Today’s Demon: Rick Wiles, Wait…

Andras, Grand Marquis in Hell, Dictionnaire Infernal.

Make that Today’s Demon: Andras, who may have found a happy home in Rick Wiles. A quick look at Andras:

Andras is a Great Marquis of Hell, having under his command thirty legions of demons. He sows discord among people. According to the Goetia, Andras was a Grand Marquis of Hell, appearing with a winged angel’s body and the head of an owl or raven, riding upon a strong black wolf and wielding a sharp and bright sword. He was also responsible for sowing discord, and commanded 30 infernal legions. He is the 63rd of the 72 spirits of Solomon. Andras was considered to be a highly dangerous demon, who could kill the conjuring magician and his assistants if precautions were not taken. The Dutch demonologist Johannes Wier, in his Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, says of Andras:

Andras is a great marquesse, and seemes in an angels shape with a head like a blacke night raven, riding upon a blacke and a verie strong woolfe, flourishing with a sharpe sword in his hand, he can kill the maister, the servant, and all assistants, he is author of discords, and ruleth thirtie legions.

Another demonologist, Collin de Plancy, also mentions Andras in his writings:

Grand Marquis of Hell. He appears to have the body of an angel and the head of a wood owl, and to be riding a black wolf and carrying in his hand a pointed saber. He teaches those whom he favors to kill their enemies, masters and servants. He stirs up trouble and dissension. He commands thirty legions.

Sowing discord. In favour of killing. Stirring up trouble and dissension. A perfect fit for Rick Wiles! Mr. Wiles is attempting to bring back the specter of oooOOOOooo Communism, among other things.

“The mass killings of peaceful Christian families in church on Sunday mornings are what America’s political left has given this nation,” Wiles said. “Since 1962, there has been a relentless ongoing war of hatred in the USA against God and Christianity. The religious war has been supported by America’s courts and judges, Hollywood, the entertainment industry, the news media, academia, and the Democratic Party. Fifty-five years later, we have church carpets soaked in blood. Oh, America, how much more of this religious war against God are you going to tolerate? Will you remain silent until your children are bleeding on the church floor too?”

Yet somehow, Mr. Wiles, you don’t mention the bombings of predominantly black churches. There’s no mention of Dylan Roof, or the insane level of racism in this country, which keeps elevating, embraced by more and more white men with severe cases of aggrieved entitlement. Lots of angry men out there, who are allowed to get away with being abusive as fuck for years on end, and you’re surprised by a very bad ending? This doesn’t have jack shit to do with christianity, which is what you mean by ‘religion’. If Mr. Kelley had thought his in-laws were at the local gas station, that would have ended up shot to pieces. You don’t mention the sheer insanity of guns in this country, Mr. Wiles. That’s a problem. A big, yuuuuge problem. Trying to get you fucking infernal christians out of public affairs has been a long fight, but angry white men with guns are not the result of not having mandatory, ostentatious public prayer in school or no commandments in court houses.

I have no love for religion, and I certainly have no love for loud mouthed shit stirrers like you, Mr. Wiles. Your message is never one of love. It’s never about kindness. It’s never about anything even remotely positive. It’s always a fucktonne of lies and moaning over how you lack the power to oppress the hell out of people these days. That’s a good thing.

“A dark, sinister entity controlled by Lucifer is behind these mass shootings,” he warned. “These events are not happening at random by mentally ill people. You may not realize it, but the USA is engulfed in a communist revolution. I’ve been warning about it since 2008, with the election of communist street organizer Barry Soetoro, alias Barack Hussein Obama, and I assure you he is behind all of this Resist Trump movement going on right now.”

:Near-fatal eyeroll: There are many reasons the amount of mass shootings are going up, but it has nothing to do with Lucifer, dark and sinister entities, communists, or President Obama. You’re really going to have to lose the communism angle, Mr. Wiles, it’s just too difficult to push that one when we’re Russia Junior. I’ve been resisting the Tiny Idiot King from day one and before. Haven’t had so much as a memo from President Obama. Gosh, you’d think he was bad at that leadership stuff. Wait, that’s Trump.

Wiles said that Christians must wake up and realize that this communist revolution is in the process of taking over the nation and will soon set out on a campaign to execute “tens of thousands of Christian leaders within months or years.”

Are there that fucking many of you ‘great leaders’ here in uStates? Gad, that’s depressing. Well, y’know, I rather think if no one has gone to the trouble of shutting you all up by decapitation by now, that won’t be happening. I haven’t seen guillotines going up in public squares. Seems absolutely nothing keeps you nasty assholes from endlessly blathering.

“If you think I am melodramatic,” Wiles said, “you don’t know history.”

I’m no historian, but I’ll wager I know history more than you do, Mr. Wiles. I read. A lot. I’m quite familiar with christian history, and that’s a history of hate, fear, war-mongering, blood lust, the endless lust for power, torture, oppression, genocide, theft, and death, death, death. It’s an extremely ugly history, replete with exempla of evils and immorality. If I were christian, I certainly wouldn’t be proud of it. If I thought all those demons were real, Mr. Wiles, I’d say you have an Andras on your back.

Via RWW, there’s video.

FEEEMALE!

Country singer Keith Urban (image via Shutterstock).

I don’t listen to country music, that would be obvious to anyone paying attention to my musical choices every day. Bluegrass, sometimes. Rockabilly, yeah. Keith Urban’s choice of a song to perform just added yet another reason onto my pile of reasons for not listening to country music. The song was not written by him, it was written by Shane McAnally, Ross Copperman, and Nicolle Galyon. Yes, it took three whole people to write this…song.

When you hear somebody say somebody hits like a girl
How does that hit you?
Is that such a bad thing?
When you hear a song that they play saying you run the world*
Do you believe it?
Will you live to see it?

*A reference to a Beyoncé song.

[Chorus]
Sister, shoulder
Daughter, lover
Healer, broken halo
Mother nature
Fire, suit of armor
Soul survivor, Holy Water
Secret keeper, fortune teller
Virgin Mary, scarlet letter
Technicolor river wild
Baby girl, women shine
Female

Ummm, some of those words don’t belong together. A whole lot of those words just don’t belong, period. ‘Baby girl’? Really? Hmmm. Oh look, it’s the madonna/whore thing again. Gee, that’s all kind of old and tired. I can’t imagine these people patting themselves on the back for this dreck. How was this written? Mad Lib Songwriting?

When somebody laughs and implies that she asked for it
Just cause she was wearing a skirt
Now is that how it works?
When somebody talks about how it was Adam first
Does that make you second best?
Or did he save the best for last?

Sigh. I think I’ll go pound my head into a concrete block.

Repeat the awful chorus here.

[Refrain]
Yeah
Female

[Bridge]
She’s the heart of life
She’s the dreamer’s dream
She’s the hands of time
She’s the queen of kings

Yeah, no. No, no, no. Just a different version of making women less than real, mystical, and up on another weird-ass pedestal. We’re people. Regular, typical people. We even fart and burp, oh my! And if I’m the hands of bloody time, why can’t I turn the clock back? I’m staring at 60 here.

Repeat the awful chorus again.

[Outro]
Mhm
Female

This um, song, was supposedly written in response to the Weinstein allegations. I, uh, I can’t even. Just can’t. As for Mr. Urban, who I had never heard of until today:

I think it’s just time for a recalibrating of the past, you know? Things have been a certain way for a long, long time, and I think you’re seeing a turning of the tide for that. This song just spoke to me. I just wanted to get in and record it right away. I am surrounded by females in my life. I grew up in a house with boys, no sisters. Now I am in a house that’s all girls. So this song speaks to me on a lot of levels.

Oh gods. No. No, you’re not helping. That ‘song’ is not helping. Not at all.

From all over the internet. Lyrics from here.

The Quilts of War.

Army Uniform Quilt from the Napoleonic Era by an unidentified artist (Region unknown, possibly Prussia, late 18th/early 19th century), wool, probably from military uniforms; Silesian pieced (photo by the author for Hyperallergic).

Artist unidentified, Soldier’s Hexagon Quilt (Crimea or United Kingdom, late 19th century), wool from military uniforms, 85 x 64 in (courtesy the Annette Gero Collection, photo by Tim Connolly, Shoot Studios).

…These wartime quilts are incredibly rare, and Gero states in the release that “there are fewer than one hundred of these quilts in the world, and no two are alike.” War and Pieced highlights their diversity, whether in the distinctive beadwork on quilts made by soldiers stationed in India in the 19th century, or the motifs of African shields and spears embroidered on a late 19th-century quilt, likely made in tribute to those killed in the Anglo-Zulu War. A quilt made in India between 1860 and 1870 has its beads connected to small circles of fabric, the discs probably left over from punching buttonholes into uniforms. Although the conflict may be unnamed on the quilt, the patterns, needlework, and, above all, uniform materials, can place these fabric works in time.

They’re moving relics of the bloody battles that stretched across the globe in the mid-18th to 19th centuries, from the Prussian and Napoleonic wars, when elaborate intarsia quilts featured pictorial inlays of soldiers, to the Crimean War with its dense geometries. One from that mid-19th-century engagement has a checkerboard at its center, an example of the boards made from scraps of military uniforms to fend off boredom. The spare fabric that formed the checkerboard may have been from uniforms of the dead or wounded, thus adding a somber memorial to an otherwise vibrant wool quilt.

Although there is a vision of hope in making something beautiful out of horror, there’s an eerie echo of the suturing of wounds in each stitch of the quilt. The intense labor of some of those made in convalescence — one from 1890 involves 25,000 blocks, hexagons, and diamonds — represents the incredible amount of time these men spent recovering. Viewed together, the quilts in War and Pieced are haunting reminders of the lives given and maimed in the British Empire’s global conquest, and those that continue to be lost to war.

Following the exhibition’s run in New York, it will travel to the Nebraska museum and open May 25, 2018.  You can see and read much more at Hyperallergic.

These amazing works remind me of Ernest Thesiger’s effort, after World War I, to help disabled soldiers to make a living with embroidery.

You can read about that here. (Yes, that Ernest Thesiger, aka Dr. Pretorius.)

People: Touching, Sleeping, Matching.

Stefan Drashan photographs people in museums. People Touching Artworks:

Visitor at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, from Stefan Drashan’s Tumblr, People Touching Artworks (all photos courtesy Stefan Drashan).

Visitor at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, from Stefan Drashan’s Tumblr, People Touching Artworks (all photos courtesy Stefan Drashan).

People Matching Artworks:

Visitor at the Musee Picasso in Paris, from Stefan Drashan’s Tumblr, People Matching Artworks.

From Stefan Drashan’s Tumblr, People Matching Artworks.

People Sleeping In Museums:

From Stefan Drashan’s Tumblr, People Sleeping in Museums.

Via Hyperallergic.

A Public Offense To Religion.

“Ecce homo erectus” (image courtesy Hogre).

“Ecce homo erectus” (image courtesy Hogre).

Anonymous artist Hogre wasn’t expecting to be arrested while checking their email at an internet café in Rome. Neither were they anticipating being charged under an archaic Italian law that punishes a public offense to religion with a fine of up to 5,000 Euros or a prison sentence of up to two years.

Hogre was one of two artists who, on June 1 of this year, placed satirical posters in bus stop advertising spaces in the Italian capital. Hogre’s poster “Ecce homo erectus” depicts Jesus with a conspicuous erection, resting one hand on the head of a praying, kneeling child. This was a response to sexual abuse charges against Cardinal Pell, the third highest-ranking Vatican official.

The other poster, “Immacolata conception in vitro,” is by Hogre’s friend doublewhY. Less obviously inflammatory, it shows two women holding a baby; one of the women is flipping off the viewer. The text and image suggest a parallel between in vitro and immaculate conception.

The moral panic that ensued was instigated by right-wing politician Fabrizio Ghera, who called for the resignation of the transport official responsible for the posters. The Italian media fanned the flames of this panic; according to Hogre in an interview with Hyperallergic,“the articles that were around looked like they were written by parrots and pigeons.”

Ads by Hogre and doublewhY at bus stop in Rome, Italy (photo courtesy Hogre).

Another lofty height achieved in the annals of pious hypocrisy. “Jesus with an erection, the whole world will fall apart!” but it’s perfectly okay for the Catholic Church to keep playing transfer the rapist, making denials, and protecting and sheltering those who sexually assault and abuse. Is that not an offense to religion? Might be nice if the church was more concerned about actual harm, rather than depiction of Jesus’s boner.

Hyperallergic has the full story.

“Two will be taken, three will be shaken.”

Self-styled “prophet” Mark Taylor has a shiny, new prediction – dead and shaken former presidents.

Taylor said that when he saw all five former presidents gathered at an event to raise money for hurricane relief, he received a word from the Lord that “two will be taken, three will be shaken.”

Sounds like pills and a martini.

“They were doing this Hurricane Harvey relief effort,” Taylor said. “They were trying to raise money for Hurricane Harvey, but we all know that is a bunch of lies. These guys could care less about people, it’s about their agenda. They disguised it as a relief effort for Hurricane Harvey victims and they go in there and they trash Donald Trump.”

Oh no, they didn’t trash Donny, the Tiny Tyrant doesn’t need help in that department. These former presidents were appalled and dismayed by the compleat lack of action on the part of the Tiny Tyrant, so they did something, while also providing a nice example of how a president should act. They did raise money for Hurricane relief, that’s all easily verifiable from trustworthy sources.

“The Bible says, ‘Do not touch my anointed, but especially my prophets,’” he continued. “These guys have now touched God’s anointed, Donald Trump. They used it as a platform to go in there and attack.”

Now, now, they didn’t touch one hair on Donny’s head (who would want to?) and they didn’t attack. They didn’t even mention Donny. That their effort put Donny in a bad light, well, that’s on Donny, no one else. It’s not the fault of the former presidents that the Tiny Tyrant is a fucking idiot who doesn’t know how to handle the least thing, let alone a crisis.

Taylor said that God told him that because of their supposed attack on Trump, “the covenant that these five presidents have had with that entity called Baal—because Baal is the strongman over America—is going to be broken. And then He said, ‘Two of these ex-presidents will be taken and and three will be shaken.’”

Crispy Fried Christ, you’re still on about Ba’al. I’ve already covered just how bloody wrong you are on that one, Mr. Taylor. Predicting the death of two former presidents is a very cheap shot, Mr. Taylor. Isn’t Bush the Elder in his 90s now? He’s been in hospital recently, too. Carter is fairly old, too. At any rate, with the exception of Pres. Obama, most of the former presidents are of an age where dying isn’t exactly uncommon. Mostly, I think your prediction points to you being a shitty conman who couldn’t make ‘prophet’ under any circumstance.

“God is just going to take these guys home, period. He is going to remove them and it will be a sign for certain things,” said Taylor. “The other three will be shaken and I believe that two of them will run the risk of going to prison and the third one will also be shaken due to having to testify or legal issues or whatever the case may be. Now, I don’t know if all three of those will go to prison, but I believe there is a very good possibility that two out of the three could face jail time because of what they have done.”

Aaaaand your “prophesying” just gets worse. Even cold reading cons can do much better than this pile of vagueness and wishful thinking. Everyone is going to die at some point. There are people being shaken because of having to testify and legal issues – y’know, all the lying, nasty assholes who colluded with Russia to get the Tiny Tyrant elected. You have the wrong group, Mr. Taylor. You need to look closer to your political home, rather than attempting to point a minatory finger at former presidents who did a spot of good works. As one very creative person in Hawaii put on their sign: MAGA: Many Are Getting Arrested.

RWW has the story.

Word Wednesday.

The Penguin Book of the Undead: Fifteen Hundred Years of Supernatural Encounters, Scott G. Bruce.

Prodigy

Noun, plural –gies.

1a: a portentous event: Omen. b: something extraordinary or inexplicable.

2a: an extraordinary, marvelous, or unusual accomplishment, deed, or event. b: a highly talented child or youth.

[Origin: Middle English, from Latin prodigium omen, monster, from pro–, prod– + igium (akin to aio I say).]

(15th Century).

“In the northern parts of England as well, we know of another prodigy, not unlike this one and equally strange, that happened around the same time. At the mouth of the river Tweed and under the jurisdiction of the king of Scotland, there is a noble town called Berwick. In this town there lived a man of wealth, but a scoundrel, as became clear afterward. After his death he was buried, but at night he went forth from his grave through the workings – as some believe – of Satan. And followed by a pack of loudly barking dogs, he wandered about hither and thither.” – The Penguin Book of the Undead: Fifteen Hundred Years of Supernatural Encounters, Scott G. Bruce.

“In truth, we should clearly remember very carefully that whenever prodigies are clearly revealed to people who are still alive whether by good or evil spirits, it often happens that those who see them do not live for very long thereafter.” – The Penguin Book of the Undead: Fifteen Hundred Years of Supernatural Encounters, Scott G. Bruce.