#pay your taxes Republican assholes

[suratan-zir]

You know, as an American it pisses me off so much the way House republicans in particular are like "oh, we can't send aid to Ukraine because the American tax payers shouldn't have to pay for that", well you also cut SNAP and child tax credits, so it's not like we're getting that money either you kremlin stooges

Not to mention that most of that military aid is in the form of weapons that are already built, and we're just assigning a dollar amount to, but honestly we were gonna have to dispose of a lot of old systems anyway. Half this stuff has been like nearly free garbage disposal for us, while also making these old systems actually useful by letting Ukraine have them

On top of that these assholes are always crowing about freedom, but then you have a country actually literally fighting for freedom and no that's bad

Really damn frustrating and... I don't know, Americans who act like this piss me off cause it's like... not only are you being callous as hell, you're also just being dumb because apart from supporting Ukraine being the right thing, it's just in our own self interest. Ukraine winning and taking back all it's territory isn't only a must because no one should be invaded, it's a geopolitical win against a hostile foreign government and a win for the rules based order, which in turn deters China from attacking any of it's neighbors

Like it's good for us, but no, trump is in russia's pocket so by god all these people will climb in russia's pocket too!

Anyway, this obviously isn't as big a problem for me as for you. I'm safe over here in the US while Ukrainians are the ones actually suffering. It's just, I saw your post and... I don't know, I at least wanted to say something as someone in one of those countries you're talking about

Just wanted to say that I'm behind Ukraine as long as it takes, no appeasement, no half measures, I'm here till Ukraine liberates every inch of soil from russia... may not have much power as just some schmuck, but I'm still behind you no matter what

Slava Ukraini

Heroyam Slava

Luckily, there are also Americans like you who aren't buying into cheap kremlin-sponsored populist manipulations. The most important thing you can do is to remain a decent human being. I can only hope there are more Americans like you than the other type you describe. Thank you for this message, and you're not a schmuck! ❤️

[qqueenofhades]

Although I decidedly do not need student loan forgiveness (my parents were able to pay for my entire college tuition so I didn’t have to take loans or even work during college, which should tell you all you need to know about my financial background) I stand in solidarity with y’all and I hope Biden comes through on this. I’d much rather my tax dollars go to loan forgiveness than blowing up people abroad.

In this case, it's not Biden we need to worry about; it is, and as ever, the fucking Supreme Court. If some asshole Republican AG sues the administration over this (which they will) and if it reaches the Supreme Court (which it might), then you can absolutely 100% guarantee that it will be struck down in a 6-3 decision along ideological lines. As I said before in all my other posts about this issue, that was the shortcoming with Biden doing this as an executive order (though I'm glad he did anyway). Of course the usual suspects are bitching and whining about how cancelling $10k outright ($20k for Pell Grant recipients, aka the poorest/low-income bracket of students) isn't enough and he should have just done it all, but the plan also contains major structural improvements that will have much longer-term ramifications apart from just outright cancellation, including:

As long as you're making payments (which can include $0 monthly payments if you're on an Income-Driven Repayment plan), NO INTEREST will be added to the principal balance of your loan. That is huge. I probably have at least 10K more in debt than I did when I graduated with my masters, because of the fucking interest. This is one of the things that make student loans so predatory: even if you pay the minimum amount, and if you pay it steadily, you just can't get out of debt because it keeps compounding and increasing. This means your balance will be frozen, and paying it down (even, again, if you don't actually pay anything!) will make a difference!

Full cancellation in 10 years if you've made qualifying payments (which again might be $0 if your income is low)! Also huge! People can spend DECADES paying, so capping it at only 10 years and then they're gone either way is major!

IDR plans are now capped at 5% of your discretionary monthly income, instead of 10%, which again goes a long way to making payments affordable.

If you made payments up/past March 2020 (the start of the first pandemic pause) you can actually get that money back!

Cancelling 20K in debt for the lowest earners/Pell Grantees is legitimately fucking game-changing, and will fully erase student debt for an estimated 20 million people, predominantly Black and Latino with no generational or family wealth to speak of. Even if I get 10k knocked off my student loans, I'll still have upward of 50K left over from my undergraduate/graduate degrees; I also have separate UK-based loans from my PhD which I have had to continue paying this whole time (even though Britain is literally on the verge of becoming a failed state due to economic collapse, but I digress). Of course I wish that I, personally, qualified for more forgiveness or that it would all go away. However, I absolutely recognize that this policy is going to help a lot of people who are considerably worse off than me (and I'm broke, so there you go).

Anyway, there's a lot of good stuff in this policy, and I expect further reform if the Democrats can hold/increase their Congressional majorities. But like I said, the problem isn't Biden; the problem is fucking SCOTUS. So let's see what happens.

[scottguy]

Republicans want to cut EVERYTHING Americans have already paid for with Social Security & Medicare payments from OUR paychecks in their budget proposal for 2025.

Their "budget proposal" also contains a near total ban on abortion AND a ban on in-vitro fertilization. Families will be denied the ability to conceive their own children because of politician' personal twisted religious beliefs. (How can medical restrictions on abortion have anything to do with our US budget?)

Republicans who never cared about fiscal responsibility in 2017 will do anything EXCEPT rescind the massive tax cuts to the rich and corporations given in 2017.

The right despises the middle class as a group of people to be worked to death and then taxed on that income so that money can be given to the rich in the form of yet more tax cuts.

Could it be more clear that Republicans don't care about you or your family at all?

They think you're all brainwashed by Fox. They think you're not paying attention. They think you believe their incessant and obvious lies. Republicans really think you're THAT stupid.

Prove to them you're not in November. Vote out every last Republican asshole.

[000life-is-meaningless000]

Special Is An Illusion

when you were a kid Barney was or pokémon with the most special sacred thing in existence to you Pokemon with sacred if anyone said anything about Pokemon you lose your fucking shit in them high chance you become violent and want to beat the fuck out of them you go crazy.

now that you're a 30-year-old or 45-year-old person is someone brought out Barney or pokémon you're not going to have the same way of feeling or acting

when you were a teenager the most special thing in the world and the most sacred thing of your life was the love of your life your high school girlfriend or boyfriend

NOW THAT YOU'RE MUCH OLDER YOU LOOK BACK AT WHAT A DISGUSTING PIECE OF SHIT THEY WERE AS A PERSON

when you got even older you thought maybe the most sacred thing in your life would be your politics Republican or Democrat

and then you wised up and you realize that a lot of conspiracy turned out to be fucking true

and you realize that the government does not give a fuck about you and you're not really fighting for one side against the other they're both against you the red party in the blue party are two middle fingers in your fucking face

and no matter what you do you got to pay taxes and living is a bitch and expensive or where you go and the economy is fucking horrible nobody gets a shit about you or anybody else and love is a fucking illusion

all that thing I said a very beginning this thing that Barney was sacred Pokemon with special and shit and and you go through your life you realize everything you in your life I'm using just miscellaneous fucking examples I'm not trying I'm not trying to be too pinpoint with my examples

I'm trying to get the most miscellaneous most wide vague scope I can give you to give you an idea what this like you could be anything

. . . . .

the point of this post is for me to let you God damn know that there's nothing special in life that nothing is special and nothing is sacred everything you think is sacred is stupid and it's not as special you think it is and everything you think is special is it is fucking nothing, it's your weakness

everything you find to be special is not special because nothing in life is special and nothing in life is sacred deities are 100% real and most of them are disgusting Fucking Assholes ! ! !

[dbunicorn]

Good. Luck you inbred anti science corporate whore. I trust that God and conspiracy theories will provide for you.

A fat slow ignorant Beaverton police officer said that to me once. Fucking prick.

It seems no matter whose children I'm in care of you still get your union pension on my dime.

But these pricks can't pay comparable taxes. So odd.

No matter how much fucking tax we pay, shit just doesn't change does it? I don't trust my local sheriff, local government or state. As the officer said, good luck fighting city hall. Even when friends of my daughter are visiting from Oregon. 100 dollar parking and a lot of Oregon plates. I fucking loathe Oregon so I notice.

Fuck you asshole. You've been useless my entire life. Useless for millions of not billions of WOC. Useless democrat, useless Republican. Fucking useless.

I believe we pay an average of 20-23% taxes

Pony up cunts.

I fucking promise you prick, you need people like my family more than ANYONE has ever needed you.

I'm thrilled to move out of this country and be done with it. You have money to throw at supreme court justices asshole. Make it happen.

[laele25]

Republicans are willfully stupid

And now that I have your attention, let me explain.  Here are some the asinine ‘wow, you’re really dumb enough to believe that, huh, hoss?’ excuses I have seen tossed around by Republicans trying to justify voting for Trump and his enablers. 1 “But Democrats want to kill babies.”  Okay, straight up, if you believe that, you’re a moron who deserved to be mocked into silence.  The only people who have been ‘killing babies’ is the US government who has thrown them in cages for the last four years and bombed the Middle East for the last 20.  Fuck off with your faux morality pearl clutching, I ain’t even renting it.   You just want to tell other people what to do with their bodies so you can justify your racism and have a false sense of morality.  Until you care about the children separated from their families, the children dying during our drone raids. or the child homeless and starving or stuck in abusive homes, you do not ‘think of the children’.   You are pro-forced birth and any CPS worker worth their salt can give you a lesson on why forcing people to have and keep children they do not want is incredibly cruel, especially to said child. 2.  “Higher wages will make things  more expensive!”  Hoover would have LOVED to have your bootchoking idiots around when the stock market crashed in ‘29.  Since you only care about anecdotal evidence instead of data, well, lucky for you, I live in a city with a $15 an hour minimum wage.  Before the country had to shut down (by the by Washington was rated the best place to ride out the pandemic because we have a sane governor and social safety nets) , there were help wanted signs in nearly every business.  Why?  Because people don’t have to have three jobs to make ends meet.  Yeah, housing is obscene, but that is because of an unregulated housing market, just like the rest of the country.   A Big Mac is still only six bucks here.  Five years after $15 an hour. And before anyone runs in with ‘But what about the people who are being paid less than $15 an hour and aren’t in ‘low wage jobs’?’  Because that’s another, ‘Wow, you really are deepthroating that boot hard, aren’t you?’  When the minimum wage goes up, ALL WAGES GO UP.  Why?  Because businesses have to pay more to get good workers.  It’s your ‘free market’ at work. And finally, the most classist argument of all ‘But those are just part-time jobs for teenagers.’  Now besides the fact all of the data says you’re fucking wrong and FDR flat out said he started the minimum wage as a living wage because any American who works full time shouldn’t be destitute, I’m gonna go again with appealing to your self-centeredness because you are all you care about. So what you’re saying is you only want fast food, retail sales, janitorial services, housekeeping, medical assistants, and secretarial work from 5pm to 10pm and weekends when those teenagers who you believe should do all that work are not in school.  On top of their on average four hours of homework a night.   Right... 3. “TAXES, OMG!”  First of all, you are not the only ones who pay taxes.  In fact, and here I go with data you won’t like, big blue liberal cities pay more taxes than you and take less tax money.  Why?  Because people have better wages, so there’s less destitute people living on food stamps.  Imagine that. Also, the taxes you already pay are going to pay for new weapons of war that will go over budget, arrive late or are never delivered, or will be obsolete or never work anyway.  Another big chunk goes to corporate subsidies, so that big corporations can pay their stakeholders even more and buy back their own stock to artificially inflate the value of the stock so they get even richer.  While paying little or no taxes at all. So, yeah, taxing people over 400k matters shit all unless you make over 400k a year and if you do, you should be paying more taxes.   You cannot avoid death or taxes.  But make sure the money is being spent on things that help you, idiot. 4. “SOCIALISM!” Insert gif of Bernie Sanders yelling boo here.  Because that’s how ridiculous y’all are.  Medicare and Social Security are socialism.  Pensions?  Socialism.   Stop using that word, you have no fucking idea what it means.   5. “Trump is doing the best he can with covid.”  You are not wrong.  This is as good as the incompetent, idiotic, senile, narcissistic, sociopathic, self-serving asshole can do.  Which means he is absolutely unfit for the job.  If you believe otherwise, you’re either as stupid as he is or don’t pay attention to anything but Fox News. And you’re probably also a tiny dicked racist who hates ‘immigrants’ even though we’re a country of immigrants.  It takes a special kind of willful, hateful ignorance to not see what’s happening.  And if you do and think that it won’t affect you, well, congrats, now you are the same as the Germans who looked the other way when the Nazis ran on anti-Semitism.   Now, if anyone has anymore stupid Republican gaslighting you want me to debunk, let me know.  Because i am fucking done.   ETA: Centerists, you’re worse than the Trumpters, because you want us to be happy with them taking away some people’s rights and leaving some people out in the cold just to mollify the sociopaths on the right.  Shame on you especially. 

[migleefulmoments]

CCers and Donald Trump both love to rage and spin up their followers but neither knows how to handle the anger they generate

If you are going to spend your time frothing up your followers into an angry hornets nest of hate and frustration, you have to be prepared for dealing with that anger.  The current crop of “leaders” have no idea. They acting righteously indignant when the anger comes back on Darren. If they spend any amount of time reading what they wrote with a critical eye they would see that everything expressed by crissvoncolfer reflects the various tropes ccers love so much. Crissvoncolfer is missing the crucial step after hearing all of Darren’s failures one is supposed to immediately feel pity for Darren and blame those who surround him but NEVER DARREN. Nothing Darren does is his responsibility.

The ccers are like republicans -they want to find fault with everything he does, blame everyone around him for his failures but then give him mountains of credit for his successes. It’s like the American Capitalism under republicans- privatized profits and socialized losses (need proof- look no further than the bailout packages that went to mega wealthy corporations (a few which were caught and did give the money back), airlines, and now they are pushing for the automobile industry next but we CANNOT afford socialized medicine and we need to make cuts to social security-something we pay into- and Medicare- something that works -after they gave billionaires a huge tax cut).  

I really want to point out Notes post because it offeneded me the most.  Chrisdare is again speaking for all the gays while pretending she isn’t and Cassie is playing a version of “I’m not racist because I have black friends” switched to “Darren isn’t hurting the LGBTQ community by hiding in the closet because so many gay people say he’s nice”.  If Darren did all the things they claim ccDarren does, he would be pretty toxic. It’s not about letting him come out on his own terms, it’s about the many lies ccDarren has spun in order to protect his truth... all while living with Chris. Claiming that young gay kids wouldn’t be harmed by his message of “being gay is awesome but I”m straight”.  It’s one thing to hide in the closet publically but to get married in a lavish wedding week and to speak so freely on his wife and happy marriage make him ineligible for his ccstatus as an innocent gay icon who’s just too scared to come out this month, year, decade...maybe in the next decade?  

As for Cassie- maybe quarantine is getting to her...too much time with her dream lover? 

crissvoncolfer You know the more he talks about the beard and the strip club with a fucking smile on his face the more he’s going to look like a lying asshole when all of this comes out. He already looks like one to a lot of people in the lgbt community.

PS Fellow queer K/Michale deserves to be called out for feeding the beast when he knows what the score is. I don’t care if he needs the work.

chrisdarebashfulsmiles You know I’m tired of this. I can’t talk for all the lgbt community but my opinion is it would be hypocritical by people of our community being judgmental shit towards D.

I’m part of it and I don’t care what he has to do most of the time because the struggle is real and I know how hard can be in some environment to be not out for whatever reason. And I’m only a pan person who can talk like a straight one like R/aymond A/insley of HW seems white in the industry.

I don’t think that the community thinks D is good only when he helps to raise money… Otherwise shame on us as community… Really.

Let’s stop saying that he already looks like an asshole for a big part of the lgbt community. I don’t think we have made a poll to know for sure about it. What I see, personal experience, to be pressed about him are most of the time straight relative or friends of lgbt people who think they can dictate when that man has to publicly come out for their consumption and don’t really understand what a coming out could mean.

As far as I can see in every lgbtq forum checked since 2013 I’ve always found that most of the people fantasize about tap him and don’t care if he’s not out for the public.

I think we should all take a big breath and count at least until 100 before deciding to talk in the name of the community.

You think D’s is looking like an asshole? Be my guest I have no problem about it. You are part of the lgbtq community? Good. This is your opinion, valid as mine.

Let’s not talk in the name of others.

notes-from-nowhere What @chrisdarebashfulsmiles said. Most members of the LGBT+ community understand D better than anyone. And there is no way the blame is going to stay on his shoulders for long after the truth will come out.

cassie1022 Run along, you dick, and reblog that vile video for the 7,000th time. Have you SEEN how many celebs that identify as LGBTQ LOVE him? Have you? I doubt it. You think he’s an asshole? Skippy for you, I think YOU’RE an asshole. Did you forget how long NPH, Ellen, Ricky M, Wentworth M, and countless others were forced to stay in the closet? Seriously, fuck off. Leave the fandom if he makes you that miserable. (X)

[relationshipsandpolitics]

Part 3

Since I last posted, we’ve gotten word that a certain rich asshole is going to enter the race.  Now, I could do 500 words on why this guy is awful, but it would sort of go against my belief that just because someone is really rich does not mean we need to pay extra attention to them and their thoughts.   This guy is not winning the nomination, won’t even poll about 3% in most states, and overall is not worth the amount ink that will surely be spilled on his campaign.  Next.

Joe Biden. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders

So we are down to the final 3.  One of those 3 objectively should have been culled much earlier.  If I was doing this purely based on the level of support for each candidate, this guy would have been cut about 8 candidates ago.  But Joe Biden is still the front runner, consistently leading national polls and absolutely killing it in several early primary states like South Carolina.  Biden remains popular among black voters, who serve as the lifeblood of the Democratic party. Even though his policies and personality suck, he is unique from all the other shitty centrist candidates.  So he gets his own takedown.

Joe Biden is a very old man hoping to blind the voters with his connection to President Obama.  And for the most part, it’s working like a charm. Forget the fact that he is a rambling, incoherent mess during campaign stops.  Forget his abysmal views on race, including his support for segregated busing and racist colleagues.  Forget the fact this guy railroaded Anita Hill and still can’t sufficiently apologize to her.  Forget all the bad parts of Joe Biden.  That’s what he is banking on.  Biden is trying to win not based on policy or his strategy for improving the lives of everyday Americans.  No, he is trying to win by painting a false image of who he is and how electable he would be.  Biden is basing his entire campaign on appealing to low-key racist white suburbanites who don’t want to pay more taxes.  That’s his base.  And it’s not an awful strategy.  But it highlights something terrible about the Democratic voter.

The average Democratic primary voter appears to support progressive causes.  They want to see Social Security expanded.  They support a $15 minimum wage and gun control.  They support paid family leave and some form of universal health care.  But the average Democratic voter of a certain age, race and class level doesn’t want to fight for those things.  Because while they agree with those policies in principle, they won’t be that affected by them, and more importantly, would have to pay more in taxes.  So they say they support these goals yet refuse to put any skin into the game to achieve them.   The other possibility is that they would support enacting these policies and paying a bit more, but they don’t think anyone else would and thus think we need to support the least-controversial candidate.  No one really likes Joe Biden, or if they do, no one can really identify what exactly he is running for.   Even though health care remains a joke in this country, Biden isn’t arguing to make it better.  He isn’t supporting a wealth tax.  What is this man running on except a vague idea about returning dignity to the American worker.  Yet voters still support him, either because they know he actually won’t change anything (except make it ok to be gay again) or because they think not changing anything is the only way for a Democrat to win.

The American voter (not just Democratic voters) collectively is a stupid person.  They personally want a politician to enact massive change to better their lives, yet believe the ideal candidate is a moderate who won’t do anything major, and still someone in doing nothing substantial, will improve their lives.  Then, just to double down on that stupidity, they will vote the opposition party into power in Congress to ensure nothing happens, all because they love compromise. Of course, the last thirty years of politics have shown that bipartisanship is a myth.

The American voter is both very ignorant and very naïve.  We accept that.  But it’s tougher to accept that from our politicians.  At a recent fundraiser for millionaires, Biden touted his sincere belief that when Trump goes, Republicans will have an epiphany and start working with him to make our country better.  Folks, this is disqualifying.  The sheer insanity of that belief needs to be a deal breaker.  Biden, in the very same speech to the very same contingent of rich assholes, said that he personally called dozens of Republicans to get Merrick Garland on the Supreme Court.  The Republicans said no and pulled a move so disgusting and unprecedented that we will never see something worse in our lifetimes.  And this was all before Trump was even nominated.

Joe Biden is an idiot. He also is in the bag of the rich. He regularly attends fundraisers hosted by lobbyists for some of the most nefarious industries.  His campaign is mostly funded by Wall Street and Health Insurance.  And how do you think he’ll govern once in office?  Will he go after these bad actors?  Or will he appoint them to his Cabinet?  Remember, this is the guy who worked in an administration that wanted Larry Summers as Fed Chief.  He appointed Timothy Geithner as Secretary of the Treasury.

Joe Biden would continue the worst aspects of Obama’s administration without all the good stuff. He’d be in his late 80’s by the time his second term ended, too.  For the love of all that we hold holy, we cannot nominate Biden.

It is now time for the top two candidates.  I would happily vote for either of these candidates, so my choice for one is not a slight on the other.  Each candidate has issues, but they are minor compared to what they bring to the table. So I urge you to vote early and often for either of them.

Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders

A presidential candidate should make you excited to vote for them.  It can’t just be “I can’t vote for the other guy so I guess you’ll do.”  It’s a recipe for disaster.  People need a reason to take a couple hours of their day, find parking, wait in a long line, deal with eighty-year old volunteers who yell at you to close the curtain more, and then go into work and deal with their daily amount of shit.  People need a reason to see the process of voting as exciting.  

I think Bernie and Elizabeth are the only two candidates one can reasonably get excited about.  I’m not saying everyone will be excited by them because a lot of people don’t support their policies.  I call these people assholes.  But can anyone honestly say they are excited to vote for Amy Klobuchar or Joe Biden? Even if you support their bland policy proposals which consist of “we need better jobs but fuck if I know how to do that.”

But which one to choose?

I’m going to start with Bernie.  The negatives against him are one of perception rather than reality, but in politics its not the truth that wins out but what you can convince people the truth is. And Bernie will definitely be portrayed as an out-of-touch Socialist.  While the youngins like the word “socialism” the majority of the electorate is still scared to death of the term because they equate social democratic government as the Soviet Union and bread lines.  In other words, most people are stupid.   Sanders best hope would be to hammer home how amazing European countries are, the benefits they enjoy without all the negatives that Republicans conjure up in places like Venezuela. Unfortunately, Republican messaging still rules the day.   Even if you could strap a person in a chair and explain point by point why Sweden and Denmark work as social democracies, they still wouldn’t get it.

Trump will absolutely attack Bernie for being a socialist, and the problem compared to the other candidates he would attack for being a socialist is that the suburban Democratic voters would actually believe him.  Bernie absolutely will upend the system, and a lot of people are still benefiting from that system.  People like my parents.  They have a good amount of money but are not rich.  Taxes going up on them will impact their daily lives, and most of the benefits Bernie is advocating for would not benefit them.  There is a lot of good research out there that suggests the key for Democrats to win across the board is to get the suburban moderate vote. And there is a legitimate argument that Bernie will not get that vote.  Now, one can say that those voters would never vote for Trump. But you must remember a very important thing about politics: white people can get pretty racist when they think you’ll take money away from them.

But here’s what I love about Bernie.  He is entirely genuine in his advocacy for the poor and working class. Most politicians say they care, of course.  They give a speech supporting raising the minimum wage or not cutting Medicaid. But they also tie themselves with rich donors and businesses whenever they can.  They support the poor until there is a good reason not to.  Not Bernie.  He’s been singing the same tune since the sixties.  He doesn’t care if it isn’t popular. He’ll make it become popular. Bernie almost single handedly shifted the conversation on universal health care.  We are talking about paid family leave and free college because of him. And the man deserves credit for that.

Bernie has been hit a lot from the Democratic establishment.  People are still sore that he had the audacity to challenge Hillary Clinton.  Even though he endorsed and campaigned heavily for her after dropping out in 2016, there is still a narrative that he sabotaged her campaign.  Let’s be clear, though.  The reason why the establishment Democratic contingency dislikes Bernie is because he thinks they are just as corrupt as the Republicans.  Which is true.  Democrats work out of the same bubble as Republicans.  They rub shoulders with the same Wall Street donors. Try calling up your Democratic Senator to get an in-person meeting.  Now look at who does get those meetings.  I support Bernie because he actually is trying to change our corrupt political system.  A politician can’t work within the given system without being corrupted by it. The system is a cancer that needs to be destroyed.  

Bernie has said some dumb things and has held some dumb positions.  This can’t be denied.  He’s been accused of being a racist, sexist and homophobe.  Some of this is absolute bullshit and some of it is based on dumb things he’s said.   But judging by the policies the man has supported, the votes he has taken, and what he has said during the 2016 and 2020 campaigns, does anyone honestly believe him to be a racist, sexist or homophobe?

If you are having a tough time getting behind Bernie, I’d ask yourself the following questions:

Do you honestly believe he would pursue anti-women and anti-reproductive rights policies?

Do you think a more robust paid family leave policy, along with a policy promoting affordable childcare, would significantly benefit women?

Do you think Bernie would restrict LGBTQ rights or would he expand protections for this group?

Do you genuinely believe Bernie would support or champion policies that would discriminate against black people?  

Do you think health care is a crisis in this country and everyone should have access to it? If so, do you think Bernie makes the situation better or worse?

Do you think a president should fill his administration with people from the financial and insurance industries?  Do you think Bernie would do this?

Do you think millionaires and billionaires should be taxed more and more money should go into programs that help the poor and middle class?

Should college be free or at least much more affordable?

Ask yourself these questions.  Don’t worry about whether he can get them passed.  Truth is it will be tough for any Democrat to get anything passed.  I’d be looking at which candidates are most willing to use executive orders (hint: it’s Bernie).

We can’t keep hedging our votes on what’s practical because the truth is everything is doable with enough willpower.   Think about how insane Social Security is as a legislative success.  We taxed everyone, rich and poor, to provide money to senior citizens for the rest of their lives.  That’s insane, and we did it.  Same with Medicare.  If you think are country needs massive changes to secure our future, vote for the candidate who is advocating for massive changes.  That candidate is Bernie Sanders and…..

Elizabeth Warren.  Everything good about Bernie can also be said about Elizabeth Warren.  This is a person who literally created an agency designed to help consumers go against corporations.  Warren has correctly diagnosed the problem for wealth and income inequality and a lot of the bad shit that’s been happening to the American worker. Corporations suck. Rich people suck. They both need to be taxed way more and we need to use those funds to give benefits to the poor and working class. Warren has a plan for pretty much everything, and that is a great thing.  She doesn’t talk in platitudes about restoring dignity to the working class. She identifies the problem and comes up with an actual solution.  

And for her efforts she gets skewered by her opponents and the media.  When Pete Buttigieg says we should invest more in affordable housing, no one pushes back on exactly what that means.  But when Warren releases a comprehensive plan to pay for Medicare for All, she is eviscerated.  Her plans should be critiqued, but they should also come with the acknowledgement that she has put in the work and is way more open with the American people than the other candidates.  The media and voters need to start making candidates pay a price for not articulating actual plans for their policy goals.  

Warren is fucking smart and driven.  She has the brain and energy to do the job.  She’s not a crackpot; she’s an advocate for the little guy.  Honestly, there isn’t much to criticize Warren on outside of how she will pay for her policy proposals.  But the media will attack what little they have while giving Trump and the more moderate Democrats a pass.  When Trump or Biden talk about strengthening the military, no one will ask what that means and how much it will cost.  But when Warren comes up with a tax plan to pay for free childcare, every single pundit will pounce the second some study comes out that her funding is off by a few million.

Of course, the dumbest part is the idea Warren needs to fully fund any proposal.  Right now, the economy has been doing great for about five years.  And in that whole time, we’ve been running huge deficits.  Maybe government spending without offsets isn’t such a big deal. Warren can’t say that because the media won’t allow her to.  It would be great if Warren could just say “things are going great now despite a trillion-dollar deficit, so why not get free healthcare for a $2 trillion-dollar deficit?”

That’s what I love most about Warren.  The lines of attack against her are so shitty.  Bernie has legitimate concerns that the Republicans will easily exploit. The best they can do with Warren is attack her policies, which are broadly popular.  And with Warren, you get a bunch of different contingencies that will come out for her.  You have women and those who want to see our first female president.  You get progressives excited about finally having a candidate who advocates for them with a fighting chance.  And because she is being so careful not to raise middle class taxes, I think you get a lot of the suburban vote.

I think Warren can win this thing.  She articulates the message well, she lacks genuine baggage and when compared to Trump, she comes off even better.  

So who is my final pick? I’m going with Elizabeth Warren. Not only does she hold most of the same policy positions as Sanders, but she also is fundamentally opposed to the corporate interests that got us to this point.  And I think she can better cajole moderate Democrats to support her agenda.  Finally, I think she comes with less baggage.

What I would love to see, based on the polling, is for Warren to either win or come in second by a close margin to Biden or Buttigieg.  Sanders would drastically underperform, at which point if New Hampshire was also going poorly, he could drop out and swing all his support to Warren.  That would make her the clear front runner. Let’s see what happens.

  Elizabeth Warren

[queennicoleinboots]

Taco Mac with Colonel Mac, part 1

Colonel Mac and I were shopping at Kroger while we waited for Mr. Williamson and his wife, Jewel to join us. Joebear was playing League of Legends in the bear cave and swearing and growling at fellow players. Bruce the Ace of Brake-fixing and his wife, Megara were arguing about the next meeting of the Secret American Society of Sexually Frustrated Goats. Michael the Great Arc Angel and Paul the Goat were filling tax documents and trying to help the common man. Meanwhile, Colonel Mac and I ran into the Sexually-Frustrated Kool-Aid Man.

"Hey! Kool-Aid's here!" the Sexually-Frustrated Kool-Aid Man said as he was jacking off in the middle of the floral section.

"That's apparent," Colonel Mac said. His Southern accent is extremely funny to listen to. I would love to hear him recite the Gettysburg Address or sing the National Anthem.

"I'M SEXUALLY FRUSTRATED!!!" he yelled as he burst through the wall to leave Kroger.

I couldn't help but burst out laughing.

A random Karen who was wearing a NK-95 mask was walking briskly through the store with her basket of organic goods and shouting, "What an ignorant asshole! He wasn't wearing a mask!"

Colonel Mac just stared at her and blinked before he rode away from her. He stared straight ahead as we went to produce. Then he spoke, "She forgot to mention that breaking through six feet wide of drywall WAS why the Sexually-Frustrated Kool-Aid Man was ignorant. Not to mention yelling that he was sexually-frustrated added to his level of ignorance."

Colonel Mac had a great voice. He was correct.

"He must be a Republican," I said as I was looking through half-rotted produce. Fresh produce has stopped existing since the early twenty-tens.

"That is the ONLY way in which he is not ignorant!" Colonel Mac said as he put his bear finger in the air. Colonel Mac was a diehard Republican. He hated Jim Carrey. The only movie he liked Jim Carrey in was Liar Liar. He hoped Jim Carrey went back to Canada because he couldn't stand how democratic he was.

"Ugh!!! I hate buying produce. Every time I buy it, it just needs up in the garbage!" I said loudly in frustration. I gave up and bought the four organic vine tomatoes that were already packaged.

"IN YOUR GARBAGE!" the Grinch who happened to look like the one in the Jim Carrey movie in 2000.

Colonel Mac rode up to him and asked, "Are you a Democrat?"

"Why yyyyyeeeessss I am! Why do you ask?" the Grinch asked.

"Because you sound a helllll of a lot like Jim Carrey!" Colonel Mac said.

"Why yes. I'm related to him!" the Grinch shouted.

Colonel Mac backed away and started to help me look for some decent spinach.

"I'M HIS UNCLE'S COUSIN'S SISTER'S MOTHER'S BROTHER'S FATHER'S NIECE'S AUNT'S GRANDFATHER'S GRANDMOTHER'S DAUGHTER'S SON'S FORMER BUNK MATE IN THE GULF WAR!!!!" he shouted. Every mother fucker in the produce section looked at him.

"What does that make you?!" another Karen shouted.

"ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!" he shouted before his laughter boomed throughout the store. Finally, something interesting happens in this place that doesn't involve fucking Peter Parker.

Peter Parker hates Kroger and going out during Covid-19. I'm convinced that he and his mother really are living underground and saying "Fuck the world." That's why I only see that asshole in the swamp every now and then.

"Ugh. More organic stuff. Are you a Karen?" Colonel Mac asked as he saw me put OrganicGirl Spinach in the cart.

"Yesssssssss! I am!" I hissed at him as I was trying to get out of the garden of rotted vegetables and fruits.

All of a sudden, Paul the Goat charged in the produce aisle and bleated loudly. "I can't take the government anymore! I can't take the conspiracy! And most of all, I will not stand for our poisoned food supply or KARENS!!!!" he shouted. "Hiyah!" He was quickly checking the produce and throwing the spongy, rotted fruit at the Karens in the store.

I hid my basket in a corner and started rolling on the floor laughing.

"NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL QUALITY CONTROL!" Colonel Mac yelled as he laughed and slapped his knee.

The Grinch yelled, "AND THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE!!!!" He then hobbled after the Karens to terrorize them.

The Karens were running for their lives.

Mr. Williamson and Jewel literally walked in the store before the Karens rushed to the cashiers to pay for their groceries. "Okay, time to go, Jewel. Let's come back later when all of this craziness isn't going on," he spoke as they turned around.

The Grinch was making all kinds of barking noises as he hobbled around every aisle to terrorize customers. Paul the Goat was bleating and throwing rotted produce like it was going out of style.

The manager of Kroger came out and started laughing out of shock.

"You should work here instead, Paul! You're great at quality control. Besides, this is more like Robin Hood than doing tax work!" I shouted in the midst of belly laughter.

Paul the Goat bleated. "I should! It's much better than my actual job. And more fun! Fuck rotted produce. And fuck Karens!" he said excitedly with another bleat.

The manager stumbled over to Paul the Goat while laughing. "You're hired as the head produce manager! Apparently, the current produce manager is a Karen."

Sure enough, the fat produce manager walked out with her brown hair right near her chin and wore ugly glasses over her blue eyes. She was the biggest Karen I ever saw. I wanted to fucking beat her with my cart.

Paul the Goat bleated loudly and sounded like a trumpet before he threw rotten peaches, rotten bell peppers, and rotted bags of green beans at her.

Smeagull hobbled in the store and was eating the rotted fruit on the floor. The Grinch came over and started eating it as well before he yelled, "IN YOUR GARBAGE!!!!" again.

"You have to pay for that!!!" the store manager yelled.

"MY PRECIOUS!!!!!" Smeagull shouted as he threw the ring at the store manager while he continued to eat.

The store manager put the ring on his finger before he took it off and put it with his keys to the store. "Thank you, Smeagull. You now can eat all the rotten produce you want for life!" (Pays to be a swamp golem.)

The Grinch hobbled over to the store manager before asking, "Are you hiring?" He then smiled with crooked, half-rotted teeth. Come to think of it, he looked like a typical Georgia swamp creature.

"Yes! Yes, I am," the store manager said. "We need a stock person and entertainer. Georgia is too fucking boring."

"I'm your guy. Let me eat the rotten fruit and meat that would end up in your garbage, and that will be all the payment I require," the Grinch said as he tapped his fingers on both hands together.

"You're hired!" the store manager exclaimed. (See? There are jobs if you don't mind eating rotted, poisonous processed food for the rest of your short life. Well, the Grinch is immortal, buuuutttt nobody seems to give a fuck about that right now.)

"FUCK! I FORGOT THE ONIONS!!!" I shouted.

Paul the Goat threw a rotted one at me. "Here you go. Damn Karen," he said.

"Thank you but no thank you," I said as I threw it at another Karen. "I'll try again at Publix."

"Can we at least buy the taco shells, taco seasonings, and the salsa here? Publix is expensive," Colonel Mac said.

"Agreed," I said.

So Colonel Mac and I went to look for the items before Joebear called me. I answered, "BAE WHUHHH!!!!"

Joebear growled his trademark growl before he said, "OH MY GOD GET IN THERE! FUCKING PUSSIES!!! This fucking team. Get the fuck out of here, dude." He was swearing at League of Legends.

"Bae Whuhhh! You don't know what I've been through today. I'm trying to get the fuck out of here," I said and laughed.

"This would be an easy win if people would stop being retarded," Joebear said.

"Yes, BAEWHUHH. But people are retarded. Smeagull and the Grinch get to eat rotted fruits and vegetables for life," I said.

Colonel Mac snickered in the background as he put Ortega taco shells and McCormick taco seasoning in the cart. At least he grabbed the Simple Truth medium salsa.

"The fuck is wrong with them?" Joebear asked.

"I don't know, bae!" I said.

Colonel Mac almost went to the check out line before he yelled "FUCK I FORGOT THE MACARONI AND CHEESE!"

"Get Simple Truth or Annie's!" I shouted at Colonel Mac.

Joebear sighed softly.

"We're making Taco Mac, Bae Whuh," I said.

Joebear's stomach growled in response.

Colonel Mac grabbed five boxes of macaroni and cheese and put them in the cart. Then we sat our fat asses six feet apart from the other customers/Karens in the store. The Karens had rotten vegetable/fruit guts in their hair and on their clothes. Paul the Goat was still throwing rotten fruits and vegetables at Karens. Smeagull hobbled out of the store with a bag of rotten meat.

The Grinch was singing Christmas Carols in the middle of July.

"DID YOU SEE THAT?!" Joebear shouted. His stomach growled.

"Yes Bae Whuhh. It was ridiculous. Christmas in July!" I shouted.

"GET THIS FUCKING BITCH!!!!" Joebear shouted before sighing.

Apparently Paul the Goat heard Joebear from where he was and threw a rotted lime at a baby boomer Karen. He missed and hit another Karen.

"Can we get her?!" Joebear asked. He was bitching about Jinx in League of Legends. "The fuck out of here!"

Colonel Mac and I checked out and got the fuck out of there.

The Sexually-Frustrated Kool-Aid Man was fucking the Hawaiian Punch Man in the parking lot when Colonel Mac and I were on our way to Publix.

At least Joebear's team killed an inhibitor and grew some fucking balls. It is a rough game for no reason. Diana went a fucked-up build from what Joebear was telling me. It was like his team was trying to make it hard.

Speaking of hard times, Colonel Mac's van wouldn't crank up. So, I had to take all the groceries in my van and run the AC while we waited for AAA. What a nightmare.

"They're going to fuck around with our jungle. Darius always charges after me. It's like UGHHHH!!!!! We went damage! AH HA!!! No wonder we're losing! The fuck out of here, dude! The fuck out of here, dude! Fuck you! Fuck you! No, fuck you! Get em Y! Get em Y! Get a kill for once!!! We're losing because of Xin. If he would have gone tank, we would have been fine. Go! GOGOGOGOGOGO!!! It doesn't matter just go! Why are we stopping? Look at all this fucking bullshit!!!" Joebear said and sighed as Colonel Mac was contacting AAA.

All right, next game. Next chapter. Next story.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday insisted that flailing state and local governments should be able to “use the bankruptcy route” rather than receive aid from the federal government — signaling renewed opposition to a top Democratic demand for the next coronavirus relief package.

In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, the Kentucky Republican also expressed concern about adding billions more to the national debt in addition to the nearly $3 trillion Congress has already sent out the door to combat the economic and public health challenges of the pandemic.

It's OUR money asshole! We pay taxes for this exact reason. That stimulus check? Our money. Fuck you for holding it hostage while sneaking it out the back door to your donors, you turtle fuck!

[sideburndanny]

We need to talk about Michael Bloomberg. Now, his commercials you’re forced to see everywhere will tell you that he’s either a progressive firebrand or a caring centrist who will offer a more polite alternative to those mean old Bernie Bros. That said, a cursory look at Bloomer’s policies and rhetoric will tell you a different story: namely, that of a lifelong conservative Republican trying to buy the Democratic nomination.

* His “stop and frisk” policy has made it easier for police officers to get away with harassing and profiling people of color, and he defended this with a racist lie about most NYC criminals being black anyway (which has been proven wrong.)

* Similarly, he’s claimed that the 2008 economic recession was because he was no longer allowed to discriminate against minorities in housing.

* He’s also authorized surveillance of Muslim communities in flagrant defiance of every Constitutional right guaranteed to them.

* He’s described transgender women as “a man in a dress sharing a bathroom with your daughter.” Seriously.

* He has a long documented history of refusing to raise the minimum wage.

* He’s openly balked at universal healthcare, raising taxes on the wealthy, making college tuition free, and legalizing pot.

* He has over 40 sexual harassment and assault allegations against him from throughout his entire political career — not helped by his well-documented friendships with Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein.

* He banned Big Gulps in NYC, an act of petty authoritarianism disguised as civic concern.

The only substantial difference between Bloomer and Tronald Dump is that Dump is honest about being a greedy, bigoted tyrant, while Bloomer hides it behind dog whistles and concern trolling. Dump ran a candidacy on invective and hatred, while Bloomer is running one on phony positivity and “let’s all come together” schmaltz. Dump was so outrageous in his rallies and interviews that the media and RNC had no choice but to pay attention to him (or so they claim.) Bloomer is shelling out millions of dollars to flood the airwaves with ads and bribe the DNC into letting him on the debate stage.

That last one, by the way, ended up being Bloomer’s biggest mistake yet: buying into his own hype, the privileged asshole who spent most of his life surrounded by fawning yes-men probably waltzed onto that Nevada debate stage expecting everyone else to bend the knee... except that ended up not happening. Instead, he spent most of the debate cringing and squirming while everyone else took turns blasting him for being a terrible politician and worse human being, his few attempts to justify himself being drowned out by the audience booing. He tried to fall back on some old rhetorical tricks — like the “I worked very hard to get what I have” rich guy cliche, and accusing Bernie Sanders of being a communist like this is still the Goddamned 1950s — but much like a criminal trying to shoot Superman, nothing worked.

On that night, Bloomer perhaps learned what Howard Schultz learned when he threatened to run as a third-party candidate back in January 2019: just because you’re rich, that doesn’t mean we owe you jack shit.

You’re probably wondering, why is such a staunch conservative like Bloomberg running as a Democrat? Because he realizes that the Republican Party is not fashionable anymore. The Trump presidency and subsequent rise of the alt-right were the final nails in the coffin for the GOP’s reputation as the sober, pragmatic counterpart to those starry-eyed radicals on the left (a reputation that was already dying a slow and painful death thanks to the Bush/Cheney administration, the 2008 recession, the increased prominence of the hate-filled propaganda spewed by Alex Jones and Fox News, and the ludicrous antics of the Koch-funded Tea Party movement.)

Bloomer realizes that the only way for him to gain power is to run as a Democrat and pretend to have been one of us this whole time. He is cynically assuming that everyone will see his ads and be convinced, and that nobody will look at his record. He thinks that, if he’s “civil” and “respectable” enough, the media will fawn all over him and the Dem party will fall in line just because his name isn’t Donald Trump.

If the Nevada debate showed us anything, it’s that the progressive and moderate wings of the Democratic Party are very well capable of unifying for a common goal. To that end, I’m calling on all liberals and Democrats, whether you’re a centrist in the vein of Biden and Klobuchar or if you’re a social democrat/Bernie Bro like myself: we have to come together, rise up, and show the elitist billionaire oligarch Michael Bloomberg that it doesn’t matter how many ads he shoves down our throats. It doesn’t matter how happy and smiley his bullshit feel-good campaign rhetoric is. We will not allow him to buy our democracy.

[sylvieusedhyperbeam]

Dear Centrists,

This is your friendly reminder that not long after the revelation that the Afghan war was a giant lie, Democrats okayed not only an expansion on the military budget, but hell, they even stripped out the basic progressive compromises that we DON’T launch an offensive illegal war on Iran and that we end our aid to Saudi Arabia’s genocide in Yemen.

These are the Democrats that you say should hold their place in office, free of criticism, free of any threat, free of accountability because after all, they have a D etched in beside their name.

For fuck’s sake, get some perspective.

Please, do tell us again about how progressives are so divisive and toxic and big alt-left bully meanie heads because we DARE to call Democrats out on their bullshit and not just Republicans.  Tear off the chains and blinders of your tribalism and learn how to think and reason like an actual human being.

Now I know this might be difficult.  After all, Whoopi Goldberg told you all about how scary and age-ist and mean those progressives are (there can BE no other reason than age or sexism to criticize a female politician, I forgot, golly what was I thinking).  And Chris Cuomo, God bless him, for he labors like the damned to bring us the gritty, cold truth about Medicare For All between dealing with... well, reality, and the dreaded ‘fredo’ slur coming like slings and arrows from all sides as a personal cost for his bravery.  Stop and consider for a minute that maybe, just maybe, these people favor corporate-safe politics because.... they’re insanely wealthy and privileged assholes that have nothing to fear no matter what policies come rolling in.  These people are either ignorant, or they’re morally hollow pieces of shit who should be ashamed of themselves, but money is an acidic thing that tends to sweep out remorse like high tide.  I don’t doubt that their morals are flopping pathetically somewhere in that squelching valley of sand and flotsam, but, at best, they’re wriggling in the final throes of life as they remember that they don’t want to pay taxes.

Settling for centrists - and I hesitate to call them that, they’re more right-wing than anything else - is settling for fascism.

That is why we hate Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, and any other agent of the corporate status quo that you fuckers insist we shut up and fall in line behind as if we should be honored to celebrate their power and how they obtained it.  They’re all the exact same policies set behind a different prop in their grandstanding show about how the peasants need to shut the fuck up, fall in line, fight their wars for them and rake in more money.   

Criticizing a female politician for her centrist policies does NOT make you a sexist.

Criticizing a homosexual politician for centrist policies does NOT make you a homophobe.

Criticizing an older candidate for centrist policies does NOT make you ageist.

Criticizing a politician of color for centrist policies does NOT make you racist.

It makes you a person who is actually CONCERNED about the direction of your country, and with that, the direction of OTHER countries where innocent people are literally dying in the wake of complacency under the thin guise of ‘reaching across the aisle’. 

For 2020, how about this: we don’t give a shit what a bunch of pro-war and barbaric boomers want and we’re fucking done reaching out only to get our fingers bitten off.  We’re done, we expect our elected officials to reflect that view, and if they don’t, they’re going to lose their fucking jobs and be held accountable as they should be.

Get off the corporate teat and stop being morons.

Not even the least bit sorry because I’m done playing nice with you idiots,

Sparrow

[sportsgeekonomics]

Non-sports Tangent: The Moral of the Story

In this post, I’ve decided not to stick to sports.  I doubt this will be all that frequent an occurrence, so no need to cancel your subscription or write a nasty letter to the editor.

One of my favorite Bible stories is the one segment of the story of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  I know that sounds weird -- God gets mad at a city full of sin, where a mob demand the right to gang-rape strangers -- but I’m not talking about that part.  Rather, the part I like is where after God tells Abraham, who is ostensibly my distant forefather if you believe that stuff, that he is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham gets incredible ballsy decides it’s ok to start to haggle with God.  Here’s how the King James translation handles that (and remember “peradventure there be...” is basically “ok, but what if there are...”):

 23And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? 24Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? 25That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? 26And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. 27And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes: 28Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it. 29And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty's sake. 30And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there. 31And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty's sake. 32And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake. 33And the LORD went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.

Abraham first manages to convince God to let him save the many sinners for the sake of a few saints, and then also manages to negotiate God down from 50 to 30 to 20 to 10.  He only needs to find 10 good residents of Sodom and Gomorrah.  That’s some excellent negotiation skill.  Go Abe!

But we also know how the story ends.  Despite having negotiated what ought to be the easiest thing in the world -- finding 10 good men in a city of hundred? thousands? (the Bible doesn’t provide a census, alas) -- Abraham is unsuccessful and he and Sarah and Lot and [she has a name, dammit!] Lot’s wife skedaddle out of town while S&G go down in a ball of Biblical wrath.  The moral we’re supposed to get, I think, is that while God is merciful, He has his limits, and if you can’t even find 10 good men in a city, he’s eventually going to make you pay for your sins.

Well, the moral I am thinking about today, is a little different.  My January 31, 2020 moral is that if you count on the assholes to save the good folks, you’re always going to be disappointed.  The Trump era has consistently offered the promise that the Republican party was a coalition of Trumpist assholes and “regular” Republicans, the ones who aren’t even a little bit MAGA, would stand with Democrats and create a coalition of the not-entirely-assholish/wackadoodle.  A coalition of the sane, if you will.  With the exception of the vote on healthcare, it feels like every time Trump has pushed something horrid, something that the mythical sane non-Trump Republican ought to loath so much that he (or very occasional she) would see the importance of standing for what’s right even if that meant bucking the party line, we Democrats have basically been like Abraham, trying to bargain with God.  

This massive tax cut give-away to the rich, God, are you really going to inflict America with it?  What if there are a few Republicans who aren’t total assholes who will vote with us?  Etc.

This week’s example is of course the John Bolton testimony.  We really only needed ONE good Republican, namely Bolton himself, to not be a total asshole, but he went full asshole and refused to testify.  Then, he teased us that he’d do it if we could find 4 good people among the Republican Senators.  As the King James Bible might have put it: 

“Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure four non-asshole Republicans shall be found there. And He said, I will not destroy the Constitution for four's sake.”

 Well, you know how the story always ends.  We got the best deal we could, we bargained God down to four -- we just need four non-asshole Republicans in the Senate -- but even that has proven too high a hurdle.  To change metaphors, Lucy has tricked us into trying to kick the football one more time.

And so the lesson I draw is that just as there will never be enough good men in Sodom and Gomorrah to save those cities, there will never be enough good Republicans to save the American republic.  We can bargain with God all we want, but if you want to keep America what it’s supposed to be, Republicans, even ones that seem to be principled, non-asshole Republicans who just disagree with you on policy, have to lose their electoral majorities.  If someone claims to be a non-asshole Republican, I will tell them “if you’re still a Republican after this Presidency, you’re inherently an asshole.”  There were not 10 good men in Sodom and Gomorrah, and there never will be.  The same is true today.

[tessatechaitea]

Eclipso #2

Looking at this cover is the best sex I've ever had.

After reading Eclipso #1, I needed a three month break from reading Eclipso comic books. After typing the previous sentence, I needed an overnight break from writing another sentence. Eclipso has a plan to take over the country (which country? I don't know. Parador? Ecuazil? Cheru?):

Does he mean the gun or the packets of desiccant?

Oh shit! I forgot I'm supposed to be some idiot named Grunion Guy talking about stupid fucking comic books! Sorry!

I used to think nobody reads my comic book reviews because people aren't interested in comic books and didn't know my reviews weren't actually about comic books. But after so many years, I think I finally understand that people don't read them because both of those reasons! Eclipso decides to stop beating around the bush and possess the president of Venombia. Now I bet he makes him masturbate in public! Or maybe he just floods the U.S. with drugs. Fifty fifty chance that it's one of those two things. Apparently Eclipso doesn't actually possess the person infected by the Black Diamond. The Black Diamond just causes them to be fueled by whatever rage lives within their heart which they immediately act violently upon. After the president gets angry while holding the Black Diamond, Eclipso says, "Fortunately, the president's anger was directed at his own failure to stem the drug tide!" This causes the president to personally go around the country murdering all of the non-Eclipso drug lords. So now Eclipso has the entire drug trade of Argenaguay at his disposal!

One week later, Eclipso has taken over the country and the moon is still full.

Trust me: the moon was full in the first non-cover picture I scanned. I just didn't scan that much of the page. Eclipso's plan is to poison the cocaine shipped to the United States. It won't kill people who ingest it for 30 days so I guess that means everybody will die? Because the chance of every American doing cocaine within a 30 day period is 100%? I thought he was going to cut the cocaine with Black Diamond dust so that everybody becomes Eclipsos. I guess that would be too much of a dumb comic book idea. Meanwhile in Africa, Eclipso as a lion discusses how he plans to bring all of the tiny Black Diamonds back together in the Heart of Darkness before destroying the Heart of Darkness. I don't know that it makes much sense but I guess it's a plan and some motivation for the character. Aside from his main motivation which is to kill everybody. Eclipso has a third motivation though: to get revenge on Bruce Gordon, the one man who has ever defeated him! And probably will again since Bruce has figured out Eclipso is back and has taken over Guylivia.

The issue ends with a moon-bound deformed mass of Eclipso jerks off over Shakespeare.

Eclipso #2 Rating: D+. Most of this issue is expository. Eclipso just explains things that are going to happen or have just happened while not actually doing much. It feels like the first two issues could have been a brief summary about how Eclipso has returned to the DC Universe and then jumped straight into the action. Maybe having Eclipso recite Shakespeare at the end is supposed to make the reader think, "Oh! This issue is mostly soliloquy! That must means it's intelligent and not boring at all!" But Giffen did expect a stupid reader who doesn't understand Shakespeare to be reviewing his boring comic book! Take that, Giffen!

[dylanobrienisbatman]

All i gotta say about these presidential campaigns coming up for democrats right now is this. 

In the primaries, MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!!! Vote for, campaign for, speak out for the candidate who you believe is the best voice for the party! VOTE IN THE PRIMARIES!!!! This is when we try to get the party to align with US! The field is FLOODED with candidates right now, which gives us a chance to be choosy!!! We get to look at the solid half dozen - 10 or so candidates who have announced, with probably more to come, and DEMAND that we get the candidate best for us!!! Go to rallies! Campaign! Vote! Speak out on issues that matter! Try and use your platform to push candidates who aren’t with you on issues to get with you. Thats what primaries are for! Don’t like Biden or O’Rourke’s choosing to back republican candidates in senate and house races? SAY SOMETHING! Don’t like Harris’s choice to avoid taxing the wealthy, or her past prosecution records? CALL HER ON IT!!!! Not a fan of the way candidates like Gillibrand seem to continue to treat the republican party of today as if it is still the republican party of 20 years ago, acting as if they are a party that can be reasoned with? DEMAND better. Don’t like past voting records? Not pleased with previous stances? GET OUT THERE AND MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD! VOTE. IN. THE. PRIMARIES!!! This is where we have a chance to push the party in the direction we want, and it MATTERS! 

But in the general.... guys... in the general election... 

VOTE. DEMOCRAT. 

Even if the candidate you wanted in the primaries doesn’t get the nomination, VOTE DEM. 

Even if you REALLY aren’t a fan of the nominee for the party, VOTE BLUE ANYWAY. 

In 2016, after Bernie didn’t get the nomination (and the reason why is irrelevant here in this post, though it is noted) a huge swell of massively progressive voters chose not to vote, or to vote third party, or... worst of all, to vote for the giant orange cheeto man who is currently wrecking HAVOC on our country and the world, because they didn’t want Hilary Clinton to be the nominee, and look what that got us. 

Don’t like the nominee? That’s valid, you don’t have to love them. The democratic party is wide spread, and it wont always align with your interests specifically, and that can be frustrating. 

But if you can honestly look at whats happened in the last two years, and will likely happen in the next two.... Brett Kavanaugh, a RAPIST, being placed on the Supreme Court... Gorsuch being put on the court, making a staunch conservative majority (the court MATTERS YALL!!!!)... the shutdown over a wildly unpopular border wall leading to 35 days of unpaid work for 800,000 federal workers, with the potential for another on the horizon... the president holding the country HOSTAGE over that wall for 35 days, because thats what the shutdown was, a hostage situation with 800,000(x2) federal pay checks.... an FBI investigation that has been ongoing for the entirety of this presidency involving conspiracy with Russia to steal an election from the American people... N*zis marching in the streets without fear... defunding our schools, our FDA, our national parks... exiting the climate agreement... refusing to allow asylum seekers from the southern border to enter if they cross illegally (a violation of both domestic and international asylum law)... sending central American asylum seekers back to Mexico to wait through our (extremely lengthy) asylum process... SO MANY THINGS... if you can look at those things, and all of the other horrible things happening because of the racist asshole in the Oval, and still think that a democratic candidate that wasn’t your first choice is still worse than this.... 

I don’t know what to tell you man. 

So, when the primaries come, get out there and campaign for the candidate you believe will bring the best for the party, but when the general comes, think about what your choice means. 

A vote for a democrat that isn’t quite with your specific interests might not be the best thing, in your mind. 

But is another four years of this really better? 

Just check the name by the candidate labeled Democrat, and try again during the next primary to get someone you think is better. 

Because the safety and the future of our country literally depends on it.