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The Ford-Kavanaugh hearing

Thu Sep 27th 2018 by abagond

The Ford-Kavanaugh hearing (September 27th 2018) was held by the Senate Judiciary Committee to hear one of Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers, Christine Blasey Ford. She says he tried to rape her back in high school. President Trump named Kavanaugh for the US Supreme Court, but he needs the Senate to confirm him by majority vote. The Republicans, Trump’s party, barely control the Senate (51 to 49).

Blasey Ford went first. It was heartbreaking. It is one thing to read her story, quite another thing to see her tell it. Television is so full of polished politicians, actors, admen, and cartoon characters, that it was startling to see a real person with real emotions.

They asked her what she most remembered. She said it was the laughter. Brett Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge were laughing as they tried to rape her.

Crystal Marie Fleming (@alwaystheself) on Twitter:

“I cried listening to the testimony of Dr. Ford this morning during my commute. I cried because the truth of her words rings clear to anyone with a functioning brain and moral compass. That she is required to publicly relive her trauma for a gang of elite men is beyond repulsive.”

Republicans on the committee are all White men. To question her in a respectful and professional way, they had to fly in a “female assistant” from Arizona, Rachel Mitchell, a sex crime prosecutor. Mitchell seemed to be fishing for proof that the Democrats had put Blasey Ford up to it.

Democrats asked their own questions. Only half of them are White men. The Democrats told her how good and brave she was, upending her life for the good of the nation and for women everywhere.

Angry White Men will be Angry White Men

Brett Kavanaugh’s turn came after lunch. One minute he was angry and rude, even to the senators, the next minute he was holding back tears, even about his father’s calendar. Huh? He presumably wanted us to believe that he was angry and upset because he was being falsely accused. But it came across like he felt entitled to a seat on the Supreme Court. His anger and entitlement made the attempted rape accusation seem all the more believable. He did not seem like a wise, fair-minded judge but a like a bitter, partisan hack.

Republicans all expressed sympathy for what he was going through. Sniff. They seemed strangely unconcerned about finding out the truth of Blasey Ford’s accusation of attempted rape. It reminded me of priests or police officers protecting one of their own.

Democrats kept asking him if he wanted an FBI investigation to clear his name. Each time they asked him the question he found a way not to answer it. Meaning that his anger had nothing to do with feeling he was falsely accused.

The committee, controlled by the Republicans, did not call any experts or witnesses, not even Mark Judge. It did not call Deborah Ramirez or Julie Swetnick – the two other women who have come out publicly against Kavanaugh.

– Abagond, 2018.

Update (October 2nd): According to a Quinnipiac poll, here is how many people believed Blasey Ford:

by race:

  • 83% Blacks
  • 66% Hispanics
  • 40% Whites

by gender:

  • 55% women
  • 40% men

by party:

  • 86% Democrats
  • 10% Republicans

Only 46% of White women believed her! 

See also:

524

Posted in stuff | 64 Comments »

Julie Swetnick

Wed Sep 26th 2018 by abagond

Julie Swetnick (c. 1963- ) is now the third woman to come out against Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s pick for the US Supreme Court. Her accusations are even worse than the other two!

Swetnick says, under oath, that Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge arranged and took part in gang rapes back in high school in the early 1980s. She can name witnesses who can back her up.

She wants an FBI investigation. Kavanaugh, who denies it, does not.

Swetnick:

“During the years 1981-82, I became aware of efforts by Mark Judge, Brett Kavanaugh and others to “spike” the “punch” at house parties I attended with drugs and/or grain alcohol so as to cause girls to lose their inhibitions and their ability to say “No.” This caused me to make an effort to purposely avoid the “punch” at these parties. I witnessed efforts by Mark Judge, Brett Kavanaugh and others to “target” particular girls so they could be taken advantage of; it was usually a girl that was especially vulnerable because she was alone at the party or shy.”

It gets worse:

“I also witnessed efforts by Mark Judge, Brett Kavanaugh and others to cause girls to become inebriated and disoriented so they could be “gang raped” in a side room or bedroom by a “train” of numerous boys. I have a firm recollection of seeing boys lined up outside the rooms at many of these parties waiting for their “turn” with a girl inside the room. These boys included Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh.”

She herself was a victim:

“In approximately 1982, I became the victim of one of these “gang” or “train” rapes where Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh were present. Shortly after the incident, I shared what had transpired with at least two other people. During the incident, I was incapacitated without my consent and unable to fight off the boys raping me. I believe I was drugged using Quaaludes or something similar placed in what I was drinking.”

Kavanaugh:

“This is ridiculous and from the Twilight Zone. I don’t know who this is and this never happened.”

Kavanaugh said during a Fox News interview that he was a virgin during high school and that, “I’ve always treated women with dignity and respect.”

As to Mark Judge: Swetnick says Kavanaugh and Mark Judge were “joined at the hip” and that:

“There is no question in my mind that Mark Judge has significant information concerning the conduct of Brett Kavanaugh during the 1980s, especially as it relates to his actions toward women.”

Mark Judge refuses to appear before the Senate and the Senate refuses to force him.

Democrats are calling on President Trump to either reopen the FBI background check on Kavanaugh or withdraw his name.

Tomorrow morning the first accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, is set to appear before the Senate.

In November a third of the Senate is up for re-election during the midterm elections. Republicans lead among men by 3 percentage points, but Democrats lead among women voters by 25 points.

– Abagond, 2018.

Source: Mainly Swetnick’s sworn statement (PDF).

See also:

565

Posted in stuff | 11 Comments »

Deborah Ramirez

Mon Sep 24th 2018 by abagond

Deborah Ramirez (c. 1965- ) is the second woman to come out against Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court. The first was Christine Blasey Ford, who came out last week accusing him of attempted rape back in high school.

Ramirez says Kavanaugh put his penis in her face when they were freshman at Yale University in the 1983-84 school year. It was during a drinking game, so her memory is not complete, but after careful consideration she is sure of this much, as reported by the New Yorker:

“I remember a penis being in front of my face,” she said. “I knew that’s not what I wanted, even in that state of mind.” … She said that she pushed the person away, touching it in the process. Ramirez, who was raised a devout Catholic, in Connecticut, said that she was shaken. “I wasn’t going to touch a penis until I was married,” she said. “I was embarrassed and ashamed and humiliated.” She remembers Kavanaugh standing to her right and laughing, pulling up his pants. “Brett was laughing,” she said. “I can still see his face, and his hips coming forward, like when you pull up your pants.” She recalled another male student shouting about the incident. “Somebody yelled down the hall, ‘Brett Kavanaugh just put his penis in Debbie’s face,’ ” she said. “It was his full name. I don’t think it was just ‘Brett.’ And I remember hearing and being mortified that this was out there.”

She wants an FBI investigation. Kavanaugh, who denies it, does not.

One witness can independently recall many of the same details as Ramirez – that it took place in a common room on the first floor in Entryway B of Lawrance Hall, that it was during freshman year, that another male student egged on Kavanaugh as he exposed himself. It was outside the bounds of what was acceptable, even at parties with heavy drinking. The witness says Kavanaugh was “relatively shy” but when he drank he could become “aggressive and even belligerent.”

Others remember it too, at least the rumours. In July when Trump named Kavanaugh as his pick, Yale alumni emailed each other about it. From there the story spread to the Senate and the New Yorker – well before Ramirez was willing to come forward.

Ramirez lives in Colorado and works for the Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence, which helps victims of domestic violence.

Ramirez is a registered Democrat, but she is not the Deborah Ramirez who received a grant from George Soros. That Deborah Ramirez is a law professor, and she went to Northeastern, not Yale.

Over 900 Yale alumni have signed a letter in support. It says in part:

“As women of Yale, some of whom are ourselves survivors of sexual assault, we stand behind Deborah Ramirez, Yale ’87, and with Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. … We are coming forward as women of Yale because we have a shared experience of the environment that shaped not only Judge Kavanaugh’s life and career, but our own.”

– Abagond, 2018.

Source: Mainly the New Yorker, Heavy, the Open Letter from Women of Yale.

See also:

535

Posted in stuff | 5 Comments »

Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J Balvin: I Like It

Sun Sep 23rd 2018 by abagond

Remarks:

This song is what is currently ringing in my head. It features Cardi B (New York), Bad Bunny (Puerto Rico), and J Balvin (Colombia). The Wikipedia classifies it as Latin trap.

This song went to #1 in the US on both the pop and R&B chart (in July 2018), #3 across the Anglosphere (weighted average), and is still #12 worldwide. It makes Cardi B, “hotter than a Somali”, the first female rapper ever to have two #1 hits on the US pop chart.

It heavily samples “I Like It Like That” (1967) by Pete Rodriguez (New York). That song was covered in 1994 by the Blackout All-Stars and in 1997 by Tito Nieves, but is probably best known in the US from a 1996 Burger King ad.

See also:

Lyrics:

[Intro:]
Yeah baby, I like it like that
You gotta believe me when I tell you
I said I like it like that
You gotta believe me when I tell you
I said I like it like
[Cardi B:]
Now I like dollars, I like diamonds, I like stunting, I like shining
I like million dollar deals, where’s my pen? Bitch I’m signin’
I like those Balenciagas, the ones that look like socks
I like going to the jeweller, I put rocks all in my watch
I like texts from my exes when they want a second chance
I like proving niggas wrong, I do what they say I can’t
They call me Cardi Bardi, banging body
Spicy mami, hot tamale
Hotter than a Somali, fur coat, Ferrari
Hop out the stu’, jump in the coupe (the coupe)
They trippin’ on top of the roof
Flexing on bitches as hard as I can
Eating halal, driving the Lam’
Told that bitch I’m sorry though
‘Bout my coins like Mario (Mario)
Yeah they call me Cardi B, I run this shit like cardio
Oh, damn
Diamond district in the Jag (I said I like it like that)
Certified, know I’m gang, gang, gang, gang (I said I like it like–)
Drop the top and blow the brains (I said I like it like that)
Oh he’s so handsome, what’s his name? (I said I like it)
Oh I need the dollars (I said I like it like that)
Beat it up like piñatas (I said I like it like–)
Tell the driver, close the curtains (I said I like it like that)
Bad bitch make him nervous (I said I like it)
Cardi B
[Bad Bunny:]
Chambean, chambean, pero no jalan (¡jalan!)
Tú compras to’a las Jordan, bobo, a mí me las regalan (jejeje)
I spend in the club (wuh), what you have in the bank (yeh)
This is the new religion, bang, en Latino gang, gang, yeh
Trato de hacer dieta (yeh), pero es que en el closet tengo mucha grasa (wuh)
Ya mude la Gucci pa’ dentro de casa, yeh (¡wuh!)
Cabrón, a ti no te conocen ni en Plaza (no)
El Diablo me llama pero Jesucristo me abraza (amén)
Guerrero como Eddie, que viva la raza, yeh
Me gustan boricuas, me gustan cubanas
Me gusta el acento de las colombianas (¿qué hubo pues?)
Como mueve el culo la dominicana (¿qué lo que?)
Lo rico que me chingan las venezolanas (¡wuh!)
Andamos activos, Perico Pin Pin (woo)
Billetes de cien en el maletín (ching)
Que retumbe el bajo, Bobby Valentin, yeh (boo)
Aquí es prohibido amar, diles Charytín
Que pa’l picor les tengo Claritin
Yo llego a la disco y se forma el motín (rrr)[Cardi B:]
Diamond district in the Jag (I said I like it like that)
[Bad Bunny:]
Bad Bunny, baby, be, be, be, be

[Cardi B:]
Certified, know I’m gang, gang, gang, gang (I said I like it like–)
Drop the top and blow the brains (I said I like it like that)
Oh he’s so handsome, what’s his name? (I said I like it)
Oh I need the dollars (I said I like it like that)
Beat it up like piñatas (I said I like it like–)
Tell the driver, close the curtains (I said I like it like that)
Bad bitch make you nervous (I said I like it)

[J Balvin:]
Como Celia Cruz tengo el azúcar (azúca’)
Tu jeva me vio y se fue de pecho como Jimmy Snuka (ah)
Te vamos a tumbar la peluca
Y arranca pa’l carajo cabrón, que a ti no te vo’a pasar la hookah (hookah, hookah)
Mis tenis Balenciaga, me reciben en la entrada (woo)
Pa-pa-pa-pa-razzi, like I’m Lady Gaga (woo)
Y no te me hagas (ey)
Que en cover de Billboard tú has visto mi cara (ey)
No salgo de tu mente
Donde quieras que viajes has escuchado “Mi Gente”
Yo no soy high (high), soy como el Testarossa (‘rossa)
Yo soy el que se la vive y también el que la goza (goza, goza)
Es la cosa, mami es la cosa (cosa, cosa)
El que mira sufre y el que toca goza (goza, goza)

[J Balvin (Cardi B):]
I said I like it like that
(I said I like it like that)
I said I like it like that
(I said I like it like that)

[Cardi B:]
Diamond district in the Jag (I said I like it like that)
Certified, you know I’m gang (I said I like it)
Drop the top and blow the brains (I said I like it like that)
Oh he’s so handsome, what’s his name? (I said I like it)

 

Posted in stuff | 22 Comments »

Christine Blasey Ford

Thu Sep 20th 2018 by abagond

Christine Blasey Ford (c. 1967- ) is a professor of psychology at Palo Alto University in California. She says that Brett Kavanaugh tried to rape her back in high school. President Trump wants to put Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, making him one of the nine highest judges in the land.

She could become the Anita Hill of the 2010s – only this time we have the Internet and the #MeToo movement. In 1991 Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. They spoke before the Senate on live television. Thomas needed to be confirmed by the Senate to get on the Supreme Court. He barely made it.

He says, she says:

  • He says: Kavanaugh, known to lie under oath, says her claim is “completely false”.
  • She says that in 1982 they were at a party when she was 15 and he was 17. He and a friend of his (Mark Judge) were drunk. They “corralled” her into a bedroom. As his friend egged him on, Kavanaugh forced himself on her, feeling her up, grinding his body on her, trying to take off her clothes. When she tried to scream he covered her mouth. She was afraid he would kill her by accident. Just then his friend jumped on them, which allowed her to break free.

She is believable because:

  1. She demands an FBI investigation.
  2. She told the same story in 2012 to her husband and to a therapist who kept notes. That means the story was not cooked up as part of a conspiracy to bring down Kavanaugh.
  3. She places Kavanaugh’s friend in the room, which she would not do if she were making it up – because he would simply deny it (as he has).

Blasey Ford is a Democrat who has marched for women’s rights and science. She gave a total of $80.50 to Democrats and socialist Bernie Sanders.

She is now in hiding, having received death threats.

Blasey Ford is willing to speak before the Senate but wants an FBI investigation first, as was done in the case of Anita Hill. Without one it becomes he-said-she-said.

The president would have to ask the FBI to reopen its background check. President Bush did that in the case of Clarence Thomas.

Senate Republicans seem bent on pushing through Kavanaugh’s confirmation next week with or without Blasey Ford’s testimony. Kavanaugh is so far to the right that Republicans might not have enough votes to confirm him after the midterm elections in November.

The irony is that White Evangelical Protestants voted for Trump in huge numbers despite his boast that women let him “grab them by the pussy” – because he promised to put judges on the Supreme Court who would end abortion. Kavanaugh himself played up his Catholic values. But now he seems to be cut from the same Trumpian cloth, a sleazy elite White male who thinks he can do whatever he wants to women and get away with it.

“He was only 17”: Emmett Till was only 14 when he was accused of much less and was lynched.

– Abagond, 2018.

Update (September 24th): Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh are set to speak before the Senate on Thursday, the 27th at 10:00 am Eastern time (14:00 GMT).

Meanwhile, a second woman, Deborah Ramirez, has come forward, as reported by the New Yorker. Ramirez says that at a dorm party at Yale in the 1980s, she found Kavanaugh’s penis in front of her face. Someone said “Kiss it.” Kavanaugh then pulled up his pants and laughed. 

Trump and Kavanaugh are dismissing both accusations, Ramirez and Blasey Ford, as a politically-motivated smear – a “grotesque and obvious character assassination” as Kavanaugh put it. Yet for some reason they are not asking for an FBI investigation. 

See also:

 

Posted in stuff | 80 Comments »

The midterms

Tue Sep 18th 2018 by abagond

A midterm election in the US are those that take place halfway through a president’s four-year term. The president himself (so far always a him) is not up for re-election, but most of Congress is: a third of the Senate and all of the House. So are many governors and state lawmakers.

The 2010 midterms saw the rise of the Tea Party and the takeover of many states by Republicans. That allowed them to gerrymander the voting map and prevent President Obama from getting much done for six years (2011-17).

The 2018 midterms, on November 6th, is the first nationwide election since the rise of Donald Trump in 2016. Both Barack Obama (former president, centre-left) and Sean Hannity (cable news blowhard, far-right) agree that this is the most important US election of our lifetime. It will determine what becomes of Trump.

Blue Wave: If enough Democrats come out to vote, they could gain control of the House or the Senate. Either one would allow them to block Trump’s policies and look into his business dealings.

  • The House: Because of gerrymandering, Democrats will need 5 to 6 million more votes than Republicans to gain control of the House. A huge Democratic turnout would put them over the top.
  • The Senate: The Republicans barely control the Senate, but of the 35 senators up for re-election, 25 are Democrats and 10 of those are in red states (states that Trump won in 2016). So control of the Senate looks unlikely, unless the Blue Wave turns into a Blue Tsunami.

Red Wave: If Republicans keep control of Congress then their faith in (or fear of) Trump will be confirmed. Anything that comes out of Robert Mueller’s Russiagate investigation will be dismissed. It would mean at least two more years of Crazytown – if not six. It will help to normalize Trump – he will become “what America is.”

Impeachment: For Congress to remove the president it requires a majority of the House and two-thirds of the Senate. A crushing Republican defeat might make that possible – not because Democrats would gain enough seats outright (even if they won every Senate race they still would not have enough), but because enough Republicans will start to see Trump as a threat to their political futures and work to remove him. Mueller’s findings, if damning enough, could give them a face-saving way to do that.

Russia: As in 2016, there is no reason to believe that Russia will not be using its hackers, trolls, and bots to help President Trump, who seems to be a Russian puppet.

Advice:

  1. Vote! Trump won because many sat at home while White Evangelical Protestants came out in droves. Elections are won or lost on turnout, not opinion polls. If voting did not matter, Republicans would not be trying to suppress Black, Latino, and Millennial votes.
  2. Stick to news sources you trust. Understand that some amount of what you see on the Internet is probably fake Russian propaganda, even if it seems to be coming from a Black person.

– Abagond, 2018.

See also:

534

Posted in stuff | 30 Comments »

Irene Cara: Flashdance … What a Feeling

Sun Sep 16th 2018 by abagond

Remarks:

This was the #1 song of the year worldwide in 1983. It hit #1 on pop charts throughout the Anglosphere except for Britain, where it “only” made it to #2. The video shows scenes from “Flashdance” (1983), a US film starring Jennifer Beals. Like with “Home”, it is hard for me to separate the song from the film it came from, so I do not know how the song seems on its own.

The music was written by Italian composer Giorgio Moroder. He appeared in this space before as the composer of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” (1977). He produced most of her disco hits.

See also:

Lyrics: the radio version:

First when there’s nothing
But a slow glowing dream
That your fear seems to hide
Deep inside your mind

All alone, I have cried
Silent tears full of pride
In a world made of steel
Made of stone

Well, I hear the music
Close my eyes, feel the rhythm
Wrap around, take a hold of my heart

What a feeling
Being’s believing
I can have it all
Now I’m dancing for my life

Take your passion
And make it happen
Pictures come alive
You can dance right through your life

Now I hear the music
Close my eyes, I am rhythm
In a flash, it takes hold of my heart

What a feeling, being’s believing
I can have it all
Now I’m dancing for my life

Take your passion
And make it happen
Pictures come alive
Now I’m dancing through my life

What a feeling

What a feeling (I am music now)
Being’s believing (I am rhythm now)
Pictures come alive
You can dance right through your life

What a feeling (I can really have it all)
What a feeling
(Pictures come alive when I call)
I can have it all (I can really have it all)

Have it all (pictures come alive when I call)
(Call, call ,call, call, what a feeling)
I can have it all (being’s believing)
Being’s believing (take your passion)
(Make it happen) Make it happen
(What a feeling) What a feeling

Source: AZ Lyrics.

 

Posted in stuff | 4 Comments »

Ralph Elrod

Fri Sep 14th 2018 by abagond

Ralph Stanley Elrod Jr. (1959- ), a White American electrician in Georgia, shot dozens of rounds at police officers, killing two of them – but was still taken alive. And, instead of getting the death penalty, he got life in prison.

His guns: Elrod likes guns. He did not have an “arsenal”, but he had at least a Glock 43 pistol, an AR-15 rifle, and his beloved 12-gauge shotgun. He has military training, having served in the Navy. He is hot-headed and when he is angry he has a history of threatening people with a gun: his wife, his parents, his neighbours.

He has been arrested and put in jail before, but not for that, but on a rape charge in 1994 (he was later acquitted).

His neighbours: In 2016 he lived just outside of Byron, a town in the middle of Georgia just off of I-75. He did not get along with his (Black) neighbours and was thinking of moving. He has tried to get them in trouble with the authorities. He blames them for two of his trees dying.

On Sunday November 6th 2016, two of the neighbours’ nephews were driving a dirt bike and four-wheeler and, as he put it, “popping wheelies up and down my road.”

A little after 4.00pm he calls the police on them. When the police arrive they cannot find him and leave.

At 5.00pm he is standing at the end of his driveway with a shotgun. He tells the nephews:

“You can’t run this (expletive, expletive) up and down … (in front of) my house. I’m gonna kill your (expletive) ass!”

One of the nephews caught that on video.

His neighbours call the police and show them the video.

Officers Daryl Smallwood and Patrick Sondron (pictured above) meet Elrod in his driveway and tell him he is under arrest for making a death threat. When Officer Sondron places his hand on him, Elrod whips out his Glock and guns them both down in three seconds flat. Smallwood got off a shot but missed.

Elrod goes inside to put on his bulletproof vest and get his AR-15. He leaves a voicemail for his son, a police officer in nearby Jones County:

“Hey, Jarrod, this is my last day on this planet. I’ve just killed two police officers from Peach County. I’m sorry, son. But, uh, this is probably it for me. Love you. Bye.”

More police drive up. There is a Thin Blue Line sticker on his mailbox.

Elrod on dashcam video.

Elrod starts shooting at them too! In the shoot-out he gets hit only once, in the side, but a bit later it makes him give up. They take him alive.

The next day at the hospital he confesses to the whole thing – but cannot say why he did it. He is pro-police and pro-military and never dreamed he would ever be shooting at the police. But before he knew what he was doing, two police officers were lying in his driveway dying.

Last week he got life without parole in a plea deal.

– Abagond, 2018.

See also:

550

Posted in stuff | 8 Comments »

Welcome to Hispanic Heritage Month 2018

Wed Sep 12th 2018 by abagond

Amara La Negra (via NPR)

Welcome to Hispanic Heritage Month, which in the US runs from September 15th to October 15th. On this blog it generally runs till October 31st. During this month (and a half) I try to do some posts having to do with Latin America, especially Latin Americans in the US.

Some post ideas (with the number of those requesting it):

  • 3 Afro-Hispanics
  • 3 Puerto Rico and race
  • 2 Moors
  • 2 Puerto Rico
  • 2 El Salvador
  • 2 Dominican Americans
  • 2 Dum diversas
  • 2 Cape Verde
  • 2 Bolsonaro
  • 2 Afro-Argentinians
  • 1 citizenship fraud
  • 1 chocolate
  • 1 Steve Canals
  • 1 Santeria
  • 1 Sammy Sosa
  • 1 Oscar Romero
  • 1 Olmecs
  • 1 Nestle
  • 1 Mj Rodriguez
  • 1 Maria of “Sesame Street”
  • 1 Mexifornia
  • 1 Mexican American deportations, 1848 to 2018
  • 1 Mendez v Westminster
  • 1 Mayans
  • 1 Mayan calendar
  • 1 Day of the Dead
  • 1 Columbian Exchange
  • 1 Coco
  • 1 Caroline P Cook: Forbidden Passages
  • 1 Bartolome de Las Casas

Musical suggestions:

  • 2 Hector Lavoe: Aquanile
  • 2 Celia Cruz
  • 1 Hector Lavoe: Todo Tiene Su Final
  • 1 Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz: Lo Atara La Arache
  • You might also like Gabriel Palatchi, Pistolera, San Lazaro (band of South American immigrants in Australia on HopeStreet Records), Buyepongo, Eljuri, Boogat, Todos Tus Muertos (Argentine reggae), Troker, Los Aguas Aguas, ChocQuibTown, Grupo Fantasma, Mariachi Flor de Toloache, La Santa Cecilia, Spanglish Fly, El Chicano, Mala Rodriguez, and Quitapenas.
  • From Remezcla: La Lupe (Cuba, Latin Soul), Jenni Rivera (California, ranchera), Tati Quebra-Barraco (Brazil, carioca funk), Yma Sumac (Peru, exotica), Jessy Bulbo (Mexico, punk), Lisa M (Puerto Rico, hip hop), Gloria Estefen (Cuba/Florida, Latin pop), Ivy Queen (Puerto Rico, reggaeton), Venus X (New York, club music), Alaska (Mexico/Spain, new wave), Trina (Florida, rap), Fefita la Grande (DR, merengue), Elza Soares (Brazil, samba), Chavela Vargas (Costa Rico/Mexico, ranchera), Mercedes Sosa (Argentina, nueva cancion), Aridia Ventura (DR, bachata), Selena (Texas, Tejano).

The posts I have done so far:

Suggestions are welcome, especially musical ones! Otherwise “De Colores” is going to be ringing in my head the whole time.

– Abagond, 2018.

See also:

 

Posted in stuff | 14 Comments »

Botham Jean

Tue Sep 11th 2018 by abagond

Botham Shem Jean (1991-2018) was an unarmed Black man killed in Dallas, Texas by an off-duty White police officer on September 6th 2018. The officer, Amber Guyger, entered his apartment and shot him dead. She says she thought it was her flat, that he was a burglar.

She says: She came home after working 15 hours and was still in uniform. When she tried to unlock the door it was partly open. She came in, saw a looming figure in the dark and gave “verbal commands”. When the figure did not obey, she shot two times. Only when she turned on the lights did she see that it was not her apartment. (The next-door neighbour did not hear any “verbal commands”.)

He says: …

Jean had a red welcome mat in front of his door – one of the few doors with any kind of welcome mat. People who knew him said he was “meticulous” and was not the sort to leave the door partly open.

One witness heard Guyger saying, “Let me in! Let me in!”

Jean was by all accounts a wonderful man, a devout Christian with a degree in accounting and a smile for everyone. He worked for PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

The mayor of Dallas, Mike Rawlings, called him “a model citizen”.

The prime minister of St Lucia, where Jean is from, had to fight back tears of anger.

Benjamin Crump, who was a lawyer for Trayvon Martin’s and Michael Brown’s family and now for Jean’s family, said:

“Black people in America have been killed by police in some of the most unbelievable manners. You know, driving while black in our cars, black people have been killed walking while black in our neighbourhoods, and now here we are being killed living while black in our apartments.”

The press swallowed Guyger’s “wrong apartment” story with that sickening childlike trust of theirs for the police. But at least we know he did not have a police record because they would have quickly pointed that out. Anything to excuse police brutality.

The Texas Rangers, the state police, are investigating the crime. They are independent of the Dallas police, so that seems promising, but it took them three days to arrest Guyger – and only after protests and a heated exchange with the district attorney. And they booked her not in Dallas County, where she lives and where the crime took place, but in neighbouring Kaufman County. They charged her with manslaughter.

The Dallas police department put her on paid leave – even though she was off duty. She has been with them four years. She shot Uvaldo Perez in 2017.

The police union seems to be backing her: she had no trouble making her $300,000 bail.

The district attorney, Faith Johnson, does not seem to be bending over backwards for Guyger. Johnson is a Black Republican appointed by the governor in 2016 and faces an election in two months (November 6th 2018). She is carrying out her own investigation and will take it before a grand jury to possibly seek a charge of murder.

– Abagond, 2018.

Update (September 14th): The police and the press have begun to assassinate his character. Shortly after his funeral the press reported that the police found 10.4 grams of marijuana at his apartment. If the shooting was just a tragic accident as Guyger claims, then why are they doing this?    

Update (September 24th): Officer Guyger has been fired! The police chief said she did not do it sooner during the investigation because it could have affected the criminal case against Guyger. 

Update (November 30th): A grand jury has charged Amber Guyger with murder!!! Of course, that is still a long ways away from finding her guilty and putting her in prison. But a step in the right direction.

Update (October 2nd 2019): Amber Guyger was found guilty of murder (!!!!!) and got 10 years in prison with a chance of parole after five.

Sources: mainly Google Images, BBC, Heavy, The Grio.

See also:

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Stevie Wonder: Send One Your Love

Sun Sep 9th 2018 by abagond

Remarks:

This is one of my favourite Stevie Wonder songs. It came out in 1979 and went to #5 on the US R&B chart. I know it might be too schmaltzy for some. Stevie Wonder knew it too  – listen to the lyrics.

See also:

Lyrics:

Send her your love
With a dozen roses
Make sure that she knows it
With a flower from your heartShow him your love
Don’t hold back your feelings
You don’t need a reason
When it’s straight from the heart

I’ve heard so many say that the days of romance are no more
And people falling in love is so old fashioned
But waiting are they the day they once let slip away
Hiding need to fulfill their heart’s desire for love’s passion

Send her your love
With a dozen roses
Make sure that she knows it
With a flower from your heart

Show him your love
Don’t hold back your feelings
You don’t need a reason
When it’s straight from the heart

I know that people say two hearts beating as one is unreal
And can only happen in make believe stories
But so blind they all must be that they cannot believe what they see
For around us are miracles of love’s glory

Show him your love
Don’t hold back your feelings
You don’t need a reason
When it’s straight from the heart

Source: AZ Lyrics.

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North America: a brief history

Fri Sep 7th 2018 by abagond

North America circa -11,000.

North America circa +2000. (Marathon, Texas)

North American history in 500 words or less, from the first known humans to this blog post:

  • -13,000:
    • Palaeo-Indians in Wisconsin (by -12,500), Florida (-12,400), Oregon (-12,350), etc. The Bering Land Bridge was open but Canada was still a solid sheet of ice. The first Palaeo-Indians probably came down the Pacific coast hunting seals.
  • -12,000:
    • The ice age is ending: as the glaciers melt an ice-free corridor opens up in Canada allowing Siberian hunters to follow mammoths into North America.
  • -11,000:
    • Mammoth hunters at their height. Clovis spear points appear from coast to coast. Mammoths are dying out. Trees spread. Naia dies in Mexico (-10,800), the Anzick child in Montana (-10,600). We have their DNA! Both belong to Haplogroup D from Siberia. Shamans.
  • -10,000: dogs
  • -9000:
    • The Plains become a sea of grass with bison. Native Americans hunt them on foot with spears: there are no horses and the bow and arrow is still 9,000 years in the future!
  • -8000:
    • Shoes: the world’s oldest shoe is made in Oregon. Haplogroup X of western Eurasia has arrived!
  • -7000: 
    • The first Manhattanites.
  • -6000:
    • Horses die out. The Red Paint People.
  • -5000:
    • Settling down: houses and graveyards begin to appear in the archaeological record. Maize and maybe cassava are grown by this time.
  • -4000:
    • The Three Sisters: maize, beans, squash; turkeys raised, popcorn.
    • The Mayan Long Count begins on August 11th -3114.
  • -3000:
    • Pottery appears.
  • -2000:
    • Meso-American civilization. Olmec heads, villages, chiefdoms, chocolate, tobacco, rubber balls.
    • Eastern Agricultural Complex: chestnuts, hickory nuts, marshelder, knotweed, sunflowers, maygrass, little barley, and squash (Cucurbita pepo). The Three Sisters will not arrive in eastern North America till after -200 and not grow well till +800.
  • -1000:
  • +1:
    • Mayans at their height, Teotihuacan, Toltecs, bow and arrow, Vikings.
  • +1000:
  • +2000:

Maize: The Olmecs, Mayans, Mound Builders, and Anglo Americans all built their civilizations on maize (corn). Anglo American maize came from Mound Builder maize, which probably came from Zapotec or Mayan maize, which in turn came from Olmec maize. It was not till the Olmecs got the yield up to 0.2 tons per hectare in -1500 that civilization became possible.

The last 500 years are way better known than the other 14,500, of course, but to keep it consistent I stuck to things that should be archaeologically knowable in the far future.

A huge hole in my education (and this post): Arctic history.

– Abagond, +2018 (Mayan Long Count 13.0.5.14.6).

See also:

565

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Palaeo-Indians

Wed Sep 5th 2018 by abagond

Palaeo-Indian skull on left, a Native American skull on right. Both are from Texas but some 11,000 years apart in time.

Palaeo-Indians (fl. -13,000 to -10,000), also called Paleo-Americans, discovered America. According to Western science they were in Oregon by -12,350 and Chile by -12,250. That was well before Columbus, who arrived in the Bahamas in +1492.

Follow the mammoths: Before 1997 scientists believed that people first arrived in America in the -11,000s when an all-land, ice-free corridor opened up between Siberia and the heart of North America. It was towards the end of the last ice age, a time when sea levels were still low enough that the shallow Bering Sea was Beringia, a land bridge between Alaska and Siberia, and when Canada was no longer a solid sheet of ice. Presumably big-game hunters in Siberia followed the mammoths into North America.

North America circa -11,000. Notice the ice-free corridor coming through western Canada. The yellow dots are Clovis sites (see below). (From linnbenton.edu)

Clovis technology: In the -10,000s there were spear points from coast to coast in North America, all done in the same style, called Clovis spear points (pictured). This was when mammoth hunting was at its height. And when mammoths were dying out, along with horses and camels, whether from over-hunting, climate change, or the spread of trees as the ice age ended.

The Anzick child lived in Montana during this time, in about -10,600. In +2014 he became the earliest-living American to have his whole genome read. It showed that his people did in fact come from Asia, as suspected, and in time became present-day Native Americans. That last part is important because some Palaeo-Indian skulls do not look particularly Native American (pictured at top). Some even seem Australian, African or European.

1997: In 1997 scientists discovered that there were people living in Monte Verde, Chile by -12,250. That was back when Canada was still a solid sheet of ice! In the -12,000s, as it turned out, there were Palaeo-Indians all along the Pacific and Atlantic coast and as far inland as Wisconsin. They may have been living in Texas as early as -13,500.

Follow the seals: It is unclear why the Palaeo-Indians needed to be coddled with a land bridge. After all, there were already people in Australia and they did not need one. By -23,000 there were people in Japan with boats. Along the Pacific coast, from Japan all the way to Chile, the kelp highway had more than enough fish, seals and habitable coastline for humans to spread into the Americas. No land bridge or parting of the glaciers were required.

Follow the genes: According to mitochondrial DNA, which is passed only through the mother, there are five haplogroups of present-day Native Americans: A, B, C, D, and X. With mitochondrial DNA you can see how humans have moved through time and space:

  • By -18,000 A, C, D had left the part of Siberia just north of Mongolia. They fit the mammoth hunters of the -11,000s. The Anzick child was a D.
  • By -13,000 B had left the coast of China and South East Asia. They fit the seal hunters of the -12,000s.
  • By -8,000 X had left western Eurasia.

Haplogroup X may have crossed the Atlantic – the Solutrean hypothesis – but more likely they travelled east across northern Eurasia.

Coming to America – possible routes at the end of the last ice age.

The strange distribution of Haplogroup X. Makes you almost believe in Atlantis!

– Abagond, 2018.

Sources: Mainly Google Images; “Tracking the First Americans” by Glenn Hodges in National Geographic (January 2015); “Mapping Human History” (2002) by Steve Olson. 

See also:

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firehose of falsehood

Mon Sep 3rd 2018 by abagond

The firehose of falsehood (2014- ), or firehosing, is where you seek to persuade – or at least confuse – through quantity not quality of fact and argument. It is used by the Russian government, Russian trolls, and US President Donald Trump.

It has four features:

  1. High-volume and multichannel
  2. Rapid, continuous, and repetitive
  3. Lacks commitment to objective reality
  4. Lacks commitment to consistency.

Trump’s use of Twitter follows this model except, of course, for the multichannel part. There is method to his madness.

Studies show that people will more likely believe a fact, a story or an argument based on:

  • High-volume: The more often they hear it (how advertising works).
  • Multichannel: The more sources they hear it from.
  • Rapid: If it is the first thing they hear (everything after will be judged by it).
  • Confirmation bias: If it fits what they already believe or want to believe.
  • Emotion: If it makes them feel strong emotion (anger, fear, pity, etc).
  • Evidence: If it is backed up by evidence, even made-up evidence (because most people will not check).
  • Experts: If it is presented by an expert or just someone who claims to be an expert (because most people will not check).
  • Demographic: If it is presented by someone who is like the target audience (or seems to be, like Russian trolls posing as Americans).
  • Format: If it is presented on what looks like a news website or news show on television (a trick used by RT and Fox News).

and, most chillingly:

  • People will judge the truth of something more by how often they heard it than by where they heard it from – or whether it was proved true or false.

So it is not necessary to be right, to have a “commitment to objective reality”. What matters is getting your message out first and hammering it home as often as possible, in as many ways as possible, from as many sources as possible, with people who seem to be like your target audience (thus Abby Martin). Even if you have to make stuff up or lie. Or especially if you have to make stuff up or lie.

Quantity matters more than quality, repetition more than truth. Or as a RAND study put it:

“don’t expect to counter the firehose of falsehood with the squirt gun of truth.”

RAND recommends raincoats.

Quantity matters so much that five bad arguments can often beat one good one, especially if the five arguments come from five different sources. Even those who find out which were the bad arguments will in time forget which was which, so the five bad arguments can still win in the end (unless it is a subject they care deeply about).

Being first matters more than being right. RAND:

“But while credible and professional journalists are still checking their facts, the Russian firehose of falsehood is already flowing: It takes less time to make up facts than it does to verify them.”

Firehosing works best when your audience is overloaded with information, like on the Internet.

– Abagond, 2018.

Sources: Google Images, RAND (PDF, 2016), Vox (YouTube video, 2018). 

See also:

544

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Curtis Mayfield: Pusherman

Sun Sep 2nd 2018 by abagond

Remarks:

This song about a drug dealer is from his soundtrack for “Super Fly” (1972), a classic Blaxpoitation film. The album itself is a classic.

It was one of the first songs on the radio to use the N-word, though it was never released as a single and never charted. I have referred to the song twice on this blog so far (in Yemen and Super Size Me).

The video is from “Soul Train”, probably from January 6th 1973.

See also:

Lyrics:

I’m your mama, I’m your daddy
I’m that nigga in the alley
I’m your doctor, when in need
Want some coke, have some weed
You know me, I’m your friend
Your main boy, thick and thin
I’m your pusherman
I’m your pusherman

Ha ha

Ain’t I clean, bad machine
Super cool, super mean
Feelin’ good, for the man
Superfly, here I stand
Secret stash, heavy bread
Baddest bitches, in the bed

I’m your pusherman
I’m your pusherman
I’m your pusherman

Solid life, of crime
A man of odd circumstance
A victim of ghetto demands
Feed me money for [style]
And I’ll let you trip for a while
Insecure from the past
How long can a good thing last?
Woohoo, no
Got to be mellow, y’all
Gotta be mellow now
Pusherman gettin’ mellow y’all

Heavy mind, have you signed?
Makin’ money all the time
My instructs me
For all junkies to see
Ghetto prince is my thing
Makin’ love’s how I swing
I’m your pusherman
I’m your pusherman

Too bad, [splee]
For a generous fee
Make you world what
you want it to be
Got a woman I love desperately
Wanna give her something better than me
Been told I can’t be nothin’ else
Just a hustler in spite of myself
I know I can rake it
This life just don’t make it
Lord, lord
Got to get mellow now
Gotta be mellow, y’all
Got to get mellow now

I’m your mama, I’m your daddy
I’m that nigga in the alley
I’m your doctor, when in need
Want some coke, have some weed
You know me, I’m your friend
Your main boy, thick and thin
I’m your pusherman
I’m your pusherman

Source: Songfacts.

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