Embarrassed To Tell You

hat tip = Blue Gal via Crooks & Liars

Our Mr Brooks

driftglass does the David Brooks takedown a lot better than I do.

Another in the continuing parade of passive-voiced responsibility-ducking bullshit:

Anybody who spends time in the working-class parts of America (and, one presumes, Britain) notices the contagions of drug addiction and suicide, and the feelings of anomie, cynicism, pessimism and resentment.

Part of this pain arises from deindustrialization. Good jobs are hard to find. But hardship is not exactly new to these places. Life in, say, a coal valley was never a bouquet of roses.

What’s also been lost are the social institutions and cultural values that made it possible to have self-respect amid hardship — to say, “I may not make a lot of money, but people can count on me. I’m loyal, tough, hard-working, resilient and part of a good community.”

 

Don't Be The Asshole, America

Today's Tweet

It'd be cooler'n shit if this was all anybody had to worry about.

Great !👏👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/KRyvF4UfDl

— Asghar Nikoorokh (@nikoorokh) July 11, 2016

Everybody's Doin' It

...so why should I be any different?  

This pic is "important", partly because certain Photo Editors have told us it's important, but I think there may be quite a bit more to it than that.

28-year-old Ieshia Evans, Baton Rouge, July 2016

First, if you show up dressed like you're looking for trouble, I have to think maybe you're looking for trouble.

Along those lines, the feeling of invulnerability the cops have to get from wearing their Play Date Suits* can cause them to be a lot less likely to avoid trouble - and actually, most people become far more likely to start trouble because of that feeling of invulnerability.

(*available at fine Cop Shop outlets everywhere for as little as $400 each - up to $1000 depending on options. And be sure to identify yourself as Military or Police or Security, because they don't sell this shit to just anybody, y'know)

So, do we need to look any further than what seems obvious here?  Do we really have to ask why people get fucked up and fucked over by a police force comprised of officers equipped for urban warfare and trained to deal with American citizens as if they're the enemy?

The shitty little irony is that those cops are convinced they're protecting Ms Evans - nobody seems able to clearly identify exactly what they're protecting her from (which means there's a high probability they're just rationalizing their behavior), but if she's not ridiculously careful, they're gonna protect her to death.  In the end, who protects any of us from our protectors?

And ain't that all kinds of pretty fucked up right there?

Today's Tweet

#TortureReport proves torture doesn't work. Dick Cheney says he'd do it again. For what, fun? (photo by @richardhine) pic.twitter.com/MutNgaFhFv

— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) December 14, 2014

Resistance Is Life

The whole thing from Juan Cole:

Kurdish Women Fighting ISIL Send Solidarity to BlackLivesMatter

“You are among the most radical voices in today’s racist, sexist, capitalist world,” the YPJ wrote to Black Lives Matter.

Fighters from the Kurdish Women’s Defense Units or YPJ, have sent a message of solidarity to the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States.

“To our black sisters and brothers! The people of Kurdistan stand with you!” read the short statement posted Saturday by the group, who has been fighting the incursions of ISIS [Daesh] in northern Syria for close to two years. “Here are the women who fight ISIS in Rojava (northern Syria) – saluting your honorable struggle for freedom, dignity, and resistance!”

The call for Black Lives Matter has become a focal point for discussions around systemic racism and police brutality following the police killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner in 2014, as well as numerous other incidents since. This past week, police killed Philando Castille and Alton Sterling – both incidents filmed and subsequently shared ober social media – touching off more protests across the United States.

For the women of the YPJ, solidarity and building “world revolution” against racism, sexism and capitalism, go hand in hand.

“As the women in Kurdistan know very well, we need to build our self-defense in all spheres of life. You are among the most radical voices in today’s racist, sexist, capitalist world and the freedom-loving peoples of the world deeply respect and salute your fight! Solidarity is the first step to world revolution!,” the statement continued.

Since the most recent string of high-profile U.S.police shootings of Blackpeople, expressions of solidarity from other communities in the United States as well as groups from around the world have been pouring in – with the radical, communist Kurdish groups being the latest.

“Black Lives Matter! As we say in Kurdish: “Berxwedan jiyan e!” – Resistance is life!,” the YPJgroup concluded.

Via TeleSur

I guess I'd worry a little about backlash because of a ringing endorsement from a group that espouses "communism" - if I thought anybody was gonna pay any real attention to it anyway.

We seem to think we can rule the world without actually having to live in it.

You're Gonna Need A Longer List

I guess my only question is - Why are there only 6 items?  "Conservatives" are scared of everything.

Nuthin' but a bunch whiny-butt pussies.

hat tip = FB pal VW-E

Today's Tweet

No BS, I wish every white person on Twitter could see this. Maybe it'll help pic.twitter.com/vae574ysG0

— Tsunami Sea (@carltonspeight) July 6, 2016

The Deafening Roar Of Silence

The New Yorker:

The consistent failure of our politics to take reasonable steps to prevent guns from getting into the wrong hands makes it difficult to predict with any confidence that even the slaughter of police officers will alter the frozen politics. But it may have a subtler effect, causing gun owners to reconsider whether the N.R.A. truly has the country’s best interests at heart. More than a hundred million Americans live in households with guns, but many remain largely uninvolved in gun politics. The N.R.A. has between three and five million members, which means it represents only a sliver of American gun owners. Moreover, even among its members, many are unconvinced, I and others have found, by the belligerent rhetoric; they own and love guns for a variety of reasons—from sports to hunting to self-defense—and they overwhelmingly support reasonable steps to prevent innocent people, civilians or police, from being killed by gunfire.

On Friday, after hours of silence, the N.R.A. issued a statement from LaPierre, who had authored the “jack-booted thugs” letter. This time, he expressed “the deep anguish all of us feel for the heroic Dallas law enforcement officers who were killed and wounded, as well as to those who so bravely ran toward danger to defend the city and the people of Dallas.”

The N.R.A.’s explicit call for a more armed society reveals the lie behind its homage to “coexistence.” By directing rage against the government, by preventing politicians from heeding the overwhelming demands of their constituents for broader background checks, by endorsing Donald Trump’s plan for mass deportations and bans on Muslim immigration, the N.R.A. has assembled a volatile case against the idea of coexistence—and then disavows the result when it explodes.