Just in the mood, and it’s a favourite.
8. Februar 2017 Apocalyptica Fade to Black Philharmonie München.
Affinity
Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
Just in the mood, and it’s a favourite.
8. Februar 2017 Apocalyptica Fade to Black Philharmonie München.
Click for full size.
A poll done by Morning Consult and Politico shows that the constant quake of scandals simply don’t matter much to Trumpholes. If anything, it solidifies their faithfulness to the Tiny Tyrant. That’s a prime marker of how fascism operates, and it emphasises, starkly, just how much The Resistance and all manner of activism simply cannot stop, or slow down at all.
While perusing Right Wing Watch yesterday, I came upon a story, told by one Lance Wallnau, about a magic cake. This cake was so gosh darn magic, it completely changed someone’s sexual orientation.
While streaming a video over Periscope last weekend, right-wing pastor Lance Wallnau received a message from a viewer saying that she needed prayers that would help deliver her son from homosexuality. That message prompted Wallnau to recall an incident he heard about recently in which a gay bar owner was supposedly delivered from his life of sin after eating a cake which had been prepared and prayed over by Christians.
As Wallnau told it, there were some hookers who used to hang out at a bar who were saved by a fellow patron who had found Christianity. Together, Wallnau said, these individuals “baked a cake for the owner of the bar, who was gay and very adamantly anti-Christian” and prayed over it that he would leave homosexuality.
They didn’t pray for him to lose his adamantly anti-Christian views? Oh, what am saying, of course praying away the gay was much more important. Anyway, on with the magical cake!
“It was an anointed cake,” Wallnau said, “and they made the cake and gave it as a gift. And when he ate the cake … the power of God hit him.”
The “presence of God” fell upon the bar owner, Wallnau recounted, and he then got baptized, at which point “the spirit that was working him got broken off,” thus freeing him from his life of homosexuality.
Aw, I’m disappointed. No recipe? How are you supposed to concoct the special anointing oil? I grew up Catholic, that shit’s serious, you have to have the magic recipe! So, ware Christians bearing cake. Now I’m wondering, is there a special cake us atheist types can make and offer? Perhaps a really good magical cake recipe for republicans?
Via RWW.
I really, really don’t want to spoil the surprise here. I’ll just say I was laughing myself silly, and this is someone who is delightfully familiar with the flat rat phenomenon. Go see!
One of my most favourite authors, Jim C. Hines, came out of model retirement for a good cause:
Click for full size!
And, from The Creators Project, Vintage Posters can now be yours, for free!
If the posters of today still had the look of those of yesteryear, would they still get tagged and trolled as often? Much work today, it seems, lacks the graphic audacity of yore, opting instead for forms and formats we’ve become accustomed to. That’s why, when you find vintage posters in flea markets, you find prices that might suggest they were just printed.
Many of these posters are available online, but it’s often difficult to find high enough quality to print them beyond standard A4 printer paper sizing. Finally, our savior: FreeVintagePosters.Com. The name explains the concept rather well. From Soviet propaganda posters and advertisements for airlines of the 60s, it’s up to you—there are several categories ranging from “Sport” to “Film” to “Nature” and everywhere in between. At Creators in France, we’ve been redecorating. Check out a few of our favorites below:
Head on over to see their picks, or go straight to FreeVintagePosters.com.
From rq, click for full size!
© rq, all rights reserved.
Adorable little lizards, from “The”, these were taken in Chile.
© “The”, all rights reserved.
From Kengi, click for full size!
© Kengi, all rights reserved.
A rare capture, a Hairy Woodpecker, who took off after allowing a few shots. Click for full size.
© C. Ford.
In the Tiny Tyrant’s latest interview, he once again went straight back to the past, resurrected old lies, and brought out a couple new ones. Politifact has the fact check, and the truth.
Confronted by his most flagrant falsehoods, President Donald Trump finally faced the question of why he makes so many unsubstantiated claims.
“What have I said that is wrong?” Trump asked.
Trump said his instinct is usually right, and he usually finds evidence supporting his claims that the media and his critics ignore — even as he continued to cite nonexistent evidence.
Here are some of Trump’s most egregious claims from the interview with TIME Washington Bureau Chief Michael Scherer on March 22. Many of the statements are things we’ve debunked again and again.
Fact-checking Trump’s TIME interview on truths and falsehoods.
Yesterday, I had the joy of watching, and capturing a young male Downy Woodpecker, perched in the Lilac, making the portentous decision to invade the finch filled feeder tray. I was lucky enough to get the start of the takeoff, but missed the flight, in spite of continuous shooting. Click for full size!
© C. Ford.
Thousands of people are being evacuated from Balakleya in the Kharkov region of Ukraine, as a massive fire has broken out at a munitions depot, which is said to be the largest in the country. There are reports of explosions and shattered windows.Chaotic scenes with hundreds of vehicles stuck in traffic jams were reported on social media after the Balakleya city administration ordered an emergency evacuation of most of the city.
Videos uploaded by local residents show a huge blaze with what appears to be a missile flying off in a random direction and falling to the ground, as detonations are heard in the background.
Evgeny, who lives near the munitions depot, was one of the first to witness the inferno. He told RT that the incident has been downplayed by the Ukrainian media.
“Ukrainian media report that nothing serious has happened, saying that just one explosion took place and no one was injured. But my friends and I, who saw [the incident] with our own eyes, say that… some people have been injured.”
Explosions are still occurring at the munitions depot, Evgeny said, adding that the entire city of Balakleya has been evacuated.
The civil defense department of the city’s district administration earlier told RIA Novosti that most of the population of Balakleya had been evacuated.
“The first wave of the evacuation has come to an end. Most of the population have been evacuated by buses. Now the buses are returning to evacuate the rest. Specialists are going from house to house checking who remains,” the district administration said.
There have been no immediate reports of any civilian casualty.
RT has multiple videos, as does DelfiTV. Here’s hoping that people stay safe, and that there are no casualties at all, and people will soon be restored to their homes.
Sean Spicer speaks about health care benefits (CNN/screen grab).
See that list in the photo? Those are all things we are about to lose here behind The Gold Curtain. America the Fucked Up. CNN tackled Spicer, who was going with full out bluster, in an attempt to defend this monstrousness. I’m just going to remark on a bit of the stupid, I’m close to overdosing on it already today.
According to Spicer, “older men, older women” who had “gotten passed [sic] maternity age” were being forced to pay for maternity care, driving up the overall cost of insurance.
When, exactly, do men get past maternity age? There are men in their 70s who have very young children, under the age of 5. Also, a lot of women don’t have children until they are in their 40s, so can we at least define this “passed the maternity age” business? Then, if you don’t mind, would you answer as to why you think any of this is your fucking business? Also, y’know, lot of people out there, older ones, who have children who are now having children, and they have a vested interest in them having good healthcare. That sort of thing is called family. You should look it up.
“People who were at the younger end of the age scale were buying end-of-life benefits,” he added.
What, I wonder, do you mean by that one? It’s not in the least uncommon for younger people to make plans for the end of their life, that would be why people make wills, have insurance, and so on, you stupid dipstick of an idiot. What in the fuckety fuck makes you think being younger automatically rules out catastrophic health problems? Accidents? Terminal illness? Not everyone dies at the age of 100something. Most of us won’t make it that far. At your age, Mr. Spicer, I’d think you’d know just how fast it flashes past, and before you know it, you aren’t 25 anymore. Trying to have some safety nets laid out in front of you is one way to prepare, so you can have a good life that isn’t completely wiped out by one unforeseen complication.
The people in charge of the Fuck You Care Plan, now with added Fuck. You.!
Via Raw Story.
ETA: In the comments, I included a link to yet another callous rethuglican, who made a very nasty remark about mammograms. The tweetstream following his notpology is very long, and a good many people brought up a very important point: men also have breasts, and yes, they can get breast cancer too. This is not brought up enough, and men, seriously, if you find you have a lump, get your self to a doctor, immediately! Ignoring such a thing leads to one place: death. Also, manhandle your breasts every month, have a check for anything suspicious. If you have a partner, it can be fun to check each other!
Photo: Tyler Lake.
After a good double face palm, I’m sitting here, staring at a story, shaking my head and sputtering. Oh, I just don’t grok some people. I really don’t. There’s a level of extreme cognitive dissonance that I don’t even understand how people reach in the first place.
The family of a northern Indiana restaurant owner who ICE detained during a routine check-in in February says he’s scheduled for deportation Friday.
Roberto Beristain is the owner of a popular restaurant in Granger called Eddie’s Steak Shed. His family says he came to the United States from Mexico City illegally in 1998. He later obtained documentation to work in the country and checked in with ICE each year.
It was during one of those check ins last month that ICE took Beristain into custody because of an incident in 2000. Roberto and his wife, Helen, were visiting Niagara Falls that year and accidentally crossed into Canada. Officers there detained Roberto when they realized he was in the U.S. illegally. Helen says a lawyer helped get Roberto out on bail, but he was told he had to voluntarily leave the country within a month.
Roberto decided not to self deport because Helen was pregnant at the time. An ICE spokesperson says when Roberto failed to deport himself, his voluntary order revered to a final order of removal, meaning ICE could detain him. They didn’t act on that order for more than a decade.
[…]
During an interview earlier this month, Helen said she voted for President Donald Trump because she supports his immigration policies. She said criminals should be deported, but she didn’t think her husband would face that fate.
“[Trump] did say the good people would not be deported, the good people would be checked,” Helen said.
For Chrissakes, how do you, I uh, okay, I give up. I don’t know how anyone could think this way. It’s a mystery to me. I would have thought that someone who loved a person who was initially an illegal immigrant, then legal, would at least have had more sympathy for other immigrants, if not compassion, but no. I guess all those other ones are bad ones.
Via IPM.