Truth and Truthiness

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The Big Lie about the election. 5G receivers in vaccines. Obama’s birth certificate. And now questions over a one-source viral story about a 10-year old rape victim seeking an abortion.

What these stories all have in common is a lot of people who believe them simply because they’ve heard it over and over again.

Years ago, Stephen Colbert coined the term “truthiness” - things that sound true even if they aren’t.

In the age of social media, truthiness wins out over the truth, simply because it’s so easy to get things repeated. Whether they are not true or simply not corroborated doesn’t stop folks from hitting that share button.

So don’t think about whether this is true or not. Hit that Share button on this cartoon! Repost! Retweet!

I don’t think we feel secure

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Debates over the 2nd Amendment often hinge on phrases from the text, “shall not be infringed,” or “a well regulated militia.”

Maybe there’s something we’re missing in the part between those phrases? If this is about security and freedom, do we feel more secure and free today with the proliferation of guns? It seems the list of places we don’t feel secure just keeps growing with each mass shooting.

Yes, this is mostly a semantics point and has no real legal basis. But, perhaps to feel more secure we need to stop this idolatry of guns as the key to freedom. Because it doesn’t seem to be working.

Accountability

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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has resigned, following a huge swath of cabinet resignations expressing loss of faith in him.

Johnson has been a lightning rod conservative during his time in office, borrowing from Trump’s populist playbook. But he’s also been at the center of relentless scandals over illicit parties at Downing St, sexual misconduct of an ally Johnson promoted even after being aware of prior issues, manipulations of ethics rules and investigations, and more.

The conservatives lost confidence in Johnson and forced his hand to resign.

Imagine that. A scandal plagued conservative leader being held accountable by his own party? It seems downright un-American. Unfortunately.

Unintended Consequences

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Poorly designed laws that aren’t thought through produce chaos and unintended consequences.

In the rush to activate anti-abortion laws, several states have implemented bans starting at conception. Regardless of one’s beliefs about when life starts and what’s right, this is bound to produce chaos across multiple fronts in life. Unfortunately it’s likely to result in very invasive and intrusive questions and testing for many women.

Who knows, cops might start carrying pregnancy tests along with breathalyzer tests. Because who could imagine that resulting in any problems… 🙄

Gas Prices

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Yep, gas prices are crazy high. Lots of factors go into that- Russian oil bans due to their invasion of Ukraine has driven up oil prices. Decades without new US refinery construction has limited capacity. Further limited by shifting processing units to sustainable fuels and refineries closing as they became more expensive and troublesome to run.

Yes, oil companies are making huge profits but if it was driven just by their greed they would have raised prices a long time ago, so there’s more going on.

And Summer demand is high. Limited supply and high demand, price goes up.

But it’s not as simple as drilling for more oil. Without refining capacity (running near peak already), we can’t turn that crude oil into gasoline anyway. And that also works against the climate change goals we must prioritize.

Reduce demand and prices should go down.

It sucks, but maybe expensive gas is going to be around a while. And maybe the world needs that.

Freedom and Rights, but for Whom?

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As we start the Fourth of July weekend, I reflect on the promise of America and what we see happening today.

“All men are created equal.” That’s the promise. And we still struggle to live up to that, with more restrictions being pushed on LGBTQ people, promotion of Christian theocratic norms, women’s body autonomy vanishing overnight in many places, voting laws that discriminate based on systemic racial issues, immigrants made to feel like they’re not wanted, and more.

As a financially secure, straight, cisgender, white male, it’s not me that these discriminatory laws and practices and hatred are after- but lots of people I love.

“Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” America is set up to be majority role with rights of the minorities protected. But we’re losing both of those. The majority of Americans disagree with many recent rulings and laws. Yet the system has been rigged to ram through minority opinions. And the minority rights that are supposed to be protected are being eroded.

Minority rule without protecting rights- that’s fascism. A word thrown about so much lately that’s it’s lost its impact.

I truly love America. I love the promise of what it should be. That’s why we keep pushing to make it better.

So as you think about or celebrate America’s birthday this year, ponder: is America what it should be? If not, what am I going to do about it?

Trump Knew

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Trump knew. We learned that from yesterday’s very compelling testimony at the January 6th Committee hearings.

A person with direct contact to Trump’s top administration officials and Trump himself helped connect several dots.

Trump KNEW he lost in November 2020.

Trump KNEW there was no election fraud. And when he learned his Attorney General wouldn’t go along with his lies he threw his lunch at the wall, leaving staff to clean the ketchup dripping down the wall.

Trump KNEW there would be violence on January 6th (with his Chief of Staff saying ahead of time that it could get “real, real bad” on January 6).

Trump KNEW the rioters were armed and ordered his people to remove the metal detectors at his rally since, “They aren’t here to hurt me…. Let them march to the Capitol.”

Trump KNEW these armed people would march on the Capitol.

Trump KNEW they were chanting to hang Mike Pence and felt Pence “deserves it.”

Trump knew this was all going to happen and encouraged and invited it.

Trump knew. The writing is on the wall.

Pride, Progress, & Protest

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Rainbows bring joy, happiness. They instill a sense of wonder and appreciation of the world around us.

Yet the rainbow flag didn’t start that way. The Pride flag was flown as a symbol of protest, by those demanding to be accepted, demanding they have equal rights to those around them.

Today, many cities are celebrating Pride with parades and the revised Progress flag. Celebrating the progress we have made as a society for acceptance. But remember that it wasn’t always about joy. It was about protest.

And these days, as more states try to strip away rights and deny the existence of LGBTQ+ citizens, protest is what we need.

Empathy and acceptance. Equal rights for all.

Clarence Thomas

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In overturning Roe v Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas argues that the Court should also revisit other previously-settled laws that affect the rights to contraception, same sex relationships, and same sex marriage, all of which are based on the 14th Amendment.

He did not address Loving v Virginia, which set the precedent that the 14th Amendment’s due process and privacy clause give the right to interracial marriage.

We’ve all become acutely aware of his wife, Ginni Thomas - a white woman - from the release of many of her text messages to Mark Meadows and other White House staff in trying to overturn the 2020 election and supporting the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

Perhaps he’s ok with revisiting that one after all, though?

C’mon, it’s satire.

Time to Fight

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Time to fight. State by state. Don’t like your state’s laws? Vote in new people who will change them.

And this isn’t just about women’s rights. Justice Clarence Thomas is calling to revisit gay marriage and rights to contraception.

Don’t like the way the country is going? Let’s work to change it. Hold on, it’s going to be a long fight.

January 6th Committee

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While I doubt it will result in important indictments or change the minds of many Trump supporters, we should all pay attention to the January 6th committee hearings. They’re laying out all the ways in which Trump and his people knew they were undermining American democracy.

Yesterday’s testimony included retired Judge J. Michael Luttig. Luttig served as counsel in the Reagan White House, Assistant Attorney General under George HW Bush, and was appointed by Bush 1 as a Judge on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. I’ll let his words speak for themselves:

“A stake was driven through the heart of American democracy on January 6, 2021, and our democracy today is on a knife’s edge… Knowing full well that he had lost the 2020 presidential election, the former president and his allies and supporters falsely claimed and proclaimed to the nation that he had won the election, and then he and they set about to overturn the election that he and they knew the former president had lost… The treacherous plan was no less ambitious than to steal America’s democracy.”

“Donald Trump and his allies are a clear and present danger to American democracy. To this very day, the former president, his allies and supporters, pledge that in the presidential election of 2024, if the former president or his anointed successor ... were to lose that election, that they would attempt to overturn that 2024 election in the same way that they attempted to overturn the 2020 election. I don't speak those words lightly. I would have never uttered one single one of those words unless the former president and his allies were candidly and proudly speaking those exact words to America.”

But Trumps supporters will just blow it off. After all, it’s not as bad as Hillary’s emails, right?

Pardon List

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In the January 6 Committee hearings, it was revealed that John Eastman, Trump’s lawyer who worked alongside Trump to champion the theory that VP Pence could unilaterally reject electors, sought a presidential pardon in the aftermath of Jan. 6.

Eastman sent an email to Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani "a few days after" Jan. 6 seeking a pardon. "I've decided that I should be on the pardon list, if that is still in the works," Eastman wrote.

More evidence that Trump and those around him were aware of the illegality of their plans to subvert American democracy.

Allowing for a quick repurposing of an old cartoon.