Striking New Comics by Stephanie McMillan and Ted Rall

(originally published Jan. 27th)

ITEM: Ted Rall has been arguing against nonviolence as a sole tactic in the struggle for a long time. I sort of fall off the wagon when he recommends that black folks should be the first to rise up in violence against the state. I, for one, think that New York cartoonists should be the first to take on the might of drones and local police and state police and national guardsmen and if that wouldn't be enough the US military. Then, and I say this as an unofficial spokesperson of the Black Community, we shall watch your results and act accordingly. (Just for the record: Anonymous hacking is the way to go.) I suppose he joins his sometime animation cohort Stephanie McMillan, who draws, arguably, the most radical comic strip I have ever read, in making the argument that nonviolence won't beat the Nazis, or the friendly (sometimes gorgeous) face of American Fascism as foretold by Bertram Gross.

Related: Here's a taste of Stephanie's newest. She's been critical of the Occupy Movement as of late even though she's been an early and vocal supporter. This is a familiar plotline for all you Doonesbury/Mary Worth fans. Our two characters are using arms attained by a German drug dealer in order to attack a corporation known as Omnicorp to stop them performing a geoengineering experiment. Just like South Park...

More Related: Derrick Jensen, also one of Stephanie's collaborators and most likely to be shipped to the FEMA camps (looks like those camps are real Jesse Ventura notwithstanding...), has articulated this view with the Environmentalist's version of Star Wars. Also: The Gandhi Shield. And: A different Indian hero.

           ITEM: I will not be writing about She Who Cannot Be Named today. Or as I call her: The Face of Terror.

You probably won't get arrested for wearing this on a t shirt I think...

ITEM: Sigh. Why hasn't my photoshop work turned me into an international art superstar...? Not fair... 

You can even buy the tshirt if you don't mind being arrested on public obscenity charges. Great for schools I'm sure...

61 in January...? Nothing to see here folks move along...

ITEM: Yeah. 61 degrees in January. Right. Thank goodness global warming isn't real...

Here's that video.

Or you could buy my photoshop art over at Cafe Press. Or not. Your call.

Or you could buy my art as a mousepad over at Cafe Press, which I haven't updated in over 10 years. Should probably do something about that...More art samples here. Nope I never sold any but people liked the work...

Stop SOPA. Stop PIPA.

     ITEM: No blackout for me because I just don't have that many readers where that will matter. But I will certainly support those efforts. I and 20 other people in the world love the Acid Jazz Channel apparently. There is no Acid Jazz Channel without Youtube. Youtube is probably dust if either SOPA or PIPA pass in their current forms. I'm going to do what I can as a citizen but we should all thank our lucky stars that powerful players  like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are on our side. Those lobbies are what's stopping SOPA and PIPA. Not the public good. Now if we could only get them to care about indefinite detention...Here's what you will find on Boing Boing's page today:

503: Service unavailable

Boing Boing is offline today, because the US Senate is considering legislation that would certainly kill us forever. The legislation is called the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), and would put us in legal jeopardy if we linked to a site anywhere online that had any links to copyright infringement.

This would unmake the Web, just as proposed in the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). We don't want that world. If you don't want it either, visit American Censorship.org for instructions on contacting your Senator. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has more information on this and other issues central to your freedom online.

Some late MLK commentary...

ITEM: I guess the above would be my commentary on MLK's birthday. Thanks to local activist Celeste Taylor for pointing this out to me on Facebook. My other commentary is that the drug war has pretty much destroyed The Dream, unless that dream is undermining public education and pushing as many black men as possible into the prison industrial complex. More on that issue over at Democracy Now. My African American president has done nothing to slow down the drug war and hasn't even made the easy call toward marijuana legalization. He could have made a difference with the California ballot initiative that would have legalized marijuana. Firedoglake's Jon Walker lays this all out. Barack Obama: Not a field negro.

More inappropriate yet legal talk about MHS PR Flak Connie McNamara (Public Figure)

I had two headlines in mind but they kind of didn't fit.

More possibly inappropriate but not illegal commentary about Milton Hershey School PR Flak Connie McNamara

or:

Let's not call this a MHS PR Flak Connie McNamara Obsession

ITEM: So I'm still thinking about this Connie McNamara MHS thing. You don't understand I used to sit in the woman's dorm room.* I think I sat on the floor as a clever psychological move to downplay the fact that I was a towering six five black guy. I think she was, what, 5 seven with heels...? Anyway, she described herself as being "mousy". And I thought, to myself certainly, well then "mousy is something I'm into apparently...". Now, when I watch her on these Youtube clips not only does she not seem "mousy" but she resonates, well, power. This is more in the line of a Game of Thrones Matriarch in Red. That might be the kind of power one emanates when one has great wealth. She might make low six figures in her current post and from other postings on the Internets one of her hobbies with her late husband was "refurbishing homes". Not the kind of hobby poor people can get into. Possibly a millionaire. Possibly making ends meet with three kids to feed even on a low six figure salary. Possibly looking at the rare occurrence of not having a job since she left college in 1985 (How many people can say that? Connie's emotional intelligence is off the charts...) since this somewhat tainted Zimmerman guy is leaving. Are they looking for a new team? I don't think I want to know...Or perhaps the power comes from something tragic. I did find out, not with any deep searches just the Google, that her husband died in 2006 leaving her with three children under the age of 10. I can't even imagine how painful that would be. Or what's tougher: telling your three young daughters that their father won't be coming home or facing off against Anderson Cooper? I have a feeling that if I survived the former that the latter would mean nothing...It would certainly make you stronger in a Nietzschean sense.

I also wanted to point out that when I mentioned that Connie, still a practicing Catholic from what I can tell and an early supporter of Liberation theology I'm just now beginning to surmise (our earliest conversations were about Archbishop Romero and the nuns that got slaughtered in El Salvador...) was "non abstinent and impulsive" as a young person in college I didn't mean that in a bad way.

(Aside: Connie was a serial monogamist like most Americans back during the years of 81 to 83. First with Curt the fiancé she didn't marry and then that black haired kid she saw Nikki Giovanni with when Curt was studying abroad and then Curt again when he got back...Doesn't make her a bad person. Words like "normal" and "healthy" come to mind.. I think the fiancé bit was a bit of rationalization, which means her Catholic upbringing had an effect on her...possibly more on this later...Must investigate. Hurm.)

I think that's the strongest part of her argument with Anderson Cooper on that show of his. Those words struck me as completely truthful and not talking points. Where I think she loses the argument is what kind of outside independent medical advice the board got or did they even seek it out. My guess is that they did not. This is where Connie admits that she wasn't in on those meetings with the medical staff, not independent of the board I'm guessing. The prevailing medical evidence seems to be that there just isn't that much of a risk of transmission. Though, after taking a look at the many many longshots that have happened at the Milton Hershey school such as in this particular instance perhaps the MHS board doesn't equate low percentages with no chance at all...and think of the damages if another child was infected. More on this later. Or I might wait another 30 years to comment more. Who knows.

Related: I signed this petition in favor of letting that kid in the school. Of course, in a strong and loving world this kid would have wonderful public schools to choose from with decent food and teacher/student ratios in the 16 to 1 range. He wouldn't have to be, what's the word, "adversarial" in order to get a decent education. The school has a wonderful shot because the board is full of republican operatives  and republican judges tend to be loyal. Plus they have an 8 billion dollar endowment. They'll get good lawyering. Just like when you're rich you can buy "reasonable doubt" you can probably also buy some kind of novel exception question that you can pitch to the appeals courts. Republicans tend to throw a lot of Hail Marys and they often win. The 2000 election being the most publicized outcome and this evil Texas redistricting plan being the latest late quarter throw to the endzone...the school should lose if the courts didn't tilt toward both Republicans and the rich. I guess we'll watch and see...

*These are my memories from the time I spent with Constance from 1981 through 1984 at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. I have not spoken to Connie in over 28 years although I think I sent her a letter back in 1992...no I don't know why. I'd like to say I was drunk but I don't drink...

Review of Spaceman 3 over at Comics Forge

ITEM: I review Spaceman 3 here. Here's a snippet:

"Scenes of third world poverty strewn amidst almost unlimited tech advances. It’s what makes the world of Spaceman 3 so compelling. And so depressingly realistic."

Late Nite Around the Internets

Just some things I liked on Facebook.

Two depressing stories about fracking. One: EPA abandon's PA town over destroyed water. The president is a democrat right? Two: fracking tied to local Pittsburgh quake. I saw the tremors.

 Truthdig invite to reasonably dissatisfied  New York Times reporters.

I am studying this Cory Doctorow video about The War Against Computation.

I will probably vote for Obama if the Justice Party doesn't get its act together. What choice have I got. I think these anti Romney ads are very effective.

Something I need to read: District 9 has supercharged African science fiction movies

GIF Animated Comic Book Covers

You can see all four of them here.

and one more:

Nov. 21

Occupy Pittsburgh Calls for International Solidarity Day Against BNY Mellon

Occupy Pittsburgh is calling for an International Solidarity and Action Day against BNY Mellon today. Or the kind of action that won't be widely reported in the corporate media we should guess. Occupy Pittsburgh has occupied the downtown public park, of which there is a dispute of how "public", of BNY Mellon for some several months now.

Here's the statement from the group:

Occupy Pittsburgh is calling out to the 99% around the world for a Day of International Solidarity and Action against BNY Mellon on January 10. This is the day we go before a judge to fight for our right to continue our nonviolent protest against the greed, corruption, and influence of the 1%. We ask that you stand with us and tell BNY Mellon, the bank of the 1% that you can’t evict an idea whose time has come!The People of Pittsburgh, like many others around the globe, answered the call to action that Occupy Wall Street put before the world on October 15th. Since then, we have peacefully rallied and occupied People’s Park, the space formerly known as Mellon Green. Pittsburgh’s is the only Occupation to reclaim land from a bank.BNY Mellon is now calling for Occupy Pittsburgh’s eviction. This is a blatant attempt by BNY Mellon to silence us and to prevent us from resisting the corruption by the 1% of our political and economic systems. In response, we have announced our own eviction of BNY Mellon from our city. BNY Mellon’s fraudulent and exploitative practices have denied its customers and its workers billions of dollars in wages and benefits. We are fighting to redefine the ethics of our economy and to resist corporate control of our cities, our spaces, our politics and our lives.The fight for People's Park is not just a fight over an encampment. It is a fight against the overwhelming dominance that corporations and markets exercise over the very conditions of existence. This fight is not about piece of land, but a fight against the 1% that hoards life’s resources, corrupt our democracy, silence free speech, and poison our planet !We have one response: You can’t evict an idea whose time has come!

There has been a legal attempt by BNY Mellon to remove the Occupy Pittsburgh protesters, who have winterized their occupation to the best of their ability and partly thanks to local groups and Firedoglake's Occupy Supply efforts. In fact, this reporter was there when various supplies were handed out at the camp several weeks ago. Just a personal observation: that is not the easiest kind of protesting that I have seen.

Occupy Pittsburgh also asks that if you're participating in today's action that you do these things as a show of support:

• Hold non-violent demonstrations against BNY Mellon around the world (the bank’s corporate headquarters is One Wall Street, New York City).  As a multinational banking institution BNY Mellon has offices around the globe including offices in; Boston, London, Moscow, Sydney, Cairo, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and many other population centers around the world

• Wear bandanas, Guy Fawkes masks, or similar coverings to express solidarity with the anonymous and amorphous “99%” in general and the 50 Jane Does and 50 John Does named in the lawsuit in particular. This, of course, is merely a suggestion subject to the comfort level of those involved;

• Engage in autonomous direct actions ***;

• Send mail supporting Occupy Pittsburgh to BNY Mellon’s Pittsburgh office (500 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15258) with the return address of #1 People’s Park, Pittsburgh PA 15219; and

• Temporarily change your addresses on Facebook and other web sites to #1 People’s Park, Pittsburgh PA 15219;

• If you would like assistance coordinating a traditional media presence or institutional turnout please email jan10@occupypittsburgh.org.

***Occupy Pittsburgh and our allies will not endorse, plan, or coordinate any unlawful or violent actions.

You can read the entire press release at Occupy Pittsburgh's website.

Review of Black Summer Over at Comics Forge

ITEM: Finally had a chance to praise Black Summer. Now on You Tube.