Joyless (Great Men, Four.)

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

...

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.

...

During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug) -- while praying to the same God -- with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the "white" Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana. We were truly all the same (brothers) -- because their belief in one God had removed the "white" from their minds, the 'white' from their behavior, and the 'white' from their attitude. I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man -- and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their "differences" in color.

With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called "Christian" white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem. Perhaps it could be in time to save America from imminent disaster -- the same destruction brought upon Germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves.

They asked me what about the Hajj had impressed me the most. . . . I said, "The brotherhood! The people of all races, color, from all over the world coming together as one! It has proved to me the power of the One God. . . . All ate as one, and slept as one. Everything about the pilgrimage atmosphere accented the Oneness of Man under One God. 

~Malcolm X, Letter following the Hajj.

I saw this a couple days ago.

Jake Lang showed up to harass the people at a cat convention because he thought it was some kind of "Furry" meetup. I mean, What?

Seriously, my partner is a Vet Tech and is in the process as of last week of starting a small business on the side. She was at one of these kind of events a couple weeks ago.

Meeting her would not go well for Jake. Bothering her at an event her work sent her to that had her up way early on a Saturday morning when she doesn't really want to be there would be even worse.

But, you ever notice these motherfuckers never try this kind of harassing bullshit with things that are imagined to be macho or male-dominated.

Let alone "Christian" or "Republican."

Nobody ever shows up at a Christian convention or at CPAC screaming about sexual immorality even though it's a documented fact at this point, that These Fucking People crash Grindr everywhere they go.

Nobody ever shows up at a gun show or a tractor pull ranting about sexual immorality and Sin. And I've seen some shit in those kind of events, Oh yes.

Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen. ~Ezekiel 16:49-50 (NIV)

And then you have shit like Doug Wilson getting up there and saying the Apostle Paul would want a woman to make a sandwich. No, Beard-o, make your own goddamned sandwich and shut the fuck up.

I am quite tired of These Fucking People and their bullshit, and they've been starting shit, or messing with shit that directly impacts people like me and my partner for awhile now.

And then the vote to impeach Pete Keg-Breath failed today specifically because *11* Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi of all fucking people apparently, couldn't be bothered to show up.

Lead, follow, or get the fuck out of the way, people.

Service before self, Integrity above all, Excellence in all that we do. ~United States Air Force core values.

I'm tired of people being in office for whom the effectiveness of our military, my freedom or that of my partner and kid, is less important than some bullshit AIPAC-sponsored social event.

I'm going to suggest, and not for the first time, that we start holding Congress to standards and making these idiots do their jobs. If that means we have to make them stand in formation, memorize slogans and shout them back at screaming TI's, so that when something happens, a switch flips in their brains and says "Oh shit, maybe I better do something" so fucking be it.

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.

And the funny part here is you can compare and contrast the energy and seriousness of newer Democrats with the old guard and the new people want to work where the people who have been there too long are gonna fail every fucking time. And honestly?? I think they do it on purpose. Call it weaponized incompetence if you want to. I'm Sorry but half the motherfucking problem with all these Republicans having gotten way too big for their britches is because Nancy fucking Pelosi spent 40 years just mailing her shit in.

Remember when your High School History teacher said "The course of human events changes because of the deeds of great men"?. Well the bitch was lying. Fuck Julius Caesar, fuck Abe Lincoln, fuck Mahatma Gandhi. The world keeps moving because of you and me: the anonymous. Revolutions get started because people don't have enough bread. Wars start over a game of checkers. ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO Series "Oz" S1, E8 "A Game Of Checkers."

And I'll note, to hear Republicans talk over the last week, it's us down here in the voting booth they're afraid of, not Hakeem Jeffries.

Trust me, Republicans will gladly weaponize the incompetence of our legislative branch or the rest of our government as long as it's there.

And trust me, it's not cuz they actually believe in Christ, or Christian Nationalism, or any other damn thing. What they believe in is cruelty, hierarchy and patriarchy, preferably for power or profit but if they actually lose authority or money in the course of hurting people, they're fine with it.

Hate and Malice are actually more important to them than all that other stuff. These Fucking People would rather crap all over somebody else's day and scream in somebody's face than let kids adopt kittens or Vet Techs learn how to do their jobs a little better, let alone allow anybody to have a good time unless it's in spite of them.

And then these motherfuckers be mad about that, too.

No one will catch more hate from these assholes than anybody with a little joy in their life. Their stated problem with Kamala Harris, remember, was that she laughed too much.

And god forbid that person with joy be (naturally) a person of Color, a woman, or (especially) both.

Which should tell you everything about their actual motivations.

Cassian Andor: Kino. Tell them what to do. It has to be you. Come on, Kino. You do this every day. Tell them what to do.

Kino Loy: [presses PA system] My name is Kino Loy. I'm the day shift manager on Level Five. I'm speaking to you from the command center on Level Eight. We are, at this moment, in control of the facility.

Andor: Is that the best you got?

Loy: How long we hang on, how far we get, how many of us make it out, all of that is now up to us. We have deactivated every floor in the facility. All floors are cold. Wherever you are right now, get up, stop the work. Get out of your cells, take charge and start climbing. They don't have enough guards and they know it. If we wait until they figure that out, it'll be too late. We will never have a better chance than this and [looks at Cassian, knowing he said it] "I would rather die trying to take them down than giving them what they want." We know they fried a hundred men on Level Two. We know that they are making up our sentences as we go along. We know that no one outside here knows what's happening. And now we know, that when they say we are being released, we are being transferred to some other prison to go and die, and that ends today! There is one way out. Right now, the building is ours. You need to run, climb, kill! You need to help each other. You see someone who's confused, someone who is lost, you get them moving and you keep them moving until we put this place behind us. There are 5,000 of us. If we can fight half as hard as we've been working, we will be home in no time. One way out!

[repeats it multiple times as he leaves the command center]

Andor: Come on! Let's get out of here!

~From the series "Andor" S1 E10 "One Way Out."

But tell me, when was the last time you saw an Old Republican White Man genuinely laugh or smile about anything either?

"Christianity" is just a pretty word that helps them get what they want.

Nothing is sacred to These Fucking People except misery inflicted on the undeserving.

And now apparently, thanks to the damn Billionaires, they get to crap all over superhero movies too.

Not that the genre has been doing itself any favors for awhile, but I really don't think putting some Christian Nationalist Hack in charge of DC Studios is gonna do much for the brand. I'm just sayin' maybe we should stop letting these assholes buy shit. 

I suppose if there's anything good here it's that they likely won't get whatever Bibleman bullshit they want to do done and released before Trump goes down and this crap becomes even less popular.

Unless they just decide to AI-generate the whole thing and then nobody who's actually a fan of any of this stuff or has a brain in their head goes and watches it.

But again, making money or even accomplishing anything isn't the goal here; preventing somebody else from doing anything is.

If they can't have the world the way they want it, they don't want to do anything; The catch is, they don't want anybody else to do anything either.

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.

And they do want everybody (including themselves) to be as miserable as possible.

These are the fucking people who start ranting about "Satan" whenever somebody says kids in schools should be adequately fed regardless of social status.

The entire job, the entire point of useless Congress-critters like Jim Jordan is to jam up the works and prevent anything like that (or much of anything else) from happening and spin the idea that living with excessive costs and suffering is somehow "good."

And this is what modern Republicans call "Righteousness."

Fuck that.

[Cassian Andor and a number of men are sent to the Narkina Five prison complex]

Prison officer: Welcome to Narkina Five. This is an Imperial factory facility. You've all been assessed as labor-worthy. Now, following this introduction, you'll be transferred to your level assignment and workroom, where your floor manager will explain the details of our schedule and expectations. Your length of stay has been predetermined. The quality of that time will be up to you. Now, those who've been incarcerated before will be surprised by the calm, sanitary conditions, and our minimally invasive enforcement techniques. Well, I'm sure some, if not all of you, are wondering, how we risk standing before you without weapons? It's a potent question. And hopefully, one you won't need to have answered very often, but... [activates electric floor and the new prisoners are shocked to floor before he turns it off] You may stand. That was level one of three. Our floors are Tunqstoid steel. Do your time productively, keep to your lane, and this needn't be more than a memory. Good luck to you.

~From the Star Wars series Andor S1.E8 "Narkina 5."

We The People took our country back a week ago, and Republicans are still fighting over who gets to be the guy in the Imperial prison that goes around screaming "On Program!" at the other prisoners.

That's what their idea of "Authority" even is.

And it's all so people like *Checks Notes* Donald Trump can have more money?

Yep.

I want you to stop and think about that for a second.

It's all bullshit.

I am the way into the city of woe.

I am the way to a forsaken people.
I am the way into eternal sorrow.
Sacred justice moved my architect.
I was raised here by divine omnipotence, primordial love and ultimate intellect
Only those elements time cannot wear are beyond me,
and beyond time I stand.
Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here.'
~Sign above the gates of hell (variant translation) Canto III, Dante's Inferno, the Divine Comedy.

And, perversely, the biggest public calling-out of this fucking garbage that I saw this week was from conservative columnist (and apparently 60 Minutes guy now) Ross Douthat.

Ross is Catholic, and he said straight-up he thinks Donald Trump is going to Purgatory, i.e. the Catholic version of the ancient Underworld, at best a place of repentance and suffering, at worst a holding area where the Unrepentant spend Eternity.

And Trump didn't say shit back.

I want you to stop and think about that, too.

There is a reason I say the secular liberalism of too many of these old-school Democrats has not met the moment.

It's not even that they don't call shit out. It's that they actively worry that Republicans will yell at them if they do.

And all that Republican "men" like Donald Trump and Jim Jordan functionally know how to do is yell.

This isn't governance, it's abuse.

Reporter: Mr. Said, how do you feel?

Kareem Said: How do I feel? I feel joyless. My brothers remain behind. Imprisoned, suppressed. I don't just mean my Muslim brothers, I mean every single man that will sleep in here tonight, that was cut off from everything that he loves. Cut off from his own self. You know, as the word went around that the Governor was gonna give somebody clemency, I saw a rift develop as each inmate wished himself to be the chosen one. The longing to be free became as palpable as the food that we eat. But it is a meal that I am being served right now. And I am Muslim. And Allah does not allow me to swallow certain things. Allah does not allow me to take scraps from the hands of a man such as this. A man who is corrupt and immoral. A man who denigrates the gift of clemency just as he violates the principles of justice. A man that gave the order that caused the death of eight people. And so, Governor Devlin, because even the cost of freedom can be too high, I refuse your pardon!

 ~Kareem Said, from the HBO series Oz, Season 2, Episode 8 "Escape From Oz."

And this is who Republicans call "Great Men?"

There's a reason that the Republican ideal looks more and more like an Americanized version of Putin's Russia...complete with everything being on fire, a losing war, and at least a million dead.

Mordor. The Republican ideal is Mordor.

Think about that.

You shouldn't need somebody like me to tell you this isn't a healthy situation either for the country or for individual people.

At least we, the voters, finally decided to hit back, and wouldn't you know it? We totally threw Republicans for a loop, for at least a week.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

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

Three

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