Reaching Unto Heaven (Scenes From A Cold Civil War, Seven.)

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judges her.

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. ~Revelation 18:1-10

...

There are times, however, and this is one of them, when even being right feels wrong. What do you say, for instance, about a generation that has been taught that rain is poison and sex is death? If making love might be fatal and if a cool spring breeze on any summer afternoon can turn a crystal blue lake into a puddle of black poison right in front of your eyes, there is not much left except TV and relentless masturbation. It's a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat shit and die. Who knows? If there is in fact, a heaven and a hell, all we know for sure is that hell will be a viciously overcrowded version of Phoenix — a clean well lighted place full of sunshine and bromides and fast cars where almost everybody seems vaguely happy, except those who know in their hearts what is missing... And being driven slowly and quietly into the kind of terminal craziness that comes with finally understanding that the one thing you want is not there. Missing. Back-ordered. No tengo. Vaya con dios. Grow up! Small is better. Take what you can get. ~Hunter S. Thompson, Generation Of Swine.

...

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

I saw this the other night.

Apparently, Oklahoma state secretary of education Ryan Walters was caught watching porn in his office, at work, and ratted out by his own board members.

Isn't this guy supposed to be a big-time Christian Nationalist or some such horseshit??

I guess every sperm is sacred except for the ones big-time churchy porn-nuts blow off into a goddamned Kleenex while on the job, huh??

Meanwhile, in places like Tennessee, supposedly-Christian alleged-doctors are busy denying care to unmarried women? (Granted as I understand it the woman in that case is getting health care just fine in Virginia.) Like, wait a damned minute, don't doctors have to take an oath about this stuff and provide care for all??

And while I'm at it, all the talk about the Epstein List had provoked a conversation about Grooming in churches yesterday morning and I can tell you from personal experience that while I never went to a church that tolerated that kind of crap, on the whole it's a lot worse than most people know about because American "Conservative" Christianity is loaded with that kind of creepy shit.

I mean, I get it, the Word of the average Christian Nationalist, "Conservative," Evangelical or Fundamentalist is worth precisely dick these days, and I seem to remember that God has a problem with that, but what the fuck do I know?

I only actually believed this shit for most of my life.

I only was highly active in several churches, and considered ministry myself once or twice; ultimately I rejected the idea because guess what? I'm a sinful Man and I feared responsibility for the souls of others.

All these fucking narcissists don't have that problem. They don't care. They are their own gods.

Good luck with that in the afterlife, I guess?

So yeah, I'm all too familiar with the American Church in all its failings.

And fought against its dysfunctions pretty much as I became aware of them, until I became aware that there wasn't much else left and then I got the fuck out.

And what these motherfuckers have been doing for the last ten years and especially the last going on nine months now is not what I was taught nor anything I would have ever believed to be acceptable.

I'm warning you, folks, America's Sins are reaching unto Heaven.

God is going to get as tired of this shit as the rest of us are, if He isn't already remembering our iniquities.

The day of His Wrath is coming.

This ain't going to end well.

Least of all for These Fucking People.

Sucks for the rest of us that don't condone this crap and wouldn't have ever even thought about doing this kind of shit, though, huh??

This is why things like politics and voting matter, people.

You get what you tolerate, America.

Like, look here:

Some idiot Republican apparently got shit-canned for having an affair with a stripper, paying for abortions, and...apparently...jerking off into the cookie dough.

Like, Wut??

These people are fucking sick and wrong, and there's nothing better...in point of fact nothing else...that can even be said about this garbage.

And there's something deeply rotten about a political party that lets people like this be in it.

When the fuck is enough going to be enough with this bullshit??

Because RFK Jr. and all these AI Chuds want to pull some kind of "It's Not The Mark Of The Beast When WE Do It" sort of crap next.

Yes it is. Yes, yes it is, and don't you forget it.

Motherfuckers try that "Wearable technology" shit on me, and somebody's gonna be walking around with it getting a lot of readings from a very specific place. 

No, it's my body, motherfuckers.

Just the same as my partner's body is hers.

And her daughter has claim to the same bodily sovereignty.

Because if we don't, where does the shit stop??

What's to stop the State from just saying we don't exist and tossing us in a meat grinder??

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

If you don't believe in another person's humanity or right to exist, what's to stop somebody else from not believing in yours??

It really is that simple.

And at the end of the day there's more of the rest of us than there is of these motherfuckers.

People are getting tired of this shit, and I think it's all gonna blow up soon.

More to the point, for whatever stupid reason I think that's exactly what all these asshole Republicans want because they think they'll get some kind of Randroid Galt's Gulch fantasy world bullshit out of it, or some gilded survivalist bunker fantasy wherein they get to utterly dominate their various hangers-on while the world burns and they get to watch it on TV while doing a bunch of drugs or whatever the fuck.

And then upload themselves into some kind of computer and spend their "Eternal" life counting all their cryptocurrency or something.

Eternal...but only until the computer mechanically breaks or the power goes out and backup batteries run dry.

No, I don't get why anybody would want to live like that.

And so far as I know, only gods get to create eternal things.

Man does not.

Remember that, because it's absolutely going to be on the test.

Soon.

Слава Україна!

John Constantine: You're handing Earth over to the son of the Devil? Help me, here;

Gabriel: [Gabriel sits on top of John Constantine, explaining her rebellion] You're handed this precious gift, right? Each one of you granted redemption from the Creator – murderers, rapists, molesters – all of you just have to repent, and God takes you into His bosom. In all the worlds and all the universe, no other creature can make such a boast, save man. It's not fair.

[Gabriel leans closer to Constantine's face]

Gabriel: If sweet, sweet God loves you so, then I will make you worthy of His love. But it's only in the face of horror that you truly find your nobler selves – and you can be so noble. So … I will bring you pain. I will bring you horror.

[Gabriel lifts up Constantine from his collar]

Gabriel: So that you may rise above it. So that those of you who will survive this reign of hell on earth will be worthy of God's love.

John Constantine: Gabriel... you're insane.

Gabriel: [smiles] The road to salvation begins tonight. Right now.

~From the film Constantine.

Six

We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world, a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us. No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we'll kill you. Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? Who among us can be happy and proud of having all this innocent blood on our hands? Who are these swine? These flag-sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled by stupid little rich kids like George Bush? They are the same ones who wanted to have Muhammad Ali locked up for refusing to kill gooks. They speak for all that is cruel and stupid and vicious in the American character. They are the racists and hate mongers among us; they are the Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis. And I am too old to worry about whether they like it or not. Fuck them. ~Hunter S. Thompson