Shoving The Overton Window Alt-Right.

Paul Nehlen, screengrab.

RWW has an extensive story about Paul Nehlen, an unapologetic nazi who is running again in an attempt to unseat Paul Ryan. Nehlen is intent on shoving the Overton Window as far right as possible, to ‘sanitize’ and normalise white supremacy and nationalism. Just a bit here, because the article is fair long, and rich with links.

Paul Nehlen, who is running again to unseat Speaker of the House Paul Ryan in Wisconsin, told Breitbart radio host Curt Schilling today that he is using his campaign and fiery social media presence to force discourse in the Republican Party further to the right—in his case, toward the white nationalist worldview of the alt-right.

This morning, Nehlen joined Schilling to talk about campaigning for failed Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore in Alabama and his upcoming 2018 campaign in Wisconsin.

“There’s a lot of followers out there, there’s a lot of people out there, that look up to me and I take that seriously,” Nehlen said. “But you know, people like you who are out there every day—you wake up every morning and you work hard, you get your message out, it’s imperative that you realize, ‘Hey, there’s a bunch of people out there like me, who aren’t going to give up.’ And if we’re all moving forward in the same direction, moving that Overton Window to the right, and saying, ‘Hey, this fake news media, that doesn’t work us, that doesn’t scare us’—you know, I’m standing up for people’s free speech, lawful speech.”

Mmm. Odd how that standing up for people’s free, lawful speech only has to do with things you approve of, while you’re oddly silent in other cases, along with the rest of the freeze peach brigade. Unfortunately, the Overton Window has already been shoved considerably to the right, as we all get more accustomed to seeing and hearing white! white! white! everywhere. We really can’t afford to let this happen, but it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

Earlier this year, Nehlen retweeted photos that celebrated the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. Nehlen was also a major proponent of “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory and told the Associated Press in August that he still believed it to be true. Earlier this month, Nehlen told columnist John Podhoretz on Twitter to “do us all a favor” and “eat a bullet.”

Last week, as first documented by the blog Angry White Men, Nehlen appeared on and praised the hosts of “Fash the Nation,” an anti-Semitic podcast popular in alt-right circles, and celebrated that “the red pills are being shot at people like with bump fire stocks.”(Taking a “red pill,” a reference to a scene in the sci-fi film “The Matrix,” is alt-right shorthand for embracing the movement’s views and bump stocks are the type of weapon modification that enabled the mass shooter in Las Vegas to achieve near-automatic fire). Nehlen also appeared on “Fash the Nation” last year, calling for an end to birthright citizenship.

Recently, Nehlen has pushed even harder to the right and dropped any attempt to conceal his affiliations with the furthest fringes of the Right.

It would be really nice is someone like Nehlen could simply be dismissed as ‘lunatic fringe’ without a hope of gaining support. Unfortunately, that’s not the case any longer. While people like this might not be winning yet, the call is too close for comfort. There’s no comfort at all to be had in the fact that it’s someone like Paul Ryan who does win, because while Ryan might not embrace nazism, he’s an awful sociopath, bent on eliminating poverty by eliminating all those icky poor people.

RWW has the full story.

The Seven Forbidden Words…

Evidence-Based, Science-Based, Vulnerable, Transgender, Diversity, Fetus, Entitlement.

Evidence-Based, Science-Based, Vulnerable, Transgender, Diversity, Fetus, Entitlement.

Unfortunately, this is not at all like George Carlin’s Seven Dirty Words. Instead, the words Science-Based, Evidence-Based, Vulnerable, Transgender, Diversity, Fetus, and Entitlement have been forbidden in use of official CDC documents prepared for next year’s budget. So, we have a good idea of what the amoral regime is looking to ignore completely when it comes to funding. This is not good. Not good at all.

The Trump administration is prohibiting officials at the nation’s top public health agency from using a list of seven words or phrases — including “fetus” and “transgender” — in official documents being prepared for next year’s budget.

Policy analysts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were told of the list of forbidden words at a meeting Thursday with senior CDC officials who oversee the budget, according to an analyst who took part in the 90-minute briefing. The forbidden words are “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”

In some instances, the analysts were given alternative phrases. Instead of “science-based” or ­“evidence-based,” the suggested phrase is “CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes,” the person said. In other cases, no replacement words were immediately offered.

The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, “will continue to use the best scientific evidence available to improve the health of all Americans,” HHS spokesman Matt Lloyd told The Washington Post. “HHS also strongly encourages the use of outcome and evidence data in program evaluations and budget decisions.”

The question of how to address such issues as sexual orientation, gender identity and abortion rights — all of which received significant visibility under the Obama administration — has surfaced repeatedly in federal agencies since President Trump took office. Several key departments — including HHS, as well as Justice, Education, and Housing and Urban Development — have changed some federal policies and how they collect government information about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.

In March, for example, HHS dropped questions about sexual orientation and gender identity in two surveys of elderly people.

HHS has also removed information about LGBT Americans from its website. The department’s Administration for Children and Families, for example, archived a page that outlined federal services that are available for LGBT people and their families, including how they can adopt and receive help if they are the victims of sex trafficking.

The Washington Post has the full story. Yet another stone dropped on top of us, ensuring our slide down into a pit of devastating ignorance.

“Dear white people, have babies.”

Tim Gionet, aka Baked Alaska. Screengrab.

Poor Tim, he’s just stunned by Moore’s loss. And of course, all those people of colour who rocked the vote. The solution? Have babies! (White ones only, please.)

“I don’t mean to be a dick here, but what is going on with the non-white voters? I mean, what is—if you care about MAGA, if you care about Trump, if you care about ‘Make America Great Again,’ if you care about the good MAGA candidates, it’s mostly white people who are voting for these people and the non-whites are, and I’m not saying all, but I’m saying a large, almost 90-percent, are not voting for the MAGA candidates,” Gionet said. “What is going on?”

Sigh. People with actual principles went out and voted. People who thought that being a raving fanatic and drooler over young women was not fit for office. This must be breaking news to you, Tim, but all manner of white people do not care about ‘maga’ or about the Tiny Tyrant, unless you count wanting an impeachment as caring. Trump acts as if there was no choice but for him to endorse Moore, but that’s not true. Any person with an ounce of integrity would have clearly stated they could not, and would not endorse such a person, in spite of party lines.

Gionet agreed with what a viewer named “Joey” posted on the chat server, that the election results in Alabama were “like a black-lash.”

How adorable. :near-fatal eyeroll:

“Dear white people, have babies. This is not working out very well, OK? Just look at it racially—and I agree, judge people by the content of their character—but look at it racially. Look what’s going on,” Gionet said.

Why on earth do idiotic white supremacist scum always resort to this? What do you think that will do? It seems you morons don’t realize that the decision to have children is a serious one, which requires substantial resources, and is a lifelong commitment. All that said, children are people, they aren’t little robot slaves, and they come with minds of their own. Oh my! You’re also advocating moar babies in a perilous time, with job uncertainty, a lack of healthcare, and no safety nets. Don’t be surprised if people don’t run out and start the baby making. Speaking of, Tim, why don’t you have a passel of white babies?

“I like to think that it’s not sad a lot and that, ‘oh, we can all get along,’ but when I see results like this it definitely makes me sad. It makes me think that—I’m going to pull up this map again,” Gionet said, while putting a demographic breakdown of the 2016 election on his screen. “It not only happened here, but it happened in Trump’s election. I mean, you people who are not white honestly should be thanking white men. You should be thanking white people for having Trump into office, because this would not happen without white people.”

That is not endearing me to white people, and thanks is not what I have in mind.

“If it was just men who voted, it would be overwhelmingly Trump, overwhelmingly conservative. So maybe women shouldn’t vote. I think we maybe need to take away, just take away the vote from women, because here’s what the map looks like for only men and here’s what it looks like for only women and it looks a lot better when it’s only men,” Gionet said. “Either white people are going to have to play more identity politics and group together, not because we don’t like other people but because we need to form some sort of coalition to win. Because we’re the only ones—look at this—we’re the ones that are picking the right people.”

My, my. From where I sit, you’re picking all the wrong people – fanatics who want to illegalize people, who want to usher in end times, are pro nuclear war, deny climate change, and think sexual assault and rape is okey dokey, along with much more. All those people are concerned with personal power and how well their pockets are stuffed, nothing more.  Also Tim, y’know not all white men are conservachristian idiots. You really don’t have much reason to be secure in that assumption.

There’s much more at RWW, including a video of two clips, because as noted: the original broadcast, which lasted more than three hours.

Victor Ehikhamenor / Kehinde Wiley / Omer Ba.

Victor Ehikhamenor, I am Queen Idia, the Angel of Kings, 2017. Copyright the artist, courtesy of Tyburn Gallery.

Kehinde Wiley, Fishermen Upon a Lee-shore, in Squally Weather (Zakary Antoine), 2017.

Omer Ba, Amazone-Behanzin, 2017. Courtesy of Hales Gallery.

From a European perspective, the affirmation of cultural identities on display in these shows is important in London as it is anywhere in the world. There’s a dangerous lack of strong political opposition to the rhetoric of the far right just now, and the contribution of artists is vital to broadening and enriching the context in which significant debate and action can occur. Ba, Ehikhamonor, and Wiley aren’t interested in sloganeering, or in producing pre-digested protest art; instead they’re asserting their presence and cultural sovereignty, and reminding us that the climate of xenophobia in Europe is nothing new.

Kehinde Wiley: In Search of the Miraculous  is on view at Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, through January 27, 2018.  Omer Ba: Supernova is on view at Hales Gallery, London, though December 9, 2017.  Victor Ehikhamenor: In the Kingdom of this World is on view at Tyburn Gallery, London, though January 20, 2018.

You can read much more about these artists at Garage.

Sunday Facepalm.

© Marty Two Bulls.

© Marty Two Bulls.

A trio of youtube nazis, oh pardon, white nationalists, have decided to stop pretending they aren’t nazis. Ooops, white nationalists. My keyboard just keeps slipping. These three chuckleheads are not helping me out of a current case of Benderitis (kill all humans).

Faith Goldy, a former Rebel Media reporter who has grown ever closer to the alt-right, joined Red Ice host Lana Lokteff and 4chan YouTube muse Lauren Rose in a video uploaded yesterday to deliver full-throated endorsements of ethno-nationalism, a movement that seeks to promote white supremacy in Western nations.

…“Civic nationalism perpetuates that it’s OK to bring foreign people into your country as long as they’re a bunch of tolerant egalitarians. That’s how I see it personally. It doesn’t take anything else into consideration like religion, race, ethnic group. As long as you’re tolerant and have egalitarian values, that seems to be OK,” Rose said, going on to say that she, Goldy and Hargraves have recognized that “when you replace the founding stock of a nation, you replace the entire nation.”

Golly, what a group of geniuses we have here. A little further on, they talk about knowing history well. As you can see, their actual knowledge of history is quite impoverished. Okay, let’s pretend all the immigrants to Turtle Island are cattle. Or dogs, whatever. If you start with a specific stock, and breed from that stock, and continue breeding, you aren’t replacing the initial bloodline (stock). Now, if you let your stock die out, or kill them, and get something completely different, then yeah. Exactly how you’re applying this to Amerika, I’m not sure. There was one wave of immigrants after another, which resulted in a massive tangle of people from all over the place. Many of the people who emigrated here could not be described as ‘tolerant egalitarians’, and all manner of immigrants were treated like they were lower than shit on a shoe. It was a sort of bigotry free for all.

Later in the interview, Goldy claimed that civic nationalism was invented as “an answer to ethno-nationalism” and that she didn’t care “what anyone thinks about ethno-nationalism” because detractors of the white supremacist movement have “not properly studied history” and don’t realize that “ethno-nationalism was the greatest propeller of human history when determining the maker or breaker of empire of civilization. This is what rallies men and gets them moving.”

I can name three people who have not studied history at all, let alone properly: Faith, Lana, and Lauren. There is no one “empire of civilization”. Empires come, empires go. Eventually, all empires decline and fall. That’s a thing you can find when studying history. Propeller is quite the interesting word choice. Oh yes, the notion of “hey, let’s go conquer” has been a long held rally cry of sorts. Generally speaking, all the men who had to get moving in history had to do so under the orders of assorted royalty and the ruling classes. Mostly, they were cannon fodder, winning lands for people who could not give one hearty fuck about them. Some things just don’t change.

Goldy continued, “It is a natural tribal instinct for human communities to go with their own. So the question is, are we going to continue to work against nature and try to rise above it even though we’re 40, 50, 60 years into this experiment?”

:facepalm: Forty to sixty years? Seriously? Holy shit. So, this whole ‘civic nationalism’ has only been going on since 1957, has it? Yes, people have a tendency to gather together when in an immigration situation, because there’s comfort in people who come from the same place you do, share a culture and language. That does not mean that people don’t expand outwards, learning other languages, customs, and becoming a part of their adopted homeland. Y’know, if you have this stupid idea that people at large need to be kicked out, that means you too, because none of the Indigenous people who were already long here on Turtle Island ever invited any of you.

Lokteff went on to remark that she thought “it’s really funny that a lot of these civic nationalists that we hear popping up, that they claim to be more on the right side, it’s only white people talking like that. Sure, you might have a few blacks or Latinos in there, but it’s like a white ideal, you know? What’s going to happen when they’re a minority? Seriously.”

Gosh, you could, oh I don’t know, fucking deal with it. So terrified of losing your privilege and power. Tsk. I can’t speak for anyone else, but from my viewpoint, we aren’t going to be running out of white people anytime soon. All this fretting over nothing. Whipping up fear for no good reason.

Goldy said that middle-class white men are “literally committing suicide” because immigration policies have made those white men feel like “strangers in our own backyard.”

Uh huh. A lot of white men can’t seem to manage to kill themselves without first slaughtering as many people as possible. Perhaps if these fellas who feel like strangers in their own backyard could do something truly radical, like saying hi to their neighbours. Maybe have a barbecue or something, what with that being such a white dude tradition. Get to know people a bit. Might work wonders.

“Some of the white guys are kind of mad right now when they’re literally on the shit list. They’re last in line for schools, for loans, for jobs, for grants. They’re blamed for all the problems in the world. They can’t be in politics. I have a son. I don’t want him to grow up in that kind of world where he’s on the shit list and later on he’s a minority,” Lokteff said. “How do you think they’re going to be treated when that happens?”

Such fucking idiocy. If you could wave a wand, and turn everyone in Amerika whitey-white, white men would still moan, whine, and hate each other. That happens when you raise people up with the idea that everything and everyone on the planet belongs to them, that they are entitled. There are a whole lot of people who are last in line for schools, loans, jobs, and grants. The majority of them are not white, and not male. They aren’t exactly thrilled to always be on the shit list which all minorities are consigned to, and here again is the one true thing you fear: that you will be treated the way you treat others. Be nice if you figured out just why that scares you so damn much.

As you’re looking for someone to blame (as always) about no good jobs, etc., raise your eyes to the filthy rich. Raise your eyes to shit regime you ushered in.

Rose agreed that white men are the “most under-attack group right now” and claimed that liberals began importing immigrants from developing countries because it “ensures their power.”

Immigrants are people, you flaming doucheweasel, they aren’t products. No, liberals are not in business importing people. People who immigrate here do so because of various reasons, with one important factor: they want to do so.

She said “whites are going from this vast majority of our nation—the face, the founding stock of our countries—and are now going to become minorities in less than a century. And people think that this is going to all be OK because we’re all tolerant, right?”

The ‘face’ of our nation is due for a change, I’m good with it. And no, Ms. Rose, we are not all tolerant. You certainly aren’t. That said, I’m not a fan of tolerance. I prefer acceptance.

She continued, “I think we should take whites and we should move to a foreign nation and start voting as voters and voting for our own interests and then the government will start to benefit whites rather than the natives. And then when they start complaining that their new system is benefiting us and not the natives, we can call them privileged bigots.”

You have no idea how favourable I find this cunning plan. Although, I hesitate to inflict you assholes on any other nation; every one has enough problems of their own.

“There is still a white majority and I think that any sort of movement that we have going forward has to appeal to that majority, as Donald Trump did implicitly whether he wants to admit it or not, but he did,” Goldy said.

Yes, a white majority. Fancy that. Here’s hoping that most white people are not stupid, bigoted nazis like you.

Lokteff elaborated later in the interview, “We want the natives to be the majority. There will be some people that aren’t of that native stock, but they need to be a smaller percentage of the population, correct? Right?”

Goldy agreed, “For me, I put it very, very plainly. For me, just a simple majority. Let’s start there.”

:snort: You want natives to be the majority? Great! When are you all leaving? I’ll come to the airport and wave bye. You fucking hateful assholes are not. native. stock. You are not natives. You are fucking immigrants, the descendants of criminals, thieves, and genocidal maniacs. Also, all the people in this country who are not white, but their families have been here for generations upon generations? They are just as ‘native’ as you are, whether you like it or not. There isn’t enough fuck off in the universe for you all.

RWW has video, if you wish.

Trumpy Bear, The Real Red Pill, & Snowflakes.

These are, sad to say, real products, which you can purchase at over-inflated prices.

At the Values Voter Summit earlier this year, President Trump declared that he will be “stopping cold the attacks on Judeo-Christian values” and that Americans will finally be “saying Merry Christmas again” after avoiding the phrase because “it’s not politically correct.” Now that the shackles of politically correct culture have been unlocked by our president, Right Wing Watch can finally release its 2017 annual gift guide for the holiday Christmas season.

You can see and read more at RWW, with full links to all the conservachristian goodies. You might want to put off any eating until after you peruse the gift guide. Lots of gag worthy stuff to behold.

The Heartland Institute.

The Heartland Institute is still busy, somewhat behind the scenes, in their quest to mold the constitution to their desires, none of which are good.

The Heartland Institute, a right-wing think tank that promotes free-market ideology and denounces climate-change “alarmism,” published an interview this week with Neal Schuerer, an advocate for a “convention of states” to propose a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. The BBA effort is one of several active right-wing campaigns to convene a convention under Article V of the Constitution in order to limit the powers of the federal government. Under Article V, if 34 states submit calls for a convention to propose constitutional amendments on a given topic, Congress must call a convention of states.

[…]

Proponents of a convention to promote a balanced budget amendment have been sparring in recent years with an even more aggressive effort that aims to dramatically limit the jurisdiction and power of the federal government, replacing our current constitutional order with one focused on states’ rights. That effort is backed by Religious Right leaders, including Alliance Defending Freedom’s Mike Farris, Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver, Christian-nation “historian” David Barton and anti-marriage-equality activist Robert George.

Just like our evangelical government, this too is serious business, and needs to be known about and taken seriously. Now that all the christians slavering over end times have gotten their Idiot King to make the Jerusalem move, they are feeling powerful and unstoppable. And they just might be, given that the Tiny Tyrant cannot say no to them, and most people being blissfully unaware of what they are doing.

Schuerer himself calls the BBA a “first step”:

A balanced budget amendment to the Constitution is the first step in reining in an all-powerful, all-consuming central bureaucratic government that our founding document attempted to guard against.

We as citizens of the United States have the right and duty to bring about responsible reform to our founding document, reflecting the values of the people and the nature of free and independent states. We know what needs to be done. All we need is the courage to just do it.

It’s important to realize that this is not about constitution reform and dragging that moldy document into the current century; this is about making it even more regressive. These are people who want the power and right to oppress and prosecute all those people they have problems with, which amounts to most people.

Schuerer says his group Campaign Constitution is working with the Heartland Institute’s Center for Constitutional Reform to “bring all the competing interests together.” And he talks about how close his group’s effort is to reaching the threshold of 34 states:

The Balanced Budget Amendment Task Force entered the 2017 state legislative year with great expectations, following the Trump election and the number of Republican governors and legislature majorities growing.

Twenty-eight states had active applications, with the goal of adding four to the number—Arizona, Idaho, Wisconsin, and Wyoming—bringing the number of active applications to 32.

Arizona and Wyoming approved the BBA application resolution. Maryland, New Mexico, and Nevada rescinded applications, making a net loss of one and bringing the number of active applications to 27. Recently, Wisconsin approved the BBA application, returning the total to 28.

Moving into 2018, there is very little margin. Idaho, Kentucky, and South Carolina are a must, bringing us to 31 active applications.

Montana will likely join in when it gets that close, to 32.  Minnesota and Virginia are tough calls because of internal political disagreements on the issue of an Article V amendment convention. Washington state and Maine are anyone’s guess.

That brings the Balanced Budget Amendment Task Force and the national Article V movement to 32 states by the end of 2018.

Now would be the time to get very worried, and to try and find ways to counter these evil assholes who are intent on making things much, much worse. Every day, we get closer to the Theocalypse.

Via RWW.

“Basically Enslaved”, “Indentured Servitude”, and “Scary Things”.

Engaged gay couple Dave Mullins, second from left, and Charlie Craig, left, were joined by a small group of supporters in Lakewood on Saturday, August 4, 2012 to protest and boycott the Masterpiece Cakeshop.  Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post.

Oh, the conservachristians have their collective knickers in a knot over cake, and the fervent desire to discriminate. We’ll start with Tony Perkins, the despicable leader of the Family Research Council.

Yesterday, on FRC’s “Washington Watch” program, Perkins hosted anti-LGBTQ activist Jon Scruggs, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom to discuss the Supreme Court arguments in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case. Perkins told Scruggs that requiring business owners not to discriminate against LGBTQ people seemed like a “slippery slope and there’s really no end to what the government could then force you to do.”

No, it’s not a slippery slope, and there isn’t any ‘beastly’ thing awaiting which the government wishes to force on you. It’s very simple: if you have a public business, in which you contract with the public to supply ____, then you should supply it, with no prejudice towards any paying customer. It’s not like the government is gonna come knockin’ on your door and tell you that you have to host a gay wedding or anything.

Scruggs said he agreed because the attorneys arguing for nondiscrimination protections believe that calligraphers should be forced to write wedding vows and that bakers should have to write “bless this marriage” on a purchased cake if requested, which Scruggs called “scary things.”

Oh, all the gods ever! Calligraphers with a public business might have to copy wedding vows! ‘Bless this marriage’ might have to come out of an icing tube! The horror, why those are the scariest fucking things ever! Couldn’t possibly be anything scarier, no, no.

“That sounds like to me, John, that sounds like indentured servitude. You have no choice in the matter. Yes, they’re compensating you, they’re giving you something, but you have no say as to what you do with your talent, your ability and your skills,” Perkins said.

That is not indentured servitude, it’s not even close. You fucking white christians are so damn desperate to come across as though you suffer on par with those who have been enslaved. It’s beyond offensive, and it’s arrogant assholery to the nth degree. Stop it. Of course people have a say as to what you do with your talent, your ability, and your skills. If you want to exchange your talent, abilities, and skills for money, well, then you have to deal with people. All kinds of people. If a cake baker lives in fear of the day a non-hetero couple walks in to their store, well, they could turn their talents to writing cookbooks. Then they wouldn’t have to fear facing gay people in person, and they could pretend no one but straight christians buys their cakebook. I’m an artist. I’m an atheist, bisexual artist. I’ve had plenty of christians as clients, and if someone wanted me to do a prayer in calligraphy, I’d do it. Who the fuck cares? I don’t have to believe in that crap to do my job, and I don’t have to like my clients, either. That’s kind of how business works, fellas. I’ve also had clients who decided they weren’t comfortable working with an atheist (Christians always ask), and I don’t run off screaming and crying about it.  It’s not even worth a shrug.

Scruggs agreed, adding, “And even worse, not just that type of servitude based off of something that’s irrelevant, but something that cuts against the core of who you are.”

Mmmm, and cutting against the core of a happy couple in search of cake, well, that’s okey dokey, right? It won’t hurt any of the bakers or calligraphers out there to just do their fucking job. They can always fall on their knees later and pray or something.

Via RWW.

Moving on to Mat Staver:

Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver joined Florida radio host Joyce Kaufman yesterday to discuss the Supreme Court arguments in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, which Staver said dealt with whether a baker, Jack Phillips, would be “basically enslaved” to be a spokesperson for views he disagrees with by being required to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple.

No, he would not be enslaved. Nor would Mr. Phillips be a spokesperson in any way, shape, or form. All he was asked to do was make a fuckin’ cake, something he does in his store, which caters to the public. Soon as the cake is done, his part in it is over.

You know, [Phillips] doesn’t bake Halloween cakes either. So, you know, it’s not like he’s just picking on one person or another, he’s an artist, he’s a person who doesn’t want his business and his life basically enslaved to be the mouthpiece for some issue or ceremony or message that violates his conscience and religious beliefs, and he should have the right to do so.”

Well, if you want to go that route, then the solution is simple: Mr. Phillips can stop making wedding cakes. Once again, there is no enslavement here. If Mr. Phillips wants to have a store in which he contracts with the public, then he must deal with the public. All of it.

Via RWW.

Sunday Facepalm.

Today we have Judy Reyher, a Colorado repub who was recently appointed to the state legislature. Ms. Reyher has some all too common views.

The Denver Post reports that Judy Reyher posted multiple offensive statements and memes on her Facebook page, including one that questioned why Muslims would come to the United States if they “hate pork, beer, bikinis, Jesus and freedom of speech.”

Hateful bigots always come up with the oddest assortment of words in their pitiful attempts to paint Amerikka. Pork, beer, bikinis, Jesus, freedom of speech. Wow, that’s more than a bit of a mess. A lot of people aren’t into pork, and they aren’t insulted and ostracized for it. A lot of people don’t care for beer. Bikinis? What the fuck, Ms. Reyher? It really couldn’t have been all that difficult to come up with something somewhat relevant. A lot of christians are into modest swimwear, and have no use for bikinis. Oh, and you know, women who happen to be muslim go to the beach, too, and their beach gear is along the same lines as christian modest, perhaps not quite as severe.

I have  no use for Jesus, and I wish all those who yak about that particular god all the time would shut the fuck up, and mind their own business. Once again: Judaism, Islam, Christianity, all based on the same damn books. Same god, different interpretations. I think by now everyone knows that “freedom of speech” is bigot code for “I can’t yell hate speech all over the place without people reacting! Woe is me! I am so persecuted!”

Reyher also questioned the authenticity of former President Barack Obama’s birth certificate, and subsequently told the Denver Post that “the black community and the Democrats are the most racist group of people that exist,” while also claiming that black people “hate white people with a passion.”

Oh dear. No, black people don’t hate white people with a passion. I might be reaching that point though. White people suck at listening, and they really truly suck at coming to terms with their privilege and sense of entitlement, to everything. If you’re going to go around assuming people of colour hate you, and behave as though they do, you certainly aren’t giving them much reason to consider you kindly.

“I would like to apologize for the comments or posts on Facebook that have been found offensive and racist,” she wrote to the newspaper. “However, the fact of the matter is, I am not a racist. This country was founded by immigrants, and I embrace all Americans, no matter their walk of life. Diversity is what makes America, America.”

Oh yes, you are racist, Ms. Reyher. Very much so. Announced it, actually. This country was already founded and occupied when you all decided to steal it. Oh sure, diversity makes Amerikka, after all, there are just so many shades of white, right?

Via RawStory.

Yer So Trad…

Prairie Dress. Jumpinbloomers.com

I’m not entirely sure how to introduce this one. Okay, a bunch of Nazis were hanging out in a garage, drinking and smoking cigars, listening to Tom Petty, when they decided to write their own song, set to Petty’s Yer So Bad.

Before you click play, you might want to read the lyrics:

My girlfriend Stacy wants lots of babies
Maybe in five years or so
While I’m in the basement she larps as a peasant
Soon we’ll go live in the woods

In Fashy Dating she pretends she’s a lady
Yer so trad, liftin yer skirt for chad
In a world gone mad, yer so trad

She reads Evola, a lesbian chola
What kind of wheat fields are these?
A culture or fetish? A THOT with a purpose
Fishnets under the prairie dress

Oh Nazi Lady, oben bobs and vagene
Yer so trad, best lay I ever had
In a world gone chad, yer so trad

Incels and autists, virgins and kissless,
Too good to wed single moms

Oh Nazi Lady, oben bobs and vagene
In Fashy Dating (in fashy dating!), She pretends she’s a lady
Yer so trad, givin it up for a chad
In a world gone mad, yer so trad

Yer so trad, best lay I ever had
In a world gone mad, yer so trad

They described the song as “funnier than the original” and “about the scene of trad thoughts that are out there.”

Could just be me, but I don’t find that to be funny at all. Then again, I’m not a Nazi. You can read more at RWW.

Our Evangelical Government.

From Ralph Drollinger’s September 26, 2017 Bible study for members of Congress.

Serious business, this. The Evangeliholes are pushing like crazy, because that takeover they thought they were assured of isn’t such a certainty now, and they are desperate to grab control and get that Theocalypse up and running. If anything, they are more rabid in their hatred of anything which is a societal good. The Tiny Tyrant doesn’t dare not give them whatever they want, they are the majority power behind him.  This is an in-depth article, which needs to be read in its entirety, I’m just going to grab bits here and there which strike me as particularly scary.

Ralph Drollinger, the Christian nationalist who leads Bible study meetings for members of Trump’s Cabinet and members of Congress, is aggressively seeking to expand his reach in state capitals and local governments as well as overseas. Drollinger teaches that there is one “absolutely critical preeminent duty of the Church in an institutionally separated society: to convert the soul and disciple—Christianize—the leaders of the State and its citizenry.”

That’s blunt enough. How do you deal with that terrible separation of church and state? Force christianity on everyone. And they have the nerve to complain about terrorists.

When we wrote about Drollinger in July, we noted that he teaches that God only hears the prayers of Christians, that Christians in government have an obligation to only hire other Christians, and that social welfare programs are un-Christian. That kind of exclusionary theology and dominionist worldview haven’t gotten Drollinger into any trouble with the Trump administration or his other admirers, and they don’t seem to be slowing his expansion.

A fine example of religious terrorism. People who hold beliefs like this don’t have any moral brakes; as far as they are concerned, the end justifies the means, whatever those means may comprise. They don’t believe in things like empathy or compassion, those are weaknesses, and in any case, only applicable to other christians of their particular zealotry. They believe in compliance, and if compliance comes at the harsh end of force, that’s fine with them. Drollinger also believes in male domination, those women, they aren’t allowed to teach. Bible says so.

In a recorded speech to the Hillsboro, Oregon Prayer Breakfast in October, Drollinger said there are 12 Cabinet members taking part in the weekly White House Bible studies, and about 30 House members and 12 senators taking part in the congressional versions. Drollinger and his Capitol Ministries have big growth plans.

Perry Gauthier, the Nebraska-based North America director for Capitol Ministries, has reportedly traveled to 30 states this year to help reach the organization’s goal of creating 50 Bible studies in 50 state capitals. The group also launched CivicReach, “a ministry that partners with local churches to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to city council members and county commissioners.” Drollinger says there are 40,000 local governments, mostly without “outposts for Christ,” and the project’s goal is to “foster” in local officials “a Christian worldview.”

[…]

In Capitol Ministries’ 2016 annual report, which celebrated the group’s 20th anniversary, several state “ministry leaders” were interviewed. “Lawmakers need to have a biblical core and know that Jesus Christ is the way, the Truth, and the life,” said Mike Shreve of California.

Just want to point out that it doesn’t matter what state you live in – you can’t afford to be smug and assume these folks won’t get anywhere in your state. They are already long there, and they have gotten somewhere. The rot is well set in, and the fungus is spreading.

Price is quoted endorsing the CivicReach project, saying “an aggressive, active, robust Bible study at every single level of governance is exactly what can turn things around.”

Yes, it certainly would, and it would help to further turning UStates into a regressive backwater.

A review of the past few months’ worth of Bible studies confirms that the public officials who attend Capitol Ministries events are being trained in an ideology that claims a biblical basis for right-wing policy making.

In September, Drollinger returned to his attacks on government social spending, which he says is rooted in the “bad theology” of theological liberalism and the social gospel, one of the major strains of Christian thought in the U.S. in the 20th century. While the social gospel gets respectful treatment at the new Museum of the Bible, Drollinger treats it with contempt, saying it is “not Christianity whatsoever! It is another religion!”

That’s not the only place where Drollinger expresses his contempt for liberal Christians. In a Bible study that claims modern archaeology has undermined “the postulations of liberal theologians,” he writes, “It is not the conservative Christian with a high view of the inspiration of Scripture who is the simpleton, who clings to his or her beliefs with blind faith, ignorant and lacking intellectual, scientific, and historical support. Rather, it is the one who espouses a liberal ‘understanding’ of God’s Word.” Drollinger has also defended calling Catholicism “one of the primary false religions in the world.”

Drollinger might be on the ‘catholics are evil’ bandwagon, but I expect he wouldn’t mind borrowing from them a bit: say hello to the new inquisition.

Drollinger writes that it is important for public officials to understand why the social gospel is a “perversion, or a corruption of what the Bible actually teaches.” And if liberal political ideology comes from liberal theology, “then liberal political ideology too (specifically entitlement programs) is lacking in a basis—i.e. any basis of biblical authority.”

[…]

Drollinger follows that with another study entitled “God’s Design for a Societal Safety Net,” which he grounds in a passage from one of Paul’s epistles, a Bible verse that Republican members of Congress have cited as justification for cuts in food stamps: “If anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.” He cites another letter in which Paul says young widows should not receive charitable help; they should instead get remarried, have children, and keep house. Drollinger says specifically that government should not take care of elderly people when they have relatives like grandchildren who could do so.

[…]

In a study focused on property rights, Drollinger cites Old Testament teachings to support his argument that “God is a Capitalist not a Communist.” And he warns that “as America jettisons its trust in the Torah, it follows that there would be and are increasing threats to, and the erosion of private property ownership,” including excessive environmental regulation.

The bible has no fucking business in government, let alone making policy, but here we are, with toxic sociopathy spreading out all over. Jehovah/Yahweh/El Shaddai/Whatthefuckever is one of the most psychopathic, evil gods ever invented. Drollinger and his henchpeople are fully behind that. They love it, and they want to force that evil on everyone. The bible being what it is, can be conveniently twisted about to support whatever you want, and what these people want is far beyond simply being immoral.

God’s job is to “suppress evil” and “punish evildoers,” Drollinger says, and he argues in a November 21 Bible study that the Bible not only permits but requires the death penalty, particularly for murder: “Fear of the State and its power to execute equal and proportional justice is a necessary force in a fallen world.” He says directly, “as a lawmaker it is incumbent on you to stand for the death penalty relative to the good of the citizens of the country.”

It has been shown, time and time again, that capital punishment is not a deterrent. It can actually make things worse – if someone does something they believe might get them a death penalty, well, they have nothing to lose, do they? As it stands, the prison system in Ustates is a regressive, nightmarish, barbaric monstrosity, which has long been out of control. Other countries have much better prison systems, which focus on rehabilitation. And in many cases, rehabilitation works. Of course, for it to work, you need a stable, secure society, with social safety nets. And, y’know, it it’s Jehovah’s job to “suppress evil” and “punish evildoers”, then let the nasty piece of work get off its ass and do that. I am past sick to death of christians and their “god does this, that, and the other.” That god of yours doesn’t do jack fucking shit.

Drollinger argues for the importance of public officials maintaining what he says is God’s one-man, one-woman design for marriage. In an earlier study, he explained that men and women have different “unambiguous responsibilities” outlined in scripture. For women, those duties are homemaking, home management, mothering, teaching younger women, displaying hospitality, and “differentiating in dress”—for the latter citing 1 Timothy 2:9 which says “I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes” (New International Version). Men’s “primary functions” are providing for the household, leading in the church, leading in the home, sacrificing for and sanctifying his wife, and fathering children into adults. “When America in any way denigrates God’s ordained Institution of husband and wife Marriage,” he writes, “our nation loses one of God’s primary means of heralding His nature to our country!”

Mmm. Drollinger has a quite lenient interpretation of the bible when it comes to him being divorced and remarried. I rather expect he’d also find a way to be surprisingly lenient when it comes to all those fine, upstanding, christian men who engage in sexual harassment and sexual assault. Probably get the same bullshit on the fact that christians have higher rates of cheating and divorce, too.

Drollinger warns lawmakers not to think that there is a legislative fix for racism, which he blames in part on evolutionary theory. While he said in a September Bible study that anti-discrimination laws “have their place and are necessary,” he also declared, “they will never eradicate the problem from society—so don’t think the answer is in more legislation. It is not. The wise public servant will therefore always work toward religious freedom and incentivization of the Church—so that it can best facilitate evangelism and change hearts.”

Oh sure, everyone knows there’s not a drop of bigotry in ‘the church’ or christians anywhere. Nope. :near-fatal eyeroll:

There’s much more to read at RWW, and it’s important reading. This is not something to dismiss.

The Migrant Quilt Project.

TUCSON SECTOR 2004-2005, 282 deaths.
Made by Carol Hood, Sunny Klapp, Phyllis Sager, & Virginia Wenzel, of Prescott, Arizona.

Picked from the desert, I’m gazing at the tiny pieces of Jeans. These are what’s left of real lives. They had hopes and dreams of better and safer futures. (Virginia Wenzel)

There is a wealth of heartbreak at The Migrant Quilt Project, but it’s heartbreak all should feel. No one should be able to turn a cold heart and hateful mind to the mute witness of so much death.

The Migrant Quilt Project.

Melting! We’re Melting!

Let’s see:

Using “badge politics”, censoring those who don’t worship twitter’s liberal dictator, & implementing procedures to annihilate conservatives from the Internet?

Sounds like twitter is carrying out its own “final solution” for conservatives.

And so it begins. Twitter is quick to call me and others Nazis, but they are literally trying to eradicate my presence. Just like Hitler.

Twitter is uh, cracking down on hateful tweeters (not the Tiny Tyrant, natch), by removing their little checkmark. Yeah, that will show them. While I can’t say I think much of this ‘action’, it’s certainly upsetting the conservanazi crowd. Laura Loomer says Using “badge politics”. If that little checkmark didn’t mean anything to you Ms. Loomer, why on earth did you pursue it so hard? You claim Twitter is ‘annihilating’ conservatives, literally trying to eradicate your presence. Going by your checkmark free tweets, that has not been accomplished in the slightest. Perhaps you should save your hyperbole for a time when Twitter actually does something, like ban your account.

All the checkmarkless nazirati are having fits, as if this truly impacts their ability to spread their bigotry, hate, and fear. Perhaps it does, and if so, good. You can read many of the linked tweets of the nazirati at RWW.