Written and Illustrated by Koriander Bullard As I write this, it is March 3, 2017. Day 114 of a post-2016-election America.
I live in London, Kentucky. It’s a big place with a small town mentality. There’s potential for growth, but the churches usually protest away businesses. We’re just about to open a wing bar, as we just lifted alcohol prohibition this past January. I moved here back in July of 2013. At the time, I was one of a handful of mixed race women in the sleepy town. We do have Black and mixed race people, but few actually live here in London. Most commute from out of town. The locals whisper among themselves that those who are not 100% Caucasian must be coming from some place they call “The Holler”. I have no idea where this elusive Holler is, but everyone tells me it’s a new-age ghetto full of lower income people. The parents and grandparents of the Holler area moved from East Bernstadt, one of the poorest places in Kentucky, right next to London. Most of the neighboring village is White, but they have a section called “The Ape Yard” with market called “Ape Mart”. It was aptly named Ape Yard a long time ago, because “The Blacks” used to live there. They claimed it was a dangerous ghetto back then, but looking at it now, they only change has been that it’s citizens are now White. It’s still very dangerous to drive through there. Ironically, the people who accuse “The Blackens” of being lower class are themselves surviving on food stamps. Less than one third of the residents of London are earning more than $12 an hour. A bulk of the residents live in lower income trailers or single family homes, where they have moved in multiple children, pets, me-maws, pap-paws and on occasion, a roommate or two to make ends meet. It’s like if the country of China was bought out by the Precious Moments company. Until the election, racism existed, but was much more polite. Subdued if you will. Though I got to see it from a first-person perspective. My natural, dark brown/near black curls don’t always stay down in ringlets. If the slightest humidity occurs, if my conditioner fails or even if I just put on a sweater, my curls naturally morph into a thick Afro. I comb it out, put on my sunglasses, and then try and make a game of how much I can get done before someone grabs, pulls, teases my hair and tell me just how “wild and crazy” my tresses are. Re-iterating that I am not a petting zoo only gets me stern, disgusted glances, and a reminder that I am “wrong” for not letting complete strangers play with my Afro. I am told that I need to learn how to “take a joke” and learn to like what they are doing by pulling my genetically enhanced mane apart. That it’s wrong, actually, rude of me to say “don’t touch my hair” because as it stands, I don’t deserve the right to my own body. I shop at the local Sally Beauty, a franchise just slightly longer than a walk in closet. As soon as I walk to the Black hair care shelf (Did you note I never said aisle?) a bouncy red-head bombards me with questions, asking me why I am here and “am I sure” I will buy something. I describe whatever African Pride product I am looking for, which as usual, they never have in stock, and I am suddenly directed to a bottle of Hawaiian Silky or As I Am. With a smile, the red head informs me that these products work for my kind… of HAIR!! She says trying to turn the racist comment into one of concern. Posting online anything remotely political grants me a few death threats, a rape threat, and about a dozen or so misspelled comments about how “stupid” I am, because I support Obama, I support a woman’s right to choose, and I oppose general racism and bigotry. Oh, and I believe in Gay rights. Every article I write is wrongfully dismissed as “just crazy Kori ranting” and my husband is bombarded with people asking him why he can’t control an animal like me. So maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised when Trump was elected president, as the electoral college once again ignored votes and leaned towards the loser of the popular vote. Or as the FBI has deemed, in an event hacked by the Russians. But even with Russia rigging the election, there were still more than enough of “them” voting for Trump that it hardly surprises me. And I can’t even type one word without some man-child throwing a temper tantrum. “But Hillary did this!!” Was I talking about Hillary? No. I didn’t bring up the chipmunk at all. I’m not even a fan of hers, but at least she has never been accused of rape. “I bet you didn’t vote.” Cries another man-child. Actually, I did vote. Anybody who didn’t vote is part of the problem. And then of course comes the chest beating, the name calling, the dismal grammar and the rapist mentality that I better learn to like Trump, lie down, shut up and take it like a dirty whore. I’m an actual American, so you can get over my disapproval of Trump. Adult children, when shown uncensored film footage of Trump making disparaging comments towards ethnics, women and Gays, lie. They lie to themselves and to the public about this man and his running mate being anti-women, anti-LBGTQ and anti-anybody-not-White-and-Republican, yet they also re-tweet and post the very same audio and video clips proving these men are the wastes of life that they are. They share the “grab ‘em by the pussy” remark Trump made and then ask why we are angry. But why am I angry? I live in Kentucky. Didn’t I see this coming? Eight years ago, I cried, holding my mother, as we had just elected our first, and it looks like final, ethnic president. Eight years of harassment and being hacked later, I saw four potential candidates for presidency. All of them White. Zero of them with any concept of world history, who our allies are or any real plans once they kill off whichever governmental programs are putting their panties in a wad the hardest. Nobody with a solid financial plan for our children. But it’s all right, because it’s all White. I knew that America was too racist to ever elect another ethnic president, but I didn’t think America hated progression so much, that they would elect Trump and Pence, two wastes so out of touch with reality that they want to see a woman burned at the stake if she suffers a miscarriage, want to hold down a victim of rape and force her to carry a rapist’s baby even if it means she dies on the table, and of course have tweeted about ethnic cleansing with all the fervor of a skinhead on Ritalin. So here we are, 114 days later. And how does Kentucky look? Well here in London, where we used to hear one police siren a month down my street, we’re up to three a day. White Republicans tagging, breaking and entering and committing violence in the streets now take the place of our old crimes of meth dealing and bad driving. So far, no Black crimes, but the police are watching them instead of the people actually committing the crimes in my neck of the woods. My neighbors ~ the non-racist Whites ~ are panicking. Their yards, mailboxes and doorsteps are now lined with fliers for the KKK. Lynchings are being planned, and people are deciding which side of history they want to stand on. We now have KKK parades scheduled for Spring and Summer. One flier suggested we “bring the kids” as shoppers by the local Walmart tried to convince me these were “wholesome Christian boys” and that I’m “stupid” for bringing up all of the lynchings the KKK has been responsible for. Of course, non-KKK supporters are also talking of lynchings, and in a small-town area, everyone knows who everyone is in town, and I am being eyed like a criminal. I now walk my dog armed. I’ve shortened her leash and carry weaponry on me at all times. I am looking at buying a gun. I didn’t used to travel armed. In fact, I criticize gun owners as being made up of mostly man-children, hiding behind death toys because they’re too scared to deal with life like an adult. I still stand by that statement. And yet here I am, armed, because every day now since the election, my neighbors below me have started letting their large dogs into my yard. I haven’t had one day yet where I could take my dog out in peace, without having to chase something or make a threat. I hope I never have to use any of them. I’d rather be seen as a paranoid nut than a local terrorist, but I have my dog and my husband to think of. I hate being armed. The last thing I armed on purpose was an action figure. Weapons belong in that world of televised fantasy, not on me. But here I am, looking less like I’m checking the mail and more like I’m going to war. I’ve been told “round these parts” that it’s a shame I’m not a little more White in this regard. If I shoot someone in self defense, I will either be killed or go to jail. But if I was more White, I could say I’m a troubled youth or lie and say I have Autism. Such is my country at the moment. God forbid that they figure out my grandfather is also part Native American, I’ll have to protect my land as well. Lord knows my property isn’t even enough for a pipeline, but one good bulldozer can fix that. I share and re-post the valid reasons why I am angry, only to be told what a “liar” I am and that I’m just being a baby. I just “love” how White Republicans are, the same way I love a root canal. They hacked, harassed, threatened and even beat people and shot people over Obama being elected, spread lies about him taking their guns and about his American birth certificate, held Tea Parties and threw public temper tantrums all over YouTube, but now they can’t understand why everyone else is marching, protesting and demanding a recount. In fact, White Republicans want praise, a hug and a trophy for their preschool behavior, but have the nerve to point a finger at anti-Trump supporters and call us “babies”. I’m starring at an all White, almost entirely male congress, primed and ready to legalize rape, revoke a woman’s right to choose or vote, and revoke all citizenship status and rights to anybody of color or who is Gay, and I’m supposed to put on a smile and be happy about it? Make no mistake. I am not afraid. I am angry. And if you don’t like how the rest of us feel, too bad. Taking a page from your book, you can learn to like it, deal with it and take it, because we’re not accepting your fraud as president or vice. I had eight years of hate flung at me for my race, my gender, my stances and my president. My turn. Koriander Bullard is an author, cartoonist and human rights advocate. Keep up with her on Facebook!
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Written and Illustrated by Koriander Bullard Okay, it’s time to dispel another internet hoax. White people, read carefully. You’ve been the mass victim of a misunderstanding turned viral threat, and we need to clear the air.
Under no circumstances do we colored folk want you to be “ashamed” of your history as you have tried to make us. Don’t make that face, it’ll stick that way. You know what you did. Every time a Black person tries to achieve something great, you quickly remind us of thugs on drugs, who shot who and Kanye West. You bring up rap stars that glorify breaking the law anytime we try to celebrate Rosa Parks, and then you act innocent when we ask you to stop that. It’s not like we bring up Lindsey Lohan’s criminal record every time one of you does something nice in the media, or Adolf Hitler every time you want to celebrate a strong, White figure, but believe us, we know what you are afraid of. You’re afraid we will turn out just like the man running your favorite, conspiracy happy, pro-Republican, anti-woman, fake news website. But let me remind you that yes, you do have White people to be very proud of in your culture’s history. Franklin Delano Roosevelt for example turned this country around after the Great Depression, and helped jump-start the Social Security platform your current presidential choice wants to steal from your grandparents. Abraham Lincoln is always a favorite, George Washington, and without Queen Victoria you probably wouldn’t think about punching children at K-Mart to get to that pretty Christmas tree. Jimmy Carter has helped get tons of families off the streets through his charity, which also provides on the job education in building homes. In celebrities, you should be proud of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of the anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which sadly, has been misused and misrepresented by the media for a century. She took her pain from losing a child and transformed it into the act of writing a novel that forced people to talk about slavery in a new light, that’s a very strong figure you should be proud of. Paul Newman and Dave Thomas both went to their graves establishing businesses that not only provide us with tasty junk food, but also keep kids alive, educated and sheltered. As far as White men in history go, those two should be canonized for sainthood. Want someone current? Dolly Parton! This beautiful angel has done more to save children than most anyone you can think of. These men and women are important figures in your history, and you should be very proud to call them your own. As you would say about our heroes, they are all a credit to your kind. So then why do we get angry when you scream out “White Power” you ask? Simple. Most of the people stamping their feet, beating their chests and exclaiming “White Power” are usually hiding under white bedsheets, wearing questionable red arm bands or otherwise referring to President Obama as the n-word. Let’s face it, the only people using the term have been racists. “White Power” is not a term that elicits friendly images of saintly characters in White history. It is instead a term linked with the images of grown men lynching little Black boys, separated water fountains, burning crosses, water hoses and old, usually fat, racist, Christian men, throwing public temper tantrums, spouting out misinformation and waiving the flag of a defeated confederate army. And no, you can stop pretending this is “just about slavery” as you wrongfully dismiss us as being uppity Negroes. It goes deeper than that. But you know what? Let’s talk about that for just a second. True, we aren’t exactly thrilled that you chained up our ancestors, gave us Christian names, whipped us, beat us and made us do the labor now reserved for illegal immigrants, but slavery didn’t stop there. You sold apart families. You raped us, produced mixed race babies, and then what did you do with them? You either killed them at birth, mated them off like cattle to the darkest of your “property” as soon as they hit puberty, or you sold them as sex gifts, because a “High Yella Negro” was considered to be an exotic present. You beat children until they couldn’t walk, just for the crime of trying to learn how to read, used them to fetch your cotton and tobacco, and then threw the world’s biggest hissy fit when we wanted our freedom. But no, slavery was not the end. Not by a long shot. In fact it’s only been within the last 50 years that most of you have finally decided we were people too. Until then? We were a “thing” in many ways, we still are just barely more than objects the way you expect us to be grateful to you after one of your cops has gone and shot a child under the age of nine because he felt “threatened” by “it” being at play. We had to deal with Jim Crow laws, dealt with you telling your sons that our daughters were the kind you “play with” and not the kind you marry, dealt with you pelting our children with rocks for going to integrated schools, dealt with you burning anything we touched so the color wouldn’t wear off, watched you post signs showing which fountains we could use, which church seats we could sit in and just how far back on the bus we needed to sit to make you feel better. Now? We have the internet, where you send rape threats to six year old mixed babies who appear with their White and Black parents in Cheerio ads. We watch you insist Beyonce and Jay-Z force their daughter to kill herself because you aren’t happy with her Black features. We watch you disrespect and hack Black celebrities for the nerve of being in mostly White productions. When we are murdered without provocation, and we march in the streets to remind you that our lives matter too, you demand that we stop fighting for our rights to mollycoddle your feelings, and then praise you for it. Don’t lie. You do hate us. I know you do, because as soon as we had a half-Black president in office, you immediately went to find the most racist, sexist, intolerant wastes of space possible to replace him. You elected Trump and Pence because you want to erase any and all progress done by someone not the same color as you. And the more you lie, and play this make believe that Obama was some sort of tyrant, the more we point out how many things he did like Reagan, Roosevelt and all of the other White men you elected. You even do this in the media. You white-wash Egypt in almost every film about the country in Africa. Disney couldn’t have a Black princess unless her mother was working for her White best friend’s father. Most of the Black Barbie friends sold to our daughters don’t even have names, and almost every “I have a Black friend” production has to have said Black friend spout some stereotypical rap, catchphrase or have the character be a “bitch” or a pot head, but you only want the “street life” on your terms of course. And please don’t let a Black wrestler be proud of his championship, unless he gives equal praise to John Cena. Do you see yet why we’ve been angry for so long? We don’t scream “Black Power” or “Black lives matters” because we want to erase your history as you have done to ours, it’s because we have to remind you that we are people too and that we deserve to have our rights, our history preserved the same as yours. We have to remind our children that they are allowed to be proud of their Black heritage. We have to remind our children that they have any power at all. You never will. Your children will always be reminded of “White Power” as long as they have access to television. Despite what you like to pretend, your children will never have to be told why they should be proud of their heritage. Ours will. Koriander Bullard is an author, cartoonist and human rights advocate. Keep up with her on Facebook! Written and Illustrated by Koriander Bullard So back in May of 2016, I believe I introduced you all to the #FloatlessBoat here on Phoenix. For my new readers, let me catch you up. I currently live in Kentucky. I say “currently” because our Fearless Leader Matt Bevin is making me yearn for smarter pastures, so the duration of my time here is a card subject to change. But for the time being, I am a tax paying citizen in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Now earlier this year, 4.5% of my taxes were stolen by Mr. Bevin right out of Kentucky’s joke of an education fund, to go to immigrant Ken Ham, to fund a life-size replica of Noah’s Ark, in a flagrant disregard for the separation of church and state old Thomas Jefferson was so fond of. Oh you remember that old thing. Why it was the clause that separated us from the terrorists we keep bombing. Ol’ TJ wanted to help us stop the Christian version of Sharia Law, where government officials try to force everyone to pray exactly the same way as they do. Good ol’ TJ. Shame they don’t make presidential candidates like that anymore. Well getting back to Mr. Bevin, I noted in my earlier piece that Ken Ham’s #FloatlessBoat, named so because it cannot stay afloat in a body of water and therefore was transformed into a museum of sorts, was already at a whopping $92 million dollars, before the state of Kentucky under Bevin’s order, granted Mr. Ham an additional $11 million dollars to rip up the local flora and fauna and install an additional highway path to the #FloatlessBoat on top of a mouth-drying $18 million dollars sent separately with love, from Mr. Bevin. Matt Bevin slashed our childrens’ educational funds and recently our it-was-working-fine healthcare marketplace KYNect, killing several cancer patients by cutting off their life saving medical insurance by the way, to fund the #Floatlessboat. I will say that again. He killed children and destroyed surviving childrens’ education to fund a #FloatlessBoat. Now I’m curious. This fake “pro-lifer” who talks up the virtue of forcing women to keep unwanted children, just got several cancer ridden children murdered by cutting off their medical insurance. We’re not really “precious lives” after birth, now are we, kiddies? But I digress. What could possibly be more important than the health and education of our children? Dinosaurs on the Ark. That’s what. Of course, it all makes sense to me now. Who needs children surviving cancer or growing up smart, when you can have a dinosaur on a #FloatlessBoat? I am not making this up. If you go to Google right now, and type in “Dinosaur Ark Kentucky” and one of the top ten pictures will likely come from the Huffington Post, of a little boy glaring at one of Ken Ham’s dinosaurs. Additional photos from Forbes, the New York Post and several other news outlets show confused families, staring into a wooden crate, with dinosaurs inside. A friend of mine spent the $30 recently to go see the #FloatlessBoat. I asked him why there were dinosaurs on the Ark. And this is the explanation I was given:
“According to Ken Ham, all museum dinosaur skeletons are fake, developed with ivory and plasticine to test our faith. Real dinosaurs were somewhere between a dalmatian and a tiger in size, depending on species. As the penguins were waddling behind the lions to board the Ark, Noah found a few straggler dinosaurs on the side of the boat. A myriad of species, they were at an odd number, and therefore it was unlikely that they would be able to mate with their own kind post-flood. But taking pity on the savage beasts, Noah constructed a small crate with wide, wooden slats, ushered the dinosaurs inside the crate, nailed it shut, and then pushed the crate up the ramp behind the penguins and safely inside the Ark, at the end of the row, past the horses, gazelles and antelopes. He personally kept watch over them, afraid they would get out and bother the tigers. After the boat crashed in modern day Turkey or Syria, the dinosaurs got off first, walked into the ocean and drowned. I then asked the curator what happened to the unicorns, but they insisted unicorns do not exist.” At no point in this conversation did my friend smile, laugh or make any indication that the above was in jest. This is actually what employees of Ken Ham’s Ark believe. After hearing this, I flipped through my copy of the Bible. I then went to my local Walmart, which carries about five other versions of the “Good Book” for different branches of Christianity. Let me be clear. There are no dinosaurs in the Bible. None. Historians for generations have labeled the tale of Noah’s Ark as one of pure fabrication. While there was a man matching the description of Jesus in world history, albeit not necessarily in the “I’m walking on water sense” Noah and Moses are considered to be two characters based in fiction. Even if a Noah could be found, no relics of the Ark have been recovered, and it is highly unlikely that Noah could have gotten penguins to walk from the antarctic to the middle east to board a boat with African lions outside modern day Turkey. So proving that the Ark existed outside of faith has been an uphill battle for Christians. But let’s put away pesky science and history for just a moment. Let’s pretend that this was in fact “reality” and Noah’s Ark did exist. Now size wise, there seems to be a discrepancy between the Catholic, Jewish and Christian interpretations of the exact size of Noah’s Ark. So aiming for middle ground, we’re going to say it was 75 feet wide by 45 feet tall. In comparison, it was the length of a football field, while the Titanic was the length of three football fields, making the Ark one third the size of the Titanic. Now while some dinosaurs were slightly shorter than a human, the ones at Ken Ham’s display are shown at the wrong size, most notably the brachiosaurus, which were generally around 30 feet tall. In layman’s terms, this was a 3 story tall dinosaur. Even if by faith alone, the dinosaurs’ weight would not have sunk the Ark, it isn’t very likely they could fit into a tiny crate and drifted peacefully next to the lions and penguins, unless we’re talking about an underfed velociraptor or a coelophysis with the stomach flu. The thought of a pack of dinosaurs sitting pretty inside the Ark is just as laughable as the thought of a vegan lion who only eats the oats and hay Noah’s sons allegedly brought on board and doesn’t wan to nibble at the gazelles. The exhibit not only is scientifically, historically and mathematically incorrect, it’s not even accurate in the biblical sense! The Bible itself makes no mention of dinosaurs in any shape or form, and therefore cannot be used to back up Ken Ham’s bloated #FloatlessBoat. Contrary to popular fiction, this is not about faith. This is about an immigrant being granted money from a political thief who siphoned said cash from our childrens’ health and education to pay for a lie. A lie in the form of #DinosaursOnTheArk. Koriander Bullard is an author, cartoonist and human rights advocate. Keep up with her on Facebook! Written and Illustrated by Koriander Bullard Cancer. Autism. Hacking. What do these three things have in common?
If you haven’t suffered from it, you know somebody who has. I was hacked several times between 2010 and 2011. I’ve had everything from exposed emails to pictures of me with photoshopped male genitalia added on to having my grandmother’s address shared on a public hate shrine. I’m still standing. A friend of mine had his information stolen two years ago by LizardSquad, when they decided to be mad at PlayStation. He’s still standing. Hillary Clinton has been hacked several times, with the most famous hack being from WikiLeaks. She’s still standing, and as of this writing, still in the running for president. As I type this, I am staring at a white and gray screen on my phone, the glare coming from my Twitter app, which thanks to yet another useless, wasteful DDOS attack, is now hanging on life support, trying to squeak enough juice to send my tweet. Amazon and Netflix are also ghosting, suffering from a similar DDOS attack. The three apps host their content on servers from DYN and AWS respectively, and while the outage initially only hit the east coast, here in Kentucky, I just got slammed. Somewhere, Anonymous, WikiLeaks and a litany of other hackers are snickering and giggling in their basements, actually deluding themselves into thinking that a DDOS against Twitter is somehow “sticking it” to the imaginary entity known as “The Man”. Are we done yet? Since 2010, we’ve been living in fear of a group of adults – yes folks, adults, not teenagers and definitely not children – who hack websites, data dump financial, medical and other personal records, and then parade around as a modern day Robin Hood. Not only do we stand still and let it happen, we actually encourage it. We mollycoddle their feelings on the rare occasion one of them gets arrested, we blame mental disorders for their sophomoric comments, and then we don our tin foil hats and declare to our children that hacking equates to heroism. And all the while, we are told that they are hacking and attacking for “us”. They are sending a message to “The Media” and taking them down. Okay. It’s fact checking time. First of all, no they are not. The oh so evil “Media” is actually doing just fine. In fact, they probably owe these hackers a thank you e-card for all their antics. Instead of reporting on important things like fires in your neighborhood or the latest local crime, they now have to devote somewhere between seven and ten minutes of television time per thirty minute block to who got hacked, whose email got exposed and what website went dark from a DDOS. It’s distraction television at it’s absolute best, and nobody in “The Media” has to write a single word. They can just copy and paste whatever the hacker has posted on their Facebook account, grab an analyst to say something obvious, and boom. Work is over. If anybody is supporting “The Media” it is most definitely these hackers. Second, for a group of people who are super anti-corporate, they sure are known by their corporate images, aren’t they? Anonymous is probably the best assembled group of hackers out there. Out of all of the groups, this is the one that has been the most consistent and organized, and nobody can take that away from them. But consistency is both their upper hand and their downfall in this argument. Consistently, they have declared war on “The Media” and on anything corporate. They milk the late 1960’s and mid 2010’s hippie and millennial philosophies that there should never ever, under any circumstance be a corporation or any business with more than 300 employees. That all businesses should be “mom and pop” forever, and that if they become large enough to be a corporation, they are instantly “evil” and must be shut down and “exposed” via poorly photoshopped memes and hacking. But our friendly, neighborhood anons, are wearing a corporate logo on their faces. Each bears the image of V, the lead character in the comic book V for Vendetta. The character originally debuted in the British anthology Warrior, owned by publisher Quality Communications, and was later sold off to Vertigo, which is a subsidiary for DC Comics, which is a subsidiary of Warner Brothers. So this isn’t just a corporate owned image, it’s a corporate owned image several times over. And third, the people who are routinely harmed by hacking and DDOS attacks… are not even media sponsored at all. They’re us. Each year when PlayStation Network is shut down, do you think Sony is harmed by it? No. Of course not. In fact, while the hackers have led us to believe that they are doing this to “help” Sony learn about “flaws” in PSN while also making fun of them online and leading the public to complain on social media, sales of their games have not been hampered in any way. The same is said for Microsoft when every Christmas, XBOX Live goes dark. Similarly, Twitter’s parent company isn’t sweating this morning’s DDOS anymore than your local bank did the last time they were hacked. Having to install yet another security measure is a mild inconvenience to “Big Business” and by next week, this will be entirely forgotten. Hackers swear they do this to protect “us”. You know, the “little guys”. But “we” are the only people they hurt. How many “mom and pop” stores rely on Twitter to get the word out for their businesses? Without social media, which provides a cheap, mostly free advertising platform, these precious stores don’t have a leg to stand on. No ads? No online word of mouth? No business, and they close doors. It’s that simple. And what about everyone else? Sure, Sony will survive the next hack, but did I really need to see that Jennifer Adams of 123 Noneofmybusiness Lane just turned six and likes Skylanders? Do I need to know her mother’s credit card number? Her father’s social security number? Of course not, but thanks to last year’s public doxxing, I now can Google their financial records, social security numbers and everything I need to pose as a six year old Skylander player. Or worse, I have all the information to visit their house in the middle of the night, as I can also Google their ADT codes, thanks to adjacent doxxing done for other corporate websites they use. See how this gets out of hand? And the fourth thing is the hypocrisy of it all. Aside from the wearing of a corporate logo issue and the blatant “I’m helping the media I hate by giving them a story to report on” parade, we also have a lovely dose of bias to be dished out. When Wikileaks hacked Hillary Clinton, they said this was their effort to “expose” her. I always laugh when a hacker threatens to expose anybody, because they can’t seem to expose themselves without screaming, hence the use of cartoon characters and logos as their photo ID on social media. Those who are untouchable shouldn’t fear having their faces online, but I digress. So they data-dump some emails. Whoop dee do. She’s still in the running, so obviously, this was a waste of time. So why not hack Donald Trump? Think about it. Between the two presidential candidates, he’s been the biggest media monkey there is. Multiple television shows, corporate licensed dolls, he even has two different Pokemon in his likeness. He is “The Media”’s biggest bimbo, a walking, talking corporate logo in a cheap toupee. Plus, it’s been publicly documented by the Republican party and once again, “The Media” that he is and always has been a lecher. He’s currently being sued for raping a 13 year old little girl, and he has been outed for peeping in on underage girls as they dressed for the Miss Teen USA pageants. Anonymous claims they detest pedophiles, evident by their successful #OpPedoChat in which they have gotten several of these monsters thrown in jail, and yet, here is a prime candidate for a dox. A media-backed, corporate pedophile. So why isn’t Trump being hacked? I’ve asked a few hackers myself, and the response I get is amazing. They shuffle their feet, stare at the floor, and mumble a defensive “well…. WE’RE GONNA!!” before the topic turns back around to some regurgitated slight on Hillary. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not the biggest Hillary supporter right now, but these are jokes I’ve heard to death. The closest we’ve gotten to an equal hack against Trump has been a halfhearted dump of sound and video files where he says disgusting tings about women. And for as great as this is for someone who hates Trump, let me be clear. I didn’t need the videos. I have Hulu, where half of the “tapes” came from. Most of these videos were shot for television, with just a handful of them being on the cutting room floor. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good start, but with the election just two weeks away, I was expecting a more thorough haul. He isn’t as technologically bright as Hillary, so this should have been more personal. The lack of effort placed on taking down Donald Trump emphasizes my theory that these hackers may be media sponsored. Regardless, we’re better off seeing these attacks as a form of cyber terrorism, and not as an extreme form of vigilantism. The novelty has worn off, and it’s become just general trolling, to the point where recent episodes of South Park have mocked the hackers as being nothing more than sloppy trolls. And let’s be real. These are not modern Robin Hoods by any stretch of the imagination. Robin Hood stole money from the rich to return to the poor. If he had access to the internet in his heyday, it’s highly unlikely he would have turned around, exposed all of the passwords of the poor, photoshopped a male appendage onto the faces of a few or told them to kill themselves. I’d like to think better of old Robin. Koriander Bullard is an author, cartoonist and human rights advocate. Keep up with her on Facebook! Written and Illustrated by Koriander Bullard I woke up glaring at my phone today. I couldn’t decide what story was angering me more.
Twice this week, we have stood by and done absolutely nothing as Native Americans, or “American Indians” as we have incorrectly called them since 1492 when Christopher Columbus arrived on what is now United States coastal shoreline, where he led a multi-man genocide, rape and pillage against the indigenous people while erroneously believing these were peoples of the country of India, have been watching bulldozers rip up their homes and their burial grounds for the sake of “business”. Over in California, Naval Base Coronado is under hot water for digging up a burial mound, home to the remains of the Kumeyaay Nation’s children, some having not been disturbed in more than four hundred years until the Navy decided to expand --for real-- the parking lot on the pocket island off the coast and across from San Diego. Back in 2002, the US Military had promised the natives that they would not disturb the area again for (their words, not mine) a good 7000 years “or so” after the discovery and re-interment of a centuries old little boy, whose remains had been scattered recklessly upon discovery, and who had to be re-buried in pieces. But the military failed to put this promise into writing, so they are effectively (stop me if this sounds familiar to you history buffs) going back on their word. Half a country away, North Dakota finds itself in it’s own brouhaha of social discord, as an entire burial mound had already been crumpled up like so much garbage by a bulldozer shortly before a protest could be formed by the natives owning the grounds. Energy Transfer, an oil company owned by Texan oil bandit Kelcy/Kelsey Warren, plans to rip up not only burial grounds, but also the homes of US citizens of all colors (White people, that means you too) from the site of the mound into central Illinois, to build an oil line that will not actually “bring jobs” as it will be employed by already employed workers at the current plants. The burial mound is owned by the Lakota, but since the Lakota people are “not recognized” by the federal government as a “federally recognized tribe” the nation isn’t even considered to be human, so when the natives reached out to the local police for help in protecting their property, the police responded by protecting the oil company ripping up the lands, arresting several people and sending deadly attack dogs, guns and pepper spray on not just the protesters, but their children. The media didn’t even start to acknowledge the Lakota as people in all of this until September 4th, instead referring to them by the slur term “Sioux” which is a 1760’s slang used in Ojibwe and French for “Little Snakes” and was invented as a derogatory term against the Lakota, but is now used in the media to describe Lakota, Dakota and Nakota natives. White Twitter is currently hashtagging it’s support of the natives, initial tweets criticized the natives for daring to fight for their own land. “Don’t they understand business?” tweets one redneck, while another chides “They’re DEAD, who cares?” Let me be clear. What Kelcy Warren is doing to the natives is the same as if I were to drive a bulldozer through your grandmother’s plot, shove an oil pipe in her coffin and then pepper spray your daughter. Are we up to speed now? Good. Actually, in 2011 the city of Chicago really did tear up a graveyard just a few years ago before Mayor Daley left office. O'Hare International Airport needed a bigger parking lot, so that pesky graveyard on church grounds just had to go. So yeah, it can happen to your family at any time. And that last comment by the way was what jolted me awake today. It isn’t bad enough that here we are, allowing both government and big business to jack up burial mounds and established, legally paid for homes, but we are also allowing them to attack children. Don’t make excuses for these police officers, and spare me the rhetoric of how “pure and innocent” these poor dogs are. There is not now, nor will there ever be a good reason for a fully grown man, a decade or more past his first arrest as an officer of the law, to use pepper spray, an attack dog AND a pistol on an eight year old little girl, who is unarmed and trying to keep her home, which by the way, is on a reservation devoid of anything resembling commerce. Think about it. This little girl, one of several attacked I might add, is standing peacefully, unarmed, and this man is literally trying to take dirt from her, the only thing she gets to call a home or proper resting site for her ancestors. Did we really need to assault a little girl over dirt? Indian reservations are desolate wastelands. The government has made it public for generations that they barely allot anything sustainable to these lands. Businesses only set foot on these grounds to erect liquor stores and casinos, and when they can’t drive the natives to drink and gamble, they’re starving their schools. Many states will shut you down if you try to teach anything about native culture to your own kind here, and most of today’s youth barely have an understanding of their own languages, let alone actual U.S. History before college, and the poverty levels are so staggering here that the average young Native is not likely to make it to age 16 without having attempted suicide at least once. Their “health services” are stuck in the 1880’s, and we’re actually complaining and trying to take this “lush” trailer park lifestyle away from them? Once more, we are sending in police officers to steal dirt from a child by lethal force. Surely you can see what’s wrong with this picture. I have no sympathy for these police officers, government officials or any of the other grave diggers involved. While it goes without saying that the businesses ripping up these lands are pure evil, the cops deserve the full brunt of our hate in this situation. Mr. Officer, you have one job, protect and serve law abiding citizens. Instead, I just watched you sick a pitbull onto the face of a small child. The war on Native Americans is real, and we’re going to have to do more than just Twitter support if we don’t want to be next. Written and Illustrated by Koriander Bullard “Boy, these conservatives are really something aren't they? They're all in favor of the unborn.
They will do anything for the unborn, but once you're born you're on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that they don't want to know about you. They don't want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no daycare, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you're pre-born you're fine. If you're preschool you're ****ed. Conservatives don't give a s**t about you until you reach military age. Then they think you are just fine. Just what they been looking for. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. These people aren't pro-life they're killing doctors. What kind of pro-life is that? What they'll do anything they can to save a fetus, but if it grows up to be a doctor they just might have to kill it? They're not pro-life. You know what they are? They're anti-woman. Simple as it gets. Anti-woman They don't like them. They don't like women. They believe a woman's primary role is to function as a broodmare for the state.” - George Carlin, from the HBO special “Back in Town” September 17, 1996 When you're growing up, you tend to take everything around you for granted, and boy, am I no exception to the rule. I grew up in Chicago, a wonderfully diverse city with over nine million commuters each day, so naturally, I saw different kinds of people on every block, different cultures, religions and of course, people with different needs and life choices. Before I was allowed into the society of adulthood, I was given a full education on reproductive bodies for men and women. What happens, what goes right, what goes wrong, and whatever question I had that my parents couldn't answer, would be answered by Planned Parenthood. We had more than one within driving distance, staffed with people ready and willing to provide the right answers or brochures I needed. So imagine my surprise when I moved to Kentucky, and there was no such establishment around. In fact, the only two clinics within driving distance of my house are controlled by the local churches and are still providing outdated information. As an example, a friend of mine (we'll call her Linda) was told by a doctor that it was perfectly “fine” that she was ill and nearly died during her latest pregnancy. As long as the baby makes it, that's fine, even if you die. Even if you die? Ah HELLO?? If she dies, the fetus dies too. You actually need the carrier to remain alive in order for the slushy experiment in the womb to become an actual baby! But this is the type of “care” typical for Kentucky clinics these days. They are not required to provide more care than has been allowed by the state, and they turn their noses up at anything beyond their “religion” despite the fact that this country thrives off of the separation of church and state. And in order to get to the clinic, you have to drive past the scientifically unsound depictions of fetuses, as played by one and two year old children, being tortured and bloodied beneath misquoted text from the Bible, scroll-work posters about how children of rape are blessings from the same God who commanded mass abortions in 2 Kings 15:16, and the name of a Pro-Life candidate emblazoned proudly as the payee of the billboard. This religious manipulation is almost comedic in it's absurdity. It's difficult for me to believe that a woman's right to choose is still a political “issue” some forty three years after the Supreme Court upheld Roe Vs. Wade, correctly granting to every woman in the United States rights to her own body, the right to choose within the first trimester whether or not to carry to term something she may not be financially or emotionally ready for, the right to information about the body she has to live with, the right to a safe procedure if indeed she chooses to have an abortion. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised. After all, women are still considered to be “property” not fully human and highly disposable. Our culture teaches us that a woman who thinks for herself is not worth listening to, a woman who dresses in the latest fashion deserves rape, and that any woman who stands up for herself or makes any choice that is against that of a stranger's deserves death. Women in general are still fighting for the right to vote in states that have suddenly shifted open voting to “closed” voting without warning in the presidential primaries. 96 years after the right for women to vote was ratified, and 146 years after race was removed from the list of reasons to bar an American citizen from voting, and women are still no better off in the general elections than the average dog. Every political election cycle, the American right to let a woman choose her own path for the body she alone has to live with, comes up as though this was a “fresh” debate. Every year, we vote, rally, protest and fight through the streets, illustrating the scientific and medical reasons why not only abortion, but safe birth control and uncensored sex education are vital to the fate of our children. And considering the fact that Kentucky has an inexcusable teen pregnancy rate, alarming poverty rate and a growing rise in sexually transmitted disease, anybody with a basic, public school, 5th grade education, would imagine that sex education and access to legal, safe birth control and clean clinics specializing in reproductive care, would be an essential priority. And yet it's citizens, many of which are unemployed high school dropouts, not only vote into office women-hating Republicans, but they also vote to eliminate food stamps, access to free or low cost healthcare, access to birth control and anything to do with jobs or education. What happens when you are forced to live because a “pro lifer” bullied your parents into keeping you, and then your folks lose access to any and all means to feed and medicate you? Simple. You die. We have children in Kentucky who were forced into existing, into families that do not care for them, barely surviving in poverty and without an education. The locals have actually fooled themselves into thinking that it is better to die in poverty before the age of twenty, than it is to have been aborted. The very [people why lie to themselves and pretend they “care” about these “precious lives” are actually making it harder and harder for these lives to grow up healthy and smart once they are no longer pink, mushy and fragile. Food, non-slavery jobs, education and the right to decide what happens to your body, should not be played with as political toys. We as Americans deserve the right and freedoms to decide for ourselves where our lives are going, and the right to preserve our lives via food and medicine, without being spat upon and looked down upon by people who are precious more than strangers to us. When we vote into office those who destroy our American liberties in the name of false “values” we are in fact telling Congress itself that we want to become little more than property. It may start with those “mouthy” women who are no longer in the kitchen, but sooner or later, the men end up suffering too. After all, without women, who will be housing these “precious lives” for nine months? Koriander Bullard is an author, cartoonist and human rights advocate. Keep up with her on Facebook! Written and Illustrated by Koriander Bullard Recently, another senseless shooting took place in _________ claiming the lives of ___ people and injuring ___ more. The gunman, __ year old ___________________ is said to have been a quiet kid growing up and gave off no indication that this shooting would occur. Police are investigating the incident to see if this was a per-meditated attack. Reports are inconclusive as to whether or not this was terror related, though the secret terrorist group _____________ has taken to Twitter to praise the killings, promising that there will be more attacks in the future. It is currently believed that the shooter had the mental disorder ____________ and may not have been taking medication at the time of the killings.
In other news, President ___________ is currently at odds with congress over the need for stricter gun laws in the wake of this tragedy. The NRA is staging a pro-gun rally within driving distance of the massacre. Liberals are calling out the NRA for this tasteless rally, though the NRA claims this previously unscheduled event missing from their website was pre-scheduled months in advance. Meanwhile, liberal groups are finding themselves at odds over whether or not television, music and video games are to blame. A new bill to address the issue is being passed through the senate as petitions are gaining momentum via social media in support of the victims. The above is the script we have all memorized in our sleep. Mass shootings, stemming from American-based terrorism, has become as much a symbol for this country as the bald eagle. The excuses from the media range from mental illness to race, religious or sexual based hatred, to bullying. There are a few things we can do as a nation that can break this rhetoric, provide actual aid to the victims and their families, and maybe, with enough effort, spark the right conversations that can bring about sound change. 1. Donate blood and supplies. Every time there is a crisis, the Red Cross is usually available to accept donations of cash and blood, while more regional crisis charities are looking for clean water and medicine. Be sure to do your research before donating, as scam artists pop up all over the internet during times like this. 2. Keep religion to yourself. Whether you believe in the more popular gods or in your neighborhood Flying Spaghetti Monster, the fact remains that your religion has no barring on the current tragedy. It's kind of you to pray for the already slain victims, but the five or so minutes you either use in prayer or in trying to turn this debate into whether or not the media is attacking your religion can be spent in comforting those actually harmed by the tragedy or in providing blood and aid to the victims' families. See #1. 3. The gun debate. I lost family to gun violence. I've also shot more than one gun. Even if I was more interested in gun collecting, I wouldn't be so savage as to praise the gun in the wake of a mass murder. Yes, it's annoying to hear about the gun debate, but trust me, if the government wanted our guns, they'd have taken them 19 years ago, after Columbine. Worse? Time wasted on the gun debate means time away from providing actual aid to those in need, and it makes you look heartless. Below is a list of complaints we are finished with hearing from you guys: A) The 2nd Amendment states you have the right to bear arms IN TIMES OF MILITIA. Militia is a pretty word that means during times where we have NO military at all, bearing arms is a good thing. We have the Army, Navy, National Guard, Air Force and enough governmental backing that we don’t need some conspiracy nut in a trailer hoarding all the guns sold at Walmart. This is 2nd grade knowledge. You had to be taught about the 2nd amendment in order to reach the 3rd grade. Behave as though you graduated both. B) Nobody is coming to take your guns. Ever. We should, but that would require disarming Walmart first, and nobody has the time to listen to the crying over it at the big box retailer. This is America. And as stupid as an idea as it is, we will still let you purchase as many death toys as you want until you feel “safer” at night. Get over yourself. You're not that special. C) No, not everybody needs a gun, hence where we just had another shooting. I promise that you can arm yourself with as many guns as you want, but if someone shoots you from behind, those guns will have meant absolutely garbage. Guns rarely save lives. D) If your pretty little death toy couldn't save the recent shooting victims, then they aren't going to do any good the next time someone decides to start a massacre. With that said, please curb the Twitter hissy fit every time you get questioned for buying another gun the day after a killing. E) Teaching children to shoot has never stopped a massacre. It certainly hasn't stopped any from being shot in the head. 6. Please show the world that you are a human and not an animal. Please wait until after the body count has been tallied before championing the gun like it's a new god. The mothers and fathers deserve at least enough time to find their child's toe tag before you chastise them for not outfitting them with an AR 15. F) Yes, you can in theory kill a man with a rice cooker. But you don’t hear about mass rice cooker killings, now do you? No. You hear about gun nuts. I know you “think” you just made a “funny point” but you actually just failed. If this wasn't a funny joke in the 4th grade, it isn't worth typing today. 4. This is about human life. Act like it. We don't need your bigoted, anti-LBGTQ/race-related/religious-based/gender-fueled hate. We can see on your timeline you're already a waste of space, we don't need you to reiterate it. You don't have to pray for the victims. In fact, you don't even have to like them. Just keep your outdated opinion to yourself, at least until we're finished mourning. See #1. 5. Re-purpose the awareness. We're already aware of the massive amount of shooting victims. Selling a ribbon, lighting a candle and wearing a rubber bracelet isn't bringing anybody back or providing for the final costs for the families left behind. Instead, channel that cause-supporting “awareness” into a GoFundMe account to help pay down the funeral costs for the victims, host a rally in protest of whatever form of hatred prompted the killing and support of the killer on Twitter, or just offer emotional support to someone affected by the news. We have to be our own change. This is where we start. Koriander Bullard is an author, cartoonist and human rights advocate. Keep up with her on Facebook!
During a campaign rally at the Anaheim Convention Center in California last Tuesday, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders took aim at one of the largest worldwide corporations. In his usual fiery yet pointed style, Sanders said:
“Anybody make a living wage working for Disney? It’s an example of what we’re talking about when we talk about a rigged economy….Disney pays its workers wages that are so low that many of them are forced to live in motels because they cannot afford a decent place to live. People are asking is it right that at Disneyland you have a CEO making $46 million while they’re paying their workers starvation wages.” This didn’t sit well at all with House of Mouse CEO Bob Iger, who decided to privately bully Senator Sanders through a Facebook message. “To Bernie Sanders: We created 11,000 new jobs at Disneyland in the past decade, and our company has created 18,000 in the US in the last five years. How many jobs have you created? What have you contributed to the US economy?”" Oh, did I mention that Iger just happens to be a Hillary Clinton supporter who has made multiple donations to her campaign at $2700 a pop? And that his annual personal income from his Disney job is a whopping $46 million? And that corporate fat cats like him will be held financially accountable under a Sanders administration? With these facts in mind, now it is crystal clear why he’s gone on the attack against Bernie Sanders. Rather than keep it quiet, the Sanders campaign made Iger’s bullying public. So naturally many of Hillary’s rabid supporters have come to Iger’s defense, lavishing praise as if he has scored a crushing blow against the big evil socialist dragon. It must be nice to live in a self-contained bubble of complete rose-colored ignorance. I guess Iger doesn’t get that a mere 18,000 jobs in five years’ time is NOT an impressive number to be boasting about. Like most bullies who are full of hot air and bluster but prefer to hide in plain sight behind shills who will stupidly take the bullets, Iger launched his minions/paid spokespeople on Bernie, trying to discredit the Senator by claiming that: “Mr. Sanders clearly doesn’t have his facts right. The Disneyland Resort generates more than $5.7 billion annually for the local economy, and as the area’s largest employer has added more than 11,000 jobs over the last decade, a 65% increase. These numbers don’t take into account our $1 billion expansion to add a Star Wars-themed land, which will create thousands of additional jobs across multiple sectors.” Uh, Bob, it’s me again. Oh you know, your dreaded enemy Common Sense. 11,000 jobs in a decade is still NOT an impressive number to be bragging about. Notice how there is no clarification that these jobs are permanent and for all we know, these could just be temporary jobs that have since been discontinued. The Disneyland resort may have added millions to the local economy, but for whom? Chances are the smaller businesses that struggle to survive against corporate competition didn’t benefit much, if at all, from this so-called boon. Of course, not one person in the mainstream news media has addressed the fact that Iger, his spokespeople and Clinton supporters failed to address either of the primary complaints Bernie Sanders made against the House of Mouse; namely the noticeable lack of a livable working wage for the common people who are employed with what seems to be slave wages and the constant outsourcing of manufacturing under the belief that Americans don’t want those jobs. They’d rather have us believe that Bernie is a crackpot who has no concept of modern reality and the world we live in while they do. This is yet another example of the increasing attitude of Us Vs Them that the rich have waged against the poor and middle class in this country, with no end in sight. Then again, what would Iger or Hillary Clinton know about the financial strife of the common American worker? They came from well off backgrounds and have only gotten richer than horse manure over the years. Let’s do a little income math. As stated earlier, Iger’s personal income topped $46 million while the so-called “common woman” Hillary made a whopping $27.8 million from speeches and financial interests alone. Her husband Bill made a colossal $140 million in personal income last year alone. Let’s contrast that to Sanders, who in a joint tax filing with his wife Jane made a mere $200,000 in personal income last year. Gee, I wonder why Bernie has his finger on the pulse of what is truly happening to the nation’s poor and middle class and not Hillary or any of the rich cretins who repeatedly kick us down and step on our backs in order grab more moolah from the sky. Iger, Hillary and their ilk have zero clue what it’s like to count coins while praying that it’s enough to buy a loaf of bread or a quart of milk. Nor do they know what it’s like to find themselves so financially strapped that sometimes the choice comes down to food or maintaining shelter. They don’t know what it’s like to have to part with personal possessions just to gather together a few bucks for necessities. They likely never pounded the pavement and spent hours online in a fruitless search for job, any kind of legal job. I imagine there will be some who will cry out that Walt Disney would be shaking his head in disbelief. Sadly, little do they know that Walt would wholeheartedly approve of the modern Disney’s treatment of their employees. Walt was fervently anti-union and believed in slave driving labor for very little reimbursement. It was not unheard of for animators at the Disney studio to work 18 hour days, especially when a feature length project was in some stage of production. Such back-breaking labor was especially hard on the women employed as inkers and painters. It was a common sight for an overworked woman to pass out on the front lawn. History has recorded several animator strikes at the Disney studio. The worst occurred during the time period when Walt Disney left for El Salvador on the sight-seeing mission that led to the Saludos Amigos/Three Caballeros double feature. The strike exploded into a full blown riot. Walt’s brother Roy did the sensible thing and gave the strikers what they wanted: better pay and more reasonable work hours. How did Walt take the news that his brother had settled the strike? Naturally, he was furious. He felt his employees should have just been grateful to have a job at all. Sound like a familiar excuse espoused by the corporate world today? Richard Fleischer, who directed 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for the Disney Studio in 1954, recalled in his autobiography that Walt had a penny-pinching, mean attitude towards his employees at times. He also recalled how Disney put the kibosh on a plum offer for him to direct the iconic Spencer Tracy western Bad Day at Black Rock in an attempt to keep him at the studio. So what I’m trying to say here is very simple. The vile, often evil attitude of the Disney Company today is just corporate tradition at the House of Mouse. And it isn’t going to change any time soon. By denying their workers a decent living wage and harassing those who dare call them out on it, Iger and his ilk have pretty much, like Walt Disney often did, told the common man and woman to drop dead. Perhaps the time has come to give them a dose of their own medicine. Tell them to drop dead, on a financial scale that is. Perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to spend our money on Disney product. Then maybe- just maybe- they’ll get the message that we little folk should be treated fairly. Another step to combat this corporate terrorism is to stop supporting political candidates who are financially beholden to major corporations. The reason Bernie Sanders has struck a chord with so many in this election cycle is that he cannot be bought by the special interests. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton has sold out so often to the rich and powerful that I’m surprised she doesn’t have a ‘For Sale’ sign tattooed on her forehead or posterior. Written and Illustrated by Koriander Bullard Tuesday morning, my husband and I went to go vote at the Optimist Club. I had brought with me plenty of ID for the both of us, including my electric bill.
We were sent to the “Liberty Precinct” table, where an elderly lady looked mine and my husband's names up in a giant book, which has the name and address of every citizen in Laurel County listed. After loaning out my John Hancock, I stood beside the table and waited my turn to vote. I am despondent to say that my husband and I only made up five people inside the building at two o'clock, but I was assured that most of the county had voted earlier that morning, except for the veterans who mailed in a vote the week before. While this is a nice gesture, I was angry that more people were not lined up behind me, the way they usually are back in my hometown of Chicago. Am I really the only one who cares about the fate of my country? My husband John went to the giant, black tablet we are required to use for voting. He cracked a joke about the fact that he was raised in Florida, and talked about how embarrassed he was that his home state was the site of the “Dangling Chad” incident. Oh, how ominous we are before lunch. After John stepped to the side, it was my turn to vote. An elderly man jammed a cartridge into the tablet's slot, tapped a key code in, and waited for the screen to say “welcome” before I was able to vote. I looked at the giant, blue screen and it's white lettering, (ominous to those of us with computers) clicked on “Bernie Sanders” and hit “vote”. The machine asked me to review my vote. I was satisfied. I hit the green “Confirm Vote” button, and the screen thanked me before a reset. I went home and anxiously watched my phone, waiting for the result of the primary. And that was Tuesday, May 17th, 2016. Today is May 23rd, 2016. We still do not have the results. CNN initially stated that Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton were tied at 1700 votes a piece. One hour later, they erased 300 votes for Bernie, but kept the number stagnated for Hillary. They refuse to answer the question of where those 300 people just went. Bernie is satisfied to have at least tied with Hillary, while Hillary declared herself the winner via Twitter one hour before the polls closed. Thirty three counties in the state of Kentucky are reporting voter fraud. Pike County had all of it's votes ERASED. For those keeping score at home, that's roughly 17,000 people whose votes were wiped clean. More than half of the state is reporting they are STILL counting the votes from Tuesday, and therefore have not yet initiated a recount, though most counties are screaming for it. After the polls closed at 6pm Tuesday, officials were insisting the primaries ~ traditionally an open vote ~ was now a “closed” vote, open only to “certain” people. Every citizen in Kentucky is demanding a recount. And how is the Democratic Party handling this? By demanding that Bernie split his delegates with Hillary. Why? Now we all know that Kentucky is a corrupt state. In fact, since it's a “Commonwealth” it's legally considered to be it's own country almost, playing by it's own rules. Just last year, Governor Matt Bevin was sworn into office right after the word came out that the election was rigged. The state acknowledged publicly that voter fraud had taken place, but they declined to initiate a recount, though petitions online are swimming in signatures for it. But to not only rig the tablet machines, but to also suddenly declare this a “closed” vote right after people already voted is just plain sloppy. It's like the criminal responsible wants to be caught in the act. But why? Why go through the trouble of making it crystal clear you are rigging the election? Why make it so obvious, unless this is to distract us from an ever worse problem down the road? Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have both been outed by the press for having their “people” rig the machines on their behalf. They are both corrupt with a long history of fiscal failure and demeaning outbursts towards minorities and the LBGTQ community and incorrect monologues about the internet, marijuana and a woman's right to choose. In this progressive day and age, it makes no sense to have either in office when we are trying to evolve as a country. Allowing either to have whatever they want is the same as letting the screaming brat at your kid's birthday party have a “special” toy for themselves, or letting them go first in the activities. It's a stupid, immature move that is done to appease the brat, but as we all know, will not make said brat happy or quiet, and instead just ruins the party for everyone else. This is not the time to sit back and let them have what they want. We are adults. Act like it. As an adult, we need to stand up and say “NO”. NO you may not rig my election. NO I will NOT sit back and let you corrupt this free land our forefathers fought for. NO you do not get to rule my country. If you're too adult to let the screaming brat have whatever they want at your kid's party, then you are also too adult to sit back and let other people make your votes for you. Don't make excuses. Don't pretend your vote doesn't count. Be an adult and fight back. One way we can start is by contacting our state election boards and demanding a recount. In Kentucky, dial 502-573-7100 8am to 4pm Mon-Fri. Koriander Bullard is an author, cartoonist and human rights advocate. Keep up with her on Facebook!
On Thursday, May 5, 2016, the New York City Council passed a bill that they claim is for the good of the environment and for all New Yorkers. However, this bill will do nothing more than further hurt an already financially strapped working poor and middle class struggling to make ends meet.
Wrapping themselves around the flag of being environmental do-gooders, Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito championed a five-cent tax on plastic and paper bags. Initially, a ten-cent per bag tax was planned, but it was slashed to five cents. Initially, it was believed that several thousand angry New Yorkers stampeding City Hall with the same fervor that bulls do at a rodeo was the reason why the proposed tax was slashed in half. Sadly, the truth behind the reduced amount was that Mark-Viverito was one vote shy of a majority yes vote and scrambled to flip no votes. The bill passed with 28-20, with three Council members abstaining from a final vote. Two Democratic Council members flipped their vote from no to yes last minute, giving Mark-Viverito enough of a majority to ensure passage of the bag tax. In other words, more political games played at the expense of regular people like you and me. I wonder what sweetheart deals were cut to gain those extra yes votes. We’ll find out in due time! Champions of this bill have gone on and on about environmental responsibility and how this tax is necessary to reduce one’s carbon footprint. While I am definitely in favor of preserving and saving our environment, I am against politicians who exploit environmental change to gain what they are truly after: milking consumers for more money than they can already afford. There are two reasons why I don’t believe NY lawmakers have environmental interests at heart. For starters, if environmental waste truly was the utmost concern, the City Council would have voted to ban the bags outright, not merely levy what is tantamount to a fine or purchase fee to each plastic or paper bag used. The second reason may be a more cynical and sinister one. Recently, I read the bombshell book ‘Nation on the Take’, in which former lobbyist Wendell Potter describes in detail the ways that special interests and corporate businesses have bought their way into government. With that in mind, I firmly believe that the reusable bag industry paid off NY legislators to turn this tax into law. After all, every champion of this bill stresses that all New Yorkers should purchase reusable bags immediately. Mayor De Blasio, Speaker Mark-Viverito and the bill’s champions all deny that this bag tax is indeed a tax, citing that the city won’t be claiming one penny of the extra revenue a five cent bag tax will accumulate over time. While they may not immediately claim the bag tax money, just wait until tax time comes around. That extra revenue will certainly be taxed, going into governmental coffers. It’s very easy for politicians who are financially well off to believe that this bag tax won’t harm people’s wallets in a meaningful way. After all, most, if not all, of them don’t have to worry about where next month’s bill money will come from. They won’t have to count coins, praying that there’s enough to buy a loaf of bread, quart of milk, sack of potatoes or whatever staple food they can hope to last for a few days to a week. I doubt they know or remember what it’s like to sometimes have to choose between a meal and rent. They likely didn’t have to sell off large chunks of their personal possessions just to scrape together a few bucks for sheer survival. I doubt that they realize the impact of a five-cent per bag tax on plastic and paper bags will have on people who have to stretch every dollar or coin to the breaking point. Most telling is that not one politician in support of this bill has told the general public that five cents is just the minimum charge for this bag tax. A loophole contained within the bill allows stores to charge whatever they please as a bag tax if they wish to do so. What’s to stop an especially greedy store owner from charging as high as $1 per bag? Nothing! The bill’s champions claim that those people on food stamps, WIC or other forms of public assistance will be exempt from the bag tax. What they also don’t tell you is that this isn’t a total exemption. If these poor people dare to purchase a household necessity that is not covered by food stamps or public assistance, such as detergent or toilet paper, they will be fined 5 cents or more per bag. Not exactly much of an exemption, is it? Liquor stores are exempt from the bag tax law as are pharmacies. If environmental concerns were truly paramount, then one should wonder just why these stores are exempt, especially since paper and plastic bags are still being used. If financial concerns are taken into account, it sacrifices the large revenues that would be accumulated should a bag tax be applied to these outlets. As far as the claims that plastic bags are responsible for the largest chunk of waste in New York City, the facts tell a far different story. Plastic and paper bags are responsible for barely 2% of NYC’s overall waste and only 1% of city litter. So a bag tax would not make much of a dent in the waste problems of the city. What the City Council and Mayor De Blasio won’t tell you either is how this bag tax will hurt the livelihoods of over 1800 working families whose main breadwinner works in plastic bag manufacturing and recycling centers located in New York City. Meanwhile, the reusable bag industry has outsourced the majority of production overseas, so those in the plastic bag industry who will find their salary cut or jobs eliminated won’t have any luck getting a job in the reusable bag industry. One final kicker in this entire situation is that Mark-Viverito, the primary champion of the bag tax and the person most responsible for pushing its’ passage through the City Council, admittedly doesn’t even use reusable bags! She claims that the passage of the bill will now force her to do so, but I believe her about as much as I believe pigs will start flying in the bright blue sky. I don’t believe any Council members that voted yes will ever use reusable bags instead of plastic. After all, they won’t feel the pinch of five cents or more per bag each shopping trip. This bag tax is all about one thing: milking more money out of a city filled with people whose wallets have already been wrung dry. These politicians don’t give a damn about the environment, just filling the city coffers come income tax time, when this new “bag tax” becomes taxable revenue. It’s yet another sign that the regular people just don’t matter to those in power. |
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March 2017
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