I voted for Kamala Harris and I am a lapsed Catholic. A lapsed Catholic is someone continually questioning why over a Guiness to ever choose to become Catholic in the first place.
Make that 2 Guinesses. And a good burger with fries.
There was a convention for brewers and brew masters from around the world attended. At the end of the convention a few of the brew masters decided to head to the local tavern together. They arrived and once seated at the bar, the bartender came around to take their orders.
The first to order was the brew master from Budweiser. He tells the bartender, “I’ll have the king of beers! One Budweiser, please.”
The second was the brew master from Coors. He tells the bartender, “I’ll have the only beer brewed with pure Rocky Mountain spring water! One Coors, please.”
The third was the brew master from Miller. He tells the bartender, “I’ll have the champagne of beers! One Miller, please.”
The fourth was the brew master from Guinness. He tells the bartender, “I’ll have a Coke.”
The other brew masters look at him astonished. “Aren’t you going to order a Guinness?” one of them asks.
The brew master from Guinness replies, “I figured if none of you were going to drink beer, I wouldn’t either.”
I was in Germany many years ago drinking an exquisite dark beer and a native of that country asked me why so many Americans enjoyed drinking “piss water”. :D
Nope just Guiness for me and when trump outlaws Guiness? I'll still drink it. I'm in Massachusetts and we all vote Democrat but for some reason we get republican governors.
We will All make it. We will be okay-- well just as long as trump doesn't outlaw caffeine, booze and chocolate. Nothing in the Bible about chocolate or caffeine, plenty about booze. Sooo I'm guessing wine and some beer are okay. Drink up everybody we got a long way to go and the designated driver is out of his mind. That would be the name that shall not be named.
Wait... You got a black and tan at an Irish bistro. don't you mean an "arf and arf". The expression black and tan does not go over well in the Irish community. Case in point... a popular Irish drinking song.
Come out ye black and tans
Come out and fight me like a man
Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders
Far too many people are indoctrinated from birth to conflate religion and morality. The study of history shows that to be anything but true. Religious people tend to attribute all that's good with the world to their religion, their God, and their prayers, while dismissing the evil perpetrated by believers as not the acts of 'true' (Insert religion of choice.)
Good to see the nones making headway. It isn’t enough to improve my outlook right now, but it is something.
OT sort of. I was just greeted by someone I work with, (who was sincere and not the type of person I would have an issue with regarding this subject) with happy veteran’s day. I thanked her but then I went on to say there are folks I don’t want to hear it from. On this day, I don’t want to hear it from anyone who ever supported trump. I see all the flags put up to celebrate around town, lots of signs and freebies and such, but it isn’t a happy Veterans Day. It’s a shitty day because I have fewer rights than I did when I served, my daughter now faces rape threats at school hiding behind free speech (a boy at her school wore a “your body, my choice” t-shirt last week), veterans across the country are facing a loss of benefits that will threaten their lives, and there are millions of immigrants facing deportation no matter their legal status. I did not serve so that I could be denied rights, so my neighbors could be denied citizenship over their skin color. I know it’s make believe that the military protects our rights, but if we’re going to pretend, at least don’t be so brazen in taking my humanity away.
It just doesn’t feel like folks really give a shit about veterans. Well, they never really did, it’s just more obvious this time.
The way the US seems to treat its veterans is a bit of a scandal it seems to me. Although the VA is a really, really good idea. My father got home from World War II and slotted back into society without too much trouble I thought. Although he never talked about the fighting aside from "your training takes over", there were no signs I could see of PTSD. On the other hand I had a teacher years ago who had flown a Spitfire in the permittees theatre, who used to react really badly to loud noises. Probably not best for him to be teaching in a low decile secondary school but most of us actually respected him – because we were the generation that did – although there was none of that US culture of "thank you for your service." Maybe because NZ had a huge proportion of its population who served.
But how many of these people voted for Trump and are now realising the second part of FAFA as a consequence of their voting. Anyone who complains about Trump's policies needs to be reminded of this. Often.
As far as the T-shirt is concerned Trump's opened the floodgates hasn't he? He's made misogyny and racism great again. When you think of how these people have had to bottle it up for years now ....
Did the school do/say anything about the shirt? One of our local schools had a fairly recent incident with a homophobic shirt and the one my kids were in had a bunch of racist flyers posted a couple years ago. I don't recall anything done about the shirt, the admin said something kind of vague about the flyers and nothing really changed.
I haven’t received any news from the school. The place I saw the report has someone trusted and in the know confirm it happened but not how the school handled it. It happened on Wednesday, and the new administration (new principal and superintendent) should have been alerted. In the recent past, the school had other deplorable actions happened that the old administration didn’t handle very well, if at all. There is a small, vocal, minority of folks who are quite MAGA (some were like that before MAGA became a thing) and they’re wealthy enough to avoid any pushback on their children’s disgusting behavior. A lot like other small towns. We did have a visit from Trump in town, invited by a local family business that were never Trumpers until about three months before the election (when Harris was named the dem nominee), hubs and I are having some serious conversations right now.
Of course, the town did go for Harris at over 60% and Baldwin with a wide margin as well. But the minority is just too influential when it matters. Like the safety and well being of all students in the schools.
The American Body Politic, as it is currently construed, is weighted heavily against certain groups - women, LGBTQ, Blacks, Liberals, Nones, and Brown people. It doesn't matter how sane, open-minded, competent the candidate is, most Americans want little to do with us and the America we are selling. Twice now a highly competent woman has been trounced by an individual who told everyone he would fix the system by destroying it. You look at the people under their tent and the people under ours and we are two very different nations sharing the same real estate. I read today that the rethugs in the senate are starting to support letting The Orange Idiot make all his cabinet choices as 'Recess Appointments'. They have a lot of really intelligent lawyers coming up with ways to bypass The Constitution. Our Democratic Republic seems to be on the path to dying with nary a whimper. As the outgroup, there may be little we can do. I remain very pessimistic.
Today, November 11, is Veterans Day, when we justifiably pause a bit in honor of those so-called "suckers" and "losers" in the US military who have volunteered to put their lives on the line in defense of our democracy.
I'd like to use the occasion to also recognize the largely faceless and underappreciated CIVILIAN federal workers. True, their lives aren't normally at risk (aside from Capitol police during electoral vote counting, or firefighters as climate change devastates our forests), but they nonetheless make every American's life better day in and day out.
We’ve just seen something that’s only happened once before in American history. Grover Cleveland won the presidency in 1884, lost it in 1888, and won it back again in 1892, becoming President #22 and 24. Donald Trump won in 2016, lost in 2020, and won again in 2024, becoming President #45 and 47. (Cleveland won the popular vote all 3 times, tho; Trump, only the last time.)
Besides that similarity, they share a mutual interest in the federal civil-service system. Thruout most of the 19th Century, every time the White House changed occupants, there was massive turnover in federal offices, as jobs were awarded to members of the incoming president’s party. It didn’t much matter whether the new office-holders had much experience in those jobs, or even basic competence; those weren’t the primary criteria. Party loyalty was all that mattered. This was most noticeable in the favorite political plums of all: postmasterships in every city, village, town, and hamlet in the country, where party activists could be rewarded with a spot on the federal payroll without having to leave home. Of course, it meant the mail was screwed up everywhere for a couple of months thereafter, but hey, to the victor belong the spoils, right? That’s why this approach was called the “spoils system”.
Cleveland didn’t like it. He wanted the public to be served by people who actually knew what they were doing and were good at it, so his administration created job requirements, recruited people who met them, encouraged them to develop detailed expertise, and rewarded good performance and longevity, so it was possible to make a career out of government work and actually establish institutional memory within the various departments and bureaus.
But, as I said, he and Trump share a mutual interest in the civil service. Cleveland created it; Trump wants to destroy it.
"It would be nice, then, if Democrats started acting like it, with more targeted outreach to non-religious Americans. It’s harder to reach us because we’re, by definition, not organized, but there could be a way to reach those voters (without alienating others) by pushing back against Christian Nationalism and proudly defending church/state separation."
Personally, I'd like to see fewer Democratic politicians engaging in so many "I'm a Christian too" rhetoric in their campaigning/attempts to reach more Christian voters. For starters, I think they've reached just about all the Christian voters they're going to. The holdouts are not likely to consider these politicians "real Christians" no matter what reassurances the politicians give them. So they're just alienating not only atheists, but those of us non-Christian theists who are exhausted pissing matches over who's the "real/better Christian" that passes for political discourse. Democrats need to get back to the issues and the values those issues embody, regardless of whether they derive those values from some theology or humanistic philosophy.
(This is something -- though not the only thing -- that really bugged me about Pete Buttigieg during his primary campaign back in 2020.)
"Incredibly, though, 71% of non-religious Americans supported Kamala Harris, and that represented 24% of voters"
26% voted for drumpster against 22% of Jewish. Can we hypothesise that they ditched, or didn't grew up with a, religion but not the prejudices who tend to go with it ? 🤔
As we have seen with many prominent atheists, and I don't really think I need to name-drop any of them to make the point, bigotry is perfectly capable of surviving and even thriving without religion to feed it; religion just makes baking the pretzel-logic needed to justify it easier.
I have seen anecdotes of immigrants who think "I've got mine, fuck you" about their own relatives. Not even willing to help your own family, that's true conservative thinking.
I’ve long been astonished that Christians can claim with a straight face that, yes, the Yahweh of the Old Testament was a petty, vengeful, murderous jerk, but that everything was set right by Jesus (according to the fanfic of his most devoted followers, known as the New Testament). But that’s got it exactly backwards.
Sure, if you did something that pïssed off the easily irritated Yahweh, he’d smite you where you stood, plus your family and half the innocent bystanders in the surrounding county as collateral damage. But that was it. Dead. Done. Finito. Period. Game Over. Sayonara. Hasta la vista. It wasn’t until Jesus came along that they invented the concept of “No no no, my friend, we’re gonna fry your sorry äss <B>forever!</B> And not just for the actions you actually performed but for some of those naughty little <B>thots</B> you’ve been having!”
Think about it. Which of these 2 arrogant, flaming sadists was actually worse?
Elections under the orange ick? You must be living in Disney - land! Highly doubt there will be elections anymore. Just republican terrorism from now on.
Sorry, I've been trying to avoid the news (with some success) for a while for my mental health. That includes here. I was at a sci-fi convention last weekend and we had a great sense of community. I want to hold onto that feeling for as long as I can.
The first one make me laugh. "I didn't do that when they voted for Biden". Chérie, explain to me when Biden or Harris wanted to scrape the rights your grandmothers didn't grow up with ?
I agree. Biden was not a threat to her family. Trump is.
I could feel just a touch of sympathy for *most* of the others, who at least seemed to having an "uh-oh" moment, but that first little whining idiot, saying over and over again how happy she was that Trump won (oblivious to what is now going to befall her family) but she is sooooooo sad and upset that her family is treating her like a pariah because she supported a candidate who wants to strip them of their rights and humanity.
Obviously she just does not have a fucking clue as to "why are they being so MEEEEEEAAAAN to me ?"
I keep seeing posts of overflowing grocery carts claiming this is what the person posting will finally be able to do now that Trump is in charge, they’ve been hungry for 4 years.
Now, ignoring the issue with their counting, 4 years ago Trump was still in office, there’s plenty to pick apart with this meme. First, we all know the president has little to do with the current price gouging issue, and he has actually tried to (and accomplished a bit) rein in the corporate greed/price gouging. Vance lied about the price of eggs standing in front of visible signs debunking his claims. Besides the egg prices were caused by the bird flu making a natural shortage in supply, which means the hike in egg prices couldn’t be regulated for a short time and the egg prices corrected itself once the flu passed and production went back up. Second, what little we can do regarding inflation and price gouging, Trump has vociferously shouted he would cut regulations on the corporations, giving them the ability to price gouge unabated. Add the tariffs he’s proposing, and we will see grocery prices skyrocket into outrageous altitudes. No one will afford groceries in the near future on those two points alone. And yet we will have to face the deregulation of production as well. When factories and farms no longer have to follow rules protecting the consumers, we will face more shortages like we saw with the baby formula three years ago. That, or, we will see millions dying from e-coli, salmonella, and straight up poisons in our foods.
But sure, you might find the first few months of Trump’s administration grocery prices going down. Mainly because of policies Biden has already put in place. Once they expire, though, good luck getting fed.
I honestly have no sympathy left to give. If, on Election Day, someone didn't know what Trump was, what he stood for, what he would do, and how he would do it that is on THEM. Trump was frighteningly honest several times about what his actions would be if given the Presidency again, and now the only real question is how long it's going to take for him to get it done and in which order things will happen. I distinctly recall watching a newscast where the reporter interviewed a young woman less than a week prior to the election, and the young woman saying something about how she just wasn't sure she knew enough about Harris. So far as I can tell, the result of this election is on people just like her, who either voted for Trump or just flat didn't vote at all.
Now, Trump voters claim they 'regret' their actions, but I find I can't really afford to believe them when they say that; too many lies have been spewed from that group of people for me to be willing to forget so quickly. The ride has started, and it's no longer possible to get off without penalty; I suggest buckling in and holding on since things will be getting quite bumpy for the foreseeable future.
I will save any sympathy I manage to scrape together for those future generations that were not able to vote, and for those who voted for Harris. You know, people who deserve it.
During the 2024 election, former Trump supporters made videos in which they regretted their actions in 2016/2020. They begged people not to make the same mistake they did.
Those who now say they regret their actions for the 2024 election didn't listen and voted to put the convicted felon/insurrectionist/rapist/serial adulterer/sexual predator back in office. Their 'regrets' ring hollow.
The whole of YouTube – at least my feed – seems to be devoted to people who are experiencing buyer's remorse. Seems to me this will increase if Trump actually goes through with his policies, which will definitely hurt many of the people who voted for him. If he doesn't, then it will definitely ANGER many of the people who voted for him. Man is on what we would call a "hiding to nothing". But then he is utterly unpredictable – who knows?
I'm not talking about his followers. They are a lost cause. But there are plenty of people who for some strange reason voted for him who aren't part of his regular base. They will suffer, and is up to the Democrats to figure out how to harness this. I think if Trump does what he said he was going to do, there will be another blue wave in the midterms. Mind you I stuck my neck out and said that Harris would win comfortably. Ha ha.
Charles Schulz once concoted a "Peanuts" book and titled it "Things I Learned After It Was Too Late."
Seems to me someone should write a non-ficton version of that and aim it at Republicans or anyone who even thought of voting Republican. Of course, it would already be too late for this election cycle. The damage has been done. Maybe next time (if there IS one).
Also, just occurred to me, if someone were to write such a book today, they may not be able to get it published. Fascist countries tend to frown on that sort of thing.
I think you confuse 2 different women. The first was upset that her grandmother, mother and sisters cut her off. The one who had daughters, in college, was stuck between them and the rest of her family who are trumpistas. She defended her daughters decision to not go to any family event in protest. By the way, her shitty family voted for drumpster and stood by it even as one of her daughter is an overt and proud lesbian.
I don't know where we go from here, but slowly it's happening – the religious are losing their grasp. But now they've got fanatics in seats, more than there were. And some in relatively highly placed seats. Hopefully they won't be able to convince the remainder of the seatholders to go all in with any type of religious fascism.
The morning walk was a nightmare. Aria howled to go out before breakfast, and I had to fight with Rhapsodie to put her collar and leash because she wanted to eat first.
Where you were born largely influences the language you speak, but does not determine sexual orientation/gender identity. Culture and attitude are with uncommon exception due to grooming - yes, the Religious Reich has been grooming for decades if not longer. Every accusation is a confession!
I voted for Kamala Harris and I am a lapsed Catholic. A lapsed Catholic is someone continually questioning why over a Guiness to ever choose to become Catholic in the first place.
Make that 2 Guinesses. And a good burger with fries.
I want to spend the next 4 years hung over in bed with no access to the news. Only getting out of bed for iced coffee and more Guiness.
Better stock up. If Trump succeeds with his tariffs of foreign goods, Guinness will be unaffordable.
Please, drink a couple for DM too.
I'll drink a few Guiness for all Democrats.
Guiness is totally okay.
There was a convention for brewers and brew masters from around the world attended. At the end of the convention a few of the brew masters decided to head to the local tavern together. They arrived and once seated at the bar, the bartender came around to take their orders.
The first to order was the brew master from Budweiser. He tells the bartender, “I’ll have the king of beers! One Budweiser, please.”
The second was the brew master from Coors. He tells the bartender, “I’ll have the only beer brewed with pure Rocky Mountain spring water! One Coors, please.”
The third was the brew master from Miller. He tells the bartender, “I’ll have the champagne of beers! One Miller, please.”
The fourth was the brew master from Guinness. He tells the bartender, “I’ll have a Coke.”
The other brew masters look at him astonished. “Aren’t you going to order a Guinness?” one of them asks.
The brew master from Guinness replies, “I figured if none of you were going to drink beer, I wouldn’t either.”
I was in Germany many years ago drinking an exquisite dark beer and a native of that country asked me why so many Americans enjoyed drinking “piss water”. :D
Tell them it’s because they can’t hold their alcohol.
I believe that the new administration requires you to now consume berders.
Nope just Guiness for me and when trump outlaws Guiness? I'll still drink it. I'm in Massachusetts and we all vote Democrat but for some reason we get republican governors.
Probably because there's a lot of berder vendors there.
(｡•̀ᴗ-)
Anyway, hold the line, we'll make it, I just hope everybody does.
We will All make it. We will be okay-- well just as long as trump doesn't outlaw caffeine, booze and chocolate. Nothing in the Bible about chocolate or caffeine, plenty about booze. Sooo I'm guessing wine and some beer are okay. Drink up everybody we got a long way to go and the designated driver is out of his mind. That would be the name that shall not be named.
“Chocolate comes from cocoa, which comes from a tree, which makes it a plant. Therefore chocolate counts as salad.”
—Ed Harris
I like the way he thinks.
LOL! Thanks for that, so funny. It's nice to have humor in the New World Dystopian Order
you forgot edibles.
Can you grow coffee and cacao trees in the US ?
In the warmer states you could probably maybe Florida and California
Kauai.
Yeah, no way there wasn’t some shenanigans going on.
Had a lovely Black and Tan at an Irish bistro the other night. Had forgotten how much I enjoy those.
Wait... You got a black and tan at an Irish bistro. don't you mean an "arf and arf". The expression black and tan does not go over well in the Irish community. Case in point... a popular Irish drinking song.
Come out ye black and tans
Come out and fight me like a man
Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders
Tell her how the IRA
Made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lanes of Killashandra
I stand corrected and did not know this. It’s what the menu said.
I find that surprising.
Check this out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCnGD6xv5ik
Time for a Guiness Extra Stout😊
Ahem 🤨
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bistro
I don’t make up these names! Just reporting 😉
😝
Far too many people are indoctrinated from birth to conflate religion and morality. The study of history shows that to be anything but true. Religious people tend to attribute all that's good with the world to their religion, their God, and their prayers, while dismissing the evil perpetrated by believers as not the acts of 'true' (Insert religion of choice.)
Good to see the nones making headway. It isn’t enough to improve my outlook right now, but it is something.
OT sort of. I was just greeted by someone I work with, (who was sincere and not the type of person I would have an issue with regarding this subject) with happy veteran’s day. I thanked her but then I went on to say there are folks I don’t want to hear it from. On this day, I don’t want to hear it from anyone who ever supported trump. I see all the flags put up to celebrate around town, lots of signs and freebies and such, but it isn’t a happy Veterans Day. It’s a shitty day because I have fewer rights than I did when I served, my daughter now faces rape threats at school hiding behind free speech (a boy at her school wore a “your body, my choice” t-shirt last week), veterans across the country are facing a loss of benefits that will threaten their lives, and there are millions of immigrants facing deportation no matter their legal status. I did not serve so that I could be denied rights, so my neighbors could be denied citizenship over their skin color. I know it’s make believe that the military protects our rights, but if we’re going to pretend, at least don’t be so brazen in taking my humanity away.
It just doesn’t feel like folks really give a shit about veterans. Well, they never really did, it’s just more obvious this time.
The way the US seems to treat its veterans is a bit of a scandal it seems to me. Although the VA is a really, really good idea. My father got home from World War II and slotted back into society without too much trouble I thought. Although he never talked about the fighting aside from "your training takes over", there were no signs I could see of PTSD. On the other hand I had a teacher years ago who had flown a Spitfire in the permittees theatre, who used to react really badly to loud noises. Probably not best for him to be teaching in a low decile secondary school but most of us actually respected him – because we were the generation that did – although there was none of that US culture of "thank you for your service." Maybe because NZ had a huge proportion of its population who served.
But how many of these people voted for Trump and are now realising the second part of FAFA as a consequence of their voting. Anyone who complains about Trump's policies needs to be reminded of this. Often.
As far as the T-shirt is concerned Trump's opened the floodgates hasn't he? He's made misogyny and racism great again. When you think of how these people have had to bottle it up for years now ....
Permittees theatre?
https://www.bing.com/search?q=permittees%20theatre
Did the school do/say anything about the shirt? One of our local schools had a fairly recent incident with a homophobic shirt and the one my kids were in had a bunch of racist flyers posted a couple years ago. I don't recall anything done about the shirt, the admin said something kind of vague about the flyers and nothing really changed.
I haven’t received any news from the school. The place I saw the report has someone trusted and in the know confirm it happened but not how the school handled it. It happened on Wednesday, and the new administration (new principal and superintendent) should have been alerted. In the recent past, the school had other deplorable actions happened that the old administration didn’t handle very well, if at all. There is a small, vocal, minority of folks who are quite MAGA (some were like that before MAGA became a thing) and they’re wealthy enough to avoid any pushback on their children’s disgusting behavior. A lot like other small towns. We did have a visit from Trump in town, invited by a local family business that were never Trumpers until about three months before the election (when Harris was named the dem nominee), hubs and I are having some serious conversations right now.
Of course, the town did go for Harris at over 60% and Baldwin with a wide margin as well. But the minority is just too influential when it matters. Like the safety and well being of all students in the schools.
The American Body Politic, as it is currently construed, is weighted heavily against certain groups - women, LGBTQ, Blacks, Liberals, Nones, and Brown people. It doesn't matter how sane, open-minded, competent the candidate is, most Americans want little to do with us and the America we are selling. Twice now a highly competent woman has been trounced by an individual who told everyone he would fix the system by destroying it. You look at the people under their tent and the people under ours and we are two very different nations sharing the same real estate. I read today that the rethugs in the senate are starting to support letting The Orange Idiot make all his cabinet choices as 'Recess Appointments'. They have a lot of really intelligent lawyers coming up with ways to bypass The Constitution. Our Democratic Republic seems to be on the path to dying with nary a whimper. As the outgroup, there may be little we can do. I remain very pessimistic.
I was pessimistic before I read your post. Now I am at the bottom of an old water tank.
I used to think the glass was half full. Now that I've taken a sip, though, I realize it's half full of acid! /s
Democrats say the glass is half full; Republicans say the glass is theirs.
Also they pissed in the glass to mark it as “theirs”.
They smash the glass and your head and complain that you spilled the water.
Please at least let it be good, uncut Acid.
Ask and ye shall receive...
https://youtu.be/DK--apZvmYM
Today, November 11, is Veterans Day, when we justifiably pause a bit in honor of those so-called "suckers" and "losers" in the US military who have volunteered to put their lives on the line in defense of our democracy.
I'd like to use the occasion to also recognize the largely faceless and underappreciated CIVILIAN federal workers. True, their lives aren't normally at risk (aside from Capitol police during electoral vote counting, or firefighters as climate change devastates our forests), but they nonetheless make every American's life better day in and day out.
We’ve just seen something that’s only happened once before in American history. Grover Cleveland won the presidency in 1884, lost it in 1888, and won it back again in 1892, becoming President #22 and 24. Donald Trump won in 2016, lost in 2020, and won again in 2024, becoming President #45 and 47. (Cleveland won the popular vote all 3 times, tho; Trump, only the last time.)
Besides that similarity, they share a mutual interest in the federal civil-service system. Thruout most of the 19th Century, every time the White House changed occupants, there was massive turnover in federal offices, as jobs were awarded to members of the incoming president’s party. It didn’t much matter whether the new office-holders had much experience in those jobs, or even basic competence; those weren’t the primary criteria. Party loyalty was all that mattered. This was most noticeable in the favorite political plums of all: postmasterships in every city, village, town, and hamlet in the country, where party activists could be rewarded with a spot on the federal payroll without having to leave home. Of course, it meant the mail was screwed up everywhere for a couple of months thereafter, but hey, to the victor belong the spoils, right? That’s why this approach was called the “spoils system”.
Cleveland didn’t like it. He wanted the public to be served by people who actually knew what they were doing and were good at it, so his administration created job requirements, recruited people who met them, encouraged them to develop detailed expertise, and rewarded good performance and longevity, so it was possible to make a career out of government work and actually establish institutional memory within the various departments and bureaus.
But, as I said, he and Trump share a mutual interest in the civil service. Cleveland created it; Trump wants to destroy it.
Will trumpy destroy democracy this time around? It seems a lot of murkans want to go to a dictatorship to remove rights for minorities.
"It would be nice, then, if Democrats started acting like it, with more targeted outreach to non-religious Americans. It’s harder to reach us because we’re, by definition, not organized, but there could be a way to reach those voters (without alienating others) by pushing back against Christian Nationalism and proudly defending church/state separation."
Personally, I'd like to see fewer Democratic politicians engaging in so many "I'm a Christian too" rhetoric in their campaigning/attempts to reach more Christian voters. For starters, I think they've reached just about all the Christian voters they're going to. The holdouts are not likely to consider these politicians "real Christians" no matter what reassurances the politicians give them. So they're just alienating not only atheists, but those of us non-Christian theists who are exhausted pissing matches over who's the "real/better Christian" that passes for political discourse. Democrats need to get back to the issues and the values those issues embody, regardless of whether they derive those values from some theology or humanistic philosophy.
(This is something -- though not the only thing -- that really bugged me about Pete Buttigieg during his primary campaign back in 2020.)
Agree Jarred, I just wrote a little piece about the religious base being immune to Democratic outreach. They are too radicalized at this point.
They’re immune to everything but Dominionism.
"Incredibly, though, 71% of non-religious Americans supported Kamala Harris, and that represented 24% of voters"
26% voted for drumpster against 22% of Jewish. Can we hypothesise that they ditched, or didn't grew up with a, religion but not the prejudices who tend to go with it ? 🤔
As we have seen with many prominent atheists, and I don't really think I need to name-drop any of them to make the point, bigotry is perfectly capable of surviving and even thriving without religion to feed it; religion just makes baking the pretzel-logic needed to justify it easier.
Catholics have become as bad as Evangelicals. Used to be a significant portion of them would at least be pro-immigrant and for economic justice.
But I guess that's gone.
Hell, if this election is anything to go by, an unhealthy chunk of Catholic 𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘴 aren't even pro-immigrant.
My sperm donor was like this, second generation born in France (both sides) with a Flemish last name and anti immigration 🙄
The "I've got mine, fuck you" school of thought- depressingly ubiquitous, here in the States.
I have seen anecdotes of immigrants who think "I've got mine, fuck you" about their own relatives. Not even willing to help your own family, that's true conservative thinking.
Christian thinking, too.
After all, Jesus said he didn't come to bring peace. He came equipped with a sword to divide family members and set them at each others throats.
I’ve long been astonished that Christians can claim with a straight face that, yes, the Yahweh of the Old Testament was a petty, vengeful, murderous jerk, but that everything was set right by Jesus (according to the fanfic of his most devoted followers, known as the New Testament). But that’s got it exactly backwards.
Sure, if you did something that pïssed off the easily irritated Yahweh, he’d smite you where you stood, plus your family and half the innocent bystanders in the surrounding county as collateral damage. But that was it. Dead. Done. Finito. Period. Game Over. Sayonara. Hasta la vista. It wasn’t until Jesus came along that they invented the concept of “No no no, my friend, we’re gonna fry your sorry äss <B>forever!</B> And not just for the actions you actually performed but for some of those naughty little <B>thots</B> you’ve been having!”
Think about it. Which of these 2 arrogant, flaming sadists was actually worse?
Pretty certain 99% of all Americans are descendants of immigrants.
Yep, and half of mine got here over ten thousand years ago.
This shift should continue. Perhaps we can claw our way back from fascism, as long as Danger Yam allows elections...
Elections under the orange ick? You must be living in Disney - land! Highly doubt there will be elections anymore. Just republican terrorism from now on.
France or Japan ? I am afraid under a dictature, American's will become a branch of ark disaster.
Disney Japan. They got better high tech stuff there. But Disney France probably has better junk food.
The Disappointed Saxophone music sells it.
https://www.tiktok.com/@disneyscoopguy/video/7370812394630647082?lang=en
Sorry, I've been trying to avoid the news (with some success) for a while for my mental health. That includes here. I was at a sci-fi convention last weekend and we had a great sense of community. I want to hold onto that feeling for as long as I can.
👍
OT- Trump voters, having fucked around, are getting to the "find out" half and, predictably, not enjoying it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOg-PSE08HU
Schadenfreude, thou art bittersweet. Anyone for a round of "told ya so's"?
Leopards, meet MAGA faces.
The first one make me laugh. "I didn't do that when they voted for Biden". Chérie, explain to me when Biden or Harris wanted to scrape the rights your grandmothers didn't grow up with ?
I agree. Biden was not a threat to her family. Trump is.
I could feel just a touch of sympathy for *most* of the others, who at least seemed to having an "uh-oh" moment, but that first little whining idiot, saying over and over again how happy she was that Trump won (oblivious to what is now going to befall her family) but she is sooooooo sad and upset that her family is treating her like a pariah because she supported a candidate who wants to strip them of their rights and humanity.
Obviously she just does not have a fucking clue as to "why are they being so MEEEEEEAAAAN to me ?"
I just wanted to slap the living shit out of her.
I keep seeing posts of overflowing grocery carts claiming this is what the person posting will finally be able to do now that Trump is in charge, they’ve been hungry for 4 years.
Now, ignoring the issue with their counting, 4 years ago Trump was still in office, there’s plenty to pick apart with this meme. First, we all know the president has little to do with the current price gouging issue, and he has actually tried to (and accomplished a bit) rein in the corporate greed/price gouging. Vance lied about the price of eggs standing in front of visible signs debunking his claims. Besides the egg prices were caused by the bird flu making a natural shortage in supply, which means the hike in egg prices couldn’t be regulated for a short time and the egg prices corrected itself once the flu passed and production went back up. Second, what little we can do regarding inflation and price gouging, Trump has vociferously shouted he would cut regulations on the corporations, giving them the ability to price gouge unabated. Add the tariffs he’s proposing, and we will see grocery prices skyrocket into outrageous altitudes. No one will afford groceries in the near future on those two points alone. And yet we will have to face the deregulation of production as well. When factories and farms no longer have to follow rules protecting the consumers, we will face more shortages like we saw with the baby formula three years ago. That, or, we will see millions dying from e-coli, salmonella, and straight up poisons in our foods.
But sure, you might find the first few months of Trump’s administration grocery prices going down. Mainly because of policies Biden has already put in place. Once they expire, though, good luck getting fed.
Brexit, Murika Yee Haw edition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeehaw_Junction,_Florida
Fair warning, I'm going to be a bit brutal here.
I honestly have no sympathy left to give. If, on Election Day, someone didn't know what Trump was, what he stood for, what he would do, and how he would do it that is on THEM. Trump was frighteningly honest several times about what his actions would be if given the Presidency again, and now the only real question is how long it's going to take for him to get it done and in which order things will happen. I distinctly recall watching a newscast where the reporter interviewed a young woman less than a week prior to the election, and the young woman saying something about how she just wasn't sure she knew enough about Harris. So far as I can tell, the result of this election is on people just like her, who either voted for Trump or just flat didn't vote at all.
Now, Trump voters claim they 'regret' their actions, but I find I can't really afford to believe them when they say that; too many lies have been spewed from that group of people for me to be willing to forget so quickly. The ride has started, and it's no longer possible to get off without penalty; I suggest buckling in and holding on since things will be getting quite bumpy for the foreseeable future.
I will save any sympathy I manage to scrape together for those future generations that were not able to vote, and for those who voted for Harris. You know, people who deserve it.
During the 2024 election, former Trump supporters made videos in which they regretted their actions in 2016/2020. They begged people not to make the same mistake they did.
Those who now say they regret their actions for the 2024 election didn't listen and voted to put the convicted felon/insurrectionist/rapist/serial adulterer/sexual predator back in office. Their 'regrets' ring hollow.
The whole of YouTube – at least my feed – seems to be devoted to people who are experiencing buyer's remorse. Seems to me this will increase if Trump actually goes through with his policies, which will definitely hurt many of the people who voted for him. If he doesn't, then it will definitely ANGER many of the people who voted for him. Man is on what we would call a "hiding to nothing". But then he is utterly unpredictable – who knows?
His followers will blame Harris and probably Biden too, they are predictable.
I'm not talking about his followers. They are a lost cause. But there are plenty of people who for some strange reason voted for him who aren't part of his regular base. They will suffer, and is up to the Democrats to figure out how to harness this. I think if Trump does what he said he was going to do, there will be another blue wave in the midterms. Mind you I stuck my neck out and said that Harris would win comfortably. Ha ha.
Well it certainly seemed like she would win, even though I was afraid to get my hopes up too high.
They already do that.
Of course they do. They act like toddlers who have learned nothing.
Charles Schulz once concoted a "Peanuts" book and titled it "Things I Learned After It Was Too Late."
Seems to me someone should write a non-ficton version of that and aim it at Republicans or anyone who even thought of voting Republican. Of course, it would already be too late for this election cycle. The damage has been done. Maybe next time (if there IS one).
There won't be a next time. Trump and trumpists will see to that.
Also, just occurred to me, if someone were to write such a book today, they may not be able to get it published. Fascist countries tend to frown on that sort of thing.
The first woman featured doesn't regret her vote at all. She is upset that her daughters are holding her accountable for shitting on them.
Which is what made me want to slap her into the middle of next year.
I think you confuse 2 different women. The first was upset that her grandmother, mother and sisters cut her off. The one who had daughters, in college, was stuck between them and the rest of her family who are trumpistas. She defended her daughters decision to not go to any family event in protest. By the way, her shitty family voted for drumpster and stood by it even as one of her daughter is an overt and proud lesbian.
You are right, I did. 😳
I don't know where we go from here, but slowly it's happening – the religious are losing their grasp. But now they've got fanatics in seats, more than there were. And some in relatively highly placed seats. Hopefully they won't be able to convince the remainder of the seatholders to go all in with any type of religious fascism.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/20064337e850ef21a701be83208cc3e010a0bfb9810777a7ca04b942ba55789b.jpg
They're standing watch while you're vulnerable (no, really).
Remind me of my doggesses. They followed me even in the bathroom, as long as I didn't open a tap.
Mine only follows me in the bathroom when it’s time for a walk to make sure we’re really going after I’m finished.
The morning walk was a nightmare. Aria howled to go out before breakfast, and I had to fight with Rhapsodie to put her collar and leash because she wanted to eat first.
OT: happy Veterans Day to all who served! Welcome home.
For those in Commonwealth countries, Happy Armistice Day.
John was so prophetic:
"I see the bad moon a-risin'
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightnin'
I see bad times today
Don't go around tonight
Well it's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise
I hear hurricanes a-blowin'
I know the end is comin' soon
I fear rivers over flowin'
I hear the voice of rage and ruin
Don't go around tonight
Well it's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise, alright
Hope you got your things together
Hope you are quite prepared to die
Looks like we're in for nasty weather
One eye is taken for an eye
Well don't go around tonight
Well it's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise."
My pessimism is on the rise. 😟
Where you were born largely influences the language you speak, but does not determine sexual orientation/gender identity. Culture and attitude are with uncommon exception due to grooming - yes, the Religious Reich has been grooming for decades if not longer. Every accusation is a confession!