Freethought Resistance.

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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:

  1. To report on and document abuses and criminal activities of the right wing and theocratic zealots;
  2. To express our own opposition to these acts;
  3. To promote activism;
  4. To provide information about opportunities for activism;
  5. 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.

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.

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).

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.

No DAPL: Oren Lyons Speaks Out.

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Oren Lyons is a faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan, Onondaga Council of Chiefs, Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy) and a longtime international indigenous rights and sovereignty activist.

Accompanying article at ICTMN.

Jesse McLain, Asshole Bigot.

“Us North Dakota people are going to f*ck you up!”

I’m a nDakotan, Mr. McLain, and I think people like yourself are in dire need of a brain upgrade, along with classes on how to use said brain. This asshole bigot was caught on video threatening protectors at the Ramada Inn in Bismarck. Mr. McLain was arrested. At least Bismarck cops are being actual cops, not oil thugs. Mr. McLain was busy informing people he’d not only fuck them up, but fuck their wives too, because nothing shows what kind of a tough dude you really are by threatening rape.

A 33-year-old man was arrested Wednesday and charged with terrorizing a man involved in the pipeline protests outside the Ramada Inn in Bismarck.

Jesse McLain, of Bismarck, was allegedly one of two masked men captured on video yelling expletives and threats, including “take your protestin’ … back home” and “us North Dakota people are going to … you up,” into a vehicle at the hotel at 1400 E. Interchange Ave. on Monday afternoon, according to a Bismarck Police affidavit filed in the case.

Based on descriptions given in the affidavit, McLain is the man wearing a skeleton mask on his face. No charges have yet been filed against the other masked man seen in the video.

[…]

Police identified McLain after connecting the license plate on his grey van to a local service company in town, where he is an employee and driver of the van, according to the affidavit.

McLain was released from jail on Thursday afternoon on $2,000 bond set by South Central District Judge Gail Hagerty, according to the Burleigh County jail.

Via BisTribune.

Honouring Viola Desmond.

A portrait of Viola Desmond, a businesswoman and civil rights advocate, circa 1940. (Communications Nova Scotia/Bank of Canada/Flickr) .

A portrait of Viola Desmond, a businesswoman and civil rights advocate, circa 1940. (Communications Nova Scotia/Bank of Canada/Flickr).

Canada is finally addressing the wrong done to Viola Desmond, a remarkable woman, who made a stand for civil and human rights, and was punished for doing so, then thoroughly whitewashed.

You can read all about Ms. Desmond here, and Canada’s move to repair those earlier, despicable actions.

One Second of Love, Outrageous!

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Oh, the horror, the normalisation of sin, alas! Back in July this year, Zales Jewelers started selling their love and pride line, wedding jewelry for all those splendid queer folk who decide to marry. Going by this article, they are happily spending on this line, too. Personally, I never had any use for engagement/wedding rings, but for most people, this is an important part of their love declaration, and it’s nice to see jewelry designed to show pride as well as love. Zales put out a recent ad which has Christians all over the place popping a monocle, because there’s about one second out of the 30 second ad which features a same sex couple in a sea of mixed sex couples:

One Million :coughs: Moms and other irrational Christians are up in arms, terribly offended, and screaming for a boycott of Zales for this absolutely horrible normalisation of sin. It would be nice if they worried about the normalisation of fascism and nazis, but they’re probably okay with those.

From Some Moms:

Zales Jewelers should be ashamed of attempting to normalize sin by featuring two women getting married in their latest commercial. It shows two women in wedding gowns exchanging vows and wedding bands. Zales is promoting same-sex marriage and their new “Love and Pride” Collection. The “Love and Pride” wedding band collection, designed for the LGBTQ community with rainbow and matching bands, is “promoting Equality, Diversity, and Unity” and “celebrate their Love with Pride” as stated on their website.

Oooh, yes, how dare they sneak two lesbians in amongst all the hetros! Goodness, I just don’t know how you’ll sleep at night. I suggest a closet.

Zales is using public airwaves to subject families to the decay of morals and values, and belittle the sanctity of marriage in an attempt to redefine marriage. Even though homosexuality is unnatural, this advertisement is pushing the LGBTQ agenda. An even greater concern is that the commercial is airing when children are likely watching television. To make matters worse, this ad has aired during family viewing time such as football games and primetime shows.

Well, you’re using access to the ‘net to publish your awful screeds, spreading your hate as far as you can. I’ll bet you’re a bit jealous your reach isn’t as big as a major retailer. Oh, there’s that gay agenda again. I’m still waiting on mine, so I don’t see how you could possibly have yours yet.

Zales crossed a line that should have never been crossed. Even if 1MM didn’t disagree morally with the decision to air this ad, it is not a retailer’s job to introduce so called “social issues” such as this to our children. That is a parent’s decision, not theirs. Zales is glorifying sin, and no sin should be placed in the spotlight and honored. This goes for homosexuality as well.

Sigh. Listen, this one is on you. Who showed up at your door and strong-armed you into purchasing and hooking up a television set? I understand that you can have advert free television with TIVO. I’m sure there are other options, too. This would be known as tailoring your life to suit your particular sensibilities. These things can be managed, easily. Not everyone on this planet buys into or believes your evil concept of sin, and marriage is a social issue, so I expect you had better get busy railing against any and all references to marriage. Get yourself in that closet, Cupcake, and leave the evil television and computer outside, it’s the only way to be safe. The rest of us will be happily celebrating love in all its infinite diversity. May open minds and open hearts live long and prosper.

Cool Stuff Friday: Solstice Heartwarmers.

We’ll start with Joy, a photo from Giliell, Weihnachtsfeier (Christmas Party). Such a wonderful moment, and shows what concern, care, and inclusion can mean to refugees, who are in serious need of all those things, from everyone. Many hugs to Giliell and all her colleagues, who make life better for people. Looking at this photo, I put on A Tribe Called Red and a host of wačipi music, and started dancing.

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© Giliell, all rights reserved.

Next up, we move to Poland, and this lovely, poignant ad, which addresses the fact that so very many families are now separated and very far away from one another:

There’s an article about it here.

From there, we go to London, where the owners of a restaurant decided no one should be alone on Christmas day, and they shouldn’t have to pay for a meal, either.

Restaurant manager Irsan Can Genc told CNN that the idea for the free Christmas meal came after a local elderly woman walked into the restaurant in early November asking whether anyone could help her close a window.

The staff obliged, and the woman mentioned afterward while thanking them that she would be alone for Christmas.

For Shish owner Serdar Kigili, the woman reminded him of his mother in Turkey, whom he had not seen in five years, according to the news network.

The staff began planning what they could do for people in similar situations.

“It’s not about religion, language or culture,” Genc told CNN. “It’s about community.”

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You can read the full story here.

And we end with the Lonely Night Christmas ad:

You can read about this one here.

Here’s hoping we all find the time to notice those around us, and reach out, not just in Solstice spirit, but in a newfound commitment to community.

Oh, it’s a cosmic impulse to conquer.

Richard Spencer (Facebook).

Richard Spencer (Facebook).

Tim Wise has a good, in depth article up about the current crop of wannabe nazis, and how they can’t always manage to talk the talk, let alone walk the walk. So far, their de facto leader, Richard Spencer seems to be more concerned with polishing up the image of the “new identitarians” in an attempt to make them look all spiffy and intellectual. Just a bit here:

So again the question: how do white nationalists propose to bring such a thing about without violence?

The question was asked of Spencer recently, on at least two occasions. First by a Washington Post reporter and then during the Q&A session following his public presentation at Texas A&M University this week. And in both instances he tried to dodge the implications of his position. Though reluctant to offer many specifics about how one might attain a “white ethno-state” in America, he was ultimately forced to concede to the reporter from the Post, however dispassionately, that bringing his vision to fruition may require actions that would be “horribly bloody and terrible.” Then, at A&M, asked the same question by a black guy who demanded to know what white nationalists would seek to do with him, and how they planned to make it happen, a clearly nervous Spencer — not well-practiced when it comes to staring down a black man daring him to start some shit — was reduced to saying, “I’m not making you leave…You’re a citizen…you’re here.” In other words, he wouldn’t have to go anywhere: a statement that will come as quite a surprise to the Nazi shock troops who need and have come to expect from Richard a more unapologetic approach. Simply put, and using the terminology favored by the movement of which Spencer is such an integral part, he got cucked, hard. In the end, he went from being a brash and bloviating mini-Hitler, ranting to the audience about how “this is our Goddamned country!” to a feeble and frightened child or pathetic internet troll—a persona all too common to the movement and far more ubiquitous than the muscular brownshirt types they would like us to envision. Edward Norton in American History X they are not.

But make no mistake, ethnic cleansing and the violent removal of non-whites is exactly what they desire, no matter how unwilling they are to say so in the presence of black and brown peoples, like the ones upon whom they would need to make war, or simply away from the safe and breezy confines of a national media interview. In their private spaces or writings they acknowledge it, the way David Duke did in his autobiography, where he wrote that America must become an all white nation “no matter the cost or whatever sacrifices it takes,” that it will be necessary for “whites to prevail in a revolutionary physical struggle” over people of color and Jews, that whites must be “Aryan warriors,” and that “before the battle is over, many of us will find a heroic death… a physical revolution may be required…” Their entire worldview is about domination and subordination, and we know this because of something else Spencer has been saying recently, in interviews as well as speeches: the one at the National Policy Institute conference in DC, right after the presidential election, and the one at Texas A&M. Specifically, he has been quite adamant in proclaiming that whites are a people defined by a cosmic impulse to conquer.

Aha! So now we know what’s wrong with a lot of white people, they just have this cosmic imperative to be genocidal maniacs. How else could they possibly feel superior to everyone else?

Although Spencer insists he is not a supremacist because he doesn’t seek to rule over anyone else, the intellectual hard-on you can see him popping every time he professes the conquering impulse of whiteness — and his own admission that he gets literal wood reading about Napoleon — betrays his real sympathies all too visibly. But the inconsistency here — professing to believe in white conquest of others but not domination of them — is hardly the most internally inconsistent part of his worldview.

This can be most seriously filed under shit I did not need to know. Does anyone need to know that? Why in the fuckety fuck would anyone disclose such a thing? Eeeuw. Please, wannabe nazi or no, I don’t want to know a damn thing about your wank material. I will now declare this an excellent time to get myself back to other work for a while.

Tim Wise’s full article is highly recommended, have a read!

Standing Rock: We Need To Go Home.

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We’re in the midst of a blizzard here in nDakota, and sub zero temps. Chairman Archambault has put out the call to go home.

Putting people at risk in that way is something the ancestral leaders would never have done, he said.

“I don’t want anyone to be living in an unsafe environment,” Archambault said. “We need to stay in prayer, believe in our prayer, and begin our journey home in prayer. I believe in my prayers and in the Creator. Take the lessons we learned here and apply them at home—unity, peace, prayer.”

The camps’ efforts to get the NoDAPL battle to this point have been essential, but “now it is time we pivot to the next phase of this struggle,” Archambault said. “That will be lead on different fronts like in court, with the new Administration, with Congress, and with the investors.”

He said the path is being laid down “to help the world understand that what we asked for, and what we got is the right decision. The world is watching us, and our behavior will determine the final outcome.”

Archambault suggested that each resident make a plan for closing and exiting the camp, leaving the land as it was when they got there, and to get home before the bitterest part of winter sets in.

“Pass this on—let everyone know that we are thankful for their passion and commitment and we are thankful for them all standing with us,” Archambault said. “It’s time now to enjoy this winter with your families. We need all to respect the host tribe’s wishes. We are asking all tribes to pass this on to their members.”

The winter, he added, has barely begun, and the current storm is tamer than what the worst of the season will bring. Temperatures drop even lower than they already have, and the shelters at the camps would be no match for blizzard conditions.

Acknowledging that people were socked in by the storm, Archambault said it was time to take the water protection battles beyond Indian country, to the rest of the U.S. and the world.

“I understand that folks cannot go at this moment, but as soon as this current storm has passed, we must execute an exit strategy and continue our battles to protect water,” Archambault said. “These efforts are not only needed in Standing Rock, but they are needed throughout Indian Country, across America and internationally. I want you to know that Standing Rock stands with you as you return home to carry this energy and movement into the future.”

That’s just a small bit from the full article, which is at ICTMN. People are unable to leave right now, roads are closed everywhere (we’re snowed in too), but this blizzard will pass eventually, then it will be time for people to make their way to safety.

There’s a good rundown of the current ETP financial woes, and the takeover by Sunoco here.

“We’ve hurt you in so many ways. We’ve come to say we’re sorry.”

And A Very Merry to You, Ms. Bigot.

Lexi Magnusson of Seattle's Christmas lights display (Facebook.com)

Lexi Magnusson of Seattle’s Christmas lights display (Facebook.com)

Lexi Magnusson — who lives in a small town outside of Seattle — recently met her new neighbor, a woman who stated outright that she and her family had moved away from Oregon because schools there were “making it okay” for students to be openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.

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“She’s Mormon and heard that we were, too. My guess is that she thought we were still believers, even though my husband told her we no longer attend,” she told Huffington Post. “I imagine she thought we still held the same belief about LGBTQ issues as the Church does. We absolutely do not. It’s why I left the Mormon church.”

“I responded only with, ‘Your kids are going to be exposed to this no matter where you take them. Kids these days get it. They know not to be horrible to other kids based on how they were born,’” Magnusson recounted. “Then I walked inside [my house] and rage-ate a bowl of nachos.”

Magnusson then decided to decorate her lawn with a giant, glowing rainbow flag make of 10,000 Christmas lights.

“Our new neighbors are bigots,” she posted on Reddit. “Since regular aggression leads to assault charges, I went with passive aggression. 10,000 lights later.”

“I felt good the entire time I put them up,” she told HuffPost. “I sent a text to my cousin who loves Christmas lights like I do, and who is also gay. His approval was everything.”

You can read Ms. Magnusson’s FB post at the link. All I want to say here is thank you, Lexi Magnusson, you make this world a better, shining place.