friendly_iconoclast
friendly_iconoclast's JournalMLK, Jr.'s words about white moderates still resonate today
From his "Letter From a Birmingham Jail":
I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.
In your statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But is this a logical assertion? Isn't this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isn't this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical inquiries precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which they made him drink hemlock? Isn't this like condemning Jesus because his unique God consciousness and never ceasing devotion to God's will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion? We must come to see that, as the federal courts have consistently affirmed, it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber. I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes: "All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth." Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.
This is rich- NOW Klobuchar wants charges brought against killer cops
Gee, I wonder what made her change her tune...
https://twitter.com/amyklobuchar/status/1265982003742212097
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/amy-klobuchar-was-a-tough-on-crime-prosecutor-will-a-diverse-democratic-base-accept-her-record/2019/03/21/739e6984-4057-11e9-9361-301ffb5bd5e6_story.html
..As chief prosecutor for Minnesotas most populous county from 1999 to 2007, Klobuchar declined to bring charges in more than two dozen cases in which people were killed in encounters with police.
At the same time, she aggressively prosecuted smaller offenses such as vandalism and routinely sought longer-than-recommended sentences, including for minors. Such prosecutions, done with the aim of curbing more serious crimes, have had mixed results and have been criticized for their disproportionate effect on poor and minority communities.
We were already a community in distress when she became Hennepin County attorney, said Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and former president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP. Rather than taking steps to help mitigate some of those concerns and issues, during her tenure in office, her policies exacerbated the situation....
Andrew Cuomo gave immunity to nursing home execs after big campaign donations
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/26/andrew-cuomo-nursing-home-execs-immunityLess than two years after that flood of cash from the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), Cuomo signed legislation last month quietly shielding hospital and nursing home executives from the threat of lawsuits stemming from the coronavirus outbreak. The provision, inserted into an annual budget bill by Cuomos aides, created one of the nations most explicit immunity protections for healthcare industry officials, according to legal experts...
...New York has become one of the globes major pandemic hotspots and the center of the states outbreak has been nursing homes, where more than 5,000 New Yorkers have died, according to Associated Press data.
Those deaths have occurred as Cuomos critics say he has taken a hands-off approach to regulating the healthcare industry interests that helped bankroll his election campaign. In March, Cuomos administration issued an order that allowed nursing homes to readmit sick patients without testing them for Covid-19. Amid allegations of undercounted casualties, the governor also pushed back against pressure to have state regulators more stringently record and report death rates in nursing homes...
Q: Will the Murdochs turn against Trump if he costs them too much, or are they die-hards?
Genuinely curious to know others' takes on this..
"My family are the rule-breaking, lockdown-flouting entitled Americans you've heard about during...
...the pandemic"
The self-entitlement is astounding...
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/coronavirus-lockdown-breaking-madrid-miami-entitled-americans-a9517476.html
Andrea Askowitz
Florida 3 days ago
...Vicky picked us up from the airport and the four of us put masks on and drove to my moms beach house in Key Largo, an hour south of our house in Miami. We knew Key Largo wasnt letting tourists in. We werent tourists, exactly. We had a note from my mom, plus two utility bills, and passed through the checkpoint, no problem. The kids and I would quarantine for 14 days. To stay safe, Vicky drove back to Miami.
Four days later, Vicky headed from Miami to Key Largo because the kids and I had coronavirus tests scheduled and we only had one car. Maybe we could have taken an Uber to get the test. The truth was, we wanted to be together.
Then Vicky called, crying. Shed been stopped at the checkpoint. I had only heard her cry like that one other time during our 12-year marriage when her mom died. She said, The police are not letting me through.
An hour later Vicky called again, still crying. I told them I left the kids alone in the house. Theyre escorting me home. You have to hide....
Scientists forsee new pandemic, say it will be widespread by early next year
This new malady already has a name, and an easily identifiable symptom-fortunately, DUers are 99.99% immune
to this new menace:
Trumpheimer's Disease- it causes amnesia about the patient's previous support of Donald Trump...
Guardian: Armed black citizens escort Michigan lawmaker to capitol after volatile rightwing protest
Repost from LBN: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142489270
The state representative Sarah Anthony, 36, said she wanted to highlight what she saw as the failure of the Michigan capitol police to provide legislators with adequate security during the protest, which saw demonstrators with rifles standing in the legislative chamber above lawmakers...
...One of Anthonys constituents, a black firefighter, organized Wednesdays capitol escort. While early reports focused on three black men with large rifles escorting Anthony, there were six participants, including two women, and some of them were armed with handguns, Lynn said. Five of the participants are black and one is Hispanic. Michael Lynn Jr, a Lansing resident, said he was frustrated to see his legislator being violently intimidated in her workplace. He said the escort was the first time he had ever chosen to openly carry his AR-15 rifle.
Lynn said he did not want to see a black woman who had been elevated to political office feeling threatened because of the white supremacists in the yard and wanted to make sure that would never happen again...
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/07/michigan-lawmaker-armed-escort-rightwing-protest
Now, *that's* more like it!
The Deacons for Defense and Justice set the original example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deacons_for_Defense_and_Justice
https://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?azview_all&address118x331645
Remembering Robert Hicks and the Deacons of Defense
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/us/25hicks.html?_r1&scp1&sqrobert%20hicks&stcse
By Douglas Martin
April 24, 2010
Someone had called to say the Ku Klux Klan was coming to bomb Robert Hicks's house. The police said there was nothing they could do. It was the night of Feb. 1, 1965, in Bogalusa, La.
The Klan was furious that Mr. Hicks, a black paper mill worker, was putting up two white civil rights workers in his home. It was just six months after three young civil rights workers had been murdered in Philadelphia, Miss.
Mr. Hicks and his wife, Valeria, made some phone calls. They found neighbors to take in their children, and they reached out to friends for protection. Soon, armed black men materialized. Nothing happened.
Less than three weeks later, the leaders of a secretive, paramilitary organization of blacks called the Deacons for Defense and Justice visited Bogalusa. It had been formed in Jonesboro, La., in 1964 mainly to protect unarmed civil rights demonstrators from the Klan. After listening to the Deacons, Mr. Hicks took the lead in forming a Bogalusa chapter, recruiting many of the men who had gone to his house to protect his family and guests...
The RW will not disarm, and as we've seen, the police will not disarm them.
Kudos to these citizens for following in the path of the Deacons and protecting their rights
Armed black citizens escort Michigan lawmaker to capitol after volatile rightwing protest
Source: The Guardian
A black lawmaker came to Michigan's capitol with an escort of armed black citizens on Wednesday, days after white protesters with guns staged a volatile protest inside the state house, comparing the Democratic governor's public health orders to "tyranny".
The state representative Sarah Anthony, 36, said she wanted to highlight what she saw as the failure of the Michigan capitol police to provide legislators with adequate security during the protest, which saw demonstrators with rifles standing in the legislative chamber above lawmakers...
...One of Anthony's constituents, a black firefighter, organized Wednesday's capitol escort. While early reports focused on three black men with large rifles escorting Anthony, there were six participants, including two women, and some of them were armed with handguns, Lynn said. Five of the participants are black and one is Hispanic. Michael Lynn Jr, a Lansing resident, said he was frustrated to see his legislator being violently intimidated in her workplace. He said the escort was the first time he had ever chosen to openly carry his AR-15 rifle.
Lynn said he did not want to see a black woman who had been elevated to political office feeling threatened "because of the white supremacists in the yard" and wanted "to make sure that would never happen again"...
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/07/michigan-lawmaker-armed-escort-rightwing-protest
Now, *that's* more like it!
The Deacons for Defense and Justice set the original example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deacons_for_Defense_and_Justice
https://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?azview_all&address118x331645
Remembering Robert Hicks and the Deacons of Defense
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/us/25hicks.html?_r1&scp1&sqrobert%20hicks&stcse
By Douglas Martin
April 24, 2010
Someone had called to say the Ku Klux Klan was coming to bomb Robert Hicks's house. The police said there was nothing they could do. It was the night of Feb. 1, 1965, in Bogalusa, La.
The Klan was furious that Mr. Hicks, a black paper mill worker, was putting up two white civil rights workers in his home. It was just six months after three young civil rights workers had been murdered in Philadelphia, Miss.
Mr. Hicks and his wife, Valeria, made some phone calls. They found neighbors to take in their children, and they reached out to friends for protection. Soon, armed black men materialized. Nothing happened.
Less than three weeks later, the leaders of a secretive, paramilitary organization of blacks called the Deacons for Defense and Justice visited Bogalusa. It had been formed in Jonesboro, La., in 1964 mainly to protect unarmed civil rights demonstrators from the Klan. After listening to the Deacons, Mr. Hicks took the lead in forming a Bogalusa chapter, recruiting many of the men who had gone to his house to protect his family and guests...
The RW will not disarm, and as we've seen, the police will not disarm them.
Kudos to these citizens for following in the path of the Deacons and protecting their rights
Evidence that Tara Reade isn't writing her own tweets, w/ examples:
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/EWutWKyWsAIXf5A?format=jpg&name=largehttps://twitter.com/lizburgh/status/1255287529324019712
I only made it 2 weeks back before I ran out of space for more examples.
These are the red flags I found JUST from the last 2 weeks.
https://twitter.com/lizburgh/status/1255287531459039233
Here are some of the most interesting red flags that stood out to me:
https://twitter.com/lizburgh/status/1255287538744463361
Just hilarious! She's defending herself from being called a Russian agent by screwing up a common English phrase
https://twitter.com/lizburgh/status/1255287596084838401
And a lot of otherwise poor grammar.
https://twitter.com/lizburgh/status/1255292146892111872
It has phrases like "the eucalyptus swayed in the gentle morning breeze"...and she clearly enjoys writing in a flowery/wordy style. The polar opposite of her Twitter style.
https://twitter.com/lizburgh/status/1255292149865873409
Apocalyptic vision: the unsettling beauty of lockdown is pure sci-fi
Glad to see I'm not the only one who feels like they're stuck in a J.G. Ballard story...
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/apr/29/apocalyptic-vision-the-unsettling-beauty-of-lockdown-britain-is-pure-sci-fi-coronavirus
Take a walk through quiet streets for your daily exercise and you come across vistas sci-fi has spent more than a century preparing us for. A main road so still you can stand in the middle of it, among the squatting pigeons. A row of expensive shops all closed and dark midweek. Such scenes of The End have haunted the modern imagination since HG Wells described the abandoned streets of the imperial metropolis and devastated Surrey in The War of the Worlds. Weve all absorbed these visions of apocalyptic Britain, generation after generation, from the 1970s TV chiller Survivors to Danny Boyles uncannily convincing dawn photography of an emptied landscape in the film 28 Days Later. Surely we can be forgiven a frisson of macabre awe at seeing all these fantasies become real...
...It might be healthier to embrace the nightmare than pretend were in a cosy new normal. Im not too sure about lockdown culture. Its all so positive and mutually supportive. Lets bake, exercise and singalong. But imagination is black-hearted and feeds on shadows. Positivity is the opposite of sensitivity. The 18th-century aesthetician Edmund Burke looked honestly into his own soul and confessed that, for all the seductions of pretty things, he was more truly drawn to disturbing sights a pitch-black night, a cliff face, a storm at sea. Burke called their aesthetic appeal sublime. Tell an audience gathered to watch a play that a public hanging is about to happen down the road, he says, and the theatre will empty.
A normally bustling city or town that has been reduced to ghostly calm is a startling instance of the sublime. And a new one. For all the gleeful shudders of sci-fi, no previous generation has ever quite experienced this before. Writers imagined it and film-makers strived to visualise it but no one has actually woken up in a modern world that has come to such a disturbing standstill...
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