And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.
And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. ~Revelation 6:3-4...
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
...
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
Apparently, no one is picking up the corpses of those killed in the recent flooding in Texas.
Ya know, even in the OG 90's D&D-based video game Planescape Torment, in the city of Sigil which was basically a pretty Libertarian "City at the center of the Multiverse" so to speak, they had guys called Collectors whose job it was to pick up dead bodies and haul them to the Mortuary for cremation or interment in return for a few copper pieces each, in order to check the spread of disease and try to maintain a sanitary environment.
Which, by the way, was a central reason in the real world why humans formed city governments and shit like that starting in ancient times.
Literally, ancient primitives and gamers thought their shit out better than Texas.
I want you to stop and think about that and sit in it for a second.
Likewise, there's apparently been a string of robberies at Army National Guard armories...allegedly by right-wing extremists like militia groups and neo-Nazis...in Tennessee.
I keep trying to tell people, whether it's Trump or just the hardest edge of his followers, somebody is gunning for a Civil War, here.
Actually, I think in the end Trump and various Republicans would end up being just as much of a target of the extremists as the rest of us, simply because there's no way for those fucking people to do what the genuine goddamn neo-Nazis and shit actually want in such a way that such people would actually be happy with the results.
We're talking people that have no use for even most MAGA's or white Republicans, here. Like that one "Return to the Land" community in Arkansas that evidently goes way too far even for that state's Republican Party. Again, think about that for a second.
It doesn't actually take all that many military-grade weapons or pieces of certain kinds of equipment (like night vision goggles) to potentially make an insurgency a whole hell of a lot more dangerous.
And, stupidly, Republicans don't care.
They don't care about their own lives, let alone yours. They don't care about public health, they don't care if worse people than them steal military equipment, the list goes on. All each of these fucking people really cares about is their own (personal) power and profit, and they figure they can get somebody else to do the fighting and the dying if somebody comes at them.
People treat these motherfuckers like they have some kind of god-ordained societal role to crap all over everybody else and start shit that the rest of us end up dying for or paying for.
And Republicanism, especially in places like Texas, has turned into a nihilistic death cult...without the neutral orientation of the Dustmen (the operators of the Mortuary in Sigil) of the D&D Planescape setting and the Torment video game.
Republicans don't care about freedom, especially yours.
And I really believe at this point, that they'd rather support hierarchies of Devils than truly accept a paradigm of one person praying freely to one God that teaches people to love their neighbors.
Again, you either believe in freedom or you don't.
Republicans don't give a shit about you.
Whether you're a Member of the Party or a Republican voter or not.
These Fucking People are simply a very large pack of narcissistic sociopaths.
And when that Red Horse shows up, they're not going to fight, unless they're on its side. If they're targets, they'll hide behind the rest of us.
In fact, they want to start the fight or allow someone else to, simply out of cruelty.
Freedom isn't free, sometimes you have to fight for it.
Remember 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"
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
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