Beginning Of Sorrows (Left Behind Is A Lie III, One.)

And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

All these are the beginning of sorrows.

Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

~Matthew 24:4-13

Wut?

Apparently Kayleigh is happy that Jim Jordan is "launching an investigation into the persecution of Christians by the government."

The fuck?

I'm going to guess the Christianity of other people (Joe Biden, for example) somehow something something Gazpacho doesn't apply here?

Why is it that when Republicans say "Christian" they always mean only "Alleged Christians who buy whole-hog into entirely secular Republican theonomy and are Republicans first, everything else at whatever level Republicans say they are?"

I was taught Christianity doesn't work like that.

And historically, most of the persecution of Christians has been by other alleged-Christians. And while I'm at it, it's funny how these fucking people don't care about the persecution...or murder and rape...of Ukrainian Christians by Putin's New Red Army, isn't it?

They'd rather appropriate the concept of "Persecution" so they can feel special, while ignoring literal persecution of Christians elsewhere. The Beginning Of Sorrows it might be, but not in the way they think. They want to bring on the End Times, and they're willing to invent "persecution" as a pretext for trying.

I'd have to assume God is smarter than that, or He is not God.

At this point the only reason I'm 100% sure that a Republican wouldn't answer "Richard Nixon" when asked who their Lord and Savior was, is the wholesale deification of Donald Trump when he was arrested and indicted, and continuing after. And if Trump goes down, I have a feeling they'll just wholesale switch their allegiance to Putin.

Maybe it's just me, but that's not what I was taught and I was born during Watergate.

In the same way that Christianity after the Apostle Paul was a religion about Jesus rather than the religion of Jesus...Modern Republicanism is literally a cult of itself, a blood cult about Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan and stricter morals and a strong America...not a cult of them.

And like Christianity, it venerates those ideals instead of living them...while claiming to live that way in order to enable bad behavior and fool the feeble-minded.

In the process, they end up fixating on things that have absolutely not one damned thing to do with their claimed core values, and then they equate their own opinions with the scriptures.

When these people say "Make America Great Again" what they're really saying...especially now that it's mostly all over but the shouting, is "I want to say the N-Word."

Seriously these sons of bitches are basically willing to burn down the world for this. To the point, honestly, that they would gladly switch sides and become the bad guys in their own End Times narrative.

So, Do you really think they wouldn't persecute actual Christians for getting rid of the medical debts of others?

And then they want to use actual conservatism and religion as a shield to protect themselves from the consequences of their actions?

Fuck that.

All the money Christianity and "Conservatism" suck in, and they spend most of it trying to capture government and political power and cheat in elections and screw people over...when for a miniscule fraction of what they spend on that they could make people's lives better, earn loyalty and win legitimately. 

But that's too "Woke" or some shit.

For that matter, instead of Kowtowing to Putin, these fucking people could be the freedom fighters their ancestors were. But that's too hard and it hasn't been about any of that in more than a generation anyway. Cruelty's the point now...if anything is.

Now instead of "Tear Down This Wall" they want to put one back up, whether it's down the middle of Berlin, on the Mexican border, or somehow both.

Both Jesus and Reagan wept.

This is exactly the Christless Christianity I've been warning you about for years. This shit is why I say their End Times narrative, the theology of the Left Behind books...is all a lie.

And next they will look at Trump and say "Here Is Christ..."

While being completely oblivious to what the Word actually says about that.

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And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.

And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;

For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.

And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.

Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.

But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee. ~Matthew 26:26-32

Gunpowder Jesus II.

Rise, let us be going: behold, he is at hand that doth betray me.

And while he yet spoke, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people.

Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast.

And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him.

And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus and took him.

And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest's, and smote off his ear.

Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

Think thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?

But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?

In that same hour said Jesus to the multitudes, Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take me? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on me.

But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled.

And they that had laid hold on Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled. ~Matthew 26:46-57

One of my people quote-Tweeted this last night.

Because, another day in America...another goddamn shooting, this time in Kentucky.

I've written about this crap before.

I'm tired of these fucking people. I'm tired of their obsession with guns. I'm tired of their racism. I'm tired of their outright stupidity.

I started out as a Christian. I was raised conservative. 

I've been shooting and had guns since I was a kid. I had to show myself to have some degree of responsibility before my Dad would teach me how to shoot, and I learned on his bolt-action .22 Winchester, a rifle I still own.

I was always, always taught that "Thou Shalt Not Kill." I was taught all people were the same in the eyes of God. I was taught not to combine guns and religion...indeed, as a kid in the 1980's I pretty much got the idea that incorporating guns into one's religion was a thing fanatics and terrorists did.

I'm a United States Air Force security forces veteran. "Thou Shalt Not Kill" and the possibility that I might've had to break that commandment were things that, for a few years of my life, were not an academic or theological question.

I was taught that God, being a Spirit, has no race. I was taught that Jesus was a Brown-skinned Middle Eastern Jew. 

I mean, fuck, if you really want to get technical about it the only people in the Bible who'd be considered "White" in the modern sense of the term were some of the Romans.

I actually don't even remember when I was specifically taught this but it says so in the Word and I literally remember memorizing the verse about Jesus teaching in the Synagogue on the Sabbath...as was his custom.

More to the point, if Jesus was who He says He was and He really did check all the boxes for being the Messiah, He was a devout Jew, not Romanized, and Rome would have been anathema to Him. Remember, Revelation was a diatribe against Rome.

And yet, given the meanings of the words in the name Judas Iscariot...Judas being a diminutive of Judah which was a common Jewish name at the time as well as the name the Israelites collectively gave themselves...Iscariot being a Hellenic form of the Roman term Sicarii which means "Dagger-Wielder" and was the Roman name for the Zealots who fought against Rome.

Jesus was very likely betrayed by His own people, sold out to the religious hierarchy which would've considered Him competition, and thus handed over to the Romans for what...very likely...were some serious local Realpolitik consideration.

First-Century Israel was, to the Romans, rather like Iraq almost 20 years ago was for Americans.

If you're stuck in the middle of an insurgent war...that's hell. So, it's not unlikely there was some Jewish or otherwise local equivalent to the Anbar Awakening fighting alongside the Romans simply to try and make this shit stop.

And somebody like Jesus? 

Well, He Himself said He was here to upset the delicate balance of that kind of life by bringing His Truth that God could be found in compassion, not hate, that God was not the possession of any one ethnic group or race, but was accessible to all by simply asking Him to be.

That's dangerous for politics, it was a hell of a mess for Rome, it completely upended even the very purpose of priestly castes and religious law.

And He said people would hate Him for it, and lie about Him.

He was not wrong. You just have to get rid of all the bullshit "Interpretations" to see this.

Because giving Man access to God by cutting out the greedy political or religious middlemen and the scheming social climbers completely undercuts those who desire only to be money-changers in the Temple or who are a wannabe Priestly Caste of some gimcrack theocracy.

And these absolute shitgibbons whack off to the idea of turning America into that.

Which is exactly why these motherfuckers want to make it all about guns and race and worldly politics and treat "god" like some kind of personal enforcer.

Never mind that our country was founded to be the exact opposite of this, because our Founders and their generation had lived in that kind of Empire and had to fight to get out of it.

But people like Donald Trump or Lance Wallnau or Lauren Boebert simply don't care about that.

Because they can't grift enough or get enough Power off of the Truth.

And these assholes see guns as a far more immediate route to Power than persuasion, politics or religion. They care far more about the immediacy of the power of the Gun and the threat of death to enforce compliance than they do about the power of God to change hearts and minds.

Actually, they could give a shit what anybody actually believes, so long as they submit.

Hearts and minds are irrelevant.

Because Freedom is not "profitable" enough for these false prophets, who want to force you to give them your money and let them have Power.

In that context, what's the difference between the Prosperity Gospel and Putin-Communism or Russian Orthodox nationalist Jihadism?

You think these idiots wouldn't convert to radical Islam if it was a sure ticket to money and power??

Spoiler: They Would.

Hell, these fucking people's beliefs are based more on the Turner Diaries than on the Bible!

And they see getting people hooked on outrage and racism as ways to get there. They don't care what it does to civilization or society.

The Kingdom of God will not be built by reactionaries, not that they give a shit.

Because, more than anything, these fucking people know they're all damned and it's all bullshit and one "faith" is as good as any other if it provides cover for stealing. God is, after all, God. He doesn't need money or politics!

He sure as hell doesn't care if your favorite beer brand has drag queens or trans folk in its ads. That's on you, bro.

They know it's all nothing but a bunch of bovine excrement, but they want company in hell.

The Truth is simple, Man makes it complicated because he does not want to obey.

Just remember, You can say "No."

You don't have to go to hell with them.

You don't have to believe in their Gunpowder Jesus or serve orange false prophets.

Remember that.

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And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.

And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;

For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.

And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.

Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.

But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee. ~Matthew 26:26-32

Empty Man (No, Part III.)

In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher.

And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:
And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.
And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goes before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. ~Matthew 28:1-7

So, the Clarence Thomas Gift-Gate scandal is still ongoing.

It's Easter, Jesus, can you people not fuck something up even for one damn day?

I haven't felt very festive this holiday, seems to be that way with a lot of people this year.

But ya know, if anything the fact that it's Easter made me think. It still amazes me how so many alleged Christians, most of them Republican, treat things as if their Lord and Savior was Republican politics and not Jesus Christ.

See, we go back a ways, me and Clarence. Not that Clarence knows this, or would care. But his confirmation hearings were really my first critical look at politics from an adult perspective.

See, I followed his Confirmation hearings and gave oral reports to my high school government class. I was a senior in high school at the time. It was an extra credit project and I wasn't doing badly in the class but I figured, why not?

So, newspaper, radio, TV. 

Between the Anita Hill scandal and the Navy's Tailhook scandal, that was a major boost in public awareness of sexual harassment, among other things.

Which kind of annoyed me, because if I knew better than that, why didn't these fucking people? Keeping one's hands to oneself was a lesson I learned early and somewhat painfully in sixth grade at the hands (and feet) of an Asian-Latina Catholic School student I'd decided to get a little handsy with, but whose parents had taught her not to take any shit. I got in trouble, she didn't. 

I'd probably have got my ass whupped when I got home that day, but my Mom (who had gotten a call, at work which was always trouble) pretty much took one look at me when she got home, literally laughed, and figured I'd probably never do that again.

She wasn't wrong. And my erstwhile partner that I had at the time? If she said no, she meant No.

So, yeah.

Needless to say I wasn't particularly impressed with Clarence Thomas, especially with his calling tough questions asked in the hearings a "High-tech lynching." Bro, it's a confirmation not a coronation, asking questions and making you sweat is literally their job.

Having even then learned a lot of things the hard way in life, I'm also always distrustful of excessive ego when combined with whining self-pity. Clarence was MAGA before MAGA was even thought of in that respect.

(I say that as somebody who'd register to vote as a Republican a month later.)

One day in particular sticks in my mind, though.

I was violently sick in the small hours of the morning one of those days, vomiting first and then basically felt like I had fire coming out of my asshole. So, I didn't go to school that day. It was bad enough I had to go to the clinic in town in the early afternoon and I was still dizzy and didn't feel Okay driving myself.

So my Grandpa took me.

We were listening to the confirmation hearings on the radio.

We went to the clinic, I got checked out, prescription-strength whatever and I was good to go. We stopped at the grocery store to go to the pharmacy and because my Grandma asked us to pick up a few things. Grandpa left the truck running so I could keep listening to the radio. My head was starting to clear.

And I'm sitting there listening to all these old Senators talk about some dude who went by the name of Long Dong Silver and wondering for the first (but obviously not the last) time; "My God, what the hell is wrong with these people?? Why is this garbage even acceptable??"

I thought the stupidity of the discussion alone should've disqualified Thomas.

(A generation would pass before I would fully appreciate what a dangerous thought had entered my mind that day.)

And I said so in front of my government class the next day, literally. I still felt horrible, but not horrible enough for my Mom to let me stay home. My best friend (who lived across the street) drove so I could get a little more sleep on the way in.

My government teacher (who was also a neighbor so I knew him to be conservative and religious, even though he deliberately obfuscated such things at work...in his own words his job was to teach us to be citizens, not partisans) was annoyed by my harsh language and the tone of my report. 

He said so, he was the kind of guy who thought civility a virtue. 

The class...which I think was about 50/50 in the political split at the time...essentially and rather contentiously and loudly argued him down.

I wasn't the only one who thought the conduct of both Clarence Thomas and the Senators to be asinine. My best friend (and aforementioned erstwhile partner) a budding liberal and future math teacher who was unafraid to argue with either me or the teacher? She led the charge...in my defense, for once.

I feel like, concerning Clarence Thomas in particular, the situation has not improved.

Not only that, but the Republican base...itself once a source of pushback on stupidity even from its own politicians...has blown its own brains out with "Own The Libs" garbage and partisanship rabid enough to have been likely considered mental illness in October of 1991. More to the point they're so addicted to outrage and racism that they'll tolerate literally anything.

Including an Empty Man like Clarence Thomas...who seems to have no values that cannot be waved away by waving a large enough wad of cash under his nose. You think his Catholicism or his alleged "Conservatism" even matters?

The Bohemian Grove ain't known for being a bastion of conservatism, yo.

And let's not forget Texas Billionaire, Harlan Crowe, who appears to have literally purchased Clarence with luxurious gifts (Bribes) and who frequently has cases before the Court.

Who's to say that a Putinist Communist or Radical Islamist could not simply purchase Thomas themselves with more gifts or more money?? We have no evidence he'd say "No."

This is, by the way, illegal. An Air Force Sergeant accepting 0.0001% of such bribes (or any at all) would lose their career, be dishonorably discharged, and likely spend a long time in Federal prison.

This isn't right. And it's because of stuff like this (and the fact that it's tolerated) that the fight for freedom isn't just over there.

Remember that.

And lest you think MAGA is the root of the problem here, Clarence Thomas is literally the legacy of outdated legacy Republicans who were posthumously drummed out of the GOP for being neither far-right-enough nor racist enough.

These people simply need to be told "No." And that "No" needs to be backed up by the clenched fist of the power of the people.

Vote Republicans out. All of them.

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For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. ~Matthew 24:27

Death Spiral (No, Part II.)

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.

I saw this last night.

Rep. Justin Jones said that a bunch of white TN legislators called him "Uppity."

For fuck's sake I can count on one hand the number of times I've heard that word spoken aloud in my life. (And while I'm at it, yes, one of those incidents was in Tennessee.)

What do these racist clowns think this is? 1953?

Evidently, some of them said this on camera.

I don't know about you but I grew up thinking that shit was dead and I'll be 50 this year.

And mind you, the two Black reps (Both of whom will likely simply be reappointed and then run again in special elections) are being shitcanned for protesting gun violence in the wake of a mass shooting at a Christian school.

For some reason it made me think of Adam Kinzinger's own family disowning him and saying he was "Of The Devil" for politically rejecting and voting to impeach Trump.

Fascism and Racism are more important to these fucking people than their own families.

I'm here to tell you, if Christian leaders collectively took a stand against racism (and many have) these fuckers would reject Christianity and Christ, too.

Because nothing is ever really about what these absolute motherfuckers say it's about.

Because the racism (and other petty bigotries) are more important to them.

Even if they can't express that shit in public, we're down to where they're fighting tooth and claw to hang on to even the idea of that bullshit...in the hope that they can use the fight itself to claw back public acceptability for being a fucking racist.

The thing is, even though he really didn't do that much for it (and indeed, unintentionally probably did more to wreck that shit than anybody else) to these fucking people Trump has become a cultural meme representing base Patriarchal White (fake) "Christian" Supremacy, Southern Fried. 

This despite the fact that the son of a bitch was a lifelong New Yorker before he basically retired and moved to Florida.

Validation is where you find it, I guess.

I literally cannot stress it enough that these sons of bitches would rather march proudly into HELL  and burn for all of Eternity than believe in a Brown, Jewish, Poor Savior. But it's become very, very difficult to ignore that that's what Jesus Christ was.

Why the fuck do you think these fucking racists are doing their damnedest to deify and glorify Donald Trump?? 

And worse, if they have to, these assholes will wage war against their own government...even against their own children to preserve the shitty little high they get off of thinking they're "better" than other people for stupid, arbitrary, utterly nonsensical reasons.

And trust me, it absolutely doesn't matter that the kids and staff in that school were doing literally everything right according to the rules As Published.*

Rules...and beliefs and religions and shit...that don't matter worth a good goddamn when push comes to shove. These fucking people, for the most part, cannot say what's really on their minds in most places and for the most part they know it.

They know their beliefs are so shitty that they can't share them with the rest of the class, lest they lose their place in the magical city. They know...oh, trust me, they know...that short of breaking down America's body politic yet further, the bloody revolution they whack off to the idea of will be bloody (and short) indeed, and that they will lose. 

So they try all kinds of manipulative bullshit instead.

They simply refuse to see that other people are tired of it.

And they're mad as hell that other people are fighting back.

Worse, then they try like hell to convince themselves that the reason people don't like them isn't because we know all this stuff and want no part of it. 

No, it's "because radical left wing activists on college campuses" or some bullshit. Bitch, of the two degrees I have, I graduated with the first one still being a conservative Republican.

But I was never these people's kind of "Republican."

Nobody "indoctrinated" me into hating Republicans, or liberalism, no. I already...as a conservative Republican...hated conspiracy theories and racism and had a very bad experience with manipulative right-wing Christianity. Once those three things became the Republican Trinity, I was out.

And I'm still on the conservative end of the Democratic spectrum. That said, I've no problem with the rest of it. I'd sure like to keep my guns, among other things. But you know who's making that ethically harder with every goddamned shooting?

Republicans are, that's who.

I don't hunt anymore, I only go out and target-shoot maybe once a year, and the main reason I still have my guns is self-defense and the fact that most of the ones I have left also belonged to my Dad and my Grandpa.

Increasingly, it looks like I'm going to eventually end up defending myself against Republicans (in general) and the religious fanatics of the Cult of Dis Pater and Radical Trumpism in particular, and probably no small number of the rabidly insane, either.

But Republicans be all like "People would just love our policies if we could just get liberals to stop talking." And "Wah Wah they don't like us!"

You're right. I don't. 

I say this as somebody who used to be a conservative Republican!

More to the point, you earned that status. It wasn't anything that liberals did. My vision and my hearing might be getting worse but I ain't blind or deaf. (That said, I'm pretty sure even a deaf ferret could understand that all this evil bullshit is, in fact, evil bullshit.)

More to the point the fact that I have severe tinnitus started with military service.

The oath I swore was to the Constitution.

A whole bunch of my brothers and sisters in arms were Black or Latino. One of them was a Muslim. One of the LT's I had was a Jewish woman. When I was a squad leader, one of my best guys was a gay Fundamentalist Christian AAPI fella (But we weren't supposed to talk about his sexuality.)

That "Rest Of Us" that you Republicans like to disenfranchise (if you can't just ignore us) or try and gerrymander or manipulate away so y'all can keep power? Fuck you, we're Americans too.

I say "No." Fuck you. If we're not all free, none of us are. The whole point of America is that everybody gets a say in our society.

Being a better class of slave than some of the other slaves means you're still a slave, Republicans.

And we're tired of you and your ideas of hierarchy and slavery and servitude to one's "Betters."

Servitude, even if y'all hate each other. (And most of you do.)

This is America. We are not what we are born, but what we have it in ourselves to be. That's the whole damn point.

A hell of a lot of us went out and earned our keep while your alleged heroes like Clarence Thomas just sit on they butts and get gifts up the ying-yang from Republican billionaires so he can be not much more than a mouth to speak the words of others in y'all great con-game against America, a whore to make the proper noises at the proper times for the pleasure of others, an empty man whose Blackness is nothing more than used as a shield so "Conservatives" can say they ain't racist.

I mean, goddamn, at least Antonin Scalia, as bad as he was, knew how to act like a human being once in awhile, could and would talk to the other side, and really believed in a few things.

These people? They'd be card-carrying Communists if it got them money and power and obscured their shitty political and social agendas enough to fool the mob.

But minority rule, racism and wealth concentration ain't a trinity I want to believe in, yo. 

That's a death spiral. I don't want that anywhere, much less in my own country.

Fuck That!

The fight for freedom ain't just over there. 

I don't care how you look or what you say. I can see what you do. Enough is enough! 

Civis Americanus Sum, I am an American Citizen.

And I'm damned tired of your bullshit, conservatives, damned tired of it.

I'm not the only one.

Your move, motherfuckers.

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For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. ~Matthew 24:27

One

Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and the overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land, the House of Abraham, Muhammad, and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors. . . .

You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.

During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug) -- while praying to the same God -- with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the "white" Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana.
We were truly all the same (brothers) -- because their belief in one God had removed the "white" from their minds, the 'white' from their behavior, and the 'white' from their attitude.I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man -- and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their "differences" in color. With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called "Christian" white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem. Perhaps it could be in time to save America from imminent disaster -- the same destruction brought upon Germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves.

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

~Malcolm X, letter written following the Hajj.

 

Bad Faith (No, Part I.)

We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world, a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us. No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we'll kill you. Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? Who among us can be happy and proud of having all this innocent blood on our hands? Who are these swine? These flag-sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled by stupid little rich kids like George Bush? They are the same ones who wanted to have Muhammad Ali locked up for refusing to kill gooks. They speak for all that is cruel and stupid and vicious in the American character. They are the racists and hate mongers among us; they are the Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis. And I am too old to worry about whether they like it or not. Fuck them. ~Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom Of Fear (2004)

I saw this when I got up this morning.

And I just have one question;

Does anybody really think that people whose political/religious (But I repeat myself!) position is "TRUMP IS A PROPHET SENT BY GOD" can be challenged, debated, flustered, or "made to look weak?"

If they had any rationality or self respect they wouldn't be saying that in the first place.

Trust me, trying to explain basic facts to the average MAGA is like trying to explain trigonometry to my ferrets, and the ferrets have a longer attention span and listen better.

But at least some of these fucking people already have to know (and trust me, they resent the fuck out of) that their chosen positions make them look like morons. They don't care about that. They're being stupid on purpose, with malice aforethought, because there's no rational argument for Old White Christian Male Supremacy. 

And some of them, those at the top at least, know it.

Why do you think they've launched this jihad against libraries and schools? 

Why do you think they think this transparent attempted pogrom against Drag Queens and Transgender people isn't recognized as an attempt (as such things always have been before) not only to drive LGBT people from public spaces (if not kill them outright) but to bring back the global nadir of race (and other) relations?

Shit, most of these bitter-ass pinch-faced motherfuckers don't like each other, either.

Joe: For the last time, I'm pretty sure what's killing the crops is this Brawndo stuff.

Secretary of State: But Brawndo's got what plants crave. It's got electrolytes.

Attorney General: "So wait a minute. What you're saying is that you want us to put water on the crops.

Joe: Yes.

Attorney General: Water. Like out the toilet?

Joe: Well, I mean, it doesn't have to be out of the toilet, but, yeah, that's the idea.

Secretary of State: But Brawndo's got what plants crave.

Attorney General: It's got electrolytes.

Joe: Okay, look. The plants aren't growing, so I'm pretty sure that the Brawndo's not working. Now, I'm no botanist, but I do know that if you put water on plants, they grow.

Secretary of Energy: Well, I've never seen no plants grow out of no toilet.

Secretary of State: Hey, that's good. You sure you ain't the smartest guy in the world?

Joe: Okay, look. You want to solve this problem. I want to get my pardon. So why don't we just try it, okay, and not worry about what plants crave?

Attorney General: Brawndo's got what plants crave.

Secretary of Energy: Yeah, it's got electrolytes.

Joe: What are electrolytes? Do you even know?

Secretary of State: It's what they use to make Brawndo.

~From the film Idiocracy.

And trust me, it won't be long at all before they start doing the same against any Church that doesn't parrot the same idiocy.

They don't really give a shit if nobody knows anything. 

That goes double for proper Christian doctrine. You think these fuckers don't want some form of imagined "control" over who goes to heaven and who goes to hell?

What God thinks is unimportant to them. 

Start with that, and it only gets worse from there.

Hell, some of these nuts want to bring back the Gold Standard so nobody else has anything, either. 

They don't care if medicine, technology, the world etc. or at least America stops improving. 

The main bad actors in all of this? They've already got theirs, and they still want more, so fuck you.

Even arguing with this shit gives it legitimacy. 

You smack them and tell them "No." Period.

Some things simply fall under "Right And Wrong" and should not be up for debate much less up for sale.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Learn the words "Fuck You" and "No" and not only vote accordingly, but be prepared to back your saying and voting NO up with resolute force. Trust me, the bitter old Boomer Assholes who are for the most part driving this bullshit don't want to get shot.

They frankly know that far too few people are stepping up to carry forward their ideology of White Christian Supremacy and rule by the wealthy. Yeah, that's right. By 2010 the Republican Party was more Fundamentalist Baptist Segregationist Democrat a la 1947 than it was even Republican Party in 2008.

Did you not think Trent Lott getting shitcanned in 2002 for excessive praise of Segregationist BS and Strom Thurmond was a harbinger of where these people were going?

It's worse.

From Generation X on down, hardly anybody benefitted from this shit or had any positive memories of even the early 1960's as children. Old people kept hoarding the political power and wealth. It's to the point where even Democrats are only now looking at political changeovers in leadership that should've happened 20 years ago. And I like her, but Nancy Pelosi's phobia of Working Class White People and leftover PTSD from the Reagan Revolution, not to mention her prim rule-following and quiet strategizing damn near fucked us. 

Democrats should've got some fight in them when Al Gore got railroaded in Florida in 2000, and I say that as a Bush voter who literally did not personally like Al Gore.

Nobody did more, in the end, than Gore and Pelosi (and hell, Bush 43 in his first year if we're being honest) to give the "Both Parties Are The Same. Man" argument some teeth.

Only the constant soup sandwich of the Trump years, and the fact that corporate and media complicity with Republicans was too blatant, the war in Ukraine, and the facts that enough Republicans saw the threat to break their mental/political doom loop (or just got ran out by screaming MAGA's) and Generation Z decided they weren't going to take it anymore saved our asses.

You have to stand up and tell these people "No" now and again.

And it's only as the circumstances became existential and the guard began to change at the top that Democrats got some fight in them.

I like where the Democrats under Hakeem Jeffries appear to be going, so far.

Trouble is, it's past time, in so many ways.

Millennials and Generation Z in particular got screwed...to the point where their cultural memes about finding happiness simply changed. Republicans hoarding all the money meant you had to find different things to make life worth living! That's what's going to fuck them, in the end. 

Going forward almost nobody cares if they get to have a big honkey-ass SUV, a sweet set of Ping golf clubs, three houses and a boat so big it's one Bofors 40mm/L70 on the bow and a couple of .50 caliber M2 machine guns port and starboard away from being a small warship. Simply because this shit got placed so far out of reach by the Republican anti-labor wealth-concentration financial doom loop that no matter how hard we worked we'd never have it anyway. It was just easier to have a cat or some ferrets, play Magic The Gathering, play a bunch of video games, smoke weed or take up photography.

The voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 by the 26th Amendment to the US Constitution. Republicans, who passed this in 1973, have decided now they don't like it. As if three years would make any damn difference in how most of these people vote, anyway? As if Republicans wouldn't burn through billions of dollars and much of their political capital so that even if they won...it'd only add maybe a small advantage for a couple years.

But that won't happen.

And with malice aforethought, Republicans themselves created this poisonous atmosphere of political partisanship and rancor that makes amending the US Constitution again goddamned near impossible.

Buy the ticket, take the ride.

I'm a veteran myself, I know the 26th Amendment came about because of young men fighting and dying in the Vietnam War. I know enough of those now-old men and the mental and physical scars they suffered to be like "Fuck all that."

A couple of those elders advocating for me at this point is a big part of why I'm still alive.

Donald Trump was, in these people's own words, their last shot...and he not only couldn't change anything, he wasn't predisposed to even try.

Glorifying himself was more important to Trump. 

Glorifying Trump was more important to the mob.

And  this is not a doom loop I see anybody being able to break. I'm serious. The typical MAGA voter has all but declared Donald Trump to be Jesus Christ. 

You can't reason with that. At this point, you can't "Save" the people who believe it.

In the end all these Old White Southern Republicans are either too chickenshit scared of all that or too prone to drug-addled fantasy to stand up for themselves, or they agree with it.

In some cases, it's all of the above.

And these zero-sum motherfuckers don't actually care if they go to hell, as long as they can bring you along for company.

More to the point, they're only going to get worse, especially if their alleged god goes down.

You can't tell me they aren't already on the hunt for another one, who will be worse.

They don't even care if it's Vladimir Putin. They'd rather give up America than give up their gospel of Death and Wealth, nor the racism that gets the plebes to sign their souls over to Dis Pater and makes that shit a factor in any kind of democracy.

But now, people are saying "No."

If the vote in Wisconsin yesterday tells us anything, people are starting to understand that being a better citizen, having freedom, means drawing a line in the sand now and then.

You bought the tickets to this bad-faith game, Republicans.

And now you get to take the ride.

By yourselves.

Have fun.

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For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. ~Matthew 24:27

Last Post

There are times, however, and this is one of them, when even being right feels wrong. What do you say, for instance, about a generation that has been taught that rain is poison and sex is death? If making love might be fatal and if a cool spring breeze on any summer afternoon can turn a crystal blue lake into a puddle of black poison right in front of your eyes, there is not much left except TV and relentless masturbation. It's a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat shit and die. Who knows? If there is in fact, a heaven and a hell, all we know for sure is that hell will be a viciously overcrowded version of Phoenix — a clean well lighted place full of sunshine and bromides and fast cars where almost everybody seems vaguely happy, except those who know in their hearts what is missing... And being driven slowly and quietly into the kind of terminal craziness that comes with finally understanding that the one thing you want is not there. Missing. Back-ordered. No tengo. Vaya con dios. Grow up! Small is better. Take what you can get. ~Hunter S. Thompson, Generation Of Swine.

Joyless (Invasion Of The Booty Smoochers II, Trump Arrest Edition.)

Reporter: Mr. Said, how do you feel?

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

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

Donald Trump was arrested today, and indicted over his hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels in 2016.

How do I feel?

After all this time, after all the words I've written that I'd rather have written about someone, something, hell, damned near anything else?

It's Tuesday.

I feel nothing.

I feel joyless.

What about the million-or-so of us who didn't even live to see this day, because of Trump's bungling of the COVID-19 response? I know people who died.

This shit should've happened years ago, and it shouldn't have been the big deal that it is.

Fuck that guy.

Fuck him, fuck his cult, fuck everything he stands for, fuck his enablers, fuck his supporters. 

Fuck Republicans and the Republican Party for burning down everything they ever stood for because of this motherfucker.

Fuck Republicans for thinking our goddamned legal system from the Constitution on down is just some kind of tit-for-tat game, some kind of ratfuck circus where they can do what they want and use real laws to attack or smear other people, rather than a system of checks and balances and law that applies equally to themselves.

And fuck Democrats and the Justice Department and the whole judicial system for the fact that this is only happening now. 

It fucking should have happened two years ago in a Washington D.C. court for far more serious crimes.

The motherfucker tried to overthrow the government and destroy America, for fuck's sake!! 

Does that quite spell if out for you?

I'm nobody, a middle-aged Air Force veteran with probably more bad things than good to my name. 

If I'd done 1% of the shit Donald Trump did, they'd have arrested my ass that day.

I'd have got booked and mug-shotted like a common criminal, because that's what I was. 

They'd have left me sit in a cell for a few days with no shower until right before court, subsisting on bug juice and jail sandwiches and I'd have a court-appointed public defender who might or might not be worth anything. Also, unless somebody from the local paper was in court that day covering the proceedings it'd get no media attention at all.

I would, at the most, get my name in the paper.

That's another thing, fuck the wall-to-wall coverage of this horseshit and fuck the attempts at pure mobocracy by Republicans like George Santos and Marjorie Taylor Greene. 

You know, efforts to gin up insurrection and protest over the arrest of Donald Trump for doing actual crimes that would...that should...get most of us put away for a long time without any questions asked past those needed during the trial.

It's not like their attempted coups, or for that matter efforts to force their bullshit totalitarian worldview on the rest of us have even stopped. They've just been knocked down to the State level for now.

And if they succeed even once there, we're looking at the struggle going national again, and probably kinetic in very short order.

Because that is what "Conservatives" have already said they want.

And far too often the rest of America just shrugs and gives these fucking people what they say they want. Fuck all that. 

Learn the word "No." 

And use it.

Then be prepared to back that shit up with force.

It's literally the only thing these fucking people want or understand.

Yesterday, protestors in Florida who were peacefully protesting the Republican 6 week abortion ban were arrested, including Democratic House Minority Leader Lauren Book and former Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, presumably on bullshit misdemeanor charges.

And that ain't shit compared to the fact that the Tennessee legislature wants to vote to expel three Democratic Reps for protesting for gun control.

They're doing this in the face of massive protests in Nashville in response to that school shooting at a Christian school recently.

Six people were killed, and Republicans spent the next several days trying to blame it on "The Left" and transgender people because, ya know, facing the fact that nuts have too-easy of access to weapons is too hard.

And because they'd love to be able to weaponize the power of the State against everybody they don't like.

Which, funny enough, is pretty much everybody.

That's another thing, Christians. Don't think current Republicans are your friends, either. 

They don't give a shit if you die anymore than they care if anybody else does (So long as it isn't them.)

This is a movement of cowards, sociopaths and thieves that basically has all but declared a deranged incompetent wannabe dictator as its personal Antichrist Superstar. 

Think about that, for a second.

Think about the fact that some bullshit ass TN GOP legislator stood there and threatened to shoot kids protesting gun violence.

The young folks are already tired of getting murdered, dude. Keep this shit up and you're going to create a movement that's going to negatively affect a lot of gun owners like me who don't want to shoot anybody.

And we're not going to blame them, we're going to blame you.

Because cowardly little fascist chucklefucks like yourself should have access to neither political power nor weapons as far as most of us are concerned.

But because you can gin up a bunch of fear and throw out racist bullshit and religious twaddle to impress a bunch of rubes who are even dumber than you are, you're a legislator instead of the two-bit petty criminal you'd be in any kind of sane nation.

Fuck you!

I'm tired of it. I'm tired of the constant threats to literally everyone's rights, I'm tired of the constant threats to my Mom's social security and my own and her partner's earned veteran's benefits. I'm tired of the fact that literally everything with Republicans is bad faith.

I'm tired of the fact that you motherfuckers, by default, want to have a government whose word can't be trusted, either domestically or internationally...and you think such arrangements would give you power instead of making us all pariahs in the world.

When the military made me swear that oath to defend against all enemies foreign and domestic, it was your ass that shit was talking about. 

I've had it with this Yokel Haram bullshit!

This is America, you do not have a right to force your ways on other people or shoot people who disagree with you!

You either believe in civilization or you don't! You either believe in freedom or you don't!

People throughout history fought and died for consistent, rational systems of laws that applied to all the people and treated all citizens the same, for States and systems whose actions could be confidently predicted by business and citizens, and thus enable prosperity and security for far more than just The Few.

People died for this stuff, in some cases, millions of them died.

Just stop and think about that for fuck's sake! Even something as simple as the right to vote, to have any say in your own life was purchased by watering the Tree Of Liberty with enough blood so that it grew into a big enough stick to beat the bad guys down with.

And modern "Conservatives" almost never fail to spit on that by retroactively taking the wrong side every chance they get, often for nothing more than money and props from other idiots.

They never fail to disrespect those who shed blood for freedom.

Our freedoms and rights weren't given to us by some god or given to us as gifts by the Powerful because we sucked they dicks just right. People fought for that stuff, people made those in power give it up, or killed them and gave Power to somebody else, or to the People.

Of such struggles was the modern world fearfully and wonderfully made. 

That's what things like Finland joining NATO today, or the Ukrainians fighting for freedom against Russia even mean.

Most people got tired of fighting off the Barbarians all the time, because it's hard to live, much less have the freedom to do anything else when life is constant conflict. And if you think that's bad, living under the Barbarians never fails to be worse.

If you only believe in those things for yourself, civilization and freedom ain't what you want!

It sickens me that too often, it's the institutionalists who claim to revere revealed Truth and the wisdom of our ancestors that could give a shit. 

These people are literally not conservative. I'd be willing to bet most of them don't even know the definition of that word.

All the stuff that word implies matters to them only so far as it can be used to hurt other people.

Feelings, in the moment, matter more. The cruelty is the point.

And, bitch, in the world you think you want...your power and wealth, not to mention your life, is only going to last as long as it takes for the bigger gang with the meaner warlord to notice you're there.

You might not like civilization and society, or Truth for that matter...but it's all that keeps most of us alive and free, including you, more likely than not.

It's just that goddamned motherfucking simple!

Why is this so hard for you??

I'm tired of all these bored, debased, greedy motherfuckers trying to undermine all that because they didn't get to be famous any other way.

But you know what I'm even more tired of?

Other people who supposedly know better spending so much time and energy trying to justify this bullshit, usually for profit. 

That's what killed Rome, the damned Barbarians would never have gotten the power if the Romans hadn't gotten fat and lazy and sozzled on intrigue and religion. 

They got so much that way, that they abandoned civic pride and martial spirit. John Gibbon wrote that the reason Rome fell was giving up the civic duty of the Senate and the courage and honor of the battlefield for the intrigues of the Church and the secrets of the Confessional. They outsourced stuff like the actual fighting to German and other Barbarians. 

And then, quite often, the Romans tried to weasel out of paying them.

The Republican Party can't even say that much, they fell because of greed, lust for power and stupidity. America might yet be saved, but the Republican Party sure won't.

Freedom isn't free, and if we don't stop listening to any old conman who tries to say they'll do the work of life for us, the same kind of bullshit will destroy us too. 

I'm tired of people who allegedly should know better disparaging citizenship, duty, expertise and service to others, as if grifting and kissing ass for profit is so much better of a way to run a society?

Especially when they do it for no better reason than cheap internet fame or political points. That's what gave us Trump.

It's not the Barbarians at the gates, it's the Invasion of the goddamned Booty Smoochers.

If you want a better nation, you have to be a better citizen. You have to understand concepts like duty and be willing to follow through on them.

Haven't we learned already, that civilization hangs by narrow enough threads?

That's all, and I'm just damned tired of it.

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For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. ~Matthew 24:27

One

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