It's not gay if you're a Republican.

So, yesterday I found out via Twitter that Milo Yiannopoulos got a $250,000 book deal. I guess it's some kind of a biography or something, to be published by Simon & Schuster.

I commented on this.

I expressed disgust, as I was (until this election, anyway) primarily familiar with that disgusting little troll from the fact that he'd been one of the major driving forces of the Gamergate affair. So, naturally, I didn't much like him going in. After the whole alt-right Nazi thing blew up, and I found out about his role in it, I was even more disgusted. For one thing, Misogyny from a gay dude strikes me as very odd. For another, I hate the fact not only that Milo seems to do the things he does for no better reason than he thinks it's funny.

There's a cure for that type of shit where I come from, and it's called an ass whuppin.'

If I'd ever have acted like that little twerp as a kid or young person, I would have got ass whuppins' for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I'd have gotten the "Can't sit down for a week" treatment so much I wouldn't have known what a chair *Was.* 

As a teenager, I literally got punched in the face by people in my school, and more than a few times punched people myself, for far less than I've seen these internet trolls say to people, safely behind their computer screen and miles away from their targets. That's otherwise known as being a coward. I don't act any different online than off, Anything I've got to say on here I'll say to your face, possibly with even more profanity.

I specifically pointed out that when I was a teenager, somebody who was a gay Nazi would have got beat up for two reasons in my town. As I've said before, the only good Nazi is a dead Nazi, and I'll take a bullet (hopefully atop a pile of dead Nazis myself) before I ever retract *That* statement. The term "alt-right" which represents a loose political group of which Milo is an enthusiastic member, is a "Politically-correct" re-branding of Nazis and White Supremacists, coined by White Nationalist idiot Richard Spencer. Yes, this is America in the 21st Century and we have Politically Correct Nazis.  What's next? Calling Black people Dermally Challenged?

I repeatedly got told to go eat a dick, people denied that Milo was alt-right, they denied he was a Nazi, hell I'm surprised that nobody denied he was gay. Hell, at least one person specifically said "I was offended that a conservative had such an edgy, dynamic stage presence." 

Folks, Milo is a conservative about like I'm an Insinkerator commercial-grade kitchen garbage disposal. He's not. One of these things is not like the other. 

Milo has an edgy and dynamic anything about like Rush Limbaugh provides reasonable and sane political commentary. He doesn't. 

He exists to offend people for the sake of offending people because he thinks it's funny, and he most likely gets away with it primarily because he's an English upper-class twit and for some reason these alt-right Nazis have themselves a thing for European style politics, meaning everyone fancies themselves as being "in" on the joke. Except the joke isn't funny unless you're an asshole.

If you'd have told either of my Grandfathers, not to mention *Any* of the stodgy old conservative Republican retirees (most of whom were active in local politics in the 1980's and 1990's) or my Republican, Vietnam-Veteran Uncle Bill, or any of the other guys who taught me about what being a Republican was...about Milo Yiannopoulos I can guarantee you that they'd have burst out laughing. I can guarantee you that the word they'd have used to describe him sure as hell would not have been "Conservative" with either a large or small "c." The word you're looking for here is "Faggot" probably with a boatload of other negative adjectives to go with it. I was taught that acting like that was Not OK, but an awful lot of the old guys I grew up around would've taken up my share, and gladly, and truth be told I'd have laughed at their jokes.

Why? Because that is what people like Milo the fag deserve, and would get in a rational, sane world. He'd get laughed at, have it possibly violently explained to him that his bullshit wasn't funny, and be told in no uncertain terms to get a real job and take that "Dangerous Faggot" shit somewhere else.

Before very long (And, I think, because the poster of the thread had an Arabic or possibly South Asian name, not that this means anything concerning religion) all these idiots kept trying to change the subject from Milo to Islam, and eventually (since, for a good part of this time I was at work) I just left the discussion and started blocking idiots.

More than one of these fucking people had the term "Shitlord" in their "Name" on Twitter and while I don't have the slightest idea what the fuck that means I know it's something that some of these modern Nazis like to call themselves.

Folks, I'm 43 years old, and if I hung that kind of terminology on myself in a public capacity online or off and my Mom found out about it I'm pretty damned sure my shit would get wore right the fuck out and the next Lord I'd be talking to would probably be the Lord Jesus Christ, but in the afterlife, rather than in prayer.

As I have also said before, some things are not done in the better places. This is not negotiable at all.

It's not just that, though. Understand this: Most, if not all, of the people who taught me would be appalled at the idea of so-called "Conservatives" adamantly and with much invective defending a homosexual twit who harasses women online for kicks while simultaneously demeaning Islam.

While I, most people in general, and even most of my family and friends (including even some of those stodgy old Republicans) and my late uncle before he died, evolved to some degree ranging from grudging tolerance to full acceptance on the gay thing...for most of my life, I'd say up until the drive for Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal got really strong...being a gay person was viewed at least somewhat negatively. I'm not saying that's right, I'm saying that's how it was.

You know how that changed? Work, a lot of it. Effort and good conduct and reaching out to people like me, not with insults but with understanding. And, because I was taught to treat gay people like everybody else and to mind my own business as regards the sex lives of others and to not have a problem with those who are different...I am today an enthusiastic ally of those people in most cases.

But I reserve the right to laugh at those who act ridiculous, and I've little tolerance for those who want to do whatever they want, but who undermine the freedom and respect and rights gained by their own people. I reserve raw, angry, naked hatred for those who will exploit and use others, without extending them the courtesy of the same rights they cheerfully claim. Milo especially, likes to be sodomized by black men and (last I knew) has a Muslim boyfriend. Now, I don't care, whatever floats his boat. But give the people you share your body and your life with the same respect as you'd expect to get yourself...or leave them be.

Otherwise, how's Milo any different than a straight, wife-beating misogynist?

Islam, on the other hand, was and is an ancient and respected world religion with influence over history and life and our modern world on a scale so vast that most people can't comprehend it, and it's easily as diverse and has as many degrees of practice and levels of devotion as Christianity itself. With my own eyes, I've seen Turkish girls, International students, who were distinguishable from the American girls they chatted with over coffee only by their names, accents and occasional ESL issues. I've seen Saudi women wearing Abaya and Hijab or Niqab in 100-degree heat as the midday sun blazed overhead who spoke with no men at all, save family as they went about whatever business they were attending to...and that is just one example. 

Perhaps more to the point, even though I have been around the world a bit and seen these things elsewhere...the two examples I just named have been observed in the small city in Michigan where I live. I picked them for that reason, and they involved a college classmate, my friend Dilek, and my across-the-street neighbors from my old apartments. Mohammed's wife (whose name I knew, but which escapes me at the moment) scarcely said two words to me, nor I to her, beyond the customary exchange of "As-Salaam Alaykum" (Peace be upon you) and "Wa Alaykum Salaam" (And upon you, Peace) and that was fine. Mohammed was in my World of Warcraft guild for quite awhile when I had it. We made friends when I helped him dig his minivan out after a snow storm, so that he could take his wife to her class at the university. I'd hazard a guess that most of the Muslims I've met probably value learning more than all these idiots I ran into on Twitter over the last couple of days. While we're at it, one day when I saw him my neighbor asked me (knowing that I come from a Christian background, though I was less in tune with that then, than I am now having accepted my Christian-influenced Agnosticism and called it even) if I'd pray for his wife, because she, this Saudi woman, was taking her road test to get her driver's license.

I did so, enthusiastically. You want to know how to subtly undermine fourteen centuries of stoic religious tradition? There you have it, right there.

People are people. There's a small population of Muslims around here, Medical staff from the hospital or faculty, staff and students from the University, mostly immigrants, and a few white American converts (actually, the technical term is "revert" because like Baptists, many Muslims believe everybody is born with some knowledge of religion. So, in their context, you don't come to it, you come back.) That said it's not the least bit unusual to see bearded-and-skullcapped young men in groups at Wal-Mart. I quietly and respectfully watched over one guy, one afternoon as he knelt to pray in the cold with his jacket off...I wanted to make sure no one would bother him...and was moved to take a moment for spiritual reflection my own self. After he was done, I walked over and talked with him for a few minutes...and we had more we agreed on than we didn't, as it turned out. It is likewise not unusual to see a group of Muslim girls wearing brightly-colored Hijab at the bus stop, or the grocery store, and I can guarantee you that if you speak to them in Arabic or say "As Salaam Alaykum" to them, the smiles you will see will be as bright as the colors of their headscarves.

In and of themselves, neither conservatives nor gay people nor Muslims will usually hurt anybody. The problem, as it so often is, is when one combines anger and toxic ideologies with those things.

This is how you get people like the Pulse nightclub shooter, who was a gay Muslim seeking to lash out at a world that he felt hated him. This is how you get people like Milo the Fag, who doesn't have the guts to shoot anybody, but would probably laugh about it if his trolling behavior online caused a person to commit suicide. I don't know the man, but that's the vibe his public behavior gives me.

An old principle of conservatism that I was taught is that we are defined, and shored up or torn down by the company we keep and the things we stand to defend.  I don't care if it's not MY religion or my form of righteousness, I will always stand up for righteousness. I don't care if it's not my truth, I will stand up for it.

In these days of Republicans defending Communists and right-wing nuts defending homosexual internet trolls, it might be good to remember that. When people base their beliefs on lies, they believe a lie and the Bible has some bad things to say about what happens to such people. At the bare minimum, all these idiots defending that immoral shit-bag while denigrating Islam just scored a propaganda victory if some Takfiri motherfucker happens to find their bullshit. There's a ready example of the confusion and immorality of Western culture right there.

And you know what? I'm not sure I'd entirely disagree, I mostly disagree with the means to attack the problem. These idiots could get somebody killed. I'd prefer that they not be idiots in the first place. It's worth noting that I last posted a couple days ago...and some of these people are still arguing with me while I just ignore them and laugh. A lot of it sounds like rationalizations. They are wasting a lot more effort on me than I am on them.

I prefer truth, even when I don't necessarily go by everything I was taught anymore, at least I have a baseline with which to compare, contrast, and criticize stupidity. The truth is often inconvenient. The parts we don't follow still should be acknowledged.

It's gay whether you're a Republican or not. Nothing wrong with that, but it still is.

Oh, and the picture at the top? You figure it out...

Rogue One.

So I went to see Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, today.

Actually, this is the second time I've been to see it. I went to see it on its opening weekend, too. I've been going to do a blog post about it since then, and just hadn't got to it. So, I decided to go again, just for the hell of it, but also to give it a more critical look the second time around.

One of the things that struck me, about Rogue One during the run-up to its release and on its opening weekend was the sheer amount of hate that alt-right Nazis and Trump Supporters were putting out there because supposedly there was some kind of "Anti-Trump" message worked into the movie at the last minute. Now, the way movies are made these days means it doesn't work that way. Shooting this thing finished up months ago, by Election Night, distribution was likely being finalized and there was no way to add anything to it short of bonus features for the DVD release. The entire story was, basically, just made up by some idiot troll on the internet. I've also heard that these fucking people object to the diversity of the newer movies. Hello? Star Wars has been pretty diverse from the beginning and it got *More* that way with every film. Star Wars has *Always* had a strong female lead character, whether it was Princess Leia or her mother, Padme Amidala. So, Rey (from Episode VII: The Force Awakens) or Jyn from this one are par for the course. Not to mention Lando Calrissian, Mace Windu, and Ahmed Best, the guy that voiced Jar Jar Binks, who for bonus points has an Arabic given name.

If you don't like diversity, that's YOUR problem. The world is diverse, deal with it. The rest of the universe, once we put ourselves out there, will likely not be any different.

For the record, last I'd head Rogue One was doing extremely well and had made a pretty damned impressive amount of money. So either the alt-right Nazis don't have nearly the amount of pull they think they do, or their (and probably Trump's, also) levels of support aren't as high as they'd like to think. That said, this isn't so much a critique of the movie as a critique of our national audience vs. the themes of the film. So I'll try not to spoil anything for those who haven't seen it, but speaking as a Star Wars fan who's been there since the beginning (I was four, but I digress) I will say that I for one was pretty impressed. This is the first Star Wars film since the original trilogy that I've seen twice in theaters.

See...what we see here is what Obi-Wan Kenobi was talking about when he spoke of the Dark Times. This is the Empire at its full glory, and at the height of its power. You've got Stormtroopers arresting people in the streets, and while there seems to be resistance, in a lot of places it's pretty limited and nothing an extra squad of troopers can't be called in to handle. I can see why those who like the idea of dominance and hierarchy would be drawn to the image of such a time. I really can, and that just says to me that they need to be opposed all the more.

This is a situation where, even as a Star Destroyer is parked hovering over a city, there's still gritty, nasty street fighting between Stormtroopers and an extremist anti-Imperial insurgency. Not only was such well done, but I thought it had a very Iraq War-like feel to it. I have to wonder if the various scenes of the fighting in Jedha City were put together by a crew that had a couple of Veterans on it. In any case, it reinforces the idea that, even when all seems hopeless, it is a human tendency to resist. (Yes, even though there's plenty of resisters in these movies who aren't human.)

Hope, is definitely the central theme of the film. "Hope is what rebellions are built on." That line kept cropping up. Yeah, that right there and the fact that anyone would have a negative reaction to it (especially in the sense of this being a science fiction franchise that's been a thing for 40 years) tells you everything you need to know about anybody who does have a problem with it. Hope has been a theme of Star Wars since the original novelization of A New Hope was released in 1976. Deal with it. If you have a problem with hope, or with other people having hope, that says more about you than it does about them. In the last couple of days, Donald Trump simply Tweeted a two-word message "Happy Hanukkah" to Jewish people as a group, and the alt-right Nazis predictably went bananas. Of course, this says a lot more about them than it does anything else. It's a simple two words, and they can't handle it. What does it say about a person, when they can't handle a mere two words being given in acknowledgement of another?

Not good things, I think.

In doing some research loosely connected to this post, I looked up the resistance to the Nazi occupation in tiny Luxembourg during World War II. Now, because it was a small country with a small armed forces, weapons were hard to come by and much of the resistance was passive. But oh man, there sure as hell was a lot of it. A census, intended to legitimize the annexation of the country by Germany, which included three questions (of which the intended-correct answer to all three was "German") was scuttled when an overwhelming majority of the population answered "Luxembourgish" to all of them. People refused to speak to Germans or sit by them on the bus, and this annoyed the Germans so damned much that they made laws against it.

That's what we're up against. I'm sure these fucking people we're stuck with will try to make laws against them being made fun of on Twitter or against going to another business when theirs is resolved to provide shitty (or no) service to people that they don't like.

Now, like Nazi Germany, but greatly unlike our own present evils, The Empire has always been presented as a pretty generic, often deliberately faceless, impersonal evil of helmeted Stormtroopers and masked Sith Lords. If you see yourself in that when it's on the big screen that means you're the one who has the problem, not the people who made this movie. I'll admit that I liked how the lower-powered shots fired by the Death Star produced effects similar to nuclear weapons, and in that way yet again Star Wars is prescient in taking on something that's been made an issue in recent days (even though it shouldn't be.)

Honestly, my favorite part of the movie was at the very end, Darth Vader vs. Rebels on the flagship of the small Rebel fleet sent to attack Scarif in support of Cassian and Jyn's mission. These Rebel troops have the disk with the plans (the very one that ends up carried by R2-D2 in A New Hope) and the door is broken, so the Rebels stand and fight and Darth Vader chops his way through them, blocking and deflecting blaster bolts, Force choking one, ripping away the weapons of several with Move Object and, though the last one passes it to another Rebel crewman through a gap in the door, Vader just chops his way through it and continues on. Ultimately, several of the troops make it onto Leia's Corellian Corvette which drops out of the flagship's hangar bay and sprints away, only (as we know) to be eventually caught by Vader's flagship anyway.

The point is, even in the face of overwhelming odds, people keep fighting. In the end, this is one of those gritty, almost-everyone-dies war films. The thing to remember is, all those characters (just like people who serve in the military in real life) knew the risks, and went anyway, because that's who they were.

So that's our choice, Hope, or Power (and hoping you get some tiny piece of it.)

Choose, and choose well. Why? Because just like in Post-WWII Europe, when this is over Collaborator or Resister, Imperial or Rebel...those are the labels that will really matter, that might determine in whatever form(s) our country continues after this...whether or not you get the job, whether or not your neighbors simply tell their children that you were "Wrong" and don't talk to you or your kids. A lot of issues were created in Europe by this whole situation, and in some ways they are still being resolved...especially, believe it or not, in places like the Ukraine.

I choose hope, and the hell with the consequences. If that makes me a Rebel, so be it. I picked that side decades ago in the Star Wars universe. If anybody ever thought I'd choose differently in real life, you either don't know me or you never really did.

I choose Hope because I wonder how anybody who doesn't can even get out of bed in the morning.

...And hope is what rebellions are built on.

US Media invents a new sport: Apocalypse Golf.

So, as I understand it, yesterday the last part of Aleppo fell to the Syrian Army.

Yesterday, and last night at work, I followed a lot of what was happening via Twitter.

The posted image is from last week.


Today, I saw both on Facebook and Twitter, that Golf Digest wants to name Trump the "Best ever Golfer-President." For the hell of it, here's a link from Golf Digest (apparently from 2008) http://www.golfdigest.com/story/presidentsranking that (based on my half-remembered knowledge of a game I mostly played so I could drink more beer) that suggests the actual best Golfer among Presidents was George H.W. Bush.

But then, 20 seconds or so of research would be a facts-based approach, if to a completely pointless story.

This is typical, not only of the American news media at this point...but increasingly typical of the people of the United States of America as a whole.

If you ever wonder why so many Americans think it's all about them, and that education is evil, or act like the "real world" ends at the county line and the center of the Universe is located in  Ass Fuck, Texas, Booty Poke, Iowa, Bourbon Chug, Duckfuckistan Louisiana, Cousin Screw, West Virginia, Dry Hump, Kansas, Meth Teeth, Michigan or ... MY HOMETOWN GODDAMN IT, MINE!!! MINE!!!!!!!!!! Screw you rotten people in North Dakota!!!!! *And* whatever they have is something that everybody else in the world wants (and they are afraid that people who look different from them or who say God's name in a different language are going to come and take their stuff, as if their stuff is what they have that makes life worth living) not to mention how THEY and/or some rich person they think they identify with should get everything and Nobody else should get anything at all...or why so many white people think they want to burn down the United States of America so the Blacks or the Mexicans or the Muslims who Obummer is bringing over by the millions whose ancestors have lived here since they came over to work for arch-conservative automaker Henry Ford in 1912 can't have any, This kind of crap would be the reason why.

Not to mention, the fact that due to the cultural diseases False Gospels of Base Tribalism, Pilgrim Calvinism, The modern Prosperity Gospel/19th Century veneration of the rich and the White Jesus, your basic American Idiot has now handed the US Presidency over to some Orange-hued fool who thinks that restarting a nuclear arms race (and giving Japan, Saudi Arabia and South Korea nukes) is somehow a good idea.

As I have said several times, I'm pretty sure Donald Trump thinks he can just snap his fingers and in a few months Boeing will start cranking out new AGM-69 SRAM (Short Range Attack Missiles) and they'll be carried on FB-111A Aardvark tactical bombers based at Plattsburgh Air Force Base in upstate New York and he'll get to play the role of Ronald Reagan in some explosion-filled Michael Bay movie about how time-traveling Trumpist FBI Agents helped the Mujahideen defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan while persuading them to become Capitalism-friendly Gulf State-like Muslims instead of the Taliban later and preventing Afghanistan from crumbling into a cesspool of chaos, poverty and war by sharing good old-fashioned American values like hard work, pickup trucks and sodomy between rural conservative white men who are actually married and don't tell their wives...

No, that last one is *Not* over the top, this is a real thing.

Add that up with the Opiate epidemic ravaging a lot of conservative, rural areas and you've got another wonderful thing from the 1980's: AIDS. Except that wasn't wonderful for anybody except Jerry Falwell, and it devastated a lot of lives particularly among gay men. A (gay) neighbor of my Grandparents and my Mom died of AIDS. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. Oh yes, with proper health care one's virus count may be rendered negligible and they may live a normal life...

But remember, the Republicans have pledged to repeal the Affordable Care Act, while gutting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

Medicaid and Social Security were the only reasons our neighbor had bills paid and food to eat and health care for pretty much the entire time I knew him. Think about that, for a second, will you?

The missiles and the bombers have been scrapped, Plattsburgh AFB closed in 1995. Nobody misses the days of 3 A.M. alert scrambles with the SAC crews dashing out to their BUFF's in the cold at Castle, Griffiss,  K.I. Sawyer, Mather, Loring and Wurtsmith except for people who never lived them, who never had to deal with the stress of the high-intensity mission and the threat that any time the klaxons sounded it could mean the missiles were on their way down, that you, your buddy in the Air Operations Center, or your family over in the base housing might all have fourteen minutes to live. Imagine dealing with that, for an average of ten days out of every month for your entire career...

The remnants of that time, the bases repurposed to support tankers or other missions, the BUFF's at Barksdale and Minot, the missiles under the prairies in Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming, the Spirits at Whiteman and the Ohio-class Submarines silently keeping watch beneath the waves are all still needed...but now all but the ICBM crews support conventional missions as much as (or more than) they prepare for the Apocalypse. That is a damned good thing, if you ask me.

Let us not make the sacrifices of previous generations and of men like my grandfathers be in vain. I can tell you for a fact what a lot of those old guys, or the ones I knew anyway, would say about the Republicans sucking up to the Russians if they were here to say something about it.

Actually, it most likely involves fists and one hell of a lot of profanity.

The ironic thing is, it's the spiritual (and in some cases, literal) descendants of the Anti-Communists and the Arch-Conservatives and the Professional Cold Warriors that are the ones who seem to be just fine with selling the United States of America out to a KGB man.

I'm pretty sure somewhere in hell, Joseph McCarthy is drinking himself into a stupor over this...

Let us not continue to kill ourselves with irresponsibility...and that's what all this is and don't you forget it. Many Americans value their comfort, distractions, profits and the illusion of safety more than they value the ability of humanity to live on this planet and continue to survive. Deal with the fact that, simply put, we as a species have nowhere else to go.

Assuming one believes in all that, the End Times will happen on God's calendar, not ours.

Jesus is not going to come back and save us if we blow up the world, and there is no profit in Apocalypse.

We are forfeit of our moral right to exist as a nation at this point. By next month, we and our distractions and illusions could very well be an existential threat to the rest of humanity.

...And if you think the rest of humanity isn't watching in horror and trying to find a way to prevent this disaster, I'm quite sure you have another thing coming.

Fundamentally, we need to stop looking inward, realize that the rest of the world exists (or that most of it stands with us if you're somebody who is against Trump) stop all this navel-gazing, stand up and fight and survive, and remember just what the hell it is we're supposed to be doing here.

If we don't do that, if we continue to fall prey to the media-generated spectacle and continue to forget who we are and what we're supposed to be doing  and continue to fail to live up to our values because doing that would be too hard, we're going to deserve everything that we get.

We can stand up and resist, or we can hit the links and then watch FOX News and have some beers at the club while the world burns.

It's your choice. Reality, or Unreality.

Both parties are not the same, man.

Remember that to abandon facts is to abandon freedom. Without truth no one has a basis to criticize power.

The least we can do is go down standing up.

#Resist.

As I've said before, I grew up reading books. One hell of a lot of my views on stuff have been at least somewhat influenced by science fiction.

I'm a gamer, Battletech, Dungeons & Dragons (all the way from 1st Edition to 3.5, I bought some of the books for 4th but didn't care for it, and I haven't checked out 5th yet) the (Palladium Books) Robotech Role-playing game, the original D6 (and later, D20) Star Wars and the various White Wolf systems each held my attention the longest for whatever time I was playing them.

Sometimes, particularly with Battletech and D&D the gaming hobby and the reading interest were both active at the same time. (For the record, I'm working my way through the Legend of Drizzt novels *Again* for you Forgotten Realms fans out there.)

I will say though, that I loved the Battletech universe, in all its infinite complexity. Battletech was your basic tabletop war-game type of thing (there was also an associated RPG, called MechWarrior, which I also played with gusto, having versions of my characters for both.) The basic idea was you had cardboard cutouts on a hex map (or Miniatures on a table) and shot it out in combat rounds fairly similar to most other such games with dice rolls primarily to determine who hit what, etc. It's similar to Warhammer 40K today, though it was a less expensive habit. 

But for me,,,it was the thousand years of history and the world-building around it that sucked me in. The idea was that, at one time, when humans ventured out into space, six major interstellar nations formed, with a number of minor ones around the edges of human space. The six main powers (The Capellan Confederation, the Draconis Combine, the Federated Suns, the Free Worlds League, the Lyran Commonwealth and the Terran Hegemony) eventually formed one big power, called the Star League. The Star League conquered all the small states around the edges, and eventually was destroyed from within by treason (conveniently, originating from one of the conquered outer states) and though the usurper of the throne was defeated and killed, there wasn't much saving the whole thing after that. So, the Star League military just...left...taking its great fleet of warships and transports, dependents and massive amounts of supplies and disappearing off into the unknown. We'll come back to that in a few minutes. Not very long after that, the previous main powers, minus the Terran Hegemony (which was destroyed and divided up among the others) fought several devastating wars, the first one in particular using nuclear weapons and orbital bombardment often. Whole worlds were devastated and much technology eventually was lost. Fast forward 300+ years, unifying two of the states (Federated Suns and Lyran Commonwealth) and add another power (the Free Rasalhague Republic) with much of the lost technology being rediscovered and put back into service. We're good, right? Nope! All the sudden the descendants of the Star League military return to re-establish the legendary realm of their ancestors by force of arms, and they do succeed at taking a large swath of human space for themselves before being defeated (incidentally, by a military force equipped entirely with Star League technology and fielded by the primary communications authority, known as Comstar, which also controls Earth) and after that a 15-year cease fire is declared.

(In case any Battletech fans read this, I left out a lot of details for the sake of brevity AND all that was from memory.)

That said, of the five main characters I used, two were from and all the others fought against the Draconis Combine, which was based on Japan incorporating elements of the Samurai era and WWII era Japan...with a few other cultural groups incorporated into the mix.

One of my favorite novels set in the Battletech universe was Black Dragon, by Victor Milan. It's the end of a three-novel series. What that novel series is about is a regiment of mercenaries called Camacho's Caballeros, itself based on the culture of the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico, primarily working with elements of Combine society...but also fighting against others.

It's a fucking great series, if you can find it. I need to see if I can find some of that stuff in E-book form or whatever myself.

Black Dragon was about the mercenaries and various elements of Combine intelligence services and society plus elements of the military defeating a plot to overthrow the Coordinator (leader) and replace him with a figurehead and a council of reactionary leaders.

Enter one of my favorite characters from the overall universe, Subhash Indrahar AKA The Smiling One. He's the leader of the Internal Security Forces, i.e. the main intelligence agency. Formerly an accomplished Kendo martial artist, mystic and warrior in his own right and both then and at the time of the novel an art collector and avid socialite (hence his nickname) he is now an old man crippled by age and disease who uses an electric wheelchair to get around.

This old dude finds a way to track down several of the main conspirators and the kid they intend to place on the throne as a figurehead. As it turns out, the majority of the people involved in this conspiracy are conspiracy theorists, criminal elements, fakes, radical conservatives, the odd cashiered (with a couple still-active) military officers and various rejects. Is this sounding scarily similar to the modern situation of the United States of America yet? Good!

The Smiling One tracks down two of the main conspirators, a fake martial artist/monk and a cashiered military academy professor who's basically a walking reactionary stereotype, aboard their Jumpship (that's a basic interstellar Starship without any military capabilities besides transport) very quickly figures out just what he's dealing with, makes nice for a few minutes, and gets them to bring the prospective figurehead before him.

The kid, however, is just a young military cadet who's trying to do his job, whatever it is at the moment, as best he can.

This is one of those moments upon which the arc of the universe bends.

The Smiling One looks at the kid, and speaks to him, in the process reads his mind with his mystical powers. He says to him "You are a strong, sound young man, and your spirit is clear. Why have you consented to be a part of this treasonous scheme?" Upon being told that it was because of duty, the Smiling one shakes his head sadly and says "The rest of us have outlived our usefulness to the Dragon [the symbol and metaphorical nature of the Combine is that of a dragon] but your death will be a tragic loss."

What! "Who is going to die?" the colonel shouts.

With the laugh of a strong, young warrior, Subhash Indrahar replies "All of us."

At that point, panels fall open on his wheelchair, revealing two rocket launchers. He fires at a large view-port, causing a hull breach which sucks all of them out into space, with the Smiling One still laughing the whole time.

What's the point, I mean aside from the fact that that's my favorite scene in the book?

One of the things science fiction has taught me, and one of the things studying history also has taught me, is to resist tyranny. Funny thing, but Christianity as I was taught it said much the same thing.

Resist.

Even when it seems hopeless.

Resist.

Do whatever you can...and do it until you die.

Resist.

Because even if you are old and broken down, even if you fail, even if you Die...

...YOU will be free, as in the end the Smiling One was free even of the limitations imposed upon him by age and bad health, that one last operation ended with him being sucked out into space while laughing like the strong, young warrior he had once been in body, and that he still was in his soul.

Resist.

Because it's what we are, it's what the United States of America was founded on. Even if our nation as we know it breaks apart or is destroyed...let us not go down being known for people like Donald Trump, but being known as the people who fought against him and the racists and right-wing nuts and goddamned Nazi wannabes that put him into power.

Resist.

Because that's what freedom, real freedom, is. It's not shit-headed obstructionism of an imagined tyrant who is seen as such only because of the color of his skin and the fact that he's not in your party. It's resistance against actual, no-shit tyranny.

Tyranny is when one party loses an election, and then rigs the deck to remain in power, as happened in North Carolina today. Tyranny is when Electoral College members get death threats for saying they will not vote for Trump or when one who resigned because he felt Trump was not 'Biblically' qualified (and would not vote for him) has people threatening to rape his wife and daughters and then kill him.

Whether it's the tyranny of one man at the head of a government or the tyranny of the mob and petty warlords, it must be opposed.

I don't know how the hell American so-called "Conservatives" became so stupid as to elect these evil, power-mad men to office, whether we're talking about the North Carolina Republicans or Trump and his cabinet of CEO's and cashiered Generals, but *I* will resist them as best I can.

I don't know how these people became so evil that threats of rape and murder are something they think is OK. I don't give a damn what you think, it's not.

Resistance is not futile, resistance is necessary.

Even if all it means is that we are remembered for having the courage to do it.

Pizza, and a slice of truth.

Believe in truth.

To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights. ~Timothy Snyder, Yale law professor.

So, I've been thinking for the last several days about statements by some of Donald Trump's various surrogates that "Facts don't matter."

Then I started seeing this PizzaGate shit pop up on Twitter in the last couple of days.

OK, let me get this straight: Somebody something something Benghazi Hillary Clinton vaguely connected human trafficking Pedophilia blah blah blah in the basement Comet pizza?

Minor quibble: Like most pizza places I've ever heard of, Comet Ping Pong doesn't *Have* a basement. Just like with the Jade Helm shit and underground tunnels connecting Wal-Mart stores and something something basement concentration camp. 

Full disclosure: I worked for Wal-Mart for a year, in two different stores (there was a transfer somewhere in the middle.) I've never heard of a Wal-Mart having a basement.

Several people that I know have been arguing with these PizzaGate nuts since at least yesterday...and these people are a *Unique* kind of stupid. 

As may be suggested by the above "quotes" maybe I'm a bit old-fashioned but *I* can't follow these people's logic. This stuff makes no sense to me.

We have real problems in this country right now, not the least of which is the fact that President-elect Donald Trump is a completely incompetent, narcissistic wannabe-autocrat who has already brought up a lot of toxic shit in our society...corruption, racism, rampant pandering to unreality, repeated pandering to conspiracy theorists and spreading of conspiracy theories.

...Which are then picked up by surrogates and even prospective cabinet members and then by the followers, who then bother my friends and people that I know.

Right now, we face the serious issue of Russian interference in our election, and our "Conservatives" are off chasing conspiracy theory bullshit instead of raising hell about this? The hell with that.

I started out as a Christian, a conservative and a Republican and when I was coming up, the Russians were our Enemy with a Capital "E." Now I don't give a damn that the Soviet Union is dead and the Russians aren't Communists anymore and have become the darlings of the right wing...when all the evidence points to the fact that in practical terms Republicans are Communists now who seem to want to turn the United States of America into some bigger version of East Germany on behalf of said Russians...I see only that the variables have flipped when the Republican Party and by extension what passes for today's movement "Conservatives" are led by an autocrat who sounds like a wannabe Nicolae Ceaușescu, and a self-described Leninist who wants to burn down the State.

Communism/extreme socialism for the very rich and their money, public/socialized loss and private profits. Increasing anarchy, confusion, and pirate capitalism (eventually, complete with actual pirates, if it goes on long enough!) for the rest of us. In effect, these people have inverted the old Soviet system so that it benefits only the very people that Communists had the idea to overthrow in the first place.

I see no benefit in this situation for myself, or for most Americans for that matter, not in the least when Trump loads his cabinet with crony capitalists, Wall Street bankers, and at least some of the various Republican rejects from the past 25 years. Where is the up-side to this for the average citizen?

There isn't one.

That's what all this salacious conspiracy theorizing is meant to distract from.

Trump keeps up such a dazzling array of bullshit that it's hard to follow. I've seen this before. My ex-wife was the same way. She'd keep up such a blizzard of bullshit that I'd give up trying to follow it, for 58 minutes and then only in the last two minutes she'd sneak in whatever it was that the last almost-an-hour of dog and pony show was really about. Trump does the same damned thing.

Don't fall for that bullshit.

When you see something that looks too good to be true, or too outlandish to be true, expect that it probably is. Check your confirmation bias.

You know what saved me, back in the day?

I'm a gamer. I'm also Dungeon Master/Game Master/Storyteller, etc. I design characters and put them in fucked up scenarios against the characters being run by my players for the entertainment of myself and others.

I can plot and plan and counter-plot and (on paper anyway) manage all type of shit (without even needing the paper, mostly) with the best of them. I've been doing it since I was ten years old.

You want to know why the Fundamentalist Christians *Really* hate Dungeons & Dragons?

One word: Imagination.

Controlled unreality that you manage in your head inoculates against conspiracy theories and other such unreality foisted upon us by others.

Or, as I've put it when people start spewing about demons, or the Illuminati or the latest Obama conspiracy-theory-of-the-week: You know, I don't like Murlocs very much, but I also know they don't exist outside of World Of Warcraft.

At the same time as I was inoculated against unreality...to a certain extent you could argue I was also schooled in it, being that I was a church kid.

But, in a metaphysical sense, it's real enough.

Here's the thing...when you are taught that there is a baseline of spiritual truth...however that Truth may change or mutate in your mind, there's still a red line you know you've got a problem if you've gone below it. A good church, or Christian school...and in my experience other religious group...does not seek to produce cookie-cutter clones or dogmatic Fundamentalists, so much as it seeks to make sure that you come out of it with at least some of the ideas that you were taught *And* they stick.

Hence, having a certain baseline of Truth.

To put another example out there...

I used to take my friend Tim to work all the time. Tim is a Christian, and in the eight years or so that he rode to work with me we talked a lot, while I drove. One topic we discussed a lot was religion and spirituality. After awhile, if you surround yourself with certain influences, they start to have an effect.

One night, while we were on our way to work Tim remarked that I didn't swear as much as I used to, or take the Lord's name in vain anymore. It just sort of clicked, in both of our heads at the same time that this was because we'd been having all these discussions for all these years.

From that comes one of the things I live by; Lead by righteousness or don't lead at all. 

As with some of the values that come from my past; respect is earned by every action, every day, all the time 24/7. If you want to be respected...be respectable. Your Word HAS to be good. Either your word is good or it isn't. There is no middle of the road. You're either that guy, or you're not. I've often failed at the values I've had to keep, but I had them. Values have to be lived up to by the person who claims them, to be a hypocrite just makes things worse. To abandon morality and values is to open oneself up to temptation. When self-satisfaction becomes the moral purpose of one's life...well, to put it in the Baptist vernacular of my youth...can you save yourself from Hell?

No, you can't. Man can not save Man, only God (in whatever form one understands it) can do that. For most of my life...this was pretty much the ultimate baseline of reality, the ultimate fact, as it were. When you stand before God you cannot say "I was told by others to do thus" or that virtue was not convenient at the time. This will not suffice.

To abandon facts is to abandon freedom, just like to not keep your word is to cause it to have no meaning. Honor is a sacred trust, once you abuse that trust...you don't have it anymore.

We have, by many different means in this day and age, the capability to communicate. If we abuse that capability by spreading untruth then what is the purpose of communication?

One could argue; spreading ideas. But if the ideas aren't any good and what you are communicating does not benefit the people you are speaking to, then what is the damned point?

Confusion, Deception, Distraction, and ultimately overload and breakdown of the system, so that no one even bothers to listen anymore.

But before it gets to that point a society that has no baseline concept of truth (now I'm not talking any one culture or philosophy or religion here, the America I grew up in was at least slightly multicultural and pluralistic, if more that way in some areas than in others. So you can damned well imagine what I think of this alt-right Nazi shit, can't you?) the overall society may crack or outright fly apart under the strain.

I think we're partway there already. It gets worse, day by day...

When people are chasing after a conspiracy theory that is provably impossible, to the point where somebody drove all the way from North Carolina to Washington D.C. to "investigate" and then got arrested for firing a weapon in this damned pizza place (a weapon that as far as I'm concerned, they shouldn't have had if they are that gullible and stupid) this shit has gone too fucking far.

See, unlike my table-top Role-playing games, the unreality of conspiracy theories can motivate people to create real-life effects, because there's no understanding that the shit is not real.

Unreality, practiced in real life, will Make America Great Again get people killed, probably the wrong people who didn't do anything to deserve it, and quite possibly in very great numbers.

...And don't you forget it.

Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,

Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name:

That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.

They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them. For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right. Amos 5:7-12

...

This is America right now, people. Quit chasing conspiracy theories and silly bullshit, open your eyes, reboot your brain, and look at what's right in front of your face...

Because all this stuff is exactly what the conspiracy theory garbage is intended to distract you from. Conspiracy theories are not about the truth, they are about glorifying the people who come up with them and spread them

...And we've got better things to do, come on.