Seven Young Artists…

Today, Americans will decide who will be the 45th President of the United States of America. An online exhibition considers the national and international consequences of this election. The group exhibition entitled, Pulling Down The Walls, organized by Galerie Number 8, examines some of the bigger issues—immigration, race, gender and equality—of the year. Featuring artists, Campbell Addy, Ivan Forde, Justin French, Nicolas Henry, Hector Mediavilla, Leonard Pongo, and David Uzochukwi, the pop-up show uses portrait, landscape, and reportage photography, to show what’s at stake in this presidential election. Read and see more at The Creators Project.

Justin French, Patriot, 2015, 20 x 30 inches. © Justin French.

Justin French, Patriot, 2015, 20 x 30 inches. © Justin French.

 

Hector Mediavilla, Latingo Border #6, 2010, 48 x 60 inches. © Hector Mediavilla.

Hector Mediavilla, Latingo Border #6, 2010, 48 x 60 inches. © Hector Mediavilla.

Boooooks.

books

We voted here in town before heading to Bismarck, and the polling station was as it ever is, with some townspeople hanging out, having coffee and breakfast from the table laden with handmade goodies. Had a chat with people about the turkeys, and other stuff, then got to the business of voting. Small towns are great places to vote. Then it was into Bismarck, book store being the first stop. It’s been a while, but the radar was going off, and for good reason, too. I was thrilled to see another Brom – for those who aren’t familiar, Brom is a talented artist who started writing some years back. I highly recommend his first book, The Child Thief, which is based on Peter Pan, but it’s no Disneyfied retelling. It’s a dark tale, which deals with unsettling issues, such as child abuse. All of his books include colour plates of his artwork, usually key characters in the book. I was quite surprised to see the second book in Ken Liu’s dynasty series, this one follows The Dandelion Dynasty. That man is one fast writer! Very excited to get my hands Black Panther. Just started it, but so far, it’s very good, and I’m in love with Ayo and Aneka, they deserve their own book, and their own movie. The Carlisle Indian Industrial School arrived very quickly, and is so very poignant.

I also bought this little candle in a tin, tangerine, juniper, and clove, a scent I not only want to breathe in, but to eat and bathe in too. A brilliant blend. Also, a surprise package at the post office today – more wonderful smelling soap from Marcus, and a complete surprise – thank you so much!

Right Wing Terrorism Awaits.

Shutterstock.

Shutterstock.

[…] Already there are militias preparing for “civil unrest in the days following a victory by Democrat Hillary Clinton. They are convinced “the Islamic State, or agents sent by Mrs. Clinton, or both, may soon descend” on them. At Trump rallies, supporters warn of coming riots nationwide and “another Revolutionary war” to remove Clinton from office.

This rhetoric can be dismissed as fantasies stewing in the overheated imagination of reactionaries who envision race wars and their neighborhood going “up in flames” every time a centrist Democrat is elected or Black people march for justice. But there is another grave risk likely to explode after a Clinton victory: right-wing terrorism, particularly mass shootings.

Over the last year, as white male anger congealed around Trump, there has been a lull in mass shootings, about 60 percent of which are carried out by white men. While a causal relationship between his campaign and domestic terrorism can never be proved, there are reasons to think the drop in mass shootings is linked to Trump’s candidacy as well as it is more probable there will be an outburst of right-wing terrorism after a Clinton victory.

The foremost reason is recent history. The day after Obama’s inauguration in 2009, Keith Luke, a 22-year-old neo-Nazi, went on a rampage of murder and rape in Brockton, Massachusetts, saying he was “fighting for a dying race.” Over the next two years there were at least seven other cases of deadly right-wing political terrorism carried out by white men, with targets including a Planned Parenthood clinic, the Holocaust Museum, an IRS building, and massacre in Arizona that nearly claimed the life of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. There were other aborted political terrorist attacks or ones that ended in the death of the gunman only. The common thread was attackers were motivated by anti-government sentiment, often fueled by the likes of Fox News, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin.

[…]

The violence is already bubbling up. One examination of the public Facebook pages of more than 240 active militias found a significant spike in recent activity of members vowing insurrection and violence if Clinton wins. These groups also wax and wane according to who is president. Under George W. Bush, the number of Patriot groups, which include many militias, declined by 85 percent from the peak of the Clinton era, to a low of 131 in 2007. Within five years, under Obama, the number of Patriot had grown an astonishing 10-fold.

[…]

If anything, the danger of right-wing terrorism is greater than ever. Much of that aggression has been channeled into Donald Trump’s campaign, which may account for the drop-off in mass shootings. That’s why his defeat is likely to see a rise in attacks. The militias preparing for insurrection are a vector of future terrorism. Shane Bauer’s eye-opening look into these militias found they walk “a delicate line between stoking its members’ paranoid fears and fantasies of rebellion and holding them in check.” Some militia leaders admitted they expelled or even reported members to authorities whom they suspected were planning to kill Muslims or assassinate politicians.

[…]

Trump has convinced millions of heavily armed Americans that if he doesn’t win, then it will be the end of America. And with many followers going around with an itchy finger on the trigger, convinced war is inevitable, how long before some of them start shooting?

Arun Gupta’s full article is well worth reading. Our interesting times are about to get more interesting, and much more terrifying.

Cops, nothing better to do.

Mariza Ruelas with her children. Photograph: Courtesy of Mariza Ruelas.

Mariza Ruelas with her children. Photograph: Courtesy of Mariza Ruelas.

When cops aren’t busy murdering people of colour, they’re busy mounting sting operations to harass them out of existence. All that blue service, so much to be proud of, and not to leave our so-called justice system out of things, piling on charges and punishments into a great big pile, just the sort of thing a single mother of six can handle without blinking. Right.

A single mother could face three years in jail in California for selling homemade ceviche and chicken stuffed fried avocado on Facebook after law enforcement conducted an undercover operation and accused her of running a food business without a permit.

The story of Mariza Ruelas’ charges has gone viral since the Stockton woman spoke out about police targeting her in an online investigation of a local Facebook group that members used to share recipes, organize potlucks and sell dishes.

The misdemeanor charges of “operating a food facility without a valid permit” and “engaging in business without a permit to sell” have drawn widespread criticisms of California police and health inspectors and raise fresh questions about how law enforcement agencies use social media for surveillance.

[…]

Ruelas said she helped run the 209 Food Spot group on Facebook, which is named after Stockton’s area code.

In December, someone who contacted her through the group asking for ceviche turned out to be an undercover San Joaquin county investigator who conducted a “sting” on behalf of the district attorney’s office.

She and five other users of the page faced citations for two misdemeanors, but Ruelas was the only one to refuse to sign a plea deal. She said she would be happy to do community service and pay a fine, but she didn’t want a misdemeanor on her record.

San Joaquin County deputy district attorney Kelly McDaniel told the Guardian that Ruelas used the page to sell food after her initial arraignment, resulting in a total of four counts that add up to a maximum of three years and a possible fine of more than $10,000.

Ruelas said she sold her signature chicken stuffed fried avocado dish to try and raise money for her legal costs.

Mariza Ruelas said she sold her signature chicken stuffed fried avocado dish to try and raise money for her legal costs. Photograph: Courtesy of Mariza Ruelas.

Mariza Ruelas said she sold her signature chicken stuffed fried avocado dish to try and raise money for her legal costs. Photograph: Courtesy of Mariza Ruelas.

That looks pretty tasty to me. This was a local thing, not someone who was out to get rich, it was about building community, sharing food, and recouping the costs a bit. I know Stockton, or I used to. It’s a place widely avoided by those who don’t have reason to be there or stay, it’s a dangerous place. Lots of crime. I guess it’s much better to spend all that tax money and resources on hunting down community minded women. Great job, Stockton cops!

Full story here.

Oh, the irony.

Glenn Beck at FreePAC (Photo: Screen capture).

Glenn Beck at FreePAC (Photo: Screen capture).

Glen Beck is now going on and on and on about how wonderful the Obamas are, just great people, a great president, great, I tell ya! Oh, and Pres. Obama made me a better man! I thought that was supposed to be god’s work. Glenn also stated that he’s now a supporter of Black Lives Matter. Maybe it’s just me, but I’d look askance at Glenn wanting to be an ally. I’m just going to post this one quote, you can go read all the rest.

“We’ve made everything into a game show,” he said, “and now we’re reaping the consequences of it.”

You don’t say, Mr. Glenn jazz hands and tears Beck. I didn’t make everything into a game show, and I didn’t watch any of it either. When it comes to blame in that regard, perhaps you’ve heard of these items called mirrors, Mr. Beck. Time for a long, deep look. I expect that if Mr. Beck gets the opportunity to jump right back into the game show game, he’ll take it, with bells on. Who knows what he’ll say then. Quite the irony overdose for a morning, especially one which requires voting.

Full glurge is here.

North Carolina Boasts Over Voter Suppression.

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An early voting location in Greensboro, NC. CREDIT: AP Photo/Skip Foreman.

North Carolina, almost making nDakota look good. The NC GOP has been working hard on voter suppression, and they are getting a result, an unfortunate one.

After Republican leaders mounted a concerted and illegal effort to make it harder for African Americans to vote in North Carolina, the party apparatus celebrated on Monday that fewer African Americans have voted in North Carolina this year.

In July, a federal appeals court struck down an “omnibus” election law, passed by the GOP-controlled state legislature and signed by Gov. Pat McCrory (R), writing that it was “hard not to come away with the conclusion that North Carolina’s lawmakers wanted to get caught engaging in unlawfully racial discrimination.” The court found that the GOP legislature had “requested data on the use, by race, of a number of voting practices,” and then “enacted legislation that restricted voting and registration in five different ways, all of which disproportionately affected African Americans.” In an unsuccessfulappeal, the state actually claimed that its efforts would instead increase minority turnout.

After that failed, North Carolina Republicans used their two-to-one edge on electoral boards to slash early voting options and force long lines at the few early voting locations in urban centers like Charlotte, Raleigh, Fayetteville, and Winston-Salem. Unsurprisingly, almost 9 percent fewer African Americans took advantage of early voting than had in 2012.

Full story here.

In other bad shenanigans news, a Colorado amendment would take power away from voters:

A state constitutional amendment on Tuesday’s ballot will give Coloradans an opportunity to make it much harder for voters to change their laws.

Amendment 71 — known as “Raise the Bar” — would mean that in order to get an amendment on future ballots, 2 percent of voters in each of the state’s 35 senate districts would have to sign a petition. In addition, it would increase the threshold for passing a constitutional amendment from 50 percent to 55 percent.

The amendment is being backed primarily by business interests, including a massive cash infusion from the oil and gas industry.

Opponents say that passing Raise the Bar will make it nearly impossible for citizen-led initiatives to get on the ballot. Colorado is characterized by widely divergent districts. A policy popular in deeply red Colorado Springs would have trouble gaining 2 percent of voters’ signatures in liberal Boulder, for instance, and vice-versa.

“One part of the state could hold veto power over the rest of the state,” said Jessica Goad, communications director for Conservation Colorado. “There are so many issues where this could really stymie changes.”

One of those issues is oil and gas regulation.

A pair of proposed amendments that would have restricted oil and gas development in the state narrowly missed garnering enough signatures to appear on the ballot this year. Under the rules proposed by Amendment 71, they would be virtually impossible to mount.

We have all been bought and sold, tossed about as disposable pawns in corporate gaming. Oh yay. Full story here.

Mario Patiño.

Olvido amor, modelo. Mario Patino, fotografìa. Arte Gay, queer art. Mexico-3

Olvido amor, modelo. Mario Patino, fotografìa. Arte Gay, queer art. Mexico-3

Mario Patiño is a multidisciplinary artist born and living in Mexico. In order to create awareness of LGBTQ diversity, his photographic work focuses on gender transgression. Patiño pushes back against what he sees as the world of prejudice and oppression from the male chauvinist, heteronormative Mexican society toward this community.

“I began working with LGBT performance artists, as their body language is intense, mannered, and uniquely different from heterosexuals. They are also accustomed to dealing with nudity and transgression with an open mind.”

“How to speak of the periphery? Peripheral is all that gets out of control, that corrupts a system, that lives on the edge, that adheres to the margins, that puts in doubt, that causes questioning, that rebels, that revolutionizes, that rises, that organizes insurrections, it’s everything that doesn’t fit, that resists, that refuses to play the game by the rules, it’s the possibility of change, of something new.”

Absolutely amazing work, this. Exquisite, thought provoking, and poignant. You can see more at The Advocate, and at Contemporary Multidisciplinar Performance Art. More photos below the fold – there’s nothing graphic, but you might want to have a caution if you’re at work.

[Read more…]

Oh Yuengling.

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Gay bars in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., are boycotting Yuengling after the beer company’s owner, Richard “Dick” Yuengling Jr., came out in support of Donald Trump. Last week the fifth-generation businessman gave the Republican nominee’s son Eric a tour of a Yuengling brewery located in Pottsville, Pa.

“My father’s going to make it a lot easier for business to function,” the younger Trump claimed during a news conference. “We’re going to do it right here in the U.S.”

“Our guys are behind your father,” Yuengling responded. “We need him in there.”

Following the owner’s endorsement, Rep. Brian Sims, Pennsylvania’s first openly gay state legislator, called on gay-owned businesses in the Keystone State to stop serving the company’s products. Forbes described Yuengling as boasting a “cult-like status” in the 19 states — primarily in the East Coast and Southwest — where the beer is distributed. Even President Obama is a fan.

But the buck has to stop somewhere, as Sims wrote on Facebook.

“One of the most prevalent brands in the gayborhood and in LGBT bars across the Commonwealth, is using our own dollars to back a person and an ideology that says that our lives … matter less,” he said. “More to the point, those dollars are being used right now to give power to his bigoted messages attacking our black and brown neighbors and all of the women in our lives.”

“Our communities know a thing or two about voting with our dollars,” Sims added, “and I won’t be using my hard-earned dollars to give power to any company or person who hates me. What about you?”

Following Sims’s call to arms, several gay bars swiftly dropped the brand.

[…]

Many of Yuengling’s most loyal drinkers have joined the call to #DumpYuengling. Todd Bird, who lives in Louisville, Ky., regularly drives 90 miles to Ohio for a drink of his favorite beer, but he said those days are over.

“Supporting racist, misogynist nut-job Trump is the end of the line for me,” he wrote on Twitter.

The money power of the queer community is not something to be scorned, as many companies have found before, and have had to make a decision to not be such bigoted asswipes, when they’ve seen what has happened to their bottom line. Yuengling has quite the following, and to have people dump it cold is going to hurt, even if Dick Yuengling hasn’t quite figured that one out yet. He will, eventually.

Full story at The Advocate.

A thumbs-up, a grin, and a corpse.

Leaked photo of Omar Rahman's body and a North County Police Co-Operative officer (Screen capture).

Leaked photo of Omar Rahman’s body and a North County Police Co-Operative officer (Screen capture).

Just in case anyone was getting warm and fuzzy feelings about cops here in uStates. This photo was leaked, not much information about that right now, out of St. Louis, Missouri, of a cop giving a happy thumbs up over the corpse of Omar Rahman, who was shot and killed in August this year. I don’t really care what anyone did, or how any given cop might feel about any given person, this is unconscionable, no matter how you slice it. The St. Louis cop shop isn’t saying much about this, claiming their crime scene camera is missing, along with any hard copies. I find that interesting, given how cop shops everywhere are always plaintively crying about restrictive budgets and never having enough money. Cameras are expensive, I know, I have one, and it’s not even close to one of the high ends, just a Nikon D90. It was expensive enough, and lenses, well, anyone with a camera can bend your ear about lens lust and the costs which leave most of us in a state of drooling dreams. A camera used for forensics can’t be a cheap one, there has to be an initial lay out for a good camera body, and a number of lenses would be required. Not the most expensive ones, I’m sure, but at least two good workhorse lenses, and one macro lens, I’d think. Rather odd for something like that to go missing. I’ll be generous and assume they have more than one, they must have been using something since August. The old saying goes, one picture is worth a thousand words. I think that applies here.

Full story here.