Dudebros Be Like + How Stupid Are Wingnuts: Heavy Makeup = True Beauty

So let's deconstruct how stupid this is. You cherry-pick pictures of heavily made-up young women and place them side by side with pictures of ordinary women who don't have the makeup put on with a trowel. So, according to wing-nut "logic," wearing a crap-ton of makeup must be "true beauty."

Also, Michael Moore (bottom right corner) is not a woman.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Image copyright juliahenze @123rf.com

Trump and the Cult of Personality

This tweet is very mature and presidential and not at all the ravings of an unhinged despot desperate for adulation and whose mind is stuck at 12 years old.

A recent poll asked why I felt that Lord Dampnut was unfit to be President. Here is what I said:

He entirely lacks emotional maturity and compassion. Rather than attempting to make any sort of changes that would benefit the citizens of this country, particularly the middle and working classes, he is constantly taking to Twitter to accuse others of attacking him. He is a rude, crass bully. I disapprove of his vile demeanor.

If actions are taken to impeach the bastard, I can only hope that they succeed. It's true that Pence is terrible too, but Lord Dampnut has one attribute which Pence lacks. Lord Dampnut utilizes the Cult of Personality. 

Utilization of the Cult of Personality would not be Pence's style. Pence is not a showboat. Pence is a reactionary who has terrible beliefs, but he is polished and composed. 

Initially, I felt that impeaching Lord Dampnut might not be the best idea because Pence isn't an idiot and might be able to quietly wreak more havoc by appearing agreeable and, at least compared to Lord Dampnut, rational. However, Pence's lack of volatility makes him far less interesting. Those needing an overlord would be far less likely to clamor about him, ready to do his bidding at the drop of a red MAGA hat.

Things have gone to such extremes that I have come to believe that impeaching Lord Dampnut would be for the best. We can deal with the rest of the hydra when we've severed its central head.

~Sly Has Spoken~

I exploit you, still, you love me

I tell you one and one makes three

I'm the cult of personality

Copyright juliahenze @123rf.com

Sly Fawkes Says: Wokethink is the New 1984

This is my response to a wonderful post by Carrie-Anne about the way today's SJWs and TRAs suppress real discussion and do more harm than good with their faux "woke-ness."

Goddess have mercy, I could go on quite the rant in agreement with you. I'll try to keep it mercifully brief.

I've always tried to be considerate of what other people may be going through. I've always been aware that if I haven't experienced certain things I should probably leave the "what it's like to live life as this kind of person" narratives to those who have actually experienced life as that kind of person. 

However, to say that no-one who isn't "this kind of person" can write anything involving any character who isn't a carbon copy of the author is ludicrous and, frankly, smacks of segregation.

I can't write a true account about living as an impoverished black man in the South in the 1940's, because I am a white woman who was born in the West in the 1960s. But to say I can't have a character in a story who fits that description is strange, to say the least. It would be my hope that after reading about my character, people might be inspired to learn more about segregation in the South and to try and be more inclusive of people who may be in a different age range, a different race, etc.

As far as the TRA's go, I have always been sympathetic towards transgender people. I can't say that I know what it is to live as a transgender person. I have never had any dysphoria regarding my sex. I was always fine with being a girl, but I didn't like how girls were treated in society. I wanted the same rights and options as boys. I didn't want to be a boy.

In a story I wrote last October about a Voodoo priestess who gets revenge on her niece's assailants by switching their sexes, I tried to modernize things by saying that people at the college were surprised by the sudden onslaught of gender reassignment surgeries that had taken place. My mention of gender reassignment surgery was a neutral plot point. I said nothing negative about transgender individuals. Yet almost every comment called me out on my "transphobia." I'm surprised none of them referred to me as a TERF (aka Feminazi covered in glitter.)

I've since changed the ending of the story to have the assailants waking up and, as they go for their morning pee, realizing that they now have a hoo-ha rather than a willy. I don't think the new ending is quite as strong, but better a somewhat weak ending than being chided by people afraid of upsetting the TRA's.

TRA's, in my opinion, do more harm than good for transgender people. Instead of bringing understanding to the real prejudices faced by transgender people, they shout down anyone who disagrees with any aspect of identity politics. When there is no room for discussion, people tend to say, "eff it, then I won't discuss it."

This culture of calling out Wrongthink would be enough to have George Orwell and Rod Serling quaking in their boots. It reminds me a bit of the ending of the 1979 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers where Veronica Cartwright's character encounters Donald Sutherland's character. He recognizes her as one of the unchanged people and points at her, giving a spine-chilling screech to alert the other pod people to her presence. Anyone who questions the least aspect of the Woke screed is in danger of having the Pod People sicced on them.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Image copyright Juliahenze

Purchased from 123rf.com

When the High School Bully and the Fashion Club Chick are In Charge

Seriously, is Melania Trump sixteen and trying to defy her parents by refusing to wear those stuffy outfits that they put out for her? I kind of hope so, because it would really be embarrassing if a nearly fifty-year-old, high-profile representative of the United States Government were wearing a trashy coat that looks like she got it off the clearance rack at Hot Topic.

As for Lord Dampnut, never before has there been a President who had Twitter tantrums and launched into personal attacks every time someone said something potentially negative about him. He needs detention. For real, if this fake president ever ends up in jail where he belongs, I will celebrate big time.

The United States looks a little bit something like this to the rest of the world these days.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Copyright juliahenze @123rf.com

Image source

Happy Fourth of July anyway.

Stay strong, try to keep the faith.

Sly Says: Food Insecurity in America: What Can Employers Do?

Click to Enlarge

The United States needs to change a lot of things before we can have an overall healthy and happy population. Let's start with the absolute basics: food and shelter.

In this piece I'm going to focus on food, so I will address shelter in a cursory way. I work delivering food, which is ironic because I don't have enough money for adequate food. I drive past groups of homeless people, some of them in wheel chairs huddled together for warmth. This is so wrong. There's no excuse for it. I will address this problem in detail in another post.

Both lack of shelter and lack of adequate food lead to costly health problems that could be avoided. It would be less expensive in the long run to provide basic shelter, food, and health care to the public than it is to pay for medical crises and chronic health problems resulting from inadequate access to the necessities of life.

A while ago, a Facebook acquaintance who perpetually shares about her perpetual diets shared a picture of a fully stocked freezer. Granted, this freezer contained a lot of prepared foods, i.e. frozen dinners. Said acquaintance and her perpetually dieting cronies proceeded with the inevitable food shaming that happens when you live in a society which believes in size normativity rather than health at every size and which refuses to acknowledge that not everyone has access to the same resources. There were comments like "OMG, inflammation!" "OMG, diabetes!" and "OMG, teh OBEEEESITEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111!!!!!!!!!!" 

I stated that as a person who is food insecure, this refrigerator looked like the larder of Heaven to me, and that I did not believe in food policing.

Granted, it is ideal to eat fewer processed foods. However, time and money play a huge part in determining what people can and will eat. For instance, when I was making $40,000 per year and cooking for just two people (my son and me) I would order meal kits from services like Home Chef and Chef'd. The ingredients were fresh and minimally processed, and I enjoyed preparing them. When I lost my job due to health problems, all that went out the window.

I have diabetes and should eat at regular intervals to avoid blood sugar dips and spikes. This, however, does not happen. Because I'm rationing food (or simply don't have food) I tend to wait until I am close to passing out before I eat. Believe me, I am not thinking very much about carbohydrate content when I finally get my hands on food. I am thinking about getting some chow down the hatch so I don't end up doing a face-plant.

In spite of being a large person, which people have been conditioned to think means that I must eat 60 buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken every day, I actually don't have much of an appetite. I eat to ameliorate symptoms such as brain fog and dizziness. Sometimes I feel hunger, but I know the sensation will pass. My hunger cues have been messed up for years and will probably never be normal again. This is thanks to developing an eating disorder at twelve years old because society taught me that the worst thing a person could possibly be was fat.

You know, I wish I had the money to afford 60 buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken on a daily basis. I wouldn't eat Kentucky Fried Chicken. I don't like it. The amount of MSG in it would make me wheeze for a week. However, if I had the money to buy 60 buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken every day, I'd be doing okay. That stuff ain't cheap!

Regarding the obesity and poverty connection, it isn't so much that poor people gorge themselves whenever they get their grubby mitts on food. The fact is, dieting destroys a person's metabolism and promotes weight gain. For all but a very small percentage of dieters, the weight temporarily lost through dieting returns with friends. People living in poverty are forced to be on a perpetual diet. The body goes into starvation mode and does what it was made to do: store fat for times of scarcity.

Instead of focusing on making everyone look like svelte supermodels, we as a society should be focusing on insuring that everyone has access to adequate food. Not because doing so will make everyone become a certain arbitrary kind of pretty, but because people who have access to adequate food, whatever size they may be, are healthier and happier.

I will now jump off my anti diet culture soapbox and onto my Everyday Socialism soapbox. 

You can call it "charity" if the word socialism is bothersome to you.

Since the GOP Clown Car will oppose doing the right thing for anyone but the one percent and corporations at every turn, it is up to We The People to do right by our neighbors. So, until we can vote the current mess out of office, what can we do?

When it comes to donating to non-profit organizations, you do better giving a monetary donation to a charity such as a homeless shelter rather than a non-perishable food donation. This is due to the fact that the people who work at shelters can order supplies in bulk. They are attempting to provide for multiple people. One can of corn isn't going to make that much difference.

However, in a smaller setting, individual items can make a difference.

I propose that employers set up donation boxes where people can leave food items for their co-workers to take, no questions asked. People can then give according to their means and take according to their needs. That can of corned beef hash could be a lifesaver for someone who wasn't able to afford to bring lunch. 

Employers could provide basic food items for their employees, i.e. bread, cheese, peanut butter, canned soup, crackers. They could leave a donation jar in the break room. Thus, if an employee had a little spare change, they could drop it into the donation jar to offset the cost of providing basic food items for the staff.

Restaurants and cafeterias could provide a low-cost food item free for employees who needed such, i.e. soup or a grilled cheese sandwich. 

Knowing they had access to food at work could reduce employee absences.

A person who is starving is not motivated to get up and go, particularly when they know that the more energy they expend, the hungrier they will get. Hunger doesn't inspire people to work hard. It inspires depression and demotivation. Food deprivation inspires obsession with food. People who can't think about anything but food are not going to be able to focus on other tasks.

Adequate food, adequate shelter, and adequate health care are three non-negotiables in a successful society. We need to demand these things and keep demanding them until we get them. 

Until our government stops failing us, We the People need to find ways to take care of one another as best we can.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Image copyright juliahenze @123rf.com

Sly Says: Don't Give Attention-Seeking Gremlins Martyr Status

Having a drink thrown in her face: like it was Christmas and her birthday all rolled up into one, 'cause now she gets to be a martyr

For the hothead who threw a drink at Ann Coulter Jr. (Tomi Lahren):
Nice work, Smartass. You went and made her into a martyr.
I'd like to dump a truck of manure on that malevolent Barbie doll. But you know why I don't, other than the fact that I don't have access to a truck of manure?
I don't want to give her the attention.
Creatures like Tomi Lahren aren't honorable like Andre Linoge, who was a homicidal supernatural entity and child stealer. With Andre Linoge, if you gave him what he wanted, he went away.
Malevolent entities like Tomi Lahren don't go away when you give them what they want. They become more powerful and demand even more attention.
Perhaps the person who threw a drink thought that Ann Coulter Junior would melt like the witch in the Wizard of Oz.
Sadly, no.
If she had, I might have thought about praising the drink thrower rather than rolling my eyes and saying "great, now Miss Big-Mouth Blonde Plastic Face Faux News Pundit has people feeling sorry for her. Thanks a lot, Genius."

~Sly Has Spoken~

Copyright juliahenze @123rf

A diabolical Stephen King villain who kidnaps children and murders old ladies:

Still a more pleasant party guest than Tomi Lahren

In real life, actor Colm Feore is a nice guy

Right Tyranny vs. Left Paternalism

The "left" is not entirely sweetness and light. They tend to be elitist, patronizing of poor and marginalized people, and very fatphobic. As opposed to the right, who want to smash everyone who isn't up to their standards under their jackboot goose step, the left has a tendency to behave as the Great White Hope, giving those falling into the White Man's Burden category a condescending pat on the head while killing us softly.

~Sly Has Spoken~

copyright juliahenze@123rf

Women are Half of Humanity

This is a comment I made on an article by Arthur Magida.

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/might-5-ex-presidents-prevent-trump-making-us-unrecognizable-2020

A bit of nit-picking of an otherwise well-written piece. If the author were to state "these are times that try the human soul" rather than "these are times that try men's (and women's) souls," he would avoid putting women in parentheses as if we are an afterthought. I believe that the author does not think of women as an afterthought, given his biography."

Most of us learned the old, sexist literary rules of always referring to an unspecified person as "him" and using phrases such as "the spirit of man" to describe all people. 

Personally, I took hits to my grade because I refused to do that. These rules come from a time when women were seen as lesser and, in fact, thought not to have souls.

When making a direct quote, I don't change the wording as I am attributing the quote to the person who initially wrote it. However, when it comes to my own writing, I am human but I am not a man. I refer to the human spirit, to humanity (as opposed to mankind, unless I am speaking only of men.) 

It is past time to recognize that humanity encompasses more than "man". 

As I said, other than that, the author is spot on. 

Lord Dampnut and his cabinet of crooks present a terrible threat to everything the U.S. stands for, and to the safety of the entire world.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Copyright juliahenze +123RF.com 

Marines Nude Photo Scandal and Apologizing for Predatory Men

Image source and reference article at The Daily Beast

What is wrong with these assholes? Men and service people should both be furious with them. They make the Marines look bad, and they make men look like creepy, immature, misogynistic predators.

There are some who use this as a "reason" why women shouldn't be allowed to serve in the Military, because, apparently, men are predators who don't know how to behave themselves in the presence of women. If I were a man, I would be very angry about this attitude.

Oddly enough, when working in mixed company, I do not and never have felt the need to jump the bones of every man I work with, and posting nude photos of them without their permission would never have occurred to me. It would have been fairly easy for me to obtain nude photos of men I'd worked with about 20 years ago, as I was working as an artist's model for part of my income.

So, in that instance, I sometimes posed with male models. Who were naked, and so was I. We didn't touch each other. We chatted with each other to pass the time. There was no "ZOMG, we have to have sex NOW!" attitude. 

Mature people can behave respectfully around persons of the opposite sex (or the same sex, if they are homosexual) and not try to get everybody in the sack. 

Insisting on treating other people like sex objects is NOT normal behavior. We should stop excusing such behavior by saying things like "boys will be boys." Most boys (and men) are not predators by nature. Let's quit apologizing for and defending those who behave in a predatory fashion.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Copyright juliahenze +123RF.com 

Sly Says: You Can't Fix Stupid

The following is a transcript from a rant on Tumblr inspired by a couple of ignorant idiots. Said idiots' names have been changed because I don't feel the need to have them attacked. They're probably too stupid to educate anyway.

Tweedle Dumb:

I hate feminists because I hate supremacists of all types.

Tweedle Derp:

Amen!

Sly Says: (from slysfreespeechspace.tumblr.com)

What in the actual hell are you smoking?

My guess is that you have never encountered the sorts of problems that feminism has worked to correct over the years.

Perhaps you are unaware that women still make 70 cents for every dollar that men make on average.

Perhaps it doesn’t bother you that the average woman in the United States not only has to work a full time job plus take care of the majority of the household duties.

Perhaps it doesn’t bother you that women are in danger of losing all the rights that teh ebil, ebil feminists have worked for under the misogynist regime of the puppet president Lord Dampnut and his handlers.

In any case, your statement is either woefully naive or willfully ignorant. You would do well to educate yourself. 

Feminism is not “female supremacy.” That is a load of crap spread by MRA’s, a group of “men” threatened by the idea of women being treated as equals, helped along by ignorant children on forums like Tumblr who simply don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.

Feminism is, very simply, “a range of political movements, ideologies, and social movements that share a common goal: to define, establish, and achieve political, economic, personal, and social rights for women. This includes seeking to establish equal opportunities for women in education and employment.”

If you are against that, then you are a person with whom I hope never to associate. 

If it is being a supremacist to desire equal treatment and equal opportunities for women, then a supremacist I am.

Merciful Heaven, the fact that I still have to explain this shit in the twenty-first century gives me one hell of a headache.

Reblogged to my Supernatural fandom blog:

I replied to this bullshit on my Sly’s Free Speech Space tumblr and unfollowed the person who had reposted it in the first place as fast as I could.

I just can’t even.

Of course if you look at the URL of the OP, (which was in the form of Classic Rock Band Dude One Luvs Classic Rock Band Dude Two) you may recognize the “C0ckles mindset,” that is, shipping a couple of men that they think look hawt together is the main driving force in their life. Never mind that neither of the men that this one is shipping look anything like the images of them from thirty years ago any more. (insert eyeroll) Or that they are not involved with each other that way.

I don’t usually bother commenting on shit from tumblrs by teenagers who have no fucking idea what they’re talking about (apologies to the teenagers who aren’t like this), but as someone who started seeing the need for the feminist movement as far back as when I was 8 years old, no joke, I despise bullshit like this, likely coming from a privileged teenage girl who has benefited from the work done by women in the feminist movement. 

Girls in sports? Thank the feminist movement. Women in politics? That’s the feminist movement. All the cool kick-ass female characters? You can thank the feminist movement for that.

Perhaps girls like this would like to go back to a time when women weren’t allowed to vote, when we were considered to be the property of our fathers and then our husbands, when our choices for careers (before marrying) were teacher, nurse, or secretary. I for one would not like that, and will fight tooth and nail to keep it from ever becoming that way again.

But hey, as long as you can ship a couple of guys who look sexxiii together, who needs that stinky ole feminism anyways?

~Sly Has Spoken~

Copyright juliahenze@123rf.com

Sly Says: Just Stuff A Rag In Your Bloomers, Ladies

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/02/13/colorado-tampon-tax/

You can't make this shit up.
Some wit commented thusy on this article:
"Both tampons and pads are a little over 100 years old. Before then, for thousands of years, women found other ways to deal with the issue. They could use those old methods today. So, tampons and pads are a choice."

To which I responded:
Great plan. Women could just stuff a towel in their bloomers while menstruating. Modern toilet paper is also a fairly recent invention. We could go back to using pages torn from a catalog to wipe after doing our business in the outhouse. Or we could do as the Romans did and use a sponge on a stick in a public lavatory where one did one's business right next to one's neighbor. Said sponge would then be rinsed off for the next person to use. Or we could roll things even further back and squat in a field to do our duty, and then wipe with leaves.
Sound inconvenient and unsanitary? Well, so is walking around with a literal rag that has no adhesive stuffed in your underwear. You can't get much of anything done for fear that the damn thing may slip out of place. This method would be particularly problematic for a person who has very heavy periods.
My guess would be that you are a person who doesn't have to deal with the issue of menstruation. You would also seem to be a person who doesn't give much thought to how things affect other people. Try walking around with a wet rag stuffed in your underpants for a day and tell us all how convenient it is to use the "old methods" for dealing with menstruation.

~Sly Has Spoken~

copyright juliahenze@123rf.com

Sly Says: Stop Calling People Sluts

Emily Ratajkowski

From the following article:
https://www.yahoo.com/style/emily-ratajkowski-calls-out-journalist-for-slut-shaming-melania-trump-203207055.html

"The unabashedly political Emily Ratajkowski wore a pink pantsuit to a NYFW 2017 event. Melania Trump has an unlikely celebrity in her corner. Model, actress, and outspoken body-confidence and feminist advocate Emily Ratajkowski is stepping up to defend the first lady against a slut-shaming attack she recently overheard."

A few things:

Stop using the term “slut shaming.” We need to not be calling people sluts.
Emily Ratajkowski is not a feminist, she is a women’s liberationist. They are different things.
Women’s liberation is about being “sexually liberated.” Feminism is critical of the objectification of women. Objectification is not empowerment.
This being said, calling Melania Trump a “hooker” is rude and uncalled for. I honestly don’t care a fig about the photos she posed for in the past. She is not the one wreaking havoc on the United States. Her husband and his cabinet of deplorables are. Focus on them.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Copyright juliahenze@123rf.com

Happy 52nd birthday to me.

Sly Says: Tell Disney to Dump Trump

Why would a company that makes wonderful films that delight both children and adults and depict women as determined heroines want to associate themselves with a horrific misogynist and racist such as Donald Trump? I am ashamed and saddened to discover Disney's association with this reprehensible individual who is ruining our country.

Sign the petition and tell Disney to drop their association with Trump's companies.

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/tell-disney-drop-trumps-business-council-and-stop-collaborating-with-trump?source=direct_link&

Thank you,

Sly

copyright juliahenze@123rf.com

Sly Works Devil Vagina Magic

OOOGY BOOGY!!!

Apparently, also OOOGY BOOGY!!!

Aw, and here I thought the Satanic Panics were a thing of the past. 

They're still here, but back in the day when I was young, dinosaurs and rock musicians were their target. Now it's women. Evil, evil women.
Well, actually these types have always targeted women. But for a while their focus shifted just a little to dinosaurs and rock music.

Here's a quote from the article by Christian Dem in NYC.

"The religious right was none too pleased at the Women’s March. That was no surprise. But the vehemence of their reaction was staggering, even to this longtime religious right watcher. Apparently, standing up for women being respected and not objectified is a sign that you’re under the influence of either witchcraft or demons. How is that possible? Well, according to one religious right luminary, ANY opposition to the Donald is a sign you’re being influenced by the devil."

Click the link for more fun!

According to the mindset of these asshats, I was doing the devil's work back when I was a youngun in the 1980s and played that devil rock and roll music. 

Then, to make matters even more diabolical, I went to one of those musical devil ceremonies, and when a certain short man dressed in a schoolboy suit came out onstage, I shouted "WORK IT, ANGUS!" in hopes of making him drop trou. My evil devil magic worked, I tell you, because halfway through the show, he obeyed my command.

It looked a little bit something like this

I often sit in my Feminazi lair doing the devil's work to this very day, standing up for equality AND listening to devil music. Because we women, with our devil vagina magic, can multitask! And sadly, it appears that there will always be idiots to fight.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Image by juliahenze@123rf.com

Sly's Devil Vagina Magic Part Deux:

Trivia Time!

This is the Australian cover for the Highway to Hell album, which was Banned in the U.S. because apparently we have too many bible thumpers here who don't understand hyperbole and would have peed their pants if they saw this.

Here are some shockingly unscary out-takes from the photo shoot for the album cover. Because, surprisingly enough, these fellows were not actually particularly scary people.

Here is a shockingly tender photo of Angus Young being surprisingly not evil and gently guiding and caring for his very sick older brother. Because, shockingly enough, as Angus himself once said, while he may sometimes wear black underwear, he doesn't actually do blood sacrifices, and the real Satan is intolerance.

Sly realizes that she's gone off on a bit of a tangent and is now referring to herself in third person, but there is, in fact, a method to the madness. We have here in this snarky mini-history written by Sly proof that hate, intolerance, and extremism are a bad idea in any era and we really should examine these ideas, ridicule them, and put a stop to them.

Peace,

Sly

Sly Says: But What About The Men?

Stock image from Dreamstime

Sly Says:

But What About the Men?

Please read this article. I would speculate that many of the men involved in these attacks have antisocial personality disorder. However, this does not explain everything. There are female sociopaths, and there are sociopaths who go through life without ever committing violent acts. In fact, the majority of sociopaths never commit violent acts. So what is the other factor that isn't being discussed? Meghan Murphy, the author of the article, suggests that our toxic patriarchal Western society is key, and I agree with her.

Our toxic, patriarchal society is failing everyone, men included.

Whenever these horrific incidents happen, the need for mental health intervention is always brought up.

Yes, mental health needs to be addressed. Better mental health care needs to be available and affordable for all. But most people with mental illness do not kill other people. The majority of people with mental illness are invisible to the public, not standing out in any discernible way. They aren't raving lunatics terrorizing the streets, swinging knives as they rail at unseen foes. The mentally ill are, however, easy scapegoats.

We need to look deeper, and the answer isn't going to be pretty or easy. It calls our way of life in Western society into question.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Image copyright juliahenze@123rf.com

Come On, Sly, Give the Rump A Chance--Please?

Tell me again how I'm supposed to be okay with having this in a key government position

The first election I voted in was Reagan vs. Mondale. I voted for Mondale.

I've had people tell me I'm being an "alarmist" and being "unfair" to The Rump, that I'm being "disrespectful" and need to "give him a chance."

I've been around for a lot of years and I have never felt this concerned before. Frustrated, yes. Worried, sure. After all, there was the Cold War and there was Reagan and his "Star Wars" plan. But I never compared Reagan to Hitler.

I never saw reason to compare either of the Bushes to Hitler either.

Surely one would think I might have reason for thinking as i do about The Rump, for disrespecting him so utterly, for feeling that comparisons to Hitler are apt. But nope, I'm just a silly little neophyte with and overactive imagination. These people can keep telling themselves that about the dissenters while The Rump and his lackeys destroy this country.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Copyright juliahenze@123rf.com

Sly Says: Become the Avalanche

Marty Walsh, Mayor of Boston

Here's the thing with the whole "you have to accept Trump as your president. You have to give the new administration a chance" bit.

I didn't vote for either of the Bushes. I accepted both of them as President. I wasn't afraid of either of them, although I was critical of certain of their decisions.

I accepted Ronald Reagan as president. I was very critical of his decisions. I was afraid that he might make a stupid decision that would end us up in a nuclear exchange. I still didn't despise him to the core.

I never thought that Reagan or either of the Bushes were inherently evil. I thought that there were ways in which they were misguided. I didn't think that joking about Reagan's Alzheimer's disease was funny.

I don't know if Trump is "evil" per se, but he is not a good person. He is a con man. However, I also don't think he's actually in charge. I think he's a puppet, and I think that those who are pulling his strings are very, very bad people.

You know how they say that one bad apple spoils the barrel. Well, there are a lot of bad apples in the barrel right now. If we don't get them out, they are going to destroy our country.

I do not accept Donald Trump as my President, and I do not accept this new administration.

If that makes me a "special snowflake," then I'm proud to be a special snowflake alongside people like Marty Walsh, the Mayor of Boston, who is resisting the bad decisions made by the new regime because they are harmful to the people of his city.

When enough special snowflakes resist, we can become an avalanche.

Let's be the avalanche.

~Sly~

Copyright: juliahenze / 123RF Stock Photo

Sly Says: Wake Up, People!

Image by Shepherd Fairey

For anyone still believing that everything is fine, that people like me are just being overly dramatic and/or unpatriotic, who still think that we need to give this new regime a chance, well, don't take my word for it. Just look at what has happened in the space of a week since tRump and his cabinet of deplorables took over.

Those who study authoritarian regimes suggest keeping a list of abnormal events after a demagogue is elected, as a way to remind yourself that this isn't normal and to keep from being overwhelmed into acceptance by the onslaught of attacks on our rights.

Here is a list below. We are 4 days in.

As the author says, "when you see all of this in one list, it is easy to get overwhelmed, at first-- it is also easy to see a pattern and to finally, finally recognize that none of this is normal, nor is it ok."

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the DOJ’s Violence Against Women programs.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Minority Business Development Agency.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Economic Development Administration.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the International Trade Administration.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Legal Services Corporation.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Environmental and Natural Resources Division of the DOJ.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Electricity Deliverability and Energy Reliability.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Fossil Energy.

* On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered all regulatory powers of all federal agencies frozen.

* On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered the National Parks Service to stop using social media after RTing factual, side by side photos of the crowds for the 2009 and 2017 inaugurations.

* On January 20th, 2017, roughly 230 protestors were arrested in DC and face unprecedented felony riot charges. Among them were legal observers, journalists, and medics.

* On January 20th, 2017, a member of the International Workers of the World was shot in the stomach at an anti-fascist protest in Seattle. He remains in critical condition.

* On January 21st, 2017, DT brought a group of 40 cheerleaders to a meeting with the CIA to cheer for him during a speech that consisted almost entirely of framing himself as the victim of dishonest press.

* On January 21st, 2017, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer held a press conference largely to attack the press for accurately reporting the size of attendance at the inaugural festivities, saying that the inauguration had the largest audience of any in history, “period.”

* On January 22nd, 2017, White House advisor Kellyann Conway defended Spicer’s lies as “alternative facts” on national television news.

* On January 22nd, 2017, DT appeared to blow a kiss to director James Comey during a meeting with the FBI, and then opened his arms in a gesture of strange, paternal affection, before hugging him with a pat on the back.

* On January 23rd, 2017, DT reinstated the global gag order, which defunds international organizations that even mention abortion as a medical option.

* On January 23rd, 2017, Spicer said that the US will not tolerate China’s expansion onto islands in the South China Sea, essentially threatening war with China.

* On January 23rd, 2017, DT repeated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing him the popular vote.

* On January 23rd, 2017, it was announced that the man who shot the anti-fascist protester in Seattle was released without charges, despite turning himself in.

* On January 24th, 2017, Spicer reiterated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing DT the popular vote.

* On January 24th, 2017, DT tweeted a picture from his personal Twitter account of a photo he says depicts the crowd at his inauguration and will hang in the White House press room. The photo is of the 2009 inauguration of 44th President Barack Obama, and is curiously dated January 21st, 2017, the day AFTER the inauguration and the day of the Women’s March, the largest inauguration related protest in history.

* On January 24th, 2017, the EPA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to freeze all grants and contracts.

* On January 24th, 2017, the USDA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to stop publishing any papers or research. All communication with the press would also have to be authorized and vetted by the White House.

* On January 24th, 2017, HR7, a bill that would prohibit federal funding not only to abortion service providers, but to any insurance coverage, including Medicaid, that provides abortion coverage, went to the floor of the House for a vote.

* On January 24th, 2017, Director of the Department of Health and Human Service nominee Tom Price characterized federal guidelines on transgender equality as “absurd.”

* On January 24th, 2017, DT ordered the resumption of construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline, while the North Dakota state congress considers a bill that would legalize hitting and killing protestors with cars if they are on roadways.

* On January 24th, 2017, it was discovered that police officers had used confiscated cell phones to search the emails and messages of the 230 demonstrators now facing felony riot charges for protesting on January 20th, including lawyers and journalists whose email accounts contain privileged information of clients and sources. 

~Compiled by Amy Siskind~

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