#mixed with an anti-troll protest

[pourablecat]

Always wanted to draw Vimes stumbling among a parade of dwarfs. No context, as always.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Trumps of the Tropics: Brazil’s Far Right Plots Its Return

As president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro was often called the Trump of the Tropics, an association the Bolsonaro family actively cultivated. From the moment he was elected in 2018, he loudly celebrated the United States — in his first year in office, he even saluted the U.S. flag — but he saved his most intense loyalty for one American. When he met President Trump at the United Nations in 2019, he told him: “I love you.”

Before assuming power, Bolsonaro was an anti-democratic ideologue and former military man with a decades-long career in politics; Trump was a real estate developer and a media personality. But over the six years that Bolsonaro drove the news cycles in Latin America’s largest nation, he gave journalists a long list of reasons to equate the two men. Both made a show of praising authoritarian leaders, past and present, and liked to style themselves as defenders of law and order while acting as if the rules didn’t apply to them. Both formed an alliance with the religious right late in their careers and enlisted their sons to help push their respective agendas. Both frequently took to Twitter to attack their enemies, troll traditional media and rile up their supporters. And both retreated to Florida when things got tough.

For decades, the Brazilian right had looked to the United States, and when Donald Trump began to transform the rules of political discourse, it took note. “We learned to have the courage to speak up,” says Damares Alves, an evangelical pastor who served as Bolsonaro’s minister of human rights, families and women. “We began to be more incisive on the question of abortion. We learned we could be more direct about the question of arming the population. We realized we could take a tougher stand against the left-wing transformation taking place across our continent.”

As president, Bolsonaro seemed eager to import as much of the MAGA movement to Brazil as possible. So when Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to protest a “stolen” election, many Brazilians worried that Bolsonaro supporters might try something similar. That’s exactly what happened. On Jan. 1, 2023, when Bolsonaro’s opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, leader of the left-wing Workers’ Party, took office, Bolsonaro skipped the ceremony, holing up instead in the Orlando suburbs, at the home of a mixed-martial-arts fighter. For weeks, Bolsonaristas had been camping out around the country, under banners calling for an “intervention.” In an echo of Jan. 6, they chose Jan. 8 to occupy and attack government buildings in the capital, Brasília, even though the transition had already taken place and the buildings were largely empty. Military police officers arrested more than 1,000 people, and Lula quickly reasserted control of the country.

Bolsonaro, like Trump, now faces a host of criminal charges for trying to impede democratic elections. Trump has been convicted in one case, but only Bolsonaro has been deemed ineligible to run for president. In June 2023, Brazil’s electoral court ruled that his attacks on the voting system disqualified him from running for any political office until 2030. He is now facing hundreds of other court cases. In February of this year, authorities confiscated his passport after arresting several former aides accused of plotting a coup, making another escape to Florida impossible. Bolsonaro took refuge for two nights in the Hungarian Embassy in São Paulo, perhaps hoping to leverage his relationship with Prime Minister Viktor Orban (one of many friends he shares with Trump) if flight became necessary.

While Bolsonaro is barred from the political arena — at least for now — the movement that he unleashed is very much alive. Bolsonaristasdid well in the election that he lost, demonstrating that the movement was bigger than the man, and they now have real power at federal and state levels. Because congressional politics in Brazil are byzantine — there are 23 parties in Congress, and members can shift allegiances quickly — it would be difficult for Lula to govern even if Bolsonaro’s right-wing Liberal Party were not the largest party in the legislature. As things stand, the Bolsonaristas routinely complicate things for Lula, as they try to pull the country back to the far right.

In 2023, Bolsonaro’s allies began working to create a kind of Bolsonarismo sem Bolsonaro, or Bolsonaro-style politics without Bolsonaro. In interviews in the capital late last year, a rough philosophical and tactical division emerged. One group wants to show that it is moderating its positions and committed to responsibly governing the country; another is doubling down on the kind of fiery rhetoric that drives engagement online and reproduces tropes familiar to observers of right-wing media in the United States.

Continue reading.

[mywifeleftme]

153: David Peel & The Lower East Side // The Pope Smokes Dope

The Pope Smokes Dope David Peel & The Lower East Side 1972, Elektra

There’s little point in my trying to explain the significance of David Peel when Jeffrey Lewis’s “The Complete History of Punk Rock and Its Development on the Lower East Side, 1950 to 1975” exists. Give that a watch and let Lewis walk you from Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music to Richard Hell’s “Blank Generation�� in 8:23. Around 3:40 and 4:50 in the medley Peel shows up, credited by Lewis as the innovator of what we now as recognize as the sound of electric punk with the song “Lower East Side” from his 1970 album The American Revolution.

The ‘60s were a wild time. Peel was a Puerto Rican-American street musician who would holler pro-weed, anti-war songs on the sidewalk while banging on an acoustic guitar—so of course he ended up signed to Elektra Records. A few years later John literal Lennon took a shine to him and signed him to the Beatles’ Apple Records, co-producing his third LP The Pope Smokes Dope with Yoko Ono. Despite Lennon and Ono’s involvement, Pope sounds just like Peel’s first two records: a couple of freak folk / proto-punk raveups; some Country Joe & The Fish-esque musical skits (including a long bit on the variable uses of the word ‘Fuck’ that anticipates some highly-forwarded emails from the Web 1.0 era); and his usual ‘legalize it!’ protest tunes. New to the mix are a few gaptoothed odes to his heroes, the best of which is the adorably capering “The Ballad of New York City/John Lennon • Yoko Ono,” which sounds like a song the Trash Can Man would write for Randall Flagg after being given a high-rise condominium to burn down.

Even as he condenses decades of musical development into a few minutes, Lewis takes the time to point out that Peel was a prototypical hippie as much or more than he was a punk, and half of the songs on any given Peel album are not good. That holds true for The Pope Smokes Dope, which delights in using a spoon to fling baby food at The Man but gets at least as much goop on itself. Your mileage with this will vary based on your tolerance for hippie culture as a whole, but to me it’s redeemed by the fact that Peel is very clearly the sort of hippie who wasn’t going to cut his hair and become a realtor. It helps too that the album very successfully pissed off a broad coalition of the sorts of people you want to see pissed off, trolling having once been the proper province of the left wing rather than the right.

153/365

[cyarsk52-20]

When these songs were played on the radio, we shook with dread. Here’s the songs that we wished we could unlisten

p.s: toxic gossip train by colleen ballinger aka Miranda sings isn’t included because it’s basically another tone deaf YouTube influencer/celebrity apology video except it’s a lot worse than the typical influencer apology videos and thats saying something . Unfortunately there’s also no dishonorable mentions on this list but songs like lil mabu “mathematical disrespect “, Morgan wallen “last night “ , the steve aoki remix of The Beach Boys classic “fun , fun , fun “, and any song from Tom Macdonald and Adam Calhoun collab album “the brave 2” among others have received mixed to negative reviews (although some of the songs that have been featured on hated songs lists have also garnered positive reviews as well in this case with Morgan wallen)

btw, if you enjoy any of these songs more power to you, everyone’s got their own opinion and taste of music and that’s fine.

what song did you love this year?

Variety

Plus Icon

Gen AI in Film & TV >

Subscribe|

Log in 

HOME

MUSIC

NEWS

Dec 22, 2023 8:25am PT

The Worst Songs of 2023

By 

Chris Willman, Steven J. Horowitz

Awfulness in music came in so many forms in 2023. Nothing makes for a good annus horribilis like songs that promote xenophobia, racism or just overall divisiveness in the interest of trolling — so here’s a round of Fudge Rounds for strange bedfellows like Jason Aldean and Kanye West. But it’s understandable if you might think that the real scourge of the last year was the plague of songs built on lazy interpolations, which manage to ruin perfectly fine oldies as well as introduce fresh rottenness into the world. We’re looking at you, David Guetta, Jason Derulo, et al. 

Is there anything much worse than a remake no one wanted — see 2023’s prime offenders, Fall Out Boy? How about the phenomenon of bad self-remakes… hello, Roger Waters? Duets Mixing sex, drugs and race into a questionable cocktail landed the combination of Travis Scott and the Weeknd on our list. Meanwhile, all due credit is due when someone seems to be inventing a brand new subgenre of cringe as effectively as Meghan Trainor does on the unfortunately unforgettable “Mother.”

Here’s a 20-song sampling of the misbegotten tracks from this past year that most made our ears bleed, or our spirits, or both.

1

'Try That in a Small Town,' Jason Aldean

Aka “Try That in a Sundown Town.” This was a year when other country stars were making huge crossover strides, inviting curious new fans and even international markets to check out the genre. And what was Aldean’s contribution to that welcoming wave? Releasing a hostile anthem of proud xenophobia that basically amounted to putting up a “Stay the hell away… or else” sign. His defense of the song was that no one could be against the violent crime described in some of the lyrics, but these words — which sound like they were assembled in random order in a five-minute writers’ room session — weren’t nearly coherent enough for anyone to definitively state what the song is against, besides the big city. Legitimate protests were conflated with carjacking, both meriting a vigilante beatdown. (Also the epitome of big-city life: “cussing out a cop”… something that has never, ever happened outside a small-town bar, we’re certain.) As far as setting the music video in a historically well-known lynching setting, let’s be generous and give Aldean credit for not knowing about that sinister history before he shot the ominous visuals there. We could even give him credit for proabably not being consciously aware of how much the lyrics echoed the anti-civil-rights threats made in small towns in the ’60s. Now, imagine if we could just give him credit for something greater, like being a country music uniter instead of divider. Or just picking less hacky songs. —Willman

2

'Vultures,' Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign featuring Bump J

“How am I antisemitic? I just fucked a Jewish bitch.” Enough said. —Horowitz

3

'We Didn’t Start the Fire,' Fall Out Boy

Imagine the brainstorming session behind Fall Out Boy’s rewrite of the 1989 “classic.” “Let’s remake a Billy Joel song! Our fans are clamoring for it.” “Great! What’s one of his most beloved songs?” “Too easy. Let’s go for the one universally considered most annoying — not only in his catalog, but maybe of the 20th century.” “Awesome idea. But should we update the lyrics?” “Of course, but only if we put everything in completely random, non-chronological order, unlike the original. Our only criteria should be to make the juxtapositions as jarring as possible.” “Cool — I was thinking ‘Afghanistan’ next to ‘Cubs.’ Hey, what rhymes with ‘John Bobbitt’? Did ‘The Hobbit’ get published after ‘89?” “Just make it ‘Bobbitt, John.’” “But we do need to maintain a rhyme scheme through the whole thing, right?” [Dirty looks are exchanged as the clock shows 12 minutes of studio time remaining.] —Willman

4

'Baby Don’t Hurt Me,' David Guetta, Anne-Marie and Coi Leray

We’ve apparently come to the age in time where sampling tracks from the 1990s — or even the early aughts — has become de facto, encouraged even. And it was a perennial stitch in 2023’s side. Sampling in and of itself is an art form, and when done effectively, it can transform the master track into something new and inspired (see: Beyoncé’s “Renaissance”). Which isn’t the case for David Guetta’s “Baby Don’t Hurt Me,” an empty rehash of Haddaway’s 1993 club smash “What is Love.” “Baby Don’t Hurt Me” feels stiff and sapped of vitality, a recreation of a classic without intent. Guetta has had a decades-long career translating the sound of the club into something more palatable for top 40 listeners, and this signals a misstep. —Horowitz

5

'Money,' Roger Waters

I’m not even one of the people that thought it was inherently a bad idea for Waters to remake the entirety of Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon” album as a solo effort, with subdued instrumentation and mostly whispered vocals. It’s… interesting. And “interesting” counts for at least a little when it comes to what mostly set-in-their-ways classic rockers are up to in 2023. But, that said, there’s something deeply perverse about doing a remake of one of the most-loved songs in the 1970s rock canon, cutting out the instrumental solos, and replacing David Gilmour’s contribution in the middle of the tune with a four-minute poem about… boxing. Well, not really about boxing, I’m sure, but I haven’t summoned the will to parse the actual metaphorical meaning of muttered lines like “Through toad lids he squints his vision of the world.” If you’re looking for positive assessments of this bizarre re-do, it’s no surprise that they’re giving none away. —Willman

6

'Mind Your Business,' Will.i.am and Britney Spears

Listeners were quick to call Will.i.am’s bluff on “Mind Your Business” as a collaboration with Britney Spears that was scooped off the cutting room floor. And wouldn’t you know, it was. The Britney Army has long been skeptical of the Black Eyed Peas frontman, namely for his contributions to the underwhelming “Britney Jean,” and while prior collaborations including “Scream & Shout” and “Big Fat Bass” generally escaped the pitchfork’s pointy end, “Mind Your Business” took the brunt full-on. There’s nothing original happening here, and the canned synthesizers suggest that Will.i.am’s musical sensibilities are stuck in 2009. (Or, 2000 and late, if it were.) Where Spears’ duet with Elton John on “Hold Me Closer” felt tasteful (even if it plays like marketing as music), the release and sound of “Mind Your Business” couldn’t have been more poorly timed. Clearly, with Spears fresh out of a conservatorship, the last thing she needed was to revisit blunders of the past. —Horowitz

7

'Vulgar,' Sam Smith and Madonna

One of the reasons that Sam Smith’s 2023 album ‘Gloria’ so effectively resonated is because it positioned the singer as a star reborn anew, confidently embracing their sexuality in a pop arena that’s rarely accepting of such liberating queerness. “Vulgar,” their one-off collaboration with Madonna timed specifically to Pride month, flung that notion off the deep end. An overt bid to cater to ball culture, the track sees Sam and Madonna (get it? S&M?) settling beneath their artistic integrity, with production that sounds like a ‘Drag Race’ runoff and a severe lack of performative dynamism. Those seeking a melody will come up empty-handed by the song’s end, left with mere hollow, iconoclastic boasts with little to justify it. —Horowitz

8

'Rich Men North of Richmond,' Oliver Anthony Music

He came so close — so close! — to being able to claim an anthem for a working-class generation that just about everyone could claim some sympathy for. The non-specificity of most of the lyrics could have led it to be embraced by both right and left, even if they didn’t agree on which Washington fat cats or which money-wasting government policies he was protesting. But then he had to go and punch down… and despite his disavowals, there’s no other way to read the “5’3″ and 300 pounds,” except as some kind of right-wing editorial-cartoon caricature of welfare recipients. Victim-blaming? Oh, fudge. —Willman

9

'Search & Rescue,' Drake

Credit goes to Drake for his ability to maintain his chokehold on music this far into his career. His eighth album “For All the Dogs” arrived in October as an overblown compendium of songs that feature Drake being Drake, with largely strong returns (at least, according to his devoted fan base). But he warmed up audiences with one of his snooziest attempts to date in April with “Search & Rescue,” a song that’s by no means offensive but feels like a half-attempt. Drake is at his best when he actualizes a thought in its entirety, and “Search & Rescue” scans as shapeless, something akin to a stream-of-thought freestyle that escaped the studio. Woe-is-me Drake is often when he glimmers brightest, and yet his yearning for a partner to meet him eye-to-eye lands uninspired. —Horowitz

10

'I Won’t Back Down,' Lara Trump

One of the more tertiary of the Trumps offers a “Come and get me, coppers!” cover of one of Tom Petty’s greatest songs, practically daring the Petty estate to try to take it down, after the heirs’ previous public disapproval of her dad-in-law using it at rallies. Instead, it met the fate met by most amateur crooners using a cover to try to break into the biz: invisibility. Maybe we could recommend some other selections from the ex-president’s rally playlists for Lara to try her hand at, like “YMCA,” as long as she’s not backing down from a music career. —Willman

11

'Mother,' Meghan Trainor

Meghan Trainor has had nine lives in the pop industry, and rightfully so. Since she hit it big with “All About That Bass” in 2014, she’s consistently defied the odds by doing what she does best: crafting unshakeable pop songs that break through whatever noise surrounds her. Last year, she did it yet again with “Made You Look” on the back of a TikTok trend that found crossover ubiquity. But lightning rarely strikes twice in a row these days in pop music and “Mother” couldn’t touch down. In a year of songs bursting with samples, “Mother” rebuilds The Chordettes’ “Mr. Sandman” as a double entendre, referencing her literal motherhood and the more colloquial definition of being “mother.” What results is a schticky putdown of overzealous men that weirdly crams “mansplaining” into the chorus. “Mother” slots musically into her discography, but it’s simply unforgivable to use the “bum bum bum” sample to refer to someone as a bum. 

12

'Boycott Target,' Forgiato Blow and Jimmy Levi

It’s a hip-hop song that comes Marjorie Taylor Greene-endorsed, so you know it’s gotta be good. Forgiato Blow, a self-described “MAGA rapper,” went into an actual Target store to shoot the video for this proudly homophobic and transphobic protest song, which rails against the chain “targeting your kids.” And as evidence that Target is going after children, the video shows the rapper brandishing Bud Light and champagne with a rainbow label, two products obviously aimed at tykes. “We need а clean-up on every aisle / Inside this storе Satan resides / Wash it with the blоod of Christ… / God is coming for revenge,” they rap. At least they resisted the temptation to portray blood flowing through the beer section, but there’s probably only so much you can accomplish in a five-minute rogue video shoot. —Willman

13

'Hands on Me,' Jason Derulo featuring Meghan Trainor

The interpolation craze may have hit rock-bottom with this soul-destroying adaptation of Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me”… which, take it from me, could ruin your appreciation of that classic oldie forever. (Do not click on the video, above. You’ve been warned. We place it there only in the hope that, like “The Grudge,” the curse can be passed on.) Surely whoever owns the publishing for this 1961 Lee/Leiber/Stoller composition violated some federal law by allowing this desecration. If not, now is the time for Congress to act to avoid similar tragic violence in the future. As much as the musical arrangement packs a kind of bubblegum it’s hard to imagine anyone over the age of 9 cottoning to, the lyrics are right out of an old-school porn scenario: Derulo tells his foxy neighbor she can come over to borrow some sugar any time, so she comes over dressed in a robe, which, according to his reportage, she drops as soon as she’s in the front door. “I won’t be afraid,” Derulo sings, in the only line left over from “Stand by Me,” but anyone exposed to this veritable horror movie should be afraid… very afraid. —Willman

14

'My Body,' Coi Leray

This isn’t a knock on Coi Leray as an artist whatsoever. In fact, over the past few years, the Grammy-nominated artist emerged as one of the most promising young emcees with her punctual rhymes and fluid ability to toggle between a rap-sung cadence. But the buck stops at “My Body,” a single included on her 2023 album “Coi” that crassly samples Leslie Gore’s classic “It’s My Party.” On it, she transforms the naïveté of the source material into an exercise in self-aggrandizement: “It’s my body, I could fuck who I want to / It’s nothin’ new, you just mad it ain’t you.” Where rappers of yesteryear have mutated big band songs into fresh takes—Missy Elliott’s “Big Spender” comes to mind—“My Body” feels like a stumble, one that leans on nostalgia without offering anything of value. —Horowitz

15

'K-POP,' Travis Scott featuring Bad Bunny and the Weeknd

This counts as a bit of a troll — tricking some music fans and search engines into thinking the song is a salute to Korean pop when it’s really about the seductive effects of the ketamine lollipops pictured in the single art and video and loosely described in the lyrics. When Scott and his guests put this out back in July, it was many months before ketamine became most famous for apparently killing off one of television’s most beloved stars, so maybe the pro-drug stance of “K-POP” shouldn’t be judged by December 2023 standards. Still, if you were thinking it’s possible to make a good song about the drug, this wasn’t it, marking a low point on a Scott album that was otherwise pretty well-received. Naturally, the Weeknd’s guest verse had all the quotably decadent lines you’d expect (“We gon’ fuck till we seasick,” etc.). And he was the one who brought race into it: “Even though she Korean / Get her wet like tsunami.” There’s no double-entendre like the kind where all the entendres are equally risible. —Willman

16

'Cinderella Snapped,' Jax

Where to begin. Jax may not be a household name, but listeners may recognize her as a third-place finisher on “American Idol” or, later, a TikTok star. While she’s been releasing music for years, she hit her mainstream stride last year after “Victoria’s Secret,” a body-positivity anthem that took the lingerie company to task, became her first single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The from-the-hip lyrics resonated with fans seeking a takedown of the impossible cultural standards imposed on women. But on her follow-up, “Cinderella Snapped,” Jax invokes Disney princesses and reimagines their storylines to cringy effect. “Rapunzel shaved their head so there was nothin’ to climb on / Jasmine made out with Mulan / Sleeping Beauty sued the dude who kissed her while she was asleep / And Ariel was confident without any feet,” she sings. It trudges on from there. Fantasy is nothing new to pop music, but attempting a rewrite of the entire Disney oeuvre to shoehorn unintended narratives feels antithetical to the magic of what made those stories so endearing in the first place. Sure, the intention here feels genuine, but the execution is farcical at best. —Horowitz

17

'Alone,' Kim Petras featuring Nicki Minaj

What was poised to be Kim Petras’ solo breakthrough following the runaway success of “Unholy,” her collaboration with Sam Smith, ended up fizzling upon arrival. Billed as her “debut album” (despite the fact that she has numerous “debut albums” on her resume), ‘Feed the Beast’ felt less like the glossy risk-taking fare that largely drives her discography and more like a thin, conventional bid for mainstream crossover. There are certainly bright spots on the album—“Uh Oh” and “Revelations” rightfully earned spots in the Petras hall of fame—but it was with the lead single “Alone” featuring Nicki Minaj that the momentum slowed to a crawl. Mining from a sample of Alice Deejay’s classic ‘90s club banger “Better Off Alone,” the single strips away the urgency of the original, cutting the pace nearly in half for a trudge of a single that could very well have tickled fans’ desires. Much of its detriment is due to the inversion of pace from verse to chorus: The drums pitter patter across the former, only to cut out as Petras hits her vocal stride on the latter. Remixes of “Alone” tried to course-correct, but the damage had already been done. —Horowitz

18

'Chevrolet,' Dustin Lynch featuring Jelly Roll

Speaking of Chevys — as Oliver Anthony was, earlier in this list — Lynch sings an ode to the brand with “Chevrolet,” which is set to a full-length interpolation of the Dobey Gray classic “Drift Away.” (Or should we say the Uncle Kracker classic “Drift Away”? Snce that 2002 cover is the likelier place for Lynch to have picked it up.) This song seems like it was crafted solely to get adopted by the carmaker itself for an ad campaign, the way that Applebee’s adopted Walker Hayes’ anthem after the fact. But the lyrics don’t exactly represent a realistic scenario. Lynch is trying to seduce a woman in a bar, and she’s telling him she wants to go get down in his Chevy, but since they just met, you’re thinking: Really? Bragging “I have a Malibu parked out back” was one of your pickup lines? Also, since the music is lifted entirely from “Drift Away,” did it really take three Nashville songwriters just to come up with lyrics so terrible you’d think not even one of them would want credit? —Willman

19

'Justice for All,' Donald Trump and the J6 Prison Choir

There’s a perception that you’d have to look to hip-hop to find as many felons or possible soon-to-be-felons gathered on one track, so thanks are due to the former president and the insurrectionists behind bars on his behalf for correcting that. —Willman

20

'I Wanna Be Software,' Grimes

Artificial intelligence became a prominent talking point in popular music over the past year, namely due to producer Ghostwriter gaining traction with an AI-generated track featuring mimetic vocals from Drake and The Weeknd. Grimes was just one musician quick to fall in line with the growing trend, encouraging musicians to use AI to resemble her voice on a track of their creation in exchange for a share of the profits. She took it one step further with “I Wanna Be Software,” and oh, how far we’ve strayed from the light. Where Grimes has built a career retrofitting experimental turns in electronic music into a pop format, she goes quite literal on “Software,” a computer glitch of a song that ambles as much as it wobbles. Over production that could very well be a Garage Band preset, she sing-raps about, you know, wanting to be software. “You can write me, you can design,” she deadpans. If only she’d put as much effort into the track itself. — Horowitz

Read More About:

Best of 2023,

Jason Aldean,

Kanye West,

Oliver Anthony,

Roger Waters

Sent from my iPhone

[puttingherinhistory]

“PORTLAND, Oregon—Outfitted in a flak jacket and fighting gloves, Enrique Tarrio was one of dozens of black, Latino, and Asian men who marched alongside white supremacists in Portland on Aug. 4.

Tarrio, who identifies as Afro-Cuban, is president of the Miami chapter of the Proud Boys, who call themselves “Western chauvinists,” and “regularly spout white-nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Last month, prior to the Patriot Prayer rally he attended in Portland, Tarrio was pictured with other far-right activists making a hand sign that started as a hoax but has become an in-joke. Last year, Tarrio said traveled to Charlottesville, Virginia, for the Unite the Right rally that ended with a neo-Nazi allegedly killing an anti-fascist protester. (The Proud Boys said any members who went to the event were kicked out.)

Tarrio and other people of color at the far-right rallies claim institutional racism no longer exists in America. In their view, blacks are to blame for any lingering inequality because they are dependent on welfare, lack strong leadership, and believe Democrats who tell them “You’re always going to be broke. You’re not going to make it in society because of institutional racism,” as one mixed-race man put it. 

If racism doesn’t exist, I ask Tarrio, how would he explain the disproportionate killing of young black men by police? “Hip-hop culture,” he says. It “glorifies that lifestyle… of selling drugs, shooting up.” Because of that, “Obviously you’re going to have higher crime rates. Obviously you’re going to have more police presence and more confrontations.” (Police kill black males aged 15 to 34 at nine times the rate of the general population.) 

Elysa Sanchez, who is black and Puerto Rican, attended the “Liberty or Death Rally Against Left-Wing Violence” in Seattle on Aug. 18, joining about 20 militiamen open-carrying handguns and semi-automatic rifles. 

Sanchez says, “If black people are committing more murders, more robberies, more thefts, more violent crime, that’s why you would see more black men having encounters with the police.” 

Also in Seattle, Franky Price, who said he is  “black and white,”wore a T-shirt reading, “It’s okay to be white.” 

They are among nearly a dozen black, Latino, and Asian participants at far-right rallies on the West Coast interviewed by The Daily Beast recently. They represent the new face of the far right that some scholars term “multiracial white supremacy.” 

The Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer, which overlap, embrace an America-first nationalism that is less pro-white than it is anti-Muslim, anti-illegal immigrant, and anti-Black Lives Matter. “Proud Boys is multi-racial fraternity with thousands of members worldwide,” a lawyer for the group’s leader, Gavin McInnis, said in a statement. “The only requirements for membership are that a person must be biologically male and believe that the West is the best.” 

Daniel Martinez HoSang, associate professor at Yale University, co-author of the forthcoming Producers, Parasites, Patriots: Race and the New Right-Wing Politics of Precarity, says “Multiculturalism has become a norm in society” and has spread from corporations and consumer culture to conservatism and the far-right. 

Indeed, Patriot Prayer’s leader is Joey Gibson, who is half-Japanese and claims Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as a hero. But his agenda is the opposite of King’s. Gibson’s rallies have attracted neo-Confederates and neo-Nazis. 

His right-hand man is Tusitala “Tiny” Toese, a 345-pound Samoan American who calls himself “a brown brother for Donald Trump” and is notorious for brawling. By bringing diversity to what is at heart a white-supremacist movement, people of color give it legitimacy to challenge state power and commit violence against their enemies. 

David Neiwert, author of Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump, says, “The ranks of people of color who show up to these right-wing events are totally dominated by males.” He says the alt-right targets white males between the ages of 15 and 30 with a message of male resentment, which ends up attracting black, Latino, and Asian men as well.

Neiwert says many young men of color in the far-right grew up on conservative traditions common in minority communities. Their journey to the far-right has been enabled by the ease of recruitment in the internet age and the endorsement of extremism by Trump. 

Entry points to the far-right include male-dominated video-game culture, the anti-feminist gamergate, troll havens on 4chan and 8chan, and the conspiracism that flourishes on websites like Infowars. Libertarianism is another gateway. 

“A lot of these young guys,” Neiwert says, “especially from the software world, who are being sucked into white nationalism, start out being worked up about Ayn Rand in high school.” 

Andrew Zhao, 25, a software engineer, says his parents, physicists who emigrated from mainland China, “are Trump fans.” He found out about the Seattle rally from Reddit and Facebook and said, “We need more patriotism. A lot of liberals don’t like America.” 

Daniel HoSang says some people of color are drawn to the far-right because they “identify with the military, with nationalism, with patriotism, with conservatism.” 

Wearing a Proud Boys hat, David Nopal, 23, came to the Seattle rally alone, like others. Nopal, whose parents crossed illegally from Mexico, said, “I’m very patriotic. The U.S. isn’t perfect, but we are a hell of a lot better than other countries.” 

Sanchez comes from a military family. “They all love America. It’s a big part of the reason I’m a patriot.” 

Similarly, Tarrio attributes his anti-socialist politics to his grandfather’s experience in Cuba under Fidel Castro. 

They proudly identify as “American” without modifiers. In their America they’ve never experienced racism. They eagerly talk politics, but evidence of their America is scant beyond the internet. Institutional racism has been ended by affirmative action, “black privilege,” and equal protection under the law. Any remaining black inequality is caused by social welfare and liberal policies. In any case, it was Democrats who started the Klan. 

People of color within the far-right play a role that “excuses white racism and bears witness to the failure of people of color,” HoSang says, adding that they make “white supremacy a more durable force.” 

HoSang said the far-right is trying to broaden its appeal from a whites-only movement in a multiracial America, so it is “laying claim to the ideas of anti-racism, racial uplift, and civil-rights progress.” 

HoSang says, “It’s hard for people to wrap their head around how Dr. King and civil-rights language are being used to legitimate positions approaching fascism and violence to restore hierarchy and order. But they are.”

[stellarcat52]

Timeless Blue Chapter Two

Okay so apparently I’m just gonna add this little bit to every chapter as a little authors note. So chapter two is here, and as I stop caring about what canonically is happening in whatever scene in writing, the more the style will reflect my normal writing style. On that note, does anyone care how much I deviate from the canon? Like change potentially important plot details aside? Cause uh... yeah I don’t have the greatest impulse control and might mix this with another Au I had in mind. Either way, I hope you enjoy.

Krel, Douxie, Claire, and a crystallized Jim free fall through the rift. Thanks to Douxie’s anti-gravity spells, no lasting damage aside from a crack in Jim’s crystalline savior was dealt.

Krel landed behind Douxie and beside Palchuck, barely being missed by Jim falling from the trees above a moment later.

“What happened?” Steve groaned from under Jim.

“Well,” Douxie started, “I just conjured and anti-gravity spell to slow our fall and keep us from dying. You’re welcome.”

“Douxie? Where is the flying castle?”

“Oh fuzz buckets.”

Knights in metal armor surround them, shouting and communicated within their own ranks.

“This means, we’re lost in time.”

“Time?! I know the geezer said the answers were in the past but time travel shouldn’t be technologically possible for any species yet!”

“What manor of sorcery is this?” A mounted knight demands.

Douxie reaches back and grabs Krel’s hand, “Don’t use your serrator, just follow my lead.” He whispers to the Akiridion, the message being conveyed to the other two as well. However, Steve freaking out did not help their case.

Douxie and Krel look up to see the Knight had taken off his helmet. “Sir Lancelot, um...”

“He’s so handsome..” Steve said, earning a questioning look from Krel and Claire before a sword was pointed at them.

“Wait! Aren’t you Merlin’s errand boy?” Lancelot’s sword crept closer to Douxie’s neck. “I hope you can explain why you are associating with a troll.” Lancelot points to Krel with his blade.

“Hey!”

“Apprentice, first of all, and Krel is not a troll.”

“He’s like an angel man.” Steve daydreams, leaning a little too much on Jim’s encasement. The green material shatters, waking him from his life-preserving sleep. “Woah!”

Douxie jumps up and away from Jim, Krel instinctively reaching for his serrator before remembering Douxie’s words.

“The devil-?”

As Lancelot leans back towards Jim, a red and black armored troll arm breaches the air.

“What? How did I-?”

“Jim! Are you okay?”

“Troll! Troll! To arms!”

Jim is met with two very different reactions, a hug from his girlfriend, and multiple swords being pointed at him.

Douxie starts to jump to protect Jim, a blue hand grabs the edge of his shirt too late to stop him. Douxie proceeds to try and convince Lancelot that Jim is a good troll, which is much harder to convince him of than Krel not being a troll at all.

“You will hang before the king for your insolence.”

====

Jim communes with Claire, Douxie, and his very reluctant cage-mate Krel to try and learn what’s going on before the group is brought before the king. Ending with a promise from Douxie that he’d explain everything once everyone was safe.

After a quick reminder to let Douxie handle this, introductions and explanations are due. Thankfully, Steve was more than happy to shut up once Krel reminded him there was no service in the dark ages and that if he said something wrong he wouldn’t be able to say bye to Aja.

“This is Claire of house Nuñez, and Steve of Palchuckia, a village idiot and uh knight in training.” Douxie starts, pointing to each person as he spoke, “and believe it or not, this is Prince Krel from house Tarron of Cantalupia.” Douxie cautiously opened the cage, bringing Krel out and implying Jim should stay there.

“I have not heard of Cantalupia.” Arthur watched every movement Krel made, from every step he took before standing behind Douxie to every subtle nerve driven shift in his weight.

“That’s to be expected. Before now-“ Douxie quickly gets cut off.

“I’ll have this supposed prince explain it to me.” Arthur snapped. “Explain why you are here, Prince Krel of Cantalupia.”

“Alright, well as the errand boy here explained, I am not a troll. I was cursed to appear like this and have been looking for a wizard to remove it. I would like to formerly request permission to stay here alongside my companions.” Krel gestured to Claire, and Steve, who were giving the Akiridion strange wide-eyed glances.

Arthur pointed Excalibur at the sunny patch in the middle of the floor. “Prove you are not a troll first. Step into the sunlight.”

Krel steps forwards, being followed by a pair of not-so-subtle knights every step until he stands in full daylight in front of the king. “I am no troll, or is this not enough to prove to you my story?”

Arthur’s tensions fade, his grip no longer iron on the hilt of Excalibur. “Alright.”

“Now that that is out of the way, I believe this beast deserves an explanation too, errand boy.” Lancelot pulled Jim out of the cage, forcing him to kneel in the shadows where everyone could see him. “He is most definitely not a cursed prince as your friend here seems to be.”

Douxie lets out a hissing breath, clearly not able to explain the troll. Thankfully, Arthur’s immediate rage was not aimed at anyone proven to not be a troll.

“A troll! I thought I made it very clear your kind is not welcome here when I banished you.”

“Don’t you mean betrayed?” Morgana steps out of the shadows, pushing her way into Arthur’s focus. “You gave the woods to enchanted creatures like these, would you break that vow?”

“These beasts care not of my vow. Especially not spies of Gunmar.”

“Stop calling me a beast!” Jim lunged forwards, held back by Lancelot and another knight. “Wait, Gunmar?”

“Uh, your highness,” Douxie coughs, “it’s good to see you again.”

“And who are you?”

“Hisirdoux, Merlin’s apprentice. I assure to you, he,” he gestures to Jim, “is no threat.”

“That is my judgement to make boy.” Arthur thunders.

Morgana lights up her hand, a ball of golden magic wandering as she speaks. “Trolls are born of magic, and you are of blood. How is their nature a crime?”

Krel had seen something like this before, the students standing up for him and Aja when Colonel Kubritz was looking for them in school.

“When they ravage our lands and take our loved ones from us? I made these laws to keep this fragile land together, and they will be abided.” Arthur shouted. “Leave the wood, the penalty is death. Bring this monster to the light.”

As Jim was carried to the light, protesting and claiming he wasn’t a troll, the entire group went to save him. Douxie attempting to reason with Arthur, Krel using his four arms to try and avoid being grabbed as well and prevent Jim from joining him under the sun, Steve starting to rush forwards but being cut off, and Claire protesting as she was grabbed just as quickly.

Everything happened too fast to understand. The shadows crept out of the corners and flooded where the light should be. In the corner of Krel’s eyes, Claire seemed to have blackened sclera until the light was gone, and the future Trollhunter was safe. Arthur, of course, blamed Morgana, who seemed to be the only person who wasn’t from the 21st century to realize it wasn’t her who had done this. Claire defended her boyfriend, claiming his innocence even if he was a troll.

“Evil is not inherited, it does not corrupt one species more than another. Claire is right to believe a troll, despite how evil you believe them, can be good.” The Extraterrestrial spoke.

“That means nothing Prince. This is my kingdom and I shall not fail it. These beasts are still dangerous, we are still at war."

“If you give into your fear, that is failing.”

“The girl and the prince speak truth. Please listen to them brother.”

Krel gives Douxie a questioning look, not seeing the family resemblance. Douxie shrugs, nodding but understanding where Krel was coming from.

“Fine.” Arthur decided. “I will show the troll mercy. He will live... in the dungeon.”

“Jim!” Claire attempts to follow as he is taken to the dungeon, being stopped and comforted by Douxie.

“As for you, Hisirdoux, shouldn’t you be with Merlin?”

“Well, yes, but you see...” Douxie raked his mind for something to say “I was-“

“I apologize, your highness, but Hisirdoux was busy attempting to help me. I have communicated with him and he intends to help me get back into my original body. If it is impossible, I’ll understand, however. While we are here, if I appear human or not, I do believe my friends and I can help with this war that Hisirdoux has mentioned before.” Krel flares at Douxie as this war had not been mentioned before, who in response glares back as the Akiridion had just interrupted him. “In my country, I am known for my intellect, and I do not wish to take from someone without returning something.”

“So in exchange for me helping him and his curse, he, Claire, and Steve, will help us in the war.” Douxie summarized, not entirely sure if Krel is capable of getting his point through with his sudden usage of fancier tongue.

“Alright. Sir Steve will work with the knights, Prince Krel I believe should work with you, Hisirdoux, and as for mistress Claire?”

“I will take her. I’ve been in need of a new handmaiden.” Krel sees the pleas of help and burning anger in Claire’s eyes as Morgana steps up for her.

“Alright. Now go, I have a kingdom to protect.” Arthur ushered them away.

“Okay Krel what was that?” Steve hissed before the separated, the threat of not seeing Aja again still holding its effect. “Last I checked, you didn’t act like a prince much.”

“Theater practice at school.” Claire starts. “Krel has gotten very good at improv.”

“You are in the play?” Steve was astonished.

“Yes, while you have been too busy complaining about Eli and Aja going to Akiridion-5, I was increasing my knowledge on human culture, of the present and the past, or would it be the future and the present.”

“It doesn’t matter. Krel, you did amazing. I was here during this time and I still wasn’t as fast as you to know what to say!”

“Did you just say you were-are here?” Krel asked.

“Oh fuzz buckets.”

The group separates, although partially unwillingly. Steve goes with Sir Lancelot, Claire with Lady Morgana, and Krel with a very nervous Douxie.

Part one Part three

[naughtyxstories]

Hello all, 

This has been an intense week for so many! Is anyone else watching the protests in the United States from another country with a bizarre mix of worry for their safety and well-being and intense pride at the stand being taken by so many? Just me? 

I truly hope that this is the much-needed catalyst for change in the US and in Canada (although Canada has been on this road for a little while already with the recent MMIWG Inquiry with several calls to action - many of them directed at policing [see here if the topic of social justice and anti-racism police reform is of interest to you]). We still have a long road ahead however so I really hope this is the fire that lights the way forward.

On a personal note, this week has been worse than the last. I spend two days in and out of the ER for a brutal eye issue that was excruciatingly painful. Happy to report it is starting to mend now but being unable to tolerate light meant that I could barely work, much less fun computer time like RPing. It has made it really hard to stay up on the news and the events going on around the world in support of the protestors. I couldn’t be outside so I couldn’t even join the local protest sadly. 

Sigh.

Anyway.

As far as rping goes, I am very much in the mood for some Bjorn action. I’m going to troll through my draft for some juicy things. Don’t be surprised if a random starter is tossed at you. If it doesn’t interest you, no worries. I’ve just missed writing over the last two weeks and am feeling the musey.

If anyone wants to plot a thing, feel free to come at me.

~ Ames the disaster cookie

[steamedtangerine]

So, a little reality check here:

Given past patterns, everytime something fucky is going on in the background, Trump makes a ridiculous claim or tweet and sends the media riling people up, or maybe some grassroots dickhead group storms a capitol over quarantine, holds a rally, or protests the funeral of a gay soldier, maybe some dipshits want to make “storm Area 51” a thing,....other times, a weird conspiracy pops up on a shitsite like Reddit.

Now, also consider that-in all actuality:

Trump wants foreign students who are taking online classes to be deported.

Trump is trying to pardon Stone.

Meanwhile, Ghislaine Maxwell is treading on thin Epstein-like ice to expose some seriously well-connected men (many of them in power and with strong connections to powerful murdering dictators) who can have her killed and the investigations scrubbed faster than you can say “Barr!”

-Reddit has lost tread as being a hive for shit-posting racist trolls. Things are changing there with The_Donald banned and the CEO having an African-American replace him. More people (and unfortuneatley trolls) are coming to Tumblr to spread propaganda.

Enter the new distraction: The Wayfair conspiracy.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/wayfair-trafficking-children/

This was started on Reddit. REDDIT! The same well-known toxic place that sent a supposed “Boston Bomber” to commit suicide with their “sleuthing”. The same site that allowed the worst types of persons to convene and coordinate nasty things unhindered...it spawned guys like patricidal murderer Lane Davis. It propagated stuff like QAnon and Pizzagate. I even bought into a theory from a user named “Dr_Midnight” who thought they unraveled a connection with some coordination with all of the anti-lockdown protests (only to find it was unified under some old hippy who was trying to subvert said protests).

Now there is an upswing of shit accounts posting this stuff on Tumblr.....they are the typical flash-in-pan meme-a-matic accounts that have contrived names and photos (they lifted from God knows where) right in their header. these are accounts with mixed hastags....but many of them are already per-disposed into buying into Pizzagate and QAnon crap or are pro-conservative. These are accounts that probably were jiving the Clinton=Epstein crap, when far too much connects Epstein with Trump. They demonstrate a lack of critical thinking and are full of contentious over-emotional responses “If you don’t think something is wrong at Wayfair, you must love child sex-trafficking!!”....yeah, that kind of “cry wolf” crap.

Do these “people” look into Larry Nassar, The Children of God cult, NAMBLA, the conservative Bohemian Grove, or many of the countless guys on the Republican side of things connected to Trump AND pedophilia (Daniel Wenzek, Ralph Shortey, Roy Moore, George Nader, Milo Yiannopoulos, etc.)? Have any of these persons actually read a book about conspiracies written before 2005? Do they even read books about American history, which, in themselves, are rife with unflattering conspiracy? Do they only get “conspiracy theories” from YouTube videos and Reddit?

Folks need to look at the patterns and use some reasoning and stop going blindly “by the gut” when it comes to these things.

If you haven’t even read one book (or as I said, one unflattering historical account) regarding conspiracies, do not even attempt to come at me with this distracting Wayfair crap here on Tumblr.

[nyodrite]

hp college au

Because I would like to know if someone is trying to poke me about this and I am not the op of the series of reblogging.

Is Dumbledore the Headmaster/Dean here or just a really old guy who make a hobby out getting a new degree every few years?

McGonagall is a professor, always.

Ooh, maybe Newt is around somewhere teaching a class or two in between writing a book and going off on expeditions (Charlie and Tonks go with him as students and maybe Hagrid is an assistant??) to study creatures.

Are we talking full on college dorms? Like each House has their own dorm building?

And someone mentioned everyone lives, so is Harry going to college with his parents also? Because that’d be hilarious if his parents are around trying to be cool and just embarrassing him.

But the biggest question of all:

Is there magic or not? Is this a full on No Powers AU or a world where Magic Is Know and has integrated in the muggle world to the point there’s mixed colleges for magical and muggle classes?

because I vote for the later bc so many more shenanigans can happen with magic!

I mean just imagine, Padfoot racing across campus because he’s overslept {and there are anti-apparition wards on campus for security reasons} and other students have long since grown used to this either laugh about sleeping in or cheer him on to make it because Professor Grindelwald is notoriously strict about tardiness.

Or there being rules against flying brooms on campus outside of certain areas/times {such as Quidditch practice} but Harry is like one of the people who just has to ride their skateboard instead of walking, he hasn’t been caught…yet.

(Basically a college HP au is loads of fun but keeping magic just makes it 💯 times better)

.

Charlie (and Tonks, who’s in it to be a supportive friend but mostly for the LOLs) waging war against various departments for various reasons - like Biology and dissection - about their treatments of animals.

Newt is constantly harassed about their antics - because everyone knows who it is but there’s no proof - and is just “I have no idea what you’re talking about, my students are perfectly well behaved.” while his house is full of various rescued creatures the two smuggled there.

.

Hermione and Lily meet one time when Lily came over during the weekend to stock up Harry’s fridge while Hermione was over tutoring him.

They get along fantastically.

Harry and James are low-key freaking out about this.

.

Ron and Harry meeting due to dorm room assignments, where basically the entire Weasley family is fussing over him when Harry stumbles in all alone - because he’s an Adult Now and he can go to college alone.

(This lasts like barely two weeks before Harry runs out of clean clothes and he calls Lily to ask how to wash clothes; not until later, too late, that he finds out that Ron knows how

{The reason being thus; Molly has multiple kids in college, by this time she has it down to a science just what kinds of things they need to know before leaving home})

.

Harry taking a class Voldemort teaches and. Just. Their hatred for each other is known across campus, Voldemort constantly trying to get Harry expelled while Harry is just “there’s something fish about that guy”and “he’s evil mum! why do I have to be nice?”

.

Hermione and Lily do some kind of rally or organize a student protest that becomes a legit social movement because these woman cannot be tamed.

(McGonagall is so proud of her students)

.

Lockhart teaches drama, Harry winds up there while lost and accidentally gets a lead in a play - afterwards Harry just low-key swears vengeance against Lockhart.

.

Umbridge is a guidance counselor that Harry gets arrested the same year he meets her.

(whether the same thing happens to Voldemort eventually or Tom is there to eternally be Harry’s sworn enemy until graduation idk yet)

.

Remus teaches a class there but Harry only is able to take it for one year and is sad, though they do talk.

.

Sirius is the only Marauder actually going to college instead of hanging around for various reasons - he lives off campus though and rides his motorcycle there.

.

Peter, Harry swears to his his parents and the other two Maruaders multiple times, is on campus as Voldemort’s minion in Evil. They don’t believe him because they never see him and he’s out of the country for work.

(Sometimes Peter just sits there, grading papers in a corner during class, and just stares at Harry.

Harry then runs to Remus or Sirius - depending on who is closer - and tells them about it and how he certain this means Peter and Voldemort are Plotting, then screams when they are all “Harry, Peter isn’t in the country how cane he be on campus Plotting with your math teacher?”)

@sailorcrazypinklady said:

Are there cameras? With timestamps? Because Harry can get proof Peter is in his class when he is supposed to be out of the country.

There are but, since I have decided - right now because I am apparently fond of Peter being a low-key villain for the express purpose of trolling Harry - that this au still has magic, Peter makes use of Time-Turners, Polyjuice Potions and Magical Travel to basically be in two places at once.

So, the one time Harry got photographic proof of Peter being in class, Peter had it dismissed via alibi of him being out of the country at work when the pictures were taken.

So. No one, except the students living in the same dorm - House? Basically this au’s equivalent to Gryffindor also I should probably talk about the houses a bit too - as Harry, i.e. his friends, believe that his father’s friend who works out of country is sitting in his math class grading papers.

.

@ssilverstreak reblogged:

Okay, so, I need a huge fic about this, because this is comedy gold. Also Snape keeps getting stuck teaching General Chemistry 1 and 2 and Intro to Potions every semester instead of the higher level courses and he’s Salty™ about it. Though he doesn’t pick on Harry here because Lily would straight up kill his ass and he knows it, Harry still sics his mom on Snape for picking on other students.

Snape complains about his classes and then swears to get rid of the other potions professors so he can take over the higher level classes to Professor McGonagall who’s sipping her coffee - she has a lot of early morning classes to teach, alright, and tea is just not enough - like it’s fine wine during this.

(ofc Harry overhears and decides that Snape must be Voldemort’s minion in Evil also.

Also, Voldy actually goes by Tom Riddle but back when Sirius was taking his class - along with his cousin Bellatrix who got a really creepy crush on the guy - and decided to give him the nickname Voldemort. Never will he admit exactly where that name came from, only it involves drunken shenanigans and waking up in a jail cell with a hangover.

Sirius commiserates with Harry over Voldemort’s Evilness, he still doesn’t quite believe Peter is there too though.)

[aragornbang]

The One True King Of Anarchy, May He Be The Last

Aragorn wrote a sneering obituary of Bob Black the minute he stopped being useful; it's only fair that Bob Black now write Aragorn's obituary.

Let's get to it.

The infamously boring would be patriarch of the east bay anarchist scene sometimes claimed the name "Aragorn" was the unchosen result of hippie parents, but still occasionally got mail to Aaron Mosner. Due to this uncertainty over what name was truly Aragorn's adopted name or a parental narrative he reaffirmed, to be safe we'll just refer to him as The One True King from here on out.

The two central claims of this essay are:

The One True King sought power and control through manipulation and viciousness as a would-be "Rupert Murdock" of anarchism and patriarch of a small east bay scene.

His chief campaign was to undermine No Platform, repeatedly fighting to let reactionaries, eco-extremists and national anarchists into anarchist spaces.

The One True King largely avoided making his own positions clear, opting instead to use people and ideologies as pawns and cover. He preferred when other people were set up for conflict so he could delight in the carnage, utilizing gossip from afar. He'd back a noxious individual not so that they'd win but so that in their fight they'd still crack the Overton Window further and make more acceptable his own positions. His other favorite maneuver was sharing articles of his adversaries, specifically ones selected to serve as punching bags for his audience. Because of this curated selection of adversarial content his flagship holdings like LBC, Anews, Anarchy101, and TheAnarchistLibrary all kept up a thin veil of nonpartisanship to the new or naive, some of whom even thought The One True King's adversaries were themselves submitting content. He loved a deniable joke; one vicious enough to devastatingly imply something but hard to describe if anyone was so unwise as to take offense publicly. Hashtags, vaguebooking and implicit damnation by conjunction with an image were his specialty online. Misrepresentation by omission or plausibly deniable implication a specialty in person.

While it is possible his own opinions or preferences changed over time, most who observed him over the years couldn't help but notice an opportunistic pattern: He was always about the idea that was popular among a new group of people he wanted to grab. One year he was hostile to an idea, the next its best friend and champion. He'd even pivot in the same week with different audiences. Because he was a notorious for burnt bridges some would initially miss this politician's flexibility within the circles he was currently using as a base.

The One True King framed himself as fighting for ideological diversity against entrenched leftist scene police (a crusade that justified literally anything, no matter how underhanded). The narrative he pushed was that his noble personal sacrifice and work ethic was all that was protecting green-anarchists, post-leftists, and individualists from the Bookchinist boot and crushing conformity.

This increasingly turned to parody as The Leftist Enemy soon became figures like John Zerzan.

In fact by the end of his life there was no more zealous scene police than The One True King. Even the lightest association with those deemed "enemies" could get you scrubbed into a person non grata, pushed out of projects and circles. His personal sweetness could so easily turn to viciousness because he trained those under his wing to tolerate it as mockery. What's a little caustic ribbing behind your back? And then one day the unseen ribbing would turn to outright conspiring, pressuring, even lying about you.

Of course to many he remained studiously sweet. There is no doubt that he sincerely cared for a number of people in his inner lair, and he could certainly be magnanimous. Although when traveling this often came across as entitled.

His personal life was complicated. But then who among us hasn't left children behind in the midwest to run a creepy cult for young punks in Berkeley? Who hasn't ducked accusations of improper behavior in sexual relationships? The two house "compound" was inherited by one of his partners, and when mixed with the tech money The One True King had access to, provided him with virtually uncontested power. Well, virtually uncontested, occupants of the compound would sometimes get back at him behind his back in petty or sexual ways.

What did The One True King actually believe? What were his actual goals? While he gave several accounts and others have alleged a variety of claims, it's hard to tell what if anything was ultimately behind his crusades. What is uncontested is that he lost friends over his hard work to platform "national anarchists," a uncontestedly fascist current. When Andrew Yeoman launched Bay Area National Anarchists it was The One True King who included BANA members in the Berkeley Study Group (a project he tightly controlled). The One True King also allowed Yeoman and national anarchists into anti-politics.net, a site he administered and, at the time, THE forum for individualist, nihilist, egoist, and post-leftist currents of anarchism. He let friendships within the post-left burn rather than expel these fascist entryists.

This is a pattern that would be replicated almost a decade later with Individuals Tending towards Savagery.

Much ink has been spilled by this point about ITS. What matters to us is the prevarications and obfuscations. ITS had explicitly abandoned anarchism, started claiming murder for sport, and targeted mexican anarchists for murder when The One True King decided to pick up a project by Abe/Art Caberra (exposed as an alt-right catholic-trad paralegal who went to Berkeley named Arturo Vasquez by 325). Caberra had run a website named "Atassa" as the english language press office of ITS (doing their translations, championing them, getting messages from them, and trying to collect texts to defend their ideology). The One True King offered to publish a book version of the website through Little Black Cart, with Caberra as editor. Caberra posted a spattering of ITS memes on Facebook interspersed with alt-right memes. These posts were often liked by The One True King and he would even at points tag The One True King, referencing their friendship. Meanwhile support for ITS had flowed strongly across all of The One True King's captured platforms.

When ITS' actions (an infoshop bombing and one claimed femicide in particular) reached wider knowledge in the north american milieu The One True King was forced to backpeddle and paint his platforming as innocent consideration on the marketplace of ideas. This was his most awkward pivot because many had by this point overheard The One True King praising ITS and because of his personal ties with many explicit ITS supporters.

The One True King's public maneuver was to retreat behind an LBC collective statement and public renunciations of ITS by people in his circle cleaner than him. An inveterate shit-stirrer he delighted in the backlash (just when he was looking marginalized in anarchism thanks to picking fights with antifa groups), here was an excuse to rally the troops against the leftist scene police! But the defense that ITS had interesting ideas "in the anarchist family" didn't work as well as he hoped. Nor was anyone familiar with the situation or the people able to swallow his new narrative pivot that Atassa was totally different from ITS.

"Some defend the publications and discussions (or trolling, as it were) they engender because while perhaps they don’t agree with killing people, the analysis ITS presents is intellectually stimulating and worthy of consideration. If ITS did kill her, Lesvy Rivera can surely appreciate that her brutal murder was found intellectually stimulating for some." --Scott Campbell

Attempting to claim hegemonic control of the green anarchist milieu with "Black Seed" (a struggling but much hyped newspaper printed and delivered on The One True King's tech money) had been rough going. Green anarchists across north america started distancing themselves from ITS and condemning (to varying degrees, in private or in public) LBC for their embrace of Atassa/ITS. The One True King censored the most damaging instances from Anews, and it helped him that IGD was disinclined to publish some particular nihilist figures who turned on LBC.

Even the main person behind TheAnarchistLibrary departed the project in protest of The One True King's control over it to start a competitor that wouldn't host ITS.

The One True King couldn't back down -- he had to pray that "the leftists" hadn't captured enough of anarchism to shut him out. Or that his latest pivot (loudly embracing indigeneity after years of platforming racists and sneering at "idpol") would buy him a new base. And he hoped that the more stable roster of now hated vocal enemies -- like John Zerzan, William Gillis, Alexander Reid Ross -- would take the bait with the second issue of Atassa. Unfortunately they did. But this boost of internal party discipline wasn't enough. In addition to IGD completely marginalizing Anews, LBC was getting banned from bookfairs and quite serious international insurrectionary groups were turning on them. In desperation LBC started tabling American "Libertarian" conventions.

After a meteoric rise and reign for over a decade, The One True King appeared chastised and surprised. He loved inflating the threats and opposition he faced, picking fights with the infoshop that hosted his Berkeley Study Group and then exclaiming about "graffascists" when the lock to his office was glued, or inflating the costliness of getting his tires changed when they were slashed. Such minor attacks were too many to count, just as his enemies were. But towards the end of his life he started to realize he'd made actual enemies, who'd chosen sides and gotten organized.

In private he was certain that this antifa fad would burn out. "We're down today, but we'll be back up tomorrow. There's a lot of anarchists who disagree with that No Platform stuff."

In reality all he had left was an echo chamber. He had overthrown the "leftism" of (early post-leftist) Chuck0 censoring the comments of Infoshop.org, and instead popularized a website where he could sometimes remove comments attacking him or rebutting his side, but at least he would always let people say the n-word and post MRA shit.

Without of note to say himself, and too timid to create anything truly "incendiary", The One True King could only throw the stale regurgitated vomit of other people. How's the saying go? When the only tool you have is a hammer, you interview the national anarchist Keith Preston on your podcast. Previously at Richard Spencer's National Policy Institute, next up on The Brilliant.

An anonymous writer at Crimethinc claims that what launched The One True King's crusade was being put on a house chore wheel to do the dishes. If true this would truly make his life a sublime tale of manarchy. If he did the dishes more often maybe his servers would have been cleaner and less full of exploits that allowed anyone to look at the logs he said he didn't keep.

Also it was really mean that he didn't provide a private security detail to protect me from people upset that I've snitched repeatedly, tried to get Ramsey deported, and was even caught on the roof of Modern Times with gasoline trying to burn it down. That was totally unfair and definitely the worst thing Aragorn did.

Signed, Bob Black, pigfucker

[buzzfeed]

If you set out to design a cultural event specifically to provoke the alt-right, it would be hard to improve on "He Will Not Divide Us." While the group contains multitudes — Trump fanatics, anti–social justice warriors, trolls, ethnic nationalists, neo-Nazis, anime experts, and every conceivable permutation thereof — the piece was expansive enough to incite them all.

Start with semantics. If nothing else, the alt-right is all about division: between nations, between races, between genders, between religions, between ideologies, and between trolls and non-trolls. “[The title] is almost daring people to divide the work,” said Ben Davis, the national art critic for artnet News. “From an art point of view, it was the point of the project, I assume.”

The artists strenuously claim the piece is nonpartisan, and that the words can be, per the introductory text, “a show of resistance or insistence, opposition or optimism, guided by the spirit of each individual participant and the community.” But the media immediately reported the work as an anti-Trump protest, and it’s sort of hard to blame them: "He Will Not Divide Us" appeared the day of the inauguration, in New York City, where Hillary Clinton won nearly 80% of the vote, at the same time as protests against Trump massed in cities throughout the world. Realistically, who was going to be chanting those words?

If the event was alt-right catnip in theory, in practice it was irresistible. The footage from the first day is an unintentional masterpiece of Bannonian propaganda: A rich, white, half-Jewish, hip, liberal movie star (and his black, second-generation movie star friend) leading an ethnically mixed crowd in a piece of performance art that doubled at times as an anti-Trump demonstration, at a New York City museum whose board includes Jeff Zucker, Jeffrey Katzenberg, a labor union leader, and a hedge fund founder.

“It feeds into the right-wing narrative about coastal elites and Hollywood liberals, Meryl Streep versus Trump,” Davis said.

Perhaps most provocatively, as far as the alt-right is concerned, "He Will Not Divide Us" was participatory and livestreamed. Threads announcing the project appeared on 4chan’s /pol/ forum and other alt-right online communities within hours of the stream going live.

Continue reading.

[straight-outta-hobbiton]

Personal Theory on the Toxicity of tumblr

I find it interesting that you can sort of pinpoint what event made tumblr as toxic as it is.

I mean, when I joined, the big divide of tumblr was fandom vs hipsters, and most people didn’t really give a shit either way. Yeah, there was stuff happening within individual fandoms, but the sort of angry cynicism and callouts didn’t really get the same kind of traction they do now. Social justice warriors weren’t nearly so big a group, and the ones that did exist tended towards posts that were gentler and more realistic. “Just a reminder using a person’s dead name only when they’re not in the room is just as shitty” or “Bisexuals are real” kind of stuff was pretty much all that would end up on your blog, and when there was a crazy social justice warrior type talking out of their ass it was just understood that you wouldn’t reblog. We still had the issue of anons that sent things like “kill urself” or something, and that was shitty, but on the whole, tumblr was a chill place where people reblogged aesthetic hipster pics and posts about how Supernatural had a gif for everything.

Then, Ferguson happened.

Ferguson was watched by everyone, whether you were a thirteen year-old with a Superwholock blog (which at this point had already been on its last legs due to issues about representation), a hipster with a polaroid sunflower fetish, or an anime RP blog, you were watching the news coming out of Ferguson and reblogging photos and videos and links to news sites. When previously the only issues we truly tackled were arguably lesser issues about female doctors (surprise!) or Sherlock hiatus, this was a serious, honest to God tragedy in the real world that affected (at least emotionally) a lot of people on the site. It brought up a lot of things that were never previously discussed— at least, not by the majority. The subject of police brutality was not a common topic of discussion before that point, and while we’d seen other Bad Things™ happen (Chilean miners come to mind, along with a vague memory about earthquakes and nuclear meltdowns), nothing had affected tumblr so strongly. There’s riots and shit’s on fire and suddenly life offline became very real to the American tumblr community. Ferguson brought to light a lot of things that generally wasn’t talked about on tumblr, because tumblr was not the place for it.

So it’s a thing. Suddenly that Superwholock thirteen year-old is reblogging tips on what to do when arrested and the hipster’s donating money to a gofundme to ensure the protesters have lawyers. Even the people who aren’t attempting to take action are keeping an eye on things, reblogging information and photographs talking about law and what it’s willing to do for the people it’s meant to protect. Everyone’s waiting with baited breath to see if the officer who shot an unarmed black kid is going to be punished or if he’s going to get away with it. People who knew the law and its faults (black American tumblr) were already telling the rest of us he’d get away with it, and while a lot of us probably agreed, we all hoped they’d be wrong, that the law would do what it’s supposed to and punish a murderer.

But then it didn’t.

The ruling on the Ferguson case was an injustice in action, and we watched it all happen. Then came the Eric Garner. Trayvon Martin was brought back into the spotlight, along with countless other unnecessary deaths that the police had done nothing to rectify or even apologize for. Injustic after injustice quickly soured the previously lighthearted tone of the website, because to be unaware was to be stupid and to be quiet was to be proven complicit. Slowly, as the injustices and flaws and realities piled up, the tumblr community became cynical, cruel, and wretched. Within the black tumblr community, this was an opportunity to begin pushing for change, suddenly able to talk about their realities in modern America openly. Other minorities also took the opportunity to talk about their own struggles. White Americans jump in too, either out of an earnest desire to help progress or a desperate attempt to seem trendy.

That’s all well and good, but the fact is, tumblr is a place for hyperbole and dramatics. Tumblr is where a picture of Dean Winchester went around for half a decade because someone had figured out the mathematical equation for the curve of his ass. This is a place where fandoms were posting “Potterheads, grab your wands!” in response to trolls telling them their fandom sucked. That mentality mixed with real-world issues and a predominantly inexperienced group of kids, you get everything pushed beyond what otherwise could have been a reasonable response. Now, we have fucking adults going after twelve year-olds who only watch the news when their parents come home and steal the remote and are just doing their best to fit in, as twelve year-olds do.

Tumblr now is full of variations of blogs claiming social justice for everything, whether it be something reasonable (gay rights, trans rights, the Dakota Access Pipeline) or something completely bullshit (the pro-pedophilia blogs). The entire format of how we interact with each other has changed, because rather than a bunch of nerds “squeeing” about Doctor Who’s newest regeneration being a woman, instead we’re getting people who think it’s acceptable to tear down kids because of their opinions on a television show where the villains are literal trashcans. And we can’t even blame them, because the entire interaction of this entire website for the last two-three years has revolved around tearing down the opinions of racists, anti-feminists, and pedophiles! Their entire experience on tumblr is about destroying people they disagree with rather than finding people who share common interests and enjoying whatever it is they have in common as a community! And yeah, those people still exist— the Potterheads and the Trekkies will never die�� but they’re a minority, now, rather than half the goddamn site, and even as they are they can’t help but be affected by the anger that’s infected the majority.

To me, this is an interesting look of how a community can be ruined by injustice. We all saw what happened, we all saw our ideals of law and order fail in the face of systematic oppression, racism, and plain old bullshit, and thus lost the innocence that inherently surrounded fandom. Fandom is essentially collective daydreaming about fictional worlds and the people in them— it’s all bullshit. And that was ripped away from us because our goddamn court system is biased and shitty.

TL;DR: The way Ferguson was handled paved the way for all the toxicity of this site to take hold.

[tomwolfgangascott]

Russian Internet Efforts Go Further Than Just Helping President Trump Being Elected

This post originally appeared on RUSI.org on 10 May 2019

The findings of Robert Mueller’s report demonstrate the sophistication of Russia’s information operations. Yet the 2016 US election may have been a proof of concept for future efforts.

Most of the investigations into Russian interference in the US electoral campaign and the alleged collusion between Donald Trump’s presidential electoral campaign and Russian elements are now over; the debate will continue to rage in the US media, and questions will endure about how Special Counsel Robert Mueller discharged his duties. Still, the report is out, and most of the opinions now expressed are largely along well-established partisan lines. Yet a less-discussed but nevertheless critical aspect of this episode is what it reveals about the broader details of Russia’s disinformation campaigns on social media. The Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA), which is accused of running a ‘Troll Farm’, generated most of the hostile activity related to the US elections. It had two goals in the run up to the 2016 American ballots: a broader goal of ‘sowing discord in the in the U.S. politicalsystem’, and more narrowly to successfully elect Donald Trump as president, through a wider series of operations known as ‘Project Lakhta’.

Russia has long felt the West has been using the internet to influence Russia’s youth and, in Moscow’s view, the West simply got a taste of its own medicine. This operation was almost certainly seen in Moscow as defensive, notwithstanding its offensive character, being implemented to expose the hypocrisy Russia saw in Western societies and their discourse about democracy.

And the operation was long in the planning. In 2014 the Russian IRA consolidated its US ‘specialists’ into its ‘Translator’ department and started creating fictious personas on social media networks; these would be imaginary individuals sharing profile images created in-house at the Russian IRA.

The fictious individuals, in turn, produced written posts about political topics, and images designed to go viral within their political demographic target area; Russians had used a similar strategy that same year during their war which led to the seizure of Crimea from Ukraine.

Though total numbers of such imaginary actors are hard to gauge, a 2018 US Senate reportindicates that the Russian IRA had managed to reach extensive audiences, as ‘posts on Instagram received 187 million engagements and that Russian IRA posts on Facebook received almost 77 million engagements’.

Mueller’s report pushes these estimates higher; up to 126 million users on Facebook engaged with or actively helped spread Russian propaganda, including Donald Trump, who on 19 September 2017 tweeted from his personal account to a Russian propaganda account, @10_gop. The Russians had tweeted him ‘We love you, Mr. President!’ He replied: ‘I love you- and there is no question - TOGETHER , WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’.

Of course, Mueller does not suggest that President Trump knew this was a Russian propaganda account when he replied to it.

Either way, these fictitious personas would start a pattern of interactions with American citizens, reaching out to and contacting them personally. Once they started to build a relationship they would inform US citizens of rallies they were planning to hold. These were deliberate ruses, similar to ‘spearfishing’ attacks, which are more typically reserved for hacking. They required specialist researching and tracking of individuals before making contact. The purpose was to mobilise people for various rallies and other activities, and the ruses often succeeded in attracting hundreds of participants.

In the past the Russian IRA has set up ‘help hotlines’ for people ‘struggling with sexual behavior’ in order to use the information provided to them as blackmail. They have had some success with such traps.

In 2015, Moscow’s scope widened; apart from creating fake accounts for individuals, Russia started creating ‘grassroots’ organisations. Their goal, broadly, was to sow discord. This applied to both the far left and far right of the US political spectrum. A series of ‘hard left’ groups, mostly centered on race relations in the US with various names such as ‘Blacktivist’, ‘Black Matters’ and ‘Don’t Shoot Us’ were promoted; so were pro-Muslim groups, such as ‘United Muslims of America’.

New Knowledge, a think tank, noted in its 2018 report that ‘some of the most sophisticated IRA efforts on Facebook and Instagram specifically targeted Black American communities’ and that the Russian IRA was able to create a sprawling mass that mixed fake and real news, to create a believable but false news system designed to exploit organic protest movements.

These groups could draw from one another; if a Russian propaganda promoting left-wing issues posted something controversial, it could be reposted to a far-right group as evidence of Black or Muslim radicalisation.

The process could be infinitely repeated, with both political sides feeding off of one another. As well as simply posting reactionary content, the Russians also generated ‘counter protests’ to protests they had set up, another example of their infinite flexibility and flair to read local situations.

It is likely that many of these activities were designed to show ‘proof of concept’, to justify to the political leadership of the Russian IRA that the entire effort was worthwhile, and that it was producing the expected results.

And the costs, for the advertising at least, were very low. The various Russian-sponsored groups took out approximately 3,500 adverts on Facebook and spent just over $100,000doing so, a small amount compared to the large media ‘footprint’.

The high rate of content production obscures the fact that much of it appears to be low quality; many of the images were hastily put together and the copy is sometimes sloppy. But to a large extent this did not matter as the content was amplified by a Russian-created ‘bot network’.

Unlike the specialists, which are real agents of the Russian IRA, the purpose of a bot network is not to create new content or contact American citizens. Rather, it is designed to ‘repost’ or share content with a wider audience. Such networks are often easier to detect and can be removed by social media companies, but they are cheaper to maintain.

Overall, the total cost of the operation would have been relatively high and must have enjoyed support from the top of the political leadership in Moscow. For, while the advertising spend of $100,000 may seem low (for context Marvel spent £153.5 million on adverts recently to promote its latest film), the overall cost of the Russian operation is likely to have been much higher, although still trifling if compared with the outcome.

And there is no question that this was an operation to which Moscow devoted a great deal of attention. Russian agents, engaging in online accounts, coming into the office every day, creating fictitious personas, going online to engage in local issues in US politics, over years, to create an entirely plausible narrative. It requires an ability to be both responsive to local American politics and creative in how it is spun to fit a narrative.

No space online is immune from such operations. Even ‘architecture Twitter’, where architects on Twitter discuss buildings they enjoy has become a meta political discussion on both sides; classical buildings, it seems, are linked with ideas of white cultural hegemony, and brutalist architecture with, allegedly, the failings of immigration. Alt-right commentators, such as Lauren Southern, make links between cultural and architectural traditions and anti-immigration, which they see as disrupting cultural hegemony. The Russian IRA can use any online space, in any discussion, and slowly pivot towards political ideas and make links to ‘far right identity politics’.

To a large extent, therefore, a Russia-led operation to disrupt the US elections would have happened, even if Trump had not won the Republican nomination. The US would have likely seen a different, but equal in size and scope, disinformation campaign. There was extensive Russian interest in information warfare since before Trump, and there will only be more of an appetite for it in 2020.

[wewithus]

The Five Minutes for Freedom series is a collection of small, step-by-step walkthroughs designed to help you take concrete political action in support of the principles of We With Us. The articles in the series are designed to be read and their steps followed in order, as later posts frequently build on earlier ones. A chronological index of all posts in the series can be found here. While this information is targeted primarily at US readers, we welcome readers from all countries and encourage you to adapt these strategies as necessary for your jurisdiction.

5M4F 16: Demand Answers Request an independent commission investigation into President Trump's, and his campaign staff’s, ties to Russia. [Dependencies: 5M4F10.]

I’m temporarily putting the second half of the press series on hold because of the urgency of requesting an independent commission investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. If you somehow still need to be convinced that this is an urgent, nonpartisan matter in the national interest, read these four articles and/or, maybe even better, just listen to the “A Cry for Help” episode of Trumpcast. It’s cool, it’s only about half an hour long. I’ll wait. I’d also like you to take note of the fact that Trump launched his 2020 re-election campaign in Florida yesterday. Since he couldn’t get elected the first time without Russian help, it seems pretty fair to me to assume that he’s expecting it again in 2020, don’t you think?

This week we will be calling our representatives to request that they publicly fight for an independent commission, like the 9/11 commission, with subpoena power, to investigate Russian interference in the election and ties between Trump, his campaign staff, and Russia. You will see this phrase many times in this post, because it’s super, super important: we want an independent commission, like the 9/11 commission, with subpoena power. Then we will be recruiting at least two people (each!) to commit to make calls asking their representatives to push for an independent commission, like the 9/11 commission, with subpoena power. Political calling posse!! We will also be calling (separately) to ask our representatives to continue to pressure the White House to fire Steve Bannon, this time because he is a-okay with Putin’s kleptocracy, since Putin is “traditional” and stands with the “Judeo-Christian West” against Islam. I tried to figure out how to fit the word “racist” into that sentence in a way that felt natural but then I realized I’d already said “Steve Bannon” so it probably wasn’t necessary. Speaking of Bannon, I still haven’t written my postcard from last week, so I’ll have two this week: this time, we’ll be concern-trolling “President Bannon,” asking him for an independent commission, like the 9/11 commission, with subpoena power, because Bannon’s aide Donald Trump’s apparent ties to Russia seem to be casting doubts on the legitimacy of Mr. Bannon’s election back in November!

If you’d like to do this all in one go: there are at least two chunks to this one because there are two sets of calls (the first about the independent commission, like the 9/11 commission, with subpoena power, and the second about Steve Bannon). However, other than your second set of calls, writing your scripts and your postcard is pretty easy to do all in one bunch and probably won’t take you much more than 30 or 40 min. How you assemble your political calling posse may be somewhat more time-consuming and may drag on longer, depending on how you live and socialize, but that’s very hard for me to predict without knowing you.

If you’d rather do this five minutes at a time: (1) - all three scripts requesting an independent commission, like the 9/11 commission, with subpoena power - 5 min total. (2), (3), and (4) - call your senator, other senator, and representative requesting an independent commission - 5 min. each. (5) - write your postcard! 5 min. (6) snapshot and mail your postcard - 5 min. (7) - all three scripts requesting that Bannon be fired - 5 min total. (8), (9), and (10) - call your senator, other senator, and representative about Bannon - 5 min. each. (11) - assemble your political calling posse - no idea!! YDY

You’ll notice one structural change of significance in this post: I’ve added a section at the end of particular House representatives and Senators of interest, i.e., the ones whose seats were seen as particularly vulnerable in 2016. These representatives generally fall into two categories: one, they’re Tea Party hardliners who won’t help us out; or two, they’re moderates holding onto mixed or moderate districts. This last group is especially likely to cross party lines in the interests of political expediency, and that can help us, if we get together to put effective pressure on them to swing our way or thank them for holding our line. It can also hurt us, if we don’t. Get out there and call!

Section links:

Call your representatives.

Gather your posse.

Write your postcard to “President Bannon.”

Complain about Bannon to your actual elected representatives.

List of Senate and House Representatives of particular interest.

A note on how to protest amid breaking news.

How to write your scripts.

What to do if you can’t make calls.

Call your representatives: We need an independent commission, like the 9/11 commission, with subpoena power, to investigate ties between Trump, his campaign staff, and Russia. It’s way past time: Flynn’s resignation should have made that explicitly clear to everyone by now. Again: Trump launched his 2020 re-election campaign in Florida yesterday. It isn’t like this business of Russian election interference is somehow magically over.

This kind of investigation was originally proposed back in January, when it seemed like all we had to talk about was the email hack, but it didn’t get off the ground.  let’s be really clear about this: Flynn talking to Russian representatives about sanctions before Trump was even in the White House violates every norm we have about the transfer of power between successive administrations (we only have one president at a time! the incoming administration cannot negotiate with foreign governments until they are sworn in). We need for every single person reading this post to contact their representatives, and to get at least two other people to contact their representatives, too: demand that your congressperson publicly back the “Protecting our Democracy” bill introduced by Representative Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and a bunch of other Democrats back in January, and newly backed on Thursday by Representative Walter B. Jones (R-NC), which would establish an independent, nonpartisan commission to investigate Russian interference in the election; and push your senators to also start pushing for an independent commission right away.

The key thing here is the need for an independent commission, like the 9/11 commission, with subpoena power, not more fruitless hamstrung faffing from Congressional Republicans who think reducing taxes for corporations and the 1% is more important than the very real possibility that sensitive information is or has been moving directly from the White House to the intelligence agencies of a foreign government, which, oh, yes, also happens to recently have interfered with our elections. Again: the key phrase here is an independent commission, like the 9/11 commission, with subpoena power. Once more with feeling: an independent commission, like the 9/11 commission, with subpoena power. Say this over and over and over again until it just rolls off your tongue like “I’d like a tall vanilla latte” or “What a beautiful dog!” or “Would you like to go back to my place, Rupert Graves?”

Basically, just make sure to be really, really explicit, when you make your calls: we do not want standing committee investigations; they’re staffed by members of Congress and are therefore not independent, and they often keep information secret. Even a bipartisan select committee is not adequate: the cloud of illegitimacy of Russian interference falls, potentially, on every single official elected in 2016, and that includes every single member of the House, and also a third of the Senate. Make sure your representatives know that’s on your mind, especially if they were elected in 2016.

Gather Your Posse: There are only about a hundred people following this blog; that’s not enough, on its own, to swing anything on our own. But it is enough if each of us recruits two buddies to make these calls with us.

By “recruit” I mean that you talk to them directly, and that you get each of them to affirmatively commit, explicitly, to calling their representatives too. There’s a principle in marketing that if you get someone to give you an affirmative commitment to something small, it both makes them more likely to do the thing that they committed to and it makes them more likely to commit to bigger asks in the future, like, say, voting for anti-Trump pro-human candidates in 2018, and 2020, and 2022. So I’ll start with you guys, before I work offline on getting my parents to commit to call: reblog this post or send us an ask to commit to making your calls this week! It’ll help hold you to it, and we’ll cheer you on! Then get two people, on or offline, RL friends or internet friends, to commit to you that they will make their calls, too.

You don’t have to be an asshole about this at all—in fact, I encourage you to not be an asshole about this—but I will say, if you’ve ever wanted to learn how to be an asshole marketer just to shore up your supervillain powers for the future, this isn’t a bad place to start.

And now for our recurring series, What is Steve Bannon Breaking This Week?

Free and Fair Elections: because Bannon is less obviously and overtly involved with Russia than other parts of Trump’s campaign machinery (though, lbr, he’s still the brains of this operation, so it’s not like he’s totally uninvolved), we’re going to have to approach our postcards and our calls a little bit differently this week.

A bit of concern trolling never goes awry. Start by writing a postcard to “President Bannon” expressing concern about how his aide Donald Trump’s refusal to call for an independent commission, like the 9/11 commission, with subpoena power, to investigate Russian interference is casting a cloud over President Bannon’s legitimate election back in November.

Then complain about Bannon to your actual elected representatives: Take a different tack when you call real politicians. Steve Bannon has publicly lauded Putin’s “traditionalism” as a key “underpinning of nationalism”, while openly admitting the kleptocracy (he even used that word!!) of Putin’s regime. He just doesn’t think it matters, since Russia, like the U.S., is part of the “Judeo-Christian West.” (TRANSLATION: at least Putin is white / hates ladies / isn’t a Muslim!!!) Give your senators and house representative a call to let them know that Putin’s kleptocracy should be appalling to anyone who supports democracy, and that Bannon’s choice of racist ideology over democratic ideals is horrifying for someone on the National Security Council and with a hand on the the puppet strings of the ear of the president. Insist that they speak out publicly against Bannon’s influence.

New feature! I’ve compiled a summary of Senators and Congresspersons of particular interest, i.e., representatives whose seats that were considered “battleground” races in 2016 and are likely to have an especially hard time in 2018/2020/2022. Again, these people likely fall into one of two categories: one, they’re Tea Party hardliners who won’t help us out; or two, they’re moderates holding onto mixed or moderate districts. We want to press that second group, and press them hard, because that is how you swing mixed/moderate districts to the left.

In the parentheses after their names, I’m giving these representatives states, their parties, and their margins of victory in 2016. Note that the list is alphabetical first by state, then by the rep’s name. If your representative(s) is (are) on this list, especially if their margin was especially small, it is particularly important that you put pressure on them, and get other people in your district to put pressure on them too, because your vote could very well be their next swing vote—and they know it. If you contact these people, please either reblog or send me an ask letting me know how it went if you have a second (were they receptive? did you have to jump through hoops to get at them?) and I will compile (anonymously if you wish) that feedback to help other We With Us’ers put pressure where it hurts.

Congresspersons of particular interest (all info from Ballotpedia): Tom O’Halleran (AZ, D, 7.3%), Ami Bera (CA, D, 2.3%), Stephen Knight (CA, R, 6.3%), Darrel Issa (CA, R, 0.5%), Mike Coffman (CO, R, 8.3%), Stephanie Murphy (FL, D, 3%), Brian Mast (FL, R, 10.5%), Carlos Curbelo (FL, R, 11.8%), Brad Schneider (IL, D, 5.2%), Rod Blum (IA, R, 7.7%), Bruce Poliquin (ME, R, 9.6%), Jack Bergman (MI, R, 14.8%), Jason Lewis (MN, R, 1.8%), Don Bacon (NE, R, 1.2%), Jacky Rosen (NV, D, 1.3%), Ruben Kihuen (NV, D, 4%), Carol Shea-Porter (NH, D, 1.3%), Josh Gottheimer (NJ, D, 4.4%), John Faso (NY, R, 8.6%), Claudia Tenney (NY, R, 5.5%), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA, R, 8.9%), Will Hurd (TX, R, 1.3%), Barbara Comstock (VA, R, 5.8%). You can also refer to the lists of DCCC/NRCC targeted incumbents for 2018, though those are much longer and kiiiiind of like the Democrat/Republican letters to Santa, at this point in the game.

Senators of particular interest (all info from Ballotpedia): Marco Rubio (FL, R, 7.7%), Tammy Duckworth (IL, D, 15.1%), Todd Young (IN, R, 9.7%), Roy Blunt (MO, R, 2.8%), Catherine Cortez Masto (NV, D, 2.4%), Maggie Hassan (NH, D, 0.1%), Richard Burr (NC, R, 5.7%), Pat Toomey (PA, R, 1.4%), Ron Johnson (WI, R, 3.4%). Note that none of these senators are up for election again until 2022, and that Democratic senators, writ large, are, right now, feeling much more vulnerable than Republican senators, writ large. Engage thoughtfully if you live in one of the states that appears to have a state-wide rising Republican tide: try to focus on the bipartisan elements of the issues that you’re arguing for—for example, national security and the importance of the legitimacy of the American electoral process, when it comes to this specific issue of Trump’s Russia ties and Russian electoral interference.

Also, for now: don’t contact any of these people if they don’t represent you directly. That can have value when it looks like one of them might be about to make a broader run (e.g. for state-wide office, if they’re in the House; or for the presidency), but for now it’s just going to be a waste of your time.

A note on protesting amid breaking news: As always, I recommend searching a reputable news source, like one of those two news sources you picked in 5M4F15 or The Guardian if you haven’t done that one yet, shortly before you make your calls, for any breaking-news updates that may require you to tweak your scripts. It’s often also useful to check your representatives’ website to see what press releases they have on a given subject, so you know whether (for example) they have already gone on-record as opposing Steve Bannon. If they have? Ask them to do it again. Make it clear that this stuff is important to you.

How to Write Your Scripts (excerpted from 5M4F-5): The basic phone script for calling your representatives goes something like so:

Hi, {can I ask who I’m speaking to? <, if they don’t say when they pick up>} [Jot their name down.] Hi, <their name>. My name is <your name> and I’m one of <your representative’s name>’s constituents in <where you live>. I wanted to let <your representative’s name> know that I strongly <support | oppose> <the thing you’re calling about>, because <succinct explanation of reason why you’re calling>. Is <your representative’s name> planning to <do the thing you want>?

Then you have to plan for a few different responses:

They’re with you: Thank you. Could you please let <appropriate pronoun> know that <expression of gratitude> and <indication that you will continue to watch your representative’s behavior and hold them accountable>?

They’re neutral: This subject is very important to me because <longer, more in-depth and emotive reason why you’re calling>. I would very much appreciate it if you could let <your representative’s name> know that I feel very strongly about this and would really encourage <appropriate pronoun> to <do the thing you want>. Is there any way I could follow up with you or <appropriate pronoun> later?

They oppose you: This subject is very important to me because <longer, more in-depth and emotive reason why you’re calling>. Can I ask why <your representative’s name> is <not doing the thing you want>? [Let them give you a reason, and write it down.] Okay, thank you. I understand <appropriate pronoun> concerns, but as one of <your representative’s name>’s voting constituents, I would really appreciate it if <appropriate pronoun> revisited <appropriate pronoun> decision because <alternate succinct explanation of reason why you’re calling>. Is there any way I could follow up with you or <appropriate pronoun> later?

<expression of gratitude>! <polite send-off>!

I want to point out that you probably don’t actually really need to plan for all of these responses. You can probably make a pretty good guess where your representative stands based on their party affiliation. However, especially if your representatives are moderates and often vote across the aisle, it’s not a bad idea to spend a little time planning for all three cases, because then your behind is covered, and you can recycle this language over and over on later calls, to different representatives. And yes: we will be calling other representatives.

This is the sample script that I wrote back in November, on a different issue and to Barbara Boxer, who has been replaced by Kamala Harris, but it gives you an idea how the Mad-Libs-filling process works:

Hi, {can I ask who I’m speaking to? <, if they don’t say when they pick up>} [Jot their name down.] Hi, <their name>. My name is <Ginny Washington>, and I’m one of <Senator Boxer>’s constituents in <West Hollywood>. I wanted to let <Senator Boxer> know that I strongly <support> <her resolution to amend the Constitution to eliminate the Electoral College>, because <I think every American’s vote should count equally>. {I just wanted to thank her for all her hard work on behalf of the principles of equal representation and equal protection under the law.}

<Thank you so much for your time>! <Have a nice day>!

If you can’t make calls: I recommended before that if you can’t make calls, you copy down snail mail addresses so you can send snail mail letters, and that you grab an email address or online contact link no matter what. Calls are the most effective, if you can make them, but please, do send snail mail letters if you can’t, or an email if you also can’t swing a stamp or get to a post office. You can use the script above as a template for your letter, but you’re probably going to want to default to assuming that your representative opposes you, and you’ll have to of course make it sound like a letter and not a phone convo.

If you care about correct forms of address: weirdly, because these things are super arcane, technically the correct way to address your senator or representative is still “The Honorable <whoever>”, as in, “The Honorable Barbara Boxer.” That goes on the envelope. You can then write “Dear Mr./Mrs./Ms. <whoever>” as your salutation.

As always, the link at the top of the post goes to a poll on Google which makes a great checklist, and where you can check in and let your fellow humans know you’re standing up for them!

[nothingman]

Journalist Jeremy Scahill has backed out of an upcoming appearance on Friday's edition of Real Time with Bill Maher, citing Maher's decision to welcome far-right provocateur and Breitbart personality Milo Yiannopoulos onto his show.

In a statement on Twitter, Scahill wrote he had respect for Maher and had tolerated the host's views on Islam, which have at times seen Maher described as an Islamophobe, because Maher lets guests challenge him on the program. But he added "Milo Yiannopoulos is many bridges too far."

"He has ample venues to spew his hateful diatribes," Scahill wrote. "There is no value in 'debating' him. Appearing on Real Time will provide Yiannopoulos with a large, important platform to openly advocate his racist, anti-immigrant campaign. It will be exploited by Yiannopoulos in an attempt to legitimize his hateful agenda."

Scahill referred to Yiannopoulos' history of attacks on and spearheading harassment campaigns against "immigrants, transgender people, and others," concluding "I cannot participate in an event that will give a platform to such a person."

Scahill, as well as representatives for scheduled co-panelists Larry Wilmore and former Rep. Jack Kingston, did not return a request for comment by Mic.

Yiannopoulos made his career as one of the most outspoken personalities at Breitbart, the right-wing website formerly ran by fellow alt-righter and President Donald Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon, where he became known for mixing conservative diatribes with garish trolling. He earned a permanent ban from social networking site Twitter in 2016 for organizing a racist harassment campaign against black Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones, and defended himself by saying he "[delights] in offending people."

His recent speaking tour of the country ran into increasing resistance from campus activists and anti-fascist organizers, and his last planned stops were eventually cancelled after protesters gathered en masse.

via Mic

[calacuspr]

Calacus Weekly Hit & Miss – Calm & England Football Fans

Every Monday we look at the best and worst communicators in the sports world from the previous week.

HIT – CALM APP

We’ve have talked a lot recently about the importance of sports stars opening up about their struggles with mental health.

In May, we praised rugby union for standing in solidarity with its players highlighting the need to discuss mental health during Mental Health Awareness Week 2021.

But while sport seems to be doing more to support mental health issues, it’s safe to say Naomi Osaka’s decision to boycott press conferences at the French Open in June, citing the detrimental impact that they’ve had on her own mental health in the past, has caused substantial controversy in the media.

In a statement on Twitter, the world number two said: “I’m not going to do any press during Roland Garros. I’ve often felt that people have regard for athlete’s mental health and this rings very true whenever I see a press conference or partake in one.

“We’re often sat there and asked questions that we’ve been asked multiple times before or asked questions bring doubt into our minds and I’m just not going to subject myself to people that doubt me.”

That statement wasn’t perfectly positioned nor was it well-managed, especially as it seemed to show a lack of understanding or appreciation for the role of the press.

Dismissing the role of the media in such a clumsy manner prompted a mixed response with some journalists referring to her as being a “princess” and “immature”, which have not helped her frame of mind.

THREATEN WITH EXPULSION FROM ORGANISERS

SECOND STATEMENT and quote/link relating to MH struggles

And despite admitting “timing was not ideal” when she announced her withdrawal from the French Open just days later,

One organisation who used the debate to their advantage and brought a key topic to light, recognising the pressures on the wellbeing on sports stars, was the meditation app Calm.

After Osaka was fined $15,000 for refusing to honour her contractual media obligation, Calm, the number one app for meditation and sleep, stepped in and pledged its support for Osaka’s decision to prioritise her mental health.

Calm announced on social media that they will not only be paying her fine but also matching it with a donation of $15,000 to Laureus Sport for Good, a world-leader in the sport for development sector in helping bring positive change to young people’s lives.

This was an ace of a PR masterclass from Calm, who have not only gained considerable coverage from the move but stepped up to promote an important message of protecting the mental health and wellbeing of young stars and ensuring they are resonated well within the media.

But the whole affair has highlighted that sport still needs to do a lot more to show that it can protect young stars from the mental challenges that they face, which had been Osaka’s intention from the start.

With the donation, Calm have managed to take control and achieved a moral high ground of the debate, brining the conversation back to emphasising the need to support young people with mental health issues and other disadvantages that they face on a daily basis.

Other organisations, which include some of Osaka’s sponsors like Nike, TAG Heuer and Mastercard, have also shown solidarity with her decision.

So, as much as Osaka has been criticised for failing to “do her job” as a professional athlete in the media, she has been able to bring an important topic to the forefront of people’s attention and standing up for her own wellbeing over the expectations of others.

With that, Calm seized an opportunity to bring a topic that deserves the greatest amount of attention into the spotlight, emphasising their own key messages and raising awareness for mental health support within sport.

MISS – ENGLAND FOOTBALL FANS

Since football resumed last year, most players in the Premier League have been taking the knee to highlight social inequality and racism.

Going back to the 1980s, winger John Barnes was told after scoring a superb goal against Brazil that “a ******’s goal doesn’t count” as the far right National Front were on the same flight as the England team.

Sports activism is nothing new, as we have discussed before on these pages many times, while Sky Sports has partnered with Kick It Out as well as supporting its #takeastand campaign to encourage “people across the football community to take an action or make a pledge, in the fight against discrimination.”

From the first top-flight game after the initial lockdown, Aston Villa and Sheffield United players and the match officials knelt down before kick-off.

With no fans in the stands, that tradition could take place without incident, but since fans have slowly been permitted back into stadia, murmurs of discord have occurred, with Millwall fans most vocal in their opposition to the tradition.

There was a social media blackout in May to address the trolling and abuse suffered by sports people, with Thierry Henry also deleting his profiles as a protest against the social media companies that do little to address the issues.

That discontent has turned into vociferous booing, most notably during England’s games ahead of EURO 2020, starting with the victory over Austria at the Riverside Stadium in Middlesbrough.

“We are collectively really disappointed that it happened. You have to put yourself in the shoes of a young England player about to represent his country. We are all trying to support equality and some of our team-mates and some of the experiences they have been through in their lives,

“We are totally united on it and committed to supporting each other. We feel that more than ever that we are determined to take the knee throughout this tournament.

“The players voices have been heard loud and clear and are taking their stand. Some people decide to boo and I think those people should put themselves in the shoes of those young players and how that must feel”

The booing continued as England beat Romania, also in Middlesbrough, prompting Southgate to add: “If you don't agree with the situation then you don't have to applaud or you don't have to do anything.

“But to boo your own team is a very strange response in my mind. There is an acceptance that this gesture is waning in its impact because we have been going now for a season but I think ahead of a European Championship where the games are going around the world, that moment just before the kick-off which will be shown everywhere, will have a significant impact.

“If we can affect only a handful of people then we will have made the world better for others. I think we'll affect more than a handful of people and for that reason it is worth us continuing.”

Needless to say, politicians such as Nigel Farage and Lee Anderson MP have criticised the moves, suggesting the England squad are out of touch with their own fans by supporting ‘Black Lives Matter’ which they consider to be a Marxist organisation intent on “undermining our way of life.”

Perhaps tellingly, Prime Minister Boris Johnson refused to condemn those who boo the England team despite Kick It Out confirming that that the gesture is not aligned to any political organisation.

Clearly, there is significant prejudice that needs to be addressed in society – with football a microcosm of that. Look at the proportion of black players throughout the leagues and the lack of black managers, coaches and administrators throughout the game.

What irony that some England fans will chant “Two world wars and one World Cup” in relation to Germany and anti-IRA chanting, which is clearly political, but a number of them seem to object to actions taken by the players they support to address discrimination even though it is a cause, a movement, rather than a political affiliation.

Remember, many if not all of the black players in the England squad have experienced racism and the inability of fans to empathise with those whose shoes they have never walked in is quite staggering.

Some have mentioned that the England team are earning huge sums and so need to have a thick skin, but being a highly paid or high-profile footballer does not insulate you from racist abuse – just ask Raheem Sterling.

What irony that Manchester United and England forward Marcus Rashford, who captained England and scored the winning goal in their win over Romania, was prompted to comment to those who continued to boo: “"It's something that we can't control, and for us we believe its the right thing to do so we're going to continue to do it.”

It will be fascinating to see how the England fans conduct themselves during EURO 2020 given their somewhat chequered reputation during past tournaments – and how will other nations’ fans behave if their players do the same?