Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets

★★★-This docuseries explores the bullshit, double-lives of the right-wing evangelical Duggar family of 19 and Counting or whatever that documentary series was about the parents and their damn near 20 kids. They presented themselves on the electric teevee machine like this god-fearing, all-American fam. What they had behind closed-doors, when the cameras were off, was abuse, sexual-repression, theft, right-wing politics, forced religion, and child porn. F*** these people.

Ah, messed up church shit. Thank god I wasn't born into that shit. Their teachings go against everything I believe in, and are radically anti-Christ. Makes me physically ill, these cults: Scientistology, Jehova's Witnesses, Later Day Saints, so forth. First off, it is sort of shocking at how all of these cults are pretty much the same. Pretty much always comes back to sex and control.

These f***ers

I went to church less than 10 times when I was a kid and only once with my parents (we were visiting a cousin who was a pastor). Every time, it sucked and was generally pretty messed up. Most of these experiences came when I stayed the night with the wrong kid on Saturday night. One such time I tried to ditch a kid when he told me we were going to church the next day. We were at a bonfire and I tried pawn myself off to another acquaintance that was there. The dude who I was staying with's parents shamed me for doing this. But I didn't give a flying shit. I was not trying to do that shit.

I dated a girl that was homeschooled in Rogers, Arkansas, where a lot of this takes place. She went to Shiloh Christian, the same school Daddy Dugger went to. She confirmed that this was not great. There were things she wouldn't talk about that would come out when she was drunk. Lot of this same shit in this program.

Lot of stuff that made me sick to my stomach in this piece, which is quite good, but no different from the many other docs like this I've seen. Lot of child labor for no pay. Even when these kids become adults, if they don't do what daddy says, then they get nothing. More or less slaves, forcing your own kids into shitty contracts for no compensation is low. Having child porn and raping your sisters? That's fine though. Repressing sexuality always ends up going well. Mike Huckabee defended them, of course, despite them being pervs. What a shit?

Biden announces re-election campaign as GOP attempts to undermine policies and shut down government

I’ll be goddamned. What a month. President Biden officially announced his reelection campaign. House Republicans decided to try to make him look as bad as possible and maybe shut the government down. Fox News settled with Dominion and ousted their craziest mouthpiece, sure to be replaced by someone worse. Trump's life is a complete embarrassing mess. Meatball Ron and Disney got it on, and the Mouse, who doesn't fuck around, won. And the Supreme Court came off looking even more corrupt, which barely seem possible. With so much to be outraged about, I'm breaking this up into several posts. 

The president's re-election campaign began earlier this week with a video announcement. More “fighting for the soul of America,” which is still on the ballot, hence scenes from the Capitol riot. From the video: 

“Every generation of Americans has faced a moment when they’ve had to defend democracy, stand up for our personal freedoms, and stand up for our right to vote and our civil rights. This is ours. Let’s finish the job.”

Biden's great strength is his love for politics and everything about it, the rituals, the customs, the meeting people. He's authentic. But he's old and people are freaking out. The Republican frontrunner is also in his 80s so let's chill out. The real concern here is that no one seems to want Kamala Harris to become president. However, Biden's comfortable with her, so give her a break. 

Immediately, House Republicans “led” by Speaker Kevin McCarthy decided to alter their debt limit plan. Back when this was a routine measure to raise the country's debt limit to cover existing debts. Now it's usually twisted around when Republicans control the House into a de facto budget debate. Their proposal would cut federal spending by almost 14% over a decade and undermine major elements of President Biden's domestic agenda—i.e. eliminating clean energy tax credits and his student loan cancellation. It would also impose stricter work requirements for federal nutrition and health programs.

McCarthy, a joke who is being led by the craziest of the crazies from his party who have a razor then majority anyway, made concessions to appease blocs of lawmakers, including all of the above. On two of the holdouts, from the New York Times: 

Rep. Derrick Van Orden (Wisc.), who had lobbied to preserve energy tax credits, similarly said he would be “voting yes” after changes to the bill. Still another key holdout, Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), the leader of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, separately told reporters he would back the legislation, heralding Republicans for “moving a bill that actually, literally cuts spending, and provides savings for the American people.”

This is all bullshit and theater, of course. The bill was pushed forward by far-right lawmakers, who claimed that it provided savings for the American people and cut spending. This is all in the vain of cutting spending. Shocker, they don’t care about cutting spending. 

Obviously, with Democrats controlling the Senate and the White House, this shit is dead on arrival. Democrats, for their part, argued that the proposal is intended to force Biden to negotiate away his administration's accomplishments in advance of running for re-election. As such, they are portraying the plan as a threat to the country's credit and well-being, warning that the bill would be harmful to the American people and the economy by holding the country ransom, all of which is true.

From Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Rules Committee: “My analysis of this new plan is that it is even more draconian, even more devastating, even worse, even more mean. Your problem with this bill was that it didn’t screw people fast enough.”

This guy knows a shake down when he sees one. 

With the nation's borrowing limit projected to be reached as early as this summer without congressional action, President Biden has called on Republicans to raise the limit with no conditions attached. 

In short, what was meant to be a routine and uncontroversial measure has been turned into a contentious debate over the budget and the country's future, with Republicans using it as a way to try to undo President Biden's policies and further their own agenda. Just another day living in a divided government. 

Political Musings - The War on Woke

Here is my monthly political musing following Conservative Political Action Conference and the National Conservatism Conference, both taking place in March. The gist of both was more or less liberals control everything and are destroying the country through “wokeness.”

Wokeness, of course, is the right's new boogeyman. The end of a line that goes abolition, reconstruction, suffrage, the New Deal, communism, civil rights, socialism, gay rights, wokeism. It's sort of used for a unified “left” that hates America which people use to justify their decision to vote for Donald Trump. The times ahead, for them, are a mix of fear and hope, with opponents who are both malevolent and ignorant, countless yet surpassed by "ordinary" Americans. The Republican party's repeated warnings of doomsday in the event of a Democratic victory can only be uttered so many times before their voters stop listening. 

This is all culture-war nonsense. The Tucker Carlson schtick, aka “owning the libs,” requires disregarding the genuine hardships of the world - such as the isolation of a transgender student, the anxiety of the uninsured, or the struggles of a Black man, so forth. It's a manipulative tactic that treats all of life as a ratings game that relies on constant outrage, signaling white identity, and making sweeping generalizations. Conservatives, led by Trump as their culture-war president with limited policy, are fixated on the culture war. However, any conservative worth a shit is contemplating how to move beyond this approach and achieve tangible progress.

Anyway, CPAC and NCC were a lot of projection with CPAC being pro-Trump and NCC being pro-far right with the 2024 hopefuls doing the heavy lifting. The later fancy themselves “Reagan Republicans,” which is more or less the same old shit. Coke Zero to Diet Coke, Carl's Jr. to Hardees, cocaine to crack, so forth. Same means and ends but with different packaging/delivery methods. Trump is pure rage, Reaganites are also full of rage, but smile a little more. 

Some examples of the latter group include Rachel Bovard, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and Marco Rubio. 

Bovard got a lot of attention coming out of the conference. Sort of the breakout star. She's a somewhat intelligent/accomplished/young conservative who has worked for various Republican politicians and conservative organizations. She believes that previous generations of conservatives were too naive in thinking that liberals and conservatives had similar goals for America. In her view, the left is actively working to destroy everything the conservative movement stands for. The left does this by controlling every aspect of American society and culture and that they are using their power to dismantle traditional American values and institutions. She is not alone, of course, in such beliefs: 

Cruz: “The left’s attack is on America. The left hates America. It is the left that is trying to use culture as a tool to destroy America.”

Hawley: “Their grand ambition is to deconstruct the United States of America.”

Rubio: “We are confronted now by a systematic effort to dismantle our society, our traditions, our economy, and our way of life.” 

And so forth.

All of this is built on bullshit, of course. From Bovard: “Woke elites—increasingly the mainstream left of this country—do not want what we want. What they want is to destroy us... Not only will they use every power at their disposal to achieve their goal,” they’ve been doing it for years “by dominating every cultural, intellectual, and political institution.” Progressives pretend to be the oppressed ones, “but in reality, it’s just an old boys’ club, another frat house for entitled rich kids contrived to perpetuate their unearned privilege. It’s Skull and Bones for gender-studies majors!” So much for toning it down a bit. 

The left, according to them, is conspiring to undermine America. Not a lot of details on how this is being done but it seems to involve a combination of academia, Hollywood, the news media, and George Soros.

This is how they justify playing dirty and their attempts at doing at exactly what they are accusing the left of, namely destroying their way of life. Leonard Leo, a prominent figure in the Federalist Society, for example, has set his sights on expanding his influence beyond the judiciary and into various sectors of American culture. The guy was a key player in the effort to dismantle Roe v. Wade. Through that bullshit, Leo was involved in the appointments of Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. His aim is to establish a "Federalist Society for everything" to take on such institutions as Wall Street, Silicon Valley, journalism, Hollywood, and academia. Leo believes that the same tactics that worked for the Federalist Society in the legal arena can be applied to other areas, including combating "wokeism" in corporate and educational settings, so-called biased media, and corrupting entertainment.

This is, of course, insane and unlikely to work since wrong to think organized/unified wokeists are taking over all the institutions of American life. Not that they care. It's just their way of justifying what they are doing at the state level. 

The argument, they say, is that since the libs control everything, they have to aggressively use state legislatures to pass laws embracing their values, essentially what’s now happening across red America, including my home state of Indiana. An “unapologetically embrace the use of state power,” is what they are calling it. National conservatism taken to its ultimate end, which involves utilizing state authority to dismantle large corporations while simultaneously resisting coastal cultural norms. The conflict between cultural values and economic classes merged, so they hope, and a new right-wing movement arises in which a group of intellectuals lead working-class individuals in opposing the cultural and corporate elites. Blah blah blah. Putting a lot of faith in pushing money upward, but it's worked so far so why not. 

So what are they trying to do with state power, you ask. Well, if you are Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, for example, a favorite for the Republican presidential nomination by the by, who says that his state “is where woke goes to die,” you use it to obliterate First Amendment Rights. 

A bill growing down there in America's wang is an explicit attempt to undo the 1964 Supreme Court decision, The New York Times Company v. Sullivan. This is a bulwark of First Amendment law that requires public figures to prove a news organization engaged in “actual malice” to win a defamation case. The so-called price of being a public figure decision. This case freed news organizations to pursue vigorous reporting about public officials without fear of paying damages.

The new bill would change the definition of actual malice to include any allegation that is “inherently improbable” or that is based on what it calls an “unverified” statement by an anonymous sourceMostucked up is that it says that all anonymous statements are “presumptively false” for the purposes of a defamation case.

If the bill is enacted, it would create enormous damage which other states will copy, likely with its language verbatim, on the way to the high court, where it will ultimately head. Once there, the conservative Justices will likely give it the okay as they would directly benefit from such a landmark case. Citizens who value free speech should really start raising a shit before the state silences them, just saying. The bill obviously represents a dangerous threat to free expression, not just for the news media, but for all Americans, regardless of their political beliefs. But, you know, for Republicans don't really seem to apply. 

Then, of course, there is the whole transgender rights thing that the Republican Party is actively making their major platform for their base of unhinged bigots. At CPAC, for example, one Michael Knowles advocated for the complete elimination of transgenderism from public life, a sentiment that captures the essence of the right's collective efforts. Although there are numerous bills with varying objectives and justifications, Indiana signed one yesterday, their overall impact is reflective of fuck you if you're transgender. DeSantis (did I mention his national aspirations?), again, is leveraging the issue to bolster his anti-woke political image. Own those libs!

What does all this mean, exactly? I think it means the Republican Party is on some weak bullshit, and they know it. It remains unclear whether right-wing populism is here to stay, but it is clear that it requires an adversary, and opposition to “woke” ideals is a convenient target, although ultimately a one they can't really define. Look at the Federalist Society, for example. Their objective until recently was simple: replace one group of judges with the most ideologically extreme. Having unfortunately succeeded, now they are largely opposed to this concept of being “woke,” which is more or less taking on the entire culture without knowing what it is or means. However, as they are learning, attempting to reverse social progress across all facets of American society is not a simple or attainable goal, especially when lacking an understanding of the root causes of that progress. 

To clarify, to be “woke” originally referred to having an awareness of social issues, particularly pertaining to racism and inequality. It has since evolved to encompass actively seeking education on issues with the goal of taking action to effect positive change. Nowadays, the term is commonly used to describe individuals who are socially conscious, who give a shit about other people, who aren't the raging asshole no one wants to engage with. These are the people that the anti-expression laws are coming for. For now, to the real fucks pushing this stuff, I say, go fuck yourself, you pieces of shit. 

Indiana HB 1608 - Transphobic Legislation Comes Home

Late last month, the Indiana House passed HB 1608. The legislation prohibits discussion of LGBTQ children in schools and discloses transgender students' identities. One of the shameful “Don't Say Gay” clones that are being passed in red states. It passed with minimal discussion. The bill will now advance to the Senate where it too will pass. 

ACLU of Indiana Advocacy and Public Policy Director, Katie Blair, issued the following statement: 

“HB 1608 is a disgraceful piece of legislation that targets LGBTQ kids by censoring conversations about LGBTQ families in schools and forcing teachers to out transgender students. Every parent hopes our laws will ensure children’s safety, protection, and freedom. But the Indiana legislators supporting this bill are rejecting those values and targeting LGBTQ kids for bullying and mistreatment, just because of who they are. Our schools should protect all students—including LGBTQ students—so they can learn and thrive in a safe environment. The legislators behind HB 1608 are trying to force schools to violate that most basic trust. LGBTQ families in Indiana will not be erased and we will be out in force if and when this bill is heard in the Senate.” 

I've seen the wingers with the prion disease argue that it is necessary to protect kids from woke teachers turning them gay or transgender. Others say that we need it to protect five year olds from learning about complex sex stuff. 

One I got into it with, on the internet, said (paraphrasing and cleaning it up):

“Don't expect parents to buy into your delusions of K-12 students not being abused in recent years. Instances like Drag Queen Story Hour, a transgender girl assaulting a biological girl in two separate school bathrooms, administering puberty blockers without parental consent, after-school programs where teachers encourage students to lie to their parents, kids being taken away from their parents for not using preferred pronouns, and books like 'Gender Queer' portraying sexual acts such as rape and fellatio have been found in numerous schools. This bill's aim is not political, but to safeguard children from malevolent, twisted individuals who wish to harm them.”

I've take a page out of a brilliant and thoughtful lawyer friend of mine's playback when dealing with stuff like this. I ask where they got this info. When they come back with a dubious blog post or whatever, I then breakdown into journalist mode. Explaining that sources matter and so forth, which I did in this case. Radio silence since then, which is not really the point. 

Thinking about this longer and harder than I have on any right-wing bullshit for a while now, this is what I've come up with. The first thing these lawmakers do is point say the bill aims to prohibit sexual education for students in third grade and below. That is not an appropriate topic for young students. “I don't my tender, naïve third grader exposed to sexualized concepts!” Well, yeah, no one wants that and it isn't happening. No Indiana students are not currently learning sex education in those grades. 

So what is this really about? Who are these “Don't Say Gay” bills really for? Seems that they are mostly for angry male chauvinists. The goal is obviously to prevent teachers from being able to support LGBTQ students. A way to own the libs at the cost of their (or other people's) children. That's really sweet of them. I thought you people didn't like hearing “we are from the government and we are here to help.”

Which brings me to another point, you can't really have a reasonable, rational conversation with conservatives about matters of race, gender, sexuality, so forth. These are issues deeply entrenched and people on the right are offended when asked to consider another viewpoint. 

What I'm seeing here on social media is pointing out a problem that demands attention, and people on the right using this as an opportunity to shout her down, condescend, deride, and ignore. Such is the way. 

But, really, we can read between the lines. Just say you hate gay people. Be like the Dilbert guy and say the quite part out loud.