Flag burning question

If burning a flag in protest should result in loss of citizenship or a year in prison as President-elect Trump suggest, what about businesses that use a flag to proclaim national patriotism for commercial gain?

A photo posted by @mojoey on Nov 29, 2016 at 8:07pm PST

Mike Yenni is not gay

Mike Yenni, the Republican president of the Jefferson Parish in Louisiana, says he is not gay. He says this as if being gay is a bad thing. He says this after allegedly pursuing a relationship with a 17-year-old boy. He says this after allegedly kissing the boy and buying him sexy underwear. He says this dispute previous allegations of improper behavior with men and women. He says this and we know what he is; the Republican version of Anthony Weiner. A perversion of all that is good, a predator, a man focused on his own needs. A man who should be cast out of normal society. His actions do not reflect that of a gay man, they reflect that of a dishonest sexual predator. Why is still in office?

I’m sure Mike Yenni is a “good Christian.” They all are. I see from his bio that he’s a member of Youth Leadership Council. I’m sure that will change, right? As for the victim… you can read his story here.

10 minutes of Trump-inspired hate

Musings of a former white nationalist

I find myself reading a lot more since the election. An article by R. Derek Black in the New York Times Sunday Review caught my attention. Why I left White Nationalism is interesting, but jarring at the same time, this paragraph captures my unease with President-elect Trump. I am not the target of this hate, but almost everyone I love is.

Trump has put forward would endanger me, and I once enthusiastically advocated for most of what he says. No proposal to put more cops in black neighborhoods to stop and frisk residents would cause me to be harassed. A ban on Muslim immigration doesn’t implicate all people who look like me in terrorism. Overturning Roe v. Wade will not force me to make a dangerous choice about my health, nor will a man who personifies sexual assault without penalty make me any less safe. When the most powerful demographic in the United States came together to assert that making America great again meant asserting their supremacy, they were asserting my supremacy.
- via mobile.nytimes.com

On another note, I think one way to protest Trump is to pay for a subscription to the New York Times.

Trump’s reaction to Fidel Castro’s death

Fidel Castro has died. As a nation we look to our political leaders for appropriate words of condolence and we get this…

Fidel Castro is dead!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2016

“Fidel Castro is Dead!” - I don’t think a celebratory tweet is a fitting response from our nation or from President-elect Donald Trump. It oozes immaturity and simply panders to his base. His actual statement continues the theme.

President Obama on the other hand…

At this time of Fidel Castro’s passing, we extend a hand of friendship to the Cuban people. We know that this moment fills Cubans - in Cuba and in the United States - with powerful emotions, recalling the countless ways in which Fidel Castro altered the course of individual lives, families, and of the Cuban nation. History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him…

- via whitehouse.gov

Can Trump go from Twitter screeds to diplomacy? I don’t think so.

I woke up angry

I’m usually a happy guy, but not this morning. I woke up angry. You see, I am a patriot. I love America. I love the promise of America. Yet lately, I’m just pissed. Racism, politics, hatred… oh my.

Stories about racism fill my newsfeed these days. Two black Americans were treated like hoodlums in Richmond, Virginia yesterday. They just wanted to buy sliced cheese. Kids were kicked off a school bus in Moorhead, MN - The bus driver dropped the kids off in a sketchy area of town and then used racial slurs as they got off the bus.

Love him or hate him, Trump is now my president. I think the election was fair. I think the people spoke, even though the popular vote count favored Clinton, our system is based on the Electoral College; Trump won that. But, I suspect Trump is already on his way to violating the Constitution. Others agree.

Trump does not want us to see unflattering photos. All I can say is WTF? All photos of Trump are unflattering.

The nutball racist fringe feels emboldened by Trumps election. I thought that part of America would always be on the fringe. They lost the stage decades ago. Why are we giving it back?

Why did Trump appoint an anti-public school champion to head the Department of Education? Bestey DeVos is a proponent of what conservatives call School Choice, but the rest of us call undermining public institutions. She does not believe in public education, has no eduction related degree and has never participated in public education in any way.

Why did Trump appoint Gov. Nikki Haley as UN Ambassador, a position that requires international experience at the very least. Why is he pushing Ben Carson for HUD? We need HUD. Carson will kill it. And… why Ben Carson for anything? Who would do that? What the hell is going on?

We have Trump-loving Republicans drafting anti-American legislation. Like Washington state Senator Doug Erickson, who wants to make protest a form of terrorism. I’m sure we will see more of this in the days ahead.

We have fake news fooling each and every one of us, especially those 60 and up. It’s to the point now that I have to find multiple sources for everything I read, and sometimes even that does not work. Like with the CNN porn story or with the Ivanka Trump story about macing her lecherous father. We can’t trust the news on several levels. New might be fake. News might be produced by Russia. News might be ratings fluff. News might be bought with access. It’s all too damn frustrating.

Don’t get me started on the Democrats… pushing the Electoral College fantasy. Pushing the vote rigging fantasy. All while not looking at the real reasons why Trump was elected. Look inward… please look inward.

Did political correctness cost Clinton the election? Or… was it Identity Politics? I can tell you from first-hand experience that Identify Politics ruined the atheist movement. Did it ruin the left too?

I vent… sorry, but I must least I stay angry all day.

So a Democrat helped dig our collective grave?

One of the things that amazes me about fake news and the 2016 election cycle is that evidence suggests it was opportunistic bottom feeders who filled our Facebook feeds with crap. I’ve recently learned that one of the big players was a Democrat named Justin Coler. Go figure.

Coler says he has tried to shine a light on the problem of fake news. He has spoken to the media about it. But those organizations didn't know who he actually was. He gave them a fake name: Allen Montgomery.

Coler, a registered Democrat, says he has no regrets about his fake news empire. He doesn't think fake news swayed the election.
- via NPR.org

I don’t buy Coler’s reason for disrupting the election.He was not in it to shine a light on anything except for a big pile of easy money. It’s always about money. Judas loved his silver.

I found a Trump supporter

I really don’t know very many people who will say they voted for Trump. I run into one every now and then…

Jim Bakker is a faker

As he tries to sell you earthquake supplies, Jim Baker will tell you his “god” is going to destroy your city if its citizens voted for Hillary Clinton.

“I just want to tell you, God has spoken to me, I’ve seen under the ground in California, in LA, and God spoke to me that in Los Angeles alone there is going to be such an earthquake come that literally the big buildings will be laying on their sides, all of LA is going to collapse,” he added.
- via Church and State

Jim Bakker, hypocrite, lier, embezzler and sexual deviant, has a direct line to “god.” And I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

I’m starting to figure Trump out

In order to get elected, Trump would…

1. Meet with any and alloddball groups, like anti-vaxxers.
   
2. Tell them what they want to hear.
   
3. Keep repeating the message.
   
4. Renege or alter promise after elected.
   

He promised anti-vaxxers hope…

Now that Trump won, we can all feel safe in sharing that Mr. Trump met with autism advocates in August. He gave us 45 minutes and was extremely educated on our issues. Mark stated 'You can't make America great with all these sick children and more coming'. Trump shook his head and agreed. He heard my son's vaccine injury story. Andy told him about Thompson and gave him Vaxxed. Dr Gary ended the meeting by saying 'Donald, you are the only one who can fix this'. He said 'I will'. We left hopeful. Lots of work left to do
- via Slate Magazine

How long till he takes it away?

More of this please

Andrew Barkett, the first-ever Chief Technology Officer of the Republican party, made his intentions clear with regard to “alt-right”, white supremacists, white nationalists and the whole nutball racist fringe.

These are racist, intolerant ideologies. They go against the spirit and interests of the United States of America. These beliefs have no place in the party of Lincoln. I denounce Stephen K. Bannon, who as editor of Breitbart.com provided a safe space for these racist and intolerant points of view.
- via Extra Newsfeed

More of this please, less of Trump’s milquetoast that.

Two Million votes

I’m sitting here in my beautiful home sifting through the morning news. I keep thinking that I’m having a nightmare. How can Hillary Clinton win the popular vote by two million votes and not be the next president?

Hillary Clinton’s lead over Donald Trump in the popular vote surpassed 2 million Wednesday morning, according to Dave Wasserman of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
Clinton has garnered 64,223,958 votes, compared to Trump’s 62,206,395 votes.
- via POLITICO

It’s a rhetorical question… I know the answer.

WTF CNN?

I tried to take a break from the news yesterday, but it was impossible. Too many things happened; too many odd things. Like CNN when held a discussion where an unbelievable question was posed. They actually showed it on screen, “Are Jews People?” WTF CNN? How does this ever happen?

In the segment, CNN Host Jim Sciutto discussed with political commentators whether Trump should formally denounce supporters from the alt-right. Specifically, they were talking about the National Policy Institute's Richard Spencer, who came up with the term "alt-right" to describe what pretty much amounts to white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Sciutto read the following Spencer quote: "One wonders if these people are people at all, or instead soulless golem."

CNN gave a white supremacists legitimacy by referring to him as an Alt-Right leader and discussing his positions in a way that adds legitimacy to the absurd. The Media must expose crazy and not cultivate it. This is reprehensible.

Lets be clear. Richard Spencer is a White Supremacists. Referring to him as the founder of the Alt-Right or as an Identitarian is like throwing a sheet over a klansman.

Know I know where my stepmom gets her crazy

Part of dealing with Trump followers is dealing with the noise of fake news. My stepmother is a typical case. She reads endless clickbait stories, all with inflammatory headlines and tenuous links to facts. I have spent hours pointing out that the news was fake, that the sites were setup to take advantage of people like her, and that they were feeding her racial and political fears. She always had another site, another story, another reason to jump on the Alt-Right racist bandwagon, this despite having a bi-racial grandchild living with her.

“CAN’T TRUST OBAMA,” he writes as the headline, then pauses. His audience hates Obama and loves President-elect Donald Trump, and he wants to capture that disgust and cast it as a drama between good and evil. He resumes typing: “Look At Sick Thing He Just Did To STAB Trump In The Back… .” For the ‘ new yellow journalists,’ opportunity comes in clicks and bucks.

This is clear evidence. Two out-of-work kids turn to writing pap for middle-aged white trump supporters. Despite being confronted with the facts, my stepmom will hold to her “facts” and fight for her “beliefs.” I don’t know what to do. I think of her and others like her as the lost generation.

Oh the shame

And on Jan. 20, Trump will become the only world leader who openly and outright rejects fighting climate change.
- via Slate Magazine

The part-time President

I have this nagging feeling the President Elect Donald Trump does not get the size of the job. I fear he will work the job the bare minimum and hide away from the rest, or worse, delegate to his family. There’s talk he may retreat to Trump Tower in New York on the weekends. I fear he does not get the size and scope of the job, but then I fear he does. I need to get my shit together.

Henry Rollins thinks that Trump is going from grabbing pussies to being one. I agree with Rollins.

These are only some of the signs of Trump’s unraveling. His petulant tweet, complaining like a child about the protesters who took to the streets in reaction to his win, was another glimpse of how unaware he is of the magnitude of the job that less than half of the participating electorate sent him to do.

Trump is making noises like he is backing away from a few of his more obnoxious campaign promises. Did he ever really mean to build a wall on our southern border with Mexico or repeal the Affordable Care Act? I’m beginning to think his plan changes with every audience and every day. I’m beginning to think he does not know how to govern. I”m beginning to think he does not understand the powers of the Presidency. I’m beginning to think he is a textbook example of conflict of interest. I’m beginning to think he’s hiring staff that can’t find the toilet without assistance. I’m beginning to worry that we have no idea how bad it is going to get until the end when Congress impeaches Trump and delivers Mike Pence to power. Fuck. Pence is far worse than Trump.

Taking the measure of Pence

I’ve had my eye on Vice President-elect Mike Pence for years. He’s no friend of atheists and has a real problem with the LGBT community. Pence is also anti-science, anti-women and I have him pegged to the far-right dominionist fringe of the evangelical community. I take the measure of a man by what he does. The press is full of examples. Take for example how he treated Amy Sandler.

When a federal trial court ordered Indiana to recognize our marriage on an emergency basis because of Niki’s declining health, Governor Pence immediately appealed. He wouldn’t allow the state to protect even one family with a dying parent—my family—while the court case made its way through the legal system. - Mike Pence’s Hateful Laws Almost Kept me for my Dying Wife.

Mike Pence made his anti-gay crusade personal, and that’s all we really need to know him.

How does one lose the moral high ground?

It’s easy really, you simply push and elderly man to the ground.

Shacara McLaurin, an anti-bullying ambassador, gospel singer and Black Lives Matter activist, allegedly pushed an elderly Trump supporter to the ground during a confrontation at an anti-Trump rally. How does one lose the moral high ground in a just cause? One acts like a bully. Acting like a bully includes pushing old people to the ground.

There may be mitigating circumstances. She claims the man was drunk and using racial epithets. The narrative she paints in one where she was the victim; where she felt threatened. The damage is done anyway. A man was injured by a women who holds an anti-bullying position. That’s all that will reach the minds of the public today. Perception is reality.

How does one lose the moral high ground? By using the tactics of violence favored by the other team.

Is this presidential?

Part of what I want to do over this next four years is simply ask this question, are Trump’s words or actions presidential? I think this is fair. What about you?

Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 11, 2016

I’m going with no, not presidential.

Text: Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!

How do we challenge ideas?

As I sat in the parking lot of a local laundromat, i thought about the ideas the elected Donald Trump. Many of these ideas were held and promoted by the Evangelical community. Social issues, like marriage equity and abortion were at the top of the list. I think Evangelicals bargained away their moral position in order to push a social agenda. It reminded me of Satan’s temptation of Jesus, except that they took the deal.

My laundromat is in a two-story commercial complex. Above it is a small Korean Church. I heard them singing hymns while I listened to Slate’s Political Gabfest and drank coffee. My guess is that the congregation contained no more than 20 people. The laundromat contains the normal smattering of Christian propaganda. I assume it’s provided by the church, but it could just be another true believer doing his or her part for the cause. It prompted me to think.

How do we challenge these ideas? How do we challenge the echo chamber of a small congregation? How do we challenged the endless Christian tracts? How do we challenge the ideas that lead good people to pick bad presidents?

I don’t have an answer yet, but I’m working on a few ideas. My blog is its own type of echo chamber. With few readers and most of those from the Atheist community, it is not an effective means to influence others. There are things I can do. I can write a letter to the church. I can make my own idea-driven tracts. I can respond to posts on Facebook with better ideas, but to do that I have to move outside of my Atheist and family bubble. I can get involved…

I’m looking for ideas.

Trump inspired racism 2

A long-term substitute teacher at Bret Harte Preparatory Middle School in Los Angeles threaten students with deportation. The teacher said, 

'If you were born here, then your Parents gotta go, and they gonna leave you behind. You’ll be in foster care.”

The teacher goes on to tell his victims that he knows where they live and that he’s going to tell Trump. An audio tape of the incident exists.

At least one victim was 11-year-old hispanic girl. The teacher is an adult male. His name was not released, but he was fired.

Trump inspired racism 1

A teacher at Wesley Chapel High School in Florida was suspended without pay for saying, “Don’t make me call Donald Trump to you sent back to Africa.” The teacher, Donnie Jones Jr., is white. The victims were black children.

One of the comments…

Doug Ken, from Munich, Germany…

People dont jump the gun, there is alot more to this then you know. Most of the times the blacks toss in the blak ticket and scream racist because they didn't get there way. I have seen it happen alot.It;s sick to see but they do it.

So Doug is s a racist too. No surprised there.

Will Trump follow through

I’m still recovering from my post-election hangover. I think many of us are in the same situation. I woke up this morning with my first thought being, will Trump follow through on his campaign promises? I did not know the top 10, so I look to Politifact, Donald Trump’s top 10 campaign promises

1. Build a wall and make Mexico pay for it
   
2. Temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States
3. Bring manufacturing back (jobs)
4. Impose Tariffs on goods made in China (and Mexico)
5. Renegotiate or withdraw from NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership
6. Full repeal of Obamacare and replace it with market-based Alternative
7. Renegotiate the Iran deal
8. Leave Social Security as is
9. Cut taxes
10. “Bomb” and/or "take the oil" from ISIS. 

Will Trump follow through? Honestly, I don’t know, but I think it is possible that Trump will walk away from his promises in favor of other policies. I think it is possible that he said what he had to say to get elected, but is now faced with a host of opportunities that he had not previously considered. He is not a true Republican. He’s not beholden to the party. He can and will do whatever he wants. What does he want?

Do not give in to despair

We elected Trump last night. He was not my candidate, nor does he represent my America. My wife ask me something important this morning at 4:00 am. “I’m brown and a woman, will you protect me?”

My answer, “Yes, I’ll protect you and a lot of other people.”

How will I do that? Well, for starters I will not give in to despair. I will not move to Canada. I will not support California’s succession. I will not drink my unease away. I will not give up. I will do everything I can to fight for what I know to be right and true. I’ll hold the media accountable. I’ll do the same for our government. I’ll fight. I’ll speak, I’ll write. I’ll even engage with the evangelical community. I’ll do everything I can. Everything.

Hillary Clinton was not my candidate. I voted for her and lost. The Democratic Party has a lot to answer for. I’ll push for accountability on this point too. They cannot field another establishment candidate. We need new blood and new leadership. The question is how…