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1000 results for “empire_state_building_lights”
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#SpeakingOutOfPlace welcomes #KarenHao, author of #EmpireOfAI: Dreams and Nightmares in #SamAltman’s #OpenAI
'Karen explains that she chose the word “empire” precisely to indicate the colonial nature of #AI’s domination: the tremendous damage this enterprise does to the poor, to racial and ethnic minorities, and to the Global South in general in terms of minds, bodies, the environment, natural resources, and any notion of democracy.'
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#SpeakingOutOfPlace welcomes #KarenHao, author of #EmpireOfAI: Dreams and Nightmares in #SamAltman’s #OpenAI
'Karen explains that she chose the word “empire” precisely to indicate the colonial nature of #AI’s domination: the tremendous damage this enterprise does to the poor, to racial and ethnic minorities, and to the Global South in general in terms of minds, bodies, the environment, natural resources, and any notion of democracy.'
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#SpeakingOutOfPlace welcomes #KarenHao, author of #EmpireOfAI: Dreams and Nightmares in #SamAltman’s #OpenAI
'Karen explains that she chose the word “empire” precisely to indicate the colonial nature of #AI’s domination: the tremendous damage this enterprise does to the poor, to racial and ethnic minorities, and to the Global South in general in terms of minds, bodies, the environment, natural resources, and any notion of democracy.'
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#SpeakingOutOfPlace welcomes #KarenHao, author of #EmpireOfAI: Dreams and Nightmares in #SamAltman’s #OpenAI
'Karen explains that she chose the word “empire” precisely to indicate the colonial nature of #AI’s domination: the tremendous damage this enterprise does to the poor, to racial and ethnic minorities, and to the Global South in general in terms of minds, bodies, the environment, natural resources, and any notion of democracy.'
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#SpeakingOutOfPlace welcomes #KarenHao, author of #EmpireOfAI: Dreams and Nightmares in #SamAltman’s #OpenAI
'Karen explains that she chose the word “empire” precisely to indicate the colonial nature of #AI’s domination: the tremendous damage this enterprise does to the poor, to racial and ethnic minorities, and to the Global South in general in terms of minds, bodies, the environment, natural resources, and any notion of democracy.'
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Keep up the resitance:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/commentisfree/2026/may/14/elon-musk-sam-altman-ai-feud' #Sora’s demise ultimately stemmed from several intersecting considerations shaped by grassroots action: flatlining usage, rocky public perception, tightening financials, and heavy constraints on computational resources.
Here’s the thing about empires. They don’t just seek to devour everything – they depend on it for their survival. In other words, the very thing that appears to give them paramount strength is their greatest vulnerability. '
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Keep up the resitance:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/commentisfree/2026/may/14/elon-musk-sam-altman-ai-feud' #Sora’s demise ultimately stemmed from several intersecting considerations shaped by grassroots action: flatlining usage, rocky public perception, tightening financials, and heavy constraints on computational resources.
Here’s the thing about empires. They don’t just seek to devour everything – they depend on it for their survival. In other words, the very thing that appears to give them paramount strength is their greatest vulnerability. '
-
Keep up the resitance:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/commentisfree/2026/may/14/elon-musk-sam-altman-ai-feud' #Sora’s demise ultimately stemmed from several intersecting considerations shaped by grassroots action: flatlining usage, rocky public perception, tightening financials, and heavy constraints on computational resources.
Here’s the thing about empires. They don’t just seek to devour everything – they depend on it for their survival. In other words, the very thing that appears to give them paramount strength is their greatest vulnerability. '
-
Keep up the resitance:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/commentisfree/2026/may/14/elon-musk-sam-altman-ai-feud' #Sora’s demise ultimately stemmed from several intersecting considerations shaped by grassroots action: flatlining usage, rocky public perception, tightening financials, and heavy constraints on computational resources.
Here’s the thing about empires. They don’t just seek to devour everything – they depend on it for their survival. In other words, the very thing that appears to give them paramount strength is their greatest vulnerability. '
-
Keep up the resitance:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/commentisfree/2026/may/14/elon-musk-sam-altman-ai-feud' #Sora’s demise ultimately stemmed from several intersecting considerations shaped by grassroots action: flatlining usage, rocky public perception, tightening financials, and heavy constraints on computational resources.
Here’s the thing about empires. They don’t just seek to devour everything – they depend on it for their survival. In other words, the very thing that appears to give them paramount strength is their greatest vulnerability. '
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The Worst Kind of Freedom
Dediticii of the State, Paroikoi of the Kingdom:
On Christian Nationalism, False Freedom, and the Pilgrim Church
There is a freedom that sings loudly and yet is already in chains.
#AmericanChristianity #captiveChurch #chains #ChristianNationalism #ChurchAndState #CivilReligion #crossAndFlag #dediticii #empireAndGospel #falseFreedom #Idolatry #kingdomOfGod #nationalismAndFaith #paroikoi #pilgrimChurch #politicalReligion #propheticArt #propheticWitness #religiousSymbolism #spiritualBondage #symbolicPhotography
There is a freedom that waves a flag, quotes a verse, demands a prayer in the public square, and calls itself holy. There is a freedom that speaks the name of Jesus with one breath and the language of domination with the next. There is a freedom that insists it is under threat whenever the neighbor is also allowed to breathe, speak, worship, live, vote, belong, or flourish. And that freedom is no freedom at all. It is fear dressed in patriotic robes. It is anxiety holding a Bible. It is the oldest lie of empire baptized in civil religion.
Christian nationalism is built upon that lie.
It says, “We must take the nation back.”
It says, “We must restore Christian order.”
It says, “We must defend our way of life.”
But underneath all of its grand language is a smaller and sadder confession: we do not trust the way of Jesus to be enough unless Caesar kneels beside him. And once the church begins to think that way, it has already bent the knee to another throne.
That is why the old Roman word dediticii has such prophetic force here. In Roman usage, deditio was surrender, and dediticii were those marked by that surrender, those living under the terms of a conquering power; in later Roman legal usage the term could also refer to people whose liberty was degraded, curtailed, a kind of freedom beneath full belonging. What a terrible phrase that is for the church to deserve: not merely conquered, but living in the illusion of liberty while shaped by the chains of empire.
And that is the tragedy of Christian nationalism. It imagines itself strong, but it is surrendered. It imagines itself sovereign, but it is already owned. It imagines itself defending the faith, but it has accepted the terms of a lesser kingdom. It seeks power in the way Rome seeks power, order in the way empires seek order, peace in the way fearful nations seek peace: through threat, hierarchy, exclusion, privilege, and force. It calls this righteousness. It calls this prudence. It calls this realism. But the gospel calls it what it is: temptation.
For every freedom built on another person’s diminishment is already a form of bondage.
If I can only feel secure when someone else is excluded, then I am not secure.
If I can only feel righteous when someone else is silenced, then I am not righteous.
If I can only feel free when someone else is less free, then I am not free.
I am merely protected by a cage large enough to mistake for a kingdom.
This is the bitterest irony of all: those who would limit the freedom of others in the name of preserving their own eventually discover that they, too, have become servants of limitation. They must constantly patrol the borders. They must always be on the lookout for enemies. They must keep watch over books, bodies, ballots, classrooms, pulpits, prayers, and pronouns. They must nourish grievance. They must cultivate suspicion. They must remain forever agitated because domination cannot rest. The soul that clings to supremacy must live in permanent alarm. And so the one who promised freedom becomes the custodian of fear.
That is why this is not merely a political error. It is a spiritual deformation.
Christian nationalism is not simply bad analysis. It is bad discipleship. It is the church forgetting what kind of people it is. It is the church forgetting that Jesus did not seize Rome; Rome seized Jesus. It is the church forgetting that salvation did not come through occupying the governor’s palace, but through faithfulness unto death. It is the church forgetting that Pentecost did not create a purified nation but a multilingual people. It is the church forgetting that the Lord’s Table is not bordered by tribe, race, party, passport, or patriotic myth. It is the church forgetting that Christ rules from a cross before he is confessed in glory.
And when the church forgets these things, it becomes available for conscription.
It can still sing.
It can still preach.
It can still quote scripture.
It can still say “Lord, Lord.”
But it begins to sound less like the Beatitudes and more like a millstone. Less like the prophets and more like the court. Less like the crucified and more like Pilate washing his hands while the machinery of death carries on.
Against all this, the New Testament gives the church another word, a better word: paroikoi. The term carries the sense of strangers, sojourners, resident aliens, people dwelling near but not fully at home in the order around them. In 1 Peter 2:11, believers are addressed in precisely that way, as “foreigners and exiles,” those whose lives in the world are real but not reducible to the world’s claims. And Paul, in Philippians 3:20, gives the church its political center of gravity: “our citizenship is in heaven.”
There is the contrast.
Dediticii are defined by surrender to imperial terms.
Paroikoi are defined by faithful dwelling without ultimate belonging.
Dediticii live under the dictates of the conqueror.
Paroikoi live under the promise of God.
Dediticii accept diminished freedom as though it were normal.
Paroikoi know that their life comes from another commonwealth.
Dediticii are shaped by subjection.
Paroikoi are shaped by pilgrimage.
The church is called to be paroikoi, not dediticii.
The church is called to dwell in the world, bless the world, serve the world, weep with the world, labor for justice in the world, and seek the welfare of the city; but it is never called to worship the city, confuse the city with the kingdom, or surrender its conscience to the rulers of the age. It is called to be near without being possessed. Present without being absorbed. Public without becoming idolatrous. Loving without becoming captive. The church does not need to dominate in order to be faithful. The church needs to remember who it is.
And who is it?
It is a baptized people, not a blood-and-soil people.
It is a Eucharistic people, not a nationalist people.
It is a Pentecost people, not a monocultural people.
It is a cruciform people, not a triumphalist people.
It is a resurrection people, not a fear-governed people.
That is why Christian nationalism is so dangerous. It does not merely propose a flawed strategy. It offers the church a false identity. It tells Christians they are landowners of a sacred nation rather than pilgrims of a holy kingdom. It tells them they are guardians of civilization rather than witnesses to Christ. It tells them their task is to possess the machinery of rule rather than embody the mercy of God. It tells them the neighbor’s difference is a threat rather than an occasion for love. It tells them anxiety is wisdom. It tells them domination is stewardship. It tells them privilege is providence.
And many believe it because it flatters the flesh.
It flatters the longing to be secure without sacrifice.
It flatters the longing to be righteous without repentance.
It flatters the longing to be powerful without being crucified.
It flatters the longing to call coercion conviction and call fear discernment.
But Christ does not flatter the flesh. Christ calls the church to die.
To die to supremacy.
To die to tribal vanity.
To die to the dream of holy violence.
To die to the seduction of being chaplain to empire.
To die to every flag that asks for what belongs only to God.
The church must hear this plainly: when it reaches for power by limiting the lives of others, it does not become more itself. It becomes less. When it seeks freedom through exclusion, it does not enlarge liberty. It redistributes bondage. When it blesses structures that narrow the humanity of the neighbor, it nails its own soul to those same structures. That is the judgment hidden inside the word dediticii: those who think they have secured their place have, in truth, surrendered themselves to a power that can only give them the worst kind of freedom.
But the gospel still offers another way.
Be paroikoi.
Be pilgrims.
Be resident aliens of grace.
Be people whose identity papers are issued in heaven.
Be people who do not need Caesar to certify the lordship of Christ.
Be people free enough to bless without ruling, to serve without controlling, to witness without seizing, to love without fearing.
For our citizenship is in heaven.
And because our citizenship is in heaven, we are finally free on earth: free to tell the truth, free to defend the vulnerable, free to refuse idols, free to reject every gospel of blood and soil, free to stand with those whose liberty is threatened, free to be neither conquerors nor cowards.
The church does not need a Christian nation.
The church needs Christian faithfulness.
The church does not need the illusion of greatness.
The church needs the courage of holiness.
The church does not need to become the soul of the state.
The church must become again the body of Christ.
So let the nations rage. Let the parties boast. Let the demagogues preach their frightened liturgies of invasion, purity, and control. The church must not join their choir. The church must remember its name.
Not dediticii of the state.
But paroikoi of the kingdom.
Not surrendered to empire.
But dwelling in hope.
Not the keepers of a lesser freedom.
But the witnesses of the all-encompassing liberation of Christ. -
Sam McBride: How ‘contradiction in a suit’ Roger Casement embodies today’s Ireland
Knight of the realm, rebel, diplomat, friend and enemy of empires: a compelling new book underlines the nationalist…
#Ireland #IE #Europe #Europa #EU #dublin #germany #ireland #NorthernIreland #SamMcBride #worldwar1
https://www.europesays.com/2897031/ -
Mike Huckabee: 6 weeks in one room with 2 dogs, a microwave, and no real bed. 💔
Meanwhile, 3.2 million Iranians lost their actual homes, their children. But sure, tell us more about your “luxury & adventure” as Ambassador.
Priorities of the empire. 🕯️🇺🇸 🐶🍿🤡#Trump #USPolitics #America #USA #Iran #Israel #MikeHuckabee
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Mike Huckabee: 6 weeks in one room with 2 dogs, a microwave, and no real bed. 💔
Meanwhile, 3.2 million Iranians lost their actual homes, their children. But sure, tell us more about your “luxury & adventure” as Ambassador.
Priorities of the empire. 🕯️🇺🇸 🐶🍿🤡#Trump #USPolitics #America #USA #Iran #Israel #MikeHuckabee
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Mike Huckabee: 6 weeks in one room with 2 dogs, a microwave, and no real bed. 💔
Meanwhile, 3.2 million Iranians lost their actual homes, their children. But sure, tell us more about your “luxury & adventure” as Ambassador.
Priorities of the empire. 🕯️🇺🇸 🐶🍿🤡#Trump #USPolitics #America #USA #Iran #Israel #MikeHuckabee
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The Empire’s New Enforcers: ICE and the Birth of Trump’s Praetorian Guard
Cliff Potts, WPS News
You can tell a lot about a government by the agency it empowers. Under Trump’s second term, the clearest signal of the administration’s intentions isn’t in the laws Congress passed—none of the big changes came from Congress—but in the agency Trump elevated: Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE has always been large, always aggressive, and always controversial. But it was never explicitly political. Not until now.
Since January 20, 2025, ICE has undergone a transformation that should worry anyone who still thinks the Constitution—not the presidency—sets the limits of federal power. What we’re seeing is not the creation of a secret police force or a cartoonish dictatorship. It’s something older, quieter, and historically far more accurate: the emergence of a Praetorian Guard—a force inside the state whose loyalty bends toward the leader instead of the law.
Administrative Power Becomes Personal Power
Most Americans don’t realize ICE carries its own version of a warrant. It’s called an “administrative warrant”—signed not by a judge, but by an ICE officer. These forms were originally intended for limited, civil immigration operations. Under Trump 2.0, they’ve become a shortcut around the Fourth Amendment and a license to act on political priorities.
In practice, these warrants now function like imperial seals: documents used to justify raids, interrogations, and detentions without the inconvenience of judicial oversight. Anyone in the crosshairs—immigrant communities, sanctuary officials, journalists documenting abuse—can be swept into these operations. The paperwork is clean. The legality is gray. The real purpose is pressure.
Fear as a Policy Tool
One of the oldest tactics of the Praetorian Guard was not violence but presence—showing up, unannounced, where the emperor wanted fear to travel. ICE has adopted the same strategy. “Knock-and-talks” now appear in neighborhoods known not for immigration violations, but for political opposition: immigrant-rights organizers, city council members resisting federal mandates, faith groups hosting asylum seekers.
These operations often rely on residents not knowing their rights. No judicial warrant. No obligation to open the door. But the implication of consequences—vague, undefined, and intimidating—is usually enough. The power isn’t in what ICE does; it’s in what people fear it might do.
The Fusion of Agencies
The Praetorian Guard didn’t operate alone. They blended with other forces, pulling power from their proximity to the emperor. ICE today follows that same arc. “Fusion” teams with U.S. Marshals and select state police blur lines of accountability, allowing operations in areas where local officials refuse cooperation.
This blurring isn’t a bureaucratic accident—it’s a feature. When authority becomes cloudy, loyalty, not law, becomes the deciding factor. That’s why Rome fell into the hands of emperors the Guard preferred. And it’s why ICE’s growing fusion culture is so dangerous now.
Surveillance as the New Sword
Instead of daggers, ICE has something more powerful: data. Through partnerships with Palantir, Clearview AI, DMV databases, and utility companies, ICE now holds one of the most comprehensive domestic intelligence networks in the country. Originally sold as tools to track criminals, these databases increasingly sweep in activists, observers, and critics.
This is the new Praetorian playbook: keep a list—not of enemies of the state, but enemies of the ruler’s narrative.
Detention as a Message
ICE’s detention powers allow weeks or months of confinement without criminal charges. Transfers to remote facilities. Restricted access to counsel. Long waits for hearings. Families separated through bureaucratic inertia. These are not accidents. They are soft weapons.
Rome’s Praetorian Guard detained senators to “send messages.” ICE detains asylum seekers, green-card holders, and activists under civil authority. The message lands just as clearly.
The Warning Embedded in History
America is not Rome. But power behaves the same way across centuries. A Praetorian Guard doesn’t take over a nation. It makes sure the person who does take over is never challenged.
ICE is not that far gone. Not yet. But its trajectory—the centralization of discretion, the political alignment, the quiet intimidation, the surveillance apparatus—matches a pattern recognizable to anyone who studies collapsing republics.
If this continues, we won’t wake up in a dictatorship.
We’ll wake up in something worse:
a democracy where power answers to the president first, and the people second.And once a Praetorian Guard forms, it almost never un-forms.
#AmericanDemocracy #Authoritarianism #CivilLiberties #ErosionOfRights #ExecutivePower #federalOverreach #historicalParallels #HomelandSecurity #ICE #immigrationEnforcement #PoliticalIntimidation #PraetorianGuard #SoftAuthoritarianism #Surveillance #TrumpAdministration -
The Empire’s New Enforcers: ICE and the Birth of Trump’s Praetorian Guard
Cliff Potts, WPS News
You can tell a lot about a government by the agency it empowers. Under Trump’s second term, the clearest signal of the administration’s intentions isn’t in the laws Congress passed—none of the big changes came from Congress—but in the agency Trump elevated: Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE has always been large, always aggressive, and always controversial. But it was never explicitly political. Not until now.
Since January 20, 2025, ICE has undergone a transformation that should worry anyone who still thinks the Constitution—not the presidency—sets the limits of federal power. What we’re seeing is not the creation of a secret police force or a cartoonish dictatorship. It’s something older, quieter, and historically far more accurate: the emergence of a Praetorian Guard—a force inside the state whose loyalty bends toward the leader instead of the law.
Administrative Power Becomes Personal Power
Most Americans don’t realize ICE carries its own version of a warrant. It’s called an “administrative warrant”—signed not by a judge, but by an ICE officer. These forms were originally intended for limited, civil immigration operations. Under Trump 2.0, they’ve become a shortcut around the Fourth Amendment and a license to act on political priorities.
In practice, these warrants now function like imperial seals: documents used to justify raids, interrogations, and detentions without the inconvenience of judicial oversight. Anyone in the crosshairs—immigrant communities, sanctuary officials, journalists documenting abuse—can be swept into these operations. The paperwork is clean. The legality is gray. The real purpose is pressure.
Fear as a Policy Tool
One of the oldest tactics of the Praetorian Guard was not violence but presence—showing up, unannounced, where the emperor wanted fear to travel. ICE has adopted the same strategy. “Knock-and-talks” now appear in neighborhoods known not for immigration violations, but for political opposition: immigrant-rights organizers, city council members resisting federal mandates, faith groups hosting asylum seekers.
These operations often rely on residents not knowing their rights. No judicial warrant. No obligation to open the door. But the implication of consequences—vague, undefined, and intimidating—is usually enough. The power isn’t in what ICE does; it’s in what people fear it might do.
The Fusion of Agencies
The Praetorian Guard didn’t operate alone. They blended with other forces, pulling power from their proximity to the emperor. ICE today follows that same arc. “Fusion” teams with U.S. Marshals and select state police blur lines of accountability, allowing operations in areas where local officials refuse cooperation.
This blurring isn’t a bureaucratic accident—it’s a feature. When authority becomes cloudy, loyalty, not law, becomes the deciding factor. That’s why Rome fell into the hands of emperors the Guard preferred. And it’s why ICE’s growing fusion culture is so dangerous now.
Surveillance as the New Sword
Instead of daggers, ICE has something more powerful: data. Through partnerships with Palantir, Clearview AI, DMV databases, and utility companies, ICE now holds one of the most comprehensive domestic intelligence networks in the country. Originally sold as tools to track criminals, these databases increasingly sweep in activists, observers, and critics.
This is the new Praetorian playbook: keep a list—not of enemies of the state, but enemies of the ruler’s narrative.
Detention as a Message
ICE’s detention powers allow weeks or months of confinement without criminal charges. Transfers to remote facilities. Restricted access to counsel. Long waits for hearings. Families separated through bureaucratic inertia. These are not accidents. They are soft weapons.
Rome’s Praetorian Guard detained senators to “send messages.” ICE detains asylum seekers, green-card holders, and activists under civil authority. The message lands just as clearly.
The Warning Embedded in History
America is not Rome. But power behaves the same way across centuries. A Praetorian Guard doesn’t take over a nation. It makes sure the person who does take over is never challenged.
ICE is not that far gone. Not yet. But its trajectory—the centralization of discretion, the political alignment, the quiet intimidation, the surveillance apparatus—matches a pattern recognizable to anyone who studies collapsing republics.
If this continues, we won’t wake up in a dictatorship.
We’ll wake up in something worse:
a democracy where power answers to the president first, and the people second.And once a Praetorian Guard forms, it almost never un-forms.
#AmericanDemocracy #Authoritarianism #CivilLiberties #ErosionOfRights #ExecutivePower #federalOverreach #historicalParallels #HomelandSecurity #ICE #immigrationEnforcement #PoliticalIntimidation #PraetorianGuard #SoftAuthoritarianism #Surveillance #TrumpAdministration -
The Empire’s New Enforcers: ICE and the Birth of Trump’s Praetorian Guard
Cliff Potts, WPS News
You can tell a lot about a government by the agency it empowers. Under Trump’s second term, the clearest signal of the administration’s intentions isn’t in the laws Congress passed—none of the big changes came from Congress—but in the agency Trump elevated: Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE has always been large, always aggressive, and always controversial. But it was never explicitly political. Not until now.
Since January 20, 2025, ICE has undergone a transformation that should worry anyone who still thinks the Constitution—not the presidency—sets the limits of federal power. What we’re seeing is not the creation of a secret police force or a cartoonish dictatorship. It’s something older, quieter, and historically far more accurate: the emergence of a Praetorian Guard—a force inside the state whose loyalty bends toward the leader instead of the law.
Administrative Power Becomes Personal Power
Most Americans don’t realize ICE carries its own version of a warrant. It’s called an “administrative warrant”—signed not by a judge, but by an ICE officer. These forms were originally intended for limited, civil immigration operations. Under Trump 2.0, they’ve become a shortcut around the Fourth Amendment and a license to act on political priorities.
In practice, these warrants now function like imperial seals: documents used to justify raids, interrogations, and detentions without the inconvenience of judicial oversight. Anyone in the crosshairs—immigrant communities, sanctuary officials, journalists documenting abuse—can be swept into these operations. The paperwork is clean. The legality is gray. The real purpose is pressure.
Fear as a Policy Tool
One of the oldest tactics of the Praetorian Guard was not violence but presence—showing up, unannounced, where the emperor wanted fear to travel. ICE has adopted the same strategy. “Knock-and-talks” now appear in neighborhoods known not for immigration violations, but for political opposition: immigrant-rights organizers, city council members resisting federal mandates, faith groups hosting asylum seekers.
These operations often rely on residents not knowing their rights. No judicial warrant. No obligation to open the door. But the implication of consequences—vague, undefined, and intimidating—is usually enough. The power isn’t in what ICE does; it’s in what people fear it might do.
The Fusion of Agencies
The Praetorian Guard didn’t operate alone. They blended with other forces, pulling power from their proximity to the emperor. ICE today follows that same arc. “Fusion” teams with U.S. Marshals and select state police blur lines of accountability, allowing operations in areas where local officials refuse cooperation.
This blurring isn’t a bureaucratic accident—it’s a feature. When authority becomes cloudy, loyalty, not law, becomes the deciding factor. That’s why Rome fell into the hands of emperors the Guard preferred. And it’s why ICE’s growing fusion culture is so dangerous now.
Surveillance as the New Sword
Instead of daggers, ICE has something more powerful: data. Through partnerships with Palantir, Clearview AI, DMV databases, and utility companies, ICE now holds one of the most comprehensive domestic intelligence networks in the country. Originally sold as tools to track criminals, these databases increasingly sweep in activists, observers, and critics.
This is the new Praetorian playbook: keep a list—not of enemies of the state, but enemies of the ruler’s narrative.
Detention as a Message
ICE’s detention powers allow weeks or months of confinement without criminal charges. Transfers to remote facilities. Restricted access to counsel. Long waits for hearings. Families separated through bureaucratic inertia. These are not accidents. They are soft weapons.
Rome’s Praetorian Guard detained senators to “send messages.” ICE detains asylum seekers, green-card holders, and activists under civil authority. The message lands just as clearly.
The Warning Embedded in History
America is not Rome. But power behaves the same way across centuries. A Praetorian Guard doesn’t take over a nation. It makes sure the person who does take over is never challenged.
ICE is not that far gone. Not yet. But its trajectory—the centralization of discretion, the political alignment, the quiet intimidation, the surveillance apparatus—matches a pattern recognizable to anyone who studies collapsing republics.
If this continues, we won’t wake up in a dictatorship.
We’ll wake up in something worse:
a democracy where power answers to the president first, and the people second.And once a Praetorian Guard forms, it almost never un-forms.
#AmericanDemocracy #Authoritarianism #CivilLiberties #ErosionOfRights #ExecutivePower #federalOverreach #historicalParallels #HomelandSecurity #ICE #immigrationEnforcement #PoliticalIntimidation #PraetorianGuard #SoftAuthoritarianism #Surveillance #TrumpAdministration -
CW: Christian Hypocrisy
Falwell’s Downfall: The Pool Boy’s Story - The Bulwark https://www.thebulwark.com/the-pool-attendants-version/
#ChristianHypocrisy
#ChristianGOP"...Granda looked up the Falwells after his first experience with Jerry and Becki at the Days Inn and quickly discovered some of Falwell Sr.’s most heinous comments, like the one where he blamed 9/11 on “the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians.” (He later apologized.) Disgusted, Granda told Jerry that Falwell Sr. seems like a “piece of shit,” and Falwell responded by saying, in effect, Yeah, I know, lots of people think that about my dad, but I’m a business guy; I’m not like that at all. This accounts for some of Falwell’s flatness as a character in the national drama, especially in comparison with his charismatic father. He doesn’t have the gravitas of a scion or religious leader, and isn’t colorful enough to be a cartoon. Falwell is simply another pragmatic businessman: He wants to do deals and make money and have power. The Bible is not a text from which he appears to have drawn moral direction, but—even more significantly—it doesn’t appear to be one from which he derived the sense of spiritual depth that can provide the stakes of real tragedy, either. How could Falwell fall from grace if he never sought it to begin with?
During a forceful sequence in his film, Corben intercuts footage of Falwell and Trump in a way that frames Falwell as the progenitor of the alliance between MAGA and American evangelicals. This is a facile account of events, but it does highlight striking parallels between the former president and former university president: Just as Donald Trump gave a taste of true power and electoral success to his evangelical supporters by engaging in gutter politics, Falwell succeeded in growing Liberty and putting it on excellent financial footing by farming money from the government through a low-quality online school. Their different approaches to the pursuit of power converge in an outcome they both helped to bring about, which is the corrosion of the principles that once guided evangelical political engagement.
After years of arguing that Christians should hold fast to their convictions about politics and personal morality when selecting leaders, evangelicals accepted Trump’s and Falwell’s cases for putting those convictions on hold in exchange for the pursuit of pragmatic goals. Trump was given a pass on his moral failings because of the perceived danger from liberals—this was, after all, the “Flight 93 election”—and the promise of a Supreme Court that would overturn Roe v. Wade. Falwell was given a pass because of how strong and influential he made Liberty University.
The synoptic Gospels each contain a version of a story about Jesus being approached by emissaries of religious leaders who wanted to trap him by using loaded questions to elicit rebellious statements against the Roman Empire. They asked Jesus if they should pay taxes to Caesar, expecting him to declaim against paying tribute to anyone but God. But instead, Jesus replied by asking them whose face is on the coins they use, then told them, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” It’s a pointed rebuke: In part, Jesus is telling the men that if they intend to derive benefits and profit from a secular authority, they must pay something for it. He leaves open the question of whether it is appropriate to enjoy the benefits that secular privileges confer.
Falwell has often invoked this story—it’s a favorite reference point of his—but he takes it in a different direction. In his appearances at convocation, during long rambles about his critics, Falwell would cite Jesus’ “Render unto Caesar” comment to say that actually, covering for Trump’s disgusting behavior was politically and spiritually responsible rather than morally questionable. After all, there are religious things, and there are secular things. Government leadership is secular, so Christians should vote for candidates that will use power in ways that benefit Christians without considering irrelevant questions of personal morality. It was remarkable to see this display of scriptural sleight-of-hand time and again at a leading Christian university: For Falwell, Christ’s bracing remark about his interlocutors’ reliance on secular authorities became a license to rid himself of religious conviction when entering the public square.
And all this coarsening cynicism has had disastrous effects. The principles that once animated and dignified the conservative evangelical movement seem absent now, after Trump, after Falwell, who both helped evangelicals to embrace rank consequentialism in their politics. Few have seen the corrosive effects of this dynamic—this moral tradeoff—as clearly and up close as Liberty’s student body did during the last years of Falwell’s tenure."
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Gallo-Roman cup, ceramic, Roman Empire's German frontier, 2nd-3rd century AD
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Miners washing gold-bearing sand, Russian Empire, ~1910
https://piefed.social/c/historyphotos/p/2047546/miners-washing-gold-bearing-sand-russian-empire-1910
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Businessman Chen Zhi worked meticulously to cultivate an image of legitimacy and even philanthropy. That is now unraveling, after the U.S. and U.K. accused him of running a transnational criminal ring. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/11/03/world/crime-legal/how-kingpin-empire-cambodia-london/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #worldnews #crimelegal #organizedcrime #fraud #cambodia #london #princegroup #china #chenzhi #singapore
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How #ChenZhi’s #Singapore empire unravelled
"More than 80 case documents filed in relation to the #legal battle provide an unparalleled picture of the extensive #banking network Chen built in Singapore and how he gained #taxbreaks from the country’s #regulators.. they shed light on how an individual accused by #US #authorities of being a #criminal “mastermind” operated openly in Singapore for years."🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
#Cambodia #scammer #scam #crime #KYC #compliance #greed #inequality
https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3331876/how-accused-kingpin-chen-zhi-was-conned-his-own-executive-singapore -
BBC: Bitcoin worth $14bn seized in US-UK crackdown on alleged scammers . “The US government has seized more than $14bn (£10.5bn) in bitcoin and charged the founder of a Cambodian business empire, the Prince Group, with allegedly masterminding a massive cryptocurrency scam, which involved forced labour camps.”
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"Crypto billionaire Justin Sun has sued Bloomberg for publishing details about his wealth that he himself provided to qualify for their Billionaire Index. While Sun was initially eager for Bloomberg to publicize his multibillionaire status, he became furious when he learned they planned to publish a rough breakdown of the assets comprising his crypto fortune. This may be because it reveals an inconvenient detail: the majority of his assets are TRX, the cryptocurrency issued by his company Tron — and he owns most of the TRX in circulation (63%). This concentration is somewhat reminiscent of the 2022 revelation that Sam Bankman-Fried had built his crypto empire on a foundation of FTT, the token issued by his own company FTX, sparking concerns about the solvency of his businesses and the value of FTT that ended in the collapse of both.
Sun’s fury could also stem from Bloomberg’s reporting that Sun owns the HTX cryptocurrency exchange (renamed from Huobi in late 2023 [I40]). Though it has long been clear that Sun holds more control over the exchange than he claims to have as a mere adviser, he has refused to admit he owns the company. This is a pattern with Sun, who has also denied ownership of other companies with which he’s heavily involved, such as Poloniex (which he later acknowledged owning), BiT Global, and Techteryx."
https://www.citationneeded.news/justin-sun-bloomberg-lawsuit/
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Ah. I’ve seen this before.. Let me use the history of empires to predict how this going to go down:
1. Trump government demanded action from Mexico + provided them with intelligence to kill cartel leader.
2. Cartel retaliated in revenge.
3. USA uses retaliation as pretense to move troops into the area.
4. Direct military control of areas of Mexico by USA is proposed in US “for retaining law & order”.https://apnews.com/article/mexico-jalisco-el-mencho-cartel-killing-8acfda160817fb27bed1914e769e955b
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Spirituality & Religious Studies @spiritualityreligiousstudies.wordpress.com@spiritualityreligiousstudies.wordpress.com ·Apotheosis
This is also called divinization or deification. It’s from the Latin deificato, meaning “making divine.” This is the glorification of a subject to divine levels & commonly, the treatment of a human being, any other living thing, or an abstract idea in the likeness of a deity.
The original sense of apotheosis relates to religion & is the subject of many works of art. Figuratively “apotheosis” may be used in almost any context for “the deification, glorification, or exaltation of a principle, practice, etc.” So normally attached to an abstraction of some sort.
In religion, apotheosis was a feature of many religions in the ancient world. Some that are active today. It requires a belief that there’s a possibility of newly created God’s, so a polytheistic belief system.
The Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Islam, & Judaism don’t allow this. Though many recognize minor sacred categories such as saints. They’re created by a process called canonization. In Christian theology, there’s a concept of the faithful becoming god-like, called divinization or in Eastern Christianity theosis.
In Hinduism, there’s some range for new deities. A human may be deified by becoming regarded as an avatar of an established deity, usually a major one, or by being regarded as a new, independent deity (usually a minor one), or a mix of the 2.
In art, an apotheosis scene usually shows the subject in the Heavens or rising towards them. They’re often partnered by a number of angels, putti, personifications of virtues, or similar figures.
Especially from Baroque art onwards apotheosis scenes may show rulers, generals, or artists purely as an honorific symbol. In many cases, the “religious” context is classical Greco-Roman pagan religion, like The Apotheosis of Voltaire, which features Apollo. The Apotheosis of Washington (1865) sits high in the dome of the United States of America Capitol Building is another example. Personification of places or abstractions are also shown receiving an apotheosis. The classic composition was suited for artistic placement on ceilings or inside domes.
Before the Hellenistic period, imperial cults were known in ancient Egypt (pharaohs) & Mesopotamia (from Naran-Sin through Hammurabi). In the New Kingdom of Egypt, all deceased pharaohs were deified as the god Osiris, having been identified as Horus while on the throne. They were sometimes referred to as the “son” of other various deities.
The architect Imhotep was defied after his passing away. Though the process seems to have been gradual. This took over 1,000 years, by which time he had become associated with medicine. About a dozen non-royal ancient Egyptians became regarded as deities.
Ancient Greek & Roman religions have many characters who were born as humans but became gods. Like Disney’s Hercules. They’re usually made divine by 1 of the main deities, the 12 Olympians. In the Roman story of Cupid & Psyche, Zeus gave the ambrosia of the gods to the mortal Psyche. This transformed her into a goddess herself.
In the case of the Hellenistic queen Berenice II of Egypt was deified like other rulers of the Ptolemaic dynasty. The court dispersed a myth that her hair, that was cut off to fulfill a vow, had its own apotheosis before becoming the Coma Berenices, a group of stars that still bear her name.
In the Greek world, the 1st leader who granted himself diving honors was Philip II of Macedon. At the wedding to his 6th wife, Philip’s enthroned image was carried in procession among the Olympian gods. Such Hellenistic state leaders might be raised to a status equal to the gods before death, like Alexander the Great, or afterwards, like members of the Ptolemaic dynasty.
A heroic cult status that’s similar to apotheosis was also an honor given to a few reversed artists of the distant past, such as Homer.
Up to the end of the Roman Republic, the god Quirinus was the only 1 the Romans accepted as having undergone apotheosis, for his identification/syncretism with Romulus. Syncretism is the practice of meshing together different beliefs & various schools of thought. Eventually apotheosis in Ancient Rome was a process whereby a deceased ruler was recognized as divine by their successors. This was usually done by a decree of the Senate & popular consent.
The 1st of these cases was the posthumous deification of the last Roman dictator Julius Caesar in 42 BC by his adopted son, the triumvir Caesar Octavian. In addition to showing respect, the present ruler often deified a popular predecessor to legitimize himself & gain popularity himself & gain popularity with the people.
A vote in the Roman Senate, in the later Empire confirming an imperial decree, was the normal official process. But this sometimes followed a period with the unofficial use of deific language or imagery for the individual. This was often done rather discreetly within the imperial circle.
There was then a public ceremony, called a consecratio, including the release of an eagle which flew high. This represents the ascent of the deified person’s soul to Heaven. Imagery featuring the ascent, sometimes using a chariot, was common on coins & in other art.
The largest & most famous example in art in a relief on the base of the Column of Antoninus Pius, showing the emperor & his wife, Faustina the Elder, being carried up by a much larger winged figure, described as representing “Eternity,” as the personifications of “Roma” & the Campus Martius sit below, & eagles fly above. The imperial couple are represented as Jupiter & Juno (or Zeus & Hera).
The historian Dio Cassius, who said he was present, gives a detailed description of the large, & lavish, public consecratio of Perinax, emperor for 3 months in 193, ordered by Septimius Severus.
At the height of the imperial cult during the Roman Empire, sometimes the emperor’s deceased loved ones (heirs, empresses, or lovers) like Hadrian’s Antinous were deified as well.
Deified people were posthumously given the title ‘Divus’ for men & ‘Diva’ for women to their names to signify their divinity. Traditional Roman religion distinguished between a deus (god) & divus (a mortal who became divine or deified), though not consistently. Temple & columns were erected to provide a space for worship.
The imperial cult was mainly popular in the provinces. Especially in the Eastern Empire, where many cultures were well used to deified rulers, & less popular in Rome itself, & among traditionalists & intellectuals.
Some privately, & cautiously, ridiculed the apotheosis of inept & feeble emperors, as in the satire The Pumkinification of (the Divine) Claudius. This is usually attributed to Seneca.
Numerous mortals have been deified into the Taoist pantheon. Examples are Guan Yi, Iron-crutch Li, & Fan Kuai. Song dynasty general Yue Fei was deified during the Ming dynasty. He’s considered by some practitioners to be 1 of the 3 highest-ranking heavenly generals. The Ming dynasty epic Investiture of the Gods deals heavily with deification legends.
In the complicated, & variable, conceptions of deity in Buddhism, the achievement of Buddhahood may be regarded as an achievable goal for the faithful. Many significant deities are considered to have begun as normal people, from Gautama Buddha (the original Buddha & the creator of Buddhism) downwards. Most of these are seen as avatars or re-births of earlier figures.
Some significant Hindu deities, in particular Rama, were also born as humans. He’s seen as an avatar of Vishnu. In more modern times, Swaminarayan is an undoubted & well-documented historical figure, who’s regarded by some Hindus as an avatar of Vishnu, or as being a still more elevated deity. Bharat Mata (Mother India) began as a national personification devised by a group of Bengali intellectuals in the late 19th century. But now it receives some worship.
Various Hindu & Buddhist rulers in the past have been represented as deities, especially after death, from India to Indonesia. Jayavarman VII, King of the Khmer Empire the 1st Buddhist king of Cambodia, had his own features used for the many statues of Buddha/Avalokitevara he erected.
The extreme personality cult instituted by the founder of North Korea, Kim Il-Sung, has been to represent a deification. And continues to this day with the current leader. Even the nation is admittedly atheist.
In Christian theology, instead of the word “apotheosis,” they use the words “deification” or “divinization” or the Greek word “theosis.” Pre-Reformation, & mainstream theology, in both East & West, views Jesus Christ as the preexisting God who undertook mortal existence. Not as a mortal being who attained divinity. A view known as adoptionism. Adoptionism is an early Christian non-Trinitarian doctrine that holds that Jesus was born a mere human being. But Jesus was later adopted by God as His son, usually at Jesus’ baptism or resurrection, rather than being divine from eternity.
It holds that he has made it possible for human beings to be raised to the level of sharing the divine nature as II Peter 1:4 states that he became human to make humans “partakers of the divine nature.”
In John 10:34, Jesus referenced Psalm 82:6 when he stated: “Is it not written in your Law, I have said you are gods?” Other authors stated: “For this is why the Word became man, & the Son of God became the Son of man: so that Man, by entering into communion with the Word & thus receiving divine sonship, might be made God.” Accusations of self deification to some degree may have been placed on heretical such as the Waldensians.
The language of II Peter is taken up by St. Irenaeus, in his famous phrase, “if the Word has been made man, it is so that men may be made gods.” It becomes the standard in Greek theology. In the 14th century, St. Athanasius repeats Irenaeus almost word for word. In the 5th century, St. Cyril of Alexandria says that we shall become sons “by participation” (Greek methexis). Methexis is “group sharing,” where the audience actively participates in the performance.
Deification is the central idea in the spirituality of St. Maximus the Confessor. For whom the doctrine is the result of the Incarnation: “Deification, briefly, is the encompassion & fulfillment of all times and ages.”
The Roman Catholic Church doesn’t use the term “apotheosis” in its theology. This is equivalent to the Greek word theosis are Latin-derived words “divinization” & deification” used in the Latin tradition of the Catholic Church.
The concept has been given less prominence in Western theology than in that of the Eastern Catholic Churches. But is present in the Latin Church’s liturgical prayer.
Despite the theological differences, in the Catholic church art depictions of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in art & the Ascension of Jesus in Christian art do share many similarities in composition to apotheosis subjects. As there are many images of saints being raised into Heaven.
Anthropolatry is the deification & worship of humans. It was practiced in ancient Japan towards their emperors. Followers of Socinianism were later accused of practicing anthropolatry.
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#1865 #193 #42BC #4thCentury #5thCentury #AbrahamicReligions #Adoptionism #AlexanderTheGreat #Ambrosia #AncientRome #Angels #Anthropolatry #Antinous #Apollo #Apotheosis #AscensionOfJesus #AssumptionOfTheVirginMary #Atheist #Avalokiteshvara #Avatar #Avatars #BaroqueArt #bengali #BereniceIIOfEgypt #BharatMata #Buddha #BuddhaGautama #Buddhahood #Buddhism #CaesarOctavian #Cambodia #CampusMartius #canonization #CatholicChurch #Christianity #ColumnOfAntoninusPius #ComaBerenices #Consecratio #Cupid #Deification #Deity #Deus #DioCassius #Disney #DIva #Divinization #Divus #EasternCatholicChurch #EasternChristianity #EasternEmpire #Egypt #Egyptians #Emperors #FanKuai #FaustinaTheElder #GrecoRoman #Greek #GuanYi #Hadrian #Hammurabi #Heaven #Hellenistic #Hera #Hercules #Hindu #Hinduism #Homer #Horus #IIPeter14 #Imhotep #ImperialCults #India #Indonesia #InvestitureOfTheGods #IronCrutchLi #Islam #Japan #JayavarmanVII #Jesus #John1034 #Judaism #JuliusCaesar #Juno #Jupiter #KhmerEmpire #KimIlSung #Krishna #Late19thCentury #Latin #LatinChurch #Mesopotamia #Methexis #MingDynasty #NaramSin #NewKingdom #NorthKorea #Olympians #Osiris #pagan #Pertinax #Pharaohs #PhilipIIOfMacedon #polytheistic #Psalm826 #Psyche #PtolemaicDynasty #Putti #Rama #Reformation #Roman #RomanCatholicChurch #RomanRepublic #RomanSenate #Romans #Romulus #Saints #Senate #Seneca #SeptimiusSeverus #Socinianism #StAthanasius #StCyrilOfAlexandria #StIrenaeus #StMaximusTheConfessor #Swaminarayan #Syncretism #Taoist #TaoistPantheon #Temple #ThePumpkinificationOfTheDivineClaudius #Theosis #Triumvir #USCapitolBuilding #Vishnu #Waldensians #YueFei #Zeus
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CW: EroticMusings Week 42 Setting: Languages
Do you include different languages in your work? Tell us about it!
Depends on the work. Mostly no but, in the cases where I do, it's generally just a word or two and it's conlang. I have considered using a modified Toki Pona as an auxiliary language in the Etiqutte Empire / Taking Command univierse.
