America’s national priorities: Police thuggery, broken schools, and the 'wages of Whiteness'

We are now in the fourth week of the June fundraiser here at Indomitable/WARN/We are Respectable Negroes. It is one of two fundraisers that I conduct annually. The other is in December.

I would like to thank all of the kind folks who have thrown some money into the virtual collection bowl. It is much appreciated. Thank you emails are forthcoming. As you know, I am not compensated for my work here or the podcast. Both are labors of love, labors that I learn and benefit from in ways that I cannot easily express. If you can, are able, and willing please do throw some pennies, gold, silver, into the Paypal logo on the top of the screen on the right hand side bar.

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A budget is a statement of priorities and values. In a political community, a budget also prioritizes the interests of some individuals and groups over those of others.

For example, the city of Chicago has spent more than $ 500 million since 2014 in literal blood money for the victims of police brutality. Collectively, the 10 largest American cities have paid out hundreds of millions of dollars to settle police misconduct cases during the same time period.

These sums of money are the macro-level reflections of individual tragedies and needless deaths that include names such as Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Laquan McDonald, and Rekia Boyd.

During the same time period, Chicago and the state of Illinois have eliminated hundreds of millions of dollars from the city’s public school budget. This is part of a larger trend where American public education, the social safety net, and other services for the poor, working classes, and other vulnerable groups are being ruthlessly cut in the name of “austerity” and “efficiency.” Yet in the United States, spending on the military and mass incarceration continues to grow largely unabated.

As recent research shows, a relatively small number of American police account for a majority of the unnecessary shootings and other acts of thuggery against black and brown communities and the poor. However, these police are coddled and protected by a culture of racism, classism, and authoritarianism. As an internal report from the Chicago police details, they “have no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color.” Ultimately, the so-called “good cops” are actively protecting and providing cover for the “bad apples” in their midst. Narratives about the non-existent “Ferguson effect”—the notion that America’s police are somehow “afraid” to do their jobs because of the Black Lives Matter movement—only enable police criminality.

If based on pure economics, such a dynamic would appear to be easily rectified: Police brutality and thuggery is an expensive problem that can be corrected by dismissing the officers involved and reforming the culture(s) of America’s police departments. Reality is much more complicated.

Beyond the private actors who are personally enriched by mass incarceration and the punishing and punitive state, police brutality and violence against people of color (as well as the poor and working classes more generally) is a form of social control.

If You are Feeling Kind and Generous: The June Fundraiser for Chauncey DeVega.com and the Podcast Known as "The Chauncey DeVega Show" has Arrived

Our annual June fundraiser has arrived.

The fundraiser "technically" began on the first of the month last week. But, putting out the begging bowl and open hands on Wednesday seemed a bad gesture to me. Perhaps this is a better omen, but the first day of this June's fundraiser, 6/6/2016, is also the anniversary of the D-Day invasion and the day that my father passed away more than ten years ago. 

[No condolences needed folks. He was a good man who lived a very interesting life and despite his flaws--who doesn't have them?--I would not have traded my dad for anyone else in the world. He was an eccentric who had many adventures. I hope that the Fates will say and deem the same for me.]

As you know, I share my writing here at Chaunceydevega.com. I also have a podcast known as The Chauncey DeVega Show. Both are labors of love.

I also write for Salon.com and other sites as well.

I am not compensated for my work here at Chaunceydevega.com or the podcast. Nor am I paid for the various TV or radio interviews that I occasionally participate in.

I have been given numerous offers to run advertisements and paid for content here at Chaunceydevega.com and for the podcast known as The Chauncey DeVega Show. I have declined such offers because I want to maintain my independence and freedom.

My various online work requires approximately (at least) 20 hours of work a week...in addition to my "regular" job responsibilities. There is no vast "liberal conspiracy" that funds my work.

When I do the twice a year fundraising drive, I like to offer some reflections and plans/hopes for the future.

As I mentioned last December, I am going to begin a video podcast series. This project is more expensive than I originally had thought. Thus, I will be combining the monies from our December fundraiser (which are in an envelope untouched) with the kind donations from this pledge drive to make that happen. The audience and platform are already secured. This will not be some random Youtube online show. I will be in wonderful company with some serious people. This is an amazing opportunity and I want to be sure to do my best. The audience will be large and I want to bring it...as the one and only Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson is so fond of saying. If I fail, it will be on my own merits and not because of silly technical issues related to lighting or camera work.

I have teased several announcements for this month's fundraiser. Here is the first one. Since the beginning of 2016, I have been one of the front page editors for the extremely popular and influential liberal-progressive political website the Daily Kos. You can see my work there on Sundays. To be included at the Daily Kos in that capacity was/is a great complement, one made possible by your support. Last month, I was also invited by the White House to a fancy summit meeting. Not bad for the child of a janitor and a practical nurse.

When I do the twice a year fundraising drive, I like to offer some reflections. I know that we are setting the pace here at Indomitable/WARN/We Are Respectable Negroes on many issues. In the era of Donald Trump, I have been way ahead of the so-called smart people in my analyses of he, the American Il Duce, proto fascist, thug, known as "The Donald". My framework for discussing Donald Trump where I demonstrate how "politics is professional wrestling" has "inspired" feature-length essays and commentaries from the NY Times, and many other websites and journals of record. With few exceptions, this has occurred without attribution. 

While some have ignored my voice while "borrowing" my analyses, I have also had work featured by National Public Radio, as well as Newsweek magazine online, and The Washington Spectator. 

I am also much farther along in negotiating a book deal than I was this time last year. I have had several offers/flirtations over the years (one from a pretty big popular press who I flat out told "no" once they put their cards on the table...they were quite surprised). I want to do something special and good. I am not interested in writing a book just for the sake of producing some pages with a title attached and some blurbs on the back that shows up at the local brick and mortar or on Amazon.com. The project(s)--hint--have to be a good fit for the right people. I have a feeling we are getting there much sooner rather than later. 

The twice a year annual fundraiser is a great help to me. The symbolic gesture is so very meaningful; the material support is essential too, as there are opportunity costs and other expenses that come with the good number of hours that Chaunceydevega.com aka Indomitable and The Chauncey DeVega Show require to maintain on a weekly basis. 

And of course, I have to deal with the many death threats and other promises of harm that come with being a truth-teller and humanitarian who cares about all people. I weather that storm because of the positive energy all of you send me.

The fundraiser will run 1) through to the moment when the goal I have set is reached (approximately 1,250 dollars for a new video card, a "halo" light, bigger backdrop, good video editing software, and much larger external hard drive) or 2) the first week of July. 

If you can and are willing and able (important! take care of you, your family, and animal friends first) please do throw some gold or silver into the collection pile during our annual June fundraiser. You can do so by clicking on the Paypal link on the right hand sidebar of the site. Pennies, dollars, and bigger bills all count towards the total.

I also would like to thank all of the kind and generous folks who have donated to support my work over the course of the last year and also subscribe on a monthly basis! 

[Apparently the embedded Paypal links expire after a certain amount of time; the Paypal link at the right hand side of the screen should always work.]

I will pull the begging bowl back in once that sum (or time) is reached. Hopefully, as in previous years, we can have a successful fundraiser in short order

As a thank you for the kind support and donations, as I did last year, I have some special guests lined up for this month's episodes of The Chauncey DeVega Show.

Thank you again for your kindness and support during the fundraiser and throughout the year.

Patrick Buchanan: Donald Trump is the 'Great White Hope' for Oppressed White People

Today is the first day of the twice-a-year fundraiser here at Indomitable/WARN/We Are Respectable Negroes. I will formally launch our NPR style gentle nagging fundraising drive next Monday--I am superstitious and believe that Wednesday is a bad day to start asking people for money. The funds raised will support the existing projects, i.e. my writing here and elsewhere, as well as the podcast The Chauncey DeVega Show. The kind offerings will also go to the video podcast (the donations from our December fundraiser are also going to that not inexpensive endeavor).

I peer into the Right-wing hate media echo chamber open sewer so that you do not have to. In his most recent column for the white supremacist website Human Events, Patrick Buchanan mourns what he perceives as the decline of white male hegemony in the United States. His logic and examples are so twisted, distorted, and inaccurate that they border on being satire (example: white people are killing themselves because white men are not featured on TV in heroic roles like they were in the 1950s). However, we laugh at Buchanan's white racial paranoiac thinking at our own peril. In many ways, he, like George Wallace, was the forerunner and prototype for Donald Trump's ascendance as the current and presumed 2016 Republican presidential nominee. Buchanan had the correct strategy for fully transforming the GOP into a white identity party...he was just two decades two early.

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“Something startling is happening to middle-aged white Americans. Unlike every other age group, unlike every other racial and ethnic group … death rates in this group have been rising, not falling.”

The big new killers of middle-aged white folks? Alcoholic liver disease, overdoses of heroin and opioids, and suicides. So wrote Gina Kolata in The New York Times of a stunning study by the husband-wife team of Nobel laureate Angus Deaton and Anne Case.

Deaton could cite but one parallel to this social disaster: “Only H.I.V./AIDS in contemporary times has done anything like this.”

Middle-aged whites are four times as likely as middle-aged blacks to kill themselves. Their fitness levels are falling as they suffer rising levels of physical pain, emotional stress and mental depression, which helps explain the alcohol and drug addiction.

But what explains the social disaster of white Middle America?

First, an economy where, though at or near full employment, a huge slice of the labor force has dropped out. Second, the real wages of working Americans have been nearly stagnant for decades.

Two major contributors to the economic decline of the white working-class: Scores of millions of third-world immigrants, here legally and illegally, who depress U.S. wages, and tens of thousands of factories and millions of jobs shipped abroad under the label of “globalization.”

Another factor in the crisis of middle and working class white men is the plunging percentage of those who are married. Where a wife and children give meaning to a man’s life, and to his labors, single white men are not only being left behind by the new economy, they are becoming alienated from society.

“It’s not surprising,” Barack Obama volunteered to his San Francisco high-donors, that such folks, “get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them…”

We all have seen the figure of 72 percent of black children being born out of wedlock. For working class whites, it is up to 40 percent.

A lost generation is growing up all around us.

A Happy New Year Semi-Open Weekend Thread

As is our habit and tradition, please do treat this as a semi-open weekend thread.

I hope that all of you had a good and safe New Year's Eve. Given my various addictions and bad habits I just wanted folks to know that I am safe and well. Given the wild man that I am, I stayed in on New Year's, ate barbecue, watched the Twilight Zone marathon, some Star Trek: The Next Generation, drank soda, and partook of Moscow Mules and Stella Artois beer. I am such a sophisticate. I had a chance to go out to a party which sounded like quite the rager--one full of 40-year-old people who escaped from their kids--but I demurred. I had a contemplative Christmas and New Year's Eve as I focused my energy for the very interesting opportunities that I will be following through on in 2016.

I want to thank the folks who donated to the fundraiser. I am writing "thank you" notes this week. I am very, very moved by the generosity and good energy that was shown and sent to me. The friends and fans of my work online and elsewhere are some cool folks. Big hearts. 

Some semi-connected randomness.

I like to laugh at the beginning of the New Year. It is good for the soul. One of the funniest things of 2015, at least in my opinion was David Pakman's interview with Pastor David Manning. I still love me some Alexyss Tylor. But damn, hearing Manning talk about how Starbucks puts gay semen in its coffee, various lust demons, Manning's yearning for sex with men while in jail, and his various other conspiracy theories damn near made me convulse with laughter.

I am no fan of New Year's resolutions. I believe that the George Costanza rule of opposites is of more use--example: if you want to lose weight you should instead promise to gain weight, etc.--than empty promises and resolutions made to oneself.

But in keeping with that ritual, I promise to run down the metaphorical football field like a madman possessed by Jim Brown; I will go back to my weekly routine of Muller system exercises, tai chi, and light weight training; I will cease my onanism and extreme soda consumption; I pledge to stop my chronic under-earning; and I will be a more productive and disciplined person in other areas of life in order to find the fame, glory, and professional success that I have denied myself for various reasons for too long.

Lots of promises. If I keep 2 or 3 of them I will be satisfied.

Do share your New Year's resolutions if you would...as how can I be held accountable by making promises to myself? How was your 2015? What do you predict for 2016? 

And of course, do you have any news items, trends, or the like that you think we should all be looking out for in the new year?

When They Show You Who They Really Are: Right-Wing White Supremacist Website the "Free Republic" Excuse-Makes for and Celebrates the Killing of Tamir Rice

We are in the last week of the December annual fundraiser.

I would like to thank the very kind and generous folks who donated so far. There is much generosity in the world. I will be sending out my "thank you" notes at the end of the month. As I have said before, I like the ritual of doing those all in one or two days. It makes me smile.

We are just 30 dollars away from the goal for the December annual fundraiser. The monies, as you know, will go towards the video podcast next year and following through on some of the great opportunities that are being finalized for my online and other work.

Christmas holiday shopping is done. If you have any funds remaining--and have taken care of your other obligations, please throw some love in the donation bucket so that I/we can continue to grow the site and get our video podcast up and running next year.

If the embedded donation link is being fickle you can always click on the Paypal button on the right-hand side of the screen.

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I take my daily safari to Right-wing websites so that you do not have to.

Right-wing humanzees are very entertaining. They fling political feces and expose themselves in public both for their own pleasure as well as that of their fellows who are flopping about in the same Right-wing trough urinal with them.

Because conservatism and racism are now one and fully the same thing in the post civil rights era (and especially the Age of Obama), the most radical and extreme of conservatives are also the most stridently white supremacist.

They are also pathological in that they continue with this behavior without reflecting or thinking about it. It is a habit and norm for them. Moreover, and I have discovered this in their responses to my own work, contemporary conservatism replicates and performs white supremacy even while denying that they are 1) racists and 2) simultaneously claiming that white people are the "real" "victims" of racism in the Age of Obama.

Tamir Rice was killed by the Cleveland police for the "crime" of being a black child playing in a park with a toy gun. To deny that basic fact is to be complicit with a monstrous evil, support an act of barbarism, and be in bed with the obscenity that is how America's police, as a matter of policy, violate the human rights of people of color and the poor.

The website the Free Republic--as a barometer for the Right-wing hate media, more generally--is defaming the memory of Tamir Rice, excuse-making for his cop killers, and celebrating the death of a child.

For some years, I was inclined to ignore the political scatology and coprophagia that occurred in the comment sections of the online Right-wing media. Now, I have finally realized that the opinions expressed there, in the Age of Donald Trump, and one where the Republican Party is the United States' largest white identity organization, are neither outliers or just the loudest voices among an already obnoxious "silent majority". No, the ilk of the Free Republic and like sites are the beating heart of the Republican Party.

The people who populate those spaces are not just harmless wannabe digital demagogues and online fiends. The conservatives who haunt the Right-wing sewer-comment sections of websites such as the Free Republic, Breitbart, Fox News, and elsewhere are police, fire fighters, teachers, soldiers, nurses, doctors, bus drivers, bank loan officers, human resources employees, daycare workers, landlords, real estate agents, professors, attorneys, and from all other walks of American life.

These white supremacists have the power to impact the life chances of people of color and those others they identify as somehow "less than" or as not "real Americans". And the most scary part of this dynamic is that if you confronted these bigots and human debris in person most of them would say they are not "racists", are in fact "colorblind", and may even be proud of how they have black and brown friends, lovers, spouses, and maybe even children.

As I did in an earlier post about white supremacists and the new Star Wars film, what follows are some comments (selected out of a total of approximately 200) about the killing of Tamir Rice (most were written in response to my recent essay at Salon) from the Right-wing, de facto, white supremacist website known as the Free Republic.

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1. My child would never have been dumb enough to pull a toy gun - or any gun - on cops with real guns.

2. Racism won’t end until we stop looking at people by race. Such as when they lecture us about the evils of white America.

3. A boy who looks like a man, not that silly photo that has been posted, and who points a realistic looking gun at strangers and pretends to shoot, deserves exactly what he got.

4. My children would never think of roughing up storekeepers, brandishing weapons, charging cops, rioting, committing mayhem, or any of the other things these idiots do. So I for one will never look at a Trayvon and see, frankly, anyone I know. 

5. “Until White America looks at Tamir Rice and sees their own children, there will be no racial justice in the U.S.” Much of “White America” raises their children so they in no way resemble Tamir Rice. We pay law enforcement to keep Tamir Rice at arm’s length.

Is Donald Trump a Cult Leader for Racially Resentful, Low Information, Right-wing, White Voters?

We are in the last week of the December annual fundraiser.

I would like to thank the very kind and generous folks who donated so far. There is much generosity in the world. I will be sending out my "thank you" notes at the end of the month. As I have said before, I like the ritual of doing those all in one or two days. It makes me smile.

We are just 55 dollars away from the goal for the December annual fundraiser. The monies, as you know, will go towards the video podcast next year and following through on some of the great opportunities that are being finalized for my online and other work.

Christmas holiday shopping is done. If you have any funds remaining--and have taken care of your other obligations, please throw some love in the donation bucket so that I/we can continue to grow the site and get our video podcast up and running next year. 

If the Paypal link is being fickle you can always click on the Paypal link on the right-hand side of the screen.

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Donald Trump is the front-runner in the 2016 Republican presidential primary race. He leads his closest rival, Ted Cruz, by a substantial margin. Trump’s proto-fascism, xenophobia and bigotry are not anomalies or outliers. These values are held by a large percentage of Republicans.

Donald Trump validates these feelings. As such, it is now fundamentally clear that Donald Trump is a hero and leader for many conservatives in the Age of Obama.

Most members of the pundit class have been befuddled by the ascendance of Donald Trump. But, there is one person who has solved this riddle.

In a little-discussed editorial written several weeks ago, Pat Buchanan offered the following analysis:

Enter The Donald.

His popularity is traceable to the fact that he rejects the moral authority of the media, breaks their commandments, and mocks their condemnations. His contempt for the norms of Political Correctness is daily on display.

And that large slice of America that detests a media whose public approval now rivals that of Congress, relishes this defiance. The last thing these folks want Trump to do is to apologize to the press.

And the media have played right into Trump’s hand.

They constantly denounce him as grossly insensitive for what he has said about women, Mexicans, Muslims, McCain and a reporter with a disability. Such crimes against decency, says the press, disqualify Trump as a candidate for president.

Yet, when they demand he apologize, Trump doubles down. And when they demand that Republicans repudiate him, the GOP base replies:

“Who are you to tell us whom we may nominate? You are not friends. You are not going to vote for us. And the names you call Trump — bigot, racist, xenophobe, sexist — are the names you call us, nothing but cuss words that a corrupt establishment uses on those it most detests.”

Pat Buchanan possesses gifted insight into powerful appeal of Donald Trump for the Republican base. Both men are nativist, xenophobic, right-wing populists who understand the allure of white alienation and racial resentment in the post civil rights era. Pat Buchanan is more of a “culture warrior” than Donald Trump. But like George Wallace in the 1960s, the Know-Nothings in the 19th century and the Black Legion in the 1930s, Buchanan and Trump are recent iterations in a long history of right-wing demagoguery and false populism in American politics.

Nevertheless, the essence of Buchanan’s claim remains correct: the “political establishment” and “media” are viewed as discredited by Republicans.

One does not need to read rigorous research by social scientists or mountains of polling data to prove this thesis. All one has to do is listen to Donald Trump’s supporters (who are really none too different from the Republican base writ large) and how they make sense of the political and social world.

For example, in recent focus groups conducted by CBS and CNN, Trump’s backers told interviewers such things as “I don’t believe any one of (the politicians). Not one. I believe Donald”; “My president comes on TV and he lies to me … I believe Donald. I tell you, he says what I’m thinking!”; and “I think we’re all scared. I’m actually a little jumpy, I find Trump is the only one who would come out and say something like this, no one else would do it … You know what he says, he says something completely crazy and in inflammatory then he dials back (and) starts explaining it.”

These people are divorced from reality. To listen to Donald Trump’s supporters is to peek into the mouth of political madness.

A Conversation with Michael Witwer about Gary Gygax and the History of the Role-playing Game Known as "Dungeons and Dragons"

I would like to thank the very kind and generous folks who donated to the December annual fundraiser yesterday. There are some really cool and giving folks out there who will be receiving their thank you notes very soon. There was a very nice donation on Thursday night. I am very moved by that kind gesture. So wonderful. I am now just 200 80 dollars away from the goal for the December annual fundraiser. The monies, as you know, will go towards the video podcast next year and following through on some of the great opportunities that are being finalized for my online and other work.

The sooner we reach that goal the faster I can pull back in the begging bowl and get back to business as usual. As always, if after having taken care of your human and animal family members, yourself, and other obligations, throw some love in the donation bucket so that I/we can continue to grow the site and get our video podcast up and running next year.

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This episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show features two great guests.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is taking the world by storm. The Chauncey DeVega Show has done several special episodes with friend of the site Bill the Lizard about the new series of Star Wars films. Chauncey and Bill the Lizard have finally seen the new movie. They originally intended to talk for only 20 minutes, but instead ended up with an almost hour long deconstruction of the film, the future of the franchise, and other matters about the (for all intents and purposes) rebooted/remixed J.J. Abrams Star Wars universe. 

This week's episode features 20 or so minutes of that conversation. It will be posted next week as an end of year full episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show.

The main guest on this week's installment of The Chauncey DeVega Show is Michael Witwer. He is the author of the great new book Empire of Imagination.

Popular culture is social history. In this wonderful conversation Michael Witwer and Chauncey talk about the history of pen and paper and dice role-playing games in the United States, the history of Dungeons and Dragons, share some great stories about its primary inventor Gary Gygax, laugh about how the U.S. military infiltrated Gygax's role-playing group, and explore the legacy of Dungeons and Dragons as one of the great influences on a whole generation of Hollywood filmmakers, video game creators, and authors. 

Michael Witwer and Chauncey also discuss questions of "inclusion" around race and gender in role-playing fandom and events such as Gencon and the subgenre known as "swine gaming" that features "games" about the Holocaust, the genocide of First Nations peoples, and white on black chattel slavery in the New World.

Michael Witwer also surprises Chauncey with his in depth knowledge of Star Wars and how his brother does voice-over work for Star Wars video games and animated series.

In addition to the great teaching done by Michael Witwer and Bill the Lizard, Chauncey talks about Donald Trump's use of the phrase "schlonged", reflects on the death of Sandra Bland, offers up his Festivus grievances, tells folks about his iron skillet troubles, continues to thank the kind folks who donated to the fundraiser, and shares why he is happy and more or less content this holiday season.

This episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show can be downloaded from Libsyn and also listened to here. It can also be "watched" on Youtube at this link.

The Chauncey DeVega Show is available on Itunes and at Stitcher as well.

There Will be No Justice for Sandra Bland: This is the American Justice System Working Exactly as Designed

I would like to thank the very kind and generous folks who donated to the December annual fundraiser over the weekend.We are only 100 dollars 90 dollars from the goal. There are some really cool and giving folks out there who will be receiving their thank you notes very soon. The monies, as you know, will go towards the video podcast next year and following through on some of the great opportunities that are being finalized for my online and other work.

Many of you will be celebrating Christmas this week. If you can include me on that gift giving list after you have taken care of family members, both humans and pets, yourself, and shown some love to a homeless brother or sister, it would be much appreciated. 

The sooner we reach that goal the faster I can pull back in the begging bowl and get back to business as usual. As always, if after having taken care of your human and animal family members, yourself, and other obligations, throw some love in the donation bucket so that I/we can continue to grow the site and get our video podcast up and running next year.

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In July of 2015, a young black woman named Sandra Bland died far from home in a Texas jail after being stopped by a white police officer for failing to supposedly use her car signal lights while changing lanes.

On Monday, a Texas grand jury decided to not indict the police or other agents potentially involved in the death of Sandra Bland.

Black Americans share a waking nightmare when they encounter America’s police.

Will I live? Will I die? Will this cop find a reason to arrest me? Is white racism operative in this moment? A great deal? A little?  None at all? Will this heavily armed and militarized cop use their “judgment” to decide they are somehow “in fear of their lives” and then shoot dead a black or brown body that has done nothing wrong? Will I make it home tonight? Can someone bail me out of jail if this police officer decides to manufacture a reason to beat upon me, put me in jail, or break my limbs or skull? Are there witnesses who will vouch for my innocence? Will I lose my job? Will someone know to feed my pet if I am in jail? Will justice be done if I am killed? My parents, friends, and other family know that I am not a monster who provoked lethal violence, but will the public ever truly understand that I am not a Negro fiend or beast that had to be put down for the safety of the (white) American public? How will the news media slur my name and memory?

Sandra Bland’s lonely death in a Texas jail, and a grand jury’s decision to not move forward with charges, is a parable drawn from the pages of the Jim Crow survival guide “The Negro Motorist Green Book “and the recent book by Nick Chiles called “Justice While Black.”

As has been said many times before, Sandra Bland’s death is not a bug or error in the American legal and “criminal justice” system. No, it is American justice working precisely as designed.

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is a Remix of "A New Hope"...That is Both a Good and a Bad Thing

I would like to thank the very kind and generous folks who donated to the December annual fundraiser on Friday. We are only 150 dollars from the goal. There are some really cool and giving folks out there who will be receiving their thank you notes very soon. The monies, as you know, will go towards the video podcast next year and following through on some of the great opportunities that are being finalized for my online and other work.

The sooner we reach that goal the faster I can pull back in the begging bowl and get back to business as usual. As always, if after having taken care of your human and animal family members, yourself, and other obligations, throw some love in the donation bucket so that I/we can continue to grow the site and get our video podcast up and running next year.

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I have now seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens twice. Instead of a traditional review, I have decided to offer up some thoughts in the form of questions and answers. Friend of the podcast Bill the Lizard and I will have a special episode of the podcast dedicated to finalizing our thoughts on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He and I have been deconstructing and anticipating Star Wars: The Force Awakens since its announcement several years ago. Now we can bring some closure to that conversation and ponder where the sequels should go in the future. I also have a new piece on the The Force Awakens, race, and politics in the Age of Obama over at Salon.

Did I like Star Wars: The Force Awakens?

Yes. Rogert Ebert said that a film review should be centered on how a given film or movie makes the audience—and by implication, the critic—feel. I waited for several hours to see J.J. Abrams’ take on Star Wars. I even got to talk with a reporter from The Chicago Tribune about the new movie. As I told her, my fondest childhood memory is waiting in line for at least 6 hours to see Return of the Jedi in 1983. I hope that a young child now in line for Star Wars: The Force Awakens will have a shadow of that experience, and reflect upon it the same way as I can, now, 32 years later.

The Star Wars Prequels were a very challenging experience. Star Wars: The Force Awakens makes it possible for lifelong fans to no longer express a qualified sense of love for the films. After Abrams’ new movies, we no longer have to say “I love Star Wars but…”

In short, Star Wars: The Force Awakens almost made me cry—not because of the events on the screen but because of how they channel the best sense of what “nostalgia” is…a yearning for a best sense of what the past is, something familiar, a good feeling of childhood innocence, warm, and happy.

Is Star Wars: The Force Awakens a good movie?

It is very good for what it is. Abrams’ Star Wars is not revolutionary. It is nothing new. It will not change the cinematic world the way that George Lucas’ A New Hope did in 1977. The Force Awakens is a remix of A New Hope that also combines elements of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Because it is a homage—even by the standards of the monomyth echoes of the other films—it cannot ascend to the level of singular greatness. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is an amazing tribute band. If you are of a certain age you will never have seen James Brown, Elvis, or The Beatles in their prime. Now, the best you can do is a cover band in Vegas. As such, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a damn good take on George Lucas’ first Star Wars Trilogy.

Is Star Wars: The Force Awakens the best movie of the year as some critics have suggested?

No. Not even close. Mad Max: Fury Road is the best mainstream commercial movie of 2015.

What did I think of the story, J.J. Abrams, and the new actors?

There Will be No Effective Gun Control Laws in America Until We Can Talk Honestly About the Connections Between White Masculinity, Guns, and "Freedom"

We are approaching the end of the third week of the annual December fundraiser here at ChaunceyDeVega.com. I would like to thank the folks who donated yesterday to our annual fundraising drive. I will send out thank you notes at the end of the month. I like sitting down and doing those all at one time, as it really moves me to respond to the generosity of folks all at once, instead of piecemeal.

We are at about 75 percent 80 percent to the goal for the December fundraiser. We have two weeks left. Several hundred dollars and I can pull the begging bowl back in. I will be putting the kind monies offered up by the friends of my online work towards a video podcast next year. The monies will also go to getting head shots done by a professional photographer.

I have two big announcements about forthcoming projects that those funds will also help to fully actualize. I will be sharing that info imminently. I am superstitious about such matters.

If you can throw some copper, gold, silver, or paper into the donation bucket and virtual begging bowl it would be much appreciated. Your support keeps me moving forward.

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When the New York Times editorial board issued its powerful condemnation of America’s gun culture, they went beyond mere outrage in response to the recent murder sprees in San Bernardino, California, and Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Times went so far as to suggest that “assault rifle”-style weapons should be banned from civilian ownership. As is our national ritual, President Obama also condemned gun violence, and just as he has been forced to do too many times during his tenure, pleaded that Americans must find a way to stop killing each other. The American people do in fact support stronger gun control laws; the NRA, functioning as the lobbying arm for the gun industry, opposes even the most basic common sense gun laws. The NRA wins while the American people die.

This is political intractability in a democracy broken by the power of a very well-funded interest group to subvert the public’s will. But, there is another little-discussed factor that helps to explain America’s obsessive and near pathological gun culture, unwillingness to treat gun violence as a public health crisis, Right-wing domestic terrorism, and propensity for mass shootings. It transcends all of those issues. But this factor is usually treated as verboten, something to not be unspoken of, because of the rage, threats of violence, and animus it inspires.

The common denominator is white masculinity and the particular ways that it is connected to American gun culture and the color line.

The Joy and Spite of Fundraising with White Supremacist Hate Mail Part 4

Here is the fourth installment in my racist hate mail fundraising series.

We are at the beginning of the third week of the annual December fundraiser here at ChaunceyDeVega.com. I am so appreciative of the kindness that has been shown to me by the friends and fans of my work online and elsewhere. We are about 70 or so percent to the goal. I will use the kind donations to start a video podcast next year. There is something in process that those kind donations will also help me follow through on in the best way possible. Details to come. Thank you notes are also in process...you know how I like to wait until the end of the fundraiser to send those out properly. If you can throw some copper, gold, silver, or paper into the donation bucket and virtual begging bowl it would be much appreciated.

Today is hate mail Monday. Could be a theme. I hope not.

One of my recurring fans sent over a second missive. Apparently, I am an "insufferable nigger". He used that language on the white supremacist website where said Right-wing sewer dweller shared his triumphant email. He was seeking satisfaction from his white supremacist brethren and to this point they are none too impressed. However, I may get "I am an insufferable nigger" emblazoned on a t-shirt! Could make for some good merchandise to sell once we get the site redesigned.

Here is the second email for our fundraising drive where hopefully I will able to respond to this bigot with notes from the kind folks who donated to support my online work, both out of generosity, and to spite the wicked forces that people of conscience are struggling against on a day-to-day basis.

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American empire was built on the genocide of First Nations people and the enslavement of blacks. The United States Constitution also limited citizenship to white property-owning men only.

BZZZZZ! 2/3rds incorrect: We Whites are the true "First Nations" people; the Aztecs, for one example, rolled over so easily because their religion looked forward to the return of the "WHITE, BEARDED gods" who founded their civilization populated with brown, beardless non-gods. But of course you really mean the blanket-assed scalper savages, the vast majority of whom died from diseases they had no resistance for. It's telling that we never hear you shitlibs trying to guilt-trip Asians for the Black Death (the disease - not you niggers).

Your whole "argument" boils down to this: we crackas must hang our heads in shame because we wanted and still want to take the only safe, sane course and remain the majority in the land created with the blood, sweat & brilliance of our pioneer ancestors. The "guilt" for this uniquely unspeakable legacy o' racism should impel us to open wide our borders & our legs to all the world's brown Wretched Refuse that hates our guts for mostly imagined wrongs. It's the only thing Decent People who want to be Redeemed will do.

To which we reply: FUCK YOU, you jew shoulder-chipped uppity coon. Self-funded Trump came along just in time. Under him, we're not only going to remain in possession of our inheritance, we're going to begin to make you Cultural Marxist scum pay for being a usurper minority that sneeringly forced your will on us for nearly a century.

Picture a boot in the face. Forever.

Peace OUT.

Jay in VA

The Joy and Spite of Fundraising with White Supremacist Hate Mail Part 3

Here is the third installment in my racist hate mail fundraising series.

We are at the beginning of the third week of the annual December fundraiser here at ChaunceyDeVega.com. I am so appreciative of the kindness that has been shown to me by the friends and fans of my work online and elsewhere. We are about 70 or so percent to the goal. I will use the kind donations to start a video podcast next year. There is something in process that those kind donations will also help me follow through on in the best way possible. Details to come. Thank you notes are also in process...you know how I like to wait until the end of the fundraiser to send those out properly. If you can throw some copper, gold, silver, or paper into the donation bucket and virtual begging bowl it would be much appreciated.

This email shows us how white supremacists are now using the language of "colorblindness" and "Christian brotherhood" to advance their agenda.

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let me start this by telling you, I am a white male from Texas and yes I do have prejudices, yet I don't consider myself a racist. I don't judge people based on the color of their skin I don't make decisions on how I deal with people based on the color of their skin. I do judge people on their actions and the way they talk. You sir, are absolutely a racist. Blaming all whites for the actions of one piece of shit in the church shooting. Those were my brothers and sisters in Christ that got killed. And you want to blame that on every white American? It's people like you that are causing these things to happen.

What are your racist rants accomplishing? Do you really want a race war? Or are you truly after equality for all? Either way I've never backed down in my life. I spent almost 5 years in prison in Texas where whites are by far the minority. So I know a little about true oppression based on race. Every time I fought against a black man or mexican, 2 or 3 more jumped in. That part of my life ended 12 years ago and I spend every day trying to be the person God says I'm supposed to be. I gotta be honest with you, it's getting harder and harder. People like you are making it close to impossible spewing your racist liberal crap. Why don't you focus on the individual that did it instead of blaming every person that has white skin. The sad thing is, and I'm sure you won't be able to get past your hate of "white America" to believe me, I'm one of the people that would've tried to shield that congregation with my body. Not because they are black or white, but because they are Christian and I can't think of a better way to go out.

Semi-Open Sunday Thread: "American Cock So Big And So Strong" While a Muslim Woman Has Fun Dancing Like the Three Stooges and an Black "Muslim" Breitbart Wannabe Threatens Donald Trump With a Gun on Youtube

As is our habit and tradition, please do consider this a semi-open thread.

First, I would like to thank the kind and generous folks who donated to our annual December fundraising drive. Thank you notes are forthcoming. Channeling my gentle NPR nagging voice, if you can and are able and willing please do throw some change into the virtual begging bowl that can be found at the Paypal link on the right-hand side of the screen. Those monies help to sustain my online and other work. I also have specific plans for the funds from this December's fundraiser. I will be starting a video podcast next year--in addition to another major project that I do not want to announce yet--and those monies will go to procuring the necessary equipment. We are only about 600 dollars away from the goal. Hopefully, we can cross the finish line this week. And I think that you will be very pleased with the new opportunity you have all made possible for me.

In this moment of rising authoritarianism, proto fascist Trumpism, terrorism, and other assorted unpleasantness it is very important to laugh to keep from crying.

Here are some of the things that made me smile, laugh, or just shake my head this week.

Joey Ryan is an American professional wrestler. He is now performing in Japan. The Japanese are very fascinated with penises. They are especially fascinated with American penises. Joey Ryan has innovated--or depending on one's point of view, slummed, furthering ruining any pretense of integrity in professional wrestling sports theater--by taking the Japanese obsession with American penises and bringing it into the squared circle.

Joey Ryan's penis power is very great. I am jealous. Are you?

American Muslims are being harassed and threatened because of how a small number of people who happen to share the same religion have been blowing themselves up and killing innocent people all over the world for some time. I am no fan of religion. I think it is a net negative for human progress and civilization. However, I hold all Muslims responsible for terrorism in the same way that I hold all Christians responsible for the violence of the KKK and other Right-wing domestic terrorists.

In this case, individuals are not responsible for what other people do except to the degree they all believe in mythical sky beings who watch them while they have sex, are on the toilet, and have convinced said people that they are somehow more special than other people who believe in different mythological beings.

One of the greatest blows against Islamophobia and bigotry against Muslims is to show how they are a diverse group of people--just like everyone else--who laugh, have fun, and enjoy life. I am not sure if this video is "real", but a group of traditionally dressed Muslim women dancing--and one sister does a pretty damn good Three Stooges impression--is capturing something very beautiful.

As I often say in my best Commissioner Gordon voice, I thrust my hand down into the muck and mire of the Right-wing sewer so that you do not have to. Apparently, there is a black "Muslim" who rants and raves on Youtube about ISIS, killing Donald Trump, and other assorted matters. Dude is likely a Right-wing plant and provocateur looking to get that Breitbart Fox News Right-wing hate media shuck and buck money. I despise what this character stands for. But, I have to respect his game and hustle.

Any news items, randomness, other matters of public or private concern to share? Star Wars: The Force Awakens is 4 days away. Do you feel The Force?