Return of Rapists Rallies Cancelled! (I clicked on the page so you don't have to.)

Here's a screencap and transcription of the message from Return of Kings "author" Roosh V that you can share without driving traffic to his site. 

"I can no longer guarantee the safety or privacy of the men who want to attend on February 6, especially since most o the meetups can not be made private in time. While I can't stop men who want to continue meeting in private groups, there will be no official Return of Kings meetups. The listing page has been scrubbed of all locations. I apologize to all the supporters who are let down by my decision. "

If you were already planning a counter-rally, go. Odds are pretty good they'll all show up anyhow, giggling about how they "pulled one over" on us by cancelling the public rallies and meeting anyhow.  Turn up no matter what.  Show the world this shit isn't acceptable. If you were going to make a big, visible scene, make it.  If you hired that tuba player, keep them on. Have a fundraiser and donate the money to a women's shelter. Do SOMETHING. Don't waste this momentum. We haven't "won" this one yet. 



Before the whole mess was cancelled, a post discussing private meetings with "higher security" was kicking about:

"The world is moving against us. I’ve gotten reports of over a dozen organized protests at our meeting points.  Dozens more are being organized privately. Since this meetup was never intended as a confrontation with unattractive women and their enablers, I’m moving to save as many of these meetups as I can before Saturday so that men can still meet in private away from a loud, obnoxious, dishonest, and potentially violent mob.

If you take a look at the full listing page, you’ll see that some meetups have had their location removed and have instead been replaced with an email address or two to contact. If you want to attend one of the newly private meetups, send an email to the address(es) proving that you’re one of us. These are the three ways that you’ll be about to do that:

• If you’ve left a non-hater comment on ROK or RooshV.com using your Disqus account before January 15.

• If you have an active account on RVF that is at least three months old.

• If you can provide a screenshot receipt of one of my books (Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, Paypal, etc) that was purchased before January 15."
  
  (The post then further details how to provide "proof" of being "one of them" that is no longer relavent.)

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Toothpaste Shoepolish, or, Own your Shit

So, I was pretty damn hard on several of you guys last night about your responses to the #BayBridge action by black.seed  along the lines of "hey, I'm an ally, but I don't have to agree with every action, that doesn't mean I'm not well intended"

The dialogue went pretty much like it always does:  I'm hard on you because I believe in you, I know you're one of the good guys, you're just not yet aware of your own priveledge and need some more work on intersectionality. Here are some resources, I know you'll get it. How do I know you'll get it?

Because every argument you've ever used has come out of my mouth too.  And I had some folks who love me enough to thump it into my head when I was being stupid, superior, and privilege-blind without even realizing it. I've often been known to mutter "I should just put toothpaste in my shoe polish so at least they're minty fresh when I shove my foot in my mouth."

And last night, I fucked up too.  As I was having social justice conversations in half a dozen places, I committed a doozy myself. 

I came across this amazing album of the protest, shot by Brooke Anderson Photography: Stills of Our Stories & Struggles and just flipped my shit over this photo

I saw it, it resonated powerfully with me, I could relate to it,  and given the lack of data I could find, I made a stupid assumption:  that this was a white individual offering support to a BIPOC protester. I went on to wax poetic about how perfect an analogy it was for being a white ally. One some level, I *wanted* him to be white so I could better relate. 

Yeah, I was wrong as can be.  I was contacted privately and let know (more politely than I deserved) that both individuals in the photo are black, and were both active participants in the protest. I made an assumption about the racial identity of the masculine-presenting individual based on the color of his skin, and assumed he had to be 'just' an ally.  I am in the wrong, and I apologize.

I was wrong, and I'm owning up to it. I fucked up, there's no other way to put it. I'm pulling the essay I wrote yesterday about the photo series, and I'm correcting the misinformation anywhere I posted it.  This is how we do it. Because it's not "if" we're going to fuck up, it's "when".

How we handle it when we DO fuck up is what matters. That's where we're tested, and have to overcome our own defensiveness, desire to blame it on ignorance, and talk up how good of an ally we are the rest of the time.  If we get our feelings hurt for being thumped, start tone policing, and talking about "why are we being attacked for our good intentions" and take our ball and go home, we've failed.  We have to stand up, brush off, accept what our mistakes were, learn from them, and move on with the intent to not make that mistake again and learn how we can apply it to avoid other pitfalls.  That's the mettle of an ally

Check out the album. Donate to the black.seed legal defense fund to get these folks out of lockup and back into action. Own your shit and keep on fighting.

Mintily yours,

D.

"Medicare for All" highlights

For those of you about to watch the Democratic debate, Bernie's newly released "Medicare for All" plan is likely to feature prominently.  Here's the quick and dirty of this extremely clean plan.  It looks so workable.

Highlights: 
- 6 TRILLION dollar savings over 10 years compared to the current system

- A family of 4 earning $50,000 saves about $5800 a year from the current model.

- Businesses would save about $9000 a year per employee from the current model.

- No income tax increases on households earning under $250,000/year


There are numbers for everything. At a cursory glance, it looks MORE than sound, and is fully funded in decreasing order by:

- $630 billion per year: a 6.2% income-based health care premium paid by employers per employee. However this replaces their internal costs and saves businesses money.

- $320 billion per year: eliminating tax breaks for subsidized healthcare systems  that benefit pharmaceutical companies and health care corporations and hurt patients

- $210 billion per year: 2.2% income-based tax on all households. However, this replaces an average household healthcare cost of about $6000/year. A family of 4 earning $50,000 would pay $466 for all healthcare needs including dental, vision, prescriptions, and no provider restrictions.

- $110 billion per year: raising income taxes on the top earners (ONLY those that earn $250,000 year or more, and capping at 52%)

- $92 billion per year taxing capital gains and dividends at the same rate as earned income

- $21 billion per year closing estate tax and inheritance loopholes that benefit the super-rich

There's no damn reason we don't have this in play NOW.