Vain Oblations (Scenes From The Fall, Six.)

Brothers and sisters, please quiet down. Thank you.

We come here time after time and we talk about the same old same old.

Hey, quiet down.
- We talk about Jesus. - That's right.
Jesus said and Jesus wept.
Jesus heard and Jesus walked over.
I don't wanna talk about Jesus.
Cos as the big man teaches us, there's two sides to every story.
Not one but two. A story is not one-sided.
A story has duality. There's two sides to every story.
Which brings to mind the phrase "necessary evil".
I know many of you hear that phrase and say,
"That don't even make no sense to me.
"Can't be no such thing as necessary - how's evil necessary?
"That don't match. That's plaids and stripes, evil and necessary."
You see, because without bad, there is no good.
Without light, there is no dark, you need both these things.
You hear what I'm saying?
If every day is a sunny day, well, then, what's a sunny day?
Well, the bottom line, what I'm trying to tell you tonight,
is that evil...evil... is necessary.
Evil is necessary, thereby, if it's necessary, evil...
- Evil... -must be good.
Evil is good.
That's what I think. Evil must be good, must be good.
- Let me hear y'all say it... - Evil is good.

Evil is good. Take Brother Brown, one of our strongest deacons, pillar of stability.
Brother Brown was on Bushwick Avenue last night with a two-dollar ho.
When you tell your wife, "I'm going to see Mama," then you go get you a two-dollar ho, that's evil.
But Brother Brown had a good time with that two-dollar ho.
You can push a two-dollar ho and she don't have no limits!
Evil and good walk hand in hand. - Evil is as evil does. 

I know many of y'all may be saying, "How can he say ass is good?"
How y'all think y'all got here?
Ass is good! Evil's good and ass is good.
And if you get you a piece of evil ass...Woo!

~Maximilian The Vampire (As Preacher Paulie) from A Vampire In Brooklyn.

...

Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.

And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

~Isaiah 1:13-17

...

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

I saw this a couple hours ago.

Evidently a bunch of Evangelicals, and Republican candidates like Victor Marx in Colorado, think if they make a big show of religiosity before the election, they'll win or something.

God doesn't give a fuck about that. This stuff is not of God. God is not in these fucking people.

There's nothing "Christian" about any of this garbage. Victor Marx has been going around for years saying he killed a man. Does that sound Christian to you??

There are literal wannabe-Nazis arguing cases for our government and if you want to know how "Christian" that is, look up how the Nazis treated the Christian church in Germany. The first thing those fucking people did was take control of churches and force Nazi neo-pagan rites on them.

Honestly, not that the average American Evangelical megachurch is any fucking different, not at this point. There's churches out there that are basically the Republican equivalent of the Communist Chinese "Three Self Patriotic Church." Certainly, no better than that. And I fucking dare somebody to try and argue about that shit. 

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)

I mean, I've had people who weren't Christians who went to such places tell me they didn't understand who or what was actually being worshiped. And then I had to explain, to (for example) Muslim people from countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia that all these American Idiots are basically worshiping themselves or worshiping the idea of worldly Power and Wealth.

This was 25 years ago and it's orders of magnitude worse now. There is a reason I say these fucking people worship Devils and Idols of Gold and might as well be bowing down to Dis Pater for all the good their religiosity will do them in the end.

I have spoken.

These fucking people know they're losing, that like 75% of the country is pissed off at Republicans and Trump and they think they're gonna use religion to bullshit people. It's not working.

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

And they don't care, because their religion isn't even about other people. The rest of us might as well not exist to these assholes, except as an inconvenience or something to exploit.

And they want to abuse people and harm their families for *Checks Notes* daring to want to join the Marine Corps and make this country better, and perversely enough the kid still wants to enlist and do his bit to make America better.

"Conservatives" do not want to make a better world. They think everything should be terrible like it's holy writ, because they think that crap somehow justifies themselves. America isn't America if everybody really gets a shot. Heaven isn't Heaven if everybody gets to go.

When all these fucking ICE Agents get rounded up and carted off to jail, I hope that kid is one of the ones staring these cowardly chuds down and hoping the fuck they try something stupid. They won't, though.

Because the truth is, like cowardly Bosnian Serb paramilitaries 30 years ago the ICE agents will be drunk or high when arrested, piss their pants on the way to jail while crying the whole time and they'll all want the cute little Leftist lady defense lawyer who has a reputation as a courtroom bulldog to try to keep their ass from ending up in a British or Dutch prison where they'd also have to fear dropping the soap in the shower room. 

These assholes have been being taught to be cowardly bullies their whole lives. They will not be able to flip a switch and fight with real courage when it matters. Let alone when them having courage might keep their political masters from suffering fates worse than death. Go ahead, look up what happened to Mussolini. Look up what happened to Radovan Karadzic. There ain't much honor or much of a pension plan in the autocracy business or in "Ethno-Nationalism." 

[Cassian plays Nemik's audio diary]

Karis Nemik: There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy. Remember this. Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they've already enlisted in the cause. Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. And then remember this. The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empire's authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege. Remember this. Try. 

~From the Star Wars series Andor, S1.E12 "Rix Road."

Worse, These Fucking People, like all the ethnic "Nationalists" before them, never had any serious intention of fighting anybody who could fight back. When that time comes (and it will come) this will be evident.

Real faith is not even what's going on here. It's not what the Evangelicals and the Trump Worshipers (although I repeat myself) even want. These fucking people are trying to impress or intimidate others so they can keep their bullshit going. I'm not impressed, I'm not intimidated, I'm not changing for these motherfuckers.

Fuck That.

Most of the rest of us are just trying to get through this, trying to make the world better, and not interested in bowing down before this bullshit. And that is what all these weird narcissists think is the worst crime of all.

Existence Is Resistance.

Loretta Smith: I'm Loretta Smith. You killed my son. You're a handsome fellow.

Donald Groves: Thanks.

Loretta Smith: You broke God's law: Love thy neighbor. I wanna hate you but I can't. I feel pity, tears, but no hate. I didn't realize that until this moment. You are my neighbor and I love you. And I forgive you with all my heart. That's all.

~From the HBO series "Oz" Season 1, Episode 7 "Plan B."

Meanwhile, my partner found and rescued a loose dog today, and drove to town to take the dog to the animal shelter even though it would cut into her gas to get to work tomorrow. I sent her some gas money because stuff like that is what faith or faithfulness even is or means to me. If you don't care about others, what the fuck are you doing any of this for??

Anything but America.

Anything but "Love Thy Neighbor."

The list goes on.

A lot of these fucking motherfuckers would rather be living bullets in some kind of ethic or racial conflict than free citizens or Saved Christians. It's really that simple.

And this whole mess is going down, they can't even keep the most committed Republicans of Committed Republicans onboard now. Welcome to the Rebellion, Karl.

If you think that Donald Trump is going to get you into Heaven, you deserve what you're going to get and you deserve to get it good and hard and hot and fast. Even if that were true, spending eternity with *Checks Notes Again* Donald Trump sounds like it's own special kind of Hell.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

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

Bring no more vain oblations, everybody's sick of that crap.

Слава Україна!

[Kuiil and Mando have successfully repaired the Razor Crest with the parts recovered from the Jawas]

The Mandalorian: I can't thank you enough. Please allow me to give you a portion of the reward.

Kuiil: I cannot accept. You are my guest, and I am therefore in your service.

The Mandalorian: I could use a crew member of your ability. And I can pay handsomely.

Kuiil: I am honored. But I have worked a lifetime to finally be free of servitude.

The Mandalorian: I understand. Then... all I can offer is my thanks.

Kuiil: And I offer mine. Thank you for bringing peace to my valley. [leaves the ship and mounts his Blurrg; to Mando] And good luck with the Child. May it survive and bring you a handsome reward. I have spoken.

~From the Star Wars series; The Mandalorian, S1.E2 "The Child."

Five

[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."

I Have Friends Everywhere (Scenes From The Fall, Five.)

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.

...

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

So, apparently, even Karl Rove is pissed off and voting Democratic now. And, apparently, even Fox News isn't servile enough for Trump and the rest of his merry band of motherfuckers, and hell, Fox News quit the press pool in solidarity with CNN. Think about that for a second. Apparently Kevin Hassett AKA Punchy McPunchFace, the Human Capital Stock Guy from 2020 (R-Choeung Ek) called FOX News "Far Left." Excuse me? Wut?

So Trump's starting his own network...as a streaming service for $15 a month?

#1 I think These Fucking People are relying just a little too much on Trump Cultism.

#2 They see they're losing, so they're openly planning on killing Americans.

Anyway, Welcome to the Rebellion, Karl. I have friends everywhere.

We've got to take the neighborhood back. We've got to go in there. Just forget telling your child to go to the Peace Corps. It's right around the corner. It's standing on the corner. It can't speak English. It doesn't want to speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk. "Why you ain't where you is go." I don't know who these people are. And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. Then I heard the father talk. This is all in the house. You used to talk a certain way on the corner and you got into the house and switched to English. Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't land a plane with "why you ain't…". You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. There is no Bible that has that kind of language. Where did these people get the idea that they're moving ahead on this? Well, they know they're not, they're just hanging out in the same place, five or six generations sitting in the projects when you're just supposed to stay there long enough to get a job and move out. ~Bill Cosby, the "Pound Cake" speech.

I don't think this is gonna work out the way these idiots think it's gonna work out. A lot of them seem to think that they can just kill people, or do whatever they want, and somehow nobody's gonna fight back. Or they think they can tell a few utterly childish lies and somehow get away with it. None of this ever works that way.

Some pinch-faced old dude shot and killed a Latina in Delaware. She was walking across a field with her kids and her partner. He tried to say he thought she was a deer. Just one little problem with that, it's nowhere near firearm deer season in Delaware. I live in Michigan, even archery deer season doesn't start for another couple weeks. And I mean, literally, one of the first five rules of firearms safety is know what the fuck you're shooting at and what's downrange of it and you in any case.

Keep your finger off the trigger. Keep your weapon pointed in a safe direction. Do not point your weapon at anything you do not intend to shoot. Know what is downrange of you. Clearly identify your target before you fire your weapon. I could go on!

There are no accidents with weapons. And I'll note if you see dudes treating firearms as toys they are almost always Republicans.

No one should need me to tell them this stuff. I can't even talk the way these people talk.

And I wouldn't want to if I had the capability.

Maybe some prison Ministry will Deliver this asshole from his Demons, maybe not. In which case I also feel sorry for the damned Demons.

Either way, have fun in hell, motherfucker.

You shot a woman in cold blood in front of a bunch of witnesses, that's about as slam dunk as it gets, especially in a state like Delaware, which kept Joe Biden in the Senate long enough that he pretty much came with the building as far as modern American politics is concerned.

[After Beecher moves into Schillinger's cell]

Vernon Schillinger: You're not a Jew, are you?

Tobias Beecher: Me? Jewish? I don't even like Barbara Streisand.

Vernon Schillinger: You like my tattoos?

Tobias Beecher: Yeah.

Vernon Schillinger: We're gonna have to get you one.

Tobias Beecher: [laughs] I don't think so.

Vernon Schillinger: Oh, yeah, I'm gonna brand you myself.

Tobias Beecher: Livestock gets branded.

Vernon Schillinger: [chuckles] Livestock. Yeah, that's exactly what you are, my livestock. Because now, Tobias. Your ass belongs to me.

~From the HBO series Oz S1.E1 "The Routine."

Speaking as a former Republican here, at this point I don't even get what These Fucking People thought the endgame was.

Unless of course destruction and disintegration was the goal.

Which is exactly what I've been saying it was for over 20 fucking years now, and I was thinking that for more like 30-35 years.

And the thing is, about the only people this shit 100% worked on was (naturally) their own political movement because apparently some Republicans will just follow along with about anything.

As long as they get a chance to be bigoted and harm others. They don't care about anything else, not even their own freedom or lives.

If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan

At least, until it hits them square in the wallet. 

Don't forget that part.

Trump has pretty much been undone by the escalating cost of everything, but most especially high gas prices and the constant appeals to partisan loyalty and "Patriotic sacrifice" and shit just aren't working.

I mean, the thing is, for stuff like that there has to be a clear goal and a logical endgame and we've had neither for about 25 years.

My cousin, then an active-duty US Marine serving in a combat zone sent me a picture (Yes, an actual hardcopy photograph) from Afghanistan in 2002. It was of a firebase graffiti. "America is not at war. The Marine Corps is at war. America is at the Mall." 

I still have it somewhere.

The trouble is, when America can't be at the Mall anymore because the Mall is closed and most of us can't afford to buy much anyway that gets real hard to sustain. You can't build a whole system based on distractions and then price the distractions out of most people's reach and have that shit keep working.

Almost the Point of the Global War On Terror was that it, for the most part, bit no one in the ass on a daily basis except for serving military members. The only people other than that who saw the effects were those of us who were paying deliberate attention, veterans or not, whether liberal or conservative and most of the stuff we tried to warn people about just got blew off...until just this last couple years.

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)

Same for those of us trying to warn people about Evangelical Dominionism, and I've been on that subject for 25 years too, on either side of the political spectrum because there sure as shit ain't anything conservative about it either.

Now people can see.

Turns out Americans don't like being Colonized or Occupied either. 

And no amount of "Partisan" loyalty seems to be able to cover for or hide that fact. 

Who knew??

I knew. A lot of us knew.

More to the point, and especially considering my job, it's very, very damned interesting just who is complaining vs. who is just trying to get through this. 

It's mostly been the obvious conservatives that are the ones losing their shit about it. Everybody else from the liberals to the unaffiliated is just trying to plow through this and vote the fuckers out and hope the fuck we can figure out what to do from there.

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

And apparently, the Evangelical religion is fine with this bullshit.

No, I don't really consider Evangelicalism to be Christian anymore. 

They chose Trump.

I'll note and not for the first time today that all these religious nuts are also fine with constantly fucking each other over.

I got into a discussion before I got the 2 hours of sleep that's apparently all I was getting tonight about the song "Choosin' Texas" by Ella Langley and very few people seem to have heard it or heard of her, yet she's somehow had that song at #1 for long enough to replace Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas" for how long it was #1.

Not that I cared about that fucking song either, it's only been overplayed like fuck around the holidays for 32 years.

Ella's Wikipedia entry was standard not-very-descriptive cardboard cutout, but did point out she's an Evangelical.

So this is *Checks Notes* probably more pandering to that fucking garbage.

Like it's probably the same small bunch of people streaming the shit out of that song, but they're stacking the count to pander to These Fucking People. 

And by the way, that's the people who think that shit is some kind of great song anyway, it's probably just partisan loyalty. I watched the video and was completely unimpressed.

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.

Like I said, I think these people have gotten too comfortable and relied too much on Trump's political cultism.

And by definition that cannot keep going forever, even if it was working, which it isn't.

So they're falling back on bigotry.

But at this point, nobody believes their constant fearmongering about transgender people.

Communism hasn't been a thing since 1989.

Most people know that Muslims are only like 2% of the population and nobody's trying to implement "Sharia Law" which would be unconstitutional in any case under the 1st Amendment.

Republicans "Needed our vote" but they didn't need it enough to give a shit about anybody except themselves.

I have friends who are transgender and all type of other LGBT. My partner is bisexual, the kiddo is a lesbian. I can't go along with this horseshit.

More to the point, honestly, most of us are too tired to care.

I mean, I get that the Republican ideal is basically the Killing Fields of Khmer Rouge Cambodia but with a Mall.

I can't afford to die.

And if we all get through this, we have a future.

I have to keep myself going and help keep my partner and the kiddo afloat and even if I was of the inclination to be hateful towards some other random group of people I don't have the energy or the time. I'm not rich enough to be in politics and do this for a living nor chronically unemployed and lacking in character enough to be an "Influencer" so what's even the damn point.

From daydreams on the road there was no waking. He plodded on. He could remember everything of her save her scent. Seated in a theatre with her beside him leaning forward listening to the music. Gold scrollwork and sconces and the tall columnar folds of the drapes at either side of the stage. She held his hand in her lap and he could feel the tops of her stockings through the thin stuff of her summer dress. Freeze this frame. Now call down your dark and your cold and be damned. ~From Cormac McCarthy's The Road (Book.)

Republicans have, to a great extent, created the Burnout Nation they always wanted. 

They forgot, however, to not make us hate them in the process. They forgot we could draw strength from each other and still keep going. They forgot (repeatedly, despite us doing it) that we had agency and could protect ourselves and those we love.

It's Republicans who hated the future and Other People and thus don't even seem to care if they have a future or anybody who will give a shit about them in it.

The whole mess is coming tumbling down like the walls of Jericho.

And at this point, that's not my fucking problem. These Fucking People threw me and any of my concerns overboard in 2008 if not before.

And so tomorrow, as we take the campaign South and West, as we learn that the struggles of the textile workers in Spartanburg are not so different than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas; that the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of L.A.; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people, we are one nation. And, together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story, with three words that will ring from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea: Yes, we can. ~Barack Obama

Oh yes, I remember. And I remember why.

And I still say it's going to come down to a fight to stop this bullshit.

If only because that's what they want.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Welcome to the Rebellion.

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

Four

"I will not trash talk. I will not be a divider in chief or an agitator in chief. I won't be out there blowharding, talking a big game without backing it up. I think the next president needs to be a lot quieter but send a signal that we're prepared to act in the national security interests of this country — to get back in the business of creating a more peaceful world."

[Silence. A lone bugler plays Taps.]
"Please clap."

~Jeb! Bush, February 2nd, 2016

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

No (Scenes From The Fall, Four.)

Commodus: "Maximus... Maximus... Maximus..." They call for you. The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an emperor. Striking story! Now the people want to know how the story ends. Only a famous death will do. And what could be more glorious than to challenge the Emperor himself in the great arena?

Maximus: You would fight me?

Commodus: Why not? Do you think I am afraid?

Maximus: I think you've been afraid all your life.

Commodus: Unlike Maximus the invincible, who knows no fear?

Maximus: I knew a man once who said, 'Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back.'

Commodus: I wonder, did your friend smile at his own death?

Maximus: You must know. He was your father.

~From the film Gladiator.

...

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judges her.

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. ~Revelation 18:1-10

...

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.

I saw this last night.

Trump, threatening Europe over the invitation to Canada to become a member of the European Union.

If you haven't figured it out now, the Canadians will tell him to get fucked, as will the Europeans, as a rule.

Then I saw Trump, literally threatening his own voters in North Carolina if Republicans don't win the midterms. Homie, I'm not thinking the people who are still showing up at Republican political rallies at this point are the people you need to even be talking to.

Because it's everybody else in the state who's sick of this horseshit that's going to tell Republicans to go pound sand.

Then earlier today I saw this, some idiot Trump supporter, begging Trump to do something about the price of Diesel fuel, because this guy basically can't afford to work at this point since his costs are about totally eating his previous profits.

And you know who Trump, and Republicans, will do absolutely fuck all for, or about, and are not afraid of?

The guy that's begging, that's trying to appeal to their (nonexistent) better nature. The moron that thinks political loyalty (or any other kind) is some kind of a currency or even matters to These Fucking People.

And by the way, it's the utter abandonment of loyalty, of any sense of social contract, their reliance on conspiracy theory and division and racism...that's how Republicans lost me in the first place. Note I say this as both a previous Republican volunteer and a Veteran. That was in *Checks Calendar* 2008.

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

These are not my grandparents or my parents' generation of Republicans, or even my generation.

Current Republicans, even the older ones, the ones who should know better...have had their mentality shaped by 30 years of consequence-free shitty behavior on the internet, by 20 years of social media, by the ability to bloviate and make vain pronouncements...and then curate who the hell can even respond.

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

Yes, I get it, some of these fucking people are older than dirt and have been in politics since my Mom was in Elementary school.

But the mental age, the maturity level, of Republicans is about that of the 13-year-old Internet CHUD.

And, if anything, other places, countries that really should know better, have it even worse.

These motherfuckers, period, do not care about other people, period.

It's not like nobody was warned, by all type of people who saw exactly this kind of crap coming before all this technology was even a thing.

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.

It's all just words on a screen to them, some kind of a giant video game; They do not give a fuck about other people or how their evil acts might affect anybody else.

A lot of these people were pieces of shit before.

But a lot of them simply have never had to give a damn. They've been curated by the algorithm and by social class to never have to interact with anybody who is unlike themselves, or for whom this stuff isn't a game.

And genuine emotions or feelings are a mystery to them because they're narcissists, or sociopaths, again because they've never had to face real consequences for anything.

I Have Spoken.

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...this is the part that should bother everybody...now These Fucking People are taking their bullshit and the violent ideation of a comments section out into the world, thinking everything is clicks and "likes" and horseshit.

And they're surprised when regular people beat the shit out of them, or tell them to get fucked and they end up in jail for a hate crime.

Sorry, but (and I've had this argument) free speech absolutism without immediate, very loud and public consequences (by peers rather than the government) for bad behavior was always going to come down to people thinking "Freedom" was the ability to say the N-Word and some kind of sexual perversion. It was always going to result not only in violence but particularly idiotic violence.

Not just free speech absolutism, but American-style conservatism in general actually working was always way too dependent on #1 People having a better nature, on having principles and #2 on people having the guts to enforce that shit.

Our system has always had way too much faith in its people, I've known this since I was a kid.

"I will not trash talk. I will not be a divider in chief or an agitator in chief. I won't be out there blowharding, talking a big game without backing it up. I think the next president needs to be a lot quieter but send a signal that we're prepared to act in the national security interests of this country — to get back in the business of creating a more peaceful world."

[Silence. Sound of scuffling in the background. Single gunshot. Silence.]
"Please clap."

~Jeb! Bush, February 2nd, 2016

And more to the point, there's way too many people that bank on our people not being the people that our Founding Fathers expected them to be...and then they bank on everybody maintaining the polite delusion that all these folks are decent people or rational actors despite blatant evidence to the contrary.

And it's getting so These Fucking People have to be met with violence, because it's coming down to self-defense or defense of another for way too many of us already.

And the desire of the Mob for blood, depravity, murder and slavery is becoming such that even the goddamn idiot conspiracy theorists running our government cannot...literally cannot because now they're chasing after Chemtrail bullshit that simply isn't real...ever meet the expectations of.

So they will end up being targets of these internet-sozzled weirdos too. Yes, even Trump and Co. will be targeted by them, if they haven't already. I mean, fuck, it should tell you something that everybody who's tried to assassinate Trump is apparently even further-Right than he is. Same with whoever killed Charlie Kirk.

The system cannot be crazy enough for these fucking people because it's a system and it needs certain rules to even work.

It all started with, and will come down to, the kind of people who thought using racial slurs in the comments section on Yahoo News in 2006-2008 was funny. No one can ever please those people. Their whole bit is escalatory bad behavior to try to provoke a reaction, right up until somebody has to defend themselves or another person. 

"The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride."

~Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly 25 February 2022, Associated Press

Trouble is, if you kill somebody or they end up in jail, chances become real good that they won't learn anything. 

The comments-section droolers will look at people like that truck driver that's begging for Diesel prices to go down, begging for some kind of relief before he goes under...as traitors.

And figure they're weak because their go-to was to appeal to someone's better nature and to beg.

And no, the oh-so-sophisticated Internet Cynicism of a hell of a lot of "Leftists" isn't going to help them either.

Because a lot of people are basically half a step up from being the fucking Taliban. 

Allah Akbar! *Hits Blunt*

You can't argue with that because that's two things that ain't supposed to go together to even start with. You cannot appeal to the better nature of people for whom contradiction and unreason are their whole fucking bit. 

If you're not willing to fight for it, take the word 'Freedom' out of your vocabulary. ~Malcolm X.

And you should expect criminality and terrorism and violence from such people when their bullshit gets challenged.

How dare somebody else call bullshit on their ideology, their tautology, their perfect Man-centered little small and mean self-contained world. Yes, the "Self on the Throne vs. God on the Throne" argument of my old life as that kind of Christian does not even begin to reckon with These Fucking People.

Yeah, Okay, the Bible offers some suggestions but modern Christianity has damned little in place to deal with masses of crazy idiots who, each and every one, think THEY are God. 

Maybe we shouldn't have farmed that out to the mental health profession and treated such people compassionately. Some people just need to be dragged off to Chop-Chop Square and dealt with in the old-school way. Yeah, okay, some people are genuinely insane and all that. But, there's not a lot of societal enforcement value in giving a certain kind of nut public housing and psych meds.

For the most part the narcissists and other personality disorder types will just sell their meds and be crazy anyway, my Mom is a retired social worker and has told me as much.

There are a lot of people with personality disorders who, one way or another, think somebody being nice to them is somebody to take advantage of. I don't think modernity has faced that issue yet.

And it's getting worse.

And until we start treating Narcissism as a Sin against God and dealing with it that way, it's gonna keep getting worse.

Some of us have other people we care about. We have to. It's how we even get through the day in this world.

You can take a lot of things away from a man. Cigarettes, the gym. You can take his freedom, his legs, but not his feelings. Not his feelings. A man loves a woman. Don't matter what kind of man he is, if he loves her, he wants her. He wants her body. He wants her to want his. So you say to him, "you can never make love again. You will never touch her in that way again. This is the last time. The last time. Forever." If that's not cruel and unusual punishment, I don't know what is. ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO series Oz, S1.E2 "Visits, Conjugal and otherwise."

And stopping this mess, telling these monsters to get fucked, is going to come down to a fight.

America needs to learn the word "No."

The rest of the world is clearly coming around to that idea and networking accordingly.

The rest of us in America that aren't monstrous assholes had better join them.

Either you 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

And so tomorrow, as we take the campaign South and West, as we learn that the struggles of the textile workers in Spartanburg are not so different than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas; that the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of L.A.; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people, we are one nation. And, together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story, with three words that will ring from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea: Yes, we can. ~Barack Obama

[Kuiil and Mando have successfully repaired the Razor Crest with the parts recovered from the Jawas]

The Mandalorian: I can't thank you enough. Please allow me to give you a portion of the reward.

Kuiil: I cannot accept. You are my guest, and I am therefore in your service.

The Mandalorian: I could use a crew member of your ability. And I can pay handsomely.

Kuiil: I am honored. But I have worked a lifetime to finally be free of servitude.

The Mandalorian: I understand. Then... all I can offer is my thanks.

Kuiil: And I offer mine. Thank you for bringing peace to my valley. [leaves the ship and mounts his Blurrg; to Mando] And good luck with the Child. May it survive and bring you a handsome reward. I have spoken.

~From the Star Wars series; The Mandalorian, S1.E2 "The Child."