VOTE! Vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote VOTE!

I’m going to the polls as soon as they open this morning out of a sense of duty and a feeling of futility. Republican gerrymandering and voter suppression, as well as the fact that the electorate is saturated with selfish bigots and the media are bought and owned by the rich, means I don’t expect to see much of that mythical democracy today. It shouldn’t even be close, but it’s going to be close.

But, you see, if we don’t try, if we don’t participate, if we don’t march down and make this tiny effort to oppose unreason and corruption and bigotry, you won’t own a right to protest when the election is stolen. You might be upset, but you won’t possess the righteous fury it’s going to take to right this wrong, which is going to take years of struggle.

As we all know, angry gets shit done.

I’m already pretty angry about century after century of injustice. Keep stoking the rage until we rise up and burn the whole ugly system down.

Look on the bright side, UK!

I know there are changes coming, but you just have to make the best of them. For instance, the Brexiteers are trying to legislate animal pain out of existence.

The Tory Government has outdone itself when it comes to neglecting animal rights this week – by effectively declaring that all animals (apart from humans, of course) have no emotions or feelings, including the ability to feel pain. While debating the Brexit bill, MPs voted not to transfer into UK law the parts of EU legislation which recognise animals have sentience, and can feel pain and emotions.

You’d think that they’d have noticed that Charles Darwin, who was as British as they get, wrote a whole book (The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals) on the subject, and came to a different conclusion. But sure, you can discard your history of scientific endeavor.

The good news is that if pain and suffering and emotions can be taken away with just the right omission in your law books, Brexit is going to go well. Just deny the emotions. Don’t stop with animals, just erase all human concerns away. If you reject their existence, you’ll be able to stand silently through all kinds of loss and deprivation with a stiff upper lip, and not much more. If you need occasional relief, just poke a Tory with your umbrella — they won’t care, they’re in an even more advanced state of unfeeling. It’s like a witch’s mark, only all over their body.

You won’t be alone, either. The US is going to get a major stress test tomorrow, and I’m trying to deal with it by denying all emotions, too. I may have to get myself comfortably numb to make it through the next few days. Akvavit might help.

Was that really the best photo they could find to put on a billboard?

It’s bad enough they’re equating him to Jesus, but did they have to go with the gape-jawed goofy-eyed look with his tiny hand waving about?

Milo rises from the dead!

His rotting corpse has been invited to speak at NYU to a teeming crowd of 14 students.

In a class sure to spook liberals, NYU’s controversial anti-PC Professor Michael Rectenwald has enlisted conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos to speak Wednesday about “the politics of Halloween.”

Apparently, the professor wants the shambling zombie to address the pressing topic of why he can’t dress up in blackface or as Hitler on Halloween without people looking at him like he’s a sick goon with no social graces at all. He just doesn’t get it.

I presume the professor will also show up in costume. Probably dressed as a dinosaur.

Another shooting. Nothing will change.

More mass murder by a right-wing fanatic in Pittsburgh. This one is clearly driven by anti-semitic bigotry. We’re getting the usual excuses.

The governor of Pennsylvania says “These senseless acts of violence are not who we are as Americans.” I wish that would go away. It is who we are as Americans — we’ve got a few perpetrators and a vast mob of people who are fully supportive of allowing weapons available to any one — they’re enablers. We’re living in a violent country where the people in power want to encourage more violence.

Like our president*.

Trump says protection inside the temple would have changed things…if the Pittsburgh synagogue that was attacked by a gunman on Oct. 27 had armed security, the results would have been far better.

We will solve our problems with guns with more guns. Right.

And the suspected mail bomber has been arrested — it’s…FLORIDA MAN

That wacky dope has done one stupid thing too many, and it’s about time he was off the streets.

His name is Cesar Sayoc, and surprisingly, he is not a dedicated liberal.

Sayoc, a registered Republican voter who lives in Aventura, Florida, will face federal criminal charges for the mailed devices, according to NBC News.

They’ve also seized his van. More clues!

Investigators were examining a white van plastered with stickers carrying Trump’s name and the presidential seal, according to MSNBC. The network said authorities were looking at “right-wing paraphernalia” found at the scene.

Clearly a very thorough false flag operation. No word on whether they’ve found check stubs from George Soros.

Seizing the aesthetic high ground

This is an amazing, heroic photo.

Mustafa Hassouna

Not only is it a beautiful image, but the slinger is Palestinian, and the Goliath he’s winging a rock at is Israel. That’s got to sting.

The man in the photo is Abu Amro, and he’s fighting for a just cause.

“I don’t go to protests to get pictures of me taken, but this has encouraged me to continue demonstrating,” he said.

“The flag I was carrying is the same one I always hold in all the other protests I’ve attended. My friends make fun of me, saying it is easier to throw rocks without holding a flag in the other hand, but I got used to it.

“If I get killed, I want to be wrapped in the same flag. We are demanding our right of return, and protesting for our dignity and the dignity of our future generation.”

It’s a sad truth that he does have a good chance of being killed, especially now that Israeli soldiers will be trying to make a martyr of him.