Messages

...it's only fit that it brings back medieval tortures for no good reason

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/florida-wont-charge-prison-guards-who-boiled-schizophrenic-black-man-darren-rainey-to-death-9213190

On June 23, 2012, Darren Rainey, a schizophrenic man serving time for cocaine possession, was thrown into a prison shower at the Dade Correctional Institution. The water was turned up top 180 degrees — hot enough to steep tea or cook Ramen noodles.

As punishment, four corrections officers — John Fan Fan, Cornelius Thompson, Ronald Clarke and Edwina Williams — kept Rainey in that shower for two full hours. Rainey was heard screaming "Please take me out! I can't take it anymore!" and kicking the shower door. Inmates said prison guards laughed at Rainey and shouted "Is it hot enough?"

Rainey died inside that shower. He was found crumpled on the floor. When his body was pulled out, nurses said there were burns on 90 percent of his body. A nurse said his body temperature was too high to register with a thermometer. And his skin fell off at the touch.

But in an unconscionable decision, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle's office announced Friday that the four guards who oversaw what amounted to a medieval-era boiling will not be charged with a crime.

God damned fucking animal. What kind of sub-human fails so hard to even attempt justice. The DA's website says JUSTICE STARTS HERE next to this woman's FACE. What a god damned farce.

That Rachel Maddow flop couldn't even get the traction it surely deserved with the travel ban and budget going the way they have so far.

There is no shoving a fist directly through the judicial system, as far as I am aware. He can't fire everybody, as much as he'd like. More importantly, it makes him look incredibly weak, not due to a judge thwarting him, but that he can't do as he said he would.

And the budget is hilariously bad. The pharmaceutical industry is expected to see an increase in fees for FDA approval processes of $2 billion! He expects that pharma is going to just sit there and pay for that wall? Or pay that much for ANYTHING? That's just so stupidly short-sighted.

My last reading for African American Literature was "Black No More". It was incredible.

George Schuyler, the author, was a fascinating person. During his hey-day he was often referred to as "the Black Mencken" and he certainly exemplified what Mencken referred to as "the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos"

In the book, a doctor creates a procedure by which Black people can be transformed into White people. Skin, hair, and facial features are made White. It costs $50.

It is a satire with sci-fi aspects. It is easily one of the best sci-fi stories from the 30's I have ever read.

The main character seeks a White woman who spurned him, Helen. He goes through the process and after he find she is the daughter of the leader of what passes for the KKK, he becomes it's leader. You sort of have to be familiar with figures of the Harlem Renaissance to get all the brutal jabs he delivers to people like WEB Du Bois and Marcus Garvey.

What I love about Schuyler is, he pulls no punches, gives no fucks. A deeply principled contrarian and Discordian, IMO.

His solution to the race problems of America is miscegenation, which is amazing all by itself considering it was basically illegal.

Also, the book points out an often forgotten fact: few Americans have zero Black of Native American ancestry. The beginnings of this country was, uh, mingled. Can't wait to bring that up on FB some time soon.

So, after pointing out that padlocking an emergency exit without a code being provided to residents is kinda sorta against the law, three things have happened:

1) I had a perfunctory reply from the headmaster
2) I had a reply from my department manager chewing me a new one for not reporting the problem to my line manager in the first instance...the same line manager who had been here for 2 days with the issue present, and had not acted on it
3) Someone took down the sign I made next to the gate, giving residents the access code in the case of emergency.

Unfortunately for whatever idiot is involved in point 3, there is a camera looking directly at that spot, recording 24/7. And I have access to the stored video.

It seems like these people are working awfully hard to kill as many of the students as possible.

Conspiracy?

There certainly comes a point where avoiding having genuine values makes things easier. Nothing to get poked, nothing flawed that somebody can make a hilariously mocking meme.

I guess before I came to Discordia I was overly sincere, missing the other bit that allowed me to discern between things I liked or values I had and my WHOLE SELF.

Then, for a while, that constant lock-picking and deconstructing did get into almost all aspects of my life. To a point that's still true. I was born a Discordian, even when I was a newage idiot I never got along with any others. It's easier to see flaws in logic in others.

But you have to settle the minds constant tracking and hunting and find something with meat in it.

I was sort of apathetic politically until this last year. I just thought, "MEH, they're all the same." Now, even though I know there are flaws with it, I am very committed to doing my part in preserving the fabric of society. Mostly because of the concerted effort in the other direction.

Meaning to say: maybe living with constant irony crumbles in the face of actual danger.

Also, it's just nicer having things to care about. It creates a more fertile soil for the mind, I think.

Been working at 5-string banjo for a few years now and really feel like I am getting somewhere.

I can do basic claw-hammer just fine, it's really easy actually. Now, after much effort, I can just about sing and finger-pick at the same time, which is SUPER RAD.

People make fun of ukuleles, but 10 years of playing those dinky little things have translated into a baseline competency in other string instruments.

My brother plays a mean banjo.  Learned a lot of the old Appalachian songs, too, the ones with the weird tunings.

He was very into recommending the Earl Scruggs instruction books for people who wanted to learn [/borderline unsolicited advice]

Thanks! I didn't realize he had books. I will definitely check them out.

I have not yet learned the Scruggs method. For some reason my brain doesn't naturally take to it, like claw-hammer. So far, I have just been picking by ear. More accurately, there are a few songs that have been ricocheting around my head and speakers and I have been trying to pick them from memory.

The downside to this is I play the same two songs over and over and over. I learned a new one yesterday, which is such a wonderful break from the monotony.

Been working at 5-string banjo for a few years now and really feel like I am getting somewhere.

I can do basic claw-hammer just fine, it's really easy actually. Now, after much effort, I can just about sing and finger-pick at the same time, which is SUPER RAD.

People make fun of ukuleles, but 10 years of playing those dinky little things have translated into a baseline competency in other string instruments.

Hey new guy, maybe!

swiss cheese.  I mean of course, because who would build with holy materials.

Guys, guys, you're ignoring a major distinction between Trump and Hitler. Hitler was elected.

On that note, has anyone here seen my bike?

?

Shirt is pretty awesome but I reckon if the underneath wasn't a fucking yeti/viking it wouldn't have the same effect

I have the figure of a hungry chihuahua, maybe I should have a go with the same shirt for SCIENCE!

It seems The Conjure Man Dies was also an elegant deconstruction of different racial issues such as power acquired through Black people taking advantage of their own community, the exclusion of the working class, and the freedom that comes with bucking the dominant paradigm.

Who knew?!*













*Black people.

This whole train-wreck is sort of beautiful. I feel bad for the people who are suffering because of these clowns and deeply fear becoming one of them before long.

But dear sweet JESUS. I remember missing the fun parts of W, making fun of his little gaffs and crimes against humanity. Trump is like W on crystal meth and tequila enemas. It's only been a month!

I just finished reading The Conjure Man Dies, which is the first published detective novel written by a black man, Rudolph Fisher.

It's awful. It was written in 1932, so it is naturally rough since that genre hadn't quite had time to mature. It is certainly very interesting, especially from a cultural perspective. The plot itself is relatively interesting, if hackneyed and weird.

The problem with the book is shit like the scene where a woman is dancing in a club and the narrator points out that, "this young lady was proving beyond question the error of reserving legs for mere locomotion"

BLECH.

Fisher was a doctor, and his book reads like it. He uses way too many $10 dollar words where a $0.10 word will do, and he really likes to show off his keen intellect. It just comes off showboaty, especially for genre fiction. It was painful to read and I am glad I am done. Fisher might have gotten somewhere with a lot more time and effort, but he died from a botched stomach surgery two years after publishing.

I feel this way reading a lot of published journal articles from 40, 50 years ago. I'm like WHAT ARE YOU DOING WHERE ARE YOUR CONTROLS THIS ISN'T EVEN SCIENCE DAMMIT.

But, as painful as it is, there is value in reading pioneering work. Helps you know where your intellectual forbears were coming from.

Yeah, that's definitely why I took the class. I thought of all the often unnoticed Black roots of nearly all American art and realized there are probably a lot of literary roots as well that just don't get taught or talked about.