Bullshit! (October Unsurprising, Twelve.)

Living in this country, you're bound to know, every time you're exposed to advertising, you realize once again that America's leading industry, America's most profitable business is still: the manufacture, packaging, distribution and marketing of bullshit. High-quality, grade-A, prime-cut, pure, American bullshit. And the sad part is, is that most people seem to have been indoctrinated to believe that bullshit only comes from certain places, certain sources: advertising, politics, salesmen – not true. Bullshit is everywhere. Bullshit is rampant. Parents are full of shit, teachers are full of shit, clergymen are full of shit, and law enforcement people are full...of...shit – this entire country. This entire country is completely full of shit, and always has been. From the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution to the Star-Spangled Banner, it's still nothing more than one big steaming pile of red, white and blue, all-American bullshit. Because, think of how we started. Think of that. This country was founded by a group of slave-owners who told us all men are created equal. Oh yeah, all men, except for Indians and niggers and women, right? I always like to use that authentic American language. This was a small group of unelected, white, male, land-holding, slave-owners who also suggested their class be the only one allowed to vote. Now, that is what's known as being stunningly and embarrassingly full of shit. And I think Americans really show their ignorance when they say they want their politicians to be honest. What are these fuckin' cretins talking about? If honesty were suddenly introduced into American life, the whole system would collapse! No one would know what to do! Honesty would FUCK THIS COUNTRY UP!! ~George Carlin

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Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. ~George Orwell, 1984.

I saw this last night.

And it pissed me off, for multiple reasons. 

#1 It's a lie, there ARE No "Amish For Trump."

The Amish don't vote, don't participate in civic affairs, or serve in the military or even use most modern technology because all that stuff is against their interpretation of Christianity, which they take very seriously.

If you want to do all that kind of stuff, their stated belief is you can leave, and people do and historically have. But they typically do keep some of the sect's ways. That's why there's Amish-adjacent Anabaptist sects like the Mennonites, among others. I live in Michigan and we have all that here, too. 

#2 I've been to Lancaster, PA. Yeah, it was 25 years ago or so the last time, but the numbers didn't look right. (My Mom used to have friends there and we knew a lot of people from that area because of her business.) 

Yeah, the Amish are a visible minority there, but I doubted (per memory) there was even 50,000 much less 160,000. 

So I checked, there's like 88,000 Amish people in the entire state of Pennsylvania and around 350K-400K in the whole United States.

#3 Get real, there's nobody "From the Government" bothering the Amish, and if there was they wouldn't turn to somebody like Trump...because yes, Amish and Mennonites have been persecuted, and their typical response is to endure the persecution or to leave because they are a peaceful people. 

In fact the reason they're a New World religious sect is that they fled severe persecution in Europe because they refused to obey military conscription and there are Amish and Mennonite communities throughout Canada, the US and Latin America as a result, although from Mexico on south, "Amish" and "Mennonite" are largely interchangeable as proper terms with little difference between the groups.

Where I lived downstate, Amish people were a common sight at places like Walmart, nobody bothered them, and they didn't bother anybody else, either.

There's an Amish/Mennonite business, kind of a bakery/food co-op thing about an hour from my Mom's house, and they don't even take credit or debit cards. It's cash or check only. A whole fuck-ton of their stuff (anything not purchased wholesale) isn't even set up to be sold via point of sale technology for reasons that both should be obvious and are entirely Biblical. You can't tell me those people would sign up with the heavily tech-based and worldly Trump campaign. You just can't, because I know a little bit.

This isn't that hard.

Except for looking up the numbers that was all off the top of my head.

Motherfuckers need to look up some Christian history and shit before they lie so maybe they can come up with something plausible next time.

There ain't no fresh groups of Trump Supporters coming out the woodwork at the literal last minute. Russian bots don't vote, either.

It's all bullshit, trying to play on the typical last-minute nerves that a lot of Democrats get. The Amish thing, for one, is an op by people like Anti-Muslim bigot and "Gays For Trump" founder Scott Presler.

If there was a last minute surge of support, these fucking people wouldn't be trying to steal the votes of whole states, let alone coming up with harebrained unworkable schemes like trying to steal North Carolina's electoral votes at the last minute. There's simply no way to even do it per state law.

These assholes aren't trying to win, unless they can do it by plain-out lying and depressing turnout. So, what they're doing is they're trying to create a pretext for political fuckery and right-wing insurgency when they lose.

And yes, that's their next move.

The reason for this bullshit is they know that, if people are asked honestly and given a chance to respond to the question "Should Donald Trump be President again?" 

We're going to say "No" and reject their cult.

And cults do not like to be rejected.

And neither down-ballot races nor actual numbers thus far (where available) are stacking up in MAGA's favor. The polls are a fucking farce meant to salve Trump's narcissism, dilute the truth, and drive up the price of his bullshit stock...not to mention they're going to scam million$ out of pro-Trump bettors on various gambling websites. Yes, I'm serious. RE: Gambling, the House is expecting Harris to win, or they wouldn't be doing that shit and would have closed off pro-Trump bets already.

So they'll try to cheat and steal and if they can't do that, they'll try by force of arms and that will end very badly for them.

Meanwhile, Harris is having epic rallies in Texas, of all places.

Because yeah, half the fucking reason we're in this mess is the safe Blue-states-and-Presidency strategy of a previous tranche of Democrats.

You have to contest everywhere, you have to fight Republican (and Russian, and other) bullshit on all fronts. I mean, hell, Michigan is a Blue state now, and it used to be Purple, Virginia used to be solidly Republican and is basically a Blue State now. Hell, we won Georgia in 2020!

People are tired of the Republicans' crap and they're only getting more so, and also the crap is getting worse.

The Republican strategy, such as it is, is basically a political version of the Russian way of war in Ukraine; That is, it's like The Walking Dead, but with idiots instead of Zombies. They throw hordes of shambling morons at whatever they think they want, under cover of epic levels of bullshit, and figure they'll get something. It doesn't matter how many morons they lose, because they can always get more of them.

That's basically how these assholes got rid of Roe Vs. Wade, 50 years of bullshit, lies and relentless morons. Then they finally got themselves a President that was on the take enough and susceptible enough to flattery from Medieval Catholic fools to give them religious fanatic judges who'd pull the trigger.

And it was all bullshit. Like within hours of the decision leaking, Twitter was full of freaking misogynistic assholes, grown ass men, talking about banging young girls. It was never about Life, not for one minute.

I wrote about it when the shit was going down.

And none of this Trump stuff is about America, conservatism, fiscal policy, God, religion or any of the shit they say it is. It's entirely about Power for a political party-turned-Power-cult and about one man, Donald Trump. 

These fucking people are trying to bullshit you, so they can steal money and power and your future.

You do not have to let them.

Either you believe in freedom or you don't.

It really is that simple.

Now is the time to be a Better Citizen and vote the bastards out.

Tax the fuck out of their jackass billionaire enablers, too.

Yes, we can.

Remember that, it's gonna be on the test.

And so tomorrow, as we take the campaign South and West, as we learn that the struggles of the textile workers in Spartanburg are not so different than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas; that the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of L.A.; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people, we are one nation. And, together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story, with three words that will ring from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea: Yes, we can. ~Barack Obama

Слава Україна!

When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything. ~Umberto Eco

Eleven

If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan