"Facts sometimes have a strange and bizarre power that makes their inherent truth seem unbelievable." –Warner Herzog
We have run out of words to describe the unbelievabilty of the current set of facts in our country. "Bizarre" just doesn't cut it anymore. Thesaurus to the rescue!
TЯUMP's expressed desire to buy Greenland last week was just ludicrous. There was absolutely no way to look back anywhere and see what the oranges origins of this thought were. The United States isn't currently interested in the buying up islands, nor sovereign countries, nor autonomous regions of sovereign countries, nor any other piece of land on the planet (or any other planet for that matter). Denmark has been an important ally. The last talk of buying Greenland was from Harry S Truman back in 1946. There has been no speculation from anyone for expanding the borders of the United States anywhere for the last 60 years, since Hawaii became a state in 1959. FAUX News didn't even put the thought in his head. Where did the thought originate? Presumably a stray spark from one of the two functioning neurons left in the man's brain. Just weird.
Also last week, the administration decided to try to suspend the Flores Agreement. The Flores Agreement was implemented in 1993 in order to protect migrant children and regulated their minimum care standards and length of stay in detention (20 days), among other protections. The administration wants to change the rules in order to separate children from their families and hold them indefinitely. The New Yorkerexplains the history of the Flores Agreement and the Apricot Pol Pot's attempts to dismantle it. Children at the border remain in peril at the hands of the United States Government. This is monstrous to its core.
His repulsive attitudes toward immigrants were further exposed Wednesday when he again asserted that he will end birthright citizenship. No, he won't. That would be unconstitutional.
And THEN last week, he said the accused Jewish people who vote Democrat of being "disloyal." That's simply <checks Thesaurus>.... abhorrent!
Saying Jews are disloyal when they vote a certain way is anti-Semitic. It echos what Hitler said to justify the persecution of Jews in 1930s Germany. This trope has been used by white supremacists throughout the ages to disparage Jews in society. Read the New York Times' piece on the toxic, racist backstory to this outlandish trope.
After the distasteful proclamation that American Jews are disloyal, he proclaimed himself "King of the Jews," "the second coming of God," and (gazing skyward) "the Chosen One." Seriously, that's just..... unhinged!
God responded:
And today, it came to light that Captain Chaos has proposed sending nukes into hurricanes to disrupt them. Do we have a word for that?? Erratic? Unbalanced? Deranged? OH! We need to revisit demented. I've written many posts about the demented mental state of SCROTUS. Whether it's dementia or severe mental illness, or a marriage of the two, more and more people agree that there is something dangerously wrong. A year and a half ago, a Yale psychiatrist made a strong case for Congress to consider involuntary commitment.
This past week, the Mooch, 11-day WhitesOnly House Communications Director, sounded warning signs and wrote an Op/Ed for The Washington Post imploring Republicans to stand up against 45's "depredations" (now, there's an apt word!).
And a couple days ago, Lance Dodes, MD, a psychiatrist at Harvard, rang the alarm again about Demagogue-in-Chief's mental state. See below.
Bizarre. Ludicrous. Weird. Monstrous. Repulsive. Abhorrent. Outlandish. Unhinged. Erratic. Repulsive. Deranged. Demented. The sum of the parts: Abnormal.
We must push toward invoking the 25th Amendment, impeachment, or both. This is not healthy for the nation or the world.
Nor is it healthy for us as individuals. What words do we have to describe what we are going through, as we open the newspaper every morning and turn on the news every evening?
We find ourselves walking the fine line of paying attention and pushing for change (we must!), and self-care. I spend hours reading and writing about the issues (and I thank you for spending time reading my posts), but I make sure I engage in activities that make me whole. Hiking, dancing, spending time with my loved ones. We must step back and disengage once in a while or we, too, will be dragged into the abyss.
Arm yourself with the bizarre facts, find your words, contact your Members of Congress, and #Resist! And then go get a massage.
Portland, Oregon saw another stand-off this weekend between white supremacist extremists and leftist counter-protests from members of antifa. There was no violence, thankfully. After about 30 minutes of protest, where counter-protesters far outnumbered the fascists, police escorted the right extremist group away. Portland police made only 13 arrests and there were six minor injuries.
Unfortunately, Joe Biggs and his neo-fascist group the "Proud Boys," who organized the weekend event, met their goal. They got the attention and the support from their Supreme Leader, the Mango Mussolini. See Twitler's tweet:
Major consideration is being given to naming ANTIFA an “ORGANIZATION OF TERROR.” Portland is being watched very closely. Hopefully the Mayor will be able to properly do his job!
Of course, true to form, Cheeto Benito was mum on the far-right extremist groups who had planned, organized, and advertised the event, baiting the antifa to show up.
The antifa movement bears some problems, and it is important to acknowledge the movement and condemn the violence that arises from it, for violence is the left's enemy in our fight for justice and freedom. Antifa violence plays into the right's proclivity to false equivalence. Violence from the left is a gift to the right.
Who and what is antifa?
Antifa is short for antifascist (not "anti-First Amendment" as some bozos on FAUX News are calling it). The movement grew during the 1920s in Mussolini's Italy and continued through WWII, when fascist regimes were prevailing in Europe. The movement has never gone away but was quiet for many years, reinvigorated in the 70s and 80s by the punk movement wanting to warn away white supremacist skinheads. In the last two years, of course, antifa has become more visible in the United States now that we have a fascist-tending government. It's important to note that the movement is not an organized group. On the contrary, it's quite anarchist. There is no organization, no leadership, no hierarchy. There are many and various small groups around the country as well as individuals who identify with the movement.
False equivalence #1, illustrated in that dotard's tweet. Antifa is a movement, not an organization. He probably doesn't understand the antifa movement. Or if he does, he is betting that his base does not. A tweet like this only serves to rally his white nationalist friends and rile his racist base. Which groups do have organization, hierarchies, leaders? The hundreds of hate groups throughout the United States comprised of white supremacists. One of the most organized is the Ku Klux Klan.
False equivalence #2. Antifa is not engaged in terrorism. Antifa's willingness to use "physical confrontation" is only toward fascists and their proclivity toward violence. Antifascist individuals use violence, but there has not been one murder arising from the antifa movement. They have a noble mission in destroying racism and hate. We know the real terror threat menacing the country. The greatest terrorist threat in the United States is from white supremacists. That is a fact.
Antifa's mission is the mission of the greater left, and it's a moral mission: to fight against hate, racism, violence against oppressed groups, white supremacy, and fascism. This is a worthy pursuit. The trouble with antifa is that they will do it by any means necessary, including "physical confrontation." That can mean throwing milkshakes or ink at the opposition, or it can mean violence. This type of anarchy is dangerous. Violence is wrong no matter what the message.
Violence also lends victimhood to the extreme right. I'm sure that the "Proud Boys" and their brother groups in Portland were hoping for some kind of violent clash. Their demonstration was simply meant to draw out antifa counter-protesters. A violent end would have given them some justification. Images of violence lend themselves to propaganda from right-wing extremists.
You may remember the Portland protests in November, 2016. A few days after the election, there were peaceful protests that turned violent, with looting and arson. The right grabbed on to this as evidence of their moral superiority. We mustn't let that happen!
Another problem with antifa's violent form of protest is that it is conflated with the more peaceful mainstream counter-protests. All of us peaceful protesters are caught up in the same net as the violent antifa members, in the right's eyes. These perceptions are counter-productive to the lofty goals that the left has: shut down hate and oppression, as well as violence, and work against the fascism and white supremacy to bring equality, freedom, and peace to our land. Violence extinguishes the message of rejecting hate and racism.
Some liberal protesters want to de-stigmatize the word antifa, to extend the identification to be applied to mainstream counter-protesters who also want to smash racism. This is dangerous; it plays into the hands of the right extremists. It's important to keep the term and apply it to the most aggressive and physical. We should distance ourselves from antifa and condemn the violence of the movement.
Violence begets violence. Violence is wrong and must be struck down. We must rebuke the method but not the message. Let our peaceful protests prevail to continue the fight for what is right. Peaceful protest is effective. As we know from history, change can happen through non-violent means.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
You can read more about hate groups from the Southern Poverty Law Center and more about the antifa movement from the Anti-Defamation League. While you are there, throw them a few bucks to carry on the mission of eradicating hate and bringing justice to the oppressed.
One of the reasons I started this blog was to keep me from continually posting political stuff on Facebook, as it is already supersaturated. I don't always succeed. Today, instead of a posting in dribs and drabs, here is one big flush!
Let's resist furthering Epstein conspiracy theories (Be better than SCROTUS). First of all, nothing is stinkier than the whole cushy deal and sealed case from 2007. He got a "jail term" that included going to the office six days a week, while his victims got no justice. Secondly, there is no reason for anyone to murder Epstein. Both Bill Clinton and the Alpha Molester have already been implicated in umpteen other sexual assaults with no consequences, and they haven't had to resort to murdering witnesses. Investigations will continue with or without Epstein. I'm confident that the scum that associated with Epstein will see their day of reckoning regardless.
More about guns and misogyny. Along with white supremacy, power over women and hatred of women is a common trait among mass shooters, including apparently the Dayton shooter. Here is a really good analysis from The New York Times about the link between misogyny and mass violence. The writers note how scumbag "incels" worship the mass shooter who devastated my own community of Isla Vista, CA a few years ago. It's time to stop giving attention to mass shooters. Let their names stay out of the papers. Let's focus on the victims and finding solutions. Frank Shyong of the Los Angeles Times describes the tricky path that journalists walk on this matter. I'd like to see more movement toward neutralizing shooters' motive of acquiring fame.
Texas is turning a beautiful shade of purple, on its way to going full blue. There's a wonderful trend in Texas. Get ready for a blue wave in a place we never thought we'd see it. It reminds me of our own li'l Orange County, a Republican stronghold for many years here in California, before turning decidedly blue in 2018. It's my election-year mission to fight for enfranchising voters in traditionally red states, and Texas is one state I'll work to help. (Watch for future topic)
And in fact, new polling shows 45 is underwater in approval ratings in most of the country, and if you plot the results in an electoral college style map, you get this wonderful sight:
Christian evangelicals have apparently found their red line with Donald Drumpf. It isn't his proclivity for sexual assault. It isn't his overt racism. It isn't his 10,000-plus lies since occupying the WhitesOnly House. It isn't his inciting hatred and violence. It isn't his love affair with the most brutal dictator in the world's history. It isn't his ripping babies from their mothers. Nope. None of that matters as much as his saying "goddamn."
Speaking of dreamy dictator love affairs, the Mango Mussolini received another love letter from his sweetie in North Korea. I'll let Stephen Colbert explain.
Here's an interesting tidbit from the Scumbag-in-Chief. A couple weeks ago, in the wake of yet another cabinet position fiasco, he admitted that he doesn't vet his cabinet nominees. He uses he media to do the job for him. It "saves a lot of money." Really? So suddenly the press can be depended upon to find the facts, can they? Cheap, lazy bastard. I detest this man.
Today the Racist-in-Chief proposed changes in the rules for legal immigrants. He is targeting the poorer immigrants by denying green cards to immigrants who use or even qualify for public assistance in the form of food assistance or housing assistance. "Give me your tired, your poor financially independent, your huddled masses..." And today he also gutted protections for endangered species. <Little Sister Resister wipes a tear> Just why? Oh yeah. Big oil.
Farmers are also hurting. The trade war with China has decimated farmers. China is no longer buying American soybeans, for example, and though the government is throwing money at farmers, they are not going to recover easily. Brace for ripple effects.
Today marks the second anniversary of Heather Heyer's murder in Charlottesville, Virginia. We mourn Heather every day as we continue the fight against white supremacists. Keep her alive in your heart.
There is a lot to unpack from the last two weeks. Our country, having reaching the tipping point, is skidding down the dark side.
We possess a complex set of problems with a long history and no easy answers. There are some simple answers but they aren't easy. I'll get to that.
In the span of one week, we had three mass shootings in our country: Gilroy, California; El Paso, Texas; and Dayton, Ohio.
Mass shootings are sadly not new, nor are they few. It depends on how you define "mass shooting," but if you count five or more deaths, there have been 88 mass shootings in the U.S. in the 20 years since Columbine. If you broaden the definition to include four or more injuries, there have been 248 mass shootings in 2019 alone. As the Washington Post has found, mass shootings are becoming more common and more deadly.
A mass shooting, sadly, is not an unexpected occurrence. Maybe because they are not unexpected, each one punches us in the gut. Soon, each of us will have been affected by this type of gun violence. Have you been touched? I have. There have been two mass shootings in my community. I have police officer friends who were first responders to our shooting a few years ago in Isla Vista. I have a friend who survived Las Vegas. She was not injured physically, but she suffers PTSD which has affected every aspect of her life.
Our recent mass shootings were not unexpected, nor surprising. There will be another one before too long, probably within a few weeks. I hesitate to call one of these three recent shootings worse than the others, for families in all communities are missing their children, their mothers, their fathers, aunts, uncles, wives, husbands, friends, cousins, neighbors.... Survivors have a new hell of a reality to face. Each community hurts deeply for a long time.
The crime in El Paso, though, marks a black day for us, for the crime was committed at the bidding of the White Supremacist President* for reasons of hate. It was committed with a weapon of war. It was heinous. And we are sick and tired of saying:
Our not-new problem, which is now staring us in the face, emanating from the most powerful man in the world: white supremacy.
Violence from white supremacy is not new, of course. We've mourned and condemned other mass shootings that have had white power as a motive. Now, it has been escalated. Now, the most powerful racist on Earth has been implicated.
I've outlined here multiple times this man's racism. On election day 2016, I worried most for our friends and neighbors of color. Now, indeed, they are being murdered at the behest of this orange menace.
His rally speeches and his mouthpieces at FAUX News were reflected in the El Paso shooter's manifesto, as illustrated below. And here is a video by the Daily Show illustrating the same thing. Today, it was reported that the shooter admitted to investigators that his goal was to kill Mexicans.
Weeks before this incident, 45 had laughed at the suggestion from a supporter who shouted "shoot them" as a solution to his problem of "stopping these people" from entering the United States. He constantly devalues immigrants entering from the Southern border as invaders, infestation, rapists, murderers, animals. His dangerous rhetoric is not simply rhetoric. It's reality.
It doesn't stop at rhetoric. Besides the ugliness at the borders, with babies taken from their mothers and put in cages, with families in squalid conditions, many U.S. citizens have been held in immigration detention facilities, targeted and held solely based on the color of their skin. A Dallas-born teenager was held for nearly a month, despite showing proper "papers" documenting his U.S. citizenship. He's not the only United States citizen who has been held in custody by ICE. There have been other brown-skinned people held. Even U.S.-born children have been detained.
Jimmy Aldaoud, a man born in Greece who had lived in the United States all his life, was targeted and deported to Iraq, a place he had never lived, where he didn't know the culture or the language, where he didn't have family. He died on the streets because he lacked access to insulin.
Add to these atrocities the frightening threats of ICE raids in cities across the country, and actual raids. This week nearly 700 people were arrested by ICE in Mississippi at their jobs in a poultry packing plant. Their arrest on the first day of school left dozens of children stranded after school with no one to pick them up, terrified and crying. We're at it again. Separating children from their parents.
The sum of this, my friends, is the very picture of a dark state-sponsored terrorist campaign. Like Hitler and Charles Manson, TRUMP is using stochastic terrorism to incite his followers, as well as official law enforcement departments, to cruelly demonize and terrorize people of color.
In 1943, Anne Frank wrote, “Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. They're only allowed to take a knapsack and a little cash with them, and even then, they're robbed of these possessions on the way. Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated.”
Have we forgotten?
After the shootings in El Paso and Dayton, 13 hours apart, 45 read a speech that, on paper, sounds pretty presidential. His delivery was characteristically flat and stilted as it always is when he has to read something to sound presidential. His mouth was dry and he looked like a robot. He sniffed his sniffs. He mistakenly placed one of the shootings in Toledo, a different Ohio city. The fact that the error was on the teleprompter illustrates how very little the whole administration cares. No one caught the mistake.
Here is the automaton:
It wasn't long before the real SCROTUS showed up. At a hospital visit (where, incidentally, almost all of the hospitalized survivors declined to meet him), he joked and bragged about his crowd size, and gave a smiley thumb's up in a photo op with an orphaned baby whose parents were shot and killed. Sickening. Shameful.
And while he was on his official visit to affected communities, he couldn't resist a racist political jab, tweeting about Beto O'Rourke, "Beto (phony name to indicate Hispanic heritage) O’Rourke, who is embarrassed by my last visit to the Great State of Texas, where I trounced him, and is now even more embarrassed polling at 1% in the Democratic Primary, should respect the victims & law enforcement — & be quiet!" Behavior true to his despicable character.
His white nationalist rhetoric will no doubt be front and center at his next rally.
The larger problem of gun violence (and it's not just mass shootings that devastate us; gun violence happens to individuals on a daily basis in every county of every state) lays at the feet of the NRA and the spineless, soulless ones who have been purchased by them. Not the least of whom is Senator Turtle from Kentucky, who was purchased for $1.4 million. Wayne LaPierre, head of the NRA, phoned 45 almost immediately after the El Paso and Dayton shootings, stressing that he must not advance any gun regulatory legislation. The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a background check bill. McConnell has let it sit in the Senate. Though there have been calls from Senators for McConnell to reconvene the Senate during their break and pass this bill, he has not. I'm betting he'll keep letting it sit, and emotions will have quieted down before Congress reconvenes next month, letting him do the NRA's bidding and resist bringing the bill to a vote.
But make no mistake: McConnell and TЯUMP are opposing Americans' will. A recent Quinnipiac poll showed that 94% of Americans support background checks for gun buyers. Ninety-four percent! Gun owners themselves – 90% of them – support background checks.
If you believe the NRA is funded solely by "law-abiding gun owners," you are mistaken. There has been Russian money flowing into the NRA as part of Russia's attempts to interfere in our election. The organization is trying hard to back-peddle away, but investigations are underway to unravel it.
The United States gun problem is not easy to define, but Professor Eddie Glaude of Princeton had these amazing words in an attempt. Please listen.
"It’s easy for us to place it all on Donald Trump’s shoulders... This is us. And if we’re going to get past this we can’t blame it on him. He's a manifestation of the ugliness that’s in us." @esglaude says white people must reckon with the continued presence of racism in the U.S. pic.twitter.com/dclEaLsrK9
Of course, gun violence destroys families of victims as well as damages survivors and their families, along with the members of each affected community and the country as a whole.
There are other consequences, too, such as travel warnings from Uruguay, Venezuela, and Japan, who warn their citizens from visiting the United States due to rampant gun violence. Our national reputation continues to be besmirched.
The consequences to the Presidency: Peril. Community leaders in El Paso and Dayton told the President* to stay away. Right-leaning publications, like The Bulwark, are musing that perhaps indeed his days are numbered. He's looking "small and and isolated" according to Richard Parker in the New York Times. Republicans are also looking impotent in their silence or weak video game arguments.
Children growing up with gun violence experience emotional and psychological trauma that lasts throughout their lives.
There are huge direct and indirect economic impacts of gun violence.
I want my readers to know that I, as most Americans, do not advocate for the outright "banning" of guns. There are indeed legitimate reasons for owning a firearm. Hunting, self-protection, hobby. That's fine. But there's no doubt. When we are talking about a firearm, we're talking about an item that can and does kill very easily and is very easy to obtain. It's main purpose is for killing. Period. Doesn't that alone warrant some oversight?
We need strict regulations and licensing for "regular" firearms, and we must disallow civilian ownership of weapons of war.
I cannot buy a hand grenade or a rocket launcher. I can't drive a tank to Trader Joe's. But I can go out and acquire an automatic assault rifle capable of firing 600 rounds a minute. There is no legitimate reason to own a weapon of war, designed for the killing and wounding of as many human beings as possible in as short a time as possible. If there is a legitimate reason, then let us buy hand grenades and mines, for there is no difference in the purpose for these weapons.
Gun advocates' favorite comparison is the automobile. "Cars are more dangerous! Automobile accidents kill xx number of Americans every day!" they cry. Well, ok. Let's take that comparison. Yes, vehicle accidents do kill and maim daily. And the number of deaths and injuries is mitigated by a myriad number of laws. You must be trained; you must be licensed; your vehicle must be registered in the state and maintained in safe operating condition; driver and passengers must wear safety belts; you must not operate a vehicle while under the influence of substances; you must be tested periodically; you must obey volumes of laws in order to operate this machine in public; you must maintain insurance coverage. Seriously, DUH! Regulations save lives!
Australia had one mass shooting in 1996, killing 35. Extensive gun regulations were immediately implemented, yet gun ownership in Australia is still robust. Rates of gun violence, including suicide, have drastically decreased there. There has been one mass shooting since then. Could Australia's system be implemented here?
Canada has a large gun-owning population. What Canada has: licensing, registration, safety requirements, restrictions, and background checks. Canada also has mentally ill citizens and plenty of people who play video games. What Canada does not have: mass shootings. Shall we develop a task force to study their system and work to develop something similar here?
Misinformed and misinforming leaders like to blame mental illness and video games each time there is a mass shooting. It's simply not the case; there are no strong connections between the individuals who commit these crimes and either of those convenient scapegoat reasons. Mental illness already has a dangerous stigma attached, and blaming mental illness is not helpful and furthers the stigma.. Folks with mental illness are more likely to be a victim of violence than perpetrate violence. And in truth, mass shootings create more need for mental health care for the individuals who are impacted by violence, mental health care which is sorely deficient in our country. I won't give it another word because these issues are red herrings.
What does impact the our nation of guns: The brainwashing from the NRA that somehow our rights as citizens will be severely impaired if we license, train, and manage firearm acquisition in our gun-loving country. But what about our inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? What about those rights? Today, I'm sitting here with my heart in my throat, and for me and millions of my countryfolk, those rights have been eroded. We must demand restoration of these inalienable rights!
Other factors that may influence gun violence:our culture of misogyny, xenophobia, white supremacy. Domestic violence. Isolation. Poverty. Unfortunately, however, we don't know a lot about how these issues impact gun violence. We don't know a lot about social impacts on gun violence in the United States, because since 1996's NRA-driven Dickey Amendment, research of gun violence by the CDC has been banned. We simply don't understand all the factors.
Get money out of politics. Neuter the NRA. Then, pass firearm legislation based on its merits, not based on pleasing a powerful, wealthy lobby. We can then also resume research which will lead us to more solutions.
Take away weapons of war from the hands of civilians.
Confront our white supremacist past and correct it.
Our worst fears, harbored since November 8, 2016, have been realized.
Donald John Trump is commander-in-chief of the White Nationalists that occupy our country. And a war has begun. At his bidding.
With regard to the orange scum that illegitimately occupies the White House, it's no longer buffoonery; it's no longer mental health or neurological health concerns. It's no longer just being an uninformed, poorly educated idiot. It's no longer run-of-the-mill racism. It's HATE, at its basest form. His followers are taking up arms and following his command.
Yesterday one of Trump's warriors massacred 19 people in a shopping center in El Paso, Texas. This follows a few days after a mass shooting in Gilroy, killing three, and preceded by hours a mass shooting in Dayton, killing nine.
The NRA and its ilk have absolutely no moral ground to hide behind anymore. Their hands have been played. It's never been Constitutional rights. It's not about hunters' rights or home defense. It's obviously not about an armed "good guy" saving the day against an armed "bad guy." It's about White Supremacy and White Nationalist Terrorism. Plain and simple.
It's not about mental illness in these terrorists. It's not gun show loopholes and background checks and "legal in one state and not in another." It's not about a well-regulated militia. It's not about "if guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns."
It's an open war. It's terrorism. And we must fight back. NOW. What will you do?
