No (American Reformation I, Seven.)

 [Han arrives at Docking Bay 94 and sees a familiar face, and his ship surrounded.]

Jabba the Hutt: [in Huttese] Solo! Come out of there, Solo! Solo!

Han Solo: Right here, Jabba. [Jabba and his henchmen turn around to see Han and Chewbacca] I've been waiting for you.

Jabba: Have you now.

Han: You didn't think I was gonna run, did you?

Jabba: Han, my boy, you disappoint me. Why haven't you paid me? And why did you fry poor Greedo?

Han: Look, Jabba, next time you wanna talk to me, come see me yourself. Don't send one of these twerps.

Jabba: Han, I can't make exceptions. What if everyone who smuggled for me dropped their cargo at the first sign of an Imperial starship? It's not good for business.

Han: Look, Jabba, even I get boarded sometimes. [accidentally steps on Jabba's tail, causing Jabba to yelp in pain] Did you think I had a choice? But I got a nice easy charter now; I'll pay you back, plus a little extra. I just need a little more time.

Jabba: Han, my boy, you're the best smuggler I ever hired. So, for an extra 20%...

Han: Fifteen, Jabba, and don't push it.

Jabba: Okay, 15%. But if you fail me again, I'll put a price on your head so big, you won't be able to go near a civilized system.

Han: Jabba, you're a wonderful human being.

Jabba: [orders his minions] Come on! [Jabba's gang leaves with bounty hunter Boba Fett following behind.]

~From Star Wars: Episode IV, A New Hope

...

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

...

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

So apparently, Representative Randy Fine (R-Tatooine) is trying to propose a bill making Greenland a state.

Never mind that Denmark and Greenland both said NO to this fucking bullshit.

For all the relation to reality that has, he might as well try to annex Mars on behalf of Elon Musk, or declare intent to pass a resolution demanding the FBI investigate Jabba the Hutt, To whom he is apparently related. (His ideas fit that profile, too!)

Look, I don't generally make fun of fat people, my ex-wife was big, my late best friend was a big guy, my partner is a thicker body type. Hell, I like bigger ladies, always have.

Fuck, before I lost all that weight last summer I was a goddamn fat guy.

But goddamn, dude, really?

Does Randy want Greenland so he can eat it??

It'd get rid of most Congressional Republicans and a lot of the Executive Branch at this point, but can we at least pass laws requiring people in government to have a little self-respect and at least look like they're trying to take care of themselves.

Or at least, ya know? Look like they give a shit, maybe??

Aren't these the same fucking people who blew a gasket a couple years ago about John Fetterman wearing a Hoodie at work in the Senate??

All that's before the fact that These Fucking People are trying to enable Trump's bullshit, which would throw us into a war with basically the whole rest of the fuckin' civilized world at this point (Commonwealth countries, the European Union, NATO/major NATO Allies and anybody needing or preferring to do business with the same rather than only with the USA.

And I'll remind you many of these countries have been in the business of War a hell of a lot longer than we have, and they currently retain a level of seriousness of conduct that we currently lack.

Further, don't be surprised if China and/or Russia opportunistically jumps on that bandwagon because we always were their main target.

Fuck, don't be surprised if Putin at least pretends to give up on Ukraine to get at us faster and either gets them on board or the EU does so.

And entices Israel to let Gaza be, to enlist them against us. Seriously if you think the Israelis wouldn't shank us, I implore you to look up what happened to the USS Liberty sometime. They've done it before.

None of these idiots are thinking about that. They're all trying to curry favor with Trump as if they think he'll give them a cookie or something.

Sweet Jesus I'm tired of this bullshit!

Especially when the plain Truth is that a lot of these nuts would far rather declare war on Minnesota than Denmark.

I'm quite serious.

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.

To most Republicans the rest of the world doesn't really exist, unless it's somehow out to get them. Now? They seem determined to make that shit a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Like I keep saying, I can't even talk the way these people talk anymore.

And at this point there's no idea so absurd or evil that Republicans won't entertain it if it at least pretends to be "Right-Wing" or did so.

Hitler for example was very into the Occult, the Nazis oppressed Christians and told them how and what to worship before they ever started on the Jews and the Nazis practiced Black Magic. Hitler was Antichrist. This is known, for fuck's sake there was a whole movie franchise that played on this! I mean, goddamn, I have probably owned or at least read dozens of "Christian" books by people who were pretty much their day's version of guys like Joel Webbon that still said as their authors also 'got' that Nazis were, in fact, bad. Until just recently this wasn't even a goddamned argument.

Indiana Jones: Half the German Army's on our tail, and you want me to go to Berlin? Into the Lion's den?

Henry Jones, Sr.: Yes! The only thing that matters, is the Grail.

Indiana Jones, Sr.: What about Marcus?

Henry Jones, Sr.: Marcus would agree with me!

Indiana Jones: Two selfless martyrs. Jesus Christ- [Henry Sr. slaps Indy]

Henry Jones, Sr.: That's for blasphemy! The quest for the Grail is not archaeology; it's a race against evil! If it is captured by the Nazis, the armies of darkness will march all over the face of the Earth! Do you understand me?

Indiana Jones: This is an obsession, Dad! I never understood it. Never! Neither did Mom.

Henry Jones, Sr.: Oh yes she did. Only too well. Unfortunately, she kept her illness from me. Until all I could do was mourn her. ~From Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Europe already played this game once, I rather suspect they had quite enough the first time.

Even Russia claims thus, almost certainly dishonestly, but they claim it. And they did shed pretty much more blood than anybody else fighting the Nazis in WWII.

And honestly I don't think a third of America rapidly descending into actual Nazi bullshit helps them either.

Except to give the rest of the world a good goddamned reason to slap us down and remove a system that's become so corrupt and incestuous it gave Trump the power to fuck up basically everything for basically everybody. Dude is a narcissist, America obviously has a Narcissism problem. If we don't address it ourselves the rest of the world is gonna start doing it for us one way or the other.

And given that the military (obviously) doesn't wanna do Greenland, which the rest of NATO is now reinforcing with troops and warships (and likely, aircraft, although I haven't seen anything specific on that) and ICE got itself routed badly by unarmed protestors in Minneapolis last night to the point of abandoning gear, plans, vehicles and weapons and running away on foot. The Air Force Staff Sergeant in me is appalled by this. Yet I am also not even surprised that they could not keep even basic ass discipline.) 

If I had to guess, it won't even be that hard for the rest of the world to defeat us.

Even ten years ago, I think such a thing would have been impossible. 20 or 25 years ago we could've taken on the world.

Now?? LMAO.

We can't even get along with ourselves.

And worse, we don't want to, too many Americans have basically become Drama-Queen teenagers and High School mean girls and worse, hell, they get mad or they wilt when people leave and they don't have anybody to fight with.

If that's how we are the rest of the world will beat our ass and we'll deserve it.

If we won't fix this shit, the rest of the world will. I guarantee you a hell of a lot of Americans ain't gonna like how that goes.

For fuck's sake, an American Reformation imposed by even Evangelicals and Pentecostals from other countries (who aren't sozzled on American privilege and racism) will make the average White American wish such a thing had been led by John Shelby Spong.

Or perhaps Those Fucking People really would turn to the worship of Devils and Idols of Gold rather than learn the Lord's Word from a Black British Anglican or Congolese Catholic Priest or a Ugandan Pentecostal preacher with skin as dark as a night in the jungle...not even if he was preaching the same thing they heard every Sunday previously.

And that right there is the heart of the problem.

That's something other people will not be afraid to face, and just rip the hell off and let what passes for current American "culture" bleed out, if it's up to them.

But, I bet if we're being honest way too many of the "Conservative" voters who caused this will be too busy taking advantage of new EU-style welfare state and liberalized drug laws, sitting on the couch smoking Weed all day or some shit, to do much.

A lot of White American "Culture" has devolved to simply taking advantage and doing so with a childish mentality and no internal morality, these idiots will simply do whatever is permitted.

Perhaps a lot of them will figure out just how much and for how long they've been lied to.

Granted I think a lot of them are finding that out already.

And the truth is that the people who actually try to fight against the rebuilding of this country into something other than a fiefdom for billionaires and illiterate religious fanatics will, in fact, make the (illiterate religious fanatic drug-runner) Taliban look like Garibaldi's Redshirts or the French Resistance during WWII by comparison.

And whether America is ended by Civil War, Soviet-style collapse or The Rest Of The World takes us out? Yeah, at this point I don't think the rest of the world is gonna miss us all that much when America is gone.

Not after this last year, I don't.

This Greenland thing showed our ass...particularly that of US right-wingers...way too much.

All that over basically a worthless giant ice cube that, sure, has a lot of resources but #1 The climate sucks and #2 It'd take decades and at least many billions of dollars to actually turn a profit.

But if course this crap isn't about money or any of that, it's about one man's vainglory.

And it's about the fact that a third of America would rather hate than eat, and would rather kill and steal than simply live.

If we don't start dealing with that and treating it like the threat to all of us that it is, we're fucked.

If you have to simply pull a gun and tell these assholes "NO" you do that, and you mean it.

Either you believe in freedom or you don't, and this shouldn't be that hard.

You cannot reason with people who don't think Other People have a right to exist.

But you can fight them.

It really is that simple.

Слава Україна!

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 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, letter written following the Hajj.

Six

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