SIGNAL BOOSTING: More from Crip Dyke in Portland

Further to my last post, here are links to subsequent posts from Crip Dyke in Portland.

Comfy, Cozy BFFs [Oooh. I like the way you think drink.]

Crashing the Fence: Portland Videos, July 22nd

I am a wimp: Portland, July 22 [Whatever the opposite of “wimp” is, that is what you are, CD. JFC!]

Humorous Interlude: I am not saying …

Reality Check: We can do better

What do you need to know about the Portland protests?

Desperate for some Tear Gas Video? I have you covered!

If I Ran the Zoo Left

Warnings

Sunday Night Protests: A wee spot of bother and a chaotic video

Listen to the Flower People

What’s up with the tear gas, Feds?

Sometimes I cannot even believe how freaking amazing my friends and FtB colleagues are.

SIGNAL BOOSTING: Crip Dyke in Portland.

I have been viewing reports of the federal response to protests in Portland, Oregon with mounting horror, terror, disgust and rage. My sources have been mainly mainstream media reports, as well as emails/social media posts from Democratic congresscritters and Democratic-allied NPOs. Of course all my sources – actually, all sources – have built-in biases and agendas; some I tend to agree with at least on certain issues, and some I do not.

If only I had a connection to someone reporting from ground zero in Portland, someone I trust implicitly, and who I know for a fact shares my social justice perspective and leftist values! Wouldn’t that be fucking amazing?! Well it’s Christmas in July here, people! My brilliant and righteous FreethoughtBlogs colleague (and longtime friend) Crip Dyke is there now, posting updates and pictures to her blog Pervert Justice.

Not only am I eagerly reading them, I am sharing them here so you can easily read them too. Here is what we’ve got so far, and I will make every effort to keep updating.

I am in Portland. I am acting.

Pictures from Portland

A few more pics from Portland

I have questions, Marriott and Enterprise.

99% of Portland Moms “Not angry, just disappointed”

The chaos of tear gas

The Story of July 21: Three offensives

Please spread these posts as far and wide as you are willing and able.

RELATED:

One of my aforementioned sources whose messaging on this issue (and others) I find particularly spot-on is VoteVets. On Monday they released this ad, and it ran for the first time nationally on Morning Joe today.

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NYC to paint ‘Black Lives Matter’ in front of Trump Tower. LOL.

NYC mayor Bill de Blasio is taking a page from Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowser:

(via New York Daily News.)

The city is planning to paint the words “Black Lives Matter” in bold letters right in front of Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan.

“The president is a disgrace to the values we cherish in New York City,” Julia Arredondo, a spokeswoman for Mayor de Blasio, said in a statement. “He can’t run or deny the reality we are facing, and any time he wants to set foot in the place he claims is his hometown, he should be reminded Black Lives Matter.”

The famous rallying cry will be painted on Fifth Ave. between 56th and 57th streets, right in front of the president’s flagship high-rise, as well as Centre St. and Adam Clayton Powell Blvd.

Earlier this month, Hizzoner said the city would paint the phrase throughout the city in the wake of heated protests sparked by the May 25 death of Minnesota man George Floyd at the hands of police.

A giant "BLACK LIVES MATTER" sign is painted on Fulton St. on Monday, June 15, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (John Minchillo/AP)A giant “BLACK LIVES MATTER” sign is painted on Fulton St. on Monday, June 15, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (John Minchillo/AP)
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If I may be so bold to make a helpful suggestion?

Dear Mayor de Blasio:

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I also hate The Washington Post, reason #4,208,341

Further to my earlier, exceedingly long-winded and probably pointless rant about why I detest The New York Times, I would be remiss if I did not mention that I also despise The Washington Post, and for exactly the same reasons.

I just received a “news alert” via email from The Post, and once again we find that critical information is missing, with duplicitous drivel in its place. [Read more…]

I hate the New York Times, reason #6,858,944.

Hey, remember that one time I invented the world’s bestest ever and also most useful ever acronym ever? You know: #muschniwogdowis?

Of course you remember! It is simply unforgettable! And, it just rolls off the tongue like the smoothest chocolate ganache. Prediction: #muschniwogdowis will continue to be of critical importance to our national discourse until it is no longer true that Most US Citizens Have No Idea What Our Government Does Or Who It Serves.

There are many reasons for this sad state of affairs. One of them is, indisputably, the fucking New York Times. [Read more…]

IMNSHO: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s finest speech.

Before I got sick, I would post every year on this occasion my favorite speech of King’s, that I know of or have ever heard, in its entirety. It was delivered by Dr. King in my much loved, adopted home town at Manhattan’s Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, and entitled Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence. When I last wrote about it here in 2017 I said this:

It has become my tradition on this day of remembrance to post the text of a speech delivered by Dr. King on April 4, 1967 at Manhattan’s Riverside Church entitled Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence (audio recording here), along with a short commentary about why I believe these words are so important. The speech is truly magnificent, yet it tends to be given short shrift relative to other works of the slain civil rights leader.

King’s “I Have A Dream” speech is of course his most well-known and celebrated. He gave it from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, at the closing of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and major television networks broadcast it live. The text is short (by King’s standards) and is notable for, among other things, painting a vivid picture of what racial justice looks like.

“Letter from a Birmingham Jail” is also frequently cited. He wrote it in response to an April 12, 1963 open letter by eight white Alabama clergymen, who took issue with King and his tactics. Its central focus is a beautiful, powerful defense of non-violent activism. But what always strikes me most about it is King’s crushing disappointment upon learning that the greatest enemies to social progress are not, in fact, those who are openly and hatefully opposed to it, but those “allies” who rend their garments and advocate moderation, patience and gradualism in the face of immediate, deadly and enduring injustice. King held up a mirror, and in doing so, he showed us what ally-ship looks like.

Four years later, he spoke the words of Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence. Here, he showed us exactly how inextricably linked are the battles against discrimination, oppression, poverty, injustice, and many other social ills to the evils of war. This is a broader, much more sweeping vision; in my opinion, these are his finest words. Yes, there are religious references. Yet King tethers these to his eloquent defenses of secular ideas of justice, compassion and love to make the same case; in this way they function to bolster his arguments (for the religious-minded) instead of standing in for them.

As King said in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

We have a lot of work to do.

PEACE.

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I have nothing to add to that today (nor, apparently, the energy and focus to do so even if I had wanted to. *sigh*). Speech below the cut. [Source.]

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Whose pain matters?

Since there are currently no pressing problems facing our great nation, the US House of Reprehensibles has just passed HB 36, a national ban on abortions after 20-weeks. Charmingly entitled “The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” the legislation would force a pregnant patient who is carrying a fetus that is dead, dying, or incompatible with life to carry it to term and give birth, unless the patient is in grave danger of death or “substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.”

According to reality, fetuses are not capable of feeling pain until at least 28 weeks. But since conservatives are highly allergic to reality, perhaps Your Liberal Media™ might helpfully report on this egregious tripe from another angle. Let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that a fetus is indeed capable of feeling pain at 20 weeks.

SO FUCKING WHAT?

You know what’s really painful? Giving birth. (So I’ve heard – I personally dodged that bullet thank Vishnu.) I would like my legislator to promptly propose a bill entitled The Pain-Capable Pregnant Person Protection Act, which provides free abortions on demand to anyone who wishes to avoid the pain of childbirth. The bill should have no problem passing in this congress, seeing how the majority is so concerned about sparing citizens from painful medical procedures.

IRIS ♥︎ #VeteransForKaepernick.

After his grandson tweeted this photo of his grandfather kneeling in solidarity with NFL protests against racist police violence, John Middlemas, a white, 97-year-old World War II veteran, became an instant social media star. He said he wanted to join athletes who knelt in protest during the national anthem. Middlemas also had this to say: [Read more…]