"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Sunday, July 29, 2018

Today in Trump's America

The latest "crime": sitting at home while black:

Ving Rhames (Mission Impossible, Pulp Fiction) recounted the incident on The Clay Cane radio show, of how it came to pass that he was almost shot by cops in the middle of the day in his own home. A neighbor said "a large black man" had broken in.

Fortunately, the police chief recognized him (and why was the chief there?).

Rhames had one really serious concern:

Rhames knows he was lucky, but the situation made him worry about his son.

“My problem is, as I said this to them, what if it was my son and he had a video game remote or something and you thought it was a gun?” Rhames asks.

Of course, the neighbor who made the call denied it.

And of course, this is an America that no longer believes in human rights -- at least, not officially:

Speaking at the Ministerial To Advance Religious Freedom this week, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney attacked the Obama administration for using taxpayer dollars to promote women’s rights and LGBTQ rights in Africa.

What the Obama administration was doing was withholding aid to those countries who abrogated the basic rights of women and LGBT people. (I really don't understand how you can be using taxpayer dollars for something if your not spending taxpayer dollars, but then, this is Trump's America.) And in case you had any doubts, this points up the fact that when "conservatives" say "religious freedom," they mean "Christian" supremacy, specifically, a particularly noxious form of "Christianity." And forget about the Establishment Clause.

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