Joy Of The Lord (Kingdom Of Heaven, Five.)

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

...

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"

I saw this earlier today.

I'm just sayin' Republicans, when you've lost Karl Rove... (again.)

And note I say that as somebody who was a Bush 43 Republican.

Even a lot of Republicans are (rightly) becoming concerned about MAGA efforts to use Charlie Kirk's assassination by some internet nihilist Chud as the excuse they need to crowbar the country apart and Trump's personal vendetta against anybody who won't kiss his ass. 

Like, most recently, Jimmy Kimmel.

Note Jimmy Kimmel will come out of this Okay almost no matter what happens, and probably be more of a pain in the ass to These Fucking People when he doesn't have to answer to anybody.

I'll note we're seeing what happens when Republicans think they don't have to answer to anybody. 

They're acting like America is their Church, not our Country.

And specifically the kind of church where everybody looks like they're on their way to get executed when they're walking in the doors, and once they're there, they act like they can't wait to leave. Or as we used to joke at my Baptist church in Onaway, Michigan...if you really wanna see the "Joy Of The Lord" at work, head on over First Baptist.

Of course that place is still there and the little storefront church I attended, which was next to a hair salon and a laundromat, is long gone.

Because there's something about a lot of Republicans that glorifies being a miserable bastard, and Republicans tend to dominate those kind of churches.

And let me add that very often those kind of churches divide, and schism, because those fucking people like to fight about shit. Actually, that's pretty much all they do.

And their Christ-less, joyless exclusivist revanchist religiosity attracts few new converts.

I mean really the only way These Fucking People have the "Joy of the Lord" is if they might be able to be convinced (or pretend) that Charlie Kirk is the Lord.

The last church I attended we had pretty much one guy like that. In addition to actually being confrontational and obnoxious to his fellow congregants he wouldn't shut up about being confrontational and obnoxious while pushing everything from Creationism to Republican politics out in the world in the Church's name. He was, more or less, tolerated for a long time because he and his wife had adopted a bunch of kids and the kids at least were good.

But he was eventually asked to leave, and did, because I think even the Pastor got sick of listening to him.

Note I went there from late 2002 to about the middle of the summer of 2006. I went there because of my girlfriend-at-the-time and her family, and stayed for a little while after they all moved to Indiana.

Not long after I left the Pastor retired and the son of the association president got busted for child sexual abuse and the only replacement they could find for our pastor was the idiot other-son of the association president was the only person they could find who'd take the job. Then somebody else started running the organization and it fell into a long decline. I don't know whatever became of it all but by the last time I'd heard anything nobody I knew was still going there.

And that's what These Fucking People are acting like they want, less a Second Civil War at this point than an American Schism and a War of Religion to cover for their manifold transgressions and their mighty sins. They're acting like typical Fundamentalist elders who know the Pastor is about to get caught blowing a rent-boy or outed as a Chomo (never mind that Trump already has that covered) and the hell with what the Lord's Word says about that.

And they're busy bullying, discriminating against and infantilizing anybody who doesn't bow down and worship their current bullshit. That's their idea of trying to persuade people to follow them. They're going to alienate most of the rest of the country and that's going to cause America to collapse because these idiots have ruined the brand.

Worse, I don't think they even care.

I mean, if we're being real, I don't think they even notice how toxic it's all becoming.

It's like the rest of us don't really exist to them. If you're anything less than 100% what they want in a person they don't even see you.

In the end this is going to be a big surprise to a hell of a lot of Republicans too, and what MAGA don't realize is there's numerous small groups within their group that don't see them (or at least don't want to) either.

And one way or another all this crap is going to come down to a fight.

I know I keep saying this, but either you believe in freedom or you don't.

And either you're willing to fight for it, or you're not.

Слава Україна!

Eli Sunday: Daniel, I'm asking if you'd like to have business with the Church of the Third Revelation in developing this lease on young Bandy's thousand acre tract. I'm offering you to drill on one of the great undeveloped fields of Little Boston!  

Daniel Plainview: I'd be happy to work with you.

Eli Sunday: You would? Yes, yes, of course. That’s wonderful.

Daniel Plainview: But there is one condition for this work.

Eli Sunday: All right.

Daniel Plainview: I'd like you to tell me that you are a false prophet. I'd like you to tell me that you are, and have been, a false prophet, and that God is a superstition.

~From the film There Will Be Blood.

Four

When I was sixteen I won a great victory. I felt in that moment that I should live to be a hundred, now I know I shall not see thirty. None of us know our end really, or what hand will guide us there. A King may move a man, a father may claim a son. That man can also move himself. And only then does that man truly begin his own game. Remember that how so ever you are played, or by whom, your soul is in your keeping alone. Even though those who presume to play you be kings or men of power. When you stand before God, you cannot say "but I was told by others to do thusly" or that "virtue was not convenient at the time." This will not suffice. Remember that. ~The Leper King, from the film Kingdom Of Heaven.