Ayn Rand Akbar! (American Revelation XV: Eleven.)

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

...

"The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride." ~Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly 25 February 2022, Associated Press

I saw this earlier today.

Some nut apparently beheaded his father for *Checks Notes* being a Federal worker.

Somewhere, somebody, shouted "Ayn Rand Akbar!"

Radical Islam said "No comment."

Now I'll note speaking as a veteran and a relative of a bunch of people who've had Federal jobs...being a Federal employee hardly makes one a "Liberal." (In fact, if I had to guess, there's a non-zero chance Dad was a Republican but not *That* kind of Republican, and that was the problem.)

And maybe it's just me, but in the eras in which the various texts that became the Bible were written, in the Bronze Age and Classical worlds (you know, what these motherfuckers say they want to go back to) generally and the Greco-Roman world in particular...patricide was seen as the greatest crime that one could commit. In fact, patricide was punished savagely. Especially in places like *Checks Notes Again* places like Sparta, or the earlier eras of Rome.

I'm just going to go out on (not much of) a limb here and say this is the kind of shit that results from endless bad-faith absolute bullshit on the part of Republican elected officials, combined with the fact that a large part of their voter base is both mentally unstable and outright stupid.

And it's only getting worse, and going to get worse yet.

Yeah, I said it, if you don't like it, fuck you. 

Also; RE: Tom Cotton's bad-faith idiocy here, I've been to Singapore. By the standards of the USA, it's a very conservative country (I was there once, when I was in the Air Force, for a training exercise) but it's not that kind of conservative. It's also diverse and pluralistic and urban enough (the whole island is a giant city with golf courses and small patches of jungle-themselves mostly military training areas and nature preserves--mixed in.) for somebody like Tom Cotton to be willfully unable to see any of it for what it is.

These fucking people have no idea what the hell they're doing. 

Hell, they don't want to get a clue...or a life, for that matter.

I suppose it's just more fun, Beavis and Butthead style, to go around saying stuff is "gay" or something, and saying stupid racial slurs (I gather that Owen Benjamin is a ridiculous racist) and worrying about what other people do. I mean, I wasn't allowed to act like that as a kid, if you really want to know how far downhill this shit has gone in my lifetime.

 If you wonder why the Right is a soup sandwich, there's your answers.

And they don't care. 

I mean, maybe it's just me...but if you're going around insinuating that sex with women is gay, you lost the plot on something or other a long damn time ago.

(Seriously if I'd said something that stupid, one of my grandparents would have immediately smacked me upside the head.)

But shit like that is typical of These Fucking People. 

They're reactionary and stupid, and all Republicans will ever give a shit about is that they always vote Republican. They don't give a damn if it's contradictory and stupid and doesn't hold up to the most cursory thought process. They didn't think about it in the first place! These motherfuckers just want to get Power, so they can turn right around and use their willful stupidity to hurt people...including each other.

And these fucking people want to inflict a panopticon surveillance society on all of us, and hand "Enforcement" of it all off to the "Moms For Liberty" types and litigious racist assholes like Stephen Miller.

If you're not seeing how this ends badly, for them as much as everybody else, you're not looking.

These motherfuckers look at the bad guys in a Neil Blomkamp film (or Warhammer 40K) and imagine themselves on the gold throne or the shiny space station...they don't think about the damage they'd do to themselves (let alone others) to get there...nor that the guy on the golden throne has been dead for longer than anybody can remember.

And I swear, at this point, these fucking people are hoping that when [their part of] civilization and society comes flying apart in a violent, suicidal rampage where no one who did it wants to be responsible for anything, that it'll make for a big enough explosion to take out the rest of us, and that the rich elites most responsible for the utter debasement of conservatism can just slink off and have their own little Galt's Gulch Shangri-La somewhere...they don't realize that the problem is, well, them and the fact that their whole motivation for seeking Power in the first place is debasement, dominance and pleasure.

They long to live in the kind of world where a rich dude gets caught fucking his cousin, and he can just write to the local religious leader and have them make it legal...but only for him.

I'm not 100% sure these fucking people realize what a few generations of excessive politicization, reactionary idiocy and religiosity on it's own is gonna do to their own group. Now, throw in debasement for fun, incest and patricide and...well, Okay, it's more or less the Trailer Park Borgias...and those fucking people for the most part failed all the way upwards to the nobility and the Papacy.

(Yes, that's what the people who radicalized the dude in the OP are thinking, whether they realize it or will admit it or not. Cut off enough heads and fail, you're ISIL and everybody hates you, but succeed and you're the Catholic Church.)

But, they forget that the rest of us have the benefits of 500 years of civilization since then, that we want to partake of and don't want to lose. They forget that the excesses of the people they think they're going to emulate were a huge part of why the Reformation and ensuing four centuries of wars and crazy shit happened in the first place.

And if we're being honest, I don't think they've thought all the way through what else playing assorted fuck-fuck games with people who think Radical Islam doesn't go far enough actually might entail when (because it's not an "if" proposition) they lose control of the mob.

All of the assorted revolutions will be short.

But you don't want to live through them.

Not when what they result in is that part of Humanity basically becomes an extremely diverse version of the Technocracy from the White Wolf RPG's and the other part is a bunch of pasty savages dancing around fires shouting "Unga Bunga" while waiting for their Old-White-Man Witch Doctor to come out of his hut...the odds are real good that the time it took to create that shit is going to be real hard on anybody in the middle between those two extremes.

And the people who started out shouting Ayn Rand Akbar will have long since eaten the would-be denizens of Galt's Gulch.

The fact that these people are too stupid to realize this is not a justification for allowing these fucking people's desired world of Techno-Savagery to continue.

We have the power to say "No." The difference between us and ancient people (or "Conservatives") is that we do not have to accept the inevitability of Revelation and its torments, nor fall into Victorian escapism to think we're going to get out of it if we're "Special" enough. 

We can reject the entire concept.

We were given the power to be citizens, and not ignorant savages beholden to strongmen *Checks Notes* 248 years ago.

Use it.

American Revelation does not have to be inevitable.

Слава Україна!

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. ~Revelation 13:16:18

Eleven

I fear thee, ancient Mariner!
I fear thy skinny hand! And thou art long, and lank, and brown, As is the ribbed sea-sand.
I fear thee and thy glittering eye,
And thy skinny hand, so brown.'
Fear not, fear not, thou Wedding-Guest! This body dropped not down.
Alone, alone, all alone, Alone on a wide, wide sea! And never a saint took pity on my soul in agony. ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner

Six Hundred, Threescore And Six (American Revelation XV, Ten.)

And now, ladies and gentlemen, that we've enjoyed some good times this evening, and enjoyed some laughter together, I feel it is my obligation to remind you of some of the negative, depressing, dangerous, life-threatening things that life is really all about; things you have not been thinking about tonight, but which will be waiting for you as soon as you leave the theater or as soon as you turn off your television sets. Anal rape, quicksand, body lice, evil spirits, gridlock, acid rain, continental drift, labor violence, flash floods, rabies, torture, bad luck, calcium deficiency, falling rocks, cattle stampedes, bank failure, evil neighbors, killer bees, organ rejection, lynching, toxic waste, unstable dynamite, religious fanatics, prickly heat, price fixing, moral decay, hotel fires, loss of face, stink bombs, bubonic plague, neo-Nazis, friction, cereal weevils, failure of will, chain reaction, soil erosion, mail fraud, dry rot, voodoo curse, broken glass, snake bite, parasites, white slavery, public ridicule, faithless friends, random violence, breach of contract, family scandals, charlatans, transverse myelitis, structural defects, race riots, sunspots, rogue elephants, wax buildup, killer frost, jealous coworkers, root canals, metal fatigue, corporal punishment, sneak attacks, peer pressure, vigilantes, birth defects, false advertising, ungrateful children, financial ruin, mildew, loss of privileges, bad drugs, ill-fitting shoes, widespread chaos, Lou Gehrig's disease, stray bullets, runaway trains, chemical spills, locusts, airline food, shipwrecks, prowlers, bathtub accidents, faulty merchandise, terrorism, discrimination, wrongful cremation, carbon deposits, beef tapeworm, taxation without representation, escaped maniacs, sunburn, abandonment, threatening letters, entropy, nine-mile fever, poor workmanship, absentee landlords, solitary confinement, depletion of the ozone layer, unworthiness, intestinal bleeding, defrocked priests, loss of equilibrium, disgruntled employees, global warming, card sharks, poisoned meat, nuclear accidents, broken promises, contamination of the water supply, obscene phone calls, nuclear winter, wayward girls, mutual assured destruction, rampaging moose, the greenhouse effect, cluster headaches, social isolation, Dutch elm disease, the contraction of the universe, paper cuts, eternal damnation, the wrath of God, and PARANOIAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

...

"The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride." ~Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly 25 February 2022, Associated Press

I started seeing this garbage last night.

Basically, "Conservatives" are accusing Taylor Swift of being everything from a CIA/military operative to a Witch (and this is America, where there's not a damn thing wrong with being either) and I'm sorry, but I think it needs to be said; This shit is ridiculous. 

Especially considering that if Swift was a Republican, the same people would be worshiping the ground she walks on.

Until Trump got jealous of somebody else getting the attention and blew a gasket about it, anyway. The surest path to MAGA treason is steal the show from Trump.

I mean, after all, all these fucking people got in terms of major pop-culture figures was Donald Trump and look how they treat him.

Seriously, Evangelicals and Republicans have been flat-out desperate for some pop-culture figure, any pop-culture figure, to join them and retain relevance since at least the 1960's. That and End Times/Mark Of The Beast paranoia have been two of the stupider things going on for 50 years. (But for some reason when you bring up Clint Eastwood or Gary Sinise their immediate response is "Not Like That.") Then they get Trump and he's allegedly everything they ever wanted this whole time. Yet, somehow, they're more miserable of miserable bastards than they ever were before.

I'm confused, and I say that as a former Conservative Christian Republican myself.

So far as I can tell, the secrets to Taylor Swift's success are some combination of actual talent and being a genuinely decent person...which I suppose is two reasons MAGA doesn't understand her.

Honestly, I'm getting really tired of these fucking people thinking every damn thing is some kind of all-powerful conspiracy against them. Like, don't any of y'all have, ya know...lives, or at least jobs or some shit??

Like if this garbage is getting this bad, somebody needs to make these motherfuckers shut off their computers or their phones, turn off FOX News, and go outside and touch grass, or some shit!

Like, seriously, what's wrong with you??

I couldn't go around being this angry and paranoid, much less hopped up on political partisanship all the time. I suffer from depression and I have PTSD, I'm really sure I wouldn't be alive if I did that kind of stuff to the degree that these people do! 

I can't be mad all the time without spiraling out. Hell, letting myself get overtired or stressed is bad enough. I don't know how these people manage it, but it's not hard for me to see why so many of them are straight-up insane.

I couldn't do it. Hell, I wouldn't do it.

But anyway, now they're trying to say young people should be focused on Jesus instead of pop culture or sports. 

Okay, couple things with that; Why was it somehow different when Tim Tebow became an internet meme for a few months? 

Also; What happens when these fucking people finally read the Bible for themselves and see what Jesus actually stood for??

(Never mind; Don't answer that.)

And seriously, where does this bullshit even stop, anyway??

Don't look away, don't wave your hands around. Answer. The. Question.

Where does this shit stop??

Because so far as I can tell, it looks like we're heading full-tilt, flat-out, ass-on-fire towards the sudden and rather violent cultural, political, social etc. suicide of the "Conservative" movement...and all of these fucking people are just fine with it because they think they're at least half the population and they'll somehow take the rest of us down with them.

It's literally going to shake out to the same "logic" they used for trying to pretend COVID-19 wasn't real...until all too many of them died from it. They will likewise figure their own madness can somehow be weaponized against the rest of us.

They've convinced themselves that it's the Apocalypse, but we're doing it wrong by not killing each other...and they're the ones putting computer chips in people's heads, Revelation 13, much? (Yet in their minds, we're still the ones going to hell.)

I've seen how that works out, except I saw it in Bosnia in 1995. Hell, if you've been paying attention to what's been going on in Ukraine since February 24th of 2022, you've seen it, too.

These motherfuckers want to cause mass death, because they're terrified of not being the majority (that they never were) and somehow they think if they cause some kind of mass die-off, it'll take out more of "Everybody Else" than it will of them. 

These sons of bitches want to live in the Killing Fields.

And they see that, or literally anything else as better than America, better than a world where nobody else has to listen to them, where Taylor Swift is just...Taylor Swift (or LGBT people, non-Christians, People of Color, or basically anybody else can just be themselves without no bullshit.) They want literally anything other than "All people are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights..." and literally anything other than "For God So Loved The World..."

And it doesn't matter what that is, so long as they get some privilege from it.

Seriously, isn't that the very "False World System" that these fools rail against, any other time? Show me in the Bible where it even mentions White people...let alone White American Evangelicals.

Seriously, y'all, we need to make this shit stop, before it gets worse.

Otherwise, the day will come when they say "It's not the Mark Of The Beast when WE do it!"

And without Truth to push back against Power, what can we say?

The ironic thing is, that in real terms it's Conservatives who are constantly trying to use Power to cheat the Universe or trying to use spiritual forces to malevolent ends; 

That's the very definition of "Witchcraft" that I was taught.

It's like these fucking people think God is dumb, or something.

Слава Україна!

There are times, however, and this is one of them, when even being right feels wrong. What do you say, for instance, about a generation that has been taught that rain is poison and sex is death? If making love might be fatal and if a cool spring breeze on any summer afternoon can turn a crystal blue lake into a puddle of black poison right in front of your eyes, there is not much left except TV and relentless masturbation. It's a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat shit and die. Who knows? If there is in fact, a heaven and a hell, all we know for sure is that hell will be a viciously overcrowded version of Phoenix — a clean well lighted place full of sunshine and bromides and fast cars where almost everybody seems vaguely happy, except those who know in their hearts what is missing... And being driven slowly and quietly into the kind of terminal craziness that comes with finally understanding that the one thing you want is not there. Missing. Back-ordered. No tengo. Vaya con dios. Grow up! Small is better. Take what you can get. ~Hunter S. Thompson, Generation Of Swine.

Nine

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. ~Revelation 13:16:18

Downward Spiral (American Revelation XV, Nine.)

Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and the overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land, the House of Abraham, Muhammad, and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors...

You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.

During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug) -- while praying to the same God -- with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the "white" Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana. We were truly all the same (brothers) -- because their belief in one God had removed the "white" from their minds, the 'white' from their behavior, and the 'white' from their attitude. I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man -- and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their "differences" in color.

With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called "Christian" white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem. Perhaps it could be in time to save America from imminent disaster -- the same destruction brought upon Germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves.

They asked me what about the Hajj had impressed me the most. . . . I said, "The brotherhood! The people of all races, color, from all over the world coming together as one! It has proved to me the power of the One God. . . . All ate as one, and slept as one. Everything about the pilgrimage atmosphere accented the Oneness of Man under One God. 

~Malcolm X, Letter following the Hajj.

I saw this earlier today.

Europe is actively preparing to resist Russian attack now, presumably because they suspect (as I long have) that the Russians will get bored with Ukraine or simply think they can fight a multi-front war without any issues, and attack the EU as well.

Meanwhile, what's Fox News worried about?? They're trying to make a conspiracy theory out of Taylor Swift...because Republicans just cannot accept the idea that nobody likes them.

Saw this next one, too.

Somebody went on Twitter looking for the score of the Lions/49ers game and saw...this crap.

The former problems exist because of the latter one, because half of America has its head up its ass (Because racism, among other things) sooner or later everybody else is going to start planning around us instead of on us or even stop including us in their plans and we won't get to be the leader of the pack no more.

And nobody will pretend to be more mad about it than the "America First" assholes will. I don't understand, first of all, how so many Americans don't get shit like (#1) "The Russians Are Not Your Friends" and (#2) that all this rabid bigotry, homophobia, misogyny, racism, sexism, transphobia, etc. Hangs A Giant "Please Fuck With Me And Manipulate Me Into Destroying My Own Shit" sign over America as far as the Russians are concerned.

I mean, hell, Texas is damn near doing Russia's work for them, in terms of giving the West a crippling heart attack. Even if 90% of America stays with America...90% America is still going to be 10% less capable of backing up the rest of NATO in a war, and at best is going to be providing 10% less support to Ukraine. Might not seem like much to us...I mean, most of the rest of America (let alone Europe) is willing to give Texas the finger on a good day...but it damned well matters to the Russians.

Because for one thing, any part of America that they can break off is going to instantly be seen as a gateway to the Western lifestyle for Russian oligarchs and thus will be recruited as (or far more likely simply forced into being, by dint of leverage over its politicians) a Russian satellite state. Which will then also turn this New Cold War into a Two-Front Cold War and any potential war against Russia or China or Iran or Radical Islam or Whatever (And they will all get themselves in good with the neo-Confederates, trust me.) will thus have to include planning for dealing with the threat on the other side of that walled-off Inner-American Border. (And at this point it's less Apartheid South Africa or even Republican East Germany than a right-wing version of North Korea that we're talking about, here.)

You never did buy into the lie that "Build The Wall!" was meant exclusively to keep the Mexicans out, did you?? It was always going to be used against the rest of us. And, These Fucking People's own people too, because walls work both ways, and while Other people do not really exist to these motherfuckers, they hate their neighbors and mostly-imagined rivals.

Indeed, the driving force uniting the American (far-) Right by now is entirely animosity towards their fellow citizens. And if that's not stopped it never will stop.

It's not just Whites vs. Blacks or Republicans vs. Democrats (although it's that, too.) It's that these damn fucking people basically think if you ever actually bought into any of the core ideals of America...The little things like "Equality Under The Law" or "Innocent Until Proven Guilty" or even "One Man, One Vote!"...or that they're for everybody you're basically a Communist. Look at how willing they are, to throw out people who even ten years ago were utterly standard-issue Republicans...or even "Tea Party Patriots" even if the only thing they do is "Not like Trump."

Indeed, hell, according to motherfuckers like Charlie Kirk there basically are no Americans other than Donald Trump. He's the only one who should get "One Man, One Vote" and they'll all follow after how ever he votes. Fuck "Innocent Until Proven Guilty" even "Innocent Once Proven Innocent" (complete with an actual confession by and conviction of the legit perpetrator of the actual crime) is too "Liberal" for Charlie's stank ass.

And I'm here to tell you, a lot of these fucking people basically think the accusation of whatever is, or at least should be enough to get one boiled in oil, burned at the stake, put to the Rack, or thrown in the Gulag and never seen again. Some of these "Conservatives" have always thought that...and those are the people running "Conservatism" now.

And they crave Burning Times and Witch Hunts, if only out of cruelty for cruelty's sake.

No, there's not a lot of difference between our Far-Right assholes and the average Russian.

It's not about America to them, it never was, it's about Power. And they see breaking America and maybe getting a chance to abuse some of the resulting refugees as the greatest expression of Power. There's not much difference at all between these assholes and the motherfuckers who burn villages in places like the Congo....and they'll do it for the same kind of bullshit reasons.

And don't you forget it, either.

It's not Russian missiles that'll destroy the West, or America...it's bigotry and the hunger of some of us for power over other human beings, and the lust for cruelty. A lot of Americans are basically Orcs, no different in their hearts than the damned Russians.

Until we address that, and there was a time I thought we had, but that was before FOX News and people like Rush Limbaugh basically turned conservatism into Football fandom and lowest-common-denominator-everything, these problems are going to continue. The average MAGA doesn't know a damn thing about doctrinal or philosophical or even (at this point) Reaganite conservatism but they sure as hell want to "Get" whoever they think "Those People" is.

And it seems to vary by the minute, though it usually defaults back to the same people as it always is.

This isn't sustainable for America...much less modernity or Western culture...and that's exactly why the assholes keep pushing it. And if it's not stopped, at least somebody is going to find themselves stuck living in the Dark Ages and wonder why, before they're violently reminded that they're not allowed to wonder why. All too many of them won't bother.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Remember that, because it's going to be on the test.

If you don't think this crap is going to come down to a fight, you're deluding yourself.

We can either get our heads on straight or it will be worse, America, it's that damned simple, because if we don't a lot of us are going to hate their own way into chains and slavery, becoming slaves to "Own The Libs" in the same way that a lot of these fucking people ended up dying of COVID-19 because Trump politicized getting vaccinated.

We have to be the ones to make this shit stop, We, the People, have to stop putting up with crazy or this downward spiral is gonna suck the whole damn world down the drain.

'Cause where does this moronic conspiracy theory bullshit stop, otherwise??

Think on that.

Слава Україна!

"The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride." ~Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly 25 February 2022, Associated Press

Eight

“'When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.”

~Leviticus 19:33-34, New International Version.

...

Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.  “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”

Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’

~Matthew 4:5-7

God Damn It, White People (American Revelation XV, Eight.)

You were just babies then!" she said.
"What?" I said.
"You were just babies in the war— like the ones upstairs!"
I nodded that this was true. We had been foolish virgins in the war, right at the end of childhood.
"But you're not going to write it that way, are you." This wasn't a question. It was an accusation.
"I — I don't know," I said.
"Well I know," she said. "You'll pretend you were men instead of babies, and you'll be portrayed in the movies by Frank Sinatra and John Wayne or some of those other glamorous, war-loving, dirty old men. And war will look just wonderful, so we'll have a lot more of them. And they'll be fought by babies like the babies upstairs." So then I understood. It was war that made her so angry. She didn't want her babies or anybody else's babies killed in wars. And she thought wars were partly encouraged by books and movies.
So I held up my right hand and I made her a promise: "Mary," I said, "I don't think this book of mine is ever going to be finished. I must have written five thousand pages by now, and thrown them all away. If I ever do finish it, though, I give you my word of honor: there won't be a part for Frank Sinatra or John Wayne.
"I tell you what," I said, "I'll call it The Children's Crusade." She was my friend after that.

~From the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut

...

"The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride." ~Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly 25 February 2022, Associated Press

So evidently there's a "Protest convoy" headed to the southern Border and they're calling themselves the "Army Of God."

Hold on, now. This bullshit has not one damn thing to do with God (or at least, the Christian God, in any Biblical sense.) 

If it did, Why would these people have any problem with Latino migrants who are *Checks Notes* overwhelmingly Christian??

Considering that more of the migrants are from smaller Central American countries like El Salvador and Guatemala these days, and at least a solid plurality of them are Protestant (i.e. the same denominations that most of these White People allegedly follow) with a better chance than average of ending up on the conservative side of things, should they become American citizens...you'd think that would be Okay, that they come here, right?? 

What's wrong with (Hispanic) Bible-thumpers and likely future Republican voters, after all??

(But that's what you'd get for actually thinking. Also, none of this is really about any of that, and you know it as well as I do. These fucking people could give a shit about Christianity or conservatism as either has ever been traditionally understood. I'm serious.)

In fact, their entire belief system is really centered on conflict with some bad-faith, bullshit idea of "Liberalism" that exists only in their own heads. (And by the way, what that was 20 years ago isn't what it is now, so I just find all this crap confusing and contradictory as fuck.)

They see anything that's not centered on them, on their dismissal of civilization and society, their ideas of racial purity and relative status, and their petty, small-minded egomaniac of a God (or anything that suggests people have a right to not have to listen to their bullshit) as self-evidently bad no matter what it actually does, or is.

In their minds, Christians who are from other countries or who aren't White just aren't Christians, and conservatives from other countries sure as hell aren't Conservatives...unless they're Putin-worshiping far-rightists...no matter how big of a deal they make of signing onto American-style "Conservative" political and social priorities. 

You know, Like Nayib Bukele, the President of El Salvador, has done. Motherfucker built the world's biggest prison, made Bitcoin a co-official currency (along with the US Dollar) has used the Salvadoran military in an anti-gang crackdown and in general makes a big deal of doing Trump-style edge-lord type of stuff (and for all that, he's massively popular in his own country and less-popular but still well-regarded throughout Latin America. Even Latin American liberals have initiated smaller-scale, less-militant but still similar anti-crime policies. I'm not making a value judgment here, it's simply what is.) 

But American "Conservatives" could give an absolute shit about him. and don't even seem to notice that he exists most of the time. 

Until he's beefing with a Democratic congresswoman from California, anyway...and then he's promptly forgotten about again.

And that, right there, is a tell.

Also for a more historical example, see Stephen Harper, Conservative former Prime Minister of Canada, dude basically tried too hard to be the Maple-Leaf George W. Bush and most of our Republicans didn't even notice.

And increasingly, these fucking people don't see anything less than constant Rush Limbaugh-style crap and endless conspiracy theory bullshit as even "American."

Hell, even Trump has run afoul of this and gotten booed by his own people for not being nuts enough (like when he said that vaccines work at a rally in 2020.)

These fucking people are basically outright saying they want to kill or enslave everybody else in America, and they think their "Macho White Dudes With Guns" bit will somehow be sufficient for this, they think they've got some kind of magical mojo that nobody else has or some shit...but none of this actually works that way, and when it comes down to a fight, these fucking people are going to lose.

I mean, shit, these motherfuckers couldn't handle nor react properly to something as simple as a virus...what makes them think they'll even be able to fight the United States Armed Forces??

How many of them will surrender when they find out you can't get no Wi-Fi in the field, or the power's out because of a drone strike, or they're hungry and mad because food has to be rationed (and they're too lazy to grow their own or do any of the logical stuff to supplement that.) This will happen on both sides, but it'll be worse on theirs.

But these people, along with complicit media and Russian propaganda, will spin images of military defeat, of the glorious "Army of God" degenerating into a debased right-wing insurgency and ultimately into mere criminality...as some kind of war against Yankee Colonialism in Texas.

And when a negotiated settlement means they get a banana republic somewhere, when cheap Chinese crap and Russian Oligarch-money pours into it to restore the conveniences of the right-wing Petit Bourgeoise (but not anybody else who's there) they'll call it a win, and spend however long they can get away with basically jacking off their egos and trying to reinvent the wheel in terms of government. Think of it as the Tesla Cyber-Truck of countries, and the results will suck exactly that much.

But Whypipo can get a haircut during a pandemic there, so it'll be Okay.

And yes, as I've said, the failure to deal with this crap is going to be entirely political. Anything they ever get will result from a negotiated settlement, and the reason that will happen is Republicans (or at least, the ones who remain seated at the negotiating table) will ultimately roll over for a radicalized, secessionist voter base. And Democrats (especially their safe Blue State voters) will ultimately see the opportunity to give these fucking people the finger and tell them "Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out." Too few of our own leaders will have the guts to point out, that letting these people have their way somewhere is a bad idea. To his credit, Joe Biden is probably one of the people with the guts to do exactly that.

But how many liberals have been willing to give Joe the finger over far less??

There's no way this doesn't degenerate into a Bosnia-style ethnic conflict somewhere. There's no way this doesn't ultimately make everything worse, everywhere. (And that's the idea.)

And there's literally no way, along the way, that "Armies of God" don't engage in the kind of atrocities that would shame the damned Devil.

Not least because the political and social accelerant that's brought us to this point is Donald Trump.

And either he, or his sons, when he is no longer with us...will demand some kind of bullshit "Jihad" in his name...and one hell of a lot of White People have made Trump their entire identity. People keep trying to say that conservatives are getting more conservative...but by the metrics I was taught, no. I'm not seeing it.

They keep doubling down on their current self-destructive path, though. That ain't the same thing.

Goddamn it, White People.

We as a people have the right to say "No" to all this crap.

Whether we, collectively, have the force of personality and the moral authority to tell these fucking people to sit down and shut up, and the will to make them do it, let alone are willing to expend the effort to make these people give a shit again??

That's an entirely different question.

You either believe in freedom, or you don't.

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

Seven

Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.  “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”

Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’

~Matthew 4:5-7

Said The Spider To The Fly (American Revelation XV, Seven.)

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

I saw this yesterday.

Candace Owens, terrified...terrified, I tell you...at the thought of a woman being a pilot.

Having met a few female pilots over the years...most of them military pilots, and all of the rest in my particular case having been Veterans, at that...what utter horseshit. I guess it's just...easier to be a grifting Republican apologist for the Bad Idea Of The Moment??

Sorry, Candy, but it's been my personal experience that some people...of any gender, sex, race, etc...just have a natural aptitude for flying an A-10 Warthog, a KC-135 Stratotanker or a UH-60 Blackhawk and ain't no good at lying for a living.

Likewise, I've known a hell of a lot of women who ain't no good at the things of hearth and home, or who have no interest whatever in kitchen, church, and children. Maybe it's just me but I've got a couple of ex-partners out there I'm glad I didn't have kids with because I wouldn't have trusted them to raise a cat. 

And yes, while I'm at it, I've known a hell of a lot of dudes out there completely unsuited for any aspects of fatherhood (Again, note: I don't have any kids and have always practiced safe sex.)

Worse, I know a lot of guys who are paying child support, including a couple who'll likely have back child support taken out of their estates, because they didn't pay it when they were supposed to.

Gender roles and shit are social constructs, and it's the 21st goddamn century. 

No one is required to abide by any of that crap if it doesn't fit them, or even if they simply don't want to. In fact, a lot of people are totally unsuited for whatever Stereotypes "Conservatives" think they should be living according to.

And no one...I mean absolutely no one...is granted some kind of special Gnosis or omniscience simply because they have the right "Beliefs."

(And anybody who says they do have such, is full of shit.)

God does not grant special powers to White Conservatives.

Seriously, what the fuck do you think this is, Dungeons & Dragons and you're a Cleric of Jesus?? Fuck Off.

I mean, fuck, come on now. What's wrong with you??

More to the fucking point, this is America, where not only do you not have to be a White Christian Conservative Dude to do things, but pretty much anybody can do whatever they want...or at least, whatever they have it in themselves to do or that they can scrape up the resources to accomplish.

Yes, America really likes the latter (I mean, bro, how the fuck do you think Elon Musk got anywhere, certainly not on natural ability but dude has a lot of damn money and he's had an idea or two, some of them good, some of them not so good) but also going way back in our history (and often, very grudgingly at first) America genuinely reveres the former, because in the end, most of the ideas and inventions that have made America a Power in the World did not come from people who were already rich.

And the whole point, literally the secret to our success, is that anybody can come here and buy into that. Perversely, again, see also; Elon Musk. If America First had been around back in the 1980's that dude might be a fat-cat in Pretoria now, or maybe running a computer company in Kingston, Ontario, but America wouldn't know who he was in 2024. And yes, that would be a bad thing.

On the face of it, it seems like we should extend the same fucking courtesy to other people, doesn't it?? If you have the capability and drive to get here, the willpower to do something, and the guts to serve, cool. If you want to be an American, especially given the "Warts and all" of our history...it shouldn't even be a question; Welcome Aboard, Lance Corporal.

(I mean, dude's got the Hollister shirt and everything, and he's a Marine. All he needs for the full setup at this point is a can of Copenhagen chewing tobacco in his back pocket and a car payment, but he's from Texas so neither of those things would be unusual in and of itself...Indian-American or not.)

Do you fucking get it now??

And, mind you, I was taught most of this by Conservatives, by unapologetic Republicans, in Christian schools. Life and lived experience filled in the rest of it. So yes, to a great extent a lot of those things have changed, and not for the better. Also, if we're being honest a fair number of the reasons I'm still here are people who right-wing ball-garglers like Candace Owens (much less elitist freaks like Donald Trump) would cheerfully ignore and write off, simply for the Color of their skin or the content of their Character.

Especially that second part, these days.

And having a society requires, at the minimum, that someone act in good faith and believe in something other than bigotry, hierarchy and selfishness with a large side-dish of pettiness, if not necessarily that they have good character themselves.

Without truth, there is no freedom.

You either believe in freedom, or you don't.

And this really isn't that hard.

And in a world where there's video evidence that a Black pilot both prevented an E-2C Hawkeye from crashing into the ocean, and did so impressively enough to be Decorated for it...or that it was just in the news that a female pilot prevented what could have been a major air crash a couple weeks ago...this kind of crap is inexcusable. The Tuskegee Airmen never lost an escorted bomber to enemy air action during *Checks Notes* World War II, And for fuck's sake, we knew women had the chops to be fighter pilots 30 years ago.

I don't give a damn that some White people are racists or sexists and have always felt this way. I've always felt that people like that needed they ass beat. I don't give a damn that Candace Owens has no self-respect and is willing to cater to that shit. Those kind of White people aren't quite the dominant force they once were, amping up the ones that are left all the way to eleven isn't going to create an automatic electoral win for Republicans.

And frankly, if these fucking people were so sure of themselves and really thinking they were going to win under normal American conditions, I don't think they'd be threatening to start a civil war every other goddamn day.

It's the 21st goddamned century, y'all can shut the fuck up. It's time to get the fuck over it.

Neither America, nor any other country in the world, is going to make it just on the strength of its White Right-Wing Men. We're either all human beings, or we ain't, and not a one of us is ever going to be.

It's really that simple.

We're either all free, or none of us are...and if we're not?

Then, Just because you think the spider talks real good or the web is comfy-cozy, doesn't mean the spider isn't going to eat you.

It's called self-preservation.

That spell it out for ya??

Слава Україна!

Blood that has soaked into the sands of a beach is all of one color. America stands unique in the world: the only country not founded on race but on a way, an ideal. Not in spite of but because of our polyglot background, we have had all the strength in the world. That is the American way. ~Ronald Reagan

Six

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

~Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly 25 February 2022, Associated Press

It's Time To Mess With Texas (American Revelation XV, Six)

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"

...

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

~Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly 25 February 2022, Associated Press

So, Texas decided to try to have their own border policy, and the Supreme Court told them "No" because the Constitution delegates border controls and foreign relations to the Federal government.(Forget the Mexican border for a moment, these motherfuckers put up rolls of razor-wire on the New Mexico border. Like, the fuck are they afraid of, people smuggling in Green Chiles?) So now all these right-wing assholes are going to try and force a showdown with the Federal Government over an issue that *Checks Notes* Congressional Republicans refuse to do a damn thing about. Last I checked, that's called Insurrection. 

And it's not going to stop until Federal agents arrest Greg Abbott and roll that Wheelie-Ghoul into a goddamn wheelchair-accessible paddy wagon and make an example of his fucking ass with the exact kind of showboat trial that Republicans would inflict on other people, and he gets to spend a good long time thinking about his misdeeds in Federal Prison, down the cellblock from Donald Trump.

If we want this crap to stop, we're going to have to start holding the powerful and wealthy, not to mention Republicans, to account.

Otherwise, you see that map??

These fucking people will get to keep some chunks of it. 

Now, it won't be Alaska, the Dakotas, Georgia, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, or South Carolina, and probably not Louisiana  or Montana either because there's a lot of military formations and strategic assets in those states and the people in them will remember where their paychecks come from and that their oath is sworn to the United States Constitution.

But it'll get sporty for a minute, and having been a Security Forces troop stationed at Minot Air Force Base, defending that place (and it will have to be defended) is going to suck.

And I'm here to tell you, you probably won't want to live somewhere like Idaho, Iowa, Tennessee or West Virginia that most Americans who don't live there write off on a good day.

And places like Florida, Texas and Utah, not to mention the Mississippi Delta, the Southern Black Belt and various Native reservations will be a bloody soup sandwich, because among other things, if you think the only immigrants or Latinos or People Of Color that these fucking people want to hurt are the ones coming across the Mexican border, you have another thing coming, and that goes about the same for anybody else who isn't a far-right-enough White Enough White Conservative Whack-A-Nut Christian Republican.

And when that shit really does hit the fan, it's going to be bad news for people whose real name is Rafael Eduardo, or pretty much any Mormon (or any other religious believer) that won't convert on the spot to either whatever form of whacky neo-Pentecostal Seven Mountains Dominionism these fucking people take up...or to just straight worshiping the Golden Idol of the Mango Messiah. 

You know, the idea, the Meme, of Trump.

That's what they really worship, not the confused, doddering old man.

And none of this would be happening now, if Republicans were nearly so sure of his electoral chances as they say they are. Think about that one, for a second.

A lot of people are going to find out that whatever adoption into Grace and/or Whiteness (basically the same thing in the minds of certain individuals) that they thought they had was a lie, meant to do nothing more than get their cooperation and lull them to sleep until the goddamned Fascist/Feudalist wannabes felt safe to launch their "Glorious Revolution" in which burning books, murdering innocent people and taking food from poor kids will somehow be considered virtuous acts, and that guess what? 

Neither they nor their own kids will be exempt, nor even safe (Nor will any White kids, for that matter, except those few whose parents can afford to hire private armies to act as their bodyguards and still have bigger motorcades than the Pope.) This shit will very quickly spiral out of the control of people like Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, and Steve Bannon, and grow its own leaders ain't nobody ever heard of until all this shit started (Or at least the ones Russian "Advisors" don't shoot, anyway) because if you think most of us...especially anybody in most affected areas...is going to have things like reliable internet access to know what those fucking freaks even have to say...you're nuts.

You thought I was gonna say "Showing up to vote" was important??

How about showing up to stop losers like the fucking Dilbert Guy from getting to decide who can eat??

(Also, I'm sorry, but I have zero trust in any of these fucking people's basic competence to run much of anything, let alone something as boring and prosaic as basic food distribution networks. And yes, expect that somebody will try to make starving to own the Libs a thing.)

How about showing up to prevent people who think every possible terrible idea from 1950's science fiction and/or Warhammer 40K should at least be tried in real life...and who don't care if such is a perversion against the laws of God or the Universe or whatever you wanna call it??

I mean, seriously??

Now we've got billionaires trying to set up legal entities to *Checks the notes I made earlier* set up legal entities to leave their fortunes to their "Future revived selves??"

Great, it's the Walking Dead but all the Zombies are Elon Stans, does that not sound wrong to you??

And do you really think that anybody that narcissistic or who has that little of regard or reverence for the basic processes of life (like, really, what is so much of religion but dealing with the possibility of death?) is gonna give a shit if you get your Social Security or don't die shitting your guts out from bad water??

A lot of these MAGA jackoffs think they're going to go out in a Blaze Of Glory, guns in hand, railing against The Man or what-the-fuck-ever. I can tell you, because I'm a United States Air Force veteran, that whatever actual battles there would be in such a conflict will be vicious, viciously one-sided, really damned short and not in the favor of some raggedy-assed overweight 60 year old Militia CHUD's.

But you can win all the battles, and still lose the war. Just ask the French about Algeria.

Yeah, yeah, anti-Colonial War, blah blah blah...you think the Russians, much less the Tankies, won't do their level best with a straight face to spin the bloody revolt of Texas as the South freeing itself from Yankee Colonialism??

And yes, like the FLN in Algeria, the assholes will still lose, at least when the other side gets to shoot back.

No, the failure of keeping shit together will be entirely political.

Why?? Because once Northern Virginia and the Tidewater (and with it, half the United States Navy) and places like Houston, Orlando, and various other Blue districts and favored places are secured, and once the wannabe Genocidaires and assorted Bosnian Serb-enthusiasts ethnically cleanse whatever enclaves are too hard for the Army and the Marines to take back and start putting up walls to keep the rest of us out, the average Harvard University Student, NYC Liberal or resident of the more upscale parts of Washington D.C. (regardless of their claimed political orientation) are going to say "Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out."

Because the Base-level MAGA-nuts who really are driving this whole thing could give a shit about the Harvard Crimson, and don't know who half the scummy Republicans who've spent generations bumble-fucking us into this bullshit even are, and they couldn't find Ukraine on a map with Google Earth giving them directions.

And the narcissism of these two sides won't be able to meet in the middle, either. Come on, man, this shit is gonna cost rich people money.

(And people who've proudly never been 100 miles from home, for whom the Met Gala might as well be held in another Galaxy, and whose main motivation is "I hate [Racial Expletive Deleted]'s" don't care about that.)

Besides, the only ones set to profit are already-bleeding-edge edge-lord reactionaries who'd just as soon cook the Old Money WASP-y shits and eat them, just to see what they taste like and the super-rich narcissists like Elon Musk for whom this isn't about money at all, but about them getting to be the Most Specialist Snowflakes. Well, that and Defense Contractors who'll doubtless find ways to profit from and sell to both sides.

Seriously, do you really think guys like Joe Manchin or Tucker Carlson are going to give a shit about anything they said before when they got bombed and shot at, too?? Not to mention all those insincere political wannabe-sharks like James Comer who the Republican mob is turning on already. And that's well before you get to the average Blue State liberal who already thinks these MAGA's and their Red States should go fuck themselves. Let alone all the Tankies and fashionable Anti-Americans who'll suddenly have to face the results of their bullshit and find out it don't result in no Socialist Shangri-La.

All these people will want to give nothing but a big middle finger to whatever's left of Red America (and the Reds don't really care if they end up ruling nothing but ashes.)

And in the end, too many won't really care who gets left behind, and some people absolutely will. I saw a little of the wreckage from how that all worked out. I'm not saying it's right, it's not. That's simply the way of these things. Logistics can be a bitch.

More to the point, if we learned anything from COVID-19 it's that the Chris Christie's and Nikki Haley's of the world crave to throw the virgin into the Volcano to appease the heated gods.

On general principle, but Especially if doing so saves their own asses.

This shit will be the same way, if we let it.

Oh sure, if all this works out like I think it might, the media, the world, etc. will dress it up as some kind of big-time negotiated solution under international pressure, all of which China, Iran, North Korea and Russia will be happy to keep providing because a possible 50% America will be halfway less able to help Israel or South Korea, or Taiwan or Ukraine.

And some of these fucking people really do want to live in a blood-soaked dark world straight out of bad science fiction, just because they think they'd get something for it. Some people want to live in the Empire from Star Wars.

You know what the front line is, and the last line of defense??

It's not some missile submarine in the North Pacific.

It's Us, the Citizens, We The People, that's who.

That's why Republicans hate us so much.

And if enough of us don't tolerate this bullshit, our government will have to not tolerate it either. That's the way of these things, too.

And you know what??

You know what I was taught??

You better show up--in whatever capacity is needed--because those fucking people sure will.

There's more of us than there are of them, but for once we better act like it, if we want to have a country.

I can't put it any more simply than that.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

It's time to Mess With Texas.

So get after it.

Слава Україна!

Five

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