#Newt Gingrich Hates Me

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

NEWT HATES YOU --NEWT HATES ME -- NEWT HATES US ALL.

Because only true Jello Biafra fans will ever really understand, and this is coming from someone who used to rock a "NEWT HATES ME" button/badge all throughout high school. Damn, wish I still had it, too! Oh, the memories, though.

PIC INFO: Spotlight on the infamous "Newt Hates Me" vintage T-Shirt shirt. Courtesy of the Jello Biafra Thought Crime Posse.

Source: lifted from my Facebook page (and in turn lifted off a now defunct Pinterest source).

[einsteinsugly]

Fictober 27 (on the 15th). January 1999. Parenting 101.

Thump, thump, thump.

Angry footsteps stomp up the stone steps; an act of desperate defiance.

As the door reluctantly swings open, two pairs of eyes scatter about, yearning for some sort of escape.

But four adults, and two tweens, are guarding them. With a slender thirty-eight year old as the unlikely ringleader.

"Let me remind you of your punishment." Instead of enticing with a carrot, Eric serves with a stick, all while gesturing to the living room couch. "Sit."

The dark-haired boy groans. "We're not dogs."

His wife intends to come to the rescue, but he proudly takes the helm. "Sit!"

James's ice blue eyes go wide, and both children hurriedly sit down. "Yes, sir."

"Good." Eric holds out his hand, unapologetically. "Now hand me the contraband. Discmans, Game Boys, Tamagotchis..."

A young redhead is particularly alarmed, burying her Tamagotchi deeper into her jeans pocket. "But my Tamagotchi has to be fed!"

"Well, he's going to have to go hungry."

"What if he dies?"

"Well, you could've died with that stunt you pulled." Even the other adults guffaw at his likely hyperbole, but Eric readily ignores them. "We couldn't find you for an hour. Do you have any idea how worried we were about you?"

An uncomfortable silence emerges, as Eric takes the contraband, and the two tweens awkwardly scurry upstairs.

After what seems like an eternity, Leah pathetically whimpers. "We were gonna come back."

*****

The television flickers on, as Eric settles on one of the worst channels imaginable.

James tries to muffle his irritation, but like his mother, he's not very good at it.

"Fuckin' CSPAN."

"If you keep it up, you're gonna have to take notes." On a holier than thou kind of power trip, Eric settles at the kitchen table, a stone's throw away. "We're going to play a little game of cards over here, and we'll watch to make sure you behave yourselves."

After well over a decade of teaching, he's mastered the art of balancing the carrot and the stick. The carrot is usually the default approach, but the stick is sometimes needed, when push comes to shove.

"We're not going to have to watch CSPAN with them, right?" Jackie loudly hisses, and the kids promptly turn their attention to them, "Because eww. It's even worse than my public access show in Point Place, because at least I tried to make things interesting."

Eric chuckles, purposely letting his guard down. "We'll only see it with the corner of our eye, don't worry."

Donna, in turn, can't help but smile. "I'm just glad Newt Gingrich is out of the house."

Hyde nods in agreement. "He's got a real punchable face."

"Who names their kid Newt?" Jackie dramatically scoffs, "His parents must've hated him."

At this proclamation, Leah and James's ears perk up, and Eric is quick to present them with a carrot. Nervously, but firmly.

"We don't hate you. We just don't like what you've done."

*****

Time has inevitably elapsed, and the kids are rightfully bored to tears.

The impeachment hearing is at full swing, and James states the obvious. "He totally had sex with that woman."

"Yeah." Leah looks at Eric, with a Laurie-sque smirk. "Daddy said that she definitely played his saxophone."

Her proclamation has the intended effect, and Donna glares at him. "Eric!"

All the while, Jackie and Hyde laugh at his expense. And Eric unintentionally lets his guard down, as Leah wholly intended. "I was drunk."

Donna doesn't flinch, though. "No, you weren't."

Finally, the truth emerges. "Well, I didn't think she knew what it meant."

Hyde can't stop chuckling, and neither can Jackie. "Think she figured it out, Forman."

Eric, attempting to defer and put his foot down, goes back into his authoritarian spiel. "Remember, if you keep it up, I'll make you two take notes."

James loudly guffaws. "Uh huh..."

*****

Pens in hand, the kids are now taking notes.

Now, speaking softly, Eric carries a big stick. "I'm going to check in, so no doodling."

Leah looks down at her notebook, covered in frowny faces and ghosts. "Boo."

In response, James pulls his notebook close to his chest. "Hey, you're not copying me."

She pouts, and bats her lashes. "Pretty please?"

James is about to reluctantly relent, when Eric loudly intervenes. "No copying, missy."

Leah dramatically sighs. "This is all your fault."

"You started it," James declares, rolling his eyes, and Leah smirks, "You always start it."

[yourreddancer]

MARC ELIAS

DEMOCRACY DOCKET

In Ernest Hemingway's first novel, The Sun Also Rises, one of the characters is asked how he went bankrupt. “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” Nearly 100 years later these lines still ring true. Bankruptcy — whether financial, moral or political — tends to happen gradually until it happens suddenly.

The moral bankruptcy of the Republican Party did not happen overnight. It happened gradually — starting with Newt Gingrich’s attack on the government in the early 1990s. It continued with the Tea Party movement, the birther conspiracy and the nomination of Donald Trump in 2016.

It gained momentum when Trump won the 2016 election despite losing the popular vote. Once in office, it grew worse when his attacks on democratic institutions were met with acquiescence by most of his party.

The mistake many of us made was believing that the aftermath of the 2020 election marked an end to the GOP’s descent into moral collapse. We were wrong. Jan. 6 marked a further descent into the moral abyss.

By 2024, the few principled Republicans had already abandoned their party for the “Never Trump” movement. What was left were Trump dead-enders and those without any core principles at all. A party once built on the promise of Lincoln had become the morally bankrupt party of Trump. As we approached the 2024 election, I knew that there was a chance Kamala Harris would fall short. She had been dealt a very difficult hand — a campaign she inherited rather than built and a short time to introduce herself. She was also going to be running against a man without boundaries or decency, who built a movement based on hate.

What I was not prepared for was the rapid descent of so many other people and institutions I thought were, like me, bracing for the worst while hoping for the best. Even before the election, the once-proud Washington Post, had been called to heel by a billionaire owner terrified of what Trump might do if elected. The paper's slow trickle of economic loss became a torrent when its subscribers canceled en masse.

Since the election, other media figures and outlets have followed suit — each in their own way, each moving gradually towards obedience to Trump and then suddenly. As ratings and circulation rates suffer the financial risks do as well.

I no longer believe this pattern will be limited to Republican politicians or even the media. All corners of public life are showing gradual signs of accommodating Trump. Some of the voices most critical of him three weeks ago have grown more measured. Others have gone silent.

Corporate titans have gone out of their way to praise a man and a movement that in 2021 they promised never to support. World leaders who know better act as scared children avoiding an abusive parent. Even some progressive groups are acting with more trepidation and care.

I understand it. I feel it. Like others, I fear the threat of government retribution, political vengeance and an angry right-wing mob. But I know that giving into it will only strengthen Trump and undermine the future of our democracy. Trump wants us to be scared. He wants us to give up — gradually and then suddenly.

When I started Democracy Docket in 2020, I envisioned it as a place to share information, analysis and opinion about democracy. My focus was on the courts because there were so few resources for nonlawyers to get information about how judges were affecting voting and elections.

It has evolved along with the challenges democracy has faced. In the aftermath of the 2020 election, it became the primary source for tracking lawsuits seeking to overturn the election. In 2021, it tracked the unprecedented state legislative attacks on voting rights and the litigation that followed.

Along the way it added a daily newsletter and most recently premium content. What it has not added are outside investors. It owes nothing to corporate interests or external financial backers. It is not tax-exempt and thus seeks no favor from the government. Though more expensive, it hosts its own website so that it can never be shut down by a platform like Substack.

Thanks to its supporters, it has the luxury of being fiercely independent and uncompromisingly pro-democracy.

If, at some point in the future, Democracy Docket goes quiet or goes bankrupt, it will be because its subscribers and members have decided that it is no longer worth supporting. Until then, I can promise you, it will not obey and it will not back down

[mariacallous]

The good folks at the Know Your Enemy podcast (Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell) did a recent episode w/ Erik Baker called “Bomb Power,” named after the 2010 book by Garry Wills, Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State.

As someone who spent the first half of his career doing guns-and-bombs security studies, I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of this book before listening to the podcast.

Upon Google-Scholar-ing Bomb Power, I discovered it had 166 citations—very, very modest for an author as well-known as Wills. And scanning through who’s been citing it, I see mostly historians (not international-relations or strategic studies scholars). So I suppose my ignorance about the book is normal within my field.

But their discussion on the episode triggered me in a few ways, leading me to ponder what happened to the conservatives who support peace—that used to be a thing.

A “Don’t Break Things” Conservative

Wills’s politics don’t map well onto our current context.

He had ties to William F. Buckley and the National Review crowd. And his prolific writing often went after liberals, especially Kennedy (though his book Nixon Agonistes was a masterclass and did not spare Nixon of his critical prose).

But Wills recognized that power had a tendency to corrupt. That America itself had been guilty of great evils whose consequences it never repaired. And that if a preference for limited government meant anything at all, it meant a commitment to limiting the power of the national security state—there was no military exemption from the “limited government” mantra.

When I was finishing my PhD at the Catholic University of America (I enrolled there having no idea about its very conservative reputation), I studied under and socialized with conservatives like Wills. They mostly hated the Bush administration, generally thought the Iraq War was insane, and were critical of what had become the imperial presidency. (Before you romanticize them too much, they also hosted Brett Kavanaugh and Newt Gingrich at various times, they largely believed in civilizational (as in clash of civilizations) politics, and some of them seemed to think race science had merit…)

These days, it’s fairly common for people to claim they’re progressive while actually being center-right economic liberals with limited tolerance for anything redistributive. Wills cut in the opposite direction. As the Know Your Enemy guys talk about in the episode, Wills at times took up policy positions that we would think of as progressive, but he identified as a conservative. Why?

Aside from personal affection for the label, I suspect this has to do with his Burkean “don’t break things” sensibility, as well as the sense that 1) the common good is achievable within the nation-state itself, 2) the Founding Fathers had something to teach us and/or were extraordinary, and 3) the Constitution is a holy-adjacent document.

I think that perspective is intellectually unsatisfying and a political dead end. But YMMV.

The important thing is that folks who believe that stuff are folks you can work with sometimes. And if you’re in mortal danger, they’re the kind of American who just might help you out. More importantly, if any part of the right is recruitable into an antifascist coalition, it’s the “don’t break things” conservatives.

An Endangered Species

You can still find conservatives like Wills out there in American society. I know of one or two pundits who would fit this category of principled, preservationist conservatism. And, funnily enough, there are a lot of these types in New Zealand (a country with every type of conservative).

But in Washington, this species of conservative doesn’t exist. Not a single Republican official can claim fidelity to the Willsian template. To a man—and they’re mostly men—the electoral GOP has repudiated everything meaningful in the “don’t break things” tradition.

Talking Like a Peacenik

The remarkable thing about Wills’s Bomb Power is how much it reads like a leftist critical text. It would go too far to call Wills a historical materialist, but his implicit philosophy is not incompatible with it.

His invocation of the national security state—a term with which any Un-Diplomatic reader is by now very familiar—originated with Marcus Raskin, a co-founder of the Institute for Policy Studies (the first progressive think tank in Washington). IPS was and remains an expressly antimilitarist presence in Washington, and one of the few institutions there that can claim ties to the peace progressives who constitute what I think are the grassroots of the Democratic Party.

Wills’s reference to permanent war and the economy that supports it owes to Seymour Melman, a left-aligned peace intellectual who popularized (and possibly coined) “permanent war economy” through a series of books and essays that deserve a much wider reading.

And Wills’s claim that nuclear weapons are fundamentally tools of despotism that have permanently disempowered democracy is a pretty common view on the left going back to George Orwell’s classic essay, “You and the Atom Bomb” (which I still teach!).

What all this suggests is that Wills was a conservative who read widely. You might even say he was open-minded.

As such, he made analytical use of the criticisms against the powerful rendered by people with whom he likely disagreed. And he did so, at least partly, in the name of peace. Good luck finding someone like that in the Republican Party today.

[vocalintel]

Top Ten Gougars of All Time

I don't know how to explain the complicated linguistic evolution of slang in a Discord server but I know that it is very much akin to how salamanders in underground cave systems turn white and lose their eyes, hyperspecializing to an ecological niche to the point that they are destroyed when agricultural runoff pollutes their primordial cave water. Anyway basically we have ended up referring to a specific class of horror movie guy as a gougar, and in the interest of using this term in further posts I will give examples of some of our favorites.

10. That weird little baby from Phenomena

Argento apparently thinks of Phenomena as one of his best films, and I kind of don't. I think it was like highkey kind of ableist as a matter of fact. But the part at the end when they're fighting on that boat and he's trying to GET Jennifer Connelly with his little knife-on-a-stick contraption is funny to me.

9. The Byebye Man

Do people still think the Byebye Man is funny? I know it was a huge meme on here when it came out. Am I old now? Anyway I'm really fascinated by how absolutely terrible this film was, down to the minutiae. If it came out today I would accuse it of having an AI generated script. I would like to give a shoutout to Mr. Byebye's pet dog that's made of hamburger for some reason.

8. Snake Woman

I know she's from a manga but bear with me. This bitch is fucking fiendish. She's actually scary. I think if I was like a little 6-7 year old girl and this thing showed up pretending to be my mom I would have nightmares about it for the rest of my life. Therapy could NOT fix that.

7. This Specific Halloween Prop

Yes I know it's the image from The Russian Sleep Experiment. Yes I know The Russian Sleep Experiment sucks and isn't even scary. That does not change the fact that this thing is freaky as hell. It does all the heavy lifting for that shit ass story. There are very few creepypasta jpegs that are still unsettling outside of their original 2000s imageboard context and this is one of them.

6. Mr. Boogie

I like the first Sinister movie, my friends seem to hate it, life goes on. However, we can all agree that Mr. Boogie (née Baguul) is an iconic gougar. The only reason he's not higher on this list is that his competition is so stacked against him. We're getting into the real heavy hitters.

5. Newt Gingrich's wife

:(

4. Mesmer

Cure is one of the best films of all time and if you haven't seen it you need to go watch it right now. This guy doesn't show up in person once in the whole fucking movie and he's still like one of the most earth-shatteringly creepy gougars ever written. It's like a yuri of absence thing. Horror vacui.

3. The Fucked up Guy From Possession

This thing turns into a real(ish) guy later but holy fuck, when it first shows up. It's like a cross between a dick and a hammerhead shark with John Carpenter Silent Hill textures. It's so, so viscerally unpleasant. We weren't expecting it either, because the film hadn't had any shit like this right up until you get full frontal with it. Isabelle Adjani has sex with it. To each their own.

2. Pazuzu

So the demonic entity in The Exorcist wasn't like actually onscreen or named until the disastrously terrible second film, but then in the 'Director's Cut' edition of the original, they added in these blink-and-you'll-miss-it cutaways to this dude in vaguely expressionist white face paint. Due to RedLetterMedia's lambasting of the "I am... Pazuzu!" scene from Exorcist II, he has become a permanent fixture in our collective horror schema. Every time anything even vaguely scary happens, whether in a game or a movie or perhaps my house, it gets blamed on Pazuzu. Often we mock terrible horror writing/jumpscares by saying it was Pazuzu. At this point he's just a guy we hang out with.

Dr. Freudstein

I don't even want to mock Dr. Freudstein because he literally is just one of the most disgusting, unsettling horror villains I have ever encountered. The only time I have ever been actually nauseous while watching a film was because of him. I cannot think of a more iconic guy. Fuck Freddy, fuck Jason, there is nothing in any of their films even half as scary as when Dr. Freudstein starts cry-mewling like a little baby. This guy was in someone's basement! He could be in your basement! Fulci is a genius for making someone (something?) so creepy.

[writer59january13]

Variations On A Theme...

of hodgepodge strewn helter skelter

wonky inviting reader to mentally swelter.

Ach'n (ache Ken and burn'n) kickstarting existential and proverbial struggle

me species classified as generic muggle

analogous to entertainer

with namesake of yours truly

starring an out of world

stellar performer who doth juggle

regarding mein kampf, who sports thrift store couture NOT worn by Bellini, Paganini, Rossini... Eeny Meany Miney Moe - si, nor the three stooges tee hee hee “woo-woo-woo!,” “soitenly!” Punster mocker twill never cease

silly swill syllabification

meaning often twitching

inane written trend

not intending reader to offend of mine will never abide where verboten

arbitrarily, indiscriminately, and understandably

recklessly flaunting usage

and re:noun sing gerund only when...mortality brings life to an end ike'n no longer defend,

and thankfully late mother of mine

Riley's life she chose NOT

in a million years to abend!

Thus...once again, (or...as per usual),

male gender nonconforming wordsmith derelict

defies nothing but obscure alphabetic logic

opportunistically, indiscriminately, and digitally

furiously cutting and pasting discombobulated, disjointed, and displaced

outrageous images evoked

his invisible faux poetic mishmash pastiche emulating emperor donning his new clothes

oblivious clothing apparel absent

despite stunned into silence observers

himself sovereign paraded

without being astute; this poem iz also NOT a boot ruminations visiting shortish nasty brute, (he just learned how to walk

erect this morning) referencing who else except this ole coot

while (cue in dolorous, ludicrous, and tenebrous melody issued from

Mose Arts magic flute)

of course this complete fallacy just smore hove my asinine

baseless, fruitless, witless, et cetera at das receiving end damned lifetime role, and goot raw end of deal, sans docks side of moon efficient intervention

more offal than glute tee us expulsion trumpeted;

Teachers never gave a hoot

or proper fitting space age jumpsuit,

thenceforth viper got ramrod rigid taut as jute as they appeared oblivious, how moost all classmates did loot

when I travelled (with my cute Malamute outsize prairie dog like fine home companion) to the outer limits

of the twilight zone,

which groovy farout signals detected by vodafone

and desperate plea made for aliens to abduct me asap (receiving an affirmative digital binary tone)

similarly couched courtesy of publishers, unlike the negative responses, predictably forecast, no complex koan but clear as day -

inducing a slight inward moan, which figurative slap in face finding yours supine prone, hence...a recurring well known fantasy regarding plucking this chicken (198920) heart lee moss see jagged rolling stone;

as iced (sic culled) hood reaper remained mute and scythe lent,

whereat serpent (also known in political circles as Sally Salamander Newt Gingrich) charmed goaded, and relentlessly needled

a dam Eve with snake hushed snoot,

and wreaked havoc as root of all misfortunate previous to man/woman kind existence, at expense emotional account, viz

cheap trick super tramping suit reviled, renounced, and recanted fully "FAKE" pre fabric hated

discombobulated trumpeting ill suit head prevarications – more cheeky effects, thus allowing, enabling, and providing adapt tub bull usage as zoot suit.

[truth-has-a-liberal-bias]

Republicans of ALL ages put Reagan in the White House and Republicans of ALL ages are the reason for the horrible mess we are in.

How hard is that to figure out?!?!

My father was a UNION working postal employee for many decades. His UNION job took care of our family during all of those years and took care of him and my mom after I left home and also his UNION job took care of him and my mom in his retirement.

My $12 dollar an hour job doesn't provide me with anything!

Not even a bare minimum, because it is NOT a livable wage!

This can be traced back to ALL the Republicans of ALL ages who put Reagan, Bush Sr. Bush Jr. Newt Gingrich, and a host of other hateful Republicans into office...long before that traitor Trump.

NO MATTER YOUR AGE, IF YOU ARE A REPUBLICAN VOTER THEN YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATH OF THE MIDDLE CLASS!

Direct your rage at those bastards.

REPUBLICANS. ARE. THE. PROBLEM.

This life style disappeared after the baby boomers grew up.

[kineticpenguin]

You know, it just occurred to me what to say to every Good Christian(tm) who looks at someone like Newt Gingrich and is like "well I don't approve of his personal life but"

so you're a slut. You're a political slut. There's nobody you won't get in bed with as long as they hate the same people you hate. 

[pizzagrlmeetsboy1980]

This is a little treat for @rock-and-roll-and-rats

xD

I was thinking about what a slightly twisted but still somehow wholesome B’Stard family home would look like so I did the unthinkable.

Fan children.

Read more for wholesome cringe.

All children have varying shades of blonde hair . Oliver is the only one with curls. Connie is the only one that doesn’t have Alan’s blue eyes.

17 Oliver- only son, eldest. Aloof, under lots of pressure to be an MP one day. Is usually studying.

16 Marie- Eldest daughter. Very intelligent , witty and attracts a lot of attention from boys at school. Looks the most like Sarah.

13 Constance “Connie”- Middle daughter. Is always competing with Marie. Is usually in trouble for something. The one most likely to back sass her parents.

7 Grace- Grace youngest child and daughter. Very sneaky. Also incredibly intelligent for a 7 year old. Has committed credit card fraud AND gotten away with it. Has the most wholesome relationship with her father.

Sarah: Grace...why do you have Connie’s purse?

Grace: It was in her school bag. I took it cause I liked it.

Alan: *laughs, pulling his youngest child into his lap* Darling, stealing and petty theft aren’t things that you need to be doing. That’s what poor people do. Unless it’s something that money can’t buy..like..

Grace: Trust or a false sense of security?

Alan: *beeps her nose* Exactly.

Sarah: Hold on...Grace did you put this make up in Connie’s bag?

Grace: Heavens no. I would never pick such trampy colours.

Alan: *laughs again*

Sarah: We will discuss where you heard that word later..As if I didn’t know already. *glares at Alan* I think I need to go have a chat with Connie...

-Sarah knocks on Connie’s door-

Connie: Come in..

Sarah: Hello, Darling...

Connie: Oh. Hi mum. How are you?

Sarah: Oh, I’m doing very well. Grace found something interesting in your purse.

Connie: Mum, you’ve got to tell her to stop going through my things. It’s an invasion of privacy!

Sarah:...Constance...do you know what’s in here?

Connie:...It’s make up.

Sarah: You know the rule in this house is no makeup until you are 16...

Connie: 16?!

Sarah: Connie, you -knew- that. You’re a terrible liar.

Connie: *looking away and turning her nose up* Well you never said it to -me!-

Sarah: FINE. I’m saying it to you -now-...No makeup until you’re 16. You just want to wear it so you’ll look older, now why on earth do you want to grow up so quickly?

Connie: I am not! I’m 14 years old! I’m practically a woman!

Sarah: You are a -child-.

Connie: I’m a young woman!

Sarah: You are an -old- child.

...

Alan: Good morning, Offspring.

All: Good morning, Father.

Marie:..Daddy. You know how I’m always making you so proud by getting perfect grades, breaking boy’s hearts into a million pieces and slowly but surely building up the Young Conservative’s club-

Alan: -reading the paper- What do you want, Marie?

Marie: Well I’ve just been so busy I had forgotten to get your signature on this silly little permission slip..

Sarah: -brings Alan a cup of coffee- And what pray-tell is this silly little permission slip for?

Marie: The debate team is going to Amsterdam for the European championship.

Alan:..A beautiful 16 year old girl, Daughter of the former Lord Protector now Senior Cabinet Member in a lefty, filthy place like Amsterdam? Absolutely not.

Marie: Why not?!

Alan: I believe I just explained that point. Good thing you’re not going you’re terrible at debating.

Connie: She wouldn’t even be mediocre at the meet, she’d be too busy looking at...Jeremy~.

Alan: *folds his paper down abruptly* Jeremy?

Sarah: *chuckling, sipping her coffee*

Oliver: *does the same, clinking cups with his mother*

Marie:...He’s the captain, Daddy. He’s so cultured. He wanted to show me all the sights and ...walk through the tulips together...

Alan:...*makes a disgusted face* How old is this “Jeremy” chap?

Connie: He’s in 12th grade..

Marie: I’m going to kill you if you don’t shut your mouth!

Sarah: *to Grace* Ooh. Dating above one’s station and a death threat. A typical B’Stard family morning.

Grace: *whispering* I don’t see what the fuss is all about. I hate boys.

Sarah: *whispering back*Don’t say that loud enough for your father to hear. He’ll hold you to that.

Alan: Oh well, that’s makes things easier then. You absolutely aren’t going and if I catch you around that “boy”. You’ll be under house arrest until menopause, understood? *curling his upper-lip in contempt-

Marie: *defeatedly* Yes, Daddy. *kisses his cheek before getting up*

Sarah: It’s almost a quarter till. Girls, Your cab will be here any minute. Oliver. We need you to take the Aston today.

Oliver: Of course, Mother. Everything okay?

Alan: We’re entertaining this afternoon and we need the Bentley to rub it in Newt Gingrich’s American face that we’re better than him.

Oliver: Hopefully he’ll fit in it And it won’t scrape the ground.

Sarah: *giggles and kisses Oliver’s cheek* You have your father’s wit. Have a wonderful day darling..

Alan: Oliver. *motions his son to down to him* If you see that Jeremy-prick near your sister. You have my permission to blackmail him.

Oliver: Consider it done, Father.

Alan: That’s a good lad. Carry on then.

*Sarah counting the sets of steps going down the stairs to the front door*

Sarah: ...One..two..three...and four...that’s all of them.

Alan: They are worrisome...but..I think they’ll turn out alright..*holds Sarah from behind*

Sarah:..I think so...But if you give me anymore I will castrate you.

[cksmart-world]

The completely unnecessary news analysis

by Christopher Smart

March 16, 2021

UTAH QUIZ FOR SMARTISH PEOPLE

Ready for some fun? The Salt Lake Tribune recently published a readers quiz called “Think You Know Utah?” asking questions, such as: Why did Mark Hofmann ruin reporter Peggy Stack's first day at The Tribune; and “What does A.G. Sean Reyes do under his desk every morning? Well, it got the staff here at Smart Bomb to thinking, maybe we, too, should have a quiz. We'll call it, “Do You Get Zion?”

1- Where did the Utah Democratic Party get those Klingon Cloaking Devices?

2- Why did Burgess Owens bet his Covid Relief $$ that Nancy Pelosi is a lesbian?

3- Which donut shop in Provo is best to spot two polygamist at the same time?

4- What combinations of drugs does Gov. Spencer Cox take to remain so blissful?

5- Why did Lawmakers' prayers to save The Hill Cummorah Pageant go unanswered?

6- What happens to LGBTQ students at BYU keggers?

7- Who warned LDS Pres. Russel M. Nelson to never say,“Salamander?”

8- Why do some Democrats object to renaming Dixie State as Cotton Pickers U?

The answers will be posted on the door of the Utah Democratic Party if we ever find the place. Hey Democrats, turn off those damn Klingon Cloaking Devices.

WRITTEN IN HELL BY THE DEVIL HIMSELF

Show us a good loser and we'll show you a loser. Damn straight and Republicans know what they have to do since losing the White House and the Senate — make voting more difficult, er uh, that is, “restore public confidence in our elections.” In recent weeks, Red State legislatures have put forth over 200 bills to restore confidence for Trumpish voters, including Arizona, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Of course, Georgia led the way by making it illegal for black people to vote. “We'll cut Stacey Abrams off at the knees,” said GOP operative, Lauren Witzke. So what do those damn FDR Democrats do in response — they invent HR1 and have the audacity to call it the “For The People Act of 2021,” because it would expand voter registration, implement fair redistricting and restore The Voting Rights Act. Well, Utah's designated spokesman for righteous indignation, Mike Lee, wasn't having any of it. “This is a bill as if written in hell by the devil himself.” You tell 'em Mike. “It's an effort to ensure an institutional, revolutionary Democratic Party of sorts,” he whined, “one that can remain in power for many decades to come." Those bastards. Let's all meet in D.C., attack the Capitol and take our country back from black people.

THE RUSH TO REPLACE RUSH

As Republicans begin fund-raising for a Rush Limbaugh Memorial in Washington, D.C., no one has yet to embrace the Elephant in the room: Who will replace the greatest human being to ever prevaricate into a microphone? Like him or hate him, Rush was a giant who defined Republican core values for decades. In fact, some ultra-conservatives are thinking about something like Mount Rushmore with Rush and Newt Gingrich carved on a big rock cliff so that no one can ever forget how much red-blooded American white grievance they brought us. As Rush once said: “The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons.” And this: "Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women access to the mainstream of society." And this: "When a gay person turns his back on you, it is anything but an insult; it's an invitation." Yes, it will be a challenge to replace him — false prophets don't come along every day. But hopefully a new grand wizard will soon appear because there is little time to waste as hate-radio audiences are aging quickly — averaging over 65. Young, white people just aren't into hate as much as their parents and grandparents. What is this country coming to?

Post script — OK sports fans, that about does it for another week here at Smart Bomb, where we keep track of the GOP-QAnon merger, so you don't have to. Those convulsions you see are really that of a political party stretching in ghastly ways like a dividing amoeba pulling apart — or perhaps it's more akin to the female robot, Ava, in Ex-Machina, who eliminates her creator because, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, she wants to kill something. If you like melodrama with psychic violence, tune in as the Party of Trump slowly melts like the Wicked Witch of West after injecting disinfectant to kill Coronavirus. Say goodbye to the Grand Old Party's chorus of small government and balanced budgets. The Trump base of white grievance isn't going anywhere soon but might become disquieted when Uncle Joe's Covid Relief package gets the economy humming like Mitch McConnell's Mercedes — or if they ever realize  that cash donations to donaldjturmp.com are going to the Trump Organization's debt service and to keep the lights on at Mar-A-Lago. Of course, this news may come slowly to Utah and Red States dominated by strange weather patterns and websites that create twisters and rabbit holes. But remember, Rome didn't burn in a day.

Well shucks, Wilson, you and guys in the band have been awfully quiet. You're not all hungover by any chance. Of course not. Alright, but do you think you can pull it together and take us out with a little something for Mike Lee and his friend:

I lit out from Reno, I was trailed by twenty hounds Didn't get to sleep last night 'till the morning came around. Set out runnin' but I take my time A friend of the devil is a friend of mine If I get home before daylight, I just might get some sleep tonight. Ran into the devil, babe, he loaned me twenty bills I spent the night in Utah in a cave up in the hills. Set out runnin' but I take my time, a friend of the devil is a friend of mine, If I get home before daylight, I just might get some sleep tonight. Got two reasons why I cry away each lonely night, The first one's named Sweet Anne Marie, and she's my hearts delight. The second one is prison, babe, the sheriff's on my trail, And if he catches up with me, I'll spend my life in jail...

(Friend of the Devil — Grateful Dead)

PPS — During this difficult time for newspapers please make a donation to our very important local alternative news source, Salt Lake City Weekly, at PressBackers.com, a nonprofit dedicated to help fund local journalism. Thank you.

[tinyshe]

Book Review: One Second After by William Forstchen

foreword by Newt Gingrich, Afterword by William D. Sanders

pub Tor Book, c.2009, NY Times Best Seller, genre fiction/sci-fi/ apocalyptic / post apocalyptic

Based in the Asheville, North Carolina area of USA, the story starts in a place out of Norman Rockwell setting. That all changed when an EMP weapon (Electromagnetic Pulse) is detonated over the United States. The aftermath is a scary scenario as civilization falls into the darkest recesses humanity can bring.

I normally don’t read these types of books because I have a wild enough imagination without adding fuel to the fire but I couldn’t resist this one because the hero of the story is a single parent, ex-military, history prof at a small Christian college (he’s Catholic, school is not), and dropped his rising carrier to take care of his wife dying of cancer. The way the knowledge and experiences of this man is woven through the story to help his community even through his own heart-ache and despair was the final hook. I knew I was going to cry (a lot) because I hate these types of stories: very little happiness, great big sadness. I get attached to struggling characters and their loyal dogs (yes! get the hankie out!). The writing was well done. Not high brow tech or over-wrought with historical nor military jargon but just a nice mixture to keep the pages turning.

I kind of wondered at some of the pitches:‘A BOOK EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD READ’;    ‘BIN LADEN’S WET DREAM’,    ‘BONE CHILLING WAKE UP CALL THAT CHAOS AND DEATH ARE BUT A POWER PLUG AWAY’. Then I read the forewords from US speaker (at the time) Newt Gingrich. This EMP threat is/was a real concern but was unfortunate enough to end up ignored as the ‘Report of the Commission to Acess the Threat to the United States From Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack’ came up  on the same day as the  9/11 Commissioner’s report. The EMP threat was duly ignored by the US Congress. It seems to be obviously ignored/ poo-pooed since most civilians and their duly elected officials have made no known protection against such a possibility all these past years but yet the threat remains now more than ever. A very real threat to any country, world-wide. This book was even used as a realistic scenario of an EMP attack on the US gov floor discussion. Captain William Sanders, US Navy has cited notes to his commentary to give weight and ponder to the subject matter. I read both the Foreword and the Afterword before reading the book; I’m glad I did even though it scared me even more. This wasn’t just a story, it was a warning.

[bountyofbeads]

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/wayne-barrett-donald-trump-rudy-giuliani-peas-pod-article-1.2776357?outputType=amp&__twitter_impression=true

REMINDER: Trump has relied on Rudy Giuliani as a "fixer" ever since Trump bribed Rudy to kill a mob-related money laundering investigation into him 30 years ago.

The late Wayne Barrett wrote about their corrupt 30-year relationship in 2016:

Peas in a pod: The long and twisted relationship between Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani

By WAYNE Barrett | Published SEP 04, 2016 5:00 AM ET | NEW YORK DAILY News | Posted September 25, 2019 |

Let's start with the fact that Donald Trump's top surrogate, Rudy Giuliani, is on the payroll. In January, he joined a law firm, Greenberg Traurig, that represents Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Last year, the firm handled Trump's suit against the Florida city of Doral so his golf course could override noise regulations that barred him from bulldozing before sunrise. More recently, it handled Kushner's $340-million acquisition of the Watchtower properties in downtown Brooklyn.

When Trump paid a $250,000 fine in 2000 for secretly funding a million-dollar lobbying campaign against an Indian casino in upstate New York, he was represented by Greenberg.

Giuliani brought Marc Mukasey, the stepson of ex-U.S. Attorney General and lifelong Giuliani friend Michael Mukasey, with him to Greenberg; Mukasey is now representing legendary leg man Roger Ailes. Mukasey launched into a tirade recently against New York Magazine reporter Gabriel Sherman, calling the Ailes biographer "a virus" willing to "use any woman" to Weinerize the Trump debate adviser. His dad, who once branded Trump a "peril" to national security, delivered a Republican Convention speech the night after Rudy's screed.

This intertwine may or may not have something to do with why the Greenberg firm lets Rudy, one of its newest partners, hired early this year ostensibly to run a cybersecurity unit, travel the country with Trump, introducing him at rallies and fundraisers, challenging Hillary Clinton's health based on stuff he finds in corners of the internet, declaring her Clinton Foundation troubles worse than Watergate, wearing a "Make Mexico Great Again Also" cap, and helping draft policy speeches diagnosing African Americans for white audiences.

I even watched Rudy on TV, before one joint trip to Ohio, loading suitcases into the back of a Trump SUV in front of Trump Tower, the only baggage that slows him down.

Rudy has actually been more visible in his buddy's campaign than he was at times in his own $50 million presidential attempt in 2008, when he managed to convert the months-long top ranking in the polls into a single delegate. The imperial 2016 candidate who hates losers, especially ones who wind up in Vietnamese prisons, has instead embraced an epic dud, his solitary act of empathy in a campaign of callousness. He could've trashed Rudy like he did John McCain: "I like people who weren't caught with their command center down."

But the onetime comb-over twins just had too much in common. Though bombs-away hawks today, they got multiple draft deferments during the Vietnam War, with athlete Donald citing bad feet as his excuse and Rudy using an ear defect to sidestep his ROTC obligations.

Trump is now warning of a rigged election, invoking the image of Philadelphia blacks cheating at the ballot box and calling for voter suppression squads to "monitor" suspect precincts. Rudy said the 1989 mayoral election he lost was stolen and spent millions on suppression squads, dispatching off-duty white cops and firefighters to minority districts, when he won in 1993.

The two amigos also spark similar antipathy in Mexico, their latest joint destination — Donald for a mantra of insults, and Rudy for a multi-million-dollar anti-crime contract his consulting company won in Mexico City that flopped so badly the police chief declared he was "no fan" of Giuliani's. Rudy even tried to lend credence to the Trumpian fantasy that "thousands" of Muslims in Jersey City celebrated 9/11, quibbling only with the number.

Then there's the wife trifecta. No one in American public life, other than perhaps their kindred spirit Newt Gingrich, has ever mastered the art of a bad divorce like Rudy and Donald, carrying on as if spousal humiliation was the point.

Ask the kids. When Trump married mistress Marla Maples nearly four years after he walked out on Ivana, the three convention stars, Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric, didn't show up. Andrew and Caroline Giuliani made strained appearances at Rudy's 2003 wedding to Judi Nathan, but in 2007, both distanced themselves from their father's presidential pursuit, with Caroline Facebooking her preference for Obama, as close to the ex-mayor's heart as she could plunge the dagger.

Rudy's wife Donna found out he wanted a divorce when he announced it on TV, just as Marla had a couple of years before. Rudy then chose Mother's Day to alert the press that he would be having dinner with his new love and led the cameras on a 10-block walk with her after dinner, kissing her goodbye while his wife and kids simmered. His divorce lawyer declared "we're going to have to pry her off the chandeliers to get her out of" Gracie Mansion. Even Donald Trump was offended, writing an open letter to New York Magazine and urging Donna and Rudy "to sit down with each other in a room, without your lawyer, and see if you can settle this."

But Rudy was only following in the divorce-as-spectacle footsteps of Donald, who'd used the New York Post as his personal hammer a decade before, relishing in Marla's "best sex I ever had" headlines even as they horrified young Ivanka and Don. Trump told Newsweek the scandal was "great for business," and pushed Marla to seize on the opportunities it presented, including half a million to pose in "No Excuses" jeans.

He'd brought his mistress to the same Atlantic City boxing matches he brought his wife to, aboard the same helicopter, just as he'd set up Marla in a sparkling suite on the Aspen slopes while he was vacationing with his family. Young Don told his father then "you just love your money," a line he did not revive in his convention script. Ivanka, shocked by headlines on newsstands during her walk to school, just wept.

Rudy and Donald first got together in the late 1980s shortly before Donald became a co-chair of Giuliani's first fundraiser for his 1989 mayoral campaign, sitting on the Waldorf dais and steering $41,000 to the campaign. A year earlier, Tony Lombardi, the federal agent closest to then-U.S. Attorney Giuliani, opened a probe of Trump's role in the suspect sale of two Trump Tower apartments to Robert Hopkins, the mob-connected head of the city's largest gambling ring.

Trump attended the closing himself and Hopkins arrived with a briefcase loaded with up to $200,000 in cash, a deposit the soon-to-felon counted at the table. Despite Hopkins' wholesale lack of verifiable income or assets, he got a loan from a Jersey bank that did business with Trump's casino. A Trump limo delivered the cash to the bank.

The government subsequently nailed Hopkins' mortgage broker, Frank LaMagra, on an unrelated charge and he offered to give up Donald, claiming Trump "participated" in the money-laundering — and volunteering to wear a wire on him.

Instead, Lombardi, who discussed the case with Giuliani personally (and with me for a 1993 Village Voice piece called "The Case of the Missing Case"), went straight to Donald for two hour-long interviews with him. Within weeks of the interviews, Donald announced he'd raise $2 million in a half hour if Rudy ran for mayor. Lamagra got no deal and was convicted, as was his mob associate, Louis (Louie HaHa) Attanasio, who was later also nailed for seven underworld murders. Hopkins was convicted of running his gambling operation partly out of the Trump Tower apartment, where he was arrested.

Lombardi — who expected a top appointment in a Giuliani mayoralty, conducted several other probes directly tied to Giuliani political opponents, and testified later that "every day I came to work I went to Mr. Giuliani to seek out what duties I needed to perform" — closed the Trump investigation without even giving it a case number. That meant that New Jersey gaming authorities would never know it existed.

It's hard to watch Giuliani invoke his 14-year history as a federal prosecutor when he calls for Clinton's prosecution and square it with the seedy launch of his own relationship with Trump.

When Rudy was mayor, Trump hired the lobbying firm that included name partner Ray Harding, the head of the state's Liberal Party, whose ballot line had provided the margin of difference in Giuliani's 1993 election. Harding's firm quickly went from three lobbying clients to 92, and it steered the controversial, 90-story Trump World Tower, the tallest residential tower in city history, through three levels of Giuliani administration approvals despite loud opposition from community groups led by Walter Cronkite.

Both Harding and his son, a top Giuliani official, wound up felons. His other son, Robert Harding, a Giuliani deputy mayor, has long been a lobbyist at Rudy's current employer, Greenberg.

The Giuliani administration also wrote a 1995 letter of support to HUD for $365 million in mortgage insurance for Trump's Riverside South project, affirming that the Westside Yards site was in a blighted neighborhood, a contention so ludicrous that Donald had to eventually withdraw the application. A board of Giuliani appointees, pushed by Harding's firm, also approved renovations at Trump's 100 Central Park South, where Eric Trump now lives.

Rudy wound up a friend, speaking at Fred Trump's 1999 funeral, doing a grope scene with Donald in a 2000 Inner Circle skit, inviting Donald and Melania to his Gracie Mansion wedding and attending Trump's 2005 Mar-A-Lago wedding.

As aligned as Trump and Rudy appear, there are enough stark differences to make the embrace uncomfortable, at least if the blank-slate broadcast interviewers would do a search or two. When Mitt Romney ran against Giuliani, he said Rudy made New York a "sanctuary city," based on Giuliani's urging undocumented people to settle in the city. PoliFact found the assertion "true."

As mayor, Giuliani was the top Republican champion of the assault-weapons ban, sued the gun industry and called for "uniform licensing" of all guns, contending that the free flow of firearms into the city from unregulated states was killing New Yorkers.

Rudy was also one of the only elected pro-choice Republicans who even supported partial birth abortion. He's recently begun to perform same-sex marriages. He is, in all of these respects, an anti-Trump surrogate.

Yet Trump has said he might name Rudy to chair an immigration commission or to head homeland security. Trump apparently forgets that Rudy already gave us one homeland security secretary, his business partner and former correction and police commissioner Bernie Kerik, who blew up like a land mine before he could take office and wound up sentenced to four years in federal prison, partly for lying to the White House.

[rametarin]

Rant

There’s a thing I really hate, but it comes in two flavors.

The first flavor is the intentionally malicious version. Please understand when I’m talking about it, I’m talking about the obvious and specifically malicious version, not the ambiguous, “they could just be an insensitive, privileged asshole” version.

Say you’re depressed or glum because someone has wronged you. I say someone, but I mean a woman. Men typically don’t do this shit, because it just prolongs the social interaction and gives them opportunity to get so mad they decide the impulse to hit you is too great and rage on you.

But you can’t rage the fuck all over women. So naturally they do this shit to antagonize you, knowing they face no consequences unless you will.

So say you’re suffering, as a man, and it is specifically the result of a callous, exploitative, manipulative woman that does something to deny you something. Maybe it’s them taking your money away and due to living conditions, refusing to give it back (and no force on earth can make them give back that cash without the results being the man suffers socially, as a result.) Or take any responsibility for the problems they cause by taking your money.

They have the audacity to ask, in a “I’m concerned” voice and a completely faux caring face, “what’s got you feeling down? :c”

So you explain, thinking by the signaled concern that they may be genuine. Because why would someone ever feign to be what they are not? You explain because of something they’ve done that negatively affects you personally, was completely unnecessary, and social/legal circumstances will not allow you to force or seek any recourse, you’re suffering. It doesn’t matter if you “feel bad” because of your ego, or if you are actually physically suffering and may be exposed to harm or death because of their actions removing things from you.

They don’t say, “Tough,” or “Get over it.” Nope. They don’t want to be confrontational or antagonistic in their callous ‘don’t care’ position, in the notes/minutes of the conversation. So they twist it around to seem like empathy when they passive aggressively question if you’ve “tried to seek help?” or, “figured a way out of the problem yet?”

They know fucking well you can’t and haven’t, because they’ve left you a pile of shit to deal with. But they can’t come fleece you again if you don’t try and help yourself. You explain that no, you cannot. Kind of implying maybe given the circumstances you should give back the shit you took.

The conversation hidden between the lines is, “give me back my thing, stop taking it.”

And the woman in response goes, “Mmmm. Sorry. You should do something about that. :c”

The whole fucking thing just becomes an emotionally manipulative mess to bait you into feeling, corresponding, trying to seek help, and then blueballing you by pulling out and away.

And I’ll let you in on a little secret: Men don’t do this because men who do this would rightfully be strangled half to death. You DON’T do this shit unless you can get away with it, because you only do it to manipulate someone else. The sort of person that deliberately stirs up this hornets nest is ripping up the ropes the man is using to keep down the screaming banshee of anxiety and emotional upset for problems that have no resolution save ones the man himself can afford.

You ripping up the coping mechanism and then going, “yeah you should do something about that” is not only unhelpful, it’s sadistic. And for what? If you’re genuine, it’s a selfish fucking thing to do akin to some fucking conservative like Newt Gingrich telling someone, “just get a job. :^)”

If you’ve actually wronged somebody it’s emotional blackmail to try and get them to fix the problem you’ve created themselves, so there’s less pressing need for you to help them. And may even be a way to get them to have something else to forcibly take things from or coerce that help out of them.

It just comes off as emotionally dishonest if you roll up on someone making empathy noises and then when they beg you for help continue making empathy noises but make it clear you’re not going to do anything to help. Don’t dress up like a superhero and float by the person standing in the burning house unless you intend to actually help them out of the building. “Talking about it” isn’t going to make the burn hurt any less, and you don’t get credit for at least showing interest. It’s just utterly pointless.

We go through life knowing we’re not entitled to even a fourth of the help you get, and if we did this shit to you it’d absolutely, definitely be considered antagonistic. Don’t stir up shit unless you have the means and interest in helping. It gets the hopes up and then just breaks them into pieces. And when it’s used as a WEAPON to gaslight, it’s even more infuriating.

[atheistforhumanity]

A few days ago Sessions announced the formation of a religious liberty task force. This task force comes in combination with an order to all courts and governments to use the broadest interpretation possible of this administration’s previously released 20 principles for religious freedom. The purpose of this task force will be to seek out any “failures” to accommodate religious freedom in their view.

Like many moves from this administration and in politics in general, how this initiative looks on the surface is much different than how it will be implemented in reality. This administration has been defined by regular Orwellian double speak and this is a prime example. When Sessions says religious freedom he really means religious privilege.

What I will do in this post is explain that this administration’s intentions are not religious freedom at all, but rather the enforcement of Christianity on the population.Then at the end I will defend my position as a secularist and atheist in contrast to theirs.

First, we must take an honest look at where this push is coming from. Trump has been criticized widely for trampling the religious freedoms of Muslim people and spouting hate speech since the beginning of his presidential campaign. If you look at a timeline of Trump’s public comments about Muslims, you’ll see that he has professed a very clear disdain for them as a people, has demonized them as terrorists, and toyed with outright persecution of them. These include, but are not limited to, instituting a travel ban, which he said on the campaign trail would be to keep Muslims out, directly calling all Muslim refugees members of Isis, saying that Muslim citizens should have to register with the government, and saying he would seriously consider closing all Mosques in America. All of these comments are the literal antithesis of religious freedom. Not only would it be unreasonable to believe this administration wants to uphold religious freedom for everyone, it would be downright delusional to believe such a claim.

Trump’s anti-Muslim speech and policy only scratches the surface of the problem with the right wing in this country. Conservatives everywhere have been trying to force Christianity into the public sphere by erecting monuments of the 10 Commandments. There has been a constant battle to stop Christians from imposing their beliefs on communities on government property and using tax-payer money. Many conservative law makers such as Mary Fallin and Roy Moore have refused to remove statues in the face of losing their legal battles, where they were ruled to be infringing on other’s religious freedom. Roy Moore in particular was suspended twice from his job as a judge for violating higher courts rulings on his actions to push his religious beliefs.  

In a broader look, right wing politicians have been demonizing secularism and non-belief for years, blaming the lack of Christianity as the direct cause of virtually all of America’s problems. Ted Cruz regularly paints a dismal picture of America, a place filled with demons and in need of being saved through Christian values. He often overlays Biblical mythology on real world events and institutions, claiming signs and prophecies. Most importantly, he clearly promotes Christianity in government with extreme bias and cannot be trusted to uphold protections for others. Mike Huckabee flat out blames school shootings on the fact that God (the Christian one) is not in our public schools and public sphere. Newt Gingrich also blames mass shootings on the removal of God from public life. My point in exposing these comments is that people who feel so strongly that instituting their religion on the public is the solution for social ills cannot be trusted to respect everyone’s freedom of religion. Specifically, the freedom of non-believers. To put a fine point on it, Governor Rick Perry stated that “freedom of religion is not freedom from religion,” expressing a very real and dangerous prejudice from a position of power. These words have an ominous ring as they clearly state their is no escape from religion and no freedom to not be subjected to it. This is clearly the intent of Sessions’s task force. All of these comments, which are only snippets of on going rhetoric from the right prove not only the bias promotion of their own religion, but a real bigotry toward non-belief, which is widespread in this country. Several states still hold unenforceable laws in their state constitutions that ban atheists from serving in pubic office.

So we see Republicans openly express their desire to make their religious beliefs state sanctioned, which would be a direct violation of our constitution. That is exactly what these principles Sessions wants to enforce do. Among this list are provisions to discriminate against LGBTQ in business, schools, and adoptions, and possibly even housing, allowing employers to not cover birth control, rolling back separation of church and state. These are the first steps toward creating a Christian nationalist state that is a true reflection of Middle Eastern countries that force religion on the people and deny freedom to practice other beliefs, especially non-belief.

My Defense of Secularism

“A dangerous movement, undetected by many, is now challenging and eroding our great tradition of religious freedom,” Sessions said, which “must be confronted and defeated.” To be clear here, Sessions is referring to secularism curbing unconstitutional privileges that religion has enjoyed. Sessions called secularism dangerous because of this.

Sessions is referring directly to people like me when he says a “dangerous movement.” I want to be clear that I’m only speaking for myself in my response. I have stated that I want to see the end of religion, because I oppose it on an ideological level and belief it does more harm than good in society. My intent though is to debate religion and promote replacement social movements until we as a society naturally grow out of belief in the supernatural.

Secularism is only the separation of church and state. That’s it. There’s no nefarious intent behind the idea. It’s exactly the opposite. If any religion or non-religion is be treated fairly then the government cannot advocate, take part in, promote, or favor any religion at all. Republicans talk about wanting prayer in school, but think about how you would feel as a Christian if that were Muslim prayer, or Jewish prayer, or Buddhist prayer. What if a court building had a plaque that promoted the old testament and denied the divinity of Jesus Christ? What if teachers started teaching that Zues was a real literal entity and should be worshiped? Secularism is the effort to avoid all these situations so that no one has to be in a situation of having another faith forced on them.

Christians often mistake a philosophy of neutrality to be having non-belief forced on them. This is a reaction to losing privileges that Christianity has enjoyed in this country for many years. Despite all the advantages Christians have had due to their population, this nation was not founded as a Christian nation or on Judeo-Christian values. I won’t go into that argument for now, because that could be an equally long post by itself. But instances such as not having the ten commandments on government property and not having school led prayer are not anti-Christian at all. They are also not meant to only accommodate non-believers. They are designed to keep ALL people on equal footing by keeping faith a private affair.

Conservative Christians often have the misplaced belief that atheists want to create an anti-religious government that will persecute them. First, I’d like to say people often fear others will do to them what they are willing to do or have done to others. This is a prime example. It also the reason they fear Islam. As an atheist I have NO DESIRE to no desire to promote any discriminatory legislation that would stop people from practicing their faith in ways that do not interfere with or harm others. I would never support legislation that gives unequal power to any group in America.

Atheists are often the first people to defend the religious rights of any group and fight against religious oppression, because we understand better than anyone that if one group is not free then everyone is potentially not free.

One of my very first posts on this blog was about how I found it horrifying that Trump would talk about creating a Muslim registry. I don’t want or feel the need to put non-believers in a position of legal advantage over religions. I don’t need to repress religion to win the culture war or to prove it’s fallacies and imperfections. I only need freedom of speech, open knowledge, a government that doesn’t take sides. The real reason that the right wing pushes so hard to maintain legal privileges over others is because their position is weak and they can never win an ideological battle on equal ground.

[fierceautie]

National Coming Out day

October 11 is National Coming Out Day. You can be lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, non-binary, transgender, asexual, queer, or anything in between. It is time to be proud of who you are and your support for queer equality and National Coming Out Day. Over 70% of autistics identify as queer. History This day was inspired by a single march. 500,000 people participated in the March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights on October 11, 1987. It gained momentum to last 4 months after the march ended. During this time, over one hundred LGBTQIA+ identifying people gathered outside Washington, DC, and decided on creating a national day to celebrate coming out. The first National Coming Out day was on October 11, 1988. Rob Eichberg and Jean O'Leary first proposed the idea of the National Coming Out Day. Eichberg founded a personal growth workshop, The Experience, and O'Leary was the leader of the National Gay Rights Advocates. Eichberg said the strongest tool in the human rights movement was to illustrate that most people already know and respect someone in the LGBTQIA+ community and the National Coming Out Day helps these people come to light. He said in an interview, "Most people think they don't know anyone gay or lesbian, and in fact everybody does. It's imperative that we come out and let people know who we are and disabuse them of their fears and stereotypes." Over the last 15 years, the Human Rights Campaign has chosen a theme for each National Coming Out Day. 2014 and 2013 were themed "Coming Out Still Matters," and the first theme (1999) was "Come Out to Congress." There have been numerous spokespeople for each National Coming Out Day. They include Fraiser actor Dan Butler and Candace Gingrich, half-sister to Newt Gingrich in the 1990s. National Coming Out day gains popularity and participants each year. Since its inception, countless public figures and celebrities have openly come out as queer. Every year, people share messages of support and hope with those who are still in the closet. This event plans to continue its effort to end hate and queerphobia with friends and family coming out to smash stereotypes. My Coming Out Story I was suppressed with who I was as a person due to my experience with ABA as a child. I was afraid of who I was and that I was not good enough. When I was a young child, I saw a lesbian wedding on News 12 NY because my father always had to watch the news while we ate dinner. I said, "Two girls can get married?! That's so cool!" I always knew I was different than "other girls." As I said this, my parents freaked out. In 7th grade, someone spread a rumor in my school that I was a lesbian. I did not even know what that word meant. After I found out, remembering how my parents reacted to seeing the wedding on TV, I was in denial for a long time. I was never a lesbian but attracted to more than one gender. I just tried my hardest to be liked by the other kids in my school but after a while, I just kept to myself. After going away to college, I moved to the Adirondacks. I got married to my husband. My mother came up for a visit. My husband needed the car for something, so my mother drove me to work. On the way there, I asked her, "What would you do if I was bi?" She told me she wouldn't want to know. I said nothing for the entire way to work. I never brought it up with her again. I was left to figure out who I was by myself. I was afraid to say anything to my husband and that was the worst thing I could have done. He wound up being really accepting. After getting involved with the autistic community, I realized feeling different was because I was non-binary but it took me years to come to this realization. So during pride month, I made this post on my private Facebook page and my public one: "TW: suicide, me being suicidal To end Mental Health Awareness month, I did some self-reflection. The more I think about it, the more I realize my partner and his family saved my life. I am serious. When I tripped on him that day at the college dorm, I was really at my lowest. My own family didn't want me home and I was really rescued by them. I was suicidal. If my own family didn't want me, what was the point? I hadn't come up with a plan yet. I grew up in a loveless family and always made to believe everything was my fault, and questioning my existence. As we grew together, and got engaged one month after meeting (yes I KNOW), we grew together. I met his mom who became my mom for all intents and purposes. As we grew together, I started to unpack the trauma I had been burying all these years. He helped me figured out that I was autistic, he helped me kick my toxic family to the curb. In living like that, I became who my family wanted me to be and I had to discover who I was. He has been so supportive through that. Experimenting with different things that I wasn't sure worked for me and I had to figure that out. The one time my mother had a visit to up state NY, I asked her in the car,"What would you do if I told you I was bi?" She said "I wouldn't want to know" Years later after having children, adopting children and getting involved with the autistic community, I discovered I am non binary. But I questioned it FOR YEARS. I was back and forth with it. Even with that, my partner has been so supportive. He even helped me put up our jewish pride flag, which really needs to be replaced because it has seen better days. I don't think anyone would have put up with that. (For those wondering, I am keeping the title Mom because it did not come easy for me. I worked so hard for it, I am not giving it up. ) Even when I did talk to my mother and she offered to help me kill myself, he stepped in. When I say he saved my life, I am serious. We are going on 21 years and still going strong. He pushed me to see a psychiatrist to get on medication because for a long time, I didn't think I deserved it. I am so happy I did. I am feeling so much better Right now I feel so lucky to have him and all my children in my life. I really couldn't be happier. It's so appropriate that Mental Health Month goes right into Pride Month." After I came out, I got an email from my Rabbi. I had mentioned that our Jewish pride flag was getting tattered and has seen other days. He offered to replace it. I was so emotional because my whole life as a child, I was never accepted for who I was. To this day, my husband is super supportive. Even bought our genderfluid child pride ice cream without looking at the flavor. It was funny for all but they loved the ice cream. This is such a contrast between how I was treated growing up and watching my kids being free to be who they are. sources: https://www.hrc.org/resources/national-coming-out-day https://lgbtq.gmu.edu/programs-services/national-coming-out-day/ https://nationaltoday.com/national-coming-out-day/ Read the full article

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President Trump’s performance at Monday’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin was “disgusting” and “wrong,” Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto said.

Trump's acceptance of Putin’s denials of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election was “lame,” Fox News anchor Brit Hume said.

Trump “threw the United States under the bus” in Helsinki, Fox News reporter John Roberts said.

Fox News did not ride to the president’s rescue after the summit, joining a bipartisan scrum of lawmakers and political commentators who condemned Trump’s comments alongside the Russian leader.

It was a stunning, if temporary, turn for Trump’s preferred network. He deliberately takes Fox News’s questions over CNN’s, speaks regularly by phone with Fox host Sean Hannityand has turned “Fox & Friends” into a vehicle for his agenda and talking points.

Fox News hosts have been known to speak directly to him — an audience of one.

But anchors on Fox and its sister network, Fox Business, were moved to sharply criticize Trump’s asides blaming his own country for the tension in the United States' relationship with Russia and his remarks casting doubt on the U.S. intelligence community's assessments of Russian election interference.

Cavuto, a host on Fox Business and Fox News, blasted Trump in a segment in which he directly addressed the president.

“On foreign soil at least, you might consider praising our enemies less,” Cavuto said.

“What worries me about you, Mr. President, is you seem to say only good things about your enemies, our enemies, and to hell with your friends, our friends,” Cavuto added, in reference to Trump calling the European Union a U.S. “foe” and his criticisms of the NATO alliance.

The Russian aggression in Ukraine, the threats to Russian journalists, and other nefarious actions that have been attributed to Putin's government should give Trump pause in how he views a relationship with the Russian leader, Cavuto said.

The summit “set us back a lot,” Cavuto added.

On Tuesday, Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo wondered whether the summit was an inflection point for the loyalties among administration officials.

“There are questions that we could see resignations. We’ll see about that; we’ll see how long-lasting this is,” Bartiromo said during a discussion with anchor Dagen McDowell. “It was probably the low point of the presidency so far. What’s more important obviously is the deals that he can do with Russia.”

Fox News Channel’s flagship morning show, which typically offers glowing praise and fierce defense of Trump, was left at moments aghast and bewildered by his remarks ahead of the summit.

On Monday, Trump had said on Twitter that “our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!”

It incensed “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade.

“That’s by far the most ridiculous tweet of late, and that is insulting to past administrations. He can’t be saying that going into the Russian summit,” Kilmeade said.

On Tuesday, after Trump fired back at what he called a “Fake News” response to the summit, the “Fox & Friends” hosts agreed that the president seems unable to separate allegations of campaign collusion with Russia from the Kremlin's mission to disrupt the 2016 election.

“Russia’s goal was to upend our electoral process. They hate democracy,” the hosts said, ticking off names of prominent and staunch Republicans who have said there is evidence of Russian election interference, including Newt Gingrich. “Pretty much everyone and their brother, except Vladimir Putin, knows that there was meddling,” cohost Steve Doocy said.

Later on Tuesday, Trump sought to control damage from his actions in Helsinki, saying he accepted the intelligence community’s findings about Russian meddling.

Trump had been “taking it on the chin” from Republicans and Democrats alike, Fox’s Roberts said on Monday.

Trump’s mission was to appear diplomatic, the White House correspondent said, “but there is a growing consensus across the land that tonight the president threw the United States under the bus.”

However, not everyone at Fox News criticized Trump and the summit.

“You were very strong at the end of that news conference,” Hannity told Trump in an interview after the news conference with Putin.

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