Mean Girls (Arsonists IV.)

Hospitaller: So, how find you Jerusalem?

Balian of Ibelin: God does not speak to me. Not even on the hill where Christ died. I am outside God's grace.

Hospitaller: I have not heard that.

Balian of Ibelin: At any rate, it seems I have lost my religion.

Hospitaller: I put no stock in religion. By the word religion, I've seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the "Will of God". I've seen too much religion in the eyes of too many murderers. Holiness is in right action and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves. And goodness - what God desires - [pointing at his head then heart] is here and here. And what you decide to do every day, you will be a good man, [smiles] or not. ~From the film Kingdom Of Heaven.

I saw this this evening.

Ilhan Omar and Lauren Boebert spoke by phone today, and evidently instead of trying to act like a goddamned civilized human being, Blowbert simply doubled down on her previous behavior. Omar hung up on her.

Good.

You cannot reason with willfully unreasonable people, you cannot expect truth from the willfully mendacious. You can't expect an overgrown teenager like Blowbert who had enablers instead of parents to suddenly start acting like a grown-ass adult. And thus far, Blowbert has shown she has reactionary shitty views about basically everything from COVID-19 to LGBT rights, and she'd rather be a right-wing pop culture icon than a legislator. She sure as fuck doesn't want to do the job.

And make no mistake about it, the Republican Party has shown that people like Lauren Boebert represent its future. After all, Donald Trump is old, his bullying, cowardly, lying old ass has maybe a few years left and that's all. And say whatever else you want about Trump...the man had limits. There were a hell of a lot of people Trump didn't have the guts to talk shit about in public. Maybe that's limits born more from cowardice than ethics, but at least it's something.

Lauren Blowbert doesn't even have that.

Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz. Ronny Jackson..the Republican Party has made no bones about the fact that these people represent what it sees as its future...and the wider global Authoritarianism, Inc. and assorted corporate goons line up enthusiastically behind them because they want as many people in positions of power in the United States who don't know shit about anything as they can possibly get. 

Vladimir Putin doesn't want these people in power because he likes or agrees with them. He wants them in power because they'd be lucky if they could find Ukraine on a marked map, let alone manage any kind of wartime situation competently...and he knows they'd be far more likely to shrink away and half-ass the response to anything he did out of simple cowardice and lack of scruples.

And plenty enough American bad actors, corporate or otherwise, know all they have to do is throw money at these bitches and they have new lackeys in Congress, just like that.

But more to the point far too many of their fellow Republicans right here are Okay with this bullshit or at least afraid to speak up about it out of fear of angering the fascist mob that serves as a majority of their voter base right now;

And that's exactly what it is, fascists.

Ilhan Omar rose from being a poor refugee to being in the United States House of Representatives...hell, to being one of the people who set the tone for awhile. Omar is the first naturalized citizen of African birth in Congress, the first Somali American in Congress and the first Muslim woman in Congress. She's shown a fair amount of grit and leadership, I think. And she's shown herself to be a worthy successor to Keith Ellison, who I figure had to be a tough act to follow. I have relatives who live in that congressional district...older people and more old-school Democrats who doubtless see Muslim Congress-people as a new and different thing but they've never had any complaints about either Ellison or Omar that I've heard about. I know from Facebook posts I've seen that they voted for both.

Lauren Boebert on the other hand, is basically a spoiled high school mean girl ho who never even finished high school, much less grew up. She made the jump from working person to restaurant owner to right-wing activist without much apparent effort at all. But she sure knows how to play the petty political bullshit she had to have learned from doing all that. Trust me, anybody who got their politics from working in food service isn't somebody I want in Congress. (I worked in food service, too.)

Apparently, she campaigned on wanting to carry a weapon on the House floor.

For the love of God, why? What's even the damn point of this?

It's not even an original idea, people did shit like that all the time in the 19th century and there was occasional violence between Congressmen. The current rules that forbid carrying weapons in Congress exist for a damn reason, though they do seem to be broken from time to time.

And I'll tell you one thing for sure, I've known plenty of Evangelical Christian women just like Lauren Boebert, who think they and everything they do are special and that no rules apply to them. Like in the End of Days, when the judgment comes, they think they'll just be able to smooth-talk Jesus out of sending them straight to hell, or something.

I've absolutely learned the hard way not to turn by back on these kind of people.

Look, if you want a better country, you have to be a better citizen. If you want to be a better citizen you have to elect better people to represent you in our representative form of Democracy. 

And this? This ain't it, people.

People like Lauren Boebert don't recognize their fellow Americans as fellow citizens. Hell, they don't recognize anybody who's different from them as a fellow human being.

And the real sick thing is, if she had this ongoing thing with Omar in any other workplace in America, Lauren Boebert would have been out the door the first that the Human Resources department heard about it.

And in our system of government, having these fucking people in the legislative body that's by definition supposed to represent everybody is a terrible idea. It's really that simple. Hate has no place in proper governance. Why the hell else do you think Republicans want this shit to infect our government?

They want things not to work, They absolutely don't want a government that represents everybody.

I've been saying for years that "Left Behind Is A Lie" but the truth of it is that Republicans absolutely do want an America where a lot of people...preferably people they don't like but they'll move the goalposts on that, too...get left behind. The cruelty is the goddamn point.

And with Trump out of power...the Republicans are betting on people like Lauren Boebert to keep their shitty agenda going...to keep things not working, especially for the average person. The last thing conservatives want, after all, is progress.

That spell it out for ya?

Hilary Faye : Mary, turn away from Satan. Jesus, he loves you.

Mary : You don't know the first thing about love.

Hilary Faye : [throws a Bible at Mary] I am FILLED with Christ's love! You are just jealous of my success in the Lord.

Mary : [Mary holds up the Bible] This is not a weapon! You idiot.

~From the film Saved!

Part III