American Sporus (Christmas 2025. Four.)

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

...

Falco: Games. One hundred and fifty days of games.

Gracchus: He's cleverer than I thought.

Falco: "Clever"! The whole of Rome would be laughing at him, if they weren't so afraid of his Praetorian.

Gracchus: Fear and wonder, a powerful combination.

Falco: You really think people are going to be seduced by that?

Gracchus: [about Commodus] I think he knows what Rome is. Rome is the mob. Conjure magic for them and they'll be distracted. Take away their freedom and still they'll roar. The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the Senate, it's the sand of the Colosseum. He'll bring them death…and they will love him for it.

~From the film Gladiator.

...

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. ~Luke 2:1-14

I saw this yesterday.

Stephen Miller ranting about America having been a "Reverse Empire" because we, ya know, pretty much built the existing world-order after WWII (And by the way, this was mostly done for our own benefit and economics.) And claiming that now, we're going to be an Empire and just take whatever we want by force.

Maybe it's just me but we got our asses whupped by the Taliban, so that suggests we're not so "Mighty."

Well, that and these assholes are trying to roll out some kind of positively Soviet-sounding pogrom against Trans people and anybody hostile to "Traditional values on family, religion, and morality."

Says the dudes surrounded by all these plastic-faced women that look like Star Wars aliens who are working in thrall to Epstein-files sexual deviants.

And these motherfuckers, all of 'em, cannot understand why people don't like them.

I know why people don't like them and I haven't been a Republican since September of 2008. Although the truth is, I got thrown overboard long before that...If I was ever really on board in the first place.

These Fucking People think they are ancient Rome.

(And the truth is, they're at best a knock-off Byzantium circa about 1400 when everything had already fallen apart.)

America was never designed to function as an Empire at all.

And this shit is Roman, mostly in the sense that this program seems to be dominated by dudes who are all in some fierce competition to be the American Sporus, so long as Elon or Trump or somebody like one of them is the Nero in this arrangement.

(And Miller was apparently in a polycule that included Musk, do the math.)

Quick history lesson for those who don't know, Sporus was the slave catamite of the Roman emperor Nero, who married him and invested him with the trappings of an Empress. This was considered scandalous at the time, not so much for the gay stuff (The Romans didn't give a shit about that) but because it massively violated Roman hierarchies and social conventions.

And it's been cited as an example of Roman sexual and social debauchery by Christian historians and preachers ever since. I learned about this shit in Catholic school.

Pre-Christian Rome was never exactly presented as the good guys.

And these fucking people don't understand that post-Christian America and the "Conservatism" thereof isn't gonna be presented as the good guys, either. Or maybe they just don't care. I'd like to suggest a third option, that all these creepy deviants think they're getting away with something and can't wait to tell on themselves because they think it'll shock people into liking them. None of this works like that.

We've got to take the neighborhood back. We've got to go in there. Just forget telling your child to go to the Peace Corps. It's right around the corner. It's standing on the corner. It can't speak English. It doesn't want to speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk. "Why you ain't where you is go." I don't know who these people are. And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. Then I heard the father talk. This is all in the house. You used to talk a certain way on the corner and you got into the house and switched to English. Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't land a plane with "why you ain't…". You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. There is no Bible that has that kind of language. Where did these people get the idea that they're moving ahead on this? Well, they know they're not, they're just hanging out in the same place, five or six generations sitting in the projects when you're just supposed to stay there long enough to get a job and move out. ~Bill Cosby, the "Pound Cake" speech.

Well, to be fair they don't seem to understand much of anything else either.

And the thing about it is, this purposeful lack of competence and understanding is intended to be weaponized. These unserious people think they can use that to get away with more shit.

(These people also rampantly use that weaponized incompetence against each other, against anybody in a near out-group and especially against their own who don't entirely conform to their bullshit.)

The trouble is, the rest of the world isn't playing along with These Fucking People's delusions.

No One has to.

These idiots don't understand that, just like they can't see that they themselves cannot even agree on all the things they say they agree on. See my theory about Crab Bucket Politics.

Just because a hell of a lot of American White Christian Conservatism can't wait to give its ass to the (wannabe) Emperor doesn't mean that anybody else has to...including other Americans, and our enemies (real and imagined) get a vote on what happens, also.

These fucking people can't seem to understand that part, they've somehow convinced themselves that all the Authority in the Universe somehow belongs to them.

It doesn't, anymore than it really belongs to Billionaires or Donald Trump. 

These people act like they know there is no God.

It's Christmas, stop and think about that for a second.

The one thing they're going to succeed at doing is bringing God's judgment on America for their Roman-level Sins.

And they wanna do it right now because they've convinced themselves that it's gonna hurt you somehow more than it is them.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Glory to Ukraine!

[in the aftermath of the chaos at Palmo Square, Dreena goes on the radio]

Dreena: Palmo One. This is Palmo One. This is the voice of Ghorman. This is Palmo One making an emergency broadcast on all open channels. This is Palmo One! This is Palmo One. We are under siege. We're being slaughtered. The Imperial murder of Ghorman has begun. There are hundreds of bodies this moment. As I say these words, hundreds of murdered Ghormans lay dead in Palmo Plaza. Thousands more on the streets. More every minute. We're being destroyed! This is Ghorman reaching for any open channel that can hear me! If you can... If you can hear me... If you believe in truth, if you have any faith left in truth, please, please mark this message and pass it forward. This is murder! The Empire built this fire. They made this fire and led us to the slaughter. Now they expect us to die without knowing why. The conspiracy we've feared is real! It's here today! Imperial ships are already landing across... Help us! Is there no one who can help us? Is there no one? ~From the Star Wars series Andor, S2 E8 "Who Are You?"

Three 

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