CPAC, Already, Today

In just one morning, today, so far, at CPAC, Ted Cruz laughed about his Cancun debacle while Texans literally froze to death, they did a tribute to racist, sexist, homophobic, misogynist Rush Limbaugh and they wheeled out---no kidding here--a GOLD STATUE of none other than Donald J "Jenius" Trump that looked for all the world, not like they were honoring him but that they were, instead, mocking and laughing at him. You know, the way all the rest of us do. Check it out for yourself.

Seriously, y'all, when you're done with that, could we use that at Democratic National Committee gatherings? That's fantastic. "The Onion" and SNL can't write stuff this good. If only they, the Republicans, weren't actually serious with all this. Wow.

Where We Are Now and Some of, a Lot of How We Got Here

Some of the poignancy of Rush Limbaugh and his passing. Ms. Cox Richardson is particularly enlightening today.

Heather Cox Richardson

February 17, 2021, Wednesday

The crisis in Texas continues, with almost 2 million people still without power in frigid temperatures. Pipes are bursting in homes, pulling down ceilings and flooding living spaces, while 7 million Texans are under a water boil advisory.

Tim Boyd, the mayor of Colorado City, Texas, put on Facebook: “The City and County, along with power providers or any other service owes you NOTHING! I’m sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout!... If you are sitting at home in the cold because you have no power and are sitting there waiting for someone to come rescue you because your lazy is direct result of your raising! [sic]…. This is sadly a product of a socialist government where they feed people to believe that the FEW will work and others will become dependent for handouts…. I’ll be damned if I’m going to provide for anyone that is capable of doing it themselves!... Bottom line quit crying and looking for a handout! Get off your ass and take care of your own family!” “Only the strong will survive and the weak will parish [sic],” he said. 

After an outcry, Boyd resigned.

Boyd’s post was a fitting tribute to talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, who passed today from lung cancer at age 70. It was Limbaugh who popularized the idea that hardworking white men were under attack in America. According to him, minorities and feminists were too lazy to work, and instead expected a handout from the government, paid for by tax dollars levied from hardworking white men. This, he explained, was “socialism,” and it was destroying America.

Limbaugh didn’t invent this theory; it was the driving principle behind Movement Conservatism, which rose in the 1950s to combat the New Deal government that regulated business, provided a basic social safety net, and promoted infrastructure. But Movement Conservatives' efforts to get voters to reject the system that they credited for creating widespread prosperity had little success.

In 1971, Lewis Powell, an attorney for the tobacco industry, wrote a confidential memo for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce outlining how business interests could overturn the New Deal and retake control of America. Powell focused on putting like-minded scholars and speakers on college campuses, rewriting textbooks, stacking the courts, and pressuring politicians. He also called for “reaching the public generally” through television, newspapers, and radio. “[E]very available means should be employed to challenge and refute unfair attacks,” he wrote, “as well as to present the affirmative case through this media.”

Pressing the Movement Conservative case faced headwinds, however, since the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) enforced a policy that, in the interests of serving the community, required any outlet that held a federal broadcast license to present issues honestly, equitably, and with balance. This “Fairness Doctrine” meant that Movement Conservatives had trouble gaining traction, since voters rejected their ideas when they were stacked up against the ideas of Democrats and traditional Republicans, who agreed that the government had a role to play in the economy (even though they squabbled about the extent of that role).

In 1985, under a chair appointed by President Ronald Reagan, the FCC stated that the Fairness Doctrine hurt the public interest. Two years later, under another Reagan-appointed chair, the FCC abolished the rule.

With the Fairness Doctrine gone, Rush Limbaugh stepped into the role of promoting the Movement Conservative narrative. He gave it the concrete examples, color, and passion it needed to jump from think tanks and businessmen to ordinary voters who could help make it the driving force behind national policy. While politicians talked with veiled language about “welfare queens” and same-sex bathrooms, and “makers” and “takers,” Limbaugh played “Barack the Magic Negro,” talked of “femiNazis,” and said “Liberals” were “socialists,” redistributing tax dollars from hardworking white men to the undeserving.

Constantly, he hammered on the idea that the federal government threatened the freedom of white men, and he did so in a style that his listeners found entertaining and liberating.

By the end of the 1980s, Limbaugh’s show was carried on more than 650 radio stations, and in 1992, he briefly branched out into television with a show produced by Roger Ailes, who had packaged Richard Nixon in 1968 and would go on to become the head of the Fox News Channel. Before the 1994 midterm elections, Limbaugh was so effective in pushing the Republicans’ “Contract With America” that when the party won control of the House of Representatives for the first time since 1952, the Republican revolutionaries made him an honorary member of their group.

Limbaugh told them that, under House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the Republicans must “begin an emergency dismantling of the welfare system, which is shredding the social fabric,” bankrupting the country, and “gutting the work ethic, educational performance, and moral discipline of the poor.” Next, Congress should cut capital gains taxes, which would drive economic growth, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and generate billions in federal revenue.

Limbaugh kept staff in Washington to make sure Republican positions got through to voters. At the same time, every congressman knew that taking a stand against Limbaugh would earn instant condemnation on radio channels across the country, and they acted accordingly.

Limbaugh saw politics as entertainment that pays well for the people who can rile up their base with compelling stories—Limbaugh’s net worth when he died was estimated at $600 million—but he sold the Movement Conservative narrative well. He laid the groundwork for the political career of Donald Trump, who awarded Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a made-for-tv moment at Trump’s 2020 State of the Union address. His influence runs deep in the current party: former Mayor Boyd, an elected official, began his diatribe with: “Let me hurt some feelings while I have a minute!!”

Like Boyd, other Texas politicians are also falling back on the Movement Conservative narrative to explain the disaster in their state. The crisis was caused by a lack of maintenance on Texas’s unregulated energy grid, which meant that instruments at coal, natural gas, and nuclear plants froze, at the same time that supplies of natural gas fell short. Nonetheless, Governor Greg Abbott and his allies in the fossil fuel industry went after “liberal” ideas. They blamed the crisis on the frozen wind turbines and solar plants which account for about 13% of Texas’s winter power. Abbott told Fox News Channel personality Sean Hannity that “this shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America.” Tucker Carlson told his viewers that Texas was “totally reliant on windmills.”

The former Texas governor and former Secretary of Energy under Trump, Rick Perry, wrote on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s website to warn against regulation of Texas’s energy system: “Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business,” he said. The website warned that “Those watching on the left may see the situation in Texas as an opportunity to expand their top-down, radical proposals. Two phrases come to mind: don’t mess with Texas, and don’t let a crisis go to waste.”

At Abbott’s request, President Biden has declared that Texas is in a state of emergency, freeing up federal money and supplies for the state. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has sent 60 generators to state hospitals, water plants, and other critical facilities, along with blankets, food, and bottled water. It is also delivering diesel fuel for backup power.

Link:

Heather Cox Richardson - Letters from an American

Four Years Ago Now: 2 Notes

 I posted these two things 4 years ago now on social media. First, a quote.

"America died on Nov. 8, 2016, not with a bang or a whimper, but at its own hand via electoral suicide. We the people chose a man who has shredded our values, our morals, our compassion, our tolerance, our decency, our sense of common purpose, our very identity — all the things that, however tenuously, made a nation out of a country." 

--Neal Gabler

And he was correct, of course. So very correct as we learned in these last 4 years. He was every horrible thing we all warned the nation of. And more.

And then there was this also from four years ago.

And it was all true. Hate, fear, racism, misogyny, homophobia, prejudice, self-interest---all those won four years ago now.

Fortunately, whoever wrote this was also correct on that last part. Americans, decent Americans, all got together and poured out to register to vote and then vote, too, to rid our nation of this man, this scourge on the nation.

We did it. We did, in fact, get together and correct this mistake!! Great job, America.

Now, #Throwthebumout

Meanwhile, these uglinesses are going on now, not a complete surprise, given how self-serving and greedy Republicans repeatedly show themselves to be, nation be damned.

'Naked Political Ploy': Outrage—and a Top DOJ Official Resigns—After Barr Memo Aims to Bolster Baseless Trump Fraud Allegations

GOP In Disarray: GA Senators Demand That Election Chief Resigns To Placate Trump

Stay strong, America. Stay the course. Don't let them win.

Republicans, The Next Four Years Are All On You (Redux)

Yes, Republicans and all who supported and voted for Donald J. Trump for president, after today, he and all he does and all the ramifications are all, every one of them, on you.

Sure, Mr. Trump is already taking us down his deep, dark "rabbit hole" and we'll all suffer but his actions? The blame for what he does and says and tweets and all the ramifications? Even the ones from the election to today, while he was only president-elect, everything from November 8 to today and for as long as he is president, it's all on you. We have you and your vote and your actions to blame.

The economy?   On you.

The nation's international standings?

You.

Any debt or debts he accrues?

Wars?

All.

On you.

And believe me, if he should do anything right and/or well and good, sure, you absolutely get any credit there.

Should that occur.

Same for Mike Pence, as Vice President or, God also forbid, President.

You get all the blame.  It's all on you, to repeat.

You wanted this. You voted for it. You supported him and all he represented then and represents since.

Yes, he's all our President, the nation's President but not because we voted for him, not because a majority of us voted for him.  You did this.

So buck up and suck it up, kids, because Mr. Trump has already shown us all, since that fateful November election day last year that this is going to be a bumpy, bumpy, unpredictable ride.

Any debt. Any wars. Any bloodshed. Any diplomatic and/or international political mistakes and/or miscues.

It's all on your hands.

What All These Mass Shootings Are, After All

Let's be clear.

Please, please contact your Congressional representatives now, today or soon as possible and tell them we need, we must have required background checks for mental stability and criminal history, both, coast to coast and soon as possible.

If we avoid even one killing, let alone one mass shooting, we will have advanced as a people, nation and society. No other nation in the world has this problem to the extent we do here in our own United States. Now is the time to talk about this. It's long past time. In fact, it's long, long overdue.

Do it today.  And thank you in advance.

Contacting the Congress: 

A Citizen's Congressional Directory

Possibly the best commentary on Missouri's, Michael Sam's and football's current situation

From Daily Kos today:

Dale Hansen has twice been named Sportscaster of the Year by the Associated Press and with thoughtful commentary like this, it's easy to see why. This may very well be the best statement yet on Michael Sam's decision to announce he's gay:

Kansas Republicans, trying to outdo Missouri Republicans (on stupid)

Yessirree, in the Mo-Kan, bi-state battle for the more ignorant legislation to come out of a state capitol, Kansas Republicans have just today bested and one-upped their counterparts in Jefferson City.

Stand back, ladies and gentlemen, as the Kansas Right Wing is fighting today to make discrimination legal in that state:

Kansas Bill Allowing Businesses to Discriminate

And not only did they vote to make discrimination a-okay here in America, but they're basing it on religion, as good Christians would because, after all, isn't that what Jesus would do?  From the article:

The Kansas state legislature has voted to allow businesses and government employees to discriminate against homosexuals on the grounds of their religious beliefs.

The measure passed an initial vote by a wide margin of 72 votes to 42. If it passes another vote today, it will go to the Republican-controlled state senate where it will likely be passed.

House Bill 2453 would allow businesses like restaurants, hotels, bars and stores to refuse service to a homosexual person or persons if “it would be contrary to their sincerely held religious beliefs.” It would also allow government employees to refuse to issue wedding licenses to homosexual couples without threat of a lawsuit. If an employee does refuse to provide a service, the state is required to find another employee who will serve them as quickly as possible.

And did you get that last part?  You have to love that--all you have to be is "sincere."

I can hardly wait now, to see what those kooky, Right Wing, "small government" over-reachers will come up with over in Jefferson City, to try to outdo this beauty.

Remember back, years and years ago, when America used to be AGAINST discrimination?

Mizzou comes out looking good on Michael Sam's announcement

After the announcement over the last few days of football player and possible NFL draft prospect Michael Sam from and at the University of Missouri-Columbia, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart covered the story last evening and our own Mizzou came out looking pretty darned good in what has got to be very prominent coverage:

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook

Prominent coverage for young America, at least.

Kudos, Mizzou,  You did the right thing.

Now if we can just get the rest of the state to not be homophobic, ugly, hateful and/or otherwise discriminatory.

Notes on a viral video

I just found this video on the YouTube home page.

Observations:

1)  How cool, simply;

2) How great that Home Depot is getting/will get support and goodwill out of it;

3) This is what equality is all about;

4) Most of us don't have, will never have someone who loves us that much;

5) It's freaking beautiful;

6) How great that all those friends--ALL those friends--were there and so supportive;

7) Their parents were there;

8)  Lots of family was apparently also there;

9) Plenty of people will have cried at how beautiful and simple this is.

10) If someone's religion gets in the way of this beauty, in the way of love, of this kind of love, it's their problem--the one with the judgmental, condemning religion--and no one else's.


Now, get out there and have a beautiful weekend, people.

Check out the center of this map

Check out the center of this map, the center of the US, our country, right about where Kansas City would be/is:

It comes from this article:

Hate heat map shows where racist, homophobic tweets come from - News

From the article:

A group of researchers have created a "Geography of Hate" map revealing racist and homophobic tweet concentrations across the U.S.

A group of researchers from the Floating Sheep project – who also mapped racist tweets surrounding President Barack Obama's re-election – have geotagged racist, homophobic and ableist (directed at disabled people) tweets in the U.S. and plotted them on an interactive map.

Students at Humboldt State University looked up all the geotagged tweets in North America between June 2012 and April 2013, manually reading and coding the sentiment of each tweet to determine if the given word was used in a positive, negative or neutral way in a project called the "Geography of Hate."

The phrase "dyke," for example, is often used negatively, but can also have positive implications: such as "dykes on bikes #SFPride," Floating Sheep said.

Of the geotagged tweets containing hateful slurs, 150,000 of them were determined to have negative connotations. They discovered 41,306 tweets containing the word "nigger" and 95,123 tweets referenced "homo," among other terms.

"Hateful tweets were aggregated to the county level and then normalized by the total number of tweets in each county," the group said. "This then shows a comparison of places with disproportionately high amounts of a particular hate word relative to all tweeting activity."
Floating Sheep explains that although Orange County, Calif., has the highest absolute number of tweets mentioning many of the slurs, because of its significant overall Twitter activity, such hateful tweets are less prominent and don't feature prominently on the map.

The map for homophobic tweets is determined by the use of words like "dyke," "fag," "homo," and "queer."

The map of racist tweets include the words "nigger," "chink," "wetback," "gook," or "spick."
Floating Sheep warns that even when normalized, many of the mapped slurs have little meaningful spatial distribution.

For example, tweets with the word "nigger" are not concentrated in any single place or region in the U.S. Instead, the researchers point out, "quite depressingly, there are a number of pockets of concentration that demonstrate heavy usage of the word."

The study also examined how many unique users were tweeting these words. For example, in the Quad Cities (East Iowa), 31 unique Twitter users tweeted the word "nigger" in a hateful way 41 times.

The study's most interesting concentration comes for references to "wetback," a slur meant to denigrate Latino immigrants to the U.S. by tying them to "illegal" immigration, the study says.
"Ultimately, this term is used most in different areas of Texas, showing the state’s centrality to debates about immigration in the US," the researchers say. "But the areas with significant concentrations aren’t necessarily that close to the border, and neither do other border states who feature prominently in debates about immigration contain significant concentrations." 

My point in posting this is twofold.

First, it is to educate us on racism here in America and its ugliness and prevalence.

Second, it is to point out that, apparently, we right here in the Midwest need to do one heck of a lot better about it ending it, ending racism and all that stupidity and ugliness and ignorance.

And to do that, it takes awareness, for starters.

Quote of the day

"Forget global warming, forget war, poverty, disease. What really matters is whether other people, in private, sleep with their own sex."

--Richard Dawkins

Secrecy of "being on the DL" and "no snitching" killing African-Americans

I've written here about the insanity of the "no snitching" code in the black community in the US, generally, but here in Kansas City, specifically, when people--usually always young men--shoot and/or kill other blacks yet witnesses say nothing to the police. It's this "no snitching" rule that keeps the shooters out on the streets, in the communities, shooting still others and impervious to the police or justice.

It is insanity.

A second ugly reality struck me today, having listened to NPR's "Fresh Air" program by Terri Gross, et. al about how the secrecy of men in the black community being "on the DL" or "down-low" about either being gay and/or participating in gay sex yet not being honest about it is also killing black men and women, both.

Some statistics:

--In 1986, roughly 20 percent of all of the people in the United States who were living with AIDS were African-American," Robert Fullilove, professor of clinical sociomedical studies at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, and chairman of the HIV/AIDS advisory committee at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "The most recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control indicate that 45 percent of all the new cases of HIV infection are amongst African-Americans."

--In 2009, black men accounted for 70% of the estimated new HIV infections among all blacks. The estimated rate of new HIV infection for black men was more than six and a half times as high as that of white men, and two and a half times as high as that of Latino men or black women.

--In 2009, black men who have sex with men (MSM)1 represented an estimated 73% of new infections among all black men, and 37% among all MSM. More new HIV infections occurred among young black MSM (aged 13–29) than any other age and racial group of MSM. In addition, new HIV infections among young black MSM increased by 48% from 2006–2009.

--In 2009, black women accounted for 30% of the estimated new HIV infections among all blacks. Most (85%) black women with HIV acquired HIV through heterosexual sex. The estimated rate of new HIV infections for black women was more than 15 times as high as the rate for white women, and more than three times as high as that of Latina women.

--Blacks are 13% of the US population but make up 49% of the AIDS cases in the country.




I wasn't personally aware that AIDS in the black community is epidemic and that it's killing both black men and women at record rates.

It's a horrible, unnecessary tragedy and it needs to stop.

And one of the ways it can and must stop is for all blacks in America--those of faith and those without--to stop thinking or believing that same-sex attraction is new to humanity, that it's "against nature" and "God's will" and that it's wrong. The homophobia and fear and even hate, must end.

This will be asking a great deal, at least, I know.

The social stigma of being both black and gay in the US is so strong and heavy that it's not only keeping people from being who they actually are, it's also killing these men and women.

The radio show today also pointed out that the "corrections" system in America and drug use as well as poverty is also propelling the incidents of AIDS to these record levels.

This situation has many roots. America needs to start addressing this problem, these problems, and all their sources so we can halt these unnecessary illnesses and tragic deaths.

Links: http://www.npr.org/2012/07/05/156292172/aids-in-black-america-a-public-health-crisis

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/aids/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/endgame-aids-in-black-america/

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/aa/

http://www.avert.org/hiv-african-americans.htm

http://www.womenshealth.gov/minority-health/african-americans/hiv-aids.cfm/

http://www.minorityhealth.hhs.gov/templates/content.aspx?ID=3019

Quote of the day

"...Dr. King took a simple argument and said races don’t fall in love and get married. Individuals fall in love and get married. It’s not the business of the federal government, it’s not the business of the state government to tell two individuals that they cannot fall in love and get married. And so I go back to what I said and wrote those lines a few years ago, that I fought too long and too hard against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up and fight and speak out against discrimination based on sexual orientation." --US Congressman John Lewis

Missouri's state-sponsored inequality

The Kansas City Star has an excellent page in the op/ed section this morning, showing the winners and losers of the past week in the state capitols of Missouri and Kansas.

It's a terrific idea on their part.

It gives a pretty concise, if brief and encapsulated overview of what our legislators worked on and did or didn't do the past week.

It also tells, like 3 of my posts earlier this week, how they wasted their and so, our, time and money with their "work."

They pointed out that, nearly unbelievably, the Missouri legislature worked to make it illegal to discriminate against gun owners but that--wait for it--it's still legal to fire someone in the workplace if someone finds out they are same-sex attracted. Read: gay or homosexual.

And here you thought we were all equal in the United States.

As my brother will occasionally, for humor, say to me, quoting an old, favorite Doonesbury comic I love so much:

"Dream on you fascists."

(Click on comic for larger, better viewing)

These two legislatures seem to want to make us more and more like the worst attributes of the Right Wing, red-neck Southern states.

Pitiful.

Link: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/25/3627515/the-stars-editorial-lawmakers.html

The "agenda" is merely equal rights

"On June 12, 2007, Mildred Loving issued a statement on the 40th anniversary of the Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court decision, declaring that different races have the right, the equality, to marry in America. Her statement concluded: 'My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God's plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation's fears and prejudices have given way, and today's young people realize that if someone loves someone, they have a right to marry. Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the 'wrong kind of person' for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people's civil rights. I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard's and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight, seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.'

This election and our very broken health care system

Be careful what you wish--vote--for.

A refresher course on the Republican Party

Lest you or anyone think the Republican Party of today only recently got this way, please read the following recounting of that grand old now-deceased leader of the Conservatives in general but Republicans, specifically as one writer to the editor did in the May 10, 2009 issue of The New York Times Magazine: "William F. Buckley began his career vehemently defending the worst excesses of McCarthyism; throughout the civil rights movement, opposed integration and black suffrage; during the Vietnam War, advocated using nuclear weapons against the North Vietnamese; supported unconditionally the racist apartheid government of South Africa; cheerled for the genocidal CIA-backed coup against Allende in Chile; and, in the early years of the AIDS pandemic, recommended that HIV-diagnosed patients be forcibly tattooed on their buttocks. Despite the virtues of his intellect and charisma, William F Buckley's only legacy to us is that mixture of homophobia, greed, racism, hypocrisy and military recklessness that is 21st-century conservatism." --David A. Murphy, Providence, RI. I hope that clears things up.

Quote of the day

"It seems inevitable that we'll have same-sex marriage in most of the states within a decade." --Michael Dorf, a professor at Cornell Law School who studies the constitutional and social consequences of same-sex marriage in the United States. Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_gaymarriage_new_york_impact

On Republican leadership

What Republicans say: 

"We want small, unobtrusive government that will stay out of people's personal lives, forever and ever, amen."


"Well, except for that abortion thing. We think we should be able to tell women what to do with their bodies and babies and everything, even though abortion has been legal since 1973."

"Oh, one more thing. Those gays. We don't like that or them, either. We think gubmint should be able to reach into their houses--their bedrooms, even--and we don't care if it is two consenting adults not bothering anyone else, we don't think they should have equal rights, US Constitution be damned."

"If we think of anything else, we'll get back to you and let you know. Stay tuned."


"Other than that, yeah, we like small government."

What they said wasn't "the 'n' word"

As the now-old saying goes, let's not put lipstick on this pig.

I keep seeing references to the incident in Washington, DC this past Saturday wherein some "Tea-bagger" Republican protester shouted an epithet at Represenetative John Lewis and it's irritating me.

I keep seeing it referred to as this ignorant person yelling "the 'n' word."

And I want to say stop.

Let's stop calling it that.

Let's stop making this nice. Or pretty. Or politically-correct.

Because it absolutely isn't any of those things.

Whoever that person was called Representative John Lewis--longtime civil rights activist and now legislator--a nigger.

The word isn't nice.

This is racism of its near-worst form.

The only thing worse, after this, is physical violence, let's be clear on this.

That word--nigger--is the worst thing a white person can call an African-American yet that's what this person did.

And then someone spat on our own Kansas City, Missouri Representative Emanuel Cleaver.

And then someone else, shortly thereafter, across Washington, called Representative Barney Frank a "homo."

Racism, homophobia and bigotry, all.

And stupid. And irresponsible. And hate-filled.

And it all has no place in any discussion or debate about health care.

And it has no place in America.

And it needs to stop.

And it needs to stop now.

If we call it something less than what it is, we're giving it a pass and that's not acceptable.