#that's not HIS fault it's republicans! And now we can say Genocide Bad but not the rest of it!!!

[jaythelay]

My thoughts on Kamala/Walz and Palestine involve the Absolute Pants Shitting amount of propaganda and ignorant adoration of genocide by so fucking many, and that Biden was weak as shit while Kamala/Walz feels like they're playing the game and aiming for the end while Biden just told Israel "Yeah sure I'll lie about headless israeli babies that you'll eventually make out of palestinian babies."

Straight up feels like they know they can't just come out and say "Genocide Bad No Matter Who" or risk an absolute plummet in every possible sector, that'a not including the media either who'd flip so damn hard on her for daring to say Genocide Bad No Matter Who.

Seriously I wouldn't flub this election up pointing out the moral obvious when half of all dems, and all but 10 politicians (all dem it was bipartisan that Genocide Good) are just so extatic to defend a Genocide. Imo, and it's all we'll have mind you, an opinion, they'll make progress. Biden, most dems and all but 10 dem politicians, and Dump, are on the same level on this issue.

Just saying, she's talking with groups and called for ceasefires. Biden lied every fucking time Israel shot up a hospital or school or church on christmas, without an ounce of scrutiny, simply regurgitated horrific propaganda that instantly backfired literal days to weeks after the lie.

Kamala hasn't. Not as hard at least, since running as pres. Our efforts are being heard and it's why I fucking lost all respect for anyone who chooses not to accept the reality of Genocide Bad No Matter Who just to feel safer in an election with a guy WE ALL TOLD YOU WAS SHIT and lo and behold? He was! Just not as shit as dump, his literal, only legacy and reason to vote for him.

When even Kamala is doing more than you fucks, I don't want to hear aaaanything ya got to say on any issue. Dems being radically republican about EASILY SOURCED INFORMATION will never not be such a Permanent massive fucking turn off to the entire dem party for me.

Imagine pushing away potential dem voters because you refuse to call a Genocide Bad, while Kamala is making progress to stop it, progress that ya'll sabotaged the absolute whole entire god damn way up every step of the way not missing one potential beat.

Fuck off Pro-Genociders, yur shite and almost cost us the election. Thank fuck for Kamala, and Genuinely not any one of you weak genocide enablers.

[doot-slayer-scp666]

Here goes my massive rant about why the US election ended this way

really long rant under the cut

Its because of 2008 financial crisis Americans were told over and over "trust in the corporations, they have your best interest at heart, corporations can do whatever they want because free market is always right" and then the economy gets fucked. And what's the consequence? Nothing. No new legislation, no arrests. Everyone knew who was at fault but all they got is a bail out of taxpayer money from US government, money that should be used for the people given to those who screw us the most. Ritch only got richer and everyone else suffered ( fun fact, during economic crisis only normal people suffer, corporations only grow faster during crisis)

People want change, they don't trust the system anymore

They vote in Obama because he is charismatic and promises changes. What did he do? Fuck all. Then 2016 and people get to choose between extremely unpopular Clinton who tells them everything is already great and nothing should be changed and Trump, who is new and populist, who promises big things. But they also had a third option, Sanders who would win fucking 50/50 states, wo promises to fix everything regular people want, to do what they wanted. But democrats take his campaign and shoot it behind the barn. Message is clear, you are either a status quo candidate or get fucked.

So people vote in Trump, who also largely did nothing and the things he did fucked people over but at this point they were already radicalized by the culture war And then covid hits and Trump fucks it up unimaginably badly

So in 2020 people get to choose either Trump, who is the reason why some of their family are now dead and Biden, another status quo candidate that won't to anything for 4 years And Biden bearly wins

During the Biden presidency Republicans start to take full control over the media. Listen to radio? Talking about evil immigrants. TV? All news channels shift to the right, fox is already bad enough but they move even further right, CNN gets more "centrist" meaning right-wing. Internet? Everywhere you look you see far right news. Games? The gaming channel you watched some time ago now probably screams about woke videogames and feminazis destroying games

And democrats also move further right, now they also hate immigrants, they want more oil, and let's not forget SUPPORTING A FUCKING GENOCIDE

So of course people don't want another turn of Biden, especially when he is visibly dying on stage every time he speaks

But then we get Kamala, who does big exciting rallies, who talks about corporate price gouging, who talks about how fucking weird Trump and his supporters are. A candidate that does populist things. Immediately pools and donations rise, people are excited. Finally someone who can insult Trump. People love it

But then she wins the nomination and the entire campaign grinds to a complete stop. DNC gets the hold of the campaign and immediately all attacks on Trump stop because that's "uncivil", all populist talk stops because that's not very status quo now is it? Kamala gets asked "how your presidency will be different from Biden?" She says his presidency is already perfect and she wouldn't change anything, the only thing different is that she will have a republican in the administration She becomes another Democrat status quo "trust the institutions" candidate

So she looses

Because people want change and they already forgotten how Trump presidency was like, or more likely were gaslighted by all those right wing media everywhere that it was amazing and the best thing that ever happened to them

So now Trump wins. Honestly it would have been better if he won in 2020 At least then they wouldn't have 4 years to consolidate power In 2016 they were running on momentum, now they have actual detailed plan to destroy America

This is all fault of the democrats, they constantly shoot themselves in the feet every time they make a step forward they immediately have to correct by taking two back They wanted to loose and now the entire world will pay for it

And if there even is another election in america the only lesson the democratic party learns from this is that they need to be more transphobic or something like that. They never learn

Im not american, but this election will affect the entire world. Other far right goverments will be emblodened, Trump praising dictators will empower them, he will tell Israel to "finish the job" in Gaza so he can build hotels on the rubble and bodies, he will stop supporting Ukraine, probably stop supporting other NATO nations.

We are fucked And we can blame the democratic party for that

[lonelinessisadisease]

To the revolutionaries who want to destroy the government: do you really think a republican government is easier to dismantle? The democratic party sides with weapons and investment (military and exploitation of all forms). They have done this and will continue to do this. It is one of the painful realities we all have to face.

But the republican party? Trump in particular? They are not here to just side with fascists, to allow fascism a seat at the table. They are not here to keep the American war machine well-oiled. They are those seats, and they are the war machine.

I cannot over-express how much Biden fucking sucks. He does. There will be a throne of bodies for him to rest on in Hell.

But level with me. Why are you really not voting for Biden? I know it's not because you think Trump is better. I know it's not because you think there will be a magical third candidate that will win.

It's because you feel guilty, isn't it? You've been seeing genocide after genocide, atrocity after atrocity, and it's getting harder to justify your place in this world.

And I get it. It's really, really hard to wake up and remember the voting system we are under is just another tool for evil. It's easier to just...remove yourself from the equation. You're not voting for either of those old, evil assholes. You didn't put your pennies into the pot so it's not your fault when it boils over. You don't need to feel bad anymore if you don't vote for them.

But that's not how this works. I know you know that's not how this works. I saw all of you rallying together to vote Trump out of office after his term because you all knew that regardless of how bad Biden was he would be leagues better.

Part of being an activist means fighting back. Failing to vote in the current political climate is not rebellion, it's a silent defeat. It is us giving up because it's too hard, because it feels too bad.

It is our job as people to take care of each other. Most of us believe this. I know you do. It's clear you all care so much about each other. I've seen the constant desire to help across nations. But I feel like we forgot that preventing harm in our own country is just as important as preventing harm in others.

Even and especially when it hurts.

I'm sorry, but that responsibility doesn't go away just because we don't want to bear it. It is just as important that we vote now as it was before. It will be just as important every time after this, too. I'll say it again and again, as many times as I need to.

Stop thinking of it as voting Biden in, for a second. We don't want that asshole in office any more than you do. That's not the point.

The point is that we need to vote Trump out. We already know what it's going to look like if we don't.

I want to honor that this is an incredibly hard decision to make. I know how gut-wrenching the thought of perpetuating a bad system feels. I know the doubts.

Is it worth it to keep fighting for what we have when it hurts this much? Is it worth it? Should our guilt be dictating our decisions? Should it be stopping our actions? Should we allow it to define our activism?

I have been shown time and time again that people are resilient, they are brave, and they are kind. They will face insurmountable odds to help one another, and they do things even when it's hard. You do things even when they're hard, because you're brave.

And you can do this, too.

Go to polling booths. Send in your ballot when you get it.

If it feels too bad to bear the burden of picking Biden, put it on me. I've already taken the weight of asking you to vote for Biden, okay? You don't need to feel bad about this. You don't need to destroy yourself because you don't see any way out.

The only way out is forward. If your guilt is keeping you from moving, it's not worth keeping. So give it to me.

Go vote pissed, or mad, or bored. Be mad at me. Be mad at the system. Be mad at Biden and Trump. Be mad. Be sad and grieving and frustrated. If you can't get rid of it, be guilty.

Then do it anyway. I know you can.

if i see one more article, post, or news anchor talking about how joe biden is old, i'm putting my fist through a window. i feel like i've gone through the fucking looking glass.

this is project 2025, trump's plan for what he'll do if elected. whatever you think is in there, it's worse. watch a breakdown of the highlights here. this man wants to unravel the fabric of our democracy for good - this all aside from his vitriolic hatred of poc, his determination to start ww3, and the fact that he can't string a sentence together without telling outrageous and easily verifiable lies. his administration will start their crusade to exterminate trans people on day one, and they won't stop there.

do not talk to me about how joe biden is old, as if that could ever matter to me more than my life or the lives of my friends and family. my little sister is 14, she's trans, and i don't know what to tell her when we talk about politics, because one of these people wants her dead and the other one is old and some of you are still acting like those problems are equals.

i can't fucking stand this. i'm not hearing it this time, we are not repeating 2016. refusing to vote is not an act of protest, it is an act of complacency, and our most vulnerable will suffer for your negligence. vote like your life depends on it, because for some of us, it really fucking does.

[loveguts]

mostly just. grappling with the horror that the "progressive" candidate option would have rather lost the election to a christofascist white supremacist, instead of just doing the bare fucking minimum and not sending any more billions of dollars of aid for israel to continue their accelerated genocide of palestinians AND their increasing attacks on other surrounding countries too.

it's honestly just nothing but democrat politicans' own faults that trump has gotten as far as he has, they're practically fucking handing it to him at this point. for the past 8 years (even longer but i'm talking like..relative to trump anyways) we have seen nothing but the party meant to represent us consistently fail at addressing the growing needs and concerns of the entire fucking world at this point. the vast majority of american voters are either moving further left or they're moving further right, and instead of recognizing what the main voters they're trying to pull really want to see change, dems just try to pander to like the 5 whole republicans in the country that aren't voting trump and the vague idea of undecided centrists, lmfao.

not to mention kamala's entire platform was basically just "guys look im a republican too dont worry, at least im not trump though lol, if you dont think im progressive enough heres this lukewarm mildly progressive vice president!!" like we learned back in fucking 2016 that basing your entire campaign off of not being trump isn't enough to bring in voters, you need to have a plan that's actually meaningful to leftists voters that are sick of the world being fucked over for the sake of pandering to fascists. not to mention kamala should have gone even harder anyways because everyone regardless of political alignment fucking hates biden, we have seen nothing but everything steadily get worse under his presidency and also every single promise he's broken that he made in his initial presidential campaign.

and it's just so fucking maddening that we know for a fact that we have significant numbers and voting power as leftists, we could win the fucking 2020 election and we turned several traditionally red states blue, but we're all fucking dejected, everything is getting worse, trump is going to without a doubt make it worse but kamala was guaranteed to make it almost just as bad as him anyways because their actual policies and agendas were virtually identical. we've all had to sit back and watch, despite having a blue president and significant numbers in the house and senate too, everything just getting fucking worse than where we started, and yes not all of that is 100% biden's fault but come the fuck on lol he has not done a single thing he promised in his campaign. and instead of reassuring the left-leaning voters that she had a concrete plan to address our biggest concerns, harris pretty much just spit in everyone's face and said we could deal with trump if we don't like her policies. even though we know for a fact now that supposedly not being as bad as the other guy can only carry you so far.

and inevitably, instead of recognizing this is fundamentally just a problem with them, all the white liberals and dems are going to start turning on the non-voters instead of addressing the root fucking cause of the reasons why they didn't vote. it's a fucking cycle and it keeps repeating because dems want to continue to try and have polite conversations about fascism while the fascists are getting bolder and bolder and more organized. meanwhile there's a fucking genocide that the US is directly funding. not to mention the vast majority of the leftists i've seen talk about not wanting to vote are people of color, and again, instead of addressing that maybe people don't want to vote for politicians that are fine with making their lives worse regardless of party, they just wanna say "well we're not making it AS BAD so just vote for us!!". and maybe they worked for getting biden in office but we all saw how "pushing biden further left" went !!! i'm fucking tired !!!!

[bricko-mcfisto]

It is actually so frustrating watching people try to defend Biden. "Biden actually condemned police violence!" Yes, and then he immediately started pushing to give cops more money, more weapons, more military gear. Like I'm sorry do people today just not remember that it is literally the basic standard, like actual definition of literal, to distrust every single word a politician says? Biden can say whatever the hell he wants his actions are what matters and it's clear Biden is as pro-cop as it comes.

"Oh but Biden said this but Biden said that" and he was lying about almost all of it. The handful of good things I'm aware of that he's done were things he got elected on, specifically they were the handful of things he got elected on that he actually did while he tossed most of it in the trash, or are token gestures towards 'fixing' something while meanwhile taking other actions that completely overshadow and remove any benefit from that token.

Biden wasn't pushed left, he fucking said arabs have an ancient urge to kill jews, he's fully supporting the police brutalizing protestors on college campuses, funded the cops, the democratic party at large completely flipped on immigration so hard the Republicans were the ones refusing to crack down on the border! (Note: The republicans were not doing this for moral reasons but because if they agreed they would no longer be able to campaign on the idea of being harder on the border than democrats)

Hilary was a bad option but better than Trump.

Biden was a bad option but better than Trump.

Now it's Biden again, he's an even worse option for so many goddamn reasons but he's "still better than Trump."

At what fucking point are we going to realize that we can't push the democratic party left? That as long as they have a worse guy to hold up and go, "Hey hey we're going to do everything he's going to do except we won't be as hard on the gays and we'll pretend to not be as hard on immigration" they have absolutely zero reason to ever go left?

Why is it never Biden's fault for completely refusing to give any concessions to the people who are apparently the only way he can beat Trump and who will be blamed if Trump beats him? Why is it there fault and not Biden's and the Democratic Party's for refusing to give even the most basic concession of no longer supporting a genocide?

Why is it the fault of the voters who are being given practically nothing, being spat on, being brutalized by police while he lies and pretends, watching the "leader of the free world" talk about how he'll totally cut support for Israel any day now, while approving an extra billion dollars of munitions to it, talk about how he totally thinks police brutality is a big deal but let's give them even more money anyways.

It's...madness, it's complete fucking madness. Biden doesn't have to do a thing, he can be as fucked up as he wants, as long as he makes sure to take a slightly more progressive line on at least a couple of issues we all have to fall in line and vote for him because the other guy is going to do a double genocide.

It's a fucking joke and I'm tired of seeing people act as if it isn't.

[popculturebuffet]

Star Vs: Total Eclipsa the Moon and Butterfly Trap (Tomtrsopective Interlude)

Hello you beautiful people, and welcome back to the tomtrospective... minus Tom, since as i’ve mentioned a LOT in recent parts of this tribute to eveyrone’s faviorite demon voiced by shawn from boy meets world, realized I hadn’t mentioned that in a while, I”m also covering the metora arc from the second half of season 3, as Tom plays a pretty sizeable roll in it’s climax , the season 3 two part finale Divide and Conquer, and if i’m going to cover what’s essentially an hour long episode i’m going to do it right. It’s why i’m also doing the della arc alongside the Lena arc next month, the latter of which is fully paid for: because Shadow War pays that off too. Even if it makes way more work for me, if i’m going to review something, i’m gonna do it right. So we come to this pair of episodes.  First question a lot of you might be having... 

To which I say.. I ? We’ll see. The second is that “Why aren’t you covering the bog beast of boggabah?”. Well.. honestly it’s for time constraints. I have a LOT of episodes to cover, my own fault I know but again if you do a job you do it right, and cutting the one that while part of the plot isn’t nearly as essential to anything and ultimately only sticks for one episode character development wise. It’s not bad, almost nothing with Alan Tudyk in it is bad. That’s a fact, that’s a Disney fact. 

Point is while I like covering EVERYTHING I can, I do have to draw a line and since this retrospective is about TOM, i’d rather not pile on more episodes that don’t involve him than absolutley necessary. Bog Beast just dosen’t feel NEARLY as much of a necessary detour as these two coming up or Skooled and Tough Love down the line.  So with all that out of the way, join me under the cut for a discussion of Eclipsa’s character up to these episodes and the episodes themselves. 

Our detour DOES take us right into my OTHER faviorite character in the series, tied with tom and the other character that makes watching the series post battle of mewni, worthwhile: Eclipsa. We’ve mentioned her before obviously but this is the first episode she actually shows up in that i’m covered, and i’m delighted to finally tackle her head on. And the other faviorite thing isn’t an exageration: She’s equal to tom in my heart. She’s just as compelling, just as well acted, and unlike Tom actually gets a decent resolution to her character arc. In fact she’s one of the ONLY characters to get a decent resolution.  It’s also at this point her character undergoes a shift. While she dosen’t change as a person that much, before this it was left purposfully vauge if Eclipsa was really.. evil, and possibly the big bad of the season. On the one hand her magic is unquestionably dark and evil even if she isn’t, and while Star wasn’t at all effected by her chapter, Marco went all 

For a second before Glossaryck fixed it off screen, and using her “Darkest Spell” left both her and moon with blackened goop on their arms for the rest of their lives. Not only that but she pushed Star into morally dubious actions: Teling her Marco could be her squire simply because she said so, and being the one that encouraged her to explore her butterfly form. 

But we also saw her GENUINELY bond with Star, the two relating both on seeing monsters as people, and dating them, and on being reckless, powerful and often looked down upon by Moon for unfair reasons. Something I hadn’t realized but shoudl’ve before this is, for Season 3 at least.. Eclipsa is the mentor star never properly had. Glossaryck, while he did do a decent job from time to time, is just too damn neutral to be a proper mentor, not really carring what happens to mewni or if he even lives or dies, a neglectful attitude that honestly caused a good chunk of Mewni’s problems, never remotely trying to invervene in his protege Solaria’s genocidal campaign against monsters, his children’s growing fantatical racisim, or well.. anything. He just dosen’t care.  Moon TRIED to be one, and can be a good mother on occasion.. but the two are exact opposites: Moon is controlled in every aspect of her life and compartmentalizes and structures everything, while Star is pure chaos and impulse. It’s why River has an easier time parenting her, as she got a LOT more of his personality than her mothers, and thus can actually relate to her. Bog Beast shows this off well: He teaches her a lesson Moon probably has tried to a thousand times, to be patient.. but does so on her level with an old family ritual and using a metaphor, rather than trying to drill it into her head. It’s why when he did actually teach her Glossayrck used the same: Star is just not a traditional learner, moon is. And there in lies the problem.. Moon just cannot accept for most of the series that her daughter isn’t like her despite her best efforts or try to see it on her level, and Star dosen’t really try to see it from Moon’s perspective either, though being you know the Child and not the parent, it’s a bit more understandable. Moon has a real hard time seeing other people’s perspectives, and really changing.. and given Star has gone from being a proud racist to realising how horrible her attiude to monsters were in under a year, really is why the two clash so much. It’s something I sadly relate to: While my own dad is not racist, he is a staunch republican, is one of those morons who belives the “Well if trans people can use the bathroom they want then rapists will put on women’s clothing just to enter a bathroom!” bullshit fully, and while he supports gay people myself included did NOT support gay marraige and when I was a teen would often say “Wellt hat’s as valid as me marrying bob” Bob.. is my dad’s cat who hates me for understandable reasons as I was not great with cats when he got him. So yeah I get your parent being an impenetrable brick wall on important issues. 

The point is Eclipsa...actually listens to star, agrees to her views and instead of trying to FORCE star to go the way she wants simply guides her, giving her advice and being gentle with her. The two are similar enough that Eclipsa’s advice, good or bad, tends to stick, and that Eclipsa actually cares what Star thinks which Moon does not. But it was hard to gage if she GENUINELY cared or was just playing star. But these episodes shred that ambiguity to pieces, showing that while eclipsa is not without faults.. she’s not evil... and the people who called her that very much ARE. So without further adeu....

Total Eclipsa The Moon:

In the previous episode, Star burst into Moon’s room giving her the revelations of the night. Moon.. did not take it well, both unaware and furious her daughter had a party at the monster temple, refusing to believe her and taking umbrage at Star’s VERY understandable accusation that she sent Rhombulus after them, since he had her royal guards with him, levitating her daughter out of the office. 

But what is suprising is that, as this episode opens after brooding a bit and TRYING to get back to work.. Moon clealry can’t get the idea out of her head. You can see the wheels turning: Sure star is impulsive and did falsely accuse her.. but she’s not a liar. While Star hides stuff on occasion.. when she lost the book she came right to her parents to confess, something Moon genuinely appricated. Why would she TRANSPARENTLY make something up? While the trial is close, Star would at least, if sloppily and ucnovncingly try and fake evidence if that was her goal. And while the party isn’t something Moon is happy about it is VERY suspcious Rhombulus didn’t tell her about police action on her terriotry using her own guards involving her daughter, several monsters, and the heirs to every kingdom in the land.  So she takes the Royal Lineage book and goes to see Eclipsa.. who made a guitar out of bones because she’s awesome and that’s what you do when you have a lot of itme on your hands and nothing else to do. 

She’s casual with Moon, who just assumes she’ll get the answer she wants l,  asks her to identify her daughter.. though Eclipsa is taken aback by this. She’s willing to.. she just hasn’t seen her face in thosands of years let alone as a grown woman and assumes she’s dead by now. It’s a very good, very small moment.. and it’s made more striking both by what we learned last episode.. and the fact she has no idea who Festivia is, and knows who her one and only Daughter was: Meteora. And while Moon does bring up that her name just could’ve been changed... Eclipsa shoots that down.. Meteora had clover cheeks and “The cutest little tail”. Moon asks how this even makes sense and Eclipsa’s response is absolutely wonderful “When a queen and a monster love each other very much...”. Before we can get to the sexy details Moon then clarifies that she’s confused how she didn’t know about this and wants answers, though she still keeps Metora still being alive a secret for now.. but it’s understndable as Moon still dosen’t trust Eclipsa, and dosen’t want to risk her trying to escape to find her right before the trial. Eclipsa tells her there is one place they could get a solid answer, the archives, which are in the commission building, though Moon apparently doesn’t have access..despite being queen. You think she would’ve questioned that by now given the name.

But Moon plans to go, and refuses to take Eclipsa along.. but is swayed when Eclipsa genuinely not only accepts it.. but sadly and without any hint of manipultion and with pure honesty asks her to tell her what happened to her daughter. And for the first time... Moon sees Eclipsa as not the boogeyman history wrote her as.. but just another mother desperatley looking for her child and finding out history covered her up and she may never know what happened to her.  So we next cut to the magical high comission building, where we see Shawn, the security guard, deer man and bumbling doofus, who ends up not scanning moon when the magic detector, basicallyu a metal detctor, goes read because she terrifies him out of it. And yeah.. good point she is on the comission he really shoudn’t have to do that. Though I like the sublte hints with this and the archives that the comission have slowly creeped up in thier authority: while the queen is still granted a seat at the table.. she’s not given ALL the toys in the box despite that not really being fair given how much sway the comission has in mewni politics.  But naturally Moon has snuck eclipsa in and even more naturally is nearly having a panic attack over breaking the rules. But she dosen’t have time for that and asks Eclipsa where the archives are. 

She’s not tricking moon or anything though: It’s been thousands of years and the comission building has changed vastly, when she was around the archives were just a stone hut off to the side. That gives Moon an idea and they find a stone wall in the storage room, which Eclipsa activates in her own weird and endearing way.  This also shows off the one trait that seperates Eclipsa from star: Star usually just does random things because. While Eclipsa isn’t IMUNE to this usually when she does something weird it’s specifically to acomplish something, she’s just using her own unique methods. LIke here she rubs her back against the stones and what not.. ut it gets the door open. Unfortuntely our heroines then run into Shawn who being a natural narc, runs off ot tattle before Moon cuts him off. Eclipsa insists they zap his memory and only hasn’t for a crucial reason: she can’t do magic without a wand. It’s an intresting and understandable reveal: like star she just relied on the wand for it and never learned how to do her spells without it as she never really needed to.. and even now she dosen’t. While her magic COULD help her escape.. she has no intrest in escaping since it’d only hurt star and even a sham trial will still make her a martyr for mosnter kind and prove Star’s point she’s not a bad person. Even if she looses she wins. So she simply had no reason to relearn it and likely figured correctly doing so might just rouse further suspicon or get her locked in chains or other nonsense and given she can, if unbenownst to moon, wander the castle freely via the secret passages.. she’s really not bothered by house arrest.  Moon of course dosen’t want to.. but in a great gag ends up doing so by mockingly saying “Memory eraser gun” and making a gun gesture with her hand.. and ends up actually doing that as a result. They put the comotose magic outside. And this scene is a great character bit to me for both characters: It shows off a bit flaw for each character: For moon it’s that she lacks the ablity to improvise. She can and has created magic but is so orderly and regimented it has to be percise and she dosen’t grasp just HOW easily a spell can be created simply by imagining it. She lacks the pure raw creativity and talent of her daughter and supposed ancestor.... but makes up for it in what she calls eclipsa out on: restraint. While Moon has ENTIRELY too much, serioulsy the stick is so far up her ass she can see it when she talks, it’s not itself a bad thing, and using it recklessly and irresponsibly, as the suplmental big boook of spells shows, without thought or without proper preperation can have devistating consequences. Skywinn, one of the past queens and the first in the book, destroyed an entire dimension simply by letting loose far too much, while Rhina, Moon’s great great grandmother, acccidently kileld her abusive husband because her heartbreak spell was a bit too literal. Power is fine and all. but you have to control it. It’s why Xavier’s School Existed before he decided to take all the kids to an island because humanity suck so much: you need to learn to use your pwoer responsibly and eclipsa never did. She can contorl it perfectly as we’ll see.. but she also dosen’t think of the implications of what she does with it, she just does and to hell with the consequences. And that’s really her whole problem: She acts mostly on impulse without thinking, and it’s had bad consequences.. though ironically her fleeing with Globgor, as said book wonderfuly outlined.. was NOT a rash or impulse decision but a VERY hard one where she was stuck between keeping the crown and pleasing eveyrone.. or fleeing with her lover, being happy and taking care of a serious threat to the kingdom as a whole WITH him, but knowing it might not end well.. and sadly it did not.  Eclipsa does show her skill though once agian, having made up a silly song to rmemeber where to go and since the archives haven’t been touched and are about the same, easily leads them in. Though once they reach the door they can’t open it, but Eclipsa has a solution: A rat hole. “It’s so gross in here” she says delighted. Moon isn’t happy about it but agrees to it.. but her ass gets stuck.. and that’s not me being crude or making a joke her ass literally gets stuck and Eclipsa has to go for help but takes an hour, long enough for a spider to hypnotize moon and steal her crown and for moon to question trusting her.. before Eclipsa returns.  And this is what cements what I was getting at: Before there was clear ambiguity in “Is eclipsa the villian or not”. Here.. it’s gone. She has shady powers and her morals are flexable.. but she’s still a kind, loveably weird woman and it’s obvious by this point her reputation as evil was horribly exagerated, and primarily brought on by racisim. And moon’s realizing it too. They find the archives, which is a cool concept: magitek hands that record everything that happens to a royal, even showing some of what’s going on right then in the other plot. Moon quips that this actually really would’ve helped with the trial, but apologizes for it showing that she’s slowly realized what Star knew from minute one and what I just mentioned: Eclipsa is not a bad person. She’s flawed, but she’s not evil or some nightmarish destroyer of worlds.. she’s just a batty 40-50 something woman who dosne’t think through her actions. 

Eclipsa does explain it probably wouldn’t of done moon good, as it’s near impossible to find anything unless you know where to look.. which makes perfect sense. The scroll records every queen’s every actoin every minute of every day. Even summarized that’s like trying to sift through footage of eveyr minute of your life. Even sped up, it’d take weeks or months or even years to find something without knowing where exactly to look. Thankfully Eclipsa does.. but finds the Scroll has been offered as the “Daughter of queen eclipsa nd king shatacan” is sewn in there as festivia.. literally.. like part of the scroll was ripped out. And as close friend, endless resource and tom expert bar none @jess-the-vampire​ pointed out to me when I asked for her imput on these ones, that makes no sense as the two never had a daugther and I feel they just didn’t think that through. Plot hole aside.. it’s VERY clear someone has tampred with the archives and if Moon wasn’t already questinoing if Eclipsa was really bad this clinches it: Someone ERASED one of her family from history and hid the truth even from them. And Moon’s going ot get answers.. after our heroes run from the security system, get the crown back and BARELY escape with the scroll before the comission catches them. 

Back at the castle Eclipsa is disgraught over her daughter and Moon clinches their new bond by revealing she might still be alive... Moon might not KNOW if Star was telling or even knew the whole truth.. but she knwos something is going on and she’s going to find out. And whiel she may not know everything.. she has a damn good idea who did this.. .and says so just as star comes in from her adventure, having learned patience. Cue the credits.  Final Thoughts: This was a fun one, with Moon and Eclipsa having a delightful odd couple dynamic, the regminted overly serious and overly stuffy moon with the wild and reckless and charmingly weird eclipsa is just a great dynamic and endlessly entertaining and I wish the show had done more with it before what’s about to happen but what we got was great and minor plot hole mentioned aside, the reveal only deepens the intrigue for what’s next.. so speaking of which...

Butterfly Trap: Here. We. Go. One of the series best episodes, if not it’s BEST. Oh me mow i’m excited. 

We open with the long set up trial of Eclipsa Butterfly.. and as you’d expect by a trial by a jury of her enimies, the comission mostly sees this as a formality outside of Moon. Sean is excited though, he gets to bring out the typey thingy. Usually Rhombluus just crystalises them. 

Yeahhh... the show never properly deals with Rhombulus’ tendency to imprison first ask questions never or gets any of his victims, i.e. the ones he probably had less reason to crystal up not ones who were eating universes or whatever , free. But this is the LEAST of the dropped threads from this one. Point is this isn’t a remotely fair trial.. as hammermed in by the fact Hekapoo is upset and confused that Star is here too. Moon wants her to see eclipsa got a fair trial. Also Rhomblus wants her DEAD, but the others shot him down on this. HIs reasoning , for him, is suprisingly good: crystalising her didn’t work last time and implicilty given star likes her star could just order her freed when she’s queen. But I get their reasoning: Killing her would only make her a martyr to monsterkind, and to Star who probably woudln’t listen to or respect them EVER again. And Moon still wanted that when she started the trial.  So while clearly a sham this does crystalize, pun unitended, how corrupt the comissoin is. Their holding a trial with no jury, no witnesses, not that most are alive but some are, and with everyone CLEARLY thinking she’s guilty before it starts... and no one questioned it. This is even unusual as they rarely have an actual trial. And it’s about to be revealed to be a WHOLE lot worse. 

So the trial begins and Moon brings out the evidence, which is oddly disorganized given how much work she was putting in before, and ismostly secondhand accounts and interviews and their going to have to just sit there and sort through it all, which NONE OF THEM, especially rhomblus are happy about “THIS SOUNDS LIKE MATH!”

But Eclipsa has a simplier, if much more risky suggestion: Trial by Box. While Moon points out this isn’t great for her as the box is merciless and will not take lies, but Eclipsa counters rightly that she has nothing to hide. ANd honestly again given the commission are clearly out for her blood.. this is the only way she gets anything resembling a fair trial. Resembling being the key word. This is the most clearly rigged trial i’ve seen since that time Batman’s villians kidnapped him and put him on trial with joker as the judge.. good episode though.. and THAT was even a more fair trial as they actually gave him a lawyer and let him go when she made a convincing enough case. 

So the box is brought out, and it turns out to be the truth or punishment cube from season 2. Which Moon insists isn’t a party game.. despite the fact a bunch of teenage girls easily got one and it has a setting for that when moon grabs it. Along with, in a really great bit, settings for Bachelorette (All right ladies!) and Intervention. Know someone who could use that honestly. 

So the Comission ask their questions. We start with Rhombluus who asks if she wrote the “Evil Chapter” in the book of spells. Eclipsa dosen’t deny it but ponits out THEY labeled it that, Star rightly points out none of htem have actually read it moon included, and Eclipsa.. shoves her foot in her mouth by pointing out she’s made FAR WORSE spells that didnt make the cut. “Writing is rewriting you know”.  Love this woman. 

So next up is Hekapoo who asks if she abandoned her husband to run off with Globgor. Well they dont’ use his name because end of season plot twist but still. Eclipsa not only firmly doesen’t deny it but fondly caressses the projection of him “Hello sweetie”. Hekapoo marks her down with evil for this which... Jeff if you would?

Thank you. Not only is this racist bs that star perfectly destroyed earlier in the season, as the comission themselves are monsters in all but category, but the spellbook makes this so much worse. As I said for once Eclipsa .. wasn’t being impulsive. She was torn between duty and love and choose love, and even then partially did so to prevent the septarians from wiping out both the rest of monster kind AND mewmans. And Shastacan, was a massive dick, who took her not being in love with him like he was with her as a sign to throw her monster child away as we’’ll see and rightfully got eaten for it. I know this is all obvious stuff but it’s hard not to yell about it.  Next it Rhombluus.. who asks if she ate those babies. Again that was Bubipsa as Hekapoo understandably yells at him for but no backsies, and she sgets another evil mark on H-Poo’s good or evil tally because she’s that bitch. Finally Moon asks if she’s sorry for what she’s done.. and given the most they genuinely have are that she wrote spells that while dark and evil, were not only not the worst she could do but were clearly not used on any innocents, had an interracial marraige, and did not eat babies.. yeah, she’s not. So the comissoin prepare to cast judgement on the woman whose only “crime” is interacial dating, in a sham trial. 

Thankfully.. Eclipsa turns the tables. Before they can hastily refreeze her... Eclipsa points out she has a question.. and Moon points out as a former queen of mewni she’s entitled to a comission seat and thus TECHNICALLY a member. A loose rule and one you’d think Moon wouldn’t enforce.. but she does, a large hint at something i’ll get to in a moment as the reveal’s just too good to spend already. Naturally she has but one question for them:

No, obviously it’s “What did you do with my daughter”. Even more obviously they deny it.. but as we saw last time the cube came out, even lying to YOURSELF isn’t something the cube accepts so outright lying to save your fucking hides is even worse and it begins to crush them all. And after spending most of the runtime putting up with their racist and clearly biaserd bollocks it’s SO fucking cathartic to see them desperatly scramble and fail to avoid the box, with Hekapoo screaming “We didn’t do anything!”. 

Eventually Star calls them out on it pointing out they enforce the rules for everyone ELSE, and Hekapoo in paticular called Star and Moon on keeping the book being stolen a secret and Marco on Star’s butterfly form fiasco, so yeah, their glass house is in shards.. and Rhombluus FINNALLY ends this charade and confesses. Hekapoo naturally is mad at him for this.. despite the fact that if he hadn’t they’d all be dead and none of this would matter. 

Also Eclipsa is just badass during the entire sequence. While Moon and Star are panicking and the comission are covering for themselves, though the former two are probably doing it more just to keep up appearances but we’ll get to that in just a moment. Eclipsa, SHe just has this expression the whole time, as I put at the top for good reason. 

Just a look of pure SCORN, of a mother’s rage at having her daughter hidden from her and wiped from history, of having her husband imprisoned for rightfully getting vengance for it, for having HERSELF imiprosned and made out to be some kind of ghoul for the crime of marrying who she loved and saving her damn kingdom. She’s politely put up with this shit for as long as she had to to get to this moment.. but now as her tormentors despretly try to avoid the consequences of their actions and the truth.. she can only look on with pure, justified hatred at EVEYRTHING they’ve done and just how cowardly it is they refuse to admit it. 

So with the pepretraotrs in the cover up explosed, Rhomblus explains he was tired of lying. This COULD have been a good turn for the character, showing he had some remorse and have him get a redepmption arc... any of them could’ve.. but instead thier just 2 dimensonal asssholes after this because “racists be like that’ which they do, but it dosen’t mena you couldn’t of used them as big bads for the final season instead of wasting them.  But yeah back on point Rhombluus prods omni to tell them via his projection thing and he does: After Eclipsa was imprisoned, Shastacan got rid of meteora, and we of course know where she went and soon we’ll find out just what happened to her there, but more ont hat another time, and the comission covered things up by taking a pesant girl, though unlike the graphic above we later found out she was left behind by her family and taken in by the comission, who are shown to also have raised her by the book of spells. They gave her the wand, putting magic in her veins.. how ..

Look me and Jess discussed this: magic being given by the wand is terribly inconsistent and while I might go into it in a seperate article some other day, now is not the time or place for it. 

It is however the time and place for the reveal as Moon’s reaction to all of this? “We suspected as much”

Yup, as our heroines explain and Shawn freaks the fuck out in one of the series best gags, and mirrors the audience’s reactions, we find out this was all a setup: and as I alluded too one cleverly set up the whole episode, pun unintended: Moon is suddenly dour and ready to to through with the trial despite last episodes revelations, she brings in evidence that’s entirely unsorted despite being a control freak who was previously working on gathering and sorting said evidence, and she backs up eclipsa despite it clearly givng her an advantage. All little hints that something wasn’t right there. Whlie Hekapoo, being again that bitch, is naturally furious, Moon is undaunted and explains why they did this.. and Star was in on it too, which shows that even if her patience lesson from bog beast dosen’t stick entirely, sigh, it does stick for this one episode as she not only waited through this sham trial.. but played her part well, arguging with moon at times to make it seem like nothing had changed. Everything was a careful and constructed plan to get the commission into a position where they COULDN’T lie. Even if Rhombulus hadn’t cracked one of them might of when theyw ere close and while it was a huge risk they all knew going in... it paid off. The truth is laid bare. If only Lekmet’s bi ass were here .. so he could aslo get raked over teh coals for htis. Also yes bi, he had the bi flag colors on the flowers on ihs portrait they left where his seat used to be. 

So with the cards all on the table, the Cube passes judgment; Eclipsa is guilty.. but so are her judges minus Moon, so he tells them to think about that, which they do, while he leaves so they can sort out their issues. Star reads the assholes the riot act.. until she stumbles on realizing something: Eclipsa, her supportive, loving, and wonderful grandma whose actually like her.. isn’t her grandma. Eclipsa responds with an “I’m sorry sweetie’ making two things clear by her tone: She’s just as devistated by this reveal as star, she just has more pressing things in her head right now, and that even if their not bound by blood.. sh’es still star’s grandma and always will be.  What hits harder is the realization sh’es not a princess and her life is a lie. Granted she is TECHNICALLY a princess , since her dad is still a king by blood and could take the johnason throne if he wanted, but tha’ts being pednatinc: the real point is that the legacy that put so  much pressure on her all her life is a lie, and she isn’t who she thought she was.  “We’re nothing mom, we’re nothing. “ 

So star runs off as both of her moms try and comfort her. And as we close out this episode god damn is Eden Sher good in this. Just her acting in this scene is so damn heartbreaking and powerful, going from indignant and calling out the cocmisison.. to heartbreaking, slowly and quitely falling apart as she realizes what happened. So what’s this anguish star’s going through amount to?

Oh sure the ending of season 3 wouldn’t happen without this reveal.. but Star being devistated by it goes NOWHERE. There’s no character arc of her dealing with the fact she’s no longer a princess or once she gives teh wand to eclipsa, even heir to the throne probably. No angst, no deep reflection not even an offhand joke. We find out who the commoners Festivia descended from were.. but that’s IT. Star just kinda ignores this like her confession to marco last season only that at least got a payoff. I will bitch about that payoff soon but it’s you know A PAYOFF. This is a WASTE of an utterly amazing plot twist, one that turns the show on it’s head and star’s entire rebelious princess character around. because they just didn’t care to actually let her change as a character after this season. She learns nothing from this point, dosen’t really grow, and ends in a really terrible and ghastly place. This episodes excellent and while it’s after effects would be felt.. it left SO much more on the table they never bothered to pick up and use. 

Final Thoughts: As I said full of wasted potetinal.. but one of the series best episodes still. Hampered a bit by said waste of potetial but on it’s own it’s gripping, has a well set up swereve, and some great acting and animation all around. 

So that does it for this review: Next Time: Star and Tom’s relationship progresses as Tom is forced to see what his privlage has insulated him from, while it then hits a massive road block as we get.. to Booth Buddies. And yes i’m doing Skooled second, Booth Buddies is TECHNICALLY seasonly approraite for valentine’s way.. just like herpes. Until then follow this blog for more reviews, my comissions are open shoot me an ask for details and until the next rainbow, it’s been a pleasure. 

[cksmart-world]

The Completely Unnecessary News Analysis

by Christopher Smart

March 19, 2019

Genocide & the End of Hamburgers

This is perhaps the most shocking news of the week — and that's saying something: We could be looking at the end of America as we know it and it has nothing to do with Netflix. Utah Congressman Rob Bishop has warned that the end of the hamburger — the sandwich that built America — is imminent, thanks to some rabid left-wing crazies who are taking control of the House of Representatives. That's right, he's talking about the Green New Deal. “[T]he ideas behind the New Green Deal are tantamount to genocide,” he said. Rob Bishop is among the oft forgotten and trod-upon lily-white minority that inhabits lands that eastern elites often dismiss. “I'm an ethnic,” Bishop said. “I'm a Westerner.” How the Green New Deal would kill off hamburgers and people inhabiting the West remains a little fuzzy. But the hideous proposal calls for such things as health care for all, access to higher ed, replacing aging roads and bridges and a guaranteed living wage. Word is it would replace beef cattle with windmills and Sage Grouse. Burger King would have to change its name. Sage Grouse King? It's so shocking that Bishop is calling on Speaker Nancy Pelosi to conduct a thorough investigation of the Green New Deal: “With American safety and prosperity on the line, it's the very least the speaker can do,” he declared. Damn straight. Pass the Freedom Fries.

Happy Days — Lawmakers in Recess

For many Utahns this is the best time of year as the annual session of the State Legislature — a gut-churning 45 days — comes crashing to an end. As usual, our righteous legislators took on abortion and pumped up gun rights. They considered a new tax on food to raise much needed revenue as they wondered how to dispose of a $1billion surplus. They performed major surgery on citizen initiatives that legalized medical marijuana and expanded Medicaid and promised a lobotomy next year on a third initiative aimed at ending gerrymandering. The teetotalers compromised on a bill that would have boosted the alcohol content of beer from 3.2 to 4.8 percent: wait for it — 4.0 beer. WTF. Not least, lawmakers manipulated a proposal that would have banned conversion therapy that proponents claim saves gay people from their sinful ways — if it doesn't kill them. The list goes on, but Wilson and the band can't take anymore, fearing nightmares and flashbacks from bad acid trips and past legislative sessions. We'd go into the Machiavellian Inland Port scheme, but why waste time when the sun is out and lawmakers have been driven back under their rocks. So grab your skateboard and beer cooler and head for the park — but don't forget the sunscreen or your medical marijuana.

It's Not Your Fault, Mr. President

Headlines screaming “Lee and Romney Defy President” thunder across the land, shaking the bedrock of the Grand Old Party of Trump. Normally, when a member of Congress doesn't line up behind a president, it's not such a big deal. But that was BT — Before Trump. Republicans in Congress know that going against the BUM (Big Unhinged Monster) could land them with Mia Love — condemned to wander the political wilderness, like Moses without goats. The history-making vote to undo Trump's border Wall emergency was seen by some pundits as the slaves telling Pharaoh to kiss off. Others thought it might finally be their acknowledgement of Trump's parallel universe. Wishful thinking. In a speech on the floor of the Senate, the bard, Mike Lee, explained his vote: He wasn't telling Trump to kiss off, at all, it's just that he had to vote against the law that gave chief executives too much power. “It's not your fault that it's a bad law, Mr. President,” Lee proclaimed. Only time will tell if this bit of CYA will save Lee's bacon. Wrapping yourself in the shroud of the Constitution goes only so far with an agnostic ruler. Perhaps Lee should pray that it rains frogs and the Red Sea parts.

Good Guys With AR-15s

Following the massacre at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pledged to change gun laws that permit semi-automatic weapons, like the AR-15. What a crazy idea. After mass shootings in the U.S., Republicans have said that reviewing gun laws following such tragedies is not a good idea because important decisions should not be made when people are thinking about other people who have just been shot to death. It clouds the judgement. In 1996, Australia toughened gun laws after a spate of mass shootings: A person must have a license to possess or use a firearm. License holders must demonstrate a "genuine reason" (which does not include self-defense) for obtaining a firearm license. All firearms must be registered by serial number. Strangely enough, the Australian Institute of Criminology found that gun deaths, including suicides, went down sharply. This is something many people in this country are trying to avoid because we don't want to lose our freedom. Last year, there were some 40,000 gun deaths in the U.S. Fortunately, we have the 2nd Amendment or even more people would have been killed. Too bad those poor muslims in New Zealand didn't carry their AR-15s to prayer. Then, the massacre would never have happened. Right.

News flash: Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie (I'm rebuilding the city brick-by-brick) Biskupski will not — repeat, will not — run for reelection. The surprising news comes soon after former state senator and all around bon vivant Jim Dabakis tossed his 10-gallon hat through the window at City Hall, proclaiming he will be the next mayor. Some Salt Lakers love the mercurial Dabakis for poking Republican state legislators in the eye. And although Dabakis would be a lot more fun than Mayor Frownyface, critics fear he may lack even her meager managerial skills. On the other hand, it is the age of Trump and such skills are no longer required. But can he tweet?

OK, that's it for another week here at Smart Bomb, where the staff keeps track of every move Beto O'Rourke makes so that you and the entire Washington press corps don't have to. Wilson, will you and the band take us out with a little something for the wunderkind: So you want to be a rock and roll star, then listen now, to what I say / Just get an electric guitar and take some time and learn how to play / And in a week or two if you make the charts the girls'll tear you apart... The money, the game, the public acclaim — Don't forget what you are, you're a rock 'n' roll star...

[theculturedmarxist]

Mirror Mirror

American political education is absolutely abysmal. There really is no understating how woefully misserved young people are when it comes to the breadth, depth, or quality of politics, regarding both those in the United States and even more so abroad. Practically as soon as their education begins, they are taught to think in terms of us and them; you have the settlers and the natives, the colonists and the British, the Americans and everyone else, the Whigs and Tories, Federalists and Anti-Federalists, Republicans and Democrats, Right and Left. At its most fundamental level, it’s a division between ‘right’ and ‘wrong,’ a judgement dispassionately dispensed by the history of Winners and Losers. It’s a cornerstone of the American mythos, so much grease that keeps the gears of the illusory bourgeois democracy turning. ‘Democracy’ is right because it beat monarchy. The Allies were right because they defeated the Nazis. Capitalism is right because it beat Socialism. ‘American’s love a winner and will not tolerate a loser.’

This is an absurd, metaphysical view of the world. As Mao says, nothing is ever wholly good or wholly bad. Bad results can come from good events, and good results arise from bad events. History is a complex interaction of innumerable events, influences, processes, and factors resulting in sequences of unfathomable complexity. This is the reality of the world. There are rarely any easy answers, no one’s knowledge is complete, and black and white are so vanishingly rare as to scarcely exist at all.

It isn’t any wonder then that such a rigid dichotomy produces such intense alienation in those subjected to it. Male and female, man and woman, straight and gay, Black and White, all the innumerable false dichotomies perpetuated by this irrational philosophy are becoming increasingly manifest as the system which maintains them breaks down. It is a process long in coming. At every step of the way, it has been Capitalism producing the fertile ground necessary for these changes. Its destructive World Wars decimated the male populations in industrialized countries, thrusting women into industrial roles long reserved for men. The devastation of the first World War created in The Soviet Union the desperate need for skilled workers of any kind, opening up unprecedented opportunities for women as well as peoples throttled by the oppression of colonialism. This too was a manifestation of the absurdity of such a stark dichotomy. People are not content to subject themselves to the strictures of oppressor and oppressed.

Under Capitalism, there is no other choice. It all flows from the ultimate source: the logic of employer and employee, owner and lessee, bourgeois and prole.

We can see the results of this degrading logic here and now. Young people, finding themselves unable to be fit neatly into such trite categories as male and female, have ignited an explosion of exploratory gender expressions. As the brutality necessary to maintain Capitalism continue to manifest themselves, they increasingly turn away from the prescribed roles prescribed by it. As the system makes it impossible to achieve its allowed goals, people turn away from them. They see the folly in pursuing its hollow attainments, not only because their society has made it impossible to do so, but because they’ve seen the results of those that have; the wreckage of the lives of their brothers and sisters, parents and children, friends and family, continually wash up on the beaches of their own lives, embattled as they are by the tempestuous throes of Capitalism. 

This is an inevitability, but it is only the initial stage of its own long, involved process.

What we have to deal with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on the contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally and intellectually, still stamped with the birth marks of the old society from whose womb it emerges. [Marx, "Critique of the Gotha Programme",Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1958, Vol. 2, p. 23.]

These people, after first discovering the tremendous, obscene swindle that has robbed them of their lives up to the point of their revelation, are naturally upset, angry, to say the least. A person can endure great and terrible suffering, particularly in the service of what they believe to be a good cause. This is true even when they believe that the source of the suffering is their own fault, a flaw in themselves, that must be corrected through the agony of self denial and penitent flagellation. If they were only better, they wouldn’t need to suffer, and they can be so long as they choose to, or so they are told.

To discover at long last that the source of their suffering isn’t arising from within, but inflicted from without, often inflicts a wound so great it is nearly beyond healing. It’s beyond a simple lie–a cruel but necessary falsehood intended for their benefit. It’s a vicious, hateful deception perpetrated against them, not in the abstract, but in themselves. They discover that their suffering hasn’t been inflicted apurpose, or even necessarily by those that hate them. Rather, they’re victimized coldly and dispassionately by an impersonal system erected entirely to eradicate them only because they in themselves serve no useful purpose to the people that sit at its pinnacle other than to be destroyed. This is perhaps the most savage wound of all, inflicted by the realization that the people who not only set in motion and maintain such a system don’t even care enough to hate them, and in fact even find that ‘their kind’ participate in it. They aren’t persecuted because of who they are, but because they’re not even important enough to hate by those ultimately responsible. Whatever value they might have had as pariahs evaporates in the face of the illuminating realization that they are just grist for the mill, crushed impersonally, mechanically for the benefit of people who never knew or even cared that they ever existed.

They’re angry. They should be. They have every right to be.

But that isn’t enough.

Even having come to this understanding, it isn’t enough to free them from the logic of the system in which they have been indoctrinated since birth. If people with White skin are preferred by the system that oppressed them, then the natural response is to embrace people with ‘non-White’ skin. If heteronormativity is the social force imposed on them, then queerness is to be endorsed. If the gender binary is what Capitalist society demands of them, then nonbinary manifestations are to be championed.

This is a step in the right direction, but only just. They have come to understand the need to refute the system that binds them, but merely going this far doesn’t even jostle their cell door. Still they are bound up in its logic of dichotomies, of essential separateness between nonexistent or ultimately arbitrary distinctions imposed on them by bourgeois society. Instead of rejecting the illusion of good and evil, they’ve merely inverted its polarity, keeping its logic but inverting its direction. Anger is given an outlet, but rendered impotent, perpetuating the process that originally gave rise to it. In short, this reflexive anger is nothing short of reactionary, regardless of whom it is directed against.

You can see this clearly in the many ways in which the ‘Left’ on tumblr so perfectly reflects the ‘Right.’ They think and act in the same Hitlerite racial logic. They both behave in the same absurd tribal way: for the Right, it’s taking refuge in the illusion of racial or national identity. Many on the Left do this too, thinking the way to combat the racism of the Capitalist system is by turning it back on itself, aided with the flimsy, self-serving liberal logic like ‘racism is power plus privilege’ or ‘you can’t be racist against white people.’ They see fascists calling for the extermination of shitskins and mudslimes, and retaliate by calling for the genocide of cumskins and crackers. They demand and rejoice when ‘white characters’ are played by ‘people of color’ and react with the same idiotic reflexive tribalism as their white ‘opponents’ when they demand the same in return. They fail to see how their demands for ‘representation’ by this or that bourgeois lackey of whatever variety, in whatever vapid bourgeois fairy tale, is being used as a tool to further divide them from the other sections of the proletariat in a race to be financially exploited, all for the sake of demanding disposable entertainment ‘of their own’ to consume.

It isn’t difficult to see the absurdity in the Rightist fantasy of the ‘nation.’ Spin a globe and point, and whatever state you land on will be full of numerous peoples of varying superficial, religious, and cultural similarities and dissimilarities. Even a relatively small country like England, for example, is not homogeneous. Through its long history it has seen migrations of Celts and Latins, Saxons and Angles, Norse and Normans, and it tells in place names, dialects, physical characteristics—which of these is ‘English?’ Which could possibly be ‘more English’ than any other? ‘The English Nation’ don’t exist. No nation did or does or will. They’re a con, a PR campaign to convince the working class that their interests and the interests of the bourgeoisie align, connected through the primordial blood-ties of ‘the nation.’ Its purpose is to create the fiction that hardship and success are both shared measure for measure between the classes, that despite the misery it took to produce it, all share equally in the ‘achievements’ of the ‘nation-state.’ Sure, the Kaiser spends his days idle in sprawling palaces while millions upon millions of Germans are turned into hamburger on the fields of France and Russia, but he really, truly cares.

The Queer ‘nation’ isn’t any different. It’s contradictions are just as apparent. It strives at once to be both universally inclusive yet internally divisive. The Queer ‘nation’ is divided into innumerable discrete ‘ethnicities,’ all at once expected to be united in voice and action but materially, necessarily separate. Each jealously harbors every last shred of historical or contemporary resentment in a farcical pantomime of the national conflicts of old. Any preference or prejudice by the bourgeoisie toward one or the other is brandished as an implement to demand that their ‘liberation’ takes precedence. Endless arguments burn away as they argue around arbitrary definitions about who is what gender, what words to use (or not to use) and how, who is gay enough or too straight to be included. Instead of seeking to be liberated from the identities formed in opposition to yet necessarily within Capitalism, they too seek constantly to be recognized, represented, integrated within the bourgeois society that they ostensibly are revolting against.

Marx in his critique of Bauer’s On the Jewish Question examines what necessary facts are required in order to achieve universal human emancipation. Bauer asserts that for Jews to be emancipated as humans they first have to give up their Judaism, and similarly mankind give up it’s religiosity to achieve the emancipation of humanity. Rather Marx asserts the opposite, that merely abandoning Jewish religiosity won’t bring them any closer to emancipation as people. Instead, those conditions which make Jewishness possible have to be made impossible, as in, the social conditions to which Judaism has developed in order to manage have to be obviated.

This is the same concept which underscores the necessity of the revolutionary proletariat. It’s what makes Communism a truly revolutionary ideology. It doesn’t seek merely to replace one class with another. True, Marx does speak of replacing the ‘dictatorship of the bourgeoisie’ with the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat,’ but this isn’t the end of Communism, to merely invert the currently prevailing power structure.

And does modern history not speak to the truth of this? As we come into the 21st century, through much of the developed world Christianity has waned as an institution. The world is no longer so uncertain. To treat sickness means no longer to entreat God in His house, but to see a medical professional in a hospital. Material abundance has made the specter of famine a thing of the past.

We see further evidence of this in the likes of The New Deal. It didn’t emancipate the worker, but only extended to a certain section of workers privileges over the others. Nor was the Soviet Union able to abolish class society, and so degraded ultimately into Capitalism. Even for the accomplishments of the Civil Rights movement in the middle of the 20th century, have those accomplishments lasted? The political Jim Crow might have vanished, but isn’t it just replaced with a financial one? In every case, the contradictions were not reconciled, only mitigated, and only temporarily. That is not to fault them for not accomplishing more, but recognizing that their goals were only partially fulfilled, and undone by the contradictions they let linger.

Consequently, the emancipation of any ‘identity’ or ‘class’ becomes a possibility when and only when it seeks to obviate the conditions which necessitate its existence. ‘Homosexuals’ will only be emancipated when ‘heterosexuality ‘ becomes an impossibility. ‘Blacks’ will only be emancipated only when ‘Whites’ becomes an impossibility. ‘Transgenders’ will only be emancipated when ‘cisgenders’ becomes an impossibility. The proletariat will be emancipated only when the bourgeois becomes an impossibility. Founding movements existing only in opposition to these things, fighting for ‘gay rights’ instead of abolishing the privileges which subjugate gays in the first place, is not only reactionary, but self defeating.

The fundamental conditions from which all of these arise is the class society created and perpetuated by Capitalism. The only way to free the peoples trapped within it is to dispose with the conditions which created and presupposed them in the first place.

[omfgtrump]

The Tale of Two Viruses: Part 14

With the horrendous murder of George Floyd taking center stage in our country, this piece should probably be entitled “The Tale of Two Viruses and One Cancer”. But, first to the viruses.

To witness The Don this week is to beg the question: Is there still a pandemic going on? Has the great America tamed the virus? What’s all the fuss over 100,000 people dying? People die every day. Anyway, most of them are from nursing homes; you know, just a weigh station before the good Lord takes you away anyway. So what’s the fuss all about?

The delusional man with the little hands and devil’s heart is telling us they have little value, little value.

Many lost are black and brown people and because they are already a sickly bunch it’s actually their fault.

The delusional man with the little hands and the devil’s heart is telling us they have little value, little value.

America needs its meat, so sorry plant workers, we give so little shit about you that OSHA hasn’t bothered to set up federal safety guidelines for you.

The delusional man with the little hands and the devil’s heart is telling us they have little value, little value.

The delusional man with the little hands and the devil’s heart had to be convinced to fly the flag at the White House half- mast to honor the dead. Maybe for him, half-mast is wimpy, like a flaccid penis. Doesn’t project strength, like wearing a mask.

And guess what The Don was doing as we approached 100,000 dead? You guessed it: playing golf. Mr. Mulligan was tired of being cooped up and wanted to set an example to the country’s premature reopening by taking to the links. As he bragged about hitting his One Iron as far as Tiger Woods, moved his ball to better positions (called cheating!), took do overs of shots he didn’t like (mulligans) and then took whatever score he earned on a hole and lowered it by two (cheating again),ultimately declaring how extraordinary he was (bloviating grandiosity), the country was in mourning.

The Don was peeved that all this talk about mourning was going on as it was harshing his mellow, creating an unwanted hitch in his swing.

He turned to his caddie, and rumor has it, this is the conversation they had:

The Don: I thought Memorial Day was a celebration, a review of all the great things I have done as president. This whole virus thing is just so unfair to me, it’s trying to upstage me. Nobody upstages me.  I just say move on, the virus is dead to me. Isn’t that hilarious, the virus is dead to me. I will kit it!”

Caddie: Amazing, but how will you do it, Mr. President?

The Don: Just watch. I will tweet it away. Bam!

 Joe Scarborough, the MSNBC host, implying that he was under investigation for murdering a former staff member in 2001. “A blow to her head? Body found under his desk? Left Congress suddenly? Big topic of discussion in Florida.  “Big topic of discussion in Florida…and, he’s a Nut Job (with bad ratings) Keep digging, use forensic geniuses!”

Caddie: That’s a real zinger Mr. President. Though from what I read Scarborough wasn’t in Florida at the time of the death.

The Don: So? Anyone who can be so nasty to me could be a murderer. Here’s a great retweet. Boom!

“The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.” Can you hand me my 9 Iron? Shit. That shot doesn’t count. You know what I mean?

Caddie: “Absolutely, Mr. President. I never even saw you take that shot.

And look at these cool retweets I am making by John Stahl. Remind me to invite him to play golf with me. Pow Pow.

Kamala (Harris) “Willie’s Ho.” (This is a reference to Willie Brown, the powerful California State Assembly speaker who was her mentor and onetime boyfriend.0

(Laughing) Stahl called Stacey Abrams “Shamu,:

And Stahl said this about MSNBC’s fake news host Joy Reid: “When you’re born butt-ugly, changing your hairstyle every day is only going to make you look phonier than your nonsense, pathetic show.”

The Don: (Swings his club) Now that’s the 9 Iron shot I wanted. Remember, I got to the green in one shot.

Caddie: Absolutely.

The Don: Trying to focus on your shot while tweeting is tricky. Makes you more error prone. Putter please.

And look at Sleepy Joe in the black mask. Quite a look. I am going to destroy him in the election.

How about this retweet. Shazam! Isn’t it the coolest thing ever?

And his demise is going to begin at the in-person Republican convention in August. Can you believe the nerve of the Democratic Governor of North Carolina saying it might not be safe?  The nerve. If he won’t do it other Republican governors will. And to show America how amazing we are no one who comes to the convention can wear a mask!

Shit. The wind messed up that putt.

Caddie: I know, sir, never saw it, don’t count.

The Don: Shit, the wind messed up my putt again.

Caddie: I know sir, never saw it, don’t count.

The Don: Now that I think of it the ball really should be much closer to the hole because the original shot was held up by the wind.

Caddie: Sure thing.

Shit. Let me move closer. Kerplunk. (The sound of ball in cup.) So satisfying a sound. Amazing how I one putted this from the edge of the green; I challenge any pro to do that.

And can you believe what Twitter did to my post about mail-in voting? That’s war! Do they know who they are dealing with?

Caddie: That was something. No one should ever start a war with you. But there is one thing. It seems what you are trying to change, you know, the law protecting folks who post on Twitter from being sued for spreading lies about people that might, as they say, come back and kick you in the butt.

The Don: That’s ridiculous. Why would I do something so stupid? What’s my score going in to the 10th hole?

Caddy: Um, let’s see. Do you want the real score or you know, the one you want it to be?

The Don: You know, the same way we deal with the virus.

  Now to the cancer.

Let’s state some simple, but harsh, truths.

America’s very being is founded on violence through its genocide of its indigenous people.

America was built on the backs of slaves.

Our constitution refers to black people as three fifths of a person. That is the foundation of the White Supremacy that rules this country.

The majority of the people in prison are black and brown, though they make up a smaller percentage of the population.

Despite some progress in their civil rights, blacks on the whole, suffer from gross economic inequities, are still targets of voter suppression and disenfranchisement and are targets of egregious and unrelenting police brutality.

If you are black, you can be gunned down for going out for a jog.

If you are black, a police offer can enter your home without a warrant and shoot you while you are in your own bed.

If you are black you can be suffocated to death by a knee in your throat by a white police officer in plain sight, all the while yelling that you “can’t breathe.”

The day to day stress black people endure just because of the color of their skin is impossible for white people to comprehend. They live in a world that continues to see them as more dangerous and more expendable because of the color of their skin.

For blacks. The “Land of the Free,” is for white people. For blacks it is more the “A People Under Siege.”

Black people are tired (and so am I) of platitudes that promulgate American decency.

Black people are tired of hearing that “America is better than this,” when we see riots in the streets.

Let’s be real: The rage we see is real. The pain we see is real. The White Supremacy we see is real. The cancer of American racism is real. The fact that black and brown people are dying from the virus at much higher rates is real and reflects the underlying cancer of racism.

The trope of American exceptionalism is taking a beating. The bottom line is that unless we are honest with ourselves and truly acknowledge our original sin of enslaving an entire people and its impact and treat it like we would a stage 4 cancer, America will never be exceptional.

I would like to believe this country can change. I would like to believe that we have the courage to do so. To not have this courage is to perpetuate the lie that “All men are created Equal…

The Don did not create this but he has built his brand sowing division, promoting hate, excusing (and encouraging) White Supremacy and has made comments during his presidency that have stoked the fires for the moment we find ourselves.

The Don’s responses to tragic death of George Floyd and the protests that have ensued is to quote Walter E. Headley, Miami’s former police chief, who in 1967 said, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,

One of Trump’s most revealing tweets since the rioting began was a boast about the prowess of the Secret Service — and to threaten to sic “the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons” on the crowds outside the White House if things intensified.

We need to rid ourselves of this toxic White Supremacist before any healing can begin. We need a leader to bring us together, not further apart. I am not sure America is up to the task but as MLK said: We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.

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[fapangel]

So what;s this latest ImpeachTrump of the week, i heard he gave classified information to russia also two scoops of ice cream? What is going on (mainly the former)

It'sfunny you mentioned the “two scoops of ice cream” thing, becauseit's identical to the “classified info” thing - hysterical andbreathtaking lies.

It'simpossible to overstate the complete and utter totalityofthe utter fuckingbullshit atplay here. The quote-unquote “classified info” cited by the (whoelse?) WaPo's initial “story” related to ISISplans to hide explosives inside laptop computers for attackingairliners. This superclassified info wasreported by CNN on AprilFucking Fools Day - note Sean Spider giving a motherfuckingpress briefing onit in their own video. Thelede (first paragraph, and even first sentence) of a news story issupposed to cover the who, what, when, where, how and why, but thisrather crucial bit of the whatwasburied sixparagraphs deep byWaPo - gee, I wonder why.

It'salso hard to believe WaPo's ~anonymoussources~ whiningabout “compromising the source” when said source wouldn't havehad a fucking clue without them running to the media. Provide Russiawith “classified information” and they mightacton it in a way that tips off said source to their having theinformation. Run to the media shrieking and crying, and you fuckingguarantee it.Thus, these “anonymous sources” are clearly lying out of theirfucking assesaboutthis, because if they actually gave a shit about it, they wouldn'thave said shit.

Asfor anonymous sources, the WaPo attributes their information to:

*“current and former U.S. officials”* “a U.S. officialfamiliar with the matter”*”an official with knowledge ofthe exchange.”*”a former senior U.S. counterterrorismofficial who also worked closely with members of the Trump nationalsecurity team.”* “the second former official”* “aformer senior U.S. official who is close to current administrationofficials.”

That last one is my favorite -third-hand information.And not a single one ofthese “sources” is named - the WaPo expects us to just trust them- and theirmysterious “sources” -implicitly.

Byfar the most shocking revelation in the “Vault Seven” leaks washow the CIA had invested tremendous sums of money into their ownin-house ELINT/hacking/computersurveillance apparatus; their “own NSA.” The colossal wasteof taxpayer money in duplicating abilities was done solelyso the CIA wouldn't have todisclose to the NSA - or Homeland Security (and thus, the WhiteHouse) what the hell they were up to, in order to request NSA hackingassistance. This should scare the shit out of you, because the SenateIntelligence Committee found the CIAactively hid their barbaric and pointless torturing from both theJustice Department and the White House. These are the kind ofpeople the WaPo is parroting; in effect serving as their mouthpieceand enabler in their continued - and outright treasonous - betrayalof the chain of command to defend their own interests.

Whenjournalists cite anonymous sources, they're asking the readers totrust in their integrity; baking on their publication's long-standingreputation of accurate and honest reporting - as evidenced by decadesof reporting backed up byexhaustively researched, cited, and attributed facts and sources. Themedia is no longer askingtobe trusted; when challenged on their constantuseof “anonymous sources,” they now demandyou trust them and shout down anyone who dares question theirauthority as arbiters of truth, asthis CNN anchor did on live fucking television. She insists itmust betrue because allthemajor news networks are repeating the same lies - but we knowtheycollude with one another because they literally jerkeach other off on Twitter:

Iwrote about the “end-zone dances on Twitter” before, but nowthey're stroking each other off in their actualpublications beforetrading sticky high-fives on Twitter for all the world to see. Andyet, if you suggest that maybe, just maybe, we can't trust theirobjectivity when it comes to shady, mysterious government sources andthe axes they want to grind, you're shouted down on live televisionfor challenging the Divine Right of Reporters.

Butit doesn't end there - why would it? Now Republicans and Russians arebasically the same people, just four short years after ourPresidential candidate Mitt Romney wasroundly mocked by the left every time he talked about Russians asadversaries. Then Comey made “notes”about alleged conversations that “some people” at the FBI haveallegedly seen, according to otherpeople- third hand information without a single fucking source named.Andjust today, Trump's accused of getting chummy with “Russians”according to “adocument read to the New York Times by an American official.”Andafter the obligatory circle-jerking and self-congratulatorygloating over their own lies, they publish anop-ed gloating over how they sure showed Trump for daring to defytheir power. Nevermind the HarvardUniversity study proving Trump's right about the media'sill-treatment, with numbers: he deservedit.So what if over 90%of their coverage was viciously negative? Whogives a fuck about objectivityortruth? He challenged the Divine Right of Reporters, so he must becrushed.

Ipersonally know people who honestly think “media bias” claims areoverblown and that they're mostly reliable, or honest. I delayedwriting this column because I foresaw typing the following line: ifyou still believe that the media is not overwhelmingly biased againstTrump, you are a fucking idiot. Idon't feel bad about saying it, now, because to denythese facts tomy face is tantamount to insulting my intelligence. Such drasticallydivergent views of reality cannot be perceptual twists on a commontruth; ifI'm not mostly correct, then I must be entertaining mad delusions.There is no middleground on this, andwe've no more time to seek some, becauseof what the media is lying about.

Obligatorydrive-by attacks notwithstanding,the media's not using their immense power to attack Trump's polices;noton immigration, economics, or taxes. They're ignoringcampaignissues that Democrats will be running on come Congressional midtermsin 2018, in favor of a sprawling myth of Trump in particular, andRepublicans in general, being agents and allies of a hostile foreigngovernment. In short, they'renot trying to swing elections, but to ferment unrest and revolution.NewtGingrich - whom you might recognize as an experienced careerpolitician with few peers - succinctly echoed my own observationsin his op-ed yesterday:

“Weare today in a one-sided cultural civil war. The Left has picked thebattlefield and defined the terms of engagement... Those of us whotruly want to make America great again have one choice: Fight. Oursituation is similar to President Lincoln’s in 1861. He had to makethe choice between fighting until he won or giving up on the idea ofthe United States. Once again, our country is at stake.”

You'll note his choice of historical analogies, and hisclosing sentence (which I didn't read till after I'd written myultimatum paragraph above:) “There is no middle ground.”He, however, continues to speak in democratic terms; of elections andpermanent congressional minorities. But I see things different. I seea traditional news media that's suddenly and violently annihilatedthe last vestige of their fading credibility as their continuedfailure to adequately adapt to the digital age saps their baserevenue. I see fifty years of rage born of neglect, abuse andcontempt, having finally come to a head in the rust belt, goingnowhere fast; especially as the Democrat party's base platform driftsfurther and further Left - and away from the values of the old unionBoomers. I see an economy increasingly steeply divided by ruralversus urban, and a left wing more willing to retreat to elaboratefantasy worlds (as I've written about before) where everything wenttheir way sooner than face their own faults. I see the left labelinganyone who speaks against their politics as cabals of murderousNazis, even4chan. And above all I hear the statement that “antifa” wascrowing after Ann Coulter's Berkeley speech was canceled: “violenceworks.”

The fuel is set,the fire has been lit, and the media is doing their absolutedamnedest - doggedly, determinedlyand tirelessly - to fan theflames. And it's not just Trump in their sights, either - now allRepublicans are being implicated as allies of “Russians.”It's okay, even desirable, toend personal friendships with people if they voted for Trump,because he's a “blatantly (and proudly) bigoted candidate,” aswell as a racist and a “dangerous demagogue.” Inother words it's not “justpolitics” anymore; because Trump is comparable to genocide. Inshort, Trump iscategoricallyevil, andanyone who supports him are thus evilthemselves.

SinceI first issued my dire predictions of civil violence in thenot-so-distant future, I've been looking, exhaustively, for evidenceI'm wrong. But everything, everythingI look at leads me right back to the same conclusion: thisends in blood. It'sincreasingly difficult to partition off politics from my personallife; to believe that I'll be judged for my character first andpolitical affiliation second, because, again, thereis no middle ground here. IfI'm not judged a bigot and a racist, that leaves only a fool and adupe - and neither are deserving of respect. Itsas fundamental a break between people as can be made; a rift that'svery easy to widen and very, very difficult to heal again.

Theseare not happy thoughts - and all I need do to rekindle them is toturn the TV on during the damn morning news.

[protego-et-servio]

The short answer: No. Absolutely not. Precedence and evidence has shown us Trump is not, and will not, be a good president. People who say that he has the potential to be have their head so far in the sand, their intestinal tract is filled with dirt.

But let’s go into details. (Though Trump doesn’t have to jump through hoops to prove his qualifications, his dissenters have to pull out receipts just to be taken seriously.)

Let’s Look At The Man Himself

No, not physically look at him. Let’s look at his actions. (A lot of these will be touched upon later on.)

He is racist. As if wanting to build a wall on the US-Mexico border and put all Muslims in concentration camps wasn’t an obvious indicator of this point, there’s tons of other examples. He’s racist against black people, against Native Americans, against Latinx, against Jewish people, against Asians. Not only that, but racists feel empowered with Trump in office.

He is homophobic. He wants to repeal the Marriage Equality act and he has one of the worst anti-LGBTQ+ advocates as his vice president. He removed LGBT rights from the White House website.

He is ableist. Don’t we remember how he made fun of a disabled man? The fact he wants the Affordable Care Act dismantled – though his back-up plan is still not released – will result is so much suffering in death of the disabled.

He is misogynistic and violent toward women. He’s grabbed women without their consent, criticized women on their looks, and even said he’d date his own daughter. Ugh… (More on this point later, though.)

And he is a opportunistic liar. He says what people want to hear in the here and now. It doesn’t matter what he said two days ago, all that matters is he has your attention and your admiration in that moment. He. Is. A. Liar.

The Company He Keeps

Let’s look at some of the people he has appointed to positions of power.

Mike Pence – Vice-President. This guy is an utter shitstain. Anti-LGBT and pro-conversion therapy (aka torture.) Climate change skeptic. Used political donations in 1990 for his own personal finances. Once described himself as “Christian, conservative, republican – in that order.”

Steve Bannon – this guy is an advisor to Trump. On top of all that, he’s also a Nazi (though hides behind the term ‘alt-right’) with an anti-Semitic website.

Betsy DeVos – appointed to head the Department of Education. Sister to Erik Prince, a literal ex-mercenary and Trump campaign adviser. Donated billions to his campaign. Anti-LGBTQ+. Has no clue how she’d handle the position.

Jeff Sessions – appointed to Attorney General, who heads the DOJ. Known for racist remarks against black people. Deemed too racist to be a federal judge in 1986.

Mike Pompeo – selected as director of the CIA. This guy is Islamophobic, pro-government surveillance (hello 1984,) pro-torture and doesn’t like women having the right to choose.

Rex Tillerson – selected for secretary of state. A CEO of ExxonMobil who has ties to Russia. While being CEO of ExxonMobil, it shouldn’t be a surprise Exxon is at fault for multiple oil spills, yet a big advocate against climate change.

Scott Pruitt – Environmental Protection Agency nomination. Climate change skeptic and ally to fossil fuels.

Suffice it to say, Trump has picked ignorant, awful, or just plain bad people for these positions. Plus there’s a dash of nepotism in there. But, hey, what do you expect from a guy who was trying to get security clearance for his kids?

Cut Off From the World

Let’s not forget the fact he just axed all ambassadors the day he got inaugurated. Which could leave 80 foreign policy ties hanging in a state of limbo for months.

These Issues Don’t Make Him Or His Colleagues Money

Not even a full 24 hours after his nomination, certain issues were removed from the White House website. LGBT Rights, Civil Rights, Heath Care, and Climate Change. Now, plenty of people argue that a prior president’s pages are moved to archives so a new president can place their issues in their own words. Bullshit on Trump, though. His team has had months to write up something for those issues. It also doesn’t bode well, since the Department of Labor removed the “advancement of LGBT rights in the workplace” from their website, as well.

Yet, oh boy, we can sure check out Melania’s jewelry line. (Conflict of interest? Nepotism?)

Grab Them By The P*ssy

Remember the legal troubles Trump got into during his campaign? I’m not talking about Trump University, though the fraud does deserve note.

I’m talking about the sexual assault and rape allegations pitted against him. One of the cases alleges Trump raped a woman, when she was 13-years-old, in 1994. There’s various women taking him to court for sexual assault, right now.

His overall list of sexual assault and misogyny is much, much longer.

That’s not all for his foray into misogyny, though. Trump wants to cut funding for Violence Against Women programs.

According to the Department of Justice website, those grants funnel money to programs “designed to develop the nation’s capacity to reduce domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking by strengthening services to victims and holding offenders accountable.”

So, he’s going to make it harder for victims to get help and make it easier for offenders – who share so many qualities with him – to grab people by their privates (and worse) without consent.

The man is utterly disgusting.

One Person Does Not Equal One Vote

The CIA and FBI agree: Russia helped Trump get in the White House. Trump benefited from conservative gerrymandering of the lines, along with another troubling fact. This was the first election where the Equal Voting Rights Act wasn’t in full effect since it was enacted.

Regardless, we know Hillary won the popular vote by 2.8 million votes. That means 2.8 million more people wanted her, rather than Trump. The only other time when the electoral loser won the popular vote was in the Gore v. Bush election. Gore only won by 500,000 votes, though. 2.8 million is a huge anomaly and the fact Clinton “technically” lost is a travesty of democracy.

Censorship: A Fascist’s Best Friend

Trump is a huge proponent of curtailing criticism against him, also known as censorship! Which is common in fascism.

This is terrifying, just an FYI. Trump banned the National Parks Service from tweeting after it posted a picture comparing the size of Obama’s inauguration crowd compared to Trump’s crowd size. (Obama’s was bigger; it hurt Trump’s ego.)

The National Parks Service had to issue an apology when their “tweeting privilege” became reinstated.

Overall

He is in no way qualified to be President of the United States. He has multiple failed businesses. (I know you “but he’s a great businessman” apologists want to pull that out of your bungholes.) He’s a self-admitted sexual offender. He’s a puppet for Russia. He. Is. Not. Qualified.

Yeah, it’d be great if he turned out to be a great president, but we cannot ignore precedent and his sustained actions.

Past evidence has shown us he is misogynistic, hateful, bigoted, racist, xenophobic, a liar, an oppressor, ableist, a sexual assaulter, and lacks any decorum. And he aligns himself with people who are just as bad, if not worse.

Do not stick your head in the sand over any of this, because your wishful thinking and “ignorance is bliss” attitude will get marginalized groups killed.

If you’ve ever sat through a history class, listening to the horrors of genocides and slavery and lynchings; if you’ve ever thought “I’m not going to be on the wrong side of history,” now is the time to take a stand. Now is the time to be politically aware, to know what is going on in your government. Now, is the time to be critical.

Otherwise, you’re obstinately ignoring the terror that’s descending on marginalized groups and our nation, as a whole. You’re the people who enable oppressors to maim, hurt, and kill the oppressed with your determined ignorance. You’re quietly allowing the wrong side of history to remain in power.

If you remain silent and willfully oblivious, you are on the wrong side of history.

[harmlesshagofthewoods]

Lets give a little history lesson here. We all know the name Hitler, and the travesties he committed, so lets not talk about that right now, but rather the early beginnings of his rise to power. The environment that allowed Hitler for power was a carefully cultivated one. Germany was pissed about WWI, broken, in debt and just generally felt like playing the victim. In came this man, Adolf Hitler who told the German's that their problems were not their fault. He blamed the Jews, the gypsies, the gays, any marginalized group who would be unable to fight back. He began to cultivate a culture of hatred and superiority. He promised the German people money and prosperity if they did one thing… get ride of the Jews and such. He established a date base system. He closed down their places of worship. He destroyed their literature and the press of anyone who opposed him. He drove them from the country, forced them into hiding and removed them into camps. He raised a generation of children who would turn their neighbor in for the 'Good of Germany'. He did all this while the world watched, uncaring because they figured things were not as bad as people believed them to be. "He won't do half the things he says" was their excuse. Yet he did. He did all those things and upwards of 11,000,000 people lost their lives. This single man lead a nation to commit genocide all in the name of their own prosperity. Flash forward to today, and I'm not saying that Trump is going to commit genocide, but look in comparison. He started his campaign smearing lies about Muslim individuals (namely the one concerning them cheering in New Jersey during 9\11 which was proven false). He made Muslims in America out as our biggest security threat; when in truth you have more chance of getting shot by a white male, often self identified as a republican extremest, than you do by the hands of a Muslim terrorist (google the stats I hate trying to hyperlink). He blamed a 'failing market' on unregistered immigrants and the working poor. He promised riches to anyone who followed him and set to flood the place with his yes men. He looked to villainies refugees and implement a date base and close down places of worship. He turned the public on the media, and got a nation at the throats of people looking to spread the news. He cultivated a following that is so busy listening to every word that they have chosen to ignore any example that they might be wrong and lash out violently at any opposition. Trump has indoctrinated himself into our lives, and into power, and without an attentive eye to keep him in check… well. I doubt Trump alone will be able to persecute any form of genocide even if he got the wild hair to do it. We have measures in place now a days that look to prevent these kinds of travesties (not that they always work. That's right Putin. I'm looking at your sins.). But his actions are not the ones I fear. Hitler would have gotten nowhere without the 200,000 something people who followed him. It was those people who gave the man his power, as it is the Trump supporters who give him power. Hitler himself was not the one who rounded up the Jewish people. He was not the one who forced them into hard labour. He was not the one to beat them, shot them, gas them. His soul is stained with those sins, but it was his followers with the blood drenched hands. Which is where I lead to now. Trump might be up there screaming his racism and misogyny, but it is his extreme followers who are following through with his views and creating a feeling of fear. It is his followers who stalked a Muslim women home from prayer with a gun strapped to his chest. It was his followers that spray painted racial slurs on bathroom walls, classroom doors, people's cars and their homes. It was his followers who screamed 'grab her pussy' when they realized they could get away with it. It was one of his followers who shot up a Planned Parenthood, killing I believe half a dozen people including a pregnant woman. It is his followers who have attacked gay men in the streets. His followers who have jumped trans men and women. His followers who are acting upon their hatred because they feel they can. It is His followers who are screaming about special snowflakes all while acting like they are being victimized. It is his followers who are doing all the things that we are being told "Trump will never do". It is his message that is recreating the path to hatred and separation that we, as a people, should never walk again.