It's Got Electrolytes (Evil Empire, Three.)

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: Trip, isn't it?

Trip: Yes, sir.

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: You fought very well yesterday, Trip. Sergeant Rawlins has recommended that you receive a commendation.

Trip: Yes, sir.

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: Yes, and I think you should bear the regimental colors.

Trip: Well...

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: It's considered quite an honor. Why not?

Trip: Well, I'm...wanting to say somethin', sir, but I...

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: Go ahead.

Trip: All right. See, um...I ain't fightin' this war for you, sir.

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: I see.

Trip: I mean, what's the point? Ain't nobody gonna win. It's just gonna go on and on.

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: Can't go on forever.

Trip: Yeah, but ain't nobody gonna win, sir.

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: Somebody's gonna win.

Trip: Who? I mean, you get to go on back to Boston, big house and all that. What about us? What do we get?

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: Well, you won't get anything if we lose. What do you want to do?

Trip: I don't know, sir.

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: It stinks, I suppose.

Trip: Yeah, it stinks bad. And we all covered up in it. I mean, ain't nobody clean. Be nice to get clean though.

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: How do we do that?

Trip: We ante up and kick in, sir. But I still don't want to carry your flag.

~From the film Glory.

...

If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan

So, Biden and Trump are set to debate on Thursday.

And Republicans, far from being...or even seeming...confident of success, are already making excuses.

Just sayin' if you want to win, it helps to at least act like you believe you can.

Of course, the motherfuckers will declare victory anyway. Not that they expect anybody else to believe it. 

That's the whole point of these fucking people switch-hitting between "Biden is old and doddering" and "Biden is an evil mastermind" or jacked on performance-enhancing drugs or some shit. 

They're basically down to Magic Words And Phrases at this point (and they know too many in the media will at least pretend to believe in that horseshit.) The Unga Bunga version of "Liberalism" as a word, like "Communism" or any other fucking thing means whatever they want it to mean...or whatever, politically, they need it to mean right now. (And if they get the power they think they want, they'll use this dishonest shit on each other, too. Fuck that, they're already doing it to each other now.) What it meant yesterday doesn't even matter.

These fucking people have bought whole-hog into the "LOL, Nothing Matters" ...except Power...ethic of Putinism. How has that worked out for all those Russian conscripts thrown into the meat grinder in Ukraine??

About the same way that Trumpism fully realized, or neo-Confederate secessionism (But I repeat myself) would work out for the average American Idiot, I'd wager.

But they'll get mad if you point that out. See, it's the image they think something projects that's what actually matters to these smooth-brained chucklefucks. (You can see this in something as simple as how Lindsey Graham or Scott Adams talk about Trump.) That's why a whole bunch of dudes that wouldn't know Cicero the Roman Senator from Cicero the Skyrim character have Greek and Roman statue AVI's.

And guess what?? Our enemies know this shit about us now, and have decided to exploit it by manipulating all these fools. Get smart, my people, now it's a National Security issue. Be intelligent, for America.

Ya know, if I was Joe I'd chug a couple green Monsters  and maybe eat a couple Altoids mints on camera right before the debate just to troll these idiots. Do it right in front of whoever works at CNN that's gonna run and tell Fox News.

Performance enhancing drugs, my ass. If anybody's gonna be on drugs, it's Trump. He has a demonstrable record of that kind of crap. But in MAGA's collective mind, if Trump loses, they lose and make bad choices and shit, and are (in their own minds) worthy of Judgment. Maybe it's just me, but I think the number of shitty little narcissists in America has been way, way undercounted.

So they're gonna try and declare "Victory" no matter what, in pretty much the same way my loser Pentecostal ex-wife did...along with all the endless fake hokum and false prophecies...and for the same reason. [Jack Nicholson voice] "They can't handle the Truth."

But, they'd have declared "Victory" if Trump had got us into an interstellar war with Aliens who, using antimatter weapons fired from Low-Earth Orbit, reduced America to a glass-sided crater slowly filling in with radioactive water from both oceans. I mean this seriously, guys...I don't know what the hell y'all see in this demented, fat, orange motherfucker. 

I get that for a lot of these old nasty Republicans and the wealthy and shit, Trump is just a trojan horse to use to get what they want...but that doesn't even close to explain to me why even a hell of a lot of these alleged manipulators fall into cultic devotion, homoerotic Trump-meme-ing and perverse slobbering sycophancy their own damn selves...simply because Trump yells louder than they do. 

At a base level, yes, I think a lot of Republicans are just Lost (as in the Biblical/Christian sense of that word) and yes, they're that desperate for something, hell, anything to believe in.

Well, that and Trump lets them be the worst people they can be, and lets them feel righteous about it.

Until he doesn't, anyway, but they never think he'll throw them, personally, under the bus. It won't happen to me.

(And then, too many of them don't care when he does exactly that. It basically took Mike Pence like three years to decide he was against Trump! Bro, if somebody who claimed to pretty much be my side sent a mob to kill me I'd have switched parties that damn day.)

And what these motherfuckers wanna be is basically a Christianized (yet also strangely Christ-less and thus devoid of any form of Grace) version of Radical Islam. You know, the kind of base religiosity that engages in mob behavior and burns people for shit they may or may not have done, and the laws of their own God and country be damned. They'll attack the police too.

Same with the government, the military, etc. Nothing matters to them. 

Hell, They did it on January 6th! These fucking people want a "religion" that lets them hurt people, and sacralizes their hate. I suspect, given the chance, they'd go further than any Pakistani mob ever would, too.

And this Atheistic New York City fat-cat that I knew was a scumbag who hated the Lord's Word 40 years ago would egg them on, simply because the goddamned Christian Nationalists and the Evangelicals and the Prosperity Gospel scammers are the last ones still actually cheering for his ass, and he needs them to fuel his narcissism more than he actually needs America.

The thing I'll never understand is that the vast majority of Evangelicals seem fine with this kind of arrangement.

I couldn't do it, just sayin.' And I'm not a "Born Again" anything.

But these same fucking people are madder than hell that LGBT people exist.

And they seem mad enough about it to participate in outright Antichristianity and go to hell.

Ya know, it seems to me like Going To Hell to "Own The Libs" or because you think it'll somehow magically something something Gazpacho hurt somebody else is just plain nonsensical bullshit.

Okay, so you got to hurt some Gay people? Is eternal separation from God and being cast into Sheol (Remember that the folk-Christian concept of Hell comes from Dante's Inferno, not the Bible) where your soul is destroyed...because you engaged in idolatrous worship of a Man so you could get to do that somehow worth it??  Help me, here.

Nobody acts more like they know Christianity is a lie and God is nothing but a superstition than the Christians do at this point.

I get that Spite is the only reason a lot of these motherfuckers get up in the morning, really, I do. These fucking people want to live in a far more malicious version of Idiocracy.

But it seems to me like, ya know, obeying your own holy books or at least some basic sense of self-preservation (By the people who, in most other aspects of life, cowardly self-preservation to the point of even avoidance of basic responsibilities is simply what they do) would at least apply here.

And you'd be wrong, because expressing fanaticism and hatred literally is the most important thing to these fucking people, who think you can be "Anything you want" as long as you're not Gay...or otherwise "Not one of them."

Like, Lindsay Graham gave away the game when he said, a few years back, that Black people could do anything they wanted in South Carolina, as long as they're "Conservative."

Seems like a pretty limited selection of options, I think I'll pass, and I say that as an old straight white guy.

But these fucking people don't want a leader, or even a political philosophy. They want an Imperial Cult that everybody is required to make offerings to. They want a "God" that they can see and hear and reach out and touch.

Because faith...even as literally defined in the Bible...was too difficult, or something.

And yet, all it took was a con artist loser like Donald Trump saying "Follow me" and they did it.

It's got electrolytes...

I mean, who the fuck jogs wearing body armor if they don't have to??

It seems strange to me that the same people who preached fanatical faith in Jesus Christ ten years ago now seem to have an infinite faith in Donald Trump, despite the fact that all he's done is hurt them, too. 

One of these things is not like the other one.

Jesus sacrificed Himself for the Sin of the world.

Trump wants to sacrifice the World to assuage his own narcissism and Sin.

And Trump attracts people who are like himself, so it will only get worse if we don't do anything about this shit.

You can either stand up and fight against this crap or not.

But also, you either believe in freedom or you don't.

And remember, you're going to have to be the one who lives with the consequences of which way you decide.

Not somebody else, You.

And if you're not free, what the fuck does it matter how much money you got for your soul??

Personally, I'm unwilling to just let the country I served, and where I live, be destroyed for the sake of one man's ego.

There's nobody I wanna hurt bad enough to destroy myself and give up my own freedom to do it.

Remember that, because there's going to be a test...for all of us.

We're up against people who'd rather be Slaves Of The Caesars or live in the Empire from Star Wars than be free, if everybody else gets to be free too.

I don't know about you, but I've seen Star Wars enough to know how that works out. Funny how none of the people doing this shit think they're gonna be the one that gets Force Choked.

Слава Україна!

You can't separate peace from freedom, because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.

~Malcolm X.

Last Post

When I am dead, bury me

In my beloved Ukraine,

My tomb upon a grave mound high

Amid the spreading plain,

So that the fields, the boundless steppes,

The Dnieper's plunging shore

My eyes could see, my ears could hear

The mighty river roar.

When from Ukraine the Dnieper bears

Into the deep blue sea

The blood of foes ... then will I leave

These hills and fertile fields --I'll leave them all and fly away

To the abode of God,

And then I'll pray .... 

But until that day I know nothing of God

Oh bury me, then rise ye up

And break your heavy chains

And water with the tyrants' blood

The freedom you have gained.

And in the great new family,

The family of the free,

With softly spoken, kindly word

Remember also me.

~Taras Shevchenko

Bonus Content

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

Juneteenth, 2024.

The Holy Quran says it, "Pilgrimage to the House [of God built by the prophet Abraham] is a duty men owe to God; those who are able, make the journey." (3:97) Allah said: "And proclaim the pilgrimage among men; they will come to you on foot and upon each lean camel, they will come from every deep ravine" (22:27).Every one of the thousands at the airport, about to leave for Jeddah, was dressed this way. You could be a king or a peasant and no one would know. Some powerful personages, who were discreetly pointed out to me, had on the same thing I had on. Once thus dressed, we all had begun intermittently calling out "Labbayka! (Allahumma) Labbayka!" (Here I come, O Lord!) Packed in the plane were white, black, brown, red, and yellow people, blue eyes and blond hair, and my kinky red hair -- all together, brothers! All honoring the same God, all in turn giving equal honor to each other. . . .That is when I first began to reappraise the "white man." It was when I first began to perceive that "white man," as commonly used, means complexion only secondarily; primarily it described attitudes and actions. In America, "white man" meant specific attitudes and actions toward the black man, and toward all other non-white men. But in the Muslim world, I had seen that men with white complexions were more genuinely brotherly than anyone else had ever been. That morning was the start of a radical alteration in my whole outlook about "white" men. ~Malcolm X.

...

Sgt, Maj. John Rawlins: [To a group of Black children, as the men of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment march through town] That's right, honeys. Ain't no dream. We runaway slaves, but we come back fightin' men. Go home, tell your folks how kingdom come in the year of Jubilee! ~From the film Glory.

It's Juneteenth.

I had a doctor's appointment today, so while I was at it, I went out to my Mom's house for part of the day. It's like I told her, when we got to talking about this day; "I'm an old White guy, my observance of Juneteenth is functionally going to be "Fuck, the Post Office is closed! But ya know, I had that one Black roommate and he thought it was pretty damn important, and in 2021 when it became an official holiday and Biden signed it into law, my roommate's church over in Saginaw had a service on that day, and it was pretty important to a lot of other people that I knew, too. So I'm good with it."

And then I went to my doctor's appointment and we got to talking about things, too, like how there's no damned good reason at this point for anybody in the world to be living in poverty and we could fix that problem very cheaply, if only the richest people would be just a little less rich. There's no reason for anybody to be struggling...and yet that seems to be all a lot of people do...because even people who have enough are so often convinced that they have to work even harder for more shit that they don't need. And that's before you get to how issues like bigotry and wealth, or poverty and race are always intertwined. 

Also, the one thing you can count on with religion is that it'll usually do the worst possible thing.

We talked about the wars in Ukraine and Sudan and how for so many people everything comes down to ideology and money, usually with a side of bigotry thrown in, and that's not much better in the Muslim world these days despite the fact that if those people listened to their Lord's Word it should be. 

There was never any damned good reason for slavery, either. But even when the war was actually being lost, or had ended and there was not one damn thing anybody could do about it, the world had done changed and it was too late...those old white Slavers in Texas and their various lackeys literally chose to hang onto that power over those people until men with guns came and took it away from them.

It's like I told Doc, I'm a union member. There's no valid reason why people everywhere shouldn't be Union members or at least have that option on enough of a level that workers solidarity can stand up to corporate greed. There's more of the rest of us than there are of these rich assholes, and time's coming where we're going to have to stand up and remind them of that fact.

Particularly in places like America where We The People have just as many guns as the State does.

Right or wrong, it is what it is. We the People are the front line, and the last line of defense.

A lot of places in the world ain't got that option if things go sideways.

There's no reason a miner of rare earth metals in Sudan shouldn't have all the same shit that an iron miner in Minnesota has, maybe adjusted a little bit for the cost of things, and it's like he said; He's a doctor in America, and because of that, even though his family is scattered all over the world because they're war refugees, he's done what he could to keep them going and get (or simply keep) them out of poverty, because he can do that and it's the right thing to do. 

In the context of Islam, helping your fellow humans because of the oneness of all people is what Allah commands, but Doc said you shouldn't need God to tell you what to do.

And there is a hell of a lot of people in the world that don't have the resources that America has given my doctor, either, and they don't know anybody who does.

And the thing about MAGA is that MAGA wants to take America and turn it into one of those kind of countries where people can't defend themselves, and where most people don't have any money, because MAGA thinks they'll be the rebels with lots of guns, something like the powerful radical Islamic forces in Sudan who can just show up, kill people and take their stuff, and that the government will be slow to respond or (like happened in Darfur) just let them do it.

MAGA wants to make everything subordinate to political Power, because they've convinced themselves that somehow they'll end up with the most of it (Even though it hasn't happened yet.) But then neither has the Rapture and they won't shut up about that either.

And, the further away and the more remote the "Leader" is, well, they seem to like the idea of that...but at the end of the day they can't get enough of seeing Trump's stupid face on TV every damn day. They just want other people to not have access to "The Boss. I couldn't do it, I wouldn't do it. It's called self-respect and self-preservation.

They can't stop blowing the narcissist, and I have a feeling that's where it's gonna go wrong for them.

Among other things they're (currently) blowing the narcissist because they enjoy it, nobody's made them do anything they don't want to do yet.

But somebody always does. That's just the nature of this Beast.

Power doesn't give a fuck about you, by definition. Russia doesn't give a fuck about Christianity, or they wouldn't be effectively outlawing it in occupied Donetsk and Luhansk. Those Sudanese rebels? They don't give a fuck about Islam, or they wouldn't have killed so many of their own people and turned so many more into refugees. Kim Jong Un doesn't give a rat's ass about North Koreans, Putin doesn't give a shit about Russians, and Trump very obviously hates most Americans.

The former two have turned their countries into basically gas stations for fueling their narcissism.

And Trump wants to do the same shit here.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

You're either willing to fight for your freedom and that of others, or you aren't.

You can stand up, and control your own life now, or you can keep lying and making money and partying it up until men with guns come and take the future and your life away from you.

But you ain't got 400 years to wait until somebody else gives you that shit back.

But the Republicans, once the party of Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator??

Now it's "All you need is Trump" and they put up with this horseshit.

Now?? They'd be fine with selling America into slavery out of sheer bored, debased nihilistic rage, and eliminating the very concepts of Juneteenth and Liberation (After all, what do you think they're banning books for?) So long as they got a cut of the profits.

So vote these motherfuckers out now, but then also, you have to be prepared to fight them off after you do that. It's better to stand up now. It'll be much harder to do later.

It's the right thing to do, and you shouldn't need God or Joe Biden or some bullshit "Inspiration" or somebody like me to tell you to do it.

Like, either you care about your own life or you don't.

Слава Україна!

Youu can't separate peace from freedom, because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.
~Malcolm X.

Last Post

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

Working Iniquity (Evil Empire, Two.)

And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.

And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:

And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.

These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes. These were redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb.

And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.

And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,

Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

And the smoke of their torment ascends for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receives the mark of his name.

Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, said the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.

And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.

And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. ~Revelation 14:1-15

I saw this earlier, MAGA idiots lined up for a Trump rally in Wisconsin, literally all looking like idiots, and of course there's some dumbass that's trying to say Trump is "Saving Christianity."

I used to be a Christian, that's not how this works.

Trump doesn't know the first thing about Christ or Christianity, he's loudly and publicly (and even on TV, live on CNN) said shit to that effect, and legions of turd-polishers trying to claim he's got the Jesus do not make it so.

Whether one is Saved or truly Believes or not...is not a call that Man gets to make, for a reason.

These fucking people seem to #1 not understand the difference between their politics and their religion, and #2 They've forgotten that God also gets a say, in pretty much everything, and it's not all on them. Also #3 God does not give a fuck about their specific brand of politics. In fact, if history is any guide He's against that shit.

But I suppose simply being a Believer and doing one's part while living according to the way things really are, rather than some whack-a-nut fantasy doesn't jerk off these fucking people's narcissism enough.

But then, I saw this, too.

Apparently around 43% of Evangelicals believe that Jesus was not God, but only a "Great Teacher."

Hold the fuck on.

For the record, 25 years ago when I was still neck-deep in all this stuff, guess what??

Polls like that, real, imagined, or just plain made up, were quoted disparagingly by Evangelicals in particular to show how "Lost" the "World" was, and they were always quoted in churchy, disapproving tones.

But, in these days of Christless Christianity and the Great Trumpian Anti-Crucifixion of Jesus (because now they want a "Savior" like Trump who simply makes everybody else die for his sins instead of dying for the Sin of the World.) I guess we just get whatever we get, eh?? Be glad the percentage in favor of this foolishness isn't higher?

And these idiots were literally bowing before Golden Idols of Trump, three years ago.

No, enough is enough, fuck you, I call bullshit.

Before these motherfuckers even think about holding the rest of us to some arbitrary "Standard" of their religion, I say they should have to hold themselves to it, or give up and call themselves something the fuck else. Christians, you don't get "Saved" by making somebody else have to pretend to be "Christian" you get that by following the teachings your own damn self!

And how many of these nuts have simply exchanged Christ for Trump, and done so willingly??

And no amount of Worldly Power (which is, apparently, what most of this garbage has been about for a very long time) will send you anywhere in the Afterlife but Hell.

His Kingdom is not of this world.

That was the whole damn point.

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

The only reason Trump is promising to be Santa Claus to the Evangelicals is because they're the one group of people that's not only still cheering for Trump, but cheering louder than when they started. 

But ya know, God doesn't have to put up with this crap, and I think that's the reason that MAGA-Christianity is morphing into a debased murder cult, less Roman Empire under Constantine, more the Empire of the Antichrist and the Whore of Babylon with a dash of "Ass, the Movie" from Idiocracy.

But rather more maliciously than the people in that film.

And they're not even trying to hide it, or hide why they want to do it.

But "Praise The Lord, and pass the tax cuts" and making the Way narrow for everybody else but wide for themselves won't work.

Simply put, one of these things is not like the other one, but you can't tell these fucking people anything.

The rest of us are going to have to stand up and fight against this crap, before it gets worse. 

Слава Україна!

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

For every one that asks, receives; and he that seeks, finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened.

Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?

Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in there-at:

Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads to life, and few there be that find it.

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit.

A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Not every one that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. ~Matthew 7:6-23

One

When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything. ~Umberto Eco

"Moral Failure" (Evil Empire, One.)

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

For every one that asks, receives; and he that seeks, finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened.

Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?

Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in there-at:

Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads to life, and few there be that find it.

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit.

A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Not every one that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. ~Matthew 7:6-23

...

The Holy Quran says it, "Pilgrimage to the House [of God built by the prophet Abraham] is a duty men owe to God; those who are able, make the journey." (3:97)

Allah said: "And proclaim the pilgrimage among men; they will come to you on foot and upon each lean camel, they will come from every deep ravine" (22:27).

Every one of the thousands at the airport, about to leave for Jeddah, was dressed this way. You could be a king or a peasant and no one would know. Some powerful personages, who were discreetly pointed out to me, had on the same thing I had on. Once thus dressed, we all had begun intermittently calling out "Labbayka! (Allahumma) Labbayka!" (Here I come, O Lord!) Packed in the plane were white, black, brown, red, and yellow people, blue eyes and blond hair, and my kinky red hair -- all together, brothers! All honoring the same God, all in turn giving equal honor to each other. . . .

That is when I first began to reappraise the "white man." It was when I first began to perceive that "white man," as commonly used, means complexion only secondarily; primarily it described attitudes and actions. In America," white man" meant specific attitudes and actions toward the black man, and toward all other non-white men. But in the Muslim world, I had seen that men with white complexions were more genuinely brotherly than anyone else had ever been. That morning was the start of a radical alteration in my whole outlook about "white" men.

~Malcolm X.

I saw this last night.

A Megachurch Pastor...and of course, Trump Supporter...has been credibly accused of raping a 12-year-old girl back in the 1980's. He's since admitted to "Moral Failure."

No, motherfucker, you raped a child, and now she's a middle-aged woman who's had to live with a life of pain because of it.

Damn it, people, don't let these sons of bitches sanitize their Sins. 

I'm tired of this garbage.

I'm tired of horrible shit sanitized as "Moral Failure" and victims being constantly asked to forgive instead of being expected to demand justice as is their right.

I started out as a mainstream Christian, albeit in a moderately conservative family, and went to Christian schools. In the circles I grew up in, bigotry, hate, racism, sexual abuse and stuff like that was clearly considered wrong, usually resulted in scandal and was not tolerated.

But then, it's like I've said before, any one damned day of the Trump campaign, Presidency,  post-Presidency and campaign again would've been the end of any other President in American history and probably their political party, too.

I'm tired of Trump, I'm tired of his supporters, I'm tired of the constant scandal (and the media's desire to profiteer off this shit, America itself and the public good be damned.) And, I'm tired of the constant excess, scandal and sexual perversion that just seems to illogically follow with all this bullshit.

But it's more than that.

I live in Northern Michigan.

While I came from shall we say a better environment, as I've said before...a lot of people up here don't.

And it's in a lot of those little enclaves of poverty where you see the most Trump signs, but these are overwhelmingly the people who can least afford Republican policies, especially Trump's version of them. And I don't want to hear about "White grievance" or this, that, and the other thing. For fuck's sake, in a lot of those kind of areas up here it's extremely rare for those people to see a Black person, or a liberal, or anybody not exactly like themselves. Nobody else has ever done anything to the vast majority of these fucking people. Most of the pain inflicted on them tends to come from within their own groups, often from the upper crust members of such communities.

I have a fairly mainstream Christian church background, I'm very familiar with Evangelical, Fundamentalist and Pentecostal BS, but I wasn't raised in it. Sure, I was a moderate politically conservative Republican and a veteran, but I'd never set foot in a Megachurch or anything of the sort in my life nor wanted to.

(Okay, I did go to a Promise Keepers event once, but that was at the Pontiac Silverdome.)

Well, then I met my ex-wife, and I'm here to tell you that I heard, both from her and her assorted bar and Karaoke friends (most of whom were also her church friends) one motherfucker of a lot of fucked up stories. Working-poor Evangelical life in their neighborhood sucked. My ex-wife herself was abused, as were most of the people in her circle in one way or another. And I'm here to tell you I saw the wreckage of that at least every damn weekend.

My wife and her friends would almost always go out to the bar on Friday and Saturday nights, and sing and get drunk, somebody would always drink 'til they got sick. And (aside from my wife, because I put my foot down and said no, we're going to a Baptist church, and you're going to tone it down a bit) these ladies would be bawling their eyes out, making a big deal of themselves at the Altar Call every damn Sunday. Like, I'm pretty sure God got tired of the histrionics.

But I'm pretty sure there was always some creepy-ass old white guy like Robert Morris looking on.

You ask me? A lot of this modern right-wing bullshit is lifetimes of abuse, betrayal and pain papered over with religion, glued together by bigotry and hate, and the one damn thing that keeps so many of these fucking people from looking outside of this mess is a stark raving mad fear of Change.

And as a consolation prize, instead of having a decent life, you get the attitude that "Well, it's all shit and then we die and go to hell, (Because trust me, in their cult-like churches only the Pastor is for sure going to Heaven) but at least it's our shit."

And it only gets worse when misogyny and racism get added into the mix.

And they get mad, go defensive and blame you when you call this out. Me, being the outsider to living like that, I got this shit all the time.  Like modern Russians or 1950's Segregationist Southerners, it's their Sin that binds them together, as much as anything else. So that shit can't be criticized, nor can the wrongs it produces be fixed because nobody can openly name the root causes to start fixing it.

For example: I've never in my life had my military service insulted by a liberal, a lot of these fucking people thought it made me too "Worldly." (And in a lot of small towns up here, the military is the only sure ticket out for the vast majority of young folks.) Cuz I'd see something, and I'd say something or at least point out "Hey, that's messed up!" And of course, when I could I'd try to help people...you know, actually follow the Lord's Word. 

So of course, I didn't have the "Right" beliefs, and did I mention I was a freaking conservative Republican Christian at the damned time?? These are, fundamentally nowadays, the same people who support Trump to "Own The Libs" and, well, because if somebody, anybody, broke the cycle of misery and made these fucking people care about their own lives and self-interest, that wouldn't serve their hierarchy-based worldview and they'd have to vote different and have different theology, and rich people might have to have less money. Or something.

Fun fact, my ex-wife is not a Trump Supporter and now she's getting to go through all the same shit I did for not being one of the tribe, because way the hell too late, she decided that living like that sucked and she's trying to get out.

And I'm here to tell you, there are one hell of a lot of people like Robert Morris out there preying on these people and their self-reinforcing cycles of misery, poverty and religiosity. So far as I know, much of my ex-wife's family has wised up, gotten help with their issues and they got out before she did. 

But, ya know, I see this kind of thing every day where I work...people with shopping carts full of beer and junk food who thump the Bible and wish you a "Blessed day" while they're at it. As the current economy grinds on, if you can find a hand up, you'll do great...but a lot of people get left behind.

This is on purpose, with malice aforethought, and I'm not actually blaming a lot of those people for their various fucked up combinations of addiction and religiosity...and yeah, we just saw how a lot of this manifested with Hunter Biden's recent conviction. But, It's not their "Moral Failure" nor entirely their fault that they know nothing better than blame in such cases. I'm an addict myself, and trust me, that shit doesn't help.

But I blame people like Donald Trump and Robert Morris, and House Republicans, and people like them from the past. For them...the system is working exactly as designed. And they've got people basically addicted to Sin and suffering and the only absolution they offer is the "Cheap Grace" of religiosity. 

So, those people basically let the assholes do whatever they want. He who controls the spice controls the Universe, more or less. It's the same with (conditional) Evangelical "Salvation."

That's what all this talk of "Christian Nationalism" and "Evangelical Theocracy" and "Project 2025" even means. 

This is the entire fucking point of these fucking people's Antichristianity.

Do you think in a society dominated by religious fanatics that even 40 years later and well past the statute of limitations, that an abuse victim would even dare come forward, or would do so without being accused of some shit and either Disappeared or simply publicly denounced as a Witch and killed??

I've known people who'll claim Robert Morris is being "Persecuted" because he "Does The Lord's Work." They don't care that he raped a little girl, he tells them what they want to hear.

And there wasn't just one, you can count on that. Only one spoke up.

Remember that, because it's going to be important later.

We, as a constitutionally secular State with a free people, are very likely going to have to fight a war to get rid of these assholes or loosen their grips on certain things. You don't want to know how much harder that's going to be if they take over the country, or break off a part of it for their own use. It's going to come down to a fight and I tell you that with the cold certainty of a man who's carried a rifle in the field. More to the point, it's what the MAGA assholes themselves want.

These fucking people don't glorify the Antebellum South and the fucking Confederacy 'cause they think everybody was religious, they glorify it because motherfuckers could own Black people.

I can tell you exactly what happens if you say that in a certain kind of Baptist church, though. People be mad when you point out that the whole damn narrative is a lie.

And so, too few people on that side of the equation will have the guts to say "Hey, this is wrong" when they start killing their own for imagined sins and shooting at the rest of us...not least because to say that will be to risk one's own life.

That's why we can't let these fucking people have jack shit. 

More to the point, the rest of us need to aggressively claw back control of the Supreme Court and everything else these fuckers already have, and clean off everything else they've rubbed their dicks all over.

Why??

If you think the modern effects of Soviet-era propaganda and mind-control on Russian Boomers and Gen-X'ers are shitty?? I'd suggest you take a good hard look at your local Evangelical church or, for that matter, MAGA as a political movement.

And they will get worse. Trump is already egging them on to be and do worse.

What the hell kind of an idiot would you have to be to want to hand people like that a nation?? These motherfuckers want to turn America into El Salvador or South Vietnam for no better reasons than ego and Power. Anything but America, pretty much. Fuck all that.

You either believe in freedom or you don't, and freedom isn't free, sometimes you have to fight for it.

We can't let these fucking people have their Empire Of Sin. That shit would make the Evil Empire from Star Wars look like Iceland, by comparison.

Слава Україна!

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"

Last Post

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

Republican "Gods" (Wine Of The Wrath Of God, 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

...

You get freedom by letting your enemy know that you'll do anything to get your freedom; then you'll get it. It's the only way you'll get it. ~Malcolm X. 

I saw this yesterday, while I was out getting my groceries and running payday errands.

The first Russian IVF babies using sperm from dead Russian soldiers that were killed in Ukraine have now been born.

I mean this seriously, and I have a wide-ranging background of gaming and reading science fiction, so know that before I say this: That sound creepy as fuck to me.

Now, apparently the Southern Baptists have decided they're rabidly against IVF, which is interesting to me because as I wrote about awhile back, for a very long time literally the only couple I knew that had used IVF were an Assistant Pastor and his wife, at the time Fundamentalist Baptists very much in the mold of the Southern Baptist Convention...although the church was just your basic Fundamentalist Baptist church of the sort that defined itself as Baptist primarily theologically, rather than specifically denominationally and had no particular ties to any other. They got ran out by the nuts, although they simply went to a different church, so far as I know.

Same church, different problem, for a perhaps longer period of time the only woman I'd known who'd had an abortion was a Baptist conservative Republican. 

Think about that, for a second.

By the time the nuts got done with her, she was none of the above (although we were both in the same Community College biology class later) and within a few years her husband had also left both the Church and Christianity, and even being a Christian, I did not blame them because they'd both been treated so badly. (I left that church around the same time, myself.)

In both cases, the procedures were required because of medical problems of one sort or another, and in the latter case it was a choice of "Have an Abortion" or "Die" and that lady didn't want to die for some other person's beliefs, and would in fact go on to have at least one more kid that I know of.

Now Southern Baptists apparently hate IVF and want to ban it, at least, for Americans. It's Okay for Russians because these fucking people hate America, not Russia.

No word on their opinion of the Russian use of the procedure, which is probably literally geared at growing replacement soldiers who the Russians hope to use against America at a future date. Nor is there any change in these fucking people's belief that Russia is a "Christian" nation.

Of course, what these idiots consider to be "Christian" seems to run absolutely counter to anything that Jesus Christ ever said, about anything at all.

In fact, "Hate Gay People" apparently means more to them than "Love Thy Neighbor." And I'll note that Jesus only commanded the latter of those who follow Him. Jesus never said a damn thing about LGBT people, or hating anybody.

Of course, we already know these motherfuckers think that Donald Trump is Jesus Christ, and the Father and the Holy Ghost, too, apparently. These fucking people literally think Trump is God and I have no fucking idea why.

Also, Anything they ever said they believed in or anything that they said before could not be reached for comment. It seems to me as if pretty much all of Christianity before about June of 2015 has gone down the memory hole, so far as these assholes are concerned.

So what's all this for, really?? What's even the goddamned point??

I mean, these fucking people go around constantly saying they "Love God" but have you ever noticed nobody asks of them "What Is God??" let alone "Which God??"

Christ-less Christianity is not Christianity at all.

I mean, weren't these the "Jesus Plus Nothing" people??

How does one get from that to worshiping Donald Trump??

And the Bible, especially the Old Testament, is abundantly clear that there is, or was at one time, no shortage of Demons, False Gods, False Prophets, Impersonators, Imposters, Man-made Cults, Powers, Principalities and wannabes out there.

And somehow nobody ever even bothered to check the Word against Trump or anything he ever said, and I say that as a guy who stood there in my living room and watched Trump say, live on CNN, that he didn't think he needed God's forgiveness.

And me and my Roommate (who is African American and since we parted ways, he's become a Pastor) were both basically yelling at the TV, we were so shocked. And I wasn't a Born-Again anything at the time, and I'm still not. 

The fact that we both had Church backgrounds might've mattered there, but if you think about it, it should not have.

Any decent person should've been repulsed, most were.

For all the good that it did.

How the whole Trump Thing didn't end right there, I'll never know, but that was just the first of an endless list of such things.

Coincidentally, the rise of Trump in 2015 seemed to correlate to a drop-off in the amount of Jesus-talk from Evangelicals. It's almost like they thought they'd found a New Savior.

Never mind what the Lord's Word says about people who do exactly that.

In other words, if that's you, you should expect a warm afterlife.

Evangelicals and Republicans sold their souls for political Power...and so far as I can tell they really haven't gotten all that much for it.

Unless the entire damned point of all this garbage was simply to hurt people, and everything else was a lie.

And by now? This fresco from the Main Cathedral Of The Russian Armed Forces...featuring Soviet soldiers, seems more what the American Christians want for themselves. Never mind that you cannot have both the Cross of Christ and the Hammer and Sickle. One of these things is simply not like the other one. 

Jesus said His Kingdom is Not of This World, something must lose.

Republicans seem fine with some version of Soviet totalitarianism, so long as they think it's "theirs" and it makes occasional noises about "Christianity" or at least about aiding and abetting their greed, hate, and right-wing politics...which is basically what these assholes somehow think Christianity is, too.

But ya know, back in the day I read the Bible, and it doesn't say that.

What it said to me, was that people should try reading books instead of burning them.

What it said to me was that people should try caring for the kids we already have, instead of dictating how (or if) they could be born.

Because if they can ban books, or get away with wanting to ban Pride, or any other damn thing...the day will come when they will try to ban the Bible...or at least ban you from reading it. The day will come, if they can ban abortion or IVF or anything like that, that with the precedent already said they'll tell you that you must have this computer chip in your head, or your right hand.

And they'll tell you "It's not the Mark Of The Beast when they do it."

And if you don't know what the Truth is because you can't read it anymore or you didn't read it when it was freely available, what can you even say??

And that, my friends, is these fucking people's real objective.

Total power, or at least the imagining that they have it...including over whether you go to Heaven or Hell...with you having no recourse or say in the matter.

Without Truth, there is no freedom. Without Truth, we have no floor to stand on to push back against Power.

And no, they don't believe that there is a God or any other higher Power than themselves and the Power of the State...which they wish to seize for themselves. They don't really believe there's a God that'd hold them to account for their hate and lies and mistreatment of women and all the rest of it, or, going by all that they said before...they wouldn't be acting like this.

And they don't seem to care that they might be wrong or go to hell. It's all about getting their kicks in while they can, nothing else matters. They wanna be gods, so they can hurt people they don't like.

That's all there is to it.

Republicans have drunk the Wine of the Wrath of God, and they wanna make you drink it too, so you go to hell with them.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Either you stand up and fight against this shit now, or you condemn yourself to an eternity of submission later.

And this is America, we have the right to say "No."

Remember that, because it'll be on the test.

Слава Україна!

And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.

And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:

And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.

These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes. These were redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb.

And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.

And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,

Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

And the smoke of their torment ascends for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receives the mark of his name.

Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, said the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.

And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.

And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. ~Revelation 14:1-15

Four

When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything. ~Umberto Eco