Empire Of Lies (Beginning Of Sorrows, Ten.)

The Death of Truth is the ultimate victory of Evil. ~Mon Mothma, from Andor, S2.E9 "Welcome To The Rebellion."

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When ye therefore shall see the Abomination of Desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (who so reads, let him understand)

Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:

Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.

And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.

For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

Behold, I have told you before.

Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. ~Matthew 24:15-27

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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 on Sunday night.

I mean, really, it's just another stupid example of how Trump has to try and shove himself on pretty much everything, no matter how intrinsically hostile it is to him by its very nature, nor whether it has the slightest thing to do with his stupid ass.

And that's true whether it's the death of a Pope or the yearly Star Wars anniversary. 

Before long, I suppose any kid with MAGA parents has they Birthday go viral, and Trump's gonna try and make it about him. How long before he starts demanding other things besides attention??

Yeah, just stop and THINK about that, will ya??

Not to switch metaphors here, but what is this dude, the goddamn Borg, Enshittified???

Republicans, if y'all wanna have anything else in your world but Donald Trump, it's time to get the fuck out, now.

There have been many such dividing lines in the past, many times I've said similar things. I get the feeling this is going to be one of the last ones.

Soon.

Soon, this will flash over into probably the dumbest Civil War and/or Soviet-style national collapse this planet has ever seen, because this fucking shithead demands blood be spilled in his name. And you can't even tell me I'm wrong, at this point, can you??

Should America be lucky enough to get a second chance, or far more likely the non-insane or at least not-racist parts of whatever comes after are gonna have to have the means in place to keep bigots in general and narcissists and other people with Personality Disorders and shit in particular away from Power, and those who would enable them away from Service to Power.

There was a time when people who've become a majority of today's MAGA's were generally regarded as losers. If you're my age, you know it because you lived it. Unless you are/were one of Those Fucking People.

And you can't tell me this isn't about racism with a big side of narcissism. "Conservatives" are telling you exactly that and they won't shut up about it.

The impossible edicts delivered as "Executive orders," the random narcissistic outbursts, the rabid disrespect and hate for anybody who's done anything or believes or knows anything, and the violence against the innocent, the undeserving?? It will only get worse.

And both Trump's insatiable hunger to pour the whole world down that hole where his soul is supposed to be and the "Tread On Me, Daddy" affect and willingness of MAGA's and Republican Bootlickers to try to please this asshole will also only get worse.

These motherfuckers think they can ride this overstuffed idiotic Orange Tiger to ultimate Power. They know he's gonna eat them too. They just don't care.

They think they got promised, somewhere along the the way, to have their jackboot on someone else's throat before they die some horrible Apocalyptic death. And that's all they want or understand.

People were warned, that's like, basically all I've been doing to one extent or another for ten years now.

It's gotten old, it has. It contributed mightily to me getting old.

That said, I'm as prepared as I can be for what's coming, are you?

I hope you'll understand if I've decided to spend more time with my ferrets, play World of Warcraft and rebuild IRL relationships, sleep more and post and write less. This motherfucker wins, the more time the more people spend thinking about him. I'm gonna pick my shots so's I don't contribute to that in the wrong way.

I'm not gonna spiral out into Depression again, not for this motherfucker, and not for a country of people who refused to be Better Citizens when the time came.

It's somebody else's turn to be on the sharp edge of this thing, that said, I'll do what I can.

Your Word is either good or it's not. 

There's no middle of the road on all that, Zero.

I put in my time a long time ago as an Airman in the United States Air Force. My attempting to educate people and shit this way is only a continuation of that because I swore an oath.

And I'd at least like to think my Word means something, clearly, some other people's Word doesn't.

I suspect as this continues to blow up, we're going to see a hell of a lot of the exact same Omnicidal Willful Ignorance we saw during the worst parts of COVID-19.

Because too many people got too comfortable and have never had to face a real crisis in their lives. 

Too many people have never had to be smart or even have basic reading comprehension. 

And goddamn, but it shows.

There's a reason I titled this series "Beginning Of Sorrows."

For me, being able to read something and at least kind of understand it is as rote-muscle-memory as how to clean a rifle because I was taught that first and had to show basic responsibility, too. That in a house where my Dad made bullets for his muzzle-loader by melting the lead for the bullets on the kitchen stove It's as necessary as dumping a scoop of kibble and a cup of water in the ferrets' dishes every day or even making my own breakfast, and as required (Yes, sometimes distastefully so) as doing a cursory scan of the news and my social media or looking out the window now and again, or paying my bills or texting my Mom every morning.

Preventative Maintenance is a life skill, yo.

So is Situational Awareness, and that includes having to give a shit about other people.

If you don't feed your mind, and take care of your body not to mention the other things you have, you lose them. 

The same goes for any inner, philosophical or spiritual life one may have.

It's not for nothing that I include Bible verses, or other philosophical and religious quotes (not to mention movie quotes) and stuff like that in these posts. 

Feed your mind, because that shit is the one thing that nobody but age and your own biology can take away from you.

If the extent of your imagination is bowing to a gold statue of Donald Trump, you're going to be screwed when the need arises to think about anything else, and it will in fact, arise.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

And if you don't have the freedom to believe in Truth, if you don't have Truth as a floor to stand on to push back against Power, what else do you even have, really?? 

What good is anything else??

But, ya know, something seems to be catching on. The other day, three different people...two of whom such was out of character for...asked me if I thought Trump was the Antichrist.

Short Answer: Yes. Longer? I think he's a test run.

And the Evangelical, Fundamentalist and Pentecostal Christians...and not a few right-wing Catholics, as well...failed the test.

A better social status (real or imagined) or a bunch of money in an Empire of lies is, itself, just another lie.

They may not care, but somebody's gonna have to.

Remember that.

It's going to be on the test.

Soon.

Слава Україна!

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.

Nine

And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.

And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

All these are the beginning of sorrows.

Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.

And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. ~Matthew 24:1-13

I Warned You

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