Babylon Slipping (Bropocalypse Now, Four.)

Joe: For the last time, I'm pretty sure what's killing the crops is this Brawndo stuff.

Secretary of State: But Brawndo's got what plants crave. It's got electrolytes.

Attorney General: "So wait a minute. What you're saying is that you want us to put water on the crops.

Joe: Yes.

Attorney General: Water. Like out the toilet?

Joe: Well, I mean, it doesn't have to be out of the toilet, but, yeah, that's the idea.

Secretary of State: But Brawndo's got what plants crave.

Attorney General: It's got electrolytes.

Joe: Okay, look. The plants aren't growing, so I'm pretty sure that the Brawndo's not working. Now, I'm no botanist, but I do know that if you put water on plants, they grow.

Secretary of Energy: Well, I've never seen no plants grow out of no toilet.

Secretary of State: Hey, that's good. You sure you ain't the smartest guy in the world?

Joe: Okay, look. You want to solve this problem. I want to get my pardon. So why don't we just try it, okay, and not worry about what plants crave?

Attorney General: Brawndo's got what plants crave.

Secretary of Energy: Yeah, it's got electrolytes.

Joe: What are electrolytes? Do you even know?

Secretary of State: It's what they use to make Brawndo.

~From the film Idiocracy.

...

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

So apparently Mark Wayne Mullin, US Senator, soon to be former Senator and Homeland Security secretary, cannot speak proper English.

And a fair number of "Christians" see war and think that Jesus is coming, or that He will somehow get here faster if there is a war.

Again, it's going to come down to "These Fucking People think if they fuck shit up bad enough and make things horrible enough for everybody, it'll somehow bring on the End Times.

As I keep trying to point out, you can dumb it down all you like, but the main point I keep trying to make here is that God is God, and you are Not.

If God can be manipulated or ordered about by Man, then He is clearly not God, and all this is a lie anyway, and what's even the damn point??

We keep dumbing things down more and more, appointing or electing even stupider people to office mainly in an endless quest for low taxes and higher shareholder profits, along with various shitty agendas that even a (just for example) semi-intelligent Christian who's actually read the Lord's Word has a good chance of knowing they're complete bullshit.

At this point it's less that Trump's America is Babylon and Babylon is falling than it is, well, the Great Whore Of Babylon slipped on a banana peel and fell off the roof, thus coming to a humorous if rather painful end.

These Trump administration guys aren't trying to win an actual war with the real country of Iran using 40 years of very real threat assessments, expertise and intelligence.

They're acting like Influencers engaged in some kind of Content War against some shit that only exists in their own heads.

We're trying to Pwn Something Something Gazpacho Own The Libs Unga Bunga! on social media and the Iranians are acting like it's a real war, a war we're likely gonna lose because we're not taking anything seriously.

Too many of us don't even know what the fuck "Taking It Seriously" even means anymore.

Mark Wayne Mullin about got himself into a fight with the President of the Teamsters a few years ago and likely would have got his ass kicked.

There's jobs out there, whole groups of people, among other things...where people can't afford to fuck around. There was a time when being in the government or the military came with standards.

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.

There was a time when being able to speak eloquently and well and having an education was effectively the bargain-basement price of entry into a conclave such as the United States Congress...much less the office of the President. 

Jesus Christ, what the fuck is wrong with people??

Like, back during the 2000 election I remember being horrified when the main question a lot of people were asking about Bush 43 vs. Gore was "Which one would you rather have a beer with?"

And again, I was a Republican at the time.

This glorification of Idiocy has got to stop. 

Tom Ridge, the first head of the Department of Homeland Security, was an Army veteran and a lawyer who'd been the Governor of Pennsylvania. A history like that used to be pretty much required to be a freaking Cabinet secretary! Mark Wayne Mullin has an Associate's Degree in Construction and owns a plumbing company that he inherited.

My coworker that I'll be working with tonight is from Oklahoma and I'm gonna ask him what he thinks of this mess.

But the truth is that neither those MAGA's that are left nor the Billionaires and corporations who actually profit from all this horseshit want anybody who's competent or has an ounce of integrity or morality in any of these kind of positions.

Because that might prevent them from doing whatever bullshit they wanna do.

And Red States like Oklahoma and Texas have started to become examples of just what happens when we let that kind of shit fester for way too long.

Worse, nobody has the guts to change anything, they all just hope they can cash out before the shit hits the fan and things go pear-shaped. 

I can tell you that just from having been at my old job for so long.

The thing is, sooner or later we're gonna have to do something other than bullshit. Sooner or later we're gonna have to make something other than money.

And when that reality catches up with us, almost certainly faster than changing out all these dopes for people who know what they're doing...the tolerance for this shit is gonna go right out the window.

When the shit hits the fan I think it's going to come down to "On One Side, you'll need to meet qualifications and have a history of demonstrated moral and physical courage to be the gun-captain on a Technical Truck" and "On The Other Side, there'll be people who have to ask ChatGPT for both a battle plan and an exit strategy, who can't go to the bathroom without a Security Forces troop watching their ass."

It's like these fucking people who can't even go to the goddamn grocery store without a Cowboy Hat and a Colt Revolver, or maybe a rifle slung on their shoulder. 

Like what the fuck are you afraid of??

You think you're gonna find a terrorist in the meat department??

Heavily armed cowardice is still cowardice.

And it's been my experience that if you're no good in a fight without a weapon, you're gonna be worse than useless with one.

The clocks stopped at one seventeen. There was a long shear of bright light, then a series of low concussions. By day the dead impaled on spikes along the road. I think it's October but I can't be sure. I haven't kept a calendar for five years. Each day is more gray than the one before. It is cold and growing colder as the world slowly dies. No animals have survived and all the crops are long gone. Soon all the trees in the world will fall. The roads are peopled by refugees towing carts and gangs carrying weapons, looking for fuel and food. Within a year there was fire on the ridges and deranged chanting. There has been cannibalism. Cannibalism is the great fear. Mostly I worry about food. Always food. Food and the cold and our shoes. Sometimes I tell the boy old stories of courage and justice - difficult as they are to remember. All I know is the child is my warrant and if he is not the word of God, then God never spoke. ~The Man, from Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" (Film.)

Ten bucks says you ain't afraid of...or even paying attention to...the people that are actually a threat.

If you can't...either due to bigotry, misinformation or what the fuck ever...properly identify a threat to yourself, there's probably a good chance you'll come to an embarrassing end and deserve it.

People like Mark Wayne Mullin and Trump aren't the problem, they're a symptom of a wider problem of willful stupidity.

They're a symptom of a basic loss of survival instincts.

And here we are, opening up a Pandora's Box with a whole new threat pyramid.

20 years ago there was a whole slew of Christian end times-themed novels with names like "Babylon Rising" that attempted to follow in the footsteps of shit like the Left Behind series and perpetuate the fading 1990's End Times mania for various levels of fun and profit.

They were wrong.

Babylon is slipping.

We can either fall off the ledge with it, or we can find a way to hang on.

Your choice, yo.

Слава Україна!

Valin Hess: So what shall we toast to, boys? I can blather on about “To health” or “To success,” but I’d like to do somethin’ a little less rote. Where you from, Brown Eyes?

Migs Mayfield: How ’bout a toast to Operation Cinder?

Hess: Now there’s a man who knows his history.

Mayfield: No, I don’t just know it. I lived it. I was in Burnin Konn.

Hess: Burnin Konn?

Mayfield: Mmm.

Hess: That was a hard day. I had to make many unpleasant decisions.

Mayfield: Yes, you did. Entire city gone in moments, along with everybody in it. We lost our whole division that day. Man, that was like 5-10,000 people.

Hess: Yep. All heroes of the Empire.

Mayfield: Yeah. And all dead.

Hess: Well, it’s a small sacrifice for the greater good, son.

Mayfield: Depends on who you ask, don’t you think?

Hess: [irritated] What you gettin’ at, trooper?

Mayfield: All those people, the ones who died, was it good for them? Hmm? Their families? The guys I served with? Civilians, those poor mud scuffers, died defending their homes, fighting for freedom. Was it good for them? 

Hess: But we’ve outlasted them, son. They’re eating themselves alive. The New Republic is in complete disarray, and we grow stronger. You see, with the rhydonium you’ve delivered, we can create havoc that’s gonna make Burnin Konn pale by comparison. And then they’re gonna turn to us once again. You see, boys, everybody thinks they want freedom, but what they really want is order. And when they realize that, they’re gonna welcome us back with open arms. Ah. To the Empire.

[Mayfield chuckles, then fires a blaster at Hess' chest, killing him instantly. He and Mando then shoot their way out of the mess hall] ~From The Mandalorian, Season 2, Ep. 7 "The Believer"

Three

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