North Bay’s Timothy Joseph Elzinga snapped the photos on his cellphone camera on Jan. 6. (Timothy Joseph Elzinga).
“It looked like someone from Star Trek was trying to beam people up,” Elzinga said.
Yes, it does! How cool. You can read all about the pillars of light here.
Chickadee Whoooosh, click for full size. It’s Friday the 13th, it’s gonna be a great day!
© C. Ford.
Elizabeth Warren questions Ben Carson at a Senate confirmation hearing (screen grab).
It is still so difficult to process that Ben Carson is going to be in charge of anything, let alone Housing and Urban Development. This is a man who can barely string a sentence together, and when he does, it’s usually a mess, as he’s not someone you could describe as quick on the uptake. As usual, he’s ill-informed and clueless. It’s rather obvious he doesn’t much care if HUD is used to funnel money into Trump’s pockets, either. It’s not even clear whether or not that had occurred to him at some point.
At Carson’s confirmation hearing for secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Warren noted that President-elect Donald Trump will be uniquely positioned to benefit from HUD contracts due to his real estate business. During a press conference a day earlier, Trump had revealed a plan * to allow his sons to run his business instead of putting his assets in a blind trust as other presidents have done.
“My concern is that among the billions of dollars that you will be responsible for handing out in grants in loans,” Warren said to Carson. “Can you just assure us that not one dollar will go to benefit either the president-elect or his family?”
“It will not be my intention to do anything to benefit any American,” Carson declared boldly. “It’s for all Americans.”
[…]
After Carson had a flustered moment, he came out with this:
“You can take it to mean that I will manage things in a way that benefits the American people,” Carson insisted. “If there happens to be an extraordinarily good program that’s working for millions of people and it turns out that someone that you’re targeting is going to gain $10 from it, am I going to say, ‘No, the rest of you Americans can’t have it’? I think logic and common sense probably would be the best way.”
Warren had the correct response to that puddle of lukewarm vomit:
Warren replied: “The problem is that you can’t assure us that HUD money — not of $10 varieties, but of multi-million dollar varieties — will not end up in the president-elect’s pockets.”
“And the reason you can’t assure us of that is because the president elect is hiding his family’s business interests from you, from me, from the rest of America,” the senator said. “And this just highlights the absurdity and the danger of the president-elect’s refusal to put his assets in a true blind trust.”
“He knows what will benefit him and his family financially but the public doesn’t.”
And there’s the big old rub to it all. Trump refused to hand over his taxes, so he could be worth much less than he claims, how would we know? Trump refuses to obey nepotism laws, insisting on making “president” a family job. Trump refuses to place his assets in a blind trust, openly intending to use the office of president to strongarm a whole lot of money into his pockets. For all the Trump-Idiots out there, how well would any of this openly corrupt garbage have gone down with President Obama, or any other president? Would have been howling your heads off, wouldn’t you? Fucking hypocrites.
I edited out the ‘controversial’ in that link. I am sick to death of media latching onto the word controversial to describe things which are outright fucking wrong. Any time you see ‘controversial’ being used, it’s yet another part of normalising every thing that is immoral and wrong.
Via Raw Story.
While I’ve been dozing under my rock, yet another type of insidious bigotry is drenching the ‘net, based on the time immemorial pastime of linking LGBT peoples with pedophilia.
Martin Shkreli has given the LGBT community another reason to despise him.
The pharmaceutical executive, who rose to infamy by hiking the price of a drug used for an AIDS-related condition by more than 5,000 percent, is now promoting “clovergender,” an identity concocted by trolls to mock LGBT people.
Before his Twitter account was suspended for harassing a Teen Vogue writer, Shkreli urged his followers January 4 to “please spread clovergender awareness.” The term, which has sprung up on several social media accounts early this year, appeared to be used by adult individuals claiming to be “a child trapped in a man’s body who is attracted to other children.”
However, “clovergender” is a hoax. Snopes debunked it, tracing the birth of “clovergender” and this definition, which ridicules the identity of transgender and gender-nonbinary people, to a 4chan thread from December 31.
“We’re creating a new gender to trolls SJWs with,” posted an anonymous user, in a reference to “social justice warriors.” They then coined “clovergender” and ascribed fake preferred pronouns like “cl / clir /climself.”
“We will be trolling on Tumblr and Facebook,” the user stated. Another replied, “I see potential in this.”
Just what this sociopathic asshole has to gain from this, I don’t know, and it really doesn’t matter. I guess it’s just his way of getting his kicks. The potential for damage is overwhelming though, and it’s not like people in general don’t already have a whole lot of hatred for LGBT peoples anyway. They do, and those who are always looking for any reason to fire up that hate will grab this garbage and run with it. We have one state after another attempting to legislate bigotry and hate, and I imagine there will legislators who will seize on this as well, in order to shore up their always faulty reasoning.
After gaining momentum on the message boards of 4chan and Reddit, the term did indeed find its way to broader social media. A new Facebook page claimed to be created in response to “the horrible pain and backlash somee [sic] Clovergender people receive. We are against that. We think a kid should do what he wants.”
[…]
Several Twitter accounts, which follow and retweet LGBT outlets and influencers, are also attempting to intertwine the fake cause with the real-life movement. At least one has attributed Shkreli’s Twitter ban to clovergender discrimination.
The ruse duped some folks on social media, who reacted with disgust to the “clovergender” community.
The myth of the sexual predator has dogged the LGBT community since time immemorial. The call for “bathroom bills,” which prohibit transgender people from using restrooms that correspond with their gender identity, is the most recent example of how conservatives are painting queer people as perverts. “Clovergender,” if it perpetuates, will only continue to stoke these mistruths and biases.
So. We find ourselves back at the beginning again, folks, having to fight this blatant lie again, over and over. Be aware of this, spread the word, get the truth out there, we all know the drill.
Full story at The Advocate.
Every Moment Counts, 1989, Rotimi Fani-Kayode.
Conversation with a Mannequin, 2013, Kelvin Atmadibrata
performance for the camera.
Lovers Lane, 2016, Sharmar Johnson
White pencil Black paper, 22×28.
A Pile of Crowns, for Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1988, Keith Haring
acrylic on canvas, 108×120,
Keith Haring artwork © Keith Haring Foundation.
…“In our work and in our living, we must recognize that difference is a reason for celebration and growth, rather than a reason for destruction.” Reflecting on this quote by Audre Lorde, I know that these sentiments are the way forward. Although, I am honestly a bit anxious about the next four years, I see strength and intelligence in these artists. I love the humor in RALPH HALL’s piece Bassethound, which pictures a fluorescent dog with butt plug. I also salute the tenacity of young artists like Kia Labeija. As seen in all their work, many of the artists in the Visual AIDS Artist+ Registry share the same love of an eclectic bunch of leaders that I do. We stand on the shoulders of heroes, like Harriet Tubman, Gordon Parks, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Grace Jones, Frankie Knuckles, Lady Bunny, Marlon Riggs, Tina Turner and countless others. Brave hearts are not a new concept; this struggle is part of our DNA.
The featured gallery from Visual Aids December 2016. Beautiful, poignant work, you can see it all here.
Now-Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX), during his 2012 campaign CREDIT: AP Photo/Pat Sullivan.
A day after Donald Trump shouted down CNN reporter Jim Acosta at his first “press conference” since July and accused his network of providing “fake news,” a Republican Congressman is demanding that Acosta be fired.
Two years ago to the day, Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX) made national news for a tweet comparing the president of the United States — unfavorably — to Hitler. He laterapologized for his observation that “Even Adolph [sic] Hitler thought it more important than Obama to get to Paris. (For all the wrong reasons.) Obama couldn’t do it for right reasons,” and deleted the tweet.
He never removed a January 2014 tweet in which he called Obama “Kommandant-In-Chef”… the Socialistic dictator,” nor others suggesting POTUS stood for “Poor Obama Trashed U.S.”
But now, apparently, Weber has decided that being rude to the president is an offense worthy of firing.
On Thursday morning, he tweeted:
The CNN reporter who was disruptive to the press briefing, & disrespectful to Trump-should be fired & prohibited from any press briefings.
— Randy Weber (@TXRandy14) January 12, 2017
The CNN reporter who was disruptive to the press briefing, & disrespectful to Trump-should be fired & prohibited from any press briefings.
Ah, where’s that ferocious con love for free speech? As always, it’s the first casualty whenever there’s criticism or hard questions.
Via Think Progress.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) speaks during a health care news conference to oppose Republicans’ effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. CREDIT: AP Photo/Evan Vucci.
In a classical villain move, the rethugs met in the middle of the night to kill off healthcare. PZ has posted about this, and Think Progress has a comprehensive look at what went down.
I’m just going to focus on the fear, the terror, the despair. Every single fucking person who voted for that sick fucker Trump, every single fucking person who didn’t bother to strike a valid vote against him, ever single fucking person who bleats about voting republican because, there simply are not enough deeply nasty words for you. There isn’t anything out there compared to the bone deep ugly inside of yourselves. Rotten to the godsdamn core, all of you who brought this about. :spits:
And one more fucking time: The Affordable Care Act, which has now been gutted out of fucking spite, is the same thing as Obamacare.
Amelia
@keithellison As a breast cancer survivor, this is a death sentence for me.
***
As a Stage 3 cancer survivor I’m ineligible for life insurance and soon won’t be able to afford health insurance. Is this how “great” feels?
***
Mike TI have cystic fibrosis. If the ACA is repealed people like me will lose coverage. People like me will die. #SavetheACA
***
Regular Sized ReneeAs a veteran my health insurance is covered under the ACA.
***
Jen ishI have a chronic disease. #SaveACA means I can be self-employed with coverage and schedule work around my illness. Without it? Who knows.
***
Cindy Baldwin2. Without the protections in the ACA, I will run out of health insurance in 1-2 years thanks to the reinstatement of lifetime limits.
***
Ange@SenSchumer so my pre-x condition of cancer will screw me and a recurrence will kill me…
***
Just the tiniest sample of those millions of people who will now find themselves in untenable and intolerable situations, thanks to all those who voted in mega-assholes who think running on spite and hate is a fine fucking thing.
Via Raw Story.
Like many other states, legislators are rushing in all their transphobic policies, attempting to turn bigotry and hate into law. Alabama’s attempt is a bit different, seeing as it demands lavatory attendants. The purpose of said attendants isn’t entirely clear.
While several conservative states are preparing “bathroom bills” for the upcoming legislative session, Alabama’s anti-LGBT bill is changing the game by requiring costly bathroom attendants.
The bill, prefiled by Alabama Sen. Phil Williams, is called the “Alabama Privacy Act.” If passed, the bill would require public places with bathrooms or changing rooms to have single-person rooms, rooms for multiple people of the same gender, or rooms for people “irrespective of their gender” staffed by a bathroom attendant.
If a public place fails to provide these options, a fine of $2,000 will be imposed for the first violation, increased to $3,500 for each violation afterward.
The bill’s language is odd for several reasons. First, the bill does nothing to define what “gender” means—something that other conservative legislatures have taken great pains to do in opposition of the transgender community. Second, it’s not entirely clear what purpose a bathroom attendant would serve in gender-neutral bathrooms. The bill says they would “monitor the use of the restroom and answer any questions or concerns posed by users.”
Answer any questions? Really. Umm, I’d think people who had no problem with a unisex type lav wouldn’t have any particular questions. Just what are they expecting here, someone to rush in with an urgent need to piss, and must know, right now, should they stand or sit? I’m pretty sure all the homophobic and transphobic bigots out there don’t want to be going into a all gender lav. Or maybe they do, what do I know?
After years of chasing a laugh track on How I Met Your Mother, the actor is following roles in Gone Girl and American Horror Story with Netflix’s new Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, based on the classic children’s books. In the new super-stylized series, Harris stars as the villainous Olaf, who becomes the guardian of three orphans solely to abscond with their fortune.
“I’m drawn to puzzles and darkness,” says Harris. “The Alfred Hitchcock–y vibe is something I’ve been into since I was kid, and I loved Gene Wilder’s take on Willy Wonka and Bridge to Terabithia.”
Aside from being just plain rotten, Harris’s alter ego is also a rotten aspiring musical-theater actor — basically, a much crappier, much uglier version of himself.
“Playing someone so miserable makes things hard to complain about,” says Harris, who spends two and a half hours having prosthetics applied for the role. “I can ingest my annoyances and use them.”
Going by the trailer, Harris also infuses the role of Count Olaf with humor. A performance to look forward to, along with the rest of the cast.
Via Out.
Click for full size.
© C. Ford.
From rq: Because sometimes you have to take a bad photo of the moon and Venus (I presume), subtly underlit by the sodium streetlights. Click for full size.
© rq, all rights reserved.
Downy Woodpecker, click for full size.
© C. Ford.
Facebook banned God, who has over 3 million followers, for the above post. Facebook God is a progressive sort of god, and I guess that got up some FB angel’s nose.
While God might not be safe from the wrath of Facebook, his swift reinstatement shows that hell hath no fury like millions of social media fans who want their deity back.
Last week, God – the verified Facebook page with more than three million followers – posted the following: “Dear Americans, Stop making your military so damn huge and give people medicine and education because you’re sick and stupid. Thanks, God.”
Two days later, God was slapped with a 30-day ban.
God, being God, wasn’t having it though. “I posted this opinion on the day it was announced that Obamacare will be defunded and 24 million people will lose their healthcare,” he said in an article on Good. “The opinion goes viral, gaining over 100,000 likes and 15,000 shares. A few hundred people disagree with the opinion. Rather than move on, or even use the ‘angry’ reaction face, what do they do? They report the opinion as being offensive.”
“Today I was notified by FB that My Account has been restored! THANK YOU, HUMANS! I am sure that the huge response from you yesterday was the difference in achieving this so quickly,” God wrote.
“YOU. YOU ARE AWESOME.”