Respect to Jake Conroy and friends for putting together and organizing the Seattle Burrito Coalition / All Fired Up Coalition. We wrapped and distributed 100+ burritos today to the homeless population south of the West Seattle Bridge. It was my first time helping out and I was glad I got to be a part of it.

Seattle’s meteoric rise to become a city of, and for, millionaires has had the simultaneous consequence of an explosion in the numbers of homeless people here. I hear lip service paid to the problem all the time with barely anyone – certainly not politicians – doing enough. Politicians will never save us. So a high five to Jake for taking action and actually doing something to offer some level of relief. The people we met were very thankful.

My friend David M. Russell is smart. And good with words. And despises the president as much as I do. Maybe more. Well said, David:

“Trump has to know the end is near. He is literally setting everything he can on fire.

He just absolutely FUCKED the health insurance market. Neither he nor the GOP ever had a plan, and now the entire market could collapse and we’ll all be paying more until it does.

He’s going to backdoor us out of the Iran nuclear treaty, which betrays our allies and will bring Iran closer to a nuclear weapon.

He’s moving forward on everything he can that pollutes our air, land and water so that coal barons and oil companies can profit.

He’s pushing us hard towards real conflict with North Korea, which would essentially sacrifice the lives of countless thousands of South Koreans.

He’s at war with women in every imaginable way and is working to codify his sexist beliefs.

He’s at war with the LGBTQ community, and he’s working to codify his bigotry.

He’s at war with virtually every non-white population in America — not the least of which is the 3.5 million Americans in Puerto Rico, whom he would very much like to abandon — and he’s working to codify his racism.

He has obstructed justice, in regard to the Russia investigation. A crime. And he admitted it.

He lies to the American public no fewer than 5 times a day on average.

He is in clear violation of the emoluments clause and has been since the moment he was sworn in.

He constantly attacks the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press, two of the foundational principles of this nation.

I could go on and on, but do I need to? Not if you follow the unfortunately all-too-real news. He does everything any demagogue in history has done.

He is desperate to undo anything and everything done by America’s first other-than-white President — from the ACA to the bike rack for shared bicycles at the White House — because the Republican Southern Strategy can’t survive if their racist supporters see an other-than-white person succeeding as Obama did, despite the profound and unprecedented irrationality he faced from conservatives.

Trump has to go. Now. And every Republican who refuses to stand up to him and his attempts to turn this great nation, the shining beacon of freedom and democracy, into an authoritarian dictatorship needs to go too.”

Sending some love and gratitude tonight to the Kessel Peace Institute and Professor Carol Glasser for having me back tonight to speak as part of the Social Justice Lecture Series at Minnesota State University, where we had:

– vegan snacks
– spoken word about changing the world
– open discussion about taking specific actions to bring about social change

If even part of the student generated ideas for action come to fruition, the world will see Target doing away completely with plastic bags nationwide, the NCAA revising its rules for coaches getting paid extravagantly while some players and their families struggle financially, and students being prioritized over profits at MSU.

Recorded late last night: a special last minute episode of Punk Rock Pariah, in which Cameron Collins and I dive deep into the Las Vegas shooting, and also cover Tom Perry, and the time we met Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, and the Dalai Lama.

Liston online here:

PUNK ROCK PARIAH Episode #47

Don’t print the shooter’s name. Don’t say it. Don’t tell his story. Let history forget him. By printing his story we make famous a human who otherwise would have been relegated to the standard garbage dump of history where most of us will eventually reside. By making him famous we give him endless permanent life. And in doing so we inspire other nothings to aspire to be somethings through the most diabolical of similar methods.

David Grenier on Donald Trump:

“I generally don’t care about Trump’s personality, but his handling of Hurricane destruction in Puerto Rico is kind of mind boggling. I’m seriously wracking my brain for any historical comparison in my lifetime and coming up short.

I can’t remember a sitting president disparaging a US State or engaging in so much victim-blaming after a natural disaster. Even Bush didn’t do that with Katrina, although his supporters sure as fuck did.

There’s always been at least a pretense that a president is president of all of America, not just president of the people who voted for him or the people he likes.
It’s not just that Trump has failed at being President here…. he hasn’t even tried.

More than anything he’s done so far, I think this shows that Trump doesn’t see the Presidency as a job, he sees it as a prize.”

I have been brought on as producer to help with coordination and completion of the upcoming “HOLDING THESE MOMENTS” documentary on legendary hardcore band Bane. The film is being directed and edited by Dan Elswick and Ricardo Cozzolino. Stoked!

Here’s what we currently need:
– TEXAS footage/ photos from ANY of the Texas shows from the final tour
– NEW ORLEANS footage/photos from the final tour
– ANY pre-2000 images or footage
– ANYTHING from shows overseas, ever

Important if you have any of the above: only send footage that you shot yourself or images you took yourself. Its important for the final film product so that all the rights to images and footage are accounted for and solid. Please send any footage or photos to banedocumentary@gmail.com

Follow us on Instagram: @holding_these_moments
Or of course on Friendster, MakeOutClub, or MySpace.

In one of my favorite places on earth: the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at Columbia University in New York City doing research for the day for my biography on the life of cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker.

To have been tasked with writing the life story of one of the greatest thinkers of the modern era is slightly overwhelming to say the least. I’ve been working alone on the project for a year now with another two to go. It’s fueled by self confidence and self doubt, constantly hand in hand, inseparable and perfect.

Being amidst his notes and papers is about as close as one can get to the man himself, long dead since 1974, but with a voice which still resonates across time, offering lessons.

“Isolation is unbearable because one is unbearable to oneself”.

Fighting fascism is being labelled as “domestic terrorism”. Someone somewhere must have had the biggest “aha” moment of the decade during Charlottesville that THIS was the opportunity to brand antifa negatively as protestors clashed in the streets with actual nazis. Frame it as a freedom of speech issue, with the anti fascist activists branded as anti First Amendment and therefore anti-American, and you just won the public opinion against them.

To capitalize on fear has been shown again and again in studies to cause even left leaning thinkers to desire leadership which promises a strong hand and social control (google “terror management theory voting”).

Two options for activists:

1. Continue on the same path, with the same tactics, and thus fall into the hands of those who brand anti-nazi work as terrorism. This includes arguing online about antifa and its effectiveness / tactics / approaches / reasons to be…because to do so is to give time (our most valuable resource) away for free, as a gift, to one’s opposition.

OR

2. Work in small groups. Get far more creative, strategic, smart and elusive. Even invisible. This doesn’t mean disappear. It means appear in new ways.

When, amidst a dramatic rise in anti-semitism and xenophobia, to be anti-facist is to be seen as a terrorist, the only solution is to suddenly no longer be seen.

The struggle is not over. It assumes new forms.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/01/antifa-charlottesville-violence-fbi-242235

I just got word that my friend Allie was one of the people run over in Charlottesville by the white supremacist, and seriously injured as a result. I had no idea up until she wrote me just now from her hospital bed.

Please check out her GoFundMe and support her if you can.

Even if you can’t help financially, please spread the word about her situation with posts (including the link to her GoFundMe) about how white supremacy, nazism, and racial hatred must not be tolerated, lest it destroy lives everywhere in its path.

She showed up. She tried to help. And now while she heals, we can support her for being selfless in the face of violence.

GoFundMe support link for ALLIE