Woke The Fck Up

 

Both of these people are rational. Both are sensible. And both are, predictably, being pilloried out the wazoo. 

Katz, a tenured professor, lost his job. He lost his job because he dared speak a dissenting opinion. Shrier is persona non grata in publishing. Also for speaking a dissenting (not to mention science-informed) opinion. 

It's gobsmacking that the only audience they can get is via rightwing outlets, because the left has utterly abdicated its commitment to free speech, not to mention common fricking sense. 

The left -- rather, the ostensible left -- now approves of -- in fact, applauds -- censorship. I remember when the left used to oppose censorship. I remember when the left used to welcome dissent. I remember when it used to believe in reason. Ah, the good old days!

The world is on fire, fascism is on the rise, workers can't get decent healthcare or a living wage, GOPers want to take over women's uteruses (oops! I mean people's uteruses!), and what is the left doing? Screaming about pronouns, denying biological reality, policing every word that comes out of anyone's mouth, indulging in white liberal guilt, and pretending it's all activism.

But hey, don't worry. When the woke mob comes for you or yours, you can tell them you capitalized the "b" in "Black"! Whoa, what bravery! What courage! What an advance for society! Really stuck your neck out there, didn't you?! And when the ostensible left keeps losing elections because of its proud, determined jackassery, just remember who asked for it. Who handed the radical right a gift on a silver platter. 

A Declaration of Independence by a Princeton Professor

https://quillette.com/2020/07/08/a-declaration-of-independence-by-a-princeton-professor/ 

Gender Activists Are Trying to Cancel My Book. Why is Silicon Valley Helping Them?

https://quillette.com/2020/11/07/gender-activists-are-trying-to-cancel-my-book-why-is-silicon-valley-helping-them/

USA, Land of the Free

USA, Land of the Free. Uh-huh.

Young Black Man Jailed Since April for Alleged $5 Theft Is Found Dead in Cell

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/young_black_man_jailed_since_april_for_alleged_5_theft_20150829

Black ex-cop files suit after he and his son were beaten by other cops

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/09/28/1425598/-Black-ex-cop-files-suit-over-he-and-his-son-being-beaten-by-other-cops?detail=email

United States of Orwell

We live in an Orwellian, Kafkaesque, Atwoodian police state. Those authors have nothing on us, because you can't make this shit up:

Murder charge for woman who took abortion pill

OK, the charges were suddenly dropped today, but she still spent 3 days in jail for it. AND she still faces charges of "possession of a dangerous drug." Because, dontchya know, the morning-after pill is a "dangerous drug."

This country is so fucked up.

Baltimore, Violence, and the Wages of "Revolution"

Front page story in today's Baltimore Sun: 

A mom, a disabled son, and a home that blazed amid Baltimore's riots

It begins:

Black soot covers the two-story house like a dark shadow. The roof has collapsed, and a bright red sign proclaims the home has been condemned.

Until a few weeks ago, when the riots roiled Baltimore, this house at Hilton Street and Piedmont Avenue was home for Laporsha Lawson and her severely disabled son, Khai'Lee Sampson. 

Baltimore by Tom Tomorrow

Mr. Fish on the Baltimore Protests and Riots

Once again, the great Mr. Fish:

More Ways You Can Help Baltimore

St. Peter Claver /St. Pius V church on N. Freemont Ave. as food is gathered to be given out to people in the Sandtown community of West Baltimore. Photo by Lloyd Fox/The Baltimore Sun.

First of all, another shout-out to the reporters and photographers of the Baltimore Sun, who have been doing such an impressive job of covering the protests and riots (two different things, by the way). Thank you, thank you, thank you. I was going to send you a bouquet of flowers but decided a better use of that money is for some of the worthy groups/causes outlined in these two articles -- I hope other people will be encouraged to donate as well:

How to help: donation and volunteer opportunities in the aftermath of riots

Heaps of donations for first responders, residents affected by riots

You Can Help Baltimore Neighborhoods

From Pamela Wood of the Baltimore Sun:

The state's Department of Human Resources set up a hotline for people in Baltimore needing help with food, emergency assistance, or concerns for children or the elderly. 

Quit Telling Us To Burn Down Baltimore

Large group of volunteers cleaning up burnt CVS in Baltimore, Photo by J Jouvenal, Baltimore Sun (click to enlarge)

I live in Baltimore. I was one block away from Mondawmin Mall at 3:30 yesterday. I live three blocks from the mayhem that ensued on Greenmount Avenue last night. I know what political activism is. I applaud the peaceful, non-violent protesters and demonstrators in this city, who have been extraordinarily disciplined while still being active. They were active Saturday night. They personally stopped attempted destruction Saturday night. 

The rioters yesterday are not "protesters" or "demonstrators." They are opportunistic jerks who are brutalizing the very neighborhoods that are already routinely brutalized by the police. They are burning and looting the very stores where their parents and neighbors work, and on which they depend for everyday needs. They are handing the racist, authoritarian power structure in this country a gift on a silver platter. 

But rioting and opportunistic fuckery ARE going on today

Riots are, however, going on today. I was, by happenstance, one block from one of the worst hotspots. I made it home fine.

It should be needless to say that I don't excuse or condone any of this stupid, brutal, counterproductive, opportunistic violence by a bunch of wankers who are only hurting themselves and their own communities. Just as I don't excuse or condone police brutality. 

Hello?? There were no riots in Baltimore on Saturday night!

OK, I have to write this, since so many people from elsewhere in the country have gotten in touch with me to ask if I'm all right.

Dear god, yes. Yes!

The media has blown this completely out of proportion. Repeat after me: THERE WERE NO RIOTS IN BALTIMORE ON SATURDAY NIGHT! (Saturday, April 25, 2015)

The K Chronicles: Keith Knight on Your Rights

Political cartoonist Keith Knight:

Walking While Black -- As Unsafe As Driving While Black

"I was wrongly arrested, locked up, denied a phone call, denied explanation of charges against me, denied ever being read my rights, denied being able to speak to my lawyer for a lengthy time, and denied being told that my car had been impounded . . .  All because I was mis-indentified as the wrong 'tall, bald head, black male,'" Belk wrote on Facebook. 

United States of America

Partial kinda sorta victory for Shoshana Hebshi

We’ve written about Shoshana Hebshi twice here at TSA News and about the hideous, Kafka-esque injustice she suffered at the hands of the United States government, via our friendly abusers at the TSA, Frontier Airlines, and law enforcement, aka the police. 

Bigots: As Stupid As They Are Racist

"No illeagles here." "Illeagles." Yep. That's the wit and wisdom of racists on display in Westminster, Maryland. You can't make this shit up. (Photo: Christian Alexandersen, Baltimore Sun Media Group)

TSA still groping children - video proof

The TSA has been saying for years now that they don't give "enhanced pat-downs" to children. Even though we have loads of evidence -- verbal and visual -- to the contrary, the agency and its mouthpieces continue to spout these lies. Here's yet more proof.

This video was published at YouTube on April 18, 2014. The accompanying text reads:

The Onion Strikes Again!

Quoting the friend who sent it to me, "hilarious and heartbreaking" video from The Onion: "Judge Rules White Girl Will Be Tried As Black Adult."

(For my non-American readers -- and even, god help us, some American ones -- this isn't actual news; it's satire. That's what The Onion does. Satire. Farce. Sick humor to make a political point.)

Angela Merkel invokes the Stasi in comparison to the NSA

From the Guardian: 

In an angry exchange with Barack Obama, Angela Merkel has compared the snooping practices of the US with those of the Stasi, the ubiquitous and all-powerful secret police of the communist dictatorship in East Germany, where she grew up.

. . . Livid after learning from Der Spiegel magazine that the Americans were listening in to her personal mobile phone, Merkel confronted Obama with the accusation: "This is like the Stasi." 

But when the rest of us say it, we're accused of being "hyperbolic" and "lunatic."

The only lunatics out there are the naysayers who refuse to acknowledge what's right under their noses. To wit, that the U.S. is morphing more and more into a police state with every passing day. Especially if you're young and black, and just waiting for a bus. And the U.K. is no better. Its cops, too, like to Taser people just for the hell of it.

Mandela Dies, Obama Lies

The news that Nelson Mandela has died is, of course, bringing forth a ton of speeches, tributes, and encomia from all over the world. Not surprising, most of it self-serving. Let's recall that Mandela was taken off the U.S.'s official list of "terrorists" only in 2008. And that the CIA outed his whereabouts to the South African apartheid regime in 1962.

The transcript of Obama's comments is particularly galling. I know this man lies through his teeth as smoothly as any snake oil salesman, but he outdid himself yesterday: