Be It Resolved

I've always had a tough time getting straight with some of the minutiae of Church-State Separation.

There's no doubt in my mind about making sure religious dogma is kept out of the law - that the law can only be about what's provably true, and so the magical mystery bunkum has to be put aside. I'm good on all that.

So, kinda cutting to the chase, my last item is taxation. I've been reluctant to advocate in favor of taxing churches because it seemed like an opening for Government to meddle where government doesn't belong.  But I've come to view that thinking as more of a rationalization. It's politically expedient, but mostly commercially prudent for churches to try to "protect" themselves from "government meddling"; it's not really a question of Separation so much as it's a question of a business interest lobbying for exemptions.

A church is a business. We have a reasonable expectation for every person and every business to pay a share of the taxes necessary to maintain a functioning society. If you enjoy the benefits of police and fire protection, and roads and snow plows, and all the other goodies, then you need to throw a few bucks in the hat for it.  Not to be too obvious, church guys, but it's not a lot different than somebody sitting thru the service and getting the "benefits" of your sermonizing, and then not kicking in when you pass the collection plate.

So why not churches?  We require all the other Mumbo-Jumbo Peddlers to pay and to be appropriately regulated.  The palm reader pays taxes. Crystal Gazers pay taxes. The Reiki Master pays taxes. Etc.

When we decide this "religious" organization is exempt from the law, but that one isn't - and we base the decision on the organization's "religious beliefs" - it just seems like we're doing exactly what the 1st amendment says we're not supposed to do.

We should stop doing that.

A More Memorable Bathroom Experience

Today's Tweet

I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.
— Sarah Williams#poetry #writing pic.twitter.com/yAY7JUKxDf

— Novelicious (@noveliciouss) March 19, 2016

Friday Evening

With Curtis Stigers --Real Emotional

Gone But Not Ever Really Gone

From HuffPo:

Tuesday night, during a televised town hall interview on CNN, Stygian homunculus and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was asked if he still planned to honor a pledge he made some months prior, in which he promised to support the eventual GOP nominee. As you might imagine, given Trump’s famous flexibility toward concepts such as “honor” and “promises,” the candidate answered that no, he had no intention of following that pledge’s directive, telling CNN’s Anderson Cooper, “No, I don’t anymore.”

So now, everyone in the political universe is coming to grips with one of the most foreseeable events in the Western hemisphere finally coming to pass — Trump’s explicit abrogation of a contractual obligation he made with Republican National Committee head Reince Priebus. Now, the remaining competitors for the nomination — Ted Cruz and John Kasich — are slowly coming around to the notion that they might want to similarly withdraw their tacit offer of support for a candidate they have long despised. Perhaps the most shocking thing about this is that it’s only now that these men have decided to embark on a spree of thinking for themselves.

But the failure of this pledge should stun nobody. Priebus’ pledge was always a catastrophically dumb idea and its utter collapse was always just a matter of time. It was a bonehead gamble from the outset, tying the hands of the very people it was ostensibly designed to protect, and empowering a serial con artist to run roughshod over the Republican Party. It should end Priebus’ career.

Does anybody really expect anybody to "lose his job" over any of this? As in "clean out your desk and stay the hell away from the GOP"? That is (and should be) the reasonable expectation on the part of every normal person with a living thinking brain - because that's how it works for everybody with a real job - but that's not how it works for an Aristocracy.

Reince Priebus prob'ly won't stay in the Chair for very long after November 8th, but the guy's not gonna be sellin' shoes or baggin' groceries. The Wingnut Welfare System will kick in almost immediately to make sure he doesn't fall too far. He'll write his book, and he'll pop up in all the ususal places as "a contributor", and eventually, he'll land in some sweet little gig that one of the "Think Tanks" has had custom-made just for him - and it'll pay him plenty as long as he spins his work in favor of the Daddy Mega-Bucks Patron du jour.

Our "leaders" keep preaching "Accountability", but it doesn't apply to anyone with the right connections to Money & Power. When I start seeing a few dozen Political Leaders and Press Poodles and Military Brass and Wall Street Bosses (et al) "running onto their swords", then maybe I start to think we're getting back to where we need to be.

Until then, all bets are off.  Anything goes.  Guys like you set the tone, Mr Priebus - the populace isn't behaving in any way that isn't in line with the examples you and your guys put on display almost every day - so go ahead and bitch about "Moochers" and "Free Stuff" and "Lawlessness" and "the degradation of society", etc - but you'd best be looking to yourselves first.  This isn't terribly more complicated than Practice What You Preach - and in case you hadn't noticed, even the rubes are starting to figure it out.

You wanna be counted among the Nobility? (First, no, asshole - we don't do that here).

But yeah OK, Mr Priebus - here's the thing though: nobility carries some big-time baggage, not the least of which is a Code of Honor, and that code requires you to pay a very high price when you fail it.  You've brought shame and dishonor on this country, and on your fellows, and on yourself. You're now expected to pay that price so the rest of us can have a better chance to get back to living in a nation of laws, and not of despots who would place themselves above the law.

Do you get it?  Good.  Now do your duty and fuck off.

The Deepness Of My "Thinking"

One of many vexing questions: Do I move on, looking for another more beautiful place - or do I stay, and work at making this place beautiful again?

Today's Pix

Today's GIF

Today's Tweet

#GOPTownHall Finally this just in. #trump decipher pic.twitter.com/3HeRv53Yqb

— I luv being Teamster (@JimKilbane) March 30, 2016

How Great I Art

About the best thing a blogger can hope for is getting mentioned (and linked to) by people he respects.

Thanks, Crooks & Liars - and special thanks to Tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors

A Small Dose Of Large Reality

Stay together. 

Work Together. 

Get shit done.

Just One Question

On the near-total, and at least borderline dangerous silliness of our GOP-Branded (and ConservaDem) "leaders" who're constantly flogging the Fear-Bishop, may I just ask, "Please, can you let us be a little less stoopid on this whole immigration/terrorism thing?"

I really do understand that an awful lot of Federal Spending is going into the pockets of an awful lot of "Security" contractors, who then turn around and graciously donate big piles of  campaign dollars to your SuperPACs (purely out of the generosity of their souls and their deep abiding sense of patriotism and civic duty, of course) and completely unrelated to the fact that you're pimping the paranoia every fucking day - but c'mon, guys, maybe leadership is about not treating us like we're all stoopid so we can have a better chance to stop acting like were all stoopid. 

Best Guess Last Year

Americans dead because of "terrorism":         30

Americans dead because of "accident": 110,000+ (top 5 preventable causes)

If we actually have people in Congress who really are concerned with spending tax dollars appropriately, and wisely, and with the intention of doing the most with the least, we'd have somebody standing up to tell us to stop losing our shit every time some faithless chickenshit asshole (hiding behind a mask because his 'god' is so great, and his cause is so just, and he's so fucking courageous) - every time that asshole threatens to kill us all with his big scary knife - from 6200 miles away; with a fucking knife.

They preach this phony Gospel of National Security and then pass the collection plate, and it works every time. We all hafta stop doin' that.

Today's Rejection

From the fine folks at Urban Dictionary, on my submission of the word "genitopenia":

Thanks for your definition of genitopenia!
A few volunteer editors read your definition and decided to not publish it. Don't take it personally!
To understand what definitions we publish and reject, check out this blog post: http://blog.urbandictionary.com/post/49469679426
Try rewriting your definition so that it's easier for others to understand, then try again.
Thanks,
Urban Dictionary
-----
genitopenia: (jen' - it - o - pee' - nia)
a deficiency or diminishment of the genitalia; primarily found in the male of the subspecies American Ammosexual.
Usage: "he needs bigger and bigger guns in his attempts to compensate for his advancing genitopenia".

I got vision in a world of myopia.  Guess that makes me too clever for words(?)

Who'da Thunk It?

I really hope there's absolutely nobody in Washington who's surprised by this shit:

Syrian militias armed by different parts of the U.S. war machine have begun to fight each other on the plains between the besieged city of Aleppo and the Turkish border, highlighting how little control U.S. intelligence officers and military planners have over the groups they have financed and trained in the bitter 5-year-old civil war.

The fighting has intensified over the past two months, as CIA-armed units and Pentagon-armed ones have repeatedly shot at each other as they have maneuvered through contested territory on the northern outskirts of Aleppo, U.S. officials and rebel leaders have confirmed.

In mid-February, a CIA-armed militia called Fursan al Haq, or Knights of Righteousness, was run out of the town of Marea, about 20 miles north of Aleppo, by Pentagon-backed Syrian Democratic Forces moving in from Kurdish-controlled areas to the east.

"Any faction that attacks us, regardless from where it gets its support, we will fight it," said Maj. Fares Bayoush, a leader of Fursan al Haq.

This is straight outa some fucked up movie.  And it's the work of an awful lotta people who really do (mostly) know what they're doing.  

Now try to imagine just how bad it gets with Trump or Cruz in the White House, running from one disaster to the next. Thanks anyway, guys.

Today's Observation

...comes from our latest dead celebrity, Garry Shandling.

At about 37:30, talking about what needs to happen to get "things" squared around and working in our favor again:

(The USA) ... "it's an addictive culture bottoming out."


Marc Maron's WTF podcast:

Remembering Garry Shandling: tackling the most complex philosophical question of our day - "What The Fuck"?

Gonna miss Garry Shandling. A lot.

Go, Bernie

Hawaii, Washington and Alaska.  A Bernie sweep.

You could make something of a point - "well, after all, it's the Left Coast, y'know".  Except for that Alaska thing.  Seems there may be a bit of a fly in that sugar bowl.

Alaska isn't exactly a hotbed of Hippie Liberals - even on the Dem side of things (I suspect).  State-wide, they generally elect people from out on the right end of the spectrum, and there's no compelling reason for me to believe there isn't something of a 'Conserva-Dem slant' to Alaska Democrats as well.  Which (to me) should mean that a Neo-Liberal like Hillary ought to have done pretty well, or at least she shoulda done OK.  She didn't - not well, and not OK.  She didn't land one lousy trick all day; and you can point to some Grand Strategy of having to concentrate your efforts and bypass certain states or areas or whatever, but you'd best not be ignoring the simple fact that she got her Butt. Stomped. Straight-up.

Just averaging the percentages of the votes in those 3 states shows Hillary lost 75-25. If you get beat by a 3:1 margin by anybody anywhere at anything, you might have more than a bit of trouble.  And in "your own party"?  

But then, what's up with the apportioning of the delegates? I don't pretend to know how it all works, or how it's supposed to work. And a political party gets to do things the way they wanna do things. But maybe somebody needs to take a long look at the party rules that say a candidate can "win" 40% of the delegates by getting 25% of the votes(?)

You guys are The Democrats.  You know - like democracy and shit?  A bit more of that first part and a lot less of the second, if you please.

Weaving Tweets

Call it a Disney Moment.
If you can't get with that one, just check out now cuz you've lost what it is to be human https://t.co/kL67JGFU1R

— Mike Roberts (@eVilleMike) March 27, 2016

...meanwhile, back in Duloc, things are going pretty much as expected for Lord Farquaad. https://t.co/Sq0oZIoH1w

— Mike Roberts (@eVilleMike) March 27, 2016

Your Easter Card

Throw-Back Easter

With my favorite big brother rockin' those Mom-made Easter shirts - 1959.

And the sisters - Christie and Leslie.  Again with the Mom Couture.

Charlie Gets There

Charlie Pierce, attempting to give a us a look at things to come. 

It is my considered opinion that, as far as the simple process of voting goes, the World's Last Great Democracy couldn't organize a two-car funeral if you spotted it the hearse. The primaries on Tuesday night were an endless carnival of blunders, cock-ups, and general mayhem. This is the first election cycle we've had since John Roberts declared the Day of Jubilee and gutted the Voting Rights Act. These two things are not coincidental. The good folks at the SEIU have done a great job aggregating the various atrocities.

For example, Native Americans, the last Americans to obtain the right to vote, face a staggering array of obstacles. In Alaska, for example, Native villages can be as much as 150 miles from a polling place, and that only by boat or airplane. There is no consistent national policy on whether or not tribal identification cards are recognized under the spate of new voter-ID laws that passed in the wake of the 2007 decision upholding an Indiana law and that became a flood after Roberts and the Court declared the Day of Jubilee seven years later. The isolation of many Native communities often prevents people who are trying to vote from receiving the legal advice they need to protect their right to the franchise. And that is only the most extreme example of the chicanery that is going on.

This election ought to be a landslide that rightfully sweeps away the GOP and shames them out of their stoopid reliance on an Authoritarian and Hypocritical Bait-n-Switch brand of politics. But instead, it promises to be another close one - another great example of the media-generated, ad-revenue-fueled myth of a closely divided nation, sponsored by smart corporate money that wants more tax dollars funneled into their coffers while making sure the Coin-Operated Politicians have the rubes pissed off at anybody but the Rent-Seeking Corporatists.

Here's how I think it's supposed to work. 

People are turning away from the GOP in droves, and probably, while a lot of them intend not to vote at all, a nice big bunch (who would usually vote for them) intend to vote against the Repubs like they did in '92.  If you can keep a significant percentage of them from voting at all, you'll probably still lose, but it'll look really close, and that's what matters now.

And even if you can't keep enough people away from the polls to make a big difference in National or State-Wide races, you can prevent the balance being tipped in the very important "small stuff" races like County Supervisor and DA and State Legislature etc. So if the GOP can keep a handle on that level, then they can go on pretending they have a case to make about "big, far-away government tellin' the little guys what to do yada yada yada".

Remember always that elections get decided by about a dozen votes per precinct. 

The key is maintaining balance between the 2 competing sides. If the Red Group has 49%, and the Blue Group has 49%, that means I can throw in my 2% to support whatever candidate promises me the biggest tax breaks or subsidies or military protection for my investment holdings in FuckedUp-istan, or whatever. This is the old game of Divide And Conquer, but with a heapin' helpin' of Henry Kravitz Corporate Raider thrown in. 

(And don't you dare start thinking we aren't being distracted while certain politicians are working hard to sell everything in this country to the highest bidder and take us back to the glory days of 1750, but that's a slightly different rant - closely related, but that comes after a few more rounds)

Voter Suppression is all about not allowing "the divide" to get so big that the 2% loses its oomph.

But also too, remember that the GOP is very much on the defensive:  

1) makes it all the more dangerous

2) they're just looking to survive to fight another day, and that means: 

3) the Dems have to dominate. They have to win big. And when was the last time they managed that one - and more to the point of my theme here, when was the last time they were allowed to do that?  Hillary seems to be the perfect fit for the occasion - ie: she'll win, but not by enough to upset that delicate and finely-crafted balance.  And that also is a slightly different rant.

And BTW - if you think it looks like a mini-series on network TV, you ain't wrong.  The game is totally reliant on distraction and misdirection, and we've been thoroughly conditioned to  get caught up in the gripping drama of real-life events as they unfold blah blah blah, so that we stay frozen in place, allowing "our betters" to make the important decisions for us while we pretend to be well-informed and involved.

One last wrinkle: those astoundingly shitty Anti-Civil-Rights laws passed recently in Georgia and North Carolina? That's this year's version of The Big Wedge designed to motivate the "Christian Values Voters".  The GOP will likely flack the fuck outa that one, screeching that the valiant "conservatives" are trying to protect Real America from The Homo, and if you don't go vote, then the police will have no choice but to break down your doors and force you to Gay Rape your house pets. You know the drill.

Up on your hind legs, kids. Stay together. Work together. Get shit done.