Light And Darkness (American Abominations, Four.)

The Holy Quran says it, "Pilgrimage to the House [of God built by the prophet Abraham] is a duty men owe to God; those who are able, make the journey." (3:97) Allah said: "And proclaim the pilgrimage among men; they will come to you on foot and upon each lean camel, they will come from every deep ravine" (22:27).Every one of the thousands at the airport, about to leave for Jeddah, was dressed this way. You could be a king or a peasant and no one would know. Some powerful personages, who were discreetly pointed out to me, had on the same thing I had on. Once thus dressed, we all had begun intermittently calling out "Labbayka! (Allahumma) Labbayka!" (Here I come, O Lord!) Packed in the plane were white, black, brown, red, and yellow people, blue eyes and blond hair, and my kinky red hair -- all together, brothers! All honoring the same God, all in turn giving equal honor to each other. . . .That is when I first began to reappraise the "white man." It was when I first began to perceive that "white man," as commonly used, means complexion only secondarily; primarily it described attitudes and actions. In America, "white man" meant specific attitudes and actions toward the black man, and toward all other non-white men. But in the Muslim world, I had seen that men with white complexions were more genuinely brotherly than anyone else had ever been. That morning was the start of a radical alteration in my whole outlook about "white" men. ~Malcolm X.

...

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.

...

[Mando visits the Armorer at the Mandalorian enclave on Nevarro, bringing the camtono of Beskar bars he got as bounty from The Client]

Armorer: [looks at Beskar bars as the other Mandalorians witness] This amount can be shaped in many ways.

The Mandalorian AKA Mando: My armor has lost its integrity. I may need to begin again.

Armorer: Indeed. I can form a full cuirass. This would be in order for your station.

Mando: That would be a great honor.

Armorer: I must warn you, it will draw many eyes.

Paz Vizsla: [grabs one Beskar bar and snorts at seeing the Imperial logo] These were cast in an Imperial smelter. These are the spoils of the Great Purge. The reason we live hidden like sand rats. [tosses the bar back on the table]

Armorer: Our secrecy is our survival. Our survival is our strength.

Vizsla: Our strength was once in our numbers. Now we live in the shadows and only come above ground one at a time. Our world was shattered by the Empire with whom this coward shares tables. [reaches for Mando's helmet to remove it but they fight until they come to knifepoint]

Armorer: [stands up to stop the fight] The Empire is no longer, and the Beskar has returned. When one chooses to walk the Way of the Mandalore, you are both hunter and prey. How can one be a coward if one chooses this way of life? Have you ever removed your helmet?

Mando: No.

Armorer: Has it ever been removed by others?

Mando: Never.

Armorer: This is the Way.

Mandalorians: This is the Way. [Vizsla and Mando let off each other]

Vizsla: This is the Way.

Armorer: What caused this damage?

Mando: A mudhorn.

Armorer: Then you have earned the mudhorn as your signet. I shall craft it. [The Mandalorian and the Armorer sit back down]

Mando: I can't accept. It... wasn't a noble kill. I was... helped by an enemy.

Armorer: Why would an enemy help you in battle?

Mando: It... did not know it was my enemy.

Armorer: Since you forego a signet I shall use the excess to forge Whistling Birds.

Mando: Whistling Birds will do well. Reserve some for the Foundlings.

Armorer: As it should always be. The Foundlings are the future. This is the Way.

Mandalorians: This is the Way.

Mando: This is the Way.

~From The Mandalorian, S1 E3 "The Sin."

Apparently, Allie Beth Stuckey (whoever that is) is worried about Islam.

For the love of fuck, why??

Bitch, let me tell you, if this whole Trump SNAP shutdown goes through, maybe you should be, depending on how American Muslims handle the situation...because Islam actually scripturally mandates Charity and helping the poor as one of the Five Pillars of Islam.

It's not optional to feed the hungry and help the poor in Islam (Of course it's not optional in Christianity either and technically there's just as many Muslims who'll fuck around on this point as there are Christians because people are people, but it's an actual commandment in Islam.) 

I happen to have known a lot of Muslims, starting with one of my Air Force bros who was an African American convert to Islam, but I made friends with a bunch of Muslim international students in college over the years, I had Muslim neighbors for years down in Mount Pleasant (Hell I lived next to the Islamic Center for three years!) and my doctor is a Muslim dude from Sudan. 

I know a little about this stuff, Seriously.

If the Muslims step up and help feed hungry people, guess what?? They're still doing more than one hell of a lot of Evangelical Christians and "Conservatives" are to help out at the present moment!

Islam also discourages racism, and forbids the use of alcohol and drugs. One of my college friends, a dude from Egypt, said that's why so many White American "Conservatives" hate Islam. It's harder to control and manipulate people when you cannot cloud their minds and divide them against their neighbors.

Oh, and the Satanists are stepping up already, too.

While Christian Nationalists like Joel Webbon jerk off to the idea of shooting down their neighbors at the local Walmart Super Center.

Again. 

This is hardly the first time they've wanted to murder other people. And if you don't think these guys will try to hurt or steal from struggling people or attempt to sexually abuse women because of this whole SNAP thing, you're wrong.

I seem to remember being taught "Thou Shalt Not Kill" and to respect the chastity, married status and/or consent and personal boundaries of women as a part of my Christian upbringing.

But then, I was never one of These Fucking People, either.

And I'll note that plenty of people who were (Tea Party Joe Walsh being a prime example) got sick of all this bullshit, same as the rest of us, and changed sides.

There's been a lot of that, there will be more. 

Treat those people kindly.

I used to be a Republican myself, until 2008. Conspiracy theories and racism were deal-breakers for me. I voted for Obama and never looked back.

How we get through this is Solidarity, helping our neighbors, giving a shit about other people.

And we'll probably have to fight off motherfuckers like Joel Webbon in the process, I'm serious.

Some people would rather kill and steal than be alive, they'd rather hate than eat.

And worse, they think themselves religious for being that way.

Seems like even Satan would reject that crap, his church clearly does!

The rest of us? If we want to fight off these motherfuckers, we're all on the same team whether we want to be or not.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

You can choose the light, or the darkness with its fires.

It's late, choose now.

But you have to choose.

Слава Україна!

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing.

Charity suffers long, and is kind; charity envies not; charity vaunts not itself, is not puffed up,

Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

Rejoice not in iniquity, but rejoice in the truth;

Bear all things, believeth all things, hope all things, endure all things.

Charity never fails: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

And now abides faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

~1 Corinthians 13 (KJV)

Three

America counts millions of Muslims among our citizens, and Muslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our country. Muslims are doctors, lawyers, law professors, members of the military, entrepreneurs, shopkeepers, moms, and dads, and they need to be treated with respect. In our anger and emotion, our fellow Americans must treat each other with respect.

This is a great country. It's a great country because we share the same values of respect and dignity and human worth, and it is my honor to be meeting with leaders who feel just the same way I do. They're outraged, they're sad. They love America just as much as I do. I want to thank you all for giving me a chance to come by, and may God bless us all.

~George W. Bush, remarks at Islamic Center of Washington D.C. September 17th, 2001.

Kings Of The Apocalypse (American Abominations, Three.)

Sure, we were unprepared, our tools, our training, everything I just talked about, all one class-A, gold-standard clusterfuck, but the weapon that really failed wasn’t something that rolled off an assembly line. It’s as old as…I don’t know, I guess as old as war. It’s fear, dude, just fear and you don’t have to be Sun freaking Tzu to know that real fighting isn’t about killing or even hurting the other guy, it’s about scaring him enough to call it a day... “Shock and Awe”? Perfect name, “Shock and Awe”! But what if the enemy can’t be shocked and awed? Not just won’t, but biologically can’t! That’s what happened that day outside New York City, that’s the failure that almost lost us the whole damn war. The fact that we couldn’t shock and awe Zack boomeranged right back in our faces and actually allowed Zack to shock and awe us! They’re not afraid! No matter what we do, no matter how many we kill, they will never, ever be afraid! ~Todd Waino, World War Z (Novel by Max Brooks)

...

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. ~George Orwell, 1984.

...

The Holy Quran says it, "Pilgrimage to the House [of God built by the prophet Abraham] is a duty men owe to God; those who are able, make the journey." (3:97) Allah said: "And proclaim the pilgrimage among men; they will come to you on foot and upon each lean camel, they will come from every deep ravine" (22:27).Every one of the thousands at the airport, about to leave for Jeddah, was dressed this way. You could be a king or a peasant and no one would know. Some powerful personages, who were discreetly pointed out to me, had on the same thing I had on. Once thus dressed, we all had begun intermittently calling out "Labbayka! (Allahumma) Labbayka!" (Here I come, O Lord!) Packed in the plane were white, black, brown, red, and yellow people, blue eyes and blond hair, and my kinky red hair -- all together, brothers! All honoring the same God, all in turn giving equal honor to each other. . . .That is when I first began to reappraise the "white man." It was when I first began to perceive that "white man," as commonly used, means complexion only secondarily; primarily it described attitudes and actions. In America, "white man" meant specific attitudes and actions toward the black man, and toward all other non-white men. But in the Muslim world, I had seen that men with white complexions were more genuinely brotherly than anyone else had ever been. That morning was the start of a radical alteration in my whole outlook about "white" men. ~Malcolm X.

I saw this bullshit last night.

"Christian" Nationalist pastor Joel Webbon is trying to tell "Christian" men that, since he foresees a breakdown of society because of the government not issuing SNAP benefits next month, these so-called "Christian" men should forbid their wives from going to the store, demanding instead that they order online or be escorted by their husbands who should be carrying guns. I'm just sayin' has this dude even seen Civil War, or The Walking Dead (especially the Fear The Walking Dead prequel) or any of those various Apocalyptic visions that clearly inform his view of the world??

Basically, Joel Webbon just wants to shoot somebody. I'm sure he has some vague idea of what he'd like that person to look like but the truth is he doesn't really care who it is or what they look like. 

If it gets that bad, there's not going to be any grocery stores after the first couple days, there's not going to be much bandwidth if there's any internet at all, let alone online ordering or delivery, and electricity itself will likely be a rare thing unless you've got a generator (and fuel!) or Solar or Wind power handy.

Here's the thing; I have a feeling it's not gonna get that bad unless people like Joel Webbon make it that bad, because I'm already seeing a lot of people saying they're gonna help their neighbors and shit. A lot of liberals, LGBT folks, mid-conservatives, various POC, and women will band together to help each other out...

Like if I have to go without to help my Mom or my partner I'll do it.

It's people like Joel Webbon and other "Christian" Nationalists and the ICE goons and Trump and his cronies, that all they want to do is kill and steal, and what they really want is to spark off a second US Civil War so they can do it more.

And if they have to worship Devils and Idols Of Gold in order to do that, they'll do it.

I'm very serious on this particular point, especially since so much of Christianity is turning against this shit...yeah, you'll find these fucking people becoming Antichrist-worshipers very quickly, or worse.

I would not put outright demon-worship past them.

Not if they think it'll help them become Kings Of The Apocalypse.

And the longer this situation persists, or at least does so before people get networked and other polities step in as Federal power collapses (and it will if this keeps up) the more these sort of "Men" will attempt to run wild.

Like, if you thought that people being on SNAP was a social problem?? You ain't seen nothing yet.

Guys like this will attempt to solicit survival sex from poor single mothers and women that can't work. When they are refused and told "No" and when women fight back? Do the math.

I suspect there's going to be an epidemic of (at least) attempted sexual assaults.

These guys clearly all think they're gonna be King Shit in the Apocalyptic Hellscape.

Which suggests they don't view government power as likely to hold out, either. 

(Yet they think the Internet will still be on, that is outside of government and rebel firebases and secure facilities or some guy making you pay through the nose for using their Starlink or some shit?? Excuse me?? I'm confused.)

And there's absolutely, especially if things even appear to be starting to get out of hand, going to be a hell of a lot of these guys running off to join ragtag "militias" to go fight...well, somebody or other. And again, they don't really care who it is.

You think these guys won't abandon their families (including large families) to go play Taliban?? LOL.

Once these guys get there? Well, if what happens in places like Afghanistan is any indication?? Where you have a bunch of hella patriarchal religious men all amped up wanting to go fight somebody and every last one of them walking around with more wood than Sequoia National Park, less than regular access to women and that kind of mentality?? 

Yeah, Joel? 

Don't drop the soap, buddy.

These guys all think they're gonna be the local warlord, not the catamite strapped to the tailgate of the local warlord's technical truck right next to the 20mm ammunition waiting for the smelly bastard to come visit (and eventually, if they're lucky, requiring rescue by foreign peacekeepers.)

Yet somehow it never occurs to these guys to simply maintain a worldview where that type of shit is just wrong.

Anything but "Love Thy Neighbor" like I've been saying for a year or so.

Anything but America.

And trust me, these fucking guys won't wanna go to Heaven if they don't think they'll be the only ones there, either.

They don't view other people...including other men like themselves...as people, but rather as things to exploit. These guys view women as sexual objects, and so on. 

Even in a worst-case scenario I wouldn't tell my partner not to go out. She can defend herself quite well.

Just sayin.'

You wanna have people like her by your side, or in your network, not under your boot.

Because that's how they survive and thrive and make sure you do too.

We survive by working together, not by one dominating another.

I strongly suspect Joel Webbon doesn't know how to grow a tomato or saw a board or shoot a gun under combat conditions or walk a mile, and he has probably never even gotten dirty in his life. That's how people who think like he does operate far more often than it isn't.

He wants other people to do his dirty work for him, to do the terrible things, to get shot, to suffer through the PTSD and so on. He just wants to sit back and watch and yank his own crank to the idea of causing all that kind of suffering. 

And then he has the balls to call himself a preacher??

A preacher of Dis Pater or Mammon, perhaps.

There ain't one damn thing Christian about any of this.

And don't you dare forget that.

What does Jesus think about stuff like SNAP??

Well, there's a handy-dandy reference guide that tells you exactly what He thinks:

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats:
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
For I hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
For I hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 

~Matthew 25:31-45

Remember that, too.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Same goes for belief in America, or Jesus Christ or any other damned thing.

If you don't act on that belief and in accordance with the standards of it, what good is it??

Christian Nationalism and MAGA don't profess Christ.

They profess the Self. They want the Self on the Throne.

They think They are God.

(And they're wrong, but they'll burn down America and the world trying to prove otherwise.)

This isn't religion, it's narcissism.

Слава Україна!

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing.

Charity suffers long, and is kind; charity envies not; charity vaunts not itself, is not puffed up,

Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

Rejoice not in iniquity, but rejoice in the truth;

Bear all things, believeth all things, hope all things, endure all things.

Charity never fails: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

And now abides faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

~1 Corinthians 13 (KJV)

Two

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

House Of Devils (American Abominations, Two.)

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats:
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
For I hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
For I hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 

~Matthew 25:31-45

...

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

I'm starting to notice a pattern lately.

The other night, I saw a post over on Threads where some idiot referred to Trump as his "Lord" and said that Melania Trump was the luckiest woman alive because she "Got to kiss the Lord every night."

Unfortunately, I couldn't find the post to screenshot it when I went looking for it.

Well then, the night after that, I got hit on at work by a (married) customer who also knows I have a partner. 

Not sure how religious she is for real but she always wears a crucifix necklace and has come in occasionally wearing Christian-themed T-shirts.

Then it happened again a couple nights later, this time via Facebook Messenger by a Pentecostal ex-girlfriend, even though she's also married and knows I have a partner (via Facebook posts, at least) and she waited until she figured out that my partner was working before making her move.

Well, this person allegedly was my friend so, because it was on my mind anyway I was talking not only about the Lord's Word...but specifically the conservative Christian interpretation outlined in the Campus Crusade For Christ "Four Spiritual Laws" (per the snipped images) 'cause I'm sorry, but I very much do feel like nobody needs to go find Jesus more than the American conservative Christian church at this time.

The basic points are: 

#1 God loves you and has a plan for your life.

#2 Man is Sinful and separated from God.

#3 Jesus Christ and his Substitutionary Atonement is God's only provision for Man's Sin

#4 We must each individually accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

And the lady I was talking to is somebody I had discussed this stuff with at length at various points when we were dating back in 2005. We had also worked together briefly.

She had the nerve to at least claim to not know what I was talking about, and then noped out of the conversation. When I told her "No" and that I have a partner and I'm not going to cheat, and told her I wasn't down with her transactional mentality nor her lack of understanding things like faith, love and loyalty, she ghosted me and blocked me on Facebook.

And at the same time, the last few days I've been seeing lots of Evangelical types defending Trump's destruction of the East Wing of the White House and the impending shutdown of SNAP due to the ongoing government shutdown.

Seriously, is Christianity (conservative or otherwise) just an Aesthetic to these fucking people??

Like, sorry but according to what I was actually taught, in Church, nobody (least of all God) cares if you act all holy but you ain't or if you look all religious and shit but then don't follow.

Nobody ever got Saved by an aesthetic or things looking a certain way.

If you're not willing to do the work of the Heart, either concerning yourself or helping others then why bother??

If "Love Thy Neighbor" is too hard...why are you going around claiming to follow the guy who preached it??

The Gospels are full of stories of Jesus calling out that type of shit directly!

Then Jesus spoke to the multitude, and to his disciples,

Saying The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:

All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,

And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,

And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.

But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.

But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.

And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. ~Matthew 23:1-15

Just sayin.'

To put things rather less than delicately, what the fuck are we even doing here??

I am, in fact, starting to feel like yes, These Fucking People absolutely would bow down before Golden Idols of Donald Trump because they're not just faithless, they're apparently desperate for a "god" that they can see and hear and all that.

Nebuchadnezzar spoke 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

There's something very wrong, here.

And it's to the point where I'm starting to wonder, if a bunch of Demons showed up, wearing suits, with an army of followers, talking all "Conservative" and shit and allowing hatred of LGBT people, POC and women...would These Fucking People resist or would they fall for the spiel and bow down??

(Don't answer that, or rather, I'm afraid I know what the answer is. Yes, they fucking would.)

These Fucking People would rather sacrifice their own children to Moloch than love their neighbors, at this point.

And it's more than just the traditional Republican love of misery and being a shitty person.

Ain't none of this shit about Jesus now, if it ever really was.

And the longer all this shit drags on, the more convinced I become that these Republicans and shit would gladly inflict all the torments of Revelation on America and the world if they thought it would hide their blasphemies and perversions and thefts.

Evil has become an addiction for these motherfuckers.

They have turned the Church into a House of Devils and raised up idols of Dis Pater and Mammon while throwing down the Cross of Christ and then trampling on it.

I'm serious.

It's stuff like that, that's what I've been talking about since I came up with the whole idea of American Revelation as a concept way back in *Checks Notes* February of 2018.

It's coming down to the point of either you believe in freedom or you don't and you're willing to fight for it or you aren't.

Either you're willing to stand up and push back against the fall of night or you're not.

How can the Church do that when so much of it starts off by forfeiting the one thing, Truth, that would even give it a floor to stand on to push back against worldly Power??

When is enough going to be Enough??

Best do something now, because if you're trying to make excuses when you stand before God, it'll be too late.

Слава Україна!

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."

One

"I didn't want to do it,'' he hears himself saying. "I didn't want to leave them behind.''

The void laughs at him. There are miles of empty air beneath his dangling feet. "You had no choice.''

"Yes I did! I didn't have to come here.'' He pauses. "I didn't have to do anything,'' he says quietly, and inhales another lungful of death. "It was all automatic. Maybe it was inevitable.''

"-- Evitable,'' echoes the distant horizon. Something dark and angular skims across the stars, like an echo of extinct pterosaurs. Turbofans whirring within its belly, the F-117A hunts on: patrolling to keep at bay the ancient evil, unaware that the battle is already lost. "Your family could still be alive, you know.''

He looks up. "They could?'' Andrea? Jason? "Alive?''

The void laughs again, unfriendly: "There is life eternal within the eater of souls. Nobody is ever forgotten or allowed to rest in peace. They populate the simulation spaces of its mind, exploring all the possible alternative endings to their life. There is a fate worse than death, you know.'' 

~From A Colder War, a novella by Charles Stross.

Personal Jesuses (American Abominations, One.)

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats:
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
For I hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
For I hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 

~Matthew 25:31-45

...

Reach out, touch faith
Your own personal Jesus
Someone to hear your prayers
Someone who cares
Your own personal Jesus
Someone to hear your prayers
Someone who's there
Feeling unknown
And you're all alone
Flesh and bone
By the telephone
Lift up the receiver
I'll make you a believer
Take second best
Put me to the test
Things on your chest
You need to confess
I will deliver
You know I'm a forgiver
Reach out, touch faith
Reach out, touch faith

~Personal Jesus, by Depeche Mode

...

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."

I saw this a few days ago.

Some idiot trying to tell somebody that they "Don't serve the same Jesus" because they protested in "No Kings."

Again it's funny how These Fucking People willfully do not get that Jesus said His Kingdom was NOT of This World.

Or that Jesus never said a word about gay stuff, never supported the rich, and forgave Sin rather than condemning it. Or that God the Father, specifically and in direct active voice commands Believers to not molest the immigrant and to welcome the stranger:

“'When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.”

~Leviticus 19:33-34, New International Version.

And by definition, God and Heaven are infinite. Infinity does not have borders. If God can somehow be undone by a few migrant workers picking vegetables who only want a better life for their kids, then He is not God.

It's these fucking people who are always trying to stuff Eternity into the smallest of boxes so they can portion it out for nothing more than some kind of bullshit Earthly profits that serve different and by definition much more malevolent spirits.

Dis Pater and Mammon, for example. The Four Horsemen of Revelation chapter six, perhaps? Various and assorted Antichrists?

Perhaps, since Trump has destroyed the East Wing of the White House and, like Nero in ancient Rome, is attempting to build a new Domus Aurea in its place, the "Christian Nationalists" will seek to deify him, next?? I mean it makes sense...since so many Republicans are likewise clamoring to be the American Sporus they obviously need a Nero to use and abuse him and then make him a "god." Yeah, look it up. I dare you.

There's nothing Christian about any of this shit.

It's not religion, it's narcissism.

I truly believe we're facing an epidemic of narcissism in this country that makes the COVID-19 pandemic look like a particularly mild cold and flu season, and in my experience this has been building for a long time and most commonly finds expression through "Conservative" religiosity.

Sooner or later, that too is gonna blow up.

Yeah, there's some shit brewing and Republicans are gonna find themselves on the wrong side of it just as much as all the rest of us are.

And the reason for that is that seventy million Americans look at stuff like the Abomination Of Desolation and see themselves in it and see something to aspire to, yes, they aspire to Abomination and Damnation:

When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (who so reads, let him understand)
Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains:
Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. ~Matthew 24:15-18

Just so they get to take you to Hell with them.

These fucking people have much more faith in Relative Status than they do in Jesus Christ.

Imagine being that Abomination, an icon of Self and Selfishness, of mocking God and profaning the Holy of Holies in the Temple...by choice.

(And then having the nerve to talk shit about other people.)

And I'm here to tell you if the MAGA's now going after people like Greg Abbott and Kash Patel for *Checks Notes* various levels of observation of Diwali (a Hindu holiday) are some kind of example? They don't care about Jesus...they just want an excuse to hurt people and kick them out.

Whether you like Kash Patel or you hate him, this is America and he has a Constitutional Right to observe whatever religion he fucking wants to, or none at all. 

In fact, Hindus and Muslims were used as specific examples by none other than Thomas Jefferson in his personal writings on the subject of religious freedom.

And, per Matthew 25, the rank hatred towards poor people that I've seen from some of these Chuds now that it's come out that SNAP next month will be severely impacted by the ongoing government shutdown...to the point that up to 40 million people may be affected...and most of those people work, including my partner, by the way. 

So what does that mean?? Well that suggests that these motherfuckers never knew Jesus in the first place. It certainly says that He never knew them.

And at this point, I don't think they care.

In fact, like the crowd before the Crucifixion shouting for Barabbas, I think if somebody offered these motherfuckers the literal choice to choose between Jesus and Trump, they'd choose Trump. When asked what to do with Jesus?? They would shout "Crucify Him!" in the streets.

You have to want to be Saved.

And if Salvation meant they had to give up their harsh judgmental religiosity and simply Love Their Neighbors? Well I bet a lot of these MAGA's just wouldn't do it.

I think they'd rather go to Hell. In fact, worse, I think they would see Hell as some kind of a win in such a scenario.

That's where this eternal march ever-Rightward, this crapulous desire to "Own The Libs" at any cost ends up.

In fact, if I had to guess, the average MAGA...whether they claim to be Christian, Christian Nationalist, none of the above or something else, all of them seems to think when they die they're going to go to Heaven and live in peace and blessedness with *Checks Notes* Donald Trump and if that doesn't sound worse than any Hell the most depraved Medieval Catholic Priest could ever dream up...well, I don't know what the fuck does!

Eternal Life comes only from the release of self, not the exaltation of self, it comes from compassion, not greed.

Some people wanna "Win" so bad that they forget to ask what they get if they win.

And what these idiots have "Won" for themselves by 50 years of increasing Biblical (and, by the way, literal now) illiteracy is a "Christianity" that teaches them not that they are free in Christ, but that they are and should be Slaves Of The Caesars.

The authoritarian, cult-like model of many Evangelical, Fundamentalist, and Pentecostal churches is exactly where a lot of These Fucking People got the programming for this MAGA shit.

It's less a matter of different, dueling, rival saviors as it is that a lot of these idiots basically think their favorite politician or preacher or televangelist or whatever is Jesus and they don't care to seek the real one.

Not just that, but gullible stupidity gets tolerated because it's profitable.

(And until we address both this and the fact that it was tolerated, problems will continue. When this is over, there's gonna need to be a lot of remedial education in this country including in matters of religion.)

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, I guess.

Again, you either believe in freedom or you don't.

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

Слава Україна!

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

Last Post

There's a reason for this, there's a reason education sucks, and it's the same reason it will never ever ever be fixed. It's never going to get any better. Don't look for it. Be happy with what you've got... because the owners of this country don't want that. I'm talking about the real owners now... the real owners. The big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls. They got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying. Lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I'll tell you what they don't want. They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them. That's against their interests. That's right. ~George Carlin

Rain Down Fire (Self On The Throne, Five.)

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

...

[Mon Mothma addresses the Senate chambers again]

Mon Mothma: Fellow Senators, friends, colleagues, allies, adversaries, I stand before you this morning with a heavy heart. I've spent my life in this chamber. I came here as a child, and as I look around me now, I realize I have almost no memories that predate my arrival, and few bonds of affection that cleave so tightly. Through these many years, I believe I have served my constituents honorably and upheld our code of conduct. This chamber is a cauldron of opinions, and we've certainly all had our patience and tempers tested in pursuit of our ideals. Disagree as we might, I am hopeful that those of you who know me will vouch for my credibility in the days to come.

I stand this morning with a difficult message. I believe we are in crisis. The distance between what is said and what is known to be true has become an abyss. Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil! When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest. This Chamber's hold on the truth was finally lost on the Ghorman Plaza! What took place yesterday, what happened yesterday on Ghorman, was unprovoked genocide! Yes, genocide! And that truth has been exiled from this Chamber! And the monster screaming the loudest, the monster we helped create, the monster who will come for us all soon enough, is Emperor Palpatine!

~From the Star Wars series Andor, S2.E9 "Welcome To The Rebellion."

...

I met a traveler from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

~Ozymandias, Percy Bysshe Shelley

So apparently, in response to the "No Kings" protests, Trump posted a video of himself, as a king, flying a jet fighter and dumping shit on Americans like what he thinks an avenging god raining down fire looks like. 

(LOL, No. As someone familiar with apocalyptic imagery, No.)

So basically, These Fucking People are saying they wanna shit all over their fellow Americans. Trump is just an excuse for that BS. Now, I'd like to point out something else here, something that surprised me.

Yesterday morning I found out that, despite not feeling good all weekend, on Saturday my partner went to the No Kings protest where she lives now...her daughter wanted to take her Pride flag and go and see what it was all about. So they went.

My partner, mind you, is pretty much a mid-conservative along similar but more right-leaning lines to me being a (more or less) conservative Democrat. 

The arguments are fun, and mostly about policy. Interestingly she's to the Left of me on some things. We get along, obviously.

Last night at work, I was taking my lunch and my buddy comes in the back room looking at the paper, wanting to see if he was in it. Turns out he went to the protest here with his Pride flag.

Aside from gun rights and LGBT issues (because he is very, very gay) with a side of not liking Donald Trump or Evangelical Christians very much, my coworker isn't political at all.

But he's hardly a Leftist.

Just a word of warning to all the Leftists who think they're gonna get what they want after all this. Y'all ain't the ones I see doing all the work.

For example I see the Catholic Church with its new American pope specifically making a lot of effort here, while a lot of online Leftists were telling other people not to protest and not showing any support themselves.

A hell of a lot of the people showing up now are Old White People.

And that will probably end up affecting the various outcomes of this whole mess.

I had to work, naturally, and I was exhausted for whatever reason yesterday. So I slept through it. Didn't hear a thing even though the protest was like two blocks from my house.

More people than the one back in June, too.

Apparently there was a competing "Jesus" rally (because apparently somebody figured out direct pro-Trump wasn't good optics) but like a dozen people showed up for that.

It's amazing to me just how triggered "Conservatives" are by this whole thing.

So yeah, how is that whole "Self on the Throne" vs. "God on the Throne" thing working out for Trump??

(Badly, like most things do.)

The other thing I've been seeing a lot of the last few days is this Joshua Haymes chuckle-fuck saying Christians should defend slavery because it's in the Bible.

Yo I'm just sayin' rampant drunkenness, incest and mass murder are in the Bible too, would you defend those things??

I used to be a Christian and I've never felt the need to defend slavery!

It's been my experience that when things aren't going well, the "Conservative" white male Id pops off. So what they're sayin' is they want to shit all over their fellow citizens and they want to own people.

That's pretty much "Conservative" values right there and I didn't need this last weekend to tell me that.

And apparently this guy has been saying shit that's egregious enough for Dinesh D'Souza to dunk on his ass.

I'm...uncomfortable...being on the same side of any argument as Dinesh. I never liked him or thought he was a trustworthy voice even when I was a Republican.

(And apparently Dinesh has been on this guy's podcast, per the Community Note?)

But here we are, I guess?

I have friends everywhere.

Welcome to the Rebellion, bro?

Christ, I feel dirty for saying that, especially about him.

But I want you to stop and think about that for a second.

And then, apparently, JD Vance's motorcade was on the freeway that the Marines were firing artillery shells over during their exercise and a vehicle in his motorcade got hit by shrapnel from a 155mm Howitzer shell exploding prematurely.

Yeah, I'm not sure if that's shades of what (almost) happened to Mike Pence or just that these fucking people really are that stupid.

Either way somebody decided to rain down fire (badly) on JD Vance.

Like how much of an ass-kissing degenerate does a Republican Vice President have to be for dangerous, risky and threatening shit to not happen to them??

Do I even want to know??

That's the thing about MAGA, they don't want [fellow] citizens, or even subjects, they (each one of them, singular) want everybody else to have to be their slaves, including other MAGA's.

Well, basically I think that's what happens when you have a country overstocked with narcissists that has a political movement composed of narcissists with leaders that are narcissists.

And they're going to try to keep going until everybody either has to bow to them or fight against them. Or at least, that's their plan...because they get all their narcissistic fuel either way.

I don't think this is gonna work out the way that they think it will.

But even so it'll probably come down to a fight, at least somewhere.

And when that time comes, either you believe in freedom or you don't.

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

We'd best figure it out before God decides he's gonna rain down fire on this whole country. 

And if He does, you know why.

Слава Україна!
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

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

Four

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