Wednesday, 30 September 2020

NO MATTER WHAT

 I couldn't watch those two assholes yell at each other moronically for two hours last night .No matter who wins , the world loses . Fuck them and their fucked up "democracy" steamrolling over the people of the world despite their hollow rhetoric . Fuck capitalist imperialism and fuck the police.

Release the evidence and arrest killers of Breonna Taylor!

Sept. 28 – Protests erupted around the U.S. on Sept. 23 when the announcement first came down that no police officer would be charged in the murder of Breonna Taylor. She had been shot to death in her bed in Louisville, Ky., on March 13.  

These protests took place in the thousands over multiple days in both Louisville and New York City. 

In New York, an interstate and a bridge between Brooklyn and Manhattan were both shut down.

Outraged by grand jury ruling, protesters shut down I-64 in Louisville on Sept. 24.

In Louisville, demonstrators defied curfews and risked arrest as local police and the National Guard attempted to intimidate them with tear gas and swinging batons.  Among those arrested were state Rep. Attica Scott (D), the only Black woman state legislator in Kentucky, who is facing one felony count for “rioting” and two misdemeanor charges.  

Other protests took place in large and small cities, including Philadelphia, Seattle, St. Louis, Denver, Nashville, Oakland, Boston, Detroit, Eugene, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, and elsewhere.  Athletes and coaches expressed anger and frustration in the National Basketball Association and Women’s NBA playoff bubbles. All the teams in the WNBA have devoted their playoffs to Breonna Taylor.

The University of Louisville men’s basketball team led a protest on Sept. 25 in Louisville.  

The main political themes of these demonstrations, besides “Arrest the killers of Breonna Taylor,” were also “Abolish the police!” and “Defund the police!”   

The murder of Taylor has generated a national outcry demanding police accountability for the murders of Black and Brown women, men and children and in defense of Black Lives Matter.  

More than six months after the heinous March 13 murder of Taylor – a 26-year-old African American emergency medical technician – by three white Louisville, Ky., police officers, a secret grand jury on Sept. 23 charged only one of those officers with three counts of “wanton endangerment.” And this was after four months of supposed investigation. 

What does this mean exactly? It means that Officer Brett Hankison was charged only with endangering others, when bullets he sprayed into Taylor’s apartment traveled into a neighboring unit, threatening the lives of three neighbors, who are white. Not one single charge was filed against the other two cops. Hankison is now out on $15,000 bail.

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R) made the announcement, explaining that the three cops were justified in shooting multiple rounds – six of which hit Taylor as she was sleeping – in “self-defense.”  Taylor’s partner, Kenneth Walker, shot at the cops when they broke down Taylor’s door with a battering ram. 

Cameron’s claims that Walker wounded one of the cops turned out to be false based on a recent ballistics report. (courier-journal.com, Sept. 27)

They were carrying out a “no-knock” search warrant during an ill-advised drug bust. 

Walker stated that the cops never announced who they were, as he tried to defend Taylor and himself.  Rep. Scott proposed a statewide law to negate the “no-knock” warrant, which was recently passed. She was recently arrested.

The fact that not one cop was charged with murder, not even manslaughter, for taking the life of this young Black woman, is but another tragic but important reason why the Black Lives Matter struggle deserves broad classwide solidarity. 

It took the public lynching of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25 to help bring national and international awareness to Taylor’s murder, which had happened more than two months earlier.  

Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump commented following the ruling:  “This is outrageous and offensive! If Brett Hankison’s behavior was wanton endangerment to people in neighboring apartments, then it should have been wanton endangerment in Breonna Taylor’s apartment, too. In fact, it should have been ruled wanton murder.” (Washington Post, Sept. 23)

Family demands ‘open the books’

The family of Breonna Taylor, including her mother, Tamika Palmer, and Walker were present at a Sept. 25 press conference in Louisville, along with family attornies Crump and Lonita Baker.  The lawyers and family are demanding that the secretive grand jury reveal the entire transcript to the world that led to their shocking ruling.  They are also calling for a special prosecutor to be appointed to present evidence on behalf of Taylor before a grand jury.  

Crump commented, “What did Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron present to the grand jury? Did he present any evidence on Breonna Taylor’s behalf? Or did he make a unilateral decision to put his thumb on the scales of justice to help try to exonerate and justify the killing of Breonna Taylor by these police officers? And in doing so, make sure that Breonna Taylor’s family never got their day in court.

“Release the transcript so we can have transparency.  And if you did everything you could do on Breonna’s behalf, you shouldn’t have any problems whatsoever, Daniel Cameron, to release the transcript to see you fought for all of Kentucky’s citizens.”  (ABC News, Sept. 25)

In a written statement read by Taylor’s aunt, Bianca Austin, Tamika Palmer stated that Cameron “had the power to do the right thing. He had the power to start the healing of this city.  [He] helped me realize … it will always be us against them.  That we are never safe when it comes to them.” She went on to say that she has “no faith in the legal system, in the police, in the laws that are not made to protect us Black and Brown people.” 

Palmer said Cameron “alone didn’t fail her,” and that her daughter was also failed by “the judge who signed the search warrant … the terrorist who broke down her door … [and] the system as a whole.” 

One of the grand jurors has filed a motion on Sept. 28. The motion demands that the recordings of the grand jury proceedings be released to the public. It states that the jurors were not given proper instructions to include the option of indicting Sgt. Jon Mattingly and Detective Myles Cosgrove for firing the bullets that killed Taylor.  The juror also asks to speak publicly on this matter.  

Police and capitalism are intertwined

Palmer’s statement rings so true, not only with the individuals responsible for her daughter’s senseless death but the whole rigged, bigoted system of oppression.  

Abuses by the police, the courts, the prisons and the laws targeting Black and Brown people like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland and countless others are not isolated instances. These institutions reflect bigoted, irreconcilable differences when it comes to race and class. 

Under capitalism – a particular form of society that divides people into haves and have nots, the ruling class and the multinational working class – the lives of Black, Brown and Indigenous people are devalued by a repressive state apparatus resting on the centuries-old foundation of white supremacy.

How else can it be explained that a Louisville cop can be held accountable for destroying walls, but not for taking the life of a human being? 

Or that a 17-year-old neofascist, Kyle Rittenhouse, can shoot to death two anti-racists in Kenosha, Wis., while the police look the other way – but a 12-year-old Black child, Tamir Rice, can be fatally shot on the spot by police in Cleveland for playing with a BB gun?  

The police, the U.S. Border Patrol and other agencies exist to keep social order –  that is, to use any repressive means to protect the private property of the bosses stolen from the collective wealth and labor of the global working class. 

This order is why it is so difficult to get justice for the victims of police violence. The laws provide immunity for the police, who act as an armed agent of the bosses against the workers.  

The clarion call to abolish the police, not just as individuals but as a militarized oppressive force that is diametrically opposed to the interests of the workers and oppressed, will continue to grow louder. 

The fact that not one cop was charged with murder or even manslaughter for taking the life of this young Black woman is but another tragic but important example of why the Black Lives Matter struggle deserves broad classwide solidarity. It took the public lynching of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25 to help bring national and international awareness to Taylor’s murder, which had happened more than two months earlier.  

In the end, the only way to abolish the police is to abolish the system that has sustained this force since the days of U.S. slavery. And that system is capitalism – a system that prioritizes profits and private property before meeting the basic human needs of the workers, who need jobs, housing, health care, education and much more. Only a socialist revolution can ultimately win these demands – not an election, that does not change class relations.  

Waging a global, classwide struggle to help empower the working class through workers’ assemblies, workers’ defense committees against right-wing fascists and other sustained, organized formations will win real justice for the Breonna Taylors and George Floyds of the world.    

Monday, 28 September 2020

IT'S GONNA TAKE A LOT MORE

 The events that have finally come to light in the past few months involving police murder and their absolute disregard for the lives they take has finally shaken the world out of their slumber , but it can't and shouldn't stop there. After all, the fact that Coca-Cola and The Ford Foundation have donated millions to the Black Lives Matter organization only goes to show that this is how the system is going to subordinate that movement to stop people from actually questioning the very validity of their capitalist/imperialism . That being said, it's still a valuable avenue to make connections and to actually get people to start asking questions. 

Please read :


Justice for Breonna Taylor means abolishing the police & capitalism

WW commentary

More than six months after the heinous March 13 murder of Breonna Taylor – a 26-year-old African American emergency medical technician – by three white Louisville, Ky., police officers, a secret grand jury on Sept. 23 charged only one of those officers with three counts of “wanton endangerment.” And this was after four months of investigation.

Louisville protest, Sept. 23.

What does this mean exactly? It means that Brett Hankison was charged only with endangering others when bullets he sprayed into Taylor’s apartment traveled into a neighboring unit, threatening the lives of three neighbors. Not one single charge was filed against the other two cops. Hankison is now out on $15,000 bail.

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R) made the announcement, explaining that the three cops were justified in shooting multiple rounds – six of which hit Taylor as she was sleeping – in “self-defense.”  Taylor’s partner, Kenneth Walker, shot at the cops who were carrying out a no-knock search warrant when they broke down Taylor’s door with a battering ram during an ill-advised drug bust. Walker stated the cops never announced who they were, as he tried to defend Taylor and himself.

Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump commented following the ruling:  “This is outrageous and offensive! If Brett Hankison’s behavior was wanton endangerment to people in neighboring apartments, then it should have been wanton endangerment in Breonna Taylor’s apartment, too. In fact, it should have been ruled wanton murder!” (Washington Post, Sept. 23)

Once the grand jury decision was made public, spontaneous demonstrations by thousands of angry and distraught activists filled the streets in Louisville, New York City, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and elsewhere, calling for justice for Breonna Taylor. Many more protests have been called for the coming days over this travesty of justice.

The fact that not one cop was charged with murder or even manslaughter for taking the life of this young Black woman is but another tragic but important example of why the Black Lives Matter struggle deserves broad classwide solidarity. It took the public lynching of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25 to help bring national and international awareness to Taylor’s murder, which had happened more than two months earlier.

Every sector in U.S. society, including sports figures and entertainers, has helped shine a bright light on Taylor: women and men players and coaches in the National Basketball Association, tennis players like Naomi Osaka, and the National Football League, for example.

Police and capitalism are intertwined

Abuses by the police, the courts, the prisons and the laws targeting Black and Brown people like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland and countless others are not isolated instances. These institutions reflect bigoted, irreconcilable differences when it comes to race and class.

Under capitalism – a particular form of society that divides people into haves and have nots, the ruling class and the multinational working class – the lives of Black, Brown and Indigenous people are devalued by a repressive state apparatus resting on the centuries-old foundation of white supremacy.

How else can it be explained that a Louisville cop can be held accountable for destroying walls, but not for taking the life of a human being?

Or that a 17-year-old neofascist, Kyle Rittenhouse, can shoot to death two anti-racists in Kenosha, Wis., while the police look the other way – but a 12-year-old Black child, Tamir Rice, can be fatally shot on the spot by police in Cleveland for playing with a BB gun?

The police, the U.S. Border Patrol and other agencies exist to keep social order –  that is, to use any repressive means to protect the private property of the bosses stolen from the collective wealth and labor of the global working class.

This order is why it is so difficult to get justice for the victims of police violence. The laws provide immunity for the police, who act as an armed agent of the bosses against the workers.

The clarion call to abolish the police, not just as individuals but as a militarized oppressive force that is diametrically opposed to the interests of the workers and oppressed, will continue to grow louder.

Philadelphia protest, Sept. 23. WW PHOTO: Joe Piette

In the end the only way to abolish the police is to abolish the system that has sustained this force since the days of U.S. slavery. And that system is capitalism – a system that prioritizes profits and private property before meeting the basic human needs of the workers, who need jobs, housing, health care, education and much more. Only a socialist revolution can ultimately win these needs – not an election which does not change class relations.

Waging a global, classwide struggle to help empower the working class through workers’ assemblies, workers’ defense committees against right-wing fascists and other sustained, organized formations will win real justice for the Breonna Taylors and George Floyds of the world.

 


Friday, 25 September 2020

A LITTLE MORE BACKGROUND

 This is a documentary that I will try to see at the earliest possible time. The fucking pigs lie and they lie some more, and the "justice" system lets them off 99% of the time. Don't let it happen this time.


Check it Out:

The Killing of Breonna Taylor

 | revcom.us

 

From a reader:

A documentary directed by Yoruba Richen is now streaming on Hulu and FX as a New York Times presentation.

This story would not be told with such heart if it weren’t for the protesters who have been in the streets in Louisville day after day, braving cops’ tear gas, beatings, arrests, and National Guard shootings that killed a beloved barbeque cook, and on September 5, fascist militias who menaced peaceful protests surrounding the Kentucky Derby.

The Killing of Breonna Taylor captures the beauty and joy of Breonna as a person as she is described by her mother, boyfriend and “sisters.”  Two hours before she was murdered, she was on a FaceTime call with her cousin Pre (of “Pre and Bre”) showing off her outfits for Biloxi Black Beach Weekend.  Her death tore a gaping hole in a tightly woven community in Louisville.

But this story also wouldn’t be told with such depth without review of more than 1,500 pages of police records, evidence logs, transcripts of jailhouse recordings, 911 calls and surveillance photos, interviews with witnesses (neighbors and family), and public officials.  I knew the outlines of the police murder of Breonna, but seeing it all pulled together was a powerful light shone on the cruelty and the cover-up that police get away with time after time, starting with a police report that was so shockingly false that it stated that Breonna had no injuries!  It is a damning mountain of evidence and the pigs are STILL trying to get away with it by offering her former boyfriend a deal if he will say Breonna was part of his drug dealing. 

The chief pig’s first press conference is about how grateful they are that their cop shot in the leg lived; Breonna is not mentioned by name.  Despite waiting outside the apartment and the hospital for more than 12 hours, her mother doesn’t learn that it was police who shot her until she hears it later in the news.  Neighbors tell what it was like that night as you learn one cop (the only one even fired so far) shot into the house from outside, completely blindly at least 10 times.  Breonna’s toddler niece was not there as the bullets riddled the apartment.  She frequently stayed at Breonna’s several times a week.  Women who were sexually assaulted and harassed by a “creepy cop” realize it is this same cop and come forward to tell their stories.  There is so much more …

Months later, no cop is facing charges for Breonna’s murder.  According to the film it is because the authorities can’t determine who fired the fatal shots (three pigs opened fire)!  This was how the “justice system” let the Cleveland police walk after they opened fire 137 times on a homeless couple in a car because it could not be proved what were the fatal shots out of the hail of bullets.  They should all be charged for Breonna’s murder.   

The whole system is guilty as hell.

 

Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs

Thursday, 24 September 2020

FUCKING SWINE

 And it happens again and again . The fucking pigs are not held accountable for taking an innocent life . This has been the history of the fucked up united states of amerikkka , founded on bloody slavery and proudly invading and destroying other countries. I have no doubt the people will stand up again.

Louisville Pigs Get Away with MURDER of Breonna Taylor

 | revcom.us

 

This System MUST Be Overthrown! Revolution, Nothing Less!

Trump/Pence Fascist Regime OUT NOW!

INTO THE STREETS!!!

The terrible injustice of what happened to Breonna Taylor, murdered by police who busted into her apartment while she slept in her bed, moved millions; they “said her name.” Now her name must again ring through the streets.

In March of this year, Louisville pigs suddenly forced their way into the apartment of Breonna Taylor, in a raid that should never have happened, and killed her in a burst of gunfire. Today, the Kentucky attorney general announced a grand jury decision that held none of the cops accountable for the murder of Breonna.

The whitewash of the murder of Breonna Taylor by refusing to hold any of the police who were in on it at all legally accountable—not even indicting any of them for what was done to her*—is an outrage on top of the original outrage. The terrible injustice of what happened to her moved millions; they “said her name.” Now her name must again ring through the streets. In no way can we allow the verdict of society to be that this is somehow okay, and somehow not demanding of massive waves of protest. Without protest, without struggle, without rising up as was done in the spring and early summer, Black people will be thrust into even worse horrors and outrages, worse oppression.

It is hurtful beyond hurting, enraging beyond rage, to see this injustice happen yet again. Yet this has gone on in this country since 1619 in one form or another. Through the horrific centuries of slavery, which is the foundation of the “great wealth” this capitalist country likes to brag about… to the decades of lynching and segregation and denial of all rights… to the current system of mass incarceration and police terror to enforce continued discrimination and oppressed: this is dug deep into the flesh and blood of this system. That system has a name: capitalism-imperialism. And that system cannot be reformed in any way that will give justice to Black people. IT MUST BE OVERTHROWN!

Since the rising earlier this year sparked by the pig murder of George Floyd, Donald Trump has not only continued to support all manner of crimes by police, he has doubled down on this in the name of “law and order”—a racist codeword for exactly the kind of horror that happened to Breonna Taylor. He has professed his “love” for the pigs, he threatened the protestors, he has called for repression and major charges against those who lift their heads and organize others to do so, and he has actually applauded those who have murdered the protestors for Black lives. This too has a name: FASCISM. And the genocidal assault against Black people, and everyone who is not a white Christian American, is at the heart of this regime. This regime must urgently and immediately be defeated. And bringing together these two streams of struggle — against police murder and institutional racism, and to drive out the Trump-Pence fascist regime — is urgently needed if masses of people are to have any kind of future at all.

Into the Streets!

 


* One cop was indicted for "reckless endangerment," not for the killing of Breonna Taylor, but for blindly shooting into the homes of other residents of the apartment complex where Breonna lived.  [back]



 







 




Wednesday, 23 September 2020

BEAUTIFUL IDEA

 The tributes and reminiscing about the legendary frontman for SNFU , Mr.Chi Pig , continue . He truly touched so many people's lives with his music , and his influence will be felt for decades to come . This seems like a nice idea in memory of him.....


Gastown's Cambie Pub raising funds to immortalize Mr. Chi Pig in mural

'He touched so many people's lives. It's the least we could do for him'
Chi Pig-DIrtee Robertson (Bob Hanham Facebook
Chi Pig, right. Photo: Facebook

The Cambie Pub in Gastown is raising funds for a long-time customer and friend, a renowned punk musician the late Mr. Chi Pig to be immortalized in art.

Jameson Trenholm told Vancouver Is Awesome he became good friends with Chi after 8 years of bartending at the pub.

“Chi was there every day,” Trenholm said. “He would draw or doodle his art there.”

“I remember one time he came up to me while I was bartending and said ‘Jameson you know what I get a bit down and a bit sad but you know what? I can go to any jukebox in the world and play my song, and that makes me happy’.”

Chi was a legend in the Vancouver scene and as punk band SNFU’s lead singer, he helped pioneer a generation of music influence across the globe.

In 2019, he was given a month to live. Chi, also known as Kendall Stephen Chinn, died the next summer at age of 57.

“When he passed away I thought that we at the Cambie needed a memorial or tribute,” Trenholm told Vancouver Is Awesome.

Now, staff and friends of the pub have partnered with Vancouver artists to create a mural image of Chi on the front of the pub.

“He touched so many people's lives. It's the least we could do for him,” Trenholm said.

Donations to cover the costs associated with the mural can be made out to GoFundMe.


Tuesday, 22 September 2020

MISSING YOU BASTARDS

 A couple of weeks ago I had the most vivid dream that I was at a Logan's show surrounded by the usual people . There were hugs all around, the music was loud , and it felt good and natural. Then I woke up , and in my disappointment realized it was a dream . Who knows when all of this shit will get back to normal again ?

Knife Manual, BLKR , The Dayglos , The Gnar Gnars , Riffheist , The Keg Killers, Fully Crazed , The Frostbacks , Shallow End ,  The Skidmarxists , The Angry Snowmans , Vic City Rejects, Reckless Everyday Killers , Class Of 1984, Rival Gang, and probably many others, I need to see all of them again . I miss all of them , and the people who come out and support and love these local motherfuckers . Hopefully I'll see you all soon.......





Thursday, 17 September 2020

THE SHIT CONTINUES

 Even with their murderous hateful system defending shit all over the media, the fucking kkkiller kkkops continue with their killing . It's their job after all , to defend the capitalist/imperialist system and to terrorize the masses of people.

It's all got to go.


The Two Big Lessons of the Police Murder of Dijon Kizzee and the Continuing Resistance Against It

by Noche Diaz, National Revolution Tour

 | revcom.us

 

Dijon Kizzee was a 29-year-old Black man who was born and raised in Los Angeles. On August 31, 2020 Dijon was murdered in cold blood by members of LA Sheriff’s Department (LASD). Dijon was chased down and shot in the back 15 times while yelling “They’re going to kill me” and while onlookers called out to the sheriffs not to shoot. Dijon Kizzee was a human being whose life mattered. He leaves behind family members and friends who loved him.

Immediately after the murder, people gathered to demand answers, and word of this gathering began quickly spreading around social media. Within hours, in the range of 100 people who had been part of various protests in the beautiful uprising of the last months since the murder of George Floyd came into the neighborhood in waves to stand with people from the area who had gathered at the site of Dijon’s murder.

In the weeks that followed, two lesson have come to into focus:

First is how much worse is the murderous ways of “law enforcement” and the violent repression against anyone fighting for justice or fundamental change under the rule and direction of the fascist Trump/Pence regime, and how much worse it will become if they are able to stay in power. In the weeks following Dijon’s murder by LASD, the struggle to demand justice has been met with dozens of arrests... declaring protests “unlawful gatherings”… protesters, including children, tear-gassed and hospitalized... lawyers being assaulted by sheriffs while holding a press conference to expose the sheriff’s assault on protesters... and a string of four journalists being attacked and arrested.

This is happening as part of the fascist Trump’s “answer” to months of the beautiful struggle demanding an end to racism and murder by police. Trump ramps up calls for “law and order”… condemns protesters as “rioters” and “arsonists”… repeatedly calls for “retribution” against protests, while whipping up racist fear of “violent mobs” burning down cities and coming for (white) suburbs and housewives. He calls for “Second Amendment” people to help put down protests and then defends a racist thug who did just that, murdering two protesters in Kenosha. This is escalating now, and if he “wins”/steals or disregards the election, without massive and sustained protests demanding Trump/Pence Out NOW, this will take far more devastating leaps.

The second lesson is the example set by people uniting to come back even stronger in the face of repression, and joining together the demands in the struggle against police murder with the demand Trump/Pence #OutNow. People from various parts of the city came to stand with people in a neighborhood under constant siege, and people in the neighborhood have begun to get a sense that they won’t just be alone if they stand up to this. Through struggle to overcome divisions, last Saturday represented an important coming back stronger in the face of repeated and relentless repression.

In the course of things, the Revolution Club in Los Angeles has played an important role in fighting for people to come back stronger in the face of repression, and has been able to involve people, including youth, in representing and working for revolution. Bob Avakian’s series Donald Trump—GENOCIDAL RACIST and the calls from Refuse Fascism to mobilize to drive out this regime have also been getting out in the area, to lift people’s sights to confront what we are up against and what must been done to prevent further grip of fascism as part of building the revolution to get to a whole better world.

All this has been hard-fought, and already the LASD is escalating attempts to attack and delegitimize protest or even speaking out against police murder. After a recent incident (that very little is actually known about) where two deputies were shot, the LASD chief seized on this to further attack protesters and “outside agitators” by implicating that the struggle against murder by police contributed to this shooting, all with the loud backing of Trump calling again for “law and order.” This chief defended the violent arrest of a local public radio reporter at KPCC, Josie Huang. He also lashed out at Lebron James, demanding he match the $200,000 in reward money for information on the suspect, targeting Lebron to intimidate those in the NBA who speak out against the murder of Black people by police.

This is far from over. The Revolution Club in LA, along with the National Revolution Tour, will be calling people into the streets again this weekend. Stay tuned.

To learn from all this, we are sharing more extensive coverage of how these last weeks of struggle in South Central, and repression by the LASD, unfolded. 


The aunt of Dijon Kizzee speaking at a gathering for Dijon


Wednesday, 16 September 2020

FEARING THE TRUTH

 So fuckface trump is threatening to withhold funding from schools that teach about the history of slavery in the u.s. ? That is absolutely ludicrous, and just shows you how much he actually fears the truth or in fact any information that's not controlled by him. That fucker has got to go.


Threats vs. Schools That Teach the “1619 Project” on U.S. Slavery

In a September 6 tweet, Trump threatened schools that use the New York Times’ “1619 Project” in their curriculum. The 1619 series, which the Times began last year, sheds light on important facts about this country and its roots in slavery. In the tweet, citing another tweet by someone else that claimed California had “implemented the 1619 project into public schools,” Trump declared: “Department of Education is looking at this. If so, they will not be funded!”

This is not the first time fascists have issued threats against the use of the 1619 Project in schools. Tom Cotton, a Republican senator from Arkansas and enthusiastic Trump supporter, has introduced legislation he named “Saving American History Act” that “would prohibit the use of federal funds to teach the 1619 Project by K-12 schools or school districts” and also make them “ineligible for federal professional-development grants.”

As CNN reported, it is unclear how many schools have actually adopted the 1619 Project into their lessons. But the message from fascist-in-chief Trump is not so much about any particular teaching material. Trump’s threat is part of the whole campaign by the regime, spearheaded by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, to attack public, secular education—with the ultimate goal of replacing public schools with schools that indoctrinate students in a belief that America has been, and should always be, a white, fundamentalist Christian country.





Tuesday, 15 September 2020

SOCIAL DISTANCING FOR REPRESSION

 It looks like no matter what protocols are put into effect for the safety of the populace, the one thing that keeps on moving constantly is repression and war .

The machinery of death and occupation will never stop to try and improve the health of the people because to the ruling powers, profits are more important than anything else on the planet, be it the environment, human rights, people's health , racism, etc.








Monday, 14 September 2020

ANOTHER LEGEND GONE.....

 Toots Hibbert, the reggae legend who brought the music to worldwide audiences wth his soulful style and straightup passion for his art , is dead at the age of 77 .

I have to admit that the first version I heard of the immortal song "Pressure Drop" was by another legendary band, The Clash . After that I picked up the LP "Reggae Greats" with Toots  And The Maytals , and fell in love with his upbeat brand of reggae. He made me want to play the music , along with others like Peter Tosh.

Toots Hibbert will truly never be forgotten .

Rest In Peace .


Toots Hibbert obituary

Singer and songwriter with Toots and the Maytals who took reggae to global audiences

Toots Hibbert performing with the Maytals in Chicago, 1982.
 Toots Hibbert performing with the Maytals in Chicago, 1982. Photograph: Paul Natkin/Getty Images

In the years before Bob Marley shot to worldwide fame, Toots Hibbert, who has died aged 77, was one of the main global faces of reggae music – or at least of its predecessors, ska and rock steady.

As singer and songwriter with the Maytals, later to become Toots and the Maytals, Hibbert was responsible for a number of Jamaican classics that were not only hits in their own right but were given vibrant second lives by admiring artists in Britain and elsewhere.

Among those songs was Pressure Drop, a 1969 composition about the daily strains of ghetto life in Jamaica that came to worldwide attention when it appeared in the 1972 film The Harder They Come and was also given a popular run-through by the Clash. Hibbert’s other big tune of that year, Monkey Man, in which he expressed the jealous thoughts of a spurned lover, became a UK hit and was later covered by the Specials and Amy Winehouse, while 54-46 Was My Number – written after Hibbert had experienced a spell in jail during the mid 1960s – became a defining rock steady/reggae tune when it appeared in 1968. It was also later revived – by Aswad in 1984.

Other Hibbert songs such as Never You ChangeBam BamFeverSweet and Dandy and Funky Kingston also stand high in the Jamaican canon, and he had the further distinction of having been the first artist to have used the word reggae in a song title, albeit spelt in now-unfamiliar fashion, with his 1968 composition Do the Reggay.

Hibbert was born into a large household in the town of May Pen in Jamaica and was given the nickname Little Toots by an older brother. Both of his parents had died by the time he was 16 and after he had married his childhood sweetheart, Doreen, at the age of 18, he moved in the early 1960s to the Trenchtown area of Kingston, landing a job in a barber shop and, in 1962, putting together a vocal harmony trio with two new Kingston friends, Jerry Matthias and Raleigh Gordon.

First called the Vikings and then the Maytals in part tribute to Hibbert’s home town, the three eventually became seven with the addition of the instrumentalists Jackie Jackson, Paul Douglas, Hux Brown and Radcliffe Bryan, although the lineup changed over the years.

Toots Hibbert at the Reggae Sunsplash music festival, 1993.
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 Toots Hibbert at the Reggae Sunsplash music festival, 1993. Photograph: John Lynn Kirk/Redferns

As the ska beat took hold in Jamaica, the Maytals rode the wave with a succession of local hit singles, many of them for the producers Prince Buster and Clement Dodd. There were also two studio albums in those early days – Never Grow Old (1964) and The Sensational Maytals (1965).

In 1966 the band hit a new high by winning the first Jamaican Independence festival Popular Song Competition, with the Hibbert composition Bam Bam. Shortly afterwards, however, he was arrested on his way home from a concert in Ocho Rios and was subsequently jailed for possession of cannabis, a charge he always maintained was trumped up, not least because he did not even smoke marijuana at the time.

When he was released from prison a year later (by which time, ironically, he had become a convert to cannabis), Hibbert gamely took up where he had left off, using his prison number, 54-46, as the basis for perhaps his most enduring hit, and then winning the 1969 version of the national song competition with Sweet and Dandy.

In 1970 the Maytals appeared at Wembley for a successful first major reggae festival in the UK, along with Bob & Marcia, Desmond Dekker and the Pioneers.

In 1972 they came to wider attention in the first Jamaican-produced feature film – The Harder They Come – starring Jimmy Cliff as Ivan, a young man who has moved to Kingston to seek musical fame. When Ivan first ventures into a recording studio it is the real life Hibbert he sees going through his paces, and it is he that he takes on as his initial role model. Pressure Drop and Sweet and Dandy were included on the 1973 soundtrack album, bringing Hibbert to an even bigger audience.

By that time the band had become Toots and the Maytals, having teamed up with Chris Blackwell of Island Records, who had also persuaded Hibbert to compose the much admired song Funky Kingston, which became the title of their 1972 album.

Under Blackwell’s later direction, Hibbert’s global recognition increased further, and he and his band toured the world, with groups such as the Who and the Eagles.

In 1982, however, Hibbert came to an amicable agreement to disband the Maytals project and the following year released a solo album, Spiritual Healing, which explored the Rastafarian beliefs that he had nurtured for many years.

A period of inactivity followed, but by the late 80s Toots and the Maytals had been revived, mainly as a touring force, although albums were occasionally released, including the Grammy award-winning True Love (2004)

In 2013 at a concert in Richmond, Virginia, in the US, Hibbert was hospitalised after being struck by a bottle hurled from the audience. The ramifications were significant, for, apart from suffering cuts and concussion, he found he could no longer remember the lyrics to his songs, that his songwriting mojo had disappeared, and that he had begun to experience panic attacks. After a three-year hiatus in which all his touring and recording work came to a halt, he did, however, manage to make a recovery.

In August Toots and the Maytals released their first studio album in a decade, Got to Be Tough. Hibbert was due to be touring with that album in the US and UK when he was struck down by respiratory problems.

He is survived by his wife and seven children.

 Toots (Frederick Nathaniel) Hibbert, musician, born 8 December 1942; died 11 September 2020

Toots & The Maytals - Reggae Greats (1984, Vinyl) | Discogs