Freethought Resistance.

We have a brand new blog on the network, a group blog that most of us will be contributing to at some point. I’ll let PZ explain:

Freethought Resistance is a new group blog for FtB. Many of us are horrified at the current turn of events in the United States: the rise of the contemptible alt-right, police violence, institutionalized misogyny, demented right-wing militias, the abuse of water protectors in the name of oil interests, theocratic thugs generating growing opposition to the legitimate rights of GLBTQ individuals, and in general, rising intolerance. To cap it all off, we now have a president-elect who is corrupt, treasonous, and incompetent, who is stocking important offices in government with individuals with a long history of opposing the goals of those offices, and who are often grossly unqualified and incompetent themselves.

We oppose this wholesale destruction of democratic values and the equality and liberty of American citizens. To that end, we’ve created this blog to specifically express our outrage with the current intolerable state of affairs.

The purpose of this blog is:

To report on and document abuses and criminal activities of the right wing and theocratic zealots;

To express our own opposition to these acts;

To promote activism;

To provide information about opportunities for activism;

To provide an online rallying point for opposition to the illegitimate government of the United States.

Multiple bloggers from various sites on FtB will be contributing to this blog. We will also consider guest posts from other parties. If interested, send submissions to your favorite blogger with a request for consideration for posting on Freethought Resistance.

I have one disagreement right away, which should be no surprise. As I stated here on Affinity, I refuse to go along with the white supremacist attempt at re-branding, and will not use “alt-right” unless it’s part of something being quoted. Nazis are nazis, and I will not go along with their attempt to make themselves look like spiffy, intellectual people. They aren’t, they are the same vile bigots who have always lurked under greater society, and I don’t think we can afford them so much as an inch. We are living in dangerous times, and making these evil persons sound like nothing more than conservatives is to lull ourselves into a state of shrug, telling ourselves it can’t be that bad. It is that bad.

Anyroad, have a visit, and add to your bookmarks, please! Freethought Resistance.

Exquisite Chemistry.

I don’t have words. There’s such a numinous sense to the birth of these crystals. You can see this video in a much larger size at Aeon.

A project by the Italian chemistry student and photographer Emanuele Fornasier, Crystal Birth features close-up time-lapse photography of electrocrystallisation, a process in which an electrical current running through a chemical solution results in the gradual buildup of metal on an electrode. By carrying out this process over hours or days, depending on the chemicals present in the reaction, Fornasier is able to capture crystals piling on beautifully, layer by layer, in a remarkable synthesis of science and art.

Via Aeon.

Winter Beauty 3.

From Giliell, click for full size. Oh, the colour!

Random Monday.

Sweetbriar Dam. Can you see the woman in the water? Click for full size.

The Daily Bird #200.

Sparrows. Click for full size.

The Carrier Scam Continues.

United Technologies CEO Greg Hayes shakes hands with Vice President-elect Mike Pence before Pence speaks at Carrier Corp Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016, in Indianapolis. CREDIT: AP Photo/Darron Cummings.

As part of the deal President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence struck with Carrier, the company has promised to make a $16 million investment in its Indianapolis facility — an investment management plans to use on developing technology that will allow them to replace human workers with robots.

The company’s plans were confirmed by Greg Hayes, CEO of United Technologies, Carrier’s corporate parent, during a CNBC interview earlier this week.

“We’re going to… automate to drive the cost down so that we can continue to be competitive,” Hayes said. “Is it as cheap as moving to Mexico with lower cost labor? No. But we will make that plant competitive just because we’ll make the capital investments there. But what that ultimately means is there will be fewer jobs.”

This news comes on the heels of Trump blasting Chuck Jones, president of the United Steelworkers 1999 union that represents Carrier workers, for the sin of correctly pointing out that Trump exaggerated the number of jobs his deal “saved” during a December 1 news conference at the factory. Trump said the company agreed to keep 1,100 jobs at the Indianapolis factory when the real figure is closer to 800, with 550 workers at the factory facing layoffs despite Trump’s deal. In addition, Carrier still plans to ship 700 jobs from a separate factory in Huntington, Indiana, to Mexico. And as part of the deal, Indiana taxpayers will dole out $7 million in tax breaks to the company.

After Trump smeared him on Twitter, Jones received threats against his family.

After all this, it would be nice if people finally understood that Trump does not give one tiny little shit about jobs. He put on a show, then wandered off to something else, having no attention span, but he did make sure to tweet nastiness about Mr. Jones, who now gets to endure a mass amount of harassment, like others who have been the subject of Trump’s bile. The Celeb-elect is busy treating the presidency of a whole country like it’s a game, a new asset to play with, at least until he gets bored, which won’t be long, given his history. He has once again stated that he will not divest, so he’ll be violating that constitution so beloved by Trumpoids, who are unsurprisingly quiet about this violation. I guess it’s okay if conservative assholes figuratively set it on fire; it’s only wrong if those awful lefties do it. So, if nothing else, all you Trumpoids can stop the “jobs, jobs, jobs” talk. It’s not as though that was ever believed by any sort of majority, and trying to keep up the thin facade will not work. Trump and his cronies have theirs, why on earth would you ever think they care about yours?

Despite Trump’s pro-worker campaign rhetoric, the details of the Carrier deal and Trump’s nomination of fast food executive Andrew Puzder as labor secretary suggests he doesn’t have an issue with companies replacing humans with machines. Puzder is a proponent of replacing human workers with robots, telling Business Insider last March that machines are “always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there’s never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex, or race discrimination case.”

CNN, citing a McKinsey & Co. study, reports that “45 percent of the tasks that U.S. workers are currently paid to perform can be automated by existing technology. That represents about $2 trillion in annual wages.”

Oh, there’s love for the workers, alright. Workers that don’t require payment and have no capacity to complain. Love for human workers? Not there.

Full story at Think Progress.

Bacon, it’s not Kryptonite.

A couple of weeks back an anti-Muslim Facebook group called the Aussie Infidels told its followers to send Christmas cards “smeared in bacon fat” to the local Muslim association.

The Lakemba mosque has issued a statement not to wish anyone a Merry Christmas. Anyone who would like to send a Christmas card smeared in bacon fat to Lakemba, here the address:

Lebanese Moslem Association

71-75 Wangee Road

Lakemba

NSW 2195

It’s unclear what provoked the status. There are no recent public statements from the Lakemba mosque or the Lebanese Muslim Association about Christmas.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1155407184575696&set=a.353875768062179.1073741827.328911403891949&type=3

People are having a wonderful, humor filled time, happily mocking the idiots who couldn’t think of a single thing to do this solstice, other than to try and spread hate and fear. You can see a whole lot of the responses at BuzzFeed.

Many thanks to Intransitive for this one, cheered my day!

Resistance: Mike Hot-Pence.

The resemblence between Mike Hot-Pence (Glen Pannell, left) and VP-elect Mike Pence (right) is uncanny. Just, one wears pants, the other doesn't.

The resemblance between Mike Hot-Pence (Glen Pannell, left) and VP-elect Mike Pence (right) is uncanny. Just, one wears pants, the other doesn’t.

Glen Pannell has found a great way to be a one-person resistance, his resemblance to Mike Pence being the key. What started as a bit of Halloween fun has morphed into doing good for people. Many cheers for Mike Hot-Pence!

You see all sorts of things in Times Square these days, Spidermen fighting Elmos, naked cowboys — and now pants-less vice president-elects.

There’s a new character in Times Square and he looks an awful lot like Mike Pence.

Glen Pannell wears a suit, tie, no pants — just short shorts — and goes by “Mike Hot-Pence,” raising money for Planned Parenthood, the environment, and soon, the Trevor Project for LGBT youth. He raised over $300 for Planned Parenthood and the Natural Resources Defense Council the first weekend in December.

Pannell kept hearing, “you look like Mike Pence! You should be him for Halloween,” so much that he did it. But the actor/director and designer thought that wasn’t creative enough, so Pannell stepped out as “Sexy Mike Pence” and hasn’t turned back.

The activist, who’s gay, said he wants to use his resemblance to Pence to champion causes Pence has opposed.

Pannell finds a “patch of sunlight” in Times Square and carries a repurposed whey protein bucket for donations, because “Mike Hot-Pence cares about the environment.”

Pannell designs the labels himself. When speaking to the News, he remembered he needed to make and print one for his upcoming charity, The Trevor Project. (Glen Pannell).

“I am raising money for groups that would be especially vulnerable during a Trump/Pence administration,” he said. The donations, which Pannell screenshots and posts on his Twitter feed, are donated in the name of “Mike Hot-Pence.”

Pannell says he isn’t interested in being immature or disrespectful. Rather, he wants to use his resemblance to call attention to Pence’s record as a public servant.

“His policy over the last 16 years makes me very afraid for the next four years. I want to make it about the issues.”

And Glen is doing a great job, too. If you’re in NYC, and see Mike Hot-Pence, be resistance minded, and send some pennies his way.

Full story at NY Daily News.

Facebook, Oh Facebook XIII.

Susan Olsen.

According to Towleroad, writer/producer Leon Acord-Whiting complained about ‘Two Chicks Talkin’ Politics’ host Susan Olson, who once portrayed Cindy Brady on the popular sit-com. On LA Talk Radio’s Facebook page, Acord-Whiting wrote, “It is wildly irresponsible for LA Talk Radio to allow a Trump fanatic to co-host one of their programs, where she can spew her idiotic lies unchecked.”

Acord-Whting, added, “I think LA Talk Radio needs to give “Cindy Brady” her walking papers. I will not listen to or appear on any shows there from this point forward until she’s gone. This isn’t just disagreeing on, say, tax plans or foreign policy. Susan Olsen spreads outrageous misinformation & it is dangerous and unprofessional.”

Proving his point about being “unprofessional,” Olson returned fire by first calling the producer a “little piece of human waste,” before encouraging her followers to track him down.

She then private messaged Acord-Whiting with a homophobic screed which he in turn provided to her bosses.

“Hey there little p*ssy, let me get my big boy pants on and Reallly (sic) take you on!!! What a snake in the grass you are you lying piece of sh*t too cowardly to confront me in real life so you do it on Facebook,” she wrote. “You are the biggest f*ggot ass in the world the biggest p*ssy! My Dick is bigger than yours Which ain’t sayin much! What a true piece of sh*t you are! Lying f*ggot! I hope you meet your karma SLOWLY AND PAINFULLY”

Olsen later followed with a second message, telling Acord-Whiting, “I sincerely hope you reap all that you deserve Karma wise. What a pathetic little c*nt you are. Hell is waiting for you. ENJOY!”

Yes, Ms. Olsen starred all those naughty words. A bit boggling, that. Ms. Olsen also found out what happens to many people when their employer discovers what they do on facebook – they find themselves unemployed.

In a statement posted on Facebook Saturday morning, La Talk Radio said they have fired Olsen, writing: “LA Talk Radio takes pride in its close and collaborative relationship with the LGBT community, and will continue to provide a home for those who have hopeful and positive messages of togetherness and tolerance to share with our listeners. We will not tolerate hateful speech by anyone associated with our radio station and have severed our ties with a host that veered off the direction in which we are going.”

Towleroad has this story in two parts, with screenshots: one, two.

Sunday Facepalm.

Scott Lively.

Time for word salad with Scott Lively, the rabid bigot who managed to implement his evil in Uganda, and who is hopeful about implementation here, once Trump is in power. Lively believes that all queer people should be put to death, if they act on their orientation in any way. Just a small bit here:

If Trump had taken a strong pro-family stand on LGBT issues, he would have opened up a huge new battle-front in the war for the presidency with virtually no support from conservative GOP leaders (nearly all of whom have retreated from that fight due to the ferocity of the leftist cartel on “gay rights”). And he would have energized the Bernie Sanders bloc of the Democratic base, especially the young people, the most thoroughly brainwashed portion of the US electorate on LGBT issues due to nearly monopolistic “gay” influence in public education and the entertainment media.

However, by embracing renegade Thiel and saying Obergefell was settled law, Trump neutralized the “gay” card and kicked the can past the election. I didn’t support that tactic but I understood it. Now, while the leftist cartel is reeling from the Trump pummeling, Christian conservatives have perhaps their last opportunity to take back some ground on marriage and family values – irrespective of Mr. Trump’s personal views on the issue and the GOP’s willingness to throw the pro-family cause under the bus. The fact is that support for the sodomy lobby is driven almost entirely by fear of the Great and Powerful OZ of Political Correctness backed by media thuggery. But the curtain has been pulled back and guess what? The Wizard is as naked and impotent as the Emperor, so there is no good reason to let political correctness about homosexuality continue to trump family values in our public policy.

These bloodthirsty, thoroughly evil asses are the living embodiment of phallophobia. Speaking of bloodthirsty, evil asses, Kevin Swanson is having a fit over the movie Moonlight, which has garnered high praise from every corner. I’m really looking forward to seeing it.