And I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder...

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.

And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

~Revelation 6:1-2 (KJV)

As the name of this blog implies, I have ferrets.

Last week, the local pet store got this little Cinnamon Sprite kit (A Sprite being a spayed female ferret.) I had got there just as the delivery guy was dropping off the weekly critter shipment Wednesday morning. As usual, that shipment included a couple of baby ferrets. My friend Tyler got the ferrets (This one and a little red-eyed Champagne/Sandy Gib kit...a Gib being a neutered male ferret) out of the shipping box. She immediately latched on to his fingers, jaw-locked and hissing in that sort of way only an enraged weasel can. I helped disengage her, we put the other kit in the ferret cage and I took little miss bitey back to the cat towers to work with her a bit. I grabbed a squeaky toy on the way.

When I got back to the cat towers I put her down on the shelf in front of the cat tower, let her bite and grab my finger, then pulled her off and scruffed her saying "No bite." Next, I offered her the toy, squeaking it a couple of times for emphasis. (The toy, since you can't see the whole thing, is a little green dragon.) She immediately grabbed it and started to back up into the lower section of a cat tower. I held fast, so a tug-of-war ensued between me and this ferret. I let her have it a couple times, offered her my hand (she bit) scruffed her again and then offered the toy. This went on for about 20 minutes. A couple of times she bit hard and drew blood, but she was slowly getting the idea. Finally, I just held her down and started petting her, and she seemed to calm down and recognize that I was something other than a threat or a giant chew toy. By the time I left the store, we'd made friends. It might not seem like much, but it was a small victory. Last Friday I brought her and her cage-mate an old dog toy (same brand as the dragon, but it was a Triceratops dinosaur.) It lasted the weekend before the two teething baby ferrets destroyed it. (This toy had previously survived the jaws of 32 other ferrets, but I digress.) The little Sprite has since gone on to a new and happy home and the little Gib is my pet store buddy.

What does this have to do with anything? Nothing, really, but also everything.

Ferrets are fearless little critters, for one.

In my experience, a good act, or a positive accomplishment or the completion of a project makes people feel good (self included here) whether it's getting out of work after a busy shift, helping somebody, paying my bills, or even something as simple as bite-training a baby ferret so they'll go to a good home. In my experience also, knowledge...real knowledge...translates into power. Knowing the history of the Antebellum era, and of the Civil War...indeed having been raised on it...gave me the capability to say that the President was wrong to say the dumb shit he said about Andrew Jackson and the Civil War...and to know I was right because I've been studying this history since I was learning to read in the first place. Knowledge reinforcing values prevents one from being lured into the catatonia of groupthink, or from being moved by popularity and going along with the crowd. In the world today, believe it or not, that matters. As I have said many times, I started out as a Christian and as a conservative. It is precisely for those reasons that I didn't go with the crowd and support Donald Trump.

With all that in mind, it never ceases to amaze me that people would choose the societal heroin of racism or sexism as the means to feel good about themselves, or chase after stupid and often blatantly false conspiracy theories above actually seeking knowledge (and remember folks, I started out as a conservative. Facts are nonpartisan, and stubborn things. They are true whether one believes in them or not. A solid baseline of facts and reality was once a part of conservatism.) It blows my mind that young men...and even some my age...will go on living in their Mom's basement, angrily spewing all sorts of nonsensical invective, racism and whatever else at the world because they're angry that they can't find a girlfriend, or their job sucks, or they don't have a job...and to a great extent these are the people who supported Trump, either because they wanted to make the rest of us miserable or (and worse, in my opinion) because they thought it would be funny.

Well, roughly two-thirds of the rest of us Americans aren't laughing, Pepe.

Like I've said, if you want to defeat terrorism...don't be afraid. Don't allow yourself to be terrorized. If you aren't happy with your life, you can go out and change it. You. YOU, YOUR actions are always the key here. If you don't want to be afraid all the time, instead of wishing for a government that will kill all of your bogeymen and/or "protect" you from the things you're afraid of...why not just try not being afraid in the first place? Be fearless like a ferret. If you want your country to not get laughed at or taken advantage of, well, don't do stupid shit and allow yourself to be taken advantage of.

We are all responsible for our own actions.

A large number of Americans have proved the veracity of the old adage that if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.

It's just not the particular people I thought it would be 20 years ago.

I saw earlier today that FBI director James Comey testified before Congress today, and the lack of interest from some Republican Senators was pretty ridiculous. I mean, come on, people. This is our country we're talking about. Now I know that American conservatives are suddenly in these last couple of years butt-buddies with the Russians. Hell, once upon a time we were that way with Saudi Arabia too...but goddamn it, if we'd been taking orders from or our politicians had got elected with the aid of the House of Saud there'd have been hell to pay at the ballot box the next cycle, if not blood in the streets. This is where we're at right now, Comrades. It's coming down to "Do something, preferably the right thing, or face the consequences.

Because that's just what happens.

Change is coming, and they can blithely ignore it all they want, but whether by ballot or revolution, it's coming. We the People are no longer asleep at the switch. The middle has moved on, while the majority of Trump Supporters are either angry poor whites or rich old white men, the majority of us took our campaign signs down last November. So, sooner or later these idiots are going to walk into a buzz saw. Smart Republican strategists know it, and they are already worried about 2018. They know people are pissed. As Trump daily proves himself more and more unfit, and demand for impeachment grows...well, the current behavior of Congressional Republicans and the assholes who constitute the majority of Trump Supporters these days...that's exactly the type of shit that sparks revolutions.

When you have Congressman Mo Brooks (R-Redneckistan) saying shit like "Good people don't have pre-existing conditions" well that's when a hell of a lot of the people who agree with him on a lot of beliefs...but have preexisting medical conditions for which they need health care...well, he just probably lost those people. It amazes me that people say shit like this in a world where firing squads, Guillotines and revolutions of all kinds exist.

It amazes me that here we have all these people, who were presumably taught some kind of values at some point...who could use the positions and power they have to effect good policies and positive change and in so doing become great...settle for at best mediocrity and at worst self-destructive short-term thinking where all they care about is "What can I get out of this Right Now?"

It amazes me that for all their big talk, these people's vision is so small. Like with the budget stuff last week...after all this crazy talk over nothing...the current budget looks an awful lot like that of last year or the year before...and as usual there's no direction from the White House, only the threat of a government shutdown that Trump isn't the one who has power to effect. This guy can bluster and "look into" and "Review" all the stuff he wants. The constitution and the law are what they are, and everybody else in the system but him knows it's dangerous to set the precedent of doing a lot of tinkering with it for the benefit of one man. After all, the next Democrat in office could then turn around and do the same...and eventually we end up with a bipolar and ineffective government that tries to reinvent the wheel every four years. At this point, as several people that I know have said, these people's incompetence is the main thing protecting us from their malice.

Hell, yesterday I watched a video of Trump giving a speech with the US Air Force Falcons football team standing behind him...and all the cadets, from the most Republican of our Armed Services, were either failing at game faces or trying not to laugh (and failing) and one cadet looked like he hid behind another to facepalm a couple of times. The speech was intended to honor the team...but Trump made it all about himself.

This is what we're dealing with here. I often think getting through all this will be easier than I thought. But at the same time, overall the situation is more of a train wreck than I ever thought it could possibly be. I guess I was expecting a smarter wannabe-autocrat.

Things are holding, the situation seems still in hand, but barely. We're all just going to have to keep doing the best we can and we'll all get through this together.

In the meantime, we need to be as decent to each other as we can be. Ignore the pop-culture bullshit and stupidity...because those things are a big part of what got us here. Count up the small victories, and keep the tide rolling, because that's how you make a tidal wave, eventually.

Change is coming, very likely it's going to look like the Apocalypse for somebody...and it looks increasingly likely that it's going to be the people who have it coming.

The only thing that worries me is that they'll probably take a lot of the rest of us down with them. That's why we have to be prepared. The afterlife is only a heartbeat away, and what we do in life echoes in eternity.

Be ready, just in case. Be strong. Master your fear and reach for the stars.

There's a man goin' 'round takin' names
And he decides who to free and who to blame
Everybody won't be treated all the same
There'll be a golden ladder reachin' down
When the man comes around

The hairs on your arm will stand up
At the terror in each sip and in each sup
Will you partake of that last offered cup
Or disappear into the potter's ground?
When the man comes around

Hear the trumpets hear the pipers
One hundred million angels singin'
Multitudes are marchin' to the big kettledrum
Voices callin', voices cryin'
Some are born and some are dyin'
It's alpha and omega's kingdom come
And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree
The virgins are all trimming their wicks
The whirlwind is in the thorn tree
It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

~Johnny Cash, the Man comes around.