What he speaks of is just the tip of the coming iceberg. Which is the exact reason that we need to vote and we need to have conversations with those we love about the consequences of voting, not voting and to whom we vote for. Education is the only way out of this.
Thank you Trae, we love you for what you do.
She would say FUCK THOSE MOTHER FUCKERS!
Trae also says it quite well…
If anyone doesn’t think that this is just the start of the religious right’s plan, that anyone is living the life of a fool.
Saw these and just had to post them here.
They speak volumes for themselves.
WARNING; Rant ahead. You might want to skip the beginning of this one if you are overwhelmed or easily offended…but I’ve gotta get it out. My emotions have overcome me to the point I am angry. I need to shift my attitude but in order to shift I’ve first gotta rant.
Disgust.
Disgust is what I’ve felt since the news of the point blank shooting of 20 year old Duarte Wright by a police officer. Pulled over and shot point blank for simply driving while black. Another police murder during the trial of George Floyd’s murderer cop is underway with both crimes taking place in the same region of Minnesota.
I am no longer sorry to say that I feel that most of the police departments in this country are full of racist cowards. The whole system may possibly need to be dismantled in order to reorganize, purge and start over. Week after week more cowardly racist asshole police officers just fucking harass and often simply murder people of color.
I used to think the police were the good guys. After this past year I now know many of them are as crooked as that asshole who just left the white house. Many of them are crooked, racist, violent, cowardly liars.
So now that I’ve gotten a rant off my chest and graphically told you how I feel, I need to see how I can move on.
I can move on by focusing first on what I can do right here, right now.
What is important to me? What do I value?
I value love, respect, understanding, acceptance, diversity and kindness. How can I get more of these beautiful treasures? I can start by giving these things to the world right now and right where I am.
I can call a friend and say “I love you”. I can tell an associate at work that I value their knowledge and respect their input. I can take a moment to listen to and understand someone else who needs an ear. I can accept that the anxious person wanting to force their way into my lane of traffic may be stressed and possibly late to pick up their child by graciously letting them in front of me. I can seek to experience a diverse and different point of view that might open my eyes to seeing things from another angle or culture. I can say a kind word to the overworked mother who’s checking out my groceries at the store while saying her name from her name tag and looking into her eyes.
I can say to you my reader thank you. Thank you for reading my blog. Thank you for letting me rant. Thank you for understanding that I get overwhelmed. Thank you for letting me have an opinion. Thank you for allowing me to come to a better place by realizing that while I can’t change what happened in Minneapolis, I can change the world right here, right now simply by spreading the good things I value. By spreading good, one by one good things spread further. With each good deed the world gets better one moment, one person, one smile at a time.
I can also share beauty, art and music. This is an all time favorite that never fails to bring a smile to my face. Oh, and by the way…I love you, I love you for being right here, right now.
Stephanie Mills – I Never Knew Love Like This Before – 1980
Sadly this meme is appropriate today.
Oh and a note to the the judge who just 10 days ago overturned Boulder’s assault weapons ban:
Fuck you. You have blood on your hands.
When witnessing a crime should we look the other way? Or call them out?
What Would Betty Do?
Inciting violence that overtakes the halls of Congress is treason. Lying about the results of an election is treason. Obstruction of justice is treason. Staging a coup to remain in office as an authoritarian is treason.
Period. Period. Period. Period.
I don’t care how few days are left, Impeach and remove the motherfucker from office immediately.
You, my dear reader, can reach your representative HERE
…and your Senator HERE
It doesn’t matter what your political party nor your Senator’s or Representative’s political party is, what happened today is not only wrong but unconstitutional and it is our duty as citizens to speak out and demand justice.
Otherwise your democratic government of the USA is over, it’s toast.
The results today in Georgia give me hope. Now it’s our turn to give the residents of Georgia hope.
As I’ve stated, my goal on this here little blog thingy is mainly self growth. Since the start this has been a place for beards to contemplate and grow their souls. Please note this intention is for everyone, not just beards. We do our best to stay on the positive path and therefore while politics occasionally creep in, we try to avoid the stress politics can inject as much as possible. However there are occasions that simply cannot be overlooked with good conscience.
So when it comes to the state of U.S. politics the past few days, I’ll simply post this fabulous little gif just to release a little stress. With this little stress relief I may now move forward without having to say anything else at the moment. If it helps anyone else my efforts will be doubled!
Please watch, please share.
If you love your planet, country, family, children, home and your way of life…hell even just your own life…you will vote.
“Because not believing in Darwinism IS Darwinism.” – Betty Bowers 4/27/2020
Betty Bowers America’s Best Christian TM
We here at Fearsome Beard do not believe in war. We do not believe in guns. We do not believe in a supreme religion. (We believe that people have a right to practice a religion if they so choose, but they do not have the right to call their religion supreme to all other beliefs or non-beliefs nor force it upon others.)
We believe in peace. We believe in respect. We believe in truth, honesty, integrity, character and fidelity.
We do not support the actions taken by our government today. We do not support the individual who made that decision, nor do we support those who are complicit in this crime against humanity, civilization and our planet.
Buffalo Springfield – For What it’s Worth – 1967
Let’s just say I was called out today in the comments section of another blog to be an Internet Troll. It turned into quite the Kerfuffle. Thankfully many other commenters in that wonderful community came to my defense. I greatly appreciate them. I don’t like to point fingers by calling out someone by name, so therefore I will not do that. I will however say it was wretched, simply wretched.
I commented on another’s comment with a quick one liner that was supportive of the commenters comment, on topic and in keeping with the nature of the comments for the blog. I know the nature of the blog as I’ve been a daily reader for most of said blogs 15 year existence. I rarely comment but do on rare occasion should something come to mind that fits and I’m in the mood to.
My reprimand wasn’t from the person for whom I commented with support, but out of left field from someone who wasn’t even previously even in the conversation. I was told to “go away” because I apparently didn’t have enough previous comments recorded in my records to be there or have an opinion. I was called both an “Internet Troll” and a “sock puppet.”
So being the contemplative Beard that Fearsome is, he asked me to google the definition of Internet Troll. On Wikipedia we found this definition:
In Internet slang, a troll is a person who starts quarrels or upsets people on the Internet to distract and sow discord by posting inflammatory and digressive,[1] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into displaying emotional responses[2] and normalizing tangential discussion,[3] whether for the troll’s amusement or a specific gain.
Hmmmm. Fearsome then started to wonder what defined Sock puppet, Wikipedia defines it as:
A sockpuppet is an online identity used for purposes of deception. The term, a reference to the manipulation of a simple hand puppet made from a sock, originally referred to a false identity assumed by a member of an Internet community who spoke to, or about, themselves while pretending to be another person.[
Hmmm.
Lets then look at what happened. I commented on topic, in keeping with the nature and in support of the commenter to which I commented. Out of left field someone aggressively tries to upset and distract from the comment thread by making an unfounded off topic inflammatory name calling statement, directed at me simply because I didn’t have enough comments in my history to satisfy their personal minimum threshold.
Looking at this honestly, who would actually fit the definition of Internet Troll here?
Hmmm.
As far as sock puppet, I had never ever heard that term but let’s again look at this. On Disqus you can click on the user and see their profile. If you click on mine it’s open for all to see. One can read all my comments and even click a link to this here blog thingy, and this here blog thingy leads directly to me as I have nothing to hide. If you click on said user that did the name calling their Disqus profile is labeled “Private” and one cannot see their past comments nor anything about them.
Looking at this honestly, which profile might better fit that of a sock puppet?
Hmmm.
I’ve found in life that an aggressive accuser is often guilty of the very indiscretions to which he/she is falsely accusing another. I was brought up in the south and we had a little saying there that seems to fit. That saying is simply “Glass Houses”.
James Corden made this video when the stirrings of the threat to oust our Trans brothers and sisters from the military. Unfortunately that then threat is now real.
Unfortunately the threat deepens as that “administration” has decided to push the discrimination further by now attempting to sway the SCOTUS to rule that title VII does not extend to sexual identity therefore enshrining discrimination via precedent. In other words the executive branch pressuring the judicial branch to interpret that anyone can discriminate against and fire (or deny housing to, or, or, or…) someone for simply being transgender. Anyone or any entity.
Please stand with your fellow human beings, in our very communities, who are simply living their lives, living them to the best of their abilities. What’s in between anyone’s legs is between them and their god or non-god. Period.
Oh, and mark my words, they aren’t planning on stopping here.
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
…Martin Niemöller
Ok I’ll admit it. I am sick at home with a bad cold and can’t work. Thus yesterday I found myself watching the Cohen testimony between naps and coughing. You, my dear reader, can attest to that fact due to the suddenly overwhelming flurry of posted videos. I obviously wasn’t amused but infuriated by the shenanigans. Necessary shenanigans they were.
So this morning I posted Hail Satan? The Documentary. I did so for a reason. The Satanic Temple seems to actually be practicing the principals of ‘Christianity’ better than most ‘Christians’ I see in the press theses days. The Satanic Temple also seems to value truth and our U.S. constitution better than the ‘Christians’ I typically see in the press of recent . (Before anyone gets their panties all tied up in a bunch please note that I didn’t say “all” but I said “in the press” when referring to ‘Christians’.)
Just an observation and a frank opinion of mine at the moment. Under the influence of cold meds? Yes. Delusional? No.
My disclaimer is this:
While I believe that there is a greater power than me which gives me the spark of life and also helps guide me (if I choose to let it), I am not a ‘Christian’ nor am I a Satanist. My Higher Power or God or Allah or Christ or Satan or Flying Spaghetti Monster, is my business and not anyone elses’. It is also not appropriate for me to push my personal beliefs about any deity of my own preference upon you or anyone.
Now having said all of that I’ll get to the post I was going to do, but decided not to write.
While watching yesterday’s necessary shenanigans, I couldn’t help but to think of the blind followers of a certain Mr. Hitler of Germany back in the 1930’s & 1940’s. Those thoughts immediately took me to a favorite musical of mine. That musical? Cabaret of corse. After all I am a 50 something homosexual and the lead is played by none other than Hollywood legend Judy Garland’s fabulous daughter Liza Manelli. Besides what other musical so boldly depicts a homosexual couple carefully maneuvering their way through a political minefield of hate, bigotry, mind control, deceit and selfishness?
So this morning I was going to snarkily just drop the video of the blonde German boy singing Tomorrow Belongs To Me right here on this here internets blogy thingy. You know just as a political statement. Therefore I popped over onto YouTube to copy a URL to post here for your viewing pleasure, and also for your own mind expanding contemplation about the blind following a false prophet onto a path of darkness and corruption.
I had thought this through and was simply going to post with it a few short words about history. Something like: “History often repeats itself. However if we learn from history can we make new choices? New and better choices so it possibly doesn’t repeat with the same outcome?”
This Post was going to be good. A real thought provoker. You know, clarity through simplicity. Hell maybe it would even go viral and suddenly I would be hearalded as new voice. A voice to be heard. My 15 minutes were just about to happen. I mean I could feel it.
Then while previewing the video of that blonde German boy singing my eyes drifted to the comments.
Bubble burst.
From the comments it seems that this climactic scene from an anti-Nazi 1970s film, starring none other than Liza Minnelli and having a homosexual subplot, is becoming an anthem for today’s populist (read: selfish, self centered, hate filled) movement. The very song that is directly pointing to the fallacy of a blind following is being heralded by those very same blind individuals as a call to action.
The fucking irony.
Is it just me, or does this guy make sense?
If you aren’t familiar with Pete Buttigieg check him out.
At this point I believe in hearing all possible candidates. A few are standing out. In my book Pete is one of those stand outs.
I was raised in Virginia and was in college in 1984. I lived the experience of fraternities as well.
Virginia has a reputation and rightly so. Virginia can be a racist place. I know as I experienced and witnessed it then. I still witness it when I return there to visit family today.
Racism is wrong. I didn’t realize how racist the culture of my upbringing in that state was until I left.
Virginia is steeped in American history. Virginia is proud if it’s history. Virginia is also slow to change. Virginia is often blind to its own faults.
Racism is a blind spot that Virginia unfortunately has.
Is everyone in Virginia racist? Hell no. But racism was alive there in 1984 and still is alive there today.
Did we Virginians know blackface and KKK robes were racist back in 1984? Hell yes we did.
Did the current governor of Virginia make a mistake in 1984? Yes he did. Should that mistake alone of childish behavior then end his career today? Maybe not depending on his reaction and his amending of his ways since.
However his reaction, denial and lame attempt at the unauthentic apology is as childish, shameful, disgusting, and as racist, as his irresponsible immature 1984 collegiate behavior. In my opinion his insensitive and insincere reactions, not even considering the appalling personal yearbook page revelations, completely disqualify him from any ability to lead or govern.
The Governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, must resign now.
Fearsome Beard 