Sucks (Babylon, Three.)

I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. ~Bill Clinton, televised address regarding the Lewinsky scandal.

...

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

...

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

I saw this last night.

Not really big news, so to speak.

But apparently Trump sucks, literally.

Whether he does it better than Monica Lewinsky did, or not, I don't want to know.

You have to understand something here, I was a 1990's Republican and I absolutely detested the amorality, moral relativism and situational ethics of Bill Clinton's supposedly "liberal" America.

For all of the exact same reasons as I detest all that bullshit in our current moment in Trump's America.

My arguments against that shit were pretty much the same, if from the other side, and certainly a touch more Biblical.

If you actually believe in anything at all, it's not really about which "side" one is on. I will say though, at least the Democrats can be pushed to clean up their act.

I voted for Bill Clinton the first time I voted, and then spent the next eight years regretting it.

I detest Bill Clinton and Donald Trump for the same damn reasons, as both men are fundamentally dishonest and self-serving slimy scumbags. They are two sides of the same slickly polished coin.

And they famously used to be friends, until Trump had to run against Hillary.

I keep trying to tell people this shit isn't a "Conservative" issue, and it's not a "Liberal" issue either.

Sin is part of the Human condition.

And the less you're willing to face that, the worse it gets.

If you think anything you do is alright, simply because you do it?? You're already Lost.

That's why I say Narcissism is a Biblical-level plague in this country right now.

It's the political class, that incestuous nobility that America was never supposed to have, that is the fucking problem as are its Good Old Boy fuck-fuck games and insider training and secret cocaine orgies.

Sin is not supposed to be what binds us together.

That may work for a small group of people, but it doesn't create a healthy dynamic for a country.

And my creeping suspicion is that the rot of this Epstein Files shit, of sexual abuse in our society, goes way, way further down than just these motherfuckers.

If we want our nation to survive, if we want our families and cultures and shared society to survive the pressures of all this bullshit these evil and feckless and greedy men have brought upon us...we're going to have to face that and deal with it.

If you want to go back to having an America where our daughters (or our sons) are safe, where your money in the bank isn't at risk and you can trust the Word of our leaders?

Yeah, it's like I've been saying, we're going to have to fight for it.

And me? I have a partner and a kid to think about in this whole mess.

Stop and think about that for a second.

What kind of world are we leaving that kid??

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

And you're either willing to stand up or you're not.

Cuz this mess we're in Sucks, but it ain't gonna stop until we make it stop.

Слава Україна! [Cassian plays Nemik's audio diary]

Karis Nemik: There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy. Remember this. Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they've already enlisted in the cause. Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. And then remember this. The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empire's authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege. Remember this. Try. ~From the Star Wars series Andor, S1.E12 "Rix Road."

Two 

You can take a lot of things away from a man. Cigarettes, the gym. You can take his freedom, his legs, but not his feelings. Not his feelings. A man loves a woman. Don't matter what kind of man he is, if he loves her, he wants her. He wants her body. He wants her to want his. So you say to him, "you can never make love again. You will never touch her in that way again. This is the last time. The last time. Forever." If that's not cruel and unusual punishment, I don't know what is. ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO series Oz, S1.E2 "Visits, Conjugal and otherwise."