We're In The Hands Of Fools

     I'm starting to see news stories -- you know, the kind with actual news about things that are actually happened, supported by interviews with the people to whom they are happening, genuine primary sources -- about shortages of agricultural workers: the people who set cows up for milking, harvest fruits and vegetables, work in meat-processing plants.  There's a lot of "touch labor," hands-on work, in that and it doesn't pay well.  Nor is it entirely unskilled.  The Trump administration and their Republican stooges in Congress keep claiming that those food supply jobs will be filled by former basement-dwelling shirkers, newly kicked off Federal assistance.  Even if they do exist in sufficient numbers (unlikely), I'm not at all sure I want my tomatoes picked and beef slaughtered, cleaned and cut by under-achieving potheads, filled with resentment at being yanked away from their gaming consoles; they're unlikely to be as diligent as the guy working on a temporary permit -- or despite the lack of one.

     Meanwhile, tariff madness continues: they're on again!  Or off again!  Or put off!  "90 deals in 90 days" has become two deals, not especially good ones, with the UK and Vietnam, and a series of not entirely coherent letters sent to world leaders (scroll down to read the original releases on Truth Social).  The deadline to implement most of the higher tariffs has been pushed back yet again.  --And remember, they're assessed on the importer, not the exporter: Uncle Sam has no power to make companies in other countries ante up.  The higher rates are far beyond what any company can be expected to pay without charging more when they sell the goods, and those high prices will roll downhill to you and me.

     But don't worry, Republicans in government have got their eyes firmly on the prize!  Why, just the other month, Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith warned on Facebook, "PRIDE MONTH ALERT: The Rainbow Beast Is Coming For Your Kids!" (link for proof.)  He expanded his, er, thoughts on a podcast, saying in part, "Back in ancient Israel, there was a goddess, her name was Ishtar, and she was the goddess of transgenderism, a gender-warping goddess. She was a homosexual goddess.[...] And she was represented by rainbows in her eyes. Anytime you saw her, you'd see rainbows. And it's like, wow, this is the same demonic playbook just playing out all over again."  This is a fear-mongering mish-mash with no Biblical basis and barely any footing in ancient history. Ishtar/Inanna was a Mesopotamian goddess roughly analogous to the Greek Athena, not strongly associated with rainbows (she "spans the sky like a rainbow" in one myth, seeking a lost associate).  Presumably, the Israelites encountered the Mesopotamian pantheon during their captivity/exile in Babylon, but there's no evidence they brought Ishtar home (she is not conflated at all with earlier Asherah poles and the associated goddess of motherhood, for instance).

     Elsewhere, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has weighed in on Governor Braun's Executive Order from earlier in the year, defining "sex" in the state as whatever a person was believed to be at birth,* echoing a similar Federal EO.  Indiana's being sued by the ACLU over it and the Attorney General recently issued a news release that any change to Indiana birth certificates (a process already banned by the Governor's EO) would be "falsification of records," lining up innocent clerks with possible felony charges for complying with court orders.

     So, the economy's headed over a cliff, we're likely to start seeing higher grocery prices and even food shortages (not counting eggs, already scrambled by bird flu) before Thanksgiving, and the GOP is making sure...we're safe from rainbows and congruent IDs?

     Boy, what a relief.  Who cares about a depression, as long as those multi-colored demons are kept at bay!  Bonus: an Indianapolis church thinks our government isn't doing enough: the church says they ought to be executing LGBT people.

     We're all in the hands of murderous fools.  As Roberts Rules of Order reminds us, silence is consent, and I'm not agreeing to this kind of craziness.  Look, I want people to dress modestly and keep their windowshades down, but I'm not the boss of them, their tattoos, or what consenting adult(s) they fall in love with.
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* Leaving physically intersex people, a group only slightly less common than natural redheads, at the mercy of the attending physician's best guess.  Sure hope they got it right!