MAKE AMERICA GAY AGAIN!
Greetings, fellow Dot Calm Readers, Freedom Righters, and Truth Crusaders!
It is with anger and grief that I write today.
Yesterday, 50 of our LGBTQ brothers and sisters were massacred and another 53 injured...executed... mowed down like weeds...in Orlando, Florida--the Gunshine State where George Zimmerman had free rein to stalk and gun down the unarmed teenage Trayvon Martin, whose only crimes were buying iced tea and Skittles, wearing a suspicious hoodie, and, of course, being Black (because we all know that melanin in the skin makes the entire person a lethal weapon...but I digress).
As Dot Calm would say, Wayne LaPierre must be having one phuque of an orgasm right now from all that gun-spilled blood. I figure that the orgasm from a massacre of this magnitude must've put LaPierre in a coma.
And then there is teh Dumbald Drumpf, capitalizing on the massacre to be as ignorant and offensive as he can possibly be...and his little minions are lapping it up. More on moron later.
Of course, America is too stoopit to learn from its own or anyone else's mistakes. We refuse even more strenuously to learn from what others get right--especially godless unwashed Europe and Canuckistan to the north. But seriously--what gives? Aren't Repubes supposed to be pro-life?
OK, so I understand that the NRA has given guns the Constitutional right to be carried around like pampered vanity dogs in celebutantes' designer handbags by ammosexuals of every size and shape. That genie is hella hard to cork back into its bottle--Americans get high from the smell of blood, and they're not going to kick that addiction without a (gun)fight. In America, guns have more rights than their victims.
On "Democracy Now!" this morning, I heard a witness describe the scene at the Pulse nightclub during the shooting. He said that he heard rapid fire, making a rolling-r sound to illustrate...
r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r...
then he described hearing the shooter remove the spent magazine, put in another, empty it into the crowd, replace that magazine with another, and empty it into the crowd.
Three magazines of ammo spent in as many minutes.
Can you imagine what it must've been like in that club? The sounds, the smells, the sheer fleeing panic with nowhere to run, texting your beloved mom to tell her you love her and to beg her to call the police, knowing you'd never see her or any other of your loved ones again...
According to the "DN!" report, the weapon was an AR-15-style assault weapon, purchased legally, roughly a week before the shooting. Just like the AR-15-style assault weapons used in the last, oh, four or five mass shootings.
"DN!" spent the entire hour today on the Orlando massacre (linked below).
I was listening to Pacifica Radio on the way home from work this evening. The evening host had on a guest speaker who addressed how organizations on both the left and the right have worked their way through the states to obtain national rights they felt were guaranteed in the Constitution, thus normalizing concepts like carrying guns and marriage equality at the state level, piece by piece, until SCOTUS had no choice but to sign on. Interesting stuff. One remark the guest made caught my attention: you can't really ban "assault weapons" because that's tantamount to banning all guns. Here's what he means. Pretty much any gun you buy here any more is semi-automatic, meaning that the weapon loads the next bullet as soon as you pull the trigger to discharge the bullet that's already in the chamber. The "style" of the weapon doesn't make any difference because manufacturers just change the styles until they can get around the ban.
To me, though, no matter what the NRA calls them, assault weapons are designed to slaughter as many people as possible as quickly as possible. They are not hunting rifles...unless you like to load up your venison with enough lead to cut it clean in half while it's still on the hoof.
So, then, what's the solution? If you insist on letting the ammosexuals keep their widdle gun-guns, then why not limit access to ammo? What's wrong with banning high-capacity magazines and limiting the number of magazines one can purchase?
Yeah, yeah, that would be really difficult to enforce.
So why not regulate guns and ammo the way the Swiss do? Here's an excerpt from the BBC article in the link:
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All healthy Swiss men aged between 18 and 34 are obliged to do military service and all are issued with assault rifles or pistols which they are supposed to keep at home.
Twenty years ago the Swiss militia was a sizeable force of around 600,000 soldiers. Today it is only a third of that size but until recently most former soldiers used to keep their guns after they had completed their military duties, leading to lots of weapons being stored in the attics or cupboards of private Swiss households.
In 2006, the champion Swiss skier Corrinne Rey-Bellet and her brother were murdered by Corinne's estranged husband, who shot them with his old militia rifle before killing himself.
Since that incident, gun laws concerning army weapons have tightened. Although it is still possible for a former soldier to buy his firearm after he finishes military service, he must provide a justification for keeping the weapon and apply for a permit.
When I meet Mathias, a PhD student and serving officer, at his apartment in a snowy suburb of Zurich, I realise the rules have got stricter than I imagined. Mathias keeps his army pistol in the guest room of his home, in a desk drawer hidden under the printer paper. It is a condition of the interview that I don't give his surname or hint at his address.
"I do as the army advises and I keep the barrel separately from my pistol," he explains seriously. "I keep the barrel in the basement so if anyone breaks into my apartment and finds the gun, it's useless to them."
He shakes out the gun holster. "And we don't get bullets any more," he adds. "The Army doesn't give ammunition now--it's all kept in a central arsenal." This measure was introduced by Switzerland's Federal Council in 2007.
How to buy a gun in Switzerland
- Heavy machine guns and automatic weapons are banned, as are silencers
- In most cases the buyer needs a weapon acquisition permit, issued by the cantonal police
- This will be refused if the applicant has a criminal record, an addiction or a psychiatric problem
- A special permit is needed to carry a gun in public - and is usually issued only to people who work in security, once they have passed theoretical and practical exams
- Twenty-six thousand guns were sold legally in Switzerland in 2012 to sportsmen, hunters and collectors
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Seriously--someone please tell me what would be so phuqen wrong with that. I can hear it now: "We could NEVER do that--it would make too much sense!"
*sigh*
So that's the gun issue sorted...not.
What about the shooter, Omar Mateen?
According to his ex-wife, whom he abused enough to provoke her to leave the marriage, Omar was Muslim but not particularly religious. And he was clearly disturbed--as all abusers are (assuming their victims realize and admit it).
According to his father, Omar became enraged at seeing two men kissing and touching each other affectionately in Miami.
My take on it is that Omar Mateen was neither recruited by nor a true follower of ISIS. I think he was just using ISIS to legitimize his actions. He name-dropped the infamous terrorist organization to give his story heft...to make himself more prominent and more permanent than he was alone...and to make himself feel noble, like a hero, thus absolving himself from committing such an enormous atrocity.
I think that, at some level, he must have had at least some fundamentalist leanings in addition to whatever mental instability he suffered. Otherwise, why become enraged at gays?
And here's my take on fundamentalism and mental instability: fundamentalist religions like evangelical Christianity and Islam both attract and create mental instability.
In other words, if you are already mentally unstable and want an excuse to murder innocents, you will be attracted to joining one of these swarms of angry bees because their doctrines tell you in no uncertain terms that the victims deserve their fate...
Leviticus 20:13 (KJV)
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
Quran (7:80-84)
...For ye practice your lusts on men in preference to women: ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds.... And we rained down on them a shower (of brimstone)
The Hadith, which are collected saying of Mohammed, also address homosexuality as an abomination. There are several lesser hadith stating, "if a man comes upon a man, then they are both adulterers," "If a woman comes upon a woman, they are both Adulteresses," "When a man mounts another man, the throne of God shakes," and "Kill the one that is doing it and also kill the one that it is being done to."
Abu Dawud (4462)
The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, "Whoever you find doing the action of the people of Loot, execute the one who does it and the one to whom it is done."
Abu Dawud (4448)
"If a man who is not married is seized committing sodomy, he will be stoned to death." (Note the implicit approval of sodomizing one's wife)
Bukhari (72:774)
"The Prophet cursed effeminate men (those men who are in the similitude (assume the manners of women) and those women who assume the manners of men, and he said, 'Turn them out of your houses .' The Prophet turned out such-and-such man, and 'Umar turned out such-and-such woman."
al-Tirmidhi, Sunan 1:152
[Muhammad said] "Whoever is found conducting himself in the manner of the people of Lot, kill the doer and the receiver."
...and, if you are not mentally unstable before joining a fundamentalist religion, that religion will draw it out of you. These religions, where abuse is institutionalized and woven into the warp and weft, deprive adherents of critical thinking skills and rational thought. They exhort their adherents to believe the unbelievable--mythical tales for which there is no evidence--under threat of pain in the here and now as well as eternal torture in the hereafter. They victimize their followers with psychological and physical abuse; in turn, to regain their own sense of power and identity, those victims retaliate on those weaker than themselves--hence, church leaders abuse and bully the men, who in turn abuse and bully the women, who in turn abuse and bully the children, who in turn abuse and bully each other, animals, insects.... Buying into the fairy tales and miracle stories engenders the magical thinking that religious adherents cling to to escape the daily horrors of their lot by fantasizing their rescue and the punishment of their abusers.
And the cycle repeats with the indoctrination of each new generation.
I know a lot of people who see no harm in religion as long as believers keep it to themselves and don't try to force their beliefs on others, dictate others' behavior, or teach mythology in lieu of science in the classroom. I understand that, but I disagree. If we give religion a pass because some of its followers do the right thing for the wrong reason, then where does that leave us when people like Omar Mateen do the wrong thing for the wrong reason?
If you're going to overlook the first, then you're stuck with the second.
To me, that is unacceptable.
People who need to be rewarded with mansions in heaven or 72 eternal virgins--or the threat of eternal torture--in order to do good are NOT good people. They are evil--pure and simple.
If you can't do good for goodness's sake...if you can't do right because it is right and avoid doing wrong because it hurts other people, who, deep down, are just like you...then YOU have a problem. And you need counseling, not religion.
Speaking of evil people in need of counseling...that reminds me of Donald Trump. Slate has some excellent articles about his reaction to the Orlando massacre today. Did you know that Trump's reaction to the shooting plays right into ISIS's hands? Yup--Trump's hardline hate speech may snatch defeat from the jaws of victory for those fighting against ISIS. Do read the linked article--it's well worth your time.
Another piece of evil-people-needing-counseling irony is the more mainstream Republican reaction to the Orlando massacre. Slate's headline will make you pucker: "Republicans Are Erasing LGBTQ People From Their Own Tragedy." In other words, the same Republicans who've been screeching at us that gays are pedophiles and rapists and child molesters who have no place in civilized society are crying alligator tears that so many have been wounded and killed.
What a bunch of phuquen hypocrites.
I bet that, if it weren't an election year, Rubio and the rest of the repukes would have been celebrating the massacre with Westboro Baptist Church, screeching that teh gayz had it coming because Leviticus.
And you wonder why I drink....
Don't forget to read Dot Calm's shadow's favorite independent sources of news and information:
Daily Kos
AlterNet
Democracy Now!
Slate
Vox
Conservatives are Destroying our Future
Conservative Clown Car
Americans Against the Republican Party
Americans Against the Tea Party
...And, whatever you do, please keep supporting Bernie's "revolution"--back to the center. Send him a buck o' five if you can. At the very least, I'm gonna send $15 to Debbie Wasserman Schultz's Democratic primary opponent, Tim Canova, on Bernie's behalf. That woman needs to GO!
Thanks for reading, and thanks for being good to yourself and your loved ones. Hug or call an LGBTQ friend today, please--I sure will.
With condolences for the victims in Orlando and their families and in solidarity with LGBTQ around the world, I remain
- Dot Calm's shadow
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MAKE
AMERICA
GAY
AGAIN
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Mailbag
From CREDO and Daily Kos--Republicans move heaven and earth to DENY women's rights, so it's time for them to do SOMETHING on REAL gun control
Sign the petition from CREDO and Daily Kos telling Republicans in Congress: “Thoughts and prayers” are not enough. We need real gun control.
When Republicans disagree with advances in women’s rights, LGBT rights, or civil rights, they don’t just offer their thoughts and prayers, they push legislation. In just the last year, Republicans in Congress and in state legislatures across the country have worked to make abortion impossible to access, to discriminate against LGBT people, and to take away voting rights. At the same time, they have aggressively pushed the NRA’s agenda to weaken gun laws, from campus carry to permitless carry to stand your ground.
In 2014 alone, the gun lobby spent over $30 million on political advertising and lobbying to influence legislators in Congress and state capitals across the country. If Republicans really want to protect Americans, they need to break their blind allegiance to the NRA and pass gun control legislation.
If all Republicans can offer after this weekend’s massacre are their thoughts and prayers, or misguided scapegoating of Muslim communities that plays into their base’s racism and xenophobia, that speaks volumes. It shows that current Republican leaders in Congress lack the care, or courage, to act.
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The following sponsored email was sent to you by AlterNet on behalf of CREDO Action--"thoughts and prayers" are not enough!
Gun control now: Congress must ban assault weapons
Tell Republicans in Congress:
"It's time to put your constituents before the NRA. Bring a real gun control legislation package, which includes a ban on assault weapons, to the floor of the House and the Senate."
 |
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50 people were shot and killed, and 50 more injured, at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida yesterday. Automatically add your name to a condolence message >>
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From Consumer Watchdog--help stop opioid abuse
Prince’s death inspired us to light the world in purple and dance in the streets to honor a musical icon. Will his overdose on the powerful painkiller fentanyl trigger legislative action to stop the purple pain and stem the opioid overdose epidemic?
Please help us stop the purple pain. Ask California lawmakers to approve a bill on Tuesday that would reverse opioid overprescribing.
Prince was in pain after hip surgery and a career of high-heeled onstage acrobatics. A week before his death Prince’s plane emergency-landed in Illinois so he could receive a shot of an overdose-reversal medication. The presence of a well-known addiction specialist’s son in his home the morning he was found indicates he was seeking treatment for opioid addiction.
It is a story that is all too common.
Kristin Greene, of San Diego, California, was prescribed painkillers and other medications for severe migraines and post-partum depression. She committed suicide by overdosing on prescription narcotics. After Kristin’s death, 60 prescriptions, including sedatives, anti-anxiety medicines and narcotics, written by nine different medical professionals in the previous five years were found in her room.
Send an email today to help prevent this tragedy from happening to another family.
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From Change.org--real solutions for Orlando after the slaughter
Over the weekend, our nation saw the deadliest mass shooting in its history. If you are looking for ways to take action in the wake of the violent attacks in Orlando, you can add your signature to one of the petitions below. 1. Enact stricter weapon legislation in the City of Orlando. Orlando resident Dylan Wolstencroft started this petition after news broke on Sunday of the violent attack at Pulse nightclub. “Following the two back-to-back shootings which occurred in Orlando, Florida, one of which has now become the biggest and deadliest mass shooting in the nation's history, there is no question that there needs to be stricter weapon regulation in The City Beautiful,” Dylan writes. He’s petitioning Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer to help enact tighter gun violence legislation in his hometown. 2. Lift the ban on gun violence research. Sarah Clements’ mother taught second grade at Sandy Hook Elementary School when six of her colleagues and 20 first graders were killed by a gunman in 2012. Since then, Sarah has fought for Congress to end a ban on research into gun violence by the Centers for Disease Control. “An average of 32 people are killed by a gun in America every day, and yet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) can’t even conduct research into the root causes of all forms of gun violence,” Sarah writes. Her petition has more than 170,000 signers and continues to gain traction in the wake of another mass shooting. 3. Improve background checks to reduce gun violence. In October of last year, a mass shooting happened in Oregon at Umpqua Community College. Since then, the group Students UNITE has been petitioning Congress to fortify a national background check system to prevent assault weapons from falling into the wrong hands. “Everyone is affected by these mass shootings. Whether you are black, white, Latino, Asian American, Indian American, the failure of Congress to pass legislation on simple gun control laws will eventually affect all of us. For some people, it already has.” the student wrote. The petition now has more than 100,000 signers. 4. Stop discriminating and screen male blood donors equally. Currently, many gay men are unable to donate blood to local blood banks, even in times of disaster and emergency like in Orlando this past weekend. Groups like GLAAD have been pushing the FDA to change this rule, so that there can be fairness in our blood donation system and so that communities can guarantee an adequate level of blood for crises. 5. Urge President Obama to create a national monument for Stonewall. In the wake of the Orlando shootings, which happened in the heart of June – pride month for millions of LGBT people and allies – more than 14,000 people are calling on the federal government to take a stand and recognize one of the earliest symbols of LGBT rights as a national monument. On the day of the shooting, thousands of people gathered at Stonewall Park to stand in solidarity with those in Orlando. |
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Please sign new petition against Ellen Lacter associate
The Satanic Temple
Jun 13, 2016 — With
your help, we've compelled the State of California to open an
investigation into Ellen Lacter's competence and mental state. Now we
need your help bringing another licensed witch-hunter under scrutiny
Please sign this new petition to bring the licensure of Counselor Neil
Brick under review.
Ellen Lacter is hardly alone, as a licensed mental health professional, in her bizarre beliefs regarding Satanic cult conspiracies, and Illuminati mind-control plots. Neil Brick, a licensed Counselor in MA, runs annual "Ritual Abuse/Mind-Control" conferences where the types of delusions that led Gigi Jordan to murder her own 8-year old son are presented with a veneer of professional sanction.
As noted in the petition:
"Neil Brick claims to believe that he was brainwashed to be an assassin for the Illuminati/Freemasons.
Neil Brick claims that, as part of his brainwashing by the Illuminati/Masonic conspiracy, he was programmed to rape and kill “without feeling.”
Neil Brick claims that he once murdered a man in an unreported incident in Europe.
Neil Brick holds regular conferences wherein his delusional beliefs are propagated to Mental Health consumers by he and his co-conspiracists.
At a recent conference (May 2016), Neil Brick expressed concern that attendees could “trigger” mind-control programming by touching their faces. Neil Brick imposed a prohibition against face-touching and asked that people sit on their hands. (Keep in mind, this is a man who claims that his own mind-control programming impels him to rape and kill. The implication is clear.)
Neil Brick continues to propagate debunked and disregarded narratives of concealed occult crimes from the height of the “Satanic Panic.”
Neil Brick demonstrates a complete lack of understanding regarding cognitive/behavioral development, claiming to believe that Masons and/or Satanic cults torture fetuses so as to begin mind-controlling them at the earliest possible stage."
Clearly, anybody holding such radically implausible, paranoid views poses a potential danger to the mentally vulnerable if acting as an authoritative arbiter of truth claims in a therapeutic setting.
Please read, sign, and SHARE this new petition.
Thank you for your support.
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| Gun control now: Congress must ban assault weapons | |
| Tell Republicans in Congress:
“It’s time to put your constituents before the NRA. Bring a real gun control legislation package, which includes a ban on assault weapons, to the floor of the House and the Senate.”
Add your name:
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PRIDE
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Democracy Now!
Stories |
For
over a decade, the Pulse nightclub in Orlando was a popular destination
for the LGBT community in central Florida. It was opened in 2004 by
Barbara Poma to ... Read More →
|
Authorities
have identified the Orlando gunman as 29-year-old Omar Mateen. He was
born in 1986 in New York to Afghan parents. Since 2007 Mateen had worked
as a ... Read More →
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As
the United States struggles to make sense of yet another mass shooting,
we look at one country that fought to change the culture of gun
violence and won. In April of ... Read More →
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In a tweet that went viral after Sunday's
attack on an LGBT nightclub in Florida, ACLU staff attorney Chase
Strangio wrote: "The Christian Right has introduced 200 anti-LGBT ... Read More →
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Vigils
are being held across the country following what has been described as
the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history and the deadliest
attack ever on the LGBT ... Read More →
|
In
the wake of the deadly shooting at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, we
speak with Florida Democratic State Senator Geraldine Thompson, who
represents the district where the ... Read More →
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Leviticus 20:13
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
Why does my Tea Party Christian friend,
who claims to be a Bible literalist,
think the Orlando mass-murder of gays is wrong?
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
Why does my Tea Party Christian friend,
who claims to be a Bible literalist,
think the Orlando mass-murder of gays is wrong?
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Daily Kos
Cartoon: The Trump vision of America
When hippies roamed the earth
Add your name to stand with Hillary: Stop Donald Trump in his tracks. sponsored
A black man and a white woman switch mics, and the result is amazing
Breathtaking photos of the human species
Cartoon: Conservatives cure the Zika virus
Cartoon: Radical cleric vs. Trump
Sign if you agree with NARAL: Time to end the special committee attacking women’s health. sponsored
Cartoon: The real threat
Cartoon: The American Meme Cartoon: R.I.P. ALI
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LOUD & PROUD
Je suis LBGTQ...et tu?
Ashamed someone might think
you're something you're not?
Fuggedaboudit--be a Friend!
Solidarity counts!
Je suis LBGTQ...et tu?
Ashamed someone might think
you're something you're not?
Fuggedaboudit--be a Friend!
Solidarity counts!
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AlterNet
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LOVE
> HATE
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Movies
Since these were already in my queue to post, I'll have videos for the Orlando bloodbath next time.
I gno I just ran this, but I'm running it again ICYMI
Trump's finances, taxes, and lawsuits.
Holy phuque--Trump makes LESS THAN $500k per YEAR?!?? No wonder he doesn't pay his workers, contractors, attorneys, etc. etc. etc...!
I'm sure I had some comment to go along with this video...the Orlando massacre seems to have knocked it clean outta my haid.
The FBI foiled a terror plot...but which was the intended terrorist: the nice clean cut Tennessean or the Muslim cleric?
James Dobson is a terrorist, too--the sick phuque
I'm making friends with Samantha Bee...
Brock Turner and rich white privilege
Elizabeth Warren explains her Hillary endorsement. She's passionate, but you'll notice that she never mentions Hillary as being part of the solution--only that Dems are the solution and Repubes are the problem. Maybe not only does Lioness Liz wanna be Veep so she can moderate Hillary if Hillary does take the White House, but maybe she's also waiting in the wings to swoop in and save the day with Bernie if/when Hillary gets indicted and/or frog-marched off the scene in indignity over the server snafu...
See you next time, Loves. I hope I'll have better news by then. Meanwhile, this little chat between God and Jeffrey on the meaning of the universe made me LOL. Hope you do, too. Kisses!
posted by Dot Calm @ 8:07 PM
