Month: June 2020

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It Would Be a Shame…


It would also be really annoying if they wore heat resistant gloves to throw back the hot tear gas canisters and if this got shared to all those protesting…

It would be a further shame if people started covering cameras (as seen in Hong Kong, with protestors using poles and rakes to lift cardboard boxes over security cameras), blinding drone optics with laser pointers, and flooding police-run reporting apps with junk data.

It would also be a shame if the protesters noted that plainclothes cops can be identified a number of ways, such as wearing steel-toed boots; an armband or wristband of a particular color; driving white, black, or dark blue cars with concealed lights; or having the outline of cuffs visible in the back pocket or the bumps of an armor vest's shoulder straps under their shirt.

It would be a shame if the protesters began making their signs out of inch-thick plywood to stop rubber bullets,* forming a tight shield wall to prevent police from singling out and mobbing individual protesters. It would be a shame if the people behind the shield wall held up umbrellas so that tear gas canisters fired over the heads of the front line will be bounced away. It would be a shame if protesters began constructing improvised armor vests out of duct tape, hardback books, and ceramic tiles.

It would be a shame if protesters started wearing safety glasses, hard hats, respirators, and gardening gloves, all of which can be found at the same hardware stores as the plywood. It would be a shame if they started using traffic cones (the kind without the hole in the top) upside-down buckets, or other improvised lids to contain tear gas by placing them over the canisters.

It would be a shame if protesters learned that police scanners are legal to own in the US, allowing them to learn where police are moving and what routes they intend to take. It would be a shame if they discovered that these scanners can be used to send as well as receive, allowing them to flood the scanner frequencies with noise.

All this would be a terrible, terrible shame.

 

*I can't speak for the other things on this list but do not use plywood as a shield! It will not defend against rubber bullets and will splinter if hit.

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Finally Some Good News

Steve King, one of Congress's biggest pieces of human excrement and openly and proudly racist members, gets beaten by Randy Feenstra in the GOP Iowa primary.

With that being said, this is a deeply-red district (4th District of Iowa) and it's a longshot that Democrat J.D. Scholten will win in November. Still, it will be refreshing not to hear remarks like, "Where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization [than whites]." ~Steve King, July 2016

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Burning Down the House

From Blobby, because he quite eloquently verbalized my own feelings far better than I could:

I've been trying to avoid this post.

I have too many words—and on the other hand, I have none.

I am not sure I can coherently put into words how and what I feel. Sure, there is anger, shock, sadness, disbelief, but it usually comes right back to anger.

We had debated going to the Cleveland rally on Saturday. In the first paragraph, it was billed as a peaceful one. In the second, it mentioned writing an emergency contact on your arm; making provisions for work, family, pets, should you be in jail for 2-3 days. At that point, we opted out.

Part of that decision was the volume of folks and the closeness of several thousand people and the potential for covid spread. That said, while looking at the videos of our protests, the majority of folks had on masks—be it to conceal their identify or for infection control.

But like other cities, ours went violent.

And I totally get it.

How else does one get the attention of the white establishment? Break their shit.

Voting hasn't worked. Mediation hasn't worked. Peaceful protests weren't even allowed—not really.

Let's not even talk about justice. Has any white cop actually been convicted of any killing of a black man? Not in Ohio they haven't. How could any specific community continue to take this lying down?

That Minneapolis cop is kind of fucked either way—not that I care. So many of these violations are not caught clearly on camera, if at all. We've all seen what he did. His side will claim he cannot get a fair trial, which may or may not be true. No matter the outcome, there will be protests. Should he be found guilty, the most he can get is 12 years—no one is going to see that as justice. Should he get acquitted, what we saw this last weekend will be a day at the park in comparison.

That said, this week felt like something is about to break. Big time.

Before there have been some upheavals, riots and protests. This feels different. It should. I hope it is.

I do worry. BLOTUS is all but egging on the violence. He needs this discourse to re-re-re-re solidify his base. He needs the country to be in turmoil. Normally, you'd think that would get him voted out, but I don't believe that to be the case. We're already (ALREADY!) getting his 2020 ads playing every single night and multiple times. They are vile—and lies. Total lies.

I don't know what these next few days or weeks will feel like. The riots have taken away from the video being played. That can't happen.

As horrible as that video is, it needs to keep being shown. A distraction of violence will lessen the heinousness of the actual crime.

Odd as it sounds, while my stomach has been in knots for the last week, I am not sure I want that uneasiness to go away. I think it's the hate fire that has to remain to keep change moving forward. It's going to be difficult on every level.

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Something Light and Fun, Yet Topical…

Because god knows we need it.

"Be aware to trim your nose hairs, cause they could put up a fight!" Japan's state of emergency has been lifted after their initial bout with COVID-19. To both cautiously celebrate, and to remind people to be diligent, disinfectant company SMV Japan released this silly animated music video.

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Asked and Answered

Via I Should Be Laughing:

AN ANGUISHED QUESTION FROM A Trump SUPPORTER: 'Why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?'

THE SERIOUS ANSWER: Here's what the majority of anti-Trump voters honestly feel about Trump supporters en masse:

That when you saw a man who had owned a fraudulent University, intent on scamming poor people, you thought "Fine." USA Today

That when you saw a man who had made it his business practice to stiff his creditors, you said, "Okay." The Daily Beast

That when you heard him proudly brag about his own history of sexual abuse, you said, "No problem." ABC News

That when he made up stories about seeing Muslim-Americans in the thousands cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center, you said, "Not an issue." Washington Post

That when you saw him brag that he could shoot a man on Fifth Avenue and you wouldn't care, you exclaimed, "He sure knows me." USA Today

That when you heard him relating a story of an elderly guest of his country club, an 80-year old man, who fell off a stage and hit his head, to Trump replied: "'Oh my God, that's disgusting,' and I turned away. I couldn't—you know, he was right in front of me, and I turned away. I didn't want to touch him. He was bleeding all over the place. And I felt terrible, because it was a beautiful white marble floor, and now it had changed color. Became very red." You said, "That's cool!" GQ

That when you saw him mock the disabled, you thought it was the funniest thing you ever saw. NBC News

That when you heard him brag that he doesn't read books, you said, "Well, who has time?" The Atlantic

That when the Central Park Five were compensated as innocent men convicted of a crime they didn't commit, and he angrily said that they should still be in prison, you said, "That makes sense." USA Today

That when you heard him tell his supporters to beat up protesters and that he would hire attorneys, you thought, "Yes!" LA Times

That when you heard him tell one rally to confiscate a man's coat before throwing him out into the freezing cold, you said, "What a great guy!" The Independent

That you have watched the parade of neo-Nazis and white supremacists with whom he curries favor, while refusing to condemn outright Nazis, and you have said, "Thumbs up!" The Atlantic

That you hear him unable to talk to foreign dignitaries without insulting their countries and demanding that they praise his electoral win, you said, "That's the way I want my President to be." Huffington Post

That you have watched him remove expertise from all layers of government in favor of people who make money off of eliminating protections in the industries they're supposed to be regulating and you have said, "What a genius!" Politico

That you have heard him continue to profit from his businesses, in part by leveraging his position as President, to the point of overcharging the Secret Service for space in the properties he owns, and you have said, "That's smart!" US News

That you have heard him say that it was difficult to help Puerto Rico because it was in the middle of water and you have said, "That makes sense." Washington Post

That you have seen him start fights with every country from Canada to New Zealand while praising Russia and quote, "falling in love" with the dictator of North Korea, and you have said, "That's statesmanship!" CNN

That Trump separated children from their families and put them in cages, managed to lose track of 1500 kids, has opened a tent city incarceration camp in the desert in Texas – he explains that they're just "animals" – and you say, "Well, OK then." NBC news

That you have witnessed all the thousand and one other manifestations of corruption and low moral character and outright animalistic rudeness and contempt for you, the working American voter, and you still show up grinning and wearing your MAGA hats and threatening to beat up anybody who says otherwise. American Progress

What you don't get, Trump supporters, is that our succumbing to frustration and shaking our heads, thinking of you as stupid, may very well be wrong and unhelpful, but it's also…hear me…charitable.

Because if you're NOT stupid, we must turn to other explanations, and most of them are less flattering.

(To all who agree with its content, I ask that you PLEASE SHARE IT on your own post, and ENCOURAGE OTHERS to do the same.)