Kingfisher Cove

A MILLION TIMES THIS!!!

A brilliant piece by Chris Kluwe. I make ZERO apologies for the language. And there is a special indented section exclusively for those of you who voted for this fucking monster.

Fuck you, Donald Trump.

Fuck you for being a hypersensitive, grossly plump caricature of a human being; a squirming mass of cockroaches lurking under a skinsuit veneer.

Fuck your wanton plundering of our social fabric, your willingness to tear down the structure that allows you to exist, your glorification of the worst parts of humanity, all in the name of your own insatiable greed and depravity.

Fuck your racebaiting, fearmongering, Nazi-enabling rhetoric that allows the darkest and most destructive corners of our collective zeitgeist free reign to terrorize the rest.

Fuck your ignorant paucity of intellect, your narcissistic belief in your own ego, your inability to recognize your own descent into fascism.

Fuck your promotions of white supremacists to positions of power, of science denying crackpots to oversee our future, of bootlicking toadies to oversee your transition.

Fuck your misogynistic views on women’s rights, fuck your archaic beliefs on the freedom of press and religion, and fuck your idiotic venality when it comes to the destruction of a country that, while not always achieving freedom for all of its citizens, has done the best to get there in the entirety of recorded human history.

Fuck you, Melania Trump.

Fuck you for being willing to support this disgusting slime mold because it means you can live a life of privilege and luxury, never mind the hardships that will befall women across this nation due to your husband’s philistinic views.

Fuck you for posing for puff pieces in entertainment magazines while the cabal of shitgoblins your partner is assembling gets ready to reverse everything that has allowed you to possess even the most moderate amount of power.

Fuck you for taking the easy choice, the choice to suck the dick of a loathsome troll in order to wear Hugo Boss dresses, instead of taking a stand in order to protect the fifty percent of our population who shares your gender.

Fuck you for smiling and waving at the cameras when your husband is on record as saying, “Grab them (women) by the pussy. You can do anything.”

Fuck your betrayal of everything Susan B. Anthony and other suffragettes fought for, fuck your tacit acceptance that a woman should be an accessory to a man, fuck your self-centered interest in insuring your own well-being over the well-being of the country that allows you such a lifestyle.

Fuck you, Ivanka, Eric, and Donald Trump Jr.

Fuck you for being willing lackeys of this pusillanimous ape, for carrying his water on television and in media interviews.

Fuck you for clinging to his hairy teat, for not finding the courage to strike out on your own, for not recognizing that even though you can’t choose your parents, you can certainly choose your own path in life.

Fuck you for normalizing this piece of shit wannabe-Hitler, for treating his wretched series of business enterprises as anything other than the fraudulent snake-oil jobs that they are, for bowing beneath the lash instead of standing tall and making your own way, despite the loss it might incur.

Fuck you for the hate and pain you will inflict on hundreds of thousands of American citizens because you couldn’t muster the courage to say, “No, this isn’t right, and even though I’m related to you by blood, I refuse to proceed with this abhorrent state of affairs.”

Fuck your greasy, slimy, frat-house words and beliefs, your ideals that would tear us apart, your craven unworthiness to occupy a public space that you achieved through no merit of your own, one which you have no idea what to do with other than to cause hurt.

Fuck you, Jared Kushner.

Fuck your anti-Semitism.

Fuck your quisling compliance, your willingness to see those like you tortured and degraded in order to further your own lot in life.

Fuck your manipulation of our media through your financial control of the Observer, fuck your sheltered life of wanton privilege, fuck your inability to understand the arc of history.

Fuck everything you do to uphold a wretched lout who would suffer no qualms in ordering you in front of the firing squad if it meant he might live another day.

Fuck you, Republicans who refuse to disown this bloated leech.

Fuck your cowardice, your disavowal of the solemn duties of your office — keeping this country safe from tyrants and demagogues.

Fuck you for meekly bending the knee in compliance, instead of speaking truth to power.

Fuck you for choosing political expediency over courage, fuck you for sacrificing the poor and the sick, fuck you for dragging our government into a hole from which it may never recover.

Fuck you, members of the media.

Fuck your constant pursuit of ratings, of quarterly profits, of giving this tinpot cumdumpster a platform with which he can influence a large part of our country

Fuck you for buying into the idea that racism should be afforded an equal platform with equality, for calling a Nazi anything other than a Nazi.

Fuck your smarmy thinkpieces attempting to normalize a new hegemony, fuck your cowardice in the face of totalitarianism, fuck your CEOs and VPs and executive producers who are willing to feed the innocent to the depraved in order to forestall their own demise.

Fuck you for not doing your job.

Fuck you, Trump supporters.

Fuck you for your willing ignorance, your inability to understand that a fascist is telling you exactly what he wants to do to you.

Fuck you for tearing apart the rule of law, and bringing back the rule of force.

Fuck you for not caring, for believing the easy lies you read instead of using your brain to find the truth.

Fuck you for putting your petty hatreds and squabbles ahead of everything that once made this country great, and fuck you for unwittingly causing it to fall.

Fuck you everyone who refuses to take a stand against this man.

Fuck your inability to understand history.

Fuck your selfish interests that ignore the fact that if one of us isn’t free, none of us is free.

Fuck your willingness to normalize this dictator, your filthy desire for more lucre, your inability to fight for your fellow citizens and everything this country once stood for. The Founders would be ashamed of you.

Fuck your blind optimism that things will somehow magically turn out okay, fuck your American exceptionalism draped in the corpses of communities of color, fuck your overwhelming ignorance that could be solved if you simply wished to learn and ask ‘why.’

Above all, fuck your cowardice, your self-loathing hypocrisy, your myopic blinders keeping you from identifying the single greatest threat our republic has faced since we took up arms against the British, because if someone other than you suffers, somehow that makes it just fine.

Fuck you, Donald Trump, for turning my country into something that it never should have become, for turning it into something no country should ever become.

Fuck you, Donald Trump, for driving us into conflict, one that will most likely end in violence.

Fuck you, Donald Trump.

Nice Christmas

Other than I deeply missed my boy and his wonderful wife. Also, my young niece, who is in the midst of teenager-dom and opted out. (I remember those years and would have chosen to opt out myself, but was ultimately glad in the long-term that I wasn’t allowed to).

My brother, Dave, and his wife, Julie came Christmas Eve afternoon and we grazed all day and evening on fun appetizers, including Dave’s famous chili salsa, which has become a family tradition. I also made a wonderful crab and artichoke heart dip that turned out AWESOME!! Julie made her deviled eggs—something I have never cared for until I tasted hers. Her secret is sweet pickles and/or juice, plus Dijon mustard and olives! Also Crown Royal (for Dave and I) and Bailey’s & coffee (for John). They brought along their two doggies (Monty a long-haired Chihuahua; and Sadie, their sweet 9-month old miniature Golden Retriever who is definitely still a puppy!) As a result, the cats were scarce. (However: Mojo snuck in and slept with us all night and Wylie snuck in and grabbed some grub this morning). No harm, no foul—they are animals with amazing heavy winter coats.

Opening gifts was fun! Lots of toys accessories to use with our Echo/Dots, including a security camera, Amazon Fire Stick, way-cool hue lights and “smart” light bulbs for our lamps. John also got me a new controller for my Big Kiln, which I have desperately needed and I now have strong hope that I will actually be able to USE that stupid kiln! I’m beyond excited!!!

Christmas Eve:

Christmas Day dinner:

Dinner was yummy! It was a little (ok a lot) stressful toward the end because I realized that the rib-eye roast hadn’t completely thawed beforehand and so it wasn’t cooked enough! But, John helped me power through that and it all ended up OK. But…jeeze! We had the roast and au juice, garlic & ginger sautéed fresh green beans, Asian chopped salad, baked potatoes, and garlic butter baked mushrooms. Yum. (Those mushrooms are amazing!) Here’s the recipe, in case you are mushroom fans:

Garlic Butter Roasted Mushrooms

1 pound mushrooms (cremini or white), halved lengthwise if large

2 Tbs. capers, rinsed and chopped

3 large garlic cloves, minced

2 Tbs. olive oil

3 Tbs. unsalted butter, cut into pieces

2 tsp. fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

Preheat oven to 450° with rack in middle. Toss mushrooms with capers, garlic, oil, 1/8 tsp. salt  in a 1-1/2 to 2-quart shallow baking dish. Top with butter and roast, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are tender and golden and bubbly garlic sauce forms below, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in lemon juice and parsley. Serve immediately, with crusty bread on the side for swiping up the juices.

Here is also the recipe for the green beans, and they were SCRUMPTIOUS!!!

String Beans with Garlic and Ginger

Salt

2-1/2 lbs. string beans, trimmed

4 Tbs. olive oil

1/4 C. minced fresh ginger (about 6 inches ginger root, peeled)

4 medium-size garlic cloves minced

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and fill a large bowl with ice water. Boil beans until just tender but still crisp and bright green. Start testing after 4 minutes or so, being careful not to overcook. When done, plunge beans into ice water to stop cooking, lift out immediately when cool and drain on towels. (Recipe can be made to this point up to a day in advance and kept refrigerated, in a large Ziploc bag with paper towels).

When ready to cook, heat 2 tablespoons oil in a wide skillet over high heat. Add half the beans [I did them all at once with about a lb.] and add half (or all) of the ginger and garlic, stirring constantly, until beans are heated through and ginger and garlic are softened and aromatic. If making 2+ lbs., do this in two batches, using the 2nd 2-Tbs. of olive oil for the 2nd batch. Sprinkle with salt, and remove to a serving dish.

The beans were extremely flavorful. I HIGHLY recommend them, plus they were pretty darned easy.

We all behaved ourselves (our politics greatly differ) and it made for a very pleasant holiday.

Deep Shit

“Nuclear weapons are not a game. They are not a toy for the petulant and ill-informed to boast about on off-handed tweets. They are not gaudy hotels and apartment buildings to line up to make yourself feel stronger and more important. They are a direct shortcut to the very end of life on earth as we know it.

I suspect Donald Trump knows very little about our nuclear posture, its history, and the delicate balance our presidents have been walking since the early days of the Cold War. This was a man who in a primary debate didn't seem to understand our nuclear triad. And that's "Nukes for Dummies" level. Now recent tweets and comments suggest he's thinking of a new arms race. When Mr. Trump suggested that countries like Japan and Saudi Arabia develop nuclear weapons during the campaign his apologists told those of us who were worried, he didn't really mean it. Where are those voices now? Because whether he means what he says, or even knows what he means, really doesn't matter at this point. Just by Trump saying it, the world order that we have known is at risk.

He's not even president yet and he's plunging us into a potential crisis that no one really thought would come. Surely there are many Republican Senators and foreign policy experts who understand the dangers of his rhetoric. Because the stakes with nuclear weapons are so high, that even slight changes in their status are cause for great concern. What Donald Trump is suggesting is at a level that would have us return to one of the most dangerous chapters in history.” – Dan Rather

Trump threatens to upend U.S. nuclear weapons policy

Everybody Should Re-Read Orwell

 

Gaslighting America

This was written by Lauren Duca, which was published in Teen Vogue magazine December 10, 2016 (a publication that actually celebrates the intelligence of teenage girls). It’s the best-written coverage I’ve seen on this critically important issue. Please read! It’s totally worth it! (Boldface emphasis is mine).

“The CIA officially determined that Russia intervened in our election, and President-elect Donald Drumpf dismissed the story as if it were a piece of fake news. "These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction," his transition team wrote in a statement. "The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It’s now time to move on and ‘Make Donald Drumpf Again'."

It wasn't one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history, so presumably that's another red-herring lie to distract from Drumpf treating the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States like it is some rogue blogger to be cast to the trolls. A foreign government's interference in our election is a threat to our freedom, and the President-elect's attempt to undermine the American people's access to that information undermines the very foundation upon which this country was built. It's also nothing new.

Drumpf won the Presidency by gas light. His rise to power has awakened a force of bigotry by condoning and encouraging hatred, but also by normalizing deception. Civil rights are now on trial, though before we can fight to reassert the march toward equality, we must regain control of the truth. If that seems melodramatic, I would encourage you to dump a bucket of ice over your head while listening to “Duel of the Fates." Donald Drumpf is our President now; it’s time to wake up.

"Gas lighting" is a buzzy name for a terrifying strategy currently being used to weaken and blind the American electorate. We are collectively being treated like Bella Manningham in the 1938 Victorian thriller from which the term "gas light" takes its name. In the play, Jack terrorizes his wife Bella into questioning her reality by blaming her for mischievously misplacing household items which he systematically hides. Doubting whether her perspective can be trusted, Bella clings to a single shred of evidence: the dimming of the gas lights that accompanies the late night execution of Jack’s trickery. The wavering flame is the one thing that holds her conviction in place as she wriggles free of her captor’s control.

To gas light is to psychologically manipulate a person to the point where they question their own sanity, and that’s precisely what Drumpf is doing to this country. He gained traction in the election by swearing off the lies of politicians, while constantly contradicting himself, often without bothering to conceal the conflicts within his own sound bites. He lied to us over and over again, then took all accusations of his falsehoods and spun them into evidence of bias.

At the hands of Drumpf, facts have become interchangeable with opinions, blinding us into arguing amongst ourselves, as our very reality is called into question.

There is a long list of receipts when it comes to Drumpf's lies. With the help of PolitiFact, clear-cut examples of deception include Drumpf saying that he watched thousands of people cheering on 9/11 in Jersey City (police say there's no evidence of this), that the Mexican government forces immigrants into the U.S. (no evidence), that there are "30 or 34 million" immigrants in this country (there are 10 or 11 million), that he never supported the Iraq War (he told Howard Stern he did), that the unemployment rate is as high as "42 percent" (the highest reported rate is 16.4 percent), that the U.S. is the highest taxed country in the world (not true based on any metric of consideration), that crime is on the rise (it's falling, and has been for decades), and too many other things to list here because the whole tactic is to clog the drain with an indecipherable mass of toxic waste. The gas lighting part comes in when the fictions are disputed by the media, and Drumpf doubles down on his lies, before painting himself as a victim of unfair coverage, sometimes even threatening to revoke access.

Drumpf has repeatedly attempted to undermine the press, including such well-respected publications as the New York Times. He has disseminated a wealth of unsubstantiated attacks on the media, though this baseless tweet from April pretty much sums it all up, "How bad is the New York Times -- the most inaccurate coverage constantly. Always trying to belittle. Paper has lost its way!"

As a candidate, Drumpf's gas lighting was manipulative, as President-elect it is a deliberate attempt to destabilize journalism as a check on the power of government.

To be clear, the "us" here is everyone living under Drumpf. It's radical progressives, hardline Republicans, and Jill Stein's weird cousin. The President of the United States cannot be lying to the American electorate with zero accountability. The threat of deception is not a partisan issue. Drumpf took advantage of the things that divide this country, pitting us against one another, while lying his way to the Oval Office. Yes, everything is painfully clear in hindsight, but let’s make sure Drumpf’s win was the Lasik eye surgery we all so desperately needed.

The good news about this boiling frog scenario is that we’re not boiling yet. Drumpf is not going to stop playing with the burner until America realizes that the temperature is too high. It’s on every single one of us to stop pretending it’s always been so hot in here.

There are things you can and should be doing to turn your unrest into action, but first let's empower ourselves with information. Insist on fact-checking every Drumpf statement you read, every headline you share or even relay to a friend over coffee. If you find factual inaccuracies in an article, send an email to the editor, and explain how things should have been clearer. Inform yourself what outlets are trustworthy and which aren’t. If you need extra help, seek out a browser extension that flags misleading sites or print out a list of fake outlets, such as the one by communications professor Melissa Zimdars, and tape it to your laptop. Do a thorough search before believing the agenda Drumpf distributes on Twitter. Refuse to accept information simply because it is fed to you, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. That is now the base level of what is required of all Americans. If facts become a point of debate, the very definition of freedom will be called into question.

It will be far easier to take on Drumpf’s words when there is no question of what he’s said or whether he means it. Regardless of your beliefs, we all must insist on that level of transparency. Drumpf is no longer some reality TV clown who used to fire people on The Apprentice. He is the President of the United States.

The road ahead is a treacherous one. There are unprecedented amounts of ugliness to untangle, from deciding whether our President can be an admitted sexual predator to figuring out how to stop him from threatening the sovereignty of an entire religion. It’s incredible that any of those things could seem like a distraction from a greater peril, or be only the cherry-picked issues in a seemingly unending list of gaffes, but the gaslights are flickering. When defending each of the identities in danger of being further marginalized, we must remember the thing that binds this pig-headed hydra together. As we spin our newfound rage into action, it is imperative to remember, across identities and across the aisle, as a country and as individuals, we have nothing without the truth.”

#NeverMyPresident #Ever

 

Not normal. Not acceptable.

Prove It

Are you a good person who voted for trump? Not a racist, not a homophobe, not a misogynist, not a xenophobe?

Will you be on the right side of history?

 

Prove It from Steve Cohen on Vimeo.

Un-Presidented

---

Also…

Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things subtly changing around you, so you'll remember. Here's my list for week 5 [via Amy Siskind]:

1. CIA fears reprisals from Drumpf over their findings on Russian interference, while his team threatens to bring in new leadership.
2. Drumpf press conference, scheduled for 12/15 to discuss dealing with his conflicts of interest, was "postponed" indefinitely.
3. WSJ reporter later reveals Drumpf will not divest of his businesses - excuse given is the price would be a fire sale.
4. Vanity Fair issues a scathing review of Drumpf Grill. Drumpf responds with a Twitter attack, saying of VF, "Way down, big trouble, dead!" Same day, VF picks up a record number of subscriptions.
5. Drumpf team accounts they plan to change the traditional daily WH briefings.
6. Ivanka will be taking a WH office, typically reserved for first ladies.
7. Conway says Drumpf is looking at way to get around nepotism rules so he can include Ivanka and Jared in his administration.
8. Drumpf continues to deny Russian hacking of the election. Says it could have been China or a 400 pound man.
9. The RNC meanwhile says they were not hacked by "Russia."
10. A battles opens between Obama's press secretary, and Drumpf and his team, threatening a smooth transition of power. Conway says Obama would end this feud if he loved "the country enough."
11. FBI and CIA and all intel reach agreement that Russia interfered with our election, with a goal of getting Drumpf elected.
12. The GSA told Drumpf he would violate his DC hotel lease "the moment he takes office." Word spreads that Drumpf will replace the leadership of the GSA.
13. Gen Michael Flynn, Drumpf's pick for NSA, was found guilty by the Army of sharing classified information. Flynn also deletes his tweet promoting Pizzagate.
14. Ivanka auctions off a coffee date, with a $50k floor. As rumbling of conflict start to stir, the website posting mysteriously disappears.
15. Drumpf team asks for a list of climate scientists. Request is denied. Scientists are said to be backing up their data, for fear, it too, will disappear.
16. Drumpf continues his "Thank You" tour to only states he won. He stands before Christmas trees only-no reference to other religions.
17. Drumpf issues a negative tweet on Lockheed, just before the market open. Like Boeing, the stock craters. It is discovered that traders are starting to anticipate Drumpf's tweets, by taking long or short positions.
18. Drumpf continues to pick white men for his cabinet - many of whom have no experience with the area they are about to lead. His cabinets the least diverse since 1989.
19. Drumpf holds a meetings with tech leaders at Drumpf Tower, and includes his three children, but excludes the CEO of Twitter for his unwillingness to produce a "Crooked Hillary" emoji.
20. Huma Abedin joins lawyer, E. Randol Schoenberg's calls to release the FBI search warrant that led to the Comey letter.

Past weeks:
Week 1: https://goo.gl/KWlyOO
Week 2: https://goo.gl/Pn7MFs
Week 3: https://goo.gl/CZwxsX
Week 4: https://goo.gl/JhwuON

Liar-Elect

Pay attention.

The President-elect continues to lie big-time:

1. Trump told a rally audience last night that “The murder rate in the United States is the largest it’s been in 45 years,” when in fact it’s near a 50-year low, according to the FBI (see this comprehensive FBI table).
2. He also keeps saying he won the election by a “landslide” when in fact he lost the popular vote by 2.8 million votes – over five times Al Gore’s margin over George W. Bush in 2000. He also rated close to the bottom of all elections in the electoral college.
3. He repeatedly says the election was marred by “massive voting fraud” when in fact there’s no evidence of voting fraud at all – unless you consider Russia’s hacking.

A democracy can only function on the basis of truth. If the public is repeatedly told by its president that the murder rate is soaring, it may support policies such as harsher policing and sentencing – the opposite of what we need. If repeatedly told that Trump won by a landslide, the public may give him a mandate he doesn't deserve. If told of “massive voter fraud” the public may support further efforts to suppress votes through rigid ID and other requirements.

A President-elect who repeats boldface lies poses a clear threat to American democracy.

This is how tyranny begins.

-Robert Reich

Protest

“To sin by silence when we should protest
makes cowards out of men. The human race
Has climbed on protest. Had no voice been raised
Against injustice, ignorance and lust,
The inquisition yet would serve the law.
And guillotines decide our least disputes.
The few who dare must speak and speak again,
To right the wrongs of many.”

Ella Wheeler Wilcox's "Protest" published in 1914