"Something Bizarre Happened" - Republicans once passed Gun Legislation

Karma by Rik Oostenbroek

Time to republish this given the new mass shooting. This is a link to a database of mass shootings. I am afraid to go to the Mall.

NOTE: I do not let Democrats off the hook here. Get off your dupas, you cowards. I wrote this in 2014.

Owning a gun must be like owning a car. We must register and insure every gun including the guns of LEOs. We must have a license to operate a gun. Noncompliance will result in appropriate enforcement = fines and/or imprisonment.

WASHINGTON -- Something bizarre happened in the House of Representatives on Tuesday: Republicans quietly passed gun control legislation.
The bill, which renews the 1988 Undetectable Firearms Act, faced so little opposition in the House that it was only debated for 10 minutes and passed on a voice vote. It's the only gun-related measure to get a House vote since Democrats launched a major push for action on gun violence in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting late last year. - Jennifer Bendery

These do-nothing Bastids could not or would not get any gun regulation legislation passed. Most Americans wanted some sensible form of gun regulation after the baby murders, even a majority of the members of the NRA and gun dealers. This bill prohibits or modifies by law printable plastic guns only.

It is a (Congress'-butts-need-saving-first-and-we-will-get-to-you-folks-later) decision. Plastic guns can get through the scanners at public buildings that protect these privileged Folks.

This is funny in a black humor kind of way. And then, when you have thought about it for awhile, you want to puke. I do not know, maybe prayer does work. You just have to pray to the right Goddess.

You look like overpriced overpaid overstuffed overwrought Turkeys again, Congress. Happy New Year.

John Darkow sums it up:

Anonymous Speaks Truth at Stereotypes

Poster by Favianna Rodriguez.

I do not know who wrote this. It appeared online without attribution. 

Things radical feminism did not do to me, a transsexual woman (Trans women, please read!)
***trigger warning: rape, assault***

Radical Feminism:

•did not cause my father to beat me with a belt because my body language was ‘girly’

•did not cause neighborhood boys and classmates to beat me up for being ‘faggy’

•did not give me an eating disorder in high school as a reaction to my frame getting bigger during puberty

•did not create the religion that made me think when I was little that I would go to Hell for the ways I thought and behaved

•did not cause my rape by a guy who told me afterward that he thought I was role-playing when I cried and struggled, and admitted it was ‘the hottest sex he’d ever had’

•is not responsible for me and many other trans women feeling terror and hopelessness at the prospect of life as a visibly gender-nonconforming person in a society where this is punished

•did not create the unattainable beauty standards that further complicate my already complex struggle with sex dysphoria

•is not the reason I’ve been consistently mansplained to at every job I’ve held since transitioning by men who do it because they think I was born with a vagina (and thus that they need to talk to me like I’m six years old)

•is not the cause of my street harassment by men who think I was born with a vagina and thus feel entitled to proposition, frighten, or threaten me for their sexual gratification

•did not cause the culture of homophobia that makes dating men dangerous and potentially fatal for trans women

Radical feminism attacks patriarchy, which is the root cause of everything listed above. As trans women, we work against our own freedom, health, and dignity when we misdirect our anger and anguish toward the very people who are fighting the system that hurts us. We strengthen the true source of our social struggles.

Feedback is welcome and hoped-for. Trans women, please feel free to add to this list, especially.

The boys who tried to beat me up, and left threatening messages on my voicemail in school, had not been inspired by Janice Raymond.
Nor did the terms “tr*nny” or “f*g” enter their lexicon via radical feminist theory.
It was a male psychiatrist — not radical feminists — who delayed my treatment because he thought my dysphoria stemmed from the death of my father and the absence of male role models.
Radical feminists are not the reason I was flashed and masturbated at by a man as I walked home at night.
Radical feminists are not responsible for the harassment and unwanted advances I experience virtually every time I go out dancing.
And they never sent me obnoxious sexual messages or dick pics, funnily enough!
First rule of misogyny is that women are responsible for what men do.

We need Revolution a la Groucho. Let us march on Boss Tweet utilizing Vuvuzelas and Kazoos.

We need to do a Puerto Rico on our Federal Government. Everybody start marching to DC. It will be the real Straight People Pride March to Rid DC of Crook-eds. Yes that is a pun and I committed it.

We call it the NOTHING IN OR OUT MARCH. I need help. Let us pick a date. Start at your front door and march to DC from wherever you are. Bring friends and snacks. Occupy the terrain.

Bring your dog, your vuvuzela, funny hats, kazoos and feather boas. We go in peace. We are not violent. We are firm. Firm and that is All.

We surround the White House and we let nothing go in or out until Boss Tweet goes back to his tower and stays there. General Strike. Let us find out if our government will fire on us. Time we knew, I say. American Spring. Bribe him with a pardon.

I got thrown off twitter for 'advocating violence.' I kept quoting John Adams President and Founding Father. Of course, I quoted him out of context. But I mean, they keep Donald Trump and his posts are violent. Time to clip wings of organizations creating and profiting from techno- feudalism.

The right of a nation to kill a tyrant in case of necessity can no more be doubted than to hang a robber, or kill a flea. - John Adams

If you want to know all of what he said about defending our Constitution read it here. 

Trump Hoe or Ode to the Deal

Rentboy, rentboy, outta’ sight!
How much do you cost a night?
Snort some candy up your nose?
Put your tongue-tip on my rose!

Rentboy, rentboy, you’re so sweet!
Come and do me when I tweet
Do me when I come to town
In and out and upside-down!

Rentboy, rentboy, doing time.
You cannot have this vote of mine.

TRUMP AND PUTIN: A LOVE STORY
The attraction is mutual, but history shows who’s really using whom.
By David Remnick

Read more...

Fragments 1 - Christian Witch Cake Hunt or Thou Shalt Not Noodge.

Response to

http://thefederalist.com/2016/07/15/why-are-progressives-on-an-anti-christian-witch-hunt/

Insisting God is a factual factotum and Others must agree with such will be the absolute death of religion as traditionalists know it. Traditionalists know this but they cannot stop themselves from making the same old arguments and trying to enforce archaic inhumane rules. It worked for centuries before Gutenberg made the Bible accessible. Then all Hell broke loose. Heh. The Net is as revolutionary as the printing press.

This Cake Patrol Christianity is being presented as religious conscientious objection. It is no such thing.

What is nonviolent civil or religious disobedience? Gandhi's definition is the clearest in my opinion:

"I have also called it love-force or soul-force. . . I discovered in the earliest stages that pursuit of truth did not admit of violence being inflicted on one’s opponent but that he must be weaned from error by patience and compassion. For what appears to be truth to the one may appear to be error to the other. And patience means self-suffering. So the doctrine came to mean vindication of truth, not by infliction of suffering on the opponent, but on oneself." - Mohandas Gandhi.

If you choose to disobey the law, you must incur the consequences. Not inflict the consequences of your disobedience on the Other. That is not conscientious objection. That is assault.

Jesus counseled following the civil law. Instead, some Xtians have chosen to noodgie people. And act surprised and all hurt and frightened when people noodgie back. As ye sow, so shall ye reap. Galatians 6:7.

America by Gaslight

This Dump Dude has kidnapped thousands of children and put them in camps where they are drugged, raped and some die. Many will never get home because we took them and we are forgetting and have forgotten them.

All the rest is bullshyte.

Let me say it once more...kidnapped thousands of children...they are drugged, raped and some have died. Many of them will never see their parents again.

All the rest is bullshyte. No one is talking about the kiddy camps. No one is talking about the kiddy camps. Am I the only one not sleeping over this?

We are going to have to go to DC and burn The Dump Dude out. Get it. Getting it? Good. I can see no other course. Talk me down. Tell me I am crazed and not prescient.

I love Quakers. They make me want to be a better person. And they tell me how to do that.

George Fox said this about those who quote scripture or Christ unaccompanied by agape love. I am sorely in need of love given current events. I am angry and scornful. Might as well be in Hell. 

The following passage is from "The testimony of Margaret Fox concerning her late husband," from The Journal of George Fox, 1694. In this excerpt, which contains the famous "what canst thou say?" query, Margaret Fell is describing George Fox's "sermon" at the Ulverston steeple-house. It was the first time she had heard him speak.

And so he went on, and said, "That Christ was the Light of the world, and lighteth every man that cometh into the world; and that by this light they might be gathered to God," &c. I stood up in my pew, and wondered at his doctrine, for I had never heard such before. And then he went on, and opened the scriptures, and said, "The scriptures were the prophets' words, and Christ's and the apostles' words, and what, as they spoke, they enjoyed and possessed, and had it from the Lord": and said, "Then what had any to do with the scriptures, but as they came to the Spirit that gave them forth? You will say, 'Christ saith this, and the apostles say this;' but what canst thou say? Art thou a child of the Light, and hast thou walked in the Light, and what thou speakest, is it inwardly from God?" &c. This opened me so, that it cut me to the heart; and then I saw clearly we were all wrong. So I sat down in my pew again, and cried bitterly: and I cried in my spirit to the Lord, "We are all thieves; we are all thieves; we have taken the scriptures in words, and know nothing of them in ourselves."

Members of the Society of the Friends of Jesus (Hicksite Quakers) believe divine revelation is ongoing. And it must be. This formula for living beats the 10 Commandments bigtime.

Simple Formula for Living

Live beneath your means. Return everything you borrow. Stop blaming other people. Admit it when you make a mistake. Give clothes not worn to charity. Do something nice and try not to get caught. Listen more; talk less. Every day take a 30-minute walk. Strive for excellence, not perfection. Don't make excuses. Don't argue. Get organized. Be kind to people [and all other beings]. Be kind to unkind people. Let someone cut ahead of you in line. Be humble. Realize and accept that life isn't fair. Know when to keep your mouth shut. Go an entire day without criticizing anyone. Learn from the past. Plan for the future. Live in the present. Don't sweat the small stuff. It's all small stuff.

We are not the dogs of God but his children. Prophetic religion has to do with relationships, not observances, with awe not belief, with love not guilt, with life not property, With the Way not moralism. Obedience to the Way is indeed of great use if it is freely given, but of no use if it is compelled. - Herrymon Maurer

Gourmets for Mc Govern Banana Cake

Library book sales are the bomb. Yes, I am even political about food. Food is very political.

I found a small hand bound cookbook entitled Gourmets for Mc Govern. It is full of charming illustrations. The only colophon reads "This cookbook has been peacefully and lovingly put together by volunteers for Mc Govern." The recipes do have attribution.

This is the perfect Banana Cake recipe because it tells you exactly how much banana to use. I hate when a recipe says "two bananas." Bananas come in all shapes and sizes. You can mess with quantity in ordinary cooking. Baking needs more precision than that. I give you the recipe verbatim.

Ms. Joan Cantor's Banana Cake

Cream together:
1 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Shortening

Add:
2 Eggs
4 tablespoons Sour Cream
1 teaspoon Baking Soda

Beat well.

Add:
1 cup Banana pulp
1 and 1/2 cups Flour
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Vanilla

Bake at 350 degrees for 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour. Cake will shrink away from the sides of the pan when done.

Fatty Trumpkin

Fatty Trumpkin runs for Prez.
Everybody laughs at
Everything he sez.

The editorial cartoonist is from The Daily Call.
Mark Taylor

RoundRiver Institute LLC
Genoa, WI
mark@thedailycall.org

Meet Joshua Monroe, the Man Who Makes Nude Trump Statues
- Read more by Amelia Warshaw 

The Verge has published 11 photos of NYC’s naked Trump statue by Joseph Bareham. As much Trump as you can handle. I liked this one the best.

Bareham is a first rate photographer. See more work at the link.I will not make a joke about the photographer's name...I will not make a joke...I will not etc....

The Progressives chime in and remind me once again how much I despise Progressives, the zealots of the Left.

MADHURI SATHISH
Body-Shaming Donald Trump Isn't
An Appropriate Or Effective Way To Criticize Him

On Thursday, naked statues of Republican nominee Donald Trump — commissioned by art collective Indecline — appeared in multiple U.S. cities, some of which were captioned "The Emperor Has No Balls." But while many people, including the New York City Parks Department, seem to have found humor in these statues, body-shaming Donald Trump in this way is completely inappropriate. He's a bigoted person who has said a number of awful things, but he is not awful or bigoted because of his body.

My dear Lady, I would like to stake him out on an Ant Hill in Texas covered with molasses. Ridicule is my compromise for the sake of order. Dude would not hesitate a moment to evaluate my charms. 

SALMAGUNDI - May 22, 2019

salmagundi noun
sal·​ma·​gun·​di | \ ˌsal-mə-ˈgən-dē \

1: a salad plate of chopped meats, anchovies, eggs, and vegetables arranged in rows for contrast and dressed with a salad dressing

2: a heterogeneous mixture : POTPOURRI

Ben Carson is daily so high he is looking down on the eagles. Congress must be randomly and regularly drug tested. What is sauce for the working man must be sauce for Congress. We need to start with Ben Carson, Steve King, and Kyrsten Sinema.

Tom Cotton is showing us his ass again. Cotton has said he can be opposed to abortion because we live in a democracy.

My dupa is not a democracy. No thank you. I will have lots of hot sex. I will use birth control. If I become pregnant, I will gestate or abort as I see fit. Not as Tom Cotton sees fit.

Anthropologically speaking, Humankind has three strategies  for dealing with unwanted reproduction (births): contraception, abortion and infanticide. All three are practiced in every culture worldwide historically and currently.

Those who restrict contraception and abortion make infanticide, child and maternal mortality inevitable. We have many in vitro examples of this but the one that troubles me the most at the moment is this example http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...

There is nothing moral about controlling women's reproductive choices by law or by shaming. Illegal abortion and sepsis/hemorrhage in childbirth are the three leading causes of maternal death worldwide. The USA has the highest maternal mortality rate of the developed countries. Women have blood in the fertility game. Abortion and contraception are human rights. Cotton does not occupy the moral high ground.

Free Vintage Posters - Yes, I said FREE.

• A treasure trove of great images that you can print HERE:
•  
• 
  

2020 Election or OMG DNC WTF? with Update #2 or I fucked up.

This article was a mess. I apologize to anyone who saw the first version. I have a booboo and pain pills make you wonky. I made no sense. Some will say I make no sense below. Do not hate on me. 

Graphic by Buddy McCue.

Where I stand:

No Bernie. No Biden. No 20th century 'moldy old men.' They do not get it. Hat tip to Moms Mabley. You can see her doing the Moldy Old Man routine in a video below. Bad video of a great Comedian. Rest in peace and laughter.

I want Warren/Abrams
NERD AND MENTAT NINJA 2020.

If the Rs run DJT and Ds run Biden, I will vote for Biden because I am not suicidal. Uncle Joe is a good guy. Donald Trump is a senile thug.

If the Ds run Biden and the Rs nominate Weld, I will vote for Weld and not Biden. I watched the Thomas hearings real time. I am a radical feminist. Not the quiet earnest kind. When I saw that happening on my TV, I wanted to tear up the pea patch. Sorry Joe, you gots to go.

Weld is a good man. Uncle Joe is a good man. Weld is a Conservative of the honorable kind. Uncle Joe is a Liberal 0f the honorable kind who set the women's movement back 30 years.

I voted for Bernie. I got Hillary. I voted for Hillary. I got Trump. I am an old Hippy. Something is wrong in this picture. Burn Baby Burn.

Voting Republican for the first time in my adult life is the only civilized way I can burn it all down. I am not compromising or accommodating with the DNC. I want a pony. They better not give me a dog. I want Elizabeth Warren.

Update: goddamnitalltohell. I just listened to one of Biden's speeches and I love him. Life is hard and then you die. I am not changing my mind. No Bernie. No Biden.

Happy Easter! Happy Spring! We Shall Be Redeemed.

Bodega Boycott in New York City

Stepping into his Brooklyn bodega, Mohammed Almuntaser recalled how his heart sank. Staring up at him from the entryway was a copy of The New York Post, with a picture of the World Trade Center in flames on the cover and a headline attacking a Muslim member of Congress, Ilhan Omar.
“It was disgusting. It was racist. I couldn’t believe this racist thing was sitting at my store,” said Mr. Almuntaser, 29, who owns four bodegas in the city. “The very next day, I told everyone who works at my stores not to accept the paper.”
He was not alone, and a boycott of The Post began.

Authoritarians are only about 25-30% of us. We just need to babysit them to make sure they do not hurt themselves or us. Takes person power. Yemeni Merchants believe in democracy and they know how to use it. I want such human beings as citizens. They have a twitter account.

My Grands were immigrants from Italy and Poland. I do not know if they were ever citizens. I spoke two languages when I was a child. I am too close to the immigrant experience to vote for any Republican as they now stand politically re immigration and immigrants.

Smack him again for me, Miss Maxine Waters.

Auntie Maxine enjoyed this encounter thoroughly. Minuchin turned red. Miss Waters did not work hard or turn a well coiffed hair. Go get him, Madame Chair. I cannot wait to watch another encounter. 

Republicans have been humiliating, stalking, shaming, blaming, denigrating and attacking women for more than a decade now. If you need references because you doubt it is all that bad, try http://goprapeadvisorychart... for starters. Remember 'rape is just another form of conception?'

A "progressive" person made this comment:

"I have nothing but contempt for Mnuchin, but Waters' handling of the situation was petty and childish. Rather than flexing her chairperson muscles and trying to force him to commit to future appearances, and basically daring him to leave without permission, she should have just politely pressed on with the questions. Bickering like that is unbecoming."

Sick of people who call themselves progressive denigrating Maxine Waters for making Mnuchin squirm. Politics is more than 'the rules.' Politics is emotional and psychological in large part as well. Yes, Virginia, there really are Alt-Left Authoritarians.

Note that as Chair Ms. Waters has subpoena power. There is no 'force him to come back.' Congress has oversight of the Executive Branch. It is Mnuchin's job to show up.

Maxine Waters was magnificent in that hearing. She made clear to Mnuchin that Congress is in charge and he is an ant in this struggle. She won a significant battle. Waters made me proud. She handled baby Steve perfectly.

Why do I write this. Republicans are at again.

Mississippi’s governor has signed into law one of the strictest abortion bans in the country, making it even more difficult for women to get abortions in a state where only one clinic still operates.

The bill, set to take effect in July, bans abortions after a doctor can detect a fetal heartbeat during an ultrasound, unless the mother’s health is at extreme risk. Heartbeats can be found just six weeks into pregnancy — before some women even know they are pregnant. - Reis Thebault. 

I am tired of Repubs and fellow travelers. Auntie Maxine did it right. God bless you, Maxine Waters. Especially now that it looks like gay men and men of color will have their 'equal rights' before any woman in this country. Think we will ever get the Equal Rights Amendment passed?

If women ever get equal civil rights in the United States, efforts to control women's bodies by legislative fiat like the new effort to push heartbeat bills would be made inoperative and moot in my opinion. Your opinion is...?

SALMAGUNDI

Rodriguez 

Graphics are from Favianna Rodriguez and Buddy McCue in that order.

RANT:

PutinPoot has troops in South America. Trump intends to stop aid to 3 South American countries to assist him. And nobody is talking about it. I am going to say it again. There are Russian troops in South America. Some of us too busy hating on Sarah Slanders. Counterproductive to do that bigtime. 

Roman Catholic priests are burning Harry Potter books. Tit for tat I say. Harry Potter fans get to burn pedophile priests and those who covered for them. One flaming priest for 10 books. I think that is reasonable.

.

Kings and Barons are back in style. You know - feudal system. A Corporation is now a legal person with religion and freedom of speech. Only difference between a human person and a corporation? A Corpo never dies. A Monarchy never dies. Takes messy revolutions to move such cultural institutions. 

Men: do not touch women without asking if it is OK. Especially do not give women a little pat on the shoulder in a formal setting like government, medicine etc. That is how women's careers are halted. Gives rise to 'she slept her way up' for example.

The Old Men who are in power are moldy old men. Hat tip to Moms Mably. They lived their lives and formed their young selves when women were significantly enchained. So they treat women with a combination of 'isn't she adorable' and 'get that cunt cuz she persisted...bitch' in a situation of political or economic combat. It is what they know. Habit. 

I advise women: get a small Italian stiletto, offer to kiss their Uncle cheeks, and shove it into a buttock. "Sting like a bee." Practice at home on an orange. It will be 7-10 minutes before they even know they are bleeding.

I have reached peak bipolar rage obviously. These whackadoos are putting children in cages. I cannot take it any more. That fact has taken me so low it is making me sick in body and mind. I have to avoid going to places or the News because no one can grieve all the time. Not without breaking.

A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more (Jeremiah 31:15 NIV).

No Biden. I remember Hill/Thomas hearing. I want Warren and/or Abrams. It is going to take charisma and intelligence to beat the traitors in our midst and the corpos. Both have it. The rest of the field is not one bit possible.

Pompeo is a pompous, obese, weak and sweaty guy trying hard to convince us he is a warrior. Epic fail.

It is bad. We are all at the mercy of rich people. We have to stop this now. 

I say we all march on DC and surround the White House, sing kumbaya songs, and refuse to leave until Trumpus leaves. Nothing in and nothing out until he leaves. Let us see if our government will fire on us. We call it the NOTHING IN AND NOTHING OUT MARCH. I am serious as a heart attack.

McCue

The Surrender of General R. E. Lee to General U.S. Grant

Note: Repeating because of increased interest in the era. Published April 9, 2010

April 9 is the anniversary of the surrender of General Robert E. Lee to General Ulysses S. Grant which ended the military phase of the American Civil War.

To mark the occasion, Bede's Beat brings you a sample of Kurt Weill's settings of four of Walt Whitman Civil War poems.



Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the German declaration of war against the U.S., Kurt Weill -- who had fled Nazi Germany in 1933 and moved to the U.S. in 1935 -- began to set three of Walt Whitman's Civil War poems to music.

The poems Weill chose form a cycle which was completed by the addition of the setting of a fourth poem in 1947.

The first poem, Beat! Beat! Drums!, begins the cycle with an enthusiastic martial call to arms. The middle part of the cycle is devoted to the inevitable result of war: death.

The second, O Captain! My Captain!, about death of a leader in time of war, proved prophetic.

The third poem, Come Up from the Fields Father uses the imagery of autumn and the harvest to presage the grief of a mother upon learning of her son’s death -- a reminder of the toll of war on the home front.

The cycle concludes with Dirge for Two Veterans, and the contrast of Whitman's lament with the first poem in the cycle is reflected in music for each: while the first movement is sprightly, martial and optimistic, the final poem is set to a funeral march. 

Two Days into Spring

Spring this year began March 20. First we have Music and Coffee. This was in my Uncle Marco's record collection. I used to play it on an old Victrola on rainy days in the attic.

I wrote this yesterday. I am on sIow. I woke up dreaming of Polish comfort food - Fried Cabbage. They tell me it is Spring but there is a driving cold rain making the house damp and cold. I am wearing a beanie indoors.

I share with you a recipe for Bacon and Cabbage. I make it in a cast iron skillet and I can eat the whole pan all by myself. Vegans/Vegetarians can just leave out the Bacon, saute in another fat, and add more garlic and some peperoncini maybe for a bit of zing. Mild red Bell Pepper might be nice too. 

Spring is on its way! I can tell by the seed catalogs in the mail.

Fried Cabbage and Bacon

6 slices bacon, chopped
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large head cabbage, cored and sliced
1 tablespoon salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika

Put the bacon in a large heavy bottomed pot and cook over medium-high heat until crispy, about 10 minutes. Add the onion and garlic; saute until the onion caramelizes; about 10 minutes. Immediately stir in the cabbage and continue to cook and stir another 10 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes more.

This is so good with some Fish Fry and a Beer.

God bless the Irish. They are a Warrior Folk. UPDATE.

Never pick a fight with an Irishman. They are brilliant wordsmiths and fearsome warriors. Men and women both. Check out Queen Maeve.

The drawing is Albrecht Durer's Three Kerns. Kern was adopted into English as a term for a Gaelic soldier in medieval Ireland.

“Fascism is capitalism plus murder.”
- Upton Sinclair

“The essence of fascism is to make laws forbidding everything and then enforce them selectively against your enemies.”
- John Lescroart, A Plague of Secrets

The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. - Henry Wallace. 

St. Patrick's Day Bread.

Treacle Bread is a slightly sweet Irish Soda Bread. It seemed an appropriate recipe for March because it is the month in which we celebrate St. Patrick's Day. St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland and most Americans pretend we are Irish for a day every year.

A thin slice of this bread well buttered or with a bit of jam and a cup of black tea in the afternoon is one of the finer pleasures in life. This bread toasts nicely too when it is a bit hard.

Miss Peggy Daum's Treacle Bread

3 cups sifted all purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Salt
1 tablespoon granulated Sugar
1 scant teaspoon Baking Soda
3/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup Molasses
1 cup Buttermilk, divided

Sift all purpose flour, salt, sugar, baking soda, and baking power into a large bowl. Thoroughly mix in whole wheat flour. Warm the molasses a bit and combine it with 1/2 the buttermilk. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and stir in the buttermilk mixture. You want a soft dough. So add the other bit of buttermilk as needed.

Turn out on a floured board. Knead only enough to shape into a ball. You do not want to develop gluten. Flatten the ball of dough into a circle 11/2 inches thick. Place into a greased and floured 8-9 inch baking pan. Dough does not have to fill the pan. Cut a cross 3/8 inch thick across the top and down the sides of the loaf.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake bread 40 to 45 minutes or until bread is browned and loaf sounds hollow when you knock on it. Best sliced thin and lightly buttered, toasted or untoasted.

Hot damn!

The Honorable Stephanie Flowers is a force to be reckoned with.  Watch as she ends a Stand Your Ground Bill in an Arkansas Judiciary Committee hearing all by herself. Spit-spot. 

Watch the man on the left try and stop her. Flowers' argument is sound and informed. I hope the dude is not a Democrat. If he is, he needs fired. Pay attention to this smart woman, Democrats. This is a/the winning argument.

Meet an ALT-Left Troll or Two

I hang at a "Progressive Website." The comments below are from a few regular posters who shall remain nameless.

Comments refer to Paula Duncan who appears in this video with Lawrence O'Donnell. Ms. Duncan was a juror in the Manafort trial. It is important to watch all the way through. Ms. Duncan, who is a Trump voter, is going to tell you why Trump has lost his war on America. We all, pro and con, know him better now.

COMMENTS IN QUESTION

Manny - No, you’re seeing the poorly educated in action. The fact that Dump hangs around all these convicted criminals means nothing to her. She just loved him on the Apprentice.

Mo - Her freaking eyeballs had a will of their own...bobbing about in their sockets...can't imagine speaking to her face to face....very disturbing and disquieting...

Jack - Agree. if she voted for President Stupidass, she's a stupidass and shouldn't be allowed to make any decisions.

Paula Duncan is an American Hero. She took a principled stand for the Rule of Law and simple civility. She did not allow her personal bias to affect her public duty. Praise her with great praise.

Duncan does not believe the MSMedia. She has no reason to respect them. First Trump was a star and now he is shyte? All this information coming out now was available when Trump was running. MSMedia pissed their pants from happiness over how exciting Trump was. They hung on his every word. We are 45th from the top in press freedom worldwide. Do you believe the Press? I am not fond of infotainment myself.

Paula Duncan has taught me to stop abusing the Trump voter. She renewed my respect for America and Americans.

Trolls come to play in social media. They are amateur and professional. They are Republican, Progressive, Russian, Marketing and/or Disinformation Specialists. They fly all flags and colors. Job #1 for these wankers is fomenting anger, division, and contempt among Americans.

What is the difference between the above Trolls and Donald Trump et al functionally? Not much. Not too damn much. And I smell hanky panky. One juror and one juror only who refused to convict on 10 counts. Old Man judge reduces the sentence and thereby makes the crimes look small. I smell Rat shyte.

Schultz for POTUS?

“never trust anyone
who says
they do not see color.
this means
to them,
you are invisible.”
― Nayyirah Waheed

I trust my gut. I cannot vote for Schultz. If I gaze at him in action too long, I want to shove my foot, in my work boot with cleats, right up his nancy ass.

I try to avoid men that arouse that sentiment in me. Not because I am particularly peaceful. Oh no, because I might do it on a good day and so far I have managed to avoid jail or the nuthouse.

NERD and MENTAT NINJA 2020 ! with Music

Elizabeth Warren

Stacey Abrams

2020 !

We need financial and voting integrity and reform bigtime. These women have been in the trenches fighting for a long damn time. They got the guts. Give them the glory. They have the experience. Anybody want to try an amateur businessman again?

Graphic below our heroes by Buddy McCue.

Morning in August - Real Philadephia - #1 - First Draft

I keep baker's hours. Snoring at nine p.m. and up at three a.m. Philadelphia time. My front step is on the pavement. What happens on the street happens fifteen feet from my desk. Dawn happening. Peace.

I began to feel vibrations in the ether. Maria de los Dolores passing: earrings flashing, bracelets clashing, accompanying cherubs jiggy jigging. Everybody calls her Lola. Lola is louder and crazier than I am. I find that soothing. Everyone else runs when they see her coming. Lola starts her circuit ride around ten o'clock most days. Big disturbance in the pattern means big news. It is the Cherubs. Little fuckers tell her everything. So I opened my door.

"What?"
"Baby Dee is dead. You got a stamp? Give me fifty cents and I get my own stamp."

Lola jiggy jigged away, Cherubs in tow and one dollar richer. I sat until the light told me it was coffee hour. I meet all my neighbors at the bodega, one time or another.

Robbers shot the clerk behind the counter at the bodega five years ago. Then they went straight home. Cops had them in 45 minutes. Robbers had a wee problem with drugs. We got new owners of course. They spent their first year looking fierce. Now as the hipsters and Art studios begin their invasion, they just look bored.

Everybody in the world goes to the bodega just the same. The bodega is our oasis in a food and sundries desert. I get mango ice cream and Dominican beef stew. I get the heat. I get succulent roasted pork leg. I get fly tapes, socks, lottery tickets and EZwider. I get the story.

When I rounded the corner onto Tangerine Street, I saw the Commodore and Shorty.  The Commodore looks like a mocha stork. Just as tall as can be. I call him the Commodore because he is a sharp dresser. Always looks like he is about to go sailing. Classic Sport, you know what I mean? Shorty is short and short.

"What happened to Baby Dee?"

"Maybe you don't know Baby Dee worked with these young druggy kids. One kid freaked and Baby Dee was trying to calm him down. Boy shot him 4 times. Shorty found him."

Shorty nodded. He short.

"What can I do?"

"Funeral on Thursday at the Baptist Church at three o'clock. They started putting candles and flowers around his door. Shorty put up a balloon say PEACE."

Shorty nodded. Just stood right there. Shortening.

I keep walking toward coffee at the bodega like always. I pass Baby Dee's altar. It grew over days. Candles, flowers, notes. He was the Mayor of the 'hood and kept the day folk nicely separate from the night folk.

Baby Dee and I, we had a thing. Knees. I would hobble around to the bodega on my (I can still walk and get my own coffee) mission every morning at 7 a.m. Dee ruined his knee being a football person. He would stop detailing some Cadillac, limp over and hug me. I am like a child. I thought it was forever. I can walk now and Baby Dee is gone to Jesus.

Miss Norma - Real Philadelphia #2

Midnight. It was a soft day. Now it is a balmy night. A gentle breeze is sending smoke from the chemical plant out to sea.

Miss Norma is parked outside my door in her running car. I can smell the engine and hear the exhaust. Norma is dancing in her seat with the windows closed and the bass turned up so high the car is pulsating. She has been tossing her hair and waving her arms about for 20 minutes now. Norma has good taste in music, thank you God.

Norma is living in the rowhouse next door with another single Mom and eight children. Norma is sheltering a family while their house is repaired after a fire. The combined children range in age from 3 to 14. It has been three months now. You would be pulsating in your car too. Norma was so trashed after the Eagles game that she was out there pulsating at 2 am. She told me "I do not think I can make it inside." Offers of aid were refused. All must be well because she is running another concert tonight.

Norma has five children. Rosy Posy is my favorite. I promised crayons to all the kidniks for Xmas and then I fell. For awhile I could not write a sentence or even read. I need the boxes with the sharpener and all the colors. Soon children, soon. The girls came by after Christmas and politely reminded me I made a present promise. They are beautiful and I love them.

Norma and I, we have an unspoken deal. I ignore the constant pile of dogshit in her backyard, and her blood curdling howls of frustration that penetrate the brick walls that divide our rowhouses, and she lets me borrow the children and pretend I am their Grandma. Solid. 

I just heard this...

Occasionally I write a Poem. Sometimes good and sometimes bad.
As long as the Poem floem,
I am happy and not sad.

I just heard this on the cable tv...

"...the rescue mission was successful.
Twenty three people died."

I thought to myself:
Self, "War is peace."

Then I thought:
I really ought to name this poem
Quotation to the Second Power
...and spoiled the whole reflection...erection...perfection. 

I am old as dirt.

Graphic by Favianna Rodriguez.

Bless me, for I have sinned. I have done everything. I have been everywhere and nowhere. There is nothing I have to do. I am not at all accustomed to this luxury.

I got married. I gave birth, not in that order. I worked. I went ornately mad. I 'tuned in, turned on and dropped out.' I did my Art. The only thing that is left for me to do is become a Real Girl. And die. That is a lot more challenging than it may seem to the casual lie...I mean eye. I am a Beast.

I am astounded these sentences have appeared. I am dry. I am empty. Lady Shrink says that like a computer, I am buffering. I am terrified I will be in nowhere blah forever. When my Eye is on my eye, I I I...

Thank you Jesus, I can write something again. I just wrote something again. I do not believe Jesus will save me. There is nothing to be saved from. I just enjoy the conversation.

Peace on Earth

There is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds with children. There is no duty more important than ensuring that their rights are respected, that their welfare is protected, that their lives are free from fear and want and that they grow up in peace. -- Kofi Annan

Banner from D&B Graphics

Happy New Year, Cher Reader.

As we discovered on the train (terrain?), tomorrow never happens. It's all the same fucking day, man. - Janis Joplin

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.
Make your mistakes, next year and forever.” ― Neil Gaiman