#politics

The Upside Down World ~ The Blog

Jan 12, 2017
8 min

Why Donald Trump Talks the Way He Does – and Why It Works

Back in college, I made some halfway decent money selling high end knives in people’s homes. One of the perks of the job was that the company provided us with some pretty high quality training in sales, time management, motivation and the like. The managers were big fans of people like Tony Robbins, Dale Carnegie and Steven Covey and took turns giving talks sharing what they were learning from them with us. While the company’s business model was actually kind of bullshit, the

Jan 11, 2017
3 min

About Trump and That Disabled Reporter

So, odds are good that you’ve heard about actress Meryl Streep’s speech the other night where she said politically charged things like “disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.” OK, that’s not quite a fair depiction of the matter. Her speech actually did constitute an attack on Donald Trump. I didn’t watch the it, but I heard about it in real time from friends on Facebook who felt like she was

Jan 11, 2017
1 min

Your Simple Act of Resistance for the Day

Going forward, I’m going to try and share one simple action with detailed instructions which you can take each day to push back against Trump and other politicians who are hell bent on destroying our country. Today’s action was passed on to me by a friend on facebook and all it takes is a tweet. In his press conference today, Donald Trump made the claim that the public doesn’t care about his tax returns. He claimed that only the press was concerned with such things and, contr

Dec 21, 2016
1 min

Would You Look At This Crap

I just got this email from my congressman. Well, if you look at the fine print, you’ll notice that it’s actually from his newsletter. The only way to provide your opinion was to sign up for his newsletter. Because he’s using the possibility of Russian interference in our election to sign people up for his newsletter apparently. The email was so spammy that Yahoo asked me if I was sure I wanted to follow the link before taking me to the webpage. I mean, I get that a political

Dec 21, 2016
1 min

On A Much Lighter Note, I Have Discovered the Real Reason People Voted for Trump

This was a friend in North Carolina’s view during her morning commute yesterday: She says, “I have to hand it to him – he has practically not missed a single cliché on his rolling political/societal commentary billboard. The only thing I can think is an NRA sticker and a picture of an aborted fetus. “I need tons of tile for some remodeling projects I have coming up. Thousands of dollars worth of tile. Guess where I won’t be buying it? I always wonder about people who feel th

Dec 20, 2016
2 min

Don’t Worry; I Have Found Our Escape Plan

So, all this stuff about Donald Trump and the danger of our situation is scary as hell. But don’t worry – I was reading through conspiracy theories on the internet a while back, and it turns out that rescue is on it’s way. The aliens have it worked out. Among the many things I learned in my foray into the world of ancient alien conspiracies are the following (and no I didn’t make any of this up – these are real things that people believe): Jesus is currently incarnate and wor

Dec 20, 2016
1 min

Imagine This in a History Book

This is the cover of The National Enquirer this week. All lies, but lies repeated take on an air of truth. This is what people are seeing at every check-out lane at every Walmart and grocery store in the country. Pass It On! Tweet Email More Print Share on Tumblr WhatsApp #politics #Trump #culture #propaganda #currentevents

Dec 20, 2016
3 min

The Electoral College

One of my working assumptions about life is that only that which can be redeemed is allowed. So anything that happens carries possibilities. Because if it’s happening, it can be redeemed. Now, whether any of that is factually true or not isn’t really here nor there. Even if it’s just a mental construct, it’s served me well through some really crazy shit. Because I assume that everything is moving towards being redeemed, when life throws me a doozy that I wouldn’t choose if yo

Dec 19, 2016
4 min

Let’s Be Real About What We’re Looking At Here

I didn’t mean to make this an all Trump Monday, but I suppose it’s appropriate given the electoral college vote this morning. Which I’ll probably have something more to say about tomorrow. But now that that’s done, we have a very serious issue to grapple with that I think we’d be fools not to take seriously. It boils down to three straight facts that probably 90% of American can agree are true: A white nationalist leader ran our president elect’s campaign and is acting as his

Dec 19, 2016
2 min

So Why Am I Being So Nasty?

It’s all well and fine to say that being critical, calling out wrong doing, speaking against oppression and being rude are not necessarily impediments to love, prayer or peace. But the fact remains that I’m being particularly nasty about Trump and his election-on-a-technicality. Yes, there’s the Russian deal. And the fact that we’re in a scarier position than people want to admit (more on that later). But it’s also that I’m well aware of a dynamic described by Jonathan Chait

Dec 19, 2016
1 min

And the Loser Is . . .

Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by about 2.86 million. So consider this your daily reminder that this is not Trump’s country. He is serving against the will of the majority of American voters. I’m thinking I need to do a series of these memes. This chair could have beat Hillary. This earthworm. This bottle of water. (And if you were a true, blue Hillary supporter who is offended right now, you’re going to have to let it go. You’re in the minority too and it’s not a battl

Dec 19, 2016
1 min

Let’s Get Something Straight

Praying for someone and being critical of them are not mutually exclusive things. Neither are loving someone and calling out their wrong doing. And, I know this is hard to believe, but speaking out against evil is not the same thing as sowing fear. Right wing Christians understand all these things when they’re targeting the weak, the vulnerable and the oppressed, but seem to lose site of them entirely when it comes to the mighty and powerful. If one more person tells me that

Dec 19, 2016
3 min

As Long As We’re Calling Spades Spades

The illustrious Professor Emeritus Dr. Paul Braterman, who blogs about issues of science and religion in Scotland at Primate’s Progress, commented on my last post: What passes for the leadership of the (relatively) more left-leaning US party must take its share of the blame. Why should Obamacare ever have been based on the discredited insurance model, when the single-payer, as quick comparison between the US and other countries shows, delivers better results for half the mone

Dec 14, 2016
2 min

If God Wanted Trump In Office . . .

If you are one of those people going around claiming that Trump is God’s choice to run the country, you need to be crystal clear about what other people are hearing you say. You are telling people that God chose to stand shoulder to shoulder with white supremacists and against those who are subject to oppression, hatred and discrimination owing to who God created them to be. You are telling your minority neighbors that God cares more about American power than about their safe

Dec 12, 2016
2 min

“Trump Says He’s Going To Bring Steel Back . . .”

A couple of weeks ago I ran into an acquaintance who told me that work at his job was so slow that his hours had been cut and he was afraid that by Christmas they would be closing the shop altogether. He’s a machinist, which is one of those jobs which is usually in high demand; I know just a couple of years ago local shops were recruiting kids right out of high school for training. So I asked him about that but he just shook his head and said that it’s changed. Then, to my su

Dec 9, 2016
2 min

The Fragility of Our Dominant Culture

True story: someone I’m connected with on facebook just posted an article claiming that “radical leftists” were guilty of shutting down discourse by insisting on trigger warnings, safe spaces and calling out micro-aggressions. I responded that this was bullshit. None of those things actually shut down discourse. People disagreed. I stood my ground. So the person who claimed that “radical leftists” were shutting down discourse decided that the conversation was too heated and d

Dec 8, 2016
1 min

Donald Trump is the Kim Kardasian of Politics

And speaking of being a libraturd, I am inordinately proud of this. Lord have mercy. Pass It On! Tweet Email More Print Share on Tumblr WhatsApp #politics #donaldtrump #politicalmeme #meme #politicalhumor

Dec 8, 2016
2 min

In Which I Own the Libraturd Title

I’ve avoided nearly all hot-button cultural and political topics around here for many years now. And I don’t write screeds about how terrible other people’s theology or morality is. Yet, somehow, the overwhelming majority of people who have responded to my writing are not, shall we say, politically conservative. I used to be conservative, but reading the bible has a funny way of changing that, it seems. These days I’m a pretty flaming progressive. I’ll go back to being a con

Oct 2, 2014
7 min

Why Have Lunatics Taken Over?

Sometimes people come to me and say, “Rebecca, you are amazing, wise, funny and smell like flowers and lemon Pledge. Why are you not recognized as the wonder you are by all of humanity near and far?” To which I can only answer, “this is a great mystery to me as well.” The other questions I get asked a lot are: “has everyone lost their ever-loving-minds?” “Why are the lunatics in charge of everything?” and “Is there any hope for humanity left?” As fate would have it, I happen

Apr 9, 2014
2 min

So Much For Soft Hearted and Squishy Headed

There’s a popular stereotype which says that people who worry about the homeless, racism, poverty and other social ills have soft hearts and squishy heads. Those who do not share their concerns will often accuse them of abandoning logic for emotionalism. Because emotions are for silly women, queers and other people not to be taken seriously, of course. However, my friend Sonya (hi, Sonya!) recently passed on a study which shows that, scientifically speaking, this stereotype i