Hate Thy Neighbor (American Revelation XVIII, Two.)

Master, what is the greatest commandment of the law?

Jesus said to him: Love the Lord your God with all your heart,  all your soul and all your mind. 

This is the first and greatest commandment

And the second is like unto it. Love your neighbor as yourself.

From these two hang all the laws of the prophets.

- Matthew 22: 36-40

...

When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they believe in nothing; they believe in everything. - Umberto Eco

So Trump had his big asshole rally on Sunday at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

As far as I'm concerned if you need to be told this is wrong,  there's something wrong with you. 

If you are anything other than a MAGA bootlicker and not reacting to literally threats against your life, what the fuck??

The opening act was some asshole racist comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe, who I've never heard of before Sunday night,  that called Puerto Rico a "garbage island" and apparently pissed off most of the Puerto Rican population in the process. 

Fuck him in particular.

I hope it was worth lightning your useless career on fire.

This whole thing then progressed to racist jokes about Black people, outright Trump worship,  and some other asshole I've never heard of but immediately nicknamed Howard Lick Nuts trying to turn the US government into a Doge meme joke. 

But  there was something else; One of these fucking people spent way too much time talking about how Latinos "Love to make babies."

Hold on here; Isn't that what you "Pro-Life" motherfuckers wanted??

Or is it just the white women you freaks want to turn into brood mares??

It was all a lie. 

Now it's anything but Love Thy Neighbor.

It's anything but America

Look, I used to be a republican.

There's always been a dark underworld of fascist creepy bullshit and religious fanatics, albeit one seeking a Christ-less Christianity,to this crap.

And they've always been thick as thieves with the cocaine addled frat-boy money bros.

There were always a few people like this.

But here's the thing: Out here in the world among us normal people, talking shit like that could get you beat up.

For the most part 30 years ago, freaks like this were preaching on street corners, reeking of cat piss and Wild Irish Rose.

There were a few "respectable" ones...the Ron Paul types...with closely circulated newsletters full of this crap.

There was a moderate size tranche of totally amoral scammers, but you mostly only heard about them when they got busted and went to jail.

And there were a few militia types that pretty much everybody else feared and hated. 

Back in them days, the Commie sympathizers and the Russia Stans were all the farthest of far-left and after twelve years of Reagan and Bush, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of Communism as a global political force, not to mention two years of Bill Clinton and "Greed is good" having become bipartisan...nobody cared.

Guess what?

After a decade of Trump, these fucking people are the Republican party now.

They chased everybody else out and took over.

Now they're trying to turn America into another Trump meme stock.

And it's less Showing Their Ass than the equivalent of mooning the whole Catholic pilgrimage to Rome and the entire Hajj all at once, with a side of preaching hellfire at Pride and showing up at a  Juneteenth event in Klan robes and turning the Cross of Christ into nothing more than a flaming lawn ornament.

And if they can't have totalitarian political power, they desire a civil war.

When is enough,  enough?

They're losing and they know it.

That's what this rally,  clearly meant to echo the 1939 MSG Nazi rally, was really about.

They're priming the edge cases and the militia nuts and the Trump moonbat motherfuckers to fight a right-wing insurgency for them when they lose.

Republicans already rejected Democracy because it wasn't self-serving enough for them.

Now they're going to reject America for not being racist enough.

We cannot continue to tolerate this bullshit.

You either believe in civilization and freedom or you don't.

You're either willing to fight or you're not.

Now is the time to be a better citizen.

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Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. - Matthew 23:24

One

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. - George Orwell.

Spirit Of Fear (American Revelation XVIII, One.)

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. ~2nd Timothy 1:7

...

If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come. It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! ~Patrick Henry

...

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 last night.

Trump went on Joe Rogan the other day (before being three hours late to a rally in Traverse City, MI) and his side of the interview was total gibberish. Joe Rogan couldn't save Trump, by the end, he looked like he didn't want to.

Trump's not just losing it, he's done lost it already.

And I think the voters know it, too.

More to the point, I think a lot of people are just done with this fucking bullshit.

That's the vibe I've been getting for awhile.

I'm going to be honest, I'm just tired of hearing Trump's stupid Chloroform voice and seeing his stupid face all over the goddamned place. Honestly it'd be nice to be able to write about something else.

I think they're done with the crazy shit, and with the cult. I mean, it's not just that Republicans For Harris is a thing...it's that every time he has a freaking rally, there's people leaving well before it's even over.

It's that the most fanatically pro-Trump motherfuckers out there aren't even Americans, but South African-born billionaires who never even got what the whole damn point of America was to start with.

(And when Trump is over, those guys will move on to blowing Vladimir Putin, you watch.)

It's that in my town, which was basically Whitey-ville for most of my life, a slight majority of the political signs are for Harris/Walz and I'm serious, you don't see people with near the Trump swag that you did even a year ago.

So what's next for MAGA when Trump loses??

I mean, certainly, a lot of these fucking people will just crawl back under their rocks, or get bored and wander off. I see that starting to happen already.

Certainly, some of them will get worse...most likely the Medieval Catholics and the Project 2025 CHUD's will be the main driver of that category...especially if Harris even comes close to starting to clean out the Judiciary or expand the Supreme Court, or if anybody leans on Clarence and Sam to get them to retire. JD Vance is the future of this bullshit, not Donald Trump, but he has all the charisma of a cardboard cutout. These fucking people aren't going to try to persuade anybody, eventually, they're just going to make a move, seize whatever they can, and then try to start a conflict of some sort with the rest of Christianity in general and the majority of global Catholicism in particular.

Throw in a side of legacy Far-rightists, John Birch Society types, weird Incels, a few whack-a-nut Pentecostals and the odd Russian agent here and there...but most of those people won't do much of anything, unless goaded into it.

And speaking of, I'll bet you money if Trump goes to prison, he converts to this radical Catholic shit (or at least pretends to) cuz they all find the Lord in jail...and this would be (at least in terms of the cult) politically advantageous for him in the terms of keeping someone's interest.

That's Category A.

Next up is the opportunistic shit-bag Republicans, you know, the people just getting around to calling Trump a fascist now.

Most of those people, the John Kelly and Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney types (for example) aren't going to do anything to actively help Trump, same with Jeff Bezos, they're just going about covering their bases

We'll call them Category B, they're not going to help Trump, but unless it's self-defense for themselves (and it'll likely come to that) they won't be much help to the rest of us either.

I don't see the basic Republicans or the loud giant Styrofoam-Middle-Finger MAGA types being willing to blow themselves up for Trump no matter how much shit they talk. Most of those idiots just do this shit for attention, or for kicks, or out of pure misanthropic stupidity. As soon as this bullshit stops being fun, or funny, or whatever they think they're getting out of it...they're gone.

The only ones of those who are a threat are the gun nuts and the idiots who can be gulled into acting out by the first group...although I'd suspect there's a lot of overlap between those two subgroups involved, that's category C.

But there's a fourth group, MAGA's Fourth Estate of weird agitators and grifters that seem driven in equal parts by fear and greed. They might fall into any of the other categories also...and they might do something stupid, or they might not. 

The thing about MAGA is a lot of these motherfuckers are just there because they're trying to scam all the others. My feeling is a lot of these guys will find a new scam and move on to whatever that is, although some will definitely be recruited into the first group (A few, like Candace Owens, already have been.)

And the thing is, some of the third category of losers might move into the first group also, because their fear, desire for hierarchy and willingness to tolerate pretty much anything will push them in that kind of direction.

That's the fruit of a Spirit Of Fear, to use Biblical terminology.

You know, there's a reason the Bible harps on uncontrolled fear, or fear of anything other than God being a bad thing as much as it does, just sayin.'

But it's that Spirit Of Fear...with a side order of Prosperity Gospel horseshit...that's the main driver of MAGA and all this other crap.

Until we break that, until we find a way to get these fucking people to stop being afraid of every new or different thing, these kind of problems are going to continue.

(And trust me, it'll get even worse as they start being targeted by the other fanatics for insufficient loyalty.)

Also, any of the other groups will also be targets for the first group of fanatics. Like I said yesterday, the Republican Party is and will remain an autocracy in and of itself no matter what. If Trump dies of bad health and dementia or gets locked up, they'll just anoint JD Vance or whoever is loudest about promising to pardon Trump.

In the short term, this crap might well get worse, with the caveat that this time Trump doesn't have any control over the government this time. 

But, if trends continue as they are, I'm more worried about a particularly dumb right-wing insurgency than I am about an actual Civil War that they won't get enough people for. It's not a huge improvement but it's something. Among other things, fighting a civil war requires courage, vs. the fact that anybody can be a cowardly terrorist.

And whatever sad-sack, tiny-ass Banana Republic these fucking people can break off for themselves just gets smaller the longer the whole Kamala Harris era goes on, until it dwindles to nothing and an Army National Guard patrol or a bunch of dudes from (just to steal from actual recent history here in looking for a name) the Alabama Awakening find a hut full of garbage and sheep shit with "Trump-Land military headquarters" spray-painted on one of the walls.

Like I said when Harris took over, the vibe has changed.

And now it's changing again, for the better.

Act like it.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Vote Republicans out, drive Trump into obscurity and hopefully jail. Yeah, we'll probably have to fight some of these motherfuckers off, but the thing is as hard as these Republicans have made themselves in their lockstep March Ever Rightward to try and immanentize some kind of right-wing Eschaton, they've also made themselves very brittle.

They're the ones who are afraid.

You don't have to be.

Remember that.

Yes We Can.

Слава Україна!

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

Last Post

And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.
And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comes into thy kingdom.
And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. ~Luke 23:39-43

Bullshit! (October Unsurprising, Twelve.)

Living in this country, you're bound to know, every time you're exposed to advertising, you realize once again that America's leading industry, America's most profitable business is still: the manufacture, packaging, distribution and marketing of bullshit. High-quality, grade-A, prime-cut, pure, American bullshit. And the sad part is, is that most people seem to have been indoctrinated to believe that bullshit only comes from certain places, certain sources: advertising, politics, salesmen – not true. Bullshit is everywhere. Bullshit is rampant. Parents are full of shit, teachers are full of shit, clergymen are full of shit, and law enforcement people are full...of...shit – this entire country. This entire country is completely full of shit, and always has been. From the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution to the Star-Spangled Banner, it's still nothing more than one big steaming pile of red, white and blue, all-American bullshit. Because, think of how we started. Think of that. This country was founded by a group of slave-owners who told us all men are created equal. Oh yeah, all men, except for Indians and niggers and women, right? I always like to use that authentic American language. This was a small group of unelected, white, male, land-holding, slave-owners who also suggested their class be the only one allowed to vote. Now, that is what's known as being stunningly and embarrassingly full of shit. And I think Americans really show their ignorance when they say they want their politicians to be honest. What are these fuckin' cretins talking about? If honesty were suddenly introduced into American life, the whole system would collapse! No one would know what to do! Honesty would FUCK THIS COUNTRY UP!! ~George Carlin

...

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. ~George Orwell, 1984.

I saw this last night.

And it pissed me off, for multiple reasons. 

#1 It's a lie, there ARE No "Amish For Trump."

The Amish don't vote, don't participate in civic affairs, or serve in the military or even use most modern technology because all that stuff is against their interpretation of Christianity, which they take very seriously.

If you want to do all that kind of stuff, their stated belief is you can leave, and people do and historically have. But they typically do keep some of the sect's ways. That's why there's Amish-adjacent Anabaptist sects like the Mennonites, among others. I live in Michigan and we have all that here, too. 

#2 I've been to Lancaster, PA. Yeah, it was 25 years ago or so the last time, but the numbers didn't look right. (My Mom used to have friends there and we knew a lot of people from that area because of her business.) 

Yeah, the Amish are a visible minority there, but I doubted (per memory) there was even 50,000 much less 160,000. 

So I checked, there's like 88,000 Amish people in the entire state of Pennsylvania and around 350K-400K in the whole United States.

#3 Get real, there's nobody "From the Government" bothering the Amish, and if there was they wouldn't turn to somebody like Trump...because yes, Amish and Mennonites have been persecuted, and their typical response is to endure the persecution or to leave because they are a peaceful people. 

In fact the reason they're a New World religious sect is that they fled severe persecution in Europe because they refused to obey military conscription and there are Amish and Mennonite communities throughout Canada, the US and Latin America as a result, although from Mexico on south, "Amish" and "Mennonite" are largely interchangeable as proper terms with little difference between the groups.

Where I lived downstate, Amish people were a common sight at places like Walmart, nobody bothered them, and they didn't bother anybody else, either.

There's an Amish/Mennonite business, kind of a bakery/food co-op thing about an hour from my Mom's house, and they don't even take credit or debit cards. It's cash or check only. A whole fuck-ton of their stuff (anything not purchased wholesale) isn't even set up to be sold via point of sale technology for reasons that both should be obvious and are entirely Biblical. You can't tell me those people would sign up with the heavily tech-based and worldly Trump campaign. You just can't, because I know a little bit.

This isn't that hard.

Except for looking up the numbers that was all off the top of my head.

Motherfuckers need to look up some Christian history and shit before they lie so maybe they can come up with something plausible next time.

There ain't no fresh groups of Trump Supporters coming out the woodwork at the literal last minute. Russian bots don't vote, either.

It's all bullshit, trying to play on the typical last-minute nerves that a lot of Democrats get. The Amish thing, for one, is an op by people like Anti-Muslim bigot and "Gays For Trump" founder Scott Presler.

If there was a last minute surge of support, these fucking people wouldn't be trying to steal the votes of whole states, let alone coming up with harebrained unworkable schemes like trying to steal North Carolina's electoral votes at the last minute. There's simply no way to even do it per state law.

These assholes aren't trying to win, unless they can do it by plain-out lying and depressing turnout. So, what they're doing is they're trying to create a pretext for political fuckery and right-wing insurgency when they lose.

And yes, that's their next move.

The reason for this bullshit is they know that, if people are asked honestly and given a chance to respond to the question "Should Donald Trump be President again?" 

We're going to say "No" and reject their cult.

And cults do not like to be rejected.

And neither down-ballot races nor actual numbers thus far (where available) are stacking up in MAGA's favor. The polls are a fucking farce meant to salve Trump's narcissism, dilute the truth, and drive up the price of his bullshit stock...not to mention they're going to scam million$ out of pro-Trump bettors on various gambling websites. Yes, I'm serious. RE: Gambling, the House is expecting Harris to win, or they wouldn't be doing that shit and would have closed off pro-Trump bets already.

So they'll try to cheat and steal and if they can't do that, they'll try by force of arms and that will end very badly for them.

Meanwhile, Harris is having epic rallies in Texas, of all places.

Because yeah, half the fucking reason we're in this mess is the safe Blue-states-and-Presidency strategy of a previous tranche of Democrats.

You have to contest everywhere, you have to fight Republican (and Russian, and other) bullshit on all fronts. I mean, hell, Michigan is a Blue state now, and it used to be Purple, Virginia used to be solidly Republican and is basically a Blue State now. Hell, we won Georgia in 2020!

People are tired of the Republicans' crap and they're only getting more so, and also the crap is getting worse.

The Republican strategy, such as it is, is basically a political version of the Russian way of war in Ukraine; That is, it's like The Walking Dead, but with idiots instead of Zombies. They throw hordes of shambling morons at whatever they think they want, under cover of epic levels of bullshit, and figure they'll get something. It doesn't matter how many morons they lose, because they can always get more of them.

That's basically how these assholes got rid of Roe Vs. Wade, 50 years of bullshit, lies and relentless morons. Then they finally got themselves a President that was on the take enough and susceptible enough to flattery from Medieval Catholic fools to give them religious fanatic judges who'd pull the trigger.

And it was all bullshit. Like within hours of the decision leaking, Twitter was full of freaking misogynistic assholes, grown ass men, talking about banging young girls. It was never about Life, not for one minute.

I wrote about it when the shit was going down.

And none of this Trump stuff is about America, conservatism, fiscal policy, God, religion or any of the shit they say it is. It's entirely about Power for a political party-turned-Power-cult and about one man, Donald Trump. 

These fucking people are trying to bullshit you, so they can steal money and power and your future.

You do not have to let them.

Either you believe in freedom or you don't.

It really is that simple.

Now is the time to be a Better Citizen and vote the bastards out.

Tax the fuck out of their jackass billionaire enablers, too.

Yes, we can.

Remember that, it's gonna be on the test.

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

Eleven

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

Anything But America (October Unsurprising, Eleven.)

I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still. ~Ronald Reagan

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Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. ~George Orwell, 1984.

...

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

So, apparently Muskrat is a Russian asset who's been speaking to Vladimir Putin directly since at least 2022 (Which coincides a little too neatly with his hard-right turn and weird acting out, just sayin.)

It's like I've been saying, it's anything but America as far as these fucking assholes are concerned.

It's anything but "Love Thy Neighbor" and the list goes on.

Anything to justify their hateful bullshit...

MAGA, all these right-wing billionaires, Republicans, and Trump all hate America because they literally hate that other people have freedom, that we don't have to give them and their narcissism endless blowjobs and we don't have to "obey" them or talk nice about them, especially when they've done nothing to deserve it.

Yesterday Trump called America "The world's garbage can." I'm sorry, dude, but I'm old enough to remember when talk like that could get a dude beat up and thrown out specifically by Republicans.

I'm tired of this bullshit, all of it. I've had it with these fucking people. If you don't like America, get the fuck out. It's a free country, you can leave.

And let me tell you, I've really had it with these motherfuckers and their shitty hatred of LGBT people and women. 

Some of these motherfuckers be so far into this shit that they're looping around back into the gay stuff to avoid being "distracted" by women.

Fellas, is it gay to like women?? 

Just asking for Andrew Small Dick Energy Tate, here, a man who got owned so hard by Greta Thunberg that it took him like three weeks to get his head back on straight and he had to start hosting spaces with the goddamn Taliban on Twitter to start feeling all manly again. Nobody tell Andy how endemic situational bisexuality is (and always has been) in places like Afghanistan. He ain't the first dude to have them kinds of ideas.

The Taliban aren't some kind of hard-ass Islamic holy warriors, by the standard I was taught (and ya know, I've been taught enough to know what Muslim standards are, too) the Taliban are drug-abusing MSM (Men who have Sex with Men) and most Muslims will tell you that's not right.

But suddenly Andrew Tate of all people is all fine with Man Love Thursdays?

Of course Fucker Carlson tried to call Trump "Daddy" a couple days ago. 

So yeah, anything but a normal healthy view of...life, I guess?

Now if that's what you wanna be, fine. It's the 21st Century and all, but be honest with yourself and other people. Come on, dude. 

This ain't that hard.

Like, seriously, what the fuck is wrong with these people??

Again, it's...well, literally anything but established ways of doing things, anything but treating LGBT folks and women with respect, anything but being a goddamn person instead of a meme.

And I'm even more sick of these dudes and their internet stupid shit than I am of Elon and Trump.

Part of the reason for that is there's a direct line between this kind of foolishness and those guys and their rise in our politics.

But apparently I'm not the only one who's tired of this crap. Nobody's leaving Kamala's rally, lots of people be leaving Trump's.

Thing that gets me is, every day it looks more and more like Trump is gonna lose. Hell, none of these fucking people are acting like he's gonna win.

But the media and the pollsters are still spanking the monkey to some kind of bullshit idea of Trump that's got very little to do with the man himself. What it really comes down to is: They want to sell crazy circus tent donkey-show bullshit for clicks and likes and get props as defenders of democracy. 

Trouble is, that stops working real quick when dealing with actual fascism especially once they just start shooting people and before long the only valid defense is to get your own people with guns and start fighting back.

Barack Obama seems to have figured that out, Kamala Harris knew it all along.

Hell, there are increasing numbers of Republicans coming out the woodwork saying enough is enough!

And since Kamala took over in July, after all this time, Democrats have finally started to fight back against Republican horseshit, to take back the Flag and actually act like they believe in what they're saying and that they have some level of confidence. 

I mean, shit, if they'd have done that 25 years ago we wouldn't be in this damn mess.

Of course, the far-right isn't happy with Republicans either and effectively accuses them of the same shit, basically saying that conventional Republicanism as it existed before, oh, 2020 or so is somehow just another species of liberalism.

These fucking people have jacked themselves so far to the goddamned Right that they're circling back around to Communist (actually more properly, Maoist or Stalinist) Totalitarianism.

Anything but Conservatism, too, apparently. These fucking people want to take Reagan's shining city and light it on fire.

And I'm warning you; Elon being in communication with Putin, not to mention this Axis Of Evil shit between North Korea and Russia tells me these fucking people have figured out they're probably not going to win...not here and not in Ukraine...at least not by any conventional, constitutional, or legal means.

Of course, they couldn't pull it off when they had control of the government, so I'm less than worried that an actual Coup by Trump and company would actually work or do more than get a bunch of people killed.

What's that leave? Insurgency, Revolt, Secession(s.) The energy for it is there, if probably not much intelligence to pull it off with. Helping that type of shit is one way Russia can reduce our ability to help the EU, our NATO allies, and Ukraine. Say MAGA breaks off 10% of America for itself, 90% America is going to be 10% less capable of helping others resist Russian bullshit in addition to fighting our own conflict. MAGA Banana Republic also gives Russian Oligarchs a taste of that Western life that they've been missing since 2022.

My operative theory for a long time now has been that these assholes are going to try to break off a piece of America for themselves. I even have an idea or two of what they're going to try and take, 'cause among other things, there's a lot of damned Russians in south Florida (and that's just one example.)

MAGA is going to try for a civil war, they probably won't get the full Fort Sumter, though. Most likely we're going to end up with a bullshit right-wing insurgency that'll be absolutely, dangerously, incompetent. These idiots will mostly blow themselves up. That's not an improvement, it makes them more dangerous because they're stupid and untethered to morality or reality.

But owing to 30 years of Republican unreasonableness, I don't have a lot of confidence in the unity of the American body politic. I've seen too man Blue State liberals all too willing to throw Red State liberals under the bus if something happens.

And that's not acceptable either. We're either all Americans or none of us are.

It's those who are increasingly rejecting the label that are the problem.

'Cause it's probably going to take a war, and serious reforms of our government and of what we as a people will tolerate in order to make this shit stop. In other words, fundamentally, a lot of people are gonna have to get off their ass and all pull in the same direction for awhile.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

You'll either fight for it, or we'll all lose it.

It really is that damned simple.

And winning this thing starts by being a better citizen and voting these Republican motherfuckers out.

It's by no means the end, but we can at least start the process in a couple weeks.

The time to stand up and say "No" is now, before it comes to all that other shit.

 Слава Україна!

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

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

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

Ten

Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear; Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come. ~Caesar, Julius Caesar, Act II, Scene II, William Shakespeare.

Have Fun In Hell, Idiots (October Unsurprising, Ten.)

Then spoke Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,

Saying The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:

All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,

And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.

But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.

And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.

But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.

And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!

Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold?

And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever swears by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.

Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift?

Who so therefore shall swear by the altar, swears by it, and by all things there on.

And whoso shall swear by the temple, swears by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.

And he that shall swear by heaven, swear by the throne of God, and by him that sits there-on.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.

Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous,

And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.

Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.

Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

~Matthew 24:1-33

I saw this creepy fucking bullshit when I got up this morning.

At some bullshit Trump rally in Georgia, Tucker Carlson said the following: "There has to be a point at which dad comes home….and he's pissed. Dad is pissed. He's not vengeful. He loves his children disobedient as they may be.

And when dad gets home, you know what he says?
You've been a bad girl. You've been a bad little girl, and you're getting a vigorous spanking right now.“

First of all, no there fucking doesn't, and nobody has to "Obey" Trump. He's just a man, a private citizen, at best a former President. He ain't Jesus, not that anybody's even expected to obey Jesus either because this is America.

Second, I know who my Dad was, Trump ain't my fuckin' Dad. He ain't your fuckin' Dad. I'm reasonably sure unless there's really something we don't know, Trump ain't even Tucker Carlson's Dad. (Not least because Tucker was the actual heir to an actual fortune.) Hell, he has his own kids. The man is 78 years old, All but one of his kids are middle-aged adults. We can look at them to gauge Trump's ability as a parent and all of his kids are drug addicts, thieves and weirdos who'd be in jail if they weren't rich.

More to the point here; I was raised conservative and Christian. I was raised that you're not supposed to call anybody your father other than God and your ascribed or biological male parent. Like I was taught this as a hard and fast rule of life.

Among other things, your father-figure is supposed to be somebody that cares about you...this goes doubly so for those who've earned the role of father-figure and even more so for those involved in religious or spiritual life. And Donald Trump demonstrably misses all these marks by millions of miles.

And my lived experience and spiritual life has backed that shit up; Like, when you've got some cult leader or spirit (or perhaps drug-addled vision) demanding you call them "Father" for any reason, you're usually either in cult territory, dealing with bad spirits, or you got some really bad drugs.

A leader isn't supposed to be a bully or a brute or a thug, let alone some idiot who does nothing but aggrandize and glorify their own damn self! A leader is, at a basic level, somebody who's supposed to tell you the truth. Donald Trump doesn't do that! He lies all the time! 

I mean, to put it simply from my own church background: Do you really expect somebody who lies about everything else to tell you the truth about the Lord's Word??

Didn't "Character counts" used to be a conservative mantra?? Fundamentally, my values regarding leadership were formed by the military. To be a leader, you have to give a damn, you have to set the example, you have to lead from the front.

Trump not only does none of that...he can usually be counted on to do the exact opposite!

And Trump openly admires Hitler. For fuck's sake when is enough,  enough??

Also...hold on..."Vigorous" spanking??

Again, what kind of creepy sexualized bullshit is going on here with this garbage??

Also, why the fuck is it that every goddamn time there's a "Mass casualty incident" or mass shooting or somebody caught preparing for one lately, there's somebody like this motherfucker involved? This Jeffrey Kelly dude is the guy who got arrested for shooting at a Democratic Party office in Arizona.

He had over 200 guns, a grenade launcher, machine gun, possible chemical weapons and violent Christian Nationalist beliefs.

Again, and not for the first time, what the fuck ever happened to "Thou Shalt Not Kill??"

More to the point, it's honestly starting to seem to me like what these fucking people want to kill motherfuckers for is *Checks Notes* their creepy Daddy issues and even creepier lurid sexual fantasies.

Like, who the fuck looks at a loser like Trump...especially if you're a man...and really thinks "That's my Daddy??" I mean, what the fuck kind of piece of shit do you have to be to look at that piece of shit and think that's what you want to have as your God, your Identity, whatever the fuck you wanna call it??

Sooner or later...usually sooner...this shit ends up being outright blasphemous. Trump is just a man. He's not a God. He's not your God, he's just a wannabe golden idol. Do we really need to go through that discussion, line by line, again??

And Tucker Carlson (just for one example) is trying to make Trump sound like he's the second coming of George Washington and Jesus Christ...and honestly, for Tucker maybe he is, if Fucker Carlson is one of the few people who's seated at the table rather than tied up and placed upon it when these assholes break off a piece of America for their shitty little banana republic.

But for the rest of us, not so much. We'll be the ones stuck dealing with the disruptions these fucking people's loser-ass right-wing insurgency creates. 

I likely know people who would die from it, given my own status as a former Republican, as a non-Christian and as a veteran I might be one of those people myself.

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

You're either willing to fight for it, or you're not.

And I'll add a third one; You're either willing to recognize your own goddamned forefathers and the history they've left us...for all its good or ill...or you ain't.

But if you fail to do that, you're living in a goddamned fantasy world where you can say disgusting shit like that Trump is somehow America's "Father" and maybe you won't get your ass beat, but you'll probably end up on drugs and doing all type of debased bullshit to deal with the real consequences of living that kind of fantasy life in the real goddamn world we live in.

Maybe it's just me, but I remember when conservatism was about accepting "Things As They Are" and maybe carefully proceeding with change when needed.

These assholes don't want that.

They wanna go ass backwards into a glittering, dystopian unknown, for Donald Fucking Trump of all people?? These fucking people's "October Surprise" is that they think Trump is Jesus??

That doesn't surprise me, I already knew that (and was disgusted by it.)

Believe me when I say this, as a former conservative Baptist myself, and you may imagine all the fire and brimstone you like:

Have fun in hell, idiots.

But no, you don't get to take the rest of us down there with you.

 Слава Україна!

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. ~George Orwell, 1984.

Nine

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

Reagan Wept (October Unsurprising, Nine.)

No one familiar with the history of this country can deny that congressional committees are useful. It is necessary to investigate before legislating, but the line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one and the junior Senator from Wisconsin has stepped over it repeatedly. His primary achievement has been in confusing the public mind as between the internal and the external threats of communism. 

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men — not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular. This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home. The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn't create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it — and rather successfully. Cassius was right. "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves." Good night, and good luck. ~Edward R. Murrow

...

We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev...Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
~Ronald Reagan

Apparently, people need to be reminded again that Communism hasn't been a thing since 1989.

Oh, sure, Vladimir Putin is trying to bring it back...and MAGA Republicans like Matt Schlapp are in bed with him! (Actually, in Matt's case that's probably a literal desire, but I'm pretty sure Vlad doesn't swing that way.)

And when I say Putin is trying to bring back the Soviet Union, and that Putin is a KGB man who had to be a Communist's Communist just to get in the door of that vaunted organization, well, here's this: This isn't a picture from the Cold War, it was taken two years ago in Ukraine, it's an official Russian MoD photo.

I mean, fuck, I just wrote about Trump praising Communist dictators last night!

Schlappy here might not like Communism, but his declared GOD, Trump, loves the shit! Now, Trump doesn't do so for any real ideological reason...but he likes Soviet Communism (as well as the Chinese and North Korean kinds) simply because under Communism, forcing people to clap for you for eleven minutes (and you'll have the first one that stops shot) is not considered out of line.

Trump is way closer to being a Commie than Kamala Harris has ever been...and for the record, it's been my experience that fear of Communism just doesn't land with people that are younger than me. I'm 50 years old, for fuck's sake!

But there's a tranche of Boomer and Gen-X MAGA's that get endlessly amped up by Red-baiting, and those people probably give these fucks money, so they keep doing it.

This is the state of your 2024 Republican Party, yo. Reagan Wept.

Here's the thing though, like Matt Schlapp...who was credibly accused of groping one of Herschel Walker's campaign staffers...Trump is all about gratifying himself and whatever debased urges pop into his head. 

Apparently Trump groped a minor at some event recently, I saw that's going around tonight, and if I had to guess nobody but Democrats and Republicans For Harris will even care.

Sorry, but that's just the state of things right now.

I mean, we're at the point where Trump basically has mashed potatoes for brains and a whole bunch of these idiots still basically think he's God. I'll never get it. Or maybe I just don't want to.

Seriously, while I'm at it we haven't had a serious conflict with France since the Quasi-war in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, because Vichy resistance to Operation Torch during WWII hardly rose to that level and most French troops in North Africa switched sides during or after the invasion anyway. Not that most MAGA's even know that much American history.

Think about that for a second.

I'm tired of this crap.

The question is, why aren't you??

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

You're either willing to be a better citizen and stand up against this shit, or you ain't.

Freedom isn't free.

And it's not what Republicans like Donald Trump or Matt Schlapp even want.

They want a world that's been contorted and forced to give them an endless narcissistic blowjob.

But that world would be hell for everybody else.

I can remember when a Republican political hack sexually assaulting another man would have landed that dude in prison much less ended his political career.

And I can remember when a Republican candidate for President groping a teenager would have immediately ended their candidacy and any support they had.

For fuck's sake I remember when misspelling "Potato" meant that Dan Quayle lost any political future he might've had!

Now these fuckers' idea of an "October Surprise" is literally to run on seeing how terrible of people they can be! As if anybody would be surprised by that??

Make Americans have standards again!

You wanna end this shit??

Make our political system have standards again.

It's really that damned simple.

 Слава Україна!

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. ~George Orwell, 1984.

Eight

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.

The Red Emperor (October Unsurprising, Eight.)

We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev...Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
~Ronald Reagan

...

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. ~George Orwell, 1984.

....

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

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

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

I got me a question for Trump and all his MAGA ball-garglers:

Are you Americans, or are you not??

'Cause it seems to me like Trump...while demanding an endless narcissistic blowjob and basically Lese Majeste laws for himself from Americans along with lots of other anti-American crap...never misses an opportunity to trash-talk America nor a chance to blow literal Communist dictators like Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping.

That's just not what I was taught as an American, that's specifically the freaking opposite of what I was taught as a young American conservative 40+ years ago, and if I have to explain that any further?? No, I'm not going to, you're either Lost or you have no sense or understanding of history.

An American politician of either party praising Chinese or North Korean Communist rulers 30 or 40 years ago would have been run out of office with pitchforks and torches, probably be damn lucky if they didn't get beat up or tarred-and-feathered and they would have never been heard of or welcomed back into polite society ever again and that is not a joke.

Hell, go back to the early 1960's or before and it would've been Republicans who was trying to throw anybody that praised or supported Communist leaders in jail!

I mean it, if a candidate of either party had said this kind of shit in 1964, even as a joke, the John Birch Society's ragey smear-campaign alone would have ended them.

And now Trump is calling the ideological heirs to the Red Emperor, Mao Zedong, "brilliant" and praising them for ruling "with an iron fist?"

Excuse me?

Think about this shit for a second.

Meanwhile, the Democratic presidential candidate is actively campaigning with Anti-Trump, Never-Trump and just plain Tired-Of-Trump Republicans...I mean, Kamala Harris is a gun owner, a former Prosecutor and has specifically run on not being a continuation of Joe Biden's policies (and with a very Capitalism-friendly agenda to boot!) and the media still (and disingenuously) wants more from her.

Meanwhile Trump could put in a gimp suit and bend over for Vladimir Putin live on a stage somewhere and RSBN or some MAGA idiot would call it a genius political move or improving, uh, relations with the Russians or some bullshit like that.

Republicans are basically Communists now, or at least the MAGA ones are.

And it's not even that the media likes Trump. I mean, Politico in particular dunks on, slams and often heaps scorn upon Trump their damn selves...but the media wants to cover all the crazy shit and be seen as the heroes and all that crap again. Never mind that they've showed their ass way too much for that. They think back to the Trump years and all they remember is an endless ocean of attention, clicks and likes...and they don't think about (or want to think about) how many people suffered and died to get them that.

Also, when Trump loses and tries to start a civil war over his petty grievances and because he didn't get his endless narcissistic orgasm, you can expect these motherfuckers will cover that shit the same way.

These assholes will cover MAGA's bullshit-ass rebellion the same way they covered the Palestinians for years, and just like how they covered the Irish Republican Army, the Palestinians and various Communist-sympathetic terrorists 40 or 50 years ago, they'll do it with a sense of vogue anti-Americanism. 

These media assholes will sit there in coffee houses and shit and they'll interview shaggy-bearded dudes wearing T-shirts with a picture of Trump in military uniform (likely taken to try and approximate the famous photo of Che Guevara by Alberto Korda) except that instead of being college radicals or hippies these dudes will be Incels and Theo-Bros pushing the same kind of fashionable hatred of America, if for radically different reasons and with vastly different goals.

But it's funny how they'll still be sucking up to foreign dictators who murder and persecute Christians in their own countries and who claim the same ideologies that terrorist groups like the Red Army Faction and fallen nations like the Soviet Union did. 

I mean, Putin especially is still pushing the same old tired bullshit and literally re-Sovietizing Russia AND he invaded Ukraine specifically in the name of re-establishing the Soviet Union!. These fucking people are actively flying the Hammer And Sickle, for fuck's sake!

Whatever happened to "Better Dead Than Red??"

Oh, right.

Basically, it's Vlad is persecuting the Gays now, so most of the Evangelicals and Republicans (or the ones who haven't thrown in with Harris already) will get behind it, and the MAGA's will beg for a chance to bow before the Red Banner of the deceased Soviet Union.

Because that type of shit is all that really matters to them.

Because there's no way America and its capitalistic, free system could or would be hateful enough for them, at least not forever. 

Sooner or later they'd be needed for military service or their money would be sought after by the corporations and social acceptance would and did follow, and here and now the LGBT community is just...part of America, the same as People of Color or immigrants and everybody else, and MAGA in particular has started othering themselves because, like Trump, they think they're too good for the rest of us. And yes, they will try and break a piece of America off for themselves because most of us refuse their abhorrent ideas of class and racial hierarchies and their bullshit social memes.

They'd rather be bottom bitch to somebody like Kim Short Dong or Putin or Xi than be Americans, if that's what it takes to perpetuate their generalized beliefs in serfdom and slavery.

And Trump is fine with that, so long as he gets to stand there and hold the whip.

Think about that for a second.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

And either you're willing to fight for it, or you ain't.

Time to make your choice.

Just because they want to be Slaves Of The Caesars with Trump as their Red Emperor doesn't mean we have to be.

 Слава Україна!

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

Seven

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