Category: Politics, Religion, and Social Commentary
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Dolly was far too kind to tell you this while she was alive, so I will: you and she had little in common. Oh sure, from a distance, it might seem that way, but get a little closer and dig a little deeper and the differences could not be greater…
Dolly loved people, all people.
Unlike you, she loved without qualifiers, catches, caveats, or conditions. Her love did not come with strings or theological hoops or political litmus tests. In Dolly’s no one had to stand outside or prove their worth or earn her decency.
Dolly loved America, real America.
She wasn’t about that flag-waving, Don’t Tread On Me, America First, Christian Nationalism, Send Them Back nonsense you continually peddle as patriotism. Her America was diverse, open-armed, inclusive, and kind; a place where everyone deserved to feel at home.
Dolly was a Christian, a Jesus Christian.
Her deep and abiding faith did not need to be loudly broadcast or worn as a costume. It did not seek to bend anyone to its will. It was not something she wielded like a hammer in forced compliance. Her faith simply and clearly showed up, in an unrestrained love for neighbor that reflected the open-handed, open-hearted compassion of Christ that you mock as toxic.
Dolly believed in family, every family.
A faithful, passionate supporter of the LGBTQ community, Dolly’s advocacy of family was not confined to some rigid, White Evangelical monument to straightness and whiteness. She understood something in the core of her being you never will: that love cannot be limited and will not be hemmed in.
Dolly Parton was not MAGA in any way; she was its beautiful counterpoint.
She was a vaccine-supporting, nature-preserving, book-loving, trans-defending gay icon, and nearly everything she stood for flies fully in the face of the cruel, sneering, exclusionary narcissism of your vile, bloviating, spray-tanned messiah and his hateful movement, which you so joyfully partner in.
Dolly Parton showed respect to every single human being who ever had the good fortune of being in her orbit, whether at arm’s length or from thousands of miles away.
She left everyone feeling seen and heard and loved and respected, regardless of orientation, pigmentation, or nation of origin.
She never saw anyone as an enemy to be defeated, never attempted to gatekeep blessings or opportunity, never demanded that someone earn her decency, and never dehumanized a soul.
Yes, you should aspire to emulate her and endeavor to replicate the generosity and unconditional love she so easily moved through this life with.
And you’re welcome to show her respect and gratitude; in fact, you should.
But please, don’t try to claim her as yours today, MAGA.
yesterday afternoon, the White House press pool was summoned to the Oval Bordello for a hastily-organized, unscheduled dog-and-pony show.
when they arrived, there was Preznit Fuckwit, seated behind his Big Boy Resolute Desk, surrounded by his emotional support flunkies and visual aids.
the gathered reporters were all ‘what the fuck?’ — but as word-adjacent noises began to seep from Dear Leader’s rancid anus-mouth, they realized they were about to have their time wasted on the pettiest bullshit imaginable.
“okay, uh, the purpose of this, more than anything else, is we’re gonna be— changing the name of Lake Ontario— effective immediately, to Lake America. that’s gonna take place right now, as I sign the— order.”
oh, for fuck’s sweet sake. seriously? this is what this spite-obsessed imbecile remains laser-focused on, as the world all around us turns to shit?
he’s going to make good on his infantile threat to ‘rename’ a lake — all because Ontario Premier Doug Ford had wounded his precious fee-fees by suggesting Donny might ought to kiss his ass.
as the price of goods and services continues to soar, as the unwinnable clusterfuck in Iran goes on, as sailors starve and armed federal thugs invade our cities, as climate change caused a glacier to fucking collapse, killing hundreds in Nepal, this shithead is wasting everyone’s time on settling scores.
he’s such a child. ‘I’m going to call you Premier Poopyhead, and then you’ll be sorry!’
ace job, Donny. you sure stuck it to Canada. I’ll bet Doug Ford is sorry he ever tried to mess with the Supreme Re-namer of Water.
here we go again, and it’s all so predictably stupid. Donny does something pants-shittingly imbecilic, and the press falls all the fuck over itself in a mad dash to normalize it.
‘of course a president would rename a body of water out of spite. why wouldn’t he? it’s the most perfectly reasonable thing in the world.’
we need to step back — because first of all, Donny’s executive order ass-clownery didn’t actually change the name of shit.
can I just remind everyone of something that the worthless scribs seem to have forgotten?
Executive orders are issued from the executive branch of the government, specifically the U.S. President. An executive order is not a law in the sense that it does not go through the legislative process. It is not binding on everyone, only on employees of the executive branch.
got that? none of Donny’s moronic EOs are actually laws, and no one has to abide by them except the poor unfortunate schnooks who work in the executive branch.
Donny hasn’t actually stuck it to anyone. no one outside of the MAGAverse and the media gives a shit about his nonsensical royal decrees. the entire world is laughing at the embarrassing antics of America’s Boy King as he quite publicly pisses his pants — and the stupid fuck thinks he’s winning.
Canadian PM Mark Carney, can you step in here for a quick minute and explain to my nice readers how Lake Ontario got its name?
The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means “the lake is beautiful, the lake is big”. The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms. Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario – then, now and always.
Donny doesn’t know any of that shit. nor does he care. all he knows is that the dude who runs Ontario was very very mean to him, and so now all patriotic Americans are forever forbidden from saying its name.
it’s all so eternally moronic.
it’s stunning how quickly the entire Donnysphere has risen up as one to demonize the nation of Canada. tell me it’s not a cult.
last week, nobody gave a shit about Canada. they were simply America’s hat, quietly doing whatever the hell is it they do up there, above the 49th Parallel. this week, they’re the Evil Red Menace to our north.
“all of this is a warning what will happen to our country sixty-nine days from now, if radicalized Democrats get their way, and win the midterms. Canada’s become so woke, so far left, so anti-Trump, so radical socialist left, they have become crazy climate alarmists, and they’re wrapped up in this idiotic land acknowledgement whatever scheme of theirs, gender theory, that they seem to view communism, and, yeah, the communist Chinese as a better partner than the US.”
that’s right, Mr and Mrs America — while you were innocently asleep in your beds, the entire nation of Canada turned communist.
I knew it. I knew these fucking lumberjacks were commies the first time I laid eyes on them.
if an unpopular president choosing to gin up a pointless war with Canada in order to distract everyone from his own failures sounds familiar, that’s because it is. it’s the plot of the 1995 comedy Canadian Bacon.
The plot of the 1995 satirical comedy film Canadian Bacon centers on an American President with a low approval rating who decides to start a cold war against Canada to boost his popularity.
for decades, Canadian Bacon was notable only for being John Candy’s final role prior to his untimely death.
now, it’s a guidebook for an administration that’s already been using 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale as instruction manuals.
“you talked yesterday in your interviews about how you’re confident that a deal can be reached, but today you were talking about the problems that people like Howard Nutlick— Howard Lutnick and other members of the administration present.”
tee fucking hee. you just know that everyone calls this him ‘Nutlick’ in private. it was only a matter of time before someone slipped up in public.
sorry Howie. ‘Nutlick’ is canon now.
this is going to be my closing message for the foreseeable future:
practice self-care. do what you need to do to keep sane. if that means you need to disengage with my daily posts for a while, I get it. this community of ours will still be here when you return.
to all the people who have signed on in the days since the election, welcome aboard. settle in as we all try to deal with the shitfuckery that’s ahead of us.
we are all in this together, and we are all here for each other.
addielamarr.sh: I’ve been preaching this stuff for years and I’M TIRED GRANDPA. So here’s a few ways I personally poison my own data.
A loyalty card you signed up for at 17 still describes you (in GREAT DETAIL). An app you opened 2x is still deciding what gets sold to you 1 yr later. And the delete button turns out to be a request that a data broker is allowed to decline.
Fine. If we can’t take it back we CAN make it worthless.
Swap your grocery loyalty card with a stranger, and the profile stops describing anybody. Run AdNauseam, which blocks ads and theN clicks ALL of them, and which Google threw out of the Chrome Web Store in 2017. Fake a pregnancy, because it’s the most expensive category you can be sorted into, the one Target built a 25-product model to catch. Give every company a slightly different version of your info, so when the junk mail arrives you know exactly who sold you. Ask Alexa about things you’d never buy, because advertisers bid up to 30x higher on someone who talks to a smart speaker (peer-reviewed, ACM IMC 2023).
BONUS STRATEGIES: Open Google’s My Ad Center and tell it you want MORE ads about things you would never purchase in your life. It’ll believe you.
TrackMeNot fires randomized searches from your browser all day so your real ones sit buried in the pile. Built at NYU after AOL leaked the search history of 650,000 people.
Glaze and Nightshade alter your photos so AI scrapers read them wrong. Glaze has passed 6 million downloads.
All of it’s legal, and it works better the more people do it. A million corrupted profiles = a broken product.
Send this to someone who’s tired of this bs timeline too.
brendannorth: These dangerous anti-surveillance saboteurs have really done it this time. Placing a live bird directly in front of a Flock Safety camera forcing its motion activated sensor to record hundreds of useless photos and video clips? Absurd!
“Birds of a Feather De-Flock Together” is my latest protest art piece that attempts to draw parallels between a canary in a cage and the mass-surveillance apparatus being built up around us.
Cameras on every corner. Data collection in our pockets. Algorithms watching what we buy, where we go, who we talk to, and what we believe. Every day, more bars are added to the cage. We only escape by fighting ba
A Minneapolis rally organised by Jake Lang descended into chaos on Saturday (23 August) when a counter-protester dressed as Spider-Man appeared to punch Lang in the face.
Lang, a former Republican candidate for US Senate in Florida and 6 January participant who Donald Trump later pardoned, was holding a sign containing an anti-Black racial slur during the rally outside Minneapolis City Hall.
The event was reportedly organised in response to the conviction of Shiloh Hendrix, a white woman who was found guilty of disorderly conduct after directing the same slur at an autistic eight-year-old Black boy at a playground in nearby Rochester.
Lang and his supporters were at City Hall for only a few minutes before the demonstration devolved into violence and they fled the area, as Newsweek reported. Video from the event clearly showed a man dressed as Spider-Man, later identified as William Nicholas Love, striking Lang in the face.
Love was among 11 people arrested and has been charged with assault, while Lang was also arrested and charged with inciting a riot.
Lang has previously staged anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim protests in Minneapolis, struggled to burn a Pride flag during a demonstration against LGBTQ+ people, and been the subject of violent confrontations with counter-protesters.
And in a strange twist, Lang was actually rescued from a Minneapolis protest in January of this year by a Black transgender woman who helped him escape after another of his demonstrations attracted a much larger group of counter-protesters, as reported by FOX 9.
The Spider-Man footage has since gone viral online, while a fundraiser for Love’s legal defence has raised almost $90,000 at the time of writing.
pour one out for the colicky piss-baby in the Oval Bordello. he’s going through some things right now.
you see, when the inside of one’s head is a decaying rat’s nest of frayed nerve endings, hot-wired to a lizard brain-stem where a cerebral cortex would normally be, one’s ability to respond rationally to the slings and arrows of daily life becomes rather compromised.
which is why, when Ontario Premier Doug Ford suggested that our American president might ought to kiss his ass, Preznit Fuckwit — instead of laughing it off, or ignoring it and getting on with his day, as any normal human being might have done — shat himself raw onto his crappy app.
The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don’t expect to be doing much business with Ontario any longer. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP
Donny no notion of how to defuse a situation. he only knows how to make things worse.
you know, if Donny had spent this much time and expended this much effort into negotiating an actual trade deal with Canada, we’d already have one by now.
but that would have meant doing actual hard work — and Donny doesn’t want to do the hard work. Jon Ossoff had it exactly right: all Donny really wants to do is build his vulgar Epstein Dance Hall, and travel with his beloved Natalie.
here’s the real problem: Donny has no fucking idea how to negotiate. the only language he speaks is bully. everything has to be his way, or there’s no deal at all. that’s not negotiating — that’s just being an asshole.
Canada has figured this shit out, and they — along with Iran — have called Donny’s bluff, told him to go fuck himself, and Donny hasn’t a single clue how to extricate himself from the messes he created.
Canada and Iran have broken what’s let of Donny rotting brain.
your reminder that the real culprits in all of this are the producers of The Apprentice, who took a bankrupt imbecile with no impulse control and the attention span of a coked-up squirrel and peddled him to millions of gullible dopes as ThE sMaRtEsT bUsInEsSmAn In ThE uNiVeRsE
fun fact: when Mark Burnett needed a host for the show he was developing, The Apprentice, he first approached actual successful business leaders — people like Jack Welch, Warren Buffett, and Richard Branson — and they all turned him down. they didn’t have time for stupid game-show-host bullshit. they had real businesses to run.
only Donny said yes — because he had run all of his businesses straight into the ground, and he had all the time in the world to hang out in a television studio.
it also helped that he was a malignant, desperate-for-attention narcissist.
listen up, stupids: Trump the Businessman is a character he played on a TV show. Trump the Actual Human Being is a malevolent moron who failed at every single venture except conning you. that you can’t tell the difference is why America is now a shithole country, thanks a lot.
so here we are, two decades later, and this lifelong loser who literally couldn’t sell water in the desert is now running America straight into the ground — all because some heavily-edited game show convinced millions of dumbfucks that this moron-with-a-catchphrase was the answer.
lucky us. it’s so much fun to be living in the bestest-possible timeline.
and now Donny has clownfucked himself — and us — into two major disasters that he has neither the skill-set, temperament, or intellect to solve.
all he can do is impotently yell and scream and post stupid bullshit onto his crappy app — and there’s nobody around who can successfully edit Donny into being a president who isn’t a complete moron.
lucky us.
oh, and Doug Ford and Rep. Debbie Dingell had the best responses to Donny’s infantile threat to rename Lake Ontario.
A series of firings and feuds initiated by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has left the Army essentially rudderless as it struggles to deal with the threat posed by cheap, deadly drones and missiles that have pounded U.S. bases in the Middle East.
how do you fuck that up?
now, I don’t know shit about running a military, but it seems like you’re going to want some generals around, if you expect to any win the wars you’ve blundered yourself into.
but you know who else doesn’t know shit about running a military? Piss-Drunk Pete Kegstand, Donny’s Secretary of Death — and that’s the real problem.
Piss-Drunk Pete is what happens when there’s nobody around to heavily edit the shitty hiring decisions of a failed game show host.
it’s bad enough that Pete has squandered the military’s supply of missiles. now he’s squandered our supply of generals. who the fuck allows that to happen?
Pete has a thousand ideas about running the Pentagon, and all of them are wrong — because he’s a high-on-his-own-supply idiot who is in way too far over his head.
any actual savvy businessman would have fired Pete’s ass six weeks into his job, when he butt-texted classified war plans to a reporter. the first time Pete stared yammering about t-levels, any competent leader would have been all ‘fuck outta here with that superstitious mumbo-jumbo,’ and shitcanned him, pronto.
fuck, any competent leader would have never hired him in the first place. Pete owes his whole job to the fact that his boss is an easily-conned dipshit who values looks and loyalty over competence.
this guy isn’t even fit to flip a skateboard up into his own nuts. no, wait — that’s the one thing Pete actually can do.
Dolly Parton has left the building, and what can I say about this genuinely good person that hasn’t already been said by those far more eloquent than I?
It’s hard to imagine many people having a bigger impact than Dolly Parton. Born in a one-room cabin, she earned 11 Grammys and an Emmy, built a business empire, helped millions of kids learn to read, and — as if that wasn’t enough — helped accelerate the research that led to the Moderna COVID vaccine. What a life. Michelle and I are thinking of Dolly’s family and her many, many fans.
this is going to be my closing message for the foreseeable future:
practice self-care. do what you need to do to keep sane. if that means you need to disengage with my daily posts for a while, I get it. this community of ours will still be here when you return.
to all the people who have signed on in the days since the election, welcome aboard. settle in as we all try to deal with the shitfuckery that’s ahead of us.
we are all in this together, and we are all here for each other.
filastinian: This post highlights the power of staying calm, informed, and confident when speaking with immigration officers. Instead of reacting emotionally, the person in the video keeps bringing the conversation back to the law and asks direct questions like, “Did I commit any infraction?” and “Can I leave?” That approach makes the moment feel less chaotic and more controlled, because knowledge becomes the real source of strength. The message is simple: when people understand their rights, they can protect themselves with composure and clarity. It also shows that respect and firmness can go together, even in a tense situation. Overall, the video encourages viewers to stay alert, speak carefully, and rely on facts instead of fear.
This planet has lost so much with the passing of Dolly Parton that it’s difficult to even find a foothold for the grief, a place to begin to process all that she was and all that she gave us.
In the coming days, there will be countless, well-deserved tributes devoted to her seismic songwriting and singing career, her formidable business acumen, her indefatigable optimism, and her easy, infectious joy.
Dolly will be rightly eulogized for the effortless grace she moved through the world with, for the gentleness she extended to every person in her path, and for the humility she somehow managed to hold onto despite reaching near-sainthood status among fans, admirers, and peers alike.
Her life and career have and will provide an inexhaustible treasure trove of lessons for those of us who remain—and for those on the horizon of history who will not have had the great fortune to live here while she did.
Far more eloquent people than I will find ways to capture in words her ineffable spirit and the limitless wisdom they will glean from her in matters of faith, songcraft, and empire-building.
All I can say is that Dolly Parton knew how to be human better than just about anyone.
For me, one of the biggest takeaways of Dolly’s passing is the way she reminded us what wealth and influence can do when they are in the hands of someone whose life is oriented outward, someone who remembers what it is to lack, someone who values being human over being a billionaire.
With a staggering personal portfolio of publishing royalties, tour revenue, licensing deals, business ventures, property investments, and the spoils of a lifetime in the highest echelons of the entertainment business, Dolly Parton could have had more with every little effort.
She could have followed the lead of the Musks and the Bezoses and the Zuckerbergs and the Ellisons. She could have hoarded her fortune, growing more narcissistic and tight-fisted. She could have partnered with the legion of malevolent power-holders, motivated only by the insatiable allure of more. She could have exploited the influence she acquired to amass even greater fortune.
Instead, Dolly Parton spent her life giving her wealth away.
She started the nonprofit Dollywood Foundation, marshaling her resources and influence to fight illiteracy in her beloved Tennessee community.
She created Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which to date has donated over 300 million books to children all over the world.
She raised money for the American Red Cross and HIV/AIDS-related charities.
She helped fund cancer centers and hospitals.
She donated a million dollars during the throes of COVID to expedite vaccine development.
She provided wildfire relief following the Great Smoky Mountain Wildfires, financially supported victims of Hurricane Helene, and worked to preserve the American Bald Eagle.
Living in a country music ecosystem often populated by homophobia and racism, she risked losing financial opportunities and fan support by advocating for the LGBTQ community and for people of color.
Over and over again, Dolly Parton reminded us that money and power do not alter character but reveal it. She leaves this planet as an enduring folk hero and a universally beloved national treasure because she never allowed her lofty place in the culture, her legend status as a performer, or her considerable riches to make her forget where she came from or why she was here.
We’ve gotten so used to seeing the wealthiest people on the planet being the least compassionate, the most unapologetically cruel; rejecting their better angels and courting their inner demons. We’ve watched them partner with despots, devour the vulnerable, and pillage the planet to further the gap between themselves and the disparate humanity they end up in contempt of.
Dolly Parton was the antithesis of this. We could always count on her to get it right, to do the decent thing, to model dignity, to always pass the good human test. That’s why her loss hits so hard, and why we owe it to her to remember what she taught us about the point of being here: to stay human.
Whether we have five bucks to our name or we’ve amassed a small fortune, whether we toil in obscurity or receive the praise of multitudes, Dolly Parton’s life stands as a reminder that we are not our achievements or our accolades or our net worth. We are not our career successes or our social standing or the kudos we merit.
As she so eloquently testified for 80 glorious years, the measure of a life is in what we do with what we are entrusted with, how we treat people around us, and the person we are in both lack and abundance.
Among Dolly Parton’s the countless roles and titles at which she has so excelled, her single greatest performance was as a human being.
That has made her among the richest people to ever grace this planet.
Share your memories and gratitude for Dolly in the comments.
