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America Editorial The Current Situation The Good Fight

Let the ritual humilation begin!

There’s a good chance you’ve seen this photo by now:

Pictured seated from left to right: Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with House Speaker Mike Johnson standing behind on the right.
Tap to view at full size.

It’s from the Instagram account of the Donald Trump’s second-most-favorite kid (and from all accounts, it’s a distant second), Donald Trump Jr.:

Here’s a close-up of the table. As you’ll notice, it’s all McDonalds food, even for RFK Jr.:

He doesn’t look all that happy about it:

For the benefit of those readers who’ve never seen someone die on the inside, here’s a zoomed-in version of RFK Jr.’s face:

Loyalty tests and ritual humiliation

RFK Jr. famously doesn’t eat processed food, and explained why in a video he posted barely a month ago:

Trump could have easily accommodated RFK Jr.’s dietary preferences: “not junk food.” But he didn’t, for two key reasons.

For starters, he looooves the stuff:

…but the more important reason is that he’s a bully, and bullies generally cycle between two modes with their allies: cruelty and disregard…

…and loyalty tests:

And a bully who has the opportunity combine the two — say by making someone eat something they don’t want to — can’t pass it up. So Trump did just that.

If he’s willing to do that to someone in his own inner circle, wait till you see what he’s got in store for you.

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America funny The Current Situation Uncategorized

U.S. post-election post #7: Don’t worry, it’ll trickle down…

Tap to see the source.

This is yesterday’s daily New Yorker cartoon, created by Brendan Loper.

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America Editorial funny The Current Situation

U.S. post-election post #6: One key election is still undecided…

C’mon, let it not be Asians this time. Last time was pretty bad.

Here’s the video from whence the screenshot above comes:

Categories
America Editorial The Current Situation The Good Fight

U.S. post-election post #5: Come bend the arc with me!

Jon Stewart’s right, and we’ve been here before. Where we are now, I’ve been before — and I’m still around.

And I will remain to be around, fighting the good fight, running the good run, standing for justice, and bringing the accordion-powered “golden retriever energy” that is my stock in trade.

Keep watching this blog!

And in the meantime, here’s where the Jon Stewart quote comes from: the New York Times Podcast episode titled Jon Stewart Looks Back With Sanity and/or Fear, posted last week. Enjoy!

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America Editorial The Current Situation

U.S. post-election post #4: We have to be better

In times of high dudgeon, there’s a tendency to throw integrity out the window. One particularly noteworthy example was the Marn’i Washington, a (now former) manager at FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) who directed government relief workers to not assist people in hurricane-stricken houses with Trump campaign signs.

I’ll make my position clear on this, in case there’s any misunderstanding: As a public servant, you serve the public, and that means everyone.

It was wrong for now-former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis to refuse to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, and it was wrong for Marn’i Washington to declare that Trump voters were not worthy of FEMA aid.

We have to be better than this.

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America The Current Situation

U.S. post-election post #3: Now they’re emboldened

A demonstrator at Texas State University in Austin, Texas on Wednesday, November 6, 2024. Photo by Meg Boles, published in The University Star, Texas State University’s newspaper. Click to see the source.

The thing about people who voted for Trump is that his bigotry — never mind his criminality — wasn’t a dealbreaker for them. In fact, for some people, it was one of his selling points, and now that he’s been elected, they’ve been emboldened.

Demonstrators at Texas State University in Austin, Texas on Wednesday, November 6, 2024, surrounded by students. Photo by Louie Dean Valencia, a professor at Texas State University and posted on X/Twitter. Click to see the source.

Case in point: a couple of demonstrators who went onto the grounds of Texas State University in Austin, Texas, with signs reading “Women are property” and “Your sin of sodomy is worthy of death.”

Demonstrators and counter-demonstrators at Texas State University in Austin, Texas on Wednesday, November 6, 2024, surrounded by students. Photo by Louie Dean Valencia, a professor at Texas State University and posted on X/Twitter. Click to see the source.

To their credit, a counter-protest formed quickly. They were joined by United Campus Ministry Reverend Todd Salmi, who held up two signs reading “Jesus values and respects Texas State women” and “Jesus loves all y’all” to counter the hateful ones the demonstrators were holding up. He remembers that Jesus had harsher words for the Pharisees than for prostitutes.

Louie Dean Valenica, a professor at Texas State, tweeted the two photos above, followed by these posts:

Tweets by Louie Dean Valencia. Click to see the source.

Texas States’s response team was there quickly to help manage the situation.

As an expert on fascism… this is where it starts. Extremists at home who feel emboldened. The ones holding these signs were not part of our Texas State community. They might be outsiders, but they aren’t strangers to those of us who study the radical right.

Then there’s the matter of these racist text messages being sent to Black people:

A racist text message received by Talaya Jones. Click to see the source.

According to The Guardian:

Black people in states including Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, New York, New Jersey, Nevada, the DC area and elsewhere reported receiving the messages. The messages were sent to Black adults and students, including to high schoolers in Massachusetts and New York, and students at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), such as Alabama State University and other schools, including ones across OhioClemson University, the University of Alabama and Missouri State. At least six middle school students in Pennsylvania received the messages, according to the AP.

For more:

Here’s a statement by Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District on the incident:

Click to see the source.

And finally, there’s this dipshit:

I’m not linking to this one. Go search for it, if you must.

None of these people are acting in any official capacity, but they were all emboldened by the election results. And we’ve seen this before — remember when high school students were using Trump’s image and name as racial insults aimed at Latinos at inter-school sports events?

Fans of Andrean High School held up a picture of Trump and shouted chants like “Build a Wall” during a basketball game against Bishop Noll Institute. This is from February 2016, before Trump’s first election. Click to see the source.

This is just the beginning, and this is what we must resist.

I’ll close with this meme from the previous election:

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America Editorial The Current Situation

U.S. post-election post #2: Today’s daily “New Yorker” cartoon

This one’s by Adam Douglas Thompson, and you can view the original here.

Also, I’m pulling this banner image out of mothballs: