Guest Post from @schmutzie

My twitter and 670 The Score friend @Schmutzie wrote this on Facebook and gave me permission to repost it here.  Its really fucking brilliant.

Schadenfreude

I can't help it.

I guessed correctly on 49 out of 50 states. I missed Florida. Easy to say I just copied Nate Silver's forecast, but that would be lying. Every damned state went the way I thought except Florida.

Really not that hard to do, all it took was a glance at the 2008 electoral map. What has changed in the last 4 years? Which state changed demos? If we could jump forward to 2016 or 2020, I'm pretty sure there will be a blue border around the eastern and western shores of the country, a blue splotch around the Great Lakes, and red everywhere in the middle. Florida might flip back and forth, and maybe Colorado or Nevada, but the rest of the country is going to stay the way it is right now.

And that's a loser for the GOP. It could be argued that it will only get worse as the Hispanic population grows, but it's certainly not going to get any better for the Republicans.

That is a party in decline.

Which is why they're all talking about expanding the base this morning. -It's time to be more inclusive! We need to reach out to Hispanics! We need to broaden the base!- Gee, ya think?

Not that I disagree with them, but what does it say that such a realization comes only after first trying, once again, to control the government by way of old white racist people, primarily old white racist men? Now you're going to pivot? Now you're going to say "Hey, we were wrong. We really do want all of you centrists, indies, Hispanics, gays, African Americans, pro-choicers, evolutionists, atheists, voters who worry about the environment and climate change, Asians,...even the Irish!"-

It's too late for that now. Because they don't want those voters. They want their votes, but they don't want the voters themselves. Sure, they'll try to tweak the platform a little to seem more inviting, but it's all bullshit. They want to stay the way they are. And their stubborn refusal to drag their sorry asses into the 21st century is why they're in decline, and will continue in decline. They won't attract votes from the groups I just listed.



Those groups of voters have heard years, decades, of rhetoric from the GOP about what's wrong with them, about why they're not real Americans. Suddenly the GOP is going to throw open the flaps to the tent, pay some lip service to being more inclusive, and expect a crowd of black homosexual atheists to come rushing in?

They're arguing this morning about what went wrong. They're accepting the fact that the tent needs to enlarge, but they still don't understand why. They're trying to figure out a way to gain millions of new voters without changing the basic message of the party. They still think that the United States belongs to the upper income white people, and it's just a matter of figuring out a way to appear attractive to enough new voters to swing the balance of power back in their favor. And it'll never happen.

And that's where the schadenfreude really comes in.

Fuck Mitch McConnell. Fuck John Boehner. Fuck Paul Ryan, and fuck Mitt Romney. I love the fact that they're miserable this morning. It's deserved. They're also big losers.

There's a special place in hell for the shithead conservatives in the media too. For years they've been acting as if their fucked up views on social issues are mainstream. Maybe not overwhelmingly popular, but reflective of a very large percentage of the views of the American population. And they're wrong. I have many self-described conservative friends, and none of them talk about "liberals" they way Sean Hannity does, the way Rush Limbaugh does, the way Ann Coulter does. Asshole like these have been, almost by default, recognized as spokespersons for the conservative movement-if there even is such a thing- and by association the conservative voters have been tainted. The divisive, inflammatory rhetoric that has been spewing from the maws of these people for years, decades, is largely responsible for the deterioration of serious political discourse. They have no counterparts on the left.

For years I've been taking issue with the binary thinking of conservative good-liberal evil, and the counter-argument as well. I do not believe that conservatives are evil. I believe that the assholes like Limbaugh who have been recognized as the spokespersons are, indeed, evil. They have gotten rich on polarizing this country, and because they're a bunch of fucking hucksters, they couldn't care less if they've fucked up the conversation with strawmen arguments and plain old hate-speech. 



They're war profiteers.



When I hear Limbaugh lecture his listeners on the "liberal agenda" and "gay agenda" and the "feminazi movement" I can only shake my head in wonder. How in the hell is this guy taken seriously? Do people not realize he's selling snake oil?

Well, it's reckoning day for the shitbag losers who ave added nothing constructive to the dialogue. The American people took their best shots- a billion dollars worth of hateful attack advertisements and outright lies about Barack Obama and the evil liberal agenda- years and years of hateful rhetoric about their political opponents- and they have rejected the message. If they haven't figured that out by now, they are in for a very bad 4 years, and 40 more after that. It's over you fucking losers. This country has had enough hyper-partisan flame-throwing. We do not want to look at people whose politics differ from our own as our enemy. We have work to do, and we won't get anything done if we continue to follow the lead of the fucking people who sell hatred. 

And that brings me to Karl Rove. Last night's biggest loser.



I know I've just ranted about the need to chill out on the nasty rhetoric, but I hate this man with every fiber of my being. I thought he was extinct already, thanks to his association with George W Bush, but he wasn't extinct. He played a much larger role in this election than some people realize. He was the mover behind uniting the Kochs, and Sandy Adelson, and a few other gajillionaire dickwads who thought they could buy the White House and take over the entire country by way of American Crossroads, the SuperPac which supplanted the RNC, thanks to Citizens United. Rove had a Hitler-like vision of a Republican Reich which would last for centuries. All he needed to do was prop Mitt Romney up there, win the Electoral College by way of stealing Ohio, and his sinister fucking plan could be put into action.

And that's why this demonic motherfucker was melting down before our very eyes on Fox News last night. Like Randolph Duke at margin call, Rove wanted those machines turned back on. He wanted Jon Husted, his henchman Secretary of State in Ohio, to somehow dig up 150,000 more votes from Cuyahoga County and Hamilton County. He needed that state's votes, no matter how he got them, so that he could launch his long term game plan of Republican domination for the next 50 years. Without Ohio, he knew he was doomed. Without Ohio, Karl Rove knew he faced extinction. And like Hitler, after the invasion of the Soviet Union in the winter of 1941 had turned the tide against him, Rove refused to accept his own defeat and his imminent demise. How is this possible? I spent a billion dollars of Super Pac money. I played this hand perfectly. How can this election not go my way?

Well it didn't go Karl's way The reason Mitt Romney waited an hour and a half to concede defeat after Ohio had fallen for Obama was Karl Rove. I have no doubt that Rove called his hatchet-man Ed Gillespie, and told him to forbid Mitt Romney from conceding. But then Virginia went for Obama. And then Colorado. And it became clear that even if Rove had somehow been able to steal Ohio's electoral votes, Obama still had the necessary 270.

And so, when I watched a red-eyed Mitt Romney take the stage last night for his final speech as a politician, it wasn't Romney I was thinking of, it was Karl Rove. In half-heartedly wishing Barack Obama luck in his next term as president, Mitt Romney was really bidding farewell, on behalf of the American people, to Rove.


Karl Rove's career as a political kingmaker is over, and we're all better off now. The country, and our government, have finally been unburdened. We are rid of that evil man forever, and to that I say good riddance.

The War on Women Vote for Obama Edition

Friends, Americans, Countrypeople, lend me your ears. (Sorry Caesar).  Its time to vote.  I've been on record saying I don't care who you vote for, but that was a leetle bit dishonest.  I do care who you vote for and so do my wife and daughters.

I've always supported Barack Obama.  My wife can attest to the fact that when he gave the Keynote at the 2004 DNC, I said "If Kerry loses, Obama's the next President."  Over the years, nothing he has done, has caused me to abandon him.

While I've disagreed with some things he has done, and often wished he were more bold, I've never been a lefty that hates him because OMGZ DRONZ, or other Greenwaldian bullshit.

President Obama has been a steadying force in a tumultuous time.  The economy has steadied adding 5 million jobs.  Foreign policy has steadied. I realize that there's still work to be done on foreign policy, believe me nobody likes the collateral deaths of innocent people, but compared too the "Boot in Your Ass" foreign policy of the GOP, President Obama is a fucking dove.

Most important to me, is the President's views of domestic policy.  Not only has he looked out for the poor and downtrodden, but he's been a champion of women's issues.  Lilly Ledbetter was his first Presidential signature on a piece of legislation! Not stimulus, not healthcare, not ending the war.  The first thing he did as President was stand up for women.

Maybe it's because I have two daughters and so does he, but I get this guy. I get what it means to be a father of girls and want them to be considered equal to boys.  While I'm not President, my position as a child abuse investigator carries a certain weight and expectation. I can't ask anyone to treat their daughters with respect and dignity if I don't treat mine with respect and dignity.

In this I  totally get the President. He's the leader of the free world, but he still is a father who loves his girls and wants to be the best father he can be.

President Obama will protect the rights of women.  Period.  The other guys think shoving wands in brazen harlots' ladyparts is fine.  The other guys think that birth control makes someone a slut. The other guys thinks that women run to abortion clinics with reckless abandon because choosing abortion is easy.

I say fuck the other side with all the fuck. Vote Obama/Biden 2012

War on Women: Your 'God' sucks ass

Disclaimer: I grew up Catholic. I went to Catholic high school. I was the Valedictorian with the first perfect GPA in the history of Mater Dei High School in Clinton IA.  I attended and graduated from St. Ambrose University a Catholic University. I minored in English, majored in Psychology, History and yes Theology.  So I kinda know about things related to 'God'.

All that being said, Republicans? Your 'God' can kiss my fat white ass.

Here's the thing.  Every time the subject of rape comes up some dumbfuck GOP candidate invokes 'God'.  The latest in the long line of socially awkward, dark ages lovin' woman haters is Indiana GOP candidate for for United States Senate, Richard Mourdock.  Also no surprise that he's described as Tea Party backed.

In the final debate of the the three candidates for Senate he stated that the only abortion exception he agrees with is life of the mother.  He stated that in the cases of rape:

"The only exception I have to have an abortion is in the case of the life of the mother," said Mourdock, the Tea Party-backed state treasurer. "I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is that gift from God. I think that even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen."

Hey you stupid fucking shit, NOTHING FROM RAPE IS A GIFT! Period. If the 'God' you so lovingly adore actually existed, he or she would probably smite the mother fucking rapist before the rape to prevent the tragedy of rape and (pardon the phrase), god forbid, the tragedy of a rape pregnancy.

The tea party half wits and their anti woman agenda must be stopped.  Men like Mourdock have been trying to keep women second class citizens forever.  They couch their misogyny in pretty language about "God's Plan" and other faux piety.

The fact is if you're a woman, and you are thinking about voting for  these assholes because you share their 'godly values' you're sadly misinformed.

The teabilly's understanding of 'God' is informed by centuries of penis-centric woman hating theology.  Barefoot and pregnant, home in time to cook dinner... you know the way 'God' planned it.  Fact: Women have been shunned by religion since 100 AD when women who had been functioning as priests were banned from the priesthood by the leaders of the church. (Father Dunn, I actually listened in class).

If you're taken in by that pile of unmitigated bullshit I've got nothing for you.

What I do have is an unyielding commitment to make sure that my daughters grow up in a world that abhors rape. A world that supports their right to choose.  A world in which they are treated as complete equals to men.  A world in which they people aren't stupid enough to call a baby conceived of rape, a gift.

If your 'God' thinks rape and rape babies are a gift, your God fucking sucks.

GOP War on Women: Cause she's easy like Sunday morning.

If this post seems like I'm spitting vitriol through clenched teeth, it's because I'm spitting vitriol through clenched fucking teeth.  I am so fucking over the fucking Republican teabillie bullshit I can barely stand it.

Here's the latest, Wisconsin State Representative, Roger Rivard (R-Dumbfuckburg)* spun a yarn about some sage advice that his daddy told him.

Quoth Roger the Reprehensible: “He also told me one thing, ‘If you do (have premarital sex), just remember, consensual sex can turn into rape in an awful hurry,’ ” Rivard said. “Because all of a sudden a young lady gets pregnant and the parents are madder than a wet hen and she’s not going to say, ‘Oh, yeah, I was part of the program.’ All that she has to say or the parents have to say is it was rape because she’s underage. And he just said, ‘Remember, Roger, if you go down that road, some girls,’ he said, ‘they rape so easy.’

Really? Some girls rape so easily? That's probably the dumbest advice in the history of dumb advice.  How bout, 'Son, keep it in your pants because you respect a woman enough to wait until she's ready.' Or 'make sure you use birth control' or ANY FUCKING THING besides "be careful cause if you knock her up, she'll cry rape'.  

Women don't 'rape easy'.  Rape is not some funny game.  Rape is not a way for the ebil harlots to get back at the god fearin' men.  Rape is power and control. That is all. 

Having met with, worked with and befriended a number of rape victims, I can tell you, rape is not easy.  Coming forward and saying you've been raped isn't easy. Nothing about this entire fucking topic is easy. 

You know what is easy? Voting every one of these motherfucking backward ass teabilly fucks out of office.  Take your dark ages view of women and your fucking corn pone wisdom and stick it up your fucking ass. It'll be like rape, and I've heard that comes easy. 

*Dumbfuckburg is between Madison and Green Lake. 

Jerry Sandusky: Monster

Having been a child abuse investigator for 19 years, I've been exposed to some of the most heinous sociopaths that you could possibly imagine. Yet none have quite measured up to the monster that is Jerry Sandusky.

I've been ruminating on the latest Sandusky happenings.  He was sentenced to 30-60 years in prison today for his abuse of 10 boys over 15 years.  Not nearly enough in my opinion, but unlike Law and Order SVU people are seldom sentenced to 450 years in prison.  Let it suffice that he will die in prison.

What I've been trying to get my mind around was Sandusky's statement on Penn State College Radio.  In a rambling diatribe, he tried to exonerate himself by blaming the victims.

He describes the first victim to come forward as "A young man who was dramatic a veteran accuser, and always sought attention, started everything."  

A veteran accuser. Let that sink in for a moment.  Clearly from that statement alone, Sandusky tries to paint the young man as the boy who cried wolf.  He didn't cry wolf, in this instance, the wolf was real. 

Perhaps the most telling line in the statement was, "My wife has been my only sex partner".  This goes right to the heart of an abuser's mentality.  Child rape, ANY rape is not about sexual gratification. It's about power. It's about control.  Sandusky controlled the lives of those boys, a haunting, horrible nightmare, until they came forward and told the world what happened.  

I've heard people ask why Sandusky won't just shut up.  He can't. He won't.  He's been the one in control of this for 40 years.  No one really knows how many kids he abused. What I really know is that the only way he can continue to be in control is to make statements and blame victims.  

From this point forward you can expect appeals, more public statements and grandstanding by Sandusky and his clown college of defense attorneys.  An assault on the integrity and voracity of victims. 

Don't be surprised if some victims may not be able to stand the process. Despite their courage in testifying, sometimes courage only goes so far.  If the appeals court grants a new trial, all bets are off. 

It will be drawn out, it will be ugly and it will  be scary. Sandusky will do everything in his power to maintain control of these victims. 

It's like that with monsters.

War On Women: Its the ABUSE stupid! Part 2

A little while ago I wrote a post supporting my friend Jessica AKA @vdaze who had suffered mental and emotional abuse by a man who is well known in internet circles.  You can read it here. I'll refer to the man in question as Fantasy Hairball™ or FH for short.


In the weeks since I wrote this post, I've noticed a disturbing trend on Twitter and other places with regards to the definition of  "victim".  Questions like does talking about abuse in public seem like whining or payback? Is defending the victim, 'piling on' the abuser(FH)? Shouldn't this all be kept private?

I've worked in social work since 1988. For the last 18 years I have been a child abuse investigator.  In that capacity I have seen first hand the abuse of children.  I've also seen hundreds of cases of Domestic Battery and other abuses of women.  I'd like to take time  to describe my observations and share some things to clear up the questions people may have.

First off, a victim of abuse is someone who suffers physical, sexual, emotional trauma at the hands of the abuser.  Physical and sexual trauma are self explanatory.  The problem many people have is emotional trauma.  How does one judge what is just arguing and what is emotional abuse?

People like Fantasy Hairball™ are so good at charming their way into women's lives that the woman doesn't know that the abuser is bad news until well into a relationship.  Using this case to illustrate FH may pick a fight with Jessica, but she chalks it up to normally butting of heads.  This may have gone on for a while.

When FH turned the corner to abuse it  was when he started blaming Jessica for his feelings of anger or hurt.

"You make me so crazy", "I'm not normally like this but I love you so much, I get crazy with : anger, jealousy, fear of losing you"

Guilt is a powerful tool, so is preying on someone's pity.  "Please feel sorry for me", "I'm in a bad place and you've made it worse."  What was sickening in the aftermath of Jessica's disclosures was that Fantasy Hairball™ used these same guilt trips on other women and his friends to get them to view him as an emotionally unstable wreck who might be suicidal and whose mom was experiencing trauma because of the drama.

This is classic abuser behavior.  "Poor me" behavior is used as a tactic to get the victim back in their lives, keep them in their lives, or convince their friends that the abuser is not a bad guy, just misunderstood.

The other questions all sort of dove tail together.  My first job as an investigator is to get the victim to start talking.  Some times this is done with words, sometimes they write down what happened. Sometimes we draw pictures. Frankly if Twitter or Facebook could be used in an interview to get a victim talking, I'd use it in a heartbeat. So no, talking about it in public with friends is not a bad thing. In fact its the right thing to do.

Calling out an abuser for what he is should be commended.  People who keep things private, who don't air their dirty laundry, who are told to "buck up" and deal with it enable the abuser to continue behaving abusively with other people.  For those who may be friends with FH, he may never have acted badly with you, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen with others.

Fantasy Hairball™ is a text book case of an abusive personality.  He charmed his way into several women's lives and when he was called out, he turned on the women and accused their friends of coordinating attacks and ruining his rep. "Poor me" anyone?

Why I fight the War on Women: Its the ABUSE Stupid!

As most of you know, I'm a child abuse investigator by profession.  I love my job. I'm also pretty fucking good it, or so I've been told.  This post isn't specifically about child abuse, but it is about a facet of my job that is important to protecting children

The facet to which I am referring is protecting women from abuse.  I've been been vocal, and profane in my defense of women and their rights.  Exhibits A, B, and C.

Domestic abuse occurs in many forms.  It can be physical, sexual, or psychological.  Recently a friend of mine from the great coffee klatsch that is twitter, Jessica AKA @Vdaze wrote and talked about her abuse by a man on the internet.  He was insidious and he played it like a pro.

Men who abuse women are amazingly similar to child sexual predators. I am NOT conflating child sexual predators with the abusers of women, I'm just saying their methods are similar.  The way abusers wend their way into peoples lives is fascinating. They're charming. They seem friendly. They build seemingly strong bonds.

When the trust has been gained, they pounce.  Abusers of women scream at them, hit them, blame them.  Turn every argument around so that the woman feels like it's her fault.  Fortunately for my friend Jessica, she was not physically abused.  Had she let the relationship progress, there's no telling what may have happened.

When I was young in this job, I used to blame the women victims abuse almost as much as I blamed the abusers.  I didn't get that there is a cycle of abuse, and women often can't shake it.

Where am I going with all this?  I'm trying to make the point that the War on Women isn't just being run by the GOP.  Women all over this country are belittled, beaten down and just plain beaten on a daily basis.  The person who treated Jessica so horribly, is a progressive liberal.

Until we treat women with the respect and dignity that they deserve, we will never be a "great" nation. Until we put our collective foot down about misogyny, verbal abuse and domestic abuse of women, we cannot call ourselves a "great" nation.  Until we place the needs of women and by extension children above our own selfish pursuits, we cannot call ourselves a "great" nation.

One final thought, I know that there are occasions in which women are abusive aggressors.  The number is so small statistically, it barely merits notice.

We have a long way to go. Let's start by treating our ladyfolk with some respect.  I'm a progressive, I believe women are every bit as capable as and equal to men.  Also as I pointed out earlier on the twitter. Strong women are sexy as hell.