The Cheese Grates It: My New Years Resolutions

I will continue to fight against bigotry and hate in all its forms in 2017.

I will try to be kinder to myself. This one's difficult, and I pretty much always fail at it. I will continue to fight against engaging in self harm, including speaking harmful words against myself. I will not ridicule and demean myself for my unique belief system. If I am tolerant of others' beliefs, why can't I be tolerant of my own?

I will try to see the good in the world while fighting the evil.

I will continue to peacefully resist Emperor Commodus Trump and his evil band of handlers. Unlike Hitler, Trump has no real intelligence or agenda of his own. He is a puppet. Those in his cabinet of foulness are the ones we really need to fear. Trump will sway any way the wind blows. This is not to say that he isn't a vile human being, he is a dreadful person. The truth, however, is that he does not command much actual power. He is a figurehead.

I am worried for this world, very worried.

Nonetheless, I will try in some small way to make things better.

Even though I am an unfashionably large person, I am very small on the scale of things. Too small, I fear, to make any kind of real difference. But there is one thing that I have vowed to do, and I have the tattoo to prove it.

I miss Matt, the artist who did this tattoo for me. I wish he hadn't had to move back to Kentucky. I hope 2017 will be kind to him.

Happy fucking New Year. I don't actually have a lot of hope, but I'm trying.

I think those of us who survive this time of transition deserve a bonus.

~The Cheese Hath Grated It~

The Cheese Grates It: How Do You Even Equate These Things?

This is Donald Trump being creepy with his 14 year old daughter

This is Marybeth Glenn, a conservative who quit the Republican party after lambasting the men in the party for being misogynistic wimps

This is a really shitty book

This is the link to the article which inspired my Facebook rant

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/10/10/1580724/-Republican-woman-slams-GOP-men-as-she-quits-the-party-in-a-stunning-tweetstorm

For those of you who consider yourselves conservatives, instead of railing against those of us who can't abide the idea of a raging racist, misogynist xenophobe representing the United States, perhaps you need to read what this lady has to say.

I have very little hope that anyone who is hell-bent on supporting The Rump will change their minds at this point, but when you have people defecting from the Republican party over their support of him, maybe its time to think twice rather than accusing those of us who can't abide his hatred of pretty much everybody and demeaning attitude towards women of being hypocrites for taking his exception to a 60 year old Donald T. Rump saying he would grab a woman "by the pussy," but not railing against a crappy bit of "erotic" fiction, the key word here being fiction.
The comparison of The Rump's misogynist remarks to Fifty Shades of How The Hell Does Anyone Find This Sexy isn't tomato-tomahto, it's more tomato-moon rock. The two things aren't even on the same planet, let alone in the same zip code. It isn't an accurate comparison.
Actually, I do find Fifty Shades of Abusive Relationship offensive because it depicts an abusive relationship in a positive light. But that shitty piece of fiction doesn't pose any real kind of threat. It's a book. It isn't going to walk up to a woman and grab her in the privates. It isn't even going to encourage a man to walk up to a woman and grab her in the privates, because it isn't men who are reading that shit. Men--some very misguided, misinformed men, however--take the words of a so called "alpha male" like Donald Trump to heart and think it's okay to treat women like trash. I hate to pull out the old chestnut, but how would you feel if it had been an important woman in your life--your sister, your mother, your daughter--that Trump and his sleazy wingman Billy Bush were chortling about like she was nothing but tits and ass? How can you really abide Trump telling the ever disgusting Howard Stern that it's okay to call his daughter a piece of ass and talking about his daughter like she's a porn performer that he's been masturbating over?
For whoever came up with the WTF idea that Fifty Shades of Gray was an apt comparison to Donald Trump's misogyny, I'm rather offended at the assertion that ALL women just lurrrrve Fifty Shades of Gray and will defend it to the death. I hate that shit. It depicts a really abusive relationship as sexy. It encourages women to give up their agency over an obsession with an abusive man. It's unhealthy as fuck. On top of all that, it's a shitty read. A technical manual is a better read than that garbage. 
To wrap up this rant, it isn't the swearing that I care about. Obviously, I use extremely salty language, and I'm not about to stop doing so. However, I'm not bragging about grabbing anybody by the privates or forcing them to kiss me. Also, I can't believe I'm defending an even shittier book than Twilight, but for all it's faults, neither is Fifty Shades of Gray.
I don't want all the hard work that so many women have done to be treated like human beings set back decades by a despicable creep who even talks about his daughter like she's there for the taking sexually. Fifty Shades of Blech isn't even part of the equation. How anybody brought it into the equation in the first place is mind-boggling.
Rant ended.

~The Cheese Hath Grated It Hard~

The Ugly Truth About the Modeling Industry

This creepy picture of Donald Trump and his then fourteen year old daughter Ivanka appears in the linked article. This is an inappropriate way for a father to interact with his teenage daughter.

The article I'm commenting on is long. It's also well worth reading.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/10/6/1578544/-The-Untold-Story-of-Trump-Model-Management-A-Daily-Kos-Exclusive-Part-1

Amazing journalism. The pedophilia, exploitation and sexual abuse of models is something of an open secret. People have been looking the other way for years.

I was one of those girls who was desperate to be a model and came to hate my body early on because it was obvious that it could never happen. I was too short (I ended up being 5 foot 6) and too chunky. I became bulimic at age twelve because I was disgusted with how “fat” I was. I weighed 110 pounds.

It took me until the age of 45 to stop saying hateful things about my body. I actually did end up being fat, and now I say that nobody has the right to criticize another person’s body. We also all need to do a better job of protecting our girls and young women. We have, as a society, failed them.

~Cie~

The Cheese Grates It: The Rump and his Supporters Keep Me Gobsmacked

I'm kind of tired of this blog being co-opted by "real world" crap. I want to talk about ghosts, about how being so busy destroys my ability to interact with spirits. Instead, I guess I'll talk about The Rump, and how I don't understand why people I consider to be otherwise intelligent, good people can defend him when even members of his own party are defecting like rats from a sinking ship.

I'm finding out who some people really are, and I don't like it at all.

Several friends--women yet--are defending The Rump's deplorable behavior towards women.

"It was eleven years ago."

Hello--does he seem like he's changed his tune since then?

Also, it's not like he was some dumb teenager trying to show off for his friends. He was 60 years old. He certainly should have known better.

I'm not at all surprised at the shit that's been dug up about the great orange ass clown. I'm surprised and disappointed by the people who continue to defend said shit.

You can bet your bottom dollar, as they say, that the same people would in no way pardon Bill Clinton for playing grab-ass with women he wasn't married to. I'm not excusing Bill's behavior, but at least he didn't behave like a complete swine when confronted with it. He had a little humility. Trump was damn proud of that shit. I'm gobsmacked by all the people who purport to believe his non-apology.
Again, I don't think either of them have any excuses, but if you're excusing The Rump's behavior while continuing to berate Bill Clinton for his, then you, my friend, are a hypocrite.
I really want to get back to talking about ghosts soon.

The Cheese Hath Grated It

Mike Pence: Misogynist Asshat Number Two on the Ticket

Responding to this article:

Straight from the horse's ass--er--mouth:

"What if women would go out and get raped on purpose just so they could get off work?"

As someone who was sexually assaulted twice in adulthood, at eighteen and at 32, let me just say, fuck you, you utterly despicable piece of shit.

Even though I no longer have panic attacks remembering what happened to me early in the morning on November 1 1997, my heart still starts pounding. 

I had panic attacks on and off throughout the day from the time I woke up until the time I finally became too exhausted to stay awake any more. i didn't want to go to sleep because I knew when I woke up it would start all over again. I went through this for literally a year. An entire year of panic attacks about every 20 minutes.

Fuck you and anyone else who thinks anyone would willingly go through that shit. Seriously.

I'm fucking shaking. Part rage, part PTSD.

And y'all wonder why I'm laying it on the line like this. Simply because I don't want there to be even the remote possibility that someone who thinks like this could be in charge of the damn country.

If you think I'm spin-doctoring this shit, read the article. That despicable sentence, along with several others along the same lines, came right out of his mouth.

Trump runs too hot--this bastard is cold as ice.

~Cie~

There Was One Group Trump Forgot To Offend: The Dying

For those trying to excuse this mess by writing it off as "crude humor":

Crude humor is fine for stand-up comedians. This sort of schtick is unsuitable for a person pursuing the presidency of a country. Time and time again he proves himself to be crass and immature. 

The President of the United States needs to carry themselves with a modicum of decency and decorum. He is not fit to be president.

~Cie and Wanda~

Cozying Up to Putin is a Bad Thing

Ukraine: Man shelled as he stood on his balcony in Donetsk *VERY GRAPHIC*

 There is great unrest in the countries that made up the former USSR. Putin is not to be trusted. Yet Donald Trump is all too happy to cozy up to this evil man.

A vote for Trump is a vote for turning back the clock on advancements made in civil rights, including better treatment for women, minorities, and GLBTQIA+ folk.

We can't state strongly enough how important it is to vote against Trump this November. 

We need a leadership that is going to keep the likes of Putin at a distance, not one that intends to act like fraternity buddies with him.

Aurora

for

Team Netherworld

Source: democraticunderground.com

 

Source: Progressillinois.com

Source: dailykos.com

The Bully Who Would Be President

Any time His Royal Hiney Donald T. Rump is called out on his bad behavior, he demeans and mocks the person calling him out or someone close to them. Let us not forget how this overgrown bully mocked a disabled reporter or belittled Heidi Cruz.
It is also impossible to ignore the fact that Donald's ex wife described him enacting a brutal assault on her, tearing out clumps of her hair and forcing her to have sex with him. Even if Ivana Trump later stated that this wasn't rape in a "legal" sense, it is, nonetheless, abuse.
Let us recall Donald Trump's association with Jeffrey Epstein, a billionaire playboy busted for child molestation, about whom Trump said: " He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."
Let us also remember that Donald Trump lusts after his eldest daughter, stating that Ivanka "has a very nice figure" and "if I weren't her father, perhaps I'd be dating her." If my father had ever said such a thing about me, I would have been utterly creeped out. This is not an appropriate thing for a father to say.
To Donald Trump, women and girls are not people. They are playthings and decorations. Even his daughters are not free from his disgusting scrutiny of women's bodies.
Let us not forget the people that he bilked out of money, sometimes everything they had, with his so called "University."
Donald Trump is churlish, capable of violence, misogynistic, a racist, and a petulant bully who cares about no one but himself.
If he is elected, it says a lot of scary things about the views held by people in this country
If elected, I will never call him my president.
I have literally never said that about any potential president before, even those whose political views differed strongly from mine. Not even Mitt Romney, and I was not in any way fond of him.
I have also never been this outspoken about my political views. This time I just can't stay quiet, even though I actually have a very low tolerance for conflict.
Trump should never be president. In any Universe where this happens, it isn't going to be just a crappy thing where we can pull up our bootstraps and say "well, perhaps we can make it go away in four years."
It's going to be a very bad thing, in spades, for everybody who isn't one of The Donald's billionaire buddies.

~Cie~

Happy Independence Day If You Celebrate Such

The above flag is the Gadsden Flag, designed by American general Christopher Gadsden in 1775. 

This was my late father's favorite American flag. He flew it every Independence Day.

My father was a great fan of Independence Day. He was a great believer in what it stood for.

He also liked fireworks.

Make that loved fireworks.

My father would be horrified at the mess that is this year's election.

You can stop reading here if you don't want political opinion with your hot dogs and fireworks.

My father was a Libertarian rather than a Republican. He and I didn't agree on a lot of things in the political spectrum. However, we did agree that protecting the environment was an imperative. I tended to sway things towards talking about the environment, and then the conversation went well.

My father probably would have voted for a third party candidate rather than putting in a vote for either Donald T. Rump or Hillary Clinton.

I am of the opinion that Hillary Clinton is the lesser of two evils and will thus vote for her, regardless of the fact that I really don't care for her. I don't think she will do as much damage as The Donald.

Any way you look at it, we're screwed. So I'll take the "screwed" that at least has the decency to bring along lube.

Crass jokes aside, my reasoning will follow.

I identify as a liberal politically, but I am not fond of neoliberalism Neoliberalism believes in such things as legalizing prostitution, which I do not. Neoliberalism believes in such things as a cafe where a man can get a blow job with his coffee. I do not. 

As a woman, I feel that neoliberalism sees me as just as much of an object as reactionary conservatism, it just sees me as a piece of ass whereas reactionary conservatism sees me as an indentured servant.

I am a liberal. I am not a neoliberal.

I believe in equal treatment for all people: people of all races, men, women, intersexed people, transgender people, people of all sexual orientations. I believe in the separation of church and state. I believe that we must socialize our medical system because the current mess we're in is killing people.

I also believe that we're in one hell of a fix right now.

The fellow who was my school's class president the year that I graduated is a very conservative Mormon. He is also a very kind and considerate person, and although he and I are on opposite ends of the political spectrum, we respect one another. He is not fond of Hillary Clinton, but he is appalled by Donald Trump and found himself wondering how the Republican party could ever have ended up nominating this monster.

The great documentary filmmaker Ken Burns wonders how Christians could vote for Trump. He points out that Trump lusts after his own daughter and makes crass and hateful statements about women's breasts and bodies.

"How is that in any way Christ-like?" Mr. Burns asks.

Thus, I will be voting for Hillary Clinton, although I'm far from fond of her.

Hillary Clinton reminds me a bit of Margaret Thatcher. 

People in Britain sang "Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead" when Thatcher died.

I really do not want Hillary Clinton in the White House. 

However, I would far rather have Margaret Thatcher in the White House than Josef Stalin without the class, which is what I feel Donald Trump is.

We lose either way, but where Mitt Romney would have set back the clock on treatment of women and minorities to the 1950's, Trump will set it back to the time of the Civil War. 

Trump is so bad that I would choose Romney over Trump.

Trump is a racist who sees women as pieces of ass. Never mind how badly people with disabilities, including mental illness, would fare in a Trump regime.

Trump mocking a disabled reporter. You can't make this shit up.

Even if Trump is mostly ineffective during his time in office, having someone like him with attitudes like his in the highest office in the land sets the tone for treating those in lesser social positions like shit. The gains that have been made in securing protection for non-whites, for women, for those who do not identify as heterosexual, for intersexed and transgender people, for people with disabilities, either physical or mental, will be either eradicated or set back. 

A Hillary Clinton presidency might be a nightmare, but a Trump presidency is an express elevator to hell.

Please, let's at least preserve the mess we've got. 

We really can't allow things to get worse.

 Happy Fireworks, Barbecue, and Don't Tread On Me Flag Day.

~The Cheese Hath Grated It~

 

Crafty Artwork not mine

 

Hillary Clinton: Not my First Choice, but Now the Only Choice

Photo Credit: Wikimedia

This article explains exactly why I supported Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton, and why this doesn’t make me some sort of traitor to feminism. Hillary Clinton is pro big business, I am not. Bernie Sanders was for the welfare of the “little people” on the low end of the totem pole: people like me. 

I will, however, support Hillary Clinton as the democratic nominee. I will voice the need to elect her, even though I don’t think she really gives a flying fuck about working class people. She may be a big business politician, but she isn’t an inhuman monster. 

Trump is the second coming of Hitler, and I’m not being facetious when I say that. He is prejudiced against non-whites, he thinks women are not only second class citizens but sex toys defined only by their fuckability, he ridicules disabled people; he not only doesn’t give a fuck about the little people, he would have no qualms about squashing anyone who isn’t up to his personal standards of worth. 

A Trump presidency would not only make the United States become the parody of itself that cartoonists in other countries depict us of being, it would bring us one step closer to being the Great Satan that some people believe we are. 

Trump in the Oval Office will not “Make America Great Again.” Trump in the Oval Office will destroy America entirely for the underclasses and will eliminate the middle class, creating a nation where there is the 99% and the 1%, the 1% being comprised of millionaires and billionaires, and the 99% being comprised of the rest of us.

A nation under Trump will be really, really bad, to put it in simple terms. We can’t let him win. 

I’ve said before that Hillary Clinton is a Republican in Democrat’s clothing. At least she’s a moderate Republican rather than a megalomaniac in Republican’s clothing. 

It is imperative that Hillary Clinton wins the Presidential election this November. I don’t say this as some sort of fawning sycophant. Hillary was not my first choice by any stretch of the imagination. I say that as someone who is truly afraid for the fate of my country if her opponent wins.

~The Real Cie~