#Carroll Fife

[classic8media]

2024 Political Assessment - A Year of Manufactured Doom and Gloom Polarized by the Ruling Class

Introduction – How the Assessment was Made Much of my research is inspired by a collective of revolutionaries I meet with several times a month. The League of Revolutionaries for a New America (LRNA) supports every struggle that holds the government accountable. They host political education classes and have several chapters across the country, which have different fronts of struggle committees…

[calebdoerksen2]

Since I upgraded my military uniform, I decided to draw my self-portrait in uniform in order to make a new look for my YouTube channel and my other socials. This also means I will be wearing this uniform in persona on all of my review videos and special videos (I will still wear the blue shirt on occasion). Marching to battle with me in this art piece are my old fife-and-drum marching duo kid characters, Arthur Carroll (the drummer) and Jenny Park (the fife player), while a cannon is being shot at enemy troops in the live-action background.

[89845aaa]

So, who’d she call? “I’ll take, it was a non-binary purple haired transgender studies professor who majored in medieval lesbian bathroom graffiti and minored in North Korean gay theatre makeup. For $200, Alex.”

[mariacallous]

(J. Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — The City Council in Oakland, California, unanimously passed a resolution on Monday night calling for a permanent ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, after listening to hours of intense and sometimes violently anti-Israel comments.

“It was the most antisemitic room I have ever been in,” said Tye Gregory, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area, who lives in Oakland.

The council meeting exploded into public view on Tuesday after Yashar Ali, the social media influencer, posted a highlights reel of some of the comments, in which speakers accused Israel of killing its own people on Oct. 7, defended Hamas as a legitimate protest group and compared defending Israel to a man who beats his wife.

The people in the video were among the more than 250 people who offered public comment during the special meeting devoted to the resolution, which lasted for six hours.

Among those commenting on the video was California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who tweeted, “Hamas is a terrorist organization. They must be called out for what they are: evil.”

The Oakland council resolution focused on a permanent ceasefire, which Israel and many of its supporters oppose because it would leave Hamas in power in Gaza. The measure also condemned a recent spike in antisemitism and Islamophobia, acknowledged the “long history” behind the current war and called for more humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza.

But it did not include a condemnation of Hamas. An effort by a Jewish council member, Dan Kalb, to amend the resolution to acknowledge Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and condemn the terrorist group for its “repression and violence” against both Palestinians and Israelis failed, in a 2-6 vote. One councilmember, Treva Reid, joined Kalb in voting for the amended version, saying she actually supported the unamended resolution but would not allow Kalb to “stand alone.”

“I’m very disappointed in my colleagues except for Treva,” Kalb said on Tuesday. He said the idea of passing a war-related resolution without mentioning the Hamas massacre that started the war didn’t make sense to him.

“Let’s condemn all domestic and international terrorist organizations — who can be against that?” Kalb said.

Kalb and Gregory said they would remember the hostile atmosphere inside the council chambers.

“What we voted on was not the rhetoric at the microphone,” Kalb said. “A substantial number of people were trying to justify or rationalize the Hamas mass murder on Oct. 7. To me, that is so fringe and unconscionable and ridiculous.”

People who tried to legitimize the terrorist attack “should be embarrassed,” he added. “That is just nuts.”

Before the meeting started, the JCRC held a vigil in front of City Hall for the estimated 240 people in Israel who were taken hostage on Oct. 7. (As of Wednesday, Hamas had released more than 90 hostages as part of a truce deal.) About 50 people attended the vigil, while a slightly larger group of protesters across the plaza shouted and chanted to try to drown it out.

Carroll Fife, the council member who wrote the ceasefire resolution, said at Monday’s meeting that the document went through four drafts in a purposeful effort to “depoliticize” the language and focus on peace, without condemning Israel or Hamas.

“It attempted to bring the sides together,” she said at the meeting. “I want Jewish children to live as much as I want Palestinian children to live.” Fife added that she needed to acknowledge the “disproportionate deaths on one side.” According to the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry, about 15,000 Palestinians have died in the war; the figure does not differentiate between militants and civilians. Israel’s death toll stands at around 1,200 people killed on Oct. 7, most of them civilians, and about 70 soldiers who have died in Gaza since the ground invasion began late last month.

Kalb publicly thanked Fife for her “sincere effort to craft and support a resolution that doesn’t have the hot-button and problematic language that had weighed down other resolutions in other places.” But he said not mentioning Oct. 7 is “sending the wrong message and an embarrassing message.”

The city clerk noted that 86% of 1,254 people who weighed in on the issue online supported the resolution without any amendments.

The scores of anti-Israeli speakers who rejected amending the resolution ranged from passionate advocates for Palestinian children to conspiracy theorists to hardcore anti-Zionists who openly supported Hamas’ attack on Israel.

John Reimann, who lost his bid as a socialist candidate for Oakland mayor last year, compared Israel to a “wife beater” who complains when the wife fights back.

One Hamas supporter described Israel as a “genocidal settler colonial state” that needs to be “completely dismantled.” Others repeatedly described Hamas as a “resistance organization” and “not a terrorist” one.

“It’s a contradiction to be pro-humanity and pro-Israel,” one woman said.

Dozens of people who identified themselves as Jewish spoke at the council meeting, with many announcing they were anti-Zionist. Kalb said Israel supporters were “outnumbered.”

Anti-Zionist Jews wore “Not in our name” T-shirts and referenced the Holocaust in their opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza.

“I know the price of silence,” said one woman. “Never again means never again for anyone.”

Seated in the audience, Gregory said he repeatedly heard people referencing “white Hitler” to describe Jews who condemn Hamas and heard others saying that “antisemitism isn’t real.”

“I don’t expect maturity from these antisemites,” he said. “But it was disappointing the city council couldn’t rein in it.”

The council “failed to call out the antisemitism” in the chamber, Gregory said. “They tolerated it.”

The San Francisco-based Arab Resource and Organizing Center, which Gregory called a “pro-terrorism organization,” handed out scripts to speakers that “justified and glorified Hamas,” he said. Gregory added that JCRC had been cautious in the past about describing AROC as supporting terrorists. “Not anymore,” he said.

Councilmembers repeatedly told audience members to stop booing when Israel supporters were speaking. Speakers who mentioned Hamas raping Israeli women on Oct. 7 — an ascendant topic of advocacy given the relative silence by UN Women about allegations of sexual violence against Israelis — were loudly booed.

One pro-Israel speaker said she was deeply saddened by the “slurs and lies” against Israel and Jews.

Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, who is Jewish, used her time “in the spirit of bringing us back to our common humanity” by sharing the story of Isaac and Ishmael from the Bible. “Let them live, these two children of Abraham. So may it be,” she said.

Gregory spoke at the meeting in favor of Kalb’s amended resolution.

“I am proud to be a gay Jewish Zionist, and that means that I believe Jews have a right to our indigenous homeland. And that is not in contradiction to Palestinians having that same indigenous right,” he said. “Hamas is a terrorist organization that seeks the annihilation of Israel. This resolution must be amended to acknowledge the atrocities of Hamas and include its removal from power in Gaza.”

Even though Kalb’s effort to amend the resolution failed, he said he chose to vote in favor of the resolution because the final version didn’t include the “horrible, inaccurate, divisive language” that he’s seen from other local bodies such as the Richmond City Council, the Oakland Education Association and the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee.

Gregory said the city council’s resolution would have no impact on foreign policy but would help to spread a “culture of antisemitism” in Oakland.

“They should focus on policing and housing and education issues,” he said, “and not the most intractable foreign policy issue we have on the planet.”

[intoxicatingimmediacy]

Live Q&A with Rafael Casal and Daveed Diggs supporting Moms 4 Housing

Bitch Talk Podcast | We're coming to you live from the historic Roxie Theater in the Mission district of San Francisco with Rafael Casal, Daveed Diggs, Activist Carroll Fife, and Executive Director of Oakland Community Land Trust Steve King. You'll hear Bitch Talk founder Erin Lim lead the conversation with the panel discussing affordable housing solutions for Bay Area folks and how Carroll helped organize the #moms4housing movement in Oakland. This was a benefit screening of Blindspotting, raising more than $12K for the #moms4housing movement. Rafael put this event together for his mom's birthday (awwww!) and we are grateful to have been a part of the conversation.

[buttercupkg66]

Moment Defund the Police lawmaker calls cops over armed men in crime-ridden Oakland

Carroll Fife, who voted to strip $17.4 million from police in 2021, expressed her gratitude to Oakland cops after she said her canvassers were assaulted.

[wakamotogarou]

A Strange Wild Song

By Lewis Carroll

He thought he saw an Elephant That practised on a fife: He looked again, and found it was A letter from his wife. "At length I realize," he said, "The bitterness of life!"

He thought he saw a Buffalo Upon the chimney-piece: He looked again, and found it was His Sister's Husband's Niece. "Unless you leave this house," he said, "I'll send for the police!"

he thought he saw a Rattlesnake That questioned him in Greek: He looked again, and found it was The Middle of Next Week. "The one thing I regret," he said, "Is that it cannot speak!"

He thought he saw a Banker's Clerk Descending from the bus: He looked again, and found it was A Hippopotamus. "If this should stay to dine," he said, "There won't be much for us!"

He thought he saw a Kangaroo That worked a Coffee-mill: He looked again, and found it was A Vegetable-Pill. "Were I to swallow this," he said, "I should be very ill!"

He thought he saw a Coach-and-Four That stood beside his bed: He looked again, and found it was A Bear without a Head. "Poor thing," he said, "poor silly thing! It's waiting to be fed!"

[rotationalsymmetry]

For Oakland City Council Member at Large it's very close between Rowena Brown (good) and Leronne Armstrong (bad) -- for first choice votes, it's a ranked choice system so it may take a while for results to be announced.

My district has Carroll "Housing is a Right" Fife, the incumbent, leading in first-round votes at 44% vs 30% for the next closest candidate, so that's fairly promising.

Local/state results:

looks like it's not officially called yet but Jesse Arreguin has a substantial lead, for State Senate district 7.

Looks like the california department of elections isn't calling anything yet, but at least provisionally: rent control lost, affordable housing lost, minimum wage lost, no forced prison labor lost, and increased sentencing for certain crimes won. Although, 35 (medical funding) won, which might be good, and prop 3 (marriage equality even if the supreme court decision goes down in flames) won, but that's not much of a consolation, of course prop 3 was going to win. It does have over 60% of the vote, so that's something, I guess. Anyways, mostly a disaster, some reasonable bond measures passed.

And 34, the revenge against the Aids Healthcare Foundation proposition, passed. A fucking disaster.

[classic8media]

The Manipulation of Elections: How the Ruling Class Weaponizes "Agents of Chaos"

A short series on HBO called Agents of Chaos details how no more than 100 people were able to overthrow the 2016 United States election in favor of President Donald Trump in an intricate Russian troll farm psyop operation. A similar pattern appears to create a “doom loop” narrative in Bay Area elections and across the country using local networks of Tech Billionaires, Real Estate and Landlord…

[sawcglyph]

+ from this further article  (Click thru) “...Back in Oakland on Tuesday, as Democracy Now! was wrapping up at 6 a.m. Pacific time, Carroll Fife concluded: “We need to take speculation out of real estate, and we need to decommodify housing … we look forward to the fight.” Then they received a text message that the raid was underway, and rushed off to join the other mothers and their supporters on Magnolia Street. Police used a battering ram to break down the door of the house, terrifying the mothers inside before hauling them out.

Later that day, halfway across the country, six white candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination gathered in Iowa, one of the whitest states in the nation, for the final televised debate before the Iowa caucuses. Outside, Rev. William Barber was leading a “Moral March on the Debate.” 

Barber and his Poor People’s Campaign are demanding that the candidates participate in a nationally televised debate on poverty, including the crisis of homelessness. The movement continues Martin Luther King’s final campaign, the Poor People’s Movement ,which he was launching when he was assassinated. More than 50 years later, from Chicago to Oakland to Des Moines, the fight continues…”

This is case where; “Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it.” Edward Abbey 

[princesscatherinemiddleton]

The Duchess of Cambridge’s Year in Review: May

May 5th - Kensington Palace released a video of the Duchess of Cambridge speaking to Harriet Nayiga. Kensington Palace also announced the official YouTube page of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

May 6th - Kensington Palace released audio of the Duchess of Cambridge speaking to Hold Still finalist, Mila Sneddon and her mother. Catherine also held a video meeting for Action on Addiction

May 7th - The Duchess of Cambridge visited the Royal London Hospital and the National Portrait Gallery

May 10th - Kensington Palace released audio of the Duchess of Cambridge speaking to Hold Still finalists, Romy and Niaz

May 12th - Catherine held an Early Years meeting

May 13th - The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited Wolverhampton, starting at the Way Youth Zone. William and Catherine then visited Base25, before visiting Hugglepets

May 17th - Kensington Palace released audio of the Duchess of Cambridge speaking to Hold Still finalist, Haley

May 19th - The Duchess visited a Lewis Carroll exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum

May 20th - Catherine held an Early Years meeting

May 24th - William and Catherine began their Royal Visit to Scotland. They started at Turning Point Scotland, before visting Heavy Sound, then travelling to Sikh Sanjog. The Duchess also appeared in a video released for the Nursing Now 2020 campaign

May 25th - The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge opened Balfour Hospital. They later visited the European Marine Energy Centre at Kirkwall Harbour

May 26th - William and Catherine were spotted arriving in Fife and enjoying a private meal. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited Blown Away and met representatives of Fife Young Carers. They then visited the University of St Andrews. The Cambridges met fishermen at Pittenween Harbour. William and Catherine a Drive-In Cinema for the premiere of Disney’s Cruella

May 27th - The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited Starbank Park. Next, they visited Craiglockhart Leisure and Tennis Centre. The Cambridges received the Rt Hon Gordon Brown and Mrs Brown. Catherine also received Lynda and Mila Sneddon. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended the Closing Sederunt of the General Assembly, before they attended Beating Retreat

May 29th - Kensington Palace shared a photo of the Duchess of Cambridge receiving her first Covid-19 vaccine

May 31st - Kensington Palace released audio of the Duchess of Cambridge speaking to Hold Still finalists, Jason Baird

[tinyshe]

The Mad Gardener's Song - Lewis Carroll 

He thought he saw an Elephant,

That practiced on a fife:

He looked again, and found it was

A letter from his wife. 'At length I realize,' he said,

The bitterness of Life!'

He thought he saw a Buffalo

Upon the chimney-piece:

He looked again, and found it was

His Sister's Husband's Niece.

'Unless you leave this house,' he said, "I'll send for the Police!'

He thought he saw a Rattlesnake

That questioned him in Greek:

He looked again, and found it was

The Middle of Next Week.

'The one thing I regret,' he said, 'Is that it cannot speak!'

He thought he saw a Banker's Clerk

Descending from the bus:

He looked again, and found it was A Hippopotamus.

'If this should stay to dine,' he said,

'There won't be much for us!'

He thought he saw a Kangaroo

That worked a coffee-mill:

He looked again, and found it was A Vegetable-Pill.

'Were I to swallow this,' he said,

'I should be very ill!'

He thought he saw a Coach-and-Four

That stood beside his bed:

He looked again, and found it was

A Bear without a Head.

'Poor thing,' he said, 'poor silly thing!

It's waiting to be fed!'

He thought he saw an Albatross

That fluttered round the lamp:

He looked again, and found it was A Penny-Postage Stamp.

'You'd best be getting home,' he said: 'The nights are very damp!'

He thought he saw a Garden-Door

That opened with a key:

He looked again, and found it was A Double Rule of Three:

'And all its mystery,' he said, 'Is clear as day to me!'

He thought he saw a Argument

That proved he was the Pope:

He looked again, and found it was

A Bar of Mottled Soap.

'A fact so dread,' he faintly said,

'Extinguishes all hope!'

[citymaus]

“When activist Carroll Fife choreographed homeless mothers and their kids taking over an empty house in West Oakland to spotlight the city’s housing crisis, it drew international coverage.

Now, Fife, the mastermind behind Moms 4 Housing, has unseated two-term City Council incumbent Lynette Gibson McElhaney in a stunning victory in District Three. The race—one of the most hotly contested among the five seats up for grabs on the council—is for a district that includes West Oakland, Downtown, Uptown, Jack London, Pill Hill, Lake Merritt,  and the Port of Oakland.

Fife’s win signals a shift to a more progressive electorate in Oakland. Her campaign centered on the idea that “housing is a human right” and that public safety should be reimagined — a nod to Oaklanders’ shifting priorities amid a growing homelessness crisis and a racial reckoning over police brutality.

Fife was one of the lead organizers behind Moms 4 Housing, a collective that began when homeless mothers took over a speculator-owned house on Magnolia Street in West Oakland in November 2019. The incumbent, McElhaney, was the first Black woman to be elected president of the City Council by her colleagues in 2015 and has a background in affordable housing but was seen as generally more moderate than Fife.”

carroll fife (left) defeated incumbent lynette gibson mcelhaney (right).

How did your two decades of activism inform your approach to your city council run?

“For years, people asked me to run for office but I said it wasn’t my jam; I thought we could be more impactful working on the outside. But we kept running into roadblocks that made me consider what could be possible if we’d have more progressive legislators at the local level.

As the director of Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, I’ve always had to listen to the people closest to the pain so I knew there was huge dissatisfaction in the city, especially among Black people who have been let down by the mayor and neoliberal politicians.”

What skills do you bring to Oakland City Hall, and what skills do you hope to develop during your tenure?

“People say I can’t legislate because I’m an activist, but it’s been my job to legislate on an everyday basis. We’ve organized to get speed bumps to stop people doing donuts up and down the streets. I serve constituents everyday. Now I’m just expanding the way we do that and have to institutionalize the process.

The fact that I already listen to the people is critical and a skill that I wish the incumbent would have exercised: really listening to them about what’s happening. I’m also not beholden to any special interests like the police union or predatory landlords.”

sharena thomas, left, carroll fife, center, dominique walker, second from right, and tolani king, right, stand outside the speculator-owned house in west oakland on 30 december. photograph: kate wolffe

What are your priorities for your constituents?

“I have a whole spreadsheet of issues I want to address. I want to support our small businesses in this pandemic and sustain our local economy in this uncharted territory. I want these businesses to be resilient in this city and continue to contribute to the culture of Oakland.

I also want to divert police funding to a fund or somewhere that can keep our city afloat. It’s problematic that every other public sector is seeing cuts except police. Our fire department has a crumbling infrastructure that affects them saving lives while our police aren’t held accountable for taking lives.

I’m also on a permanent quest to make housing a human right at the local and state level. We need to do something about the people who are perpetually homeless and use every bit of resources we have. It’s unconscionable that we have children in encampments that aren’t even fit for animals and we lose a little bit of our humanity each day we let these conditions exist.”

read more: guardian, 12.11.2020. and sfchronicle, 09.11.2020.

[intoxicatingimmediacy]

Roxie Theater | On Feb 23, we are partnering with @RafaelCasal to raise some money for ACCE @CalOrganize, the non profit central to the #moms4housing movement. @DaveedDiggs, Casal and ACCE's Carroll Fife will be here for a talk after the screening of BLINDSPOTTING! 

[disillusioned41]

Democracy Now! Jan 14, 2020

Moms 4 Housing: Meet the Oakland Mothers Facing Eviction After Two Months Occupying Vacant House

In Oakland, California, a group of mothers fighting homelessness is waging a battle against real estate speculators and demanding permanent solutions to the Bay Area housing crisis by occupying a vacant house with their children. The struggle began in November, when working mothers in West Oakland moved into 2928 Magnolia Street, a vacant house owned by real estate investment firm Wedgewood Properties. The firm tried to evict them, claiming they were illegally squatting on private property, but the mothers went to court and filed a “right to possession” claim, saying housing is a human right. Their name is Moms 4 Housing. The battle for the house came to a head last week when an Alameda County judge ruled in favor of Wedgewood Properties and ordered the mothers to vacate the house. But Moms 4 Housing has stayed to fight eviction. Monday night, hundreds of protesters gathered at the house after receiving a tip that the Sheriff’s Office was coming to evict the families — a show of support that led the sheriff to abandon the eviction attempt. We speak with Carroll Fife, director of the Oakland office for the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, and Dominique Walker, a member of Moms 4 Housing who has been living at the house with her family. Our interview was interrupted by news of another possible eviction attempt.