In which I still ain’t right

On September 28, 2018September 28, 2018 By Luther M. SilerIn Politics, WritingLeave a comment

maxresdefault

If you ever needed proof that I make foolish decisions: I decided to release a book during what I think may literally have been the stupidest and most rage-inducing week of my entire life. I mean, there was probably a week during the Bush administration that at least came close somewhere. Hell, there was probably more than one. But right now hell if I can remember when that week might have been, and perhaps more importantly I didn’t have a wife and kid near me to remind me of my need to keep my shit together, and it has been fucking hard to come home from work each night and force myself into editing and creating mode instead of staring dully at Twitter and thinking thoughts that I ought not to be thinking.

I have never hated Republicans more than I do this week. I have never been more exhausted and sick of white men than I have been this week. I have never been more embarrassed by men in general than I have this week.

I cannot imagine how any of my women friends feel, and I can’t believe my wife is even still standing after all this shit. The rage has nearly incapacitated me and I haven’t been putting up with entitled assholes like Brett Kavanaugh my entire life, like virtually every woman I know has.

Oh, and today at work involved transcribing a bunch of witness statements and having to find a way to get a four and a half minute, 500mb video of a kid in one of the scariest meltdowns I’ve ever seen in a school off of an ancient Android phone with a broken screen and to the cops. I will say this: I have never been shy about criticizing cops when I feel like they’re doing a shitty job. Our SRO took what could have been (what already was) a very, very bad situation today and, while it did ultimately lead to the student being taken out of the building in handcuffs (and still fighting the cops the whole way) it could have been much, much worse with a different police officer. He was an absolute model of using minimum force required and attempting de-escalation the entire time (and it was the police officer who asked our security guard to start recording the incident) and the decision wasn’t finally made to take the student to the police station until the parent of the student, who, it should be pointed out, started the shit in the first place, refused to come and collect their child and actually told the SRO to take the student to jail.

Which … Okay. But then I’mma come get you, and you’re going to jail too, you fucking asshole. Ain’t no goddamn universe in existence where somebody calls me and says they need me to come get my baby and the words “Just take him to jail” come out of my mouth.

It’s been a very, very, very fucking rough week.

But I’m going to get this book done, and it’s going to be available this weekend, so go check me out on Patreon so you can have it once it’s ready.

In which I give this more attention than it deserves

On September 4, 2018 By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy, Politics4 Comments

DmR4hllU8AIQdfa.jpg-large.jpeg Let’s talk about this asshole for a second, and the shape her hand’s making. Would I rather be talking about something else? Yeah, probably. Should this be a series of Twitter posts and not a blog post? Well, maybe. Am I still sick, and is this what I’ve come up with for tonight? Yeah. It’s my blog, so if I wanna waste time on nonsense I can.

The following things can all be true at the same time, and the majority of them are undeniable fact:

The woman making the gesture in the picture is of Mexican and Jewish heritage, which would make one think she, generally speaking, is rather unlikely to be a white supremacist;
but she still works for Brett Kavanaugh, so in this particular case “she can’t possibly think that because of her racial background” is, shall we say, somewhat less sound reasoning than it might otherwise be;
One can be Latinx and white at the same time! The identities can overlap! You can absolutely be Mexican, white, and a white supremacist at the same time.
You can also be Jewish and a white supremacist! Ever heard of Jared Kushner, son in law to the person in the White House? Hitler his fucking self was a quarter Jewish, for God’s sake.
I know how photographs work, and I know that sitting in one seat for hours with cameras trained in your general vicinity can lead to all sorts of ridiculousness. It is entirely possible that she’s popping a zit in this picture.
4chan originated the idea that this gesture meant “white power” as a troll move a couple of years ago;
but since then it has started to be used by actual, non-ironic white supremacists;
and part of the point is that it, as a fairly common gesture, will always be deniable. That you will always be able to find pictures of, oh, Barack Obama making the same hand gesture and point at it and go “See!” and you can always make anyone making an issue of the white supremacist flashing white supremacist hand signs look foolish, by laying out the precise chain of reasoning I’ve set out above. That’s. The. Fucking. Point.

So: Do I think that Brett Kavanaugh has white supremacists working for him, and do I believe that Kavanaugh himself may be one? Absolutely. 100%.

Do I believe that this woman is, herself, a white supremacist? Except insofar as it would not surprise me for any member of Kavanaugh’s staff to be one, I had never heard of this lady yesterday and will have forgotten about her tomorrow. So maybe! Maybe not! I dunno.

Did this woman deliberately decide to take the time out of the however-long-she-had-to-sit-there to randomly and quietly flash a white supremacist hand sign at the cameras? Ehh. Try as hard as I might, I can’t figure out what the point might have been of doing something like that, and, importantly: it doesn’t really fucking matter, because they’re about to steal another fucking Supreme Court seat.

The end. I’m going to bed.

Vaffanculo, asshole

On February 13, 2016February 13, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Politics11 Comments

I may have something more coherent to say tomorrow about Scalia’s hopefully painful and ignoble death. For now, I am suspending all ordinary rules of courtesy upon the death of a truly awful person-thing.

That evil piece of shit is dead. Let us dance.