Crip Dyke Reporting from Portland

A lot of “news media” is “reporting” on what’s going on in Portland, but it’s also a lot of pro-police propaganda bullshit (yes, even from MSNBC… because they aren’t “left wing”, people). The best way to get an understanding of what’s actually going on is to seek out teh reports from protesters on the ground, actually experiencing this shit in real time.

And so, I present to you, Crip Dyke. The following is a link to her blog where I search for “Portland”. Sadly, it’s not quite in posting order (most recent first), but you really should be reading everything…

Pervert Justice: Portland

And here’s the most recent post about what’s going on…

To be honest, the violence the federal police are instigating in Portland leads neatly into what my next post will be. That will be up in the morning. In the meantime, go read Crip Dyke’s posts on what’s going.

Thank you.

MAGA Hats, White Hoods, and Swastikas: One Big Happy Family

How many of you have ever heard of J. Kenji Lopez Alt? Personally, I’m a pretty big fan. His Food Lab column at Serious Eats, and his Food Lab book (I promise that’s not an affiliate link… I make $0.00 USD if you click that and order the book; I do highly recommend it, however), have been hugely influential on me as a cook. He’s the Jimmy Page of food, as far as I’m concerned (and if you know how much I love Led Zeppelin, then you know how much of a compliment that is from me). He’s opened up his own restaurant in the Bay Area, as well.

Called Wursthall, it’s definitely a restaurant I desperately want to check out. Having made many of Kenji’s recipes in my own home, I already know the food is good. It’s just a matter of getting out there to try it… and I don’t have the money to do that.

Another reason I’m a big fan of Kenji is that when his politics creep into his food, it’s absolutely awesome. Just look at his Twitter bio…

Full-time Dad. Author: The Food Lab (I don’t control @TheFoodLab). Chef. Feminist. Atheist.

Yeah I know… we don’t love men who proclaim themselves to be feminists. I don’t call myself a feminist, not because I don’t wholeheartedly support feminism (I very much do), but because of how many “feminist” men have shown themselves to be anything but… causing, obviously, a distinct lack of trust in men who make that proclamation. That said, having followed Kenji for years, he’s shown that he doesn’t just talk the talk… he walks the walk, as well.

Nathan. What does any of this have to do with MAGA hats, white hoods, and swastikas?

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From Politico – Spicer: Expect to see ‘greater enforcement’ of federal marijuana law

I knew this would happen. I knew, the moment Sir Tiny Hands was put into office, all the states that have legalized or decriminalized marijuana would be done. I knew it wouldn’t last under him.

And I was right.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday that he expects states to see “greater enforcement” of the federal law against marijuana use, a move that would be at odds with a growing number of states’ decisions to legalize it.

Spicer, taking questions from reporters at the daily briefing, differentiated between the administration’s positions on medical marijuana and recreational marijuana.

President Donald Trump “understands the pain and suffering that many people go through who are facing especially terminal diseases, and the comfort that some of these drugs, including medical marijuana, can bring to them,” he said, also noting previous action by Congress not to fund the Justice Department “go[ing] after those folks.”

As for “recreational marijuana, that’s a very, very different subject,” Spicer said.

Spicer suggested that the administration is opposed to encouraging recreational marijuana use and connected it with the crisis with opioid addiction in some areas.

“When you see something like the opioid addiction crisis blossoming in so many states around this country, the last thing we should be doing is encouraging people,” he said.

The Department of Justice, Spicer said, will be “further looking into” the marijuana enforcement question, he said, punting questions about the specifics to the department.

“I do believe that you’ll see greater enforcement of it,” he said.

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Uncomfortable Confession: I Am No Longer a Pacifist

For most of my life, I’ve been a radical pacifist. I believed that violence was literally the very last of last resorts… that violence should only ever be committed by you if, and only if, you are directly being attacked and are directly fighting for your life… and even then, you should commit the barest minimum amount of violence possible, working only to save yourself rather than hurt them.

But then we reached 2012, and Trayvon Martin was murdered by a man who was all but given a ticker tape parade for it, and was acquitted in 2013, sparking #BlackLivesMatter.

And then 2014 rolled around, and Michael Brown and Eric Garner were murdered by the police and there were no consequences.

And then there was 2015, and Baltimore, and I wrote the post White Supremacy and Violence (that’s the original link, not the most recent one with edits, which you can find here). That really should have been my first clue that my pacifism was being challenged, but it wasn’t.

The challenge wouldn’t play out publicly, or even consciously, until much more recently. No, not Richard Spencer getting punched in the face. It was when a preacher got wacked upside the head with an aluminum baseball bat. I found it impossible to feel bad for said preacher, and even wrote it about here on this blog. The reality is that I felt some level of schadenfreude for it, and didn’t, and still don’t, feel bad for that. I could only laugh at the preacher, having felt, and actually still feel, that, while he may not necessarily have deserved an aluminum bat to the head, he absolutely deserved something more than a tongue-lashing.

I went back to being quiet about it, not really thinking about the fact that, after that post, I couldn’t really justify calling myself a pacifist.

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Government Agencies Resist

This is absolutely amazing…

As you know, our Sputum-Filled Orange Julius in Chief has been issuing gag orders and otherwise silencing scientific agencies, especially when it comes to climate change.

And so, in response, multiple alternative resistance accounts have sprung up on Twitter, ready to fight for facts.

This short post is basically just a list of all the alternative Twitters I could find. I want to make this post an official database of all the Alt twitter accounts, so please; if you find any I missed, let me know in the comments so I can update the post. Thank you.

And special thanks to Dana Hunter, at En Tequila Es Verdad, part of The Orbit network, for alerting her readers (myself included) to this…

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IMPORTANT! Call to Action! The Injustice Boycott

This will be short and sweet.

It’s called the Injustice Boycott, and it launched Monday, December 5. That link is to the main page. Here is Shaun King’s article on it, and here is the page to sign up. And here is the Facebook community page.

This is your ULTIMATE call to action.

Fight injustice.

Boycott fascism.

Will you join thousands, and help grow the movement to millions?

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Starting on December 5th, 2016. INJUSTICE BOYCOTT. We’ve done it before – we can do it again. We are 90,001 people strong (updated daily). Click here for our plan. Join the Boycott.

From En Tequila Es Verdad: Ban Bannon – Call Your Reps

I’m going to quote most of it here, but make no mistake… you WILL click on this link. This is one of MANY calls to action.

I’m going to say it outright:

WE ARE AT WAR

 

Trump is not welcome as my president, and, if you are a decent person, he should not be welcome as yours. And this, my friends, is your first battle:

Ban Stephen Bannon. Do not allow him to be elected by Donald Trump. He is the very definition of a White Supremacist. The KKK, Neo-Nazis, and many others fucking love him. He cannot be allowed to be Trump’s Joseph Goebbels. He must be stopped.

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