Category: The Good Fight
According to iGroove’s recent study (original German version here, English interpretation here), a musician or band can expect to get paid 0.3¢ to 0.5¢ per Spotify stream, which means that they’d need somewhere between 200 to 333 streams of one of their songs to make a single dollar. Music may be what musicians make, but unless you’ve made it big, it doesn’t pay the bills.
Want to really support your favorite act, especially if they’re small? Go to their shows, see the live, and buy their merchandise. When you see artists live, you not only get a one-of-a-kind experience, but you also support them in the most effective way possible. Most of the money from tickets and merch goes directly to the artists, rather than the “middlemen” — the record labels, distributors, or streaming services.
DeSantis may have been inspired by a segment on Tucker Carlson’s show
A couple of days ago, Media Matters’ Matthew Gertz astutely tweeted that “when GOPers do depraved stuff it’s worth looking for the Fox host who suggested it.”
To no one’s surprise, the Fox host who suggested it was the host of Fox’s own White Power Hour: Swanson frozen foods heir Tucker Carlson, host of an old-timey white–fear-and-rage–stoking evening show.
Anyway when GOPers do depraved stuff it’s worth looking for the Fox host who suggested it. Tucker Carlson, July 26: “[Martha’s Vineyard residents] are begging for more diversity. Why not send migrants there, in huge numbers?” pic.twitter.com/R7Gvj9PsBE
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) September 15, 2022
The migrants were given fake brochures about Massachusetts’ refugee benefits
DeSantis insists that the migrants boarded the plane voluntarily, but the migrants say that they were misled by a “blonde mystery woman” named “Perla,” who offered them McDonald’s gift cards, a free flight to a “sanctuary,” and other assistance.
The newsletter Popular Information obtained a phony brochure written in English and Spanish that was provided to the migrants, pictured below:
Designed (poorly) to look like an official brochure, it says that migrants who arrive in Massachusetts would be eligible for a lot of benefits, including:
- 8 months’ cash assistance
- Housing assistance
- Food
- Clothing
- Transportation to job interviews
- Job training
- Job placement
- Registering children for school
- Assistance applying for Social Security cards
Popular Information got the brochure from Lawyers for Civil Rights, a Boston-based law firm representing 30 of the migrants.
DeSantis’ communications director Taryn Fenske told Florida’s Voice that the brochure was legitimate and that the information it contained was accurate. However, what she omitted is even more important:
- The brochure was not produced by the State of Massachusetts, nor is it official. It’s a “homemade” document pieced together from cut-and-pasted text from various Massachusetts government sites.
- While the benefits listed exist, the migrants to whom they were given are not eligible for them. While refugees are eligible for such benefits, these migrants are seeking asylum, and refugee benefits don’t apply.
- The devil is in the details. In trying to provide DeSantis with a loophole, Fenske insisted “the brochure does not say migrants immediately have access to the benefits.” But it worked — the idea was to convince them that those benefits were forthcoming, and all they had to do was board the plane.
Boston-based immigration attorney Matt Cameron summed up the situation quite well:
“DeSantis clearly does not know the legal difference between refugees (who are eligible for resettlement benefits) and asylum applicants (who are not).
It’s legally no different than promising someone who you know to have had no military service that they will be eligible for veterans benefits.”
Cameron also said the brochures “are either evidence of criminal intent or criminal stupidity.” My feeling:
FDOT (Florida Department of Transportation) paid a secretive Oregon-based company to fly the migrants, and now that company’s website is offline
Here’s a record of a payment from FDOT to one “Vertol Systems Company Inc.” dated September 16, 2022 for the sum of $950,000. It’s courtesy of the @TampaniaBlog Twitter account:
They tweet:
I’m not sure if anyone sees my tweets but the State has a new payment of $950,000 pending for Vertol Systems! Listed as project #2-3.
A total of $1,565,000 to Vertol for “relocating” immigrants. pic.twitter.com/TJjUA04JKo— Tampania (@TampaniaBlog) September 19, 2022
Typically, you’d be able to go to Vertol Systems’ site and see that they’re based in Oregon’s Hillsboro rather than Florida’s Hillsborough County and that they’re in the business of “specialized aircraft solutions specific to unique requirements.”
But you can’t. The site has been taken down…
…and quite interestingly (yet unsurprisingly), their LinkedIn company profile is unclaimed:
A Texas sheriff is launching an investigation into these flights, since they were a join operation with Texas
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar confirmed the investigation during a press conference Monday “to clear the air for everyone,” alleging that 48 migrants were “lured under false pretenses” to stay at a hotel for a couple of days, shuttled to a plane, flown to Florida, and eventually transported to Martha’s Vineyard, where they had been promised work and solutions to other problems.
From Sheriff Salazar’s Twitter account:
I have officially opened a criminal investigation against the individual(s) who lured and transported 48 migrants from the Migrant Resource Center in San Antonio, TX to Martha’s Vineyard. If you or someone you know has been impacted, please email bcsotips@bexar.org
— SheriffSalazar (@sheriffsalazar) September 20, 2022
DeSantis’ plan is backfiring
- CNN: Donations poured in and volunteers rushed to help: Here’s how Martha’s Vineyard communities responded to the arrival of migrants
- Episcopal News Service: Episcopal church on Martha’s Vineyard takes in migrants flown in by surprise
- Boston Globe: “At first, they were surprised, just like us.” Martha’s Vineyard responds to surprise arrival of planeloads of migrants.
And garbage human that she is, Christina Pushaw, Rapid Response Director for DeSantis’ reelection campaign tweeted this:
Martha’s Vineyard residents should be thrilled about this. They vote for sanctuary cities — they get a sanctuary city of their own. And illegal aliens will increase the town’s diversity, which is strength. Right?
https://t.co/rxSkQ9XdKA #FoxNews
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) September 15, 2022
Here’s a screencap, just in case she deletes it, as she is wont to do:
A very apt observation. Here’s the text:
- Being a woman is kind of like being a cyclist in a city where all the cars represent men.
- You’re supposed to be able to share the road equally with cars, but that’s not how it works.
- The roads are built for cars and you spend a great deal of physical and mental energy being defensive and trying not to get hurt.
- Some of the cars WANT you to get hurt. They think you don’t have any place on the road at all.
- And if you do get hurt by a car, everyone makes excuses that it’s your fault.
Thanks to Alison Armstrong for the find!
For context:
Meet the new Klan pic.twitter.com/OYMRVDfQVX
— David Alan Grier (@davidalangrier) July 3, 2022
Zen Pencils — “Cartoon quotes from inspirational folks” — take some of the best quotes and statements out there and present them in comic form. They just updated their rendition of Sophie Scholl’s “I choose my own way to burn” statement to fit the current times. It’s worth reading:
“The real damage is done by those millions who want to ‘survive.’ The honest men who just want to be left in peace. Those who don’t want their little lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves. Those with no sides and no causes.”
“Those who won’t take measure of their own strength, for fear of antagonizing their own weakness. Those who don’t like to make waves—or enemies. Those for whom freedom, honour, truth, and principles are only literature. Those who live small, mate small, die small.”
“It’s the reductionist approach to life: if you keep it small, you’ll keep it under control. If you don’t make any noise, the bogeyman won’t find you.”
“But it’s all an illusion, because they die too, those people who roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe. Safe?! From what? Life is always on the edge of death…” 
“…narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does.”
“I choose my own way to burn.”
Sophie Scholl was a resistance fighter against the Nazis in Germany in the early 1940s. She was a key member of Weiße Rose — German for “White Rose” — a resistance group run by students at the University of Munich. Weiße Rose distributed leaflets, painted graffiti, and took part in actions to call out the Nazis and inspired resistance against fascism.
The Nazis executed her at the age of 21 for treason on February 22, 1943.
My response to “I’m just not a political person” is usually either “Bullshit” or “So, you’re just useless then.”
To borrow a paragraph from Sami Fishbein Sage’s essay, Unpacking “I’m Not A Political Person”:
It’s A Privilege To “Not Be Political”
When you say you’re not political, you’re telling on yourself. What you’re saying is that you’ve only been on the receiving end of all these invisible perks the government provides, rather than being on the side that suffers from the lack of them or that is even actively harmed by them. For example, it’s only because of active participation in politics that same-sex marriages are legal. That happened less than five years ago, and it would no doubt be the dream of a conservative Supreme Court to overturn it. Try telling your gay friend, whose marriage status could be in real jeopardy based on election outcomes, that you’re not political and see how they react.