#now if i could just get over my fears of conservative corporates firing me over having a tattoo :'(

[glitchgeek]

tbt (thinking 'bout tattoos)........

for years and years, i've thought about just getting some simple lineart on my forearm — something like the pulsar map from Voyager 2's golden record, or a logogram from Arrival?

but recently i've gotten this idea in my head that i want something colorful aaahhh. Like color dye splotches or lineless watercolor brushstrokes aaaaahh

#glitch talks #tattoos #like — when i use food coloring or paint my nails i *like* accidentally getting some of it on my skin #bc there's ✨pretty colors✨ on my skin. i did stuff and it madr pretty colors and that's reflected on my skin #and i want something like that that's permanent :') #now if i could just get over my fears of conservative corporates firing me over having a tattoo :'( #also i started thinking about arrival's logograms and now i'm reading all the really scientific/mathy articles about it again aaaahh

[pastelsandpining]

congrats on 200 followers!! my request: botw zelink with Selfless by the strokes :)

this turned out a tiny bit more of a Zelda piece than a Zelink piece but it's still there! I hope this is to your liking volt my beloved

Selfless

words: 1806

warnings: read with caution; grief, death mention, vague disassociation

Masterlist

------

It was quite the feeling, to be everything and nothing all at once. Zelda couldn’t recall what it was like to be physical. She couldn’t recall much more than the blank space she existed in, and the horrible sounds that encompassed it every time she was so painfully reminded of where she was. Only in those moments of remembrance, of realization, was she able to get glimpses of the land she’d given up so much for. So much of her kingdom had been lost: children, buildings, the very friends she swore to fight alongside. The Calamity claimed everything in its path and it devoured her, too. It was only fitting, fair, even that she should suffer in the void of existence with nothing but a demon and whispers of hatred as her companion.

Zelda was not in Hyrule, not really. Her body might’ve been, but she was elsewhere, using every bit of strength that she’d failed to have before, in the hopes that her one connection to her home would find his way back to her. But for a very long time, he lay buried deep inside a shrine on a hill. The only evidence he was there at all was the warm, very small, and very dormant ball settled in her chest, pulsating softly with every breath he took in his endless slumber.

It was like that for one hundred long, lonely years. The rhythm of his heart, slow but stable, was what kept her from losing touch completely. Goddess powers or not, corporeal or not, someone could only take so much of corruption, of malice, until it started to gnaw away at her peace of mind. It was a good thing that peace of mind was not an essential part of the sealing power, but she’d already lost everything. It would be too easy to lose herself as well... No, he would come, she just knew it, and she would live against the odds, for him.

So Zelda waited, ever patient, watching the land of Hyrule pass in bleary, half conscious moments. A flicker of a new birth here, a wave of grief there, a family settling down, a crack of lightning, a call of a bird, all things once insignificant—common. Now, it gave her the assurance that people were still fighting on, continuing to push forwards despite a devastating loss. They were still Hylia’s people, after all, and the Goddess herself put up many good fights.

The kingdom was as still as ever, as silent as the heavy night, when the hero finally stirred. It was nothing more than a twitch of the eyelids, a strengthening of a heartbeat, but she felt it like a fire burning through her chest, sending hope to the tips of her very fingers. He was alive, to what extent, she didn’t know. But she took that warmth and reached out with it, surfing across Hyrule until finally, at last, he came into focus.

“Link,” she called out, into the void of nothing. His eyelids fluttered. If she was corporeal, if she had any physicality at all, she would’ve sobbed. Instead, she tried his name again, begging in a whisper, “open your eyes.”

Whether he was truly hearing her, whether he recognized her voice or not, his eyes opened. They’d never looked more blue.

But she was not the only powerful being with the capability to sense an awakening. Calamity Ganon could feel it too, and for a moment, Zelda was fearful that it would get to him before she did. It would cry out, loud and obnoxious and horrible, and get into his head like the monstrous thing it was. She couldn’t let that happen, not again. Link did not deserve the horrid fate of facing him twice, though the cards had already been dealt. So she did all she could, instructing him from afar until he emerged at last from his grave. The light was brighter now. She could see him better, all of him, from the scarred skin to the shaky limbs and anxious stature. He was lovely, still.

Zelda wanted nothing more than to burst from her prison and accompany him on his journey. She wished to heal his mind and heart, tell him everything so that he was no longer in the dark, and warn him about the horrors he would face. She wanted to feel his arms again, hear his voice, hug him in those moments she knew so well: those moments when it all felt like too much. But sealing the Calamity, caging its physical form in the very midst of Hyrule Castle, a mere few meters away from where her father and mother’s thrones once sat, took a great deal of power. She could not watch him, protect him as much as she wanted to. She wouldn’t last forever, and so conserving was key. Zelda did not rush him, she did not plead or beg. It was his decision to make, it was his readiness to determine, and she’d already waited a century. What was a little more time?

She lended him something else instead, with every break he took to confront the Goddess. She gave what she had plenty of: strength. Every bit of drained power, every little increase in difficulty to contain the demon, was worth it to see him thrive. Link would come in his own time, and she would be ready for him when he did. Besides, she didn’t mind waiting. She enjoyed those moments when clarity hit, when she could see his progress from her spot in the realm of nothingness. A naturally gifted boy in many ways, but there was something so precious in the way he worked. In the years before, Zelda had come to understand him as this hard working and duty driven boy, but it was so much more intimate to see his efforts herself. Oftentimes, she felt it was something she shouldn’t have been seeing, but she was proud nonetheless. Link would always come to be the hero he was meant to be. Courageous, determined, selfless.

And when he stormed the castle, the warm pulse in her chest thundering in time with his the closer he came, she’d never seen him look so angry. Of course, he’d lost as much as she, if not more. He had every right to be angry. For one bitter but sweet, satisfying moment, she felt for the Calamity. It had its victory, and Link would not let it get another. He was vicious and cruel and precise, and it seemed now, he was returning all of what she’d lent him. Perhaps it was just his presence that made her feel stronger in the midst of the first break she’d gotten in decades. It took hardly any effort to restrain the beast to Hyrule Field, and she took great pleasure in decorating it with glowing targets for the hero to strike.

In a brilliant moment of intensity, Zelda could feel the world around her again. She could feel her body grow solid, the golden glow encasing her with a divine power her mortal vessel shouldn’t have been able to handle, and she faced the Calamity head on for a second time. With a strained cry, with the fury of a thousand lost souls, with the hunger for revenge for her friends, her father, her kingdom, her hero, the princess took her duty upon her shoulders and swallowed the darkness in the holy light of the Goddess. She willed her magic to carve into every crevice, tear it apart, cause it to feel the very pain it rained down upon Hyrule tenfold, but it would never be enough. The Beast was gone too soon. After a century of holding everything hostage, it was reduced to nothing. That was perhaps the worst part of it all. They would never be able to cause it the pain it had caused them, because it was not human. It was not a thing that could feel pain or regret. The only thing it knew was hatred, and for a moment, as Zelda collapsed to her knees and dug her fingers into the dirt, she worried if she was too similar.

She hated Calamity Ganon, hated all it had done and all it had taken from her, and she hated that she didn’t feel satisfied. She was angry, so incredibly angry, that it got to crawl back into its coffin until another ten thousand years had passed, but all of those lost to its claws could never return. She was angry that she couldn’t cause it the pain that it caused her, that it could take everything away from her and no amount of revenge could ease her pain.

She was shaking. She didn’t realize she was crying. But Link, ever the kind, patient, selfless man that he was, did not leave her stranded. His feet came into view, prompting her to lift her head and blink hard to clear her vision just enough to see him kneel before her. He extended his hands to her. They were trembling just as hard. Zelda slowly pulled her fingers free of the dirt, uncurling them just enough to hesitantly slip her hands into his.

Once upon a time, she couldn’t read his expression. A century later, on the battered ground of Hyrule Field, his eyes were misty and he looked like he would crumble at any point, but he looked relieved. She grasped his hands tighter, more desperate than before, and sobbed out a “thank you.”

His thumbs brushed against her, gentle as ever, and she had very little composure left. Her anger, her dissatisfaction in the truth that the Calamity would never truly die, dissipated like it had never been there at all. She found she didn’t care anymore, at least not in that moment, because she had something. She had hope, she had courage. She had Link, if he wanted her. It was an ache in her chest, nagging in her brain, and before she could think better of it, she whispered, “May I ask…do you really remember me?”

She didn’t want to know the answer. He was quiet for what felt like an eternity, and she wasn’t sure she had another to give. But then he answered, quieter than the wind but as sure as the sky, “yes.”

He tugged her hands, pulled her forwards into an embrace, and she clutched the back of his tunic with eager fingers. She could cry again, but she realized with a start that he was the one sobbing instead. Zelda held him tighter, buried her face in his hair, whispered into the wind that she was here, that they were okay, that it was over.

And when they finally lifted their heads, when Link smiled at her, she had no trouble believing it.

#zelink #botw zelink #requests #song fic requests #loz #botw #I don't know what else to tag #it's an ending they deserved #thanks Nintendo but I'll take it from here

[tuesdayx]

So I thought it would be fun to do a song-by-song breakdown of our latest album Essential.

Essential started as some rough demos designated for a side project in late 2019, which then became our largest album to date in terms of song selection. Many of the themes deal with learning to cope with the changing world thanks to Covid, with a perspective of someone who had to keep working at an "essential" job with no option of self-quarantine. I was happy to continue working and being able to pay my bills over the past year, but there was always elements of stress, fear, and tension lingering over myself and everyone else in my position.

So here we go; starting from the top let's look at the Songs of Tuesday X's 6th album Essential.

1. Jet Fuel Can't Melt Steel Beams: the title was a reference to the 9/11 conspiracy memes, which as stated in the opening lines, "has nothing to do with this song." Written in January of 2020 before Covid had made any significant impact in the US, the song touches on many themes which happened to occur throughout the year, such as [another] Californian forest fire (Australia too), new diseases (Covid), a riot (the BLM movement over the summer, which I will state everything that movement has been fighting for is 100% justified and the United States is in desperate need of Police reform, as does our political system which has remained inherently racist to this day.), Civil War (and exaggeration for sure, but the civil unrest and political division in our country will soon split us apart further), more corporate giants(companies like Amazon profited more from this Pandemic than ever before and have helped further the gap between the American working class and the top 1%). Favorite line: "I won't get philosophical, I only wanted your attention."

2. The Only Difference Between You and Me is a Sense of Apathy and Your Brand New Nikes: This song is a blithing criticism of the American political system. Our two party system has left Americans with a choice between "the lesser of two evils" and allows politicians with no true interest in our needs to rise to power. The use of 3rd parties as an alternative is a overly simple compromise that would only just begin to alleviate the problems created in our political system. Both of our main parties are considered conservative parties to the rest of the world, and any progressive measures that would benefit society and reduce the effects of climate change are considered radical and preposterous by politicians with financial stakes in our crooked system where corporatations hold control and the people are treated as fuel for an otherwise worthless currency. Favorite line: "Listen to the radio, they played my favorite song. Now I'm bored and wanting more."

3. Blame it on the Elves: the title is a reference to an episode of the Podcast "Lore" by Aaron Menke (i can't recall which episode, but you should check it out anyway because it's great listen.) An instrumental interlude inspired by ragtime music of the 1920-30's, with an edge of course.

4. Class of Dropouts: This song was written when I was 16 during my sophomore year of high school and was originally featured on my now unavailable album "trees" before adopting the Tuesday X monicker. I brought it back 6 years later because I loved how raw and punk it was. The lyrics are dorky but I decided to leave them as is, it's a cool track for high school stoners to blare and let out their teen angst. Favorite line: "Walking in on my friends fucking."

5. Polaroids on My Bulletin Board: This is a song about growing up. As a 22 year old (now 23) who decided not to go to college straight out of high school, I felt isolated from my peers in a way. By going into the workfield right away I sometimes feel like I skipped a few years and missed out on a lot of opportunities. I regret not leaving my hometown sooner than I did and chasing my dreams of being a touring musician in a band. More often than not I reminisce of my youth playing shows and getting into trouble, as I now feel old and out of place in a scene I grew up in. Favorite line: "I know what it's like to be alive, I know what it's like to live a lie."

6. Labradoodle Underpass: Going back on the theme of growing up, this is about my recent experience with shows as an adult. When I was a teenager I felt ambitious and ready for anything, and I would drop literally everything to go to the nearest show. As an adult I feel introverted and constantly anxious about the world around me. I've missed out on a lot of great shows due to my own self doubt's and anxiety. Now that shows have been canceled for over a year I feel even more regret by not appreciating them more while I could. Favorite line: "23 years and a lingering fear that anything could happen, why am I here?"

7. Some Shit: This was me trying to be modest mouse lol jangly guitars and half talking/half singing vocals describing the world around me. I guess in a way it was an exercise in writing character description and setting, but otherwise it's just a chill track that almost feels aimless at parts. Favorite Line: "it's just some shit I learned from a friend. Just some shit I learned when I was trying to prepare."

8: Woe is the World: On the album this is a chorus snippet that barely a minute long (the full version is available as a bonus track on bandcamp, and it was actually a demo that turned out better than the final version.) I originally wrote this song when I was 15 with a different set of lyrics, but I came back to it while writing this album and re-wrote it to reflect my mental state and the world around me. Overall, just another melancholy track in a sea of melancholy songs. Favorite line: "you've never felt more alone than you do now, was everything worth it in the end?"

9. Then Why Was it Named Gideon?: the title is a reference to a line in Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour (my favorite series) and like the first track on this album doesn't have much to do with the song. "Gideon" is a simple love song, talking again about how growing up sucks but having the right person by your side can make all the shitty times worth it in the end. Favorite line: "it's time to move on, you're taking too long."

10. I am Here, I'm Looking at Her, and She is Beautiful: This song is entirely about the book "Perks of Being a Wallflower". That's it. Nothing else, let's move on. Favorite line: "Over Christmas I read them a poem about a brown paper bag and the boy who wrote it."

11. Try to Be a Filter, Not a Sponge: Like the previous song, this one is also mostly about "Perks of Being a Wallflower", but with elements of my own experience with toxic relationships. I like to think of it as the character Charlie's experience with Mary Elizabeth overall though. Favorite line: "She called my favorite book washed out trash, said I have no taste and I'm still too sad."

12. Lavender Spray Bottle: This instrumental dates back to 2017. I recorded the guitar part as a demo on my phone and forgot about it. Over time I forgot how to play the guitar part, so I used the demo as a basis and layered everything else on top of it. The title is a reference to a bottle of water with lavender essential oils mixed in that my ex used to fend away spiders in the house we lived in at the time.

13. Hindsight is 2020: I will admit, this is my favorite song on the whole album and was actually the last to be written and recorded. With a simple guitar part and layers of vocals, this song is a direct reflection of life during the peak of the pandemic. With curfews in place and rising case counts, I had to learn to cope with life at home during my late nights away from work. My partner was quarantined during this time and I reflected on the mental strain this put on her. Favorite line: "Don't go to work, you need the money but you're not happy when you're there. Sometimes life is so unfair."

14. I Don't Know How to Deal With Serious Emotions Without Turning Them into a Fucking Joke: the title came from a meme I found on my phone from high school. The song itself was about my own inability to handle serious emotions without coming off as sarcastic. In both the music and lyrics, the song starts as a simple confession before exploding into raw chaos. Favorite line: "it's so hard. I'm so scared, what have I become?"

15. Say Hello to My Little Friend: the last instrumental on this album. A short haunting tune that reflects the final two tracks. The title is probably a reference to Rambo or something, but I never watched it and I thought it fit the feeling of this song.

16. Minneapolis: What became one of the most emotional tracks on this song actually began as a joke. My partner was snap chatting a friend one night and they asked me to write them a song on the spot. So I improvised the first two verses and chorus of this song, referencing her going to school there at the time. I found I actually liked what I had written however, so I refined the track and changed it from a sassy country song into a melancholic lament of my experience in the twin cities and southern Minnesota. Favorite line: "I miss Camp Snoopy, and Paul Bunyon's log flume ride that went around the whole damn mall."

17. Before the Sunrise: the final song on the album is an intimate look at my relationship with my partner. Through past experiences i have become riddled with self doubt and always looking at improving myself as a person. With hopes that one day I'll be the person I'd like to be for mine and their sake, it's an optimistic tribute to my best friend. Favorite line: "the cycle ends until the sun rises again, you're my best friend."

Thank you all so much! Check out Essential and our other music on Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple, and other places! I hope you all enjoyed this personal look at these songs that got me through the worst parts of 2020.

#tuesday x #emo #music #alternative #art rock #diy music #diy #midwest #underground #lyrics #essential #covid19

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Anonymous asked: What do you make of Prime Minister Theresa May as her rules slowly comes to an end with the election of a new PM, probably Boris Johnson. An improvement? Will he be the one to get the UK out of Europe?

I never rated Theresa May, she was an ambitious but risk averse careerist like most of the modern Conservative Party. When she finally achieved her life time’s ambition by becoming Prime Minister, she made a mess of it.

Many years ago Enoch Powell, the great Conservative politician who was treated pariah for being so prophetic, stated the fate of all who climb the greasy pole of politics.  He said, “All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure, because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs.”

The same fate awaits Boris Johnson.

Is Johnson an improvement? He will be if compared to May who was as about as compelling as watching paint dry.

My main objection to him is character. he doesn’t have the character to be a good Prime Minister. Like Trump he is a charlatan who is entertaining but preening with man-child issues and narcissistic entitlement.

I don’t care about his messy personal life as he bonked women half his life while cheating on all his wives. Nor do I care for the scandal of his love children outside of marriage. You can argue that this shows his true character. Perhaps. But of course, it does show his personal morality but this doesn’t actually stop him being competent at his job. The trouble is that he has never been competent in his life.

By all counts, Johnson is clever but has always been quite lazy and a low attention span to follow through on tasks. When he was Foreign Secretary he never bothered to read his briefs or dive deep into the red boxes. He’s been fired as a journalist for lying - which is pretty hard to do considering many journalists bend the truth.  To many he is an opportunistic charlatan but with the confident artifice of Eton and Oxford grooming.

But I think he might be the only one who could takes us out of the EU. Make no mistake, we do need to get out of the EU.

But on what terms? At what price?

I fear his hands are tied, just like May, by the structural challenges of leaving the EU without a deal. The Irish backstop is of course biggest spanner to a meaningful deal. The prospect of a hard border between Ireland and Northern Island is one everyone secretly dreads in terms of what it might mean to return to the dark days of sectarian Protestant-Catholic violence. Ask any seasoned military veteran of the 70s and 80s and they will tell you Northern Ireland was their worst mission or posting than any they ever did. Even today the memories are bitter ones for British soldiers.

How the Irish border question gets resolved in the face of EU insistence of no more negotiations and compromises is a severe headache once the politicians stop their posturing.

Of bigger concern is President Trump.

It may come as news to some Americans but Trump is wildly viewed as unpopular by many in Britain, regardless of political loyalties. Both left and right see his dissing of the UK and interfering in British politics as gross and uncouth.

No one trusts anything that comes out of Trump’s mouth because he is a proven serial liar. When he talks of of trade deals with the post-Brexit UK, we all know he will never seek an equitable deal but one that is about ‘America first’ and screwing us over.

In this regard I do think the encroachment of American big pharma into British health system as well as the relaxing of food quality standards (like chlorinated chicken) is setting off alarm bells because they think Johnson will be will cave and be an obedient poodle.

Johnson’s supine role in not backing the current UK ambassador to the US, Kim Darroch, is a case in point. It doesn’t look good if you are seen to being dictated to by a foreign leader if you don’t back your own foreign ministry. Nor will the British people ever forgive him if Johnson acquiesces as if he was running the 51st state for the USA. It would be simply unacceptable because we are a proud nation with a proud history. 

Surprisingly, I’m not blaming Trump because his ‘America First’ beliefs. I think that is fine for the US as that’s his job to look out for his nation first. But conversely it’s bad for us. Trump as it’s now clear only thinks of deals in zero sum terms - there is only one winner so there has to be a loser. That’s his mind set. Again, I’m not holding that against Trump because he is being true to his nature.

America First is fine as far as it goes for American interests but for us we won’t get a fair deal because as a nation just breaking away from the EU umbrella we will not have any cover nor any leverage to punch back.

A pro-Brexit friend who actually worked under a minister told me that perhaps we should stay in the EU until Trump is replaced and then cut a deal. Firstly, I think he’s dreaming as no one can predict what the outcome of 2020 will be in the US. Secondly, who is to say whoever replaces Trump might be any easier to negotiate with? Thirdly, if the longer we delay leaving the more people will get used to us staying in and then it really will be harder to leave.

The big lie is that everything will be smelling daisies the day after we leave the EU with no deal. That’s BS. I know many corporate finance firms already making contingency plans to move to Ireland. Even Jacob Rees-Mogg, the arch Brexiteer, has set up his capital finance holdings firm in Dublin. Everyone I know with any capital or wealth already have insulated themselves as best as they legally can.

At the same time, these very people are salivating at the prospect of making the UK a place where easy money and capital can come and go with little oversight or regulation. Most of these things I agree with in principle. I think the City of London would continue to remain an attractive place to do business despite being outside the EU.

However I sometimes think the City of London has got its head up its own arse and thinks more about quick short term gains and little about the long term impact of its actions. The rot is deep in our country with the continued decline of investment in manufacturing in the country and greater wealth and education gaps between people. McJobs and the gig economy are not going to restore Britian’s greatness only hasten its decline.

Of course small British businesses will be hurt in the short and medium term by a no deal Brexit but don’t forget this is what they voted for. It will be painful. But some might well think it will be a worthy sacrifice to lose jobs and business in order to rebuild properly for the long term free of Brussels and bureaucrats. But that price won’t be paid by capital holding classes.

A very wealthy high flyer working in City of London put it to me over dinner not so long ago that people think that politics is about left vs right but actually it’s about those who have wealth and those who don’t.

The trick is to vent the flames of public passions towards abstract straw men like ‘freedom’ or ‘sovereignty’ or in the US it would take the form of ‘guns’ or ‘abortion’.

People on BOTH sides of an issue expend volatile passion that they each entrench their (legitimate) grievances so deep into permanent persecution complexes. It’s further ossified by the relentless and constant echo chamber they each inhabit to reinforce their own entrenched beliefs and prejudices. So much so they forget about where the real obscene truth lies.

That this has always been a Darwinian world and there will always be winners and losers in life - there will always the rulers (oligarchies) and the ruled, the haves and the have-nots, and the rich and the poor. It’s a very cynical take on human nature and our society.

As much as I wanted to disagree with him, deep down I felt there was more than a tinge of truth to his words. It’s true. The corporate world is not personal nor is it political per se. It’s just about the making money for shareholders and to accumulate capital for the sake of it. It wields power to insulate itself from scrutiny and to have the freedom to do as it pleases. It appeals to people’s base motives at their purest - individual self-preservation. At some stage it’s going to clash with the principles and the institutions of democracy and questions of what takes precedence becomes acute. But that debate is for another day.

I still like to think we live in a world where ideas matter regardless how bare you strip life down to the bones.

In the case of Brexit, to me the sovereignty of Parliament serving at the pleasure of the Queen is paramount. It’s ruling one’s nation from first principles. If it’s your nation then you should have sovereign control over all decisions being made for its citizens. Moreover those making the decisions should be open to public scrutiny and be accountable. The nation state (under a constitutional monarchy in the case of Britain) is only accountable to its subjects and not to outsiders. All fine in theory except it’s an issue when these very elites charged with ruling over the masses have deep structural rot in them and they are just floating to get by like dead wood. Renewal and regeneration looks like a pipe dream.

I love Europe and I consider myself a proud European but I find it unacceptable to be partly ruled from a foreign capital whether it’s Brussels, Berlin, Paris, Moscow or Washington DC.

The hubris of a Franco-German led Europe is real. The EU began on a worthy premise that both France and Germany never go to war again. But it has mutated into some confederated nightmare today. The folly of its confederate policies are apparent and it will only worsen.

I doubt Boris Johnson has the political gravitas - even if he has the low cunning or the wit - to out fox other European leaders and their mad integration policies. They know him too well since he was for years a lazy and incompetent correspondent in Brussels.

It may well be Johnson is the ‘useful idiot’ Britain needs to take us out of the EU but Britain will need another leader with integrity, character and conviction to lead us to build proper alliances and repair relations with other Europeans to collectively face threats to our shared identities and nationhood.

The trouble is I don’t see that person in the current Conservative Party. But don’t take my word on this please, I have a natural allergic reaction to all politicians of all stripes.

I don’t know how things will turn out but i am beginning to be concerned that whatever path we take is going to be fraught with danger - greater incendiary issues down the road will come back to bite us up the arse. 

Thanks for your question

#question #theresa may #enoch powell #boris johnson #british politics

[theculturedmarxist]

Twenty flats were destroyed by fire and 10 more damaged by heat and smoke Sunday, in Barking, east London.

The previous day, a huge fire ripped through what was the Jordanhill university campus building in Glasgow. The building was being redeveloped into more than 400 flats costing between £246,500 and £625,000.

No lives were lost in either fire, though a man and a woman were treated for smoke inhalation in De Pass Gardens, Barking.

Taking place on the weekend before the June 14 second anniversary of the Grenfell Tower inferno that claimed 72 lives, the blazes confirm the abject failure of the Conservative government, Labour controlled authorities and private corporations to end the threat posed to working people from substandard accommodation and the gutting of fire-safety regulations.

The fire in Barking engulfed the ground floor to the sixth floor at the top of the low-rise flat complex. It was eventually brought under control after three hours, at 6.00 p.m., by 15 fire engines and 100 firefighters, who arrived as residents were being evacuated.

The cause of the fire is not known. An investigation has been launched, but reports suggest that a wooden balcony was set ablaze by a barbecue and the fire then spread to similar balconies on all six floors.

As with Grenfell, the privately owned flats had been the subject of safety complaints by residents regarding the use of wood on the external aspects of the building. Peter Mason, chair of the Barking Reach residents’ association, took up the issue last month after a “BBC Watchdog” programme reported fire safety problems at two similar developments by the same builder in Scotland.

Builders Belway Homes is reported to have reassured residents that the wood was treated to be fire retardant. The Guardian quoted an email from Belway Homes stressing that the “construction method was different to the ones in the report.” The email concluded, “We understand that these news articles are highly alarming for all residents of new homes and I hope that the above statement has allayed any fears you may have over the safety and construction of your Bellway home.”

Mason noted that managing agents hired a fire warden to carry out patrols because of concerns about fire safety.

The potential for further disasters is enormous. The new estate, built in 2013, is large and made up of similar buildings.

Vilma has lived on the first floor of the gutted block since it opened. She told the WSWS, “The water sprinklers were not working, the fire alarm was not working, the fire doors are always open. And a fire marshal guy has been sitting for six, seven months from last November, from 7 p.m. to the morning, to wake up people if there was a fire. We knew that something was wrong as we spoke with the management letting association. But we did not get any answer. We asked why do we have to have this marshal here as we do not feel safe. What is wrong?

“Every time we called a meeting the rep did not attend. They sent someone else who knew nothing.

“When the fire brigade arrived they could not find a water hydrant. They had to waste 10 minutes. That’s why it’s only this block that has been burned, because when they found the water they were able to stop it from spreading.

“I live on the first floor. It’s completely gone. You need to report that it is not safe.

“They are now building again. They said that this wood would resist fire. They even gave us a timeframe of an hour and a half. That’s how safe they said it was. It took seven minutes to spread to all the building. They are liars.

“All the blocks are the same in this estate. This is just one block of many, and they want us to stay here depending on the condition of the house. How can we live here now? We have just been told that in three hours we can go in to see what we can salvage.”

Esther Aladje lived opposite the block. She explained, “My three boys were in the house, I was at church. I got messages, as I could not pick up the phone. And when I got the messages, they said, ‘Fire!’ I ran as fast as possible. We heard a lot of shouting, noise and so we had to leave immediately.

“By the time we came the boys were outside the house without clothes—no slippers, nothing, in the cold. One of them has a health condition and they were inhaling the smoke.

“The boys said it was really, really hot. If you can see in the front of the house all the window glass and the window frames are melted. That’s the impact of the heat. They are all doubled glazed.

“I feel for the people in the block as we know almost everyone. We see the children every day and we wave at each other. The blocks are just six years old.

“When we moved in, I was concerned by the fact that the outside of the blocks was clad with wood. My neighbour told me that the fire moved from the first house to the next in under 10 minutes via the wood. Whatever they used I am sure was not safe. Even the plastic doors from the balcony are all melted. How is this possible in 2019?”

Many buildings nationally are fire hazards.

According to Inside Housing, 164 high-rise private blocks have still not had highly flammable aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding replaced and nearly half had no firm plan in place to do so. The government is making just £200 million available to fund the removal of ACM.

The government has not tested any cladding material other than ACM, including high-pressure laminate (HPL) cladding, which burns 115 times hotter than non-combustible products. There are 34 high-rise blocks owned by social landlords that are clad in HPL, which was blamed for the spread of flames during the Lakanal House fire, which killed six people in 2009. The government has not even set a date for a large-scale test for HPL.

In a test on care homes by the London Fire Brigade, the borough of Bromley had the highest number, with 71 care homes receiving a notice of deficiencies. In addition, 20 in Redbridge and 16 in Havering failed to meet fire standards.

A survey by the Shelter housing charity showed that over half of people renting a home from a local authority or housing association have had a problem with the building in the past three years—including electrical hazards and gas leaks. Among those with a problem, one in 10 had to report it more than 10 times.

#grenfell

[bambamramfan]

Cops & Robbers, Left & Right

One of the most important attitudes that dominates our, American, and almost all Western discourse is how the left is held to a higher standard of behavior. I certainly do it.

Harassment, epistemological ignorance, take your pick: if someone on the right does it it gets a shrug, but if someone on the left does it’s a dire concern for our principles. Donald Trump can insult every group in the country all day long, but Hillary Clinton calls half of her opponents “deplorable” and it gets pretty much equal coverage and outrage. Who even notices if a Walmart manager sexually harassed their staff -- but a producer at NPR, oh my.

Now this isn’t to say “everyone hates the left.” Obviously there are still many partisans who will defend social justice or communism against any attacks, cherry picking right wing examples to make themselves look bad. But I guess that’s just it: they’re being mindless and just ignoring inconvenient data. Anyone who engages in actual discussion, and holds both sides to any accountability at all, holds the left to much higher standards.

And yes, for this discussion I am going to state the overall assumption up front: viewed in aggregate, the left’s behavior in this century (culturally or politically) is nowhere near as bad as the right’s. There is no statement by any politician, activist, or star on the left that you can not find something worse by an equivalent or higher-profile person on the right. We have Anita Sarkesian, you have Rush Limbaugh. We have Bernie Sanders, you have Rick Santorum. HRC vs DJT.

This isn’t to say the double standard is bad. I definitely hold the left to a higher standard. Some right-twitters use bad logic and statistics, I’ll laugh before blocking them. Some left-twitters use a bad statistical framework for looking at gun violence/pay gap discrimination, and I won’t stop fuming until I’ve composed a six page tumblr essay. But why do I do it?

The imbalance is so widespread that there are many explanations for it, but they fall short to me.

1. The left are our people. This essay about internecine harassment falls in that camp https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2019/01/08/37793831/think-online-head-from-your-enemies-is-bad-try-getting-it-from-your-friends

I’ve taken heat from both sides, and while hate mail and mean tweets from my ideological opponents are annoying, they’re also easy to dismiss. I criticize Trump, someone with a giant red X in their Twitter bio calls me a cunt, and I glance at it and move on. It’s like a fly buzzing around your head—you swat it away and soon forget its existence. But when I criticize my own side—for being, at times, intolerant and dogmatic—the mob is made up of people I agree with on the big issues (climate change exists, health care is a human right, Trump is a fool and a danger) but disagree with on some small specifics. In this case, the buzzing doesn’t just annoy; it actually stings. (Or, at least, it used to. Turns out, you can become inured to almost anything.)

Slatestarcodex describes it as our disagreement with the fargroup (who we barely know) being eclipsed by the imminence of the neargroup (who are threatening us right next door.)

Except no. People native to the right happily share this double standard. And when people leave left-wing circles, driven out by how much they see their allies fail to live up to their ideals, and fall into orthogonal or centrist movements (say, rationalism) or right wing movements (hello alt), as often as not *they still focus on the failings of the left*. The reaction as someone changes environments varies, and indeed sometimes ideological emigres are just as upset at their new allies… but the flaming, biased hatred towards the left stays alive often enough for me not to buy “it’s because these are the people who are around us.”

(This also goes for the inverse explanation: that we critique the left more because we are more likely to be able to influence it. Plenty of dissidents aren’t!)

2. The left holds the real power. In this explanation, the cultural and social power that the left holds, especially over professional matters, dwarfs the economic and political power the right often holds. Or local government (if you’re in a city) is terrifying compared to national government. Or the “Deep State” which is a bunch of left-friendly bureaucrats holds the real power, and not the conservative politicians holding nominal office. (One might even call them “the Cathedral.”) And since they actually hold power, we should be more critical of them.

As an explanation of convenience, this can be made to fit any situation. Power is amorphous and very hard to pin down. In any particular situation you can make up a story about why you are right to fear left-derived power than right-derived power.

But I can’t see any theory of power where it makes broad sense. Like how can you sit down, and tally up all the forces in America - voters, colleges, state governments, corporations, small employers - and come to the conclusion that progressives have the overwhelming advantage? Certainly how could you tally up all the DAMAGE wrought by various forces, and think there’s more danger from the left? These people are always conspicuously silent on the current goddamn President, or the largest employers in the nation, or the military culture.

3. Equal criticism to both sides will have to target the left unfairly. I mentioned Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump before, and there’s a cynical explanation that “well the news media is going to want to attack both to seem unbiased, and that’s going to mean pitting the worst scandals of each against each other, even if one is in absolute terms much, much worse.” There’s something to this - but outside political races, the different powers are so asymmetric that I don’t think that really resembles anyone’s thinking process. What would such a Thoth be balancing for? Colleges vs corporations? Intellectuals vs service members? Bosses vs workers? Urban vs rural? I don’t see anyone in the discourse really trying to apportion fault between wildly different groups like that equally.

***

The closest to an answer I’ve come you can tell from the title. It’s a mix of all three above explanations, but with a strong moral intuition that *the left should be the good guys* (whether you are right or left yourself.)

The feelings most discoursers have about the left and right, is like feelings we have about police and criminals.

Criminals kill and hurt more people than the police, easily. And yet, we talk about the conduct of police much more. Why?

Well, for one, supposedly the police work for us, and so should be taking feedback from the citizenry, whereas no one expects that of criminals, so moralizing about them is wasted breath. And that’s true to an extent, but this sort of anger is shared by radicals and activists who hold as very deep parts of their sociology that the police are a power unto themselves and answerable to no one, especially their victims.

And different people react to this police anger differently. It would be very dumb indeed to think the police are so bad that it would be better if the criminals were put in charge of the police force - but some people get angry enough that they do think that way. Much the same as some liberals, well:

Not everyone reacts the same way of course. Some people criticize the left all day, but still reliably always vote for left over right. Whereas some people are so swayed by their critical emotions, that they buy in that the right must actually be preferable.

But underlying either response is just “these are the good guys!” We can’t ever separate our reaction to someone on the left from “I really expect better from you.” It’s not just about nearness to them, or the cultural power they wield, but an unconscious moral assumption about the world. And if the cops aren’t going to be better, why even have them at all?

And that intuition can mean a lot. For one, it’s a lot harder to fight back against the good guys. When you fight back against progressives or cops, people who don’t know you well think you’re a villain. It’s an uphill demoralizing battle - much worse than complaining about how a conservative state legislature fired you or how a racist troll harassed you. And so some people want to stake out as hard as they can beforehand “these aren’t actually the good guys.” With, alas, mixed success.

[elinor-sutton]

Fuck MAGA: Then & Now

I started this blog right after the 2016 election.

I was angry, and it was an outlet that I needed, but after a few posts, I did not consider my rage a priority worth my time.

I was told that it might be unhealthy to indulge an anger so deep that it began to form, for me, an existential foundation of being—almost always in hair-trigger battle mode, rhetoric and righteous anger at the ever-fucking READY.

BUT I have a life that needs attention and only occasionally merits ferocity, so I gave up blogging.

And now? All this time later, I am still in a near-constant state of slow burn, and it’s been way too long without an eruption.

In the year-and-a-half since I let the blog slide, the Perpetrator-in-Chief has lived down to the worst of my expectations, and he shows no signs of improvement. It’s a narcissist thing. He CANNOT improve because he cannot recognize ANY of his infinite faults. Here’s one: GROWN-UPS don’t play Keep Away or Made You Look or the fucking Dozens with psychotic nuclear-arsenal-wielding tyrants. [It should go without saying that, if at all possible, nuclear arsenals should not be handed to psychotic tyrants in the first place, but MAGA, or whatever, right? If you live, maybe you learn. FINGERS CROSSED!]

But really, are we STILL living in a world where the safety of [at least] half the planet comes down to a man-child measuring contest?

Dear President Prick-for-Brains,

If you have to start a motherfucking WAR over it, it’s NEVER going to measure UP!

Sincerely,

Elinor S. and—oh yes, the ENTIRE FUCKING WORLD SO JUST STFU ALREADY!

Yep—still SUPER-PISSED!

If you’re looking at the world—and the supposed leader of those parts of it which are purportedly “free”—and you’re not losing your damn mind, you must have some sort of pre-established lunacy. [I’m not speaking of mental health problems. Mental health and mental healthcare are legitimate issues ignored by the thoughts-and-prayers crowd unless they need a scapegoat/catchphrase for the walking, shooting consequences of MAGA-indoctrination.] I’m thinking of the WHITE-NATIONALIST-NAZI-RACIST-MISOGYNISTIC-PATRIOTISM-BEFORE-PEOPLE-BUT-REALLY-ME-FIRST-AND-FUCK-EVERYONE-ELSE psychosis that passes for conservative politics since 45 first got his ridiculous feelings hurt by a black man and a “nasty woman” who were—and ARE—undeniably his betters. Or maybe since Mitch McConnell crawled out of his deep, dark shell and STOLE A SUPREME COURT SEAT while we sat on our hands and muttered, “Can he do that?”

Evidently, he can! AND with ZERO consequences—not for him or any other limp-dick Sentry of the Status Quo tip-toeing his way across the Glass Ceiling, stroking his Keys to the Kingdom, or hiding under his Protector of the Patriarchy parasol because HE KNOWS—they ALL know—that “Zero Consequences” comes with a big, fat, fucking YET, and she is a BOSS BITCH—woke and coming ready with a to-do list several centuries in the making. Her list says, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” It says Black Lives Matter, Me Too, My Body/My Choice, LOVEisLOVE, NoH8, and NO MORE. She’s got Science-based, Evidence-based, Fact-based TRUTH with ZERO Alternatives because TIME is fucking UP!

And that means White Male Privilege [WMP—pronounced “wimp,” right?] is coming to an end. I can’t pinpoint the starting line, but scared-shitless white men with money and/or guns have been running THE REST OF US down since well before this “great” nation was founded, and there are far too many of “the rest of us” who buy into their bullshit—53% of white women [pronounced “silly twits”]?! If you don’t fall into any category that benefits from WMP, and you voted/plan to vote for more of this nonsense, your patriotic duty, as of this moment, is to wake up every morning and punch yourself in the fucking face until something like SENSE prevails. Side effects MAY include REASON and a newfound appreciation for ACTUAL FACTS as opposed to the alternative variety, but if that fails, it is my heartfelt hope that when you make your way to the voting booth—to do what is, of course, your civic duty—you may just do us all a favor, and GET LOST!

[On a friendlier note, if you benefit from WMP and DID NOT vote in favor of our present national tragedy, congratulations on your conscience! Please take your place in the crowd, and resist the urge to act like you know everything. Instead, memorize this mantra and repeat to yourself as often as necessary to convert words to action: I’VE HAD MY TURN TO TALK. NOW IS MY TIME TO LISTEN.]

I am still angry, and I will remain so as long as “Making America Great” looks like:

1. Children murdered at school with unregulated guns or ripped away from immigrant parents who thought they could find safety in this “great” country,

2. Law enforcement abusing and KILLING men and women of color without consequence,

3. Tax cuts designed to further line the pockets of the few at the expense of the many and promote the “trickle-down” bullshit we’ve been forced to swallow, off and on, since the fucking 80s—when it didn’t work the first time.

4. Ordinary Americans struggling, or going without, while working full time for LESS THAN A LIVING WAGE,

5. Ignoring veterans who are homeless, wait months for promised healthcare, and/or commit suicide at more than twice the rate of civilians,

6. Women facing unconstitutional restrictions on access to reproductive healthcare and a choice that is STILL A LEGAL RIGHT,

7. LGBTQ+ people living with discrimination from bathrooms to bakeries and everywhere in-between—including public schools and the workplace,

8. People with disabilities at risk of losing the protection of the ADA, and disabled children at risk of losing their right to a “free and appropriate public education” under IDEA,

9. Underserved children, or those who suffer illegal discrimination in schools, losing protection from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights,

10. Environmental protections rolled back to protect corporate profits,

11. The sex offender/demagogue/imbecilic slab of semi-sentient slime—AND the soulless mob of Republican/MAGA-minions fighting to stroke his [gross] ego—that we have given ourselves in place of legitimate leadership,

12. And the untold number of HUMAN BEINGS suffering from the tragic FOLLY of a deluded minority of voters.

For as long as this country is attacked by toxic overgrown toddlers who play at governing, and in their incompetence, damage its environment, menace its people, abuse the fundamentals of democracy and the republic, and terrorize those who protest, I will NURSE this rage and STOKE its fire.

This is MY COUNTRY. I love it, and I recognize that TRUE LOVE does not ignore fault. This country has NEVER achieved “greatness” for all of its people. It is fortunate for “the rest of us” that patriotism does not demand blind loyalty. It does not hinge love of country on absolutes, and it does not forever marry us to White Male Privilege and what has been done in its name. We pledge allegiance to an IDEAL, and then we work the phones, yell ourselves hoarse, march until our feet bleed, and fucking VOTE to mold OUR COUNTRY into what it should be.

We DO NOT forget the progress we have made. We remember every step forward even as we recognize that the ignorant, forgotten [whatever], and privileged—with their long-overdue last gasp—forced us to take two steps back. We didn’t NEED to go backward. Nobody needs this bullshit—EVER. But we can use this. We can take a look, MARK what we missed and LEARN where and HOW we can do better. We can do what needs to be done to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

Step One: EMBRACE the anger. We can be appalled at all the FUCKING BULLSHIT the MAGA-goons have wrought and amazed that WE STILL HAVE FUCKS TO GIVE. We can revel in the madness that living in this time brings us—because progressives know how to USE rage. We know how to mine it. We have a long history of crafting change from righteous anger, and [always] moving on—an inch or a mile at a time—pushing a reluctant nation to keep its promise of “LIBERTY and JUSTICE for ALL.”

Numbers, time, and momentum are on OUR SIDE. We need to get MAD, and we need to do it TOGETHER—FOR FUCK’S OBVIOUS SAKE—and then we need to run these backward motherfuckers down with an ever-loving TIDAL WAVE OF PROGRESS that will put two steps back so far beyond the last red mile marker that even Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell will regain consciousness in the gender-neutral bathroom of an inclusive, well-funded public school with no fear of shooters, fully aware that Black Lives Matter, wearing a pussyhat, shouting TIME’S UP, and feeling grateful for the motherfucking PRIVILEGE!

So yeah, I’ve been paying attention, and I’m still angry, and it’s long past time to start talking about it again.

Stay tuned.

#us politics #politics #immigrants #shooting #women’s rights #women’s health #public school #americans with disabilities act #black lives matter #noh8 #lgbtq #lgbtqa #living wage #special education #against trump #anti trump #children of immigrants

[automatismoateo]

In response to a question in a recent thread where someone asked me to go in-depth, here's a description of my experience in Education and teaching Science in Arkansas and why I finally quit. via /r/atheism

Submitted July 11, 2021 at 11:22PM by paxinfernum (Via reddit https://ift.tt/3ALPxPr) In response to a question in a recent thread where someone asked me to go in-depth, here's a description of my experience in Education and teaching Science in Arkansas and why I finally quit.

The only thing that matters

Here's something you need to understand first. In most rural districts, pretty much any idiot can get hired to a position and stay there as long as they don't piss off parents too much. The people hiring you don't really understand what you teach, and the parents don't understand or care what quality teaching is, but they care if you say something that offends their backward sensibilities. What that effectively means is that your ability to teach and stay on has more to do with being in sync with the community, who are usually racist and batshit paranoid. If you aren't in sync with that, you either have to keep your head down, or you will eventually get harassed into leaving due to vague complaints.

Abusive parenting is normal here

Okay. So starting with my student teaching. The woman I worked under was a total fucking psychopath. She bragged in the teachers' lounge about how she disciplined her daughter and people don't discipline their kids like that now. By discipline, I mean she told a story about how she chased her daughter down a hallway, dragged her by the hair of her head, and spanked her until she was raw. This was part of a story where she was bragging about how well behaved her daughter was due to her parenting.

If you're wondering if anyone pushed back against this, the answer is that they didn't. They were nodding their heads in affirmation. That's the problem with rural schools in a nutshell. The community hires from the community, and the community is backward as shit and filled with people who were raised in abusive conservative fundie homes. The parents, by the way, loved that teacher because she wasn't one of those soft "liberal" teachers. Parents, more than anyone else, wanted us to hit their kids and were always disappointed when they didn't get spanked. Child abuse is a way of life down here.

Teachers who are fearful of knowledge

Okay, so this woman was a science teacher. That's what I trained to teach. Science. I did so because I wasn't just one of those "science is awesome" Sagan-heads. I genuinely cared about teaching science as more than just fun facts, but as a methodology for uncovering the truth. I naively went into the field thinking that's what most science teachers would be like. I kind of hoped that I'd at least find a community of like-minded individuals in this ignorant state.

Over my entire teaching career, I literally never met another science teacher like me who was pro-science and pro-skepticism. They were overwhelmingly either just dumb and teaching rotely, or they were conspiratorial and fearful of science. This is exactly what an Arkansas school board wants out of a science teacher. They know they have to teach science, but they are afraid of science and see it as the most dangerous subject to teach in their little fundagelical minds. So they hire people who are afraid of science.

That crazy woman I trained under? She ranted about drones being used to spy on us. She told the kids GMOs were dangerous, and she told them homeopathic medicines were something she'd researched to help her friend with cancer. She wasn't unique in that regard. Every other science teacher I met in Arkansas was terrified of GMOs and had some conspiracy they wanted to rant about. One teacher's bugaboo was allergies and how he thought more people were getting allergies because of chemicals being put in the water. He brushed it off when I said it was probably due to more sensitive testing. Another teacher told their students the most horrendous and completely inaccurate facts about nuclear energy.

They're not sending us their best people

The point is these people weren't the best and brightest. Often, they weren't even adequate. One guy I worked with became a science teacher because he needed something to teach alongside coaching. He was dumb as a box of rocks and just barely passed his praxis exams after three tries. I know most people weren't going to ace these tests like I did, but the cutoff for a passing score in Arkansas is hilariously low. Yet, when he finally passed, it was only by a single point, and he recounted it to me like it was only by the grace of god.

Another teacher, a math teacher who was probably the worst speller I'd ever met, got certified in Texas, which has a lower standard for math, and he transferred his certification to Arkansas. So he only was able to teach math in Arkansas on a technicality. The way it works is that you only have to be recertified if you let your certification lapse. All that's required to recertify is doing 30 hours of PD per year, and then, every couple of years, you have to do the recertification process. But this idiot was too stupid to do that, and he let his certification expire. So then, he was teaching math without a license because he couldn't pass the Arkansas tests. (You're allowed to teach for so long as long as you're pursuing certification.)

Propaganda and Indoctrination

Half of the teachers I met might as well have been missionaries. It's illegal to push your religion or politics on students, but fuck if anyone will actually enforce that. Actually, let me step back there. Fuck if anyone will actually enforce that unless you're liberal or non-Christian. The state is an unofficial conservative theocracy so if the teacher wants to rant about gays or Jesus, there's very little chance any parent will even bother to complain. (Even liberals around here know they're outnumbered and won't win.) Even if the parent complains to the Principal, they'll only "have a word" with the teacher in question, most likely to have a chummy conversation where they eye roll about the parent and discuss ways they can continue to evangelize more subtly.

Even if the Principal is the type who takes this seriously, the teacher will only get a vague note in their file because no school board around here is going to fire a teacher for proselytizing children. They don't want the school to get burned down by an angry mob of Fox News zombies. Even if it makes it to the state ethics board, I've seen the state ethics board literally do nothing about a counselor who ignored a suicidal student, a teacher who was caught drunk driving, a superintendent who was manipulating the system to siphon more money into the school, and so many other things. The only thing the ethics board actually takes a license away for is cheating on standardized testing (got to keep our corporate donors happy) and actually fucking a student. Even if you bring a teacher up on proselytizing, they'll get a warning and be back in the classroom the next day.

So if you're a kid in a rural school, get ready for your teacher to unsubtly tell you about how Jesus is such an important part of their life or straight-up rant about the Democrats. When I was a student in Arkansas schools, I had teachers tell me: 1) All gay people should be thrown in prison 2) HIV-positive patients should be shipped to an island or burned (it was the 90s) 3) the Jews brought the holocaust on to themselves by rejecting Jesus 4) the teacher was boycotting Levis jeans because they supported gay people. That's just a sampling of shit I heard as a kid in Arkansas from freaking teachers.

While working as a teacher, I knew of teachers who latched onto kids with poor home lives and invited them over to their homes so they could do "prayer studies" with them. The kids went because they were kind to them and offered food. In case you're wondering, they got away with this because it was a husband and wife, so parents allowed it. (I'm just going to say that I'm actually quite certain this was entirely above board sex-wise. I knew the individuals, and while I despised what they were doing, I knew they were entirely sincere.)

Another teacher, a Trump supporter, went into a rant about how they needed to give all the teachers guns to fight off school shooters (because restricting guns in any way was tOtAlItArIaNiSm.) I nodded along because I was smart enough to know disagreeing publicly will get you shunned or harassed. All I could think in my head was "Dude, if they ever give you nutters guns, that's the day I quit. There will be 10 dead kids within a week." On that topic, one teacher I know of grabbed a student by the throat because they were pissed at them, and they didn't lose their job.

The history teacher, the one who wanted us to all have guns was teaching that the Civil War was about tariffs. You heard it here first, ladies and gentlemen. Hundreds of thousands of people went to war over tariffs that were at their lowest point in decades. It had nothing to do with the people they owned and shackled up like a Saw movie. The Civics teacher pushed Trump election conspiracies.

Another teacher, who had a family member who had a terminal illness and was literally only getting their medical treatment paid through Obamacare would go off on rants about Obama and transgender students.

Harassment

At one point, I was harassed by the campus cop. He found out I was in support of BLM, and literally screamed at me. Later, he transitioned to simply refusing to acknowledge my existence. Like, if I said anything to him, he would pretend he couldn't hear me. The dude was fucking insane and filled with hate. I'm pretty sure his domestic situation with his wife was abusive due to things he said. He was so angry and radicalized that it was never the students I worried would be a mass shooter. It was him. I was literally afraid he would come in one day and shoot the place up. He wasn't an oddity though. Every one of our resource officers was racist and unethical. One was running a vaping ring with students. Another took special joy in cracking down on Latino students.

Eventually, I started getting harassment from students though, and that's what led to me leaving. There are two things that led to increasing harassment. First, I had one conservative student who hated me and surmised that I must be a Clinton supporter. I never said that, but because I was one of the few teachers who didn't violate the rules about discussing religion or politics, they guess that I was a liberal atheist. So they started working to get me fired.

The second thing is that the Arkansas standards changed so that teaching evolution became part of my classroom standards. Just so you know, most schools in Arkansas don't actually teach evolution, even though they're supposed to. The way it works is teachers put it last on their things to teach, and oopsie, I just ran out of time at the end of the year. Some teachers know evolution is real, but they don't teach it because the backlash is too much to take. Others don't teach it because they're fundagelicals themselves, so they go along with the informal conspiracy to not teach evolution. I say informal conspiracy because it's not like they all get together in a back room and decide this. It's just the culture and incentives are all there to not teach it.

I actually taught evolution, and while I had always dealt with some degree of negativity, looking back, I have to say that was the point where I started getting a lot more. I can't emphasize enough how brainwashed these kids were. I'm not saying all of them because there were absolutely kids who believed in evolution, but they were in a minority and knew to keep their mouths shut. But it's sort of staggering to try to teach the history of the Earth and have a kid repeatedly try to prove to you that there was a global flood.

How harassment actually works in the real world

This is the thing I want people to understand. Harassment in the real world isn't usually as obvious as in a movie. No one drives by your house and throws a brick through your window. No one calls you up and leaves threatening messages. No one will ever fire you for being liberal or an atheist. Because these people are dumb as fuck, but they're also very clever at being shitty people. They know they can't walk up and say to the school board, "Fire so and so because they're teaching evolution." They know that's illegal technically.

So they just start making up vague complaints. Principals, even ones who were supportive like my last Principal, are reactive. If a parent comes to them to complain about a teacher, they're going to assume the teacher did something wrong and needs to be talked to. So the girl who found out I was a Hillary Clinton supporter suddenly decided I "made her uncomfortable" and "looked her weird." The great thing about these types of innuendos and character assaults is that you don't have to provide any real facts. It's all about how you just don't like that person. Remember that teachers are one of the few professions where you can actually be fired simply because the community doesn't like you.

So that fell flat because, like I said, my Principal was actually decent and understood how flimsy that was. So then, that girls boyfriend made a complaint about how I'd yelled at him in front of all the students. Unfortunately for him, this supposed incident happened while we were in a part of the school with cameras so it was obviously bullshit. However, parents calling in upset is still a big deal so I was told that I should try to be nicer to him in the future and win the parents over.

The point is that it's basically death by a thousand cuts from little gripes and exaggerated concerns. Another student flat-out lied and said I cussed them out in class. I know that some of this was actually instigated by a staff member who didn't like me. So they encourage students to complain about me. At one point, I know they actually set up a kid's parents to lodge a complaint against me. I know this because the language of the complaint was obviously written by them, and when I was having the parent conference, they actually stayed behind work (something they never did) and didn't leave our adjoining rooms until it was over. They apparently wanted to listen in and see how it went. This conservative teacher at various times: told me the wrong place for a meeting, got kids to say they would show up for an after school event and then not show up, convinced an entire group of students to quit a club I was sponsoring, spread rumors about me to parents.

I'm done

The final straw was covid. I tried to stick it out, but the day a kid told me he wasn't going to wear a mask because "Biden isn't the real President" was the point where I decided I was done. This came from teachers too. The biology teacher wore a mask below their nose. The staff refused to stop having potlucks throughout the entire pandemic. Some people can't be saved.

edit: I forgot to mention the English teacher I met while I was doing my student-teacher training. She was forcing her class to write essays on how Obama wasn't a real US Citizen. All throughout my teacher program, I'd been told over and over that you could get fired for talking politics in the classroom, and this bitch was literally forcing kids to write essays about how Obama was a secret Muslim. And nothing was done about it. She could get away with it because Arkansas is so white and racist. To put it into context, the county she was teaching in was 94% white and voted for Trump by 78% in 2020.

#reddit

[landofsomethingsomething]

It’s so god damn easy to tear people down. People do it every day. It’s simple, it’s satisfying, it’s cathartic, it feels like balm to people who have been wronged, to people who have suffered, to people who have to live their lives outside this virtual space in fear and in real danger, in abusive households and abusive communities and situations that do not foster kindness, empathy, or the extension of good faith toward strangers. Being able to lash out safely from behind a screen at people that are safe to lash out at and who feel like a source of your continuing oppression -- that’s novel, at first. It’s invigorating. It’s freeing. The ability to be angry, to say angry things, to express your hurt and rage at any number of nameless or unnamable things is so fucking seductive it’s no wonder so many lgbt+ people have spent time in that place, have had periods of their lives where they engaged in this behavior and said what they wanted and lashed out without thought and allowed others so similar to them to enable their behavior. 

It’s so easy to find lgbt+ people who are in pain. To take these people who are in pain and to give them targets. To mold young people and your peers and take advantage of their trauma (so like your own!) and whip it up, normalize it within your group, foster it on any number of available platforms. Focus it on whoever you deem deserving at any given time. Actions speak louder than words. Context is irrelevant. Dialogue is weak. Abusers are abusers are abusers, except when you’re the abuser, because the abuse you have suffered justifies your actions. Your abuse makes you relatable. Your abuse is more important, more valid, more meaningful, more deserving of the care and empathy of others regardless of your coping mechanisms. 

It’s so damn fucking easy to just say whatever you want on the internet. It’s so easy to paint a group with whatever paintbrush you like, because no one fact checks, no one cares about context, no one concerns themselves with nuance, no one views the words on the screen in front of them as coming from another human being with an entirely separate lived history full of its own tragedy and triumph and biases and triggers and needs and understanding and hard fucking learned lessons. 

We separate into teams and look for ways to score points against the other side. We make ourselves willfully ignorant so we don’t have to switch sides, or even better, remove ourselves from the game entirely. We busy ourselves with tearing our enemies down with unattainable standards, ignore our own hypocrisy, and look to our side to tell us we’re right, we’re right, this time we are right and we will not be silenced and we will not be bullied and we will not let them win. 

Our actual abusers don’t see any of it. They don’t care. They go on living their lives. We take our rage and our pain and our frustration out in arenas we understand, in the places we feel safe, and the people we lash out at are the people who should be our friends, our allies, our brothers and sisters and nonbinary siblings who have suffered so much in a world that denies our sexuality, denies our gender, denies our expression, denies our right to exist. 

We know our abusers won’t listen. We know our pain is nothing to them, a drop in a bucket. So we hurt the people that can’t help but listen, because our stories are so alike. 

I went through an angry phase. I spent a few years screaming at people I felt deserved it, too. Some of them did and some of them didn’t, and doing so brought me short term satisfaction and a deep sense of power that I had not experienced anywhere else. A deep resonance with my own identity that I was powerless to exhibit anywhere in my real life, because family is complicated, friends are the choir and speaking up about microaggressions at work gets queer people fucking fired every fucking day, and you need that god damn money to eat. to live. to pay for your fucking brain pills. 

So. 

When you have a platform and a fandom and you feel that thrill of being heard, finally -- I get it. 

But here’s the thing. 

Your abuse never justifies levying abuse on others, strangers, people whose context you do not know and whose stories you have not heard. 

Your emotions are valid. You are free to feel however you like. If you need to vent in private, among friends and colleagues and people you feel safe with, by all means. 

Your favorite characters and your favorite ships and your favorite relationships and your fanfiction and your fanart may be how you express yourself or vent or cope. Your Shit means different things to different people, and to some, it means nothing at all. Let it fucking go. Your shit is not the bar of lived experience other people in fandom must meet to be considered sufficiently oppressed to spare them your bullying. 

Your trigger and your context and your trauma is your own. It does not belong to anyone else. It is your responsibility to understand your limits and respect the rights of other creators, just as it is the responsibility of creators to properly tag and label their work to spare those whom it might upset the indignity of reliving their trauma within a space that is supposed to be safe for them. A space that for some may be the only safe space they have. A space that for some may be the only escape available to them. A space that, for some, may be the only way they can begin to express themselves, furtively, in stolen moments in an oppressive environment. 

Fandom is where so many of us found ourselves. It’s full of us, lgbt+ people in various life stages, expressing ourselves in communities dedicated to content that made us feel enough to find ourselves here in the first place. It’s where children currently are discovering labels for feelings they have never had the words to talk about before. It’s where adults go in the midst of their busy lives to contribute to a body of work motivated by nothing but emotion for the source, for the community, and/or for the hope of encouraging feedback from their peers, their fans, their heroes, all three. It’s where everyone goes and discovers there are people out there just like them, after all. 

It’s where people are picking their teams and suiting up and getting in line and hurting people just like them, every day. 

It’s where people are putting the feelings and wellbeing and sanctity and rights of fictional characters over those of actual human beings who committed the grave sin of enjoying a thing a different way, or for different reasons.

Fandom is full of amazing connection and moments I wouldn’t trade for the world. I wouldn’t be married to my amazing wife right now without it. But it’s also a battlefield in a bubble where I watch oppressed people tear each other apart every single day, while of course, in the meantime, outside the filmy fucking boundary between this world and the real one, the same privileged sorts continue to dominate every aspect of mainstream media, the white house is full of incompetent, hateful people, some of whom are literal nazis, white nationalists feel safe enough to wear swastikas on public transit in liberal epicenters, gay men in russia are being sent to death camps, the police are murdering people of color indiscriminately without fear of personal or professional consequence, the supreme court is one death or retirement away from setting back civil rights in the united states a century, trans people have to watch a nation of frightened pissbabies scream about the sanctity of public bathrooms while they themselves suffer from an increased rate of being literally fucking murdered simply for existing, gay teenagers ostracized from conservative families sleep homeless in the street with winter fast approaching, hurricanes devastate a dozen nations because this century has paved a political landscape where corporate profits prevail over basic human rights  -- and you know what, fuck it, let’s make it a little personal -- 

half my family has never acknowledged the fact that I have been married for a year because they don’t believe it is a legitimate marriage because I and my wife are both women, my wife and I went to the hairdresser the other day and when we checked in with the same last name we were asked if we were sisters (and upon clarifying, the woman who was to cut our hair loudly and incredulously gasped, “is that legal here?”), one of my best friends, a woman I have known since high school (that’s 17 years ago, for those keeping count) was told she would have to undergo a thorough and lengthy process via working with HR, her boss and the owner of her company before she could represent herself as her correct gender at work - and even after she jumped through all those hoops, she was told she was absolutely not allowed to use the women’s restroom under any circumstances - When I told my father about my engagement, he tearfully turned to me and said “but you’re supposed to marry a guy, and have babies” - and because this was my father, who I have always had a good relationship with despite remaining closeted most of my life, who I have always and still deeply love despite the shit that comes out of his mouth sometimes, who worked 12 hour days in construction to support me after divorcing my mother when he was nineteen years old - I actually fucking felt guilty. 

The memory of how I felt in that moment will follow me until I fucking die, and when I log on to this website at the end of the day and just want to fucking relax and spend time yammering about things I like with people who like those same things, when I just want to spend time in this space that makes me feel good, when I just want to create content for the joy of creating it and the joy of seeing others enjoy the thing I created -- the fucking last thing I want is to see myself, my wife, my close friends and fandom friends alike being put on blast by petty people leveraging a nebulous, ever-changing definition of purity, backed by a group of people I know have suffered and hurt and feel justified hurting others because of it. 

Fandom is where we go to escape the hellish fucking bullshit that is reality, for fuck’s sake.

I don’t fucking care who hurt you. Visiting pain upon others in the aftermath is your choice. Bullying others because a group of impressionable, hurting people looking for a leader will follow you into the trenches here on a battlefield where we should all fucking know better is your choice. 

Your feelings aren’t always your choice. That’s fair.

The way you choose to express and react to and process and deal with those feelings IS your choice.

Your actions are your choice.

So try to be kind. Try to be empathetic. Understand your feelings and understand when you are being manipulated and for god’s sake, when other queer people come out in droves to tell their stories, try to think critically, even if they are on the other “team.” Block content that upsets you. Use tools available to you to keep yourself safe! Blacklist tags. Blacklist URLs. Block people. Be frank about your triggers if you are able and try to give people the benefit of the doubt -- and if you can’t, put space between you and them, and then use the myriad of tools available to you to put a wall in that space. 

I know all about the kind of catharsis that comes from being a “mean gay.” I know all about constructing a set of rules within a group and then judging others outside that group by that context and punishing them when they fail purity tests they knew nothing about. I know all about fighting disrespect with disrespect and anger with anger and logging out at the end of the day to go cry -- not because I was sad, but because I was so fucking angry I couldn’t process the emotion any other way. 

I also know all about walking away from that life, that toxicity. I know about taking a break. I know about reading, a lot, for months and years, about experiences both like and very much unlike my own. I know about resolving to be better. I know about cutting out the people who made me worse, and keeping the people who encouraged me to be better. 

I know how much my life improved when I endeavored to keep my venting and negativity among friends who could actually support me, in places where I couldn’t hurt anyone, and present a positive force to the public, instead. To lift up the things I like and to block and move on with the things I don’t. To let creators have their space and their platform here in this one place where we can each carve out some small part for ourselves and feel like we are in control for once in our fucking lives. I know I stopped crying so much. I know my hobbies stopped making me so angry, all the time. I know that the only times I have been truly, deeply upset in my time in this fandom have been when I have been targeted or those I care about have been targeted. 

I know how fucking hard it is to tear yourself away. 

I know how fucking worth it it is. 

Take care of yourselves. 

#text #personal #fuck antis #fuck purity culture #fuck gatekeeping #fandom is for everyone #the fights that matter are out beyond this fucking bubble #but we just cant help ourselves #and while were busy tearing each other apart #the backlash against the gains weve made threaten the lives and livelihoods of real people #we have too far to go to make ourselves and others feel so fucking awful every day for the sake of fictional characters #for gods fucking sake

[mbtizone]

Shane Harvey (Faking It): ENFJ

Dominant Extroverted Feeling [Fe]: Shane is keenly aware of the emotions of those in his orbit. He tends to meddle in the affairs of his friends and is good at understanding other people’s feelings. He often knows what his friends are feeling before they know. The reason Liam can’t bring himself to call Karma his girlfriend is because of the guilt he feels for sleeping with Amy, though Liam insists that it’s due to his fear of commitment. Shane can often be affirming, and will congratulate even those he dislikes if he feels they’ve excelled at something. He’s able to empathize with his enemies and is often driven to help his adversaries in their times of need. Shane frequently encourages people to talk about their feelings. He doesn’t hesitate to express his own feelings, so he admonishes people when they choose to bottle up their emotions instead of just letting it all out. He enjoys hearing about other people’s problems and wants to help them, though he can become a bit controlling at times, believing he knows what’s best for his friends and significant others. Liam needs to talk, not go to a MMA class! Shane is appalled that Duke chooses to be a spokesman for a corporation that donates money to anti-gay organizations and demands that he stop eating that “homophobic sandwich.” He often believes he knows what other people need and tries to convince them to handle things in the way that he sees fit. When Shane wants to take Lauren down, he recruits Leila and Lisbeth to give him dirt on her and manipulates them into spilling Lauren’s secrets by being kind to them, which gets the girls to open up about the pills Lauren takes.

Auxiliary Introverted Intuition [Ni]: It’s very rare for Shane to just be. He always has a goal he’s working toward or a vision that he’s trying to turn into a reality. When the school hires a new principal with conservative views, Shane’s immediate response is to spring into action, telling Liam that they need to put their heads together to come up with a way to stop him. Shane is very good at coming to accurate conclusions with little to no prior information. He correctly assumes that Lauren is in the art room hoping to run into Theo. Shane is extremely metaphorical, which he often incorporates into his sense of humor. He has a tendency to be incredibly manipulate and usually knows exactly how to play someone in order to achieve his desired outcome. He often masterminds situations to get exactly what he needs from people. Shane scares Karma by telling her that “lesbians move fast, and they are viciously territorial” and once he has her where he wants her, he casually suggests that Karma show up on Amy’s date with Reagan in order to avoid getting pushed out (which is an elaborate ruse to create a “group hang” so he can invite Duke, who cannot go on a one-on-one date with Shane due to his refusal to come out of the closet). Shane often believes he knows how events will unfold. The student body will turn on Lauren. She only won the election by playing the intersex card, but once they realize how drastic her “radical agenda” is, they’ll all turn on her. Shane is future-oriented and focused on how things could be. He doesn’t care about tradition. He prefers to think about how things can be changed for the better (though the motivation for his plans are typically selfish and his idea of “better” is often about how things can improve for himself). Shane often comes up with creative (sometimes symbolic) ways to bring about whatever change he is striving for. “If Principal Turner wants to strip us of our rights, then maybe we should strip to protect them. Naked protest!”

Tertiary Extroverted Sensing [Se]: While Shane is definitely a planner who often takes the future into account, he has an impulsive streak and often takes action in the heat of the moment that gets him into trouble later. Sometimes, he has a tendency to loop, ignoring his auxiliary function. Shane feels something and acts without thinking of the potential ramifications. He anonymously outs Duke for selfish reasons (he’s tired of having to hide their relationship and he wants to get back at him by ruining his life), without pausing to think about how Duke will react if he discovers the truth. Shane can easily allow himself to live in the moment and is comfortable with doing things just because they’re fun (such as participating in Lauren’s revenge plot). Shane cares very much about physical beauty and enjoys sensory experiences, whether they be drinking, singing, parties, or sex, and enjoys his popularity and status at Hester High.

Inferior Introverted Thinking [Ti]: Sometimes, Shane is able to quickly and easily spot flaws in logic, which he often points out, most often utilized in his sense of humor. When Liam convinces himself that Jackson Lee has taken an interest in him because he’s Liam’s birth father, Liam falls victim to confirmation bias after he spots Jackson in a photo with his mother. However, Shane points out that he’s been in “plenty of pictures with people he hasn’t impregnated.” Shane often spots loopholes that allow him to get his way. Karma refuses to crash Amy’s date because she had said it was too soon for double dates, so Shane says he’ll bring Duke, which makes it a group hang and not technically a double date. Amy never said anything about group hangs! Shane is quick to point out that none of Lauren’s plans for revenge against Theo are practical. “I mean, arsenic poisoning could take weeks.” He doesn’t understand why she doesn’t just out him as a narc if she wants to get back at him so badly. He’s able to break things down into simple terms that are easy for anybody to understand. Shane tends to lead with his emotions and can sometimes struggle to detach from them, which often leads him to make impulsive decisions based on the way he feels in the moment.

Note: I’ve seen Shane typed as both ESTP and ESFP. While he does have all of the functions for ESTP, I don’t believe he leads with Se. He always has a plan, he’s a natural at organizing the people around him to achieve a common goal, and his Ni is far too developed to be inferior. Shane fights for what he believes in and is nearly always on a mission to fight injustice or achieve change that aligns with his personalized vision of the way things should be. He also definitely favors Fe/Ti over Fi/Te. Shane always wants to talk about his feelings and gets others to open up about theirs, has a tendency to be emotionally manipulative, and is extremely aware of everybody else’s feelings all the time.

Enneagram: 3w2 7w6 8w7 So/Sx

Quotes:

Karma: If you’ve come to kick me while I’m down, just please don’t. Shane: I came to say I admired your honesty earlier. I wouldn’t be surprised if you win. Seriously, I’m not playing mind games. Karma: So what, are we friends now? Shane: I wouldn’t go that far. But I do have empathy for you and your situation.

Shane: Quit taking it out on these innocent art supplies. Liam: Shane, really, I don’t want to talk about it. Shane: That’s just your straight guy resistance to talking about your feelings. Push through it. Theo: What are y’all on about? Shane: It’s Karma’s birthday, and Liam can’t be with her for reasons too complicated and fucked up to specify. Theo: Wanna go hit stuff? Always makes me feel better. I’m taking this mixed martial arts class downtown. Shane: Nice try, Theo, but what Liam needs is to talk it all out over some grilled cheeses at Millie’s Diner. Theo: What is this, The View? Liam: Shane, I’m sorry, but that class is just what the doctor ordered. Shane: You’re not the doctor. You’re the patient. You can’t prescribe your own medicine. Theo: Wow, you really think you know what’s best for everybody, don’t you? Shane: It’s a gift. Liam: We’ll talk it out later, I promise. But right now, I just want to punch someone in the face without getting arrested. You wanna come? Shane: I’ll pass. It all sounds a bit too aggressively heterosexual for me.

Shane: Have to say, not so sure if this whole “giving Amy space” plan is the right move. Karma: What do you mean? Shane: I mean that while you’re off giving her space. Reagan could be burrowing herself deeper into Amy’s love nest. Lesbians move fast, and they are viciously territorial. Karma: Amy would never date anyone like that. Are you messing with me? Shane: Fine, if you think being a former fake lesbian makes you an expert on the gay community, go ahead, take your chances. Or you could coincidentally show up on their date Saturday and show Reagan that when it comes to Amy, you are the free gift with purchase. Karma: I don’t know. Amy says it’s too soon for double dates. Shane: I’ll tell you what. My trainer and I will come along too. Then it’s a group hang. Amy didn’t say anything about group hangs, did she? Karma: Technically, no.

Duke’s Father: Oh! All right, let’s see that killer smile. Bring the chicken burger closer to you. There we go. Shane: Don’t! I can’t stand here and watch you do this. Cluck-n-Go is a horrible corporation that has fired gay employees and given millions of dollars to anti-gay causes. Duke’s Father: They also give money to M.M.A. fighters, so less talkin’, more eatin’. Shane: Look, if you don’t want to be a role model, I get it, but it’s on a whole other level to be the spokesman of a company that’s actively working against our rights. Duke’s Father: Son, we’re not selling politics. We’re selling chicken. Eat the damn sandwich. Shane: Don’t eat that homophobic sandwich. I hope you don’t choke on it. I know you have a tricky gag reflex.

Shane: We got to stop this guy. Let’s meet after school and come up with a plan. Liam: Uh, I can’t today. I’ve got to go to the dentist. Shane: This is important. I heard he turned the art studio into a storage room. Liam: And I’m really upset about it. But he books up weeks in advance.

Lauren: Just click here to accept the terms and conditions. Shane: If you don’t mind, I’d prefer to read them first. What? Have any of guys read this? This is longer than my grandma’s Christmas letter. They want us to play by their rules. But Hester High has always been about breaking the rules. We question tradition. We trust each other. We stand up for the little guy. Can I get an amen, Brenda?

Shane: Fellow students, if Principal Turner wants to strip us of our rights, then maybe we should strip to protect them. Naked protest! Naked protest! Naked protest! Naked protest! Naked protest!

Lauren: Hello, Amy. Shane. I think it would be best for everyone involved if you two leave and we never speak of this again. Amy: No, we need to talk about this. Shane: Yeah, we really need to, because this is all wrong. None of these revenge scenarios are practical. I mean, arsenic poisoning could take weeks. What are you doing? If you want to get back at Theo, why don’t you just go to his new school and out him as a narc? Lauren: Outing people – that’s your solution to everything, isn’t it? It’s too simple and totally obvious.

Shane: Grr! Young Jackson Lee was cute. Liam: And that’s Robin in the same picture. That’s proof! Shane, he’s my dad! Shane: I don’t know. I’ve been in plenty of pictures with people I haven’t impregnated.

Shane Harvey (Faking It): ENFJ was originally published on MBTI Zone

#Shane Harvey #Faking It #ENFJ #Type 3 #enneagram 3 #3w2 7w6 8w7 #So/Sx #mbti #mbti types #mbti personality types #fictionalcharactermbti #fictionmbti #tv mbti #enneagram #enneatypes #enneagram type

[labourpress]

Jeremy Corbyn speech to UNISON annual conference

Jeremy Corbyn MP, Leader of the Labour Party, speaking at the UNISON annual conference, said:

Thank you for inviting me here today to your annual conference.

It is a great pleasure to be back in Brighton for the first time since the election. Not only did the Labour Party increase our majority in Hove from just over 1,000 to almost 19,000 but we also gained Brighton Kemptown.

The brilliant Lloyd Russell-Moyle turned a Tory majority of almost 700 into a Labour majority of 10,000, the biggest majority that any MP of any party has ever had in that constituency.

Here in the South-East overall, Labour increased its vote by a fantastic 63 per cent, a figure only beaten by the South West of England where we increased our vote by 73 per cent. These are figures which show that there are no unwinnable seats for Labour now: from recent gains like Canterbury and Kensington to our Labour heartlands in the North

And can I say how glad I am that we have numerous new Labour Members of Parliament who are from Unison, such as your former regional secretary, Eleanor Smith who is now MP for Wolverhampton South West: a black woman elected in the seat once held by the Conservative MP, Enoch Powell.

Theresa May and the Tories are now weakened and divided. The Prime Minister called an election to win a landslide and lost her majority and her political authority.

Two weeks after the general election she has still been unable to stitch together a deal with the DUP to stay in office, while we have been strengthened across every part of the country in our drive to form a  Labour government, deliver real change and transform people’s lives.

Although Labour did not win the General Election, there is no question that it was a real advance and success for the Labour Party and for working people across the United Kingdom.

Against the predictions of the experts, that was achieved by putting our manifesto and our popular policies centre stage. A message of how the country could be if it was governed for the benefit of the many not the few, we showed that the politics of hope can always trump the politics of fear.

And by doing so we have created a movement: a movement of people of all ages, all religions, all ethnicities and all backgrounds. Our strength is our unity, our determination is to change this country for the better and to win the next election and form a Labour government.

None of this will be possible without the huge support we get from the Trade Union movement and your members. Indeed, we would not be where we are today if it were not for Trade Unions such as Unison giving us fantastic support every step of the way. It is vital you get the recognition that you deserve for being the bedrock of our party, in the knowledge that it is only a Labour government and not a Tory government that will protect and deliver for your members.

During the election campaign whilst roughly half of all the money the Labour Party raised was from private individuals giving on average 20 to 30 pounds wanting to help our national campaign. The other half came from Trade Unions.

Whereas other parties rely on huge private donations and handouts from corporations, the Labour Party relies on smaller donations from ordinary people and the generosity of the democratic Trade Union movement to keep going and keep representing people the concerns and needs of the people of Britain.

But it is not only the financial contributions but also the practical help and participation which I must thank this union for.

The Unison campaign, led by your General Secretary, Dave Prentis, and managed by Liz Snape and Lucie Hyndley gave a massive boost to the overall Labour campaign.

Whether it was articles or adverts in newspapers highlighting the need to care for our NHS and end the dangerous cuts to community policing. Or if it was your social media campaign and Facebook advertising seen by over 8 million voters. Or just your targeted campaign on the ground, knocking on doors, listening to people’s concerns and letting people know about how a Labour government would end Tory austerity to benefit them and their families.

So my thanks to everybody from Unison for all that you did to support our campaign and for all I hope that you will continue to do to ensure that a Labour government is acknowledged by all clearly to be now within our reach.

Theresa May and the Tories are clinging to power by the skin of their teeth and at the pleasure of the Democratic Unionist Party, but Labour will oppose this weak Conservative minority government, both in Parliament and outside of it, every step of the way.

We are in Opposition but we are also now a government in waiting.

We are ready for another election at any time to finish the job of beating the failed and clapped out Tories and form a government that works for all.

The last week has shown why how necessary it is to do this as soon as we can.

The Grenfell Tower fire should never have happened. Every single death could have been avoided.

From Hillsborough, to the child sex abuse scandal, to Grenfell Tower the pattern is clear. Working class voices are ignored by the powerful and their concerns are repeatedly dismissed.

The Grenfell Tower residents themselves had raised concerns about the lack of fire safety in the block. The Grenfell Action Group had warned: “It is a truly terrifying thought but the Grenfell Action Group firmly believes that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord.”

So not only should more have been done to prevent these tragic deaths but the Prime Minister has now had to publicly apologise for her government’s pitiful response in helping those who had lost their homes and lost their loved ones in the disaster.

A tower block in flames due to poor building quality. A heroic response from the fire and rescue service who are dangerously overstretched and understaffed  and a government and local government response that has left victims sleeping on the street and under bridges as they have nowhere else to go.

Make no mistake about it, this is the brutal reality of austerity economics that has failed in its own terms and leading to falling living standards, rising inequality and disasters. We have always known that austerity was a choice, a choice made by those at the top which has harmed the lives of the many to maintain the privilege of a few but has had absolutely devastating and frankly inhumane consequences for those at the very bottom.

Of course, now the government offers warm words about the bravery of our firefighters and the commitment of public sector workers who have worked around the clock to organise a response to Grenfell fire and other recent terrorist attacks.

Only this week we have again seen the brilliant role by the emergency services in dealing with the terrible attack in my own constituency as well as the resilience and strength of our communities who refuse to be divided and set against each other.

But it is not good enough to be grateful to our public sector workers only at moments of crisis and disaster.

You deserve dignity at work and the public deserves the dignity of well-funded public services.

It is the police and PCSOs that make our communities safer and it is their knowledge of their communities and local intelligence gathering  that helps prevent terrorism. Terrorism is not defeated by tearing up our human rights or by dividing our communities.

There are now 20,000 fewer police officers than there were when the Tories took office in 2010 but when the Police Federation raised this with Theresa May when she was then Home Secretary she accused them of crying wolf.

It is this attitude, the same attitude that we always see when this government dismisses unions such as Unison when you raise concerns about the brutality of austerity and the dangers of public sector cuts that have left us in the position that we are now in.

That is why Labour’s manifesto for the recent election, ‘For the Many, Not the Few’, committed us to a fresh approach to policing: 10,000 more police officers to work on community beats under a Labour government, equivalent to an extra officer for every neighbourhood in the country.

Whereas the Conservatives have cut the number of firefighters and closed dozens of fire stations, Labour would recruit 3,000 more.

This is the only way to keep people safe and ensure that current firefighters are not demeaned by being run into the ground with physical and mental exhaustion by excessive shifts.

This is the investment that Britain needs: investment yes to create jobs and give people opportunities but also essential investment to keep people safe in their homes. You cannot protect people’s lives on the cheap.

Not only do we need more money to be spent on our vital public services but we need more money to be spent on our vital public servants too.

A future Labour government will scrap the public sector pay cap. It is a disgrace that NHS nurses are paid 14 per cent less today in real terms than they were in 2010.

In Britain, in 2017, we have nurses and other public sector workers being forced to go to food banks, along with one million other people whose chances have been crushed in the name of austerity.

When this was put to the Prime Minister she said that there are ‘complex reasons’ for people having to use foodbanks.

Well I hope the Prime Minister is listening today when I say that there are not complex reasons for people having to use foodbanks: the only reason is that this government refuses to ensure people have enough income to feed themselves.

So ending the pay cap is a necessity.

And, as our fully costed manifesto set out, our new spending commitments would be paid for asking the top five per cent to pay a small amount extra in tax, still with a lower tax rate than under most of Mrs Thatcher’s reign, and by asking big business to pay a little more but still a lower rate than any other country in the G7.

More funding would then be available for our children’s schools and for our NHS, this country’s proudest achievement, as well as its most socialist one offering universal healthcare for all on the basis of need: free at the point of use.

This is a sacred principle for the overwhelming majority of people in this country. But is one that the Tories have seriously put under threat through chronic defunding and creeping privatisation.

Labour is committed to ending this. We will halt the dreaded and much derided ‘Sustainability and Transformation Plans’ and would instead put over £30 billion in extra funding over the course of a five year Parliament.

This is absolutely essential to ensure that NHS staff have the conditions which they deserve and everyone has the NHS services they deserve.

We would protect people by introducing legislation and imposing legal requirements for minimum staffing levels in the NHS.

Labour is also committed to re-introduce nurses’ bursaries and funding for health related degrees to encourage more people to train, as well as immediately guaranteeing the rights of EU nationals protecting the tens of thousands working in our health and social care sector.

Yesterday the Prime Minister put down her first offer in Brussels on the rights of EU nationals after Brexit but as our Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer has said people should not be used as bargaining chips in the Brexit negotiations.

And what she has floated falls far short of the full guarantee Labour would make. That isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s also the best way to guarantee the rights of British nationals living in the EU.

Just as the 1945 Labour government created the National Health Service out of post-war ruin. The next Labour government will lay the foundations for a National Care Service in the aftermath of the ruinous austerity of the Conservatives.

We would ensure that all care workers were paid a real living wage, reaching £10 an hour by 2020.

Improving social care is so essential in providing dignity to people in old age and giving independence to those who are vulnerable or have a disability or a mental health condition.

Only a universal approach will be sufficient to tackle the problem. The election showed the Tories for what they really are: how they desire to introduce a dementia tax, to take people’s homes away from them purely because they have the misfortune of having to rely on social care.

Losing so many seats at the General Election has forced the Conservatives into abandoning their social care plans, abandoning their plans to bring back grammar schools and to scrap free school meals for children. 

The election showed that the public is with us. People know from their experience that privatisation has failed, that austerity has failed. It has damaged services and held people back.

The Labour Party and the Labour movement exist so that working people’s voices are heard.

Them dropping so many of their proposals shows they have heard us, and now the Conservatives need to hear us on declining living standards,  falling wages, public service cuts, from the NHS to schools to social care.

But if this election, with increased turnout, was about people’s voices being heard we must ensure that the next election is people’s cheers of hope.

Hope for the better society that is possible.

Hope for the better country that we could be.

Hope for a Labour government that will bring equality, opportunity, and prosperity.

Together we can make that happen, the Labour Party and the labour movement, united for the many not the few.

[larrykrakow]

Anti-Maskers: Shut Up And Wear A Mask

New Post has been published on https://theprogressivemind.org/anti-maskers/

Anti-Maskers: Shut Up And Wear A Mask

The title says it all, shut up and wear a mask. If I have to tell you this, you are seriously deranged. You are selfish and self absorbed. People like you are a danger to everyone else and I will not stand for it. If your feelings are hurt, tough! Grow up, you pea brained idiot. Coronavirus cases are on the rise, because shmucks like you refuse to wear a damn mask. Are you kidding? Anti-maskers as they are called could cause this pandemic to extend indefinitely.

I almost NEVER quote the New York Times, but today I will. Generally, I view them as pro corporate establishment tools of the mainstream media. That said, they put out material about Japan and how they handled the Covid-19 pandemic that showed serious credibility. Clearly, they defined how Japan thrived and did not see the spike in deaths and cases, even though their economy stayed open. What did they do differently than us? They wore masks. That is undeniable and factual.

I have news for all the anti-maskers.

This is not a conspiracy to kill you or take control over you. All of you people that think this is a conspiracy to kill you and take away your rights, grow up. Stop reading rag mags and stop going to Trump rallies.

Your dear leader has failed you and masks save lives. Anti-maskers peddle conspiracy theories that are not true.

Anti-maskers are preventing us from ever defeating Covid-19. Japan and many other countries have proven that masks work in preventing the spread of the coronavirus. It is absurd to think that this one thing is preventing us from overcoming this national tragedy.

We currently lead the world in both Covid-19 cases and deaths by a big margin. Anti-maskers avoid this subject at all cost. Sure, Brazil and India are on the rise in case load, but we take the cake. We could have been past the worst of this had we done one thing. Sadly, that was to have all Americans wear masks in public places. We would have had the spread under control and life would have started to turn back to normal without a strain on our hospital system.

So why do people refuse to wear a mask? The claims have been absurd at best, but we should dive into them. I found an article online from a fairly bigoted right wing author who described this as a China or Wuhan virus. It gave reasons why THIS guy will not wear a mask. I will take each one and break them down. Scott Morefield, from the Daily Caller, a right wing news outlet wrote a piece for Townhall, a conservative publication. He went on to list all of his reasons and showed us how shallow he is and how shallow people are that agree with him. Masks save lives and there is proof.

So lets start this one off. Here are his reasons for not wearing a mask and my take on them.

Mask wearing probably doesn’t make much of a difference, if any. This one is just plain stupid. Japan proved it. The countries around the world that started wearing masks have seen their cases go down while the US is seeing them spike even more than they did at the start of the pandemic. Who is this idiot who thinks that his perception of probability is better than data and science? Of course, he is a conservative and their relationship with science is shady at best.

Mask wearing could be dangerous. Ok, what is dangerous? He quotes a doctor claiming that lower oxygen levels cause other health issues when worn long term. So that is suggesting that people who are surgeons will have health complications, because they wear masks for prolonged periods. Sadly, the right wing conspiracy theorists will never acknowledge this.

It’s about social control. Morefield quotes Molly McCann who stated that it is about transforming lives of freedom into lives under control. Well, if there weren’t 130,000 plus dead from a pandemic, maybe this would be considered tyrannical, but it is tyrannical to force people to live in fear of dying every day. Nobody is stopping you from basic liberties. They are just asking something so simple of you. To protect your fellow citizens so that they don’t get sick. If you went off to fight in a war overseas to protect our lives, why wouldn’t you do something simple that does not involve enemy fire? Why wouldn’t you simply wear a mask? Nobody asked you to take a bullet. Stop being a baby. Eat your peas. Grow up. It is also extremely convenient that the right wing is against social control, but they sure want to control what a woman does with her uterus.

They cave to irrational fear. I could cuss up a storm here, but is it worth it? How irrational is the fear when we have so many infected and so many dead? We have two Vietnam War death counts and growing in terms of numbers of dead. This is really stupid.

They give legitimacy to an illegitimate response. The biggest thing has been Anthony Fauci suggesting that people should not wear masks in the beginning. Ok folks, get over it. He made that suggestion in the beginning, because they wanted to make sure that there was enough personal protective gear available for frontline workers. Sadly, people paid with their lives, but the original intent was to save lives. Now that we know differently, just shut up and put on the mask. Who cares how your government responded in the first place? Putting on the mask is a patriotic duty that is now proven to work.

They are the equivalent of a comfort blanket. Ok, now Morefield is just rambling. He states that it gives the wearer of the mask a false sense of security and that people will not do other things like social distancing. He is saying that your behavior with the mask on will become riskier. Well, isn’t it risky enough to others if you are carrying the virus and breathing out vapor into the air for others to breathe in that has the virus? A mask would capture the vast majority of this reducing the likelihood of a spread. Stop listening to a rambler. In fact, there are studies shown under filtered light that show how vapors travel through air both with and without the mask.

They allow criminals to get away with crimes. He started his justification for anti-maskers with the notion that people did not want Antifa or the KKK wearing masks. He then went on to talk about people in the past that wore masks to commit crimes. We are in a pandemic that is killing people. If that is not enough to make people feel safe around people with masks, I don’t know what will make them feel safe. It seems to me that medical masks still allow you to see someone’s eyes and other features, so that argument is not strong at all.

They look ridiculous. Do you know what looks ridiculous? The highest Covid-19 death toll in the world. So, how do you think you or your loved ones would look in a body bag? Please spare me the nonsense. Masks are not there for your personal vanity project. They are there to keep people alive and healthy. How stupid would it be to die earlier than one should, because they were vain?

My message to anti-maskers is simple. Stop being selfish and foolish. It is clear that your President has abandoned this issue and does not even care to fight anymore. He hopes that come November, people will forget about the dead and the sick. He hopes that people like you value your own freedom to be stupid over the right for someone to live. If you want your liberties, get over this thing and it seems to me, just from simple things I have read is to wear a mask. This should not be open for debate. You should not cuss out the worker at the door of Walmart, because that person told you to put on a mask. If you are one of the many anti-maskers, accept that what you are doing is foolish and let’s defeat this virus so we can get back to our lives.

#anti-maskers

[the-connection]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders visited Wichita, Kansas, in support of congressional candidate James Thompson. Is the red state ready to turn blue?

In a dim corridor backstage, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders looked down at Kansas congressional hopeful James Thompsons denim jeans and black boots. Hey James, Sanders said without cracking a smile. Could I borrow your cowboy shoes?

Thompson took just a second to recover from the razzing.

I wear them because the shits so deep around here, he replied.

Through the thick cement walls of this downtown Wichita convention hall, we heard the roar of 4,000 Kansans awaiting speeches by Sanders, Thompson and progressive rocket ship Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in support of Thompsons run for Congress. It was Ocasio-Cortezs first political appearance outside New York after her remarkable primary win in June, when the 28-year-old democratic socialist defeated one of the most powerful House Democrats in Washington. Here in the midwest, Thompson who also has never held office has tapped into similar yearning for a representative who has more old friends at the local pub than in DC.

The choice of location for Ocasio-Cortezs debut outside New York is poetic: like Sanders, she and Thompson have refused corporate donations, and this district is home to perhaps the greatest conservative influencers in US history the Koch brothers, whose political network pledged to spend $400m on conservative candidates before the midterms.

Its one thing to push the Democratic party left in New York City. It is quite another to rabble-rouse for universal healthcare, wind energy and a livable wage in Charles Kochs backyard. Doing so takes, my friends in the north-east might say, hutzpah.

Or, as my Kansas farmer grandpa might have said: That Jim is full of piss and vinegar.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez laughs backstage with congressional candidate James Thompson. Photograph: Amy Kontras for the Guardian

No congressional candidate has ever done what Thompson is doing in this era of unrestricted corporate campaign donations: hold a progressive sword at the precise geographic heart of the dark-money beast. When I asked whether anyone has, say, tried to break his kneecaps, Thompson let out a big laugh.

Id like to see them try, he said. Thats one good thing about being 6ft 2.

Such humor joking in a manner that polite society might view as unseemly is the necessary roughness that millions of Americans develop to survive on job sites, in barrooms, in their own homes while the air conditioning window unit drips water on to the carpet.

It only makes sense that a progressive movement unifying the working class across lines of race, gender, age, religion and location would contain candidates like Thompson, who is both a civil rights attorney who represented detained immigrants and victims of police brutality and a former bouncer at a Wichita country-western nightclub called InCahoots.

Fight for America

A hard story often comes with hard language. During a period of homelessness, Thompson bathed, washed clothes and fished for food in a canal. He fought for emancipation from an abusive parent and attended 16 schools before finishing high school. This is a not a man who, in the face of rising authoritarianism, will be civil to please pearl-clutching political leaders on either side of the aisle.

This is precisely his appeal in southern Kansas. Thompson might be a new star for coastal reporters. But his combination of progressive ideas and unapologetically impolite language has been gaining supporters and even converting some Trump voters for a year and a half without the national Democratic party lifting a finger.

In contrast to a version of liberal America often criticized as, well, a bunch of wimps, his campaign slogan is Fight for America.

Attendees watch a short promotional video at Century II Performing Arts and Convention Center in Wichita. Photograph: Amy Kontras for the Guardian

Thompson told me he was first encouraged to run for office by Republican friends who felt out of sync with a party morphing into an insanely right caricature. A pro-choice, gun-owning military veteran who supports legal weed and social security expansion, Thompson can kick dirt with farmers at rural events, walk in Wichitas recent pride and Juneteenth parades, and post a photo of himself smiling with two guys wearing bearded deplorable shirts after a long conversation about the issues.

He nearly won a special election last year. Now Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders who won the Kansas Democratic caucus for the 2016 presidential nomination two-to-one are here to make sure he gets it done in the midterms, thus flipping this district blue for the first time in 26 years.

The eager crowd, which outgrew its original venue and was relocated at the last minute to accommodate thousands more, is mostly midwesterners who loathe Trump and were long ago written off as a waste of resources by the national Democratic party. Recently governed by extreme conservative Sam Brownback for eight years, they were resisting long before it was a national movement.

In contrast to red-hatted rallies that in 2016 got far more political coverage, they are both pissed off and peaceful, both riled up for change and diverse in racial makeup.

Thompson knows that, while the progress his would-be constituents seek is toward a serene, humane society, the fire in their bellies must now be summoned.

I had to fight all the time. Literally and figuratively, Thompson will tell them from the stage, as he asks them to fight now alongside him. Thats just part of growing up in poverty. When I see people struggling and I talk about it, Im not talking about it from up on a hill somewhere.

Ocasio-Cortez, who has faced different uphill battles, carries herself with the same self-possession. She taunted on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert that the current president doesnt know how to deal with a girl from the Bronx. She and Thompson evoke the unflagging spirit of California representative Maxine Waters, who received death threats for unapologetic criticism of the corrupt Washington regime and responded: You better shoot straight.

This scrappy attitude is not the empty bluster of a fearful ego with an orange combover seeking to preserve itself. It is a knowing of ones own strength, fortified by the mortal dangers of poverty, labor, misogyny, white supremacy.

It is the Statue of Liberty looking a bully in the eye in a barroom and saying to someone standing behind her: Hold my torch.

Presence is such a basic thing to ask for

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stands for the national anthem backstage. Photograph: Amy Kontras for the Guardian

To back up their talk, Ocasio-Cortez and Thompson quite literally walk the walk.

The day after the Wichita event, Ocasio-Cortez told me by phone from Missouri, where she was campaigning for congressional candidate and fellow progressive Cori Bush, that physical presence both builds support and dissolves the political polarities on which so many pundits feed.

When someone actually knocks on your door or goes to your civic association meeting and you actually touch their hand, it really does change everything, said Ocasio-Cortez, who recently tweeted a photo of the shoes she wore door-to-door, holes worn through the soles, with the comment: Respect the hustle.

There are places in the Bronx and neighborhoods in Queens that look like neighborhoods in Wichita. I walked in thinking I was in for a world of hurt, she told me. There is this impulse to just abandon it. To just say, you know what, forget it its a lost cause. Its just gonna be difficult or hurtful or dangerous. But I decided to go in anyway.

What she got for her leap of faith was one of the greatest political upsets in modern history and an appreciation for the extent to which working-class voters have felt forgotten.

Her 48-hour tour of Wichita, Kansas City, Kansas, and St Louis, Missouri, confirmed this theory, recalling fellow community organizer Barack Obamas musings about his well-received travels through the rural midwest as a black liberal.

The thing that I hear over and over and over again is Thank you for coming here. Thank you for coming, she said, her tone implying incredulousness that, besides Sanders, other Democrats with national platforms hadnt deigned to visit. Presence is such a basic thing to ask for.

Sanders told me by phone from Washington, a few days after his Kansas stop, that a 50-state strategy is common sense.

It is beyond comprehension, the degree to which the Democratic party nationally has essentially abdicated half of the states in this country to rightwing Republicans, including some of the poorest states in America, those in the south, Sanders said. The reason I go to Kansas and many so-called red states is that I will do everything that I can to bring new people into the political process in states which are today conservative. I do not know how you turn those states around unless you go there and get people excited.

Bernie Sanders reviews his notes backstage before speaking at the event. Photograph: Amy Kontras for the Guardian

For many in the crowd, his visit was validation of months of hard work that takes particular gumption in a place described by so many headlines as Trump country.

Since launching his first run for the seat in early 2017, Thompson says, he and his campaign have knocked on 40,000 doors and made 330,000 phone calls. Including phone bankers across the country, the effort has included 7,000 volunteers.

That hustle has already knocked 25 points off the Republican partys lead from 31 points when the current secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, won in 2014 to just six points in last years special election won by Representative Ron Estes. Before the rally with Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, Thompson reflected on the difference between his approach and that of opponent Estes when hes back from Washington.

[He] is either in a vehicle waving or walking down the center of the street waving, Thompson said. He had 400 individual donations in the special election. We had 29,000. As long as hes got his 400 people that are willing to donate money, and the big corporate Pacs giving money, he doesnt need to dirty his hands shaking hands with people.

On social media, Thompson has been challenging Estes to debate him in each of the districts 17 counties show up or shut up with no response. While under a very different context, its not so unlike when New York representative Joe Crowley kept failing to appear at primary debates against Ocasio-Cortez.

Thinking that you can get a job without showing up for the job interview just is wild to me, Thompson said.

This is the great irony of conservative criticism of progressive candidates. Candidates such as Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and Thompson are accused of seeking handouts for lazy moochers, while evidence suggests they are the hardest workers in the fight.

I would prefer to sit down and talk. But if you wanna be an ass, all right

When Ocasio-Cortez was in fifth grade, her tough teacher in the New York City public schools was a Kansas native with a fierce love for her home state. Young Ocasio-Cortez was nervous, she told the Wichita audience, when the teacher organized a state history project and assigned her Kansas.

After reading a lot about wheat, as a 10-year-old, Ocasio-Cortez said to laughs, I learned that Kansas was founded in a struggle over the conscience of this nation.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reviews her notes backstage. Photograph: Amy Kontras for the Guardian

She referenced the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which charged the Kansas territory with deciding whether they would allow slavery. Abolitionists fought bloody border wars with neighboring, slave-holding Missouri sparking the civil war and Kansas was established as a free state.

That is the crucible and the soul of this state, Ocasio-Cortez said, articulating what many Kansans know but rarely see reflected in modern politics, national discussion, or the electoral college that obscures their votes.

Like Sanders and Thompson, she pointed out that persistent notions of Kansas as a deep red state didnt jibe with the large minority she was seeing on the ground. While the Wichita crowd thundered after one of Sanders remarks on stage, Ocasio-Cortez peeked out from behind the curtain with her cellphone. She tweeted the video, adding: The midwest feels pretty all right to me!

Meanwhile, leaders in the Democratic party from the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, to former senator Joe Lieberman have been critical of this excitement, saying it wont play in middle America or that moving left harms the party.

If a centrist model is what works [in Kansas] then why has that centrist model not won the past 20 years, and in fact lost by 20-30 points in every election since [1992]? Thompson asked me. The idea that we need to be more like Republicans so we can beat Republicans is asinine. We need to have a clear choice. Something to vote for instead of against.

One such thing would be Medicare for all, he said, which he acknowledged isnt feasible under the current legislature but has pledged to work toward. When describing public healthcare or other programs that have been defunded or privatized into oblivion, he put it in language working-class voters might appreciate.

Its like taking a car, taking the battery out and going, Oh, see, it doesnt run any more. So we need to get rid of it, Thompson said. Put the battery back in.

He laughed when I noted there are a lot of lawmakers who would never think of a car battery as an analogy because theyve never had to change one. Thompson explained that law school taught him to avoid legalese when addressing a jury.

[Voters] want to hear me talking about real solutions in plain language that is not mealy-mouthed and trying to play both sides of the fence, said Thompson, who walked onstage to Garth Brookss 1990 country hit Friends in Low Places. Regardless of whether they agree or not, theyre going to respect that a lot more.

Must be doing something right if Fox is talking about me

Thompson told me that he learned in the military both to be willing to have conversations with people who have different perspectives and to draw a line in the sand when someone doesnt share your openness.

You offer em a choice, Thompson said. I would prefer to sit down and talk. But if you wanna be an ass, all right.

While he does not identify as a democratic socialist like Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, Thompson is perceived at the national level as a party rebel for his stances on the minimum wage, healthcare and other basic assurances that all three candidates insist will summon voters regardless of location in midterm primaries and elections this year.

Theyre not radical ideas theyre commonsense ideas, Thompson told the crowd at the convention hall. They laughed when he added, Thats why we see a crowd of thousands here today when there was a MAGA rally four days ago that had 50 people at it.

But Thompson got some of the events wildest cheers when he spoke about the supposedly more divisive matters of womens reproductive rights he is a staunch defender of Roe v Wade and drug laws.

When people talk about raising money for our state? Heres an idea: legalize marijuana, he said, and the crowd exploded.

Congressional candidate James Thompson, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wave at the end of the campaign event. Photograph: Amy Kontras for the Guardian

At another point, he called out false narratives about his home that might cause some to be surprised by the massive gathering at noon on a weekday, months before the election in a midterm year: When people wanna say this is Trump country, I say hell no.

Video of this statement made it on to his least favorite cable television network, later prompting Thompson to tweet with several laugh-cry emojis: Must be doing something right if Fox is talking about me and causing alt-right heads to explode.

Its a herculean undertaking to fight the forces that work against Thompsons campaign: Fox News, the Koch brothers, his own Democratic party. Where Im from, theres only one thing that might hold more sway than they do: straight talk and an authentic handshake.

Solidarity from Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and other candidates and activists across the country fortifies the progressive Kansans doing the talking and shaking.

If James wins here, Sanders said onstage, this will be not only another progressive member to the Congress. This will be a shot heard around not just this country the world.

All three candidates challenged the crowd to channel the energy of the moment into the civic action that might decide election outcomes.

Im just a figurehead, Thompson said. You are the way that we flip this district. You are the ones that can make the changes that you want. You are the ones that have the power in this country. Its not with the Koch brothers. Its not with the big corporations. Its with you.

The crowd cheered so loudly that a woman behind me plugged her ears with her fingers.

Ron Estes, I hope you look at this crowd and are shakin in your boots, Thompson said. Because were coming for you.

This article was amended on 26 July 2018 to correct the year the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed to 1854, from 1861 as an earlier version said.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us

[eekispyykes]

#SamBeeHasAPosse. Let the political conflict among women have its terms as chosen by women. Cunt was appropriately used, btw.

Dear Jason Jones and the Jones-Bee Houshold.

 Being fans of both of you, I sincerely request that all apologies are rescinded. Let's talk meta to start with. First *Roseanne uses dated and rather poor comedic material and then the environment to be disgusted with *Ivanka's tolerance for her (potentially impeached)*fathers manner is now with three actors. Three lousy complicit unrespectable people. To me, it seems there's a binary ebb and flow of baiting only very deserved negative comments against the conservative cabal. Do I think Sam was fully aware of her comments? Absolutely. That’s why I request play the same page of the playbook as rnc and retract the apology stating in no uncertain terms; "male corporate world lacks the ability to process it." (And then throw hair scraps and make nail raking gestures at the camera). It's the same card as "I'm sorry you think you're offended".  Bee is index case  commentary among professional women that wouldn't at all be concerned in mens locker rooms. The traditional roles of gender applaud clawing and hairpulling but we see shakey boots when women actually confront each other about politics. The two splitters should see themselves on the wrong side of history already.

 Autotrader and Statefarm ran out; we know who the weak links are in female political speech. Invite them to come back early, "we understand the eagerness to not be seen as partisan; even if it is unforgivable under the circumstances" The fact that Samantha Bee is the only female talk show host on right now is no small accolade to having choice words among females. It's her call to make. //Is Ivanka a bot doing nothing for women? If yes, proceed on to utilize "feckless cunt" for yourself. It's okay; I know you fear vagina words but try it people! Its American politics.// Women cannot simply be entertaining when it's convenient and loyal stepstools of party mantra or tea room slams when intolerance is only the minimum reaction to conservatives and the Trump administration.

 I don't feel  Roseanne should have lost her show. No matter who hosts her namesake, the corporate world must respect the government constitutional values of personification and free speech as the people use them. When Trump uses his Twitter, he uses HIS Twitter handle, not the POTUS 45. There must be a split between work and personal politics that respects the political speech of people no matter how difficult for bosses to face. If Trump were an advocate of his own character, Juli Briskman would still have her job. He would advocate for her political speech. But then again Akima is openly a partisan shithole so no loss overall. So where is Trumps advocacy in the US Labor department to assure shelter for employees from partisan disagreements having no link to work. Where is Trump's ban on political support and political expression reducing conduct clauses in hiring contracts? His commitment is thinner than a crushed hermit crab shell.  So there's an angle to make with the nervous ad people as well.

  Besides, Roseanne would eventually sink her own show as her politics led to more writers running out the door or refusing to work for her. There's  a difference of refusal to participate and actual firing. ABC could easily as well change that status to Roseanne Barr being 'laid off". Her "jokes" were so 2009 that to let her be on screen is its own cruelty. That's not fat shaming. Her jokes were thin;  she wishes she were that thin. That’s fat shaming!  Women are allowed to curse and women; especially White women are not a uniform group so lets stop trying to get them to get along in their little crate of subordination where we keep them underpaid and underrespected. Roseanne's comments were summarized as racist and bigotry. Behind every single race supremacy group is a male supremacy group that wanted to play the "plurality card." He changes the "I feel like this .." To "we feel like this.." and then tacks on "white" to his "my power" group for attention and support. White power is as fractured as the shot up motorcycles from the male divisivism remaining primitive among all races . For "White" it's over motorcycle territory. Chicago Black on Black crime is a miniscule incompetence next to affording the $35k Harley just to have a rival somewhere else about a rocker panel and a map. The concept of White power is a misnomer shadowing around a minority of males that would as well exclude Caucasians over in club, in gang politics. Worst of all; whether lessons are corrected.. ' in the center of corrections' about hate crime or not.. they find a way to get along inside prison for the sake of contraband. They come out and start insisting the same turf all over again. Race supremacy is about loyalty. There's no loyalty in White; just facts of evolution to be social by none other than self will.  I endorse Sam Bee to speak her mind because she's being herself. Roseanne's comments are as on point as her show is infotainment. Bee makes political statements for a living. Barr jeers other people's for inferiority politics. There's a difference.

 Michael Bench, MEP

#GenderStudies

[zenruption]

Eminem’s “White America” gets a Revival

 By Zoe Zorka, freelance writer

@zoeshrugged

With Trump’s first year in office immortalized by scandal, blunders, and numerous other controversies and Eminem preparing to headline Coachella, our nation finds itself on the cusp of a generational shift and our leader isn’t the orange buffoon sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., but rather the Real Slim Shady- the unlikely voice of the millennial generation.

After all, it was only a matter of time until Eminem, known the past two decades for skewering politicians and current political dynamics, took aim at Trump (as well as many of society’s other ills), creating not a revolution, but a revival.

Revival, which is undoubtedly one of Eminem’s best albums of his career, serves as the perfect mirror for millennial America’s entrance into adulthood.

“I could be one of your kids…”

In the late 1990s and early 2000’s, millennials (who were largely teens and preteens at the time) loved Eminem, most parents hated him. After all, even he touted his ideas as “nightmares to white parents.”

He was the media’s dream come true.

Just like Trump.

This isn’t Trump’s reality show.

This is The Eminem Show. All grown up.

“Now how the f*** did this metamorphosis happen?”

In order to understand where we are now, it’s crucial to understand that we got to this point long before the Republican primaries in 2016. 

Following one of the biggest upsets in history, political pundits and talking heads pondered the following:

How did Clinton not swiftly capture our millennial vote? (We love Jay-Z!)

How did she not capture the vote of our parents, the baby boomers? (They love Medicare!)

The answer is simple: The millenials, Eminem’s “White America,” came of age.

(In this context, it’s important to note that Eminem’s “White America,” is strictly a reference to the 2002 hit song off The Eminem Show album, and has far less to do with race than it does with relating to disenfranchised millenials, most of us whom were teenagers or pre-teens when the album came out as Eminem’s broad, cross-cultural appeal to “anyone who’s ever been through s*** in their lives” largely resonated with middle-class urban and suburban kids across every race, religion, and socioeconomic demographic. )

“Little hellions, kids feeling rebellious…”

While perhaps misguided, Trump succeeded in pushing “this generation of kids to stand and fight for the right to say something you might not like.”

And he appealed to our parents’ sense of frugality and paternal dependence, thus winning the two largest voting blocks.

If Eminem, who has been simultaneously both a reflection of our generation as well as a motivating factor, was so accurately able to capture the attention of America’s youth (which he obviously did as the album sold over 10 million copies), it should come as no surprise that our generation would grow up and carry those messages and values into our adulthood. Essentially, our generation still has a lot of “anger aimed in no particular direction that just sprays and sprays.”

In a recent interview with The Atlantic, Alan Jacobs, author of How to Think, argues that “the primary fault of the right at this moment in America is wrath,” a dynamic evidenced on social media and in the comments section of any major news article on any given day.

Carly Holman of Conservative Review hit the nail on the head when she wrote that “Trump is the Eminem candidate. Like the rapper, Trump is explicit, vulgar, and unapologetic. He’s anti-PC and he’s anti-elitism. Both Trump and Eminem have endured the intense backlash of liberal elites.”

Legally, us millennials are adults, but emotionally, many of us are stuck in a perpetual state of blissful, delayed adolescence. We’re figurative teenagers who were, and still are, both simultaneously dependent on, and despondent of, our parents and other authority figures.

The candidates understood this dynamic, and the angst that accompanies it, and turned our electorate into a family with two divorced parents going to divorce court on the national stage. Us kids just had to choose: mom or dad.

In “Cleaning Out My Closet” (also on The Eminem Show), Eminem embodied this millennial dichotomy, blowing off “tempers flaring from parents” while simultaneously singing a song written entirely about his mother, a woman who he was clearly codependent on- to at least some extent.

Trump further capitalized on this contradiction by singing “for these kids who don’t have a thing” as he “lit a fire up under [America’s collective] a**” by providing an outlet to rebel against our surrogate helicopter parents (the government, big corporations), but still promising to be the dad who would be there when someone tried to hurt us.

After all, even Eminem has devoted a fair amount of lyrics to the importance of being a good father and the impact that a fatherless existence had on his upbringing.

“Have you ever been hated or discriminated against?”

Just as with most of his music, Eminem consciously (and subconsciously) appealed to listeners’ feelings of being a victim, because let’s face it- everyone has been judged to some extent. In the 2016 election, both candidates played into the idea that everyone is a victim- many times they reinforced the belief that “it” (whatever it is) is someone else's fault.

As millennials, we were the test tube babies of the anti-bullying movement. At school, teachers and administrators would ask the offender to change their behavior rather than for us to handle it on our own. At home, our parents told us to stand up for ourselves and to hit back (literally or figuratively) in order to earn respect. Eminem called enemies “a maltese” while he was “a pit bull off his leash,” the same moral ideology touted by Trump with regard to pretty much all of his policies.

“You’re getting older now…”

In the end, millennials chose to live with dad because, according to Dan Zak of the Washington Post, we have some daddy issues stemming from the fact that our first experience with governance is our family unit. A parent is in charge, and traditionally, it’s Dad.

Many in our generation voted for who we thought would parent us best while our parents voted who they thought would be the best parent and look after their wayward brood of children.

Many baby boomers seemed to want a father who would take care of the kids once he was gone. Ellen Kaufman, 56, called Donald Trump “the strict dad that America needs.”

Trump gave voters both those things, mirroring the familiar family dynamics that many millennials still pine for while at the same time, promising our parents that he’d care for his kids, the American population, if they were to die.

“Like Home"

With an unprecedented amount of coverage, the reaction to Revival symbolizes much more than a protest against the current administration. It’s the symbolic passing of a generational torch and more importantly, the need for us millennials to start acting like adults.

This is the perfect chance for the strongest of our generation to emerge from the chaos and do this the right way.

Almost two decades ago, he gave respect to the first amendment and “the women and men who broke their necks for the freedom of speech this democracy of hypocrisy is sworn to uphold.”

Back when we were kids, the freedom of speech seemed like a ubiquitous concept, something foreign to many of us or an ancient relic of the protests of our parents’ generation.

Today, we have that power, but too many of us have no idea how to use it, not realizing that ideas and criticism of the current administration or social dynamics is not an affront against America, but rather an important part of progress.

In “Like Home,” Eminem sings: “But you ain't ruining our country, punk, or takin' our pride from us/you won't define us/cause like a dictionary, things are looking up/so much, got a sprained neck/know we will rise up/so hands in the air, let's hear it for the start of a brand new America,” a unifying call to reject not America, but the toxic ideas that have become far too prevalent in today’s anger culture.

As leaders of our generation, we can’t be afraid of the freedom of speech, but we also must know how to use it wisely. Repeating rhetoric, sharing simpleminded views, and stirring the pot simply for the sake of attention and/or our peers’ and elders’ approval (or disapproval) is not the way to do that.

The question is: which of us are going to step up and be adults? Who among us will the voice to inspire the next generation of kids and get them to pay attention?

“America, we love you….”

But we do need a line in the sand as Eminem pointed out in his BET freestyle video.

Which of us in the “White America” generation are willing to draw a line in the sand? Who among us is enlightened enough to know that the line isn’t necessarily against just a man, but also against ignorance, racism, divisiveness, and the other ills plaguing our nation?

Racism and hatred on life support and our generation needs to be the one who pulls the plug.

Eminem ends both “White America” and Revival stating his support for the nation as a whole, giving a glimmer of hope during two turbulent times in our nation’s history.

After all, we owe it to the next generation to give them a better America than we had, a sentiment best summed up by Eminem while waxing philosophical on the potential of a draft (a fear among young adults in 2002):

“You’re just a baby, getting recruited at 18….I’m 28, they’re gonna take you before they take me.”

[newstfionline]

On London’s Streets, Black Cabs and Uber Fight for a Future

By Katrin Bennhold, NY Times, July 4, 2017

LONDON--Shortly before 6 a.m., Zahra Bakkali tiptoed out of her bedroom for morning prayers. She prepared breakfast (black tea and toast with olive oil), saw her children off to school, then rode the elevator to the garage below her southeast London housing project. She unlocked her white Toyota Prius, switched on the Uber app and awaited the day’s first job.

In a modest bungalow on the opposite side of the city, Paul Walsh had coffee and toast with butter. He studied the sports pages (his soccer team, Queens Park Rangers, had been struggling) and waved goodbye to his wife and son. Then he fired up his black cab, which is actually half-pink with an Elvis ad from the Memphis tourism board, and set off for Heathrow Airport.

They travel the same streets every day, strangers but also adversaries in what has become a familiar 21st-century conflict: the sharp-elbowed ride-hailing company Uber, versus entrenched taxi companies.

And yet the clash in London is different, less about the disruptive power of an app, or a new business model, than about the disruption of Britain. London’s cabby wars echo the culture wars that fueled Britain’s vote last summer to leave the European Union--and that have brutally flared up again in recent weeks: immigrant versus native, old versus new, global versus national.

London’s black cabs trace their lineage to 1634. To earn a badge, cabbies spend years memorizing some 25,000 streets and 100,000 landmarks for “the Knowledge,” the world’s toughest taxi exam. Most cabbies are white and British.

Uber arrived in 2012, just before the London Olympics, but its 40,000 drivers already far outnumber the city’s 21,000 traditional cabbies. They use satellite navigation to find their way around. Most of them are nonwhite, and many, like Mrs. Bakkali, are immigrants.

Uber fares are about 30 percent lower than those of black cabs--a discrepancy that cabbies say signals a deliberate attempt to kill off their trade. “London without black cabs,” Mr. Walsh said, “would be like London without Big Ben.”

The vote to leave the European Union, known here as Brexit, exposed a deep rift between those who have profited from globalization, sometimes spectacularly, and those who feel threatened by immigration and automation. Six out of 10 Londoners, including Mrs. Bakkali, voted against Brexit. But Mr. Walsh and most black-cab drivers interviewed for this article voted in favor.

One year after that vote, Britain is on edge. More divided than ever after an inconclusive election, the country has lived through four terrorist attacks in recent months--three by British Muslims and one against them. A charred housing project where a fire killed at least 80 mostly disadvantaged tenants in one of London’s richest boroughs has turned into a somber monument to inequality.

Uber, meanwhile, has become its own symbol of excess. Revelations of an aggressive corporate culture that saw employees harassed, drivers mistreated and regulators dodged forced the company’s founder, Travis Kalanick, to resign as chief executive last month.

Mrs. Bakkali, the daughter of Moroccan farmers, and Mr. Walsh, the son of a north London construction worker, are small players in these much bigger dramas. They want the same thing: to claw their way into the middle class and give their children a shot at a better life. Yet they are on opposite sides of a kind of low-level guerrilla warfare on London’s streets.

“They drive up to you so close, you find yourself going through a red light,” Mrs. Bakkali said of black cabs she had encountered. The drivers give the middle finger, she said, and shout abuse. And they certainly “never give way.” Some black cabs have offensive cartoons on display. One even had a custom license plate: “H8 UBER.”

For Mrs. Bakkali, black cabs have become a byword for populism and racism. For Mr. Walsh, Uber is shorthand for everything he believes is wrong with globalization--and proof that successive governments have failed hard-working citizens like him.

Grant Davis, chairman of the London Cab Drivers Club, recounted a meeting with a minister in the Conservative government about a year ago. “I said to him, ‘I’m from a working-class family, I grew up in social housing,’” said Mr. Davis, who has driven a black cab in London for 29 years. “I said, ‘I believed in the conservative ethos: Work hard, better myself. I don’t want no benefits. But what you have done is you’re killing us for an American company that is paying taxes in the Netherlands.’”

“Look at all those cabdrivers, we are all from poor families,” he recalled telling the minister, Sajid Javid, then the business secretary. “I wanted to be my own boss. I’ve done everything you said I should do. And you’ve pulled the rug from under my feet.”

“In London, driving a cab is a vocation,” Mr. Walsh said one morning in April. “It’s a way of life.”

He drove past the Union Jack pub, then right, then left and into a hidden courtyard with everything a cabby could want: gas, parking, spare parts and a canteen that serves an all-day fried English breakfast.

In other cities, the latest immigrant group to arrive takes up the taxi trade, Mr. Walsh said. Not here. “First you invest several years studying,” he explained. “Then you invest 45,000 pounds in your cab,” or about $58,000.

Uber, he said, is not just killing a business model: “It’s killing a culture.”

Mr. Walsh proudly conforms to most stereotypes about London cabbies. Opinionated, witty and full of trivia about his city, he claims to be able to “speak for two minutes on any subject.”

Inside the canteen, Chelsea was playing Sunderland on two flat-screen televisions. There was vinegar on the table and spotted dick on the menu. The place could not be more British. Except that the entire staff seemed to be Eastern European.

A lot of Poles now live where Mr. Walsh grew up, in Harlesden, northwest London. When he was a boy in the 1960s and ‘70s, most children in the neighborhood were either black or had Irish roots, as he did: “Plastic Dreads or plastic Paddies,” said Mr. Walsh, now 53.

His father worked in construction and his mother in a cookie factory, but they saved up and moved the family to Wembley, a more middle-class area. “My parents were aspirational and brought me up that way,” he said.

Earning a taxi badge was a ticket to upward mobility, but it required mastering the Knowledge. The dropout rate is 70 percent. Six days a week, Mr. Walsh would crisscross London on a scooter memorizing roughly 2,000 miles of road. He had regular 20-minute “appearances”--oral tests with examiners “who put the fear of the devil” into him, he said. One of them had a wooden parrot on the windowsill and a stuffed Persian cat on his desk, “like a James Bond villain,” he recalled.

“He would sit against the window--you’d only see his silhouette, and it looked like the parrot was on his shoulder,” Mr. Walsh said. “Then he would grill you on the most obscure routes.”

At night, Mr. Walsh dreamed of London and woke up sweating. Texas Legation to Union Chapel. Cumberland Market to Redhill Street. Policeman’s Hook to Trinity Church. “You live and breathe the Knowledge,” he said. “It takes over your brain.”

He got his badge on Nov. 10, 1994, a Thursday. It had taken him nearly three years, one year less than the average, and he was as proud as he had ever been.

“Three years,” he said. “And then Uber turned the Knowledge into an app.”

On a sunny Thursday morning last June, one week before Britain voted to leave the European Union, Mrs. Bakkali dropped off her youngest child at school and then sat in her car, staring at the Uber app. She hesitated and finally turned it on. It was her first day on the job.

She had come to London in 1997, at age 18, unable to read or write or drive, with a new husband she barely knew. Her husband, the son of Moroccan immigrants who had arrived in London in the 1960s, had escorted her from a village without electricity in the mountains behind Marrakesh to a new, unimaginable life. To mark the occasion, her mother-in-law had paid for a black cab from Heathrow Airport back to East Street Market in southeast London, her new home.

Mrs. Bakkali had never left her country before, never taken an airplane, never even owned a passport. Asked for her signature, she could make only a clumsy doodle.

Now 38, Mrs. Bakkali is hungry for education. She takes a weekly mathematics class at a community college in Westminster, her “Wednesday treat.” She began taking English classes after giving birth to her first daughter, who is now 18 and plans to study math at university next year.

“Girls in my village were not allowed,” she said of schooling.

In 2010, Mrs. Bakkali was eight months pregnant with her fifth child, with her twins in a stroller and a child on each arm, when the bus driver, a black man, hissed at her, “You bloody foreigners, you come to this country and just keep having babies.”

It was not the first time. “I just started crying,” Mrs. Bakkali recalled.

That night, she told her husband they needed to buy a car, and he needed to learn to drive, because she never wanted to take public transportation again. Afraid of driving, he refused. So she got her own license.

Mrs. Bakkali loved driving. About a year ago, over breakfast, she confessed her dream: to become a bus driver.

“What about Uber?” her husband asked.

They went online and booked an appointment for the next morning, a Sunday. By lunchtime she had registered with Uber, heard a presentation, taken an online topography test, received a certificate from the company and applied for the obligatory government background check. It took a few weeks to get a “private hire license” from Transport for London, the city’s transportation regulator.

Then she was, in Uber speak, “onboarded.”

Sometimes when a customer cancels, Mrs. Bakkali worries that it is because she is Muslim. In her photograph on the Uber app, she wears a head scarf discreetly tied at the back of her neck.

There are several Muslim women on Mrs. Bakkali’s WhatsApp group Uber Super Ladies (women make up a small minority of Uber drivers and cabdrivers). Some of them met at a party Uber held for them on International Women’s Day. They shared pastries and stories about the relentless hostility coming from cabbies.

“They have all these advantages,” Mrs. Bakkali said: Black cabs can use bus lanes and taxi stands, and be hailed on the street, “but they are angry with us.”

One friend, also a Muslim woman, was so shaken by a recent encounter that she almost quit. A cabdriver had gotten out of his taxi and come toward her car, waving a fist and shouting: “You Muslim, you can’t even drive! Take off that scarf!”

Mrs. Bakkali recently had a polite exchange with a cabby, a man from Somalia, who rolled down his window at a red light.

“Salaam aleikum, sister,” he told her, smiling. “You’re taking our business.”

“It’s my business, too,” she replied.

“How is it, sister? Small money?”

“Sometimes big, sometimes small.”

Mrs. Bakkali once earned £340 in a single shift, working 20 hours straight. She dropped off her last customer in Weybridge, west of London, at 6:30 a.m., then found a parking lot, locked her car doors and napped before turning the app back on and making her way home.

On average, though, she takes home closer to £300 a week after paying for insurance, gas and twice-weekly carwashes. Earning and controlling her own money for the first time is liberating, she says, but even with her husband’s income from a part-time supermarket job, the family relies on benefits like subsidized housing.

“It’s hard,” she admitted.

Last year, Uber raised its commission on every ride to 25 percent, from 20, for new drivers. Mrs. Bakkali recently went to a drivers’ meeting at Uber’s biggest “Greenlight Hub,” or drivers’ center, in London. The room was packed. Everybody had the same urgent plea: Could Uber cut its commission back to 20 percent?

The answer was no.

Mr. Walsh says that the cabbies’ fight is with Uber--not with its drivers. “We see them sleep in their cars,” he said. “Uber is turning the time back to the Victorian era.”

He was having a cup of tea with fellow cabdrivers outside a small green wooden hut near Buckingham Palace, one of 13 remaining “cabmen’s shelters” dating from the days when cabs were still horse-drawn coaches.

One cabby recently sold his taxi because there was not enough work. He is leasing one now but may quit altogether, he said. “Most weeks you’re just trying to cover your costs.”

Before Uber, Mr. Walsh would have 20 fares a day. Now the number is closer to five. “They want to price us out of the market,” he said, “and then they’ll raise prices--you watch.”

And when cars go driverless, he added bitterly, “cabbies and Uber drivers will both be history.”

Mrs. Bakkali shrugs at the idea. She grew up without running water or a phone. To visit her grandparents, she had to walk--for a day.

“So much has changed in my life,” she said. If someday driving is no longer an option, she may start her own business, she said. Embroidery, perhaps, or sewing.

Mr. Walsh accepts that black cabs have been slow to adapt to change. Credit-card machines were made mandatory only last fall. Ride-hailing apps for black cabs remain fragmented. But he believes that his brain can beat a navigation system any day. Years ago, he took part in a research project at University College London that found that memorizing a map of the city resulted in an enlarged hippocampus.

“Cabdrivers’ brains are bigger,” Mr. Walsh said proudly.

Navigation systems do not know nicknames like the Policeman’s Hook. They cannot deal with incomplete addresses and do not know the best shortcuts when traffic is bad. And they cannot tell you where to buy the best salt beef bagels.

“We’re still better than the machines,” he said. “But who will come and protect us?”

#Britain #London cabs #London black cabs #Uber in England #Uber in London