What We're Up Against

The Daddy State will simply change history when it suits them.

The Hill:

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro said he wasn’t aware of “a single major Republican figure” that made claims of former President Obama being an illegitimate president, seemingly ignoring President Trump’s repeated assertions that Obama was not born in the U.S.

“Republicans impeached Bill Clinton in the 1990s, they never made a move to impeach Barack Obama despite the myriad of scandals that cropped up during his administration,” Shapiro said in a video clip reported Monday by The Daily Beast.

Shapiro did not elaborate on the “myriad of scandals” he is referencing.

“I’m not aware of a single major Republican figure who said Barack Obama is not the president of the United States," he added.

Trump help spur the "birtherism" conspiracy theory before he entered politics with unfounded accusations that Obama was not born in the U.S. He was among the most prominent figures to call on Obama to produce his birth certificate, not typically asked of presidential candidates, when he discussed a possible 2012 presidential run.

Trump finally admitted the fact that the then-president was born in the U.S. in September 2016, without apologizing or explaining the change in his beliefs.

Other prominent Republicans backed the conspiracy theory, including Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), who campaigned in 2012 saying he wanted to send Obama “home to Kenya.”

Obama was born in Hawaii.

Water

Companies "producing" bottled water, don't actually produce anything.

They buy plastic bottles and packaging machinery, then they practically steal the water from us, fill the bottles and sell 'em to us for a buck and a half each.

And they're making a fucking fortune at it.

In the meantime, with our ridiculous system of legalized bribery in government, the quality of the drinking water we get form our municipal systems gets worse and worse.

This is not mere coincidence.

Today's Homework

Our assignment for today is to plant the seeds in our brains that help us discern some of the truth about Manufactured Consent and the bullshit of what passes for Popular Opinion, General Consensus, etc.

Fun fact - as many as 60% of all Twitter accounts are phony.

UnHackTheVote:

Show 'em some love

Some History

Driftglass and Blue Gal remind us all the time that a liberal's super power is a functioning memory - which is aided greatly by healthy doses of skepticism and curiosity.

Homestead Act(s):

The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead. In all, more than 160 million acres (650 thousand km2; 250 thousand sq mi) of public land, or nearly 10 percent of the total area of the United States, was given away free to 1.6 million homesteaders; most of the homesteads were west of the Mississippi River.

An extension of the homestead principle in law, the Homestead Acts were an expression of the Free Soil policy of Northerners who wanted individual farmers to own and operate their own farms, as opposed to Southern slave-owners who wanted to buy up large tracts of land and use slave labor, thereby shutting out free white farmers.

The first of the acts, the Homestead Act of 1862, opened up millions of acres. Any adult who had never taken up arms against the Federal government of the United States could apply. Women and immigrants who had applied for citizenship were eligible. The 1866 Act explicitly included black Americans and encouraged them to participate, but rampant discrimination, systemic barriers and bureaucratic inertia slowed black gains. Historian Michael Lanza argues that while the 1866 law pack was not as beneficial as it might have been, it was part of the reason that by 1900 one fourth of all Southern black farmers owned their own farms.

Several additional laws were enacted in the latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Southern Homestead Act of 1866 sought to address land ownership inequalities in the south during Reconstruction. The Timber Culture Act of 1873 granted land to a claimant who was required to plant trees—the tract could be added to an existing homestead claim and had no residency requirement.

The Kinkaid Amendment of 1904 granted a full section—640 acres (260 ha)–to new homesteaders settling in western Nebraska. An amendment to the Homestead Act of 1862, the Enlarged Homestead Act, was passed in 1909 and doubled the allotted acreage from 160 to 320 acres (65 to 129 ha). Another amended act, the national Stock-Raising Homestead Act, was passed in 1916 and again increased the land involved, this time to 640 acres (260 ha).

I grew up on the plains of Colorado, and I don't remember a time when I was unaware of the simple fact that with very few exceptions, my grandparents and my immigrant great-grandparents were dirt farmers whose families staked claims under Mr Lincoln's Homestead Act.

We had songs and everything:

So it makes me a little extra nutty when I hear the MAGA rubes spoutin' off about their rugged individualism and how those dirty socialists are just lookin' to turn us all into a buncha moochers and blah blah blah. I fucking hate that shit.

I'm not saying we had nothing to do with building our lives and doing good things for ourselves, but we have to get back to where we can acknowledge that we stand on the shoulders of giants.

I didn't earn my birthright. I had nothing to do with being born into white middle class suburbia. I didn't earn my way into mostly brand new public schools. I didn't make any of the mortgage payments on my parents' houses.

And on and on and on.

We have to get the fuck over ourselves, and start understanding that cooperation and collaboration - and yes, the collective efforts of all of us - are not just important, but essential to our survival.

Today's Tweet

Fuck you
Fuck you
Fuck you
...
You're cool, doggo.
...
Fuck you
Fuck you

VIDEO: This man does not like the Proud Boys. #PortlandProtest (video from Tim Gordon) pic.twitter.com/XTFe87CKe5

— DMM News (@corp_main) August 17, 2019

Now that's my kinda civil war.

Today's Pix

click

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Oops

And here we see the lord moving in mysterious ways.

The Fix Is In

1. Create conditions that make people dependent on government largesse
2. Gradually eliminate the means to effect change in the government
3. Be sure to give people "cover" - ie: Scapegoats - so they can continue to "vote" against the "unworthy other" and in favor of those who hand out the goodies to the "real Americans".

Many of the rubes are convinced they're being patriotic, and making noble sacrifices in keeping with the traditions of service to their country.

This is the treachery and the insidiousness of creeping authoritarianism. It gradually poisons democracy while preaching to the mob that they're drinking a magic elixir, guaranteed to cure all their ills.

A Difference

You're afraid we'll take away your guns.

We're afraid your guns will take away our kids.

We've never even tried to take away your guns.

Your guns take away some of our kids every day.

Whose fears are unfounded?

Which of us is on the wrong side?

via @MyDaughtersArmy

RIP

Peter Fonda: February 23, 1940 – August 16, 2019

I stole $10 from the money I'd raised for student council selling lapel buttons and window decals to take my girlfriend to see Easy Rider in 1969.

That was the beginning of my thankfully short career as a crooked politician.

And it's not for nothing - when I bitch about official corruption and Coin-Operated politicians, I know what the fuck I'm talkin' about, kids.