Say No To Every Nazi

Right now in Trump's America, there are Nazi-like mobs marching for their right to rid America of "defectives" and "take back their country." They wear no hoods or cloaks. They fly Confederate flags high, they call for violence and preach freedom. These are people who view the concept of diversity and equal rights as a direct threat to them, personally. "You will not replace us! Jews will not replace us" is their paranoid battle cry. They chant "If it ain't white, it ain't right." If you're not with them, you're traitors and "libtards." They are proud Republicans, and they have heard the "Make America Great Again" message loud and clear.

A few things. First: Hey guys? No one is trying to replace you. That's weird. Your heads are not right. You sound insane. You look crazy. What kind of choice is this to make for yourself? For America? Secondly, no, there's no "both sides" to the issue of white supremacy. We do not have a "difference of opinion." A "difference of opinion" is like "Cilantro tastes like soap." Not "Kill All Blacks and Jews." Are you fucking nuts?

Charlottesville

This past weekend they came to Charlottesville. They came to march against freedom, in the name of freedom. They came brandishing torches and waving the flag of both the Nazi party and the Confederates who fought against American values. They honor those Confederates as their patriarchal forebears whose segregationist traditions they seek to revive and strengthen, violently if necessary. They came with torches and battle cries and they claim they are fighting for their "rights" which extend to mean "kill Jews" and "kill black people" and by the way, they believe they should have the "right" to incite this kind of violence completely free of consequence. They call themselves white nationalists. The press calls them Alt-Right. Mr. Trump has obliquely suggested that there are "many sides" to the unfolding story that led us skidding sideways into August 2017.

Boston

These toxic torch-bearing individuals claim they're coming to Boston next weekend. Boston, as much trouble as we still have here with race relations, always gears up. This city I call home does have big problems, but the difference is that we, as a community, strive to do better.

It's Monday. A whole new wave of anger, fear and disappointment has been surging all weekend. Right now, people are canceling plans so that we can gather at the Boston Common again on Saturday, August 19th. Now I need to get a Sharpie and write my mom's phone number on my damn arm again, so they can notify her in case something happens to me. I gotta go back down there again and say "no" to Nazis, because enough people voted for Donald Fucking Trump. True to his barely coherent bloviating barrage of campaign promises, here we are barely six months into this fiasco of a presidency and I have to go out to the Boston Common next weekend and literally object to Nazis. Nazis. Future grandkids (yours or not) will ask about what is happening right now. They'll look up from their 6th grade homework and ask their elders what it was like going to school in 2017, they'll ask what it was like before Trump. They'll have questions. They'll ask what you thought, what you did, how you voted. Are you paying attention to what you think, what you are doing, and how you are voting? What's your story?

Divided States of America

I keep thinking about a friend I used to have. We are no longer friends. This friend "broke up with me" on Facebook. Her parting shot was a reply to my outrageous suggestion that America can do better. She wrote, "Supporting a racist doesn't mean a person is a racist."  To which I replied, "In my opinion, it does." I stand by my words. So too did she, and that was the end of things. This is the "divided America" that we now navigate, where people are convinced that this is all fine. This is all okay, you can reasonably support outwardly vocal racists without taking on the mantle of responsibility for their violence. Where it's reasonable to shrug and say "oh well" when Nazis literally march for the right to exterminate non-whites and Jews, and anyone who says "hey, that's really not cool, like, at all" becomes the unreasonable one, the "libtard." I miss her. But here's the thing. If you're not against racism, then you're for it. This is no time to shrug and say "oh well." Nobody gets to sit this one out.

Gear up, friends.

Pick a side.

It's on.∎

Boston always gears up.
(Photo: Uncredited from the Women's March Boston site)

Related: The Revolution Will Be Digitized

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Freedom of Speech E(xkcd)plained

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This is some bullshit

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Black Lives Matter

Look, it's not up for debate. No "buts." Black Lives Matter. I cannot believe it's really necessary to explain that this awareness-driven slogan is not meant to imply "Only Black Lives Matter." That's not what it means at all. To take it as such is, frankly, a weird reaction and I have a few questions for you later. But first, let me be clear. Black Lives Matter means Black Lives Mattter Too.

THIS IS A NATIONAL CRISIS

We're in a crisis right now. That's why the Black Lives Matter was born. Tragically necessary, #BLM is social movement meant to plead with law enforcement to stop their nationwide rampage of randomly murdering people on the street, and in their homes and cars. Coast to coast the unprovoked shooting or beating of a black person was becoming normalized, and some of us were freaking out over how these events, ordinary traffic stops, results in a gun even appearing? One time with a baby in her car seat, even? Thanks to smart phones and Facebook, these events have been chronicled and shared, and it's been plain to see that every single one of these senseless deaths have been situations where a gun wasn't even necessary. Where a conversation would have cleared up any confusion. Trayvon, just a kid, was stalked and killed by some random asshole that isn't even a cop. Just some gun nut with a superiority complex who has since been recorded gloating and signing autographs in his specious glory as "the guy who killed Trayvon." In the local police firing range, Trayvon's photo was made into a target practice poster and nobody understood why that's horrific. There was no gun fired in the case of Mr. Garner, who was tackled by cops for selling cigarettes. Pinned to the ground, crying out "I can't breathe" until he finally asphyxiated and died. I wonder what it's like to be pinned and deprived of air for so long. Horrifying. Out of this climate arose the campaign. It's simple. Three words. Black. Lives. Matter.

Who is wholly against this nationwide cry for mercy? Who protests this peaceful, quiet reminder that no living soul deserves to be targeted just for the happenstance of birth that determines the color of one's skin? Is it you? Is your response an outraged "All Lives Matter!" Did you just tell me "Blue Lives Matter"? I see. Clearly someone needs to explain to you that you're demonstrating a fairly appalling point-of-view right now. When you react to "Black Lives Matter" with "All Lives Matter" or "Blue Lives Matter," that's antagonistic. What you mean is "No, BLUE lives matter!" Or put another way, Blue Lives Matter More. The main problem with your retort, and this cannot be emphasized enough, is that, completely unlike black lives, nobody has ever implied that all lives don't matter. You don't need to SPECIFY that. Of course all lives matter, and I'd also like to know what's wrong with you that you would possibly consider for one moment that I think otherwise? Remind me never to count on you in a crisis. It's not up for debate. No "buts." Black Lives Matter. That is all. ∎

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I Am So Sorry, Trayvon

That monster saw a black boy walking in his neighborhood, followed, taunted, confronted and shot that boy for no goddamn reason. George Zimmerman should be in jail.

My heart, my soul, my mind all ache for Trayvon, his friends, his family and everyone in America whose expectations were dashed last weekend. George Zimmerman is a predator who hunted and killed a boy just because he thought he could get away with it, and now the law has shocked us all by approving his actions. Justice died that day.

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You Have The Right To Remain Stupid

I'm really out of patience. Out. The well is dry. I am done tolerating outrageous lies broadcast by one bonehead and parroted by a thousand more. As I sit here writing what should be a wholly unnecessary post, the Boston Marathon bomber has been captured about three miles away, in Watertown. So why is this post necessary? Because people who can't even find Chechnya on a map are suddenly law enforcement experts nattering on about this kid's rights being taken away. An attack on civil liberties. The cops didn't read the bomber his rights, you see. If this is you, shut your mouth, go sit in the corner and listen. The adults are talking. RIGHTS, are you kidding? You know what you also have the right to do? Go cheer on the runners in a marathon without being blown up.

Your rights aren't magically non-existent because they were not read out loud immediately. That's just something crazy people repeat after Fox News tells them it is so. It is not so. If circumstance leads to Miranda rights not being read, that in no way equates to those rights vanishing. You still HAVE the rights. If you're arrested and no one reads your rights, it means one thing only: the prosecutor cannot use anything you say against you in a court of law. That's it. If any concern is due over the lack of Mirandizing here it should be because of this scenario: HAD the killer confessed, it wouldn't be admissible as evidence. This is the kind of technicality that compromises the outcome of a trial. Everyone knows that if he gets off on a technicality he cannot be re-tried under double-jeopardy, so if anything, that would be the only reason to bitch about Miranda here. He could have yelled "I bombed the race!" and that confession would not be admissible in court. If there wasn't enough other evidentiary support and the confession was all they had, it's possible that he'd be set free. Understand? Kid wasn't informed that he had the right to remain silent, because there was a lot going on in that moment.  However, that's not even the crucial matter here. What's more important is that there is allowance in the Miranda warning about when it's acceptable to skip it. In Legalese:

The public safety exception permits law enforcement officials to engage in a limited and focused unwarned interrogation of a suspect and allows the government to introduce the statement as evidence in court. The public safety exception is triggered when police officers have an objectively reasonable need to protect the police or the public from immediate danger.

You can't hide in a crowd if there is no crowd. The cops found the killer hiding under a tarp that was covering a boat in someone's yard during a shut-down of the whole city here. We couldn't leave our houses, get it? That's what they mean by "an objectively reasonable need to protect" everyone from danger. Also of note: don't fuck with Boston law enforcement, they will shut down the whole city to find you. Full stop. ∎

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/19/miranda-rights-boston-bombing-suspect_n_3120333.html

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Chowing Chicken Is A Vote For Family Values?

"I hope (chicken place) will make gazillions of dollars. This is a still free country and people will vote with their money."

(August 2, 2012, Facebook, Author Withheld)

I will never craft a response to the "chicken thing" that could surpass the wisdom and clarity of Wayne Self's July 30th essay in his "Self's Fulfilling Prophecies" blog. [Update: blog change]. Like Mr. Self, I too acknowledge the absurdity of this debate, and chances are that if you are like me, you want to roll your eyes so hard you risk injury. It's so stupid. You've read all the papers and the blogs, you've watched the news coverage, you've gaped at the oh-so-clever chicken-themed Facebook memes. You've spent days debating whether or not to place any long-view importance on this, or attempt to vocalize what it could all mean for society. You've asked yourself where will the chicken thing (no, I'm not going to use the company's name) land in the history books? How will it rate? As a mere footnote? Or will it show up at all.

Or will it occupy the same historical spotlight, however insignificant those living through it might have deemed it, as the East India Company tea that ended up in the harbor just a few miles from where I sit right now?

You Know It Was Never About Tea

Would those two hundred or so participants in the Boston Tea Party be astonished to know that history finds their surge of dauntless action standing as a watershed moment in the birth of a nation?

It's just tea!

I know, right!? 

Well, chances are that if you are like me, all of those reactions went through your head at once. It's just chicken! I know, right!? But hold on...

And You Know It's Not About Chicken

"I hope (chicken place) will make gazillions of dollars. This is a still free country and people will vote with their money." (August 2, 2012, Facebook, Author Withheld)

So, let me see if I understand this, Chicken Guy. You heard a story saying that the guy who owns the place where you get your lunch wants to criminalize homosexuality. Criminalize, as in, align American tolerance with the 75 countries in the world where a gay person can be imprisoned or put to death.
You heard that, and you said, "Let's go participate in that! I want chicken!"

No? That's not what you did? Oh, you wanted to show that this is a 'free country," I see. So you're claiming that it's because of...not in spite of...your devout patriotism that you are eager to support the platform supported by that guy who owns the place where you get your lunch. Because in a free country he can do whatever he wants with his money.

You know what, love? You're right. No one is taking that away from you. That guy who owns the place where you get your lunch can absolutely donate five million dollars to the Family Research Council and the Marriage & Family Foundation. These are organizations that work tirelessly to fund the platform that same-sex behavior is wrong, and should be abolished and even criminalized. He can. It isn't illegal.

Heck, Chicken Guy, your chicken friend can get on TV and announce a new organization that will seek to unravel every equal right since the 14th Amendment. You know that one. That's the "due process" one. That's the one with the pesky "No person could be denied equal protection of the laws" one. Boy, do your conservatives get all aflutter whenever that one is brought up. Equal protection! Due process! For black guys? Oh no! But whew, at least it says guys, not women...wait, they fixed that in the 19th Amendment! In 1920. Oh yes, did you forget that part? That until 1920 not all of the "constitutionally protected privileges of citizenship" outlined in the 14th Amendment extended to women? That guy who owns the place where you get your lunch can absolutely donate five million dollars to unravel all of that. Reverse the Reconstruction! THAT could be what he CALLS it! The "Reverse the Reconstruction Research Council." Make it ten million, all from profits made from your lunch. For Family Values! Think of the Children!

Yes, he has every right. Every right. His right. But you didn't have to condone his opinion. You had the right to say "I agree" or "I disagree," and when the choice was presented to you, what you chose to do with your right was to stand with intolerance.

To wave the "it's a free country" flag in this instance is insulting.

You know this is not about chicken. You didn't eat chicken to promote "free speech." You ate chicken to throw your support behind the effort to abolish another group's freedom, in this case it's the LGBT community. Who'll it be next time?

Wise Up, Chicken Bigot

It's 2012. It's frankly astonishing that we're still having these kinds of debates. We have the whole of history at our fingertips to learn from; enter any search term into any search engine using any browser and you have access to great, important writings in which people just like you, just like me, have engaged in just this kind of discourse. We are greeted with...no, saturated with information every single day, and we are completely free to read every word ever written on any topic. It is easier than it has ever been since the dawn of time to become well-read in world history. You don't even have to leave your house. What does it mean that there are people who choose to remain this ignorant in this time and place, where "information" is infinitely available to every American, at no charge, any time of the day or night. "Information" should be our most valuable currency. With it we can look and learn exactly what happened at many, many points in history the world over where a "few" insisted upon abolishing the freedoms of "the many."

Just how did that work out for the oppressors?

And isn't there a bitter irony in this country regarding how the continued mission of hate groups campaigning to spread and promote their message -- the only way they could stage such demonstrations in the first place is because, as you say, it's a "free country."

But when the content of that "free speech" has one intent, one intent only, and that is to spread hatred and promote inequality, in effect eliminate freedom for a specially-targeted group, I'm sorry but all bets are off. The "free country" thing either goes both ways, or not at all.

How many more times does the revolution need to be fought before "ignorance" will no longer be accepted anymore as "policy?"

On how many fronts do the real patriots need to fight for acceptance before the entire nation finally, at last, becomes enlightened?

Chicken guy, are you truly unable to look back at history's revolutionaries in this and other countries, and declare that you have learned nothing? Just by supporting the effort to keep your neighbor from enjoying the same rights as you, you should lose the right to wave that "freedom" flag.

What you're doing is not promoting free speech.

It is discrimination.

And you are emphasizing your position with every crispy bite.

If that's your position, enjoy your lunch. You have every right, and I will go off in the other direction away from you and help fight for you to keep those rights. Enjoy them, and you're welcome.∎

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Fuck you, Geraldo

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