You know what’s funny? When Democrats, liberals and big gubmint are accused by Christian conservative-libertarian folks of “using poverty to stay in business,” of “keeping poor people poor.”

Doesn’t Matthew 26:11 (KJV) say the following?:

“For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always.”

How does the government “keep poor people poor” when the poor are declared by your “Lord and Savior” to “always” be with us, despite whatever the government does to alleviate the general condition of poverty?

The first thing that came to mind when reading about Clinton’s public vs. private position?

Abortion and reproductive rights. Also, marriage equality and civil unions.

We praise male politicians for putting their private, religious positions (especially Catholics, Mormons and Muslims) on the shelf when making public policy positions on the “sins” of abortion and marriage equality.

We’ve been doing that for much of the history of this “culture war”, even when their fellow parishioners demonize these politicians as “liars” and “frauds” for not being “true Catholics/Mormons/Muslims/Jews/etc. (TM).”

It’s More than Identity for Us

Politics, Uncategorized, , , , , ,

You know what I felt to be racist about 2008? It wasn’t that so many chose to vote for Obama or McCain based on their skin color.

It’s that so many in the GOP went out of their way to denounce Obama’s presence in the race overall, and dismissed his eligibility based on his ethnicity and insinuations about his ethnicity in ways that McCain did not face.

You know what I feel to be misogynist about 2012? It isn’t that so many choose to vote for Clinton or Trump based on their gender.

It’s that so many in the GOP have gone out of their way to denounce Clinton’s presence in the race overall, and dismiss her eligibility based on her gender and insinuations about her gender in ways that Trump has not faced.

So I don’t mind that African-Americans turned out much more for Obama, and I don’t mind that women will turn out much more for Clinton. Not one bit.

I do mind that anyone would be institutionally denounced in their candidacy based on their ethnic or gender background, especially by those whose ancestors have been privileged with citizenship and social credibility for the entirety of this country’s history.

Ultimately, over 50% of the population voted for Obama based on his background and his credibility. The same will happen for Clinton.

If GOP voters are concerned that so many would vote for a Democratic candidate based often on their background while their similarly-originated candidates don’t do anywhere near so well, they are not doing anywhere near enough to bring in candidates with both a relatable background and a believable credibility for office. Try harder.

One more time, with feeling:

I didn’t know that Ken Thompson just died. He was only 50.

Ken was involved in many key cases, such as the sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the police sexual battery case on behalf of Abner Louima, and the movement to reopen the DOJ investigation on Emmett Till’s 1955 murder in Mississippi. He was an active participant in the felony exoneration movement, clearing over 20 prisoners’ names as District Attorney.

He was only two years into his first term as the first African-American District Attorney for Brooklyn/Kings County when he died of cancer on Sunday.

I don’t believe that political calculation is wrong.

If you change your position in your campaign for political office, you better hope that it’s the better one. Because it will be the job of the activist to either hold you to it or bring you down on it.

I don’t think Trump is wrong to change his opinion from last year on Canada’s single-payer healthcare. I think he’s grievously wrong for having the wrong position on it, and for flat-out lying about Canada in the process.

I don’t think Clinton is wrong to change her position on fracking. I think it’s good that she has changed it to a nuanced opposition, but she may have been misinformed about its supposed benefits in the first place.

I’ll be honest. The trailer for Nate Parker’s vehicle “The Birth of a Nation” feels too much like Mel Gibson’s vehicle “Braveheart”, which is considered one of the most cringe-inducing films to win an Oscar for Best Picture.

I mean, yes, both films have received almost the same generally-positive Rotten Tomatoes (78%), but Braveheart is mocked to this day for that one-liner from William Wallace.

I disagree a bit with the Republican “line” being drawn at white women (see Hillary Clinton and Wendy Davis). His base is not abandoning him over this insult to White female autonomy, only the other party members with clout outside of his campaign.

No, this has to go deeper for a nuclear apocalypse to happen within his base. He has to be shown smearing some unforgivable crap over the wrong Anglo-American, able-bodied male, the avatar in which most of his base perceive and vaunt themselves. Whatever will destroy him will have to show him, “the Donald”, to be the Emmanuel Goldstein-like “cuck” which they train themselves to most grievously despise.

According to Trump insiders like Hugh Hewett, another shoe is to drop momentarily. It’s supposed to be worse than the “grab them by the pussy” tape.

Diane Abbott Makes History

Politics, Uncategorized, , ,

So this is huge: in the UK, Diane Abbott MP has been selected by Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn as Shadow Home Secretary.

She’s only the fourth woman and the first black British person to hold this position in a shadow cabinet. If Corbyn were to win the next parliamentary election and bring in this shadow cabinet as his frontbench, Abbott as Home Secretary would have powers over immigration, citizenship, national security, intelligence (including MI-5), and criminal justice. It is one of the four most powerful cabinet positions in the UK, including the Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Abbott would also be the fourth woman and first black British person to be Home Secretary. Former Home Secretary Theresa May is the current Prime Minister.

EDIT: So I got a *lot* of Facebook comments from pissed-off British commenters in my earlier post about #DianeAbbott. Apparently, she’s had a lot of gaffes since taking office as MP in 1987.

Folks, I wasn’t praising her. I was only *stating* that she’s *the first* black British (or, in British terms, BAME) person and *fourth* woman to serve as Shadow Home Secretary, and that this position is of critical importance to British politics.

And yes, I’m a USian. Hi!