Fallen (Shouty Man, Three-On Syria and What The Fuck Are We Doing Here?)

If you're not willing to fight for it, take the word 'Freedom' out of your vocabulary. ~Malcolm X.

...

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

...

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judges her.

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. ~Revelation 18:1-10

Yesterday, Bashar Al-Assad's regime in Syria fell, and Syrian rebel forces entered Damascus. Arab Spring perhaps turns to summer?

Good.

And I mean this with all due disrespect, Fuck that guy.

He's where a lot of the crap we've got going on started, because Vladimir Putin saw Moammar Gaddafi get dragged out of a drain culvert and shot on the head and decided if he didn't do something...he might have been next...so he offered Assad all type of support in order to keep, I don't know, the meme of Dictatorship going or something.

Again, FUCK THAT GUY.

And fuck anybody that supports that guy, too.

This isn't...or shouldn't be...that hard.

The thing that gets me, is there's a fair number of Americans, apparently both far-Leftists and MAGA's who are sad that Assad has been defeated.

Also, President Yoon of South Korea appears to have survived his impeachment vote, but the people over there are still protesting, he's still likely on the way out...and among others, the now-former Defense minister has been arrested.

Good, Fuck those guys, too. I have precisely no sympathy for the same reason I could give a shit about that CEO that got shot.

You make your money by hurting people, or use your power to do the same, eventually Karma comes calling (and the bitch wears the kind of spiked heels you don't wanna get kicked in the nuts with) or somebody under you gets ambitious and has friends, the Wheel turns, your bodyguards get lazy, and/or your luck otherwise runs out. It may not be a Just world, but however tough you think you are it's a safe bet there's a dude out there that's tougher than you and you're eventually gonna fuck around and find out.

I mean, if all else fails, eventually the Angel Of Death comes for everybody.

That's not some vast political plot, it's just life.

To unapologetically gank the old "Conservative" saying, standing athwart the flow of history yelling "Stop!" just doesn't work.

History just rolls right over you and doesn't even notice.

I'll never understand why Americans, least of all Republicans, would be sad when a despot falls. 

I mean, sure we got people like Nguyen Van Thieu and Ferdinand Marcos out when their countries or governments fell, but we sure as shit didn't put them on Good Morning America after the fact. Bashar Al-Assad fled to the UAE, and in all probability he'll spend whatever time he has left living in a golden palace in Dubai, likely with the support of the Russians, rather more luxuriously than how Nguyen Van Thieu lived out the rest of his days quietly in Massachusetts. In the past, Republicans used people like that...we didn't lionize them, though.

I mean, fuck, even though Nguyen Van Thieu was a Catholic I never heard of no Hard-Right American idiots being willing to launch a crusade on his behalf, not even being about a week late and a hell of a lot more than a dollar short. (Note: Bashar Al-Assad's family, his inner circle and his political power-base were all composed of Alawite Muslims. I can't imagine what the Online Right thinks it'd be getting out of this bullshit even if they'd had the guts to actually show up. And they didn't.) 

But here's the thing, if you think about it; It's actually worse than that.

I'm serious.

In the posted meme there's a couple of ships and a whole bunch of helicopters. For one thing, all that's going to take a lot more than 2,000-3,000 people to run...no matter how experienced with that type of gear said people are. You might have to have about that many combat troops, or that might be one unit, but there's got to be a whole shitload of other people in other places supporting it. There's millions of working parts involved in making any large organization...especially a military unit...work.

Most of it you don't see...or even notice...until you start to run short on 5.56mm ammunition or toilet paper or whatever $5 widget you need at that particular time.

And running a warship (for example) takes a lot of people working together, efficiency, skill, teamwork and all that. Take it from one guy who was part of a couple of major Air Force units...there's not exactly a ton of individual recognition going on in making an airbase or a ship work properly.

Here's the thing...These Fucking Dudes...nearly every last one of them, in my experience, are so fucking selfish they can't be bothered to keep their wives happy. I've been married, this is the kind of problem you don't know you have 'til it's too late. 

I mean, I get that These Fucking People are shitty little narcissists. 

So, I guess it follows that they'd be selfish lovers, but let me tell you why that doesn't work...my ex-wife had a personality disorder and if she didn't get tuned up right proper every now and again eventually there was going to be hell to pay. Money would get spent on dumb shit, she'd quit her job, throw a fit in such a way as to seriously fuck shit up, etc. And mind you, this was somebody who was loudly and very performatively not just Christian but Pentecostal. You want a frustrated partner, guys? You think this is funny?? Don't get with a woman that already has a personality disorder. That's not some sort of a feminist view, it's just practical, lived experience. 

A happy wife does mean a happy life, in a lot of circumstances.

Now...generalize that over to the rest of life.

If somebody doesn't understand love, doesn't understand how to treat a partner properly...how are they going to treat anybody else?

How are they gonna treat their fellow Crusaders who might be a different color, much less whatever local allies they have who might not even be Christian...or their kind of one? How they gonna treat Mohammed the street vendor??

If they're "It's All About Me" to that level...well, damn, what's next??

When their Holy Crusade isn't an action movie that's over in a couple hours, when it's duty, hard nasty work digging holes in the hot sun and nobody shows up for them to shoot their guns at...not unless they're in the cockpit of a MiG-29 coming at you so fast the sound rolls along behind anyway...when there's no glory in it...what do you think these fucking people would do??

Oh, right, thanks Nancy.

Walk around with a megaphone looking like an idiot and pose for the camera, that's what.

And worse, that's exactly how they think this is gonna go.

And people like this (On all sides of the political spectrum but especially the Right) are why I'm so tired of this Attention Economy, Clicks-and-Likes bullshit.

Every damn one of them thinks this, I'm sure Nancy Mace already has a canned speech for CPAC or a podcast bit she's practicing in front of the mirror, too.

You think the Shouty Man causes problems? Wait 'til it's a woman with a goddamn megaphone and some kind of histrionic bullshit going on.

Ya know, maybe it's just me, but if that's the way this is going and we're all gonna be like that, I'd rather be the guy taking the Selfie in front of the tyrant's burning IFV than be the bitch carrying a bullhorn around to yell about transgender people.

My personal beliefs and tastes lean more toward an appreciation for the Ukrainian style of meme warfare, among other things. And if you don't think that requires a hell of a lot of people unselfishly working together...you're just wrong.

It's not about money, it's not about power. It's not just that was more my skillset back in the day. It's not just about what side you're on, it's not about what you might tell kids, grandkids or random strangers a generation hence, it's about do you...as a person...have enough self-respect to look at your own goddamned face in the bathroom mirror every morning??

You're either willing to have that discussion every day or you ain't. I've never been in the position of having the money to hire people like Akeem in Coming To America.

So I have to be able to look myself in the face.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Yes, it really is that simple.

And freedom isn't free.

Sometimes, you have to fight for it.

Assad has fallen, and Damascus with him.

And thanks to the Syrians for reminding us, Yes, We Can.

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

Two

Cassian Andor: What? To steal from the Empire, what do you need? A uniform, some dirty hands, and an Imperial toolkit. They’re so proud of themselves, they don’t even care. They’re so fat and satisfied, they can’t imagine it…

Luthen Rael: Can’t imagine what?

Andor: That someone like me would ever get inside their house, walk their floors, spit in their food, take their gear.

~From the Star Wars series Andor.

Lost (Shouty Man, Two.)

For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.

How think Ye? if a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goes into the mountains, and seeks that which is gone astray?

And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoices more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray.

Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.

Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.

But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. ~Matthew 18:11-17

...

I was on a talk show recently, and the host asked me, "What do you think about the dope problem?" I said, "Definitely, I feel we have too many dopes." No question about it. That's why we have a drug problem, I feel; it's because everyone has access to drugs...it's all those DRUG stores, right? Every three or four blocks, there's a big sign: "DRUGS", "Open All Night – DRUGS", "We Deliver – DRUGS", "Cut-rate DRUGS"... it's the biggest thing on their sign: "Cosmetics – Sundries – DRUGS" ~George Carlin

I got a question.

There's something that's been bothering me lately.

If all these Trump people are so Christian, if they're so right, and so righteous, why are so many of them alcoholics or drug addicts??

See, I've been both.

As I mentioned on Threads and I've mentioned before here, I was medically discharged from the Air Force after a car accident, I'd been drinking, do the math.

Long story short for the next year or so of my life, don't mix alcohol and painkillers, kids.

But see, for part of that time I was on Probation and I had to go to AA meetings and shit. Needless to say, I wasn't really into it, but for some reason or other...maybe it was the fact that I'd been getting drawn into the End Times Prophecy bit while I was in the military, maybe it was the lady I was dating, but somewhere along the way I got the Jesus. NOTE: This Did Not Help. In fact, it made me a worse person.

Anyway, there's a reason I posted those verses from Matthew above; See, I got myself kicked out of a church specifically because of destructive addiction and repeated bad behavior, and yeah, I deserved it.

Note: This is also, as I may or may not have mentioned, why a few years later I wasn't cool with my ex-wife and all her little friends showing up to church hung over on Sunday mornings. That was exactly the kind of thing that got me kicked out! But hey I wasn't friends with all the Pastor's kids. I didn't sing in the Praise and Worship group, hell I didn't even go to my ex-wife's Pentecostal church and it was the policy that I set that on Sunday mornings we were going to go to the nearby Baptist church, among other things it was closer and part of an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist association I'd been part of for years at that point (another thing I've written about.)

She could go where she wanted to go at any other time...which she usually did on Wednesday nights while I was at work. It was as much about (at the time) spiritual authority as it was about having standards. I didn't like all the Pentecostal Prosperity Gospel crap, and I wasn't going to participate in it.

By the way, for the record if you're a guy and you get with a woman from a church like this and you don't fall in line and start dancing around the fire shouting "Unga Bunga" with the rest of the marks?? All that Man's Authority misogynistic Patriarchal crap is just so much hot air.

They don't give a shit about it, if it doesn't help their "Authority."

These fucking people want what they think they want (Usually something to do with money and/or power) and they don't really care what they have to do to get it, nor if it actually kills them. No, I'm not sympathetic to the late UHC CEO in the damn least, you makes your money that way, you takes your chances. There's people in this world where the only smart thing to think literally is "Don't come up short on his money" let alone his or his mama's health care, in the moral universe I inhabit, yes, I've seen people get beat up. I've been threatened with being shot...for a lot less than denying somebody's health insurance claim.

And it only gets worse when this kind of stuff happens over resources or wealth, my doctor and I had a conversation about this because stuff like that is the underlying cause of the Sudanese civil war, for example.

Gets even worse when you start throwing ideology and religion into it, see conflicts like the South African Border War of the 1970's and 1980's for example.

For the record, I'm willing to bet that if a guy like David Sacks or Elon Musk has any theological background at all, it's probably got something to do with Afrikaner Calvinism. Here's the kicker, The Prosperity Gospel is effectively Calvinism For Idiots, it's the same heretical shit, with all the hard-ass rationalizations and theological sophistry stripped out. It's the same solipsistic horseshit, i.e. They're "Chosen" and you're not, basically because they say so. (God doesn't actually seem to get a vote.)

In fact, the only purpose God actually seems to serve in this kind of religion is twofold, as an endless source of Sin-Eating (for them, only) and a big spiked club for The Elect (them) to beat you over the head with. All that you get out of this bullshit is being expected to obey and give them money.

And for the record in my actual, lived experience, Calvinism in practice is highly hostile to consumption of alcohol to any level of excess...and often, at all...and extremely against the use of drugs at all, on any level, at all times. None of this, however, is true of Pentecostalism in my experience, let alone the full-on Prosperity Gospel, health-and-wealth varieties. Oh, don't get me wrong, they're nearly always against some people using whatever, but they'll turn a blind eye to elites-theirs or any other they think is on their "team"-doing drugs. In case you wonder where a lot of this "tolerance" comes from.

And, basically, how all these idiots seem to think that Trump is God. In fact you can at this point take the entire above paragraph and replace any reference to God with "Trump" and it still tracks; This is the Christ-less Christianity that these assholes wanted.

It's the same ridiculous horseshit, and this kind of thing ends badly any time you run the experiment. All it really takes is somebody or something to come along that doesn't buy your bullshit or religious hokum and doesn't care who you are. There is also, for the record, never any apparent thought on the part of these freaks that they might be the ones going to Hell.

These fucking people are Lost, in the Christian sense of that word, and they don't even care.

See Also: COVID-19. I wrote about this mentality quite extensively at the time. 

What we're dealing with now is the same kind of bullshit, but applied to politics.

And I'm telling you it's about to get worse...especially if these goddamned morons start fucking with the health care system or the nuts fly off the handle and start that Civil War they've been wanting...let alone both.

And let me tell you why the Billionaires and shit want this:

Two words:

"Population Control."

I'm serious, this is a thing that the Ayn Rand devotees and other selfish asshole "Libertarians" like to go on about. Pretty much they figure if the disabled, old people, anybody who can't or won't work for the Profits of some wealthy person just died...they figure they'd live in some kind of (again, strictly for them) paradise.

They never reckon with the fact that death, especially mass death, comes with its own set of costs in terms of both public health and your private soul, nor what any of those people they're so willing to cut off from the "government tit" did before they got that way. No, they don't give a shit if you're a disabled veteran like I am, they don't give a shit how much money you made in your life. You have a need now.

Yes, this bullshit pretty much is Antichristianity and I'll throw down with anybody what tries to say otherwise. This is literally the opposite of what the Lord's Word actually says to do in nearly all cases. Not just the Lord's Word...but actual ways of living that you can go to the Middle East where all this supposedly started and observe are still in force! I know for a fact that people from Africa, China, India, the Middle East etc. come here and are appalled by Americans' attitudes toward the elderly! 

People like Elon Musk??These fucking people would inflict the torments of Revelation on the world for no better reason than they think it's funny...let alone if somebody tells them they might make money off of it. Try something like that in South Africa though? Especially when it's somebody's grandma? Yeah there's probably gonna be consequences.

No, they are not thinking any of this through.

And honestly, they don't factor in that a whole raging fuck-ton of industries from elder-care to insurance make a metric fuck-ton of money off of old people who are no longer able to care for themselves, either. 

Nor for what removing these people and their economic participation...or that which they generate...will itself cost. Let me put it another way; The median age up here in northeastern Michigan skews pretty high, there's entire small burgs and towns up here where the main source of income is Social Security (in a minority of cases, supplemented by various disability claims or retirements) and it's been that way forever.

More to the point there's the ethical question that old people already done worked and put in their time, why shouldn't they be allowed to live out their years past a certain point in peace without having to work and not having to live in poverty if they don't want to work??

Republicans start fucking with all that, as soon as all the old chucklefucks that they've bamboozled for all this time figure out they're not exempt, there'll be political hell to pay.

Let me put it another way; I'm 50 years old! I'm more tore up than a soup sandwich my damn self, not only was working until I die never part of the deal according to what I was taught (yes, even by conservatives) but it's probably not even feasible for me to do that shit, and certainly not any damn fun.

And these motherfuckers are going to be shocked, shocked I tell you! when none of this shit works out how they think it will and I don't think their plan to cause this country to come flying apart with all this crap will work out how they think, either. 

I mean, it'll probably at least partially happen, but it won't work out necessarily to their benefit; See also what I said about sooner or later they'll meet somebody who doesn't care who they are or give a fuck about them. That somebody may well be worse than their own most inflated ideas of their own toughness. I've had that happen once or twice too.

But no matter what, even in the best case scenario at this point, people will still die, various and assorted apple-carts will still get kicked over by jack-offs for no better reason than they think it's hilarious, and we're probably gonna lose like an order of magnitude worth of shit...just like all the former Soviet countries did when the Soviet Union fell.

And we could have prevented all this chaos a month ago.

Think about that, for a second.

Again, when it's the Shouty Man behind the pulpit that's the one leading you to Hell in the afterlife for their own profit in this world, who's gonna save your soul??

Your call.

But you have to be able to recognize a threat when you see one.

Just sayin.'

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

One

Cassian Andor: What? To steal from the Empire, what do you need? A uniform, some dirty hands, and an Imperial toolkit. They’re so proud of themselves, they don’t even care. They’re so fat and satisfied, they can’t imagine it…

Luthen Rael: Can’t imagine what?

Andor: That someone like me would ever get inside their house, walk their floors, spit in their food, take their gear.

~From the Star Wars series Andor.

The Matrix and Drunk Reporting (Shouty Man, One-Korean Martial Law edition.)

Before the birth of Man, Dragons ruled all of Mundus.

Their Word was the Voice, and they spoke only for True needs.

For the Voice could blot out the sky and flood the land.

~Etched Tablet I, Skyrim.

...

Men were born and spread over the face of Mundus.

The dragons presided over the crawling masses.

Men were weak then, and had no Voice.

~Etched Tablet II, Skyrim.

...

The fledgling spirits of Men were strong in the Old Times.

Unafraid to war with the Dragons and their Voices.

But the Dragons only Shouted them down and broke their hearts.

~Etched Tablet III, Skyrim.

I saw this...sometime last week.

Apparently Elon Musk has immersed himself in Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality while on Ketamine and thinks he's...I don't know, some kind of weird Techno-Caesar or some shit, because he found the secret of life was speed-running Diablo IV?

Like, dude was so desperate for a cheering Mob that he made one up himself, and plugged his own ass into the Matrix to get it?

Now, I'm not a psychologist or anything, but this bullshit smacks of stark, ravening mental illness of some sort. Like, If it was me, I'd be calling the VA clinic and asking to talk to my fucking shrink if I'd even thought this bullshit up.

Kyne called on Paarthunax, who pitied Man.

Together they taught Men to use the Voice.

The Dragon War raged, Dragon against Tongue.

~Etched Tablet IV, Skyrim.

...

Man prevailed, Shouting Alduin out of the World.

Proving for all that their voice too, was strong.

Although their sacrifices were many-fold.

~Etched Tablet V, Skyrim.

Off the wall question. you ever played Skyrim?

In that game, the character you play, a select few other people, and Dragons as a species have the ability to "Shout." That is, to create magical effects with power channeled through their voice alone.

Well, that type of shit is exactly what far too many people in this world are trying to do, except there's no magic, and whatever Magic we ever had is the stuff of little more than gaming, legends and myths these days. No matter how much stupid people who don't understand the modern world look at it, and fill in the gaps in their knowledge with belief in conspiracy theories and "Magic" such things will not become real. 

Just because you believe in it doesn't make it right, or true. And the thing about Democracy is everybody's beliefs and opinions factor in.

Such things have only as much "power" as you give them in your mind, you do not have to subject yourself to this horseshit. While understanding it might make it useful to oppose people that do believe in this crap...things like astrology or conspiracy theories are no more real than Orcs, or a person having the ability to launch fireballs from their hands or the power to push things or tear things up with a shouted word.

I'm a lifelong gamer, and I also had such lessons drilled into me in Christian schools by people who were that era's version of conservatives. My Americanism and Christianity were firmly grounded in some version of Enlightenment rationalism, I guess.

Also, belief in hokum and superstition makes people easy to manipulate.

And your religion is supposed to govern your behavior, not society's.

The trouble is, for too many Americans, their actual religion is Petty Narcissism and Selfishness.

With roaring tongues the Sky-Children conquer.

Founding the First Empire with Sword and Voice

While the Dragons withdrew from the world.

~Etched Tablet VI, Skyrim.

...

The Tongues at Red Mountain went away humbled.

Jurgen Windcaller began his Seven-year Meditation.

To understand how strong voices could fail.

~Etched Tablet VII, Skyrim.

I've been seeing this all day, as live-Skeeted by a drunk Korean-American reporter.

Evidently, the president of South Korea attempted to declare Martial Law today. I followed it all on BlueSky, kind of like how I followed the Arab Spring on Facebook and both 1/6 and the initial stages of the war in Ukraine on Twitter.

It's one of the cool things about social media. Yes, We Can.

The government and something like 90% of the people rejected this. Not only did the parliament vote it down and the people protest...I mean this seriously I saw video of middle-aged Korean dudes getting into shoving matches with armed soldiers and the soldiers were the ones who were scared...and force the president to rescind it...but apparently the South Korean parliament is working through the night to draft a bill to impeach the president.

America, if we are to remain a united country, that's about to be our future too, and we're going to have to handle it the same kind of way.

Jurgen Windcaller chose silence and returned.

The 17 disputants could not Shout Him down.

Jurgen the Calm built His home on the Throat of the world.

~Etched Tablet VIII, Skyrim.

Except our fucking problem is, it ain't just Elon Musk that's choosing the Matrix and an AI/VR and/or drug-addled haze, plenty of goddamn people see everything...including events like a coup being put down in South Korea...through a lens of their own cockamamie ideology or politics or religion. Hell, there's way the fuck too many Americans what don't even know the difference between those three words...or that there is one. 

Like I don't know how fucked in the head of a Tankie you'd have to be to support North Korea...but my God, man, what's wrong with you??

Too many people see everything...including Trump...in a way centered on what benefits them, personally. As soon as "Resistance" to Trump became something people were monetizing...which took like five minutes in 2017...I knew something like what happened last month was possible, if not likely. And here's the thing, people like Elon Musk or Vladimir Putin would be just thrilled if we Shouted ourselves apart in some kind of reverse version of what Ulfric Stormcloak did to the High King.

And somewhere between 15 and 20 million Democrats didn't vote.

I can't even understand that kind of solipsistic narcissism.

Some people would rather be entertained than be free, I guess.

Trouble is, freedom isn't free.

It's not our exceptional birthright, people fought for this.

If you want to be free, now you're going to have to fight for it, just like the South Koreans just did.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

And things are getting to the point where bullshitting or talking just because you have the capability to talk ain't going to cut it.

We're up against people who missed the point, and who never understood the purpose of America.

Remember that, but also remember that a bunch of people who intend to spend their time chasing after conspiracy theories probably aren't even as smart as the South Korean president.

Now I know I asked this before, but especially for all you people who believe so earnestly in some form of Salvation or other...

Who's going to save you from the Shouty Man??

Слава Україна!

For years all silent, the Graybeards spoke one name.

Tiber Septim, stripling then, was summoned to Hrothgar.

They blessed and named him Dohvakiin.

~Etched Tablet IX, Skyrim.

...

The Voice is worship, follow the Inner Path.

Speak only in True need.

Etched Tablet X, Skyrim.

Last Post

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

Bonus Content

Cassian Andor: What? To steal from the Empire, what do you need? A uniform, some dirty hands, and an Imperial toolkit. They’re so proud of themselves, they don’t even care. They’re so fat and satisfied, they can’t imagine it…

Luthen Rael: Can’t imagine what?

Andor: That someone like me would ever get inside their house, walk their floors, spit in their food, take their gear.

Seriously? Stop blowing the narcissists, America.