ghostsinthemachine
ghostsinthemachine's JournalA black guy I know talks about the Confederate flag/racism
Earlier this week I fell into the darkest rabbit hole I’ve yet to know. I started reading ultra conservative / racist websites, reading the comments on the articles, trying to place my thumb on the pulse of a beating heart unfamiliar. It started when a confederate flag showed up in my facebook feed amongst the gifs of cats being assholes, relationship announcements and short videos of my friend’s offspring not doing anything particularly exciting. To my surprise it was someone I knew posting and praising the confederate flag. I followed it to a website that looked like it was designed in the late 90s with no spell check and then I followed link after link until I feared for my life, mourned the death of humanity and began to sleep with two eyes open. I went back to the original post a few times, debating whether or not to comment on it. I finally decided to, after all, no strides are made in silence. On occasions when I think maybe I can make a difference in someone’s perspective, I generally tip toe, so instead of “WHY ARE YOU POLLUTING MY FACEBOOK FEED WITH RACIST ASS FLAG NONSENSE YOU FUCKING FUCK”, I tried to explain what that flag means to me in the soft toned voice I use to pry rock candy from the grasp of elderly women. I explained that regardless of what one’s intention is with that flag, this is what every black American feels when they see it, fear, hatred, oppression, every time they’ve read the word “nigger” etched into the wall of a bathroom stall, every time they’ve heard its bitter bite shouted and the kind of paranoia that fits well within the frames of reason. Some guy with a confederate flag as his profile picture (and I thought a rapist raccoon giving a beagle what for was racy) got back to my comment right away. He wrote “Alfred Howard…..It really offends me to see young “men” walking around in public for my daughters to see…….with their pants down below their asses……should we stop that as well.” First of all, I love that “Men” is in quotes, already establishing that we are less than. I was so dumbfounded by this response that it basically cleared up all the confusion. “Oh, I’m literally trying to have a rational conversation with a fucking idiot who’s response to his fear of young black males is to in turn intimidate them with fear.” As if “two wrongs don’t make a right” wasn’t one of the first tenets all parents bestow upon their children. How do you build a bridge to a mind so distant? I sent him an email, an invitation to talk. Because I can post all the equality rants in the world and harvest likes from people who already agree with what I’m saying, but if I can change the mind or vantage point of someone who likely hates my existence before knowing it, then it’s a small victory.
At the end of the day a flag is color on fabric, we infuse our symbols with meaning through action. The Swastika finds its roots in Hinduism, but meaning evolves and evokes. The confederate flag is a racist symbol with an ocean of blood shed in its name. You can claim it means something else to you, but it carries a weight beyond virtue regardless. I once hoped that the archaic values it represents to me would die through the course of generations, but hatred is passed on, not through blood, but through whispers. Maybe we shout the opposite.
this is Al Howard, a record store clerk on Mission Bay in San Diego. He is also an amazing musician who is in many bands in the area. He is my favorite writer of the era too.
Labor for Bernie 2016
Over 1,000 local union leaders and members back Bernie Sanders for President, and today kicked off Labor for Bernie 2016.
Grassroots labor initiative urges Democratic primary support for Sanders by AFL-CIO and national unions.
Initiated by trade unionists who have worked closely with Senator Sanders for many years, the Labor for Bernie network includes elected officers, shop stewards, organizers, and rank-and-file members from all 50 states and 57 different labor organizations.
More than a third of these Sanders supporters belong to building trades' unions, (with 137 coming from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers alone). Other unions that showed significant membership support for Sanders’ presidential campaign include the Communications Workers of America, American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, Service Employees International Union, International Union of Operating Engineers, United Auto Workers, and International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
This diverse group of labor activists signed an on-line statement embracing Sanders as the only declared candidate, in either major party, "who challenges the billionaires who are trying to steal our pensions, our jobs, our homes, and what's left of our democracy." The entire list of union supporters may be viewed on the new Labor for Bernie website at http://www.laborforbernie.org/
California for Bernie Sanders #?feeltheBern #?CA4BernieSanders
Labor for Bernie 2016
Over 1,000 local union leaders and members back Bernie Sanders for President, and today kicked off Labor for Bernie 2016.
Grassroots labor initiative urges Democratic primary support for Sanders by AFL-CIO and national unions.
Initiated by trade unionists who have worked closely with Senator Sanders for many years, the Labor for Bernie network includes elected officers, shop stewards, organizers, and rank-and-file members from all 50 states and 57 different labor organizations.
More than a third of these Sanders supporters belong to building trades' unions, (with 137 coming from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers alone). Other unions that showed significant membership support for Sanders’ presidential campaign include the Communications Workers of America, American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, Service Employees International Union, International Union of Operating Engineers, United Auto Workers, and International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
This diverse group of labor activists signed an on-line statement embracing Sanders as the only declared candidate, in either major party, "who challenges the billionaires who are trying to steal our pensions, our jobs, our homes, and what's left of our democracy." The entire list of union supporters may be viewed on the new Labor for Bernie website at www.laborforbernie.org
via @People for Bernie Los Angeles
California for Bernie Sanders #?feeltheBern #?CA4BernieSanders
Obama Declares National Day of Gloating
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Residents of the District of Columbia were roused from their sleep by a massive fireworks display over the White House just after midnight, as President Obama declared what he called “a national day of gloating.”
“It would not be productive for this nation, going forward, to crow about our victory over political adversaries,” he said in a nationally televised address. “So let’s get it all out of our systems today.”
Immediately after the President’s speech, loudspeakers outside the White House blasted “We Are the Champions,” and the national day of gloating began.
In addition to a ticker-tape parade, the day’s events will include a screening on the Mall of a clip reel of Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s marathon Senate speech, punctuated by sad trombone sounds.
READ MORE: http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/obama-declares-national-day-of-gloating
Looking for a good software to manage a small boutique
From ordering to POS. Lots of changing inventory. What is good software? Comments too.
Raise Hell: the Life and times of Molly Ivins (Help to get this made)
Raise Hell: the Life and times of Molly Ivins
Those of you in Texas and activists all over may remember Molly Ivins and her unique brand of trailblazing, rabble-rousing, take no sh*t journalism. She was indeed one-of-a-kind. There is a documentary film being made about Molly’s incredible life and career, and it needs your support to raise the funds to finish it!
Molly’s voice, wit and wisdom are as relevant now as they were during the many decades she spent lampooning “politics as usual” before her life was cut short by breast cancer at the age of 62 in 2007. . Thanks to Molly’s inspiration, shows like Jon Stewart’s and Stephen Colbert’s have changed the way we talk politics in this country forever.
Please join me and spread the word about RAISE HELL - The Life & Times of Molly Ivins to help get this film made. Thank you.
— Bonnie
https://www.kickstarter.com/…/raise-hell-the-life-and-times…
Raise Hell: the Life and times of Molly Ivins (Help to get this made)
Raise Hell: the Life and times of Molly Ivins (Help to get this made)
Bonnie Raitt:
Those of you in Texas and activists all over may remember Molly Ivins and her unique brand of trailblazing, rabble-rousing, take no sh*t journalism. She was indeed one-of-a-kind. There is a documentary film being made about Molly’s incredible life and career, and it needs your support to raise the funds to finish it!
Molly’s voice, wit and wisdom are as relevant now as they were during the many decades she spent lampooning “politics as usual” before her life was cut short by breast cancer at the age of 62 in 2007. . Thanks to Molly’s inspiration, shows like Jon Stewart’s and Stephen Colbert’s have changed the way we talk politics in this country forever.
Please join me and spread the word about RAISE HELL - The Life & Times of Molly Ivins to help get this film made. Thank you.
— Bonnie
https://www.kickstarter.com/…/raise-hell-the-life-and-times…
Raise Hell: the Life and times of Molly Ivins (Help to get this made)
Bonnie Raitt:
Those of you in Texas and activists all over may remember Molly Ivins and her unique brand of trailblazing, rabble-rousing, take no sh*t journalism. She was indeed one-of-a-kind. There is a documentary film being made about Molly’s incredible life and career, and it needs your support to raise the funds to finish it!
Molly’s voice, wit and wisdom are as relevant now as they were during the many decades she spent lampooning “politics as usual” before her life was cut short by breast cancer at the age of 62 in 2007. . Thanks to Molly’s inspiration, shows like Jon Stewart’s and Stephen Colbert’s have changed the way we talk politics in this country forever.
Please join me and spread the word about RAISE HELL - The Life & Times of Molly Ivins to help get this film made. Thank you.
— Bonnie
https://www.kickstarter.com/…/raise-hell-the-life-and-times…
Raging in the free world: the many furies of Neil Young
The rocker’s latest album – The Monsanto Years – rails against the GM food giant and Starbucks. But what else has he been angry about in his long career?
Digital sound quality
Few things make Neil Young as apoplectic as modern digital sound quality. In particular, his fury is directed at the MP3 download and its accomplice in crime, the iPod. Listening to music held on a tiny digital file through headphones or computer speakers accounts – says Shakey – for contemporary music’s “loss of soul”. Thus, Young poured his money into the Pono system, a “high-resolution” music service that he claimed would “rescue the art form that I’ve been practising for the last 50 years”. He previewed the launch with an album described by the Guardian’s reviewer as “arguably the lowest-fidelity album ever made by a major artist … muffled, distorted and buried beneath layers of crackle and hiss”. A Letter Home was created in the least expensive studio-like environment ever – a restored 1947 Voice-O-Graph booth (a fairground attraction which allowed users to take home a vinyl record of their voice). When the PonoPlayer finally arrived this January, the 24-bit, 192 kHz-sound, wallet-draining system was variously described as “making a dramatic difference” to the way we hear music or “junk science” – which presumably made Shakey apoplectic too.
Read a lot more: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jun/23/raging-in-the-free-world-neil-young-monsanto-years-starbucks-geffen?CMP=share_btn_fb
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