A passing observation on the hyopcrisy of conservative SCOTUS Justices

Looking in comparison and contrast at the two decisions, Hobby Lobby and Marriage Equality , I could not help but be struck by the rank hypocrisy displayed by the conservative justices.

The Justices were all about the importance of religious belief in the Hobby Lobby decision, while mocking it in the decision opinion written by Justice Kennedy.

That argues to me something I have noted before, that conservatives will bend over backward, including bending to the point of breaking, the Constitution they are sworn to uphold and protect, when it comes to granting special rights and privileges that are contrary to law for their fellow conservative Christians.  But they are unwilling to acknowledge that many branches of Christianity and of Judaism recognize and perform gay marriages or that their congregants hold their beliefs as sincerely as anyone else.

When you find Justice Thomas, who just came over to the side of light and reason when it came to recognizing that confederate flag symbols on license plates are racist, and that states should be free to refuse to issue them, we see him asserting that laws cannot affect human dignity because dignity is innate.  He went so far as to assert that slavery did not diminish human dignity, which is hard to reconcile with almost everything on the subject that argues the existence of slavery was demeaning to human dignity because of the obliteration of the most fundamental autonomy by the institution and of course because of the damage to human beings by the mental and physical abuse and brutality.

We have Chief Justice Roberts contending that so long as the federal government does not imprison gay couples, they must be enjoying the same liberty to cohabit and to raise their children.  Never mind how much these families clearly are treated as second class citizens when they are denied the same benefits of marriage, including financial ones.  By this reasoning the only thing wrong with forbidding marriage between couples identified as belonging to different races in the Loving v. Virginia SCOTUS decision was that interracial marriage included penalties of prison, not that laws banning inter-racial marriage were inherently wrong.  And yet we are supposed to believe that Hobby Lobby is horribly damaged and their freedom is impaired because they are required to offer the same contraception coverage they had been providing all along to employees, and because they choose to believe that a form of contraception is abortion, in the face of all factual evidence to the contrary? 

This is clearly the grossest hypocrisy, the grosses lack of judicial standards of fairness and impartiality.

SHAME SHAME SHAME on Conservative Christians for their abuse of what should be a bastion of Justice and the Constitution.

Saturday, June 27th 2015 - burn the Confederate Flag Day!

Of course, now it's much harder to get a confederate flag for burning, but that's a good thing.  There have been periodic Burn the Confederate Flag days before. It is time for another one.



From the FB event:



From "If You Only News"

In the wake of the senseless murders in Charleston by a racist monster, the confederate flag has come under attack. The “stars and bars” as the imbeciles who hold this symbol so near and dear like to call it, has no place in America other than in a book about hate symbols relegated to infamy.
Southerners are of course in a complete tizzy, as their symbol of racist pride isn’t racist to them, it’s just who they are. The fact that it happens to be the symbol of racist pride, making them racists, has them calling anyone who is attacking what their beloved flag stands for a racist…somehow.
That’s an awful lot of “racist” for one sentence, so let me go ahead and break it down so the Teabillies of the south can understand:

The confederate flag isn’t a symbol of your heritage, it’s a symbol of your hate. It’s a way for you to remember that your ancestors rebelled against the government in support of the enslavement of an entire race. It’s a reminder that a million Americans died because the bigots who created your gene pool thought they were superior to black people, a trait they passed down with ease.
For those who say burning a flag is disrespectful, and that by doing so you’re smearing the memory of those who died defending their country as patriots, I say good. Smear it. I’m tired of hearing about how southerners were simply fighting the war they were presented with and that they were patriots supporting their individual states’ rights. The people who think those who fought proudly on the side of treason should be commended and glorified are the same people who refer to the Civil War as “the War of Northern Aggression.”
...The confederate flag deserves no respect. It’s not a standard of the United States of America. The fact that it flies over South Carolina is an insult to the memories of not only the nine people murdered there last Wednesday but the thousands who have died cruelly there both in the bonds of slavery and at the hands of racists like the Klan.
It’s for these reasons and many more  that I will be participating in the Facebook event “Burn The Confederate Flag” on Saturday, June 27. I will not purchase the vile instrument of racism and hate, I will print one instead. I will video it going up in flames and I will upload it to Facebook with the hashtag #ConfederateKindling.
The racists are already all over the event page, calling people intent on burning a piece of paper  racists. I just will never understand how that one works. Are we racist against white people because we refuse to support a symbol of slavery and oppression? Really it just makes no sense.

If burning a rag that stands for insurrection, treason, hate, racism and slavery makes me a racist, then sign me up. Sign up for the event on Facebook HERE.

Snakes on the SCOTUS bench: My personal childhood experience as a reflection on the Kennedy SCOTUS decision

I was mostly a pretty good kid except for those moments when I was creatively, spectacularly bad.  Not evil bad, not mean bad, but I was strong willed and.......horribly innovative, from the point of view of adults.  By which I mean I did things, took initiatives to act, that other children pretty much just did not do.  As a result, I had a childhood experience that provided me an insight into the reasoning of Justice Kennedy that I believe makes his explanation for the decision remarkable.  I understand from my own experience what he meant about protecting children from feeling their families were 'lesser', or in some way inferior, and from humiliation (or attempted humiliation) by bigots.

In contrast, the dissenting opinions asserted that so long as no one is prevented from being a gay unmarried couple by imprisonment, the couple and any children they may have are not adversely affected or damaged by being unable to marry, or the denial of any of the benefits that go with marriage.

Back in 2010, this is what those kids and the rest of their families were subjected to courtesy of conservatives trying to deny marriage equality, demonstrating exactly the kind of disrespect and humiliation that conservatives have heaped on those families, and NOT confined within the boundaries of religion.  From the newcivilrightsmovement.com:

While the name of the Catholic priest was not disclosed, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, who sent the priest, is headed by the infamous Archbishop John Clayton Nienstedt (image, top,) who in 2010 began an anti-same-sex marriage campaign by producing and mailing to Minnesota residents 400,000 DVDs proclaiming the sins of same-sex marriage. Nienstedt has banned gay prayer services, “refused the Eucharist to students wearing rainbow buttons,” and has publicly banned “open dissension” from his priests on matters related to same-sex marriage.

That would be on top of the crap dished out by the likes of Santorum, Huckabee, Cruz, or Bachmann, as a few examples of incivility and abuse.

I beg to differ with the dissenters, and would point out in particular the incident at a Minnesota Catholic High School back in 2012 when the pedophile shielding Archbishop Nienstedt was busy actively and expensively involving the church in the politics of gay marriage, including the propagandizing and bullying of senior students.  The attempt to push through an anti-gay marriage amendment failed, and the following year same sex marriages became legal in Minnesota, but there remain those who actively try to stigmatize everyone in those families.  Likewise protestant evangelicals, of the extremist right, also demand as religious freedom the right to bully not only LGBT students, but those who have LGBT parents.

Here is an excellent example of what those kids who have same-sex parents have to contend.  From the STrib, back in April 2012:

Tevlin: DeLaSalle kids have a few words with archdiocese at marriage talk

..."The first three-quarters of the presentation were really good," said Bliss. "They talked about what is marriage and how marriage helps us as a society. Then it started going downhill when they started talking about single parents and adopted kids. They didn't directly say it, but they implied that kids who are adopted or live with single parents are less than kids with two parents of the opposite sex. They implied that a 'normal' family is the best family."

"When they finally got to gay marriage, [students] were really upset," said Bliss. "You could look around the room and feel the anger. My friend who is a lesbian started crying, and people were crying in the bathroom."

Bliss was one of several students who stood up to argue with the representatives from the archdiocese. One girl held up a sign that said, "I love my moms."
"We weren't being rude," countered Lydia Hannah, another student who spoke out. "But people were upset, and we weren't just going to sit there."

Hannah said students were anxious when they heard about the program and were suspicious because only seniors were required to go. "We put two and two together," said Hannah. "All of us will be able to vote next fall [on the constitutional amendment that limits marriage to same-sex couples]."

Hannah said the presenters briefly brought up the amendment but backed off when students got angry.

A priest and a volunteer couple presented the information. When someone asked a question about two men being able to have a quality, committed relationship, the couple compared their love to bestiality, Bliss said.

"Most people got really upset," said Bliss. "And comments about adopted kids, I found those to be really offensive. There were at least four kids there who are adopted."

Hannah, who is adopted, said one of the presenters said that adopted kids were "sociologically unstable." She called the comments "hurtful" and comparisons between gay love and bestiality upsetting.

"My friend said, 'You didn't just compare people to animals, did you?'" said Hannah. "I think everyone has a right to their opinion, and I don't judge them on it. But we don't force people to sit down so we can tell them their opinion is wrong."

Nothing quite like an authority figure, representing either the full authority of government or worse of God piling on to kids about how abnormal they are or how inferior or even evil their parents are.

From an adult perspective, looking at my childhood behavior, I now have enormously more sympathy for my own parents and for all parents than I did when I was a child.

I was adopted, and I credit my parents for having told me from as early as I can remember.  They did an excellent job of making me feel that made me special, telling me I was even MORE wanted and MORE loved than other children.  Perhaps in my case that might have been a dangerous thing, to feel so very confident of love and acceptance.

When I was around the age of 3, I took extreme objection to a babysitter hired by my parents.  I told them that I did not consent to being in the care of that babysitter, although I used more basic terms to express that the babysitter was not going to be staying.  My parents thought this was quite funny, and because they still thought of these sorts of declaration as coming from a more, shall we say ordinary, less initiative taking tot, they asserted that children did not have rights, and that I had to make the best of the situation, because THEY WERE THE ADULTS.  I tended not to be overly impressed by adults.

That sitter status quo lasted less than an hour before I drove the mean old bat out of the house by putting a small frog in her glass of.....whatever she was drinking.  It was nominally a soft drink, but I suspected that was not all that was in the glass.  And I stuffed her purse with garter snakes.  By stuffed, I mean filled to capacity with a significant quantity, like the snakes that appear in an Indiana Jones movie.

The sitter called me many names, including demon spawn. I remembered it carefully in order to ask my parents what that meant -- and they told me.  I suspect the concept was floating around in their minds at the time as well, when they had to return home after barely leaving.  When they demanded that I apologize to the sitter (they still harbored thoughts of persuading her to stay) I emphatically refused at the top of my lungs, and insisted that the only apology I would be making was to the snakes.  (Yes, I was on rare occasions a really spectacularly bad child.)

As a result of that altercation with the babysitter, I was dressed up and dragged off to an adult event where I was ordered to be on my best behavior on pain of death.  I was told that the only acceptable thing for me to say was "My mommy says children should be seen and not heard."  I was provided a half-full glass of ginger ale with a little grenadine to make it pink, and allowed to roam about whatever the heck the adult event was taking place.  Mostly I was patted on the head and ignored by lots of dressed up old people.

Except for one woman, who took a dislike to me.  She clearly knew who I was while I had no idea who she was (and still don't to this day). She called me a rotten kid, and I laughed at her.  I was feeling pretty cocky at that point in the evening, in spite of my parents displeasure.  That irked the old bag even more, prompting her to observe that I was only spoiled because I was adopted, so my parents had to buy me things to make me feel loved.  I considered that premise, and volunteered that I liked that, that it was a pretty good deal for me.  And yes, I had a sense that was the opposite reaction she was seeking, that she was hoping to hurt my feelings on some very deep and fundamental level. My failure to act as expected angered her much more, and she called me a 'red haired bastard child', before storming off.  (I had vividly red hair, so that part made sense to me.)

I was unfamiliar with the term bastard, so I asked my parents what it meant. I described my interaction with the mean lady, and tried my best to identify who she was, absent having her name.  I found the whole thing funny, like being called demon spawn; and was laughing;  but my father was enraged.  I don't think I had ever seen him that angry.  My mother was not worried about me - I was clearly unphased by the conversation, but she was very worried what my father might do. The only explanation provided for the word bastard was that it was a bad word; so I thought my father was going to wash out the mean old lady's mouth with soap.

He sought out the woman, and told her off in a particularly heated and rude rant that - I'm told - created a bit of a scene.  That was also fine with me, because now my parents were angry with someone else instead of me.  I was an unusually pragmatic child in that respect; nothing was going to dampen my delight in getting rid of that babysitter.

On the way home from that big social event, whatever the heck it was, my parents revisited the "You know you're adopted" narrative, concerned that someone had attempted to make me feel badly about it.  I think they were surprised, both that I did fully understand that someone had tried to belittle me for that facet of my existence, but even more that I was perfectly happy and confident in spite of the attempt.  I remember repeating what I had said to her - about being spoiled because of being adopted being ok with me, and that she got angry, and that when I laughed at her she got really angry, and I thought her head was going to explode, so I walked away smiling, after telling her I put snakes in the baby sitter's purse. 

It might have been the release of nervous tension, but I remember my mother starting to laugh, and  she kept on laughing for what seemed like a very long time.  My parents lightened up considerably after that in their concerns over how I felt growing up, dealing with the world knowing I was adopted.  I remember my parents laughing when they overheard me telling my younger sibling about my adventures with garter snakes, and how if someone tried to make you feel bad, you should just think about the snakes while looking them in the eye, that it worked like teflon -- their hurtfulness would just slide right off of you.

Being adopted has far less potential stigma attached to it for being different than other families than having two mommies or two daddies.  While there are religious entities that treat families of adopted children as inferior to biological children,  it is nothing like the rants by politicians that the nation is going to be punished by god or that having two mommies or two daddies is an abomination, hateful to God, or akin to bestiality and pedophilia.  It is nothing like being told your parents had to take a case all the way to the Supreme Court to be able to have both their names on your adoption papers either.

My younger sib for a time while growing up was fascinated by herpetology, and kept pet snakes.  Reading about the offensive dissenting opinions of the SCOTUS justices, I thought about them individually, and   I thought about snakes. 

Maybe it's just me, but it seemed a perfectly appropriate pairing of thoughts.  Justice Kennedy had it right, and not for the first time, the political right has it wrong.

Only winning by cheating = GOP

21st century

So, Bristol Palin is preggers outside of wedlock, AGAIN -- and Sarah Palin says it is Obama's fault?

Conservatism is an epic failure in EVERY area of human sexuality and reproduction.



I'm betting a DNA test will show that Obama had nothing to do with this pregnancy, and that the only people who are responsible in any way, shape or form all have the last name of Palin.  And there is no way in which Obama is causally associated with pot and porn, or with individual decisions relating to sex and pregnancy either.

MORE CONSERVATIVE HYPOCRISY!

It is an unwholesome and irrational notion that sex is ever going to remain exclusively within the bounds of marriage.  It is undeniable that the worst states for porn use, including the greatest consumption of gay porn, are red / conservative states.  It is an undeniable fact as well that it is conservative states that have the worst record for out of wedlock pregnancies, cheating on spouses, and frequency / rate of divorce.  Alcohol abuse tends to be worst in red states as well.  Sadly we don't have any reliable or conclusive stats on pot use, but there is zero evidence that it has any connection, much less a causal one, to the current president.  I'm not suggesting that it is applicable in this pregnancy specifically, but according to answers.com, the worst states for the incidence of incest are Alabama, followed by Alaska.  Given the recent news from the Duggar household in Arkansas, we can reasonably question that state joining the list as well, perhaps alphabetically.

So let us not pretend that the holier than thous are anything but freaking liars and hypocrites.

That goes double for Bristol Palin who has taken a six figure salary to be the spokesperson for abstinence, and who insisted to Oprah when appearing on her show that she would NEVER EVER have sex outside of marriage again.

Yeah........how is that prudish puritanical rubbish working for you Palins?  The religious precepts relating to sex as a sin are a failure.  It promotes a sick and unwholesome, and utterly irresponsible attitude towards sex.

And when are we going to hear Mike Hucksterbee whinging on and on about parenting skills, the way he criticized the president and first lady for being bad parents because he disagreed with the choice of music they allowed their daughters, while at the same time palling around with his pedophile buddy Ted Nugent.

And does anyone else remember the drunken brawling involving a number of the Palin family last September?  I seem to recall it occurred at a party they crashed... 
From the New York Times:

ANCHORAGE — It began as a birthday party that drew local snowmobile racers, construction workers and other longtime Alaskans last Saturday night. It turned into a brawl with members of Sarah Palin’s family in the center of it, according to witnesses at the party.

The police are still investigating, and the Palin family is not commenting. But the episode is already adding some more atmospheric notes to the background noise surrounding Mrs. Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate and the former governor of Alaska.

Guests said the event began as a birthday party for twin brothers, Matt and Marc McKenna, the latter a well-known snowmobile racer. Most of the party was outside with dancing and a live band. But then things appeared to get out of hand.

According to a statement from the Anchorage Police Department, officers responded to “a report of a verbal and physical altercation taking place between multiple subjects outside of a residence located on the 900 block of Harbor Circle.”

The report said that a preliminary investigation by the police revealed that “a fight had broken out between multiple subjects outside of the residence.” It said that none of the people involved wanted to press charges, that no arrests were made and that an investigation was continuing. The police chief, Mark T. Mew, said Friday that even if the victims did not decide to press charges, the municipal prosecutor could still file charges.

The police statement concluded: “Alcohol was believed to have been a factor in the incident. Some of the Palin family members were in attendance at the party.”

But several witnesses said the trouble started when Track Palin, Mrs. Palin’s son, confronted a former boyfriend of his sister Willow and a fight broke out. Before long Mrs. Palin’s husband, Todd, who also races snowmobiles and was also celebrating a birthday (his 50th), was said to have gotten involved in the fighting.

Later, according to witnesses, Bristol Palin, one of Mrs. Palin’s daughters, threw several punches at the owner of the house where the party was being held.

The result was a brawl said to involve about 20 people. In the end, the Palin family was ordered by the homeowner to leave, witnesses said.

Witnesses said the Palin family members climbed back into their stretch Hummer limousine. Before they left, however, Mrs. Palin unleashed several rounds of profanity and Track Palin made a vulgar gesture toward the crowd, according to one participant at the party who declined to be identified out of fear of reprisals. (One participant, Eric Thompson, an employee of the firm whose office manager hosted the party, said he was fired after speaking to ABC News.)

The Palin family was not available for comment. But Mrs. Palin, in a Facebook post on Sunday, said that she had been traveling “yesterday” — the day the party was held — so she wanted to post a birthday greeting to her husband one day late. Mrs. Palin made no mention of the party.

“It was a really nice, mellow party,” Mr. Thompson said in an interview on Thursday night. “Then it turned into ‘The Jerry Springer Show.’ ”

Must be all that riding around in chauffeured stretch Hummer limousines is giving the Palins a false sense of entitlement, to behave badly and above the law.

Yup - once again, conservatives struggle with decency, hypocrisy, and apparently with the concept of cause and effect involving FACTS. i don't care if Sarah Palin got pregnant before she got married and I don't care that her daughter is repeating those behaviors. But neither one of them has any legitimacy lecturing other people on any of this.

Time for the entire Palin family to sit the hell down, to shut the heck up, and to take remedial classes in comprehensive sex ed, anger management, and drug and alcohol use and abuse.

Hooray for the SCOTUS decision in favor of freedom, equality, and justice for ALL

We have not seen any of the claimed harm from recognizing the rights of LGBT people.  Our armed forces have not collapsed because of the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell.  Our country has not collapsed with same sex marriage either.

With the exception of Ben Carson, the candidates for the GOP presidential nomination have consistently shown themselves to be against freedom, INCLUDING religious freedom and against justice and equality. They show themselves to be against the rule of law, in challenging the clear provisions of the Constitution which establish the SCOTUS (right or wrong) as the arbiter of what is and is not constitutional at all levels of government.

And once again we see the use of dog whistle politics from the right, with the argument of states rights, which is the means the abusive and the oppressors rely on to violate rights, violate freedom, violate justice when it is upheld at the federal level.  States Rights mean nothing more and nothing less than the whine of those who wish to behave badly, who seek to be dickish toward others; it is the pout of those nasty bullies who were prevented from harming others.  Had the states that opposed same sex marriage not been so oppressive that they refused to recognize the marital status of people who married in other states (or countries), but instead tried to obstruct them, and to vilify them with lies about the validity and effectiveness of same sex parenting and family.

We now need the remaining legal change, the protection of ENDA, the protection of people from discrimination for their gender or sexual orientation, in hiring and employment, in housing, and in all other areas of daily public life, such as public accommodation, that should apply to everyone.

As President Obama gives the Eulogy in Charleston, South Carolina, I expect that his words will include a mention of this decision.  State Senator Rev. Clementa Pinckney was a strong advocate for same sex marriage.  His loss is a great sadness, but it is especially poignant that he was deprived of the joy of this decision being handed down as one more accomplishment for this nation in the 21st century.

That would include the Republican leadership, every time they open their lying mouths...

No honor for the Confederate flag, NO RESPECT for Conservative bigots, no more elective office for racists!

In discrediting and removing the vile symbols of the failed confederacy, it is time for some plain, hard honesty.

There is no honor or  valor of treason or the acts of traitors, regardless of individual heroism.  There is no justification to respect the worst atrocities and failures in our heritage just because they are 'ours', but instead we should call them out for the evil they were.  There is no merit to celebrate in a tradition of oppression, and no decency in a history of violent intimidation and exploitation, no matter what words you employ to try to put lipstick on the Confederacy pig, or on any atrocity for that matter committed by the United States. The celebration of the Confederacy is as wrong as the premise of U.S. supposed "exceptionalism" when it denies anything bad was ever done by or on behalf of the United States.  Wrong is wrong, bad is bad, and putting on a lying label does not alter that reality. Pretending wrong is right or good only compounds the original wrong, in some instances, exponentially.

Senator Lindsey Graham is totally and shockingly wrong when he and others on the right make the claim that there has long been an acceptable, valid justification for venerating or respecting ANY of the confederate flags.

The removal of confederate image merchandise from a growing list of national retailers is NOT only a response to the tragedy of the right wing domestic terrorist attack that killed 9 people in a South Carolina church.

The growing pressure to remove the Confederate flag, from South Carolina, from Mississippi, from EVERY place it flies, especially in the old 'rebel' south, is not new.  The fight against the confederate imagery is as old as the flag and the civil war itself.

Too many on the right, including our own former member of Congress from Minnesota Michele Bachmann, have made excuses to justify slavery, and have misrepresented slavery as less evil and vicious than it actually was.  The symbols of the Confederacy are nothing more or less than an attempt to white-wash the black heart of White Supremacy, Jim Crow, and over-reaching, abusive southern government.  Jim Crow, the brutal and systematic trampling and obliteration of civil rights IS the worst government overreach in our history.

From Addicting info, back in August of 2011 - a relatively recent attempt to glam up, validate, and legitimize the brutal, horrific, immoral, and obscene, representative of old style southern conservative racism generally:

One of the more interesting tidbits to be discussed about GOP presidential front-runner Michelle Bachmann in the current issue of the New Yorker is that one of the books she kept listed on her website as a “must read” was a biography of Robert E. Lee by  J. Steven Wilkins. Wilkins is a revisionist historian that seeks to downplay or even glorify the Souths’ tradition of slavery. From the book:

Slavery, as it operated in the pervasively Christian society which was the old South, was not an adversarial relationship founded upon racial animosity. In fact, it bred on the whole, not contempt, but, over time, mutual respect. This produced a mutual esteem of the sort that always results when men give themselves to a common cause. The credit for this startling reality must go to the Christian faith. . . The unity and companionship that existed between the races in the South prior to the war was the fruit of a common faith.

Got that? Because Africans were forcibly converted to Christianity, they didn’t mind being slaves at all but rather worked extra hard to enrich their white owners. For Jesus.

It is a conservative 'meme', like right wing talking head Michael Medved at the conservative Townhall.com, via fear of ignorance,  in his appalling and grossly inaccurate  "Six Inconvenient Truths about the US and Slavery", for example claiming that :

THERE IS NO REASON TO BELIEVE THAT TODAY’S AFRICAN-AMERICANS WOULD BE BETTER OFF IF THEIR ANCESTORS HAD REMAINED BEHIND IN AFRICA.

Really?  Seriously?  No long-term harm, no foul, is that the idea?  Apparently it is when you are an apologist for racism, past AND PRESENT.

And that conclusion is based on .....what?  NOTHING factual is involved, only the purest animus.  But it is part and parcel of the offensive beliefs of conservatives, and of those who embrace the confederacy, including all of its symbols.

Apart from ignoring, for starters, all of the people who were never born because of the high percentage of deaths in the passage from Africa, and ignoring all of the pain and suffering and social breakdown that continued long after the end of slavery due to families having been separated and sold off from each other, the enforced lack of education, etc., this is merely adding insult to injury, and promoting the conservative meme that black people are somehow inferior, and are lucky to be in the United States where they have been fortunate to be converted to Christianity?  Who can assert what would have been different in the continent of Africa without the evil of slavery and the pattern it contributed to of European exploitation that later characterized European intrusion into that continent.

I recently saw a comment about African Americans on a right wing facebook site that argued black people were inferior because they did not invent the kind of recorded language that white Europeans did.  That seemed strikingly to omit from contributing to world culture the many accomplishments of the Egyptians, as well as the many accomplishments, both linguistic and mathematical and in the sciences of the Muslim world, including the African continent.  What a disgustingly racist and intellectually dishonest view of world culture -- as if even if the assertion were true (and it is not) then any abuse, exploitation, or brutality is excused and excusable?

That is unacceptable.  There is no difference between that revisionist history and claiming that Hitler wasn't that bad for the Holocaust or worse, that the Holocaust did not occur, with the notable exception that slavery tortured many more, stole the labor through brutal coercion from many more, and killed many more than the Holocaust -- roughly 20 million slaves died in the United States before slavery was abolished.

The BEST response to the claims about honor, duty, heritage and the rest of the claptrap came from South Carolina state senator Paul Thurmond, son of notoriously racist Senator Strom Thurmond.  Those on the right, from Reince Preibus, RNC chair, to former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Governor Haley, ad nauseum are ALL wrong about this symbol. 

Paul Thurmond Via Slate:

“Our ancestors were literally fighting to keep human beings as slaves, and to continue the unimaginable acts that occur when someone is held against their will,” said State Senator Paul Thurmond, a Republican, explaining that he would vote to remove the flag.

“I am not proud of this heritage,” said Mr. Thurmond.

“We must take down the Confederate flag and we must take it down now. But if we stop there, we have cheated ourselves out of an opportunity to start a different conversation about healing in our state,” Thurmond continued. “I am ready.”

Here is the video of State Senator Thurmond:

Everyone should be proud of their heritage, where they come from and the culture of the people from whom they descend.  But that is not the same thing as being proud of the bad things done by people who preceded us, and the bad things done in the name of the confederacy and the principles for which it stood and affirmed were bad principles. This does not, as claimed by Fox News liar and buffoon Bill O'Reilly, mean we honor all war dead because they "fought hard".  Nazi soldiers fought hard in WW II; British soldiers and mercenary soldiers fought hard in the American Revolution.  The Swastika is not flown in Europe (although the confederate flag IS flown as a proxy for it) and we do not fly the Union Jack to honor our British heritage and those who fought on the side of the loyalists either.  There are plenty of other, better ways to deal with the challenges of mixed good-and-bad heritage, better and less oppressive and less offensive ways that do not constitute engaging in hate symbolism. No matter how you try to spin the Confederate flag, it represents sedition, disloyalty, violence, domestic terrorism, sabotage, assassination, and treason against the United States.  And it continues to embarrass us all world wide.  For example, in the Ukraine, we have our heritage, our southern white supremacist, racist, brutal and abusive national stain displayed to our very current shame:

Why are Nazi & Confederate flags on display in Kiev?

When Kiev’s City Hall was seized with guns and Molotov cocktails, one of the first acts of the Euromaidan street fighters was to unfurl a number of flags and insignia. Prominent among the flags were swastikas, Iron Crosses, Nazi SS lightning bolts, the Celtic cross used by the Ku Klux Klan, and the Confederate “stars and bars” flag of slaveholders in the United States. (tinyurl.com/ltfu4vq) This is no accident. The flag of the U.S. Southern slaveholders and the Klan cross are symbols understood around the world. They stand for racism, reaction, lynchings and mass terror, for keeping oppressive institutions intact and for beating down people of color and all those who struggle for a better world. Racists from across Europe have traveled to Kiev. Wearing these symbols on their helmets and jackets, these thugs roamed Kiev and defaced the homes of Jews. They destroyed memorials to those who fought the Nazi invasion and occupation of the Ukraine in World War II.

Here is a Ukraine Confederate flag, and a Ukraine Naziee flag: Feel the pride NOW, Senator Lindsey, Governor Haley?  THIS is that ol' Confederate Heritage you revere so dearly. No matter how much you try to pretend that states rights was a legitimate cause, it was a wrong cause in the civil war, and has been a wrong cause in every iteration since the civil war.  There is a reason we have the supremacy clause in the U. S. constitution; it is because when states try to deviate from that federal supremacy it has been consistently contrary and disloyal to that constitution, and has consistently been an attempt to justify the indefensible -- slavery was just one of many bad things that support for states rights has attempted to make appear valid or legitimate. Nullification has been another. The same has been true of attempts to suppress voter rights, to legislate segregation, anti-miscegenation, and the rest of Jim Crow, and to behave in bigoted ways towards the LGBT community, and to promote the pseudo-science of creationism.  And last but not least, it has been used to try to justify even more stupid proposals such as individual states currency.  That is far from a complete or encyclopedic list; states rights is what bad people, conservative bad people, fall back on to try to force through evil and foolish laws. It is imperative we do not continue the LIE about the Confederacy, the civil war -- an aggression STARTED by the south, or about the symbols of hate that represent an evil stain on our nation. It is impossible to defend the indefensible, and it is made worse by those who keep trying.  Own the bad, repudiate the bad ALL OF IT) and then, and only then, can we move on in something other than a vicious circle of more evil and further stain on our nation.

Dear Governor Haley, about that Confederate flag that is still flying on your state house grounds

About those confederate flags, and images of flags -- ANY confederate flags -- NO, pretending they are innocently ONLY about southern pride or heritage is not a compromise, it does not work, it is not EVER acceptable (with the exception of historic re-enactment). 

On Monday June 22, Haley held a presser where she apprehensively called for the S.C. state legislature to take down the flag -- if they want to, kinda sorta.  If they don't want to do so, she offered no alternative to get that flag out of the faces of people oppressed by it.

If she had actual courage and conviction, Governor Haley, would take it down by executive order, and let happen as a result whatever needs to happen, including legal challenges -- and there are plenty ready, willing and able to make those challenges to get the flag down and keep it gone.

Moreover, I thought  Haley looked scared to death making her little speech, and probably she should be scared; scared of the political fall out from voters and donors, scared of the possibility the next white racist bullets are shooting at her. 

Let's be candid shall we, about Haley's ties to the same White Supremacists who are still claiming that alleged mass shooter Dylann Roof had justifiable grievances.  She has been in state politics too long not to know who these people were.  The only real 'compromise', to use a word that has flown around this controversy like the confederate flag in a high wind, has been with integrity and support for civil rights.  The following certainly shows how bad those people Governor Haley calls good really are.

From the Charleston City Paper back in late May of 2013, just two short years ago:

Nikki Haley appoints member of white power organization to campaign

Roan Garcia-Quintana is board member of Council of Concerned Citizens

The Post and Courier just dropped a doozy of a story: Gov. Nikki Haley has appointed an alleged member of a white supremacist organization to her campaign. The man in question: Roan Garcia-Quintana. The group: the Council of Conservative Citizens.
The P&C reports:

Gov. Nikki Haley is under attack from the National Jewish Democratic Council because one of her campaign co-chairs has ties to a hate group. Haley appointed a tea party activist named Roan Garcia-Quintana of Greenville as one of her 164 campaign co-chairs.
The Southern Poverty Law Center issued a recent report noting Garcia-Quintana is a member of the Council of Conservative Citizens. National Jewish Democratic Council executive director Aaron Keyak said the council has links to anti-Semitism.

Now, how did Tim Pearson, Haley's one-time chief of staff and current campaign manager, respond. Did he say that Garcia-Quintana had been given the boot? Did he apologize to the National Jewish Democratic Council, the NAACP, and, well, anybody who hates racist assholes? Did he admit that the Haley campaign had unwittingly appointed an alleged member of a hate group to the team? Nope. Pearson did what those in the Haley camp always do: He pointed the finger at someone else.
The P&C reports:

Asked about the National Jewish Democratic Council’s criticism, Haley campaign manager Tim Pearson said it “is clearly ginned up by some outside group.”

Well, Tim, this is more than a controversy ginned up by some outside group. It's a real fucking controversy. See, if the Council of Conservative Citizens had their way, Nikki Haley wouldn't be living in the United States, much less in the South Carolina governor's mansion.
According to the CofCC's Statement of Principles, written by former Washington Times columnist and racist Sam Francis:

We believe the United States is a European country and that Americans are part of the European people. We believe that the United States derives from and is an integral part of European civilization and the European people and that the American people and government should remain European in their composition and character. We therefore oppose the massive immigration of non-European and non-Western peoples into the United States that threatens to transform our nation into a non-European majority in our lifetime. We believe that illegal immigration must be stopped, if necessary by military force and placing troops on our national borders; that illegal aliens must be returned to their own countries; and that legal immigration must be severely restricted or halted through appropriate changes in our laws and policies. We also oppose all efforts to mix the races of mankind, to promote non-white races over the European-American people through so-called “affirmative action” and similar measures, to destroy or denigrate the European-American heritage, including the heritage of the Southern people, and to force the integration of the races.

Yeah, there's nothing to see here, but Tim Pearson and the Haley campaign trying to wipe egg off their faces.
Oh, and one more thing. S.C. Democratic Party chair Dick Harpootlian is a douchebag too. Seriously, Dems. Do you really want a guy who says that Nikki Haley should go “to wherever the hell she came from” as your leader? It's about time you gave this intolerant, homophobic asshole the boot.
Update: The Southern Poverty Law Center first broke this story two days ago. Here's what they have to say:

In anticipation of her 2014 re-election campaign, the Tea Party darling [Nikki Haley] has put together a 164-member steering committee comprising folks from all 46 of her state’s counties. And on that list is one “Republican leader” and Tea Party activist named Roan Garcia-Quintana of Greenville.
The name won’t ring many bells outside of the South Carolina political world. But he’s better known in white nationalist, anti-immigrant and neo-Confederate circles.
Garcia-Quintana is a lifetime member and current board member of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), which is listed as a white nationalist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The CCC is the linear descendant of the old White Citizens Councils, which were formed in the 1950s and 1960s to battle school desegregation in the South, and has evolved into a crudely racist organization. Its website, for example, has published pictures comparing pop singer Michael Jackson to an ape and referred to blacks as “a retrograde species of humanity.”

The SPLC adds:
Garcia-Quintana is also a rabid nativist, even though he’s a naturalized citizen who was born in Havana. He’s executive director of the anti-immigrant group Americans Have Had Enough, based in Mauldin, S.C., where he lives. At the 2008 CCC conference held in Sheffield, Ala., Garcia-Quintana referred to Latino immigration as an “illegal alien invasion.” In September 2006, Garcia-Quintana’s nativist organization received proceeds from a barbecue fundraiser featuring former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado. Tancredo, who was one of the most virulently anti-immigrant members of Congress, was listed as honorary chairman of Americans Have Had Enough and is currently listed on the group’s website as the “Past Honorary Chairman."...

Although Cuban by birth, Garcia-Quintana does not consider himself Latino. His ancestors, he says, were Spaniards and this makes him white. He refers to himself as “Havana born, Savannah raised” and as a “Confederate Cuban.”

When YOU, Governor Haley claim that electing an Indian American woman, somehow FIXES or changes the history of that flag, you were wrong, desperately wrong.  It is incomprehensible how you think your personal experience somehow negated or rewrote the rest of much more significant history.  That is too low a bar for considering racism resolved.  Especially when your own opposition from your own conservative party engaged in racial slurs against you and against black Americans, notably the President, without any apparent consequences for his bigotry.  This is symptomatic of your state party, governor.  These are the people you are defending for flying the confederate flags.

From 'the State' back in June 2010:

Knotts' slur stirs the Haley storm

Lexington state Sen. Jake Knotts called political rival and Republican gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley a “raghead” on an Internet political talk show Thursday evening.
The term is a slur typically used against Arabs or other ethnic groups who wear turbans or headdresses. Haley, a state representative from Lexington, is the child of Indian immigrants.
“We already got one raghead in the White House,” Knotts said. “We don’t need another in the Governor’s Mansion.”
According to those present and watching the show, “Pub Politics,” Knotts also talked at length about Haley’s parents’ religion and her family. Haley was raised as a Sikh, but converted to Methodist and has said she attends both services. “Pub Politics” host Wesley Donehue said the video will be posted today.
Haley’s religion was raised as an issue during her first S.C. House run in 2004, when anonymous fliers claimed — inaccurately — that she was a Hindu.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article14385950.html#storylink=cpy

ead more here: http://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article14385950.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article14385950.html#storylink=cpy

Pretty much what Haley's statements asserts is that you and a few others like Governor Jindal got yours, so screw anyone else. 

You got yours, governor...but for how much longer?  How long until these racists throw you under the bus as their enemy, as the evil 'other' for forcing the issue of the confederate flag and for not upholding or giving cover to their racism?

Apparently Haley expects us to pretend that there is no continuing discrimination against immigrants, like your family, in America who have become citizens.  What that tends to represent is not so much that you are genuinely accepted fully as it represents a lack of political talent in those respective states as alternatives. 

Neither of Haley or Jindal are actually very popular, even with your own narrow political colleagues; but conservative efforts at voter suppression prevented a full and successful participation in the election process.

Apparently Haley expects us all to selectively forget that, for example, when an Indian American woman who was Miss New York, Nina Davulari, became Miss America?  Did Haley somehow MISS the headlines like this one?

From NPR:

Is Nina Davuluri 'American Enough' To Be Miss America?

...It was the 87th year of the competition, and Davuluri was one of two Asian-Americans in the final round. Although she's just a few days into her reign, Davuluri has already made history. She's the first Indian-American Miss America.

Her win highlights how far the U.S. has come, but also how far the country has to go: Racist tweets flooded in on Twitter right after her victory.

It's not like the NPR piece is the only one to address the racism that erupted.  Gawker had a piece as well, as did other media like Jezebel.  They not only underline the continuing anti-Indian American racism (as distinct from Native American racism, that continues as well) but the ignorance of the hatriots when it comes to geography and comparative religion, an ignorance they often display in their failure to master literacy in English spelling.

Racists Are Being Hella Racist Because Miss America Isn't White

...Idiot racists got so mad, they started mixing up Indian, Indian-American, Arab, Muslim, and everything in between. It's (literarily) a most impressive display of dumb mixed with intolerance and even more stupidity. USA! USA! USA!

and to cover how inclusive the 'n' word is when it comes to your own ethnicity, Gov. Haley:

Sand nigger is up #missamerica

             — Chris Black (@ChrisBlack57) September 16, 2013

Don't you have to be American to win Miss AMERICA this bitch is some type of Indian

— BIG GLUTE CURL (@pow_pow65) September 16, 2013

We have a black president and an Asian Miss America. This ain't Merica no more guys.

— ♚Camille (@camillemixon) September 16, 2013

Well we all know Obama bought that pageant! — ♔♚TyAnn♚♔ (@tyann_m) September 16, 2013

HAHAHAH a black girl on Miss America gets voted off and they ask what she is gonna do when she gets back. her reply "GONNA EAT SOME KFCCCC"

— jade lynch (@jadee_lynchh) September 16, 2013

We have a black president and an Asian Miss America. This ain't Merica no more guys.

— ♚Camille (@camillemixon) September 16, 2013

and from the perpetually offensive and inaccurate conservative pandering Fox News talking head:

toddstarnes ✔ @toddstarnes

The liberal Miss America judges won't say this - but Miss Kansas lost because she actually represented American values. #missamerica 9:53 PM - 15 Sep 2013

So, other than establishing "you got yours", Governor Haley, please show us how your election in any way represents a deficiency of racism such that NOW it's ok to fly a symbol of historic through to PRESENT day racism?  You can't, because like a typical conservative, facts are not your friend.

I have to say, I'm particularly offended at ugly white racism towards children because when you can work up a good sweaty hate against children, then you really have some powerful hate going on.

That children from Indian families have dominated the National Spelling Bee for the past 15 years, give or take, is beyond dispute, MPR News reports. An Indian-American child has won every year for the past 7 years, and 11 of the past 15 years.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to sit very well with certain social media users, who have made racist posts — directed at children — about the Indian dominance of the Bee.

Grab a comfy ringside seat, pop some pop corn and sit back to watch the under-the-bus-throwing that is likely to take place next. Governo Haley is an inferior outsider to the racist GOP, and she is no longer being their good little token woman, toen minority puppet, so she will have to go; the only questions left are when and how. Apparently the local media have contacted every member of the South Carolina legislature, the folks Haley is expecting to 'do the right thing' -- and they are refusing to answer, much less declare they will accede to her request.  Reality is about to collide with pretend in the south.

Conservative policies - the policies of wealth and income disparity and the uneven playing field

Gay Marriage did not do this Abortion did not do this Racism and conservatism DID THISRight wing propaganda DID THIS

Behold the Confederate heritage that attaches to this symbol

and to all those ugly-minded conservatives who embrace this emblem, who have no connection to the South, but are just assholes.

Wishing a Happy Father's Day and a Joyous Solstice to Our Readers

Celebrate one or both of the holidays occurring today -- enjoy!  It is the longest day of sunlight of the year, so you should be able to manage both, if you wish.

from abc news

Former Sec State and General, Colin Powell

S.C.- take down that confederate flag of TREASON and RACISM NOW!

Editorial cartoon from the Boston Globe:

150 Years Ago Today, President Abraham Lincoln Issued the Emancipation Proclimation

It continues to be celebrated, even as forms of racism survive in this nation. Celebration is winning, freedom is winning, no matter how deep the residual racism runs.

Red Neck, Red-state Racist Southern Gun-Worshipping Old-Style Segregationist Is another Mass Shooter

As  the right wing propaganda machine jerks and contorts their message to control the sheep, we see them trying to hijack the narrative of this tragedy so they can trot out another false claim of victimization, asserting this was an attack on Christians and Christianity.

The right wants to deny any racism exists, ever, especially when it is their own racism they're trying to pretend doesn't exist -- when it clearly does exist.

It was not a victimization of Christians. It is the old traditional Southern White Christians, of the far right "hatriot" variety, that are bent on attack. The kind that in the past burned down black churches and lynched black civil rights advocates.

It is the right wing extremists that are the greatest threat, more so than Islamic extremists, within our borders.  It is also the largely conservative vigilante gun culture, the gun culture which promotes the notion that everyone should have a gun so that everyone can individually shoot it out with whomever they have a conflict.  We also see that in the narrative hijacking from the right, including one particularly offensive black token asshat who is now insisting that black churches (or perhaps all churches) should be armed because of this incident -- and legal abortion, gay marriage, or because it is a day of the week that appears on a calendar.  We see THAT hijacking of the tragedy narrative with lies about violence like the notion that gun free zones should be blamed for mass shootings.  The factual evidence shows the opposite, but the right never lets facts get in the way of their narrative hijacking.  It is essential to their identity and to their emotional status that they FEEL like they can shoot someone else if they want or need to do so ---- and THAT is arguably a part of this tragedy in so far as the shooter also felt that he could and should go shoot up the people in this church  "for a good reason - the whole bullshit rape our women, taking over our country" pretext.  THAT is straight up gun culture right wing nut thinking.

We do NOT live, in the 21st century, in a frontier shoot-your-food world anymore, other than for hobbyists.  We do live in the 21st century, in a world of law, not vigilantism.  Make no mistake, this was an act of terrorism, but it was also an act of vigilantism - taking individual violent action for what appeared to this individual to be legitimate grounds. 

We will not end mass shootings by trying to understand individual motivation; that motivation is emotional and the reasoning behind it is not driven by fact, and operates on murky thinking.  We will end mass shootings, and for that matter other kinds of shootings like murder suicides, by ending the premise that everyone should have a gun and shoot people when they feel justified in doing so.  Our so-called gun culture is not culture at all, it is not civilized, it is not rational, it has no place in our world any longer. 

During the shooting in the church, Dylann Roof was reported by survivors to have said:

"You rape our women, and you're taking over our country. And you have to go," [and that he was there] "to shoot black people."

Roof's motive seems pretty clear, and unambiguous, and not anti-Christian.  It does reek of that far right hubris that this country is a white conservative religious entitlement, something to take away from others - as are women, another kind of owned property that belongs to them.

Roof (pronounced like cough)was known to be a pill-popper who frequently went about armed, wearing clothing with the flags of previously racist African nations, the South African flag from their apartheid era, and the flag of segregationist Rhodesia between 1965 and 1994, eras ending before his lifetime. Those flags are a modern symbol of 21st century white supremacists.

From the New York Times

Dylann Roof, Charleston Suspect, Wore Symbols of White Supremacy
CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Facebook profile picture chosen by Dylann Storm Roof in May is thick with symbolism. It shows Mr. Roof, a scowling young white man, against a distinctly Southern backdrop: a swamp dripping with Spanish moss. His black jacket is adorned with two flags — one from apartheid-era South Africa, the other from white-ruled Rhodesia — that have been adopted as emblems by modern-day white supremacists.

From the same NYT article:

“He used drugs heavily a lot,” Mr. Mullins added. “He was like a pill popper, from what I understood. Like Xanax, and stuff like that.”

Mr. Roof “had that kind of Southern pride, I guess some would say — strong conservative beliefs,” Mr. Mullins said. “He made a lot of racist jokes, but you don’t really take them seriously like that. You don’t really think of it like that.”

Racism should NOT be something we blow off as normal, no big deal.  Too often it is, as evidenced by right wing so-called editorial humor, and also by right wing very serious voter suppression against people of color.



 A drop out, apparently unemployed, racist pill popper? Among conservatives too often that is no disqualification for gifting someone with a gun.  They're just 'good ol' boys', 'you don't need education', 'one of us', we NEED a gun, appears to be the thinking, however badly flawed.

I personally, from my experience traveling in the south, have a problem with the Southern notion that kind of joke is 'ok', something to blow off as 'not serious', when it is ugly and racist. Too many conservatives in the south (and elsewhere) do not. Which all seems to me of a piece with white far right conservative South Carolina governor Nikki Haley supporting flying the confederate flag, a symbol of pride in traditions of white supremacy, and a symbol with which Roof posed for photos, apparently in support of the original use of the confederate flag, as push back in South Carolina against civil rights and as a gesture of opposition to segregation.  It is associated with the worst excesses of slavery and racist persecution.  It gives social cover, normalcy,tolerance and acceptance to things that should be anathema.

As Jon Stewart noted, even the roads on which people drive in South Carolina are named for confederate generals.  It is time to stop glorifying racists, and to stop pretending that is an era of southern history that deserves honoring or respect.  It does not.  But so long as the south pretends it does, expect to see it contribute to racism among the right wing domestic terrorists with their guns.

Don't act surprised when it happens again, either racism or another mass shooting.

The Confederate flag is only PART of the problem; we have a racism problem AND a gun violence problem

Colbert Stomps & Tromps all over '"the Donald's" announcement: Trump is the King of Tacky, but NEVER, EVER will Trump put his name anywhere on or in the White House as President.

All Hail to the great satiric mind of the one and only Colbert!