Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, okay? It's, like, incredible." –Donald Trump, speaking at a rally in Sioux Center, Iowa as the audience laughed, January 23, 2016


Dear Reader,

If that insane comment made by an obviously narcissistic sociopath can be laughed at and applauded by GOP supporters who deem him qualified to be President of the United States - some of whom may live next door to you - doesn't frighten you, perhaps the fact that he's probably right should.

Two days of Madness and Hate and The Straw that Broke the Camel's Patience

I don't know what to think anymore. There was a time when reason prevailed, when diplomacy was always the first course of action, when the GOP warned against the rise of the Military Industrial Complex, and who, like Eisenhower, had nothing but disdain for war and who, like Goldwater, warned of the religious fanaticism that was creeping into their party.  They were, it seems, ignored.

Something is very wrong.  For years now the drum beat of the GOP has been for more war. "Bomb bomb bomb....bomb bomb Iran." McCain sang when he was running for President ...and he's singing it again now. McCain has never met a war he didn't love. And while it pains me to say it, being a combat Vietnam veteran, I wish he had come home in a body bag - he'd have better served his country .

Now  Allen West, an Uncle Tom Right Wing fanatic is decrying the fact that those ten captured sailors who floated into Iranian waters didn't fight to the death ...  and that the insult of that video Iran released is defamation of our honor and thus worthy of war.  Here's an excerpt of his blog:
“This, folks, is an act of war, and our soldiers were captured. Our honor calls upon us to fight, to resist, not surrender. The ramifications of not doing so means our honor is now being mocked and we’re seen as nothing more than cowards on our knees."   **

The GOP presidential candidates are falling all over each other declaring Obama's weakness by negotiating the freedom of five Iranian held US captives for the release of seven Iranian/US citizen's being held for non-violent offenses.  They are all declaring Obama everything from "feckless" to "traitorous" and the comments on Right Wing blogs and media sites by the FOX News sheep are virtually calling for the death of Obama and War with Iran.  It is insane. 

Every New Hampshire GOP primary advertisement by Cruz, or Trump, or Christy, or Rubio espouses that our military is weak, that it has been degraded by seven years of Obama's neglect; that they will be the ones to "rebuild' it to better intimidate our enemies..and instill fear in those who might be our enemies someday. The code phrase is "to Make America Great Again." For surely only then can we be safe.  NEVER MIND the fact our military spending is, and has been for decades, higher than the next ten largest nations'  armed forces combined ....including China and Russia... we just aren't spending enough to intimidate it seems! 

Look, I've tried  to keep this blog focused on atheism and anti-theism.  I've occasionally mixed politics in with it, mostly as it relates to the Religious Right's grasp on the GOP. But it has gone beyond that now.  These episodes over he past two days have broken the camel's back...so to speak.  So let me say it clearly:

I despise the GOP, everything they stand for, and everyone who supports them. If any of my readers support the madness I described above,  if any of them decry Obama's diplomacy, his efforts to avert another Middle Eastern war quagmire and impair Iran's nuclear ambitions; or if any of them are livid over his ability to our get sailors freed under 24 hours without firing a shot, or loss of life on either side; and gain the release of five US citizens who were suffering in Iranian captivity.. then do me a favor unsubscribe from this blog.

You see, I left the GOP some years ago realizing that --- The Party of Jesus, The Party of War First, The Party of Fear Mongering,  The Party of Israel or Die, The Party of Mindless Nationalism, The Party of Gun Ownership Absolutism, the party of extremism, homophobia, racism, of financial privilege, of demonizing of the poor  --- no longer represented me or my ethics.  I want no discourse with those I left behind.  I want no false patriotic platitudes.  I will entertain no justifications for what I deplore, because there can be none among the thinking.

If you hold fast to those principles of hate, and war, and racism, and homophobia, and misogyny, and class privilege et al -  then our shared atheism is insufficient reason for me to either respect your positions or tolerate you.   Go forth - send your sons, or grandchildren to die in the glorious service of nation building, or mindless anger, or for our national honor that Mr. West so deeply urges. But do so silently. I don't care to hear your cries of mourning.
**Read West's blog story here:
  http://www.alan.com/2016/01/14/allen-west-criticizes-u-s-soldiers-captured-by-iran-for-not-fighting/#

To my comrades in arms who survived the War on Xmas ...

Armed and Dangerous: The Camel suits up for the War on Christmas

If you haven't been paying attention you probably missed the fact we are engaged in a great civil war...commonly referred to by GOP Christian fanatics as the annual "War on Christmas". 

Lest you forget, we  atheists and heathens who represent 5-10% of the population - along with President Obama, our "Muslim in Chief" -  have been waging a war against  Xmas that the 76% of our population who identify as Christian observe by decorating pagan trees, burning pagan yule logs, invoking a gift giving magical fat old elf, avarice and greed. 

I for one almost forgot, since I do not watch FOX News thus never hear the droning whine of  Bill "The Tide Goes In And The Tide Goes Out; You Can't Explain That" O'Reilly ... the self declared Commander in Chief of the Christian defenders of the holiday.

I was, however, recently reminded of said war when Sid Miller, TexAss' Commissioner of Agriculture, threatened to slap the next person who says "Happy Holidays" to him instead of Merry Christmas.*  Seems Sid don't cotton none to them thar folks who ain't worshipin' the baby Jesus, and who fail to celebrate the baby Jesus' invented birthday with the requisite holy day well wishes. It seems bitch slappin' folks is the kind of gentility, peace, and good will toward men that his imaginary man-god had in mind.

Never mind that December also marks the observance of Hanuka, Saturnalia, Kwanzaa, The Winter Solstice, and New Years ... to the enraged and put upon majority December belongs to Christians.    Well, shit - I don't think so.

So, while I am late for the first wave of attack and advances against the co-opted pagan holiday referred to as Xmas, I have dragged  my old combat paraphernalia out of moth balls; loaded my .50 cal. and strapped it to my hump; dusted off my mortar, and got Achmed - my faithful ex-Muslim anti-Christmas combat comrade- to ride shotgun. We plan to launch our surprise attack on Xmas Eve.

They'll never see us coming ...after all, word has it they're they're still on the look out for the Jade Helm invasion of TexAss by the US Army, and the gay Rainbow Army secretly trying to indoctrinate their youth.  They're screwed now.

Happy Holidays to all my readers and their families.  May the New Year bring us more reasoned and thinking compatriots, health, and happiness.
   

* Story on TexAss Sid here:  http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/31529/republican-ag-commissioner-sid-miller-say-merry-christmas-or-ill-slap-you

Reality Check - I just need to be sure I have this right.

In 2015 Radicalized Muslims have killed 19 Americans.

In 2015 Radicalized Christians killed 9 black folks in a church, killed 3 people at a Planned Parenthood Clinic, and three black churches were set afire by white supremacists; while the vast majority of this year's 9,000 gun murders nation wide are committed by Christians.

And the GOP presidential wannabes, their ditto headed drones, and Christian Dominionists, are fear mongering about being killed by radicalized Muslims under ISIS' influence?

Do I have that right?
Sompthin is awry.

"Our Meaningless and Insipid Godly Platitudes are With You ...That Is All."

The Daily News is about as far from Left Wing or atheistic in their politics or philosophy as I've seen in a daily tabloid. And yet even a broken clock is right twice a day.  They nailed it with today's cover and headline.

In the wake of yet another mass murder, this time at the hands of home grown Muslim citizens of the USA, the GOP does what it always does best: Pray.  Period.

Oh...they'll go on to try and connect this to foreign born Muslims, probably invoking Syrian refugees in some bizarre and twisted logic, the only logic the the Right possesses. Trump can now reaffirm his plan to register all Muslims and make them carry papers ("Your papers, please, mein Herr.").  It's what the GOP does.

They'll go on to accuse Obama of politicizing the tragedy ... using this incident as a political ploy...an excuse to once again open the dialog on reasonable gun controls, or in their terms: "Justification for over-reach to confiscate guns and erase the 2nd Amendment."  It's what the GOP does.

Some of the most rabid Right Wing religionst GOP devotees will call this a "false flag" incident, devised and conducted by the government as a first step toward martial law. It's what the GOP does.

But the opportunity to invoke God and Prayer can never be missed. It's not only good politics it's virtually de rigueur if one wants to appeal to the Evangelical Christian base of the party.  For if you fail to wear your religion on your sleeve you are suspect. Are you really a "true Christian"?  Are you pious enough to be President? Obviously, the four scumbags depicted on the cover of the News qualify in their eyes.

So, what's next?  What can we expect?  I'll tell you what: Nothing.  Well, nothing meaningful anyway.  We will continue to see mass murder on a regular basis. We'll see the prayers of the faithful, the holding of hands, the floral and flame lit make shift monuments to the victims.  And the GOP will spout its usual platitudes invoking Faith and God and Prayer and Jesus and say: "This is the price we pay for being the freest and greatest God given nation on the planet."

Here's a hot flash: we long ago stopped being the greatest nation on the planet.  It stopped when we became the only industrialized nation besides Turkey that has a majority population believing in Creationism over evolutionary theory.  It stopped, when we became the only western nation that doesn't offer paid maternity leave, or universal healthcare.  It stopped when our infant mortality rate became the highest among the 27 wealthiest nations on the planet.  It stopped when we cut food coupon benefits to the poorest, and gave tax breaks to the wealthiest. It stopped when we casually committed our youth to wars costing $ Trillions and all its death and maiming...then claimed there is no money to help our homeless and disabled veterans to the degree they deserve.  It's what the GOP does.

As for our being the freest nation...that ended when gerrymandering became the way to manipulate election results and dilute the will of the people; and when we handed over the process for candidate selection for the office of President to the wealthiest individuals / companies in the nation and lobbyists ;and when the GOP first attempted, and continues to pursue, truncating voting rights of those demographics who tend to vote against them; or when we stopped opening our arms to those most in need of our national embrace.  It's what the GOP does. 


Look, I'm all about the 2nd Amendment.  I own more guns than probably a third of my readers combined.  But this insanity cannot continue to be accepted as the norm in this nation, as it rapidly is by the dulling of our outrage resulting from its frequency.  It cannot be made better by prayer to some imaginary  boogieman in the sky or public demonstrations of piety by the frauds, phonies and religiously afflicted.  Until that is realized we'll continue our spiral toward 3rd World status, and we'll deserve it. 

"Every nation gets the government it deserves" - Joseph de Maistre (1811)

One More Thought on the Politics of Fear and Being a Good Christian

The hysteria over 10,000 Syrian immigrants continues.  Here in New Hampshire, the nation’s first primary state, we are being visited daily by the unholy scum that represent the GOP Presidential hopefuls.  Each are airing commercials around the clock playing on the American fear of ISIS.  Each is claiming to have the plan to defeat them, and each is sworn to stop Muslim immigration, including “children under five years old” according to Chris Christie.  

Some, like Trump, are demanding the registration and tracking of Muslims in the US and the closing of Mosques.  Jeb Bush only wants to admit Christian Syrians. When asked how he’d conduct such a test of religious acceptability he wasn’t quite sure, preferring to dodge the question. I imagine he’d use a technique similar to how ISIS identifies devout Muslims - demanding they quote from memory some passages from their holy book…on punishment of death.    


Some of the far right web sites are insisting that the Obama plan to help those Syrian refugees is his attempt to destroy America from within - a sickness that infects the brains of Birthers, and assorted extremist right wing racists, not so surreptitiously supported by innuendo from the Ultra-Conservative talking heads (AKA FOX News). 

  So, what exactly is the truth about this Muslim refugee threat to our lives and property and way of life?  The U.S. has brought in more than 1.5 million Muslims through the refugee program since the passage of the Refugee Act of 1980. They have been coming from Islamic states with active jihadist movements such as Somalia, Bangladesh, Burma, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Bosnia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the past five years 680,000 Muslims were admitted to the US under the refugee program.*

While an estimated one to two-hundred US Muslims are believed to have gone to Syria to fight along side ISIS… I’m having difficulty finding examples of Muslims who have come here through the refugee program committing a single act of murder.  In fact, of all the FBI and Homeland security arrests for terrorism conspiracy, or attempting to support ISIS with money all were US home grown Muslim converts, or immigrants except for nine ( 9 ) who were admitted under the Refugee Act.**  NINE OUT OF 1.5 MILLION MUSLIM REFUGEES.   As for how many murders and mass killings were caused by Muslim refugees allowed in under the strict controls of the Refugee Act - the number is ZERO.


Meanwhile, yesterday another good Christian committed another act of terrorism, killing three and wounding nine in a Planned Parenthood invasion.  I’ll bet dollars to donuts he is going to declare he was doing God’s Work protecting the unborn.

In TexAss armed white Christian vigilantes in masks and carrying semi-auto rifles are stalking Muslim citizens as they walk to their Mosque -their campaign of terror and intimidation unhampered by the local white Christian police because of the “open carry” idiocy in that state of horrors.
June 17th of this year, a man rose from a pew in the historically black Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC, and opened fire killing nine worshipers. The shooter had been photographed wearing patches representing the racist apartheid regimes in Southwest Africa, had a Confederate license plate on his vehicle, was shouting about how blacks have been raping white women, and was a member in good standing of a local Lutheran Church.

Jim David Adkisson, a devout Christian and anti-abortion right-winger, walked into a Knoxville church on July 27th, 2008, and began firing a shotgun at children who were performing Annie Jr. He killed two and wounded seven, targeting “the church because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country.”

The KKK, a Christ loving organization, has more blood on its member’s hands than we can count.  Hell… American’s murder each other at a rate of 25,000+ a year…more than any nation on the planet not fighting a war on their home turf.  But lets just focus on 10,000 Syrian refugees causing mass mayhem because...Islam.
So, where is the outcry from the GOP and their religious faithful against their own religious brethren's violent streak and terrorism?  Why are they not calling for the registration and tracking of Christians, and closing of churches ?  Where is the justification, reason and logic behind their Muslim refugee fear mongering?  Where is that Christian love they always talk about?

How do they reconcile their behavior with what their man-god was alleged to have said in Mathew 25:   “…for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; ³⁶ I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’   

And when he was asked how they could have done that for him, when they never in fact did, it is written that he answered: Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’

“Good Christians”?  I say not one “good Christian” stands among the self-righteous and hypocritical self-proclaimed Christians of the GOP and their supporters.  Let fear and distortion and hypocrisy rule… let their man-god thing and his words be damned.  

* http://www.wnd.com/2015/11/staggering-number-of-muslim-refugees-under-obama/#bIXtqiY4R6lAxoe6.99

**  www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3322649/The-enemy-Nearly-SEVENTY-arrested-America-ISIS-plots-include-refugees-given-safe-haven-turned-terror.html