No Kings III (Self On The Throne, Three.)

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.

...

Cassian Andor: Kino. Tell them what to do. It has to be you. Come on, Kino. You do this every day. Tell them what to do.

Kino Loy: [presses PA system] My name is Kino Loy. I'm the day shift manager on Level Five. I'm speaking to you from the command center on Level Eight. We are, at this moment, in control of the facility.

Andor: Is that the best you got?

Loy: How long we hang on, how far we get, how many of us make it out, all of that is now up to us. We have deactivated every floor in the facility. All floors are cold. Wherever you are right now, get up, stop the work. Get out of your cells, take charge and start climbing. They don't have enough guards and they know it. If we wait until they figure that out, it'll be too late. We will never have a better chance than this and [looks at Cassian, knowing he said it] "I would rather die trying to take them down than giving them what they want." We know they fried a hundred men on Level Two. We know that they are making up our sentences as we go along. We know that no one outside here knows what's happening. And now we know, that when they say we are being released, we are being transferred to some other prison to go and die, and that ends today! There is one way out. Right now, the building is ours. You need to run, climb, kill! You need to help each other. You see someone who's confused, someone who is lost, you get them moving and you keep them moving until we put this place behind us. There are 5,000 of us. If we can fight half as hard as we've been working, we will be home in no time. One way out! [repeats it multiple times as he leaves the command center]

Andor: Come on! Let's get out of here!

~From the series "Andor" S1 E10 "One Way Out."

It's "No Kings Day" again.

Maybe it's just me, and sure, I used to be a conservative...but this is America and it seems like I remember from somewhere or other that it said "No Kings" on the side of the can or something. Like, nobody should even have to say this. The United States of America was founded on the explicit rejection of Monarchy. Sure, it was founded by elite white dudes, blah blah blah. Spare me that shit. I'm aware. I've studied this.

You have no fucking idea how revolutionary the belief that even some of the population should get to control their own destiny was at the time.

At that time, incestuous and insane monarchs and utterly debauched narcissistic sultans and vicious strongmen were the fucking standard. Most people's lives were nasty, brutish and short, to say the least.

Seems like if "Conservatives" were who they said they were, and revered the things they said they did, revealed truth and the wisdom of the ancestors for example, that they'd be all about preserving democracy not trying to subvert it. That would, after all, be things as they are.

Of course the same fucking people are basically trying to replace Christianity with their cruel, miserly Prosperity Gospel and outright worship of the Self...so what the fuck do I know? 

I know what I read, what I was taught to believe, and that I actually believed it.

Of course, for These Fucking People it's anything but "Love Thy Neighbor" so I suppose fucking over poor people tracks, too.

God is clearly not on the throne in these people's hearts.

Or perhaps more appropriately their idea of God is so false and heretical that God isn't even what these motherfuckers are worshiping to start with!

(Taps The Sign)

Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?
Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
~Daniel 3:14-18

As a teenager back in November of 1989 I watched the Berlin Wall come down live on CNN and spent the ensuing next few months watching Communism in Eastern Europe fall, and 771 days later the Soviet Union itself fell, Merry Fucking Christmas, 1991.

I was there. I saw ordinary Germans take sledgehammers to the Wall while shell-shocked border guards stood there with rifles slung, wondering what the fuck happened.

All the bombers, fighters, guns, missiles, tanks and warships in NATO couldn't and didn't do that, ordinary people did. Regular people's work boots conquered where Boots On The Ground could never have gone.

And Republicans didn't just celebrate that, we knew we were the team captains in bringing it about! I'm serious, we won! Yet here it is, 2025, and Mike Johnson won't shut the fuck up about Communism.

And not just that, but Republicans pretty much line up to lick the boots of every goddamned petty authoritarian on the fucking planet. I can't make that shit make any goddamned sense considering what I was taught.

Communism hasn't been a thing since 1989, it was destroyed by its own authoritarian bullshit with a big assist from *Checks Notes* Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party.

Today's Republicans would rather be miserable bastards than free.

We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev...Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
~Ronald Reagan

Yet today Republicans stand ready to hold up a man and system not only as Godless and controlling as Communism under Josef Stalin...but one that aspires to do much worse, and is fairly open about exactly that.

Not only that, but "Young Republicans" basically jerk off to the idea of Adolf Hitler.

These idiots pretty much want to give back every victory over Evil from like the last 250 years because they think they'll get something out of it.

I can't support that bullshit.

Sorry, but one of my Grandpa's brothers was a Navy gunner's mate and had a Liberty Ship sunk from under him by a German U-boat, then spent the rest of his career on a Destroyer and got to participate in sinking a couple of the damned things, another of Grandpa's brothers helped liberate a concentration camp. Fun fact: He never talked about that specifically, not once, although he did talk about getting to meet Edward R. Murrow while he was in the Army...which happened there...but until his death in 1999 and somebody in the family requesting his military records for the family history we never put two and two together.

I'm assuming that was on purpose because he didn't want to talk about traumatic events. I don't know how people have forgotten this stuff.

So yeah, fuck Hitler, fuck Monarchy, fuck Slavery.

Even at my most conservative and most Republican, as an Airman serving in the United States Air Force security police in the mid-1990's it would never have occurred to me to ever say anything the fuck else.

And of course, Fuck Trump and all his rich enablers and White Trash cultists.

And while I'm at it, fuck Communism and fuck people like Vladimir Putin who are trying to bring that shit back.

If you support any of that?? Yeah, Fuck You too!

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

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

No Kings, yo, this is America.

I still think it's gonna come down to a fight, but remember that These Fucking People are scared of people simply holding up signs restating the obvious purpose of this country. So I'm not sure it'll be that much of a fight.

Слава Україна!

You were just babies then!" she said.
"What?" I said.
"You were just babies in the war— like the ones upstairs!"
I nodded that this was true. We had been foolish virgins in the war, right at the end of childhood.
"But you're not going to write it that way, are you." This wasn't a question. It was an accusation.
"I — I don't know," I said.
"Well I know," she said. "You'll pretend you were men instead of babies, and you'll be portrayed in the movies by Frank Sinatra and John Wayne or some of those other glamorous, war-loving, dirty old men. And war will look just wonderful, so we'll have a lot more of them. And they'll be fought by babies like the babies upstairs." So then I understood. It was war that made her so angry. She didn't want her babies or anybody else's babies killed in wars. And she thought wars were partly encouraged by books and movies.
So I held up my right hand and I made her a promise: "Mary," I said, "I don't think this book of mine is ever going to be finished. I must have written five thousand pages by now, and thrown them all away. If I ever do finish it, though, I give you my word of honor: there won't be a part for Frank Sinatra or John Wayne.
"I tell you what," I said, "I'll call it The Children's Crusade." She was my friend after that.

~From the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut 

Two

 When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything. ~Umberto Eco