Today on the Facetubes:

This encapsulates two of the rightwing positions that just drive me over the edge: worship of the military, and hatred for the poor.

As for the first, the idea that our current deployments in active war zones are in any way “protecting your unskilled butt” is ludicrous.  The last line in particular is one of those rightwinger classics.  I think the allusion is to the second World War, that we defeated Hitler and thus escaped the inevitable universal Third Reich that so captivates the authoritarian mind.

Because you remember how France and Poland and Holland were all speaking German by 1942, right?  Oh wait.^[1]

I might add, if I were of a caustic nature,^[2] that at no point in the last 60 years have any of us suffered the slightest threat of having to learn Vietnamese, Lebanese, Pashto, Arabic, Kurdish, or even Grenadan.  Just because the rightwing brain gets off on imaginary threats doesn’t mean they’re real.  (Spoiler alert: they’re not real.)

In the real world, our current “boots on the ground” adventures having nothing to do with any kind of existential threat to our nation.  They really don’t, and pretending they do is simply a ploy to elevate the good men and women who serve in our military to godlike heroes—a position I’m not sure many of them are comfortable with—for political purposes.^[3]

My second bugbear, hatred of the poor, is there in spades.  Insulting names?  Check.  Disingenuous assumption that “Johnny Fry-Boy” works 40 hours a week?  Check.

But the argument that always just amazes me as an incredible example of the “is not/is too” frame of the rightwing mind is the “job designed for a kid in high school… who is earning enough for gas” thing.  They keep harping on this idea that fast food service jobs are merely some kind of a Happy Days lark, not a “real” job.

As they leave the drive-through at lunch, do they ever wonder who made their Value Meal if the place is staffed by high school students?  How is McDonald’s able to open before 4:00 every afternoon even?

Also, they harp on “burger flippers,” because those people are obviously scum, but of course the country is replete with other minimum wage jobs. (Also.)

Given the rightwing’s insistence on “personal responsibility,” it amazes me that they will look at someone working a job at McDonald’s in order to make a living and still sneer that for whatever reason the person doesn’t even deserve that because of “lack of skills.”  You’re poor and uneducated?  You should have thought of that before, loser.

I mean, and here’s the point, even assuming that Johnny Fry-Boy is a high school dropout and has no marketable skills other than working the line at Mickey-D’s, what do the rightwingers want him to do?

And here’s the biggest point that really leaves me slack-jawed: I see this story and the solution that pops into my head is to make sure our military is paid more too.

You would think that might have occurred to people who think our service men and women are godlike heroes.

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^[1] Sure, the Angles and the Saxons had to learn some French after 1066, but… You know what?  The whole mindset is stupid.

^[2] I am of a caustic nature.

^[3] During the run-up to the Iraq War, the authoritarians were waving the “fight Them over there so we don’t have to fight Them over here” flag, and the dirty freaking hippies were all like, “Dude, terrorism isn’t an army,” and guess who was right?

Let’s take another look at our posting from the Facetubes yesterday:

My problem with this graphic is not that someone says “Merry Christmas” or “God bless the USA” or any of those other things.  My problem is that the author—and I have to assume anyone who posts it—wants you to think it’s a problem that they say these things.

They are hopping up on that cross to be crucified as martyr patriots when in fact no one is standing by with nails.  Most of the country would in fact agree with the honest sentiments expressed in each of the phrases individually.

But these people are not saying, “Merry Christmas.”  They’re saying, “I say ‘Merry Christmas,’ and that’s the way it’s supposed to be and if you don’t say it too then you are the enemy and I will fight you in the halls of Iwo Jima because you are one of Those People.”

They are declaring their über-patriotic stance as the only permissible and credentialed patriotic stance there can be in these here parts, and the rest of us need to take our nelly sensibilities and just move somewhere else if we don’t love the United States of A as much as they do.  That we might love our country as much—and perhaps differently— is clearly impossibile.  It is a thought-crime as far as they are concerned.  They have suddenly realized that there are 300,000,000 other Americans outside their monkeysphere, and they are freaking the freak out.^[1]

Now I personally do have issues with the political stance behind some of these statements, “We support our troops” in particular.  What does that even mean other than militaristic idolatry?  But again, if these people are honest in their troop supporting, I have no issue with that. It’s when they go berserk with their SUPPORT THE TROOPS while at the same time they vote for people that lie us into wars; when they vote for people that don’t pay for those wars; when they vote for people who don’t provide for our veterans; when they post uninformed graphics about rejecting refugees while we have homeless veterans that need to be taken care of  while not voting to take care of homeless veterans; that’s when I have issues.

And I would be correct.  Politically, ethically, and economically.

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^[1] Am I suggesting that they are hooting and flinging poo?  Why are you even thinking that?

No.

A thousand times no.

By all that is good in the universe: NO.

To quote Georg Christoph Lichtenberg: “It is true I cannot say whether things are going to change for the better, but what I do say is that things will never be right unless they do change.”

updated: How to Get People to Accept Unfairness

Today on the Facetubes:

No, darling, you are not politically incorrect if you say those things.  You may, however, be an asshole if you say them as a way to consolidate your tribal membership to the exclusion of Those People.  And we all know about Those People, don’t we?

Those People are queer, aren’t they?  Or bitches, or chinks, or towel-heads, or niggers—aren’t they?

Those People all up in your face saying you ought to be more respectful of them and their so-called humanity.

Those People who make you so angry because they think that their “lifestyle” or “culture” or “religion” deserves some kind of special rights.

Those People who get their precious feelings hurt if you just say what everyone is thinking.

But no, darling, your saying “Merry Christmas” or “God bless the USA” is not why we might be calling you politically incorrect.  Let me know if you figure it out.

(see also…)

So here’s an odd thing:

U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday that President Barack Obama has politicized the Supreme Court nomination process by putting forward veteran appellate court judge Merrick Garland during a presidential election. (Reuters, 3/16/16)

He did what now?

Let’s back up a bit.  This is not news, of course.  The republicants have been pissing and moaning about how it tain’t fittin’ for them to even consider a Supreme Court nominee ever since Tony Scalia was found dead in a bed with a sheep.  Allegedly. ^[1]

Here’s Orrin Hatch, just last week, pissing and moaning:

“[Obama] could easily name Merrick Garland, who is a fine man,” he told us, referring to the more centrist chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia who was considered and passed over for the two previous high court vacancies.

But, Hatch quickly added, “He probably won’t do that because this appointment is about the election. So I’m pretty sure he’ll name someone the [liberal Democratic base] wants.” [Newsmax (!) 3/13/16]

Well, okay then.

So now that President Obama has nominated the very judge that Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Oopsies) has said would be the perfect nominee, we can all go back to wondering where Ted “The Zodiac Killer” Cruz was the day Scalia was murdered.

Wait, what?  What’s that?  Senate republicants are still pissing and moaning?  You don’t say!

They want the “American people to have a say” in the Supreme Court nomination by voting for the man who makes the nomination.^[2]  Like we’ve already done.  Twice.

Not only that, but surveys indicate that a yoooge majority of Americans want the Senate to do its damn job.  Sounds like the people have had their say.

Republicants have also been pissing and moaning about how Democratic senators have said terrible, terrible obstructionist stuff about republicantist Presidential nominations in the past, which was just terrible.

And that’s what I really wanted to talk about today.

We have Sen. XYZ (R-Natch) pissing and moaning that Sen. ABC (D-The Past) once said they’d rather the Current Occupant nominate someone they like, so it’s only right that they (the republicants) refuse to consider any nomination made by President Obama, who has only 307 days left in office.  Why, that’s hardly any time at all left to do any real governing! ^[3]

So here’s what I always want to know when our republicant officials trot out the old tu quoque defense:

Are they saying 1) that what the Democratic Party did when they weren’t thrilled about potential SCOTUS nominees was a good thing to do and so they (the republicants) are going to do it too?  Or 2) that what the Democratic Party did was a vile and reprehensible thing to do and so they (the republicants) ARE GOING TO DO IT TOO?

I mean, there’s not really a third choice there, is there?

Do your damn job.

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^[1] Tony Scalia was not found dead in a bed with a sheep.  That we know of.

^[2] Or woman.  Heh heh.

^[3] We may raise our eyebrows and purse our lips at this claim since Congress worked only 132 days in 2015.  That means President Obama has almost exactly 2-1/3 Congresses in which he must not try to accomplish anything.^[4]

^[4] Which, given this particular Congress, would not be difficult.

So today on Facebook…

Never Would Have Guessed

WHY MR. ROGERS WORE
A SWEATER?

I think that on the whole it is better if we don’t delve too deeply into the fever swamps of deluded rightwing conspiracies, but today a “friend” on Facebook shared a meme from Exposing Satanic World Government.  That’s a Facebook group, folks.  (I would like to say that this “friend” is a recent addition, and I do—I really do—look for signs of this kind of thing before I click on the Accept button, but sometimes they just slip by you, you know?)

Here we go, straight into the deep end.

Let’s start with an easy one.

This is the kind of thing that one usually gets: the government is out to get us, etc., etc.

Nothing new or exciting really.  Just your run-of-the-mill, take-a-standard-government-program-and-turn-it-into-ONE-WORLD-GOVERNMENT-WAKE-UP-SHEEPLE stuff. As one does.

But I would like to draw your attention to that first comment. The poor guy meant “patsies,” I guess.  Easy typo, or perhaps an autocorrect, but I’m comfortable thinking that he just didn’t know the difference.

This is the level of discourse we’re dealing with here. Literacy is not this kind of person’s strong suit.

I should say at this point that the whole group is purely Christian in its approach.  I think it’s part and parcel of the whole authoritarianism thing that has recently caught the attention of the pundits trying to explain why Donald Drumpf is leading the Republican pack—and is closely followed by the even bigger horrorshow of Rafael Cruz.

(Of course, the hippies have been making fun of Republican “strong daddy” types since the days of W, but just like the Iraq War it sometimes takes time for the Very Serious People to catch up.)

Anyway, this is the kind of group that seeks strength through Christ, and by that I mean pure, naked power, not the strength of quiet faith and good deeds that the wiser among us picked up in Sunday School.  Since they seek power, they see it everywhere.  Since they want dominion over the earth, they a) create a self-image of being righteous warriors, and then—because what good is a flaming sword unless you have someone to smite it with—indeed, why does the flaming sword even exist unless there were, of course, b) an all-powerful Enemy?

Once you have this mental framework in place, then every waking moment of your life is spent looking under the bed and in the closet for that Enemy.  Every. Waking. Moment.

What was it the man said?  “Seek and ye shall find…”?

EVERY WAKING MOMENT, KENNETH!

The comment on this one is representative of many of the comments on this page, a kind of pearl-clutching fantod that reassures the commenter and the readers that yes, they are servants of the Risen Lord and all manner of things will be well.  I’ve written about this before, this curious split-brain thing of thinking that one is simultaneously on the losing end of this corrupt world and yet the victor.  I still don’t get it.

Mercy.

I mean, these kinds of theories have abounded about the Beatles since the 60s, but it’s still hysterical to see all of them so tidily presented (and by a 24-year-old author!).

You may have noticed by now that there seems to be no dearth of websites dedicated to exposing the TRUTH to the world.  Once you start clicking, there is no end to them.

None of them explain why the Illuminati/Bilderberg/Freemasons/Satanists are taking their own sweet time in implementing the New World Order. You would think that our all-powerful overlords would have lost patience with teh sheeple and just taken over by now, but no, it’s clear they must get a kick out of teasing us with the threat of a nightmare future.

Again, I’ve written about this before, but it’s important to remember that this frisson of fear is a feature, not a bug, in these people’s worldview.  They wouldn’t see it that way, but their brains love that little tickle of terror they get when they imagine Satan just sitting there like a spider in a web.  They’re addicted to it.

Moving on…

 

Closer to home:

It all seems so clear now, doesn’t it?

I like the part about “intelligent people who actually understand socialism.”  This is something I have not noticed to be true in this election, especially from this kind of voter.

And the comments… The old “Marshall law” gambit: remember when the crazier liberals thought the same thing about W?  But this time… You know it’s true.

The energy expended by these people is incredible.  How do they keep it up when none of their fears are proven to be true and they just transfer the fear to something new? It exhausts me just observing it.

As for the “will of God” gambit, mercy, people, when are you ever going to think that perhaps God is working his spirit out through Barack Obama or Bernie Sanders or even, Cthulhu help us, Clinton?¹

Spoiler alert: never.  It will never occur to them that God might be a liberal.  Or that she might not even care.

And if “our blessings will be just the same,” then why all this energy directed at identifying, exposing, and defeating the Satanic World Government?  I’m not sure what the point is, if nothing you do matters because God has his eye on the sparrow.

 

Last one, I promise:

There is a 15-minute video which I have not watched—nor am I going to—positing that Donald J. Drumpf is a high-ranking priest in the Satanic World Order.

This is not an isolated viewpoint.  Click through and a) read the comments; and b) check out all the videos recommended over on the side.

Jebus.

As I’ve said, folks, EVERY. WAKING. MOMENT.

Once you’ve committed to this mindset, the whole of the planet must be viewed through that lens, and everything must be made to fit the madness.  Donald Drumpf is just a egotistical bully?  Nonsense: he’s part of the conspiracy to elect She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.  The Beatles were a talented group of men who hooked into the zeitgeist of a world waking up to possibilities of not despising those different from you?  Crazy talk: they were puppets of a conspiracy so vast that it is capable of destroying all that we hold dear.²

Personally, I blame the Wachowski sisters.  Red pill/blue pill, my ass.

——————

¹ Just to be clear, I am not a Clinton basher.  It’s just that she’s the current repository for all the irrational fear and hatred.  What do people think is going to happen if she’s elected? What on earth could it be that would make it better to vote for Trump or Cruz??

² Because, really, who wouldn’t want to rule over a world that you’ve wrecked beyond repair?

Or, I might add, when he abuses members of the press and incites anger against them.

I would like to entertain the idea that Donald Drumpf is a Jedi master.

I mean, his whole campaign is kind of a “these are not the droids you’re looking for” hand wave, right?  He has his supporters give a Nazi-like salute; he says he will order our military to act illegally and they will do it; he vamps about deporting immigrants while hiring them, and snagging jobs back from China while exporting them; he’s endorsed by David Duke and the KKK.

And when quizzed about any of this, he just waves his hand: “That’s the first I’ve heard of it.” “I don’t know anything about that.” “That was taken out of context.” “We were just having a good time.”

I’m sure the press thinks they are doing their job just by allowing him to expose himself as a lying liar who lies, but that’s not what is happening.  What’s happening is that people see him successfully elude the mainstream media and think he’s more majestic than ever.

Help us, Obi-Drumpf, you’re our only hope.

Jebus.

This turned up on the FacePlace today:

[VIDEO] Obama Wants To Shut Down Judge Pirro After She Exposes Damaging Leaked Info About Him…

Here’s a brief (yet complete withal) summary: Jeanine Pirro thinks Muslims are scary and said so.

Really, that’s it.

But Dale, you will marvel, what was the damaging leaked info about Obama that “Judge” Jeanine Pirro exposed?  And what exactly does her furry look like?  (Okay, so you might want to go read the first sentence.)

Spoiler alert: there is no damaging leaked info about Obama.

Nothing.  Nada.  I read the article three times thinking I had missed something.  But no, it’s not there.  The headline has nothing to do with the article.

And the article is simply telling us that “Judge” Jeanine Pirro said some things.  On the teevee.

By doing so, of course, she’s become a “political enemy of the White House.”  We guess.  There’s no link to any kind of statement from the White House.  There’s not even an educated guess about an Enemies List, which I think is just lazy rightwing martyrdom-doing.

But given how vindictive the President is—oh, come on, you know how he yells on the teevee and calls people names and threatens them¹—we all would be astonished if Pirro’s days were not numbered.  You just know we’ll find her in a ditch any day now.

I like the way Pirro rants about House Resolution 569, or Condemning Violence, Bigotry, and Hateful Rhetoric Towards Muslims in the United States Act; the author of the article immediately confuses it with an actual bill before Congress.  I guess she didn’t get to that webpage when she was homeschooled.²

Somehow neither Pirro nor the author of the article seems to realize that this “bill” “establishing Sharia law”³ had to have been passed by the Republican House.  Such is the power of Islamic terrorists, I suppose.

Pirro also makes the whoa-if-true statement that Islam is the only religion “protected” by this “bill.”  I wonder if she read it.⁴  Yes, Islam is the only religion mentioned in the resolution, but perhaps that might be because the House of Representatives wanted to offer their “thoughts and prayers” to any member of that religion who finds themselves in danger because of rightwing demagogues like “Judge” Jeanine Pirro.

::sigh:: Another day, another rightwinger throwing stones at themselves because no one else is doing it.

I’d feel sorry for them if they weren’t enjoying it so much.

—————

¹ Oh wait.  That’s Donald Drumpf I’m thinking of.  My bad.

² Sorry, homeschoolers, that was a cheap shot.  I apologize.  I was just highly amused that the first and most succinct explanation I found of the difference between a resolution and a bill was on a conservative homeschool site, i.e., this author had resources congenial to his/her worldview and failed to use them.

³ No, really, another nutjob website headlined the resolution exactly this way.  I will not link to it, if only because ALL THE TEXT ON THE PAGE IS CENTERED, KENNETH!

⁴ Spoiler alert: she didn’t.