The Cake Was Not A Lie

Yeah, I know the Florida Legislature Dancing And Cake Story broke nearly 2 weeks ago, but at the time, I was busy finishing the job of “Finishing The Job”.

So, aaaa-aanyway… if the almighty Fact-Checking Industrial Complex is to be believed, the dancing was not at the end of the session, but before they settled down to the business of otherizing, criminalizing, villifying and immiserating a major portion of the whole goddamn state with a legislative horrorshow.

Luckily for me, though, the part of the story that was true was the cake part. According to this big, hot steamy bucket of gloat in the DC Enquirer*, a Florida legislative staffer mocked protesters at the State Capitol at the time by eating cake at their desks in front of them.

So, it seems that just this once, the cake is not a lie.

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*CONTENT WARNING: Yet another fascist rag in DC — as if the Examiner and the Times aren’t enough; article cites Andy Ngo tweets, and some shit-take dropping fascist tool declaring “Make America Florida”. They did, however, get the cake-eating part right.

 

Apropos Of Nothing (Cliff? What Cliff? no.2)

Apropos of entirely nothing, really… just stumped for a gag, smoking and doodling at an ungodly hour the other night, vaguely inspired by this alarmist headline in the Washington Post, though this cartoon was not at all intentionally related to the whole debt ceiling pissing contest on the Hill this week… and while I’m at it — is it a cliff, or the ceiling? Quit jerking us around, Washington Post.

I also fully confess to an equally boneheaded literal interpretation of the whole beat-ass “cliff” metaphor. Hell, I’m old enough to remember the FIRST time around with that “cliff” horseshit.

…and besides, if you really take a good, close, hot steamy gawk at Biden’s real priorities — and the current attitude of the American general public towards more unemployment, inflation, war and austerity — you couldn’t exactly say we were “drifting”.

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Season's Greetings

 

For the workers who died at a candle factory in Kentucky, and an Amazon warehouse in Illinois, for every worker forced to risk their life without proper protective gear or healthcare, in the middle of a pandemic and a tornado, to keep the profits coming in and the supply chain stocked so we can buy our daughters a Fighter Pilot Barbie for Christmas… Season’s Greetings from Capitalism.

“The bosses won’t keep us safe; they only care about profit. Workers are the only ones who know what is safe and what is not. We should decide whether to continue working or not. For that purpose, we need to fight for Health and Safety Commissions to be set up in all workplaces that will function independent of the bosses, that are democratically elected, and that can organize to impose protocols and shut down production when necessary.

Not one more dead worker at the hands of the bosses! Our lives are worth more than their profits!”

Left Voice, 12.14.2021

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Live With It

 

And, there we have it — we've gone from "we're all in this together" to "live with it". Like, screw you — just shaddup and live with it; they're through even pretending to care.

So, what else will we be expected to "live with" — labor exploitation? Fascist thugs ruling the streets? The end of the goddamn Earth?

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"DC for 15" Poster Art Is Ready To Download!

My poster art series for DC's Raise The Wage campaign is now available for downloads by organizers and activists.

I've made these available as tabloid-size posters and letter-size flyers, with plenty of "clear" space for laying out customized text in the page-layout software of your choice.

Follow the "DC For $15" minimum wage campaign on Twitter.

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The Democratic Party: Graveyard Of Movements

Alright, US Left, time for a little history lesson – and a cautionary tale. Can any of you out there name a single popular democratic people's movement for peace, liberty or social/economic justice which wasn't finally at some point infiltrated, co-opted and bled to death by the Democratic Party? Anybody?

Bueller?

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...and for context, here's some more Democratic Party movement co-opting tomfoolery:  
It's Going To Be A New Day, November 2006
Wisconsin – Look Out Behind You, February 2011
"Occupy" Movement: Beware the Vampire, October 2011
We Are The 1%, October 2011
Infiltrator, October 2011
Occupy DC Visits Democratic Party Fundraiser, December 2011
"99% Spring": 100% Bullshit, April 2012
Obama's March On Washington Anniversary Speech, Condensed, August 2013

Supersize The Revolution

Not a whole lot to say about this one, other than here’s a big ol’ steaming slab of solidarity with the strikers at McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King who walked out last week.

While we’re at it, it’s also worth noting that things are really bad here when the Los Angeles Times refers to the strikes at Wal-Mart and fast food joints as “labor unrest”:

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Green Friday

Yesterday morning, an estimated 400 or so union members, activists, students, and just regular old folks visited Wal-Mart stores in Hyattsville and Laurel, Maryland, in surburban DC, to protest in solidarity with Wal-Mart workers striking nationwide over pay, benefits, and the management intimidation of workers speaking out about the issues they face every day while working at Wal-Mart.
 
Find out more at ForRespect.org.

Off your ass, America–time to get your Greek on!

Y’know, I really am jealous of the Greeks – not because of the shape their economy’s in, nor because of the corruption of their government and its servility to capital, nor because of the state-imposed “austerity” programs they struggle against. I’m jealous of the Greeks and other Europeans because they haven’t forgotten how to fight in the streets – unlike US activists, for whom “direct action” these days means standing around, waving signs or holding candles in front of the White House in the dark.

In Greece right now, unionists, students and anarchists are taking on the police, kicking ass and taking names in the streets. They aren’t taking “austerity” lying down. They’ve made the country virtually ungovernable. Meanwhile, in the bad old USA, “progressives” are “fighting” the imminent loss of hard-won social safety nets by waving signs, having vegan potluck dinners and teach-ins, and voting Democratic – in spite of the mountain of evidence that the Democratic Party doesn’t give a rat’s ass about them today (as if they ever did).

I was inspired to do this cartoon after seeing a recent article on Al Jazeera, as well as a large piece in the Washington Post, detailing the extent of the Greek uprising currently going on, as well as the extensive involvement of militant anarchist youth.

C’mon, Americans – off your asses and into the streets. It’s time to get your Greek on!

The Washington Post, 05.14.11, “Into The Arms Of Anarchy”, page A1
The Washington Post, 05.14.11, “Into The Arms Of Anarchy”, continues page A5.

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Wisconsin – Look Out Behind You!

So, I was taking a break from being glued to Al Jazeera’s coverage of the revolution in Libya to check out the action in Wisconsin, and found out to my horror that the Democratic Party “leadership” had declared their support for the resurgent workers’ movement there. After two years of ignoring the Left which had helped put him in office, giving us a corporate giveaway thinly disguised as healthcare “reform”, propping up the banks and Wall Street, failing to close the Guantanamo concentration camp, escalating a bloody imperialist war in Afghanistan, insulting us to our faces on TV during the recent mid-term “elections” and appeasing the right, Barack Obummer has finally rediscovered the Left just in time to start pandering to us again in preparation for the 2012 freak circus — after two years of pandering to corporate and banking interests.

This was topped by Smarm Queen and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi hopping aboard the bandwagon, declaring the Wisconsin workers’ rebellion to be “an extraordinary show of democracy in action” — which, of course, the Democratic Party will make every effort to bleed dry of energy and crush like a grape.

In case you need a reminder of what Queen Nancy is really all about, give a listen to her sucking right-wing cock, in her own words — in 2002, following her election as House Minority Leader during the run-up to Iraq War v2.0, and in 2006, when asked about the impeachment of George W. Bush for his crimes against humanity and the Constitution:

Wisconsin, take a look at the past twenty years of the Democratic Party’s record. Remember NAFTA? Bill Clinton said he opposed it, until he supported it. Remember how the supposedly “liberal” and “progressive” Democrats fought each other to be first in line to support George W. Bush’s wars of genocide and aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq — wars based on lies? Remember how the Democrats rolled over and refused to impeach Bush, despite his having a record of impeachable offenses as long as his goddamn’ arm? Remember how John Kerry opposed the war in Iraq, until he voted to fund it? Remember how Barack Obama supported single-payer healthcare, until he opposed it? Remember last year’s mid-term campaign, when Obama and Biden publicly blew you off and called you “whiners” when you complained about the lame excuse for healthcare “reform” and Obama’s appeasement of Wall Street, the bankers and the Rightists?

Remember the antiglobalization movements? Remember Seattle and A16? This, too, was “an extraordinary show of democracy in action” — until it was co-opted by the Democratic Party and its energy diverted to a wasted effort to elect Plastic Al Gore and Holy Joe Lieberman in 2000. Remember the antiwar movement? They, too, were “an extraordinary show of democracy in action” until they were guilt-tripped into silence by the Democratic Party in their effort to elect first John Kerry in 2004, and then Barack Obama in ‘08. Now, at last, a new movement is rising up for justice for the working class, and once again the Democratic Party is readying itself to suck the life’s blood from that movement to prop up the likes of Pelosi, Reid and Obama. In a struggle like this, the last thing you want is support from the craven, opportunist, corporate cock-gobbling Democratic Party.

Remember this history, Wisconsin, and remember that your real enemy isn’t the Teabaggers getting in your faces at the demonstrations — it’s the Democratic Party, who claims to be “behind” you. For crissakes, Wisconsin — look out behind you.

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At jadaliyya.com: What If The Egyptian Protesters Were Democrats?

One Nation Working Together

We can hold One Nation marches every week. It will not make any difference until we revolt against the formal structures of power.

The liberal preoccupation with positive forms of propaganda ignores the root of our problem. The tea party and hate mongers on Fox such as Glenn Beck, however repugnant, are the manifestation of the crisis, not its cause. The forces assaulting the remnants of American democracy will not be cowed or discredited with rallies, such as the one in Washington on Saturday. We will blunt these rising anti-democratic forces only when we organize outside conventional systems of power.

Mass support for anti-democratic movements and public acceptance of open violations of human rights are not caused, in the end, by the skillful dissemination of misinformation or brainwashing. They are caused by the breakdown of a society and the death of a liberal class that once made reform and representative government possible. The timidity of our liberal class was on public display during the march in Washington. Speakers may have called for jobs, but none would call on citizens to abandon the rotting hull of the Democratic Party and our moribund political system or put Wall Street speculators in prison.

– Chris Hedges at TruthDig, 10.05.10

One Nation FAILing Together, more like.

Oh, how I wanted to punch this rally in the teeth.

After happily committing to blowing off that thinly-disguised Donkeycratic GOTV rally, I ended up letting my comrades in the Town Hell Posse talk me into coming out with them to shoot it with the idea of putting together a nasty, sarcastic music video to the tune of the Dead Kennedys’ Holiday In Cambodia.

Jeezus, what a huge-assed mistake. This was, without a doubt, the dullest rally ever held in DC — and I mean the Dullest. Rally. EVER. A rally made of Lame. Not even the Socialist or Green contingents could save this Lamefest. Even inasmuch as my pals warned me what I was letting myself in for, it was still a soul-crushingly wretched scene in its own way even worse than Beckapalooza was in August. No street theater, no puppets, no militant pizazz, no civil disobediences, no genuine sentiment, just a bunch of goddamn’ liberals waving mass-printed placards.I chose to cover the immigrants’ rally and feeder march because it was at the Capitol, five minutes’ walk from my house, and because the immigrants’ protests have always been better as they all come from countries where they really know how to throw a protest. Huh, some hope. The immigrants’ rally was totally overrun by SEIU jerks still proudly wearing their goddamn’ purple Obama ‘08 jackets — and featuring Al Sharpton, to boot. Augggh, Reverend Fucking Al, The Cosmic Media Attention-Sucking Vortex, spouting his standard-issue faux militant boilerplate after opening with a prayer. As usual, there was more God than I could handle at this shindig. I can handle the rightists yelling about how America needs God and Christianity, but the Liberals totally blow my gaskets with their hypocrisy about religious diversity even as they totally ignore atheists and freethinkers (such as yours truly).

It was all downhill from there. I arrived at the Lincoln Memorial just in time to hear some guy yelling about how “we can’t let Obama fail,” or some godawful shit, and I knew then that I was in for a long, hard afternoon. This Kool-Aid tripper was followed by a bunch of students taking turns reciting pieces of King’s “I Have A Dream” speech as if they were in some kind of school Christmas pageant, followed by MSNBC’s Ed “I Know No-THING” Schultz who bellowed his usual partisan line of bullshit at the top of his goddamn’ lungs. You don’t know scary until you see that windbag Schultz yelling at you from a goddamn’ Jumbotron.

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot to mention the Jumbotrons — lots of ‘em. Yeah, nothing says bottom-up, grassroots peoples’ mobilization like a fistful of Jumbotrons.

After I finished having the skin peeled off my face by Ed Schultz’s blustering, I decided I just couldn’t take any more and headed back to the Washington Monument snack bar for a hot dog and a beer or three. Normally, I just couldn’t see paying three and a half bucks for a goddamn’ Budweiser, but after witnessing that weak-assed spectacle I was more than happy for a few overpriced Buds to help me recover.

It wasn’t until I met up with the rest of the Posse and headed back to my house to review the footage that the true wretchedness of what I’d just endured really set in (I only shot about half an hour of tape that afternoon because I knew I wouldn’t be able to stand looking at it again). The more deathly dull footage I saw rolling by, the more I realized that here was five hours of my life I’ll never get back again — and more’s the pity.

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BLAST FROM YER PAST: Happy Birthday, "Sweet A16"

This Was What Democracy Looked Like

Time once again to fire up the old TARDIS, and dive into this action-packed day of gleeful antiglob frenzy at the IMF, World Bank, and all over downtown DC on April 16, 2000 -- and, unlike the '60s, if you can remember it, you were there!

While the Anticapitalathon's scraggly gaggle is ignored by global capital and its fawning media, now would be a good time to remember more inspiring times -- times when The Movement™ wasn't afraid to protest against a Democratic Administration, times when The Movement™ wasn't cowed and intimidated by the Democratic Party and the AFL-CIO.

In the Spring of 2000, Ralph Nader and the Green Party were calling bullshit on the Democrats and challenging their stranglehold on the US Left, the Democratic Party was pissing in its shoes, and the US Left couldn't have been happier -- as opposed to today, when the US Left is sitting on its hands, and the "progressives" couldn't be happier to be marching over a cliff behind Barack Obama and his cult of personality.

This was a time when The Movement™ was riding high on a wave of energy and solidarity after its victory in the Seattle Rebellion, and was full of hope for bringing about change in our future -- before the Democratic Party got its hooks into us. (D'oh, sorry; I just said "hope" and "change" there, didn't I?)

Episode 1, 09:13




Episode 2, 06:45





Download mpeg4 files: Episode 1, 33.8mb; Episode 2, 27.6mb

A16 Poster Series, from January 2000.

Capitalism Works Best When Left Alone

At the Capitol Hill Teabaggers' Rally this past July 4th, I spotted more than a few signs saying "Capitalism Works Best When Left Alone", and it got me thinking, what vast new entrepreneurial opportunities have been denied owing to government regulations and petty tyrannies such as the Clean Water Act, The Pure Food And Drug Act, or the Glass-Steagall Act...?

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