Underneath my yellow skin

Tag Archives: resistance

I’m just so tired

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I found the video that I mentioned in yesterday’s post–the one in which Rachel Maddow gave me a sliver of hope that we might be turning the corner. I’ll post it down below. Added note: The video has been taken down and the account that posted it terminated. So it was probably uploaded illegally. I don’nt think it was political, though; just a DMCA strike. Instead, here is another Rachel Maddow video. Just because.

As I told my K, though, it’s going to get way worse before it gets better. But, it does seem like the Democrats are finally putting their foot down. And a few Republicans are at least making quiet noises of discomfort.

But, my god. The boldfaced lying continues to astound me. I mean, it shouldn’t. That’s their M.O. Lie, deflect, and attack. But, as Rachel (gah, I have the hugest political crush on her) said in the video, when people can see that you are lying, it’s much harder to pull the wool over their eyes. And, again, yeah, the dedicated base will eat whatever Trump vomits up in their mouths without question. And they will ask for more. They’re beyond reach. forget about them. But again, there’s that vast swathe of the middle people who can be won over.

By the way, I have two things I must say.

The first is that while I personally am very uneasy about the proliferation of guns in America, we have an agreement that people are allowed to conceal and carry if they have a license. Alex Pretti had a license and was lawfully carrying his gun. The feds are claiming that he pulled his gun and that’s why they fired at him. But video has shown that 1. a federal agent took a gun, probably from him, and then walk away. 2. His hands were up. He had his cell in one to recorrd them and nothing in the other. 3. His last words were apparently to the woman he was trying to help up. It was shared that he shouted, “Don’t touch her!” and then asked , “Are you ok?” to the woman.

My point is that my personal feelings about guns aside, one of the biggest golden calves for the far right is the 2nd Amendment. Now, however, they (and the feds) are trying to spin it so that Alex Pretti carrying a gun was the impetus for a federal agent killing him.

Oh, hell no. Hell to the fuck no. They are the ones who worship at the feet of the god of guns, so fuck that noise .I mean, we all knew it was only for them because that’s how they treat everything, but it’s interesting how quickly the second amendment righters turn on a  dime when it suits them.

The second is the repeated emphasis on how both Rachel Macklin Good and Alex Pretti were natural-born American citizens.I know whey they are doing it (politicians and journalists, I mean), but it doesn’t make me feel good. Like, would it have been ok if they were immigrants? I know that’s not what anyone means by it, but that’s what it sounds like to me.


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Rise up; stand up; don’t back down

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I woke up to the news that there’s been another local shooting by ICE. Oh wait. It might not be ICE. It might be Border Patrol. At any rate, it’s federal assholes. This time, it was K messaging me. which meant I had to be angry, upset, depressed, enraged, heartbroken, and a whole mess of other complicated emotions upon waking. Once again, I’ve spent all day in a daze, avoiding the video and the pictures, but reading what happened to the young man. I’m numb, yes, but there’s a rage burning in my heart, and it’s only growing stronger. There was a sliver of hope after the peaceful economic blackout yesterday–and now? We’re back in the terribleness we were in two weeks ago.

Before I continue on my rant, I want to say yet again that while I’m not happy with the increase of filming in public in general, I’m beyond grateful that it’s a staple in all the protests. Because without the video footage from ordinary people, ICE, DHS, and all the other presidential shills would be able to spin the narrative much more readily. Lord knows they’re doing their best to do it, anyway, but with all the video footage of what actually happened, it’s a much harder task for them.

Oh, I know MAGA will believe whatever their dear leader tells them, no matter what he says. Even when he changes his mind two minutes later, they agree unthinkingly.

Side note to the side note: This is a drum I’ve been banging for decades to the Democrats. Fuck that group. No, serious. Fuck them. Write them off. You will never ever ever win them over. I’m talking about that thirty percent of the population (roughly twenty percent, that’s an ass number, of the voters) who are just gonna be the way they are.

Stop ppandering to them. Stop trying to lure them to the dark side. Just. Fucking. Let. Them. Go. The ones you want to try to win over are the moderates and the independents. Oh, and by the way, you’re losing me as well because I’m tired of being put dead last every year. And not even consciously–but just by omission. That’s more insulting than being deliberately ignored.

Here’s the thing. The Democrats are shitty at messaging. And, for decades, they’ve tried to define themselves as the ‘not-Republicans’. The Dems were always reacting and never being proactive. They’re too nerdy and wonky for the gen pop. one of the big reasons Obama won was beacuse he had a simple message that connected with a vast swathe of people. He saved his wonkiness for when he got elected, which was a smart move. Oh, and he mobilized the online youth like none other. He internet savvy, and he used that to his advantage.

Back to my post.


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My Thoughts on Punching a Nazi in the Face

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raise a fist of defiance!
Unite in the fight.

A few weeks ago, there was a video of Richard Spencer, a self-proclaimed white supremacist*, being interviewed on his views when someone comes up and cold-cocks him in the head. Many liberals gleefully passed it along on social media, crowing over this asshole getting his. Predictably, conservatives denounced the action, and even some liberals tsk-tsked, saying that violence was not the answer. A debate raged on Twitter whether it was OK to punch a Nazi in the face or not.

Around the same time, the story of two Dutch sisters who were part of the resistance as teenagers was also circulating around the interwebs. They were recruited to be part of the resistance because it was believed that no one would think teenage girls were part of the resistance. Truus and Freddie Oversteegen were 16 and 14 respectively when they joined the resistance. Can you imagine doing such a thing at that age? If they were caught, they would most certainly have been imprisoned or killed. Their family had been hiding Jews before this, and their mother readily agreed to let them join the resistance. Truus, the older girl, would flirt with Nazi collaborators and invite them for a stroll in the woods while Freddie, the younger sister, would keep an eye out on her sister. Once Truus and the collaborator went into the woods, one of men of the resistance would fabricate an excuse to shoo Truus away before shooting the Nazis. There was no push back to this story, and rightly so. These girls were very brave and heroes, and they should be remembered as such.

The thing is, though, we have the luxury of knowing the outcome to the second story. We know the Nazis were horrible people and did terrible things, so any story of ordinary people resisting them is something to be celebrated. However, I’m sure there were plenty of people at the time who would have been horrified and/or scared if they’d known. It’s not as clear in the moment what is the right or wrong thing to do. I bring it up because all the people right now who are saying violence is not the answer and that we should talk to white supremacists in hope of changing their minds probably would have been saying the same thing back then.
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