Thursday Music: Strange Fruit – Billie Holiday

Strange Fruit is likely the most powerful protest song of all time, and Billie Holiday was persecuted for singing it. Harry Anslinger, America’s first drug warrior, pursued Holiday relentlessly for her drug use and at one point actually ordered her to quit singing the song. Anslinger is long gone. Lady…

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White Privilege and Domestic Terrorism

Like many other cities protests are continuing in St. Louis MO. Protesters headed to the home of St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson (D) where they demanded that she resign. As far as I’ve seen reported, these protests were peaceful beyond the typical chanting and drumming. The mayor put herself into…

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Whitewashing American History via George Washington Murals

Another issue a bit out of the normal Blogging Blue world…but this is a little bit disturbing to me as an artist and a political activist. Here’s the full article and here’s a bit of background: The 1,600-square-foot mural series titled “Life of Washington” was painted on San Francisco’s George…

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Go Back To Africa

Go back to Africa…a little bit if vitriol that should never have survived into the 21st Century. Go back to Africa…something I wouldn’t be writing about except it’s being re-voiced by supporters of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. Go back to Africa…being said to people whose ancestors have been Americans…

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What’s the Deal with Progressives and Agism?

Just about a year ago, a candidate for local office visited Drinking Liberally to present a case for being elected over the long term incumbent. One of the knocks on the incumbent was the officeholder’s age put him out of touch with the district. Looking around the room at all…

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Of Race and Re-elections

A graduate student in economics at Harvard, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, has a piece in Sunday’s New York Times that reports on a study he’s done showing how Google searches can be used to track racial bias by state and locality and how that data can be used to show voting deficits due…

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More on the Prison-Industrial Complex

Opprobrium was heaped upon me by various commenters for my post Arbeit Macht Frei  because I dared invoke the dreaded Nazi reference when talking about our Prison-Industrial Complex. Phil, I’ve read the very same rants ad nauseam. It’s not like you had any news to report. I usually enjoy your blog, I’m a…

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The UN Launches Human Rights Investigation in the United States

Poverty is endemic to the native peoples of America.  Take this one small example. South Dakota is home to the 3 poorest counties in the Nation. I am very familiar with these places because 3 of the largest American Indian reservations that National Relief Charities serves – Cheyenne River, Rosebud and…

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Racism: A Conservative Team Sport

Ta-Nehisi Coates: The conservative movement doesn’t understand anti-racism as a value, only as a rhetorical pose. This is how you end up tarring the oldest integrationist group in the country (the NAACP) as racist. The slur has no real moral content to them. It’s all a game of who can…

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The “Friends” Defense

Tim Wise: I swear, if I hear one more transparently racist person insist they aren’t racist because they have black friends, I am going to shoot them. But not because I’m violent. I’m not violent. And this I know because I have friends who are pacifists. Indeed.  The whole logic…

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