Common Folk Collective » Rant

5 Comebacks For Your Racist Relative During The Holidays

thos — Thu, 24 Dec 2015 19:23:21 +0000

Thank you Franchesca “Chescaleigh” Ramsey. A worthy watch whether you have racist relatives or not. Luckily the few relatives I do ever see are the racist out of ignorance types and not the hateful kind, they just don’t have a lot of actual day-to-day interaction with non-whites (not that they necessarily don’t want to it’s just their reality is a 50 miles radius of 99% whiteness). So I have to remind myself to not get angry/frustrated with them, which automatically puts them on the defensive and only further alienates them, but rather come prepared with sharpened swords and mind darts. Francesca helps build the arsenal. Kill ‘em with wit.

Also, big ups to Boogie Down Productions “The Racist.”

-thos

(Mic.com turned me on to the original article/video)

Sigh Files

DCDan — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 22:40:52 +0000

Sigh, when how one looks is the focus of the press are actors are compelled to have plastic surgery and sites like usually progressive Gawker participate, it should make me want to throw in the towel, but instead, I think I want to double down.

Renée Zellweger’s New Face Is Too Real by Amanda Hess.

On the Perfect Crime

DCDan — Sun, 24 Aug 2014 12:15:59 +0000

Stephen Dubner from Freakonomics says “So what’s “the perfect crime”? It turns out that if you are driving your car and run over a pedestrian, there’s a good chance — especially if you live in New York — that you’ll barely be punished. Why?”

I’d argue being a cop killing a black male is probably just as easy.

DC Taxi Cab Protest

DCDan — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 16:08:49 +0000

Today DC Taxi Cabs are staging a protest by causing traffic slowdowns in D.C.

Their main complaints are about services like Uber and Lyft.

Uber will drive people out of NW on weekends
Uber does not discriminate by race when picking people up
Uber will drive people to SE and not claim they are off duty when asked
Uber never claims the credit card machine isn’t working

A local taxi driver, who requested to only be identified as “Schlechter Mensch,” complained “First they moved from the zone system that I could use milk a few dollars out of people who didn’t know better, to the meters which have such high fees Manhattanites think I’m ripping them off. Then I’m not supposed to talk on the phone the whole ride.” He told me while clipping a passing cyclist and throwing a cigarette butt out of the window.

Taxi drivers in DC, whose moral compass ranks right up there war profiteers and oil executives, will likely keep on complaining about this to every unfortunate rider.

Find more information here

The Revolution Will Not Be Monetized

DCDan — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 22:10:09 +0000

With apologies to Gil Scott-Heron:

The Revolution Will Not Be Monetized
You will not be able to stay home, blogger.
You will not be able to plug in, log on and sign out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on facebook and tumblr,
Skip over Hulu commercials,
Because the revolution will not be monetized.

The revolution will not be monetized.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Geico
Online with limited commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Obama
live tweeting and streaming on YouTube,
with Bill Gates and Zuckerberg sipping five hour energy
drink from a SXSWi sanctuary.
The revolution will not be monetized.

The revolution will not be brought to you by the
TED Conference and will not star Natalie Portman and Steve Wozniak or Colbert and Stewart.
The revolution will not give you six minute abs.
The revolution will not get rid of spam.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds thinner,
because the revolution will not be monetized, blogger.

There will be no pictures of you and Derek Jeter pushing that Living Social deal down the web on the dead run,
or trying to slide that LCD television into a stolen healthcare plan.
CNN will not be able to predict the winner at 8:32
or report from 29 tweets*.
The revolution will not be monetized.

There will be no pictures of pigs tazing down
people in the YouTube replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs tazing down
people in the YouTube replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Houston being
run out of LA on a rail in a tragic death.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Russ
Feingold strolling through Madison in a Red, White and
Blue liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.

The Voice, Real Housewives, and Glee
will no longer be so damned relevant, and
women will not care if Don finally gets down with
Jane on Mad Men because people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be monetized.

There will be no highlights on Tumblr
news and no pictures of Occupy protesters
and Michelle Obama blowing her nose.
The theme song will not be written by Miley Cyrus,
Kayne West, nor sung by Alicia Keys, LMAFO,
Bruno Mars, Toby Keith, or Bon Iver.
The revolution will not be monetized.

The revolution will not be right back after a pop up ad
about a white list, white hardware, or white people.
You will not have to worry about Intel inside,
solutions for a small planet, or thinking different.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not give you wings.
The revolution will not save you 15% on car insurance.

The revolution will not be monetized, will not be monetized,
will not be monetized, will not be monetized.
The revolution will be no podcasts blogger;
The revolution will be live.

Two Security Fails

DCDan — Fri, 14 Mar 2014 17:14:06 +0000

Today I encountered two security fails.
1) When chatting with Sprint customer support they need your account PIN to update your records. After the conversation is over they email your transcript with your PIN sent in the clear.
2) When signing up to pay a travel fee to gain entry to a South American country they confirm your signup by sending you your username and password in the clear.

Good job!

He’s Only Pulling Your Ponytail Because He Likes You

DCDan — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 13:03:16 +0000

He’s only pulling your ponytail because he likes you.

Or as I call it the conservative approach to feminism.

George Zimmerman X DMX Fight Canceled

thos — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 14:03:30 +0000

As much as I would enjoy seeing George Zimmerman get his ass whooped (regardless of whether you feel his killing Trayvon Martin was justified or not, he is a despicable human being for his antics post trial), I have to say I am relieved this debacle has been canceled.

I also don’t believe the promoter’s altruistic reasoning for a second, especially since he was the one who promoted this shit show in the first place (and released confirmation of the fight on the eve of Trayvon’s birthday. Really?!?!).

Read more, including the promoter’s response, on the notOkayPlayer.com post.

Who Pays More in Taxes, You or the NFL?

thos — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 17:49:14 +0000

Leading question of course, the answer is you (if you paid anymore than $0 in taxes). The NFL is a tax exempt, not-for-profit organization.

Granted it’s not quite that cut and dry, revenue collected from merchandising and the NFL network falls under NFL Ventures which is taxed as well as the fees the NFL League Office collects from the 32 club teams. I will also be the first to admit that I am far from being an economist but there still seems to be something wrong and shady here.

The NHL and PGA also fall under this status (the MLB gave up the status in 2007 and the NBA has never been tax exempt) and the Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation recently estimated that taxes collected from the NFL and NHL would be more than $10 million a year.

I learned about this incidentally because some members of congress are trying to levy this status as a pressure for the NFL to change the racist name of the Washington Redskins.

“Girls” or Life Imitates Art

DCDan — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 23:09:20 +0000

Like the need to gawk at an accident, I’ve watched the HBO series “Girls” and as my fiancé will attest I often comment on how ever character in show is a shallow, horrible person and I wonder if people like this really exist.

Today while reading a psychiatrist’s analysis of “Girls” it hit me, there are people truly this horrible and to find them all you have to do is watch any of the shows on Bravo. When Kelly watches an episode of the “The Real Housewives” and I’m in the room I have to do something that involves the use of headphones or leave the room entirely. The people on Bravo made me realize that “Girls” is life imitating art and there are people who are that horrible that deserve my visceral contempt.