LymphocyteLover
LymphocyteLover's JournalThe problem with Juneteenth as a holiday
"It was with dismay that I realized, a few weekends ago, that Walmart is now selling Juneteenth T-shirts. I live in an extremely white Massachusetts county, one where it feels like a lifeline whenever I see another Black person I am not related to. I greeted the news of the T-shirts with an eye roll and a sour chuckle.
Though Juneteenth has recently gained nationwide attention, and just became a federal holiday, it originated as a Texas-specific celebration of the end of slavery. Other states and regions have their own traditions for marking Emancipation: Crucially, these celebrations have different dates from place to place, because freedom was gained through wildly different ways for Black people across this country. These are outlined in Mitch Kachun’s excellent book “Festivals of Freedom.”
In New York State, where gradual Emancipation was put into place to ease white fears at the expense of Black comfort, Emancipation Day was celebrated on the 5th of July. Celebrating on the 5th became a way to avoid the white mobs that often attacked Black people they saw daring to celebrate the Fourth of July. Indeed, in 1876, the year of the country’s centennial, many white newspapers ran articles decrying free Black people celebrating the country’s 100th anniversary of freedom — they dressed too finely and partied too elegantly, the newspapers said. It was above their station to do so.
(snip)
The first time I celebrated Emancipation Day was a July 5 in the late 2000s, maybe a year or so after Barack Obama was elected president. I stood on a makeshift stage in a community garden in Central Brooklyn and, along with a crowd of other Black Brooklynites, raised a small glass of cold water (many Emancipation Day celebrations shun alcohol because of the close ties between the abolition and temperance movements, and because Black communities were afraid historically to celebrate too boisterously in predominantly white areas like Brooklyn). We shouted, “to freedom!” "
Really good piece:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/18/opinion/juneteenth-emancipation-walmart.html
Anyone else think that Velveeta Voldemort actually leaked the classified data himself
as an excuse to go after members of Congress for their supposed leaking? I really doubt Schiff or Swalwell leaked as they seem to take their oaths very seriously.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/10/us/politics/justice-department-leaks-trump-administration.html?smid=tw-share
An optimistic take on GOP voter laws and the 2022 election from Hal Sparks
on the Stuttering John podcast. Relevant section starts ~55 minutes in.
https://stutteringjohnpodcast.libsyn.com/the-stuttering-john-podcast-june-5th-2021-dean-obeidallah?tdest_id=1230557
Basically he explains Manchin, Sinema and what Biden is doing. His interesting point is that he predicts the GOP voter suppression laws will hurt the GOP Trump base more than hurt our side.
He says we will likely gain seats in both the House and Senate in 2022. Sparks is a really smart guy, so alway sworth listening to.
How the Supreme Court Gave Cops a License to Kill
Really good piece, please read the whole thing.
"As it is, Chauvin’s attorneys have taken to citing the 1989 Supreme Court case Graham v. Connor—and doing it so frequently that you’d think a man named Graham V. Connor told Chauvin he could get away with murder. In a way, that’s exactly what the case did. Graham v. Connor changed the use-of-force guidelines for police all across the country, allowing them to be more violent and homicidal.
To understand how one case has authorized brutality, you have to appreciate that our only real constitutional protection from police violence is the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on “unreasonable search and seizure.” “Unreasonable” was, naturally, poorly defined by the collection of white men who wrote and ratified the Constitution and determined that things such as slavery and genocide were totally “reasonable” uses of state power. Still, for most of American history, the Fourth Amendment followed a “reasonable [white] man” standard: The actions of the government, or its agents, were judged through the lens of what an average person would find reasonable.
In practice, this allowed for plenty of abuse. Victims of police brutality had to show that officers acted “unreasonably” and with malicious intent. As one can imagine, it was always hard for victims (or their surviving family members) to prove that a violently homicidal police officer intended to kill them. Before camera phones, it was nearly impossible to get white people to believe the cops acted like Black people have always said they do.
Graham v. Connor took this loophole and made it so big that whole police forces could simply saunter right through it. Instead of limiting police use of force to what a reasonable person might expect, the Supreme Court said that force could only be judged against what a reasonable “officer on the scene” would do. In the actual Graham v. Connor case, that meant the court found that a “reasonable officer” could slam Dethorne Graham’s head into his car and break his foot, because Graham was resisting arrest, never mind that he was a diabetic going into shock who was being detained on the suspicion that he stole some orange juice—which he did not."
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/chauvin-supreme-court/
Tucker Carlson gives passionate defense of "white replacement theory"
Is anyone more toxic and evil than this guy?
Video at the link
https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-gives-passionate-defense-white-replacement-theory
TUCKER CARLSON: I'm laughing because this is one of about 10 stories that I know you have covered where the government shows preference to people who have shown absolute contempt for our customs, our laws, our system itself and they are being treated better than American citizens. Now, I know that the left and all the little gatekeepers on Twitter become literally hysterical if you use the term "replacement," if you suggest that the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate, the voters now casting ballots, with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World. But they become hysterical because that's what's happening actually. Let's just say it: That's true.
...
If you change the population, you dilute the political power of the people who live there. So every time they import a new voter, I become disenfranchised as a current voter. So I don't understand what we don't understand cause, I mean, everyone wants to make a racial issue out of it. Oh, you know, the white replacement theory? No, no, no. This is a voting right question. I have less political power because they are importing a brand new electorate. Why should I sit back and take that? The power that I have as an American guaranteed at birth is one man, one vote, and they are diluting it. No, they are not allowed to do it. Why are we putting up with this?
Trump's sad, incoherent baseball ravings
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1379521435350228999?s=20https://www.thebiglead.com/posts/donald-trump-baseball-boycott-mlb-channels-yankees-01f2m9yr36j0
"You want to find a game. It's on every channel, and yet you can't find anything. It's the weirdest thing"
He's seriously senile.
Anyone have a good article explaining HR1 (the voting rights bill)?
I saw this one posted on FB but I have some issues with it. It also doesn't seem very comprehensive. I'm interested in pluses and minuses that could be used to sell it versus criticize it.
The only thing I found useful here was that it explained that The John Lewis Voting Rights Act is a different bill-- HR4, when I thought HR1 was The John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
https://elections-daily.com/2021/03/25/h-r-1-the-good-the-bad-and-the-wtf/
Biden's "American Jobs Plan" proposes to eliminate ALL FOSSIL FUEL SUBSIDIES.
https://twitter.com/leahstokes/status/1377308365710262279?s=20It's about time. Hallelujah!
"Gun Safety" rather than "Gun Control"?
If a simple change in terminology changes our gun politics, great. I'm skeptical but it can't hurt.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/27/opinion/sunday/gun-control-safety.html
There HAS to be a fierce backlash against the GOP in GA for this outrageous voter suppression bill
Why would any black voter ever vote Republican? Why would any decent person vote Republican?
Also, so much of this bill seems unconstitutional. It is just insane how bad it is.
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Member since: Tue Jan 21, 2020, 05:54 PMNumber of posts: 5,641