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.

Empire (American Judgment Day, Twelve.)

Kareem Said: You're packed.

Arnold "Poet" Jackson: No, I decided I didn't want to take anything out this place.

Kareem Said: So no last meal? No goodbyes to anybody. Just see ya, have a nice life.

Arnold "Poet" Jackson: It's kinda fucked up, leaving. Everybody else is staying. It's like waking up from a dream.

Kareem Said: Hope is a waking dream.

Arnold "Poet" Jackson: Who that, Mohammad?

Kareem Said: Aristotle.

Arnold "Poet" Jackson: Well, that fuck ain't never served no time in Oz.

...

There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy. Remember this. Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they've already enlisted in the cause. Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. And then remember this. The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empire's authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege. Remember this. Try. ~Karis Nemik, from the Star Wars series Andor, Season 1, Episode 12 "Rix Road"

...

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.

Evidently, Syrian rebel forces have retaken the city of Aleppo, held by Assad loyalists and the Russians since 2016. Hell, I remember watching clips of the evacuation on YouTube.

Good.

I've been seeing...hell, it's on my Widgets on this new laptop right now...that the Russian Ruble is in the shitter, Georgians are revolting against Putin's puppet party over their decision to "Pause" Georgian EU talks until 2028.

Trump or no Trump, all does not appear to be going well for Authoritarianism, Inc.

We'd best remember that, and keep going at these motherfuckers.

The thing to remember is, this is a fight.

More to the point, it's a fight against a bunch of brittle, egotistical, flabby narcissists who don't really want to do the work.

You can't give up.

I mean, they don't wanna work that hard, but they'll try and hang in longer than you if it means they get to be mean to people...yes, that's really all this crap is about.

Fighting, war, shit like that...isn't about destruction. It's about breaking the enemy's will to fight, it's about getting the other guy to give up. If the cost of fascism (or whatever) is too high, most of these Republican shitheads won't actually want to pay it. They'll try to get somebody else to, but in the end it doesn't work that way.

Things like that are why we're not still fighting in Afghanistan, for one.

Oh, they'll be mad about that, too. But fundamentally as long as these shitty little drama queens have somebody to fight with, they're (by their own definition, at least) happy. Not that I'd profess to imagine how somebody could be happy with perpetual drama and grievance, let alone find it entertaining or a worthy purpose for one's life.

These people don't want a real conflict, they want a narcissistic hand-job.

I can't imagine all those Syrians celebrating their liberation in Aleppo give much of a shit about "Culture Wars" or various arguments on social media right now.

Trouble is, I think there's a fair number of Americans who'd have to fall about that far before they'd fucking get it.

They'll have to see for themselves that conflict and war are horrible things, and that the idea of such things being glorious doesn't really exist all that much outside of movies.

We're not the people we have been in the past, there's a reason I keep bumping up a bunch of my posts from here that I wrote during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic on BlueSky. 

That's because far too many of us found literally every possible excuse to do everything but what should have been done.

Thing is, enough of us came through that I think the situation was salvageable then, and I think it is now, too...although I'm not sure things will survive in exactly their current form. That's simply because the nuts inhabit an almost entirely different fun-house mirror reality from the rest of us.

And those fucking people. the cultists and fake-outrage and grievance addicts, are well and truly going to have to fuck around and find out and literally hit rock-bottom before they see where they fucked up.

Hey, I'm an addict myself, and I never said this was gonna be fun.

But sooner or later we are all gonna have to face this shit, pick a side, and do our part. The bad guys certainly will. They always show up.

The question is, why didn't you??

And now, to use that popular turn of phrase from these last few years, we're all gonna have to go through some things.

But there is hope, and we can't give up.

It's kinda that simple, like I've been saying.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

And just because some idiots think Trump is "entertaining" and they'd rather be entertained than free...doesn't mean you have to buy into that bullshit. The Red Caesar is more King Lear than Julius, and America was never intended to be an Empire.

Remember that, because it'll be on that test you keep trying to procrastinate and put off, and it'll show in the end product.

Just because some of us want to live in the Empire from Star Wars don't mean you have to.

The only way these assholes win is if you let them.

Слава Україна!

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.

Eleven

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

Gravity (American Judgment Day, Eleven.)

In the bullshit department, a businessman can't hold a candle to a clergyman. 'Cause I got to tell you the truth, folks: when it comes to bullshit - big-time, major-league bullshit - you have to stand in awe, in AWE of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims, religion. No contest! Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it: religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time... But He loves you! He loves you, and He needs MONEY! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise - somehow, just can't handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, you talk about a good bullshit story... Holy Shit! ~George Carlin

...

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.

...

Loretta Smith: I'm Loretta Smith. You killed my son. You're a handsome fellow.

Donald Groves: Thanks.

Loretta Smith: You broke God's law: Love thy neighbor. I wanna hate you but I can't. I feel pity, tears, but no hate. I didn't realize that until this moment. You are my neighbor and I love you. And I forgive you with all my heart. That's all.

~From the HBO series "Oz" Season 1, Episode 7 "Plan B."

I saw this last night.

Apparently, Kirk Cameron has a new show where he's basically the Anti-Mr. Rogers, preaching against the evils of "Socialism."

Yeah, that sounds like fun, what we gonna call it? Atlas Mugged??

Sorry, but I started out as a conservative and I was raised on stuff like Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street. You know, shows that were about being a good person, learning, and sharing. Shows like that helped form my character and taught me how to do shit like be able to fucking read.

But I guess that's not what Republicans wanna be anymore, eh?

Anything but "Love Thy Neighbor."

I've read the Bible cover-to-cover many times, as the Baptists taught me. Part of it is simply being able to check what some other person is saying against the Word, part of it is "Study, to show thyself approved." That is, study of the Bible is itself an act of devotion and piety.

Tell me something, without "Love Thy Neighbor" without "Father, Forgive them" what the fuck is even in there?? What is to differentiate Christianity from the Deobandi Radical Islam of the Taliban or from the violence of the worst Israeli nationalist fanatics who sort-of claim Judaism as rationalization?? Without Love...what's the damn point?? Being able to judge other people?? Shit, you can do that about damn near anything. Power and Control?? Well in that case...again, without love...what is the damn difference between Christianity and Soviet Communism or the Chavismo Socialism of Venezuela's current government?? 

The fuck is the difference between American Evangelicalism and the Empire from Star Wars?? 

You go ahead and figure it out, I'll wait.

Without love, both as a virtue and for its own sake, without giving a shit about Other People, there ain't no difference and this is how you go to Hell and hit all the Brimstone on the way down, according to what I was taught. Jesus Himself preached compassion and sacrifice for the Other, not as options but as the actual modality of Salvation, and He lived those virtues right up to His literal dying breath.

Without love, you're just accepting a set of political or theological principles that may or may not even mean anything aside from theoretically belonging to "Your" In-group. And what if another such group comes along and says they're more of an In-group than you are?? Basically, without compassion, without love, without shared humanity, without belief in one human family (which Christianity, taken literally enough, should not make all that hard) all any religion is, is just an excuse to kill people.

Of course, that's all people like Greg Abbott, Kirk Cameron, or the "Christian" Nationalists of Project 2025 even want or understand, it's little more than something to get into fights over. They want to dominate and enslave and subjugate others, and as they see it all they need is an excuse.

For far too many of these motherfuckers, the only lessons from Christianity that they ever internalized were of a monstrous "God" and a vengeful Apocalypse, their deity perhaps is better addressed in the Latinate form as Carnifex Maximus.

Seems like a hell of a way to live.

Life is sacred"? Who said so? God? Hey, if you read history, you realize that God is one of the leading causes of death! Has been for thousands of years! Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Christians; all taking turns killing each other because God told 'em it was a good idea. The sword of god, the blood of the lamb, 'vengeance is mine'; millions of dead motherfuckers. Millions of dead motherfuckers, all because they gave the wrong answer to The God Question: "Do you believe in God?" "No." BAM! Dead. "Do you believe in God?" "Yes." "...Do you believe in my God?" "No." BAM! Dead. "My God has a bigger dick than your God!" ~George Carlin.

There is NO actual thought in These Fucking People's heads about a God who might maintain the Universe from moment to moment, not even one. There is NO belief in a Risen and Living Christ who might actually judge them by His own standards when they die.

I'm honestly surprised These Fucking People's translations of the Bible even include the Resurrection at all...their idea of Religion, of a lived faith, is revenge for mostly-imagined wrongs or things that simply aren't wrong at all.

In the end, all it is is an excuse for Nihilism of the most base kind, America didn't jerk off their narcissism enough or make them rich enough, so they hate it. Perhaps it should be more accurately said that to them, nothing will ever be good enough because their debased appetites are simply infinite.

When's enough going to be enough, yo??

When do we start saying "No?"

And sooner or later, we're gonna have to, simply as a means of self-defense. And we're gonna have to say it with physical force, because these fucking people are stupid and don't understand anything less than a punch in the face.

I mean, especially if you're a conservative...or even a fascist...what is the excuse for not knowing that Rome is in Italy?? I'll wait.

I mean, these kind of dudes spend a lot of time spanking the monkey to the idea of the Roman Empire, you'd think they'd know where it was located, don't you?? Maybe a little about the people who lived in it??

I mean, for fuck's sake haven't any of these dudes ever watched Gladiator?? For all that movie gets wrong (which is quite a lot) it does capture the spirit of the place and time and the basics of Platonic philosophy pretty neatly if you *Do* know anything about Roman culture or Stoic belief.

These fucking people don't want that.

They want to fetishize marching soldiers and uniformed sameness while living in an Idiocracy, for no better reason than they think if they don't know anything, they figure they can believe and do whatever they want.

And they don't want anybody that's any smarter than them making any of the decisions.

Trouble with that is, the same people who taught me the Lord's Word taught me that, at the end of the day, a lack...or claimed lack...of knowledge of the Truth is no defense against it. It's the same principle that's why...from way back in Western Civilization...Ignorance of the Law is not considered a defense.

Let me put it another way.

You don't have to believe in Gravity.

It is what it is.

Step off the roof, and that sudden stop at the bottom will have the same result whether you choose to believe in it or not.

This Trump thing is going to end up the same way, sooner or later it hits a wall, people die, the Perpetual Motion Machine runs out of inertia. I'm serious.

But the longer this goes on, the harder the impact when one hits the ground.

Truth is literally the only thing that gives people a floor to even stand on to push back against Power.

Remember that.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

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

Ten

Kareem Said: You're packed.

Arnold "Poet" Jackson: No, I decided I didn't want to take anything out this place.

Kareem Said: So no last meal? No goodbyes to anybody. Just see ya, have a nice life.

Arnold "Poet" Jackson: It's kinda fucked up, leaving. Everybody else is staying. It's like waking up from a dream.

Kareem Said: Hope is a waking dream.

Arnold "Poet" Jackson: Who that, Mohammad?

Kareem Said: Aristotle.

Arnold "Poet" Jackson: Well, that fuck ain't never served no time in Oz.

Babylon (American Judgment Day, Ten.)

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

...

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.

I saw this last night.

And I'm really, like, What The Fuck?!?!

A whole bunch of fucking people...completely irrationally, given what actually happened the last time (and who was responsible for the COVID-19 stimulus checks for that matter-obviously the Congressional Democrats) think they're gonna get Stimulus checks or something the fuck else out of this whole Trump thing.

I'm just sayin' it's the entire Modus Operandi of skeevy con-artists and salesmen like Trump to make you think you're somehow going to come out ahead when they scam you.

(And millions of people have bought into this, gotten scammed, and gone back for more already.)

Meanwhile, a whole bunch of my Threads people were arguing Atheism vs. Religion with assorted grift-y alleged preachers and (No Shit) at least one obvious OnlyFans hoe.

Like, seriously, it didn't automatically check out to you that somebody whose handle was "Mia Babe" might not be acting all Jesus-y in good faith?? 

I mean, sure, there's a lot of people out there that are perfectly happy talking about Jesus one minute and then doing the Nasty in the next, but it's been my experience, that such people's other activities tend to overshadow their religious participation.

What's even the goddamned point??

I mean, seriously, people who are obviously on something (like, right then) trying to talk to me about Jesus at work are a daily thing. You let it go in one ear and out the other, move them along, Have a Blessed Day, NEXT! Or you end up wasting all your time on idiots who are coming at you in bad faith in the first fuckin' place.

Block and move on, you are not obligated to argue with Nimrods.

Mia ain't trying to preach the Lord's Word, she's trying to hook people to her porn pages, it literally said so all up and down her feed! 

Nothing wrong with that...granted all the Christian sex workers that I've met were prior to the rise of social media, but I don't recall those kind of people seeking out arguments about the shit. Also, I hate it when people try and pretend to be something they're not, especially when that's what they're selling. One of these things is not like the other one.

Speaking of bullshit artists that claim to have gotten the Jesus, Matt Gaetz withdrew himself from consideration for US Attorney General yesterday.

And goddamn, did a lot of the usual "Conservative" Influencer suspects (and the occasional far-Leftist) buy into some bullshit idea that Beavis McFloridaMan was the greatest legal mind since Ben Matlock and/or Frito Pendejo or some similar horseshit. 

I mean, come on, what the fuck is even wrong with people??

I'm warning you now, Trump 2.0 very much looks like Basic Republicans with a side of Trump instead of the other way around like it was the first time...which means NONE of These Fucking People are gonna be happy with what they get, and nobody's gonna get this whole mess stuck to them quite like MAGA is. Perhaps more to the point, the Christian Nationalists are apparently very much on the warpath and organizing already. I think they see an opening what with Trump's lack of leadership and think they'll get away with whatever bullshit they do. 

Like I've been saying, it's not Trump that's gonna cause a Civil War. It's These Fucking People.

And that's not just in spite of, but actually because of how much of the shit is actually a scam. Guess what? They think they're gonna manipulate God too.

Never mind that if God can be manipulated by Man, He is clearly not God.

And trust me, the real bad actors here are probably subscribing to that one OnlyFans hoe, too.

Because as we've already seen with Trump and most of his Clown Car brigade, most of these grifters are also marks.

Most of these Christian Nationalists are also perverts.

That doesn't mean you have to be as dumb or perverse as they are. Don't wrestle with the goddamn pig, you get all dirty and the pig enjoys it.

Look, Democracy and Freedom both require a few basic things from people to have them; Good faith, Intelligence, Participation, a certain level of reasonably enlightened Self-Interest, and a Willingness to fight for the things one believes in will do for a start.

Freedom ain't free, sometimes you're gonna have to fight for it.

But that also means picking the right fights.

That means doing the shit that matters instead of whatever you can do while sitting on your ass playing around on social media.

This ain't it.

Come on, people.

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

Nine

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