Crocodile Tears (Left Behind Is A Lie IV, Jenna Ellis Edition)

[Tough-Six and Galactica-Cavil drunkenly lament on the failure of the Cylons to destroy the Fleet]

Number Six: You want a progress report? I'll give you a frakkin' progress report.

Galactica-Cavil: Oh, no. Please don't. Please don't.

Number Six: Oh, come on, it is spectacular. Doral blew himself up, causing minor damage to a minor hallway. And Boomer jettisoned the water, and then, she personally found loads more water. [Laughs] And then she shot Adama, but not very accurately, since she loved him. And then, Leoben, he got obsessed with Kara Thrace, and then was captured and airlocked. And my sister Six utterly failed to discredit Baltar and his dreamy hair and destroyed our frakkin' cover in the process. And now Simon...Simon killed himself, really killed himself, out of resurrection range, without blowing up the ship that he lived on because he couldn't imagine life without his little human wife and his little human daughter because he loves them...

Galactica-Cavil: Stop, stop, stop.

Number Six: Guess I'd better.

Galactica-Cavil: Yes. They're all letting me down.

Number Six: Why are they letting you down, One? What's the x-factor? [She takes the bottle] You can't declare war on love. [She leaves]

Galactica-Cavil: I think I already did. Hey, where'd the bottle go?

~From Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

So, Jenna Ellis took that plea deal, and she's all penitent and remorseful now. 

Fucking Bullshit...the only reason any of these MAGA's...these "Republicans" that are still "Republicans" are remorseful or sorry or any damn thing is it didn't work out how they thought it would and they got caught!

Fuck these motherfuckers, and if you're dumb enough to believe any of them, fuck you too!

I saw this yesterday.

Greg Abbott and a party of twenty went out to eat and not only did they not tip their server...they told their server that she should be "Honored" to serve them!

I worked in food service for a combined total of 25 years and while I never waited tables, I spent that former career around those who did...and I'm here to tell you, honor don't feed one's kids or pay one's bills and anybody with a goddamn soul knows that. More to the point even a fair number of relatively good waitstaff people who have decent jobs still have an EBT card in they wallet because...especially if they have kids...a slow day can wreck your shit. 

Most servers incomes reflect this. That's not a judgment against them or the industry, it's just a hard fact. It's a hard job and too goddamn many of the fucking customers treat their servers like shit because they're high on the smell of their own bullshit. And they'll do whatever bullshit they can, out of simple cruelty, until the law says they can't and that their waitress has to be paid and treated fairly.

And the oh-so-"Christian" governor of Texas didn't tip, at all. Party of Twenty, She should be honored? 

Fuck that shit. 

And more to the point, this kind of arrogant asshole bullshit is what Evangelical Christians and Republicans do. It's what they do when they have the power. It's what they do when they don't have the power but they're the ones craving it. It's what they're still doing when they're not sitting in the dock facing charges. Tables turn, though, and suddenly they're all penitent and remorseful and sobbing. 

Forgive me if I'm unmoved by you motherfuckers and your crocodile tears. 

Or don't, I really don't give a shit.

I'm here to tell you, at this point, all those Republicans that are left? The ones that are still Republicans? 

They hate America. They hate America because we're not all "Honored" to be their slaves, to work for enjoyment or their profits with little or no compensation and then say "Thank you, Sir, may I have another?" They want to burn America down because their relative status vs. everybody else doesn't involve somebody having to lick their boots as a default setting.

They hate America because they haven't been able to abuse the rest of us and game the goddamn system enough. Think about that shit for a second.

They even hate that a US Navy destroyer would shoot down a bunch of drones and missiles launched by actual terrorists. They'd rather we, as a people, just stand by and let others get mass murdered.

So they can watch.

And, These Fucking People still control half of Congress, and have prevented the whole from even functioning...and they're a majority of Corporate America and Law Enforcement and hell, the last President was a Republican (who even redefined, or perhaps simply revealed, what Republicans were) and so on and so forth and these assholes still bitch that the "Left" (whatever that is) "Controls" the government. 

I suppose I'm "Left?" By default, if nothing else?

I used to be a Republican, not much has really changed except for my views on a few social issues and the fact that I made the choice to retain basic humanity...towards all people, not just the ones I like...and to live in a society all the time, not just when the full power of the State, the full weight of the law is pointed at my head like a Beretta M9.

Republicans love to use that power against Other people, they hate it when they are subject to it. It really is a childish, puerile worldview and I'm here to tell you that some of these people have always been like this. And they ran all those of us who could or would function like adults out of their Party.

^^^^^^ And this is what they want to replace America with.

Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine getting drunk and using drugs at the front. A society of thieves, without discipline or morality, where laws and orders are enforced at the muzzle of the rifle, if at all. 

And where "Civilization" itself is one of the privileges and trappings of the very powerful.

And they want to burn it down for *Checks Notes* Donald Trump.

Because they think he'll magically make them all rich, or something something Gazpacho. He'll make it so they get what they think they want...and somehow prevent the rest of us from ever overthrowing them or building Guillotines.

And because Trump likes Putin and Trump thinks Hamas is "Smart" so will Republicans because they're nothing but a bunch of craven, cowardly, boot-licking shits who are high on the smell of their own piss when they think they're the ones who have the Power and they can't wait to use that power to use and abuse the people who bring them their food...among others.

And then sell Civilization to Vladimir Putin and Gulf Oil Sheiks for their pocket change and get rid of all social programs and turn the troops into a drug-addled mob and do it while forcing everybody to pretend they're so religious and righteous and have to pretend to follow their alleged "faith." Yeah, I can keep going if you want.

Merely saying "The Cruelty Is The Point" really understates the whole damn thing, if you ask me.

Remember that, when you vote.

Freedom isn't free, but if we all do our part it doesn't cost us that much to keep it.

Слава Україна!

My black face fades,
hiding inside the black granite.
I said I wouldn't
dammit: No tears.
I'm stone. I'm flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night slanted against morning. 

I turn this way—the stone lets me go.
I turn that way—I'm inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58,022 names,
half-expecting to find
my own in letters like smoke. 

I touch the name Andrew Johnson; 

I see the booby trap's white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman's blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.
Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's
wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet's image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I'm a window.
He's lost his right arm
inside the stone. In the black mirror
a woman’s trying to erase names:
No, she's brushing a boy's hair.

~Facing It, by Yusef Komunyakaa, US Army Veteran  

Nine

"The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride."

~Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly 25 February 2022, Associated Press