Notices by mekka okereke :verified: (mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io)

As a Californian, let me tell you right now, that we don't let you outsiders bully our governor. Only we bully our governor.

Pay for recall elections and lose, then watch him go in even harder than before👍🏿

We elect him to fight him on his homelessness policy positions, and to get us cheaper homes.

When New York was letting its Black people die from Covid, California was sourcing free N95 masks for everyone.👍🏿

When other states were pretending that Black people just didn't want to get vaccinated, The Bay Area was setting up walk up vaccine locations.👍🏿

California has a lot of problems. True.

None of those problems are solved by Fox watching, Ivermectin sipping, drone hunting people in other states, pretending that DEI made fires happen.

We're going to keep the expectations on our elected officials high. They're used to it.

Homeless sweeps are a non-solution. Aesthetic, not empathetic.

Give someone a home, and they will *SWEEP THEMSELVES*.🤯

Seriously!

They'll gather up all their "junk," and take it off the streets. By junk, I mean all the same things that you yourself would cry about if you lost them in a house fire: legal documents, phone and laptop needed for work, memories.

Some of the people that lost their homes in Altadena, will be living in their cars or tents 6 months from now, with the few possessions that they could save.

If tomorrow, I cited them for sleeping in public, and then threw the rest of their stuff away? You'd call me evil! But in 6 months? Sweep!

You know for a fact that people made homeless by the fire, could support themselves, maintain a home, and live in sanitary conditions. Because they were doing it the day before the fire.

You know that restoring a home for them, would result in the homeless population durably going down by 1.

Now extend that thinking to other homeless people in LA, who lost their homes to other, less famous fires.

Or to medical bankruptcy.

Or to rent that rose much more rapidly than they could anticipate or react to.

Or to loss of vehicle needed for work due to being struck by an uninsured motorist.

@mekkaokereke YOUR right to freedom of speech means you can say whatever you want. MY right to freedom of speech means I can laugh and walk away.

@mekkaokereke I always imagine these guys coming up to strangers in a bar just having a conversation and yelling some of their nonsense at them.

Of course the people would be totally free to leave the bar, but they probably wouldn’t have to. Some big dude being paid to remove problems would come and remove the problem. Bodily, if need be.

But maybe these guys have never really gone out in the world to know that.

@blaue_Fledermaus @courtcan

*Gospel music plays*

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oyyU-sMZuv8&t=10m45s

"🎼Try Jesus
Please don't try me
Cause I throw hands

Talk to 'em Luke

I know what it says
About getting slapped
But if you touch me or mine
We 'gon have to scrap

Oh he said
Turn the other cheek
Oh but that's one part of the Bible
That don't sit right with me

Talk to em Dave

Don't let this falsetto fool you y'all

Jesus is always there for you
But I'm not
I might let you down sometimes

But he's always there
So try Jesus
Don't try me
🎹"

@mekkaokereke As always, my take is:

"Everyone has the right to free speech, but no one has the right to a captive audience."

I see the right to leave spaces you are not comfortable in to be pretty fundamental. And people who _insist_ that their voices should be heard by everyone are deeply suspect to me. Especially since they usually want to drown others out.

@Stasea

Blocking you right off the bat for assuming that I haven't already done these things (I have), for assuming that I haven't already co-launched entire criminal justice reform projects with police departments (I have), and for not understanding that systemic racism means that Black officers do this too. Because it's not about hating Black people. It's about meeting a ticket quota.

I'm not saying that you're bad! Just that I don't have the energy to gently walk you to a place of being better informed. Someone can do that for you, just not me.

For those of you still here, watch this video.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zGeZiWOeGIc

If you think the number of tickets given to Black drivers in Alabama went up because:
A) the cops suddenly became more individually racist
Or
B) the Black drivers suddenly became worse drivers

Then I can't help you.

But if you understand that the number of tickets given to Black drivers went up because of systemic racism? Then you get what I'm talking about. And what millions of Black people have been talking about.

@wlonk

No I haven't yet! But I will give it a read.

This is fine:
👴🏻I want to say whatever I want! I don't want to have to consider other people! (But then I must accept that other people might leave).

Also fine:
👴🏻I don't want other people to leave! (But then I must consider how my words and actions affect others).

Not OK:
👴🏻You just have to take it!

This isn't complicated.

I feel like a lot of folk, usually people with privilege, have an underdeveloped sense of empathy, and a dangerously incomplete knowledge of the concept of consent.

They want "free speech" for themselves, but not "freedom to choose not to listen" for others.

Which is how we wind up with weird inconsistencies like:

"The people who bleat the loudest about free speech... are the very same people that think that you shouldn't be able to block."
🙂🙃

What they really mean is "I can say whatever I want, and you just have to take it."

I don't have to take anything.

I don't even have to debate you or fight you. If you talk out of pocket, I can just walk away.

This isn't some "Just ignore them!" Or "Turn the other cheek!" nonsense.

This is "I can choose to be in places specifically where you are not. Reclaiming my time."

@mekkaokereke I swear the number of colleague dads at work that will gather and shout its praises on a zoom call is rather frightening I can only assume it is a cult

@mekkaokereke 10 thumbs up for Predator!

@grumpasaurus @mekkaokereke

Look. It's rare to get a kids show that is not only not pencil in the ear annoying, but is actually fun to watch. Let us have this.

@grumpasaurus

Unironically, that show is great!

This is a big deal! 👍🏿

Eugen going full Cincinnatus. This is harder than it looks.

https://mastodon.social/@Mastodon/113820526480156595

I won't even give up the TV remote in my house! I am the high Lord Emperor of all televisual entertainment in my domain. You can watch whatever you want on the TV, as long as you want to watch exactly what I want to watch. Otherwise, go get a tablet from one of my kids, or use your phone. The gods favour me! If Predator is on again? Then we are watching Predator again! But... it's not on again. So I decree that we are watching Bluey. I have spoken!

Our core mission remains the same: create tools and spaces for authentic online communities. No changes to your user experience, just a stronger commitment to transparency and community-driven governance. Join us on this journey!

#MastodonNonProfit

We're not just building a social network, we're building a community. Communities thrive when everyone contributes. We're growing our operating budget to invest in our contribution to the Fediverse as a whole, including our commitment to trust and safety, and user experience. Donate to support this vision!

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#MastodonNonProfit

@Jennifer @Makyris

I don't think so. And most Black folk in my group chats don't think so either. Centrist Dems are already tacking even further to the far-right. They moved against AOC and kept her off of committee. They are terrified of her. And rather than stop exploiting Black people and treating our rights as trading chips, even more Dems are offering trans people and their rights up too as another ill-conceived appeasement chip alongside Black people.

So no, I don't think we have learned any lessons at all. We're all still doing the same things:

* Black men are still trying to explain what we're asking for: basic human rights. And we're still being infantilized as just wanting "legalized weed and crypto," 🤦🏿♂️ or not understanding Trump's plans, or not appreciating Biden enough.

* Centrists are still saying, "We should have stanned Cheney even harder!"

* anti-DEI rhetoric is still ongoing, and being treated by Dem leadership as legitimate conversation rather than plain old racism and sexism. Dems that will ask Black women to save us again in the mid-terms, are again saying nothing now while Black women are being attacked. We're still expecting one-way solidarity.

* Police budgets are still increasing. "Tough on crime Dem," is still something that they aspire to.

In short, no tigers have changed any stripes.

I am optimistic that AOC support will continue to grow, along with support for other progressives. Centrist candidates lost, and progressive candidates won. In a "free flow of information" political landscape, centrist Dem candidates cannot win. And right-pushing newspapers have gone full mask-off. Everyone sees it now, which limits their influencing effect.

@mattmcirvin @sangster @ajsadauskas

One of the best ways to close the gap between the way that most white Americans see criminal justice and mass incarceration, and most Black Americans see it, is to watch 13th by Ava Duvernay (Netflix movie, available to stream for free in many places)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=krfcq5pF8u8

The recent California fire fighter vote was shameful. By definition, if you trust someone to fight a wildfire, you trust them to be:
* Employed
* Out of prison / jail
* Unsupervised / under-supervised
* With dangerous weapons
* And plenty of opportunity to flee / overpower guards / escape
* Capable of working together for a common goal
* Capable of acting bravely in defense of others

In short, you need people that are incarcerated that probably shouldn't be incarcerated. A hardened career criminal, or unpredictable and violent person, or flight risk, or person incapable of working on a team, is not a good candidate for a fire team. Instead, for firefighters, you need to lock up people like this:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8GJL11WaG2s

Years ago there was pushback on paroling non-violent inmates, because it would then be harder to recruit firefighters. The same thing happened during Covid.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ub8MgvMLBa8

@CoachMark

The most stolen items in New York City are a cell phone, and a bicycle. Most bicycles are stolen while they are in public, either not locked up, or locked up with an insufficiently strong lock. The most effective way to stop your bike from being stolen while unattended in public in NYC, is to attach it to the right type of immovable object, with a heavy duty lock. Most universities in NYC recommended a particular brand of heavy duty lock and chain (Kryptonite New York "FAHGETTABOUDIT" chain), because of its balance of usability, affordability, and preventative effect. Because students and professors tend to have bikes.

Despite a $12 billion dollar annual budget, NYPD leadership *doesn't even recognize* one of the most recommended models of bike lock. Billion. Not a typo.

https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/112451441016741832

NYPD is not designed to recover stolen bikes, or to prevent them from being stolen in the first place.

@mekkaokereke Something utterly appalling about America that I learnt in the past week.

Yes, it's a tangent, but it has everything to do with your core point.

Many of the firefighters that have been battling the bushfires in Los Angeles these past few days are prison inmates: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3rwdjwglx2o

"Nearly 1,000 incarcerated men and women have joined the frontlines in a battle against record-breaking wildfires burning across southern California.

"The number deployed - now 939 - are part of a long-running volunteer programme led by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).

"The state pays inmates a daily wage between $5.80 and $10.24 (£4.75 and £8.38), and an additional $1 per day when assigned to active emergencies."

In the richest country on Earth, making inmates put their lives at risk fighting bushfires for US$5.80 an hour + US$1 a day?!

Genuine question: How do you allow that to happen?!

And in the supposedly liberal state of California!

As a foreigner, with all the crazy stuff that's happened in America recently, that managed to shock me.

In good conscience, how do you allow your nation's prison–industrial complex to get that bad?

And that's just one manifestation of it!

Any Democrat who calls themselves a "liberal" and enables it should hang their head in shame.

@Makyris

1. Yelling "Trump is worse!" Is not a strategy. Yes, we know Trump is worse. We've been telling people *exactly* what their plan is, from before it was called Project 2025. Look at the date on this post, and how accurate each of the bullets is. I'm not clairvoyant. I just read the first draft of their paper. 🤷🏿♂️

https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/112440450555443222

2. Most of the people yelling "Trump is worse!" haven't really looked at the Biden numbers from his first term.

https://bsky.app/profile/mekka.mekka-tech.com/post/3ldqptiz4622y

A key difference is that Trump doesn't expect or need *checks notes* 90% of Black people to vote for policies that destroy themselves in order to win elections. A political party that puts up anti-Black numbers like this, but expects Black people to vote for it? Is not going to win elections. Not in 2025 and beyond.

Imagine I'm being attacked by a great white shark, 20 feet from shore. 🦈 Another shark, an oceanic white tip might yell, "Swim over here! I'm 2 miles from shore! 2 miles is a long way, but you can make it!" I might ask the oceanic white tip shark if swimming that 2 miles will save my life. "LOL! No! Absolutely not! I'll eat you too! But I take smaller bites! I'm a slower eater! The great white shark is worse!"

I'm not swimming that 2 miles, and I'm not staying in the water 20 feet off shore. That's a false choice. I'm getting out of the water.

Many people reading this think that means 3rd party or Jill Stein or some nonsense, but it doesn't. Harris was not Biden or Trump. But then she re-Bidened at the last minute and lost.