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And we’re all out of bubblegum.

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You are here: Home / Organizing & Resistance / Don't Agonize - Organize / Sunday Evening Open Thread: Nice Weekend for Some Protesting

Sunday Evening Open Thread: Nice Weekend for Some Protesting

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Since some of y’all were confused by yesterday’s post:

Even Insane Clown Posse couldn’t quite believe it.

“We’re the good guys here today,” Violent J, one half of the widely loathed face-painting “horrorcore” rap duo, told the fans, known as “Juggalos,” who had gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial. “We’re actually in the right this time!”

The Juggalos, so easy to make fun of, had a case: the feds were the real clowns. And for a surreal Washington afternoon, the colourful people of one of America’s most-mocked subcultures were being seen by powerful people as freedom fighters, weird makeup and all.

Profane freedom fighters, yes. Two of the Juggalos’ Saturday refrains of choice: “You f—ed up” and “F— that s—,” which they occasionally chanted in the direction of police helicopters, fingers extended skyward.

But this was the exception. They were so cheerful that some of them insisted on hugging journalists. And their favourite chant was a single upbeat word: “family.”

It was their response to the term the FBI insists describes them: gang…

Hundreds of Juggalos had assembled for the demonstration and march in protest of a curious six-year-old FBI decision to include the Juggalos in their official national gang list, alongside such indisputably dangerous entities as MS-13.

The gang classification, Juggalos said, had led employers to force them out of jobs, convinced judges to deny them custody of their kids, and subjected them to police harassment for their Insane Clown Posse tattoos. One Virginia woman, Jessica Bonometti, said she had been fired as a probation officer because of Facebook posts about the band…

Violent J and partner Shaggy 2 Dope cast the Juggalos as the defenders of Americans of all kinds, warning that the persecution of America’s “most hated people” would inevitably lead to the persecution of others. As usual, they railed against racism, homophobia and economic segregation…

Okay, the music (and the Faygo) aren’t to my taste, either. But neither is the Grateful Dead, and I wouldn’t want Deadheads classified as “gang members”, if only for Cole’s sake. And ICP’s heart is in the right place:

Meanwhile, same time same city…


If that’s my binary choice… gimme a bottle of the orange Faygo, it’s easier to wash out.

Reader Interactions

141Comments

  6. 6.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    I am a goddess. I installed a FYWP blog on my web site, kept the same URL, moved the former web site pages to side bar links, and installed Mail Chimp to allow people to sign up for a newsletter and get a free short stories.

    The downside is now I have to write twice monthly new blog posts, a monthly newsletter, and a short story.

    I deserve a glass of wine even if it’s early.

  7. 7.

    Patricia Kayden

    Millions of folks came out in the U.S. and around the world for the Women’s March which was anti-Trump and vastly outnumbered attendees of his inauguration. A few folks trot out for the pro-Trump march. Yet some in the media would have us believe that the country is evenly divided between Trump and anti-Trumpers. Makes you wonder why the MSM is so invested in normalizing Trump to the point that any time he behaves halfway decent, we have to hear about the so-called pivot or the “today he became President” nonsense.

  11. 11.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Baud: And you can tell that they’re real because the police is harassing the protesters with some being sheltered in a synagogue. I don’t recall the police harassing the White Supremacists who went around threatening people (and beating people and killing one person) in Charlottesville.

  19. 19.

    bcw

    Best tweet: “In DC today, there was a small protest by insane clown supporters and also a big group of juggalos. “

  23. 23.

    Patricia Kayden

    @schrodingers_cat: Hmmm. I wonder how that’s going to work out when Mueller drops his investigation. No matter how much the MSM is bought and paid for, they’ll have to report on Mueller’s findings which I expect won’t be favorable at all to Trump and his sycophants.

  25. 25.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    @Geeno: The glass is already empty but perhaps a second one will help. I’m also making spaghetti sauce so things are looking up.

    @Baud: Are you in moderation? I replied. Maybe that does it? You ae my first commenter.

    @schrodingers_cat: I had it as Yahoo Small Business. Then it became Aabaca, then Luminate, or possibly Luminate and the Aabaco.

    @trollhattan: I get a hit count on my web site and at the moment it registers 208, which shows you how many times I hit the site to try to do things.

    @Major Major Major Major: I tell myself there are always more words where the previous ones came from. I can spit out posts like a llama.

  26. 26.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    One must wonder what is going through the minds of these RW people that go to these “rallies” when so few show up. Do they ever think, “I’m a fucking loser.”, at any point?

  29. 29.

    gene108

    @Patricia Kayden:

    The media treats him like a toddler learning to potty train. When your 2 year old remembers to poop in the potty, you tell him good job.

    That’s basically how the media treats Trump. He remembered to do something that every President in modern history has done, without notice – like read a speech to a joint session of Congress, without calling Mexicans rapists – and we hear how “he became President” that night.

    Honestly, the media coddling of Trump really reminds me of how you praise little kids for doing something adults are expected to know how to do.

  31. 31.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @Patricia Kayden:

    And you can tell that they’re real because the police is harassing the protesters with some being sheltered in a synagogue. I don’t recall the police harassing the White Supremacists who went around threatening people (and beating people and killing one person) in Charlottesville

    That’s because the protesters are challenging the police’s “right” to get away with killing people, especially black people. Not entirely sure, but the protesters’ melanin content might have something to with that as well. Cops in general don’t how to respond when their authority is even questioned except by violence.

  33. 33.

    gene108

    @Patricia Kayden:

    There’s reporting and there’s hammering the point so god damn much, even the most news adverse person knows what the fuck is going on.

    The media can do the minimum and report on it once or maybe twice and call it a day. Political junkies, like us, will be all over it, but it would not seep into the consciousness of the larger public.

    Then there’s the Hillary e-mail server treatment or Whitewater, where even the most news adverse person makes the connotation “Trump-Russia Bad”.

    Edit: I think we’ll definitely see some reporting on it, but whether or not they will (1) beat the story into the greater consciousness and (2) whether it is possible to get over the right-wing noise machine, which will look to deflect all blame from Trump and drag Mueller through the mud is yet to be determined.

  36. 36.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @Baud:
    I think it’s hard to admit one’s worldview is fundamentally fucked.
    @Jeffro:
    Jeffro provides a great example of an (insane) rationalization they might have.

  40. 40.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @gene108:

    drag Mueller through the mud is yet to be determined.

    What could they possibly say about Mueller? Isn’t a big selling point for him being the special counsel that is a very serious, straight-laced, professional, individual?

  41. 41.

    geg6

    I am not a fan of ICP and not a big fan of the ICP fans I know (they are a bit too profane, scruffy and young for me). But the ones I know are pretty progressive, politically speaking. So strange because the MSM tells me that the downtrodden white working class male is almost forced into being a Trumpster due to the deep prejudices and mean attitude of liberals. They aren’t my buddies, but they are good people.

  43. 43.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    So via Cole’s twitter feed and a little googling, I see Fran Lebowitz called Wilmer “an annoying narcissistic old man” on the Maher show Friday night. I might just have to watch a rerun.

  48. 48.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    @geg6: Not a fan of ICP’s music either but they’ve been pretty harshly critical of Lost Cause ideology, white supremacy, misogyny, homophobia, and so on. They’re good folks, from what I can tell.

    @Steve in the ATL: Most of ’em. I’m in my mid-thirties and somehow got converted into one this year. I think it was the official release of the Barton Hall set that did it.

  49. 49.

    Patricia Kayden

    @gene108: Rikyrah also points out that the way the MSM treats Trump is based on White males being judged by a lower standard of conduct. Mind you, this standard only appears to apply to White Republican males.

  50. 50.

    Betty

    Letting you know that we in Dominica are preparing for a direct hit from Hurricane Maria as a Category 2. Effects expected to begin as early as late Monday. Positive thoughts appreciated.

  52. 52.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    @Betty: Good luck. Plus what Baud said.

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Maher can be annoying at times, he has some serious and egregious blind spots, and he has definite limitations as an interviewer, but his show still ends up being worth watching pretty often. (I liked his New Rules segment this week on liberal states’ rights, for example.) The Overtime segment is usually better than the actual show, because (from my understanding) the questions come from the audience, and the panel usually gets more of a chance to respond. I’ve never seen the panel format actually pulled off in a way that lives up to its full potential, but Overtime comes pretty close.

  53. 53.

    gbbalto

    @Betty: Best wishes and good luck to you and everybody in her path. The eastern Caribbean does not deserve 2 big hurricanes in a row.

  55. 55.

    Patricia Kayden

    @gene108: I don’t think it will be up to the MSM once Mueller’s investigation is complete to drive the story. If Mueller comes back with recommendations of criminal indictments and lays out all the ways in which Russia interfered with our election, Trump is done and may drag down the entire Republican party with him. I just don’t see how Trump gets to carry on as if nothing happened if Mueller drops the hammer on him and the MSM won’t be able to help him then without looking like propaganda. Keep in mind that the vast majority of Americans cannot stand Trump even now. It will only get worse once Mueller’s investigation is finished.

  57. 57.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Betty: ((Betty)) Sending warm thoughts your way. What a horrible year this has been for hurricanes. Never seen them come one after the other like this. Please stay safe.

  64. 64.

    raven

    @Baud: The local PBS starts with “Cavett’s Vietnam” which is really good, then Burns kicks in. I’m certainly going watch it but maybe not tonight. There were 17 Nam vets at my reunion last night and, of course, it was a topic of some conversation. One buddy told me that, overall, he is not sorry about his experiences but he didn’t let it define him. He has his 101st Abn tag on his truck, his CIB and the stuff on his dash board, organized the picture of the Vets so I wasn’t really sure what he meant by “define”?

  67. 67.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    My Louisville Cards got pummeled by Clemson last night. I’d predicted a 3 touchdown loss, but that turned out to be optimistic.

    We’re just not that good – we have Jackson, and that’s it. Nobody but him can hang on to a football, nobody can catch a football, the O-line is like a sieve and D is happy to cough up 4 yards per run.

    First Quarter was agony – between the obvious come my trajectory of the game AND the TV timeouts due to it being the ESPN GameDay extravaganza, the quarter took tlbearly an hour – being bad fans, we made a judgement call and punched out rather than getting home at 1:00 am, sad…

  68. 68.

    joel hanes

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):

    Welcome to the Real Name faction. I wish you’d been teaching technical writing at ISU when I did my undergrad work there in 1976-81; I agree with claim the reviews take from your book, that language is essential to engineering analysis. I’ve been out of Iowa for 36 years, but I’m going back in less than two years, because that’s where the heart lives.

  71. 71.

    raven

    @Baud: Burns was on Joe the other day and talked about how insane 68 was. I’m more interested in what people who were not around react. I’ve spent 50 years reading and trying to figure it out so I doubt if there will be anything factual I don’t know. How it is presented is what interests me, the fact that they say there is a strong representation of the Vietnamese perspective.

  73. 73.

    raven

    @debbie:

    “In the Middle East and Greece, the idiomatic expression “the mother of all —” has been used to describe the biggest, most extreme or ultimate examples of various things for more than two thousand years.” –thisdayinquotes.com – Mazur

  78. 78.

    lamh36

    Evening peeps!

    Been mostly ofline since Friday thanks to my sis making a surprise sleepover Friday night. She stayed until this evening.

    We talked, she slept, and I made her watch the first season of Luther (I think I got her hooked…LOL).

    Today we went to hang by my auntie house with Maddie and my cuz D and my great cousin D…

    Auntie cooked Smothered Okra & Seafood and cuz D cooked baked cheesy mac!

    Also spent some time with the nephew

    Anyway…here is the Smothered Okra auntie made!!

    https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/909538875256836097

  79. 79.

    efgoldman

    @Betty:

    we in Dominica are preparing for a direct hit from Hurricane Maria as a Category 2.

    Don’t expect a lot of serious damage, but NOAA has issued a tropical storm warning for Tuesday into Wednesday when Jose passes by Southern and Eastern new England.
    Of course, the fire department had to rescue six idiots off a jetty when they were trapped by high surf, in spite of specific warnings not to go out.

  81. 81.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    @debbie: Be my guest! Jackals liven up my life

    ETA: If any jackals click to get the newsletter, it’s supposed to pop up a message saying they sent you an email so you can confirm your request. But the button seems to stick and sometimes the message doesn’t show. I don’t know what to do about that one.

  83. 83.

    Mnemosyne

    I spent all of last week at a writing retreat and now I don’t want to go back to work tomorrow. Bleah.

    I did go to my RWA meeting and spent a lot of time talking to one of the newish members. I’m very embarrassed that I can remember everything we talked about except her name. Oh well. It sounds like she’ll be at the October meeting, so I’ll ask her then.

  84. 84.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Cassidy-Graham

    Ben Wikler‏Verified account @ benwikler 3h3 hours ago
    McConnell “engaged and serious.” White House “all hands on deck.” Rs whipping votes this week, already at 49.

  85. 85.

    Suzanne

    I am going to be in DC next weekend for a conference, so I am dyeing my roots so that I do not embarrass myself. I am also sitting here with a clay mask on my face, because it is totally fair to have acne and gray hair simultaneously.

    Spawn the Elder is going to homecoming with a girl from her Spanish class, so we took her out last night to get her a dress for the dance. I love the dress she got. The dance is while I’m at the conference and she’s at her dad’s, so I made her promise to send photos of herself with Gabi all prettied up.

  86. 86.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    We shall defend our island health insurance, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

    Churchill was a political asshole and a poor peacetime leader, but he was one hell of a writer.

  89. 89.

    Betty

    Thanks for the good wishes. It has been a heck of a year for storms. I just saw there is an Otis stirring things up out there. Sheesh!

  91. 91.

    Mike J

    Petrichor
    Baltimore
    Who’s your friend?

    The rains have started in Seattle. Now hearing fireworks, but that’s probably because of the Seahawks win.

  92. 92.

    boatboy_srq

    @debbie: Reminds me of a ST novel I read once. One of the characters was studying Classical Music: chief composers were Mozart, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Gershwin and Devo.

  93. 93.

    boatboy_srq

    @raven: There’s a small part of me that wants to unplug all of FL and not reconnect it until Thanksgiving. For safety reasons, natch.

  95. 95.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    First they came for the Juggalos and I said nothing cuz I knew how magnets work.

  99. 99.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Resurfacing after a family visit so my niece could play in a soccer tournament I had my dad, my brother, and my niece here. Nice visit.

  103. 103.

    Baud

    And GOS just posts this perfectly timed story.

    Now is the time to transition from Obamacare to single-payer Medicare for all

    Right-wing Republicans continue to talk about repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act while establishment Democrats remain invested in Obamacare, seemingly at all costs. Neither of these parties seems to understand the failed state of health care for millions of Americans, including some with employer-provided coverage.

  106. 106.

    Brachiator

    @schrodingers_cat:

    BTW, don’t know if you saw my reply to an earlier message:

    RE: I saw Imitiaz Ali’s Jab* We Met, yesterday it was a charming romantic comedy with great music. Hindi movies can do romance so much better than Hollywood can these days.

    Saw the trailer and an extended clip, and it looks like fun. Kareena Kapoor is very charismatic.

    Despite the success of LA LA Land, in the US, musicals are almost ancient relics of a bygone era, and romantic comedies are a hard sell, and don’t do well at the box office anymore.

    Also, I didn’t know that Kangana Ranaut stirred up so much controversy. I was looking at reviews of her latest film, Simran, and saw stories about conflicts with other stars, open discussion of affairs, etc. May be a lot of nonsense and gossip, but the publicity surrounding other Bollywood stars is usually benign pablum.

    Did you see the YouTube parody video, Bollywood Diva? Applies just as much to Hollywood.

  112. 112.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    I’m probably going burn for this
    Ain’t no lesson to learn from this
    There’s nothing left to earn
    But it’s sure is fun
    and it’s sure is fun
    and it’s sure is fun
    I hope they brought Funyons and condoms.

  113. 113.

    Brachiator

    @Patricia Kayden:

    If Mueller comes back with recommendations of criminal indictments and lays out all the ways in which Russia interfered with our election, Trump is done and may drag down the entire Republican party with him.

    Mueller must show serious Trump complicity, not just Russian interference, and even here, the Republicans must decide to act, which they won’t do.

    Nor will the voters punish the GOP. A good chunk don’t care. Another chunk would thank the Russians for giving America our Great Orange Hope.

    It’s funny. There is evidence that Russia is actively interfering in other countries’ elections, and yet here people are still babling “Well, I don’t know ..”

  117. 117.

    jay

    @debbie: why the heck not? A group of outcasts who came together around music they love. The bird school shouldn’t tell the frog school how to sing.

  123. 123.

    gene108

    @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:

    What could they possibly say about Mueller? Isn’t a big selling point for him being the special counsel that is a very serious, straight-laced, professional, individual?

    I don’t know, but right-wing media hysteria does not need to be grounded in reality. It just has to reinforce or create an idea that aligns with right-wing prejudices and beliefs.

    For example, a large chunk of conservatives believe Obama is a Kenyan born Muslim and John Kerry got a Purple Heart for cutting himself shaving.

    The right-wing media has been peddling the notions that the real traitors are the people leaking to the media*, the Deep State is trying to undermine Trump, and Democrats are pushing Trump-Russia because they lost.

    They just have to tie Mueller to whatever themes they have created to try and defend Trump. It doesn’t matter what the reality of Mueller’s ethics are or how independent he is.

    * A lot of Republicans in Congress, spent their Q&A time, earlier this year asking intelligence officials testifying before them about “leakers”, instead of Russian interference, so the right-wing media has already had some success in tilting things their way.

  124. 124.

    Matt McIrvin

    @efgoldman: I have conflicted feelings: based on the discussions I’ve read, the worse Jose is for us, the less likely it is that the (prospectively) far more powerful Maria smashes into some place on the East Coast, and vice versa.

  126. 126.

    Matt McIrvin

    (Worst ever for the Atlantic was 2005, the season of Katrina–they ran out of names and started into naming storms after Greek letters of the alphabet, with the last one being Tropical Storm Zeta that actually lasted several days into 2006.)

  129. 129.

    Millard Filmore

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I have helped 3 families in the Philippines pay off hospital bills that I, as a middle class white, could shrug off without any lifestyle impact. Without my help these families would impoverish themselves, their relatives, and any friends they can snare to clear off the bill.

    Lack of health insurance is a sure fire way to keep poor people poor.

  130. 130.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @Brachiator:

    Nor will the voters punish the GOP. A good chunk don’t care. Another chunk would thank the Russians for giving America our Great Orange Hope.

    Your doom and gloom isn’t very helpful. It isn’t over until it’s over. I’m sure Watergate looked as equally hopeless in 1973-74. This will take time. I can’t believe that the GOP is that craven as to think they can just brazen this out or the voters so inept that they won’t ever punish the GOP.

    Because if I do, then what is the point of any of this? Of voting and donating my money to causes if it means nothing? What’s the point of obeying my elected officials if they won’t obey the law and actually listen to me? Why should I and others allow them to continue to be in power if they won’t play fair with elections?

  132. 132.

    Brachiator

    @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:

    .Your doom and gloom isn’t very helpful. It isn’t over until it’s over.

    Not my job to be helpful or a cheerleader or to think happy thoughts. If I am wrong I will be ecstatic.

    I’m sure Watergate looked as equally hopeless in 1973-74.

    I don’t know. After a certain point, when things were clearly known, a certain momentum started to build. We will see what happens this time.

    Because if I do, then what is the point of any of this? Of voting and donating my money to causes if it means nothing? What’s the point of obeying my elected officials if they won’t obey the law and actually listen to me? Why should I and others allow them to continue to be in power if they won’t play fair with elections?.

    These are very good questions. And it may be a hopeful sign if more people ask them, and decide whether they want a democracy or this slow slide into a malignant, incompetent, venal Authoritarianism.

  136. 136.

    fuckwit

    @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: What??!! You can’t believe that the GOP is this craven?? What rock have you been hiding under for the last 40 years?

    Yes, Virigina, the “GOP” is this craven, and more so. That’s not even debatable at this point.

    What’s up for grabs is whether the American public can escape the ridiculous entertainment “narrative” of the useless media, and rise up and take back Democracy again.

    I think it’s a toss up. On good days, things like the Women’s March and the large number of formerly-apolitical people who are now suddently paying attention give me hope. However, on bad days, which outnumber good days as far as I can tell, I don’t see it happening.

  137. 137.

    jonas

    @Brachiator:

    A good chunk don’t care. Another chunk would thank the Russians for giving America our Great Orange Hope.

    That’s your 27% deadenders plus another 10% of IGMFY tax/regulation cutters. The rest of America might be a little more concerned. I hope.

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