Forsaken People (American Revelation XXI, James Dobson Edition.)

I am the way into the city of woe.

I am the way to a forsaken people.
I am the way into eternal sorrow.
Sacred justice moved my architect.
I was raised here by divine omnipotence, primordial love and ultimate intellect
Only those elements time cannot wear are beyond me,
and beyond time I stand.
Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here.'
~Sign above the gates of hell (variant translation) Canto III, Dante's Inferno, the Divine Comedy.

...

We have too many men of science, too few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon On The Mount. The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. ~General Omar Bradley

...

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

James Dobson died yesterday.

Good.

Never thought I'd pity Charon, or the Grim Reaper.

Or feel sympathy for the Devil who now has to put up with Dobson's stank ass.

Sorry to sound that way, but I personally know way too many people who were hurt by that particular False Teacher's bullshit, even though I can't say I ever followed any of it nor paid much attention to him.

I always thought his whole bit was just creepy as fuck, especially the obsession with spanking kids.

Like, sorry, but you can't beat a person into believing what you want them to believe, humans just don't work like that.

Note; I say this as somebody with a church background who was far more adjacent than I wanted to be, to various Fundamentalist Christians and others (Nazarenes, for example) who bought into this crap. Never practiced any of his shit myself, but I'm not unfamiliar with it.

And I know way too many people who got the fuck beat out of them by their parents or a spouse with these kind of "Christian Teachings" as an excuse.

That's all it is or ever was, an excuse for the shit these fucking people wanted to do anyway.

And perhaps more to the point, without people like James Dobson you wouldn't have Christian Nationalism as, effectively, the Imperial Cult of the Republican Party at this point.

You sure as hell wouldn't have fucking people like Donald Trump in Power without him and his brutal teachings and view of the world convincing a lot of Christians that God is an Asshole and that secular leaders who are assholes are thus somehow following God, either.

Worse, the reach of this crap extends far more than most people realize. All the way back in 2005 I was taking a psychology class at Central Michigan University and my instructor spoke almost reverently about "Dr. Dobson" in class, when somebody brought up something to do with Christianity and a then and now current "Culture War" issue (LGBT Rights, and we'd just watched a video about Transgender people in Samoa, if I recall correctly.)

Yeah, stop and think about that for a second.

I did not actually know until today that Dobson's mentor was an American Nazi ass-kisser Eugenicist, Paul Popenoe.

(Who only redefined himself as a "Marriage Counselor" and shit like that after the revelation of the Holocaust.)

I'm gonna take a minute here and remind you that there's nobody in my little family that Eugenicists and Nazis wouldn't try to kill for various reasons.

Yes, believe it or not this kind of crap, people like Tucker Carlson saying that America was on the "wrong" side during WWII and all that, does affect real people.

Sorry, but growing up I still knew way too many shattered old men who'd left parts of their bodies or their souls in places like Bastogne or Guadalcanal who were and forever would be against German or Japanese people and I'm here to tell you the sweet old German immigrant lady that lived down the street (who'd met her husband when he was a GI stationed in Germany in the early 1950's) had a hell of a time with some of those old guys.

There was a time when saying "One can make the argument that we should have sided with Hitler" would have gotten one run out of public life and beat up by a bunch of old WWII veterans.

But, apparently, People Are Stupid.

No one seems to want to take the Ancestors and the historians at their word that Slavery was bad, or that Nazis were (and are) evil.

How many people are gonna have to die so people can re-learn "for themselves" the shit that pretty much every current Expert is already fucking telling them??

And what's worse, the entire damned point of all this crap is that a hell of a lot of fucking morons somehow think they're going to get something out of being willfully ignorant.

Something other than Dead like James Dobson, that is.

Somebody needs to stick a screwdriver through his brain just in case, so that fucker doesn't turn and reanimate like some sort of Zombie, 'cause I bet Heaven won't take him and Hell don't want his ass either.

And neither should anybody else have, ever.

But some of us seem to want to be the Forsaken People in the City Of Woe in Dante's Inferno, apparently they think it legitimizes their shitty beliefs when things suck for everybody.

I'm so tired of the debased boredom and willful ignorance of a lot of American White people.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

You either believe in your own right to live your fucking life, or you don't.

We need to stop fucking around with this bullshit and putting up with Nazis and religious fanatics.

It really is that simple.

Слава Україна!

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  

Six

The wind whispers of fear and hate. The war has killed love. And those that confess to the Angkar are punished, and no one dare ask where they go. Here, only the silent survive. ~Dith Pran, The Killing Fields

Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory (American Revelation XXI, Six.)

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.

...

[The 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first Black regiment in the US Army, has just been attached to Col. Montgomery's brigade in the hope of seeing combat. The troops are marching through a regimental camp]

Cpl. Thomas Searles: Who are these ragamuffins?
Sgt. Major John Rawlins: Contraband, straight out of the field.
Short contraband:[to Thomas] Hey old man, where from?

Cpl. Thomas Searles: Massachusetts. You?

Short contraband: Round about here, we slaves in the field when the Yankee man come. Say we soldiers!

Tall contraband: You walk like the Bukra Soldier, even talk like the Bukra Soldier!

Cpl. Thomas Searles: [to Rawlins] What'd he say?

Sgt Major John Rawlins: He says we march like white soldiers. How you like the Army, contraband?

Tall contraband: Oh, we love it! We thank the Lord every day for de good vittles and de beautiful clothes! This year every day like Kismis!

Cpl. Thomas Searles: [to Rawlins] What?

Sgt. Major John Rawlins: Like Christmas.

Cpl. Thomas Searles: Oh.

~From the Civil War film Glory.

...

And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. ~Revelation 6:5-6

I saw this earlier today.

Evidently, Trump is trying to claim that "Slavery wasn't that bad."

Horseshit, it was terrible, and in fact however "Bad" you think it was? It was almost certainly worse. I've only been studying the Civil War, and its causes and effects, since I was even starting to motherfucking read.

Slavery, and its corrosive effects on labor and politics in the antebellum United States, was bad enough that we fought a goddamned war over it.

Why is this hard??

I mean, sure, slavery was great...if you were a goddamned slaver with a labor force that you *Checks Notes* didn't have to pay and could treat as bad as you damned well felt like at any given time.

But for everybody else, especially those who were enslaved, slavery sucked. I've seen enough evidence of that in my life that I don't especially need to see any more. 

In other words, if you think you'd benefit from this bullshit, you're wrong.

Among other things, it's not really about money...it's about power and relative status. This time around, they'll just as soon go after poor White "Conservative" people.

'Cause if Trump doesn't understand that in order to go to Heaven he'd have to repent of his sins and believe in God...do you really think he's gonna understand that the average MAGA is actually poor and people like Elon Musk or Vivek Ramaswamy are not typical?

Trump doesn't see most of his own people as *People.*

Why?? Because it's easier. 

Because Black people and Latinos and LGBT folk and yes, ultimately a hell of a lot of "liberals" and whoever else will actually fight back. MAGA, though?? If those fucking people can be convinced they're "Owning The Libs??" The rednecks and shit might just sell themselves into slavery for pennies on the dollar willingly.

And here's the thing, the Prosperity Gospel preachers will tell people that not being rich is a Sin, and that's how they can be "Saved" or some such bullshit.

When it blows up, this crap will be a War of Religion. Pay attention to the history of our last Civil War, because if current trends aren't checked, we're heading for another one.

Mine eyes have seen the Glory of the coming of the Lord
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.
He has loosed his fateful lightning and His terrible, swift sword.
His Truth is marching on!

~From The Battle Hymn Of The Republic.

Except that this one will be worse.

People are getting sick of Republicans, of Trump, and of their heavy-handed incompetent bullshit.

These fucking people are trying to start a Civil War while also selling the USA out to Russia, and they're not being the least bit smart about it, either insofar as they're abusing the shit out of most of our allies and the US Armed Forces the same as they're fucking over everything else in the name of some bullshit Christ-less idea of "Christianity," and they're doing all this right smack in the middle of places where this shit isn't even necessary and everybody can see it.

This bullshit is going to end badly.

Like, among other things, I'm sorry but I don't think these fucking people are smart enough to carry off starting a whole Civil War by themselves.

I do, however, think they're well on the way towards causing a Soviet-style collapse of the United States and I think a shitload of various economic indicators are starting to point towards another Great Recession type situation that will be concurrent with this at the very least.

And there absolutely will be places where this bullshit spirals out into actual armed conflict.

Some places (like probably where I live) things will suck but they'll still be kinda normal as long as somebody in a given situation has a job or whatever. Some of those places will sporadically be under attack, also. A fair number of places will be war zones, to one degree or another.

Still other places will be Hell on Earth as some fucking crazed billionaire effectively tries to strip-mine that shit down to the Earth's Mantle in search of ever more narcissistic fuel.

Because that's what this crap is really about, not money or power in the conventional sense...but about narcissistic fuel (and playing Keep Away with actual resources vs. the rest of us.) for these goddamned drug-addled freaks who all seem to think they need a ten-foot-tall gold statue of their junk in the middle of every damn room in their house.

Just like with everything from the abuse of women to all this racial crap, These Fucking People's attempt to replace America and reality with their insane funhouse-mirror versions of the same is really about getting everybody who isn't one to have to bow down to the nearest narcissist and subject themselves to never-ending manipulative twisted social engineering by the same.

Fuck That, No.

Of course, if we fight them, which we're gonna have to anyway, then it still fuels their narcissism, but at least those of us who resist have a chance of this crap being over at some point.

Again, I write about American Revelation and God's judgment being on this country for a fucking reason.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

You can either say Slavery was wrong, or you can't.

There's no equivalency, no "middle of the road" either it is or it isn't.

It's really that simple.

Either your eyes have seen the Glory of the coming of the Lord, or they haven't.

One of these things is not like the other one.

Choose.

Soon.

Слава Україна!

Smug, greedy, well-fed white people have invented a language to conceal their sins. It's as simple as that. The CIA doesn't kill anybody anymore, they neutralize people, or they depopulate the area. The government doesn't lie, it engages in disinformation. The Pentagon actually measures nuclear radiation in something they call sunshine units. Israeli murderers are called commandos, Arab commandos are called terrorists. Contra killers are called freedom fighters. Well, if crime fighters fight crime, and firefighters fight fires, what do freedom fighters fight? ~George Carlin

Five

Hess: So what shall we toast to, boys? I can blather on about “To health” or “To success,” but I’d like to do somethin’ a little less rote. Where you from, Brown Eyes?

Migs Mayfield: How ’bout a toast to Operation Cinder?

Hess: Now there’s a man who knows his history.

Mayfield: No, I don’t just know it. I lived it. I was in Burnin Konn.

Hess: Burnin Konn?

Mayfield: Mmm.

Hess: That was a hard day. I had to make many unpleasant decisions.

Mayfield: Yes, you did. Entire city gone in moments, along with everybody in it. We lost our whole division that day. Man, that was like 5-10,000 people.

Hess: Yep. All heroes of the Empire.

Mayfield: Yeah. And all dead.

Hess: Well, it’s a small sacrifice for the greater good, son.

Mayfield: Depends on who you ask, don’t you think?

Hess: [irritated] What you gettin’ at, trooper?

Mayfield: All those people, the ones who died, was it good for them? Hmm? Their families? The guys I served with? Civilians, those poor mud scuffers, died defending their homes, fighting for freedom. Was it good for them?

Hess: But we’ve outlasted them, son. They’re eating themselves alive. The New Republic is in complete disarray, and we grow stronger. You see, with the rhydonium you’ve delivered, we can create havoc that’s gonna make Burnin Konn pale by comparison. And then they’re gonna turn to us once again. You see, boys, everybody thinks they want freedom, but what they really want is order. And when they realize that, they’re gonna welcome us back with open arms. Ah. To the Empire.

[Mayfield chuckles, then fires a blaster at Hess' chest, killing him instantly. He and Mando then shoot their way out of the mess hall] ~From The Mandalorian, Season 2, Ep. 7 "The Believer"

...

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

How Long, O Lord? (American Revelation XXI, Five.)

Quit your worship charades.
I can’t stand your trivial religious games:
Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings—
meetings, meetings, meetings—I can’t stand one more!
Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them!
You’ve worn me out!
I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion,
while you go right on sinning.
When you put on your next prayer-performance,
I’ll be looking the other way.
No matter how long or loud or often you pray,
I’ll not be listening.
And do you know why? Because you’ve been tearing
people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.
Go home and wash up.
Clean up your act.
Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings
so I don’t have to look at them any longer.
Say no to wrong.
Learn to do good.
Work for justice.
Help the down-and-out.
Stand up for the homeless.
Go to bat for the defenseless. ~Isaiah 1:13-17

...

Hess: So what shall we toast to, boys? I can blather on about “To health” or “To success,” but I’d like to do somethin’ a little less rote. Where you from, Brown Eyes?

Migs Mayfield: How ’bout a toast to Operation Cinder?

Hess: Now there’s a man who knows his history.

Mayfield: No, I don’t just know it. I lived it. I was in Burnin Konn.

Hess: Burnin Konn?

Mayfield: Mmm.

Hess: That was a hard day. I had to make many unpleasant decisions.

Mayfield: Yes, you did. Entire city gone in moments, along with everybody in it. We lost our whole division that day. Man, that was like 5-10,000 people.

Hess: Yep. All heroes of the Empire.

Mayfield: Yeah. And all dead.

Hess: Well, it’s a small sacrifice for the greater good, son.

Mayfield: Depends on who you ask, don’t you think?

Hess: [irritated] What you gettin’ at, trooper?

Mayfield: All those people, the ones who died, was it good for them? Hmm? Their families? The guys I served with? Civilians, those poor mud scuffers, died defending their homes, fighting for freedom. Was it good for them?

Hess: But we’ve outlasted them, son. They’re eating themselves alive. The New Republic is in complete disarray, and we grow stronger. You see, with the rhydonium you’ve delivered, we can create havoc that’s gonna make Burnin Konn pale by comparison. And then they’re gonna turn to us once again. You see, boys, everybody thinks they want freedom, but what they really want is order. And when they realize that, they’re gonna welcome us back with open arms. Ah. To the Empire.

[Mayfield chuckles, then fires a blaster at Hess' chest, killing him instantly. He and Mando then shoot their way out of the mess hall] ~From The Mandalorian, Season 2, Ep. 7 "The Believer"

...

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:

And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. ~Revelation 6:9-11

I saw this the other day.

Stonekettle, going off on how a whole bunch of the people who came here before America was America and for the first couple centuries after that were basically just a bunch of pinch-faced, tight-assed religious fanatic ass-clowns that sucked so goddamn bad they mostly managed to get themselves thrown out of then-extremely-Christian Europe.

He's not wrong.

But, you see, I didn't get much of a chance to write about that, because my girlfriend moved in with me a couple days ago and I've been (once we got the truck unloaded anyway) if not exactly busy, at least distracted since.

Well then, yesterday morning I saw this.

An article by somebody that I follow on Threads about how she belonged to the cult run by that Pastor, Doug Wilson, that's been in the news lately. According to the article dudes that are in this shit basically believe in abusing their wives to the point of literally making them get on all fours and beating them with a belt, and watching BDSM porn.

First of all, that's sick, what the fuck is wrong with these people?

Second, since I have a little bit of familiarity with actual BDSM from my younger years...none of that stuff is about or sanctions abuse of any kind and for anybody who's ever actually done anything that way, consent and safety are very important. If you're trying to break someone's will, you're not doing it right. Insofar as it's about control or power or torture at all, you have to want to participate and nobody's gonna take away your basic rights, humanity or personhood for doing it.

It's not about domination for the sake of it, or fueling one's narcissism or vicious and petty Men having power and control over women. And yes, a lot of the people I knew who were into kinky stuff were Republicans but it's a safe bet, I think, that 22 years ago the word "Republican" didn't mean what it apparently does now. 

Christian Nationalism was a thing yes, but it sure as hell wasn't like this.

Yes, there's also always been a lot of crossover between "Guys who spank the monkey to weird porn" and "Guys who want to inflict their debased, weird urges on their wives."

But those fucking guys were, at one time, not especially welcome in most churches, and certainly not in any that I ever heard of when I was either a churchgoing Christian or a member of a house church. 

Mind you, my membership in that house church actually outlasted my Christianity itself by about seven years. I was a Christian from roughly 1979 to about 2006-2007 although I was always pretty mainstream, if relatively politically conservative. My girlfriend still is a Christian, but mostly is in the same boat as I am.

Yeah, I've been pretty deep into this stuff, and whipping a woman with a belt never would have ever occurred to me. But then again, treating a woman as a box to check or an ornament to possess wouldn't be something I'd do or tolerate, either. I was taught better than that.

I've known my girlfriend for 20 years, we were coworkers, friends, roommates, and we dated before. She's been abused. If I'd have found out about it at the time, the guy who did it would not still be walking around. Considering my own life experience and the friends I had back then no, nobody would ever have found Bubba The Hutt.

The thought of ever hurting my partner sickens me. If somebody even suggested I do the type of shit I saw in that article...to her? They'd find out the hard way that I still remember Basic Military Training and for bonus points throw in that FAFO is a principle I strongly believe in and I'm in good shape again. 

Some bearded butterball of a preacher would probably not like what happened.

Look, I don't give a damn how much cultic or political power you think you have. Some things are just wrong and I was taught Man is not going to be the Judge of Man when we go into the Afterlife, it's a safe bet, I think, to assume that God is probably gonna call you out on your made-up bullshit and not take any dumbass excuses for why you did it.

Hurting someone that you swore to cherish, honor, love and protect strikes me as something that'd make one a Goat rather than a Sheep, especially if done for creepy cultish fake "religious" reasons.

Because yes, I was taught that if you're a Christian you're supposed to believe in and follow a Living God that'll judge you for your actions in this life and the next.

These fucking people don't want that, they want a Dead Savior On A Stick to "Justify" their atrocities and evils and greed and misogyny and racism and shitty politics and every other goddamned thing.

They don't want to be Saved, they want to have their Sins sacralized.

Fuck all that.

How Long, O Lord, are you going to tolerate this horseshit?!?!

As for the rest of us?

We can't afford to wait for Him to get off His ass.

You either believe in freedom or you don't, and you're either willing to fight for it or you're not.

And don't you dare forget that.

Слава Україна!

The wind whispers of fear and hate. The war has killed love. And those that confess to the Angkar are punished, and no one dare ask where they go. Here, only the silent survive. ~Dith Pran, The Killing Fields

Four

Smug, greedy, well-fed white people have invented a language to conceal their sins. It's as simple as that. The CIA doesn't kill anybody anymore, they neutralize people, or they depopulate the area. The government doesn't lie, it engages in disinformation. The Pentagon actually measures nuclear radiation in something they call sunshine units. Israeli murderers are called commandos, Arab commandos are called terrorists. Contra killers are called freedom fighters. Well, if crime fighters fight crime, and firefighters fight fires, what do freedom fighters fight? ~George Carlin

Pale Horse (American Revelation XXI, Four.)

And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. ~Revelation 6:7-8

...

Hess: So what shall we toast to, boys? I can blather on about “To health” or “To success,” but I’d like to do somethin’ a little less rote. Where you from, Brown Eyes?

Migs Mayfield: How ’bout a toast to Operation Cinder?

Hess: Now there’s a man who knows his history.

Mayfield: No, I don’t just know it. I lived it. I was in Burnin Konn.

Hess: Burnin Konn?

Mayfield: Mmm.

Hess: That was a hard day. I had to make many unpleasant decisions.

Mayfield: Yes, you did. Entire city gone in moments, along with everybody in it. We lost our whole division that day. Man, that was like 5-10,000 people.

Hess: Yep. All heroes of the Empire.

Mayfield: Yeah. And all dead.

Hess: Well, it’s a small sacrifice for the greater good, son.

Mayfield: Depends on who you ask, don’t you think?

Hess: [irritated] What you gettin’ at, trooper?

Mayfield: All those people, the ones who died, was it good for them? Hmm? Their families? The guys I served with? Civilians, those poor mud scuffers, died defending their homes, fighting for freedom. Was it good for them?

Hess: But we’ve outlasted them, son. They’re eating themselves alive. The New Republic is in complete disarray, and we grow stronger. You see, with the rhydonium you’ve delivered, we can create havoc that’s gonna make Burnin Konn pale by comparison. And then they’re gonna turn to us once again. You see, boys, everybody thinks they want freedom, but what they really want is order. And when they realize that, they’re gonna welcome us back with open arms. Ah. To the Empire.

[Mayfield chuckles, then fires a blaster at Hess' chest, killing him instantly. He and Mando then shoot their way out of the mess hall] ~From The Mandalorian, Season 2, Ep. 7 "The Believer"

...

The wind whispers of fear and hate. The war has killed love. And those that confess to the Angkar are punished, and no one dare ask where they go. Here, only the silent survive. ~Dith Pran, The Killing Fields

I keep seeing this shit. Known nepo-baby sex-pest Andrew Cuomo is still trying to talk shit about Zohran Mamdani.

Sure, Cuomo shit-canned tens of thousands of rent-controlled apartments, so naturally he'll point out that Zohran has lived in one at some point.

So?

That's not the gotcha dude thinks it is.

I'm not, at this point, seeing a whole lot of difference between how Cuomo is acting and how a bunch of the "mainstream" Democrats are acting and how MAGA is conducting itself.

The trouble isn't Democrats or Republicans, it's that our political class is mostly fucking out of touch rich people who don't give a damn if the average person makes it or not.

And most of those kind of people conduct themselves the same way towards us workers whether they're allegedly conservatives or supposedly liberals. I could tell you where I've seen this personally, but it'd be a whole separate post I might write sometime.

There's a reason I've said since 2003 that Michael Moore isn't a liberal, he just plays one on TV.

I met the man once, when he was the big deal in protesting the then-just-started Iraq War.

But a slight digression first.

I, as a young Republican voter serving in the Air Force as a Sergeant in 1994 and stationed (for the first part of my career, anyway) in both my state and congressional district of residence actually got a chance to speak with my (conservative Democrat) Congressman, Bart Stupak for a few minutes when he visited KI Sawyer Air Force Base. 

Funny enough, but thinking back to it I think he came off as far more genuinely liberal (in the small "L" sense of the word) and open minded than the big "Liberal" media star I would meet nine years later at an Iraq War protest in Petoskey, Michigan. He shook my hand, we chatted for a few seconds, and I felt like he didn't really give a fuck and was there to just check some sort of a box.

Being a veteran and against war...any war...is often a lonely position to take. The Right hates you and the Left doesn't give a shit.

And I think there's a lesson in that, and I've always liked and often been a person who might be on one technical "side" but can find reasons to agree with the other. There's a reason I, as a registered Democrat have generally supported Never-Trump Republicans.

I mean, since January it's plain-out obvious that most of Democratic leadership just doesn't give a fuck about doing anything but keeping their place in the magical city.

Honestly, the vast majority of Republicans are the same way, only worse and more obvious about it.

The main priority of the political class is that they control the lower classes by various means (Democrats use social welfare where you have to swear yourself into poverty. Republicans use police and are increasingly abandoning even the pretense of that, becoming enamored instead of naked force without even the pretense of law) and they don't have to see us, and don't want to have to answer to or be held accountable by anybody that they don't want to.

And they'd all rather be podcast stars paid to say stupid shit on the internet, than real leaders with responsibilities.

Good work if you can find it, I guess? 

Us regular people don't have any of those options.

And if we're being honest, a whole hell of a lot of these fucking people, especially as the gradients of "1%" narrow upwards, would rather all the rest of us die than they give up one jot or tittle of their power or wealth.

And a lot of them, very likely including serial sexual harassers like Cuomo, actually see the political and social power of women as a threat.

It's just that right now, it's only the freakish Christian Dominionist theocratic types that are willing to say so openly.

But if this crap is allowed to continue it'll become the sort of bullshit that Republicans are loud about and Democrats make vague noises about opposing until enough women go off on them like enraged Furies and some chunky nerd-girl vet tech neuters a Congressman.

Because that's always how this shit goes. At least Democrats can be pushed away from a shitty agenda.

Not that that's much of an endorsement.

And as I keep saying, there's a non-zero chance that the social pressures of all this alone will spill over into violence split the country...which means there's a good chance that the Left gets some kind of socialistic paradise (but the kind where nobody has any money, kind of like the UK after WWII.) And the Right gets to one-up Margret Atwood's Gilead while giving billionaires and a very-tiny trillionaire class their gilded enclaves in which none of the "rules" apply. 

And yes, there's a whole hell of a lot of places that are going land between those two extremes.

A lot of which won't be nice places to live, either.

Because freedom itself is a hell of a lot less important to a lot of political people than their various pet projects...because a lot of this stuff, at the end of the day (and I will say more for the Right than most of the "Left" in this case) boils down to pure narcissism.

And what all that really means is that a lot of people are going to die, because a lot of this transition will not exactly be peaceful and too many of the people who should simply won't give a fuck.

And a lot of people who are pushing this shit on the rest of us are, in fact, White men who see the political power and even basic recognition of other groups like LGBT folks, people of Color and women as a threat to their Power. 

But here's the thing, there's a lot of flat-out stupid White bros out there and political monocultures tend to amplify the flaws  and fuckups of the groups they're composed of. These Fucking People are too stupid to do much more than get a hell of a lot of the rest of us killed.

Which seems to be the goal and the point, honestly.

And I say that as a White Man, myself.

At the end of the day, you either believe in freedom or you don't.

And everybody has to have it, or it isn't freedom.

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

Soon.

Слава Україна!

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  

Three

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

Black Horse (American Revelation XXI, Three.)

And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. ~Revelation 6:5-6

...

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

...

It is the individual who can and does make a difference even in this increasingly populous, complex world of ours. The individual can make things happen. It is the individual who can bring a tear to my eye and then cause me to take pen in hand. It is the individual who has acted or tried to act who will not only force a decision but also have a hand in shaping it. Whether acting in the legal, governmental, or private realm, one concerned and dedicated person can meaningfully affect what some consider an uncaring world. So give freely of yourself always to your family, your friends, your community, and your country. The world will pay you back many times over. 

~Sandra Day O'Connor, former SCOTUS Justice (Appointed by Ronald Reagan, no less.)

So apparently, Pete Kegs-Breath is posting about his idiot Christian Nationalist pastor who thinks women shouldn't be able to vote and the USA should be some kind of bullshit Christian theocracy.

#1 I used to be a conservative, by dint of having gone to Christian schools I've studied our early history quite intensively, and this was exactly the type of shit the Founders didn't want.

#2 If you think this bullshit would stop with simply taking away the right to vote, you're wrong. 

#3 Over My Dead Body and I say that as a white male former-conservative Air Force veteran, Fuck You. I have a girlfriend and she has a daughter and they both have the same God-given rights that I do. 

Even at the most conservative I ever was, I would have absolutely, loudly and enthusiastically said the exact same damned thing. More, the 19th Amendment was passed by 3/4 of the population at the height of the global nadir of global and US race relations and when Christian fundamentalism was far more rampant than it is now.

Our ancestors decided this already.

And the misogynist side lost.

More to the point, what conservatism is supposed to be is based on revealed Truth and reverence for the wisdom of our ancestors.

That ain't what this crap is.

But a hell of a lot of These Fucking People don't care.

Not only are they so determined to have Power that they'll burn down the world if they have to, they actively want to burn down the world for shits and giggles.

And if you think that trend is somehow exclusive to Republicans at this point, you have another thing coming.

More to the point, what do you really think going full Christianized Taliban on women's rights, getting rid of all the immigrants (legal or otherwise) and worsening this country's mistreatment of the poor would actually do, economically??

I mean, as far as I can see if you actually wanted the Black Horse of Revelation detailed in Revelation 6, verses five and six...there aren't very many ways to go about it faster than simply reducing economic output by 51% plus on a crash basis. As I've said before, out of a dozen or so people in my department at work, only three of us are men.

All of the people that know how everything works are women, and one of them is gay and basically married.

Without the women I work with, I don't have a job, because there's nobody to run the place!

And these motherfuckers. Literally. Don't. Care.

That's what happens when willfully ignorant motherfuckers make a theology out of bigotry and a bunch of other bullshit that has not one damned thing to do with their actual claimed religion.

Especially when the actual truth is all that these people even want to worship is whatever Golden Idol they think will give them an advantage when it comes to hurting people and stealing. This shit is civilizational Fentanyl.

These fuckers want to be the nobility of Ancient Babylon, but cosplay as "Christian." Like they think God won't notice??

Or do they just not care??

(Yes, I think that's pretty much it.)

This is why I'm sick as hell of religion and I think it should not have a place in political life and its place in public life should be constrained at least by enforced custom. 

I'm tired of people bothering other people with this shit!

My partner is bisexual, her daughter is gay. I'm a secular former Christian who wants nothing to do with any of this fucking bullshit!

I want the government to stay out of my goddamn business (much less that of my family) anymore than it has to and I don't give a shit if the current government is right-wing, left-wing or some other bullshit, especially if it cannot be relied upon.

Like there's really that much difference between Andrew Cuomo and Donald Trump at the end of the day? I'm really starting to not think so.

Worshiping the State is not something I'm going to do. 

Especially if, for example, my partner and I end up having to support my Mom as she gets older. Shit like that happens a lot in the world.

So yeah, my opinion even of Democrats these days pretty much sucks.

Worshiping some goddamned idiot frat-boy narcissist?? 

Oh HELL NO, Fuck That.

There is literally no upside to any of this fucking garbage for anyone except for drunken frat-bros like Pete Hegseth and the holy joes and preachers that excuse their every debased act and gratuitous Sin.

And they will gladly tread upon the poor to get whatever they think they want.

None of this stuff, by the way, came out of Trump's mouth. The problem here is Republicans.

Even Trump will end up being discarded when he's no longer a useful enough distraction, you watch.

And when all this goddamned stupidity crashes America and causes the breakup of this country, the media will gleefully cover it, politicians will give speeches and write books and hurry up and grab some small piece of Power like so many mid-level Soviet apparatchiks and far, far too many people won't give a damn as long as somebody tells them what they want to hear.

And when that happens and people like Andrew Tate and Doug Wilson and Pete Hegseth are ultimately exposed as the debased Mammon-worshipers who simply desire to have harems of concubines and wealth without work...but they've established little fiefdoms to protect themselves and to wield ultimate Power in.

And they don't care who they have to fuck over to get that.

Well, somebody is going to have to step up and go in there and put a stop to their bullshit anyway.

And more to the point, the people trying to stop that shit will have to do it with less money and resources because America is already being Oligarch-raided just like the Soviet Union of 1989-1991 was, and like Russia throughout the 1990's was, and for a lot of people things will get a lot worse unless people pull together and work together to survive.

I've said it's going to come down to a fight to stop this shit, but the truth is it'll probably be a lot of fights, and probably a cataclysmic war or two just like what's gone on throughout the territory of the former Soviet Union.

You either believe in civilization, freedom, and human rights or you don't.

There are no half-measures.

You have been warned.

And the thing to remember about these fucking purity-obsessed religionists and shit, is that fundamentally nothing short of omnicidal oblivion (including/especially self-destruction but they want to watch the world burn first) will ever satisfy these motherfuckers.

The way to stop this shit would have been to not let greedy rich people and self-involved ideologues or religious fanatics get power in the first fucking place.

You wanna drive out the Black Horse? Think on that.

Слава Україна!

Hess: So what shall we toast to, boys? I can blather on about “To health” or “To success,” but I’d like to do somethin’ a little less rote. Where you from, Brown Eyes?

Migs Mayfield: How ’bout a toast to Operation Cinder?

Hess: Now there’s a man who knows his history.

Mayfield: No, I don’t just know it. I lived it. I was in Burnin Konn.

Hess: Burnin Konn?

Mayfield: Mmm.

Hess: That was a hard day. I had to make many unpleasant decisions.

Mayfield: Yes, you did. Entire city gone in moments, along with everybody in it. We lost our whole division that day. Man, that was like 5-10,000 people.

Hess: Yep. All heroes of the Empire.

Mayfield: Yeah. And all dead.

Hess: Well, it’s a small sacrifice for the greater good, son.

Mayfield: Depends on who you ask, don’t you think?

Hess: [irritated] What you gettin’ at, trooper?

Mayfield: All those people, the ones who died, was it good for them? Hmm? Their families? The guys I served with? Civilians, those poor mud scuffers, died defending their homes, fighting for freedom. Was it good for them?

Hess: But we’ve outlasted them, son. They’re eating themselves alive. The New Republic is in complete disarray, and we grow stronger. You see, with the rhydonium you’ve delivered, we can create havoc that’s gonna make Burnin Konn pale by comparison. And then they’re gonna turn to us once again. You see, boys, everybody thinks they want freedom, but what they really want is order. And when they realize that, they’re gonna welcome us back with open arms. Ah. To the Empire.

[Mayfield chuckles, then fires a blaster at Hess' chest, killing him instantly. He and Mando then shoot their way out of the mess hall] ~From The Mandalorian, Season 2, Ep. 7 "The Believer"

Two

Nameless One: “Shadow of this life?”

Dhall, Dustman scribe: “Yes, a shadow. You see, Restless One, this life is not real. Your life, my life, they are shadows, flickerings of what life once was. This life is where we end up after we die, and here we remain. Trapped, caged, until we can achieve the True Death.”

Nameless One: “True Death?”

Dhall, Dustman scribe: “True death is non-existence. A state devoid of reason, of passion, of sensation.” [Dhall coughs] “A state of purity.”

Nameless One: Sounds like oblivion, why would anyone would want that? 

~from Planescape Torment