Archive for February, 2023

Whoa, Pull In On Them Reins.

February 16, 2023 By: Juanita Jean Herownself Category: Uncategorized

Okay, you’re reading a story in the Washington Post right now that says Alex Jones’ filings in the bankruptcy court says that he is “Holding firearms for certain January 6th participants.”

It’s a joke.  A very bad joke that the Washington Post fell for hook, line, and sinker.

Okay, the questionnaire for the bankruptcy court asks Jones to “identify property he owns or controls for somebody else.” And Jones, who continues to disrupt and poke fun at the judicial system responds thusly,

Crap like this has been Jones’ way of demeaning the courts and the media throughout this ordeal.

Think of it this way, just when you think Jones has hired every lawyer on the bottom of the writ twit stoopid barrel, he digs deeper and finds lawyers who let this slip past them in filings. It will probably get them some hefty sanctions because judges are rarely thrilled with people signing documents and swearing to them when they contain made-up “jokes.”

The filing, on the whole, is significantly deficient. So, focus on that, not the jokes.

Okay, I just got sent the long form of the joke.  Please note that everything else on it is left blank, unlike any other positions or payments he filed.

 

Excuse the typos and click on the pictures to make them full size.  I wanted to get this up quickly.

I guess you gotta know Jones and how many other times he’s done stuff like this.  My best guess – and this is just a guess – is that it was Jones’ employees Owen Shroyer or Bob Dew who did this because they are both arrogant little punks.

 

Half Time Restrictions

February 15, 2023 By: Juanita Jean Herownself Category: Uncategorized

Here’s the deal – I am not a big football fan just like I am not a big wrestling fan.  We are asking young men to sacrifice their brains for our entertainment. (Booing is allowed, just not in my presence.)

However, I like half time.  Mainly because it pisses off the rightwing.

And Boy Howdy – this year’s halftime did not disappoint.

First, Lauren Boebert just had herself a hissy fit over a song written in honor of President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday 123 years ago.  I guess Boebert is still peeved over the whole Dixieland thing.

Well, I don’t hear her complaining about America the Beautiful being sung so I guess that’s okay.

And then there’s this guy on Fox News giving the secret meaning of Rihanna’s dance.

 

I just love how self righteous this dude is.

My friend Alfredo over at the Dairy Queen sent another You Tube he thought about.  It’s 70 years old and still relevant today.

 

Okay, no more Super Bowl for dumb people.

 

And She Wins A Double Dose of Thoughts and Prayers

February 14, 2023 By: Juanita Jean Herownself Category: Uncategorized

This is how used we are to killing kids.

A Michigan State University student who was on campus during Monday’s deadly shooting is also a survivor of the Sandy Hook massacre.

Jaqueline Matthews, 21, is originally from Newtown, Connecticut.

She was in 6th grade when the shooting happened in 2012 and is currently majoring in international law at MSU.

“I don’t ever think you ever get over something so traumatic or so tragic, even if it’s not in your community,” she said. “I think things like this, people feel and it never really goes away.”

She suffers from a PTSD fracture in her back due to crouching and hiding in a corner during the Sandy Hook massacre.

I just don’t know what to say.

 

Bad Shot

February 14, 2023 By: Juanita Jean Herownself Category: Uncategorized

Okay, we have a saying in Texas about people who are a bad shot. Mostly, we just call it hunting Dick Cheney style, but there’s also this one: Honey, he couldn’t hit the side of a barn, even if he was shooting from inside.

So here we have an airplane that cost about $30 million dollars to build and about $85,325 an hour to operate. Each Sidewinder missile cost $400,000. Each. No buy one, get one free deals on this stuff.

And this little Cloud Captain fired and freekin’ missed. (I get to call the Air Force names because my family has a service history with them going back to the Army Air Corp.)  It was pretty much a stationary target and they had been close enough to know it was octagonal.

They still don’t know where the sidewinder landed.

Aunt Thelma’s solution is looking better and better.  Crop dusting is a helluva lot more complicated than most people think. But, she wouldn’t charge you but maybe $100 an hour and that includes her plane, her ammo and delivery system, and a really cool leather aviator cap.  You don’t get to keep the hat, though. Aunt Thelma wears that – sometimes even on bad hair days.

They missed.  Holy cow.  A lot of shocking, but short on the awe.

 

Corporate Power is Protected

February 14, 2023 By: Nick Carraway Category: Uncategorized

It may seem like we are floating around these 14 markers in a haphazard way. Perhaps that’s even accurate, but there is a rhyme or reason to it all. In this case, it is much more stream of consciousness than anything else. In Florida, Ron DeSantis has decided to take on Disney and it looks like he’s won the first rounds.

Now, why is he taking on Disney? Aren’t right-wing politicians supposed to protect job creators and profitable businesses like Disney? I couldn’t even come up with a Texas equivalent to Disney. The best I can come up with is if we somehow combined Bucees, Whataburger, and HEB into a conglomerate. Even then it wouldn’t match.

However, to understand this you would have to understand the purposes of those corporations. In a traditional capitalist society, corporations are seen as the final evolution of a market economy. They’ve managed to manipulate supply in order to also manipulate demand. Good for them.

In a fascist state, everything is there to glorify the state. Religion glorifies the state. Popular culture glorifies the state. Corporations glorify the state. So, it isn’t so much that fascists support all corporations. They support the right corporations. In this case, Disney has shown themselves to be the wrong corporation.

Why is Disney the wrong corporation? Well, they had the audacity to have a pride week and support the LGTBQ+ community. Do they really support those causes? I suppose they do on some level. At least they aren’t going to turn down their money.

The last time we went to Disney it was very important for our daughter to get a “pride donut.” Smart corporations manage to walk a tight line so that they don’t alienate any customers. So, having a pride week and selling pride donuts are good ideas while they generate revenue. They probably would celebrate conservative causes if it meant earning a little more money.

Every business whether they big or small must make a similar calculation. A small town baker must decide whether baking that cake for the gay wedding will ultimately generate more revenue or create a backlash. This is why most corporations are at least publicly non-political. Why piss off half the population?

In this case, DeSantis is aiming to steer Disney the way he wants them to go. You want your tax breaks? You want all of the power you used to enjoy? It’s time for you to play ball and govern yourselves the way we are governing. We’ll scratch your back if you scratch ours. You keep getting those breaks and we get corporate sponsorship of our right wing ideals. Chick Fa La and Hobby Lobby get it. Come on Disney, how much could a pride donut really matter? It’s time to get back on message.

Identifying Enemies and Scapegoats

February 13, 2023 By: Nick Carraway Category: Uncategorized

When you start to look at the characteristics you find the order given is not necessarily the most logical way to think about it. Last time we took a look at nationalism and how it relates to fascism. Many of these characteristics have very close relationships with one another. When one becomes fervently for the team then it stands to reason that those not on the team become our enemies.

A couple of weeks ago the House of Representatives voted to condemn socialism in a resolution. The Senate certainly didn’t touch that, so what exactly was the point? Well, this made it easier for them to highlight representatives that did not vote for the resolution. They must be socialists so therefore they must be the enemy.

This is one of the go to moves for fascists. They identify things and concepts that people can’t define. They can’t tell you what socialism is and when they point to examples they are usually extreme and have nothing to do with the aims of people that might subscribe to. No one really wants Venezuelan socialism, but suddenly that becomes the standard for socialism. Straw men should be so lucky.

Fascists usually don’t create hate where it did not exist. They simply take the hate that is there and make it palatable. It is not good to hate to people of color. It is not good to hate those that are LGTBQ+. It is not good for men to hate women. Yet, if we can attach a sinister motive to them like BLM, CRT, or grooming drag queens then it suddenly becomes okay to hate them. After all, if they just understood their place then we wouldn’t need to hate anybody.

There has been no magic trick quite as pervasive and bewildering as the treatment of Ukraine. This is a pretty simple situation. One country invaded another sovereign nation because they want to take it over. We used to understand these things. After all, there really isn’t anything to understand. There aren’t difficult geopolitical issues here. There is no nuance.

Yet, somehow the fascist elements in our society and politics have somehow turned this around. Fascists give a head nod to other fascists after all. Somehow the Ukrainians are the horrible party. There has been talk of Volodymyr Zelenskyy being a Nazi sympathizer. So, it is okay for Russia to invade. Even if we can just muddy the waters some then it becomes easier to oppose intervention or assistance.

Of course, this isn’t to say that we definitely have to support Ukraine financially. Those that claim we can’t support everyone and should focus on our own problems aren’t necessarily fascists. The key is to listen why they say what they do. If they are worried about the fiscal burden I suppose that can defended. If they are crushing Ukraine as some kind of rogue state then you know they are horrible and are gaslighting you.