Some Dots For Connecting

Golf pro Lee Trevino said:

"If you're caught on a golf course during a storm and are afraid of lightning, hold up a 1-iron. Not even God can hit a 1-iron."

Even when he says shit like that, Franklin Graham is never seen holding a 1-iron.

In light of that simple truth, there can be no god.

Today's Tweet

It's not possible to overstate how stupid it sounds when the Undisputed Champions of Hypocrisy & Intolerance try to turn that shit around. 

pic.twitter.com/guNPhl0aCl

— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) July 1, 2018

The Othering Of LatinX

Trying to dispel some of the myths regarding MS-13.

(spoiler alert: 45* gets it wrong)

Jose Miguel Cruz, WaPo:

The Trump administration’s campaign against immigration conflates the flow of undocumented immigrants from Central America with the growth of MS-13 — the brutal transnational street gang. The president and the attorney general frequently say that stopping the former means stopping the latter. Information about the four-decade-old gang, formally named Mara Salvatrucha, is scarce, but we know enough to dispel some of the misconceptions that have grown up around it.

(here are the big 5 lies)

1. MS-13 was created by Salvadoran ex-guerrillas.
2. MS-13 is well-organized and controlled from El Salvador.
3. Illegal immigrants are coming to the U.S. to expand the gang's reach.
4. To combat MS-13, stop immigration from Central America.
5. MS-13 is a threat to communities all over America.

As always, there's nothing that says we should simply ignore the threat of gangs and the violence that gangs always bring with them.

Also always, we should never buy into the bullshit rhetoric of a Daddy State dick like Donald Trump.

Those Wacky Canadians

Amy Wang, reporting at WaPo:

Like a Charlie Chaplin film, modern-day surveillance videos can unspool a story without making a sound.

And in the case of an attempted criminal activity at a convenience store in Canada, footage from that incident tells . . . quite the tale.

I especially liked the part at the beginning when the guy tries to make his escape by shoving his girlfriend at the cop. Quite the gentleman.

Today's Pix

click to embiggen

Today's Tweet

You don't have to follow orders
No more torture at our borders

'We have no moral right to be comfortable when the price of our comfort is injustice.' — This man decided he'd rather quit his government job than pass information to ICE #FamiliesBelongTogetherMarch pic.twitter.com/0d6ptRNWij

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) June 30, 2018

Today's Quote(s)

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”

― Samuel Adams

- and -

“If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.”

― Samuel Adams

There's No Tea Party

...never was - that was the GOP rebranded.

And there's no Tea Party Of The Left - because there's no fucking Tea Party.

It is not the responsibility of "the left" to help the Obama-to-Trump voters get their shit straight and find their way home.

"No - grow the fuck up and vote like an adult human being."

Some goodly quotables this week from ProLeftPod

The Professional Left

Hit the GoFundMe thingie

Today's Tweet

I'd make one small change and call it "Presumed but Counterfeit Herd Immunity".

But yeah - that's pretty much it.

Political herd immunity has nearly killed American democracyhttps://t.co/EWll9JCBoc@frangeladuo @StephMillerShow pic.twitter.com/2muZSK8Joq

— driftglass (@Mr_Electrico) June 29, 2018

Service

You don't have to wear a uniform and carry a gun to serve your country.

In case you were wondering what that occasionally looks like, here's the front page of The Capital Gazette (Annapolis, MD) the morning after some asshole with a gun and a grudge murdered 5 people because he felt aggrieved, and blamed the newspaper for his troubles.

Fuck yeah they published the next day. The bad shit people do to each other never takes a day off - so the news can't take a day either. Way to go, guys.

I bitch a lot about Press Poodles. I'm not sorry for most of that - sometimes I show my love by poking you with a stick - but that's got nothing to do with what happened yesterday in Annapolis.

Every day we get a new batch of horrors. It's not unreasonable to attribute some of them directly to Cult45, while others have a more tenuous connection.

Sometimes though, out of these horrors, we get a new hero.

Selene San Felice (Capital Gazette survivor) is that hero. Because the truth must be spoken.