I Cannot

I keep trying to write about other things, but I cannot. It's not so much what Trump and his buddies in Congress are trying to do to this country; I expected that. It's the people defending the same things they (and Trump) relentlessly criticized Obama and Clinton for doing. 

I fucking hate hypocrisy. 

During the election, a multitude of Trump fans told me that they were mad that Clinton had accepted money from Saudi Arabia (for her foundation), facilitated a weapons deal with Saudi Arabia and sold uranium to Russia.

Trump actually gets paid directly by Saudi Arabia, in addition to registering 8 companies in that nation during the campaign.

Trump has just negotiated the largest arms deal with Saudi Arabia EVER. Now, we've been selling weapons to Saudi Arabia since the 80's, because. . .reasons.  I totally get why one might be against this, but you know, you should be against this NO MATTER WHO WHO IS BROKERING THE DEAL.

Trump gave Russia classified information and has had various aides and associates who have been paid by Russia because we're such great friends with Russia. Except, you know, when the Obama administration sells them things.

During the election, I heard Trump and his fans criticize Obama and Clinton for not saying, "radical Islamic terrorism", as if calling it that would someone protect the US from terrorists. But it's okay for Trump to refrain from using it.  And while I think it was wise of Trump not to use it, I also think it was wise for Obama  to avoid it as well. See how that works? It's called consistency.

And how do you justify praising Melania and Ivanka for not covering their hair in Saudi Arabia but criticize Michelle Obama for the same thing? What's the difference? Do explain in the comments.

While I do post political articles on Facebook pretty regularly, I try to avoid arguing with people over what they post. But it eats at me, especially if what they post is hypocritical or filled with lies.

I see people complaining that methadone is free (which isn't always true), so why isn't chemo free? Gee, I don't know, maybe it's because we have a for profit healthcare system in this country? Which is part of the reason we need so many goddamn methadone clinics in the first place.

I see people whine about liberal snowflakes while they applaud a man who honestly thinks he's more persecuted than JFK Jr. and Nelson Mandela.

I see people whose children require special education services at school - that my taxes pay for, even though my kids don't require those services - bitch and bitch and bitch about having to pay for poor people's health care. Why is your dyslexic kid's right to read more important than a poor kid's right to live? Is it because you "pay taxes" ? Are you really so ignorant that you think poor people don't pay any taxes? 

Trump defenders,  I want you to seriously consider what you would do if Barack Obama had fired James Comey while he was investigating Clinton. I want you to consider how you would feel if  they were investigating the Clinton or Sanders or (2020) Booker campaigns for colluding with Russia. Would you just see the media as out to get someone? Or would you think the Washington Post and the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal might be onto something?

I've had many dear friends over the years with whom I've disagreed politically. I can agree to disagree on many issues, or happily debate without getting offended. But I will not, I cannot, handle someone who screamed about Obama's golf games now defending Trump's many more golf games. "Well, Trump takes calls during games, you know." As if Obama didn't. "Well, Trump's got to check on his businesses, you know." No, he's not supposed to be involved with his businesses at all and he's basically violating the emoluments clause regularly. I cannot get along with someone whose casual racism/misogyny/xenophobia/personality/Fox News addiction/ allows them to believe that whatever Trump does is okay, even if they spent the last 8 years complaining about Obama doing the same things.

Stay in 2013, Jerks

1. Robin Thicke. I don't care that "Blurred Lines" is supposed to be about his wife, it's rape-y and awful and has nothing on Daft Punk's "Get Lucky".
2. Phil Robertson. He doesn't just bother me because he thinks the Bible gives him license to be homophobic. He doesn't just bother me because he thinks 15 year old girls should be married off. He doesn't just bother me because it is supremely racist to believe what he saw from his co-workers in the Jim Crow South means that he understands what it was like to be African-American at that time, or in this one. He bothers me because the people defending him don't understand that free speech doesn't mean there are no consequences for that speech. 
3. Justin Bieber. I just cannot anymore. His biggest story this year was peeing in a bucket. I long for the day when I don't know shit like that. 
4. People whining that Beyonce is not a feminist. Look, dipshits, if she calls herself a feminist and doesn't do things to block equality, she's a fucking feminist. And we're damn lucky to have her. 
5. Furby Boom. Did they calibrate the voice to be the most annoying thing on the fucking planet? And why is the app only available on Apple products? Not that I want all three of them playing it on the same time on their Kindles. 
6. Megyn Kelly. We don't need any more "facts" about the fictional character based on the non-white guy. 
7. Ani DiFranco. I was actually a bit sympathetic to her plight at first. I mean, I wouldn't plan an event at a former slave plantation, but I've certainly had thoughtless moments before. But then she apologized. . .by discussing how much the outcry affected her and how people of color need to get over their bitterness. The equivalent of hitting a pedestrian, then bitching at them for being in the crosswalk. 
8. People who don't believe in science. Frankly, it baffles me that people who don't believe in evolution  are still around. I mean, the Catholic Church - a place where they still won't accept birth control, divorce and female priests - accepts it. 
9. People who go out to restaurants in their pajamas. It's one thing to do the school run in pajamas, it's quite another to make plans to meet a friend for lunch and refuse to get dressed. Put on some damn yoga pants like the rest of us. 
10. Jonathan Franzen. From the sounds of his rants, he'd probably be more comfortable being left in 1913, but this will have to do. I plowed through The Corrections many years ago, and it's a fine novel. But writing one, or even two (I haven't read Freedom) fine novels does not make you the literary king. So quit acting like you're better than every other writer out there. 

Conviction

Please excuse me while I process my feelings about the acquittal in the Trayvon Martin case.

Oh Florida, as much as I love your beaches and your weather, you've made me sick. Though not as much as all the people saying George Zimmerman should have never been brought to trial in the first place. I mean, women who kill their abusive husbands -even though their husbands regularly beat and threaten to kill them - are brought to trial regularly. And go to prison. 

(Want proof? Look at this NPR story. Or this long explanation from the University of Michigan. Or this synopsis from CBS. Or learn about the African-American woman who got 20 years for firing a WARNING SHOT around her abusive husband. In Florida.)

George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin. Obviously, the reasons and justifications have been debated ad nauseum, but I think we can all agree that if women whose husbands beat them and terrorize them and stalk them for years aren't allowed to kill their husbands without going to trial, then George shouldn't get to kill Trayvon without a trial. And it breaks my heart that so many women, whose husbands promised to terrorize them forever, or who threatened to kill them and their children, are in jail for murder but George Zimmerman, who killed a kid walking through his neighborhood, walks free. 

Trayvon Martin was not in George Zimmerman's yard. George Zimmerman was the one who followed Trayvon with a weapon, not the other way around. To me, this is the crux of the argument for manslaughter. If George Zimmerman had left his gun in his truck, or gone back to his truck, none of this would have happened. 

People who drive drunk and kill someone get convicted of manslaughter, or something close to it. You can bet they didn't start out their nights hoping to hit someone with their car. I don't know if we can say the same thing for George, patrolling his neighborhood with a gun and all. I'm not saying he set out to kill someone, exactly, but I think he was a lot more prepared to do it than any drunk driver. 

I heard/read some people say that it wasn't their business to talk about the trial or the crime, because they aren't African-American. As if only people of color should be outraged by this whole mess. As if white people could not possibly care what happened to an African-American teenager; as if it couldn't happen to their kid, it wasn't their problem. 

To them I say, "Fuck you." 

First of all, just because I'm white, it doesn't mean there aren't teenagers of color that I care about, or have cared about. So yeah, this kid could have been someone I knew, could have been someone I cared about. That makes it my business. 

Second of all, injustice is injustice - it upsets me, no matter whether the victim looks like me or not. What happened here was wrong on so many levels - and would have been wrong no matter what color anyone in the situation was. 

Third of all, you have no idea what the future holds. What if your kid is wearing a hoodie and someone thinks s/he's a troublemaker? What if someone things you don't belong in her neighborhood? What if your grandchild is of mixed race? Don't you want the world to be a better place, just in case? 

This is worth 11 minutes. 

Ticked Off Tuesday: Freedom Edition

If you listen to conservatives these days, you hear a lot about freedom. And how the Obama administration is infringing upon it. And I want to ask them, how are you less free now than you were?

Can you still vote?

Marry the person you love? 

Wear what you want to wear?

Buy what you want to buy?

Target shoot?

Hunt? 

Drive what car you want to drive? 

Attend the church the you want? 

Choose which medical procedures to undergo? 

Have Viagra covered by your insurance company?

Get a vasectomy without harassment? 

You see, freedom lovers, some people - some citizens of this very country that you claim to love - are not free to do these things. Gay citizens can't marry the people they love in most states. Female citizens can't wear what they want to wear without fear of harassment (racial if they cover up in a hijab, sexual if they dress however you assume "sluts" dress) or being blamed for their own rapes. Citizens without driver's licenses aren't allowed to vote in some areas. Citizens who don't believe in God have to swear on a Bible in court, see "God" on their money and hear it in their pledge of allegiance. Citizens who need birth control pills, which aren't even always for birth control, can't get them because of their insurance company or because they don't live near a Planned Parenthood. I could go on, but I'm hoping you get my point. 

You don't really give a shit about freedom, do you? You like to yell that Obama's a tyrant, but what you're really pissed off about is that he wants EVERYONE to feel free, not just you. 

You want to be free from things that make you uncomfortable, be they gay families, loud women, sexually empowered women, atheists, people of color who don't sound just like you and who knows what else. 

You love to talk about our Founding Fathers and what they wanted for this country. None of them could see into the future, so it's pretty hard to strictly interpret their intentions in a world with electricity, cars, the internet, nuclear weapons and Lena Dunham. 

One thing, though, that you need to remember about our Founding Fathers is that they were revolutionaries. Actual revolutionaries. Extraordinarily progressive for their time. 

Do you think they would have wanted the country to go backwards? Or stay exactly the same? Really? 

They talked this being a Christian nation because they literally didn't know anyone who wasn't a Christian. Can you say the same? 

They talked about (white) men being created equal because that was a COMPLETELY RADICAL notion at the time - it doesn't mean they meant for the country to stay for white men only. 

You hate the changes in our country and want to run to Glenn Beck's fortified town in Idaho? Go ahead. But don't pretend the Founding Fathers would have been proud of you, or that you're standing up for freedom in your walled city where the citizens are required to be armed.