The Sheep And The Goats (American Revelation VIII, Three.)

Hess: So what shall we toast to, boys? I can blather on about “To health” or “To success,” but I’d like to do somethin’ a little less rote. Where you from, Brown Eyes?

Migs Mayfield: How ’bout a toast to Operation Cinder?

Hess: Now there’s a man who knows his history.

Mayfield: No, I don’t just know it. I lived it. I was in Burnin Konn.

Hess: Burnin Konn?

Mayfield: Mmm.

Hess: That was a hard day. I had to make many unpleasant decisions.

Mayfield: Yes, you did. Entire city gone in moments, along with everybody in it. We lost our whole division that day. Man, that was like 5-10,000 people.

Hess: Yep. All heroes of the Empire.

Mayfield: Yeah. And all dead.

Hess: Well, it’s a small sacrifice for the greater good, son.

Mayfield: Depends on who you ask, don’t you think?

Hess: [irritated] What you gettin’ at, trooper?

Mayfield: All those people, the ones who died, was it good for them? Hmm? Their families? The guys I served with? Civilians, those poor mud scuffers, died defending their homes, fighting for freedom. Was it good for them?

Hess: But we’ve outlasted them, son. They’re eating themselves alive. The New Republic is in complete disarray, and we grow stronger. You see, with the rhydonium you’ve delivered, we can create havoc that’s gonna make Burnin Konn pale by comparison. And then they’re gonna turn to us once again. You see, boys, everybody thinks they want freedom, but what they really want is order. And when they realize that, they’re gonna welcome us back with open arms. Ah. To the Empire.

[Mayfield chuckles, then fires a blaster at Hess' chest, killing him instantly. He and Mando then shoot their way out of the mess hall] ~From The Mandalorian, Season 2, Ep. 7 "The Believer"

Today, Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed to the US Supreme Court.

And a lot of Republicans didn't applaud, they just walked out. Fuck humanity because, ya know, partisanship.

It's hard not to be able to tell from the reaction to this what the dividing lines are in this country.

Fear, hate, misogyny, racism...most of it animating and emanating from the "Conservative" side of our political discourse. I used to be a conservative Republican...and it seems to me that hate is the only thing they have left, or at least the only thing that'll motivate their voter base to vote for them. Indeed, hate is the one and only thing that seems to unite the old rich white conservative assholes with the poor and working class white assholes that vote for them.

And these days the former seems to live in abject pants-shitting terror of the latter, which has been worked up into a howling mob by anti-American freaks like Tucker Carlson. And these two groups hate each other even as they both connive to burn down America and sell the rest of us out to enemies of America like Vladimir Putin. 

So of course they're using the Russian rhetorical playbook.

And the only thing Republicans hate more than each other is the rest of us.

At this point that hated "Out-group" broadly labeled as "Everybody else" even includes many conservatives and Republicans, mainly those who are "Not racist enough. "

I'm here to tell you, when these people's "Glorious Revolution" comes, they will almost certainly start with their own people, in exactly the same sort of way that Putin is essentially demanding "Purifications" of Russia. 

In fact, I think you could easily argue that this has already started in America too, if in a non-violent (so far) sort of way...in fact this has been an ongoing project for at least a decade or so now. Personally, I think the dividing line could generally be summed up as "If you're not basically an internet troll, Republicans don't want you." I've been saying this since 2009 and the start of the Tea Party. In the days of Blowbert, Cawthorn and MTG being the ones setting the direction of the Party I think I was right to say that, all those years ago.

Right enough that I don't like being right about it, in fact.

And all this conspiracy theory bullshit that these fucking people have been spewing since 2007 or so creates a situation where there is no baseline of truth for the people who buy into it. There's no dividing line between fantasy and reality, and no basis for anybody caught up in this crap to even begin to challenge power.

Which was the whole damned point, by the way.

As I learned the hard way 20 years ago, it's easier and better for one's mental health to just get the hell out...and that factor is like a hundred times worse now than it was then. 

The violent rhetoric directed at those who disagree is about the same...but there's a lot more of it nowadays, and its tone is different, clearly inflected by all this conspiracy theory bullshit so that the goalposts...and the reasons to kill you with them...are infinitely moveable.

And the fact that Neo-Nazis are clearly directly getting involved in and influencing wars...and clearly have been doing so since the start of the Donbas conflict and the Russian intervention in Syria...that shit should be setting off a hell of a lot more alarm bells than it seems to be, as far as I'm concerned.

Especially given the fact that the Russian State/Vladimir Putin has clearly arbitrarily and unilaterally decided that Ukraine and its people should not exist. If these fucking people can do that, regarding a culture and people group that clearly historically predates Russia and Russians as a coherent ethnic group...well they can do that shit to anybody. 

And don't think they won't try and that all these enablers will make the same kinds of lame excuses when it's the Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians or Poles...or British or French or Germans. Given that hatred of America seems to be the "In" thing on the Right, it's almost certain that these motherfuckers will decide that America should not exist. If they haven't decided so already, that is.

And when it gets to us, a hell of a lot of These Fucking People will be happy to allow their Slavic Brothers to force Russification on anybody who falls under their sway. They would rather be petty satraps in thrall to some foreign dictator than be Americans if they can't turn America into some shitty Banana Republic dictatorship on their own.

And they don't seem to have noticed, much less care, that their foreign backers are essentially an incompetent army backed up by a bankrupted Mafia-state. If Russia conquers anybody, it'll be from the inside using useful idiots like Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson...or Marine Le Pen and Viktor Orban.

Clearly, Republicans and their wealthy backers cannot help but show their contempt for all Americans in terms of who they allow to run for office or be in government...and of course their voter base backs that up by confirming their shitty choices. These motherfuckers don't want anybody who knows anything in government, you can see that shit just from how the KBJ confirmation hearings went. And I thought the Clarence Thomas hearings were bad? 

This shit was worse, and unlike the Thomas hearings I can't really say that any of the "issues" raised by the opposition were even genuine, so much of it was just political theater aimed at getting sound bites on Fox News.

And the worst part is, Republicans are completely obvious about that. In that sense it's less Blowbert and MTG running the Party than it is Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson.

And since everything else with These Fucking People is projection, I have to wonder how much of all this weird sexual talk is, too. After all, whenever you hear about some child molester, rapist or various kinds of abusers getting some ridiculously light sentence such was invariably handed down by a "Conservative" judge and jury.

It's almost like all this talk of "Grooming" and "Pedophilia" is just another politically-motivated ratfuck by people who's actual sexual preferences would shame horny bonobos.

No, wait, it is that. It's exactly that. I have to wonder how much of this bullshit is even happening because the idea of political conflict gives a certain kind of mediocre white dude a hard-on.

The apparent sexualization of political hierarchy just makes things profoundly weird. (Note: BD/SM does not work like that.)

But even without that, Republicans seem caught between 50 Shades Of Grey and the Turner Diaries, and at least among their own, they've successfully popularized the idea of violent revolution against society...mainly because it's not shitty enough for them.

We can stand up and stop this mess, or we can let these fucking idiots destroy America and overrun the world.

But it starts with us. If you want a better country, you have to be a better citizen. You have to stand up.

In the context of American Revelation, it's not God who does the judging, it's us. We're the ones dividing the Sheep and the Goats, not Jesus. Under our Constitution, God doesn't get a vote...but we do.

And our choice is Democracy or mob rule and shitty oligarchs. We can continue to be America...or we can become Russia without the pretensions or the propaganda machine.

The Stars and Stripes, or the Hammer And Sickle. 

"We The People" or "Z" it's that simple.

Choose wisely.

Part Two

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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