Have I told you how much I hate these people? - Mike Malloy. It is every thinking person’s responsibility not to side with his or her executioners. - Albert Camus. Popular democracy anywhere threatens fascism everywhere. - The Scallion. A fascist junta of neocons using George W. Bush as its shill has taken over America by bloodless coup. What will it take for us to stage a revolution and take our country back? - Dot Calm. Drive a hybrid. Leave a lighter footprint on the planet. - Dot Calm.
Like Granny D, I have watched my own beloved country change, and I am angry beyond words about what I see. I grew up seeing America as the equivalent of the movie good guy, the hero in the white hat who came to the rescue of those in need around the world. I have watched in silent horror as the corporations, the captains and the kings of industry, used a comparatively small outlay of cash to buy the Republicans to use as their shills. George W. Bush is the puppet cowboy-king of shills, the proverbial emperor with no clothes. Every day, I watch these evil men legalize, legitimize, and institutionalize robbing the poor to pay the rich. They are carving up America like a giant carcass and doling out choice chunks of its meat to themselves and their cronies. Since the Democrats have been sipping at the same corporate teat where the Republicans have been gorging for the past generation, the fascists are free to do their worst; there is no longer any opposition. There is no one left to stand up for the rights of the American people, the Constitution, or the democracy, which I fear will be replaced by a fascist dictatorship in my lifetime. Wake up, America: we need a REVOLUTION NOW!
Greetings, fellow Dot Calm Readers, Freedom Fighters, and Truth Crusaders!
Ugh...
I'd be dispirited enough because I'm having 'puter trouble right now, but that ain't the half of it.
Frankly, I can hardly believe the flood of fecal matter coming out of the RNC.
Unholy crap.
For the most part, I'll let todaze post's features speak for themselves.
I do have a point or three to make before I slog on with the blog.
One point is the fomenting of hate against Hillary. Yeah, yeah--we all know she ain't no angel. But whipping up a frenzied audience into screaming chants of "Lock her up"? I can see how the rank-and-file attendees could start such a chant, but to have Chris Christie stand up there and start it? Stay classy, Republicans...and remember Jesus' exhortation to do unto others as you'd have them do unto you. One can only hope that karma will step in and make a few corrections to these asswipes.
Another issue is Melania Trump's plagiarized speech--cribbing Michelle Obama, of all people. If there's one thing the Trumpets can't stand, it's a woman...or a Black...or a Democrat...let alone a Black Democratic woman who happens to be First Lady of the first Black President--a man they've never been able to stomach having to stand up for when he strides into the room. Princeton-grad Michelle Obama is also rather an intellectual--something else Republicans detest. Add to that the right-wing conspiracy theory that Michelle is a tranny...! No wonder they hate her So. Very. Much.
This episode presents yet another Donald Trump FAIL when it comes to the one thing Trump "promises" to do--hire the "best" people. If the "best" speech writer Trump could hire for his wife let obvious plagiarism slip past, it doesn't bode well for Trump's ability to hire capable people to govern while he plays dress-up as king (hm, he must've been inspired by chimpie's many dress-up games...like when he had the codpiece on bass-ackwards).
Oh, and of course Republicans are blaming Hillary for Melania's plagiarism...because Hillary herself wrote Melania's speech, duh!
Do you think they're blaming Hillary for spiking the convention with norovirus?
Another point is that--and maybe it's just me, I'll admit--it's impossible to associate Melania Trump with ideals she spoke about, like working hard to realize your dreams. I mean, just how much hard work is it to take off your clothes for a living? It's not exactly a Ph.D. in rocket surgery. Puh-lease. And it-snot like the Trump family, what with all their fancy clothes and houses and cars and boats and jewelry, is in any way representative of average Americans. Double puh-lease.
I hafta admit: it's been my guilty little pleasure to read all the Internet take-downs of the situation. It's also pretty funny that she unintentionally rick-rolled everyone. Someone said that the rick-rolling incident was Melania's cry for help and that she blinks in Morse code. Hehe!
The last point is that the entire Trump campaign, from the fish-lipped orange fucksicle himself down to the lowliest water boy, embodies a determined refusal to admit fault. How many nukes would a President Trump launch against our allies and adversaries because the weasel-wigged tiny appendaged blowhard doesn't know the difference between the two and can't admit when he makes a mistake?
If that doesn't scare you enough--and, between world war and climate denial, it should--just remember: a Trump presidency means a Supreme Court stacked against women, LGBTQ+, Blacks and browns, and non-Christians for at least a generation.
My friends, this is one battle we cannot afford to lose.
We can't afford to stay home--each vote we don't make is another vote for Trump. We need every blue voter out in force, front and center, even though Hillary represents the status quo rather than real change.
There are two things to remember here:
1. Bernie has indeed moved the DNC platform farther to the left than it's been in living memory. Sure, it ain't perfect, but it's one hell of a start. Handing the election to Trump will make it impossible to implement even the smallest of Bernie's changes. And Hillary, such as she is, has proven that she does listen to pressure from the base--at least sometimes. If she really were no better than Trump, she would not have budged one inch on any of Bernie's platform changes.
2. We can't fight to fix what no longer exists. If Trump gets in, America as we know it will cease to exist. Even if he personally has no interest in governing, his chosen party will see to the destruction that chimpie started that Obama's had to work overtime to scratch the surface of repairing. We really have a life-or-death choice between "no choice" (Hillary) and "disastrous choice" (Trump). And, like I said, "disastrous choice" has every intention of making the planet uninhabitable through climate change. Anything for a buck--even if it means screwing over your own grandkids.
3. Did I mention SCOTUS?
Please, guys 'n' gals--let's not fuck this up. Get out there and VOTE BLUE no matter what! Not just for president but for every seat that's up for grabs. We need to send these Republican fucksicles a loud and clear message NOW!
Don't forget to read Dot Calm's shadow's favorite independent sources of news and information:
Dear Friend, The man who wrote the book (literally) on Donald Trump is having big regrets.
Tony Schwartz ghostwrote Trump's famous memoir, The Art of the Deal, and has called Trump nothing short of "pathologically impulsive and self-centered" and a "sociopath." It's nothing new, of course. People close to Trump have been sounding the alarm bells for months. And yet Trump continues to creep up in the polls, as Republicans embrace the fact that he "speaks his mind."
Our country can't afford a leader like Trump. But we also can't afford to have our Congress run by Republicans, either. That's why it's vital we help Democrats up and down the ballot win.
ActBlue's small-dollar fundraising tools help make that goal a reality, but we count on your support. Will you chip in $3 a month?
Because you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
Well, it's official: Senate Republicans have just broken the record
for the longest delay of a Supreme Court confirmation in HISTORY.
That's right—it's been 126 days since President Obama nominated
Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, breaking the record set in 1916
during the confirmation of President Woodrow Wilson's nominee, Justice
Louis Brandeis.
Since Senate Republicans broke this momentous record, we think they deserve to be recognized! That's why yesterday, NARAL
submitted an official petition for Sen. Grassley and his Republican
Senate colleagues to be recognized as Guinness World Record-holders for the longest delay of Supreme Court confirmation process in history.
We were out in force across Iowa and around the country delivering
trophies at the offices of obstructionist senators, and today we need
your help to keep up the drumbeat. Click to automatically tweet one or more of the below options
to help us hold Senate Republicans accountable for their absurd,
irresponsible obstructionism.
The Republican National Convention is only half over, but I'm done.
I'm done with the blatant, unapologetic racism, sexism and homophobia.
I'm done with pretending that this is a normal party convention, when
there is nothing at all normal about a reality star running an openly authoritarian campaign for the presidency.
We need to beat these people—and not just Trump. We need to beat each and every one of these Republicans propping up this vile, extremist campaign.
Petition to Senate and House Democratic leaders: "Hold the line against Speaker Paul Ryan’s radical new tax plan,
and oppose any proposals that would cut taxes on the rich or
tax-dodging multinational corporations."
From Hillary Clinton--the filth going on at the RNC is NOT normal It can be easy to dismiss the entire Republican National Convention
with a wave of the hand -- all the craziness blurs into each other, all
Republicans hate Hillary, blah blah blah, more of the same.
But it's important to call out what we're seeing: What's happening at the convention is not normal and not acceptable.
Calling a political opponent a "criminal" is not normal.
Blaming a woman for the mass kidnapping of schoolgirls in Nigeria is not standard political campaigning.
A crowd chanting "lock her up" is not what you expect see at a rally.
It's all dangerous. We cannot risk becoming inured to this kind of behavior. We can't tolerate it. We have to fight back.
Chip in $1 right now to make sure that Trump's way of campaigning doesn't become our way of life:
Thanks,
Christina
Christina Reynolds
Deputy Communications Director
Hillary for America
The petition to President Obama reads: "The nearly 1.9 million acres at Bears Ears contain over 100,000
culturally important Native American sites that are mostly unprotected
and have been subject to repeated vandalism and looting. Designate Bears
Ears a national monument to protect this land for good."
From Tim Canova--fight for useful, accurate food labeling
We
all want to know what is in the food we’re eating. That isn’t really a
controversial opinion, it’s something the vast majority of Americans
believe — but big agribusiness companies like Monsanto have invested
millions of dollars in lobbying efforts to ensure that GMOs — genetically modified foods — will be labeled with QR or Quick Response barcodes instead of actual words.
So, if it were up to Monsanto, this is what you’d see on your food labels instead of a list of what you’re eating — a QR code.
Here’s
the bad news: this legislation, which will make it impossible for you
to learn what is in the food you eat without having first installed
software on your smartphone (if you even own one in the first place) has
passed the House and Senate this month. It is currently sitting on
President Obama’s desk, awaiting his decision, which is why we’re
launching this petition urging him to veto this awful bill and restore
your right to know:
On Monday
night, Donald Trump's wife Melania Trump gave the keynote address. But
the speech was not without controversy. Many commentators have accused
Melania ... Read More →
We
go to Baltimore to get reaction to the acquittal of a third police
officer on all charges for his role in the arrest of Freddie Gray, who
died of spinal injuries last year after he ... Read More →
Thousands
of Republican Party delegates are here in Cleveland, Ohio, for the 2016
Republican National Convention, where the party is expected to formally
... Read More →
Egyptian
comedian Bassem Youssef joins us in Cleveland, where he too is covering
the Republican convention. His former show was known as "The Daily
Show" of the Arab ... Read More →
As the Republican National Convention began on Monday, thousands rallied outside to protest Donald Trump's candidacy. In the largest protest of the day thousands took ... Read More →
On Monday
afternoon, the RNC briefly erupted in chaos when some opponents of
presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump stormed off the convention
floor ... Read More →
We
look at the record of Donald Trump and his running mate, Indiana
Governor Mike Pence, on LGBT rights and restricting women's access to
reproductive healthcare with ... Read More →
Activists
in several cities are attempting to shut down the offices of two major
police unions: the Fraternal Order of Police and the Patrolmen's
Benevolent Association. In ... Read More →
The
Republican Party has officially adopted Donald Trump's proposal to
build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border in its official party
platform. The new platform ... Read More →
Students
at Case Western Reserve University, located nearly five miles from the
arena hosting the RNC, are protesting the university's decision to house
1,900 armed ... Read More →
For
the first time ever, the National Rifle Association sent its chief
lobbyist to the Republican National Convention. According to the NRA,
Chris Cox became the group's first ... Read More →
Immigration has been a common theme throughout the first two nights of the Republican National Convention. On Monday, speakers included two mothers whose sons were ... Read More →
It's
now official: Donald Trump has become the presidential nominee of the
Republican Party. The announcement was made by House Speaker Paul Ryan
after a roll call vote at ... Read More →
Roger
Ailes's lawyers have confirmed he's in negotiations to step down as Fox
News chair amid more than a half-dozen accusations of sexual
harassment. For 20 years, the former ... Read More →
One of the most animated moments of the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night came during a speech by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who was a ... Read More →
"Make America Work Again." That was the theme Tuesday night at the Republican National Convention here in Cleveland. Well, on Tuesday, Democracy Now!'s Carla Wills ... Read More →
While covering the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Democracy Now! visited Cudell Park, where Tamir Rice was gunned down by two officers in November ... Read More →
Most
information about mindfulness is disseminated by white people, in media
controlled by white people, for the primary consumption of white
people. READ MORE»
Not
everyone who goes through traffic court is there for drunk driving or
other dangerous behavior. Many are there for simply being too poor. READ MORE»
Let’s take a moment to visit what makes France a target. READ MORE»
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Movies
Friends, I'm sorry I don't have the usual selection of m00bies for you today. When my hard drive crashed, I lost access to my Chrome browser tabs, which I use as the queue for this feature. I should be back online in a week or so. Thank you for your patience!
The Thinking Atheist on corporal punishment in the name of gawd, ICYMI. Isn't it weird that we'd be thrown in jail for doing to adults what we don't give a second thot about doing to our own defenseless children?
The not-so-grand opening of Ken Ham's ark encounter
--hilarious!
Guys 'n' gals, I just don't have enough in the tank to go dig up all the videos I had in my queue. 'Til next time, check out these great channels:
