Missing The Point Friday, 2025 (Beginning Of Sorrows, Three.)

And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.
And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.
And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar, And saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, This Is The King Of The Jews. ~Luke 23:33-38

...

Sarah Connor: I need to go how Skynet gets built. Who's responsible?

Terminator: The man most directly responsible is Miles Bennett Dyson.

Sarah: Who is that?

Terminator: He's the director of special projects at Cyberdyne Systems Corporation.

Sarah: Why him?

Terminator: In a few months, he creates a revolutionary type of microprocessor.

[the Terminator and the Connors drive off]

Sarah: Go on. Then what?

Terminator: In three years, Cyberdyne will become the largest supplier of military computer systems. All stealth bombers are upgraded with Cyberdyne computers, becoming fully unmanned. Afterwards, they fly with a perfect operational record. The Skynet Funding Bill is passed. The system goes online on August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 AM, Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.

Sarah: Skynet fights back.

Terminator: Yes. It launches its missiles against the targets in Russia.

John Connor: Why attack Russia? Aren't they our friends now?

Terminator: Because Skynet knows that the Russian counterattack will eliminate its enemies over here.

Sarah: [sighs] Jesus. How much do you know about Dyson?

Terminator: I have detailed files.

Sarah: I want to know everything. What he looks like, where he lives, everything.

...

Here's a pop quiz: name the seven deadly sins. Come on, you saw that Brad Pitt movie. Lust, yeah, well, everybody gets that one, huh? Gluttony, sure. Greed, yeah. Envy, sloth, anger- or to be a little more technical, wrath. What else? What else? Let me put it this way: if you think you know the answer, and because of that, you think you're better than everybody else, then you're guilty of it! ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO series Oz, S1 E3 "God's Chillin.'"

I saw this yesterday.

As I've written about sporadically before, the Tech Bros think they're going to build themselves some sort of Machine God, and (don't ask me how) the Cult of this AI Crap seems to be fusing with Christian Nationalism. As if "One of these things is not like the other one" somehow doesn't apply here.

It's Good Friday, the day that (according to Christian Tradition) Jesus Christ was crucified.

Stop and think about that, for a second.

And here These Motherfuckers are literally trying to create a god in their own image, and supposedly they think they can do it in a year or so. (Tall order, from what I hear A.I. isn't even at basic human intelligence yet.)

But, it's like these fucking people never read Science Fiction.

(Yeah, I'm aware, a lot of them don't read.)

Or, ya know, that Bible they claim to believe one needs to follow every word of.

(And yet they don't read that either.)

Starting with "Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness Against Thy Neighbor" which is also traditionally taken as "Do Not Lie."

Lying perverts the purpose of Speech.

Nobody voted for Donald Trump to "Save Humanity." They voted for that motherfucker because they thought they were gonna get something for it.

And it's only now that they're figuring out that they're not going to get anything that they're all afraid and penitent and shit, trust me.

Seems like maybe they didn't think any of this through, did they??

But then, ya know, on the other hand it seems like deep down every last one of these fucking idiots somehow thinks that in the end they're gonna be the one person that Donald Trump does right by, even if he screws over everybody else.

And yeah, some Republicans fetishize the idea of hierarchy, of bowing and scraping for profit, or they think think they're gonna manipulate this mess or screw for advantage in some unending Machiavellian political paradise and somehow, some way, the masses won't build Guillotines, or they won't get fucked over by some other political schemer or some such bullshit.

Ya know, maybe, just maybe, our political class has been there too long and needs to be removed and replaced, and then repeat the process every couple generations so the next ones don't let it all go to their heads??

(Yet at the same time a hell of a lot of these idiots are afraid of Donald Trump. I mean, what the fuck?? Dude backs down if you look at him harshly. He's a coward.)

Most of these fucking people seem more than content to let the rest of the world burn, so long as they get to keep their place in the Magical City. Never mind that it's the rest of the world and We, the People, from which they derive their place and their alleged Power.

I mean, why is this so hard for people??

And evidently, Nayib Bukele is pretty much cut from the same cloth as Trump. Senator Chris Van Hollen went to El Salvador and made a scene and got a meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia out of it. So now we know dude's alive. Let's get after getting him out and getting him home.

And of course the entire MAGA Right and Nayib Bukele and his administration are all trying to lie about it.

That right there should show you exactly how "Christian" and "Conservative" all these fucking people really are.

They ain't. 

It's all a big scam.

Before he lied his way into getting elected mayor of San Salvador (for the record at that point he was a member of the Leftist FMLN from which he was expelled for financial bullshit and poor treatment of women) and then the Salvadoran presidency and came up with "Gangs" as an excuse to forcibly consolidate power, Nayib Bukele was just a basic Business Bro with a history of financial scam-fuckery.

Yeah, that's right, not a one of these fucking people is really a doctrinaire conservative and fascism seems to be only a label of convenience, although probably an appropriate one. They're all basically just criminals, specifically con artists and thieves their own damned selves.

All this nationalist and violent fascistic bullshit is, is these guys trying to keep it so they can be sucking on that golden teat for longer.

And Bukele apparently thinks he can punch above his weight by allying with Trump.

But here's the thing, Trump is weak. Honestly, this is the kind of situation that on a smaller scale usually sees somebody get their attitude involuntarily adjusted, as my grandmother used to say.

For starters the armed forces of countries like El Salvador usually aren't worth a shit.

Honestly, I hope that little dickhead ends his days locked up in his own giant prison.

And let me tell you another thing.

I'm even more goddamned tired of people like RFK Jr. talking shit about Autistic people.

Maybe it's just the representative sample I was handed, but most of the Autistic people I know, I know from work in one way or another, with a few from social media sprinkled in...including people who serve in the military, or are veterans.

All those people have relationships, pay their bills and their taxes and work just like anybody else. Yeah, I get it, there's some that are on Disability or SSI or whatever...but I don't know any of those people.

Most autistic folks that I know contribute more to society and hell, to my own life more than RFK Jr. does!

Even if it's just a song that still gets stuck in my head every now and again. Yes, You fuckers know who you are and what you did.

(And even if they didn't do any of that, they are still people and worthy of life. I shouldn't even have to point that out. But that's what happens when you get too much free-range ignorance going.)

And yeah, a hell of a lot of those people can perfectly well defend themselves from the likes of RFK Jr. and all these eugenicist assholes we got popping up all the sudden.

I get the feeling they're probably gonna have to.

We all are, but they more than many of us will be targeted, I'm afraid.

Not just because they're Autistic, per se, bigotry, simple ass cruelty and all that. No, I think it's more than that, and worse. There's nothing these rich out of touch twerps hate more than somebody who genuinely thinks just living your own life, minding your own business, working and contributing to society, just being a person, is a worthy thing in and of itself.

The last thing all these rich flimflam artists want anybody to have is their own dignity, self-respect or sense of self because people who have that (Whether they're conservative, liberal, or other) are harder to lead around by the nose and manipulate. It's not an accident that MAGA is made up of gullible marks, thugs and toadies nor that so many of them appear to have no identity other than being Trumpers.

And they want to strip away everything that they can from everybody else because they're narcissists and think the rest of us will finally be forced to face their "Glory" and give them whatever they think is their due and/or have to beg them for whatever we need to survive. 

My ex-wife had a personality disorder and she tried to pull that kind of crap. Junior is the same, but unlike my ex he was born rich.

Money and privilege break people's brains, apparently.

My dude this is so not gonna work out the way you think it is.

I'm serious.

I think America is heading for a Revolution.

Soon.

Even the old Iowa Republicans are getting pissed off enough to yell at Chuck Grassley about it. Fuck, somebody got Tased at MTG's town hall the other day. 

Even plenty of Republicans ain't happy with this bullshit.

I mean, fuck, David Brooks...the conservative columnist...is advocating for nationwide general strikes and people taking to the streets.

And dude quoted from the Communist Manifesto while doing it.

Also, as a veteran who protested the Iraq War in 2003 I never thought I'd be on the same side of anything as Bill Kristol, but again here we are.

What I worry about is that when MAGA Republicans and all the shitty Trump enablers figure out that most people are against this shit, they are probably going to try and break a piece of this country off for themselves.

I think the odds of that are high, I think countries like Iran and Russia will protect them in this endeavor, and that will make North America another cold-hot-cold front in Putin's Second Cold War. I also think if that happens, you'll see that Ukraine and the Middle East suddenly ain't that important to Vlad because it was all about creating the circumstances to break us.

More so than we already are, and I mean that.

And more, I think the impetus for that shit is also coming from the inside, at least from tech bros and the wealthy.

You don't really think current American culture...or even Evangelical Christianity even in this debased state...would accept the worship of some sort of Machine God, do you??

Let alone being told that this is somehow something something Christian Nationalism.

I'm just sayin' I find it pretty hard to swallow that Florida Panhandle rednecks would even understand all that shit, much less do it.

Hell, I understand the concept and I think it's flat-out ridiculous.

Like I get it's Missing The Point Friday again, but how do you miss the point that hard??

I might be an Agnostic theist, but as I understand it the position of "God" has already been filled for quite some time, and He/She/I Am/It/Whatever, Just Wash Your Hands, OK? Ain't Going Anywhere.

Anything else these fucking people come up with will just be another Idol but with some flashing lights and maybe the capability to talk and some rudimentary intelligence. It might overawe the feeble-minded but it'll have been programmed by Man.

Can the Machine God create dirt?? Like, its own, out of nothingness??

Remember that part, 'cause it'll be on the test.

If you break the Machine God, will it reboot itself in three days?

I think not.

The whole point of all this stuff is that Man is supposed to look to something Greater than his own Self.

It's Good Friday, the day of Death.

The Resurrection is coming.

But to get to that requires looking outside of yourself. 

Transcendence, and ultimately the continuation of Life, means you gotta do the Work and maybe think of other people here and there. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.

Faith is an action word. Without actions, without Works, it's dead. Be the change you wish to see in the world. And you have to believe it because you want to.

At this point you can either believe in God, the gods, the Divine Conversation in whatever way you understand it, or you can believe in the Tech Bros and their computer that they wanna build. One of these things is not like the other one.

Donald Trump is just a means to that end for these fucking people.

I've read Revelation, I know how that ends.

So do they. They just want to take other people to Hell with them.

(Which is precisely why things like the First Amendment of the US Constitution are important, freedom of belief, yo.)

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

It really is that simple.

Слава Україна!

Said unto them, Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that perverts the people: and, behold, I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him:
No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him. I will therefore chastise him, and release him. (For of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast.)
And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas: (Who for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison.) Pilate therefore, willing to release Jesus, spake again to them.
But they cried, saying, Crucify him, crucify him.
And he said unto them the third time, Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause of death in him: I will therefore chastise him, and let him go.
And they were instant with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed. ~Luke 23:14-23

Two

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