From Behind Enemy Lines

@notmelissavitelliKeep melting down

♬ original sound – MelissaVitelli

This couple is part of the reason I found the LGB community on the Right. The lady in the back is the Trump person, and the one talking in front is her wife. Her wife did not vote for Trump. Her wife, however, is not an idiot.

The reason I’m posting this because this is how it’s supposed to work. You can vote differently, think differently, even have different values (to a point), and still be loving partners. For a very long time, I did not back anything Right… and my partner still loved me. I still loved him. Now I have one partner who’s very Right, and one who’s moderately Left, and I love them both. It helps me hear outside my echo chamber, among other things, and it also makes it very clear to me that we often have the same goal but with different ideas on how to achieve them.

Those who’ve chosen to end relationships over Trump winning are also choosing to enact the stupid Handmaid’s Tale stuff. They’re feeding right into it. They are training themselves to REact rather than to act. I find it difficult to watch. I also find it rather disgusting to watch women cut off their hair or say they’re going to purposefully gain weight “to be unattractive to men.” Excuse me, but there are women out there who have lost their hair because of disease, who have no choice of the matter, and they are still beautiful. There are women who are fat and they are beautiful. I’m fat, and I’m beautiful. 🙂 Those women who are doing the 4B movement are just douches. It’s horrendous, and so against every single thing the Left purports to be for.

It’s been a heck of a few weeks, but things seem to finally be slowing down slightly. I am behind in postings, and hella busy, so if I miss one or two, I apologize. It’s National Novel Writing Month, and I’m writing a new cookbook. I hope to have the first draft complete by Dec 1st. That eats a lot of time, because it requires me to do a LOT of writing each day, but it’s very productive.

I got talking with friends about the differences between the Left and the Right. The biggest one that I see is the concept of morals. These are, of course, very sweeping generalities. Take what you will from them.

The Right has a very strict sense of morality, and while there are people under the Big Tent with different beliefs, generally speaking the vast majority hold incredibly similar morals. You can be a straight laced, white Christian and be Republican. You can be as gay as they come, pagan, and be Republican. But if you think it’s okay to punch people because of their beliefs, you can’t really be Republican. The opposite is true of the Left. On the Left, if you aren’t clad in rainbows and supportive of whatever the victim-de-jour requires, you can’t be Democrat. On the other hand, you can have wildly different moral codes, and in fact have moral codes that change depending on the moment.

The Right likes to talk about how intolerant the Left is, and the Left makes all sorts of claims about intolerance on the Right. Trump’s election win has the Left trotting out Karl Popper’s essay on intolerance, of course. Let me share:

“Less well known is the paradox of tolerance: Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. — In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law, and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way as we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal.” — Karl Popper, The Open Societies and Its Enemies

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BLUF: Be compassionate. Yes, even if it hurts. Yes, even if they’re assholes and dickwads. I want to know that I picked the right side. I want to know that this is the side that isn’t lying to me.

Right, we have a new President Elect. Trump defied the odds, and he took it all. He is the President Elect. He won us the Senate. And it looks like he won us the House. I’m sure most of us have been celebrating in some fashion or another for the past couple of days. And now it’s time to buckle down.

The Right have decried the Left for having majorities and doing nothing with them. We have the majority across the board for the next while, and we NEED to be doing stuff with it. We need to enact those campaign promises. Better economy, getting dangerous criminal aliens out of the country, lower grocery costs, better housing market, and the list goes on. This isn’t going to happen overnight, but Trump must put himself to work immediately and start getting things done.

The Left is so aflutter with terror right now that there might actually be a teaching moment, if the Right can keep things together. For the next few weeks, between election results and inauguration, the Left expects to be treated like dirt. We can’t. We must act with compassion.

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And… it’s over. Election season is done. Yesterday (or earlier) everyone cast their votes. Today, we have a new President elect.

Of course, I’m writing this in advance. At the time of writing this, we’re still in the throes of early voting, and Election Day is still a bit away. I can’t say that I’ll be unhappy to see the election mess over with. I may change my mind about that by the time this is published, of course.

Here are my prediction, made about a week before election. Take from it what you will.

I think that Trump is going to get in. I’m afraid to hope for that, right now, but I just feel like that’s what’s about to happen. I can’t find a poll that I trust, so I really don’t know. Everyone I do trust is saying that this election is too close to call. Still, I’ve seen lots of Trump signs and a lot fewer Harris ones over the past few months. That must mean something… right?

If Trump gets in, I believe we’re going to see the cities burn. I doubt that the mayhem will erupt into rural areas, if only because rural folk don’t put up with that crap. I think that the cities will be hugely damaged by rioters of the Left. I expect there to be some loss of life in the days to come. I am sure that a number of people will play stupid games and win stupid prizes, and we’ll hear all about it on the news.

If Harris gets in, there are likely to be challenges over voter fraud. I am going to assume that if Harris gets in, even by a slim margin, all the challenges will be dismissed. I have some major concerns about a Harris presidency. She and her group have spent a lot of time calling the Right Nazis and racists, and that means they themselves are likely those things. We tend to accuse others of doing the things we don’t want to admit we’re doing ourselves. I’m concerned she’ll actually attempt to round up Trump followers and reeducate them.

I’d like to say that I don’t believe things will be All That Bad, but I suspect no matter who’s in office, it’s going to be bad. Trump, for better or worse, has become the face of divisiveness in politics. I know that’s 99% to do with the Left media distorting things, but it is what it is. It’s why I wanted to see Nikki Haley or Ted Cruz up there rather than Trump. But this is where we are.

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So here I am. The waters have retreated and I’m standing on dry beach, and all these new people are standing around and near me. I’m being welcomed, and it all seems very friendly. I want to let my guard down. I really do. But damn, folks, it’s HARD.

Recently, I had a conversation with Chris about birth control. We all know that “just don’t have sex” doesn’t work, and hasn’t worked since before written history. I was explaining that to me, it just makes sense that if you want a low abortion rate (which I do), then the answer is to have effective, inexpensive, low side-effect birth control. Preferably, you want several types, too, so that people have choices, and so that men and women both can be involved in being responsible.

I pointed out that there are many people on the Right who advocate eradicating both abortion AND birth control, and I want to know why. Why is that so important, to remove birth control from people? It makes no sense to me.

I admit, I may have said to Chris that a good portion of unwanted babies (via rape and incest, for example) all have come about because of men. Women don’t rape men and then get upset over getting pregnant (or there are so few that I’ve not only never read about it, I’ve never even heard a whisper about it) and become so emotional that they require an abortion. That makes men the problem. This is, of course, a grand simplification of the issue and removes franchise from women, which is not cool. But the idea is there, and it’s not a wrong idea, it’s just that it’s too vague as currently stated. Chris’s response was, of course, that men who commit incest or diddle little girls should be fed through a wood chipper on low speed, feet first, wearing a tourniquet. I heartily agree with him on that one.

But that doesn’t address the birth control issue. The worst part is, I don’t even really know how to ask the question, or what to say to get a reasonable (ie truthful, meaningful, statistically relevant) answer. How many people on the Right are interested in legislating or otherwise taking away the right to use birth control? This is not a question about paying for it, by the by. I know there’s insurance issues and all that. That’s not a part of what I’m after here. For the purposes of this line of questioning, you can assume that everyone pays up front cash for their birth control. How do I find out whether the Left is correct about this issue?

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I watched the devastation of Helene as it tore through the Carolinas region. Entire towns are gone, and when I say gone, I mean they no longer exist. They are buried beneath rubble and mud in a level of destruction not seen (IMO) since the Galveston hurricane of 1900. I have heard reports of over 300 dead, and I think that’s ridiculously low. I know that the “official” number is currently 95 (as of this writing, 10/15/24), per NCDHHS. That number is just offensive. People on the ground are stating bluntly that they’ve seen piles of bodies.

Milton, too, was a force to be reckoned with, especially right after Helene. It spared the Carolinas, but hit Florida, and did so hard. I’ve heard of 17 deaths so far, and it’s well reported. There are news people in Florida, walking through the very wet, sometimes partially submerged neighborhoods. A number of houses are demolished, thanks to the tornadoes spawned during Milton’s arrival.

These two disasters are NOT the same. Please know, I’m not meaning to disparage any of the people involved in either hurricane. To anyone who has helped, in any way, you deserve kudos, love, support, and praise. But the response is just not the same, and the disasters are of entirely different levels.

Just as an example, “FEMA has approved more than $96 million in housing and other types of assistance for over 75,000 households.” (FEMA) and “FEMA has approved more than $177.6 million for over 56,900 households.” That means in NC, each of the households has gotten about $1280. In Florida, each household has gotten about $3093.

What?

And that’s just the reported stuff, right from FEMA’s website, which is probably quite biased. Florida, which wasn’t hit even remotely as hard, which hasn’t been rocked by watching loved ones swept away by violent mudslides they had NO warning of, have gotten more than twice what the folks in NC have gotten.

And people wonder why the folks in NC are “hunting FEMA” right now?

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So there I was, happily standing slightly left of middle, when people around me started doing weird stuff. First, it was making statements that bothered me. Stuff like calling me a TERF (trans exclusionary radical feminist), which is so far from the mark as to be almost funny. I was told that I don’t understand what it’s like to be LGBTetc. I just can’t possibly get it because I’m so normal.

Folks, these things were coming from people who’ve known me in real life, face to face, for about a decade. They know I’m pansexual (ie bisexual but really I don’t care what you stash in your slacks). They know I’m pagan. They know I’m poly. They know I’m kinky. They know I’ve had lovers of many types (men, women, and people who don’t really fit comfortably into either of the first two categories). They know I come from Hungarian stock (ie Magyar, a group who were and sometimes still are persecuted) on one side, and Scottish (a group historically persecuted) on the other. If you want to get down to brass tacks, I’m a charter member of some of those alphabet soup groups. I’m old enough that I remember when the kink community was still ruled largely by the gay men and their families.

I’m also apparently sexist, homophobic, and racist.

All of this is said of me because I decided to comment (sometimes face to face, and sometimes online) about things going on in the world. Stuff like how I don’t think you should force the word “cis” on someone, just like you (that particular group) don’t want various pronouns forced on you. Somehow, it’s always “just not the same.” And so I’m a traitor to my race, to my gender, to my country.

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Well, the VP debate was interesting. I thought it was MUCH better than the presidential one, for what that’s worth. I was pleasantly surprised that the moderators weren’t horrid (they had moments, but they weren’t horrid). I was very surprised at how well Walz did, as I’ve not seen him do much public speaking outside of rallies. Vance, on the other hand, did incredibly well. I was thrilled to see him answer each and every question put to him. The same cannot be said of Walz, Harris, OR Trump. If you’d like to read the transcript of the debate, you can do so here: CBS News Transcript.

Tim Walz got hit with a rough question fairly early on. The moderators asked him whether it was true that he’d lied about being in China during the Tienanmen Square protest in ’89. He did not answer the question. He went on a rambling diatribe about small town America and taking teams on trips out of country. The moderator had to remind him that he hadn’t answered the question, and ask it again. He still dodged it:

“MB: Governor, just to follow up on that, the question was, can you explain the discrepancy?

TW: No. All I said on this was, is, I got there that summer and misspoke on this, so I will just, that’s what I’ve said. So I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protest, went in, and from that, I learned a lot of what needed to be in governance.”

Almost immediately after, the moderator asked Vance about why he changed his stance from being anti-Trump to being the VP pick. I loved Vance’s response:

“…I’ve disagreed with the President, but I’ve also been extremely open about the fact that I was wrong about Donald Trump. I was wrong, first of all, because I believed some of the media stories that turned out to be dishonest fabrications of his record. But most importantly, Donald Trump delivered for the American people rising wages, rising take home pay, an economy that worked for normal Americans. A secure southern border. A lot of things, frankly, that I didn’t think he’d be able to deliver on. And yeah, when you screw up, when you misspeak, when you get something wrong and you change your mind, you ought to be honest with the American people about it.”

It was a gentle but firm kick in Walz’s teeth, that Vance could be honest about his mistakes, and about his personal growth.

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BLUF: Are you in the area that’s been affected by Helene? Talk to us. We want to hear what’s going on from those who are there. If you need help, let us know what we can do. We might not be able to do everything, but we’ll do *something*!

As I watch what’s unfolding in the Carolinas and Tennessee, I am just heartbroken for the people who’ve lost family members, homes, everything. I’m happy to see so many people, “average people,” standing up and doing what needs doing. I know a lot of people are turning to X for their information from boots on the ground, and I watch TikTok for the same reason.

I want to scream at the people who are whining about their holidays being cancelled, due to the hurricane’s devastation of the area. Yes, there are people on TikTok who are actually complaining that they can’t go visit scenic Appalachia and such. I suppose they don’t realize that the hotels and AirBnBs they had booked are simply no longer there. It’s not that trips are cancelled to do a bit of clean-up… it’s that entire communities are under water, or have been destroyed. On the other side of that spectrum, there are so many people who are cancelling their bookings but not their fees, meaning they let the owners know they aren’t even attempting to come, but to keep the money because they know it’s needed.

Yesterday, I watched Trump talking in Georgia (I think? I can’t remember, but one of the places hit hard), and he commented that the state governor couldn’t get ahold of Biden or Harris. I also watched a reporter ask Biden if there was more aid going to the southern states to help dig out the towns devastated by the hurricane, and Biden’s very clear answer was no. Now, Trump’s campaign tends to cut it off right after the “no” but Biden do go on to say more (here’s the clip). I don’t know that Biden’s staff is ignoring the issue, and certainly he managed to get on tv later in the day to tell everyone that there was more aid going to the south. I think the problem is that *Biden* isn’t doing anything. I didn’t really expect him to. He can’t handle simple stairs; I don’t know that we want him somewhere that the ground is uneven and it’s moderately dangerous. Regardless, the mainstream media seems to think that the clip I reference above simply doesn’t exist. They say that Trump is lying about it. But it’s RIGHT THERE.

I really don’t know what to make of all this. I understand not wanting the President or the VP on the site right now. When Katrina hit New Orleans, Bush delayed going so that he and his entourage of Secret Service didn’t interfere with search and rescue. I didn’t expect anyone from the White House to arrive on scene for a few days, and that’s just fine. But I did expect to see Harris, at least, on television saying words of hope and concern. Isn’t that what she’s all about? The fact that she seems to have completely ignored the red states makes my skin crawl. I mean, let’s face it, there are Blue folks down in the rubble there. Surely she cares about them?

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Update – Wed. Sep. 25, 2:39pm:

So it turns out that each state has its own election rules, and there are several places that you cannot do what is suggested in the video below and the post. I encourage everyone to find out BEFORE the election what you should do if you find out someone has stolen your identity. Also, if you’ve had family members move out of state, pass on, or change voter status, make sure your local pollsters know that. It behooves us to ensure this stuff before each election, so that only the people who should vote, do vote.

I also urge people who live in states that only allow mail-in ballots to change that. There should always be the ability for a citizen of the United States of America to step into a polling station and cast their ballot in person. Always.

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Original post, unedited:

I’ve never had it happen to me, but I know a couple of people local to me were told at their polling place that they had already voted. This is, essentially, a form of identity theft. There are things you can do. What you should absolutely NOT do is harass the volunteers at the voting station. It’s not their fault and they are just following their rules. I was trolling on TikTok while I’ve been sick, and ran into this video, which I suggest you watch. The sound can be funky on it, not sure why. Works on my phone but not my computer.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTFjSh3rx/

There’s a lot of other stuff on the video, such as advice on checking to make sure dead relatives aren’t on the rolls, and making sure that someone who’s changed their name (due to marriage or whatever) doesn’t have someone steal their pre-change identity.

So apparently there are people out there, professional looking people, telling the populace to fill in their voting oval, and then to draw a line to their candidate. Please know, that will INVALIDATE your vote. Do not do that! Just fill in your oval.

If you make a mistake, do not scribble on it. Go request another ballot. Yes, it’s a hassle. No, it’s not stupid. Yes, it’s worth it.

If someone makes any kind of mark on your ballot, request another one. You do not take a ballot that has been marked on by another person, because it can invalidate your ballot.

For those who don’t do TikTok, here’s the step by step written explanations on what to do. Please note, I am not a lawyer, and I literally got this off TikTok. It “passes the sniff test,” as Chris often says.

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