Today is literally the last day of 2014 that there will ever be. Unless of course you believe in some kind of multiverse theory or my own personal nerd-ariffic pipe dream of time travel, that is.
So without any further ado…
2014 was an utter shit sandwich of a year, and I frankly will be glad as hell when you wave goodbye to this hideous, insipid fucking year.
Comedia de Tristeza
2014 took far too many comedic icons from us. There was of course the inimitable Joan Rivers. Sure, I hated every word that came out of her mouth about Israel and Palestine, but in that regard she was no different than all 100 of our Senators and I’d wager a good 400 or more of the members of the House. Joan was a hard-nosed Warrior Queen of Comedy from her first breath to her last, and not a single comedian should feel anything but the utmost respect for the trails she blazed, not just for female comics, but for comics who wanted to talk about their marriages or relationships on more biting, personal levels.
We lost an amazing comedic writer and actor in Harold Ramis. I’ve tried to watch “Ghostbusters” and “Stripes” since his passing, but alas, I just can’t without feeling far too much dusty matter in my eyes to get a good, clean view of the screen. Ramis was a genius writer, penning scripts full of laughter to the point of tears. I am sure that over time Ramis’ films will be like John Candy’s films to me now — perfect archival evidence of his unmistakable legacy.
Then there’s Robin.
The man loomed so large in comedy that a permanent void was opened up when he took his own life this year. It’s hard for me to come up with the proper words to put into context just what a contribution Robin Williams made to the art forms of comedy, drama, writing, acting, and pretty much anything his brain set to do. Perhaps I said it best in the title of my tribute piece to him, and really nothing much more needs to be said.
“I Refuse To Acknowledge a World Without Robin Williams.”
A Half-Black President Means Nothing in “Post-Racial” America
The next time I hear a conservative tell me that racism doesn’t exist, or even that we’ve made such huge strides in racial relations in this country as to no longer require the Federal and state governments’ constant supervision to ensure people really aren’t being robbed of their basic human freedoms…I am going to laugh hard in their face.
For starters, let’s not forget that the GOP is going out on a racist bang with the blockbuster news reported by blogger Lamar White Jr. that House Majority Whip Rep. Steven Scalise (LA) spoke to a rooms full of white supremacists in 2002. That’s not a small story, no matter how much the Republicans will tell you it is. And sure, it’s pretty much a given that rank and file Republican voters will simply toss this off as nothing more than a liberal witch hunt, but you can’t exactly claim to be the party of Lincoln — the party that freed the slaves — and have your number three in command in one-half of an entire branch of government be someone who even remotely affiliates himself with the kind of shit that EURO stands for.
The simple fact that just over a decade ago Scalise was speaking to devout racists as a public figure should prove to everyone that racism isn’t not just completely alive in 2014, it’s thriving…just in a more subtle, publicly palatable sort of way.
And all of that is without even remotely brushing the subject of the criminal justice system, police training and tactics and the bitter, blood red cocktail they have clearly produced in this country. This year alone we had an unarmed black teenager gunned down in the middle of the street in broad daylight. The cop who admitted shooting him after stating in his own grand jury testimony that he pulled his firearm instead of non-lethal options during the initial confrontation, thus proving he was the one increased hostilities and took a bad situation and made it a million times worse, will face no charges. Then there was the 12 year old boy who was gunned down in a hail of police gun fire within two fucking seconds of the cops showing up on the scene…and no charges will be filed against the killer cop in that case.
The story of 12-year-old Tamir Rice is heartbreaking, and it also proves something the case of Eric Garner — the unarmed black man who was choked to death by NYPD officers over a dispute involving the sale of loose cigarettes — also proves. Having cameras and footage of police brutality and brazenly unconstitutional practices doesn’t really mean a goddamned thing because the laws have been written to allow cops to kill with almost certain impunity. All a cop must say now is he feels “threatened” and he can murder you.
Just like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison intended things to work here, I’m sure.
But if it’s real, solid, undeniable evidence of America’s virulent and chronic racism, look no further than Donald Sterling, former owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers franchise. More specifically, you should compare the conservative rhetoric over people like Sterling making racist comments, or the defenses of Rep. Scalise on first amendment grounds, to the caterwauling and gnashing of teeth that they put forth every time President Obama dares to speak about racism in America. The differences in their reactions are very real and very noticeable.
The man who has had his legitimacy as a citizen questioned all six years of his presidency because of his race isn’t allowed to talk about race in America according to conservatives. They call it “race baiting” to point out that black people still live a wholly different life in the eyes of law enforcement. They perversely insist that someone like Al Sharpton is a racist himself for pointing out that black teenagers can’t even go into a store in the mall without getting a cockeyed glance. They scream from the rafters every time a black person tells them to check their white privilege — rightfully pointing out that many white conservatives have a notion in their minds that since they aren’t personally experiencing discrimination, it doesn’t exist.
Now juxtapose all the ranting and raving that they do over Obama’s comments on the Trayvon Martin case in 2013, or any of the other egregious miscarriages of justice this year to the dog whistle racism their candidates belch out every election season. Welfare Queens and the like, right? That’s what they talk about, and that’s what they mean when they say “takers.” The movement that has built its rhetoric around the notion that poor people are by and large minorities has the audacity to get upset when actual people in minority groups relate what life is really, truly like to them.
It’s enough to make you sick. Electing a (half) black president didn’t prove the country was post-racial. It didn’t move us forward on the issue. Instead, the racist assholes who have been hiding in the shadows of the Republican Party used it as an excuse to push us back about 50 years, literally.
It was in 1965 that the Voting Rights Act was put into place by Congress, ensuring that people of color could exercise their right to vote without fear of retribution, and it was 49 years later, in 2014, that the Supreme Court’s scant conservative majority took a chainsaw to the legislation that many legal scholars call one our country’s finest achievements. And they did it so that red states could more easily suppress the black vote.
Roll over, Abe Lincoln. Roll over.
If a half-black man getting elected to the highest office in the land set the country this far back…I can’t imagine what a fully-black president would do. Imagine how far back women’s rights will be set back in red states if a woman wins. Abortion will be a capital punishment for the doctors and the mothers. I’m being melodramatic for effect here, but you better believe if Hillary or Liz or any other of the millions of fully capable and qualified women in the country win the presidency, Texas will be the first state to pass a law that life begins at ejaculation and will start incarcerating men for masturbating and committing genocide.
Here Come the Republicans!
Oh, and then there’s the fact that despite the economy is in the best shape it’s been in years, and despite Obamacare actually being a ringing success, Democrats ran a horrible, desperate campaign and got their asses kicked in November, paving the way for Total Republican Congressional Control. They also own the Supreme Court too, which means 2016 could be an even bigger nightmare than 2014 if for some reason America trips on the dumb ass stick again and elects a Republican to the White House without the Dems retaking at least one chamber of Congress.
Republicans controlling our entire government is the only way 2016 will be worse than 2014. Enjoy that ray of sunshine as my parting shot. I hope everyone out there says goodbye to 2014 safely, and among those they love, and now…onto covering another presidential election cycle.
Kill me now.
The post The Shit Sandwich That Was The Year 2014 appeared first on The Political Garbage Chute.