Pulling Down The Golden Idols (American Revelation XVII, Eleven.)

Captain Mandrake: General Ripper, sir, as an officer in Her Majesty's Air Force, it is my clear duty, under the present circumstances, to issue the recall code, upon my own authority, and bring back the wing. If you'll excuse me sir. [Mandrake tries all exits and finds them locked] I'm afraid sir, I must ask you for the key and the recall code. Have you got them handy sir?

General Ripper: I told you to take it easy, Group Captain. There's nothing anybody can do about this thing now. I'm the only person who knows the three letter code group.

Capt. Mandrake: Then I must insist, sir, that you give them to me.

[Ripper lifts a folder off of his desk, revealing a pistol]

Capt. Mandrake: Do I take it, sir, that you are threatening a brother officer with a gun?

Gen. Ripper: Mandrake, I suppose it never occurred to you that while we're chatting here so enjoyably, a decision is being made by the President and the Joint Chiefs in the war room at the Pentagon. And when they realize there is no possibility of recalling the wing, there will be only one course of action open: total commitment. Mandrake, do you recall what Clemenceau once said about war?

Capt. Mandrake: No. I don't think I do sir, no.

Gen. Ripper: He said war was too important to be left to the Generals. When he said that, fifty years ago, he might have been right. But today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion, and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

...

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

I saw this yesterday, and it made me think of something.

As I've said before I have a church background and was a conservative for a lot of my life. I was never this kind of that shit, though.

In Evangelical, Fundamentalist and particularly Pentecostal churches there's a fair number of shitty little manipulators who append "God Told Me" to every stupid thing they say because they think it'll make it easier for them to get their way. In my experience a lot of these types fall into two categories; Women with issues, and the abusive shithead guys who prey upon them.

Likewise in Conservatism and the Republican Party, there's a certain weird loser type of dude (and yes, they're most often dudes, and usually creepy weirdos with a side of physically unappealing at that...think JD Vance) who spanks the monkey to the idea of manipulating their way into total control of some narrow slice of life...and then using that to rule with an iron fist over everything else.

And those two groups of people are where Project 2025 comes from.

Basically the "Project 2025" plan boils down to a two step process;  #1 "Declare everything Conservatives don't like is 'Porn." #2 Ban "Porn" and throw pretty much everybody else in jail, or just murder the rest of us. If this line of attack was working half as well as they thought it would've, these motherfuckers would be saying that paying workers adequate wages leads to sexual licentiousness.

This "Porn" thing is literally an all-purpose attack that exists in these fucking people's fever dreams alone, and they'd have to seize totalitarian Power to use it...but these motherfuckers are so far gone off into whacky-land that they think it's all a sure thing, and they don't even realize how weird their freakish sexual obsessions and performative fear of sexuality look to everybody else. (And also, these people are perverts.)

And two weeks ago, these fucking people were convinced they were going to win everything, and that nobody else would even fight back.

These clowns literally think if they can take enough political Power, that everybody else will just submit. They apparently did not pay attention during the Trump years when in 2017 these same morons (with an assist from the media endlessly hyping JD Vance and Hillbilly Elegy) were pretty much going around telling people "You have to be Conservative now, you just HAVE TO!" No reason given, no nothing. They just thought they "Won" and everybody else would have to obey. These people's "Conservatism" is not much more than a childish interpretation of religion.

And they've been mad as hell that the entire rest of the country pretty much shrugged and said "Hell nah, bro, and I'm gonna vote for the other guy." All these years later it's gotten bad enough that probably at least a third of Democratic voters are basically Republicans (And somehow Republicans haven't noticed that people can leave, and are in fact, leaving.)

Then Republicans started doubling down and put up Roy Moore to replace Jeff Sessions in Alabama. Somehow, molesting girls and young women and acting like such a creepy pervert that the local Mall threw your ass out 40 years ago is NOT Porn.

The Holy Roller type Christians have taken over the Republican Party to such a degree that the Pentecostal church model of "Pay, Pray, and Obey" is basically what's expected of most Republicans...and they're getting worse.

So I suppose it's no wonder that these same fucking people think they can just sit there On High and try and dictate who's Black or not, like colonial overlords playing divide-and-conquer games. It's like they have no idea that this is America and Black people done made up their own minds who was Black or not a long damn time ago.

And it's utterly inconceivable to them...especially after they ran Joe Biden out basically just by calling him "Old" ad infinitum that these fucking people are suddenly losing to Kamala Harris.

But the truth is, Joe Biden isn't entertaining, nor does he try to be...and he works off a different, older-school model of Being President, which I appreciated, but then I voted for Bush 43, too.

Please Clap, I guess.

I'll admit I was surprised by the meteoric rise of Kamala's campaign and especially how she basically grew her own organization in like, two days, but the difference is, I'm impressed. Unlike MAGA Republicans, I have the wit to see when things need to change, and apparently they did.

And the Democrats have suddenly seriously wounded the Great Orange Dragon simply by calling Republicans "Weird" and publicly pointing out basic facts (Which I've been doing for nine years mostly just because it needed to be done, so this is a natural fit for me.) 

But Republicans will get worse.

Trump himself is acting like the secret sauce of this whole damn thing is that he can just call for a bloody, glorious revolution and it will magically be so, and that he'll win such a thing by some kind of default.

I mean, you'd think the fact that people have flocked to the K-Hive on an unprecedented scale, that political momentum has been with the Democrats since just a few hours after Biden stepped aside and that it's finally setting in with a lot of us that this MAGA shit could be over (and even a lot of Republican voters seem relieved by that) would be something they'd fucking notice.

So if I had to guess, the Revolution will be short, and it will not work out the way these goons think it will.

In fact, I'd argue that the consolation-prize MAGA Banana Republic they thought they were gonna be able to break off even if they lost gets smaller with every couch-fucker joke and Republicans-are-weird meme.

But if you want to stop it, especially stop it all the way, you're still going to have to step up and do your duty and be a better citizen.

But it seems like that's the way things are trending, and it has Republicans terrified.

They're about to find out the hard way that they cannot turn on a dime from living in constant fear of everything to being brave just because that's what suits the needs of their political masters.

Good.

You have to be brave all the time, and make a good-faith effort to control your fear and act to protect both yourself and those less fortunate. You have to believe in Civilization...for everybody.

Because the alternative is to become These Fucking People.

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

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

Freedom isn't free.

The thing that kills me, is that these self-styled heirs to Ronald Reagan and to a previous generation of conservatives and Republicans who taught me to be brave and to stand for things would rather live in Fear than in Civilization, and want to stand for nothing at all...unless it's Donald Trump.

Anything but America.

Anything but "Love Thy Neighbor."

Like what kind of loser makes Trump their God, yo?

And I guess...anything but acting like the people they said they were and facing the future with some courage. Like they think it's easier to just worship Golden Idols?

I can't make that shit make sense, yo.

I'm tired of this Nonsense, enough is enough. Stop with the weird shit, it's not funny.

It's time to pull the Golden Idols down.

Let's get after it.

Слава Україна!

In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech, and expression—everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.

That is no vision of a distant millennium.

It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation.

That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt, excerpted from the State of the Union Address to the Congress, January 6, 1941.

Ten

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

Weird (American Revelation XVII, Ten.)

Joe: For the last time, I'm pretty sure what's killing the crops is this Brawndo stuff.

Secretary of State: But Brawndo's got what plants crave. It's got electrolytes.

Attorney General: "So wait a minute. What you're saying is that you want us to put water on the crops.

Joe: Yes.

Attorney General: Water. Like out the toilet?

Joe: Well, I mean, it doesn't have to be out of the toilet, but, yeah, that's the idea.

Secretary of State: But Brawndo's got what plants crave.

Attorney General: It's got electrolytes.

Joe: Okay, look. The plants aren't growing, so I'm pretty sure that the Brawndo's not working. Now, I'm no botanist, but I do know that if you put water on plants, they grow.

Secretary of Energy: Well, I've never seen no plants grow out of no toilet.

Secretary of State: Hey, that's good. You sure you ain't the smartest guy in the world?

Joe: Okay, look. You want to solve this problem. I want to get my pardon. So why don't we just try it, okay, and not worry about what plants crave?

Attorney General: Brawndo's got what plants crave.

Secretary of Energy: Yeah, it's got electrolytes.

Joe: What are electrolytes? Do you even know?

Secretary of State: It's what they use to make Brawndo.

~From the film Idiocracy.

...

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.  We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream.  The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same.  And if you and I don't do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free. ~Ronald Reagan

So, all these Republicans are big-time offended by the Democratic plan of simply...pointing out that they're weird??

Well, they are.

I'm sorry, guys, but if the horned hat and Braveheart makeup fit, you fuckers have to wear that shit. I mean, you were all gung ho to strap up looking like Bozo the Clown when you thought it was gonna "Own The Libs," correct?? 

I remember 1/6, hell I even wrote about it. A lot of weird shit happened that day. It took me a week to get my thoughts together enough to even write about it...there was such a blizzard of weird shit afterwards, and no, there is no kinder word for it.

This crap doesn't deserve any better than that.

Nobody made all these motherfuckers dress up like third-string Extras in Idiocracy to do this, nor think they were gonna score the Che Guevara Beret photo of the 21st Century for doing so. I mean, I still think my favorite was Enrique Tarrio giving a speech with a can of White Claw sticking out of one of the pockets in his plate carrier. Pull something like that as a cop or a soldier, and you're gonna be looking for a new career right quick. 

Note: This is also not a good move for any insurgent that aspires to actually be effective. Information Warfare and Public Image, and what the Press says about you are as much a part of effective insurgency as IED's, Kalashnikovs and Toyota Hilux technical trucks.

And yes, "What the fuck is wrong with you" is absolutely a valid counterinsurgency strategy, given that (If people like Che Guevara and Fidel Castro are to be considered) the self-image created by things like Che's beret or Fidel's Army fatigues is just as important of a part of an insurgent's bit as anything else. (And yes, they've tried to do this with Trump's "look" too.) If you can make them doubt the "Popular Will" and think "Hey, maybe I look like an idiot?" the fight's half over already. Equating their goals in the public mind with miserable bastardy for its own sake gets you most of the rest of the way there. Nobody wants to live like that.

These are the people performatively mad about that bit from the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics, but goddamn, their own idea of a Glorious Revolution was literally a Bacchanalia of bad behavior, religiosity and stupid weird shit with a side order of "Look, Mom, I'm overthrowing the government!" Any attempted right-wing insurgency that these fuckers pull now, is just gonna be 1/6 on a national scale but probably with fewer cold-blooded professionals under the radar carrying zip-ties.

It's real hard to turn on a dime from Idiocracy to seriousness.

All the more so, when your political movement has worked overtime to quash any attempt by serious people to do...well, basically anything in a serious fashion...because it distracts from the Glorious Leader's floor show. And don't tell me "Mainstream" Republicans (or at least what passed for them by 2017) haven't got in on the act, because when the Trump tax cuts got passed, somebody ordered up a beer truck and all the allegedly serious Republicans acted like a bunch of frat boys.

And seven years later, because even a lot of the Tea Party Republicans who brought that fiasco about have been run out of the party or otherwise sidelined, quit, or switched sides...and along the way the culture of the Republican Party switched (yet again, remember Bush 43 neoconservatism was less than a decade in the past in 2017) from Tea Party Libertarianism to MAGA racism and stupidity. All Stephen Miller's job is, is to try and sell that garbage to people who wear suits and go to meetings for a living.

Ya know, it's no wonder that the old guys like Chuck Grassley and Mitch McConnell look like they don't know if they're coming or going, or that serious Republicans like Mitt Romney are getting out completely. 

I follow politics, not least as a measure of self-defense considering that I (being a disabled veteran and a non-Christian) have a lot to lose if Project 2025 goes into effect.

Not to mention, I don't have kids, I don't have a lot of money, and I'm not the sort of White person whose "Whiteness" these motherfuckers want to promote, either.

I changed my voter registration to Independent in 2008 and to Democratic in 2016 and it's not that I don't even recognize the Republican Party anymore so much as there's nothing there that even interests me, or would have done so 20 years ago either. That alone makes me an inconvenience to these clowns.

And the fact that I'm not ever going to debase myself by even pretending to support this bullshit makes me a threat. 

I've hated Trump as long as I've been aware of him, the man is a scumbag.

No amount of guns or political power or anything else is ever going to get me to change that view, nor to shut up about it. 

Nothing is going to prevent me from pointing out that he surrounds himself with sycophants and toadies and women who make themselves look like Star Wars aliens to try and attract his debased attentions (not to mention all the other weird shit.)

And the fact is, these motherfuckers forgot a long time ago that some things are not for sale, nor should they be. These fools couldn't buy my allegiance either. Like, it's not even what other people might say about me...it's that I have to brush my teeth and all that every morning, and shave at least once or twice a week and that gets harder if I can't look at myself in the bathroom mirror. That's a morning conversation I can't avoid, and I don't know how the hell Republicans do it.

But if I had to guess, I think that tolerance for all this kind of crap is starting to run out, and not just here, either. Continuing Ukrainian resistance, and the support for it, protests in Venezuela over an election where Maduro just simply declared victory...And I think that explains the massive upwelling of support for Kamala Harris, too. It also explains why Republicans are suddenly on the defensive after all this time...and losing, because MAGA doesn't do defense very well.

And there is no Republican Party anymore, apart from MAGA and Trump. The few left who haven't at least acquiesced to all that shit are on their way out. After all this crap, Mitt Romney's chances of a continued political career would probably be better if he switched parties.

And Republicans are running out of options that fall within the normal American political spectrum, too. That's a thing we're going to need to be aware of.

Republicans also need to be aware, MAGA hates them, too.

If anything, I expect the weird shit to get weirder because the audience they're playing to now...and that they need to have amped up beyond all current parameters for what I suspect will be their next move...doesn't really do reality and deals mostly in conspiracy theories and hokey religious bullshit that simply won't make sense to anybody who hasn't already been exposed to that kind of crap.

Time's coming where you're going to have to ante up and kick in and be a Better Citizen.

Because yes, it's absolutely that or let these fucking people and their obsessions with misery and petty power games and weird bullshit run your life.

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

So get after it.

Because this time we can't afford to lose.

Слава Україна!

Captain Mandrake: General Ripper, sir, as an officer in Her Majesty's Air Force, it is my clear duty, under the present circumstances, to issue the recall code, upon my own authority, and bring back the wing. If you'll excuse me sir. [Mandrake tries all exits and finds them locked] I'm afraid sir, I must ask you for the key and the recall code. Have you got them handy sir?

General Ripper: I told you to take it easy, Group Captain. There's nothing anybody can do about this thing now. I'm the only person who knows the three letter code group.

Capt. Mandrake: Then I must insist, sir, that you give them to me.

[Ripper lifts a folder off of his desk, revealing a pistol]

Capt. Mandrake: Do I take it, sir, that you are threatening a brother officer with a gun?

Gen. Ripper: Mandrake, I suppose it never occurred to you that while we're chatting here so enjoyably, a decision is being made by the President and the Joint Chiefs in the war room at the Pentagon. And when they realize there is no possibility of recalling the wing, there will be only one course of action open: total commitment. Mandrake, do you recall what Clemenceau once said about war?

Capt. Mandrake: No. I don't think I do sir, no.

Gen. Ripper: He said war was too important to be left to the Generals. When he said that, fifty years ago, he might have been right. But today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion, and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

Nine

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

Foolish Man (American Revelation XVII, Nine.)

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

If any man have an ear, let him hear.

He that leads into captivity shall go into captivity: he that kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he speaks as a dragon.

And he exercises all the power of the first beast before him, and causes the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

And he doeth great wonders, so that he makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,

And deceive them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

And he causes 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, King James Bible.

...

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

I saw this last night.

Trump came right out and said he's going after the vote and he wants to end democracy, that he doesn't want Americans to "Have" to vote anymore. As if Citizenship is some kind of an imposition on the Body Politic. And then the son of a bitch came right out and said that he isn't a Christian, while patronizing Christians and talking to them like they were his property, his little pets or some shit.

Fuck Trump, that motherfucker doesn't deserve to lead shit and he should be in prison, if not dead. In most countries in this world...especially the kind Trump wants to emulate...if you try to overthrow the government you get hanged or shot or even worse, by those already in power.

The Vote is the entire goddamned point of America. If we don't have the Vote, we don't have a country. Without the franchise, there is literally no basis for the United States of America and we will not last. We don't have a common culture, language, religion or anything of the sort. America is an idea, all we have, all we Are, is what we want to be. More to the point, nothing else binds us together except the conviction that we have the right to choose our own fates.

The problem with that is some of us want to be slaves to weird assholes like Donald Trump.

When this country was founded it was a revolutionary project of an unprecedented scale simply for not being beholden to a King and because even some of the population had the right to determine their own fate by voting for their leaders.

And make no mistake about it, the reason Trump is getting away with this bullshit is because in the last week, suddenly Republicans are losing to Democrats again, and the Democrats are now led by Kamala Harris, with the endorsement of both Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

I mean, I'd have voted for a rotten ham sandwich on moldy bread over Trump, but in the last six days I've seen Kamala grow an entire nationwide campaign operation. Hell, to be honest, she'd made the campaign her own and effectively had most of the work done in the first two days or so and not only was I impressed, but I was literally wondering aloud "MY God, who the fuck even does that??"

Meanwhile I saw in the paper yesterday morning that Trump has blown a seven point lead in my state!

For fuck's sake I've been randomly laughing my ass off about Angry Cat Lady memes and [JD Vance] Couch-fucker jokes for the last few days, as well as about how the Harris campaign is highlighting just how goddamned weird MAGA Republicans are.

So yeah, I'm all in for Kamala, and if you don't like it, fuck you.

And what the fuck are the so-called "Christians" doing??

They're being mean to Kamala Harris, while doing and saying more weird stupid shit and following after Trump despite his open contempt for them and their religion, and then they have the nerve to talk stupid about how "Evil" everybody else is. 

Like I keep saying, it's literally anything but "Love Thy Neighbor."

It's no wonder these motherfuckers think they can have America without the vote, they've been trying to have Christianity without its own basis for a pretty damned long time, too. Jesus said that the basis of Christianity is twofold; Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul and all thy might...and Love Thy Neighbor as thyself.

And it's the latter that Christ placed more emphasis on, saying that all the other laws of the Prophets hang from this one.

And it's clearly not working, because American Christianity has largely morphed into the Cult Of Trump, which is not only clearly hell-bound for that alone, but it seems to be imbued with the Spirit of Antichrist and an obvious test run for the Beast of Revelations.

And because somebody implied...didn't even say, simply implied "I hate [Racial Expletive Deleted]'s" all the sudden it's Not The Mark Of The Beast when it's cosplaying as Right-Wing. Except that yes it is and you're still going to hell.

I mean, what the hell is the difference between Christ-less Christianity and the type of Radical Islam that commits mass murder, does drugs and stomps all over the beliefs of that faith and of mainstream Muslims??

And not only do they not care, that they're shitting all over the Lord's Word and (if you actually believe in it) they're going to face the judgment...they're fine with it as long as they think they're gonna take somebody else down with them!

The reason these fucking people wallow in such soul-crushing atavistic fear all the time is (I think) they know they done fucked up, and they know sooner or later, in this life or the next there's going to be consequences. Either their fellow humans will stop tolerating it, or one way or another the Gods will do the same. But, these assholes think if they can spin up a good enough line of bullshit, they might be able to get out of it somehow, or blame somebody else or something.

Mostly because America has been letting rich white men and shitty little white dude-bros get away with too much, for too long. Guys, if you're Christian, you should know that the Bible explicitly states that neither the Father nor Jesus Christ gives a shit about whatever worldly social status you think you have.

And why should they??

There's going to be a lot of Fuck Around and Find Out going on here, both in this world and the next.

When these assholes lose...and if the Democrats can keep even half of this energy level going for the next four months, they've got this...the Republicans are going to try and start a civil war.

Which they're also going to lose.

Why??

Because these fucking people don't even seem to understand the basis for...well, pretty much anything. I mean how much of a dumb motherfucker do you have to be to not understand that the Vote is the entire basis of the first major modern nation to be a Democracy??

Therefore whosoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

And every one that hears these sayings of mine, and does them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. ~Matthew 7:24-27

I mean who the fuck takes 250 years of the Rock of a broadly functioning liberal democratic government (in fact the prototype for most such modern systems) and replaces that with the shifting sand of Donald Trump and the ennui and vicissitudes of a goddamned mob??

These fucking people act like America wasn't America before Donald Trump slimed his way down that golden escalator, and I'm goddamned tired of this shit!

I get that a lot of people are dumb motherfuckers, but come on!

This is America.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

And it's time to get with the program and stand up and be counted on one side or the other.

Pay attention to what I say, because it's going to be on the test.

But the thing with choices, with belief in gods and this and that...is that sooner or later we all have to live with the consequences of our actions and be judged by something greater than ourselves.

When I say the words "American Revelation" this is what I'm talking about. One way or another there WILL be a judgment.

You might be able to bullshit Man, but you can't bullshit God, or the gods, or History or the Universe or whatever the fuck you want to call it. Somebody somewhere knows what you done, and always will.

If there is such a thing as the Creator of the Infinite Universe, it's generally a good idea to assume that He's been around for a long time and has seen it all, and He's probably smarter than you are.

If you want a better country, you have to be a better citizen.

And time's coming where we're all going to have to ante up and kick in.

Слава Україна!

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.  We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream.  The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same.  And if you and I don't do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free. ~Ronald Reagan

Eight

When I was sixteen I won a great victory. I felt in that moment that I should live to be a hundred, now I know I shall not see thirty. None of us know our end really, or what hand will guide us there. A King may move a man, a father may claim a son. That man can also move himself. And only then does that man truly begin his own game. Remember that how so ever you are played, or by whom, your soul is in your keeping alone. Even though those who presume to play you be kings or men of power. When you stand before God, you cannot say "but I was told by others to do thusly" or that "virtue was not convenient at the time." This will not suffice. Remember that. ~The Leper King, from the film Kingdom Of Heaven.

Worshiping The Beast (American Revelation XVII, Eight.)

And so tomorrow, as we take the campaign South and West, as we learn that the struggles of the textile workers in Spartanburg are not so different than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas; that the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of L.A.; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people, we are one nation. And, together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story, with three words that will ring from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea: Yes, we can. ~Barack Obama

...

Agnew was right. The press is a gang of cruel f****ts. Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for fuckoffs and misfits—a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage. ~Hunter S. Thompson

...

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

I keep seeing stuff like this, obviously-fake concern from the Media and Republicans, these assholes all trying to priggishly tell us what we "Deserve" or what's "good" for us" because they don't like the fact that Democrats instantly decided that Kamala Harris was the "You Better Eat Your Wheaties" that we all needed. They're bad-faith worried about the Blackness of Kamala Harris, or the state of democracy in the Democratic party. This in spite of the fact that both Black people in particular and Democrats as a group have decided that they're fine with the situation. More, Kamala Harris is thus far showing herself to be worth every bit of the faith Joe Biden and others have placed in her.

I mean who the fuck grows an entire well-funded political campaign at damn near the last minute in less than two days??

Of course, that's exactly what these assholes are terrified of and why they're maniacally throwing Spaghetti at the wall.

Like, do they think we can't see the fact that the modern Republican Party is basically already a tyranny in thrall to Donald Trump??

I mean, here we have Erick Erickson trying to talk like he's the arbiter of who's Black or not, as if anybody with a complexion darker than an 8.5 x 11 sheet of computer paper is ever gonna listen to that fucking garbage?? Come on! Like, what's wrong with you??

I get it, Republicans think they, themselves, have been given the knowing of all things Mortal simply for being Republicans. But, the reality of things is what it is and it don't care what they think.

I used to work with Jamaicans and they're a defining group for Black culture (because the Jamaican and other Afro-Caribbean diasporas populate so much of it) in much of the rest of the world (particularly Canada, the UK and other Commonwealth countries) in the same way that African Americans are in the USA.

 An Afro-Cuban or Afro-Caribbean person who comes here is very, very damn likely going to assimilate into African-American culture first, then find or start their own sub-group within it and I only know this because I served with a couple of these guys in the Air Force and worked with some of these people in the civilian world after that. 

Likewise, an African-American person who gets a lot of visitors from or spends a lot of time in a place like Belize or Jamaica is going to pick up the Creole or the Patwa pretty damn easy, among other things. That was one of the cooks I worked with for some years at the casino. His Stepdad was from Belize and you could always tell when they had a family gathering because he picked up the accent easy.

Culture, especially Black culture and that of other groups that had to bend and code-switch and twist around the utter, selfish dominance of White People for basically forever so that theirs could even survive, is complex.

I mean, I get it.

Republican elites live in their own bubble and don't have to interact with regular people all that much. They've never had to worry about anything and they don't understand anybody who is in the position of having to.

And they don't want to, either.

Hell, their entire understanding of "Culture" is literally how to use it as a stick to beat other people with. They sure aren't going to understand what anybody else thinks, but they're used to being able to say whatever shit they want and have some dumb White motherfucker take it as gospel no matter what, so they flap their lips anyway...and they either (on purpose) don't understand that it's all bigotry, or they cynically use it anyway simply because they think it favors them, and that it always will do so.

It's the same way with Democratic and a lot of other liberal elites too. But those people are seldom as crass and open about that shit as NYT reporters and Republicans have been lately. Also, IF he was the dude he spent so much time saying that he was in 2016 and 2020, you'd think Bernie Sanders of all the fucking people would Get It.

I see these motherfuckers trying to disparage everything from Kamala Harris's career in public service, to race and her family, and not a one of these sons of bitches understands that it's only resonating with their kind of White people. It's not working and it's alienating a hell of a lot of the rest of us. 

The difference is that on the Democratic side, there'll be a reckoning and we'll throw the bad apples out. Republicans like Ted Cruz or Usha Vance (for example) will just put up with the abuse, if that is what it takes for them to feel like they're sort of getting ahead. I couldn't do it. Not just I couldn't do it. I wouldn't do it.

I couldn't do the Mike Pence thing, and spend another couple years in a group that tried to have me killed. I couldn't do the Ted Cruz thing, and cravenly support a guy who called me a liar and called my wife ugly and whose entire political bit is about getting rid of people like me.

If my own Party sent a mob after me that called for me to be hanged, I'm out of there and I'm joining the other team smartly because if things go to shit that's how you survive. Escaping that type of shit is how you live a life that's something other than a constant treadmill of fear. You join the people that aren't all looking for excuses to murder each other and everybody else, that are working together and care about some sort of a future that isn't about trying to create The Walking Dead or the Warhammer 40K universe.

And the thing is, Republicans can only get worse and more extreme, lest the monsters they've awakened rise up and eat them. That's the trouble with the modern Republican ideology, it can't survive if people are happy. It can't last without enemies to fight constantly.

Sooner or later, you just end up with a bunch of dudes, each trying to build the tallest pyramid of skulls to sit on top of so they can see who sees the farthest. It's to the point where I doubt they would even argue with that statement. And for the record, if you wonder how far these assholes have gone from their alleged Christian beliefs, that's a paraphrase of a line from the Nine Satanic Statements.

Of course, Anton S. LaVey also based his bit very heavily off of Ayn Rand...and he came right out and admitted to cheating on his homework, but adding religious trappings. What Republicans did for so many years (and that led directly to this when the Randian bullshit wasn't cruel enough) was try to wrap all that garbage up in Christianity and Libertarianism. So, buyer beware and you get what you pay for, pretty much.

When I say the words American Revelation this is the kind of stuff I'm talking about.

So yeah, it's all bullshit, ALL of it!

Including, apparently, all of the basic performative hatred directed at Joe Biden. Republicans loved Joe Biden, all the bullshit-ass "Influencers," scumbag T-shirt merchants and so on? They made bank off Joe Biden with not a whole hell of a lot of pushback. They're mad as hell he's stepped aside, simply because, well, they know what they can say about Her but actually saying it might get them in trouble at work if they also have real jobs, or make their friends stop talking to them, or their girlfriend might break up with them or their wife might get mad.

Also, If you haven't noticed, at the end of the day nobody but Those Fucking People ever got all that fired up about Joe Biden.

Joe wasn't entertaining, or exciting, there was not much in the way or memes and no novelty whatever.

Joe was just an Old White Man.

You know, exactly what conservatives said they wanted all this time, except he wasn't Trump.

(Which was also the main reason most of us voted for him.)

And that's Over.

And They Mad.

Because now Democrats have someone and something to fight for.

That usually means Democrats are going to Win.

Only this time, it's either we win, or we all have to deal with the Spirit of Antichrist that controls dudes like Elon and Trump, with something less than a free, secular State or a truly-believing Church backing us up. Project 2025 isn't about making America a Christian nation, it's about the "Christians" making laws to protect Donald Trump and a circle-jerk of debasement, hypocrisy, power and wealth.

Now is the time to Be A Better Citizen and vote these fuckers out.

Because, quite honestly, there's something grimly Soviet about the current-Republican vision of a joyless, unimaginative Future where no one thinks or reads and the only people who have anything are those who had it Before (Before being a very fungible point, but broadly speaking around here it's the people who bought they White Flight houses in 1979 when they figured Detroit, Flint and Saginaw were too Black and Those People had been getting good Union jobs for over a decade.) And nobody but those bitter old White People and their politicians gets to have anything.

Imagine thinking Life stopped being good 40 or 50 years ago...as the starting point of your worldview.

Then throw in absolutely psychotic levels of narcissism and selfishness on top of that.

Everything Sucks, Vote For Us and Only Rich White People can do anything. Here's some racism and religion in place of you getting to have a life. We're taking your stuff. Yes, That's basically the entire Republican platform.

Kinda makes it easy to figure out why so many Republicans use drugs, doesn't it??

And the media wants to help them, on an entirely for-profit basis.

They literally want to turn America into the kind of place that people try like hell to get away from.

And they think they, somehow, will be the chosen ones to whom the violent collapse and civil wars and all the other shit they want to start doesn't apply?

None of this works that way. These Aren't The Droids You're Looking For. One of these things is not like the other one.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

And if you believe in freedom, that means other people get to have it, too.

And if you wonder why These Fucking People have chosen to worship the Beast, that's why.

All he had to say was they could be selfish.

Слава Україна!

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

Seven

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

If any man have an ear, let him hear.

He that leads into captivity shall go into captivity: he that kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he speaks as a dragon.

And he exercises all the power of the first beast before him, and causes the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

And he doeth great wonders, so that he makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,

And deceive them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

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, King James Bible.

Yes We Can! (American Revelation XVII Seven, Kamala Harris Edition.)

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change. We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics. They will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks and months to come. We've been asked to pause for a reality check; we've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we've been told we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes We Can. ~Barack Obama

...

[Under a truce between the divided crew, Captain Ramsey and Commander Hunter wait for the next three minutes on communications restoration...]

Captain Ramsey:: Speaking of horses...did you ever see those Lipizzaner stallions?

Commander Hunter: What?

Ramsey:: From Portugal. The Lipizzaner stallions. The most highly trained horses in the world. They're all white.

Hunter: Yes, sir.

Ramsey:: "Yes, sir" you're aware they're all white or "Yes, sir" you've seen them?

Hunter:: Yes, sir, I've seen them. Yes, sir, I'm aware that they're all white. They're not from Portugal; they're from Spain. And at birth, they're not white; they're black. Sir.

Ramsey:: [grins] I didn't know that. But they are from Portugal.

~From the film Crimson Tide.

Yesterday afternoon, Joe Biden stepped down as the Democratic Party's nominee in the 2024 election.

I have to admit, I was all in for Joe. But then, I'm all in for anybody who Ain't Trump, and I have been since 2015. I've never liked Trump, and I've actively hated him since I was like 15 years old when he basically tried to have the (later exonerated) Central Park Five killed for basically no good reason. Some of them were and are my age. Trump is scum.

And all we've heard about from the press for the last nine years in general, and the last three weeks in particular, is Trump.

I'm tired of it, but being against something only motivates most people so far.

While I was out to lunch with my Mom and her partner at their favorite Mexican restaurant, Biden announced and endorsed Harris.

I detected a change in the air almost immediately.

The vibe was immediate. I felt the same way in 2020.

But of course, I couldn't really comment much on that at the time because I had to go to bed. I had to work last night.

By the time I got up and started getting ready for work, like magic, Democrats had begun to fall in line and Republicans were suddenly...and very...on the defensive and losing. Their entire narrative is fucked.

I know where they'll try and go, but misogyny and open racism will lose them more voters than it gets them.

By midnight, I'd seen that the Black community has fallen in line. I know for a fact, from watching him for years because of my last roommate, that people listen when guys like Roland Martin talk. Harris has already done legit serious organizing and raised a shitload of money in her own right, in addition to inheriting the existing campaign war-chest.

I mean, like...fuck...me and our local paper guy were talking about it for a few at work and we were both just like damn. 

Harris has caught on with Democrats in a way that to be entirely honest...reminds me of how Sarah Palin caught on with Republicans in 2008, but for a lot better reasons, also probably even faster. And I was there, Palin became a thing almost literally overnight but I can tell you for a fact I was not like Holy Shit by 4 AM on September 3rd, 2008. 

I'd cracked a few jokes about Palin, that was about it. But, Magic The Gathering mattered more on my lunch break. I was just getting into the game and my then-new Native roommate (Who'd moved in the previous weekend) had helped me build a deck I wanted to try out. The horror at Palin's stupidity came later.

That said, within a week, I wasn't a Republican anymore.

But I'm here to tell you, even I understood the importance of Barack Obama and what even the possibility of him getting elected meant. I knew he'd open the door for others, and represented the future. I was quite willing to vote for Obama even before Palin came along, but I had nothing against McCain either (And I still don't.) Among other things, my late grandfather was briefly one of McCain's commanding officers at some point. I'm a veteran myself, and I was a swing voter at the time. 

I voted for Obama and never looked back.

Now that the Republicans have effectively become the pro-Soviet Vladimir Putin caucus I'm glad I did that.

The thing is, since a Black man said "Yes We Can" the entire Republican bit has  become "No We Can't." And it's gotten old with everybody who doesn't seem to enjoy being a miserable bastard as some sort of a hobby.

That seems like a hell of a way to live, as far as I'm concerned.

Acting like you think you're a bold truth-teller doesn't make you not be a miserable asshole.

I'll note that in spite of the New York Times and shit trying to promote JD Vance, he has not caught on despite managing to upstage Trump...which, in all honesty, really isn't hard. Trump has all the charisma of pocket lint as far as most people are concerned. Only a certain kind of person thinks he's Jesus.

Those among the donors and the media who ran the Palace Coup against Joe seem to have had it in their heads that they could foist Joe Manchin or Mitt Romney or somebody like that onto the Democratic Party's ticket...an idea that lasted about as long as a hog-tied vampire once it was exposed to sunlight.

And those people...not to mention the Republicans they fundamentally sought to enable...are going to get their asses kicked. 

I'm serious.

The kind of energy I'm seeing here can, historically, only be stopped by more of the same. 

Palin fired up the Republicans in 2008. Say what you will, but there was evident joy among Palin's Pentecostal supporters that one of their own had made it that far. Obama just fired up Democrats more. Likewise in 2016, Democrats were fired up by Hillary Clinton, but Trump fired up Republicans more, and you could see it. I mean, I said at the time if Trump lost he'd just run again. But the pollsters said all the systematic stuff was on our side that year...and they were wrong. 

That's why I don't trust the polling now. I keep my eyes open and I trust my intuition and spirituality.

And Republicans ain't got it, not this time, not ever again if Trump's on the ticket. There is No Joy in MAGA-Land, by definition, because Trump himself is a joyless asshole. Happiness isn't his thing.

Hell, Republicans don't know what that shit even is anymore.

At least Palin catching on was, whether I agreed with it or not, motivated by sincere religious faith among a hell of a lot of the people she caught on with.

That's not what this is.

The bitter pleasure of cynicism doesn't motivate anybody to change the world. 

Just like the frequent posts to "Hold the line" in the case of Joe Biden's candidacy were really starting to fall extremely flat.

Right or wrong, the status quo doesn't really motivate anybody except conservatives...and if you ask me there's damned few of those left who still are that, might well be there were damned few who really believed in it all along. I was one of those, not that it ended up mattering worth a damn in the end.

I was compelled to take a stand by the circumstances around me in 2008. I threw in with civilization and took a stand against the fall of night. 

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

But, a slow pace of change and gradual acceptance of difference doesn't really excite most people. That's why the last day or so has played out this way. I'd have been fine with Harris in 2028 but the base and Joe Biden of all people called it different.

Well, now we've rolled the dice for damn sure.

And looking at it in the moment I can't say I disagree with the call, and I'm impressed with and stunned by its immediate results. Republicans are trying to make some big deal about Obama not endorsing Harris (Yet.)

I'm still catching up and I been following this. If he's busy or slept in today, maybe he just ain't got to it but he will.

Like the man said; "Yes We Can."

And he was not wrong.

I'm With Her.

How this goes is American Revelation.

Слава Україна!

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

Six

[outside the Admiralty building]

Hunter:: Sir... I just wanted to say thank you.

[Ramsey holds up a hand]

Ramsey:: You were right and I was wrong. [Ramsey smiles] About the horses, the Lippanzaners. They are from Spain, not Portugal.

Hunter:: [smiles] Yes, sir.

[They salute each other.]

~From the film Crimson Tide.