People who Really Want a Race War

thereWe spent parts of last Friday and Sunday evenings at Black Lives Matter rallies here in Atlanta. And I can tell you as a dorky middle-aged white guy, I never once felt at all threatened, unsafe, or unwelcome. There was no hint of violence or hatred in these demonstrations. So if there are violent clashes in the future, it won't be these folks who are to blame.

The people who will be to blame will be those people who seem intent on stirring up a "race war" of some sort. People like former US Congressman and current piece of shit Joe Walsh, who infamously tweeted this after 5 cops were murdered in Dallas:



It's shocking. Even after all these years of seditious threats from various right-wingers, this still seems shocking. This could not be a more obvious call to racially-motivated violence. Not since the Manson Family scrawled "PIGS" on the walls of the Sharon Tate's home has there been a more blatant attempt to start a race war. 

 Until this:





Then there's this little piece of shit "reporter" trying unsuccessfully  to goad BLM protestors into violence.


The sense of superiority and condescension is just sickening as he asks the woman in the beginning of the video " I asked you why you are (unintelligible) the police and why you're here. Tell me why you are here." He sounds like a cop interrogating a suspect,  or a middle-school vice-principal demanding to see a hall pass, demanding an answer as if  this woman is required to answer to him like he's some sort of authority figure.

I will say this though, kudos to the St Paul police department who sent officers on bicycles wearing polo shirts instead of the militarized body-armor-wearing shock troops most departments use to police peaceful demonstrations.

But the most sickening of all is former New York Mayor and current bag of scum Rudy Giuliani.

On this Sunday's Face the Nation, he had this to say about black lives:

So if you want to protect black lives, then you've got to protect black lives, not just against police, which happens rarely, although with tremendous attention, and which happens every 14 hours in Chicago. Every 14 hours and we never hear from Black Lives Matter.

Jeezus, here we go again. I don't know where this thought process comes from -  a: that it's no big deal that cops kill black people because black people are also sometimes killed by other black people, and b: that it's just somehow absurd to hold police officers to a higher standard than Chicago gangbangers.

“When you say ‘black lives matter,’ that’s inherently racist,” the ex-mayor said. “Black lives matter, white lives matter, Asian lives matter, Hispanic lives matter. That’s anti-American and it’s racist.”

So he's going with the old "people who talk about racism are the real racists" canard? Jeez, it's like these racist pricks all get their talking points from the same -- oh, right!

Then this arrogant open sewer of a man has the balls, the unmitigated gall, to lecture black parents:

If you want to deal with this on the black side, you’ve got to teach your children to be respectful to the police, and you’ve got to teach your children that the real danger to them is not the police, the real danger to them 99 out of 100 times … are other black kids who are going to kill them. That’s the way they’re going to die.

Jeezus Christ! First of all, "you've got to teach your children to be respectful of the police?" Why is it assumed in this country that being disrespectful to a cop is grounds for being murdered? This is America. Once, many years ago, I found myself in an auditorium with a sitting United States President, Ronald Reagan. (long story) A group of us booed him, chanted anti-GOP slogans,. and at one point all raised our hands with our middle fingers extended. And the President of the United States, the most powerful man on Earth, couldn't do a damn thing about it. Because this was America. Well, technically, he did do one thing, he zinged us when we were chanting "We Like Mike" in reference to Micheal Dukakis, he said "see, his supporters can't even find the right rally" which, credit where credit is due, was a pretty good zing. But that was it. No one beat us or arrested us or shot us. Because this was America, where you don't have to be respectful if you don't want to be.
If you're stopped by a police, sure it's smart to be respectful. Also, in a lot of cases, it's the right thing to do because he's just a person doing his job. But if you are being stopped, harassed, treated like a criminal because of the way you look, that cop is really not worthy of your respect. And showing a lack of respect to an authority figure has never been a capital offense in this country.

But what makes the whole "teach your kids respect" bullshit even more disgustingly offensive is that this is exactly what black parents do. Ask any black parent, they'll tell you. Here are a few things that, according to this article on Gawker, black parents have to tell their sons:

Get stopped for a traffic violation: Use your Sunday school manners. Keep your hands where they can be seen, and above all else, do not argue.

Ask the police before you reach for your license. Ask the police for permission to get your insurance card and registration out the glove box. Do not answer any questions. Just do as you are told.

You answer their questions if they ask you with 'yes sir' and 'no ma'am' unless it is incriminating, then you exercise your right to be silent. Don't talk back, don't even slouch, pull up your pants. Be polite, no sudden movements.

And this prick, this champion of police brutality ( Remember "Giuliani Time?") has the audacity to sit there and lecture black parents about teaching their kids "respect?"


And then he wants black parents to tell their kids that the real danger to them is other black kids?

you’ve got to teach your children that the real danger to them is not the police, the real danger to them 99 out of 100 times … are other black kids who are going to kill them. That’s the way they’re going to die.

I’d also say, be very careful of those kids in the neighborhood and don’t get involved with them because, son, there’s a 99 percent chance they’re going to kill you, not the police. And we’ve got to hear that from the black community.

So this vile pigfucker wants black parents to sit down with their kids and say "Son, remember to avoid people who look like you. We black people are tho real danger to you. You know how we are, there's a really good chance that if you hang out with horrible black people like say, your mother and I, or your siblings or any friends from the neighborhood, there's a really good chance one of us will murder you. That's just how we are!"

There are a lot of people about whom I might say "he makes me sick," and usually that's just a figure of speech, but Rudy Giuliani actually makes me physically nauseous. And as long as he continues to lead his living dead existence with enough breath to vibrate his vocal cords, the networks will keep inviting him onto their airwaves and pretending that he isn't a loathsome despicable excuse for a human being.

Alan West is Ridiculous. As if you didn't know.

First they dreamt up the "War on Christmas."






Then they tried to gin up an illusory "War on Easter."

And then an all-out imaginary assault on religion in general and Christianity specifically.

So, if you're a Florida huckster with a fear of getting a real job, you better hurry up and invent a new fake war to pretend to fight.

 

I'm on it!

 Yes, ladies and gentlemen, just in time for the summer blockbuster season, Alan West is proud to present . . .


 THE WAR ON THE FOURTH OF JULY!!!!!

I see something VERY disturbing happening today…

 . . . as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced?
Sorry, sorry. . . do go on.

I’ve noticed something as it relates to today and that which it represents. We’ve seen our move away from Merry Christmas to Happy Holidays, and even Happy Winter Solstice.

 Okay, hold on a second there. I have been on this earth for 40-some-odd years now, all of those years here in the good old U.S. of A, and I have never, not once, heard a single person say "Happy Winter Solstice." And I used to live in San Francisco. I've spent time in Berkeley. Even the fine people who do celebrate the Solstice don't seem to go around giving solstice greetings to those who do not share their traditions, probably to avoid odd looks and possible hostility from creeps like you.

We’ve become so damaged by the talons of political correctness that it now threatens the very existence of our Republic. And I mean its very founding.

Oh my GOD! Political correctness has built a time machine, and it's going to go back to 1776 and prevent the founding of America! Its very founding!  Or maybe go back a bit further and prevent George Washington's parents from ever meeting? I don't know, there are obviously a lot of details to work out, but it's a pretty scary thought.

I’ve been amazed at how people greet you with “Happy 4th of July”, as if we are celebrating a numbered date on the calendar. If this continues, there will be generations who will no longer know what happened on this day, other than we should have cookouts and shoot off fireworks.

Seriously? You think this is some new development? It's ALWAYS been "Fourth of July." At least since I was a kid, during the late mesozoic era. No one has ever called it "Independence Day" that I've ever heard. It's just like how we say "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy anniversary of the birth of the Christ child in a stable in Bethlehem although the odds that it would have happened during December are awfully slim."

What concerns me is that if we continue on the path of not teaching history — and I don’t consent to the revisionist version — nor civics, what lies ahead for this day when we celebrate our American Independence? 

 
 Well, A: tell your fellow Republicans to quit cutting funding to our schools and maybe they can do a better job of teaching history which they absolutely do still teach, you imbecile. and B: It doesn't matter to what you do or do not consent. You're nobody. And C: I assume that what you meant by "revisionist version" is the more honest, less sanitized version? The version that admits that we might have been in the wrong when we committed genocide against Native Americans and enslaved millions of African people?
This is a big part of what's wrong with America. Our refusal to confront the sins of our past. I am part of a generation that grew up with "Schoolhouse Rock" summarizing the atrocities of Manifest Destiny with cartoon Indians helpfully stepping aside so that white settlers could have a bit more "elbow room."

So it's shocking, but hardly surprising, that textbooks are still being published that state slavery was a mostly benign institution. It's not surprising that a lot of white people think that we purchased the lands from the Native Americans and don't know what they're so upset about. (See last week's Full Frontal with Samantha Bee)





It's why Sean Hannity can insist straight-faced that America is the greatest force for good that God has ever blessed the world with or some such drivel. And it's why Alan West can print something like this without a trace of irony:

Today is our 240th American Independence Day, a significant day not just for America, but for the world.
It was on this day that the true codification of natural rights theory occurred. We declared in our statement of Independence that the unalienable rights of the individual come not from a monarch, a man, but from the Creator. 

You do realize, don't you Mr. West, that none of those rights would have applied to you? 

Yes, the founders declared that all men (and they meant the "men," part, just not the "all.") had inalienable rights, but they also declared that black people were property, that Indians had no rights except to vacate their land when so ordered, and women had no say in pretty much anything.Women didn't get the right to vote in the U.S. until 1920, and that was only because they wanted to dilute the voting power of black men.

In a few months, we are going to elect our first female President. And our national chest will swell with pride over our egalitarianism and commitment to equal rights and blah, blah, blah, and we will dutifully ignore the fact that England, Germany, Ireland and Finland have already had women at the head of their governments while we crow "only in America" like an bunch of ersatz Don Kings.

And it's not just sophisticated European countries.  India elected Indira Gandhi to lead their country in 1966. The Philipines elected Corazon Aquino in 1986. Even  Pakistan elected Benazir Bhutto Prime Minister in 1988. And again in 1993.

Anyway, I got a bit off-track there.

What was the point?

Oh, right. Therer is no war on Christmas. There is no war on Easter. There is no war on Christianity. And there is certainly no war on the Fourth of July, you shabby two-bit huckster.

Flashback Friday - Blancmange

For a couple years, Blancmange was all over "new wave" radio stations like LA's KROQ and San Francisco's Quake.
                              
I was surprised to learn at some point that, not only were they not French, but the name Blancmange comes from Britain's version of Jell-o.

  

(I think I may have figured that out from this Monty Python sketch)

At any rate, let us return now to those thrilling days of yesteryear when it was perfectly legitimate for a band to consist of two guys, only one of whom plays an instrument:

Fuckin' Texas, Man!

The Texas Supreme Court sided Friday with a family accused of not teaching its children anything while waiting to be "raptured,"

"Raptured." And I guess that when the Rapture happens, God isn't going to take anyone with basic arithmetic skills or knowledge of history.

Look, if you believe in the Rapture, that's fine. You can believe whatever you want or whatever makes sense to you. Why you would think that the return of Christ is imminent, considering that Christians since New Testament times have thought that the end was right around the corner, is beyond me, but you certainly have the right to believe that. You even have the right to make your kids believe that. Maybe you shouldn't, but that's a discussion for another time.

But whatever you believe, you still have to follow the law. (Or, I guess in Texas you don't, apparently). You don't get to neglect your obligation to prepare your children for real life just because you think they probably won't need it.

They probably won't need a basic education because God is coming back and obviously, OBVIOULSY, you are in the top whatever percentile of righteousness that will get to lounge around Heaven with Kirk Cameron while the rest of us are tribulated,  And your kids are obviously also going to make the cut because righteousness is genetic? Or just because God is totally cool with nepotism?

So, okay, you're convinced that the world is going to end next week or whatever and God better not find you solving for X when He gets back, so you're going to spend all your time memorizing Psalms or whatever. But surely, the state of Texas has rules about educating your children, right? Surely, even Texas must have some standards that homeschoolers have to live up to, right?

Texas doesn't require parents who home-school their children to register with state authorities. While families must meet "basic educational goals" in reading, spelling, grammar, mathematics and citizenship, they don't have to give standardized testing or otherwise prove student progress is made.

Oh, fer. . . Then what is the point? What is the point of having "educational goals" if there's no way to tell whether the goals are being reached? What the hell is even the point?

Problems for Laura and Michael McIntyre, who once educated their nine children

Of course they have nine children. Of course they do!

. . . who once educated their nine children in an empty office at the family's motorcycle dealership in El Paso, arose after an uncle told the school district that he never saw the children do much of anything educational. According to court filings, he also overheard of the children tell a cousin "they did not need to do schoolwork because they were going to be raptured,"

You know, when your own brother is ratting you out, maybe it's time to take a good hard look in the mirror.

The family's eldest daughter, 17-year-old Tori, ran away from home in 2006 so she could return to school.

Wow, running away from home so you can go to school! I used to try and think up ways to get out of going to school. I guess you really appreciate the value of an education when yours has been woefully inadequate.

The El Paso district put her in the ninth grade because officials weren't sure she could handle higher grade-level work.

Attempting to investigate accusations of non-learning, school district attendance officer Michael Mendoza sought proof the children were being properly educated. That prompted the McIntyres to sue, arguing that their equal protection rights under the 14th Amendment had been violated and that the school district was anti-Christian.

How does that violate the equal protection clause? Anyone whose children are suspected of not being properly educated could expect a visit from the truant officer. It's like a bank robber complaining because no one else in the bank is being arrested. And I hardly think that wanting your kids to be able to do long division and write a coherent paragraph is being anti-Christian. I'm fairly certain that mathematics and language arts are not forbidden anywhere in the Good Book.

The high court found that 14th Amendment claims were not a question for Texas' educational code.

"Whether their constitutional rights were violated remains to be decided, but it is a question the courts — not the commissioner — must decide," Justice John Devine wrote,

Okay, that makes sense, but. . . um. . . you are the courts. You're the Supreme Court. If you say that the courts need to decide, then decide. It's you! You are the . . . how is this not obvious?

The lower courts may ask for new briefs detailing each side's argument, but there's "a very good chance" that the larger constitutional issues could eventually be settled legally, according to Chad Baruch, an attorney who represents the McIntyres.

Since the case involved alleged educational violations, the justices sent it back to the El Paso Court of Appeals, which can either rule on it or ship it back to the trial court, also located in El Paso.

Come on! You know this is just going to end up back on your desk. Whoever loses in the lower court is going to appeal this back up to you. Meanwhile there's nine kids getting screwed out of a decent education because their parents think they're going to be airlifted to Heaven next week.

Fuckin' Texas, man!

I really don't understand the European Union

so it's weird seeing this monumental, historical event and not knowing how to feel about it. Is the EU a positive, a negative, a little of both? Should England be congratulated or pitied? I really had no way of knowing. Until now.


Sarah Palin is all for the "Brexit," so that's pretty much all I need to know that this was a huuuuge mistake for the UK.

Sarah Palin celebrates Brexit, says U.K. avoided ‘apocalyptic One World Government’

Of course. Because there couldn't possibly be any logical reason. It couldn't possibly be like there's an economic advantage or something. No, it's straight to the One World Government. Of course.

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another...
The UK knew - it was that time. And now is that time in the USA.

Yes. we should also leave the Europe.
Okay, knowing her she's probably just fantasizing about secession again.





Which of course, of course, is again being bandied about by those patriots in fucking Texas.

CBS News June 25, 2016, 12:31 AM

From Brexit to Texit? Renewed calls for Texas secession after EU vote

U.S. secessionists hankering for 'Texit'

Brexit inspires Texas, California secession movements

 Et tu, Californe?

Then she gets into the really stupid part:

The Brexit referendum is akin to our own Declaration of Independence.

 

It took some real guts for the Founders to declare independence from Britain. They knew King George wasn't going to let them go without a fight and England had probably the most formidable military in the world at the time. And declaring independence was completely unprecedented. They had no way of knowing how other nations would react. there was a good chance that other monarchies would join in on the side of England to preserve the institution of the monarchy. That's why the Declaration ends with the signers pledging their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor. Because by breaking away from England there was a good chance they would lose all of those things. It was a real act of courage, knowing that, as Ben Franklin said, they might all "hang separately."

"Brexit," on the other hand, seems to involve the UK saying "thanks, but no thanks." One nation leaving a voluntary congregation of countries with no one threatening any use of force or reprisals of any kind seems pretty different than the US sqauring up against the most powerful nation on Earth.

Congratulations, smart Brits. Good on you for ignoring all the fear mongering from special interest globalists

Um, I'm not a close follower of British politics, but it seems to me that it was the "leave" side who were doing the fear-mongering, predicting an end of English culture as the UK is overrun with swarthy immigrants.

Oh, and fair warning. . .




Oh, yeah. If you thought this was just going to be one of those times when Palin sticks to just being stupid, you're in for a treat. Because this sentence-fragment casserole is about to get bizarre!

. . . special interest globalists who tend to aim for that apocalyptic One World Government that dissolves a nation's self-determination and sovereignty... the EU being a One World Government mini-me.

 Told ya!

Okay, first of all, I don't know which is a more dated reference, the "one world government" or "Mini-Me."

 

Way to jump on that pop-culture train at the hottest moment.!

Also, if you're trying to portray the EU as a scary, evil, despotic threat to freedom, maybe refer to a less cuddly movie character?

 

And also, too, since when do you object to bringing on the Apocalypse? You Evangelicals wait for the "End Times" the way I wait for the next season of Orphan Black. 

I got all my sestras with me!

America can learn an encouraging lesson from this.
It is time to dissolve political bands that connect us to agendas not in our best interest. May UN shackles be next on the chopping block.
- Sarah Palin

The UN "shackles?" What does that even. . .do you even know what shackles are?

 

Turns out you have to pretty careful doing an image search for "shackles!" Yeeks!

Shackles keep you from doing things. What has the UN ever kept America from doing?  I mean, we bombed, invaded and occupied a foreign country that had done us no harm and the UN was like "oh, no. Please don't." What freedoms do you think that we would gain by leaving the UN? And anything from the book of Revelations doesn't count.

Oh, and I find it a bit ironic that when it comes to basic common-sense things like Universal Healthcare, or a minimum wage that's a living wage, America has nothing to learn from anyone and you're a goddamm commie for suggest ing otherwise because everything we do is the best. But when England makes what appears to be a collossal blunder based largely on racial animus, well suddenly "America can learn an encouraging lesson from this."