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McCamy Taylor
McCamy Taylor's Journal
McCamy Taylor's Journal
February 16, 2019
Battle Angel Alita is wonderful.
If you love the manga and the 1990s ova anime, you will love this film. I wish I could give it Valentines hearts! Note to Hot Topix--get your Alita full metal armor bodysuits ready, because the girls are gonna want them!
Will people who do not love the manga love the film? Don't know and don't care. Sucks to be them.
This film is much like Suicide Squad--an action hero film in which the heroes are motivated by L-O-V-E. If you are uncomfortable mixing you violent escapism with L-O-V-E or if you are uncomfortable with STRONG women, you will not like this film.
Shoo! Go see something else. Now let me hug Alita.
February 9, 2019
Warren 2020!
Come on. Tell me why I should not support the campaign of the daughter of a janitor who rose to become a US Senator. Tell me why a candidate who believes In equality and unions is “out of step” with the mainstream Democratic Party. Tell me why it is so important that billions of dollars be collected and spent in a giant Food Fight aka the Democratic Primary in which paid Russian trolls in smoke filled rooms will try to tell us that 1) white women are the sole reason Blacks can’t get a break and 2) Black men are the sole reason women can not get a break and 3) your daughter can not afford college because granny is living it up eating cat food thanks to her big fat Social Security check.
Do you want to be Divided and Conquered again? Not me. That is why I am supporting THE Solidaarity candidate. The one who reminds us all of that special teacher, the one who refused to leave any child behind. The one who made home visits. The one who had our backs and gently but firmly nudged us forward so that we could be all we were meant to be.
If the worst dirt they can throw at her is that she is not a molecular biologist ( i.e. DNA) then they have nothing. And if we work together we have a chance to regain the world.
In 2008, another candidate just said No to Super-PAC money. How did that work out? It can work again.
Warren/Anybody 2020
February 3, 2019
I encourage DUers to read and comment on this piece. Did you know that Black folks in this country suffer under oppression because their disenfranchised white sisters did not liberate them? Did you know that women suffer under oppression, because their disenfranchised Black brothers did not liberate them? This is the subtle message of this piece, which serves the purpose of Capital by pitting workers against each other---in this case women versus racial minorities, but it could have been written one hundred years ago about Italians versus Irish. Many, many years ago, Engels commented that the American capitalist keeps worker's wages low and prevents unionization by workers by pitting one groups of immigrants against another. We still do--this is the real motive of Trump's War on Immigrants. But as the number of immigrants coming to this country has slowed, we have increasingly pitted young versus old, gay versus not-gay, Black versus white, men versus women, disabled versus not-disabled.
Wake up and smell the Divide and Conquer, working class America. How do you think the 1% manage to keep the rest of us under their thumb in a so called democracy? They do it by encouraging us to fight among ourselves. And they tell us that any attempt to talk about "capital" and "wages" and "unions" is somehow un-American. Marxist economic theory is only un-American if you think that the real American are the billionaires who get rich stealing the labor of others.
And remember, Dr. King became a real threat to the establishment when he began to focus on worker's rights. He was in Memphis to support a union when he was murdered. And Brother Malcolm became a threat (and was murdered) when he came back from mecca convinced that whites were not the enemy and that we should all work together.
Solidarity!
Divide and Conquer at the New York Times Today
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/opinion/sunday/women-voting-19th-amendment-white-supremacy.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=HomepageI encourage DUers to read and comment on this piece. Did you know that Black folks in this country suffer under oppression because their disenfranchised white sisters did not liberate them? Did you know that women suffer under oppression, because their disenfranchised Black brothers did not liberate them? This is the subtle message of this piece, which serves the purpose of Capital by pitting workers against each other---in this case women versus racial minorities, but it could have been written one hundred years ago about Italians versus Irish. Many, many years ago, Engels commented that the American capitalist keeps worker's wages low and prevents unionization by workers by pitting one groups of immigrants against another. We still do--this is the real motive of Trump's War on Immigrants. But as the number of immigrants coming to this country has slowed, we have increasingly pitted young versus old, gay versus not-gay, Black versus white, men versus women, disabled versus not-disabled.
Wake up and smell the Divide and Conquer, working class America. How do you think the 1% manage to keep the rest of us under their thumb in a so called democracy? They do it by encouraging us to fight among ourselves. And they tell us that any attempt to talk about "capital" and "wages" and "unions" is somehow un-American. Marxist economic theory is only un-American if you think that the real American are the billionaires who get rich stealing the labor of others.
And remember, Dr. King became a real threat to the establishment when he began to focus on worker's rights. He was in Memphis to support a union when he was murdered. And Brother Malcolm became a threat (and was murdered) when he came back from mecca convinced that whites were not the enemy and that we should all work together.
Solidarity!
February 2, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/magazine/what-an-uncensored-letter-to-mlk-reveals.html
Would it surprise you to learn that Dr. King was correct when he told friends that he believed the anonymous letter came from then FBI czar J. Edgar Hoover? Or that King believed that the letter was meant to encourage him to commit suicide? Shocking, but not at all unbelievable for anyone who knows the history of J. Edgar Hoover, the man who did dirty tricks better than anyone, even Pat Buchanan and Tricky Dick.
Let's go back to the early 1960s. King was affiliated with a Known Communist.
In the early 1960s (US still in Cold War with Russia) that was the political equivalent of touching a young person "down there. During the FBI's investigation, Hoover discovered what many in the Civil Rights movement already knew--Dr. King was a human being who had a sex life.
Bingo, thought Hoover. Spread the word that the Civil Right's Movement's most influential leader is a mere human being, and the Civil Rights Movement will fall apart.
I am bringing this up now, because Democrats face a moral dilemma. One of our own has been very, very bad. He posted a photo of himself in black face in his medical school yearbook in 1984--after Dr. King and the Civil Right's Movement of the 1950s-60s, meaning there was no excuse. At that time, everyone knew better.
At the same time, we are being confronted with proof that one of Nixon's dirty tricksters, Roger Stone, currently under indictment for being a traitor to his country set up the whole faux Al Franken scandal. Meaning that a great number of Democrats were duped into casting out one of their shining stars, a man who made the Mueller investigation possible--and painted a big Kick Me sign on his back in the process. Now, Democrats worry that the same process is starting again, and that by the time 2020 gets here, we will have no viable candidates because we will have already eaten all of then.
There is no solution to this moral quandary. There is no correct answer. Both "sides" are absolutely correct. And, whether they know it or not, both sides are actually on the same side--the side of justice and autonomy and the right of every individual to stand up and say I am citizen of this country entitled to the same rights and consideration as every other citizen.
William Blake wrote:
By religion, Blake did not mean the free religion of this country. He meant the state enforced mockery that passed for religion in most of Europe during his day, the divine mandate that said that the word of the king was the word of god--you, know, our modern Religious Right.
What are we at DU to do? We must speak our conscience.
Those who have been oppressed must speak out about their oppression. They must demand that the rest of us acknowledge their personal and family pain. They must demand that our party make a strong, bold statement of human affirmation.
Those who seek justice and a living wage and health care and decent education for all working class Americans can not allow their movement to be derailed. They must stand together. They must remain strong. But they must not deny a voice to anyone under the Democratic umbrella. It was this "Shut up and make the coffee" that lead the Women's Movement to split off from the mainstream anti-war, civil rights movement in 1970. And we do not need a bunch of little movements that can be divided and conquered, we need one strong movement.
To anyone who says "We can not do both at the same time," I encourage you to try. You would be amazed at what people can accomplish when they put their heads together.
Why the Edmund Pettis Bridge and not the March on Washington? Because the battle for human dignity is a hard fought one.
More on Hoover's attempts to create a schism between Dr. King and his followers here:
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/federal-bureau-investigation-fbi
When J. Edgar Hoover Attempted to Drive Dr. King to Suicide With a Sex Tape
From the New York Times 2014
The note is just a single sheet gone yellow with age, typewritten and tightly spaced. It’s rife with typos and misspellings and sprinkled with attempts at emending them. Clearly, some effort went into perfecting the tone, that of a disappointed admirer, appalled by the discovery of “hidious [sic] abnormalities” in someone he once viewed as “a man of character.”
The word “evil” makes six appearances in the text, beginning with an accusation: “You are a colossal fraud and an evil, vicious one at that.” In the paragraphs that follow, the recipient’s alleged lovers get the worst of it. They are described as “filthy dirty evil companions” and “evil playmates,” all engaged in “dirt, filth, evil and moronic talk.” The effect is at once grotesque and hypnotic, an obsessive’s account of carnal rage and personal betrayal. “What incredible evilness,” the letter proclaims, listing off “sexual orgies,” “adulterous acts” and “immoral conduct.” Near the end, it circles back to its initial target, denouncing him as an “evil, abnormal beast.”
The unnamed author suggests intimate knowledge of his correspondent’s sex life, identifying one possible lover by name and claiming to have specific evidence about others. Another passage hints of an audiotape accompanying the letter, apparently a recording of “immoral conduct” in action. “Lend your sexually psychotic ear to the enclosure,” the letter demands. It concludes with a deadline of 34 days “before your filthy, abnormal fraudulent self is bared to the nation.”
“There is only one thing left for you to do,” the author warns vaguely in the final paragraph. “You know what it is.”
The word “evil” makes six appearances in the text, beginning with an accusation: “You are a colossal fraud and an evil, vicious one at that.” In the paragraphs that follow, the recipient’s alleged lovers get the worst of it. They are described as “filthy dirty evil companions” and “evil playmates,” all engaged in “dirt, filth, evil and moronic talk.” The effect is at once grotesque and hypnotic, an obsessive’s account of carnal rage and personal betrayal. “What incredible evilness,” the letter proclaims, listing off “sexual orgies,” “adulterous acts” and “immoral conduct.” Near the end, it circles back to its initial target, denouncing him as an “evil, abnormal beast.”
The unnamed author suggests intimate knowledge of his correspondent’s sex life, identifying one possible lover by name and claiming to have specific evidence about others. Another passage hints of an audiotape accompanying the letter, apparently a recording of “immoral conduct” in action. “Lend your sexually psychotic ear to the enclosure,” the letter demands. It concludes with a deadline of 34 days “before your filthy, abnormal fraudulent self is bared to the nation.”
“There is only one thing left for you to do,” the author warns vaguely in the final paragraph. “You know what it is.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/magazine/what-an-uncensored-letter-to-mlk-reveals.html
Would it surprise you to learn that Dr. King was correct when he told friends that he believed the anonymous letter came from then FBI czar J. Edgar Hoover? Or that King believed that the letter was meant to encourage him to commit suicide? Shocking, but not at all unbelievable for anyone who knows the history of J. Edgar Hoover, the man who did dirty tricks better than anyone, even Pat Buchanan and Tricky Dick.
Let's go back to the early 1960s. King was affiliated with a Known Communist.
In the early 1960s (US still in Cold War with Russia) that was the political equivalent of touching a young person "down there. During the FBI's investigation, Hoover discovered what many in the Civil Rights movement already knew--Dr. King was a human being who had a sex life.
Bingo, thought Hoover. Spread the word that the Civil Right's Movement's most influential leader is a mere human being, and the Civil Rights Movement will fall apart.
I am bringing this up now, because Democrats face a moral dilemma. One of our own has been very, very bad. He posted a photo of himself in black face in his medical school yearbook in 1984--after Dr. King and the Civil Right's Movement of the 1950s-60s, meaning there was no excuse. At that time, everyone knew better.
At the same time, we are being confronted with proof that one of Nixon's dirty tricksters, Roger Stone, currently under indictment for being a traitor to his country set up the whole faux Al Franken scandal. Meaning that a great number of Democrats were duped into casting out one of their shining stars, a man who made the Mueller investigation possible--and painted a big Kick Me sign on his back in the process. Now, Democrats worry that the same process is starting again, and that by the time 2020 gets here, we will have no viable candidates because we will have already eaten all of then.
There is no solution to this moral quandary. There is no correct answer. Both "sides" are absolutely correct. And, whether they know it or not, both sides are actually on the same side--the side of justice and autonomy and the right of every individual to stand up and say I am citizen of this country entitled to the same rights and consideration as every other citizen.
William Blake wrote:
These two classes of men are always upon earth, and they should be enemies: whoever tries to reconcile them seeks to destroy existence. Religion is an endeavour to reconcile the two.
By religion, Blake did not mean the free religion of this country. He meant the state enforced mockery that passed for religion in most of Europe during his day, the divine mandate that said that the word of the king was the word of god--you, know, our modern Religious Right.
What are we at DU to do? We must speak our conscience.
Those who have been oppressed must speak out about their oppression. They must demand that the rest of us acknowledge their personal and family pain. They must demand that our party make a strong, bold statement of human affirmation.
Those who seek justice and a living wage and health care and decent education for all working class Americans can not allow their movement to be derailed. They must stand together. They must remain strong. But they must not deny a voice to anyone under the Democratic umbrella. It was this "Shut up and make the coffee" that lead the Women's Movement to split off from the mainstream anti-war, civil rights movement in 1970. And we do not need a bunch of little movements that can be divided and conquered, we need one strong movement.
To anyone who says "We can not do both at the same time," I encourage you to try. You would be amazed at what people can accomplish when they put their heads together.
Why the Edmund Pettis Bridge and not the March on Washington? Because the battle for human dignity is a hard fought one.
More on Hoover's attempts to create a schism between Dr. King and his followers here:
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/federal-bureau-investigation-fbi
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