Month: November 2017

So some fans are flipping out because it was revealed that newly minted Marvel editor in chief, C.B. Cebulski, back in 2010, violated Marvel’s rules against editors also writing comics. It’s being considered outrageous because he violated Marvel’s rules and because he adopted a Japanese pseudonym and wrote stories that played off Japanese backgrounds.

You know: the way that hundreds of people have used fake names when writing, for any number of reasons. Female SF writers adapted male pseudonyms. Even Jo Rowling chose a gender neutral name of J.K. Meanwhile C.B., who lived in Japan for many years, was inspired by his background to let it influence what he wrote, not to mention his hiring practices for bringing Japanese creators into the fold. Honestly, it’s really not surprising that he adapted a Japanese persona. These days, fans only seem comfortable with specific folks writing specific characters. Women are preferred for titles with heroines, African Americans are typically drafted for Black Panther. It’s probably felt that only creators who share the specific backgrounds of the characters are truly qualified to write their adventures, even though all the characters were typically created by white men.

As for the rule of editors not writing, when the hëll did THAT happen? Back in the 1980s when I first started writing, editors were EXPECTED to write comics. It was felt that that was the best way for them to remain in touch with the process and be emotionally in touch with what the full time writers had to deal with. If C.B. violated it, well, it was a stupid rule and I would hope that Marvel has done away with it since.

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Granted, it’s also critical of the Democrats, but it has every right to be.

Read it here.

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Ball made much noise claiming he had no idea why it was necessary to thank Trump. Trump’s response was to wage a twitter war on the guy and even claim that the guy’s son and his two associates should have faced the ten to fifteen years they would surely have received at the hands of Chinese “justice.”

Except…not so much. A Hong Kong lawyer has stated that shoplifting is a minor crime and the odds were that not only would they have gotten no jail time, but they likely wouldn’t have been prosecuted.

Of course, if Trump wanted to intervene with other people being screwed over by the Chinese, there’s a list who could have used his attention…but apparently have been ignored.

See the full story in the New York Times here.

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So Trump is back and did not waste any time screwing up.

1. Even when he gets it right…. Over a month ago, Hillary Clinton managed to guilt Trump into dispatching the navy hospital vessel Comfort to Puerto Rico. Outfitted with a thousand beds, it treated nearly 5000 patients during the month that it was there. Yet now Trump has, for no reason whatsoever, ordered the ship to depart Puerto Rico even though the country still lacks the infrastructure to attend to itself. Even when Trump allows himself to be pushed into doing the right thing, sooner or later he immediately has to say or do something that runs contrary to it. He literally cannot help himself.

2) Having a Ball. I have to admit that I never heard of LaVar Ball. Apparently, however, those who have an interest in college basketball are indeed aware of him. My obliviousness is simply explained by the fact that I care about college basketball only slightly less than I care about professional basketball, not to mention hockey, soccer, or any other sport except baseball. But now, of course, I’ve heard of him because he picked a fight with Trump. Whereas everyone else deplored Trump’s demand for a thank you regarding the three college students who were dumb enough to shoplift in China, Ball—the father of one of the lads—flat out declared that it wasn’t necessary. That Trump actually did nothing. That Ball had people “on the ground” who were far more responsible for getting the kids freed. This managed to distract the news from far more appropriate questions such as “How does it feel raising a son that f’ing stupid?” and instead drew all attention to his Trump-related comments.

Now anyone with half a brain would realize that this guy is looking for PR. This guy has been exploiting his sons for years and apparently saw his latest kid’s stupidity as simply another chance to get his name out there. Anyone, again, with half a brain would realize that the absolute last thing you would want to do is engage with this yoyo because you’re just giving him what he wants. If you keep your mouth shut, he’ll have a news cycle or two and then go away.

Which means we are forced to the unavoidable conclusion that Trump has less than half a brain. Because he had to engage him. Of COURSE he had to engage him, and in the worst possible way, by stating that the kids should have been left in jail. So Trump’s inability to not rise to any disrespect has taken what should have been a minor story and elevated it into a HUGE story. Because the story is no longer “LaVar Ball is a stupid weirdo.” The story is “The President of the United States advocates leaving three students prisoners in China because one of them has a father with a big mouth.” Holy crap. Every single time you think that Trump has lowered the bar as far as he can go, he brings out a jackhammer, drills into the concrete and drops the bar another few feet.

Some people are contending it’s racially motivated, especially because Trump compared Ball to Don King. Which is weird because last I knew, King was a Trump supporter, so I can imagine him sitting at home going, “Man, do NOT drag me into this!” But I don’t think it is. Trump goes after anybody. If Ball had been white and said the same thing, Trump would’ve fired off a twitter storm at him because he has absolutely zero self control. He literally cannot ignore anyone who comes into his radar because he is the most victimized rich white man in the history of the world. As far as he’s concerned, if he had existed a hundred and fifty years ago, slaves crammed into the holds of slave ships would have been saying, “Well, at least we’re not Donald Trump. That would be way worse.”

Meanwhile, as Trump and LaVar Ball go back and forth, idiot Trump supporters are harassing LeVar Burton. Jesus Christ.

And Trump’s son is no better.

3. Seriously? Trump Junior, on Thanksgiving, had the balls to criticize Al Franken.

Now obviously there are some things shaking out about Franken’s conduct. Apparently he has slapped women on the backside. The fact that fourteen women in Congress came forward and raved about a wonderful man he was to work with caught about half a second in the news cycle before being shunted aside so we can continue to obsess about this.

Indeed, Trump Jr. seemed to miss out on this. He also missed out on where his father was accused by sixteen women of horrific conduct that Trump boasted about before claiming they were all lying. “We’re going to sue them all!” declared Trump before, a year later, suing none of them. He defends Roy Moore, of course. A dozen women accuse him of crimes ranging from assault to statutory rape, but Trump defends Moore because he denied it, the same as he defended Putin because he denied it. Part of me wishes that Franken had also denied it just to watch Trump twist around and completely believe Franken’s accusers in the way that he dismissed Moore’s and his own. Part of me wishes even more that the Senate Ethics Committee’s jurisdiction extended to the Presidency, because those would be hearings I want to see. But apparently the Senate is far too concerned about Hillary Clinton or Al Franken to focus on a president who is a proud abuser of women.

4. Let’s keep it neutral. Meanwhile Trump’s appointees are attempting to get rid of net neutrality. This would be a huge bonus for Trump’s pals, big business, because with net neutrality gone, they would be able to choke out resources they don’t like or charge sizable handling charges impeding your ability to access everything from Facebook to Netflix to pørņ to Twitter. Granted, I derive a small pleasure from the idea that Trump might have to pay for his Twitter account, but it’s not worth screwing everyone else over. The one hope we have at this point is that court cases are immediately filed over it and we wind up with judges dispensing orders to halt it until it can get sorted out in the courts, which could take years.

Did he do anything right? He pardoned the turkeys. In fact, he even asked the handler’s permission to touch them. So basically Trump displayed more respect for turkeys than he does for human women.

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A slightly quieter week since Trump just returned from Asia. But there are still some things that need to be addressed.

But I’ll tell you right now, I’m not going to make a big deal about him drinking water. Yes, I know he went after Marco Rubio for that and now it’s ironic, and so on. I don’t care. He’s an old man, he was back from a long trip, they handed him some Fuji water and he drank it badly. So freaking what. Let’s try to stick to a higher plane of discourse here.

1). Seriously? TRUMP is going to attack Al Franken? So Al Franken was revealed to have done something stupid seven years ago, before he was a Senator. Apparently he forcibly kissed a female radio broadcaster before a sketch during a USO tour, and he had a picture taken of him fondling her breasts while she was asleep. He has profusely apologized for it, which we all know in this day and age makes no difference. Once upon a time, an apology was the end of a discussion. Now it’s just the opening salvo of a determined process that will not stop until the person who committed a wrong doing is driven from his job into hiding. Franken is aware of that and has already HIMSELF called for a hearing before the Senate ethics committee. But that wasn’t enough for Trump, who declared that the picture looked really bad and implied that there were many more photos where Franken groped her all over.

Yet oddly I have seen NO Trump Twitter comments about Roy Moore who, in his early thirties, attempted to or actually did commit statutory rape with a number of girls ranging in age from 14 to 16. For that matter, sixteen women have come forward with their own stories about Trump’s groping, fondling and assaults, which he himself BOASTED ABOUT. Harvey Weinstein was fired from his position in the company that he created, but Trump continues to cruise along, criticizing people he dislikes for far milder crimes while ignoring those in his own party who were banned from malls because of their sick behavior. Meanwhile Jeff Sessions starts insisting they should investigate the Clintons, probably at Trump’s request. David Gerrold posted a great joke: “How many Republicans does it take to change a light bulb?” “Benghazi!”

Meanwhile it’s been revealed that in Congress itself, if a female aide is groped or molested, there is a byzantine process in which any woman who wants to complain has to go through therapy and counseling for months BEFORE she can proceed with her complaint. And if the process isn’t completed within 180 days, she can’t file it. Yet THEY then get to sit in judgment on Franken for something he did before he was a Senator? Fine. Then if they’re going to be consistent, if/when Roy Moore is elected, his very FIRST stop should be going before that very same Senate ethics committee.

2). The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.. Donald Trump Jr’s emails prove beyond any doubt that during the campaign, he was allied with Wikileaks to hack Clinton’s emails and release them in order to make her look bad. There’s a technical word for this behavior: illegal. It violated campaign finance rules which prohibit foreign spending and involvement in an election. Trump Jr. specifically supported and endorsed their activities. Meanwhile evidence is mounting that, despite Trump Sr’s assertions that he didn’t know George Papadopolous, George in fact briefed him and Jeff Sessions in person about Clinton’s emails and Russia’s cooperation. Sessions, to his credit, said it was a bad idea and they shouldn’t get involved. To his lack of credit, he later lied about it to Congress.

3). Basketball players get bounced. I was going to include this in the “did he do anything right?” section, since Trump managed to get China to back off from jailing three idiot college basketball players who were caught red handed shoplifting. But I can’t because he immediately screwed it up by asking if the students were going to thank him. Yes, that’s right: he asked to be thanked. NO ONE ASKS to be thanked. The whole purpose of saying “thank you” is that it’s unprompted and thus genuine. By demanding to be thanked, you’re behaving like the kindergarten teacher who insists that little Tommy apologize to little Jimmy for slapping him during recess, and the response you get will not be especially sincere. That is how fragile Trump’s ego is. That is how much he needs to thrust himself into the spotlight and receive praise. If he HAD to insist on thank yous, what he SHOULD have done was say that they should remember to thank the Chinese president who agreed to spring them. Which he eventually did AFTER they had thanked Trump, because to this idiot, that’s all that’s important.

4). Trump’s tax bill.. In addition to Trump endorsing a tax bill that will screw over middle income families while aiding the rich (and falsely claiming the exact opposite on Twitter) it should be also noted that hidden in the bill is a stipulation that will defund Planned Parenthood. Despite the fact that no government dollars go to pay for abortions, Trump’s people want to try to undo Roe vs. Wade in any manner that they can, and they figure shutting down Planned Parenthood will go a long way toward accomplishing that. So if the tax bill passes and you’re a poor to middle income woman who wants to get an abortion, you may not be able to afford it or there may simply be nowhere near you where you can have the procedure done. Which would mean a return to the old days where back alley abortions hold sway and women are either messed up or dead as a result. Which is fine with Trump because he still wants a return to the good old days. You know. When women shut their mouths about abuse.

How the hëll does this nimrod still have anyone who supports him?

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So Trump is out of the country, bringing his demented style to Asia.

Are there things I could discuss? Sure. For instance, his capitulation to the Chinese government not to answer questions from the press. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has no more love for the press than Trump does. Typically when a US President visits with a Chinese leader, it provides an opportunity to press their feet to the fire of their media. But Trump, who constantly picks fights with the US media, was happy to accommodate them. Then again, when Obama first visited China, he likewise held no press conference, and years later a joint US/Chinese press conference required weeks of negotiation. So the Trump supporters will immediately point to that to support him.

And of course there’s the tax plan. Not only will it hurt the middle class (which according to the GOP is anyone earning around $150K) while providing breaks to Trump’s rich friends, but it may well include wording to do further damage to Obamacare by claiming that it’s all part of the tax plan. Since repeal and replace didn’t work because the GOP finally proved beyond a doubt that they had no plan with which to replace it, they’re now considering sticking an addendum to the tax plan that would eliminate the individual mandate, an essential part of Obamacare. That would likely doom it since the Democrats are united against that and it’s failed in the Senate twice. So if they’re smart they won’t do it. If they’re smart.

Let’s not forget Roy Moore, the aspiring Senator who was so much like Trump that even Trump didn’t support him (even though he subsequently admitted that might have been a mistake.). It appears Moore likes his girls way too young, according to the Washington Post.. His office attempted to dismiss the claim by stating that Moore has been married to the same woman for thirty three years. That’s nice. That would mean he got married at the age of 37, and since the accusations occurred when he was in his early thirties, that’s of no relevance. Politicians who already dislike him are claiming he should withdraw from the election. But Moore won’t do that; he’ll just deny it happened, his supporters will declare it’s fake news, and this statutory raping bášŧárd will wind up in the Senate. Good luck finding someone who’ll work with him.

But I really have to say that what blistered me most this week was Trump’s supporters. My God, I am so dámņëd sick of them.

No, we can’t have gun control because it’s all a mental issue. Right, that’s why Trump has done everything possible to get rid of support for the mentally ill.

Here’s the best: there’s no point in adding more anti-gun laws because the ones we have now aren’t working. That is the single most idiotic defense I’ve heard yet. Because if you take that bizarre argument to its logical conclusion, we should do away with laws against assault and battery, and robbery, and murder, because all those crimes still occur. So why not eliminate all those and just plunge the country into anarchy where everyone has to have guns because there are no policemen to enforce the law, since there is no longer law. I mean, I get that politicians will do nothing because they’re afraid of the NRA, but how can ordinary citizens–the majority of whom approve the idea of increased background checks–defend the idea of doing nothing to try and scale back gun violence? Australia did it. Japan did it. Gun-related death tolls in Japan are the tiniest fraction of what it is in the US. Why are we the only developed nation with such a vast percentage of mass shootings? And why do these demented Trump supporters continue to sit with their heads in the sand and say, “No gun laws?”

It may well be the same internal lack of logic which allows them not to see Trump’s lies for what they are. Their defense is always, “Well, Hillary lied!” Yes, Hillary lied. So did Obama. So did Bill Clinton. So did George W. Bush…he lied us into wars that are still going. But nobody’s lies, none of them, compare to Trump’s. There’s an old joke that you can tell when (fill in person’s name) is lying: his lips are moving. This is quite literally Trump. He lies in his speeches, in his press conferences, in his tweets. He lies more than any other politician in modern history. And when this is pointed out to his supporters, their response is always the same: other politicians lie, too. Because when someone points out something irrefutable, rather than defend it, the preferred tactic is to deflect it by saying, “Yeah, but what about this?” Its a whole movement called “whataboutism” that seemed to begin with, appropriately enough, the Russians. Trump thoroughly embraced it during the campaign (“The Russians kill people!” “Yeah, well, the US kills people, too.”) and has thoroughly refined it during his presidency (“Trump’s people colluded with Russia!” “Yeah, well, why aren’t they going after Hillary Clinton! She sold Uranium!”) Indeed, he’s raised “Whataboutism” to an art form: whenever he is accused of anything, he brings up an irrelevant topic and distracts people over to that. “Sure, Mueller is closing in on me, but hey, what about those disrespectful football players!” And his followers and Fox News take to the skies and start hammering away at the NFL until the thing Trump wants to go away fades with the news cycle.

I just find myself wondering how Americans can be so stupid. I just don’t get it. It used to be that you could talk to people on the other side of the aisle and have respectful conversations, spirited debate that stuck to the issues. No more. Now the right always seizes upon deficiencies by the left–real or imagined, accused and long ago debunked–to defend the things that their own people do. I’ve never gotten a reasonable answer to the question of why you would point to the actions of those you hate to justify the things you do. We on the left want to act in the opposite manner from the right; why do conservatives grab liberal actions as justification? We want to be better than them; why wouldn’t they want to be better than us? When Obama or Clinton (either one) would do something stupid, no one ever pointed to the actions of W. or his dad and said, “Well, they did something stupid too, so that makes it okay!” Instead we criticized them. Why can’t Trump’s supporters ever criticize him?

It’s insane.

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With the tragedy in Texas in which a crazed white man killed nearly two dozen people, it’s obvious that we are going to get the same people saying the same thing. If he’s been Muslim, the talk would be about keeping Muslims out of the country. Since he’s white, it’s going to be about psychiatric problems. As people send prayers to people who were praying, obviously the gun fanatics will keep things exactly the same and nothing will change.

What I found perfect was the article in the Onion, which began:

In the hours following a violent rampage in Texas in which a lone attacker killed 27 individuals and seriously injured several others, citizens living in the only country where this kind of mass killing routinely occurs reportedly concluded Sunday that there was no way to prevent the massacre from taking place.

That may sound vaguely familiar to regular Onion readers. There’s a good reason for it.

Aside from changing the names and numbers of where the shooting took place, and the name and state of residence of a person who mourns the fact that nothing could be done to stop it, they ran the identical article after the Las Vegas shooting and shootings in California. Because all the same people are going to say all the same things, without change, without question, and without any sense of irony.

You can read the full article(s) here.

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