Yo Yo Ma And Lil Buck

In Beijing - wondering how much longer we can count on any of this being even possible as Trump fucks up everything he touches everywhere he goes.

Today's Tweet

So accurate it hurts and a point/reality that is being missed by so. many. people. pic.twitter.com/C2XbsVKrp1

— Stacey E. Singleton (@staceyNYCDC) November 12, 2016

New Music

...about the same old shit too many people still hafta put up with.

Common:
  I Used To Love H.E.R.
  Letter To The Free
  The Day The Women Took Over
  Little Chicago Boy

Get out and vote

It never feels like it's enough, but it's what we've got

And eventually, if we keep doing it right, it works

Love Has No Labels

Today's GIF

Pretending It Matters

On the eve of Super Bowl 50!!! 

So I guess the NFL needs to lose the bullshit Roman numerals thing when it comes to their annual biggest fucking thing in the whole world ever?  'Cuz the 'L' looks like a typo or something? Or it looks more like "Super Bowl - LARGE".  I've never quite understood why we feel the need to dress that kinda shit up by using substitutes for numbers - like we're trying to make it look more important than it actually is - why can't we just let it be what it is? 

So anyway, fuck that shit.  But wait - Roger Goodell had to sign off on the '50' thing, so maybe Mr Goodell is of more use than tits on a bull after all(?)  Or maybe, actually, somebody in Goodell's office handled it; well, more likely, it was somebody in the marketing department; or the PR firm that the NFL outsources all the important decisions to...so yeah, Roger Goodell is about as useful as tits on a bull.

Anyway, here's an oldie from Jay Smoothe - it starts as a reaction to some weird shit that flew around the web because of LebRon and Miami and the NBA and whatever, but Jay does a good job widening it out into a decent perspective on the pathology of Sportsball Mania in general.

Anyway - Go Donkeys!  Losing a 6th Super Bowl is a record that could stand for a very long time.  Make me proud, fellas.

Who's Foolin' Who?

So Paul Kantner died yesterday, and I went to YouTube to listen to Crown of Creation (which I hadn't heard in quite a while), and holy crap - Star Track comes on and I'm thinking that sounds really familiar, and holy crap again, I start singing Just Dropped In To See What Condition My Condition Was In - and it fits almost perfectly.

Everything recycles.  Everything is derived from something else.  So when something comes along that seems really new, try to understand how rare and exceptional it has to be to make us forget where it came from.

Star Track --Jefferson Airplane

Just Dropped In (cover) --Kenny Rogers & The First Edition

What Joe Said

Vice President Joe Biden explains how President Obama's executive actions really don't violate the Second Amendment https://t.co/zitGm9TAoN

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) January 7, 2016

This Is Just Too Good

From HuffPo:

The gunmen who have seized a federal building in Oregon claim they're patriots.

But on social media, many are calling the self-styled "militia" terrorists -- and mocking the group that has taken over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters with derisive nicknames.

Whomever came up with #YallQaeda to describe the Oregon militia, I take my hat off to you. And then put it back on and take it off again.

— Colin Miner (@cominer) January 3, 2016

The emergence of #VanillaISIS in Oregon sparks fears of radicalizing disaffected hipsters in Portland.

— Khaled Bey (@KhaledBeydoun) January 4, 2016

You know you're a badass Tea Party patriot when your militia takes over an unprotected bird sanctuary

— Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) January 3, 2016

Still others have taken to using terms such as #YokelHaram and #al-Shabubba, and say the group is waging #YeeHawd.

Get all the latest on Y'allQaeda and Vanilla ISIS at Mock Paper Scissors

A Year Of Eternal Sadness

Here’s my 2015 year in review.

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 31, 2015

2015 started in the early hours of January 1st when 5 people were shot on a New Year’s Eve party bus in Memphis.

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 31, 2015

The next day, another mass shooting (defined as at least 4 people shot, including the shooter) in Savannah Georgia.

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 31, 2015

Two days later, 2 dead, 1 injured in Dallas, and 2 dead, 4 injured in Roanoke, VA.

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 31, 2015

2 days later, 1 dead, 3 injured in Miami. Next day, 1 dead, 3 injured in Chattanooga.

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 31, 2015

--and--

All this data is compiled by https://t.co/KEvaS5kOvN and the redditors at @rGunsAreCool, which tracked 372 shootings & counting in 2015

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 31, 2015

and on and on and on

About That Christmas Story

So everybody's holiday favorite is the story of how a kid is growing up in Ohio, and he has a toy gun, and how everybody warns him about not getting hurt because of it and his dad buys a weird lamp and some kid gets his tongue froze to the flag pole and it all turns out OK because Ralphie's a white kid and the local cops don't murder him for no fucking reason.

A Tweet And A Quote

Racism doesn't usually look like someone shouting slurs, it's looks like people eagerly looking for a reason why a black kid deserved to die

— Lou Schumaker (@LouSchu) December 24, 2014

Today's National Shame

USAmerica Inc came into the world with some pretty serious baggage - the most prominent of which we've started to address in pretty good shape. We've fixed the mechanical parts of the astounding shittiness of slavery, and of not letting women vote. So two-outa-three ain't bad, but we gotta get right with the guns or we're headed back to the bad old days - and I'm talking about the bad old days before 1790.

Quartz:

America’s gun problem can’t be distilled down to one single issue, of course, but it’s clear that on top of crime and fears of terrorism and insufficient mental health resources and the Second Amendment, America’s gun problem has something to do with America’s masculinity problem.

--and--

As Alankaar Sharma, a social worker and researcher, tells Quartz, “Possessing a gun is considered by many men, if not most, as a straightforward way of subscribing to dominant masculinity.” In his view, the patriarchal system, which privileges a certain set of masculine behaviors, values, and practices, provides men with “a clear and justifiable reason to own guns.” It cements their identity as masculine men.

And for many men today, it’s an identity in particular need of cementing. In this May 2015 op-ed for The Los Angeles Times, sociologist Jennifer Carlson argues that men are clinging to guns as a way to address a broad range of social insecurities. Author of a book on the social practice of gun-carrying in America, Carlson found that gun owners often characterized their fathers’ generation as an era when men had important roles to play as providers and breadwinners.

But men’s participation in the labor force has been declining since the 1970s. As The Economist’s cover story, “The Weaker Sex,” explained earlier in 2015, poorly educated men in rich societies aren’t coping well in the 21st century. Changes in the home and the labor force, especially the loss of manufacturing jobs, have created a class of disgruntled, financially insecure men. Meanwhile, women, who now earn more university degrees than men, are surging into the workforce.

So it isn't simple; it doesn't fit neatly on a bumper sticker; it takes guts and honesty and some real intellectual horsepower to figure out what we can do, but we'll hafta start by insisting the drama pimps like Wayne LaPierre just shut the fuck up long enough to give the adults a chance to think this through.

In the meantime, we can brainstorm on that bumpersticker.

USAmerica Inc

It's about dicks and chicks, dummy

And here's an encore from Jim Jeffries:

Part 1

Part 2

What He Said

This is how I want Obama to do everything.  And maybe it's just me, but it seems like it's only been in the last several months that he's stepping up and calling the opposition out on their bullshit responses to everything he does or says.

Talking about what needs to be done about ISIS in light of the Paris thing:

What I do not do is to take actions either because it is going to work politically or it is going to somehow in the abstract make America look tough. Or make me look tough.

And maybe part of the reason is because every few months I go to Walter Reed and I see a 25 year old kid who is paralyzed or who has lost his limbs and some of those are people I've ordered into battle.

And so I can’t afford to play some of the political games that others may. We’ll do what’s required to keep the American people safe. And I think it’s entirely appropriate in a democracy to have a serious debate about these issues. If folks want to pop off and have opinions about what they think they would do, present a specific plan. If they think that somehow their advisers are better than the chairman of my Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the folks who are actually on the ground, I want to meet them. And we can have that debate.

But what I’m not interested in doing is posing or pursuing some notion of American leadership, or America winning or whatever other slogans they come up with, that has no relationship to what is actually going to work to protect the American people. And to protect people in the region who are getting killed. And to protect our allies in people like France. I’m too busy for that.

And of course the nutballs went straight into Deliberately Misunderstanding mode anyway.

“What I’m not interested in doing is posing or pursuing some notion of ‘American leadership’ or ‘America winning”’ --POTUS

— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) November 16, 2015

BTW - We've spent a good 35 years bitching about shortened attention spans, and shrinking sound bites, and news that has a life cycle of about 48 hours - how worried should I be about the 140-character Tweet becoming the dominant debate vehicle?  

Today's Metaphorical Thingie

And here's a list of schools under federal investigation for mis-handling rape allegations:

• Allegheny College
• American University
• Amherst College
• Arizona State University
• Barnard College
• Berklee College of Music
• Bethany College
• Boston University
• Brown University
• Butte-Glenn Community College District
• California Institute of the Arts
• Canisius College
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Catholic University of America
• Cisco Junior College
• College of William and Mary
• Colorado State University
• Columbia University
• Cornell University
• CUNY Hunter College
• Dartmouth College
• Davis and Elkins College
• Denison University
• Drake University
• Elizabethtown College
• Elmira College
• Emerson College
• Emory University
• Florida State University
• Franklin and Marshall College
• Frostburg State University
• Full Sail University
• Grand Valley State University
• Guilford College
• Hamilton College
• Hampshire College
• Harvard College
• Hobart and William Smith Colleges
• Idaho State University
• Indiana University-Bloomington
• Iowa State University
• James Madison University
• Johns Hopkins University
• Kansas State University
• Knox College
• Langston University
• Marion Military Institute
• Marlboro College
• Michigan State University
• Minot State University
• Missouri University of Science and Technology
• Morgan State University
• New York University School of Medicine
• Northeastern University
• Occidental College
• Oglethorpe University
• Oklahoma State University
• Pace University-New York
• Pennsylvania State University
• Pointe Park University
• Polytechnic Institute of New York University
• Regis University
• Saint John's University
• Saint Mary's College of Maryland
• Saint Thomas Aquinas College
• San Francisco State University
• San Jose-Evergreen Community College District
• Sarah Lawrence College
• Stanford University
• SUNY Buffalo State College
• SUNY College at Brockport
• SUNY Purchase College
• SUNY Stony Brook University
• SUNY University at Albany
• Swarthmore College
• Temple University
• Texas A&M University
• University of Akron
• University of Alaska System of Higher Education
• University of California-Berkeley
• University of California-Davis
• University of California-Los Angeles
• University of California-San Francisco
• University of California-Santa Cruz
• University of Chicago
• University of Colorado-Boulder
• University of Colorado-Denver
• University of Connecticut
• University of Delaware
• University of Denver
• University of Hawaii-Manoa
• University of Idaho
• University of Iowa
• University of Kansas
• University of Kentucky
• University of Massachusetts-Amherst
• University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth
• University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
• University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
• University of Richmond
• University of Rochester
• University of South Florida
• University of Southern California
• University of Texas-Pan American
• University of Tennessee
• University of Tennessee-Chattanooga
• University of Virginia
• University of Washington-Seattle
• University of Wisconsin-Madison
• University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
• Valley Forge Military College
• Valparaiso University
• Vanderbilt University
• Vincennes University
• Virginia Commonwealth University
• Washburn University
• Washington and Lee University
• Washington State University
• West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine
• Western Washington University
• Westminster College
• Whitman College
• Wittenberg University

So yeah - it's a problem.

Happy Day, Nerds

It's Back To The Future Day!

But alas, no flying cars.

Joe Morton Kills It

The Nightly Show
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Stick To The Point

With the moves to get rid of The American Swastika, I'm seeing plenty of the usual nonsense about "context", and (mostly white) people complaining about how mistreated they feel at the hands of the PC Libtard Bullies blah blah fucking blah.  

(Y'know, given all the barnyard shuffle-struttin' these jagoffs do; and all the constant crowing about how macho and manly they think they are, they sure sound like a buncha whiney-butt pussies when somebody finally stands up to 'em) 

But anyway...Ta-Nahisi Coates:

Roof’s belief that black life had no purpose beyond subjugation is “sick and twisted” in the exact same manner as the beliefs of those who created the Confederate flag were “sick and twisted.” The Confederate flag is directly tied to the Confederate cause, and the Confederate cause was white supremacy. This claim is not the result of revisionism. It does not require reading between the lines. It is the plain meaning of the words of those who bore the Confederate flag across history. These words must never be forgotten. Over the next few months the word “heritage” will be repeatedly invoked. It would be derelict to not examine the exact contents of that heritage.

He goes on to post the official policy statements from the official officials of the various official governments of the official Confederacy.

South Carolina:

...A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to be entrusted with the administration of the common Government, because he has declared that that “Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free,” and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction. This sectional combination for the submersion of the Constitution, has been aided in some of the States by elevating to citizenship, persons who, by the supreme law of the land, are incapable of becoming citizens; and their votes have been used to inaugurate a new policy, hostile to the South, and destructive of its beliefs and safety.

Mississippi:

Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery—the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun.

Louisiana:

The people of the slave holding States are bound together by the same necessity and determination to preserve African slavery.

Alabama:

Upon the principles then announced by Mr. Lincoln and his leading friends, we are bound to expect his administration to be conducted. Hence it is, that in high places, among the Republi­can party, the election of Mr. Lincoln is hailed, not simply as it change of Administration, but as the inauguration of new princi­ples, and a new theory of Government, and even as the downfall of slavery. Therefore it is that the election of Mr. Lincoln cannot be regarded otherwise than a solemn declaration, on the part of a great majority of the Northern people, of hostility to the South, her property and her institutions—nothing less than an open declaration of war—for the triumph of this new theory of Government destroys the property of the South...

Texas:

...in this free government all white men are and of right ought to be entitled to equal civil and political rights; that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations; while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring inevitable calamities upon both and desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding states....

Look, guys - if the symbol you choose to embrace and revere today is the same symbol embraced and revered by racist assholes over the last 150 years, then it almost has to mean you're something of a racist asshole too - even when you insist on ignoring the obviously factual connections by cherry-picking the history of what that symbol really meant to the original racist assholes 150 years ago when they started the shit.  

So guess what, Skeezix - you can make up whatever reasons you wanna make up for why you dig that flag, but when somebody points out that it was meant to symbolize something that was all-kinds-of-fucked-up in the first place, you don't get to blow it all off and selectively ignore the facts.  Cuz you're not 14 years old and you're not living in a fucking vacuum where there're no other people.

Nuthin' New

9 dead church-goers.  This makes 14 times the shit got real enough for Obama to address the nation about gun violence.  Over 100,000 gun-related deaths and injuries every year in USAmerica Inc.  And we can't do one fucking thing about it?

What worries me most right now - given the color of the most prominently shown victims' skin lately - is that somebody must already be saying, "Nothing changes until rich white people start dying in large enough numbers".

The conventional wisdom is that Reagan signed gun control legislation when he recognized  the need to placate his white majority Californians who were freaking out because the Black Panthers were walking around "their own" neighborhoods with weapons, and a few had decided to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights with a little open-carry demonstration in Sacramento.  (Some of those good times from the 60s everybody seems so selectively nostalgic for)

Like the man said, history doesn't actually repeat itself, but it sure enough rhymes like a motherfucker.

Today's Chart

Here's a comparison of mandated Paid Maternity Leave and Protected Maternity Leave in 38 "first world" countries. (I'm thinking you won't be surprised)

The article that goes with that chart deals with the trend of a declining birth rate in USAmerica Inc.

New findings from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey reveal that nearly half of women between ages 15-44 were childless in 2014, a 1.1 percent increase from 2012. This is consistent with recent National Center for Health Statistics data showing a six-year decline in U.S. birth rates. The report says America's fertility rates dropped to record lows in 2013 with women ages 15-44 only having 1.86 babies on average. In order to maintain a stable population, the average has to be at least 2.1 children.

Family-Friendly my dyin' ass. This is one of the reasons I find it so hard to resist kicking "conservatives" right in the nuts.

Wanna know why "Millennials" aren't buying into the American Dream?  They're not convinced there's any future in it for them.