Steaming

Yeah, that's me. I'm steaming mad this morning.

Insanely, infuriatingly and totally fucked-upedly, Republican lawmaker types in 18 (!!!) states have introduced bills to limit our constitutionally guaranteed right to protest.

The First Amendment to the constitution – just FYI and all:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. (source)

That hasn’t stopped the dimbulbed, rapacious fuckers on the “Right” though.

Some are introducing bills because they say they're necessary to counter the actions of “paid” or “professional” protesters who set out to intimidate or disrupt, a common accusation that experts agree is largely overstated. “You now have a situation where you have full-time, quasi-professional agent-provocateurs that attempt to create public disorder,” said Republican state senator John Kavanagh of Arizona in support of a measure there that would bring racketeering charges against some protesters. (source)

North Dakota and Tennessee go one step higher with bills that’d make it legal to hit protesters WITH YOUR CAR! Yup, they’re into legalized maiming and even murder in those two states. In any case, state reps Keith Kempenich and Matthew Hill  seem to be big cheerleaders on this score.

Funny (NOT!) how none of this shit was proposed after tea party asswipes crashed Obamacare town halls and turned violent OR when Obama effigies were burned after his inauguration OR when gun toting shitheels took over a wildlife refuge. Ya know, just fer instance and shit.

Oh and all us protesters on the Left are paid. Did ya know that? I sure as hell didn’t and, boyhowdy, my bank account was in the dark on this too!

Heh!

 

Evidence-free claims and suggestions of paid protesters driving anti-Trump sentiment have circulated throughout right-wing media for years but have increased since the inauguration of Donald Trump. Both Trump himself and White House press secretary Sean Spicer have repeated the claim that anti-Trump protests are, in Spicer’s words, a “very paid astroturf-type movement.”
~~snip~~
The claims have also circulated among fake news purveyors and state-owned Russian propaganda. (source)

I suppose checking Snopes or PolitiFact is, dunno, just too much like work for the press secretary.

And on that Russia/Trump connection – dunno if we’ll ever get a happy on this one. Trump and his team may, in many respects, be galumphing, heavy-handed amateurs BUT they’ve managed to rig much of the system. Human anagram and Trump's Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, has contacted the FBI director, requesting he “publicly knock down media reports about communications between Donald Trump’s associates and Russians known to US intelligence.”  Not just unethical, it’s also an attempt to obstruct justice under federal law – in other words, A CRIME! The Trump team has made buddy Jeff Sessions the Attorney General though. I’m not holding my breath for him to put country before party.

So yeah, a lot of steaming rage today. Mebbe it's time to hit the gym and elliptical off some of this fury.

a palate cleanser for you and me both