Charlie Crow (Spiritual Warfare, Two.)

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 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, letter written following the Hajj.

Maya Angelou said "When someone tells you who they are, believe them the first time."

Charlie Kirk said, this morning, that Joy Reid, Ketanji Brown-Jackson and Michelle Obama only ever got anywhere because of "Affirmative Action." No, motherfucker. No.

You can't get into a position like that, without showing that you have something going for you. 

All of those women were smart and talented and driven enough to get somewhere before they got famous. They had to be, just to get in the damn door. Hell, every job I've ever had I either got on my own talents or...simply because I was either crazy or dumb enough to volunteer.

Theoretically, that's how America is supposed to work, across the board. Isn't it??

Well, unless you're White and talk the right "Conservative" talk, that is. Then all you have to do is claim to have the proper in-vogue "Conservative" beliefs, then kiss enough asses and say the "right" things to the right people and simpering choads like Mitch McConnell will get you the rest of the way.

Some idiotic goddamned Republican actually used the words "Colored People" in the House yesterday and I'm like "What?"

I haven't heard anybody use those kinds of words since I was a kid, like we're talking 1980's here. At least where I was at, say some shit like that 40 years ago and most people was gonna look at you like you had three heads or some shit.

Now I realize certain people have always talked that way (or worse) in private, but I used to be a Republican. There were limits, some things just weren't done, period. 

Shit like that used to be career-ending...and in most places outside of the Republican Party it still is. If I said something like that at my job...for fuck's sake at any job I ever had, including the military...I would certainly be disciplined, possibly even fired the first time and absolutely would be if there were any repeat incidents. 

If *I* can't say shit like that...and I have no desire to, because trust me, saying that shit would fuck over my entire life and I'd deserve it....how can some old idiot Republican say that shit in Congress??

Isn't the House of Representatives the "People's House" and aren't those elected to it charged with representing all of us??

I know, I know, Republicans don't see it that way. They represent certain interests, and that's it, and they think everybody else does the same. They think everybody else is conniving shit-birds just like they are, and you can't tell these people anything else. 

It's a failure of imagination. As much as so many of these fuckers claim to hate Neocons, they never learned a damn thing from Newt Gingrich or the Bush 43 administration.

But, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say even in that context, all is not well in MAGA-land.

It's the same old Republican Modus Operandi.

If they can't do what they want...even if such is not legally or physically or otherwise possible, they'll just shit all over everything they can and ruin things for everybody else.

They believe in nothing, so how would they understand other people who believe in something even if that something is just their own right to exist?

Of course Republicans value their bad-faith garbage and shitty political and social views so much they they're (mostly) willing to destroy themselves for that shit. Mike Pence, of course, being the archetypal example. Trump tried to have him hanged...and he still refuses to even bring it up, condemn J6 or Trump or anything.

But the rest of us are not like that.

And I've been hearing at least some of these fucking people bitch that X or Y didn't work out how they thought it was going to when they voted for Z my whole damn life. It always ends up the same way. They're never happy.

It always ends badly. Think whole years like 2008 or 2020. If you aren't, well I am tired of this bullshit!

Maybe try voting based on something other than cultic sycophancy, personal grievance and petty hatred? 

I don't hate anybody enough to want to make my own life worse because I think it'll spite them in some 85-dimensional way.

More to the point this is America in the 21st goddamn century in an ever-changing modern world. 

You literally don't have a right to be mad about "Other People Exist." The world is what it is. It's not going to change just because you don't like it. It's that simple, and I don't think you have a "right" to be bigoted towards those other people, either.

And I'm clearly not the only one, else people would not be leaving Florida, Mike Lindell would not be going broke, and various State Republican parties (including my own here in Michigan) would not be out of money and stuck in some kind of internecine civil war, either.

(And then they wanna turn the whole damn country into this kind of shit??)

I saw a bit in the Detroit Free Press last week, some local Republican official trying to say their ticket back to being something was "God, and local control."

Motherfucker, No.

I've seen these fucking people's idea of "God." I want no goddamn part of it.

I've watched people like Mike Lindell destroy themselves and go broke for Trump knowing he'd never appreciate it.

I've seen these fucking people try like hell to deify Donald Trump (and more lately, Ron DeSantis) simply because he stroked their lizard-brain frills just so and because they can't resist feeding a goddamned narcissist or jacking off to the idea of being a concentration camp guard. 

And they can't even get that shit right.

But they'll frenetically whack themselves off 'til they go blind over even the remotest hope that they might get to be openly racist again?

Didn't we fight a war over this? One here and a couple abroad? 

Didn't our ancestors build a liberal-democratic world order to try and prevent threats like fascism from arising again? Didn't our ancestors decide on Civil Rights instead of Segregation? 

Hasn't American Capitalism spent the last six decades finding ways to include new people, simply because it can't survive...much less compete in the world...as a closed "Rich Whites Only" system??

How the fuck is there anything "Conservative" about this bullshit?

You tell me.

This is America, and it seems like there's about a third of us who want damned near anything besides "Love Thy Neighbor" let alone "We The People..."

And I'm goddamned tired of Americans, who of all people should know better, selling themselves out to small, greedy men because they think it'll hurt somebody else.

You want to fuck up your own shit because of fear, hate and resentment? 

Fine, we can't stop you from doing that. What we can do is stop you from trying to take the rest of us down with you.

Worse, they can't wait to equate this mess with Christianity, and the Christians fall all over themselves trying to get associated with it, too? Everybody from Baptists to Sedevacantists wants that (R) next to their name.

This, despite the fact that the places where Christianity has the greatest numbers of Believers are mostly full of Black and Brown people? (And the paradigm has flipped enough, now they want to Evangelize US.)

How the fuck does that even add up, how is shit like racism so central to these people's Christianity, how is undermining everything we spent 250 years building "Conservative?" Unless it was all crap to start with?

I'm tired of this bullshit.

You want to do anything constructive, you have to believe in something other than how great You the Self is.

You want a better nation, you have to be a better citizen and this ain't it, yo.

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You men gather round. I've been talking with, Pvt. Bucklin, he's told me about your problem. There's nothing I can do today. We'll be moving out in a few minutes, we'll be moving all day. I've been ordered to take you men with me. I'm told that, uh, that if you don't come, I can shoot you. Well, you know I won't do that. Maybe somebody else will, but I won't, so, that's that. Uh here's the, uh, situation. The whole Reb army is up that road a ways, waiting for us, so this is no time for an argument like this, I tell ya. We could surely use you fellas, we're now well below half strength. Whether you fight, or not, that's...that's up to you. Whether you come along is, is...well, you're comin'.

You know who we are and what we're doing here, but if you want to fight along side us, there's some things I want you to know. This regiment was formed last summer in Maine. There were a thousand of us then. There are less than three hundred of us now. All of us volunteered to fight for the Union, just as you did. Some came mainly because we were bored at home, thought this looked like it might be fun. Some came because we were ashamed not to. Many of us came because it was the right thing to do. All of us have seen men die. This is a different kind of army. If you look back through history, you will see men fighting for pay, for women, for some other kind of loot. They fight for land, power, because a king leads them or, or just because they like killing. But we are here for something new. This has not happened much in the history of the world. We are an army out to set other men free.

America should be free ground - all of it. Not divided by a line between slave state and free, all the way from here to the Pacific Ocean. No man has to bow. No man born to royalty. Here, we judge you by what you do, not by who your father was. Here, you can be something. Here, is the place to build a home. But it's not the land. There's always more land. It's the idea that we all have value - you and me. What we're fighting for, in the end, we're fighting for each other. Sorry, I, uh, didn't mean to preach. You, uh, you go ahead. You talk for awhile. Uh, if you, uh, if you choose to join us, you want your muskets back, you can have 'em. Nothing more will be said by anybody anywhere. If you, uh, choose not to join us, well you can come along under guard, and when this is all over I will do what I can to see you get a fair treatment. But for now, we're moving out. Gentlemen, I think if we lose this fight, we lose the war. So if you choose to join us, I'll be personally very grateful. 

~Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, from the film Gettysburg.

One

Stealing Heaven (Spiritual Warfare, One.)

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

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

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

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

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

Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time. ~Amos 5:8-13

I saw this while I was out today. My Mom and I had to take her sick, geriatric Maltese to the vet, and it was my job to wrangle the other dogs while she did that. I've been thinking since, about what to write...

Anybody remember Harold Camping?

In late 2010 and early 2011, Harold Camping's End Times prediction that the Rapture would take place on May 21, 2011 was kind of a big deal.

And by "Kind of a big deal" I mean "Everybody I knew with any serious knowledge of Christian Eschatology was laughing at it." For me, that happened to include a lot of people at the time, since I was basically part of a house-church.

In other words, we'd eat breakfast on Saturday mornings at Cranker's restaurant in Mount Pleasant or at my buddy's house, laugh like a motherfucker about it...and then back that shit up with Scripture. We went all in on telling people that it was bullshit as a voted-on group policy. *I* typed up and printed out what we decided. (We were also against the 2012 Mayan calendar bullshit.)

But I'm 100% serious when I say this garbage was all over the place, just like the Q-Anon horseshit is now. Between Harold Camping and the Mayan calendar garbage, there was a lot of it going around.

Just like there had once been with all the Y2K ridiculousness and that certainly came to nothing.

But motherfuckers wanna believe.

Hell, we worked with people who'd bought into it, and who had to be talked out of this bullshit.

People abandoned jobs and lives, divorced their spouses, and gave Harold Camping their life-savings. At least one person committed suicide because of these bullshit predictions.

And don't listen to what they tell you. It's not a message of Hope.

It's a message of "Heaven isn't Heaven if everybody gets to go." 

It's a message of "I'm going to get whisked away to Heaven by Jesus and you're going to stay here and get zapped into charcoal briquettes while I get to watch." Trust me, them getting to watch is the most important part, as far as these fucking people are concerned.

It needs to be said that, not only are these fucking people's beliefs about this shit both explicitly political and inherently racist (They like Capitalism mostly when it hurts other people) but that their actual stated (and written about, including in fiction) belief in their End Times Narrative is that the "End Times" specifically will be when people other than White Far-Right "Christians" hold power over the World. 

They are not subtle about this. 

I'm serious, read the "Left Behind" series books. They come right out and say it shit like that cell phones, LGBT people and solar power are "From the Devil."

Capitalism (but only for those deemed worthy) is Heaven. Everybody in the world getting enough to eat is Hell. It's literally "The Cruelty Is The Point" sacralized.

It's all about a certain kind of people (Conservative White Men) holding ultimate authority in the world, right up to the fact that those books populate the Antichrist's cabinet or supreme council or whatever you want to call it with People of Color and women, and nearly everybody is thus presented as the worst possible right-wing stereotype of whatever.

And yes, I've been hearing the "We Are Living In The End Times" crap from these idiots to one extent or another for my entire damned life. I was a mainstream Christian, though. 

So, of course I didn't "Do" End Times eschatology until I was an adult. I was Evangelized into it while serving in the Air Force, and even then it took a couple years to get all the way into it...and despite being a conservative I never bought into all the political aspects.

For a long time, the entire narrative changed every time anything happened, so you really couldn't.

And then Trump came along, and conspiracy theories took over in their own right, and now it's all Antivaxxer woo, pro-Russia crap, Q-Anon lies and racism. Jesus has been kicked out of His own End Times story. 

These same people would have you believe Trump is Christ.

When you point out that the New Testament in general (and Revelation in particular) spend a lot of time talking about exactly this happening, these fucking people either ignore it or try and use conspiracy theories to argue against you.

Actual truths like that Barack Obama is a Christian with a church background,  Joe Biden is a devout, practicing Catholic, that Ukraine is a (small-C) conservative and very Christian nation...and that authoritarian countries like Orban's Hungary or Putin's Russia genuinely are not (per measured levels of religious observance) or that most of the growth in Christianity has been among Black and Brown people in the Global South for over a generation...don't compute with these fucking people. They don't care. 

They don't want to know. Hell, if they did it wouldn't matter.

Because none of this stuff was ever really about any of that anyway.

Because it's all about Power and Wealth and a certain kind of people being able to imagine they have the market cornered on both or that people like Donald Trump and Elon Musk are just like them. The fake religiosity is just to fool the feeble-minded. It's not an accident that these people's concept of Heaven reads like a materialist power-fantasy, because it is one. 

For fuck's sake, Twitter has been shoving a lot of Calvinist and Reformed theology bullshit in my feed. You know, the beliefs of Apartheid South Africa.

It's not an aberration or an error that modern Christianity is full of grifters and scammers and that the traditional beliefs and the people who hold to them have been rudely shoved aside. 

It's the point.

And they'll believe whatever false prophecies they have to and otherwise destroy themselves if they think it'll help them keep this grift going. 

These fucking people would try to steal Heaven if they thought they could, and thought they'd get away with it...in just the same way that Harold Camping got a whole lot of people to give him a bunch of money in the last few years before he died. This Q-Anon bullshit will work out the same way.

I don't think God works that way, for one, but you can't tell these people a damn thing.

He who dies with the most money is still dead. The Prosperity Gospel is a lie. 

The Rapture is a false doctrine made up by an English kook and propagated by a former Confederate soldier.

Look at the history of this crap. These fucking people are not your friends and they tell you straight up what kind of world they want to live in.

And then they have the balls to call all this "Spiritual Warfare."

Last Post

Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.

As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.

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

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

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

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

But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. ~Amos 5:18-24

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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

Unspiritual Warfare (American Revelation XIII, Ten.)

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:
But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.
Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.
But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go Ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
Watch therefore, for Ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. 

~Matthew 25:1-13

...

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

I saw this yesterday.

Be afraid, people, be very afraid. (LOL.)

The "Mom's For Liberty" bitches are threatening "Spiritual Warfare" against the rest of us. They're going to get out the "Big Stick" now, and threaten us with God.

Bro, if you want to know why I'm an Agnostic, and why these fucking "Moms for Liberty" are nothing but a bunch of lying and scamming False Prophets...well, there's your answer.

My ex-wife threatened me with God for years, nothing ever happened.

Lest anyone doubt how full of crap these people are here's April Marie, "Mom For Liberty" on vacation with her boobs half hanging out. 

She objects to nonexistent "Porn" in classrooms but she clearly has no issues with making a sexual object of herself for the titillation of whatever right-wing "Men" follow her bitch ass on Twitter. Think about that for a second. She sure didn't.

I can remember when conservative women were expected to have at least some degree of ladylike behavior or at least self-respect, and when anything otherwise was a scandal. 

Yes, I'm Old.

I suppose I'd be a "Joyful Warrior" too, if none of the rules of my own philosophy or supposed religion actually applied to me. 

But then, what's the point of even having one...unless the only reason you wanna have it is an excuse to beat up on other people for no reason worth mentioning and fool the feeble-minded while getting bad-faith actors and evil motherfuckers to come to your own defense?

One of these things is not like the other one.

But that's all the Word is to these fucking people.

An excuse, a rationalization, to do what they want.

All these "Conservatives" could give an absolute shit about the Lord's Word, for the same reason they're abandoning Americanism and Capitalism and every other damn thing they ever claimed to believe in before.

Because it didn't hurt other people enough, and it placed limits on their behavior.

I'd take any claims of "Putting the Bible back in schools" with a Container Ship full of hundreds of thousands of Bags Of Holding stuffed with infinite amounts of Salt. 

Thank you very fucking much.

Actually, I think the only reason these fucking people want the Bible anywhere near schools is also because they also keep getting caught trying to say that Donald Trump is Jesus Christ.

Again, one of these things is not like the other one. Didn't any of these idiots watch The Muppets??

And if you don't think these "Joyful Warrior" motherfuckers will, if things keep going as they are and likely will for the foreseeable future...going to take their Joyful Warrior asses and joyfully side with the enemies of America the very first chance they get...you have another thing coming. 

They are already doing exactly this.

They see America as "Sinful" because other people have rights. Because, ya know, the Constitution.

And the same people constantly fearmongering to their Base about the "Communist Chinese" are all too happy to take money and political pointers from Chinese agents and suck up to Vladmir Putin.

Republicans do this in the hopes that when somebody attacks America and they make sure half our defenses are down so they can break off a piece and join the global Authoritarianism, Inc. chain of commands, patronage and vassalage, they'll be able to do enough ass-kissing, bribe-trading, play enough fuck fuck games and suck enough dicks that they'll be able to ensure a nice place for themselves and play all their corrupt political games in peace forever while getting free money and torturing the shit out of any out-groups that can't get out of whatever territory they take over fast enough.

And they want a Corrupt World System rather than the current small "L" small "D" liberal democratic world order, because they think said Corrupt world political system will protect them and only them while holding down whoever they think they're going to beat on.

(You'll notice that for all their big talk, these chickenshits don't ever want to actually fight anybody who can and will fight back.)

It doesn't work that way.

In other words they want the Late Middle Ages or the early part of the Age of Exploration, with Putin as some kind of Antichrist "Pope" to give them stuff and they think they'll be Spain under the incestuous Catholic monarchs, rather than, ya know, the Republic of Venice or the Native Americans or something.

And the truth is, they would be bit players, even compared to the American rump-state, because guess what? Washington DC ain't going to actually let anywhere that's important to our resource base or security go. Canada sure wouldn't tolerate a nuclear-armed rogue state in North Dakota. Mexico ain't going to tolerate a banana republic in some chunk of Texas tormenting Latinos. 

The list goes on.

They end up with a banana republic in a chunk of south Alabama...except there's no bananas.

Whatever they got...would be defended by other powers, subject to exactly what those other powers might tolerate, and most of those other countries don't have the kind of pussy-ass white-gloved, nice-guy justice system that America has if you're a Republican...IF you even get to have such a thing as a trial in the first place...rather than, say, going headfirst out the window if you fuck up. These people neither know nor care how the world really works. If they did, they'd love America.

The modern Republican Party only wants any kind of change or progress when they think the deck has been completely pre-stacked in their favor...and none of this works that way. And then they'll get mad when whatever's left of America itself, and the rest of the world, continues to progress, survive and eventually to thrive without them.

Shit, these fucking people are still mad as hell that nobody, and I mean nobody, bought their bullshit "Hunter Biden's Laptop" attempt at an "October Surprise" and still want congressional hearings about the subject that...functionally, a majority of America has at least two working brain cells per person.

It's coming up on three years later.

The rest of the world has moved on, Republicans...haven't.

And now they're mad that neither the armed services, nor the Department of Defense, nor military women, are just rigidly standing at attention and taking their abuse and just allowing the bodily autonomy and the personhood of female military personnel to be denied because some pinch-faced Republican Supreme Court "Justices" felt like it that day.

Tommy Tuberville is madder than a wet hen that what he caricatures as the "empty-headed" and "tolerant" Left doesn't just regard Segregationist bullshit, White Nationalism and White Supremacy as "Just another belief system" even though I'm sure if pushed hard enough he'd try to defend Oppression as part of "Southern" "Culture" all day. Hell, Republicans are still mad the "Marketplace of ideas" as they put it, you know, Capitalism, said "No."

Instead, Capitalism said "Hey, wait a minute, Women can work just the same as men" and "Wait? Black people have money too? Sign them all up!!"

All their talk about morals or religiosity was just a lie to try and keep other people from participating in life.

Capitalism, liberal democracy and modernity need both diversity and more people with a share in order to keep functioning at a level that provides returns on investments for wealthy shareholders...yes, including Republicans. Tommy Tuberville is mad that his banana republic has bananas because he doesn't like where the bananas come from or who guards the bananas.

And now that they can't control who gets to play, and do so forever with no one else even getting a say, and everyone else locked into grinding poverty as a societal role, Republicans want none of it.

They'd rather cook their own Golden Goose than see Black people get a slice enough to feed it.

This is America, and they mad about it.

There's nothing "Conservative" about these fucking people and their idea of "Spirituality" is some priest with his back to the congregation speaking a language only the few elites there even understand while going through the motions of religiosity while everyone else is forced to look like they're paying attention. And they don't give a damn if the priest is a pervert or anything, either.

Just in case you wonder how the Catholic Trads and Sedevacantists managed to buttfuck the Southern Baptist Convention, there it is.

I'm here to tell you, as soon as they realize that the majority of the world's Catholics aren't "White Conservatives" like they are or that any given White Supremacist Catholic Trad Incel asshole has a good chance of coming with a surname like Fuentes and liking to "date" Cat-boys...they won't really want that either.

These motherfuckers are trying to bully and kill and manipulate their way into a "Perfect" world.

And the whole point of the Bible was that this world can't be perfected, least of all by Man. You have to believe in something greater than yourself and your own petty hatreds, and actually follow it.

If you're wondering why these fucking people grabbed onto everything from Antivaxxer woo to Falun Gong bullshit to Putinism to Trump...there's your "Why."

Anything other than "Love Thy Neighbor" or "We The People..." eh?

Having to believe in anything other than infinite grievance and their own claimed "Superiority" is a dealbreaker for these Republicans too.

And they still expect the rest of us to consider them "Spiritual" and let them bully and bullshit us with religious-sounding talk.

Think about that for a second.

And Don't.

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Our nation is founded on the principle that we do not have kings. We have presidents. And the Constitution is our compass. When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something. To do something. Our children and their children will ask us, ‘What did you do? What did you say?' For some, he concluded, this vote may be hard. But we have a mission and a mandate to be on the right side of history. ~John Lewis

...

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

Unreasonable People (American Revelation XIII, Nine.)

Smug, greedy, well-fed white people have invented a language to conceal their sins. It's as simple as that. The CIA doesn't kill anybody anymore, they neutralize people, or they depopulate the area. The government doesn't lie, it engages in disinformation. The Pentagon actually measures nuclear radiation in something they call sunshine units. Israeli murderers are called commandos, Arab commandos are called terrorists. Contra killers are called freedom fighters. Well, if crime fighters fight crime, and firefighters fight fires, what do freedom fighters fight? ~George Carlin

...

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

I saw this just a little bit ago.

Some idiot Right-wing media person harassing Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs while she's at the gym.

Understand one thing. The inclusive, bleeding-heart Democrats are down the hall. Katie handled it a lot better than I would have. I'd have decked that "Reporter." The camera's next view would've been of the ceiling, or maybe a cockeyed view of the floor.

Come at me with conspiracy theory bullshit while I'm on my own time and don't have to put up with it, you're going to fuck around and find out.

I'm not an "Inclusive, Bleeding Heart" Dem. I'm a "Fuck You, I'm not at work. Come back in an appropriate venue during work hours" Democrat. 

I was in the military, I do not suffer fools gladly.

And if you expect people to be nice to those who are harassing them when they're just trying to go about personal business and live their lives, especially if it's all for attention, cheap internet fame, "Clicks" or conspiracy theories or some such bullshit?? 

As far as I'm concerned you deserve to be fed as many knuckle sandwiches as it takes to get your ass to stop doing that. People in government, Democrats just as much as Republicans, have a life too.

When I'm not at work, I'm Not. At. Work. If my boss needs me to come in, or something, they'll call. I'm a Union member. It's kind of a big deal to me after 18 years of working in a casino that I get treated decently at my current job. It's not only socially inappropriate...it's actually illegal for an agency or a company to expect employees to handle government business or work when 'off the clock' unless it's a stipulation of the job (and there's some hard limits on that) that one is on call 24/7.

And of course a lot of shitty businesses like fast food get around some of these labor laws by making all type of people "managers" on salary and then having them work all type of crazy hours as regular workers. And of course, there's the (right-wing originated) "Company-as-your-god" model of doing things where places develop a shitty work culture that expects people's lives to be based around the workplace. That's what my last job was like, and that shit went from being an annoyance, to being a joke, to legitimately grating on my nerves every damn night.

This is even worse than that, though.

This shit is creepy stalker bullshit. There's no better words for it, no excuse for this garbage.

Now I get that, from the same "Media" ecosystem that produced Tucker Carlson, this is probably just par for the course. There's no act so evil, no interpretation so vile they won't take it, no thing to do, nor anything of the sort that's too much for these motherfuckers. I'm not surprised, just disgusted. 

These people are motherfuckers. They fuck mothers. They screw people over for no better reason than they think it's funny. They participate in Civilization, Bobby Lee style, only on the most bitterest possible terms unless they get to rule over all, forever.

I'm sure Tommy Tuberville thinks it's some big joke jacking around with the military because something something Abortion policy. Well, if it wasn't that, he'd find some other bullshit excuse.

You can't reason with that. Dude will keep being an absolute motherfucker until he is literally forced to stop, removed, or threatened with harsh enough physical consequences to his person or his wealth. And then he'll just be mad about it forever.

You deal with these fucking people by never letting them have power in the first goddamned place.

You deal with these fucking people by telling them to fuck off, and continuing to tell them to fuck off until they do, indeed, fuck off.

And as a last resort, you make certain these kind of assholes know you will defend yourself, and then you do it.

You cannot reason with unreasonable people, stop trying.

Other people can't keep expecting you to be the "Bigger person" when the other side refuses to act like decent human beings at all. The idea that there's some moral observers watching who'll decide the situation in your favor is mostly bullshit.

You want freedom, you want justice or peace? Sometimes you gotta step up and make it.

You want decent behavior, hard limits, standards? Live it, make them, then enforce them.

You get what you tolerate, America.

And we need to stop tolerating bad behavior, conspiracy theories and stupidity.

If we're going to put up with this shit, we need to ask "Where does it stop??"

Because all too often, it doesn't.

So you have to step up and make it stop.

It's both that complicated and that simple.

Be A Better Citizen.

Lead, Follow, or Get Out Of The Way.

Eight

MTG Edition

Слава Україна!

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:
But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.
Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.
But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go Ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
Watch therefore, for Ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. 

~Matthew 25:1-13

On The Dark And Rolling Sea (American Revelation XIII, Marjorie Taylor Greene Edition.)

Oh you set your course for the furthest shores

And you never once looked back
And the flag you flew was a pirate cross
On a field of velvet black
And those landsmen who you but lately knew
Were left stranded on the lea
Don't call on them when the storm clouds rise
On the dark and the rolling sea

Oh I have no need of a chart or creed
You told your waiting crew
For the winds of chance, they will bear us straight
And you spoke as though you knew
So you paid no mind to the warning signs
As you gave your words so free
Don't change your tack when the timbers crack
On the dark and the rolling sea

Now the thunder rails in the great mainsails
And the stars desert the skies
And the rigging strains as the hands of rain
Reach down to wash your eyes
And your oarsmen stands with his knife in hand
And his eyes spell mutiny
Don't call my name when your ship goes down
On the dark and the rolling sea.
~Al Stewart,
On the dark and rolling sea.

I just saw this.

Apparently Marjorie Taylor Greene has been purged from the Freedom Caucus.

L...and I can't stress this enough...OL.

Fuck you, bitch.

I have absolutely no sympathy whatever.

Marge has led the charge to be literally the most obnoxious possible Republican since she was elected to Congress. I remember when Marge got a visit from the Guam Army National Guard because she said she didn't think Guam was part of the USA.

I mean, seriously, about the only thing she's known for is saying freakish, ignorant and offensive shit.

And it wasn't good enough.

That's saying something in the freak-circus that's what's become of the Republican Party!

I mean, how the shit did Republicans get from Ronald Reagan or even Mitt Romney to...this?

And then...this...gets kicked out?

Marge, I hate to break it to you (Okay, not really, but I guess you have to say that?) But the other Republicans never gave a shit about you.

All the Antivax shit and COVID-19 denial, all the nativist, racist, straight up Forsyth County, GA Southern-Friend horseshit, all the religious crap, all the sucking up to Trump and Putin and all the allusions (many provided by Marge herself) that given the chance, the sucking would not be the least bit metaphorical, not to mention all the hating on Ukraine, got you...

*Checks Notes*

...Shitcanned from the Freedom Caucus?

LO-Motherfucking-L.

I remember when Marjorie Taylor Greene said "COVID-19 is a bio-weapon because God would never create a fatal illness that harms people.

Really?

Who created all the fatal illnesses we already had?

The Old Testament is full of stories of God destroying entire nations, harming people and sending plagues, and based on forced compliance, Obey me, or I burn your city, strike your firstborn dead and curse your descendants for a thousand generations. For fuck's sake it is the entire basis of the paradigm as outlined in the text! 

This was a system that got so out of hand God himself sent His Son to Earth to sacrifice himself in horrible fashion in order to fix it! 

I wrote about this bullshit when she said it!

Don't these fucking people know how to read warning labels?

And this shit wasn't enough for the...Freedom Caucus??

Where, mind you, all you ever did was try and stake out a reputation for being the one fuckin' person in the room that was dumber than Louie fuckin' Gohmert.

And that's a tough row to hoe, but Marge managed it!

I really hope you got something to fall back on, or maybe you can go back to harassing Muslims ladies who are simply trying to leave the Library, or otherwise acting like a jackass on YouTube...because your ass sure ain't going to get a real job. Not with that reputation, anyway.

I'm going to guess the Freedom Caucus ejection probably means if your ass doesn't manage to stay in Congress, all the Right-Wing-Welfare "Think Tank" bullshit is probably not in your future? 

Maybe you could use the extra time you'll have to figure out what Freedom really means, and step up and fight for it? There was a time when such was not mutually exclusive of being a conservative or a Republican.

But somehow, I doubt it.

Marge never had that much class before.

Слава Україна!

Through me the way to the suffering city;
Through me the everlasting pain;
Through me the way that runs among the Lost.
Justice urged on my exalted Creator:
Divine Power made me,
The Supreme Wisdom and the Primal Love.
Nothing was made before me but eternal things
And I endure eternally.
Abandon all hope - You Who Enter Here. ~Sign posted above the gates of Hell, Dante's Inferno.

...

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:
But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.
Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.
But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go Ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
Watch therefore, for Ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. 

~Matthew 25:1-13

Mao Zedong, Republican? (American Revelation XIII, Eight.)

From Stettin on the Baltic to Varna on the Black Sea, the regimes planted by totalitarianism have had more than thirty years to establish their legitimacy. But none — not one regime — has yet been able to risk free elections. Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root....If history teaches anything, it teaches self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly....Our military strength is a prerequisite to peace, but let it be clear we maintain this strength in the hope it will never be used, for the ultimate determinant in the struggle that's now going on in the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas, a trial of spiritual resolve, the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish, the ideals to which we are dedicated. ~Ronald Reagan

...

Marxism comprises many principles, but in the final analysis they can all be brought back to a single sentence: it is right to rebel against reactionaries. ~Mao Zedong

I just saw this a little while ago.

North Carolina Republican Lt. Governor Mark Robinson telling the "Moms For Liberty" that "Conservatives" need to read Hitler, Mao, and Stalin. Motherfucker said this addressing the "Moms For Liberty" AKA The Minivan Taliban.

This appears to be for ideological purposes and motivating fanaticism, rather than the old 1980's conservative idea of simply studying for counterinsurgency purposes or to learn tactics.

Now I'm a tell you something; Back in the 1980's I was a kid in Christian schools. My family was moderately conservative. If I would have said to read Hitler, Mao or Stalin, my ass would have got beat. My Mom probably would have got a call, during which the phrase "Whup his butt again" would have come up. I'd have got a nasty note sent home (possibly in the mail so I wouldn't be able to "forget" to give it to my Mom) and all things considered, the consequences would've been hell.

If I have to explain this, you won't understand it.

But that's the space I come from.

There was no tolerance for this kind of bullshit, period.

I'm just going to guess that they can't find anybody in their normal pool of justifications that hates America enough for them these days, and when they outright say they're going for people like Hitler, Mao and Stalin...they're really telling on themselves.

What these people have really turned into is something that's very Anti-American, Anti-conservative and Anti-Christian...because those beliefs weren't hateful enough for them and they had to lie about it to make America look like a "Christian" nation. A lie that nobody outside of their normal sheep herd ever actually believed. Plus, eventually they figured out they couldn't twist Christianity enough to make it do what they wanted and conservatism only bent so far before it just snapped.

And then, along came Trump, who was unmoored from any previous creed or political dogma, and also from reality.

He gave them something else to stand for, legitimized their hate and provided somebody else to worship: Himself.

Republicans couldn't get enough of it!

Hell, some of them still want more, and I can't even imagine why.

Everything Trump Touches Dies, as Rick Wilson famously said. I'm 100% serious, everything Trump touches turns to crap. What doesn't turn to crap because of Trump is stolen by Trump and motherfucking Republicans still can't quit him.

More to the point...they probably could but they just don't want to.

So now they're losing, Trump faces the very real possibility of going to prison and these fuckers can't go five minutes without popping off about starting a civil war as a result. Hey, Republicans, when you've got this much shit going wrong, the problem is you.

And they know it, and they're veering off into Communism, Fascism, and generally radicalized Extremism and a lust for simply killing anybody who they think is against them because civilization, democracy, and reality are too hard.

Because they really don't care if their form of government is "Post-Apocalyptic tribal chiefdom with extra Cannibalism in a nuclear wasteland, Unga Bunga!" so long as Trump is the "Chief."

These fucking people don't want to live in America. They don't care about or want America's expanding tradition of liberty, they don't want to live in a place where it doesn't matter who your father is, or where you really can succeed on your own merits.

They want control and domination and fuck fuck political games, where you have to have the right patron or political leader or be of the right tribe to do anything, they want to live where most people have to basically spend all their time trying to keep track of what the rules even are...in the hope that they will somehow be exempt from said rules.

And the longer this shit goes on, or is tolerated, the more childish and dangerous and stupid it's going to get.

Some of these fucking people seem to think they want to live in some kind of fantasy world where All Is Trump. And the sycophancy borders on blasphemous disrespect of everything that's ever gone before.

It's a cult, and it's becoming completely unmoored from anything but being a Cult Of Trump.

And they think they can somehow work Trumpism into being a cult of a reactionary Mao Zedong.

Then they'll try to spin "Culture War" into a bloody, state-backed "Cultural Revolution."

Think about that for a second.

And they can't even be bothered to learn how badly the real one worked out.

We continue to tolerate this horseshit at our peril.

If you want a better country, you have to be a better citizen.

If you want to go to hell, become a cultist.

In 2015 when Trump started talking about his Wall, I said "Republicans are basically Communists now" referring to East Germany. Seems like "Conservatives" are hell-bent on going that way.

When you see the Abomination of Desolation standing in the holy place, get the fuck out.

Eight

Слава Україна!

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:
But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.
Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.
But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
Watch therefore, for Ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. 

~Matthew 25:1-13

...

We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev...Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

~Ronald Reagan