Brooding

Redstate, that bastion of hateful spite best known as the home of misogyny has decided to toss Donal Trump under the bus for being a misogynist? WTF isn't enough letters to express the weird levels in my brain while reading this. Just now they are working very hard to "prove" that Trump isn't a conservative, and that this perfect embodiment of everything they are isn't actually an embodiment of exactly what they are. Or something.

I'm having trouble getting my mind around any of this, so here's The Broodwich

Now that we have that out of the way, read this

Joey the Shark

Talking Points Memo says that Uncle Joe will decide about a Presidential run after his current retreat. Honestly, I don't see it. I think Biden missed his shot. I like Biden. He's a fun fucking guy. He has been, all in all, a massive VEEP. I think he's good people, and pretty solid on a lot of issues (not all issues, mind you). But he isn't presidential material. And in this season, where does he fit? Hillary is the establishment. Bernie Sanders is the liberal insurgent. Martin from The Wire is the stand in, waiting in case the real candidates get eaten by zombies. Webb is there so we all have someone to laugh at. What's that leave for ole Joe to do? Nothing.

I predict that he doesn't run.

Republican Vaginas or Something

While everyone is having a fit over misogynist Donald Trump attacking Megyn Kelly for sometimes bleeding from her lady bits, no one is noticing that the other nine humunculi on the stage all hate women. Sometimes it's obvious. Like when JEB! says"I'm Not Sure We Need Half a Billion Dollars" for Women’s Health" or when all (literally ALL) of the ten men announce that they want to defund Planned parenthood.

Sometimes it is less obvious. Like when they just want to cut TANF and SNAP benefits, which would financially cripple a lot of single mothers.

Either way, the Republican party is bad for women. It's also bad for men, children, kitty cats and other living things that billionaires, but that is beside the point.

Trump's War on Megyn Kelly's Lady Parts

Over at Fivethirtyeight, Nate Silver argues that Donald Trump cannot win a war with FOX news. He has a good point. FOX is more powerful in the Republican echo chamber than most people can imagine.  However, I think that this may be a war that The Trump doesn't need to "win".

Ezra Klein gives some background at VOX that you should read. After you've absorbed that, consider this: Trump is building himself as the leader of the conservative malcontents, the outsiders, the TeaBagger King, as it were. These people actually believe that FOX is too liberal. This is the group that Cliven Bundy and Sovereign Citizens everywhere belong to (as much as anarchists can belng to groups). They see FOX as part of the Republican establishment, part of the JEB! wing of the party. They need FOX, but they are naturally distrustful of it.

This is the group that Trump courts by taking on Megyn Kelly. He gets to stand up to the group that no other Republican has the balls to stand up to. Sure, in doing so he likely turned off around 30% of REpublican primary voters, but another 30% fell in even deeper love with him. I think that he comes out ahead on this in the long run.

Plus, since he is fighting with a woman and doing so on clearly sexist terms (attacking her for bleeding from her "wherever"), he bolsters his he man woman hater cred, which is a great way to win the dumb white male over 50 vote (you know, Republicans). This is win/win/win territory. 

Seriously, in the battle for crazy and evil Trump is head and shoulders above the other Republicans.

On a side note, the audience during the debate cheered nearly everything Trump said. Only Trump excited the audience. When you're wondering who Republicans are and what they stand for, remember those cheers. 

The Police

Oh my fucking gawd.

A police officer in Alabama proposed murdering a black resident and creating bogus evidence to suggest the killing was in self-defence

He's awaiting trial, right? Nope.

Officer Troy Middlebrooks kept his job and continues to patrol Alexander City after authorities there paid the man $35,000 to avoid being publicly sued over the incident. Middlebrooks, a veteran of the US marines, said the man “needs a god damn bullet” and allegedly referred to him as “that nigger”, after becoming frustrated that the man was not punished more harshly over a prior run-in.

2015, boys and girls. And still.

Middlebrooks allegedly said “the police were going to pull [Bias] aside on a routine traffic stop and [Bias] would get killed”. According to the lawsuit, which has since been filed to court in a separate ongoing case against the city, this prompted the brother-in-law to retrieve a voice recorder that Bias had been carrying around with him in an attempt to monitor alleged harassment by police, and then return to the conversation with the officer.

On the recording, Middlebrooks is heard suggesting Bias had been behaving threateningly towards his relatives. The officer said if he were in the same position, he would “fucking kill that motherfucker with whatever I had in that fucking house”.

This is the fucking planet we live on. 

Senator Warren

United States Senator Elizabeth Warren:

“Do you have any idea what year it is? Did you fall down, hit your head, and think you woke up in the 1950s or the 1890s? Should we call for a doctor? Because I simply cannot believe that in the year 2015, the United States Senate would be spending its time trying to defund women’s health care centers. You know, on second thought, maybe I shouldn’t be that surprised. The Republicans have had a plan for years to strip away women’s rights to make choices over our own bodies. Just look at the recent facts.”

Offered without commentary. I'll let her coolness stand for itself.

Republican sex

Sex, especially sex involving women, is a mystery! Which could explain why some dumbasses tend to get confused by it (granted, that last link is confusing). I do not understand why conservatives are so fucking obsessed with sex. It seems to be the only thing that they can focus on. Planned Parenthood must be stopped because sluts. Obamacare bad because slut pills. Gays are evil because gay sex. I'm sure that even their hatred of food stamps has something to do with poor people sex. It's all sex in their tiny little reptilian brains.

For the record: Planned Parenthood provides healthcare options to women who are poor or geographically disadvantaged. Obamacare provides healthcare options to most (including, shiver, contraceptives). gay marriage is about loving relationships and societal and legal benefits that should be available to all.

Republicans, get your fucking heads out of the gutter. Seriously.

Laugh about it, shout about it

The GOP debate was fucking weird. The FOX news crew teamed up with nine ultra-conservative fucks to try to ratfuck Donald Trump out of existence. The funny part was that they failed. Really fucking failed. These pissants cannot play at the same level as THE DONALD. The crowd loved the bloody red meat he kept flinging.

I'll eat my hat if Trump doesn't come out of this stronger. The thing is, this is what FOX and the Koch Cabal have been building. They have worked so hard to create an underclass of uninformed, spiteful, bigots to fuel their hegemony. Now Trump shows up to embody all of it and they are terrified that he could end up as their nominee.

On a side note, Rand Paul is finished. That's it.

The best debate commentary can be found here,  and

here

and

of course here but 

those good people at wonkette have the mostest and bestest things to say on the subject. Read them, not us.

We are all out of bubblegum

Rowdy Roddy Piper has died. He was the kilt wearing wrestler that kicked Cyndi Lauper in the face. Piper was Hulk Hogan's nemesis back in the 80s but that isn't why we remember him around these parts. Like so many wrestlers, Piper became an actor. He was best known for starring in John Carpenter's They Live!

They Live! is classic political satire science fiction. The film is a masterpiece of anti-corporate, anti-consummerism and anti-capitalist commentary.  In it Piper gets special sunglasses that allow him to see the alien overlords for what they really are. What they are are our corporate, political and media masters.

Maybe it was a true story. had to tell.

Anyway, rest in peace Roddy.

P.Z. Meyers Gets it Wrong

Let me start by saying that P.Z. Meyers is a really smart guy. I am a big fan and generally find myself an agreement with most of his opinions. But, even really smart people can get something totally wrong.  P.Z. does that here

But I have to wonder…are atheists literally making a deal with the devil by ignoring the whole “let’s put up a statue of children worshipping an imaginary demon” thing? I knew a few Satanists way back when, and I’d say exactly the same thing about them I would about Baptists: generally nice people, but hoo boy, they really believed in some incredible bullshit. That they are serving the cause of highlighting conservative misappropriation of some good principles shouldn’t mean we stop questioning them.

The Satanic Temple isn't a religious group. It isn't even a group of religious people. It is a group of Atheists working toward a secular society by forcing the fundies to face their own shit. They use these statues to push Xians into either backing down, or accepting religious iconography that will offend them. When other Atheists join forces with ST (a group of Atheists) they are not making any sort of deal with the devil .