Haiti doesn’t need your yoga mat.

When in doubt, send cash.

So Friday I am standing outside my office, sucking down the brain-fog clearing nicotine that makes it possible for me to function in my job. I don’t take lunches. I take 2 7 minute breaks* to smoke so that I can finish my work and be home before 7. And Friday was a doozey of a day. Somedays are easy. Some days suck. Friday was a sucker.

So I am huffing and puffing and enjoying the 7 lousy minutes I take of not listening to someone yammer in me ear. When across the park comes DOUCHE!

Douche “Hey Becky, I see you. I’m watching you. Yeah Becky I’ve got my eye on you baby”

Me “What the fuck. You don’t know me. My name isn’t Becky.”

Douche “Yeah but I usually get a name when I call them Becky and they’re all (makes an imitation that one would recognize as a shitty, racist imitation of an angry black woman- so sexist and racist to boot)’I ain’t no Becky, watchoo talking bout calling me Becky”

Me (I cut him off cause..just no) “Yeah well move along, I ain’t interested” (makes the move along hand gesture)

Douche “Bitch if you didn’t want to talk to me you could have just said nothing and I would have been on my way.. blah blah blah”

So that’s what happens when you say no to a street harasser. But what happens when you do just ignore them and try to go on about your day?

Last night, coming home from downtown, a bunch of guys standing outside the drugstore. An Asian girl tries to walk past, and since they are basically taking over the sidewalk she has to dodge and weave through them while one is all “hey baby, hey baby, you look fine, hey baby”. She ignores him and his friends. So the Hey Baby dude is all “Damn did you see that Asian bitch.”

We are bitches when we ignore them, bitches when we say no, and sluts if we say yes. Seems like we can’t win no matter what. Makes a girl want to go all Hothead Paisan sometimes.

*Yes I could take an actual lunch and sometimes do. But I gotta stay until my work is done and I am so over 11 hours days that if it means skipping lunch I will skip lunch.

First a little history.

Seattle has a long standing (heh) community of homeless tent dwellers who have to pick up and move every 90 days (I think it’s 90) to a new spot of private land donated by a church or other organization. The fact that they get the 90 days took a decade of wrangling.

You want to talk about organization, they’ve got it. You want to talk about long term struggle with the city over the basic right to cover your head at night, they’ve done it. Long before the protests that are making waves now, these actual homeless folks got familiar with the police kicking down their tents in the middle of the night. They are organized to provide cooking facilities, bathroom facilities, cleanup facilities, etc in an urban environment.

They fought for years with various mayors over their simple right to exist and find shelter in a city that didn’t offer enough services for the working poor. Because of their epic battles with Seattle’s last mayor, Greg Nickles (douche supreme, btw) they renamed their encampment “Nicklesville” ala the Hoovervilles of the first Great Depression.

So now that we’ve talked history, let’s talk the Occupy Protests.

Last night was supposed to be the night of a 1000 tents at Westlake. There weren’t a thousand. There were quite a few, but not a thousand. And near the podium where the GA is held is a sign “Welcome to Nicklesville”.

Uhm no.

First of all- NO. You all haven’t been sleeping rough though 10 fucking years of homelessness. You all haven’t invited any members of Nicklesville to show you how deal with the sanitation/food storage & prep/ police resistance issues that these people much further down the food chain have mastered in all their experience.

You all didn’t join Share in protesting in front of the Gates foundation a few nights ago (Share is one of the non-profits that helps advocate for Tent City residents). It’s just a little mile march into Queen Anne.

You haven’t dealt with fucking Mayor Nickles. Who was a giant pimple on Satan’s ass. You all have dealt with Mayor McSchwinn, who really isn’t giving you too much grief. A little, yes. But he ain’t Nickles.

You all really want so lateral, non- elitist change, start from the bottom up by including the much more experienced folks in the process instead of just stealing their fucking name.

Keep handy next time some fuckwad says “They should get a job!”

Also handy, a little know your enemy from Sociological Images

And veto the Let Women Die Bill

What’s this? Could it be that Mr. Strong-Supporter-Of Women’s-Rights is actually about to show himself to be a strong supporter of women’s rights? Is President Fuck You about to spend some political capital to show us girlies that we are worth more than an nonviable fetus? I may have to take back everything mean I’ve said about him. I may have to volunteer for the campaign and throw my tiny dollars into the re-election fund.

Oh wait, re-election. A bill that won’t pass the Dems in the Senate. No political capital required. Empty words from the douchenoodle who made it illegal for insurance coverage to cover abortion unless you by a special, separate policy. This is just more hopey words from the King of Opportunism who just realized that without women, 60% of the Democratic party stays home, doesn’t vote. Doesn’t work the phone banks. Doesn’t blow up the fucking balloons. Doesn’t poor his fucking coffee.

For some of us (who still have a uterus and will either have to get sterilized or buy extra insurance) this is not enough. Too little, too late.

So Harrisburg, PA is bankrupt.

And Jefferson County, Al is probably next

While Topeka, KS has decided that prosecuting domestic violence is just too darn expensive, so it’s not illegal to beat your wife there anymore! Sweet.

I’m not even gonna place bets on which state will be the first to declare bankruptcy, but every damn state is cutting services to the 99% left and right.

But the country, the county will be just fine. Really. The country can’t go bankrupt. The country can’t actually go bankrupt, despite what all the talking heads and political yahoos try to say. Why, because modern monetary theory, that’s why.

And not to piss on the Occupy Seattle folks, okay maybe a little, but they are mostly newly poor while long term poor folks have it much worse.

Housing is a human right. Full stop. When we leave it to charity to fix the sucking black hole that is our lack of a safety net, then we end up with people camping in front of the Gates Foundation and being ignored.

The Gates Foundation has done good work, there are 100,000 fewer AIDS cases in Africa because of that work, and according to the Gates Foundation there are 1400 affordable homes for local families because of their donations. But it ain’t enough and it can never be enough. The only reason the Gates Foundation has all that money to give is because of fucked up tax policies that benefit the wealthy at the expense of everyone else.

Oh holy shit how did I not know this story before now! Damn I love Kathleen Hanna!

Video is prolly NSFW

ETA I just realized that she uses a soooooooo not cool word (lame) for things that are so not cool. Apologies.

Bitchery helps release my tension as I read yet another call for cash from the Major Political Party and it’s henchmen. Instead of balling my fists and threatening damage to electronic device (DON’T Kill The Messenger!!!!!!)I sharpen my wit and and send a pithy reply email. For example,

Dear Move On:

Kindly FUCK OFF you asstastic shitstains!

Bitchery is best practiced when faced with a white hot rage, though cold calculated rage is good too. Try it and you’ll see, bitchery makes the everyday abomination that is the current state of affairs, well let’s be honest. It doesn’t make it tolerable, but it does make it, for one tiny second, seem like hitting the sweet spot.

You’ll all have to forgive the evening blthering. It’s when I take the pills that make me functional during the day. But at night I am dizzy and blurry eyed and thoughts don’t turn words don’t turn into posts as easily as they used to.

The kid hands me some frozen pizza that he has cooked for dinner.

Me “Thanks pumpkin pie!”

Me “Oh this is disgusting. The mushrooms are slimy. Have I been making you eat this shit?”

Kid “Yes”

Me “Oh you can totally fire me as your mother for that”.