//dropslash

I know it’s easier to be like ~boo hooo the world is so evil and there’s nothing I can dooo~ but it’s statistically and experientially understood, just by fucking 3rd grade logic, that a bigot will be less amenable towards the subject of their bigotry.

Bigots don’t just ~not like~ minorities- they don’t think we’re human. It’s not about whether they agree with you or not in the moment. Like, pause.

Understand this:

Calls to action for white people to oppose bigotry are calls for white people to position themselves as opposition. THEY ARE NOT CALLS FOR ~SUCCESSFUL DEBATE~

Do not think you are expected nor are you likely to just go around arguing with bigots and they’ll go ‘I agree with you because you’re white!’. 

Your job is to be sandpaper.

Every time they open their mouths to make a bigoted joke, or a bigoted remark, or post their shitty bigoted opinion online, you grate against them.

Your job is to make it hard to be a bigot or a fascist. Your job is to ostracize them. Your job is to speak over them the way they love to speak over minorities. Your job is to make it difficult, lonely, annoying, stressful and unwelcome to be a bigot.

When you are white and silent, You are making it easy. You are just letting it happen.

When minorities speak up for themselves, they are in danger, and the bigot just writes off our arguments as the chattering of ‘lessers’.

You, white people, whether you think so or not, are their peers.

Specifically those of you who look and talk like, to an outside observation, your average white american.

Bigots think you all think like them, but are too scared to say it. That, or you’re too much of a coward to stop them.

YOUR JOB IS TO PUSH BACK AND PROVE THEM WRONG.

YOUR JOB IS TO SEPARATE THEM FROM THEIR OWN COMMUNITY AT LARGE.

Scott Pruitt spent most of his career obstructing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Now this guy leads the EPA and is destroying decades of environmental standards. Makes no sense. He is denying what scientists have proved to be real time and time again—Climate Change. I collected a few articles if you have the time to read through them. Talk about it amongst friends and expose him.

University of North Dakota apologizes for ejecting a journalist at the behest of EPA chief Scott Pruitt during an official visit: http://www.westfargopioneer.com/news/4314077-und-apologizes-reporters-ejection-during-epa-administrator-visit

Pruitt’s EPA rolls back regulations on a pesticide that causes brain damage in children: http://www.motherjones.com/food/2017/07/bill-ban-chemical-epa-pruitt-trump/

Pruitt’s EPA repeals Obama administration emissions restrictions: http://www.overdriveonline.com/trump-epa-sets-sites-on-tractor-trailer-emissions-regulations/

EPA rewrites guidelines for evaluation of toxic chemicals: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-rsquo-s-epa-may-be-weakening-chemical-safety-law/

Pruitt hires an anti-EPA lawyer who has sued the agency numerous times to lead its Water division: https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060058019

New York sues Pruitt’s EPA for allowing dumping in the Long Island Sound: https://www.courthousenews.com/new-york-sues-epa-allowing-dumping-long-island-sound/

Pruitt insists that Carbon Dioxide does not contribute to global warming: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/09/epa-chief-scott-pruitt.html

Rundown of Pruitt’s 1st 100 days as EPA chief: http://www.businessinsider.com/scott-pruitt-epa100-days-2017-4

Trump administration endangers our health with its EPA agenda: http://www.theenergycollective.com/edfclimate411/2409875/trump-administration-outlines-plans-epa-bad-news-health

Pruitt’s EPA “out of control”: https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2017/07/05/scott-pruitts-epa-spun-control

Chicago Sun Times editorial on Pruitt’s EPA: http://chicago.suntimes.com/opinion/scott-pruitts-short-tenure-as-epa-chief-already-a-scandal/

EPA considers changing a rule regarding toxic mercury emissions from power plants: https://thinkprogress.org/mats-delay-pruitt-trump-5c9ad958b44f/

EPA budget cuts threaten uranium cleanup in Indian lands: https://www.revealnews.org/article/epa-budget-cuts-threaten-to-slow-uranium-cleanup-at-navajo-nation/

Scott Pruitt operates his EPA with lock-down secrecy: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/us/politics/scott-pruitt-epa.html

Editorial from the Chicago Tribune about how Pruitt has failed to go after egregious air polluters in Chicago: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-epa-0725-jm-20170724-story.html

Pruitt shirks on his mandate to enforce the law and collect fines from polluters (and how it will end up costing the taxpayer even more in legal fees): http://www.businessinsider.com/scott-pruitt-epa-lawsuits-courts-2017-7

Pruitt’s EPA rolls back regulations at the fastest rate in the 47 years since the EPA was started: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/01/us/politics/trump-epa-chief-pruitt-regulations-climate-change.html?mcubz=3&_r=0

A broad overview of Pruitt’s warped vision and his destructive administration of the EPA: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/scott-pruitt-is-gutting-the-epa-serving-fossil-fuel-industry-w494156

Opinion piece from the LA Times on why Pruitt is a particularly dangerous operator: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-hatchet-pruitt-20170702-story.html

Pruitt’s EPA cuts funds to clean up pollution in Houston neighborhoods: http://www.houstonpress.com/news/houston-activists-join-task-force-to-fight-epa-head-scott-pruitt-plan-to-cut-superfund-budget-9637595

Pruitt caves to industrial interests and rewrite rules so that utilities companies can increase levels of water pollution: https://thinkprogress.org/epa-rewriting-toxic-wastewater-rule-08a146b7f578/

The current EPA’s abominable record in enforcing environmental rules: https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-epa-enforcement-idUSL1N1KW1SQ

Pruitt’s EPA website has no section about climate change: http://mashable.com/2017/08/08/donald-trump-epa-website-no-climate-change-section/#BzNUIrc65iqy

Editorial from the Miami New Times on how Pruitt’s EPA will have a devastating effect on south florida’s coast and waters: http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/trump-epa-cuts-will-destroy-south-florida-beaches-soil-and-everglades-environmental-defense-fund-warns-9608031

i hope this helps all of you. ❤️

Here is the full version of my first comic for The Nib, which went up yesterday.

!!!!!!DONT LET THIS GO UNNOTICED!!!!!!

All Three Major News Networks Ignored Bernie Sanders’ Speech Tuesday Night, To Show Empty Trump Podium

As Bernie Sanders took the stage on Tuesday night, the cable networks continued doing what they do best – talking.

Fox News, CNN and MSNBC all declined to carry Sanders’ speech, instead offering jokes about the evening while showing live coverage of Trumps empty podium while promising that we were all, “AWAITING TRUMP” and “STANDING BY FOR TRUMP.“ 

In Fact: EVERY OTHER CANDIDATE HAD AIR TIME EXCEPT FOR SANDERS

As if these stations couldn’t get any more corrupt, The Huffington Post’s Michael Calderone reported that the media have collectively given Trump some $2 billion worth of free air time.

Don’t be fooled by the media ya’ll. You can watch his incredible speech here & remember You ARE his media

Source

and I got to tell him that to his face after his interview on CBS This Morning. Approaching someone like this isn’t really my thing. But being so well behaved all the time doesn’t seem to be helping people. It made me really uncomfortable to do it. But that’s how we change. We must become uncomfortable. We must act out of our comfort zones for things to change. We must call out the people who are doing horrible things when they do them. Hugh Grant must be made to feel uncomfortable for what he allows his company to do in the world. That is why I told him what I did today and why I am sharing it with you.

Before a segment I was doing on the movie Spotlight with Mike Rezendes this morning, I was waiting in the green room watching Hugh Grant (Monsanto CEO not the Actor) worm his way through the strong questions he was getting from the CBS team. His handlers clearly have been working very hard with him to give him every slippery non-answer to every question he was asked. I was beside myself watching this guy who is responsible for so much misery and sickness throughout the world slime his way through his interview I could not hold my tongue. He came through the Green Room door ready to do high fives with his press agent and I simply told him this…

“You are wrong. You are engaged in monopolizing food. You are poisoning people. You are killing small farms. You are killing bees. What you are doing is dead wrong. “

A bead of sweat broke out on his head…”Well, what I think we are doing is good.”

“I am sure you do”

When people get paid the kind of money he gets paid their thinking becomes incredibly clouded and the first thing to go is their morality.

He says Monsanto needs to do a better job with their messaging.

Hugh, it’s not your messaging that makes you and your company horrible. It’s the horrible stuff you guys do that makes you and your company horrible. People don’t walk around making horrible stories up about good companies because they got nothing else better to do with their time. People like you and your company are horrible because… you are horrible.  No matter how much jumping around you do on morning shows (where no one can really nail you down for the horrible stuff you do) you will still always be horrible, and people will always greet you the way I did, when you go around trying to cover up the fact that you are horrible.

Want to know more about the real Monsanto, and Hugh Grant? Watch this…

http://www.theguardian.com/science/video/2015/jun/04/undercurrent-monsanto-roundup-pesticide-herbicide-who-carcinogenic-video

There is a lot more horrible stuff to look at here.

Monsanto’s greatest hit jobs.

In 2003, Monsanto settled a lawsuit for $700 million with 20,000 Anniston, AL residents who claimed that a Monsanto plant contaminated the local rivers, lakes, soil and air with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).  Plaintiffs reported a range of health issues including cancer, birth defects, and neurological disorders.

NYTimes: $700 Million Settlement in Alabama PCB Lawsuit http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/21/business/700-million-settlement-in-alabama-pcb-lawsuit.html

CBS News: Toxic Secret: Alabama Town Never Warned of Contamination http://www.cbsnews.com/news/toxic-secret-07-11-2002/

In 2012, Monsanto settled a lawsuit with tens of thousands of plaintiffs in West Virginia for $93 million.  Residents of Nitro, WV claimed they had been poisoned by decades of contamination from cancer-causing chemicals used in the manufacturing of Agent Orange produced in a Monsanto plant.  

The Guardian:  Monsanto Settles ‘Agent Orange’ Case with US Victims http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/feb/24/monsanto-agent-orange-west-virginia

In March 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an arm of the World Health Organization, concluded in a study that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s widely used weedkilling product Roundup, was “probably carcinogenic to humans.”

World Health Organization: http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/MonographVolume112.pdf

Shortly after the IARC’s study was made public, France took steps to limit the sale of Roundup.  France has also banned the cultivation of genetically modified crops.

Reuters: Frances Bolsters Ban on Genetically Modified Crops http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/17/us-france-gmo-idUSKCN0RH1BV20150917#fXGsoHblh5ZgGJm3.97

Newsweek: Frances Bans Sale of Monsanto’s Roundup in Garden Centers After UN Names it Probable Carcinogen http://www.newsweek.com/france-bans-sale-monsantos-roundup-garden-centers-after-un-names-it-probable-343311

In September 2015, a French appeals court in Lyon upheld a decision that held Monsanto liable for poisoning a French farmer.  The grain farmer, Paul Francois, developed neurological damage after inhaling Monsanto’s weedkilling product Lasso.

Reuters: French Court Confirms Monsanto Liable in Chemical Poisoning Case http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/11/us-france-monsanto-court-idUSKCN0RA1UM20150911#bPqGhYIjCbbUQwBl.97

Le Monde:  Monsanto Condamné pour L'Intoxicite d'un Agriculteur Français http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2015/09/10/monsanto-condamne-en-appel-pour-la-toxicite-de-son-hebrbicide-lasso_4751628_3244.html

In September 2015, two U.S. farm workers filed suit against Monsanto claiming that exposure to Roundup caused them to develop cancer.

Reuters: US Workers Sue Monsanto Claiming Herbicide Caused Cancer http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/29/us-monsanto-lawsuit-idUSKCN0RT2L220150929#H4LdTbt1hK86CxcU.97

You can find reports of Monsanto products being linked to cancer and other health issues all over the world, for example:

Argentina is the world’s third largest soy-producing country.  According to Mother Jones, nearly 100% of the soy crop is genetically altered, and Monsanto’s Roundup is very widely used.  As the use of pesticides and herbicides in Argentina has increased, cancer clusters have begun to develop around farming communities.  A 2010 study at the University of Buenos Aires also found that injecting glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) into chicken and frog embryos caused the same sort of spinal defects that doctors have found to be increasingly prevalent in communities where farm chemicals are used.  

Mother Jones: Argentina is Using More Pesticides than Ever. And Now It Has Cancer Clusters. http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2013/10/argentina-cancer-cluster-pesticide

On Monsanto Suing Small Farmers:

The Guardian: Monsanto Sued Small Farmers to Protect Seed Patents http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/feb/12/monsanto-sues-farmers-seed-patents

An important perspective in light of recent events.

Today a renegade sculptor mounted a bust of Edward Snowden in a Brooklyn park — only to have it removed by the Parks department.