I tried a petition on MoveOn.org to change the divisive "In God We Trust" & return to our original secular motto but I only got a few signatures-- oh well, is right.
Our culture has conditioned a mortal fear of free thinkers, while steadfastly ignoring the fact this massively screwed up country is mostly the work product of believers. Scarcely a day passes when a religious figure does not present a great example of the disconnect between religion and morality.
GREAT news, though the sad part of this whole business is that there's not one member with a (R) next to their name. I would suspect that any Republican who joined the Congressional Freethought Caucus would get another letter, a la Hester Prynne. I should say, too: "quietly?" It is past time that those who value critical thinking in government make some serious noise about there association with the CFC, especially considering the utter lack of such that is seen too often on the (R) side of the aisle.
Regardless, congrats and welcome to Representatives Mullin and Schakowsky. They just joined the side that's gonna WIN!
Honestly, it's not 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 sad. The GQP is beyond saving- as a party, they've chosen the darkness; let them have it. Even the ones who may once have been somewhat reasonable have chosen to remain in the company of monsters. They've put up no meaningful resistance as their party was chewed up by MAGAts and shat out as the war machine of hatred. What can we do, at this point, but shrug our shoulders and paint them all with the same brush?
I can't agree with the whole "they've chosen the darkness" business. The blunt fact is that 71 million people voted for Trump in 2020. What do we do with them? There are no pat answers to that that I'm aware of (I'm an engineer, not a sociologist / psychologist), and that is a large part of what is feeding the division in this country. We've allowed propaganda media like Fox and Newsmax and OAN "educate" these people, and turning them back to reality-based news is no small task. Yet it has to be done.
Because otherwise, this country is headed for the dumpster.
The GOP has been consciously building the infrastructure for this current slobbering power-grab disaster for decades; scrapping the Fairness Doctrine and building their own "news" media echo chamber outlets wasn't even the beginning. Colluding with religious leaders to engineer the "Red Scare" of the 50's probably isn't either. Whether redrawing voting districts, allowing/encouraging RWNJ to intimidate voters at drop boxes, diverting tax dollars from public to religious education interests, treating the continued shooting murders of Black citizens as a quasi-joke, flooding the public with military weapons any batshit crazy can buy, applying screamingly blatant double standards, or whatever other atrocity comes to mind, this shit has been going on for decades and it is getting worse and that's the way they want it. That's the way they engineered it to be for decades. They figured out how to tap into their base's darkest side and gave them full-throated permission slips to be the shittiest assholes they could be, that they always wanted to be, with none of that icky business about consequences. And boy did that base eat it up. No one forced them to - they jumped on the hate bandwagon with unmitigated glee. To me, this is actively choosing the dark side.
This country is already 𝘪𝘯 the dumpster. The trick is stopping the maniac in an elephant mask skipping merrily down the alleyway with a gas can and a pack of matches.
How bloodthirsty does the Republican party- the base and the politicians, both- have to get before it's acceptable to just be done with their bullshit? I have a hard enough time just trying to keep one particular conservative in my own family attached to some tiny sliver of reality, by the thinnest of threads, for the sake of my own safety- am I really obligated to make that effort for every member of the Republican base? Frankly, it matters less and less to me every day whether the majority of them are where they are because they were fooled by propaganda or because they consciously chose to be evil. I didn't "allow" them to get this way. I didn't create Fox News, much less any of the even nuttier wingnut propaganda mills, and I certainly didn't force the Republican base to watch that garbage until it rotted out their empathy and critical thinking skills.
I've done nothing to them. They want me dead anyway. I'll admit that's beginning to narrow my worldview somewhat. Stopping them comes first; saving them can wait. Until the former is accomplished, the latter can only come at the expense of everyone they want to hurt... and if we haven't even figured out how to do the former yet, where does that leave us?
Honestly, watching these jackasses make toxic decisions is a spectator sport! Take Florida, for example. Anyone with half a brain can see that state's future. So what does that say about Florida lawmakers...
This, too, was a disaster decades in the making. Florida used to be a blue state, but I don't know if anyone remembers that. The red creep started back in the 80's during the Reagan Years, maybe even sooner, but that was when it was becoming noticeable. Every election cycle saw fewer D's and more R's in the legislature, but this isn't the sole reason for DeSatan's success. By the time Jeb Bush became governor in 2000, (Texas isn't the only state with Bush family ties) he had the votes and the push necessary to make fundamental changes to the governor/cabinet structure. Until then, Florida had one of the least constitutionally powerful governorships in the country - the governor did not appoint his own cabinet. They were independently elected by the voters, and this often resulted in a mix of R's and D's, but none of them owed the governor anything for his or her job. Jeb eliminated three of the cabinet positions, IIRC, "consolidating" their departments with the remaining three cabinet positions, which were, as of the next election cycle, to be appointed by the governor. IMHO, that just gave a leg up to whatever fascist wannabe that came after him. I thought Rick Scott was horrid enough, but he was a rank amateur compared to DeSatan.
I am not sure what the governor/cabinet setup is now, or even if there still IS a cabinet - it sounds like just a bunch of yes-men agency heads. I haven't been back there in years. I would like to revisit my childhood stomping grounds someday, but I sure wouldn't want to live there again. Not without some fundamental political changes that are unlikely to happen in my lifetime.
Until this year, Florida 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 had a prohibition on politicians running campaigns for other offices from the one they already held (re-election campaigns were still permitted, obviously). The GQP-dominated legislature 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘸 specifically to allow Deathsentence to run for President while he was still the Governor. That's one of the reasons he waited so long to announce his candidacy, even after it was already obvious he was running; he waited until the new law took effect before making it formal.
It's honestly one of the most terrifying things he's done.
Shit, I'd forgotten about that, even though now that you mention it, I remember reading about it at some point in time....
Trump was stupid and evil, but he was useful to the GQP by normalizing monstrous, lawless behavior. DeSatan is smart and evil, which makes him more dangerous by an order of several magnitudes, with the advantage of having a POS like Trump to clear the way for him.
Sad to think of the way it used to be. Lawton Chiles was the last Florida Democrat able to hand a Bush's ass to him. Buddy MacKay, despite being a decent enough guy, just didn't have the political whatever to surmount the Republican machine that came for him with a vengeance in the 99 election cycle.
Have Republicans "chosen the darkness?" Yeah, pretty much. Should we therefore give up on them altogether? No. It's a Sisyphean task, to be certain, but somehow, those people have to be weaned off the MAGA tit and brought back to reality. That's what I meant by my other post here. How we do it, I haven't the slightest.
Oh, it does need to be done... but the way things have been going, and are still going, we can't put the rehabilitation of the brainwashed Republican base before the needs of their victims- past, present, or future. Some percentage of them are also victims themselves, and we should be compassionate towards them as and if they come around... but there has to be a limit. We can't just keep reaching out a friendly hand only to have it repeatedly gnawed off.
Their leaders know what they're doing; the hack propagandists feeding them bullshit know what they're doing. They're killing people 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸. They're driving people from their homes 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸. We have a growing internal refugee crisis that's 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 popped six figures because of their Trumped-up culture war (to say nothing of what they intend for refugees from 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 our borders), mostly as a result of their draconian abortion and trans healthcare prohibitions. There's 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 a six-figure body count from their resistance to pandemic containment to account for, and that's being exceedingly generous. They're still escalating, and they've shown precisely zero remorse for the damage already done.
At some point- and I have a growing dread that we may have already passed it- we will need to give up on civil political conduct as it used to be. We can save the aggressors, or we can save the aggrieved... but I don't know if we get to have both anymore. It hurts to say that, because there are people I still care about on the other side of the line, but I can no longer say I care more about them than I do about the harm they mean to cause.
I wonder if, in the end, the rehabilitation of the Republican base will look more like a mass cult deprogramming... or post-WWII de-Nazification. If there's even a difference, on this kind of scale. It's a terrifying prospect any way you slice it, either in terms of the effort required... or in thinking about what will have to happen before we even get to that point.
Sorry to be such a downer- I guess that's just where my head's at, today.
You are not a downer. Your comparison with nazi Germany is justified. hitler violated the 1918 treaty again and again and nobody did anything. When the water was hot enough the frog was boiled and war started again in Europe.
To be honest, Joan, I'm not certain that you're all that far off. I wish you were, but ... [sigh]. What did Robert Heinlein call this time? "The Crazy Years."
Rep. Lauren Boebert was going to join the Congressional Freethought Caucus, but then she realized that it was Freethought, and not free from thought. That and she ended up spending a day and a half in the congressional bathroom staring at a mirror trying to see herself blink, and missing the meeting.
[sigh] NONE from Ohio, though I would hope that my guy Sherrod Brown would consider joining. Man has had his head screwed on right from the first I've known him.
It could be worse. I'm in Texas. I'm half sure than even in this deep blue district if our rep joined it would leave them open to a serious primary challenge.
It's the atheist 'taint'. This state still has in its constitution that all public officials must acknowledge a Supreme Being.
"No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office, or public trust, in this State; nor shall any one be excluded from holding office on account of his religious sentiments, provided he acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being."
Sexist and anti-atheist all at once, not to mention contradictory.
Some years ago, Aron Ra ran for a state position of some sort as an atheist. I sorrow that he didn't get there, particularly because he would have challenged that stupid codicil in the Texas constitution and, mostly because of Article VI, paragraph 3 of the US Constitution, likely would have won. Sadly, he dropped out in favor of another candidate.
At some point or other, that crap needs to be confronted and expunged.
Oh, it's already known to be unenforceable, but like the sodomy law, they won't repeal it because it makes a statement. (And there's always the chance SCOTUS will rule them legal once again)
I would have expected Ruben Gallego to be on the list but maybe since he's running for Senate against The Traitor Sinema he was afraid of the repercussions. But for my state he would have been the only one I could expect.
Glad to see that it's growing... but the membership list is still depressingly short. Nothing the CFC advocates for should be even slightly controversial, but I guess this is what we can expect- here in the third decade of the 21st Century- when the vast majority of the electorate still believes that bronze age goat herders held the keys to ultimate cosmic truth. It shouldn't be controversial to call that notion ridiculous, either, and yet...
I was thinking kinda the same thing. The right wing doesn't see this caucus as much of a threat, more of a symbolic spitting-in-the-wing form of protest that carries no real weight. Maybe they even consider it a joke.
And I think you're right about what will happen when the membership list grows longer and longer. The right wing will suddenly do a swivel-eyed double-take and start crapping their pants like nobody's business. Death threats will probably be the least of their response. I'd expect a screaming, yammering smear campaign on Fox News and other rightwing mouthpieces, and a full-bore effort to pass legislation to make such a caucus illegal. (Rules for thee, never for me.) Don't know how they'd manage it, but I wouldn't put it past them to attempt it.
I like that it’s going under the radar right now. Though it seems slow now, it’s gonna get bigger and bigger and by the time the Republicans notice it, it will be too big to fail. The what’s it called caucus that just booted MTG is already flailing. They started too much too fast.
No. I grew up in a family* who would have happily embraced MAGA's tenets of "anyone who is not a straight cis white conservative man is a target to eliminate".
* Paternal side. DM's family is mostly anchored in the 21st century, for some of them even way before it began.
The fact that this caucus is so small, downright minuscule in fact, is still another demonstration that the Congress in this purported "representative democracy" isn't even close to resembling the demographic makeup of American people. And I daresay it never has (though there have been times when it came closer than it does now). Even at that, it comes closer than the Supreme Court, but that's not much comfort.
In case no one heard, Trump's ploy to get his trial for illegally retaining dozens of classified documents postponed indefinitely has gone the way all his other ploys do: right into the gold-plated toilet.
And who slapped Trump's hand this time? None other than Trump stooge Aileen Cannon herself.
Just like SCOTUS. His own 3 picks have ruled against him. Did Trump not comprehend what "lifetime appointment" entailed?
It was ludicrous to watch him recently claim "executive privilege" to try to save himself. He's a private citizen. The guy with the power of executive privilege is occupying the White House at present. And it ain't Trump.
She knows she's not the only judge on this case and that one wrong move by her will get her removed. She should've simply recused herself. She's under a magnifying glass now.
Regarding Dirty Laundry, that's literally my congresscritter (Ashley Hinson)....she was a local TV "journalist" who has never really impressed with her intelligence.
I see that district includes Cedar Falls, where Larry Parker lives. I live two states down US 63 from your district. Glad to see compatriots here in Flyover Country!
This is wild, and totally overdue, but a good way to counter the bible thumping aholes trying to impose religious law on a secular society. Hip, hip, HOORAY!
We'll see. Once the lever exists, I would it next to impossible to find evidence of its nonuse. C'est-à-dire, parading membership hasn't been, positively or negatively, politically advantageous yet.
"The hope is that the membership continues growing—making the Caucus more influential—while the stigma of being an atheist (or even being associated with non-religiosity) decreases across the country."
The only way that the stigma will decrease is by more and more atheists coming out openly as atheists. Prejudiced people most often let go of their prejudice when they get to know individuals of their target group and realize that they're good, decent people who deserve respect.
Atheists and LGBTQ+ people are the two "invisible" oppressed minorities. Unlike the racial minorities, most often people can't tell at a glance who in a crowd is a nonbeliever or who is not straight. Bigots often reform when they discover that their child, or sibling, or best friend has been "one of them" all along. That invisibility is both a benefit and a difficulty. The benefit is that we get to choose when to come out, how fast, and to whom first. The difficulty is the same thing. We HAVE to choose when, how fast, and to whom first, and it involves courage and fear to weigh those choices. So every atheist, just like every LGBTQ+ person must make those choices for themselves, considering only their own self-interests.
BUT it's also true that the widespread myths, misconceptions, and outright lies about nonbelievers that oppress all of us will only fade away from society when the braver ones among us are willing to take the risks of the personal consequences.
Admittedly, I waited to be publicly known as an atheist until I had very little to lose, so even though I was scared, it was a fear not well founded on any likely hazard. I was retired, so I had no risk to my job, my family was not religious and very liberal and accepting in general, and I already had a collection of supportive friends who were nonbelievers. So it wasn't so much about real courage for me to drop the Cloak of Invisibility, it was just about getting over my timidness.
This is why I always cheer on anyone who is considering coming out, but I never slight them for waiting. For most people it's harder and riskier in real terms than it was for me, so I should not expect something of them that I wasn't willing to do.
And still, one more time, every atheist and every LGBTQ+ person faces less of the oppression that keeps them hidden whenever the braver ones come out. THANK YOU to every person who has, whether easily or with great difficulty, come out openly.
Please visit their websites and send them a quick message of thanks. They will need all the support they can get it in that hotbed of superstition & insanity that is the House of Representatives.
Any movement in this direction is good. One doesn’t have to be non-religious to see the value of our secular Constitution.
Now, about that national slogan...
E. Pluribus Unum? Oh, wait...
I tried a petition on MoveOn.org to change the divisive "In God We Trust" & return to our original secular motto but I only got a few signatures-- oh well, is right.
When I was in early childhood, and mastering reading, I thought the motto read “In Gold We Trust”.
You were a prescient child
You were correct.
Yes, please! Can we get rid of that antiquated, irrelevant bit of absurdity already?
Sibi Quisque!
I thought it was "Scheiß auf dich, ich habe meins."
A tes souhaits*.
* Jesus for those who speak Spanish.
If you say so...
Our culture has conditioned a mortal fear of free thinkers, while steadfastly ignoring the fact this massively screwed up country is mostly the work product of believers. Scarcely a day passes when a religious figure does not present a great example of the disconnect between religion and morality.
GREAT news, though the sad part of this whole business is that there's not one member with a (R) next to their name. I would suspect that any Republican who joined the Congressional Freethought Caucus would get another letter, a la Hester Prynne. I should say, too: "quietly?" It is past time that those who value critical thinking in government make some serious noise about there association with the CFC, especially considering the utter lack of such that is seen too often on the (R) side of the aisle.
Regardless, congrats and welcome to Representatives Mullin and Schakowsky. They just joined the side that's gonna WIN!
Republicans tend to pander to the preachers while viewing human decency as a character flaw.
decency and empathy are signs of weakness. /s
Blessed be the fromage.
Je brie pour ton port-salut.
https://youtu.be/_S0oKaNBBdk
Honestly, it's not 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 sad. The GQP is beyond saving- as a party, they've chosen the darkness; let them have it. Even the ones who may once have been somewhat reasonable have chosen to remain in the company of monsters. They've put up no meaningful resistance as their party was chewed up by MAGAts and shat out as the war machine of hatred. What can we do, at this point, but shrug our shoulders and paint them all with the same brush?
I can't agree with the whole "they've chosen the darkness" business. The blunt fact is that 71 million people voted for Trump in 2020. What do we do with them? There are no pat answers to that that I'm aware of (I'm an engineer, not a sociologist / psychologist), and that is a large part of what is feeding the division in this country. We've allowed propaganda media like Fox and Newsmax and OAN "educate" these people, and turning them back to reality-based news is no small task. Yet it has to be done.
Because otherwise, this country is headed for the dumpster.
I must respectfully disagree.
The GOP has been consciously building the infrastructure for this current slobbering power-grab disaster for decades; scrapping the Fairness Doctrine and building their own "news" media echo chamber outlets wasn't even the beginning. Colluding with religious leaders to engineer the "Red Scare" of the 50's probably isn't either. Whether redrawing voting districts, allowing/encouraging RWNJ to intimidate voters at drop boxes, diverting tax dollars from public to religious education interests, treating the continued shooting murders of Black citizens as a quasi-joke, flooding the public with military weapons any batshit crazy can buy, applying screamingly blatant double standards, or whatever other atrocity comes to mind, this shit has been going on for decades and it is getting worse and that's the way they want it. That's the way they engineered it to be for decades. They figured out how to tap into their base's darkest side and gave them full-throated permission slips to be the shittiest assholes they could be, that they always wanted to be, with none of that icky business about consequences. And boy did that base eat it up. No one forced them to - they jumped on the hate bandwagon with unmitigated glee. To me, this is actively choosing the dark side.
This country is already 𝘪𝘯 the dumpster. The trick is stopping the maniac in an elephant mask skipping merrily down the alleyway with a gas can and a pack of matches.
How bloodthirsty does the Republican party- the base and the politicians, both- have to get before it's acceptable to just be done with their bullshit? I have a hard enough time just trying to keep one particular conservative in my own family attached to some tiny sliver of reality, by the thinnest of threads, for the sake of my own safety- am I really obligated to make that effort for every member of the Republican base? Frankly, it matters less and less to me every day whether the majority of them are where they are because they were fooled by propaganda or because they consciously chose to be evil. I didn't "allow" them to get this way. I didn't create Fox News, much less any of the even nuttier wingnut propaganda mills, and I certainly didn't force the Republican base to watch that garbage until it rotted out their empathy and critical thinking skills.
I've done nothing to them. They want me dead anyway. I'll admit that's beginning to narrow my worldview somewhat. Stopping them comes first; saving them can wait. Until the former is accomplished, the latter can only come at the expense of everyone they want to hurt... and if we haven't even figured out how to do the former yet, where does that leave us?
What do we do with them?
Wait for a bigger pandemic, I guess.
Honestly, watching these jackasses make toxic decisions is a spectator sport! Take Florida, for example. Anyone with half a brain can see that state's future. So what does that say about Florida lawmakers...
This, too, was a disaster decades in the making. Florida used to be a blue state, but I don't know if anyone remembers that. The red creep started back in the 80's during the Reagan Years, maybe even sooner, but that was when it was becoming noticeable. Every election cycle saw fewer D's and more R's in the legislature, but this isn't the sole reason for DeSatan's success. By the time Jeb Bush became governor in 2000, (Texas isn't the only state with Bush family ties) he had the votes and the push necessary to make fundamental changes to the governor/cabinet structure. Until then, Florida had one of the least constitutionally powerful governorships in the country - the governor did not appoint his own cabinet. They were independently elected by the voters, and this often resulted in a mix of R's and D's, but none of them owed the governor anything for his or her job. Jeb eliminated three of the cabinet positions, IIRC, "consolidating" their departments with the remaining three cabinet positions, which were, as of the next election cycle, to be appointed by the governor. IMHO, that just gave a leg up to whatever fascist wannabe that came after him. I thought Rick Scott was horrid enough, but he was a rank amateur compared to DeSatan.
I am not sure what the governor/cabinet setup is now, or even if there still IS a cabinet - it sounds like just a bunch of yes-men agency heads. I haven't been back there in years. I would like to revisit my childhood stomping grounds someday, but I sure wouldn't want to live there again. Not without some fundamental political changes that are unlikely to happen in my lifetime.
Until this year, Florida 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 had a prohibition on politicians running campaigns for other offices from the one they already held (re-election campaigns were still permitted, obviously). The GQP-dominated legislature 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘸 specifically to allow Deathsentence to run for President while he was still the Governor. That's one of the reasons he waited so long to announce his candidacy, even after it was already obvious he was running; he waited until the new law took effect before making it formal.
It's honestly one of the most terrifying things he's done.
Shit, I'd forgotten about that, even though now that you mention it, I remember reading about it at some point in time....
Trump was stupid and evil, but he was useful to the GQP by normalizing monstrous, lawless behavior. DeSatan is smart and evil, which makes him more dangerous by an order of several magnitudes, with the advantage of having a POS like Trump to clear the way for him.
JFC, we are so fucking fucked....
Yep, Floriduh was blue until the ¡qǝſ regime. I've been in Pinellas County since 1978.
There are three elected cabinet positions the attorney general, the commissioner of agriculture, and the chief financial officer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Cabinet
Sad to think of the way it used to be. Lawton Chiles was the last Florida Democrat able to hand a Bush's ass to him. Buddy MacKay, despite being a decent enough guy, just didn't have the political whatever to surmount the Republican machine that came for him with a vengeance in the 99 election cycle.
Further thoughts:
Have Republicans "chosen the darkness?" Yeah, pretty much. Should we therefore give up on them altogether? No. It's a Sisyphean task, to be certain, but somehow, those people have to be weaned off the MAGA tit and brought back to reality. That's what I meant by my other post here. How we do it, I haven't the slightest.
I just know that it needs to be done.
Oh, it does need to be done... but the way things have been going, and are still going, we can't put the rehabilitation of the brainwashed Republican base before the needs of their victims- past, present, or future. Some percentage of them are also victims themselves, and we should be compassionate towards them as and if they come around... but there has to be a limit. We can't just keep reaching out a friendly hand only to have it repeatedly gnawed off.
Their leaders know what they're doing; the hack propagandists feeding them bullshit know what they're doing. They're killing people 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸. They're driving people from their homes 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸. We have a growing internal refugee crisis that's 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 popped six figures because of their Trumped-up culture war (to say nothing of what they intend for refugees from 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 our borders), mostly as a result of their draconian abortion and trans healthcare prohibitions. There's 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 a six-figure body count from their resistance to pandemic containment to account for, and that's being exceedingly generous. They're still escalating, and they've shown precisely zero remorse for the damage already done.
At some point- and I have a growing dread that we may have already passed it- we will need to give up on civil political conduct as it used to be. We can save the aggressors, or we can save the aggrieved... but I don't know if we get to have both anymore. It hurts to say that, because there are people I still care about on the other side of the line, but I can no longer say I care more about them than I do about the harm they mean to cause.
I wonder if, in the end, the rehabilitation of the Republican base will look more like a mass cult deprogramming... or post-WWII de-Nazification. If there's even a difference, on this kind of scale. It's a terrifying prospect any way you slice it, either in terms of the effort required... or in thinking about what will have to happen before we even get to that point.
Sorry to be such a downer- I guess that's just where my head's at, today.
You are not a downer. Your comparison with nazi Germany is justified. hitler violated the 1918 treaty again and again and nobody did anything. When the water was hot enough the frog was boiled and war started again in Europe.
To be honest, Joan, I'm not certain that you're all that far off. I wish you were, but ... [sigh]. What did Robert Heinlein call this time? "The Crazy Years."
And the moniker fits.
They just joined the side that's gonna WIN!
*fingers and toes crossed for luck* Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleeeeeeeeeeze....
Rep. Lauren Boebert was going to join the Congressional Freethought Caucus, but then she realized that it was Freethought, and not free from thought. That and she ended up spending a day and a half in the congressional bathroom staring at a mirror trying to see herself blink, and missing the meeting.
Are you sure she belongs to a species who can recognise themselves in a mirror ?🤔
What a true hell her life must be, a narcist who can't recognize her own reflection.
That explains why she's been feuding with Marjie.
Cage match! Cage Match!
Very small cage, both armed with M67s.
With Jewish space lasers locked onto the cage from orbit.
That's what I call a No DQ match.
She recognizes something there....usually attacking it as a rival for sex or food.
Two on the list from my state. Too bad my congresscritter is an NSGOP Christian Nationalist.
[sigh] NONE from Ohio, though I would hope that my guy Sherrod Brown would consider joining. Man has had his head screwed on right from the first I've known him.
Sherrod Brown gave a speech at my daughter's college commencement. Very sharp, interesting guy. I can't say enough good things about him.
Being a citizen of the land of the buckeye and a red stater with the blues I too think Sherrod Brown should join the FC.
It could be worse. I'm in Texas. I'm half sure than even in this deep blue district if our rep joined it would leave them open to a serious primary challenge.
That's just sad, that clear, rational thought should be held in such low esteem.
It's the atheist 'taint'. This state still has in its constitution that all public officials must acknowledge a Supreme Being.
"No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office, or public trust, in this State; nor shall any one be excluded from holding office on account of his religious sentiments, provided he acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being."
Sexist and anti-atheist all at once, not to mention contradictory.
Some years ago, Aron Ra ran for a state position of some sort as an atheist. I sorrow that he didn't get there, particularly because he would have challenged that stupid codicil in the Texas constitution and, mostly because of Article VI, paragraph 3 of the US Constitution, likely would have won. Sadly, he dropped out in favor of another candidate.
At some point or other, that crap needs to be confronted and expunged.
Oh, it's already known to be unenforceable, but like the sodomy law, they won't repeal it because it makes a statement. (And there's always the chance SCOTUS will rule them legal once again)
Only one from here in PA. But I can't help loving the fact that her district includes Bethlehem.
Pennsyltucky?
Michigan.
Are you from Michigan? Governor Whitmer has made me proud of my home state again.
Born in Saginaw, live in Concord township. My congresscritter is Tim Walberg. I voted for her, never for him.
I grew up in Midland, Fashion Square Mall was my teenage hangout. Midland was Rockefeller Republican when I lived there.
Are you in the Irish Hills now?
I live near Jackson. I remember Fashion Square Mall. It was THE place to shop in the tri city area in the 80s. Graduated from Hemlock in 84.
I would have expected Ruben Gallego to be on the list but maybe since he's running for Senate against The Traitor Sinema he was afraid of the repercussions. But for my state he would have been the only one I could expect.
Pramila Jayapal from my state. Very much a Democrat.
Glad to see that it's growing... but the membership list is still depressingly short. Nothing the CFC advocates for should be even slightly controversial, but I guess this is what we can expect- here in the third decade of the 21st Century- when the vast majority of the electorate still believes that bronze age goat herders held the keys to ultimate cosmic truth. It shouldn't be controversial to call that notion ridiculous, either, and yet...
Quietly? One would think that adhering to reason would be cause to stand up and shout.
How sad...and telling...that it is not.
That it actually exists is an indictment in itself. It shouldn't be necessary.
"which is to say, no one, not even right-wing media, thinks it’s a big deal for sitting House members to align with a group defending atheists"
I wouldn't be so optimistic. Wait for their numbers to expand more and more and see the death threats starting coming.
I was thinking kinda the same thing. The right wing doesn't see this caucus as much of a threat, more of a symbolic spitting-in-the-wing form of protest that carries no real weight. Maybe they even consider it a joke.
And I think you're right about what will happen when the membership list grows longer and longer. The right wing will suddenly do a swivel-eyed double-take and start crapping their pants like nobody's business. Death threats will probably be the least of their response. I'd expect a screaming, yammering smear campaign on Fox News and other rightwing mouthpieces, and a full-bore effort to pass legislation to make such a caucus illegal. (Rules for thee, never for me.) Don't know how they'd manage it, but I wouldn't put it past them to attempt it.
This country is Fucked. Up.
I like that it’s going under the radar right now. Though it seems slow now, it’s gonna get bigger and bigger and by the time the Republicans notice it, it will be too big to fail. The what’s it called caucus that just booted MTG is already flailing. They started too much too fast.
Crossing my fingers and hoping you're right.😟
The Fascist Caucus.
Bonne soiree!
It never fails me how in touch you are with US Americans reality. Have you ever been to
Les Etats-Unis?
No. I grew up in a family* who would have happily embraced MAGA's tenets of "anyone who is not a straight cis white conservative man is a target to eliminate".
* Paternal side. DM's family is mostly anchored in the 21st century, for some of them even way before it began.
The fact that this caucus is so small, downright minuscule in fact, is still another demonstration that the Congress in this purported "representative democracy" isn't even close to resembling the demographic makeup of American people. And I daresay it never has (though there have been times when it came closer than it does now). Even at that, it comes closer than the Supreme Court, but that's not much comfort.
OT
In case no one heard, Trump's ploy to get his trial for illegally retaining dozens of classified documents postponed indefinitely has gone the way all his other ploys do: right into the gold-plated toilet.
And who slapped Trump's hand this time? None other than Trump stooge Aileen Cannon herself.
Trial starts May 2024. Get yer popcorn and beer NOW, before supplies run out!
He's also facing another indictment involving Jan 6 and a whole raft of issues.
I think the Orange one's team will manage to get that pushed back. The question in my mind is will they be able to stall it past the election?
Finally realized that he has no power over her anymore, has she?
Just like SCOTUS. His own 3 picks have ruled against him. Did Trump not comprehend what "lifetime appointment" entailed?
It was ludicrous to watch him recently claim "executive privilege" to try to save himself. He's a private citizen. The guy with the power of executive privilege is occupying the White House at present. And it ain't Trump.
He understands it just fine. It's what he craves after all.
Maybe we can get him a lifetime appointment in a federal penitentiary.
I guess she has no other choice. She was previously slapped for favoring him.
She knows she's not the only judge on this case and that one wrong move by her will get her removed. She should've simply recused herself. She's under a magnifying glass now.
She seems to be overly prideful. Her ego prevents her to do so.
Meanwhile whatever stunt or blather MAGA idiot #1 MTG does or says is covered immediately by "the media."
Cameras love three things above all else: clowns, con artists, and catastrophes. How could they pass up all three in the same skeevy package?
If it bleeds it leads.
Sometimes, I really think we are one fucked up species.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWUDC4ScsoA
"Bubble-headed Bleach Blonde comes on at 5"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU95v23MQ4c
Regarding Dirty Laundry, that's literally my congresscritter (Ashley Hinson)....she was a local TV "journalist" who has never really impressed with her intelligence.
I see that district includes Cedar Falls, where Larry Parker lives. I live two states down US 63 from your district. Glad to see compatriots here in Flyover Country!
I'm in Marion, an hour south of CF.
I'm originally from Upstate NY (also flyover country), although the Air Force base in my back yard made for a lot of fly-ins and -outs. 😉
This is wild, and totally overdue, but a good way to counter the bible thumping aholes trying to impose religious law on a secular society. Hip, hip, HOORAY!
"This isn't a big deal..."
We'll see. Once the lever exists, I would it next to impossible to find evidence of its nonuse. C'est-à-dire, parading membership hasn't been, positively or negatively, politically advantageous yet.
Examples of good behavior at large are a good start in the simian see simian do feature, not a bug, human learning process.
Exactement ! And since it IS a feature it WILL be used, positively or negatively.
"The hope is that the membership continues growing—making the Caucus more influential—while the stigma of being an atheist (or even being associated with non-religiosity) decreases across the country."
The only way that the stigma will decrease is by more and more atheists coming out openly as atheists. Prejudiced people most often let go of their prejudice when they get to know individuals of their target group and realize that they're good, decent people who deserve respect.
Atheists and LGBTQ+ people are the two "invisible" oppressed minorities. Unlike the racial minorities, most often people can't tell at a glance who in a crowd is a nonbeliever or who is not straight. Bigots often reform when they discover that their child, or sibling, or best friend has been "one of them" all along. That invisibility is both a benefit and a difficulty. The benefit is that we get to choose when to come out, how fast, and to whom first. The difficulty is the same thing. We HAVE to choose when, how fast, and to whom first, and it involves courage and fear to weigh those choices. So every atheist, just like every LGBTQ+ person must make those choices for themselves, considering only their own self-interests.
BUT it's also true that the widespread myths, misconceptions, and outright lies about nonbelievers that oppress all of us will only fade away from society when the braver ones among us are willing to take the risks of the personal consequences.
Admittedly, I waited to be publicly known as an atheist until I had very little to lose, so even though I was scared, it was a fear not well founded on any likely hazard. I was retired, so I had no risk to my job, my family was not religious and very liberal and accepting in general, and I already had a collection of supportive friends who were nonbelievers. So it wasn't so much about real courage for me to drop the Cloak of Invisibility, it was just about getting over my timidness.
This is why I always cheer on anyone who is considering coming out, but I never slight them for waiting. For most people it's harder and riskier in real terms than it was for me, so I should not expect something of them that I wasn't willing to do.
And still, one more time, every atheist and every LGBTQ+ person faces less of the oppression that keeps them hidden whenever the braver ones come out. THANK YOU to every person who has, whether easily or with great difficulty, come out openly.
Will there ever be a Republican ?
Good question; it shows you're interested. Now, if there are no other questions... 😖
Please visit their websites and send them a quick message of thanks. They will need all the support they can get it in that hotbed of superstition & insanity that is the House of Representatives.