Dreamworld (American Reformation II, Prequel.)

I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; ~Exodus 20:2-5

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Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?
Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
~Daniel 3:14-18

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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

I saw this bullshit the other day.

Some old lady weeping like she saw Jesus or the Pope or something, at a fucking Trump rally. This shit shouldn't be happening. I don't give a damn. Trump is a Man, he ain't Jesus. He ain't even religious. There is nothing at all spiritual or transcendent about his dumb ass.

I think this was at the same Trump rally where some lady got assaulted for wearing a "Release the Epstein files" shirt. You know, for those of us who don't change our beliefs on a dime cuz we don't really have any, the obvious thing to point out here is that lady very well could have been a Republican, if not a Trumper, he self. Remember, all of a year ago, when "RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES" had been a very, very MAGA thing for like 7 years?

You know, the Epstein files, in which just the parts that we know state that rich elites sexually abused, murdered and cannibalized children, openly mocked the Lord in some of the most depraved ways imaginable, and worshiped Demons.

You'd think, for the Evangelicals, that would be more...Problematic.

I remember, and it's shameful that These Fucking People have forgotten all that. On purpose, and with malice aforethought. Most of them, claimed allegedly professing (cultural) Christians who have apparently rejected Christ and all worship Trump like a "god."

There is a reason I do not consider Evangelicalism or anything to do with Calvinism, the Prosperity Gospel or a Puritan mentality to be Christian anymore.

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats:
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
For I hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
For I hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 

~Matthew 25:31-45

Yeah, I really wanna see how that plays out at the Judgment.

For These Fucking People, I'd really like to suggest wearing shorts into the Afterlife. It's hot in Hell.

Like, no joke, eternal torment where the Rich Man begged Lazarus for one drop of water. Not only is the Bible pretty clear on this but Christian iconography and tradition has historically been more than willing to fill in the gaps when there were any questions. I hate the whole idea of fear-based theology but you know, you'd think some people who have spent their whole lives soaking in that shit would *Checks Notes* have actually listened to it, at some point??

I mean, fear of the Antichrist and the End Times is a motivating factor I guess based on my own experience, that I'd think might have prevented people from worshiping a literal Antichrist?!?!

Like when the fuck is enough gonna be enough with this bullshit?? 

I don't even know what to say anymore. 

I feel like way too many of these Trump Supporters have already made Trump into their Golden Idol of choice and they persisted long enough in it that God hardened their hearts and gave them over to Strong Delusion so that they wouldn't repent, not without punishment anyway, like in the Old Testament.

The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood. Thus all you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls; all you that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life, are in the hands of an angry God. However you may have reformed your life in many things, and may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of religion in your families and closets, and in the house of God, it is nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction. However unconvinced you may now be of the truth of what you hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it. Those that are gone from being in the like circumstances with you, see that it was so with them; for destruction came suddenly upon most of them; when they expected nothing of it, and while they were saying, Peace and safety: now they see, that those things on which they depended for peace and safety, were nothing but thin air and empty shadows.

The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you were suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep. And there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God’s hand has held you up. There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell.

~Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God, Jonathan Edwards, 1741

Sorry, but Evangelical Republicans of all people should know that the God of the Old Testament is not a nice guy, after all isn't that why they preferred that version for so long, until Trump showed up??

I feel like I need to make the case again that we need an American Reformation.

The Evangelicals thought they were gonna be the Medieval Catholic Church, but instead they became the Babylonian Imperial Cult, complete with Golden Images.

Turns out, I think, that either most of these idiots were really bigger atheists than Richard Dawkins, or that their bigotry and worldly politics was more important. Just remember, according to what I was taught back in the "good old days" of the 1980's, the Reagan years, the time these idiots hold up as being so "Christian" being some kind of Super Republican just gets you a spot in Hell. You have to follow Jesus, not the Republican Party. 

Note probably over 50% of the people who taught me this were Republicans.

But that was back when people didn't structure their entire morality around a politician.

That was back when most of the Republicans I knew, most of them being Christians of one sort or another, could, would and viciously did mock Ronald and Nancy Reagan for practicing astrology.

Now?? They demand other Christians not run for office on account of being Democrats. Bitch, when I was growing up, the flip side of my statement above is that almost half of the people who taught me this stuff were, in fact, Democrats.

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don't do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free. ~Ronald Reagan

At that point, being a Christian was more important and political affiliation often reflected one's interpretation of the Word, or the beliefs of one's cultural, ethnic or racial group. I mean, when I was being taught this stuff pretty much all the people who taught me this (regardless of political party) said that while Jimmy Carter was kind of a shitty President, he was pretty amazing as a Christian.

And I did know people who pretty much acted like they thought Ronald Reagan was God, among them, my uncle Bill. The difference is he never acted or even tried to act like any kind of religious person. Sundays were for watching Football. 

When the subject finally came up, he said he hadn't cared about religion or thought it was worth a damn since he served in the Army in Vietnam. I didn't find out until I was getting ready to ship out for Air Force BMT that he'd lost 14 of his guys in the war. I think that'd make me lose my religion too. So, I couldn't blame him for that. Dude absolutely did believe in peace. He was very against racism because he'd served with Black troops and learned to respect them, and No new wars and "Peace Through Strength" were not just words to him.

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.

These people, by contrast?? They aren't anything I know or can recognize from what I was taught. There is no truth in them. They're mad that the Ukrainian Army taking out Russian data centers made most of the "MAGA" bots go away. Doesn't seem to matter that electrons can't vote.

And honestly I think people like Joe Rogan were just playing stupid to see what they could get out of it.

When that didn't turn out to be what they thought they went against Trump.

So much of this bullshit is just an evil, vicious fantasy. It's sick.

And even more than Trump, the fantasy of all this gilded bullshit is what These Fucking People want to believe.

It's a Lunatic Dreamworld.

But lunatic dreams create a nightmare reality for the sane.

Remember that.

Truth is the only thing that gives most people a floor to stand on to push back against Power. Me and my partner can't afford to hire lobbyists or retain a law firm. We have to determine what's true and act accordingly. 

Truth requires freedom, and according to what I was taught this applies to religion as much as anything else.

You either believe in freedom or you don't, and you're either willing to fight for it, or you're not.

Слава Україна!

My black face fades,
hiding inside the black granite.
I said I wouldn't
dammit: No tears.
I'm stone. I'm flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night slanted against morning. 

I turn this way—the stone lets me go.
I turn that way—I'm inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58,022 names,
half-expecting to find
my own in letters like smoke. 

I touch the name Andrew Johnson; 

I see the booby trap's white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman's blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.
Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's
wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet's image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I'm a window.
He's lost his right arm
inside the stone. In the black mirror
a woman’s trying to erase names:
No, she's brushing a boy's hair.

~Facing It, by Yusef Komunyakaa, US Army Veteran

Last Post

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.