Conservative Outrage Over A Coin.

American Liberty 225th Anniversary gold coin (US Mint).

American Liberty 225th Anniversary gold coin (US Mint).

Oh my, the mint has decided to be inclusive looking on some gold coins that most people won’t ever see. Well, I guess it’s the thought that counts, but that thought has brought out all the conservative anger. Messing with Lady Liberty, oh noes! Lady Liberty is not black, she’s white! I confess to never having seen the statue in person, but she’s always looked rather green to me.

The U.S. Mint is unveiling a commemorative $100 gold coin that depicts Liberty as a black woman — and conservatives are predictably freaking out.

The 2017 American Liberty 225th Anniversary Gold Coin, which will be released April 6, shows the year of the mint’s founding, 1792, and the woman’s head in profile, reported the Associated Press.

The mint said the coins were intended to reflect “the cultural and ethnic diversity of the United States,” and others in a series of 24-karat gold coins will feature designs representing Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and Indian-Americans.

Not only were unthinking cons upset about it, but it was an excuse for them to spew bigotry.

DeplorableTony Armas @Tarmas55

@AP The discrimination of white people by the @obama administration continues

The discrimination of white people? I don’t think that means what you think it means. Nope.

Chad Groves @ChadGroves10

@AP doubt lady liberty talks at top volume in movie theatres

Been a long time since I’ve been in a movie theatre, but I’d rather put up with a person of colour who is a talker, than a short tempered white person who decides to open fire with a gun. Aren’t stereotypes fun?

WALLTOWN NEWS @DennisKeithRic2

@AP I’m surprised that it’s not a MUSLIM.

How do you know if the person on the coin isn’t a Muslim person? We haven’t reached the point where belief shows up in fluorescent ink on our skin, y’know.

David S Handler @davidradiowntp

@AP this administration doing everything to change history,including changing Lady Liberty from what the French sent us. Pathetic racism!

You mean the mint has made duplicate Lady of Liberty statues to reflect diversity, and will be switching them out at intervals? Wow!

Drg @drg9766

@AP i wouldnt pay a dime for it. This proves that the Obama’s are racist.

The grammar, painful it is. No, no, this doesn’t prove racism on the part of Barak and Michele Obama. It does heavily point to racism on your part, though.

William Moore @williamfytylga

@AP take a close look at the Statue of Liberty. Obviously lady liberty is a white European. This is ridiculous!

There have been a great many observations made about the Statue of Liberty over the years. This is a remarkably stupid one. Obviously Lady Liberty is a green French woman.

Via Raw Story.

We Want Idiots!

Joyner

Rick Joyner.

Rick Joyner declared on the most recent episode of his “Prophetic Perspective on Current Events” program that the Common Core educational standards amount to “treason.”

“Common Core goes to a new level of evil,” he said. “I cannot imagine any sane person wanting that garbage to be taught to our kids. Now I will say this boldly: This is treason. Maybe not intentional treason, but it’s ultimate effect, impact, will be to absolutely destroy America, make us incapable of competing or maybe even surviving in the world to come.”

Common Core is “abominable,” Joyner said, which is why he is “so thankful that we have got a president who understands” its dangers, predicting that Trump “will do something to probably help fix it faster than anything else he can do.”

Well yes, Trump is out destroy education, given the whole Betsy de Vos business, but to declare common core as treason? Please.  So what’s it going to be then, no standard at all? No standards for learning, no standards for schooling, no standards for jobs? Destroying America? Oh my yes, why education results in pesky people asking questions! Those meddling kids!

I expect this is about the incredibly bad system of vouchers, so we will end up with little to no public education, and only people with money will be able to actually educate their children. Everyone else? Eh, I’m sure the rethugs want a sea of idiots for a number of reasons. I’d be willing to bet the number of secular homeschoolers is about to increase.

Via Right Wing Watch.

Fellow Travelers.

Cincinnatiopera.org

Cincinnatiopera.org

Most people are aware of Sen. McCarthy’s red scare, the hunt for commies under every rock and pillow, but it wasn’t the only hunt McCarthy engineered, there was the lavender scare also, which yes, Cohn helped out with, in spite of being gay himself. There was a terrible purge of people, many of whom decided to die rather than face decades of abuse, turned backs, and no way to find employment ever again. In 2008, Thomas Mallon wrote Fellow Travelers, a historical fiction which centers on two people living and working during the lavender scare. The choice of title is a laden one. Now the book has become an opera:

You can read all about it at The Advocate.

Dear Doomed Colleagues…

Vladimir Putin’s annual news conference, Dec 23, 2016 / kremlin.ru

Vladimir Putin’s annual news conference, Dec 23, 2016 / kremlin.ru

Alexey Kovalev has a message to his doomed colleagues in the American Media. He helpfully lays out what media can expect from now on, and from recent events, his commentary is spot on.

Congratulations, US media! You’ve just covered your first press conference of an authoritarian leader with a massive ego and a deep disdain for your trade and everything you hold dear. We in Russia have been doing it for 12 years now — with a short hiatus when our leader wasn’t technically our leader — so quite a few things during Donald Trump’s press conference rang my bells. Not just mine, in fact — read this excellent round-up in The Moscow Times.

[…]

Facts don’t matter. You can’t hurt this man with facts or reason. He’ll always outmaneuver you. He’ll always wriggle out of whatever carefully crafted verbal trap you lay for him. Whatever he says, you won’t be able to challenge him. He always comes with a bag of meaningless factoids (Putin likes to drown questions he doesn’t like in dull, unverifiable stats, figures and percentages), platitudes, false moral equivalences and straight, undiluted bullshit. He knows it’s a one-way communication, not an interview. You can’t follow up on your questions or challenge him. So he can throw whatever he wants at you in response, and you’ll just have to swallow it. Some journalists will try to preempt this by asking two questions at once, against the protests of their colleagues also vying for attention, but that also won’t work: he’ll answer the one he thinks is easier, and ignore the other.

Mr. Kovalev’s full message is here.

Oh Lord.

LeelaFacepalm

Rex Tillerson had confirmation hearings on Wednesday, for the position of Secretary of State. Watching a brief video compilation reminded me of Reagan, with the constant “I don’t recall” “I don’t know” and “I need more information”. I’m surprised someone didn’t ask him his name, just to get a fucking answer out of him. Think Progress has all the deadly details of the questions Tillerson found himself unable to answer, including questions about Exxon lobbying against U.S. sanctions in other countries. Tillerson tried to claim he didn’t have enough information to answer that one, either, even though he was the effing CEO of Exxon. Details at Think Progress.

Via Think Progress.

Healthcare Specifics.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence, flanked by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. John Barrasso CREDIT: AP Photo/Cliff Owen.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence, flanked by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. John Barrasso CREDIT: AP Photo/Cliff Owen.

Or, rightly said, lack of healthcare specifics. The dirty work done in the small hours specifically gutted these features of ACA:

1. Protect people with pre-existing conditions.

2. Let young adults stay on their parents’ plan.

3. Maintain access to contraceptive coverage.

4. Ensure Medicaid expansion stays in place.

5. Protect children on Medicaid or CHIP.

6. Protect veterans’ health care.

Think Progress has all the details on each one of these, and how the rethuglicans just yanked the rug out from under everyone.

Warren v Carson.

Elizabeth Warren questions Ben Carson at a Senate confirmation hearing (screen grab).

Elizabeth Warren questions Ben Carson at a Senate confirmation hearing (screen grab).

It is still so difficult to process that Ben Carson is going to be in charge of anything, let alone Housing and Urban Development. This is a man who can barely string a sentence together, and when he does, it’s usually a mess, as he’s not someone you could describe as quick on the uptake. As usual, he’s ill-informed and clueless. It’s rather obvious he doesn’t much care if HUD is used to funnel money into Trump’s pockets, either. It’s not even clear whether or not that had occurred to him at some point.

At Carson’s confirmation hearing for secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Warren noted that President-elect Donald Trump will be uniquely positioned to benefit from HUD contracts due to his real estate business. During a press conference a day earlier, Trump had revealed a plan * to allow his sons to run his business instead of putting his assets in a blind trust as other presidents have done.

“My concern is that among the billions of dollars that you will be responsible for handing out in grants in loans,” Warren said to Carson. “Can you just assure us that not one dollar will go to benefit either the president-elect or his family?”

“It will not be my intention to do anything to benefit any American,” Carson declared boldly. “It’s for all Americans.”

[…]

After Carson had a flustered moment, he came out with this:

“You can take it to mean that I will manage things in a way that benefits the American people,” Carson insisted. “If there happens to be an extraordinarily good program that’s working for millions of people and it turns out that someone that you’re targeting is going to gain $10 from it, am I going to say, ‘No, the rest of you Americans can’t have it’? I think logic and common sense probably would be the best way.”

Warren had the correct response to that puddle of lukewarm vomit:

Warren replied: “The problem is that you can’t assure us that HUD money — not of $10 varieties, but of multi-million dollar varieties — will not end up in the president-elect’s pockets.”

“And the reason you can’t assure us of that is because the president elect is hiding his family’s business interests from you, from me, from the rest of America,” the senator said. “And this just highlights the absurdity and the danger of the president-elect’s refusal to put his assets in a true blind trust.”

“He knows what will benefit him and his family financially but the public doesn’t.”

And there’s the big old rub to it all. Trump refused to hand over his taxes, so he could be worth much less than he claims, how would we know? Trump refuses to obey nepotism laws, insisting on making “president” a family job. Trump refuses to place his assets in a blind trust, openly intending to use the office of president to strongarm a whole lot of money into his pockets. For all the Trump-Idiots out there, how well would any of this openly corrupt garbage have gone down with President Obama, or any other president? Would have been howling your heads off, wouldn’t you? Fucking hypocrites.

I edited out the ‘controversial’ in that link. I am sick to death of media latching onto the word controversial to describe things which are outright fucking wrong. Any time you see ‘controversial’ being used, it’s yet another part of normalising every thing that is immoral and wrong.

Via Raw Story.

“Clovergender”

CG

While I’ve been dozing under my rock, yet another type of insidious bigotry is drenching the ‘net, based on the time immemorial pastime of linking LGBT peoples with pedophilia.

Martin Shkreli has given the LGBT community another reason to despise him.

The pharmaceutical executive, who rose to infamy by hiking the price of a drug used for an AIDS-related condition by more than 5,000 percent, is now promoting “clovergender,” an identity concocted by trolls to mock LGBT people.

Before his Twitter account was suspended for harassing a Teen Vogue writer, Shkreli urged his followers January 4 to “please spread clovergender awareness.” The term, which has sprung up on several social media accounts early this year, appeared to be used by adult individuals claiming to be “a child trapped in a man’s body who is attracted to other children.”

However, “clovergender” is a hoax. Snopes debunked it, tracing the birth of “clovergender” and this definition, which ridicules the identity of transgender and gender-nonbinary people, to a 4chan thread from December 31.

“We’re creating a new gender to trolls SJWs with,” posted an anonymous user, in a reference to “social justice warriors.” They then coined “clovergender” and ascribed fake preferred pronouns like “cl / clir /climself.”

“We will be trolling on Tumblr and Facebook,” the user stated. Another replied, “I see potential in this.”

Just what this sociopathic asshole has to gain from this, I don’t know, and it really doesn’t matter. I guess it’s just his way of getting his kicks. The potential for damage is overwhelming though, and it’s not like people in general don’t already have a whole lot of hatred for LGBT peoples anyway. They do, and those who are always looking for any reason to fire up that hate will grab this garbage and run with it. We have one state after another attempting to legislate bigotry and hate, and I imagine there will legislators who will seize on this as well, in order to shore up their always faulty reasoning.

After gaining momentum on the message boards of 4chan and Reddit, the term did indeed find its way to broader social media. A new Facebook page claimed to be created in response to “the horrible pain and backlash somee [sic] Clovergender people receive. We are against that. We think a kid should do what he wants.”

[…]

Several Twitter accounts, which follow and retweet LGBT outlets and influencers, are also attempting to intertwine the fake cause with the real-life movement. At least one has attributed Shkreli’s Twitter ban to clovergender discrimination.

The ruse duped some folks on social media, who reacted with disgust to the “clovergender” community.

The myth of the sexual predator has dogged the LGBT community since time immemorial. The call for “bathroom bills,” which prohibit transgender people from using restrooms that correspond with their gender identity, is the most recent example of how conservatives are painting queer people as perverts. “Clovergender,” if it perpetuates, will only continue to stoke these mistruths and biases.

So. We find ourselves back at the beginning again, folks, having to fight this blatant lie again, over and over. Be aware of this, spread the word, get the truth out there, we all know the drill.

Full story at The Advocate.

On This Day…

Now-Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX), during his 2012 campaign CREDIT: AP Photo/Pat Sullivan.

Now-Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX), during his 2012 campaign CREDIT: AP Photo/Pat Sullivan.

A day after Donald Trump shouted down CNN reporter Jim Acosta at his first “press conference” since July and accused his network of providing “fake news,” a Republican Congressman is demanding that Acosta be fired.

Two years ago to the day, Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX) made national news for a tweet comparing the president of the United States — unfavorably — to Hitler. He laterapologized for his observation that “Even Adolph [sic] Hitler thought it more important than Obama to get to Paris. (For all the wrong reasons.) Obama couldn’t do it for right reasons,” and deleted the tweet.

He never removed a January 2014 tweet in which he called Obama “Kommandant-In-Chef”… the Socialistic dictator,” nor others suggesting POTUS stood for “Poor Obama Trashed U.S.”

But now, apparently, Weber has decided that being rude to the president is an offense worthy of firing.

On Thursday morning, he tweeted:

The CNN reporter who was disruptive to the press briefing, & disrespectful to Trump-should be fired & prohibited from any press briefings.

Ah, where’s that ferocious con love for free speech? As always, it’s the first casualty whenever there’s criticism or hard questions.

Via Think Progress.

Back to What Healthcare?

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) speaks during a health care news conference to oppose Republicans’ effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. CREDIT: AP Photo/Evan Vucci.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) speaks during a health care news conference to oppose Republicans’ effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. CREDIT: AP Photo/Evan Vucci.

In a classical villain move, the rethugs met in the middle of the night to kill off healthcare. PZ has posted about this, and Think Progress has a comprehensive look at what went down.

I’m just going to focus on the fear, the terror, the despair. Every single fucking person who voted for that sick fucker Trump, every single fucking person who didn’t bother to strike a valid vote against him, ever single fucking person who bleats about voting republican because, there simply are not enough deeply nasty words for you. There isn’t anything out there compared to the bone deep ugly inside of yourselves. Rotten to the godsdamn core, all of you who brought this about. :spits:

And one more fucking time: The Affordable Care Act, which has now been gutted out of fucking spite, is the same thing as Obamacare.

Amelia

@keithellison As a breast cancer survivor, this is a death sentence for me.

***

Ron Krasnow

As a Stage 3 cancer survivor I’m ineligible for life insurance and soon won’t be able to afford health insurance. Is this how “great” feels?

***

Mike T

I have cystic fibrosis. If the ACA is repealed people like me will lose coverage. People like me will die.

***

Regular Sized Renee

As a veteran my health insurance is covered under the ACA.

***

Jen ish

I have a chronic disease. means I can be self-employed with coverage and schedule work around my illness. Without it? Who knows.

***

Cindy Baldwin

2. Without the protections in the ACA, I will run out of health insurance in 1-2 years thanks to the reinstatement of lifetime limits.

***

Ange

@SenSchumer so my pre-x condition of cancer will screw me and a recurrence will kill me…

***

Just the tiniest sample of those millions of people who will now find themselves in untenable and intolerable situations, thanks to all those who voted in mega-assholes who think running on spite and hate is a fine fucking thing.

Via Raw Story.

The Alabama Privacy Act.

gender-neutral-bathroom

Like many other states, legislators are rushing in all their transphobic policies, attempting to turn bigotry and hate into law. Alabama’s attempt is a bit different, seeing as it demands lavatory attendants. The purpose of said attendants isn’t entirely clear.

While several conservative states are preparing “bathroom bills” for the upcoming legislative session, Alabama’s anti-LGBT bill is changing the game by requiring costly bathroom attendants.

The bill, prefiled by Alabama Sen. Phil Williams, is called the “Alabama Privacy Act.” If passed, the bill would require public places with bathrooms or changing rooms to have single-person rooms, rooms for multiple people of the same gender, or rooms for people “irrespective of their gender” staffed by a bathroom attendant.

If a public place fails to provide these options, a fine of $2,000 will be imposed for the first violation, increased to $3,500 for each violation afterward.

The bill’s language is odd for several reasons. First, the bill does nothing to define what “gender” means—something that other conservative legislatures have taken great pains to do in opposition of the transgender community. Second, it’s not entirely clear what purpose a bathroom attendant would serve in gender-neutral bathrooms. The bill says they would “monitor the use of the restroom and answer any questions or concerns posed by users.”

Answer any questions? Really. Umm, I’d think people who had no problem with a unisex type lav wouldn’t have any particular questions. Just what are they expecting here, someone to rush in with an urgent need to piss, and must know, right now, should they stand or sit? I’m pretty sure all the homophobic and transphobic bigots out there don’t want to be going into a all gender lav. Or maybe they do, what do I know?

Full story at Out.

The Man Behind the Curtain.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky speaking at CPAC 2011 (Gage Skidmore/Flickr).

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky speaking at CPAC 2011 (Gage Skidmore/Flickr).

Trump’s antics are excellent at diverting attention, and certainly, for many people, trolling the Pendejo-elect is fun, and no doubt a safety valve. As these distractions trundle along, the man behind the curtain is busy doing all the nefarious dirty work. It’s the hands of the man behind the curtain that need watching.

Exhibit A in this sordid department is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is as comfortable lying with a poker face as Trump is attacking critics like Streep. The takeaway is, watch what they do, not what they say.

McConnell’s latest bout of high-stakes hypocritical lying came Sunday, when he told CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation” he would not slow down or reschedule any of this week’s conformation hearings, after Democrats protested that nominees like billionaire Betsy DeVos, the Secretary of Education designate, had not submitted financial disclosure forms. McConnell has scheduled most of the hearings for Wednesday, the day Trump gives his first press conference since Election Day and the day after President Obama gives his farewell address. The hearings will get scant coverage on television, the medium that most helped elect Trump.

“All of these little procedural complaints are related to their frustration at not only having lost the White House but having lost the Senate,” McConnell said, referring to Senate Democrats’ demands for probing the many conflicts of interest and private agendas of the most billionaire-filled cabinet in history. “I understand that, but we need to, sort of, grow up here and get past that.”

When McConnell mocks “procedural complaints” and says “grow up,” he means the GOP must be free to quash anything that interferes with their power grab. This is the GOP’s Senate leader who single-handedly blocked President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, a moderate praised by Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-UT. McConnell is also responsible for blocking Obama’s appointment of 84 federal district court judges—one-eighth of the district court bench—including noncontroversial nominations. And he is the same Republican who in February 2009 wrote a letter to then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, saying “prior to considering any time agreements on the floor on any [Cabinet] nominee, we expect the following standards will be met.” That included completing FBI background checks, all financial disclosures, Office of Government Ethics vetting, committee questionnaires and “courtesy visits with members.”

McConnell has long been one of the least principled Republican leaders. In the late 1990s, he opposed all forms of campaign finance reform when the McCain-Feingold bill was proposed, countering deregulation of donation limits and disclosure by donors was all that was needed. McConnell changed his tune on disclosure after the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, because the biggest GOP donors wanted to throw all the mud they could but were too cowardly to publicly attach their names to the political attacks they funded.

McConnell is a committed hypocrite, a master of two-faced falsity, and filled with sociopathic ruthlessness. While all eyes are on Trump, he’s busy pushing the mountains of shit through the door before anyone even notices. It’s past time to take eyes off the puppet, and pay attention to the puppet masters.

Full article at Raw Story.

The Bombshell.

CREDIT: AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic.

CREDIT: AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic.

The Russian involvement in the election gets more and more interesting. As much as the Pendejo-elect wants this ignored and forgotten, that’s one wish he’s not going to get. The ‘net suffered yet another minor explosion over the latest allegations, which have not been verified.

Yesterday, CNN published a bombshell report: The classified briefing on Russian interference in the U.S. election includes information, collected by a former member of British intelligence, that Russia possessed compromising personal information on Donald Trump. The allegations are unsubstantiated but were sufficiently credible for the intelligence community to inform President Obama and President-elect Trump.

CNN builds on a report by Mother Jones published before the election, based on the same information. BuzzFeed subsequently published the full dossier, which has been circulating among journalists and others for weeks, that was the basis of CNN and Mother Jones’ reporting.

The dossier contains a variety of sensational allegations, including that Russia has videotape of Trump engaging in exotic sexual acts with prostitutes and that there was an ongoing exchange of information between the Trump campaign and Russia. (The later allegation is substantiated, in part, by Russian officials.)

If you’re going to click about and indulge in reading all that juicy intel, I suggest having an empty stomach. Yes, some of it is that bad. Over at Think Progress, it’s been noted that the verifiable and public statements by Trump about Russia, and Putin in particular, take on a brand new shine and spin, given the new allegations. They take a good look at 15 of Trump’s statements, waxing eloquent over the intelligence and strength of Putin.

Full Story at Think Progress.

Also see: ‘Trump claims he has ‘nothing to with Russia.’ His son said the opposite. Donald Trump Jr. claimed “we see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”