Polling indicates that more voters perceive the Greens as a genuine option for those disillusioned with traditional political structures. This perception holds significant weight, especially when considering that many members of the Reform Party are former Conservatives. They had their chance to effect change but chose to uphold the status quo instead.
\n
Reform’s current strategy is to pretend it’s anti-establishment, but it’s crucial to recognize that it isn’t. In almost every policy, it embodies the establishment views. The few policies where they DO differ from the esbablishment, it’s to the deteriment of the country. Immigration is mostly a net positive.
Cognitive biases run deep, as evidenced by Reform supporters dismissing large donations—such as the £5 million from cryptocurrency investors to Nigel Farage—while insisting he isn’t part of the corrupt establishment. This blind loyalty resembles a sports team mentality, where personal allegiance outweighs critical analysis. In contrast, the Green Party stands out by genuinely advocating for transformative change. Regardless of whether one believes in their approach, they are the only party actively proposing a path forward that deviates from entrenched political norms.
\n
The parallels between Reform’s strategy with Donald Trump’s promises are striking; he vowed to transform lives but ultimately fell short, focusing on scapegoating marginalized groups like immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community rather than proposing substantial solutions. The Reform Party is positioning itself as anti-establishment while fundamentally supporting the very policies that maintain existing power dynamics. There’s nothing anti-establishment about them.
Trump officials have warned that transgender troops weaken the force, but a new review of open service tells a different story.https://www.advocate.com/military/the-power-of-trans-servicepeople#transgender #trans #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA
\n
\n
There’s no logic/reason behind what #MAGA does, it’s 100% feelings.
\n",
"date_published": "2026-03-19T09:08:27+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2026/03/19/maga-is-an-emotional-movement.html",
"tags": ["Transgender","LGBTQ","USPolitics"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2026/02/17/im-tired-of-being-nostradamus.html",
"title": "I’m Tired of being Nostradamus",
"content_html": "
Ya know, it’s really fucking irritating to be right. I’ve known for a while what’s coming. Trans people told you, black people told you, marginalised people told you years ago this would happen. But it didn’t impact you, so you didn’t listen.
\n
Donald Trump isn’t the problem, he’s a symptom of the problem. If he had a heart attack and died today, the United States would find another fascist to take his place. Trump’s style of politics is gaining a foothold (Reform in the UK, the AfD in Germany, the National Front, etc.) in the world for a reason.
\n
Income inequality is being fuelled by ghoulish capitalists who invest a lot of capital to make the majority afraid of the wrong people (immigrants/trans people/black people), so they can continue to feed themselves more and more wealth without criticism or restraint.
\n",
"date_published": "2026-02-17T18:42:39+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2026/02/17/im-tired-of-being-nostradamus.html",
"tags": ["Transgender","Capitalism","USPolitics"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2026/02/11/the-big-ask.html",
"title": "The Big Ask",
"content_html": "
I like what Cory Doctorow posts on here a lot. I agree with his prescriptions to the problems a lot too. However, what’s lacking is context regarding why these solutions may not come to fruition.
\n
It’s hard to call a government that allows participation from only two parties a democracy.
\n
What we have now resembles what the French term “démocrature” describes. According to Wikipedia (translated), this term is a blend of seemingly contradictory concepts. Démocrature refers to a political regime that, despite having a democratic electoral system, operates more like a dictatorship, often suppressing the rule of law. Essentially, it is a facade of democracy.
\n
This concept is frequently used to describe countries that maintain the formal appearance of democratic institutions while being governed by a small group or individual, often in undemocratic ways.
\n
The United States legislature does not follow the will of its people they follow the will of business. This isn’t conjecture, it’s supported by facts. If you understand how politics in Washington DC works, you know that money moves policy.
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Historically, this has been a consistent pattern. Significant changes to exploitative business practices often followed violent protests. Workers' rights, as we know them today, were secured through sacrifice and struggle. Peaceful protests alone have seldom been enough to alter the harsh realities imposed by the ruling class. From the French Revolution to the Haymarket Riots to the Civil Rights Movement, violence has frequently preceded meaningful change.
\n
In the last 40 years, voting has not significantly impacted income inequality or wage growth. Given this track record, it’s a tall order to expect people to have faith in a system that has repeatedly let them down.
This is one of my favourite books. So much of what is wrong with the world is within the pages of this book. Nostradamus would have been proud of Sagan.
\n
\n
“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness…
\n
\n
\n
The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.”
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And
\n
\n
“We’ve arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.”
\n
\n
Sadly, Sagan’s children were the ones to experience this, life didn’t need to wait for his grandchildren. The “lowest common denominator programming” is now quite literally “programming”. Algorithms on social media sites promote behaviours to motivate the most base of instincts, all to keep you on the site for as long as possible.
\n
Science, or more precisely, teaching the scientific method, is one of few ways I can see a survival for mankind in the long term.
\n
\n
“One of the reasons for its success is that science has a built-in, error-correcting machinery at its very heart. Some may consider this an overbroad characterization, but to me every time we exercise self-criticism, every time we test our ideas against the outside world, we are doing science. When we are self-indulgent and uncritical, when we confuse hopes and facts, we slide into pseudoscience and superstition.”
\n
\n
Every day, I see more evidence of this kind of backsliding. A mixture of religion and emotive nationalism fuels it. MAGA ideology is based on emotion, rather than data and logical hypothesis.
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“I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudoscience and superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of unreason more sonorous and attractive. Where have we heard it before? Whenever our ethnic or national prejudices are aroused, in times of scarcity, during challenges to national self-esteem or nerve, when we agonize about our diminished cosmic place and purpose, or when fanaticism is bubbling up around us - then, habits of thought familiar from ages past reach for the controls.
\n
\n
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The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles. Darkness gathers. The demons begin to stir.”
\n
\n
I know it’s just me getting old, but it’s difficult to believe that Sagan died 28 years ago. The Millennium has long since past. Children born at the time of his death are well into the prime of their lives. But his words just keep getting louder as the years go by. The demons, they are a stirring.
\n
But the book isn’t just a scary vision of the here and now, it’s a call to how to fix many of the world’s ills.
\n
\n
“Deluded or not, supporters of superstition and pseudoscience are human beings with real feelings, who, like the skeptics, are trying to figure out how the world works and what our role in it might be. Their motives are in many cases consonant with science. If their culture has not given them all the tools they need to pursue this great quest, let us temper our criticism with kindness. None of us comes fully equipped.”
\n
\n
Sagan has a critical lens, yes. But that lens is rooted in compassion and hope for his fellow man. I often listen to the audiobook when I’m feeling despair about the state of the world. There is a way forward that doesn’t end in the destruction of the world we’ve created. This book should be near the center of any path forward. It definitely is for me.
\n",
"date_published": "2024-12-20T11:09:07+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2024/12/20/book-favourite-a.html",
"tags": ["Family","SocialMedia","USPolitics","Religion","Books"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2024/12/10/the-rise-of.html",
"title": "The Rise of Far-Right Leaders in Western Democracies: British Politics is Driving me Crazy Edition",
"content_html": "
Hi, my name is Marti Abernathey and I’m an American that’s settled in the UK. I’m happy here, but lately British politics and the thinking around it from the general public is gas-lighting me. From Davie Moo’s TikTok:
Did anyone else notice political shifts to the right around the world? Am I the only one seeing this? Donald Trump, a far-right populist, took the White House. The AfD, a far-right populist party, is strengthening in Germany. Le Pen’s National Front, a far-right populist party, is growing in France. In Canada, Justin Trudeau just barely escaped a no-confidence vote. Yet, he is way behind in the polls to Conservative, far-right populist Pierre Poilievre. There’s already far-right populist Giorgia Meloni in power in Italy.
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And yet, the UK Labour Party can’t seem to see the writing on the wall. I wrote about this after the US election in November. A month out from that post:
\n\n
and Starmer’s approval rating is plummeting:
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If you dig into the polling from More in Common, it’s even worse than it looks.
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More Britons prefer the last government than the current one
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30% of the public think it would be better now if the Conservatives had won the election, compared to 24% who
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think it would have been worse and 25% who think it would be the same.
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Britons are also now more likely to say they prefer the previous government (34%) than the current one (31%)
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and:
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Labour have not convinced the public they represent something different ● The public are more likely to say sleaze and corruption has stayed the same (36%) or got worse (33%) than got better (17%) since the change of government. ● And the government is still not seen to have a clear direction – the public are more likely to think Labour does not have a plan for what they intend to achieve in government (44%), than that they do (32%).
\n
\n
If this downward slide continues, Labour’s unpopularity will increase significantly. The swing will be strong. It will influence the electorate’s choice. They will choose leaders like Kemi Badenoch or Nigel Farage for the prime ministership. Like the Democrats in the United States, Labour will rely solely on the ‘don’t vote for the fascists’ rhetoric. Much like in the States, that rhetoric will fail. Not because it’s untrue, but because they stood by and did nothing except point.
\n
Neo-liberalism has been dying for a long while now, and this is a sign of that death. Labour could revitalize the UK economy. This can be achieved with a dose of adrenaline through bold progressive policies in the coming years. Alternatively, it can do nothing and watch the UK descend into fascism.
I’m quite amused at the moderation of my Mastodon instance. I’ve been reported by exactly two different factions: Zionists, and Democrats. That just about tracks. Silencing, for having opinions contrary to the narratives of both factions, is a tactic that’s been disastrous for both Democrats and Zionists. But I guess when it’s all you have, that’s what you go with.
My initial reservations about Bluesky were that it is algorithm-based, it is a closed platform (you can’t run your own Bluesky server), and it was first created by Twitter’s founder Jack Dorsey.
\n\n
Reading Cory Doctorow’s Bluesky and enshittification I had many questions. Simple questions centered around Bluesky seem hard to answer. They are hidden under layers of complexity. A question like, “can I run my own Bluesky instance?” is an example.
It turns out that once you start peeling back the layers of the technological side of decentralisation, more and more questions start to arise. This is because ATProto splits up the network into separate components, and makes each component open and accessible for others to use and run. This is good for making the network more decentralised, but funnily enough it makes understanding decentralisation all the more difficult. – Bluesky, decentralisation, and the distribution of power
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and
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\n
Furthermore, what the protocol affords is not equal to what the average person can actually use. ATProto allows people to take full control of their own data by either self-hosting their PDS or using a hosting provider Doing so currently requires technical knowledge: easy from the perspective of an experienced programmer, but out of reach from the majority of the population.
\n
\n
You can run a PDS (personal data server), but your posts and all that data still get routed through Bluesky. Decentralization is great if you can pick up your data and go elsewhere. Where are you going to take that data if you leave Bluesky? There’s confusion through obfuscation in just about every part of Bluesky. Wikipedia provides clarity on this question. It lists the number of instances of both Mastodon (over 18k) and Bluesky (“mainly Bluesky”).
\n
The obfuscation continued when I just asked the question to myself “who owns Bluesky”? My first stop in this little adventure was the BBC. They claim that:
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It is now run and predominantly owned by chief executive Jay Graber as a US public benefit corporation.
It is a type of for-profit corporate entity whose goals include making a positive impact on society.
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\n
\n
Currently, there are no legal standards that define what constitutes a benefit corporation. A benefit corporation need not be certified or audited by the third-party standard.
In 2015, Graber began working as a software engineer for SkuChain in Mountain View, California. She then worked in a factory in Moses Lake, Washington, where she soldered together bitcoin mining equipment. In 2016, she began working as a junior developer for the Zcash cryptocurrency. In 2019, she founded the event planning website Happening, Inc.
Decentralized social app Bluesky announced on Thursday that it has raised a $15 million Series A round, following its $8 million seed raise last year.
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\n
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The Series A round is led by Blockchain Capital with participation from Alumni Ventures, True Ventures, SevenX, Darkmode’s Amir Shevat, and Kubernetes co-creator Joe Beda.
In 2013, Pierce joined brothers Bart and Bradford Stephens in founding venture capital firm Blockchain Capital (BCC)
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\n
Oddly, Brock Pierce isn’t listed as a co-founder on their Wikipedia page or on their website. Who is Brock Pierce? He’s a childhood star from the Mighty Ducks. He went on the run:
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\n
Fifteen years ago, Pierce cofounded a Southern California startup called Digital Entertainment Network. Despite raising tens of millions in venture capital, that company eventually went under. Not long before the company was slated to have its initial public offering in 1999, Pierce and two other cofounders were named in two civil lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of underage boys. Pierce was never charged criminally.
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After the settlement, Collins-Rector, Shackley, and Pierce fled to Spain as a second set of victims filed another lawsuit in California against the three alleging sexual abuse. The three men never responded to the case, and a judge awarded a default judgment and $4.5 million in damages.
Before he became CEO of the Donald Trump campaign, and before he took over the alt-right media outlet Breitbart, Steve Bannon made his living selling virtual gold on the Internet.
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\n
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The story focuses on the World of Warcraft marketplace called Internet Gaming Entertainment, where players could pay real money for virtual goods, like gold, in the game. The company was founded by former child star Brock Pierce, and Bannon was an investor.
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\n
I’ll continue to use sites like TikTok, Bluesky, and Threads to push my content. Still, I’m not going to build a community there. When it comes to Bluesky I have even more questions, than when I started researching this. I can’t trust that Bluesky won’t become another Twitter. There’s far too much venture capital and questionable alliances/history to feel comfortable there. “Trust us, bro” isn’t enough.
\n",
"date_published": "2024-11-19T09:34:51+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2024/11/19/083451.html",
"tags": ["Media","SocialMedia","USPolitics","Fediverse"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2024/11/13/120107.html",
"title": "The Labour Party's Unseen Influence on Trump's Win",
"content_html": "
I haven’t seen too many people talk about one angle of the Donald Trump win. They did awfully after getting advice from the Labour Party. You can never tell how much advice they actually listened to Labour advisors like Jonathan Ashworth, but the advice he gave publicly:
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He said Democratic operatives were “interested in how we made the arguments [on border security], because they intend to make the same arguments as well.”
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“We kept reminding people that he was a hard guy who put people behind bars and foiled terrorist plots,” Ashworth said of Starmer, who — like Harris — is a former prosecutor.
Ashworth warned his U.S. comrades to develop solid responses on transgender issues, after Labour colleagues faced repeated media questions about whether women can have penises.
Politics is a funny thing. Former MP Jonathan Ashworth lost in his seat in the House of Commons in July’s general election. After the election, he failed upwards to run the Labour think tank, Labour Together. Can a seat in the House of Lords be next?
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Ashworth (and friends) gave the advice above to Democrats, and the Harris campaign followed it. It worked out badly. Whether it’s immigration, or trans rights, Democrats did not rally the base, and it couldn’t bring in new voters either. That advice sunk like a rock, it wasn’t good political strategy.
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To think Ashworth and Co. are geniuses of the political dark arts is to ignore the historical context of July’s General Election in the UK. The election wasn’t won through strategy, but by the luck of good timing. Politics often relies on the context of the time you’re living in. People who take advantage of the situation and are politically savvy can succeed. Still, Starmer’s strategists have shown they don’t know much.
The electorate wasn’t excited about Starmer or Labour’s manifesto. What they were excited about was not having having the Conservative party in government. People’s standard of living is declining, but no one in government is taking action to deal with it. Conservatives were all responsible for that. Labour has no policy positions on the table that will materially change the lives of anyone but the super-rich. They continue to fiddle around the corners of the economy, but they won’t do anything to materially change it.
\n
Many think discussions of wealth distribution like it’s a communist or socialist idea. However, wealth distribution is happening right now, even under Labour. The wealth is going to the top, not the bottom. The most recent bout of inflation wasn’t because of an increase wages, but because of profits.
Democrats lost in large part because they had power and didn’t do anything. Labour is heading down that same path. We are caught in the cycles of elections between two parties neoliberal parties. They are perceived as the only ones that have a real chance of winning. As a result, the only policies you get are neoliberal policies. They don’t make any changes. They only widen the income inequality. The poor get poorer, and the rich get richer. Then you have another election. The other party claims to be the party of the people. They promise to implement policies to “make America great again.” Still, they don’t actually have any policies. As Trump amusingly said “I have concepts of a plan.” It turns out the policies they put in place are just more of the same. Rinse and repeat.
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We’re only four months into this Labour government and it’s become obvious that we’re on a runaway train to nowhere. I spoke in an earlier post about the four choices we have four choices:
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Continue your current level of political engagement
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Fix the party from within
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Work really hard between now and the next midterm election to try to build third-party power
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Try to build power outside the political system.
\n\n
\n
It’s becoming glaringly obvious that three and four are the only rational choices left. These parties exist only to be in power. This applies to both Democrats in the USA and Labour in the UK. They don’t have any answers that will bring any long-term change, that much is clear.
\n",
"date_published": "2024-11-13T13:01:07+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2024/11/13/120107.html",
"tags": ["Transgender","Elections","UKPolitics","USPolitics"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2024/11/11/101000.html",
"title": "What Trump\u0026#8217;s Election Tells Us About Global Politics",
"content_html": "
I’m an American living in the UK, and my wife is Brazilian. in both the UK and in Brazil, I’m seeing people say they can’t believe that Trump won the election. This is an extremely myopic view.
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Fourteen million voters picked the Reform party in the UK just a few months ago. Many Brazilians would vote for Jair Bolsonaro if they could (he’s been barred from running for political office until 2030). There are far right governments in power in the EU. These include Italy, Finland, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, and the Czech Republic. In Germany and France, far right parties are growing. This trend is also seen in other areas of the world.
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This isn’t some anomaly that the United States happened into. It’s the failure of neoliberal policies over the past 54 years. There’s a growing wealth gap and it seems to get bigger every year. The response of politicians is to do some version of this meme:
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Democrats were advised in this past election by Labour politicians like Jonathan Ashworth. The Labour Party that is cutting fuel allowances for pensioners. They refuse to lift children out of poverty. They are raising tuition fees while continuing to look after corporate interests. If they continue down this path of pain, they will face serious challenges. They will find themselves in a very similar position that the Democrats are in now.
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If there’s no change in the wealth gap, people will vote this way even more. This isn’t something unique to the United States. If wealth inequality continues to widen, so will the rise of fascism.
\n",
"date_published": "2024-11-11T11:10:00+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2024/11/11/101000.html",
"tags": ["Elections","UKPolitics","USPolitics"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2024/11/10/100000.html",
"title": "The Rise of the 4B Movement Post-USA Election and How it\u0026#8217;s Transphobic",
"content_html": "
Since the election of Donald Trump in the USA, there’s been a resurgence of the 4B movement online. From Wikipedia:
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4B (or “Four Nos”) is a gender critical, radical feminist movement. It first emerged during the South Korean gender wars during the mid-to-late 2010s on the misandric website Womad and related subcultures on Twitter.
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The name refers to its defining four tenets which all start with the Korean bi 비, roughly meaning no. Its proponents refuse to date, get married, have sex, or have children with cisgender men or transgender women. Members affirm gender essentialism and oppose transgender rights movements, seeing them as furthering the oppression and domination of women and maintenance of patriarchal societies.
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The movement to decenter men does not need to be transphobic. Three out of the “Four Nos” can be practiced in solidarity with cisgender women. The 4B movement focuses entirely on a rebranded version of political lesbianism. This version depends on bioessentialism/gender essentialism. It has right wing conservative ideology at the root of the movement.
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The 4B movement predominantly sees transgender rights movements as incompatible with feminism. Developing out of transgender-exclusionary radical feminism (T.E.R.F.), the movement holds to gender-critical views on sex and gender, supporting gender essentialism and the exclusion of transgender women from feminist spaces. Advocates of 4B are opposed to what they call “gender ideology” (젠더론x) and promote excluding transgender women from feminist spaces, as well as romantic or sexual relationships with them (트젠 안사요). In South Korea, members of the 4B have created gatherings exclusively for what they call “biological females” and “real women”.
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In the context of the current moment, it doesn’t make any sense. Women are already doing much of what the 4B movement calls for, but for different reasons.
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There’s not one particular reason why fertility rates are on the decline in the US, said Sarah Hayford, director of the Institute for Population Research at The Ohio State University. A number of social and economic factors are probably coming into play, she said.
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A “package of demographic changes” – people getting married later and less often, spending more years in school and taking longer to get economically established in a steady job, to name a few – align with birth rate trends, said Hayford, who was not involved in the new report.
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“People are waiting to have children. And on average, when people wait longer to have children, they end up having fewer children,” she said. “I think there’s also greater social acceptance of not having children or having a smaller family. So as that has become more acceptable, people are more carefully weighing their decision to become parents.” – US fertility rate dropped to record low in 2023, CDC data shows
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Lastly, trying to frame the election of Donald Trump to the President of the United States as a betrayal of men against women ignores:
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that the problem isn’t with men, but with white men AND white women. The 4B movement ignores what an integral part that white supremacy had in electing Trump. If a protest movement against him is to be effective, it must delve deep. It must address the root of the problem that is white supremacy.
\n\n",
"date_published": "2024-11-10T11:00:00+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2024/11/10/100000.html",
"tags": ["Activism","Transgender","Feminism","Elections","SocialMedia","USPolitics"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2024/11/07/the-future-of.html",
"title": "The Future of American Politics: Moving Beyond Party Lines",
"content_html": "\n
I woke up yesterday morning in my bed in Southeast England. I realized the country of my birth has elected Donald Trump again. I wrote this post in 2016 talking about the many reasons the Democrats lost to Donald Trump. Over the four years after the election, many individuals were blamed. Yet, the blame did not fall on the Democratic National Committee. Today I'm already seeing the blame laid at the feet of black/Latino men, Arab-Americans, and third-party voters. The blame is being laid anywhere but at the feet of those who run the campaigns.
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The Democrats have not addressed the material conditions Americans are facing. This is the biggest issue over the past three election cycles. This is a significant concern, yet Democrats continue to play the “I'm not the other guy” card.
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Ronald Reagan asked in the 1980 election, “are you better off than you were four years ago?”. Most Americans consistently have said no. Saying you're not Trump isn't going to put food on the table. It's not going to lower the price of ($3.00 a dozen) eggs, or a pound of bacon ($7.00).
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A seesaw of power between parties will continue every four years for the foreseeable future. Both the Republican and Democratic parties use distraction, rather than point to policy change. How they distract is different. Republicans focus on social issues. Democrats focus on how bad the Republican candidate is. Nonetheless, the outcome is the same.
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The electorate will continue to vote for the change candidate until people feel like their lives are improving.
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A user on TikTok called @simkern said in this video that there are essentially four choices you have going ahead:
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Continue your current level of political engagement
\n\n\n
Fix the Democratic Party from within
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Work really hard between now and the next midterm election to try to build third-party power
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Try to build power outside the political system.
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If I had to pick two, it would definitely be the last two. If I had to pick one, though, it would be number four. This is something that the anarchist YouTuber Anark has talked about quite extensively, especially in this video:
He elaborates about a dual power strategy in this video. It really hits at the reality of number four in the above choices. This idea isn't something really all that new. The Black Panther Party (BPP) had the People’s Free Food Program that fed the hungry children breakfast. They also provided healthcare through the Peoples’ Free Medical Clinics. What the BPP did can be built upon to include worker run cooperatives, mutual aid organizations, reading groups, etc.
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This is what I am going to focus on in the years ahead. There's a lot of work to be done that doesn't center US politics as a team sport. Building community, building dual power, is the way ahead that makes sense to me.
a: a constantly shifting complex succession of things seen or imagined b: a scene that constantly changes
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a bizarre or fantastic combination, collection, or assemblage
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A trip around the Blue MAGA Fediverse this morning wielded an odd conglomeration of posts:
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and
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The absurdity of demanding that the media cover Biden and Trump the same, when they obviously are different, is a special kind of gaslighting. The question is who are they gaslighting, themselves or us? Trump is a lot of things, but incoherent is not one of them. He may go on strange rants, mumble, or make odd references, but he does not come off as if he has some sort of noticeable cognitive decline.
\n
The second line of attack Blue MAGA are talking about is the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025:
Yes, Project 2025 is bad. But what is your President doing about it? Biden has never gone on offense when dealing with the Supreme Court (court packing), or while trying to push legislation through (ending the filibuster). Even in the past, when he was more coherent, he did little to challenge what was happening legislatively. He was sold as the person that could “work with Republicans” when he couldn’t even get his party to go with his agenda. The Supreme Court has handed him a gift in going after Trump (because he can’t be prosecuted for anything he does while in office), but it’s obvious he will not do anything but campaign on how bad Trump is.
\n
Trump isn’t in office right now, and judging by the polls, the electorate will judge Biden on what he’s done and what he’s doing, not on how bad Trump is.
\n
Sorry, Blue MAGA, complaining about Trump while not addressing the material conditions of the electorate probably won’t win you an election.
A couple of things have been stewing in my brain for a while, and I can't stop thinking about them.
\n\n\n
First off is a term that describes people who don't believe in the right of individuals to make decisions about their own lives and bodies. Radical feminists (TERF or not) don't think that sex workers have that right, in much the same way that US Republican conservatives. Whether drug use, transition care, sex work, assisted suicide or abortion, the resistance to it being allowed in society is that the person doing it cannot or should not consent. They want to impose their values on the lives of people they don't know or care about. Reactionary kind of fits, but not really.
\n\n\n
The other thing is that the resistors of bodily autonomy are rarely honest in their assessments/debates. They will use a rhetorical trick of treating a systemic issue as an individual issue and vice versa. A good example is the issue of mass shootings. The fact that cis white men commit the majority of mass shootings routinely gets treated as a \"lone wolf\" or as a \"mentally ill\" rather than it being a systemic, societally based issue.
\n\n\n
On the other side of this trick, TERFs use individual trans people being awful that have no systemic/institutional/societal base at the root. TERFs will claim that self-identification of gender will cause harm, say this is a \"valid question\", and repeat it ad nauseam. But they never respond when the question is answered and that their \"valid question\" hasn't resulted in the systemic harm they claim in the 18 countries where it's the law (Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ecuador, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Portugal, Switzerland and Uruguay).
\n\n\n
And that's just it; the people at the centre of the question never want to answer it. Like Young Earth Creationists, they have a belief that is centred and anything that agrees with it is true; anything that counters it is false. It isn't a debate, as it is a propaganda campaign that tries to get more people to try and command other people's bodily autonomy.
\n\n \n",
"date_published": "2022-12-12T14:11:46+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2022/12/12/reactionaries-terfs-and.html",
"tags": ["Transgender","Feminism","MentalHealth","USPolitics","Blogging"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2022/08/01/the-dilemma-at.html",
"title": "The Dilemma at the Center of the UK Labour and USA's Democratic Party",
"content_html": "\n
I'm an American living in the UK for the last six years. When I lived in the United States, I was involved with Democratic politics on a state and national level. Reflecting on that experience has made me conclude that the Labour Party and the Democratic Party share many of the same traits.
\n\n\n
In the USA, it's \"vote blue no matter who\", and in the UK, it's similar, \"Anyone but the Tories\". There's an undercurrent of thought that leftists can't win, so you should just support the most left party and try to move the party left. In real-time, that isn't the case. In Nevada, the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) won every seat in the Nevada Democratic Party's leadership positions. They did what their opposition in the leadership always told them to do, win elections. How did they react? They stripped the party of its financial resources and then quit. Here, you can read a complete takedown of the whole thing at the Intercept and their sister audio podcast version.
\n\n\n
Labour has a similar version of this story. In 2015 Jeremy Corbyn was elected to be the leader of the Labour party. In 2017, Labour outperformed expectations (winning more of the popular vote than Blair in 2005) and brought the Labour party just shy of gaining power. Teresa May called this election to coalesce power around her Brexit deal. The loss of seats for the Conservatives was enough to oust Teresa May as Prime Minister. They had to find a \"magic money tree\" to stay in power.
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During Corbyn's rein as the leader, the Forde Report found that there were forces within the party itself that were attacking Corbyn:
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\"The factions ended up in a cycle of attack and counterattack, with each side assuming that the other was acting in bad faith (sometimes justifiably, sometimes not) and responding in kind.\"
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That there were Trotskyist witch hunts:
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\"I was advised that the bellringing was conducted by the 'compliance' unit and represented the successful suspension or expulsion of a member – often surrounded by the description of such members as 'trots'\".
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and that there were factional, racist messaging by senior party staff:
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\"We find that the messages on the SMT [senior management team] WhatsApp reveal deplorably factional and insensitive, and at times discriminatory, attitudes expressed by many of the party's most senior staff. The substance of the quoted messages is concerning – and totally inappropriate from senior staff of a purportedly progressive political party\"
\"WhatsApp transcripts included in the original 2020 dossier analysed by the inquiry had suggested that some staffers became despondent as Labour climbed in the polls during the election campaign despite their efforts.\"
\n\n\n\n\n\n
Looking at both political parties through the lens of recent history shows their moderate base operates both when in and out of power. They're only focused on holding on to the reigns of power (at all costs) while not changing much while in power.
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Right now, POTUS Joe Biden, who campaigned on being able to work with Republicans, cannot get legislation through Congress that the Democratic Party controls. As Peter Daou points this out at Direct Left:
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\n
This is Joe Biden’s actual record:
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NO minimum wage hike
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NO serious student debt cancellation
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NO effective pandemic strategy (more deaths than Trump)
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NO medicare for all — or the promised public option
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NO more Roe v. Wade
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NO filibuster reform, just speeches
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NO voting rights protection, just more speeches
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NO court expansion, just a sham commission
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NO end to racist policing
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NO end to gun violence
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NO end to deportations & abuse of asylum-seekers
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NO end to cages for migrant children
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NO end to brutalizing Afghanistan and Yemen
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NO end to droning civilians without repercussions
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NO end to huge military budgets (bigger than Trump’s)
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NO end to arming and coddling oppressive regimes
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NO meaningful climate action
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NO end to oil drilling and fossil fuel subsidies
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NO end to poverty, hunger, and homelessness
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NO end to billionaires pocketing trillions
\n
That’s just a partial list of Biden’s broken promises — and broken moral compass. Corporate Democrats like Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi have always relied on performative opposition and theatrics to pacify their supporters while preserving the status quo.
\n
\n\n
\n\n\n
UK Labour is now leading in the polls (even though they said they'd be leading by 20 points-- and they aren't) and may win the next general election. That may sound great, but as Biden has shown, if you don't lead a party of change with ideas that you implement, you won't be able to get anything done and \"nothing will fundamentally change.\"
\n\n\n
Things might not be that bad if that was all that would happen. But the promise of \"hope and change\" and to \"fundamentally transform\" America by Barack Obama that didn't materialise led to the election of Donald Trump. This lack of political movement had consequences.
\n\n\n
Saying that you \"must vote blue, no matter who\", if it were in the context of a personal relationship, would be considered gaslighting, DARVO-like abuse.
\n\n\n
Performative opposition is the name of the game for both of these supposedly liberal political parties. They have nothing to offer except more of the same, making the rich richer and the poor poorer. This kind of do-nothing politics will eventually lead to radical change or hyper-nationalist fascism, resulting in much innocent bloodshed.
The news that Americans digest is mainly based on the audience's ideology; essentially, it's consumer-based. So you have the Fox News watchers that find information to the liking of the viewer's worldview. Americans are indoctrinated from a relatively early age that America is the best country in the world. They hear this from their parents from birth (and their parents were taught it in their history classes), so it's no surprise that they don't know any better since they don't leave the country meaningfully .
\n\n\n
When Americans Do Travel
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The \"gall\" tourists or invaders is a colonial mindset that goes for the \"helpful Karens\" as well.
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Americans think they're welcomed worldwide; why would they NOT believe this? The mainstream media feeds off the government like a parasite to promote its message. They employ reporters, not journalists, and they work to help the government manufacture consent.Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media is a 1988 book by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky. It argues that the mass communication media of the U.S. \"are effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function, by reliance on market forces, internalised assumptions, and self-censorship, and without overt coercion\", by means of the propaganda model of communication. - Wikipedia Hell, the press even embeds into the military and is financially supported by the military-industrial complex.
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How the Rest of the World Sees the United States
\n\n\n
Freedom of the Press, Equality Under the Law, Life-Liberty-Pursuit of Happiness, Representative Democracy, and Rugged Individualism
\n\n\n
\"Freedom of the press\" is code in the States for an expectation that the news is nonbiased. The press is free to publish whatever they wish, so that freedom will result in unbiased news. Each catchphrase has a tiny pinch of truth, but not enough to make them accurate. They're simply propaganda, taught from when you're enrolled in elementary (primary) school until you leave university.
\n\n\n
Final Thoughts on the Podcast
\n\n\n
Overall, I enjoyed the podcast. One of the podcast's failures is to address why American exceptionalism continues to thrive and survive in today's world. They spoke of the history of the USA being a colonial project that continues to uplift and support the ruling elites while screwing the working poor. They pointed to why Americans want it to be the world's policeman and how they think of other people. I'm afraid I have to disagree. I don't believe most Americans think (or even care) about the rest of the world. The United States is a very insular, narcissistic country that huffs its farts and thinks it should earn the top prize at the county bakeoff.
I can appreciate this Applebaum's perspective, but a few things bother me. She centres herself as the unchangeable middle who is free from movement, ideological grift, or opportunism. I want to break down some of what she said here.
Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism: \"Authoritarianism appeals, simply, to those who cannot tolerate complexity: There is nothing inherently \"left-wing\" or \"right-wing\" about this instinct at all. It is anti-pluralist. It is suspicious of people with different ideas. It is allergic to fierce debates.\"
But that's precisely what she does:
Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism: \"This, of course, is the argument that anti-American extremists, the groups on the far-right and far-left fringes of society, have always made. American ideals are false, American institutions are fraudulent, American behavior abroad is evil, and the language of the American project—equality, opportunity, justice—is nothing but empty slogans. The real reality, in this conspiratorial view, is that of secretive businessmen, or perhaps 'deep state' bureaucrats, who manipulate the voters into going along with their plans, using the cheesy language of Thomas Jefferson as a cover story.\"
She asks for complexity but can't find it within herself to look for it herself. She can't frame her argument without flowering it with words like \"anti-American extremists\" or groups as \"fringes\" or contaminating her statement by saying that the view is \"conspiratorial.\"
Um, FRED HAMPTON? The FBI murdered him. This isn't a conspiracy; you can find it on something as tame as the History Channel. Herbert Hoover targeted civil rights leaders, American involvement since WW2 in overthrowing Central and South American governments isn't a conspiracy, it's documented historical fact.
Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism: \"This form of moral equivalence—the belief that democracy is no different, at base, from autocracy—is a familiar argument, and one long used by authoritarians. Back in 1986, Jeane Kirkpatrick, a scholar, intellectual, and Reagan's UN ambassador, wrote of the danger both to the United States and to its allies from the rhetoric of moral equivalence that was coming, at that time, from the Soviet Union.\"
Again, she can't just quote Kirkpatrick; she uses the flowering of the language to influence the reader. It suggests that Kirkpatrick is put out as an expert that can be relied on and centres Kirkpatrick much as she does herself. This is the same Kirkpatrick that downplayed the rape and murder of four nuns in El Salvador (saying \"the nuns were not just nuns, they were political activists\") and supported murderous dictators in Central and South America. Kirkpatrick popularised the term \"moral equivalence\" to not look at the USA's history because if you do, it's a trail of genocide, slavery, and imperialism and that continues to engage in it to this day.
Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism: \"Guns, weapons, even nuclear warheads were dangerous to democracies, but not nearly as dangerous as this particular form of cynicism: 'To destroy a society,' she wrote, 'it is first necessary to delegitimize its basic institutions.' If you believe that America institutions are no different from their opposite, then there is no reason to defend them. The same is true of transatlantic institutions.\"
I told my partner I was writing this, and she said, \"the scientific method also applies to humanities; history, sociology and political science.\" In Kirkpatrick/Applebaum's view, you have to accept that American institutions are different without any analysis.
She also wrote: Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism \"Buchanan's pessimism derives partially from his sense of white decline but also, like some of those diametrically opposed to him on the left, from his dislike of American foreign policy. Over the years he has evolved away from ordinary isolationism and toward what seems to be a belief that America's role in the world is pernicious, if not evil.\"
and
Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism AA: \"In 2002, he told a television audience, using language that could have equally come from Noam Chomsky or a similar left-wing critic of America, that '9/11 was a direct consequence of the United States meddling in an area of the world where we do not belong and where we are not wanted.\"
She quotes this but does not engage with the criticisms of Buchanan or Chomsky in any meaningful way, and she dismisses them without any counter-argument. Chomsky/Buchanan is absolutely spot on in their analysis of why 9/11 happened. Bin Laden himself: \"There is America, full of fear from its north to its south, from its west to its east. Thank God for that. What America is tasting now is something insignificant compared to what we have tasted for scores of years. Our nation [the Islamic world] has been tasting this humiliation and this degradation for more than 80 years. Its sons are killed, its blood is shed, its sanctuaries are attacked, and no one hears and no one heeds.\"
Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism: \"And this is what Trump has proven: beneath the surface of the American consensus, the belief in our founding fathers and the faith in our ideals, there lies another America—Buchanan's America, Trump's America—one that sees no important distinction between democracy and dictatorship. This America feels no attachment to other democracies; this America is not 'exceptional.'\"
\"This America has no special democratic spirit of the kind Jefferson described. The unity of this America is created by white skin, a certain idea of Christianity, and an attachment to land that will be surrounded and defended by a wall. This America's ethnic nationalism resembles the old-fashioned ethnic nationalism of older European nations. This America's cultural despair resembles their cultural despair.\"
America has been at war in some form or fashion since its founding, minus about 30 odd years. The \"Founding Fathers\" were slave-owning misogynists. The \"spirit of Jefferson\" isn't democratic at all (he was a rapist, after all). The \"spirit\" she's talking about is almost a religion, and it's on what MAGA is built. That's just it, she can point to Trump and say why he's terrible, but she can't or won't do the deep dive into the important questions \"why\" questions like why he exists, why he's popular, why people follow him and his horrible ideas.
The reality is that people have been suffering in some form or fashion because of the neoliberal politics that's been dominating since the 1970s. Wages have been stagnant while income inequality rises. The stagnation results from those policies, and Trump is built on top of Ronald Reagan's legacy.
\n\n \n",
"date_published": "2022-06-16T18:42:23+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2022/06/16/examining-twilight-of.html",
"tags": ["Activism","USPolitics","Religion","Books"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2017/08/26/who-is-to.html",
"title": "Who Is To Blame for Trump's Win?",
"content_html": "\n
I've seen many Facebook/Twitter friends post this story from Newsweek:
\n\n\n\n\n\n
The implication is that if not for Sanders supporters, Hillary Clinton would be POTUS, not Trump. It wasn't Bernie Sanders supporters that sunk the Clinton campaign. It was a team effort. It also wasn't the fault of:
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\n\n
the Democratic National Committee (DNC), who tipped the scales during the primary for Clinton.
No, it's not any one of those things...IT'S ALL OF THEM.
\n\n",
"date_published": "2017-08-26T21:08:05+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2017/08/26/who-is-to.html",
"tags": ["Activism","Racism","SocialMedia","USPolitics"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2017/03/25/its-foolish-to.html",
"title": "It's Foolish to Think of the Saving of Obamacare is a Victory",
"content_html": "\n
Many Democrats are celebrating the defeat of the Republican's attempt to \"repeal and replace\" Obamacare this morning. What the hell are Americans celebrating?
\n\n\n
I'm an American ex-pat working for the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom. I've been a health care provider in the US system for 29 years before coming to the UK. If you're a citizen here, you get free healthcare at the point of service. It's true that your hospital may not have:
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a football field
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a swimming pool
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a basketball court
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a grand piano
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But you do get good quality health care. That's my opinion as a provider and as a patient.
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But that's not just my opinion, it's a fact. Health care in the UK costs less and has better outcomes than in the USA.
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You'll have US politicians speaking out of both sides of their mouths. They'll stand there flag waving, saying America is the greatest country in the world, while saying America can't afford to do what the rest of the civilised world already provides for its citizens. They'll say this while spending more on defence than China, South Korea, Italy, Germany, Japan, France, India, Iraq, Australia, Brazil, Israel, and the United Kingdom combined (and Donald Trump wants to spend 54 billion dollars more).
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If you're an American citizen, do you feel safer? Since September 11, 2001, the United States has spent 4.79 TRILLION dollars on two wars and the so-called \"battle on Islamic terrorism.\" Do you feel like the world is a safer place making that kind of investment?
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If you're celebrating Obamacare, you're like this guy:
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He might be happy that he's got a car to drive, but he's still driving a clunker.
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Now that's not to say say that the NHS is perfect. It's underfunded and stressed, but what do the people being served by it fear? They fear the NHS becoming something that mirrors the US health care system.
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I understand why people are relieved that the health care they have now won't be taken away, but celebrate. Being screwed over a little less is no reason to celebrate. This should be a wake-up call, not a party.
The genesis of this post is from a comment I left on The Thinking Atheist Podcast page. The host, Seth Andrews, invited various people on his podcast to talk about \"Trigger Warnings and Safe Spaces.\" One of the guests was Bill Ligertwood, a conference organizer with the Imagine No Religion conference
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So here's where I come from. I'm a white trans woman. I'm middle class. I went to college before transition and have a decent life making decent money. I don't worry for much in terms of material things. I lived and grew up in mainly white culture (my grandfather was a Klansman). I never met another transgender person (the opposite of transgender is cisgender) until after I transitioned. Being a trans woman, I was male-identified at birth. Up to the point of transition, I'd been enmeshed in men's culture. Positionally in terms of socialisation, I was seen as a member of \"white cis bro culture.\"
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Living in Indiana, I was one of those \"libertarian\" Republicans that believed life was a level playing field and that if you just applied yourself, you'd succeed. This wasn't a belief I had tested or reasoned; it was just a feeling I had. Back then, talk of privilege wasn't commonplace in my circle of friends. I certainly didn't spend any of my time thinking about it. When I transitioned, I lost cisgender, heterosexual and male privilege and had to actually confront the loss of something I didn't think existed.
\n\n\n
So when I'm talking about \"white cis bro culture\", it's essentially a discussion about white, cisgender, heterosexual, male privilege. It's not just displayed at atheist conferences but in the atheist community as a whole.
\n\n\n
The last atheist conference I attended was the Secular Women's conference, but I stay way away from conferences for the most part because they are rife with white cis-het bro culture.
\n\n\n
I don't go to conferences that invite Michael Shermer, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, or Lawrence Krauss as guests. Not because I have a problem with their scepticism, but a problem with their displays (Shermer, Dawkins, Krauss, Harris) of sexism/misogyny/islamophobia.
\n\n\n
From the interview:
\n\n\n
\n
Andrews: \"You wanted to weigh in on this because you have an opinion, a perspective. You approached me and said 'I want to talk about the challenges that I'm facing in this culture when it comes to conference organisation.' You're finding it harder to do what you do, in what you might call an 'offence culture.\" A 'taking offence' culture. You want to flesh that out for me?\"
\n
Ligertwood: \"Yea, sure. Well, we're talking about safe spaces, and what we're trying to do, obviously, at a conference is create one. We're trying to create a safe space for people of our persuasion. In other words, unbelievers, atheists, what have you, a place where they can come and not be worried about someone finding out, ot worried about someone that's going to take a strip off them because they're not believers. So that's, first of all that's what I think we're trying to do. What makes that really difficult now is that it doesn't seem to take much to make it is that actually quite safe, unsafe just because somebody takes offence to something that one of the speakers said once in a tweet or whatever, years ago, months ago, days ago, hours ago, it doesn't really matter. It just seems like people take offence to almost anything these days and it seems like once you go off the path, once you go stray from the dogma, which is what I thought we were all interested in doing, is straying from the dogma. But once you stray from this new dogma, you're in the out group. People will boycott our event. People will boycott anything you're at are because you said something or someone said something about you and it's instantly, yeah, the safe spaces isn't safe anymore, so people won't come.\"
\n
\n\n\n
Taking that apart, I read that as:
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\"Just because Dawkins made sexist comments with 'Muslima,' people shouldn't boycott our conference if we invite him.\"
\n\n\n
First off, a boycott is a form of free speech. Secondly, dogma is misused here by Ligertwood. According to Merriam-Webster, dogma is:
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\n
\n
1. a : something held as an established opinion; especially : a definite authoritative tenet b : a code of such tenets c : a point of view or tenet put forth as authoritative without adequate grounds
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2. a doctrine or body of doctrines concerning faith or morals formally stated and authoritatively proclaimed by a church
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\n
\n\n\n
It seems like Ligertwood is using 1a and c in reference to his point. Fleshing that out in the context of Dawkin's Muslima comments makes no sense. What is the dogma here? Is it the \"new dogma\" to acknowledge sexist tweets of thought leaders in the atheist/sceptic movement?
\n\n\n
There's an underlying message that Dawkins is a magic man with knowledge so unique, it can only be gained by listening to him. That may have been true in 1975, but it isn't now. I've stated before that there seems to be a Jekyll and Hyde side to Dawkins. Attendance at a conference (or buying of a book of his, for that matter) supports both his Jekyll and his Hyde. There's the brilliant evolutionary biologist who wrote \"The Selfish Gene.\" But then there's the crotchety old grandpa who will tell you that sexism isn't that bad because Muslim women in Saudi Arabia can't drive or that \"mild paedophilia\" isn't harmful.
\n\n\n
I don't buy cakes from bakers who won't make wedding cakes for gay men for the same reason (no matter how delicious they are). That isn't a rejection of the baker's confectionary skill, but their bigotry. There are plenty of other \"bakers\" in the atheist community that are not sexist that I can (and do) give my time/audience with/money to.
\n\n\n
Ligertwood seems to be angry that people will \"boycott\" his conference because of \"tweets.\" He seems angry that another person's free speech (boycott) will make his job of conference organizing harder. Given that conferences generally cost to attend and are not mandatory, I'm not sure where his beef is with me exercising my own free will over my own pocketbook. Yes, I'm an atheist, but I value my own time, talent, and treasure enough to take it to places and spaces that value me. Mr Ligertwood won't have to worry about catering to me for his conference. I'll stick with listening to my favourite atheist podcasts (The Thinking Atheist, The Atheist Experience), reading Greta Christina, and supporting people involved with Secular Women. That's as far as I'll dip my toes in the atheist community because I don't have to do any more than that. Support isn't something atheist communities or conferences are owed.
\n\n\n
Atheists are a marginalised community, even though it's hard for many cis white men to comprehend. The only thing I can work out with Ligertwood is that his frustration might stem from his own privilege. There is such a thing as \"Christian privilege\", and those things impact atheist's lives. The truth is hard for white cisgender men who have never had to face up and acknowledge their own privilege in other areas. Would Ligertwood be against atheists who refuse to shop at Hobby Lobby or eat Chick-fil-A? Boycotts are a powerful change agent. But Ligertwood's words seem to express that old saying that \"when you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.\"
\n\n \n",
"date_published": "2017-01-12T14:37:07+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2017/01/12/understanding-privilege-in.html",
"tags": ["Indiana","Transgender","Podcast","MyStory","LGBTQ","USPolitics","Religion","Books","Midwest"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2016/05/19/bernie-or-meh.html",
"title": "Bernie or Meh, The Clinton Path to Defeat",
"content_html": "
I’ll say it up front, I’m a Bernie Sanders supporter that:
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thinks Sanders has a very narrow path to the nomination (almost impossible).
\n\t
will vote for Clinton if she's the nominee.
\n\t
thinks Democrats and the Clinton campaign are setting themselves up for a massive defeat in the fall.
\n
\nThe Democratic Party seems to want to have a fight with Bernie Sanders. Today's post from the Hill:\n
Bernie’s not a Democrat. What are we worried about? Why would Bernie want to play nice?” said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). “I’m just saying if a person doesn’t even want to conform to be Democratic, it’s kind of hard to say, ‘OK, all of a sudden you have to do all these things.’ ”
\nSanders isn't a Democrat? Huh. I guess then they didn't count him as a Democrat from 2008-2010? He wasn't a Democrat when Obamacare passed by 1 vote? The reality of this election cycle is that to win, Hillary Clinton supporters need Sanders supporters. Sanders may not be a Democrat, but a very large portion of HIS SUPPORTERS ARE.\n
There are no super-delegates in the November general election. Clinton my be on the verge of clinching the nomination of the Democratic Party, but she may also be heading for a massive defeat in the fall.
\"The Washington Post says Clinton isn’t telling the truth. [...]\n
“But it was Hillary Clinton, in an interview with Tom Brokaw, who quote ‘paid tribute’ to Ronald Reagan’s economic and foreign policy. She championed NAFTA –- even though it has cost South Carolina thousands of jobs. And worst of all, it was Hillary Clinton who voted for George Bush’s war in Iraq.
\n
“Hillary Clinton. She’ll say anything, and change nothing. It’s time to turn the page. Paid for by Obama for America."
\nSince 1994 Ohio has lost 320,000 manufacturing jobs since NAFTA was enacted. You can argue whether or not those job losses were from NAFTA, but what I don’t think is arguable is how effective a talking point it is in states that have been hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs.\n
If Trump keeps hammering Clinton on her support of NAFTA and the Iraq War, while stoking anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment, he has a very good shot at becoming the next President of the United States.
\n
Clinton and the Democratic establishment aren’t going to win over Sanders voters by falsely labeling them as violent. They won’t win Sanders voters over by painting Sanders as a lonely outsider, effectively aligning his voters out in the cold with him. Say 2/3 of Sanders voters do vote for Clinton, and most Republicans vote for Trump? Trump would win Pennsylvania and Ohio. Clinton’s ahead in the polls in Florida by 1 percentage point. I have a question for establishment Democrats. How’d that whole letting Florida decide the election in 2000 work out for you?\n \n
\n",
"date_published": "2016-05-19T17:21:23+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2016/05/19/bernie-or-meh.html",
"tags": ["Elections","USPolitics","Healthcare"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2015/12/05/james-obrien-on.html",
"title": "James O'Brien on Jeremy Corbyn: ",
"content_html": " \nListening to the podcast of the Thursday edition of LBC's James O'Brien's radio show, I was surprised that he'd admit that he might be wrong about The Labour Party's leader, Jeremy Corbyn. Previously, he'd said that Corbyn supporters were akin to people who “believed in faeries.” He's repeatedly said that Corbynites were not pragmatic that Corbyn isn't electable, and the end of the Labour Party was near if he wasn't put down.\n
Then came the Oldham West and Royton by-election on Thursday (December 3rd, 2015). Now O’Brien is starting to ask if all the media is wrong about Corbyn.
\n
I doubt that the British public has had a change of heart since the national election in May. Jeremy Corbyn won the leadership mandate because people are looking for an opposition party. Corbyn voted against the Iraq War and he’s anti-austerity,
\n
In the USA, many people support Bernie Sanders, for the same reason that many people in the UK support Corbyn. Blair/Brown’s “New Labour” party of the 00s moved the Party to a more centrist right corporatist party in the same way that “New Democrats” transformed the Democratic Party in the 90s in the USA.
\n
It’s difficult to tell if this revolution in politics will be sustained or win elections in the coming years, but as per normal, the revolution will NOT be televised.\n \n
\n",
"date_published": "2015-12-05T05:22:55+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2015/12/05/james-obrien-on.html",
"tags": ["Media","Podcast","Elections","UKPolitics","USPolitics"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2010/03/26/my-klansman-poppy.html",
"title": "My Klansman Poppy Taught Me How To Love Republicans",
"content_html": "\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Growing up in a super dysfunctional household, I had very little in the way of nurturing. Between working full time and regularly engaging in marital battles, my mom had little quality time with us kids. I spent a lot of time with my maternal grandmother and grandfather (who we affectionately called \"Granny\" and \"Poppy\"). Pop was a very mean man. I can remember times he would come home for supper, and if Granny didn't have the food on the table, he'd call her every expletive in the book (with \"bitch\" in 1st place). Granny often took to vent with me, telling me stories of how he'd been mean to her (especially the story of her catching him cheating).
\n\n\n
He was also one of the most racist men I've ever known. I can remember him yelling at the TV and turning it off when Emmanuel Lewis came on television, grumbling about how \"the n****rs were taking over the world.\" From what my mom has told me, he also was probably in the Klu Klux Klan. There were so many dark sides to my Poppy; it would be easy to hate him.
\n\n\n
But I don't. While I saw all the ugliness, I saw a side of him that made me love him. More than any person in my young life, he nurtured me. He would often spend time with me one on one, offering me a father figure rarely present at home. I can remember many trips he and I took to White Castle just to hang out and talk. When I would complain about how my parents treated me (a difference in how my parents treated me and my brother, Granny and Poppy both acknowledged), Poppy would tell me not to mind that. He would enthusiastically comfort me, saying, \"you are smart, and you are going to do amazing things with your life\". That may not sound very profound, but those words coming from Poppy were. Those words have echoed in the back of my mind for the past 35 or so years, giving me strength.
\n\n\n
Pop taught me that people aren't one dimensional. While he was incredibly hateful to Granny, he was a loving and nurturing man to me. The duality of his life has made me look at people differently. Being a liberal Democrat on a Facebook account full of Indiana Republicans (mostly my Alumni from Southport High School), this skill has come in handy. I've been able to become good friends with people that are my ideological opposite. Poppy taught me to see the humanity in all people, and life taught me what Bernard Meltzer knew:
\n\n\n
\n\n
“If you have learned how to disagree without being disagreeable, then you have discovered the secret of getting along -- whether it be business, family relations, or life itself.”
\n\n
\n\n\n
*edit*
\n\n\n
I wrote this post in 2010. Eleven years has given me a lot of time to reflect on this. It's still true, mostly. But most of those people from high school I'm no longer friends with.
\n\n\n
I learned most of this navigating (and finally ending) my relationship with my mother. I don't have to agree with someone 100% to understand them, but I have some non-negotiable boundaries. I won't allow space in my life for people who:
\n\n\n
\n\n
don't supporI basic human rights
\n\n\n
try to continue to gaslight me or want to debate my existence as a trans person:
\n\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n\n
won't own up to their mistakes/dishonesty
\n\n
\n\n\n
I understand the bigotry and narcissism that might drive someone to make this kind of statement on social media, but I don't have to accept that kind of toxicity in my life. That will get you a block on social media and in life.
\n\n\n\n\n\n
I can love the part of the person that wasn't toxic, that nurtured me and allowed me to grow into the person I am, without having to accept that person into my life now.
\n\n\n
Understanding the nature of human beings is pretty key in understanding and dealing with people in your life. People aren't all bad or all good. I can understand what drove Poppy to be the person he was without agreeing with or accepting his toxicity.
\n\n\n
When Poppy was six years old, his mother, Bessie, died of tuberculosis. A year later, his father married Pearl. His stepmother (Pearl) told him never to mention his mother (Bessie) ever again, that \"she was his mother now\". My step-dad (Russell) died when I was 11 (I thought he was my biological father until I found my bio dad a few years ago). And that messed me up for decades. That kind of trauma impacts your development as a person. Trauma is passed down like a virus, and it mutates. Poppy passed down his trauma to his kids through who he was. They impacted their kids too. It's not shocking that between his three kids, there are 8 marriages and a lot of mental illness.
\n\n\n
I considered changing the title of this post to \"My Klansman Poppy Taught Me How To Love Understand Republicans\", but you can't strikethrough a title. Also, I love the part of the man that nurtured me while despising the toxicity that dominated his life.
-Marti Abernathey August 2021
\n\n\n\n\n",
"date_published": "2010-03-26T10:41:24+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2010/03/26/my-klansman-poppy.html",
"tags": ["Indiana","Racism","Family","Transgender","MyStory","SocialMedia","USPolitics","Books","Midwest"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2009/12/09/climate-change-and.html",
"title": "Climate Change and the Search for Truth",
"content_html": "
(Recently on a progressive e-list I’m on a person pointed to the work done by Science and Public Policy Institute and suggested that we “learn the truth” about climate change. The following is my response to him)
\n
When someone claims to hold the truth to a question I tend to want to believe them. In my own life I want truth more than anything, so I my nature is to want to believe what people say. In third grade Ricky Crawford told me that his father worked for NASA and that his father had told him secretly that aliens from Pluto were attacking and would be here in three days. For three days I cried a lot, hid a lot, and waited for news to break that the aliens were attacking. When I realized that I’d been tricked, I trusted other people a lot less.
\n
I’ve found consistently through my life that though I want to believe what people say, I have to dig down and see if there is a more sinister or politically motivated reason underneath. Many people (Christian creationists, for example) start with a belief and amass data to support their belief while dismissing anything that doesn’t support their beliefs.
\n
The Science and Public Policy Institute sounds as credible in the same way that President Bush’s Clear Skies Initiative. But according to SourceWatch wiki:
\n
\"The Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI) is a global warming skeptics group which appears to primarily be the work of Robert Ferguson, its President\"\n
“Prior to founding SPPI in approximately mid-2007, Ferguson was the Executive Director of the Center for Science and Public Policy (CSPP), a project of the corporate-funded group, the Frontiers of Freedom Institute."
\"Since our founding, Frontiers has grown from a start-up organization with big ideas to a preeminent think tank that is making a real and tangible difference advancing common sense ideas for government. One of our greatest sources of pride has been our position on the front lines in the battle to make a national missile defense system a reality. Our efforts earned us a seat across the table, literally, from President Bush on the day he announced our withdrawal from the ABM Treaty. In addition, we have both provided and received briefings from Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and his Deputy Paul Dundes Wolfowitz. We are proud to be considered an asset to the national security community during these times of serious global insecurity.\"\n
FoF groups its work under the banner of six “policy centers”:
\n
\n
Center for Constitutional Government
\n
Center for Economic Liberty and Property Rights
\n
Center for National Security and Defense
\n
Center for Free Market Environmentalism and Conservation
\n
Center for Civic, Family, and Societal Progress
\n
Center for Science and Public Policy
\n
\n
and receive funding by:
\n
Philip Morris Cos, ExxonMobil and RJ Reynolds Tobacco.
\nEven if you look past the the dubious past of the founder, the “science” relies heavily on the work of Christopher Monckton who:\n
\"is the third Viscount Monckton of Brenchley and a former policy advisor to Margaret Thatcher during her years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.\"
\"Published in two parts on consecutive Sundays, it runs to a total of 52 pages, containing graphs, tables and references. To my correspondents, to a good many journalists and to thousands of delighted bloggers, this paper clinches it: climate change is a hoax perpetrated by a leftwing conspiracy coordinated by the United Nations.\n
So which was the august journal that published it? Science? Nature? Geophysical Research Letters? Not quite. It was the Sunday Telegraph. In keeping with most of the articles about climate change in that publication, it is a mixture of cherry-picking, downright misrepresentation and pseudo-scientific gibberish. But it has the virtue of being incomprehensible to anyone who is not an atmospheric physicist.
\n
The author of this “research article” is Christopher Monckton, otherwise known as Viscount Monckton of Brenchley. He has a degree in classics and a diploma in journalism and, as far as I can tell, no further qualifications. But he is confident enough to maintain that - by contrast to all those charlatans and amateurs who wrote the reports produced by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - he is publishing ‘the truth’ “
\nand\n
\"A scientific paper is one published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. This means it has been subject to scrutiny by other experts in the field. This doesn't suggest that it's the last word on the subject, but it does mean it is worth discussing. For newspapers such as the Sunday Telegraph the test seems to be much simpler. If they don't understand it, it must be science.\"
\nI'm always dubious of anyone that claims to have \"the truth\". IMO, the truth is something to be eternally searched for but never found in total. At the very core of any honest search for truth is a commitment to follow the facts wherever they lead, even if it's to a place you don't think it should or would.\n
Or we could listen to the Ricky Crawfords of the world…..
",
"date_published": "2009-12-09T22:18:40+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2009/12/09/climate-change-and.html",
"tags": ["LGBTQ","USPolitics","Religion"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2007/12/05/mark-twain-ya.html",
"title": "Mark Twain, Ya Ain't So Bad",
"content_html": "
Today my son was complaining about how he hates being forced to read books, that it took all the pleasure out of them. Finally I had found a way to pounce on him and tell him about my love for Mark Twain! I too had the same sanitized version of Twain drilled in to me (in the very high school that my son attends). It wasn’t till I read “Letters From The Earth” that my view of Twain changed radically. From “Letters”:
\n
In the voice of Satan
\n
Very well, God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden, and eventually assassinated them. All for disobeying a command which he had no right to utter. But he did not stop there, as you will see. He has one code of morals for himself, and quite another for his children. He requires his children to deal justly -- and gently -- with offenders, and forgive them seventy-and-seven times; whereas he deals neither justly nor gently with anyone, and he did not forgive the ignorant and thoughtless first pair of juveniles even their first small offense and say, \"You may go free this time, and I will give you another chance.\"\n
On the contrary! He elected to punish their children, all through the ages to the end of time, for a trifling offense committed by others before they were born. He is punishing them yet. In mild ways? No, in atrocious ones.
\n
You would not suppose that this kind of Being gets many compliments. Undeceive yourself: the world calls him the All-Just, the All-Righteous, the All-Good, the All-Merciful, the All-Forgiving, the All-Truthful, the All-Loving, the Source of All Morality. These sarcasms are uttered daily, all over the world. But not as conscious sarcasms. No, they are meant seriously: they are uttered without a smile.
\nTwain’s daughter, Clara, released them in 1962 stating that “Mark Twain belonged to the world.” The back story is that Clara was a devout Christian Scientist who repeatedly tried to smooth over Twain’s growing disdain for Christianity near the end of his life. It’s been documented that Clara was the creator of the image we have of Mark Twain today. That image was crafted through her own religious dogma, guilt, and as a response to those in Communist Russia that claimed Twain was being censored.\n
Twain was far ahead of his time. He gave a speech at the Stomach Club ( a society of American writers and artists) in 1879 titled “Some Thoughts on the Science of Onanism "
\n
Onanism,is defined as:\nOnan (אוֹנָן “Strong”, Standard Hebrew Onan, Tiberian Hebrew ʾÔnān) is a person described in the book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. The word onanism, an older term for masturbation or “spilling of seed”, which is derived from his name because of one interpretation of his actions in the Bible.
\n
In the speech he said:
\n
My gifted predecessor has warned you against the social evil --- adultery.\" In his able paper he exhausted that subject; he left absolutely nothing more to be said on it. But I will continue his good work in the cause of morality by cautioning you against that species of recreation called self-abuse to which I perceive you are much addicted. All great writers on health and morals, both ancient and modern, have struggled with this stately subject; this shows its dignity and importance. Some of these writers have taken one side, some the other.\n
Homer, in the second book of the Iliad says with fine enthusiasm, “Give me masturbation or give me death.” Caesar, in his Commentaries, says, “To the lonely it is company; to the forsaken it is a friend; to the aged and to the impotent it is a benefactor. They that are penniless are yet rich, in that they still have this majestic diversion.” In another place this experienced observer has said, “There are times when I prefer it to sodomy.”
\n
Robinson Crusoe says, “I cannot describe what I owe to this gentle art.” Queen Elizabeth said, “It is the bulwark of virginity.” Cetewayo, the Zulu hero, remarked, “A jerk in the hand is worth two in the bush.” The immortal Franklin has said, “Masturbation is the best policy.”
\n
Michelangelo and all of the other old masters–“old masters,” I will remark, is an abbreviation, a contraction — have used similar language. Michelangelo said to Pope Julius II, “Self-negation is noble, self-culture beneficent, self-possession is manly, but to the truly great and inspiring soul they are poor and tame compared with self-abuse.” Mr. Brown, here, in one of his latest and most graceful poems, refers to it in an eloquent line which is destined to live to the end of time–“None knows it but to love it; none name it but to praise.”
\n
Such are the utterances of the most illustrious of the masters of this renowned science, and apologists for it. The name of those who decry it and oppose it is legion; they have made strong arguments and uttered bitter speeches against it — but there is not room to repeat them here in much detail. Brigham Young, an expert of incontestable authority, said, “As compared with the other thing, it is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” Solomon said, “There is nothing to recommend it but its cheapness.” Galen said, “It is shameful to degrade to such bestial uses that grand limb, that formidable member, which we votaries of Science dub the Major Maxillary — when they dub it at all — which is seldom, It would be better to amputate the os frontis than to put it to such use.”
\n
The great statistician Smith, in his report to Parliament, says, “In my opinion, more children have been wasted in this way than any other.” It cannot be denied that the high antiquity of this art entitles it to our respect; but at the same time, I think its harmfulness demands our condemnation. Mr. Darwin was grieved to feel obliged to give up his theory that the monkey was the connecting link between man and the lower animals. I think he was too hasty. The monkey is the only animal, except man, that practices this science; hence, he is our brother; there is a bond of sympathy and relationship between us. Give this ingenuous animal an audience of the proper kind and he will straightway put aside his other affairs and take a whet; and you will see by his contortions and his ecstatic expression that he takes an intelligent and human interest in his performance.
\n
The signs of excessive indulgence in this destructive pastime are easily detectable. They are these: a disposition to eat, to drink, to smoke, to meet together convivially, to laugh, to joke and tell indelicate stories–and mainly, a yearning to paint pictures. The results of the habit are: loss of memory, loss of virility, loss of cheerfulness and loss of progeny.
\n
Of all the various kinds of sexual intercourse, this has the least to recommend it. As an amusement, it is too fleeting; as an occupation, it is too wearing; as a public exhibition, there is no money in it. It is unsuited to the drawing room, and in the most cultured society it has long been banished from the social board. It has at last, in our day of progress and improvement, been degraded to brotherhood with flatulence. Among the best bred, these two arts are now indulged only in private — though by consent of the whole company, when only males are present, it is still permissible, in good society, to remove the embargo on the fundamental sigh.
\n
My illustrious predecessor has taught you that all forms of the “social evil” are bad. I would teach you that some of these forms are more to be avoided than others. So, in concluding, I say, “If you must gamble your lives sexually, don’t play a lone hand too much.” When you feel a revolutionary uprising in your system, get your Vendome Column down some other way — don’t jerk it down.
\nThe real Mark Twain wasn’t just a witty ole' codger with a flair for writing colloquial American fiction. He was a true progressive for those times. He was anti-slavery, anti-capitalist (he played a major role in the American Anti-Imperialist League) and supported women’s suffrage.\n
Digging deep in history, I found that he’s not as boring as most of my English teachers made him out to be. He was a man of courage, wit, common sense, with a compassionate heart to boot. He wasn’t without his failings, but who isn’t? The man behind the history is one of texture and depth. In the end, I found he ain’t so bad after all.
\n",
"date_published": "2007-12-05T17:25:39+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2007/12/05/mark-twain-ya.html",
"tags": ["Family","Capitalism","USPolitics","Fediverse","Religion","Books"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2006/12/29/an-apology-to.html",
"title": "An Apology To My Christian Friends",
"content_html": "
\"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians.\"\n
“Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. I consider western Christianity in its practical working a negation of Christ’s Christianity.”
\n
“It is my firm opinion that Europe does not represent the spirit of God or Christianity but the spirit of Satan. And Satan’s successes are the greatest when he appears with the name of God on his lips."
\n
The Christianity in this country that listens to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, or Laura Ingraham; consumes popular culture like there is no tomorrow, supports the Iraq war, and votes for George Bush, are not Christians. They are like Saul before Damascus, a Pharisee. Christ said of the Pharisee:
\n
\"You make God's law to mean nothing so you can keep your own laws! You are not true to yourselves! What Isaiah said about you was true. He said, 'These people respect me with their mouth but their heart is far from me. They do not mean it in their hearts when they worship me. Their teachings are only the words of men.'\"
\n
If you’re going to judge me, judge my life, and try to subject me to your religious beliefs, how about you follow your own teachings? Hell, how about you KNOW your scripture, before trying to teach it to me?
\n
To you that do follow the example of Christ, I apologize. I love you. I thought that anyone who claims to be a Christian, is a Christian. I’m sorry I’ve thrown you in with the American Pharisee’s. You walk the walk, and talk the talk. You live the word, and are a shining example of the Christ found in the Bible. I admire you, and your conviction even though I do not share it. If every confessed Christian was like you, this country would be heaven on earth.
I think that description applies pretty aptly to the local blogosphere here in Indiana. It reminded me of a recent post over at Taking Down Words blog titled “Law License Flap: When To Let A Story That Really Isn’t Much Of A Story Go.” I’ll let the content of the post speak for itself, but the ensuing orgy of insults disgusted me… and these people are on MY SIDE!
\n
Abdul-Hakim Shabazz and RiShawn Biddle were verbally assaulted in this thread to a point that makes my heart hurt.
\n
Example:
\n
\"abdul is a complete moron with a mouth bigger than his ego (if you can imagine that)...\"\n
“She owes you no explanation so shut the xxxx up.”
\n
“Beth = Matt Simmons, the moron who’s running Brizzi’s issueless negative campaign. (he’ll be about as popular as mike murphy by the time this is all done). He’s the same moron who’s running that dumb TDW-wannabe blog about Indianapolis. Zzzzzzzz.”
\n
“You guys are real thinkers…first guys, learn how to write. seriously, you guys are bad. Remember that scene from Top Gun…you stink!”
\n
“Are you billing the State for posting on the blog, Beth? Must be nice to get those insider blow job contracts!”
\n
\n
As my readers know, I’m about as liberal as they come… but when it comes to ad hominem attacks that’s where I draw the line.
\n
RiShawn and Abdul are both conservative pundits. RiShawn works for a conservative newspaper and Abdul works for the local extreme right wing AM talk radio station. At times I find RiShawn to be condescending and aloof. Abdul can be bullheaded and dogmatic… SO WHAT???? Neither resort to personal attacks to get their points across. RiShawn is VERY well read in statistical analysis and theory. Abdul will invite both sides of a topic to speak on his show and he lets both sides talk. It’s obvious to me that he’s got a bias, but he doesn’t let that bias affect the interview.
\n
I’ve had debates with both RiShawn and Abdul on their blogs. Neither have ever stooped to personally attack me. I’ve learned from both Abdul and RiShawn. They’ve challenged me to seek, to dig, to understand the topics that they post about.
\n
I know they have a bias going in… but so do I! There isn’t a person on this earth that doesn’t have some kind of bias, especially when it comes to things political. If a person thinks he’s not biased in some way or another he’s either a fool or a liar.
\n
I think an email response from Abdul says it best, “Good spirited debate is a great thing. It’s the only way to get to the truth. Let’s keep the dialogue going.”
\n",
"date_published": "2006-04-04T11:27:51+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2006/04/04/rishawn-and-abdul.html",
"tags": ["Indiana","MyStory","USPolitics","Midwest"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2006/03/17/judge-not-lest.html",
"title": "Judge Not Lest Ye Be Scalia",
"content_html": "
I’m continually amazed at why people are afraid “to call a spade a spade.” The Washington Post reported Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia recently rebuked the Courts ruling overturning anti-sodomy laws. He said jokingly that “sexual orgies eliminate tension and ought to be encouraged,” but said that judges and lawyers don’t “reflect the views of the people” and shouldn’t be deciding the morality of behavior. The article refers to Scalia as a “strict constructionist,” which on its face is idiotic. According to Wikipedia,
Strict constructionism is a philosophy of judicial interpretation and legal philosophy that limits judicial interpretation to the meanings of the actual words and phrases used in law, and not on other sources or inferences.
\n
If that isn’t a subtle form of judicial activism, I don’t know what is. The meaning of words change over time, so being a strict constructionist means that the laws change with the shifting sands of time.
\n
I think it’s more likely Scalia’s just trying to justify his distain for gays and lesbians…
\n",
"date_published": "2006-03-17T18:08:33+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2006/03/17/judge-not-lest.html",
"tags": ["Activism","USPolitics"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2006/03/17/the-cost-of.html",
"title": "The Cost of War",
"content_html": "
My blood boils when I read crap from illogical, immoral, blind followers of President Bush. This is the cost of the real cost of war…
Precise collateral damage my ass…. Try to stop seeing these people as\n“towel heads” or “A-Rabs.” Look at them as parents… look past your own ass, and you might understand why I don’t support this war. If you support this war, you did this….
Listening to Mitch Daniels answer questions on the radio on Wednesday night, he lost my vote in the next election. I’m quite the liberal/progressive when it comes to my political beliefs. Even so, last election I voted for Mitch Daniels for Governor. Why? The Kernan administration refused to discuss their position on gay marriage. Kernan kept saying that a marriage amendment wasn’t needed. I asked a direct question to the campaign as to where Governor Kernan stood if a marriage amendment was found to be “needed.” When pressed about this, the administration simply responded that the republicans were BAD and Democrats were GOOD. Mitch Daniels met with the gay community and addressed tough questions openly and honestly, which Governor Kernan refused to do. My thought process went something like “if Mitch was the same on marriage issues as Kernan, what is the difference between the two?” When I listened to both campaigns, I heard Mitch say what he planned on doing about the economy, about the state budget deficit, and property tax reform. Kernan just attacked Daniels about what he had done at while at Lilly’s, and IPL, but put forth no real plan to pull the state out of the financial gutter. I simply heard the campaign smear Daniels while not putting forth any new ideas. So I voted for Mitch….
\n
But after his first year in office I can say that I won’t vote for him again. He removed collective bargaining for state employees and spent way too much time on moving Indiana to Daylight Saving Time (and I might add that he’s not been following DOT regulations concerning the changes… before GW they called that breaking the law…). Those things were definitely nails in the coffin. But what nailed it shut was his comments at a Town Hall meeting broadcast on Network Indiana/WISH-TV on Wednesday night. When asked why he hadn’t asked for full day kindergarten, he responded that we just don’t have the money for it. He said that maybe we could do it once we’re out of debt. If this were a business, Mitch’s answer would be a good one. But state government shouldn’t be run like a business. The mistakes made in government don’t effect a bottom line, they effect peoples lives. A good example of Mitch’s “business approach” in government is found at his time as head of the Office of Management and Budget (the OMB sets the administration’s annual budget goals) in the first GW Bush administration. His nickname at the time was “The Blade.” In 2002, Mike Parker, the former head of the Army Corps of Engineers, was forced to resign over budget disagreements with Mitch. He said “One time I took two pieces of steel into Mitch Daniels office. They were exactly the same pieces of steel, except one had been under water in a Mississippi lock for more than 30 years, and the other one was new. The first piece was completely corroded and falling apart because of lack of funding. I said ‘Mitch, it doesn’t matter if a terrorist blows the lock up or if it falls down because it disintegrates – either way it’s the same effect, and if we let it fall down, we have only ourselves to blame.’ It made no impact on him whatsoever.” Studies have shown that full day kindergarten and Head Start programs improve learning for low-income families and children with disabilities. So what does Mitch see as the most important thing on the legislative agenda for the next year? Construction of the I-69 road project…?????? His reasoning is that building roads brings jobs to the state. What kind of jobs would be dependent on a interstate roadway? I doubt they’d bring in too many high paying tech jobs to the state.
\n
If you don’t invest money in children on the front end, how can you expect to develop a well educated, high tech work force in Indiana? Not funding all day kindergarten but funding a controversial road project is penny wise, pound foolish. I’m sorry Mitch, but our kids are worth more than a damn interstate. If you can’t see that then you’re not as smart as I thought you were. I’ll be smarter next time you’re up for reelection. Too bad they didn’t have all day kindergarten when I was a child. Maybe I wouldn’t have made the mistake of voting for you, Mr. Daniels.
\n",
"date_published": "2005-12-30T16:28:22+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2005/12/30/the-republican-utopia.html",
"tags": ["Indiana","Elections","MyStory","LGBTQ","USPolitics","Midwest"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2005/12/03/mitch-loves-the.html",
"title": "Mitch Loves The Jesus, Not The First Amendment",
"content_html": "
Indiana Governor, Mitch Daniels, called the recent ruling on Christian prayer at the statehouse “regrettable.” He went on to say:
\n
\"I just think it's regrettable. \"It's in a long line now of, I think, confusing and sometimes clumsy attempts by the courts to insert themselves into this issue.\"
\n
Um, Mitch … the court wouldn’t of had to rule on this if Brian Bosma hadn’t pushed this. Singing Just A Little Talk With Jesus"? Why not pass the plate and give communion! You could invite a different church choir each week to back you up.
\n
If anything is “regrettable” it’s that your Republican mates in the House don’t feel they can run on their record. It’s reprehensible that they find it necessary to use gays and Jesus to get reelected.
\n",
"date_published": "2005-12-03T12:16:36+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2005/12/03/mitch-loves-the.html",
"tags": ["Indiana","MyStory","USPolitics","Religion","Midwest"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2005/09/13/lend-a-hand.html",
"title": "Lend A Hand, Just Not Mine",
"content_html": "
\n\"It depends on what the meaning of the words 'is' is.\"
\n
\n\"To the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility.\"
\n
\n\"It depends on how you define alone \"
\n
Who uttered these quotes? The first and third quotes are from Bill Clinton, concerning the Monica Lewinsky affair. The second is from a speech given today by George W. Bush. He’s finally admitting some responsibility for the New Olreans FEMA debacle.
\n
“That spirit is the spirit of a determined nation willing to defend our freedoms, no matter what the cost. That American spirit says loud and clear that we’re willing to serve something greater than ourselves. We’re willing to serve people in need, a community we love.” George W. Bush - October 31, 2002
\n
Ya…. right. I guess it depends on what the meaning of the word “love” is, right George?
\n",
"date_published": "2005-09-13T21:23:03+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2005/09/13/lend-a-hand.html",
"tags": ["USPolitics"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2005/09/09/freedom-is-on.html",
"title": "Freedom Is On the March For Crackers",
"content_html": "
Watching President Bush on CNN this morning talk about the “war on terror” something hit me. How can we be in “a global war on terror” as President Bush calls it, yet we don’t call the “detainees” down at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prisoners of war?
\n
Then we’d have to follow the Geneva Suggestions Conventions…
\n",
"date_published": "2005-09-09T16:49:12+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2005/09/09/freedom-is-on.html",
"tags": ["Media","USPolitics"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2005/09/04/how-low-will.html",
"title": "How Low Will You Go?",
"content_html": "
Friday, George Bush seemed to shoulder some of the blame for the slow reaction of federal rescue and relief efforts. Not a day later he shifted the blame to state and local officials in Louisiana. Bush said “The magnitude of responding to a crisis over a disaster area that is larger than the size of Great Britain has created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities. The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans. And that is unacceptable.”
\n
I found it odd that President Bush would chastise local officials in Louisiana, yet he praises officials from FEMA and the Governor of Mississippi. The difference? Louisana’s governor is a Democrat, and Mississippi’s governor is a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.
\n",
"date_published": "2005-09-04T17:16:33+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2005/09/04/how-low-will.html",
"tags": ["USPolitics"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2005/07/13/gay-swedish-fiction.html",
"title": "Gay Swedish Fiction By John Q Republican",
"content_html": "
This entry is a favorite of mine from my LiveJournal
\n
Below is an article was in our local newspaper, “The Indianapolis Star.”
\n
Lori Borgman\nMarriage: It’s for kids' sake\nMarch 14, 2004
\n
If you want to peer into the crystal ball to see what family life will be like in the event we redefine marriage, look to Scandinavia. The equivalent of same-sex marriage has been legal for more than a decade, and the verdict is in – same-sex marriage has eroded the already rusty link in the chain between marriage and family.
\n
Marriage is passe in Norway, Denmark and Sweden. Marriage is so out of fashion that among those who do marry, some choose to keep it private to avoid embarrassment. Even more surprising, few homosexuals are taking advantage of same-sex unions. The heterosexual and homosexual marriage pool has shriveled so much that marriage and divorce statistics are difficult to interpret.
\n
Author Stanley Kurtz, who has been parsing the data coming from Scandinavia, says this much is crystal clear – any form of family is acceptable.
\n
Marriage is no longer seen as a precursor to parenthood. When heterosexual marriage is no longer seen as the norm, and marriage and parenthood are no longer seen as going hand-in-hand, married parenthood becomes an oddity. Disassociating heterosexual marriage from parenting is like splitting up the salt and pepper, but that’s exactly what has happened.
\n
In Scandinavia, marriage has ceased being a big event in most young men and women’s lives. Many Nordic beauties have bid farewell to chunky issues of Bride’s magazine, engagement rings and bridal showers. Marriage once signaled the hallmark of maturity in the journey of life. Today the mark of maturity in Scandinavia is having a baby.
\n
Couples become an item, birth a child and often live together for a year or so. Ultimately, however, couples can manage financially as individuals, so they tend to split and move to the next partner. And the next. It appears similar to that awful going-steady-and-breaking-up cycle of junior high, only with sex, and without end.
\n
Who bears the brunt of all these adults sailing in and out of relationships and unable to cast anchor? Hint: They tend to be short, have soft cheeks, big eyes and like to sleep with teddy bears.
\n
The majority of children in Sweden and Norway are born out of wedlock. Sixty percent of first-born children in Denmark have unmarried parents. An immense welfare state and state-run day care, funded by the enormous, albeit compulsory, generosity of taxpayers, attempt to fill the void of moms and dads, or moms and moms, and dads and dads, who opt not to tie the knot.
\n
Our own nation’s link between marriage and family has been showing signs of rust for several decades. Less than half of our twenty-somethings believe it is immoral to have a baby out of wedlock. We already lead the world in single parenthood and divorce. So is now the time to dismantle marriage even further? All quite possibly at the expense of our kids? One small step for man, one giant tumble for the children of tomorrow.
\n
Marriage under the best of circumstances is a mystery. Oh, let’s be honest. Some days it’s an outright miracle.
\n
You do not tinker with a social, legal and religious institution that has stood as a foundation to nations and cultures for centuries without risking serious repercussions.
\n
Whichever path we choose, we will all – married or unmarried, heterosexual or homosexual – live out the consequences, as will our children, our grandchildren and their children.
\n
In the words of Margaret Mead, “As the family goes, so goes the nation.”
\n
I responded to her with this….
\n
Let’s Be Honest, For The Kids’ Sake\nBy Marti Abernathey
\n
For the kids’ sake, let’s look at this logically with all the facts on the table. Mrs. Borgman insinuates that “The equivalent of same-sex marriage has been legal for more than a decade” in Norway, Denmark and Sweden. Not one same sex marriage has ever been performed in any of these countries. Denmark adopted a registered partnership law in 1989 that grants most of the benefits and obligations of marriage. Norway and Sweden have similar cohabitation laws as well. The only countries that same sex couples can legally marry are The Netherlands (April 1, 2001), Belgium (January 30, 2003), British Columbia (July 8, 2003), and Ontario (June 10, 2003).
\n
She continues on to suggest that “the verdict is in – same-sex marriage has eroded the already rusty link in the chain between marriage and family” and that “the heterosexual and homosexual marriage pool has shriveled so much that marriage and divorce statistics are difficult to interpret.” The insinuation is that gay marriage has caused the decline in the family and the separation of marriage and family. The studies figures show that only 2,372 gay couples had registered in nine years of the Danish registered partnership law in a country of 5.1 million people. In Norway (674 same sex couples registered out of 4.2 million people after four years) and Sweden (749 same sex couples registered out of 8.5 million people after four years) the number of couples that have registered against the total population are miniscule. Mrs. Borgman also neglects to add that registered partnerships in Scandinavia restrict or forbid adoptions or artificial insemination by gay couples! It’s curious that such a small percentage of couples have affected marriage so strongly. She and Mr. Kurtz both glaze over the increase in no-fault divorces, yet most studies suggest (no-fault divorces) have increased divorce 20 to 25 percent in the United States.
\n
So where does Mrs. Borgman get her data? This theory she espouses is from an article written by Stanley Kurtz, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. The Hoover Institution is a conservative think tank that has strong ties to President Bush. Past or present fellows include; Richard Allen (United States National Security Advisor to President Ronald Reagan), George Shultz, Edwin Meese, Condolezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Thomas Sowell, Pete Wilson, Williamson M. Evers, John B. Taylor, and Newt Gingrich.
\n
The burning question in my mind is who exactly is Stanley Kurtz. Turns out Mr. Kurtz graduated from Haverford College (Haverford is a liberal arts college founded in 1833 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)) where he majored in comparative religion. Stanley Kurtz went on to study comparative religion at Harvard Divinity School as well. Does anyone else besides me see a problem here?
\n
She continues her diatribe saying “You do not tinker with a social, legal and religious institution that has stood as a foundation to nations and cultures for centuries without risking serious repercussions.” This argument sounds eerily familiar to the reasoning for a proposed amendment by Representative Seaborn Roddenberry of Georgia. Representative Roddenberry said that his amendment would uphold the sanctity of marriage. He said he took this action because some states have permitted marriages that are “abhorrent and repugnant.” He said he would like to “exterminate now this debasing, ultrademoralizing, un-American and inhuman leprosy.”
\n
He warned, “Let this condition go on if you will. At some day, perhaps remote, it will be a question always whether or not the solemnizing of matrimony in the North is between two descendants of our Anglo-Saxon fathers and mothers or whether it be of a mixed blood descended from the orangutan-trodden shores of far-off Africa.” That’s right, he wasn’t talking about gay marriage but interracial marriage and the year he introduced this legislation was 1921.
\n
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
\n",
"date_published": "2005-07-13T19:09:52+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2005/07/13/gay-swedish-fiction.html",
"tags": ["Indiana","MyStory","LGBTQ","USPolitics","Religion","Midwest"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2005/07/07/simple-solution-water.html",
"title": "Simple Solution, Water and Oil",
"content_html": "
Christ, are we too busy robbing Iraq of its riches that we cannot help the people LIVE? From Hnk’s blog:
\n
\n\"'Day after day the situation in Iraq is getting better,' that's what one high ranking military official said. Reality shows the opposite. If things are getting better then why we don't we have oil, when we live in a country rich with oil? We have two rivers Tigris and the Euphrates, yet we have no drinking water. We are in the 3rd year of the war with no end in sight.\n
You want to help Iraqi people? Don’t send your cousins and sons to Iraq to fight, because they fight against us, not for us. Did you forget about the WMD’s? Did you forget what happened at Abu Ghraib? Did you forget what humanity means? Did you forget about basic human needs? Don’t bother. I also forget… I forget what peace looks like. I forget what the street looks like. I forget what the night sky looks like. I forget what my relatives look like….
\n
Sometimes I just think if you could see what my eyes see, if you could hear what my ears hear, you would be able to understand what I mean."
\n
How many enemies will we create by not giving the thirsty, water. How many insurgents are created by the hunger growing in their stomach? The enemy can walk in and prove us to be the devils that they claim we are… simply by providing food, water, and by meeting basic needs of everyday Iraqi’s while foriegn oil companies sit inside the green zone and divide up the spoils.
\n
I wonder, is it that the Bush administration doesn’t know what to do, or just doesn’t want to spend the extra time and effort to win the hearts and minds of Iraqi’s?
\n",
"date_published": "2005-07-07T19:53:01+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2005/07/07/simple-solution-water.html",
"tags": ["USPolitics"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2005/06/22/dont-you-dare.html",
"title": "DON'T YOU DARE CALL ME A NAZI, YOU NAZI!",
"content_html": "
Because the whole system [is] like going to a concentration camp and picking out which people go to the death chamber." - Bob Novak 5/14/05
\n
“I mean, imagine, the rule has been in place for 214 years that this is the way we confirm judges. Broken by the other side two years ago, and the audacity of some members to stand up and say, how dare you break this rule. It’s the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942 saying, ‘I’m in Paris. How dare you invade me. How dare you bomb my city? It’s mine.'” - Senator Rick Santorum
\n
“Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It’s no different. It is the same thing. It is happening all over again. It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-based media and the homosexuals who want to destroy the Christians. " Pat Robertson 1993
\n
“The EPA, the Gestapo of government, pure and simply has been one of the major claw-hooks that the government maintains on the backs of our constituents.” Tom DeLay 1995
\n
Hitler was “an individual of great courage” and a “genius.” Talk about Jews killed at Treblinka reflected “group fantasies of martyrdom.” Pat Buchanan 1990
\n
“Those who support gay and lesbian families are no different from those who supported Adolph Hitler in the years preceding World War II” - Sheri Drew, who gave the invocation at the Republican National Convention on August 31, 2004
\n
“The Nazis were for gun control, the Nazis were for high marginal tax rates. Do you want to talk about who’s closer politically to national socialism, the Right or the Left?” Anti-Tax Activist Grover Norquist, 2004
\n
“What Hitler began to build against the Jews is now being built against people of faith who believe the Scriptures are valid for today and their injunctions against certain sexual behaviors is correct.” Lou Sheldon, Traditional Value Coalition 1998
\n
*“The notion that is involved in homosexuality, the unbridled sort of satisfaction of human passions’ leads to ‘totalitarianism,’ ‘Nazism,’ and ‘communism.’ - Alan Keyes 1997
\n
“We certainly have all seen the rejections of Nazi Germany’s abuses of science,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) declared regarding his opposition to stem cell research last October. “As a society and a nation, there ought to be some limit on what we can allow or should allow.”
\n
“The whole system [for picking judges] is like going to a concentration camp and picking out which people go to the death chamber.” Robert Novak May 15, 2005
\n
“We certainly have all seen the rejections of Nazi Germany’s abuses of science,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) declared regarding his opposition to stem cell research last October. “As a society and a nation, there ought to be some limit on what we can allow or should allow.”
Mindless name-calling? Is it suddenly a mudslinging to speak the truth?
\n
44 of 3,643 Republicans serving in state legislatures across the country are minorities. For those of you into percentages that’s about 1.2%. In Washington, 274 of the 535 elected Senators and Representatives are Republican… 5 are minorities (2%).
\n
Howard Dean simply spoke the truth…. This type of comment is similar to the rhetoric of the Right that demonized John Kerry for pointing out that Dick Cheney’s daughter was a lesbian. Somehow its become controversial to speak truth.
\"'She was incapable of surviving without her feeding tube,' Mr Throgmartin said, adding that she was blind and incapable of thinking, feeling or interacting with her environment.\n
‘This damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons,’ he said."
\n
I’m rubbing it in because of how many people weighed in on this topic but had no medical background to base their position on.
\n
Next time trust medical professionals… instead of Neocons.
As a child, I used to be afraid that one day soon Armageddon would come and destroy my world. In those days I feared the rapture, yet now I welcome it.
\n
\"I'm a radical! I'm a real extremist. I don't want to impeach judges. I want to impale them!\" - Mark Schwartz, Republican Senator Tom Coburn's chief of staff.
\n
This extremist tone permeates the Congress and the White House.
\n
\"Our next step, whatever it is, must be more than rhetoric.\" - House Majority Leader Tom DeLay
\n
Today’s theocratic mindset is exposed bare and naked by reading Virginia Republican and writer, James Atticus Bowden. He writes that:
\n
\"Today, America is engaged in another Civil War, a long Culture War, to determine the consensus culture, the world view, and purpose of our Nation. Judeo-Christian or Pagan Human Secularism. The issues; Ten Commandments, public prayer, partial birth abortion, homosexual marriage, euthanasia, etc., are stalking horses for the intolerance of Tolerance and Multi-Culturalism. These Liberal Puritans are culturally cleansing Judeo-Christian America. Their judges are today's tyrants. The Liberal Human Secularist Totalitarians are hand maidens of Islamist Totalitarians seeking to destroy Judeo-Christian America.\"\n
“The Confederate battle flag is a racist symbol only to racists, demagogues (liberals, thus Democrats), and dummies. To Southerners, Confederate symbols stand for courage, sacrifice, and fidelity.”
\n
“Tolerate homosexuals – they’re your kin – but don’t honor them.”
\n
“We don’t give a damn what foreigners think of us. And, frankly, my dear, we don’t give a damn what Yankees think of us (and that really bothers them).”
\n
“As a man actually named ‘Bubba’ all my life, I’m proud to be disdained by any non-Southerner - and non-conservative, non-family, anti-evangelical Christian - ‘youse guys’.”
\n
“Red States will never abandon Israel - it’s an Evangelical Christian thing about loving the Jews. So, fighting the Islamists for centuries appears not to be a problem.” - Virginia Republican and writer James Atticus Bowden
\n
Um…ya. PLEASE hurry Lord. These people really need to go. America needs the rapture….. and I need a new car.
Well, I went in the Indiana Statehouse for the first time in my life. And who stepped through those doors? Marti. It’s wierd to be in a space as a female that I have never been in as a male.
\n
I was nervous as hell at first because it was a press conference and I have mild social anxiety anyhow. As soon as we got into the room where the press conference was to be held and that all washed away. Chris Douglas, a local gay Republican, got up and really pegged a knot in the Indiana Senate’s ass. I’ve never seen him so hot under the collar. It was a great performance to the media.
\n
I came home and slept… then coded the website some….then slept…zzzzzzzzzz and my alarm doesn’t go off….zzzzzzz wake up and what time is it? 9:05pm. FUCK my bus comes in …15 minutes!!! So I hall balls ..change clothes and run out the door. I had to run to make the bus, if that tells you how close I was to missing the bus. Sooooooooooooo, I made it to the bus…and got to work OK.
\n
SMELL ALERT while I took a shower this AM, I feel icky. Damn running for the bus! Damn warm coat!
The Bush website proclaims a decisive victory! You be the judge….
\n
CNN:\nKerry: 87%\nBush: 21%\nTie 2%
\n
CBS:\nKerry: 87%\nBush: 22%\nTie: less than 1%
\n
and that bastion of liberalism…
\n
Fox News\nKerry 51%\nBush 48%\nTie: less than 1%
\n
Robert Novak agrees with the Bush team. “President Bush may not have scored a clear-cut victory, but he certainly looked good. In fact, he handled the town hall format with greater skill than Kerry.”
\n
Go Bush! If that’s a victory, I hope those same numbers are final election results come November. :)
Sorry for not posting of late. I read a couple days back, but I can’t read back far enough to get caught up. If you have had something major happen, post a link to the url and I will make sure to read.
\n
The reason I haven’t posted is because of something you may have read about on this LJ. The gubernatorial race here is very tight and the Republican candidate agreed to meet with the GLBT community to discuss his position. You can read about the drama here. This drama caused me to have to stay home on Saturday and write.
\n
Sunday I had a meeting with INTRAA and then after the meeting we played poker. I suck at Poker. I had a great time though, and am really happy that I am finding people that I connect with. Lori, Evan, Rhys, really make me feel accepted and normal. Many people talk about finding a place they feel comfortable in, a community. I feel this way with the trans community in Indy.
\n
Monday I spent working all day and when I got home I continued to dialog with Christian about the Democrat fiasco.
\n
Tuesday, I actually got to attend the meeting with the Republican candidate for Governor. It was really a bold step for him to meet with us and at least explain where he stands on things. I may vote for him, I am still very undecided. I think my vote sways on if he supports amending the civil rights law of indiana to include gender identity and sexual orientation.
I learned from the above URL that you refuse to run a commercial (a very tame commercial that I watched at their website) from the Log Cabin Republicans, yet you continue to run the lies of the “Swift Boat Veterans.” I have decided that I cannot, in good conscience, watch CNN for my news coverage. It’s sad to see CNN follow in the partisan footsteps of Fox News.
\n
Saddened,\nMarti Abernathey
\n
If you agree with me, I ask you to go here and tell CNN to “let freedom ring” and air the commercial.
Cinnamon and I walked down to the Indianapolis 500 Parade. I took a bunch of pics….
\n\nHe looks hot, she just looks dim. :)\n\nI wish someone would have told me that President Bush was gonna be in the parade.\n\nSabrina, you need to zap some decent clothes on your boy.... did he just get paroled?\n
Governor Kernan.
\n\nMorgan Freeman\n\nmore Morgan\n\nPurdue Marching Band\n\nRupert from Survivor\n\nTalk about gays in the military..... :)\n
Gooooooollly! I wonder if Jim Nabors (of Gomer Pyle fame) and his lover were married in San Francisco or Mass. ? Did Jim take a new name??
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\n",
"date_published": "2024-12-10T14:26:13+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2024/12/10/the-rise-of.html",
"tags": ["Elections","SocialMedia","UKPolitics","USPolitics"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2024/12/08/mastodon-reports.html",
"title": "Mastodon Reports ",
"content_html": "![\"\"](\"https://martiabernathey.com/uploads/2024/9aum92.jpg.jpg\")
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\n",
"date_published": "2024-11-07T11:30:00+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2024/11/07/the-future-of.html",
"tags": ["Elections","SocialMedia","USPolitics","Healthcare"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2024/07/08/123109.html",
"title": "Democratic Phantasmagoria",
"content_html": "![\"\"](\"https://martiabernatheycom.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/trump-4893750_1280-1.jpg?w=1024\")
![\"\"](\"https://martiabernatheycom.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/screenshot-2024-07-08-at-13.44.53.png?w=1024\")
![\"\"](\"https://martiabernatheycom.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/screenshot-2024-07-08-at-13.48.07.png?w=1024\")
![\"\"](\"https://martiabernatheycom.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/screenshot-2024-07-08-at-13.47.38-3.png?w=1024\")
![\"\"](\"https://martiabernatheycom.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/b7e0cf4cad4ee72d.jpg?w=960\")
![](\"https://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/uploads/2024/fd97e875df.jpg\")
\n",
"date_published": "2022-12-12T14:11:46+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2022/12/12/reactionaries-terfs-and.html",
"tags": ["Transgender","Feminism","MentalHealth","USPolitics","Blogging"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2022/08/01/the-dilemma-at.html",
"title": "The Dilemma at the Center of the UK Labour and USA's Democratic Party",
"content_html": "\n![](\"https://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/uploads/2024/ed36965100.jpg\")
\n",
"date_published": "2022-08-01T12:47:04+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2022/08/01/the-dilemma-at.html",
"tags": ["Racism","Podcast","Elections","UKPolitics","USPolitics"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2022/07/28/the-deprogram-s.html",
"title": "The Deprogram: S1 E2",
"content_html": "\n![\"\"](\"https://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/uploads/2024/beeb03db8e.jpg\")
![](\"https://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/uploads/2024/d56d41e88d.jpg\")
\n",
"date_published": "2022-06-16T18:42:23+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2022/06/16/examining-twilight-of.html",
"tags": ["Activism","USPolitics","Religion","Books"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2017/08/26/who-is-to.html",
"title": "Who Is To Blame for Trump's Win?",
"content_html": "\n![\"\"](\"https://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/uploads/2024/f05f46f646.jpg\")
![\"hospitals\"](\"http://box2063.temp.domains/~martiabe/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/hospitals.jpg\")
![\"hospitalstay\"](\"http://box2063.temp.domains/~martiabe/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/hospitalstay.jpg\")
![\"nobike\"](\"http://box2063.temp.domains/~martiabe/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/nobike.jpg\")
![](\"https://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/uploads/2024/4c1ee721cf.jpg\")
\n",
"date_published": "2017-01-12T14:37:07+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2017/01/12/understanding-privilege-in.html",
"tags": ["Indiana","Transgender","Podcast","MyStory","LGBTQ","USPolitics","Religion","Books","Midwest"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2016/05/19/bernie-or-meh.html",
"title": "Bernie or Meh, The Clinton Path to Defeat",
"content_html": "![](\"https://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/uploads/2024/acbeda4b3b.jpg\")
![](\"https://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/uploads/2024/9838bde3cd.jpg\")
\nListening to the podcast of the Thursday edition of LBC's James O'Brien's radio show, I was surprised that he'd admit that he might be wrong about The Labour Party's leader, Jeremy Corbyn. Previously, he'd said that Corbyn supporters were akin to people who “believed in faeries.” He's repeatedly said that Corbynites were not pragmatic that Corbyn isn't electable, and the end of the Labour Party was near if he wasn't put down.\n![](\"https://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/uploads/2024/3dc6c058ee.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/uploads/2024/e088cb259d.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/uploads/2024/1c1685834b.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/uploads/2024/feac31a731.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/uploads/2024/76af40278e.jpg\")
![](\"https://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/uploads/2024/22b6bfb354.jpg\")
\n![](\"http://transadvocate.com/images/daniels/daniels1.gif\")
Listening to Mitch Daniels answer questions on the radio on Wednesday night, he lost my vote in the next election. I’m quite the liberal/progressive when it comes to my political beliefs. Even so, last election I voted for Mitch Daniels for Governor. Why? The Kernan administration refused to discuss their position on gay marriage. Kernan kept saying that a marriage amendment wasn’t needed. I asked a direct question to the campaign as to where Governor Kernan stood if a marriage amendment was found to be “needed.” When pressed about this, the administration simply responded that the republicans were BAD and Democrats were GOOD. Mitch Daniels met with the gay community and addressed tough questions openly and honestly, which Governor Kernan refused to do. My thought process went something like “if Mitch was the same on marriage issues as Kernan, what is the difference between the two?” When I listened to both campaigns, I heard Mitch say what he planned on doing about the economy, about the state budget deficit, and property tax reform. Kernan just attacked Daniels about what he had done at while at Lilly’s, and IPL, but put forth no real plan to pull the state out of the financial gutter. I simply heard the campaign smear Daniels while not putting forth any new ideas. So I voted for Mitch….![](\"http://transadvocate.com/images/daniels/daniels2.gif\")
If you don’t invest money in children on the front end, how can you expect to develop a well educated, high tech work force in Indiana? Not funding all day kindergarten but funding a controversial road project is penny wise, pound foolish. I’m sorry Mitch, but our kids are worth more than a damn interstate. If you can’t see that then you’re not as smart as I thought you were. I’ll be smarter next time you’re up for reelection. Too bad they didn’t have all day kindergarten when I was a child. Maybe I wouldn’t have made the mistake of voting for you, Mr. Daniels.![](\"http://webpages.charter.net/micah/sticker.gif\")
\n![](\"https://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/uploads/2024/af8529131e.jpg\")
\n",
"date_published": "2005-06-16T01:51:22+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2005/06/16/truth-is-bad.html",
"tags": ["Indiana","Elections","MyStory","LGBTQ","USPolitics","Religion","Midwest"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2005/06/15/terri-schiavo.html",
"title": "Terri Schiavo",
"content_html": "![](\"https://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/uploads/2024/e58fdf249c.jpg\")
\n",
"date_published": "2005-04-15T17:19:24+01:00",
"url": "https://martiabernathey.com/2005/04/15/welcome-to-jesusland.html",
"tags": ["Racism","USPolitics","Religion"]
},
{
"id": "http://marti-abernathey.micro.blog/2005/02/02/nervous.html",
"title": "Nervous....",
"content_html": "![](\"http://transadvocate.com/images/500/jsimpsonpics.jpg\")
\nHe looks hot, she just looks dim. :)\n![](\"http://transadvocate.com/images/500/bush.jpg\")
\nI wish someone would have told me that President Bush was gonna be in the parade.\n![](\"http://transadvocate.com/images/500/flock.jpg\")
\nSabrina, you need to zap some decent clothes on your boy.... did he just get paroled?\n![](\"http://transadvocate.com/images/500/kern.jpg\")
![](\"http://transadvocate.com/images/500/mf2.jpg\")
\nMorgan Freeman\n![](\"http://transadvocate.com/images/500/mf3.jpg\")
\nmore Morgan\n![](\"http://transadvocate.com/images/500/pu.jpg\")
\nPurdue Marching Band\n![](\"http://transadvocate.com/images/500/rup2.jpg\")
\nRupert from Survivor\n![](\"http://transadvocate.com/images/500/americanfags2.jpg\")
\nTalk about gays in the military..... :)\n![](\"http://transadvocate.com/images/500/missjim.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https://martiabernatheycom.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/screenshot-2024-11-12-at-23.30.11.png?w=1024\")