These loud, bigoted extremists are NOT the voices of Faith!

No!

Not true!

These loud, bigoted extremists are NOT the voices of Faith. They aren’t serving the Christian Faith – or any Faith – they are serving a theocratic corporate political agenda. And, they’ll pervert any decent and/or uplifting and uniting ideologies to destroy hope in their power grab.

Real Christ-centered Christians aren’t out there preaching that divisive message of hate and supremacy. Christ-centered Christians are quietly living the example rather than loud, empty proselytizing. Such ChristianISH extremists are no more Christian than ISIS is Muslim. These ChristianISH extremist “patriots” are about as unAmerican as I can imagine anyone being – everything

they do is a betrayal of our constitutional democratic republic; they want to impose their vision of a theocratic corporate feudal state upon us all. They are, in every way, the antithesis of our American Ideal and voted for Trump in direct opposition to every single word Christ ever spoke. These people are not speaking for Christians or democracy. They speak for the gospel of mammon. These people are extremists.

You say that first infographic, above, is saying the same thing? Okay. I accept your perspective, if that’s how you tell yourself it reads.

However: The infographic called into question my entire Faith and directly said “True Christianity is a lost religion.” And, it referenced all of “Today’s Christians…” The people they are identifying are not Christ-anything. I do not recognize the belief system to which they adhere. No church I’ve been a member of my entire adult life teaches their belief system as anything but the antithesis of Christ’s message. I will no more identify them as “Christian” than I will call ISIS “Muslim” because both demonstrate the same extremist falsity. They are bullying us with a hate-fueled lie that corrupts the message of love, compassion, forgiveness, and hope for all humanity through our Faith.

Every true Christian, living out a Christ-centered Faith – myself included – must feel deeply distressed to have our entire Faith identified with these FALSE PROPHETS! The hate and bigotry, fear and intolerance of their message is in opposition of Christ’s every word. We must not sit quietly by while these hate-mongers steal our Faith’s message of God’s Grace and compassion for all humanity. We must not let these proselytizing hypocrites speak their lies as truth and demonize everyone deemed “other.” We must take back the conversation about our own Christian Faith and real Christ-centered values.

We cannot let their lie be painted as our truth.

It’s extraordinarily simple to know “True Christianity” – Scripture tells us clearly how we will recognize it, from Christ’s own words. It is an immutable litmus test:

John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

And, fellow Christians, let us pray for unity and for those who think they serve our Lord with messages of hate and fear and exclusion. Let us pray and hope our omnipotent God of Grace and Solace will lead them back the Truth and back to a right relationship with Him seeking unity with all our fellow humanity, back to a community of Faith.

Colossians 3:12 “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

You didn’t vote to teach the DNC a lesson?

I read a conversation on Facebook between numerous people about why they didn’t vote: They all crowed and shared humor over how they’d shown the DNC it couldn’t take their votes for granted. This is my response:

You didn’t vote? You deny your portion of culpability for this outcome, and tell yourself, “What difference does it make?” You didn’t vote to show the DNC they couldn’t take your vote for granted? This wasn’t some existential exercise in democracy. This was protecting this nation and the entire free world from a fascist despot. Yeah, you showed the DNC.

You didn’t vote?  Your non-vote was a vote AGAINST African Americans who’ll now have to live with stop-and-frisk profiling. Your non-vote was a vote AGAINST Muslim Americans who will now be on a database. Your non-vote was a vote AGAINST immigrants. Your non-vote was a vote AGAINST the environment, against children like those of Flint Michigan. Your non-vote was a vote AGAINST women and girls who’s futures are now in the hands of a self-proclaimed sexual predator. Yep, you showed the DNC. 

You didn’t vote? Well, then, with your non-vote, you voted AGAINST my keeping my cancer doctors and my heart doctors. With your non-vote, you voted AGAINST my brilliant, funny, Christian son with a heart for charitable activism – who also happens to be Iranian-American because he’s the son of an Iranian-American who was himself a political refugee thirty years ago. With your non-vote, you voted AGAINST my brilliant son’s future – he’s entering DukeTIP this year, but that won’t matter because the DOE is on the chopping block and college will be priced so far out of his reach that it’s become a fantasy. With your non-vote, you voted AGAINST every single person in this country at risk from a Trump presidency. With your non-vote, you voted FOR Trump. Sure, that showed the DNC.

Do you have children? Or want children? Your non-vote just voted AGAINST their future. You sit comfortably wreathed in your self-entitled apathy and convince yourself your angry complaisance is justified. You choose to acquiesce to all the Hate that Trump promises. Oh yeah… you showed the DNC!

YOU have driven a nail in my coffin. YOU have left my twelve year old son to watch his mother die. YOU have left my twelve year old son – already being called ISIS and terrorist, and threatened that Trump will send him to the gas chambers – to live in fear. YOU have left my twelve year old son to fear for his father every time he walks out the door. YOU have left my twelve year old son to fear the America he was born into. You really showed the DNC.

“What difference does it make?” Well, from a dead woman walking, it’s the difference between life and death. 

Yeah. You showed us all. 

Third Party Candidates: Political Ephemera

Stop blaming Hillary for not winning the Electoral College. Stop blaming the democrats or the republicans. Your delusions have been shattered and your vanity choices exposed for the uncompromising errors of which we kept warning you. Third party candidates were only ever vanity candidates with no legitimate chance to win – they could ONLY bleed the vote from the two major parties. 

What if there had been no third party candidates? Those republicans who voted for Johnson, would probably have voted for Hillary without Johnson’s vanity candidacy. Most of his libertarian base would likely have voted democrat too because they were virulently anti-Trump. Stein’s base certainly would have voted democrat because they are virulently anti-GOP as well as anti-Trump. 

The undeniable facts are: 

• There was NEVER a viable third-party candidate; 

• Mainstream old-school democrats were NEVER going to vote for the socialist – that boogey word is just too ingrained; 

• Right leaning independents were NEVER going to vote for the socialist; 

• Middle-of-the-road independents were NEVER going to vote for the socialist – again, people have been programmed to fear that word for too long; 

• NO REPUBLICAN would ever have crossed the isle to vote for the socialist; 

• Probably two thirds of Americans are still convinced that socialism is communism, and communism still scares the crap out of large swaths of voters over 40 (ask your dad and grandad) – ICYMI, that’s the majority of registered voters who actually get out and vote.

• BERNIE COULD NOT HAVE WON because too much of the registered voting electorate are still indoctrinated to fear the socialist.

All those things were true from day one of Bernie’s candidacy. All those things were true from day one of the the third party candidacies. Bernie achieved so much that just went POOF on November 8th. Bernie made democrats and progressives stop being offended or embarrassed for being called “liberals.” Bernie made the left stand up and own the progressive liberal agenda. It was all within our grasp. Hillary and Bernie were always within 3% agreement on everything – they voted the same in the Senate 97% of the time.

Third party candidates were and are ONLY political ephemera; they’re just background static drowning out the realities of our election system. The delusion of political ephemera left us with this bleak reality of our dystopian, Trumpian future. Third party voters, BernieOrBust folks, all the people carping on the emails as if those were worse than the racist, self-proclaimed sexual predator’s own evil words that we ALL heard on repeat… All those Americans who bought the anti-Hillary witch-hunts handed this country over to Trump. 

Your Hate wasn’t even really about Hillary. Many of you, if you were able to be deeply honest with yourselves, would have to admit that your full-throated hatred for Hillary was really just a convenient target for all your bigotries. Hating Hillary was the new “Nixon Southern Strategy.” Yes, the media helped. Yes, James Comey and the FBI helped. Yes, the Russians helped. Yes, Assange helped. But YOU – you, the voters, lapped it up… you didn’t care about the truth… you wanted the lies… you craved the innuendo… YOU fed your Hate… you coddled it… you stroked it… you turned against Bernie over it… YOU laid waste to Bernie’s legacy and to our American Ideal for your Hate. 

You blinded yourselves with the smoke of that political ephemera. You subsumed yourselves into the beast of Hate, became it’s beating heart. As the song says, “[You stabbed] it with [your] steely knives but [you] just can’t kill the beast.” You made yourselves the beating heart of the Hate… and now, we are all fodder for it’s appetites.

You deluded yourselves with political ephemera. You had to have all-or-nothing… Well, how does NOTHING feel now?

What I feel is beyond hurt. I’m probably a dead woman walking and my twelve year old son knows that. Because some BernieBros “feelings” were hurt when they couldn’t have their all-or-nothing, scorched earth agenda. What I feel isn’t just hurt. What I and everyone at risk from a Trump presidency feel is true, world-shattering loss.

The mostly white BernieBros – who will never be empathetic enough nor self-aware enough feel guilty for their part in this travesty – aren’t feeling afraid. They’re feelings are hurt because they didn’t win. I get that. But, in retaliation, they struck a killing blow to me and mine. It’s that simple.

from Democratic Underground

It Is NOT Okay To Sit Out The Election

I’ve seen commentary and even articles and blogs now telling people it’s okay NOT to vote. In case you missed it, the people who want you NOT to vote are the people with whom you disagree. These are the same people who are always telling us not to discuss politics or social issues or religion or really anything in life that matters. Why do they tell us not to discuss those things? Why do they tell us to just laugh it off and get on with life when we are at risk over those issues? Why do they want us to be silent? These are the people who tell us it’s just the way life is. We’re supposed to just laugh it off… carry on… let it go… deal with it. But, we’re not supposed to actually CHALLENGE it. Think about that: Precisely who is served by our just accepting the way things are? 

IT IS NOT OKAY TO SIT OUT THE ELECTION. 

Your vote is your voice. Anyone who tells you it is okay NOT to vote is telling you to sit down and shut up. They are trying to silence your voice. The apathetic or complaisant voter sitting out elections is how the extremists on both sides have been able to cripple our government. The extreme partisanship of our current government is directly the fault of those voters who choose NOT to vote.

Look, that’s been me on midterm elections for all my voting life. That’s been me for all those local elections and referendums. That’s been me for a couple of the POTUS elections. I’ve been a middle-of-the-road independent voter for decades – I was always one of those moderates we keep hearing about. When I’ve voted, I’ve voted for a combination of Democrat and Republican candidates. Yes, I’ve been apathetic about elections, just like you. 

I was wrong. 

Voters like me and you and every other moderate should have been the voices of reason and compromise. We sat back and let the extremes from both sides push their uncompromising agendas with a go-for-broke, all-or-nothing fervor that resulted in all out obstruction for no other reason except partisan obstruction, government shutdowns, and ultimately, TRUMP. 

You were wrong.

Yes… Trump is my fault. Trump is your fault. Every apathetic voter in America is more at fault for the rise of Trump than the GOP, the Alt-Right, or the media. We sat back and let our America become a place that gave rise to Trump. 

We were wrong.

VOTE. 

It is our citizen duty to vote. Democracy is ours to preserve – or to let slip away. 

Research the candidates and make an informed choice. Vote every single time there’s an election. Don’t be told who to vote – LEARN for yourself who to vote for. Vote for the candidates whose actual documented record meets with your approval. Don’t let rhetoric form your choice or make you think your vote doesn’t count. VOTE as if the future depends on it. But, remember, you’re not really voting for yourself – you are voting for your children… for women and girls… for minorities… for veterans… for the disabled… for the working poor… for the middle class… for all the average workaday Americans. Or, you vote against them by not voting because you allow the extreme right and the extreme left to silence YOU. Vote because your vote is your voice – don’t let anyone silence you. 

VOTE.

VOTE like your child’s life depends upon it – BECAUSE IT DOES!

“Apathy is acquiescence is compliance is approval.” ~MomzillaNC

“Hands and hearts and minds and voices committed to working for tolerance, peace and social justice everywhere, always.” ~MomzillaNC

Republican Praise for Hillary Clinton

There has been a quarter century of GOP-led witch hunts… endless, exhaustive hearings and investigations on our hard earned taxpayer dime – by now probably to the tune of BILLIONS of dollars – only to produce the same RESULTS every single time: NO PROOF… NO CHARGES… NO CONVICTIONS! Again, that’s NO PROOF! Accusations, innuendo, and rhetoric are NOT proof. America, our constitutional democratic republic, is a country where the RULE OF LAW is predicated upon the principle still – for now, at least – of “innocent until PROVEN guilty.” 

People only parrot UNPROVEN – I’ll repeat that again – UNPROVEN accusations, unfounded innuendo, and rhetoric of a false narrative! Moreover, the very GOP mouthpieces spoon-feeding their base that false narrative have heaped praise upon our soon-to-be Madam President when they were not trying to defeat her politically. They slander a person who’s actual, well-documented record of accomplishments is in diametric opposition to the venal grotesquery of their gossip!

While there are many more examples, the following are a few of the notable republicans’ own praise of Hillary Clinton:

Condoleezza Rice  
Meet the Press 12/21/2008
“No, look, it’s a unique situation. I think we all see that it’s unique. But my successor, Hillary Clinton, is an extremely talented woman. She is a woman of integrity. She believes in this country deeply. We’ve already had a couple of conversations. I know her from the time she brought her freshman daughter to Stanford for the first time when I was Provost. And she’s going to do this very well.”

NBC news 08/12/2003 
"I think [Hillary Clinton’s] done a fine job. The problem isn’t Hilary Clinton, who’s great,’ Rice told members of Ohio’s delegation to the Republican National Convention. ‘The problem is that we’ve chosen to speak with a muted voice about America’s role in the world. We’ve chosen to try to lead from behind. That’s an oxymoron in my mind.’”

Former Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge
Ballot Box, The Hill 02/03/2015 
Ridge also offered some praise for Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, saying he always had ‘productive’ meetings with her when he was in the Cabinet and she was a senator. He said a Bush versus Clinton match-up would be ‘almost a clash of titans,’ leading to a campaign that is ‘tough, rigorous, and hopefully, for the first time in a long time, civil.’”

Former Florida Governor, Jeb Bush
Philadelphia Inquirer, 07/28/2013; Constitution Center press release, 06/27/2013 – RE: 2013 Liberty Medal
“Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, chairman of the National Constitution Center and a possible contender for the 2016 Republican nomination… praised Clinton in a statement released… announcing her selection. ‘Former Secretary Clinton has dedicated her life to serving and engaging people across the world in democracy,’ Bush said. ‘These efforts as a citizen, an activist, and a leader have earned Secretary Clinton this year’s Liberty Medal.’”

Former Governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels
Bloomberg’s With All Due Respect, 02/05/2015
“She is comprehensively experienced and has advantages that some of the other contenders would have to scramble to match in terms of her exposure to the world and… foreign policy.”

Former Arkansas Governor, Mike Huckabee
Real Clear Politics, 09/15/2014
Huckabee described her as ‘smart’ and ‘tough,’ and cautioned that she should never be underestimated. ‘She’s a policy genius,’ he said. 

CSPAN2’s BookTV Programming. 01/25/2015
Huckabee: “I would have great respect for the formidable nature of Hillary Clinton’s candidacy.”

Ohio Governor, John Kasich
Fox News’ Special Report with Bret Baier, 01/22/2015
“I know her. I like her. I’ve worked with her.”

Former Texas Governor, Rick Perry 
U.S. News & World Report, 08/12/2014
Perry Sec. Clinton’s stance on Syria: “I think on that issue she was closer to being right than she has been on some other ones.” According to the U.S. News & World Report, “Rick Perry agrees with Hillary Clinton. Or at least, pretty close to it. Asked Tuesday at the Iowa State Fair whether he agreed with the former secretary of state’s assessment that a lack of prior U.S. intervention in Syria emboldened jihadists to penetrate Iraq, the GOP governor of Texas found some daylight with the potential future presidential rival. ‘I think on that issue she was closer to being right than she has been on some other ones,’ he replied.” 

The Daily Caller 08/30/2011
"In 1993, then-Texas Agriculture Commissioner Rick Perry praised the efforts of then-first lady Hillary Clinton to reform health care. In a letter to Clinton…Perry wrote: ‘I think your efforts in trying to reform the nation’s health care system are most commendable. I would like to request that the task force give particular consideration to the needs of the nation’s farmers, ranchers, and agriculture workers, and other members of rural communities,’ Perry continued. … ‘Again, your efforts are worthy,’ Perry concluded, ‘and I hope you will remember this constituency as the task force progresses.’”

Former California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger
CNN, 11/16/2008
Schwarzenegger on Hillary’s selection as SOS: “Also on Sunday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger praised the potential choice as a great move. ‘I think she is a very very bright woman and very experienced. I think this could be a great move,’ Schwarzenegger told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.”

General David Petraeus
Book review, The Wall Street Journal, 02/09/2014
According to a book review in The Wall Street Journal, “Gen. Petraeus also emerges as a Clinton character witness here, declaring that Mrs. Clinton was ‘extraordinarily resolute, determined and controlled’ in the wake of the attack. The retired general [told] Mr. Allen and Ms. Parnes: ‘She’d make a tremendous President.’”

Jenna Bush Hager
MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, 11/11/2014
President Clinton has become a dear friend. We call him — I call him a brother — my dad calls him a brother from another mother. You know, he didn’t have a close relationship with his father. He didn’t have a relationship with his father. And so in some ways my grandfather has become like a surrogate father for him. RONAN FARROW: Does the same warmth extend to Hillary Clinton and a potential Hillary Clinton run? BUSH HAGER: Well, I guess it depends who she’s running against, right? But we admire Hillary Clinton very much. I mean, she — as a woman, I admire her. She’s done a lot for our country and she’s a great public servant. I see her around New York and I’m always talking about Chelsea’s baby and I think they have a personal friendship that my dad even said that you know, obviously if there’s a Bush-Clinton part deux, you know that wouldn’t ruin any friendships.

South Carolina Senator, Lindsey Graham
New York Times, 07/01/2012 
“Even some Republicans in Congress acknowledge the skills she has brought to the job, though they remain critical of many administration policies. ‘I think she’s represented our nation well,’ Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican from South Carolina, who as a member of the House served as one of 13 managers in the 1998 impeachment trial of Clinton’s husband, told me in an interview in his Senate office. ‘She is extremely well respected throughout the world, handles herself in a very classy way and has a work ethic second to none.’”

CNN 03/30/2011
“It was a good briefing. I never got to ask a question, it was over. You know, Secretary Clinton and Bob Gates are really national treasures in my view. You know, very good people. I like President Obama.” 

Fox News, 05/28/2007
“I have no doubt that Senator Clinton would make a good president. She’s smart, prepared, serious.”

Graham’s speech at Council on Foreign Relations, 09/15/2011
“Secretary Clinton [was] a great choice to be our secretary of state…”

Voice of America, 02/03/2007
“We have become, actually, good friends. And that was a surprise to both of us. If the Hillary Clintons and Lindsey Grahams of the world can’t work together, America’s best days are over.”

The State, 01/28/2007
“Over the last few years, Sens. Lindsey Graham and Hillary Clinton have become a Capitol Hill odd couple, working across party lines… Graham said the two of them often come at problems from different directions, but share an interest in important policy issues. ‘Certainly, she’s a national figure, and to share the stage with her – I consider that a compliment,’ he said. ‘We’ll probably have totally different agendas that we think are best for the country, but the point is to speak boldly about problems that require bipartisanship and solutions that are essential to us surviving as a country in the 21st century.’”

Senator Graham press release, 09/29/2006
“Senator Clinton and I have been fortunate to have very good allies in this effort and Congress has stepped up to the plate to meet the health care needs of our Guard and Reserves. The Graham-Clinton TRICARE efforts have gained support from many groups including the National Guard Association of the United States, the Reserve Officers Association, and the National Governors Association.”

New Hampshire Senator, Judd Gregg 
Gregg Press release, 01/21/2009
Gregg issued the following statement on Senate confirmation of Senator Hillary Clinton to be the Secretary of State. "Senator Gregg, the Ranking Member of the State and Foreign Operations and Related Programs Subcommittee, stated, ‘Today’s overwhelming confirmation of Senator Hillary Clinton to be our next Secretary of State is a testament to the well regarded talents and qualifications she will bring to the job of overseeing our nation’s foreign policy. Like Secretary Condoleezza Rice, Senator Clinton will be a positive voice to carry America’s message around the world. As the Ranking Member of the Appropriations Subcommittee tasked with funding State Department activities, I look forward to continuing my work with Senator Clinton to advance our nation’s interests through U.S. diplomatic programs and activities.’”

Arizona Senator, John McCain
MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, 11/19/2014
“It is well known that Hillary Clinton and I have a good relationship” “We do agree on a lot” “She is a great representative of America, kind of a rock star status, visited more countries than any other secretary of state.” 

Fox News, 01/23/2013
“First of all, Secretary Clinton is admired and respected around the world. She and I have been friends for many years. We used to travel together.” “So, I have — I admire the fact that she is admired throughout the world and a very effective secretary of state.

Foreign Relations committee hearing, 01/23/2014
“Thank you, Madam Secretary. It’s wonderful to see you in good health and as combative as ever. It’s — we thank you. We thank you for your outstanding and dedicated service to this nation, and we are proud of you. All over the world where I travel, you are viewed with admiration and respect.”

Politico 10/28/13
“Sen. John McCain said Monday… speaking in Chicago at an event with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)… praised Clinton’s work as secretary, according to Bloomberg News. ‘I don’t think there’s any doubt that Secretary Clinton would be a very strong candidate,’ McCain said. ‘I don’t think there’s any doubt she has widespread support. Her work as secretary of state… has been outstanding. I think she would be viewed by anyone, Republican or Democrat, as a very formidable candidate for 2016.’”

The Christian Science Monitor, 04/06/2011
“At a Monitor-sponsored breakfast for reporters on Wednesday, Senator McCain, the 2008 Republican candidate for president, was asked to rate President Obama’s national security team. ‘I think the international star is Secretary Clinton,’ McCain said. ‘She has done a really tremendous job.’”

The New York Times, 07/29/206
“I have no doubt that Senator Clinton would make a good president.” According to The New York Times, “It was during their joint trip to Iraq in late February 2005 that Mr. McCain and Mrs. Clinton appeared via satellite on ‘Meet the Press,’ an appearance that put their civility on display. When Mr. Russert asked Mr. McCain at the end of the interview whether he thought Mrs. Clinton would make a good president, Mrs. Clinton came to his rescue, saying: ‘Oh, we can’t hear you, Tim!’ ‘Yeah, you’re breaking up,’ Mr. McCain added, laughing. But then he said: ‘I happen to be a Republican and would support, obviously, a Republican nominee, but I have no doubt that Senator Clinton would make a good president.’”

Trump and Hillary: a comparison

In case you missed it, Donald J. Trump and Hillary Rodham Clinton have led diametrically opposed lives. Permit me to make a stark comparison of Trump and Hillary. He is the embodiment of everything we were ever taught is immoral and crude and wicked and ungodly. She is a compassionate, godly woman who makes mistakes but keeps trying to do good. 

Trump has lived a life of self-aggrandizing wealth acquisition and has spent a lifetime demeaning and degrading anyone not himself. 
Hillary has spent a lifetime trying to do good, especially for the most underserved of our society.

Trump, by his nature, has made choices to directly harm others – from competitors, to rivals, to detractors, to cheering for the housing crash for his own greed, to innocent women and girls – to feed his own most venal and self-serving pursuits of bald avarice.
Hillary has made mistakes. Hillary’s mistakes occur while trying to achieve good or address some injustice. Hillary has always tried to achieve positive results for the most people in the most need – for the most underserved in society.

As a young child, as he himself told us in his own book, Trump punched his music teacher in the face. He said of that incident, that he is, essentially, the same person today as that violent playground bully of a child. 
Hillary, as a young girl, worked with her church youth group to help those in need in her town – again, working for the most underserved in society. 

Trump was repeatedly investigated, charged, and paid fines for discriminatory housing practices. In case you missed it: Court ordered fines are the same thing as a conviction.
Hillary went under cover – at personal risk – to fight for the educational rights of African American children in the South.

Trump hired and tried to cheat undocumented Polish immigrant workers and was fined for it – again, a court ordered fine is the same thing as a conviction.
Hillary went in person, to help register Latino farm workers and support groups like Caesar Chavez’s farm laborers rights movement.

Trump cheated on his first wife with a woman he courted IN CHURCH, and pressured that mistress into posing in Playboy.
Hillary taught Sunday school.

Trump wrote, The Art of the Deal. 
Hillary wrote, It Takes a Village.

Trump publicly shamed a Latino Miss Universe beauty queen over and over and over, calling her “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping,” making a national scandal about her slight weight gain. 
Hillary declared to the world, in a speech in China, that “Women’s rights are human rights.”

Trump ran a scam with his FAKE university. 
Hillary was in Bible studies and prayer groups on the Hill. 

Trump starred in reality show telling people, “You’re fired!” 
Hillary told the world, at the Geneva Accord, that “Gay rights are human rights.”

Pandora’s Box of Horrors Challenge 2016 – Winners: It’s a Tie!

The Pandora’s Box of Horrors Challenge 2016 was to write a short story of a dystopian future, but with a hopeful ending. All the submissions were great. We had four final draft entries in the last round of the challenge and they were all superb and worth reading.

However, we had to choose. It was tough and in the end, two stories stood out equally. We had TWO winners. We, the editors/judges just had to choose both! 

 “Time and Judith”  

Code Yankee-Sierra 7

Please join our group page on Facebook and be part of the next challenge! Pandora’s Box of Horror’s

WOMEN victim shaming Trump’s accusers?

Explain this, please. Trump proudly proclaims his sexual predation. He proudly proclaims he can do whatever he wants to women just because he’s “a celebrity.” He’s been telling the world for DECADES that he’s a sexual deviant, a predator – every woman’s nightmare! YOU, his supporters, keep claiming you like him because you think he’s more honest, with that oft-repeated refrain, “He tells it like it is.” So… he told you and the world – AGAIN, for DECADES – how it is… how he’s treated and spoken about women. But – when women actually come forward, telling you that, yes, Donald J. Trump did to them EXACTLY what he told the world he did – suddenly he isn’t telling the truth? So… when, precisely, did he LIE? Was it when he said he did those things? Or was it when he said he didn’t do those things? Which LIE is the LIE? How men can defend him isn’t really that shocking. Men have been excusing the Trumps of this world all along. What I cannot fathom is other women defending him.

Victim shaming from a fellow woman is insufferable! Saying these women are lying because they didn’t come forward sooner is not just wrong, it’s despicable. Do you really think that way?

So… tell me then… why was it thirty years later before I talked about being molested on a Trailways bus at thirteen years old? I was supposed to be sitting in the seat behind the driver, as my mother and the Memphis bus depot manager told the driver. I got up to use the bathroom and when I came back, some woman had moved into my seat. When I told the driver, he told me to grow up and just sit somewhere. I sat in the seat that woman had vacated at the back of the bus – the only open seat. I was molested. When I complained to the driver, telling him the man was “talkin’ nasty to me and kept trying to hug me,” the driver snapped, “Sit down and quit making a fuss.” Twenty-hour or so later, I didn’t tell my Gran what happened because I’d come to the belief I’d done something wrong!

Tell me then, why, as a young professional woman, I kept quiet about all those times some deplorable excuse for a man pushed past me so that he had to rub against me, touching my breasts. That kind of thing happened over the course of three decades at work, by various skeezing pricks. And, the one time I spoke up, the man’s defense was that because I’m so generously endowed my breasts were at fault – and the MEN running the review board agreed with his excuse!

Tell me then, why my college friend, who was raped by her athlete boyfriend, didn’t report it until two years later when he finally hurt someone and they reported him from the hospital and almost half-a-dozen other girls on campus came forward with date-rape accusations against him. He was never arrested and was back on the field the next semester. Those girls were all blamed and shamed – one of them tried to kill herself. It didn’t even make the news off campus!

Tell me why women would keep something like that to themselves? Tell me why women would come forward knowing they were going to be shamed and vilified – blamed for their own victimization? Tell me why Trump can repeatedly tell the world how he assaulted women – on video all over YouTube, in magazine and news articles of interviews HE gave, in his OWN books, in audio and video to Howard Stern FOR DECADES, as well as on that damning Billy Bush tape – yet, when women actually tell you that he did what he proclaimed he’d done, YOU don’t believe them?

It’s not just what I’ve endured. The thing is, most of it is what all women endure. Who hasn’t had some man accidentally-on-purpose brush up too intimately against them? Who hasn’t had some guy on a first date take advantage of the good night kiss and decide to put her hand on his already exposed, sweaty member? Who hasn’t had some man at work put his hand in the small of her back, pressing just that little bit too close? Who hasn’t had some man at work or church or the library or where ever always find some excuse to be touching you, making you uncomfortable. Who has felt some man stalking over her shoulder at work making her squirm at the border-line indecency of it? Who hasn’t had some man skeeze up to her at a party or in a club? Who hasn’t had a man take indecent liberties, even in crowds? We’ve all experienced one or more or those things and/or know women who’ve experienced it.

This fetid misogyny has always been women’s reality. This should NEVER be our reality.

I just want to make clear to any fellow woman, engaging in victim shaming, that she and we have all had to deal with the Trumps of this world. The truth is not in you if you claim otherwise. You are a direct hindrance to the start down a path to forever ending this OPPRESSION of half the human population!

I would add, also, for those who get their hackles up at terms like “insufferable” or “deplorable,” that the terms are accurate descriptors of attitudes such attitudes. Yes, we should always be more kind whenever possible. But, the kind of bigotry and misogyny currently on display, by other women against our own gender is both insufferable and deplorable. One can only hope such women – and men – will recognize this and not add irredeemable to the descriptors.

It is not efficacious to ignore the truth of such attitudes. The people who’ve been telling us we can’t say those things are the people to whose words and deeds those descriptors fit. Indeed, it may be unkind to call them those things, but it would be a greater unkindness NOT to call out such words and deeds for what they are. Those who are the targets of such vitriol and hatred deserve that we condemn such words and deeds in the harshest of terms.

Women victim shaming MUST NOT EVER BE TOLERATED by the rest of us women! We know that statistically every single one of us will be or is a victim, and knows or will know women who are victims.

Now, we women KNOW that most of the men in this world are DECENT MEN. We know the Trumps are a small minority. We know the Billy Bushes, those wannabe-Trumps, who are titillated by that kind of predatory machismo are also in the minority – though a rather larger minority. We also know that those of our own gender, acting as defenders of the Trumps of this world have internalized the misogyny and sexism of the Trumps and the Billy Bushes.

But, we also know that the DECENT MEN have too often responded by advising us to change ourselves or our activities to avoid the danger of harassment. We’re advised not to walk or run alone on the trail. We’re warned not to walk alone in our own neighborhoods at night. We’re warned not to get in the car with a new guy we’re dating – to meet somewhere public at first, or on a double or group date. We’re advised not to find ourselves alone with a possible predator. We’re advised not to dress or speak or walk or look a certain way so we won’t draw attention to ourselves. Throughout history, we’re the ones who were covered up and enveloped. We’re the ones who were not allowed where the men go. By DECENT MEN to protect us. Why are we marginalized and held accountable for that minority of Trumps and “Bushies” in the world? Why haven’t the DECENT MEN of the world dealt with the victimizers instead of making the victims responsible for avoiding victimization?

And, when we break with any of those advisements that have been drilled into us all our lives, how are we to be expected to NOT blame ourselves? And, being taught all our lives that we must prevent our own victimization, how are to be expected to come forward without trepidation? Why must we bear any guilt?

We KNOW most are DECENT MEN. What we don’t know is why the DECENT MEN haven’t shut down the Trumps and the “Bushies” of this world.

Trump Is A Porn Fiend

That repugnant hot mic audio…


Y’know, there’s something about this whole thing that I’ve been trying to put to words even before those tapes came out. It came to me this morning, 11 October 2016, when my twelve year old son asked who thinks that way. My knee-jerk response was “porn addicts.” 


That’s what those comments on that tape were – they were pornographic sexual predation. His decades of interviews on Howard Stern’s radio show were pornographic. His telling Stern it was okay to call HIS OWN DAUGHTER “a piece of ass” is offering up his own child up to pornography. His telling that apprentice contestant he’d like to see her on her knees is pornographic. His participation in Playboy soft-core porn videos is proof that he revels in the pornographic. His behavior toward a business partner’s girlfriend is something you’ll only see in sexual-harassment sensitivity training videos… or in porn. His courting his second wife (while still married to his first) in CHURCH is a porn fiend’s fantasy of church. His bragging that just because he owned the pageant he got to walk in on the naked contestants is what every porn addict imagines beauty pageants to be. Ivana’s divorce revelations about his behavior toward her is the porn addict acting out his porn fantasies… his partner be damned! The accusations about him raping those CHILDREN enslaved by Epstein… It’s all pornographic; but worse, it’s the most stomach churning, putrid kinds of pornographic… It’s straight up ISIS fantasy pornographic! 


The top of the GOP – whose platform decries pornography – is himself a degraded and degrading, sexually predatory porn fiend! A sexually predatory porn fiend who is doing his damnedest to take the entire GOP down in flames with him.


That is what the GOP embraced. That is what Paul Ryan knew – or should have known – Trump to be. That is what Paul Ryan has defended and still endorses. Saying “I’m just gonna ignore that oozing wound and pretend it’s not there” only gives the wound time to kill. That is what proves that party and political agenda mean more to Paul Ryan than conscience, morality, ethics, or even his Faith.



It is disheartening – nay, it is DEPLORABLE – that the fundamentalist evangelical ChristianISH right willfully CHOSE a man who is the embodiment of everything we have always been taught is immoral, ungodly, and downright EVIL! It is iniquitous and obscene that anyone would support Trump. When you stand before God, on that final Day of Judgement, how will you “Christians” look God Himself in the eye and proudly say you WILLFULLY STILL CHOSE Trump, a man convicted from his own mouth as a sexually predatory PORN FIEND?



It is absolutely horrifying that their party, the GOP, is the majority party in control of our government!

Trump’s fetid misogyny isn’t new.

The evidence is everywhere… in print… in video… in audio. More and more and more of Trump’s vile and fetid misogyny and sexism. Trump is a predator – the kind of predator to which you fear the women you love will be subjected. It’s not new and barely shocking anymore. I wish Trump and the pornographic nature of his attitude was a singular example of the worst in men that women face. Disturbingly, that’s not the case… Trump is only the most public example of a poison in our society women have always faced, that decent men – and we women know that’s most men – do not and/or will not see. You choose NOT to see our reality – this should never be our reality.

There’s an undercurrent of humiliation that the Trumps and the Billy Bushes of this world have made a numbing constant in the lives of girls and women. It’s part of an everyday, everywhere message that we don’t matter enough to be respected as a person. The personhood women is subsumed by the personhood of men… we are women before we are human.

I make a plea on behalf of women and girls everywhere: As long as other men continue to tolerate that kind of speech and attitude, even in the locker room, the misogyny and sexism and chauvinism and gender discrimination and sexual harassment and rape culture will continue to plague the lives of every woman you know. Please – EVERY decent man – stand loudly and always against the rampant misogyny and mistreatment of women that the 2016 GOP candidate represents. Be the voice and leader of decent men standing as one against the Trumps of this world. You’ve condemned his latest revelation of vile and repugnant sexism and predation. Please make it your personal crusade to end this assault on women and girls everywhere from men like this. It may only be a few men who think this way, but they are everywhere as we women try to navigate our lives. IT IS OPPRESSION – it makes us feel marginalized. 

It makes us afraid to go alone to public spaces like clubs or restaurants or the gym or even to walk alone in our own neighborhoods at night. It hurts us when the men who should defend us just say we shouldn’t have been in the public spaces where we are harassed and abused. It breaks us to be held accountable by the men who should defend us for the abuse by the Trumps of this world.

If you love a woman… if you know a woman, get out front and lead all decent men to stop the Trumps of this world, to educate the next generations of boys who will be the men in the lives of your daughters. Be the leader of change!

As a woman who has faced the groping Trump describes from early adolescence onward, too many times to count…

As a woman who has faced gender and sexual harassment in public leisure spaces…

As the friend of women I’ve known (most of them) who also had to and still have to face gender and sexual harassment in public leisure spaces…

As a woman who has faced gender and sexual harassment in the workplace…

As the friend of women I’ve known (again – MOST of them) who also had to and still have to face gender and sexual harassment in the workplace…

As a woman who has more than once been personally inundated by such vile speech…

As a friend who has heard and hears other women subjected to such vile speech…

As a woman who is a surviver of an incestuous pedophile…

As a woman who has more than once dealt with attempted acquaintance rape and dealt with acquaintance rape…

As a sister of a sibling who was a victim of acquaintance rape…

As the friend of a woman who was the victim of incestuous rape…

As a woman who, as an adolescent, lived through violent, attempted gang rape IN MIDDLE SCHOOL…

As the sister of another sibling who was a victim of violent rape…

As the friend of a woman who was stalked, raped, and nearly killed…

As the mother of a young son whom I know has already heard this kind of puerile and VILE speech from some of his peers…

I wonder how many men have listened to such reprobate and repugnant humiliation of women from their peers? I wonder how many men have watched porn and admired characters who, like Trump, revel unchecked in such narcissistic self-entitlement?  I wonder how many men perhaps saw that character’s sense of entitlement as a kind of power they wish they held? I wonder how many men, now so appalled by Trump’s degenerate speech towards women, laughed and tittered over it just as Billy Bush did when they heard one of their own peers talk that way in the locker room?  

I wonder if the men, now so appalled by Trump’s contemptible denigration of women will finally understand that every single woman you know has been and will be subjected to that kind of misogyny throughout our lives. No… it’s not everyday. No… it’s not ALL – nor even MOST men… Yes… it’s only a few men – BUT THOSE MEN ARE EVERYWHERE as we women try to navigate our daily lives.

Once again, Trump didn’t originate the poison – he only displayed the putrid rot that everyone was ignoring. He’s not the only man who thinks and behaves this way. Billy Bush isn’t the only man to empower such disgusting misogyny with his skeeze reveling. This is… and has been… and continues to be the reality of women’s lives.

Your mothers… your sisters… your wives… your daughters… We live every day of our lives with the knowledge that our bodies – our personhoods – are not safe. This kind of predator has been and continues to be our reality – dismissed… demeaned… ignored by the men who love us, befriend us… by the men who should be on the forefront in holding the Trumps of this world accountable. Every time you DON’T speak out… every time you DON’T intervene, you enable the sexual predator.

YOU personally know women who have been subjected to the Trumps of this world. If you do nothing, you put your own hand with his grabbing at us, groping us. PROCURER!

If you, the decent men in this world, do not hear us now and stop Trump and all men like him then how can we trust any of you?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

To you defenders of Trump…

To you dismissing those tapes as “locker room talk…”

SHUT UP! Just slither back under the rock you oozed out from under and SHUT UP! Women have had to face the Trumps of this world all our lives! ON OUR OWN because of people like YOU! YOU and every enabler are more guilty than the Trumps of the discrimination, harassment, abuse, assault, victimization, marginalization – OPPRESSION – that is the reality of women’s lives! YOU make women’s oppression our reality because YOU DO NOT STOP the Trumps of this world! There is no defense! There is no joke! That you think there is any humor or that it is in any way appropriate to dismiss the kind of sexual predation Trump has ALWAYS – YES ALWAYS – lived out, screams FREAKING volumes ABOUT YOU!

JUST SHUT UP YOU MORALLY BANKRUPT ENABLER!