Photos In Boxes: The Gas Mask

 Best guess - 1978.  I remember the apartment but not exactly where it was.  Near Gessner, south of Westheimer in Houston.  I found the gas mask at the Common Market and paid 5 bucks, which I found outrageous but I wasn’t leaving without it.  Fred Drake was with me and fully supported my decision.  

We dragged that gas mask around town, snapping photos of each other looking ridiculous.  Most have been lost over time but a few survived.  I’ll add those someday, Dean and Fred in numerous environments.  We really had fun.  These days, running around in a gas mask in public would no doubt cause panic and arrests.

 What was I wearing besides the gas mask?   I believe it was called a “shower wrap” and was basically a hand towel with a button to secure it.  I was never terribly modest and wore that thing until it disintegrated.  I would wear it still but possibly not as often as I did.  It didn’t offer, let’s say, the perfect amount of coverage.  And was perfect for when evangelicals knocked on the door.  “Hi there!”

I look longingly upon the milk.  Lactose intolerant now and the concept of cow’s milk now actually seems exceptionally grotesque.  I still remember it fondly, though, even if I can’t/don’t want to drink it now.

Cheers, babies.

Seditionists and Slobbering Jethros

Conspiracy theories:  not a fan.  Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK.  9/11 was not an inside job.  And so on.  For decades, I worked for the most secretive organization on the planet.  For a while, we were very good at keeping secrets – it was part of the job description – but everything eventually leaked. 

Everything. 

The common logic is that conspiracies are sneaky, quiet, closely held.  The belief in these nutty ideas let stupid people feel smart.  They know something you don’t.  This is a large part of why conspiracy theories are so popular with the Slobbering Jethros. 

Anyway, what if the conspiracy is not sneaky or quiet or closely held?  What if it’s happening in your face, on television, in all the media outlets?  Because that’s where we are right now, folks.  The Big Lie.  The election was stolen.  Any election that did not favor Donald Trump had to be rigged!  He told us that in absolute daylight.  He could not lose. If he did lose, there was illegal stuff going on!  He set the groundwork for that long before the election.  The Slobbering Jethros knew it was true because Orange Jesus Bumblecunt told them so.

Trump is the rotting head of the current Republican party.  The problem started with him, of course, we all know that, but now there is a seditious conspiracy at work amongst the Batshit Crazy Wing of the Republican party.  Hang the fact that numerous courts, some presided over by Trump appointees, have rejected the idea that there was widespread voter fraud.  It’s very simple when you think about it.  There was negligible voter tomfoolery.  No proof or evidence was ever proffered, just the batshit crazy ideas fomented by Guiliani et al.  None were reality-based. 

There have been consequences.  They are ongoing.  There is sedition afoot, my fellow citizens.

One consequence is Republican-led voter suppression.  They lost and they know it, so perhaps they should come up with better ideas, right?  That’s what a normal non-seditionist party would do.  “The voters rejected our platform.  Let’s re-think this and see if we can do better.”  Eh, nope, not the modern Seditionist Republicans.  No sir.  Their solution was to make it harder for citizens to vote.  And to replace the vote counters with party hacks.   Does that seem American?  Not to me.  They lost a fair and open election (ignoring that some of them actually won on the same ballots) so they want to change the system, not themselves.  Who’s blocking the John Lewis Voting Rights Act? 

You get one guess.

Don’t kid yourself.  There was a plot to subvert democracy on 6 January.  The Batshit Crazy Wing was perfectly happy to cancel your vote and appoint a king.  By decree, not by votes.  Does that seem American?  It was obvious what they were up to and it’s even more obvious now.  Reject the will of the American people!  Fuck a bunch of votes!  To hell with the very basis of our democracy!  In fact, there was no peaceful transfer of power.  Remember that?  Does that seem American? 

We quibble about whether or not Mark Meadows should be held in contempt.  Steve Bannon screams that he is taking the fight to the Democrats.  That asshole Jeffrey Clark from DoJ is still not having his feet held to the fire.  And then there’s the Batshit Crazy Co-conspirators, Jim Jordan, Kevin McCarthy, Lauren Boebert, you know who they are.  They are seditionists, the lot of them, and we’re all waving our hands and being nice about contempt of congress?  FUCK THAT.  They should be arrested and charged with sedition.  Every. Single. One. 

I’m not a lawyer (nor do I play one on TV) but common sense and my oath to the Constitution of the United States of America informs my beliefs.  I know you legal types will want to tell me how wrong I am, but here’s the thing: I’m not.  If you plot to overthrow the government, if you incite a mob to attack the Capitol in order to prevent a free and fair election from being certified, you are guilty as fuck of sedition.   So don’t tell me I’m wrong. 

I’m mad as hell.  You know the rest.  Stay angry, stay motivated, and for God’s sake, VOTE.  Vote like your nation depends on it.  Your democracy.  Because there are those who would gleefully take it from us.

The MetaVerse Doesn't Like My Buttocks

 I've been suspended, sometimes for very long periods of time, from Facebook for things I've said.  Mostly true things, accurate things, but let's not belabor that now.  These suspensions are what started my campaign of using my actual buttocks as profile photos.  I have no idea how many I've done or how often I've used these photos as my profile pic, but I'm sure it's been going on since last summer, at least.

I read up on the Facebook policy regarding nudity and stayed within those guidelines.  Mostly.  We are forbidden to show the anus and the FSM knows I've never done THAT.  We cannot show "close-ups" of buttocks so I've always included most of the rest of my body.  And a cowboy hat, generally.  I may have walked up to and peed over the line, but I never stepped over it.

Today, I was suspended again and I really couldn't figure out what I had said.  I was being such a good little internet consumer!  So a little bit of research produced this:

This was labeled "spam".  I objected.  Took the photo myself, I said.  Got some likes from people who would recognize me and/or my back yard.  It was not spam.  This was just a few hours ago and I guess the Robot Overlords are on coffee break, snickering about how they ban folks left and right based on very little - or nothing at all.  We shall see if any action is taken.  I have my doubts.

Meanwhile, because my ass is admired by some......