Gilead, here we come!

Lard, I hate waking up to shit like this. Especially when I’m only really interested in the latest news about the War on Photosynthesis currently taking place in the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. I can’t stop laughing about it! Every new update has me in stitches.

A person wearing a cartoonish, pink and white, inflatable frog costume that says “AMPHIFA” across its belly, standing next to the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, and carrying a sign overhead that reads “FIRST THEY CAME for the ALGAE…”

That is some funny shit right there.

But not today. Today, I see this:

The Washington Post | Alert | Breaking News | June 26, 8:11 p.m. EDT | Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission takes aim at separation of church and state | The Trump administration issued a draft report from the commission that says the separation concept is a legal error and that Americans should view religion as an “essential support.” The 224-page report also recommended the DOJ issue guidance to promote “an originalist understanding” of how the Constitution sees the relationship between religion and government.

A legal error! Well gosh, I wonder which part of their much-touted and specifically-sworn-to U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment our esteemed “Supreme” court will rewrite, strike dead, or pretend not to understand? (Oooh, is Polymarket taking bets on this yet? Asking for a friend…) Because sure as shit, that court is where this “legal error” will end up.

For those who may want a quick refresher, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

That part in bold is commonly referred to as the “establishment clause,” though I have always wondered why it isn’t called the “non-establishment clause.”

But hey, I’m no constitutional scholar! And even though I’m a native English speaker (albeit one with a baaaad Philly accent when I get drunk), I may not understand what those English words in that ol’ First Amendment mean. For all I know, they might mean “all laws must respect the establishment of a few approved sects of the roughly 45,000 different versions of the Christian religion, and prohibit the free exercise of anything else.” And the really amazing part is those words will have meant exactly this for the past 250 years! I know, right? The men who wrote it, and all the judges who have taken it more or less at face value for centuries, will all turn out to have been COMPLETELY WRONGHEADED about what the establishment clause means.

Lest you think I’m being a tad histrionic, these same Supreme Assholes have already done this to the Second Amendment. That one says in its entirety:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

FULL DISCLOSURE: Just so you know what a hopelessly illiterate dingbat you’re reading right now, I must confess that there was a time, not so long ago, when I actually believed that (omg this is so embarrassing!) the words “well regulated” and “Militia” and “being necessary to the security of a free State” had something to do with… a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State! LOL! I was so confused I thought the aforementioned necessary and well regulated Militia was the context and justification for peoples’ right to bear arms.

facepalm emoji

Thankfully, the six superior intellects sitting on the nation’s highest court set me straight about that foolishness. I have come to understand that the words of the Second Amendment mean “EVERYONE CAN OPEN CARRY EVERYWHERE AT ALL TIMES.” Not only that, but the Second Amendment has always meant that! For the past 250 years! See, it’s just that in all that time, nobody else had the penetrating insight, encyclopedic historical knowledge, and time-traveling capabilities of our six conservative Justices.

Goldman v. Landers in NY-10.

Having inexplicably failed to find any traction (yet!) on my “WHITE PEOPLE: LET’S ALL FORFEIT OUR VOTES TO BLACK WOMEN” campaign (well, except for my long-time psychiatrist, who loves the idea but unfortunately doesn’t live in my district), I’ve had to take responsibility for my primary ballot myself. I wish I could say I did so reluctantly, but the truth is I could not wait to do this thing.

hoto of my Dem primary ballot for NY-10 today: "Representative in Congress Dan Goldman, then I wrote in red (D-Israel, no matter what they do.) O Brad Lander, then I wrote in red (D-F%*k genocide, ICE, & billionaires) ⏺"

My NY-10 congressional primary ballot.

Early voting started today in New York for the June 23 Democratic primary, and I was practically foaming at the mouth and ready to attack the security guard to let me in.

Dan Goldman is currently serving his second term as my congresscritter, and hopefully his last. Lander’s been running ahead in polling, but not enough for my comfort. Goldman, an heir to the Levi-Strauss fortune, successfully self-funded his first campaign. This cycle, when his primary opponent Brad Lander started polling ahead, he casually dumped another $1 million of his own money into his coffers.

None of that is necessarily disqualifying, in my view. It’s what Goldman has done – and not done – while in Congress that has this atheist praying he gets his ass kicked out of DC.

Mr. Goldman doesn’t need the money, but he takes it anyway from AIPAC. I’ve been reading his weekly email newsletter since he was sworn in, and he proudly votes pro-Israel every single time a vote comes up. He’s essentially Chuck Schumer’s Mini-Me.

Here’s a thought that apparently hasn’t occurred to ANY congresscritter:

How about no aid or assistance of any kind to countries with universal healthcare, until the U.S. has a world-class, single-payer healthcare system itself? 

That policy alone would take care of our tax dollars funding a Palestinian genocide.

Dear foreign democracies: Let your own people suffer medical bankruptcies and shorter, sicker lives to fund your government’s evils. Thanks.

*shrug*

Happy Mothers Day.

Abstract image of stone-statue-like, faceless mother and child against a dark red background.

Mother (pink madonna) by Mikulus Galanda, 1933.
(public domain via rawpixel)

(via Women’s March email)

Mother’s Day grew from a movement rooted in antiwar organizing, mutual aid, and demands for policies that support women and families.

Before it became a commercial holiday, women used this day to organize for peace, public health, labor protections, and dignity.

That legacy belongs to mothers. And it also belongs to every woman helping shape the future of this country — whether they have children or not.

Today, women are still leading. We are the supermajority of people showing up and leading resistance movements across our country.

Women don’t carry society on our backs because we’re built for it. We carry it because we refuse to hand the future to fascists.

Happy Mother’s Day,
Women’s March

Co-signed in solidarity and love,
-Iris the Childless.

P.S. I understand all too well that this day can be a difficult one for those with challenging, damaging, distant, abusive, or no relationships with our mothers. It can also be difficult for those who are grieving the loss of beloved mothers, mother-figures, and children. Please know that you are not alone. I wish you peace and healing.

FWIW, here’s an image that made me smile today.

 

Siberian tigress with cub in snow.

Siberian tigress with cub in snow.
(public domain via rawpixel)

DOJ Fallout Over Comey Prosecution.

Screenshot from email alert: The Washington Post Trending Now: Must-read stories around major news events May 9, 9:22 a.m. EDT DOJ sees fallout after push to prosecute former FBI director James Comey. Several prosecutors have left the Justice Department, others are considering doing so, and at least one major case has been disrupted.

Screenshot from Washington Post email alert.

I am of two minds about this. When good people, like (some) federal career prosecutors, quit the DOJ on principle, it makes a powerful and important statement. (And headlines in the gawdawful Washington Post, apparently.) I could never ask any one of them to stay against their conscience, and to remain part of a captured, right-wing-politicized, weaponized DOJ, tasked with acting like the president’s personal law firm – one with the power to imprison his targets. That is some seriously fascist $#!+, right there.

At the same time, quitting on principle makes the DOJ even worse, with a stronger concentration of amoral, authoritarian @$$holes remaining. Those who leave know this of course, and I have to wonder how many of them have struggled to stay this long for that very reason, hoping to keep their jobs by keeping their heads down, and attempting to persevere until the chaos demons currently in charge are gone. But everyone with a conscience has their breaking point.

There is no good choice here for prosecutors who actually believe in, and often have devoted their entire careers to, the rule of law. Oh, they will be fine, at least financially: prosecutors are heavily recruited by law firms, and private practice pays way, WAAAAY more than a public prosecutor’s salary. They may even get to take some satisfaction in representing clients targeted by their former colleagues at DOJ.

The whole thing just makes me sad, angry, and wishing I had a passport from another country.

grayscale upside-down U.S. flag

Then again, if I had a different passport I wouldn’t be able to forfeit my vote to my Black neighbor. 😈

WHITE PEOPLE: LET’S ALL FORFEIT OUR VOTES TO BLACK WOMEN.

photo of the U.S. "Supreme" Court

U.S. “Supreme” Court (image: public domain via rawpixel)

In Callais v. Louisiana, the United States “Supreme” Court just eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of 1965, an extraordinarily hard-won piece of federal legislation aimed at ending racial discrimination in voting.

The tl;dr version is this:

The ruling effectively invalidates Section 2 of the VRA as it has been understood for four decades without explicitly striking down the statute… By allowing for the dismantling of minority districts currently held by Democrats, the ruling could provide the GOP enough additional seats to lock in the party’s control of the House for a generation.

There is nothing surprising about a 6-3 SCOTUS opinion wherein the six-asshole majority rewrites, neuters and/or hollows-out laws duly enacted by Congress or states that do not uphold white cis-het christian male supremacy. Conservatives are constitutionally (<-hahaha) incapable of envisioning a culture, society, community, institution, family structure, or indeed any human relationship that does not embody a strict hierarchy, as arbitrary, amoral, or immoral as it may be. This is why conservatives by nature hate democracy: because democracy is, at least aspirationally, a real-world manifestation of equality. One person = one vote.

THE HORROR. 😱

After Callais, the gerrymandering frenzy in Republican-led states has gone into hyperdrive, in an effort to lock in a permanent gain of House seats for the GOP. Dem politicians are responding accordingly in a manic frenzy to rewrite electoral maps in blue states to counter these measures.

The Dem reaction is all fine and dandy, and probably necessary in the immediate aftermath of the court’s transparently racist and anti-democratic excrescence. But the real travesty here will not be remedied so easily: racial minorities will remain disenfranchised and significantly underrepresented for the foreseeable future.

Gee Iris, I can hear you asking, What can I possibly do about this malevolent shitfuckery? Fear not! For I have the answer:

WHITE PEOPLE:
LET’S ALL FORFEIT OUR VOTES TO BLACK WOMEN.

No, I am not joking.

[Read more…]

Banksy: Now in 3-D!

A statue of a man holding a flag which covers his face, and stepping off a plinth, signed "Banksy," surrounded by a crowd. It appeared in Waterloo Place in London, Thursday, April 30, 2026.

(AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

via AP:

May 1, 2026

LONDON (AP) — Elusive street artist Banksy said Thursday that a new sculpture that appeared in central London of a man striding off a plinth, with his face blinded by a billowing flag, is his work.

A statue of a man holding a flag which covers his face, and stepping off a plinth, signed "Banksy." It appeared in Waterloo Place in London, Thursday, April 30, 2026.

(via AP – video uncredited)

In a humorous video posted Thursday on his Instagram account, Banksy showed snippets of how the sculpture was put up in the dead of night. The sculpture appeared to have been erected in the early hours of Wednesday on a plinth on a traffic island in Waterloo Place, near Buckingham Palace.

…

The statue is situated close to those of King Edward VII, who reigned between 1901 and 1910, and legendary nurse Florence Nightingale, as well as the Crimean War Memorial.

Banksy is known for his 2-D spray-painted images, surreptitiously applied on public and private buildings. The sharp, witty, satirical and often scathing political commentary embedded in his work is not subtle. For me, Banksy’s artistic genius lies in crystallizing his point of view on dark and deep subject matter into simple, nearly universally accessible images (and statues!) that simultaneously exude an unmistakable playfulness, hilarity, child-like whimsy, and outright joy.

It is quite the trick Mr. Banksy pulls off, like no other.

More images of the statue below the cut.

[Read more…]

This is my rage face.

[CONTENT NOTE: mass shootings and shooters, violent misogyny, rape culture.]

Emoji: face with cringing eyes and mouth.

GENERAL NOTES:

First, when I use the word misogyny, by way of definition I incorporate by reference the concept of entitlement. It may be directed to women’s deference, obedience, attention, decisions, bodies, privacy, place in a hierarchy (such as a business), perceived or actual safety (relative to men), and/or umpteen kazillion other aspects that I cannot think of right now on account of the blinding rage. So whatever else its definition may encompass, it encompasses at least some form of gender-based entitlement.

Second, the definition of mass shooting lacks consensus, to put it mildly. Broadly speaking, it requires a single shooter, a minimum of three (or four) victims, which may (or may not) include the shooter, in a public place, in essentially the same geographic location with shots fired close together in time. Again, broadly speaking, it does not include foreign terrorist attacks, or incidental homicides such as multiple killings during a bank robbery.

Interestingly, the common caveat that a mass shooting must occur in a public place means that incidents where a shooter kills his wife, girlfriend, or ex, her children, other family member(s) and possibly himself (odds are 50-50 there) does not meet the definition of mass shooting.

I wonder why that is?

[Read more…]

And this is…news?

To anyone? Srsly?

Wahington Post banner logo

picture of the headquarters of the Southern Baptist convention.

News Alert
May 22, 4:01 p.m. EDT

Southern Baptist leaders covered up sex abuse, lied to members about secret database, explosive report shows

Leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention released a major third-party investigation that found that sex abuse survivors were often ignored, minimized and “even vilified” by top leaders in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

Read more [@Washington Post]

Why? So we can “learn” that the hierarchy at an ultra- conservative, openly misogynist, church has a hideous history of sexually abusing women and girls (and probably boys and men too) and covering it up for decades?

You guys, it’s so weird! I feel like I could have written this exact story, word for word, without seeing anything more than the headline.

Yeah, I must be psychic or something. ‘CUZ THAT’S THE ONLY EXPLANATION THAT MAKES ANY SENSE AMIRITE.

Emoji: big eyeroll