Thursday, April 28, 2011

Jon Stewart interviews Bernie Sanders

Sanders if the longest serving independent in U.S. history. He's also the first self-described socialist in Congress. I'll probably be writing him in next year, and no I don't care if he's not actually running, Obama's getting Illinois anyway who cares

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - Bernie Sanders Extended Interview Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full EpisodesPolitical Humor & Satire BlogThe Daily Show on Facebook


The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - Bernie Sanders Extended Interview Pt. 2
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full EpisodesPolitical Humor & Satire BlogThe Daily Show on Facebook

Jon Stewart and Ron Paul in a kind, civil, sane discussion about the values of libertarianism vs. the values of progressivism

This is actually from last year.



See? Was that so hard?

Hey guys. What if Ron Paul got the Republican ticket next year? Wouldn't that be something? Just imagine it. Paul and Obama smiling and laughing and complimenting each others' ideas. The media wouldn't know what the hell to do. I can see it now: Obama accidentally brushes against Paul on his way to the podium, apologizes profusely

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

White House releases Obama's birth certificate

Here it is. We've reached the apex of the American civilization. When a president has to release his own birth certificate in order to appease the lowest common denominator, America has officially began its downwards spiral. I mean, just imagine what it would've looked like if George Bush called a press conference to deny that 9/11 was orchestrated by our own government. This is ridiculous.

The saddest part of all is that it might help Obama. I don't think it's a coincidence that right wing propagandists started to bring this up again shortly before the 2012 election. Maybe they were hoping it would stick on some of the dumber independents. Now that Obama's done this, the birthers are just going to come off as even more batshit than they already do. Because they're not dropping this.

The questions keep coming. Like this: “Why did Obama spend millions of dollars to keep this document secret?” writes Judson Phillips, founder of Tea Party Nation, on his group’s website.

Or this: “I’m sure someone will investigate this BC and prove it to be a fraud, like what they have tried to pass off in the past,” writes Worried Grammie on the Tea Party Nation site.


Instead of issuing a national apology for spreading lies about the president, debaucher Newt Gingrich said this morning, "All I would say is, why did it take so long? The whole thing is strange." Gingrich apparently doesn't know that Obama's birth certificate has already been publicly available for the last three years.

Donald Trump is claiming credit for what the White House just did. Again, instead of apologizing for being fucking wrong, he's bitching and complaining. Oh, he got exactly what he wanted? Doesn't matter. Obama needs to release his college records now too. Because "word is, he wasn't a very good student." Really? Who's word is that? You can't just say things and pretend that they're true. Has America's national discourse degraded into email chainletters from grandma now? Apparently so, since Obama felt compelled to release his god damn birth certificate. Don't these people care that George Bush was a straight C student? Do they know that John McCain was born in Panama, and not in the United States? This is a prime example of why you don't negotiate with terrorists. And racism, it's a good example of racism too.

There's something extremely important going on that nobody seems to be talking about. Presidential hopefuls like Newt Gingrich and Donald Trump have made a living out of manipulating people to get what they want. They're sociopaths. You have to be really fucking stupid to buy into this birther crap. And if they really were that stupid, they wouldn't have been able to get to where they are. They don't believe this birther nonsense any more than you or me. They're saying what their supporters want to hear. That's it. They know they can't win on actual issues, because in terms of issues, they want to rape your average American up the ass. This is nothing but a distraction in order to get voters angry for the wrong reasons. From everything to abortion, to gay bashing, to Muslim bashing, to Bible-jerking, to red baiting -- distraction has been the Republican platform ever since Nixon. The reason why the United States is falling behind is because instead of focusing on education, or jobs, or health care, we focus on boogeymen lurking in the shadows.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Why I'm not voting for Barack Obama again

I think American liberals are now divided into two groups — those who have retained their faith in the future, and those who have lost it. I’m one of the latter. The last two years has stripped me of all faith I had in the American government, or its ability to change or impact anything whatsoever. No way in hell am I voting for Barack Obama again. I do feel a little bad about this. I don’t want the fascists to win (and at this point that's exactly what Republicans are, I will debate you on this). But Obama and the Democrats seem to be strutting a “What choice do you have?” attitude, which I find to be extremely undemocratic, and I don’t appreciate it at all. I’m not settling for either/or when my only “choice” is between Obama the conservative, and whichever fascistic cutout the corporations decide to strap a pin on. Those in power are deliberately skewing the debate in their own direction to give us the illusion of choice. I won’t allow myself to be forced into voting for a conservative. I’m not a tool, and I’m not going to play.

Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, AIG, and all those assholes who caused the global economic meltdown weren’t even pursued. They're doing better than ever. In response to BP raping an entire ecosystem, Obama called for more drilling. When the European Parliament enacted strict regulations on bank compensations, and called for the United States to do the same, the president did nothing. Obama is currently holding Bradley Manning as a political prisoner. They’re trying to plant false evidence on Julian Assange. The president has extended warrantless wiretapping in direct violation of the Constitution. He’s going to hold military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay. He's done nothing about Afghanistan, and it looks like our soldiers will be needlessly dying in the desert for at least another decade. No fucking way am I voting for this guy again. These are the exact reasons why we as liberals despised George W. Bush so much, and we shouldn’t forget that. I’m not abandoning my principles for a political party I never associated myself with to begin with.

I really do feel that Barack Obama is doing the best he can, and that’s exactly the problem. This is the best we can do. At the exact moment when it’s most vital to come together and solve our problems, the government has become stagnant. It’s not necessarily Obama I’m most angry with, it’s the system. I just don’t see the point in taking part in a system that is so utterly useless and broken. There’s no longer a reason to hold any amount of faith in it. We are fucked. The Pentagon has consistently worked against the president to keep the military industrial complex rolling. The economic meltdown was not an accident, and Congress, the Supreme Court, and half of Obama’s White House are all in on it. The founders rebelled for less.

I really am starting to see parallels of Rome losing its republic (and I’ve fought that comparison until now). And I don't mean that America is going to completely collapse and we'll become an apocalyptic wasteland. We're just going to stagnate as the rest of the world overtakes us. With how little our government thinks of the Patriot Act, and seeing how little the rest of us care about it, there's nothing stopping them from enacting further "emergency measures" in the future. Since no one in the Bush Administration ever went to prison for the war crimes they committed, there's nothing stopping us from continuing to commit them in the future. It doesn’t matter who’s president. I’ve given up. You can’t bring change using the system that is designed to resist change. I have half a mind to write-in the socialist candidate next year just for shits and giggles. I don't even consider myself a socialist. It’s not like elections even matter anymore, 2000 proved that. These corporate fascists are rigging our elections, they have taken over our government, and they have us by the fucking balls. They are going to get their way and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.

The only comparison I can make to our own history to the amount of corruption in our government right now could possibly be Reconstruction, or maybe the time shortly before the Great Depression. But I'm not hopeful that we can crawl our way out of it this time. This is uncharted territory, for the sole reason that we now have a mass media. There's never been a more effective propaganda tool in the history of the world. And it fucking works. When the mass deregulation of these corporations was directly responsible for what's happening right now, half the country is convinced that even less regulation is going to fix everything. Nothing short of another revolution is going to change a damn thing, and corporate media has the American people so fucking brainwashed that we’re going welcome the destruction of our rights with open arms. If you want freedom, move somewhere outside the United States, because the American experiment has failed. We’re trapped in the belly of this horrible machine, and the machine is bleeding to death.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Glenn Beck vows to take on Stewart and Colbert and connect to the youth



Glenn. I know there’s a whole demographic full of ad revenue you’re not tapping into. That’s a lot of money that you want. But Stewart and Colbert are good at what they do because they’re comedians first, and commentators second. You can’t be a commentator and forcefully nudge your way into comedy. You’re going to come off as that ‘square’ dad who’s trying to be cool. You do remember how Michael Steele acted whenever he was in front of a camera? You really want to turn into that?

And another thing, if you want to connect with us, you probably shouldn’t start out by calling us misguided and ignorant. That only shows how little you think of us. I have an entire shelf in my room dedicated only to history books. Claiming that I don’t understand George Washington, or Thomas Jefferson, or “freedom” is extremely insulting. I’ve read biographies on those men. Whenever I hear you talk about them, your complete ignorance makes me want to throw myself out of a window. I mean, this is how you think Thomas Paine acted. Really. You have Thomas "The world is my country" Paine, the anti-religion proto-socialist, spewing off bullshit about nationalism and xenophobia. Really. “The founders” is not a religion to be skewed at your pleasure. You are a massive fucking idiot, and we’re not as dumb as you think.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Time's 2011 'Most influential people' poll

Link

…Do they know 2011 isn’t even halfway over yet?

Five out of the top ten are pop stars. Meanwhile, Gabrielle Giffords is 24, Michelle Obama is 32, Hillary Clinton is 44, and the President of the United States is 45.



It’s not all hopeless though. Mohamed Bouazizi is on the list. I know! Not only is he on the list, but he’s all the way up to 16. He’s the Tunisian who set himself on fire and single-handedly sparked the most widespread democratic upheaval we’re likely to see in our lifetimes. I know I should shove a spoon into my eyeball upon the realization of Lady Gaga being more influential than a fucking worldwide revolution, but I’ve learned that I need to lower my standards at this point. When Susan Boyle is at number 3, I’m going to take what I can get.

And Christopher Hitchens is number eight! I didn’t even know the general public knew who he was! I like what Time put down under his occupation once you click on his name: “writer, atheist.” I immediately went to Jon Stewart, and was surprised to find that it didn’t say “Occupation: Jew.”

Making myself laugh prevents me from crying.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

LIZERD DERP.



Click for high res.

Progress report for a drawing I’m working on right now. I haven’t even begun shading the head yet, or messed with the different colored scales, and I gotta work on that area around the eye, and I’m not satisfied with the glares on the tongue. I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do for the background yet. I might just spread around some charcoal, that always looks nice. I’m really excited. I know it’s pretty good so far, but whenever I get full of myself, I just do a google search for “Albrecht Durer,” and he always puts me in my place. I wish I could be Albrecht Durer. I want to make love to the corpse of Albrecht Durer, is what I’m saying.

What I find most interesting about working on this piece is how much I’m learning. I’m not talking about art skills, I’m learning about the lizard itself. You’ll notice the scales below and around the nostril sort of look cluttered and misshapen (the scales around the eye though are purposely misshapen to give the illusion of contour… to the best of my ability, at least). That area around the nose is where I first started. I was trying to figure out how the scales worked. By the time I got to the area below the mouth, you’ll notice everything is much more uniform and organized. That’s where I started to pick up on it. I explained this to my teacher and asked if she thought I should redo the scales around the nose, but she told me they still look like they fit, so I’m going to keep it. Constructive criticism encouraged.

One final thought: fuck the human figure. Good god. So hard. I’m sticking with animals for now okay. I painted a spider a couple months back and I think I do well with animals.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Sunday Youtube Post

The entire unaired pilot for Rugrats

Friday, April 8, 2011

Jon Stewart and Mike Huckabee talk separation of church and state

The Daily Show's website is glitchy as shit and it won't let me embed, but here's Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of the unedited interview. I'm so glad Stewart did such a great job, because if he hadn't, I likely would've thrown my computer out of a window due to how incredibly misinformed Mike Huckabee is about everything ever.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Glenn Beck's TV show will be pulled

Fox announced today that Beck will "transition off of his daily program" later this year.

His radio show wasn't mentioned, so he'll probably still have that. Regardless, this is still a huge victory for truth and rationality. Shame on Fox for giving an outlet to conspiracy theorists and sensationalist lies. If you listen to the regular conservative voices like Hannity or O'Reilly, I'm still going to think you're a bit of an idiot. But people like Limbaugh and Beck go way beyond the pale. They are pure propagandists, and I'm not going to respect your opinion if you take them seriously.

But part of me is still going to miss him a little. As horrifying as his ideas are, you can't help but sit back and laugh at how fucking dumb he is. We'll miss you, Glenn. Here's his greatest hits.

  • Glenn Beck says Japan deserved the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster because God is punishing them



  • Glenn Beck asks a Muslim Congressmen to prove he's not a terrorist



  • Glenn Beck calls the president a "racist" with "a deep-seeded hatred for white people" and "white culture."



  • Glenn Beck rapes the memory of Thomas Paine

As a lover of revolutionary American history, this, above everything else, has pissed me off the most. Beck got a guy to dress up and pretend to be Thomas Paine. But instead of reciting Paine's anti-nationalist, anti-religious, proto-socialist views, this asshole portrayed Paine as a xenophobic neocon who agreed with Glenn Beck on everything.



  • Glenn Beck literally inspires terrorism

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

I didn't realize how much I missed him. Come back soon Keith <333

Monday, April 4, 2011

Monday Youtube Post



I enjoy history so much because I always try to put myself in their shoes. But pre-gunpowder battle always escapes me. I just can’t envision it. Think about it. Modern war is civilized in comparison. These people were forced to march onto the battlefield, rip apart the flesh of other human beings, and become serial killers. Just try to think about what the battlefield must have looked like at the end of the day. An estimate of how much blood was on the ground after the dust settled at Cannae is about 30,000 gallons — and that’s a low number. Add that to the amount of people on the ground who are still dying. Cutting is messy. You’re often not going to die immediately. So at Cannae, you got at least 50,000 of the dead and dying basking in a blood swamp in the hot August sun. Hannibal himself was said to have been shocked. You talk about post-traumatic stress disorder in the modern sense? Just imagine what the survivors of these battles had to live with for the rest of their lives. Now try to imagine these people as the same species as us. Don’t let anyone tell you we’re not living in the most peaceful time in the history of the world.