News of the Restless

It was 50 years ago today…

Posted on June 21, 2016 by Sabina Becker

fabricio-ojeda

…that Fabricio Ojeda, journalist and revolutionary, died under hinky, stinky circumstances in military custody:

The news upset the land: Fabricio Ojeda, political leader, opposition deputy, and president of the Patriotic Junta which brought down the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, captured five days before by the Armed Forces Intelligence Service (SIFA), was found dead in his cell under strange circumstances.

The event occurred 50 years ago today: On June 21, 1966, in the midst of the 4th Republic period.

Raúl Leoni, social democrat of the Acción Democrática party, was president of Venezuela, in a coalition with two other parties of the era, COPEI (social Christian) and the Democratic Republican Union (URD), heirs of Venezuelan “yellow liberalism”, from the 19th century, constituted the régime of the “broad base”.

The official word was that Fabricio, 38 years old, had hung himself in his cell.

The then minister of defence, General Ramón Florencio Gómez, gave out a statement in which he said: “We were the first to lament the occurrence.”

However, his co-religionists and all the people knew that Fabricio Ojeda “was persecuted, imprisoned, tortured and murdered by the Punto Fijo democracy”, as Luis Berrizbeitia says in the the prologue of the book, The Death of Fabricio Ojeda, by José Antonio Solórzano León.

As a reporter for the daily newspaper, El Nacional, for which he covered the government, Fabricio Ojeda was the anonymous and clandestine president of the Patriotic Junta, which brought down the government on January 23, 1958.

Upon the installation of the “democratic régime” of the pact of Punto Fijo, signed in New York by directors Rómulo Betancourt (AD), Rafael Caldera (COPEI), and Jóvito Villalba (URD), Fabricio Ojeda was elected deputy for the URD, but on June 30, 1962, disgusted by the betrayal of those parties of the ideas of freedom and justice which headed the fight against the dictatorship, he resigned from the Chamber of Deputies with an emotional speech and went into the mountains, where the guerrillas of the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN) were already operating.

In contact with guerrilla chiefs Douglas Bravo and Argimiro Gabaldón, Ojeda was named commander of the recently created José Antonio Páez Front. Late in 1962, he was captured and sentenced to 18 years in prison, but he managed to escape the Trujillo jail where they had confined him.

Four years later, on June 17, 1966, Fabricio Ojeda once more fell into the hands of the government of Raúl Leoni.

On one occasion, Fabricio Ojeda said: “If I die it doesn’t matter, others will come later who will pick up our rifles and our flag to continue with dignity what is ideal, and will know of our people.”

In one of the speeches of our eternal Comandante, Hugo Chávez, recalling the emancipatory deeds of Fabricio Ojeda, said: “They killed Fabricio Ojeda, murdered him vilely…We pay tribute to that great revolutionary, martyr of our people…Great thinker who traded his seat in parliament for the mountains.”

After Ojeda’s murder, Venezuelan revolutionaries established June 21 as the Day of the Martyrs.

Translation mine.

Fabricio Ojeda’s words proved prophetic. Chavecito did, indeed, take up the banner and the arms that the Venezuelan hill-guerrillas dropped when the forces of so-called democracy destroyed their camps. He did so almost 100% literally; as a young officer of the Venezuelan army, sent to fight guerrillas near the Colombian border, Hugo Chávez found to his dismay and consternation that there were no guerrillas left for him and his troops to fight. Only humble peasants, literally dirt-poor. The ostensibly democratic army was beating and murdering the poorest of the Venezuelan people for no reason. Chávez put a stop to that, and developed a healthy relationship between the army and the local campesinos, one that became the foundation for his later phenomenal rapport with poor Venezuelans in general. He also found an abandoned car, riddled with bullet holes, that had belonged to the guerrillas. In the trunk was a treasure trove of Marxist literature. He rescued the books, cleaned and repaired them…and read them. And that was how he came to know the thoughts of Fabricio Ojeda, and gained the respect of other former guerrillas, including Douglas Bravo, who still lives to this day.

As do Fabricio and Chavecito…in the people’s hearts.

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Posted in Fascism Without Swastikas, Huguito Chavecito, If You REALLY Care, Isn't It Ironic?, The United States of Amnesia | Comments Off

The Harper legacy of C-51: Gone, but not forgotten…

Posted on June 20, 2016 by Sabina Becker

…unfortunately:

c-51-anniversary

Yes, that’s right. We’re still living under this. Gotta keep holding the government’s feet to the fire…

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Posted in Canadian Counterpunch, Isn't That Illegal?, Law-Law Land | Comments Off

Music for a Sunday: One for all the badly-raised kids…

Posted on June 19, 2016 by Sabina Becker

…because not all dads are good dads, even on this day. (Jeebus, just look at Brock Fucking Turner. Enabler much, dad?)

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Headline Howler: A big fail from the Daily Mail

Posted on June 18, 2016 by Sabina Becker

I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted a Headline Howler (so many to choose from, LE SIGH), but today, I saw this future classic on Remi Kanazi’s Facebook page:

timid-gardener

Dear Daily Fail:

I am a timid gardener. I am introverted, prefer solitude over bad company, am sometimes socially awkward, and have often been called shy. I have experienced what you might call “mental turmoil”. I’ve even coped with major clinical depression and survived it, unmedicated and without psychiatric care. I’ve come perilously close to suicide. When I was at my sickest, I could not trust myself near a railroad track, because the sight of a passing freight drew me toward it like a huge and nauseating magnet. Once, on a trip with a boyfriend to Niagara Falls, I strongly considered jumping off a bridge with a seventy-metre drop into the drainage canal below. (Yes, I measured it…by timing a stone’s fall and calculating the distance based on that.) I have done many things that terrified me at the time, and later caused me to look back and cringe with mortification to think I was ever that ill.

But never, under any circumstances, have I done anything nearly as heinous as what Tommy Mair did. Which is to take out memberships for years in more than one neo-Nazi and/or white supremacist organization, buy tons of neo-fascist literature and Nazi memorabilia, including instructions on how to build bombs and homemade pistols (no doubt to thwart those strict British gun laws), and turn into a “lone-wolf” terrorist — just by sheer coincidence, I’m sure — on the day after this photo was taken:

jo-cox-thames

That’s Mair’s victim, Jo Cox (holding the flag), and her husband and kids, campaigning on the “In” side of the “Brexit” question. They and other members of their flotilla were on the Thames, outside the Parliament building, in a showdown with the “Out” side.

This is why Jo Cox was killed, and not some random stranger on the street. This was no coincidence. This was no case of a simple deranged man killing the first person who looked at him sideways. This is why Mair was heard to shout “Britain First” repeatedly as he attacked and killed her. She was on the opposite side to him, politically. He picked her to stalk and kill because she was not only for keeping the UK in the EU, but also a prominent advocate for Syrian refugees. Her death was meant to send a message.

This was a targeted, political assassination. This murder was meant to intimidate and terrorize the “In” side.

If you cannot tell the difference between an actual timid gardener with mental problems, and a calculating terrorist assassin with years of membership in numerous hate groups, you may as well stop your presses for good. You can’t do journalism for shit.

Oh, and whoever wrote your idiotic headline should go sit on a barrel cactus.

Love,

Bina, the Timid Gardener.

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Posted in Confessions of a Bad German, Crapagandarati, Fascism Without Swastikas, Guns, Guns, Guns, Headline Howlers, Merry Old England | Comments Off

Wankers of the Week: Pride under fire

Posted on June 17, 2016 by Sabina Becker

Crappy weekend, everyone! And how about that latest fucking massacre. I don’t know what to say, beyond Hey! At least now we know for certain that LGBT people in the bathroom will never be even a fractal fraction of the menace to society that a ‘phobe with a gun is. About the gunman, I have nothing to say except that he’s dead, and no one will miss the motherfucker. As for these people, well…here’s what I have to say about THEM:

1. Tucker Fucking Carlson. The bodies from the Orlando nightclub shooting weren’t even at room temperature, much less removed from the building, before Fucker just had to open his big stinkin’ bazoo and blame it all on Obama and Islam. Never mind that the shooter’s own father and ex-wife both said it had nothing to do with religion. Times like these really make me want to bind and gag Fucker with his own bowties.

2. Newt Fucking Gingrich. Same link, same shit, different asshole. At long last, shut the fuck up, Newty. You are politically irrelevant, and you literally have nothing to contribute to the discourse. Go home and boink your third wife…or her future replacement. Nobody fucking cares about you anymore.

3. Chuck Fucking Todd. While #s 1 and 2 are busy blaming Obama for “depoliticizing” the massacre with “political correctness” (huh? how does one “depoliticize” AND be “politically correct” at the same time???), Chucky the Troll Doll decided to take the opposite tack, slamming Bernie Sanders for daring to suggest that now was a good time to finally talk earnestly about gun control. Oh sorry…I meant to say “politicize the issue”.

4. Rick Fucking Scott. Oh, that’s nice. “Pray for the victims”, but never acknowledge that they were shot just for being LGBT. One wonders just what kind of phony, hypocritical praying the Gubnor really has in mind. PS: Even nicer, how about fixating on Daesh, even though there is NO FUCKING LINK between Omar Mateen and them, and even the CIA has admitted as much? But then again, Rick is the ultimate Florida Man. He loves guns more than he does the truth.

5. Donald Fucking Drumpf. Way to make a mass shooting all about you, asshole. And way to make it all about something else it’s not: namely, so-called “radical Islam”. Refer back to #1 if you don’t believe me. PS: And no, nobody is going to vote for you because of this, except those teabagging Nazis who were already going to. You can quit rubbing that boner now. PPS: And quit trying to make out like you’re the biggest friend the queers ever had. None of them are fooled, except maybe for #8.

6. Dan Fucking Patrick. God can’t be mocked? That’s funny, there are at least two Twitter accounts dedicated to just that. And yours, unlike theirs, isn’t funny, topical, inspiring, or relevant. Maybe you should save your sermonizing for church, instead of inserting it where it doesn’t belong — scheduled or not.

7. Carlos Fucking Curbelo. Take off the fucking tinfoil, dude. This is YOUR circus, and Der Drumpf is YOUR monkey.

8. Milo Fucking Yiannopoulos. “No more Islam”? Fuck that. How about no more of YOU, you fucking wankstain? I mean, seriously, you’re a classic example what one of my gay friends calls an Unhappy Cocksucker. Who the hell are YOU to suddenly project your pathetic, drunken self-hatred outward? Fuck that noise, and fuck YOU.

9. Pamela Fucking Geller. And speaking of noises in dire need of a fuck, how about her? Facebook FINALLY got around to removing her hate-page on a TOS violation, and what does she do? Kvetch, kvetch, kvetch. And blame it on Sharia, which is a downright funny bit of projection on her part, since she’s the one advocating genocide on religious grounds. Cry louder, troll.

10. Bob Fucking Zimmer. Make the AR-15, the murder weapon from the nightclub shooting, easier to get in Canada? Oh HELL no. FUCK RIGHT OFF, you motherfucking piece of shit. It’s not a fucking hunting rifle, unless you’re hunting humans. What are you, a cannibal? A ghoul? Or just a garden-variety idiot in the pocket of the firearms industry?

11. Steven Fucking Anderson. At this point, I’m counting down the days before he’s either caught with his profile on a gay dating app, or with kiddie porn (mostly boys) on his home computer. Because that much obsession with gays and pedophiles can only mean one thing: He is trying desperately to cover his own ass. And considering what we now know about Omar Mateen, is it really so unreasonable to speculate that he’s got some innnnnteresting skeletons in his own closet?

12. Andy Fucking Holt. Wow. Do you want to go join #10 in the corner, there, dumbass? Very well. Take your seat on that hard stool, face the wall, and put on the pointy hat.

13. Sebastian Fucking Gorka. Nice try at deflection, Tinfoil Turban, but terrorists are NOT using F-150 trucks to murder people. The reason why is obvious: Trucks and cars are WAY more regulated in the US than guns are!

14. Jim Fucking Hoft. Dear Dumbest Man on the Internet: Congrats on finally coming out. Took you long enough! Unfortunately, you’re still a fucking dumbass fascist whose voting (and blogging) habits are all about throwing your own people under the bus. Don’t look for sympathy, don’t babble about the evils of socialism, and don’t you DARE go shilling for the Party of Bigotry. Any LGBT Republican, at this stage in the game, is an LGBT person with a death wish.

15. Yosef Fucking Edery. Hooray! It’s not just fundie Christians cheerleading the murder of innocent people. Looks like some ultra-orthodox Jews also want to get in on the hate-fest. And this one literally takes the bagel. Oy, oy, OY to the VEY.

16. Brett Fucking Edgerton. Meanwhile, in Atlanta — a city that, decades ago, rose on the slogan “Too Busy to Hate” — some self-loathing queer dude has finally found the time to hate…on his own. And to threaten two local gay nightspots with Orlando-style terror. Congrats, you neoconfederate asshole.

17. Roger Fucking Jimenez. And in Sacramento, we find this most un-Californian preacher, railing like he’s in some backwater swamp in, I dunno, Alabama or someplace. And just like the toothless yokels of the bogs, he can’t tell the difference between an LGBT adult who loves other adults, and a kiddie-diddler. How long, I wonder, before his profile is found on Grindr, or his home computer is confiscated by the FBI for kiddie porn? PS: AND he doubles down. Now I really wonder what the skeleton in his closet is! PPS: Ha, ha.

18. John Fucking Bolton. Oh, heaven forfend that His Barackness snark ever so gently on political opponents who expect him to bash the same bogeymen that they all bash! The Sheepdog, as you may recall, was appointed nasty, snarky, homicidally deranged US ambassador to the UN by Dubya…who was himself about as nasty and snarky as they came, at least until Der Drumpf eclipsed him in that department. And yet, somehow, neither of THEM is unpresidential? Go figure.

19. Dick Fucking DeVos. All these years he’s pumped money into anti-LGBT groups, and now, after all these years of setting the stage for their demise, he’s giving to the Pulse victims? Talk about hypocrisy…AND adding insult to injury.

20. Chris Fucking Barron. You really do have to be a special kind of stupid to be gay and pro-Drumpf. And whaddya know, he’s that very special snowflake. But, dude: Why throw gay people under the bus when you can just throw yourself?

21. Marco Fucking Rubio. First he was leaving the senate and now he’s maybe not? And all because of the Pulse shooting, which is not his concern anyway? Let me make up your mind for you, Estupido: You should go, and never darken that door again. And take Ileana Fucking Ros-Lehtinen with you, while you’re at it.

22. Conrad Fucking Black. Well, well, well, what have we here? Tax liens on Lord Blah-Blah’s estates, due to unpaid bills with the CRA? Why, at this rate he’ll have nothing left to sue newspapers with for accurately reporting his many fuck-ups!

23. Pam Fucking Bondi. Oh boo fucking hoo, Anderson Cooper nailed your shit to the wall for all to see! Cry more, you institutional homophobe.

24. Ted Fucking Cruz. And speaking of shit on the wall, look who besplattered himself all over it. You can join #21 when he leaves…assuming the voters don’t drag you out by your sorry ass first.

25. Andrew Fucking Anglin. So, the dumbest neo-Nazi on the Internet (and Lord knows he’s got plenty of competition there) thinks that Orlando “secured the election for Trump”? Hardly. If anything, it’s been backfiring on him ever since he tried to use it as yet another feather to stroke his shrimp dick with. And his numbers are in the shitter even now, and circling the drain. Surely a malign coincidence that people have been hitting back at him for his bigotry ever since Orlando, eh?

26. Bibi Fucking Netanyahu. Meanwhile, speaking of what’s in the shitter and circling the drain, how about Bibi? He thinks Palestinians are all rapey, while ignoring the markedly worse tendencies of the IDF. Even worse, he’s quick to throw all rape victims under the bus. Talk about chutzpah.

27. Jessa Fucking Duggar. On behalf of the whole world, please sink back into the obscurity from whence you came, and don’t you DARE use Orlando to promote yourself or your shitty show. And especially not the extremist religious cult you’re in. Fuck off, and take your whole quiver (full or not!) with you.

28. Nigel Fucking Farage. While Jo Cox’s body lies in the morgue before being readied for burial, we have THIS wanker, who no doubt disclaims all responsibility for what Tommy Mair did to Jo Cox. When, in fact, his crapaganda and that of others just like him (read: white supremacists, nativists and neo-Nazis) made Mair think it was his duty to do away with the infidels…or at least, the uppity female MP who championed their rights. And no, I don’t think the resemblance to Nazi crapaganda is any “accident”, nor is it a coincidence. The parallel is deliberate. Wake up, not-so-great Britain.

29. Joseph Fucking Backholm. A campaign to convince people that transfolk are evil molesters out to diddle their daughters? And you’re going to gather signatures for it by making men follow women into bathrooms? Yeah, no, that’s not creepy at all. And it won’t backfire one bit!

30. Rick Fucking Allen. Quoting an ancient book of lies and mythology to back up your homophobia is a wank. Having “no regrets” about doing something so goddamned stupid and unforgivably hateful is an even bigger wank. And it makes you an enabler of mass murder, shithead.

And finally, to Britain Fucking First. Yeah, how’s it feel to have one man tarnishing your whole image? Only there’s a problem with that contention: You have all always been fascists. You were all tarnished long before someone took it on himself to murder an MP that you no doubt branded a “traitor”. At long last, have you no fucking shame?

Good night, and get fucked!

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A “loner”? Hardly.

Posted on June 17, 2016 by Sabina Becker

tommy-mair

Tommy Mair…not alone, unfortunately.

As much as the media and the right might be trying to spin Jo Cox’s assassin as a “loner”, a different portrait of the pro-EU British MP’s killer is already emerging. And it shows that while his ties to Britain First (whose name he allegedly shouted, repeatedly, while attacking and murdering Cox) are still being strenuously denied by the organization, his ties to other right-wing, fascistic and white-supremacist/nativist organizations are many…and damning.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Centre, Tommy Mair has been a member of the National Alliance, a neo-Nazi organization:

According to records obtained by the Southern Poverty Law Center Mair was a dedicated supporter of the National Alliance (NA), the once premier neo-Nazi organization in the United States, for decades. Mair purchased a manual from the NA in 1999 that included instructions on how to build a pistol.

Mair, who resides in what is described as a semi-detached house on the Fieldhead Estate in Birstall, sent just over $620 to the NA, according to invoices for goods purchased from National Vanguard Books, the NA’s printing imprint. Mair purchased subscriptions for periodicals published by the imprint and he bought works that instruct readers on the “Chemistry of Powder & Explosives,” “Incendiaries,” and a work called “Improvised Munitions Handbook.” Under “Section III, No. 9” (page 125) of that handbook, there are detailed instructions for constructing a “Pipe Pistol For .38 Caliber Ammunition” from components that can be purchased from nearly any hardware store.

The NA may be best-known for the work of its now-deceased founder, William Pierce, a former physics professor who also wrote racist novels. One, The Turner Diaries, tells the post-apocalyptic fictional story of a white man fighting in a race war that may have provided inspiration for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Neo-Nazi ties — and terrorist how-tos stemming from them? Yup. Witnesses say Mair was wielding a “homemade or antique” pistol. My money’s on homemade, since he specifically bought instructions on how to build one. This is damning not just for him, but for this neo-Nazi group he’s tied to, because it makes it explicit that “lone wolf” terrorism is very much on their collective agenda.

And that’s not all. According to the UK Independent, he was also tied to a South African far-right group:

The link between Mair and the Springbok Club goes back ten years when its online magazine, the Springbok Cyber Newsletter, was inquiring about the whereabouts of “Thomas Mair, from Batley in Yorkshire [who] was one of the earliest subscribers and supporters of “S.A. Patriot” who has moved from his address in the Fieldhead Estate district of the town.”

The leading article for June 2016 Springbok Cyber Newsletter, which describes itself on its website as being pro-free market capitalism and patriotism and anti-political correctness, was, however, devoted to Britain and the referendum. It started: “On Thursday, 23rd June 2016 all British voters will have the opportunity to vote on the future of their country. They can vote either to remain entrapped in the artificial and retrograde European Union, or to regain their sovereign independence….”

The article ends by declaring: “But we should not only be concentrating at the negative aspects of remaining in the EU. Our campaign should be primarily positive and optimistic for a future outside the EU. The motto of the Patriotic Forum (an umbrella grouping of patriotic organisations which the Springbok Club is part of) is “Out of Europe and into the World”. There is a golden future waiting for Britain out there once the country returns to its traditional vision of looking towards the Open Seas and its ethnic brothers and sisters in the Commonwealth around the globe. The days ahead will inspire us!”

“Britain First! Britain First!” Gee, he’s sounding less lone by the minute, eh?

But of course, the “he was mentally ill and a loner” narrative will still carry the day. Why?

Because Tommy Mair is white.

Because when white men go bad, everyone in the major media races to absolve them of all charges of terrorism, even when terrorism is obviously what they have committed.

And because the thought of actual, home-grown, white supremacist terrorists who commit hate crimes in the name of fascist agendas is still too terrifying for the media and the masses to face and confront as they should.

Because this is THE biggest terrorist threat the western world faces, and we are not being accurately informed of that fact by the people we trust to be our eyes and ears.

Shame on them for their silence. And shame on them for their complicity.

PS: There is a petition (unfortunately, only for Britons) to declare Britain First a terrorist organization. Sign if you can.

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Posted in Crapagandarati, Fascism Without Swastikas, Guns, Guns, Guns, Isn't It Ironic?, Isn't That Illegal?, Isn't That Racist?, Merry Old England, Newspeak is Nospeak | Comments Off

Dear gunsuckers: You can all shut up now.

Posted on June 16, 2016 by Sabina Becker

shotgun-revolver-murder-weapon

And if the above graphic offends you, you might want to educate yourselves as to the real and only purpose for which the AR-15 was invented. Hint: It wasn’t for hunting OR for self-defence.

“Our father, Eugene Stoner, designed the AR-15 and subsequent M-16 as a military weapon to give our soldiers an advantage over the AK-47,” the Stoner family told NBC News late Wednesday. “He died long before any mass shootings occurred. But, we do think he would have been horrified and sickened as anyone, if not more by these events.”

The inventor’s surviving children and adult grandchildren spoke exclusively to NBC News by phone and email, commenting for the first time on their family’s uneasy legacy. They requested individual anonymity in order to speak freely about such a sensitive topic. They also stopped short of policy prescriptions or legal opinions.

But their comments add unprecedented context to their father’s creation, shedding new light on his intentions and adding firepower to the effort to ban weapons like the AR-15. The comments could also bolster a groundbreaking new lawsuit, which argues that the weapon is a tool of war — never intended for civilians.

Eugene Stoner would have agreed, his family said.

The ex-Marine and “avid sportsman, hunter and skeet shooter” never used his invention for sport. He also never kept it around the house for personal defense. In fact, he never even owned one.

And though he made millions from the design, his family said it was all from military sales.

“After many conversations with him, we feel his intent was that he designed it as a military rifle,” his family said, explaining that Stoner was “focused on making the most efficient and superior rifle possible for the military.”

And there you have it.

Are you listening, Bob Fucking Zimmer & Co.? Your proposed reclassification of the AR-15 is immoral, and frankly should never pass. No civilian, in Canada or anywhere, should have a legal right to own one, because there is nothing they could lawfully require one for. It was never conceived of as a hunting rifle, and no wonder; who wants to eat a venison roast that looks like Swiss cheese? Nor was it conceived as a defensive weapon; anyone who totes an AR-15 (or M-16, as the military rechristened it) to defend themselves looks like a fucking whackjob (and invariably is, meaning they REALLY shouldn’t have the right to own a gun).

No, the only thing this gun was ever meant to hunt was other humans. And if that’s what you really want to do, you can join the army:

wesley-clark-army

…which is, incidentally, just what the Second Amendment means by “a well-regulated militia”. Remember, it was written when the US was declaring independence from England, and didn’t actually have a full-fledged army yet. The Second gives the states the right to organize their own armies; it does not, however, grant that right to individuals, gangs, cults, or corporations.

We Canadians also have our own army, and so there is no need to fall back on the fallacious arguments made by the NRA and other idiots from south of the border.

And no, weekend warriors playing army in the woods don’t count. Neither do radicalized bands of religious whackjobs of any description. (Yes, even Christians, and especially Mormons. What did you think Cliven Bundy & Co. were?)

It’s time to call this gun what it really is: an assault rifle. And in the hands of anyone not in the uniform of a recognized military force, it’s a murder weapon. Or a weapon of terror, as its repeated use in massacres by various right-wing whackjobs has demonstrated all too well.

PS: Commenting is closed on this piece, because I have no desire to be bombarded with cyber-terrorist yokels trying to “educate” me. This article is for your information, not mine. I’m already perfectly well informed, thankyouverymuch.

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Posted in Canadian Counterpunch, Fascism Without Swastikas, Filthy Stinking Rich, Good to Know, Guns, Guns, Guns, If You REALLY Care, Isn't It Ironic?, Isn't That Illegal?, Karma 1, Dogma 0, Law-Law Land, Not So Compassionate Conservatism, Pissing Jesus Off, The Hardcore Stupid, The United States of Amnesia | Comments Off

A must-watch makeup tutorial

Posted on June 15, 2016 by Sabina Becker

Aside from her impressive skills as a makeup artist, and her sense of humor (have you seen her “swimming on the first date” video? Or her Instagram contouring video? You will DIE laughing), Nikkie has a huge heart for the LGBT community. All ad revenues from this tutorial will go to the fund for the victims of the Pulse shooting. You can also contribute directly here.

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Quotable: Samantha Bee on the Orlando Massacre

Posted on June 14, 2016 by Sabina Becker

“Are you there, God? It’s me, Sam…”

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Posted in Guns, Guns, Guns, If You REALLY Care, Isn't It Ironic?, Quotable Notables, The "Well, DUH!" Files, The United States of Amnesia, Uppity Wimmin | Comments Off

The predictable outcome of “God, guns, and gays”

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Sabina Becker

jesus-not-with-these-guys

Probably the most sickening thing about the whole Pulse nightclub shooting, for me, is how quickly the media seized on the ethnicity and alleged religion of the shooter, as though Omar Mateen — Afghan-American, ostensibly Muslim — were the product of a predictable combination of medieval Islam and centuries of various tribes jockeying for power in the wilds of Central Asia.

Wrong.

Omar Mateen was a product of American culture, not Afghan. He was born in New York, and held ambitions of joining the NYPD, if his selfies are any indication. He lived in Florida, a state where the so-called “Stand Your Ground” law, otherwise known as Castle Doctrine, applies. He worked for the infamous “security” firm, G4S. He may have been nominally a Muslim, but as both his father and ex-wife have noted, he was not very religious. Indeed, truly observant Muslims leaders are all condemning what he did. You can’t lay his violent rampage at the feet of Islam, the Taliban, or, as some irresponsible outlets are suggesting, Daesh (remember, Isis is an Egyptian Goddess, not a fanatical so-called Islamic terrorist cult trying to conquer Iraq and Syria).

So where CAN you lay blame for the man who killed 50 people at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando? Simple. You can lay it on the Christian, conservative right of the good ol’ United States of Amnesia.

After all, the Religious Reich, as I like to call them, really ARE to blame for pretty much every element of American social, legal, political, and moral failure that allows the likes of Omar Mateen to flourish. It’s they who vote for war-mongering politicians who export good ol’ All-American imperialism to oil-rich countries inhabited mainly by Muslims, only to express shock and horror when the same Muslims they championed as the answer to godless communism end up going rogue on them. They’re also the ones who vote against gun control, even when a majority of Americans want some form of it. Every time there’s a mass shooting, they’re quick to offer “thoughts and prayers” — and to shut down any talk of something that works better, namely an assault-weapons ban. They’re the ones who babble about “Second Amendment solutions”, thus emboldening toy armies of religious whackjobs to hijack public lands and trash bird sanctuaries. They’re the ones who, with their talk of “pre-born babies” and “baby parts”, not-so-tacitly support anti-choice terrorists who bomb and shoot up abortion clinics. They think the Jews are forever conspiring to take over the world with a bogeyman called “Cultural Marxism”. They think feminists are out to turn their daughters into lesbians, and their sons into girls. And they are the ones who preach, hypocritically, about “loving the sinner and hating the sin” when it comes to LGBT people, while also exporting influential pastors like Scott Lively to Uganda to push for “kill the queers” laws.

And when one man kills 50 people at a gay nightclub, there they are, waving pompoms and cheering, and temporarily overlooking all sectarian differences between them and himself, because hey — at least they can agree on who they all hate!

Of COURSE they are the ones who lay the groundwork that allows “deranged” shooters to flourish. Because all their voting habits hinge around “God, guns, and gays”, and these votes in turn put politicians in place who empower bullies while leaving vulnerable people ever more marginalized.

So, right-wing so-called Christians of the US of A, this is on you. “By their fruits shall ye know them,” as it says in that book you claim holds the answers to everything. Omar Mateen may not look it, but he’s one of yours. It doesn’t matter whether you claim responsibility for him or not. You are responsible for what he did.

Because you’re the ones who fucked your country over to the point where a reportedly bipolar man with a history of domestic violence could still get his hands on an assault rifle and a 9-mm pistol. And to the point where he considered himself to be doing something righteous by killing as many others with that gun as he could. You’re the ones who let angry ‘phobes believe that they’re under threat from the evil queers, and that they must “stand their ground” against them. You’re the ones who want oil for cheap and, for all your talk of holding human life dear, obviously some lives are more precious to you than others. You’re the ones who invited terrorism — not by leading “godless” lives, but by thinking your god was the one to rule them all. You exported war, genocide, and imperialism, then wondered why when the blowback came to hit you in the face. You claim they hate you for your “freedoms”, but you won’t face the fact that you live in one of the least-free countries on Earth. It is a country dominated by right-wing patriarchs and held hostage by its own home-grown terrorists. You have no one but yourselves to blame for Omar Mateen.

And if you don’t like what I just told you, don’t bother trying to lecture me. I’m sick of hearing it, and I know better than to believe it. Anyone who trolls this entry is gonna wind up in the spam dump. I don’t owe you a platform; you’ve already had too many. I’m not about to convert to your fascist religion, and I don’t care what imaginary devils or all-too-real violence you threaten me with. Do what you’re always telling OTHERS to do: Repent. Confess your sins. Mend your ways. And oh yeah, above all: LOVE THY NEIGHBOR. Whether thy neighbor is a Muslim, LGBT, a woman, or whatever.

Only that way will you find salvation from all the violence plaguing your society. Go now, and sin no more.

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