Tag: Bigotry

Closing Thought–25Sep20

Every time Donald the Orange opens his mouth or picks up a pen (sorry….Sharpie) he proves what a racist pig he truly has become.

His newest Executive Order bans diversity training in corporations…..now he is telling business what to do….a dictator at heart….no a fascist dictator at heart……

Donald Trump announced that he signed an executive order prohibiting government contractors and grantees from providing racial sensitivity and diversity training to employees. In it, the President claims he is taking action to combat “harmful and offensive race and sex stereotyping and scapegoating.”

The Daily Beast reports that Trump announced the new executive order in a series of tweets, because of course he did.

“A few weeks ago, I BANNED efforts to indoctrinate government employees with divisive and harmful sex and race-based ideologies. Today, I’ve expanded that ban to people and companies that do business… with our Country, the United States Military, Government Contractors, and Grantees. Americans should be taught to take PRIDE in our Great Country, and if you don’t, there’s nothing in it for you!”

This executive order is similar to the one that Trump signed earlier in September which directed federal government agencies to cancel or divert funds away from any contracts for training sessions that mentioned “white privilege” or “critical race theory.” Tuesday’s executive order comes less than a week after Trump gave a speech on the importance of “patriotic education” and once again condemned critical race theory, arguing “the crusade against American history is toxic propaganda, ideological poison that, if not removed, will dissolve the civic bonds that tie us together.” Well, if the civic bonds are really that weak….

https://theslot.jezebel.com/trump-signs-executive-order-banning-federal-contractors-1845149417

There can be no doubt to anyone that is NOT a racist pig that this person, Trump, is a bigot with NO empathy for anyone but himself.

All that is missing these days is a special salute to the leader.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Necessary Evil?

I have often heard the statement that something is a necessary evil…..I may sure that you have as well…..but what does the statement actually mean?

A Necessary Evil…….something bad or unpleasant that you have to accept in order to achieve what you want…..

There are few things that I could say are necessary evils…..

I, for one, consider yard work to be a necessary evil.• Mr Waldegrave’s shambolic performance in the press conference was a necessary evil.• We do not look at government as a necessary evil.• It may be a necessary evil, but it is surely an evil.• However, the authors, like most others then and now, saw those shortcomings as a necessary evil in maintaining control.• They’re a necessary evil, like the woman who sawed off all my lovely hair.• Lawyers are a necessary evil that I try to use as little as possible due to their cost.• Bureaucracy was also a necessary evil to cope with the ravages of war.• They viewed such methods as a necessary evil, unavoidable yet somehow beneath their dignity.

All this confusion is from something the “Mouth Of The South”, Tom Cotton, had to say about slavery….

“As the Founding Fathers said, it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built.” That’s how Sen. Tom Cotton described slavery in an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Friday. The Republican was speaking out against the 1619 Project at the time, a New York Times-based curriculum examining the history of slavery in the US. Cotton has introduced a bill that would reduce federal funding for any school that uses it, the Hill reports, but he’s now facing criticism for his comments on it. In context:

  • “We have to study the history of slavery and its role and impact on the development of our country because otherwise we can’t understand our country. As the Founding Fathers said, it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built, but the union was built in a way, as Lincoln said, to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction.”
  • Cotton also said that the US should not be portrayed as “an irredeemably corrupt, rotten and racist country,” but “as an imperfect and flawed land, but the greatest and noblest country in the history of mankind.” He added, “The entire premise of the New York Times’ factually, historically flawed 1619 Project … is that America is at root, a systemically racist country to the core and irredeemable. I reject that root and branch. America is a great and noble country founded on the proposition that all mankind is created equal. We have always struggled to live up to that promise, but no country has ever done more to achieve it.” A director of the project was among those criticizing Cotton, but Cotton’s response to her got retweeted by the president himself: “Describing the *views of the Founders* and how they put the evil institution on a path to extinction, a point frequently made by Lincoln, is not endorsing or justifying slavery.”

I do not agree with “whatsisname”…….it was only necessary for the owners of plantations to get rich….

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Was Dickens A Racist?

Here in the US we have gone batcrap crazy labeling this person or that a racist….especially some of our historic figures…..Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Adams and on and on…….

But I read that in the UK some are trying to label Charles Dickens, one of their greatest novelists, as a some sort of racist.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was one of the greatest novelists of the 19th century and a world-historical literary and cultural figure. In the English language, he is perhaps second only to William Shakespeare in enduring significance and popularity.

His imperishable works include The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey and Son, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Our Mutual Friend and, of course, the novella that introduced the reading public to Ebenezer Scrooge, A Christmas Carol.

In late June, the Dickens House Museum in Broadstairs, in East Kent, England, was vandalized by an individual who sprayed “Dickens Racist” on the building. The perpetrator, Ian Driver, is a former Green Party councillor.

Unrepentant, Driver subsequently indicated he targeted the museum because it represented “the deep-rooted institutional racism of Broadstairs Town and Thanet District councils.” In a statement, he deplored the celebration of “genocidal racists such as Charles Dickens and King Leopold of Belgium.”

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/07/10/cdck-j10.html

If there are any UK residents that know more about this report…please share for us…..

I cannot see the necessity for this…..does that matter toward his genius in writing?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

STOP! Racism Is The Problem!

I keep waiting for someone….anyone….to start an actual conversation on race.

So far all we have is lip service.

Some great points have been made but a truly hard look at racism has never been spoken.

We should be honest….the United States is broken and has been for a very long time.

The coming ethnic storm has some scrambling to keep things the way they are today……

Almost three decades ago when Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. penned The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society (1991), the threat of American white extremism was, if not quite unimagined, profoundly underestimated. Instead, Schlesinger lays the blame for what he calls the “decomposition of America” on the rise of “tribalism,” with Afrocentrism, “multiculturalists” and “ethnocentric separatist,” who in Schlesinger’s view see “the western tradition [as] inherently racist, sexist, ‘classist,’ hegemonic; irredeemably repressive, irredeemably oppressive,” presenting a clear and present danger. In some ways, the book presages Samuel P. Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations (1996), another in a long tradition of apocalyptic treatises on the rising tide of color, although this time penned by cold war liberals who offer a more palatable version lacking the overtly racist demagoguery of previous scribes. Like Huntington, Schlesinger envisions that the threat to western, specifically American values and institutions comes from an imagined Brown Peril of teeming dark-skinned others not from those who have historically rejected them – i.e., white racial narcissists. As Sam Tanenhaus wrote in his 2017 review of the book in The Atlantic, “though its critique of the ‘politics of identity’ and the ‘tribal antagonisms’ it bred should have included a harder look at his own privileged tribe, its delusions as well as its prejudices and presumptions.”

America’s White Problem Revisited

Can we explain the reason for these extreme right wing views?

Some have tried.

New research from Belgium provides evidence that deficits in emotion understanding and emotion management are related to right-wing and prejudiced attitudes. The study has been published in the journal Emotion.

“I have a lifelong interest in political psychology and in political ideology in particular. The observation that left-wing and right-wing adherents tend to differ on so many psychological characteristics is amazing,” said study author Alain Van Hiel, a professor at the University of Ghent.

“Many scholars have investigated the cognitive basis of ideology in general, and right-wing ideological attitudes in particular. In the present study, we wanted to investigate if a similar relationship would exist for emotional abilities.”

https://www.psypost.org/2019/09/people-with-lower-emotional-intelligence-are-more-likely-to-hold-right-wing-views-study-finds-54369

I do not understand……people who pretend that the Constitution is all important set about violate the tenets set forth by our Founders…..or they violate the teachings of something they hold on to for dear life….Christianity.

America has a serious white-supremacy problem, which is helping fuel a rise in hate crimes, violence, and domestic terrorism, and it’s time for Congress to do something to combat this growing threat to our nation.

https://www.businessinsider.com/congress-white-supremacist-terrorism-violence-trump-opinion-2019-9

Divisions destroy unity.

Ignorance is NOT strength……Ignorance is slavery!

Learn Stuff!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Closing Thought–14Aug19

If you ever needed proof that this White House is manned by racists and bigots look NO further than Ken “The Cooch” Cuccinelli….his latest words…..(nickname is self-explanatory)

A major change to US immigration law unveiled on Monday has drawn attention to the famous poem on the Statue of Liberty that welcomes the “huddled masses” to US shores. The new law will favor would-be citizens who can step right into a job over those who might need federal assistance. That being the case, Rachel Martin of NPR asked Ken Cuccinelli—acting director of Citizenship and Immigration Services—whether the poem still applies. “Would you also agree that Emma Lazarus’s words etched on the Statue of Liberty, ‘Give me your tired, give me your poor,’ are also a part of the American ethos?” she asked. “They certainly are,” said Cuccinelli, before adding a new twist to the words: “Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge.”

A “public charge” is the government term for those who are a burden to the US, per the AP. “That plaque was put on the Statue of Liberty at almost the same time as the first public charge was passed—very interesting timing,” Cuccinelli added. CBS News notes that he’s a bit off on that: The plaque went up on the already erected statue in 1907, and the first public charge law went into effect in 1882. The issue has come up previously. White House aide and immigration hard-liner Stephen Miller was asked about the poem in 2017 while pushing a skills-based immigration system over one that emphasizes family ties. “I don’t want to get off into a whole thing about history here, but the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of liberty enlightening the world,” he said. “The poem that you’re referring to was added later, it’s not actually part of the original Statue of Liberty.”

This is a racist bastard!

He is pathetic and disgusting and should leave NO doubt what this immigration policy is all about…..

To take something so noble as the Statue of Liberty and the poem and pervert it to mean something racist is just the depth of depravity….the sooner we rid the country of these types of leaders the better we will,be as a nation.

It cannot come too soon.

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

 

Saturday Thoughts

Once again the weekend has broken and I had nothing unusual on which to post……so scramble was on to find that certain special post.

Racism has been in the news quiet often……but how far does our thoughts on color actually go?

It seems that we would apply our racial stereotypes to robots as well……

A study published by New Zealand’s University of Canterbury reported that humans tend to apply their racial biases to white and black robots. 

The study, “Robots and Racism,” conducted by New Zealand’s Human Interface Technology Laboratory, indicated people ascribe racial backgrounds to human-like robots and apply racial stereotypes accordingly.

If proliferation of robots increases, this association could present a serious issue, according to the study.

“If robots are supposed to function as teachers, friends, or carers, for instance, then it will be a serious problem if all of these roles are only ever occupied by robots that are racialized as White,” it states.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/455832-study-finds-humans-apply-racial-stereotypes-to-white-and-black

And people say it is getting better on the racial front…..reality says no way……

How about those brains?

I knew all along that I was special…..

Which river passes through Madrid? What year did the Spanish Civil War end? Some people seem to have the answer to every trivia question you throw at them. What sets these people apart from others, though? Not all that surprisingly, it has to do with their brains. A new study found that people with great general knowledge also have efficiently wired brains.

“Although we can precisely measure the general knowledge of people and this wealth of knowledge is very important for an individual’s journey through life, we currently know little about the links between general knowledge and the characteristics of the brain,” says Dr. Erhan Genç from the Department of Biopsychology in Bochum.

Genç and colleagues performed brain scans on 324 volunteers using a special technique called diffusion tensor imaging, which reconstructs the pathways of nerve fibers. Imagine your brain as a tangled network of roads and highways; this method can provide a map of this network.

The brains of people with excellent general knowledge are more efficiently wired

Time for me to give MoMo the attention she demands…..have a good day and a better tomorrow.

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Closing Thought–01Aug19

We know just how racist this president can be…..right?

His picking on people of color…his naming countries as “Sh*t Holes”……etc etc….

I have said for years that the GOP was where racist go to appear mainstream….I have been called out and I still hold that position and Trump does nothing to change my mind….

Then I read about the “god” of the GOP Reagan and his use of a slur for blacks……..

A racist statement made by Ronald Reagan in October 1971 is now grabbing headlines thanks to a piece for the Atlantic written by Tim Naftali, and the words are explosive: “To see those, those monkeys from those African countries—damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes!” Reagan said in a phone call the then-California governor had with President Richard Nixon, who laughed. (You can hear it here.) Now a clinical associate professor of history at NYU, Naftali explains he was the Nixon Presidential Library’s first director, holding the post from 2007 to 2011, and he provides context for the call. The United Nations had, the day prior, voted to recognize China and boot Taiwan, a move that spurred joyous dancing from the Tanzanian delegation; the US was opposed to the move, and Reagan’s comment was made in reference to those who didn’t align with America.

Naftali explains that when the tape was released by the National Archives in 2000, Reagan’s words were excluded in an apparent move for privacy; his 2004 death negated the need for that, and Naftali last year requested a re-review of taped conversations involving Reagan. The full version was released two weeks ago. Naftali provides a deep and historical dive into what the line, and the conversations that ensued, signify. “Had the story stopped there, it would have been bad enough,” Naftali writes. “But what happened next showed the dynamic power of racism when it finds enablers.” He details how Nixon “used Reagan’s call as an excuse to adapt his language to make the same point to others,” first calling Secretary of State William Rogers to talk about Reagan’s distaste for the “cannibals” (Nixon’s word), which he described as a “typical” American reaction. (Read the full piece for much more.)

History has shown Nixon to be a racist and now the other GOPer is as well…..

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

 

Closing Thought–29Jul19

I know that this dude in the White House has made many many racist comments…..but when he uses terms like “infested” it smacks of Germany in the 1930s…….

Once again Trump has let his bigotry and racism come to the forefront…..

President Trump on Saturday denigrated a majority-black district represented by a congressional nemesis as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess,” broadening a campaign against prominent critics of his administration that has exacerbated racial tensions, the AP reports. Trump lashed out in tweets against Rep. Elijah Cummings, the powerful House Oversight Committee chairman, claiming his Baltimore-area district is “considered the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States.” It was the president’s latest assault on a prominent lawmaker, and the people he represents, two weeks after he sparked nationwide controversy with racist tweets directed at four congresswomen of color.

His comments against Cummings, who leads multiple investigations of the president’s governmental dealings, drew swift condemnation from Democrats, including would-be presidential rivals. Trump called Cummings a “brutal bully” after his public tongue-lashing of top Homeland Security officials over conditions for migrants detained along the southern border. “As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded,” Trump tweeted. “Cumming District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place.” Cummings replied directly to Trump on Twitter, saying, “Mr. President, I go home to my district daily … It is my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch. But, it is my moral duty to fight for my constituents.”

This rhetoric has allowed the worthless lumps of manure that are the racists get more exposure than they deserve…..

Even the racism Trump embraces makes it into the world of retail sales……

Shoppers at a New Jersey store will no longer find black dolls with eye-popping instructions waiting on the shelves, NJ.com reports. The One Dollar Zone in Bayonne pulled the “Feel Better Doll” Monday after Assembleywoman Angela McKnight visited to confirm what she’d seen on social media. A description on the product—which is made from black fabric with multi-colored yarn hair, white smile, and white eyes—tells buyers to “find a wall to slam the doll.” McKnight didn’t hold back: “This doll is offensive and disturbing on so many levels,” she says. “It is clearly made in an inappropriate representation of a black person and instructs people to ‘slam’ and ‘whack’ her. Racism has no place in the world and I will not tolerate it, especially not in this district.”

A message written on the dolls tells buyers that “Whenever things don’t go well / and you want to hit the wall and yell … Just grab it firmly by the legs and find a / wall to small the doll, and as you wack / the ‘feel good doll’ do not forget to yell / I FEEL GOOD, I FEEL GOOD.” One Dollar Zone President Ricky Shah expressed remorse for selling the product and says it arrived with a big shipment of merchandise, largely with “I Love NY” labels, the AP reports. “This somehow slipped through the cracks,” he says. Reporters couldn’t reach the doll’s manufacturer, the Harvey Hutter Co., which is located in Croton-on-Hudson, about 30 miles north of New York City. A supplier says the company has gone out of business

This is NO way for a country to behave……it is definitely NO way for the leader of the so-called “Free World” to behave……but then I expect this from a small petty man that is prone to insults and bullying.

Not to be outdone His Majesty Trump took to Twitter again…this time calling Cummings a racist…..seriously……

Upping a feud with an influential black lawmaker, President Trump on Sunday assailed Rep. Elijah Cummings as a “racist” over the “rodent-infested mess” in his district while White House aides sought to downplay his comments as frustration over Democrats’ unrelenting investigations, the AP reports. In a series of tweets, Trump insisted that his comments Saturday referring to Cummings’ majority-black district as a disgusting mess where “no human being would want to live” were not racist. On the contrary, Trump argued, “if racist Elijah Cummings would focus more of his energy on helping the good people of his district, and Baltimore itself, perhaps progress could be made in fixing the mess that he has helped to create over many years of incompetent leadership.” Trump added, “His radical ‘oversight’ is a joke!”

His comments capped a weekend of attacks on Cummings, the latest rhetorical shots against non-white lawmakers since Trump posted racist tweets directed at four Democratic congresswomen of color two weeks ago. Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney insisted in two national television interviews Sunday that Trump was not making racist comments. Mulvaney said Trump’s words were exaggerated for effect—”Does the president speak hyperbolically? Absolutely”—and meant to draw attention to Democratic-backed investigations of the Republican president and his team in Washington. “Instead of helping people back home, they’re focusing on scandal in Washington, DC, which is the exact opposite of what they said they would do when they ran for election in 2018,” Mulvaney said.

Mulvaney then stated that Trump was just fact checking Cummings….really!  That would be a first.

Trump lies and then has toadies like Mulvaney to add more manure to the pile left by His Majesty.

Trump has spoken!  Thus spake the Clown Prince Of Idiocracy…

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Closing Thought–16Jul19

Clueless lead by the clueless!

And yet they have a following….WHY?

I have now heard it all (for now I am sure more stupid will fall from their mouths)…..

In a strange opinion segment this morning, the hosts of Fox & Friends spent several minutes discussing the controversy of Disney’s casting decision in the new The Little Mermaid film. The titular character will be played by a black actress, and much of Fox News’ TV personalities have taken offense for some reason.

“Everyone knows mermaids are white,” explained Steve Doocy. “Of course they’re white. They may be mythical creatures adapted into fictional characters and storylines, but it was a white Scandinavian guy who wrote the book this specific Disney story is based off of. That means the mermaid character has to be white, forever. Now if a black or Chinese person had written The Little Mermaid, we’d have a different conversation.”

“I’d still argue the mermaid should be white, though,” explained co-host Brian Kilmeade. “Because America is a white nation, and even if The Little Mermaid had been written and animated in an African hut, the Orient, or by some bearded aboriginal in Australia, we should be allowed to airbrush the mermaid or something. It’s just a bigger inconvenience for me to have to see a black mermaid than for a black person to have to see a white mermaid because this is America. Now if the mermaid was a slave or a housemaid or something in this new Disney movie, then I could understand the mermaid being black, but—“

Chest thumping LIES as usual….I expect no less from FOX news….if there is an outlet that can be said to be “fake news” then look NO further than FOX.

Every day the movie “Idiocracy” becomes more like reality and not a work of fiction.

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Closing Thought–15Jul19

Back in the day when I did more writing for a local paper I was always having m-to deal with the “Love it of leave it” crowd…people that did not like the criticisms that I wrote would resort to that argument when that was all they had.

Looks like our dear loving president has been part of that crowd as well as “White Is Right” crowd.

He lashed out at the freshmen Democrats that are in the news…..

Four Democratic congresswomen of color should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” President Trump said Sunday. The lawmakers—Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ilhan Omar— all are US citizens, the Washington Post points out. Omar’s family fled Somalia when she was a child, during civil war; she was a teenager when she became a US citizen. Trump didn’t name the lawmakers but said he was referring to “‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen.” The four women were elected to Congress last year. They have been critical of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at times, and Trump’s tweet said they are “now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run.”

Pelosi answered by saying Trump wants to “make America white again.” She added in a tweet, “Our diversity is our strength and our unity is our power.” Asked about Trump’s comment on Fox News Sunday, Democratic lawmaker Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico said: “That’s a racist tweet. Telling people to go back where they came from? These are American citizens elected by voters in the United States of America to serve in one of the most distinguished bodies, in the U.S. House of Representatives.” On CNN, per Politico, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democratic candidate for president, said Trump’s goal “is make America hate again.”

This is typical of the moronic mouth of this president.

Every American should be outraged at this statement from our Dear Beloved Leader…….but instead the sound of crickets for the most part.

I find it disgusting!

I am waiting to see the reaction from the GOP membership….so far as expected they are COWARDS and silent.

“Lego Ergo Scribo”