Kamala Harris wants Dreamers to work in Congress

I was raised by racists

Raised to think that black people were inferior. Raised to think that there are “good” black people and there are “finger-popping N******”. My Dad, a big Swede who worked hard, worked along side of black men when he was a what used to be called “Garbage man” picking up curbside trash, altered his racism that much. He used to tell a story of how I hid behind his leg the first time I saw a black man, and roar with laughter. His racism altered with age, as did my mothers but never went away. My maternal grandmother never altered her racism one iota, calling a child of a friend of mine “a repulsive pickininny” I was in my 20’s by then

Anyway When compulsory busing started in the 70’s, I was exposed to black kids, and truth to tell, we rarely mixed, but one wonderful thing happened, I was required to take Black history. So books about Harriet Tubman and the Underground railroad and Sojourner Truth, the book “Black like Me”, I was precocious,reading all kinds of books on ethnicy and racism In middle school, books readily available

So began my education, and it continues to this day. I don’t know when the last time I used the N word as an epithet was, decades ago, but I do know by the 80’s I knew Blackface was not funny or cool. It was not something I ever would have done. To deliberately CHOOSE to mock a black person. I knew people who remained racist, but I had friends of different races by then. I began to choose my friends with more care, and this despite the fact by the time I was 30 I had experienced many things, drug addiction, homelessness, extreme poverty. But I still knew mocking other races was wrong.

I don’t understand people very well, or maybe I understand them too well, I dunno. Racism exists everywhere and and it is MY responsibility as a white person to call it out and condemn it. I don’t forgive it, because it’s not my responsibility to forgive it. I’m not a target of racism, I never was. And trust me, I spent time in more than one situation being the only “white girl” but, at the end of the day, I could always go back to white spaces and blend in. It didn’t matter.

Bishop Eddie Long Is Not the Only One Who's Dead

Inslee proposes 'public option' health-insurance plan for Washington State

Moore doesn't make me uncomfortable. He annoys me

He tends to feed conspiracy theories. The way our government is set up is around two parties, the only real question is which two parties. It is possible for instance, for Democratic Socialists to become one of the major parties instead of Democrats. That doesn’t mean the Democratic Party would cease to exist, any more than The DS party is going to. That’s one thing.

I have a problem with the term “corporate” when it’s now a huge meme that people use. When memes were put forth about Hillary Clinton and her large donations coming from, oh, I don’t know Bank of something, and people would point out “”hey, it’s illegal for Bank of something to donate that amount to political campaigns, these represent donations from individuals, the reply would be “Hillary is corrupt and this meme proves it” So annoying at the time and so fucking damaging. This was in part what brought us Trump. But there are many parts to the Trump story.

Bernie was indeed pushing hard for the individual campaign donations, refusing PAC money, (as did President Obama, who started this trend started refusing a lot of PAC money in 2008, but he rarely gets credit) but Bernie also lost, and he lost legitimately, no matter what the Micheal Moore’s of the world have to say. That’s not to say that others haven’t picked up where he left off. Booker and Harris and Gillibrand, for instance, are now declining corporate PAC money. If nothing else President Obama and Bernie Sanders put their finger on a pulse of rising discontent.

So what does this mean? Are we going to quit throwing pageantry parties? Are we going to pare down the governments frivolous bullshit after the gilded turd of Trumps presidency? Don’t know. All I DO know is my reproductive rights are being threatened, hell— the reproductive rights of my three year old granddaughter are being threatened, as a woman it is still implied that I’m a slut If I get sexually assaulted, LGBLT rights are being threatened, the United States kidnapped children and caused irreparable harm, and continues to defend this, our environment will become more poisoned, job wages are stagnant, hate crimes are on the rise, racism is now openly bragged about and I cannot look toward the Republican Party for the lest vestige of love for human kind. This is sheer horror, epic horror, and every toxic bullshit comment against Democrats and especially Hillary Clinton have their part as well.

“Legit” criticism—sure. I have a Rep I adore. I didn’t expect this, but I do She’s signed the “M4A” legislation which I disagree with, although I agree with Medicaid expansion and insurance reform
With a hearty public option. None of which we are going to get by the looks of thing now. PLENTY of people disagree with me here, and I understand completely.

(FWIW I take a bit of exception to using “white privilege” discussed among whites as a negative, as whites ARE the ones who need to be discussing this among themselves.)

Record number of LGBT candidates running for governor

There Is No Biological Difference Between Male And Female Brains

And they said rape culture wasn't real

I’m posting this, mostly, for myself, as this forum all but died. Remembering all The battles about rape, sexual harassment, rape culture, language, patriarchy at DU. The belittling, the minimizing, the disingenuous arguments, the bullshit. Every once in a while at DU, I’ll even see a bitter soul take a pot shot at “benevolent sexism” because nice guys or something. I got my first hide out of this group reposting a blogger who said instead of all women having to walk around in a state of fear of rape, it was just as logical for all men to be treated as walking around in a state of pre-rape. I still read Dworkin.

Interesting though, how the old van guard of second wave feminists, some of them, lost their way at as the results of their battles bore fruit in succeeding generations of women, reaping the benefits of Feminism. And Feminism itself found its newest rebirth at the crossroads of intersectionality. Interesting, and in retrospect completely logical, how the the most powerful feminist voices now are African American women, as well as other women of color. Trans women are also emerging as a powerful voice for women’s rights.

And here we are at another crossroads. As bigoted white men, and bigoted, complacent, white women voted for Trump, it broke something in people of goodwill and compassion and progressive thought. I think what broke was the desire to go along to get along when one has a privileged life. IF one understands what privilege is and what it isn’t. There’s still far to much pushback in the age of Trump. It comes from feeling that enough dollars saves one from bigotry


Weinstein and Cosby shows us that beauty, talent and wealth is not enough to protect women. The sheer horror of Trump shows us that seeing thing such as the unutterable pain at the southern border will affect us in such a way we can no longer ignore it. Or at least I can’t. I hurt every day, and every day I am angry. I welcome this. It doesn’t “damage” me. I am no passive soul searching for zen and comfort.

94% of Black women who voted voted for Hillary Clinton. There has been a number of attempts to minimize that remarkable statistic, the lastest being to simply ignore it. What did black women know that white women didn’t? If you ask them, they will tell you. It’s not for me to say. Me? I listened to their voices whenever I could. Still do. Often, I do it in silence, because white women, so many of us were so stunningly wrong in our political choices, there are very few I want to hear from. There are, of course, a few I do. As there are very few white men I want to hear from right now. (Plain, simple reporting aside)

Practically this means I watch no TV pundits at all, get my news on-line after I vet facts, from sources with proven diversity that isn’t tokenism. I pay little attention to memes unless they make me laugh. There is still tons of bullshit. Mostly from the right, who have appeared to have lost their damn minds for real, but the left is not immune from bullshit. Some of it I even like, as I lost any desire to “play fair” As someone recently said this isn’t middle school.

Because people have died, are dying, will die. And they will suffer before they do. I’m a nurse. I see a lot of suffering, enough death. When it’s preventable, that’s when I get angry as well.

Yup

The whole continuing sage of “they’re both the same bullshit” sounds like damage control from a failed “revolution” some members of which should have very guilty consciences instead of doubling down. A movement that was mostly for white people anyway.

Democrats have had their own come to Jesus moments after Trump, many of them...but they’ve done that despite Bernie Sanders, not because of him, his “movement” or whatever political party he chooses to align himself with.

Bernie...He’s a popular guy with a lot of people. Sure. But not nearly enough people and certainly not with the diversity we need. The Democratic Party does have that. The Democratic Party platform does have that. Elected Democrats are working their asses off to fight what’s happening right here, right now in real time. Thank God for Democrats I say. Thank God for the Democratic Party.

Commander of Cheese--Randy Rainbow