yardwork
yardwork's JournalSo what's the right wing's excuse this time?
As yet another mass murder destroys people's lives, I wonder who MTG, Lauren Boebert, Tucker Carlson and the rest will blame this time?
Transgender? Apparently not this time.
Minority? Apparently not this time.
Woman? Nope.
Well, Marge?
Would someone be willing to give me a brief catch-up for the Super Bowl tonight?
I'm going to a Super Bowl party tonight. I used to watch college football but I've never watched much pro ball and things have been pretty busy in my life lately so I literally had to look up who is playing tonight.
If anyone feels like giving a summary of the two teams, what to watch for tonight, etc., I would be grateful!
I'm grateful to the scrappy kid from Scranton.
Joe Biden is turning out to be exactly the president America needs right now. With literally everything - including the immediate future of the planet itself - hanging in the balance, we need a fighter.
Keep telling it like it is, Joe. You're talking to me and millions of us.
(And props to Beto and Fetterman for their plain talk campaigns, too. And that Native woman in Alaska who just beat Sarah Palin.)
P.S. To the MSM: we're not buying what you're selling anymore. The editorial board of the Washington Post - I'm talking to you. We're at war for our democracy. What side are you on?
Beware those carrying fear, uncertainty and doubt about Democrats.
If you hear or read something that makes you think less of Democrats, think about who stands to gain if Republicans take over Congress in this fall's elections. There's a lot at stake. Who will make billions of dollars if the Republicans are allowed to fully enact their sociopathic plans?
The invasion of Ukraine isn't going well for Putin. Who would he want back in the White House?
If Republicans take back the majority in just one house of Congress, they will block every single effort by Biden. Biden will be blamed for everything that happens and Trump or someone like Trump will be elected in 2024.
Your friends, relatives, online buddies may be well-meaning but the propaganda is real, it's everywhere, and it's designed to be very persuasive. Beware of the agenda behind negativity aimed at Democrats.
An example of racism from the so-called "far left."
https://twitter.com/julie_from_ohio/status/1504241448526438406?s=21The first response is right on target. I know many people are frustrated that the Democratic Party isn't progressive enough. But the problem I see with some of the alternatives - such as the Democratic Socialists - is that the very real lived experience of black and brown people is ignored and even - as in this case - mocked by white people who consider themselves "progressive."
Do better. Be better. Even this older white woman knows that discrimination against black people for the way they choose to wear their hair is real. And it's deeply racist.
....
Brides' wedding was ruined when videographer walked out before vows
For folks who wonder why us LGBT people care when videographers, photographers, bakers, and other businesses discriminate against us, please read this article.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article250821389.html
A Charlotte videographer who had contracted to capture images of a wedding this month in Hendersonville walked out as the ceremony started when he realized the couple getting married were both women.
Bride Clarissa Templeton said Seth Curl’s sudden departure — without speaking to anyone at the event — was devastating to her and her now wife, Teegan Bullock Templeton. It cast a pall over their once-in-a-lifetime moment and left them with no professional footage of their vows, though they had paid in full for the service.
.....
As she was selecting vendors for the wedding, Templeton said, she was careful to search for LGBTQ-friendly businesses and as she talked to their representatives, made sure they knew she was planning a same-sex wedding.
Templeton did that, she said, “Because of where I live and how I’ve grown up and the people I’ve been around, the things I have experienced from people who don’t know me, because of who I love and who I’m with.”
Good Friday - my annual perplexity
Note: This post isn't really about religion. It's about the long-standing misconceptions, hypocrisies and gaslighting that is woven into our nation's culture. These fallacies led directly to the January 6 insurrection and many other terrible events in our history.
I grew up in the rural midwest in the mid-20th century. My community was a homogenous culture made up almost entirely of white Christians, mostly fundamentalist Protestants, including a significant number of rather extreme sects.
Every year on Good Friday, which was not a holiday, the schools were full of the annual accusation that "Jews killed our Lord." This made no sense to me on multiple levels. My understanding was that Jesus willingly sacrificed himself in order to assuage the sins of humanity and assure our passage to heaven. Without this willing sacrifice, the plot doesn't move forward. The whole point revolves around the willing - albeit initially reluctant - self sacrifice. Therefore, our Lord killed our Lord. And on the practical level, it was the Romans who carried out the execution, and they were pagan (later Christian). So the Jews in Jerusalem (who didn't in any case represent all Jewish people, any more than the scary white inhabitants of New York City represented all white people in the minds of the fearful white rural citizens of my childhood), seem to have played a minor role in the whole thing. (Other than the fact that Jesus himself was Jewish, which would seem to elevate the status of Jews, if anything.)
Nonetheless, anti-Semitism and bizarrely irrational accusations against Jewish people persist today, especially in predominately white fundamentalist rural communities in the U.S.
Many members of those communities weren't rational 50 years ago and they're not rational now. They cling to their hateful and fearful beliefs even when they make no rational sense. Their fears and resentment are skillfully exploited by marketers, politicians and other hucksters. Our democracy might not survive this level of meanness, gullibility, and intellectual laziness.
I finally cut ties with a lifelong acquaintance today.
I have posted about him before. We met in preschool and grew up in the same small town. We were very close friends growing up, despite his issues with drugs and alcohol beginning at a young age (preteen). He identified as highly progressive, very far to the left. Nobody else was as liberal as him, according to him. The rest of us were posers.
I've been reluctant to cut him out of my life entirely because our families were very close. I now see that this was a mistake. It's never a good idea to tolerate ongoing abuse, and I did for too long.
Twenty years ago I limited our contact to email due to his abusive alcoholic behavior. (When he had my old landline, he would call me in the middle of the night, over and over, screaming abuse.) Ten years ago I set his emails to spam, as during his alcoholic episodes I could receive a dozen rage-filled emails in one night. Over the years, I sporadically read his emails and very rarely responded. Responses triggered a torrent of personal attacks on me and my family, mixed with conspiracy theories and bigotry.
Over the past five years ago the bigotry accelerated. Deeply misogynist, racist, homophobic. Describes female politicians, in particular, as "reptilian" and other extremely dehumanizing terms. Still claimed to be super-progressive, of course.
Since the election he's sent some emails about the election being stolen, although he pretends not to support Trump (despite sounding just like him). Today, after the events on Wednesday, his emails were the last straw. There is no room in my life - not even my spam folder - for this. Nope.
I sent him a brief email stating that I think he knows the facts but chooses to ignore them because his deeply held belief is that Trump should have been re-elected because the only votes that matter are those of white men and maybe white women. I told him not to contact me again. I'll never read an email from him again.
Looking back over the 50+ years I recognize now that he's been an abusive overbearing bully since we were kids. I'm sorry it took me so long to recognize it.
Does this mean that Bill Barr won't get his COVID shot?
Maybe he should have hung on long enough to get his White House shot.
Profile Information
Gender: FemaleMember since: Wed Mar 3, 2004, 08:03 PM
Number of posts: 61,585
