Saturday, April 20, 2019

Does this election even matter?

Update: 2019

With Brexit, and Trump and obvious Russian stirring of the shit pot we call our sorry excuse of a voting system, things went from bad in 2012 to orders of magnitude worse.

We went from Obama, a pragmatic rightish centrist to Trump, a solipsist criminal without a shred of conscience or humanity in him.  With Obama, our objections were about the degree of progress.  With Trump, human survival is possibly going to go bye-bye with an extinction event either by a wag the dog nuclear war or simple acceleration of climate change.

Unless Trump is brought to heel forcefully in a coerced manner (since he never does what is right voluntarily), there really may not be an election in 2020.  President-for-life Trump ruling over the ashes of a once wonderful nation.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Right wing myths and the reality they deny

Right wing believers tend to cling to dogmas that have no basis in reality.  How about we list a few?
1)  Tax cuts produce jobs.   This myth is based on fallacious logic from a bad premise.  The bad premise is that the wealthy always re-invest in profit producing business in the US. 
That myth was busted with the inversions, socking money away in foreign banks, and in some cases, the person renouncing their connection to the USA.  Since these folks have demonstrated that their magic spreadsheets are more important than the nation of their birth, we need to compel them to pay their share so American resources benefit America, not China or the Cayman Islands.
2) Regulation kills jobs.  Same bad premise.  Regulation enforces standards that protect our safety and prevent fraud.  It is possible to make a profit without workers dying routinely.  You can make money without stealing from your customers.  You can make a profit without cheating your workers of fair compensation.  All it requires is due diligence.
3)  The USA is meant to be a Christian nation.  You mean like every nation in Europe?  White people came to the USA to escape the tyranny of the Church.  Even the believers saw the Church as a tyrant to disallow material government powers.  At the time, denominations tended to burn each other at the stake for heresy.  At no time at our founding was there a Church of the USA, and that was intentional. The material government was meant to be governed by material based ethics.  A representative republic does not kowtow to the loud rants of would be potentates of the pulpit.  Christian ideas do not support liberty, but a tyrannical monarchy.  The founders of this nation intended the USA to be secular, allowing believers to worship within reasonable limits ( like no burning people at the stake). 
4)  Christians are under attack.  Let us look at the numbers.  Even in antichurch Portland, half of the people living there are Christian.  Atheists in government office are next to extinct. It would be easier to find a unicorn than to find evidence of anti-Christian conspiracies having any effect in the US. Equality movements are carving into areas where Christian people had preferentially been treated.  Something tells me that is not the same as actual persecution like white people fled from during the founding of the USA. And the Church was doing the persecution and was not the victim thereby.
I will add more to this later.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Space the final frontier, if Jesus permitted space travel

There is a vast movement in the creationist social circle to try to dissuade humanity from trying to get off this rock.  I wonder why that is.  Aliens all doomed to hell is not convincing to me.  Why would extraterrestrials be doomed to a hell designed for humans?  I doubt Worf was involved in humanity going out of their way to piss off God.  The Bible is silent on life outside of Earth.  The topic of the Bible is the reconciliation of humans to God.

I think there is a different motive behind trying to keep the human race chained to Earth.  The Rapture has little effect if humans are colonizing Mars.  The Eschatology of premillenialism falls apart if humanity can leave this rock.

It is a lot harder to enforce fear in a population that literally is reaching for the stars.  So  if religion cannot handle space travel, is that religion worth our mental space?

Ken Ham likes to pretend he has all the answers.  He doesn't.  He just disallows all questions that don't fit neatly into his predetermined cookie cutter.  His version of God is small, petty, vengeful, and obsessive about human sexuality.  Real gods are bigger than his.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Rep Mike Rogers scores the Tea Party Trifecta

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) is facing heat from a gay rights group for reportedly making homophobic comments during a recent speech before hundreds of realtors.
From the Huffington Post:

In the speech, delivered Jan. 23 during the Alabama Association of Realtors' board of directors meeting, Rogers allegedly made derogatory comments about gay people and criticized the atmosphere in Washington, D.C.
"You allegedly joked about how nice it was to be called 'Honey' and 'Sweetie' by a woman at an Alabama restaurant rather than a D.C. men's room," Ben Cooper, chair of Equality Alabama, wrote in a Jan. 28 letter to Rogers. "And you went on to mock our nation's capitol as a 'cross between Detroit and San Francisco' -- an obvious reference to Detroit's racial makeup and San Francisco's vibrant gay culture."
"Comments like these are racist, homophobic, and hurtful, and they will not be tolerated," added Cooper.
Michael Hansen, Equality Alabama's communications director, told The Huffington Post his group heard about the remarks from several AAR members who attended Rogers' speech. One member was so offended that he and his colleagues walked out. Another member confronted the congressman after the event, Hansen said, to which Rogers reportedly replied, "Bring it on."
---------------------
Mike Rogers scored the Tea Party gaffe trifecta : offend blacks, LGBT, and poor people all in the same paragraph.  In true Tea Party form, when confronted with his offensiveness, he gets all ready to fist fight rather than make an attempt at being an adult.
This is typical for this slowly dying off demographic.  They celebrate when they should be ashamed.  They got so desensitized to demonizing people not in their small church circle that they can't see the beam in their own eye when they point out the speck in someone else's.
This is also why when regular people outside of those who can directly benefit himself continue to get the short end of the stick on every vote from these representatives (a terrible misnomer, as they represent no persons outside of their own financial well being).
The Confederacy has not properly died off yet, and Rogers possibly fantasizes being the second coming of Jefferson Davis.

-------------------

It seems with each passing day, the Tea Party tries to double down on their offensiveness, as a default.  They don't understand that their views are discredited, so they repeat them, as if they were new, even though the stench of decay wafts from their ideas.

There is no redemption possible for those people.  They have to be contained, neutralized, and disallowed from the public commons.  They don't understand what "pariah" status is.  They think it's an honorific title, that is the level of stupid involved here.

This is why we need to disabuse the idea that there is a "balance" --- stupid is not as valid as knowledge, and should not be given validity.  



Monday, February 11, 2013

I can definitely feel this one. Credit to John Scalzi


Being Poor (with my comments)

Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs.
Being poor is getting angry at your kids for asking for all the crap they see on TV.
Being poor is having to keep buying $800 cars because they’re what you can afford, and then having the cars break down on you, because there’s not an $800 car in America that’s worth a damn. (done this for a few years)
Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away. (Wife has this now)
Being poor is knowing your kid goes to friends’ houses but never has friends over to yours.
Being poor is going to the restroom before you get in the school lunch line so your friends will be ahead of you and won’t hear you say “I get free lunch” when you get to the cashier.
Being poor is living next to the freeway.
Being poor is coming back to the car with your children in the back seat, clutching that box of Raisin Bran you just bought and trying to think of a way to make the kids understand that the box has to last.
Being poor is wondering if your well-off sibling is lying when he says he doesn’t mind when you ask for help.(I only asked once back in 2004. Never again.)
Being poor is off-brand toys.
Being poor is a heater in only one room of the house.
Being poor is knowing you can’t leave $5 on the coffee table when your friends are around.
Being poor is hoping your kids don’t have a growth spurt.
Being poor is stealing meat from the store, frying it up before your mom gets home and then telling her she doesn’t have make dinner tonight because you’re not hungry anyway.
Being poor is Goodwill underwear.
Being poor is not enough space for everyone who lives with you. (totally)
Being poor is feeling the glued soles tear off your supermarket shoes when you run around the playground.
Being poor is your kid’s school being the one with the 15-year-old textbooks and no air conditioning.
Being poor is thinking $8 an hour is a really good deal.
Being poor is relying on people who don’t give a damn about you. (had this happen too frequently)
Being poor is an overnight shift under florescent lights.
Being poor is finding the letter your mom wrote to your dad, begging him for the child support.
Being poor is a bathtub you have to empty into the toilet.
Being poor is stopping the car to take a lamp from a stranger’s trash.
Being poor is making lunch for your kid when a cockroach skitters over the bread, and you looking over to see if your kid saw.
Being poor is believing a GED actually makes a goddamned difference.
Being poor is people angry at you just for walking around in the mall.
Being poor is not taking the job because you can’t find someone you trust to watch your kids.
Being poor is the police busting into the apartment right next to yours. (had this happen a lot)
Being poor is not talking to that girl because she’ll probably just laugh at your clothes.
Being poor is hoping you’ll be invited for dinner. (what is hope?)
Being poor is a sidewalk with lots of brown glass on it. (seen this a lot)
Being poor is people thinking they know something about you by the way you talk. (or by what you post in political threads)
Being poor is needing that 35-cent raise. (and not getting it)
Being poor is your kid’s teacher assuming you don’t have any books in your home.
Being poor is six dollars short on the utility bill and no way to close the gap. (closer to 60 for me)
Being poor is crying when you drop the mac and cheese on the floor. (been there)
Being poor is knowing you work as hard as anyone, anywhere. (I actually work at work)
Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually stupid. (they are more surprised when they see rich people go completely stupid)
Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually lazy. (too frequent)
Being poor is a six-hour wait in an emergency room with a sick child asleep on your lap.
Being poor is never buying anything someone else hasn’t bought first.
Being poor is picking the 10 cent ramen instead of the 12 cent ramen because that’s two extra packages for every dollar.
Being poor is having to live with choices you didn’t know you made when you were 14 years old. (or when I was born for that matter)
Being poor is getting tired of people wanting you to be grateful.
Being poor is knowing you’re being judged. (all the time.  Makes me want to hit them)
Being poor is a box of crayons and a $1 coloring book from a community center Santa.
Being poor is checking the coin return slot of every soda machine you go by.
Being poor is deciding that it’s all right to base a relationship on shelter.
Being poor is knowing you really shouldn’t spend that buck on a Lotto ticket.
Being poor is hoping the register lady will spot you the dime.
Being poor is feeling helpless when your child makes the same mistakes you did, and won’t listen to you beg them against doing so. (been there, done that)
Being poor is a cough that doesn’t go away.
Being poor is making sure you don’t spill on the couch, just in case you have to give it back before the lease is up.
Being poor is a $200 paycheck advance from a company that takes $250 when the paycheck comes in. (done this)
Being poor is four years of night classes for an Associates of Art degree.
Being poor is a lumpy futon bed.
Being poor is knowing where the shelter is. (there is a directory available now)
Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so. (dumbasses)
Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor. (sucks hard)
Being poor is seeing how few options you have. (options?  what are those?)
Being poor is running in place.
Being poor is people wondering why you didn’t leave. (more like they would rather I be dead)

=================

Poverty completely sucks, and in America, kindness is withheld because of a culture that worships money and war.  Christian nation?  I don't think so.