Natural Roles and Abilities.

jedwards_112007_180x238White nationalist James Edwards, who is credentialed by the Trump campaign, decided to speak out about Hillary Clinton, and what his god thinks about that uppity woman.

James Edwards, host of The Political Cesspool, reflected on Chelsea Clinton’s speech at the Democratic National Convention and opined that Hillary Clinton could “not be the mother God wants you to be” because she was an “extremist radical, feminist.”

“So I’m sure that there is love between Hillary Clinton and her daughter, but I did not see the family and familial bonds out of the Clinton family that I saw from the Trump family,” he explained. “Does anyone really believe that Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton sleep in the same room? Does anyone really believe that Hillary Clinton even sleeps with men?”

Weren’t you just whining about Chelsea Clinton’s speech? Do you think she came from a cabbage patch or something? Personally, I don’t think about who people might be sleeping with. None of my business. I find it more than telling that far right assholes can’t seem to think about anything else.

“Should Hillary Clinton be president of the United States?” Edwards asked his listeners, adding that “under God’s law, a woman should not even have dominion over her household.”

“There are natural roles and abilities that men and women have that are God-ordained and together, they are complementary of one another, and together, a man and a woman can raise a family,” the radio host insisted. “The husband is the ruler of the house under God’s law, and that’s the law that I abide by,”

Edwards went on to assert that the country would be “better” if women did not have the right to vote.

“I mean, ask yourself that because we see women are so — even more than men, and even though men now — need this status, they need to be accepted, they need food, water, shelter, and status in order to survive, but women especially need that,” Edwards said. “You know, I think the model before suffrage was a husband and a wife come together as a unit and the man casts the vote for that family.”

What an idiot.

Via Raw Story.

31.

Herbert Hoover lived with an uncle who was an Indian agent on the Osage Nation when he was six years old. Whitehouse.gov

Herbert Hoover lived with an uncle who was an Indian agent on the Osage Nation when he was six years old. Whitehouse.gov

Fifty years before Herbert Clark Hoover took office as the 31st president of the United States, he spent eight months living on the Osage Nation in Oklahoma, where he “learned much aboriginal lore of the woods and streams, and how to make bows and arrows.”

Hoover, who was six years old at the time, lived with an uncle who was an Indian agent. He attended “Indian Sunday-school” and “had constant association with the little Indians at the agency school,” he wrote in his memoirs.

Born to a Quaker family in Iowa in 1874, Hoover also had relatives who worked as Indian agents in Oregon and Alaska. He is the only U.S. president to have lived on an Indian reservation.

“Hoover had an empathy for the Indians,” said Matt Schaefer, an archivist at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa. “He had all these touch points with Indians as a child and young adult that led to this more enlightened Indian policy.”

[Read more…]

#TrumpDebateExcuses.

Via Raw Story.

Jesus Christ to Run for Burnley MP.

Mr. Christ plans to run to become Burnley's MP at the next election.

Mr. Christ plans to run to become Burnley’s MP at the next election.

Jesus Christ is alive and well at 77 years old, and living in Burnley.

Jesus Christ is a retired bus driver from Burnley. Well, sort of.

John Edward Birtwhistle, 77, changed his name by deed poll to that of the Messiah after realising he had ‘healing powers’ and that he was the son of God in a past life.

Despite claiming to have the extraordinary ability to heal people, Mr Christ is still struggling with shingles.

Mr Christ started believing he was heaven-sent in 1986 when people unexpectedly started calling him Jesus.

[…]

He now realises he was Jesus Christ in a past life, with memories coming back to him ‘in dreams’.

‘When I was here 2,000 years ago I was teaching these people how to live in harmony with the spirit and it was all to do with nature; grow your own food, eat fruit and veg and only drink water,’ he recounted.

[…]

‘People say Jesus changed water into wine. I didn’t do that, I changed wine into water. Alcohol is bad for you.’

Mr Christ has been suffering from some health problems in recent years but says he will not let them stand in his way.

He has been suffering from shingles since 2013 and also had a stroke two years ago.

‘I got shingles because of the stress,’ Mr Christ said.

‘I was frightened of losing my eye because it was so bad but they operated and saved it. But I’m still taking the tablets.

‘I’m trying to get off these pills but it’s up to the force. It’s the force of nature,’ he added.

[Read more…]

Simon Moya-Smith: Does the Liberty Bell Ring For Native Americans?

Peggy

Peggy Flanagan, White Earth citizen and Minnesota State Representative became first Native Woman to address DNC from the podium. Credit: Suzette Brewer.

If you missed Simon Moya-Smith’s first column on the DNC, it’s here.

DNC. Notes spanning days 2 & 3 & 4: All a blur now. This bar reeks of vomit. Old vomit. At a joint called Fridays in Philly. “I think the president or Hillary Clinton is staying across the street,” the black bartender tells me. “Right there. At The Logan.” Secret Service man the hotel doors. “That’s a lot of guns and sunglasses,” I utter. “Best to stay inside.”

[…]

Meanwhile, back here at the scene, the DNC, people can’t find a seat. Volunteers in yellow shirts block the doorway with their bodies against a hoard of excited Dems. “Try section 204. I hear they’re still letting people in there,” one says. I walk a full 360-degrees ‘round the Center. No luck. No seats. No hope. A woman in a Hillary hat, once excited, now stands in tears. No chance of getting in the arena. What’s left, then? The hallway. The muffled echo of the speaker blows in. For a moment I consider inviting the poor lady to a drink. Something to take the edge off. Dull the pain. But in an instant she’s gone, running into the fray, sobbing, asking God for a seat. “Please! Please!” Amen. Right. And to those who did land a seat they got watch Peggy Flanagan, Ojibwe, take the lectern and read a letter to her daughter where she affirmatively stated, “We (Native Americans) are still here.”

I head to the men’s room. A man in the stall sniffs once. Sniffs twice. He booms out the door. Bang! Ready, he is. Wired, for sure. Good idea. Coke and a stale hot dog it is. But the concession line’s too long. I’ve never seen a more dapper crowd clamoring for wieners. And what is the difference between something like the DNC and live theater? Is all of this just The Show? It has all the moving parts of a Broadway production. Lights! Make-up. Celebrities. Dance numbers. A script on the screen. Exhausted interns hoping to make it, break into the biz. And what does any of this have to do with Indian country? Everything, goddamnit. This is our land. Our ancestral home. The old country. “We never left,” Suzan Harjo said. During roll call a few days ago, a torrent of indigenous languages rumbled the walls of the Center in a roar of revitalization. Life again. But then on the final night of the DNC, presidential nominee Clinton failed to mention Native Americans when she spoke of systemic oppression. What a disappointment. Should we take this as an indication of her awareness of racial violence in Indian country? Has she heard the names Allen Locke or Sarah Lee Circle Bear or Mah-Hi-Vist Goodblanket or Rexdale Henry or (more names here) before? Not sure. Here’s hoping.

Note: Links added by me.

I slept four hours last night, and I don’t expect to sleep much again tonight. Delayed flight after delayed flight. People fleeing Philadelphia all at once. Bottleneck City. Where’s the Liberty Bell? It didn’t ring for Native Americans then. Does it ring for us now? … Something to contemplate over cheesesteak and fries and and pie at Reading Terminal, the massive market here in Philly where gluttony is god and the chicken sandwiches are good-not-great. But I digress. I always digress.

I met a Trump fan at pub on I think Broad St. A grumpy fucker. Later, I was denied service at an ostensibly straight bar. Can’t remember its name at the moment. Blurry. Ended up at Woody’s, a gay bar. Instant service. Intelligent talk. No ostentatious erudition in here. Just people woke. People aware. A drag queen blows me a kiss. I smile and nod, kinda dorky like. I am a dork, though. A socially awkward Hobbit. And I’m OK with that.

The epilogue to this story is this: When the GOP elected Donald Trump as their presidential nominee they officially became the party of racism and misogyny. No indigenous North American languages were spoken during roll call at the Republican National Convention last week. No recognition of Native American sovereignty at all. Just dystopian soothsayers in sandwich boards shouting “the end is near!” I’m convinced the Democratic Party is the party for Native Americans. We just have to convince Clinton that no good comes from fracking:

“Would you like a glass of water, madam nominee? … No, it’s actually not from this tap here. This is fracked water, madam. You can light it on fire if you want. … And since I have you, can we talk about Leonard Peltier? … Your husband, Bill, claims to be a descendant of the Cherokee. Has he been back home lately? How does he take his fry bread? … Yes, ma’am, I have had a several coffees – well, cappuccinos. The DNC was quite the spectacle, wasn’t it? Man, Bill loves balloons, doesn’t he? Peggy Flanagan was wonderful, wasn’t she? Debra Haaland, too. All the Natives there that night. So about that water. I see you haven’t taken a sip. I wouldn’t either. A filthy water is a filthy earth, and it’s our fault. Fracking. Just say no.”

The full article is at ICTMN, and as usual, is vividly brilliant. Click on over to read the whole thing.

When Will There Be a Native American President?

Pinterest.

Pinterest.

Gyasi Ross has a great article up on the possibilities and problems of a Native president, When Will There Be a Native American President? [Part 1] ‘Sigh,’ It’s Gonna Be Awhile…  Click over to read the whole thing, because I’m only going to include part here.

QUESTION:

Can we honestly tell our beautiful and brilliant Native children that, in 2016, they can grow up and be President of the United States of America?

SHORT ANSWER:

Probably not. Based upon the evidence (as opposed to optimism or good feelings), America does not seem to fully accept Natives as real-life human beings — thus it will likely be a few generations before we can seriously contemplate that.

After this, Ross takes some time to explain the normalization which has taken place in regard to Black people, Hispanic people, and Women. No, things aren’t all cherries and thornless roses with these groups, but they have been included enough in pop culture, normalized enough, that it’s not a complete shock for people to see any one of these peoples in high office.

But what about Natives?

Unfortunately, it looks like that’s still a long ways off. Here are a few reasons why.

First, Americans still have not normalized interactions with Natives.  This is manifest in many ways in pop culture today—pop culture is very important toward normalizing a group of people. For example, for decades there are have been movies where a black person plays a president on-screen, making folks more comfortable with the idea.  There have also been movies where women and Latinos/as, Asians play presidents, and every other role under the sun.  That gets rid of the sticker shock of seeing a person of that group in that position.  Moreover, it’s also not unusual to see folks from all backgrounds acting as a different ethnicity or in a leading role where race is not contemplated.  For Natives, though? Not so much. Natives are still a novelty, a character to be played on-screen and not just an ethnicity that a person happens to be. There is no Fresh off the Boat or Chico and the Man or Blackish or The Jeffersons or The Cosby Show for Native people. Plus, the prospect of a Native playing, for example, a President? Hasn’t been on the radar, even in the most subversive of films.

Natives have largely been only deemed competent to play a Native no matter how incredible that Native actor is. “How well can you be a Native, Native person?”

Similarly, in my work as a writer and commentator, I largely am asked to only comment or write about “Native stuff.”  Now, I love commenting and writing about “Native stuff” but I’ve also found that “Native stuff” is a HUGE category. It’s ALL Native stuff! Whether we’re talking about national politics to public school funding to infrastructure and trade policy.  Now, similar to acting black folks, women, Latino/a, Asians, etc. are all considered competent to speak about things that are outside their communities and universal. It is not one bit unusual for a black person, a woman, a Latino/a or an Asian to comment or write on national news. For Natives? Not so much. It’s still a novelty and Natives are not deemed competent to have opinions on matters that are universal and aren’t uniquely Native.

We can’t speak about things that are just “human” or “American.”  It would be hard enough for a Native person to get a role as a doctor or teacher on TV, much less a Native President.

We also see it in regards to our tragedy.  Simply stated, the mainstream largely does not care or cannot relate to Native pain or outrage. The mainstream ignores the structural and institutional barriers, for example, that allow Native women to be raped at a rate exponentially higher than other women. It likewise ignores those same structural barriers that forbid Native nations from prosecuting outsiders who peddle drugs and/or murder our people.  Those same structures then, adding insult to injury, refuse to utilize its own resources to prosecute those bad actors, allowing them to prey upon our communities with impunity.

But nobody mentions that outside of our communities. If they do mention our communities, they mention the poverty without explaining how those barriers help to create and sustain that economic poverty.

As shown above, there is a perception that Natives cannot partake in these larger conversations.  As we discussed, there is a lack of empathy or understanding about our communities.  When those two things are combined with the mathematical fact that Natives are a tiny percentage of the population, it doesn’t bode well for a Native rising to be President anytime soon.  At some point, it’s a humanity question as it was for women, black folks, Latino/as, etc.; are Natives reflective enough of America generally to sometimes not be considered “Native” and instead just “human?”

Can a Native person represent America?  Stupid question. OF COURSE. The truth is, Natives are the story of America and are more America than America. Natives are America’s dental record and thumbprint and spinal cord. You cannot intelligently tell the story of America without Native people being one of the main characters.  Yet, it seems like mainstream America is a ways away from recognizing that truth.

When Will There Be a Native American President? [Part 1] ‘Sigh,’ It’s Gonna Be Awhile…

Seceding Over Slavery.

fox_of_trump_jesus_160511e-800x4301-440x270Most people know about Bill O’Reilly’s unbelievably idiotic remarks about slaves building the White House, and his subsequent doubling down, attempting to justify his previous commentary and digging quite the hole for himself. O’Reilly spent a fair amount of time opining that liberals literally want him dead. I don’t want you dead, Bill, I want you off the air.

Anyroad, the idiotic remarks about slaves and the astonishing distortion of actual history inspired Marcus Ranum to do a very in-depth post about slavery. Here’s a little bit:

The Odious Institution

The colonies in America had been priming themselves for a revolution for some time. Unpopular legislation from England, in the form of taxes and regulations – notably The Stamp Act, The Sugar Act, The Townshend Act – had provoked protest, violence, tax collectors being brutalized, and civilian protestors shot down by redcoats. England was trying, simply enough, to extract some of the colony’s massive wealth through taxation, to pay for its various wars. The colonial leaders were trying, simply enough, to keep their wealth – a great deal of which was at best semi-licit: whenever the crown would levy a new tax, the colonial entrepreneurs would smuggle the goods, anyway.

The “triangle trade” was taking place “off the books” to a significant degree, and was at least partly designed to facilitate smuggling. It was a hugely profitable trade-route, and underpinned much of the New England economy as well as that of the American south’s most powerful and wealthy state, Virginia. From 1770 to 1780 the people who became the political leaders in the colonies were all wealthy, and that wealth depended on smuggling, slavery, land speculation, tobacco or cotton farming, or “trade” (which meant: buying and selling alcohol, tobacco, slaves, etc) – the unhappiness the colonial political leaders were feeling with England was that their tax-sheltered existences were threatened. They were already hugely wealthy, in terms of the time, with some notable exceptions (Jefferson was really really good at spending money!) George Washington was the largest land speculator in the colonies, John Hancock was a smuggler “trader” of large but unknown fortune, Jefferson owned lots of land, slaves, and farmed tobacco and cotton.* They had time and inclination to get involved in politics because they had a great deal of wealth at stake and had enough wealth that they could take the time – literally afford – to travel about protecting their interests.

For the colonial elite, the Somerset decision had the attention-riveting effect of a dagger pressed against the throat. It was immediately seen as a threat to their interests for the simple reason that: the colonies were under England’s law. If English law had finally come down on the issue of slavery as odious, immoral and – what really mattered: unenforceable – the colonial elite had a serious, serious problem on their hands.

So they did what any justice-loving group of leaders would do: they worked out how to emancipate the slaves, apologized and compensated them with grants of land** and started tithing a reasonable percentage of their gains to England.

Of course they didn’t.

It’s an excellent read, so click on over for the full article.

Rubio Starring at Anti-LGBT Rally.

Marco Rubio. Wikimedia Commons.

Marco Rubio. Wikimedia Commons.

When Marco Rubio cited the deadly attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando as a reason he was changing his mind and running for re-election to the U.S. Senate, many LGBT allies immediately noted that the Florida senator and failed presidential candidate has never been an ally of the LGBT community.

“To be using the tragedy in Orlando as a time to reflect on his Senate career, when his career and his promises on the campaign trail have been anti-LGBTQ consistently, it’s just staggering to think he would be using this moment for his own personal ambitions,” said Jay Brown of the Human Rights Campaign at the time.

It comes as no surprise, then, to see that Rubio is slated to address an event in Orlando next month that will feature some of the country’s most vehement anti-LGBT activists.

The Orlando-based Liberty Counsel Action, an extreme anti-LGBTgroup whose affiliate is famous for representing Kentucky clerk Kim Davis in her stand against the Supreme Court’s marriage equality decision, announced in an email today that the Florida Renewal Project will be hosting an event called “Rediscovering God in America” in August. The event will be headlined by Rubio, who will speak alongside anti-LGBT activists David Barton, Bill Federer, Ken Graves and Mat Staver.

[…]

The event will put Rubio in the company of some of the most extreme anti-gay activists in the country:

  • David Lane, whose organization is hosting the event, believes that gay rights will lead to the “utter destruction” of the U.S. and “car bombs in Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Des Moines, Iowa.” (Learn more about David Lane here).
  • Mat Staver, whose Liberty Counsel Action sent out the invitation to the event and who is scheduled to speak, has gained a national reputation by representing Davis and Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore through the affiliated Liberty Counsel. Last month, Staver denounced memorial gatherings for the victims of the Orlando nightclub attack as “homosexual love fests.” Staver has claimed that gay people are “demonic,” seek to abuse children and are similar to terrorists, and has warned that gay rights victories could lead to “forced homosexuality” and “another civil war.” At the same time, he has praised countries that outlaw same-sex relationships. (Learn more about Mat Staver here).
  • David Barton, a Republican Party activist who styles himself as a historian, thinks that God is justly preventing a cure for HIV/AIDS because it is a divine “penalty” for homosexuality, and has lamented that public schools try to “force” students “to be homosexual” when homosexuality really should be regulated by the government. (Learn more about David Barton here).
  • Maine pastor Ken Graves preaches against “militant homofascism” that he says “seeks to take over our land and make it Sodom” and argues that gay people cannot build happy families because they are “depressed.”

Via Right Wing Watch.

Conservative Whine: Confusing, Bizarre, Very Disturbing!

CREDIT: Twitter/@SarahWoodwriter.

CREDIT: Twitter/@SarahWoodwriter.

We’ve already seen the one All Gender lav at the DNC, in the previous post. At that time, it was reported that the lav in question was full of different gendered people, with no problems at all. Now, it seems, conservatives have had time to pull themselves together and whine about it.

One of the bathrooms at the Democratic National Convention this week has been labeled an “all-gender restroom.” According to BuzzFeed, most people using the facility were unfazed by the experience, but a few members of the conservative press have been baffled about what they’re supposed to do.

Sarah Westwood of the Washington Examiner seemed to be unsure if she had a gender or not:

How is that confusing at all, let alone unnecessarily so? Here’s some help, Ms. Westwood – look at the cute little picture.

Westwood told ThinkProgress that her concern was pumping breast milk in a space in which her male coworkers could enter. She did not explain why the stall doors did not suffice to provide her with the privacy she desired like they would in any other restroom. She also did not seem to be aware that the convention center is equipped with two lactation suites specifically to meet her needs.

There we are, conservatives creating problems where there are none. Privacy? Stall doors with locks. Breast feeding? Oh look, lactation suites! Why, you don’t have to sit in a pee station for that at all.

On Fox News, Tucker Carlson described the bathrooms as “bizarre” and “disgusting.” “I mean, I guess we’re liberated by this? Everyone should come visit one and see the reality of it. It’s unbelievable.”

Just how are they bizarre and disgusting? Let’s see, a room equipped with stalls, toilets, and sinks. There are people in there, doing what they have to do. Seems like business as usual to me.

Elizabeth Harrington of the Washington Free Beacon bemoaned that setting aside the all-gender restroom “leaves female convention goers with one fewer bathroom than male attendees,” a complaint that seemed to ignore the fact that female convention goers can actually use that restroom. She decided to film a short tour of the facility as a male colleague entered a stall:

On her twitter feed, it finally dawned on Ms. Harrington that she had made Mr. Scher very uncomfortable, following him into the lav and filming him. She managed a weak apology. The irony is simply too much.

Harrington also shared a reader’s concern that toilet seats might be left up or down or have urine on them. It’s unclear if she has ever lived in a house or existed in any other space that only has a single-use restroom.

Harrington went on to say she walked by the all gender lav again, and it smelled so very, very bad, oh my yes! I wonder if she was this busy poking her nose in the gender designated lavs. The course of the great pee debate seems clear: ban all conservatives from lavs outside their own homes.

Conservative activist Dinesh D’Souza, who is peddling his new film Hillary’s America attacking Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, decided to stage a photo demonstrating his wife’s reaction to having used the all-gender restroom.

She complained to another Twitter user that when she used it, “a man walked in,” calling the experience “very disturbing.” She did not explain why.

Marcus made a just right sign for the conservatives:

pee

Full story at Think Progress.

McCrory and the failure mode of clever.

pat-mccroryx750Pat McCrory saw fit to make jokes about transgender people at the RNC, still referencing his beloved HB 2, even with the latest massive cost to the state with the withdrawal of the NBA.

McCrory took the stage and immediately started acting like a flight attendant.

“All right, let’s be safe now. We’ve got a big crowd, so if you need to leave suddenly, we’ve got exits this way, exits this way and exits this way,” McCrory said, motioning straight ahead, to his right and to his left. “And if any of you need to use the restrooms …”

McCrory paused as the crowd of several thousand laughed and cheered his reference to legislation passed earlier this year that requires individuals to use the restroom that matches the gender they were born with, not the one they identify with.

[…]

As Politico reported, the backlash [to HB 2] reached the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Monday, where an executive with the Raleigh-based company Citrix, Jesse Lipson, accused McCrory of not understanding how business worked by backing the law.

“Republicans may think they’re telling people which bathroom to go into,” Lipson said. “They’re actually telling people which market to stay out of.”

The Wells Fargo Center, where the event is being held, also had at least one all-gender restroom. Buzzfeed’s Dominic Holden posted a picture:

One estimate of the NBA withdrawal of the all star game is 100 million in lost revenue, and McCrory thinks he’s being clever joking about HB 2? Seriously, I don’t know how much more NC can possibly take of this – the sheer amount of lost revenue is staggering, and people cannot be happy about watching their state’s economy plunge down a hole. Right now, McCrory is a bit player in the political scene, but outside of Trump, I can’t think of anyone else who so very badly needs to be forcibly ousted from his position. The amount of damage he has done is in the phenomenal range, and on many levels.

Via Washington Post and Raw Story.

No True Catholic.

Tim Kaine.

Tim Kaine.

While Tim Kaine’s pastor describes Kaine as “very compassionate, approachable, available, and friendly,” a Washington DC-based priest, a member of the Dominican Order, has told Tim Kaine that he is not a true Catholic and not entitled to receive communion. The issue? Tim Kaine has stated his personal opposition to abortion, but refuses to enact laws as a public official that would interfere with a woman’s right to choose.

The anti-abortion site LifeNews reported that Father Thomas Petri took to Twitter to condemn Kaine. “Senator @timkaine. Do us both a favor. Don’t show up in my communion line.” The priest also told Kaine that his beliefs that women should be priest and that “abortion is fine” makes him either “poorly catechized or a dissenter.”

I can’t say I was thrilled with the Veep pick, but anyone who pisses off priests gets credit from me. Nothing riles up priests like the disobedience of thinking. Perhaps Father Petri should spend more time praying than tweeting. I’m sure if he prays hard enough, god will do something or other, right?

Full story here.