'd be any better to Americans?? These assholes already don't think half the population we have automatically should have any rights worth respecting.

I can't live like that. I wouldn't like like that.

There is no space for genuinely loving your partner in These Fucking People's religion.

There is no real Honoring Thy Mother as the Ten Commandments in the Book of Exodus demand we do.

There is no real loving a child and helping them to grow and learn, much less training them up in the way they should go.

Hell, there's no damn self-respect, either.

Not when every single thing is basically bullets in a gun called "White Male Narcissism" to be pointed at whatever has them in a fit of pique or short on narcissistic supply right now.

[Xerxes has advanced to meet Leonidas, seated on a solid gold throne carried on the backs of many slaves.]

Leonidas: Let me guess... you must be... Xerxes?

Xerxes: Come, Leonidas. Let us reason together. It would be a regrettable waste, it would be nothing short of madness, were you, brave King, and your valiant troops to perish... all because of a simple misunderstanding. There is much our cultures could share.

Leonidas: Oh, haven't you noticed? We've been sharing our culture with you all morning.

Xerxes: Yours is a fascinating tribe. Even now, you are defiant, in the face of annihilation and the presence of a god. It isn't wise to stand against me, Leonidas. Imagine what horrible fate awaits my enemies when I would gladly kill any of my own men for victory.

Leonidas: And I would die for any one of mine.

Xerxes: You Greeks take pride in your logic. I suggest you employ it. Consider the beautiful land you so vigorously defend. Picture it reduced to ash at my whim! Consider the fate of your women!

Leonidas: Clearly you don't know our women. I might as well have marched them up here, judging by what I've seen. You have many slaves, Xerxes, but few warriors. It won't be long before they fear my spears more than your whips.

Xerxes: It is not the lash they fear, it is my divine power. But I am a generous god. I can make you rich beyond all measure. I will make you warlord of all Greece. You will carry my battle standard to the heart of Europa. Your Athenian rivals will kneel at your feet... if you will but kneel at mine.

Leonidas: You are generous as you are divine, O King of Kings. Such an offer only a madman would refuse. But the, uh, the idea of kneeling, it's... You see, slaughtering all those men of yours has, uh, well, it's left a nasty cramp in my leg, so kneeling will be hard for me.

Xerxes: [incensed at what Leonidas just said] There will be no glory in your sacrifice. I will erase even the memory of Sparta from the histories. Every piece of Greek parchment shall be burned, and every Greek historian and every scribe shall have their eyes put out and their tongues cut from their mouths! Why, uttering the very name of Sparta or Leonidas will be punishable by death! The world will never know you existed at all!

Leonidas: The world will know that free men stood against a tyrant, that few stood against many and, before this battle is over, that even a god-king can bleed.

~From the film 300.

The truth of the matter is, in These Fucking People's harsh religiosity, the Epstein-cult sex slave is more befitting their religion than a free, strong and independent woman...no matter if she's Christian or conservative or not. In fact, if she's those things by choice, to guys like Dale Partridge or Doug Wilson, she's automatically bad, and none of the other variables matter.

That someone is Christian, or conservative, means fuck all to these guys if such a belief is chosen and not because White Male Calvinist Power said you had to. I mean...if we're being honest here that's pretty much the opposite of the Christian message as I've heard it all my life. You gotta want to be Saved. Sorry, that's just how it works.

I did not make this rule, take it up with God.

Not that they really care to, at the end of the day.

Because at the End OF Days they don't care what happens to them. All those disparaging verses where Jesus says "And they have their reward NOW?" That's what these guys want.

Don't Tread On Me with this bullshit.

Narcissistic Supply, Power, Give It To Me Now. It's all they want or understand. Strip everything else away and there's no difference between them and Simon Adebesi begging for drugs when the rioters run out of Heroin in the Oz episode "A Game Of Checkers."

The Self is completely on the Throne.

They don't give a shit what God demands. In fact, "Love Thy Neighbor" becomes nothing more than something to be worked around. "Love The Lord Thy God With All Thy Heart, All Thy Soul And All Thy Mind" gets real easy...when they think their God is themselves.

That's why when you give these debased fucks Power, their wants never cease.

The truth is, what God Demands cuts into their Supply.

It's a lot easier to scream about Jesus all day than it is to follow His ways.

Even the simple imposition of rules for their behavior in such a case is too much for them.

And that's why they will never do it.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

And to make the choice to follow this stuff or not, you have to be a free person. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts, and neither can slaves.

Remember that.

Слава Україна!

Republicans are selling their soul to win elections. Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. The government won't work without it. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them. ~Barry Goldwater

Eight

If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan

The Red Beast (Don't Tread On Me, Eight.)

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

If any man have an ear, let him hear.

He that leads into captivity shall go into captivity: he that kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he speaks as a dragon.

And he exercises all the power of the first beast before him, and causes the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

And he doeth great wonders, so that he makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,

And deceive them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

And he caused all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. ~Revelation 13, King James Bible.

Like I said in my post yesterday, I caught a right-wing idiot-swarm off of simply commenting on a thread that if some dude wanted to fly a Pride flag in their own yard they should be able to, and that an HOA giving them a violation but not giving some people flying an idiotic Christian Nationalist flag a violation was, in fact, discriminatory.

This seems fairly obvious.

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

These fucking people came out the woodwork all day and well into the night, defending "Christianity" (put in quotes here for a reason) HOA's, petty power trips in general and of course (unprompted) Trump. As if these things somehow go together or it's only natural that they should. By that logic, Christ Himself should have bowed down and made offerings to Caesar!

Halfway through my night at work, after the last few dipshit responses, I made a disturbing conclusion as a result of this thread and a few other things today.

I think at least half of the "Conservatives" and "Evangelicals" out there would line up and take the Mark of the Beast if Power simply, baldly told them that they had to. No reason given, just "Do it because we said so" or "It's not the Mark Of The Beast when we do it." (Yes, yes it is.)

Wrap it in grievance and hate, and "Owning The Libs" and point out that the leftists, liberals, mid-conservatives and Never-Trumpers are fighting against it and refusing to do it, and I think that percentage goes up, call it two thirds.

Just to use the Left Behind series for an example, call the slogan "Guns, Nicolae Carpathia and The White Race."

Watch and see how fast people come up with T-shirts with that slogan on them.

John of Patmos never quite reckoned with the possibility that the Beast of Revelation might be far-Right after a couple generations of teaching morons Conservatism-as-Christianity. I mean, I think that means the Elect and the Saints under the Altar might be a bigger and much more diverse group, in the end, than the End Times people of the 1990's had thought.

And Hell might end up rather...pasty. 

I feel sorry for the damn Devil.

There's something the fuck wrong with these people.

If the Beast is Blue, that's bad! Do not serve it!

But if the Beast is Red, they must serve it!

Look, even as regards my understanding of political partisanship, isn't that kind of insane, you know, theologically?? So you think you have to go to Hell if you're a Republican, yet this is somehow "Godliness??"

I'm confused. If you think your political faction can do no wrong to that point, I'd wager the Bible is not, in fact, your Holy Book.

And that needs to be said. We need to face this shit.

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

Among other things, it doesn't even fucking matter to them how buffoonish, idiotic, or poorly done something happens to be, they'll try and say it's Awesome just 'cause their "side" did it. I think "Orwellian" doesn't even begin to cover that.

This shit has turned into a Cult.

And the worse it looks, the more sick of it most people get, the more a bunch of these cultists are going to double down on this bullshit. Some people have made this fucking Trump thing their whole fucking identity and religion.

As if believing in an Eternity of Peace and Blessedness with *Checks Notes* Donald Trump wouldn't be its own special form of hell and punishment?!?!?

I used to be a conservative Christian and a Republican and none of this shit even computes for me anymore. I can't even talk the way these people talk.

And if I could, I wouldn't want to.

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

These Fucking People are doing everything the End Times Prophecy Movement tried to tell me the "Left" would do, and then some. They're not even hiding it, in fact they're being pretty blatant about it. What the fuck do you think all the AI shit and Data Centers are for??

And a lot of these idiots can't or won't see it because somebody with ascribed "Authority" and either a loud voice or a singsong cult-preacher cadence told them the opposite, and they simply don't care enough to look for themselves until the Truth basically literally bites them in the ass. 

These will be the people demanding to speak to the Manager at The Judgment.

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. ~Carl Sagan.

I guess I was just taught to read the Bible my own damn self, "Study" to show thyself approved" and all that. A lot of these people yesterday couldn't even imagine anybody would look at all these texts they don't read, and come to a different conclusion than the one their political movement told them to make.

Just sayin' if you've actually read the Lord's Word, hating the gays should not be more important than loving your neighbor. In fact, if you go by what Jesus said, LGBT people should pretty much be irrelevant to your religion unless you got gay people in your church or something.

My Partner is bisexual (and she's a Christian) the Kiddo is a lesbian. Hell, my MOM is bisexual leaning very heavily towards women. A lot of my friends are gay. No particular reason for it, luck of the draw for me going all the way back to when I was in the Air Force during the implementation of DADT. More to the point I was never taught hate or homophobia was some sort of a virtue to begin with! 

Loretta Smith: I'm Loretta Smith. You killed my son. You're a handsome fellow.

Donald Groves: Thanks.

Loretta Smith: You broke God's law: Love thy neighbor. I wanna hate you but I can't. I feel pity, tears, but no hate. I didn't realize that until this moment. You are my neighbor and I love you. And I forgive you with all my heart. That's all.

~From the HBO series "Oz" Season 1, Episode 7 "Plan B."

And if they don't like my opinions on religion, well, they sure aren't going to like my ideas of politics, like that conservatism (for example) should come with actual standards.

I mean, historically, it should be the Leftists and Liberals chasing after novelty and the outrage of the moment while fucking around with dumb shit.

But no, that's the "Conservatives" now.  Somebody who was actually conservative told us we couldn't do something stupid like overturn the Constitution by decree, so now we gotta turn the whole damn world upside-down to try and find a way around that. How old are you fuckers? 13??

And they'd rather sit there and be miserable and beef with anybody that thinks differently than them than actually go out and do the work of life. That's wrong too.

This crap is ridiculous.

MAGA was bad enough, but I'd argue MAGA in any recognizable form is pretty much dead and that the Antichrist-ism that this shit is turning into is a fully consummated and rather bad marriage between the worst impulses of both far-right and far-left.

And they let Peter Theil watch through exactly 666 cameras.

Again, you either believe in freedom or you don't.

If you're telling somebody they're not a Christian because they think a Homeowner's Association shouldn't have any right to tell people what flags to fly or not to fly, freedom ain't what you believe in and as far as I'm concerned your dipshit Hall Monitor ass can just fuck off.

And if you don't, you will be made to.

"Mind Your Own Business" used to be a conservative thing.

That spell it out for ya?? Or do I have to use smaller words??

Don't Tread On Me with this bullshit.

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Republicans are selling their soul to win elections. Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. The government won't work without it. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them. ~Barry Goldwater

Seven

We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. ~George Orwell, 1984

If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan

Men Of Sodom (Don't Tread On Me, Seven.)

When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”

Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”

The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, 28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?”

“If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”

Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?”

He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”

Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?”

He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?”

He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”

Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?”

He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”

When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.

~Genesis 18:16-33

I saw this yesterday, just a picture of a black lady on the DC metro, probably on her way to work or something, surrounded by a bunch of "Patriot Front" thugs.

My bro Jack asked for a caption to the picture and the first thing I thought of was where Abraham pleads for Sodom in the Book of Genesis.

This morning when I got home from work (late because our latest new person didn't want to show up today, and probably ain't gonna last anyway) I commented on somebody's post about HOA stupidity.

Since then, I've been getting swarmed by idiot "Conservatives," mostly various dudes of a certain type although there was a Karen or two thrown in, trying to defend the nexus of Bullshit that is Homeowners' Associations or vote me out of Christianity. That ain't up to you dipshits.

Sorry, but if you try and tell me what to do on my own property you're going to get ejected from it, quite possibly at gunpoint if you won't leave otherwise. I've had too many bad experiences with (mostly religious and/or right-wing with a side of mental illness) freaks to fuck around.

Right-wingers love them some arbitrary and unaccountable Power, no matter how petty, now don't they?? 

These fucking people missed the point of the story of Sodom in the Bible. 

Or they wanna be in the butt-rape mob.

So, I guess it shouldn't surprise ANYBODY that these fucking people don't know the motherfucking US Declaration Of Independence when they hear it??

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

I can remember when I had to learn the Declaration of Independence in *Christian* school, and why it was necessary.

Funny how "Conservatives" don't care about any of that when they think they own this era's version of George III, isn't it??

And by the way, every damn one of these profiles appears to either not actually be an American, or if they are, they're selling some bullshit.

Note: None of these people are actually conservative.

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

No, not even by the standards that I was taught including by the hardcore Republicans of like 40 years ago. But then, my late uncle (who served 8 years as an Infantry officer in the Army in the late 1960's and early 1970's) had his life saved by a Black man in Vietnam, so despite him being a somewhat-upper-class Good Old Boy from Georgia and about as Republican as they got in the 1980's and 1990's, I was taught way the hell better than what this crap is today. His platoon suffered 14 casualties (KIA and WIA) in Vietnam and he never got over that, drank and smoked himself to death over the rest of his life for it, too. 

Dude hated religion and war and as I've said before if he had a God it was probably Ronald Reagan, his main Sunday ritual was drinking beer and watching basketball or football. He tried like hell to talk me out of enlisting. 

When that failed, he got a bottle of the good stuff, poured us each a glass and then spent the rest of the evening (Successfully) impressing upon me the seriousness of what I was doing, by telling me the stories that weren't the same ones from his time in Germany that he'd always told before.

Dude was there for the Tet Offensive, and saw some real hairy shit. Yeah, I'd probably have had PTSD and been a (worse) alcoholic too if I'd been in his position.

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

These fucking people aren't like that. They lack the moral courage of people like my uncle or the moxie of past Republican Presidents like Ronald Reagan or (and I'll be generous here, bite me) either Bush, or even of failed candidates like Barry Goldwater.

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

They're mostly petty drama queens and power-seekers who'd be just as happy among the Men of Sodom trooping to Lot's house as they would in a church congregation, because they're there in either place for the same fucking reason, which is power over another. Like the Bull Queers in The Shawshank Redemption, yo, That's all they want or understand.

And, in their minds, whatever God thinks about that be damned.

I'm serious.

Nothing is real or serious to these people, deep down they're all far more Atheistic than any Richard Dawkins devotee from 2008. If it's not right in front of them or something they can see and touch and (understand their frame of "understanding" is very limited) they refuse to "Believe" in it. It's a Bioshock level social and spiritual suicide-pact. Everything is all some kind of allegedly-ideologically-based game, or cover for a scam or some such horseshit, and invariably they betray whatever values they claim because if they ever had standards before, they sure don't now. It's all just bullshit words and chasing the dopamine hit of being "right" arguing with some version of whatever that only exists in their own heads. I call this shit "Atheism Minus One" for a purpose.

I believe in no God, no invisible man in the sky. But there is something more powerful than each of us, a combination of our efforts, a Great Chain of industry that unites us. But it is only when we struggle in our own interest that the chain pulls society in the right direction. The chain is too powerful and too mysterious for any government to guide. Any man who tells you different either has his hand in your pocket, or a pistol to your neck. ~Andrew Ryan, Bioshock

Except that what they're really not being Atheistic about is purely secular Republican political power.

Or, more properly, a certain ideal of Fascism that they've used that shit to camouflage for a minute.

(Without really understanding what that is, either. They just know it's the "Great Work" of modern "Republicanism.")

I identify myself as an Agnostic Christian because, while I Believe, I don't claim to understand the nature of God and how it all works...but I've figured out that secular liberalism ain't doing shit about this problem and I need more to lean on than that, anyway.

One thing I do know is Donald Trump ain't God.

It's a weirdly puritanical, intersectionally hateful cult, and the insidious thing is it's actually worse than and will outlast MAGA. When Trump is gone and JD fails to gin up enough-whatever because he sucks so bad even they don't like him, they'll bide their time until the next big thing comes up, if it ever does. 

And if it doesn't, they'll direct their energies into Football Hooliganism or some shit like a lot of EU far-right idiots have forever...because having a "team" and a reason to bother people or punch somebody in the face is all they really give a shit about. They'll get their civil disorder and excuse to hurt people any way they can.

These kind of "Republicans" spent the majority of my life in the political wilderness or in the woods as militia nuts for a fucking reason.

None of these people are imaginative enough to see that somebody else might actually think differently, or have reasons for doing so, and they lack the sense of shame to understand when they've been successfully told off, yet at the same time all have the same vast, yawning sense of inferiority. They've never thought about any of this shit, or wanted to.

Like, goddamn, I've been enough places and seen enough things even in the context of having been a conservative Republican that I had to stop and think about this shit here and there whether I wanted to or not. I know more about this than they do. 

I had to. I got my butt whupped if I didn't want to learn anything!

Think about that, for a second. That's a hell of a difference from now, ain't it?

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

I mean, for fuck's sake even as a dumb 20-year-old my partner freaking got that we both had strong convictions, and at that point our arguments were mostly on the same side of the fence but I was a more secular conservative and she was a religious one. Funny enough, our variable have flipped around a bit, but we still argue more about how to get there than about what the end-goal is.

Again, you either believe in freedom or you don't.

So Don't Tread On Me with this bullshit.

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Republicans are selling their soul to win elections. Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. The government won't work without it. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them. ~Barry Goldwater

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