Three men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia
Travis and Greg McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan were convicted in the 2020 killer of unarmed jogger Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia.
Read the Latest (New York Daily News)
Spencer, Kessler, Cantwell and other white supremacists found liable in deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville
The jury did not reach a verdict on two federal conspiracy charges, but did find that every defendant was liable for civil conspiracy under Virginia law. The jury then awarded $500,000 in punitive damages against all 12 individual defendants, and $1 million against five white nationalist organizations on that conspiracy count. Other damages followed on further counts.
Read More (Washington Post)
Good.
Of course, due to some inexplicable random glitch The System™ did not work as intended, as it did in the Rittenhouse case. That’s why we have appeals courts, I suppose.
Still, I just wanted to spread a little sunshine. You all know me – I’m all Suzie Sunshine up in here!
![Twitter stream of 3 messages: 1. Rex Chapman: "Canada just announced the new Covid caccine to every Canadian who wants it – for free." 2. [Senator] Ted Cruz: "That's great. Just out of curiosity, which country was it that developed the vaccine? Wonder why. (3) March For Science: "Thanks for asking, Ted! The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was developed in Germany by a pair of immigrant scientists from Turkey."](https://i1.wp.com/freethoughtblogs.com/iris/files/2021/10/ted-cruz-vax-tweet.jpg?resize=504%2C675&ssl=1)
Unwarranted smugness is a signature hallmark of conservatives, and is often as hilarious as it is baffling. But even within the Republican realm, Ted Cruz proves himself to be an exemplary case pretty much every time he opens his mouth.
I guess the good news is that someone still has a heart! And, it’s a dude who thinks women are people, no less!
[CONTENT NOTE: sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape and rape culture.)
You know, I have not been able to write about Afghanistan, and this is mainly because I have not been able to think coherently about Afghanistan.* See, I get flooded with All the Feelz, and flashbacks to the war crimes of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rice regime, CIA black sites, serious debates at the highest levels of government and across mainstream media platforms about the pros, cons, legality and morality of torture FFS, and every single evil spawned from U.S. conservative war lovers** since the events of 9/11, which were traumatic enough for me thankyouverymuch, and right up to and including the suicide bombing at a Kabul airport gate today.
Nevertheless, I was struck by a sentence in this morning’s New York Times email briefing:
I’ve mentioned before that I’m a fan of the activist group Roots Action: one of their particular charms in my opinion is that their email campaign messaging is very good, and they allow users to tweak it and add to it, or even overwrite it entirely, before forwarding it on to one’s congresscritters. As you might imagine, sometimes that opportunity is too tempting for me to pass up.
Today via email, the good people at Roots Action offered up just such a tasty treat: an entirely editable missive to both my senators demanding they vote against President Biden’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Japan, that ratfucker Rahm Emanuel. It also urges them to announce their intent to do so publicly.
Here is the email with some background; unfortunately it does not come close to cataloging all the things I despise about this nominee. But then, ain’t nobody got that kind of time on their hands.
Ya gotta laugh. Or, you know, cry. Either way, there is something very, very wrong and/or hilarious about the conservative mind.
-Iris Vander Pluym, Art Critic.
__________
EXACTLY, Amy. I’m pretty sure that people who do gender reveals are conservative, at least with respect to sex role stereotypes. And those kinds of ideas never seem to travel alone. In other words: eew!
I think if I’d ever had a kid, I might have done a gender reveal just to fuck with the conservatives in my family. I’d make a multi-layer red velvet cake, with each layer consisting of a few different colors of batter roughly swirled together, just like I did for my sister’s birthday that one time. (If I can find a pic I’ll post it later.)
When I’d cut into it, every slice would have a rainbow of colors in it, at which point I’d announce “It’s a gender! Or maybe agender! Who the fuck cares and what the fuck is wrong with you people?”
[CUE: music, disco lighting and ecologically-friendly rainbow confetti.
Read the whole thing if you can stomach it. I could not.
photo taken during 1/6 insurrection of Jeezus carrying his infamous cross Trump flag in the U.S. Senate, while actor Steve Buscemi looms menacingly behind him. (via AP)
According to the Associated Press, the Christian deity will be the first to face sentencing for a felony today in connection with the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. It also turns out that Jeezus hails from Florida BECAUSE OF COURSE HE DOES.
Further, in a development that has been suspiciously underreported, actor Steve Buscemi appears to be right there, insurrectin’ right along with Jeezus, as you can plainly see for yourself in the above image.
Regarded by former colleagues as equally smart and combative, patriotic and politically cunning, Rumsfeld had a storied career under four presidents and nearly a quarter-century in corporate America.
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Or…don’t. I care about as much about the details surrounding Rumsfeld’s death as he cared about Iraqi civilians. LET’S DANCE!
