Why "not all men" is not a valid argument :

Why "not all men" is not a valid argument : 

Because some 16% of women will be forcibly raped at some point during their lifetime, and too many men are indifferent or in denial of the facts.  The number I stated above comes out of statistics kept by RAINN https://www.rainn.org/about-rainn  indicate that over their lifetime, one in six (16%) of women will experience an attempted or successful forcible rape.
The FBI uniform crime report says that  some 67345 women were raped in 2012, while only some 12100 men. for those who can't count well, that's some 5.5 women raped for every 1 man.
Consider also that not as many people report being raped out of shame, fear or embarrassment, and you'll see that we have a real problem here. 
There are all too many sexual predators out there, and the overwhelming percentage of them are men.

The end of constitutional government in the United States ?

The end of constitutional government in the United States ?

I thought I would never write this post.
I most sincerely hope that I am wrong, and that this post will be looked back upon as a panic that was never going to happen and I'll look like a goddamned fool . If so, I'll own up to it, and post an addendum to this. I hope most fervently that I have to do that. But here it is anyway.
Today, Mr. Justice Anthony Kennedy has announced his retirement. 
Mr President Trump (a title that causes me nausea) will have the opportunity to select a replacement. 
If this goes through, modern liberalism is done. Trump will pick someone like Bork and then defy anyone to vote against him. The Senate will vote exactly party lines, and confirm the man who will blow the bottom out of the constitution. Not just the New Deal will die. Not just Roe v Wade. It's game over time. The USA will go the way of Germany, Argentina, Chile and Spain. With a President who considers himself a king, and a 26% "majority" (with 46% apathetic) who will rally and vote for whoever Trump says, children who haven't been taught civics, and a whole generation who believe that Fox News is always right. I don't know whether to arm up or flee the country. I'm old, and not very mobile. I believe I still have one good fight left in me, but that'll be it. It's likely that I'll go down after a few minutes and not get up. I want to explain here that I will fight for -- not for my country, which is only lines drawn on a map -- but I will fight for those ideals the founding fathers set down. Those are what matters. Not some pieces of colored cloth, or location denoted by map coordinates. Land is fungible. Flags change over time. But ideas are bulletproof. Even bad ideas like Fascism. Even horrible ideas like Trump-ism, and Presidente por Vida. Good ideas, like equality under the law, freedom , and a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Not government by the trumpists for the wealthy for the profits.

Something I thought about while I couldn't sleep.

(this post is fiction.I was not an army brat, and am not an army officer. it's offered as written, by me, as an emotional exercise, specifically on this day, for this day. It is told in the voice of a character of mine called Claire McClellan. She's a 27 or 28 year old graduate of the United States Military Academy, and in this context, the first ever female Green Beret officer. (the Special Forces are, as of this writing, still a boys club, although Delta allegedly as some women in it.)

     I'm an Army Brat. I grew up as a dependent of an army officer. The good part about being an Army Brat is, you get to go to so many places. The bad part is, you have to go. But today I want to talk about one part of being an Army Brat that they don't tell you about on TV or in the papers:  (click thru to read the rest )

The Missing man formation again.

I am informed at this late hour that former Astronaut Alan Bean has died. He  was the fourth man to walk on the moon. He was 86. A more complete biography can be found at his wikipedia entry, Here.

As always, the missing man formation for a legendary aviator.

Yom HaShoah

Yom HaShoah :  Today we do not celebrate, but we commemorate the holocaust.

I'm not going to write a big long post about it. A short reminder. Today, we commemorate the holocaust, and vow to remember it, and those who died because of bigotry and hate. The wheels started turning in 1932. Germany, led by an Austrian demagogue, started up the laws against the Jews. In short order, homosexuals, Romani, mentally ill, mentally challenged people, communists and those labelled as "undesirables" would be added to the list later. The next milestone was 1935, the Nuremberg racial purity laws. Then, in 1938, Kristallnacht, when Jews and Jewish businesses were openly attacked. Afterward the Hitler government shut down all businesses owned by Jews. Then came the "deportations" and concentration camps. Then came the final solution. A piece of me wants to say to you "God, don't look". But another, much larger piece says "No. Go look. Go look now. Don't turn away from it. steel yourself by whatever means necessary and look. Look at the pictures. the films. go to the national archives and look. Go to the holocaust museum and look. Listen to the dozens, hundreds of taped stories from the shoah project. Look and listen and then come back and tell me in the comments that you don't believe.

https://youtu.be/xlhZe0uWYoo

Link to nazi concentration camp video, selected video from some of the camps, created for the war crimes tribunal. Note that the final signature on it is Capt. John Ford USN. 

Are you the guy who's constantly complaining that voting's no use "because they control everything?" Well, here's a couple thoughts for you: First, off, if They control everything, why did they spend upwards of 5 billion dollars in the last election cycle. (not counting all the free publicity the news outfits gave people) Think about that for a moment. Five Thousand Million Dollars. It's like 50 pallets worth of money. if it were all rigged as you say, why would they waste 5 billion dollars getting Donald Trump elected ?

Second: Democracy isn't just getting off your butt and voting once every four years. It's hard work. using email, blogs, twitter, phone calls, word of mouth and whatever else you can to get out the word about the candidates or ballot issues you support. It's getting off your butt and actually running for office yourself, if you've got the wherewithal and the stamina for it. 

(I have none of those, personally.) 

And think of this: The current President was elected with 25.5% of the vote.  In other words, about 46.9% of those who could have voted sat on their butts and didn't. They were too lazy to (in Arizona at least) go to a web site, fill out an-e-form and hit send, and then when their ballot came, all they needed to do was draw lines connecting arrows with a black pen or marker. It takes like 10 minutes of steady work that any 5 year old could manage. (Arizona allows vote-by-mail for anyone who's a registered voter and who applies for a mail-in ballot.)

Teal Deer Version:

Not enough people vote.

More people need to get involved

More people need to run for office.

Big Money is dangerous but they don't actually own it all.

 
The Numbers :
231,556,622 eligible voters.
46.9% didn't vote.
25.6% voted for Clinton.
25.5% voted for Trump.Nov 9, 2016

Some things people are missing about the recent government shutdown.

The recent government shutdown has been hailed by the right as a victory for Donald Trump.
Many progressives are angry with minority leader Schumer over the seeming "cave" by the minority leader over the issue. However, the object of the exercise was never to get the GOP to pass some form of DACA legislation. That was never on the cards, and honestly it has not ever been a realistic possibility even though many Republicans mouth words approving the concept. The reality is, there are enough people in the Republican caucus who are dead-set against any immigration of any people who have the condition of being Not-White. It has nothing to do with "The Rule of Law" as they so righteously trumpet -- these people ignore law when it suits them -- and everything to do with the fact that these people come from places where the majority of people have not-white skin. So, try as they might, the Democrats in DC could not have gotten any DACA bill passed. Not by trading a wall for it -- Trump believes he's going to get his wall over the objections of the Democrats. Not by trading DACA for an end to family unification -- what the right so venomously call "chain migration".