Author Archives: cleek

America’s perfection shall not be questioned, except by me

We’re discussing the legacy and persistence of racism more now than in decades. And Trump understands that all this talk about institutional racism and White privilege makes many White people feel attacked and defensive, as though they’re being personally accused of sins they feel they haven’t committed.

So in response he gives them permission to stop feeling bad. Not only will I protect Confederate statues and banish talk of racism from schools, he claims, I’ll convince everyone that the real thing we need to eradicate isn’t racism itself but talking about racism.

Call it the White Innocence Project.

…

This is the message Trump wants those supporters to hear: We’re done talking about slavery and racism. You don’t have to do any soul-searching, you don’t have to question how American institutions operate, and you sure as hell don’t have to feel guilty about anything. You, beleaguered White man, are the best there is, because you are America, not them.

COVID HVAC WTF

Our AC unit just developed a leak in its condenser coil. That’s an expensive replacement. But, because of COVID, HVAC parts are in short supply. Supplier says they don’t know when the backorders will be through.

So we have to put a bunch of money into a bunch of refrigerant that’s going to just leak out into the atmosphere. Seriously, this shit is expensive – we put $800 worth into it, three weeks ago. And it’s gone.

Hurry up, fall.

Apt

Eight people in Gresik regency, East Java, were ordered by local authorities to dig graves for those who have died of COVID-19 as punishment for not wearing face masks in public.

Cerme district head, Suyono, said that he punished residents who did not wear face masks by making them dig graves at a public cemetery in Ngabetan village.

“There are only three available gravediggers at the moment, so I thought I might as well put these people to work with them,” said Suyono as quoted by tribunnews.com on Wednesday, adding that local authorities made sure the health protocol violators did not participate in the burials.

White Has His Revenge

As one Black Lives Matter billboard is coming down in Pittsboro, another is going up in Raleigh, says a social-justice advocate involved in both projects.

Kerwin Pittman, founder of the nonprofit Recidivism Reduction Educational Program Services Inc. (RREPS), said he’s not surprised the Pittsboro billboard erected last month next to a Confederate flag on U.S. 64 Business didn’t last long.

The contract with Lamar Advertising Co. was supposed to be for a full year, until next July, but Sam White, the owner of the Confederate flag, didn’t want the black billboard with the white letters spelling “Black Lives Matter” on his land.

White is ending his land lease with billboard owner Lamar Advertising after almost 16 years. The lease expires Aug. 31, he said.

“I told them the 31st of August that sign better be gone, because Sept. 1, if that sign’s not down, they’re going to hear my chainsaw running,” White said in an interview with The News & Observer.

Fuck Sam White.

Doing It For Myself

First, whip out the jigsaw and cut a pair of feet from a piece of oak.

Then cut some sticks, drill some holes for pegs to connect everything.

Then build a back section, and bang it all together to make sure everything fits.

Stain it all dark walnut.

Glue the pieces together.

Attach the back with some black carriage bolts. Six of them, because four wouldn’t look serious enough. Maybe there are some gaps that could use a little putty.

Give it a few coats of varnish (the application of which will take off a lot of stain that was just sitting on the surface). Add some nonslip strips.

Accept the mistakes and should-have-dones.

And, there you have it.

A DIY version of this to replace this. And it will sit on the scrap wood table that I made last week, which itself makes a nice hiding spot for this.

I spent maybe $35 in wood and $5 for the carriage bolts. But I also spent a lot on tools. This was my first attempt at doing dowel joinery, and I had to buy a dowel jig, and some better drill bits, etc.. It will be a long time before I try dowel joints again. It’s a PITA with just hand tools.

Music Theory and White Supremacy

What happens when you realize “music theory” actually means “the harmonic style of certain 18th century European musicians”?

Music Theory and White Supremacy

And what if you then start paying attention to the explicit intentions of the 20th C’s foremost music theorists and notice that they are, in fact, full of white supremacist cliches? And it’s still happening.

Or if you like pictures:

Beethoven Sucks At Music

Stimulus

Kevin is puzzled.

So what’s the problem? We know that the vast majority of Republicans don’t really care about the budget deficit, so it can’t be that. Relieving the financial stress on millions of voters would surely be good for Donald Trump, so partisan politics can’t be the answer. Everyone in Congress represents a state that desperately needs help, so it can’t be a geographic thing.

And yet Republicans refuse to support a serious stimulus/rescue plan. I really, truly don’t understand. Is it just habit? Automatic opposition to anything Democrats like? What on earth is the problem?

Lemme esplain.

They’re going to use Dems’ refusal to vote for the stimulus bill in campaign ads.

They’re not going to say “Senator Foo wouldn’t vote for COVID19 stimulus relief because he thought it was too skimpy.” They’re just going to say the first part.

You’re welcome.

Defund These Fuckers

Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco took office in 2011 with a bold plan: to create a cutting-edge intelligence program that could stop crime before it happened.

What he actually built was a system to continuously monitor and harass Pasco County residents, a Tampa Bay Times investigation has found.

First the Sheriff’s Office generates lists of people it considers likely to break the law, based on arrest histories, unspecified intelligence and arbitrary decisions by police analysts.

Then it sends deputies to find and interrogate anyone whose name appears, often without probable cause, a search warrant or evidence of a specific crime.

They swarm homes in the middle of the night, waking families and embarrassing people in front of their neighbors. They write tickets for missing mailbox numbers and overgrown grass, saddling residents with court dates and fines. They come again and again, making arrests for any reason they can.

One former deputy described the directive like this: “Make their lives miserable until they move or sue.”