Jace, Extat

Are QAnon crazies and MAGA Heads theocrats? I wouldn't call them such. Trump is a cult of personality. It will die when he does. I mean, by God of course Biden is better than Trump. He's still less-than-reassuring at his present condition.

Meanwhile, CNN says that Iran has launched "dozens" of drones at Israel, according to Israeli intelligence and confirmed by U.S.

America is much better off demographically than almost any country on Earth. You'll be waiting for this a long time. There is a gulf of lightyears between a major party that courts religious voters and a regime specifically dedicated to a religious worldview that demands the killing of non-believers. Huzzah to the Young Millennials! Our hour of triumph is near! Yeah... about that... Look, I appreciate Joe Biden. I think he did a great service to his country in 2020 and by all accounts he seems as good a man as a politician can be. But the best outcome I can forsee is that he wins reelection and then is replaced quickly by Kamala Harris as President. I don't like picking on him because he's old, but when the future of everything is at stake I can't feel confident in a man whose staff feels the need to hide him from public. It's not a nice reality to confront, but we have the systems we have. Some people fall apart as they age, it's just a fact of life, and a man whose best days are behind him is not who I want as the supreme executive on this planet.

20 years ago I was ten... And that probably would have been a better time to handle this problem, really. But thanks to Bush we wasted our Regime Change card on Iraq instead. The world could end in thirty minutes due to the actions of nine political actors. As is, the nine have played rationally with their apocalypse machines. But what cannot come to pass is a theocratic regime, that expects to kill billions of heretics and non-believers as a precondition to paradise, becoming nuclear armed. No, no go. Can't be allowed. And to be fair to Iran, my personal position is that no more players are welcome at the nuclear table. No nuclear armed Egypt, or Sweeden, or Japan, or anybody. If you try to attain nuclear weapons it should be policy that America will come and break all your shit real bad. Two nuclear powers is too many. Nine is insane. Ten is unthinkable.

I don't recall doing... but I do so love being bad. It's my nature. Only thing I can think of is my understanding of Israel's war with Hamas, maybe? I'm always joking, and I'm never not serious. Although it's true; my greatest anxiety these days is Iran's progress towards nuclear armament, and the fact that neither U.S. presidential candidate is equipped to lead the country against such a threat. I express that discomfort in art and song, and am not sorry if it offends.

Governments grant and enforce rights, though. That's what rights are. Some governments grant certain rights to non-citizens, but pretty much only when those people are inside that country. The last thing I was ashamed to have come out of my mouth was my step-father.

How much time ya got?

We're gonna Bomb BOmb BOMB Iran... C'mon, y'all it's fun in the sand Everyone should lend a hand When we Bomb BOmb BOMB Iran All the breaks will go to plan All the bombs, because we can Get some sun, get a tan I'd rather that than see them fan The flames of war in over-there-istan It isn't fair, it's not our fight But we're super and Israel's right We cannot let them have The Bomb And that's the moral of this song! We're gonna Bomb BOmb BOMB Iran Come now, Persians Get your due We can do this, we and you It'll be just like a dance Time to snap out of our trance and see that the only way through is to... Bomb BOmb BOMB Iran

Goddamn, Zorral. You're taking no prisoners lately.

Yeah, waddaya gonna do? Our dear, beloved, Zorral has a flair for sweepish commentary. I just mistook the focus of the post as Palestinians as a nationality, not ethnicity. Oh, you! You're not allowed to be cynical or snarky, even in jest. I count on you for unbridled empathy.

Comprehension, surely. See, with your soaring rhetoric I sometimes lose track of what, exactly, the great evil entities are suppposedly doing. I really did think that that was how you were describing the entirety of the Israel-Palestine relationship, though.

We already had this discussion didn't we? I thought you were referring to Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank. But anyway, and to this point: There's a wild, wild, difference in having a government underperform in upholding individual rights and having no rights at all.

Supposedly. But who's to enforce such a standard.

Well, Israelis are citizens because they constitute a state right? It's the state that offers, guarantees, and enforces an individual's rights. Is there an organization or entity that looks to guarantee, with enforcement, Palestinian rights or civil liberties? The Palestinian Authority has no popular support, or enforcement power. And Hamas is not exactly a Civil Liberties kind of group.

Do Palestinians have civil or legal rights? One would think not, since they have no legitimate representing structure to guarantee them.

Listen, Pot Head. Coffee had hundreds of years to be integrated productively into our societies. There's norms, customs and accepted uses of coffee. Meanwhile, since 2012 weed suddenly became a very casual thing. Not all folks come equipped to have ready access to drugs.

Oddly enough... I'm with Zorral on this one. Weed is great. I fucking love weed. Buuuuut... It is a drug. Mistakes were made on our road to debauch.

Sun looks like a pissed-off Pacman from where I'm sitting, in the path of totality.

Is that Aliens vs Predator??? You win the internet today.

I'm forced to imagine Rippounet gesturing with his wine, complaining that the only French guy has two lines.

So there's this cartoon on Prime Video called Hazbin Hotel. I firmly recommend. It's about the princess of hell, Lucifer's daughter. She's started a hotel where she attempts to rehabilitate sinners and get them into heaven, to help with hell's overcrowding problem. It's just delightful! It's like a Disney cartoon, lots of singing and looking for the good in people... But in hell. The concept alone, bravo I say. And the execution is delightful. Y'all should check it out.

He can do whatever he wants, as far as I'm concerned. If you're telling me we get some kind of smug Muad'Dib mooning after an enraged rebel Chani then I'm in.

I think you could do an opening montage of the jihad, narrated by Chani, that ends with Paul and she reconciling. That would be a good way to show the passage of time, at first Paul is leading alone but he returns to Arrakis for her. Then they're back together for the events of Messiah. You could even have Paul be one of many Fremen returning disaffected from the jihad at the end of Chani's narration. "What would I do, when I see him again?" She might ask the audience. And when he steps foot back on Arrakis you see them embrace. - Then we're back on track for the events of Messiah and the God Emperor's Golden Path.

I know, I got a little over my skiis on that one. Don't tell nobody.