kpfeifferworld

[kpfeifferworld]

Why WON’T the Democratic machine learn from the past or note what’s happened in the GOP?

James Carville is showing up in the news and on news programs sounding the alarm that the Democratic Party has to be treading carefully lest we disenfranchised the “moderates”. I greatly fear too many will listen to this supposed “expert” in political strategy.

I suggest Mr. Carville FO and retire henceforth. Yes, he did a great job getting Bill Clinton elected back in the 90s. Since then he’s led us to destruction over and over. There was a reason his political strategies failed to get Hillary Clinton the nomination in 2008. His time had already passed and he didn’t understand WHY Barack Obama won and won big. Clearly, he still doesn’t.

When Obama won, he and his group set aside their own strategies and listened to the advice of these old “pro’s” who urged bi-partisan and middle-of-the-road policies. The end result was the Dems losing the house and Senate after only 2 years in the first Obama administration, never to take control again until this last election (and then only barely). 

Meanwhile, the GOP was overtaken by the Libertarian thinkers and the extreme right of their party. Do all the elected GOP actually have those ideologies? No. BUT they are smart enough to know that to win you have to turn out excited voters. On their side of the fence that means the extreme right. The Trumpites, Birchers, and other groups of extremists funded by groups like the Kochs and their numerous “foundations” and PACs. Play to the right and you win over and over again because all your radicals come out to vote in large numbers. Those conservatives who are more moderate stay at home or toss their votes to a third-party candidate or write in someone as George W Bush admitted doing in 2016. See, they learned. They know how to win elections even though their philosophy (what little they still have beyond no regulations and no taxes for the corporations and wealthy) is HIGHLY unpopular.

 It’s about voter turnout and it works the same way with the left as it does for the right. Obama won in 2008 because the left was fired up. The progressives, the minorities, the underdog workers were inspired and filled with hope. They came out and VOTED by a landslide. He won re-election but lost a lot of “moderates” (the so-called Reagan Democrats due to the fact so many were lured in by Ronnie even though they still claim to be Democrats) so it wasn’t as large a win. He was also stymied over and over with a Congress who REFUSED to work with him on anything, even things they claimed to want themselves.

So along comes 2016. Say whatever you want pro or con about Bernie Sanders but he tapped into something strong. He could have had the nomination had the Clinton machine not already decided it was her turn at bat. After 20 years of vilification by the right, she really didn’t have a chance. 

Moderates mostly stayed home or voted for Trump. Progressives kind of turned out (not as many of the young voters though who felt ignored by the machine). Even some Bernie supporters went for Trump thinking he’d rock the boat enough to move things away from the old ways and the unholy alliances of politicians and money/corporations/banks that plague all parties. And so we endured the reign of 45.

Yeah, we got the White House back and both houses of Congress BUT, the Senate win is so precarious that Joe Manchin is now the most powerful person in DC because he can side with the GOP and upset that balance. He could also threaten to change parties which would make the GOP the majority, put McConnell back at the wheel and change up the chairs of all the committees. It’s a bit better in the House at the moment BUT with 2022 coming up soon that could all change dramatically. Clearly, enough people voted Trump out but decided to keep giving power to the GOP. We won’t even speak of the Judicial branch that was packed with GOP choices in the Trump years! Now we have Carville and his ilk warning the Democrats not to get too progressive. You might just make the Joe Manchin’s upset! You might lose those “moderates”! Newsflash, has-been, those “moderates”, those “Reagan Democrats” and the others in the “middle” who rallied round the Trump flags in 2016… If they aren’t happy with the policies most won’t vote. 

Yeah, you can cater to them all you want and MAYBE they’ll vote Democratic but no guarantees. There might be some shiny new Trump or Reagan out there to lure them. If you do cater to them,  guess who else you lose?

The progressives. All those young voters. Those Black and Hispanic voters. All those “woke” voters you disdain in your comments, Mr. Carville. The ones who got excited and campaigned and voted in droves for Barack Obama in 2008, defeating your “moderate” pleasing Hillary Clinton. The ones weeping for Bernie or Elizabeth Warren. The ones who nod at good portions of policy ideas from them and AOC and others in the progressive wing. What do they do when they aren’t genuinely fired up? They don’t vote. Who wins when that happens?  Yeah, the GOP who learned to court the VOTING base of their party not try to win friends with Democrats.

We won in this last election because we had enough of 45’s disastrous time in office that we KNEW we had to vote him out. The other races show that the fire wasn’t that hot otherwise. That doesn’t bode well for 2022 folks. If we want to keep and even increase the majority in the two houses of Congress we BETTER have fired up voters. The moderates don’t get fired up. The GOP gets that. We need to learn it too. 

To cede that power to the Joe Manchin’s is to just hand it all back to the GOP and, folks, if that happens I guarantee the Democratic party won’t be anything but a minor player for generations. The GOP knows how to win by any and all means. They may not represent the majority of people with their policies but they can and will control all positions of power once they get in again. They are already setting the stage with restricting voter's rights and their old warhorse of gerrymandering and that’s just the beginning. 

The way to keep and increase the power base for the Democratic party is NOT to go back to ideas that don’t apply any longer. Clinton is long out of power and bi-partisanship bit the dust completely in the Obama years after being on life-support since Reagan at the latest. We have to learn. We have to realize that the only path to winning is to court the votes that will be excited to go stand in lines or mail in their ballots. The young, the minorities, the union supporters, etc. Yeah, that means the progressives. The only way we can lose is to keep making the same mistakes over, and over again. To refuse to learn from not only our mistakes but from what we see from the other side politically.

  Listen to Carville and those like-minded at your peril.

[kpfeifferworld]

I love that he was sexually giving even to the bot.

From “Dusted: The Unauthorized Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer”:

2x10, What’s My Line?

Buffy would never kiss a vampire other than Angel. Or so she says now. It’s also hard to hear her comment “Spike is going down” without smirking.

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Everything I noticed when researching a story...there is no “there” there!

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Yummy gifs

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GUH

Oh, Spike…

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Hope she can heal and also hope this guy faces some sort of justice.

By Eliza Dushku When I was 12 years old, while filming “True Lies”, I was sexually molested by Joel Kramer, one of Hollywood’s leading stunt coordinators. Ever since, I have struggled with how and when to disclose this, if ever. At the time, I shared what happened to me with my parents, two adult friends and one of my older brothers. No one seemed ready to confront this taboo subject then, nor was I. I am grateful to the women and men who have gone before me in recent months. The ever-growing list of sexual abuse and harassment victims who have spoken out with their truths have finally given me the ability to speak out. It has been indescribably exhausting, bottling this up inside me for all of these years. I remember, so clearly 25 years later, how Joel Kramer made me feel special, how he methodically built my and my parents’ trust, for months grooming me; exactly how he lured me to his Miami hotel room with a promise to my parent that he would take me for a swim at the stunt crew’s hotel pool and for my first sushi meal thereafter. I remember vividly how he methodically drew the shades and turned down the lights; how he cranked up the air-conditioning to what felt like freezing levels, where exactly he placed me on one of the two hotel room beds, what movie he put on the television (Coneheads); how he disappeared in the bathroom and emerged, naked, bearing nothing but a small hand towel held flimsy at his mid-section. I remember what I was wearing (my favorite white denim shorts, thankfully, secured enough for me to keep on). I remember how he laid me down on the bed, wrapped me with his gigantic writhing body, and rubbed all over me. He spoke these words: “You’re not going to sleep on me now sweetie, stop pretending you’re sleeping,” as he rubbed harder and faster against my catatonic body. When he was ‘finished’, he suggested, “I think we should be careful…,” [about telling anyone] he meant. I was 12, he was 36. I remember how afterwards, the taxi driver stared at me in the rear view mirror when Joel Kramer put me on his lap in the backseat and clutched me and grew aroused again; and how my eyes never left the driver’s eyes during that long ride over a Miami bridge, back to my hotel and parent. I remember how Joel Kramer grew cold with me in the ensuing weeks, how everything felt different on the set. And I remember how soon-after, when my tough adult female friend (in whom I had confided my terrible secret on the condition of a trade that she let me drive her car around the Hollywood Hills) came out to the set to visit and face him, later that very same day, by no small coincidence, I was injured from a stunt-gone-wrong on the Harrier jet. With broken ribs, I spent the evening in the hospital. To be clear, over the course of those months rehearsing and filming True Lies, it was Joel Kramer who was responsible for my safety on a film that at the time broke new ground for action films. On a daily basis he rigged wires and harnesses on my 12 year old body. My life was literally in his hands: he hung me in the open air, from a tower crane, atop an office tower, 25+ stories high. Whereas he was supposed to be my protector, he was my abuser. Why speak out now? I was 12, he was 36. It is incomprehensible. Why didn’t an adult on the set find his predatory advances strange — that over-the-top special attention he gave me. Fairly early on he nicknamed me “Jailbait” and brazenly called me by this name in a sick flirty way in front of others (at the time, I remember asking one of my older brothers what it meant). Sure, I’ve come to understand the terrible power dynamics that play into whistle-blowing by “subordinates” against persons in power, how difficult it can be for someone to speak up. But I was a child. Over the years I’ve really struggled as I’ve wondered how my life might have been different if someone, any one grown-up who witnessed his sick ways, had spoken up before he lured me to that hotel room. Years ago, I had heard second hand that Joel Kramer was “found out” and forced to leave the business. I learned recently that in fact he still works at the top of the industry. And a few weeks ago, I found an internet photo of Joel Kramer hugging a young girl. That image has haunted me near nonstop since. I can no longer hide what happened. Hollywood has been very good to me in many ways. Nevertheless, Hollywood also failed to protect me, a child actress. I like to think of myself as a tough Boston chick, in many ways I suppose not unlike Faith, Missy, or Echo. Through the years, brave fans have regularly shared with me how some of my characters have given them the conviction to stand up to their abusers. Now it is you who give me strength and conviction. I hope that speaking out will help other victims and protect against future abuse. With every person that speaks out, every banner that drops down onto my iphone screen disclosing similar stories/truths, my resolve strengthens. Sharing these words, finally calling my abuser out publicly by name, brings the start of a new calm.

[kpfeifferworld]

Great expressions on these gifs

Our Man Crush Monday is dedicated to Spike in honor of us finally getting to the introduction of his character!

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Perfect

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This is a GREAT idea in a world of negatives!!! GO forth and make someone’s day (or direct someone to a positive place or person).

We’re open!

Welcome to BTVSpositivity, a space for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel fans to submit anonymous compliments about each other.  Feel free to check out the NAQ (that’s Never Asked Questions) before you hit up the submission box or the ask box.

What is BTVSpositivity?

This is for fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel to submit anonymous, positive posts about other fans.  I made it because, like any other fandom, we tend to have periods where people are being extremely negative, and it seemed nice to have a space where we could just compliment each other.  If it works for The 100 fandom, it can work for us too.

What can I submit?

Anything that compliments another fan or group of fans.  Anything from “I think [X] makes the best edits” to “[Y] is the sweetest person” to “Fuffy fans are hilarious.”

Plain text submissions only, please.

Are submissions anonymous?

That depends on what you mean by “anonymous.“  I might see who submitted something (if you don’t use the askbox, for instance), but no one else will.  If you really don’t want me to know, submit it on anonymous through the askbox.

Isn’t this a little hypocritical, since you complain about the BTVS fandom all the time?

I contain multitudes.

[kpfeifferworld]

So now you are responsible for your own murder?

If you are among those who think that George Zimmerman was not guilty on ALL charges or that in some way Trayvon Martin deserved to die then don't read further.

The night the verdict came in I awoke at 4am to start my work day and flipped on the TV to CNN headline for a quick update on any overnight news as is my habit.  The next few hours were spent in incredulous disbelief that gave way to astonished dismay.  These two reactions were rapidly joined by a deep heart-sickness (more like soul-sickness as I am indeed sick to my soul) that has finally settled into a low boiling, stomach roiling anger that has not eased all day.  Yes I mean my reaction to the decision by a jury that George Zimmerman is "not guilty" of any of the charges (not merely the second degree murder charge)....

Think about that for a minute.  Roll it around in your brain for a while.  Not guilty.....without guilt...of ANY of the charges...NOT guilty.  Trayvon Martin is dead from a gunshot wound to the heart and no one is guilty.  Well some imply that Trayvon is guilty and I'll address that later but first I want to say a few other things.

This "man", Zimmerman has been on record that he would not change a thing about that night even stating that what happened was somehow God's will.  (Don't believe me?  See the interview with Sean Hannity and hear it from his own mouth).  Not guilty, and obviously no remorse whatsoever.  Even with the benefit of hindsight that he had been pursuing an UNARMED young man who had every right to be there in that neighborhood at that or any other time....no remorse.  No "I wish I hadn't used the gun," not guilty, no sir!  

No they didn't play the "stand your ground" card in the trial.  It wasn't used as part of the defense at all and they are still not using that crappy law to justify Zimmerman's shameful actions.  BUT just for the sake of putting my two cents in....Zimmerman CHASED Trayvon.  He left "his ground" when he exited his car in spite of being told it was not necessary for him to give chase.  If anyone had ground to stand it was Trayvon Martin who had been followed by this person who never NEVER bothered to even identify himself as a (self-appointed, not official) neighborhood watch who had suspicions.  HIS ground needed to be defended and for doing so his murder is seen by many as something his actions defending himself had earned his death.

Let's look at the FACTS of that night.  One young man, visiting his father and his father's fiance went to the local 7-11 for Skittles and an Arizona Iced Tea prior to watching a ball game that he was planning to enjoy.  He paid for the items (Hey...I actually watched the trial and it was submitted into evidence that the items were not stolen as some "media" implied) and started for his dad's place in the rain (rather sensibly having his jacket's hood up in the rain.  BTW  I too wear a hoodie.  It belonged to my deceased MIL and no one ever thought her, or think of me as a "gansta" for wearing it.)

At some point he caught the notice of Mr. Zimmerman who made the determination that Martin was up to no good.  I won't even bother to speculate on what basis he made this flawed determination...I could but won't as I wish to keep as much as possible about facts at this point.  Zimmerman called 911 and reported his suspicions.  That SHOULD have been the end of it.  Oh, you might say, there had been break-in's in that area and Zimmerman wanted to protect his neighbors even though neighborhood watch (the legitimate sort) training clearly says to report the suspicion and DO NOT ENGAGE or PURSUE (you are also not supposed to carry a gun but hey it's America and all sorts of idiots pack). There had even been recent arrests by the police which prove a few things such as they don't "always get away with it" and that the police were responsive to 911 calls in the area.  

 While he followed Trayvon from the safety of his car he saw NO criminal activity.  No tagging, no vandalism, no casing of houses or peeping into windows...just a young fellow walking in the rain.  There was not even a curfew in place to cause anyone to question someone out walking at that hour (a bit past 7pm BTW...dark but certainly not the middle of the night).  I might wonder at the skate-boarders I see out at 3am but not at 7pm.  So what was Trayvon doing that was illegal or suspicious?  You've got me there.

So Zimmerman decides to follow this young man.  When Trayvon turned off the sidewalk area (where Zimmerman's car wouldn't follow), George got out of his car (clearly hear him doing this in the tape of the 911 call) and continued to pursue.  Obviously he took his <strike>penis</strike> gun with him cause...you know he was after a scary, young, healthy, <strike>black</strike> male....sorry the rage surged for a bit there.....    A scuffle ensued and, bang, Trayvon Martin will never live long enough to show just HOW he was going to turn out.

Warning, heavy sarcasm in this next part: Zimmerman got patched up from his near death experience of a massive numbers of blows to his head (including the top of his head....evidently Trayvon stood him on end at some point) and miracle broken nose that showed not one TINY black eye the very next day in the video he made for the police (just check into broken noses....you get black eyes folks at least every broken nose I've ever seen and I've actually seen a few).  In fact the next day Zimmerman has a small cut on the bridge of his nose (I've had worse cuts from one of my dog's claws catching my flesh)...no blackened eyes as noted earlier.  He has two KNUCKLE TYPE BAND-AIDS loosely dangling off the back of his head.  What kind of hospital patches up injuries that were so close to being skull fracturing/life threatening with KNUCKLE Band-AIDS??????? AND throughout this terrible assault Mr. Zimmerman remained conscious even with his head repeatedly hitting concrete "25 times"!!!!! Amazing!

Honey, I've been around medical treatments most of my young life with my parents both in the field.  Daddy's work at a clinic dealing with injuries at a ball-bearing plant saved many a limb and patched/stitched many a wound and my mother worked as a hospital nurse until her retirement as well.  Scalp wounds bleed a lot so the night of the murder I don't doubt he bled but that doth not make a life threatening injury.  Just who pulled out the band-aid box and picked two unlikely bandages to smack on his head?  Wasn't a hospital or any decent doctor that's for certain.  No concussion or hospitalization either.

Yes, Mr. Zimmerman made a tape "explaining" what happened and some use that as "proof" that he was not guilty because he "came forward".  All that proves is that he KNEW he would never have to pay for this murder, as the jury proved true.  He had nothing to fear.  Indeed it only went to trial at all because of the public eye on the case.  The police weren't even going to investigate the death at all but write it off based on one man's (the one who pulled the trigger on an unarmed young man) word!!  They left Trayvon Martin's body in the rain, on the ground without notifying his family they were so unconcerned with collecting evidence!  Of COURSE George wasn't worried!  He knew he'd walk free and so he has....even gaining a nice pot of money for his efforts.

What of Trayvon Martin's wounds?  "A responder at the crime scene told CBS News that he and others saw wounds on the knuckles of one of Martin's hands as he lay dead on this lawn. This suggests that Martin had thrown a punch." (source for exact quote CBS news online).  Note "A PUNCH"...not ravaged knuckles from a brutal beat down on poor Georgie Zimmerman. (Guess Trayvon could have used some of those knuckle bandages...oh yeah, he was dead). Oh and he also had a gunshot wound to his heart and gun residue on his clothes from the close range of the shot.

There were multiple "witnesses" with varying descriptions of the actual altercation most of them impartial not knowing either participant.  Some had them standing, a short fight and a gunshot, some with Trayvon on bottom and some as Zimmerman stated with Zimmerman on the bottom.  Trayvon isn't able to rebut Zimmerman, being dead.  He can't say if Zimmerman finally caught up to him as some witnesses claim or if he went after his former pursuer and confronted him as Zimmerman stated...again, Trayvon is silent as the grave for good reason.

Those are the nutshell facts..... however this case played in the media and online with MUCH nastiness and nonsense that are also fuel to my rage.  Facts that this case should have been concerned with in deciding just what responsibility to lay on the armed man who followed, chased and then killed this unarmed young man....not speculation and slurs.

The current cult of Blame the Victim

Certain outlets began at once to trash Trayvon Martin.  We "learned" many "facts" (lots of them proven to be untrue and ALL OF THEM irrelevant to the events of the night in question and the resulting death of Trayvon Martin).  Lets's see....the first I recall seeing is the objection to the use of an older picture of Trayvon looking non-menacing in the press and online.  Cause you know families always treasure those posturing pictures most teen-agers take and post and have taken for as long as I can remember even in my long ago youth.  I have some pictures of "good Christian" kids from youth group doing the "gangsta" poses and "bad boy" hand signals.  That is part of teen age male posturing and mean nothing even in general much less in this specific case.  So there are pictures of Trayvon in such poses...SO WHAT?  It proves HE WAS A TEEN-AGED boy!  It does not prove he was a wanna-be thug as stated all over the place.  What a tremendous number of mind readers exist evidently!  To KNOW the desires of this young man so well!  He supposedly aspired to be a street fighter (a "charge" never proven BTW) and also irrelevant to the issue at hand).

Gee I guess if Trayvon didn't want to be murdered on his way home from the store he should never have goofed off for a camera lest he "deserve" death!

He smoked grass!  YIKES!  How many young people do not and/or have not since the 60's?  I know not all do but the numbers are really small of those who have not, myself included back in the day.  They even discussed having a toxicology report run to "prove" he had grass in his system....again....what has that to do with anything?  Zimmerman never said (even in his million lies and "re-statements") he saw Trayvon lighting up and thus was suspicious of his "criminal" drug use.  He was sent home from school for grass...notice NOT JAILED for it so it is unlikely there was much of it or that it was habitual on his part or being sent home would not have been the punishment for the incident in question.  Once again.....what has his use of recreational marijuana got to do with the events of the night?  Grass does not make a person violent nor is its use a death warranting crime.

He ran!  Duh!  If I was being followed (even if I was male) I'd run too and not necessarily home where I could be tracked by whatever potential pervert was tailing me.

He fought back!  Again with the duh.  I should hope he did.  In fact I hope he did inflict pain on this cop wanna be (there is an actual record of THOSE aspirations of Zimmerman unlike the accusations leveled at Trayvon for his desires for the future).

So what then should we tell our children to do when followed?  Evidently not to run.  Evidently not to fight back.....do either and you are "asking for it" buddy!  Do either and you justify your own murder.

I am taken back to the early 1970's when the hospital where I was employed held an in-service led by the Indianapolis police department.  The subject was what to do if you were attacked and raped (there had been a rash of rapes in hospital parking lots around that time).  The end message from the police (confirmed when one of the attendees put it bluntly into words and the officer confirmed that he had been understood perfectly) was 1.  Do not put up a fight.  If you put up a fight you greatly increase the risk of being killed and not merely raped.  2.  You will not be able to get a conviction (and not likely charges would be filed) because you did not put up a strong resistance.  Yup....just relax and ignore it missy and be glad you got away with your life!  Move on.

I speak from experience that when you DO report a sexual assault you WILL encounter people (some even in the "justice" system) who will ask such "relevant" questions as, "What were you doing there?"  Or "What were you wearing at the time?"  In other words, "What did YOU do to DESERVE the attack?"  

Using that logic.... how dare you complain you were robbed...why did you carry money or something of value?  Blame the victim, blame the victim, blame the victim up to "why did you run from the man following you?" and "Why did you fight back?"  Blame the victim.

That "reasoning" is why conviction rates for rape are so low and why so many people don't report the crime in the first place.

Where does this blame the victim culture come from?  I'm sure there are many and varied factors.

One is the "Not me!" syndrome.  The subconscious or even conscious thought that such a horror would NEVER happen to YOU!  Clearly the victim had to have done SOMETHING to cause such a bad thing to happen to them!  Yeah go on and think that way, God's special snow-flake, until the day it IS you, or your kid or loved one.  Victims are just that (until/unless they can live long enough to become survivors if they are lucky); victims.  NO ONE "DESERVES" to be raped, assaulted, bullied, or especially murdered.

I do not give a rats red hiney if Trayvon Martin smoked dope every day all day long.  I do not care if he had a deep driving desire to be the meanest mutha on the street with gansta moves that would make Bruce Lee look like a drooling dweeb.  I do not care if he had spent time in PRISON and just got out.  HE WAS DOING NOTHING ILLEGAL, NOTHING DESERVING ZIMMERMAN'S CHOICES, NOTHING DESERVING BEING ACCOSTED AT ALL MUCH LESS MURDERED.

But George Zimmerman is guilty of nothing.  Just ask the legal system (oxymoron growing by the day).  And our children now know that there are no streets safe for travel, no self-defense permitted if you have reason to fear someone following you, no justice if your life is taken.  No instead your family get to watch your REPUTATION, you potential spit upon, lied about and muddied then watch the nut-job who put it all in motion walk out free and potentially richer given his many benefactors already.  Zimmerman will have many birthdays to come.  His family will get to see how his life turns out as he makes his choices.  Trayvon's family buried all that with their son.

May God forgive us for what we allow to happen and may his parents find peace somewhere.