Did you just ask for someone to show respect to Donald Trump?

Hi,

You must have recently asked for someone to be respectful to Donald Trump. Go fuck yourself and eat shit.

Why?

Trump is a thing which mocked a disabled person in front of a massive crowd to get applause.

Trump is a thing which suggested an American judge could not do his job because he had Mexican heritage.

Trump is a thing which has been calling women fat pigs in public for around a decade.

Trump is a thing which insulted his political opponents by calling them names.

Trump is a thing which threatened to jail his political opponents.

Trump is a thing which insulted the family of a dead soldier for political gain.

Trump is a thing which bragged about hitting on married women and grabbing other women by the pussy.

Trump is a thing which bragged about being able to walk in on beauty pageant contestants as they undressed because he owned the pageant.

Trump is a thing which insulted a civil rights hero who marched for equality as a man who was “all talk” and “no action.”

Trump is a thing which insulted an American war hero and said he wasn’t a war hero because he got captured.

——–

Anyone with half an hour and an internet connection could compile a list of hundreds of instances of Trump being disrespectful to other people, many of whom he doesn’t even know.

And you want this guy to be shown respect? Have you been asleep for the last two decades? Are you for real?

Get fucked and eat shit.

Thanks for your time.

Why Trump Won

It’s been a week and a half since Judgment Day, and I have really been on a media diet. No TV, no news articles, no political video watching on Youtube, no facebook—nothing. Usually, I’d be all over that shit. I took over a week off. I needed time to think.

Yesterday and today were sort of my first forays back into the morass that is American politics, and I’ve found it much the way I left it: a disaster.

Without getting into any tangents, let me be clear:

The reason Donald Trump is our next president is because white people in this country could no longer tolerate black people, religious minorities, and women standing up for themselves.

In Black Lives Matter, in the Trayvon Martin shooting, in the Planned Parenthood smear, in the dozens of rape cases where women are denied their humanity, and in the Khan family, white America was shown that black people, women, and Muslims are not afraid to stand and declare themselves equal to the white, male majority. Especially with black voices, social media allowed them to amplify themselves and become a force in the American political realm. Black people, loudly and effectively, aired their grievances for everyone to hear, and no one could escape their voice.

Donald Trump was the response.

Donald Trump is white, male America telling the rest of America to sit down, shut up, and stop complaining about any injustice they feel like they’ve endured. Donald Trump is white, male America fed-up with the idea of “white privilege.” Donald Trump is white, male America telling black people not to be so lazy. Donald Trump is white, male America pointing to violence in black communities as evidence that blacks are inferior to whites. Donald Trump is white, male America telling American Muslims to go fuck themselves because this is a Christian nation. Donald Trump is a middle finger to every single woman who was ever assaulted and demanded justice in return.

(Today’s “Hamilton” storyline is actually pretty pitch perfect for this discussion, so I wrote about it here.)

Donald Trump did not win because of his policies. He doesn’t have any. He didn’t win because of his big ideas. He never actually explained how any of them would actually work.

He won because he represents white America’s dying grasp on political power. He is the echoing, phlegm-soaked cough coming right before the death white America’s political autonomy. And it just gave the biggest “fuck you” to women and minorities in this country since the fight for Civil Rights.

Trumpism is a “correction” on the progress of minorities, especially blacks. Trumpism is the id of white America finally putting black people in their place.

Trumpism is white hate melded with societal power. It is a living force. Our only solace can be that it will one day die.

And until then, there will be no reconciliation. There will be no come together moments. We cannot accept the bigotry that Trump proudly represents. On every issue concerning the rights of minorities and women, it must be opposed. On every single one.

 

 

 

Politically correct.

It’s gotten to the point where whenever I see the term “politically correct,” I kind of just read it or hear it as “educated.” It’s a really handy tool. Here’s an example.

Someone says, “Things are too politically correct these days.” All I see is, “Things are too educated these days.” See how simple that makes it?

When people complain about things being politically correct, they’re complaining about the nuances of what it’s like to be living in a modern society. They yearn for the days when they could just talk about people as being “wetbacks.” Like Republican Don Young did recently. Young can’t be bothered to learn or understand how terms like “wetback” or “spic” are actually harmful to certain communities—until it threatens their political careers. Then they learn really quickly what other people have learned steadily over the last 50 years:

Language has a force to it, and using it to denigrate entire communities has real world, legitimate social effects. Every time we use words like “wetback” or “spic,” it reinforces the notion that there are “real Americans” with names like Young and “fake” Americans with names like Rodriguez or Gonzales.

This isn’t “political correctness.” It’s education and understanding, and it applies to just about every situation where groups of people are being targeted as homogenous entities. The kind of people who want to lazily talk about “the blacks,” or “Muslims,” or “the gays” as singular groups are the same kind of people who complain about things being “politically correct.” They can’t be bothered to understand the complexities of today’s America, especially the complexities of what it’s like to not be in the majority. And so they lament how other people are forcing them to confront the fact that saying things like “the blacks whatever just need to work harder, then they’ll succeed” has been and continues to be an incredibly stupid way of looking at how a society works. It’s not that simple now, and it never has been.

It used to be okay to respond to women who report rapes as though they were lying or making things up. It used to be okay to look at a woman dressed a certain way and say, “Oh, she deserved it.” It used to be okay to say, “If my son’s gay, I’m sending him away” (my father said this about me once—threatened to send me to Texas when we lived in NY). It used to be okay to call men with earrings “faggots.” (Score another one for my father! He called me that when I put on a fake, magnetic one to judge his reaction.) It used to be okay to compare gays to pedophiles. It used to be okay to say, “Hey look at that successful, talented woman over there. She’s really attractive!” It used to be okay to suggest that the way for women not to become pregnant was to keep an aspirin between their knees. And it used to be okay to say:

“There is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas he is not my equal in many respects—certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowment. But in the right to eat the bread, without leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man.” – Abraham Lincoln

But those things aren’t okay to say anymore, and it’s not because they’re politically incorrect: it’s because they’re staggeringly ignorant and ignore the real inequality that so many people in this country face on an everyday basis.

“Stop being so politically correct.” = “Stop being so educated.”

Augusta National and The Masters are a disgrace. (Update)

Update: Augusta has allowed its first two female members. It only took 79 years. Progress is slow.

Tradition is an unacceptable excuse for prejudice.

Since 1933, Augusta National Golf Club has been a place where rich men could get together and play golf. The Masters Tournament has been held at Augusta ever since 1934, and the two are virtually interchangeable. They are a brand. They have carefully orchestrated every single aspect of that brand for years. It’s always been an absolutely beautiful course, and that beauty has either been preserved or enhanced over the decades. When those iconic visuals are combined with its stature as the only location to see a “major” tournament every single year, Augusta National is not just a golf course: it’s a monolith. It’s the most famous and most revered and, in golf circles, most respected course or club in America—and likely the entire world.

And women are not allowed to be a part of it.

Millions and millions of Americans tune in every year to watch the Masters on television. The Masters and Augusta National are privatized and monetized; they make tens of millions of dollars a year. I looked into it, and the only thing I could find was this link from 2004 saying that the Masters generates $44m in revenue. I’m surprised even that number is public, as they are a private club with an incentive to keep such information hidden. They’re a for-profit, multimillion dollar business operating right here in America:

And women are not allowed to be a part of it.

It’s a classic “boy’s club.” They pick and choose who they would like to have in, and up until the 90’s, this excluded minorities. It’s a remnant of an American past where it was perfectly acceptable for a bunch of rich white men to get together and tell the women and the negroes to get the hell out.

As part of this historic tradition, each year the Masters bestows their iconic “green jackets” on the winner of the tournament as well as a few others they deem worthy. Well, who is more worthy than their corporate sponsor overlords? The CEOs of their corporate sponsors every year, historically 100% men, have also been given green jackets: a sign of acceptance and membership in the Augusta National Club.

Cue 2012. Cue IBM. Cue a potential snag.

But IBM, the technology corporation and longtime Masters sponsor, broke from a tradition like no other and hired a woman, Ginni Rometty, to head its company. Now, Augusta National Golf Club, which hosts the Masters each year, is in a pickle.
“Could Ginni Rometty Finally Force Augusta  to Change?” – Jane Mcmanus, espnW

So did that snag actually cause a change in policy and allow a woman to be treated equally alongside men?

Well, that’s not clear just yet. I guess we’ll have to wait for Sunday.  (Update: they didn’t) Even though the tournament has already begun, The Masters and Augusta National will not comment on the issue. And, while their formerly racist (though former might not even be appropriate) and thoroughly sexist history has done more than enough to stain and tarnish the esteem of the Masters and Augusta National in the eyes of any thinking, egalitarian, and non-bigoted person, Augusta clings to their prejudice in the name of tradition.

A tradition of bigotry used as an excuse to continue its bigotry.

The voices speaking about this are simply too impotent to impact the situation. The only way it might change is if people stop watching and caring. And, since it’s the biggest tournament of the year, as long as golf is still popular in America and the world, this will continue. As long as people still watch on television, and as long as those corporate sponsorships still want to reach those millions, there’s no pressure which can be exerted.

Even back about 10 years ago when sponsors completely pulled their support, the Masters went ahead anyways commercial free. These guys have enough money to do it. And they have the dedication to their bigotry, as well.

And, let’s say that this year Augusta relents and allows Rometty to become a member, it would only be seen as being done solely for corporate ties. Changing their bigoted tradition over a few million dollars: how… appropriate? How… classy?

So, regardless of the outcome of this particular story, one thing will still be true:

Augusta and the Masters are a disgrace to American civil and social progress—a vestigial marking of historical American patriarchy.

Tucker Max tried to donate $500,000 to Planned Parenthood, is an ass.

Planned Parenthood refused to accept the donation, as they should have. The only reason he would try to do this is to get his name in the media and cause a stir. If PP accepted the money, the right wing media would have had a hyper-conniption freak out. Since they did not accept the money, Max gets to play some kind of weird victim card and (along with the same right wing media who would have crushed PP had they accepted it) accuse PP of not wanting to accept the money to help women. For Max, he gets the publicity either way, and in this case, he didn’t have to spend a dime.

Really, this is a simple choice for Planned Parenthood. If they accept it, everyone in any political circle would have had issues with it. The left would be uncomfortable, the moderates would find it unseemly, and the right would go into full assault, poison the well mode. It’s not even an option.

I’ve never read Max’s books, but I’ve heard three or four interviews of him telling outlandish stories which demean and sexually objectify women. You can go find them on your own if you wish. Max has his fans, and even has his female fans, but he’s politically toxic. No one in politics wants to be associated with him in any way. Not even if he offers to give them $500,000. And that’s because he’s scum.

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley: Women Don’t Care About Contraception.

Women care about this. I swear.

I don’t even understand how these kinds of things can be said. How far away from the mainstream am I or the people I know?

“Women don’t care about contraception. They care about jobs and the economy and raising their families and all of those things.” – Nikki Haley

Think about that. There’s been a study floating around that 98% of Catholic women use birth control (even though the Church’s stance on birth control is that it’s a sin), but I always thought that number was wrong in some way. So, I did a quick google search, and sure enough, it’s somewhat misleading according to this review.  In short, it’s misleading because not all Catholic women are sexually active, and it’s also misleading because if you’ve had sex 100 times and used a condom once, you’re in that 98%. So, yeah. It doesn’t say much about the habits of Catholic women, but let’s forget about Catholic women. What about all women?

Guttmacher.org did a survey in 2010 (the same one in the link above), and it includes all American women. Here are two facts that are really interesting:

1. Virtually all women (more than 99%) aged 15–44 who have ever had sexual intercourse have used at least one contraceptive method.
2. Overall, 62% of the 62 million women aged 15–44 are currently using a method of contraception.

I’m not a scientist, but clearly, it seems like women care about contraception. They really care about it. We aren’t only talking about single women who enjoy sex with multiple partners in this survey; we’re talking about women who are married or women who are not sexually active or women in committed relationships or women who aren’t have sex at all (I’m sad for them). Including those groups, still 62% use birth control. That’s 38,440,00 women in this country using birth control. That’s a significant number.

To Governor Haley’s credit, when pressed, she did admit that women cared about contraception, but then she made an additional completely ridiculous assertion.

“While we care about contraception, let’s be clear, all we’re saying is we don’t want government to mandate when we have to have it and when we don’t. We wanna be able to make that decision. We don’t need government making that decision for us.”

Who’s forcing people to use contraception? No one’s trying to do that at all. It’s preposterous. I want you to make that decision for yourself as well, Governor Haley. The only thing in question is whether or not religious institutions should be allowed to make it more difficult or expensive for their employees to have access to contraception. That’s the only issue at hand.

Just bizarre. It’s like Haley had never talked about this before.

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Bonus stat: “Of the 2.9 million teenage women who use contraceptives, 54%—more than 1.5 million women—rely on the pill.”

First, that number should be higher. Second, let’s make it easier for kids to not get pregnant. Thanks.

What do you get when you vilify Planned Parenthood unnecessarily? Bombs.

Because potential babies matter more than living women?

So, someone bombed a Planned Parenthood in Wisconsin. Now that I think about it, is there a political party or political movement who have targeted Planned Parenthood for defunding and lies over the last year or so? Oh, that’s right. The Republican Party and conservatives. They’ve gone from lying about Planned Parenthood (Jon Kyl’s infamous statement which was “not meant to be a factual statement”) to saying that they’ll outright get rid of it (Mitt Romney’s pledge) to defunding it in a political standoff with the President (here’s messin’ with you, Texas) to pressuring the Komen foundation to stop all funding to Planned Parenthood (because Planned Parenthood and their breast exams and healthcare for poor women is evil).

So, one party has targeted Planned Parenthood, whose existence is to help women take control of their own bodies, and Planned Parenthood gets bombed.

You can disagree with abortion all you want. You can call it evil, immoral, unethical, whatever. But, you need to realize other people disagree with you, and you need to realize that bombs aren’t the answer to disagreements. I can’t believe I even have to write that down. It’s the tactic of cowards. It’s the tactic of terrorists. And if you use a bomb like this, you’re no better than the fanatical Muslims who aim to destroy this country. You’re scum, and you’re an enemy of America.

And if you’re on the Republican or conservative side, you have to make sure you don’t vilify and target an organization to the point where this kind of thing happens. Republicans and conservatives especially, because they have created an absolutely disgusting and poisonous atmosphere for this organization and the MILLIONS of American women it serves, MUST come out and denounce this in no uncertain terms. No equivocating. And if you don’t, you’re as much of a coward as the person (or people) who did this.