Crusaders In Babylon (American Judgment Day II, Six.)

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.  We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream.  The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same.  And if you and I don't do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free. ~Ronald Reagan

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Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. ~Joel 3:9-14

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I don't preach a social Gospel I preach the Gospel, period. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is concerned for the whole person. When people were hungry, Jesus didn't say, "Now is that political or social?" He said, "I feed you." Because the good news to a hungry person is bread. ~Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

I saw this last night.

Pete Keg-breath, trying to say the US is ready to "Save" Christian populations around the world.

I literally don't see anybody wanting that but these motherfuckers. 

They don't want to "Save" anybody.

And the rest of the world had enough of "Kill 'em all and let God sort it out" a long damn time ago.

They're casting about for starting a war somewhere, anywhere, because they think they're gonna use it to kick off some kind of 21-front war of Republicans Against All (including other Republicans, apparently) and/or the Apocalypse of Revelations and they don't care if it's right here in America or somewhere like Nigeria or Venezuela. Also, who the fuck is dumb enough to think you're gonna win taking on everybody, everywhere, all at once?? These motherfuckers started talking about intervening in Nigeria's ongoing conflicts to "Protect Christians" and the Nigerian government told them to go fuck themselves...because the Nigerian Armed Forces are extremely lethal on their own and have been fighting all these insurgent wars for years just fine with no help from anybody. 

And, well, Venezuela?

The country currently handing out rifles to hundreds of thousands of workers to back up its already powerful and sophisticated Chinese-and-Russian-backed military??

Yeah, I don't think this is gonna go how you think it's gonna go, Republicans.

And that's before you factor in that Argentina and Brazil are also moving troops and apparently taking preparatory steps to defend themselves.

More to the point, if you think these jerkoffs wouldn't just fire a missile into a random crowd for kicks, arbitrarily declare the dead "Martyrs for Jesus" to try to cover their ass with their own drooling followers and then random Intelligence Specialist or other military professional gives the mess a two-second cursory glance and realizes these fucking idiots killed the wrong fucking people?? You ain't been paying attention.

Spoiler alert: They don't really wanna do this shit in Nigeria or Venezuela, they'd rather do it right here in America...never mind that the military and everything else will come flying apart and land on all different sides of this mess before they can actually escalate shit that far. 

But, I suppose they'll just give their ICE bandits TOW Missiles or something and call it even.

They're not law enforcement or real Federal agents, they're Trump's personal army, they'll be a pretty shitty army, but These Fucking People don't care about that anymore than Vladimir Putin cares about all the Russian soldiers he sends to their deaths.

Also TLDR...if you're a person who'd object to rich people partying it up with half-naked dancing girls while kids go hungry in any way?? It doesn't matter what your beliefs are or which theoretical "side" of this whole mess you're even on, you're a target.

And if you don't think this particular dynamic will lead to lots of legit conservatives fighting alongside liberals and lots of supposed Democrats standing up to be counted right alongside the goddamned Fascists...well, I suggest you take a look both at the behavior of the Democratic Party since January and at how Civil Wars and internal conflicts tend to work.

A hell of a lot of alleged Democrats and supposed Republicans stopped believing in anything but Keeping Their Place In The Magical City a long damn time ago.

When Cuomo loses, my money's on him moving to Florida, going full MAGA and then running for some bullshit sinecure office down there, and he'll likely win.

I keep trying to explain this to people, deep down it's not really Democrats or Republicans, it's the whole damned political class that's rotten and needs to be made to go shovel shit like the Grover Norquist stand-in from World War Z.

And what happens when stupid Republican tricks reduce both the power of and trust in the Federal government?? If we find (as I think we will) that a hell of a lot of people might have it a bit rougher but can survive OK without stuff like SNAP, it's actually all these Republican narcissists shooting themselves right in the junk...because we don't really need them, do we??

From what I can tell so far, liberals, non-insane conservatives and people in the middle are all trying to come together and help people who need it. 

I've already told my partner I'll help her out. That's just how it is for now.

In the end it's the MAGA's, the malingerers, and the narcissists who end up being up a creek without a boat, the problem with that of course is there absolutely will be other people who slip through the cracks who don't deserve it and don't necessarily have the capability to adapt and it's them that'll end up taking the worst of it.

Like my partner said yesterday, the manipulators and shit will just go find some other resource to drain dry. It's people like us that'll have to balance revolution with our work schedules.

The thing is, far too often our social safety nets don't help working people very much and end up disproportionately benefitting useless lazy assholes. 

I've seen this myself, don't come at me.

And a hell of a lot of Those Fucking People living off the system to one degree or another are Christian Fundamentalists, Republicans, Trump Supporters etc.

Think about that for a second.

No, it doesn't make any goddamned sense but that is how it is. It's been my personal experience you don't really have a lot of liberals or People of Color who end up on welfare and the ones that do tend not to stay on it.

To turn the old Reaganite trope on its head, all the Welfare Queens I know are White. Guess what? I didn't say that first...JD Vance did in his book Hillbilly Elegy (which I happen to own.) It just happens to be true in my case as well and I realized that shit almost immediately when I read that line back in 2017.

We have a lot of shit to fix.

And, chances are we're going to have to do it while fighting against omnicidal wannabe-Crusaders.

No, they don't actually give a shit that they're basically Crusading For Babylon.

I'm just warning you now.

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

It really is that simple.

Слава Україна!

Hospitaler: One may stare into the light, until one becomes the light. I've done it many times.

Balian of Ibelin: [throws a rock at a bush that catches fire by the spark] There's your religion. One spark, a creosote bush. There's your Moses. I did not hear it speak.

Hospitaler: That does not mean that there is no God. Do you love her?

Balian of Ibelin: Yes.

Hospitaler: The heart will mend. Your duty is to the people of the city. I go to pray.

Balian of Ibelin: For what?

Hospitaler: For the strength to endure what is to come.

Balian of Ibelin: And what is to come?

Hospitaler: The reckoning is to come for what was done one hundred years before. The Muslims will never forget. Nor should they.

[the Hospitaler slowly walks away as a second bush several yards from the burning one catches fire. The Hospitaler is nowhere to be seen in the clear and open desert]

~From the film Kingdom Of Heaven.

Five

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judges her.

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. ~Revelation 18:1-10