Fuck the south.
Can y'all, like, not? For like five fucking minutes?
Sincerely ur friendly neighborhood rural organizer
That’s not even a southern thing? More than half the country has right to work laws
Your Yankee communities aren’t special, there’s racism and queerphobia and labor exploitation in the whole ass America. It’s the whole thing that’s gone over.
If confirmed, Marshall Billingslea will become the top U.S. executive branch official directly responsible for U.S. human rights policy including civilian security. Billingslea was heavily involved in torture while he served as a senior official to the Pentagon under President Bush.
HERE is a fact sheet detailing Billingslea’s approval of torture including the following:
- “As Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Billingslea recommended the use of interrogation techniques that constitute torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.”
- “In internal Department of Defense (DOD) meetings in early 2003, Billingslea pressed to use harsher interrogation procedures on detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, despite resistance from military officers.”
- “Billingslea took part in an internal DOD working group in which he recommended the use of interrogation techniques that constitute torture. In early 2003, Billingslea served as a member of a senior-level working group assembled by DOD to review the legality and effectiveness of certain interrogation techniques and to recommend whether or not to use them. Some members of the working group, including Billingslea, issued a report - completed without the knowledge of its dissenting members - recommending that the Secretary of Defense authorize the use of 35 interrogation techniques. Several of the techniques recommended constitute torture or cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment. These included sleep deprivation, isolation, use of phobias, nudity, and threats to transfer detainees to another country where they would also be tortured.”
- When reports on detainee treatment was released, Billingslea didn’t raise issue over the torture memo, instead he pushed for even harsher techniques. “These 35 techniques included threats to transfer a detainee to torture, prolonged standing, and slapping. While not all of the harshest techniques Billingslea recommended were immediately approved by Secretary Rumsfeld, many were later implemented to torture or otherwise abuse detainees.”
Billingslea, Rumsfeld, and Guantanamo
The following story details Billingslea and Donald Rumsfeld’s approval of the torture of Guantanamo detainee Mohamedou Ould Slahi:
“Working under Secretary Rumsfeld in July 2003, Billingslea received a copy of the interrogation plan for a detainee at Guantanamo Bay named Mohamedou Ould Slahi. One technique included in the plan, sound modulation, had not been recommended for use by members of the working group. Sound modulation includes playing songs loudly on repeat for long periods of time in order to mentally break a detainee and prevent them from sleeping. The Army Field Manual on interrogations at the time described sleep deprivation, another technique in the plan, as a form of ‘mental torture’.
Billingslea recommended that the Secretary of Defense approve these techniques. He noted that, ‘We don’t see any policy issues with these interrogation techniques,’ and emphasized that the DOD Office of General Counsel determined that they were lawful, despite the fact that some of these techniques constitute torture.
Secretary Rumsfeld approved the techniques recommended by Billingslea, which were subsequently used to torture Slahi despite the fact that Slahi had already agreed to cooperate with his interrogators. Slahi was shackled and forced to stand for long hours with loud music constantly playing. This treatment was repeated for several days. By the end of his torture, documents from the prison suggest Slahi’s mental health was deteriorating. Slahi himself admitted that he had begun hearing voices in his head due to the psychological torture.
The torture with the techniques approved by Billingslea and Secretary Rumsfeld marred attempts to prosecute Slahi. Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Couch, the Marine officer charged with prosecuting Slahi in a military commission, investigated how the evidence for his case was produced, and stated the following: ‘it became clear that what had been done to Slahi amounted to torture.’ In March of 2004, LtCol Couch resigned, noting that this case was tainted by torture and raised many legal and ethical issues.
His hearing starts on Thursday September 19th. If he advances past his hearing (which he probably will, let’s be real) then it will move to a FULL SENATE VOTE which means you have time to contact your senators and tell them to vote against this piece of shit.
You can find who your senators are HERE and it also includes all their contact info.
Happy Birthday, Cassandra Peterson!
(The original “Mun” of Elvira.)
Thank you very much for bringing awareness to the fact, that girls and women are allowed to be badass too and can also be in love with horror.
I’m still thankful I discovered you and Elvira and that you are never getting tired to come up with new ideas for her character. Besides rooting for that Mistress of the Dark sequel and the Movie Macabre like tv show, I’m already looking forward to what you’ll still have in store for us in the future.Lots of love to you on your special day and hella luck for your upcoming projects.
I hope you have a killer one, dear! 🎃🍾
Guerrilla Gardening
Guerrilla Gardening is the act of illegally gardening in spaces that are not technically yours to garden, to make subversive statements, protests, or as a form of direct action. The idea goes all the way back to 1973!
In other words, guerrilla gardeners take unloved or neglected land and assign it a new purpose – to make things pretty or useful. Cities are full of waste land and unused public spaces which people walk past every day without noticing. Spaces which would look a lot better if they were green!
Some guerrilla gardeners prefer to work at night when they can be more discreet. Others are activists who’ll do so in broad daylight, when everyone can see what they’re doing. Some choose to grow flowers to make places brighter. Others choose to grow fruit or vegetables (though care should be taken not to grow anything edible in places where plants might absorb toxins).
I don’t know why I haven’t posted any guerrilla gardening things on this blog yet, and I think I should change that.
In the meantime, here are some links!
To reiterate others, when gardening make sure to keep accessibility, invasive species, and potential poisons in mind.
Possible (and incomplete) list of things to keep in mind
1. Does it get it the way of paths or walkways? Consider what it would be like for someone walking, or with a wheelchair, stroller, white cane…
2. Check the species isn’t invasive in your area. If you’re in north america here’s a useful wikipedia page
3. Try to avoid plants that have allergenic pollen. Here’s another list of plants to avoid
4. You might want to avoid poisonous plants. Of course, a lot of plants are poisonous in large quantities so this isn’t always of the utmost priority to completely avoid all of them. Here’s another list.
5. Does the block access to or view of important information? For example, can people still read directions or access water fountains? Consider people at all different heights from little kids to tall people.
Anything else people can think of?
Y’all are really great, you know that? @gayingupspace too, I saw your post.
Even while writing that, I was thinking about writing out some advice about how to be responsible about this, but it was late and I was tired. This is exactly the kind of thing I had in mind!
Anyone else have any thoughts?
