Goldman v. Landers in NY-10.

Having inexplicably failed to find any traction (yet!) on my “WHITE PEOPLE: LET’S ALL FORFEIT OUR VOTES TO BLACK WOMEN” campaign (well, except for my long-time psychiatrist, who loves the idea but unfortunately doesn’t live in my district), I’ve had to take responsibility for my primary ballot myself. I wish I could say I did so reluctantly, but the truth is I could not wait to do this thing.

hoto of my Dem primary ballot for NY-10 today: "Representative in Congress Dan Goldman, then I wrote in red (D-Israel, no matter what they do.) O Brad Lander, then I wrote in red (D-F%*k genocide, ICE, & billionaires) ⏺"

My NY-10 congressional primary ballot.

Early voting started today in New York for the June 23 Democratic primary, and I was practically foaming at the mouth and ready to attack the security guard to let me in.

Dan Goldman is currently serving his second term as my congresscritter, and hopefully his last. Lander’s been running ahead in polling, but not enough for my comfort. Goldman, an heir to the Levi-Strauss fortune, successfully self-funded his first campaign. This cycle, when his primary opponent Brad Lander started polling ahead, he casually dumped another $1 million of his own money into his coffers.

None of that is necessarily disqualifying, in my view. It’s what Goldman has done – and not done – while in Congress that has this atheist praying he gets his ass kicked out of DC.

Mr. Goldman doesn’t need the money, but he takes it anyway from AIPAC. I’ve been reading his weekly email newsletter since he was sworn in, and he proudly votes pro-Israel every single time a vote comes up. He’s essentially Chuck Schumer’s Mini-Me.

Here’s a thought that apparently hasn’t occurred to ANY congresscritter:

How about no aid or assistance of any kind to countries with universal healthcare, until the U.S. has a world-class, single-payer healthcare system itself? 

That policy alone would take care of our tax dollars funding a Palestinian genocide.

Dear foreign democracies: Let your own people suffer medical bankruptcies and shorter, sicker lives to fund your government’s evils. Thanks.

*shrug*

Amazon Union Win a “Huge Shock.” (not an April Fools joke!)

via NY Daily News:

Amazon workers in N.Y. vote to form first U.S. union in company’s history in ‘huge shock’

Workers at the Amazon warehouse on Staten Island voted decisively to form the first U.S. union in the mammoth multinational company’s history, according to a count of the historic labor election completed Friday.

…

The election was instantly viewed as a possible watershed moment for the American labor movement, which has weakened in recent decades.

“Weakened?” WEAKENED?! There are many, many more accurate words I can think of to describe what has happened to U.S. labor movements and unions: decimated, demolished, shattered, destroyed, conquered and obliterated are just some of them. I guess the Daily News misplaced its thesaurus today?

Christian Smalls, a fired Amazon worker who objected to the 27-year-old company’s COVID protocols, led the recently created Amazon Labor Union to the victory over the Seattle retail giant, which is known for pulverizing labor efforts by inundating workers with anti-union messaging.

“Pulverizing.” See? Much better.

At the New York warehouse, a fulfillment facility known as JFK8, management hung “Vote No” banners on the walls and held required union-busting meetings. But the workers would not be denied.

“Amazon has proven willing to put basically unlimited resources into anti-union campaigns, and these workers really won against all odds,” said Rebecca Givan, a labor studies professor at Rutgers University. “It’s really a historic victory and probably a huge shock to Amazon.”

You can read more here (@ NY Daily News).

One of the takeaways that struck me is the social media angle. While America’s Owners have developed and deployed extremely effective union-busting tactics (“required union-busting meetings”… WTF is with that?), the organizers here:

led a creative labor push that leveraged social media, including Twitter and TikTok, to succeed at the city’s lone Amazon fulfillment facility, a place where many workers are relatively young people of color, according to The City news outlet. “This is Gen Z,” Smalls, 33, told the outlet.

This suggests to me that there is only a very small window here for labor organizers with younger workforces to succeed in their unionizing efforts, before the Amazons of the world begin using the same platforms to deliver slick, Gen Z-tested, anti-union messaging to neutralize the threat.

If you’re wondering why this is a really big fucking deal, ask yourself this: if unions did not shift meaningful power, e.g. better working conditions, benefits and pay to employees, why would U.S. corporations be willing to put “basically unlimited resources” into crushing them?

It’s Day 27 of Black History Month and We Whites Are All Going to STFU and Listen.

URGENT REMINDER: The fundraiser for reopening the National Black Doll Museum ends February 28. If you are able to donate a few dollars please do, and either way, please share the fundraiser link as widely as you can. Many thanks! ☮️ -Iris.

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Since before I started this Black History Month series, one of my ideas for a post has been the Harlem Renaissance. I’ve been collecting snippets, links, materials, even writing a few words here and there, but I’ve come to realize there is so much material to cover, and from so many potential perspectives (culturally, politically, artistically etc.) that I have come to realize a blog post would invariably give short shrift to a subject of majestic depth and brilliance. Further, so much work has already been documented that the world reeeeally doesn’t need a white blogger regurgitating the words of Black historians, or worse, the words of the people who actually lived it.

Instead, I will post some resources that I found especially informatve. Whether you want to take a deep dive or stick a toe in the water is up to you. Just know that the legacies of those who lived and worked in Harlem during the 1920s are still very much with us today, so broad and profound was their impact, even on a white supremacist society.

BlackPast on the Harlem Renaissance. BlackPast’s mission:

“is dedicated to providing a global audience with reliable and accurate information on the history of African America and of people of African ancestry around the world. We aim to promote greater understanding through this knowledge to generate constructive change in our society.”

There is so much material here. It is an excellent resource and repository for Black history, not just USian but the African global diaspora as well. This is the kind of work I think of when I look for potentially powerful antidotes to erasure – provided white people and especially educators avail themselves of it.

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Louie Armstrong, circa 1938
(image: William P. Gottlieb Collection / Library of Congress)

[Read more…]

It’s Day 9 of Black History Month and We Whites Are All Going to STFU and Listen.

Today we are going to STFU and listen to black voices speaking to us from 1969. Not just any black voices, either: these are some of the most groundbreaking, hit-making, genre-breaking, unfathomably influential musical artists of the time – and for some, perhaps, of all time

Last evening, a film popped up in our streaming suggestions: Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised). The blurb said the documentary was about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, a multi-weekend concert series that took place in the summer of ’69 in what is now Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem. Directed by Ahmir Khalib (“Questlove/?uestlove”) Thompson, perhaps best known as the drummer and co-frontman for the band The Roots, his debut film was put together from reels of raw footage that sat in a basement, virtually untouched, for fifty years.

Summer of Soul premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, where it took both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for a documentary.

Playing the trailer (which you can view below), I first heard then saw Nina Simone (*squeee4EVAH*) sing-saying to an enormous sea of black bodies and faces,

“Are you ready, black people? Are you really ready? Are you ready to listen to all the beautiful black voices, the beautiful black feelings, the beautiful black waves, moving in beautiful air? Are you ready black people? Are you ready?”

The Harlem crowd erupts in response to her callouts with spine-tingling, goose-bumping enthusiasm. Meanwhile, written words are interspersed, appearing in bright, colorful lettering against a black background:

In 1969
the same summer as Woodstock

Another festival took place

It was filmed but never seen

Until now

And with that, we were only 21 seconds into a 2-minute trailer.

The concert lineup promised nothing less than a pantheon of Black musical gods: Nina Simone, 19-year old Stevie Wonder, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The Fifth Dimension and more.

Ms. Simone had me at “Are you ready?” We paid $5.99 for the rental.*

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Happy Halloween!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

Last year I contributed some photos I took around my neighborhood to Affinity‘s “Hallowe’en Photo Festival of Fun and Fundraising,” including this one reserved for their Grand Finale:

Pile of hay bales and large pumpkins, with a skeleton on top appearing to give the middle finger.

I called it “Happy fuckin’ Halloween from New York fuckin’ City,” and it was taken at Abingdon Square Park near my home. I may have enhanced it a little, by removing several fingers. (I mean from the image, not from the actual skeleton. I’m not a monster!)

This year, the same setting looks like this:

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FBI raids NYPD. LOL. UPDATED.

UPDATE: Ed Mullins has resigned his position, at the request of SBA’s board. The original Daily News article has also been updated with this paragraph:

[Mullins] is an outspoken backer of President Donald Trump and visited Trump at the White House in February 2020. He grabbed headlines in July 2020 for giving an interview on Fox News with a QAnon coffee mug in the background.

Quelle surprise.

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ORIGINAL POST:

Now here’s something you don’t see every day.

 

New York Daily News logo with "breaking news" banner

FBI raids suburban home of NYPD sergeants’ union head Ed Mullins and Manhattan headquarters

FBI agents are seen carrying boxes with evidence after raiding the Sergeants Benevolent Association headquarters in downtown Manhattan early Tuesday morning. (Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News)

FBI agents are seen carrying boxes with evidence after raiding the Sergeants Benevolent Association headquarters in downtown Manhattan early Tuesday morning. (Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News)

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Rudy “Nosferatu” Giuliani stripped of NY law license.

side by side images of Giuliani and Nosferatu (from the film of the same name)Former New York lawyer
Rudy “Nosferatu” Giuliani
(L) and/or (R).

Happy dance, everybody! No, he’s not dead (he’s undead, and possibly immortal like Dick Cheney, who has no pulse). However, the odious former mayor of New York City got a little taste of justice today.

New York Daily News logo with "breaking news" banner

Rudy Giuliani’s license to practice law in N.Y. pulled over ‘demonstrably false’ 2020 election claims

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Valentines for NYC.

Whether you buy into Valentine$ Day or not, sometimes something happens to come along on this date that unexpectedly hits you right in the ♥feelz♥. It happened to me today, reading love letters to New York from New Yorkers in the New York Daily News. Some are from celebrities; some from everyday people. Below, you can read one in rhythm and rhyme from Darryl McDaniels, aka D.M.C. of Run-D.M.C., one from J.W. Cortés, an “actor, philanthropist, [and] MTA police officer” I never heard of, and one from me.

As many of you can likely attest, you don’t have to live here to love New York City.

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NYC Happy Noise! UPDATED.

Almost live! NYC’s (West Village) celebrates Biden/Harris win. Three things:

-It’s even more exuberant than the frontline workers/first responders cheers we used to do every day at 7pm the beginning of the COVID lockdown.

-This is Donald Trump’s hometown. Hahaha.

-I shot this video (well, it’s not much to see, it’s all about the sound) maybe 20-30 minutes ago, then imported and uploaded it to youtube and did all the admin stuff, and wrote this post – and this is still going on. If anything, even louder and more boisterous.

UPDATE:

My partner just came home from an errand bearing gifts:

© flyboy 2020
All rights reserved.

© flyboy 2020
All rights reserved.

The happy racket is still going. Now it’s like the crowd at a stadium doing the wave down the West side: very distant thunder (midtown?), rolling closer (Chelsea/Meatpacking) then West Village. Don’t know if it keeps going to Battery Park City, but I’d like to think so.

Hey New Jersey, CAN YOU HEAR US?