...And Shineth Even Unto The West (Inauguration Day, Part Two.)

 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. ~Matthew 24:27

It's over. Donald Trump left office like the low-class douche that he is.

A bit over three hours ago from the moment I post this, Joe Biden was sworn in as America's 46th President.

I was getting the ferrets out for playtime at the time.

Joe has already gotten to work.

Kamala Harris was sworn in as vice-President a few minutes later.

The penultimate glass ceiling in the whole damn world, shattered, by a woman of color. 

And America has a young black woman as a new poet laureate. Think about that for a second.

I remember watching Maya Angelou read "On The Pulse Of Morning" at Bill Clinton's inauguration, and I liked it enough to buy a booklet of the poem a few days later at McClean and Eakin books in Petoskey, Michigan.

At the time I was a young conservative who'd bucked my normal inclinations to vote for Bill Clinton, though I voted a split ticket. I was at the time a factory worker seriously considering enlisting in the United States Air Force, and my family was still trying to talk me out of it.

It's funny, the things you remember sometimes.

Together we rise, or none of us do.

In the intervening three hours, one of the main Q-Anon people has as much as admitted that it was all complete bullshit.

As if anybody with a brain in their head didn't know that.

And that's all there is to say about it, right there, if you wonder about the end-quote for my earlier piece (and the pull quote for this one? Well there you have it.

It'd be a relief except that all that shit will be forgotten by next week and they'll be on to their next big thing like absolutely nothing happened, like they spent the last five years rearranging their sock drawers or some shit.

Conspiracy theories and fake Apocalypticism have morphed into a new false religion, and that mess is going to be with us for a long time. Christ has been removed from all too much of American Christianity by right-wing bullshit and Trump, and I don't know how anyone's going to fix that.

But we, as a people, are going to have to do something about this mess.

In this vein, I expect I'll be trending this blog down some, and starting a new project soon, with the specific intent of engaging the issue of conspiracy theories and religion. More general posts will likely continue here but should be expected to be more sporadic in timing.

Edited To Add: I saw this a few minutes ago and it made me bust out laughing.

Here's a piece of ass-covering worthy of an Air Force Master Sergeant. Well played, Zodiac, well played.

Ted Cruz posting a picture of Joe Biden taking the oath of office, like 1/6 never happened.

When I tell you these fucking people are going to try and memory hole everything between Trump's ride down the gilded escalator and right now, I'm not joking.

To all who've followed and read my stuff these last four years, thank you and God bless.

But remember, this ain't over.