Alas, Babylon (Reason For The Season 2024, Three.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

...

We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear — fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts, or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer. ~Hunter S. Thompson.

I saw this last night.

Seriously, under what the fuck set of circumstances does one guy, who's already cuffed and in a prison jumpsuit and clearly not going anywhere...require an escort of 50 cops, some in full battle rattle and carrying automatic weapons??

What the hell idiot thought this horseshit made America, them, or New York City look strong??

As I just pointed out to somebody I saw war criminals taken into the stockade with far less fanfare, by two troops with rifles slung and sidearms holstered, maybe throw in a British or German cop who wasn't even carrying a weapon at all, or at least wasn't at that moment.

Instead, we look like a stiff breeze could blow us over.

This bullshit makes no sense, unless...Unless my one far-left buddy from college was right and all this Homeland Security bullshit has turned the coppers into nothing more than a fascist militia for the super-rich. Dude was only off by 23 years, timeline-wise.

I mean, what's even the damned point??

Right now every tin-pot from Ayatollah Cockamamie to Vladimir Putin to some old guy from the Serbian mafia is looking at this shit, laughing, and thinking about taking a shot at us, because we won't fold, we'll just break.

We're this weak...because one guy shot a health insurance CEO?? Dude's not some mighty demon, he's not a Werewolf who might break its chains and attack the assembled men under arms, he's just a guy.

I'm honestly surprised NYPD didn't add three or four chaplains invoking wards against the Devil, judging from everything else...and the level of Idiocracy that this seems to suggest.

More to the point, unless something's changed in the last hour or so we're still staring down a government shutdown starting at Midnight because Elon Fucking Musk told Congressional Republicans not to vote for their own damned continuing resolution. Fuck Trump, Elon Musk might as well be President.

And if you think Trump's first term was a fucking Idiocratic shit show we ain't seen nothing yet. This guy will run America into the ground just like he did Twitter, cackling the whole while.

Americans had better learn to govern themselves, and learn shit like basic elder care, combat trauma and how to grow gardens and shit like that again because unless states or blocs thereof step up to hold things together...the whole goddamned system will break down, America will come flying apart, and Red States in particular are gonna devolve into bloody-minded, dueling Christian theocracies rather fast without a Federal government to keep their worst impulses in check. And, all of our vast arsenals of weapons and gleaming towers of civilization will play no role in this...that conflict will be fought with AR-15's and technical trucks because the people doing the fighting won't know how to use much more than that.

Not least. because if we don't have a functioning government with something approaching a budget to pay the troops, eventually most of them will just go home...I mean, fuck, they'll have to just to protect and support their families, and (by then, theoretical) consequences be damned. Don't believe me?

 Check what the actual levels of military service vs. draft avoidance were in Russia throughout the 1990's. I mean, hell, check what they are now.

But if America just evaporates like Vaporware Nation, he doesn't need all that, does he?? Vlad doesn't need to resurrect the vaunted Red Army. He doesn't need to invade Ukraine, or attack Europe. We were always the actual goal. Revenge for 1989...let alone the Fall of the Soviet Union...was always the damned point. 

(Don't worry, our Defense contractors and shit will be OK, just like the ones in Russia were when Boris Yeltsin's defense budgets were a punch line. They'll just be selling Abrams and F-35's and Arleigh Burke DDG's to countries like Israel and Malaysia and Taiwan and Ukraine along with whatever American successor states get it together soon enough, what with no meaningful regulation or State to stop them. The people who make the weapons always come out Okay.)

And no doubt Elon thinks he can just bribe Vladimir Putin, and dude will go away.

Bro, once you pay Danegeld the first time, it's rather hard to get rid of the Dane.

And right now Vlad knows he can just send in the Russian Mafia and the NYPD will drop their guns and run away screaming...because they're clearly that afraid of one guy who's already in cuffs.

But here's the thing. Look at what's up with countries like the Baltic States, Poland and Romania right now, let alone Moldova or Syria....or Ukraine.

Guns and spectacle don't make you free, courage does.

In the world that's coming, you wanna keep your freedom?

Then you're gonna have to be brave.

Too much of America is already failing that test.

Fuck, it's Christmas and we won't even have a functioning government, just like the Soviet Union at this time of the year in 1991. Think about that for a second.

I said 771 days, not so long ago. It's not even taking 10% of that, and it's by choice, by personal weakness of our own leadership that we're falling. For fuck's sake at least Mikhail Gorbachev put in the work to try to save things. I don't see Donald Trump, Elon Musk or even Joe Biden doing anything.

Reagan Wept.

Слава Україна!

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

Two

Cassian Andor: What? To steal from the Empire, what do you need? A uniform, some dirty hands, and an Imperial toolkit. They’re so proud of themselves, they don’t even care. They’re so fat and satisfied, they can’t imagine it…

Luthen Rael: Can’t imagine what?

Andor: That someone like me would ever get inside their house, walk their floors, spit in their food, take their gear.

~From the Star Wars series Andor.

The Killing Fields (Reason For The Season 2024, Two.)

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

...

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)

...

And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God ~Matthew 19:24

I saw this yesterday, not long after I got done writing yesterday's post.

Tucker Carlson, literally asking some old white man in an interview "Why does he have to hate Bashar Assad?"

Two words, my dude: Sednaya Prison

If the images coming out of Syria in general, and that place in particular, are not enough to make you hate Bashar Al-Assad then you have no soul.

If the testimonies of systematic human rights abuses and the ongoing documentation and investigation of torture almost more fucked up than what the fucking Nazis did (not least because Syria's system of repression appears to have been designed by a leftover Nazi, Alois Brunner, who thought that the Third Reich's "Final Solution" did not go far enough) are you even a goddamn human in there??

If the videos of people being released, or of that human bag o' bones found under a blanket who had seen neither food, water or sunlight for three months but was somehow still alive, or of the families come with pictures to see if they can find any trace of their loved ones who went in there and never came out do not move the needle for you...then I suspect probably nothing is going to and you're fine with any level of suffering by other humans as long as you think it serves your ideology or wealth.

If your addiction to money or power or smirking frat-boy political fuckery is that serious, you're probably not gonna wanna be saved. You have to want to be human, apparently.

Now, between where I've lived and what I've done, my military service and strangely enough...having done ferret rescue...I've seen a lot of the human capacity for cruelty. It usually comes down to ego and ideology, power and wealth...and America has a lot of shitty little addicts and narcissists who aren't rich that are perfectly willing to allow a ferret to suffer in its cage without enough food or water, lonely, miserable and in pain...while they do drugs and play video games. 

My Mom, herself a retired Social Worker, can confirm that such people are more than willing to do even worse shit to human beings.

And right now rich people...who are fairly open about wanting Americans to suffer and die of neglect on an industrial scale while they do drugs, and all for nothing more than their own imagined profits...who are like that are coming into power, and the American ideal as any of us has previously known it is basically a rescue ferret in a cage, sure, there's a few people willing to advocate and fight for it, make it better and set it free again...but at least half of America, including a non-zero percentage of Democrats could apparently give a shit.

And at least in the case of New York City, there's those whose main goal appears to be defending the billionaires, since some nut shot a CEO.

And I've been listening to and seeing American elitist media be in an absolute moralist panic over that shit for days.

(Meanwhile, the common person to whom the response of a health insurance company is rather less than "Three bags full, Sir" gives them and the damn CEO the finger.)

You think people who something like that would even occur to are, really, all that far from the basic idea of creating an American version of Sednaya Prison?? Just to try and intimidate Americans...a free people without the history of authoritarian rule that places like Syria have...into some kind of compliance and not resisting Power...if not into giving up their freedom on a permanent basis so that the builders of and voters for such a prison can enjoy the benefits and shitty little thrills of bowing and scraping for profit and bending over for debased Calvinist authoritarian rulers??

'Cuz I guarantee you if Elon Musk has ever seen the inside of a church, it was Dutch Reformed. Trust me, I've lived in western Michigan, those people are assholes, and they only get worse in places like Apartheid South Africa where the State backs up their crap. I've never met a nice Calvinist.

And yes, at the end of the day it's shit like Puritan Calvinism being a part of our national DNA that even makes crap like this imaginable to anyone, the idea that Some are Saved and Some are Not based on nothing more than the capricious opinion of some "god" who's little more than the Big Fascist In The Sky (and if you haven't seen it, it's hard to describe the priapistic joy of a Calvinist describing the infinite sadistic cruelty of their version of God) almost always with a side of the Priesthood being willing to declare any rich asshole who gives them money to be one of the Saved...and whatever God thinks of it be damned...is actually behind most of our national sins from the Indian Wars and Slavery to the Gilded Age and support for Latin American dictators and dirty wars.

And it's going to get worse.

You could have voted to keep your freedom, America.

Now you'll have to fight for it, and you're going to have to fight against these smirking snide freaks to get it back.

The civil war that these freaks want to start will also be a class war, and they'll call you a Communist if you believe that your Mom should be able to keep the Social Security that she paid into and earned, and they'll call you a terrorist if you resist their Power, and call you a freeloader if you expect to eat or have clean water. You want to be something other than super-rich and survive??

You're going to have to ignore the bright lights and the media spin and lock in and fight for your right to exist.

The world these fucking people want to live in is nothing more than the Killing Fields of Khmer Rouge Cambodia, but with a mall.

It's really that damned simple, and you were warned before.

It's the Christmas season, and we've handed ourselves over to the kind of people who'd have arrested Mary, Joseph and Jesus for vagrancy because they've criminalized being homeless, and they'd gladly send all three to a place like Sednaya Prison on that basis alone.

And then they don't want you to hate the dictator that came up with the shit.

Think on that.

Слава Україна!

My black face fades,
hiding inside the black granite.
I said I wouldn't
dammit: No tears.
I'm stone. I'm flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night slanted against morning.

I turn this way—the stone lets me go.
I turn that way—I'm inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58,022 names,
half-expecting to find
my own in letters like smoke.

I touch the name Andrew Johnson; I see the booby trap's white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman's blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.
Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's
wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet's image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I'm a window.
He's lost his right arm
inside the stone. In the black mirror
a woman’s trying to erase names:
No, she's brushing a boy's hair.
~Facing It, by Yusef Komunyakaa, US Army Veteran

One

Cassian Andor: What? To steal from the Empire, what do you need? A uniform, some dirty hands, and an Imperial toolkit. They’re so proud of themselves, they don’t even care. They’re so fat and satisfied, they can’t imagine it…

Luthen Rael: Can’t imagine what?

Andor: That someone like me would ever get inside their house, walk their floors, spit in their food, take their gear.

~From the Star Wars series Andor.

Bonus Content

We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear — fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts, or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer. ~Hunter S. Thompson.

Addicts (Reason For The Season 2024, One.)

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)

...

[Cassian Andor and Kino Loy have successfully broken out of their cell block and took over the prison complex's command center]

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

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

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

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

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

...

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

I saw this a few days ago.

Apparently the main guy for that dipshit "Yellowstone" TV show was ranting about how disgusting and immoral cities are, and how much he hates civilization in general.

Bitch, you literally make your money off of how many people watch your dumbass TV show.

I've never seen more than incidental clips of Yellowstone on YouTube, by the way, it strikes me as a more malevolent Duck Dynasty type of shit, but with horses, and I never cared much for the first one, nor the cult following it seemed to generate among certain of my coworkers. Or maybe like a modern version of Deadwood, but without any of that show's many redeeming qualities.

Seriously I've been watching rednecks and rich idiots do dumb shit for most of my life, and I've never found it especially funny. Some of the people me and my Grandpa worked for when I was younger...it sometimes took a lot to ask them just how they managed to put their pants on in the morning, they were so fucking dumb when it came to anything that didn't involve being a business-person or a lawyer or whatever. My Grandpa literally said "ALL these people know how to make is money." And for all the money they had, more often than not they'd still try to argue with our rates, a point to which my Grandpa was more than willing to reply with how much things like a tractor and mower deck cost or how much work it was to do X or Y and that if they wanted to do it themselves the next year, we would more than likely have other clients by then. Funny how when you framed it in terms of "Pay Me" vs. "Do Physical Labor" they'd usually stop arguing and just pay.

Like, we're talking people who can't even drain water out of their pipes for the winter here, who own seasonal cabins and second homes and were a little put out that the only people they could call weren't [Racial Expletives Deleted] who'd do the job for $5 an hour (Just above minimum wage in 1992.) And of course now we have plenty of Black folks and Latino migrants up here and they charge the same as everybody else, if not more, because they absolutely can...because their work is just as good as if not better than what me and my Grandpa did 35 years ago.

(This is a big part of why I don't consider a lot of things Work. If your job is to wear a suit and go to meetings all day, you might be making money but you sure ain't working. That said, having spent as much time in food service and hospitality as I did, I have nothing but respect for a "Suit" that's willing to pitch in and actually do something now and again.)

And honestly, I think I'm just tired of rich white "Conservatives" and their followers and the recent contradictory combination of mania for control and tedious need to be the ONLY people who are even seen. First off, that seems like a pretty boring way to live. Second, most of these fucking people cannot even stand to be by themselves or not have somebody "Other" to argue with. I mean, maybe it's just me but it seriously seems like it'd be cheaper and easier to just get therapy than to go down this lonely path of narcissism and stupidity that these fucking people are lockstep-marching down. I mean, during the COVID-19 pandemic all these people got asked to do is stay they ass home for awhile, and they couldn't even do that.

Honestly at this point, it just seems like they're sulky mad that they cannot simply own the rest of us.

But at the same time, how they think they could somehow reenact the Antebellum South without knowing something as simple as the stars in the sky (A subject that's surprisingly important to agricultural societies lacking modern technology) I have no idea.

And yet Larry Hogan was supposed to be one of the smart Republicans, and some kind of a responsible government official?? Bro, I've known what the Constellation Orion was since I was like...five, maybe??

Are these idiots just that self-centered that they never look up??

Don't answer that. 

I've happened across one or two astronomy books written by and for Evangelicals and yes, they absolutely are ridiculously narcissistic. Like these people really do think the Universe was made just for them by a "Loving" God who only loves them and hates everybody else.

I get it, all this Thirst Trap bullshit makes the people that do it money. But "Conservatives" seem only to have internalized how important and special and "Saved" they are. Somebody needs to stop catering to this garbage. These fucking people are like half a step from saying they're the only people in the Universe.

I long ago figured out there has to be other life in the Universe, and I long ago figured out just why they don't want to talk to us.

I mean for fuck's sake here's Roseanne trying to say that if there's Aliens, it must be some kind of government conspiracy to institute "One World Government." I mean...what?? So, you're telling me if hostile aliens showed up, she wouldn't believe it??

(These fucking people's threat receivers appear to be entirely calibrated towards threats to ego rather than, ya know, life or physical safety, but I digress. It's gonna absolutely suck for them if the shit does hit the fan soon, just sayin.' It's like the Empire from Star Wars, but with Rebellion Deniers?)

Bitch, this is America. If you haven't figured out by now that the only way anybody in this country would ever agree to "One World Government" is if it got to be us and we got to be some kind of ruling class, you're fooling your own damn self. And by the way, Roseanne is allegedly Jewish, so I have no idea where she gets off claiming this drain cleaner-adulterated Christian End Times Prophecy BS, but I suppose that's simply the language of the entire Right at this point? Fuck if I know, I've been out of it for too long (and I sure as hell don't want to go back.)

And,  of course, when you pitch your religion as being "Alone in a lost and dying world" I suppose after awhile, you get what you get. FAFO.

You want the crazy shit to stop?

You want things to get better?

You want to be able to have nice things again? Maybe rejoin the rest of the civilized world??

Well, that's not gonna happen until we, as a nation, stop jerking off and get over our fucking narcissism and our addiction to conspiracy theories, fear and selfishness.

But ya know, I'm an addict. That cost me my Air Force career and almost my life, then a marriage and my mental health for quite a few years. You don't get over it, or even start to want to, until you realize you have a problem and get tired of either literally or metaphorically waking up on the goddamned floor and your life being a goddamned dumpster fire.

And to get there, you usually gonna have to hit the bottom first, probably more than once.

And for fuck's sake, we're a week away from Christmas and I've barely heard a word about it this year.

I'm afraid to ask what it's going to take to make this shit stop, and when enough will, in fact, be enough at this point. But I've been that guy for enough holidays, I think I have some idea.

Just never seen it done on a national scale, before.

This could be a little rough.

Слава Україна!

Look! The moonlight shows us for what we really are! We are not among the living, and so we cannot die. But neither are we dead! For too long, I've been parched of a thirst with nothin' to quench it. Too long I've been starvin' to death and haven't died. I feel nothin'. Not the wind on my face nor the spray of the sea, nor the warmth of a woman's flesh. [steps out into the moonlight, revealing his skeletal form] You best start believin' in ghost stories, Miss Turner. You're in one!

~Hector Barbossa, Pirates Of The Caribbean; Curse Of The Black Pearl.

Last Post

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive..." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: "Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?" No point mentioning those bats, I thought. The poor bastard will see them soon enough. ~Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Decivilization? No. (Shouty Man, Five.)

Look! The moonlight shows us for what we really are! We are not among the living, and so we cannot die. But neither are we dead! For too long, I've been parched of a thirst with nothin' to quench it. Too long I've been starvin' to death and haven't died. I feel nothin'. Not the wind on my face nor the spray of the sea, nor the warmth of a woman's flesh. [steps out into the moonlight, revealing his skeletal form] You best start believin' in ghost stories, Miss Turner. You're in one!

~Hector Barbossa, Pirates Of The Caribbean; Curse Of The Black Pearl.

...

We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear — fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts, or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer. ~Hunter S. Thompson.

...

Cassian Andor: What? To steal from the Empire, what do you need? A uniform, some dirty hands, and an Imperial toolkit. They’re so proud of themselves, they don’t even care. They’re so fat and satisfied, they can’t imagine it…

Luthen Rael: Can’t imagine what?

Andor: That someone like me would ever get inside their house, walk their floors, spit in their food, take their gear.

~From the Star Wars series Andor.

I saw this last night.

Some Antivaxxer nut going off about how inside vaccines there's "RNA-modifying biotechnology that connects your body to 5G" Whatever that means.

Lady, I've had a whole bunch of vaccines, as a kid, later when I was in the military and more recently because of COVID-19, and the only reason anybody might usually detect any Wi-Fi signal near me is because I usually have my hotspot up on my phone. (I have a pretty distinctive hotspot name and people have commented on this.) 5G is just...well, better Wi-Fi than we've got where I live, it's not any more magical or Satanic than 4G internet was. Also, CERN (A Franco-Swiss research complex) being located on the site of some ancient Roman temple seems...unlikely. Switzerland was a frontier region of the Roman empire, not a place with big cities or temple complexes. The one major Roman ruin that I know of in Switzerland was once a Legionary camp.

Also, way back when I was a member of the End Times Prophecy movement the "Beast" supercomputer (Brussels Economic Activity Surveillance Terminal, if I remember right, never mind that the acronym wouldn't be the same in Dutch or French) was supposedly in Belgium, near Brussels (because that's where the EU capital is!)  Come on, people, what's wrong with you?

These conspiracy theories are, essentially, Mad Libs.

But the concern-Troll whiners at The Atlantic (while carrying water for the business elites) are worried about "De-Civilization?"

Guys, the people trying to disassemble Civilization and sell it for parts are the fucking CEO's.

And they get a big assist from the conspiracy theory weirdos and religious fanatics (not that there's much difference between the two anymore, at least as far as American Christianity goes) who keep the masses distracted with stupid religious-sounding bullshit that makes no sense to anybody capable of opening a Bible, a history book or Wikipedia and actually reading it.

On the one hand, sooner or later this crap usually ends up indistinguishable from mental illness.

On the other hand, American Conservatism itself has always had a seamy underbelly of bigotry, conspiracy bullshit, and literal murder.

But of course, that serves the existing power structure more often than it doesn't, and gives the power structure a hell of a lot of deniability in the process, so the Atlantic peeps don't care.

If vaccines, which have (to one degree or another) been a thing for as long as America has...were really going to turn everybody into Satanist Liberals (which is basically the between-the-lines quiet part of most End Times and other conspiracy lies) it'd have taken effect decades ago and we wouldn't even be having this dumbass conversation.

Like somebody pointed out in the snipped conversation above, an Anti-abortion activist fatally shot a doctor in his church. These motherfuckers don't give a shit about God or Jesus either, let alone the Ten Commandments.

Divine commandments and Human laws are things that Republicans usually try to finagle their way around, not actually obey. All they really want is Power, Wealth and the Capability to basically do whatever the fuck they want, rules are for other people. And no, like the undead Pirates of the Disney franchise...they can never be satisfied, whether they were cursed by the heathen gods or are simply greedy rapacious fuckheads is a matter of opinion.

Until the pitchforks and torches come out or there's a threat of actual revolution, and then Republicans are all about the Law and usually like "Hey now, take it easy, we were just kidding!" And then things change and once the eyes are off them, they go back to trying to finagle their way around that, too, like a ferret eternally trying to get out of its cage. Except ferrets are more civilized than Republicans and they're usually better people.

These fucking people are worried about "De-Civilization" and the first things that the Right usually throws out the window are "Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness" (in other words, don't lie) and Thou Shalt Not Kill. The next things they want to do are get rid of health care for the non-wealthy and end Social Security, thus violating the Lord's repeated commands to care for the elderly and the sick! Then they wanna throw out all the immigrants and strangers! 

Have these fucking assholes ever even read Leviticus??

I'll save you the time, No. No, they haven't.

These conspiracy nuts and Republicans and the CEO's they enable and the idiot "Conservative" voters who are responsible for this mess are the kind of people who sit in the breakroom at work, looking all serious going over the same chapters and verses every damn night while they talk Conspiracy Bullshit with some dumbass goon and make lewd comments at female coworkers, but they go to a Pentecostal church on Sunday, so they think it's all good because there's a Shouty Man in the pulpit telling them that Other People are gonna go to hell.

To them, Heaven isn't Heaven if they're not the only ones who get to go. America isn't America if anybody else gets a slice...no matter how small. That's in case you're wondering why these fucking people don't seem to want America anymore.

The true religion of These Fucking People isn't Christianity, it's the Prosperity Gospel with a side of Eugenics. If it could be sufficiently well explained to these idiots that Jesus Christ was neither rich nor White, they'd reject Him and be all too happy to follow the Beast, so long as it looked sufficiently like Donald Trump or Elon Musk.

And I guarantee you, they're all about the idea of putting computer chips in people's heads and claiming "It's not the Mark Of The Beast when we do it!"

Yes, yes it is, because what that whole bit is symbolic of is rejection of spirituality in favor of the false world system. Donald Trump isn't the Beast of Revelations, but he'd like to be...and the Evangelicals would still worship him!

We had a choice to not go down this road, but too many fucking people would rather be Entertained than Free.

Now if you want to be free or worship a God that isn't (their) money, you're probably going to have to fight for it. And the first thing you can do to start winning that fight is set your feet on the floor of Truth and push back hard against Power. You have to yell back, too.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

You wanna be free? Reject conspiracy theories and find out what is true, it's really that simple. Then you act on it. That's not "De-Civilization" that's the basis of Civilization.

Reject the false gospel of the Shouty Man.

It's the only way we're gonna be Saved.

Слава Україна!

My black face fades,
hiding inside the black granite.
I said I wouldn't
dammit: No tears.
I'm stone. I'm flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night slanted against morning.

I turn this way—the stone lets me go.
I turn that way—I'm inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58,022 names,
half-expecting to find
my own in letters like smoke.

I touch the name Andrew Johnson; I see the booby trap's white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman's blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.
Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's
wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet's image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I'm a window.
He's lost his right arm
inside the stone. In the black mirror
a woman’s trying to erase names:
No, she's brushing a boy's hair.
~Facing It, by Yusef Komunyakaa, US Army Veteran

Four

The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well, it's a simple answer after all. You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." There is a point beyond which they must not advance. This is the meaning in the phrase of Barry Goldwater's "peace through strength." Winston Churchill said that "the destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits — not animals." And he said, "There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty. ~Ronald Reagan

Thirst Trap (Shouty Man, Four.)

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.

For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.

And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.

Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.

And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.

But he that had received one went and dug in the earth, and hid his lord's money.

After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckon with them.

And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou delivered unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.

His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou delivered unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.

His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:

And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.

His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knew that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:

Thou ought therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.

Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.

For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.

And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats:

And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

For I was hungry, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

For I was hungry, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we that thee hungered, or was athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. ~Matthew 25, King James Version.

...

Cassian Andor: What? To steal from the Empire, what do you need? A uniform, some dirty hands, and an Imperial toolkit. They’re so proud of themselves, they don’t even care. They’re so fat and satisfied, they can’t imagine it…

Luthen Rael: Can’t imagine what?

Andor: That someone like me would ever get inside their house, walk their floors, spit in their food, take their gear.

~From the Star Wars series Andor.

My Mom and I went on a road trip down to Midland and Saginaw the other day, as we were leaving the city my Mom took a wrong turn that had us off-track for a couple minutes until we could find a spot to turn around and go get on the freeway.

Before we got that far, we went by this place, "Heaven's Elect Christian daycare center." I saw that and I seriously was like...what??

And next to it? A bunch of "Wealth Management" businesses in a little strip mall.

Needless to say none of this is actually aimed at kids, I went to Christian schools and if I'd seen a place like that when I was a little kid, I'd have probably responded the same way and I knew, in a basic sort of way, what those words meant.

At that point, it hit me; American Christianity has become nothing more than a hand-job for basic narcissists, a scam, a thirst trap...and it's dragged conservatism right along with it.

Why else would somebody like Matt Gaetz even be in politics??

Like, seriously I bet if somebody like Nancy Mace had to actually conduct herself as a Christian or conservative person according to what those words traditionally have meant in terms of conduct and self-governance in order to keep her place in the magical city, she'd leave or she'd switch parties. This isn't somebody who gives a rat's ass about conservative values, let alone Jesus. She wants attention and money and shitty internet fame.

And nothing else matters.

These fucking people don't want a resurrected, living Christ that might have an opinion about how they conduct themselves and judge them for it, they want a dead Jesus, a skeleton in a stone tomb as a rationalization for all the fucked up shit they want to do anyway and as a totem for their "Tribe."

The conservative version of Jesus is basically just a dead rabbit on a stick, a leering Tiki at the edge of the camp, the message? 

"Fuck You, I've Got Mine."

Like, what the fuck is the difference between These Fucking People and Bashar Al-Assad except for what religion they chose not to follow??

Like, what's even the damn point?? 

This dude wasn't a dictator so he could promote the ideals of Pan-Arabic Socialism or the watered-down Communism that lots of Soviet-adjacent states like Syria practiced during the Cold War. No, the motherfucker became a goddamn Dictator so he could have and keep a garage full of fancy cars, and if the price of that was a whole bunch of motherfuckers got murdered in places like Sednaya Prison, he didn't care.

All these people like Bashar Al-Assad and Donald Trump, promoted in turn by "Conservatives" and the far-Left, they don't give a damn about any of that stuff. They're just thirsty for Power and Wealth and a bunch of losers are willing to give it to them...not because they believe in anything, either, but because they're shitty little narcissists who think they're gonna get something out of it, or they want a narcissistic champion so they can feel "special" or some shit.

See that picture? There's a guy under that blanket. I deliberately went back and snipped it here 'cause you really don't want to see the kind of shape that guy was in.

He hadn't seen food, water or sunlight in three months.

That right there is the consequences of this kind of shit, it's what happens. This is the consequence of cruelty as State policy and hell, it happens in American jails on a regular enough basis to make the news now.

And the people who do this kind of shit to other human beings don't actually give a damn whether you say you're on their side or not...because the only "Side" they're picking is that of their own cruelty and narcissism and, increasingly, vision of themselves as somehow Sanctified and godlike. Yes, in a North Korean-like ideal, Hafez Al Assad (the guy who started this whole mess) was called the "Sanctified One." Also, according to Islamic belief, a man being given or claiming such a title is actively Blasphemous

But ya know, living in a situation where you have to tolerate some asshole blaspheming God out of their own damn narcissism every damn day or you get shot or thrown into prison is exactly how a hell of a lot of the global Other Half has had to live at one time or another...and I'll remind you that throughout his first term, "Conservative" Christians turned a blind eye to Trump doing exactly that on a regular basis.

Here's the thing, though.

If you fight back, these fucking people run like bitches. I saw a video yesterday of Russian troops...the same troops that propped up Assad for a decade...setting land speed records with Infantry fighting vehicles and MRAP's fleeing Syria. 

These motherfuckers aren't invincible, hell, they're barely even the least bit competent most of the time because one and all, their main focus isn't even on trying to do their actual jobs, it's on trying to satisfy their narcissism and keep that shit fueled up so they don't have to think about being the shit people that they are in real life. But narcissism is, fundamentally, an itch you can't scratch and a thirst you can't slake. Nothing is ever going to be enough, and that's what always ends up destroying these fucking people in the end.

If you take away their ability to act on their cruelty, their power, their wealth...or whatever they think gives them license to do this shit...they fold, they take their ball and go home. Downsizing, "Peace with Honor" and standing down in the face of oncoming enemies from the North Vietnamese Army to the fucking Taliban is just what these assholes do when people actually stand up and fight back. To them, even war isn't about actually defeating an enemy, but about ideology and money and...far too often...convincing the smooth-brained American idiot that "Something is being done." Never mind the question of whether or not it's something we should do. See also, the Iraq War.

All you have to do is stand up and fight back, and these assholes are terrified that you'll do exactly that.

So do it.

Power is supposed to fear the People...and as the situation in South Korea should instruct you, that's supposed to be true whether they're armed or not.

The Right wants a piecemeal Civil War so it can use it to destroy America, it don't want class war, a large-scale uprising or mass resistance that carries actual risk and doesn't feed its toxic BS, and mind you, the "Elect Of Heaven" types are positively turgid with the hope that somebody will resist them in particular 'cause they think they'll get to claim "Persecution" and get glory for it.

They don't even realize that what Persecution really is...is the guy hiding under a blanket for three months out of fear of his jailers.

These idiot "Christians" think "Persecution" is the ability to go on Facebook and whine about some person saying "Happy Holidays" to them at the store. They think it's Persecution that their personal whatever isn't forcibly maintained at center stage with everybody else forced to clap and cheer for them. (And they have no concept that many other people, Christian or otherwise, observe Christmas, because to them the rest of us simply don't really exist.) Hell, in all too many cases they think persecution is going to jail because they committed an actual crime like child molestation.

Far too many Americans think luxuries like guns and pickup trucks and wealth or even getting their narcissism and sadism jerked off are necessities. They're not even thinking about stuff like food, water or sunlight. let alone the possibility that the Big Government they like to bitch about while pointing it at other people could turn against them. I mean, fuck, people like Elon Musk think "Freedom" is little more than the capability to say racial slurs. They have no concept that they could do or say the wrong thing and lose their actual freedom and think it's funny to undermine the system that could give them recourse against that...because it also gives the common people some degree of ability to resist.

People who'll casually metaphorically slip a brick into somebody else's backpack for no better reason than because they think it's funny are in for a rude awakening. When the Shouty Man turns against the Church and starts telling the "Christians" what to do, I guarantee you these idiots will have the nerve to be surprised. When the American oligarchs start meeting the same fate as a lot of the Russian ones and getting tossed out of windows and shit, I guarantee you they'll think it's the worst thing ever.

I mean, look at how people reacted to one CEO getting shot.

And the people who should care the most if they believe as they say they do...regardless of whether it's about some poor guy in Syria or some rich guy in New York City...don't. In their mentality "Thou Shalt Not Kill" comes with a whole hell of a lot of fine print.

Cuz they might say they're the "Elect of Heaven" but the truth is what they're after is slaking a thirst for power and glory in This World. 

How many of these fucking people would even be Christians if they got told they couldn't use that to judge or persecute somebody else...be it Transgender people or otherwise? How many of these people would be Christians if they got persecuted (for real) instead of getting recognition and worldly power while getting to pick on somebody else??

Jesus said His Kingdom was not of this world.

Note this isn't Belief on my part, it's just basic reading comprehension.

Sooner or later these people are gonna fuck around and find out, even if it's when they die and find out that Jesus wasn't a Dead Savior On A Stick after all.

Block the Thirst Trap, avoid the Church.

Слава Україна!

My black face fades,
hiding inside the black granite.
I said I wouldn't
dammit: No tears.
I'm stone. I'm flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night slanted against morning.

I turn this way—the stone lets me go.
I turn that way—I'm inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58,022 names,
half-expecting to find
my own in letters like smoke.

I touch the name Andrew Johnson; I see the booby trap's white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman's blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.
Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's
wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet's image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I'm a window.
He's lost his right arm
inside the stone. In the black mirror
a woman’s trying to erase names:
No, she's brushing a boy's hair.
~Facing It, by Yusef Komunyakaa, US Army Veteran

Three

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

Fallen (Shouty Man, Three-On Syria and What The Fuck Are We Doing Here?)

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

...

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

...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yesterday, Bashar Al-Assad's regime in Syria fell, and Syrian rebel forces entered Damascus. Arab Spring perhaps turns to summer?

Good.

And I mean this with all due disrespect, Fuck that guy.

He's where a lot of the crap we've got going on started, because Vladimir Putin saw Moammar Gaddafi get dragged out of a drain culvert and shot on the head and decided if he didn't do something...he might have been next...so he offered Assad all type of support in order to keep, I don't know, the meme of Dictatorship going or something.

Again, FUCK THAT GUY.

And fuck anybody that supports that guy, too.

This isn't...or shouldn't be...that hard.

The thing that gets me, is there's a fair number of Americans, apparently both far-Leftists and MAGA's who are sad that Assad has been defeated.

Also, President Yoon of South Korea appears to have survived his impeachment vote, but the people over there are still protesting, he's still likely on the way out...and among others, the now-former Defense minister has been arrested.

Good, Fuck those guys, too. I have precisely no sympathy for the same reason I could give a shit about that CEO that got shot.

You make your money by hurting people, or use your power to do the same, eventually Karma comes calling (and the bitch wears the kind of spiked heels you don't wanna get kicked in the nuts with) or somebody under you gets ambitious and has friends, the Wheel turns, your bodyguards get lazy, and/or your luck otherwise runs out. It may not be a Just world, but however tough you think you are it's a safe bet there's a dude out there that's tougher than you and you're eventually gonna fuck around and find out.

I mean, if all else fails, eventually the Angel Of Death comes for everybody.

That's not some vast political plot, it's just life.

To unapologetically gank the old "Conservative" saying, standing athwart the flow of history yelling "Stop!" just doesn't work.

History just rolls right over you and doesn't even notice.

I'll never understand why Americans, least of all Republicans, would be sad when a despot falls. 

I mean, sure we got people like Nguyen Van Thieu and Ferdinand Marcos out when their countries or governments fell, but we sure as shit didn't put them on Good Morning America after the fact. Bashar Al-Assad fled to the UAE, and in all probability he'll spend whatever time he has left living in a golden palace in Dubai, likely with the support of the Russians, rather more luxuriously than how Nguyen Van Thieu lived out the rest of his days quietly in Massachusetts. In the past, Republicans used people like that...we didn't lionize them, though.

I mean, fuck, even though Nguyen Van Thieu was a Catholic I never heard of no Hard-Right American idiots being willing to launch a crusade on his behalf, not even being about a week late and a hell of a lot more than a dollar short. (Note: Bashar Al-Assad's family, his inner circle and his political power-base were all composed of Alawite Muslims. I can't imagine what the Online Right thinks it'd be getting out of this bullshit even if they'd had the guts to actually show up. And they didn't.) 

But here's the thing, if you think about it; It's actually worse than that.

I'm serious.

In the posted meme there's a couple of ships and a whole bunch of helicopters. For one thing, all that's going to take a lot more than 2,000-3,000 people to run...no matter how experienced with that type of gear said people are. You might have to have about that many combat troops, or that might be one unit, but there's got to be a whole shitload of other people in other places supporting it. There's millions of working parts involved in making any large organization...especially a military unit...work.

Most of it you don't see...or even notice...until you start to run short on 5.56mm ammunition or toilet paper or whatever $5 widget you need at that particular time.

And running a warship (for example) takes a lot of people working together, efficiency, skill, teamwork and all that. Take it from one guy who was part of a couple of major Air Force units...there's not exactly a ton of individual recognition going on in making an airbase or a ship work properly.

Here's the thing...These Fucking Dudes...nearly every last one of them, in my experience, are so fucking selfish they can't be bothered to keep their wives happy. I've been married, this is the kind of problem you don't know you have 'til it's too late. 

I mean, I get that These Fucking People are shitty little narcissists. 

So, I guess it follows that they'd be selfish lovers, but let me tell you why that doesn't work...my ex-wife had a personality disorder and if she didn't get tuned up right proper every now and again eventually there was going to be hell to pay. Money would get spent on dumb shit, she'd quit her job, throw a fit in such a way as to seriously fuck shit up, etc. And mind you, this was somebody who was loudly and very performatively not just Christian but Pentecostal. You want a frustrated partner, guys? You think this is funny?? Don't get with a woman that already has a personality disorder. That's not some sort of a feminist view, it's just practical, lived experience. 

A happy wife does mean a happy life, in a lot of circumstances.

Now...generalize that over to the rest of life.

If somebody doesn't understand love, doesn't understand how to treat a partner properly...how are they going to treat anybody else?

How are they gonna treat their fellow Crusaders who might be a different color, much less whatever local allies they have who might not even be Christian...or their kind of one? How they gonna treat Mohammed the street vendor??

If they're "It's All About Me" to that level...well, damn, what's next??

When their Holy Crusade isn't an action movie that's over in a couple hours, when it's duty, hard nasty work digging holes in the hot sun and nobody shows up for them to shoot their guns at...not unless they're in the cockpit of a MiG-29 coming at you so fast the sound rolls along behind anyway...when there's no glory in it...what do you think these fucking people would do??

Oh, right, thanks Nancy.

Walk around with a megaphone looking like an idiot and pose for the camera, that's what.

And worse, that's exactly how they think this is gonna go.

And people like this (On all sides of the political spectrum but especially the Right) are why I'm so tired of this Attention Economy, Clicks-and-Likes bullshit.

Every damn one of them thinks this, I'm sure Nancy Mace already has a canned speech for CPAC or a podcast bit she's practicing in front of the mirror, too.

You think the Shouty Man causes problems? Wait 'til it's a woman with a goddamn megaphone and some kind of histrionic bullshit going on.

Ya know, maybe it's just me, but if that's the way this is going and we're all gonna be like that, I'd rather be the guy taking the Selfie in front of the tyrant's burning IFV than be the bitch carrying a bullhorn around to yell about transgender people.

My personal beliefs and tastes lean more toward an appreciation for the Ukrainian style of meme warfare, among other things. And if you don't think that requires a hell of a lot of people unselfishly working together...you're just wrong.

It's not about money, it's not about power. It's not just that was more my skillset back in the day. It's not just about what side you're on, it's not about what you might tell kids, grandkids or random strangers a generation hence, it's about do you...as a person...have enough self-respect to look at your own goddamned face in the bathroom mirror every morning??

You're either willing to have that discussion every day or you ain't. I've never been in the position of having the money to hire people like Akeem in Coming To America.

So I have to be able to look myself in the face.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Yes, it really is that simple.

And freedom isn't free.

Sometimes, you have to fight for it.

Assad has fallen, and Damascus with him.

And thanks to the Syrians for reminding us, Yes, We Can.

Слава Україна!

My black face fades,
hiding inside the black granite.
I said I wouldn't
dammit: No tears.
I'm stone. I'm flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night slanted against morning.

I turn this way—the stone lets me go.
I turn that way—I'm inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58,022 names,
half-expecting to find
my own in letters like smoke.

I touch the name Andrew Johnson; I see the booby trap's white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman's blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.
Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's
wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet's image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I'm a window.
He's lost his right arm
inside the stone. In the black mirror
a woman’s trying to erase names:
No, she's brushing a boy's hair.
~Facing It, by Yusef Komunyakaa, US Army Veteran

Two

Cassian Andor: What? To steal from the Empire, what do you need? A uniform, some dirty hands, and an Imperial toolkit. They’re so proud of themselves, they don’t even care. They’re so fat and satisfied, they can’t imagine it…

Luthen Rael: Can’t imagine what?

Andor: That someone like me would ever get inside their house, walk their floors, spit in their food, take their gear.

~From the Star Wars series Andor.