Merry Holidays!
Happy Christmas!
Almost anyways. In honor of the holiday season, I decided to tweak the lyrics to Dr. Seuss’ ‘You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch‘, from the classic animated short ‘The Grinch Who Stole Christmas’. Hope you enjoy!
They awaken every morning to a brand new day, just as we do. Brushing teeth, kissing spouses, grumbling at the difficulty in getting a child out of bed and ready for school. They drink their morning cuppa coffee or hot chocolate or orange juice. Some of them grab a bite to eat at home, while others are in a hurry bc that child–or those children–dragged their adorably precious, but annoying butts just a little too slow and everyone is going to be late if they don’t leave right now. Others get to take a more lackadaisical approach to the morning, relaxing with little more than the morning paper and Spotify playing in the background. There are even those who awoke before everyone else. Springing from the bed as if they just slept a week, they freshen up throw on some clothes and go for a walk/run/jog, head to they gym at the ungodly hour of it’s not even sun out yet, or hop on their bike to see the sunrise. They are us.
They eat what we eat.
Vacation in the places we vacation.
Thrill to baseball, basketball, football and no-ball just as we do.
They stress over paying the mortgage, the rent, utilities, the water bill and more, just like we do.
They gasp in shock and disbelief at the never-ending series of tragedies that unfolds on a daily basis.
They do so many of the things we do, these women, non-binary folks, and men.
In so many ways, we and they are the same. Except they are hiding a secret. A secret that, of course, they don’t want you to know. These people have insinuated themselves into the fabric of our country, eating our food, enjoying our culture, using our resources, acting as if they belong here. They go about their days with smiling faces, doing their jobs, but beneath it all, they are not our friends. They are not our family. They are not our loved ones at all. They are something more insidious.
They are the enemy. The enemy of the people.
That’s what the current occupant of the White House would have the citizens of this country think of them: journalists, reporters, the Fourth Estate, the press. It is well known by now that POTUS45 has a high level of disdain for the press. In fact, disdain is probably not a strong enough term. Given the naked hostility he regularly displays toward the press, antipathy is accurate and even hate really isn’t too far off. This is the same individual who openly admitted to wanting United States citizens to treat him as North Koreans treat their leader. Given his numerous, well documented attacks on the media (attacks with deep roots) it is not a huge leap of logic to assert that, based on his behavior over the last few years, that the forty-fifth President of the United States would prefer a state-run media, under the control of some branch, probably a new one with a catchy name like The Media Force. If the media were government controlled, one can easily imagine that new coverage of him would be far more favorable. Because favorable coverage, rather than honest, accurate truth telling is what the media should be about in his eyes.
By now, you’re likely aware that the current occupant of the White House is deeply racist, holding disgusting anti-Hispanic opinions and has no qualms referring to migrants as “animals” or publicly likening them to roaches.
By now you’ve heard of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ “zero tolerance” policy that treats all migrants from Central and South America as criminals.
You’ve probably heard of the thousands of migrant children, separated from their families, forced to live in detainment camps (not “summer camps” you conservative shitstain).
You likely saw images of the cages inside a Texas warehouse nicknamed ‘Ursula’ , some of which house up to 20 children (no, not this miscaptioned photo).
You probably heard about the converted Walmart in Brownsville, Texas nicknamed ‘Casa Padre’, where upwards of 1,500 migrant children are housed (but we don’t need to worry much bc out of that number only a few dozen children have been ripped from their parents arms, the rest is comprised of teenage migrants who entered the U.S. alone, so it’s all good that *anyone*– let alone children–is housed in a detainment center)
You may have heard the desperate pleas and sobbing from children (some crying so hard that they have difficulty breathing, not that one of the border agents seems to give a rat’s ass) in the recent audio obtained by ProPublica.
You may have heard that there is considerable outrage over the zero tolerance policy, with criticism coming from all 5 living First Ladies (yes, even Melania Trump, not that Cheeto Hitler cares what his wife has to say) and even internationally.
You may have heard all of that and find yourself angered beyond all measure. Perhaps, like George Takei, you think of the racist U.S. policy that led to internment camps for Japanese-Americans during World War 2.
Maybe you are looking at the zero tolerance policy the same way the American Academy of Pediatrics does, as child abuse.
Perhaps you are sitting there, feeling a burning desire to do SOMETHING to help resolve this crisis, but you have no idea what to do and you’re feeling utterly helpless. I know that feeling. Trust me, bc I’ve been there. I am there. But there are things we can do:
Continue reading “This zero tolerance policy must end immediately”
From a socio-political perspective, this past year has been a cosmic-level trashfire. Hell, one could make the argument that this quagmire we’re all trying our best to cope with began the day Cheeto Hitler declared his intent to run for president. Following his win, it has been a never-ending battle to minimize the harm he has sought to cause. In many cases, that harm has centered around attempting to eliminate the achievements of his predecessor, President Obama. He pulled the United States out of the Paris Accords (with Nicaragua and Syria having signed the Accords, the United States is the only major country in the world to refuse the deal), rejected the Iran Nuclear Deal, and he has pushed over and over again for a repeal of the Affordable Care Act (not caring that such a move would lead to roughly 32 million people–on top of the millions without coverage already–without healthcare coverage by 2026).
When he’s not trying to undo President Obama’s legacy, the bigoted bumblefuck has been aggressively working on his grand plan to Make America Great Again For Those Poor Persecuted and Aggrieved White Men, The Last Demographic Deemed Socially Acceptable To Discriminate Against (this, despite the fact that white men experience no measurable discrimination based on their race or gender). More a back of the beverage napkin drunken bucket list than a meticulously composed, well thought out, evidence based course of action, this grand plan (which honestly can’t really be called a plan) has included:
That’s not a comprehensive list, by the way. With the exception of maybe three items, those incidents were off the top of my head. Being an authoritarian bully and a fascist-leaning, racist rapist, who speaks without any care or concern for what he says or how he says it pretty much guarantees that anything he says or does during his tenure is going to, at the very least, piss people the fuck off. I really don’t want to imagine what his list of “accomplishments” will look like come the end of his term (which will hopefully be the only one).
Making matters worse for those of us who realize that “Make America Great Again” is a dog whistle is that the GOP controls so much of the federal government. You’d think that if one of the two major political parties in this country gained as much power as the GOP currently has, they might be able to get significant legislation through. Heck, they might even do something wild and totally unheard of like, oh, I don’t know…GOVERN. Alas, all they seem capable of doing is introducing legislation to eliminate the Affordable Care Act (they’ve backed away from that for now, but I am confident think they’ll be back at it in the spring of 2018).
You know, that’s not fair. Sure the Bigoted Blowhard is so incompetent that brokering a peace deal between kindergartners (let alone war-torn nations embroiled in combat whose origins reach back centuries) is far outside his wheelhouse and sure his party has tried (and largely failed) to keep out immigrants and MuslimsAnd never mind that he and his administration (and by extension, the Republican Party) have had success in one area: the advancement of progressive social or political agendas that benefit people other than rich, white men have been stifled. With these people in power, the best we’ve been able to hope for all year is that we’ll be able to minimize the damage he and the GOP want to cause. There certainly wasn’t any hope on the horizon that things would get better.
At least, not until Tuesday night.
Continue reading “Finally! Some political developments to celebrate”
Remember that disgusting hate-filled piece of legislation out of North Carolina last year? The one crafted by Republicans at the last hour and rushed into law? The vile, discriminatory bill written in response to a Charlotte, NC Non-Discrimination Ordinance (NDO) which sought to protect the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexual folks, and transgender people?
That repugnant bill, commonly referred to at HB2 (here’s a breakdown of the bill), was signed into law by then Governor (R) Pat McCrory. Opponents of the law touted it as one of the most extreme anti-queer pieces of legislation they’d seen. Supporters of the bill simultaneously frothed at the mouth or tried to find some place to privately masturbate bc they were excited at the thought of sticking it to us. The bill eliminated anti-discrimination protections in place for queers (and we know how much it turns on Republicans to deny queers the right to make use of public businesses without discrimination). It also mandated that in government buildings workers were required to use the restrooms that corresponded to their birth sex.
The resultant backlash was immediate, fierce, and long lasting:
As months passed and the 2016 gubernatorial race hurled toward its conclusion, it became apparent to both the knuckle-dragging conservative status quo supporters who supported the bill and the opponents of the bill that the election outcome would determine the future of HB2. After all, despite the tremendous economic fallout HB2 had brought to North Carolina, GOP leadership (including Gov. McCrory), in the state remained firm in their support for bigotry. Meanwhile, Attorney General Roy Cooper, who hoped to unseat McCrory, ran a campaign that opposed HB2. Ultimately, Cooper received on the necessary votes to win the governor’s office. In the end, the economic fallout of HB2, as well as the ridicule and derision the state received for its passage were instrumental in McCrory’s defeat (a defeat he would not accept for weeks bc he was a sole loser). With a Democrat in place as Governor one would think North Carolina’s year of hell might be drawing to a close. To social justice organizations and queer rights groups, it looked as if a reversal of HB2 was imminent.
Sadly, rather than a reversal of HB2, a compromise was reached.
“Compromise”. That’s not quite the word HB2 opponents where hoping for. But it can’t be that bad, right? After all, we have a Democratic Governor in office now. One who opposes anti-queer discrimination. Yeeeeaaah. About that.
Celebrities are people who have political views and there is nothing wrong with them sharing those opinions.
Some pretty novel ideas in there (three, I believe), no?
Unlike those people, however, I do not subscribe to the notion that celebrities ought to stick to entertaining us and remain silent on politics. While the lives of celebrities are quite a bit removed from those of the average citizen, at the end of the day, they are still citizens of the US. Whether to critique or support the opinions of others or rally people behind or in opposition to a politician or a piece of legislation, civilians have the right to speak their mind. Celebrities do as well. Being a world famous movie star, a television or social media sensation, or an icon of the music industry does not remove the right of these people to share their opinions with the world.
That said, just as celebrities share with civilians the right to share their opinions, like civilians, they also ought to be prepared for criticism of those opinions. Their right to speak their mind does not insulate them from criticism when they say shitty things. And celebrities often say Very Shitty Things. Azaelia Banks has said many shitty things. Ted Nugent has built a second career out of saying shitty things. Mel Gibson famously opened his mouth back in 2006 and out poured shitty anti-Semitic things.
Nicole Kidman can now add her name to the list of celebrities who have said shitty things:
Continue reading “Celebrities say awful things: Nicole Kidman”
In the wake of the supremely awful badness that was the 2016 US elections (which saw the rise to power of a racist, homophobic, transphobic, Islamophobic, ableist rapist), think piece after think piece has been written about liberals needing to reach across the aisle and work with conservatives. We’ve heard that we need to break bread with Chitler supporters. That we need to sit down at the table with them and hear what they have to say. That it’s some sort of high moral calling to reach out to conservatives and empathize with them. The latest bout of the “shake hands and play nice with the bigots” nonsense comes from Anthony Bourdain, who recently said that Chitler’s rise to the presidency is the fault of Eastern liberals (content note for casual ableism):
Continue reading “I’m so tired of liberal calls for reaching across the aisle”
Happy Holidays all.
I’ve been largely silent on the blog front for a while now, dealing with personal issues, a loss in creativity, and a general feeling of despondency over the election of Chitler (Dana Hunter’s nickname for Trump, which merges ‘cheeto’ and ‘Hitler’). My personal issues are subsiding and I feel my creativity returning. Can’t do anything about the horrifying election we just had, unfortunately. While trying to cope with the knowledge that the next four years are going to be difficult for many people, I came up with a little diddy which has me smiling ear to ear, even as I’m simultaneously repulsed. So of course, I had to share it with everyone. Sing it to the tune of Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer:
On a recent episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, the host decided to take an honest look at some of the policy proposals of Jill Stein (2016 Green Party presidential hopeful) and Gary Johnson (2016 Libertarian Party presidential hopeful). That honest look meant that their ideas were put under a microscope and closely scrutinized. You can watch that video here. Stein was not at all happy with Oliver’s criticism of her proposed idea to use quantitative easing to cancel student debt. On her Facebook page, Stein writes:
I know you’re all sick of hearing about Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and that you probably don’t want to hear me going after John Oliver again.
But I would like you to watch this video from TYT Network‘s, The Jimmy Dore Show. We need to begin having honest conversations about the oppressive tactics corporate comedians continue to do towards already-marginalized groups of people.
This country was built on oppressing The Other (Blacks and indigenous people) and I’m not going to stand for more of this while we deal with major crises in this country that could determine whether we’ll even survive as a species.
Oppressive tactics?
Already-marginalized groups of people?
Who is she referring to as oppressed? What groups of marginalized people is she speaking of? She doesn’t make that clear, but given that all John Oliver did was criticize some of Stein’s proposals, it stands to reason that either she herself feels oppressed or marginalized, or she thinks the Green Party is. Either way, that’s just plain horseshit, and my friend Ari Multhauf explains why:
Continue reading “Neither the Green Party nor Jill Stein are oppressed or marginalized”
Donald Trump’s campaign slogan is “Make America great again”. Apparently, he thinks the country is not in good shape and needs to be as great as it once was. As of this writing, I’ve seen no explanation from Trump detailing the ways in which the country is doing poorly, when the US was last great, nor what exactly it would take to return the country to the glorious heights he longs for. But then Trump isn’t one to explain the logic of his opinions (if there is any logic to them in the first place). I recently found myself thinking “Self, if Trump wants to make this country great again, he clearly envisions some point in the past as an era when the United States was great. Soooooo, when exactly was the United States great?” After the jump, I explore some possibilities.
