#also its real bullshit to throw out a bill to be voted on and throw in things not related to the bill itself

[crimsonxe]

I'll put this below a cut cause its aimed at particular grievance and is long:

@scottsumrners Since I'm not one to veer away from going at know-nothing up-own-ass chucklefuck bitches like yourself: I need nor want Biden to fuck me, I just need him to:

not remove the women's rights that are left

not throw away LGBT+ rights and criminalize being LGBT+

not turn this country into an authoritarian military enforced hellscape

not quote Hitler (like orange bastard on the opposite side

maintain a status quo as opposed to falling into a fascist authoritarian regime

Oh and little ignorant bitch, being center-left is not "right-wing cuck"; its called having ones head in reality and not up ones own ass in some delusional idiotic view on things. Like realizing that a President nor government body is capable of waving a magic pen to make real far left shit. Universal healthcare/single-payer? Not going to happen so long as there's a right-wing and independent actors that stand against it; because a President doesn't get a magic wand to wave to make it real. Student loan forgiveness? Shut down by the right. Voting rights bill? Oh look another thing that'd require more dems to vote for it. On and on in this vein, where your dipshit type fail to grasp how systems work. Not even diving into you actually sabotaging the left and all of its causes, because you serve as the perfect example of far leftist types. The type that makes sane reasonable ones like myself's jobs that much harder, while we're trying to make steady smaller advancements that actually do shit; your moronic type bitches and whines over that not being far enough. An easy example to go to is how universal healthcare/single-payer isn't going to happen by one wave of a magic pen, cause the right exists to block it and a President isn't supposed to be an authoritarian supreme power forcing through things. However one can gradually elect more people that are for it and steadily build it up till finally being able to have it actually pass. But ones like you are incapable of grasping that reality thinking the dems just choose not to pursue it cause its not their fancy; rather than the system not allowing it. I may despise the Trump right-wing, but I'll give them credit in actually seeding a lot of shit over decades of time that allowed them to have such a massive upheaval that set the clock back in recent times. Its something far leftists should consider cause as bad as the right version was is as much potential beneficial good as a left version could be if they'd drop the damn purity tests.

Also ftr a 3rd party option isn't a damn thing, since there's not a chance in hell they'll actually get enough votes from the EC to actually win anything. They're a wasted vote, which in this upcoming case is a pro-Trump vote by indirect consequence. Something you'd think your dumbass type would've learned from 2016.

So take your far-left head-up-your-own-ass ignorant/naive bullshit and shove it right up next to where your head is associated. Oh and ftr "him", are you pushing a gender onto me? Cause that'd be a very right-winger thing to do. For most people I don't really give a shit as I go by all pronouns, but when a self-righteous little prick decides to try to step into my territory I'll call that shit out. Now do crawl your sorry pathetic shitbag ass back to whatever cesspit you call home. The only thing you've shown here that I've already said in the past is that far-left and right are just mirrors of each other, using the exact same tactics and attacks towards anyone not getting in lockstep with you. I was going to ignore the other post cause your little bitch ass pal ran their mouth off without having a clue about what they were talking about (or even having the comprehension skills to grasp that the "supporting Trump" part of my post had nothing to do with RWBY side), but then you did a 2nd post so I shifted instead to a fuck you.

Oh and a last note if your sorry ignorant ass thinks that the orange bastard is going to be better in regards to Gaza, then I'll metaphorically laugh my goddamn ass off at your idiocy.

[thechekhov]

Hi! I saw on a post that you're agender and I'm kinda questioning my gender (again) but what interested me more about that post was that you said you believe that gender is a social construct and I'm not really familiar with that theory. I was wondering if you could explain to me what the whole idea is? (bc I kinda only feel like a have a gender in social situations? In my head, my dreams and how I picture myself in the future, I'm genderless idjskahwksjejensj) Sorry for bothering you if I did.

This is a BIG topic and it opens a LOT of wormholes. 

We’re gonna do this in pie slice statements that will hopefully help explain what I mean. Please keep in mind I’m going to simplify many things for the sake of readability.

1) What is a social construct? 

Social constructs are ideas that are negotiated by social groups. Something being a social construct does not make it ‘not real’. 

For example, money is a social construct. Yes, we have cash - coins, credit cards - but these are physical props that are REPRESENTATIVE of the idea of currency. You have some form of credit to your name - the money is a socially agreed-upon idea of value being represented by bills in your hand, by numbers in your bank account. 

[Description: Two humanoid figures are standing side by side. The right-side figure is holding a rock in its hand. 

Right side figure: Let’s agree that this shiny rock is worth 2 sheep.

Left side figure: Sounds fake but ok.]

Technically, countries are also social constructs. We, as a society, negotiate what a country is, and this can be changed.

[Description: Two figures are standing on either side of a dotted line drawn on the ground. The left figure is pointing down at it while the right figure watches, its arms crossed.

Left figure: Let’s pretend that everything on this side of the imaginary line is mine.

Right figure: ...ok but my house is over there.

Left figure: ... for 3 shiny rocks you can come visit.]

Does that mean canada isn’t real? No. (I mean, obviously canada ISN’T real, but we all agree to pretend it is.) The thing that makes it real is that we are in agreement, and all follow the social rules of pretend to make it seem like the Canadian border, the idea of Canadian citizenship, etc... is an objective fact. (It’s not. These are in fact, negotiable limits and parameters. We have laws in place to define it in legal terms, but those laws can be changed, or may change in the minds of communities. That’s why it’s a construct.)

By that same token, I hold the view that gender, as we largely perceive it in modern society, is a construct. Why? Because it is not inherent; we, as a society, negotiate its meaning. 

2) What is gender? 

People will probably fight me on this and that’s fine, but here’s my (simplified) understanding of gender (from someone who personally has none)

Gender is a social category negotiated by cultures based on your assigned or desired role in your community that influences, among many other things, your physical appearance, your role in family units, your expected position in jobs, etc. 

How I think it happened:

[Description: Two figures are standing on either side of the panel, both holding children-looking figures. The one on the left is wearing purple. The one on the right is wearing green.

Green figure: Hey, I’ve got an idea. What if we separate the babies into two groups based on physical traits they have no control over?

Purple figure: Wh-- okay...?

Green figure: And then limit the jobs they can do and the community ritual involvement available to them based on that!

Purple figure: ... I feel like this is going to backfire on us someday.

Green figure: Nah, it’ll be fine.

The past panel is a dramatic closeup on the purple figure’s face - which is featureless - betraying a deeply doubtful emotion. It says nothing.]

Important points to remember: what gender looks like, what the limits are, what the expectations are... are not inherent to any human biology. We make up gender roles. This is evident in the fact that across the world, gender roles differ by culture. The positions people of a certain gender are allowed to take up are different. What is perceived to be ‘girly’ or ‘boyish’ is different across cultures. 

Simply speaking - currently the (western) model we have, dumbed down, is:

You are assigned male at birth because of physical characteristics

You are raised being told to ‘toughen up’ and ‘boys don’t cry’ and encouraged not to show emotions

You are taught to wear male-coded clothes and discouraged from female-coded fashion choices

You are given more opportunities to participate in sports, encouraged to engage in physical activity, etc

You are not expected to need time off for child-rearing 

Here’s where gender as it works in society breaks down into being not a real thing but instead something we thought up: 

Nothing about having a penis necessitates wearing pants. Nothing about having XY chromosomes means you need to keep your hair short. Nothing about your genome makes the experience of nail-polish different for any human being. 

All of these are arbitrary traits we decided were allowed or not allowed to a specific group of people based on entirely unrelated physiology. 

Even if we delve deeper, there is MORE variation among individuals of the same ‘sex’ than there are, on average, of members of the ‘opposite sex’ when compared to each other. 

Many people use the excuse ‘women are physically not as strong as men’ to say that this has an evolutionary aspect driving these cultural, historical, socially-constructed gender requirements. 

But if there was a physical reasoning behind the culturally-set gender-limited job expectations, then we actually WOULDN’T need a traditional binary gender system to sort ourselves into categories. It would simply be decided as a meritocracy - stronger individuals, regardless of gender, would be given physically-demanding jobs. (Also we know that many jobs thought to be ‘traditionally male’ are just the result of sexist bullshit, so this reasoning doesn’t fly any further than I can throw it which is, coincidentally, not very far. Politics is one such area. Doctors are another. We can go on but I think you get my drift.)

My own example of this is an anecdote when my grandparents came to visit my partner and I in Japan. While we were driving down to Tokyo, my grandmother - who has a PhD in entomology - began to say that driving is a masculine activity and women shouldn’t be driving as it was ‘un-woman-like’. My partner almost immediately fired back that in Japan, studying insects or having any interest in them whatsoever was considered a heavily masculine-coded activity. In Russia, there is no such assignment, and my grandmother was left silently blinking in confusion, unable to come up with any excuse except ‘well, all cultures are different, I suppose...’

Do either of these things inherently have a gendered aspect? Of course not! But we assign gendered ideals to them anyway.

3) If gender is made up and constructed by society, then does that mean trans people aren’t real?

No.

Even if you agree that gender is a social construct, trans people are still real. TERFs don’t get a pass. Why? 

Because gender - as a social construct - still affects our everyday lives, dictates our social position in our community. Transitioning is still a thing that has to happen. The fact that you are NOT easily able to decide your own gender and are ostracized for wanting to transition, abused for dressing the way you want to be perceived, and bullied for wanting people to refer to you with different pronouns - all those are the effects of a social construct that has very REAL impact on our lives.

This is also why I dislike defining trans-ness by dysphoria. Because transgender people are not only their suffering - the suffering is coming from the outside!! Many trans people remember not being concerned about their gender identity in their childhood, because they did not yet perceive the world as being hostile to their desire to fulfil a specific role in society. The issues and self-hatred and dysphoria begins when they express wanting to be themselves - a life which they are forbidden from pursuing based on physical characteristics they were born with.

Does this mean we should try to remove gender from society? If we constructed it, we can deconstruct it, right?

Realistically, I highly doubt this is possible. Gender is so ingrained in our daily lives that it would be difficult. Nor, I would say, would it be necessary to achieve world peace. 

Having social groups - having gender - isn’t inherently a bad thing. The bad thing is when we limit those social groups to specific basic human rights, like voting, or when we forbid them from transitioning from one to another based on things that are out of their control. 

Also, I’m not saying genitals and secondary sexual characteristics aren’t real. Please don’t bother sending me that angry message, I’ll ignore it, I promise. 

But the concept of gender IS something we thought up and maintain and negotiate with each other to this very day. It’s not granted to us by a higher power, nor is it a constant, unchanging thing. It’s a part of the human experience and like everything, it has the potential to evolve - as a concept in our communal memory, as well as on an individual level, for people who feel they want to be perceived differently. 

Thanks for coming to my TEDtalk!

[elliot-orion]

Introducing...

The Empath

“When you are angry, I get hives. When you are scared, I throw up. There is nothing you can feel that I won’t feel ten times over. So no, it’s never felt like a blessing. It just feels like hell.” 

I have no idea how to make a summary for a short story/novella/whatever this is going to wind up being, especially when i don’t actually know whether it’s going to extend past what i have planned (which will probably be about 15,000 words) or not. which makes this... difficult, but also i really need to talk about my babes so we are making this. So... uh... i guess under the cut i’ll just talk about the characters and weave in the plot i have planned, and if it winds up going past this small side project into novel territory, I’ll reintroduce it. Good plan. Someone take my blog away from me because i’m bad at this...

Charlie Diangelo: Charlie is 100% the reason i am making this post instead of just posting the story like i was intending to do, because holy SHIT i need to talk about him. Charlie is the Empath, who is probably the most powerful empath in the country, maybe the most powerful in the world even idk. But its really shitty, because the way his empathetic abilities work, is he gets different bodily reactions to emotions. So not only does he mentally get the “yep, they are feeling worried” thing, his fingers and feet start tingling and going numb, or if they are feeling disgusted, his jaw locks up. That sorta thing. He has to live in the middle of nowhere with only his partners really seeing him, because otherwise, he could very literally die from the effects of the emotions on his body. fun! Personality wise, he’s a big ol’ sweetheart and a complete bean, who just wants his partners to stop fuCKING GETTING HURT DAMN IT! He’s cottagecore to a fucking fault and genuinely enjoys the quiet, and is pretty happy living out there. (so of course the SA has to go fuck it up...) 

Hollis: One of Charlies 3 partners. They are the Hero, Stopwatch, and can stop time. duh. They are pretty good at it, have good range, stamina, whatever. They are probably 75% of the quads impulse control, and the only one keeping them all from killing themselves.  The other 25% goes to Charlie who is trying to keep Hollis from killing themself. Because don’t let their mature and responsible air fool you Hollis will 100% come home stabbed and bleeding to death, and say it’s nothing, they are ready to fight again. They just don’t know how to sit still when people are getting hurt and they could do something about it (even though “you were just STABBED you CAN’T do something so sit back doWN FOR FUCKS SAKE”) But for real, Hollis deserves more credit than they get for wrangling a chaotic neutral dumbass who needs to be on a leash i stfg, someone who doesn’t even wear earrings anymore because she is so DTF at all points in time, and a bisexual who everyone thinks is distinguished, but is very much a disaster. 

Nora Stone: She’s supposedly a Villain, the Succubus, which is really, really misleading, because 1, she’s gray-asexual and doesn’t even flirt when using her powers so like wtf, and only got the name because she really likes fancy clothes and 2 she’s not even a Villain, more of a thief, but because she called a bunch of politicians and told them to vote no on a really corrupt bill of the SA’s that didn’t wind up passing because of her, so the SA made her a Villain so they could punish her extra hard if she got captured. So there’s THAT. Her powers are just that she has a ‘special voice’ as Charlie calls it, and if she uses it, someone has to do what she says. She pretty much just uses it to get Gucci without paying though, and like, getting jobs for her parents because no one hires Super immigrants (”tHeY mUsT bE vIlLaInS sEnT tO dEsTrOy Us” bullshit). She’s protective of her partners and loves her family and community to death, and has used her voice to help people and for activism many times, because she can help save people with a phone call to a politician, so why WOULDN’T she? Nora was actually the first of the quad i made and the only one who hasn’t been changed a dozen times, which is a cool fun fact too. 

Oscar: Oscar has probably been changed the most, but i am very happy with where he is now. He’s the Villain, High Flier, and has pretty strong air powers. Like, pretty damn strong here, though not quite Elemental strong. And unlike Nora, he is... very much an actual Villain, and is also an International Villain, so that’s like a Big Deal. He likes just causing big ass wind storms with hurricane/tornado level wind speeds. Fun! Though tbh, he doesn’t cause destruction and whatnot to be MEAN or hurt people, he just likes chaos and having fun, and standing in the middle of a gigantic tornado with buildings flying around him is his idea of fun, so... *shrug.* He’s definitely almost given Hollis an aneurysm like 8 times, and makes all of them super stressed because he goes on trips and won’t come home for like 2 months, and postcards aren’t really enough when you know whole countries want to shoot your boyfriend, you feel? He’s super sweet with his partners though, and always comes home for holidays and birthdays and brings really thoughtful gifts from everywhere he goes for them. He’s just antsy and needs to keep moving, and probably only has two feet on the ground when he’s cuddling with his partners, every other time he is floating on wind.  But also, he’s not really Sparky, hyperactive, ADHD, like, he’s more just restless, wanderlust, must see everything this world has to offer, sorta thing, and gets really depressed if he stays in one place for too long. Though, yea, he’s totally got ADHD too, lol.  I love Oscar to death, ngl, out of the whole quad, he and charlie are my favs. (sorry nora and Hollis, i love you too)

That’s pretty much the characters, and in a short sentence, the plot is the SA fuckin ruins their breakfast and makes Charlie do something he really should not be doing but he’s going to do it anyways because it means he keeps his partners safe. So fun stuff!! This probably will be posted, most likely a dual posting here and on Wattpad. Hopefully doing that will kick my butt in gear and make me put up Hell in High Heels again. (sorry but ATDADT is not going back up, it sucks ass, not happening. Plus i might make it into a full novel. It’s up in the air) (actually would hell in high heels make a good novel to? .... i need to fucking STOP with the DHU already holy shit someone take my imagination from me...)

tag list! lmk if you want on or off! @albatris @ageekyreader @dreamcontagion@merigreenleaf @knightedwriter @norawritess @simplesamples I’m not doing the sparks fly tag list because idk if they actually want other stories in the DHU, but let me know if you two do want to be on the whole DHU tag list, same with everyone else!

[yobaba30]

~ Tim Wise

1/ If the Dems blow this election it will not be because they were "too far left on policy" or because they "weren't left enough." It will have little to do with policy at all. They are making a mistake caused by traditional consultant theory that does not apply here...

2/ And by listening to influential pundits in liberal media who also don't get the unique nature of Trumpism, relative to normal political movements & campaigns...this election is NOT going to be won by talking about all your "great plans" for health care, jobs, education, etc..

3/ And the reasons are several...Let me begin by saying that I have experience confronting the kind of phenomenon we see in Trumpism, and far more than most. Any of us who were involved in the fight against David Duke in LA in 90/91 know what this is and how it must be fought...

4/ So before explaining what the Dems are doing wrong right now, a little history...In 1990, white supremacist David Duke ran for U.S. Senate in LA, and in 1991 for Governor. He lost both times but both times he won the majority of the white vote (60 and 55% respectively)...

5/ I was one of the staffers of the main anti-Duke PAC at the time & ultimately became Assistant Director. In 90, even though our Director Lance Hill, myself & a few of our founders wanted to focus on Duke's bigotry, ties to extremists and appeals to white racial resentment...

6/ ...after all, that WAS the issue--it was a moral struggle against racism--we had mainstream Democratic consultants who warned us against focusing too much on it. They said that "played into Duke's hands" and allowed him to set the agenda....

7/ So sure, we could discuss his ties to Nazis & such, but we shouldn't make a big deal out of his contemporary racist appeals, per se, bc "lots of voters agree" with those appeals...they even encouraged us to talk about utterly superfluous shit like Duke paying his taxes late..

8/ Or Duke avoiding service in Vietnam, or Duke writing a sex manual under a female pseudonym (yeah he did that)...although Lance held firm that we needed to talk mostly about racism, we did end up talking about some of that other stuff too, sadly...

9/ I say "sadly" because doing that normalized Duke as a regular candidate. Attacking his generic character or bill paying habits (or even discussing his inadequate plans for job creation, etc) treated him like a normal candidate. But he was/is a NAZI...

10/ And none of his voters were voting 4 him bc of jobs, or tax policy or support for term limits, etc. And none were going to turn on him over late tax payments, Vietnam, etc. Indeed throwing that stuff out there & downplaying the elephant in the room (racism) seemed desperate..

11/ It allowed people to say "well if he's really this racist, white supremacist, why are they talking about all this other stuff?" It actually undermined our ability to paint him as the extremist he was/is. And as a result, the threat he posed was not clear enough to voters...

12/ And this didn't just allow him to get votes he might not have gotten otherwise; it also depressed turnout among people who almost certainly disliked him but didn't think he could win or would be all that big a deal if he did. In fact I recall convos with "liberals"...

13/ ...Who said they weren't going 2 vote bc after all Duke's Dem opponent was just a shill for the oil and gas industry, and that was just as bad, blah blah fucking blah...because some lefties can't tell the difference between corporatist assholes and actual literal Nazis...

14/ But we bore some responsibility for that because we got suckered into playing this conventional game and "not playing into his narrative." Anyway, Duke gets 60% of the vote, black and white liberal turnout is lower than it should have been and Duke gets 44% of vote...

15/ In the Governor's race we dispensed w/ all that bullshit. We talked about Duke's ongoing Nazism and the moral/practical evil of his racist appeals. We discussed how that moral evil would have real world consequences (driving tourists and business away, rightly so, from LA)..

16/ Because it was wrong, and it was not who we wanted to be, and it was not who were were. We were better than that and needed to show the rest of the country that...

17/ Now, did this flip any of Duke's 1990 voters? Nah, not really. Indeed he got 65k MORE votes in the Governor's race than the Senate race. But it was never about flipping them. We knew that would be almost impossible...

18/ To flip Duke voters would require that they accept the fact that they had previously voted for a monster, and people are loath to do that. Our goal was not to flip them, but to DRIVE UP TURNOUT among the good folks, many of whom stayed home in 90...

19/ And that is what happened. The concerted effort of the anti-Duke forces (not just us), challenging Duke's "politics of prejudice," and making the election about what kind of state we wanted to be, drove turnout through the roof...

20/ 28,000+ registered on one day alone, between the initial election and runoff (which Duke made bc of the state's open primary system), with tens of thousands more overall: most of them, anti-Duke folks...

21/ When it was over, Duke had gotten 65k more votes than in 90, but his white share went to 55 (from 60) and overall to 39 (from 44) because the anti-Duke turnout swamped him...So what does this have to do with 2020 and Trump? Do I really need to explain it?...

22/ First, trying to flip Trump voters is a waste of time. Any of them who regret their vote don't need to be pandered to. They'll do the right thing. Don't focus on them. That said, very few will regret their vote. They cannot accept they voted for a monster or got suckered...

23/ Duke retained 94% of the folks he got the first time out (and got new people too), as Trump likely will. So forget these people--or at least don't wast time tailoring messages to them. And policy plans for affordable college don't mean shit to them, nor health care...

24/ Their support for Trump was never about policy. It was about the bigotry, the fact that he hates who they hate...Second, as for the "undecideds." ...Not many of these but seriously? If you're still undecided at this point about this guy...

25/ Then there is almost no way to know what would get you to make up your mind...I doubt it's a plan to deal with Wall Street though, or infrastructure, or tax policy...

26/ If anything, I would say crafting an argument that this is an existential crisis for the nation--and making it about Trump's bigotry and who we want to be as a country, would be far more effective in inspiring them to make up their minds...

27/ And what I know for a FACT is that this message--that Trumpism is a threat to everything we care about and love about this country--is what will inspire the Dem base to vote...and THAT is what this election is about...

28/ I'm not saying the Dems don't need policy ideas, but focusing on wonky, look-how-much-I've-thought about-this stuff is not going to move the needle in 2020...

29/ What the left never understands is: we need to stop approaching elections like the goddamned debate team, and start approaching it like the right does, like the cheer leading squad...

30/  The right knows psychology and we know public policy and sociology...great. The latter does not win elections...

31/ People who say the Dems should ignore Trump's race baiting because its some genius political strategy calculated to distract us, are idiots. He is no genius. And if you downplay it you NORMALIZE him. If you make this about policy, you NORMALIZE him. He is a racist...

32/ He is a white nationalist.

He is an authoritarian.

He and his cult are a threat to the future of the nation and world because of their hatreds.

His movement betrays the country's promise.

THAT is the message that will drive turnout. Not debates over marginal tax rates...

33/ Or how we are going to fund schools...And anyone who says we should ignore the race baiting to talk more about Mueller and Russia is an even bigger fool...that's like talking about Duke and late tax payments or other corruptions...it might all be true but is not the point...

34/ Not to say the House shouldn't impeach over that stuff. They should. But the 2020 candidates must craft a message that is not about that.

Trumpism is the threat to America, more than Putin.

And Putin didn't birth Trumpism.

Conservative White America did...

[narrowtriangle33-blog]

Quotes that accurately describe White Trump Voters.

"It’s not just that he’s white. White people sneer at, mock, ostracize, and generally hate on other white people all the time. It’s that he DELIVERS RACISM and THAT is the priority to his base. This is what gets me when writers and thinkers wring their hands in befuddlement, like Nichols is doing, about how Trump’s base can “vote against their own interests.” They’re not! They’re prioritizing the babies in cages, the “shithole countries” remarks, the deadly Charlottesville clashes with literal fucking Nazis, etc OVER health care, transitioning the economy away from fossil fuels, education, assistance to the poor, and whatever other liberal agenda items one would think would be natural, rational fits for the Cleti everywhere.

These people are absolutely voting in their own interests, and getting exactly what they wanted out of the Trump admin. He has been a tremendous success in their eyes because he has delivered racism since Day 1, and that’s what they want out of politics."

"This, They will never -ever- admit it, outside of trolling on the net, but Trump has done more to support their views and find great joy in it then any GOP member before.

He’s all but given up on the dog whistles, once he found out that the media will simply ‘tut-tut’ and that delights his base. Even when he does something that will fuck them over, they overlook it because he continues to advance their agenda with huge leaps. Most of the never-Trumpers discovered early on that going against him can lead to getting primaried and Mitch is content to let Trump do whatever the fuck he wants with limited disagreement, because he’s busy installing GOP goal friendly judges everywhere.

The DNC’s response has been to avoid rocking the boat as much as they can by offering up Joe with a bone thrown to black people with a possable black woman VIP. (If that even happens), but the chances are high that Trump will get another four years to continue to do as he likes. And what will the Dems do? Protest and throw shade and offer limited resistance that won’t slow down Trump for a second.

People don’t like to even entertain the idea that Trump will win, but without a huge number of people turning out against them, what else can they expect will happen?"

"My father HATED John Wayne with a burning passion that I remember from age 3-4! He loved Westerns but he would spend the entire movie foaming at the mouth at all the racist tropes and outright historical lies of each one of them! Honestly, although he loved thoughtful rap, I think he idolized Chuck D for simply uttering his infamous lyric!

Now that I’ve reached a certain age, I find I love Westerns too - but not John Wayne, Clint Eastwood or any old ones. I like the newer ones that speak to what deplorables white cowboys were: The Revenant, Bone Tomahawk, Hostiles and the like. They’re still white-centered and white-washed but any modern thinking person can see that the cowboy image should stand for nothing but a savagely cruel, thieving, raping murderer (and we’ve been consistently lied to)."

"Does Trump accept responsibility and look out for his team? Not in the least. In this category, he exhibits one of the most unmanly of behaviors: He’s a blamer. Nothing is ever his fault."

"This is nothing but rose-colored bullshit. Anyone who’s ever spent more than 5 minutes working in corporate life knows for the most part this isn’t how white men behave. Those offices are full of extremely mediocre men who are very confident and have nothing to back it up with other than their bluster, egos, and the generational wealth that allows them a leg up over others. That generational wealth allows them to go to the diploma mills that open doors for them. Admitting mistakes or even admitting just not knowing something in that environment comes off as weakness to them. They spend most of their energy trying to project the image of confidence and control, which is why they’re quick to rage when things don’t go their way. A good example is the douche bag running Quibi that gave that horrendus interview a couple of weeks ago. He was asked a couple of questions about why his company was failing while other streaming services are thriving, and where they might have went wrong in their business model. He didn’t accept responsibility for shit. He went into his hurt little feelings and attacked the interviewer, and tried to make the questions seem like they weren’t valid.

On steroids this white American exceptionalist world view is called patriotism. It manifests in the idea that we as a country can do things counter intuitive the rest of the world just because we’re the USA. More mass shootings by far than any other country? USA! Other countries have cheap/free education through college? So what, USA! Biden even displayed this during one of the debates when Warren pointed out the same disparity in our healthcare compared to every other developed nation. Guess how he responded.

I feel like I started rambling a little but what I’m trying to get at is that whiteness, toxic masculinity, and patriotism are so intertwined that its beyond the author of that Trump think piece."

"Funnily enough as the article and subject matter were in regard to racism in the US I didn’t feel a burning need to mention Indigenous Australians but to answer your question they are pretty much in the same boat as black Americans. Did anything I say imply otherwise or were you just fishing for an argument?

"Stupid as it is, “You’re a manly-man, right? So why is your manly-man leader such a cowardly little pussy?”

That’s not what he projects and that’s not what they see. They see him using aggressive and accusatory tones and language all the time and it makes him look tough."

They fall for the “Emporor Has No Clothes” routine because they never look at him critically. They buy the bullshit on the surface, and don’t see that his words never match his actions. He said on tv several times that if anyone in the country wants a Covid test, they can get tested. Ask them how many people they know whose jobs don’t require it, have actually been tested. He down played the death toll of this disaster every step of the way. Remember when we were supposed to be in church for Easter? As long as he lies with confidence, they’ll follow him to hell."

"I’m definitely tired, and frustrated, and everything else. I keep holding my nose and voting, and that only adds to the exhaustion and frustration because very little if anything seems to change, and in some ways we keep repeating the mistakes of the past. I’d never advocate for doing nothing, but trying to engage and challenge the average Republican-voting dipshit to think critically, and not keep supporting people and policies that perpetuate and exacerbate the problems this country has??? No thanks. If you’re not black, I so encourage you to take up that mantle, but for me as a black dude in this country I can’t. Talk about shooting the messenger. Plus, to keep it a buck, this is mostly white people’s mess, if not all. They need to fix it.

Honestly I feel like racism festers because most white people just look the other way. The racism of their peers/friends/relatives doesn’t impact them personally so they’re probably just people to be avoided. Why rock the boat when you can just avoid an uncomfortable topic? Joe might forward you Fox News and OANN stories, and racist FB memes, but he’s fun at Bills games. Well what if Joe is also a cop, or in a management position over minorities? You can bet money he takes those views you overlooked with him to his job. The PoC he interacts with won’t have the benefit of seeing him at Bills games, or might not even have the benefit of being seen as equals."

"People get so caught up in the blatant, mustache-twirling racism that they don’t see the subtle pervasive way it spreads like a cancer. For every Trump there are dozens Joes, and along with the Joes are the real problem: The people who ignore the Joes. The Joes and Karens go on to commit all kinds of microaggressions that Poc pretty much have to tolerate, and in Joe’s and Karen’s minds that’s just the way the world works. I deserved to get followed around Joe’s store. I came in wearing a hoodie and Adidas so I couldn’t be up to any good. Karen felt threatened when I walked into the building she lives in, so she felt justified to call the police, never mind the fact that I live there too. This is how deep this shit runs. It’s not just politics. Racism isn’t just baked into politics. It’s part of the flour the US was baked with.

So I appreciate you if you’re willing to call these fools out. I’m glad somebody is because I’m not wasting my breath. They won’t hear me anyway."

"I mean if Tom Nichols was in front of me and read this steaming pile of shit to me I would’ve slapped him silly and said the reason that people that look like you excuse all of his fuck ups, failings and mistakes is because well HE LOOKS LIKE YOU!!!! The question that none of these mouth breathing chud monkeys seem to want to answer or are incapable of answering is would you excuse any black, Hispanic or Asian man that had his resume? We know the fucking answer.

When this bloated piece of unseasoned chicken shut down the government in January of 2019 hurting his all white, poorly educated base the most a quote from a voter in Florida was burned into my head forever. She said upon not getting her government subsidized check (I mean they have no issues with the government helping them, it is those pesky brown people that are lazy and entitled) “He is not hurting the people he is supposed to be hurting.” Let that sink in. A voting US Citizen thought it was the job of the sitting *president to hurt people. That says it all. Their allegiance isn’t based in anything other than anger and hatred of those that they deem less than them. Fuck him and them and may they both rot in hell."

"“He is not hurting the people he is supposed to be hurting.”

That spontaneous, bewildered, stream of consciousness utterance by someone who doesn’t think critically but has an indwelt recognition of like-mindedness IS the Trump voter exemplified! A racist who found themselves too poor, too old and without the power to demand or protect the status quo and just wants to stick it to their perceived enemies while retaining ‘something’ for themselves.

That sentiment has fueled every waking thought, worry and action of an American white since the founding of this country.

So, it’s not just every Confederate flag waver, every neo-Nazi and every flyover state’er; it’s every aggrieved American white who had to accept the changing world around them; there’s no reasoning with them nor changing their minds.

My fear is that I’m becoming inhumane like them because I was soooo happy when he cut her Meals on Wheels and didn’t cut her Social Security check."

"I think you nailed this right on the head. All through the article, he keeps pointing out what we already know except for one thing. After all, why would white people elect someone who is so far outside of what they claim to be/stand for? He’s not conservative in any real way. Yet conservatives stand behind him. He’s not a Christian in any practical sense by his actions. Yet Christians say he’s sent by God. He’s not a good businessman, father, or even person. Yet here we are. The only answer that makes sense in any real way is that he is proof that to many people, any white man can do the same or better than even the best black man, woman, or POC in general. There’s always a backlash to progress both real and imagined. Trump is it."

"Also, a lot of the characteristics Nichols thinks represent the opposite of idealized masculinity are actually representative of masculinity as it is performed in this country. From my experience with men who lean into their masculinity, it is about performing dominance by antagonizing people, all in the service of making shallow, insecure men feel better about themselves.  Trump is a domineering asshole, which is what too many men think being a man is all about."

"It is fascinating how unbelievably brainless racists are. Many of the commenters and you Damon have pointed out the stupidity of racism. I mean this seriously, racists have absolutely abandoned intellect, progress, humanity or desire for real greatness that could manifest through equality, in order to hold onto the despicable delusion of superiority based solely on a human having more melanin than another. The sheer simplicity of the trick doesn’t even seem like it should work; but alas, all roads merge at Slave Rd. The dimwitted aptitude it takes for a person to actually believe stealing humans, beating, burning, assaulting, selling their children on auction blocks, splitting families (and more brutalities)...... all for greed born out of sheer laziness, and again stupidity is mindblowing. You literally must turn your brain off to be a racist, and you see it now. Millions of white people, with switch STILL off, courtesy of their forefathers, have continued down this same disastrous, nose-spite-ing road. There’s a lot of white people walking around with black kerchief’s, hiding the draining blood and a ragged hole where their nose once occupied, holding a tight grasp of their hate. Their greed. Trump finally allows them to remove that blood soaked kerchief with pride for all the world see their disfigurement. It’s stunning that there is pride where instead, their should be pure shame for then and for now."

[unhappy-opinions]

"Less well known [than other paradoxes Popper discusses] is the paradox of tolerance: Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.—In this formulation, ***I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be most unwise.*** But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant."

Funny how using the full quote makes it have a completely different meaning to your interpretation and is not only entirely counter to your assbackwards approach to activism that does nothing but cause division and set us back but also applies to your own actions since you refuse to meet anyone on a level of ration argument instead of being a stuck up whiny brat throwing a tantrum. But, hey, you don't actually give a shit about helping people, people like you never do regardless of which aisle of idealogical bullshit you sit on. If you actually cared, not only would you care enough to actually look up the full quote instead of just taking it off of whatever progressive twitter timeline you yanked it from, you'd care enough to actually listen to the people you claim to defend and support instead of screeching at them and telling them to get lost because they're not radical enough for you. "I fight for your rights, unless you disagree with me and try to tell me how I can fight for your rights better". All you've done with your video and your hostility is drive people away, allies and people you claim to support, meanwhile with nothing but kind words and friendship people like Mister Rodgers and Daryl Davis have done more to bring people together than you could ever hope to accomplish with your bitchy temper tantrum.

But I don't expect you to read this or give it a mature response, I expect you to clutch even harder to your assumptions and ideology, assume my gender, my sex, my sexuality, my race, my mental faculties, and everything else you possibly can so you can assume that I'm just a fascist bootlicker instead of someone who wants to actually have progress, progress which has been lost time and again by people like you leaving the real activists and progressives to have to fight that much harder, and someone you claim to be fighting for to help. And the fact you can even make this video and keep in on this website alone proves that we don't live in a fascist state. And you're imagining that we do because you don't like the president or because you lack the maturity to actually have a coherent conversation with people who fucking agree with you and are trying to tell you how to better do the thing you claim to want to do shows that you have no idea what a fascist regime is like or what its like to live in one. I'll take living here, where I can at least vote and exist over living in the dozens of countries where I would have been literally thrown from the rooftop to the cheers of a crowd or rounded up into literal camps while the whole world does fuck all about it. Nations that I am going to fucking bet money on that you haven't even once thought of criticizing or even know the names of beyond some vague recollection of hearing it on the news once. Because you're too busy throwing a temper tantrum and smearing your shit on the walls to pay attention to the actual horrors going on the world that you could be bringing attention to. But no, you'd rather sit here and whine and screech and alienate people instead.

And because I'm sure you're going to butcher and misuse the "riots are the language of the unheard" quote, because that's the onther one all you temper tantrum throwing not-activists go to: "Let me say as I’ve always said, and I will always continue to say, that riots are socially destructive and self-defeating. I’m still convinced that nonviolence is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom and justice. I feel that violence will only create more social problems than they will solve. That in a real sense it is impracticable for the Negro to even think of mounting a violent revolution in the United States. So I will continue to condemn riots, and continue to say to my brothers and sisters that this is not the way. And continue to affirm that there is another way." and "Now what I’m saying is this: I would like for all of us to believe in non-violence, but I’m here to say tonight that if every Negro in the United States turns against non-violence, I’m going to stand up as a lone voice and say, “This is the wrong way!”"

We don't need activists like you. Activists like you undo all the fucking hard work real activists have been doing. Activists like you are the reason people like Trump get elected. Activists like you are why people like Hillary and Biden can be thrown up as the "progressive" candidate despite a history of bigotry. Despite being the literal author of the 1994 crime law, passed by Bill Clinton and which Biden continues to defend to this fucking day which created most of the fucking issue with the police you want to stop with your tone deaf and short sighted "defund/disband the police (but not really because people have started pointing out the logical flaws in that course of action but we don't want to actually have to admit we're wrong)" slogan. Shallow. Ignorant. Immature. Short sighted activists like you.

Grow up.

[cle-guy]

I Pity Progressive Social Discourse

OK, I had the misfortune of reading an article posted by a friend which is basically a lengthy diatribe about the numerous evils of the DNC (and the Democratic Party in general). If you feel like torturing yourself (which I suppose I do), feel free to read the article here.  In short, it’s a poor excuse for political analysis which takes a conclusion: that the DNC screwed Bernie out of the nomination which was rightfully his (and hates him), and then tries to find evidence to support it.  In short, it’s the exact opposite of what progressives outside the Democratic Party should be doing right now.  

However, out of amusement, I decided to take a look at some of the claims in this article (which are common in some Bernie circles) and critique them.  

Argument 1: The DNC Forced the Primaries to Continue During a Dangerous Pandemic

The article begins with a disappointing rant about how the primaries continued despite Covid-19.  

Forcing the March 17 primaries in Florida, Arizona and Illinois to go forward, despite reports of exceedingly low turnout throughout the day (which miraculously and quite expectedly turned into higher turnouts than 2016 in both Florida and Arizona by the time the final reporting came in), was the last straw. This farce occurred despite the Ohio governor postponing their primary on the same day. This slap in the face of voters was then compounded by the even worse parody of the April 7 Wisconsin primary being allowed to go ahead at the peak of the pandemic, with polling stations vastly reduced (from 180 to just 5 in Milwaukee alone) and absentee ballots often not received or recorded, while maintaining the pretense that somehow all of this constituted a legitimate election.

Where to begin?  First: the primaries in Florida, Arizona and Illinois are ran by the states themselves.  Florida & Arizona are ran by Republicans, Illinois by Democrats.  The DNC had no influence over whether two out of the three states were going to hold those primaries.  Ignoring, of course, that the Ohio delay was challenged in court and questionable at best.  The Wisconsin primary was held both because Tony Evers couldn’t stop the GOP legislature from holding the primary, and the Supreme Court stepped in to ensure it occurred.  The DNC, in short, had nothing to do with the delay of these primaries.

Finally, Illinois had local elections it had to hold, which was why their primaries were scheduled to go on time.  

The author goes on to say the DNC threatened states who attempted to delay their primaries:

Furthermore, the DNC threatened the remaining primary states against postponing their elections for health reasons, preempting moves similar to those made by Louisiana, Georgia and others 

Which goes to my second point: the rules for the primaries were set long before Covid-19, and the DNC was reminding the states of said rules.  The deadline of June 9th exists to ensure delegates can be chosen prior to the convention.  The DNC was not attempting to force states into holding votes.  This is a falsehood.  

Finally, the author argues that the DNC was hellbent on speeding up the primaries to kill off Bernie’s movement:

In the middle of the pandemic, with the entire nation considering a de facto lockdown and many communities already there, the DNC was hell-bent on driving the final nail in the coffin of the youth movement, even though the Sanders campaign had suspended GOTV efforts, for obvious reasons, and even if Biden never really had a presence in any of the latest round of states.

Thirdly, this is ridiculous.  First the authors of the article the author sites are former governors Terry McAullife (VA) and Tom Ridge (PA...Ridge is a Republican).  Neither have any ties to the DNC.  Secondarily, neither are calling to speed up the primaries to stop Sanders, but to ensure the integrity of our elections.  Furthermore, the main point of the article was to use this crisis as an opportunity to upgrade how we conduct our elections in the first place.

Overall, the main first claim of the author is a conspiracy, with zero evidence, based on complaints which belong in the court of the state governments (which involved heavy Republican influence).  The DNC had nothing to do with why the primaries were delayed.

Argument 2: the DNC Knows a Non-Progressive Candidate Will Lose and Wants This Result

Sigh.  This argument is a doozy, and ridiculous on its face.  Does anyone really believe Nancy Pelosi (who served as Speaker of the House during Obama’s presidency and was instrumental in passing numerous progressive bills) REALLY wants to serve under Donald Trump?  Does anyone truly fathom that Chuck Schumer enjoys wielding little power in the Senate under Mitch McConnel?  I guess some do, here’s the author again:

When they stopped counting the vote in Iowa, depriving the leading candidate of essential momentum, it was a clear indication that once again the party establishment would do everything to manipulate results in favor of yet another neoliberal avatar bound to lose to Trump in an ignominious landslide—which is actually what the Democratic party establishment wants, four more years of their demonized opponent rather than the tiniest return toward social decency. Nothing about the coronavirus changes this essential dynamic.

Emphasis mine.  First, the author cites facts not in evidence.  Second: if the DNC wanted to stop a progressive candidate from running and tilt the results in favor of a “neoliberal avatar” why did they let Bernie run in the first place?  Bernie is not a member of the Democratic Party, he is owed nothing by the DNC.  Furthermore: Bernie Sanders is a smart man.  If he felt the DNC wanted Trump to win, I do not believe he would be running to take over the party.  I don’t agree with Bernie much, but I respect the man enough to know he isn’t stupid.  I find this argument so absurd on its face.

Argument 3: Joe Biden does not represent Progressive values and will not compromise at all

Recent events cast this position into doubt immediately.  But, before we get to that the relevant argument:

Biden has already made it clear that he’s not the least bit interested in making any real overtures toward bereft progressives, just as Hillary wasn’t after her forceful seizure of the nomination in 2016.

As I show with the links above: this is bullshit.  On its face.  Biden moved to the left before the campaign began, and has now adopted policies from both Elizabeth Warren & Bernie Sanders.  He has, in fact, endorsed more plans from Bernie & Elizabeth before they endorsed him than he did for Mayor Pete or Amy Klobuchar after they endorsed him.  It is absurd to make this claim on its face (unless you’re not arguing in good faith that is, in which case everything goes I suppose).  

Furthermore, the Democratic Party has moved to the left and embraced ideas from its Progressive Wing in recent years.  From a $15/HR minimum wage, to basically decriminalizing the border: Progressives successfully moved the Democratic Party leftward since 2016.   

I have sympathy for the opinion (which the author does not discuss here) that Biden is an imperfect vehicle for progressive goals.  Biden likes to stick his finger in the wind and see where it blows before taking a position.  This is not popular with a constituency which supports an astonishingly consistent politician in Bernie Sanders.  On the flip side of the coin consider Elizabeth Warren’s words on Biden: he listens.  Its why he was a bipartisan deal-maker for four decades in the Senate.  As I have already shown: he’s done some listening already.

Argument 4: the DNC rigged the vote for Biden to stop Bernie

This is another doozy, but some relevant text:

To recap some of what we have seen from the great minds trying to herd us all into submission toward Hillary 2.0, the dementia version:

Herd 29 Trojan horses into the race, all pretending to be some version of or alternative to the clear ideological victor from 2016, and all of them unmasking themselves at appropriate stages of the race (three of them at the last moment before South Carolina) in order to maximize damage to one candidate alone.

The reason why 29 “Trojan horses” ran is because Biden was a weak front runner who frequently made verbal gaffes.  The campaigns of both Kamala Harris & Cory Booker were predicated on when Biden faltered.  Contrary to the author’s argument: the big field indicates that the DNC did little to stop Bernie.  Bernie’s strategy was based on winning in a wide field.  

To ask a question: if the DNC wanted to stop Bernie Sanders, why would they throw dozens of candidates against him?  This divided the field in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada and handed Bernie first narrow wins, and then a big one.  It was only when Biden consolidated the field after winning in South Carolina that the moderates consolidated (besides Michael Bloomberg).  Furthermore: if the plan was to get to Biden all along, why have Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and others attack Biden all of 2019 ahead of the 2020 primaries?  How does that help their end game?  This argument is evidence that the DNC allowed the primary to work itself, not pull the lever against Bernie.

Insist on a series of parodic debates orchestrating various degrees of hostility toward the lone populist, and focusing outlandish attention on marginal candidates rather than giving the front-runner his due.

The debates were one of the big things going for Bernie Sanders.  They also showed off one of Biden’s biggest weaknesses.  This argument is stupid, on its face.

Engineer the Iowa vote-counting catastrophe without anyone taking responsibility, and DNC chair Tom Perez not only not resigning but feeling empowered to engender further chaos. Repeat all the instances of voter suppression in close simulation of all the 2016 states, as if to thumb their noses at any semblance of voting integrity.

Where is the evidence that the DNC deliberately manipulated the vote, and suppressed the vote, to elect Biden?  I see no evidence here, just meaningless speculation.  

Be part of closely coordinated media campaigns harping on electability, centrism and moderation, to the point where the liberal media (the Times, CNN, MSNBC) become indistinguishable from campaign opponents and the party apparatus. For the first three months of the year, the New York Times turned into a chorus of single-minded “Never Bernie” propaganda, exceeding even their “Never Trump” loathing of four years ago.

A few things here: 1) David Brooks is a conservative and not a member of the DNC, nor is he connected.  2) was the media obsessed with electability or was the electorate obsessed and the media reported on it?  Both are quite plausible explanations.  Furthermore: those anti-Bernie media outlets were quite happy to post stories about Biden’s past comments when it suited them.  The New York Times endorsed Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar and called Biden too old.  I do not doubt much of the mainstream media was less than excited about Bernie: but they did not tip the scales.

Recruit Barack Obama to save Biden’s hide when he remained the last one standing, with the same ominous figures from 2016 (Jim “there will be no free education” Clyburn, Harry “get the culinary workers to caucus for Hillary” Reid, and others) reprising to the finest detail the same walk-on bits they played last time.

The fact Joe Biden got people to endorse him is not evidence of DNC collusion.  Were AOC, and the rest of “The Squad” part of a conspiracy to elect Bernie Sanders?  No: this is how politics works.  The fact Biden got Clyburn to endorse him shows how Biden operates as a politician by building coalitions.  Bernie had four years in Congress to convince Clyburn to support him (or at least not support Biden) he chose not to do it.  

Additionally: Barack Obama and Harry Reid did not endorse Biden before the primaries.  Obama did not coerce anyone to endorse Biden.  Biden was much closer to Mayor Pete and Amy Klobuchar, and worked himself to get them to endorse him, which is why it occurred.  I will add: Elizabeth Warren did not endorse Bernie.  This indicates to me that Bernie struggles to play this game.  

Keep changing debate rules, by permitting entry to a last-minute white knight in the form of Michael Bloomberg, and the more recent rule change to prevent Tulsi Gabbard the opportunity of taking down Biden.

Bloomberg got on stage because he spent a billion dollars and out polled most people in the debate.  The DNC changed the rules to winnow the field.  Considering Tulsi Gabbard couldn’t take down Mayor Pete: I struggle to see how she’d do against Biden.  This is a stupid argument.

Is this enough manipulation for you?

Yes, I like no manipulation.

Conclusion

The author rambles on for several paragraphs.  I wont bother repeating his same arguments anymore.  Overall, he presents conclusions as if they’re facts, and refuses to accept anything other than his opinion as the truth.  The reality is: Bernie lost because voters voted against his message and his candidacy.  There is no shame in that, and if I were the left I would be asking why Bernie was rejected.  If a majority exists for Bernie’s policies (as the author claims) then why did the pick a candidate who did not run on that platform?  Or, maybe that majority does not exist?  If so, how can the left create a consensus to make that happen?  Those would be worthwhile discussions.  I am sympathetic to some of the progressive platform, and I wish they were better at pushing it; it would make defeating Trump easier. 

[altusfl]

6. The Fall Vote --- Where realities diverge.

In my alternate reality, the outrage with the McKenzie Report unfolds in pretty much the same way with the male USFL owners struggling to accept the information from the McKenzie report as it is delivered by its female author.

However when Trump calls it “Bullshit”, Carnizario bristles a bit and takes offense. He tells his fellow owners that the survey was processed by the best evaluators the league could find. Even if they disagree with all of the conclusions, they should respect the fact that many of them are probably correct and use that information in evaluating their future path.

Sensing he’s losing the argument, Trump in this reality still turns to Einhorn. Einhorn still gives his rousing, “fuck the Eggheads and their conclusions, let’s do this fall thing” speech.

But in this reality Einhorn’s momentum is quickly squandered.

Just as in the real reality, Trump turns to Simmons hoping to extract a positive stance for the fall. (Trump had been badgering Simmons all week to try and get him to commit to supporting the move to the fall.)

In our reality, Simmons just said there was more financial potential in the fall and then called for informal straw-poll on the move to the fall as proposed by the executive committee. Simmons realized his voice had been tuned out.  He had hoped with the McKenzie report fresh in the owners mind’s, the teams would vote to stay in the spring.

In this alternate timeline, Carnizario’s moment of umbridge gives Simmons a lever. Simmons raises the point that the USFL is about to discuss whether or not the teams want to play the 1985 season in the spring and the 1986 preseason in the fall which sounds like an inappropriate stance given the findings of the report.

“It is abundantly clear to me that ABC is going to fight us to see every one of these damn option years. Actions can always be taken to cut team expenses and to help individual teams through the next two years via temporary mergers and whatnot, but given the report, perhaps the question from the executive committee that should be placed in front of the owners is no longer valid….. Perhaps the question should be whether the team should play 1985 and 1986 in the spring and then schedule the vote on whether or not to move to the fall to be decided after the 1986 season.”

Trump doesn’t like that at all as it compromises his position and he says, “No! We need to have a vote on the wording as proposed by the executive committee.”

There is a general feeling that this is simply Trump’s desire and there’s no logical basis behind it.

His seed of doubt planted, Simmons acknowledges Trump’s decision as head of the meeting and sits down.

The Fall vote

Miami

The straw vote starts. Miami owner Woody Weiser, sitting next to Howard Schnellenberger and Berl Bernhard, stands up and immediately says, “Miami is not going to play in the fall. We vote for the spring.”

“If you vote to move to the fall after the coming 1985 season our transaction with Berl is probably going to fall through and you will lose a top 12 market for this coming season. We don’t want to be like this but there is far too much competition to play in Miami in the fall. We would fail within a year.”

“If you go with the spring in 1985 and 1986 and then re-evaluate after that, we will play football and help your TV position for those two seasons. If a decision is made to move to the fall at that point, we will quietly sell or move the franchise with no ill-will”.

With that stinking turd in Trump’s “move to the fall” toilet, the straw vote proceeds…

Arizona

Arizona’s Dr. Ted Dietrich had been swayed by Einhorn and Tad Taube’s suggestion that the league should move to the fall and try and force a merger with the NFL. He advised that he was okay with either season but had a slight inclination to favor the fall.

Dietrich was also angling for a merger with someone.  He had purchased the arizona franchise and sold his chicago franchise the year before, but the Chicago deal had fallen through, depriving him of $7 million dollars and leaving him hurting for cash. Dietrich had more than enough money to run a high-end USFL franchise, however taking the $7 million dollar Chicago loss, changed the equation. He had been forced to do a lot of extra work in order to make his bills and it was beginning to wear on him.

The move to the fall had seemed more likely to lead to mergers as several teams with more liquidity would lose their home stadiums.  It is likely that the words of Simmons advocating mergers and bailouts — even though he was not a Simmons guy —- would have resonated with him, causing a nuanced shift in his position. Dietrich would still have said he would prefer the fall schedule, but likely would have said he’d have been on board if the league decided to wait another year.

Birmingham

The Birmingham Stallion’s Marvin Warner would still be a strong fall vote.  He hated ABC. He voted to move to the fall. He would be more inclined to push to move as soon as possible as it would immediately force the issue with ABC.

Chicago

Eddie Einhorn would prefer a move to the fall immediately, but as the executive committee said after the ‘85 season, Einhorn’s position would be to back the executive committee’s wording. Einhorn had made it abundantly clear that he had no intention of playing in the spring of 1985, and it was pretty clear he had no intention of ever playing in the spring.

He would throw in more talk of bags of gold from the Networks waiting for the league if they would only move to the fall...

Denver

Denver’s Doug Spedding is an owner who appeared to quickly come to regret his decision to vote for move to the fall. In our reality, he was swayed by Einhorn’s letter and with nothing else concrete coming out of the spring side of the ledger, he voted for the positive money that Einhorn was advocating, in spite of heavy trouble looming in the future with operating a franchise in Denver that would be competing head to head with the Bronchos in the fall.

I think in the face of all this, Spedding would shade his response and effectively change his vote. With the idea fresh in his mind that the push to play in the fall screwed Spedding’s ‘Plan A’  to pull back lost fans (signing Neil Lomax to run Mouse Davis’s run and shoot) AND had cost him those fans in the first place, Spedding would back up his fellow new owner and vote to postpone the discussion on the fall until after the 1986 season. He would in essence become a no vote on the executive committee’s recommendation.

Houston

Houston’s Jerry Argovitz believed in his core that football should be played in the fall.  He also thought that would help the league’s lawsuit against the NFL and money was tight among Houston’s ownership after a somewhat disappointing year at the gate given their product.  So he was solidly for the fall despite the fact it possibly meant the Gamblers would no longer be able to play in the Astrodome. Rice stadium would still be available, so Argovitz had options. Houston would remain a fall vote.

Jacksonville

Jacksonville’s Fred Bullard liked the spring but in our reality stated he would vote with majority. He may have privately favored the fall. There was a belief that he felt he would be a front-runner should there be an NFL merger. I think his position overall would still be be that he favored voting with the majority, however with both Florida hard core spring advocates, Wieser and Bassett, on hand, it seems very likely he might advocate for kicking the decision down the road a year. Voting for a shift that might put two other people in the same state out of business is a lot of peer pressure to deal with when both are sitting in the room with you.  I could see Bullard voting no on the wording proposed by the executive committee.

LA

Los Angeles had reverted to the league back on July 22nd, so LA was not represented at the meeting.

Memphis

Memphis’s Billy Dunavant also had NFL merger dreams. He would vote to push the issue, so a vote for the fall would be the result.

Michigan

The Michigan Panthers came next. In our reality, the Panthers had prepared a very compelling presentation which Taubman’s son apparently spat it out through clenched teeth.

The senior Taubman would present the teams argument in a much more compelling way. Michigan would be a strong and influential no vote in this reality.

New Jersey

New Jersey came next. In our reality, Trump quietly voted yes in order to not stir the pot with Michigan.

In this reality, sensing that defeat could be in the air, Trump would likely spend a lot of time trying to make his case. That would have likely hurt the fall camp as the league owners had apparently largely tuned out Trump as being an irrational fall vote.  The more he talked emotionally about the fall, the more it would hurt the fall position.  (The owners were tuned into Einhorn, not Trump.) New Jersey would be a yes.

New Orleans

New Orleans was next. Carnizario in our reality mysteriously voted “yes” knowing that he would have to move his franchise out of New Orleans.

I think in part that came out of the fact that he was on both committees, and may have felt somewhat compromised and unable to vote against a majority leaning one direction. (Given the fact that he is still friends with Trump there may have also been a desire to Foster business ties with Trump, but I don’t know that that played any role.)

I think the same dynamic would apply in this reality, but he’d change his vote to a “no” as the votes would be of a split nature.

Carnizario, forced to look at the work of the Mackenzie report before the meeting, would, I think, reach the conclusion that the executive committee had given the wrong options to the league owners to vote on and would state that.

I believe he would vote to stay in the spring for two more seasons and then reevaluate it. New Orleans would become a no vote.

Oakland

Oakland would still vote “Yes”.

Tad Taube had signed up for the USFL as a minority owner in Oakland. He really didn’t have the money to comfortably fill the main ownership role in a league that spent at this level. Everything was more expensive than advertised and it seems clear that Taube needed new cash coming in.  Like Diethrich, Taube saw more merger candidates in the fall than in the spring.

Taube would try in vain to pull the League back to support a move to the fall after the 1985 season, but Taube was renowned for being long-winded. Like Trump, Taube’s position was well-known and unlikely to change opinions.  The more he talked, the less that opinion would seem appealing.

Oklahoma

The California-based Tathams, the owners of the Oklahoma Outlaws, were next. They had established an agreement that would allow them to play in OU Stadium for a year and then the following year would move into a brand new stadium in Oklahoma City, but it appears that they had soured on that idea by time the meeting rolled around.   They were now in favor of a merger with Oakland that would get them far, far closer to their normal base of operations in California. They announced they were in merger talks with Taube and would also vote “Yes”.

In our reality someone raised the question whether the Tatham should have a vote as they were in merger talks. This drew the ire of Donald Trump onto the Tathams for not keeping quiet through the meeting, but in our reality the fall forces were running away with the vote….so it didn’t matter when the Tathams were not allowed to vote in the official count.

This would have hurt the fall camp in this reality.

Philadelphia

Philadelphia was up next. Philadelphia’s Miles Tannenbaum rightly questioned Einhorn’s commitment to playing a spring season in 1985. Einhorn talked entirely around the subject and never committed to anything proving Tannenbaum’s contention that Einhorn was a bit of a fake.

With his goal achieved, Tannenbaum said the Stars would have a hard time staying in Philadelphia in the fall and voted to stay in the spring. I don’t think any of that would have changed.

Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh would not be able to play in their stadium in the fall. They voted to stay in the spring. That would not change.

San Antonio

San Antonio’s Clinton Magnes was constantly ridiculed by Donald Trump. Trump feared Magnes would be a spring vote, but Magnes had the luxury of not having a fall tenant in his stadium so he said that while either season was fine for him, he agreed to vote with the fall group as everyone seem to want to go that way.

In this timeline, he would have been confronted with several teams stating they would have to go out of business if they did the proposed jump to the fall.

Magnes had failed to make his payroll a couple of times in the initial season and was on thin ice with the other league owners. I believe his voting was entirely based on not rocking the boat.

I think presented with this reality and a more modest sounding option of putting in two more seasons in the spring and then re-evaluating, Magnes would have flipped. San Antonio would have voted against the executive committee statement (and Magnes would have taken some joy in thwarting Donald Trump).

Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay’s Bassett’s approach would likely have remained exactly the same. In the straw count, Bassett voted against the move to the fall.

The Final Talley

In our reality, the straw count was 12 in favor of a move to the fall, 4 opposed, and Los Angeles and Miami not participating. A 2/3 affirmative vote would have been required to move to the fall. With that count they held an official vote after lunch and voted to move to the fall.

In this timeline the executive committee’s recommendation might have lost 8-9 or something along those lines in the straw vote with Los Angeles still not having a vote. It would not have been anywhere near close enough to proceed with a formal vote.

The idea of waiting two years would be a compelling one for on the fence voters. It would be something that the spring forces would likely use to thwart Trump and Einhorn’s ambitions.

The Spring advocates would demand the league present a strong pro-spring stance to help season ticket sales as sales were off as the league looked at a fall season.

In one of Commissioner Chet Simmons’ final acts as commissioner, he would take great pleasure in announcing that the league had decided not to move to the fall for the duration of the ABC contract.

When asked pointedly if that meant the USFL was abandoning ever playing in the fall, Simmons would respond, “We have no intention of moving to the fall.”

“But.... There is always a SLIGHT possibility of revisiting the decision if at some point after the 1986 season, if significantly more TV money is offered in the fall.”

“But for now we have considered and discussed the idea of moving to the fall in the next 2 seasons ad nauseum.  We considered the effects it might have on our players, franchises, and fans if we did it now and then we voted on the issue. Collectively we rejected the idea as being potentially damaging in the next few years.”

“We have decided to remain a spring league.”

Trump would be devastated. With no intent of ever playing in the spring, Einhorn would pull back from his league involvement. As Einhorn pulled back, Trump would start making noise about selling the Generals in the New York media. Now his only reason to stay in the USFL would be to win the lawsuit with the NFL. As in our reality, he would take a leading role in that as Bassett’s health fades.

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[weeklyhumorist]

The Trump-Lincoln Ford’s Theater Luxury Casino

“They call you Lady Luck,

But there is room for doubt,

At times you have a very unlady-like way of running out,”

~ Frank Sinatra, “Luck be a Lady”

Read Episode 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |8

The instructions by text from burner phone to burner phone were to look for the park bench with a white thumbtack stuck in it and sit down.

Seeing the white thumbtack in the bench, a Junior Deputy in the White House Communications Office slowly moved his head to look around, only seeing a dog walker a hundred yards down the path, the young man sat down.

On an empty, tree-lined path with a view of the Washington Monument to the south, it was 2:35 am at The National Mall. The weather was in the process of moving from fall into winter and the temperature was 48 degrees and dropping slowly. The White House staffer shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. The burner phone was in the left pocket. A few leaves fell from the trees and tapped onto the pavement.

Two minutes later, a reporter from the Washington Post who looked more like the real Bob Woodward and less like Robert Redford’s portrayal of the reporter, ambled down the path and sat down on the bench with the white thumbtack stuck in it.

The agreement was $10,000 dollars for a USB stick loaded with emails from the Trump campaign, under false names, communicating with Russian operatives. The White House staffer had told the reporter the guilt had become too much and he was going to be remembered as the modern day Deep Throat.

“Let’s be quick,” the reporter said. He took an envelope of one hundred $100 bills and placed it on the bench in between the two men. “You have it?”

“I have it,” the young man said. In his pocket was a metal cigar tube that had the USB stick inside. The cigar tube was placed next to envelope of money. “Ten grand? It’s all there?”

“All there. We won’t be in touch. No contact again. For my safety and yours.”

The White House staffer said, “Right, good plan.”

The Washington Post reporter slipped the cigar tube into his pocket. “Wait here for a few minutes, then walk the other direction.”

“Got it.”

“Break that phone in half and throw it in two separate garbage cans.”

“I will.”

The reporter was ten paces down the path when he said loudly “Okay!”

From out of the bushes behind the bench, Corey Lewandowski emerged with a piano wire garrote. The ligature was wrapped around the neck of the Junior Deputy in the White House Communications Office. Lewandowski squeezed and yanked the young man over the back of the bench, dragging him into the trees as he choked the life out of his victim.

“Leaker,” Lewandowski hissed into a bright red ear. “Leaker’s pay.”

The young man died, his eyeballs bulging as he expired.

The “reporter” from the Washington Post, was not a reporter. He didn’t even read the Washington Post. “Took us a while to lure this one out. Why don’t you just use a gun, Corey?”

Lewandowski smiled. “Too quick. Not as fun. Tell Bannon it’s done.”

“I’ll call him now. Get the money back.”

Corey Lewandowski took the envelope with $10,000 dollars inside from the dead man’s pocket as well as the burner cell phone and both men disappeared into the D.C. night.

  Meanwhile, in Donald Trump’s White House…

  “This big, beautiful casino, brought in on schedule and under budget, is going to be, I think, one of the great casinos we have ever seen. A great, great casino. And, you know, Trump shares his name, one of the biggest names in American history, with the late, great Abraham Lincoln. A great president, who, by the way, would have voted for me and would have wanted to Make. America. Great. Again. And, like many have been saying, he wanted to Drain the Swamp, too, believe me.”

President Donald J. Trump holds an oversized pair of faux-gold scissors in his tiny hands, standing behind a line of thick red ribbon. Flanking the President are his wife Melania, his children except for Tiffany (who texted her father about the ceremony, the President replied “Who dis?”) and many of his in-laws and grandchildren. Jared Kushner was instructed to wait in the motorcade because, as Trump told him, “You are so shitty at your job, the worst of all time, the worst, and this Russia shit is mostly your fault, you fucker.”

Kushner looks out the tinted windows of the bulletproof limousine, watching the ribbon-cutting ceremony like a dog not allowed to go into the post office with its owner.

Trump continues into the microphone, “We are proud, really proud, amazingly proud, to open The Trump-Lincoln Ford’s Theater Luxury Casino!”

With a snip of the red ribbon, what was once a National Historic Site — canceled by Executive Order — was reopened as a tacky, gaudy, tawdry, Trump casino. The sacred-to-many theater where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, was now another way for the Trump family to profit from the Presidency.

Sad.

The idea to convert the historical theater into a casino was floated by President Trump his second week in office. He had “big ideas” on how to “Make some fuckin money off this White House bullshit.” Other Washington, D.C. sites that were considered for the conversion included the Museum of Natural History, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the National Cathedral.

Ford’s Theater was settled on because President Trump wanted his name next to Lincoln’s. Trump said to Fox and Friends, “We — the late, great Abraham Lincoln — and myself, we have done the most, historically, to help America. Nobody has done more, nobody, believe me. I used to say maybe FDR did, but I was just told he was in a wheelchair, many people don’t know that, so he didn’t do as much as me, obviously, a lot of people are saying that now.” One Senior Advisor suggested Lincoln’s name be billed first on the marquee out of respect for the 16th President of the United States. That woman was fired on the spot. As she was putting her belongings into a cardboard box and cleaning out her office, Secret Service agents dragged her to the roof of the White House. Corey Lewandowki was waiting. He said, “Linda, you’re a decent person, but that was a really stupid thing to say. I’m sorry about this.” Lewandowski then grabbed Linda by the hair and threw her off the ledge onto the South Portico. Linda died on impact. Her neck snapped and back broken in three places.

As your intrepid White House correspondent, I have been working tirelessly to get an accurate count of how many people Corey Lewandowski has murdered in defense of the Trump campaign and presidency. This number has proven difficult to confirm. According to one high-level police source who spoke on condition of anonymity, Lewandowski’s kill count is believed to be eleven people. Charges have been considered, but, according to the source, “Trump is just going to pardon the guy anyway. We have to wait till he’s out of office to get Corey.” He added, “The most disturbing part is how much he enjoys whacking people for Trump.” When asked, “As much as Don Jr. and Eric enjoy killing leopards and elephants?” His answer was, “No, no, much more than that.”

Inside the Trump-Lincoln Ford’s Theater Luxury Casino is garish, tacky, and so bright everyone squints when entering until their eyes adjust from the overload of neon lights. Every surface that wasn’t covered in bright lights is shiny gold. The seats on the theater floor have all been removed, replaced by gaming tables. The two floors of balconies have also been cleared of seats and now featured rows of Trump brand slot machines. There are only Trump brand slot machines.

Prominently featured over the entrance to the gaming floor is an enormous mosaic portrait of Trump made from different-colored casino chips. Yellow $1,000 dollar chips are used heavily to portray the President’s distinctive hairstyle.

Inside the casino, talking to reporters from conservative media outlets, President Trump says, “What’s great, really terrific, the best thing I did, is the balcony where the late, great Abraham Lincoln was shot, as you know, he was killed here, the balcony is now the best high roller poker table in the world. A lot of people have been saying they’ve never seen anything like it.”

Indeed, this is true. The balcony where Booth put a Derringer to Lincoln’s head and pulled the trigger, now housed a Texas hold ‘em no limit poker table. Numerous professional poker players were offered appearance fees to play at the table on the day the casino opened. Only the legendary Doyle Brunson accepted. Brunson sits at the gold-felted table hustling millions from two Russian oligarchs, three Saudi princes, a morbidly obese Texas oil baron, a secretly-racist hedge fund manager, and actor James Woods.

The Trump-Lincoln Ford’s Theater Luxury Casino opened to mostly negative media attention, distracting from the multiple emerging Russia-related scandals. MSNBC and CNN had something new to be outraged about. The first week in operation, the casino was filled with a rogue’s gallery of shady foreign diplomats, sleazeball lobbyists, spies from at least nine different countries, drunken ambassadors, crooked political operatives, mafia gangsters, and military leaders from despotic regimes. Card counters and cheaters from Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and Reno traveled to D.C. for a gambling den they knew was easy pickings.

The card counters used techniques that would have been spotted in every other casino in America to knock out table after table. Pit bosses were baffled as to how some blackjack players all of a sudden knew when to increase their bets to tens of thousands.

The casino gift shop flogged an array of cheap tat all with the Trump name emblazoned in gold lettering. There was a section that sold Alex Jones’ snake oil “health supplements.” A top seller is the “Super Male Vitality” which is claimed to be “the result of ancient wisdom reinterpreted over several years in the light of modern equipment and analysis.” A bargain at $69.95. Multiple scientific laboratories have tested the product. None have found evidence the product enhances anything other than Jones’ bank account. You might as well eat Flintstones vitamins.

Nevertheless, on a monitor next to the display of supplements, President Trump gives a testimonial on a loop. “If you want a dick as great and terrific as mine, this is the product for you, believe me.”

To reward him for loyalty no matter how absurd, Corey Lewandowski was appointed Casino Manager. Lewandowski drafted high school buddies, various cousins, and people that worked in other Trump businesses to run the place. None that had ever worked in casinos. Not one of the pit bosses had expertise in gambling, betting strategy, or known cheating techniques. All the pit bosses knew how to do is punch someone in the mouth that was “disrespecting the joint.” That, and steal whenever they could.

After the first week, upper management is meeting in a conference room to go over the books so far. President Trump is there.

Looking over the ejaculation of neon and gold from the casino below, President Trump sits at a conference table set up the same way as it is done at the White House. That being so everyone can go around the table and people will give him compliments.

Fifteen minutes later, satisfied with the praise given from casino management, Trump gets down to business. “Okay, folks, this has been a tremendous first week. The media, as I’m sure you have seen, has been giving us great reviews, a lot of praise, for the success this has been. Corey, tell us how big this first week has been. It’s been huge.”

Lewandowski looks like he’s going to be sick. He tries to stall. “You’ll like this, sir, a Jamaican croupier thinks she saw Lincoln’s ghost float by a baccarat table.”

“A croup-a-what?” Trump asks.

“Oh, a croupier is a dealer, Mr. President. She says she saw Linc—“

“Cut the shit, Corey.”

Lewandowski goes a touch more pale. “We lost $13 million dollars.”

“How the fuck did you do that?!” Trump screams.

With the casino staff stealing whatever they could at every stop the money made, and professional card cheats taking advantage of the inexperienced staff, the losses added up quick.

The room is silent. For almost a minute, nobody speaks.

“Well,” pit boss Nicky LoSpecchio says, “the Trump Organization has never been that good at running casinos. We’re learning how to do it on the fly.”

The President of the United States glares at the pit boss. “What did you say?”

  Corey Lewandowski stands over a kneeling Nicky LoSpecchio in the alley behind The Trump-Lincoln Ford’s Theater Luxury Casino.

“Please don’t do this, Corey. I shouldn’t have said that. Please. I’m sor—“

Lewandowski presses the button on a Microtech Halo automatic knife deploying the blade and stabs the disloyal pit boss thirty-three times in the chest and face. LoSpecchio’s lifeless body is left in the alley to bleed out.

Washington D.C. police believe this was Corey Lewandowski’s twelfth murder for the Trump administration.

  Illustration by Mikey B. Martinez III

The Trump-Lincoln Ford’s Theater Luxury Casino was originally published on Weekly Humorist