The Killing Fields (Scenes From A Cold Civil War, Twelve.)

Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and the overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land, the House of Abraham, Muhammad, and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors...

You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.

During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug) -- while praying to the same God -- with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the "white" Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana. We were truly all the same (brothers) -- because their belief in one God had removed the "white" from their minds, the 'white' from their behavior, and the 'white' from their attitude. I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man -- and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their "differences" in color.

With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called "Christian" white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem. Perhaps it could be in time to save America from imminent disaster -- the same destruction brought upon Germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves.

They asked me what about the Hajj had impressed me the most. . . . I said, "The brotherhood! The people of all races, color, from all over the world coming together as one! It has proved to me the power of the One God. . . . All ate as one, and slept as one. Everything about the pilgrimage atmosphere accented the Oneness of Man under One God. 

~Malcolm X, Letter following the Hajj.

...

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

I've been hearing all this crap about Sydney Sweeney's "Great Jeans" commercial for a few days now, and honestly the shit just sounded like, you know, typical "Pop Culture" vapidity updated for our current stupid racist political season.

Finally saw a rundown of the whole thing, conveniently provided by the instigators themselves. Turns out, it's worse.

Or more precisely, it is all that. But These Fucking People think they're some kind of adventurers for pulling this shit.

Well, there's millions of people around the world that you can ask about the actual horrors of Eugenics and Nazism. There's millions more who fought and survived and contributed to the historical record before they died. And there's millions more besides that, that you can't ask, that the historical record itself cannot consult because they died in the events themselves as did most of the people they knew, so they are but a name and place of death, mostly...rather than being the people who lived through it and then died 50 or 60 years later.

And These Fucking People think that's some kind of a big joke, a fashion statement, something to smirk and laugh about.

Stop and think about that shit for a second.

All this, While they're busy looking for ever more people to discriminate against.

Speaking of fat people, Lara, have you seen what the average butter-faced Southern MAGA redneck looks like, anymore??

They're all overweight, Bubba The Hutt is a thing that exists.

And here's the thing, between the economy that's kept a lot of people distracted and sozzled for years really starting to come undone, the Epstein list and hell, the fucking weather...we're probably headed for a crisis that's gonna make the September 2008 economic crash look like small potatoes...and very likely along with it a revolution (at least one, likely more) and a Soviet-style collapse of the United States, out of which...yes, the assholes will get something. 

No, you don't wanna live there.

I don't exactly live in the worst place, but places like Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin will be like the Baltic States of our version of the Fall of the Soviet Union (or like Slovenia in the collapse of Yugoslavia.) It could be worse, but it could be better, too...and we'll likely survive or not based on good leadership and willingness to integrate with the rest of the world.

Speaking of clothes, Michigan is giving every family with a Bridge Card and kids $400 per child for school clothes and supplies. That's my state, yo.

As for the United States as a whole? We've already been Oligarch-raided like the late-stage Soviet Union. I think we can expect the bottom to drop out of this mess before too long, in terms of Wall Street and the "economy" which is little more--if you think about it--than constantly measuring and re-measuring how rich people are doing.

The whole mess is getting too top-heavy, it's going to eventually collapse no matter what.

The truth is...and I first made various observations to this effect six or seven years ago on Twitter...that America isn't working out for a hell of a lot of Americans.

The top of the mountain may look impressive, but without the stones that hold it up, it's going to come tumbling down.

And you can throw into the mix that in the middle of this there's going to have to be a fight for freedom.

Otherwise, what the fuck are we even doing here??

Because no matter who you are, or who you think you are, people who turn Eugenics into a joke or sell T-shirts celebrating Concentration Camps are absolutely going to come after you sooner or later.

But they're very likely going to act like it's some big joke, not take it seriously and fuck it up. 

Which means people will still die, very likely more (and also not the people they wanted to, think how more conservatives died of COVID-19 than members of other groups) than would have died if these ass clowns were halfway competent.

But dead is still dead, the Grim Reaper doesn't really care about one's race, sex, social status or anything like that and you don't get to take the money with you. Also, once mass death gets going it has an economy...in effect...all its own, which tends to generate more casualties by way of disease and social collapse over time like some kind of Necro-subprime mortgage being bundled and resold to new sets of suckers creditors by skeevy Wall Street Chuds.

And people like Ashley Schapiro don't care. They got theirs already, fuck you.

These Fucking People's ideal society is basically the Killing Fields of Khmer Rouge Cambodia, but with a goddamned mall.

Against that? You either believe in Freedom...in your own right to Life...or you don't.

It really is that simple.

It's going to come down to a fight.

Слава Україна!

The wind whispers of fear and hate. The war has killed love. And those that confess to the Angkar are punished, and no one dare ask where they go. Here, only the silent survive. ~Dith Pran, The Killing Fields

Eleven

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  

Networked Babylon (Scenes From A Cold Civil War, Eleven.)

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

...

Hess: So what shall we toast to, boys? I can blather on about “To health” or “To success,” but I’d like to do somethin’ a little less rote. Where you from, Brown Eyes?

Migs Mayfield: How ’bout a toast to Operation Cinder?

Hess: Now there’s a man who knows his history.

Mayfield: No, I don’t just know it. I lived it. I was in Burnin Konn.

Hess: Burnin Konn?

Mayfield: Mmm.

Hess: That was a hard day. I had to make many unpleasant decisions.

Mayfield: Yes, you did. Entire city gone in moments, along with everybody in it. We lost our whole division that day. Man, that was like 5-10,000 people.

Hess: Yep. All heroes of the Empire.

Mayfield: Yeah. And all dead.

Hess: Well, it’s a small sacrifice for the greater good, son.

Mayfield: Depends on who you ask, don’t you think?

Hess: [irritated] What you gettin’ at, trooper?

Mayfield: All those people, the ones who died, was it good for them? Hmm? Their families? The guys I served with? Civilians, those poor mud scuffers, died defending their homes, fighting for freedom. Was it good for them?

Hess: But we’ve outlasted them, son. They’re eating themselves alive. The New Republic is in complete disarray, and we grow stronger. You see, with the rhydonium you’ve delivered, we can create havoc that’s gonna make Burnin Konn pale by comparison. And then they’re gonna turn to us once again. You see, boys, everybody thinks they want freedom, but what they really want is order. And when they realize that, they’re gonna welcome us back with open arms. Ah. To the Empire.

[Mayfield chuckles, then fires a blaster at Hess' chest, killing him instantly. He and Mando then shoot their way out of the mess hall] ~From The Mandalorian, Season 2, Ep. 7 "The Believer"

I keep hearing about this half-baked idea for a Cryptocurrency-based "Network State."

Which, considering that I've seen what happens when regular people get too far into all this Crypto bullshit and lose their ass, something tells me none of this shit works that way.

Seems like it's just a retread of Ayn Rand's 1950's-era "Galt's Gulch" horseshit right out of the 1950's, if you ask me. It's just been slightly updated to account for technology and the increasing selfishness of people.

Of course, these fucking people, Libertarians, Republicans or whatever they claim to be now, have coupled this whole idea to Donald Trump...which of course means, in the end it won't work...but the idea isn't for it to work in the first place, but simply for it to throw another wrench into the gears of the existing system and break shit even more.

And the truth is, not a damned one of these fucking people wants to work for a living.

Not even when their job basically consists of wearing a suit and going to meetings all day, which is something I've never considered to be real work.

They think they're gonna have wealth without work and some version of slaves to do their goddamned work for them. Like, what the fuck do you think either this whole craze about AI and robots on the Right is about, not to mention making the lives of poor people even harder than usual or traumatizing immigrants and migrant workers and people of Color??

And lets not forget about all the sexual abuse that's going on. It's not just the Epstein List, I'm rather sure there's many more such lists at this point.

These Fucking People look at Babylon or Rome or any other ancient empire of debauchery and slavery and they don't see a terrible past, they see something to emulate in the present.

Like, I guess I thought humanity was supposed to have learned something in the last couple of thousand years??

Like if they can't get some group of humans to tap out and be their bitches their big idea is to built robots and use the shit out of Artificial Intelligence and I don't know about you but I've seen Battlestar Galactica and the Terminator movies and Westworld. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think, in the end, that will end well either.

Like pretty much the only things modern "Conservatives" seem to believe in these days are "Ideals" of Monarchy and Slavery (and most alleged "Conservatives" fail to understand they ain't gonna be the King.) I'm sorry, but my grasp of history tells me all that kind of shit was ever good for was soaking the world in the blood of the innocent undeserving and you'd fucking think people...especially in America, which the entire point of was that we were the Nation Against Monarchy...have had enough of this fucking bullshit.

Especially with the effects of climate change and various Republican policies at this point being as goddamned obvious as they are.

Of course, I get it, half the fucking problem is that the United States of America is overrun with narcissists who don't give a shit about other people.

Until the problems they've created come for them, that is, then it's a fucking problem.

Politics, collectively, is how we treat each other.

It's no wonder America is a goddamned train wreck, and then These Fucking People want to further parasitize the USA and anywhere else that'll let them with some kind of bullshit "Network State" arglebargle?

Who cuts the grass in the Network State? Who collects the taxes, defends it, fixes the plumbing?

Not Network-Staters, I'll tell you that much. It'll be Americans or Hondurans or whatever.

These dipshits want all the benefits of civilization, but none of the responsibilities.

Like These Fucking People think they're gonna be the Technocracy out of the White Wolf roleplaying games, but the truth is they're more like the Borg in Star Trek: First Contact where that shit was like the Star Trek version of Zombies or something, but it's the Borg, programmed by the Carl's Jr. computer from Idiocracy. Extra Big Ass Taco, now with more molecules!

Or something.

While I'm at it, I saw that Elon Musk has a *Checks Notes* guy in a robot suit that he pays to pretend to be a robot at his "Tesla Diner" like some kind of retread of the extras in circa-1979 Cylon costumes that they had back at the Universal Studios theme park back in the 1980's and goddamn but if he's all that he says he is you'd think Elon could do better than that shit.

The truth is all this crap is gonna come tumbling down simply because these fucking people are stupid, and us regular people are gonna get stuck with cleaning up the mess and footing the bill and the assholes will be waiting in the wings to worm their ways back in the second anybody makes a mistake or, well, does pretty much anything they can scream about.

Like, maybe the human race should just stop platforming these fucking assholes??

Just a thought, but what the fuck do I know?

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

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

And if you don't believe everybody should have it, what you believe in isn't freedom.

I know that much.

You have been warned.

People were warned and they didn't listen.

And now it's going to end up coming down to a fight to make this bullshit stop.

Слава Україна!

John Constantine: You're handing Earth over to the son of the Devil? Help me, here;

Gabriel: [Gabriel sits on top of John Constantine, explaining her rebellion] You're handed this precious gift, right? Each one of you granted redemption from the Creator – murderers, rapists, molesters – all of you just have to repent, and God takes you into His bosom. In all the worlds and all the universe, no other creature can make such a boast, save man. It's not fair.

[Gabriel leans closer to Constantine's face]

Gabriel: If sweet, sweet God loves you so, then I will make you worthy of His love. But it's only in the face of horror that you truly find your nobler selves – and you can be so noble. So … I will bring you pain. I will bring you horror.

[Gabriel lifts up Constantine from his collar]

Gabriel: So that you may rise above it. So that those of you who will survive this reign of hell on earth will be worthy of God's love.

John Constantine: Gabriel... you're insane.

Gabriel: [smiles] The road to salvation begins tonight. Right now.

~From the film Constantine.

Ten

We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world, a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us. No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we'll kill you. Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? Who among us can be happy and proud of having all this innocent blood on our hands? Who are these swine? These flag-sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled by stupid little rich kids like George Bush? They are the same ones who wanted to have Muhammad Ali locked up for refusing to kill gooks. They speak for all that is cruel and stupid and vicious in the American character. They are the racists and hate mongers among us; they are the Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis. And I am too old to worry about whether they like it or not. Fuck them. ~Hunter S. Thompson

False Prophets (Scenes From A Cold Civil War, Ten.)

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

...

 [Cassian plays Nemik's audio diary]

Karis Nemik: 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. ~From the Star Wars series Andor, S1.E12 "Rix Road."

I saw this last night.

Apparently Charlie Kirk is saying an entire generation of American women are "infected" by the "Jezebel Spirit."

Which of course basically means that they refuse to submit to a particular kind of [often a blend of] American-specific misogynistic Baptist Fundamentalist and/or Pentecostal Christianity.

I've never been a follower of either, but for better and worse I've spent a fair amount of time around such people so I know all the bullshit.

First off, Jezebel, wife of the wicked Biblical Israeli king Ahab, was not some kind of independent secular Feminist type. By definition, she was married and had kids and took and active part in local religious life, such as it was. Honestly, because of misogyny she gets blamed for a lot of the bullshit that Ahab actually did.

For the record, Elijah wasn't exactly that great of a guy either, in modern moral terms.

And by the way, even if she was responsible...So? 

Pentecostal churches in particular are full of women who are effectively the dominant force in their families, and constantly doing all kind of manipulative shit and they get their husbands to go along with it all and usually reap the benefits while dumping the costs unto others. My ex-wife thought she was gonna be one of these types when we got married and she talked me into doing ministry...but of course I never went for it.

The real "Jezebel Spirit" thus would probably be the Church Queen Bee not the independent, secular woman, just sayin.' And the truth is, if that's what somebody wants to be, there's nothing in particular wrong with it if that's how everybody involved wants to live.

But of course it doesn't stop there, it never stops there.

It's not about Christ, let alone conservatism, it's about Power. This shit is a wannabe Imperial Cult.

Specifically something that sounds a lot like the Imperium Of Man from Warhammer 40K but with a side of Idiocracy.

It's the expectation on the part of These Fucking People that others should have to participate in their political and religious horseshit and submit to their opinions and should in one way or another be destroyed if they refuse to, that's the fucking problem.

This post isn't really about Charlie Kirk spouting Holy Roller arglebargle.

That's just a comical symptom of the entire goddamned problem.

It's about the fact that there's a growing sect of These Fucking People who reject the entire concept of Freedom even in terms of previous loudly-right-wing conservative understandings of the term. 

Why? Because even that lets people do something, hell, anything, that these motherfuckers don't like.

Free Market economics says that if people want to drink beer, smoke cigarettes or watch Porn, then somebody can and should make money helping them scratch that itch. While I don't necessarily agree with a lot of this stuff and think there should be some limits on certain things...in principle I can't dispute the core idea that yes, within sensible limits people should be able to do what they want, and how that turns out is between them and God. 

I understand that capability vs. purpose, personal tastes and what the specific limits are varies from person to person. It's complicated.

These motherfuckers don't see it that way. They have one specific view of the world and think everybody else should have to conform to what they want.

It's not actually religion, it's narcissism.

And my feeling is they're gonna go after MAGA and Republicans first because they're even more offended by those people questioning authority. Well, that and I'm not sure these idiots understand that a lot of those kind of people believed in Trump, not in their Independent-Fundamentalist Murder-Jesus.

MAGA is disintegrating under the stresses of the Epstein scandal and Trump's aging decline.

The truth is, in the end neither MAGA nor Trump himself will end up being Fascist enough for these assholes.

I'm warning you now, it's These Fucking People, False Prophets like Charlie Kirk and Joel Webbon, that'll be the next goddamned threat, and they can't wait to tell on themselves.

They were only ever claiming Trump as an icon of convenience, yet another rope-a-dope to manipulate people.

They'll find another one, or appoint one of their own when he is gone.

It's the virus of this fanatical religiosity that's the real infection, passed down in our bloodstream from the fucking Puritans (the original False Prophets of the American experience and experiment) all the way to chuckle-fucks like Charlie Kirk.

We need to make it stop.

You have been warned.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

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

Soon.

Слава Україна!

Eli Sunday: Daniel, I'm asking if you'd like to have business with the Church of the Third Revelation in developing this lease on young Bandy's thousand acre tract. I'm offering you to drill on one of the great undeveloped fields of Little Boston!  

Daniel Plainview: I'd be happy to work with you.

Eli Sunday: You would? Yes, yes, of course. That’s wonderful.

Daniel Plainview: But there is one condition for this work.

Eli Sunday: All right.

Daniel Plainview: I'd like you to tell me that you are a false prophet. I'd like you to tell me that you are, and have been, a false prophet, and that God is a superstition.

~From the film There Will Be Blood.

Nine

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

The Divine Right Of Morons (Scenes From A Cold Civil War, Nine.)

Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and the overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land, the House of Abraham, Muhammad, and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors...

You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.

During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug) -- while praying to the same God -- with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the "white" Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana. We were truly all the same (brothers) -- because their belief in one God had removed the "white" from their minds, the 'white' from their behavior, and the 'white' from their attitude. I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man -- and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their "differences" in color.

With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called "Christian" white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem. Perhaps it could be in time to save America from imminent disaster -- the same destruction brought upon Germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves.

They asked me what about the Hajj had impressed me the most. . . . I said, "The brotherhood! The people of all races, color, from all over the world coming together as one! It has proved to me the power of the One God. . . . All ate as one, and slept as one. Everything about the pilgrimage atmosphere accented the Oneness of Man under One God. 

~Malcolm X, Letter following the Hajj.

Every once in awhile I see shit like this.

Some idiot Chud who wants to make America a "Whites Only" nation.

See, here's the thing with that. Our Founding Fathers didn't want to make the USA "Whites Only" because most of them were land-owning farmers who profited off of enslaved labor.

Granted, the way "Race" worked at the time, nobody would have even thought of this stupid shit. In 1775, the idea of an ethnic or racial monoculture was absurd simply because in most places, ethnic and/or racial hierarchy was the norm. Slavery of different kinds was largely still accepted, as was poverty on a scale most modern people wouldn't understand. 

I mean, fuck, most White people didn't have anything and weren't actually free either.

A "Whites Only" nation would have meant guys like George Washington would have had less money and less political power.

More to the point, the Founders...especially guys like Thomas Jefferson...didn't actually give a damn about "Racial Purity."

Go ahead, look up Sally Hemmings, I fuckin' dare you.

While I'm at it, most of the Founding Fathers are generally on record as despising Kings, the idea of Kingship in general, and the Divine Right Of Kings and puffed-up morons similar to Donald Trump in particular. Such were pretty damn common around the world when this country was founded.

More to the point, I'll never get what "Conservatives" think they're getting out of constantly blowing the goddamned narcissist.

I mean, among other things it's pretty obvious that Trump doesn't appreciate it or enjoy it, and no matter what you do he's going to expect more of it.

And not reward you for it.

They think they're gonna get the Divine Right Of Morons, but the truth is only Trump gets that.

I'm not sure which came first, the rabid desire among "Conservatives" for Idiocracy or their turgid devotion to ideas of Monarchy that most of the rest of the world abandoned a long time ago, and most of the rest of the United States Of America never held in the first damn place.

And it's long been my experience that conspiracy theories, mental illness and pants-shitting fear of basically everything go hand-in-hand with idiotic religiosity...especially the Prosperity Gospel and various flavors of "Kill 'em all and let God sort it out."

I'm a United States Air Force veteran. I know what a goddamn contrail is and I not only know one when I see it, I can usually ballpark what kind of aircraft it's from if I can stand there and give it a look for a bit.

But the thing is, anybody who's taken a middle-school science class should have absolutely no excuse for "Believing" in "Chemtrails."

Contrails are water vapor, not chemicals.

The thing is, your basic goddamned Roman Plebian was smarter than this, or at least less afraid of shit.

Cowardice was not considered a virtue in Ancient times, nor was idiocy.

And it's worth note that, their own protestations aside, it's not Rome that these fucking people want to emulate, it's Dark Ages Europe...or at least some idiotic idea of it. These fucking people don't realize Whiteness as a concept didn't exist at that time.

But the truth is These Fucking People's desire for some combination of medieval peasantry and incestuous nobility and the pre-Magna Carta power thereof has outstripped all common sense.

Somehow they all think they're gonna be the King is his castle, the Lord in his manor, or the Warlord with his Barbarians...and not the serfs laboring in the fields, not the slaves working in the mine, and sure as hell not the catamite strapped to the tailgate of the warlord's Toyota Hilux technical truck, stored right next to the ammunition for the DHSK Machine Gun until the warlord comes calling.

And this dream of Power is...honestly...pretty much the only thing most of these motherfuckers believe in.

It's ridiculous. The truth is only one guy gets that, and it ain't gonna be you.

And most of these fucking people are simple-assed stupid narcissists just like their Lord and Savior, Trump.

They will not work well with others, they don't give a shit about other people.

And when something goes wrong or when they lose, for every last one of these shitheads it's gonna be everybody else's fault but their own.

You want to win? You have to care about other people.

You either believe in freedom or you don't, and you're either willing to fight for it or you ain't.

Freedom isn't free, people.

And we have to be willing to pay the cost.

Because they won't.

But they don't really want to pay the costs of anything else, either.

And at the end of the day that's why these assholes are gonna lose.

Reject the American Dark Age.

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 [Cassian plays Nemik's audio diary]

Karis Nemik: 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. ~From the Star Wars series Andor, S1.E12 "Rix Road."

Eight

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

Enough Is Enough (Scenes From A Cold Civil War, Eight.)

Every one of the thousands at the airport, about to leave for Jeddah, was dressed this way. You could be a king or a peasant and no one would know. Some powerful personages, who were discreetly pointed out to me, had on the same thing I had on. Once thus dressed, we all had begun calling out "Labbayka! (Allahumma) Labbayka!" (Here I come, O Lord!) Packed in the plane were white, black, brown, red, and yellow people, blue eyes and blond hair, and my kinky red hair -- all together, brothers! All honoring the same God, all in turn giving equal honor to each other.

That is when I first began to reappraise the "white man." It was when I first began to perceive that "white man," as commonly used, means complexion only secondarily; primarily it described attitudes and actions. 

In America, "white man" meant specific attitudes and actions toward the black man, and toward all other non-white men. But in the Muslim world, I had seen that men with white complexions were more genuinely brotherly than anyone else had ever been. That morning was the start of a radical alteration in my whole outlook about "white" men. 

~Malcolm X, letter written following the Hajj.

...

[Mon Mothma addresses the Senate chambers again]

Mon Mothma: Fellow Senators, friends, colleagues, allies, adversaries, I stand before you this morning with a heavy heart. I've spent my life in this chamber. I came here as a child, and as I look around me now, I realize I have almost no memories that predate my arrival, and few bonds of affection that cleave so tightly. Through these many years, I believe I have served my constituents honorably and upheld our code of conduct. This chamber is a cauldron of opinions, and we've certainly all had our patience and tempers tested in pursuit of our ideals. Disagree as we might, I am hopeful that those of you who know me will vouch for my credibility in the days to come.

I stand this morning with a difficult message. I believe we are in crisis. The distance between what is said and what is known to be true has become an abyss. Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil! When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest. This Chamber's hold on the truth was finally lost on the Ghorman Plaza! What took place yesterday, what happened yesterday on Ghorman, was unprovoked genocide! Yes, genocide! And that truth has been exiled from this Chamber! And the monster screaming the loudest, the monster we helped create, the monster who will come for us all soon enough, is Emperor Palpatine!

~From the Star Wars series Andor, S2.E9 "Welcome To The Rebellion."

...

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

I saw this yesterday.

Some white racist idiot got kicked out of a Trader Joes for harassing Latino immigrants.

Pretty much everybody in earshot erupted in applause.

People are getting tired of this shit, getting tired of these shitty little haters, and Republicans just keep going and going with it, like nothing is happening.

Their sins are reaching unto Heaven and they're having so much fun and so full of themselves that they can't even be bothered to look up and see the signs in the sky, and even if they could they don't want to repent. Racism is a hell of a drug.

I've read the Bible and studied history, much less read enough other books to know exactly how this level of hubris tends to work out.

Much of America bakes under a heat wave as Climate Change becomes too great of a difficulty for most of us regular people to ignore.

It's hot out and "People are tired of yo bullshit" historically is a very bad combination.

Where I live, here in a small city in Northern Michigan, there ain't a Trump sign left in sight.

The Epstein Files coverup has apparently done its work, but not in the direction that these motherfuckers had hoped. I had a discussion on Facebook yesterday with a former co-worker that was a Trump Supporter and apparently he isn't anymore and said everybody involved with the whole Epstein mess should be locked up...or worse.

My gut feeling is this kind of shit involves a lot more of our political class than people suspect, and if even some of that shit comes out, there's going to be a Revolution.

It feels like things are gonna blow up, soon.

People have made the big divide in this country out to be Left vs. Right, Democrats vs. Republicans but the truth is, as the conduct of so many Democrats since January has shown, it's really about to be between Billionaires, Politicians and their Hangers-on vs. The Rest Of Us.

And yes, I believe the central issue that drives a stake through the heart of this country and causes the American Crackup (very likely a Soviet-style US collapse, but with plenty of small wars) will most likely be elite corruption and debauchery with a big side order of child sexual abuse. It's turning out to be a far bigger thing than the Republican monomania for creating a damn political and social monoculture.

It's already caused the MAGA crackup.

Trump himself is in a state of obvious decline.

Most of the people shouting for us common folk to "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!" aren't True Believers in anything. 

They just don't want the grift to stop.

But if I had to guess?

Honestly, I think it's still going to come down to a fight to get rid of these assholes and reign in the motherfucking 1% so the rest of us can go about our lives without having to deal with this goddamn bullshit forever.

And if we don't stop this crap, it will never stop.

Because the truth is these fucking people are, one and all, narcissists who won't stop until every knee shall bow and every tongue confess to...not Jesus Christ being Lord...but them personally.

Think about that for a second.

When is enough going to be enough?

If we don't do something about it now, the moment will come when these assholes try to implement some version of the Mark Of The Beast in the name of worldly power and control.

And I don't know about you but I sure have no intention of putting up with that, nor of singing the literal praises of Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos let alone any of the goddamned narcissists that I know in my own personal life. 

Fuck That.

And remember, hate and racism are exactly the weapons they've used to crowbar apart a society that even 20 years ago would not have tolerated this level of bullshit.

You either believe in freedom...for all people...or you don't.

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

There can be no half-measures.

It really is that simple.

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We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world, a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us. No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we'll kill you. Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? Who among us can be happy and proud of having all this innocent blood on our hands? Who are these swine? These flag-sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled by stupid little rich kids like George Bush? They are the same ones who wanted to have Muhammad Ali locked up for refusing to kill gooks. They speak for all that is cruel and stupid and vicious in the American character. They are the racists and hate mongers among us; they are the Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis. And I am too old to worry about whether they like it or not. Fuck them. ~Hunter S. Thompson

Seven

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

Reaching Unto Heaven (Scenes From A Cold Civil War, Seven.)

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

...

There are times, however, and this is one of them, when even being right feels wrong. What do you say, for instance, about a generation that has been taught that rain is poison and sex is death? If making love might be fatal and if a cool spring breeze on any summer afternoon can turn a crystal blue lake into a puddle of black poison right in front of your eyes, there is not much left except TV and relentless masturbation. It's a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat shit and die. Who knows? If there is in fact, a heaven and a hell, all we know for sure is that hell will be a viciously overcrowded version of Phoenix — a clean well lighted place full of sunshine and bromides and fast cars where almost everybody seems vaguely happy, except those who know in their hearts what is missing... And being driven slowly and quietly into the kind of terminal craziness that comes with finally understanding that the one thing you want is not there. Missing. Back-ordered. No tengo. Vaya con dios. Grow up! Small is better. Take what you can get. ~Hunter S. Thompson, Generation Of Swine.

...

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

I saw this the other night.

Apparently, Oklahoma state secretary of education Ryan Walters was caught watching porn in his office, at work, and ratted out by his own board members.

Isn't this guy supposed to be a big-time Christian Nationalist or some such horseshit??

I guess every sperm is sacred except for the ones big-time churchy porn-nuts blow off into a goddamned Kleenex while on the job, huh??

Meanwhile, in places like Tennessee, supposedly-Christian alleged-doctors are busy denying care to unmarried women? (Granted as I understand it the woman in that case is getting health care just fine in Virginia.) Like, wait a damned minute, don't doctors have to take an oath about this stuff and provide care for all??

And while I'm at it, all the talk about the Epstein List had provoked a conversation about Grooming in churches yesterday morning and I can tell you from personal experience that while I never went to a church that tolerated that kind of crap, on the whole it's a lot worse than most people know about because American "Conservative" Christianity is loaded with that kind of creepy shit.

I mean, I get it, the Word of the average Christian Nationalist, "Conservative," Evangelical or Fundamentalist is worth precisely dick these days, and I seem to remember that God has a problem with that, but what the fuck do I know?

I only actually believed this shit for most of my life.

I only was highly active in several churches, and considered ministry myself once or twice; ultimately I rejected the idea because guess what? I'm a sinful Man and I feared responsibility for the souls of others.

All these fucking narcissists don't have that problem. They don't care. They are their own gods.

Good luck with that in the afterlife, I guess?

So yeah, I'm all too familiar with the American Church in all its failings.

And fought against its dysfunctions pretty much as I became aware of them, until I became aware that there wasn't much else left and then I got the fuck out.

And what these motherfuckers have been doing for the last ten years and especially the last going on nine months now is not what I was taught nor anything I would have ever believed to be acceptable.

I'm warning you, folks, America's Sins are reaching unto Heaven.

God is going to get as tired of this shit as the rest of us are, if He isn't already remembering our iniquities.

The day of His Wrath is coming.

This ain't going to end well.

Least of all for These Fucking People.

Sucks for the rest of us that don't condone this crap and wouldn't have ever even thought about doing this kind of shit, though, huh??

This is why things like politics and voting matter, people.

You get what you tolerate, America.

Like, look here:

Some idiot Republican apparently got shit-canned for having an affair with a stripper, paying for abortions, and...apparently...jerking off into the cookie dough.

Like, Wut??

These people are fucking sick and wrong, and there's nothing better...in point of fact nothing else...that can even be said about this garbage.

And there's something deeply rotten about a political party that lets people like this be in it.

When the fuck is enough going to be enough with this bullshit??

Because RFK Jr. and all these AI Chuds want to pull some kind of "It's Not The Mark Of The Beast When WE Do It" sort of crap next.

Yes it is. Yes, yes it is, and don't you forget it.

Motherfuckers try that "Wearable technology" shit on me, and somebody's gonna be walking around with it getting a lot of readings from a very specific place. 

No, it's my body, motherfuckers.

Just the same as my partner's body is hers.

And her daughter has claim to the same bodily sovereignty.

Because if we don't, where does the shit stop??

What's to stop the State from just saying we don't exist and tossing us in a meat grinder??

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

If you don't believe in another person's humanity or right to exist, what's to stop somebody else from not believing in yours??

It really is that simple.

And at the end of the day there's more of the rest of us than there is of these motherfuckers.

People are getting tired of this shit, and I think it's all gonna blow up soon.

More to the point, for whatever stupid reason I think that's exactly what all these asshole Republicans want because they think they'll get some kind of Randroid Galt's Gulch fantasy world bullshit out of it, or some gilded survivalist bunker fantasy wherein they get to utterly dominate their various hangers-on while the world burns and they get to watch it on TV while doing a bunch of drugs or whatever the fuck.

And then upload themselves into some kind of computer and spend their "Eternal" life counting all their cryptocurrency or something.

Eternal...but only until the computer mechanically breaks or the power goes out and backup batteries run dry.

No, I don't get why anybody would want to live like that.

And so far as I know, only gods get to create eternal things.

Man does not.

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

Soon.

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John Constantine: You're handing Earth over to the son of the Devil? Help me, here;

Gabriel: [Gabriel sits on top of John Constantine, explaining her rebellion] You're handed this precious gift, right? Each one of you granted redemption from the Creator – murderers, rapists, molesters – all of you just have to repent, and God takes you into His bosom. In all the worlds and all the universe, no other creature can make such a boast, save man. It's not fair.

[Gabriel leans closer to Constantine's face]

Gabriel: If sweet, sweet God loves you so, then I will make you worthy of His love. But it's only in the face of horror that you truly find your nobler selves – and you can be so noble. So … I will bring you pain. I will bring you horror.

[Gabriel lifts up Constantine from his collar]

Gabriel: So that you may rise above it. So that those of you who will survive this reign of hell on earth will be worthy of God's love.

John Constantine: Gabriel... you're insane.

Gabriel: [smiles] The road to salvation begins tonight. Right now.

~From the film Constantine.

Six

We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world, a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us. No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we'll kill you. Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? Who among us can be happy and proud of having all this innocent blood on our hands? Who are these swine? These flag-sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled by stupid little rich kids like George Bush? They are the same ones who wanted to have Muhammad Ali locked up for refusing to kill gooks. They speak for all that is cruel and stupid and vicious in the American character. They are the racists and hate mongers among us; they are the Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis. And I am too old to worry about whether they like it or not. Fuck them. ~Hunter S. Thompson