Day Of The Lord (American Revelation XX, Seven.

Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,

Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name:

That strengthens the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.

They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.

Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.

For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.

Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.

Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.

Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skillful of lamentation to wailing.

And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the Lord.

Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.

As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.

Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.

Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.

Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.

But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. ~Amos 5:7-26

I saw this yesterday.

Trump is claiming that we have "Total Air Supremacy" over Iran.

I hate to point this out but with the assets we have in place, we're just supporting the Israelis at this point and, so far as I know, leaving offensive ops to them, although we (and the Jordanians) have shot down plenty of drones and missiles aimed at Israel.

Two days ago I saw on various flight trackers that I follow, that the Air Force is staging tankers. This is a prerequisite to any military action. I know a thing or two about this because as a USAF Security Forces veteran there were a couple times I was on those tankers (or other aircraft) in a similar scenario (Operation Deliberate Force comes to mind as does my Southern Watch deployment before that.) It can take days or weeks to work up a proper air campaign and/or naval operation, getting everything in place for a full-on war takes months.

And yeah, we're apparently working something up, or at least the tempo of training has increased. I heard four sonic booms yesterday...which tends to mean Air Force training flights are off the hook.

No, "We" don't have "Air Supremacy" over shit. 

The Israelis apparently have at least parity, maybe air superiority or something close to it...but as much as anything that's because Iran's air defense radars are a mix of outdated US equipment and 1980's Soviet junk. Some of their shit is cutting edge, or at least pretty current. I saw a video the other night of Israeli air defenses shooting down inbound missiles in Haifa and then this Iranian hypersonic missile comes blasting in like a freaking laser beam from orbit and knocks out the power. The Iranians apparently have neglected basics like radars, though. 

That does not an Apocalyptic rain of fire make, although it might look like it on either side to the basic person on the ground.

And then, here's the thing, Mike Huckabee (our current ambassador to Israel, yo) jumped in with some weird Pentecostal-sounding nonsense to back this bullshit up.

Which is weird, given that old Mike was supposedly a Baptist minister at some point, although I happen to know from personal experience that distinctions like that blur a bit in places like Arkansas.

There is a non-zero percentage of American Evangelicals and MAGA (although I repeat myself) that thinks Trump is some kind of non-Christian "Cyrus" or "Nebuchadnezzar" who will "help" God by ushering in the End Times. 

No, none of this works like that. God does not need your help, or He is not God.

Yes, stop and think about that for a second.

Also, Among Republicans specifically, it's effectively an article of faith that war with Iran is somehow a good thing.

See Also: Ted Cruz, apparently. I'm legit surprised Ted hasn't posted some kind of weird Pentecostal BS because he actually is that way.

I was an End Times Prophecy guy myself. I cannot even begin to tell you how ridiculous that is, per what I was actually taught.

And the only person I've seen even make a half-ass attempt to call this shit out is *Checks Notes* Tucker Carlson. I feel extremely dirty agreeing with that fool about anything.

Between the No Kings protests last weekend and now...this crap...I can't help but feel (yet again) like These Fucking People are very afraid of *Something.*

No idea what, but the evidence suggests that it might be God, because these motherfuckers know all their talk is just a lie...whether they know this consciously or otherwise I'm not certain but I think they do know it.

Like, I saw this weird cope-post from Charlie Kirk this morning.

Here's the thing, Conservatives; By the time Your Eyes Have Seen The Glory Of The Coming Of The Lord, it'll be way too late to repent.

I don't know why, but it appears to me that they think this is all going to come crashing down soon.

Like maybe if we attack Iran, all the shit Vladimir Putin has on these fucking people is gonna come out?

I don't know what their deal is.

As for the rest of you? I do know that You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Слава Україна!

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."

Six

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.

No Kings II (American Revelation XX, Six.)

Some folks are born made to wave the flag
Hoo, they're red, white and blue
And when the band plays "Hail to the chief"
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, Lord

It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no senator's son, son
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no furtunate one, no
Some folks are born silver spoon in hand
Lord, don't they help themselves, Lord?
But when the taxman come to the door
Lord, the house lookin' like a rummage sale, yeah
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no millionaire's son, no, no
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no fortunate one, no
Yeah-yeah, some folks inherit star-spangled eyes
Hoo, they send you down to war, Lord
And when you ask 'em, "How much should we give?"
Hoo, they only answer, "More, more, more, more"

~Fortunate Son, Creedence Clearwater Revival.

...

[In the Preox-Morlana planet of Morlana One, Deputy Inspector Syril Karn is confused his superior won't open an investigation into the murder of two Pre-Mor officers]

Chief Inspector Hyne: Tough case. Bad timing.

Deputy Inspector Syril Karn: I'm sure that in several days, with the proper resources, I can bring this case to a-

Hyne: Stop! And I don't just mean the talking. I mean stop. [closes his office door] This case appears to bear all the hallmarks of what I like to describe as regrettable misadventure.

Karn: Sir?

Hyne: Two dedicated Pre-Mor employees caught in the sad orbit of a rare calamity.

Karn: I don't understand.

Hyne: I want you to conjure a suitable accident, and let's make sure it's on the far side of the plaza. Let's get it outside the Leisure Zone.

Karn: But they were murdered!

Hyne: No, they weren't. They were killed in a fight. They were in a brothel, which we're not supposed to have. The expensive one, which they shouldn't be able to afford. Drinking Revnog, which we're not supposed to allow. Both of them supposedly on the job, which is a dismissible offense. They clearly harassed a human with dark features and chose the wrong person to annoy. I suspect they died rushing to aid someone in distress. Nothing too heroic. We don't need a parade. They died being helpful. Something sad but inspiring in a mundane sort of way. [regards Karn] You look stricken, Deputy Inspector. Are you absorbing my meaning here?

Karn: Trying to, sir.

Hyne: When I said bad timing, I wasn't referring to the fact you spent all night worrying this. I mean that I am on my way this very morning to an Imperial Regional Command review, where I'll be asked to make a report about our crime rates, and the goal of that speech, should you ever be asked to deliver it, is brevity. Minimizing the time the Empire spends thinking about Preox-Morlana benefits our superiors and, by extension, everyone here at the Pre-Mor Security Inspection team, which at the moment includes you. [dons his coat, picks up his briefcase and moves to leave] Don't put your feet on my desk in my absence, and let's have an accident report waiting when I get back.

~From the Star Wars series Andor, S1.E1 "Kassa."

So No Kings Day was yesterday.

Looks like Trump's military parade was every bit the massive flop I thought it was gonna be, and whether it was civil disobedience, utterly malicious compliance or simply unimaginable incompetence, the whole goddamned thing was a Soup Sandwich on such a level as to redefine the term. 

The parade featured WWII Sherman Tanks, which looked for all the world like some kind of wind-up toy ordered from Acme by Wile E. Coyote, operated by Porky Pig, and ordered up like a Dollar General version of the old Soviet missile parades in Red Square whistled up by the dumbest fucking President imaginable, I mean, fuck.

The troops were...marching, if you dare call it that. I said to a fellow veteran on Threads that if I'd have marched like that, let alone my guys did it when I was a Sergeant I'd still have scars from the ass chewing I got from the LT and she'd have had us drilling in the rain, snow and blazing ass hot sun until we got it right and it stayed that way...to CCR's "Fortunate Son" which is the sort of song written to call out Vietnam draft dodgers in general and rich ones like Trump in particular.

And 11 Million Americans took to the streets in protest of this crap.

Think about that, for a second.

Also, the Speaker of the Minnesota State House and her husband were murdered yesterday, a State Senator and his wife were shot but survived. All four were Democrats. The shooter was an Evangelical Christian Republican freak who left a manifesto in his fake police car and (so far as I know) remains at large but facing a massive manhunt.

I want you to take a moment and reflect on that, too.

That kind of thing isn't supposed to happen in America.

Nobody gives a shit about Trump and Trumpism except for all the people who hate this crap.

Lots of people are using Trump though, either as cover or as an excuse to play their own game.

And as I've always warned, there are people out there far worse than Trump, who will do worse, and might be smarter.

It's all a means to an end, like, the Far-right, the religious nuts and the rest of These Fucking People want to start a civil war.

There's just one small problem with that.

People stood the fuck up yesterday.

A bit late maybe, but they did it.

And most of these far-right weirdos are actually cowardly shits who only really want to attack when they know most people aren't going to fight back.

They thought they could shoot a few people and the rest would go home, or something.

Wrong answer, looks like.

I mean for fuck's sake I live smack in the middle of northeastern Michigan, I'm a hundred miles in either direction from anything but Lake Huron. and there was a No Kings protest here. 

Like I said yesterday, I'm glad that all made it up here, but I was more than a little surprised.

Usually expressions of stuff like that are not uncommon but done on a much more individualistic basis up here. I didn't think we'd see any of it.

I went outside and watched the people go by for a couple minutes. 

I'd have participated, but I had to work both Friday night and last night.

And there's many times more people like me here and elsewhere for whom life could not be put on hold or who had preexisting commitments than there are of those who went out and marched, but who supported the whole thing as best we could, anyway.

I haven't heard anybody say anything bad about the protest yet. (And around here, on the rare occasions there's something like that even happens, there's often a lot of people trying to talk bad about it.)

It's...more than that, though.

A buddy of mine, and fellow veteran, posted this yesterday on Facebook. I have to say I'm kind of impressed.

He lives in Midland, about 2 hours south of here, and we worked at the casino (although on different shifts, so we didn't really know each other at that point) at overlapping times but we had a lot of friends in common and shit, the same D&D and video game crowd, for the most part.

Midland is the next city over from where I used to live, it's where I go to Barnes & Noble and shit even now, and it's the big Republican bastion in Central Michigan. But ya know, then, back in the day when I was a Republican, they didn't support the idea of Kings either. At least not in America. 

Lots of them might well have loved them some Gulf oil sheikdoms, but they'd have never thought of trying to turn the United States into one.

There was also a huge No Kings protest in Traverse City, which surprises me less, but I'm impressed that so many people showed up. Traverse City is sort of known for that kind of thing (I participated in a protest against the Iraq War over there in 2003) and, generally speaking, it's one of the main Liberal areas around here. 

Note: "Around here" is a relative term. It's a good three hour drive from where I currently live, but still very much culturally in the same zone. Northern Michigan is a big area. 

And for the record this was a Blue congressional district in the Bush 43 years.

When I lived in Petoskey, Traverse City was the place I tended to go to go to the bookstore and shit and get my gaming stuff or the latest video games etc. and it was where I'd take a date to dinner back in the day.

If stuff like this was just happening in places like Mount Pleasant or Petoskey or Traverse City, or in bigger cities like Detroit or even Midland, I'd find it a lot less noteworthy.

There were also protests in places like Marquette (which I heard about from my Aunt overnight, she and my uncle went) and Petoskey (again, that's where I used to live, and also participated in protests RE: the Iraq War) neither of which surprises me since both areas have pretty big liberal contingents, but there were also protests in places like Gaylord and St. Ignace, which are both pretty conservative areas generally speaking and not known for anything of the sort.

If yesterday wasn't a mass movement, I don't know what is.

"Conservatives" are trying to say the protests were Astro-turfed, because theirs often are. Or they're trying to say that the protesters were paid or some shit. Hell, I hear they're even trying to investigate some billionaire but a cursory inspection of his and his wife's actual history show that those people have links to Code Pink and various pro-Hamas far-left groups some of which have ties to the Chinese Communist Party and to Vladimir Putin. So, hey, if MAGA wants to investigate somebody that's on the same side as them in real terms, have at it, I guess.

The truth is not much will come of any of that. It's a distraction.

MAGA is also on Team Putin, as is China, as is Hamas, as is Iran. Any "conflict" between these groups is basically meant to be a distraction from whatever else this same Axis Of Evil is doing that you can't see or that our media simply won't report on. Yes, there are frictions between these groups, but they all have the same basic sets of goals; That of pre-Enlightenment Power and pre-modern monarchy or religious rulership. These fucking people are probably all gonna try to fuck each other over eventually, but first they want to fuck over anybody who believes in democracy and freedom.

So of course people are going to stand up against it.

We're sick of this bullshit.

And these assholes next collective move is to try and play the "God" card. Like I couldn't have told you that shit was coming just based on my own experiences with my ex-wife.

I saw this same comment several times, plus a few more variations of it. All were under different allegedly-Christian names on Threads last night, trying to claim that "No Kings" was some sort of rebellion against God.

To which I responded:

Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?

Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
~Daniel 3:14-18

Show me in the Bible where Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego bowed down to the Golden Image of King Nebuchadnezzar when the music started to play.

Show me in the Bible where Jesus Christ exhorted the first Christians to go to the Pagan temples and make offerings to the Emperor and the Roman gods.

You can't do that, because it isn't in there.

You cannot do that, because Jesus Christ said "My Kingdom is not of this world."

It's right there in black and white. I've read those words many times.

Christ rejected worldly power, and taught that we are but travelers in a far country, and that this fallen world is not our true home.

Any "Christian" that is goat-eager to serve a worldly ruler isn't following Christ.

They just want Power for themselves, the next world be damned.

To say "No Kings" now is blatantly obvious, in a worldly sense or otherwise.

To say it 2,000 years ago was downright revolutionary, but He did, and Jesus was not the first of the holy prophets to say it.

"But if not, be it known unto thee, Oh king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image..." Even had God refused to help them, they would not have bowed down.

There's a lesson there, remember it.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Слава Україна!

The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well, it's a simple answer after all. You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." There is a point beyond which they must not advance. This is the meaning in the phrase of Barry Goldwater's "peace through strength." Winston Churchill said that "the destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits — not animals." And he said, "There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty. ~Ronald Reagan

Five

Cassian Andor: What? To steal from the Empire, what do you need? A uniform, some dirty hands, and an Imperial toolkit. They’re so proud of themselves, they don’t even care. They’re so fat and satisfied, they can’t imagine it…

Luthen Rael: Can’t imagine what?

Andor: That someone like me would ever get inside their house, walk their floors, spit in their food, take their gear. ~From the Star Wars series Andor, S1.E2 "That Would Be Me."

No Kings I (American Revelation XX, Five.)

Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?

Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
~Daniel 3:14-18

...

 [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 the other night.

Kristi Noem apparently said that ICE and all these other Chuds were there to "Liberate" California.

How has that worked out, well, anytime it's been tried since Korea (with the debatable exceptions of Grenada, which didn't have a military, and Desert Storm where we weren't charting out the strategic objectives) and especially in Afghanistan and Iraq?

We don't liberate anything, we don't win wars anymore. Since Vietnam, we accomplish a string of tactical objectives until rich elites get bored and cash out. Never mind who dies in the process.

They apparently aren't even paying the National Guardsmen, who've now been put back under the State's authority by a Federal judge, and thus morale among Marines and Soldiers is terrible and many don't even know why they're there...

Yeah, I for one will welcome our Taco truck-driving Californian overlords.

Like, what the fuck are we even doing here, America??

The "No Kings" protests are today, and I found out this morning there's even one where I live.

And it's downtown here, and I have to sleep today because it's the middle of my work week. But, I'm Okay with that. Fuck Trump.

Fuck MAGA and their Dictatorial, Monarchist bullshit. This is America, No.

More to the point, the last few days all these "Conservatives" have been more or less freaking out like they sure think something bad is going to happen to them.

Nothing about that says "Strength" yo.

If These Fucking People are so right, so righteous and so tough why are they afraid of peaceful protest??

They know it's all bullshit, that's why.

They know they're fucking trying to speed-run all this crap in some bizarre effort to give Trump the "Perfect Gift" before he keels over and they know he's in bad shape...and Trump has always been the ONLY thing all these fucking people can agree on. Worse, they're both strangely addicted to blowing the narcissist and (I think, at this point) knowingly worshiping a blasphemous False God.

The highs can't last forever, folks, all things come to an end.

All these assholes manipulating Trump are running their own game, none of which is meant to benefit you.

And all this even started because they thought they were going to get to say racial slurs and shit again. Good Lord, if that's the most important thing in your life, hang it up and go the fuck home.

And there were always gonna be consequences in this life and the next.

For fuck's sake even the shit these fucking people do that's supposed to be some kind of show of strength come off as being fucking weak-sauce.

Like, Trump's idiotic military parade route isn't even a mile long. They're having to pay people to come and watch it. Why the fuck even do this bullshit??

More to the point, yo, sooner or later your opposition ain't gonna be bitches like Chuck Schumer.

We, the People, are tired of this crap.

We're fucking sick of a decade of horseshit that one day out of it would have ended pretty much any previous American politician's career if not their time as a free person.

We've had it with the shameless assholery, and like I've said before when I acted like that my Grandma told me she'd beat shame right back into me if she had to.

Sooner or later the state of the world is going to demand we get our heads out of our asses or we're all going to die.

Yeah, that's right, the Middle East is on fire again because Iran and Israel are shooting at each other again. Evidently the Iranians were going to attack the Israelis and the Israelis beat them to the punch. Wait, wasn't there supposed to have been some kind of a Trump-brokered peace conference in a day or two??

No one in the rest of the world respects Trump, or even likes him. Why do American "Conservatives" worship his bloated orange ass??

Except, you know, I think a hell of a lot of Those Fucking People are just using Trump, too. No one actually cares about the man, except all the people who hate him.

Seems like a hell of a way to live. Why are we, as a people, even putting up with this demonic garbage?? "Conservatives" have debased themselves, at this point, to such a degree that no one should ever listen to them ever again.

But if there's any consolation, Republicans, I guess congressional Democrats aren't too far behind you in the "People be ready to throw them out like Jazz in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" game.

We need a new goddamn political system, and fascism ain't gonna be it. Certainly, we need to clean out the trash that fills up our "political elite" and make these fuckers get real jobs again or something. 

Things. Are. Not. Working. 

I get the impulse, I really do, America is not working out for a lot of Americans, and with malice aforethought.

But calling people racial slurs or deporting immigrants or giving everything to Donald Trump or goose-stepping jackboots ain't going to fix it.

We are...we have been...up against wealthy people playing "Divide and Conquer."

Check yourself, America.

We don't do Kings here.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Слава Україна!

The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well, it's a simple answer after all. You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." There is a point beyond which they must not advance. This is the meaning in the phrase of Barry Goldwater's "peace through strength." Winston Churchill said that "the destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits — not animals." And he said, "There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty. ~Ronald Reagan

Four

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

Welcome To The Revolution (American Revelation XX, Four.)

What was fascism in Italy, in Germany? The exaltation of racial prejudices. Instead of fighting racial prejudice, which is what a revolution does, fascism exalts prejudice and turns it into hatred. ~Fidel Castro

...

 [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."

...

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

So, apparently, Tom Homan is going full Fidel Castro, wearing scruffy fake military uniforms and shit, even looks like he's growing a ratty-ass beard.

Welcome to the Revolution, I guess? Will History absolve him, too??

The Trump administration keeps trying to sound like it's going to war, meanwhile like 300 California Army National Guard soldiers are apparently standing around doing nothing, not getting paid and not properly logistically supported. So for all of their apocalyptic war-rhetoric, their response...were L.A. burning down, which it isn't...sucks.

Thing is, outside of a four-block or so radius life in Los Angeles is just going on like normal, although these protests are spreading...which is exactly what happens in most cases like this.

These aren't people who are fighting anything to win...they just want to destroy shit. Including themselves, cuz if you're a smart fascist you don't fuck over the muscle.

Don't get me wrong, the Right wants to fight...they just don't seem to understand what fighting is. I went out to my Mom's the last few days, but in checking my socials I saw a freaking ridiculous amount of bloodlust from people who've apparently never experienced more violence than a loud argument.

These fucking people seem to think the government and the military and the police (not to mention the Church and every other goddamn thing) exist to enforce their political and social views...and to do it by doing shit like dropping "Big, Beautiful" bombs in the middle of a dense urban core (and wouldn't that destroy the federal building??) or using Special Forces to simply kill protestors and anybody else they don't like.

And like, every single one of these goddamn people follows that shit up with some Bible verse, or has "Christian" or "Evangelist" or some shit like that in their bio.

Evangelist for what?? Bhaal, the Lord of Murder??

And they're all basically acting like this shit is some big joke with some kind of politically-partisan tie-in or some shit.

This is Christianity without Christ.

Or, perhaps more accurately, and continuing when this situation doesn't work out how these assholes think it will, another link in the continuing deification of Donald Trump. In the end, they'll say "At least he tried" or some such horseshit.

How this endless parade of fucked-up shit for Dopamine hits doesn't end with these freaks worshiping literal demons like Dis Pater and Mammon in an endless demand for more hate and rage and wealth and power, I have no fucking idea.

I mean, I get it, most of these fucking people don't like this world or most of the people in it, don't want to live here, and think based on some Sola Fide (Faith Alone) idea of "Once Saved, Always Saved" folk-Christianity that they're going to Heaven and are going to get to watch the rest of us burn either down here on Earth or in Hell...

And so that is the entire point of their religion. More to the point, in the here and now, their Bloodlust only grows.

These fucking people, many of whom do not read the Bible for themselves, have no fucking idea that they're not automatically In Like Flynn on Judgment Day just 'cause they said some dumbed-down version of the Sinner's Prayer in Sunday School when they were like six years old.

And it's amazing how many of them are fake cowboys or clearly wannabe-Marines and Special Forces cosplayers themselves.

I'm warning you that when the shit really does hit the fan (and because of these fucking people, it eventually will no matter what happens in California unless FAFO gets to be too much or we start changing the culture that creates them) the cops and the troops will be fighting and struggling to survive just like all the rest of us and These Fucking People, with their own weapons, haphazardly supported by the local rich people, will absolutely be your local "January 6th People's Cowboy Jesus Special Forces Militia."

And expect the title of "Revolutionary..." to get appended to everything, as if there's anything revolutionary about any of this bullshit.

Yes, very likely sporting that or some other such title that looked like it was cooked up by somebody trying to repurpose some old Soviet "Order Of The Red Banner People's Tractor Factory #427" type names, because if there's one thing "elites" have internalized it's "Keep Blowing The Narcissist" and they'll be a one-stop shop for dealing drugs, murder of the undeserving, stealing people's shit, and enforcing right-wing redneck ideas of "Social Order" by shooting random people and wielding Terror against the local populations. 

And it's worth noting that not a few rich assholes are, themselves, these exact kinds of motherfuckers, but with money.

See also the kind of assholes that constitute the Republican donor-class in places like Texas.

They've finally found that superior justification for selfishness, which, as it turns out was just plain old hate and selfishness.

And robbing from the poor to give to Themselves is exactly the kind of world these motherfuckers want to live in, of course they're rooting for the collapse of the United States...because every last one of these shitheads sees themselves as the Grand Warlord of Scottsbluff or a "Christian" equivalent to Mullah Omar or some such shit, not as the catamite that's strapped to the back of the technical truck right next to the box of .50 caliber ammunition.

Never mind what happens to them when the local satrap comes calling.

You don't want to know.

If you burn down civilization and take everything else away, there are three things people (a certain kind of men in particular, but not exclusively so) will always try to do; Get High, Have Sex, and Kill People.

That's what happens when Hate becomes the Opiate of the Masses, I warned you.

Anybody who thinks that most folks will be sheltering at the local Church praying to be protected under the wings of angels doesn't understand the fallen nature of Sinful Man nor in the least how far too many of the people drawn to what's become of modern "Conservatism" operate.

Whether the "ideology" under which these fucking people take cover is Capitalism or Communism, Evangelical Christianity or Radical Islam, somehow it always works out the same way for everybody else.

If this shit breaks down as far or as hard as these so-called "Conservatives" and death-cultist "Christians" want it to, there ain't gonna be no government or society and we'd all best hope the United Nations can work up one motherfucker of a peacekeeping operation, but if you've paid the least bit of any attention to shit like M23's campaign in the Congo or the Sudanese Civil War...don't ask how that shit turns out. The United Nations has a reputation for sucking at this for a reason.

Republicans are trying to turn America into the kind of place most people try to get away from so they can loot the homes of people who have fled as refugees.

The protestors in California have thus far kept their cool and denied these assholes an excuse to Immanentize their bloody murderous Eschaton, but not everybody is going to be able to do that.

And this whole Trump thing has the media playing at a constant dog-and-pony show to try and justify, in effect, America going to war against Americans, mostly because the rich people who own everything want #1 some kind of bullshit revenge for so many people quitting their jobs during COVID-19, and #2 they think, one way or another, whether it's AI and robots or former-Americans reduced to Serfdom, that they are somehow owed a class of Slaves and Wealth Without Work.

And they think Trump has promised them that, along with only having to look at people just like themselves.

Hell, if they have to try to implement the fucking Mark Of The Beast to get it...that's what they think they're gonna do. That's the thing about cults, they can just get Fox News and the rest of the media to say "It's not the Mark Of The Beast when WE do it!" and too much of the Christian End Times Prophecy Movement itself will line up 'round the block to get that computer chip put in their forehead or their right hand. As long as its pitched as spiritual slavery to Capital, they don't care.

This is true whether it's my my Mom's chuckle-fuck MAGA neighbor or some goddamned billionaire.

Worse, when all these white racist motherfuckers find out that it's all a lie, that it's all been a lie intended to reduce them to Slavery, they'll shrug as long as the "Liberals" and whatever Brown People are left have to be a worse class of slave than they are.

And if you think the crazy shit will ever stop of these fucking people will ever get what they "Want" enough to stop demanding more? You're flat out wrong.

Either we stop this now, or it will never stop.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Welcome to the Revolution.

We didn't start it, they did.

So, pick a side.

Слава Україна!

If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan

Three

[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."

Bonus Content

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.

War Dance (American Revelation XX, Three.)

Ka mate, ka mate! ka ora! ka ora!
Ka mate! ka mate! ka ora! ka ora!
Tēnei te tangata pūhuruhuru
Nāna nei i tiki mai whakawhiti te rā
Ā, upane! ka upane!
Ā, upane, ka upane, whiti te ra!

~Ka Mate, Maori Haka (main body)

...
'Tis Death, 'Tis Death, 'Tis Life, 'Tis Life
'Tis Death, 'Tis Death, 'Tis Life, 'Tis Life
This is the hairy man
Who caused the sun to shine again for me
Up the ladder, up the ladder!
Rise! The Sun shines.

~Ka Mate, Maori Haka, English translation.

(The Maori are the Native people of New Zealand. Among other things, they are known for the Haka, a war dance that many other traditional cultures believe has magical properties and is very powerful. This was in fact referenced by Morgan Freeman's portrayal of Nelson Mandela in Invictus. The most famous, Ka Mate, is the story of a Maori chief named Te Rauparaha who hides in a well, from pursuing enemies of other tribes. He evades his enemies and is rescued by an unnamed man who puts a ladder down the well so he can get out. Made world-famous thanks to its use by the New Zealand All Blacks Rugby team, Ka Mate is a story of the triumph of life over death.)

...

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.

I saw this yesterday.

Evidently, people in LA decided they'd had enough of ICE deportation raids and there was a massive protest and people surrounded a federal building. No violence except that done by Federal agents, no property damage to speak of, etc. Even the LAPD came right out and said so, commending the protestors for their obedience to the law and restraint.

The Trump administration promptly lost their shit and called in the California National Guard, who of course won't get there until the protest is over and I'm here to tell you, spending a couple days guarding a federal building in southern California in June in any amount of battle rattle for basically nothing sounds like it's own level of punishment from God.

These fucking Trump people are not smart.

There was a major protest and they started talking like there were Zombies marauding in the streets and eating people. If we get hit by pretty much any kind of crisis that can't be bought off by them stylin' for their base, these fucking people will crumble like the government of Afghanistan did almost four years ago. They are stupid, weak men.

And more to the point, they are the ones itching to try and start some kind of a Civil War, so that they can break up America and create a fiefdom for themselves, and do atrocities, don't forget that part.

Pete Hegseth thinks of himself as some kind of brave Crusader and thinks the rest of us are unworthy peasants. I've known guys like him, self-styled "Infidels" that don't know dick about Islam and most of the ones I knew either never served, or if they did they never were deployed to a Muslim country and never met or talked to any Muslims...and people like that are mostly just assholes and bitches who want to be mad about shit that will never affect them, that they think they'll never see anything for railing against it, etc. 

Shit, the guy I worked with like that was a fake biker and self-proclaimed martial artist (who didn't know shit about that, either) that had a tattoo of a Templar Knight, suffice it to say he didn't know shit about the history of the freaking Templars. Dude believed in about every conspiracy theory imaginable and got our one fake Pentecostal dude to go right along with him, at least as such was a decade ago. He thought all that and the fact that he'd been to jail or some shit made him tough, which thus made him somehow above the rest of us peasants. I never bothered to do anything but laugh at him, except I told him to fuck off once, don't remember what about.

What interaction with him I had, I was like, dude, you're a Custodian. You mop floors for a living. If you can do all that shit you keep talking, what you doing working here?? At least I can account for all the fuckups I did to land me in this shithole.

Funny enough, after he left us, somebody found out what he'd actually been to jail for...a low-level criminal sexual conduct charge, low-grade enough he could work at the casino anyway. I guess I was looking at the future of conservatism and I didn't even know it.

These fucking people don't want to be in government, they don't want to lead. 

They want to be Barons and Dukes and shit like that, with the fleshpot incestuous lifestyles and Wealth Without Work that they think goes with it, and they're pretty much acting like how Tom Clancy wrote the Chinese Communist Politburo in a couple of his novels. And the media pushed this on the country for nothing more than their own alleged profits and preference for covering crazy bullshit and palace intrigue. Both the media and the Trump administration seem to have the sort of level of entitlement that leads to people ending up being about a foot shorter, but from the neck up.

They're lazy and stupid and weak, but the problem with that is, so is a big chunk of the American electorate, apparently.

I still say it's going to come down to a fight to get rid of these assholes, but the evidence suggests it might not be as much of a fight as I've been worried about.

The thing is, in the short term unless you're careful, revolutions tend to lead to worse government and again, I'm warning you that these right-wing morons are, one way or another, going to try and break up the country before this is over, just so they can claim their own plot of land because something something Gazpacho. They don't seem to understand that the billionaires trying to pull the strings here would just as gladly enslave them as anybody else. And yes, when push comes to shove, if they have to, in order to preserve the idea of slavery, they'll be the damn slaves if it'll "Own The Libs."

As we've seen this week, Republicans aren't exactly a hivemind, they can't even agree on the things they all claim to agree on. Except, that is, for three things: #1 They think everything should be terrible because reasons (Seriously, this is the one common article of faith that "Conservatives" all have) and #2 "Fuck You, That's Why." Plus, (currently anyway) #3 Trump. (There's a side order of bigotry holding all this crap together, but I think that mostly falls under the second article, anyway.)

What they'll do when he's gone, I've no idea, but probably simply reverting to the first two ideals, which is all they ever really had before.

It seems like a hell of a way to live.

MAGA isn't a political movement, hell, it's not even a cult in the actual religious sense of the word (at least not yet. When Trump dies, we'll see, I guess?) It's a giant red foam-rubber middle finger aimed at the rest of us by people who, ten years ago, thought that flipping off the TV when Barack Obama was on it made some sort of a statement or made them look like something other than a racist jackass.

And they all think Trump is their Light and their Salvation. Most of them can't or won't tell you why they think that, either, in my experience.

They don't want to do anything, the trouble is, they don't want anybody else to do anything either and they think they can use Trump to make it so AI and Robots, or at least the rest of us peasants, have to do all the work and they can just get rich for having the right "beliefs" or some such bullshit.

Not one damn bit of this is sustainable, but they don't care.

Collapse, destruction for its own sake and failure are the point, just so long as they get to take everybody else down with them, and preferably make sure that rich people profit off the whole damn thing.

This isn't really about them.

That's the part that the media and the Democrats who only seem to care about keeping their place in the magical city and all the rest of these motherfuckers miss.

This is America, people. By definition, it is all about you, just not in the way the average narcissist likes to think.

It's about Us, We The People, by design.

And either we believe in Freedom or we don't.

Yes, it really is that simple.

You're either willing to put up with shitty fascists who think you should have to have their permission just to walk down the street, or you ain't.

There is no middle ground here.

Слава Україна!

 [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."

Two

We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev...Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
~Ronald Reagan