Why Do Some Trumpsters Hate Ocasio-Cortez Dancing?

Two images sure to upset a few people in the Trump crowd: Left image
is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a college dance video. Right image is'newly
seated Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez dancing outside her
congressional office door this week.

Conservatives tend to really hate newly seated member of Congress Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

She's pretty darn liberal, so I can see why the Trump crowd wouldn't like her.  However, some of them had better come up with a better reason to oppose her than the following: It turns out, Ocasio-Cortez sometimes likes to dance.

It started this week when some nitwit on social media named AnonymousQ called Ocasio-Cortez a nitwit. Here's the quote from AnonymousQ, since deleted. "Here is America's favorite commie know it all acting like a clueless nitwit she is...High School video of 'Sandy' Ocasio-Cortez"

There was a link to a video showing her in a music video when she was in college, not high school, dancing on a roof with other people. She looks like she was having fun.

To their credit, most normal conservatives didn't give a damn whether Ocasio-Cortez likes to dance or not. But the Trumpy troll wing of the conservative movement pretty much though her dancing was as bad as if she was strangling babies.

To her credit, Ocasio-Cortez, didn't give a damn what people thought of her dancing. She did a brief jig outside her Congressional office door and also said,  "It is not normal for elected officials to have a reputation for dancing well, and I'm happy to be one."  

To the credit of most of the general public, most people either ignored this fake controversy or thought it was fun that Ocasio-Cortez was in that silly dance video.

I'm not quite sure why Ocasio-Cortez has been targeted as the Top Villian by some of the Trump crowd. True, she's a Democrat-Socialist, so that would understandably rile up the right wing.

But she's a freshman congresswoman, just now getting her feet wet in politics. She doesn't yield much power at all, at least not yet, so she's not much of a threat to conservatives.

I think there's two basic things going on.  I wish I remember who it was on Twitter who said that when a female politician is very serious, she is "unlikeable." When a female politician is outgoing and friendly, she's too frivolous to be taken seriously.

Male politiians don't seem to have this problem as much.

An even bigger issue is the the mood of many of the Trump supporters. They always seem angry to me. I don't know why. Up until this week, Trump and the Republicans controlled the Executive and Legislative branch. They're getting tons of federal judges appointed by Trump.

However, Trump and his supporters seem so negative. He's always insulting people. At rallies, his supporters keep yelling "Lock her up!" or scream at the "fake news media." The most rabid Trump fans are always snarling, always volcanic. It must be exhausting to be that angry all the time.

They never seem to have fun. Or experience joy. And they seem to resent anyone who is joyful.

Yeah, there are a lot of problems in this world, but can the Trump crowd not see any sunshine? Is their worldview always so dark? Why?

Maybe that's the real problem they're having with Ocasio-Cortez. I think she takes her politics seriously. But she also knows how to have fun. Some of the people in Trump world can't stand that exuberance.

As Trump himself might tweet: Sad!

Justin Timberlake Already Gave Us Summer Anthem 2016

Justin Timberlake in his "Can't Stop The Feeling"
music video. The song shot to Number One already 

The pop song that you will always associated with the summer of 2016 is already out.

You know those songs. The big hit of the summer, the breezy fun pop fluff that you can't get out of your head when you remember the beach trip or vacation that summer.

This time, it's Justin Timberlake's "Can't Stop The Feeling"  It's a confectionary piece of glee and freedom.

It's not deep. It's not breaking new ground. But gawd that song is catchy! As Slate noted, "Can't Stop The Feeling" is the 2016 version of "Happy"

"Can't Stop The Feeling" has already debuted at Number 1 on Billboard's Hot 100, so you know you're going to hear this song a lot for a long time.

This Justin Timberlake song is from the upcoming DreamWorks animated film "Trolls"

Many of you will get sick of it. Some of you already are.

But kudos to Justin Timberlake for putting out nice Summer of 2016 anthem. Good work by him!

The goofy video, with clips of regular everyday people dancing (they're actors, not everyday people) has already racked up 3 million hits after just two days on YouTube.

Here's the video, but to watch, you'll probably start with a black screen and will have to click "Watch on YouTube"

Will Curt Schilling Start Welcome Trend In Outing The Worst Trolls?

 Curt Schilling and his daughter Gabby discuss
the cyberbulling she experienced, and the
response to it by Curt Schilling on "Good Morning America"  

Congratulations to Curt Schilling, former Red Sox baseball great and current ESPN analyst, who has been getting tremendous Internet buzz the past couple of days for outing some terrible online trolls who attacked his daughter.

At least two of the trolls are learning that we indeed have freedom of speech, but there are always consequences to exercising that freedom.

If you're an awful person saying awful things, there's a chance awful things might happen to you.

The background:

The other day, Schilling Tweeted an innocuous congratulations to his daughter Gabby, because he'd just learned she'd be pitching for the Salve Regina University Seahawks next year.

Nice, but it shouldn't be a big deal. A proud dad celebrating his successful daughter. What's wrong with that?

Well, as is seemingly always the case, the trolls attacked.  The gleefully Tweeted very disgusting sexual and perverted insults against Gabby Schilling or gawd knows why.  Just wildly horrible jerks, I guess.

Curt Schilling decided to ignore the advice about ignoring the trolls and unloaded on them in his blog with a just perfect and aggressive flair. Don't mess with a dad whose daughter ahs been insulted.

The best part of Curt Schilling's blog post, and the part that's gotten the most attention, is how he outed a couple of the trolls who tweeted such awful things about his daughter.   He figured out exactly who they were, and identified them by name in his blog.

First, Schilling said this:

"Now let me emphasize again... I was a jock my whole life. I played sports my whole life. Baseball since I was 5 until I retired at 41. I know clubhouses, I lived in a dorm. I get it. Guys will be guys. Guys will say dumb crap, often. But I can't ever remember, drunk, in a clubhouse, with best friends, with anyone, ever speaking like this to someone."

Schilling outed one of the trolls as Adam Nagel, who went to Brookdale Community College and was a DJ on the college's radio station.

Schillling had this to say about Nagel: "You don't think this isn't going to be a nice compilation that will show up every single time this idiot is googled the rest of his life? What happens when a potential woman he's after googles and reads this?"

Well, aside from having a hard time getting dates, Nagel's time at Brookdale Community College appears to be over.

This person has been identified in media reports
 as Adam Nagel, one of at least two people
Curt Schilling tracked down as cyberbullies
against his daughter, Gabby Schilling.  

On its Facebook page, Brookdale posted this:

"Students and community members have rightfuly expressed concerns regarding recent social media comments made by a Brookdale student. 

The Twitter comments by this student are unacceptable and clearly violated the standards of conduct that are expected of all Brookdale students."

Though they didn't mention him by name, Brookdale officials said on the Facebook post that the student had been suspended, further disciplinary action would be taken, and Brookdale Police are also investigating the matter.

Brookdale also apologized to Gabby Schilling and said her accomplishments should be celebrated and "not clouded by offensive comments."

Most of the comments on Brookdale's Facebook page were supportive of the college, and urged officials to fully follow through on their discipline.

Then there's the other guy Schilling outed. He wrote:

"The other clown? He's VP of the Theta Xi fraternity at Montclair State University. I gotta believe if Theta Xi is cool with a VP of one of their chapters acting like this I'd preer to have no one I know in it. Also, does anyone attending Montclair State University have a student handbook? If so, can you pass it along because I am pretty sure there are about 90 violations in this idiot's Tweets."

This idiot is named Sean MacDonald. He actually recently graduated from Montclair State University so college officials really can't do anything about him. MacDonald recently started a job as a part-time ticket seller for the New York Yankees, but the Yankees quickly fired him when Schilling's blog post came out.

MacDonald's former fraternity isn't amused, either, saying "......inappropriate and offensive tweets that were posted by an alumnus of Theta Xi Fraternity. We agree wholeheartedly that cyber-bullying is unacceptable and should not be tolerated."

Predictably, neither Nagel nor MacDonald have responded to media requests for comments, says Heavy.com. 

Schilling says he knows the identity of some of the other trolls, and is considering legal action against them. However, several law experts said it might be difficult to bring criminal charges, because the troll comments didn't represent "true threats" that are likely to be carried out, says the Asbury Park Press of New Jersey.

Judging from the current Internet zeitgeist, most people seem pretty supportive of Schilling. Some are questioning why he's being so harsh on people who were supposedly only joking.

It's true pretty much everyone, including yours truly, has said moronic things in social media. We delete them, we explain them, we apologize for them and move on. But most of the stupid things we say on Facebook or Twitter or whatever reflect a momentary bout of ignorance, sarcasm, anger.

That's really not so bad and we shouldn't face severe criticism or life-long consequences for our little on-line mistakes.

Schilling points out that the trolls he outed went well beyond a bit of ignorance or posting something rashly.

"A mistake is tweeting once and saying, 'damn, I'm an idiot' and taking it down. These guys? They're making conscious choices to cyberbully an amazing and beautiful young woman in the Internet, and none of them know by the way, because they don't like her dad or they somehow think saying words you can teach a 5 year old is tough? Cool? Bad ass? Something I am missing? 

My right hand to God I promise all of you that tweeted that stuff, the friendsd around you saying, 'dude that's hilarious' and 'OMG that's awesome'? Those people? Inside they're actually thinking, 'what an ass#$!Q' and 'holy crap what a piece of trash,' no matter what they say to your face.'"

And the First Amendment?  As I noted, the government really can't prevent you from saying what you want. But they can stop you from making threats. The First Amendment also doesn't prevent employers, educators, friends and everyone else from shunning you because you are so awful.

It's time more Internet trolls learn this lesson, and Schilling is definitely helping with this process.

Schilling retired from playing baseball years ago, but he's still hitting at least metaphorical home runs. He definitely hit a grand slam with this blog post. Congratulations, Curt!

Richard Dawkins Reads "Love Letters" (Read Nasty E-Mails) To Him, Hilariously

Image of Richard Dawkins as he reads the "love letters"
or more accurately, hate mail from people claiming
to be Christians. They'r e probably just trolls.  

Richard Dawkins, the noted evolutionary biologist, author and outspoken atheist, doesn't exactly have a fan base among evangelicals and fundamentalist Christians.

This week, he appeared on YouTube reading the "love letters" from people who purport to be Christians, who believe God created the world a few thousand years ago and that evolution is bullshit.

Oh, and they really, REALLY hate Dawkins' atheism.

Granted, most of the letters are probably from trolls and not honest-to-goodness Christians. At least let's hope so.

My goodness, the profanity from some of these "Christians!" The F-bombs and other insults made me blush, and that's saying something!

But Dawkins' reading of these "love letters" is laugh out loud hilarious, especially with the deadpan delivery and dignified British accent as he reads the anything-but-dignified notes.

You have to admit some of the letters wishing ill of Dawkins are creative:

"I hope you are sodomized by satanic monkeys in hell."

Another letter ends "You fuckety fuck. God bless."

"Your famed intelligence is nothing more than the fart of God."

"Dawkins needs to be killed in a plane crash or a flame thrower accident."

Again, the video of him reading is totally, totally NSFW because of all the swear words. In fact it's not suitable for you if you can't handle a barrage of really nasty words.

But watch the video, and you'll crack up at least as much as I did:

Stupid Facebook Commenters Unsure Of Difference Between Latin Language and Latin America

This is Latin America. Very few people in this region
speak the ancient Roman language of Latin.
Just to clear up the obvious, stupid confusion.  

WCAX-TV in Vermont recently ran a minor little feature about an 8th grader in the state who thought it would be a nice idea to have a state motto in Latin.

There's already an English language one, but why not celebrate with a Latin language one, too?

So she came up with "Stella quarter decimal fulgeat," for "May the 14th Star Shine Bright."

A state lawmaker, Joe Benning, thought he'd honor the kid by introducing a bill establishing the Latin Motto.

It's one of those things all legislatures do, these little student-inspired bills that aren't important but educational.

They don't take much time from more pressing duties, it's a feel good celebration, and it it also is meant to make constituents feel all warm and fuzzy.

What could go wrong?

Plenty. According to the Vermont Political Observer, the article was flooded with TONS of angry comments when WCAX posted it on its Facebook page.  

Worse, a frightening number of people are incredibly clueless: In their minds a Latin motto is just another example of those heathen Hispanics illegally crossing over the border, invading us and taking over our culture.

Get it? They don't understand the difference between Latin the old Roman language, and Latin America, the place where many Hispanics come from.

Yeah, I know.  Forehead slap.

Really! Below are some of the comments Vermont Political Observer noted.  Go to their site to see the whole list. I'm glad VPO also noted the commenters names, to call them out in their ignorance.

These are some of my "favorites":

--- Dorothy Lynn Lepisto: "I thought Vermont was American not Latin? Does any Latin places have American mottos?

--- Norman Flanders: "What next Arab motto??"

--- Ken P. Hahn: "How about 'go back south of the boarder (sic)'"

--- Lori Olds: "I thought this was USA why are they trying to make Americans aliens"

--- Chris Ferro: "That's a BIG NO if you life in the United States YOU need to learn ENGLISH!!"

--- Kurtis Jones: "No cause vt ain't no Latino area (whole sentence sic) Leave the motto alone."

--- Ken Curtis: "Just when I felt our represenatives (sic) could not possibly get any dumber, they come up with this..get real...this is the USA not some Moslim (sic) or Mexican country... stop given (sic) in to these people...."

I'm really starting to get sick of writing "(sic)" over and over again, but what can you do in this situation?

Here's a couple more comments on that WCAX article. What the hell. I'm having fun.

--- Kristen Wright "thats (sic) un (sic) called for this is the usa." (sic)

---Kelley Dawley: "How do you say idiotic senator in spanish. (sic) I'd settle for deport illegals in spanish (sic) as a back up motto."

--- Heather Chase: "Seriously?? Last time I checked..real vermonters (sic) were speaking English, NOT LATIN...good god (sic)"

Geez, I wish some of the people who commented on this article could get a grip on the English language.

Or as one other, slightly more sane put it as she commented to WCAX via Facebook: "I do hope the State House looks at this thread and realizes there are serious flaws in our state education system."  

Ya think?!?

Joe Benning, the lawmaker who introduce the Latin motto bill, was philosophical:

"I figure this is a good opportunity for my now ninth grader to learn how to respond to such attacks with fortitude and grace. I hope to be meeting with her and her parents this weekend to continue the educational experience."

Hey, at least our ninth grader seems to know the difference between Latin, the ancient language and Latin America, the region on the globe.

That's a start.

SCOTUSBlog Gleefully Trolls The Trolls.

An on line site that reports on the Supreme Court is getting a lot of hate today. Because people are too clueless to distinguish between the Supreme Court and SCOTUSblog, which is the news site.

I'm sure many people in social media will never
get it, but SCOTUSblog is NOT part of the U.S.
Supreme Court.  

A quick, and I mean very quick, glance at their profile reveals that SCOTUS blog, or @SCOTUSblog on Twitter, is a site that offers news and analysis of what the US. Supreme Court is up to.

They're the go-to place if you want to know the ins and outs of what the High Court is doing and what their rulings mean for you and me.

But I guess social media is the land in which everybody likes to yell but nobody knows who they're yelling at.

On Twitter, people have been firing away at SCOTUSblog, yelling and screaming at them for the "ruling" they issued today saying privately held businesses like Hobby Lobby can withhold insurance coverage for contraceptives, based on their religious faith.

Of course, it was the Supreme Court that made the ruling, not SCOTUSblog, and as far as I know the Supreme Court doesn't keep a blog. But if you have to yell at somebody, might as well yell at someone who just reported on the decision, but otherwise had nothing to do with it.

What's wrong with these people? Yeah, I know there are similar sounding names on social media like Twitter, or people pretend they are someone or something they are not, but really.

So, the fine reporters at SCOTUSblog, who are only trying to help us understand what the Supreme Court did, are an outfit that "sided with the crazies" and treat women like second class citizens.

I bet the people who work at SCOTUS blog wish they had the kind of power the Supreme Court does.

At least SCOTUSblog is having fun with peoples' stupidity. Responding to someone who Tweeted: "You disgust me," SCOTUSblog responded, "But you complete us."

Someone else asked SCOTUSblog: "When will you start honoring the constitution." SCOTUSblog responded. "When you start reading our description."

Touche!!

Now, social media is alive with the correctors, the media outlets and such (like me!) that are trying to give people a clue. REPEAT!, they're saying. SCOTUSblog is NOT part of the Supreme Court.  wise up, doofuses!

But the yellers and trolls will have none of it.

Says one person, clueless upset that SCOTUSblog is having fun with the ignorant, and not part of the Supremes: "The passive aggressive way @SCOTUSblog is answering right now is horrible considering the position they just put women in. Not okay."

What's not okay is the people who are continuing with their willful ignorance. It's the American Way!!

On the bright side, this is surely making LOTS of people click on SCOTUSblog to see what all the fuss is about. It can't help the blog's bottom line, no?

"Doxxing" Is The Latest Fad Among Stupid, Disgusting Internet Trolls

You have to admit it, Internet trolls, the sadistic weird people who often make being online such a chore, keep coming up with lots of innovative ways to annoy and torture people.

Wouldn't it be great if we had a
product like this to rid the Internet
of all the trolls out there? 

The latest one I heard about is "doxxing."

Doxxing is just a fancy name for research. You look online for documentation of something to get a full understanding of what, or who it is. Doxxing isn't inherently bad, but it is when the troll try it.

Usually, doxxing has a negative connotation, when people find others' personal information like addresses and Social Security numbers and put them online.

Some doxxers/trolls get their jollies by finding nude or sexually compromising photos of women on line, usually put there by revenge-minded ex-boyfriends or hackers who stole their personal data. The trolls then do a little research to figure out all the identifying clues about the women.

They find out their name, age, exact place of residence, where they work, who their friends, bosses and family are and all kinds of stuff like that, just to cause lots of pain and embarrassment.

Because that's fun, you know?

Doxxing has gone to ridiculous extremes. Now the trolls are doing the doxxing against women who are  photographed out in public, clothed and doing nothing that anyone would think is unseemly.  But they use the pictures to get a specific ID, then play out their sexual fantasies about these people.

Because they are such losers, they can't get anything in real life.

For some reason, certain sections of the online forum site Reddit really attract these kinds of weirdos.

It happened to an Olympic volunteer recently photographed during the winter games in Sochi, according to Salon. 

"Her shirt is folded up, revealing a taut stomach, and her bright blue snow pants are pushed halfway up her sins. Eyes closed, she's leaning against a barrier that reads, 'Sochi, 2014 - Hot. Cool. Yours.'

"........before long a user in the subreddit/ r/randomsexiness managed to figure out her name, track her down on social media and post a host of personal photographs, including requisit bikini beach shots, along with her full name. As can be expeted, there were creepy remarks, like this one: 'From when her first pic showed up, I knew that chick was looking for attention.'"

Yeah, that Olympic volunteer was just desperate for the chance for pervy weirdos to look up information about here.

For women with compromising pictures, it gets really bad: Again from Salon:

"Redditor kwamiz wrote about her experience having her email account hacked and naked images of her, along with her name and address, posted on 4chan. "Men at bars in the (large) town where I live call me slut. Entire threads on 4chan are devoted to finding out which Facebook events I am attending. I receive multiple emails everyday calling me horrible things.

So do my mother, father and little sister. And my dear cousin, who is only 14, had them sent to her as well. I cannot begin to explain the hurt of being called up by a child, wondering why I'm naked in her
Facebook inbox."

Both the writer at Salon, and me, find it interesting that these creepy trolls think the women "deserve" to be put out there like this, against their will because they were "sexually liberated" enough to allow themselves to be photographed.

Yet when somebody outs one of the trolls, it's suddently a huge invasion of privacy.

So yes, all this is more proof that there area a certain subset of creeps out there, ruining it for everybody.
And they are very, very creepy.

It would be fun to dox the trolls, and put their sick mugs and their personal information out there as revenge. Of course, that would be falling to their level.

And I'm sure the trolls stick together. That's all they've got, really, is each other. If one troll gets humiliated, the rest will probably gang up on the person humiliating them, which chills the urge to go after the trolls.

They say don't feed the trolls and that's great advice. But when they do this kind of thing, it's time to feed the trolls to the lions.

Study Confirms What We Already Know: Internet Trolls Are Totally Annoying Sadists

Here's a news flash for you. Internet trolls, those idiots who clutter up social media and web sites with hostile, inane, persistent drivel and just make pests of themselves, are sadists and psychopaths.

New study confirms what we know:
Internet trolls are as hard to eradicate
as cockroaches. And just as unpleasant.  

Yes, yes, you can tell that by just reading the trolls' so-called comments, but now a scientific study backs that up.

According to the Washington Post, Canadian researchers said that "trolling correlated with higher rates of sadism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism, a certain lack of scruples when it comes to deceiving or manipulating other people."

The Washington Post goes on:

"....the intriguing thing about this new study by researchers from the University of Manitoba, University of Winnipeg and University of British Columbia is the idea that trolling behavior springs not from the opportunity provided by the Internet, but from innate characteristics people possess both online and off."

CNN elaborates:

"...  trolls are offensive for the sheer enjoyment of it. Or, in Internet parlance, "for the lulz"

'Trolls operate as agents of chaos on the Internet, exploiting hot button issues to make users appear overly emotional or foolish in some manner,' the article reads. 'If an unfortunate person falls into their trap, trolling intensifies for further, merciless amusement. this is why novice Internet users are routinely admonished, 'Do not feed the trolls'

More from the study: "That bodes poorly for efforts to tame the trolls. It also suggests, somewhat ominously, that there are lots of "everyday sadists among us."

Yeah, it is scary the sadists have been among us all along. But the Internet is letting them shine. Since psychologists say it's hard to cure sadist of their mindset, I guess we have to find the most effective way to fight them off.

Which brings us back to feeding the trolls. It seems the sadist trolls get the most pleasure from our reaction to them. So if we don't react, we deny them that pleasure.

Maybe this next point indicates some sadistic qualities I have, but it gives me some satisfaction to not taking the trolls' bait, to imagine they are upset with me for doing so.

Then again, I've thrown them a bit of a bone. After all, I'm complaining about trolls in this post, I am reacting in a limited way. So it's a nice compromise. I'm happy. The trolls, if not happy, are as happy as they are going to get.

Sadly, there's no real way to get rid of trolls leaving their bile on blogs, websites, forums and social media. You can block them, which is a lot of work. You can bar comments, which takes away the give and take of the Internet. You can ban anonymous comments, which I suppose helps a little.

Any other ideas out there among readers to rid of us of the trolls? Or at least shut them up?

Just Because It's Friday, Celebrities Read Mean Tweets

I might have run something like this before, but Jimmy Kimmel has a fun happy of getting famous people to read mean Tweets about themselves as written by the legions of trolls out there.

Glad to see people not taking the idiot trolls seriously:

Incredibly Offensive Letter To Mom With Autistic Kid Proves Trolls Are Incredibly Stupid, Too

There's nothing worse out there than mean and dumb.

You know the type. The idiot who spouts off to anyone, angrily about some ill-conceived complaint they have. And said complaint is based on extreme stupidity. They have no idea what they're talking about. The combination makes these mean and dumb types the butt of everyone's jokes.

And it makes their already horrible lives worse.

Enter the moron in Newcastle, Ontario who left an incredibly awful note to the mother of an autistic boy in which the moron tells the mom she's incredibly selfish to allow the boy in the neighborhood to make noises.

From Buzzfeed, the incredibly
offensive note to a mom whose kid'
has autism.  

The letter writer says everyone in the neighborhood hates the kid and urges the mom to euthanize the kid, I guess to somehow make the moron's life better.

Of course, that's not going to happen.

The neighborhood where this autistic kid hangs out is indeed up in arms, but not over the 13 year old boy, named Max. The residents are fine with Max. They are, predictably and admirably, not fine with the letter writer.

They're trying to figure out who wrote it, so that Max's mom, Karla Begley, can press charges if there is a legal basis to do so.

Or if criminal charges are inappropriate, we can at least find out who the twit of a letter writer was, so he or she can be publicly shamed far and wide.

Somebody will figure out that person's identity, I'm sure.  And the moronic troll can suffer the consequences of worldwide derision, thereby making his or her life more miserable than it already is.

Which is precisely the only thing trolls are good at.