By David Futrelle
The Trumps go to Texas. And other news.
Let’s go to the Tweets.
Melania Trump rocks flawless emergency aid look en route to Texas https://t.co/THKSQXAL8H pic.twitter.com/SCODnH3lbh
— Jezebel (@Jezebel) August 29, 2017
Guys, guys, settle down. Melania brought a change of shoes. pic.twitter.com/cqBGjR9tXb
— shauna (@goldengateblond) August 29, 2017
https://twitter.com/KT_So_It_Goes/status/902596087432830976
the @dallasnews WH pooler is pretty done with @potus's TX visit. No "expression of sympathy," came with mysterious crowd of fans: pic.twitter.com/3poiXShQJG
— Heather Timmons (@HeathaT) August 29, 2017
Trump thanking FEMA dir William Brock Long: "A man who really has become very famous on television in the last couple of days." #Harvey
— Tasneem Nashrulla (@TasneemN) August 29, 2017
Trump on #Harvey: "It sounds like such an innocent name. … But it's not innocent. It's not innocent."
— Patrick Svitek (@PatrickSvitek) August 29, 2017
https://twitter.com/SarahBurris/status/902601205515292672
In other Hurricane Harvey news:
Amazing. Kids in kayaks joining in rescuing people + animals as water rises rapidly near overwhelmed #Houston-area reservoirs. pic.twitter.com/SWWSTCaK14
— Jason Pohl (@pohl_jason) August 29, 2017
This is what hurricane rescue efforts looks like in Houstonhttps://t.co/y9Ah5aRSkW pic.twitter.com/f7Un949MAt
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) August 29, 2017
— Sean Leahy (@thepunningman) August 29, 2017
https://twitter.com/ellewoodsruns/status/902536119710920704
Looking forward to Trump fans blaming Obama for the response to Harvey.
— L O L G O P (@LOLGOP) August 29, 2017
And now, terrible people being terrible, starting with the guy who said he got stabbed for having a “fashy” haircut. Well, guess what?
https://twitter.com/YoungGoobz/status/902509926312005636
And the parade of terrible people continues:
https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/902604978602246144
https://twitter.com/chrismassie/status/902603386226438144
https://twitter.com/InnerPartisan/status/902609624091779072
Jim Bakker: We Will Have A Civil War If Trump Is Impeached | Right Wing Watch https://t.co/eufh84fsCx
— David Futrelle (@DavidFutrelle) August 29, 2017
But hey, that’s a pretty sweet deal on the Tasty Pantry Deluxe Bucket! (Jim Bakker sells food supplies for the apocalypse.)
And now, some cute animals, because seriously, we could use some.
https://twitter.com/awwcuteness/status/902612839445168129
https://twitter.com/PopularPugs/status/902319148692275204
https://twitter.com/shit_reviews/status/902057390677389312
When trying reach my goals https://t.co/5H3jrMs1ej
— Dog and Kitty (@dognkitty) August 28, 2017
— Dog and Kitty (@dognkitty) August 28, 2017
I don't know cats. I don't have any deals with cats. I don't owe any money to cats. There's no cat walking across my keyboard right nñnnh&11
— David Futrelle (@DavidFutrelle) August 28, 2017
zaunfink:
Fake news. It was conclusively shown by the Buckaroo Party that Trump is a throbbing, shrieking mass of Void Crabs wearing a skin suit.
This has just popped up in my old Shoreditch stomping ground.
http://i.imgur.com/X3fn9o4.jpg
Has there ever been an actual verified case of a politician’s social media account being hacked in order to post stuff that makes him or her look bad?
I remember Katie Hopkins (Britain’s wannabe Ann Coulter) getting her Twitter account hacked for real, but sadly the hacker didn’t have a satirical bone in his body and merely settled for posting crude obscenities that obviously weren’t her work.
Good to see you again, NicolaLuna. I hope you’re doing okay; I was worried when you went silent.
@occasional reader:
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s arrest has been an interesting story. My Indian friends tell me that this is the sign of a cultural shift: in previous decades he would simply have been allowed to get away with it. Indian secularist and feminist-adjacent groups are growing in power, apparently, and it’s likely that we’ll see more actions like this.
Sadly, the regressive and male-supremacist groups may respond violently in an attempt to intimidate opposition, as they’ve done before. Hopefully that will only alienate mainstream society from them even further, and allow further reforms to happen.
IDK, that one tweet really makes me think…where was Obama during Pearl Harbor? or when the Titanic sank? or that time Seattle burned down? Probably golfing…
I bet he had something to do with the Kennedy assassination too. Yes, he was only two at the time, but we have only his birth certificate to go on, and that was discredited years ago.
http://i.imgur.com/o1zXTTc.jpg
@occasional reader:
RE: Dera Sacha Sauda. It’s unbelievable to me, how this cult’s leader was able to manipulate 400 people into castrating themselves. The first thing I thought of was the Heaven’s Gate cult in California. 20 years ago, they committed ritual suicide. Some of the men had also castrated themselves.
But this Indian cult is on a whole other level.
RE: Melania’s shoes. I don’t think I’ve ever see a photo of her, where she isn’t wearing stiletto heels. I wonder why she wears them…she’s nearly 6 feet tall without ’em. It’s a sad truth, how tall women look better in high heels than short women in the same heels.
RE: Hurricane Harvey photos. How does a native English speaker manage to misspell “looters”? Unbelievable.
To all those affected by Harvey, my thoughts are with you. I know it’s a trite thing to say, but please stay safe.
I once wrote a song parody about Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and DSS.
To the tune of Seals and Crofts’ “Get Closer”:
“Get Castrated”
People, hear the holy man’s calls:
Closer to God are those with no balls
Listen to the way of this monk:
Closer to God are those with no junk
Hear my message, let’s all be glad:
Closer to God are those without nads
Heed these words and go make the cut
Closer to God are those with no nuts
There’s a thing, you should be doing
You want to ascend, it’s what you must do
It might be painful when you get neutered
But you gotta do it for the sake of your soul
If your name’s Bob, Joe, or Kevin
Gotta cut ’em both off so you can go to heaven
If you want to be closer to God
Closer to Him, then cut off your cods
This is how the holy man talks:
To meet the Lord, you must have no rocks
To the sky your soul will be flown
But only if you do not have your stones
People, you must not act like fools
Those who meet God have no family jewels
There’s a thing, you should be doing
You want to be saved, then you cut off your stuff down there
You get cut and you won’t regret it, so don’t you forget it, ’cause now is the time
See these garden scissors, and we promise that it will be quick and painless
People change and you’re changing. Now that you are a eunuch, your soul’s pure and stainless
This is what the holy book means:
Closer to God are those with no beans
You’ll need to be sealed in blood
For closer to God are those with no spuds
Trying to be holy is hard
For closer to God are those with no nards
People, please be wise, don’t be dumb
For closer to God are those with no plums….
Ted Cruz and other Texas Republicans voted against sending federal help when Hurricane Sandy hit the northeast, on the grounds that government spending was wasteful, but are demanding federal aid for Hurricane Harvey. Luckily their selfishness is not echoed by their colleagues, who are extending help to the people of Texas.
> Dormousing_it
Well, according to the Indian Huffington Post, they did not really do it themselves… to say the least. They did not even give any consent to it. They were drugged and then went under surgery (at least, it was in a clean hospital, not with a bull-to-ox tool).
But i am sure A Voice For Men is going to do something to help these men out.
@occasional reader:
Thanks for the clarification. I was wondering if these men gave consent.
I should have said, “had themselves castrated”, rather than ” castrated themselves”. I didn’t mean to imply that they actually took a knife to themselves.
In the Heaven’s Gate cult, the men who chose castration searched for a US doctor to perform the surgery. No US doctor would agree to it, so they settled on a doctor from Mexico.
¶ AWESOME! A Red-To-Blue flipper-roo! Considering the antics of Jabba and the GOPers, we’re sure to see a lot more of this.
¶ The real trick is to reach out to the more reasonable Conservative voters….the ones who aren’t as bigoted and fanatical.
¶ Progressives should run for office from the bottom-up, especially. Local town things like Mayor or School board or whatever. One doesn’t need monstrous amounts of money for that, a simple fundraiser would do. We need Progressive minds running the school system; There would actually be a crackdown on bullying, less obsessing over sports or dress codes and more emphasis on learning real knowledge! We need to teach our kids that big brains and kindness are cool!
********
¶ According to me, he’s ALSO a giant space-slug from Tatoonine. And yes; I can see golfers finally realizing what an enema Trump is and….doing….uh….that….with a golf club.
….Come to think of it; That would make that bogus Civil War marker by that water trap a lot more accurate! They’d have to rework it, though….
Two great American golfers, brothers Norman and Samuel Plaidygolfpants of Hoboken, N.J., killed the Founder of this Golf Course at this spot, The violence was so great that the water would turn red and thus became known as THE WATER TRAP OF BLOOD!
********
¶ I wonder what the political leanings of the general population of Houston is? I wonder if “Donny Jabba’s” blasé/callous attitude has anything to do with it? Is Houston similar to Austin in mindset? That would explain everything (well, besides ‘Donny Jabba’s’ profound lack of empathy and extreme megalomania).
¶ I’m calling Donald Trump “Donny Jabba” and “Fake-POTUS” from now on. Likewise; His whole “Administration” will be preceded by the prefix, “Fake”. After all; He calls everything “FAKE NEWS” so we should call this clown “Fake President” in order to needle him!
¶ “Donny Jabba” also have a fun “Mobster” thing to it. He’s from New York, he’s been in cahoots with the Mob, Jabba The Hutt was basically Al Capone if Capone were a giant outer space slug-monster. It also is there to needle the Trumpster and supporters about his “Snotty ‘Noo Yawk’ Big Apple Rich Boy City Mouse” roots. Supporters need to understand that he’s one of the “Flashy North-Eastern Rich Yankee City Elite” they hate so much.
********
¶ I’m glad there’s finally a Progressive, pro-woman cultural shift brewing in India.
¶ Concerning reprisals: As the events in Charlottesville and others have shown us, Regressives getting violent only makes Progressives stronger.
¶ It’s something one might call “The Tarkin Effect”….The more a tyrant tightens the grip, the more folks slip through their fingers.
¶ I do wonder, though….Why didn’t “The Tarkin Effect” work after the Tienanmen Square Massacre? The Pro-Democracy protesters just instantly gave up. You’d think they would “Go Underground” or re-group or find another way to keep the dream alive. Nope; They were like, “Forget it, Jake! It’s China!”. If anyone can provide theories, I’d be happy to hear them.
[Oh; I’m using the Character Map gizmo to write stuff like ‘¶’, now]
> Dormousing_it
Castration is unallowed in the US ? Even if it is a personal choice ?
Anyway, under a sect influence, i am not sure it can be called consent.
@occasional reader
I don’t know if voluntary castration is legal or not in the US. I do know that some sex offenders have undergone chemical castration, but that’s a different story.
@occasional reader
I don’t know about castration, but when a friend of mine wanted to have her tubes tied, every doctor she consulted refused her and told her she would want to have kids eventually. She was only in her twenties back then, but she tried again every couple of years until finally at age 40 someone actually believed her that she really didn’t want to have kids.
Houston is very large, very sprawled out in area, and very diverse. There are pockets of blue and pockets of red, depending on what part of the city you are in. We sort of average out to purple, but maybe slightly more blue leaning. Problem is, a lot of our districts are gerrymandered, so our reps don’t always reflect that. The progressive groups have organized a bit more in recent years, especially after the election of Tangerine Twitler.
@SpukiKitty:
It might be best not to let any Chinese people hear you say that: they definitely didn’t just instantly give up. There’s a reason why China places its riot police on high alert every 4 June, and puts pressure on social media companies to delete even oblique references to the massacre. Despite a quarter century of official attempts to memory-hole the affair, people are still active about it.
The best known pressure group focusing on the memory of the massacre is the Tiananmen Mothers, but there are others.
That’s an opinion, not a truth.
GEEZ! Where does this woman live if EVERY doctor is an Anti-Choice idiot? I would’ve pressured the HELL out of them….or at least got an IUD (which is over 99% effective, doesn’t require any skill or learning curve and can be removed if you want kids).
….Of course; If they were to refuse an IUD, the “You might want kids” caveat would be of no use and their true feeling known.
********
¶ Oh; So there was an ongoing Democracy Movement afterwards but it was often super-underground due to the Chinese govt. being super savvy with the spying and goons. Well; at least there are still people working on making China a freer country as well as making sure the Massacre is remembered.
¶ People in oppressive nations could use the skills of incredibly super-brilliant computer geniuses who can not only unblock blocked sites but “cloak” the online activities of those who don’t want to be detected by “The Man”. I know this is happening to some degree on at least one of these things. Knowledge is freedom!
¶ To China’s credit; They have opened up a bit, rejected Maoism and have become a bit more modern with their own pop culture, movies, pop music, etc. They’re certainly freer and more open than North Korea (some North Koreans have even defected to China and proclaimed it a ‘free country’….which brings a lot of ‘Fridge Horror’ concerning the D.P.R.K.)….but China is still a very oppressive, censor-happy, execution-happy country run by tyrants with a lot of poverty and general malaise.
¶ Governments need to understand that, if they wish to be superpowers and big movers and shakers, they need to be free and open. Free and open societies with respect for human rights are economically wealthy, influential and can even be powerful.
¶ Dictators, tyrants and corrupt greedy Robber Barons are weirdos, they could still have everything they strive for if they were kind to others and ran things ethically. If they crave wealth and power then doing things well will give them that in the long run.
DEAR POWERFUL PEOPLE….
* If you work on helping the people, beef up the social safety net, etc. You bring stability a health and people will like you.
* If you treat employees well, pay them well, keep them safe, etc. they will be happier worker and happy to work harder and put more effort into the product, making the product awesome and selling more and making a big profit.
* Treat people nicely and they’ll like you and heed you and everyone wins!
* Join the competition! Are you “Big Fossil Fuel”? Weirded out by everyone talking “Climate Change” and the Green Energy Competition? Make the gradual change from “Big Fossil” to “Big Green”! Exxon, B.P., Shell, etc. can get into the Wind/Solar/etc. energy thing and turn Gas Stations into Recharge Stations! Imagine Joe Schmo taking a drive up to the “corner recharge station” in his snazzy Tesla and paying….I dunno….$1.00 per killowatt….at the “electric pump”, buy some Slim Jims (Yum!) and a pack of Marlboros (Yuck!) and go to Aunt Mildred’s house.
¶ I think they just do things as they do do them because they’re really sadists who get off on people fearing them and human suffering….the wealth and power just being the cherry on top.
Hey everyone, I worked out how to embed gifs!
(Well, sort of. I’m not sure what all that link business is before and after it. BUT THE GIF IS THERE AND THAT’S WHAT MATTERS)
Here’s my thoughts on Trump
THAT explains a lot. Thanks!
@Spukikitty
She lives in Tennessee. I think she could have probably pressured them into it, but being confrontational just really isn’t one of her strengths. But doctors should respect a patients wishes without them having to first (metaphorically) stomp their feet.
I lived in Beijing about ten years ago. If you’re part of the city middle class, you can live a rather good life there. I felt that most people I knew where more interested in economic improvement than democracy. Personally, I lived my life just like I would have at home. However, you do get the feeling that the new freedom in China is a bit of an illusion. There are certain lines you are not allowed to cross, and if you do, the government can and will make your life hellish.
@Spukikitty, Nina
It’s really not at all uncommon for women to be told no to getting their tubes tied if they’ve never had children and are under 40. http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2012/07/getting_your_tubes_tied_why_do_young_women_have_a_hard_time_getting_sterilized_.html
*facepalm*