Seeing Through The Distortion.

CREDIT: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko.

CREDIT: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko.

It’s not a simple matter, cutting through the constant distortions and lies which characterize the new administration here in uStates. There’s a strong inclination to simply dismiss Trump as an irrelevant blowhard, but that’s not the smart thing to do, because whether or not Trump has the slightest idea of what he’s doing (not much, in my opinion), the people behind him, those appointed and who now have unprecedented power, they do know what they are doing. They also know what they want. There are certain similarities to the Bush Jr. regime, but there’s much more “baffle ’em with bullshit” and “give them a reality show!” going on here. With Bush, there was a deadly calculation put into the manipulation of the public at large. Fear was whipped up to a point that people were willingly signing their rights away. I’d like to think that isn’t going to happen again, but it’s already in process. Whatever rights we thought we had are being carved away in great swathes, there’s no subtle whittling away here. Too many people simply want a ‘good’ show to watch, and Trump is capable of that much. What’s shameful here is that so much of the public doesn’t seem to want much more than that. If they ever do wake up, it will be much too late.

If Bush and Rove constructed a fantasy world with a clear internal logic, Trump has built something more like an endless bad dream. In his political universe, facts are unstable and ephemeral; events follow one after the other with no clear causal linkage; and danger is everywhere, although its source seems to change at random. Whereas President Bush offered America the illusion of morality clarity, President-elect Trump offers an ever-shifting phantasmagoria of sense impressions and unreliable information, barely held together by a fog of anxiety and bewilderment. Think Kafka more than Lord of the Rings.

It is tempting to suppose Trump built this phantasmagoria by accident — that it is the byproduct of an erratic, undisciplined, borderline pathological approach to dishonesty. But the president-elect should not be underestimated. His victories in both the Republican primary and the general election were stunning upsets, and he is now set to alter the course of world history. If he does not fully understand what he is doing, his advisers certainly do.

Steve Bannon, former head of the white nationalist outlet Breitbart News, is Trump’s Karl Rove. He knows. In a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Bannon suggested that the key elements in his strategy are dissimulation and “darkness.”

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The Disavowal That Wasn’t There.

President-elect Donald Trump, left, gestures as he talks to the media as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie looks on at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster clubhouse, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2016, in Bedminster, N.J. CREDIT: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster.

President-elect Donald Trump, left, gestures as he talks to the media as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie looks on at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster clubhouse, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2016, in Bedminster, N.J. CREDIT: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster.

I remember talking with Rick about all the white nationalists and supremacists embracing Trump, and he said “but he disavowed them”, and I said “no, he didn’t”. People might think Trump did disavow all the racists and nazis worshiping at his feet, but he really didn’t, anymore than he disavowed and condemned all the acts of hate which started during the election process, and continue. A weak and muttered “Sad. Stop. Don’t do that.” doesn’t mean a thing, and all the white supremacists and every other brand of racist and bigot well know that. They also know his supposed disavowal doesn’t mean a thing. If you’re someone who did vote for Trump, and has been trying to salve your increasingly uneasy conscience, at least be as smart as all those racists you “didn’t vote for”, and understand that it’s not what Trump sort of says that matters, it’s what he does, and what he’s doing is appointing white supremacists and zealous racists. Think Progress has a very good article about that so-called disavowal.

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Tech: Stop Normalizing Alt Right.

altright3

As President-elect Donald Trump assembles his administration, one theme is becoming clear: he’s surrounding himself with white nationalists.

The media, as a result, has been fumbling with how to cover Trump and his transition team, often downplaying appointed individuals’ white nationalist ideological views as “controversial” or “outsider.” This tactic has drawn criticism from journalists and the public, who have condemned the use of “alt-right” as a sanitized term that obscures racism.

But one man is using technology to hold the media accountable. He created a Google Chrome browser extension “Stop Normalizing Alt Right” that replaces any mention of the term “alt-right” with “white supremacy.”

[…]

“No one’s going to tell Mark Zuckerberg what to do or the media what to do,” he said. And if the recent controversy over Facebook facilitating the spread of fake news teaches us anything, he said, it’s that “you can put something out that gets attention and potentially change outcomes, it shows the power of independent creators…If I’m not doing anything to fight this or push back beyond a retweet, then I am part of the problem.”

In addition to the Chrome browser extension, George is also working on a version for Firefox and a Twitter bot that “corrects” media organization’s tweets.

“We’re engaged in lots of little acts of defiance around this to help change things, change narratives, and help people realize what side they’re on,” George said.

Think Progress Story. * Stop Normalizing site.

One Gigantic Eyeroll.

eyeroll

There’s nothing quite like the self-absorption of hipsters, so constantly desperate to be on the edge of cool, while attempting to appear bored with it. For all the attempts at coolness and self definition, it’s a constant fail. Here’s another one. What good is all that Jesus stuff unless it reflects your self-centered naval gazing and dependence on stereotypes? I’m surprised there isn’t a a stack of Pabst cases somewhere, but perhaps that’s in one of the Amazon boxes. I’d dearly like to think this is a huge poke in the eye of all those who style themselves a “hipster”, handily stripping $130.00 out of their wallets, and perhaps it is, because there’s no gullibility quite like that of hipsters whose eyes are constantly clouded over in their utter concentration on their own egos.

You can see more of this here.

I thought I might have to watch a Star Wars flick…

rogue-one-a-star-wars-story-youtube-800x430

I thought I might have to actually watch a Star Wars flick, because Alan Tudyk. Unfortunately, he just has a voice part in this rehash, so I’ll be able to spare myself. (Not that he won’t do a brilliant job, I know he will.)

Apparently, people are going to continue to be drowned in Star Wars flicks for the next, fuck, who knows, it looks like decades more. I haven’t seen a Star Wars movie since standing in line at the Cinedome in SoCal back in 1970something. I think I saw three of them, I don’t remember. I gave up on the appearance of the teddy bear beings, there’s only so much eye-rolling I’m willing to pay for. For all the fans though, Raw Story has a good run down on what’s happening with the next however many movies it is coming out.

Star Wars goes Rogue – but will this risky move backfire?

Oh, Just Deduct Those Millions of People.

The liar continues to lie. For people who are interested in the truth, Think Progress has the full story.

Donald Trump presented no evidence to support his outlandish claim, and that’s because none exists. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in this or any presidential election, and certainly not on the order of “millions of people.” One of the only documented cases of actual voter fraud in this election came when a Trump supporter tried to vote for him twice.

Hillary Clinton’s lead in the popular vote has grown significantly since Election Day as large states like California continue to tally their votes. Her margin of victory now stands at more than two million votes, by far the largest gap by a presidential candidate who lost the election.

Trump supporters have pointed to fake news websites like InfoWars, which claimed that Clinton’s popular vote win was the result of three million illegal votes by undocumented immigrants and dead people. During the campaign, Trump himself repeatedly tweeted memes and fake stories from white supremacist websites as fact.

My previous posts on fake news, especially on facebook: one, two, three. A recent post on the Facebook Fake News problem.

South Dakota: Ramping Up the Transgender Hate.

Trans man Terri Bruce helping deliver petitions against the anti-transgender bill back in February. CREDIT: AP Photo/James Nord.

Trans man Terri Bruce helping deliver petitions against the anti-transgender bill back in February. CREDIT: AP Photo/James Nord.

Earlier this year, Gov. Dennis Daugaard vetoed a hateful anti-trans bill after meeting with some transgender people. In that case, face time worked, and it worked well. Unfortunately, bigots are never content to give up on their irrational hatred and fear, and insist on a foundation of outright lies.

After North Carolina stole the spotlight last year with its passage of HB2, it’s easy to forget that 2016 started with a fierce debate about transgender rights in South Dakota. Though a bill to require discrimination ultimately lost to a veto, the state clearly isn’t done trying to ban trans students from the bathrooms that match their gender identity.

Jack Heyd, a Republican man living in Box Elder, South Dakota, has filed a ballot initiative that is almost an exact copy of the bill that failed to become law this past year. It dictates that all public schools would have to define sex as “the physical condition of being male or female as determined by a person’s chromosomes and anatomy as identified at birth.” Trans students would not be allowed to use facilities that match their gender identity; the only accommodations that would be allowed would be to segregate them to single-occupancy restrooms, unisex restrooms, or facilities to which faculty members hold a key.

Heyd, who founded the Committee to Ensure Student Privacy to support his efforts, explained that he thinks allowing trans students to use facilities with other students is unsafe and “opens privacy up beyond any reasonable measure.” He worries about people going into restrooms for “nefarious” reasons.

Oh, those nefarious reasons! Christ, I am so tired of the obfuscation, bullshit, and outright lies, and that’s nothing compared to what transgender persons are feeling or going through at any given moment. I’m also tired of pointing this out, but once again: ever since public lavs were segregated, which was not that long ago, there’s been absolutely nothing stopping anyone from going into one, whether their gender appeared to match the sign on the door or not. I’ve been in both, more than once, it’s a bloody lav, who cares? (When you’re having a long thirsty night at your local gay bar, really, no one much cares where you go, as long as you make an effort to actually get to a toilet first.) I might add that no one has been particularly concerned about that, for decade upon decade upon decade, and no, transgender people aren’t a brand new thing. People I know who are transgender are just like other people, well, decent people anyway, and just want to be able to do all the things people do, including being able to go into a public lav to conduct private business without finding themselves in fear of their lives. All this hate legislation is, is a call to make transgender people live in fear every single day of their lives, just in order to make a bunch of assholes, usually so-called Christians, happy and smug in their “godly” hate.

There is zero truth to the idea that transgender people put anyone at risk in public lavs. Don’t want to read? Then listen:

A rapist will rape, and generally speaking, rapists take the path of least resistance. You aren’t going to find rapists leaping out of the proverbial bushes, spending a ton of money on wardrobe, cosmetic procedures, and figuring out how to do their make up just so, in order to waltz into a public lav and do harm. Why in the fuck would they? All they have to do is walk right in. I’ll also point out that public lavs are not popular places for rape or sexual assault. It’s always interesting that the hate brigade focuses on people who might have penises going into the womens’ lav. No one much seems to care about transgender men in mens’ lav. If you really really want to be safe, your best bet is to bar heterosexual men from all public lavs forever. Funny how that legislation never comes up.

As someone who is often in genderfluid dress, I’m not comfortable with some smug asshole deciding what gender I am, or what I may or may not be packing under my clothes. That’s my business, and when I’m in a public lav, I go into a stall, conduct my business, and leave. Why in the hell anyone else thinks they have a right to go poking about, I don’t know. People come in all shapes, sizes, looks, and we all dress in different ways. Seriously, there’s just no way to be sure – so how about everyone has to strip naked in front of all public lavs from now on? Or maybe everyone has to have a karyotype card, and you better hope you aren’t one of the ones with an interesting chromosomal arrangement, because those happen a lot, and you might find yourself a decidedly different gender than you thought you were, and no, of course it won’t matter if you insist you’re a specific gender. How on earth would you know that, after all, it’s down to your chromosomes, right? Oh, and you smug haters get to pay for all the karyotype analyses which will be required.

Or maybe all those smug, hateful assholes could just stop. Stop spreading filthy lies, stop hating, stop being in love with irrational fears. Maybe we could all get some serious good lavatory design going on, go completely inclusive – stalls for everyone! Along with basic societal politeness, which would dictate you don’t get overly nosy about people who are in a public lav for the same reasons you are.

All you sDakotans with good sense, gear up for the fight, it’s on again. Let’s not let the assholes win, okay?

Full story at Think Progress.

James Means Murder Update.

James Means.

James Means.

It was days ago I posted about the brutal and senseless murder of 15 year old James Means, who bumped into a vicious bigot with a gun.

The shooter, William Ronald Pulliam, has been charged with murder. What makes this murder even more agonizing, in this country with way too few gun laws, is that Mr. Pulliam should never have been allowed a gun at all, going by the paltry gun laws which are in effect. Supposedly in effect.

Pulliam and Means argued after the two bumped into each other on the sidewalk in front of the store. When Pulliam left the store a few minutes later the two argued again, police say, before the 62-year-old shot Means with a .380 revolver he should have been barred from owning due to a 2013 domestic violence conviction for battering his then-pregnant daughter.

Not only was Mr. Pulliam wandering about with a gun he should not have had, the police were aware of his vicious bigotry, and that he frightened local residents.

Pulliam, who is white, was a familiar villain to some of Means’ friends. Fourteen-year-old Teonno White had tried to talk to Pulliam after the man picked on White’s younger brother.

“He said, ‘Get the [expletive] off my property.’ He said I need to go on with my nappy Latino self. He’s just a real bad guy,” White told the Gazette Mail. White had called police about Pulliam before, the paper noted, and had been told to stay away from him.

And yet, Mr. Pulliam, who was quoted as saying “The way I look at it, that’s another piece of trash off the street,” about his murdering young James, claims not only self defense, even though James was unarmed, he claims he gets along with all the pieces of trash:

“I don’t care if they’re white or black. Nobody is going to do me like that,” he said. “It doesn’t make any difference if he’s black. My God, everybody I live around over there is black. I get along with all of them, ask them.”

I don’t imagine Mr. Pulliam ever asked all those people he gets along with how they felt about him.

Full story at Think Progress. Here’s hoping this does not go the way it did in too many other cases, with yet another white bigot being excused for outright murder.