Evangelical Christians are tying themselves to an institution—the GOP—that is actively alienating college-educated voters, minority voters and younger voters. Evangelicals are thus entrenching a public perception that their movement consists of old, white Christians who want to restore lost social status through political power. Maybe this is because the perception is often accurate." ~ Michael Gerson, The Washington Post
Making the Rounds This Year
Forgive me if you've already seen it a dozen times…
Quote of the Day
Notre Dame is on fire and the stupidest fucking asshole on the entire planet just can't help but offer idiotic useless advice because this drooling moron imagines himself a fucking expert on everything. He's the loudmouth drunk at the end of the bar, but with nuclear weapons." ~ Jeff Tiedrich
Something to Remember
Yesterday, from jonphaedrus on Tumblr:
Notre Dame is burning.
This is ok.
It has happened before. It will happen again. It has been lost before. It will be lost again. And again. And again. And again. Art and architecture are transient, and temporary, and 850 years may seem like a lot to the individual, who will live maybe 100 if they are very lucky and very healthy, but even the pyramids at Saqqara have only existed for about 6000 years and that's still not all that much, if you consider the grand scheme of things.
Yes, this is terrible. As someone who is deeply religious and literally a professional historian with a focus on art and architecture, this is terrible. I'm mourning. I'm gutted. I'm horrified and upset and miserable. But.
It's not over.
Victor Hugo wrote Hunchback because Notre Dame du Paris was in the process of collapsing and falling apart, and revitalized the entire world's focus and love for this church, and that was not even 200 years ago. It led to it being renovated.
The roof has fallen in. The scars of fires are on its buttresses. The rose window has fallen out. The beams and piers have collapsed. The spire has toppled. The stones have suffered, and will suffer again, but it is not gone.
Renovation work is essential. sometimes things collapse and burn and break and have to come back. It's not a terrorist attack, it's renovation, an accident, but we have so much evidence, history, carefully documented everything on one of the most studied places in the world.
It's not the end.
Obviously everyone is shocked but here's a few important key facts:
• The roof is completely gone. Part of it dated back from the 13th century but the rest was from the 19th. The stone arch roof under the top roof is fine.
• One of the three main stained glass rose windows has fallen out. Most of the other stained glass windows are okay.
• The spire has fallen down and that's the saddest part. BUT! It was in the process of being restored and the 16 statues that were there were removed just four days ago! So they're fine.
• The main structure is still here and nothing has "burned down" unlike what some people have been saying.
• The "treasures" (the sacred objects) are safe.
• Notre Dame is still there. It's just damaged. Almost nothing was lost today, and nobody was wounded either. It's scary, but it's gonna be okay.
Notre Dame is still there. It's just damaged. Almost nothing was lost today, and nobody was hurt, either. It's scary, but it's gonna be okay.
Remember that a good deal of the cathedral is stone, so it isn't going to burn to the ground. Part of the genius of medieval architecture before steel was the invention of the buttress, the arch that allows weight to be taken off walls so you could use more glass. Unfortunately the glass will melt but it's easy to replace. It unquestionably will be massively damaged but not destroyed.
Not Feeling Very Positive These Days
I keep thinking that good, rational people are going to exert their control as the responsible adults in the room and wrest control of our country back from the evil, psychotic, racist, child-monsters currently occupying the echelons of government. But with each passing day and each thumbing-of-their-noses to the Rule of Law, I'm coming to the sad, sackcloth-rending realization that this is never going to happen. We are witnesses to the decline and fall of the United States of America—and truth be told, probably all of western civilization. "All this has happened before and will happen again."
We have a demonstrably insane man occupying the White House, one tiny hand hovering over the big red civilization reset button, while methodically dismantling everything this country has built over the past 240 years with the other. What surprises me the most is the rapidity with which this destruction has been allowed to occur.
I had hopes that the newly elected Democratic Congress—hobbled as they are by having to deal with a solidly Republican Senate—would effect at least some change; that they would be able to at least lightly apply the brakes to this out of control administration and yet, except for a very few notable exceptions, all they're doing is politely asking that the Orange Menace stop steamrolling over anything and everything that made this country the envy of the world for so long.
Let's face it: the Russian Wig Stand is old. If he wasn't in such close proximity to the nuclear football I'd rest a little easier knowing that the vast majority of us would outlive him and survive long enough to start putting the pieces back together of what used to be our country. But I'm not so sure any more.
The 70% of the country who are not racist and certifiably insane are counting on the hope that 2020 will take care of the profound mistake that was made in 2016. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think they're putting way too much faith in the belief that there will be an election next year. Trump is a sociopath, a malignant narcissist. Even if there isn't some manufactured crisis where he can issue an Executive Order to suspend elections, do you honesly think he'll voluntarily give up the Presidency even if he loses? And considering the Russians—or whoever is responsible for him occupying that office in the first place—have had four additional years to hone their psyop and hacking skills, who's to say he won't "win" again, no matter who actually receives the greatest number of votes?
The only thing that gives me the tiniest glimmer of hope is the knowledge that no dictator—or wannabe dictator—ever holds onto power forever. Even the mythic AntiChrist was prophesied to maintain control for only a few short years, so it's guaranteed that both Trump and his puppet master will end up worm food. That doesn't mean they can't wreak havoc; they can and will, but even that will come to an end.
And while the Bloviating Orange Anus is trying his best to fill every position of government with people as vile as he is, damn few of them actually last in those positions. Who knew working for the monster could be so universally disagreeable?
Be thankful it is. And be thankful the vast majority of them are incompetent fools. While things are bad and have the potential for getting much worse, imagine how truly awful it would be if Trump or his minions were actually competent at what they did?
That's not to say that a great deal of damage cannot be wrought by incompetency and enabled by the other wholly owned subsidiaries of the Russian government and those they have enough dirt on to maintain control of (I'm looking at you, Mitch McConnell and you, Miss Lindseybelle Graham).
If we are indeed more than just flesh and blood, if we are—to paraphrase Yoda's famous admonition—"luminous beings, not this crude matter," then it's a little easier to step outside this madness and simply embrace the philosophy that we all incarnated in this place and time to witness humanity vomit up thousands of generations worth of hate and ultimately self-immolate. And with more stars in the heavens than gains of sand on all the beaches of earth, it's not like there aren't other worlds and other civilizations we can't move on to when we're done here—hopefully not repeating the same mistakes me made in this here and now.
I'm a little too young to be a part of the generation of school children who grew up with "duck and cover." I was a toddler during the Cuban Missile Crisis, but thanks to popular culture, the fear of nuclear annihilation remains firmly planted in my consciousness, although it wasn't until November 2016—suspecting Trump to be completely batshit insane even then—that worries of dying in an atomic conflagration returned to the forefront of my awareness.
When I was in high school, I had a nightmare that remains with me to this day. I was standing on the front porch of a house I'd never lived in, talking with my mother. The subject of the end of the world (and the Second Coming of Christ—I was pretty traditionally religious in those days) came up. And almost the moment we started talking about it an incredible boom was heard and the sky cracked. I've thought about that for years, and have been keenly aware to not move anywhere that had the type of front porch present in my dream…until we moved into this place. While Mom is now gone ten years, I am living in a house with a front porch similar to that dream, and while the view wasn't as expansive (there's a huge tree in the yard not an open field across the street as was in the dream), there are now lots of women who could easily stand in metaphorically as a mother-figure in my life that I could find myself talking to out there. I'm now convinced the sky didn't actually crack; it was just the last thing I saw before dying: the pattern of ocular blood vessels seared into my retinas as a nuclear bomb detonated nearby.
I warned you I wasn't feeling very positive…
Public Service Announcement
Hahaha!
There's no denying that the country is a mess, but can you imagine the trouble we'd be in if Trump or any of his enablers were actually intelligent?
Quote Of The Day
If the U.S. can no longer serve as a leader then let us serve as a warning. 'Don't let this happen to you!'" ~ Anonymous
Sharp Rise in Arctic Temperatures Now Inevitable
As I commented on another site:
"And on your right we're approaching a planet formerly known by its now extinct dominant species as Earth. Humans, as they called themselves, once showed great potential to become a part of the galactic community, but since the advent of their species' industrialization, they continually worked against their own self-interest by pouring massive amounts of pollution into the planetary biosphere, poisoning themselves and tripping a runaway environmental disaster. The species finally self-destructed completely and took out what was remaining of the planet's biosphere with the advent of a brief, yet devastating nuclear conflagration over the planet's dwindling resources and various factions' god-myths."
Snicker
Some Thoughts About The Manafort Sentencing Yesterday
This is a good summation from a front-pager at Balloon Juice, and he sums up quite nicely my own observations so I'm going to just copy and paste his words:
While everyone is correctly pointing out the terrible discrepancies in our criminal justice system, it is important to remember that Paul Manafort's sentencing today is not the end of this story. Next week Manafort will appear before Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Federal district court in DC. It was Judge Jackson who ruled that Manafort had, in fact, lied, obstructed, and witness tampered in regard to the Special Counsel, his investigators, and his prosecutors post trial and conviction in her court. And it is Judge Jackson who will sentence Paul Manafort next week. Unlike Judge Ellis, who is a well known crank and who, in a properly functioning political system with two actually functional political parties concerned about the general welfare, the rule of law, and the common weal, would have been removed from the bench a long time ago, Judge Jackson is considered to be a jurist who takes her responsibilities seriously. Do not expect Judge Jackson to be lenient. And don't expect her to ignore actual facts to state that Manafort had previously led a blameless life. Do expect her to hand down a sentence with teeth in it. It is entirely possible that Judge Ellis departed from the sentencing guidelines because he knew Judge Jackson wouldn't. Doing something like that fits with his history of contrarianism masquerading as jurisprudence. Regardless, Paul Manafort will die in prison. And we should all be thankful for that.
Rescue Party
Oh God, Please Don't
This country can't survive another 4 years of Trump.
I've Been Saying This For Years
Turnabout Is Fair Play
The Extinction of the White American Dinosaur
From John Pavlovitz:
I love the look I saw this week.
It was the look of terrified dinosaurs realizing that the meteorite is on its way; the dilated pupils in the eyes of leadened, lumbering prehistoric monsters who've had their run of the house, now finding themselves at the precipice of extinction.
As the most diverse Congress in our history began its session, it was a harbinger of what is coming for this nation, and what it means for their species. America is growing more diverse, and its representative leadership (though still painfully lagging behind) is quickly making up ground. They can see the change in the weather and the light in the sky—and they are scrambling to avoid the coming impact because they can sense it will not end well for them.
It's why Mitch McConnell is holding the Government hostage over an ineffective, multi-billion dollar monument to racism of a border wall, that two-thirds of this country doesn't want.
It's why men like Tucker Carlson, rant mindlessly about successful women ushering in the "decline of men."
It's why Jim Mattis and Michael Cohen and General Kelly and Mike Flynn, and a perpetually revolving door of men are leaving or being forced out of positions of influence and leadership.
It's why Republican leaders have spent the past year creating a massive straw man out of exhausted migrant families and refugee children, as though they were wealthy foreign adversaries rigging a Presidential election.
It's why Right-wing trolls "leaked" a video of a college-aged Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dancing, as if it was a clip of her saying she could grab less powerful men by the genitalia.
It's why Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr, performed embarrassingly contorted theological gymnastics, in order to align with this President over poor people.
It's why Donald Trump spent Christmas Eve bunkered down in the White House behind a smart phone, tweeting scattered, rapid-fire nonsense—instead of being with his family or reading or God forbid, serving someone.
It is the white-hot fear that has overtaken them all.
They're all in a scalding panic, because they understand that their brief moment in history to have their way and impose their will is quickly coming to a close. The landscape is being renovated, the climate is changing, and as a species they are dying—which is why they will do what all frightened animals do when they are backed into a corner and realize the level of the threat: they will grow more violent than ever before.
In the coming days, the Tweets will become more erratic, the legislative assaults grow more transparently desperate, the hate crimes more brazen, the sermons grow more alarmist and incendiary. These Jurassic, soon-to-be-amber-trapped relics, will act as if the very sky above them is falling, because in very real ways, it is. They will thrash and spit and bellow, in an effort to buy themselves a few more days and a bit more power and another Federal judge or two, but they cannot stave off their inevitable disappearance, as progress and civilization and time swallow them up.
Deserving of every hateful meme that movie generates.
Joie De Vivre
https://twitter.com/aoc_dances/status/1081066764677476354
I think the reason the GOP have their collective panties in a twist over newly minted Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is fourfold:
(a) She's a woman.
(b) She's a POC.
(c) She speaks truth to power.
(d) In her original video that spawned the above meme, she's expressing the kind of unbridled joy in life that the perpetually angry, ass-clenching GOP will never experience and it's driving them insane.
Quote of the Day
Nancy Pelosi has just arrived at the Capitol and I want to run up to her screaming, "Mom! Mom! Thank God you're home! The babysitter is batshit cray and starting fires!" ~ Amee Vanderpool
16 December 2018
Tumblr Update
Tumblr was never big on my radar, other than for grabbing menz for posting on Voenix Rising. (And um…for other, more personal reasons.) It was difficult enough coming up new, at least mildly interesting content for this blog without having to also maintain a fully functioning Tumblr as well. Still, I liked the platform and occasionally posted (or reposted) material there that never appeared on VoenixRising, something that has become abundantly clear as I scroll through the "Media" folder of my recently downloaded Tumblr (and is something I hope to rectify going forward).
As I mentioned when the whole Tumblr debacle started, I already have more than enough unpublished material amassed to keep you porn-dog Voenix Rising readers happy for years, but Tumblr's announcement that it was deleting all NSFW material from its site really pissed me off; not so much because it would make finding new material more difficult, but because it was a direct shot across the bow to freedom of expression.
But where was everyone moving to? A lot of people seem to be opting for Twitter, a venue that I was absolutely shocked to discover allowed porn at all—and one I fear will be the next target of online censorship (although as Ben pointed out, as long as the Orange Menace's tiny fingers are clicking away, Twitter is unlikely to do anything to limit his audience, even if porn-dogs aren't exactly his target audience). I already have a Twitter presence as you well know, and if a lot of my favorite Tumblrs end up posting there I may actually be able to stomach more than two minutes a day on the site, but let's face it: the Twitter experience overall just isn't the same as Tumblr.
Others are moving to Mastodon. I checked it out, and it looks interesting. I created an account there and we'll see how it goes. I haven't posted much of anything yet, but if you want to bookmark me, click here. (I'll also be adding a link to the account on the "Social" widget at the right.)
Whatsoever a Man Soweth, That Shall He Also Reap
Or as my Ben tells his students, "Actions have consequences."
Fuck you, Tumblr.
The Morning After
Was it a Blue Tsunami? No, but a blue wave did wash out a good amount of the garbage infecting government.
As of this posting it's still a toss-up between Arizona's two Senate candidates. It may be days (or weeks) before we know the results, and even then both sides have said the courts will be enlisted no matter who wins.
And don't panic about Jeff Session's "resignation." We all saw this coming—including Mr. Mueller—who has undoubtedly already got failsafes in place for this very eventuality.
The following is unabashedly stolen from I Should Be Laughing because it sums up what happened yesterday more succinctly than I could ever hope to.
Okay … was it all we hoped for? Was it better than we expected? No, but that's okay because, first off, we took the House, putting an end to those in Congress who will do whatever the Racist-In-Chief wants to do.
Beto lost to Ted Cruz in Texas, but in the long run it might be for the best because whatever Beto O'Rourke does next, and in the future, he will always best Cruz.
Florida once again proved they put the 'Duh' in Flori-duh by electing racist Trumpets Ron DeSantis over Andrew Gillum, and, as of now, making it a tie between Rick Scott and Bill Nelson.
But enough about that …. Let's talk some good stuff.
Kim Davis, the Kentucky Kounty Klerk who famously refused to sign marriage licenses for gay couples, lost her reelection bid to Democratic challenger Elwood Caudill Jr.
Karma is good.
Up in Minnesota they have elected Ilhan Omar, a Democrat, as the country's first Somali-American elected to Congress. In Michigan, Rashida Tlaib, who also won her election. Tlaib and Omar will be the first Muslim women in Congress.
In Colorado, Jared Polis won the governor's race and is the first openly gay person to be elected governor in America.
Funny side note: the Colorado cake baker who refused to bake a cake for a gay couple now has a gay governor.
Angie Craig, a lesbian candidate, won her race to take the U.S. House seat for Minnesota, unseating Republican Jason Lewis, a vicious anti-LGBT lawmaker.
Allis not good everywhere, because Iowa has reelected Nazi-sympathizer, racist and white supremacist Steve King to a ninth term. Really, Iowa?
Democrat Anthony Brindisi is the winner of the race for New York's 22nd Congressional District, besting Trump supporter and asshat, Claudia Tenney.
Gay former Marine Neil Rafferty won his race for the State House in Alabama. The seat was vacated by Patricia Todd, Alabama's first openly gay legislator.
Chris Pappas is now New Hampshire's first openly gay member of Congress.
Kris Koback, a Trump lapdog, wanted to be governor of Kansas; Kansans said, 'No.'
Dana Rohrabacher, one of Putin's favorite lawmakers, appears to have lost his bid for reelection to represent California's 48th congressional district in Congress.
GOP Governor Scott Walker lost in Wisconsin.
Massachusetts voters have handed a resounding victory for transgender people, voting Yes On 3 and defeating a first-of-its-kind effort to repeal the state's landmark transgender rights law.
J.D. Ford, another openly gay man, bested Republican Mike Delph, who is best known for his staunch opposition to gay marriage equality.
Sharice Davids made history as the first openly gay Native American elected to Congress in Kansas.
Jennifer Webb, another LGBTQ candidate, and Democrat won a narrow victory to take a seat in Florida's state Legislature. Webb is the first openly LGBTQ woman elected to that position.
Ayanna Presley has become the first Black congresswoman in Massachusetts.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest person ever in the House of Representatives.
Lauren Underwood wins her House race, becoming the first Black Woman to win her Illinois district.
91% of all the House candidates Trump endorsed lost last night.
Democrats flipped—as of posting time last night—some 28 House seats.
Democrats have flipped 5 governor seats.
Democrats have flipped 4 state legislative chambers.
Democrats took control of the NY State Senate.
Democrats flipped 21 state legislative seats.
Democrats flipped 3 state Supreme Court seats.
Democrats broke the North Carolina GOP supermajority.
Democrats rebuilt the "Blue Wall" in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and that's a big deal for 2020.
Winning the House means that Adam Schiff, not Trump lapdog Devin Nunes, will chair the House Intel Committee.
Democrats can investigate and check the Trump Administration.
Your votes mattered.
But, no matter what happens, remember this: we are done with Paul Ryan.
And don't feel bad about the lack of a Blue Tsunami. With wins at local and state levels we are setting the stage for 2020 and beyond; with wins for women and people of color and LGBTQ Americans, we are setting the stage to take the power from old rich white men.
The game is on!
Tuesday Night
MAKE THIS HAPPEN!
VOTE TOMORROW!!!
Quote of the Day
Maybe, most of all, the character of our country is on the ballot." ~ Former President Barack Obama, 26 October 2018
How is that Republican Brand Working Out for You?
In case you needed a little reminder why you need to get your ass off the couch November 6th and…
Own It
You're trash. You've always been trash. When liberals were polite, you were trash. When liberals got a little rude, you were still trash. Now that we're tired of your shit and treating you like the trash you are, you're mortally offended and blaming us for being trash? Get the fuck out of here.
You laugh at sexual assault victims. You cheer Latino children being tortured. You get off on police murdering unarmed black men. You mock the disabled. You send death threats to high school students opposed to guns. You call for the murder of homosexuals. You. Are. Trash.
I know it's hard to look in the mirror and realize that you're the worst that humanity has to offer but you made that choice. No one forced you to be a garbage person. You did that. You. You can stop any time you want, too. But you won't because deep down inside, you like being trash. Own it. That's why you love Trump so much. He told you that being trash is OK and you thought you could come out of the shadows and walk tall as a garbage person.
It's not working out the way you thought it would and that's pissing you off so very, very much but I couldn't care less. Blame us all you want for your weakness. No one believes your whining bullshit anymore. Not even you. You're trash and in four weeks, America is going to take the trash out.