mekka okereke :verified:

Building Digital Ecosystems at Google, but opinions my own. he/him. Black Lives Matter.

Blog: https://mekka-tech.com
GitHub: https://github.com/mekka

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mekkaokereke_at_hachyderm.io@momostr.pink

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Last Notes

2024-09-08 05:10:24

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🤦🏿‍♂️ I'm about to block you, because you're the worst kind of wrong: loud and wrong.
I'm talking specifically about police in the US pulling Black people over and having the legal right to take their money without a criminal charge. Not other forms of asset forfeiture that existed before that, even in the United States, as part of RICO.
🤔You're either intentionally trolling, or you really are going off half-cocked in my mentions about a topic you know nothing about.

2024-09-08 04:02:02

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Civil asset forfeiture in particular has been going on since Biden started it. Let me be super clear:
There was no such thing as civil asset forfeiture before Biden invented it. Then he invented it, and passed legislation making this theft by cop possible. Now we have it, and it's terrible.
But yes, it's been going on for decades. Because Biden is old as dirt. And he's been passing legislation like this, that's genocidally harmful for Black people for most of his political career.

2024-09-08 02:51:57

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I love that millions of people will watch the movie, and go:
👩🏼Wait, the civil asset part is made up right?
🧔🏿‍♂️No, that's totally real.
👩🏼OK, but they can't just like, pull you over and take your money if you can prove that it's yours, right?
🧔🏿‍♂️No, they can.
👩🏼OK, but like... that doesn't happen very often in real life right?
🧔🏿‍♂️No, it happens a lot. Cops steal more through civil asset forfeiture than all other forms of burglary combined. Mostly from poor Black folk, as depicted in the movie.
2/N

2024-09-08 02:45:53

Big props to Jeremy Saulnier who wrote and directed Rebel Ridge. Recommend.
The film covers so much of what is wrong with US policing, in an action packed drama movie. It also covers the evil and racism in the system vs the individual. I don't think a cop calls a Black person the N-Word once in the whole movie.
*Civil asset forfeiture
*Cash bail and prison violence
*Why Black folk don't give statements
*The power of sheriffs in small towns
*Violence of the war on drugs
https://youtu.be/gF3gZicntIw?si=rn_1NYGSB1zUS8Im

2024-09-01 03:41:22

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I'm too lazy to type the thread again, so TL:DR; you can't solve violent crimes if the 99% of Black folk that commit no crimes at all, (and that witness these crimes), are (rightfully!) too afraid to call the cops for any reason.
Read this *whole* thread before asking me any questions about how yes, more cops make the murder rate go up.🙂🙃
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/109785330115485502
And no, this effect isn't just for Black folk. Any group brutalized by police acts the same.
2/N

2024-09-01 03:37:03

Wishing Ricky Pearsall a speedy recovery. He is a 49ers rookie that was robbed at gunpoint in SF. He wrestled with the robber. Both got shot. Both are recovering.
Shout out to all the SF tech folk that know absolutely nothing about reducing gun violence, tweeting right-wing nonsense that ignores decades of clear evidence about the only way that's been shown to sustainably reduce gun violence.
1/N

2024-08-27 11:01:30

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Good luck convincing them that French police probably just typed some numbers into a police system:
1) If this private jet tail number lands in France, detain all passengers.
2) If this passport number attempts entry into France, detain it.
Is it elite OSINT? Or is it sexism?
I'm not saying post your location everywhere. I'm saying that French airport police don't need to follow a billionaire's girlfriend on social media to know when he lands in France. He didn't know he would be arrested.

2024-08-27 10:56:42

Whenever a rapper gets shot, there's a reflexive instinct among Black manosphere incels to try to blame whatever woman he was with when he got shot🤷🏿‍♂️
"She posted locations to Instagram minutes before he got shot! Careless!"🤡
The woman then faces hate and death threats for weeks or months, until it's discovered that the shooters found the rapper a different way.
Anyway, a bunch of white dudes have convinced themselves that French police found Pavel Durov through his date's Instagram posts.
1/N

2024-08-15 14:29:26

Reporter: Will you commit to a press conference before the end of the month?
Michael Tyler: We will commit to directly engage with the voters that are actually going to decide this election.
Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
This Harris Walz team is so good, and so prepared for this moment.
There's no rule that you have to hold press conferences for bad faith journalists that are more interested in making a buck than informing voters. There's no rule that you have to filter your own message.

2024-08-15 13:28:26

👴🏻Hey you! What do you think about Blake Lively?!
🧔🏿‍♂️Blake Lively... sorry, which white lady is that again?
👴🏻This one! *Shows picture*
🧔🏿‍♂️Um, I kinda don't think about her? Not part of my day.
👴🏻You should hate her!
🧔🏿‍♂️Why?
👴🏻She's bad! Look at this interview from years ago!
🧔🏿‍♂️Why am I in this? Why are you telling me this?
Look... whatever y'all got going on with Blake Lively all of a sudden has got nothing to do with me.

2024-08-13 04:32:35

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Yup.
No one is talking about B Girl Ami, the Gold medal winner. 🤷🏿‍♂️
https://youtu.be/kcrZ19lbALI

2024-08-13 02:25:46

The whole Ray Gun breaking situation:
A talentless rich white lady scammed her way into the Olympics, scored zero points, embarrassed the athletes that did have the talent to be there, and became the focus of attention.
Academics who know absolutely nothing about breaking are jumping out of the woodwork to defend her, because as I mentioned, she's a rich white lady, and a credentialed one at that.
The conversation is now not about breaking, but about "Are people being too mean to her?"
1/N

2024-08-12 00:21:05

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I'm not even talking about the fact that all three attacks were bad faith. That's too obvious.
I'm talking about the failure to think even one step ahead, and realize that the next step after their feeble attack, is a knockout counterpunch.
This is like those courtroom dramas where a lawyer gets a cocky witness to slip and introduce a key piece of evidence that opens a door to a line of questioning that turns the case.

2024-08-12 00:15:53

🤔Anti-woke guy starts a crusade against plagiarism, not realizing that this would destroy his wife's academic reputation.
🤔Anti-woke guy starts an inquiry into Walz not going on deployment, not anticipating that this re-opens the conversation on his running mates' draft dodging and insulting gold star families and POWs.
🤔 Anti-woke guy starts an investigation into crowd sizes, not anticipating that people will point to his many empty stands.
They're genuinely surprised by equal treatment.🤷🏿‍♂️

2024-08-11 15:54:25

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I know someone is working on (another) one of these articles, because *every* successful woman that doesn't have any real glaring flaws, gets the treatment of one of these articles.
Men demanding high standards, pushing teams to the limit, having a culture of direct feedback, and not taking enough time for pleasantries, or sugar coating, like Steve Jobs, are glorified. But women aren't allowed to do that. Especially not Black women.
2/N

2024-08-11 15:50:56

Hard but fair:
If you work for the Harris Walz campaign, you should quit now. It's not worth it. Right now, someone in the Harris Walz campaign is getting ready to write (another) "tell-all" article of the form:
* Harris demands an impossibly high standard
* She frequently criticizes people in public, like on group chats
* She expects unsustainable work hours
* She changes plans frequently, causing rework
I'm not saying that these claims are untrue! They're very true! So quit. Seriously.
1/N

2024-08-10 22:19:07

Wow. The Harris Walz team is really good.
Threading the needle between letting protesters protest, getting back on track with the rally, while not triggering a pro-Netanyahi attack ad spending blitz, and holding ground as a Black woman. This is way harder to do than it sounds.
Fixing this since Detroit shows that she has put a great comms and messaging team in place.
What I said about Detroit:
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/112924878365995482
How Harris addressed hecklers in Phoenix:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2Iw3lkG__bQ
1/N

2024-08-10 21:45:36

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My favorite Victor Webanyama highlights:
Wemby talking about dark matter. 👨🏿‍🚀🔭🌌
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/TReEoqK4A4Y
Wemby talking about Las Vegas.
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/3taNi-HlDAI

2024-08-10 21:32:04

Great game by France! But the US team has a Steph Curry. 🤷🏿‍♂️
And yes, Steph made this shot.
France did not roll over. Victor Webanyama is only 20 years old, and dropped 26 points on the US dream team. Respect.
🤔4 years from now, Durant, LeBron, Curry, will all be retired. And Victor will be close to his prime...
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/939/837/079/209/801/original/ff2d9417393b66b4.jpg

2024-08-09 00:32:19

"I can't believe that the Olympics let Noah Lyles compete while positive with Covid! I'm scandalized! That is so irresponsible! For Noah, and for the other athletes and employees working the games!"
- Me, whose co-workers are competing while positive with Covid right now. 🤷🏿‍♂️
"And there should be more masking in public at the Olympics! Get it together France!"
- Me, from a country that has made masking in public illegal in some places. 🤷🏿‍♂️

2024-08-08 14:44:33

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If you are white, you are 100% safe from being illegally de-registered, in the same way that a dolphin is 100% safe from ever being caught in a fishing trawler's tuna fishing net🐟🐬. In that you are not safe.🙃
If a dolphin looks around and can see tuna? Then it is at risk of becoming "by catch" or "collateral damage."
If you live where Black people live (AKA cities, where most of everyone lives), then you're at risk of getting caught up in this deregistration.
So check.
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/112924094411662837

2024-08-08 14:35:39

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The next questions on the quiz would be:
2) How many eligible voters were erroneously (illegally) de-registered in these purges, so that they couldn't vote on election day?
3) Did they disproportionately target eligible Black voters for illegal de-registering?
4) Was the number of Black voters illegally de-registered between 2014 and 2016 larger than Trump's margin of victory?
5) Did Black voters ask for help with this in those 2 years prior to Trump winning the election?
But why bother? 🤷🏿‍♂️

2024-08-08 14:24:12

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The number of voters purged between 2014 and 2016, and 2016 and 2018 being about the same is important. Because this is the new "normal amount of election racism." 🤷🏿‍♂️
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/voter-purge-rates-remain-high-analysis-finds
I say "about the same" but you already know that the number of deregistrations is moving up...
The fact that voter purges occur disproportionately in places that Black people vote, and ramped up after laws designed to protect Black voters were intentionally weakened, is important too.
2/N

2024-08-08 14:13:17

Quiz is over!
The quiz question was, since the Supreme Court made it easier for the GOP to be extra racist to Black voters in swing states, the number of voters purged from voting rolls increased significantly. "How many voters were de-registered between 2014 and 2016? Was it 17K? 170K? 1.7 million or 17 million?
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/112924592284252554
The hint: it's more than in 2006 to 2008 but the same as 2016 to 2018. The answer is... 17 million! AKA approximately the population of the Netherlands!🤡
1/N

2024-08-08 06:07:41

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"If you want Trump to win, then say that." Is not nearly as powerful as "I hear you, and admire your passion. And I agree with you, or at least with some of what you say."
Of course, this all pre-supposes that she does in fact agree with parts of what the protesters are saying. 🤷🏿‍♂️
Also powerful, "I'm almost done with my speech. We can talk right afterwards." Or "I've heard you. I let you talk. Now I'm going to talk." Eg, Harris' 1st part of addressing the hecklers was much better.
2/2

2024-08-08 06:01:38

Advice for HarrisWalzHQ:
More role play: Have your candidate give speeches, and have that speech interrupted by pro-Palestine protestors. Have your candidate get *very* comfortable having their speech interrupted. Have them know *exactly* what they will say in those moments. No off-the-cuff sound bytes.
Obama responding to a heckler:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6A8TiUpKDVg
Greatest risk to Kamala victory at this point, is her or Walz mishandling protests at her speech.
1/N

2024-08-08 05:04:59

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I know, right? We are silly. We pretend not to be able to find living voters to let them vote, but then find them easily to ask them to pay taxes.🤡
As a Dutch person, I'm curious to know your guess on this quiz!
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/112924592284252554
(For those who know less about the Netherlands, there are only about 17 million Dutch people total).

2024-08-08 02:42:16

Oops! Yesterday was the 6th of August!
Hey US people, please remember to check your voter registration every 6th between now and November!
✅ July 6th
✅ August 6th
⬜ September 6th
⬜ October 6th
⬜ November 6th
Check your voter registration for free online here:
https://voteamerica.org
You can also request your mail in ballot, so that you don't have to stand in line for hours or miss work on voting day.
Why check every month? Because some of y'all have been de-registered.😮
Re-register!

2024-08-07 22:24:48

Is Sarah Hildebrandt, Olympic Gold medal wrestler, a jock or a nerd? Trick question! She's both!
At the highest levels of anything, people are nerds and wonks! Even sports! LeBron is a nerd. Simone Biles is a nerd.
Nerd talks about making flash cards
https://www.tiktok.com/@flowrestlingtv/video/7389369804827741486
Nerd obsessing about the tiniest details of a wrestling move that's basically just "step out of the way"
https://www.tiktok.com/@rudis_wrestling/video/7213080079511850283
Nerd talks about improving being more important than winning.
https://www.tiktok.com/@flowrestlingtv/video/7280994219185982766
1/N

2024-08-05 18:28:51

Simone Biles 🇺🇸 🥈and Jordan Chiles 🇺🇲🥉 bow to Rebeca Andrade 🇧🇷🥇 after Rebeca won gold in floor routine.
♥️♥️♥️
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/910/805/235/726/177/original/121955bd18d2eadd.jpg

2024-08-04 18:44:14

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Mastodon doesn't want or need advertising revenue.
It doesn't want or need an algorithmic feed.
But understand what most users are looking for in social media.
They're not looking for political enragement, or to be stressed out 24/7.
People are looking to have fun, be entertained and informed, learn, share, and connect with other good people safely.
Lack of community, safety, and onboarding are keeping people off of Mastodon. Not lack of rage driving algo.
3/3

2024-08-04 18:31:25

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Everyone that understands this, predicted Twitter's revenue drop and valuation drop well in advance. 🙋🏿‍♂️
If you drive away the people that create disproportionate amounts of fun, engaging content (Women, Black folk, young folk, LGBTQIA), then engagement will go down.
If you increase the people who create politically divisive content (yes, this is a euphemism for racist and transphobic content) then you will also drive away advertisers.
What does this have to do with Mastodon?
2/N

2024-08-04 18:22:33

If algorithmically increasing the political division and rage on a social network the most, then 4chan would be the highest revenue generator. It's not.
The most engaging content is *fun content*. By far. It's not close.
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/111081046636696300
This is not saying that algorithmic content is good for you, or that growth at all costs is good for society (or even sustainable).
But please, stop trying to say that politically divisive content is the most engaging. It absolutely is not.
1/N

2024-08-02 14:50:05

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Close. Think of it as "Better tools to let *the community* keep itself safe." If you start with the idea that communities keep themselves safe, you build different tools, and make different feature design decisions.
Here's an example of how on Twitter, the community is better able to make sure that Black people see less harassment.
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/112536749737121291
On Mastodon, this might lead you to re-prioritize "Right to Reply," "Reporting visibility," and "Shared blocklists."

2024-08-02 14:34:12

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No.
Corporate owned social media is safer for Black people because:
1) There is more of a Black community there. The community keeps us safe, not the corporations.
2) People on Mastodon are willfully ignorant of how many racist people are on Mastodon. I'm running out of ways to tell people that there are more nazis per capita on the Fediverse than on Twitter. This is doubly harmful, because the non-nazi people on the Fediverse refuse to believe Black people about this fact.

2024-08-01 23:38:35

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Maybe?
There is no way to box without giving yourself irreversible brain damage. None.
Even in training (sparring), you get brain damage.
Difficult video to watch. Boxers before/after:
https://youtu.be/0JCr6EfleG8

2024-08-01 23:27:26

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If you want to talk about women that hit so hard that it should be illegal, leave transphobia out of it, and let's talk about Claressa Shields.
This is just not safe.😬
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/EAEokubpxng
Yes, Clarissa is the undisputed undefeated champion. No, the human skull was not designed to withstand this.
Yes, she hits harder than Conor McGregor.
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/dEJfq4C1cB0
No, she cannot take as much punishment as Conor McGregor. Yes, she is a more skilled boxer than Conor McGregor.
2/N

2024-08-01 23:16:09

Don't listen to transphobes that don't know anything about women's boxing.
Imane Khelif is a cisgender woman Welterweight boxer. She has *naturally* higher testosterone. She has some XY cells.
She's not even known as a hard puncher! She gets beaten by other women.
I'd rather take two punches in the face from her, than 1 from a welterweight Clarissa Shields, Amy Broadhurst, or Lucia Rijker.😬
Getting hit by 147 lb Lucia, is the same force as by 205 lb Houston Alexander
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4eplLem4jPs&t=5m22s

2024-08-01 04:53:57

When I say that hachyderm.io is well moderated, here's what I mean:
1) There are thousands of nazi instances on the Fediverse, and new ones are created every day. Hachyderm does a great job protecting its members from this reality. Especially those that are vocal.🙋🏿‍♂️ This is not an easy accomplishment given the Fediverse's current slate of tools, and set of design decisions.
2) When abuse reports are filed, either about Hachyderm members, or members on other instances, they are acted upon.
1/N

2024-07-27 22:24:40

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Yes, exactly.
To add more details: blocklists are not moderation. But they reduce the noise to a level where good moderation is even possible, especially for tiny instances.

2024-07-27 21:11:19

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Right?
There are some people in the world who are *the best* at researching these servers. Maybe they're not good at writing code, or Linux system admin, or User Experience Design. But they are *excellent* at determining if a server is a bad faith Mastodon instance.
That should be a job that those people can do full-time, on behalf of thousands of admins on Mastodon. As an admin, I should be able to subscribe to a service that provides this.
The tools need to support that.

2024-07-27 19:16:27

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If you are an admin or mod of a mastodon instance, do you have any Black women members on your instance? If so, are you curious about which instances attacked Kim? Are they just known trollish instances? Should they be blocked by you? Are they blocked by you?
What if I told you that these instances are already blocked by mastodon.social, hachyderm.io, and others?
How many new troll servers pop up daily? How much time do you want to spend curating your own block list?

2024-07-23 12:18:37

Q: Elon rate limited future President Kamala Harris' campaign account? He can do that and so much worse! He can mess with the visibility of her posts! Why is she using Twitter anyway? Why isn't she using Mastodon?
A: Remember how she had a Zoom call for Black women and 40,000 people joined?
Q: Yeah? What's your point?
A: Those women were on Twitter.
Q: But why are those Black women on Twitter? Why aren't they here on Mastodon? It would be better for me if they were here!
A: *deep sigh*
1/N

2024-07-20 19:58:11

This WNBA all-star game is about to be hot fire! The all-stars are taking on the US Women's National Team. It's supposed to be an exhibition game: no one playing too much defense or trying too hard. Cheryl Miller is coaching the WNBA team. But there's a problem...
The WNBA team has Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. Clark and Reese are feeling some type of way about being left off the Olympic team. They basically told coach Miller "F*** an exhibition. We want to win."
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EiTYwecY41c&45s
1/N

2024-07-16 00:56:37

Tim Scott, Nimarata Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy, finding out that sycophancy will not save them.
I mean, the GOP base wasn't subtle.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lumRQnf5qA8
It would be funny if it weren't so sad. First these candidates genuinely thought they could win the nomination of an alt-right party? No. I refused to pretend that those were serious campaigns. Then they thought that they could even have a seat at the table?
I said what I said: you can't hate Black people enough for them to like you.

2024-07-14 15:51:22

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People did not switch political allegiances because of yesterday. No one saw yesterday, and said "You know what? I'm fascist now!" That's not a real thing that happens.
What did happen (besides increasing the potential for more unnecessary political violence), is that his base became galvanized, and will turn up at the polls at a higher rate than if yesterday had not happened.
Meanwhile, the dems are still suppressing their own turnout, with more self-owns.🤡
You're worried about debate gaffs?

2024-07-14 15:23:41

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🧔🏼‍♂️"Black people will like Trump more now that he has sneakers!"
🧔🏼‍♂️"Black people will like Trump more now that culture vulture rappers endorse him!"
🧔🏼‍♂️"Black people will like Trump more now that he's a convicted felon!"
🧔🏼‍♂️"Black people will like Trump more now that he's been shot!"
🧔🏼‍♂️"We are all MAGA now!"
No. Y'all are exhausting.
🧔🏿‍♂️"Some Black people, especially men, are sick of Biden too. Because he prioritizes the people who say this type of stuff, over Black people that vote for him."

2024-07-14 15:03:11

*sigh* If you're looking for me to denounce political violence (again), then please go look at what I've already said about:
* The attempt to kidnap and murder Gretchen Whitmer
* The bomb placed in DC that didn't go off
* The RV bomb in DC that did go off
* The increase in bomb threats at HBCUs
* Pelosi hammer attacks
* Asian hate (including mass shootings at train yards, massage parlors, and at the border)
* Armed "poll watchers"
* Jan 6
* Proud boys and Bugaloo boys
Y'all are exhausting.

2024-07-11 02:51:08

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But all the conversation is around "But is Harris qualified? Maybe there's someone more qualified? We can't just hand it to her for DEI reasons!"
Harris won the San Francisco DA, California Attorney General, and California Senator elections.
Obama won the Illinois State Senator, and Senator from Illinois elections.
Swapping candidates at this point is not smart. But pretending that Kamala is not the most qualified replacement, requires suspension of all previously agreed upon criteria.
2/N

2024-07-11 02:47:12

Here's what I mean when I say that Black women have to prove themselves over and over, and are held to a higher standard.
In order to be the Dem president of the USA, you have to be able to do two things
1) Win big elections
2) Draw enthusiastic support from Black voters
Pete Buttigieg won his 1st mayoral election with only 10k votes. Not margin of victory! Total votes! Smaller than many college student body president elections. His 2nd term was 8.5k. And he polled ~2% with Black voters.
1/N

2024-07-09 21:40:14

🤔 OK, I need to change my answer to the question, "How often do you think about the Roman Empire?"
From "How often do I think about the Roman Empire? What? That's really what you just asked me? Almost never. Y'all are weird."
To "OK, fine. Sometimes."
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4rgYUipGJNo

2024-07-09 13:58:32

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Newsom:
Black voters like Gavin Newsom. He was the 1st governor to sign the college athletics Name, Images and Likeness law, the tipping point for ending billions in Black exploitation. Newsom has the support. He just needs to not mess that up between now and 2028. Dangers for this are: War on Drugs, Homeless, Education
Whitmer:
Black voters love Gretchen Whitmer. She has a nickname (Big Gretch) and several (bad!) rap songs about her. She just needs to not mess that up between now and 2028
4/N

2024-07-09 13:51:41

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Harris:
In the same boat as Biden. Same admin.
Buttigieg:
Black folk, in particular, Black men, see "mayor Pete" very differently than white folk. Black men remember that he fired the Black police chief that was reforming South Bend, for catching his own out of control racist cops making vile racist comments. Most white voters don't remember / never knew this story.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/how-buttigiegs-decision-on-police-chief-shadows-his-presidential-run
Booker:
Tepid criminal justice reform initiatives. Not a super strong negative, but not inspiring.
3/N

2024-07-09 13:42:30

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Biden:
The whole reason we're in this bind, is because Biden has burned through so much of Black US voters' legendary patience, optimism, and good will. I've been telling y'all for months exactly how he burned this, what Black voters, particularly men, were rightfully upset about, and that this was dangerous and could lead to a Trump victory if we didn't change course. People just yelled "Trump is worse!" And "Those Black dudes will come around! They have to!" at me, before blocking me.
2/N

2024-07-09 13:38:58

Hard pills to swallow about US elections: You will *never* be able to accurately predict US elections until you accept these facts:
1) The majority of white people in the US will vote for whichever of the two candidates is the most anti-Black. That's usually the GOP option. This has been true since the 1960s.
2) So in order to win, the Dem candidate has to have enthusiastic Black voter support. Without this support, the Dem candidate cannot win.
Knowing that, let's look at these options!🤡
1/N
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/756/800/179/632/583/original/4d80e1f06563a516.png

2024-07-09 02:44:59

China is producing *too many* cheap solar cells and cheap EVs! Gotta stop it! 🤡
California is producing *too much* solar energy! Gotta shoot our own fledgling green energy industry in the foot to slow it down! 🤡
https://youtu.be/VmYo_ZbH2Ms
Seriously, what are we doing? 🤷🏿‍♂️
It's not that we can't change quickly. It's that we don't want to.
Anyways, past 12 months were at 1.5°C of warming.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-08/world-marks-full-year-of-average-temperatures-above-1-5c-target

2024-07-07 19:53:49

🤡 Election time!
C'mon USA! We're up!
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/746/666/751/204/436/original/b9c0267cc551229a.jpg

2024-07-06 01:15:31

Ah, Ryan Garcia's racism apology (non-apology) tour:
* I was drunk! (when I said the comments, not when I doubled down on them the next day)
* Black people say the N-word too! (But they don't say I hate n-words, I am the KKK, let's dig up George Floyd's body and kill him again)
* I've been under a lot of stress lately! (Unlike Black folk, and non-racist white folk, who magically feel no stress, ever).
* I'm going to rehab! (Where is racism rehab? I've never seen it).
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/jul/05/ryan-garcia-apologizes-for-racist-slurs-and-boxer-says-he-will-go-to-rehab

2024-07-04 15:27:19

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Learning about this shouldn't ruin your 4th of July. I know all this, and I'm going to thoroughly enjoy my 4th of July, trust! 😋
All learning about this does, is close the gap between "what Black people know" and "what white people know" a little. This is a good thing! Having the same set of facts and disagreeing is one thing... but just having different levels of knowledge? That's tragic.
Anyway, don't cry into your hot dog or whatever.

2024-07-04 14:52:57

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This is going to sound like I'm making this up:
Most Black folk in the US know about the third verse of the national anthem that talks about murdering slaves.
Most white folk in US have never even heard of the third verse. They just... sing the first two.
Every now and then, some Black folk will suggest changing the anthem. They're immediately shouted down as unpatriotic, by people that either don't know or don't care about the third verse.

2024-07-04 14:23:06

Happy 4th of July!
More US history they won't tell you:
The US national anthem only exists because British troops offered slaves a chance at freedom if they fought against their captors. Seriously.🤷🏿‍♂️
You already know how that went. Hunting ain't no fun when the rabbit's got a gun.
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/109574942472956736
The US forces getting dog-walked by freed slave soldiers, forced General Washington to make the painful decision to "allow," Black soldiers to fight for the United States as well.
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/728/656/313/752/865/original/8072ea02d42ae84a.jpg
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/728/657/541/693/825/original/e71a3b5cd107751c.jpg

2024-07-03 12:10:30

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Our choices:
1) Climate disaster.
2) The world stops using fossil fuels. But the US under-invests in green tech. China *becomes by far the largest and most important economy in the world. They build an insurmountable lead in batteries, solar, wind, grid, transportation and storage.
3) The world stops using fossil fuels. The US adequately invests in green tech. The US remains the largest and most important economy in the world.
We're waffling between 1 and 2.🤷🏿‍♂️
(*Some say we're already here).

2024-07-03 11:57:16

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If green investment is so bad for the economy, then why is green investment double fossil fuel investment already? Why are so many US fossil industries saying that they can't compete with China now (fuels, automotive, transportation, etc). That seems like pretty good ROI for a few years of subsidizing green industry, but hey, I'm no economist.
🤔 Wait, don't Venture Capitalists tell us that we're supposed to cheer when old industries get disrupted by tech and subsidized pricing?
3/N

2024-07-03 11:50:50

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How the hell am I the so called "climate doomer," when I'm the one that believes that transitioning the world to Green energy is not nearly as hard as we pretend that it is? I'm the optimist. The people that think that we can ignore racism are the pessimists.
China invested $317B in clean energy. We invest $44B just in buying Twitter, to be anti-woke. It's silly.
Imagine if instead, the US was pushing as hard as China. Where would the world be now?
2/N

2024-07-03 11:42:20

CBS News reports that the "Global shift towards Green Energy is Accelerating!" Yay!😀
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6fKfaJheWbk
Isn't that a good thing?
CBS cites the International Energy Agency report. But they don't say the word "China," much...
But if you read the report, you see that:
* Most of the green investment is from China
* Most of the rest is made possible by cheap solar, batteries, and EVs, also from China
* The US and EU are working to... slow this green investment.😮
https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-investment-2024/china#abstract
1/N
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/722/341/648/829/222/original/fadf5eea6462271c.jpeg

2024-07-02 05:54:19

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People keep trying to quote Project 2025 at us, like we don't know what's in it. I don't get that.
Project 2025 is like, the 5th draft of their plan. We read the 1st drafts. And then we watched in horror as y'all said silly things like, "They can't do that!" And "They're not serious! It's all bluster!" and "You people are over-reacting!"
Now you want to quote this stuff at us, like you're the experts on white nationalism in the US government all of a sudden? 🤷🏿‍♂️
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/715/317/673/601/071/original/0367cb396162910c.jpeg
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/715/317/758/008/287/original/9bf189b375ad2080.jpeg

2024-07-02 05:34:52

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Yup! Literally my very next tweet!
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/715/265/207/463/953/original/24cd1a796265b1f4.jpeg

2024-07-02 05:21:59

👴🏻Don't you Black people understand how dangerous this SCOTUS decision is?! Seriously! Why don't you get it?!?! The president is immune from prosecution?!
👨🏿Who are you telling? Y'all are late, and loud.
These justices were literally hand picked based on their willingness to make 3 key decisions that will collapse the power of the 3 executive branches into the executive only. We've been trying to tell you this since 2015. Roe v Wade was always an afterthought.
But y'all can't hear us tho.
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/715/191/069/959/277/original/ba78726707f7bde0.jpeg

2024-07-02 00:23:49

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I really hate this talking point.
I've posted on here many many times, that the one thing that Black people want the police to be able to do, and the one thing that they are awful at doing, is solving murders. Solving murders doesn't require *any* increase in police budget, and in fact, decreasing police budget helps. 🙂🙃
Because you can't solve murders in a community that (wisely) doesn't trust you, because you brutalize it without consequence.
Black folk want murders solved.

2024-07-02 00:07:40

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Y'all are betting the future of the free world on Biden being able to say and do stuff like this, and then still get 95% of the votes of Black men? Seriously? That's the strategy?
Man, lemme go ahead and prepare for this next Trump term then, because that strategy is awful.
How did y'all ever think that would work?

2024-07-01 15:36:05

🤔 Okay, I had birria tacos 5+ years ago, and they weren't that good. They weren't bad, they were just okay. I thought maybe I just don't like birria or something.
But In the past year I've had birria 4 or 5 times, and it's been heavenly every time. I haven't had a single birria experience that I would rate less than 8 out of 10. It's hard to get bad birria now?
My taste buds haven't changed. US birria has been elevated. Like the quality of Pho broth.
Why did this happen? Who started this?

2024-06-30 16:09:05

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Additionally, turnout from white dem voters in battleground states will help:
White voters that support Biden, don't face any significant disenfranchisement or suppression efforts, but just... can't be bothered to show up and vote🤷🏿‍♂️
A 1% increase in white voter turnout among Biden supporters is equivalent to about an 8% increase in Black voters.
Again, these people don't need to be persuaded to change their minds! They just need to put the bong down long enough to go vote.

2024-06-30 16:03:38

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I've laid out the solution literally dozens of times on this website. Maybe hundreds? It's not complicated. People just don't like it.🤷🏿‍♂️
The Biden admin should be less racist.
That's it. That's the entirety of the problem.
By changing his position on a few issues that are key to his base that vote for him at 95%, he will pick up enough votes in battleground states to guarantee victory. He will not lose many votes if he does this. The racists already vote for Trump.

2024-06-30 15:27:09

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"Well fix it after the election," is a lie that has been told by the Democrats to Black people since the 60s. Unfortunately, for an increasingly growing share of Black people, that lie no longer works. The trust is gone.

2024-06-30 14:24:28

Shot:
👴🏻Listen here you foolish Black people! The choices are Biden or Trump! That's it! It's where we are! You have no 3rd party choices! You have no Dem primaries! Trump or Biden! Choose! And you'd better choose Biden you ungrateful bastards!
Chaser:
👴🏻OMG! Biden had one bad debate! We must now swap him out like a flat tire! Who we got? Kamala? The Black girl? Blasian or whatever? No! I mean, who we really got? Mayor Pete? Newsom? Yes I'm serious about switching 4 months before the election!
🤡

2024-06-29 19:55:47

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If I had to choose only 1 thing? Remove the filibuster.
The filibuster's main use, is pinning the US to the right, and preventing progress on civil rights. Without it, we would get:
* Voter rights
* Campaign finance reform
Which would lead to:
* More progressive candidates.
Who tend to be more diverse. Not just more Black, but more brown, and more women.
If 2 things:
Remove the filibuster, and criminal justice reform.
3 things:
Remove filibuster, CJ reform, and college sports NIL.

2024-06-29 15:23:13

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We make this unnecessarily dramatic. We do this to ourselves. Because we don't want to do the tiniest things to help Black people.
There are like 5 or 10 very easy decisions that could have been made in the past 4 years, to avoid us getting to this point.
Even on Mastodon, you can see us progressing through these steps of the cycle, from dem voters ignoring and rejecting what Black folks are asking for, being in denial about the very real risks... and then jumping straight to despair. 🤷🏿‍♂️

2024-06-29 15:13:58

The cycle:
1. For ~2 years: Not doing anything to help Black folk. Actively ignoring them. Pushing back hard on their most innocuous requests.
2. For ~1 year: Denying Black folks' expertise and warnings. Gaslighting them. Downplaying the risks. Lots of saying, "It won't happen!" And "It won't be that bad!" Avoiding all easy, common sense things that would avoid bad outcomes.
3. For ~6 months: Blacksplaining to Black folks. Saying "We'll fix it after the election!"
4. Despair! 🤡
We're at 4.

2024-06-28 13:10:30

This has come up a few times recently, so I should address it. People that don't know me view me as a pessimist. But folks that know me, view me as an optimist? What's up with that? 🙂🙃
The disconnect, is that I don't just complain about stuff and then do nothing.
There's a lot of broken stuff in the world. In the US, a lot of that is around racism. But I don't just complain about racism. I make the necessary changes in the world to fix the things I talk about.
1/N

2024-06-28 12:45:47

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"His argument is that racism against Harris is the reason that Biden is seen to be doing badly."
That's not my argument at all.
I can see that we're having two very different conversations.
You're focused on "Is Biden doing poorly or not."
I'm focused on "Does it even matter."

2024-06-28 12:25:37

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👨🏼Hey, German senior citizen... You really voted for Chancellor Hitler back in the day?
👴🏻 Unfortunately yes.
👨🏼But you didn't know what he would do to Jewish people? You didn't know he'd start a war and holocaust? Then that's understandable. You didn't know.
👴🏻Oh no, we knew! He was quite clear about it.
👨🏼But then... why did you vote for him?
👴🏻Well see, there was this debate, and the other dude was very old... and you see, Hitler spoke so well, and...
👨🏼Tell me you're trolling me.

2024-06-28 12:21:29

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But I'm not here to have rational arguments. I don't even spell check.
And I'm not here to debate people. I say what I say, and I collect my receipts later. 🔮🧙🏿‍♂️
People lay out all kinds of "rational debates," just to be wrong, because they don't understand what's going on, because they don't understand US racism.
A lot of the stuff I say today seems wildly out there. But if you scroll back through the timeline, none of the stuff that I was saying 2 years ago seems out there now.

2024-06-28 12:06:05

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No, it's really not Biden's age.

2024-06-28 11:39:07

Still true: Biden's age, isn't about Biden's age. Biden's age, is about Kamala's skin.
There are millions of Americans that unironically think that stopping Trump is the most important thing in the world... but also think, "Wait a minute! If Biden can't finish his term, that Black woman gets to be president!"
🤔So I guess stopping Trump is only the second most important thing in the world.

2024-06-27 15:56:57

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The most common prescription in America is atorvistatin. A typical prescription is around $500.
Sometimes people shoplift toothpaste! Criminals! We can stop these filthy criminals, by putting the toothpaste behind plexiglass!
Unfortunately, this reduces the number of people coming in to pick up prescriptions, because it's less convenient, and it makes the store feel more crime-y and scary.
Question time! Not rhetorical!
🤔 How much toothpaste is $500? Seriously, go look it up. I'm not joking.

2024-06-27 15:47:59

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Extra silly:
Yes, 95% of the inventory value of a typical drug store is the pharmacy. Everything else is just bait to get you to come in to the pharmacy.
Now think through the logic of putting that bait behind plexiglass.🤡
That's like going fishing, 🎣 and putting a worm on your hook as bait... but then putting the worm and hook in a jar, because you "don't trust fish." That jar on a string isn't going to attract as many fish.
Now understand why putting deodorant behind plexiglass is silly.

2024-06-27 15:36:20

If you understood this thread when I posted it...
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/110178073267413530
then you're not surprised that Walgreens says that a quarter of its stores are significantly underperforming and that it plans to close many of them🔮🧙🏿‍♂️
But, if your susceptibility to believe anti-Black "SF crime wave!🤡" narratives exceeds your ability to read a company's own financial disclosures... Then this news is surprising to you.
There was more sound financial analysis in RDCworld's "CVS skit" than most newspapers

2024-06-26 14:40:07

$25 million? On a primary?!
Which one?
Oh.
Look y'all. If you want to spend $25M on a primary, that's fine. But I said what I said about why I'm a climate doomer, and why we will not make bold enough moves in time, and why we should prepare for the inevitable.
https://www.eenews.net/articles/green-new-deal-backers-in-danger-of-losing-primaries/
We *could* choose progressive politicians who make the right climate calls. But we choose centrists who do just enough not to get yelled at, while preserving ~200 billionaires' cash.
It is what it is.
1/N

2024-06-25 15:27:03

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Using a gun is not that hard. I can teach a rank beginner in a week.
Growing tomatoes is hard! You can't get good at growing tomatoes in a week, or even 1 season.
Being destructive is easy. Being constructive is hard. But ultimately constructive wins out over destructive.
Humans are social animals. We survive calamities by working together in community. That selfish dude gets thrown out of the commune to try and use his survival skills on the zombies, solo

2024-06-25 15:21:48

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I will survive the zombie apocalypse not because I know how to box, or know jiu-jitsu, or know how to field strip an AR/AK, or know Kali and the 52 blocks, or have a high capacity to inflict and receive pain and physical damage. All of that is pretty useless TBH.
I will survive the zombie apocalypse because I'm a nerd who made lots of friends, many of whom know how to grow potatoes, or dig wells, or mend socks, or knit, or raise goats and chickens, or heal♥️👍🏿

2024-06-25 14:08:58

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And my new little policy is in full effect:
My point with this little thread was crystal clear. If you can't hear what I'm saying, but instead try to turn this into a "Trump is worse!" derailment, then you get muted.
Other things that'll earn you a mute:
"What's your plan, huh?!"
"We'll fix it after the election! We'll push left later!"
"Yes, I know that white people are the only demographic that votes for Trump... But somehow I'll still blame you Black voters if we don't win!"
3/3

2024-06-25 13:56:48

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Just as some people get to be "expats," while other people are "immigrants" or "migrants."
Just as some people trying to survive a disaster are "survivors looking for food," while other people are "looters stealing food."
Some voters get to be "undecided," worthy of our attempts to persuade them, and worthy of concessions on their key issues... while other voters are "stupid, low information, selfish, ignorant Black men," who should "have fun getting lynched when Trump is back in office."
2/N

2024-06-25 13:50:55

More white women voted for Trump than Clinton in 2016.
More white women voted for Trump than Biden in 2020. In fact, Trump's margin of victory with white women, grew.🤷🏿‍♂️
More young white people (18 to 29) voted for Trump than Clinton in 2016.
More young white people voted for Trump than Biden in 2020. In fact, Trump's margin of victory with young white people grew.🤷🏿‍♂️
But you don't see people cursing out white women online and then blocking them, like they do to Black men.
You know why.
1/N

2024-06-24 22:25:46

😯I just discovered that I've been spelling Dwyane Wade's name incorrectly my entire life.
I thought it was Dwayne Wade.
My bad!

2024-06-22 16:45:06

It's telling that in all the push back on this, and calls for optimism, no one, not a single person, said, "But we can make progress on anti-Black racism!"
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/112660113829272552
It's ironic because I know that we can make progress on anti-Black racism. We can and we will, I promise you that. Just not in time for it to matter for 2.5 degrees of climate change. 🤷🏿‍♂️

2024-06-19 12:32:27

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Speaking of violent abolitionists giving it back in kind to violent slave owners: A part of US history that many US folk don't know about, is the closest to a real life Robin hood / The Punisher. Kansas Jayhawks were gangs that robbed from the rich (slaveowners) and gave to the poor (themselves and freed Black slaves).
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/109923425095322572
Before anyone asks, no I am not condoning violence. I'm just wondering why we don't "celebrate this history" like we do confederate generals.

2024-06-19 12:16:49

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And when you "Remember the Alamo," remember that the US side died defending their right to enslave people. They were killed by Mexican abolitionists. Basically, this:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Cze5A4iyQGk
And stop saying that the Mexicans killed every US man at the Alamo. That's a lie. Because one of the men that the Mexicans captured was a Black dude. The Mexican soldiers were like, "Bro, we're here to liberate Black people, and he's shooting at us?! This brother is confused!" and they just... let him go

2024-06-19 11:04:33

Juneteenth does not celebrate "When news of the end of slavery finally reached Texas."
Juneteenth celebrates when the racist people in Texas that tried to hold on to slavery for as long as they could even after it was abolished, finally couldn't keep up the lie anymore.
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/110548225287299347

2024-06-17 16:51:09

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I rarely drink at work events or conferences, *because* I'm in a position of privilege and influence, and so people shadow me. They drink as much as I drink.
I've tested this! I can affect how much beer is left over at the end of an event, just by whether or not I drink.🤯
5/N

2024-06-17 16:50:45

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So the question is not "alcohol or no alcohol?" It's "How do you want other people to feel at the conference? How do you ensure that everyone is having a good time?"
I'll take a conference with a strong code of conduct committee and a whiskey tasting session, over dry and unsafe.
4/N