Rick Perry, and a place called "Niggerhead"

An in depth look at Racism in America. Some might find these photos a little bit much, but I say if the Jackboot fits...

Throckmorton County, where the hunting camp is located, was for years considered a virtual no-go zone for blacks because of old stories about the lynching of a black man there, locals said. The 1950 Census listed one black resident in Throckmorton County out of a population of about 3,600. In 1960, there were four; in 1970, two; in 1980, none. The 2010 Census shows 11 black residents.


Rick Perry’s family retreat was/is named “Niggerhead.” The Washington Post’s cover story is a distraction of course from more important issues such as a failing economy, Perry’s questionable record on jobs and the environment in Texas, and a far-Right leaning Republican presidential field that would combine Ayn Rand with the Christian Taliban. But a distraction can still be instructive and productive.


I would suggest that Rick Perry’s Niggerhead family retreat is important in so far as formative childhood and adult experiences impact political attitudes and beliefs. Rick Perry is from the Jim and Jane Crow South and has advocated for secession. He also panders to the Tea Party with all of their “take my America” pleadings and is part of a cultural movement that possesses an almost deranged hatred for the country’s first black President. Racism and Conservatism overlap in America; the Conservative political imagination yearns for a return to the “good old days” and is blinded by a myopic White nostalgia for the past.

Rick Perry grew up in a sundown town. As James Loewen exhaustively and masterfully documents, there were thousands of these communities across the country where blacks (and in some cases Jews, Mexicans and other non-whites) were not allowed to live, journey through, or be present in after dark. These towns were often created by racial violence and the wholesale ethnic cleansing of non-whites through murder, forced exile, rape, banishment, theft, and violence.


Rick Perry’s Niggerhead moment will be a short-lived blip on the news radar. Niggerhead will confirm what his detractors already believe about Rick Perry. Niggerhead will encourage his supporters to circle the wagons and double down their support because their “culture” is under assault. Unfortunately, Niggerhead will be a missed opportunity. This could be a teachable moment where White Americans could choose to look in the mirror and see the collective ugliness looking back at them. Whiteness, for most people in America, and indeed the world, was the face of terror. It was ugly and not beautiful.


Remember folks, there is a little Niggerhead in all of us…for some like Rick Perry, a good deal more than others.


In all, why should anyone be surprised that there is a Niggerhead skeleton in Rick Perry’s closet? Moreover, I would bet that there are many Niggerhead skeletons in many white folks’ closets in this country.

Adapted from http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2011/10/02/rick-perrys-newest-problem-his-fond-memories-of-niggerhead-and-growing-up-in-a-sundown-town/

George Carlin The American Dream speech

Because the owners, the owners of this country don't want that. I'm talking about the real owners now, the BIG owners! The Wealthy… the REAL owners! The big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions.


Forget the politicians. They are irrelevant. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice! You have OWNERS! They OWN YOU. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought, and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls.


They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying, lobbying, to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I'll tell you what they don’t want:


They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. Thats against their interests.


Thats right. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago. They don’t want that!


You know what they want? They want obedient workers. Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shitty jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they’re coming for your Social Security money. They want your retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street, and you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it all from you sooner or later cause they own this fucking place! Its a big club, and you ain’t in it! You, and I, are not in the big club.


By the way, its the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head with their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy. The table has tilted folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care! Good honest hard-working people; white collar, blue collar it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on. Good honest hard-working people continue, these are people of modest means, continue to elect these rich cock suckers who don’t give a fuck about you….they don’t give a fuck about you… they don’t give a FUCK about you.


They don’t care about you at all… at all… AT ALL. And nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. Thats what the owners count on. The fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick thats being jammed up their assholes everyday, because the owners of this country know the truth.


Its called the American Dream,because you have to be asleep to believe it.

Noam Chomsky on #Occupy Wall Street

#OCCUPY the Internet: Sign the Petition

#OccupytheInternet: Net Neutrality Is Under Attack -- Email Your Senators

Net Neutrality is under attack: Big Telecom is ramming a resolution through the Senate to undermine existing Net Neutrality regulations and ban the FCC from enacting protections in the future.


Will you urge your Senators to stand strong?

CLICK HERE

Koch Brothers' Business Dealings with Iran

Controversial Republican billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch -- who have spent untold millions bankrolling right-wing candidates and causes -- are now the subject of a new Bloomberg investigation that shows Koch Industries profited from business with Iran.


This is all despite American trade sanctions against Iran and the country’s known links to financing terrorists. House Republican Leadership’s response: Silence.


This is unacceptable. We can’t let this stand.


Sign our petition right now calling for Speaker Boehner and House Republicans to immediately demand an investigation of Koch Industries’ business dealings with Iran.

http://www.dccc.org/pages/kochbrothers

Cool Photo: Vintage Rollins Apple ad

Classy Girl Photo: R2D2 and me

Why everyone in America should support the #OCCUPY Movement

Like Chomsky reminds us 'Class' is the dirtiest word in the medias vocabulary and is almost never used... If the nation woke up to the fact that the Business class owns everything, the middle class scarcely exists and that 80+% of the nation is working class, people would be voting very differently...


Gavriel Discordia PsyIndustires as it is MOST of the nation mistakenly believe they are middle class because everything on tv is about the middle class perspective in news and sitcoms. Compare Good Times to Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for instance, apologies to Will Smith... So they are always trying to defend the rich under the assumption that they are preserving their own status! Hence the Tea Party...

SOURCE HERE

Not Such a Minority After All

It may seem like everything in this country is slipping towards theocracy. From the wacko presidential candidates that the right is fielding to the OTHER ongoing protests from the Westboro baptiste church, it seems to the average media consumer that everything is slipping to the Amen crowd.

Not so fast though. recent polls are showing that the faithless are on the rise, as in the largest growing "religious" demographic. Conservative poll numbers put the percentage of atheists in our country at 14%. One area where atheism is not accepted in our society is our Congress. Atheists have long argued that there are no serving atheists in our Congress. Enter Pete Stark.

Congressman Pete Stark a Democrat from California is the only admitted atheist in our Congress, but he is not alone. According to the Secular Coalition of America there are 27 other closet atheists in Congress. To all of you closeted rational Congressman, please come out. It would do much for the most discriminated minority in the nation if the esteemed members of our legislature would stand up and be counted, then get to work for the rest of us. - humanstruggle

Anarchists cannot be trusted

Disregard the 'Sock Puppet' Operatives and Useful Idiots posing as Anarchists. They are provocateurs trying to incite violence and disrupt the Occupy Movement. 'Class War' is something vile imposed on us by the Banking class, its is not ours. We are not participants in it, it is the mode of oppression inflicted upon us that we are trying to escape. -Gavriel Discordia

Pastor has gay sone beat up by church members

All i can say is 'God Damn!'

No one would be surprised to learn that there are right-wing Christians in this country who disapprove of homosexuality. Neither would it come as a surprise that in rural parts of this country, Christianity and homosexuality when brought together, can create a highly combustible mix.


But who could imagine the hate and rage that would motivate a Pastor to instruct deacons and members of his congregation, Grace Fellowship Church in Fruitland, TN. to physically attack a couple arriving in the church parking lot last Wednesday?


The fact that one of the gay men attacked happened to be the Pastor’s own son, Jerry Pittman, Jr., no doubt contributed to Pittman senior’s noxious edict. According to Pittman Jr., after hearing his Dad yell, “SICK’EM!:”


“My uncle and two other deacons came over to the car per my dad’s request. My uncle smashed me in the door as the other deacon knocked my boyfriend back so he couldn’t help me, punching him in his face and his chest. The other deacon came and hit me through my car window in my back.”




The attackers also verbally assaulted the couple continually with anti-gay verbiage which continued even after a Sheriff’s Deputy arrived on the scene. Bystanders and other congregants made no effort to stop the assault. For that matter, neither did the Deputy Sheriff. Once the barrage of punches ended, the Deputy refused to let the two victims press charges.

SOURCE LINK

Fox News Fails To Show Video Of Smart, Articulate Protester

It’s not exactly a state secret that Fox News is a bastion of right-wing propaganda and makes up facts on the fly in order to satisfy the agenda of Rupert Murdoch. But Fox News managed to “out fox” itself when it decided to NOT air video of a smart and articulate protestor who wasn’t wearing a bandanna or skinny jeans. Occupy Wall Street protester, Jesse LaGreca, was interviewed by a Fox News producer last Wednesday for a segment for Greta Van Susteren’s show. The only problem is that the segment never made it to the air.

SOURCE LINK

I'm proud to say I'm a Liberal - JFK

An open letter and warning from a former tea party movement adherent to the Occupy Wall Street movement

vaslittlecrow

I don't expect you to believe me. I want you to read this, take it with a grain of salt, and do the research yourself. You may not believe me, but I want your movement to succeed. From a former tea partier to you, young new rebels, there's some advice to prevent what happened to our now broken movement from happening to you. I don't agree with everything your movement does, but I sympathize with your cause and agree on our common enemy. You guys are very intelligent and I trust that you will take this in the spirit it is intended.

I wish I could believe this Occupy Wall Street was still about (r)Evolution, but so far, all I am seeing is a painful rehash of how the corporate-funded government turned the pre-Presidential election tea party movement into the joke it is now. We were anarchists and ultra-libertarians, but above all we were peaceful. So, the media tried painting us as racists. But when that didn't work they tried to goad us into violence. When that failed, they killed our movement with money and false kindness from the theocratic arm of the Republican party. That killed our popular support.

I am sharing these observations, so you guys know what's going on and can prevent the media from succeeding in painting you as violent slacker hippies rebelling without a cause, or from having the movement be hijacked by a bunch of corporatists seeking to twist the movement's original intentions. If you think this can't happen, it happened to the Independence Party and the tea party movement. Don't let it happen to your movement as well.

Here's how they turned our movement into a bunch of pro-corporate Republican party rebranding astroturf, and this is how I predict they are turning your movement into a bunch of pro-corporate Democratic party rebranding astroturf. I believe many of these things are already happening, so take note.

1- The media will initially and purposely avoid covering your dissenting movement to cause confusion about what your movement is about within mainstream audiences. This is to enrage you and make you appear unreasonable, and perhaps even invisible.

2- While the obsfuscation is happening, stooges will infiltrate and give superficial support, focus and financial backing to the targetted movement. In the tea party movement's case, it was the religious Republicans and Koch Brothers. In this case, it's the Public Sector Unions (the organizations as quasi-human entities, not the members themselves) and Ultra Rich liberals who pretend to care, but frankly do not serve liberators and freedom seekers but rather the interests of those who run the Public Sector Unions and the Democratic Party. Democrat, Republican, these parties are all part of the same corporate ruling system. Case in point: http://www.debates.org/

3-The media will cover the movement only after this infiltration succeeds. Once the infiltration is completed the MSM will manufacture public media antipathy towards the movement by using selective focus on the movement's most repulsive elements or infiltrators on the corporate Conservative media side, while the corporate Liberal media will create a more sympathetic tragic hero image -- this is the flip side of the tea party, but same media manipulation tactics. I go into greater detail on this tactic: http://vaslittlecrow.com/blog/2011/09/08/how-the-media-and-ideological-groups-manipulate-your-beliefs/

4- Someone in the Democratic Party will feign sympathy for the movement and falsely "non-partisan" entities provide tons of funding and unwanted organization, just as was done with the tea party movement by Republicans. Once people assume that the pro-corporate government operatives are their friends, they will hijack the movement and the threat of your movement will be neutralized.

If this new Occupy Wall Street movement is to survive, here's what needs to be done.

1- Loudly denounce violence and disavow the violent rabblerousers of the movement. They do not help the cause.

2- Be image conscious. Present your best face and call out those who act like fools within the movement. People are more likely to pay attention to you in your Sunday dress and bringing homemade food, than when you are drinking a bottle of Snapple and chomping on Big Macs while you are looking like a slacker rich hipster/unwashed hippie stereotype.

3- Accept that you've already been infiltrated by the corporate-funded government, and work hard to say, and state what your movement is and is not about. "No, this isn't about unions or Liberals, conservatives or bored spoiled brats. This is about 99% of our population being exploited and manipulated for the sake of profit." "No we will not resort to violence." "Yes, all we want is for for the end of government collusion with corporate entities that are illegitimately recognized as people." And, so forth...

4- Don't forget who you are as the illusions are thrown at you. Corporatists are masters of illusions. That's the most powerful weapon they have. That's how they sell products you don't need and convince you to justify accepting atrocities for the sake of products Don't fall for it. Otherwise, your cause will be lost. Be wary of large donations from special interest groups or non-profit corporations that were not involved this movement from the inception. Special interests groups are not your allies. Non-profit corporations are still corporations, and unfortunately, too many of them care more about donations than doing the right thing. Killing a movement with kindness is easy.

5- Remain independent and focused. If you can, pick a face to represent your movement. Rosa Parks wasn't just a random lady in a bus. http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/systems/agentsheets/New-Vista/bus-boycott/ -- She was chosen. You too can use the power of illusion against those who oppose you.

I wish your movement better luck than we had with the tea party movement before it got hijacked by the theocrats and corporatists. We used to be non-partisan too. We were the older version of you. But, I believe that as the media apparatchik and infiltrators start to twist your cause, you will understand the frustration us early adopter tea partiers felt and that we were not your enemy after all. A fascist oligarchy on the verge of winning is our common enemy. This should be your focus. Don't be dazzled by the illusion as we were. For the sake of our future, know who you are.

Thank you for reading. I would love to read your ideas on the subject. Correct me where I am wrong. Explain what is going right. This is ultimately your fight.

EDITS: To understand how movements get hijacked, check out this fantastic video that JamesCarlin shared: http://vimeo.com/20355767

If my essay seems too conspiratorial for your tastes, try Hibernator's excellent and much less paranoid sounding summary below:

"Someone starts a movement. It starts small, and there's a lot going on in the world, so the mainstream media gives it minimal coverage. Today's mainstream media is also understaffed, so they don't investigate and they wait for someone else to slap a label on it.

Eventually a sound byte X pops up above the noise and the mainstream media uses this to engage viewers and define the movement. This defining characteristic X spreads like a meme.

People in power now notice what's going on, and think to themselves "Hmm, this new movement is defined by X, and that's almost in line with my goals, so maybe I can use them to further my ends."

But people in power are all labelled as Democrats or Republicans, so now the media applies the polarizing filter of American politics to associate movement X with one of the parties.

The original movement has now been labelled X, and associated with a political party, and none of this happened because of any 'government conspiracy.' It just happened because that's what you get as output when you plug something new into the American political system."

Noam Chomsky on #OCCUPY Wall Street

"The Occupy Wall Street initiative and the efforts it has spawned throughout the country are among the rare really hopeful signs that we might find a way to escape very dark times, not just the criminality and thuggishness that Wall Street has come to exemplify, but also... the vicious cycle that has been gaining strength for over 30 years, undermining the prospects for decent life for the large majority while spectacular riches are pouring into very few pockets, and the remnants of real democracy are being shredded by highly concentrated wealth and power. Ominous times, and it will become worse if people just watch passively. What you are doing is an inspiration, and desperately needed." - Noam Chomsky