"Pro-Life?" Whose life?

Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves. Our tepees were round like the nests of birds, and these were always set in a circle, the nation's hoop. ~Black Elk, Lakota Holy Man.

Listen up, yo.

I'm just sayin' if I ever catch some punk-ass kid of a Trump Supporter menacing an elder like this, I'm a probably lose it, beat them up and go to jail. More to the point I'll be glad to do it too, and glad to explain to all and sundry exactly why.

What part of "Some things are just not done" don't these fucking people understand?

I guess a bunch of punk-ass kids from northern Kentucky, students at an all-boys school called Covington Catholic High School, who were there for the "March for Life" decided to menace the remaining people at the Indigenous People's March yesterday after most of the Native folks had left. This apparently included Elder and Vietnam Veteran Nathan Phillips. They surrounded the Native folks and started chanting "Build the wall."

Native Americans are, by definition, from here. They were born here, they have been accorded full citizenship for going on 100 years and if I have to tell you how they got it you ain't been paying attention.

So yeah, that's your "border security" and "pro-life" folks, right there. This has not one goddamned thing to do with respect for life, or security (on the border or otherwise) or weed legalization or any other political or social issues these motherfuckers try to dress it up as. It's about the racism, stupid.

It's about the homophobia and the misogyny too, but mostly the racism.

For his part, Mr. Phillips kept doing his thing, singing his song...and in such situations there is powerful Medicine, or spiritual energy. I'm here to tell you...you don't want to mess with that stuff. I have watched Native folks do their spiritual things. I have been in churches of any conceivable kind many times, from Black churches to Catholic cathedrals to a fire-and-brimstone Baptist church in a half-abandoned strip mall. I have beat the drum while Muslim friends of mine, Sufis (members of a mystic sect within Islam) did their whirling Dervish dance. I've debated spiritual matters with Jamaican Rastas. I'm a give you a word of advice: It doesn't matter what it is, it doesn't matter if it's not yours, you treat spirituality with respect. You sure as a mother fucker do not get in the face of a person genuinely practicing it and menace them.

Especially if they don't back down.

Trust me, God, the gods, the Universe...whatever you wanna call it...it knows and sees what you do.

My social media was on fire earlier with people demanding that those kids be punished, and likewise with pretty damned bipartisan offers of support for Mr. Phillips. The only "people" supporting those kids appear to be Russian bots. I'm not sure that would have shook out that way if they'd hassled somebody for eating a plate of tacos or some other activity.

Have fun with fame, boys. It won't be like you thought it was gonna be.

Oh, and while we're at it, speaking of the "March for Life" Ben Shapiro made a point of saying that "No pro-life person would kill Baby Hitler." You know what? On top of the fact that that's about the third-dumbest thing I've heard all day after Trump's speech and the ridiculous mess outlined above....fuck no I wouldn't spare no baby Hitler. My PTSD might get worse and I might blow my own brains out but I'd do it knowing I'd changed history and maybe even saved millions of people. Of course, until somebody actually invents time travel, the entire argument is itself ridiculous.

Of course, pro-life apparently isn't what it used to be, if it ever actually was about life.

You know what I don't see in this picture?

I don't see any women.

I don't see any People of Color.

I just see a lot of punk-ass white kids.

Is this the result of conservative youth engagement? If so, ya'll need to try again because you're clearly only appealing to one demographic.

Also, Planned Parenthood is a private organization funded by private donations. The main reason that they get any Federal funding at all is...effectively...outsourcing to make caring for women's health issues cheaper. Planned Parenthood doesn't get any Federal money for abortions.

But none of this is really about Planned Parenthood, is it?

It's about control, and power, and the desire of right-wing white men to be accorded the privilege to try to control everybody else.

Granted, Jesse Lee Peterson is Black, but I'm not sure how much that counts for when the idiot has defended slavery.

It's about the fact that most people, even many conservatives, don't see anything wrong with lesbians or Muslims or women who live with their partners or are on their second marriages. For fuck's sake on that last two that's most people, whatever their politics or anything else. It's about the fact that the Unfuckable Dork Brigade lost control of the narrative sometime back, but that instead of just telling them to go fuck themselves society humored these assholes and nuts or strung them along because it was easier.

The problem isn't Trump. The problem is that given the option between being honest, having leadership and trying to show that their way was better...or lying about it...in all too many cases conservatives lied about it. Now, they've got a liar President and they're starting to reap the consequences and the rest of the world is visibly suffering the consequences of their shitty ideology, which basically boils down to some combination of "Fuck You, I've Got Mine" greed, misogyny, racism and selfishness.

What's not to like, right? No wonder they couldn't be honest.

The circle of America is broken. Conservatives and yes, rich people were woven into that fabric and it was a requirement for them that they behave themselves, well, now they aren't. More to the point they aren't even interested in doing what's right for anybody, even themselves in many cases...they only want to wield power for power's sake.

That's a recipe for disaster. If you want an American Pol Pot, if you want this entire nation to crumble and a nuclear civil war and United Nations troops and relief agencies within our borders and people bathing and shitting in the same flooded bomb craters, you keep that shit up.

It isn't going to work. It's human nature to resist...just like how that old Native man did not back down.

It's up to the rest of us to kick these people to the curb and knit things back together because otherwise they've decided that they're the only ones who should get anything, ever. They've made cult-like devotion to their Fake Orange God the litmus test...and somehow that seems like a terrible idea...and the worse it works out for them the more they double down.

These people say they're "pro-life?" I'm not sure I'd consider what they want to be living.

The center cannot hold, so we need to find a new one.

In the meantime, don't be that guy.

If we want a better nation we have to be better citizens, and yes, better people.

They sure won't.

Addendum: I guess now we know why those kids felt free to menace that old Native man: