When I saw this picture this morning, it made me cry. British Neuroscientist Matthew Cobb, who occasionally blogs on Evolutionary Biologist Jerry Coyne’s “Why Evolution is True” blog, sent this picture to Jerry. It’s from a wall in Paris.
Tag: politics Page 3 of 4
About three months ago, I had a conversation with someone about religion. I told this person about another conversation I had with a friend about the dark and dangerous turn America has taken. My friend remarked they were ready to leave the country permanently if the loud minority of conservative evangelical Christians get to have everything they want.
My friend worried these Christian Nationalists would come for people like me and him. I, too, have had these worries for quite some time. We’ve seen it time and again with authoritarian regimes. The intellectuals, the educated, the atheists, anyone who stands counter to what they demand are rounded up and executed.
I told the person I was having a conversation with there was still hope in the back of my mind that Americans would rise up against Christian Nationalism, but I’m not entirely sure this will happen. I also mentioned I do not like Christianity nor many of its adherents. It’s something I’ve struggled with for a long time. I wish I didn’t, but I do.
We may be opponents — but we are not enemies.
We are Americans.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 7, 2020
I’m not here to gloat or brag about the presidential election. I’m not here to be divisive. Everyone already knows who I voted for and what I think of the vexatious litigant holding the highest office in the land right now. I want to highlight all the cool things that happened this week.
In my continuing quest to lead a more peaceful life, I have found I could be far more angry than I am today. I’ve cut back on the number of news sites I read each and as well as the time spent reading because it really does just make me angry.
There is so much to unpack every day in the news that it’s overwhelming to try to keep up. I’m sharing some political cartoons, memes, and photographs I have been collecting for a while. Just saving them and doing nothing with them helps. The following are pictures that made me laugh, think, and worry about where we are headed as a nation.
From her earliest days, Countess Markievicz learned to help others. She took these lessons into later life, which eventually led to a sentence of death for her part in the 1916 Easter Uprising.
This is the third set of longform readings I have come across in 2018. they cover a wide range of topics, yet all are interesting and well worth the time investment required to read them.
There has been a lot of fear mongering about the caravan of people headed toward the United States. President Donald Trump has whipped people into a frenzy about how dangerous this group is while providing little evidence.
Every day I wake up and think, “today I am going to write about that thing in the news from yesterday.” The thing I am thinking about is one of several that came up, but I decided I would research it the next day and make a well-informed post. Then, I read the news and find another six or seven new things to write about.
On Friday night, I opened several tabs in my web browser about Donald Trump and his latest, idiotic comments about “shithole” countries.
When I woke up Saturday morning, I looked at those tabs, so numerous that I couldn’t read the title tags anymore, and thought, “No. I’m not doing this.”
I wrote a few columns for the paper about Donald Trump before reporters were told they couldn’t write columns anymore. If I were still writing that column, my mental health would have certainly deteriorated. Trump is about to hit his year anniversary as president and he has diminished the reputation of the United States on the world stage, proven he doesn’t know or care about basic facts about the government and has, in general, made life worse for most Americans.
Many countries reacted to his racist comments.
If you ask my husband, he will tell you about Trump’s presidency. “It really is a shitshow. It’s just one revelation and scandal after another.”
The debasement of the office of the President of the United States of America is a tragedy. Trump has stained our national honor with his overt and unabashed racism. The people defending him on TV look like fools
— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) January 12, 2018
I am sure books will be written about the damage he has done to this country, which was already great when he took over. He has made it worse. Amy Siskind has been keeping a weekly list to remind us that this is not normal.
On a weekly basis, the List tracks specific news stories representing eroding norms under the current regime. Taken together, they reveal a nation pushed towards authoritarianism, the wielding of unchecked governmental authority by one person or group at the expense of the freedom of those who oppose them.
How is this possible? Weary from the 2016 election, many voters embraced uninformed obliviousness, unquestioning optimism, or an uncritically visceral reaction for or against the new administration. Instead, Amy Siskind sought facts. The Weekly List was born on November 20, 2016, chronicling Amy’s findings. Originally for her friends and social media followers, the List quickly went viral. The earliest weeks listed fewer than a dozen items. Now, nearly a year later, each week brings with it at least one-hundred new abnormalities.
The list will soon be published as a book. I want to purchase it, but hesitate because I have been watching Amy post her list each week. It’s a dizzying compilation of how things have gone wrong.
Since this is my site and I write what I want, I hesitate each time I think about writing anything to do with Trump. I don’t want my blog filled with his garbage. People who read this site know my feelings on all things Trump. If you follow me on my personal Facebook page, you have seen my angry posts when the president and the GOP have gone too far.
So, today, I will just simply list a few of the things that have angered me or are wrong. For my own sanity, I will refrain, for the most part, from writing about the president, his ignorance, stupidity, and general dumbfuckery.
As for the shithole comments, let me say, I am first, and foremost, an American. I don’t identify with other nations/cultures/ethnicities/etc., because I grew up here. I will probably always have a little bit of New Yorker in me as it is the place that shaped, in large part, who I was to become. However, my ancestors came from American Indian tribes in upstate New York, Ireland, The Netherlands, Germany, England, and if you could trace it back far enough, Africa. At some point in time, most of these cultures and countries were considered “shitholes” by Americans already here.
I am glad there were Americans who didn’t see things in that way and welcomed my ancestors to the shining shores along the East Coast, excluding the American Indians who were already here. They had a chance and I am one of the results of those welcoming arms.
CNN counterterrorism analyst Philip Mudd spoke on Thursday about this issue. I encourage you to watch both clips.
If you want to see a shithole country, read the comments in this Reddit thread. Fix this country before you start criticizing others.
I know people think it’s funny to refer to democrats and republicans as Dumms, Dimms, Democraps, Republicons, and Rethuglicans, and to make up new disparaging words for the GOP acronym, but it really makes me think less of you. If you can’t have an adult conversation without resorting to name calling, I really don’t want to talk to you.
For the billionth time, women don’t come forward to report sexual assault and rape because they are still, in 2018, being asked why they did something wrong. Why did you wear that? Why did you go there? What were you thinking? The focus should be on the dirtbag who perpetrated the crime. They don’t speak up because there are still too many people who shift the blame to the woman, discount her testimony, and/or victim shame.
Shut. The. Fuck. Up. About. Uranium. It’s been explained here here, and here.
Also, have a big cup of shut the fuck up about her emails. Really, ask yourself why it is only the conservatives, conservative media, and Republicans who keep bringing up Hillary Clinton. She lost. She’s not out there whining about it multiple times per day. They are.
This tweet not only sums up what Trump thinks, but what morons/assholes/racists who adore him think.
Trump's guide to diversity
Africa: Array of shithole countries
Haitians: Have AIDS
Nigerians: Live in huts
Puerto Ricans: Lazy
Black Americans: Ingrates
Mexicans: Criminals and rapists
Muslims: Evil terrorists
Women: Treat them like shitWhite supremacists: VERY FINE PEOPLE
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) January 11, 2018
How do you combat the idiocy and still remain sane? Imagine if I had to correct everything Trump said each day?
Yes, Oprah made a great speech and we should take it to heart, but don’t make her president. People forget she brought the world scam artists like Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz. When she traveled to Europe, she belittled employees at a Parisian shop, shouting, “Don’t you know who I am?” at them when they were closing for the day and she wanted in. She told atheists they really believed in god, but just didn’t know it. She was shocked people left their children outside without fear. She was also shocked in India when people ate with their hands. I don’t want this woman in the White House.
The president is a racist. I’m sorry if you don’t like it, but it’s true. If you still support Trump, you, too, are a racist.
So, as I close more than 50 tabs and “nope” out of making myself angry on just on one single thing Trump did, know that I am reading his garbage every day. While it is painful and frustrating, we must remain vigilant and continue fighting against injustice and standing up for what we know is right.
I’m just going to try to avoid sullying my website with trying to educate the willfully ignorant and someone else’s pathetic excuse for a life and his constant need for attention. There are too many other, and better, things to write about.