Category: Beating Back the St00pid

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It Was Fun For a While (NSFW)

…but I just can't anymore. My name ended up on the RNCC mailing list after responding to their initial survey on how the Shitgibbon-in-Chief was doing several months ago. For a while it was fun responding to their weekly—or increasingly daily—email money begs with appropriately disgusting graphics telling them in no uncertain terms how I felt, but after Charlottesville, that's changed. Telling them to go fuck themselves isn't sufficient. I realized that as long as was on their mailing list, they viewed me as a de facto supporter, and I could not have that.

So I unsubscribed after sending one final image.

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I Have No Words

I have no words for the events of the last 48 hours except What the FUCK is wrong with this country?! But plenty of people more eloquent than I do. Here is just a small sample. We will not be silent.


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Contacting My Representatives

It couldn't be easier. Text RESIST to 50409 (details at Resistbot) and follow the prompts.

This is what I sent:

As you are quite aware someone has announced that Transgender persons are no longer welcome to serve our country. Then, while the media is having a firestorm over that sudden announcement and as the senate GOP are dramatically playing out their "take the healthcare away from the poor and give the money to the rich" scheme, it seems the Department of Justice decides to submit an amicus brief stating that all LGBT Americans simply aren't covered under the 1964 civil rights act because of who we are and who we love. I know that you and all of this nation's governors, senators and representatives want to be on the right side of history. For that reason I urge you all to put party politics aside and work towards a just, fair and equal society for all of us. I ask that you stand up and fight for all of our rights as equal citizens no matter our sex, religion, race, sexual orientation, skin color, beliefs, age, pre-existing condition, income, or social status. Please do this for us, for yourselves, for our children and for our country. We need you.

Thanks to Fearsome Beard for providing the majority of the text. He very eloquently put into words what I wanted to say.

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Shower Thoughts

It takes more balls for a trans person to enlist than it does for a businessman to dodge the draft.

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"Houston, Tranquility Base Here…

…the Eagle has landed."

It's been 48 years since those immortal words were uttered, and sadly, I doubt that humanity will put another man (or woman!) on the moon until after I'm long gone from this plane of existence…if even then. And I doubt even more that the United States will be the one to do it. As a nation, it seems we've lost our way; lost our will to explore and to truly lead. Nevermind the active dumbing down of the population over the last generation—something that was brought into laser-sharp focus this afternoon as I fell down the rabbit hole of YouTube videos.

I started out innocently enough with upcoming movie trailers (there's some good stuff coming out over the next year) and then I got sucked into "You won't believe what this woman found in her attic" clickbait, and then somehow fell into Area 51 UFO conspiracies. I finally had to step away when I stumbled upon the religious yahoos claiming that the August total eclipse is proof positive of the End Times (it's in Revelation!) and/or not an eclipse at all, but rather the planet Nibiru finally careening in from the outer solar system, completely destroying all life on Earth…and the government has been hiding the truth from us for years! (Hey, even though we can't see this supposedly huge object in the night sky that's less than a month from destroying civilization, the ancient Sumarians believed in it, so it must be true!)

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This is EPIC

Junkie Running Dry

‌by Kevin D. Williamson
June 30, 2017 2:34 PM

Some people simply cannot handle the fact that Donald Trump was elected president.

One of those people is Donald Trump.

Trump has shown himself intellectually and emotionally incapable of making the transition from minor entertainment figure to major political figure. He is in the strange position of being a B-list celebrity who is also the most famous man in the world. His recent Twitter attack on Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC's Morning Joe exemplifies that as much as it does the president's other by-now-familiar pathologies, notably his strange psychological need to verbally abuse women in physical terms.

Trump may have his problems with women, but it is his unrequited love of the media that is undoing him.

"I always tell the president, 'You don't need them,'" says Sean Hannity, the self-abasing monkey-butler of the Trump regime. The president, Hannity says, can reach more Americans via Twitter than he could through the conventional media. That isn't true, of course: Only about one in five Americans uses Twitter. Hannity might be forgiven for not knowing this, a consequence of his much more general habit of not knowing things. But he actually does know the president. How could he possibly believe that this man—this man—does not need them?
‌
He needs them the way a junkie needs his junk.

Donald Trump cares more about how he is perceived in the media than he cares about anything else in the world, including money. Trump is a true discipline of Bishop Berkeley, professing the creed of the social-media age: Esse eat percipi— "To be is to be seen." Trump is incapable of enjoying anything—money, success, sex—without being perceived enjoying it.

Consider: Even though he has in fact been on the cover of Time magazine, it was discovered this week that he had had his people produce some fake Time magazine covers lauding the success of his television show, The Apprentice. He had these fake Time covers displayed at Trump properties around the world. Why? Because Trump, for all his professed contempt for the media, believes that success is not success until it is certified by Time magazine or (avert thine eyes, Hannity!) the New York Times.

Donald Trump is a man who invented an imaginary friend, John Barron, to call up members of the New York press and lie to them about his business success and his sex life. (He claimed, among other things, to be dating Carla Bruni.) A man who "does not need" the media does not do that.

Trump wrote of the third lady that he chose her because he wanted to be able to enter a room with her and make other men envious—to see "grown men weep"—a very strange admission that his satisfaction in his marriage rests neither with himself nor with his wife but with third parties who might ogle her. (His cuckoldry-obsessed fans must surely have noted this.) But envious of what? Asked during a public appearance whether she'd have married Trump if he weren't rich, she answered: "If I weren't beautiful, do you think he'd be with me?" There is a certain clarity in that, one of a very familiar sort.

As president and president-elect, Trump spent a great deal of time tweeting about his ratings as host of The Apprentice and those of his successor, about the ratings of various news programs covering him, about the viewerships and readerships of various media outlets, generally theorizing that those critical of him must by moral necessity be in decline. On the other hand, he plainly does not know that there are tax provisions in the health-care bill Republicans are trying to drag out of Congress: He was perplexed when they came up at a White House meeting with Republican senators, saying that he was planning on taking on tax reform at a later date, oblivious to the content of the bill he purports to be negotiating. He doesn't understand what's going on between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, but has taken to Twitter to argue—surprise—that, whatever it is, it's all about him.

What do you think he reads first in the morning: His national-security briefing or Page Six?

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Canon Jesus is Better Than Fandom Jesus

While historical scholars are increasingly doubting the fact he even existed, this is an interesting take on one JC:

Jesus Christ was a brown Jew in the Middle East, conceived out of wedlock in an arguably interracial if not interspecies (deity and human) relationship, raised by his mother and stepfather in place of his absent father.  He may not have had a Y chromosome.  He spent his early youth as a refugee in Egypt, where his family no doubt survived initially on handouts from the wealthy (You think they kept that gold, frankincense, and myrrh from the wise men?  Hell no, they sold that stuff for food and lodging).  He later returned with his parents to their occupied homeland and lived in poverty.

The religion of Jesus's people has no concept of a permanent hell and instructed its priests on how to induce miscarriages.  Jesus explicitly rejected the concept of disability as a divine punishment.  He spoke out against religious hypocrites.  He had enough respect for women to let his mother choose the time of his first miracle.  He blessed a same sex couple.  He told a rich man that he must give up his wealth to get to heaven, and also told a parable about a rich man suffering in agony in presumably Gehinnom (basically Purgatory) just to hammer the point home.  He told people to pay their taxes.  He declared "love your neighbor" to be one of the two commandments on which all laws hang.  He commanded his followers to help the poor.  He commanded them to help the sick and the needy.  He spent time with social outcasts.  He healed the servant of a high priest during his arrest rather than fighting back.  He was put to death by the occupying government because he was a political radical.

Trump and his administration are xenophobic, misogynistic, racist, fear-mongering, warmongering, tax-dodging, anti-Semitic, anti-choice, anti-welfare, anti-equal pay, anti-LGBTQIA+, anti-immigration, support tax cuts for the rich, support Citizen's United, want to keep refugees out of this country, want to limit our ability to speak against the government, plan to abolish the Affordable Care Act, and they wrap all of that up behind a banner of "Christian family values."  If you support them, you have no right to call yourself a follower of Christ.

(Source)

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Rebel Alliance

From Fearsome Beard:

Mayors stand up for what is right, yes this is a link…go ahead click it…you know you want to. 

Not just mayors but governors. Good politicians with a moral compass who wish to pass a viable planet on to their children stand up.

The message that made me post a link to that article is that this is not a time to get bitter. Now is the time to lead. Lead by example. Lead with good honest morals. Lead by taking steps to not only meet the standards set for us by the Paris Agreement, but exceed those standards. Lead by taking these steps in each of our daily lives and in our communities, cities and states.

Say "Fuck You" to the weaklings who put personal gain and personal comfort over the love of their fellow man, the planet, the animals, the unborn descendants of us all. Those assholes aren't leaders, those assholes are spineless greedy selfish cowards.

Don't let such short sided dimwits make you angry & bitter, that's what they want. Follow the lead of these courageous Mayors and Governors. Follow their lead starting with your personal choices and follow them with your support. Together we can out do any mess and any harm that those that are misguided ignorant narcissistic demagogues dish out.

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Why Should I Pay Indeed

Congressman Rod Blum in a Dubuque town hall (Monday) night asked, 'Why should a 62-year-old man have to pay for maternity care?'

I ask, why should I pay for a bridge I don't cross, a sidewalk I don't walk on, a library book I don't read?

Why should I pay for a flower I won't smell, a park I don't visit, or art I can't appreciate? Why should I pay the salaries of politicians I didn't vote for, a tax cut that doesn't affect me, or a loophole I can't take advantage of?

It's called democracy, a civil society, the greater good. That's what we pay for." ~ Barbara Rank, Hidden Oaks Court, Dubuque

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Another Timely Blast From The Past

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose…

10 Questions to Help Determine if Your Religious Liberty Is Being Threatened

From a great little post over at Alternet:

This simple quiz will let you know if you're being oppressed.

1. My religious liberty is at risk because:

A) I am not allowed to go to a religious service of my own choosing.
B) Others are allowed to go to religious services of their own choosing.

2. My religious liberty is at risk because:

A) I am not allowed to marry the person I love legally, even though my religious community blesses my marriage.
B) Some states refuse to enforce my own particular religious beliefs on marriage on those two guys in line down at the courthouse.

3. My religious liberty is at risk because:

A) I am being forced to use birth control.
B) I am unable to force others to not use birth control.

4. My religious liberty is at risk because:

A) I am not allowed to pray privately.
B) I am not allowed to force others to pray the prayers of my faith publicly.

5. My religious liberty is at risk because:

A) Being a member of my faith means that I can be bullied without legal recourse.
B) I am no longer allowed to use my faith to bully gay kids with impunity.

6. My religious liberty is at risk because:

A) I am not allowed to purchase, read or possess religious books or material.
B) Others are allowed to have access books, movies and websites that I do not like.

7. My religious liberty is at risk because:

A) My religious group is not allowed equal protection under the establishment clause.
B) My religious group is not allowed to use public funds, buildings and resources as we would like, for whatever purposes we might like.

8. My religious liberty is at risk because:

A) Another religious group has been declared the official faith of my country.
B) My own religious group is not given status as the official faith of my country.

9. My religious liberty is at risk because:

A) My religious community is not allowed to build a house of worship in my community.
B) A religious community I do not like wants to build a house of worship in my community.

10. My religious liberty is at risk because:

A) I am not allowed to teach my children the creation stories of our faith at home.
B) Public school science classes are teaching science.

Scoring key:

If you answered "A" to any question, then perhaps your religious liberty is indeed at stake. You and your faith group have every right to now advocate for equal protection under the law. But just remember this one little, constitutional, concept: this means you can fight for your equality—not your superiority.

If you answered "B" to any question, then not only is your religious liberty not at stake, but there is a strong chance that you are oppressing the religious liberties of others. This is the point where I would invite you to refer back to the tenets of your faith, especially the ones about your neighbors.

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Cautiously Optimistic

From The Palmer Report:

New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has never backed away from a fight with Donald Trump – and he's tended to win those battles. Schneiderman has succeeded in taking down the phony Trump University and the fraudulent Trump Foundation. He's also reportedly bringing state level RICO indictments against the Trump organization (link). And today, Schneiderman is also going after Trump over the AHCA.

Here's the official statement which New York AG Eric Schneiderman released today: "The healthcare bill passed today by House Republicans is a threat to the health and wellbeing of all New Yorkers. In addition to the devastating impact this bill would have on every New Yorker's access to affordable healthcare, the legislation that passed the House today is unconstitutional in several critical respects—and I stand ready to challenge it in court."

It continues: "First, House Republicans' attempt to effectively deny women access to reproductive healthcare services is a cruel and unconstitutional attack on women's rights – especially the most vulnerable. Further, the Collins-Faso Amendment is a cynical ploy by House Republican leadership and President Trump that exceeds Congress's authority by interfering with how New York has long elected to fund its Medicaid program. This bill threatens to slash essential healthcare services for millions of New Yorkers who need them the most. For these reasons, if this disastrous and unconstitutional healthcare bill is ultimately signed into law, I will challenge it in court." (link)

If the Senate votes no on the AHCA, or if the Democrats are able to filibuster it, then it will fail, and Obamacare will remain intact. But even if it does pass, it's clear the battle will just be beginning. And if New York can get the AHCA ruled unconstitiutional, it would be nullified in all fifty states. If the Democrats then win the midterms, they could reinstate Obamacare. So the fight against the AHCA is just getting started. 

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Be Careful What You Ask For

Well, we dodged at least one bullet today. 45's extra super special "Religious Freedom" EO doesn't explicitly allow discrimination against LGBT folks as previously feared. It's more of a feel-good-but-has-no-real-teeth-behind-it proclamation that might make it easier for churches and other religious groups to engage in politics without endangering their tax-exempt status. It does not appear to have any backdoor anti-gay discrimination language and its scope would be simply limited to employer-provided insurance and churches which endorse candidates. While the "christian" reich-wing wants full repeal of the Johnson amendment that put the whole church-taxation trigger in place, that isn't going to happen by way of a simple, crayon-scrawled Executive Order.

It should be noted that if there is anything in the order that runs counter to the Johnson Amendment, it cannot take effect without congressional action to repeal Jonson, but right on cue—because of course—one pencil-neck white male republican congressman from Indiana stood up today and advocated for a full repeal of said amendment.

Nothing triggers those Whitejesus® freaks like that pesky separation of church-and-state thing.

According to an article over at The Hill, "some social conservatives voiced frustration the order does not include provisions to allow them to oppose LGBT rights on religious grounds." While an earlier draft of the religious liberty order would have let federal contractors discriminate against LGBT employees based on faith beliefs, Thursday's version did not include such provisions, so naturally their panties are in a twist. Those "social conservatives" don't really care about "religious liberty" in any other context, so since this EO doesn't explicitly let them screw over gay people, they naturally aren't going to be happy.

Poor babies!

But the question I have (sort of prompted by the graphic above) is what happens when say, oh…I dunno…a Muslim congregation or Imam starts advocating politically? Is that allowed, or will it prompt a visit from Homeland Security?

Oh stupid me…I already know the answer to that! "Religious Liberty" only applies to Christians!