Souls Under The Altar (American Revelation XXI, Prequel.)

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.

And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

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.

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.

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.

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.

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;

And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.

And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;

And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? ~Revelation 6, King James Version.

...

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

The Department of Homeland Security is trying to pitch ICE as defending American "Culture" now.

Just sayin' show me where "Conservative" White American "Culture" is anything but racism at this point.

And it's saying something that these assholes apparently can't get or keep enough goddamn people to do the job, whatever the fuck that's supposed to be, and ICE has a severe enough recruiting shortfall that they're now actively trying to recruit old people.

Good.

Yes, I take it as a good sign that there's not nearly as many people willing to fight for Fascism and Privilege as Republican racist scum-fucks thought there were.

And then they had to lower the standards, again.

Like any of the ICE "Agents" I've seen in videos look like anything but beer-bellied Militia Chuds as it is, in other words people who wouldn't make it through the job application submission process in any government agency whatever in any moral or normal times let alone be in a position to be under arms for any fucking reason. 

And then, judging from the training standards I've seen, they got trained half-ass, at best.

When these motherfuckers finally push the rest of us too far, or even the wrong (individual) person, it's not going to go how they think it will.

These racist far-right idiots want a goddamned Civil War, because at this point, I think a lot of them have figured out that our culture and system, even as broken down as they are, won't let them do that shit.

Thing is, I no longer think they care if they win, I think they think if they lose, White Jesus is gonna show up and "Save" them.

Except Jesus ain't White.

Most people, even a hell of a lot of conservatives, don't want this shit and aren't happy with what's going on.

So Republicans are trying to cheat, and still even managing to get roasted by South Park...which is about as far from "Woke" TV as you can get.

If Republicans are getting punked by a show written by a couple of Libertarians that seems to suggest there's an actual problem with current Republicanism.

And now I see there's Chud Bros throwing sex toys at WNBA players. I mean, come on, what the fuck??

If you can't see that something like that is wrong, What the fuck is wrong with you??

There's a reason women chose the bear.

There's a reason the 4B movement is catching on.

Or per the most recent meme I saw going around, there's a reason the ladies are choosing cats and vibrators over men, and guys, if they're choosing a small alpha predator that shits in a box over you? 

That's a YOU problem, guys.

Fascism, racism, misogyny, and toxic masculinity at this point are all basically the same shit. I've yet to see some dude in this current crowd buy into any of this shit without treating all four like holy writ.

But their real religion is Ayn Randian selfishness and a godless worldview where Man's self-satisfaction is the moral purpose of his life.

Thanks to none other that Nixon alum and Prison Fellowship Ministries founder Chuck Colson for that turn of phrase.

Just to use an example here's some dude saying women "Invaded" D&D (As if there haven't clearly been character options for gamer girls since the beginning?) and Star Wars (like the first of the main protagonist characters you see in Episode IV: A New Hope isn't Princess Leia??) and comics (Like Wonder Woman hasn't been a major character in cartoons, comics and TV shows since before I was even born??) and for fuck's sake me and my first little girlfriend mostly just freaking played OG Nintendo every damn day and that was in *Checks Notes* 1986-1987.

In fact (and yeah, I fully confess I'm into nerd-girls and always have been) I don't ever remember a time when the ladies weren't into all the same stuff as I was and it's the same with People of Color, as in my (Mexican) best friend who was a year older than me and his little sister (that first little girlfriend) were both into Anime (such as it was in the 1980's) and all that, too. 

And I've never been in a "Men's Only" club or ever wanted to be. The guy my Mom got with after my dad died was into all that Elk's Club type of bullshit. He, in his 30's, was invariably the youngest member present, and I always thought it was boring and disgusting and the food sucked, like what was even the damn point??

When we went, we went for the fish fry, which is really great when you're a kid that's not into that kind of thing. And it's not like I ever saw most of these fucking people actually socialize with each other all that much. The entire point seemed to be the exclusivity of it, keeping other people out.

Plus it was goddamned boring.

If you're gonna join some fraternal organization or social club, wouldn't you want to join one with people you wanted to be around and fraternize and socialize with??

I mean, while I'm at it, from about puberty on, half (or more) of the entire point of socializing at all for me was *Checks Notes* Girls.

And I'm frankly tired of These Fucking People acting like their outdated political and social bullshit is some kind of holy writ, and Other People's beliefs somehow aren't,  at least to *Checks Notes, Again* said Other People.

Like, sorry, but white "Conservatives" and their hangers-on are not the only people in the room. As my Grandpa used to say all the time "Remember, brothers, there are others."

And here's the thing, These Fucking People would rather rain all the torments of Revelation on the rest of the whole fucking world and themselves become the Bad Guys in their own supposed holy story, an unholy terror, literal Antichrists, than give up one goddamned iota of their mostly-imagined and too often tolerated by the rest of us "Privilege."

This is American Revelation and the Republican Party is the Beast with Trump as its Antichrist and Stephen Miller as its False Prophet.

I'm sick of this shit.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

And it's not freedom if everybody doesn't have it.

You're either willing to fight for freedom or you're not.

I'll say it again, fighting for Privilege is not the same thing.

But they'll put a million or two more souls under the Altar trying to make it be that way, and still lose.

Welcome to American Revelation.

Where it's our own government that's the fucking bad guys and they think God's not gonna notice it's them shaking their fists in the Lord's face because "Love Thy Neighbor" is too hard, or something.

And they think we're gonna get the Judgements?

I've read the Book. Hell, I was an End Times Prophecy guy.

It doesn't work that way.

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  

Last Post

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.