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Devil's Knob

"His eyes were as red as the devil's dick"

projections of the mind

Posts tagged Virginia:

May 9, 2013 with 23 notes
        tags: rva. richmond. vcu. virginia. shockoe bottom. baseball. development. anonymous.

Anonymous releases letter to Richmond City Council in opposition to the proposed Shockoe Bottom Basball Stadium

active-rva:

The following letter was initially send to RVA Magazine, signed Anonymous. In this case, Anonymous refers to a loose, nonexclusive, noncentral group of hackers, who often take up political causes.

I have eliminated the magazine’s commentary, as it mostly consisted of criticizing the tone of the letter. Included are links, which were sent with the letter; they constitute a kind of bibliography. They include many links to the public financial records of the relevant politicians.

May 8th, 2013

TO THE SITTING MEMBERS OF RICHMOND CITY COUNCIL AND MAYOR’S OFFICE

We have watched with displeasure the most recent crimes of the Richmond City administration and its petty ambitions; it sells its soul to the rapacious FIRE sector and throws its citizens to the wolves to appease the never-ending greed of its shadowy elite. There is no change in Richmond, only the quiet hum of the Jones Machine and the avaricious stare of the sitting mayor, dancing obediently on the strings of privileged and secret interests. There is no hope in Richmond, only despair for those who remember the lessons of the past. There is no voice in Richmond, only a pathetic handful of ‘local’ media sources who are content to take their pittances from corporate masters while their city rots around them. The corruption leaking from every pore of the city is indicative of its inability to understand or accept its own past.

In this city once flourished the most oppressive and disgusting form of business ever created by mankind: the slave trade. Human beings were bought and sold like chattel by the hundreds of thousands based solely on the color of their skin. From Richmond, blacks were shipped all over the country to sweat, bleed, and die at the pleasure of white slave-owners. The scars of this atrocity still bleed and fester in the forms of institutionalized racism and economic apartheid against people of color.

For too long Richmond’s elites have systematically manipulated and disenfranchised its black majority through regressive economic policy, criminally negligent spending priorities, mock elections, and shadowy real estate deals. Jackson Ward was obliterated by white elites to make room for an interstate highway. Navy Hill’s earthly remains consist of a marker found in a parking garage by a local professor. The black children of Richmond’s school system suffer from a 75% poverty rate. Black preschoolers attend a program for disadvantaged youth on top of an unlined dump in a school that was built during the era of Jim Crow. Huge swathes of East Broad Street were gentrified to make way for the Richmond Convention Center and CenterStage Theater, a coup for the conspicuous consumers that make up Richmond’s elite patrons and coordinated by Bob Mooney, former chief financier of Richmond-based Ethyl Corp. Monument Avenue’s statuary stands as false exoneration of the ‘heroes’ of the Civil War; ‘heroes’ whose greatest achievement will forever be marked as failing to win the war they fought so desperately to win.

Decades ago, the discovery of the Burial Ground for Negroes (now Richmond’s African Burial Ground) by Elizabeth Cann Kambourian under a parking lot in Shockoe Bottom began the decades-long struggle towards the reclamation of the nation’s second-most-successful slave market by the inheritors of its legacy of cruelty and hate.

Now, as Richmond’s black residents continue to make progress to regain their past and right the great injustice that white supremacist power has laid upon them, the white land barons have again mobilized to murder the threat of black power in its crib. The specter of the Shockoe Ballpark has been resurrected by Richmond’s criminal capitalist class under the guise of ‘growth’ and ‘wealth.’ The charge is in part led by one H. Louis Salomonsky, an unrepentant capitalist sent to prison several years ago for bribing a public official in a failed bid to swing a mayoral election; his cries of “community!” serve merely to increase the value of his many real estate holdings through wasteful public expenditure projects. His tendrils, and those of others like him, extend far into local politics; the real estate sector outspends the next highest industry in Richmond political campaigns by two to one.

We call you out, Dwight Jones. Your 2012 unopposed mayoral election garnered you $314,499 in funds; $43,350 came from the land barons and their interests, with $2,500 alone from Salomonsky and his subsidiaries. Over the course of your sixteen-year political career, the landlords have bribed you for $135,917.

We call you out, Charles Samuels. Your 2012 election garnered you $63,225 in funds; $10,850 came from the land barons and their interests. Over the course of your four-year political career, the landlords have bribe you for $24,250.

We call you out, Chris Hilbert. Your 2012 election against a neophyte social worker garnered you $41,702 in funds; $5,155 came from the land barons and their interests. Over the course of your eight-year political career, the landlords have bribed you for $43,472.

We call you out, Kathy Graziano. Your 2012 election garnered you $96,838 in funds; $12,450 came from the land barons and their interests. Over the course of your eight-year political career, the landlords have bribed you for $71,706.

We call you out, Ellen Robertson. Your 2012 unopposed election garnered you $12,110 in funds; $1,000 came from the land barons and their interests. Over the course of your nine-year political career, the landlords have bribed you for $29,525.

We call you out, Cynthia Newbille. Your 2012 unopposed election garnered you $17,166 in funds; $1,300 came from the land barons and their interests. Over the course of your three-year political career, the landlords have bribed you for $4,100.

We call you out, Reva Trammell. Your 2012 election garnered you $65,141 in funds; $6,645 came from the land barons and their interests. Over the course of your political career, the landlords have bribed you for more than $20,095.

We are watching you, Jon Baliles. Bruce Tyler was sold to the landlords for only $82,307.

We are watching you, Parker Agelasto. Martin Jewell was sold to the landlords for only $20,600.

We are watching you, Michelle Mosby. Douglas Conner was sold to the landlords for only $29,400.

We demand that the city permanently halt attempts by its white landowners to build a ballpark in this critically important district and commit fully and transparently to enacting recommendations by the Richmond Trail of Enslaved Africans Commission for a heritage site in Shockoe Bottom.

We will be watching.

WE ARE ANONYMOUS.
WE ARE LEGION.
WE DO NOT FORGIVE.
WE DO NOT FORGET.
EXPECT US.

http://www.defendersfje.org/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/shockoeb…

http://www.us.iofc.org/unpacking-iofc-census

http://saverichmond.com/?p=173

http://www.change.org/petitions/richmond-school-board-do-norrell-element…

http://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/reconnecting-dotts/Content?oid=13608…

http://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/free-and-clear/Content?oid=1887302

http://www.vpap.org/donors/profile/index/10145?start_year=2012&end_year=…

http://www.vpap.org/donors/profile/index/128997?start_year=2012&end_year…

http://www.vpap.org/donors/profile/index/133714?cmte_type_1=local_cands&…

http://www.vpap.org/candidates/profile/money_in_industry1/1614?start_yea…

http://www.vpap.org/candidates/profile/money_in_industry1/16049?start_ye…

http://www.vpap.org/candidates/profile/money_in_industry1/152342?start_y…

http://www.vpap.org/candidates/profile/money_in_industry1/70346?start_ye…

http://www.vpap.org/candidates/profile/money_in_industry1/9426?start_yea…

http://www.vpap.org/candidates/profile/money_in_industry1/76455?start_ye…

http://www.vpap.org/candidates/profile/money_in_industry1/106406?start_y…

http://www.vpap.org/candidates/profile/money_in_industry1/15206?start_ye…

http://www.vpap.org/candidates/profile/money_in_industry1/16049?start_ye…

http://www.vpap.org/candidates/profile/money_in_industry1/38785?start_ye…

http://www.vpap.org/candidates/profile/money_in_industry1/28787?start_ye…

March 24, 2013 with 1 note
        tags: war. richmond. rva. virginia. protest. revolt.

Old article from the Richmond Independent Media Center: "Largest march in Richmond's history- 4,000 protest war!"

active-rva:

In 2003, Richmond had a 4,000 person anti-war demonstration. Hundreds participated in civil disobedience. A recruitment office was smashed. The Catholic Workers were there, the Women in Black were there, the Virginia Islamic Center was there, some neo-Nazis showed up but were escorted away by police for their own safety. It was a big deal.

What happened?

I have attached the article from the Richmond Independent Media Center, which closed as of 2008. If you were at this march and wish to be interviewed, please contact me here, or at activerva@gmail.com.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Largest march in Richmond’s history —- 4,000 protest war! 700 continue disrupting illegally into the night.

March 23 was a day for the history books in Richmond. In a small, sleepy southern city that rarely sees hundreds gathered together at once for any reason, more than 4,000 antiwar protesters marched together up Monument Ave, in the largest march in the city’s history. “Largest march, I would guess,” said Annette Cousins, “but it was definitely the angriest.”

The march, which ended at sundown with a candlelit vigil by the Women In Black in Monroe Park, was followed by a spontaneous, 500 person illegal snake march through downtown Richmond. Hundreds of angry protesters, of all ages, races and backgrounds, suddenly began an illegal and disobedient march through the streets, defying police and temporarily shutting down the area.

Frenzied chants of “we will stop this war” and “1,2,3,4, Richmond is against the war!” raged in what can only be described as the most excited march this reporter’s ever seen in Richmond. One father who has a son serving in the military in Iraq right now, while participating in the illegal spontaneous march, said, “For Richmond, this is amazing.”

The legal and illegal marches were the culmination of Reclaim, a weekend-long conference that had been taking place in Richmond in hopes of building a statewide Virginia antiwar movement. Hundreds of folks from around the region attended workshops, teach-ins and cultural events, learning skills and getting inspiration to go out and organize a mass peace movement. “This weekend was awesome. I’m going to be involved from now on,” said local hip-hop poet Rasul Nobody, who co-hosted an antiwar hip hop and poetry event Friday night at Taste Restaurant. Attendance and spirits were high, expectations exceeded, and hundreds of new activists got a running start at organizing a movement.

Those hundreds turned to thousands on Sunday, however, when a permitted antiwar march down Monument Ave took place. Spirits were extremely high, as a huge, diverse crowd gathered in Monroe Park to hear speakers and cheer for peace. Union member George Wacksmunski, standing in the bed of a pickup truck to be seen while speaking, exclaimed “I am against having an illegitimate war brought on us by an illegitimate president!” while the crowd roared under him.

“This is a racist war, this is an imperialist war and this is a cruel war,” said Maliha Balala of the Virginia Islamic Center while speaking to the crowd. After hearing and cheering about ten speakers from unions, civil-rights, Muslim, Christian and homeless groups, the crowd began marching down Monument Ave.

Passing the palatial, elite homes that line the street, the crowd gathered at the Lee Monument, the historic focal point of white supremacy in Richmond. There, several more speakers from the city’s African American community addressed the connection between racism and war, past and present. “Here beneath the hoof of oppression,” longtime civil-rights activist Marty Jewell said while pointing up at the stone monument to Virginia’s most famous racist war general, “we gather to denounce war and racism!” The crowd, to put it mildly, went nuts.

The antiwar sentiments could not have been more timely, because in the confusion of the huge march, two white supremacists attempted to infiltrate and spew anti-semitic propaganda. Ron Doggett, central Virginia’s infamous fascist organizer, began harassing Aaron Tenenbaum, a local Jewish pro-Palestinian activist. Doggett was then surrounded by a furious and diverse crowd of about a hundred anti-racists, who let him know that white supremacists have no place in our antiwar movement. In fact, they almost gave him a pounding. With the crowd chanting “smash the nazis” in the nazis’ faces, the police eventually asked Doggett to leave for his own safety.

Despite the confrontation, the 4,000-strong march proceeded back down Monument Ave to Monroe Park, chanting “Good for the rich, bad for the poor, we don’t want your racist war” and more. The mood was festive and defiant, with many in the crowd vowing to each other to begin organizing an even bigger march and more disruptive actions in the future. Drums were beating, Christians and Jews were marching in solidarity with Muslims, anarchists and communists chanted with union members, homeless folks and soccer moms; “this is a *huge* success,” beamed longtime Catholic Worker Sue Frankle-Strait.

As many of the marchers filtered back into Monroe Park for a candlelit vigil led by the Women In Black, a large chunk of the crowd refused to leave the streets. As the legal protest permit expired 700 were still milling about in confusion on Franklin Street, when individuals began shouting “disruption stops wars!” and “stay in the streets!” The shouts and chants rose to a fevered pitch, and suddenly the crowd surged and began running towards downtown.

Everything went up a notch, basically,” says IMC reporter Jen Lawhorne about the splinter march, where enthusiasm and defiance rose markedly higher. Young and old, all races and backgrounds, were united in disobedience together, shutting down the streets of Richmond for over two hours. Shouts of “this is what stops wars!” and “don’t let them have business as usual!” were heard between booming chants of “We *will* stop this war!” while the crowd attempted to evade riot police and make it’s way to the Richmond Time Dispatch.

With hundreds uniting to shut down a city with coordinated, angry disruption in the streets, the police eventually sank to violent repression to clear the streets. Pepper spray was fired and individuals were grabbed and arrested, while the crowd took to sprinting down alleys and through parks in attempts to escape the cops and hold the streets.

At one point some in the crowd broke off to smash the windows of a local recruitment center. One of the window-breakers, a masked person who declined to give their name, said “at this place poor people are enticed into the armed forces as the only way out of a life of deprivation. We wanted to physically damage the building in whatever way possible; no one was hurt. If that building stays closed because of this tomorrow, that’s one less recruitment center for one less day building Bush’s war machine. Seriously, this is the kind of thing that stops wars.” Others in the march disagreed with the action, but continued marching in united solidarity.

The illegal march continued for hours in high spirits, with everyone involved vowing to do it again. “Real soon,” said one. “We’re going to be out here again like this real soon.” Another person yelled, “We can do this any night and we can do this every night, until Bush stops killing Iraqis!” meeting wild hoots of approval.

With a weekend of broken records and broken windows, some are already describing Reclaim and the march as the equivalent of “Richmond’s Seattle,” in reference to the successful shutdown of the WTO in 1999 that gave new strength to the American left. Having had the biggest march in city history and some of the wildest civil disobedience as well, in addition to movement-building teach-ins and antiwar hip hop poetry jams, Richmond’s antiwar movement is surely at a new level. Stay tuned for more mass marches and disruption as long as the slaughter in Baghdad goes on—- like the marchers chanted, “WE *WILL* STOP THIS WAR!”

March 13, 2013 with 33 notes
        tags: rva. richmond. vcu. virginia.

After a rain, avoid the James

active-rva:

Richmond has what’s called a Combined Sewage system; this means that the storm runoff drains and the sanitary sewer (human waste) share the same system. It also means that when the system is filled to over capacity- after a rain- the untreated contents of the combined system overflow into the James River, as seen in this diagram.

image

This is known as a Combined Sewage Overflow (CSO) event, and in Richmond, it happens nearly every time it rains, because our system is old and has not been updated with retention basins. There are 29 outflow locations where waste flows into the James during a CSO event.

Swimming in the James after a rain can expose you to harmful pathogens and toxins, including antbiotic-resistant staph infections. This counts for your pets, as well; keep the dogs out of the water if a CSO event has recently occurred.

You can sign up for e-mail notifications of CSO events here. Because rain washes surface contaminants, like pesticides, fertilizer, and oil into nearby bodies of water, it’s not a good idea to swim after a rain even in areas that don’t have Combined Sewers.

February 16, 2013 with 2 notes
        tags: rva. virginia.

Governor McDonnell Announces Milestone in Prisoner Re-entry Support Program

(Source: kr-reed)

February 13, 2013 with 3 notes
        tags: richmond. rva. virginia. Planned Parenthood. cooch watch.

Movement building: here’s how not to deal with grassroots allies.

active-rva:

I think we can all agree that Planned Parenthood is an excellent resource for people who need reproductive health care and counseling. They do good work, and are good advocates.

But Planned Parenthood Virginia (as in the Planned Parenthood Virginia PAC) isn’t very good at working with grassroots initiatives. For example, they just launched Keep Ken Out, an initiative against the Virginia Attorney General and gubernatorial hopeful Ken Cuccinelli.

Some of you will note that a group with a reproductive-rights background dedicated exclusively to protesting Cuccinelli already exists, in the form of Cooch Watch. Planned Parenthood knew this, also, as Cooch Watch organizers report that they have been repeatedly rebuked in their attempts to organize with PP, dismissed as too radical and too specific. On one occasion, they were not permitted to distribute literature at a Planned Parenthood event.

Generally, if a group has laid down almost a year of work doing what you want to do, has grown significantly and has had successes- as in, the organization is demonstrably not a flop- and is not grievously out of line with your politics, you should work with them, not over them. Doing otherwise is tactically unwise.

January 27, 2013 with 6 notes
        tags: Pamunkey. virginia. native american. tax.
nativeamericanrightsmovement: Tax tribute paid by Virginia tribes to the state

nativeamericanrightsmovement:

Tax tribute paid by Virginia tribes to the state

June 12, 2012
        tags: immigration. DREAM. ICE. college. detention. virginia.

My friend’s 18 year old brother has been detained. All he wants to do is go to college

Everyone please sign the petition and call! 

Call ICE Director John Morton (202) 732-3000

Sample Script: “Hi, I am calling to ask that ICE lift its immigration hold on DREAM Act student Israel Matias Acuna Vasquez (Inmate ID: P00136733) who is being held at Arlington County Detention Facility in Virginia. Israel has lived in the United States since he was 4 years old and wishes to go to college to study Business. He is DREAM Act eligible and a low priority case. Release Israel from detention.”http://action.dreamactivist.org/virginia/israel/


May 1, 2012 with 1 note
        tags: may day. workers. immigrants. celebration. capitalism. communism. socialism. Richmond. Virginia.

HAPPY MAY DAY!

All set to give my Demand for a Living Wage speech at the rally in Monroe Park at 5, and then we take the streets!

February 9, 2012 with 39 notes
        tags: Richmond. virginia. whiskey. booze. drunk.

Richmond’s officials ordered all liquor to be destroyed. In the need for haste, however, those men charged with going through the stocks of every saloon and warehouse found the most expedient way was to smash the bottles and pour the kegs into the gutters and down the street drains. The stench attracted crowds. They gulped the whisky from the curbstones, picked it up in their hats and boots, and guzzled it before stooping for more. So the action taken to prevent a Union army rampage started a rampage by the city’s own people.

—only in Richmond

(Source: civilwar.org)

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