thebluefood

More tough guy cliches, Doc! The people just can't get enough of 'em.

Trump's got a lot of nerve throwing shade on the District considering the order of his own house.

This McNair story is heartbreaking. Just 19-years-old. His life was just starting and now he's dead. And for what? This especially - this is not okay.

Yeah, when I started looking into Celtic FC's culture more, I found out "You'll Never Walk Alone" is one of their songs and I was like "isn't that Liverpool's thing?" Especially since Garry and the Pacemakers were Liverpool all the way and the official music video has Liverpool imagery all over it. Though I gotta admit - this is pretty damn cool, too.

Thank ya! And since you were so nice in welcoming me, I figured I'd leave this:

[Anglo-Celtic] Yeah, why don't you try that out on actual Celts in Scotland and Ireland still dealing with the impact of English imperialism and second-class citizenship. I'm sure they'd be delighted to talk about your "league."

"I disagree with your enthusiastic dispersion of fascist and quasi-fascist ideology but I will defend your right to do it...as your friends beat the **** out of me for being black/leftist and force my LGBTQIA+ friends to assimilate or stuff themselves back into the closet." Am I winning at "civility" yet?

So, earlier this week, I resolved that I was actually gonna make a real effort to follow non-World Cup Soccer. I already support D.C. United but that's mostly by default. Maybe I'll get more enthused about them if I actually went to a game. I just couldn't get into it watching it on TV. Then I remembered Celtic FC exists. Yeah, I think I found my team. And I know this may come across as glory hunting but reading up on their history and fan culture, I actually felt excited about supporting a club (though I also have a heart for Liverpool FC)

Just a quick reminder that a coalition of organizations in and around D.C. are organizing a counter-demonstration to United the Right II in the District (which, as far as I know, is still on for August 12th). Relevant link below. https://shutitdowndc.org/ If you're able to show up, please do.

So, now that the World Cup's over - how about that MLS? I'm trying to follow it more closely now that D.C. United has that new stadium and I do wanna get more engaged with soccer. I know it isn't the best by any stretch of the imagination (cue footage from the Trinidad & Tobago match) but I might as well follow the big domestic league, warts and all.

It's been said elsewhere: France won the tournament but Croatia won my heart. Congrats to the World's Champion and the runner up.

So these dudes get off with a pardon after being sentence with less than the minimum jail time but Fred Hampton gets shot while in bed and KO'd (after being drugged by a state-sponsored informant) Oh, okay. I see you, Uncle Sam. I see you real clear.

Tories are going down in flames and I'm over here like

Semi-related: apparently, Europe still really hates Romani people. Like...a lot. Holy ****. https://www.rferl.org/amp/romany-woman-found-with-throat-slashed-in-ukraine/29332980.html Check out that map at the bottom. Like - I knew there was a long history of discrimination against the Romani (including the U.S.) but it's apparently "en vouge" again.

This gave me flashbacks to my days as a server. I heard the words "I want to speak to your manager" as soon as I saw this post.

Semi-related: we're having a rally in support of immigrants at the PA State Capitol Building tomorrow afternoon. The "PA Patriots United" just so happened to get a "last minute permit" at the same spot a half-hour earlier. We do not see eye to eye on this or most other matters, shall we say. Please, please, please send us your good vibes and prayers. We ran into these folks last year and there were a few skirmishes - nothing too bad, though. Just some star-spangled freikorps wanna be's.

Not even a little shocked. This is par for the course from reactionaries of all stripes. This place has been ripe for a full-on fascist uprising for a long time. Hell, the Nazis took lessons from us on "race science" and genocide to create the Third Reich and had considerable support on this side of the Atlantic up until the U.S. entered the war. Fascism and fascist ideology is malleable and hazy on purpose (Umberto Eco discusses it in Ur-Fascism) - that way its harder to pin down and discredit. They have and will continue to hide behind dog whistles. innuendo, and a veneer of respectability. But there are almost always the same general targets - all of which pose a direct and existential threat to fascism: -Ethnic minorities (who pose a threat to the ethnic majority's social and political dominance); -Political and social opponents, especially from the Left (who pose a threat to the fascist's bend toward nationalism, imperialism, and rabid "Social Darwinist" capitalism - despite their use of vaguely Leftist rhetoric and iconography); -Labor Unionists (see above), and; -Journalists, writers, poets, intellectuals, and artists (who expose the inherent lies and brutality of fascist ideology and praxis and disrupt their ability to distribute propaganda) We've been spared a lot of violence journalists have had to endure in places like Occupied Palestine and Syria. But the hatred of journalists has always been a prevalent part of our cultural landscape and no President since Nixon has tapped into it the way this one has. Hopefully I'm wrong about this but I've got a feeling we can expect more of this kind of thing or at least threats of it. If so, we've got to be ready to defend ourselves by any means necessary.

"Give to the departed eternal rest. Let light perpetual shine upon them."

I dunno 'bout that. Remember, he had "plans" to make a "news station" if he lost the election and while he probably would have been cringy as hell, he would have had a devoted following. Plus, as I said earlier, you don't need to win an election to start a movement. Goldwater got BTFO in the general election in '64 but he basically got the Conservative Movement started. After Trump won the nomination, his impact (and whatever passes for his "ideology" - a word I use very loosely in this context) had already been made and the wheels were in motion. You don't have to win every battle to win a war.

I never got a lot of direct threats but I always heard, felt, and saw the hostility. The worst was my own mother - who would take time to tell me how awful the media is from time to time. Knowing your own mother doesn't have your back - probably feels similarly to the person who shot those people at the Gazette today. Between that and the literal starvation wages? Yeah - can't say I miss it. Still, though - feel a great deal of solidarity with reporters. These are the latest in more than two dozen deaths of journalists in 2018 alone.

Inclined to agree. Hell, I was bracing myself for impact on Election Day regardless of the result because I knew, living in "Trump Country," some of these folks would be itching for a fight if their boy lost and one of the easiest targets would be a person with a press badge. The cat was out of the bag after he got the nomination, just like when Goldwater won the GOP nomination in '64. It was all already in motion.

I'm going to work tomorrow. My colleagues are going to work tomorrow. And we're gonna keep doing what we've been tasked to do: keeping the public informed and making the world a better place. Come and take it you reactionary mother****ers.

"I specifically told y'all to do the opposite of this. Literally - the opposite of all this."

Bumping this with a WaPo Sports Bog article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dc-sports-bog/wp/2018/06/20/after-winning-a-stanley-cup-does-barry-trotz-crack-the-mount-rushmore-of-d-c-pro-coaches/?utm_term=.ee9efdfd18e2 As far as coaches is concerned: my Mt. Rushmore is still Gibbs, Flaherty, Harris, Motta -Gibbs for obvious reasons - it is a shame he doesn't get the kudos he deserves by football fans outside of the D.C. Metro Area -Flaherty because he still has the highest winning percentage of any 'Skins coach (and probably always will) and the team was never the same without him -Harris because anyone who could lead those wretched Senators teams to a pennant and a World Series championship deserves all the praise in the world -Motta because of the sheer number of clashing egos he had to juggle to get the Bullets over the hump and to a championship