How Ferguson Showed Us The Truth About Police

Written/drawn/narrated by Molly Crabapple for Fusion. Presented without comment.

WTF Is Wrong With America: A Handy Infographic

Yeahhhhhhhhhhh this pretty much sums it up. Happy post-election day.

Republicans Can Be Hipsters, Too

Before I go any further, I just want to make it clear that I love Republicans. Some of my best friends are Republicans. Hell, my dad is an ex-hippy who voted for Obama in '08 and we probably agree on about 85% of policy issues (though occasionally disagree on the most effective means to achieve those agreed-upon ends) and he's a registered Republican, too.

(See what I did there? With the "Some of my best friends are..." thing? That was pretty clever, right?)

But this? This is hilarious.

I truly don't mean this as a post to make fun of Republicans; but rather, to laugh at people who are genuinely out of touch. I also wasn't lying about having Republican friends — I think a lot of people on the quote-unquote "liberal" side of the equation do unfortunately pass judgement on anyone who associates with the "R-word," and assume that they are all bigoted hyper-Christian corporate sellouts, which is both untrue, and unfair. I make no secret that I identify with more progressive social politics (although my expertise when it comes to economic politics is admittedly lacking), but on a very base and literal level, "right wing" means "small government, less intervention" and "left wing" means "more government oversight." Obviously, this is not how things always play out, but that's the trick with partisan politics that force us to choose between big government and liberal social views, or small government and conservative social views; nothing in the real world plays out quite as black-and-white as the options that we're given. That's the crazy part of the political clock, where people on the radical left turn to anarchy which actually has more in common with pure Republicanism (or at least Libertarianism, which has its own set of "better-in-theory" problems).

So tl;dr, I do appreciate this campaign's attempts to say "Hey! Some of us just believe in a free market economy where the government doesn't watch and control our every move! (a completely justifiable belief!) Just because our big-name represented officials in DC support Citizens United and claim 'Christian persecution' while trying to ironically dictate laws to women about their own bodies, doesn't mean that all of us fall into that category!" And again — despite what a lot of people in my liberal circles insist, not everyone who identifies as Republican is a racist homophobic misogynistic hatemonger. So in that way — yeah, okay, this marketing campaign makes sense (although it is a bit strange that all of the major elected officials who identify as Republican — and this does not necessarily extend to local officials because, well, I just don't know — either fall into this category, or else don't speak up against it). And it's certainly true that we probably shouldn't be making fun of other people in general. That being said, it still comes off as a laughably desperate attempt at seeming "cool" and "in-touch with the kids these days" which, man, really isn't helping your cause...

But then, maybe the guy that started this #ImARepublican movement just got me to post something vaguely positive-ish about Republicans on my otherwise-progressive blog. So maybe, just maybe, his secret scheme is working.

Also, let's not forget that Johnny Ramone was a Republican, too (much to the chagrin of Joey Ramone, who wrote this song about Johnny when Johnny married his ex-girlfriend):

Why Men Shouldn't Be Allowed To Vote

Who says women's rights activists don't have a sense of humor? Judging from this satirical piece from 1915, posted on Twitter by iRevolt, suffragettes knew how to make a good joke.

Writer, poet, activist and general badass Alice Duer Miller outlines five (obviously tongue-in-cheek) reasons why men should not be afforded the right to vote. These reasons include the fact that "men are too emotional to vote" and "because a man's place is in the army." The piece was published in Duer Miller's 1915 book of satirical poetry, "Are Women People?" based off of her New York Tribune column.

Most Common Causes Of Death By US State That THEY Keep Covering Up

Frankly, I'm kind of disappointed in Massachusetts for being so susceptible to something as lame as Death by Wind Farms, but then...what else don't I know about the vast global conspiracy?!

As for my other home state of Connecticut, I actually think that the frequency of deaths by antimatter is fairly common knowledge.

Same with Florida. Everyone knows that Florida is the leading cause of everything wrong with Florida (and most things wrong with the rest of the world as well).

UPDATED: This map was originally created by Moe Lane (with a little inspiration from Slate), and not whichever lousy Lame-Metal band that one of my Facebook friends liked. Thanks, Moe, and sorry for stealing all of your traffic from Tor!

One Last Time — "Net Neutrality: What It Is & Why You Should Care"

Man, aren't you going to be so happy when I stop posting / talking / raving like a lunatic about this, and it's all become a distant memory of the past, a "haha remember that time the government was going to allow corporations to control the flow of information access and eviscerate our society hahaha good times bro" rather than becoming a HORRIBLE DYSTOPIAN FUTURE that we'll all be forced to live in?

Of course you are. Today's your last chance to make your voice heard before Congress and the FCC reconvene to discuss these newly proposed laws. So if you haven't taken action yet, this is my final attempt to make you change your mind. After that, it's back to your regularly scheduled programming of indie rock bands and geek culture and other obscurely insular humors. That is, unless I find another political topic du jour to be passionately outraged about. Who, me? Nahhh...

And in case you somehow missed this, to sum it all up...

Updating the Classic Captain America Theme for the Modern World

Because America needs a new national anthem.

Sadly, this is still better than the jingoistic Cap from Mark Millar's Ultimates...

When "GOP" Stands For "Grand Ol' Pod-People"

"It is widely known Rep. Frank D. Lucas is no longer alive and has been displayed by a look alike. Rep. Lucas’ look alike was depicted as sentenced on a white stage in southern Ukraine on or about Jan. 11, 2011. I am contesting that this matter has happen [sic] since his election was blocked, because of the U.S. Defense Department’s use of Mr. Murray's DNA. To my knowledge, the U.S. Defense Department has not released to the public that information, as it is their confidential information about many people." — GOP Congressional Candidate Timothy A. Murray

Don't get me wrong, I totally understand political maneuvering and smear tactics but...Invasion of the Body Snatchers here takes the game to a whole new level.

Fellow Members Of Club "We've-Got-Ours," I'd Like To Introduce You To Our Host

I thought I was supposed to get more conservative as I got older and scoff at my foolish, ignorant youth. Isn't that how this is supposed to work? So why is it that this song strikes me as being even more poignant and relevant today than it was 15 years ago? (besides that I was 14 when it came out and definitely did not fully grasp the political complexities contained within the lyrics beyond "YEAH PUNK ROCK ANARCHY WOO DOWN WITH THE GOVERNMENT CORPORATIONS R ST00PIT")

I'd say this song was prophetic, but really, it's more eye-opening to realize how the problems that our country faces today have actually been issues for quite some time now, and have only gotten worse as the years have gone on. Maybe that's a sign that, ya know, it's actually time to do something about extremism, and violence, and corporate abuse, and economic imbalance, and mental health, and so on? Maybe?

I wish I had a schilling
for every senseless killing —
I'd buy a government.
America's for sale
and you can get a good deal on it
and make a healthy profit,
or maybe tear it apart.
Start with assumption
that a million people are smart,
smarter than one.

"If You Own The Washington Redskins, You're A C**k"

"Hey wait remind me again how it came to be 
that being a stupid american is a desirable trait?"

On the bright side, at least we're making a little bit of progress on this:

In Landmark Decision, US Patent Office Cancels Trademark For Redskins Football Team"

(source)

Attack of the Literal Grammar Nazis

Today on "Idiotic Psychopaths Desperately Hoping For Public Relations Damage Control," following on the recent news of the NRA asking their members to maybe not show off their Open Carry rights by "casually" bringing assault rifles into restaurants even though it is technically legal in some places, my buddy Jake retweeted a cryptic link from Heeb Magazine, which in turn led me to this remarkable gem:

Yes, that is a tweet from the actual real-life official twitter of the American Nazi Party, in which they are being fascistic about grammar. They are literally Grammar Nazis.

Perhaps more disturbingly, I agree with them. Good grammar IS important. I share personal philosophical beliefs with the American Nazi Party. This realization was slightly disconcerting, of course, so I decided to peruse their Twitter feed to see what other kinds of causes they tweet in support of. Things like...animal rights...sustainable organic foods...they're vocally pro-life...and encourage a straight edge lifestyle (less surprising than it should be)...they're anti-corporation, and support local businesses....ooh, and they also love Moms! Er, wait a second...

Okay well then so ignoring that last little hashtag there, and the swastika, and the specification of "Aryan" moms above all, maybe Neo-Nazis aren't so bad? It seems they care about a lot of the same things I care about, or the things that people like me care about. That's kind of weird, right?

Oh. Well. Nevermind. We're now back to your regularly scheduled supremacist scumbags. Still, this is certainly a lesson in the banality of evil — that for all my touchy-feely artist progressive politics, I could (unfortunately) find some commonality with the American Nazi Party. And in a weird way, I kind of respect their attempts to police the grammar of their followers. Poor language skills often (though not always) betray a lack of education, and, well, they wouldn't want us got-dayum libaruls to think that modern-day Nazis are ignorant, now, would they?

Ahem. Right. Anyway.

Discovering this horrifying corner of Twitter reminded me of a happy little tune I used to sing with friends when I was just a wee young lad haunting American Legion Halls across Connecticut. It went a little something like this:

#StopTheSlowLane

As far as I'm concerned, Net Neutrality is up there with Climate Change under "Hugely Important Issues That Are Actual Realities (and of which most sane and educated acknowledge the existence) and We Seriously Need To Act On Them Immediately Before Our Entire Society Goes Kablooey," especially now that cable lobbyists have strong-armed Congress into signing a new anti-Net Neutrality petition as of yesterday.

This is a weird catch-22, because I care a lot about Net Neutrality and want to do my part to make more people aware of it. So I tried installing one of these widgets from StopTheSlowLane.com onto my website here, which essentially replicate what would be the experience of using a website (like mine) if the proposed Internet laws were to be passed. The only problem was, it made the experience of using the site incredibly obnoxious — which is precisely why it's an important issue to be aware of, but also would probably deter the little bits of traffic I'm already barely getting on this site. See what I mean by a catch-22? Luckily, there's the GIF up there (linked to more information about Net Neutrality) which gives an impression of A World Without Net Neutrality without actually slowing the load time on my site. In the end, I don't have enough faithful readers (hi everyone!) that there'd be any real benefit to show for giving you all such a frustrating on my website.

Here's Cory Doctorow, one of my Clarion mentors, explaining it in a recent column for The Guardian:

Internet Service Providers Charging For Premium Access Hold Us All At Ransom

Anyway. That's all for today. Fight the power, save the Internet.

Tomorrow We Vote For Our Lovers

Because everyone's obviously feeling inundated and overwhelmed with all of the political commentary consuming the Internet, I decided this week to give everyone a break, and write something quick and simple about love and romance for Five By Five Hundred instead. Just kidding. It's a metaphor, fool.

"New Girlfriend" on FiveByFiveHundred.com

Superhero Politics

Instead of the usual political opinions, I tried instead to write a piece that explores politics without being overtly political. Although my editors at Tor were initially hesitant of the controversy, they were ultimately pretty pleased with the product! And so, my latest article at Tor Dot Com explores the centrist politics of Brian K. Vaughan's Superhero-Turned-Mayor-Of-New-York-City epic Ex Machina, which actually takes an impressively (if ultimately depressing) nonpartisan view at the ups and downs of American politics, only with lots more punching and invaders from alternate realities (obvi).

"Ex Machina and the Great Political Machine of Brian K. Vaughan" on Tor Dot Com

Now Or Later Opening!

Now Or Later officially opened this past Wednesday, and we couldn't be happier with the results! Okay, well, I guess we could a little bit, but overall, the reaction has been pretty fantastic for this "heady and provocative" 75-minute political thriller. So here's a little somethin' I put together to show off the overwhelmingly positive audience reaction, along with some footage from the production itself:[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyDJCgUDEKc&w=485&h=273]

Because There's Not Enough Political Bullshit Filling Your Facebook Feed....

...so here's a new video I made about our current production at the Huntington, a prescient new play called Now Or Later that's set on Election Night. While the last piece focused on the First Family drama at the heart of the play, this one explores the eerily relevant politics of the play (which was actually written 5 years ago, but feels like it was written right now. RIGHT NOW). Check it out:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8CR3nXxSCU]

Gettin' Personal With Now Or Later

Here's my first short documentary about the American premiere of Christopher Shinn's edgy political drama Now Or Later at the Huntington. This video focuses on the personal family relationships at the heart of the play, which is full of eerily prescient political issues, considering it was written 4 years ago.[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ9GLnvEr_8]

The show runs October 12 - November 10 at the South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA in Boston, and features my good friend (and fellow Emerson alum!) Grant MacDermott in the lead role. You should probably check this one it now or later (now being before Election Day, obviously).

Now Or Later at the Huntington

Here's my first video featurette on the Huntington's upcoming American premiere of Now Or Later, an edgy political thriller by Christopher Shinn that's set on election night, in which some inappropriate Facebook party photos of the soon-to-be-President's son get leaked to the public. The show runs October 12 - November 10 at the South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, and features my good friend Grant MacDermott as John, Jr. Here's Artistic Director Peter DuBois discussing the play. (More to come, obvi) [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUKuJiwdiS8&w=480&h=270]