No! (American Revelation XXII, Eleven.)

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

...

I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? "No," says the man in Washington, "it belongs to the poor." "No," says the man in the Vatican, "it belongs to God." "No," says the man in Moscow, "it belongs to everyone." I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture. A city where the artist would not fear the censor; where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality; where the great would not be constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well. ~Andrew Ryan, Bioshock

...

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

So, Republicans are apparently shocked that they're catching hell for complaining about their salaries while refusing to do anything about Congressional stock-trading.

I'm here to tell you as an American voter, not least as a former Republican, I'm entirely sick of Elon Mush and Peter Thief and their gang of closet-cases, pedophiles and stupid performative know-nothings, and I'm really tired of them telling people like me we need to "sacrifice" for their shitty agendas that don't benefit anybody who isn't a multi-billionaire at this point. But then, If Jim Jordan or Mike Johnson had ever had to get or do a real job, if you didn't patronize the same local rest area after dark as them you wouldn't have the slightest fucking idea who any of these idiots even were, these broken creatures would be in jail (certainly, in Jordan's Epstein-implicated case) or rotting in middle management somewhere trying to talk about Jesus around the water-cooler.

In a phrase "Fuck These Motherfuckers."

I already wrecked my body serving in the Air Force, a good part of my mind doing the Church thing after that thanks to some bad experiences, and further wrecked my shit on both counts working in food service for 25 years. Sooner or later, homie, the Public ain't got anymore sacrificing to give. And we are in fact running out of patience being asked to "sacrifice" for Donald Trump's vainglory. 

No. Fuck You.

Worse, While these jerkoffs get paid $175K for having a goddamned part-time job that they don't even bother to do most of the time. 

If I worked like a member of Congress does, especially but not exclusively a Republican, my ass would be out of a job tomorrow.

But then, motherfucker, if my "job" consisted of wearing a suit, going to meetings all day and getting my ass kissed by lobbyists? #1 I'd be the goddamned Employee Of The Month, every month. I'd have a goddamn kitchen timer sitting on my desk for lobbyists and I'd have a goddamn trapdoor installed in my office with a motherfucking Rancor Pit under it, and Imma find me a goddamn Rancor even if I have to deal with Dark Force Witches or The Hutts to do it. 

Can't be any worse than owing my ass to some rich motherfucker, at least I'm reasonably sure Jabba The Hutt isn't gonna find me attractive.

As for policy or regulation? If you can't fit your pitch and your proposal each on a 3x5 Index Card or be honest with me, I'm not interested. 

You have 60 seconds.

It's not a time limit, it's an ethic. I don't have time for bullshit. I learned that one the hard way, too.

If my ass ever has to do a bullshit job like serve in Congress I am not there to make life easier for L3 Harris and Raytheon. I am sure as fuck not there to promote any kind of bullshit religion or manipulate in favor of such things. Note I say that as somebody who was an End Times Prophecy guy.

But it's how I learned about that stuff that's the operative factor here;

I swore an Oath to a Constitution that puts religious freedom before all the others, not "above" just "before" and I had to live by a set of Core Values once; It was "Integrity Above All, Service Before Self, Excellence In All That We Do." It wasn't "Get Rich Or Die Tryin.'"

Among other things I'd at least try to look out for my fellow veterans and working people and to be a good example for others, because that's what one is supposed to do in a job like that. 

When I was a Senior Airman, my LT was relentless about it was our job to set the standard and she damned well made sure she set the standards we had to follow, by example, by sustained superior performance, by her being out in front, every day or night, in the same battle rattle humping the same ruck and carrying the same rifle as the rest of us, on her own merits every fucking time, not just sitting behind a desk or over the radio. Fuck That.

Part of why I became a Believer in End Times Prophecy was the conduct and example of my brothers and sisters and senior NCO's who believed in that stuff. Yes, it was a different time.

Respect is earned by every action every day. It only takes fucking up once to lose it, too.

And the reason America is a soup sandwich right now is too many of us have forgotten that.

Well, we're about to learn the hard way, if you haven't noticed.

And they don't care, or want to.

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.

I hate to point out reality to some people but I think sooner or later their end result is going to show that fact.

They're going to lose, and they don't care about that either, just so they think they're gonna drag a bunch of the rest of us to Hell with them.

Again, just pointing out the theological reality that according to what I was taught, God determines that, not some rich weirdo.

But, time's coming where if you want to actually believe that, you're gonna have to fight for it. These fucking people get their way? What the fuck do you think all the "Data Centers" are really for??

And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. ~Revelation 13:16-17

There was a time when men (and women, but most of the combat deaths were men) died horrible deaths from torture or were killed by the thousands in wars for daring to want to read the Lord's Word at all, much less in their own language. I was raised with that history, that we have forgotten it is why so many of these idiot rich pastors covet the Power of the Medieval church without even the slightest interest in learning the history of why that didn't work out...which perversely created the very religious stream of thought the vast majority of these motherfuckers claim to be a part of. 

It's not just the Billionaire Capitalists, yo.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

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

Ten

[Cassian plays Nemik's audio diary]

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."