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

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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

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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.