Gilead, here we come!

Lard, I hate waking up to shit like this. Especially when I’m only really interested in the latest news about the War on Photosynthesis currently taking place in the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. I can’t stop laughing about it! Every new update has me in stitches.

A person wearing a cartoonish, pink and white, inflatable frog costume that says “AMPHIFA” across its belly, standing next to the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, and carrying a sign overhead that reads “FIRST THEY CAME for the ALGAE…”

That is some funny shit right there.

But not today. Today, I see this:

The Washington Post | Alert | Breaking News | June 26, 8:11 p.m. EDT | Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission takes aim at separation of church and state | The Trump administration issued a draft report from the commission that says the separation concept is a legal error and that Americans should view religion as an “essential support.” The 224-page report also recommended the DOJ issue guidance to promote “an originalist understanding” of how the Constitution sees the relationship between religion and government.

A legal error! Well gosh, I wonder which part of their much-touted and specifically-sworn-to U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment our esteemed “Supreme” court will rewrite, strike dead, or pretend not to understand? (Oooh, is Polymarket taking bets on this yet? Asking for a friend…) Because sure as shit, that court is where this “legal error” will end up.

For those who may want a quick refresher, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

That part in bold is commonly referred to as the “establishment clause,” though I have always wondered why it isn’t called the “non-establishment clause.”

But hey, I’m no constitutional scholar! And even though I’m a native English speaker (albeit one with a baaaad Philly accent when I get drunk), I may not understand what those English words in that ol’ First Amendment mean. For all I know, they might mean “all laws must respect the establishment of a few approved sects of the roughly 45,000 different versions of the Christian religion, and prohibit the free exercise of anything else.” And the really amazing part is those words will have meant exactly this for the past 250 years! I know, right? The men who wrote it, and all the judges who have taken it more or less at face value for centuries, will all turn out to have been COMPLETELY WRONGHEADED about what the establishment clause means.

Lest you think I’m being a tad histrionic, these same Supreme Assholes have already done this to the Second Amendment. That one says in its entirety:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

FULL DISCLOSURE: Just so you know what a hopelessly illiterate dingbat you’re reading right now, I must confess that there was a time, not so long ago, when I actually believed that (omg this is so embarrassing!) the words “well regulated” and “Militia” and “being necessary to the security of a free State” had something to do with… a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State! LOL! I was so confused I thought the aforementioned necessary and well regulated Militia was the context and justification for peoples’ right to bear arms.

facepalm emoji

Thankfully, the six superior intellects sitting on the nation’s highest court set me straight about that foolishness. I have come to understand that the words of the Second Amendment mean “EVERYONE CAN OPEN CARRY EVERYWHERE AT ALL TIMES.” Not only that, but the Second Amendment has always meant that! For the past 250 years! See, it’s just that in all that time, nobody else had the penetrating insight, encyclopedic historical knowledge, and time-traveling capabilities of our six conservative Justices.

Goldman v. Landers in NY-10.

Having inexplicably failed to find any traction (yet!) on my “WHITE PEOPLE: LET’S ALL FORFEIT OUR VOTES TO BLACK WOMEN” campaign (well, except for my long-time psychiatrist, who loves the idea but unfortunately doesn’t live in my district), I’ve had to take responsibility for my primary ballot myself. I wish I could say I did so reluctantly, but the truth is I could not wait to do this thing.

hoto of my Dem primary ballot for NY-10 today: "Representative in Congress Dan Goldman, then I wrote in red (D-Israel, no matter what they do.) O Brad Lander, then I wrote in red (D-F%*k genocide, ICE, & billionaires) ⏺"

My NY-10 congressional primary ballot.

Early voting started today in New York for the June 23 Democratic primary, and I was practically foaming at the mouth and ready to attack the security guard to let me in.

Dan Goldman is currently serving his second term as my congresscritter, and hopefully his last. Lander’s been running ahead in polling, but not enough for my comfort. Goldman, an heir to the Levi-Strauss fortune, successfully self-funded his first campaign. This cycle, when his primary opponent Brad Lander started polling ahead, he casually dumped another $1 million of his own money into his coffers.

None of that is necessarily disqualifying, in my view. It’s what Goldman has done – and not done – while in Congress that has this atheist praying he gets his ass kicked out of DC.

Mr. Goldman doesn’t need the money, but he takes it anyway from AIPAC. I’ve been reading his weekly email newsletter since he was sworn in, and he proudly votes pro-Israel every single time a vote comes up. He’s essentially Chuck Schumer’s Mini-Me.

Here’s a thought that apparently hasn’t occurred to ANY congresscritter:

How about no aid or assistance of any kind to countries with universal healthcare, until the U.S. has a world-class, single-payer healthcare system itself? 

That policy alone would take care of our tax dollars funding a Palestinian genocide.

Dear foreign democracies: Let your own people suffer medical bankruptcies and shorter, sicker lives to fund your government’s evils. Thanks.

*shrug*

Happy Mothers Day.

Abstract image of stone-statue-like, faceless mother and child against a dark red background.

Mother (pink madonna) by Mikulus Galanda, 1933.
(public domain via rawpixel)

(via Women’s March email)

Mother’s Day grew from a movement rooted in antiwar organizing, mutual aid, and demands for policies that support women and families.

Before it became a commercial holiday, women used this day to organize for peace, public health, labor protections, and dignity.

That legacy belongs to mothers. And it also belongs to every woman helping shape the future of this country — whether they have children or not.

Today, women are still leading. We are the supermajority of people showing up and leading resistance movements across our country.

Women don’t carry society on our backs because we’re built for it. We carry it because we refuse to hand the future to fascists.

Happy Mother’s Day,
Women’s March

Co-signed in solidarity and love,
-Iris the Childless.

P.S. I understand all too well that this day can be a difficult one for those with challenging, damaging, distant, abusive, or no relationships with our mothers. It can also be difficult for those who are grieving the loss of beloved mothers, mother-figures, and children. Please know that you are not alone. I wish you peace and healing.

FWIW, here’s an image that made me smile today.

 

Siberian tigress with cub in snow.

Siberian tigress with cub in snow.
(public domain via rawpixel)

WHITE PEOPLE: LET’S ALL FORFEIT OUR VOTES TO BLACK WOMEN.

photo of the U.S. "Supreme" Court

U.S. “Supreme” Court (image: public domain via rawpixel)

In Callais v. Louisiana, the United States “Supreme” Court just eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of 1965, an extraordinarily hard-won piece of federal legislation aimed at ending racial discrimination in voting.

The tl;dr version is this:

The ruling effectively invalidates Section 2 of the VRA as it has been understood for four decades without explicitly striking down the statute… By allowing for the dismantling of minority districts currently held by Democrats, the ruling could provide the GOP enough additional seats to lock in the party’s control of the House for a generation.

There is nothing surprising about a 6-3 SCOTUS opinion wherein the six-asshole majority rewrites, neuters and/or hollows-out laws duly enacted by Congress or states that do not uphold white cis-het christian male supremacy. Conservatives are constitutionally (<-hahaha) incapable of envisioning a culture, society, community, institution, family structure, or indeed any human relationship that does not embody a strict hierarchy, as arbitrary, amoral, or immoral as it may be. This is why conservatives by nature hate democracy: because democracy is, at least aspirationally, a real-world manifestation of equality. One person = one vote.

THE HORROR. 😱

After Callais, the gerrymandering frenzy in Republican-led states has gone into hyperdrive, in an effort to lock in a permanent gain of House seats for the GOP. Dem politicians are responding accordingly in a manic frenzy to rewrite electoral maps in blue states to counter these measures.

The Dem reaction is all fine and dandy, and probably necessary in the immediate aftermath of the court’s transparently racist and anti-democratic excrescence. But the real travesty here will not be remedied so easily: racial minorities will remain disenfranchised and significantly underrepresented for the foreseeable future.

Gee Iris, I can hear you asking, What can I possibly do about this malevolent shitfuckery? Fear not! For I have the answer:

WHITE PEOPLE:
LET’S ALL FORFEIT OUR VOTES TO BLACK WOMEN.

No, I am not joking.

[Read more…]

Banksy: Now in 3-D!

A statue of a man holding a flag which covers his face, and stepping off a plinth, signed "Banksy," surrounded by a crowd. It appeared in Waterloo Place in London, Thursday, April 30, 2026.

(AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

via AP:

May 1, 2026

LONDON (AP) — Elusive street artist Banksy said Thursday that a new sculpture that appeared in central London of a man striding off a plinth, with his face blinded by a billowing flag, is his work.

A statue of a man holding a flag which covers his face, and stepping off a plinth, signed "Banksy." It appeared in Waterloo Place in London, Thursday, April 30, 2026.

(via AP – video uncredited)

In a humorous video posted Thursday on his Instagram account, Banksy showed snippets of how the sculpture was put up in the dead of night. The sculpture appeared to have been erected in the early hours of Wednesday on a plinth on a traffic island in Waterloo Place, near Buckingham Palace.

…

The statue is situated close to those of King Edward VII, who reigned between 1901 and 1910, and legendary nurse Florence Nightingale, as well as the Crimean War Memorial.

Banksy is known for his 2-D spray-painted images, surreptitiously applied on public and private buildings. The sharp, witty, satirical and often scathing political commentary embedded in his work is not subtle. For me, Banksy’s artistic genius lies in crystallizing his point of view on dark and deep subject matter into simple, nearly universally accessible images (and statues!) that simultaneously exude an unmistakable playfulness, hilarity, child-like whimsy, and outright joy.

It is quite the trick Mr. Banksy pulls off, like no other.

More images of the statue below the cut.

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BREAKING: Abattoir goes international, welcomes new involuntary organ donors!

Black & white photo of equipment and staff at a U.S. Army medical facility circa WWI.

The Abattoir is quickly expanding its involuntary organ donor pool – we are now operating in Australia!

It turns out some prominent Australians feel so very strongly about other people involuntarily donating organs, it is only fair and just that they live by this principle themselves.

Thanks to commenters gijoel and mathscatherine, who provided candidate names and links to evidence that unquestionably qualifies these donors, we are now happily harvesting organs from:

 

  • Bernie Finn, Victoria, Australia “Liberal” MP.
    (qualifying criteria: commenting on unwanted pregnancies resulting from rape, “Babies should not be killed for the crime of his or her parent.”)
  • Tony Abbott, former prime minister of Australia.
    (qualifying criteria: calling abortion decriminalization “effectively infanticide on demand.”)

 

Remember, people: our mission is SAVING LIVES of children, women, and men who die every single day for lack of a life-saving donor organ. #savingbabies #prolife

[Read more…]

The Abattoir.

Once upon a time, I had another blog called Perry Street Palace™. It was (and still is imho) a wonderful place, with its own zoo, an extensive library, and of course a bar. But perhaps its most ambitious operation was The Abattoir.

The Abattoir has been sorely neglected since I joined FtB, and definitely needed some updating. Thus I am proud to announce the Grand Reopening of The Abattoir, in its sparkling new location, Freethought Blogs!

__________

Welcome to the Abattoir!

Black & white photo of equipment and staff at a U.S. Army medical facility circa WWI.

Here, we perform extractions of lifesaving organs–whether people consent to them or not!

Don’t worry! The Abattoir does not harvest organs from just anyone, willy-nilly. That would be morally reprehensible, barbaric, and inhumane. You see, all of our involuntary organ donors meet one, and only one, very specific criteria: they would eagerly and happily force other people to donate lifesaving organs  without the donor’s consent. And these donors do so with absolutely no regard for the harm this may cause, whether physically, psychologically or financially. Since all of The Abattoir’s donors feel so very strongly about this particular principle, it is only just and fair that they live by it!

[Read more…]

Amazon Union Win a “Huge Shock.” (not an April Fools joke!)

via NY Daily News:

Amazon workers in N.Y. vote to form first U.S. union in company’s history in ‘huge shock’

Workers at the Amazon warehouse on Staten Island voted decisively to form the first U.S. union in the mammoth multinational company’s history, according to a count of the historic labor election completed Friday.

…

The election was instantly viewed as a possible watershed moment for the American labor movement, which has weakened in recent decades.

“Weakened?” WEAKENED?! There are many, many more accurate words I can think of to describe what has happened to U.S. labor movements and unions: decimated, demolished, shattered, destroyed, conquered and obliterated are just some of them. I guess the Daily News misplaced its thesaurus today?

Christian Smalls, a fired Amazon worker who objected to the 27-year-old company’s COVID protocols, led the recently created Amazon Labor Union to the victory over the Seattle retail giant, which is known for pulverizing labor efforts by inundating workers with anti-union messaging.

“Pulverizing.” See? Much better.

At the New York warehouse, a fulfillment facility known as JFK8, management hung “Vote No” banners on the walls and held required union-busting meetings. But the workers would not be denied.

“Amazon has proven willing to put basically unlimited resources into anti-union campaigns, and these workers really won against all odds,” said Rebecca Givan, a labor studies professor at Rutgers University. “It’s really a historic victory and probably a huge shock to Amazon.”

You can read more here (@ NY Daily News).

One of the takeaways that struck me is the social media angle. While America’s Owners have developed and deployed extremely effective union-busting tactics (“required union-busting meetings”… WTF is with that?), the organizers here:

led a creative labor push that leveraged social media, including Twitter and TikTok, to succeed at the city’s lone Amazon fulfillment facility, a place where many workers are relatively young people of color, according to The City news outlet. “This is Gen Z,” Smalls, 33, told the outlet.

This suggests to me that there is only a very small window here for labor organizers with younger workforces to succeed in their unionizing efforts, before the Amazons of the world begin using the same platforms to deliver slick, Gen Z-tested, anti-union messaging to neutralize the threat.

If you’re wondering why this is a really big fucking deal, ask yourself this: if unions did not shift meaningful power, e.g. better working conditions, benefits and pay to employees, why would U.S. corporations be willing to put “basically unlimited resources” into crushing them?

Happy International Women’s Day! Or, not!

Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day. The day was first professed by the Socialist Party of America in 1909, the idea arising from women’s rights movements in industrializing nations around the turn of the last century. Its purpose is to celebrate the achievements of women throughout history, as well as engage in the ongoing struggle for gender equality.

March is also Women’s History Month. <-That is a website curated by the U.S. Library of Congress that showcases women’s battles and triumphs with interesting and informative stories, audio, video and still images.

If you are a dude and still reading this post: here, have a cookie. (I baked them myself.) That’s for seeing the word “women’s” and not immediately deciding to GTFO.

However, if you are a dude blogger, social media influencer, or a Big Willie with a platform of any kind? [Read more…]