Days Of Wrath (American Revelation XIX, One.)

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.

And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.

And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:

And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;

And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casts her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.

And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;

And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? ~Revelation 6 (KJV)

...

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

So, evidently at a post-inauguration event on Monday, Elon Musk did a Nazi salute.

Like, I don't give a damn what you say, it was a Nazi Salute, I saw it.

Like the time Trump said, live on CNN, that he didn't need God's forgiveness, that sight will forever stick in my brain.

Please, just stop and think about that for a second.

Nazi salutes in America.

Reagan Wept.

This is what the rest of the world is going to identify us with now, whether you voted for it or want them to or not.

Within a couple weeks, if you say "I'm an American" to a foreigner, they're going to ask "What kind of American?"

Trump has signed a flood of bullshit Executive Orders, trying to single-handedly drive the USA back to 1946 by executive fiat. 

It won't work, most of this stuff was already encoded into Federal law via Congress as well as local and state laws and existing corporate regulations, but he'll try it.

Dude has effectively shuttered federal health research (with a huge Bird Flu pandemic in the offing!) and apparently plans to fire a fuck-ton of Federal employees.

He's announced tariffs against Canada and Mexico. 

The list goes on.

Trump and his admin appear hell-bent on wrecking everything from immigration to the military to the social safety net, and turning government adversarial to the average American (Like that's a good idea in a country with 300+ million guns?) All of this, because the average Republican spanks the monkey to the idea of Tyranny, so long as it's somehow certifiably Calvinist Christian Nationalist far-right enough for the fevers of the moment. and they think it's "theirs."

Except that tyrannies don't make for decent or even functional government, militaries that primarily bully their own citizens or spend time marching in parades or praying to some nuts gimcrack idea of Jesus don't win wars...

Except it's not theirs, it's Trump's.

Note: None of them have ever had to live under a Tyranny.

None of this bullshit will actually work (not that its purpose is to "work" per se) it simply exists to alienate America from its allies, to wreck shit, and to drive up prices and reduce standards of living for the average American. These assholes believe anybody who has failed to yield to "All Is Trump" should be punished, especially Transgender people, for some stupid reason.

These fucking people want the End Times so bad they're willing to become the Beast of Revelations their own damn selves.

Let me repeat myself yet again, you people were fucking warned.

Like, that's all I do here. 

I'd love to be able to write about everything from ferrets to movies to religion and spirituality in ways that don't have anything to do with politics, but that's not the world some of us want to live in, yo. For fuck's sake in January of 2021 I was hoping I could start writing about anything but Trump.

But the motto of America isn't "In God We Trust" anymore, it's become what Kurt Cobain said "Here we are now, entertain us, I feel stupid and contagious."

You do not have to be a Christian or even religious to speak Prophetically.

And when you are a Christian and that's what you do, these motherfuckers don't wanna hear it, either.

Mariann Edgar Budde, an Episcopal Bishop, preached about mercy to Trump, particularly mercy for immigrants and LGBT people, and MAGA has been having a conniption about it since. I gather that it's gotten to the point where the Bishop has gotten death threats.

Yes, These Motherfuckers are coming for the Church, next. By the way, that's the same thing the Nazis did, back in the day.

Do not think you'll be safe, either, Evangelicals.

MAGA and Trump are going to have no patience nor time for any religion that doesn't both reek of Christless Christianity and glorify them and their shitty politics.

They are absolutely going to persecute Christians, not to mention all other religions, but they will take special time to go after any confessing Christian who doesn't bow down to that Golden Idol of Donald Trump. I knew this when I started hearing...from sources like former Baptist leader Russell Moore, who I followed for years and read a bunch of books by (or that he had some part of) back when I was a Christian... that These Fucking People were calling the Sermon On The Mount "Woke."

It is the nature of Sinful Man to reject the holy Prophets.

Including Jesus Christ.

Same as it ever was.

Without the "Father, Forgive Them, for they know not what they are doing" and without the Sermon On The Mount, without "Love Thy Neighbor" without compassion and empathy and kindness, all Christianity (or any religion, or any other belief) is just an excuse to kill people. And Christless, "Crusading" Christianity is more ruthless than most.

They don't want Jesus Christ, they don't even really want Trump (not as he actually is, anyway) an American version of Hitler might fit the bill, but probably wouldn't make them happy. They want another goddamned Stalin. (Minus any claims of Communist social justice.) 

They want the Beast of Revelations...and they want the World to End and they don't give a shit if they end up in the Lake Of Fire...so long as they're standing on somebody else's shoulders while they're in it, and that person didn't ask to be there.

It's all about grievance and hate and relative status with a side of literally worshiping Trump.

For the record, personalist regimes usually end in bloodshed, whether such is domestic or inflicted or imposed from without.

But that's Okay with These Fucking People.

MAGA doesn't want anything else.

And nothing and no one will ultimately be Good Enough for these assholes.

Sooner or later the money people will lose control, the racists and the religious fanatics will end up going at each other over things like "Purity" and MAGA will end up fighting for their own lives against something worse, simply because that's what's coming when you use hate like a fucking drug.

It's stuff like this that's why I say America is not going to be a United States much longer. It's not just that the system will break down...it is breaking down. It's been breaking down. We damn near had a revolution in 2020.

And that was when a lot more of us were still on the same page and Republicans and Trump hadn't gone nearly as far as they have in the last few days dirtying up even the idea of America as anything other than White Republican Land...except that doesn't hold any appeal for anybody who isn't the right kind of White Republican dude.

American Evangelical Christianity and Republicanism have a Personality Disorder, call it Narcissism, I guess.

And I'm here to tell you as somebody who dealt with a person who had a personality disorder, and did it for too long, the only way to keep yourself safe in the end is to get away.

That's why I don't think America is going to survive all this as a united nation. We've become too divided, and yes, Republicans did this.

And they did it to benefit people like Elon Musk and Vladimir Putin.

All that Left  Behind bullshit was a lie, there ain't no Rapture, the struggle is here. And next they will tell you "It's not the Mark Of The Beast when WE do it!"

Look, I'm not a Born-Again anything.

But where I live it's been single-digit temps for weeks.

California is on fire, the scale of the fires to me literally seems Biblical.

Like something out of Revelations.

Florida has more snow than we do here in Michigan.

It very much seems to me like God or the Universe or whatever is trying to tell us something.

And like the ancient Israelites, we are choosing not to listen, because we'd rather follow our own debased desires. The smiting has already started.

(That's what shit like Climate Change is.)

Never mind that it always works out the same way, terribly.

I'm no longer religious myself, but I've read the Bible enough to tell you from that perspective how this ends, and it won't be in favor of Trump, of Republicans or even of ourselves.

There will be Justice and we Will Pay.

The Great Day of His Wrath is come, it wasn't for nothing that I chose the title of American Revelation for this overarching series I've been writing for seven years now.

We're in it. Turned out we were the Goats, all along.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

And it's going to come down to a fight to get rid of these assholes now.

Now it's time to pick a side.

Слава Україна!

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.  We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream.  The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same.  And if you and I don't do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free. ~Ronald Reagan

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For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. ~Matthew 24:27

I Wrote About This Before

We have no more thought of using our own powers to escape the arm of authorities than had the Apostles of old. No more are we ready to keep silent at man's behest when God commands us to speak. For it is, and must remain, the case that we must obey God rather than man. ~Martin Niemoller