Month: November 2016

“Democracy Didn’t Stop When the Polls Closed”

Dana Hunter, , , , 2 Comments

My friend Michael Klaas is usually pretty laid back, but this election and its aftermath brought him out roaring, and he is so, so right. He’s given me permission to share his Facebook post with you.

I’ve been silent on the election so far. Obviously I’m upset, and I have many thoughts, but I simply must address something I’m seeing a lot of from my well-meaning liberal friends:

Many of you are posing things about accepting the results. Giving Trump the chance to lead. Making peace with our new government so that it can get things done.

Friends… THAT IS NOT HOW DEMOCRACY WORKS. It’s always the liberals who make that mistake. Right-wingers get it. They get that democracy is an all-the-time effort, not just something that happens on election day. They’ve stood in opposition to our president for EIGHT YEARS vowing to stop *any* action he chooses to take. The media tutted and dispassionately admonished them for doing this, but ultimately this tactic got the Republicans everything they ever dreamed of. Dems are out of power at ALL LEVELS, from statehouses to the three branches of our federal government.

Continue reading ““Democracy Didn’t Stop When the Polls Closed”” →

“Democracy Didn’t Stop When the Polls Closed”
{advertisement}

Dear Liberals, Feminists, and Assorted Allies: Stop Slut-Shaming Melania Trump

Dana Hunter1 Comment

Too many supposed good progressive feminist-friendly people lately have been gleefully sharing memes that slut-shame Melania Trump. See, she posed for nude photos! She doesn’t have class, like all the other First Ladies!

Bullshit.

CN: slut-shaming, Trump, mentions of marital rape

Continue reading “Dear Liberals, Feminists, and Assorted Allies: Stop Slut-Shaming Melania Trump” →

Dear Liberals, Feminists, and Assorted Allies: Stop Slut-Shaming Melania Trump

Regrouping

Dana Hunter, , , , , , , 4 Comments

The shock is wearing off. The despair is still there, but anger is quickly overtaking it. Determination is stirring. It’s time.

This blog started during the latter years of the Bush regime. It started as a political blog, where a newborn liberal catalogued the outrages and tried to do her part to fight them.

When Obama became President of the United States, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief, and turn to other things. It’s been a nice eight years, not having to be a political blogger. I had time to become a geology writer. I got settled into my atheism, and learned a few things about social justice, and became a feminist. I tried writing full time, and got some books written. I worked on others, including books on Mount St. Helens, which I haven’t had a chance to finish. I delved into the horrifying world of creationists textbooks. I explored the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints and their abusive world. I was free to follow a lot of different passions.

That’s over, now. Continue reading “Regrouping” →

Regrouping

You Wanted to Know How Fascism Wins? Look In the Mirror

Dana Hunter6 Comments

Donald Trump won the election, but he is not my president. George W. Bush was. Much as I hated him, much as I thought he was the worst thing that had happened to America in generations, at least he was a properly-elected (the second time), career politician who had some idea of how the republic worked and some shred of decency remaining.

Trump is none of those things.

I would not call Hitler Mark II my president. I will not call him president of my country. And if the Tea Party Republicans have shown me anything, it’s that democracy in this country is dead at the national level, and at many places at the local level, and that fire is needed to fight fire.

Right now, I’m in despair and devastated and staring into a future I doubt I can survive. But I am white and cis and hetero, and I will wield those privileges in defense of those less powerful than me for all I am worth. I live on the blue side of a blue state, and I will use that position to protect everyone I can.

Friends I love are going to die.

The things that were keeping them alive will be gutted.

Bigots who despise them have been emboldened enough to murder them without a twinge of conscience.

And you did that to them.

White folk. You did this. Cis folk. You did this. Bernie-or-busters, third party voters, people who didn’t vote because you couldn’t be arsed, people who thought all candidates were the same, people who voted for Trump because you’re either too white or too sexist or too racist or too selfish or too all-of-the-above to think it through, you did this. It’s all on you.

Those of you who thought racism was over and so didn’t make a peep when the Voting Rights Act got gutted, this is on you.

You ask how fascism rises. Look in the fucking mirror. Look. Look at yourself.

That is how.

You are the reason this happened.

So I will not be kind to you. I won’t be gracious in defeat. I won’t let bygones be bygones. I will absolutely let political differences end friendships, because you just voted to watch the world burn. You voted to murder the people I love. This isn’t the bullshit faux persecution that religious right cis straight white people whine about. This is queer folk, and trans folk, and disabled folk, and colored folk, and immigrant folk, and refugee folk, and poor folk, who will all die because you didn’t want to give up your dreams of domination.

I always wondered. I wondered how this happens. I wondered how the ordinary people chose good or evil. I don’t wonder anymore, because I am living it.

So.

If you voted for Trump, understand that I hold you beneath contempt. If you suffer because of what you’ve unleashed, I will feel pity for you, but understand that you brought it on yourself. If you voted for Trump, we are through. You have no place in my life. You are vile. You’re beneath contempt. I never want to see you. I never want to speak to you. I want you out of my life, permanently. I will not seek to take away your rights, but I hope that this decision ends up haunting you. I hope you end up unable to sleep at night. You shouldn’t be able to rest easy after what you have done.

If you voted for Trump, you are not now and never were a friend of mine. Until you show your remorse for that vote and do everything in your power to reverse the damage, you are not someone I can count as a neighbor, much less a friend.

*** Continue reading “You Wanted to Know How Fascism Wins? Look In the Mirror” →

You Wanted to Know How Fascism Wins? Look In the Mirror

Dear Americans: VOTE. This Is Critical

Dana Hunter

This is it. This is the day.

Image is a banner with white stars on a navy background running across the top and bottom, bordered in red. In a white box in the middle, it says VOTE America. Every Vote Counts.
If you’re in Pennsylvania, you can get a free Uber or Lyft ride to the polls. Here’s how.

When you vote, remember this important truth:

Image is a quote from Rebecca Solnit that says, "Voting is a chess move, not a valentine." Beside the quote, there is a black and white photo of her sitting with tall grasses behind her.
So please, don’t write in a candidate who has no chance, or vote for third party candidates who not only will not win, but are unfit to govern to begin with. Don’t throw your votes away. Trump needs to lose, and lose hugely. The bigoted assholes, the white supremacists, the violent fanatics he’s goaded and enabled, they all need to see him crushed. They need to see that hate doesn’t win. They need to understand that they are despicable, and decent society will have nothing of them.

Vote.

***

I am so terrified to find out whether my fellow citizens are such sexist dupes that they’d elect an admitted sexual abuser with none of the knowledge, temperament, and experience necessary to run a country as huge and complicated as ours, rather than have to call an eminently qualified woman Madam President.

I haven’t been able to do more than read about this shitshow and huddle in my blankets in abject dread. It’s never been like this before. Every other election, even 2004, I knew the country would somehow muddle through. This time, if we make the wrong choice, I don’t think we’ll be okay again. Not until after too many people have died. At the very, very least, our Supreme Court will be fucked for at least a generation, and the suffering that will cause is huge.

I can’t wait for this to be over, and yet I’m dreading it.

If you can vote, cast your vote for Clinton. Vote downballot for the most progressive candidates available. Then come huddle here with me. We’ll get through this together.

***A SPECIAL NOTICE TO TRUMP VOTERS***

But if you vote for Trump, realize that you’re voting for a deeply racist child rapist. Realize who you’re unifying yourself with. These are people who burn black churches, who torch transgender people’s trucks, who beat up protestors, harass immigrants, and even attack a child in a wheelchair for having the audacity to disagree with their hate.

If you vote for this man, you are condoning this behavior. You’re saying it’s okay to assault disabled folk, women, and people of color. That’s on top of the endless pile of reasons why he’s completely unfit to be president.

I don’t care what your reasons are. I don’t care if you’re lodging a protest against the Dems, or really think an ignorant jackass in the White House would force everybody to have some wonderful revolution, or if you’re just easily bamboozled. I don’t care if you’re doing it because you think Clinton is evil, or think she’s going to rip fully-developed healthy babies from wombs right at the 9th month, or don’t like her husband, or whatever reason you might offer.

If you vote for this man, you are reprehensible, and I want you to realize that and sit with that realization and feel awful about it. And then I want you to do better. But I don’t want to hear a single word from your mouth until you’ve had that epiphany. As long as you feel you did the right thing by voting for Trump, I don’t want to hear a single thing from you.

Because you voted for this. You voted for a man who foments this kind of hate. And that says nothing good about you.

Dear Americans: VOTE. This Is Critical

Bay Area Peeps: A Must-See Documentary Screens TODAY!

Dana Hunter, , , , , , , , ,

Promised Land is screening on Monday afternoon – TODAY! – at the 41st American Indian Film Festival, San Francisco, AMC Van Ness Theater.

If you want to understand Standing Rock, get a sense of Native American history, and see what happens when people whose ancestors can be traced back to tribes that have occupied these lands for thousands of years are denied federal recognition, you need to see this film. Please go if you can, and spread the word. Continue reading “Bay Area Peeps: A Must-See Documentary Screens TODAY!” →

Bay Area Peeps: A Must-See Documentary Screens TODAY!

Dear Americans: VOTE

Dana Hunter, , , ,

There won’t be normal blogging this week because I am godsdamned terrified.

I’m haunted by Brexit (CN: casual ableism). Remember how folks in Great Britain thought that staying in the European Union was a sure thing, so they either didn’t vote, or voted NO as a joke or protest, thinking they were safe – and next thing they knew, they were staring down a wrecked economy and emboldened racists? Yeah. That could happen here.

Don’t believe that Trump losing is such a sure thing that you don’t have to bother voting. Don’t believe it’s such a sure thing that you can safely vote for a third party candidate. Because there’s never a sure thing until the last vote is counted.

Vote.

Vote because we don’t only need to defeat Trump, we need to crush him and all he stands for. If we’re to have a hope of rescuing this country from the white supremacists and militias and all the other deplorables who want to burn it all down, we need to vote in such numbers that it sends a clear message to politicians who want to harness that bigotry: they are the ones who will burn. That strategy of appealing to racists and bigots and misogynists needs to fail so spectacularly that they don’t attempt it again for generations.

Vote, because if we’re going to stop global warming, we need people in office who actually believe it’s happening.

Vote, because we need to put as many progressives in power as we can, and where we can’t get the progressives we want right away, we at least get someone who leans far enough to the left to help pull us in the right direction for next time.

Vote, because we need someone with a solid liberal voting record sitting in the Oval Office, and that person is Hillary Clinton.

Vote, because the next president will decide whether the Supreme Court leans liberal or conservative, and the effects of that will be felt for decades to come. The damage a conservative court could do would not be undone for generations. Continue reading “Dear Americans: VOTE” →

Dear Americans: VOTE

Daddy’s Back! Supernatural S1 E16 Analysis: Shadow

Dana Hunter, , , , , ,

Supernatural starts out with a missing father, and spends the majority of the season giving us glimpses of just how badly he fucked up his sons before they’re (briefly) reunited as a family. On a show that’s rather notable for its toxic masculinity and toxic relationships, this one really stands out as messed up. Let’s have a look.

To briefly recap: when his wife was killed, John took their boys and started a life of hunting for the demon that killed her. We’ve seen glimpses of his sons’ lives, left behind to fend for themselves for days at a time in hotel rooms while Daddy’s off chasing evil things. Dean’s been forced to grow up and shoulder the responsibilities of keeping Sam fed, clothed, entertained, and safe. We’ll see much more of that in the future, but we’ve been given enough glimpses to know that Dean got the lion’s share of the responsibility. And he’s the one who always toed Daddy’s line, who never questioned orders, while Sam got it into his head to live his own damned life. While Dean stayed in the family business, Sam went off to college, and his dad stopped talking to him altogether.

When Dad goes missing, Dean goes to Sam for help – but doesn’t get it until Sam’s girlfriend is fridged by the same demon that killed their mother. Sam’s got a dual quest: find the demon and find their dad. Dean’s pretty focused on just finding Dad. They came quite close in Home, when we finally glimpse John Winchester. We learn in that episode that before Mary’s death, John was a stubborn man who doted on his family. We know Mary’s death changed him. And when he calls his sons in Scarecrow, we see that he still has that deep caring, but it’s overlain by a drill-sergeant demeanor that rises up when they don’t do exactly as they’re told. We see how Sam fights it, while Dean falls immediately into line.

We’ve seen in the boys’ behavior how each of them has been messed up by their dad in different ways. Sam loves his dad and is desperate to be loved in turn, but rejects his authority and asserts his independence. Dean is the good soldier, and if he had any rebellious spirit when it came to their father, it was beaten out of him by circumstances and a fair amount of emotional abuse.

But even if you didn’t know that history, you’d be able to guess it just from this scene in Episode 16, Shadow. Continue reading “Daddy’s Back! Supernatural S1 E16 Analysis: Shadow” →

Daddy’s Back! Supernatural S1 E16 Analysis: Shadow

Supernatural S1 E16 Summary: “Shadow”

Dana Hunter, , , , , , ,

We open with a young woman walking alone down dark city streets. You know nothing good can come of this. She ends up in an alley, with her iPod broken and a creepy voice whispering at her. She’s chased all the way home by a big old shadow. And just when we think she’s safe inside her apartment with the alarm set, a shadowy demon substance brutally murders her.

Screenshot shows a gray wall with black shadows projected against it. A woman's shadow has her back arched and her mouth open. There is an indistinct figure behind it, stabbing her in the back. There is a red spray of blood on the wall.
Death by Monstrosity: 1

Blood and Gore: 1

The following week, the boys show up in alarm company uniforms to investigate. See, poor dead Meredith is the second person to die so mysteriously. Dean, of course, whines endlessly about the uniforms. Dad never needed a disguise. Continue reading “Supernatural S1 E16 Summary: “Shadow”” →

Supernatural S1 E16 Summary: “Shadow”

Oops, I’m Doing It Again!

Dana Hunter, , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

Ah, yes, November. Month of harvest, fall, Thanksgiving, and that special hell known as NaNoWriMo.

And yeah, I know, I swore I never would, but I’m doing it again.

Look, it’s no big. I’m going to use it to finish Really Terrible Bible Stories vol. 4: Numbers. And I know some folks will complain because it’s supposed to be a novel and it’s supposed to be fiction, but hey – the Bible is fiction. And I’m of the opinion that NaNo is no use unless you can use it to further your writing goals. In my case, my goal is to get this damned book done, because I’d like to spend less than 66 years completing the Really Terrible Bible Stories series.

So I’ve done up the cover: Continue reading “Oops, I’m Doing It Again!” →

Oops, I’m Doing It Again!