#if i see one more republican say 'thoughts and prayers'

[odinsblog]

NOW he’s sorry?

I mean, I guess I’m glad he’s sorry? But he is a grown ass adult human being, who is literally paid to legislate and make laws. You cannot convince me that he never heard people saying that this is precisely what would happen if all of these draconian, forced birth laws were passed. I am, however, 100% certain that he repeatedly blew off and ignored the people who tried to tell him.

South Carolina has the eighth-highest maternal maternity rate in America, where Black women die at three times the rate of white women. He should have known this would happen, and I’m not really sure that I believe his sudden epiphany and concern concern the wellbeing of his constituents.

This is evil. People are dying because of these Republican laws. Children are being forced to give birth. Impoverished families are going hungry and falling further into poverty. Because of abortion bans like the ones Neal Collins helped turn into law.

I guess it really doesn’t matter if he’s being sincere or not. The only thing that matters now is, what will he dO about it? Maybe—hopefully—someone who is anti-abortion will see this and it will soften their hearts … but I’ve known too many religious zealots in my life to have much faith in that ever happening. They don’t ever care, until it happens to them personally. His alleged “regrets” and his thoughts and prayers are NOT going to cut it. As a sitting representative, he has more privilege and power than most American citizens will ever know in a hundred lifetimes, and he needs to use that power to reverse what he helped Republicans bring about. His actions need to speak louder than his words.

[thegalievthought]

The Rot Affecting Marxism

Some believe this false notion in Marxism and perhaps even political economics as a whole. That the Marxist position is an international one is only an optional caveat. That the natural position of socialism is that of the sole liberation of a singular nation from capitalism and perhaps even to send a nice party stamped letter that is a tantamount gesture of ‘thoughts and prayers’. Though this notion seems alive most prevalently in the backwards imperialist nations but in particular the four superpowers (The United Kingdom, The United States, The People's Republic of China and The Russian Federation). In these nations, many socialists and so-called socialists alike have either been indoctrinated so or tell lies so that many think that the international aspect of proletarian struggle is non-important like the revisionists in China have proposed focusing on bourgeois statesmanship and nationalism over real proletarian struggle. On the other hand, like in the USA, socialism has been infected with a disease of bourgeois nationalism thinking that patriotism for the imperialist state and socialism are somehow compatible. 

Britain and Russia have had their own experiences with the matter. From the Duginist rot that is the National Bolshevik party in Russia to British Marxist Leninist's opposition to Irish Republicanism. There seems a firm split between socialism in the real sense and the bourgeois lies that infect our thoughts. Lenin says in Corrupting the Workers “with Refined Nationalism that bourgeois parties and groups have been more and more often resorting to the method of dividing the workers by advocating different bourgeois ideas and doctrines designed to weaken the struggle of the working class. One such idea is refined nationalism, which advocates the division and splitting up of the proletariat on the most plausible and specious pretexts, for example, that of protecting the interests of “national culture”, “national autonomy, or independence”, and so on, and so forth.” Lenin further explains that “The class-conscious workers fight hard against every kind of nationalism, both the crude, violent, Black-Hundred nationalism and that most refined nationalism which preaches the equality of nations together”. So I take this to mean that workers of the world must be united against nationalism of all kinds whether it be the lowest rate of fascism or the purest lie such as Stalin's “proletarian nationalism”. Furthermore, we can see the logical conclusions of proletarian nationalism in Russia be it a corruption of Stalin or not, Dugin has only furthered an idea invented by the Stalinist line by forming the National Bolshevik party, So at least in Russia, we can draw a clear line the corruption of the workers and working-class movements there in the acceptance of nationalism. In the United States, you need not look further than the CPUSA and bourgeois traitors like Max Schatman to see that the many failures of the establishment of a firm arm of the American proletariat in some part lines with the failure of the American Marxist parties to divorce themselves with American patriotism. We see this in the modern day with a so-called “MAGA Communist” faction of the CPUSA which argues for no more than a National Bolshevik united states. While no doubt funded by people no more reactionary than the most devout Hitlerites it is still worrying that what is a movement funded by the US government is allowed to grow to the size of a sizable faction of the party. 

And in the United Kingdom you would be hard-pressed to find a Marxist that would dare trend away from the party line of the Labour party and in that nation are firmly committed to social democracy and fascism at worst depending on whatever political poll the labour party has decided that year. And those parties that dare away from the national statements of Labour oft find themselves simply irrelevant and doing nothing relevant or worse actively opposing the rank and file worker like the Trotskyists of the Spartacus League of Britain with their damned near suicidal insistence of opposing age of consent laws. Which recently led the rail unions to cease working with the party. If this is a point of needed education Marx has failed. If the workers are actively against you because you are not progressive enough then you have failed and leadership of the party must be seized from conservatives. Much like what needs to be done with the Socialist Equality Party and David North which takes the position of anti-feminism particularly anti-MeToo which in British Trotskyism is hardly a stance to be taken given Gerry Healy is one of the most known Trotkyists in all of Britain.  

So it stands as no small surprise that these “Marxist” parties which many claims to be so-called bulwarks of anti-reactionism either due to incompetence, bourgeois interference, or downright corruption by reactionary infiltration. Have entered into a position of the reactionary bourgeois party. Either nationalism or the whims of opportunists have made these parties ineffective and disarmed and at worst have made them actively at odds with the workers and active servants of the bourgeoisie. So then what is to be done? The third world alone cannot and should not be expected to carry the banners of socialism alone. A radical shift is needed in the imperial core away from reactionist rot and away from the shattering hands of the bourgeoisie. Radical I know. Firstly as I quoted earlier Lenin was against any and all kinds of nationalism. He saw it clearly and concisely as a corrupting rot, a disease of the bourgeoisie that has been forcefully spread to the working class to divide us and drive us ultimately to the reaction. So it is of the utmost importance that we ask why? And I see no better place to start than with the Marxist-Leninist line of soviet or ‘proletarian nationalism”.

The idea of Soviet Nationalism came to be around the Stalinist period in the years before the second world war. Thought of as a way to fight against the petty-bourgeois nationalism that remained in resistance to the Soviet government. This ultimately had the effect of reviving a Tsarist tool of Russian nationalism. This has directly led to the modern Fascist and National Bolshevik movements in Russia many of which hold Stalin as a great leader of the Russian Nation and not as a leader of the working class. Soviet Patriotism as all nationalism and patriotism will do eventually if not used properly backfired and only breed reactionism and anti-worker movements. That's why I find it imperative to challenge some ideas that were created and conclusions from Soviet Nationalism. Firstly soviet nationalism comes in no small part from Lenin's writings of what came to be known as the national question which we saw an example of earlier where he refused nationalism of all kinds. But there is a grey area in this question. That of national liberation and a question that has split Marxists in Britain for over one hundred years. The question of national liberation is one of fighting off foreign capitalists and imperialists. For example the wars in Ireland. Many Irish Marxists such as James Connolly argue that national liberation against foreign capitalists is an apparent first step in founding socialism in a colonised country and followed by the overthrowing of the national capital. Ultimately I and Lenin agree that for colonised nations this is a necessity but what we established is different and separate from Nationalism because it is simply fighting off of feign capital not an establishment of national importance or greatness. But many Marxists are sceptical, rightly so, that this is a thin line that can lead to fascism just as easily as a Marxist victory as shown with the Irish Free State in 1921. However, Soviet Patriotism ultimately suffers from the latter. It is a revival of nationalism after the revolution which ultimately only serves to revive any nationalism eradicated by the revolution or if not eradicated serves to strengthen it like in Russia. This is why left-wing nationalism does not strive for nationalism in the long term if they are of course properly educated in Marx and Lenin. But rather strives to evict and throw off international and then national capital. And are thus internationalists and this is something that Soviet patriotism does not. 

American soviet nationalism follows much the same line. However, it doesn't need to revive or strengthen its institution of nationalism but only convince the ultranationalist factions of America of socialism a much greater but still dangerous task than that of Russia. In the United States, so-called maga-communists seem to want to mix the ideas of Marxism-Leninism with that of American patriotism which besides the fact this is a genocidal mission. It serves to not only harm the many minorities of the United State but the entire proletarian struggle there is put in jeopardy by these reactionary actors. Soviet Patriotism is undoubtedly not the only cause, however. One other major cause is at play and that is the cause of the bourgeois reaction. 

In the United States and China while nationalism has played its surefire role in destroying the worker's movements there. One factor in both cases is opportunists and reactionary infiltration. In China after the Civil War in a vain attempt to maintain stability, he allowed many fascists and opportunists into the party as well as many former landlords. In the short term, this effect did not have much effect due to Mao's control as well as the cultural revolution. However, after his death, the cultural revolution proved ineffective in preventing reactionaries and opportunists like Deng and Xi Jinping from taking control of the party. Which first led to a clear turn to social democracy and now a turn toward Han Supremacy and fascism in China. In the United States, parties like the CPUSA which split from the SPA in 1919 suffered from quickly becoming an outcast in the socialist movements there. Until the 40s and 50s when many other organisations were disbanded or split and Marxism-Leninism and Stalinism took a clearer hold over other ideologies like Trotskyism which was dominant in the 30s But with their popularity increased so did the amount of so-called socialist patriots which led to seeds of reactionaries in the party though this would be tackled by the party leadership at the time and only emerge in our modern day and have a lack of action from party leaders and no members expelled for reactionary fascist rhetoric in their party. And if a socialist revolution were to be with this party at the lead it would be the worst disaster for socialism since the 2nd International. To put it simply, The CPUSA is incompetent with leadership with no backbone I would question if they have read Marx or even Lenin. The reactionism in these parties often comes with either an acceptance of nationalism or an acceptance of capital. Or with concessions and compromises with conservatives on issues like feminism, and sexual and gender rights. But that is the fool's game because if we sacrifice the rights of some workers for those of privileged workers we fall into a pit of reaction. Just like the SEP and its concession to conservative workers on issues of feminism this hurts our women comrades for the sake of reactionaries and is a move wholly unaligned with Marx. 

In short, I think it's imperative to state that this is not only a critique of the parties and states mentioned it is ultimately a critique of the reactionary cultures and ideas many socialists have allowed in our movement from people like David North and Haz Al-Din to seed reactionism and nationalism in the working class these people need to be expelled from the working class movement by the workers. 

Nextly returning to an earlier question. What is to be done? The answer is to me very clearly the only answer is to fight and expel reactionaries and to always endorse and further internationalism. The international proletariat is one united force against capital and it is clear to me that dividing workers into arbitrary lines only serves to gut the movement and weaken it. As Roman Rosdolsky said “The working man has no country” this is one we must stand by evermore. We the working class movement belong to no country and our liberation our revolution belongs to no nation. The Marxists and the internationalist are the same and any petty nationalism is bourgeois corruption and useless to the worker. So in the final closing, I recommend you address my further writings on the matter of how to combat inter-party reactionary conflicts and on internationalism. Because this is the problem of every modern Marxist and one that cannot be addressed with compromise or concession but with only the utmost hostility and hate toward bourgeois and reactionary agents. 

[cyarskaren52]

The victims in Allen, TX deserve privacy and respect. If you’re tweeting videos and photos of the carnage under the auspice of, “We all must see this!” you’re spreading gratuitous gore to get Twitter amplification, and you should be ashamed of yourselves.

When people say “no more traumatic porn!”, this shouldn’t translate to “nope, more traumatic porn!” Like what part don’t you understand!

How many more children… how many? 🤬

The fake Christians, GOP and especially MAGA's can take their hypocritical prayers and shove them up their a$$. I don’t swear often, but fuck every single thought and prayer. Fuck every Republican and their weak, hollow words. We can’t keep living like this. We can’t keep allowing children to be slaughtered by guns. We must vote all of these Republicans out of office. 9 dead and 3 others are in critical condition. The youngest is just FIVE years old. And so far, all we’ve seen from Republican elected officials are thoughts and prayers. Fuck every single one of them. We deserve better than this . Once again Fuck their thoughts and prayers!

WHERE. THE. FUCK. IS.

@GregAbbott_TX

?

WHERE. THE . FUCK. IS. Ted Cruz

@tedcruz

?

Watching this press conference as NINE ARE DEAD in Allen Texas and neither one of these FILTHY FUCKERS are in attendance.

F*cking cowards! DO SOMETHING! We want gun control! Everyone that voted against measures for gun control should have to watch the video of this latest shooting because the picture I saw is horrific. Just horrific. 😭

[aalt-ctrl-del]

for the record, we haven't seen much fence building in leu of mass shootings. Don't get me wrong, we have fences built in proportion to a crime area - hire capita of violence and gun ratio to proximity of the public school.

After those groceries stores got shot to death in texas and buffalo, we do have stores with police chillin outside 24/7. There's always a police cruiser and a big guy with a bullet proof vest at the doors, it's like we got the armored bouncer than the greeter inside the walmart - everythings nice and civil.

But we don't get giant fences built around schools - we do have cops at the high schools, because big kids and big fights. But the elementary schools in my area don't have reinforced fences - the only fence I've see was around this black only school (condemne) in deep south texas. It had a pokestop, and a fence to keep out homeless.

Otherwise, no amount is made on a national level to build a fortress around schools with little kids.

We like to talk and argue about the measures to take to protect children, because as I always say, this must happen again. We must have another shooting, we must have more dead children. If you say, "no, that should not happen." That's like praying to god for the winning lottery numbers - maybe it will work for someone, but not for everyone.

Another school has to be shot to pieces. We have to have more thoughts and prayers. We need more mourning, more sorrow, more arguments, more of all this fallout and vigils for children who didn't make it to summer break. We have to we have to we have to we have to

We have to regulate guns

We have to build fences

We have to provide better security

We have to get big men with guns patrolling schools full of children

We have to have another shooting

All of these things will happen again. They must happen again. And if you're one of those easily triggered by this and go, "That's disgusting." "How dare you" "Monster"

Your passion is commendable, but think about the mantra "It must happen again" Cause we have fully accepted that we cannot, and will not try to indulge in the idea to implement competent measures to protect these children. republicans hiked their shoulders up and went, "Well, we can't do anything abou-- GOOD LORD IS THAT A MAN IN A DRESS?!? OMG IF THE CHILDREN SEE THAT THEY'LL BE SCARRED FOR LIFE. BAN IT! CRIMINALIZE IT! ZERO TOLERANCE! MONSTEROUS!!"

The Dems have at the least provided a means to mitigate and reduce these risks - eradicate certain caliber of guns, moderate munitions sales, apply more astringent background checks. It of course won't eliminate the outlier of the variable, but it will be the effort and motion toward accountability. We have better quality control over gravel and foundation laying, than we do weapons designed to kill multiple threats in a small margin of time. Hell, lemme bring in abortion restrictions - which remains restricted to affecting the family involved - a woman is not gonna take her uterus and cull a classroom of kids, but republicans treat each miscarriage and each masturbation like Noah and his Ark got sunk by a rogue ice berg.

It's not the political measure of robbing people of fictitious RIGHTS, it is the effort and acknowledgment of DOING BETTER. Of saying "in wake of this atrocity, we didn't do enough. But we will do better, and we are trying. We will investigate not why the person did this, but HOW and WHO armed them. We will explore if the arms merchant fulfilled all criteria to warrant the legal sale, and whether they should maintain a license to continue their business."

Every school day parents and guardians let go of their kids, so they can attend classes that prepare them for community involvement and eventual placement within our society. They sure as fuck don't send them off to conduct military style drills like we live in some war torn world, but that is the world that republicans have built, because they clutch tighter to the AR than they do their own kids. Their gun probably gets more psychological enrichment that their own child. THE GUN IS BETTER SHELTERED THAN THE AR.

republicans are so infantile and insecure about losing a rifle tomorrow, they don't even acknowledge that it is more likely tomorrow someone is gonna say goodbye to their kid, and it'll be last time they ever see that child in one piece. In one piece.

If you take a gun apart, you can still put it back together good as new, maybe better than before. But you take a 9 year old apart bone-by muscle- by skin - no mortician and no amount of skill will ever restore that child. Don't doubt, both the gun and child can have a lot in common. They'll both be cold and stiff.

[davidpwilson2564]

Bloglet

Thursday, March 23, 2023

I thought all of that business re foot pain in the night was over and done with.  It has come back.  Sleepless nights.  

Still passing blood in my urine.  That procedure was a real shock to the system.  

Huge sign (outside the courthouse): Arrest Trump.  He is safely in Florida.  Playing golf and, they say, DJ-ing parties at Mar-a-Lago. (Dropping in, to great applause, at weddings.)  He likes  “Phantom of the Opera.”  He likes the Village People.  Really hip guy.  

Later: Channel surfing.  “Splendor in the Grass.”  The playwright William Inge shows up, as Reverend Whitman.  Makes one think of other times the author of the work has appeared in a movie.  James Dickey in “Deliverance.”  John Cheever in “The Swimmer.”  The Coplandesque music in “Splendor” is by David Amram.  A complex guy. Did a little bit of everything.  Wonder why he didn’t score more movies.  

Friday, March 24, 2023

DJT continues to say awful things about DA Bragg. Calls him a degenerate psycopath...  Posts a picture of him (DJT) about to hit  Bragg with a baseball bat. (This brings to mind the Roger Stone post of the judge in rifle crosshairs.)  A post he, or someone, takes down.  Bragg gets death threats...a white powder, after all shown to be harmless, is mailed to him.  Trump’s big arrest scene, has not yet taken place and one wonders if it will happen.  

Note: A brief Roger Stone article in New Yorker.  At a Young Republicans meetings he says LBJ “had something to do” with JFK’s assasination.  And this: he says he and Trump pray together, over the phone. (Try to imagine such a thing.)

Saturday, March 25, 2023

Cold. Rain.  Venture out..  I have to keep moving.  

Al Sharpton, not one to miss a chance to be in the news. has prayer vigil for Alvin Bragg.  So much hatred directed at Bragg...that death threat came in the mail. 

Trump addresses an adoring red-hatted crowd in Waco. Many holding signs that say Witch Hunt.  Trump’s people say the location was chosen because of its convenience to other Texas cities.  Hmm. Can’t help thinking of David Koresh, also adored by his followers.  Willing to die for him.    

Terrible dream in which I am flying out of JFK with an orchestra.  Must be a big deal because many people from the music world are there to see us off.  I have my boarding pass and realize I’ve forgotten my passport.  Terrible.  At this point I wake up.

to be continued

[opedguy]

Conflict on Jan. 6 House Select Committee

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), Nov. 27, 2022.--Responding to a report from the Washington Post, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), pushed backed that Jan. 6 House Committee Co-Chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy.) pushed committee members to focus the report primarily on 76-year-old former President Donald Trump.  Cheney destroyed her political career in Wyoming with her fixation on Trump.  Cheney lost her reelection bid to Liz Hageman by nearly 20%, largely because she turned her focus on getting rid of Trump.  Whatever the final Jan. 6 House Select Committee says, it won’t satisfy Cheney who wants it all about Trump.  Cheney has been telling the press for months, without proof, that Trump planned and orchestrated the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, even though the evidence says otherwise.  To Cheney, shoving a square peg into a round hole has always been her fixation when it comes to eventually charging Trump with a crime.

Speaking to Democrat-friendly CNN, Schiff told Dana Bash she hoped the final report would be broad enough to cover more than whatever role Trump played in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.  “No, I mean at least I certainly hope not,” Schiff told Bash on CNN’s State of the Union.  Bash reported that the Post’s article said the Committee wanted to focus on security measures and intel leading up to the Jan. 6 riots.  Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), impeached Trump on a single high crime and misdemeanor on “incitement of insurrection.”  Trump was acquitted in the U.S. Senate Feb. 13, 2021, largely because House Impeachment Mangers, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) couldn’t prove their case.  Democrats insisted at the time that Trump’s Jan. 6 speech on the Ellipse the morning before the Capitol riots incited a violent mob to attack the Capitol

FBI investigations into the Jan. 6 Capitol riots showed that they were planned for months, not a spontaneous event, as House impeachment managers insisted from Trump’s early morning speech.  All transcripts of Trump’s Jan. 6 speech indicated that he asked the crowd to protest peacefully at the Capitol, not encouraging any violence.  House Jan. 6 Select Committee members concentrated interviews on Trump’s attempts to plan and orchestrate the Jan. 6 riots.  “I would like to see a report be as broad and inclusive as possible,” Schiff told Bash.  “We are discussing as a committee among the members, what belongs in the body of the report, what belongs in the appendices of the report, what is beyond the scope of our investigation.  And we’ll reach those decisions in a collaborative manner,” Schiff said.  Schiff knows the committee takes no exculpatory information about Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 riots.

Cheney has her own ax to grind with Trump, looking at the end of her House Republican career.  Cheney has hinted she may want to make a presidential run in 2024, even though she’d play largely an spoiler role either as an independent or Republican. Hard to imagine after losing her House race by 20% she has any prayer of running as a Republican.  Her constituents in Wyoming say her betraying the GOP for her obsession with Trump, eventually wrecking her career.  When Cheney joined the House Select Committee as Co-Chair, she thought she showed a profile in courage but instead showed a profile in betrayal.  Schiff defends Cheney because he knows that the highly biased Democrat panel needed a fig leaf of bipartisanship.  With Cheney, the Committee got not bipartisanship but a woman with a personal vendetta, using the committee to retaliate against Trump.

Schiff’s incapable of honesty, one of Trump’s fiercest detractors in the House of Representatives along with Pelosi.  Pelosi and Schiff, like two tag-team wrestlers, like to pounce on Trump at every opportunity.  Years before the Pelosi’s impeachments of Trump, she was all in with Schiff on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 22-month, $40 million investigation into Trump’s alleged contacts with the Kremlin.  Pelosi and Schiff embraced former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s paid opposition research AKA the Steele dossier, accusing Trump of Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential campaign.  Mueller and everyone on Democrat House knew that the Steele dossier was a fabricated set of allegations designed to help Hillary get elected in 2016.  Yet even after Mueller finished his final report March 23, 2019 clearing Trump, Pelosi and Schiff insisted Trump colluded with Russia.

Schiff did everything to dismiss the Washington Post report because he’s all about showing consensus on the committee.  “I’ve never viewed it that way, and I think her [Cheney] role on the committee has been indispensable,” Schiff told Bash.  Schiff wants to use Cheney as a GOP smokescreen to prove the committee was bipartisan.  “We’re going to get a lot of consensus on the report, we’re very close to that now, “ Schiff said.  Schiff is the same person after Mueller finished his final report saying he had proof that Trump colluded with Russia. Nothing Schiff says can be trusted for anything other than advancing the Democrat narrative, advanced by Cheney, that Trump planned and orchestrated the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.  Democrats can’t admit that after months of leftist rioting after George Floyd’s May 25, 2020 murder, right wing militia groups wanted to make a statement Jan. 6.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

[yuvon-augold79]

The number of deaths being reported is up to 21 now, and may rise further. Might have risen further by the time I post this.

14 people have been hospitalized so far, to my knowledge. 11 of those were children. None of those kids over ten years old.

I have been screaming into the void for five fucking years trying to do ANYTHING to stop this bullshit. Petitions, protests, donations, everything plausible in my area.

What have all of us gotten for all our efforts and struggles? “Thoughts and prayers.”

I didn’t hide in a corner for an hour and a half, too terrified of what might be outside to risk texting my parents goodbye, to get told “my thoughts and prayers go out to you, anyhow I’m accepting yet more donations from the NRA.”

I didn’t call my parents in a blind panic to check that they weren’t in the path of a pair of mass shooters to get told “our thoughts and prayers are with you right now, anyhow let’s do nothing about this epidemic of mass shootings.”

(Keep in mind, I live in a state with one of the most restrictive gun policies in the country. And it still. Isn’t. Enough.)

Until your “thoughts and prayers” can stop a bullet, shove it up your ass.

[grandhotelabyss]

Another giant gone. Weren’t we just talking about the importance of authorial image? Who had a better image than she did? I can’t imagine looking at those pictures from the late ‘60s and having any other reaction than either wanting to be her or wanting to marry her. I came to her work late after a false start, as I write in my double essay on Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The Year of Magical Thinking:

I also barely knew who Joan Didion was. I’d been an English major, but not one much interested in postwar American letters. It’s possible, then, that the NYRB piece on Schiavo was my introduction to Didion, and I was too self-righteous at the time to allow it to make any good impression. Who was this awful woman? She seemed to side with the conservatives!

I was about 23 or 24 then. I didn’t rediscover her till I read the novel Play It as It Lays a few years ago. In that book, she doesn’t just seem to side with the conservatives; rather, she compares abortion to the Holocaust! I’m not 23 anymore, though, so, if you’ll forgive me, I can see how she got there. 

Wesley Yang Tweeted that she “skeptically interrogated” the “righteous politics” of her time, likely in a way impossible now for the mainstream writer, a statement proved by her scorching, infamous 1972 essay “The Women’s Movement” if nothing else:

Just as one had gotten the unintended but inescapable suggestion, when told about the “terror and revulsion” experienced by women in the vicinity of construction sites, of creatures too “tender” for the abrasiveness of daily life, too fragile for the streets, so now one was getting, in the later literature of the movement, the impression of women too “sensitive” for the difficulties and ambiguities of adult life, women unequipped for reality and grasping at the movement as a rationale for denying that reality.

The Times obit names Hemingway and Conrad as her influences. Her ethic was Hemingway’s grace under pressure, Conrad’s facing it. I would add Orwell’s effort to see what’s under one’s nose. Her work, like Dostoevsky’s in the century before the American one, suggests that if you knock down every pillar of tradition you might find yourself crushed to death under the roof rather than in utopia free and clear. Sometimes the thesis could be too sour, too simple. This “cool customer” was not a woman who’d have wanted only praise in her eulogies, so I’ll say I thought A Book of Common Prayer was too flat, a caricature of the radical left rather than a critique. Her supposed left turn in her later work, which I’m admittedly less familiar with, seems to me less of a real political shift and more a critique of utopianism in its evangelical Christian and neoconservative guises that dominated the Republican Party in the Reagan and Bush era. 

I love that she didn’t pretend to be a better person than she was or to make grandiloquent claims for our strange vocation:

In many ways writing is the act of saying I, of imposing oneself upon other people, of saying listen to me, see it my way, change your mind. It’s an aggressive, even a hostile act.

She’s said, I think, to be one of those writers with whom the essays are better than the novels, like Orwell or Baldwin or Sontag or Vidal. But I think Play It as It Lays is an absolute American masterpiece, a short novel of alienation and independence, a little apocalypse, up there with Bartleby and Gatsby and Miss Lonelyhearts and Lot 49 and Sula. I’d recommend it to anyone; you can read my piece on it here, but really, just read the book. Such is the miracle of literature, the way you can die but still be alive. 

[banana-with-a-bow-tie]

The purpose of this post is not to argue that Biden was, or was not, fraudulently elected in the 2020 president election, but to keep a biblical perspective.

Sources report that 47% of American voters believe that large-scale fraud handed the election to Biden/Harris. Nevertheless, 49% say that fraud was unlikely. A recent NPR/Ipsos poll reported that 67% of Republicans and 11% of Democrats surveyed believe that voter fraud gave Biden election. However, the same survey showed that 19% of Republicans and 85% of Democrats disagree. In either case, dozens of millions of voters believe that there was fraud, and dozens of millions believe that there was not. Numbers do not prove whether or not it happened. The point here is that a huge swath of the US population believes that voter fraud helped usher in the next president.

It’s likely that someone you sing next to in church believes that there is ample evidence of fraud, and is grieved about it. Disdaining them as crazy conspiracists is not the best approach (cf. 1 Cor. 13:4-7, Col. 3:12-17). After all, if you’re a Christian, you believe that a peasant Hebrew crucified as a vile criminal will one day appear in the sky standing on clouds.

So for those who do feel that there was fraud, what would Scripture suggest you do? Even if there was, here are a few considerations from God’s word on the issue.

God is sovereign over unrighteousness

“In the day of prosperity be happy, but in the day of adversity consider— God has made the one as well as the other So that man will not discover anything that will be after him” (Eccles. 7:14).

Though he is not pleased with it, God is sovereign over all sin. If there was fraud, though it would grieve God, he is sovereign over it. God remains in control even in the most wretched times (Lam. 3:37-38). He was sovereign over the wretched rule of Egypt (Exod. 2:23-25), the wicked rule of Israel’s enemies in Judges (Judg. 2:14), the evil of the Assyrian deportation (2 Kings 17), the wickedness of the Babylonian exile (2 Kings 25), the unrighteousness of Herod and the Romans (Matt. 2:15), and he was even sovereign over the treacherous treatment of His own Son: “this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death” (Acts 2:23). Despite all of this evil—often committed by governing authorities—God was never de-sovereigned by it.

“His sovereignty rules over all” (Ps. 103:19).

2. The Lord is still on the throne

No evil agenda, large or small, has ever successfully removed God from his throne. And evil men and nations have tried. They’ve done everything in their power, with satanic and demonic reinforcements, to dethrone God. It hasn’t happened and it never will (Ps. 93:1-5). The permanence of the Lord’s position on the throne of the universe is laughably unthreatened by even the greatest evils of man.

“The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, 3 ‘Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!’ 4 He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them” (Ps. 2:2-4).

The sovereign, supreme rule of the God of the Bible is no more threatened by unrighteous doings and agendas of earthly rulers than his rule is threatened by a cockroach coughing in a Los Angeles sewer.

“The Lord reigns, let the peoples tremble; He is enthroned above the cherubim, let the earth shake!” (Ps. 99:1).

3. God will use unrighteousness for good

One of the ways that God proves he is sovereign is by orchestrating evil for good. We have history to prove that: Joseph’s suffering and saving a nation (Gen. 50:20), Pharaoh housing the messianic nation and its growth, the cross of Jesus Christ, and countless examples since then. Throughout history, God has masterfully moved the evil of man and government to accomplish his purposes, the greatest of which was the cross. Jesus was the recipient of unprecedented civil corruption, and God did a pretty decent job at ensuring that worked out well. We might not see how God orchestrates evil for good this side of heaven, but he’ll take care of it (Rom. 8:28). God is trustworthy.

4. Jesus is still building his church

The church has survived the harshest storms wicked men have to offer. She was birthed into the Roman Empire, who actively opposed her existence. Despite three centuries therein of persecution, her growth continued. Satan and his world have always hated and resisted the church. Even so, she has spread from Israel, to the Roman Empire through the Apostles, and to places like Africa through the Ethiopian Euncuh, the New Hebrides through John Paton, Burma through Adoniram Judson, China through Hudson Taylor, the middle east through Samuel Zwemer, and the list goes on. It’s almost like unrighteous circumstances helps the church thrive. Whatever the case, the church will never die out because Christ builds it (Matt. 16:18).

5. We are still to be about the kingdom of God

Unregenerate enemies attempted several times to distract Nehemiah and God’s people from sticking to the essential task of rebuilding the wall (Neh. 6:4). What they did was wicked. But Nehemiah and crew stuck to the main thing (Neh. 6:3-9).

In these New Covenant days, there are no less enemies and distractions that seek to pull us down from the wall. But we must keep the main thing the main thing. The kingdom of God is that thing. Regardless of what happens, our sovereign God would have us give ourselves completely to involvement in our local churches, godliness, disciple-making, prayer, love, and the word. Let us not get down from the wall (1 Cor. 15:58).

6. God will uphold justice perfectly

God is a perfect, omniscient God. Nothing escapes his notice. He is perfectly good, too, which means evil will not prevail. Regardless what someone appears to get away with, they will stand before God in the judgment (Rom. 12:17-21, Rev. 20:11-15).

7. We are all liars and sinners

An election fraud allegation is to say that lying occurred; massive, consequential lying. Among the list of things God hates, lying is mentioned twice (Prov. 6:16-19). However, people are lying every day; politicians, employers, employees, nobodies, and neighbors. Everyone lies. Lying can no more be separated from humans than their shadow. “Let God be true and every man a liar” (Rom. 3:4). That means we, too, have lied. No one is exempt. God is the only One who has never lied nor will ever.

Our lies may not be as socially consequential as others, but God is the one we stand before. On top of being liars, we are all atrociously unholy before the holy God of the universe (Rom. 3:10-19). This God requires perfection (Matt. 5:48). So, we have nothing to offer God except wickedness and weakness in and of ourselves. Due to our nature and doings, we stand guilty and unacceptable before God. Since we have all sinned against a holy God, an individual who never orchestrated widespread voter fraud deserves to spend eternity in the same hell as someone who did (Rom. 2:1-5).  

8. Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave

However, God did not leave us to ourselves. Moved by his own compassion on sinners, and not because of anything good or righteous in us, God looked upon us with pity (Rom. 3:10-12, Eph. 1:3-6). Incredibly, our offenses against God in thought, word, nature, and deed did not move him to justly boot us all into hell. No, far from it. He radically humbled himself by joining human nature to himself and was born a baby (Phil. 2:5-7). Though he deserved unceasing worship from every human, Jesus received scorn, hate, and a humiliating and brutal crucifixion (Phil. 2:8). He received all of this on purpose in obedience to his Father’s plan to atone for the sin of his people (John 10:18). Though thoroughly sinful, Jesus so loved his people that he referred to them as, “My sheep” (John 10:26-27). Jesus then rose from the grave victorious, validating his saving work for his sheep. This is a great love, indeed. And it has everything to do with those struggling with the unrighteousness around them: we’ve all sinned, Jesus died and rose for us, and our greatest need has been met.

9. We are to pray

As every human nation and government will be filled with unrighteousness, God now calls his people to pray.

“First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity” (1 Tim. 2:1-2).

We are to pray for so many encouraging reasons: God hears (Ps. 65:2), God answers and works through prayer (1 Sam. 1:10-11, John 15:7), we are commanded to (1 Tim. 2:1-2), it shows that we are depending on our sovereign God (Luke 11:8), and it is an act of worship whereby God brings glory to himself (Rev. 8:3). If we find ourselves in the rut of angst at times, let us pray. We are to pray and pray and pray, and not lose heart (Luke 11:5-8, 18:1-8; Thess. 5:17).

10. Heaven will be great

Jesus often mentioned that we are to live for our permanent, future, unseen, and eternal home with him and all the redeemed (Matt. 16:24-27). While being present and prayerful, this world is passing, visible, dying, and temporal (1 John 2:17).

In heaven, there will be no voter fraud. They’ll be no voting, for that matter. Why should there be? The forever King will be the single most loving, wise, righteous, just, and perfect Individual in the universe, the blessed Lord Jesus Christ (Isa. 9:6-7, John 1:17, Phil. 2:8-11).

“And the Lord will be king over all the earth; in that day the Lord will be the only one, and His name the only one” (Zech. 14:9).

Of course, more could be said here. As God’s people, we are abundantly furnished with what we need to face these rocky times in a manner pleasing to him. Whatever happens, may the Lord’s church abound in faithfulness and fruitfulness.

[darlingbandit]

I’m so fucking tired, guys.

I’m tired of seeing innocent people murdered. I’m tired of worrying that the people I love will be murdered.

And I’m tired of watching as the people who actually have the power to change things do absolutely nothing because they’re too busy kissing the ass of the NRA or are too spineless to move against the GOP.

For the last thirty years I’ve felt absolutely powerless whenever a mass shooting has occurred. And I know a lot of other people feel powerless too. They know how it goes in the US. They know the pattern. Dozens of people will be murdered, Republicans will offer thoughts and prayers and lines from the Bible while admonishing others for “politicizing tragedy” and then taking millions of dollars from the NRA. Democrats will wring their hands and say how awful but do at most the bare minimum of their job requirement to try to fix the problem.

No one in power is doing anything. Either because of their own nefarious motives or because the system is broken.

So what if we just stopped? What if we just walked out, every single one of us? Students walk out of schools, office workers walk away from their desks, employees walk away from their businesses, and we all refuse to work until the people in power convene and solve this problem.

For thirty years we’ve been begging at politicians to enact and enforce gun safety laws in this country. We’ve told them exactly what’s needed (at the minimum, universal background checks, the banning of high-powered assault rifles, a more closely monitored gun registry) but nothing is done. We pleaded for the bare minimum and they didn’t even give us that.

So fuck them. Just stop. Let the nation grind to a standstill, let the economy tank, until they fucking do something.

If every person who has had a loved one die or be injured by gun violence, or anyone who has been injured or traumatized by gun violence, or anyone who worries that they might lose someone they love to gun violence—if all these people, if each of you just walked out of your home or your place of work and just sat on the curb, do you realize how many people would be out there with you? Someone who has lost a mother or father or sibling, a grandparent, a friend? Someone who was in a grocery store when shots were fired, or knew someone who survived a shooting at a concert or a game, or knew someone who committed suicide by gun or was shot by someone mishandling a gun, or someone who’s terrified that gun violence will tear them away from the most important people in their lives? Do you realize how many people would be standing out on the street together?

When there’s a mass shooting we’re made to feel small and helpless. Grief and trauma pull us into ourselves and each individual person feels like there’s nothing they can do, because we’ve had thirty years of this and nothing has changed. People in power tell you to look inward, to pray and to reevaluate your life, to hug your children and the ones you love. In effect, to not push back, to band together, to make it about your own fears and your own grief, to internalize everything. 

This problem is fixable. Whenever mass shootings occur politicians and gun rights advocates start doing their tap dance, saying that the problem is more complicated than gun control and using it as an excuse to not fix the issue. We know that gun control works because we’ve seen it work in other countries. We know what needs to be done. When you have a complicated problem you break it down into individual, manageable issues and deal with the most urgent issues first. Gun control is the first step. It’s not a difficult concept to wrap one’s head around. Mass shooters kill (or attempt to kill) for different reasons, but what allows them to commit the act and murder or injure dozens of people in a matter of minutes is access to guns. That’s the most pressing matter here.

So go outside and just fucking scream and don't stop screaming until the people in power actually act. I read recently that for hours after the Newtown shooting parents of children at the school convened at a local fire station until they heard news of their children. As parents learned their kids were alive they rushed to the hospitals, or to a community center to pick them up if they weren't injured. As the hours went by the remaining parents were finally told that if they were still there, then their children were most likely dead. The screams could be heard from down the street. Those parents in Uvalde are screaming right now. Last week in Buffalo victims' loved ones screamed as they discovered that they'll never see their grandparents, their parents, their loved ones again, and next week it'll happen again, and it's going to keep happening until it happens to you, and you never want to live through that, believe me, you don't want that to happen to you.  I just want this to stop. And I bet you want it to stop too.

I just want this to stop. And I bet you want it to stop too.

[hms-chill]

Shall I Stay? Would it be a Sin?

Summary: Henry wakes up in Paris, in the middle of the first night he's spent with Alex, and realizes he should go.

Henry's not sure what wakes him up, but for a few glorious moments, everything feels perfect. The bed is soft and warm around him, and gentle music drifts up from a busker on the street below. It's warm for March, so they'd left a window open for some fresh air, and a soft breeze is playing with the gauzy curtains. And best of all, when he turns his head a bit, he can see Alex Claremont-Diaz's arm draped across him. Henry rolls over a bit, slowly, trying his hardest to preserve this moment for as long as he can. If he wakes Alex, or if he wakes himself up too much, the spell will be broken, but he can't help risking it. He wants to see Alex.

When he sees Alex's face, blissed out and relaxed in sleep, he feels something lodge itself in his throat. He knows, suddenly and with crystal clarity, that this is a terrible mistake. He can't have this; he knows that. Ever since they first met at the Olympics, he's known that even just a friendship with Alex would be a bad idea. Something like this, whatever they have now, has to be catastrophically worse. But still. It can't hurt too much, just this once. That's what he tells himself, at least, as he reaches out a hand to gently brush a hair out of Alex's face. Just this once, here, away from the reporters and the cameras and everything else, lying next to Alex can't be too bad. Even if it cuts him down to his very core to be this close to a life he can never have, well, at least he can feel the warmth before he melts the wax on his wings.

Henry doesn't often let himself think about the future. For as long as he's been able to think about it realistically, it's looked bleak, and he hasn't exactly wanted to dwell on a lifetime of loneliness. But looking at Alex now, face smushed against a pillow, he lets himself imagine a future like this. He knows it's impossible, and probably stupid to dream about, but it's the middle of the night, and they're in Paris, so he lets his mind wander. He dreams of nights spent like this, with Alex content and asleep beside him. He dreams of quiet moments when he can just look at Alex, with no reporters to take pictures or prying strangers to ask questions. He dreams of a life where he can just be with Alex, no armor or closet or anything else to hide them. In the wee hours of a Parisian morning, he lets himself dream about it, and he wants it so badly it hurts.

He knows he shouldn't think like this, knows he can't have any of it. Not with anyone, but certainly not with Alex. He shouldn't even be here now; every second he's in this hotel is a greater chance they'll be discovered. He's risking a scandal every moment he spends with Alex's arm around him, Alex's breath on his neck and Alex's legs tangled with his. He knows what he's risking, knows he should go, and yet. He looks at Alex, snoring lightly against the pillow, and he knows in a heartbeat that if his was the only fate at risk, he would stay here forever. He would be happily disowned and discredited, would dance as the tabloids dragged him through the muck if it meant one more breath like this.

But it's in that breath that he thinks about how many other lives he's risking. There's Bea; she'll defend him and get wrapped up in anything she isn't already dragged into. There are the lives of other queer folks, who will see everything that happens to him if he's discovered like this. And on Alex's side, there's his whole family, and Ellen Claremont's entire administration. If the first son of the United States is found in bed with the Prince of England, well. Henry doesn't want to imagine what it would do to the upcoming presidential race. He knows what the Republican Party is capable of, and he knows what they'll say if anyone finds him here with Alex. Henry was raised in this fishbowl of scrutiny; he knows how far people can twist things. With eight months to the election, this could be rewritten into whatever the Republicans need to push Ellen out of office.

It's that thought that motivates him to gently start to extract himself from Alex. He'd risk everything he has for another moment together, but this is too big. It's bigger than either of them, and maybe even bigger than the two of them put together. Still, for just a split second longer, he lets himself look at Alex. He lets himself study Alex's face, the way it relaxes in sleep, the little snores and littler smile on his lips. He's beautiful, and Henry feels that lump in his throat again. He should go, but he's never known what's good for him, always wanted just a bit more than he can have. So, slowly, trying to savor the moment as much as he can, he brushes Alex's hair aside and leans forward to kiss his forehead. One last kiss, one last moment to pretend he can have this, and then he's sliding out of bed, already looking for his pants when a hand closes around his wrist.

It's Alex's hand; he knows even before he looks at it. Still, he lets his eyes take their time traveling up the arm to find Alex's face. Alex is clearly barely awake, blinking up at him with a frown that wasn't there a moment before. He looks so confused, and so tired, that it nearly makes Henry get back into bed, risks be damned.

"Where're you going?"

"I... I thought I'd..." Every excuse dies on Henry's tongue as he looks at Alex, who makes a disapproving noise as he tugs Henry's hand closer and presses a kiss to each of his knuckles.

"Stay? You're warm, baby."

The lump in Henry's throat threatens to overwhelm him suddenly. He vaguely processes that his knees are going to give out, and the only place to sit is the bed, so he lets himself fall back into it, Sisyphus's bolder tumbling back down before he even got close to the top of the hill. Alex tugs him closer,  pulling him back under the blankets before nuzzling into his neck. As much as he knows he shouldn't, knows this isn't real, Henry holds him a little closer. He kisses the place where Alex's ear meets his face, earning an appreciative hum as Alex falls asleep again. He's tucked up against Henry now, too close for Henry to leave even if he could bring himself to try.

For now, all he can do is bury his face in Alex's hair and try not to cry. There's so much hair; he's pretty sure he swallows a few strands as he breathes it in. But burying them in Alex's hair is the only thing he can think to do with the emotions that threaten to overwhelm him.

It has been five years and eight months since anyone has called him 'baby'. He can't remember the last time he heard the word, though he must have heard it some time in that span, but the last time it was directed at him was just before his dad's funeral. He'd cried in the car on their way there, and his mum had taken his face in her hands and wiped his tears. She'd pulled him into a hug, and she'd called him her baby then, voice choked with tears of her own. Just like always, she'd promised him that she would be there and it would all be okay.

It wasn't. Nothing has been okay since, and his mum hasn't called him her baby, either. No one has called him 'baby' since. Bea doesn't use the term, Pez doesn't know it, and he'd made Shaan put it on a list of things that fake girlfriends weren't allowed to say to him. Alex doesn't know what it means, either; he can't. He can't know Henry's history with the word. As he lies there in the darkness, Henry tries his hardest to remind himself that from Alex's mouth, 'baby' is just another pet name. It isn't the unconditional promise of fierce love he'd grown up with.

But even from Alex, that 'baby' has to mean something. Tonight, it's a request, a vulnerability. It had asked Henry to stay, and to trust that Alex and their teams and whatever forces of the universe might be looking out for them will be enough to protect them. It asked Henry to trust whatever this thing between them is, and while it left him a choice, it's a choice between Dickens and Austen. He could leave this warm bed to traipse through Paris back to his own hotel, disheveled and miserable, or he could lean into a man who's let down his guard and trusted him to stay. As he lets himself sink back into the moment with Alex, letting himself put his fear off until the morning, he recognizes the busker's song just long enough to murmur the last lines into Alex's hair. It feels like a confession and a prayer and a declaration all rolled into one, like something monumentally bigger than the eight little words hummed into a sleeping boy's ear. He feels something inside him shift as he sings, and he knows that he's in too deep. He knows that when it gets to be too much and Alex leaves, when this all blows up in his face or comes crashing down around him, it will take a part of him with it. But he'll take whatever he can get, so for now, he leans in closer and lets himself believe he can have something like a relationship here. He sings gently, Alex's breath tickling his neck as the breeze carries the last few notes through the window, and his heart is so full he thinks it might explode.

"... I can't help falling in love with you."

On AO3

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[stephenjaymorrisblog]

I Hope the Communists Take Over the USA

7/11/21

Stephen Jay Morris

©Scientific Morality

Living in the USA during the 1950’s and early 60’s was a stone cold drug. People had bomb shelters in their backyards. Public school students were required to perform daily exercises known as “Drop Drills.” Out of nowhere, during a lesson, the teacher would command with one word, “Drop!” There would be a moment of hesitation and, then, like trained monkeys, we would drop to the floor, scoot as best we could underneath our desks, and cover our heads with both hands and arms. This action was called, “duck and cover.” On every second Friday of the month, old World War II sirens would sound out across Los Angeles. I remember how, for a second, I thought, “This is it! Soviet planes are going to drop bombs on us!” If my mom said something off center or even slightly liberal, my dad would chide her, “Marilyn! Somebody might hear you! Watch what you say!” It was all centered around the fear of Communism. Back then, we were force fed patriotism. You were never allowed to say anything critical or negative about America. The atmosphere was stifling and paranoiac.

I was 9 years old during the Cuban Missile Crisis, but I have no memory of it. Anti-Communism was a requirement for Americans then. President John F. Kennedy proclaimed Anti-Communism like any Republican did, so the centrists and liberals did the same. Now, the moronic conservatives are using this Neo-McCarthyism tactic of accusing liberals of being Communists. Kennedy’s brand of Anti-Communism was finessed and civil, but the Neanderthal MAGA type of Anti-Communism consists of primal drooling-on-the-floor. And, let’s not forget, chest-beating! I notice, also, that Islamo-phobia is now less of a priority than Anti-Communism. So, because of corporate media, we are subjected to Right wing corophila on a daily basis, displayed on flat screens across America.

The Religious Right tells us, everyday, about the evils of Communism. Why? Because Communists are Atheists—which goes to show that everybody has some good in them. It’s not that Right wing Christians are opposed to Authoritarianism—oh, they love that type of shit! They hate Communism because its followers don’t believe in God. Period! Even though the content of Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” could have gotten him on McCarthy’s Blacklist, the Religious Right oppose Islam because they are competitor representatives of God. You know: “My God is an awesome God. Allah is a false God!” Don’t those stupid fucks know that “God” and “Allah” mean the same thing? Jesus! See what I mean? What they want is a Christian Theocracy run by a corporate oligarchy: a Fascist Christian State! Somebody should tell them that America is a Republic, not a Theocracy. They will declare how evil an Islamic Theocracy is and then proclaim how wonderful a White Christian government would be. They would burn Britney Spears on a stake for allegedly practicing witchcraft. (Well...at least we wouldn’t have to hear about her conservatorship case in court.) A Christian Theocratic government would control your behavior and a morality squad would break into your room and shoot you for masturbating. Would a Communist government do that? Hell, no! They believe in “Free Love.”

Do I really want a Communist government? Not really. But if I was faced with an ultimatum between a Christian police state and a Stalinist state, I would choose a Communist state any day. Under Communism, there would be no sports analysts disrupting a basketball game. A Communist government would abolish Christmas, and we would no longer be obligated to buy family members and friends gifts. No more Christmas songs! Yes!!! We would be wearing uniforms, so we would save a lot of money on clothes. If anyone suffered a heart attack under a Christian state, all they would get is a prayer circle surrounding them as they lie dying on the floor. Under Communism, they’d be rushed to a hospital where their life would be saved. And, all for free! There would be no more lectures about “self reliance;” the impetus would be more about team work.

I am an Anti-Authoritarian leftist. That means, I don’t have to declare that I am Anti-Communist or even Anti-Fascist. I oppose allauthority! No social construct can be under God’s rule because God may not exist; and, if he did, I would rebel against him/her, or it. How do you like thempronouns! You want to read communist propaganda? Read the gospel of Jesus Christ! Let’s cancel stupidity! Bye!

Addendum: 7/13/21 “Cuban Protests” For decades, there haven’t been civil protests in Cuba. When the Stalinist dictator, Fidel Castro, was in power, he controlled Cuba with an iron fist. Any complaints about the Revolution were suppressed to the world media by him. Che Guevara was not a big supporter of Castro, but in revolutionary solidarity, his disagreements with the dictator were kept secret. After Castro kicked the bucket, his brother, Raúl Castro, took over. Eventually, he retired.

Cuba wasn’t as totalitarian as, say, North Korea. However, there weren’t any democratic elections. Matter of fact, American Conservatives see Castro’s election as a model to establish, in the USA, what he had. Cuban Gays were treated badly and the Cuban government spied on its citizens. A little esoteric note: It was the only time American Trotskyites tepidly supported a Stalinist regime.

When President Barack Obama reopened this country’s relationship with Cuba, the American Right protested. Cuban exiles protested his restart of diplomatic relations. Then, along came Trump, who reinstated the prior embargo. He wanted to reward the Cuban anti-Communists by closing the doors of peace. What a guy.

Compared to what happened in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021, the recent protests in Cuba were as peaceful as a 1969 Anti-war protest in America: a lot of shouting and chanting and picket signs. They all marched in a straight line. This was no mandate against communism; this was a grievance about government policies. The protesters all wore masks to comply with health recommendations. A lot of Black Cubans marched, also. There was no violence. Hell, you can’t even call this a pro-Democracy revolt, such as is occurring in Hong Kong. The Right wing Cubans in Miami, honking their horns in celebration, are wasting their car batteries! There is no counter-Revolution in Cuba, contrary to mainstream reporting.

Let’s hope the CIA is not involved in this so-called Cuban uprising. Read the history of the 1961 “Bay of Pigs,” during the JFK Administration. Note that this event in Cuba quickly followed the assassination of Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise. More espionage shit? Maybe. But, then, I’d be labeled a conspiracy nut.

[biihoebi]

@newsiesgiftexchange

for @what-goesaround-comesaround for the Newsies Winter Gift Exchange 2020

aaaah ok so this unbetad because usually I bully you into betaing my stuff so it's quite stream of consciousness but whateverr. also maybe I took some creative liberties on the historical accuracy but who cares

(its kind of a shit show but shhhh Irish Spot)

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read on ao3 here

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While it was Jack's father who taught him not to starve it was his mother who taught him the value of his heritage. Which is why when the new kid at the lodging house was sitting at the end of his bed, distressed over a throwaway comment Albert had made, Jack was doing his best to comfort them.

"He said I was losing my accent" Rua had all but wailed. "How can I be Irish without me accent. And Granda said he used to have flaming hair like mine before it went dark with age. Then I won't even look Irish." they continued.

"But yer Irish by blood not by hair or by voice. I mean my hair ain't red but you'd be hard pressed tryna tell me I isn't Irish." Jack sighed. "Look, I've never stepped foot in Ireland, youse is ahead of me there, but my Mam kept it alive in the stories she told. Some were legends and some were just memories of her and her siblings getting into all sorts of trouble in the fields. And I can speak Irish just as good as the next guy, no matter what Spot Conlon says" he finished. Rua let out a short sniffle.

"But my Mam works in a factory. I never see her no more" they said wiping their face with their sleeve.

"We ain't the same, I'm Irish sure but I was born here. Youse is better off asking Spot about this, he was born in Dublin, didn't come here til he was about 8. And seeing as Albert started this whole mess he can be the one to go to Brooklyn to deliver the message after he's done selling. Now it's time for newsies to go to bed, you ain't no use selling if your half asleep." Jack declared.

——————————————————————–

To a bright eyed and bushy tailed Rua morning couldn't come soon enough and neither could the circulation bell nor could the final sell of the day. By the time Albert left for Brooklyn every newsie in Manhattan knew about it and was sick of hearing about it.

"Just because Albert's gone today, don't mean Spots gonna visit today. Heck he mightn't even visit at all. Do youse really think this is a big enough deal for the King of Brooklyn to take time out of his busy sche-

"Stop shit stirring Boots" Jack interrupted sternly. "Just because Spot doesn't like Brits like you doesn't mean he won't help out a fellow Paddy" he joked. At that Boots straightened his back

"I'll have you know Mr Kelly that Spot Conlon said I's is the best 'Brit' he knows" he said, smugly straightening an imaginary tie.

"Best of a rotten bunch" a new voice chimed in. Every newsie in the room suddenly started scrambling to look half presentable. "I got your message Kelly, now where's the young wayne?" the person continued. In response Jack stepped aside revealing Rua, who had been hiding behind his legs.

"I-I'm Rua" they stuttered out. The man crouched down to their eye level.

"I'm Spot Conlon, but I thought youse was supposed to be Irish. Where's me 'dia duit'? It's like you ain't even tryin'. No wonder youse losing yer accent" Spot said. That did nothing to help the already nervous wreck that Rua was.

Spot shot up suddenly, shooing everyone but Jack, Rua, Crutchie and Race out. He sat down on the middle bed and kicked his feet up, gesturing for everyone to follow. Ever the rebel Race decided to lean against the bunk instead while the rest settled into the surrounding beds. "Look, Jack says youse is struggling with moving on with yer life while staying Irish. I went through the same thing when I first came 'nd look at me now, King of New York"

"King of Brooklyn" Race coughed out which Spot shot daggers at him for.

"I'se is the King of New York, don't let no street rat tell you otherwise" he spat "but I wasn't always, I was once a youngin like you, fresh off the boat with only my poor parents and a sack full of stuff between us…"

——————————————————————–

The dock bustled with workers and passengers alike. Some leaving but most stepping off boats and into their new lives. Among those coming off was a young Seán Conlon. With wild hair and big eyes filled with the wonder and excitement of seeing somewhere beyond the slums of Dublin. It was an outbreak of TB amongst the tenements that did it in for his parents.

Seán didn't have long to admire the new world he had just entered before his hand was grabbed and he was dragged off into a long line filled with fellow immigrants. Hours passed before the tired young boy would make it through the front door to his new home. It was a small one room apartment completely unlivable by today's standard but to someone from the worst slums in Europe it might as well have been Buckingham. "Go bhfoire Dia orainn, tá sé linne!! Níl aon theaghlach eile ina gconaionn liomsa?" Seán gawked in awe.

"Tá, ach bí curamach, níl cead agat bí ag caint as gaeilge nuair a tá tú taobh amuigh" his father responded.

"Cén fáth?"

"Mar ní maith a lán daoiní, duine eile ag caint as gaeilge agus sin é sin a bhfuil."

"Ceart go leor"

That night Seán lay awake in his bed wondering why anyone could dislike speaking Irish. Well besides the British but Uncle Seamus always said that their opinion didn't matter and that he and a few of his friends from the Irish Republican Brotherhood would soon rid Ireland of them. Whatever that meant. His father would always laugh alongside and say 'that would be the day' while his mother would give out to him for encouraging Seamus.

It wouldn't be for a few weeks that Seán would find out what his dad was talking about. He was out selling papers to help make ends meet, as small as the room was all three of them had to work hard in order to pay for it. He stood there waiting at the gate for the circulation bell to ring, when it happened. On his first day one of the older kids taught him a few tricks and gave him a few pieces of advice. One of those pieces was 'stay away from Acton Williams'. An unspoken rule he had managed to avoid up until that point.

Acton had walked right into him, dropping a strange wooden item in the process. Seán liked to think that his mother raised him right so he apologized and bent down to pick up the trinket

"Brón orm" he mumbled as he crouched, item in hand.

"The fuck you say to me?" Acton grunted. Seán froze realising his mistake and everyone went silent at the sound of Acton's voice.

"I was just saying sorry" Seán rushed out, trying desperately not to get baited so soon after joining the newsies. Acton let out a laugh.

"That's not what you said though is it?" he said " see I think youse was speaking some stupid language from the stupid country you came from. So I'mma ask again 'the fuck you say to me?"

"I said 'brón orm', you heard me the first time," Seán said, gaining confidence. It was one thing to be intimidated by an older kid who would definitely knock your block off but his Nan taught him better than to let someone talk shite about Ireland. Acton scoffed.

"I pity the Mum who raised such a rude brat " he spat taking a step towards Seán.

"Yeah well I pity the Mam who gave birth to such an ugly ogre"

And they were off! Acton could easily outrun Seán's tiny legs so his only hope was to lose him with twists and turns through the back alleys and busy streets. After what felt like hours of running, Seán finally ran into a deadend. Turning to face a panting Acton, Seán gulped and started reciting any and all prayers he could think of to any saints that popped into his head. In fact it wasn't until Seán went to clasp his hands in prayer that he noticed what he had picked up earlier.

A slingshot!!

Grabbing the nearest rock Seán loaded the sling. 'Dear St Anthony, pleeaassee help me find the ability to aim well' he prayed as he scrunched his eyes shut and released.

The next thing Seán heard was the large thump an unconscious Actons body made as it hit the ground. Opening his eyes to examine the noise he had heard Seán was shocked to see his feeble attempt at fighting back was actually a success. Seán quickly pocketed the slingshot and left before Acton had time to wake up.

——————————————————————–

"...and that's what it means to be Irish" Spot finished proudly

"Beating up British people is what it means to be Irish?" Rua said in awe of Spot's story. Spot grinned.

"See, this kid gets it" he joked, ruffling Ruas hair.

"That was a lovely story yer highness but how is that surppsoed to help 'em keep their accent" Race chipped in.

"Well what about you then Higgins if you have so much to say? D'you have any stories worth listening to?"

"What about being Italian? Well I-"

"Italian? Are ye not Irish?"

"No? What made you think that?"

"Yer surname is Higgins"

"Yeah, Higgins is a classic Italian name"

Jack and Spot made eye contact for a good minute before bursting out laughing. "Yer telling me this entire time youse never knew you was Irish?" Jack choked out between laughs. Even Rua stifled a giggle.

"My own mam was a Higgin, Racetrack" Spot roared. "Yee just can't make this stuff up" he said wiping a tear from his eye. Race's face was a brilliant red as he sputtered out excuses.

"Yer just joking, right guys? Right guys??"

——————————————————————–

BONUS :

At the gates the next morning Seán stood there absolutely shitting bricks. What had happened yesterday had been a stroke of luck but if Acton decided to continue the fight he was dead meat.

"Wait, is that Williams? No way what's with the giant bruise on his forehead?" a voice spoke interrupting Seán's train of thought.

"No way that's a bruise, he doesn't get those" another shot back. Soon a whole symphony of voices were arguing over whether it was a bruise or not.

"Wait a minute, weren't you getting chased by him yesterday, newbie? How come there's not a scratch on ya, and why's there only a big bruise on him?" the first voice said piecing the puzzle together. Soon everyone was crowding around Seán, looking for the story of what happened.

"Look nothing really happened" Seán reassured trying to downplay the situation "he chased me for a bit before I eventually shot him with this sling and he passed out on the spot."

Apparently telling them he knocked out the bully of the newsies was not the right thing to say to defuse the situation. Some started cheering for him others just rolled their eyes at his story.

"He clearly made that up on the spot" one voice chiming in.

"Nah, look at Acton, that's a massive bruise, obviously from being shot with a sling" another rebutted. Eventually the crowd settled a bit and someone had the common sense to ask for his name.

"Oh! I'm Seán." he responded. Everyone groaned.

"Not yer real one, yer newsies one" someone said. After Seán told them he didn't have one, everyone put their thinking caps on.

"Let's call him Spot, 'cause we'll never really know if he knocked him down on the spot or made up that story on the spot."

[nikkoliferous]

The Joe Biden campaign is reportedly taking down all negative ads against the US president due to his recent positive test for Covid-19.

The Hill reports that according to two sources within the former vice president’s camp, the campaign has “decided to scrap the negative ads before the White House announced that Trump is being taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.”

“The VP can’t say ‘God Bless this family’ and then trash him in ads,” one Biden ally told The Hill.

“Jill and I send our thoughts to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for a swift recovery. We will continue to pray for the health and safety of the president and his family,” Biden tweeted upon the news of Trump’s positive test.

“Trump’s campaign hit back at Biden and did not indicate it intends to take down its negative ads,” The Hill reports.

This would be the same Donald Trump that Democratic politicians and pundits have been confidently assuring us is both a Russian agent who is trying to destroy America on orders of Vladimir Putin, and a white nationalist who is trying to eliminate minorities from the United States to create a white ethnostate. This same man who they’ve been saying poses a unique existential threat to human lives will receive no attacks from his only viable political opponent.

“Doug and I join Joe Biden and Dr. Biden in wishing President Trump and the First Lady a full and speedy recovery,” tweeted Biden’s running mate Kamala Harris. “We’re keeping them and the entire Trump family in our thoughts.”

Former president Barack Obama reportedly sent Trump his best wishes, saying “We’re all Americans and we’re all human beings, and we want to make sure everybody is healthy.”

“God bless the president and the first lady,” tweeted the world’s most virulent Russiagater Rachel Maddow. “If you pray, please pray for their speedy and complete recovery — and for everyone infected, everywhere. This virus is horrific and merciless — no one would wish its wrath on anyone.”

Again, this is after years of Maddow staring at the camera and weaving ridiculous narratives about Russia having taken over the highest levels of the US government. Night after night after night after night.

“I join in the chorus of those who wish a speedy and full recovery to President Trump, the First Lady, Hope Hicks, and all who were exposed to them in recent days,” tweeted another virulent Russiagater Laurence Tribe. “This is no time for cruelty, schadenfreude, or any other form of small-mindedness.”

These are just a few examples. These sentiments are everywhere throughout the Democratic establishment and its allied media.

Do these seem like the sentiments of a media class who believes Donald Trump poses an urgent existential threat and must be defeated at all cost? Or do they sound like a media class who promoted Russiagate and Trump hysteria for ratings?

Do these seem like the sentiments of a political class who believes there’s an urgent existential need to defeat Donald Trump at all cost? Or do they sound like a political class who promoted Russiagate and Trump hysteria because impeachment and advancing longstanding CIA agendas against Russia are more politically convenient than advancing progressive policies and addressing the massive corruption problems which were exposed in their party in 2016?

Would you stop fighting someone who was trying to kill you with every weapon at your disposal just because they got sick? If you actually believed they truly pose an existential threat to you, would a positive Covid test cause you to let up at all?

Of course not.

It turns out all that unprecedented hysterical shrieking about a Russian Nazi in the White House was just political hyperbole. It was an act. They’ve never seen Trump as a uniquely menacing threat, they see him as what he is: a garden variety corrupt American president who is evil in more or less the same ways the other corrupt American presidents are evil. They see him as a part of the establishment they serve, advancing more or less the same agendas. They see him as a part of the club, just covered by a thin layer of narrative to the contrary.

If you ever had any doubt that Democrats will one day regard Trump the way they now regard George W Bush, you can set that doubt aside.

As George Carlin famously said, it’s a big club, and you ain’t in it.

The responses to Trump’s diagnosis from the liberal political/media class show that they’ve never actually been afraid of Trump. In fact, what they have been afraid of is you.

All these admonishments toward civility we’re hearing today, from the subtle like Maddow’s heartfelt prayers to the overt like Tribe’s “This is no time for cruelty, schadenfreude, or any other form of small-mindedness,” are the result of an establishment that is secretly terrified of the rank-and-file public. The ruling class and its lackeys are secretly terrified that one day the ordinary people they despise will awaken from their propaganda trance and realize the power of their numbers, and any incivility and impoliteness directed at the ruling class reminds them of just how ugly that could get for them.

These admonishments toward civility are always anti-populist in nature, and are always the result of nervousness about the public turning toward their rulers with hostility. They are nervous for the same reason you’d get nervous if your dog suddenly remembered its wolf heritage and started killing trespassing deer. They know they are outnumbered. They know our teeth are sharp.

This sudden pivot from portraying the US president as a unique and unprecedented threat to finger-wagging about politeness exposes what’s really going on here. Contrary to what his Democratic detractors and Republican supporters believe, Trump has never been anything other than a servant of the ruling power establishment, serving its agendas in the ways to which his political base is best-suited to support and his opposition is best-suited to allow.

The establishment narrative managers know this, which is why their alarmism about Trump has only ever been an act. There are plenty of ordinary Americans who view Trump as a uniquely dangerous threat, but it is so, so vital to understand that his ostensible opposition does not see him this way, and never has.

Their job isn’t to resist Trump, their job is to resist you. He’s in the club, you’re not. It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it.

[oberlincollegelibraries]

The Oberlin Evangelist in Praise of John Brown and the Brave Oberlin Men Who were Executed for Their Stance       Against Slavery

After John Brown raided Harper's Ferry in October 1859, the Oberlin Evangelist published a series of articles that were extraordinarily supportive of Brown's action to stop the spread of slavery. Today, when I think about the necessity of the Black Lives Matter movement and what it was like in John Brown's day, the period when the nation was still deliberating the slavery question, for a small town religious newspaper to publish articles boldly approving Brown's actions while denouncing the subsequent executions of Brown and the men who accompanied him, are both commendable and invigorating to read.

It is clear that not all editors, Henry Cowles, for example, were unequivocal in their support of Brown's actions.  One of the editors, the Reverend James A. Thome, a member of Oberlin College’s Board of Trustees, known in his days for his brilliant oratory skills was explicit in his assessment of the events at Harper's Ferry and its aftermath. Here is an excerpt from Thome’s John Brown; the Hero of Osawatamie; Surgent of Harper's Ferry appearing in the Oberlin Evangelist on November 9, 1859.

Democrats and Republicans are striving to outdo each other in "making capital" out of the affair; the former by representing it as a deep laid plot of the Black Republicans to involve the whole South in a servile war, and the latter by denouncing John Brown and his crazy crew as demons incarnate, and dooming them all in advance of the too hasty law to the halter. All agree in repudiating and decrying insurrection. Of politicians as they generally run, we can expect nothing less than this, nothing better. Christian anti-slavery men, however, must beware how they join in the hoarse clamor, " crucify him, crucify him." If they are more solicitous to commend themselves to God than to court favor with the powers that be, they will think "the sober second thought" and breathe the breath of prayer, before they speak their minds; they will not be eager to echo the loud exclamations of the hour against Fanaticism, Treason, Insurrection; they will rather desire that utterance may be given unto them, that they may speak boldly as they ought to speak. God's hand is in this transaction, and his people should see it, should discern this sign of the times,and should give the nation warning. They should fearlessly proclaim in the ears of the panic-stricken south the natural right inherent in the slaves to rise against their oppressors and achieve their liberties by sword and torch. Our fathers asserted this right and vindicated it; and we glorify them for the insurrection of '76. The sons of such sires cannot, without the basest recreancy, speak evil of the uprising of any oppressed people to gain freedom.

Another article, an open letter from John A. Copeland, one of three African-American young men that accompanied John Brown from Oberlin, reveals Copeland’s thoughts on his own impeding execution and his assessment of the African-American experience in the United States.

Dear Brother, I am, it is true, so situated at present as scarcely to know how to commence writing ; not that my mind is filled with fear or that it has become shattered in view of my near approach to death. Not that I am terrified by the gallows which I see staring me in the face, and upon which I am so soon to stand and suffer death for doing what George Washington, tho so-called father of this great but slavery-cursed country, was made a hero for doing, while he lived, and when dead his name was immortalized, and his great and noble deeds in behalf of freedom taught by parents to their children. And now, brother, having lent my aid to a General no less brave, and engaged in a cause no less honorable and glorious, I am to suffer death. Washington entered the field to fight for the freedom of the American people—not for the white man alone, but for both black and white. Nor were they white men alone who fought for the freedom of this country. The blood of black men flowed as freely as that of white men. Yes, the very first blood that was spilt was of a negro. It was the blood of that heroic man,(though black'he was,) Cyrus Attuck. And some of the very last blood shed was that of black men. To the truth of this, history, though prejudiced, is compelled to attest.

It is true that black men did an equal share of the fighting for American Independence, and they were assured by the whites that they should share equal benefits for so doing. But after having performed their part honorably, they were by the whites most treacherously deceived—they refusing to fulfill their part of the contract. But this you know as well as I do, and I will therefore say no more in reference to the claims which we,as colored men, have on the American people.  (Oberlin Evangelist, December 21, 1859)

To find out more about Oberlin’s relationship with John Brown and the abolitionist movement in general search the Oberlin Evangelist or click on the following links:

The Harper’s Ferry Tragedy

Another Hero for Oberlin?

Bronze Cast Bust of John Brown

Lewis Sheridan Leary

[dallasareaopinion]

one scenario where Trump doesn’t go to hell, but his followers do and other comments

The better half gets a bit perturbed when I start making extreme comments, especially when God is involved, but right now I just cannot go much further. I am going to come back to this with an example of something to say that floored her and a discussion on the idea of once saved always saved. And throw in some other thoughts. 

Most everyone knows the Ten Commandments and the first two being I am the Lord thy God and Thou shalt have no other Gods before me. Probably not exactly the Hebrew you were expecting, but according to most scholars this sums it up in the ole English kind of way. So, here is the deal. Way too many followers of Trump treat him like a deity. Some have said or it has been put out there he is the chosen one. Well anyone that even has a remote clue of the above should already recognize the problems for the people who are bat poop crazy for Mr. Trump. They are breaking the first two commandments in one fantastical way. Now Trump isn’t. He hasn’t acknowledged himself as being a God, nor acknowledged he is the chosen one. Sure he basks in the glory of it all, but have you heard him say all his followers are right? So it does beg the question if Trump hadn’t broken pretty much all the other Commandments already; would he not go to hell, but his followers would. Just a thought. 

And so many of his followers also seem to be part of the Christian faiths that believe once save always saved. So I did a few minute internet research on that phrase and based on what I found or didn’t find, there isn’t much in the Bible to support that philosophy. 

I found two that comes close:

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Mark 16:16 And this is a stretch to attribute to always saved.

For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Romans 11:29

And there maybe a few others, but other than these two that might touch on the idea of once saved always saved, well there were multitudes that read more like these:

Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 

1 Corinthians 10:12

If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. John 15:6

For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. Hebrews 6:4-6

Or can you be saved again?: My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. James 5:19-20, yet this isn’t once saved always saved in concept. 

Overall salvation or being saved in general are the primary references, but they do not state specifically that once save always saved. In fact, most follow the most famous John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” which verifies you can be saved, but doesn’t touch on it is a blank ticket afterwards. 

And take heed I am not a Biblical scholar I was doing scatter shot research to find out in general what is said about once saved always saved. So I could be proven wrong, but from what I do know and have learned, I have not seen much evidence that this is what is taught to us by God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit.

So going back to the Trump followers, they might want to reread a bit before they put Trump before all others especially God. 

And I am much more conservative than I lead on most times. You might have read me say pro-life is from conception to natural death. And so many of the actions of people who call themselves pro-life, perturb me. So one day as I was listening to someone speak about Trump and pro-life as if they go together it hit me to say, would you vote for the devil if he said he was pro-life? Just a question. Yet, one the better half had quite a difficult moment with me. 

And speaking of stand up guys, how about: Brad Raffensperger, Brian Kemp, Ryan Germany, Geoff Duncan, Gabriel Sterling and a vast multitude of election officials, all of which should be getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom instead of Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan. All the election officials in the infamous swing states and especially the ones in Georgia. Here they are Republicans, yet still fighting for what is right against their own party leader. These are the men that should earn the highest awards in our country. They deserve it so much more so than those two bootlickers. Sheesh.

And God only knows what is about to happen if Georgia elects two Democratic Senators, no matter how good of a job they do. No one should go through the levels of hell Trump is putting them through just because Trump is anything but a grown man. Again some of his followers need to do a bit of reading before they come out and say anything if they put one man over another and if so exactly what are they doing. (hint see above)

God save the Constitution, the Constitution is dying and by Thursday morning we are going to find out how close is the grim reaper. 

No cheers tonight folks, time to hold on tight and say a little prayer for this country if you are so inclined.