Actor Wil Wheaton on religion: (yep the guy from StarTrek)
Eastern Black or Prairie swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes asterius)
Ice Age National Scientific Reserve Unit, Wisconsin, USA
2016 8/11 1050aaa3
“This is, apparently, what the actual Jesus of Nazareth looked like, according to an artist and an algorithm and actual, historical, data (as opposed to a story that white people tell each other).
I am an atheist. I do not believe in god, or the devil, or heaven, or hell. But I like and respect this guy. He was a rebel, he was an antiauthoritarian, he dedicated his life to helping the poor, the sick, the indigent, the people who were discarded and rejected by society. He hung out with sex workers and lepers, and gave comfort to the sick and suffering, and he loudly and relentlessly called out the hypocrisy of the church and its leaders. As I understand it, he was like, "Hey, you're a sinner. That's a bummer. Let me help you be a better person. No, I don't expect anything from you for that. I just want to be as loving as I can be." He was a really cool guy.
This guy, in this picture, is not the Jesus I was introduced to in parochial school. The Jesus I was introduced to was soooooo white, like super super super white, and he was keeping an eye on you so he could snitch on you to his dad, who was SUPER PISSED AT EVERYTHING YOU DID all the time for some reason. The Jesus I knew was, like, maybe going to be okay with you, as long as you knew what a giant fuck up you were. And he was absolutely not accepting of anyone who didn’t do exactly what the authority figures at school told us we had to do. And Reagan was essentially his avatar sent to Earth. If we didn't worship Reagan the same way we were supposed to worship white Jesus, we were going to have a REALLY bad time. Did I mention that I was, like, 8 when all of this was drilled into me?
I deeply resent the way that American “Evangelical” Christianity turned this guy in this picture, who was reportedly a cool, loving, gentle, dude, who was a legit rebel, into someone who hates all the same things they hate, and who LOVES authoritarians the same way they do. I despise the people who do all sorts of cruel, hurtful, hateful things in this guy's name. And they are EVERYWHERE in America.
I don’t know what it’s like in the rest of the world. What I do know is that, in America, this person has been perverted into a weapon, a cudgel, to be used against the same people the actual Jesus loved and stood up for. It's disgusting.
And, look, if someone professes to follow the teachings of this dude, whose WHOLE FUCKING THING was “love everyone. Period. No exceptions”, and they don’t, like, do that? They are as bad as the money changers in the temple. I know that this dude loves them, because that’s his whole thing, but I suspect that, if this dude exists, he is disappointed and maybe a little embarrassed by them.
As an afterthought: I can't stop thinking about how this dude was an immigrant, and poor. I keep thinking that, if he showed up in ... let's say Texas, today, how badly he would be treated by the very same people who use his name and pervert his teachings to exert control over the very same people Jesus spent his entire life looking after.
And, honestly, none of this would even matter if the American Christian extremists would keep their white Jesus out of our laws and government.
- Wil Wheaton, actor
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“~358~ The Dirty Truth About Bill Gates”
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A family of grifters:
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“Sirota GOES OFF on Corporate Media: "Money is Written Out of the Story”
“Thanks to Krystal Ball & Kyle Kulinski for having me on to review how corporate media so often refuses to mention the cash bankrolling politicians, and why by contrast our team at The Daily Poster is always exposing that corruption to hold lawmakers accountable.”
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Two Americas in more than just wealth:
“The study from the Rural Policy Research Institute's (RUPRI) Center for Rural Health Policy found the rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths in rural areas have far surpassed those being observed in metropolitan communities, with rural mortality rates more than double that of urban ones.
The average number of cases and deaths in both types of areas began to rise after having dropped and plateaued somewhat in the summer months”
“Rural Americans now dying of COVID-19 at twice the rate of those in urban environments: research”
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“Any public office holder, while making a six-figure salary and receiving top-tier benefits, who insists those striving to survive must make sacrifices to preserve the business models of corporations and industries that cause more social harm than good is not qualified to be a legislator, nor should ever be described as a decent human being.”
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“US Denounced as 'Biggest Peddler of Financial Secrecy' After Pandora Papers Leak”
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“Drilling on the Arctic beach
Russian oil companies bid for licenses along Russia's remotest and most vulnerable shores”
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All the social ills and injustices represented by Trump’s SCOTUS appointments, DeJoy, & the filibuster are what the Democratic Party is really about,...else they would see it changed. And yes, they can change it.
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“The FBI admitted it didn't vet Brett Kavanaugh for alleged sexual crimes. Impeach Kavanaugh from SCOTUS now!”
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“The Other September 11, coup d'état in Chile. This is Neoliberalism in action. 2
The bloody horrors of Pinochet showed how capitalism will respond when it’s threatened
So it’s no coincidence that Pinochet had the mission of suppressing a potential lower class revolt. His regime came to power after the CIA ousted Chile’s democratically elected socialist president Salvador Allende, and Pinochet and his “Chicago Boys” had the task of proliferating neoliberal policies despite the broad popular opposition that these policies were naturally met with. As Margaret Thatcher said about why the global capitalist class embraced neoliberalism, “there is no alternative”-if these radical austerity and privatization measures weren’t carried out, the recession of the 70s would keep making capitalist profits drop, and the whole system would potentially fall apart. If the ruling class wanted to keep their power, neoliberalism would have to be realized by any means necessary.”
“The Bloody Horrors of Pinochet Showed how Capitalism Will Respond When it’s Threatened”
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“Alan Watts | Socially Responsible Automation & UBI”
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Wildfires are burning in South Dakota:
“How prepared is Minnesota for other wildfires on the scale of Greenwood — or larger?”
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“A master class in who is allowed to be angry. A woman is not allowed to wear this face. She is called hysterical. A black man is not allowed to wear this face. He is called dangerous. This is what privilege looks like.”
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Bill Edley:
“Reaganomics stagnated median household incomes while giving CEOs and Top Corporate Executives a license to steal billions for themselves....(see my Labor Paper Op-ED "Limiting Corporate Power")”
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