Why Is It ...

… that we have anger management classes but we don’t have stupidity management classes? You can be dumb but I can’t be angry?

… that you need to know that someone, somewhere, right now, is thinking of you and the impact you’ve made on their life, but it isn’t me cuz I think you’re an effing idiot.

… that people don’t understand that I’m not really a “people person,” I am more of a “one human at a time, by appointment only” kind of person ... “no walk-ins allowed.”

… that when my therapist asked what triggers me and I replied, “Nouns,” she didn’t understand until I added, “People, places and things.”

… that I just learned that the serving size for chips is ten; hell, I eat ten chips while trying to decide if I want chips.

… that people are just now learning how good water is for you … you want to lose weight, drink water … you want clear skin, more water … don’t like a person, drown them. Water is amazing.

… that people are all against cigarettes, sugar and booze now but forget who was there for you when your life fell apart; hint: it wasn’t broccoli.

… that people can’t understand why The Wizard of Oz is my all-time favorite movie? I mean, dropping houses on a bitch, making them melt and shiz, I live for that.

… that men don’t test anti-wrinkle creams on their ball sack first? If it gets wrinkles out of that, I’m buying that shiz in bulk.

The Funny Papers

NEMO, Bill Bramhall, Nick Anderson, Adam Zyglis, Drew Sheneman, Jack Ohman, Bill Day, Mike Luckovich, Ed Hall, David Horsey, Marc Murphy, John Cole, Clay Bennett, Dave Whamond, Terry Mosher, 

Tuesday Thought #3

Bobservations

After days and thinking it’ll go around us, this morning I discovered Florence is coming to Smallville—as of now.

I may not be on blogs much for the next few days, though I do have some preplanned posts.

I’ll be back when the bitch leaves us alone.

Last week Carlos came to me and told me he had some ideas of what we might do for the weekend.

♪ ♫ Isn’t it romantic ♫ ♪

He said:

“I have a doctor’s appointment at 8AM.”

♪ ♫ Isn’t it … ♫ ♪

“Then we can do the recycling, and I also need a haircut.”

♪ ♫ … romantic? ♫ ♪

Oy.

In case you are still thinking the GOP cares about any of you, or anything but themselves, think on this:

Republicans are considering a proposal to remove House members from committees for not voting along party lines.

Yup, if you’re a Republican on any committee in Congress and you don’t vote the way the party wants you to, they’ll remove you from the committee and replace you with someone who will.

They’re not even trying to hide their deceit any longer.

Remember Caitlin Upton, a Miss Teen USA contestant from South Carolina who was asked why she thinks a fifth of Americans cannot locate their country on a map, and said:

"I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uhmmm, some people out there in our nation don't have maps and uh, I believe that our, I, education like such as, uh, South Africa, and uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uhhh, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, should help South Africa, it should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future, for us.” 

Contrast her with the recent Miss America pageant and Miss Michigan Emily Sioma, up there, who introduced herself this way:

“From the state with 84% of the U.S. fresh water but none for its residents to drink, I am Miss Michigan Emily Sioma.”

Bam. Sadly, Emily did not win.

Tadd Fujikawa, the youngest player ever to qualify for the U.S. Open at the age of 15, is now the first professional male golfer to come out as gay, on, where else, Instagram:

“Coincidentally, today is world suicide prevention day. However, I was going to share this regardless.

So…I’m gay. Many of you may have already known that. I don’t expect everyone to understand or accept me. But please be gracious enough to not push your beliefs on me or anyone in the LGBTQ community. My hope is this post will inspire each and every one of you to be more empathetic and loving towards one another.

I’ve been back and forth for a while about opening up about my sexuality. I thought that I didn’t need to come out because it doesn’t matter if anyone knows. But I remember how much other’s stories have helped me in my darkest times to have hope. I spent way too long pretending, hiding, and hating who I was. I was always afraid of what others would think/say. I’ve struggled with my mental health for many years because of that and it put me in a really bad place. Now I’m standing up for myself and the rest of the LGBTQ community in hopes of being an inspiration and making a difference in someone’s life. Although it’s a lot more accepted in our society today, we still see children, teens, and adults being ridiculed and discriminated against for being the way we are. Some have even taken their lives because of it. As long as those things are still happening, I will continue to do my best to bring more awareness to this issue and to fight for equality.

Whether the LGBTQ is what you support or not, we must liberate and encourage each other to be our best selves, whatever that may be. It’s the only way we can make this world a better place for future generations.

I don’t want this to be focused on me. I just want to spread love and acceptance to others who are in a similar situation. If anyone out there is struggling, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. YOU ARE LOVED AND YOU ARE ENOUGH…AS IS, EXACTLY AS YOU ARE!

I can’t wait for the day we all can live without feeling like we’re different and excluded. A time where we don’t have to come out, we can love the way we want to love and not be ashamed. We are all human and equal after all. So I dare you…spread love. Let’s do our part to make this world a better place.”

Welcome out, Tadd, and please accept as our gift the Official Coming Out Toaster Oven™ and a copy of the Gay Agenda.

Welcome out.

A Dallas police officer fatally shot a young black man could be facing criminal charges, police said.

Botham Shem Jean was killed last week by a “Caucasian female” officer who entered the wrong apartment in her building and, thinking she was in her own home shot and killed Jean, who lived in the apartment.

Investigators are seeking a warrant for a manslaughter charge against the officer, who has since been placed on administrative leave. The chief said she would release the officer’s name if and when charges were filed.

Huh, I guess if you walk into the wrong apartment and find the tenant of that apartment inside and pull out your gun and shoot him to death, you get to maintain a certain privacy.

This is why we kneel. Think about a black man, even a black police officer, entering the wrong apartment and shooting a white woman to death. Do you think his name would be withheld? Do you think he would not have been arrested the moment authorities arrived?

I know. Good news is that finally charges were filed, and the killer’s name is Amber Guyger.

Carlos hates violent films, bloody films, horror films, but for some reason he was intrigued by the new show The Purge which tells the tale of an America where all crime is legal for twelve hours each year.

So, he wanted to see it; it’s kinda dumb, as I expected, though not as in-your-face violent or gory … yet … but it does have one redeeming quality: Gabriel Chavarria as the hottie Latino good guy hero.

On the flip side, Lifetime has a new boy-meets-girl, boy-stalks-girl, boy-kidnaps-girl’s-old-boyfriend story with Penn Badgley as the nice guy masturbating on the street murdering stalker. He is kinda cute, in the stalkerish way.

Just sayin’.

Tuesday Thought #2

Nero Fiddled While Rome Burned; _____ Golfs While California Blazes

As the death toll rose to 45, more than 10,000 firefighters battled some 16 wildfires in Northern California; more than 300 people are missing. The fires have consumed more than 214,000 acres of land, forced over 100,000 residents to evacuate and damaged or destroyed at least 5,700 homes and businesses.

In Puerto Rico, 91% of the island is still without power a month after Hurricane Maria, the death toll in Puerto Rico had risen to 48, people are drinking water being pumped to them from a “federally designated hazardous-waste site, and  _____ vows to pull FEMA off the island.

And _____ once again took the weekend off and headed to the _____ National Golf Club Sunday, making this his seventy-third golf trip since taking office last January; seventy-three gold days in 241 days in office means that roughly 30% of his time is spent on a golf course which is a lot for a man who promised, promised, not to take a vacation because being the president is s full-time job.

But that was a lie because every single mother f**king word that comes out of his mouth is a lie.

And why is _____ ignoring California and victim-shaming Puerto Rico? Politics. Puerto Rico is full of brown-skinned people and California is a Blue State. If that doesn’t make you angry, that a president of this country is allowing people to suffer and die and lose everything they have while he plays golf, then grab a mirror and look into it: you’re the problem. You have no heart and you need to know one thing: one day some tragedy will befall you, or your state and your president will be waddling around a golf course.

And don't cry about it because it's your fault.

This Is All Far From Over ...

... but, for now, five Michigan officials have just been charged with involuntary manslaughter for their roles in the Flint water crisis.

Good. Nick Lyon, Michigan’s health department director, Lyon is the highest-ranking member of Governor Rick Snyder’s administration to be charged, along with former Flint Emergency Manager Darnell Earley, former Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Drinking Water Chief Liane Shekter-Smith, Water Supervisor Stephen Busch and former Flint Water Department Manager Howard Croft.

The five were indicted for not telling the public about an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, which has been linked to the Flint water crisis. Governor Snyder’s administration switched the water supply to the Flint River to save money, leading to 12 deaths and 79 people sickened with Legionnaires’ disease in 2014-15.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said further charges against Snyder and his administration could be forthcoming. Good; these white men, in an effort to save money, poisoned an entire community of low income people and minorities. Snyder and his administration—the whole lot—need to be held accountable for they did just to save a buck.

Latest

On This Date In ISBL History: What About Here?

As Carlos and I are in sunny Miami for business and pleasure, I thought I’d do something I’ll call “On This Date In ISBL History” and repost some things from back when the blog was new, and newish … this was originally published January 12, 2010:

What About Here?

I'm going to say this straight out: ever since the White Man arrived in this country, we have been fucking the Native Americans. Which is something we do quite well; we befriend; we offer help; we make a suggestion. And before you know it, we have your land; we have your goods; we have you.

The Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the U.S. of A. is home to an estimated 45,000 Oglala Sioux on more than two million acres. Sounds nice. Room to roam; wide open spaces. God's country.

Not so much.

Unemployment stands at 80%. There are a minimum of fifteen people per home. Life expectancy ends at about age fifty. And while the Pine Ridge tribal housing authority receives some $10 million a year from Congress, it's not enough to maintain those few existing homes, much less build many new ones. One-third of homes on the reservation do not have electricity or running water.

What they have done, however, is to build a 280-cell jail to replace the old 25-cell one. So, if you're living with fourteen other people in a house with no water or electricity, get yourself arrested and move into some news digs with all the amenities. If you're young and living on the reservation you don't have the option of college or trade school; most young people end up joining a gang or the military or bootlegging; the reservation is supposed to be dry, but alcoholism is rampant

Youth suicide is on the rise.

Tribe president Theresa Two Bulls is also contending with startlingly poor health for young and old reservation residents alike; half of the Oglala Sioux over 40 have diabetes and the infant mortality rate is three times the national average.

President Obama has acknowledged the hardships facing Native Americans and vowed to do something, but with this economy and the fight for health care reform, will he find the time or the political capital?

"Few have been more marginalized and ignored by Washington for as long as Native Americans, our first Americans. I know what it means to feel ignored and forgotten, and what it means to struggle. So you will not be forgotten as long as I'm in this White House."—President Obama, at the White House Tribal Nations Conference.

We've heard those words from him before, regarding the LGBT community

Theresa Two Bulls has long harbored a conspiracy theory about the government: 

"Look how they brought welfare and our people lived on welfare and some of our people don't even know how to work. They're used to just staying at home all day, watching TV and drinking and taking drugs. That's the state the government wanted us to be in and we're in it."

We came here, and stole their land.

We came here and murdered them.

We came here and robbed them of their homes and their dignity and their livelihood.

That is not America.

If you want to know more about how we've treated Native Americans, please read Peter Matthiessen's In The Spirit Of Crazy Horse.

Things haven’t changed in the seven years since this post. We are still stealing lands from Native Peoples; we are running oil pipelines through their sacred burial grounds, through their properties; we are endangering the very existence of these Native Americans by treating them as if they, their lands, their idea, their lives, don’t matter more than a barrel of oil.

The Funny Papers

Mike Luckovich, Nate Beeler, Darrin Bell, John Cole Scott Stantis, Steve Sack, RJ Matson, Jim Morin, Bill Day

The Largest Native American Protect In HISTORY Is Happening Right Now

Ever since the White Man stepped onto the shores of what became “America” we — and I mean all of us, through action or inaction — have systematically tried to destroy those Native Peoples and their cultures in favor of our own needs, our own greed, our own sense of entitlement … and we’re still doing it today.

Right now, the United States government, along with Dakota Access, the company building the pipeline, is trying to take control of Native American lands to allow oil developers the right drill on those lands — lands that are not ours — and build a massive oil pipeline across those lands to move that oil.

Oh, it sounds so simple: we just want to drill for oil on your land, and we just want to build a pipeline on your land. But those are the same arguments that were used in Canada for the Tar Sands project and take a look at the before and after photos of what happened there:

Pretty? Right? Who wouldn’t let the US government come in and do that to your land?

This new pipeline, the Bakken, would follow a similar pathway as that of the failed Keystone pipeline; this new, massive fracked oil line would cut through four Midwestern states, across the Ogallala aquifer, the Mississippi and hundreds of other waterways through sovereign Native lands. And so the Native People of the Dakotas have taken to a protest, though they are calling it, more accurately, a “protect” of those lands and the idea that the US can simply come in and take over and do with the lands what they will.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe say the pipeline threatens sacred sites — including sacred burial grounds — and drinking water resources, and that no meaningful consultation between the Native Peoples and the government ever took place.

Of course, the Army Corps of Engineers disagrees; they say the tribe declined to be part of the process, while the tribe says they didn’t want to legitimize a flawed process in which the government simply does what it wants though coercion and bullying.

Dakota Access — which says the project is safe and will benefit the region and boost energy independence — have agreed to stop construction until the court rules on the injunction. But Dakota Access says, in response to the claim that the Bakken would be a danger to the environment, that they will have personnel all along the pipeline for operation and maintenance, use a 24-hour monitoring system to detect pressure changes, and ensure shut-off valves that can be remotely activated if a leak happens. They also say the project will create more than 12,000 jobs and open up rail capacity for crops and other commodities via the extra 750 rail cars required departing the tank terminal every day.

It all sounds so good, right? More jobs! More transport for crops and goods via the railways! More, and better, safety precautions! But what about a mistake; an accident; a spill. Think of all the water resources that would be threatened—turning a great deal of the country into Flint, Michigan; think of the farmlands destroyed by an oil spill from Texas to the Dakotas, and the crops lost. Think of the wildlife threatened, and destroyed, by that accident.

Federal agencies say the Bakken avoids “critical habitat” but is that true when it runs across farmlands, rivers, forests, wildlife areas and major waterways like the Mississippi, and the Missouri? And given the oil disasters we’ve seen, here in this country — Exxon Valdez, anyone … the Gulf Spill, anyone — would we be right in trusting that this new oil project is truly safe?

And say we did; say we do trust that the government and private corporations will do the best they can to protect the water and protect the land, what bothers me the most is what we are once again doing to Native Peoples; stealing their land for our own profit; taking what we gave them because we have come to realize it’s more valuable than we originally thought. This White Man’s Greed needs to be stopped.

I read a great book about the way the United States government has treated Native People’s since we landed here — In The Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Matthiessen — in which I learned that, while in office, President Nixon signed a treaty with Native Americans regarding land in the Dakotas and gave all the land to the tribes there. But, when it was later learned that the land was rich in uranium, Nixon took the land back, saying the US government does not make treaties with its own people. It was theft, pure and simple; theft by the government over people we have marginalized, criminalized, and removed to lands that were not their own because we wanted their land for our own needs.

And so now this new “protect” is happening, as Native People try, once again, to keep what’s theirs; what we “gave” them after we stole from them.

For months tribe members have protested at one of the construction sites where the Cannonball and Missouri rivers meet. It was a small group, at first, but has since grown in size and attention as the construction goes on, and the national and international media have taken notice. And with that added scrutiny, both state and county governments have escalated their response by arresting the “protectors”; more that 30 arrests have been made in the last two weeks alone.

In addition, North Dakota Homeland Security Director Greg Wilz ordered the removal of state-owned trailers and water tanks from the “protect” camp in response to alleged disorderly conduct; tribe members had requested and been given mobile public health services like water to ensure the safety of the protesters, but now those services are gone … possibly in the hopes that once they have no water, no air conditioned trailers, no services, the protesters will also move along. Following that, North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple issued an emergency declaration for southwest and south-central North Dakota saying there was a “significant public safety concern” while the tribes maintain the protests have been peaceful.

That peace, however, may not last, as news of the protest spread and more people, on both sides of the issue, flood into the area. Tribe officials say that as many as 4,000 people have come to North Dakota and that tribal flags from as far away as California can be seen flying, showing that support extends beyond Great Plains tribes.

And as more tribes push back against the Bakken and, in effect, the US government, landowners in Iowa are making their own stand. This past week, the Iowa Utilities Board told Dakota Access to keep away from the properties of 15 landowners who are facing eminent domain but have not granted easements; this halt in construction will run until the board is done reviewing the landowner’s lawsuit.

And then came the worse news … Last Friday a federal judge denied the tribe's request to halt construction on the Bakken, ruling that regulators had acted properly when issuing permitting for the project. But they threw a bone at the tribes, saying that "important issues raised by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe … regarding the Dakota Access pipeline specifically, and pipeline-related decision-making generally, remain." 

So, they admitted there is cause for concern, both in the harm to the environment in the case of an accident, and the trespassing into the sovereign lands of Native Peoples, and yet they still sided with Dakota Access.

Again, it looked like we were screwing Native Peoples for profit until … Obama.

After the ruling by the federal court, the Obama administration said it would not authorize construction on that critical stretch of the Bakken pipeline, and added that construction would halt until it can do more environmental assessments.

The Department of Justice, the Army and the Interior Department immediately halted construction on the pipeline near North Dakota's Lake Oahe, a major water source for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and they must now decide whether they will reconsider permitting decisions for the pipeline under the National Environmental Policy Act. 

“I want to take a moment and reflect on this historic moment in Indian Country, but I know that our work is not done. We need to permanently protect our sacred sites and our water. There are areas on the construction route that do not fall within federal jurisdiction, so we will continue to fight.” — Dave Archambault II, the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe 

Dakota Access developers had no comment on the decision, but the Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now which supports the pipeline, said the decision was “deeply troubling and could have a long-lasting chilling effect on private infrastructure development in the United States.”   

Again, it’s more about profit than doing what’s right, doing what’s best for the environment; doing what’s best, and right, for Native Americans.

Look, I’m all about jobs; but not at the expense of the environment. What good will the jobs be, what good will the oil be, when the water supplies are destroyed, when the farm lands go barren, when the oil seeps into the ground and ruins everything?

And I am utterly against the decimation of Native Peoples rights; for far too long we have treated them as less than, shunted them aside, forcibly moved them from their homes and lands to places in this country that we, at the time, didn’t want, didn’t need.  And then suddenly we find valuable mineral deposits or vast underground oil fields and we decide that the land we gave to these Native Peoples really belongs to us and so we take it, and we ruin it. We tear these people away from their lands in a way that, if someone did that to us … the White Man … we would not tolerate it.

Imagine the uproar if oil was discovered under Washington DC and a company wanted to run a pipeline through Arlington National Cemetery. Would any of us sit still and allow that to happen? And, if not, how can we allow it to happen to anyone else?

This has to stop. It’s bad for the Native People, it’s bad for the environment; it’s just plain bad. There are other, safer sources of energy that won’t end up killing anyone in an accident; that won’t end up destroying the more vital resources — water and farmlands — that we all need to survive.

Protect. Protest. Do unto others …

Indigenous Network

Think Progress
The Hill