You Better Start Believing In The Future (On The Dark And The Rolling Sea, One.)

Oh you set your course for the furthest shores

And you never once looked back
And the flag you flew was a pirate cross
On a field of velvet black
And those landsmen who you but lately knew
Were left stranded on the lea
Don't call on them when the storm clouds rise
On the dark and the rolling sea

Oh I have no need of a chart or creed
You told your waiting crew
For the winds of chance, they will bear us straight
And you spoke as though you knew
So you paid no mind to the warning signs
As you gave your words so free
Don't change your tack when the timbers crack
On the dark and the rolling sea

Now the thunder rails in the great mainsails
And the stars desert the skies
And the rigging strains as the hands of rain
Reach down to wash your eyes
And your oarsmen stands with his knife in hand
And his eyes spell mutiny
Don't call my name when your ship goes down
On the dark and the rolling sea.
~Al Stewart,
On the dark and rolling sea.

...

Brawndo the Thirst Mutilator had come to replace water, virtually everywhere. Water, the basic component of all life, had been deemed a threat to Brawndo's profit margin. The solution came during the budget crisis of 2330, when the Brawndo Corporation simply bought the F.D.A. and the F.C.C., enabling them to say, do, and sell, anything they wanted. ~Narrator, Idiocracy

...

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.

The bottom appears to be dropping out of the whole Trump thing, finally.

First he was shouting "Praise Allah" on Easter.

Then he was threatening to kill a civilization (most people assumed this was a threat of nuclear attack.)

Then apparently, finally, enough people declined to carry out this fucking idiot's orders.

Now magically, out of nowhere, there's a ceasefire.

And apparently we're finally reaching the point where enough people are getting tired of this bullshit.

My money is on Pete Keg-Breath gets fired next.

People will keep plugging away. 

Everybody's gonna try to get their last little slice of the grift.

I honestly think at this point Trump has lost about anybody that actually believes in anything, or at least anything other than abusing people.

Lt. Daniel Kaffee: I WANT THE TRUTH!

Col. Nathan Jessup: You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives! You don't want the truth, because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall. We use words like "honor", "code", "loyalty". We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline! I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then QUESTIONS the manner in which I provide it! I would rather you just said "thank you", and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a DAMN what you think you are entitled to!

Kaffee: Did you order the Code Red?

Jessup: I did the job that—

Kaffee: DID YOU ORDER THE CODE RED?!

Jessup: YOU'RE GODDAMN RIGHT I DID!!!

~From the film A Few Good Men.

The legit problem here is that 30% of America is still all in, just on that.

And the thing is for every person out of that group that thinks it won't happen to them, there's another one that thinks "Tread on me harder, Daddy."

I'm so fucking tired of this shit.

The question is, why aren't you??

And don't tell me this is about making money, for a lot of fucking people for a long damned time, Trump has basically been nothing but guilty-pleasure entertainment.

Pretty much everybody except Trump and the billionaires stopped making money off this garbage a long damned time ago.

For a lot of shitty right-wing manipulators, he became a battering ram to try to use to get what they wanted, and all they did was end up showing their ass way too much and causing even more people to become disgusted.

But it's pretty clear that once things revert to something approaching normal, half the country won't have learned anything. Oh, don't get me wrong, Republicans are cooked in the fall, probably Trump is too. Like I said, people are apparently done with him.

But that still leaves open the possibility that the next big liar will come along and win an election and it won't just be Republicans anymore. The political ascendency of Gavin Newson almost entirely off of trolling Trump is a perfect example of this.

So, at the rate things are going? Get rid of Trump and the problem perpetuates itself anyway.

But, for the moment? Markets have predictably rallied.

Wall Street, as usual, hasn't learned a damn thing. Rich people haven't learned a damn thing.

When are we going to start realizing that These Fucking People have no credibility at anything other than making money??

Make them pay their fair share and leave them to it, after awhile they won't even notice it's gone, trust me.

Half of why America has a national attention span of 2 weeks is these motherfuckers, because they're all that way.

While China and Iran are thinking 100 or 1,000 years down the road these idiots are thinking about the next billing cycle or quarterly profits, and that's literally it.

Well that and all the cocaine they're going to snort at the next party.

Duh.

Can't forget that.

Because it's probably the most important part.

Nobody's giving a damn how we look to the rest of the world.

Either you believe in freedom or you don't.

Either you're willing to fight for it or you're not.

Because if this continues long enough, we're going to get hit.

Certainly the Iranians and the Russians, and very likely the Chinese also, are probably thinking if they give America a good kick the whole mess will probably come flying apart. Certainly some parts of it will come together and resist effectively, and form smaller nations, but the people currently in charge of organizing this whole mess don't know what they're doing and too many of those that do are literally aging out and dying off, either way they won't be able to handle it, and it's going to take time for new people, and likely new systems, to rise up.

America spent way too long not believing in the future, because Republicans didn't.

Look! The moonlight shows us for what we really are! We are not among the living, and so we cannot die. But neither are we dead! For too long, I've been parched of a thirst with nothin' to quench it. Too long I've been starvin' to death and haven't died. I feel nothin'. Not the wind on my face nor the spray of the sea, nor the warmth of a woman's flesh. [steps out into the moonlight, revealing his skeletal form] You best start believin' in ghost stories, Miss Turner. You're in one!

~Hector Barbossa, Pirates Of The Caribbean; Curse Of The Black Pearl.

You better start believing in the future, 'cause you're in it.

And whether that future involves us or not is probably going to depend on convincing the rest of the world that we, as a people, are not insane.

We're going to have to be what people like Ronald Reagan said we were. 

We are a nation that has a government — not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our Government has no power except that granted it by the people. ~Ronald Reagan

But sooner or later, if we want to do that, we're going to have to get off our ass, turn off the TV, take an interest in our own lives and set about doing the work of life. Maybe you can't change the world, maybe you can just fix or help maintain your little corner of it. I've gone all in on helping my partner and maintaining our little family for a reason, it's what I can do to stay sane.

But you have to do something.

Not wait for Jesus or somebody else.

You have to do something.

Why is that part so damned hard for people?

Слава Україна!

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.

Last Post

[In the Preox-Morlana planet of Morlana One, Deputy Inspector Syril Karn is confused his superior won't open an investigation into the murder of two Pre-Mor officers]

Chief Inspector Hyne: Tough case. Bad timing.

Deputy Inspector Syril Karn: I'm sure that in several days, with the proper resources, I can bring this case to a-

Hyne: Stop! And I don't just mean the talking. I mean stop. [closes his office door] This case appears to bear all the hallmarks of what I like to describe as regrettable misadventure.

Karn: Sir?

Hyne: Two dedicated Pre-Mor employees caught in the sad orbit of a rare calamity.

Karn: I don't understand.

Hyne: I want you to conjure a suitable accident, and let's make sure it's on the far side of the plaza. Let's get it outside the Leisure Zone.

Karn: But they were murdered!

Hyne: No, they weren't. They were killed in a fight. They were in a brothel, which we're not supposed to have. The expensive one, which they shouldn't be able to afford. Drinking Revnog, which we're not supposed to allow. Both of them supposedly on the job, which is a dismissible offense. They clearly harassed a human with dark features and chose the wrong person to annoy. I suspect they died rushing to aid someone in distress. Nothing too heroic. We don't need a parade. They died being helpful. Something sad but inspiring in a mundane sort of way. [regards Karn] You look stricken, Deputy Inspector. Are you absorbing my meaning here?

Karn: Trying to, sir.

Hyne: When I said bad timing, I wasn't referring to the fact you spent all night worrying this. I mean that I am on my way this very morning to an Imperial Regional Command review, where I'll be asked to make a report about our crime rates, and the goal of that speech, should you ever be asked to deliver it, is brevity. Minimizing the time the Empire spends thinking about Preox-Morlana benefits our superiors and, by extension, everyone here at the Pre-Mor Security Inspection team, which at the moment includes you. [dons his coat, picks up his briefcase and moves to leave] Don't put your feet on my desk in my absence, and let's have an accident report waiting when I get back.

~From the Star Wars series Andor, S1.E1 "Kassa."