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