The Glass Ceiling Has Been Shattered!

Donald Trump and campaign manager Kellyanne Conway celebrate during an election night rally. CREDIT: AP Photo/John Locher.

Donald Trump and campaign manager Kellyanne Conway celebrate during an election night rally. CREDIT: AP Photo/John Locher.

On Thursday morning, the Trump transition team announced that former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway will serve as counselor to the president. In that role she’ll be the highest ranking woman in the White House.

A statement released by the transition team announcing the move is boilerplate — “I am pleased that she will be part of my senior team in the West Wing,” Trump is quoted as saying — until it gets around to discussing Conway’s role in Trump’s victory, where it makes the claim that Trump “shattered the glass ceiling for women.”

President-elect Trump’s victory on November 8th also shattered the glass ceiling for women. Conway is the first female campaign manager of either major party to win a presidential general election.

Hear that, women? The glass ceiling hath been shattered, it is no more. From this point forward, there is nothing at all to prohibit women from the highest reaches of endeavor. Nope. I do have to wonder if it occurred to anyone that there’s a lingering stench of “hey, she rode there on my coattails, but still, it’s good” to the message.

While it’s true that Conway is the first woman campaign manager to preside over a presidential victory, the statement overlooks that Al Gore’s 2000 campaign was managed by Donna Brazile. Like Hillary Clinton, Gore won the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College, after the Supreme Court shutdown a Florida recount.

The statement also overlooks the obvious fact that Clinton this year became the first woman nominated as a major party’s presidential nominee and his victory denied her the chance to shatter the “highest, hardest glass ceiling.” Trump scolded her during the campaign for mentioning the historic nature of her candidacy, accusing her of playing the “women’s card.”

Oh, there’s that stench wafting by again. Yes, it’s fine if a man holds a woman up to tap that glass ceiling, but if a woman dares to do such herself, there’s that terrible woman card again. Silly women, right?

“I have to assess people based on what I see in totum,” Conway said. “And this is a man I’ve been alone with many times who’s never been anything but gracious and [a] gentleman and elevated me to the top level of his campaign, the way he’s elevated women in the Trump organization for decades, because he respects women.”

Yes, there you have it. Elevated. Trump elevates women, because they aren’t capable of doing that themselves. The above was part of Conway’s response to the revelations of Trump’s long line of sexual assaults. Sure, he respects women, he just thinks various parts of them belong to him, to be used and discarded at will. Elevator Pussy Grabber. Got it.

Before coming aboard the Trump campaign as a “data and messaging expert” in July, Conway helped conduct some of the flawed polling Trump has invoked to justify his proposed Muslim ban. In her role as counselor, she’ll be responsible for helping Trump “carry out his priorities and deliver his message from inside the White House,” the New York Times reports.

So, basically, a secretary. Oh, I meant counselor.

Full story at Think Progress.

No Peace for Our Time.

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This morning I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine. Some of you, perhaps, have already heard what it contains but I would just like to read it to you: ‘ … We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again.

British PM Neville Chamberlain, 1938

Make no mistake: Donald Trump’s Administration is coming for Indian Country—we’re suddenly big targets on his radar. We haven’t had quite this big of a place on the national and international stage in a long time. It makes sense—Native communities have about 25% of the nation’s on-shore oil and gas reserves and developable resources and this upcoming administration is oil-thirsty.

And they’re coming for what Tribes have; Dakota Access was the warm-up. Trump’s line-up of cabinet nominees tells us that his Administration is coming squarely for Native land and Native natural resources. Rick Perry, who sits on the Board of Directors for the Energy Transfer Partners (the company that owns the Dakota Access Pipeline), was nominated as the Energy Secretary. Trump also nominated Scott Pruitt to be the new head of the EPA; Pruitt said that “hydraulic fracking, a technological innovation that has done more to reduce carbon emissions in this country than any other technological advancement of our time.” No really—that’s what he said. He also wrote a letter to Obama In 2012, Pruitt and Republican Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal wrote a letter to President Obama asking to eliminate a Bureau of Land Management proposal that requires oil companies to disclose the chemicals used in fracking operations on Native American land.

These cats want to separate Native people from our lands and mineral resources. It’s westward expansion, manifest destiny!

Again.

Gyasi Ross has an outstanding article up at ICTMN about the current political mess, and what it’s going to mean to Indian Country:

The Thing About Skins: Make no mistake, Donald Trump’s Administration is coming for Indian Country.

In an earlier edition, Marty Two Bulls made his feelings about certain Indians active in the current mess quite clear:

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© Marty Two Bulls.

Perry the Prayer to Be Energy Secretary.

Rick Perry speaks to Fox News (screen grab).

Rick Perry speaks to Fox News (screen grab).

Rick Perry, the former governor of Texas, whose style of governance was basically “hey, let’s pray!”, has been tapped by Trump to be Secretary of Energy.

CBS is reporting that President elect Donald Trump has chosen former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) to be his energy secretary.

[…]

According to Major Garrett of CBS, two sources have confirmed Perry will be offered the spot  and will accept.

As CBS notes, Perry sits on the boards of two major energy companies, including Energy Transfer Partners which owns a subsidiary Dakota Access LLC, which is attempting to build the Dakota Access Pipeline.

It’s not enough to say all these rich assholes are living in one another’s pockets, they are living in each others rectums. It’s quite the racket Trump is setting up, making sure that all his investments don’t suffer by protecting his fellow investors, all of whom are climate change deniers, and pro-fossil fuels. (See here for the Exxon mess.)

People must get serious about fighting filthy energy, our lives are at stake. When we remove the earth’s ability to sustain us, we’ll die, and not pleasantly so. When we have poisoned all the water, we’ll die. And once again, water systems are not neatly contained puddles. Water flows, it meets other water, it’s an intricate and beautiful network, one which is vital to the health of our earth, and the life residing on it. Everywhere you look, more pipelines are being approved, against public sentiment and wishes. Trudeau, who styled himself a friend to the Indigenous nations of Canada, recently approved two major pipelines. Trump has vowed to okay Keystone XL, and while he won’t be pinned down on DAPL, he says “there will be a fast resolution”. As he’s heavily invested in ETP, I’m sure it doesn’t take much work to figure out which way he will go. The coal industry is also getting much more pushy, pinning their hopes on a Trump presidency. As usual, much of the pipelines and planned coal stations will be on Indigenous land, and treaties will be broken left and right, while colonialists happily destroy the ability of Indigenous people to sustain themselves, and make sure their land and water is always at risk of being poisoned beyond repair.

Does anyone think that the blatant disregard shown by Trump and his appointees won’t matter? Climate change is real, and we are already feeling the effects of it. Sea levels are rising. Water is routinely poisoned by gas and oil. Land which used to yield food is now rendered blasted and useless from fracking. Things will continue to get worse unless we change things right. fucking. now. Trump and his cronies have no interest in that at all. They plan to accelerate all the damage. When great swathes of the U.S. are no longer inhabitable for 3 to 6 months a year, what’s going to happen? Do you have enough money to purchase alternate residences, and the money cushion involved in moving back and forth? Are you going to get out your precious, beloved gun and start shooting people who don’t have resources? What do billionaires care about any of that? The entitlement brought on by having endless amounts of money and power allows them to think they will never, ever be victimized by such things, but planetary climate change doesn’t care about billionaires, and while it might get them last, it will get them.

The most recent pipeline leak here in nDakota, it was not detected by all that supposed early detection equipment, so no more of the same, tired bullshit about how safe pipelines are, and oh, they have detection equipment, because that crap does not work, and pipelines leak, end of story.

People in Arkansas and Oklahoma need help to stop a pipeline.

…More. Right. The orange man is on deck. Trump the troll. His minions. Pipeline lovers. Oil-addicted junkies. Wall builders and bigots. The illegal immigrants in this country are not brown. I’ve said this before. Many times. These gibbed geeks are the descendants of European invaders. But enough of that. Word is the oil-and-gas fat cats at Energy Transfer Partners are pissing and moaning into their whiskeys and ryes. Whiny brats. They said they’ll push on. President Andrew Jackson pushed on, too. The Trail of Tears happened anyway. “Justice Marshall made his decision, now let him enforce it.” Another whiny brat.

There’s little justice in this world, but on December 4, Native Americans got a taste. It’s always a fine feeling when good prevails over evil. And that’s what these pipelines are. Evil. Pure. Unadulterated. How could they not be? The oil oafs and their seedy oligarch asshat homies know pipelines leak. And they know people get sick when they do. Just ask the folks in the gulf who are still suffering from the massive BP oil spill. They agonize from chronic respiratory illnesses and skin diseases. THEY know what happens when pipelines leak and poison the water, sink into the soil. But these paunchy pipeline pricks turn a blind eye in the name of profit. They are gibbed vermin, and they deal in deception. …

Excerpt from Simon Moya-Smith, writing from the Oceti Sakowin Camp.

Standing Rock: No DAPL Roundup.

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© Marty Two Bulls.

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.

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.

The Gay? It’s Ghosts, Just Ghosts.

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GailyGrind.

A paranormal organization is claiming that the vast majority of gay men and women aren’t actually gay – they’re just possessed by someone of the opposite sex.

According to the Spiritual Science Research Foundation (SRF), 85 percent of all gay men are possessed by female ghosts, causing them to be attracted to other men. Lesbians are, you guessed it, possessed by males ghosts.

The SRF cite “spiritual research” as proving that “the cause for homosexual preferences lie predominantly in the spiritual realm.”

The main reason behind the gay orientation of some men is that they are possessed by female ghosts. It is the female ghost in them that is attracted to other men. Conversely the attraction to females experienced by some lesbians is due to the presence of male ghosts in them. The ghost’s consciousness overpowers the person’s normal behaviour to produce the homosexual attraction. Spiritual research has shown that the cause for homosexual preferences lie predominantly in the spiritual realm.

  • Physical causes (5%): Due to hormonal changes.
  • Psychological causes (10%): Having an experience with a person of the same sex as a teenager or young adult that was pleasurable and therefore wanting to experience it again.
  • Spiritual causes (85%): Mainly ghosts.

Homosexuality can be overcome by regular spiritual practice as per the 6 basic principles. SSRF suggests some simple steps.

As for Gay Pride, the folks at SSRF don’t like it, no, not at all:

It is natural that the LGBT population has the need to be respected as human beings, and in fact they should be.  Nevertheless, naming Gay Parades as ‘Gay Pride Parades’ is inappropriate from a spiritual perspective because it increases the ego of the LGBT population specificially as it relates to their homosexuality. Pride is an aspect of ego and is thus undesirable from a spiritual point of view.

If this trend continues, one day we could have Parades for people who are proud to be college drop outs or business people who are proud that they are bankrupt.

Organizing such Parades in the name of human rights and freedom does not indicate that society is progressing. In fact, this evidences its decline. The human race needs to know what is right and what is wrong. Just as we teach children not to play in dirty water or eat mud, we need to educate society what is correct from a spiritual perspective. By failing to do so, we run the risk of a further decline in Righteousness and consequently people in society will become more unhappy.

They have some interesting Tables of Sin on their page about gay pride. About that ego stuff, I’ll just leave this here:

ego-levels

Skimming their twitter feed, I did come across this – the location of the soul, and it’s surrounded by deadly ego!

There is a wealth of nonsense at their site, and their tweet stream is full of isht too. Via The Gaily Grind.