Music Rules: The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy at 30

I am not a rap fan and have owned very few rap albums over the years.  However, “Hypocrisy Is the Greatest Luxury”, the debut album by The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, is one that I have never tired of, an album whose politics remain relevant thirty years later.  It was released on March 3, 1992.  It’s not just because it’s Industrial/Hiphop that I like it.

“Satanic Reverses” is about the fight for progress against a system designed to protect the powerful and hypocritical.

“Famous and Dandy (Like Amos and Andy)” criticizes the stereotyping of Black men in the media, and how some are willing to live up to those stereotypes for the sake of fame.

“Television, the Drug of the Nation” is the most famous and standout song on the album.  It was everywhere in 1992, used on many TV programs as criticism of the medium.  I wonder what Franti would have said about the social media companies had he written the song today.

“Language of Violence” is a condemnation of homophobic violence, and of the organized violence of the US prison system.

“The Winter of the Long Hot Summer” was written about Bush Sr.’s first “Gulf war”, though it was just as relevant during the second and the US’s 20 year occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.  Oil and other companies profitted while ex-soldiers dealt with the consequences.

“Hypocrisy Is the Greatest Luxury” and “Music and Politics”, about the search for commercial success of the public versus personal failings with those closest to us.

“Everyday Life Has Become a Health Risk”, obviously an environmental song.

“INS Greencard A-19 191 500” uses recordings from the US government snitch line, edited and altered from the original messages, but showing the real intent behind the phone line.

“Socio-Genetic Experiment”, a semi-autobiographical story about a Black man of mixed ancestry growing up in the US.

“Financial Leprosy”, a condemnation of conspicuous consumerism and how it keeps people poor.

“California über alles” is a cover of the Dead Kennedys song, with help from Jello Biafra.  Performed in 1992, it was rewritten about Pete Wilson, not Jerry Brown as in the original.

“Water Pistol Man” sounds like a response to Billy Bragg’s “The Passion” (from Bragg’s 1986 album “Talking With The Taxman About Poetry”).  Franti mentions Bragg by name in the song, and quotes the lyrics.

Sadly, the group only made two albums before disbanding. Vocalist Michael Franti, who is an ardent socialist and human rights activist, went on to found the group Spearhead.

Here is the album on a youtube playlist:

 

Families Aren’t Valued: Greg Abattoir is a butcher

And rightwingnuts are massive hypocrites.  And water is wet.

It’s amazing how much can transpire in one week:

Greg Abattoir (a/k/a the Austin Assassin, the Butcher of Baylor, the White Supremacist of Wichita Falls) has dictated that providing proper medical care to Transgender children will be labelled “child abuse”.  And yet he said nothing (or he enjoyed it) when ICE agents in San Antonio were raping immigrant children in the concentration camps.  But that’s no shock from an individual that wants to criminalize anyone not white and male, willing to allow the poor to die in the cold.

Activist poses chilling scenarios parents of trans kids may face as Texas Gov. labels them abusers

This week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) sent a letter demanding the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) investigate parents who support their transgender children and allow them access to gender affirming medical care prescribed by their doctors.

In response, trans advocate Gillian Branstetter, the press secretary of the National Women’s Law Center, has been posting some of the horrific situations supportive parents of trans kids in the state may now find themselves in.

[. . .]

With permission, Branstetter has also been sharing notes she has received from the terrified parents of trans youth.

“I’m so scared for her,” wrote the mother of a 14-year-old trans girl who lives outside of Houston.

She added, “I can’t take her to the doctor or have her dress like she wants or change her name or get her affirming care even therapy because then what will that be coercion to accept abuse? Mind control?”

The mother also feared what would happen if her daughter was ever actually taken away from her.

“When they remove the kids because the abuse doesn’t stop, are they going into housing where people will abuse them and make them detransition? Every prospect scares me for her.”

Meanwhile, the “moral majority” proves once again it is neither.

“Family values” Republican drops re-election bid after raunchy texts reveal extramarital affair

Van Taylor, a “family values” Republican Texas representative with a wife and three daughters, has dropped his re-election campaign after the public saw a raunchy sext he sent while having an extra-marital affair with Tania Joya, the widow of an Islamic State fighter just last year.

The sext requested her to perform analingus on him while he enjoyed a drink and then suggested that she give him deep oral intercourse.

A xian school in Texas believes “LGBTQIA kids are sexual predators!” while simultaneously protecting a cis hetero toxic male who raped another student during a hazing “ritual”:

5 officials at Christian school in Texas charged with failing to report alleged sexual assault of student

Five officials at a Christian school in Texas have been arrested and charged with failing to report the alleged sexual assault of a ninth-grader that unfolded in the locker room during baseball practice, officials say. 

The faculty members, two coaches and three administrators at Midland Christian School, were arrested Wednesday and charged with failure to report with intent to conceal neglect or abuse.

The five were: Jared Lee, school superintendent; Dana Ellis, secondary school principal; Matthew Counts, secondary assistant principal; Gregory McClendon, athletic director and head football coach; and Barry Russell, baseball coach, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by NBC News.

[. . .]

The victim, who was not named, said he entered the locker room to change when the lights suddenly turned off. He said he heard someone say it was “freshman initiation day” and a 10th grader began to hit him. He said he could hear people screaming as he was hit, the affidavit said.

He was then allegedly sexually assaulted with a baseball bat by another student, according to the affidavit. 

As I’ve said before, and it still holds true:

The more publicly prudish, the more privately prurient.

I have no doubt Abattoir took glee in hearing a woman was murdered last weekend in Houston.  What is the likelihood that the cops do a slipshod job of “investigating”, that they deadname the victim (which amazingly the media didn’t)?  Or they try to pin the crime on her boyfriend?

Transgender woman found dead with multiple gunshot wounds in southwest Houston apartment, HPD says

A transgender woman was found murdered in her southwest Houston apartment Saturday evening, according to police.

The victim was found shot to death around 8 p.m. inside an apartment on Dunlap and Clarewood. Her boyfriend discovered her body after he arrived, noting the door was unlocked, police say.

Neighbors told investigators they didn’t hear the shooting. Authorities believe the shooting happened during the day on Saturday when few people were home. There was no sign of a break-in, investigators say.

Thankfully, there seem to be a few people in Texas, willing to stand in the way.  There’s a judge who blocked Abattoir’s attempt to abuse a child and remove her from her family:

A judge has blocked a Texas investigation of one transgender teen’s parents

A Texas judge on Wednesday blocked the state from investigating the parents of a transgender teenager over gender-confirmation treatments, but stopped short of preventing the state from looking into other reports about children receiving similar care.

District Judge Amy Clark Meachum issued a temporary order halting the investigation by the Department of Family and Protective Services into the parents of the 16-year-old girl. The parents sued over the investigation and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s order last week that officials look into reports of such treatments as abuse.

Meachum wrote that the parents and the teen “face the imminent and ongoing deprivation of their constitutional rights, the potential loss of necessary medical care, and the stigma attached to being the subject of an unfounded child abuse investigation.”

And a few educated district attorneys not willing to be political pawns.

5 Texas district attorneys push back on Gov. Abbott’s ‘child abuse’ claims on transgender care

Five Texas district attorneys pushed back on Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive in which he called gender-transitioning and affirming procedures as “child abuse.”

In a letter signed by district attorneys who represent some of the most populous counties in the state, they called the directive “un-American.”

“We are deeply disturbed by Governor Abbott and Attorney General Paxton’s cruel directives treating transgender children’s access to life-saving, gender-affirming care as ‘child abuse,'” the letter read.

The district attorneys stated they “will not irrationally and unjustifiably interfere with medical decisions made between children, their parents, and their medical physicians” to ensure the safety of transgender youth.

They added, “We will not allow the governor and attorney general to disregard Texan children’s lives in order to score political points.”

Zelenskyy Caught Trying To Bribe!

Just not the way the republiclowns wanted.

Here’s a news story most western media have failed to cover: Ukraine’s government is offering money and asylum to Russian soldiers who surrender.  It sounds expensive, but think about it: nobody gets hurt, and the Russian army gets weaker.

Ukraine offers amnesty and money to Russian soldiers who lay down their weapons

Ukraine will give amnesty and money to Russian soldiers who lay down their weapons, the defense ministry said on Monday as Kyiv ramps up efforts to end Moscow’s assault on its territory.

“We offer Russian soldiers a choice: to die in an unjust war or full amnesty and 5 million rubles [$47,293] in compensation, if they lay down their arms and surrender voluntarily,” Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov said on Twitter.

It’s genius. It’s non-violent, it reduces the enemy forces, and it’s the most demoralizing thing you can say to them: “If you keep fighting, you’re suckers.”  Even at the lousy exchange rate of the ruble, US$47,000 in Ukraine would last for years.  Ukraine’s per capita income is US$3,740.

As Beau of the Fifth Column notes, most Russian soldiers are conscripts, including dissidents and (only alluded to) LGBTQIA people forced in to “make a man out of you”.  Ukraine’s views on LGBTQIA rights aren’t perfect, but they’re leagues ahead of Russia’s and would likely change when EU membership requires it.