Darkness And Not Light (What If God Was... Prequel.)

Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,

Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name:

That strengthens the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.

They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.

Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.

For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.

Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.

Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.

Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skillful of lamentation to wailing.

And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the Lord.

Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. 

Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.

Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.

Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.

But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. ~Amos 5:7-26

...

[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 sandrats. [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 Star Wars series The Mandalorian, S1.E3 "The Sin."

I saw this last night.

I think it's safe to say that Antivaxxer horseshit has eaten the Republican Party.

And since of course they can't prove any of their bullshit to any kind of legal standard or anything that would hold up in court and they know it, they're trying to subject Dr. Fauci to "Trial by Fox News hit."

Incompetently.

Not that any of this shit will sway anybody who wasn't already going to vote Republican.

But, again...and I've said this before, the rest of us don't really exist to these motherfuckers. They'd rather we died.

The world that Republicans want is Darkness and not Light.

But I guarantee you when all that shit goes sideways (which they know it will) they're already winding up to try and blame everything on Trump.

And they regard the Constitution and everything else about America as she's currently constituted, and everyone who currently lives here who isn't them (i.e. Republican Party members in good standing) as an enemy,  an inconvenience or a potential slave on a good day.

Couple things; 

#1 That includes their own voters, who they fully intend to terrify into abject slavery and then use to fight the rest of us.

#2 These clearly haven't been good days. Everyone hates these people, and rightly so.

These fucking people have missed the entire damn point of America, and they wonder why nobody outside of White Republican Evangelicals (who don't ever seem to get the point of much of anything) is interested in their bullshit.

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.

You'd think people who continually are attempting to try every goddamn thing in the "Court" of social media would realize they basically just got their asses kicked on social media by *Checks Notes* a lady who sings kids songs on YouTube for a living.

These fucking people seem to think you should have to be a rich White Evangelical Republican (or anything similar, but basically operationally a wealthy fascist) for your kids to grow up having had any kind of life.

I couldn't do that, and I used to be a Republican.

But then going about begrudging other people's right to exist while being a miserable bastard my own damn self never sounded like any fun to me, and yes there have always been some Republicans like that and I have known a few.

Now those fucking people have basically run everybody else out of "Conservatism" and the Republican Party, including pretty much anybody who knows anything.

And, as a result, we're getting "Government by Conspiracy Theory."

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

Now, to add to what I said in my last post:

"What if Jesus was a poor sick kid, who had to be treated the right way, or He would have died before He was supposed to??"

Cuz at some point, yes, Jesus would've got sick.

And medicine requires doing things the right way, or someone can die.

Who would you trust to do right by that kid?

Miss Rachel or some doddering doofus of a Senator who (while being vaccinated his damn self) is trying to tell people that getting vaccinated causes some kind of "Injury" forsooth something something Gazpacho??

Republicans wanna go back to a time when if you were simply Ronaldo the peasant, son of Juan the serf living somewhere in Spain or whatever 600 years ago, if you got sick you probably just died.

Because nobody less than the period equivalent to somebody like Senator Ron Johnson had any kind of access to a doctor or regular health care to even start with.

These fucking people know a lot of their voter base has a raging case of Medieval Peasant Brain and they can't even imagine that anybody else would have anything different.

Let alone that we would protect ourselves.

But isn't protecting yourself...including from the government...a central point of being an American??

Especially *Checks Notes* a conservative (small "C" used there for a reason.)

I've got a family to think about, a partner and a kid, I have to be invested in the future.

My partner is a vet tech. Kid wants to be a a freaking doctor.

My Mom is retired and needs her social security.

None of us can afford to live according to this bullshit.

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. ~Luke 2:1-14

Republicans failed to turn COVID-19 into a biological weapon to kill everybody else in the world, now they're trying to both cause and weaponize the next such crisis.

And then they have the balls to wonder why the rest of the world isn't screaming their political and religious talking points back into their faces call-and-response style like Air Force recruits at formation on the second day of BMT??

Fuck these motherfuckers.

Sorry but back in the day when I was a Republican if you did something like snorted cocaine or heroin or anything like that off a toilet seat, you got fired, blackballed from public life, mocked by basically everybody, and very likely investigated and maybe even arrested.

You sure as hell got drug tested.

In 1986, 2006, hell, 2016 we'd have all been calling it ToiletGate.

I mean, sure, there have always been rich fucks on cocaine, heroin, etc. But it used to be you didn't want to get caught doing that shit, get caught with that shit, or ever, ever admit to doing it in public.

And by the way, church background here. In that context you did not ever want to get caught doing drugs back when I was coming up.

And that's in addition to the fact that I was taught a very facts-based view of health and medical stuff.

Now?? 

These fucking people who are all supposedly so Right and so Righteous are all on drugs and high all the time and everything is feelings and vibes and woo woo.

And they wanna call people like Miss Rachel the bad guys?

[As the four newly-revealed Cylons aboard Galactica struggle to deal with the information, the call to action stations sounds]

Lieutenant Felix Gaeta: [over the loudspeaker] ...Inbound Cylon fleet! I repeat: action stations, action stations. Set Condition One throughout the ship. This is not a drill.

Tory Foster: Oh gods... what're we going to do?

Saul Tigh: The ship is under attack. We do our jobs. Report to your stations!

Chief Galen Tyrol: Report to stations?

Saul Tigh: My name is Saul Tigh. I am an officer in the Colonial Fleet. Whatever else I am, whatever else it means, that's the man I want to be. And if I die today, that's the man I'll be. 

~From Battlestar Galactica (2003) S3.E20 "Crossroads, Part 2."

Well let me tell you something;

I live in a small city in northeast Michigan, two hours away from the nearest freeway or large city. There's like two Trump signs in my whole area that I still see up.

And all of the local Democrats in my town have "Abdul for Senate" signs in their yards.

There's one guy I've talked to that says he's gonna vote for Haley Stevens.

And you pretty much gotta go to the rich side of town, along the lake, to even see Republican campaign signs.

And I'm here to tell you, the way it looks like things are going in the war between Russia and Ukraine, when Russia loses and Putin meets whatever god-awful end he's going to at the hands of his own subjects, who's gonna fund Ron Johnson?

And who's gonna be the ones giving all these Antivaxxer shits money??

Funny how those of us who aren't Republicans anymore don't have that problem.

Funny how those of us who don't buy into or spread conspiracy theories haven't ended up beholden to foreign enemies.

And yet These Fucking People keep trying to declare those of us real Americans who are just trying to live and don't wanna put up with all this crazy bullshit to be the Enemy??

Fuck That.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Слава Україна!

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

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