Celebrate Black History 2021 - Octavia Butler

by Dick Mac

Octavia Estelle Butler was a science fiction writer born in Pasadena, California, on June 22, 1947, and died February 24, 2006, in Lake Forest Park, Washington, of head injuries ostensibly caused by a fall at the onset of a stroke.

Butler began publishing her stories in 1971. Her early efforts at writing were encouraged by famed sci-fi writer Harlan Ellison, who paid her for a piece published in his anthology. This was one of the earliest professional experiences of what would become a storied career.

In 1995, she was the first sci-fi writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship genius award. She enjoyed numerous best-sellers and won both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award multiple times. In 2010, she was inducted into the Science Fiction Writers Hall of Fame.

Butler theorized that hierarchical thinking leads to intolerance and violence, and could ultimately be the demise of our species. Almost all of her themes focus on survivors as heroes and the exploitation of the disenfranchised.

Butler pushed the envelope of modern thinking in ways that transformed our society, and for that she is an American hero.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octavia_E._Butler

Watch this profile of Butler at YouTube: https://youtu.be/5-cqiVQCb8Y

#blackhistorymonth #BlackLivesMatter #WorkForChange

The Non-Existent Voter Fraud Campaign

by Dick Mac

Right-wingers have been trying to prevent poor people from voting only in the past 15 years.  The 15 years before that, most people (including the poor) thought that voting for right-wingers would bring them untold riches, a la Ronald Reagan's promises.

Then, poor people began to see that voting right-wing is a huge mistake, and they started voting for moderates (there are few left-wingers in American electoral politics).

So, the right-wing is making it harder for poor people to vote.

The right-wing warns that voter fraud is rampant and voting laws must be tightened to protect . . . well, themselves, I guess.

The preponderance of voter fraud is a laugh.  In the years 2000 - 2010, the years of the strongest anti-voting campaigning, 13 credible cases of in-person voter impersonation were reported.

That's 13 out of 649,000,000 votes case in ten years.

In that same time period 441 Americans were reported killed by lightning and 47,000 UFO sightings were reported.

Why does science fiction seem so realistic and right-wing politics like a plan from outer space?

UFO Sightings Are More Common Than Voter Fraud