Revelation, But With Idiots, Part 1

As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass? And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them. ~Luke 21:6-8

It's been 16 years, as of today, since the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and the beginning of the war in Iraq.

I have friends who were over there, some of them did not come back whole, or at all.

It was a war that started with a lie, that worked out badly, and that more than any other since Vietnam, has gnawed at the soul of our country, its politics in general and American conservatism in particular. I'll have a lot more to say about this over the next few days. But there are some specific points I feel the need to make first.

See, I understand that politicians and shit want to get things, alright?

But it's how you get things that matters. It's things like that, that tell me not much of what Trump does is going to outlast him for very long, one way or another. This whole mess has Republicans living on borrowed time, and especially lately they seem to be lashing out at each other and the rest of us in sometimes bizarre ways. I mean, seriously what the fuck?

OK, I get that Donald Trump didn't like John McCain for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is John McCain was That Guy. Naval Aviator, War Hero, Senator. Basically, RDM Battlestar Galactica Saul Tigh John McCain was the man that Donald Trump could and would never be and Trump knows it.

But that sure as hell doesn't explain some random idiot leveling this much bile at the man's wife, for no fucking reason.

John McCain, and more to the point Sarah Palin, is exactly how we got Donald Trump. McCain was That Guy, Mr. Big Talking High Principles Very Serious Dude until something needed to get done and then he'd do whatever he had to, kiss whoever's ass, shank whoever needed to be shanked, until he got it. That's the reason he gave us Sarah, shitty pragmatism trying to get the ladies to vote for him. No, I didn't vote for the guy. Sarah was a big part of why.

But anyway, it "logically" follows that Trumpers hate McCain's guts and those of anybody associated with him because Something Something QAnon Gazpacho.

I swear it's like these motherfuckers think there was no Republican Party, no America, before Donald Trump got elected.

I should point out that deranged conspiracy theories were an even bigger part of why I stopped voting Republican.

Now conspiracy theories and utter fake bullshit are half of what's powering this mess.

I saw yesterday that Tomi Lahren, of all fucking people, referred to Mitch McConnell as a RINO (Republican In Name Only) because the Senate's opposition to Trump's "State of Emergency" over his wall bullshit passed. Well, too damned bad, Toony, nobody asked you.

They had two whole years to get this shit done before...why now?

And why are they making a point of hating on basically everything that has gone before? Even Fox News can't keep up, and their (in the minds of Trump Supporters) perverse desire to maintain profitability in the face of (for those of us who believe in reality, understandably) skittish advertisers has Trump Supporters even willing to turn on them. Personally, I think Jeanine Pirro and Tucker Carlson are both shit, but what do I know?

I don't get it. I see this crap as evidence of my old theory that endless unfocused anger and outrage starts to eat your soul after awhile.

But it's more than that.

I hate a lot of things about Trump and his supporters, but at the end of the day it's the boundless fucking ingratitude that just grates on my nerves like that asshole Captain's potted palm sitting there in the sun on the deck of the USS Reluctant before the enraged Ensign Pulver flips out and throws it overboard.

That's about where I'm at with these motherfuckers, too. I try to keep my own negative feelings focused on specific things, and to maintain a bipartisan sample of information in order to avoid becoming like them...but there comes a point where you just have to rip the chain out of the wall and throw that stinking palm tree overboard.

Or flip over the table, scatter the coins and whip some motherfuckers, but I digress.

Outrage, legitimate anger, revulsion, what have you...does no good if it isn't eventually acted upon in some way. In point of fact, it's that people are doing this that's part of what's driving the damned conservatives so nuts. Republicans losing the House in November was people acting on their feelings of anger and revulsion over this mess. That's good. More of that, please.

Now, I'm not sure how, but they seem to have arrived at the conclusion that They Are Right and should not be challenged...which makes no fucking sense for any point of view. Anybody, Left, Right, Center or quantum fourth-dimensional, can be wrong. Wrongness anymore seems like a defining feature of the Conservative movement at this point, and I say that as somebody who was a Republican right up until the end of August of 2008.

But let me tell ya what, I'd give my left nut to be back to dealing with that Republican Party, and not this one.

How did we get here? Constant outrage-generating bullshit, war as an instrument of...oh, I don't even know what the fuck anymore but accepted by the Washington Consensus as a fact of life...drugs and feel-good bullshit and silly internet distractions as a substitute for actual conversations, edifying pastimes, human contact and serious introspection, the decline not so much of Christianity but of any truth that was at the core of it in favor of whatever makes the Pastor money, and more generally the discarding of truth in favor of convenience or profit in secular terms as well. What else? The endless proliferation of Fuck-You-I've-Got-Mine as a belief system. Calvinism, Ayn Rand, the Prosperity Gospel...hell now it's just a general ragey feeling that if you're a white man you should be some kind of rich and famous mofo whether you have anything to be that way about or not and an all-around desire not only to give the world the finger but to be seen doing it and lauded for doing so.

This is the direct result of living in a country where there is an entire generation reaching the age of majority now, that has never known peace. We have soldiers deploying to Afghanistan who weren't even born yet when 9/11 happened.

Think on that, think how fucked up that is.

Consider this sign, picture taken by Jim Wright of Stonekettle Station.

"And Our President." Ours, not yours. Not you, Black folks, Latinos, Muslims, or non-Trump-Supporting Americans. Only we get to have a President. America for this subset of a subset of Americans Only.

I'm Saved, screw you.

Fuck you, I've got mine.

This is the end result of every Evangelical in America thinking they have some kind of personal relationship with Jesus, writ large...except now they think Trump is Jesus...and the more this looks to end in failure the more they double down.

These people think heaven is only heaven if they're the only ones who get to go, and they routinely whack it to thoughts of shooting down their neighbors. Never mind that most of these people would shoot themselves in the foot or shoot the guy in front of them right in the ass at the first loud noise or piss themselves in fear the second somebody shot back. They think they're the tough guys with all the guns and that they have their literal god-on-earth to lead them.

Fairly sure the Mango Messiah has never fired a weapon in his life and never taken a command course of any kind beyond watching The Godfather repeatedly and that the man is nothing but a bullshitter and ravening bundle of insecurities who's desperately afraid of being found out for the cowardly bullying liar that he is.

And yet people believe in this motherfucker more than they believe in 243 years of America as we've known it?

It's not so much the Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and great glory leading armies of angels...as the Orange Man, carried on a litter by the cast of Fox & Friends, seated upon his Golden Toilet, iPhone in hand and leading people who think Calvinism is a belief system about some silly kid who talks to and has adventures with his stuffed tiger.

Welcome to Revelation, but for idiots.

Part Two.