I guess all's fair in love and politics, but the Trump campaign blasted Joe Biden today for his "years-long assault on the Christian faith." Why? Because he "formally proclaimed Easter Sunday as 'Trans Day of Visibility.'" The page with the proclamation even has an Easter bunny logo at the top, proving that they're deliberately targeting Easter.
FFS:
- Every page on the White House site has an Easter bunny logo right now.
- Trans Day of Visibility, whatever you think of it, is an international celebration created 15 years ago. It's always on March 31, and it's just a coincidence that Easter happens to be on the same day this year. It happened last in 2013 and will happen again in 2086.¹
- Tomorrow also happens to be César Chávez Day, Freedom Day (Malta), King Nangklao Memorial Day (Thailand), Thomas Mundy Peterson Day (New Jersey), Transfer Day (US Virgin Islands), and World Backup Day.²
Naturally Fox News is all over this. Brian Stelter has the whole nauseating story here.
¹Oddly, my source for this is the US Census Bureau. I don't know why the Census Bureau was given the job of keeping track of Easter.
²Seriously: "World Backup Day is a commemorative date celebrated annually by the backup industry and tech industry all over the world.... Every year on March 31, companies tweet and have podcasts about the importance of backing up data to prevent data loss. On the website WorldBackupDay.com people can make a pledge in ten languages on various social media channels about the importance of backing up their data."
Can I go back into the archives and restore 2016 for a do over?
Really. In some alternate universe, Comey kept his mouth shut about the frikkin' email nothing burger, and Hilary narrowly won and we were spared the entire trauma of Trump.
It's just rube bait. Most of his followers are seething bundles of grievance and resentment, ready to explode in anger about anything as long as one of their trigger-words is invoked. Dr. Jill could read a book about fuzzy animals to kindergartners, and they'd freak out about her GROOMING CHILDREN FOR THE TRANS FURRIES.
You might as well pay attention to the screaming shrieks of a 4-y/o having a tantrum. It's all wild Id: that is the sum and substance of today's Republican Party. (And please, no "reasonable Republicans" grousing that this is Untrue Because Reasons Ahem Harrumph: they're just Good Germans who don't care for those crude Brownshirts but will vote for the Nazis anyway.)
Isn't it so sad to know so many people have such hateful and frightened minds? Fox News and our good friend Atticus below. I pity them and hope they can someday be as sane and kind as President Biden.
The one that gets my attention is USVI transfer day which I guess is celebrating the sale of the islands from the Danes in 1917. How does one toast to transfer day? Is there a parade? Is it a holiday? Inquiring minds need to know.
Grew up there, and yes there are Official Celebrations, although no parade that I recall. It's all very convivial. Danes are cool. Carnival, however, it decidedly is not.
The statement was:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2024/03/29/a-proclamation-on-transgender-day-of-visibility-2024/
"I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., .. do hereby proclaim March 31, 2024, as Transgender Day of Visibility."
To many people that sounds like something new Biden was establishing - because few people know about it. There is no mention of that day's history anywhere in the full statement. I think this will (very slightly) reduce support for Biden at the national level. It will make it harder to bring over Christians that are annoyed by having, in their view, a competing theme *introduced* on their most sacred day.
Rewritten, "Continuing the tradition of more than a decade, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR. ..." would massively defuse misunderstandings. The history is right next to the proclamation (not down below which is effectively a footnote). It was a political mistake - a serious one - in the crucial year.
To Defenders of Biden: Don't. When you're explaining you're losing. Do you really want this controversy to be in the news for weeks? Let this quickly vanish from the political consciousness.
Yes, definitely an unforced error. Not sure what his advisors were thinking.
Atticus, you moron, read the damn OP. The trans-day thing is always on the 31st. Easter is a movable feast; it can occur on any Sunday within over a month: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/easter-full-moon-vernal-equinox/#:~:text=By%20ecclesiastical%20rules%20set%20centuries,is%20fixed%20on%20March%2021.
KenShulz, you moron. Did you read Biden’s statement? It is that statement to which I was referring. And, just because some countries celebrate this in in the 31st doesn’t mean we have to celebrate it at all or start celebrating it on a year when the 31st falls on Easter.
spelled my name wrong, with it right in front of you …
any dem asked about this should respond by asking how many underage prostitutes were brought to mar-a-lago on easter sunday
No. (1) these proclamations are boilerplate. Take a look at any of the very many that are issued every year: same format, same language. Literally verbal boilerplate. More importantly (2) no amount of hedging or qualification would have made the slightest difference to the Right-Wing noise machine or its enablers or cheerleaders, both among MAGAts and among Good Germans. "Tsk TSK! TERRIBLE error, oh dear, TERRIBLE!" I suppose the next thing we can expect is a NY Times Panel Discussion about Why This Is Bad News For Biden. And lastly (3), it is emphatically NOT "a serious one"; rather, as you note, it will "quickly vanish from the political consciousness." It's just more rube-bait; nothing to do about it, especially not Monday-morning quarterbacking, and in any case it will quickly be replaced by the next faux controversy.
Why did he have to make a proclamation celebrating mental illness? And on Easter?
Fuck off and burn in hell troll.
I’m not a troll. What’s with the language?
OKAY, fuck off bigot
I’m a bigot because I don’t think we should celebrate mental illness? There’s a kid at my daughter’s school who identifies as a dog. Should we celebrate that too?
The only mental illness I see is your irrational hatred of trans individuals. Your bigotry is duly noted. Fuck off troll.
I think my favorite bit from Brian Stelter's thread is someone named Jesse Kelly demanding that Christians defend the faith by disparaging the idea of turning the other cheek.
Why is he celebrating mental illness? It is ridiculous and why there’s a decent chance he may not win when he should win in a landslide. The fact that it’s on Easter just compounds the idiocy.
Wait, "mental illness"? Could you explain further?
Men that think they are women and vice-versa.
Ah, and you know that those "men" are indeed "men" better than they? And that makes them "mentally ill"?
Honestly, the soulless, bigoted depravity of Republicans never ceases to amaze me. Just when you think there's a bottom...
“Just when you think there’s a bottom”.
That sums up how a lot of us republicans feel about the far left.
Btw, I am not a Trump supporter and won’t be voting for him. But stuff like this makes it hard to vote for Biden.
over the course of american history a lot more people have been killed or imprisoned by main-stream conservatives than liberal extremists
conservatives have always needed to prove their moral superiority by burning someone at the stake
who fills that role at any given time is inconsequential; it's the performance that matters
You have a very deep misunderstanding of most conservatives I know.
and conservatives fail to understand basic biology
How so?
for starters you can be born XX but still have male characteristics due to the SRY gene being translocated to the X chromosome
or an XY can produce male gonads that express testosterone but they lack receptors so the developing brain cells ignore it
and there are epigenetic influences that affect either the expression of or sensitivity to androgens
biology is spaghetti code; if you believe that any particular gene always does the same thing in everyone you are very confused
The idea is this: a group that is marginalized in more ways than one finally exists in a time when government and general civilized society is willing to protect the members who are just trying live their lives instead of always looking over their shoulders. The day is an acknowledgement. If you do not wish to participate, then don't and be quiet and respectful. It's simply a matter of not being a dick. Give it a try.
I think they should be given psychiatric help. They certainly shouldn’t feel physically threatened.
"They certainly shouldn’t feel physically threatened."
Just outcast from society and condemned to mental institutions then? How noble and generous of you. Scum.
Never feed the troll. Just pray that it burns in hell for its lack of a soul or any human decency.
Face reality, please. If you think you are something you are not it’s a mental illness.
And you know better than they what they "are" and "are not." So nice to have "reality" explained.
And in any case, we certainly don't want to "celebrate," or even have "awareness" of, those who do not think as they are supposed to think. Really, they should just keep their heads down -- "in a closet," as it were.
I dunno maybe the bigotry is just so ingrained that it's unconscious. Or maybe it's simply that "none are so blind as those who will not see." Or maybe it's simple authoritarianism. Whatever; it's depraved.
That fact that Atticus hasa different opinion from the rest here doesn't make him a troll.
And also "celebrating"? It's about "awareness" (we know this because it's in the title) and there is a material difference. Could you explain your remark further?
Ok. Fair point. If it is to draw attention to it, like breast cancer awareness or something like that, then that is a different story. But it don’t think that is why this day is about.
Whoever believes in me will do the works I have done, and they will do even greater things. - John 14:12
This is my commandment, love one another as I have loved you. - John 15:12
If the MAGA Republican Party wants to get even more anti-Christian than it already is, it's heading at high speed in the right direction.
So Biden is going to spend this Sunday at church, and Fuck L'Orange is going to be out there cheating at golf, or insulting some judge's daughter, or finding another scam to help his moronic followers part with their food and rent money.
Yes but Trump has tons of money (allegedly) and fucks hot women (again allegedly), therefore he is a godly man.
He is blessed with Prosperity; therefore he is beloved by the Lord. It's obvious.
This was an own goal on two levels. Firstly, by whomever chose March 31 as the day, rather than 'the last Monday in March' or similar, when it was inevitably going to coincide with the Easter weekend from time to time. If the purpose of a special day is to draw attention to something, it's not very smart to hold it on a day when more than half the population will be preoccupied with other things. The espoused purpose of Transgender Visibility Day is "not a day of remembrance or a day of protest, but a day of celebration." https://www.thespec.com/opinion/contributors/a-time-to-celebrate/article_5c9f128c-bf8e-57a8-b93d-9f45ae871848.html Surely any rational person could have foreseen the incongruity of urging people to get out and celebrate on Good Friday, for example?
Secondly, the president wasn't obliged to adopt an arbitrary date nominated by activists. If he has to proclaim all these special days and weeks and months, he could simply have noted the problems of having this one (and César Chávez Day for that matter) coincide with such a widely observed religious celebration, and changed the proclaimed day to March 30.
And to answer predictable replies: yes of course Trump Republicans would still have feigned outrage but that's not the point. The way this story has been presented, lots of independents and even Biden supporters will mutter to themselves and each other that this is an offensive insult to Christians.
And indeed much of modern American Christianity -- or more precisely Christianism, ie all the form but none of the substance -- has become little more than resentment and grievance, which explains why so many American Christianists are Trump supporters.
"I mean, it's bad enough that we have a BLACK woman and a JEW doing whatever it is they do at the VICE PRESIDENT's house, but now THIS?!? Why, it's an OUTRAGE!!!"
Really, in the way they are disrespected and made to suffer, these poor American Christianists are JUST like Jesus.
I don’t know what you are saying? I’ve never be atheist. Of course I’m a Christian. My dear leader President Trump, let us all praise Christ on this Easter night.
Rejoice, heavenly powers! Sing, choirs of angels!
Exult, all creation around God's throne!
Jesus Christ, our King, is risen!
Sound the trumpet of salvation!
Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor,
radiant in the brightness of our King!
Christ has conquered! Glory fills you!
Darkness vanishes for ever!
Rejoice, O holy Church! Exult in glory!
The risen Saviour shines upon you!
Let this place resound with joy,
echoing the mighty song of all God's people!
It is truly right that we should praise you,
invisible, almighty, and eternal God, and your Son, Jesus Christ.
For Christ has ransomed us with his blood,
and paid the debt of Adam's sin to deliver your faithful people.
This is our Passover feast, when Christ, the true Lamb, is slain.
This is the night when first you saved our forebears,
you freed the people of Israel from their slavery
and led them with dry feet through the sea.
This is the night when the pillar of fire destroyed the darkness of sin!
This is the night when Christians everywhere,
washed clean of sin and freed from all defilement,
are restored to grace and grow together in holiness.
This is the night when Jesus Christ broke the chains of death
and rose triumphant from the grave.
Night truly blessed, when heaven is wedded to earth,
and we are reconciled to you!
Accept this Easter candle, a flame divided but undimmed,
a pillar of fire that glows to your honor.
Let it mingle with the lights of heaven,
and continue bravely burning to dispel the darkness of the night!
May the Morning Star, which never sets, find this flame still burning.
Christ, that Morning Star, who came back from the dead,
and shed his peaceful light on all creation,
your Son who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen
Come on now… you all can fake it too!
JFC.
If you know what I mean.
Two Corinthians in Church are Trump's favorite orders in the Bible, though he's also partial to the Doric and the Ionic, but ever since his brain injury he calls them Dork and Iron.
Easter is a great day to celebrate backups! After all, it's the Christian holiday of restoring Jesus from backup.
Really dodged a bullet. Look how close we came to having Joe Biden declaring April Fools Day to be on Easter.
World backup day is celebrated at 2am World software update Day at 3am
But as they say in IT, it's 2am somewhere in the world right now.