Adventures of a Gonzo Journalist
Don’t just vote, get angry and fuck shit up.
The midterm election is quickly approaching and it promises to be a pivotal one. Understandably, many liberals are pouring their efforts into voter registration and voter drives with a fervor that hasn’t been seen in years. They’re hoping to channel all the popular anger at the state of things here in this hell nation back into the voting booth.
I want to tell you: don’t let them.
Posted in Creative Commons, Gonzo Notes, and Journalism
A year after Donald Trump’s election and, despite everything that’s happened, some on the left want the “resistance” to stay home.
No one expected all of the thousands upon thousands who came out for the Women’s March and other inaugural protests to stay engaged, but many have remained, protesting outside lawmakers offices against brutal cuts to health care or inhumane tax plans. Others have organized around radical, anarchist, socialist, and antifascist movements and issues of all kinds.
Overall though, the picture is grim despite some recent electoral victories (for those who put stock in voting). Each day brings some new atrocity or takes us a step closer to a pointless, brutal new war with whomever President Skidmark offends on Twitter.
Posted in Act Out!, Audio, Journalism, and Ministry of Hemp
On the first Wednesday of every month, I appear on Black Tower Radio to discuss my latest journalism.
Hempcrete is a simple and unique building material that creates sustainable, durable, and healthy homes. Leigh Humphries, a student at Cape Fear Community College in North Carolina used hempcrete to create a unique doghouse as her final project, but hempcrete is not just for dogs. It’s appearing in more and more buildings across the United States.
Plus, the Democrats are calling for a “summer of resistance” but the history of the party suggests they’re unable to embrace real progressive change. We look back at the history of the Wisconsin Uprising, and examine the problems in modern democracy.
Posted in Act Out!, Creative Commons, Journalism, and Video
We’ve got a hot summer ahead, and I don’t just mean record-breaking temperatures thanks to climate change.
Assuming the fuck-ups in the GOP clown car, currently careening out of control across our nation, can get their act together, we’re poised to see devastating legislation targeting some of the most vulnerable people in America. People are angry, and ready to active against the system, in a way we haven’t seen in years.
And huddling in corner number two — are the Democrats. And despite their feeble attempts at both resistance and distinct alternatives, their proposed “Resistance Summer” is designed to attract new activists and bring a flood of new liberal voters to the polls in upcoming elections.
Despite the catchy, chic, goes-with-a-beach-tote name, we’ve seen this sort of thing before from the Democrats. Indeed, while the party claims to support progressive causes, Democrats have a long history of sucking the life out of grassroots movements, taking their momentum for revolutionary change and directing the energy back into the American status quo at the ballot box.
Posted in Act Out!, Audio, Journalism, and Lee Camp
Gerrymandering, Voter ID laws, and the Interstate Crosscheck system are three examples of the racist attacks on voting rights in the USA in recent years. We can’t hope to reclaim government from far-right nationalists when millions of POC and other minority voters are turned away.
Also, did dropping bombs make Donald Trump presidential? The truth is that war is always waged for profit, no matter which party holds the Oval Office.
Posted in Journalism, and Lee Camp
Decades of racist attacks on voting rights have given the far right a virtual stranglehold on American politics. (And this doesn’t mean the neoliberal left is blameless.)
Republicans control Congress, the Presidency, the majority of state legislatures, and the majority of state legislatures. You combine that with the fact that most Democrats only defend their corporate sugar daddies and the result is a heavily right-wing agenda sweeping America. Many are now looking to the mid-term elections in 2018 as an opportunity to turn things around.
Efforts such as Bernie Sanders’ “Unity Tour” are meant to lure voters back into the Democratic fold and also to the polls. They also hope to encourage new candidates to run for office. Unfortunately, they’re likely to fall far short of their goal, thanks to voter ID laws, gerrymandering of districts, and a system called Interstate Crosscheck, all blatantly racist moves by the GOP which purged millions of mostly minority voters from the rolls or otherwise kept them home on election day.
