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I sincerely hope the MAGA’s down south are enjoying the bountiful economic gifts the cheeto-in-cheif and his republican bag men are bestowing upon them. I mean the establishment of an military oligarchy in the US was well under way under Obama, but at least he made the obligatory nods to democracy and caring for the American people (while of course, still screwing them). Nuance isn’t a thing anymore in terms of US domestic policy. It is being sky-written for the populace to see, you (the general public) are paying for the military and corporations first and maybe, if there are few scraps left in the budget, you may get some society and civilization as a part of the bargain.
The New Gilded Age is proceeding quite monstrously in the USA. Perhaps this latest give away to the military industrial complex will fuel the rise of organized labour and demands that US society should prioritize its citizens, rather than its military. William Hartung writes with great detail on what is going on in the budgeting process:
“While domestic spending fared better in the recent congressional budget deal than it would have if Trump’s draconian plan for 2018 had been enacted, it still lags far behind what Congress is investing in the Pentagon. And calculations by the National Priorities Project indicate that the Department of Defense is slated to be an even bigger winner in Trump’s 2019 budget blueprint. Its share of the discretionary budget, which includes virtually everything the government does other than programs like Medicare and Social Security, will mushroom to a once-unimaginable 61 cents on the dollar, a hefty boost from the already startling 54 cents on the dollar in the final year of the Obama administration.
The skewed priorities in Trump’s latest budget proposal are fueled in part by the administration’s decision to embrace the Pentagon increases Congress agreed to last month, while tossing that body’s latest decisions on non-military spending out the window. Although Congress is likely to rein in the administration’s most extreme proposals, the figures are stark indeed — a proposed cut of $120 billion in the domestic spending levels both parties agreed to. The biggest reductions include a 41% cut in funding for diplomacy and foreign aid; a 36% cut in funding for energy and the environment; and a 35% cut in housing and community development. And that’s just the beginning. The Trump administration is also preparing to launch full-scale assaults on food stamps, Medicaid, and Medicare. It’s war on everything except the U.S. military.
Corporate Welfare
The recent budget plans have brought joy to the hearts of one group of needy Americans: the top executives of major weapons contractors like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and General Dynamics. They expect a bonanza from the skyrocketing Pentagon expenditures. Don’t be surprised if the CEOs of these five firms give themselves nice salary boosts, something to truly justify their work, rather than the paltry $96 million they drew as a group in 2016 (the most recent year for which full statistics are available).
And keep in mind that, like all other U.S.-based corporations, those military-industrial behemoths will benefit richly from the Trump administration’s slashing of the corporate tax rate. According to one respected industry analyst, a good portion of this windfall will go towards bonuses and increased dividends for company shareholders rather than investments in new and better ways to defend the United States. In short, in the Trump era, Lockheed Martin and its cohorts are guaranteed to make money coming and going.”
Civil society is for chumps after all…
Now don’t y’all be getting cross at me… :)
This is what happens when we start denuding language of its meaning. Let’s not follow the UK example of merrily trying to erase women from the public sphere.
https://criticalbrigitte.tumblr.com/post/171754921260/gender-critical-appspot-female-erasure-begins
http://auntiewanda.tumblr.com/post/171759530161/warmheartwitch-oceanlesbian-besha-98-the
Need a pithy pull quote? Try this:
“overall trans activism seems tie into a massive program of social engineering for a post-truth male supremacist society in the face of increased female empowerment (real empowerment) and feminist consciousness. so erasing the public knowledge and acknowledgment of biological sex is a serious goal.”
Oh the arguments I’ve had. Even with people who know and recognize that science and the world of material fact is a thing -once you mention that biological sex is a fact- seem to embrace as much po-mo bullshittery as necessary to unsuccessfully defend the notion that men, if they *feel* hard enough, can be women. *facepalm*
So no, I will not subscribe to the social historical revisionism that transactivism is based on. The inherent misogyny and homophobia involved with the current platform should make it untenable to any who spend the time to look at what TAism is actually about.
So no history, political analysis, or radical feminism today. Today is for highlighting my semi-annual consternation with the limitations of ‘acceptable’ men’s bottom wear.
Spring is tentatively arriving in Canada’s northern-most provincial capital. We are slowly emerging from the long dark of winter (no thanks to daylight savings time, as it is dark as of today, *again* when I wake up) and temperature are, ever so slowly, beginning to creep toward not hurting your face levels. For instance, today the high will be a balmy +2 degrees centigrade.
The hell that is winter-weather enforced trouser wearing is almost over. But at the same time, I would like to avoid situations like this:
Well not really, but that cartoon is too good not to share. :) Blinding people with the pale luminescence of my legs is secondary however to the comfort concerns involved. Daily spring temperatures in edmonton The Great White North have an exceedingly wide temperature range depending on whether the sun happens to be out or not. Exhibit A: 
Yeah, so a high of plus 4, but then -12 as a low, then +2 as high then -8 as low. Climactic variability is quite problematic, as +4 degrees centigrade is clearly shorts weather, but -12 degrees centigrade clearly, is not (stop laughing/cringing right now equatorial friends this is warm weather).
So what is one to do while locked into the strict trouser/shorts binary? I’m more than ready to give the heave ho to long pants, but I’m also a big fan of not freezing my tuckus off in the cold mornings that typify the Edmonton spring cycle.
The 3/4 pant are not part yet a part of the mainstream male lexicon, and the tights + shorts option seems to be in a very specific context of people who enjoy torturing themselves by running at obscenely early in the morning, but not something one would want to teach in outside a of non physical education setting.
My usual solution, is to dress for the expected high temperature and let things fall as they may. But I can’t help but think that there must be a more elegant solution to my conundrum.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
Your opinions…