We're Going Backwards

Late on Friday nights when I’m safely home (admittedly after a few beers) I like to play music videos on the DVD player. Often they're 80s videos, some are hard rock, i.e. AC/DC (which annoys the neighbors because you have to play those loud), or sometimes just a few “chill music” vids because I need to calm down.

However, one of my favorites is Lionel Richie's “All Night Long.” Invariably though this depresses me. It reminds me how we are going backwards nowadays.

The song is about how you can be so strongly moved by something (music) that you just have to keep going. Party all night long. The dancers wear very colorful outfits, surely meant to make a subtle point, and are multi-racial. The dancing includes a wide range of styles with various mixtures of couples.

This was back in the 80s where it was slowly becoming common and acceptable to see a black man dance with a white woman, a white man tango with an Asian female, two males breakdancing together. It made it seem like things were progressing to where we could all live together in harmony.

Then Trump came along and infested the White House. 

Although we knew there were a lot of racists in our country, they at least had become reticent to express it in public. Unlike the old days where Jim Crow was normalized, racism had become a social deviation, something kept quietly amongst a person's cohort or family. Not something you could bring out in public without facing public derision.

Trump enabled racists. Emboldened them. He has tried to make it acceptable in polite society, and criticized those who challenge him as weak-wristed Libtards or overly PC elites.

Thanks to him, we see an increase in right-wing, racist organizations, demonstrators who are unafraid of public shame chanting abusive, racist slogans and public displays of offensive comments to anyone who looks foreign or of a different race than Anglo-Saxon whites. Even the Republican Party seems to have embraced the Trump vitriol and become largely the party of white males.

Although we've had problems with police interactions with civilians, as I noted in my blogs “Tips for Tourists” and “Police reform Part I & II” I don't think we've seen this level of police violence toward minorities since before the 70s. It's as if they are acting as Trump's agents of violence that he often spews at his pep, excuse me, "campaign" rallies.

I long for the days when we could dance the night away regardless of our race, religion, political affiliation or whatever.  

Sure, the video is a make-believe world, but it was a world where people lived together peacefully, where differences were immaterial, where people could dance together in harmony. A world we need to find again.

Ahh, James Thurber

Okay, yes, this is a rerun from August 2019. However, racism, misogyny and hatred of others has gotten worse. It's because the guy in the White House (I don't like to use his name) has made it all acceptable. He's made it so that people who would have been ashamed to express or act in such a manner find it okay to come out of hiding. In the 80s it seemed like we were making so much progress and now it's like we're set back decades. So it is worth sounding the alarm again if it might help slow down this devolution. Make America tolerant again.

 

 

Release the Epstein Files

The Orange Blob (I resist using his name) who sits in the White House is a sexual predator and a pedophile.  I say that blatantly because there are countless brave women who have come forward and stated that. Most have been paid off so that they won't go to court against him. At least one did take him to court and now he has a huge bill to pay because of it. 

That he hasn't had criminal charges against him testifies to how corrupt and biased our judicial system is today. It clearly favors the rich and those with some semblance of power. If someone like me or Joe the Plumber were to have done the deeds of his Orange Largeness, we'd be sitting in prison for the rest of our lives. 

 So although I can't do anything about the Man with Orange Makeup, I can at least blog about his malfeasance. So below are just a few of the thousands of memes created by other outraged souls who feel helpless against a system that lets this happen. 

Feel free to share these extensively. 

 

What? You think that is overdoing it? Maybe you are not taking this issue seriously enough.  Release the files!

 

Ah, James Thurber

We're Going Backwards: A trumpian rerun

 

(With the new Orange regime taking power, it seemed appropriate to rerun a blog that showed how his previous reign of terror was taking us backward.)

 

  Late on Friday nights when I’m safely home (admittedly after a few beers) I like to play music videos on the DVD player. Often they're 80s videos, some are hard rock, i.e. AC/DC (which annoys the neighbors because you have to play those loud), or sometimes just a few “chill music” vids because I need to calm down.

However, one of my favorites is Lionel Richie's “All Night Long.” Invariably though this depresses me. It reminds me how we are going backwards nowadays.

The song is about how you can be so strongly moved by something (music) that you just have to keep going. Party all night long. The dancers wear very colorful outfits, surely meant to make a subtle point, and are multi-racial. The dancing includes a wide range of styles with various mixtures of couples.

This was back in the 80s where it was slowly becoming common and acceptable to see a black man dance with a white woman, a white man tango with an Asian female, two males breakdancing together. It made it seem like things were progressing to where we could all live together in harmony.

Then Trump came along and infested the White House. 

Although we knew there were a lot of racists in our country, they at least had become reticent to express it in public. Unlike the old days where Jim Crow was normalized, racism had become a social deviation, something kept quietly amongst a person's cohort or family. Not something you could bring out in public without facing public derision.

Trump enabled racists. Emboldened them. He has tried to make it acceptable in polite society, and criticized those who challenge him as weak-wristed Libtards or overly PC elites.

Thanks to him, we see an increase in right-wing, racist organizations, demonstrators who are unafraid of public shame chanting abusive, racist slogans and public displays of offensive comments to anyone who looks foreign or of a different race than Anglo-Saxon whites. Even the Republican Party seems to have embraced the Trump vitriol and become largely the party of white males.

Although we've had problems with police interactions with civilians, as I noted in my blogs “Tips for Tourists” and “Police reform Part I & II” I don't think we've seen this level of police violence toward minorities since before the 70s. It's as if they are acting as Trump's agents of violence that he often spews at his pep, excuse me, "campaign" rallies.

I long for the days when we could dance the night away regardless of our race, religion, political affiliation or whatever.  

Sure, the video is a make-believe world, but it was a world where people lived together peacefully, where differences were immaterial, where people could dance together in harmony. A world we need to find again.

 Ahhh, James Thurber.

During the Orange One's (I hate using his name) first reign of terror, racism and hatred became more common. However, it was subtle. People still worried that if they openly expressed racist views/ideas, they'd be ostracized. As his time in office continued, it slowly became more overt, largely because people looked at him as a role model. Now, there is no restraint at all. Racism and hatred toward those who might be different is all out in the open. Because he got reelected despite his obvious flaws, people believe there will be no personal harm to them. As he dismantles any vestiges of diversity and inclusion, it will become worse. That's why it's important for those of us who see racism as evil, to not remain quiet. We need to push it back into the closet where it belongs (I think it's impossible to get rid of it completely). So this is one of my ways to try to claw society back to morality. I will continue to use my blogs and social media posts to sound the alarm. Join me.

Trump is a Clown

The Thurber Brigade has written numerous blogs about how terrible the Orange One is as a person, a businessman and a politician. They include how he is insane, a bad businessman, is a Republican in name only (RINO), is just bad, is unpopular, well, the list goes on (including a long list of why not to vote for him).

What I take most from these past years of exposure to this guy who wears more makeup than Dolly Parton, is that he’s a clown. He really does some goofy, stupid things. So here are a few memes to laugh at and share that express his clownness.

Yes, he really did look at an eclipse without protection.

He is so insanely jealous of Kamala Harris that she lives in his brain, causing him to do odd stunts like act like he was working at a McDonald's.

The Orange Blob would do a better job as a clown in a circus than a businessman as he's even owned a casino that went bankrupt.

During one rowdy demonstration by protestors, he ran to the presidential bunker to hide. Then, so embarrassed, he tried to prove he was tough by tear gassing other demonstrators to clear them out so he could go to a church and hold up a Bible.

Promising to drain the swamp, he filled it instead with greedy, white men who wanted to make profit of their government jobs. He put family members in important positions in his administration. He even overrode FBI security checks to give many who worked for him positions of power. Basically, he ran an expensive (to taxpayers) circus.

Definitely losing his mind, he rants uncontrollably at his pep rallies, that he uses to feed his ego, but probably don't do much for his reelection. 

He's going to lose the popular vote once again this election. With luck, he will also lose the electoral college (an antiquated and anti-democratic mistake from our past). We can only hope that we will finally see the last of this clown.

 

Ahhh, James Thurber

The Thurber Brigade has been blogging about this clown far more than it wants to. We can't stand by and let him get away with his goofy behavior though, and so felt an obligation to, well, make fun of him. We at The Brigade hope he will shortly disappear from public—or if we're really lucky, he'll end up sitting in jail. We're ready to get back to blogging about important things like women's fashion compared to men's or how to throw a good pickup line. Maybe soon.