The Wake-up Call

 

A disturbing picture of a man in a lot of pain has emerged regarding the driver of the car that burst into flames in front of a Trump property in Las Vegas, Matthew Livelsberger--but the part I found very concerning is the messages left behind recovered from his electronics.

He describes his explosive journey as "terrorist attack" but a "wake-up call". Maybe in his opinion, but his pyrotechnics injured several bystanders, and the message urges potential violence:

Military and vets move on DC starting now. Militias facilitate and augment this activity.

Occupy every major road along fed buildings and the campus of fed buildings by the hundreds of thousands.

Lock the highways around down with semis right after everybody gets in. Hold until the purge is complete.

Try peaceful means first, but be prepared to fight to get the Dems out of the fed government and military by any means necessary. They all must go and a hard reset must occur for our country to avoid collapse.

This is suggesting militias be involved in an ideological purge. Pretty much the Trumpist program of firing the current federal workforce and replace them with loyalists? But the use of semis ringing the streets?  

A convoy?

Elon Musk Goes Full Ford

 

It's not too soon to talk about Henry Ford being a whole racist who bought a newspaper just be extra-racist and who that reminds me of, right? Wow. But anyway, Elon Musk on the social media site he purchased to pretend to be a nonpartisan free speech warrior endorsed AfD which is pretty outstanding neo-Nazi stuff. They are pro-Putin and anti-NATO compared to the rest of Germany for the most part. The big thing is the neo-Nazi thing, though. They are even against climate change science, which I thought the head of Tesla would understand is crucial!

I don't think we should be so quick to define Musk. His own father tells us he isn't exactly what we think he is:

TWGB: Gonna Do Really Well

 

Trump thinks he has a little secret. And he must, you know--because what his campaign did at this Madison Square Garden rally was truly alienating and foul.  This rally wasn't intended to win hearts and minds in a blue state, it was a several hours' long hate rally, and this was only going to be ugly, because Trump, the Actual Candidate, is Ugly. If he had dreams of MSG being his coronation--no. 

What was promised here was slaughter and dehumanization. Puerto Rico was called an island of trash. Jokes about Black people carving watermelons was supposedly "humor". The Vice-President, a former US Senator and former state AG, was treated like a low-IQ mutt by people who associated IQ with race in the grossest, most late 19th century way. All Democrats were deemed the "enemy within". 

Because I am a person who tries to be logical, it seemed to me absurd that the Trump campaign would use its final push to just be the open enemy of decency that this shitshow was. It obviously isn't about winning votes--

It's about whipping up so much rage from Trump true loyalists that they are ready to do great violence. It's about keeping them raging and stimulated and certain that Trump is in peril from the murderous "them" and obvious "witch hunters" who seem to think, based on all the evidence, that Trump is likely to have committed crimes, to be determined by a rigorous legal process. 

I repeat, it seems to me they do not want votes, but violence, because they don't think they can get those votes. 

They can therefore not get votes and fight the world, then. Fuck all of them for this racist, murderous shit show where they let us know who they are. But there is no wishing them anything but failure from here. 

Who Can Make You Believe Absurdities--

 

I recall in the aftermath of 9/11, one of my concerns was for the potential of people seeking vengeance for the tragedy and wreaking havoc on innocent people who had done nothing at all but were just nearby and brown.  Your basic American bigot just wants a reason to start the fuckery. Just like people had conspiracy theories, blamed Muslims, and fucked around post-OKC (even though that was a white supremacist, Christian ID-associated attack), after 9/11, innocent immigrant citizens got profiled, and sometimes experienced tragic racist violence. 

Laura Loomer is an Islamophobe and 9/11 truther and was a guest of Donald Trump at a 9/11 remembrance ceremony. She posted the above racist stupidity targeting VP Kamala Harris as a person of South Asian descent. That was three days ago. The Trump campaign was unaware of this? To her credit--a thing you won't hear me say often--she got called out for her racism by Marjorie Taylor Greene. 

And think what that says about the Trump campaign association with Loomer (IMHO, as dangerous for them as an association with Nicholas Fuentes). Did they not know she said this about people of South Asian descent? When the Trump campaign needs the support of people like Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley, and Usha Vance?  Isn't attacking Harris on the basis of her heritage so obviously wrong the campaign should step back from her? 

Tucker Carlson is Trying to Be "Useful"

 

Sad propaganda ronin Tucker Carlson has attached himself to the Russian shogun in the hopes of being viewed as valid, important, and not a fucking parasite in one of the most parasitical moves imaginable. He is going to serve us an interview of Vladimir Putin as if he were a western journalist who would do an even marginally tough job. 

We know what has happened to Russian journalists who challenge Putin (look at the date of her death--see anything?). We know what can happen with legitimate western journalists. Tucker Carlson, however, is mostly safe (even if he broke with the desired narrative for the moment--of course western journalists want to interview Putin, but Carlson won an HONOR!) Actually, Russia media love Tucker Carlson so much.  He's essential!  He shows that even in the West, Putin is respected. And in return, Carlson carries Putin's message to Americans, who are, frankly, easily impressed and dumb as hell. 

Hillary Clinton, who isn't brand new to any of this, calls Carlson what he rightly is: a "useful idiot." But she also delivers a fairly chilling coda:

It’s really quite sad that not just somebody like Tucker Carlson who has, as I said, been fired so many times because he seems unable to correlate his reporting with the truth, but also because it is a sign that there are people in this country right now who are like a fifth column from Vladimir Putin.

...

“There is a yearning for leaders who can kill and imprison their opponents, destroy the press, lead a life that is one of impunity and bound by any laws,” she continued. “There’s a yearning among certain people in our country for that kind of leadership. And I find that absolutely gobsmacking terrifying.”

"Vermin"

 

To honor our great veterans (for whom Trump has done exactly Not. Shit.) the former president (a twice impeached and four time indicted one term wonder--let it EVER be said--until those stats are somehow adjusted) Trump decided to tell us he was going to root out the leftist vermin. Yes, very much echoing Hitler. It's very much shades of : "First they came for the socialists".  (For supporting Biden, I guess "trade unionists" might even be next on his list. His ruminations are all too familiar and frightening. Some of his associates talk about "shock troops"--very knowingly.) 

Hillary Clinton and the Uncomfortable Truth

 

“So many of those extremists, those MAGA extremists, take their marching orders from Donald Trump,” @HillaryClinton tells me. “There needs to be a formal deprogramming of the cult members” in the GOP, she adds in our EXCLUSIVE conversation. pic.twitter.com/ImpYIBuQ5j

— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) October 6, 2023

The right-wing is a bit up in arms with Hillary Clinton's statement that Trump's people are in a cult and need to be deprogrammed. Now, for the record, to me this is as benign a statement as calling some portion of the Trump supporters "deplorable"--he literally attracts militia folks and Klan members. If you aren't down with calling out would-be Timothy McVeigh's and the goddamn Klan as "deplorable"--I'm not sure what your standards are, but they sure as hell aren't mine. (Looking at Steve Scalise and Josh Hawley in their whole damn faces.) You either understand civil terrorism is kind of fucked up or GTFO. I'll say John Brown and Weather Underground weren't exactly doing it right--your turn? 

Anyway, Hillary Clinton is by far not the only one to notice that Trump mega-MAGA fan behavior is cultish. They signify via their unique clothing. They silo their sources of information. They believe what their cult leader says to the exclusion of what they might even see with their own eyes. Their religion, their associations, their concept of acceptable speech: all file in line with TrumpThink. 

When comedians and journalists alike do "man on the street" type interviews with MAGA, they sound like people from the Manchurian Candidate talking about Raymond Shaw.: 

“Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.”

No Heroes, As Far as I Know

 There's this "stan" culture thing I don't really get. When the actual Eminem video for his song, "Stan" came out, he didn't mean it to be a good thing to be a "stan"--it was scary and dangerous and terrible. Idealizing, forming a parasocial relationship with, and inappropriately engaging with and revolving one's life around some other person is self-destructive. 

Social media made it easy to get to know people and feel like you really know them.  I follow Mark Hamill, Lynda Carter, Henry Winkler, and Jon Bowman on Twitter. I can tell my 6-7 year old self I follow Luke Skywalker, Wonder Woman, the Fonz, and Bowzer from Sha Na Na on the futuristic thing called the internet and she would be really impressed. These are her heroes. The human beings are far more complex and actually, they are or seem to be pretty good folks. Their good opinions and decency IRL make me pretty happy with my early appreciation.

But I don't do heroes now that I'm grown. People in the real world are real, and they can disappoint. You can't invest in people you don't even know with ride or die fervor. That isn't being real--that's being in a whole fucking cult. (See also: Biden fans don't need flags and swag and what not.) 

I did a little thing not too long ago about Jim Caviezel and RFK, Jr. Conspiracy theories are sometimes about filling in the difference between your own worldview and the differing worldview of many others as you confront them. It's hard to incorporate different points of view. Making up neo-narratives is one way of handling the difference. 

But you have to understand it is "made-up". A lot of conspiracy theories are just a "cope"--a way of dealing with the difference between the world in your head and what's actually happening. 

Texas-Sized Corruption

 

NEW: Ken Paxton’s far-right backers are promising swift retribution for those who supported his impeachment — namely House Speaker Dade Phelan — as the Texas GOP’s long-running civil war continues to escalate. #txlege #PaxtonTrial https://t.co/9ByJBI1qQe

— Robert Downen (@RobertDownen_) September 17, 2023

I have very little surprise reserved in the tank for Ken Paxton's acquittal: long story short, how can Texas Republicans even hold someone accountable for acting in his self-interest and doing the bidding of his big donors when it isn't in their self-interest and sends the wrong message to their big donors? But it's more than that:

“You and your band of RINOs are now on notice,” Defend Texas Liberty PAC leader Jonathan Stickland tweeted at Phelan on Saturday, as voting continued in the Texas Senate. “You will be held accountable for this entire sham. We will never stop. Retire now.”

Paxton’s impeachment trial was the latest — and among the most consequential — battle in an ongoing civil war between the Texas GOP’s establishment members and a well-funded right wing that has for years claimed the party is insufficiently conservative.

Being even somewhat opposed to Paxton's corruption is simply not conservative and you are not a real Republican if you bring it up.  He may even be corrupt, but he's the right kind of Republican so long as he's right-wing enough. 

I think the party refers to this ethos as: Values!

When It Isn't Worth It

 

Mitt Romney said he was stepping aside to make room for the next generation. But here’s the real reason he isn’t running for re-election — and it’s a sad one…

Romney feels he no longer fits in the Republican party and he is physically afraid of his party’s base. pic.twitter.com/OvRprw9LIF

— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) September 14, 2023

I'm not going to be misty-eyed over what the Republican party has lost or make over-effusive praise of Mitt Romney because both things would be both highly disingenuous and out of character for me. I don't think it can escape one that in the course of his 2012 presidential campaign and in trying to maintain ties with the GOP's newly-crowned leader in 2016, Romney wasn't above the kinds of comments and sacrifices of his dignity that we associate with the Trump era of politics. If anything, his realization that Trump was a disaster that his party was all too willing to follow seems too late because Trump isn't that new--his is just the most-recent incarnation of where the party has been headed for the entirety of Romney's career. 

Of course, it's easy to view Romney as one of the "good ones" and appreciate his intelligent and dishy commentary on the perfidy, fakeness and fears of his Senate colleagues, but the reason he seems like such a stand-out is precisely because the GOP has become so bad that criticism of his own party and its members and taking a stand in favor of facts as if it were his job have become acts of courage and never should have been. Such behavior should have been commonplace. More members of his party could have tried it over the years and simply...never did.

What we've experienced instead over the years from right-wing media and Republican politicians alike is an extremism, ideation of violence and oppositionalism for its own sake from the conservative wing because a kind of positive feedback loop has existed that exacerbated the inherent paranoid tendencies extant on the right for ages. 

So, when Romney (or John McCain or Liz Cheney) buck that trend, even marginally, they earn some liberal admiration--and the enmity of their party. I can't like Mitt Romney more than a true MAGA might hate him for being insufficiently loyal. 

Being physically afraid of one's base is a horrific thought. There's something to be said too, for what one might have to lose of oneself to be the person who doesn't have to be afraid of or in opposition to that mass of armed maniacs. It seems that it requires a kind of moral lobotomy. When a Mitt Romney looks with disdain on the younger characters of this scene, the J. D. Vance's and Josh Hawley's, maybe it's with some recognition and rue:

It isn't worth it.

We Felt Our Mortality

 

We are a young country, the US, in some ways, and ride on the idea of our strength and sense of purpose as a leader among nations. The first country among equals (except we're not) as one might say "primus inter pares." The memorial logos, the sigils, the swag, often just show the World Trade Towers themselves, draped in flag-wrap. The buildings were not the tragedy--the loss of lives was.  We lost great people that day. We lost parents and children, leaders and caregivers, sinners and saints. All kinds of people. Office workers, police, firefighters, medics. 

But the pictures of the victims themselves is too haunting: and yet we see them, forever in our minds. And they get reposted on social media. 

We are losing them even today--people who inhaled too much of whatever makes buildings and are dying too young of what they breathed in. We are losing them even now, people who were there or their loved one was there and now it's 22 years out, and we lose people all the time. The narrative memory of what happened will fade. Except in what has been committed to print, video, etc.--but that memory is always a little short. 

Tragedies amortize. Tragedies fade. We said "Never again" but we don't step into the same river twice, or face the same sort of history as Memorex: just an echo. 

James O'Keefe's History of Cringe Dance Videos

In honor of the recent Will Sommer piece at WaPo regarding just what embarrassing and much-lauded anti-journalist James O'Keefe III spent Project Veritas money on, I thought there was nothing more appropriate than to take note of what O'Keefe tried to convey with the power of DANCE! which is something TYT just variously touched on as being a real O'Keefe THING over the years. 

I know, I know, I just visited O'Keefe being a part of the vast RightWing Grifter ecosystem not that long ago, but it continues to be funny to me that this clown collected an award from Ginny Thomas and has been considered "untouchable" because knuckle-draggers like his irrelevant hits that mostly don't do anything in the real world. 

But this is so iconic, so truly choice, so much a beautiful indication of what it means to be a LEGEND of Griftopia:

In September 2021, according to the report, Hurricane Ida floodwaters threatened to destroy the Project Veritas office in Mamaroneck. The staff scrambled to save equipment and their own lives — one elderly employee was briefly pulled underwater and had to be rescued by colleagues. But O’Keefe had already left the scene, asking employees to prioritize his own evacuation so he could make it to Virginia for a performance of the musical “Oklahoma!” in which he had the lead role, according to staffers cited by the audit.

“Don’t worry, everything will be okay,” O’Keefe told his employees, according to recollection of a staffer cited in the audit, “but help me get out of here.” In 2022, Project Veritas admitted in a tax filing to improperly spending $20,500 moving some staff operations to Virginia during O’Keefe’s time with the musical production for his convenience.

OOOOOklahoma! where the wind comes sweeping down the sonofabitching middle-aged theater-kid ass plain as fuck Golden Boy nonsense with lashings of reality and so much lawsuits. 

He's not here to be the rightwing Woodward and Bernstein--his Pulitzer dreams are more Rodgers and Hammerstein! 

I'm just saying. So many of these rancid people want to be stars.They have big dreams. But the right wing stage is where they start paying in SWEAT! 

Six Days of Bomb Threats

 

There is one political side that has resulted in rhetoric that leads to the arson and mass shootings at mosques, gurdwaras, synagogues, and supermarkets and schools, and the threats of bombings at hospitals and now, six days of bomb threats at an OK school district over a video shared by a school superintendent. 

The threats began the same day that Walters retweeted a post from a day earlier on the conservative provocateur account Libs of TikTok, which featured a video of a librarian at Union Public Schools. The video shows the librarian walking next to a book shelf with the text “POV: teachers in your state are dropping like flies but you are still just not quite finished pushing your woke agenda at the public school.” That’s different from the caption that the librarian originally posted on her TikTok account, which Libs of TikTok removed: “My radical liberal agenda is teaching kids to love books and be kind — hbu??”

When Walters retweeted the Libs of TikTok post to his nearly 10,000 followers, he added: “Woke ideology is real and I am here to stop it.” 

See what happened there? The original sentiment of the librarian in question was "My radical liberal agenda is teaching kids to love books and be kind." Are conservatives deciding that loving reading and being kind really are some kind of scary agenda, and that the comment wasn't a frightening manifesto about left-wing indoctrination, but an ironic comment about how a librarian's job is to do something totally normal and not-scary: show kids that books are great. Encourage them to be nice to each other! 

Boogedy!

See, this is how easy it is to create a boogeyman. Just drop some charged language like "woke" into the mix and frame things as if they were a problem when they are not, and watch simple-minded drones fly in to stir shit because they want to signify for something. Look at me! I am a culture warrior against....

Literacy and decency. Good job, so-called Christian conservatives. Feeble sarcastic golf clap for the bomb threat people. You are literally barbarians tearing down Western Civilization. You've struck a blow against public safety and demonstrated the superiority of your side at mindless terroristic posturing. 

CPAC Is Embroiled in a Schlapp Fight

 

"A senior board member who resigned on Friday urged an independent investigation into additional allegations of sexual misconduct against Chairman Matt Schlapp."

CPAC urged to probe more sexual misconduct claims against chair Matt Schlapp https://t.co/EvcGgHBOoC

— Michelangelo Signorile (@MSignorile) August 27, 2023

The problem with CPAC isn't whether Matt Schlapp is a closeted queer man, although it's starting to get fishy--but whether he's an abusive individual who takes advantage of others regardless of gender for his sexual gratification and is also a liar who uses organization funds for his own shit. The resignations of other CPAC officials and their claims indicate Schlapp is a problem, but I would say the other problem is the overcompensation CPAC has come to represent: The Orbanist, happily self-proclaiming "Domestic Terrorist" side of the organization. 

Why are we so extreme, CPAC? Something up? Because this looks like a troubled child organization acting out because things are bad at home with their leadership. 

You know what this reminds me of though? Veritas and Little Jimmy O'Keefe. Well, he used to be cute and young once, but he and Project Veritas went to pot, mostly because O'Keefe was a self-involved grifter. There always were warning signs. Right from the revelation that the ACORN nonsense was B-roll and smearing. The CNN fuckyacht? The weird wiretapping thing.  Wait, not that one, the other one. And the stolen diary. 

The right wing has just an awful lot of grifters. dark money slopping all over the place to support who all knows what, but they've also sometime got the little guys rooting for orgs that are fronting by whole freaks. 

It's something you think the hoi polloi on the right would be more interested in--since it's their investment, too. But they don't even care if their political party is lead by a grifting pussy-grabber, so I would be obviously expecting a lot. 

Ammon Bundy arrested on contempt charge

Ammon Bundy defamed a hospital and made it close down temporarily due to targeted harassment. He lost a suit and now has to pay millions of dollars. And he is fooling around with his assets to avoid paying them. I became aware of him because of the Bunkerville standoff. Because his family's ranch were a bunch of deadbeats over grazing fees and decided it was WAR! And then later, there was the Malheur occupation. The family is, you might say, an environmental issue. 

He's not exactly a folk hero. Right-wing people do love their myths, though. I remember when they wanted to make LaVoy Finicum into a martyr, I guess the way they want to with Ashli Babbitt or Craig Robertson. 

The history of right-wing extremist militia-affiliated people just walking away after making a threat of themselves doesn't seem to set a good example. It's an example that they can use to try to accelerate their antisocial behavior. 

Anyway, the usual characters will be out defending him saying The Man is only on his case for "being a conservative." And some people will buy that because deep down, they like the idea of some people getting to be outlaws, when what they are is armed pests. Ammon Bundy threatened the judge in this past case, just like he has in other cases:

In a July 9th open letter posted online, Bundy directly addressed Baskin, alluding to potential violence should she rule in favor of St. Luke’s.  

“Please do not sanction a war that may end in innocent blood and require others to bring justice upon those who are responsible for shedding it,” he wrote.  

Bundy has also complained about other judges in his previous cases, always calling them out by name and sometimes encouraging his followers to go to their homes. 

 Bundy ran for governor of Idaho, once. He lost, but there are people in this country who could really see a man like that being president. It really does make you think.

Sam Alito Should Retire.

 

The lawyer who “wrote” this is also the lawyer blocking our investigation into Leonard Leo’s Supreme Court freebies.

Shows how small and shallow the pool of operatives is around this captured Court — same folks keep popping up wearing new hats. https://t.co/NUaoxpBy8a

— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) July 28, 2023

I have an opinion about this particular justice that is not nice. Samuel Alito's wife leased land to an oil and gas firm while Alito sat in judgment over the EPA. Alito is no stranger to conflicts of interest--it's just that he isn't interested in discussing the conflict part of it. I have once and forever stated that the definition of "conflict of interest" for conservatives was that if one always has decided in one's own interest, there is never a conflict. And I'm not sure that flippant construction doesn't accurately describe the conservative court. 

So what is my take on Alito and his beefing on the idea of checks and balances? Because it boils down to whether Alito thinks he has a say over Congress' ability to set tax law without Congress having an ability to determine whether Alito has any ethical standards he ever has to conform to. 

It would seem to me like Alito does not prefer to have any ethical standards pertaining to him by another authority because he understands his situation wouldn't stand up to scrutiny, and if he doesn't like my opinion on that, he can fucking fight me. 

He won't and doesn't need to, because in his world, my opinion is an irrelevancy. (Also, I would cream him on his conflicted ass and the legacy of it point by butchered legal point.)

He needs to retire because he's at this point trolling how much SCOTUS doesn't have to conform to any ethical standards and he wants to pretend Congress has nothing at all to do with the configuration of the court or the ethics they need to adhere to. But the Constitution literally does exactly that.  Congress can determine how many justices, and even if they can be impeached for their skullduggery. 

Weird that he missed that. It feels very intentional.

The Christian Nation We Never Were

 

Disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker, disaster chow pitchman, is concerned that the Pride celebration at the White House means that the US is no longer a Christian Nation.  I would like to be very reassuring while I say this to him: We never were.  The original inhabitants of this nation were not Christians, and despite all the Christians who came to this land seeking refuge from their Old World persecution, you have to understand, actually being a "Christian nation" or the product of any one religion is a weirdly wrong idea to have about our founding. 

We are by no means a Christian nation. John Adams said as much in the Treaty of Tripoli.  There's a lot wrong with assuming that our founders were all of a mind about religion--which is exactly the reason to presume we are not founded on religious principles, but practical ones. There are ample statements from our founders that attest that freedom of religion was the only way to maintain an already-diverse religious population, Thomas Jefferson was proud enough of his religious freedom edict in Virginia that he had it made a part of his final epitaph. 

The Liberty Mommies Got Too Comfortable (UPDATED)

 

The Hamilton County chapter of Moms for Liberty's first newsletter, which was posted on Facebook last night, quoted Adolf Hitler. Here's what you need to know. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/vCW9wfzJyM

— IndyStar (@indystar) June 22, 2023

They apologized*, but it wasn't an accident. It was an accident on purpose to just let the mask slip and see who responds.  The SPLC is right, they aren't any different from the Proud Boys (who they do hang with). And leaving aside the Orwellian name (whose "Liberty" is anti-LGBT book banners for?), the idea that any child's mind is "owned" is appalling. They complain about indoctrination in schools--they only want their own special kind of indoctrination.

Only fascists and complete imbeciles would think they are good faith actors. 

UPDATE: I wanted to get back to what constitutes an apology*, though: the organization Tweeted that the newsletter should not have quoted Hitler without condemning him, but it's the fault of the lying media that it was presumed that their quote was intended favorably. I mean, really? Because Mary Miller used that very same quote saying "Hitler was right about one thing..." and used it to say the unspoken bit aloud: yes indoctrination, but our indoctrination. This isn't even the first time for the mommies.

Faith With Only Signifying Indignant BS Works is Dead

 

The LA Dodgers decided to recognize the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence for Pride, and then they didn't, and then they belatedly did. The decision to support the Sisters is the right one, even if it's getting stupid flack, and here's why, from me, the erstwhile Catholic-adjacent agnostic.

The ministry of the Sisters has gone among the people and held them up and comforted them and tried to teach them to be considerate and do no harm to one another, It has used satire of organized religion, but that's because those memes are accessible and subject to very real conversations about the actual harms that bigotry in religion causes, and that the failure to be real and upfront about sexuality in education perpetuates. 

Marco Rubio can pretend that the Sisters are anti-Catholic because of their criticism of a faith that hasn't delivered for the downtrodden--he can pretend LGBT sexuality is a choice and a sin for whatever deflection from his lived reality floats his boat, but in the real world, you either serve one another or you will be marked by the master you actually serve. And Marco serves himself. For all I can tell. And the people who wanted to protest the Pride celebration the LA team held are so dumb. 

Pride is a Riot

 

There have been some pieces of good news to report this month, like the court's rejection of the Tennessee drag ban, and the utter rebuke of the Florida denial of trans treatment. But this year has faced extraordinary challenges to the trans community, and often using the same tired tropes as have always been used against the gay community--recruitment because "they"* can't reproduce, focused on the youth, etc. The bigots still insist on their supposed right to bigotry to deny the actual rights of marginalized people to be and feel free in public. 

That's why Pride as a riot and a protest is still ongoing. Because contention over whether gay rights and human dignity can be publicly admitted results in scenes like this:

Anti-LGBT protestors attack Pro-LGBT demonstrators outside of a Glendale, CA schoolboard meeting.

The schoolboard is voting on recognizing June as Pride month. pic.twitter.com/T1zqZMTn7D

— Brennan Murphy (@brenonade) June 7, 2023

It doesn't hurt anyone for kids to know LGBTQ people exist, that they have rights, that they are not, despite radical right-wing ideology, weirdo sex fiends but are just people. And it serves the dual purpose of ensuring that marginalized and targeted gay and trans children are understood and not victimized in their schools. We've been telling these kids since a dozen years ago "it gets better" and the trolling haters kept hating. The fight doesn't end. (And the LGB without the T jackasses in the sainted names of Marsha Johnson, Sylvia Rivera and Brandon Teena can fuck off the planet. Or better yet, learn history.) 

Be allies not shall-I's.  Bonds, bunks, mutual aid and speaking up accepted everywhere anti-LGBTQ lies are being pushed,

* Right handed people give birth to left handed babies. I never understand the "LGBT people don't reproduce" thing. Of course, the bits work. The glowing and enormous pictures of transmen enjoying their pregnancies exist. IVF exists. How can this dumb trope still exist? And don't get me started on the "rounded up and put on a deserted island" thing. Um, everyone would be too busy looking for a way off Stunad Island to worry about making a new generation of coconut eaters, thanks...