Tag: racism

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #2,805

yeah I know you did not ask!

You should so be blessed – well cursed at times actually – with a mind such as mine, making all these weird connections between my rumored neurons. Just be thankful that I do not share all of my random thoughts.

If truth was required in advertising and political slogans, MAGA, Make America Great Again, would actually read MAWA.  Make America White Again, or more to the point Make America Great for White Men Again.  However, that does not fit on a ball cap and be easily readable, nor is MAGFWMA very pronounceable. MAGAs seem to have no problem with open misogyny, and barely hide their racism behind rhetoric about illegal immigration. They justify their misogyny with religious language. Their racism has even more nefarious roots.

Of course, the underlying implication of MAGA is that America is not great now, but that seems circular.  If America is not great now, it has a lot to do with the MAGA movement.

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Factfulness by Hans Rosling

The subtitle of this book is: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think.

Read on for a link to the Factfulness quiz.

First a couple of confessions, this is not a book I would normally have read, and it is definitely not one I would have picked off a bookstore shelf.   I have a few charities that I have on automatic pay, including the Fistula Foundation,  a wonderful charity that does good work, and is well managed.  I discovered this charity in an opinion piece by the former New York Times columnist, Nicholas Kristof. I do not remember the name, but an individual donated copies of this book to the Fistula Foundation along with the money to distribute them.  Being a regular donor they sent me a copy. After reading the first few pages, I became very interested in the book.

My second confession may confound folks who know me as I am betting Continue reading “Factfulness by Hans Rosling”

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Now That Is Different

The picture attached is a picture of the back window of my pickup truck. I’ve had it on there since Inauguration Day. Initially I was being flipped off regularly. I have not been done so for several months now.

I am leaving work from downtown St. Louis, and I realize I need gas.  I swing off I-64 to a QT close to downtown.  This is a particularly busy QT.  I get out of my truck, swipe my credit card and start gassing up.  I notice a car pull into the pump behind me and someone get out.  I am not paying that much attention to them.

I’m watching the numbers spin dollars out of my checking account when I hear, “Now that is different.”

I look up and at the back of my pickup is a middle aged black man with graying hair.  I look at him quizzically.  He points to my bumper stickers and says, “Now that is different, a black man who supports Trump, and a white man who does not.”

I look at him, and agree that yes that is very different, and we give each other a fist bump.

I want to ask him why, but did not really want to get into a political discussion at the gas pumps in downtown St. Louis.  Plus I’m not sure any answer would have made sense to me.  It is very perplexing as, IMHO, Trump is a huge racist.