Black Lives Matter

Tef

Black Lives Matter.

Read up on some key BLM objectives here: https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/
https://blackfutureslab.org/

Protests and the struggle are ongoing. We all know that trying to keep something in the news in this day and age is nigh impossible. This is particularly true when we are trying to dismantle systems of oppression, racism, imperialism, and inequality in the USA and beyond. The revolution will not be televised etc.

A change of government won’t change shit unless we shout for it.

Gough Whitlam, after being ousted from power for daring to attempt stymieing American and British interests in Australia, told us we must maintain our rage and enthusiasm. As Dr Cornel West said, You’re going to have to take a risk, you have to pay a cost, you’re going to have to cut against the grain. It’s not going to be fun, but there’ll be joy in that kind of struggle, joy in your intellectual courage exercise, joy in your moral and spiritual witness enacted even as you fall on your face.

Shit is hard out there. Look after yourselves, your friends, and your family. Assume positive internet in your fellow posters. Be solution focused.

https://medium.com/s/confessions-of-a-left-wing-prepper/progressive-prepping-101-online-resources-2a724e70f28e



Do what you can to help the movement. Send money, take to the street, volunteer your time, amplify black voices and/or change the minds of your friends and family.

This thread is for broadcasting BLM news, sharing praxis, as well commiserating and laughing with comrades.

Spoiler violent images and videos please, be careful about doxxing comrades; this is a public forum. Make sure you familiarise yourselves with the new rules that came in: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/239327/new-forum-policies-rules-1-20-2021









Uprising season is here, timely tips from a fellow poster

henroid wrote:

Copy pasting this from an old thread. I originally wrote this in July from last year and I think it's about to become relevant again, though I added a new note at the very bottom:

Some people are starting to wonder out loud with increasing frequency "what can I do to help?" Sometimes it's in the context of the protests that are ongoing, and sometimes it's in a general sense with the increasing leverage of fascism in the country (more than usual). I decided to compile some suggestions from a podcast (prior to the protests even) into text form, as well as add a few notes of my own. As far as I know, everything here is legal, and it certainly is non-violent and non-escalation in nature. There was on specific note from the podcast that risked both of those things despite being defensive in nature so I'm not including it.

All of these things help as law enforcement continues to attack the citizenry, now with federal support. The best 'weapon' we have right now is unity and support for our local communities and efforts. If I had to set a goal post for this, it's the days after the election when that mess is being sorted. There's 109 days until election day as of this post. Don't be scared, because you're not alone.

Direct Support
- Transportation - If you have a fit enough vehicle, you can help people get around as needed. Not just to and from events, but to places with bathroom access, food, or clinics & hospitals as needed (unless an injury requires life-saving EMT action).
- Medical Aid - The cops are absolutely going to hurt people, as well as outside agitators. If you have medical supplies and/or first-aid training, you are absolutely beneficial to protests.
- Infiltrator Security - Police send plainclothes cops into protest groups. Keep an eye out for ear pieces, and people who are acting suspiciously apart from the protestors. Coordinate with protest leaders on how to handle these individuals (and never use force).
- Escalation Security - Sometimes people who are just stupid show up to these events to escalate things and break the law. Depending on the circumstances, these people can be talked out of it or otherwise prevented with non-violent means. Never turn these people over to the police or inform the police of their presence; it will be used as justification against the crowd.
- Child Care - People have families and they need to be watched over, be it because of protest support, working, or other emergencies. Coordinate with your local communities about how to best do this and always work with multiple people to ensure security.
- Food and Water Distribution - People out there are going to get hungry and thirsty. Basic distribution effort helps a ton!
- Bathroom Access - If you own property on or near a protest route and are comfortable security-wise, you can offer your home or business as a welcome place for people to use the bathroom. Coordinate to get supplies ahead of time.
- Food Preparation - Are you a cook? There's plenty of snack food people can buy ready to eat and distribute, but with the right coordination people can get better meals for themselves during protests. Burgers, salads, sandwiches, whatever you can supply. Providing food for this effort also helps.
- Police Watch - Cops deploy onto the streets before launching attacks. If you're on surrounding streets or near police departments, coordinate with protest leadership on giving them information when cops seem to be mobilizing for violent action. It might save lives.
- Neighborhood Watch - There are awful people who will take advantage of neighborhood streets being empty. Coordinate with your local communities to setup neighborhood watches; no single one or two people on a street, in case there are infiltrators trying to use this as a means to make things worse.
- Cheerleader / Antifa-Mom - Sometimes people just need moral support, which is why people are gathering in the first place. With consent, sometimes a hug can go a long way.
- Pandemic Protection - If you have access to medical equipment pertaining to stopping the spread of COVID-19 please share it with protestors who might not have it.
- Organization - Do you have a knack for organization work? Spreadsheets, phone research and information gathering, etc? You're a valuable asset to protest leadership, if not prepared to start protests in your local area. The needs depend on each locality, so there's plenty of variation here. Never collect private identifying info on people; it might get obtained by the police (especially through confiscated phones).

Remote Support
- Counter-Propaganda - Just as the state and other power interests propagandize, you too can create counter propaganda. Do not make things up. Spread information, discredit efforts by fascists. If you see "antifa" accounts talking about "leadership" call it into question and let people know that such a thing does not exist.
- Identity Protection - This is the big one. Do not share photos and videos of peoples' faces on social media. If you can, provide edited forms of photos and videos that will protect peoples' identities and get those distributed. It will keep the public informed, while at the same time protecting people from getting later targeted by the police or government.
- Stop Internet Sleuthing - People are not as good at internet detective work as they think, and sometimes outside agitators are trying to get innocent people (if not political rivals) targeted wrongly. Discourage internet sleuthing as much as possible. The bottom line is that the people who need to be held accountable proudly show their names and faces on TV and social media. This isn't worth the risk.
- Bail Funds - If you have the money to spare, people can use help getting out of jail. The unfortunate side-effect of this is that the state is getting money as a result, but that's a long-term goal to solve. For now people deserve to be out of jail, especially with the pandemic going on.
- Voter Registration - This is an ideal goal and the window is closing depending on states, but people need help registering to vote or related documentation (for example, people in Nevada who want to vote by mail have to send a copy of their ID in). If you have office equipment access that can help, provide it.
- Form Letters to Elected Officials - Are you a skilled writer who can resist the urge to cuss out authority? If so, congrats, you have more restraint than I do. More to the point, write a letter that people can copy and send in to local offices, including your congressional representatives and senators. Also keep the pressure on. Civility helps, even though it's not deserved.
- Education - There's a lot people need to know that they might not. You can help protestors understand things they are fighting for, and probably more helpful you can help arm them with the information and arguments they need to fight against centrists or liberals who maybe might not get it yet. In addition, there are groups looking to seize this moment for their own gain or to possibly disrupt things, such as the "New Black Panthers." This group is not endorsed by original Black Panther members, and worse is divisive with anti-semitism and anti-LGBTQUIA goals. However, there are other groups like the New Afrikan Black Panther Party who are explicitly inclusive in their goals. More people should know about groups like that. Or maybe start them!
- One on One Engagement - Do you know people who are insensitive or maybe on the cusp / at risk of joining supremacists and fascists? You can intervene in this. Not by calling them out - call them in. Have a one on one discussion with them, let them know their shitty joke wasn't funny. That sometimes a laugh is nervous in nature and not actually approval.
- Lawyers - Are you a lawyer or do you know one? Is working pro bono an option? You could be a lot of help. Even working for cheaper than usual can go a long way. I get that's a lot to ask, but people are putting a lot more on the line on top of their financial security as well.
- Inclusivity & Intersectionality - This is big. This isn't just about one group, it isn't a contest about who has it worse. It is about unity. We are all in this together. Do not let people convince you to put up walls between other marginalized groups or social movements. Don't let them convince you that it's "group A's turn not group B's." Outside agitators and the government have a vested interest in the divide & conquer strategy. They will do it on the ground, they will do it on the internet.

If anyone has anything to suggest I add to this please @ me with it (do not @ me for other acknowledgments, it'll make this easier, especially because I'm working on other things on the net at the moment).

New 2021 Note: What we learned from last year is that cops will smash up aid and food stations. This year we need people running lookout security for these places to inform people that cops are on their way. These stations need to be kept at a further distance from the main protest to provide a buffer (and deniability on the legal front in case cops try to say it's "terrorism aid" or whatever). Also, the stations need to be as best built to roll up into a truck or van as instantly as possible so people can calmly leave before the pigs arrive.

RoyceSraphim

Counting down until.....

Tef

Doesn’t deserve to be left on the last page of the old thread:

Pooro wrote:

There are more than 500 federally recognized tribes (and even more without recognition), so there's a lot of folks from a lot of places. It's sort of like sayin, "I'd be keen to hear about other influential people from North America who should be household names." It's so broad, so huge, that where to even start is difficult.

For some Cherokee folks that I think should be better known:
-Sequoyah, who invented the Cherokee syllabary. Whole-ass written language, one dude. Incredible.
-John Ross, Cherokee chief who successfully argued before the Supreme Court that the Cherokee people should not be removed. (Which led to Andrew Jackson's infamous, "Let me see the Supreme Court's army" bullshit, because he sucked complete ass)
-Wilma Mankiller, first woman chief of the Cherokee Nation. Tireless advocate for the marginalized, within and without the tribe. Passionate community organizer, incredible badass.
-Will Rogers. Complicated dude. Helped popularized the film western, for better or (mostly) ill. But I think it's worth examining how one can be complicit in an art/industry that harms their own people.
-Jimi Hendrix. Okay, I mean, of COURSE people know him, but most don't know he was Cherokee.

The Cow King

Some one asked ages ago what a non capitalist society would be and I dunno but here's a dog with a book on one take

Styrofoam Sammich

https://twitter.com/GarbageApe/status/1346241013384425473

Typhoid Manny

that is violence

turtleant

Typhoid Manny wrote: »

that is viowence

Typhoid Manny

BRING ON THE COMETS

this world is a bust

Typhoid Manny

https://twitter.com/adamconover/status/1346209249312055297

cool! i'm looking forward to this shit going federal, it's been too long since piecework was the normal way of doing things

Styrofoam Sammich

Typhoid Manny wrote: »

https://twitter.com/adamconover/status/1346209249312055297

cool! i'm looking forward to this shit going federal, it's been too long since piecework was the normal way of doing things

Kamala Harris's brother in law is an Uber exec and so are multiple people from Obama's orbit.

Get ready for feudalism with woke characteristics

Olivaw

Y’know at some point people are going to start breaking things, and I mean a lot of things

I’m guessing it’ll start when they stop extending eviction deadlines

Metzger Meister

We're about six months out I reckon.

Bhow

"

https://twitter.com/NBCBLK/status/1346567875658731520

facetious

That's fucked!

Ranlin

Of course no charges, he wasn't shot, he was merely struck by 7 bullets.

Ubik

"If you don’t believe you can prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt, you have an ethical obligation not to issue charges,"

but when the defendant is not a cop:

"even if you don't believe you can prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt, you have an ethical obligation to put the facts before the jury to make the determination"

Kadith

The handling of Breonna Taylor's killers proved they could get away with this even in highly public scenarios

so of fucking course they did it again

Kelor

There was a really stellar episode of Citations Needed a few weeks back on the democratic party as much of the police messaging as possible. Both the last few years and in a historical context with their record on civil rights in general.

"Sen. Mark Warner said progressives' calls to 'defund the police' were in part to blame for Democratic losses in the House in a cycle when the party was expected to gain seats," The Hill tells us. "How ’defund the police' sabotaged Democrats on Election Day," Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune writes."'Defund the police’ is killing our party, and we’ve got to stop it," said South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn. In the wake of the Democrats’ disappointing Congressional showing in last month’s elections, centrist Democrats and their media mouthpieces were quick to blame Black Lives Matter and the "defund the police" movement for their subpar results.

There’s only one problem: there is no empirical basis for this claim in any of the above comments or reports. No studies, no evidence––not even anecdotally––is provided. Before the printer ink was dry on the ballots, centrist Democrats who lost or underperformed––or made a career out of defending those that do––rushed to blame the so-called "defund the police" movement, highlighting rightwing attack ads featuring the label. After some initial goodwill immediately following the global outpouring of protests after the horrific police murder of George Floyd, mainstream democratic party line has reverted back to it’s old playbook of blaming the Left and Black activists for offending or alienating a nebulous cohort of moderate white voters.

As the economy crashed and the world was turned upside down in the Spring of 2020, Democratic leaders had a chance to lobby for robust social welfare programs, guaranteed income, mortgage and rent cancellation and single payer healthcare to get us through this ongoing crisis, whose disastrous implications will extend well beyond the introduction of a vaccine. Instead, however, they lowered expectations, blamed Trump for their own unforced ideological limitations and almost never publicly took credit for the extension of unemployment benefits––the one good thing Democrats actually did achieve, albeit fleeting.

The result was a once in a generation opportunity blown, a possible leftwing shock doctrine that was crippled by unmovable austerity ideology. So when the elections came around and the Democrats underperformed, who was to blame? It can’t be party leadership blowing the COVID-19 response and it can’t be the security state-curated centrist tofu candidates who lost or barely won. It has to––once again––be those pesky far left activists. Because Democratic party leadership cannot fail they can only be failed, a scapegoat was needed.

On this week’s episode we discuss why "defund the police" and the broader abolitionist movement was that scapegoat, the long history of concern trolling Black activism and perennially blaming movements for justice for right-wing, white backlash from bad faith actors. We also detail how activists are now on the defensive as Democrats, having successfully exploited the broad sentiment of the George Floyd protests for Get Out The Vote fodder, now seek to lower expectations, purge Black Lives Matter of its truly radical elements, and go back to business as usual.

Our guest is human rights lawyer and abolitionist Derecka Purnell.

Der Waffle Mous

https://twitter.com/jaredlholt/status/1346575085369520132

Styrofoam Sammich

This might acrually be good?

https://twitter.com/GeoffRBennett/status/1346615467243417600

Undead Scottsman

Wait, I thought the Dems totally snubbed the Squad on committee asignments?

Styrofoam Sammich

Undead Scottsman wrote: »

Wait, I thought the Dems totally snubbed the Squad on committee asignments?

The one thats a highlight was energy and climate. The committee assignment process is a long....process

tynic

I don't want to 6D chess the internal negotiations here because I guarantee I will put more thought into it than the dem leadership ever have, but I'm let's say keenly interested in the motivations behind keeping progressives out of energy/climate discussions.

Styrofoam Sammich

tynic wrote: »

I don't want to 6D chess the internal negotiations here because I guarantee I will put more thought into it than the dem leadership ever have, but I'm let's say keenly interested in the motivations behind keeping progressives out of energy/climate discussions.

Well remember it wasnt leadership who pulled that, they just stood by and watched. The actually maneuvering was by Hakeem Jeffries, who hates the left, and major recipients of energy sector donations.

Javen

tynic wrote: »

I don't want to 6D chess the internal negotiations here because I guarantee I will put more thought into it than the dem leadership ever have, but I'm let's say keenly interested in the motivations behind keeping progressives out of energy/climate discussions.

The committees main abilities are investigatory on nature, and can compel people to attend hearings to this end. The simplest answer is that there are those that more progressive members would wield this at people the larger party leadership does not want to see testify

Lanz

Ranlin wrote: »

Of course no charges, he wasn't shot, he was merely struck by 7 bullets.

“It ain’t no secret (it ain’t no secret)
It ain’t no secret, my friend
You get killed just for livin’
In your American Skin”

Garlic Bread

Lanz wrote: »

Ranlin wrote: »

Of course no charges, he wasn't shot, he was merely struck by 7 bullets.

“It ain’t no secret (it ain’t no secret)
It ain’t no secret, my friend
You get killed just for livin’
In your American Skin”

it's sad and infuriating how relevant lots of pop culture still is because shit hasn't changed

Tef

Garlic Bread wrote: »

Lanz wrote: »

Ranlin wrote: »

Of course no charges, he wasn't shot, he was merely struck by 7 bullets.

“It ain’t no secret (it ain’t no secret)
It ain’t no secret, my friend
You get killed just for livin’
In your American Skin”

it's sad and infuriating how relevant lots of pop culture still is because shit hasn't changed

Ain’t a damn thing changed!


In other news, I don’t like the idea that the centrists have ‘wasted’ the opportunity for change. Yeah, they’ve slowed things down but we can collectively keep pushing

DJ Eebs

on the bright side it's looking like kelly loeffler is probably going to lose her senate seat, which is objectively funny

Poorochondriac

Not convinced that the Dems will do much of note with Senate control (especially with Manchin poised to throw various spanners in various works), but it would be satisfying to see a few absolute scumfucks get embarrassed

Undead Scottsman

Poorochondriac wrote: »

Not convinced that the Dems will do much of note with Senate control (especially with Manchin poised to throw various spanners in various works), but it would be satisfying to see a few absolute scumfucks get embarrassed

Honestly, it'd almost be worth it just for McConnel no longer being majority leader.

RoyceSraphim

Huh, only 4 posts until complaining about politics.

Anyway, here's polics complaining about history.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/rabbit-holes/the-eighteenth-century-custard-recipe-that-enraged-trump-supporters

Need to look up the episode where his guest explains the influences of slaves on early American cuisine. Because when you have a system that large, its mass will change the path of everything around it.

Coinage

It's not impossible that, dark pact fulfilled, McConnell will simply turn to dust

Styrofoam Sammich

Ok, so you have the presidency, the House, and the Senate.

No more fucking excuses.

PiptheFair

Styrofoam Sammich wrote: »

Ok, so you have the presidency, the House, and the Senate.

No more fucking excuses.

gotta wait for the right time though

we gotta compromise

PiptheFair

gotta work together to coexist

PiptheFair

please destroy my pathetic life

turtleant

The PA State Senate is having an extremely normal one (thread)

https://twitter.com/abgutman/status/1346519659005284353

The Rs just straight up refused to swear in a Dem senator who won his election.

Also 8 of PA's 9 Republican Congress seats are refusing to ratify Bidens election win. The 9th says he will if a national voter ID law is passed.

Fucking buckle up for tomorrow folks its gonna be a doozy.

PiptheFair

people continue to purposefully forget that part of checks and balances is that the final balance is violence at the hands of the people who are disenfranchised by their elected officials

just

ya know

thinking out lout

Undead Scottsman

Styrofoam Sammich wrote: »

Ok, so you have the presidency, the House, and the Senate.

No more fucking excuses.

They can still hide behind the Republicans filibustering everything and shits like Manchin and Feinstein refusing to do away with it.

PiptheFair

reminder that Let's Lynch the Landlord is about Dianne Feinstein