Conferencing Postmodern Assclown Conservatism

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.~Micah 6:8

So, I've been following the feeds of several journalists and others who are attending the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this morning.

I'm struggling, at the moment, to determine what their core message is.

"Allahu Trumpbar!" No, that's not it...

"Dumbfuck Akbar!" Seems closer but somehow, not quite...

Ya know, I'd honestly settle for a heartfelt "My God, what the fuck are we doing here?"

Listen ya'll, when Skeevy 3 A.M. Infomercial Guy (Who looks like he played one of the Leather-men in the gay bar in the Police Academy movies) is one of the speakers of your political movement, it's time to pack it up and go the fuck home.

Come to think of it, when Skeevy 3 A.M. Infomercial Guy (Who looks like the shifty dude that steals money out of the offering plate at church) is making religious pronouncements of any kind, much less the divinity of the choosing of your leadership, it's time to go home and re-think your life.

This is America, God does not get a vote.

No, seriously, where the fuck do these people even come up with this silly bullshit? Who elevated the Obvious Infomercial Shyster, one of whose dubious claims to fame is claiming to have been a cocaine addict (and I don't believe that, either) to anything other than janitor on the CPAC lineup? And what the fuck kind of drugs are they on?

When I wrote yesterday that some people are gonna be real surprised when they die and find out it's not Donald Trump judging them in the Afterlife, that's who I was talking about, this guy right here.

Also, should you need any more evidence of the (at least) implicit racism and misogyny of the conservative movement at this point in its history, here we have Complaints About Scary Latina Dancers BOOGA BOOGA BOOGA. Again.

Ya know, something tells me that if somebody made AOC wear a Hijab and forbade her to dance, they'd fear-monger about that, too. I rather suspect that a Bible and a modest Sunday Best church-girl dress combined with scriptural prohibitions against dancing would not have the effect of buying them off either, they'd probably accuse AOC of being an Episcopalian or the "wrong" kind of Catholic or something.

Or just ignore it like they've basically done with the actual or even claimed beliefs of any other Democrat who's been in office at any level in my lifetime. It seems to be real easy for these fucking idiots to just walk up to somebody else and try to act like they know what that person is better than the person themselves does. That's the level of arrogance and entitlement that we're dealing with here.

Not to mention, in either case I suspect AOC would ignore whoever told her not to dance, which is of course just one of the things these right-wingers hate about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Granted, as much as they bitch about the Green New Deal it seems to be the 70% marginal tax rate that they're afraid of the most, probably also the fact that we likely need the former to fund the latter. Never mind that conservatives could easily make money off of this too. It doesn't automatically favor their favored oligarchs enough so they want to take their ball and go home...which is basically these fucking people's response to everything about American society except for Trump.

Fuck You I've Got Mine, Isolationism, Small-Pondism and a ravening fear of the wider world, those are the distinguishing characteristics of modern conservatism.

And what do they offer instead? There was a time long ago  when if I didn't like something, conservative people would be the ones to ask "Okay, what's your idea?" with the kind of confidence that suggested it better be good. Now? They're offended by ideas. Instead of, ya know, somebody who is at least trying to come up with solutions to real problems we get Unfuckable Internet Troll and Won't Pay Her Rent...and somehow these two idiots are supposed to be conservative? Charlie Kirk's main claim to fame seems to be nothing more than that he likes to say dumb shit. Candace Owens can at least claim to have further ruined Kanye West's already useless reputation. Seriously, about the only thing these two dopes really have going for them is that they're not Jacob Wohl and Laura Loomer...yet.

Maybe for CPAC 2020 they can get Chuck Woolery to do a game-show segment featuring the unfuckably annoying power couples?

I'm really going to be disappointed if any of these fucking people manage to reproduce.

For bonus points, remember that CPAC is evidently quite a boon to gay prostitution. No, it doesn't make sense to me, either.

And of course, reproduction, and the right to have choices about whether to reproduce or not (or, for that matter, the right to have sex with who you want to have sex with at all, especially in the case of LGBT people) are exactly what right-wingers are saving their most lurid lies for.

Look, there's no such thing as "Post-birth abortion." That would be called infanticide or murder, and no one is advocating for it. Even the most leftist of leftists and the most hard-core pro-choice people these days seem to view late-term abortion as a tragedy, as does any woman who's been through one and volunteered to express her opinion on the subject. NO ONE is seriously advocating for killing babies, here, just a couple of states are trying to protect freedom of choice, including the right to a late-term abortion if needed to save the life of the mother. That's all.

Remember, this whole bit is not a valid concern, it's a strategy for trying to ban all abortions with the specific aim of weaponizing biology to restrain women's rights and participation in the workforce. Granted, it's also an idea that simply doesn't seem to be taking hold outside of the Republican base.

That's a good thing, that people aren't buying into this crap for once. I'm also not sure how the fuck these idiots think that today's depleted social safety nets, low-wage jobs, perpetually-under-attack health insurance policies and shit are going to enable a man to support a wife and family. In most cases that I'm aware of both partners in any given relationship have to work. At this point it's not going to be long before wages have to be raised across the board or we as a nation are going to have to start going by socialism just so people can survive.

But of course, they won't tell you that, either, even as trade wars and tariffs continue to mess with the cost of living...with the eventual objective (if it's allowed to continue long enough) that only rich people will be able to afford anything.

It's the same kind of "logic" they apply to services like health care.

Gradually price everybody but the super-rich out of it, and then look surprised when the one industry most decent-sized towns still even have collapses in 10 to 20 years and there are lots of dead people and unintended consequences.

Some of these people seem to think they want to live in a society where one routinely has to step over dead bodies in the street. Of course they won't tell you that, and of course, that's another lie (if one of omission.)

Just remember, if the conservative cause was so noble, they would not be lying about it. If their cause was just, they would not have to manipulate people into following it.

Honestly, it would probably be cheaper and easier (and lead to better quality of life) if these people would just do the right thing instead of wasting so much energy to invent excuses not to.

But that's not the world we live in.

Do better.

Time to call BS on CPAC.

Oh, wait, somebody did. They're calling it "Principles first."

Go to the bar, hang out, and maybe talk about shit. No big deal.

And what's the "Conservative" response?

Naturally, to attack anybody who has a better idea, or who even wants to do normal human stuff instead of being politically indoctrinated into excessive dumb shit.

Also, just sayin' what's wrong with pet pictures and Star Wars discussions?

Oh, right, Allahu Trumpbar.

DO NOT DISTRACT FROM THE GLORY OF MAXIMUM LEADER MAGA MAGA!!!!

(No, seriously, fuck these motherfuckers.)

Officious Hungarian Nazi Collaborator-wannabe says what?

Fuck you, Seb.

Last time I checked this motherfucker was the very definition of "Monomaniacal and Pathetic" with his 4-cylinder Mustang, "Art of War" vanity plates and all, two different-caliber guns (and speaking as somebody not unfamiliar with firearms or logistics, how does that work?) cloud of Drakkar Noir and male inadequacy, and his pocket Constitution.

Like he's going to have to arbitrate some matter of constitutional law during a firefight, or something? Who thinks like that?

AND this idiot was one of the speakers at CPAC this morning.

I think, honestly, that the thing I find most irritating about these fuckers is their profound disrespect for other people, most especially anything that has gone before, and any conservatives who don't just follow after their foolishness.

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. ~Nelson Mandela

That's the kind of world I'd rather live in, right there.

If you want a better country, be better citizens. If you want a better world, be better people.

If you meet the Buddha on the road (Killing the Buddha, Part 2, Michael Cohen edition)

He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God? ~Micah 6:8

I've been following the Michael Cohen testimony via Twitter, because my roommate's TV is in the other room and the ferrets have to have their time out to play.

Thus far, the Republican lines of defense have been procedural moves to try to get the hearing canceled, and since that didn't work, a whole lot of aggressive posturing and yelling.

Meanwhile Democrats and Michael Cohen are calm, cool and collected and forging ahead anyway.

I said awhile back that it was all over but the shouting, didn't I?

Well, there's going to be a lot of that. If you don't mind (and even if you do) I'm going to dip back into my own church background here for a minute to tell you why I think that is.

Of course, the default response of reprobate, sinful Man is to get angry when confronted with his iniquity.

These people always think that the truth, or at least those who speak it, can be intimidated into silence...or threatened (Looking at you here, Representative Gaetz) or if all else fails, killed. Yes, that's an important step to bring up. To people who don't honestly believe in some sort of God or afterlife (and yes, I know a lot of these Republicans claim to be Christians or would even be identified as religious fanatics by some people) the ultimate power is to end another human's life. This is why the Bible says not to fear those who can only destroy the body, but rather to fear He who can destroy both body and soul in hell.

And I say that, as somebody who has been an Agnostic Theist for over a decade.

The moral code I was taught when I was a Christian was fairly simple, and could in part be summed up by the Bible verse at the top of the article.

Of course, the same could be said for modern Republicans and all too many of these Evangelicals. Where we parted company back in 2008, though, is that where my basic credo is "Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God" prior to the rise of Trump...theirs could have been described as "Don't be gay, don't have an abortion, and don't vote Democrat."

That leaves one hell of a lot of other stuff up for grabs, if you think about it. Too much, really. These people's Christianity, their Evangelicalism, often seems to me to be nothing more than a form of self-worship. They're White, they think Jesus was White, so they must be good, right?

And of course, even that's all out the window now, because they have a new god and Trump doesn't actually care about any of that stuff.

The three rules of Trumpist Republicanism could best be described as "Fuck you, I've got mine!" and "OMG! OMG! PROTECT TEH MAXIMUM LEADER AT ALL COSTS!" with a side dish of "ABASE YOURSELF BEFORE YOUR GOD!!" And no, they ain't talking about Jesus and there's no limit to the amount of self-abasing that must be done, so start abasing, peasant. Also, there is no amount of setting themselves on fire for Trump that these people can do that will ever be good enough. Not to mention there's a million conditions just to be in the club, the rules can change without warning, and in fact without reason, and one must somehow be able to infer what said rules are at all times.

If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him! But I digress.

This was what they wanted. This was what they desired. Well, they got it, good and hard.

Meanwhile, I'm glad I'm not a Republican anymore and I don't have to put up with all that crap.

It's funny that for all the power they ascribe to him, Trump comes off exactly like the small, petty, vengeful, weak God of the average Fundamentalist nut who really does seem to think that the all the power of the Creator of the Infinite Universe will be undone the moment their ex-husband sleeps with his new Pagan girlfriend.

The difference, of course, is that the Creator of the Almighty Tax Cut certainly can be undone by the new Democratic House Majority, but I digress.

I have to wonder if all these Republicans and rich people are wondering if the tax cut was worth all this other crap.

It wouldn't be if I were in their position, the balance sheet I see tells me they've set basically everything they had before, philosophically and religiously...not to mention the vast body of work that defined what conservatism stood for... on fire for racism, tax cuts and Donald Fucking Trump?

Pardon me if I don't really see an upside here. What are they going to have when this mess is all over? The culture and demographics of America are still changing, and not in a direction favorable to old conservative white men. If that was the ultimate goal of all this? Well, It's very hard from my perspective, not to just conclude that all the conservative and religious talk was all crap and it has always been so all along.

The money doesn't seem worth it. The loss of integrity and reputation and respect doesn't seem worth it. The loss of international standing and the threat to our national sovereignty really doesn't seem worth it. What are they getting out of this, really?

Personal power and profit doesn't seem worth it either, not when you create anew the conditions for your own downfall every damned day.

The longer this goes on, the more petty and venal and stupid it seems. It's not just that every last one of these motherfuckers apparently could be bought, it's just how low the price was, that's the really astounding part.

And the worst part is, before Trump came along, a majority of these people, Evangelical, Republican or otherwise, would have agreed with the rest of us that all this crap was wrong.

We'll all be sorry that it didn't stay that way, but none will be more so than the Evangelicals.

I hope the golden idol and a few years of sacralized cruelty was worth it, you assholes. Things always come back around. The jackboot will always be on the other foot eventually, and I hope you motherfuckers have fun with that. I'm not saying it's right. What I'm saying is it's what will happen.

Socialism in America was not seriously up for discussion before Trump and the Right striving for oligarchy (even at the expense of capitalism) made it that way.

It seems like it would've been easier to have actually believed in the things you said you did.

Just sayin' what God asks of us is pretty simple. Man makes it complicated because he does not want to obey.

Thing is, whether it's God or the gods or the Universe or whatever, at the end there's always something that knows what you've done and you're always going to be judged and have to pay, in the end.

You'd think all these old motherfuckers would get that. Nobody gets to live forever.

Part 1.

This garbage has gone on long enough (Enemy of the People edition.)

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.~First Amendment, U.S. Constitution

I know I say this a lot lately, but, fucking seriously?

Some redneck jerk-off who owns runs inherited a tiny ass small-town newspaper from his daddy (and has "worked" there since 1964, meaning he's lived through and reported on a lot of shit and is making a conscious choice to be an asshole) and has never had to work a real job in his damn life wrote an extremely racist editorial a couple days ago, calling for the Ku Klux Klan to "Clean out D.C." and basically lynch the government, citing both Democrats and "Democrat Republicans" who wanted to raise taxes in Alabama. He also specifically said that "Communists and Socialists" weren't Americans (and who gave this inbred motherfucker authority to determine citizenship based on "political reliability" anyway? Nobody.)

Now, naturally, this asshole's various and assorted statements are protected under the First Amendment unless somebody acts on them.

Granted, I think the guy should get his ass beat as consequences for his speech, which he is not necessarily protected from if they arrive at the hands of private citizens. I know if I said shit like that there'd be a line out the door of people waiting to whup my ass, but then I'm not an old racist who lives in Alabama, either.

But yeah, freedom of speech. I get it.

Of course, if various and assorted racists attempt to lynch the government after he publicly said this, I rather suspect the Washington D.C. Police, the FBI, the U.S. Capitol Police, the Secret Service and/or the Military District of Washington will almost certainly forcibly object.

NRA propaganda aside, nobody has a right to try to overthrow the government, or even just the parts of it they don't like.

Alabama Senator Doug Jones, among others, including his Republican counterpart, and the state's Republican governor, have called upon Goodloe Sutton (the editor in question) to resign. (Also that name is right up there with Louie Gohmert and Trey Gowdy in "Most redneck sounding names ever.)

That's great, dignity, human rights, and forgetting he owns the damn paper and all that.

Sooner or later you just have to say "Fuck it all" and bust somebody right in the chops.

If it were me making the call he'd be getting run out of town on a rail with the pictures on the front page the next morning. Fuck that guy and every last one of these racist sons of bitches.

I'm frankly sick of the racists and various and assorted other freaks and extremists who've basically made themselves synonymous with my former political persuasion and bent it into a bunch of crap I can't even recognize. The "Conservative" movement is now functionally (Never-Trump Republicans aside) controlled by and indeed indistinguishable from Donald J. Trump...who isn't a conservative. How the fuck does that make any sense?

But ya know, according to (Ironically enough, Never-Trump conservative) David French of the National Review, it's the "Left" (or at least "White Progressives") that is the dangerous extremists and keeps moving the goal posts.

That seems to be their new M.O. paint anybody who's economically to the Left of the Koch Brothers as the leader of the Bolshevik Hordes at their gates. Fuck that shit.

I've read enough Trumper screeds, including those aimed at French and his fellow Never-Trump Republicans, that I don't need any help figuring out who *I* think the dangerous extremists are.

Yet, To paraphrase Steve King, Republicans have calves the size of Cantaloupes from moving their own goal-posts these last few years. Most Never-Trump Republicans are not excepted from this.

They may hate Trump, or whatever, but most of them back the Republican ethos of "Fuck You I've Got Mine" 100% all day.

I found the linked article above when I clicked on somebody's name to block them and followed the rabbit hole down to a lot of Southern Baptists bitching about their church leadership trying to crack down on child sexual abuse and racism...and literally saying that cracking down on that type of shit was a bad thing...as if Christ would endorse being a child molester and hating black people?

Who believes that kind of stuff? Somebody who believes in "Fuck you, I've got mine" (FYIGM) more than they believe in Christ. If you wonder why Christianity is full of these fucking people, it goes all the way back to the Calvinist Puritans and the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which many conservatives consider to be America's real founding. No, not July 4th, 1776, the fucking Pilgrims.

Yes, that includes some never-Trump people. If you look at David French's profile on Twitter, his avatar is literally a portrait of John Calvin, the founder of Calvinism, whose "Reformed" theology feeds heavily into the current beliefs of Southern Baptists...and I say that as a former non-Calvinist Baptist who's gone some rounds with these people online and off.

Calvinism is the belief that those who are Saved are saved not by their accepting Christ out of free will or by personal choice but because they are chosen ("Elected") by God. So to be one of "The Elect" is to be special by definition, and that's the vector by which FYIGM sneaks in."

If God picked you, he didn't pick somebody else. The potential for abuse starts right there.

I'm running out of patience with these people and their crap. An awful lot of these motherfuckers seem like they'd rather have a Thousand Years Of Trump, or worse, or burn down the country, than pay their fair share in taxes.

For fuck's sake, you could easily make the case (and younger, more liberal co-workers of mine have) that I'm a conservative Democrat, and I personally find Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, the Green New Deal and a 70% marginal tax rate pretty damn supportable.

Does that make me an "extremist?"

I spend my days annoyed as fuck, if not outright angry or extremely pissed off, at the shit that comes out of the mouths of Republicans and Trump and I was a Republican right up until the end of August of 2008. I changed my registration to Independent a day or two after Sarah Palin was nominated as John McCain's vice-presidential pick. These motherfucking Trump idiots can't wait to bash any Republican that doesn't get in line behind their Dear Leader fast enough! I'm not just Persona Non Grata to these fools, I'm probably the goddamned enemy too...because I know what should be expected of these fucking people...from experience and a specifically conservative point of view.

And not a damned one of them can be bothered to do it.

How in the fuck is any of this "Conservative?"

Who are the extremists here, really?

Let me tell you what's going on here. Here we have a President who daily, hell hourly, abrogates is oath of office and sells this country out to its enemies and the extremely wealthy, who calls the Constitutionally-protected Free Press the Enemy while he turns into nothing but a simpering, worshipful toady in the presence of people who can only be called the enemies of freedom.

One of said enemies threatened just this morning to go right back to aiming nuclear weapons at the United States of America if we do the same things he has already done and deploy nukes in Europe.

(To be honest, we already have them present, B-61 gravity bombs specifically, both those assigned to our own aircraft and dual-key weapons assigned to the Belgian, Dutch and German Air Forces, how's that for a Catch-22?) Putin knows they're there, this remaining strategic presence was specifically agreed to by treaty back when he was a colonel in the KGB.

It seems like Putin threatening to fully restart the Cold War nuclear standoff just like the bad old days, when he's given us little choice but to counter his moves is a bad idea.

And Trump looks up to this son of a bitch?

In fact, Trump seems to be egging this crap on, if you ask me. These fools, Bolton, Pompeo. Trump et al, not a damned one of them ever misses an opportunity to make some bellicose statement at somebody else.

Trump needs to be impeached and removed from office, Now.

Republicans, who'd rather face the prospect of nuclear war than pay a 70% marginal tax rate, need to be voted out at the earliest possible time, not least because you can't spend all that money if you're dead, you dumb motherfuckers.

Let me tell you what's really going on here, none of this is really about political parties, race, tax rates or something-something gazpacho. It's not even fully about temporal power, although that certainly plays a part in it. At the end of the day, do you know what's going on here? This is about Authority as a quasi-spiritual concept, or rather...the kind of totalitarian authority These Fucking People imagine they should have.

These idiots don't want to be men. They want to be gods.

As a case in point, Evangelicalism stopped being about Jesus or His Word a long damned time ago. It's really about competing sects/churches (actually most of these non-denominational Evangelical churches could best be described as their own sect) each seeking to impose their idea of Jesus on others.

When you can dictate spirituality or truth to others, it can go to your head, and the moment it does that you've lost any hope of ever preaching the Truth again.

When somebody like Mike Pence goes to the Korean DMZ and stares bumboclatly across the border as if he could mean-mug the entire nation into submission by the power of his imagined Marlboro Man grade toughness, he's not aware that he looks like an idiot. He's trying to Jedi Mind Trick the universe into letting him have his way.

Even though his own claimed religion explains in its holy book, in rather specific detail, that God isn't down with that kind of shit.

This is, in the end, about the imagined power, pathetic insecurities and petty beefs of needy, small, petty men who...from people like Goodloe Sutton on up to Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin themselves...one and all don't deserve the power they've fooled others into giving them.

Step one at successfully resisting this garbage is to be the kind of person, either by fixed beliefs, internal fortitude, knowledge or whatever, that looks at this bullshit and says "Fucking seriously?"

Be a strong enough individual that you as a person don't feel threatened by the mere existence of people that are different from you, people who don't believe what you believe, or your neighbors.

Have enough knowledge, and/or the instincts and street smarts to be able to call a lie a lie, and the courage to do so.

Understand that whatever you think you're going to get out of going along with bullshit probably isn't worth the consequences.

It's not just about fighting for what you believe in, it's about making sure you believe the right things, and that at the end of the day on a human level such beliefs are even worth having.

It was the conservatives of a previous geological age, politically speaking, who taught me that.

And if you're the kind of person who'd rather watch the world burn than see other people get any, fuck you.

If we're going to survive this bullshit, let alone come out on top, we're going to have to be a lot closer to the people that our Founding Fathers, perhaps naively, expected us to be.

Yes, that's hard.

If that makes us extremists, so be it.

Their eras iterations of These Fucking People considered Washington, Lincoln, F.D.R, Kennedy, LBJ, Reagan and Obama all to be "extremists" too.

These Fucking People, the actual negative-extremists, will always project and try to paint others as the monsters that they know deep down that they are.

So what? Stop caring what they think.

Freedom isn't free, life isn't easy. Sooner or later you have to stand up, or motherfuckers just gonna walk all over you.

But you have to do it, and that's a fact.

If you personally, want our constitutional rights as American people to be worth a damn, you now have to understand that those rights continuing to apply to you or a newspaper that's worth a damn as much as they do for some racist nut in Alabama may just damned well come down to your actions and what you do personally in this moment of national crisis.

It's on each of us.

Deal with it.

"Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up among us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide."

~Abraham Lincoln

Republican Babylon, Part Two

But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. ~Matthew 6:7

I saw this a couple of weeks ago. It was a response to an entirely accurate comment by Rick Wilson.

On an impulse, I snipped it and saved it. But, the truth is, it's bothered me ever since.

Whoever or whatever wrote this crap wasn't interested in having a conversation. They weren't interested in making an effective statement, or even winning the argument.

This is basically the same shit my ex-wife used to do on occasion. We'd get into an argument over Yahoo Messenger, I'd say something she didn't like, she'd pick a fight about it and when she knew she'd lost but didn't want to admit it, she'd start typing random gibberish as if she were present and "Speaking in Tongues."

She thought that silly bullshit would at least shut down the argument. Funny thing, it never did. Of course, my ex-wife was mentally ill, Pentecostal, and semi-functional at best outside of the bullshit-infested Evangelical/Pentecostal subculture. But at the same time, she managed to at least exist comfortably within it...all without ever really having to do much work.

It's basically the same logic utilized by Trumpist scammers like Candace Owens and Charlie Kirk, but on a far smaller scale or at least without a national following.

At least somebody has now applied that kind of pseudo-religious malarkey to their support for Trump. The funny part is, it's even odds whether the original poster was a real person or a Russian-operated bot. Praise Republican Jesus!

Oh. Also, Sorry Republican Jesus, but ah, you're fired. No reason to clean out your desk. We'll send you your belongings. Ivan and Abdul here will escort you off the property. Sorry sir, but the Evangelicals like that orange guy better than they like you.

Likewise, it needs to be said that "Speaking things into existence" is also another bit of Pentecostal arglebargle that seems to have been appropriated by Trump and his followers as of late.

Somebody should've told them the universe doesn't actually work that way. Magic only works in the movies, in books where the authors write the story so that it does work like that, or in Dungeons and Dragons if the dice favor you...and then, it only works on paper or in your imagination.

Magic isn't real.

More to the point "Magic" as an explanation, is only really used by people who don't understand something.

Of course, "Magic" also seems to be how Trump defines the government's appropriations process, which should tell you exactly how fit he ever was to be President in the first place.

Not only is Trump's fake "National Emergency" shit unnecessary, but he couldn't go one damn day without showing his ass and revealing that even he knew he didn't need to do this. He just wanted to "Get it done faster." Therefore likely sowing the seeds of never getting it done in the first place.

And then, as usual, President "The Dog Ate My Homework" promptly blew this pop stand to head to Florida to go golfing, but I digress.

In other words, he doesn't really want to do it, because that would take work, but he doesn't want others to do it (successfully, at least) either, because then he'd have to find some other con, and that would take work.

If Trump put half the effort into work that he puts into golf, having fun (or at least what he thinks is fun) and showboating, we'd be in some real trouble here.

Why?

 Because when these fools say "Make America Great Again" this is what they mean, an FBI that only hires Irishmen. Where that'd leave the many essential and successful non-Irish (and indeed non-white) FBI agents now in service, I'll leave to the reader as an exercise for their imagination.

I'm not sure how that all-Irish policy would work out now, given the resurgence of anti-Catholic bias and general xenophobia...which naturally applies to Irish people too, but whatever.

The moral of the story here is that Trump and his followers, and even Republicans in general, are no longer interested in growing their base, or making deals, or working for the common good. They only care about themselves and they hope they can whip up the 30% of the population that will always follow them to be fanatical enough to somehow drown everybody else out.

Don't support that. The rest of us who don't support this shit are 70% of the population, an obvious majority.

We don't have to agree on everything.

In fact, the only thing we have to agree on right now is "Fuck that guy."

Seems simple enough.

Show up.

Vote.

Right now that means voting Democrat.

If you don't like it, tough, hold ya nose and do it.

We can sort out the mess and everybody getting to do what they want when the threat has been dealt with.

In the meantime, vote.

Every single time.

I know I'm getting started early, but so are they. What the fuck else do you think people like Howard Schultz and Tulsi Gabbard are there for?

Vote, and vote for somebody who will end this silly bullshit.

Part One

Republican Babylon, Part One.

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. ~Revelation 18:1-5

So, among other things, we apparently have a President who couldn't pass a fifth grade Geography class. Oddly enough, I'm reminded of Grover Norquist having once said "We don't need a leader, we just need somebody to sign this stuff."

Hey Grover, how's that worked out? Traded the soul of conservatism and the Republican Party not to mention any pretense of leadership for a tax cut and now...everybody hates all you motherfuckers except for deranged idiots, racists and a few men of wealth billionaires, or as I've referred to Howard Schultz a couple times today "Shit on a shingle." Yeah, fuck that guy.

Today, my social media is on fire with people complaining that the Republican tax bill has left them paying the IRS rather than receiving their normal refund, and others who know this stuff...or even simply who do their own taxes...saying "We warned you."

A majority of said people feel like they've been screwed, many of those who were Trump voters are saying they won't vote for him again.

I'm curious, how exactly did you think a lying con-man wasn't going to screw you over and line his own pockets at your expense...and for that matter why did you expect he'd somehow find a way to hit at the rest of us without screwing you, too?

Our Constitution, our financial system, our legal system and obviously our tax code simply cannot work that way.

As I said to somebody earlier in my best Die Hard quoting form "Welcome to the party, pal!"

Listen, Republicans, Trumpers, Third Party-voting motherfuckers. We tried to tell you fucking people. It's taken a hell of a lot of you two years to figure out what people like me and many others were trying to tell you three years ago.

So welcome to the party.

Did I mention I'm really getting tired of stupid fucking people?

I'm tired of billionaires, I'm tired of racists, I'm tired of stupid people. Hell I'm tired of being sent links by my friends and picking through a selection of crap apparently from the inbox of some dumb ass racist billionaire who never met a conspiracy theory he didn't like.

New rule: If ya'll can't tell fantasy from reality or avoid saying shit that'd get you fired from being a cashier at a damn Burger King, ya'll shouldn't get to be no billionaire.

You know what else I'm really tired of? Christians claiming they're "under attack" when the truth is they're basically destroying their own religion by seeking after worldly power and wealth. This fucking garbage always works out the same. It's always the racist right-wing greedy motherfuckers that are "Defending Christianity and Western Civilization from the Communist Hordes" except it goes way further back than that, the Crusades, the various forces fighting for the Catholic side during all the religious wars that surrounded the Reformation...never forget that, people fought and died for the right to read the Bible and have religious rites in their own languages...the Confederates during the Civil War, the Central Powers...both Germany and Austria Hungary fought under the motto "God is with us" and subsequently so did the Nazis...not to mention everybody from gimcrack dictators like Ngo Dinh Diem to the UDI government of racist Rhodesia. Yeah, there's a lot of fucking people "Defending Christianity" too bad not a goddamned one of them can be bothered to read what Jesus said about those who have wealth and power, let alone actually practice their own damned religion.

Or, to put it another way, simple fairness is somehow a "Liberal" value now. I suppose somebody should go back in time and inform the conservative Baptists who taught me that it wasn't, that fairness was a human value and simply expected. It's funny how even Fox News's viewers are actually in favor of that 70% marginal tax rate that Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has proposed. Because, after all, that's fair, isn't it? Shouldn't the people who make the most money be the ones paying the most in taxes?

Ya know, I've read Ayn Rand. It's not just that she was a terrible person and a terrible writer, it's that thankfully most of us just don't find "Fuck you, I've got mine" all that inspiring. The John Galt speech at the end of Atlas Shrugged is literally a crime against words.

Sooner or later, these fucking people are just going to have to start paying their fucking share.

Oh hey, ya know I've personally been asking the question of conservatives that why is it "Nuts" to think we should pay our bills, support things like education, take care of people and have a functioning society...but endless political vendettas, racism, tax cuts and wars...how come those aren't "Nuts?" Asking, again, for the people who taught me what Christian and conservative values actually were...back when espousing those things meant you were something other than a bigot...but I digress.

And ya know, speaking of bigoted old guys, there's another thing that gets under my skin, people comparing Trump to Winston Churchill. I'm pretty sure racism was probably the only thing they had in common and it can be said in Sir Winston's defense that he came of age during the absolute nadir of race-relations on a global scale. Trump has no such excuse.

Perhaps more to the point, Sir Winston was a smart, tough son of a bitch who actually saw combat in the Boer War (where he did put himself to good use killing notoriously racist motherfuckers) the battle of Omdurman in Sudan (where he participated in the last real Cavalry charge by British Army troops) and World War I (after being sacked from his position as First Sea Lord following the bloody draw against the Kaiser's fleet at Jutland, but still...) who actually could overcome his bigoted nature and show respect for Sikh troops who fought for the British, who could make peace with former enemies and help lay the groundwork for much of our modern world...stuff like the European Union and our current international system that people like Putin and Trump are bent on destroying.

And Churchill couldn't just find India on the map, or know the difference between it and Nepal...he served in India with the British Army, knew dealing with Sikhs from experience and was likely just as familiar with the famous Nepalese Gurkha soldiers from his service there.

Further, despite the relative lack of religious inclination on the part of both men, the arch-conservative Winston Churchill and damned-near-Socialist Franklin Delano Roosevelt not only could communicate and work well together...but their communications were often punctuated with Bible verses to make points and stuff.

Trump can barely communicate with his own citizens in a professional capacity and can't even correctly name the Books of the Bible or accept even the most basic of Christian doctrines as it would apply to him...or that it might.

Republicans, you want to know why your spell is broken and why your carefully-constructed Babylon is falling?

Change is in the air, you can see it, you can feel it all around.

So much for standing athwart the flow of history yelling "Stop." Ya'll turned it into a crap shoot. Step right up and throw those dice against the wall, homey!

Ya'll should've picked a leader, not just somebody who can "sign this stuff."

But you didn't.

The State of the Union tonight is going to be a soup sandwich.

Please Clap.

Part Two