Tag Archives: news

A Certain Shade of Green — stop asking me to shoot myself in the foot

news, , ,

“You might as well aim high. Why shoot yourself in the foot, when you can shoot yourself in the head?”—William Shatner
“You might as well aim high. Why shoot yourself in the foot, when you can shoot yourself in the head?”—William Shatner
While I was napping on Saturday (due to a mild cold), a single thing I said on Twitter got retweeted by someone famous. I woke up to find my mentions exploding from people I didn’t know. I replied to the first one before I realized what was going on, and found myself in a weird argument about the Green Party.

My original statement had been: “Field candidates in more that 0.02% of elected offices. Build a base. Earn my vote.” And I @-ed the Green Party official twitter account. The reason I did that is because every four years for the last couple of decades, I (and anyone else who espouses progressive ideas online) get harassed by Green Party supporters urging me to vote for the Green candidate instead of the Democrat because the Democratic Party isn’t liberal enough.

And I’m tired of the harassment and harangues and histrionics.

In the 2000 election the Green Party had their biggest success: they put George W. Bush, a person who embodied everything the Green Party stands against, into office. By their own numbers, among the new Green voters they got that year were 24,000 in Florida who otherwise would have voted for Gore. Those 24,000 votes would have put Florida safely out of recount territory and would have prevented the eight disastrous years of Bush/Cheney we got.

The 2000 election was the Green’s best result because they got millions of votes nationwide, instead of their previous high of a bit less than 500,000. A big surge! Green principles must have been appealing to more people! Except that in every election since then, they’ve only managed about 460,000 votes nationwide… again. They didn’t turn any of those new voters into Green Party supporters after 2000. None. And they didn’t use that new support to improve their organization in any way, such as to get more of their candidates on the ballot in local races.

If you want to take the time of going to their national party website and literally by hand count the number of candidates they have run on the ballots in recent elections (because they have a horrible database that won’t give you the total, and they conveniently avoid mentioning the exact number in all their publications, even when asked by a columnist that they have vilified for reporting they don’t run local candidates), you find that they have about 116 candidates, compared to the total of 500,000 elected positions in the country. That’s 0.02% of the possible offices—not two percent, that’s two-one hundredths of a percent. Which is less than a drop in the bucket.

When I said “earn my vote” I meant the party needs to organize enough to run and win enough local races that they have party members with the necessary experience to then run for state-wide offices and start winning there. Not running 2 candidates for every 10,000 offices, as they are now. Not running celebrities that have name recognition and no applicable skills for governor in some states every now and then. Not running joke candidates for president every four years when you can’t get your party on enough state ballots where it would be even possible to win the electoral college.

One of the people who tried to argue with me on Saturday asked what could the party possibly do other than stating their policies. The answer doesn’t fit into 140 characters, but here’s part of it: Organize. Ring doorbells, find local problems that aren’t being addressed by the other parties, and find viable candidates to offer solutions. It means running candidates in off year elections. It will take years, I know. But yelling at people like me, telling me I’m not a real progressive because I’m voting for a candidate who actually has a chance of getting into office isn’t going to build your party. Getting millions of people to throw away their votes in the national election 16 years ago didn’t get the party any further than it had been before.

And just stating your policies isn’t going to do it, either. The left has a problem organizing because a lot of us fall prey to the notion that if they just put out a good idea, people would magically be drawn to them. The myth (and I used to think this, too) is that if the policy is good enough, we don’t have to do the hard work of recruiting and organizing and raising money and actually putting candidates on the ballot and getting them elected to city councils or state legislatures. And we get caught up in these endless debates about the best policy.

I’ve been to those meetings, where every week we try to get some work done, but someone wants to re-visit an issue we’ve already re-discussed ten times after reaching a decision a few months ago. No one who wants to discuss it has any new information, and truth be told, because the topic keeps being re-opened for discussion again and again, we haven’t really had a chance to see if the decision we thought we made months ago will work or not.

The Green Party is trotting out their candidate who flip-flops between multiple scientifically incorrect positions on medical care—anti-vaxxer, pro homeopathy, pro-and-anti-vaxxer at once—without explanation; and whose inconsistent foreign policy is more in line with the ravings of Trump than Trump’s running mate’s foreign policy comments are! They put forward a platform which with regards to domestic policy mirrors significantly the platform which the Democrats officially adopted yesterday.

Their current argument is since Bernie Sanders failed to win over a majority of Democratic Primary voters, that instead of voting for Hillary, people who liked Bernie’s policies should vote for the Green Party candidate. Never mind that when Sanders and Clinton were in the Senate together, they voted the same 91% of the time. Never mind that when she was in the Senate Hillary was more liberal than her husband, President Clinton had been, and that her campaign had more liberal stands that President Obama’s before she was pushed further to the left by Bernie Sanders. If Bernie was good enough, why isn’t 91% of Bernie worth voting for?

The argument is usually put forward that an election isn’t a horse race. I agree. It’s a hell of a lot more important than that. As a voter, I should vote for candidates that will make the world a better place. Part of making the world of better place means actually getting elected and having the organization and experience to enact at least some of their proposals.

The Green Party is not on enough state ballots to get the electoral votes to win. That’s a fact. Many states don’t allow write-in candidates for President (heck seven states don’t allow write-in candidates at all!). Many more won’t allow votes for a write-in candidate for President to be counted if the candidate doesn’t have electors properly registered with the state beforehand. So the likelihood that the Green Party candidate can be elected as President is so close to zero, it isn’t funny.

Before about 1940, it was not uncommon for Third Parties, rather than to nominate their own candidate for President and waste party money and resources on a campaign that didn’t stand a chance to win in the electoral college, to instead endorse the nominee of the larger party that most closely aligned with their platform. Then the party concentrated on down ballot elections. Since the Greens haven’t been able to get on enough ballots to have a mathematical chance at winning post-2000, I’d have more respect for them if they took that route

You can complain about ballot access. You can claim that both parties are corrupt. But it is an absolute lie that both parties are equally corrupt. And it is just as untrue to insist that neither party is better than the other for civil rights, health care, jobs, or the future of the planet. And if you let Trump become President, you will not make ballot access any easier in future elections; nor will you reduce corruption.

And it won’t be four years of gridlock. Trump and the Republicans in Congress will be rolling back progress in pretty much every social justice area that the Green Party cares about. In 2000 the Green Party argument was that if Bush/Cheney won and enacted their policies, a wave of voters would come to the Green Party’s way of thinking by 2004 and throw everyone out of office.

That didn’t happen.

I can’t tell you how to vote. If you want to shoot yourself in the foot by voting for the Green Party candidate and letting Trump win (and that’s a simple matter of math; that is what will happen), I can’t stop you. But know this: you aren’t just shooting yourself in the foot, you’re shooting a whole lot of the rest of us, too.

We’re not the enemy. Trump and the forces of hate are. Stop asking me to shoot myself in the foot at the ballot box. And stop claiming that you are doing anything more productive than that.

Queer and self-loathing in the Grand Old Party

news, , , ,

Sign reads, "Why would you rather see 2 men holding GUNS than holding HANDS."
Sign reads, “Why would you rather see 2 men holding GUNS than holding HANDS.” (click to embiggen)
The Log Cabin Republicans and other gay republican groups (GOProud, for instance) have been claiming for forty years that they are changing the Republican party from inside to make it accepting of queer people or at least the legal rights of queer people. And so far, they have had absolutely zero success. None. Zip. Nada. Zilch.

And yesterday they had their biggest fail ever. This year’s Republican party’s draft platform was the most anti-gay political party platform ever in the history of the U.S. I am not exaggerating. It is worse than the platform that was adopted by the party in 1984, when panic over AIDS was at its height. It is worse than the platform that was adopted in 1992, when thousands of signs that said “Family Rights Forever, Gay Rights Never” were being waved by attendees inside the convention hall. This year’s platform, as the New York Times reported is:

…a staunchly conservative platform that takes a strict, traditionalist view of the family… [it] amounts to a rightward lurch even from the party’s hard-line platform in 2012—especially as it addresses gay men, lesbians and transgender people…. Nearly every provision that expressed disapproval of homosexuality, same-sex marriage or transgender rights passed.

Specifically, the platform condemns same sex marriage and calls for the appointment of judges that will overrule the Supreme Court decision making marriage equality legal and calls for an amendment to the Constitution which would in effect repeal the marriage equality laws that states adopted through legislatures and by direct votes of the people. The platform explicitly asserts (contrary to every reputable study out there) that it is better for children to be raised exclusively by opposite-sex parents (the language also appears to condemn single parents or grandparents/other relatives who raise children, such as say, after the death of the children’s parents). The platform endorses the so-called conversion or pray-away-the-gay therapies (which studies have shown are actually harmful, especially to children) which have been outlawed in many states. It calls for banning transgender people from public bathrooms that match their gender identity.

As the New York Times summed it up: “nearly every provision that expressed disapproval of homosexuality, same-sex marriage or transgender rights passed.”

The Log Cabin Republicans vowed to fight the platform at the convention. They promised they would fight to get that language changed. They sent out, over the course of the last week, dozens of emails begging people to donate money now so they could fight the platform. And guess what happened at the convention yesterday?

Tweet reads: "The @GOP has now, as a body, approved their radical anti-LGBTQ platform with almost no opposition."
Tweet reads: “The @GOP has now, as a body, approved their radical anti-LGBTQ platform with almost no opposition.” (click to embiggen)
The platform was adopted without any changes and with virtually no attempts from the floor to amend a single word.

Isn’t it wonderful that we have groups like the Log Cabin Republicans and GOProud working within the party to help spread tolerance and acceptance of gays? [/sarcasm]

And the thing that pisses me off most about those guys (and almost every single one of them is a guy) is that their presence is used by the hateful members of the Republican party to claim that the party isn’t actually anti-gay. It’s a variant of the “I can’t be homophobic, I have gay friends” defense. See, the Republicans say, we allow some of those homos to be members of the party: we take their money, we get them to go out on news channels and tell people that the party isn’t really anti-gay, even though we repeat discredited anti-gay propaganda, and pass anti-gay laws, and call for the appointment of anti-gay judges, and denounce gay and lesbians in the military, and block gay and lesbian appointees to government office. We do all of those things, they say, but we let these few homos to be members of the party, so we aren’t actually anti-gay.

Bull.

Why do these sad gay guys keep coming back to the party that hates them? Why do they donate their time and money to a party that is actively trying to take away their legal rights?

Dan Savage laid out the case pretty clearly four years ago: On Booze, Meth, Suicide… and GOProud. Medical studies all agree that the reason that queer people are more likely to attempt suicide (especially as children), and more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol is because of the lifetime of anti-gay bullying and abuse that queer kids suffer just growing up in our society. They are made broken by the anti-gay attitude of society (which is then used as proof by the folks who want society’s attitude to be even worse that we deserve it). Broken, abused people become self-loathing people. And self-loathing people often succumb to self-destructive behavior. And the thing is, self-destructive, self-loathing addicts don’t just want to destroy themselves, they want to take other people with them. As Dan summed it up:

“…just like your meth-addicted friend who pushed the drug on you, or your drunk friend who mocked you for stopping at four, or your sexually out-of-control friend who insisted that you were a prude if you didn’t play the come dump with him down at the bathhouse, the GOProud boys want you to abuse yourself the same way that they’re abusing themselves.”

That’s the only explanation for a queer person to support the Republican Party. It isn’t because Republicans are fiscally conservative, because they aren’t. The Republican party runs up trillion dollar deficits while giving tax cuts to the wealthy and enacting programs to hurt working Americans. I get so tired of hearing people (queer and straight) react to any of the anti-gay or misogynist or racist statements or actions of Republicans by saying, “I don’t support that, of course, but I just wish there was a political party that was social liberal and fiscally conservative.” I’m tired because there is exactly such a party: the Democratic Party.

The Democratic Party has been more fiscally conservative than the Republican Party since 1992. The Democratic Party is more fiscally conservative than the vast majority of the American voters. And the Democratic Party is, truth be told, slightly less socially liberal than the majority of American voters.

So don’t feel anything but pity and contempt for the gay republicans who claim they are changing the party from within. They aren’t. They’re damaged self-loathing people clinging to their abuser, enabling their abuser, and they’re trying to get you to join in on the self-destruction. Don’t fall into the trap.

Friday Links (fear, hope, and listening edition)

blogging, , ,

New York Daily New cover speculating as to which awful, misogynist, racist, homophobic politician will be chosen as the running mate for the tangerine-skinned neo-fascist con-man.
New York Daily New cover speculating as to which awful, misogynist, racist, homophobic politician will be chosen as the running mate for the tangerine-skinned neo-fascist con-man.
It’s the third Friday in July, and it hasn’t been a great week. Maybe not as awful as last week, but plenty of scary and unpleasant things happening. I’m doing my very best not to think about that stuff at least tonight, because my husband and I are going to go see Ghostbusters, and I’m really looking forward to it.

Anyway, here are links to some of the interesting things I read on the web this week, sorted into various topic areas.

Links of the Week

I Am A Transwoman. I Am In The Closet. I Am Not Coming Out.

WHY THE CLINTON AMERICA SEES ISN’T THE CLINTON COLLEAGUES KNOW.

There is Hope: Time to Follow an Indigenous Model for Peace in America.

And other news:

Amazon’s Chinese counterfeit problem is getting worse.

Heavily armed drug cops raid retiree’s garden, seize okra plants.

Surviving Suicide In Wyoming.

This week in evil people

Minuteman Militia Founder & Senate Candidate Chris Simcox Sentenced To 20 Years For Child Molestation.

Edmond man arrested at Black Lives Matter rally on terrorist hoax complaint.

This week in History

Congress Approves Arlington Cemetery Burials For Female WWII Pilots.

45 YEARS IN, THE FBI ANNOUNCED THEY’RE NO LONGER INVESTIGATING THE D.B. COOPER HIJACKING.

This Week in Tech

The Tragedy of Pokémon Go: What it takes for good ideas to attract money.

Google quietly brings its forget program to the U.S..

This Week in Diversity

One Photo Shows Why We Needed An All-Female ‘Ghostbusters’ Reboot.

Don’t Praise the Designer Who Made Leslie Jones a Gorgeous Dress for the Ghostbusters Premiere.

An Open Letter on Identity Politics, to and from the Left.

This Week in Police Problems

Aren’t more white people than black people killed by police? Yes, but no. There are two different parts to the “no.” First, portionate to their part of the populate, black people are nearly three times more likely to be killed by cops than whites. But the big difference is this: of UNARMED suspects killed by cops? Far more black unarmed suspects than white unarmed suspects are killed by cops every year.

NYC Man Who Recorded Eric Garner’s Choke Hold Death Takes Plea Deal, Will Likely Serve 4 Years in Prison.

This White Woman’s Shocking Account of Police Brutality Has a Lesson About Race in America.

FBI Confirms 2015 Was One Of The Safest Years Ever For Cops.

Man who Posted Alton Sterling Shooting Video Arrested 24 Hours Later on Fabricated Charges.

Surprising New Evidence Shows Bias in Police Use of Force but Not in Shootings.

After Dallas Shootings, Police Arrest People for Criticizing Cops on Facebook and Twitter.

The Singular Trauma Of A Child Who Loses A Parent To A Police Shooting.

Sorry conservatives, new research from Harvard shows a profound amount of racism by police…not less of it.

Why it’s impossible to calculate the percentage of police shootings that are legitimate.

This Week in Restoring Our Faith in Humanity

Bob Fletcher Dies at 101; Saved Farms of Interned Japanese-Americans.

Muslim Man Hugs ISIS Militant Armed Wearing Suicide Vest Before Explosion, Saves Hundreds Of Lives.

This week in awful news

80 Killed in Truck Attack on Bastille Day Crowd in Nice, France. This one does not seem to autoplay the horrible video.

Scores Killed in Terrorist Attack in Nice, France. Also no video.

Unsealed Court Documents: Sandusky Abuse Allegation Was Reported To Joe Paterno In 1976.

Queer leaders of Black Lives Matter condemn deadly Dallas ambush.

This Goddamn Week: Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, and the Real America.

NEWS‘I Hate Gay N****s’: Lunatic Posts Disturbing Video of Himself Pulling a Gun on Man He Thinks Is Gay.

This week in Topics Most People Can’t Be Rational About

The Case of Mark Hughes, Or Don’t Carry at a Protest.

Sen. Murphy leading effort to raise cash for pro-gun control candidates.

News for queers and our allies:

A country boy’s story about coming out: self-harm, suicide and Safe Schools.

Student scholarships grow out of move to ‘mourn’ same-sex marriage.

This teen’s family threw her an incredible surprise coming out party.

The Kindness of Strangers: An older woman comes out of a quarter century of stealth life to discover Trans Pride.

one man’s obsessive and historic collection of queer photography.

The Couch in Rainbow Colors: ‘L.G.B.T.-Affirming’ Therapy.

Science!

How one man repopulated a rare butterfly species in his backyard.

Looking Down on the International Space Station. Literally.

Science reveals 8 plants that will purify your home.

A ‘slow catastrophe’ unfolds as the golden age of antibiotics comes to an end.

The quantum origin of time.

Scientists who found gluten sensitivity evidence have now shown it doesn’t exist.

NASA’s Juno probe beams back its first images from Jupiter’s orbit.

Astronomers discover new planet on the edge of the solar system.

Study shows what happens when you swap fat for sugar.

Here’s What Really Happens When You Digitally Detox, According to Research.

Mantis Shrimp Roll Their Eyes, But For A Good Reason.

Super-massive and supersonic black hole studied with the Sardinia Radio Telescope.

Rate of species decline ‘no longer within safe limit’ for humans, experts warn.

Why the turtle got its shell.

50 million year old mushroom found trapped in amber.

Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculation!

Where has this Amazing Comic Book Art Been all My Life? This Belgian artist’s visions of a retro future are simply too beautiful for words.

I saw Tarzan and this is my review after some wines.

The world needs Star Trek’s progressive sexual future, and gay Sulu proves it.

Readercon 27: Confronting the fails.

George Takei Sets Record Straight on Gay Sulu Comments: Star Trek Actor ‘Delighted’ with ‘Daring Storytelling’.

George Romero Finally Getting Hollywood Walk of Fame Star!.

Ghostbusters Is the Movie We Need Right Now.

This week in Writing

Critics Suck. But Life Goes On: How to Deal With Negative Reviews of Your Work.

Author Blume doesn’t think of her legacy.

This is How You Find Your Readers.

Calling Emily Post: A Blogging Etiquette Roundup.

Review: Scrivener for iOS app is finally out next week, and it’s worth the wait.

Culture war news:

One of them is an animated corpse who scares people by reading from an old must book of gory made-up stories and wickedly relishing the ruin of others — and the other is the Crypt Keeper.
One of them is an animated corpse who scares people by reading from an old musty book of gory made-up stories and wickedly relishing the ruin of others — and the other is the Crypt Keeper.
Op-Ed: Christian Universities Can’t Have It Both Ways.

When Christian Schools Make Campuses Less Safe.

Here they are, the ‘enemies of equality’ for LGBT Americans.

Four Things You Need to Know About the So-Called First Amendment Defense Act.

GOP adopts “cure gays” platform plank.

Donald Trump Keeps Distance in G.O.P. Platform Fight on Gay Rights. “reviving a festering cultural dispute”

Contempt ruling upheld against Kentucky clerk against gay marriage.

In response to the Dallas police shooting, presidential flop and Donald Trump supporter Dr. Ben Carson thought it provided a unique time to do some good ol’ gay bashing.

MISSISSIPPI LEADERS DIVIDED ON RELIGIOUS-BELIEFS LAW APPEAL.

Emerging Republican Platform Goes Far to the Right.

Transgender bathroom issue headed to SCOTUS.

Opinion: Sorry Scott Morrison, but you’ll never be able to relate to a gay person’s experience.

This Week Regarding the Facist Clown:

For Whites Sensing Decline, Donald Trump Unleashes Words of Resistance.

GOP war on porn: The same party that nominated a libertine for president is now calling your porn a “public health crisis”.

This week in Politics:

Totally Not Gay Advisor To Dr. Stabby Sued For Alleged Sexual Harassment Of Male Former Staffer.

Revised GOP platform includes measure for Trump’s Mexican ‘border wall,’ endorsement of mogul’s plan to ban Muslims, but lacks gun control reform. “…a list of priorities straight out of the 1950s…”

In Win for Senate Dems, Bayh Will Run in Indiana.

Obama Renews Call For A ‘Public Option’ In Federal Health Law.

The Democratic Party has moved left after Bernie Sanders’s run. The platform is proof.

Barney Frank Came Back To Congress And Ran Circles Around Everyone.

Victory Fund Statement on Donald Trump’s Selection of Mike Pence.

Welcome to the New Democratic Party.

Why Hillary Clinton’s ‘Extreme Carelessness’ with Classified Emails Isn’t Criminal.

Cleveland Strip Clubs Pumped for Trump But Brace for Violent Protests.

This Week in Racism

Sarah Palin: Media Must ‘Quit Claiming’ Black Lives Matter Protesters ‘Are People’.

Sen. Tim Scott reveals incidents of being targeted by Capitol Police being target.

‘Classic intimidation’—Black Lives Matter activists targeted by FBI ahead of RNC.

This Week in Feminism

The Logic of Misogyny.

This Week in Misogyny

Stop Treating Emotions Like Character Flaws Of The Powerless.

Things I wrote:

Weekend Update 7/9/2016: anti-trans law not going to ballot, shooter stopped.

Sunday Funnies, part 19.

Sausage making: my history with presidential nominees.

Rough, manly sport, part 6.

It’s about time – why Star Trek’s Sulu reveal is overdue.

Videos!

Hear Every 2016 Song of the Summer in One Perfect Mash-Up:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Shim El Yasmine – Mashrou’ Leila (Beirut-Based Band That Challenges Homophobia) Live in San Francisco:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Sausage making: my history with presidential nominees

history, , ,

party-imagePresidential campaigns in the U.S. are weird. Okay, let’s be honest, politics everywhere is weird, but the way Americans choose candidates has a particularly amazing number of eccentricities. We choose candidates through a patchwork systems of caucuses and primaries, which also generate the delegates who will eventually write state and national party platforms through an arcane series of district, county, and state meetings and conventions. And sometimes the arcane becomes literal (such as the time our state’s Republican party platform had multiple planks condemning witchcraft). Politics is supposed to be about compromise and finding solutions that a majority of people can get behind, which makes things very difficult for people who expect a candidate to agree with them on absolutely everything in order to get their support. The more voters involved, the less likely it is that you’re going to get your first choice. Which isn’t a pleasant realization. As I well know… Continue reading Sausage making: my history with presidential nominees →

Weekend Update 7/9/2016: anti-trans law not going to ballot, shooter stopped

Uncategorized, , , , , ,

Copyright NBCI posted my first Weekend Update just over two years ago because there had been a lot of new information coming in the day before about one of the stories I had linked to in that week’s Friday Links. I didn’t originally intend it to become a regular thing. I do skip it some weeks. But most weeks I wind up feeling I need to post some follow-ups to some of the previous day’s news. Before I get into the unpleasant story, let’s take a moment to rejoice:

Backers of I-1515, the initiative to restrict which bathrooms transgender people can use, have told Washington state officials they will not turn in signatures by the Friday midnight deadline! Thank goodness. We keep referring to this as a transgender bathroom initiative, but it did more than that: it overruled a state finding that Washington’s existing non-discrimination law and certain portions of federal law required access to public bathrooms consistent with a trans person’s gender identity; it also forbid state agencies to make any such rulings in the future; it also forbid cities and counties from enacting their own transgender non-discrimination laws; it forbid any school (private or not) allowing any transgender student to use any bathroom other than a private, single-person bathroom; and finally, it mandated a $2500 bounty be paid to public school students who caught any transgender classmates using any bathroom other than the one that “matched” the gender the student had been assigned at birth.

None of us had any doubt the law would stand up in court if passed. Several of its components are identical to laws and policies that federal courts have already ruled violate Title IX of the United States Education Amendments of 1972 (also known as the Patsy Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act). The state constitution requires that initiatives cover only one topic with a very narrow focus, and multi-part initiatives similar to this one have been struck down in the past for violating that requirement.

But in our state, initiatives that gather enough signatures are almost always placed on the ballot regardless of how unconstitutional they appear, under the reasoning that the people can reject the initiative if they think it is unconstitutional, and courts can examine the law in full after it is enacted if need be.

Past experience indicates that when an anti-gay initiative is on the ballot, the amount of harassment and hate crimes in the state go up, as the haters are whipped into a bit of a frenzy by all the advertisements and misinformation. Fighting an initiative takes time and effort away from other worthy causes, and it if did pass, fighting the initiative in court is also costly. And as we’ve seen recently with the Brexit vote in Britain, sometimes when a vote like this passes, it convinces the haters that everyone agrees with them, and the hate crimes and harassment continue.

So, this news Anti-Trans Campaign Fails To Collect Enough Signatures To Advance is wonderful and deserves a round of applause!

Politics_PR_2016-Jul-08In less pleasant news, the Dallas shooting situation was still happening Thursday night when I finished the yesterday’s Friday Links, so there has been a lot of developments. Among the details that I think people have still missed: there was only one shooter, not several. The shooter was not the person whose picture was plastered everyone as a person of interest, and whose picture remained on the police web site for nearly 24 hours after the police had already determined he wasn’t involved. Five officers total died. The Black Lives Matter organization was quick to condemn the shooting. The demonstration was peaceful. The sniper was killed by a remote controlled robot that the Dallas police obtained from the military supposedly for bomb disposal purposes.

Alton Sterling was a felon. Philando Castile was a ‘good man.’ None of that should matter. Whenever a black person dies in police custody, the press seems to put all effort they can into digging up information about the person’s past, as if that has anything to do with the use of force at the time of the killing. It doesn’t matter if Sterling had a criminal record, in the video he was clearly not struggling and was not a threat to anyone. It doesn’t matter the Castile was an exceptionally wonderful man and pillar of his community, having a broken tail light is not a valid reason to be executed by a cop, let alone be denied medical attention and allowed to bleed out while his wife and child watch, with the cop pointing his gun at them.

And let’s not lose sight of this issue: FBI’s warning of white supremacists infiltrating law enforcement nearly forgotten.

Police harassment of people based on racial profiling and other criteria that should have no bearing on how the citizen is treated isn’t a new problem. We mostly know about more cases now simply because nearly the entire population carries phones with cameras and the ability to uploads pictures and video to the world wide web from just about anywhere. There have been attempts to deal with the misuse of force by some police even before the era of the smart phone. We should revisit those attempts and figure out which things worked: The Blazer Experiment.

There are things that we can do as individuals. Here are some: How to be a white ally: Fighting racism is your responsibility — start now.

I’m glad that the suspect was stopped before any more cops were killed, but I’m not at all comfortable with the continued militarization of police: Use of robot in Dallas highlights tactical opportunities, ethical questions for police.

Then, of course, there is the man who was not in any way involved in the shooting, but whose picture was plastered all of the world as a suspect, and the stupid reasons that it was: The Case of Mark Hughes, Or Don’t Carry at a Protest. “Hughes may have been totally within his legal rights. But his actions were really only barely less stupid than the jackasses who terrorize folks at the local Bennigans or Home Depot by ‘legally’ walking into a public establishment with an AR-15. Why do you bring a rifle to a peaceful protest? I get it. You do it as a message of self-assertion and power in the face of dehumanization and powerless. It’s still stupid; it’s not the right or a safe way to send that message.”

I’ve spent almost two hours on this post. That’s enough. I’m going to go post more cute cat pictures to my twitter, and then get back to Camp NaNoWriMo.

Weekend Update 7/2/2016 – Neither free nor religious

news, , , , ,

I’ve got lots of errands to do today and a Camp NaNoWriMo project to get back to, but one story that made it into yesterday’s Friday Links definitely needs a follow up: Attorney General: People ‘duped’ by religious freedom law. So, late Thursday night a federal judge struck down Mississippi’s so-called religious freedom law. He ruled that the law actually establishes a state religion, by very specifically protected some religious beliefs and overriding the beliefs of those who feel differently.

Mississippi has only one state-wide Democratic politician, the Attorney General, and he issued a press release explains why his office isn’t sure it will appeal. The Attorney General’s office did defend the law against the challenge, but as he points out, appealing the law can cost a lot of money over a period of years:

“I will have to think long and hard about spending taxpayer money to appeal the case… An appeal could cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars. For example, North Carolina has set aside $500,000 for defense of its bathroom law. Even if we won and the injunction were set aside on appeal, the case would be remanded and proceed to trial over about two years. Because of the huge tax breaks handed out to big corporations by these same leaders, the state is throwing mentally ill patients out on the street. This is hardly protecting the least among us as Jesus directed.”

But he also essentially says that the judge ruled properly, because the law doesn’t actually protect religious freedom:

“The fact is that the churchgoing public was duped into believing that HB1523 protected religious freedoms. Our state leaders attempted to mislead pastors into believing that if this bill were not passed, they would have to preside over gay wedding ceremonies. No court case has ever said a pastor did not have discretion to refuse to marry any couple for any reason. I hate to see politicians continue to prey on people who pray, go to church, follow the law and help their fellow man.”

Because it’s Mississippi, you know that the only reason a Democrat got elected Attorney General is because he leans further to the right the most Democrats (I need to write a post about the fact that we don’t have a liberal party in this country; the Democrats are slightly right of center being more conservative that most the the population, and the Republicans are super-super-far-rightwing being more conservative that a substantial number of their loyal voters), and the only way he can talk about this law and have any hope of future electoral success is to emphasize his own Christian beliefs.

But that’s the point that needs to be hammered home: the laws and the issues that people are wailing and gnashing their teeth about under the label of religious freedom aren’t even consistent with the teachings of the religion they’re trying to defend. Not only do the laws not preserve freedom, but they’re contrary to the teachings of Christ:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.”
—Matthew 5:38-42

Jesus didn’t say, “If a same-sex couple asks you to do your job and issue them a marriage license, declare them unclean and turn them away,” he said “Give to the one who asks you.” And these folks who are proclaiming their belief in Jesus as the reason they refuse to sell cakes, or give out licenses, or allow a trans kid to use the bathroom, might want to review Matthew chapter 6, where Jesus says not to make a big show of your religion, and that the people who do that aren’t going to be going to heaven, but somewhere else…

ETA: As I’ve mentioned once or twice before, speaking as a former evangelical, btw: ‘Fessing up, part 2.

Weekend Update 6/18/2016: Compassion, mourning, and an epic vogue battle

news, , , ,

Ernesto Vergne prays at a cross honoring his friend Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado and the other victims at a memorial to those killed in the Pulse nightclub mass shooting a few blocks from the club early Friday, June 17, 2016, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Ernesto Vergne prays at a cross honoring his friend Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado and the other victims at a memorial to those killed in the Pulse nightclub mass shooting a few blocks from the club early Friday, June 17, 2016, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
I’m going to be an emotional wreck because of the Orlando shooting for a while. Usually on Saturday I’ll post a few news items that I would have included in Friday Links if I had found them in time along with more commentary than links usually get in the Friday post. Or I post links to stories with new developments related to a story posted previously, also with more commentary.

Most of today’s links are things that made me cry, not because they’re about something awful, but because the story is about something wonderful and loving that people have done in response to something awful. Two of the links were sent to me by one friend. After the second one I replied back, “You keep sharing things that make me cry. Don’t stop.”

What happened when an Orthodox Jewish congregation went to a gay bar to mourn Orlando.

I included this one in yesterday’s post, but it’s worth sharing again to remember that we’re human, and we’re most human when we show each other compassion: Jetblue passengers write letters to Orlando victim’s grandmother.

LGBT community raising millions for Orlando victims.

These Are Some Of The Heroes Of The Orlando Shooting.

Some people are either outright ignoring the fact that this happened in a queer club, on a Saturday night, during Pride month, and otherwise was clearly a hate crime. Many of the jerks trying to further the myth that Islam is attacking America or freedom or whatever. Never mind that of the last thousand or so mass shooting in America, two were committed by muslims, and the other 990-some have been committed by white Christians. Anyway: The Other Group Mourning The Orlando Massacre: LGBT Muslims.

Gay rabbi: We can all mourn Orlando, but this was terrorism against gay people.

Orlando shooting prompts outpouring of blood donations. It’s a good thing all these straight people feel such compassion, seeing how gay men are banned for donating blood. Some pedants point out that technically gay men are allowed to donate blood if they swear they haven’t had sex for an entire year, but as one of my local TV stations reported, Some Seattle blood banks still ban all gay men from donating even if they meet the no-sex in 12 months criteria. I bring this up because the vast majority of medical experts agree that the 12-month rule is ridiculous. Straight people can (and do, lots more than you think) carry the virus that causes AIDS, and no one has suggested a 12-month ban on them. Also, a lot of bi people are closeted, and some so closeted that they would never admit it even in a confidential medical situation, so they’re not going to say. And all blood donated is screened precisely because people may not know that they’ve been infected or may lie about their sexual activity for the reasons stated above.

Enough about that. Another of the “it’s not a hate crime” craziness has been a claim that it can’t be a hate crime because maybe the shooter was a closeted gay man. First, if you don’t understand that a society in which the phrase “closeted gay man” describes a real phenomenon, then nearly all queer people live with a lot of internalized homophobia because of societal pressure, you’re really in a deep state of denial. Also: FBI ‘Increasingly Skeptical’ That Orlando Shooter Was Gay and Closeted.

The case that he was a closeted gay man was built on the fact that he had a user profile on at least one gay hookup app, and reportedly had been seen in the club previously, angrily drinking alone and sometimes becoming belligerent. Oh, and one old college classmate thinks he might have been gay and might have hit on him once. We already know that at least one of the conversations that shooter had on the hookup app with a local gay man consisted of the shooter asking, repeatedly, “what are the most popular gay clubs” and “where could I find the biggest crowds of gay people?” This would hardly be the first time that someone planning an anti-gay hate crime used a hookup app or online gay chat services to scout out potential victims. Or hung out at gay clubs to get the lay of the land. And the old classmate? Please! Both gay and straight men misread signals all the time.

But, we need to end this on a high note, so: Orlando Shooting Vigil In London Turns Into Epic Vogue Battle.

Weekend Update 6/11/2016: His idea of ethics is disobeying the law

news, , , ,

Alabama state government is awash in corruption, scandal, and criminal investigations. Diagram by John Archibald | jarchibald@al.com.
Alabama state government is awash in corruption, scandal, and criminal investigations. Diagram by John Archibald | jarchibald@al.com (Click to embiggen).
Alabama is a mess. Yesterday the Speaker of the House was found guilty of 12 of the counts of corruption out of the 23 he had been indicted for: Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard is guilty, but that’s not all. According to the state constitution, the moment he was convicted of a felony he ceases to be in office. This would be a big deal in any other state, but right now in Alabama, it is only one in a number of crazy stories involved the heads of branches of Government: Scandals Embroil Alabama Governor, Speaker and Chief Justice.

It’s just a mess:

So Mike Hubbard, the self-proclaimed architect of the GOP takeover of the Statehouse, the consensus most powerful man in Alabama politics, the standout with his hand out, was convicted on 12 of 23 counts of using his office to fatten his own substantial wallet… Gov. Robert Bentley is hip-deep in his own sorta-sex scandal, facing the threat of impeachment and federal investigation. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore may get gaveled out of office for the second time, because his idea of “ethics” is disobeying the law…
—John Archibald, writing for AL.com

See, the governor has been in trouble for a while because of a sex scandal that involved misappropriation of fund. He’s a very anti-gay, pro-family, moralizing scold who was having an affair with a married staff member. Before proof of the affair surfaced (in the form of recordings of very family unfriendly phone call), he was already under investigation for doing things like using a state-owned jet to fly the staffer and himself to Las Vegas to attend a Celine Dion concert, among other questionable uses of public funds and resources. The staffer with whom he had the affair was given salary increases that raised eyebrows even before rumors of the affair surfaced. In a separate issue, the husband of the staffer, who is also a state employee, received a very large raise in a year when no one else in the entire agency he worked at received even a token increase in salary. That’s only scratching the surface on the governor. I’ll come back to him.

Then there is the Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court, Roy Moore. Moore has been suspended from the bench pending an ethics investigation over orders he wrote instructing judges in the state not to obey the U.S. Supreme Court ruling which made marriage equality the law of the land. Moore was previously removed from office over his refusal to remove a gargantuan granite Ten Commandments monument from the state courthouse (in addition to insisting on starting court sessions with a prayer and other activities). Alabama voters returned him to office when he ran for election again the next time he could. If he is removed again, I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if Alabamians don’t re-elect him yet again.

There are several other problems. The Lt Governor, Kay Ivey, former state Treasurer, has been dogged by questions about why the state’s pre-paid college tuition program suffered a loss of $408million in value under her watch. There are, therefore, people worried about whether she is up to the job of filling the governor’s job if he does resign or is impeached. The threat of impeachment had been held at bay for a long time by the Speaker of the House, but it was also hampered by those worries about the Lt. Governor.

The governor also has managed to force some members of state law enforcement out of their jobs to delay and complicate the investigation into the allegations against the him. Oh, and that recording of a sexy phone call between the governor and the staff member? It wasn’t because law enforcement was tapping his phone. No, the governor’s wife had long suspected her husband was having an affair, and she left started secretly recording him to get proof!

One of my favorite odd details of this whole mess, if you see any news stories list the governor’s name this way: “Governor Doctor Dr. Robert Bentley” the second use of doctor isn’t a typo. Back in 2010, because he was running with the campaign slogan, “Alabama’s economy needs a doctor,” Bentley tried to get his medical title (he’s a dermatologist) on the primary ballot, but Republican party rules forbade nicknames, and they said that also mean titles, even if they were legitimately earned. So Bentley went to court and had is name legally changed to “Dr. Robert Bentley.” Some of his opponents made some very funny comments about what kind of person legally changes their name to look better on a ballot, and he then legally changed his name back to “Robert Julian Bentley,” but a lot of Alabama pundits like to remind voters of the temporary name change by using the longer title.

The legislature is so corrupt, and corruption has been a way of life in Alabama politics for so long, that no one knows what’s going to happen next. Maybe Ambrosia Starling, the drag queen who emerged as one of the most articulate and unflagging criticism of Judge Roy Moore is available to fill one of those vacant offices: Ambrosia Starling on Roy Moore: ‘It takes a drag queen to remind you liberty, justice is for all’.

You need to pick your dragons…

news, ,

“Complaining about political correctness: It's just inoculating the public to get used to, and feel reluctant to call out, more racism, sexism, and homophobia.” BettyBowers.Com
“Complaining about political correctness: It’s just inoculating the public to get used to, and feel reluctant to call out, more racism, sexism, and homophobia.” BettyBowers.Com (click to embiggen)
In the game of chess, it is traditional at the end of the game for the loser, upon realizing that the other player has placed their king in checkmate, to tip the king over and concede the game. The point of the game is to protect your king and take the other player’s king. If the other player has maneuvered you into a place where no matter what move you make, your king will be taken, you’ve been defeated.

I never liked that bit about tipping my own king over and conceding the game. I’m not merely saying that I don’t like to lose (because no one does), what I had was a visceral revulsion to the idea of surrendering. I think when I see that I’m in checkmate, I should move my king, and then the other person should be the one who moves one of their pieces in and takes the king. And technically you can do that, but a lot of chess players consider it gauche to do so. You’re supposed to be civilized and logical and recognize that you have been beaten. When I was in my teens I once had a much older chess player lecture me about what an insult it was to insist on taking my last move and make him take the king. Another told me that taking my final move signaled that I wasn’t smart enough to recognize my loss, and therefore not being smart, I was not an opponent anyone would care to play against.

I don’t think that guy was terribly happy when I replied,“If you can’t tell until the very last move how good a player I am, I’m not sure I’m the one whose intelligence is in question, here.” (For the record, I beat that guy the first time we played, it was our second game where he discovered my idiosyncrasy, so, having beaten him once, I don’t think he could say I didn’t understand the game).

I was never great at chess, and I suspect my inability to dispassionately end the game without one player actually taking out the other player’s king is a symptom of why. And it’s all probably related to why my single favorite moment in all of cinematic history, is the second time Captain Kirk says, “I don’t like to lose” in The Wrath of Khan.

So I have a lot of sympathy for my fellow Bernie Sanders supporters who have been angry that one media outlet explicitly called the Democratic nomination one day before California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, and South Dakota weighed in. I get it. Really, I do. But it isn’t the evidence of either corruption or incompetence that many of my fellow Sanders supporters are trying to make it out to be… Continue reading You need to pick your dragons… →

Weekend Update 6/4/2016: “My conscience won’t let me…”

news,

“My conscience won’t let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America. And shoot them for what? They never called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn’t put no dogs on me, they didn’t rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father… Shoot them for what? …How can I shoot them poor people, Just take me to jail.” One of Muhammed Ali's statements when asked why he refused the draft.
“My conscience won’t let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America. And shoot them for what? They never called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn’t put no dogs on me, they didn’t rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father… Shoot them for what? …How can I shoot them poor people, Just take me to jail.” One of Muhammed Ali’s statements when asked why he refused the draft. (Click to embiggen)
I used to say that I was old enough that I remembered when three-time world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammed Ali still fought under the name Cassius Clay. I recently learned that that probably isn’t true. The reason I thought so was that, after Ali converted to Islam and changed his name in 1963, all sportscasters (with the exception of Howard Cosell—another great in his own right) refused to call him by the name—for several years! So I watched boxing matches on TV where the announcer and commentators called him Clay, even though that was no longer his name.

I had a bunch of other news links and such gathered yesterday after posting Friday Links that I had planned to post as weekend update this morning. But Muhammed Ali died last night. And he deserves a post all his own.

Muhammed Ali represented a lot of things. The best obituary I’ve found for him today is by Dave Zirin posted at The Nation: ‘I Just Wanted to Be Free’: The Radical Reverberations of Muhammad Ali. Zirin does a great job explaining the many ways Ali shaped the discussion of race, equality, war, peace, and even religion during the 60s and 70s.

The big one was his refusal to be drafted to fight in Vietnam. He made a lot of statements about it, before he was arrested and after his initial trial. One is quoted on the meme I included at the top of this post, but here’s another:

“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality…. If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.”

When he was drafted in 1967, he reported at the induction station as ordered, but he refused to step forward when his name was called, and declared himself a conscientious objector. When he was warned that he was committing a felony by refusing to step forward, he repeated his statement to take him to jail. He was arrested and stood trial. The jury deliberated less than a half hour before convicting him. His lawyer appealed, and Ali was released pending the appeal. Ali was stripped of his Heavyweight Championship title, had his passport revoked, and was systematically denied licenses to box in every state.

Federal appeals courts all upheld the conviction and it went to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1971 in an 8-0 ruling (Thurgood Marshall recused himself from the case), Ali’s conviction was overturned. By that point, public opinion had shifted considerably against the war, and some have tried to tie the court’s decision to that shift. Possibly, but the court’s reason for overturning the conviction was pretty simple: the draft board had never given a reason as to why they refused to grant him conscientious objector status (which would have had him serve in an unarmed capacity). The law required that the board cite at least one of three reasons why objector status is refused, and they never did.

The evidence of the shift in public opinion toward the Vietnam War in general and Ali in particular actually came a few months before the Supreme Court ruling: 1) in September 1970 a federal court ordered the New York State Boxing Commission to reinstate Ali’s license, and 2) in August 1970 the City of Atlanta Athletic Commission granted him a license to box. In October of that year Ali returned to the ring, defeating Jerry Quarry after three rounds. Ali then defeated Oscar Bonavena in December at Madison Square Garden, which set him up to take on then reigning heavyweight champ Joe Frazier. It was called the Fight of the Century for many reasons, one being that neither Frazier nor Ali had ever been defeated in a professional fight.

Ali was famous for trash-talking his opponents, which reached some odd heights in the lead up to this match. Frazier and Ali were both African American. Ali had been raised on a “two-mule farm” in Kentucky, while Frazier was the 12th child of South Carolina sharecroppers. But Ali kept saying to the press that the only people rooting for Joe Frazier are white people in suits, Alabama sheriffs, and members of the Ku Klux Klan, while claiming that Ali was fighting for the kids in the ghetto. At one point this caused Frazier to remark within earshot of several reporters, “What the fuck does he know about the ghetto?”

Whether Ali knew anything about the ghetto, I can attest to the fact that racists like my dad and his Klan friends (yes, my dad had friends who were klansmen, though every time my Grandpa derided him for it, he insisted that he wasn’t a member; I don’t think Grandpa believed him any more than I did) were all rooting for Frazier. I know this because, while watching football with my dad was never a fun experience when I was a child, we somehow managed to watch boxing together just fine. He didn’t mind answering questions about what was happening when we watched boxing. I’m not sure why. So the most positive sports memories I have with my dad are all around boxing bouts. I’d watched boxing a lot with Dad before the Fight of the Century. I was ten years old the first time Ali fought Frazier, and I watching the whole thing with Dad. It was a little surreal, watching my dad cheer Frazier on.

Frazier beat Ali by decision. My dad’s only disappointments with the match were that Ali hadn’t gotten knocked out, and that dad hadn’t found anyone willing to bet against Frazier for the bout. A few years later, after Ali had won many more bouts, lost one and got a broken jaw out of it, and won some more, Frazier and Ali had a rematch, which Ali won. Dad had found someone to bet with this time. To say that he was pissed off at Ali’s win is putting it mildly.

Dad refused to watch Ali fight George Foreman for the world championship. He said boxing wasn’t any fun when it was only black guys fighting (he didn’t say it so politely, though). So I watched the Rumble in the Jungle with Grandpa, instead. Partway through the match, I remember telling Grandpa that I thought I was becoming an Ali fan. At the end of the match, Grandpa talked about the kind of endurance and bullheadedness it took to survive Foreman’s impossibly powerful blows, and told me he was an Ali fan now, too.

After winning the World Heavyweight Boxing championship that second time, he went on to more matches, most of which he won (Ali’s win by decision over Chuck “The Bayonne Bleeder” Wepner is the bout which Sylvester Stallone said inspired the film Rocky), before losing the title to Leon Spinks in a split decision, then win it a third time. After retiring, he even tried to win the world championship for a fourth time in 1980. Though everyone knew that his health wasn’t really up to it. His performance in the loss to Larry Holmes caused Stallone to describe it ringside as “like watching an autopsy on a man who is still alive.”

For me, Ali’s greatest acheivments happened outside the ring, as documented in articles like this: Muhammad Ali’s bouts outside the ring: Embrace of Islam and refusal to fight in Vietnam.

CNN has posted a lot of good videos (including a great interview with one of his daughters) along with their obituary: Muhammad Ali, ‘The Greatest,’ dies at 74.

Ali’s daughter, Maryum, said that her father, despite his very arrogant public persona, was always surprised long after his retirement, when strangers would come up to tell him how much he had inspired them, or how his life had convinced them to abandon the racism they’d been raised in. “He was never certain that people would remember him.”

I, for one, hope his memory outlives us all.