Torment (American Revelation XXII, Two.)

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.

And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.

And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:

And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;

And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casts her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.

And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;

And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

~Revelation 6, KJV.

...

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

...

"I didn't want to do it,'' he hears himself saying. "I didn't want to leave them behind.''

The void laughs at him. There are miles of empty air beneath his dangling feet. "You had no choice.''

"Yes I did! I didn't have to come here.'' He pauses. "I didn't have to do anything,'' he says quietly, and inhales another lungful of death. "It was all automatic. Maybe it was inevitable.''

"-- Evitable,'' echoes the distant horizon. Something dark and angular skims across the stars, like an echo of extinct pterosaurs. Turbofans whirring within its belly, the F-117A hunts on: patrolling to keep at bay the ancient evil, unaware that the battle is already lost. "Your family could still be alive, you know.''

He looks up. "They could?'' Andrea? Jason? "Alive?''

The void laughs again, unfriendly: "There is life eternal within the eater of souls. Nobody is ever forgotten or allowed to rest in peace. They populate the simulation spaces of its mind, exploring all the possible alternative endings to their life. There is a fate worse than death, you know.'' 

~From A Colder War, a novella by Charles Stross.

The Republican-dominated Supreme Court gutted the voting rights act (again) today.

And I'll note that this month, the only reason my partner and I made it through with anything to show for it or how she's being able to tough things out at all until she can get into her new place is I got my tax refund.

And while last week, Republicans were flipping out because Virginia passed their redistricting referendum, several Southern states are again all the sudden being openly very intentional about Gerrymandering, I guess anything is Okay when Republicans do it??

A few things, though.

#1 Former Republican here and that's not what I was taught.

#2 Stripping away people's representation (because if you think this will only affect People of Color you have another thing coming) while making it either difficult or impossible for them to survive isn't a sustainable combination of things.

#3 These Fucking People, for whom Politics has basically become their religion, forget that being voted out is not the worst thing that can happen to a person who loses power.

It's still in living memory for a lot of us when they strung up the fascists at a gas station, yo. 

But there was a time...which, mind you, "Conservatives" love when they think it won't ever happen to them, when losing kings got executed and worse, when cities got pillaged and populations enslaved or massacred.

Don't get me wrong, I think there's a lot of These Fucking People who would be the slaves if it would undo Civilization in a way they felt favorable to their "Beliefs" and they could go back to that Lord Of The Flies type world...if they were allowed to somehow "Identify" with whoever ended up on top.

As it is, the best their getting is Culture War consolation prizes like *Checks Notes* Russell Brand pretending to be a Christian for a few minutes. Ya know, before he became the latest in a long line of right-wing booby-prizes I barely knew who the fuck Russell Brand was. But then I never gave a shit about Katy Perry or a whole bunch of these other vapid pop culture morons either.

The entire point of American "Conservatism" and Republicanism has become an ideal of squatting in the dark clutching Bibles and Guns and shitting on your own shoes while (at best) peering suspiciously out of the firing ports of your bunker through a rifle scope while the world burns.

Just so nobody else gets any light and they can somehow claim to be identified with the people burning down the world. God and Jesus and any Truth to anything else be damned, once they figured out that the "End Times Narrative" didn't favor them exclusively either. 

Narcissism is a hell of a drug, I guess. But I also have that wonderful experience of having been an addict. Tell me, even in that context, how the fuck does this make any sense?? Sooner or later everybody knows they have a problem.

You take a drug, right? The chemicals, they rush through your body, rush through your brain. And the sensations, you want the sensations again and again and again, but let me tell you, you can also get addicted to grief, to guilt, to hate. Because when you feel dead inside, even bad sensations make you feel like you're alive! ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO series Oz, S1.E5 "The Straight Life."

I mean, I get it, more than you know. These monsters are mad as fuck that the world didn't turn out their way, and they're even more mad that their efforts to beat it back into the shape they desire have continually failed (nor do they want to face that this is because of their own incompetence.)

Look, among other things until Religion in general (and Christianity in particular) calls out Narcissism as Sin, problems are going to continue. I'm sorry, but some people won't get it any other way. Some people do not think and require a bunch of Unga Bunga bullshit from some dude in a funny hat to tell them...whatever.

And goddamn, if you think politics is overrun with people of bad character you should fuckin' see religion. (And, Increasingly also the secular right-wing belief system that claims to be derived from religion.) Funny how every few generations people like to forget basic morality, then institute a bunch of character and other tests and then eventually forget the tests and lather-rinse-repeat here we go again.

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.

You'd think people would be tired of this bullshit by now.

I fucking know I am.

But as long as they get to behave like beasts, I guarantee you there's a large subset of American White Men that will never get tired of or stop this shit.

I have seen it.

[Mon Mothma addresses the Senate chambers again]

Mon Mothma: Fellow Senators, friends, colleagues, allies, adversaries, I stand before you this morning with a heavy heart. I've spent my life in this chamber. I came here as a child, and as I look around me now, I realize I have almost no memories that predate my arrival, and few bonds of affection that cleave so tightly. Through these many years, I believe I have served my constituents honorably and upheld our code of conduct. This chamber is a cauldron of opinions, and we've certainly all had our patience and tempers tested in pursuit of our ideals. Disagree as we might, I am hopeful that those of you who know me will vouch for my credibility in the days to come.

I stand this morning with a difficult message. I believe we are in crisis. The distance between what is said and what is known to be true has become an abyss. Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil! When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest. This Chamber's hold on the truth was finally lost on the Ghorman Plaza! What took place yesterday, what happened yesterday on Ghorman, was unprovoked genocide! Yes, genocide! And that truth has been exiled from this Chamber! And the monster screaming the loudest, the monster we helped create, the monster who will come for us all soon enough, is Emperor Palpatine!

~From the Star Wars series Andor, S2.E9 "Welcome To The Rebellion."

And they don't even care if it wrecks the social bonds that have defined their lives for 20 years. Bigotry and selfish hedonism are more important I guess? Like I said, narcissism is a hell of a drug.

Maybe at this point it's better if we let our system fall on its ass and the country fall apart and maybe people in places like Alabama or Florida would figure it out? But, then again, a lot of them very likely wouldn't. Florida seems to be the capital of that kind of hedonism and all the right-wing horseshit just makes it worse and more unlivable.

I mean, I'm old enough to remember when a person walking around blaming everybody else for their own shit would get mocked by the whole rest of the neighborhood, but now that kind of crap is just normal and people aren't figuring it out and in the name of ideology, profits, religion or generalized sociopathy, half the populace just shrugs. They might say so-and-so is an idiot, but they're not willing to do anything about it or even limit that person's ability to inflict their bullshit on others.

Why??

We're gonna have to bring back the alpha predators or some shit, at the rate this is going.

And the worst part is These Fucking People know, they KNOW their bullshit is going to be undone, very likely quite forcibly, by an angry people who have had enough, and soon.

But they want to get their kicks in and try to have their boot on somebody else's throat before they die anyway. Consequences be damned, they'd rather go to Hell than share with anybody else. 

I remember when even conservatives were all about small L, small D liberal democracy and Compassionate Conservatism when half of America had pretty much had it up to *Here* with Bill Clinton's bullshit and our first national run of Donkey Show Politics so those very things were thus about to hand them the keys despite their own part in the mess *Cough* Newt Gingrich *Cough.*

And Democrats? LOL, well, they aren't that much different than they were in 2000, at least. I guess as a conservative Democrat myself I'll have to live with that. At least something is consistent.

Now that those things like the idea of liberal democracy and most people are against them, and for the literal same goddamn reason, all these idiots wanna do is politically and otherwise fortify their positions, building literal and metaphorical bunkers rather than admit they fucked it up. They got their asses handed to them in 2020 over the second edition of Donkey Show bullshit, and somehow think a third shot is a hat trick.

Fuck that.

I wonder if I somehow missed some sort of teaching that Hell has a hierarchy and Heaven doesn't and going to Hell is somehow preferable.

Cuz that's sure what it feels like is going on with these idiots at this point.

And they'd rather inflict all the Torments of Revelation on the world than admit they were wrong or give up whatever "Power" they think they have.

All things change, all things die, time marches on. If you try to deny this it only gets worse.

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  

One

Nameless One: “Shadow of this life?”

Dhall, Dustman scribe: “Yes, a shadow. You see, Restless One, this life is not real. Your life, my life, they are shadows, flickerings of what life once was. This life is where we end up after we die, and here we remain. Trapped, caged, until we can achieve the True Death.”

Nameless One: “True Death?”

Dhall, Dustman scribe: “True death is non-existence. A state devoid of reason, of passion, of sensation.” [Dhall coughs] “A state of purity.”

Nameless One: Sounds like oblivion, why would anyone would want that? 

~from the D&D video game Planescape Torment

The Killing Fields (American Revelation XXII, One.)

Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. ~Joel 3:9-14

...

The clocks stopped at one seventeen. There was a long shear of bright light, then a series of low concussions. By day the dead impaled on spikes along the road. I think it's October but I can't be sure. I haven't kept a calendar for five years. Each day is more gray than the one before. It is cold and growing colder as the world slowly dies. No animals have survived and all the crops are long gone. Soon all the trees in the world will fall. The roads are peopled by refugees towing carts and gangs carrying weapons, looking for fuel and food. Within a year there was fire on the ridges and deranged chanting. There has been cannibalism. Cannibalism is the great fear. Mostly I worry about food. Always food. Food and the cold and our shoes. Sometimes I tell the boy old stories of courage and justice - difficult as they are to remember. All I know is the child is my warrant and if he is not the word of God, then God never spoke. ~The Man, from Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" (Film.)

I saw this earlier this morning.

So apparently the WHCD shooter was a conservative Calvinist from a group that thinks the CREC (Which Doug Wilson founded and Pete Keg-Breath belongs to) is too "Liberal."

I Googled the church off of what Kathryn Brightbill posted and looked at the website.

It's all bog-standard murderous Calvinist theology AKA the Prosperity Gospel without the gold-plated bullshit and Paula White's acting-out. Or, if you prefer, it's Apartheid South Africa without the Nation-State.

And Imma say it again, and you can like it or lump it: 

There is a deep vein of accelerationist brain-fried Crazy in American religion that Republicans and Trump keep thinking they can play totally insincere fuck-fuck games with forever and then these people will just go off and be weird on their own or go the fuck home and beat their wives after voting Republican.

If you haven't learned from, oh, call it the last 60+ years of Republican history, learn that it never works out that way, ever.

And it's not just these Calvinists, there's Black Hebrew Israelites and weird Mormons and Pentecostal end times cults that are basically a dime a dozen in this country's religious landscape and they all, at least at first, thought Trump was gonna turn things their way.

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

People like Mike Davis that think they're goat-eager to go after the "Left" (which in real terms isn't even much of a thing in this country relative to the rest of the world) are gonna be really, and I mean really fuckin' surprised when they get tarred-and-feathered as "Leftists" themselves by people who think the only "real" form of leadership is some kind of bullshit Theocracy led explicitly by their Pastor or some insane "Prophet."

Your basic vapid non-denominational Evangelicals, Pentecostals or Southern Baptists get bushwhacked by these nuts all the time and all too often, fail to learn anything and simply retreat to more familiar surroundings. But a lot of people that I've seen this happen to end up losing their religion eventually, if not as a direct result of this type of shit.

It's getting worse and far more deadly than that nowadays. Funny how every time somebody goes after Trump it's some weird conservative or religious extremist.

The thing that worries me, though, is that a hell of a lot of the straight-up MAGA-as-a-religion types will eventually become disenchanted with Trump and all that and grab onto this type of shit as a replacement. This is what my partner's cousins were like and why she had to stop staying with them for work. Why? They're mean, meanness is a hell of a drug. They will eventually want bigger hits of it. Trump plays at sadism, he "merely" enjoys being mean and petty to people. Not to downplay that, but for him, cruelty is a function of his narcissism, of a disordered personality. It's not actually his religion.

And I don't think it's Keg-Breath's either, as much as he plays at it.

Yeah I saw those photos of him at the correspondent's dinner, looking like he was drunk and/or had no idea what the fuck was going on, either.

People like him are religious because it feeds their narcissism and because they want their sins forgiven or justified, Sin being the point.

For a lot of these idiots it's all just macho bullshit. The trouble is there's genuine dangerous fanatics out there. A lot of the time it's just one or two hiding in regular churches, but groups like Doug Wilson's CREC take that a step further, seeking to make That Guy the entire congregation. 

(The trouble with that is a lot of the people drawn to this stuff, and especially the loud and performative ones are in fact, just plain old losers.)

No Western nation is as religion-soaked as ours, where nine out of ten of us love God and are loved by Him in return. That mutual passion centers our society and demands some understanding, if our doom-eager society is to be understood at all. ~Harold Bloom, The American Religion. (Quoted from Under The Banner Of Heaven by Jon Krakauer.)

I've met people that wanted that kind of blood-soaked Fundamentalist crap to be their entire religion. I served with a couple of people who were like that, or who turned out to be later.

A lot of the time, those people, the really dangerous ones? They're quiet as fuck about it, or at least keep their views out of the public eye...until they're not and then they don't.

Sometimes they pop off and just train-wreck a Facebook group or some other community, other times they kill people. I've written about this.

Sometimes these nuts are as crazy and dangerous as any Radical Islamist, basically like members of Al Qaeda or the Taliban...but "Christian."

And it will get worse.

Yuri Orlov: [At Andrei's presidential compound showing the Liberian president a silver revolver pistol] The Glock is interesting. It is made of a polymer composite. Many of my clients feel that they can go through airport security without seeing a lot of bells and whistles. Personally, I do not recommend that. [Andrei chuckles glancing over at a guard flirting with a female staffer] On the other hand, if you are looking for traditional wheel gun, there is no substitute for six inches of muzzle energy of 357 mag I mean, of course, it will never jam. [Andrei shoots the guard flirting with the female staffer] WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!

Andrei Baptiste Sr.: [Aims gun at Yuri] WHAT DID YOU SAY?!

Yuri Orlov: Now, you gonna have to buy it! IT IS A USED GUN! How can I sell a used gun? [Takes pistol from Andrei with his son and bodyguards all aiming rifles at an entirely still business-focused Yuri]

Andrei Baptiste Sr.: A "used gun"? A "used gun"?! [Chuckles] That's a good one. You know? There is no discipline with the youth today. I tried to set an example, but it is difficult huh? Personally, I blame MTV. [Smiles and Yuri nods in acknowledgment] A "used gun"? [Chuckles heartily, gets up and extends hand for handshake] I think you and I, we can do business. ~From the film Lord Of War.

I've been warning people about this for awhile.

And the thing is, a combination of a massive lack of discernment among American Evangelicals and Trump's basic ideal of "No Enemies To The Right" makes it all but inevitable that this shit is gonna get jacked by far worse people than we have now.

And Republicans? They'd rather play games with this bullshit than anything else, some of them anyway.

The wind whispers of fear and hate. The war has killed love. And those that confess to the Angkar are punished, and no one dare ask where they go. Here, only the silent survive. ~Dith Pran, The Killing Fields

Some of these fucking people's ideal world is the Killing Fields of Khmer Rouge Cambodia, but with a mall, and maybe a church. I first had this realization and wrote about it at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

And a lot of the people like that? They're these religious nuts.

Think about that.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

And you're either willing to fight for it or you're not.

Слава Україна!

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

Prequel

And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.

And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. ~Revelation 6:3-4

Left Behind (American Revelation XXII, Prequel.)

Theo: Those guys in the suits, I don't know who they are.

Hans Gruber: That's the FBI. They're ordering the others to cut the building's power. Regular as clockwork.

Theo: [grins in realization] Or a time lock.

Hans Gruber: Precisely. The circuits that can't be cut are cut automatically in response to a terrorist incident. You asked for miracles, Theo. I give you the F...B...I...

~From the film Die Hard.

...

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

If any man have an ear, let him hear.

He that leads into captivity shall go into captivity: he that kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he speaks as a dragon.

And he exercises all the power of the first beast before him, and causes the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

And he doeth great wonders, so that he makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,

And deceive them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

And he caused 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.

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. ~Revelation 13, King James Bible.

So apparently, there was another assassination attempt on Trump last night at the White House correspondents dinner. Which, it seems weird to me that Trump even wanted to go to it, given that one of the regular activities at such things is making fun of the President. I guess they had some bullshit psychic instead and they never even got to perform.

I'm not gonna say one way or another on here whether I think it was staged or not, but to me it looks a little suspicious.

I feel like America is being run by some combination of the Soviets from the earlier Tom Clancy novels and the FBI and the media as portrayed in Die Hard and a bunch of other 1980's movies, a combination of sub-literate goons and vapid media consultants seem to be making our national decisions.

Now, If I had to cast the Iranians?

They're Hans Gruber, or some other villain of the era played by Alan Rickman...except that his plan is working because there's no John McClain to monkey-wrench it all up.

Like, okay, I could be wrong but I can't recall any attempted or successful violence against government officials in my lifetime where "Somebody tried to kill OUR President" (I'm gonna use the MAGA Emphasis here) was followed up immediately with "We need a new ballroom!"

One of these things is not like the other one, it's as simple as that.

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

Seriously, among other things, even if a ballroom were somehow a fortress, or perhaps a Fuhrer-bunker if you will, with the implication being that no President would ever leave such a place again...well, I can't imagine anybody (not even Trump, to be honest) wanting to live like that.

I mean what's even the damn point?

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.

I'm tired of this crap, and at this point it baffles me that even Republicans wanna live like this because I used to be a Republican and this shit isn't what I was taught.

Except of course all the Ballroom bullshit makes sense if you consider it in the context of he wants to turn it into another weird focus for the kind of parties he has at Mar-A-Lago which look for all the world like something stuck between Victorian galas and Baal-cult rituals in their own right at least half the goddamned time, not to mention using the shit as a place to cruise for underage ass and maybe it's just me but the whole idea seems even worse now. I believe I was on record from the jump saying that shit was pretty damned bad to start with. Like, there's something wrong with all this bullshit and you shouldn't need some person like me to tell you that. Do we really, as a culture, as a nation, have such shitty survival instincts as this??

(Don't answer that.)

Like Okay, again, I get it, Empire, White Supremacy blah blah blah. As long as the "Meme" survives, a hell of a lot of these idiots don't care. I've said myself that These Fucking People would go be the slaves if that's what it took to preserve the ideal of Slavery.

My question thus, "Conservatives" is; Okay, if you're dead or enslaved what good does the preservation of some bullshit social meme that most of the world rejects in the first place do you??

Yes also I get it ideas are more important than people Something Something drawing dicks on the walls of Plato's Cave blah blah blah.

It's all the more asinine if you think about it, which I suppose is why a lot of you don't.

And the thing that scares me is you can see America crumbling in the fucking headlines, because this happened and, aside from people like me who write about stuff, half the country barely noticed, and most of the people upset about this (the ones that are real people anyway) are the same people that bark when Trump says bark anyway!

I've said before that I think all this ridiculous shit is going to cause America to go the way of the Soviet Union. Among other things I don't think the psyche of the American Idiot is going to deal well with the loss of American hegemony as the rest of the world has gotten tired of waiting for the American voters to get their heads out of their asses.

Oh sure, America or whatever agglomerations of states have the most capital and industry or have worked to maintain international goodwill will still be important when we get this resolved, in the same way that the King of England is still technically the ruler of a sizeable chunk of the Earth's surface or that Vladimir Putin wields considerable influence in Post-Soviet states...but if I had to guess we'll be even less well-liked.

Because as regards American Revelation...that shit is specific to us. The whole world isn't going to be "Wondering after the beast" in our particular context. Hell, a big-ass chunk of America is done with all this bullshit!

And if Republicans don't get out of the way when that time comes (and keep in mind that's coming soon) they're (rightly) going to get left behind....and yeah, this is why I think America will probably break up Soviet style, because Republicans will just break off a piece and no one else will care. They'll keep tryin to discriminate against somebody or hold back change or progress for anybody that'll put up with that bullshit. They'd rather worship the Image Of The Beast than accept that all people are created equal before the God they claim to so fanatically believe in.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Слава Україна!

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

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Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. ~Chief Seattle.

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

It's Got Electrolytes (Image Of The Beast, Ten.)

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.

...

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.

...

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

I'm starting to think, at this point, that there's a non-zero chance a hell of a lot of These Fucking People might well fall for and bow to the Image Of The Beast because at this point they're too stupid to know what Christ, Christianity, or [Christian] conservatism even fuckin' look like at all let alone when done properly. I mean, fuckin' seriously??

You think people who can't be bothered to put a sign for the "Gulf Of America" in the right place are gonna know or care that Paula White's acting out could be in the service of Baal or the Great Pumpkin for all we know and has inherently not a damn thing at all to do with Christ or Christianity??

Do you really think people who can't be bothered to look where they're going with their Monster Truck, ya know, give a fuck about anyone or anything else??

Was the driver's name by any chance "Beef Supreme??"

Also what the fuck is wrong with Florida in particular??

Now, my Mom, my Partner and I have all at different times said since *Checks Notes* 2006 that it seems like way the fuck too many people have their brains turned off, but this shit is ridiculous.

What, exactly, are people doing with that space between their ears at this point?? Renting it out??

And if so, for what??

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

Believe it or not, there's a catch with stuff like Freedom in the American context, in the way our system is designed. You have to be smart enough to know what the fuck it is!

As I've said before I used to be a conservative Baptist. The whole idea of that denomination as I was taught it was that you have to accept Salvation freely, because you want to, which means you have to know what it is! And cuz there's a doctrine called the Priesthood Of All Believers, anyone can share the Gospel, read, study, and all that and *Checks Notes Again* It helps to actually know what you're talking about if you're going to do this! 

In that kind of a context I fail to see at all how Paula White crawling on the floor does anything but try and call unnecessary attention to herself. It's sure as hell not teaching anybody anything except how to act like a fool.

When is enough going to be enough with all this stupid bullshit?? We gotta stop putting up with stupidity, America, especially demonstrative stupidity! 

I don't give a damn.

You either believe in freedom or you don't, and I say that...like I said before...in the context of somebody who was taught that knowing and believing something in the correct way could well mean the difference between going to Heaven or going to Hell.

Passionate belief in wrong is still, in point of fact, wrong.

Remember that, it's going to be on the test later.

Слава Україна!

Some say finding God is a glorious thing. They're wrong. It's dangerous. You spend your whole life in a world of men. But when you finally see his power, his greatness, other men fall out of view. Because you're so focused on him, you can barely see them from the corners of your eyes. You lose sight of them. 

~Augustus Hill, from the HBO series Oz, S1.E3 "God's Chillin'."

Nine

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

If any man have an ear, let him hear.

He that leads into captivity shall go into captivity: he that kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he speaks as a dragon.

And he exercises all the power of the first beast before him, and causes the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

And he doeth great wonders, so that he makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,

And deceive them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

And he caused 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.

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. ~Revelation 13, King James Bible.