Shit that Pissed me Off – 10/21

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Criticizes Colin Kaepernick

I missed this one last week so I’m making up for it now.

This makes me sad because I love RBG in almost all things.  However, here is what she had to say about Kaepernick’s decision to kneel for the National Anthem:

I think it’s really dumb of them. Would I arrest them for doing it? No. I think it’s dumb and disrespectful.

Ginsburg has a right to her opinion.  And she certainly agrees he has a right to act as he had.  However, I’m really unpleased she chose the word “dumb” to describe her reaction to his act.  Disrespectful?  Sure. OK.  I mean that’s kind of the point.

But dumb?

I’ll tell you what’s dumb, Colin. Throwing interceptions. That’s dumb.

To her credit, she walked back her comments later in the week.  I’m still concerned she chose to make them in the first place.

I guess the problem is idol worship.  Ginsburg is by far my favorite Supreme Court justice.  As such, it saddens me when she says something with which I don’t agree.  It’s like my brain has delivered a thought that completely disagrees with everything else I thought my brain believed.

Which is, I guess, unfair to Ginsburg.  She gets to have bad opinions every now and again.  At least she is pretty good at recognizing when she should keep those opinions to herself.

So we’re cool, RBG.  Unless Donald Trump gets elected and you retire or die when he’s President.  We won’t be able to get past that.

Some Horrible Jackass Firebombed a GOP Campaign office in North Carolina

Fortunately, it was “just” vandalism.  Nobody was in the office.  Nobody was hurt.  So that’s a good thing.

But I’m still angry that anyone would consider this a fair and reasonable treatment of the other side in a political debate.  You can hate the Republicans because you don’t like their candidate.  That’s fine.  I feel much the same way.

You can hate them because you don’t like their policies.  Again, I feel the same way.

Where we part ways is when you think burning down one of their offices will convince them they are doing it wrong.

What will actually happen is they will basically blame everyone who thinks like you.  Don’t believe me, person who did this stupid fucking thing?  Here’s what Mike Pence had to say:

I can’t help but feel that had this been the other way around, had it been an attack in this county on the other political party’s county headquarters, that the level of national media coverage and the discussion would be significantly different.

So even though the Clinton campaign immediately sent out their thoughts and prayers for the situation, Pence decided to turn it into an opportunity to complain people would be talking about this a lot more if the Democrats were the victim.

How much more do we need to talk about this, Governor Pence?  I got the story off of CNN!  From what I understand, they are kind of big on the national news scene.

If there has been less coverage than there should have been, I think it’s more because the dude at the top of his ticket is doing a pretty damned good job of verbally firebombing America every time he opens his mouth.

Which is not to make light of this attack, which is stupid and offensive.  Rather it is to point out that Donald Trump says horrible shit all the time and it is all the media can do to keep up.

This Week’s Meme that Pissed Me Off

Hey everyone, do you want to see someone who is completely unclear on the psychology of victim behavior?  Here you go!

Dear stupid fucking meme creator:

No.  That’s not what I’m telling you.  Holy fuck, did you even read the victim’s statements?

My guess is no because if you had, you would know that every one of them talked about being unable to put the incident out of their minds.  They also said they chose to come forward when Trump denied having acted in a way they all claim he has most definitely acted.

And if you want to get on them for the timing as if this is part of a vast liberal conspiracy, keep in mind, some of these women told their stories months ago and nobody gave a shit until video emerged in which Trump admitted to being a sexual predator.

Also, do you even understand how crazy your conspiracy theory is?  Eight (so far) women would need to have stepped forward to lie about actions by one of the most litigious men in the world.  They would have needed to accept the possibility that they will be sued for millions of dollars they don’t have and/or prosecuted for fraud.  Somehow, the Clinton campaign (which was already winning) would have needed to convince all these women to take personal and professional risks all in the name of ensuring Clinton was elected President.

It’s about as far-fetched a conspiracy theory as the one that assumes the scientific community is making up global warming so they can get their hands on those piles of alternative energy cash.

Now who believes that?  Oh, right.

Oh, and PS: I accidentally read some comments on a Facebook post by a conservative friend in which he (and others) suggested that Trump had never overtly stated he touched women without their consent.  Which is an amazing amount of mental gymnastics considering Trump said the following:

You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.

I’m just not sure where one would consider “I don’t even wait” as an indication he received consent from these women.  And yet the goal seems to be splitting hairs at what may be an atomic level.

So hey Donald apologists – when you kiss someone, you are touching them.  When you “don’t even wait,” you are touching them without their consent.

Is it only non consensual if Donald had specifically said “I don’t even ask for their consent?”

John McCain Suggests Republicans Will Continue to Block Supreme Court Nominees

While he later backed off the worst of his statements (statements like “I promise you that we will be united against any Supreme Court nominee that Hillary Clinton, if she were president, would put up”), McCain still basically said that Republican senators are going to prevent any justices from being seated if Clinton is President.

They have already stated they will not fill the seat of Antonin Scalia until the election is over because they wanted to “let the people decide.”  However, it appears that was only their intent if the people decided to vote for a Republican.  Or Donald Trump.

You would think someone would point out to Republicans that if they refuse to allow any nominees from a Democratic president to come up for a vote, the Democrats will likely follow suit.  At that point, we only fill vacancies when there is a super majority in the Senate that matches the party of the President.  Talk about a guaranteed partisan court.  I would hope McCain would be as concerned about a stacked conservative court as I would be with a stacked liberal one.

Wait – if you do something, something else might happen as a direct result of that thing you did?

Further, if McCain is concerned about the appointment of fairly partisan judges (and I get that), one wonders if he chose to vote against Scalia and Thomas (no he didn’t.)

Here’s what I think Hillary should do: She should nominate a black woman.  And if they turn that woman down, they are going to look like racist fucks no matter what they say.  Then she should nominate an Asian woman.  If they turn that woman down, they will look like racist and sexist fucks no matter what they say.  Then she should nominate someone who is transgender or openly homosexual and maybe isn’t a Catholic.  Maybe they’ll be Jewish.  If they turn that person down, they will look like homophobic, transphobic, anti-Semitic fucks no matter what they say.

This strategy will also have the advantage of creating a more diverse court.  So it’s a big win for everyone!  Except white, cis-gendered, straight dudes.  Speaking for those guys, I think we’ll manage.